Constructor: Seth Bisen-Hersh
Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday)
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THEME: 2(BU) — theme answers contain two words, each of which contains the letter pairing "BU," which gives you 2 "BU"s ... all tied together by the revealer, "IT HAD TO BE YOU" (50A: Classic song about a soulmate ... or a phonetic hint for repeated pairs of letters in 19-, 27- and 42-Across):
Theme answers:
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Was a little ho-hum on this one upon completion, but once I noticed that the revealer indicated not just "BU" ("... BE YOU") but actually the pair of "BU"S ("... TO BE YOU," i.e. 2(BU)), I was won over. Conceptually, this was on a somewhat higher plane than most Mondays. Plus the fill is whistle-clean, and occasionally even interesting. Further, there are no other stray "BU" pairs lying around the grid—every "BU" is involved in a themer. This indicates a certain measure of polish and attention to detail, and gives the puzzle a certain elegance, even if most people won't really notice it. The solve itself wasn't terribly exciting, but the revealer provided a good "aha," and with no grievous fill to distract your attention along the way, the strong revealer is enough. No real complaints. I do have a question, though: BABKA—what is it? I mean, is it cake or is it bread. Wikipedia insists it is "not a cake" (see "Word of the Day," above), and Merriam-Webster calls it "a glazed sweet bread made with dried fruit (such as raisins)." But then Google (Oxford Languages) calls it a "loaf-shaped coffee cake," and something called spoonuniversity.com says, "Babka is a dense cake, although it looks a little like a bread." I will say that BABKA was the answer that held me up the most. I had the "B" and could think only of BUNDT. There were more hold-ups than normal for me on a Monday, but then the non-hold-up parts were sub-Monday easy, so ... Medium, i.e. typical-Monday easy, for me.
Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday)
Theme answers:
- TRIBUTE ALBUM (19A: The 2005 compilation "Killer Queen" is one honoring Queen)
- BUNSEN BURNER (27A: Chemistry lab device)
- HAMBURGER BUN (42A: Topper for a Whopper)
A babka is a sweet braided bread (not a cake) which originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine. It is popular in Israel [...] and in the Jewish diaspora. It is prepared with a yeast-leavened dough that is rolled out and spread with a filling such as chocolate, cinnamon, fruit, or cheese, then rolled up and braided before baking. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)
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Other hold-ups included ABOUT US (8D: Information header on a business's website)—just had trouble parsing it. And then I had CLASP for CLAMP (33D: Gripping tool) and could not see ORCHID from the -RC- (46A: Flower that vanilla comes from) (sadly, I don't think I knew that about vanilla!). TRIBUTE ALBUM also took more than just the TRI- to give itself away, which it shouldn't have, but it did. I hesitated over BIG IF, too—once again, issues with parsing. I really like BIG IF (3D: It's very unlikely to happen). Colloquial, in-the-language / current, makes a conjunction into a noun, squeezes two words into a small space—all fun. That should be enough for today. Hope you are continuing (or beginning) to enjoy the new year. See you tomorrow.