Constructor: Adam Wagner
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: ONOMATOPOEIA (52A: Word sounded out by the ends of 20-, 35- and 40-Across) —
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: ONOMATOPOEIA (52A: Word sounded out by the ends of 20-, 35- and 40-Across) —
ANIMAL SOUNDS:
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Finished this one without having any idea what the theme was. First step: notice that you can sound out the word "ONOMATOPOEIA" from the endings of the longer theme answers ... but that ... is not ... an example of ONOMATOPOEIA. That's just sounding things out. So I was, naturally, confused. Eventually I noticed the rather innocuous-looking animal sounds on the top and bottom edges of the grid and thought "oh ... no ... that's not it ... IS IT?" Because ... sigh ... those are just animal sounds. I mean some, yes, are definitely solid examples of the word in question (HISS, PURR), but BARK? SNORT? First of all, WOOF and OINK would like a word ... Second, BARK and SNORT just seem like ... normal words. I can definitely say these words and make them sound like animal noises, but is that their actual derivation? I mean, were the Anglo-Saxons really imitating their domesticated canines when they used the term beorcan? ARF, YIP, YAP, these are [Dog's sound]s that are written like they sound. I don't usually think of ROAR, BARK or SNORT as onomatopoetic, and even if there's some defense of categorizing them as such, this themer set seems arbitrary and odd. Why animals? Lots of ONOMATOPOEIA have nothing to do with animals? If animals, why does the theme stuff, the longer answers, have Nothing To Do With Animals? Are there other examples of ONOMATOPOEIA in the grid that I'm missing? If BARK is an example, then for all I know any of these words might be examples. Is WELP? Is SWILL? Is WAH!?!? ALO!? Is PETS part of the theme? Is there a BEAR noise in here somewhere? I see the vague association of the different theme elements with sound, but that's all I'm really seeing. The whole thing just doesn't seem clear or coherent enough. It's got animal sounds up top and below, and it's got a little sound-y out-y game in the middle, but those two parts don't have much if anything to do with one another. It's like two separate elements that want to come together and make sense, but don't.
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- CHEEP (1A: Bird's sound)
- ROAR (6A: Lion's sound)
- BARK (10A: Dog's sound)
- HISS (63A: Snake's sound)
- PURR (64A: Cat's sound)
- SNORT (65A: Pig's sound)
Other theme answers:
- FRENCH GUIANA (20A: Region in South America that's technically part of Europe)
- KALAMATA (35A: Greek city renowned for its olives)
- ETHIOPIA (40A: African country with its own 13-month calendar)
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle )."a relatively large number of bird names arise by onomatopoeia"
• • •
The grid seemed clean enough, if not particularly interesting. BREAST MILK was probably the most surprising and therefore best thing in there (10D: Liquid that may be pumped). "Surprising" because I had trouble parsing it from the middle-to-late letters. This was in part due to having IRENE instead of ILENE in there at 42A: TV producer Chaiken. It's also (slightly) surprising because it's the kind of answer the NYTXW would've BALKed at not that long ago, when they were much more squeamish about bodily fluids, much more committed to the "breakfast test."BREAST MILK *is* breakfast for some! So anyway, liked it, glad it's here. I also liked KIDS MENU. It makes a funny little counterpart to BREAST MILK.
The puzzle was, overall, astonishingly easy. Close to Monday in its easiness. Beyond the ILENE/IRENE thing, I don't know where I had any trouble. I guess it took me a few crosses to get the "?" clue at 1D: Ones who will give you a mouthful? (CHEFS), but "?" clues frequently slow me down, no matter what day of the week they appear on. All the proper nouns were familiar to me. I know lots of Eminem songs, but I know "RAP GOD"only from crosswords. This is because I was paying attention to pop-rap in the late '90s / early '00s, but in 2013 (when "RAP GOD" came out), not so much. But the point is I do know it now, having seen it at least once before in the grid, so I was able to put RAP over GOD there, no problem (6D: Eminem song with a Guinness world record for "most words in a hit single" (1, 560 in six minutes)). Oh, and I had trouble with WAXER, which I did not know was a stand-alone job title. I was really looking for something to do with hair, and ... well, I guess that's what I ultimately found, just ... not the kind of hair I was looking for. I hope you find what you're looking for today. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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