Constructor: Taylor Johnson and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: GO COAST TO COAST (54A: Travel cross-country ... or a description of what 16-, 23- and 43-Across do?) — the theme answers both span the grid (i.e. go from one end to the other) and go from a west coast state postal code to an east coast state postal code:
Theme answers:
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Well this is really one of those "if a theme falls in the woods..." kinds of puzzles, or at least it was for me. That is, I finished it, I looked at GO COAST TO COAST, I noticed that the theme answers did indeed go from the left coast to the right coast of the grid ... and then what? That's it? That can't be it. So I stared at the themers ... nothing. I Even Looked At The Front And Back Ends, figuring they'd make ... something. Anything. I Even Said Things Out Loud like "WAME" and "CANAGA," trying to make anything happen. I was all set to write this off as essentially Tuesday themeless (with just one "cute" grid-spanning answer telling me the grid has three *other* grid-spanning answers) when the postal code thing occurred. Far less of an "aha!" than an "is this ... right?" But yeah, Washington to Maine, Oregon to Connecticut, California to Georgia, those are your itineraries. No wonder the themers felt ... off. Like, very very roll-your-own. It should be "YouWANT A PIECE OF ME!?" That threat very much wants the "You" (or "Ya"). That is definitely how I've heard it. And ORGANIC PRODUCT!? I actually just filled the end of that in reflexively with the much much more real word, i.e. ORGANIC PRODUCE. Spent half my solve low-key mad at ORGANIC PRODUCT for being a dumb answer. And CANDY CRUSH SAGA, LOL, billions of downloads or not, I had no idea what the full name of this game was. I thought CANDY CRUSH or CANDY CANE (?) CRUSH or something ... I had no idea there was a "SAGA" involved. Is it a sequel? Is there a CANDY CRUSH Universe? OK, well, turns out CANDY CRUSH SAGA is the original version of this game, but yes, there is a Universe (there's a Soda Saga, a Jelly Saga, and a Friends (?) Saga). I do not play games on my phone, but I "knew" this game existed ... or thought I knew. Saga, eh? OK, the answer is original and solid, no actual complaints there. Just ignorance. Anyway, I hope you stuck around long enough to see the state stuff; you'd be forgiven if you somehow thought "well, yes, those answers do cross the grid, but ... so what?" and then got on with your day.
The highlight of the puzzle for me was MONDEGREEN. There was a point in the '90s when this word became popularized and books of MONDEGREENs were published and everything (this was *just* before the Internet went wide, if I recall). "'Scuse me / While I kiss this guy" (instead of "kiss the sky," from "Purple Haze") is paradigmatic. Everyone has their own collection of MONDEGREEN's they've amassed over the years, though the lyrics may be so "real" to you that you don't even know you've got 'em wrong. I mean, for well over a decade I thought that in "Keep on Lovin' You," REO Speedwagon was singing "Instead you laid still in your dress / All coiled up in Houston" before I realized, sometime in the late '90s (?!) that they were just using a standard snake metaphor ("Instead you laid still in the grass / All coiled up and hissing"). Your brain is very happy to "Insert Nonsense Here" when the words don't quite make sense. Or my brain is, anyway. It's a fun if occasionally dangerous kind of brain to have.
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- "WANT A PIECE OF ME?" (16A: Famous fighting words)
- ORGANIC PRODUCT (23A: Item made of ingredients grown without pesticides)
- CANDY CRUSH SAGA (43A: Color-matching puzzle game with billions of downloads)
2: the ultimate ground of all being in Hinduism (merriam-webster.com)
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The highlight of the puzzle for me was MONDEGREEN. There was a point in the '90s when this word became popularized and books of MONDEGREENs were published and everything (this was *just* before the Internet went wide, if I recall). "'Scuse me / While I kiss this guy" (instead of "kiss the sky," from "Purple Haze") is paradigmatic. Everyone has their own collection of MONDEGREEN's they've amassed over the years, though the lyrics may be so "real" to you that you don't even know you've got 'em wrong. I mean, for well over a decade I thought that in "Keep on Lovin' You," REO Speedwagon was singing "Instead you laid still in your dress / All coiled up in Houston" before I realized, sometime in the late '90s (?!) that they were just using a standard snake metaphor ("Instead you laid still in the grass / All coiled up and hissing"). Your brain is very happy to "Insert Nonsense Here" when the words don't quite make sense. Or my brain is, anyway. It's a fun if occasionally dangerous kind of brain to have.
Really don't like the THE on THE POPE. Like, really really. "THE O.C.," yes, THE POPE, no. But the rest of it is pretty sharp and sassy for a Tuesday, even if I did have to endure ATTILA for the second time in as many days. "CAN I GO?" is nice, and it gave me a little trouble—I got the "O" first and thought "??? What ends in 'O'"?). I like that Saoirse RONAN was sitting (aptly) under FLICK. Overall, I don't know if the fill was AMAZING, but it was pretty good. NY GIANT is a bit weird, since you would only write that, never say it (as opposed to, say, L.A. DODGER). GIANT would be a perfectly good answer here. And it's singular, also weird (there are logos out there that have the name stylized NY GIANTS, but only in the plural). But still, viable. So OK. It's very pop culture-y, this one, but in ways that I found really accessible. From Dua LIPA to "Clueless"'s CHER to ARI Aster to Janelle MONAE to JODI Picoult to STAN, all the pop stuff seemed Tuesday-familiar to me. OK, that's all. gotta run. See you tomorrow.