Constructor: Michael Schlossberg
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: TAKES THE EDGE OFF (37A: Alleviates pain a little ... or what this puzzle does to certain squares for literal effect) — one or more letter boxes in the theme answers are literally missing one or more "edges" as a way of representing missing parts of the answers themselves:
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Can't comment on this effectively since my grid (as you can see above) looked like a normal grid, so the visual gag was lost on me entirely. Worse. I actually thought the gag was just "missing parts of phrases," so, uh, yes, the phrase "Doctors Without Borders" was written in the grid, literally, without "borders." Now ... it was also without "without," but I just rolled with it. I was able to make correct sense of three of the five themers, but couldn't find any phrase to go with ATTENTION and had the wrong idea at ACCUSATIONS (I thought they were "unfounded," which they kind of are, even in the intended grid—being without foundation, i.e. "baseless"). All this got from me was a shrug. When I looked up what the grid looked like in the paper / online, I understood what I was supposed to be seeing. If I'd had the intended grid, would that have led me to say "WHAT FUN!" while solving this puzzle? Probably not. The "topless"DANCERS is kinda funny, I guess, but most of the rest maybe merit half a "HAH" at best. And having ACCUSATIONS, INSIGHT, and ATTENTION as themers really flattens the grid excitement out considerably. I guess the grid *is* the excitement. I dunno. As I say, I didn't solve it with the "correct" grid, so, though I have offered some comment, I guess officially it's "no comment" from me on the theme.
Relative difficulty: Easy
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| [on paper and on the app, the boxes involved in the theme answers are missing various edges; see below] |
Theme answers:![]()
Word of the Day: ODENSE (49D: Danish birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen) —
- DOCTORS (Without Borders) (no edges on any of the cells) (15A: International medical group that won the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize, literally)
- (No end) IN SIGHT (no final edge, after the "T") (16A: Characteristic of an interminable slog, literally)
- (Undivided) ATTENTION (no edges separating the letters from one another) (23A: Absolute concentration, literally)
- (Baseless) ACCUSATIONS (no bottom edge for any boxes) (46A: Charges lacking merit, literally)
- (Topless) DANCERS (no top edge for any boxes) (67A: Some adult nightclub entertainers, literally)
Odense ([...]) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 205,978, making it the fourth largest municipality in Denmark (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus and Aalborg municipalities). Eurostat and OECD have used a definition for the Metropolitan area of Odense (referred to as a Functional urban area), which includes all municipalities in the Province(Danish: landsdel) of Funen (Danish: Fyn), with a total population of 504,066 as of 1 July 2022 [...] Odense is served by Hans Christian Andersen Airport and Odense station, which lies on the line between Copenhagen and the Jutland peninsula. (wikipedia)
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That leaves me with the fill, which ... well, there it is. Not much to say. I would love ICKFACTOR in the singular, but in the plural it just seems silly. When, how, why? It just doesn't get used that way. Curate Your Wordlists, People! FOOT SCRUBS is a cool answer, and it's what I wanted initially, but then I thought 53A: Separates from the mother ship was UNMOORS ... mostly because I wasn't reading the clue correctly. My eye just picked up something about a ship separating and UNMOORS seemed like a real word for that situation. But "mother ship" = space ship, so in that sense, sure, UNDOCKS. Had the tiniest bit of trouble with the indefinite article in ASMIDGE (1A: The tiniest bit). Had a total geographic breakdown with ODENSE (49D: Danish birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen), which I had first as ODESSA (I *knew* ODESSA wasn't "Danish," but ... my typing fingers, running purely on crosswordese instinct, did what they did). Then I tried ODENSK, is that a thing? I know GDANSK is a thing, is ODENSK? Nope, not so much, no. Thankfully, SHAMBLK is not a thing (70A: Drag one's feet), so was ultimately (literally, ultimately) able to SHAMBLE my way to ODENSE.
The fill has some ICK FACTORS for sure, with ETTU, ADUE, AFTS and ANO forming a kind of shambling gang of the Crosswordese Undead. Several kealoas* today (LO-CAL / LO-FAT, ERS/ORS, NADA/NONE), but none of it really made a difference to the solving experience. This fill is ultimately unremarkable. The theme is the thing. You liked the visual gag, you didn't, who can say? But that's all there is. Wish I'd experienced the intended "edge"-less grid in real time, but I didn't, so ... there. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. ALFA Romeo made a "Spider" model car for close to 30 years (33D: Spider in a garage, informally?); AFTS is short for "afternoons" (27D: Some times, in brief) ... I think everything else is straightforward?
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.