Constructor: Kavin Pawittranon and Nijah Morris
Relative difficulty: Easy (except, in my case, for the SE corner)
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THEME: PAC-MAN (68A: Where to find the starts of 17-, 28-, 45- and 58-Across)— first words of the theme answers are associated with the iconic video game:
Theme answers:
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Whether this puzzle works or not rests entirely on WAKA FLOCKA FLAME, which is ... a choice. I mean, it's going to delight some, for sure—it's an original, grid-spanning answer that comes from fairly contemporary (as opposed to olden) popular culture, and it's got the puzzle's best element in it: the WAKA sound. I mean, the theme is a complete dud without the WAKA. The WAKA is the most inventive part, by a long shot. I don't even associate PELLETs or FRUIT with PAC-MAN that strongly (or maybe I just never thought of the dots as "pellets")—whatever specific qualities that game has, the only ones that have stuck with me beyond the little yellow guy himself and the maze structure he has to navigate are the ghosts and the WAKA WAKA WAKA sound (which I've never seen spelled out, or even thought about spelling out, which is another reason having WAKA as the final theme element is so delightful—it's surprising *and* on-the-nose). The down side of putting all your eggs in the WAKA FLOCKA FLAME basket, though, is that some sizable segment of the solving population won't have any idea who that is, and, what's (kinda) worse, won't have any real way to even *infer* the name, as no part of WAKA FLOCKA FLAME is exactly ... namelike.
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No one answer is particularly terrible, but when you get AREOLA LOL OLE WAT SOL OREO in a big wad like that, right up front, I think it's reasonable to be worried. But the crosswordiness never gets that thick again. The grid isn't exactly sizzling, but the quality levels out, and EIGHT BALL and ASTROTURF and especially SAFE WORD (!!!) (38D: Something agreed upon by consenting sexual partners) are nice long anchors. One of the reasons the end of the puzzle (for me, the SE) was so jarring is that the rest of the puzzle was (generally) sooooo easy. I had to navigate around HANYU, but other than that, the only clue that slowed me down even a little was 23A: One who is one, e.g. (BABY). I was thinking of something ... I dunno, spiritual? Like ... one ... with the universe? It's such an oddly enigmatic clue for something that is also absolutely literal and straightforward. But the only part of this puzzle I even remember solving is the SE—getting stuck will tend to bring things into focus that way. I could not remember FLAME part of his name to save my life. Me: "WAKA FLOCKA ... there's more? WAKA FLOCKA ... JONES? That seems unlikely ..." I wrote in TSA and LTD before FAA (61D: Sky safety org.) and LLC (62D: Inc. cousin), which immediately gummed up the whole SE section. Thought the "mangle" in 55D: Mangle, e.g. (MAIM) was the old-fashioned TOOL people used to use to wring clothes dry after washing, didn't know people still texted MY B (!?) (short for "my bad") (55A: "Whoops," in a text), *and* I misread 65A: Spiteful feeling (MALICE) as [Spiritual feeling] (!?), so yeeeeesh the wheels really came off down there. I mean, I put the wheels back on without *too* much struggle, but compared to how quickly and smoothly I moved through the rest of the grid, this part was a disaster. But I worked it out. Hope you worked it out too, and that the WAKA (waka waka) bit made you smile at least a little. If not, that's cool too. See you tomorrow.
Relative difficulty: Easy (except, in my case, for the SE corner)
Theme answers:
- PELLET DISPENSER (17A: Feeding apparatus at a petting zoo)
- GHOST OF A CHANCE (28A: Slightest opportunity)
- FRUIT OF THE LOOM (45A: Big name in underwear)
- WAKA FLOCKA FLAME (58A: Rapper with the 2010 hit "No Hands")
Juaquin James Malphurs (born May 31, 1986), known professionally as Waka Flocka Flame, is an American rapper. Signing to 1017 Brick Squad and Warner Bros. Records in 2009, he became a mainstream artist with the release of his singles "O Let's Do It", "Hard in da Paint", and "No Hands" (featuring Roscoe Dash and Wale), with the latter peaking at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100. His debut studio album Flockaveli was released in 2010. His second studio album Triple F Life: Friends, Fans & Family was released in 2012 and was preceded by the lead single "Round of Applause" (featuring Drake). [...] In April 2015 Waka Flocka did a collaboration campaign with Rolling Stone magazine in which he pretended to run for president. [...] In April 2015, Malphurs announced that he was running for president, despite the fact he was below the constitutionally required age of 35, as he was only 30 by the time of the 2016 United States presidential election. His platform included legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum hourly wage to $15, and creating better trade opportunities for school students. His other proposals included banning dogs from restaurants and making it illegal for people with shoe sizes above 13 to walk on the street. He also seemed to be dismissive of Congress, and had an anti-war stance. Former professional wrestler Ric Flair was his running mate. (wikipedia)
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So I've written a Lot about how important it is to handle your names—how all kinds of names are should appear in puzzles, regardless of whether they are universally famous, but that the puzzlemaker should always have an eye on that part of the solving population that *doesn't* share their particular cultural demographic, and make sure that those folks are brought along for the ride. This is typically done by watching *all* the crosses on the name in question and making sure they're fair, and that you're not essentially creating two puzzles: an easy / fun puzzle for those who know the same pop culture you know, and a challenging slog for those who don't. Here, I think the crosses are all fair, but so *much* of the puzzle rides on this answer—it's not just long, it's the punchline—that I think that it's going to be divisive along predictable cultural lines, with younger solvers appreciating it far more than older solvers. Essentially your love of the puzzle is going to depend on how you feel about the name WAKA FLOCKA FLAME, and a lot of that is going to be dependent on whether you knew him in the first place. It's a lot of weight to put on one name. We'll see how it plays. I like it—as I say, the theme is nothing without it—but I *knew* the WAKA FLOCKA part and *still* got brought to a screeching, jarring halt in the SE. I don't have much patience for the "I don't want any rapper names in my puzzle!" crowd, but I'll have at least a little sympathy for those who struggle with this particular name today.
WAKA FLOCKA FLAME isn't the only name the puzzle throws at you today. There's also HANYU (9D: Yuzuru ___, first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition), totally unknown to me, but in that case, the answer is short and all the crosses are easy and so it's only a small bump in the road. This makes it easier to appreciate the new (to me) name. I was a bit worried about the general quality of the fill at the start of this one, as that NW corner really did not bode well:
WAKA FLOCKA FLAME isn't the only name the puzzle throws at you today. There's also HANYU (9D: Yuzuru ___, first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition), totally unknown to me, but in that case, the answer is short and all the crosses are easy and so it's only a small bump in the road. This makes it easier to appreciate the new (to me) name. I was a bit worried about the general quality of the fill at the start of this one, as that NW corner really did not bode well:
