Constructor: Billy Bratton
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME:Figure it out!— Themers are familiar colloquial expressions that take the form of imperatives (commands) with "it" in them; answers are the "it," if you take the expression as a pun. Basically this is a common clue type (the "!" clue) turned into a theme:
Theme answers:
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In everyday crossword solving, the "it!" clue is basically a variation on the "?" clue—you take a familiar expression (e.g. Step on it!) and instead of getting a verb or verb phrase (e.g. SPEED UP), you get an example of a thing you might step on, i.e. an example of the "it!" Normally, clue and answer have to agree in terms of what part of speech they are, and the "!" in this type of clue indicates that the clue is going to violate that norm. Today's theme is just that ... writ large. Doesn't strike me as that inventive, and yet the effect is kinda fun. Light, breezy. OK. What's more remarkable today is the quality of the grid as a whole. It's like the constructor knew the theme was a little on the light side, conceptually, and so made sure that there were interesting non-thematic features, and that the grid was very clean and polished overall. I always want to shoot the words BIOME and BIOTA into the sun (they exist for me only in crosswords), but nothing else except maybe OHMS gave me that "ugh, not again" feeling, and those longer answers in the NE and SW are real lookers. Maybe the "OH" on "OH, WOE IS ME!" feels a little tacked on / redundant, but still, the emotional energy of that answer alongside the insistence of "I MEAN THAT!" is very nice, and THREEPEAT next to BOOKMAKER! I mean, I hate sports gambling, particularly the way sports gambling has taken over sports coverage, sports advertising, etc., but putting the betting term next to the sports term here, and having them both be so colorful? Mwah! And then you've got SURE-FIRE and PINE AWAY tucked in to the middle as bonus longer answers. You expect to find those showy long Downs in the corners, but here you get two more in the bargain. It's a very nice grid, and the extreme easiness makes it, well, easy to appreciate and enjoy. So, thematically, it's fine, cute, but it's the kind of wordplay you see every day in the crossword, so not exactly special. And yet the solve never felt ho-hum because the "it!" examples are solid and the overall quality of the grid is so high.
A few more things:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- DECK OF CARDS (17A: Deal with it!)
- ADHESIVE TAPE (28A: Stick with it!)
- BOARDING PASS (43A: Get on with it!)
- BOWLING BALL (58A: Roll with it!)
Leonhard Euler (/ˈɔɪlər/ OY-lər, German: [ˈleːɔnhaʁt ˈɔʏlɐ] [...] ; 15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus. He introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and notation, including the notion of a mathematical function. He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy and music theory. (wikipedia)
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It's nice when a very easy puzzle is also very good. I love the whoosh-whoosh feeling of flying through a grid, but it's a lot more thrilling when the scenery that's flying by is varied and interesting and when you change elevation, swoop around curves ... when the view out the window isn't entirely monotonous. You can do 90 or 100 in the middle of the Utah desert, but while the scenery is occasionally beautiful, it doesn't change for long periods of time. Speed becomes almost meaningless. And some easy puzzles can feel this way. "Well, the speedometer says I'm flying, but ... am I really moving at all?" I had my customary trouble getting out of the gate today, with DUG IN instead of HAD AT at 1A: Began devouring, say. I do not associate HAD AT with food. It's more ... dueling? Fighting in some way, anyway. Extremely Shakespeare. So my first step was a bad one. And then I had a little trouble coming up with FISH (18D: Rummage (around)), which seemed likewise obliquely clued. I had MESS / MUSS / FUSS / god knows what else. But once that answer got sorted, and once I saw what the theme type was going to be, I took off. And I mean, Took Off. Got blocked trying to descend via the long answers in the SW, but just reversed and went the other way and did not stop until I'd circled all the way back to those same long answers, filling them in from below to finish things off. I no-looked the last two themers. Just ... didn't need the clues. Parsed them on sight. BOARDING PASS, bam. OK, I did muff the last one a little, writing in BOWLING PINS instead of BOWLING BALL, but crosses made that error disappear quickly (DILLY got me out of the pickle!), and I still never saw the themer clue. Blazing fast. Fast-Monday fast. Hard to knock a puzzle that makes you feel all-powerful. FEEL ME? (26A: "Ya dig?"). I hope so.
A few more things:
- 40A: Not be square, say (OWE)— this is what stopped me from coming flying down the west side of the grid early on. I figured if I could just get the next short cross to work, I could see enough of the opening letters in at least one of the two long Downs to solve at least one of them. But no. Even with "O" I couldn't get OWE. So I went another direction and the "W" in this answer ended up being the last letter I filled in. I thought this clue was related to 9D: Not even (ODD) when I first saw it. In fact, I thought "square" meant "even" in this clue. Processing failure. No big deal in the end.
- 51D: Pioneer in calculus notation (EULER)— I was reading one of my very earliest write-ups, one from late '06 (!) (please, have mercy on me and do not do this, it's quite embarrassing). In that write-up, I complained loudly about the obscurity of this particular mathematician, only to have the armies of mathematicians in my audience (so, probably four mathematicians, at that point) pelt me with rotten fruit and say "boo to this man!" as they impatiently explained that EULER was not, in fact, obscure. So I have never forgotten the name. It was years later, however, before I figured out I was pronouncing it wrong in my head (it's "oiler" like "boiler," not "yoo-ler" like "Ferris Bueller").
- 25D: 2006 animated film that really should have starred Adam Driver and Parker Posey? ("CARS") — I had the "CA-" and my brain absolutely seized up as both "ENCANTO" and "COCO" tried to fight their way out at the same time. I really should've read the clue to the end. Or taken the year more seriously. This clue is corny as hell and I love it.
See you tomorrow.
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