Constructor: Blake Slonecker
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME:"SOUNDS GOOD" (57A: "It's a plan" ... and what might be said of 17-, 23-, 35- and 48-Across) — a wacky-answer homophone puzzle in which WRITE RITE WRIGHT and RIGHT are all shuffled around, resulting in a puzzle where each theme answer is "misspelled" but, if you read it aloud, "SOUNDS GOOD":
Theme answers:
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- GHOST RIGHT (“ghostwrite”) (17A: Suddenly cut off all communication with ... but do so nicely?) [so ... "to 'ghost' someone ... properly" ... is the surface meaning here]
- CIVIL WRIGHTS (“civil rights”) (23A: Cordial shipbuilders?)
- WRITES OF PASSAGE (“rites of passage”) (35A: Pens a seafaring tale?)
- RITE BROTHERS (“Wright Brothers”) (48A: Sacramental friars?)
1a
: sanctioned by Jewish law
especially : ritually fit for use
kosher meat
: sanctioned by Jewish law
especially : ritually fit for use
kosher meat
b
: selling or serving food ritually fit according to Jewish law
a kosher restaurant
: selling or serving food ritually fit according to Jewish law
a kosher restaurant
2 : being proper, acceptable, or satisfactory
is the deal kosher? (merriam-webster.com)
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Puns using these various "right" homophones have been the basis for crossword wackiness for eons. This puzzle tries to use all the homophone puns at once, and tie them together with a punny revealer. None of it really works for me. The themers are all just, well, corny puns, of a very ordinary type, and the revealer ... I don't know why you couldn't use that for *any* homophone-based set of themers. Is it that "GOOD" and "RIGHT" (!) are synonyms of a sort? Because otherwise, yeah, that's the basic idea of all homophones: same sound, different meaning / spelling. I think the revealer is supposed to elevate this otherwise ordinary pun-based puzzle to another, more special level, but it's far too generic to do anything of the sort. The whole theme ends up having a rather listless quality. With a set-up as basic as this, you need a killer revealer, and you simply don't get one.
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Another thing that's listless: the fill. It's not that any one answer is so bad, it's just that the repeaters come in waves that ultimately amount to a flood. Acceptable but overfamiliar answers just pile up. I had the misfortune of finishing the puzzle on a particularly unlovely one-two combo, AROAR crossing INRE, but even before that, the Stuff You See All The Time was really coming hot and heavy. SATE OSHA ... HOYA EDAM ASSAM ... AFT and ACH and OTOE and ESSO, RAVI and SKØR. Lots and lots of 3- 4- 5s, many of which ran to the overexposed side of the answer spectrum. The puzzle does have a rather impressive set of long Downs, two towering columns, both two answers wide, and those it's hard not to like. Good stuff. Would've been right at home in any Friday or Saturday puzzle. Solid. But except for "WELL, NO" (which I really liked) and maybe BASE COAT, there wasn't much to write (!) home about. Unless you're a "Happy Days" fan. "SIT ON IT!" is a nice throwback TV answer (27A: Rude rejoinder popularized by the Fonz of 1970s TV). I do wonder what kind of sense it's going to make to anyone under 45, but it was certainly in my pop culture sweet spot.
"Happy Days" was the first sitcom I can remember watching. The Fonz was my first TV idol. I remember my mom bringing me home a Fonzie coloring book from the supermarket one day, must've been '76 or '77. Oooh, no, wait—a little googling shows me it wasn't just a coloring book but a full-on Activity Book! And a "Cool Fun Activity Book" at that. I recognized the cover instantly, even 45 years later.
Thrilling. Thanks, mom. "Happy Days" was Tuesdays, 8pm, followed by "Laverne & Shirley," then bed. That "Laverne & Shirley" theme can still give me that wistful, bittersweet "dang, it's over, gotta go to bed now" feeling that I had any time I was allowed to watch nighttime TV as a child.
Two answers I don't really understand in today's puzzle. The first is KOSHER. I thought I knew what KOSHER meant, both literally and figuratively, but ... apparently not? [For real]? I do not see that meaning (or anything like it) in the Merriam-Webster definition I quoted above (Word of the Day). I always thought it mean "permissible" or "allowed." But "for real"? You got me there. News to me. And then there's WAD ("... and then there's WAD!"). It's a spitWAD. Also known as a "spitball": "A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw." You shoot spitWADs at the teacher, or whomever, or whatever. It's one term. You cannot separate the "spit" and the "WAD" when you are talking about [Classroom projectile]s. And please dear lord do not say "Well, what about a WAD of paper, or a WAD of chewing gum? A child could throw that and then that would be a 'projectile,' no spit involved, you ever consider that, huh?" I did, and then I rejected the idea out of hand because it is an unsatisfactory and frankly dumb rationalization, but thanks for asking. The projectile that is famously, classically projected in classrooms is the spit WAD. You cannot just say "WAD" and not indicate what the WAD consists of. Not KOSHER.
Two answers I don't really understand in today's puzzle. The first is KOSHER. I thought I knew what KOSHER meant, both literally and figuratively, but ... apparently not? [For real]? I do not see that meaning (or anything like it) in the Merriam-Webster definition I quoted above (Word of the Day). I always thought it mean "permissible" or "allowed." But "for real"? You got me there. News to me. And then there's WAD ("... and then there's WAD!"). It's a spitWAD. Also known as a "spitball": "A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw." You shoot spitWADs at the teacher, or whomever, or whatever. It's one term. You cannot separate the "spit" and the "WAD" when you are talking about [Classroom projectile]s. And please dear lord do not say "Well, what about a WAD of paper, or a WAD of chewing gum? A child could throw that and then that would be a 'projectile,' no spit involved, you ever consider that, huh?" I did, and then I rejected the idea out of hand because it is an unsatisfactory and frankly dumb rationalization, but thanks for asking. The projectile that is famously, classically projected in classrooms is the spit WAD. You cannot just say "WAD" and not indicate what the WAD consists of. Not KOSHER.
Enjoy your Wednesday, or as I like to call it, "Last Rabies Shot Day!"