Constructor: Kenneth Cortes
Relative difficulty: Easy (Downs-only, no trouble)
![]()
THEME: BRIGHT IDEA (56A: Stroke of genius ... or the theme of this puzzle) — "IDEA" appears hidden inside three theme answers; the grid has been weirdly dimmed, so that the "IDEA"s (which appear in regular old white squares) appear "BRIGHT":
Theme answers:
![]()
Wait, is "Seeing Eye dog" a brand name? Why is "Eye" capitalized? I would've written it without a capital "E," and possibly with a hyphen. Wow, yes, it's trademarked. Well, you learn something new every day. Or maybe not every day, but occasionally, anyway. I didn't have any problem with the capitalization, but I do have a problem with the answer, GUIDE ANIMAL, which ... are there Seeing Eye warthogs? The only GUIDE ANIMAL I've ever seen or heard of is a Seeing Eye dog. I guess the dogs that don't learn the trademark method can't be called that, is that the deal? Anyway, GUIDE ANIMAL feels ... off. The internet is telling me that a "miniature horse" might also serve as a GUIDE ANIMAL, but I resolutely refuse to believe this. Thumbs down to GUIDE ANIMAL.
![]()
The only potential pitfalls I could see, from a Downs-only perspective, were both food related. UNAGI came to me pretty easily (27A: Freshwater eel of Japanese culture), but I'll admit I had to think a bit about those TOSTONES (39D: Crispy plantain chips). I read the clue and thought "Oh, come on ... I know those ... I've had those ... what are those?" But I didn't sweat it, I just kept solving, knocking over one Down after another until the only Down I had left was the [Crispy plantain chips]. I had both "S"s and the second "O," but every other letter was indeterminate—that is, it could've been multiple things. TORO could've been BORO, BONDS could've been BINDS or BENDS or BANDS, etc. Eventually I just started from the top and started plugging in plausible letters to see if they rang any bells, and, well, that meant I started with the "T" in TORO, and that was all I needed. I practically shouted "TOSTONES!" And that ... was that. Game over.
Relative difficulty: Easy (Downs-only, no trouble)
Theme answers:
- STUPID EASY (18A: Not difficult at all, in slang)
- GUIDE ANIMAL (26A: Seeing Eye dog, e.g.)
- HIDE-AND-SEEK (44A: Game in which one might shout, "Ready or not, here I come!")
Tostones (Spanish pronunciation: [tosˈtones], from the Spanish verb tostar which means "to toast") are twice-fried plantain slices commonly found in Latin American cuisine and Caribbean cuisine. Most commonly known as tostones in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Florida, Honduras and Venezuela, they are also known as tachinos or chatinos (Cuba), platano frito or frito verde (Dominican Republic), bannann peze (Haiti), patacones (in Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador) and, sometimes, patacón pisao in Colombia. (wikipedia)
• • •
Also thumbs-down to this ridiculous grid-dimming gimmick. Any theme that relies on making the grid looking this terrible isn't worth it. Anyway, it's not that the IDEAS are BRIGHT so much as that the rest of the dang grid has been miserably benighted. I thought there was a glitch in my software. At least the puzzle was STUPID EASY, so I didn't have to spend too much time staring at this gray monstrosity. STUPID EASY was, in fact, the puzzle's one big highlight—a nice burst of colloquial freshness, and a very clever way of hiding your IDEA. Ironically, the theme answer with the word HIDE in it didn't "hide" the IDEA nearly so well. Always disappointed when "hidden" words don't touch every word in the themer, and the IDEA in HIDE AND SEEK can only wave at nearby SEEK, who sits there cold, lonely, and essentially uninvolved. A dark day, indeed, for SEEK.
My Downs-only solve was quite triumphant today. I flattened this one, with a big assist from the theme, which allowed me to go ahead and fill in all the "bright" areas with IDEA very early:
Other tiny issues ... As usual, didn't know if it was "F" or "V" in today's OLAF (1D: "Frozen" snowman). I lucked out with those sequential "A"s in SEA ANEMONE (11D: Colorful marine invertebrate)—they were both inferable from the crosses, and then ... well, the answer clearly had to have a word break between those "A"s, and knowing that, SEA ANEMONE came fast. I had some hesitation at BOGUS (48D: Not genuine). I'm not quite sure why. Once I got AFROS squared away (by inference) (50A: Jackson 5 hairstyles), I had the "O," and BOGUS went right in. Oh, and I had to work a bit to get HIP (8D: Cool-sounding body part?), since all I could think of was EYE(S) (because it ... kinda rhymes with "ice" ... which is ... cool???). Wrong kind of "cool," it seems. I continue to not believe that SALSA DIP is a thing (4D: Accompaniment for a tortilla chip). It's just called SALSA. Yes, you can "dip" your chip in it. Still, just SALSA. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]