Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium
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THEME: WATER CYCLE (55A: Natural process suggested by the starts of 17-, 24-, 26-, 45- and 47-Across) — first words of themers form the cycle: OCEAN -> VAPOR -> CLOUD -> RAIN -> RIVER:
Theme answers:
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Seems more like a Monday theme, with the difficulty amped up by cluing, and possibly the mere presence of VAPORWARE, which ... if I've heard it (and I think I have), I had no idea what it meant. I assumed it was a real thing, not a promised but undelivered thing. Maybe something that vapor ... izes ... something else. Weird how misty words attach themselves to computing ... The Cloud ... VAPORWARE ... OK, so, just two misty words. Anyway, the precedent of "The Cloud" made me assume VAPORWARE was also an actual, not theoretical thing. I actually didn't read the whole clue there. I got as far as "Tech product" and my (SAD) EYES glazed over and I just worked crosses til something vaguely producty showed up. So, as I say, this one possibly-less-well-known themer may have made the theme seem more midweek-worthy. But in concept, it's a Monday. First words do what? They do this. The end. And yeah, that sure looks like the cycle. Puzzle does what it says it does—takes you from OCEAN to (fresh) WATER, which gives life to plants and us and all the assorted organisms and critters. The themer set is lively enough, and there are some bright spots in the fill, particularly the vivid and apt juxtaposition of DEAD RUN and OVERDO IT. The SE corner is a bit of a mess (more below), but overall, while I was never IN AWE OF this one, I also didn't CRINGE much either (42D: [Oooh, that's embarrassing]). Felt like a very serviceable / passable / acceptable Monday, aired on a Wednesday, with Wednesday-level cluing.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium
Theme answers:
- OCEAN SPRAY (17A: Co-op responsible for more than two-thirds of cranberry production in North America)
- VAPORWARE (24A: Tech product that's promised but never delivered)
- CLOUD NINE (26A: Hog heaven)
- RAINMAKER (45A: Business-generating partner at a law firm)
- RIVER CARD (47A: It might make or break a hand in Texas hold 'em)
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons. They were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated, and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.
[from the Psalter of Saint Louis] The English term (Old English psaltere, saltere) derives from Church Latin. The source term is Latin: psalterium, which is simply the name of the Book of Psalms (in secular Latin, it is the term for a stringed instrument, from Ancient Greek: ψαλτήριον psalterion). The Book of Psalms contains the bulk of the Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church. The other books associated with it were the Lectionary, the Antiphonary, and Responsoriale, and the Hymnary. In Late Modern English, psalter has mostly ceased to refer to the Book of Psalms (as the text of a book of the Bible) and mostly refers to the dedicated physical volumes containing this text. (wikipedia)
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But yeah that SE corner was less than great. So, I love "SAD EYES," it gives me big childhood radio-listening nostalgia, but it's ... not exactly current. And it wasn't exactly a legendary song. And since you've already gone back to "The Waltons" in this puzzle (58A: Will of "The Waltons"), "SAD EYES" feels like a step too far into the pop culture past. I would probably not have commented on it, would've found it largely unremarkable, were it not stuck in an already struggling corner. Nobody likes SESH. Nobody likes SLRS, and (worst of all) TAKE A CUE ... haven't seen an answer with this much "EAT A SANDWICH" energy in a long time. It's so bad on its own. You TAKE (your) CUES from... someone, maybe. But TAKE A CUE, oof. It kinda wants to be TAKE A TIP and kinda wants to be TAKE CUES and ends up in this weird no-man's-land, where it looks ... right-ish, but ... it just doesn't want to stand alone, as a phrase. It's not great. That whole corner just feels GREASY, and the problems all start with TAKE A CUE, since it is the pillar of its community. It should be the best thing in there, but instead: the opposite.
Today, we have the glorious NYTXW debut of [drum roll] ... TV-Y! (56D: "Sesame Street" rating) ... [crickets] ... [more crickets] ... [still more] ... Me, after writing in TV-G and realizing it was wrong. "Great, another TV rating to gunk up the grid, huzzah." I did appreciate the puzzle's ANTIWAR sentiment, even if it did come in the form of a caricature of a '60s peacenik (again, the puzzle demonstrates a predominantly half-century-old cultural frame of reference) (25D: Like the sentiment of a "Drop Acid, Not Bombs" poster). I had trouble in only a few places today. The first place was square one, where I took one look at 1D: Furrow former and blanked, then took a look at the next clue, 2D: Cray cray, and thought "Oh god, there's some dumb clue-based theme today where both words in the clues alliterate or something, why me, lord!?" (P.S. no one says "Cray cray" any more, please stop, total CRINGE). Turns out my fears were misplaced. I just couldn't make sense of "former" in [Furrow former]. I thought "former" as like "onetime" or "ex," and I kept thinking "Furrow" was "Farrow," so [Furrow former] = [Farrow former] = [Farrow ex] = ??? ... SINATRA? LEVIN? All these thoughts crossed my mind before I'd entered a single thing confidently in the grid. Eventually I just tested PLOD (1A: Wearily put one foot in front of the other) and then LOCO and eventually PLOW showed up and then I thought, "Oh, right, former. Something that forms ... something else. That is a word, isn't it?"
Other hiccups included PSALMER at 21A: Book of hymns despite being a medievalist by training and having seen and read about PSALTERs plenty. And then I found the SW corner a little hard to get into because I wanted the [Barrel maker] to be a COOPER (because that's what barrel makers are called), and I couldn't for the life of me figure out the [Slangy summons] at 42-Across. So I abandoned that corner and left it for the end. Then, when I finally got in there, like a sucker, I stepped right in the AVOIDS / AVERTS / EVADES kealoa* (44D: Sidesteps). Seriously, cycled through them all, in that order. Finished the puzzle with BREWERY. Speaking of brewing: coffee. Now. Yes. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Lots more where these came from. Keep 'em coming.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Since I said yesterday that I would post pics of your pets in holiday settings if you sent them to me, I have been ... well, “inundated” may be an exaggeration, but only slightly. I'm gonna be posting Holiday Pets all month. Not Mad! Here's Janine's late pupper Cinnamon, followed by Ian's 12yo cockapoo Dobby, who enjoys, well, sleeping
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*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.