Constructor: Peter A. Collins
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: BOUND TO HAPPEN (54A: Inevitable ... or a hint for 19-, 27- and 48-Across) — first words of theme answers are all words that mean "bound" (v.):
Theme answers:
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This puzzle is pretty bad. I think about all the established and aspiring constructors out there having their work rejected by the NYTXW on a regular basis, sitting down to solve *this* puzzle and thinking ... "how?" I know I am critical of puzzles on a regular basis, but I actually end up on the positive side most of the time (this year I'm keeping track!). It's actually pretty rare that I think a puzzle is absolutely, irredeemably broken, but this is one of those times. It's Monday, and Mondays are always easy, so it seems possible, if not probable, that the specific badness of the puzzle isn't going to register with solvers the way it does (or can) when badness is coupled with difficulty and successful completion of the puzzle is thwarted. But please, follow along with me here as I explain how, in terms of theme (somewhat) and fill (very much), this puzzle should not have made the grade. To start with, even if it were executed perfectly, the theme feels stale. These are phrases where the first words are all JUMP or synonyms thereof. I suppose they are all ... metaphorical jumps? So maybe that gives them some special elevated status, beyond just being synonyms. Sure, let's extend that benefit of the doubt. OK. Still, not exactly exciting. Worse, though, is that you establish a pattern—something that might, actually, take the theme slightly above the humdrum—and then you absolutely dash it? In your final themer? I'm talking about the grammatical and rhythmic pattern established by the prepositional phrases in the middle of each answer: HOP ON THE ... JUMP IN THE ... LEAP AT THE ... I mean, look at that? You've got a sound pattern, a grammatical pattern, you've changed the preposition each time ... it's not bad. Again, this theme is never gonna be stellar, but after three themers, you've kind of got ... something. But then you wrap it all up with BOUND ... TO HAPPEN!? I know it's the revealer, so maybe it gets to be a different *kind* of answer from the others, but still, all I could think was: Where's that sweet [preposition + THE] action? It was the one little bit of extra that the theme had, its sole real possession, and it goes and squanders it in the final answer. At the climactic moment. Hard, hard oof. And "... TO HAPPEN" ... does that even really express anything specific about the themers (besides the fact that they are verb phrases and thus things ... that happen)? Puzzle would've been better off with just three themers. Or you could've run it around the time Daylight Saving Time starts, and had SPRING FORWARD (13) be the revealer ... because the word meaning "spring" ... is at the "forward" (or front) part of each answer. . . nah, you're right, just keep it to three themers, that's better.
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Slightly confused about SOIR v. NUIT, but "HOPOS..." looked much worse than "HOPON..." so I went with the latter. Then I only needed a few crosses, as you can see, to figure out what was being hopped on. My brain wanted BUS, but there was too much room. There are no functioning passenger trains where I live (anymore), whereas I take the bus to school every workday. None of this matters, just letting you know how my brain works and why, to the best of my ability. Anyway, Downs-only is a very doable mode of solving—you don't have to get all Downs at first pass. You just. have to get enough to begin to infer some of the crosses, and then let those Acrosses help you get the Downs, and so on, and so on. Today, only PIKACHU gave me any trouble (8D: Red-cheeked Pokémon character), and that's only because I saw -NTER in the cross and decided it had to be ENTER. It did not. It was, in fact, INTER. Once I flipped the "E" to an "I," I remember PIKACHU existed, and that was that. Nothing else in the grid caused a lick of trouble. Except UNAWED. I had UN-[no idea] for a bit. But then TWISTS had to be TWISTS, and there was the "W," and whammo, UNAWED for the "W" (i.e. win). As I'm reliving my solve via narration, I'm realizing how much entertainment value solving Downs-only can add to otherwise not very enjoyable puzzles. Puzzle was still easy, even Downs-only, but there was still ... a kind of interesting unfolding of answers that made things engaging. I hope you liked literally every part of your solving experience more than I did. See you tomorrow.
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- HOP ON THE TRAIN (19A: Start a subway ride)
- JUMP IN THE SHOWER (27A: Wash oneself quickly)
- LEAP AT THE CHANCE (48A: Seize an opportunity)
Edo (Japanese: 江戸, lit. '"bay-entrance" or "estuary"'), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a jōkamachi (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the de facto capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. Edo grew to become one of the largest cities in the world under the Tokugawa.
After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 the Meiji government renamed Edo as Tokyo (東京, "Eastern Capital") and relocated the Emperor from the historic capital of Kyoto to the city. The era of Tokugawa rule in Japan from 1603 to 1868 is known as the Edo period. (wikipedia)
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But worse, much worse than this (i.e. the theme execution) is the fill. I need you all to appreciate both how subpar the fill is, and also how completely unnecessary the subparness was. I need you to know that the *reason* the fill is bad is *because* the puzzle chose to be a pangram. That is, it decided to do this dumb feat (include every letter of the alphabet), one that most people don't care about and aren't going to notice, and *because* of that *intentional* move to "achieve" the pangram, we are all "treated" to, let's see: ASAMI SIL (crossing!), ONA UNAWED (?) (crossing!), NUIT OUI (crossing!) HOC QUO (srsly, two Latin partials? Two?!), THO AIG ANNI (more Latin!) ERE EDO ESP CHIA, and then ... not only olden "F-TROOP" but miserably "F"-less TGI to boot. Someone is going to have to explain to me how a pangram is a virtue, how it's at all "worth it," if the resulting grid is this full of gunk. STUNTWOMAN (10D: Daring body double, like Debbie Evans in "The Fast and the Furious") and MALIAOBAMA (29D: White House daughter of 2009-17) are fine, no fouls there, but the rest of the grid ... is a mess. And it's all so unnecessary. You can't (shouldn't) treat the non-marquee (i.e. shorter) answers as just so much filler, an unimportant afterthought, a place to play your largely private pangram games. Your first and only duty is to make the whole grid as smooth and/or sparkly as it can be. Bookmark this puzzle, and then, the next time I talk about a beautifully polished grid (as I have, at least a couple times this year already), please refer back to this one and compare. I mean, just look at *last* Monday's grid. Much better ... even with more theme answers. Clean short fill *and* lovely banks of non-thematic 7-letter answers! Nice grids! They're possible! But you have to care about polish. Not pangrams.
As far as Downs-only solving went today, there were no problems. In case you're wondering "how do you even do that?," here's an example of how even getting a few Downs can lead you to infer longer answers (which then in turn helps you get the Downs you couldn't get before you had any crosses):
