Constructor: Patrick Maher
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: ELEMENTS OF STYLE (38A: Principles for good prose in a classic writing guide by Strunk & White ... or a hint to the wardrobe assembled at 17-, 25-, 47- and 57-Across) — themers follow an [element + article of clothing] pattern (except the last themer, which sneaks FOIL in there):
Theme answers:![]()
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This theme has something, some core idea that is interesting, but I don't know if ELEMENTS OF STYLE really brings it all together that well. Or maybe it's the theme answer set that isn't quite up to expressing the revealer. I quite like the revealer—an interesting repurposing of a famous book title (one that used to have some currency in the teaching world, but linguists and cultural critics have since had at it, and it doesn't hold the same status academically as it once did; here's my alma mater's explanation of what its perceived strengths and limitations are). But I don't think MASK and especially APRON really evoke "style," not the way gloves and a hat might. I guess at very fancy Halloween parties or maybe masquerade balls if you get invited to those somehow, you might show off style with your MASK, but APRON? That's for the kitchen (or other workplace), and doesn't really belong in the same universe as the other "clothing" items. Further, the addition of FOIL to the last themer kind of feels like a cheat. You've got a nice [element + clothing item] pattern there, and then FOIL comes barging in there at the end to spoil consistency. It's a minor point. All the answers still start with an element and end with an article of clothing, so ... OK. Sometimes the clothing consists of the element (LEAD APRON) and sometimes it's metaphorical (GOLD GLOVE) and sometimes the article of "clothing" conveys the element to your face (OXYGEN MASK), but I actually like that the uses of elements/clothing are all over the map there. It means there's no glaring outlier. Overall, the theme kinda sorta works for me, though I think I like the concept more than the execution here.
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- OXYGEN MASK (17A: Breathing aid demonstrated by a flight attendant)
- LEAD APRON (25A: Protective drape for an X-ray)
- GOLD GLOVE (47A: Major-league award for fielding prowess)
- TIN FOIL HAT (57A: Headgear designed to block psychic intrusions)
Vanna Marie White (née Rosich; born February 18, 1957) is an American television personality and game-show hostess, best known as the co-host of the game show Wheel of Fortune, a position she has held since 1982. She began her career as a model while studying fashion, competing in Miss Georgia USA in 1978. In addition to her work on Wheel of Fortune, she has played minor characters or appeared as herself in many films and television series, and is the author of the 1987 autobiography Vanna Speaks. She also participates in real-estate investment, owns the yarn brand Vanna's Choice, and is a patron of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. (wikipedia)
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As for the fill, er, things get much worse in that department. Lots of overfamiliar short stuff, some of it quite creaky, from AMO in the NW to IWO in the south and many points in between, this is a 20th-century short fill extravaganza. Even ITPRO (decidedly 21st century) feels like it belongs to the category of crosswordese now (see also, NAE NAE). Isao AOKI is in the World Golf Hall of Fame but is probably best known to veteran crossword solvers for his ambi-nominal grid prowess (ISAO actually appears much more often than AOKI, which is not surprising—what with "K"s being less common than all the other letters involved in either name part). His name(s) still appear every once in a while, but they always feel like throwbacks. I'm editing a crossword right now and one of my only notes on the (otherwise excellent) grid was "please get rid of DAH, no one wants to endure Morse Code-speak if they don't have to" (35A: Dit's counterpart in Morse code). ATAN/ONTOE is a particularly unpleasant crossing. Fun ("fun") fact—I change my Wordle starter word every week, moving through the dictionary one five-letter word (with no repeat letters) at a time. I'm up to BARON. Anyway, that's not the "fun" fact. The "fun" fact is that I actually noticed that the dictionary skipped BALER. It's my wife's dictionary, a smallish desk dictionary her father bought her when she was a teenager in '80s New Zealand, and apparently they didn't think BALER worthy of inclusion, but my that didn't stop my absolutely crossword-addled brain from going "Hey ...what about BALER?! Isn't that a thing?" It is. Somewhat. I went ahead and played BALER because just knowing it existed and that I had skipped it would've bugged me. It's actually a pretty good Wordle starter word. But it remains kinda sorta crosswordese.
The puzzle started out at its hardest, with a high and tight fastball for the clue on the very first word (also crosswordese!): APSE (1A: A wing for a prayer). It's kinda sorta a pun on the phrase "on a wing and a prayer." Tough! Nothing else about this puzzle was tough. Unless you are young and have no idea who VANNA White is. I was stunned to discover both that "Wheel of Fortune" still existed and that VANNA was still a part of it. Hey, kids, did you know there was a pop song about her in the '80s? It was a Weird Al-esque parody of "The Letter" by the Box Tops (ask your grandparents!). I don't know how high "Vanna, Pick Me a Letter" got on the charts, or if it charted at all, but the song definitely had radio presence in my corner of California in 1987 (the "voice" of the song seems like it belongs to Cheech Marin (of Cheech & Chong fame), but it's just someone called Dr. Dave ... I think today we would call this whole endeavor "problematic" ... it was the '80s! (my only explanation for much of what happened in the '80s)):