Constructor: Ella Dershowitz
Relative difficulty: Medium (29mins while very distracted)
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THEME: LOVE LETTERS — DESCRIPTION
Word of the Day: CJ CREGG (Allison Janney's role on "The West Wing") —
Hey friends! Happy Valentine's Day <3 and Happy Malaika MWednesday! I hope you have been thinking about all the types of love you experience and how they make your lives better <3 There are so many things that I love, like reading every single one of the comments that you all post, or making very specific emojis to send to my boyfriend to make him smile, and it is nice to have a day to reflect on all of them. Please let me know something that you love in the comments.
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I solved this puzzle at my favorite bar and when I opened it, the theme seemed "obvious"-- the grid very clearly spells out the word LOVE. However, the theme came together more specifically with the revealer across the center-- "Valentine's Day exchanges … or what this puzzle's shaded areas are?"RESPECT seems like the odd one out here though it's hard to describe why. Maybe because it is the one I associate least with romantic love?
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Bullets:
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Relative difficulty: Medium (29mins while very distracted)
THEME: LOVE LETTERS — DESCRIPTION
Theme answers:
- ROMANCE in the shape of an L
- FONDNESS in the shape of an O
- PASSION in the shape of a V
- RESPECT in the shape of an E
Word of the Day: CJ CREGG (Allison Janney's role on "The West Wing") —
One of the great mysteries of Hollywood – nay, of life – is that Aaron Sorkin is a fairly condescending and certainly problematic writer of women. And yet so goes C.J. She's not immune to Sorkin's missteps. Her entire backstory as a Hollywood publicist who doesn't seem to know much about Hollywood or publicity never made one lick of sense. And in the early seasons, she was the White House staffer most prone to making mistakes on the job. But her capability and combination of strength and simple compassion represented the fantasy of the Bartlet White House better than anyone. And have you seen her pull off "The Jackal"?– Joe Reid, The Atlantic (2014)
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I was surprised they didn't try to squeeze more Love Content into the clues. For example, TEENS could have been clued as the more romantic [Promposal participants, typically] rather than the more generic [High schoolers, typically].
Other fill comments-- STE should be banned from puzzles along with "tec," in my opinion. YES OR NO is a toughie, in that it is a very real phrase, but any clue is going to sound a little stilted. Meanwhile, TV ACTOR is absolutely not a phrase-- people simply say "actor."CJ CREGG was a huge blast from the past-- I had a cringey if not embarrassing obsession with "The West Wing" when I was in seventh grade and once a boy actually compared me to C.J. in order to flirt with me and it did actually work.
The spot I struggled most was the top-left, where proper nouns and trivia crossed: THE VA / VANCE / HORNETS / LEN. While filling it in, I tried Lance or Mance or Leo or Les or Lee, and it is soooo hard to parse "The VA." (Actually, I didn't realize what it was supposed to be until I wrote up this section.)
Bullets:
- [___ Cariou, Broadway's original Sweeney Todd] for LEN — Curious how many people knew this before crosses-- I am fairly Broadway-savvy but haven't heard of him. (I first thought of Ramin Karimloo, since I didn't know his last name.)
- [Sister channel of QVC] for HSN — This could have quite literally been any three letters in the alphabet. I haven't even heard of QVC!!
- [Popular Mexican beer] for CORONA — There are so many six-letter Mexican beers!! Well, Tecate and Modelo, at least.
- [___ training (requirement for H.S. graduation in most states)] for CPR — Really?? "Most"???? To me, "most" means more than half. Don't have time to research this now but you'd better believe I'll be checking in the morning. (The state that I grew up in absolutely did not have this requirement in the mid 2010s.)
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