Constructor: Christina Iverson
Relative difficulty: Easy (an undersized 14x15, so times should be fast)
![]()
THEME: THREE-HOLE PUNCH (54A: Spring-loaded office device ... or a collective hint to 16-, 26-, 34- and 41-Across)— the four theme answers could be described (respectively) as "Hole,""Hole,""Hole," and "Punch":
Theme answers:
![]()
Saved by the revealer, for sure. This one was lackluster as hell until I got south of the equator and finally BARN DANCE and GO LIMP and DWEEBY gave me something to live for, and then THREE-HOLE PUNCH swooped in like "ta da!" and honestly I just like the way that answer looked, right off the bat. Had no idea what it had to do with the theme at first—ran right through it and finished up the puzzle—but I did think "now that's a proper long answer! Can't wait to see how the hell it relates to the boring answers above!" And then, once I'd finished, I went back to read the revealer clue all the way through and yes, yes, this is the stuff. This goes past corny into straight-up loopy. Most early-week themes are content to stop at corny—insipid puns and what not. But this one is like "I Have Given Your Three Holes And I Have Given You A Punch! Are You Not Pleased!? I Do Not Care, For I Am THREE-HOLE PUNCH, King Of Themes! Look On My Holes, Ye Mighty, And Despair!" Just some borderline dadaesque ridiculousness, and I am here for it. Really wish the grid had more life to it, especially up top, but themewise, THREE-HOLE PUNCH is what you call "sticking the landing." Great phrase on its own, even better revealer. Missed opportunity, though, with EMPTY SPACE: could've gone with BLANK SPACE and then tied it to TayTay / TSwizzle / Her Swiftness there at 42D: Swift to fill a concert hall? (TAYLOR):
Relative difficulty: Easy (an undersized 14x15, so times should be fast)
Theme answers:
- LOGICAL FALLACY (16A: Flaw in an argument) ("Hole" 1)
- EMPTY SPACE (26A: Void) ("Hole" 2)
- PIG STY (34A: Messy living area) ("Hole" 3)
- FRUIT DRINK (41A: Many a beverage ending in "-ade") (... and the Punch)
A phrase used as an abbreviation for "my bad"; utilized by a person claiming that the fault is his own, that he screwed up; commonly used in a casual environment such as when playing games with family and friends. (slang.net)
• • •
Puzzle started inauspiciously with a small corner choked with overfamiliar short stuff, with BOLA and ANI being decidedly subpar. I should not be feeling "oof" *twice* in so small a space. Also, I just resent BOLA (1D: Cattle-catching weapon) because I always confuse it with BOLO, a mistake I made again today, which left me wondering if Inventor David Aguilar had maybe built a fully prosthetic and functional ORE out of Legos. That would've been ... something. The middle of the grid gets particularly cruddy, with three (3!) "I"s to go with the "I" we'd already seen in the aforementioned bad answer "AN I" (4D: What "their" is spelled with, but not "there" or "they're") So ... four "I"s! "I CRY,""I'M UP," and "There but for the grace of God GO I," which sounds like a particularly depressing morning litany. I'm just gonna leave to the side the fact that the puzzle also contains the Spanish word for "I" ("YO TE AMO") and the objective form of "I" ("ON ME") and would've had a fifth "I" if an alert editor hadn't finally said "enough is enough" at AMI (37A: French friend).
There weren't too many potential pitfalls today. I use a CURL BAR at the gym all the time, but have never heard anyone refer to it by name and so it took me a weird lot of crosses to finally pick up (29A: Weightlifting item for a biceps routine). I kept reading [Void] as a verb, which meant that even after I got EMPTY, the SPACE part was not obvious and took some (small amount of) time to fill in. No idea about the Flo Rida song. He is ... never going away, because of his name parts (FLO and RIDA will haunt crossword grids for some time to come), and now I see that he has at least one "hit" that is probably never going to go away either. At least I got to "hear" the colorful lyric, "Champagne buckets still got two tears in it." It's a cute way to signal that "CRY" is in the title, in case you had any trouble with the crosses, which you shouldn't have. If nothing else, the Flo Rida song led me to this line, from Melissa Maerz's review of the Flo Rida album Wild Ones, on which the song "I CRY" appears:
"Most bizarre is "I Cry", which speeds up Brenda Russell's 1988 smooth-jazz cheesefest "Piano in the Dark" until it has all the emotional heft of an LMFAO track. You couldn't program a robot to cry to it." (EW, June 29, 2012)
"All the emotional heft of an LMFAO track," LMFAO. Nice.
Guessed the KABOB spelling correctly at first pass, which is always a nice feeling (59A: Meat skewer). Spelling on that one is always slippery: aside from the relative common "KEBAB" spelling, there was also a KEBOB back in 2020, and even a KABAB back in 1988, so, you know, probably not gonna be KEBOB or KABAB, but once you know those precedents are out there, they can haunt you. Feels like a dangerous spelling trap, every time.
My daughter (Ella) was assistant production manager on Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's dark comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln—which I'm told is fantastic (playing through May 5 at the Lortel Theater in NYC!)—and she texted us after opening night to tell us that "famous people" had been at the premiere, as well as at the opening night party. We wondered who? "Do you know AMY Sedaris?" LOL, yes, yes I do, kid (28D: Comedian Sedaris).
 |
| [photo credit: Rebecca J. Michelson, from playbill.com] |