Constructor: Anthony V. Grubb
Relative difficulty: Medium (as a Downs-only solve)
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THEME: BODYBUILDING (52A: Weightlifter's pursuit ... or a hint to both halves of the answers to the starred clues) — familiar compound words where first part of the word is a BODY part and the second part is a type of BUILDING (that one might live in ... or part of such a building ...):
Theme answers:
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Real journey with this one. Went from not liking the theme, to liking it, to liking it somewhat less after I looked at all the themers more closely. See, at first I thought the themers were linked only by their *first* parts. I could see the body parts pretty early on, but was not at all aware that the back ends of the answers had anything in common. And since I don't read the Across clues on Mondays, I never figured that part out until after the puzzle was done. I finished up thinking that there was some kind of Frankenstein's monster thing going on. Like, the puzzle was "building" a "body" (or ... a good portion of one, anyway) with the front ends of the themers. The body parts alone seemed like a pretty weak unifying factor, so I wasn't that happy. Then I read the revealer clue and saw the way the back halves of the answers also formed a thematic unit, and that made things much better. "Oh, nice," I thought. But then I sat with those back halves for a bit and realized "Nah ... they're not really 'buildings' at all." They're words for places you might live, but QUARTERS or DIGS or PAD might just as well describe an apartment as well as a free-standing structure, and ROOM, yeesh, that's not a "building" at all. It's a building part. And (in most buildings) a small part at that. So it ends up being kind of a wash for me. There's good ambition here, and the second halves of the answers are definitely doing ... something ... but BUILDING doesn't quite get at it. My only other complaint, themewise, is a small one. I didn't like KNEEPAD because in all the other theme answers, the body part is masked. That is, HEADQUARTERS has nothing to do with an actual human head, SHINDIGS do not relate to your tibia, etc. HEAD, SHIN, BACK, all have different meanings in their respective answers. But the "knee" in KNEEPAD is just a knee. No new direction for KNEE, no repurposing, no metaphors. Just ... a KNEE. So it's a sad outlier, that answer. Far less elegant than its counterparts.
Relative difficulty: Medium (as a Downs-only solve)
Theme answers:
- HEAD/QUARTERS (20A: *Base of operations)
- SHIN/DIGS (31A: *Lively get-togethers)
- KNEE/PAD (38A: *One of a pair that a skater might wear)
- BACK/ROOM (47A: *Figurative setting for a shady deal)
The Italian Job is a 1969 British comedy caper film written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres on Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, recently released from prison, who forms a gang for the job of stealing a cache of gold bullion being transported through the city of Turin, Italy, in an armoured security truck. [...] The popularity of The Italian Job led to several parodies and allusions in other films and productions, including the 2005 episode of The Simpsons titled "The Italian Bob", and a re-enactment of the Mini Cooper car-chase in the MacGyver episode "Thief of Budapest". The film itself was later given a video game adaptation in 2001, before receiving a remake in 2003. A charity event titled The Italian Job, founded in 1990 and held annually, was inspired by the film; as of 2020, it had raised nearly £3,000,000. Marking the 50th anniversary of the film in June 2019, stunt drivers in red, white and blue Coopers recreated parts of the film's car-chase around Turin at the grounds of Mini's Oxford factory. (wikipedia)
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There was one bad sticking point today in my Downs-only adventure, as neither BETA nor SKYDIVE would go down easy. BETA I don't quite get. I mean, yes, second letter of Greek alphabet, cool, got it, but I didn't know I was looking at capital and lowercase Greek letters. I thought I was looking at English and Greek letters. Thus, hard for me. Worse, though, was SKYDIVE, since the clue is, frankly, terrible. Or, I should say, literally terrible, in that it misuses "literally" (4D: Take a leap of faith, quite literally). Sorry, now that I think about it, it's not "literally" that's bugging me so much as "faith" ... and then the fact that "literally" appears to be referring to the "faith" part. There's no "faith" involved in a SKYDIVE. There's physics. You jump, you fall, your parachute opens, ta da. I guess you have "faith" that your parachute will open (?) but that's not "faith" any more than it takes "faith" to step onto a balcony or drive your car. Sure, theoretically, the balcony might collapse or the brakes might not work, but ugh, "faith," no. When you put "faith" in the clue and then say "literally," I think "OK, cool, this is related to religion somehow ... like a conversion or something? Some kind of rite where you jump ... for Jesus?" So even when I got DIVE I was like "... GODDIVE?" Also did not like the "sedan" part of the UBER clue (7D: Sedan summoned with a smartphone, say). I know you really really wanted your alliteration. But "sedan" is so specific that I figured the answer had to be a kind of car, a make or type of "sedan." I think I had E-CAR in there at some point (a term I would never have considered if crosswords hadn't taught it to me (stunned to learn that it's been in the puzzle just once, over a decade ago (?!)).
Oh, I forgot, there was one other Downs-only trouble spot. It's kinda gross so I think my brain suppressed it there for a moment. I did not know the answer for 31D: Eruption from a geyser. I was worried it was maybe SPUME (!?!?), a word I find kind of repellent. I knew that geysers "spew" ... water? ... into the air. So maybe that was causing some aural confusion. Anyway, I wrote in SPUME but then took out the "U" when KNEEPAD became obvious. But this gave me SPE- ... and once BACKROOM became undeniable, that "geyser" answer became SPE-M. And I ... uh ... well ... things got uncomfortable there for a bit (esp. since an "R" would've given me ERRS at 44A, which is about as over-the-plate as crossword answers come). So there was a lot of looking at clue, answer, clue, answer, wondering what was wrong. Then I realized that STEAM would take me from APOP (a valid answer; 96 NYTXW appearances in the Modern Era) to ATOP (another valid answer; 191 appearances in the Modern Era), and would make ER-S into ERAS; most importantly, STEAM had the advantage of making actual sense for the clue. So STEAM it was. Thanks for pulling me out of an unpleasantly sticky situation, STEAM. I appreciate it. Yay, Team STEAM.
Beyond that, I misspelled IKEBANA (as IKI-!) (43D: Japanese art of flower arranging) and didn't trust THUMBS since THUMBS are (absolutely) not [Rating units for Siskel and Ebert]. The thumb is up, or the thumb is down, but the thumb is not a unit. There are always two. His thumb. And the other guy's thumb. They are either up or they are down, but the THUMBS are not countable, and thus are not "units." Stars are ratings "units."THUMBS are not. That is all. Good day.