Constructor: Tim D'Alfonso
Relative difficulty: probably tougher than the usual Monday (solved Downs-only)
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THEME: THROW SHADE (63A: Make a subtle insult, or a hint to four highlighted groups of letters in this puzzle) — shaded squares (inside theme answers) contain words that mean "throw":
Theme answers:
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Oh, cool, the theme is good. Conceptually, yes, this works. One thing that would've elevated it—and that probably would've been required of such a theme in days of yore—those "shade" words should all break across two words, or at least touch every word in the theme answer. You aren't really probably burying / hiding the shaded words in the theme answers here. CAST is in CASTLE, CHUCK is in CHUCKLE, HEAVE is in HEAVEN, LOB is in LOBSTER, which means SAND, HEAD, HOG, and ROLL are basically unoccupied, unthematically involved, just taking up space. Ideally, the buried word touches all the involved words (and word parts) in the themer. Like, "THE AVENGERS" would be a good way to hide HEAVE—because "HEAVE" is involved in both parts of the phrase: "THE" and "AVENGERS." Admittedly, you set a much higher bar when you insist on this standard, and something like CHUCK, well, that's virtually impossible to break across two words. And it's Monday, and who cares, but the gold standard is "touch 'em all," i.e. the hidden word should touch all words in its base phrase. Here's a "hidden word" grid that obeys the rules:
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And here, you can see all the circled words are broken across the words in their base phrases:
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But as I say, this is a high standard, and not all themes are up to it, and on a Monday, in a simple puzzle, maybe it doesn't matter so much. Anyway, this puzzle's concept is very good and the execution is, if not ideal, not objectionable either. The theme answers are plenty colorful, so I'm reasonably pleased.
As for the Downs-only solve, those NW and SE corners were a bit daunting. I whiffed at my first pass at the NW and ended up finishing the puzzle up there. The SE went down a little more easily, though NULL SET gave me a minor fit (49D: { }, in math). All I saw was BRACKETS, and that wouldn't fit. Plus the answer had to start with "Y" or "N" (because ESP-), so pfft. But the ROLL part of LOBSTER ROLL went in and then TOWEL seemed undeniable, which gave me N-LL--- and that's when I saw NULL SET. The one other answer that gave me fits, in a slightly different way, was GONE, which I had at least two other things before I found my way to GONE (32D: Departed). Pretty sure I started with LEFT. Then DEAD. Then I had DONE, which seemed ... off. That's when I realized LODGER might in fact be LOGGER. Finally decided that yes, GONE was better than DONE and that was that. Good decision. Had EN ROUTE for ON THE GO (11D: Currently traveling), but that's pretty much it for mishaps—all minor.
Relative difficulty: probably tougher than the usual Monday (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- SANDCASTLE (18A: Beach project that rarely survives high tide)
- CHUCKLEHEAD (23A: Numbskull)
- HOG HEAVEN (39A: State of total happiness)
- LOBSTER ROLL (56A: Sandwich speciality of Maine)
Polenta (/pəˈlɛntə, poʊˈ-/, Italian: [poˈlɛnta]) is an Italian dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. It may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried, or grilled.The variety of cereal used is usually yellow maize, but often buckwheat, white maize, or mixtures thereof may be used. Coarse grinds make a firm, coarse polenta; finer grinds make a soft, creamy polenta. Polenta is a staple of both northern and, to a lesser extent, central Italian, Swiss Italian, southern French, Slovenian, Romanian and, due to Italian migrants, Brazilian and Argentinian cuisine. It is often mistaken for the Slovene-Croatian food named žganci. Its consumption was traditionally associated with lower classes, as in times past cornmeal mush was an essential food in their everyday nutrition. (wikipedia)
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[JELLO BIAFRA]
The rest of the fill gets pretty iffy in places (most notably the middle, which is a disaster: ETCH-A should be completely off limits, what a horrible partial, and NCOS and OER aren't helping much either), but the NW and SE corners are big and add some interest, and ON THE GO is kinda fun, so yeah, on the whole, this is a decent Monday, I'd say.
[54A: Rocker Reed]
OK, that'll do for today. See you next time.