Constructor: Gary Cee
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. a normal Monday difficulty level)
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THEME: intelligent— theme answers begin with words that can mean "intelligent"
Theme answers:
• • •
Aimee MANN is a very successful solo artist and has been for 20+ years. Til Tuesday broke up in 1990. She was on The Tonight Show just the other day as one half of The Both (the other half is TED Leo, who was also in the NYT crossword recently). My point is that I loved "Voices Carry" but maybe standard cluing for MANN should be, I don't know, updated.
This puzzle is decent, though I find the theme kind of dull. FAST ONE's not a theme answer, is it? I really hope not. I don't think "Fast" is a synonym of "intelligent" (though "slow" is certainly a synonym for "stupid"… hmmm).
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The fill seems kind of lazy—out of a box; prefab; stale. The one exception is (ironically) the most old-fashioned-sounding word in the grid: BRETHREN. I liked that. I also like RAREBIT, not so much for the word itself, but more for the way it reminds me of Winsor McKay's comic strip "Dream of the RAREBIT Fiend," which I love. The word that gave me the most trouble was DONE. I was clearly misinterpreting the meaning of [All over]. I was thinking "Aw, hon, you got Arby's all over me," when the clue wanted "the party's all over." I also had HOP TO IT at 25D: Hurry, with "it" (HOTFOOT), which is wrong for at least one obvious reason. When I got the ATT- part of 54A: "Sic 'em!" (ATTACK), I sincerely entertained the possibility of "AT THEM," as in, I don't know, "AT THEM, Fido! Have AT THEM!" How I managed to get in under 3 with all that nonsense, I don't know.
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. a normal Monday difficulty level)
THEME: intelligent— theme answers begin with words that can mean "intelligent"
Theme answers:
- SMART PHONE
- QUICK BUCK
- SHARP TURN
- BRIGHT SIDE
Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist andbassist. In the 1980s, Mann sang in the Boston new wave band 'Til Tuesday until she left to begin a solo career in the early 1990s.[1] In 1999, Mann recorded original songs for the soundtrack to thePaul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia, for which she received Academy Award and Grammy Awardnominations. She has released seven solo albums. (wikipedia)
• • •
Aimee MANN is a very successful solo artist and has been for 20+ years. Til Tuesday broke up in 1990. She was on The Tonight Show just the other day as one half of The Both (the other half is TED Leo, who was also in the NYT crossword recently). My point is that I loved "Voices Carry" but maybe standard cluing for MANN should be, I don't know, updated.
This puzzle is decent, though I find the theme kind of dull. FAST ONE's not a theme answer, is it? I really hope not. I don't think "Fast" is a synonym of "intelligent" (though "slow" is certainly a synonym for "stupid"… hmmm).
