Constructor: Dan Schoenholz
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
![]()
THEME: car parts— theme answers end in words that are parts of a car (though they appear in the theme answers with non-car meanings)
Word of the Day: Peter YARROW (45D: Peter of Peter, Paul and Mary) —
![]()
Feels like a puzzle from 20 years ago. I'd be stunned if this theme (or something very close) hadn't been done many, many times before (looks like Matt Jones had one a while back that included "BOYZ 'N THE HOOD" as well as DALE BUMPERS and BAR AND GRILL). It's highly adequate, but there's not a lot here to enjoy. HYPHENED (8D: Like Olivia Newton-John's last name) was painful to write in, as ... you say "hyphenated," right? And by "you," I mean "one," as in "everyone." I balked at FORTY-YARD DASH, but then remembered that sportscasters talk about guys running "the 40" in however many seconds, so it's definitely a standard benchmark. I flew through this baby pretty quickly, with only a few little missteps. Wrote in FIFTY instead of FORTY. Didn't know NOVA was a kind of lox. Couldn't come up with EDIFIED (43D: Spiritually uplifted) until I had most of the crosses (I don't think of the word as spiritual). Could only sort of partially remember Pete YARROW's name—the race car driver Cale Yarborough was running interference. Had TIFF for HUFF (36D: In a ___ (indignant)). Otherwise, not much to see or comment on here. My favorite part was seeing singer Terence TRENT D'Arby's name; his period of fame was brief but memorable for me, as it coincided with my first year in college.
Theme answers:
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: car parts— theme answers end in words that are parts of a car (though they appear in the theme answers with non-car meanings)
Word of the Day: Peter YARROW (45D: Peter of Peter, Paul and Mary) —
Peter Yarrow (born May 31, 1938) is an American singer who found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote (withLeonard Lipton) one of the group's most famous songs, "Puff, the Magic Dragon". He is also a political activist and has lent his support to causes that range from opposition to the Vietnam War to the creation of Operation Respect. (wikipedia)
• • •
Feels like a puzzle from 20 years ago. I'd be stunned if this theme (or something very close) hadn't been done many, many times before (looks like Matt Jones had one a while back that included "BOYZ 'N THE HOOD" as well as DALE BUMPERS and BAR AND GRILL). It's highly adequate, but there's not a lot here to enjoy. HYPHENED (8D: Like Olivia Newton-John's last name) was painful to write in, as ... you say "hyphenated," right? And by "you," I mean "one," as in "everyone." I balked at FORTY-YARD DASH, but then remembered that sportscasters talk about guys running "the 40" in however many seconds, so it's definitely a standard benchmark. I flew through this baby pretty quickly, with only a few little missteps. Wrote in FIFTY instead of FORTY. Didn't know NOVA was a kind of lox. Couldn't come up with EDIFIED (43D: Spiritually uplifted) until I had most of the crosses (I don't think of the word as spiritual). Could only sort of partially remember Pete YARROW's name—the race car driver Cale Yarborough was running interference. Had TIFF for HUFF (36D: In a ___ (indignant)). Otherwise, not much to see or comment on here. My favorite part was seeing singer Terence TRENT D'Arby's name; his period of fame was brief but memorable for me, as it coincided with my first year in college.Theme answers:
- 20A: 1991 film that earned John Singleton a Best Director nomination ("BOYZ 'N THE HOOD")
- 29A: What a blind man mistakes for a snake, in a fable (ELEPHANT TRUNK)
- 44A: Test at a football tryout (FORTY-YARD DASH)
- 54A: Singer of the 1975 #1 hit "Before the Last Teardrop Falls" (FREDDY FENDER)