Constructor: Jim Hilger
Relative difficulty: Thursdayish
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THEME: WRAPAROUND SUNGLASSES— Five SHADES are wrapped around the grid. I've colored them a lovely shade of pink in the answer grid.
Word of the Day: DONUT (2D: Coffee go-with) —
Fun theme. I appreciate that the SHADES are split in every possible way. Each one is broken at a different letter. The non-theme fill doesn't have a lot of pizzazz, but I can understand why. The theme answers touch every corner of the grid. I'm willing to put up with an EMEER here and an ALULA there in the service of a clever theme. My rating: an average Thursday.
Theme answer:
Bullets:
Relative difficulty: Thursdayish
THEME: WRAPAROUND SUNGLASSES— Five SHADES are wrapped around the grid. I've colored them a lovely shade of pink in the answer grid.
Word of the Day: DONUT (2D: Coffee go-with) —
Mmmmm...donuts.
• • •
Howdy, folks. Doug here. You were probably expecting another member of the 20 Under 30 crowd. Sorry to disappoint. Rex can't let the kids totally take over the blog, so I'm the token old guy this week. Got to make sure we don't alienate the over-40 demographic. The kids will be back tomorrow, with a guest reviewer who's younger than most of my shirts. Now for the obligatory '80s video clip.Fun theme. I appreciate that the SHADES are split in every possible way. Each one is broken at a different letter. The non-theme fill doesn't have a lot of pizzazz, but I can understand why. The theme answers touch every corner of the grid. I'm willing to put up with an EMEER here and an ALULA there in the service of a clever theme. My rating: an average Thursday.
Theme answer:
- 18A & 61A: Some beachwear ... which literally can be found five times in this puzzle (WRAPAROUND SHADES)
Bullets:
- 22A: Long-lasting living room illuminator (GASLOG) — I had the GASL part and really wanted it to be GASLAMP, even though that doesn't fit the clue or the grid. Hey, it's Thursday. Sometimes things get wild and wacky.
- 52A: Like South Korea vis-à-vis North Korea (FREER)— My first thought: "Souther?"
- 49A: James Woods's voice role in "Hercules" (HADES)— Nothing to say about this, but it's a good excuse to post a picture of everyone's favorite Warrior Princess.
- 31D: Radical '60s org. (SDS)— Never sure whether this is going to be SDS or SLA. Perhaps it's time to retire both of them, along with SDI. Speaking of three-letter abbreviations, how long before RSS becomes a grid mainstay?
- 39A: "War and Peace" heroine (NATASHA)— I like that name. Probably my favorite entry today, though a Bullwinkle clue would have been more up my alley.
- 55D: Prince Valiant's love (ALETA)— I tried reading Prince Valiant when I was a kid. Impossible. The art was cool, but there were too many words for a lazy kid to read. And it was hard to remember the details of the story, because it only came out on Sundays. Wikipedia tells me that it "has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3900 Sunday strips." Maybe I'll try to get back into it after I catch up on my Apartment 3-G backlog.
- 6D: Spent (TIRED)— That's me right now, so I'm outta here.
