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Channel: Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle
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Leakes of reality TV / WED 12-17-14 / Litotes for beauty / Hairy son of Isaac / Ebenezer's ghostly ex-partner / Ancestor of Gaelic Manx / Reporter's question collectively

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Constructor: Stu Ockman

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging 



THEME: some rhetorical devices— I don't even know, really...

Theme answers:
  • IT'LL TAKE FOREVER (17A: Hyperbole for an arduous task)
  • MAKE HASTE SLOWLY (22A: Oxymoron for cautious travel)
  • NOT UNATTRACTIVE (45A: Litotes for beauty)
  • AS THICK AS A BRICK (50A: Simile for denseness)
Word of the Day: NENE Leakes (56A: Leakes of reality TV) —
Linnethia Monique "NeNeLeakes (/ˈnn/née Johnson; born December 13, 1967) is an American actress, television personality, producer, author and fashion designer. She is best known for being on the reality television series The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which documents the lives of several women residing in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2013, she was commissioned to star in the spin-off series I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding, which focused on the preparations for her remarriage to husband Gregg Leakes.
Leakes portrayed the recurring character Roz Washington on the sitcom Glee since its third season in 2012, and has also played Rocky Rhoades on the award-winning sitcom The New Normal until its cancellation in 2013. Leakes appeared as a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice 4, where she finished in seventh place in 2011, and the eighteenth season of Dancing with the Stars. It was also announced that Leakes would be joining the cast of Cinderella on Broadway from November 25th, 2014. (wikipedia)
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The best thing about this puzzle is the new, fresh (though totally unknown to me) clue for NENE. I was like "who the what?" but that's pretty legit screen cred she's got there. Nothing I've seen, but the clues can't all be "Broad City" and "Rockford Files."

[PKW is fill I can get behind…]

The rest of this puzzle is a disaster. Ill-conceived and weakly executed. We seem to have yet another non-theme. Just a very, very loose assortment of rhetorical devices that have nothing in common with each other, content-wise. They're just rhetorical devices. Oh, and they're all 15 letters long. Which brings us to this puzzle's bigger problem—72 words??? It's hard enough to make a good themeless at 72 words. Why in the world would you torture a themed grid like this if you don't have to. I mean, if you can pull it off cleanly, more power to you, but hoo boy. No. From the DPI / ALT / WELL KNIT (!?!?!) opener to the KEW / KUE (!) / AMI / AH ME (!!) closer, this thing has "No" / "Do Over" / "Refresh!!!" written all over it. EELER?! ADELA! So creaky … ISMANIS! RITTATEE! Boo. Delete. Escape. Reboot.


HYPER in the grid when "Hyperbole" is one of your rhetorical devices? No.

I'm done. I hear tomorrow's puzzle is good. So let's hope my intel's solid.
    Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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