Happy February 2nd, everybody! And it's an Annabel day again!
Happy February 2nd, everybody! And it's an Annabel day again!
HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!
Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler
Relative difficulty: Medium-difficult (for a Monday)
THEME: THE BIG APPLE [34A: Empire State Building locale ... or a hint to three letters in 16-, 19-, 52- and 57-Across]— Answers for 16A, 19A,52A and 57A contained "NYC."
Theme answers:
- 16A: "Some Like it Hot" actor [TONYCURTIS]
- 19A: "I must do this" [DESTINYCALLS]
- 52A: Indictment for a serious offense [FELONYCHARGE]
- 57A: Executive's free "wheels" [COMPANYCAR]
Ernő Rubik (Hungarian: [ˈrubik ˈɛrnøː]; born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, and Rubik's Snake.While Rubik became famous for Rubik's Cube and his other puzzles, much of his recent work involves the promotion of science in education. Rubik is involved with several organizations such as Beyond Rubik's Cube, the Rubik Learning Initiative and the Judit Polgar Foundation all of whose aim is to engage students in science, mathematics, and problem solving at a young age.
• • •
This puzzle was surprisingly difficult to me...it felt like there were more name clues than usual. That intersection of TONYCURTIS [16A: "Some Like It Hot" actor] andBOYD [4D: William who played Hopalong Cassidy in old westerns] ended up really frustrating me! However, it's definitely one of my favorite Mondays so far. When I finally figured that 47A: Aioli, mostly wasn't actually talking about food at all but about VOWELS, I actually laughed out loud. Other great clues include 56A: "This skull has ____ in the earth" -Hamlet [LAIN] and 38D: Dimpled breakfast items [WAFFLES]. Anyway, would anyone care for a JUMBO ONION?The theme's not much to speak of. . Or maybe I'm just bitter because I had NEWYORKCITY in 34A for around fifteen minutes. :P
Bullets:
- 23A: TV show that popularized the phrase, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" [WHATSMYLINE]— Rehearsals for the school play have just started up. And so, I've been hearing this a lot. Fortunately, I, a star, have all my lines memorized!...all, uh, five of them, so far...
- 50D: Mob bosses [CAPOS] — You have to love words that can go with many, many clues. The clue could have been the device that changes the pitch of strings on a guitar; "chief" in Italian or "of a chicken" in Latin; a Jim Jones album. A pretty versatile word!
- 14A: Prime draft classification [ONEA]— I would have recognized this a lot better if the clue had been Hot Cross Buns-related [____ penny, two a penny?], because my sister is learning to play the piano...
- (I'm obviously the kid in the striped shirt)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD!!!!!! He is the best dad in the entire universe and I love him a lot.
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired high school student.