Constructor: Julian Lim
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: Out in the middle of some phrase … — phrases that follow ___ OUT ___ pattern are clued for maximum wackification.
Theme answers:
Come on, now—MAKE OUT SESSIONS [Descry Senator Jeff?]! It's a perfect 15! Cosmo says, "the best sex often starts with a make out session," in case you were wondering whether "make out session" is a real thing. It is real. It's both real and sexy. And it will not be denied.
swing out sister - break outby papafonk
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This theme definitely needed *something* to heat it up, because it is tepid in the extreme. I sort of like the ultra violence implied in the clue for TAKE OUT ORDER, but otherwise, yawn. [Eye an election official?]??? These types of theme clues need zing. They demand it. If you can't make clever and imaginative and daring and funny clues for your "let's make something wacky" puzzle, then we all suffer. And the fill here does nothing to rescue the workmanlike theme. It's not terrible, but it's not good. Winced at ALII / LIEF and especially the super-ugly, no-one-writes-it-that-way KAYOED. ALOAD / ODED, also wobbly. My favorite part of the puzzle was the crossing of paddled REARS with sexual URGE. *That* is interesting. Ditto the HOT PINK Victoria's Secret item, which (symmetrically) EXCITES. The rest of the puzzle … BAH and YAK.
Are the letters CPR on first-aid kits, is that it? (39A: Letters on some kits)
Hey, if you FLUNKED your course, you still "made the grade" (43D: Didn't make the grade?). It's just that that grade was "F."ATTA BOY!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Out in the middle of some phrase … — phrases that follow ___ OUT ___ pattern are clued for maximum wackification.
Theme answers:
- CHECKOUT COUNTER (17A: Eye an election official?)
- TAKE-OUT ORDER (26A: Decimate a monastery's occupants?)
- LOOKOUT POINT (48A: Warning shouted to a lacrosse defenseman?)
- WORKOUT ROUTINES (61A: Develop one's comedy acts?)
adverbarchaic
• • •
Come on, now—MAKE OUT SESSIONS [Descry Senator Jeff?]! It's a perfect 15! Cosmo says, "the best sex often starts with a make out session," in case you were wondering whether "make out session" is a real thing. It is real. It's both real and sexy. And it will not be denied.
swing out sister - break outby papafonk
Are the letters CPR on first-aid kits, is that it? (39A: Letters on some kits)
Hey, if you FLUNKED your course, you still "made the grade" (43D: Didn't make the grade?). It's just that that grade was "F."ATTA BOY!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld