Constructor: Dan Feyer
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME:"Making Connections"— "IN" is added to beginning of familiar names & phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style. Whole theme tied together by 117A: Popular website whose name is a hint to this puzzle's theme (LINKEDIN)
Theme answers:
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I don't have any problem with an ultra-simple concept like this, but a. it should yield really entertaining results, and these were just OK, and b. it should not be so predictably repetitive. Quickly became clear that I could stick "IN-" at the beginning of every theme answer, which gave away info about the crosses (obviously) as well as info about the theme answers. The IN- addition just doesn't change things enough to give the resulting themers a truly wacky jolt most of the time. INFIELD GOAL practically sounds like a real thing. Same with INTAKE CONTROL. And INSURE ENOUGH *is* a real thing. The only one of the themes that made me go "Good one" was INFANCY PANTS. The "IN-" addition really makes that base answer swerve—you get a pronunciation change, and, well, there's not much that's "fancy" about "diapers," so you get a tonal shift as well. Good one. The rest I mostly shrugged at.
Fill-wise, this is probably above average, in that it's mostly average, with some great spots. Love this section:
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I love the clue on HYPHEN (101A: Jack-in-the-box part) for its great misdirection, and I love the word PUSHBACK (84D: Resistance), which is dynamic and vernacular and feels quite fresh. I also adore SCARJO (no HYPHEN) because it's dead-on and dead awesome (it's short for Scarlett Johansson, which you probably knew or guessed by now) (102A: "Lucy" star, in tabloids). As with yesterday's OCR and (esp.) NSFW, I love when shortenings are very much in-the-current-language. I recently posted/shared on my Facebook page a link referring to this potentially great new clue for (otherwise ridiculous) ONER, and looky here (14D: Long, unbroken take, in film lingo). What a coincidence. Cool. I also love the clue on adjacentCERTS (13D: Roll by a cashier), largely because I *hated* it (had CENTS, then got CERTS and thought it was short for "certificates" and then thought "that is bull*%&t…") but then I got it. It's CERTS the breath mint. Two mints in one. Its by a cashier in that it's in the checkout aisle of your supermarket or drugstore. Probably. The best kind of surprise is when awareness of your own ignorance slaps you in the face, and you can't help but go, "yeah … good one."
The Spielberg Oner - One Scene, One Shot from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.
One little but major issue with a certain crossing: namely, IMARI / A FLAT.
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Dan's a professional pianist, so the "A" in A FLAT is probably a no-brainer for him (48A: Most common key of Chopin's piano pieces), but for many of us less musically inclined people, that letter is a crap shoot. It's A or B or C or D or E or F or G and who knows, so you wait for the cross. But the cross is this obscure piece of crosswordese, IMARI (39D: Japanese porcelain). That "A" was a flat-out guess, as I'm certain it will be for many if not most solvers. Now, IMARI was the only thing that sounded Japanese, but … I'm not even sure what that means. IMERI and IMBRI seem at least remotely plausible. The problem is that you have exotic crosswordese and can't really *confirm* it in the cross. Boo + hiss.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- INLET LIE (23A: "You can never moor a boat here"?)
- INSURE ENOUGH (24A: Provide sufficient coverage from risk?)
- INFIDEL CASTRO (39A: Atheistic Cuban leader?)
- INBOX SEATS (46A: Desk chairs?)
- INCAN OPENER (60A: Quechuan "hello"?)
- INJURY TAMPERING (67A: Removing a Band-Aid too early?)
- INFIELD GOAL (74A: Covering first, second and third base?)
- INDUCT TAPE (91A: Add to the Video Clip Hall of Fame?)
- INTAKE CONTROL (97A: Diet?)
- INFANCY PANTS (112A: Diapers?)
Imari porcelain (伊万里焼) is the name for Japanese porcelain wares made in the town of Arita, in the former Hizen Province, northwestern Kyūshū. They were exported to Europe extensively from the port of Imari, Saga, between the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. The Japanese as well as Europeans called them Imari. In Japanese, these porcelains are also known as Arita-yaki (有田焼). Imari or Arita porcelain has been continously produced up through the present day. (wikipedia)
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Fill-wise, this is probably above average, in that it's mostly average, with some great spots. Love this section:
One little but major issue with a certain crossing: namely, IMARI / A FLAT.
