Constructor: Bruce Haight
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. normal Monday difficulty)
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THEME:Stupid stuff— two-word phrases where both words start with "S" ... and a lot of them
Theme answers:
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Apparently when you don't have a good idea for a theme, you take a *non* idea and then just shove as many theme answers in as possible. This is mind-hurtingly, befuddlingly, impossibly below what should be NYT standards. First, this isn't a theme. No. Two-word phrases where both words start with "S" ... at best, it's a boring list of things one scratches out on some scrap paper while waiting for a dentist's appointment. If you have to resort to SELL STOCKS, I don't know what to tell you. That's about as tight as SIP SHERRY or *infinite other SS phrases*. I keep looking at this puzzle wondering how it is possible that it came to be published. The theme is not good *and* dense. Who wants dense non-goodness? Further, because of density (I presume...?) the fill is laughably, preposterously, mid-last-century bad—except for CSIS, which is bad in a way that has never been seen before, a kind of bad that could only come out of an age rife with CSIS and (look for it in a puzzle near you soon...) NCISS. All constructors: please add LAWANDORDERS, "plural," to your word lists. You apparently have permission! I want to say "you cannot pluralize a TV show title that way," but I fear I would be stating the obvious. Unfathomably bad. Also, preventable. In that terrible little corner that already has ESAI hiding in it ... man. This is barrel-bottom stuff all around. Head-shaking. CHOO-KOLN bad. OWIE, for real.
What the hell happened with the cluing on SOUL SISTER!?! (32D: Best black female friend) That is so awkwardly and embarrassingly phrased. It's like the clue writer sort of knew it sounded like a black thing but didn't know how to indicate that and so ended up with this clue that sounds like you call your best *black* friend a SOUL SISTER, while you call your best *Asian* friend ... Lisa? I don't know. I do know that [Best black female friend] is tone deaf, inaccurate, and syntactically botched. Dear lord. Clue it non-racially or ask for some help, because what you've got here induces cringes. Trust me. I've already heard from the cringing.
Phew. I've had ENOW. Good night.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. normal Monday difficulty)
THEME:Stupid stuff— two-word phrases where both words start with "S" ... and a lot of them
Theme answers:
- SORE SPOTS
- SLOW START
- STEEP SLOPE
- SKI SUIT
- SELL STOCKS
- SOUL SISTER
- SAD SONG
- SEE STARS
- SET SAIL
- STOPS SHORT
- SITS STILL
- SEA SALT
adj. Archaic Enough. (wordnik.com)
• • •
What the hell happened with the cluing on SOUL SISTER!?! (32D: Best black female friend) That is so awkwardly and embarrassingly phrased. It's like the clue writer sort of knew it sounded like a black thing but didn't know how to indicate that and so ended up with this clue that sounds like you call your best *black* friend a SOUL SISTER, while you call your best *Asian* friend ... Lisa? I don't know. I do know that [Best black female friend] is tone deaf, inaccurate, and syntactically botched. Dear lord. Clue it non-racially or ask for some help, because what you've got here induces cringes. Trust me. I've already heard from the cringing.
Phew. I've had ENOW. Good night.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]