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Constructor: Wealthy Katz
Relative issue: Straightforward-Medium
THEME: “Double Discuss” — phrases in theme clues should be learn as homophones with a purpose to make sense for the theme solutions:
Theme solutions:
- JUNK IN THE TRUNK (21A: However wait!) (i.e. Butt weight) (!)
- STRING BIKINI (38A: To peace!) (i.e. Two-piece)
- TUCKERED OUT (55A: Holy week) (i.e. Wholly weak)
- CORONATIONS (77A: Air rights) (i.e. Inheritor rites)
- SUPER BOWL WIN (91A: Naked ft) (i.e. [Chicago] Bear feat)
- KINDERGARTENER (112A: We gained!) (i.e. Wee one)
- ROBITUSSIN (30D: Flew by) (i.e. Flu purchase)
- BEACH HOTEL (51D: See in) (i.e. Sea inn)
Phrase of the Day: KIP (112D: Forex unit in Laos) —
The kip (Lao: ກີບ, romanized: kib; code: LAK; signal: ₭ or ₭N; French: kip; formally: ເງີນກີບລາວ, lit. “forex Lao kip”) is the forex of Laos since 1955. Traditionally, one kip was divided into 100 att (ອັດ).
The time period derives from ກີບ kì:p, a Lao phrase that means “ingot.” (wikipedia)
• • •
There’s one thing perversely amusing about this theme. I imply, it is foolish, sure, however there’s one thing grandly, ambitiously foolish about it. It took me an embarrassing size of time even to grasp what the theme was. Wasn’t till my third theme pick-up ([Air rights] => CORONATIONS) that I heard what I used to be supposed to listen to: specifically, the homophones occurring within the clue. Coronations contain “heirs,” ceaselessly, in order that was what did it for me. Earlier than that, I used to be completely misplaced. I even regarded round for a revealer, to no avail. I believe the 2 first Throughout themers are literally the 2 the place the punniness is the toughest to see / hear. I do not know if that was by design or by chance. If 112A: We gained! (KINDERGARTENER) had been the primary themer I encountered, I’d’ve seen what was up straight away. However JUNK IN THE TRUNK was welllllllll hidden in [But wait!], as was TUCKERED OUT in [Holy week]. Simply inscrutable. However after the dime dropped at CORONATIONS, all turned clear and the comparatively simple puzzle bought even simpler. Do I really like this theme? That is too robust, by far. However I’ve positively seen cornier and extra irritating Sunday themes, and there was one thing about having to translate the homophones that was mildly entertaining. The remainder of the grid was fairly blah—there aren’t any lengthy solutions that are not themers, apart from a couple of scattered and unlovable 8s (e.g. SKATE RAT, HD VIDEOS) (please cull your large wordlists, individuals). And the brief stuff was typically oof-y. Three-letter international forex! Who would not love that? (A: me). A single MINUTIA! Wow, OK. We solely get half of DUA Lipa, and half of a Lhasa APSO, however we get each MSN *and* AOL! And *each* Beethoven crosswordeses! (ELISE, EROICA). And as soon as once more we get AMIDALA (LA DI DA). I’m ABLUSH with no matter it’s that makes one go ABLUSH. Disgrace? Rage? VERMOUTH? That is all to say that I loved the theme antics Far more than I loved anything about this puzzle (save VERMOUTH, I ‘m sorry VERMOUTH, you understand I really like you, VERMOUTH).
Michel de Montaigne wrote ESSAIS. In case you’re gonna spell his title absolutely, all Frenched up like that, then the reply needs to be French. Mike Mountain wrote ESSAYS, Michel (LA DI DA) de Montaigne wrote ESSAIS. Right here look:
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| [roughly what I would look like if I grew a mustache and lived in the 16th c.] |
Talking of AMIDALA (which I used to be … someplace again there), As soon as Once more I’ve to tug up brief at that mysterious second vowel, the place that obscure schwa-ish sound has no apparent spelling correlative. Gotta go to the crosses, however As soon as Once more, that particular cross is opaque, this time due to one of many weirder themers: ROBITUSSIN. “Flu purchase” might be the second loopiest homophone clue of the day (after [But wait!]). So I had AM-DALA for a somewhat very long time. Til nearly the very finish, really. I used to be fortunate sufficient to know Hermann HESSE (70A: “The Glass Bead Recreation” creator), so I used to be in a position to construct ROBITUSSIN from the underside up with out an excessive amount of bother, and that is just about the place I completed.
Hardest half for me was in all probability parsing REGIFT (26D: Commit a vacation etiquette no-no). Sincerely, I had REGI-T and assumed I had an error. Once more, as with AM-DALA, the cross on my lacking letter was no (preliminary) assist, as FRAT BRO meant nothing to me (although I educate at a college that has lots) (50A: Traditional Greek archetype?). It is not simply that the clue is a “?” clue, it is that there is nothing in it to point the slanginess. In truth, it is the alternative of slangy. So I floundered in REGIFT FRAT BRO land for a bit, however solely a bit. Total, there wasn’t a lot right here to problem the solver past the fundamental nature of the theme itself.
That is all for the puzzle at present. Just a few extra puzzle-related issues earlier than I’m going:
- First, as I wrote earlier within the week, cryptic crossword lovers ought to rejoice on the existence of coxrathvon.com, an archive of each cryptic crossword put out by the legendary establishing crew of Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon since they had been making them for The Atlantic within the late ’70s (!). I’ve solved a bunch of the earliest ones and they’re ridiculously entertaining (and, given their age, surprisingly doable).
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Second, I had the privilege final month of getting an advance copy of Anna Shechtman’s forthcoming guide, The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist Historical past of the Crossword Puzzle, and located it engrossing, informative, and (ceaselessly) humorous as hell. It is a mixture of historical past and memoir, all about girls’s (together with the creator’s personal) relationships to crossword puzzles and crossword tradition, and somewhat than being a mere cataloguing of The Unheralded Girls Of Crossword Historical past, it is an incisive exploration of the function crosswords have performed in varied girls’s (sophisticated!) skilled and private lives. Crosswords turn out to be a framework for understanding girls’s relationships each to language and to patriarchy. There’s some actually unimaginable analysis in right here. It is not out till March 2024. However you’ll be able to (and will) pre-order it now.
- Any individual dressed up as me for Halloween. I repeat: Any individual. Dressed up. As me. For Halloween. Additionally, importantly: “Nobody bought the reference.” I’ve in some way peaked and nadired concurrently. Life is lengthy, and really bizarre (thanks, Julia, for sending me the image, and inform your fiancé I am … properly, startled, but additionally honored):
- Postcards! I’ve gotten so many previously couple of weeks, together with two from France (!) and two that includes Mexican film posters from the Rancho Gordo assortment (these arrived on the identical day … from two totally different individuals in numerous elements of the nation???!):
And this is certainly one of Kirk Douglas’s “Footprint Ceremony” at Grauman’s Chinese language Theatre (1962)
I actually admire the additions to my postcard assortment, in addition to the type sentiments that many of the card writers go alongside. My handle is within the weblog sidebar. Be at liberty to ship me a postcard any time. If you need one in return, simply embody your handle. Thanks!
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