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Constructor: Benjamin Fink
Relative problem: Simple
THEME: “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!” (57A: “Is not that mind-blowing?!” … or a query on may ask concerning the solutions to the italicized clues) — stuff you could be disinclined to imagine:
Theme solutions:
- CAMPAIGN PROMISE (17A: “I’ll by no means increase your taxes!”)
- CUSTOMER REVIEW (28A: “This product modified my life! 5 stars!”)
- HOMEWORK EXCUSE (44A: “The canine ate it!”)
Phrase of the Day: Peter LORRE (41A: Actor Peter of “M” and “The Man Who Knew Too A lot”) —
Peter Lorre (German: [ˈpeːtɐ ˈlɔʁə]; born László Löwenstein, Hungarian: [ˈlaːsloː ˈløːvɛ(n)ʃtɒjn]; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in america. He started his stage profession in Vienna, within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, earlier than shifting to Germany the place he labored first on the stage, then in movie in Berlin within the late Nineteen Twenties and early Nineteen Thirties. Lorre induced a world sensation within the Weimar Republic-era movie M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, by which he portrayed a serial killer who preys on little ladies.
Of Jewish descent, Lorre left Germany after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Occasion got here to energy. His second English-language movie, following the multiple-language model of M (1931), was Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Man Who Knew Too A lot (1934), made in the UK. Ultimately settling in Hollywood, he later turned a featured participant in lots of Hollywood crime and thriller movies. In his preliminary American movies, Mad Love and Crime and Punishment (each 1935), he continued to play murderers, however he was then solid enjoying Mr. Moto, the Japanese detective, in a B-picture sequence.
From 1941 to 1946, he primarily labored for Warner Bros. His first movie at Warner was The Maltese Falcon (1941), the primary of many movies by which he appeared alongside actors Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet. This was adopted by Casablanca (1942), the second of the 9 movies by which Lorre and Greenstreet appeared collectively. (wikipedia)
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Someway the wordplay would not actually appear to land. These are three arbitrary issues one won’t imagine, after which there’s this hypothetical query … however is it a query “one may ask?” Who’s one asking this query? Looks like, at a minimal, the revealer clue ought to have a “?” on the top of it, because the precise phrase, “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?,” is being utilized to contexts the place one would by no means truly ask this query. “Query one may ask …” Who? Oneself? And is that this a honest query, or extra a press release posing as a query? I would marvel *whether or not* I can imagine marketing campaign guarantees or buyer evaluations or homework excuses; I would ask myself if *I* imagine it. However there’s not even a very banal manner I can think about somebody truly asking this query utilizing these phrases on this order. If I can not think about the context, or the questioner’s interlocutor, then the entire premise simply sort of falls aside, or no less than buckles. Like, I get it, these usually are not plausible issues, nice. The revealer phrasing—or the clue phrasing—simply would not hit the mark. Additionally, it is all just a bit too simple and boring. The revealer I *needed*, once I was fixing Downs-only, was “DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT!”—an idiom that Merriam-Webster says is “used to emphasise that one shouldn’t imagine a press release or sentiment.” It simply made sense. It additionally, sadly, did not match. Neither did “DO YOU BELIEVE IT?!” I needed to go decide up the “C” and “A” (from SCAR and LASH) earlier than I may see the “CAN.” It simply would not snap the way in which it appears to imagine it snaps.
A few of this fill is iffy too. WON ONE? Particular grimace on that … one (45D: Claimed a victory, homophonically). The clue itself was a thriller. Nothing in it concerning the two phrases within the reply being homophones *of each other*, so I needed to piece that bit collectively. After which the reply itself was WON ONE, which is fairly weak, as standalone solutions go. EXOTICA was possibly probably the most attention-grabbing factor within the grid (42D: Uncommon issues from distant), though I suppose HAIRPIECES is not unhealthy (11D: Toupees, e.g.) (you do not actually hear about these anymore—the very thought appears sorta bygone, however I’ve seen sufficient hairpiece gags in TV and cartoons of the twentieth century that the reply nonetheless held some vaguely humorous attraction for me) (I began shedding my hair in my mid-twenties, and by my late ’30s I used to be like “this sucks” and simply shaved all of it off—by that time, shaved heads had been a completely regular, boring factor, hurrah) (if a balding particular person has hair these days, there is a good probability they REGREW it utilizing some drug or topical chemical or god is aware of what that I’ve no real interest in making an attempt—an excessive amount of trouble, to not point out the EXPENSE).
There have been only some Downs-only snags at present. Nicely, one massive one, proper in the midst of the grid. Any time you ask me what key a symphony (or something) is in, I simply shrug, shake my head, and write in “clean M clean clean OR” after which hope for the very best (24D: Key of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7). Subsequent to the symphony had been REMARKS and REGREW, neither of which instantly sprang to thoughts given their clues (25D: Feedback / 30D: Sprouted anew). So I truly ended up ending on this part, working up from beneath after I would closed every thing else out. I used to be a bit not sure of TECH (33D: Many an engineer’s subject, informally), however because it was the very first thing I considered, and it nonetheless labored after all of the adjoining solutions had been stuffed in, I simply went with it. I clearly could not do something with -OM (10D: See 22-Throughout) till close to the very finish, since Downs-only means no taking a look at 22-Throughout. However ROM => COM, no drawback, ultimately (22A: With 10-Down, humorous movie about love). The one subject that was barely ambiguous, on the very very finish, was nonetheless what key that rattling symphony was in. NOT-R appeared prefer it might be NOTER (one who notes? is E MAJOR a key?) however in the end the vaping declare “NO TAR” appeared the extra believable candidate there (23A: Absence famous in vape pen adverts), so I went with that, and was rewarded with the “Congratulations, you managed to complete a Monday puzzle, genius” message.
[3D: 1996’s “Dancing Baby” might have been the first one to go viral => MEME]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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