Newly weaned piglets / MON 11-6-23 / Amazon Handmade competitor / Journey papers for these simply passing via / House for Tolkien’s Bilbo and Frodo / House exercise choice / Longtime present host often called the “Queen of All Media”

Constructor: Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock

Relative issue: Difficult (from a Downs-only perspective) 

THEME: GLUED TO THE TV (56A: The place your eyes may keep throughout a suspenseful scene … or the one place you will discover the “eyes” on this puzzle) — “ITVI” seems in three themers:

Theme solutions:

• TRANSIT VISAS (20A: Journey papers for these simply passing via)
• HOBBIT VILLAGE (28A: House for Tolkien’s Bilbo and Frodo)
• CROSSFIT VIDEO (49A: House exercise choice)

Phrase of the Day: Tori AMOS (10A: Singer/songwriter Tori) —

Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically educated musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal vary. Having already begun composing instrumental items on piano, Amos gained a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins College on the age of 5, the youngest individual ever to have been admitted. She needed to depart on the age of 11 when her scholarship was discontinued for what Rolling Stone described as “musical insubordination”.^[9] Amos was the lead singer of the short-lived Eighties pop group Y Kant Tori Learn earlier than reaching her breakthrough as a solo artist within the early Nineties. Her songs deal with a broad vary of subjects, together with sexuality, feminism, politics, and faith.

Her charting singles embody “Crucify“, “Silent All These Years“, “God“, “Cornflake Lady“, “Caught a Lite Sneeze“, “Skilled Widow“, “Spark“, “1000 Oceans“, “Taste” and “A Sorta Fairytale“, her most commercially profitable single within the U.S. thus far. Amos has obtained 5 MTV VMA nominations and eight Grammy Award nominations, and gained an Echo Klassik award for her Evening of Hunters classical crossover album. She is listed on VH1‘s 1999 “100 Best Girls of Rock and Roll” at quantity 71. (wikipedia)

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Nicely this was disagreeable. The theme is so awfully, terribly compelled, beginning with the shoehorning of “eyes” (“I”s) into the clue, and ending with super-contrived solutions throughout. CROSSFIT VIDEO? WTF? And HOBBIT … VILLAGE? Once I search [“Hobbit Village”] I simply get film units in New Zealand. Do you imply The Shire? I solely know The Shire. After that … no concept what that is all about. Once I resolve Downs-only, I *kinda* want the Acrosses to be actual issues, and immediately, oof. I actually completed the puzzle going, “NOEM …. NOEM … NOEM … that is … effectively, that is flawed. That is not a factor. I should have an error.” However then I bought the “Congratulations!” message upon ending the puzzle appropriately, and I simply sat there for a bit, questioning what the hell a NOEM was. NOAM Chomsky is spelled with an “A” … what is that this thriller phrase? Solely then did I have a look at the clue and keep in mind with sudden sharp and terrible readability that this was the identify of that loathsome, anti-choice, forced-birth-for-pregnant-ten-year-olds, election-denying creep in control of my greatest pal’s residence state. Why would … why would you set her in your puzzle? There is no want. There’s by no means a necessity, on a Monday, for the nation’s twenty seventh greatest identified governor. ALB, terrible, NOEM, terrible, SLO, terrible, what’s even occurring right here immediately? That is among the ugliest rows I’ve Ever seen. ALB NOEM SLO. On a Monday. Simply head-shakingly weak. And EROS ETAL EENY ETSY ESPY all bunched up within the S and SW. SSE? HER and SHE? I am struggling to seek out the place the enjoyable was purported to be right here. I assume the “I”s “glued” to the “TV” had been the enjoyable. Nicely, we’re gonna should AGREE to disAGREE about what “enjoyable” means immediately. Have not seen a Monday miss this dangerous in a very long time.

So many struggles on the Downs-only entrance. POISE earlier than … SENSE? Simply SENSE!? (13D: Levelheadedness). POP TOP earlier than POP TAB, ugh (4D: Constructed-in can opener). “I’M OFF,” one way or the other actually laborious to give you (29D: “Ta-ta!”). YEW TREE earlier than ASH TREE (44D: Its wooden is utilized in making archery bows). It is maple, myrtle, oak and (classically) YEW! What is that this ash nonsense? Took some time to get AVATARS (47D: Bitmoji likenesses, e.g.) and INVEST (51D: Be an angel?). After which GLARE, yikes. I used to be on the lookout for climate, like SLEET (53D: Blinding driving hazard). Not all of this wrestle is the puzzle’s fault, however a few of it’s. POP TOP! YEW TREE! POISE! These had been higher solutions. Sigh.