Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
---|---|---|---|
17 | 10/20/2010 | 10/21/2018 | 4 |
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Scrabble | Rebus | Circle | Pangram |
---|---|---|---|
1.64 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
Given that my two favorite themers (BABY STEPS and JAZZ HANDS) were both nine letters, I imposed a cap of eight letters on the rest of the fill. That led to a lot more mid-length fill than usual, which was a nice challenge. I like the array of 5's and 6's in the center, which was the first section I filled (welcome to the Times crossword, CARDI B). I know the Z of the BRATZ/VADUZ crossing might be tough for some, but hopefully, the clue on 67A led you there! A fun feature of this puzzle—something I only noticed ex-post-facto — is the intersection of five words in the bottom-center that all end in an "oh" sound. Hope you got a few laughs out of this theme!
Finn is one of the more avant-garde constructors out there. I especially like how he adds in color with mid-length or even short fill. Today, it was BRATZ, SNARKY, BIONICS, PANEM (fictional place in "The Hunger Games") – BADASS, indeed!
I'd feel sympathetic though, to those who got the PANEM / EGAN crossing wrong. As much as I admire Jennifer Egan as an author – she's earned her crossworthiness – I think she's still in a place where her crossings must be fair and gettable.
Just as Finn mentioned, I was also torn on VADUZ / CAR DIB, both new words to me. Er, CARDI B. Perhaps she's wildly famous, to the point where even this badass – er, bad ass – shouldn't even be bringing this up. World capitals are fair game, after all. (I sadly admit that I wasn't even sure that Liechtenstein was a country, much less had a capital city.)
(NOLITA? It derives from "North of Little Italy"? Huh. Probably much more familiar to New Yorkers.)
The theme felt too familiar at first, but it's kind of novel. Each one creates a kooky phrase by adding the word DOWN, with each base phrase appearing as is in the grid. Aye, THERE'S THE RUB (down). I like how Finn implied that final (down) by orienting all his themers in the vertical direction.
It gave Jim and me a dilemma. Do we fix up the answers so that they appear in our database as THERE'S THE RUBDOWN? And then mark them as bogus, never to be reused? We can't mark them bogus as is. But if we leave them as is, the clues won't match their entries. I enjoy it when constructors make us work!
PUPPET SHOW (down) was my favorite – so apt for Punch and Judy. It'd have been more fun with a clue about Bert and Ernie in an MMA cage match. I'd bet it all on Bert.
Most all the themers were pretty good, although I wish more of them had given me the same laugh as PUPPET SHOW (down). It's hard to make magic with just adding the word (down).
1 F | 2 I | 3 B | 4 B | 5 E | 6 R | 7 L | 8 I | 9 B | 10 I | 11 D | 12 O | 13 S | 14 T | 15 R | 16 A | 17 P |
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18 A | M | A | R | N | A | 19 U | N | I | T | A | R | 20 D | 21 S | 22 C | H | A | F | E |
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23 K | I | B | I | T | Z | 24 C | R | O | S | S | B | O | W | 25 R | E | T | R | O |
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26 E | N | Y | A | 27 O | 28 A | K | E | N | 29 H | I | D | E | 30 A | R | S | O | N |
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31 S | N | 32 A | R | K | Y | 33 I | 34 C | E | T | 35 D | 36 O | M | E | |||||||
37 O | 38 T | T | E | R | 39 A | B | 40 A | C | U | S | 41 M | E | N | S | S | 42 H | 43 O | 44 P |
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45 W | R | E | N | C | 46 H | 47 R | E | S | T | 48 V | I | N | E | 49 T | O | R | Y |
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50 L | I | P | O | 51 U | 52 B | E | R | 53 E | 54 G | A | D | 55 A | 56 S | H | L | A | R |
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57 S | O | S | 58 A | L | L | A | 59 C | A | R | D | I | 60 B | 61 L | E | D | T | O |
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62 E | B | O | O | K | 63 U | S | A | U | S | A | 64 A | R | I | E | S |
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65 N | 66 O | L | I | T | A | 67 B | R | A | T | Z | 68 D | 69 O | N | U | T | S | ||||
70 B | A | L | E | D | 71 T | 72 H | E | F | B | I | 73 P | A | R | T | B | |||||
74 L | E | D | G | E | 75 S | A | V | E | U | S | 76 U | S | E | S | 77 J | 78 I | 79 F |
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80 I | N | V | A | D | 81 E | 82 N | E | W | T | 83 A | P | S | O | 84 T | A | T | A |
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85 G | A | I | N | 86 A | 87 B | E | L | 88 T | 89 R | I | P | 90 S | 91 E | I | Z | E | D |
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92 H | E | C | T | 93 A | R | E | S | 94 T | O | I | L | E | 95 T | 96 S | E | Z | M | E |
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97 L | U | S | H | 98 P | U | N | T | 99 T | W | 100 I | T | C | H | |||||||
101 A | 102 R | 103 B | Y | S | 104 E | 105 G | A | N | 106 E | 107 P | S | O | N | 108 L | A | 109 M | 110 P |
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111 L | E | A | P | S | 112 S | A | N | D | 113 R | A | O | H | 114 E | 115 M | I | N | O | R |
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116 E | N | N | U | I | 117 T | H | E | R | E | I | G | O | 118 P | O | P | D | U | O |
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119 S | T | A | T | E | 120 M | A | D | D | O | W | 121 T | O | S | S | E | D |
Answer summary: 6 unique to this puzzle, 2 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?