A mash-up of letter addition and sound change today, using the "sigh" sound. Static cling becomes STATIC CYCLING, low frequency to SILO FREQUENCY, etc. Took me a while to figure out some of the base phrases, as BEQ did a nice job of employing obfuscating spelling changes like GONE to SAIGON and NIGH to SINAI.
I was going to applaud the non-repetition of any one "sigh" addition, but there's CLING to CYCLING and CLONES to CYCLONES. Ah well.
Humor is so subjective. None of the themers made me laugh out loud, but they were all decent. Well, except for SHARK SIPHON SOUP. That one felt inconsistent, as the "in" sound of "fin" didn't stay the same. (I pronounce "siphon" with an "un" sound. Have I been wrong all these years?) The resulting phrase felt awkward, too.
Eight themers are slightly above average (we usually see seven on Sundays), but there's a good amount of crossword glue that I'm not used to seeing in a BEQ puzzle. Nothing was major, but with a listing of AME, ALAI (can only clue in one way), STA, MAI, IMA, AAR, YOO, INST, GAI, etc. it felt like it didn't hit the high standard I expect from BEQ.
The title also felt wonky. I get the play on SIZE MATTERS = "sigh" sounds matter. But that singular vs. plural (matter vs. matters) makes the wordplay not work for me. Perhaps a play on SIGHS would have been better? Or SUPERSIZED?
I did like some of the bonuses though — BLARNEY, COMPOTE, WENT PRO, and especially BAR EXAMS with its brilliant clue, playing off of "practice tests." Since the theme didn't personally hit me that well, these bonuses strewn throughout the puzzle were very welcome.
1 B | 2 E | 3 S | 4 A | 5 F | 6 E | 7 J | 8 U | 9 L | 10 I | 11 A | 12 N | 13 A | 14 S | 15 C | 16 A | 17 R |
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18 A | S | H | R | A | M | 19 A | N | O | I | N | 20 T | 21 C | O | M | P | O | T | E |
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22 S | T | A | T | I | C | 23 C | Y | C | L | I | N | G | 24 O | N | E | O | N | T | A |
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25 H | E | R | 26 L | E | E | Z | A | 27 I | 28 O | S | 29 R | A | I | D |
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30 S | K | 31 Y | T | E | L | 32 S | 33 I | 34 L | 35 O | F | R | E | 36 Q | 37 U | E | N | C | Y |
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38 S | A | O | 39 I | 40 C | E | D | I | N | 41 S | L | U | G | S | |||||||
42 S | 43 L | I | M | 44 A | A | R | 45 Y | L | E | 46 M | 47 L | A | L | A | 48 S | |||||
49 H | E | P | 50 P | C | C | Y | 51 C | L | O | N | E | 52 S | 53 R | I | C | C | 54 I | |||
55 Y | A | H | 56 W | E | H | 57 P | O | I | 58 O | T | T | 59 E | R | S | 60 I | N | 61 N |
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62 A | V | O | I | R | 63 S | T | A | S | 64 H | 65 H | A | L | E | 66 C | O | L | A |
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67 W | E | N | T | P | 68 R | O | 69 S | T | A | 70 H | L | 71 B | L | 72 A | R | N | E | Y |
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73 A | S | S | T | 74 A | L | 75 O | T | 76 M | O | A | 77 N | A | 78 L | U | C | A | S |
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79 Y | O | O | 80 S | T | O | K | E | 81 R | 82 T | B | A | 83 L | A | D | O | G | A |
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84 N | U | 85 B | I | A | 86 D | R | A | 87 W | S | S | I | 88 N | A | I | 89 M | U | Y |
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90 P | A | R | T | 91 V | 92 S | N | I | P | 93 V | O | X | 94 M | M | E | S |
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95 R | E | A | I | 96 R | 97 U | N | U | 98 S | E | D | 99 G | A | I | |||||||
100 S | 101 I | 102 L | E | N | T | S | U | 103 P | P | O | R | T | 104 O | 105 B | O | I | S | 106 T | ||
107 T | R | I | X | 108 I | M | A | 109 R | 110 I | F | L | E | 111 S | E | 112 E |
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113 R | E | N | A | 114 U | 115 L | T | 116 S | 117 A | 118 I | 119 G | O | N | F | I | S | 120 H | I | N | G |
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121 E | N | E | M | I | E | S | 122 S | C | R | U | B | S | 123 S | A | M | O | S | A |
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124 W | E | S | S | E | X | 125 T | E | N | E | T | 126 S | T | O | N | E | D |
Answer summary: 13 unique to this puzzle, 1 debuted here and reused later, 2 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?