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Constructor: Michael Dewey
Relative issue: Medium
THEME: “HAPPY TRAILS” (35A: Theme tune of a traditional western, visually recommended six instances on this puzzle’s grid) — I do not know the title of the “traditional western” with out wanting it up, however I’m gonna guess “The ROY ROGERS Show” ???? … yep, that is it. The present starred ROY ROGERS and his third spouse DALE EVANS. Today, the “HAPPY TRAILS” are meandering strings (or “trails”) of letters that spell out synonyms of “completely satisfied”:
The HAPPY TRAILS:
- ELATED
- GLAD
- JOYFUL
- JOLLY
- CHEERY
- MERRY
Word of the Day: “The ROY ROGERS Show” —
The Roy Rogers Show is an American western tv collection starring Roy Rogers. 100 episodes have been broadcast on NBC for six seasons between December 30, 1951 and June 9, 1957. The episodes have been set within the prevailing instances (Fifties) quite than the previous west. Various episodes are recognized to be within the public area at the moment, being featured in low finances cable tv channels and residential video.
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Wow, we’re actually going again at the moment. Though their present was bygone nicely earlier than I used to be born, these two have been nonetheless in public consciousness once I was a small youngster, as was their tune, so I used to be not utterly in the dead of night. I do not know how I do know the tune, or no less than the a part of the tune that goes “HAPPY TRAILS to you / Until we meet once more …” Must’ve been a superfamiliar cultural tidbit, or pre-digital meme, or what have you ever. Maybe “Looney Tunes” picked it up, that is actually how I realized about most music / tradition from earlier than my time. I feel ROY ROGERS went on to discovered a series of eating places, as did DALE EVANS … no, wait, that is Bob Evans (any relation to Dale? I do not know). Looks like ROY ROGERS and DALE EVANS have the identical variety of letters of their names, and someone determined to make a puzzle about it. The concept most likely sounded good. In truth, it kinda sounds good now. Put the celebrities’ names in symmetrical positions, then put their theme tune within the center as a revealer and make a bunch of “completely satisfied” “trails” across the grid. If I’m describing it, certain, you may purchase it. Seems intelligent. In observe, nevertheless, “trails” (or solutions that go off the traditional Across / Down instructions) do what they all the time do: put great stress on the fill and make it predictably mediocre-to-painful. I used to be cautious instantly, at O’MEARA (the crosswordesiest golf identify of all within the “Longer Than 4 Letters” class), and by the point I had ridden the bygone cowgirl DALE EVANS over to the bygone Mac app ICHAT, I used to be beginning to make faces. The bygone names stored coming: EBAN … LEEZA … Then the fussy made-up little phrases ILOSE and ILLGO. By the time I received to that SE nook, with the ACEY G-MAN and *particularly* THE ICE (!?!?!), I wished to cease. I did not not care concerning the handful of “HAPPY TRAILS” that awaited me. I wished to take the horse again to the barn and go get some espresso.
The factor that occurs if you take a solution off the Across / Down axes is that … say you’ve got received an ordinary (STD!) 8-letter Across reply. Put it in, and now you’ve got received eight Downs that run via it, and every one now has one fastened letter. That’s eight fastened letters. Now put that 8-letter on a diagonal as an alternative of an Across and what do you get: the identical eight fastened letters for the Downs that must run via it, *plus* eight extra fastened letters for the Acrosses that must run via it. Locking letters in place actually restricts your freedom to fill cleanly, and also you primarily double the stress on the grid if you run a solution on a diagonal. Plus, all these solutions with stress on them are all adjoining to 1 one other. The grid remains to be fillable, however the outcomes aren’t prone to make anybody really … completely satisfied. Today’s solutions aren’t good diagonals, however the identical concept applies—there’s hardly a solution in the whole grid that is not affected by the theme. I see a handful of Acrosses right here and there. And as for Downs, KNOSSOS and WIT are the one Downs in the entire puzzle that does not run via no less than one theme sq.. With a theme this dense, it is very laborious to make the fill sing. Considering the extent of issue, this grid might be stuffed fairly nicely. Basically we get a BUSLOAD of theme as an alternative of CAPFULS, and so the fill creaks all through. The theme is quaint, and can convey again nostalgic (probably completely satisfied) recollections for some portion of the fixing viewers, however for a lot of others it is going to be a “????” and so the fill will likely be all they actually have. And at finest it is simply OK.
I struggled solely within the center, the place I did not know which -SAT was at difficulty (28A: Princeton Review subj.), and I could not bear in mind Mrs. POTTS (28D: Mrs. ___, “Beauty and the Beast” character), and worst of all I had SPREE for SPEED (32D: Tear). Ironically, I *knew* the [Suburb of Boston], LYNN being much more grid-common than that different notorious suburb of crossword-destroying fame (which stays a ONER within the Shortz Era):
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