Constructor: Jeremy Newton

Relative issue: Medium

THEME: IT’S A LOT TO UNPACK (62A: “So many layers right here” … or a touch to the circled squares) — the letters “ALOT” begin out inside one sq., after which with every successive themer, these letters get “unpacked.” That is, one letter at a time is moved to its personal sq. as you descend the grid, till all of the letters are “unpacked” (into their very own squares) within the closing themer / revealer: 

Theme solutions:

• “AND THAT’S SAYING [ALOT]” (16A: “Which is an enormous deal, contemplating!”)
• CALIFORNI[A LO][T]TO (26A: Contest for hundreds of thousands on the West Coast)
• ALOE VER[A L][O][T]ION (47A: Popular pores and skin moisturizer)
• “IT’S [A] [L][O][T] TO UNPACK” (62A)

Word of the Day: King Harald (44A: Father of Norway’s King Harald = OLAV) —

Harald V (Norwegian: Harald den femte, Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈhɑ̂rːɑɫ dɛn ˈfɛ̂mtə]; born 21 February 1937) is King of Norway. He acceded to the throne on 17 January 1991.

Harald was the third baby and solely son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second within the line of succession on the time of his beginning, behind his father. In 1940, because of the German occupation throughout World War II, the royal household went into exile. Harald spent a part of his childhood in Sweden and the United States. He returned to Norway in 1945, and subsequently studied for intervals on the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Military Academy, and Balliol College, Oxford.

Following the dying of his grandfather Haakon VII in 1957, Harald turned crown prince as his father turned king. A eager sportsman, he represented Norway in crusing on the 1964, 1968, and 1972 Olympic Games, and later turned patron of World Sailing. Harald married Sonja Haraldsen in 1968, their relationship having initially been controversial because of her standing as a commoner. They have two kids, Märtha Louise and Haakon. Harald turned king following his father’s dying in 1991, with Haakon changing into his inheritor obvious. (wikipedia)

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I’ll confess that I didn’t know Norway nonetheless had a king. Not positive why fairly useful western democracies nonetheless maintain these monarchical relics round, however my nation’s received its personal issues, so … I’ll transfer on. This is a really intelligent theme. Take a standard (if unappealing) buzzphrase and reimagine it in grid type! The principal problem for me, past determining the gimmick within the first place, was determining how the “unpacking” was going to play itself out, precisely. I wished [ALOT] (one sq.) to go to [AL] and [OT] (two squares) in that second themer, however then I used to be that third themer and considering “effectively they can not divide the letters evenly there, so …” Anyway, this one-at-a-time unpacking makes probably the most sense. The execution of the theme right here could be very neat. The unpacking goes 1-2-3-4, all on a straight line (significantly, you possibly can run a straight edge by way of the “ALOT” components, no drawback), after which ends with the revealer doubling as the ultimate theme reply (themers usually stand exterior the theme and level on the theme). All the themers are stable, unforced phrases … there’s not a lot to fault right here, thematically. This one offers you ALOT with out being “ALOT” (i.e. overwhelming, arduous to take, tough). 

Trouble getting began consisted primarily in having the entrance ends of issues and never seeing the right way to get to the again ends of issues. Had MADEA- at 3D: Appeared briefly and wished solely MADEANAPPEARANCE (not possible for a lot of causes) (MADE A CAMEO). With the primary themer, I wished the reply to be “AND THAT’S SAYING [SOMETHING]!” At first I did not know the place CALIFORNIA was main both, however that ended up offering my preliminary perception into the theme. I should have gone round and gotten ORBS and TEAM and seen that the reply needed to be LOTTO. But I wasn’t fairly positive what to do with the letters in LOTTO vis-a-vis the circles so I simply “cheated” and went down to take a look at what I assumed (appropriately) could be the revealer clue. And that, I received immediately.

As you possibly can see, I received it, confirmed it with TECHNO BAND (good reply), after which sorted out the circles up high. After this, the puzzle received a lot, a lot simpler. As for the fill, it holds up high quality. Lots and plenty of brief fill, but it surely all runs very clear. Even although SNAZZ appears kinda bizarre by itself, it is likely to be my favourite factor within the grid—and it was additionally super-helpful, as “Z”s usually are. Helped me type out the solutions in that NE nook, significantly ZEALOTS (12D: Extremist group), which I wished to be one thing benign like SECT earlier than I’d gotten the theme sorted. The solely issues I really did not like had been the clues on SCAN (34A: It’s look) and WOKE (59D: Socially “with it”). It’s such an O(W)N GOAL whenever you give your reply a horrible clue simply to make a successive-clue trick occur, as is the case immediately with the clue on SCAN. The puzzle desires to do its little [It’s a good look] [It’s a bad look] factor with SCAN and SNEER, however ugh the clue solely works for a type of (SNEER). A SCAN is impartial. All SCANs are impartial. What’s this “good look” nonsense? Is the concept in case you give one thing (as in “prolonged”) look, you’ve got “SCANned” it. If something, SCAN suggests a *much less* than good look. So many occasions, when a clue simply clunks, it is as a result of the puzzlemakers tried to make some form of clue pairing occur. Such a foul thought, since even good clue pairings not often repay the way in which you need them too (solvers principally do not clear up Across clues successively, so what’s the level!?). As for the WOKE clue, yeesh, do not do that. It’s horrible and dismissive and performs proper into the furiously racist and diseased right-wing use of “WOKE” that dominates the discourse as of late. Not wanting ladies to go to jail for getting an abortion? WOKE. Thinking migrants must be handled humanely and never bodily and psychologically tortured? WOKE. Hiring a Black individual for actually something? WOKE. The cutesy citation marks, the quaint “with it” … nah. Either clue it as a part of the Black political discourse it got here out of, or simply clue it as a straight verb, no politics. Today’s clue is, at greatest, condescending—the one massive miss in a puzzle that is in any other case filled with hits.