Constructor: Sue Fracker
Relative problem: Easy-Medium
THEME: ELBOW ROOM (64A: Adequate area to maneuver round … as discovered on this puzzle’s circled letters) — circled squares are organized in elbow shapes (90-degree angles) all through the grid
The ROOMS:
- BOILER
- GUEST
- DRESSING
- PANIC
- ROMPER
Word of the Day: GAZA (6D: Historic mideast metropolis the place Samson died) —
Gaza (; Arabic: غَزَّة Ġazzah, IPA: [ɣaz.zah]), additionally known as Gaza City, is a Palestinian metropolis within the Gaza Strip, with a inhabitants of 590,481 (in 2017), making it the most important metropolis within the State of Palestine. Inhabited since at the least the fifteenth century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by a number of totally different peoples and empires all through its historical past. (wikipedia)
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Liked this one. The revealer was a correct revealer, in that I had no concept what was happening till I hit it, and once I hit it I assumed “ah…. sure, good, okay.” So the revealer … revealed. And the essential joke is cute and constant: 5 several types of room (particularly, phrases that may precede “room”) bend like an elbow joint. One of them isn’t an actual room (“Romper Room” is completely a TV present, proper?) and one in every of them isn’t a room that 99.9% of individuals have or have ever been in (I think about) (I do know “Panic Room” as a paranoid wealthy individual’s home function, and principally solely as a fictional factor, a la the David Fincher film of the identical identify). The different three are very acquainted, peculiar kinds of rooms. Anyway, irrespective of how frequent or unusual or fictional the room sorts are, the premise holds up. It’s a pleasant Monday/Tuesday-type theme. The fill is fairly dreary general, relying very closely on repeaters, e.g. STN ANTE INCAS ARTY PSST SSTS EDYS INGE AORTA OBI AMOR ULNA … Speaking of ULNA, a constructor good friend of mine informed me {that a} common on-line crossword puzzle he writes for is so strict about its fill being clear and acquainted to peculiar, non-diehard solvers that they will not settle for sure very acquainted repeaters, and the instance he gave me was ULNA. Me: “But that is … only a common bone … within the human physique.” He simply checked out me and shrugged. “Yep.” Seems a bit strict, however I actually do like the thought of somebody policing the gunk and pushing the fill again towards frequent and acquainted terrain, which can all the time have an increasing number of various cluing prospects. There’s not a lot in the way in which of noteworthy fill right this moment exterior the longer Acrosses. Just the 2 lengthy Downs, so far as 7+-letter fill goes, they usually’re acceptable, however solely acceptable. My favourite reply was STIR CRAZY. My favourite shorter reply was most likely JIGSAW, the pleasures of which I refamiliarized myself with on my current Northern Michigan journey.
The puzzle performed very simple, besides the SW nook, which was comparatively fairly gradual, largely as a result of I fully forgot the vacuum model (“ORSON? ORLON? ORKIN? DYSON? Is the “O” flawed?”). Then I seemed on the Acrosses down there for assist however yikes, 63A: Ten pins in two bowls (SPARE) was inscrutable to me. I did not know the try to knock over pins was referred to as a “bowl.” “It took me two bowls to topple all of the pins” sounds tremendous bizarre and stilted to me. But I assume that was the purpose of the clue—to make it appear to be the “bowl” in query was a basin and never an act of ball-rolling. Then I had SASH for 56D: Window half (PANE). So it obtained messy down there. So it obtained messy down there. But that was the one hassle spot. Other errors … appears like I attempted GIZA earlier than GAZA. I ought to’ve recognized that one, because the Milton play about Samson known as “Eyeless in GAZA,” not GIZA (sorry, that’s really a *phrase* from the Milton play—play itself known as “Samson Agonistes”; Huxley wrote a novel referred to as “Eyeless in GAZA”). Ah nicely. My literature Ph.D. fails me once more. Had AMIGO earlier than AMIGA and did the standard kealoa* two-step at 60D: Win simply after getting the preliminary “R” (“ROUT or ROMP!?”) Aside from the overcommonness of the fill my solely criticism is that “ON” is used not as soon as not twice however thrice (RUN ON, UP ON, LED ON). Seems like at the least one too many “ON”s. “On” too many.
One very last thing:
- 16A: Backing, or the identify of Athena’s defend (AEGIS) — that is my beginning Wordle phrase this week (I’m working my method by way of the dictionary) (sure, actually). It’s not a foul one. This was yesterday:
Thank you for studying my “on-line musings” (44D). Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
