Constructor: Daniel Bodily and Jeff Chen

Relative issue: Medium

THEME: “To Be Continued” — Theme solutions are damaged throughout what appear to be three successive Across entries—you must learn the clues to these three entries as one clue so as to perceive the total reply. The central such reply can be purported to be a clue as to perceive the theme solutions themselves, i.e. you might want to learn BET / WEE / NTH / ELI / NES (63-67A: Read / Here / To / Understand / 23 solutions in at present’s puzzle that do not appear to match their clues):

Theme solutions:

• ANTI / QUE ST / ORES (1, 5, 10A: Shops / Peddling / Collectibles)
• MIRA / CLEO / NICE (35-37A: Historic / Hockey / Upset)
• GARB / AGED / UMPS (54-56A: Waste / Disposal / Locations)
• KALE / IDOS / COPE (76-78A: Dazzling / Pattern / Generator)
• DRAM / A LES / SONS (92-95A: Classes / For / Actors)
• MART / HASTE / WART (115-17A: Home / Decorating / Guru)

Word of the Day: ENOCH (24A: Nephew of Abel) —

Enoch […] is a biblical determine and patriarch previous to Noah’s flood and the son of Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian interval within the Hebrew Bible. […] Enoch is the topic of many Jewish and Christian traditions. He was thought of the writer of the Book of Enoch and in addition known as the scribe of judgment. In the New Testament, Enoch is referenced within the Gospel of Luke, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and within the Epistle of Jude, the final of which additionally quotes from it. In the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy, he’s commemorated as a saint. (wikipedia)

• • •

The gimmick is intelligent, however this was no enjoyable to unravel. Once you see what the hell is happening, the one attention-grabbing factor in regards to the puzzle is laid naked, and all you are left with is an absolute ocean of brief fill to slog your means by. Perhaps there’s one thing vaguely entertaining about seeing precisely how the parsing goes to go on these theme solutions—the truth that every reply half might additionally cross as a standalone reply is unquestionably a bonus function—however that is the one thriller left to untangle. Is it attention-grabbing that MARTHA STEWART breaks down into MART + HASTE + WART? Sure, kinda. But it is the constructor displaying off—I do not actually uncover something myself. I simply determine that the reply is MARTHA STEWART after which watch because the letters go in. I really feel just like the puzzle actually needs me to clap, however the truth that is that I used to be solely engaged within the puzzle up till I found the gimmick, and after that the resolve felt rote. The nature of the theme meant that there was So Much Short Fill, which made for an general boring grid. There’s not an Across reply longer than seven letters, and solely two of these (sure, the theme solutions are, taken in whole, longer than that, however even when so, this puzzle is completely awash in 3-4-5-letter stuff). There are some good longer Downs, however just one that made me sit up and take discover—the superb “I’M NOT A ROBOT” (4D: Captcha affirmation). What I dislike most about this grid is that it fully misunderstands how fixing occurs, a minimum of on-line fixing … a minimum of as I observe it, i.e. I by no means ever have a look at successive Across clues. Solving on-line, I am unable to even actually see them as a block. I largely have a look at the clue for the reply the place my cursor is, which seems above the grid as I’m fixing. If you resolve on paper, you possibly can have a look at the financial institution of Acrosses and see fairly clearly that the successive Across clues make sense as a unit, however that is not something I can see clearly as a digital solver (and plenty and plenty of solvers are digital solvers). I nonetheless obtained an “aha” out of this factor, but it surely was a one-time factor, a single jolt of puzzle adrenaline in an in any other case listless grid.

I additionally do not suppose studying BET / WEE / NTH / ELI / NES actually will get at what is going on on right here. I’m not studying “between” something. I’ve to learn *throughout* a sequence of clues, after which *throughout* some black squares, however there are not any traces between which I’m studying. Maybe I’m supposed to know that phrase solely in essentially the most metaphorical of the way, i.e. I’ve to learn non-literally. OK. But that revealer nonetheless feels lower than spot-on. The solely actual issue I had at present concerned the theme, notably earlier than I discovered what was taking place. “How does [Shops] imply ANTI” I puzzled, as did most likely most solvers within the early fixing phases. It took longer than it ought to have, most likely, for the penny to drop (once more, I blame the entire puzzle lay-out difficulty, the expectation that I might see successive Across clues or that I’d ever have a look at them so as—no, by no means). Then there was one time after I understood the theme the place I simply obtained caught unawares by a themer that did not start flush left, particularly KALE / IDOS / COPE. I puzzled over [Dazzling] = KALE means, means longer than I ought to have. I believe earlier than that second all of the themers I had began on the far left of the grid. But that was only a hiccup. The journey from ‘aha’ to the tip was largely only a chore, an train in dutifully and methodically filling in bins, with out a lot in the way in which of pleasure or shock to brighten the journey.