Adherent to the 5 Ok’s / FRI 11-11-22 / Sportscaster Adams who hosted Good Morning Soccer / Movie approach for revealing a personality’s psychological state / Chamber oriented in order that those that face it additionally face Jerusalem / Hit HBO present whose major character labored on the nonprofit We Obtained Y’all / Common paper flower selection / Blended model of facial make-up / Creamy South Asian drink
THEME: none [UPDATE: apparently there is a theme: FANTASY SERIES, WISH LIST, DREAM SEQUENCE … this explains so much, most notably why the overall fill felt comparatively tepid for a themeless puzzle, esp. a themeless by these particularly stellar constructors (when you have fixed theme answers, your grid freedom is perforce limited); it also explains the weird grid thing I definitely noticed, which is the fact that it’s 16 wide … it appeared to be 16 wide For No Good Reason, but now that I see WISH LIST is a themer … there’s your reason (grid has to be an even number of columns wide in order for a word with an even number of letters to sit dead center). Anyway, the write-up below was composed under the mistaken impression that the puzzle was themeless—I don’t think it matters much, but who knows? That’s all. Apologies for the confusion.] [UPDATE UPDATE: apparently it’s not just the first words of the themers that have something in common, but the second as well—SERIES, LIST, SEQUENCE] [Really wish for my brain’s sake they would run themes on theme days and keep Friday and Saturday sacred]
Phrase of the Day: ESMÉ Weijun Wang (20A: Author ___ Weijun Wang) —
Esmé Weijun Wang is an American author. She is the writer of The Border of Paradise (2016) and The Collected Schizophrenias (2019). She is the recipient of a Whiting Award and in 2017, Granta Journal named her to its decennial checklist of the Better of Younger American Novelists. (wikipedia)
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Noticed proper by way of 1A: Launch celebration? and so dropped NASA ARK ROCK after which OVER into the grid in fast succession, proper off the bat. Appeared like a precursor to sure success with all these lengthy Downs up there within the NW, solely … SECOND LINE was the one factor that went in clear (3D: Dance part of a 33-Throughout brass-band parade). AVO- appeared prefer it wished to be AVOCADO-something, however I could not work out how on the earth AVOCADOs heated something (I used to be picturing an AVOCADO-green … oven??) (2D: Possibility for high-temperature cooking). However the actual hold-up on this part was my absolute certainty that the reply to 1D: “You obtain it? It is yours” was “NO RETURNS!” I imply UDDER labored, SINGED labored … so I assumed perhaps there was some nickname for New Orleans *moreover* NOLA (ROLA? RULA?), and as for 37A: Introspective query … perhaps the LINE a part of SECOND LINE was fallacious and the reply was “NOW?” However that is not very “introspective,” actually. *Then* I assumed “oh god there’s some form of theme involving letter switches, and the “RN” in RETURNS turns to “NM” for some cause (at *that* level I assumed the [Introspective question] was MOI!?). However that did not actually make sense. After which I simply gave in to NOLA and erased all the things after “NO RE-” and I noticed REFUNDS instantly. What a silly gap to step into. A silly, deep, sticky gap. “NO RETURNS!” … so certain-seeming! After that, it was again go Very Simple and whoosh whoosh in all places, and by the point I hit GIDDY-UP I used to be (appropriately) actually flying:
There have been many sturdy spots right this moment, however my favourite second was most likely the clue on WISH LIST (good to have your apex clue go together with your marquee, dead-center reply). That clue is baroque … and ideal (38A: Noun phrase that is current excellent indicative). A WISH LIST … is a listing of issues one want to obtain, so it signifies … excellent … presents—only a nice repurposing of the grammatical temper (“current excellent indicative”). The puzzle’s major power wasn’t a lot scintillating solutions as total smoothness and topic selection. This puzzle goes a whole lot of locations, and it goes there so deftly and unclunkily. After I take into consideration what *polished* grids appear to be, that is one thing like what I take into consideration. It isn’t that there are *no* repeaters or in any other case acquainted crosswordy solutions (NOLA LEIA ESME ALOE ECO OLAY … you see these on a regular basis, in fact). It is {that a}. there are comparatively few, b. they’re propping up beautiful longer solutions, that are the issues that basically seize your consideration, and c. whilst repeaters go, they’re actual, strong, acquainted issues. AUK is certainly a Crossword Fowl, but it surely’s additionally only a fowl, an actual factor, so it would not play as tiresome, and it particularly would not play as tiresome when it is not supplied up in a glut of different superfamiliar quick stuff. Select your repeaters properly, unfold them out when you can, and for god’s sake allow them to be within the service of longer, extra spectacular stuff. At the moment’s puzzle does all this completely.
The problem returned, a little bit, on the finish of the clear up, particularly within the SE nook, which, just like the NW nook, gave me some hassle, although this time the difficulty got here not from my making a extremely intractable mistake, however from plain outdated toughness. The primary difficulty was … nicely, it was additionally a mistake: MEAL for MENU at 30A: Chef’s creation. That fallacious reply gummed up the works, since these two fallacious letters would’ve supplied the primary letters in two of the lengthy Downs in that part. Essential letters … fallacious letters. Sigh. After that, there was a crush of sports activities trivia that I struggled with to various levels. Needed to stare on the phrase “sports activities theater” some time to determine easy methods to get from there to something that may match at clean clean E. The staring labored, fortunately, but it surely undoubtedly brought about a fixing lull. Then there was TIM Anderson, whom I do know very nicely, however someway, out of context, and with such a plain final identify, I blanked on him. Then there was KAY Adams, whom I did not know in any respect as a result of soccer shmootball (57A: Sportscaster Adams who hosted “Good Morning Soccer”). Thought she is likely to be a FAY. Anyway, between the wrong MEAL and the correct noun sports activities solutions, issues had been slower getting in right here. Different points on this part: an owl says what now? (“WHOO!”). Is that … canonical? I had the “W” after which no concept. That looks as if a stretch, and in addition like a clue that is *designed* to make you write in a fallacious reply, specifically HOOT. Not thrilled about that. I like SMOKEY EYE as a solution but it surely nonetheless took me some time to select up. Additionally, the one affiliation I’ve with the idea comes from a really silly controversy involving an harmless joke a couple of putrid right-wing politician … so I prefer it as a solution despite the fact that it forces me to recollect mentioned putrid human being (by no means enjoyable).
Just some different missteps. Empty NETTER earlier than Empty-NESTER (66A: Empty ___). PRESS OP (?) earlier than PRESSER (11D: Occasion for journalists, informally). Total, this was a enjoyable, flowing Friday, straightforward however with sufficient spice and kick to make issues fascinating. See you tomorrow.