Today's crossword
Jul 22, 2022
Hey look, I said that I wouldn't just blog about crosswords but I also said that Friday crosswords just tend to be good. What can I say??? Plus, today's crossword had a FART in it.
Clues that delighted:
- 16A Sail holder ... or sale holder?: YARD
- 39A Things some people do at bars: SHOTS
- 59A Comment from one who's all thumbs?: TEXT
- 2D French phrase with a grave accent: À LA
- 5D Make fast again: RETIE
- 15D Story segue: SO THEN (Just so evocative... can totally hear someone going off on a breathless long-winded retelling. Maybe it's because I watched this video yesterday night.)
- 43D Put down: WRITE
- 54D Worker in a tunnel, maybe: ANT
Answers that delighted:
- 17A IT'S DO OR DIE: "Everything comes down to this" (A nice phrase, but also for some reason I got it immediately and put it in while the puzzle was still blank. I always wonder how Rex can just plop in answers with a empty grid and now I think I'm starting to understand that it's just a lot of practice to build up some background lateral process.)
- 21A WHOOPEE CUSHION: Butt of a joke? (The obvious marquee answer. The constructor said he originally intended this crossword to run on April Fools day, so this word was the first to go into the puzzle. He also sneakily snuck in a FART there too.)
- 34A SLAIN: Like Goliath, in the Bible story
- 36A ON THE TOWN: Going from club to club, say (Totally anachronistic. Surely people young enough to club don't say ON THE TOWN any more.)
- 36A WHITNEY HOUSTON: Only singer to have seven consecutive #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100
- 48A LISTEN TO ME: "Hey, I'm talking here!"
- 55A UTTER BORES: Ones who put you to sleep
- 3D WORK OF ART: Real gem
- 4D RED HOTS: Spicy sweets
- 25D SPIN: Quick drive, informally
- 30A AHOY THERE: Ship-to-ship communication (somehow I doubt ships actually communicate this way, but I found this answer quaint)
Beyond the WHOOPEE CUSHION / FART theme, and despite the constructor explicitly intending this puzzle as themeless, I did notice some small reoccurrences. There's the WORK OF ART with the pearl EARRING (9D: Vermeer painted a girl with a pearl one). There are things to be HEFTED (26A: Weighed unscientifically), HOISTED (37D: Raised), and 43D: Put down (WRITE). There are SHOTS to be had by those who are ON THE TOWN. There are WHITNEY HOUSTON and OPRAH (47A: First Black female billionaire, informally), two entertainment giants. (8D: Brian who was a pioneer in ambient music) ENO doesn't count because he always shows up in crosswords. Your best friend, bless them, may love to tell stories that are UTTER BORES, during which they indignantly demand your attention: "LISTEN TO ME! SO THEN..." And finally, those at the ship YARD who have to RETIE sails must surely take a pause to greet each other with a congenial AHOY MATEY.
I do actually have an unprecedented type of comment, which is that I hated RAWR, especially with its clue 1A [Ooh, you're sexy!]. Maybe it's because I've spent too much time on Tumblr and in other spaces where "rawr :3" culture is everywhere, but seriously: who RAWRs at people??? How embarrassing.