Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld
Relative issue: Simple to Simple-Medium
THEME: H2O (69A: Fireplace fighter, familiarly … or a phonetic trace to this puzzle’s theme) — easy letter swap: “H” goes “to” “O,” wackiness follows:
Theme solutions:
- AFTER SOAVE (18A: In search of a dry Italian wine?) (from “aftershave”)
- MARCO MADNESS (29A: Fervor over Senator Rubio?) (… “March Insanity”)
- FIRESIDE COAT (46A: Blazer worn subsequent to a blaze?) (… “Hearth Chat“)
- POD PROGRAM (59A: TV present a couple of group of whales?) (… “Ph.D. program”)
Phrase of the Day: Roger KAHN (66A: Roger who wrote “A Season within the Solar”) —
Roger Kahn (October 31, 1927 – February 6, 2020) was an American creator, finest recognized for his 1972 baseball e-book The Boys of Summer season. (wikipedia) // [On A Season in the Sun (1977)] In 1976 Roger Kahn spent a complete baseball season, from spring coaching by the World Sequence, with gamers of each stripe and competence. The result’s this e-book, during which Kahn experiences on a small faculty staff’s successes and hopes, a younger New England ball membership, a failing main league franchise, and a gaggle of heroes on the nationwide stage. (Google Books)
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There are quite a lot of “ugh”s and frowny faces within the margins of this one. The theme itself is so slim that the funniness payoff must be large, and it is not. This can be a easy letter swap—a theme as outdated because the hills. Very twentieth century. And I do not thoughts a throwback theme if you are able to do one thing nice with it, if you may make your tiny adjustments yield real LOL wackiness. However these solutions are all fairly limp. I do not understand how exhausting it’s to search out phrases that can allow you to change them into different phrases by making an “H” an “O,” however I am guessing fairly exhausting. Nonetheless, you gotta do higher than AFTER SOAVE or POD PROGRAM. You particularly need to do higher than AFTER SOAVE and POD PROGRAM when the remainder of your grid is so lumpy and rancid. This was a kind of the place I knew I used to be in for a tough journey earlier than I even bought out of the tiny NW nook. TAD ASAHI OHOHOH REHEM OMANI is *not* promising stuff, particularly when that part of the grid is not even compromised by a theme reply. And certain sufficient, the brief fill continued on this vein, regardless of the theme’s not being significantly dense or in any other case tough to tug off. TAD and SLEW and ALOT. If we may discover ATON and SCAD, we might have a Crosswordese Quantities basketball staff! You have bought Normal MEADE and his STENO and naturally MNEMENEMEMEMENMO or no matter Her title is, wow, yeah, after which the TEA RAT, yuck, these are the worst, I take my tea with out rats, thanks. OMNI ANNO ONIT NAW. Really an onslaught. You get one good longer reply, “I CAN’T EVEN!” and also you get Natalie PORTMAN (who I forgot ever received an Oscar, sorry, Natalie, my dangerous), and then you definitely get, what, HONOREE? CAR LOAN? Any person named BEA HERO? Oof, BE A HERO, that has some large EAT A SANDWICH power (BE A HERO! EAT A SANDWICH! There’s your new slogan, delis of the world! It is all yours!). The one issue on this puzzle was arising with the themers, that are considerably exhausting to see when you do not know the gimmick but, because the grid phrases are nuts and the bottom phrases can solely be grasped after you’ve got crammed within the grid phrases. Past that little little bit of resistance, the grid does not put up a lot of a combat.
