Constructor: Bruce Haight
Relative problem: Medium (perhaps even mildly harder than Medium, for a Monday)
THEME: STATUE OF LIBERTY (57A: New York Metropolis landmark prompt by the ends of 17-, 22-, 34- and 50-Throughout) — final phrases of themers are components of mentioned statue; I suppose this can be a 4th of July-themed puzzle (?):
Theme solutions:
- PASSING THE TORCH (17A: Handing accountability to another person)
- TRIPLE CROWN (22A: Main accomplishment in baseball or horse racing)
- ASPIRIN TABLET (34A: One method to take care of a ache within the neck)
- TOWN AND GOWN (50A: Two interacting communities within the house of a faculty)
Phrase of the Day: ARC LIGHT (11D: Intense illumination, as in previous film projectors) —
An arc lamp or arc mild is a lamp that produces mild by an electrical arc (additionally referred to as a voltaic arc).
The carbon arc mild, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy within the first decade of the 1800s, was the primary sensible electrical mild. It was broadly used beginning within the 1870s for avenue and enormous constructing lighting till it was outmoded by the incandescent mild within the early twentieth century. It continued in use in additional specialised purposes the place a excessive depth level mild supply was wanted, similar to searchlights and film projectors till after World Conflict II. The carbon arc lamp is now out of date for many of those functions, however it’s nonetheless used as a supply of excessive depth ultraviolet mild.
The time period is now used for gasoline discharge lamps, which produce mild by an arc between steel electrodes by a gasoline in a glass bulb. The widespread fluorescent lamp is a low-pressure mercury arc lamp. The xenon arc lamp, which produces a excessive depth white mild, is now utilized in lots of the purposes which previously used the carbon arc, similar to film projectors and searchlights. (wikipedia)
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Cringed my approach by most of this. The fill simply creaked and groaned. Began with previous initialism at 1A (YSL) after which ARLO SOPS YESIDO EDER COSI SNL TERA ATON and by now I am midway down the grid. And what the hell was up with that clue on LILI (23D: Girl’s title that appears like Roman numerals 51 + 51). No, 51 + 51 = 102, and until there’s a girl someplace named CII, then that clue is rubbish. I ultimately received it—and it helped me change “YES YES” to “YES, I DO“—however if you would like consecutive “LI”s and also you’re tremendous in-love along with your little Roman numeral joke, there’s gotta be a greater method to go about it than this deceptive equation-style clue. HIC IMHO ATTAR ATAB ETTU AGEE HIC CEO NOFEE NSYNC LORRIE ALOEGEL, two totally different “___ AT” phrases, ETC. It is as if very, little or no care went into filling and sharpening this grid. While you take a look at the grid building, you may see that it is actually horrendously uneven, with plenty of black squares reducing by the center, making a surfeit of 3- and 4-letter solutions. The outcome was simply painful to wade by. And it isn’t just like the theme itself is any nice shakes. 4 issues related to a statue. OK. Sort of tepid for (what I think about is meant to be) a holiday-themed puzzle. I assure you that the majority each different main each day will produce a Monday puzzle *no less than* this sturdy right now. I do not understand how probably the most well-known and prestigious puzzle within the nation, the one whose editor likes to tout what number of submissions he will get, cannot handle higher than this. Complacency, that is what that is.
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I had YIP AT before YAP AT (1D: Threaten, as a little dog might)—or, rather, I left the vowel blank and used the cross to make sure. Speaking of getting yapped at, we were walking in the state forest today and got run at by two dogs who came out bounding up the trail, off-leash. Luckily they were much more bark than bite (they were no-bite, in fact), but it’s still freaky to have unattended dogs, especially biggish dogs, run at you, barking. Weirdly, the owners never actually showed. The dogs ran away … and then we saw them again later, at which point we all exchanged sort of friendly nods (“hey, whassup, nice to see you again”) and they went off and left us alone. Maybe their owners live adjacent to the state land. I hope so. Ok now I’m worried about them. Anyway, the woods were beautiful today. Lots and lots of birdsong, and yet when I whipped out my Merlin app to record and identify the song, turns out there was only one kind of bird singing, a bird I’ve never actually seen (to my knowledge): the red-eyed vireo.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
