![]() Having only four theme answers of 11-letters or less leaves room for smooth fill and fun long entries, and we have a good set here with SEA TURTLE, LEGAL FEES, “ IS IT TRUE?,” TOSTADA, and KING LEAR.ĭYERS and SSR are at the other end of the spectrum, but they come right at the end of the solve in the SE corner, and they’re easily blown past. It doesn’t feel right to call shaving cream just “cream,” so that detracts from the effectiveness of the theme for me. ![]() ![]() (Note: I’m very distracted while blogging this since I’m watching USA vs. Seth Abel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Smooth Operator”-Jim P’s review So I’m sorry to give this puzzle a “meh.” Johnson, who I think is better remembered than an actress from a 1977 movie? JAPES crossing PLAT, ORCA, ESTOP, ELAN, AGRA TOLE, ONE A.Īlso, although BREWER and DIRK are fine entries, I’d sure love to retire “er” from puzzles permanently, so “MLBer” and “NBAer” in the clues for 46D and 62A, respectively, annoyed me. How about cluing that last as Stonewall icon MARSHA P. The NW corner with its crosswordese-y plurals of AMFMS, BOLAS, and ENTS crossing the tough MOEN and MARSHA is the most obvious example. Perhaps super-sparkly fill could have saved it, which I’m sorry to say this puzzle doesn’t have. I’d love to see more evocative themers than these. These are not hitting the mark (hitting all the high notes?) for me. ![]() This is certainly not the first time I’ve seen FLAT, SHARP, and NATURAL as the basis of a theme, so if you’re going to do it, I think you’ve got to pick really fun theme entries. That is, the first half of each theme phrase or compound word (FLAT, SHARP, and NATURAL, respectively) can be used as a modifier for a musical note: It’s a musical Monday in the LAT, with the revealer at 60D giving us NOTEWORTHY. ![]()
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