Criticize Sega's hedgehog design / MON 9-28-20 / Priestly Gaul or Celt / Small lobsterlike crustacean

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:42) 

THEME: "verb A noun" — common words are clued as if they were three-word verb phrases with the second word "A":

Theme answers:

• PROPAGATE (18A: Support the pasture entrance?)
• CARDAMOM (24A: Check someone's parent to make sure she's of drinking age?)
• METAPHYSICIAN (37A: Was introduced to the doctor?)
• CASTANET (53A: Do some trawling at sea?)
• PANASONIC (60A: Criticize Sega's hedgehog design?)

Word of the Day: CARDAMOM (24A) —

Cardamom (/ˈkɑːrdəməm/), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are recognized by their small seed pods: triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin, papery outer shell and small, black seeds; Elettaria pods are light green and smaller, while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown. // Species used for cardamom are native throughout tropical and subtropical Asia. The first references to cardamom are found in Sumer, and in the Ayurvedic literatures of India. Nowadays it is also cultivated in Guatemala, Malaysia, and Tanzania. The German coffee planter Oscar Majus Klöffer introduced Indian cardamom to cultivation in Guatemala before World War I; by 2000, that country had become the biggest producer and exporter of cardamom in the world, followed by India. // Cardamom is the world's third-most expensive spice, surpassed in price per weight only by vanilla and saffron. [...] Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly more smoky, though not bitter, aroma, with a coolness some consider similar to mint. (wikipedia)

• • •

I finished this in "Easy" time, but the themers themselves were probably harder to get than your typical Monday themers. Question-mark clues always involve extra thought, and reparsings can be particularly tricky. Today's weren't exactly tough, but they might've been tough enough to slow you down a little. Luckily (if you enjoy solving quickly), the non-theme stuff was incredibly easy. I blazed through it with only slight hesitations here and there. The theme is solid, the fill anemic but inoffensive. It's a perfectly acceptable Monday effort. But here are the things that kept this theme from really sizzling. They are little things, but cumulatively, they cause a lot of wobble. Let's start with the tiniest thing—I'm really distracted by CAB A RET in what looks almost like a theme position (longer Across answer). CRAWDAD is the same length but doesn't bug me at all. Why? Because CRAWDAD doesn't sound like it follows the theme pattern (three-part phrase with "A" in the middle). Obviously CAB A RET is meaningless as a three-word phrase, but I'd've gutted my grid of all "blank A blank" words *except* the themers, just to ensure that they really pop. Next, the clue on CARDAMOM is really clunky. It's chiefly the "someone's parent" part. There's gotta be a better way to do that. It's clear that you're trying not to have "mom" or a synonym of "mom" in the clue, and that is very hard to do, but still, "someone's parent" feels vague and tortured. Also, all the reimagined verb phrases are in the present tense *except* MET A PHYSICIAN, which is past tense, which makes it a noticeable clanking outlier. Lastly, and worst of all, you can't use an indefinite article ("a") for SONIC. There's just the one. Unless there's a planet of hedgehogs, all named SONIC, that I don't know about. I get that the clue is asking you to imagine one of a bunch of potential designs, but that's pretty contrived. Other than all those things, the theme is fine. Just fine.

Guessed all the top Acrosses correctly on the first go, which (once again) may account for my faster-than-average Monday time. Actually, I didn't just get them immediately, I also got Every Single Down Cross immediately. So first three Acrosses, first thirteen Downs, very little hesitation. I was kind of methodical and slowish with my typing from there on out, and still came within 15 seconds or so of my record. The only answers I can remember not getting immediately and having to come back to are ORCHID, STIGMA, and CHAPEL. Looked at the ORCHID clue with only the "C" in place and nothing registered. Wanted something more Hawthorne-specific for the [Scarlet letter, e.g.] answer. And I guess I never gave the actual *size* of a CHAPEL any thought (45D: Small place of worship). Not much else to say about the fill here. It's very out-of-a-can. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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