THEME: EMPTY WORDS — 50A: "Remarks void of meaning ... and a phonetic hint to the answers to the starred clues." Each of the theme answers is a two word phrase with words starting M and T (or "empty").
Word of the Day: HIGGS (17A - Peter ____, physicist with a field and a particle named for him) —
MOVIE THEATER (4D: *Where new features are released?)
MAGIC TOUCH (19A: *Knack for success)
MACHINE TOOLS (21D: *Metal lathes and drill presses)
MISTER TOAD (41A: *Reckless motorist in "The Wind in the Willows")
Hey, everyone, it's an Eli Tuesday! I know, you were expecting Claire. You were looking forward to Claire. I get it. I promise to do my best in substitution. Let's get going.
2D: Showgirl at the Copacabana, in song
It looks like today is a NYT debut for constructor John Liber, so congratulations! It's a clean puzzle, a nice simple theme for a Tuesday. It just wasn't that exciting for me. Two word phrases starting with M and T seems like it could pull some interesting answers, but the only one that stood out to me was MISTER TOAD. Even that would have been better with a reference to his Wild Ride. Where else at Disneyland can you be hit by a train and end your ride in Hell?
Don't get me wrong; I love MOVIE THEATERS and I hope everyone actually goes out to see movies. I'm not sure that clue required a question mark, but I get it. MACHINE TOOLS and MAGIC TOUCH didn't do much for me, especially as clued.
15A: Beatles compilation album with 27 chart-topping hits
The rest of the puzzle unfortunately didn't do much to redeem itself. I grimaced right out of the gate at ALE GLASS (3D: Vessel for a pub pint). I brew beer and I have an extensive collection of beer glasses. I'm not sure I'd call any of them an "ale glass." Can those glasses hold ale? Sure. I also have IPA-specific glasses. I just can't picture what a generic ale glass would be. I also always get bad vibes from MILADY (41D: Chivalrous address to a noblewoman). I feel like there was a specific brand of creepy dude that adopted that phrase and kinda ruined it for me. I also personally wince anytime I see AD IN or AD OUT (38A: Warning before your breaking point?). I know Wimbledon just started, but I admittedly only know these terms from puzzles. At least the clue was clever this time.
Speaking of clever clues, I thought the clue for POWER NAP was cute (35D: Get 40 winks in 20 minutes, say). But everything else felt pretty straightforward. It certainly wasn't a bad puzzle, it just got the job done. Sometimes that's all you can ask on a Tuesday.
49A: Dragon's den
Stray Thoughts:
5D: Nintendo Switch predecessor (WIIU) — This always makes me think of an ambulance siren: WiiU, WiiU, WiiU, WiiU.
58A: Like some martinis and jokes (DIRTY) — I like both!
61A: Workers in a colony (ANTS) — You didn't think you were getting out of an Eli blog without a Simpsons reference, did you?
That's all I've got for now! Enjoy your Tuesday; I'll be back with you later in the week.
Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld
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A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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