Ooooooh, you know what gets me ENRAGED? A grid where it's so segmented that you're essentially solving six mini-puzzles. Fortunately for Mr. Levin, the long answers in this puzzle sang like they were coached by a VOICETEACHER, so that made up for it.
Honestly though, the grid is well constructed so that even if you have to restart in any area, it's not impossible. I finished in slightly longer than typical Friday at 7:18, so I have little to really complain about.
There are 18 seven-letter answers in the puzzle, making for the chunky sections. I liked all of them! Starting with 1A: Things getting lit at a party? (MATCHES), with the youth-talk "lit" taken literally. Although they do get lit in many other situations as well. I love the term SCREAMO, even if I promise I will never have any interest in listening to that genre of music.
38A: Figure with exactly 10 digits? (MERMAID) is so good. I question the use of the question-mark, though. CHATGPT is a good contemporary reference. My daughter had to tell her students they couldn't use it as a source in writing papers...
41A: House painted with polka dots, you might say (EYESORE). Probably true in just about any circumstance. 56A: Point of no return (RUBICON) is lovely. Good stuff!
Add in SPACECADET, SMALLTIME, ANECDOTES, SCREENTEST, and the best and most loathesome of all answers, 52A: Music festival lineup (PORTAPOTTIES). Perfect for being a non-QMC. But nobody wants to use one.
How close was Mr. Levin to having OBAMA next to Biden? Instead, the former president is next to a BIDET. There are worse places to be, as long as you're in Europe.
- Colum
As noted in a previous review, https://crossword14.blogspot.com/2023/08/saturday-august-5-2023-john-guzzetta.html, an anonymous someone sent us a John-Clark Levin puzzle by snail mail earlier this summer that had some great clues. This new J-CL (if I may) effort did not disappoint. I especially liked “Tame, metaphorically” for VANILLA and the referene to “up and at ‘em” ATOM ANT!
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