Plus size grid on this Wednesday, at 15x16 squares, which accommodates the 14-letter answer in the middle row. The theme is song titles which have to do with destroying things, supplemented by the extra related answers SMASHHIT and DEMOTAPE. Of the three songs, there is really only one way to correctly rank them, which is as follows:
1. SLEDGEHAMMER. Peter Gabriel is one of my all-time favorite artists, and while this is not my favorite of his songs (see "Here Comes the Flood" and "Solsbury Hill"), it's a real bop, as the kids say.
2. BREAKONTHROUGH. Also not my favorite by The Doors (See "Light My Fire" for the excellent organ intro).
3. WRECKINGBALL. I've never been a huge Miley Cyrus fan, and this song is noted as the moment when she tried to shed her image as a pre-teen and teen star by making a provocative video. Still the song is a solid pop ballad, and she has a pretty amazing voice.
I FWOE'd this puzzle. I saw 61D: Durham Sch. (UNH) and immediately thought of North Carolina, so entered a final C. That school is actually in Chapel Hill. Duke is in Durham, NC. The University of New Hampshire is in Durham, NH. I suppose cOTSETS should have alerted me to my mistake, but no. I'd never heard of HOTSETS, but it makes more sense with the clue.
Many things to love in the fill here. First off, cluing SCRIBE with Bartleby the Scrivener is great. "I would prefer not to," is that character's repeated statement.
I also love SMIDGE as a word. And 13D: How much it's gonna cost (THEDAMAGE) is lovely. Note the "gonna" as a way of cluing the slang response.
- Colum
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