One could describe today's theme answers as descriptive report card entries. The idea is to replace the class name and letter grade in the clue with a common two-word phrase that expresses an equivalent idea. For example,"Driver's Ed: B" is lined up with PARKINGFINE. I give the idea itself high marks, but for this solver, both PARKINGFINE and especially MOVINGAVERAGE ("Gym: B+"), are not such common phrases. When I am the perpetrator of malparkage, I usually get a ticket, not a parking fine. And I'm not even sure what a MOVINGAVERAGE is. And furthermore, is a B+ average? I would have thought that would be a C, but I am old and largely out of touch with modern life. Although, come to think of it, I have heard tell of grade inflation at universities in the past year, so maybe that explains it. The third theme answer, BUILDINGSUPER ("Wood shop: A"), is quite good, but they saved the best for last with PASTPERFECT ("History: A+).
Several other answers over the course of the puzzle played a little off to me. For example, we always called a "Teacher's pet, say, in slang" a suckUP, not a KISSUP, but maybe you can put "suck" in an NYT puzzle, or, maybe it's just a regional/temporal variation. Also, the adjective ACED for "Like a tennis player who didn't even swing, maybe" seemed awkward, "Mono-" for UNI was utilitarian, and the "Nutrition sources" for DIETS, uninspired. I also thought that LAIDBARE was a bit extreme for its clue "Made public." Again, I plead my ERA.
On the plus side, "Tender bend-er" for BUMKNEE was amusing, "First and last" for FULLNAME was nicely ambiguous and "Alt tab?" for LSD was excellent. KNOTTY, KAPUT, and TOUGHNUT were fun fill. To sum up, I had a little bit of a tassel at commencement, but I also applaud the diploma-tic effort.
~Frannie.
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