![]() Thus, much to like on top of that pat on the back, a true daily double which translates to a Tuesday treat. And even more, I liked the A-train, nonet edition: FETA / SKA / DAYTONA / ANA / ERA / LISA / EVA / ALA / PASTA. I liked GEN /REN / LEN, as well as the O-train of RHINO / TORERO / ONO / ALLPRO / SLO and wannabes TOE and EAU. The hat was created in 1849 by London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler.) I also liked the cross of BOWLER HAT and A HEAD, and it made me wonder: Does the name of the hat have something to do with the sport of bowling? (No, actually, I have found out. “Kettlebell swing” made me smile, because it’s an exercise I regularly do, and if you want something that wakes up your whole system, it’s worth a try. I flashed on CITIZEN KANE when I saw SNOW GLOBE. ![]() Maybe I’m getting better at uncorking these things! In short, GALETTE, yum, ALETTE, barf.ĭid you hear the little pat on the back I gave myself? Finally, I figured out a theme before uncovering the reveal. The puzzle is above average in terms of its basic concept and fill quality, but ALETTE stinks so bad that I did not enjoy my visit. ![]() Can you not see / hear / feel how bad an outlier it is? Anyway, ALETTE absolutely ruined the mood. Why you make the decision to bring ALETTE to your otherwise Monday-level easy puzzle, I'll never know. were there really no better answers in the universe that could go there? It's not like the answer helps us get good fill up there. BLEW A KISS and ODOR EATER go through three themers, and I guarantee you they were the first things into the grid (along with the themers). Yes, it crosses two themers, and anything crossing multiple themers is in a tough position, but That's the kind of answer you're supposed to work out Early-you can't really settle your themers in place until the Downs holding them together are sorted. And it's not even holding good stuff together. On a Tuesday, this word is absurd, bordering on inexcusable. If you're gonna give me ALETTE, then at least give it to me on a Sunday, where I expect some difficulty and where the word can lose some of its bitterness by being more highly diluted by the higher word-count. well, it hardly needs a drumroll introduction since you probably know very well for yourself what it is. It was so bad, so out of place, that I spent the rest of the solve semi-resenting it. Also, there was one answer, one terrible, out-of-place, "what the hell?" answer that I encountered early on and that kinda ruined everything. And yet I missed having genuine theme content. So I do think this puzzle is better made, in general, than your average Tuesday. I can even tolerate the "EAT A SANDWICH"-esque BLEW A KISS, since unlike other "_ A _" phrases I've seen in crosswords, BLEW A KISS feels very coherent and stand-alone-worthy. IDEA MAN is pretty snazzy, if gender-exclusive, and " NOW WE'RE EVEN" is gonna be a winning answer wherever it shows up. I liked BOWLER HAT and despite finding poker about as interesting as golf (i.e. I mean, Tuesday was probably always going to force you into something to do with STATUES or, I don't know, VIRTUES, but with the rest of the theme-involved answers, there would've been a lot of leeway, so the grid ends up more colorful than a normal themed Tuesday might otherwise be. I'm now realizing that one of the reasons this Tuesday grid is livelier than most is probably because the constructor had a LOT of different options for dividing up these "second" things. I think of them as compromised themelesses-"themeless" because none of the individual answers in the grid have anything to do, meaningwise, with the theme, and "compromised" because the theme concept requires fixed seed answers and thus places limitations on what answers can go where, limitations that true themelesses don't have. But I never really fully enjoy these themeless themed puzzles. And between its somewhat-livelier-than-usual fill and its interesting theme execution, I guess I come out on this puzzle's side in the end. And, well, as Tuesdays go, that's maybe enough. So I had one moment of "that's clever" at the very end. And I will say that today's architectural feature is very clever. Only an architectural feature that you're supposed to ooh and/or aah at when it's all over. This is one of those themes that has no real theme answers.
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