Puzzle #25: Get Over It
AOK’s Review:
Good morning, crossword fans…and fellow tax payers!
How are you to begin this week? Hope you all have your taxes squared away before tomorrow. If you haven’t, and were waiting on finishing Patrick’s puzzle before putting the finishing touches on it, that’s totally understandable!
Today’s crossword has a “words in motion” element to it, as the words “hop,” “skip,” and “jump” are literally doing just that, as the circled parts of the grid, which form those aforementioned words, are separated by black squares.
A-HA Moment (When I figured out the theme): When filling in IPHONES (43A: [Galaxy alternatives]) and saw the “IP” in the circles, it made me think that I might be dealing with words that are literally doing the action that it describes. Had the HOP letters filled in, but didn’t notice them as I was solving until picking it up after filling in the SKIP part in the middle of the grid.
O-HO moment (Something I know now that I didn’t know before): It’s not that I didn’t know that Cory Booker went to YALE LAW School (16A: [Cory Booker’s alma mater: 2 wds.]), but I hadn’t put that in mind for a long, long while. I know for a fact I heard that about him before, listening/reading profiles of the now New Jersey senator, who I first knew about years ago when he was running for mayor of Newark, N.J., not far from my home base of New York City.
OLIO (Other things of note): Seeing ADAM in the grid today made me laugh, as I actually just saw an advertisement for “Sandy Wexler” while riding the subway just a couple of days ago (34D: [“Sandy Wexler” start Sandler]). It’s the whole frequency illusion thing happening; come across something one day, then, when not thinking about it, come across that same thing a couple of more times in the next few days. I bet that I’ll see another advertisement for it when I head out today. Probably the hardest entry to fill in today, interestingly enough, was SMALL OJ, as I was not expecting a size description (67A: [Morning beverage order]). Had the “OJ” part filled in and struggled for a short while as to what would come before that. Here’s hoping those who usually get a large orange juice for breakfast don’t feel left out.
Sportsball moment of the day: Many casual sports fans know THE BABE, a.k.a. George Herman “Babe” Ruth as the great home run hitter for the New York Yankees, as well as the great hitter and pitcher while a member of the Boston Red Sox before his time in New York (8A: [Old Yankee nickname: 2 wds]). When he was sold to the Yankees by then Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, it was widely speculated that the money he received from the Yankees for selling Ruth was to back the theatrical production of No, No Nanette. (Though Frazee owned the Red Sox from 1916-1923, he also was also the owner of a theater in New York City at that same time.) Over time, that piece of historical information was proven to not be factual (selling Ruth to put on No, No, Nanette), but, because of the place in pop culture that Babe Ruth holds, that story – and the play No, No, Nanette – will always be part of baseball lore.
See you next week!
Ade/AOK
***
Patrick’s notes:
This puzzle was inspired by the Easter Bunny, which reminds me: I forgot to get myself a chocolate bunny this year. Curses! The theme is rather minimalist, which allowed me to include bigger corners than usual. It’s nice to use longer entries, as well, since they can include more multi-word phrases and answers that we haven’t seen a thousand times.
LOVETAP and SMALLOJ were my favorites in this particular grid, while REDO and RERAN were probably my least favorites. I had fun with the PISTOLS, MIND, and HERS clues; hope you enjoyed them, too!
