Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: JRR TOLKIEN'S "THE / LORD OF THE RINGS" (19A: With 55-Across, source of this puzzle's quote (which starts in box #38)) — quote reads: "NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST"
Word of the Day: Sarah ORNE Jewett (56D: Author Sarah ___ Jewett) —
Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.
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Man, this took me about a full minute longer than my average Tuesday, and I have no (clear) idea why. Nothing seems particularly hard (except GEMMA! WTF is "Hollyoaks" and WhoTF is GEMMA Atkinson?—I've heard of neither ... OK I just looked her up and she and her show are British ... !?!?!?!? ... it's Tuesday, for god's sake, and you're giving me some B-grade "TV personality" who isn't even from this country? It's bad enough I have to keep track of crap TV on *this* side of the pond...). DIESELOIL (16A: Fuel for some trucks) and AMAZONANT (63A: Insect known for conducting raids) are not impressing me. The first barely feels like a thing and the second exists only because of all of its common letters. I'm actually not fond of the theme at all. I'm sure it looks cool, but ... I always thought that sentiment, "NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST," was something New Age-y or Grateful Dead-y. I get how the circles express wandering, but ... as far as I can tell, those circles are still lost. No idea what they're leading to or why. And JRRTOLKIENSTHE is up there among the ugliest bits of fill I've seen in a while. I admire the creativity of the theme, but the execution left me cold.Got held up briefly in many places. The GEMMA region, for one. And then the STETHO- (?) (33A: Chest: Prefix) region. That and A TOOL were both tough to get (24D: "You're such ___" (teen put-down)). Tried EVICT and EXILE before (the always horrid) EGEST (40A: Cast out). Thought 45D: Zephyrs were BLIMPS, not BREEZES (clearly I was thinking of Zeppelins). Went with LIMA bean instead of FAVA (57D: Broad bean). I think that's it for the missteps. Still, slow(er) going. Wish I liked the non-theme fill better, considering my tepidness toward the theme.
Bullets:
6D: Year the Department of Homeland Security was created (MMII) — I, strangely, had MIII for a while.- 32D: Like a space cadet (DITSY) — only want to spell this word DITZY. You are a DITZ, not a DITS. Well, not you, specifically (probably).
- 23D: "Morning Joe" TV channel (MSNBC) — I used to watch this some, but cannot stand politics in the morning any more (I'm a "Mike & Mike" viewer now).
- 41D: Big name in GPS devices (GARMIN) — Do not own one and likely never will. It would be more distraction than aid. I would almost certainly drive my car into a lake. Also, I think farming out your sense of direction to a machine—maybe not so great an idea. I can see they might be useful in emergencies (like last weekend, when my directions to PuzzleGirl's house called for me to go down a highway that was closed...), but otherwise, I'll pass.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
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