Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: BLOOD MOON (6D: Autumnal event so called because it helps hunters kill their prey) —
The hunter's moon—also known as blood moon or sanguine moon—is the first full moon after the harvest moon, which is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. // The Hunter's Moon is so named because plenty of moonlight is ideal for hunters shooting migrating birds in Northern Europe. (wikipedia)
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Not much to say about this one. Seems fine. Nothing offensive, nothing too memorable. It's pretty funny that he's got BELLA (7D: "Twilight" protagonist) up there next to a full moon (i.e. the BLOOD MOON), since the "Twilight" series involves werewolves. It's less funny that NUVA (17A: ___Ring (birth control brand)) is somehow being accepted as a standalone answer, when it's not a word, real or commercial or whatever. The brand is NuvaRing, one word. I don't know if I've ever seen one part of a camel-capped word allowed to fly solo like this. Feels really wrong. The short Acrosses in that NE section are pretty weak in general — all in the name of JIU JITSU, I guess (it is a pretty sweet word; 10D: Practice with locks and pins?). I like DAWG (41A: "Wassup, ___?") over BARK (46A: Where you might see some initials — carved into trees, I guess). Some of the question mark clues were cute, or tough to see through, but there's just not a lot here to make you sit up and take notice.I had trouble getting started in the NW—a lot of trouble. First pass rendered virtually nothing — LOSS (21A: Perfect-record breaker) and ROC-A (9D: Jay-Z's ___-Fella Records), I think. After flailing a bit, I somehow guessed NO PROBLEMO off of just that final "O" (13A: "Easy peasy!"), and it all opened up from there. BELLA/EMILY (8D: "Bones" actress Deschanel) /ROC-A/WEBBER
(4A: Five-time N.B.A. All-Star Chris) seems a pretty massive cluster of contemporary names / pop culture clues. NO PROBLEMO for me, but for others, maybe more of a PROBLEMO. Had some trouble in the SW, trying OUTDATED before OUT OF USE (33D: Defunct) and trying and failing many times to come up with a company that started "CLIN..." (it's CLINIQUE—32D: Company that gets a lot of its money from foundations?). Once I got past DUGONG (26D: Sea grass grazer) and into the SE, things got easy again and I was home free. At first I thought DUGONG was DUGOUT ... as in, a DUGOUT canoe ... that "grazes" sea grass ... as it glides along ... in the sea? I guess. Had HEAD for HOPE (43A: One might lose it in a crisis), but otherwise, cake down there.Bullets:
- 1A: Japan's Prince Hirobmi ___ (ITO) — bah. I'm sure I've seen this ITO before, but couldn't remember him. I'll take the judge or the skater.
- 29A: Literally, "different lizards" (ALLOSAURUSES) — not hard, but somehow annoying. Did not like the plural. Don't quite understand my own strong distaste here, but there it is.
32A: Descartes found this truth to be self-evident (COGITO ERGO SUM) — love this clue, which spins the word "self-evident" in an unexpected direction.- 34A: Colorful stage performers since 1987 (BLUE MAN GROUP) — don't think I've seen them in the puzzle before. Cool (I mean, as an answer — as a group they just creep me out).
- 35A: There are 50 in a keg of Newcastle (LITRES) — pretty easy to infer this answer. British liquid measurement—not many places to go from there.
- 36A: Home of Polar Bear Prov. Park (ONT.) — my first guess, but I balked because of my DUGOUT-for-DUGONG issues.
- 52A: Put off retirement? (STAY UP LATE) — phrase that reminds me of only one thing:
- 11D: Troubadour's creation (LOVE POEM) — had the POEM part and thought "TONE POEM? That's pretty modern for a troubadour..."
- 41D: Il Poeta (DANTE) — Nice fat Dante gimme, two days in a row! Nice literary complement to its neighboring "Hamlet"-related answer, ARRAS (42D: Decoration for Gertrude's room in "Hamlet")
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