Little Ditties

by Thomas Wack

• Play it ↗
• Difficulty: easy

A solid Open Submission, if a bit plain.

The theme is a few choice lyrics from children's songs that describe things, which I suppose counts as a categorical: SHORTANDSTOUT and ITSYBITSY. I'm a bit disappointed there's no wordplay relating the two themers, even if there is technically wordplay in the clues. It falls a bit flat.

That said, my biggest problem with the theme is that it is completely spoiled by the title. The clues include wordplay, sure, but I don't need to look at the wordplay to know what the answer is. I just see "teapot" and "spider" and the rest is explained by "Little Ditties".

I was punished by some overzealous plonking in this grid (as is usually the case). I slotted GOLD instead of GEMS and BUNCH instead of BATCH, to name a few. My solve time suffered since I had to revisit a bunch of corners. So it goes.

Interestingly, this is the second "BABA is you" reference from an Open Submission puzzle (a game definitely worth checking out). There must be some correlation between folks who like thinky puzzle games and folks who want to undertake crossword construction. Not to mention that double-A is irresistible.

So far I've been a little negative towards this grid, but I don't think the constructor did a bad job. There are some fun clues in here that deserve highlighting:

• "Aid for some drivers" (TEE)

• "Frustration for an online gamer" (LAG)

• "Alicia Keys's forte, aptly" (PIANO)

These are just a few I picked out on a quick scan, but I think the constructor did a great job balancing their voice with the contents of the grid.

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