String Theory

by maggie & grassyknoll

• Play it ↗
• Difficulty: medium

I definitely liked this crossword more than the last Open Submission Week entry, even if it's still rough around the edges.

This grid was packed with nerdy references: PC RIG, Dr. Who's TARDIS, "software team doing sprints" AGILE, my favorite killer robot HAL. All of which I enjoyed with the exception of TARDIS. No, you aren't going to convince me to watch Dr. Who. It'll never happen, please stop.

The themer is an OK apt pair. I filled WALKTHEDOG immediately upon seeing the clue; maybe I fit the perfect demographic of millennial who grew up envying cool yo-yo tricks on Youtube. CATSCRADLE slotted in nicely with help from the title: "looks like an apt pair so probably the opposite of dog, 'String Theory' implies something with a string, oh, CATSCRADLE!"

With the themers set the rest of the grid flowed into place, with the exception of the upper-right corner. I spent some six minutes on just that corner, staring at two missing letters and utterly incapable of filling them in.

I vaguely recall the skateboard brand Zoo York from my teenage days, but I am scratching my head at being able to guess Too Many ZOOZ. For 6D, I was thinking ISALOT for "someone who might be just a little too into it", caught into the trap of looking for slang to fit the clue's casual tone. But neither ZEALOT nor ZOOZ are my real problem. EDIE is absolutely insane. Apparently we're on the first name basis with an actress who played two roles I don't recognize, and we're cluing it as the names of those characters? Are you kidding?

EDIE isn't the first place where I had issues with the grid's cluing. "Cause of some bad trips?" with EGO is just weird. I mean, maybe selfishness causes a bad vacation but EGO is one step removed from that definition. Maybe I'm missing something?

Either way, I got two Greek myth references today so I'm happy.

Send your comments to [email protected].