Relative difficulty: EASY
26D: Kylo ___, "Star Wars" villainTHEME: EMPTY WORDS — 50A: "Remarks void of meaning ... and a phonetic hint to the answers to the starred clues." Each of the theme answers is a two word phrase with words starting M and T (or "empty").
Word of the Day: HIGGS (17A - Peter ____, physicist with a field and a particle named for him) — Peter Ware Higgs (29 May 1929 – 8 April 2024) was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh,[7][8] and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles.[9][10]In 1964, Higgs was the single author of one of the three milestone papers published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) that proposed that spontaneous symmetry breaking in electroweak theory could explain the origin of mass of elementary particles in general and of the W and Z bosons in particular. This Higgs mechanism predicted the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson, the detection of which became one of the great goals of physics.[11][12] In 2012, CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider.[13] The Higgs mechanism is generally accepted as an important ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics, without which certain particles would have no mass.[14]• • •Theme answers:
- MOVIE THEATER (4D: *Where new features are released?)
- MAGIC TOUCH (19A: *Knack for success)
- MACHINE TOOLS (21D: *Metal lathes and drill presses)
- MISTER TOAD (41A: *Reckless motorist in "The Wind in the Willows")
https://www.youtube.com/embed/SepZDSkY4Ro
15A: Beatles compilation album with 27 chart-topping hits
The rest of the puzzle unfortunately didn't do much to redeem itself. I grimaced right out of the gate at ALE GLASS (3D: Vessel for a pub pint). I brew beer and I have an extensive collection of beer glasses. I'm not sure I'd call any of them an "ale glass." Can those glasses hold ale? Sure. I also have IPA-specific glasses. I just can't picture what a generic ale glass would be. I also always get bad vibes from MILADY (41D: Chivalrous address to a noblewoman). I feel like there was a specific brand of creepy dude that adopted that phrase and kinda ruined it for me. I also personally wince anytime I see AD IN or AD OUT (38A: Warning before your breaking point?). I know Wimbledon just started, but I admittedly only know these terms from puzzles. At least the clue was clever this time.Speaking of clever clues, I thought the clue for POWER NAP was cute (35D: Get 40 winks in 20 minutes, say). But everything else felt pretty straightforward. It certainly wasn't a bad puzzle, it just got the job done. Sometimes that's all you can ask on a Tuesday.
49A: Dragon's denStray Thoughts: - 5D: Nintendo Switch predecessor (WIIU) — This always makes me think of an ambulance siren: WiiU, WiiU, WiiU, WiiU.
- 58A: Like some martinis and jokes (DIRTY) — I like both!
- 61A: Workers in a colony (ANTS) — You didn't think you were getting out of an Eli blog without a Simpsons reference, did you?
That's all I've got for now! Enjoy your Tuesday; I'll be back with you later in the week.
Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld
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