Two-horse wager / TUE 4-8-14 / Bucolic verse / Jungle film attire / Unit involved in shell game
THEME: Ambigu-its — common phrases (following the for verb-IT-preposition) are recontextualized by their wacky, overly literal clues
Theme answers:
- 17A: "That's enough!," to a hot dog-eating contestant? ("KEEP IT DOWN!")
- 25A: "That's enough!," to a store clerk at Christmas? ("WRAP IT UP!")
- 36A: "That's enough!," to an assembly line worker? ("MOVE IT ALONG!")
- 51A: "That's enough!," to a collagist? ("CUT IT OUT!")
- 61A: "That's enough!," to a carnival thrower? ("KNOCK IT OFF!")
Jared Leto (/lɛtɒ/; born December 26, 1971) is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, director, producer, activist, philanthropist and businessman. After starting his career with television appearances in the early 1990s, Leto achieved recognition for his role as Jordan Catalano on the television series My So-Called Life (1994). He made his film debut in How to Make an American Quilt(1995) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in Prefontaine (1997). Leto played supporting roles in The Thin Red Line (1998), Fight Club (1998) and American Psycho (2000), as well as the lead role in Urban Legend (1998), and earned critical acclaim after portraying heroin addict Harry Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000). He later began focusing increasingly on his music career, returning to acting with Panic Room (2002), Alexander (2004), Lord of War (2005),Lonely Hearts (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), and Mr. Nobody (2009). He made his directorial debut in 2012 with the documentary film Artifact. Leto's performance as a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, among numerous other accolades. (…) Leto is the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars, a band he formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, with his older brother Shannon Leto. (wikipedia) (emphasis mine … I have my reasons) • • •
I should listen to Frank Zappa every time I solve because man did I torch this puzzle. Haven't been under 3 on a Tuesday in what feels like a good long time, but I was well under today. Was able to get most of the theme answers without even looking at the clues. You could just feel from the first word what a phrase was going to be after a while. This is a nice, tight theme—"That's enough" is a better clue for some of the theme answers than it is for others, but I think it holds up, overall. The best theme answer (by which I mean best theme clue) was the first one, which I really wish came at the end (Merl Reagle–style … whenever possible, let your last themer be your punchline). I don't really like "collagist" or "carnival thrower" because they are overly specific and oddly phrased, respectively. But still, the core concept is a solid and entertaining one.
Here's what held me up (if only for a tiny bit): first, ON TAPE (13D: Like books for long car rides, say). This is not a surprise, as this concept of listening to books ON TAPE is already an anachronism. Maybe they're on CD, more likely they're on some kind of mp3 player. Would've gotten held up on ECO-LAW (a term I never see in the wild) (45D: Body of environmental regulations), but the E and W were my first letters, so I got it instantly. Only other stop-and-think-a-bit moment was with CREW TEAM—since that answer had the trickiest clue of the day (3D: Unit involved in a shell game?), and is an uncommon (and pretty cool) answer, my mild struggle is completely unsurprising. Everything else—instant.
Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go check on the NCAA Championship game.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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