Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

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Today’s puzzle comes to us from Vic “The Gavel” Fleming, our judicial friend from Arkansas. Or is he from Hawaii? One might wonder, in that 43D. Theme of this puzzle is, in fact, HAWAII.

Now it’s the theme, but only in a sort of encyclopedic way, as far as I can tell. I mean, there’s no real theme here, except that a bunch of the fill has something to do with our westernmost, southernmost, islandmost state. Here’s what we’ve got:

• 17A. Entertainer born 12/1/45 in 25-Across : BETTE MIDLER
• 25A. Capital whose name means “sheltered bay” : HONOLULU
• 34A/36A. Only official residence of a reigning monarch now in the United States : IOLANI PALACE. I don’t understand the clue. Do they mean that the U.S. insists that all reigning monarchs who are sick of their own castles come live at Iolani Palace? Or does it mean that there’s one reigning monarch in particular who lives there? Or that there’s one monarch somewhere else who has a second home? Someone clarify this for me.
• 44A. Measured base to peak, the world’s tallest mountain : MAUNA KEA
• 54A. Politician born 8/4/61 in 25-Across : BARACK OBAMA. Duh.

But what’s the point? I turned to our friend Jim Horne over at the New York Times to find out.

…

…

And… I’m back. And Jim Horne doesn’t tell us anything. Which leads me to believe that my first instinct is right, and the “theme” here is little more than a few random bits of trivia.

So with that in mind, I have to ask – why? And maybe even more specifically, why have trivia about other states in a puzzle that alleges to be about Hawaii? We’ve got IOWA CITY (34D. It’s west of Davenport), we’ve got OCALA (26D. Seat of Marion County, Fla.), we’ve got LA BREA (46A. Los Angeles fossil site), we’ve got PIPELINE (12D. Oil conduit) – okay, that’s not specific, but it sure makes me think of Alaska.

I have to say, theme-wise, this puzzle leaves me more than empty. (Less than empty?) I’m so nonplussed, I’m subtracted. This isn’t a theme, it’s an easy themeless Thursday. But I’ll pick a couple bones, a few things that I didn’t love (because that’s what I do – if you want love, you need to read Ryan’s posts).

• 8D. More than budding and 39A. Every seven days : ABLOOM and AWEEK. Officially, these are not cheater squares, because they have the letter A in them. But I will call them half-cheaters. Those words are aphony.
• 22D. Dabble in : PLAY AT. I don’t know that I find these two terms agreeable with one another. I dabble in crossword construction, but I don’t think I play at it. I think I do it sincerely and with intention for proper use. “Play at” suggests I don’t really do it, or it doesn’t really matter, whereas I see dabbling as a sideline of significant interest, not just a whimsical hobby.
• 31D. Priscilla and John and 37A. Actress Locke of “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” : ALDENS and SONDRA. The crossing of two trivia questions. Meh. I had it all but the D, but I’ve never heard of any of these people, and had to just guess the D. I didn’t know if Priscilla and John were maybe ALLENS or ALIENS or ALEENS…
• 38D. Start of a letter to Landers : DEAR ANN. Really? I know her sister was Dear Abby, but did the reader’s requests really begin with “Dear Ann”?
• 41D. Five-time Kentucky Derby winner and 41A. Common pollutant : ARCARO and ASH. This had me stumped for a while, in that I figured it was either MR. CARO or DR. CARO who had won the Derby five times (I didn’t realize horses wouldn’t run it five times) – and I figured MSH or DSH was an acronym for something I’d never heard of. Oops. Silly me.

This puzzle has a fair share of three-letter junk fill: NAM, HAR, CPA, HIC, EPH, XLI, AMO and KOD are the ones that jump out to me. But then there was plenty of other fill that was thoroughly enjoyable: NAMATH, ARABIA, AMELIA, CHERUBIC, ONE-UPPED, PARKA, ACHTUNG.

Foreign language alert of the day: PRET, AMO and ACTE.

See you Friday.