This puzzle is out of this world!
SUNDAY PUZZLE — Hi everyone! My name is Johan Landis Lewis, and I’m happy to bring you my first puzzle of the school year. I hope that you all enjoy solving it as much as I did while putting it together. If you have any specific questions or comments about this puzzle, feel free to reach me at johanll@umich.edu, while more general concerns can be addressed to crosswords@umich.edu.
Tricky Clues
14A: While 38-year-old “U.S. World Cup captain” Tim REAM may have been a relative unknown before this summer, I hope that Team USA’s round of 16 finish turned him into a household name.
36A: I think it’s really interesting how American SAMOA is the “territory that produces the most NFL players per capita.” Despite there being less than 300,000 people of Samoan descent in the United States, they’re consistently well-represented in the NFL, especially on offensive and defensive lines.
3D: This clue’s reference to ELEANOR “Rigby in a song by The Beatles” keeps my streak of puzzles with Beatles-related clues going strong.
49D: While ERY can be found as a suffix for many words, such as “trick” or “mock,” I’m particularly fond of the word buffoonery, so I’m glad it was represented via “Suffix for buffoon.”
Today’s Theme
BRUNO MARS and FREDDIE MERCURY (at 33-Across and 16-Across, respectively) are two of my favorite singers of all time, and they were the first two parts of this puzzle’s planetary theme to fall into place. VENUS DE MILO at 22-Across and MOTHER EARTH at 48-Across round out the themed entries, with the revealer found at 53-Across: THE SOLAR SYSTEM. I considered having all the themed clues be singers with planets in their names, but there weren’t enough famous examples, which is why I went with a broader set of clues in the end.
Answer Key:
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