![]() took a few crosses to see that the dash was a MINUS symbol. I didn't love the clue on MINUS ( 41A: -) because I kept wondering why they'd omitted the clue, or what clue this was the second part of. The puzzle has always expected me to know a weird lot about "The Jungle Book," and MAN CUB went way beyond my normal store of crossword knowledge (KAA, BALOO, SHERE, etc.), but it was ultimately inferable from crosses ( 5D: Nickname for Mowgli in "The Jungle Book"). I tend to remember busy days better than unbusy ones. There's also no reason a "busy day" should be a BLUR. The clue phrase sounds like something a not terribly bright person would say there's no inflection, no sense that the speaker has any sense of the preposterousness of the odds, which is why it's not a great clue for "I CAN DREAM," which situates lotto triumph securely in Fantasyland, where it belongs. I like the long Downs OK, though the clue on " I CAN DREAM" feels tenuous ( 31D: "My lotto ticket might be the winner"). Outside the theme, there's a little less to love. "V" comes second, but now you've introduced an auxiliary FIVE-THIRD rule!? I'm sure it was tough to handle all those damn "V"s in the grid, but for the sake of sparkle and polish and elegance, not to mention consistency, you can't let a "V" get away from you like that. Why would you let *any* non-thematic stand-alone "V"s into this puzzle?! Your whole premise is FIVE-SECOND, i.e. which brings me to the one thing about the theme that I found truly jarring and inexplicable, namely the stray "V" in DMVS (37D: Real ID issuers, in brief). Having it as an initial, a stand-alone letter, really tightens the theme considerably. It would be way, way too thin if the themers merely had "V" as the second letter. And it's not just that the second letter is "V," it's that it's pronounced as "VEE" in every case. ![]() "Five" in the "second" position of every themer. and then several seconds later the thematic import of the phrase hit me, and I liked that too. Then I hit the revealer, and got a double dose of delight, in that I loved the phrase itself. As for the theme itself, I breezed through the NW and though I wasn't really paying attention to "starred clues," I figured something was up thematically with the "V"s after getting TV DINNER and AV CLUB. There's a good reason for slimming this one down, as the revealer is only 14 letters long, and 14s are really awkward to handle in 15x15 grids plus you'd need another 14 to balance the revealer out symmetrically if you put it in a 15x15, whereas with a 14-wide grid you can just sit the revealer dead center. Seems to me grids are more apt to bulk up than slim down if they're going to go off the standard 15x15 model. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime. Amin's rule was characterised by rampant human rights abuses, including political repression, ethnic persecution and extrajudicial killings, as well as nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history. 1925 – 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Idi Amin Dada Oumee ( / ˈ iː d i ɑː ˈ m iː n, ˈ ɪ d i -/, UK also /- æ ˈ m iː n/ c. ![]() Word of the Day: IDI Amin ( 31A: Dictator Amin). EV CREDIT (57A: *Federal tax incentive for buying a Tesla, say).JV SQUAD (45A: *Up-and-coming group in high school athletics). ![]() AV CLUB (26A: *Multimedia-focused school org.).TV DINNER (16A: *Type of meal first sold by C.A.Roman numeral "five" in each instance the letter appears as an initial, pronounced "VEE": or a hint to the answers to this puzzle's starred clues) - the "second" letter in all the answers to the starred clues is "V," i.e. THEME: FIVE-SECOND RULE (35A: Dubious food-eating guideline.
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