Honorific for Gandhi / MON 6-21-21 / Atlanta train system / 1950s-60s singer Bobby / 1963 Best Actress Patricia / Cracker brand with a yellow and blue logo / Vindaloo accompaniment

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Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:43 even with a tenacious, stupid typo)

THEME: "IT'S ALL RELATIVE" (52A: "Let' put things in perspective" ... or a
title for this puzzle) —"blanker THAN blank" phrases, i.e. phrases expressing
relativity:

Theme answers:
* LIGHTER THAN AIR (20A: Capable of floating, as a balloon)
* HOLIER THAN THOU (32A: Sanctimonious)
* LARGER THAN LIFE (39A: Imposing and then some)
Word of the Day: AVERY ( 50D: Big office supply brand ) —

Avery Dennison Corporation is a multinational manufacturer and
distributor of pressure-sensitive
adhesive materials (such as self-adhesive labels),
apparel branding labels and tags, RFID inlays, and specialty medical
products. The company is a member of the Fortune
500 and is
headquartered in Glendale,
California. // The
company was founded in Los
Angeles,
California in 1935
as Kum Kleen Products [ ed : !!!!] , a partnership of Mr.
and Mrs. Ray Stanton
Avery. (wikipedia)
• • •

The one thing I like about this puzzle is that all the themers are 14s. That
is bizarre. Like ... no one likes to touch 14s, they're hard to work with. You
see how you get all those three-letter answers under/above the black squares
at the ends of the 14; how the grid is super-segmenty because the black
squares wrap around the ends of the 14s in an "L" shape because otherwise
you'd have real serious white-space problems? Yeah, that' because 14s are hard
as hell to manage cleanly. They're ungainly. So ... this puzzle uses only 14s,
which is bold. Beyond that, though, I don't really get it. I mean ... blanker
than blank. That' it. The revealer isn't even that punny. I mean, usually,
like on "Jeopardy!" or whatever (classically, if "Friends" has taught me
anything), the category IT'S ALL RELATIVE means you'll be dealing with, like,
aunts and uncles and cousins and what not. You know: relatives. But here,
these are just relative phrases. THAN is a preposition that follows a
comparative adjective. It' awfully literal, and not much fun. Also, because of
the aforementioned hyper-segmented grid, most of the fill is short, so there'
not even cool long bonus answers to break the monotony. PAD THAI. That' what
this puzzle has for me. And while I like PAD THAI (YUM!)... I need more. A
little GLUG GLUG, metaphorically speaking, if you know what I'm saying (full
disclosure: I'm no longer sure exactly what I'm saying).

But wow was it easy. I flopped and slid around in the SE corner for what felt
like a very long time because I wrote in LOBSE instead of LOBES ( 59A:
Brain divisions ) and so the Down crosses were all weird, and when I get
going very fast, my brain sometimes doesn't really register simple mistakes
like that ... and still I came in at 2:43, which is very fast for me. 10-20
seconds under my Monday average, and 10-20 seconds is a lot of time on a
Monday. I had a bit of an IRMA / ERMA hesitation, I guess, but guessed
correctly so didn't have to stop to fix anything ( 27A: Soul singer Thomas
). Didn't really know MARTA but had MART- before I ever saw the clue (
14A: Atlanta train system ). MARTA is the first name of one of the
creators of "Friends" ( MARTA Kauffman). Did I mention that I'm in the
middle of (re-)watching all of "Friends"? Speaking of IT 'S ALL RELATIVE,
we just watched the one where Rachel dates the guy who' a little too into
his own sister. OK, bye!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and
Facebook]

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