I think it was less of an annoyance / distraction today because the cluing was decent, the themers were decent, the revealer was bright and original, and the long Downs really popped. Looking back over the grid, it does have a lot of overfamiliar short stuff. The wikipedia entry is for " Facial Recognition System." But a quick couple of google searches reveals that FACE and FACIAL are used pretty interchangeably out there, so judges say: no foul. That is what the term wants to be in my head, what my brain wants the term to be.
My only complaint about the theme is that I think the term is more commonly known as FACIAL RECOGNITION. My favorite part of the theme was that my figuring out the theme was built into the theme itself that is, I had to engage in FACE RECOGNITION in order to see the theme at all.
Then I reread the clue and took another pass, and bam, there it was, plain as the nose (and other elements) on your face. Before figuring out the theme, my impressions were "grid was kinda choppy, kinda fussy to navigate, seemed heavy on short stuff, but the fill was decent, and the longer Downs were fun and original (" LOVE SHACK!"), so let's hope this theme doesn't ruin everything." And then I looked at FACE RECOGNITION, took one look at the themers, and had Nothing. That is, I had no idea what the theme was, but the solving experience was pretty decent and FACE RECOGNITION was a pretty snazzy answer (despite its dystopian / surveillance state associations), so I was happily along for the ride, waiting to see what I would find when I went back at puzzle's end to figure out the theme. Despite the unwelcome return of IPHOTO (what is even happening, why is this bygone i-word haunting my grids!?), I really enjoyed this theme.
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