Novelty dance with comical elbow-flapping / TUE 7-14-26 / Ancient fortress overlooking the Dead Sea / Corrupting sorts, in an orchard metaphor / Folded French pancake / Assistant with a whisper mode / Traditional sumo hairstyles / Hired soldier, in slang / Tea with tapioca pearls / Lake bird with a laughing call

Constructor: Gus Bloxham and Bharati Hemmady

Relative difficulty: Easy (undersized grid, 14x15)

THEME: OFF COURSE (58A: Heading the wrong way ... or, interpreted culinarily, a hint to 15-, 21-, 35 and 47-Across) — familiar phrases or names that sound like a "course" (i.e. food) that has gone "off":

Theme answers:

• BAD APPLES (15A: Corrupting sorts, in an orchard metaphor)
• SPOILED BRATS (21A: Nightmares for nannies)
• ROTTEN TOMATOES (35A: Movie review site with a percentage rating scale)
• FUNKY CHICKEN (47A: Novelty dance with comical elbow-flapping)

Word of the Day: MASADA (7D: Ancient fortress overlooking the Dead Sea) —

Masada (Hebrew: מְצָדָה məṣādā, 'fortress'; Arabic: جبل مسعدة, romanized: jabal musayda, lit. 'mount museida') is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BC, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising over 400 m (1,300 ft) above the surrounding terrain, 20 km (12 mi) east of modern Arad.

The most significant remains at the site date to the reign of Herod the Great, King of Judaea under Roman administration c. 37–4 BC, who transformed Masada into a fortified desert refuge early in his rule. He enclosed the summit with a casemate wall and towers, and constructed storerooms, an advanced water system, and bathhouses, along with two elaborate palaces: one on the western side and another built across three terraces on the northern cliff. These palaces remain among the finest examples of Herodian architecture.

Masada is most renowned for its role during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 AD), when it became the final holdout of Jewish rebels following the destruction of Jerusalem. [...] 

The surrounding Roman siege works and bases remain visible and are among the most intact examples of Roman military engineering. Today, Masada is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to those siege works, and one of Israel's most popular tourist attractions, drawing around 750,000 visitors a year. (wikipedia)

• • •

Short write-up this morning (probably?) since I gotta be out of the house pretty early today for an appointment in Syracuse (an hour+ away). I need to be done with the write-up ahead of time (i.e. well before 6am) in order to preserve my sacred "Drink coffee and do nothing" time, which will otherwise get impinged upon by the stupid appointment. You understand. I am in the weird position today of finding myself liking this puzzle despite the fact that the theme has a few things about it that are just, well, off. Two big ones, both having to do with consistency. With three of today's theme answers, the "courses" do not fundamentally change meaning if you imagine them as food. Apples, tomatoes, chicken—they all retain their basic meaning if you imagine them as an "off course." Yes, you change the context of the word (esp. for CHICKEN), but you don't fundamentally change the meaning. The FUNKY CHICKEN involves the imitation of a chicken. That's different from chicken that has gone off, but the basic meaning of "chicken" is the same. But BRATS?! To make your food meaning work, you have to change the meaning of that word completely, not to mention the pronunciation. Brats (rhymes with "cats") vs. brats (rhymes with "cots"). That's an existential change, whereas the others are mere contextual shifts. Apples are apples are apples, but SPOILED BRATS are not sausages (although ... I have a modest proposal ... hear me out!). 

The second issue with the theme is that BAD APPLES and ROTTEN TOMATOES are already about food that's gone off. That is, the revealer doesn't really change their meaning much at all. Those “courses” come pre-turned. BAD APPLES is a metaphor that comes from ... literally BAD APPLES. And ROTTEN TOMATOES, same. The revealer doesn't require much (re-)imagination where those answers are concerned. Whereas with SPOILED BRATS and FUNKY CHICKEN, the revealer provides a lot more transformational zing. "Spoiled" and "funky" really change meaning. The shift from spoiled kids or a silly dance to bad food is an abrupt and surprising one, making those answers far more enjoyable and clever than the other themers. And yet even at half power (i.e. with the revealer only really transforming two of the four theme phrases), the theme still made me laugh, still gave me an aha. Turning those kids and that dance into rotten food—that's the kind of bizarre "TA-DA!" I can get behind on a Tuesday.

One more annoying thing about the theme, though. Not about the theme per se, but about the cluing on a couple of the theme answers. Why is the puzzle giving (awkwardly) all this extra information that the solver does not really need? Take the clue on BAD APPLES (15A: Corrupting sorts, in an orchard metaphor). "In an orchard metaphor"? You don't need that phrase at all, and if you're thinking "well, it's Tuesday, we should provide a little more direction," then you could just use "in a metaphor." "In an orchard metaphor" is just ridiculous. It kind of implies that "orchard metaphors" are some kind of category we're all familiar with, that there will be many such metaphors to choose from. "Orchard" is unnecessarily specific and hand-holding, as is "interpreted culinarily" in the revealer clue (58A: Heading the wrong way ... or, interpreted culinarily, a hint to 15-, 21-, 35 and 47-Across). That clue could easily go straight into "or a hint to etc." In fact, it should. Stop treating solvers like idiots. The puzzle remains easy without your falling over yourself pointing the way to the correct answers. Let solvers work it out! Larding in all these "helper" phrases is just insulting, not to mention stylistically inelegant. 

[BUSTA!] (31A: Rapper ___ Rhymes)

No real difficulty today. I had SNOUT for SNOOT (39A: Schnozzle) and I didn't know (or forgot) MASADA. That was about it for trouble spots. Oh, no, PAPER CUT, that one definitely got me (8D: Slice of Life or nick of Time?). "Of" is doing some pretty heavy, awkward lifting in that clue. I also got slowed down at the clue on "OK. SO?" because the clue did not make sense, to my ear (45D: "All right. What's the big deal?"). "All right. What's the big deal?" sounds like something you say when you genuinely want to know what the big deal is. Like, someone shouts for you to come see something and they're getting impatient and finally you walk in and are like "All right. What's the big deal?" I.e. show me the big deal. "OK. SO?" implies that you have seen the alleged "big deal" and found it wanting. Somehow the clue doesn't quite get at that. Or, it does, but only if you read the clue with a very specific inflection. I think I just hate "OK, SO?" as an answer. Throw it on the rubbish pile of "OH"- and "UH"- and  "UM"- and "OK"-starting phrases. 

Bullets:

• 38D: Hired soldier, in slang (MERC) — from "mercenary," even though I think you pronounce MERC with a hard "C." There's a renowned movie makeup artist from the mid-20th century named PERC Westmore, and every time I see his name in the opening credits (and I see it A Lot—just yesterday, in fact), I think "... Purse? Perk? What are we doing here?"
• 1D: Campsite crasher in the Rockies (BEAR) — weird to specify "in the Rockies" since presumably BEARs crash campsites all around the world.
• 24A: "We come in peace" speakers, in a sci-fi trope (ALIENS) — 2x sci-fi answers today, as we get not only space travel (here) but time travel as well (8A: Destination for some sci-fi travelers = PAST)
• 33D: Lachrymal unit (TEAR) — this is what the ALIENS say when they see you crying. "The human is releasing lachrymal units despite the fact that we come in peace. Abort mission! Abort mission! Oh, General Doxmerc is going to be so mad ..." 

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...

Meccano offering for budding builders / MON 7-13-26 / Singer Vikki with three Grammys / Woodsy abode / Human's earliest phase, according to Freud / Metaphorical Cold War barrier / Small aircraft for short flights

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Challenging (when solved Downs-only)

THEME: PLAYTHINGS (57A: Toys ... or the ends of 17-, 25-, 35- and 48-Across) — last words of theme answers are "things" involved in stage "plays":

Theme answers:

• ERECTOR SET (17A: Meccano offering for budding builders)
• ORAL STAGE (25A: Human's earliest phase, according to Freud)
• IRON CURTAIN (35A: Metaphorical Cold War barrier)
• TURBO PROP (48A: Small aircraft for short flights)

Word of the Day: BASTE (49D: Sew loosely) —

: to sew with long loose stitches in order to hold something in place temporarily (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Holy cow that was harrowing. I could tell that those NE and SW corners were potential trouble for a Downs-only solver (i.e. me), but I had no idea how much trouble. Banks of longer Downs (7-7-8) ... trying to get into those when you're solving Downs-only can be very tough. In general, the longer the answer, the harder it is to solve without any crosses, and when you're solving Downs-only, most of the time, you don't have any crosses. So from the NW to the SE, I was good. No trouble. I cut a diagonal swath through this one without too much effort. But those NE and SW corners, dear lord. First pass at both of them yielded nothing. And I mean nothing. Even the five-letter downs (which ended up being SCANT and BASTE)—nothing. Nada. I thought SCANT was LEAST (10D: Minimal), maybe, and I had no idea about BASTE (really hard BASTE clue for a Monday, imho—way more people are familiar with basting a turkey, say, than basting as a form of sewing). Luckily, because I knew the theme, I was able to get the STAGE part of ORAL STAGE, so I had some small amount of help in the NE, but I could not figure out the TURBO part of TURBO PROP, so in the SW I was even more at sea. My first breakthrough was LOG CABIN (11D: Woodsy abode), and the "G" from STAGE eventually got me ENRAGED, but WEASELS, boy that took some time (13D: Sneaky types). SLE- could've been SLED. AGR- could've been a prefix (AGRI-? AGRO-?). Was it INCAN or INCAS? BED, BEE, BEG, BEL, BEN, BET ...? I was ready to give in with neither of the big corners finished, but I pushed on and the NE fell first. The SW ... I guessed SETTLED and that started the ball rolling. But that [Emphatic affirmative], yikes, that could've been a million things. "YES I CAN!"? "HELL YES!" I think I tried "I SURE AM!" at one point and then "I SURE DO" just worked better. The very last thing to fall was BASTE, but since I had TRIED before TRIAD, even that last little answer was trouble. So ... a satisfying struggle! Victory was mine! And yeah, the theme ... it's pretty good. Nice bit of wordplay in the revealer. Interesting answers. Very Monday. Thumbs up.

Knowing the theme helped a lot with the Downs-only solve (ORAL STAGE in particular), though I was confused at first because an ERECTOR SET is literally a "plaything" (as in a "toy") and so I kind of expected all the themers to be toys. But then I got IRON CURTAIN and thought, "that's not a toy? Is it? Was there an IRON CURTAIN board game or something?" No. I mean, maybe, who knows, but games and toys are not, in the end, the point of the theme answers. The "Play" in PLAYTHINGS = a stage play. Funny—I saw Death of a Salesman in April, and just today (literally, like an hour ago) my friend Dawn saw the same production and posted about it before the play started, at intermission, and afterward. 

Of course my daughter's whole life is theater. She's living in NYC this summer filling in as a technical director on some show before heading to Nantucket (!) to work at some festival. From there, we'll see her in CA for family vacation before she heads back to Yale for the second year of her MFA program. Is any of this relevant to the theme? Only kinda sorta—I just like talking about my kid. Sue me!

The fill is clean today, but ... Vikki CARR felt very dated (36D: Singer Vikki with three Grammys). Not a Monday clue for anyone under, say 50. I knew her name, but a. I'm not under 50, and b. I thought it might be KARR (though now that I look at KARR, that looks awfully wrong). Can you name a Vikki CARR song? I wanna say "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." Is that right??? Whoops, no, that's Vicki "Don't Call me Vikki" Lawrence, of The Carol Burnett Show fame. Vikki CARR sang "He's a Rebel" (!). All of her Grammys were for Latin music. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, Carr had enormous success in the Latin music world, winning Grammy Awards for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1986 for her album Simplemente Mujer, Best Latin Pop Album in 1992 for Cosas del Amor and Best Mexican-American Performance in 1995 for Recuerdo a Javier Solís. (wikipedia)

Along with UNSER, Vikki CARR gives this puzzle an old-fashioned feel, but in general the fill is simply broadly accessible, with very little pop culture to date it at all. 

Bullets:

• 29D: Humorous parody (SEND-UP) — another trouble spot. You know what else fits the clue and starts with an "S"? SATIRE!
• 25A: Human's earliest phase, according to Freud (ORAL STAGE) — something about the wording on this clue feels so strange. "Human?" Like, one? The clue feels like it's being uttered by an alien. [Earliest stage of human development] somehow makes more sense / sounds more natural.
• 31A: Ann Patchett novel "___ Canto" ("BEL") — she has a new book out. It's got a horse on the cover but (I hear) has no horses in it at all. I forget the name, hang on ... Oh, right. Whistler. From the cover, it looks like it's about a horse named Whistler, but apparently it is not, in fact, about a horse named Whistler. I've heard good things so I might try to shoehorn it into my book queue, which is currently filled with Colson Whitehead books (currently rereading Crook Manifesto in preparation for next week's release of Cool Machine, the last book in the Harlem Trilogy). Other books in the queue are Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (which I started on vacation and am really enjoying) and Employees by Olga Ravn (which I'm reading for my Movie Club Book Club) (my Movie Club started a Book Club, what can I say, these things happen)

[Out July 21]

[Again, according to some guy I saw on Instagram: not about a horse]

• 18D: Ohio port on Lake Erie (TOLEDO) — speaking of my (Lake Huron) vacation, we drove through TOLEDO both ways. Despite having gone to graduate school only an hour or so away, I've only ever driven through Toledo ... except for that one time I went to the museum there. A really first-rate institution. Saw a Rubens exhibit there in the '90s. Stunning.

[The Head of Cyrus Brought to Queen Tomyris (Rubens, c. 1622)]
[This painting is massive: roughly 7.5 ft x 12 ft]

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. forgot to mention I had PLED OUT before SETTLED (38D: Avoided a trial, say). It felt so right!

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️: 

• Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]

=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:

• Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)

Read more...