Erato played one / FRI 12-11-15 / Junk removal service / Internet based Homeland Security program used by employers / What carries shield typically / It featured parody soap Days of Week / Cumulative series of bets /

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: FOOD WEB (28A: System of what eats what) —

A food web (or food cycle) is the natural interconnection of food chains and generally a graphical representation (usually an image) of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is a consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs. To maintain their bodies, grow, develop, and to reproduce, autotrophs produce organic matter from inorganic substances, including both minerals and gases such as carbon dioxide. These chemical reactions require energy, which mainly comes from the sun and largely by photosynthesis, although a very small amount comes from hydrothermal vents and hot springs. A gradient exists between trophic levels running from complete autotrophs that obtain their sole source of carbon from the atmosphere, to mixotrophs (such as carnivorous plants) that are autotrophic organisms that partially obtain organic matter from sources other than the atmosphere, and complete heterotrophs that must feed to obtain organic matter. The linkages in a food web illustrate the feeding pathways, such as where heterotrophs obtain organic matter by feeding on autotrophs and other heterotrophs. The food web is a simplified illustration of the various methods of feeding that links an ecosystem into a unified system of exchange. There are different kinds of feeding relations that can be roughly divided into herbivory, carnivory, scavenging and parasitism. Some of the organic matter eaten by heterotrophs, such as sugars, provides energy. Autotrophs and heterotrophs come in all sizes, from microscopic to many tonnes - from cyanobacteria to giant redwoods, and from viruses and bdellovibrio to blue whales. (wikipedia)

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Typically thorny Silk puzzle. Only two "?" clues in the whole thing, but they were right on top of each other, right up front, so their effect was outsized. [Store in the Middle East?] kept me stymied for a while, even after I got OIL R-. Same for [Round numbers?] even after I got GREEN-.  Main problem up there was writing in SPAM FOLDER at 1A: Junk removal service (SPAM FILTER). I sort of knew that a "FOLDER" wasn't a service, but I thought maybe by some stretch it could be. And it sure fit. It was the answer I managed to cobble together from very few answers I had after my first pass at the NW: MRES, FEN, and REST were all I could put in with certainty. From that: SPAM FOLDER! Sometimes, 80% accuracy is sufficient to get things going. Once I got out of the NW, it wasn't too tough to get through the middle and into the SE, where, with the exception of the toughish SEEK ASYLUM (56A: Try to escape a tyrant), things were a little easier-going. That left the NE and SW corners, both of which looked like potential disasters. Something about their shape and sequesteredness suggested they could easily become dead ends.

I was half right. The SW turned out to be remarkably easy, as TURN INTO and TRIAL RUN fell right into place. And the NE also looked like it was going to come together, but once I got in close, things got tough. FOOD . . . FOOD . . . I got nothin'. Just nothin'. FOOD CHAIN ... and then I'm out of FOOD phrases. This is my first time seeing FOOD WEB. Without that WEB, traction in the NE was that much harder to come by. I had IBAR and LYRE in there, but LYRE seemed like it could be LUTE, and even with SLICED in place, none of the rest of the ACRosses were coming, which meant also that none, None of the Downs would fall. [Large-scale spread of viruses, say] was never ever going to lead me to CYBER WAR, for instance. The only way I toppled that section was by brainstorming four-letter shows that started with "S" (11A: It featured the parody soap "The Days of the Week"). At first, the only show I could think of was ... "Soap." But somehow "SCTV" (which I've never actually seen, I don't think) came to me out of the blue, and then everything gelled. But before that ... that clue on CENT? (21A: 1850s Flying Eagle, e.g.) No way. Same with the clue on the icky ACR (32A: From one end to the other; Abbr.). IN ALL, this seemed a decent offering—somewhat outside my cultural wheelhouse, as Silk puzzles usually are, but sufficiently feisty for a Friday, and mostly clean (despite some assorted regressive junk, e.g. ISS MRES ACR STLO INRI CIERA OTT AMATI IBAR AOL). Is it weird to have TRIPLE A and AAA CELL in the same grid? A little. Crossing each other? A little more. 5-yard penalty. Repeat first down.


I'm off to the deep northeast today, so my next write-up will come to you from a cabin in the woods. Literally. Gonna write and read and drink coffee and sleep and not much else. Leaving very very early, and so ... to bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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