Hebrew name that means his peace / SUN 7-9-17 / Noted brand once owned by utopian colony in Iowa / Company behind Falcon 9 launch vehicle / Bakr father in law of Muhammad

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "First for Knowledge" — "Th" sounds turned to "F" sounds; yes, that is it.

Theme answers:

• FREEZE A CROWD (24A: Make lots of people stop in their tracks?)
• CHEAP FRILLS (42A: Unnecessary extras that don't cost much?)
• FELONIOUS MONK (63A: Brother who's a criminal?)
• MIFF BUSTERS (86A: Annoy actors Keaton and Crabbe?)
• SECURITY FRET (105A: Safety worry?)
• SIX CHARACTERS IN / SEARCH OF AN OFFER (3D: With 44-Down, half-dozen real estate agents?)

Word of the Day: "SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN Author" (3D/44D) —

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Italian: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore [ˈsɛi persoˈnaddʒi in ˈtʃerka dauˈtoːre]) is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist metatheatrical play about the relationship among authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners, it premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome to a mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!") and "Incommensurabile!" ("Incommensurable!"), a reference to the play's illogical progression. Reception improved at subsequent performances, especially after Pirandello provided for the play's third edition, published in 1925, a foreword clarifying its structure and ideas. // The play had its American premiere in 1922 on Broadway at the Princess Theatre and was performed for over a year off-Broadway at the Martinique Theatre beginning in 1963. (wikipedia)

• • •

It pains me that the Sunday puzzle can get away with this kind of tepid, dad-humor, change-a-sound theme in 2017. It's the marquee puzzle of the week—pays 3x what a daily pays—and we get this. It's not badly made, it's just conceptually dry and bland. The answers aren't funny, the clues aren't funny, and the punchline / showstopper themer (30 letters long) absolutely fizzles right at the very end–right in the bottom right corner, right in the last word. The wacky word is ... OFFER. [cough] [tumbleweeds]. Nevermind that I've never heard of "Six Characters in / Search of an Author." Let's just say that's on me, Philistine that I am. Still, though, to have these sound-change "jokes" be sooo tepid ... it's really disappointing. CHEAP FRILLS doesn't reorient the phrase, tone-wise, enough to be funny. FELONIOUS MONK was probably clever a decade or two ago, before an actual comedian-type person took Felonious Munk as his stage name, before &$^%ing "CSI" made "FELONIOUS MONK" the title of one of its episodes. It's an old pun, is what I'm saying. FRET really doesn't land as a noun in SECURITY FRET. Over and over, the spark and humor and zing just aren't there.


As for difficulty, there was some. Felt like I got stuck a bunch, but then I hit a blistering pace toward the end, and finished with a slightly below-average time. Actually, maybe it is average. Maybe 10 and change is my average Sunday now. I should keep track of times for a few months and see where I am with my speeds. Slow start because [Flat, e.g.] was a tough clue for SHOE and also I wanted LETHALITY real bad at 23A: Deadliness (TOXICITY), nevermind that it didn't fit. MORNAY I've seen but forgot. EAR DROP sounds fake as hell. Could not figure out what Judd Apatow comedies were supposed to be like (BAWDY). Considered OH, WOW for a hot second. Spelled CRONOS thusly and so really didn't see KEFIR (which I barely know of anyway) (74D: Yogurtlike beverage). The clue on CAMEL is insultingly wrong and terrible. CAMELs have humps, not lumps. God, that kind of failed cutesiness is destructive. Rage-inducing. Clue should've had a "?" at a minimum (I mean, beyond the one it's already got for interrogative purposes). Ugh. ORKNEY is one of my most-want-to-go-to-there places, so I enjoyed seeing it here (92A: Scotland's ___ Islands), but honestly I didn't enjoy much else.


I was gonna write about a *certain* ice cream flavor that was clued (erroneously, imho) as "popular" in a recent puzzle, a flavor that I challenged people to seek out at their local ice cream parlors. I asked for people to send me photos of this experience—the success, the failure, the outright refusal to eat said flavor. But I realized that this (Sunday) puzzle will go into syndication before the ice cream puzzle gets syndicated, and I didn't want to spoil things too much. So I'll post my ice cream findings (and your pics) on Thursday (the one-week anniversary of the offending clue). Meanwhile, please continue to seek out the ice cream flavor in question, and send any pics of your adventures my way. I've got pics from France! Video from Sweden! Disappointed / disgusted supermarket selfies! Can't wait to share.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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