Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Christopher Adams

Relative difficulty: Easy (25:22, pretty normal for me for a Sunday)

THEME: MIXED METAPHORS (105A: Some laughable language mistakes - as found literally (in consecutive letters) in 24-, 37-, 55- 75-, and 92-Across)

Theme answers:

• ATMOSPHERE (24A: Aura) 
• BLAST FROM THE PAST (37A: Real Nostalgia Trip)
• FOR THE MOST PART (55A: Generally Speaking)
• CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (75A: Sometime Collaborator with William Shakespeare, per the Oxford University Press)
• PRIMROSE PATH (92A: Easy Way the Might lead to error)

Word of the Day: EPIPHYTE (113A: Organism that grows on another plant nonparasitcially) — An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur, like any other organism. They are an important source of food for many species. Typically, the older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that they grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily affect the host negatively. An epiphytic organism that is not a plant is sometimes called an epibiont. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone (e.g., many mosses, liverworts, lichens, and algae) or in the tropics (e.g., many ferns, cacti, orchids, and bromeliads). Epiphyte species make good houseplants due to their minimal water and soil requirements. Epiphytes provide a rich and diverse habitat for other organisms including animals, fungi, bacteria, and myxomycetes.

• • •

Hello out there in crossworld! Dan Felsenheld coming to you from Arlington, VA here filling in for Rex so he can take a much needed vacation. I was excited to see Christopher Adams' name when I opened up the NY Times website to download the puzzle this evening. I've done a number of his puzzles and always enjoyed them, they are often challenging and sometimes have math themes. Full disclosure, as a crossword nerd and attendee at various crossword tournaments I have met Mr. Adams a few times and enjoyed chatting with him. It's been a crazy week for me (I was traveling for work and have been unsuccessfully fighting off a cold all week) but it's always nice to sit down with a Sunday puzzle. The grid was extra wide this week I guess because of the theme clues.

My solving experience was actually a bit choppy, I had a few errors along the way that really slowed me down. I can never remember how to spell SEGO (25D: Beehive state bloomer), there is a SAGO palm that also shows up in crosswords but this refers to the cactus instead. I really wanted to put down MOZART for 66A: "A Little Night Music" composer and it took me forever to figure out it was SONDHEIM. For some reason I has put GESTE at 102A instead of GUSTO so that slowed me down a bit. In fact here is what my grid looked like about halfway through my solve:

So I had the top half, mostly (with errors), had a bit of trouble in the middle and was trying to work my way back up. At this point I had figured out that MARTINIS was wrong (I saw Gin and Vermouth and immediately filled in MARTINIS, ignoring the Campari reference) - but didn't yet know that it was supposed to be NEGRONIS instead. I've never had a NEGRONI, but I know Rex is a fan. I "finished" but had at least one error (I use Puzzazz on ipad for solving). Turned out I had several errors, as you can see I had ITALIA instead of IBERIA at 30A, I hadn't yet gotten there but I had PEP instead of PUP which was the last thing I filled in before I finally got the fully correct grid.

Now about the theme - Mixed Metaphors - I have to say I love a good mixed metaphor, they are usually hilarious, "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it", "Now the glove is on the other foot", Barack Obama once said that someone was "Green behind the ears".  George W. Bush was quoted saying "There's an old saying that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again". So while I thought the theme concept was sound, when I think of mixed metaphors I think "they make me laugh when I hear them", and I was trying to figure out what it was about the puzzle that was off to me and it's that there is very little hilarity in this puzzle.  I mean it's cool that you were able to find different phrases that had the letters for METAPHORS consecutively - CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE is an especially great find, but it felt less than elegant when there are letters before and after the METAPHOR string. The themers are all perfectly good fill, in the language phrases that work well on their own, but having the word METAPHORS anagrammed in them,¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm not a constructor, I don't know what exactly could have been done to improve this puzzle, maybe somehow try to work some actual mixed metaphors into the clues for the themers? Somehow ramp up the humor in the clues? I do have to say, to his credit, I had no idea what these theme answers had in common until I got to the revealer at 105A, which is something that I do like in a puzzle. There were a few partials in the puzzle: ORA, THEA, ISAID, SETA, TAI, but these didn't really bother me much.

There were a number of things that I did like about the puzzle. 83A: Place where musical talent may be wasted (KARAOKE BAR) is fantastic. Nice touch having PAX ROMANA (76A: Stable period from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius) right next to HOMO (77A: Man, to Marcus Aurelius). Had never heard of the song RODEO before (not a big country music fan, but I like it)
Clever way to clue IAMB (68D: One of two in "The Grapes of Wrath")

Bullets:

• 1D: One-named singer with the 2017 #1 Album "Melodrama" (LORDE) — My teenage daughters got me into listening to Lorde (to their embarrassment, bwahahaha), her music is quite good, go listen to it if you haven't
• 110A: Cocktails with gin, vermouth and Campari (NEGRONIS) — Saw Gin and Vermouth in the clue and imediately put down MARTINIS, only to change this later based on the crosses. I know Rex is a fan of these, I've never had one.
• 81D: Russian Rulers of Old (TSARINAS) — I got lucky on this one, whenever I see TSAR(INA), there is always the dilemma, is it going to be CZAR, CSAR, TSAR, or even TZAR. I don't remember seeing TSARINAS too often in the NYT puzzle, I would have to look at that other site that keeps track of these things to know the frequency. Also kudos for having more female representation in the puzzle!
• 115A: Bening with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (ANNETTE) — I love her as an actress, I feel like I haven't seen her is much lately though her IMDB page seems to indicate that she has been steadily working. Forgot she was in "The Grifters" which is such a great film, go out and find it if you haven't seen it.
• 104A: Girl's name that's also a state abbreviation (IDA): No. IDA is only a state abbreviation in crossword land not in real life. This couldn't have been clued this as "Muckraker Tarbell" or African-American investigative journalist and early civil rights leader Wells? 
• 96D: Baby Shark (PUP): I mentioned to my wife (hi Donna!) that the clue was "Baby Shark" and she immediately started singing "do do do do do do" but I won't link to the recently resurgent earworm video, nope, I won't. (but now you all have that song running through your brain don't you?)

You can follow me on twitter @imfromjersey if you want, I rarely tweet but I occasionally respond to others.

Signed, Dan Felsenheld, King (for a day) of CrossWorld.

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