French river to English channel / MON 8-19-19 / British hitmaker on Iggy Azalea's Black Widow / Doughnut-shaped roll / Clarinetist Shaw / Mathematician once pictured on Swiss money

Constructor: Peter Gordon

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:08 on an oversized 16x15 grid)

THEME: ARTIE (71A: *Clarinetist Shaw ... or, when said aloud, the only two consonants in the answers to the starred clue) — theme answers contain both "R" and "T," and only "R" and "T," as their consonants:

Theme answers:

• TEETER TOTTER (21A: *Seesaw)
• TROT OUT (30A: *Bring forward for display)
• RITA ORA (47A: *British hitmaker on Iggy Azalea's "Black Widow")
• "TORA, TORA, TORA!" (57A: *1970 war film about the attack on Pearl Harbor)
• TOO TRUE (4D: *"Sadly, you're right")
• REITERATE (35D: *Say again)
• ROTO ROOTER (29D: *Plumbing company whose jingle says "away go troubles down the drain")
• RAT TERRIER (9D: *Vermin-hunting dog)
• TREATER (46D: *Trick-or-___ (kid on Halloween))
• TRATTORIA (11D: *Pasta-serving cafe)

Word of the Day: RITA ORA (47A) —

Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born Rita Sahatçiu; 26 November 1990) is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in February 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's single "Hot Right Now", which reached number one in the UK. Her debut studio album, Ora, released in August 2012, debuted at number one in the United Kingdom. The album contained the UK number-one singles, "R.I.P." and "How We Do (Party)". Ora was the artist with the most number-one singles on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, with three singles reaching the top position.

Ora’s second studio album, Phoenix, was released in November 2018. The lead single, "Your Song", reached the UK top ten, and the subsequent singles, "Anywhere" and "Let You Love Me", reached the top five in the UK; the latter single made Ora the first British female solo artist to have thirteen top ten songs in the United Kingdom. (wikipedia)

• • •

That's eleven (11!) theme answers, if you count the revealer, which you should, so ... that's a lot. That's all I can say about this theme. It's a lot. Putting a lot of words that have just R's and T's in them into the grid ... seems like a very crosswordy thing to do. I mean, that's going with the flow as opposed to against it. Grids are naturally chock full of the RLSTNE (aka "Wheel of Fortune" or WOF letters), so this one is just ... more so? I don't see the point. It's an interesting architectural feat, getting a grid to work with so many multiply intersecting themers, but solving it wasn't terribly exciting. Because of the theme density, and the inherently crosswordesey nature of the theme, the grid tended toward the crosswordesey. Crosswordese *already* tends to be heavy on those letters (ERTE, RETE, TROU, ad infinitum), and then with the theme pressure, the crosswordese of all stripes starts coming out: EVEL, ANI, RARA, EULER, ERNO, three-R'd BRRR, ORNE (oof) and the unforgivable -TION, just to name the most obvious. Some of the themers were interesting answers in their own right (esp. RAT TERRIER), but there's not a lot of genuine word-sparkle here. And letter sparkle isn't a thing, even if R's and T's were sparkly, which they're not.


I think the word "roll" in 51D: Doughnut-shaped roll (BAGEL) really threw me because I had the "B" and wanted only BIALY. Looks like BAGELs and BIALYs are frequently sold together—here are two recent usage examples from merriam-webster.com (who defines BIALY as "a flat breakfast roll that has a depressed center and is usually covered with onion flakes"):

I had most trouble today with 6A: Disparaging remark (SLUR) because I wrote in BARB, and 14A: ___ box (computer prompt) (DIALOG), both because I barely know what that is and because I spell DIALOGUE thusly. I happened to know who RITA ORA is, but I don't think of her as Monday-famous on this side of the pond at all, and LOL to the idea that using Iggy Azalea in your clue is going to help your typical NYTXW solver figure out the answer. If you don't know who RITA ORA is, seems like an Iggy Azalea hint is likely to be meaningless to you too.


Thank to Chris Adams for filling in for me yesterday. Good thing he did, too, 'cause I drank more than I've drunk since I was in my 20s and was in no condition to write a blog either last night or this morning. Mezcal margaritas! What a revelation. I drank a great deal more than I normally do, but somehow managed to avoid sickness or hangover, so self-high-five for that. I was enjoying the city and being out with friends I get to see only once or twice a year. Oh, and I was celebrating this:

[3rd Place, Pairs Division, Lollapuzzoola 12]

So nice to see so many old friends, and to see so many readers, who were all so kind. I'm a somewhat introverted person who gets easily overwhelmed by crowds, but by and large crossword crowds rule. Plus, they understand if you just need to go stand in the corner and be by yourself for a few minutes to recharge your battery. My favorite moments came when meeting people who didn't know I was "Rex Parker" (I compete under my given name, Michael Sharp). I competed all day at a table with a lovely couple (Pat and Daren), and we chatted quite a bit, and then late in the day, my wife heard Pat say to Daren, "I think that was Rex Parker who just walked by." When my wife intervened to tell her, "Um, Michael [points to me] is Rex Parker," her reaction ... well, I feel lucky to have been there to see it. So special. She was crying/laughing, and then so was I, and it was all perfect. By the time she squeaked out "Thank you for your work," I was practically on the floor. I'm lucky to know so many kind and thoughtful and appreciative people because of this shouting into the cybersphere that I do every day. Even when I am no longer in any way competitive, I'm still gonna go to these tournaments because the company is so *&$^ing great.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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