Southeast Asian housemaid / MON 10-14-19 / Root in Polynesian culture / Stackable cookie / Specialized military group

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium (3:21)

THEME: MAKE THE CUT (65A: Survive elimination ... or what one may do to the ends of 17-, 31-, 38- and 50-Across) — the "ends" are all things you can cut :/

Theme answers:

• PERSIAN RUG (17A: Carpet woven in Iran)
• HOT MUSTARD (31A: Tangy condiment)
• VOCAL CORD (38A: One of two in the larynx)
• FLIGHT DECK (50A: Where planes land on an aircraft carrier)

Word of the Day: VESTRY (23D: Clergy's changing room) —

1a: SACRISTY

b: a room used for church meetings and classes

2a: the business meeting of an English parish

b: an elective body in an Episcopal parish composed of the rector and a group of elected parishioners administering the temporal affairs of the parish (merriam-webster)

• • •

I heard that the NYTXW gets something like 500 submissions a month. Impressive. Also, depressing. How bad *are* those submissions, exactly? If you're getting that many submissions, why is the quality of the puzzle so mediocre (relative to indie outlets). It's astonishing. This puzzle is a case in point. It's an oldish style theme that doesn't even work properly. It's fine. Familiar. It's something we're all used to seeing. But it doesn't really work, and it certainly isn't fresh, fun, current, or anything that makes crossword puzzles delightful. MAKE *THE* CUT? Ok, but you cut THE mustard, THE cord, THE deck, but you do not cut THE rug. No, you don't. You cut A rug (assuming this answer is referring to the idiom regarding dancing). You cut THE cheese. You cut THE crap (ideally!). You cut A deal. Sigh. Why isn't this group consistent? Also, all the cuts are idiomatic *except* deck, which is literal. It's just so ... ticky tack and low rent. The fill is also adequate, hyper-familiar, not terribly interesting. The NYT should be much better than this. They NYT should be much better than this. The NYT should be much better than this.


Always, always going to botch SLIER, which looks horrible (5D: More crafty). SLYER should be the proper spelling, it just should (5D: More crafty). I think most of the slowness I encountered on this solve was due to VESTRY, which ... sounds like it means "entryway" or something like that, but apparently means [Clergy's changing room]!? I guess I was thinking of "vestibule"?? Anyway, another word for VESTRY is "sacristy." Sigh. None of this is Monday-level knowledge, but whatever, now you know new things (or I do, at any rate). That is a horrible clue for AIN'T (36A: "You ___ kiddin'!"). Was the "n" -apostrophe supposed to cue the ungrammaticalness? "You ___ seen nothin' yet" wins. "___ Misbehavin'" wins. This clue loses. I somehow thought the FLIGHT DECK was where the pilot and co-pilot sit, like the "cockpit" or something? And I see that I'm correct ("the forward compartment on some airplanes," per Merriam-Webster) but that doesn't matter, because the clue is correct, technically, even if it's not the context in which most people are going to hear that term. Oh well. Not much else to say about this one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. there's no reason for the oldest of old-skool crosswordese AMAH to appear on a Monday (18D: Southeast Asian housemaid). Maybe if you're desperate in a late-week themeless, or a theme-dense Thursday, you can go back to that answer, but otherwise, ugh. Mothballs.

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