Kvass ingredient / FRI 3-6-20 / "The Spanish Playing Cards" and "Nude With Mirror" / Opposite of mainstream / Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the ___"

Constructor: Caitlin Reid

Relative difficulty: Easyish

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Marianne Craig MOORE (25D: Poet Marianne who won a 1952 Pulitzer) —

Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.

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Hi all, Rachel Fabi in for Rex today. I'm doing double-duty today blogging the NYT here for Rex and the New Yorker over on another crossword blog whose name rhymes with Fiery of a Tossword Greened. Friday is my favorite crossword day of the week because we get (at least) two themelesses! What I love about themeless puzzles is that they really give the constructor's voice a chance to shine through the marquee entries they choose to highlight and the flexibility they have in their choice of fill, which is *definitely* the case with this puzzle.

In today's puzzle from Caitlin Reid, we have: one sparkly, colloquial, very much in-the-language long central entry (I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY), two super-solid stacks of 9s in the NE and SW, and six-ish crunchy long downs (including highlights MOCKTAIL, THE CASBAH, and TEA TOWELS). That last one was a struggle for me to parse, but it was very satisfying to finally crack with my last two letters (the W and the L).

"The Spanish Playing Cards" by Joan Miró

In terms of fill, Caitlin delivered a truckload of trivia, including Eliot NESS and his autobiography "The Untouchables," Pulitzer prize-winning poet Marianne MOORE (see above), Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of MIMI," Alfred BINET (Alfred who pioneered in I.Q. testing). AHAB (Literary character played by Gregory Peck, Patrick Stewart and Orson Welles), MIROS ("The Spanish Playing Cards" and "Nude With Mirror"), and Eugene O'Neill's "Desire under the ELMS." Whew! I almost had to double-check that this was the NYT and not the New Yorker, because that density of arts-and-culture fill would not be out of place over there. Not that I mind! This is a key feature of themeless puzzles that makes them fun; you can up the difficulty with trivia and wordplay in ways that might distract from a theme in a regular weekday (M-Th) puzzle.

Speaking of using wordplay to ratchet up the difficulty, we've got some fabulous doozies in here. "Turner on a record" for TINA (no question mark!), "Set out on the highway?" for TIRES, "Big cast?" for HEAVE, "Old knockout?" for ETHER, and my personal favorite, "Threat bearing small arms?" for T-REX. These are all so good! And the last one melds wordplay with the mental sight gag of a dino with tiny arms in a way that, again, really highlights the constructor's voice and sense of humor (see also: "Heavens to Betsy!" being the clue for OHMYGOSH for no reason other than that it's a funny expression. And the clue "Like a hospital gown, maybe" for DRAFTY).

There were a few things in this puzzle I didn't recognize, which is pretty par for the course on a Friday. K STATE, for instance. There are multiple "K" states! "Which state is K STATE?", you might reasonably wonder. Wonder no more, for I have googled, and the answer is Kansas State. I also didn't know this meaning of BREVE ("Two whole notes, essentially"), and I have never heard of HAIR TONIC, although that one is probably on me. Finally, I had no idea what Kvass was, and assumed it was a cocktail that had RYE whiskey as an ingredient. In fact, Kvass, is a fermented beverage made from LITERAL RYE BREAD. What a world!

Overall, in case it's not clear by this point, I very much enjoyed this puzzle. It was clever and fun and a little sassy, and I totally dig it. It's also yet another kickass puzzle coming out in the broader context of the Women's March of constructors (and the NYT's Women's First-Week-of-March). Keep 'em coming!

(...and, relatedly, I wrote this Saturday's Universal puzzle as part of Women's March, if you're looking for something silly, light, and/or themed).

Signed, Rachel Fabi, Queen-for-a-Day of CrossWorld

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