Plein-air prop / THU 2-22-24 / Puckish sort / What some are dyeing to be? / Issuance from an American embassy, in brief / Formosa barrier island system of Portugal / Hot topping for a cone?

Constructor: Dan Schoenholz

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: To the letter... — themer clues are regular words that have to be reparsed (and repronounced) in order to be understood; specifically, the theme clues have to be broken in two, with the second part being the clue and the first part being the letter of the alphabet that the answer starts with. Thus:

Theme answers:

• NO PARKING (17A: *Ensign) (i.e. type of "sign" that starts with "N")
• MAD AS HELL (25A: *Emirate) (i.e. word meaning "irate" starting with "M")
• RATTLER (39A: *Arbiter) (i.e. a "biter" that starts with "R")
• DUTCH OVEN (50A: *Depot) (i.e. a "pot" that starts with "D")
• BEEFEATER (61A: *Begin) (i.e. a "gin" that starts with "B")

Word of the Day: RIA Formosa (56A: ___ Formosa (barrier island system of Portugal)) —

The Ria Formosa lagoon, located in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, is a system of barrier islands that connects to the sea through six inlets. Five of these inlets are natural and have mobility characteristics. The sixth is an artificial inlet that was opened with the purpose of allowing easier access to the port of Faro. In 2010, the lagoon was recognised as one of the country’s seven natural wonders. Following a public vote in which 656,356 voted, the Ria Formosa was announced the winner of the Marine Area category of the ‘7 Maravilhas Naturais de Portugal’. [...] Little villages and towns in the area, such as Cabanas de Tavira, have a large number of bars, cafés and restaurants which are located along the riverfront and are also dotted around a couple of blocks inland. Annually, about 30,000 birds can be observed from Ria Formosa, since the region serves as a migratory corridor and contains some [of] the last remaining nesting grounds in Europe for some bird species. (wikipedia)

• • •

This seemed both clever and forced to me. You have to fudge the letter stuff. En, Em, and Ar are the actual spelled-out versions of those letters, but neither Be nor De are. And if you go by pronunciation, the first four work OK, but I don't pronounce "begin" with a long "E" sound in the first syllable ("BEE-gin"), so that doesn't quite work. But it's not like this mild inconsistency really wrecks the basic idea. For me, the tricky part was getting my brain *all* the way around the concept as I progressed. I started in the far north (as opposed to northwest, where I couldn't get LAVA right away (1A: Hot topping for a cone?) and so skipped to the next section), and from there backed into the first themer pretty easily:

And then somehow I convinced myself that this meant that the NO PARKING sign actually had an "N" on it, and that there would be similar ... signs? I don't know. The fact that the first part of the theme clue (Em, Ar, etc.) was going to refer solely to the first letter of the answer, that took some time for me to fully grasp. I wanted the letter to be more ... integral. Which is why I (mis-)imagined that the NO PARKING sign featured an "N." So the connection between the "letter" and the answer was much looser than I supposed. I found two of these themers pretty hard to get. DUTCH OVEN was probably the toughest to parse, even with multiple letters in place. I had the -CHOVE- part and could not see how to make anything out of it. I put the "D" up front and ... nope, still lost. My brain just never wants to allow that something called an "oven" can be a "pot." So I had to work for that one. But weirdly RATTLER was probably the hardest of the themers for me, for two reasons. One, if it had been RATTLESNAKE, I think I would've picked it up quickly, but as for the slangy RATTLER—there's no way for the clue to indicate that the answer is slang, so it just never occurred to me. Answer started RAT, I figured the RAT was the "biter" and I'd just have to figure out what *kind* of rat I was dealing with in those last four letters. Which brings us to problem number Two, which is that I absolutely could not get SLAIN from that clue (35D: Cut down), and so one of RATTLER's key letters (the "L") stayed hidden a long time. But these problems were not monumental. Just speedbumps. Overall, the puzzle played a little on the easy side for me.

The non-theme stuff that held me up today is all very innocuous. I already told you about SLAIN. Looking at my puzzle, I have also circled SWORD, AROSE, LITUP, and RIA. Taking these in reverse order: I just never heard of RIA Formosa. It sounds Gorgeous (and birdy!) (see Word of the Day, above). LITUP was tough because you just don't expect a two-word phrase to fit in a five-letter answer, so I had the "L" and went looking for ... well, one word. Needed crosses to figure it out. AROSE ... now this one bugs me. AROSE means [Came up]. It doesn't mean "happened" (i.e. [Came to pass]). There's a sense of completion to "came to pass" that there is not with AROSE. The connection between clue and answer feels forced to my ears. And as for SWORD, I probably knew the meaning of "ensiform" at some point in my life, but at this point in my life: nope. That's about it for difficulty today. 

I had Bon MOT before Bon AMI at 6D: Bon ___ but no other writeovers ... whoops, no, spoke too soon. I did, in fact, have another writeover, and oof it was unpleasant. I think I didn't mention it earlier because I'd repressed it—it's the ugliest part of the grid, which, unfortunately, was where I finished. Faced with the clue 9D: Launches an attack, and with -ES -AR already in place, I went with the very real and actual phrase, WAGES WAR. And this worked for a couple of the crosses, most notably AKITA, but for the others ... well, I was left wondering how GALES managed to deliver beta carotene to the body. "Wow, that's one strong wind! Just jams that beta carotene right through our pores, I guess!" But there was no way to rationalize WASSE at 9A: Tricky billiard shot, and it was then, realizing it had to be MASSE, that I realized also it had to be MAKES WAR, which is ... a phrase, but a much worse one that WAGES WAR. Worse, much worse: going with MAKES WAR meant I had to accede to plural (?!) KALES, oof. Some things don't want to be plurals, and KALE is one of them. So I had a double-ugh, right at the finish. That really took the quality level down a notch there at the end, but overall, I thought the puzzle was fine. Uneven, maybe, but conceptually clever, at least.

Notes:

• 1A: Hot topping for a cone? (LAVA) — so ... the "cone" of a volcano
• 23A: Migration pattern? (VEE) — for geese
• 47D: Big star, in Spain (SOL) — the "big star" here is the sun

• 29D: Stole from a burlesque act (BOA) — Cute but transparent trickery. I wrote in BOA without blinking ("Stole" is a noun here, not a verb, obviously)
• 13A: Plein-air prop (EASEL) — "Plein-air" refers to painting done "en plein air," or outdoors. It's a 19th-century artistic development, and is characteristic of a number of schools of painting, most notably Impressionism. I like that "prop" in this clue has two meanings—the EASEL is simply an item that you would use (like a "prop" in a play), but it also literally "props" up the painting.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. The Boswords Themeless League is about to start again. Here's League co-director John Lieb with the deets:

Registration for the Boswords 2024 Spring Themeless League is now open! This 10-week event starts with a Preseason puzzle on Monday, February 26 and features weekly themeless puzzles -- clued at three levels of difficulty -- from an all-star roster of constructors and are edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to solve a practice puzzle, to view the constructor line-up, and to learn more, go to www.boswords.org. 

Note the "three levels of difficulty"—this means that even if you're a relatively inexperienced solver, or you just prefer an easier solving experience, there's a place for you. Definitely check out the website if you're even a little curious.

P.P.S. I thought those of you who solved yesterday's puzzle might appreciate this definition of "tautology," which comes from the OED. Love to see a lexicographer having fun like this ...

 

[Thanks to Reis White for calling this to my attention]

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