Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: December 2024

Constructor: John Lieb

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

[there's a little ZAMBONI icon blocking the second "I" in INDIC (121A: Like Sanskrit)]

THEME: ZAMBONI (93D: Machine waiting to enter the middle of this grid, as suggested by the answers to the starred clues) — the middle of the grid is an "ICE" rink, represented by five isolated ICE answers, one atop the other (the Downs inside the "ice rink" must be read phonetically to be understood). The ICE rink awaits the ZAMBONI (which, if you solve in the app or on the website, appears in a little animation at the end to "resurface" the ICE). The starred clues throughout the grid have ordinary answers that can be read as ZAMBONI-related puns:

The ICEs:

ICE (54A: Decorate at a bakery)
ICE (61A: Clinch)
ICE (68A: Off, in mob slang)
ICE (73A: Rapper ___ Spice)
ICE (77A: Diamonds, informally)

The central Downs:

IIIII (i.e. "ayes") (54D: Positive votes)
CCCCC (i.e. "seize") (55D: "___ the day!")
EEEEE (i.e. "ease") (56D: Comfort)

The ZAMBONI puns (i.e. the starred clues):

SURFACE SCRATCH (23A: *Blemish on a vehicle)
SLOW-ROLLING (35A: *Like a weakly hit ground ball)
ADDED / LAYER (32A: *With 101-Across, extra level of intricacy)
FROZEN ASSET (97A: *Holding that's hard to convert to cash)
"SMOOTH OPERATOR" (115A: *1984 Sade hit)
CLEAN SHEETS (16D: *Expectation at the start of a hotel stay)
GLOSSES OVER (66D: *Quickly moves past in conversation)

Word of the Day: ZAMBONI (93D) —

An ice resurfacer is a vehicle or hand-pushed device for cleaning and smoothing the surface of a sheet of ice, usually in an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni in 1949 in Paramount, California. As such, an ice resurfacer is often referred to as a "Zamboni" as a genericized trademark. (wikipedia)

• • •

As I've said before, I'm not usually big on puzzles that are primarily architectural feats, or on puzzles that rely heavily on post-solve shenanigans (i.e. animation) for their entertainment value. That said, I like this puzzle better than most "architectural feat" puzzles because the theme involves not just physical manipulation of the grid, but wordplay to boot, and lots of it. The "ICE rink" here is particularly ingenious. You've got this strikingly isolated 3x5 section in the middle of the grid, which appears to violate one of the cardinal rules of crosswords ("Thou shalt have all over connectivity"). But the "rink" does end up being connected, conceptually, by the theme—namely the ZAMBONI, which is indeed "waiting to enter the middle of this grid." It's then connected physically to the rest of the grid, but only if you experience the post-solve animation, where a little ZAMBONI comes scooting onto the ICE and smooths everything out (i.e. systematically erases all those "ICE"s, turning them a bright ice-blue).

Print solvers obviously miss out on the post-solve ZAMBONI appearance. My software ended up in a kind of No Man's Land when rendering the animation, giving me instead a static picture of what I ultimately inferred was supposed to be a ZAMBONI, and then a teeny line connecting the "rink" to the rest of the grid, which (in the animation) is the entry/exit point of for the ZAMBONI.

Those "rink" answers, particularly the Acrosses, are very easy to get, so it's likely you didn't need any particular assistance from the theme to work them out. From a pure solving standpoint, best thing about the "center ice" (which, I just realized, describes this puzzle perfectly *and* is the actual term for the central part of a hockey rink) is the clever way the Downs are worked out, the all-one-letter phonetic solutions to "AYES," "SEIZE," and "EASE." This gives the puzzle an ADDED / LAYER (!) of wordplay, on top of the general punniness of the answers to the starred clues. Overall, the puzzle reminded me a lot of the recent HOT AIR BALLOON puzzle, with its pictorial element and its punny themers. The balloon puzzle's pictorial element was more striking, but it was also more obvious—I like how this "rink" kind of snuck up on me—and the added wordplay involved in the "ICE rink" composition gave it a little extra zing.

[88A: Either of two wise-cracking film critics in "Mystery Science Theater 3000"]

As for the fill, my main comment is "Rizzo had a first name!? And it was BETTY!?!?!?" Admittedly, it's been many many years since I watched Grease, but I have watched it a lot, and somehow forgot the BETTY tidbit. Now that I'm typing it out, I seem to remember that ... maybe (?) there was a scene where people (the T-Birds?) teased her about her first name (for sounding too "good girl," maybe). Anyway, she is decidedly mononymous throughout the film, so I had a big blank where BETTY was supposed to go, and somehow that blankness radiated westward and made everything over there harder. That section below ADDED and above ÉTÉ was by far the hardest part for me to work out. No idea about ALDA (32D: Emmy winner born Alphonso D'Abruzzo), DOUP (33D: Arrange, as hair), or DUMAS (45A: "The Corsican Brothers" author, 1844). The BETTY-adjacent TISSUES had that "?" clue that kept it out of my reach for a bit (47D: Cold comfort?). I had MILEPOST before SIGNPOST (64A: Info provider at a crossroads), I totally forgot the Elgort guy (ANSEL) (83A: Actor Elgort of "West Side Story"), and with GOSSIP, again, the "?" clue got me (89A: Dirt-y words?), as did the fact that the answer itself wasn't a plural (the clue could've just been ["Dirt"], but they had to go and get fancy). But outside of that section, things were very easy. I misspelled Bert LAHR's name (as LEHR) and wouldn't have noticed if BASEL hadn't looked so wrong (105A: ___ metabolism => BASAL; whereas BASEL is a city in Switzerland; BASIL, of course, remains a culinary herb, which I'm unlikely to forget, as it is the only member of the BAS-L family with which I have regular contact). In that same area, I struggled (slightly) to figure out the "setting" for "Cinderella," after ROYAL PALACE and ROYAL CASTLE wouldn't fit. Once I got ROYAL BALL, it seemed obvious, but once you start looking for a physical place, it's hard to stop.

[SIGNPOST suddenly triggered a memory of this textbook/workbook that I had in elementary school (in the late '70s); haven't thought about it at all since elementary school ... until now. Crazy]

Some notes:

5A: Source of distress for a bull (DIP) — briefly worried that there was going to be some animal suffering in the puzzle, but "bull" here is just someone betting on a "bull" (i.e. rising) market. To that person, a (market) DIP would be potentially distressful.
1A: Smack (BUSS) — both words for “kiss”
13A: Actress Barton of "The O.C." (MISCHA) — kinda going back for this one. I watched the show for a bit, so I know her name, but secondary actors on bygone TV can be dicey name territory. Luckily, today, the crosses all seem fair. That's assuming you knew SCREE, or at least knew enough to infer that "S" (15D: Rocky debris).
28A: Things compared between Wordle solvers (STREAKS) — ew, what? People do this? I am a religious Wordle solver but I've never given one thought to my "streak," and even if I did, the idea that I'd "compare" mine with someone else's, no. Weird. Crossword streaks are far more noteworthy and substantial as puzzling accomplishments go—and I wouldn't compare them either. No one cares about your streak (but you).
73A: Rapper ___ Spice (ICE) — if you've never heard of her, I'm not that surprised. She is a very recent phenomenon (rising to fame sometime in the past few years) ("she began her musical career in 2021," per wikipedia). But I'm no expert. I only know about her because they discussed her on "All Songs Considered" once, and also some local frat (I think?) has a poster of her hanging in their window downtown that I walk past all the time. It looks something like this:

91A: Co-star of 1952's "Moulin Rouge," familiarly (ZSA-ZSA) — I had no idea ZSA-ZSA Gabor was in ... anything. She always seemed to be famous primarily for being famous. Unlike her sister, EVA, who was on Green Acres. Anyway, my reaction to this clue was "they had a 'Moulin Rouge' in 1952?" News to me. I know ZSA-ZSA primarily from a single episode of The Love Boat. Here's a clip (in German, for added fun):

94A: X exchanges, for short (DMS) — X is the site formerly known as Twitter. The app has recently suffered a mass exodus of users, whereas competing app BlueSky has seen its numbers soar. I deactivated my Twitter (X) account on my birthday this year, and am now living quite happily on BlueSky. Oh, and DMS are simply "direct messages."
24D: What a par 5 has never been, on the P.G.A. Tour (ACED) — to "ace" a hole is to get a hole-in-one.
31D: Operate at a heavy loss (BLEED MONEY) — vivid. Best non-theme answer in the grid. Maybe the best answer, period. Well, except maybe "SMOOTH OPERATOR," which is hard to beat.

111D: Guesses of interest in the cellphone lot (ETAS) — I have to confess that I have no idea what a "cellphone lot" is. Apparently it's just a free or low-cost parking lot for people to wait in when they're picking up passengers from the airport (although maybe they have them at other public transport sites, I don't know).

It's the first day of December, which means (in my mind, at any rate) it's officially Holiday Season! This means two things for this blog. First, starting next week and for a couple Sundays after that, I'll have a Holiday Gift Guide, featuring crossword and other puzzle-related gifts you can get for the puzzle-lover in your life (or for yourself, why not?). So if you have something puzzle-related to sell, or you have a puzzle-related gift suggestion, please pass that along to me. Second, also starting next Sunday and then for as long as I've got material, I'll be posting Holiday Pet Pics—send me pictures of your non-human loved ones in festive settings (dressed in a Santa hat, playing with a dreidel chew toy, whatever) (crossword content optional), and I'll post a few at the end of my write-up every day throughout the Holiday Season. For both gift suggestions and Holiday Pet Pics, you can reach me at rexparker at icloud dot com.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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