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Ka ___ (southernmost point in the U.S.) / WED 2-12-25 / Satirist Michael / Either of two for Mozart's Queen of the Night / Success against all odds / Lizard mascot with a Cockney accent / Where a wedge may be used / Inexpensive beer, informally
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Constructor: Philip Koski
Relative difficulty: Medium (oversized 15x16)
Theme answers:
- DEFINITE ARTICLE (20A: The) (ARTICLE appears on the other side of WAGE (7D: ___ gap))
- SPEAKS ONE'S PIECE (30A: Talks frankly) (PIECE appears on the other side of SALARY (33D: ___ cap))
- CINDERELLA STORY (44A: Success against all odds) (STORY also appears on the other side of SALARY)
"Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), commonly abbreviated "Der Hölle Rache", is an aria sung by the Queen of the Night, a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). It depicts a fit of vengeful rage in which the Queen of the Night places a knife into the hand of her daughter Pamina and exhorts her to assassinate Sarastro, the Queen's rival, else she will disown and curse Pamina.
Memorable with its upper register staccatos, the fast-paced and menacingly grandiose "Der Hölle Rache" is one of the most famous of all opera arias. This rage aria is often referred to as the Queen of the Night aria, although the Queen sings another distinguished aria earlier in the opera, "O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn".
• • •
[2D: "___ to Know" (1999 Marc Anthony hit)]
The one downside of this theme, though, was that it's executed in such a way that a lot (lot lot lot) of pressure is put on the center of the grid, and man can you feel it (in the form of creaky, wince-inducing fill). Literally all of my post-solve "ick" ink is concentrated in the middle of the grid. That is an extremely load-bearing part of the grid, as the theme gets incredibly dense through there—that SALARY "wall" has to hold back not one but two articles (PIECE and STORY). Usually, you spread out your themers so they have some space, some air between them, which allows you to not have to drive so many crosses through more than one themer, which in turn allows for cleaner fill overall. But here, those second and third themers are absolutely hugging each other, or may as well be, as ten (10!) crosses (including the SALARY wall) have to run through *both* of them. No wonder, then, that rows 5 through 11 are just thick with weakish fill, from partial nonsense like TRALA crossing partial nonsense like INA (which gives us a much-unwanted three "IN"s in this grid, all pretty close together (see also DID IN, CONFIDES IN). Then there's RAH next to LLC, then LAE (!?!?!?!?) (!?!?!!?!??!) (46D: Ka ___ (southernmost point in the U.S.)), which crosses the super redundant and awkward OPERA ARIA, and at the bottom of it all (fittingly), SEEPY, oof. [Flowing slowly] should be SEEPING and only SEEPING. My patience for the fill in this puzzle was flowing slowly away at this point, so it's a good thing that the revealer came along at the end and saved the day, turning this puzzle from something of a slog into something of a delight.
Other things:
- 35D: Wee (EENY) — I hate when the puzzle pretends that people use "EENY" as a standalone word. They use TINY. They do not use EENY except maybe as the first word in a choosing rhyme (EENY-meeny-miney-moe, if I'm spelling that correctly, which I'm probably not), or as the first part of the sing-songy childish phrase "EENY-weenie," which is probably actually gonna be "teeny-weeny" or "eensy-weensy." It's a cloying awful mess, this array of wordlike entities related to smallness.
- 11D: Lizard mascot with a Cockney accent (GEICO GECKO) — I guess this is supposed to be marquee fill, but I'm not a fan. Reads like product placement. Also, I'm just ****ing tired of that damn gecko. Why isn't he bygone yet? Speaking of ads, I did not watch the Super Bowl, because I don't care, but I did watch the Super Bowl Halftime show (several times now), which was amazing, and featured, among other people, crossword stalwart SZA! (you can watch it here—YouTube won't let me embed it in my blog)
- 3D: Tells private things (CONFIDES IN) — I think this alongside "ANY IDEAS?" (4D: "How will we ever get out of this mess?") was the non-thematic highlight of the day, but it also made getting started slightly difficult, in that I had a hard time parsing both answers, and thus a harder-than-usual time (for a Wednesday) whooshing out of that NW corner into the heart of the grid.
- 65A: Exhaustion from work (BURNOUT) / 66A: Without much hope (BLEAKLY) — good answers, but together on one line, they're a lot to take. BURNOUT BLEAKLY is a little too "capitalist dystopia" for me, pre-coffee. "Exhaustion from work!? Without much hope!?" Shut up, puzzle. You're supposed to be *not* bumming me out.
- 49A: "Take THAT" ("BOOM!") — had the "M" and wrote in "WHAM!" Then changed the "W" to "B" and wrote in "BLAM!" Sigh.
- 22D: Where a wedge may be used (TRAP) — had no idea what was going on here, even after I got the whole answer. Could not imagine what the TRAP was. Mouse TRAP? The TRAP in the plumbing below your sink? Was the "wedge" a shoe heel? Some kind of shim? This is what happens when you don't play golf. The TRAP is a sand trap (a golf course hazard), and the "wedge" is a type of club.
- 63D: Inexpensive beer, informally (PBR) — Pabst! Blue! Ribbon!
- 47D: Sign of a hound's happiness (TAILWAG) — this was another non-thematic part of the grid that I really liked. Nice to be welcomed (at the end of the solve) with a tail-wagging pupper. Who's a good boy!? This answer is. Yes he is. Yyyyes he is.
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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24 comments:
Top half Medium-Challenging, bottom half Easy-Medium. Overall Medium.
Overwrites:
1A: talc before MICA
1D: nhsa (National Highway Safety Administration) before MADD
6D: seek before ABET
15A: teASE before ABASE
23A: DID IT before DID IN
26A: bIo (thinking a book cover) before FIB
41A: Ltd before LLC
WOE:
Satirist Michael PALIN at 5D
2D: I NEED to know
Ka LAE at 46D
I had a minor problem with 10D because we learned in high school that INSIGNIA is plural and the clue is singular ("insigne" would be singular)
Finished it without cheating, but I have no idea how. Never understood the theme, and BEHINDAPAYWALL means nothing to me. My system doesn't provide shaded squares, so I finished up in the South with guesswork. Hearing the music was a pleasant shock.
I also had "Ltd." before LLC.
Ugh. The middle of this grid is by far the worst section of a puzzle I have ever seen. Rex explained why, and I understand, but as far as I'm concerned there is no theme or revealer, no matter how clever, that can make up for the miserable experience I had because of that section.
BLEAKLY indeed. Soulless - underdeveloped theme with matching fill. GEICO GECKO, OPERA ARIA, TRA LA?? On the list for WOTY.
The Jam
Still don’t quite understand how “A BET” is a “drive for.” Can anyone explain that to me?
I thought that was a long and torturous way to go to get to BEHIND A PAYWALL. And Rex is correct, that whole middle section is a disaster, with LAE being the flag-bearer today. Not a lot there to hold your interest today if you are not into trying to discern the theme and maybe guess the revealer.
This one seems like a better fit for experienced solvers. I know I would have hated it back when I was struggling to cobble together mid-week grids. Fortunately, now I just find it boring (and perhaps somewhat annoying due to the significant effort involved for what to me is very little payoff).
Insignia in Latin is the plural form of insigne, but it has long been used in English as both a singular and a plural form: “The insignia was visible on the wingtip.” Or: “There are five insignia on various parts of the plane.” From the singular use of insignia comes the plural insignias, which is also acceptable. The Latin singular insigne is largely restricted to military contexts; in other contexts, it may strike some as pedantic.
I think I'm being quite slow... but how is 36A: Screen play? = PASS? Is this an American football term?
Always happy to listen to the Queen of the Night Aria. Though I think I read once that Mozart wrote it to bully the lady that he knew would sing it. But now... iconic!
Plodded through that mid-grid slog, only to meet wayyy too much capitalist dystopia at the bottom. Even the TAILWAG was not quite enough to redeem this unpleasant puzzle. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. . .
"Abet" as in "aid and abet". Meaning to illegally help.
ABET - one word. Think of a getaway driver.
I saw it as ABET; as in driving a getaway car
Abet like to drive the getaway car in a crime I guess
Abet as in aid and abet, the clue is getting at a getaway driver
ABET as in "aiding and abetting" -- so you might drive a getaway car as an accessory to a crime.
Yes, a screen PASS is a thing: “ A screen pass is a play in gridiron football consisting of a short pass to a receiver who is protected by a screen of blockers.” (Wikipedia)
Didn’t enjoy this one at all, for the reasons Rex goes into. The middle section was awful, with SEEPY and BELLLAP (what is that?) and LAE.
However I did love “How will we ever get out of this mess?”, something I ask myself every morning when reading the news. ANYIDEAS?
A most marvelous moment for me came with [One leg curl, e.g.], for REP, where I was imagining forever a person on a leg curl machine working on a single leg at a time, and I kept thinking, “There must be a name for that exercise and what do you call that type of exercise?” I kept coming back to it, thinking, “It’s going to come to me! It’s going to come to me!”
When the correct interpretation finally hit me it brought one of Crosslandia’s best moments: The HahaAha!
Let’s say someone says there is an interesting article in the Washington Post they send you a link. If you don’t subscribe to Post, you can maybe read the first few sentences but the Post’s PAYWALL prevents you from reading the rest unless you subscribe.
Great puzzle, thanks, Philip! 13 minutes for me which is just a tad north of average for me--so medium to medium-challenging. Definitely enjoyed sussing out the theme, and paywalls are pretty current, so that was nice and contemporary. I agree that there's some icky fill, but it didn't kill it for me, and I loved seeing BURNOUT and PESTOS and LEGIT (had LicIT first). IGOR
You should mention that the soprano here is Diana Damrau.
IGOR seems to be defeating NERO in the wrestling match in SIAM.... We can be healthy eating BIBB lettuce but then finish up with a PBR... lots of variety. : ) Thanks!
Philip’s last puzzle (6/8/23) wowed me with its wit and intelligence, and I couldn’t wait to dive into this one. It didn’t disappoint:
• A wide range of knowledge – History, geography, sports, arts, grammar, work, food, pets, and of course, journalism.
• Loveliness in answer: CINDERELLA STORY, ANY IDEAS, INSIGNIA, TAIL WAG, and the swelll (BELLLAP).
• Areas of fight leading to gratifying flashes of insight, followed by glorious splat fills.
• Gorgeous layered theme graphically illustrating the relatable BEHIND A PAYWALL.
• Unintended graphic art – that mid-grid tree or lollipop, either of which push my happy-button.
• Clues that misdirected, to my brain’s delight, such as those for OCHRE, TRAP, and REP.
Once again, the stamp of quality, and I’m a fan, Philip. Thank you for a splendid solve!
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