Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (solved Downs-only—real trouble with that NE section)
THEME: "I'M TAKEN" (39A: Polite rejection at a dance ... or a hint to each half of the answers to the starred clues) — two-word phrases where both words can follow "take a" (or "take the") in a familiar expression:
Theme answers:
POWDER PUFF (16A: *Pad in a makeup kit)
SEAT NUMBER (62A: *Assignment on a plane)
CAKE STAND (10D: *Bakery display piece)
FALL BREAK (33D: *Days off following October midterms)
Word of the Day: POP TAB (15D: Can-opening mechanism) —
[not found on merriam-webster.com or thefreedictionary.com or dictionary.com etc. There are "pull tabs," and there are "pop-tops," but POP TAB ... unaccounted for]
• • •
Somehow crossword constructors have convinced each other that POP TAB is a thing. Seven NYTXW appearances overall, four just since 2022. I'm guessing that the "tab" part of a pop-top can is what's meant by this "word," but I've never heard anyone actually use it and dictionaries are likewise giving a big shrug. I mean, it sounds like a thing, but I just don't think it's a thing. I start here because POP TAB was at the center of what ended up being the hardest part of the Downs-only solve for me. I had POP TOP for 15D: Can-opening mechanism—likely because that is, in fact, a thing—and that "wrong "-OP" meant that I guessed not one but two bad words for the Acrosses up there: ADROIT (!) instead of AD RATE (29A: $7 million for 30 seconds during the Super Bowl, say) and OPERA instead of OBAMA (36A: Winner of 2008 and 2012). I also just generally had trouble with CAKE STAND, and EMIT (I had MAIL) and ATV (thought it might be UTE). Disappointing to be so badly stalled by a non-word, and doubly disappointing to find out that ADROIT (a good word) was wrong and AD RATE (a horrible crosswordese phrase) was right. I now have a bitter, lifelong grudge against the "word" POP TAB. Not sure how I will avenge myself against this "word," but I'll find a way.
As for the theme, I haven't seen this theme type in a looooong time. You see "first words" or "last words"-type things with reasonable frequency, but the "both words" type is hard to pull off, and particularly hard without having to resort to some wonky, iffy, forced phrases. But today, all the phrases are just fine. Solid. Not a clunker in the bunch. I don't know that it's the most exciting Monday theme I've ever seen, but it works. The one inconsistency in the theme ends up being the thing I actually admire the most. I don't know if it was coincidence or planning, but CAKE STAND ends up being an interesting outlier. All the other words in the theme answers can follow "take a" in familiar phrases (take a powder, take a puff, take a break, etc.), but with both CAKE and STAND—and only with CAKE and STAND—does that phrasing not work.*** Instead, it's the definite article you need ("take the cake" and "take the stand") to make the phrases make sense. The anomaly would bug me, but since both words in the anomalous answer do the same thing ... I think of it as a feature (a little flourish), and not a bug.
Not a fan of ACTONE written out like that, especially since ACT I appears so often in the grid. Feels contrived. Also didn't love ROIL as the answer for 32D: Make annoyed. That answer riled me, but it did not ROIL me. You ROIL water (or the waters). I acknowledge that it can also mean "to upset someone emotionally," but I don't have to like it. My interest in vaping is zero, so I had no idea DAB was another word for toke, hit, whatever (35D: Hit on a vape pen). Thank god the crosses on that one were all easily inferrable. I stupidly (and hastily) wrote in YOUTH instead of YOUNG at 7D: The "Y" or Y.A. books. Otherwise, no real problems. Just that POP TAB-area debacle, and even that I was eventually able to work my way through.
A few more things:
24D: Limited releases on Spotify, informally (EPS) — I think I don't understand how "Limited" is being used here. EPS contain more tracks than a single but fewer than an album. The "EP" stands for "extended play." What is "limited" about it? When you talk about "limited releases" in the world of music, you're usually talking about physical media (like vinyl) of which there is a limited number. But obviously on "Spotify," no such "limits" exist. "Limited release" actually has more currency in the film industry. Maybe the clue today was thinking "well, EPS are shorter than full albums, so in that way they are ... limited?" But I don't know.
45A: 4K screen precursor (HDTV) — oh, are 4K screens not hi-def. I keep putting off upgrading my TV (and Blu-ray player), mostly because so far I don't have any pressing need. "The blacks are really black, man!" I'm sure they are. So far, I don't care.
2D: Higher than on the totem pole (ABOVE) — not sure why you had to bring a "totem pole" into this. [Higher than] works just fine.Maybe leave sacred objects out of your workplace metaphors.
Totem poles are sacred objects used by many Indigenous and Alaska Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest to honor a deceased ancestor or share an important event. This idiom denigrates these sacred objects. Further, the idea that the lowest figure on the totem pole is the least important is also incorrect. In actuality, the designs on the bottom are often considered the most prestigious because they are the ones that will be seen at eye level. (Forbes.com)
See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
***lol of course you can “take a stand”; I blame post-COVID vax fatigue for my not thinking of that. But my point still semi-stands, in that “take the” works with both elements of CAKE STAND.
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THEME: "The Name Is the Game" — names of famous people are clued as if they are missing words in imaginary sentences (!?):
Theme answers:
BILL WITHERS (23A: As the British pound rises in value, the dollar ___)
TONY ORLANDO (34A: After spending the afternoon at Epcot, we had dinner at a ___ bistro)
ULYSSES GRANT (51A: Did Joyce write courtesy of a ___?)
MARK CUBAN (68A: An increase in ham prices forced the deli to ___ sandwiches higher)
IRVING BERLIN (85A: To Washington, ___ Germany, seemed far from Tarrytown, N.Y.)
BARBARA EDEN (102A: Some Californians consider Santa ___ on Earth)
ELLE FANNING (116A: The supermodel was holding a copy of ___ herself on the beach)
TOM WAITS (50D: Peeping ___ for Lady Godiva to appear)
DON LEMON (45D: Why do none of the Fruit of the Loom characters ___-colored underwear?)
Word of the Day: SAUTERNE (49D: White wine named for a region in France) —
Sauternes (French pronunciation:[sotɛʁn]) is a Frenchsweet wine from the region of the same name in the Graves section in Bordeaux. Sauternes wine is made from Sémillon, sauvignon blanc, and muscadellegrapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. This causes the grapes to become partially raisined, resulting in concentrated and distinctively flavored wines. Due to its climate, Sauternes is one of the few wine regions where infection with noble rot is a frequent occurrence. Even so, production is a hit-or-miss proposition, with widely varying harvests from vintage to vintage. Wines from Sauternes, especially the Premier Cru Supérieur estate Château d'Yquem, can be very expensive, largely due to the very high cost of production. Barsac lies within Sauternes and is entitled to use either name. Somewhat similar but less expensive and typically less-distinguished wines are produced in the neighboring regions of Monbazillac, Cérons, Loupiac and Cadillac. In the United States, there is a semi-generic label for sweet white dessert wines known as sauterne without the "s" at the end and uncapitalized. (wikipedia) // In the 1860's, Californians believed that the best white wine from Bordeaux came from the French region called Sauternes, and "Sauterne" or "Haut Sauterne" later became standard generic labels on bottles of dry or sweet wine in California. (Winegrapes of UC Davis)
• • •
[92A: EAMES]
Sundays are often weak—hard to sustain a theme, even a good theme, over that much real estate—but I'm slightly astonished at how weak this one felt. Random names clued as random words in very random sentences??? There's no unifying principle at all, no cohesive factor, no ... just no. Maybe if all the names had been complete sentences (like BILL WITHERS) or been composed of regular words (like BILL WITHERS), you'd have some sense of focus, direction, purpose. But no such luck. Can't you do this with lots of names? If you're willing to write a clue ridiculous enough, I think you can. [A crazed fan was removed from the set of "The Six Million Dollar Man" after she threatened to ___ Majors' drink]. [Poughkeepsie MetalFest is sure gonna ___ Valley!] [Why should a God-fearing ___ cotton when we have machines that can do that now?]. Are these good? No, they're awful. I made them up on the spot. But I don't see how they're much more awful than what we get here. Peeping TOM WAITS for Lady Godiva to appear? Ew. (that is the origin of the phrase "peeping Tom," though—fun fact I just learned). The dollar BILL WITHERS?? You'd say the dollar, but not the dollar bill. How in the world do you get away with leaving the "S" out of ULYSSES GRANT? "EDEN on Earth"!?!? What the hell kind of expression is that? It's "heaven on earth." EDEN was on Earth!! The whole thing is baffling. A contrived mess. It certainly goes very, very wacky, and I have to kind of admire that part of it. But no, the clues aren't actually apt or funny most of the time. Just extremely forced. And the title doesn't help at all. "The Name Is the Game?"" What game? How is this a game? I want there to be some underlying "game" theme, but ... I'm not seeing it. I suppose it's possible I'm missing some element of this theme that makes it masterful. If so, I pre-apologize. But as of now, I'm genuinely surprised this puzzle was accepted.
The fill on this puzzle was also on the poor side. I pretty much noped out on this puzzle right here, at the middle initial-free ULYSSES GRANT:
But if the theme was weak, the fill wasn't helping. ARIANA as an airline, plural ARIS, ERAT, EBSEN ... EST ELS and LAO-TSE all in a clump (and right above TWPS). ENOL, OUTTO, ILED crossing EOLIAN. BASS HORN + BASSO feels like a dupe. AUG so close to AUGIE (!?) doesn't feel much better. COINER!!!? If all this had been in support of a stellar theme, maybe I wouldn't have cared so much, but no such theme exists, so the fill needed to pick up the tremendous slack. But no dice.
The one consolation for me, as someone who did not care for this puzzle much at all, is that it was over quickly. I knew every name in the grid (including the damn Afghani airline and SAUTERNE), and so there really wasn't any resistance to be found, anywhere. I didn't use the convoluted theme clues to get the theme answers. I just let crosses do their magic, and as soon as something looked like a name, I would write it in. Maybe I checked it quickly against the clue from time to time, just to make sure, but mostly I didn't have to. I made a couple typos today because I was going too fast, but no missteps, no errors. No, wait. I did write in DEICE before DEFOG, so there was that (106D: Clear, in a way, as a windshield). And I had this moment of doubt about which nasalized consonant went in the middle of BA-FF (111A: Canada's first national park, founded in 1885). All I know about BANFF is that my dad went on a ski vacation there once. Only reason I know the name. But somehow BAMFF seemed plausible. And while I guess someone might call [Immaturity] a GREEN MESS, I was pretty sure GREENNESS was what they were going for. I can't see any real trouble spots, or even many things that require explaining. But let's do a lightning round anyway...
Lightning Round:
39A: Like a naughty Beetle Bailey, in brief (AWOL) — "naughty" felt tonally wrong here. Is it just "naughty" to AWOL. Like, aw shucks, I've been a bad widdle boy? Kind of an infantilizing adjective.
105D: Intoxicating Asian plant whose name sounds like an insect (BETEL) — it's pronounced "beetle"??? I've been pronouncing it "bettle," like "kettle." I wonder if Beetle Bailey ever experimented with BETEL. Would definitely read "BETEL Bailey." Sounds "naughty."
124A: Set of pull-ups? (ARMS) — uh ... not sure I get it. Is it because ARMS are the "set" (of limbs?) that you use to do pull-ups???
11D: Buddy who portrayed TV's Jed Clampett (EBSEN) — keeping things current, I see. Jed Clampett was the patriarch on The Beverly Hillbillies, which was big around the same time that "Beetle Bailey" was big. Seriously, after "Blondie," "Beetle Bailey" was the biggest comic strip in America in 1968, which was right in the middle of The Beverly Hillbillies' 1962-71 run. I think BARBARA EDEN was probably at peak fame right about then as well. Yep, I Dream of Jeannie ran 1965-70. What a time to be alive. (I was not alive in 1968). Oh, and what about Doggie Daddy and AUGIE? They feel real 1968 to me ... damn, off by a decade (1958-61). P.S. the son's full name is AUGIE Doggie. AUGIE got top billing. AUGIE Doggie and Doggie Daddy originally aired on the Quick Draw McGraw Show. I'm much happier remembering cartoons than I am thinking about this puzzle any longer.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. reader Jason Tulp sent me a link to a word game he created, which you might enjoy. It's called Infixion. Here's his explanation:
I recently launched a bite-sized daily word game that delivers a fresh take on the Wordle formula. Each day, players are given a specific "infix" like-on- and challenged to find the four highest-scoring words that include it, for exampleon-ly or b-on-us.The twist is that points are based on Scrabble values, and repeated letters lose value with each use, encouraging variety and strategy.
Relative difficulty: Easy (a little harder, maybe, if some of the many proper nouns were mysteries)
THEME: none
Word of the Day: SET PIECE (16D: Free kick, e.g., in soccer lingo) —
The term set piece or set play is used in association football and rugby football to refer to a situation when the ball is returned to open play, for example following a stoppage, particularly in a forward area of the pitch. In association football, the term usually refers to free kicks and corners, but sometimes penalties, throw-ins and kick-offs. Many goals result from such positions, whether scored directly or indirectly. Thus defending set pieces is an important skill for defenders, and attacking players spend much time practicing them; set pieces are one area where tactics and routines can be worked out in training in advance of matches. Some players specialize in set pieces. (wikipedia)
• • •
The big challenge of the day for me was trying to remember what Octavia Butler's middle initial was. Unlike Ursula K. LeGuin, another titan of science fiction, Octavia Butler's middle initial isn't as commonly used when referring to her. The "K" in Ursula K. LeGuin is iconic, whereas the "E." in OCTAVIA E. BUTLER is ... less so. Still, she is in fact billed as OCTAVIA E. BUTLER on her books (and her wikipedia page), so there's nothing wrong with including the middle initial here. I just whiffed it. I know Butler's name well and have read at least a couple of books by her and just could not retrieve her middle initial. When OCTAVIA BUTLER wouldn't fit, I briefly doubted whether she was the author in question or not, despite the fact that I had the "OC-" locked down, and what other author's name starts that way? OK, Ocean Vuong, but what other author? It's not like the "E" was hard to get—I could see the cross was likely -ERN (56D: Directional suffix)—but when I could hardly get any crosses off of OCTAVIA_BUTLER, that made me doubt myself all over again. ARTS and BEG and TIT seemed solid, as far as crosses went, but I came up empty everywhere else and had to go back to the NE and come down the east and middle of the grid in order to get the bottom of this puzzle to fall. Once I did, the bottom actually fell pretty easily. But yeah, trying to round that corner from the west into the south by way of "OC-" was the one moment where the wheels came off for a bit. I wouldn't classify it as a true struggle. More like a momentary delay, the significance of which was amplified by the fact that I hadn't had any delays at all with the first half of the solve (north and west sections). The upshot of all this is "E!" OCTAVIA E. BUTLER. "E" as in "Everybody knows that, dummy" (actually, it stands for "Estelle").
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER is the standout marquee answer today, imho. OPEN MARRIAGES, also interesting! I don't think all OPEN MARRIAGES involve "swinging," but "swinging" is mentioned as a "variant form" of open marriage on the "Open marriage" wikipedia page. I really don't want to get too far into the sex weeds on this one. I'll leave the sex weeds to you all. The clue seems accurate enough, and, as misdirections go, pretty clever. For the second day in a row, though, I wish the marquee stuff were ... more marqueeish. Actually, the more I look at the bottom stack, the better it looks. SILENT RETREAT has a lot of boring letters, but as an answer, it's cool and original. And TALKING HEADS is excellent; it just has a boring clue. Why would you go with "TV panelists" (zzz) when you could go with...
The proper nouns come thick and heavy early on, with VERA EMEKA KINTE and STEF all teaming up to cover enough cultural ground to thwart the \ forward progress of as many solvers as possible, at least a little. My familiarity with that group went from VERA (a gimme) to STEF (total unknown), with KINTE and EMEKA in between. KINTE was known to me, though I was not 100% confident of the spelling (KENTE?). And EMEKA Okafor is a name I've heard just by watching ESPN a lot 10 to 20 years ago, but even more than with KINTE (much more than KINTE, in fact), the spelling eludedme. Luckily, none of these names really held me up, as I went SHARK OPAH VERA, then changed JAMS (wrong) to MOBS (right) (1D: Packs), and those long Acrosses up top went down pretty easily. Wanted BARE NECESSITIES, but it wouldn't fit. But the ESSENTIALS went right in as my second guess, and the wine-dark SEA confirmed it, and so whoosh whoosh, down and left I went. Blocked at OCT- (as I've said) so back up top, down via SLEEPWEAR, and all the way home without much fuss. So many short answers and so many access points for every section made this one easy to bring down.
[DISCS]
Bullets:
45A: Jazz fest? (NBA GAME) — the "?" made it a gimme. "So ... it's not musical jazz ... what other 'jazz' is there?" A: Utah Jazz. Clue, solved.
2D: Sea creature also known as a redfin ocean pan (OPAH) — first of all, SEA is in the grid, so probably shouldn't be in this clue. Second, crossword fish to rescue! Sometimes crosswordese really helps you out, and that that telltale "H" in OPAH (which came from yet another sea creature, the SHARK) gave me a huge initial boost. OPAH is in prime position—with all its letters near the beginnings of all the long answers up top—so getting that answer was way more valuable than getting, say, TGIF (also a four-letter cross of all those upper answers, but in a far less useful position). OPAH WINFREY, is that something? Where's that theme? Where's the celebrity fish theme!? (actually, it's probably been done, or at least attempted ... somewhere)
24D: Subject of trade that gave rise to St. Louis and Detroit (FUR) — "Subject" really threw me for some reason. If the clue had just started [Trade...] I probably would've gotten it easier. Or not. At some point I was thinking of a sports trade (which makes no real sense) and then I was thinking about ... I dunno, the Louisiana Purchase, which wasn't really a "trade" at all, but more of a ... purchase (also, while the Louisiana Purchase included what is now St. Louis, it did not include Detroit). Anyway, the FUR trade, yes, that was a very big deal, economically, in early America.
39D: Bread whose dough is rolled on a chakla (CHAPATI) — me: "I don't know any Indian breads with a name that long!" Me, a little bit later: "Oh, CHAPATI! Hey, sorry I forgot about you, pal." I thought I was tapped out at NAAN and ROTI, but no, CHAPATI (also PARATHA and PAPADAM, if I'd been thinking clearly) (and those are just the ones *I* know—obviously there are lots (lots) more)
50A: "People are wrong when they say ___ is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it": Noël Coward ("OPERA") — I had the terminal "A," and since Noël Coward is a dramatist, I figured ... DRAMA. But no. But then, unexpectedly, elsewhere in the grid: yes! (32D: Much "Real Housewives" doings). Love when that happens. Such an eerie feeling.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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[31A: Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout]
Rough to end on an expression I would never say: EASES ON? (59A: Gently presses, as a gas pedal). I guess I can hear some parent telling their kid to do that when they are teaching them to drive, maybe, as a command, but ... in the third person like that (EASES), it feels super awkward. This is only the second time ever that this phrase has appeared in the NYTXW, and the one other appearance (which I blame for putting this damn answer in people's word lists in the first place) didn't use the gas pedal as a frame of reference at all. [Dons effortlessly, as footwear]!?!? That's not ... better. Oddly EASE ON appears even less often—just one appearance, and the example that time was the brakes, not the gas. I don't think I'd ever use EASES ON, and if I had to use EASE on, absolutely had to use EASE ON, I think I'd have to take the clue in this direction:
So that's how it ended. The rest of it was hit-and-miss, with a bit more "???" than I'm used to encountering in Friday puzzles (esp. of late). That's what got this one up off of "Easy" to "Easy-Medium," stuff like SHOJI (which I've probably seen but forgot) (9D: Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom) and MIOSIS (?) (20D: Constriction of the pupils) and OSH (?!) (39A: Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road) and Greg EGAN—I thought there was a scifi writer called Greg BEAR ... hey, there is! Or was—he died in 2022. Bear is the better known (and more award-winning) four-letter scifi Greg. He won five Nebulas, two Hugos, and was the co-founder of San Diego Comic-Con (!). Alas, he's not in this puzzle. Greg EGAN is. The other big "???" for me was STAR-NOSED MOLE, which I can kinda sorta picture. That was my favorite of the unknowns today, by far. Marquee-worthy, for sure. Sadly, it was one of the few truly marquee-worthy answers in the grid. I really liked TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE as a central grid-spanner, and TERIYAKI SAUCE is also nice, but the rest of the long answers today didn't have a lot of juice. DYNAMITE STICK sounds strange to me ("stick of dynamite" sounds more natural). IDIOT TAX feels made-up (never heard anyone say this, jocularly or otherwise). The pairing of SEÑORITAS and MUCHACHAS is cute, in its way, but neither answer on its own is any great shakes. The rest of the 8+ stuff is middling. Oh, "FINE, BE MAD!" is alright. I like that. But overall, the marquee fill on this one felt so-so.
There were other trivia answers that were familiar to me, but which seemed like they might not be familiar to most people. Scott ROLEN is kind of a deep cut if you're not a baseball fan (47D: Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves). This is his third NYTXW appearance, but his first since 2004 (when he was actually still playing—he retired in 2012). He's a Hall-of-Famer, though (as of 2023), so it might be helpful to remember his name. Belle STARR is another proper noun that seems like potential trouble (6D: Belle ___, real-life celebrity outlaw celebrated in film and TV). I got STARR fairly easily, but then realized I'd confused Belle STARR with Brenda STARR. I mean, whatever works, right? I have heard of the "outlaw" in question, but not often.
Then there's ÉCARTÉ, a card game I know of solely because of crosswords (like OMBRE and EUCHRE and FARO) (56A: Game with a 32-card deck). If you had a little trouble in that SW corner because of ECARTE / REB, I'm not terribly surprised. My only real trouble came from trying to parse STAR-NOSED MOLE, which happened to run through MIOSIS, which as I've said, I didn't know. I know MEIOSIS and MITOSIS from biology class. I know MYOPIA and MYOPIC. But MIOSIS ... ya got me. This is its 5th NYTXW appearance, but only the second since I've been blogging—so, I've seen it once, and that was fourteen years ago.
[2D: Water brand whose logo shows the Alps]
More:
1A: One who tries to make a good impression (DENTIST) — when ETCHER wouldn't fit, I thought DENTIST, but waited for crosses to confirm it.
25A: Pro whose work might be shocking (EMT) — grim. Not a big fan of cutesy wordplay surrounding human suffering. Death can be funny in the abstract, but somehow a heart attack victim needing a defibrillator ... isn't. (It's possible that I'm hypersensitized from watching too much of The Pitt, but I think I'd feel this way about this clue regardless)
57A: Refreshers that can be served with green wedges (LIMEADES) — weird in the plural, and ... "green wedges"??? ... also weird. You mean lime wedges, I assume. I know you can't say "lime" in the clue for LIMEADES, but still ... "green wedges?" You could just say [Green refreshers] and leave it at that. See how concise! And no bizarre phrases!
4D: Need for a demo, maybe (TNT) — today I (re-?) learned that TNT and DYNAMITE (STICK) are different explosives. Dynamite is more powerful, but TNT is more stable, and thus easier to handle and control.
14A: It has its X's and O's (LOVE NOTE) — "X's" for kisses, "O's" for hugs
44D: Obama family member with credits as a TV writer (MALIA) — come on, if you're gonna use this clue, you gotta say the show. Don't make people (i.e. me) look it up. Sigh, hang on ... looks like she wrote for a limited series called Swarm (Amazon Prime): "Swarm is an American satiricalblack comedy television miniseries created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. It follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), a young woman whose obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn." (wikipedia)
That's all for today. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. yesterday I got an advance copy of Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle by Natan Last (out Nov. 25). I'll promote it closer to the release date, but since pre-orders are important to writers, I thought I may as well tell you about it now, since you're probably gonna want a copy. The book is really comprehensive in its scope, but its focus is primarily on crossword-related developments (both technical and philosophical) that happen in this century, particularly the last 10-15 years or so. It covers the crossword world far beyond the NYTXW. You all (i.e. people who read crossword blogs) are kind of the ideal audience for this thing. I've only just started reading it, but I'm mentioned at least twice, so ... thumbs up! (it has almost nothing to do with me, don't worry!). Pre-order here.
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THEME: "DOES IT SCALE?" (26D: Investor's question for a start-up, to which 3-, 8-, 35- and 49--7-Down) — people / things that "scale" ... things:
Theme answers:
ROCK CLIMBER (upside-down) (3D: Athlete tackling El Capitan, e.g.)
SPIDER-MAN (upside-down) (35D: Who popularized the proverb "with great power comes great responsibility")
WINDOW / WASHER (upside-down) (49D: With 7-Down, worker who likely knows the ropes)
GRAPEVINE (upside-down) (8D: A bunch of fruit may grow on it)
Word of the Day: Flying Wallendas (65A: Milieu for the Flying Wallendas = BIG TOP) —
The Flying Wallendas is a circus act and group of daredevil stunt performers who perform highwire acts without a safety net. They were first known as The Great Wallendas, but the current name was coined by the press in the 1940s and has stayed since. [...] In 1944, while the Wallendas were performing inHartford, Connecticut, acircus fire broke out, killing over 168 people.None of the Wallendas were hurt. // In the following years, Karl developed some of their most impressive acts, such as the seven-person chair pyramid. They continued performing those acts until January 30, 1962, when, while performing at theShrine CircusatDetroit'sState Fair Coliseum, the front man on the wire, Dieter Schepp, faltered, and the pyramid collapsed. Three men fell to the ground, killing Richard Faughnan, Wallenda's son-in-law; and nephew Dieter Schepp. Karl injured his pelvis, and his adopted son,Mario, was paralyzed from the waist down.Dieter's sister, Jana Schepp, let go of the wire to fall into the quickly-raised safety net, but bounced off and suffered a head injury. // Other tragedies include when Wallenda's sister-in-law, Yetta, fell 50 feet to her death in 1963, after fainting during her act.Wallenda's son-in-law, Richard ("Chico") Guzman, was killed in 1972 after touching a live electric wire while holding part of the metal rigging.Nonetheless, Karl decided to go on. [...] On March 22, 1978, during a promotional walk in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl fell from the wire and died. It was between the towers of Condado Plaza Hotel, one hundred feet high. He was 73. (wikipedia)
• • •
This one started somewhat disappointing, and then got promising, and then went back to disappointing again with the revealer. I understand the phrase "DOES IT SCALE?" but I care so little about "investors" and start-ups and businessspeak in general that the phrase just leaves me flat. Worse, it's kind of off-putting. If the phrase were truly colorful or involved great wordplay or were particularly apt, my aversion would not have mattered so much, but something about "scaling" as the core concept was such a letdown that even if I *had* been a venture capitalism admirer and fervent Shark Tank watcher, "DOES IT SCALE?" would have landed with a bit of a thud. I really thought the theme was going to be about hanging. I think of a rock climber hanging from a rappelling rope
Or SPIDER-MAN iconically hanging upside-down
Or WINDOW WASHERs literally hanging outside a high-rise
But then there was GRAPEVINE, which, first off, isn't a person like the others, so boo, and second, doesn't really "hang." And that's when the revealer shows up and informs me that no one was ever "hanging," they were ... scaling. Well, the theme answers definitely go Up (i.e. "scale" the grid) instead of Down. So that part's literal enough. I think "scaling" is a word I'd associate with rock climbing and grapevines, but not so much with the others. SPIDER-MAN can scale stuff, sure, but mainly he's swinging around from building to building. Anyway, the theme "works" well enough, it just wasn't for me. Revealer phrase made me stick my tongue out with "ick," and the "scaling" idea just didn't fully land. Also, the puzzle was dead easy for the umpteenth time in a ROW—very depressing.
Also also, the fill was kinda weak in places. God spare me from any more "playground retorts," particularly long and contrived ones like "I CAN SO" (pretty formal for a playground—you'd think "CAN SO!" would do). Crossing SAO and 'TIS, blargh. Things are also a little blarghy in the ANIMA / "I'M ON" / KARO region. KARO is one of those crosswordese brand names that is well worth avoiding. Everyone knows OREO, but KARO ... bah. Looking over the rest of the grid, there's nothing particularly bad going on. An MSG here, and ESP there, a TBAR, an INOT. Once again I plead with editors and constructors not to clue TMC (The Movie Channel) as having anything to do with "cinephiles" (43A: Inits. for cinephiles). "Cinephiles" watch TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Whereas TMC is just a channel you get with your basic cable package that you probably don't even watch unless you're bored. I don't remember ever watching it. If I search [TMC] I get the weirdest assortment of hits and I don't get The Movie Channel at all, which should tell you the kind of clout that channel has with cinephiles, or anyone.
This puzzle presented zero actual solving problems. I got the theme early and easily...
I probably struggled with 5D: Down (BLUE) more than any answer in the puzzle. Not one not two but three wrong ideas there before alighting on BLUE. First was CHUG. Then GLUG (!?). Then I thought, "EUREKA, I've got it!" and wrote in ... GLUM 😞. Oh, and I don't know the expression "MATE in three." I guess it's something you say in chess when you know you are going to (check)MATE your opponent in three moves. Shrug. Chess and venture capitalism, really hitting all my passions today!
Bullets:
23A: Genre for "Sunset Boulevard" (NOIR) — directed and co-written by the great Billy Wilder. They play this movie a lot on TCM. Again, I have no idea what they play on TMC.
63A: Locale for a couples cruise? (NOAH'S ARK) — if you've done crosswords for any length of time, you've heard this one. A lot. A lot a lot. The phrase "couples' cruise" (or "couples' retreat") has been used multiple times, just in the past few years, in clues for ARK (also "couples' getaway," "ship that was double-booked," etc.). The ship that spawned a thousand puns (all of them basically the same)!
49D: With 7-Down, worker who likely knows the ropes (WINDOW / WASHER (backwards)) — coming back to this one because the clue really cries out for a "?" The specific play on words ("knows the ropes"), and the fact that it's not a phrase anyone would use to describe the specific professional abilities of a WINDOW / WASHER, means a "?" is called for. Wouldn't have made the answer any easier to get, necessarily, but that's not the point. The point is, if the clue doesn't really literally make great sense, if the literal meaning is being severely bent to accommodate some kind of wordplay, you should have a "?" on there.
62D: Lion keeper? (MGM) — what is the wordplay here? I've heard of "lion tamer," but "lion keeper," not so much. I know that MGM's logo contains Leo the Lion, that's obvious. What I'm asking is: why is the clue phrased this way? What's the "ha ha, good one" angle? (if you google "lion keeper" right now, the *only* hits you'll get are (cheap, ugly, borderline illiterate, severely ad-laden) automated crossword answer sites. MGM movies are seen frequently on TCM. Whereas what's playing on TMC, nobody actually knows.
64D: Start to count? (ONE) — uh ... I guess. Again, what is the wordplay involved? What makes this clever? I see the misdirection (I wanted to write in CEE, i.e. the letter that literally starts the word "count"), but I'm clearly failing to appreciate whatever is supposed to be clever about the clue phrasing. I cannot deny, however, that if (for some reason?) you "start to count" (to 10, say), you would likely start with ONE.
That's all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex "This Blog Does Not Scale" Parker, King of CrossWorld
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