After representing England at various youth levels, James made his senior debut in 2020, and went on to appear at UEFA Euro 2020.
• • •
This theme is so straightforward I can't believe it hasn't been done before. Maybe it has. The one thing it has going for it is the somewhat cheeky clue on the last answer, which acts as both a completion of the series (RAW, RARE, MEDIUM, WELL) and a revealer—none of the other answers will "end well" because they end with words that describe different level of meat doneness. Also, the grid has mirror symmetry instead of the typical rotational symmetry, which makes the puzzle visually interesting, and makes room for some colorful long answers in the NW and NE. I don't really have anything to say about the theme. It seems fine. Plain, but fine. As a solver, I never noticed the theme til the very end. Seemed like an afterthought. The puzzle played like a very easy themeless, with "THIS WON'T END WELL" as the one true marquee answer (a wonderful standalone phrase that would look great in any puzzle). As for those longer answers in the NW and NE, it's slightly weird to get a single DNA STRAND, but I don't mind it. It's quirky, and very gettable, so no harm done. I had HAIR SALON before NAIL SALON, which I don't feel too bad about, as ... isn't "tips" a hair term too? (11D: Where employees work on tips and receive tips). Didn't people (mainly women) used to get "frosted tips?" I have no hair, so I am out of my depth, but I really feel like "tips" has some kind of HAIR SALON context. Ah, look, "frosted tips"—still a thing. Good, I feel less crazy. On the other side of the grid, I've been to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe (a treasure), so NEW MEXICO was a gimme. As for "I MEAN, C'MON!" (3D: "Sheesh, gimme a break!") ... it's weird, but "C'MON" feels like the spelling you'd use if that was all that you were saying, whereas opening with "I MEAN" really seems to call for the full "COME ON." There's something slightly drawn out and dramatic about the expression that the clipped "C'MON" doesn't capture. I think the phrase is OK as is, but my ear is balking a little.
[at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, 2019]
The few tough spots I had could best be expressed through a two-category Venn diagram: "People with names that sound like 'Reese'" and "Soccer-related things," with REECE James in the overlap. The guy looks / sounds familiar, but I think you really have to follow Premier League to know him. In the "Reese" category with him is Dee REES, whose name is more familiar, but still, I don't know if her name would've come to me right away (actually, she wasn't an actual "tough spot" at all because I never saw her—puzzle was so easy that her name just kinda filled itself in) (21D: Dee who directed 2017's "Mudbound"). Over in the "Soccer-related things" part of the Venn diagram, in addition to REECE we've also got USWNT (50D: Squad captained by Lindsey Horan to win Olympic gold in '24, for short). I find both USWNT and USMNT confusing as neither abbreviation contains a letter that stands for the damned sport that they play! The letters stand for U.S. Women's National Team. So every time I see either abbreviation, I think "... tennis? is the 'T' tennis? Is the 'N' ... netball? oh, I remember now: United Soccer-Winning National Team! That's it."
Bullets:
20A: Sport in an octagon, for short (MMA) — this one's a little too timely. (don't click through if you'd rather not think about the US president today)
55A: Sonic boom generator? (SEGA) — SEGA is the company behind the popular Sonic the Hedgehog video game, which gave rise to movie franchise and a whole Sonic universe ("boom!")
33A: Assists, in basketball slang (DIMES) — this, I knew. Speaking of basketball. Looks like the Knicks lost last night. Too bad. Oh well, at least this happened (again, don't click through if you'd rather not think about the US president today)
61A: "We feel the same way" ("US TOO") — reflexively wrote in "ME TOO." "US TOO" doesn't flow off the tongue quite as readily.
62A: Airport raced through in "Home Alone," in brief (ORD) — so, Chicago's O'Hare
64A: Sound of a cartoon hit (BOINK) — if you watch cartoons or read comics, you know, this could've been anything. SPLAT! THWAP! WHACK! Even with the "K" in place, I wasn't sure.
6D: Carnivorous cinematic alien (BLOB) — That's TheBLOB, to you. I don't think I knew that the BLOB was an "alien" (as in, from outer space?). I thought it was just ... a BLOB ... wreaking havoc on Steve McQueen ... somehow. BLOB is part of a really nicely filled little section at the top of the grid where (almost) all the answers seem vaguely related to each other. BLOB ... SPRAWL ... ABSURD! Maybe the government is trying to track it with SONAR, which BLEEPs periodically. And maybe at the end of the movie they case the BLOB back into the ABYSS whence it came (again, to be clear, I have never seen the movie and have no idea what happens besides ... a blob blobbing around town and Steve McQueen somewhere nearby):
That's all for today. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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THEME: PARAMOUNT (50A: Of the highest importance ... or, when parsed differently, what each bracketed number in the clues indicates?) — the word "PAR" appears at the front of every word in the theme answers (first once, then twice, then three times)—so the bracketed number at the end of every theme clue indicates that answer's "PAR amount":
Theme answers:
PARCHEESI (18A: Popular board game adapted from India [1])
PARALLEL PARKING (23A: Challenge for student drivers [2])
PARTY PARTY PARTY! (41A: Never stop having fun [3])
I don't really know what to do with this. I don't get it. I feel like I should get it. It's Monday. Monday themes should be clear. And this one appears clear. There are brackets telling you the amount (number) of "PAR"s in each theme answer. But ... why? What does Par have to do with anything? Is it golf? It doesn't feel very golfy, this puzzle. And nothing about PAR AMOUNT gets at the fact that "PAR" is in every word of every theme answer, and at the front of every word. Like, the PARs don't just appear, they appear in a very specific fashion ... but the revealer is only concerned with the "amount"? I feel like there's something clever here that I'm missing. Sadly, all I see are 1, 2, 3 "PAR"s ... for some reason. Or no reason. Just 'cause. Doesn't seem like a particularly inspiring idea for a theme. The parsing of PARAMOUNT as PAR [space] AMOUNT is kind of cute, but the end result is just ... counting "PAR"s, and that doesn't seem like much. Also, "PARTY PARTY PARTY" feels like a very weak and contrived way to get your three "PAR"s in. Is that a phrase people say? When they want to ... party (all the time) (party all the time) (party all the time)? I dunno. But I did enjoy the Downs-only solve, which felt constantly PARilous (just imagine that that is a good pun). I really thought I was going to fail to finish, multiple times, right up to the very end, when, finally, I managed to see GOTCHAS (4D: Hidden snags). With only the "C" and the "A" in place, I was Not seeing it. Earlier, I wanted CATCHES, which seemed to fit the clue really nicely, but the crosses just wouldn't work. So I was happy to get that last big 'aha' with GOTCHAS, although I can't say that's a term I've seen in the plural very often, if ever. Strange theme, challenging Downs-only solve. Some interesting / unusual answers (SPAM FILTER / REPORT BACK / KNAVERY). I didn't have a bad time, that's about all I can say by way of an overall assessment.
So GOTCHAS was my main struggle point. I got SPAM FILTER with absolutely no help from crosses (9D: Email winnower), so that made the whole NE very pliable, but once I got into the center, and all around that third themer, things got real gunked up. KNAVERY is not an answer that's easy to parse, as you almost never see it and so don't expect it. At least I didn't. Plus I had EEO or EOE at 36D: Accessibility law inits. at first (Equal Employment Opportunity / Equal Opportunity Employer). But it's a very specific law, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), that the clue was after. Not having that "A" made KNAVERY impossible to see (34A: Scoundrel's deeds). Also, I know a little too much about Inuit watercraft, I think, as I wrote in UMIAK for 34D: Watercraft for an Inuit (KAYAK). "Like the kayak, the traditional umiak was made from a driftwood or whalebone frame pegged and lashed together, sometimes with antlers or ivory, over which walrus or bearded seal skins are stretched" (wikipedia). If you solved crosswords in the olden days, you may not have made the same mistake I did here, but perhaps you're nodding your head understandingly. So my first pass at KNAVERY came out UNEVERY, which almost looks wordlike (something less than every?), but isn't. I also had NEW TO before NEW AT (28D: Starting to learn) and I had trouble figuring out THRIFT (43D: What misers take to an extreme), which is not a word that screams "miser," for me. REPORT BACK was a bear (25D: Give a debriefing (to)), but the K from KAYAK (er, UMIAK), got me RUBIK, which got me the "B" I (really) needed to see the BACK part of REPORT BACK, and then I was able to infer the rest.
Bullets:
12A: Designer ___ Boss (HUGO) — pretty notorious Nazi. Made uniforms for Nazis. Used prisoner-of-war labor. Surely there are other HUGOs. Why not Victor? Or Weaving?
38A: Card game whose name is something players cry (UNO) — also GIN. Gotta be careful.
59A: Up in the air (ALOFT) — was able to parse this Across fairly easily because I'd been thinking about this word recently, as it's a word that is potentially lethal when playing Quordle (or Octordle). You can have all the letters but still screw up and play FLOAT if you're not careful. And FLOAT and ALOFT don't just share the same letters—three of those letters are in the same place. Tricky. Dangerous.
26D: Prime use for a crowbar (LEVER) — I think the "use" thing threw me. A crowbar simply *is* a LEVER. Like, [Crowbar, e.g.] would've been a fine clue for LEVER. The clue isn't wrong, but its phrasing made me think the answer would be something like "PRYING" or "SMASHING WINDOWS" (only, you know, shorter).
That's all for today. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. I set the "Number of Days Without a Star Wars Reference" counter back to zero yesterday, late in the day, because, as someone in the Comments pointed out, the clue for RTE (46D: This is the way: Abbr.) is an expression frequently used on and popularized by The Mandalorian.
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THEME: "Split Seconds" — I don't really know what "Split Seconds" is supposed to mean*, but the theme is essentially TWO OUT OF THREE (ain't bad) (though it ain't good, either) (66A: Amount that "ain't bad," so to speak ... or what to make with six sets of answers in this puzzle?)—basically six entire rows get double-clued, but the rows have three "answers" in them, so ... you have to make three "answers" out of the two ... or, looking at it another way, you have to take the three "answers" and imagine them as two. Yes, it is as confusing and awkward as it sounds:
Theme answers:
GA TECH / ANGELIC / ENSURE (out of these three (unclued) "answers," you "make" the following two: GATE CHANGE and LICENSURE) (22A: With 23- and 24-Across, airport announcement / Requirement to practice, perhaps)
SOLI / STENCHES / STABLES ("SO LISTEN..." and CHESS TABLES) (30A: With 32- and 35-Across, "Now, here's the thing..." / Some board game surfaces)
MADRE / SPECTATED / INNER (MAD RESPECT and ATE DINNER) (48A: With 50- and 54-Across, serious props / Had an evening meal)
CHIAS / MUSCLEMEN / TINES (CHIASMUS and CLEMENTINES) (87A: With 88- and 91-Across, syntax-reversing rhetorical device / Small peelable citrus fruits)
THE REST / "I MEANT IT" / HEFT ("THERE'S TIME" and ANTITHEFT) (105A: With 106- and 108-Across, "No need to hurry" / Like some security measures)
WASABI / TODDLES / SOFTEN (WAS A BIT ODD (!?!?!?) and LESS OFTEN) (115A: With 118- and 121-Across, didn't quite fit in, say / Not as frequently)
[22A: GA TECH]
Word of the Day: Chiasmus (see 87A) —
In rhetoric, chiasmus (/kaɪˈæzməs/ky-AZ-məs) or, less commonly,[citation needed]chiasm (Latin term from Greek χίασμαchiásma, "crossing", from the Greekχιάζω, chiázō, "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of words".
A similar device, antimetabole, also involves a reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses in an A-B-B-A configuration, but unlike chiasmus, presents a repetition of words. // Chiasmus balances words or phrases with similar, though not identical, meanings:
But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves.
I know you've all been wondering how the installation of my new router went, and, well, it went great! No problems. Working internet, achieved! Wait, you weren't wondering that? Some of you must've been wondering that. How many of you were wondering that? [counts hands] one two ... OK, looks like six of you. Six or so. Anyway, like I say, you know longer have to wonder or worry. Turns out I can follow printed directions pretty darned well. So I got my internet back up an running, with full printer connectivity and everything, just in time for ... this. I haven't disliked a puzzle this much for a while. I mean ... while I was solving, the actual experience, I just kept wanting it to be over. So many unclued [See blah blah blah previous clue] answers. So much bizarre parsing and reparsing. All for a punchline that also seems kind of backwards to me. I have to make (i.e. enter) three answers out of the two answers that are clued. Three out of two, not TWO OUT OF THREE. As I say in the theme description, I see how you can turn it around and say that I have to make (i.e. envision) two answers out of the three answers on each theme-answer row. But still, the punchline didn't land as well as it might have for me because it just seemed backwards. But that's not the real problem here. The real problem here is ugh these "words" / phrases / answers. Starting with LICENSURE. Sure, it's a word, but man it's ugly, and I almost never hear it. You need a license to practice. LICENSURE is so bizarrely formal. And SPECTATED (an unclued "answer" in the second themer)—again, not a word you're actually likely to hear ever. "Spectators," sure, but SPECTATED, awk! ATE DINNER? That's about as close to ATE A SANDWICH as you're going to get. In fact, it ... WAS A BIT ODD (oof, not a standalone phrase). Did you all know what CHIASMUS was. If so, I'm impressed, because I did not. I know about "chiastic structure," which I guess is what CHIASMUS exemplifies, but this specific name of this specific rhetorical device? Uh uh. So, lots of weird and awkward words and phrases, all sliced and slapped together in unclued slabs of answer-like "answers." It hurts.
PAGE RANK? (96A: Early Google algorithm for determining the importance of websites)! TEASER RATE? (73D: Initially offered lesser charge)! Whose idea of a good time is this? Everything from ART TEST on down to the SW corner was miserable. You get a few nice moments with the longer answers like CASABLANCA (14D: Classic film said to be the most quotable movie of all time), though that clue is terrible ... "Said to be"???? Who said? How would you even measure that? It's true that I can think of a few famous quotes (including the spurious "Play it again, Sam"), but ... there's gotta be a better way to clue that. GOT A LOAD OF is decent (3D: Laid eyes on but good), though I had GOT A GANDER at first (!), and then GOT A LOOK AT. MANIFESTOS is fine, but ... so many of the "answers" today were unclued that the puzzle feels gutted of half its potential pleasure. No clues on ANGELIC or MUSCLEMEN or STENCHES. Just [See blah blah Across] over and over. It's not that it was particularly difficult, it was just complicated, and almost utterly devoid of pleasure. NO, SIR, not for me.
Between parsing and unparsing and reparsing the answers and the unclued "answers" and then dealing with shorter fill that was not-at-all self-evident to me (HIST? EXPAT?), this one did not go particularly quickly for me. Sloggy. Not fun-tough. Fussy-tough. I think the PAGE RANK / TEASER RATE part was the slowest for me, mostly because neither of those terms is that familiar to me (I had SITE RANK or something like that, and then ... I don't know what kind of RATE I was considering, but it definitely wasn't TEASER. Maybe INTRO or something like that). I had to wait on the Dwarf because SLEEPY and SNEEZY have so many letters in common (102D: One of the Seven Dwarfs). I had no idea what was going on with ANY SIZE for obvious reasons, i.e. that is a terrible non-thing that should not be allowed to pass as a standalone answer (124A: What wristwatch straps are designed to accommodate). Though I enjoyed hardly anything in this puzzle, I weirdly enjoyed MOTT ST (95D: Thoroughfare through N.Y.C.'s Chinatown), largely because it's got this improbable phalanx of consonants at the end (TTST), and because it makes me think of the Rodgers & Hart song "Manhattan," specifically this lovely rendition by Blossom Dearie.
["And tell me what street / Compares with MOTT ST. in July..."]
Bullets:
28A: America's largest labor union, familiarly (THE NEA) — Pronouncing this as one word now (THEE'-nee-ya) so that I can pretend that stupid definite article isn't there.
26A: North African fortress, in one spelling (KASBAH) — lol is there another spelling? I saw "in one spelling" and thought "dear lord how the hell are they going to spell it today? QAZZBA?" But no, just KASBAH, the only way I even remember seeing it spelled. Although now that I'm looking at CASBAH, maybe *that's* the spelling I'm most familiar with. I already had the "K" in place when I looked at the clue, so maybe I'm just hallucinating KASBAH as the most familiar spelling. Anyway, there are at least three more spellings, in addition to the "K" and "C" spellings: QASBAH, QASBA, QASABA
[Yeah, look, the Clash spell it with a "C" so that must be the spelling I've always known]
41A: Former alliance of France, Italy, Japan, the U.S., the U.K. and West Germany (G-SIX) — there are so many "G" alliances that I'm not sure how anyone could keep them straight. I guess this clue gives you the opportunity to count, so, yes ... there are six countries you've got there. But you don't really need to count once you have the "G"—no other number is going to work but SIX. I mean, G-ONE would be pretty lonely, and G-TWO ... could be as bad as one, it's the loneliest G-group since the group G-ONE. Oh crud, I forgot about the G-TEN, that would've fit too. Never mind.
75A: Manufacturer's gross product? (SMOG) — that's a pretty clever clue for SMOG. But then SMOG crosses OPE 🙁 and all pleasure from the SMOG clue goes poof, just like that.
85A: Feature of an intersection that forces a turn (T-SHAPE) — had the "T" and thought "oh, what are those called ... T-STOPS? Three-way stops?" I would never in a million years have thought the answer would be something as dumb as T-SHAPE. It's just a "T." I guess you can't argue with the fact that a "T" is T-SHAPEd, but yeesh, that answer, not pretty. And crossing OPE! Rough patch there.
94A: Resident of the so-called "Nation of Poets" (SOMALI) — I have never heard Somalia so-called that. This was basically "Random resident of a country, good luck."
69D: Underworld boss? (HADES) — if you wrote in SATAN here, I understand, you are forgiven.
6D: Type of Thai red curry (PANANG) — good answer. Delicious answer. CURRY killed me on Quordle the other day because I had CUR-Y and had eliminated what I thought were all plausible letters that could go in that slot. And so I wrote in CURVY. D'oh! Forgot about the letters I already had in the word (namely, "R")! Rrrrrookie mistake.
36A: Musician who said "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination" (LENNON) — I wonder if "imagination" is supposed to be a subtle hint, since LENNON famously sang "Imagine." I think "Imagine" is kind of an insipid song, so here's something else.
That's all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. If you are really into cryptic crosswords (I do at least one a day as a kind of cross (!)-training) the World Crossword Federation (yes, such a thing exists!) is sponsoring a U.S. Cryptic Crossword Championship next month. It's for U.S. residents of any nationality, and it's online, and you can find all the info you need at crypticsingh.com, or here, in this announcement:
*someone suggested that “Split Seconds” refers to the fact that you “split” the “second” “answer” in the trio in order to understand the clues, which is probably right, but as a solver, *I* have to “split” the *actual answers* to the clue definitions (i.e. the CH/ANGE in GATE CHANGE), so once again, the puzzle’s idea of what I am doing just doesn’t match what I perceive myself to be doing
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During the Mughal Empire, Munshi (Persian: منشی) came to be used as a respected title for persons who achieved mastery over language and politics in the Indian subcontinent. (wikipedia)
• • •
I had this rated one star before I even looked at the first clue. The shape of the grid made me want to nope out immediately. This is my very least favorite kind of late-week puzzle—the exceedingly, violently quadranted puzzle that is basically four puzzles with no flow and almost no footholds (i.e. shorter answers). It's a show-offy kind of grid—those corners, with all their stacked and intersecting answers, are hard to construct. All that white space is meant to be daunting. But it's also bound to be filled with at least some if not a whole lotta garbage. MUNSHI?!!! ROSINED? SNEES (lol, there's a blast from the past—my first entry in the grid!)? HAREMS (with its desperate "Not Those Kind of HAREMS!" clue) (3D: Groups of female elephant seals)? I guess I've heard about someone being "on the RAGGED EDGE" but I don't remember when (7D: What those close to failure are said to be on). So I've basically *endured* like half a dozen entries, actively enjoyed or been thrilled by none, and I haven't even left the NW yet. To play MOMALA now, in 2026? Rough (16A: Portmanteau nickname for politician Harris). That was barely a thing two years ago, and now it just seems sad and dated. WTF is a CORN CRIB? (10D: Farm structure in which ears are stored). Who calls it AMENDMENT I?! What is INTELSAT? Where my Intels at!? (please just stare at the name INTELSAT for a few seconds and then tell me how anyone could "like" that answer). I actually think the bottom corners come out OK, but just OK. My point is, when you make a puzzle this shape, you've pretty much told me "this will not be fun." It might be hard, and hard can be ... refreshing ... but there's no real joy to be had here. GETS TAN? ATE CAKE!? BURN SAGE?!! It's the Random Verb Phrase Olympics up in here. There's a real ceiling on how good a puzzle with this shape can be. Even though this puzzle is a personal 1-star puzzle for me, I gave it some credit for being a decent example Of Its Type. And for the dim satisfaction I derived from just getting through it unscathed.
["I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow"]
Started this thing off with SNEES, which I had as SMEES for a second, confusing my dusty old crosswordese S-EEs for a moment (8D: Old blades). Off that "N" I got UHAUL VAN, which started to make the NW corner seem doable. MUNSHI threatened to kill me the whole time, but once I got done and saw MUNSHI there, I just had to assume it was a thing and move on. From there, it was down into the SE corner. Somehow the second "G" from GANG got me GETS TAN, though the whole time I'm writing in GETS TAN I'm laughing thinking "no, can't be GETS TAN, that's a terrible answer.” Off that second "T" I wanted MOTOROLA for 51A: Multinational communications giant founded in 1964 (INTELSAT), but none of the crosses worked. Then, off the (presumed) "S" at the end of 42D: Gentle hills (KNOLLS), I thought "oh, it's something-SIZE" at 55A: Giant, as a mattress. And the "Z" got me ERSATZ (44D: Faux), and from there I had enough traction to finish that corner. INTELSAT was my MUNSHI of the SE. Every corner in a puzzle like this tends to have at least one MUNSHI. Today's MUNSHIs were MUNSHI, INTELSAT, and CORN CRIB. The SW corner, to its credit, doesn't really have a MUNSHI. It's got the oddly spelled OUTATIME, but at worst that rates a mild shrug and not an outright "what? no!" I don't mind remembering Back to the Future. That might've been the most fun I had all solve, actually.
Got AERATOR off the initial "A" and ATE CAKE off of the last "E," which gave me immediate traction in both those corners. They were easier corners for that reason, and because they had two short (i.e. five-letter) answers instead of just the one that the NW and SE have. Short answers = easiest way to grab hold of a section. NE corner went AERATOR I'M FINE FRILLY, SW corner went ATE CAKE KINDER (how did I remember that?) (39D: ___ egg (chocolate treat with a toy)) SAFARI. Ended on OUTATIME crossing "I'M HOME"—Back to the Future crossing The Shining. And right next door to Laurel and Hardy (PIE FIGHT!) (30D: Staple of slapstick comedy). Something of a high point in an otherwise functional but somewhat bland slog of a Saturday puzzle.
Bullets:
1A: Spreads out in the morning? (SCHMEARS) — do you really put out multiple SCHMEARS? Second question: do you own a bagel shop?
9A: Tool in the opening scene of Disney's "Frozen" (ICE SAW) — so ... not ICE AXE? OK. I knew it had to be one of those crosswordy ice tools.
20A: Showing signs of spring, say (IN LEAF) — timely! My brain wanted IN BUD or IN BLOOM, but we're talking about other parts of plants today. My maples are fully IN LEAF now and prepared to protect my house from the summer sun. Good trees. Best part of this house.
35A: Rainer who was the first person ever to win two consecutive acting Academy Awards (LUISE) — ask your grandparents, kids? Actually, don't, she was before their time too. She won her Oscars for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937), where she played the Chinese farm wife O-LAN of ancient crossword fame (212 NYTXW appearances!) (acting in yellowface used to be very popular).
12D: 0% in New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska and Delaware (SALES TAX) — good clue. I was trying to think of something about the climate or the population.
24D: Religious right? (AMENDMENT I) — leaving aside the awkwardly formal phrasing here, I don't know if the clue is working, even punnily. Freedom of Religion is a "right" conferred by the First Amendment, but the Amendment is not itself a "right." Though it is part of the "Bill of Rights," maybe that's the idea?
31D: Ce n'est pas du fast food (ESCARGOT) — wow, I never saw this clue, which is too bad, 'cause it's a good one. Not "fast" food in two senses!
45D: Pest with a repetitive name (TSETSE) — I'm guessing this was many people's first word in the SE—one of the few answers I would call an outright gimme. Sadly, getting TSETSE in the farthest corner of the puzzle isn't likely to provide all that much traction. Getting KINGSIZE was the real key to that corner. That "K"! That "Z"! That terminal "I"! A real bonanza if you can work it out.
That's all for today. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Word of the Day: POTOROO (37D: Small marsupial whose name is spelled using only the letters of TROP) —
Potoroo is a common name for species of Potorous, a genus of smaller marsupials. They are allied to the Macropodiformes, the suborder of kangaroo, wallaby, and other rat-kangaroo genera and is the only genus in the tribe Potoroini. All three extant species are threatened by ecological changes since the colonisation of Australia, especially the long-footed potoroo Potorous longipes (endangered) and P. gilbertii (critically endangered). The broad-faced potoroo P. platyops disappeared after its first description in the 19th century. The main threats are predation by introduced species (especially foxes) and habitat loss.
Potoroos were formerly very common in Australia, and early settlers reported them as being significant pests to their crops. (wikipedia)
• • •
The long answers up top and down below are just fine. Chatty, breezy, in-the-language. Nice. The rest ... I really don't see the appeal of any of it. This is Friday, you can do anything! All that space. And what do I get? DEALER'S SHOE?! (10D: What might give a hand in a casino?). I barely know what a "shoe" is in this context, but thank god I did, because otherwise I'd still be wondering what the hell the dealer was doing, using, or possibly wearing. In case you are unfamiliar, a "shoe" is a thingie that holds cards, looks like this:
The other marquee Down is PARASAILING, which is fine, but not terribly interesting, and the rest of the puzzle is fairly blah. Fridays should not be blah. On top of the blahness, there was the barrage of names. I laughed out loud when I hit my third ???? name. Some guy who won a Chemistry Nobel 45 years ago? I guess this is the price we pay for canceling ROALD Dahl. Crossword needs better ROALDs! We have a ROALD emergency! Calling all ROALDs! Well, not allROALDs. Not this ROALD. Yeesh. Also, somebody who acted on The Hughleys? (28D: ___ Neal, co-star of TV's "The Hughleys"). A pioneering civil rights person? (46D: Pioneering civil rights activist ___ Arnold Hedgeman). It's not that these people are totally uncrossworthy, it's just ... name name name. Or more like "unfamous name unfamous name unfamous name." Oh, dang, I forgot about SETH, another TV actor (13D: Actor Gilliam of "The Wire"). Throw him in there too. Just not my day for names. At all. But I think it was the POTOROO that really made me ... "mad" isn't the right word, but—that is not an animal I've ever heard of. And that clue! (37D: Small marsupial whose name is spelled using only the letters of TROP) ... you know your animal is obscure when the puzzle has to resort to telling you "it has these letters in it!" Also, what is "TROP"? Why "TROP" and not, say, "PORT"? PORT has the virtue of being a word. An English word, I should say. "TROP" is a French word (meaning "too" as in "excessively"). I think it's also the nickname of a ballfield where the Marlins ... played? Play? The TROP! Gah, no. Not the Marlins. Close, but no. The Tampa Bay Rays play there, not the Miami Marlins. Shows you how much I care about Florida baseball. I still don't think of those Florida teams as real because I didn't grow up with them. Also, they both used to. have different names (The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Florida Marlins). Anyway, POTOROO! It's a thing, apparently! Sounds like an Australian music festival, but nope. Tiny marsupial. Who knew (besides all the Australians)?
I got the top third of this puzzle easy but then oof. Right around ROALD, things got rocky. Rocky ROALD! Also, the clue on PANTRIES was tough (26A: Grocery stores?). And I thought 27D: I I I (IOTAS) was THREE. And then ELISE is there in the east gumming things up. Managed to raggedly hack my way down to the bottom, only to encounter POTOROO (again I say, "!?"), and that's where I made my biggest mistake. Put in DEMS instead of LEFT at 41D: Blue side, with "the". Blue does not apply to the LEFT. The LEFT and the DEMS are Not The Same. Just ask the LEFT. Blue is associated with the DEMS. Red, Republicans, Blue, DEMS. That is how those colors work in this country. So ... DEMS left me wondering how 41A: Not so rich, so to speak could be DIRE (answer: it couldn't be, the answer is LITE). Didn't know ANNA. Had END for AIM (46A: Destination). Was not at all confident that HOGANS were structures of the SW, but thank god that guess was correct, otherwise I might still be solving this thing. Because of all this, I had trouble seeing the long Acrosses down below. Tried to get the front ends of them, and while MRIS and AUDI were easy enough, that ugly fill-in-the-blank clue on IN ON, that got me (44D: __ a secret). I had "IT'S A" and later tried "I GOT." The clue isn't a quotation, so both those guesses were bound to be wrong, but I couldn't really see that. This made SING hard to get (53A: Opposite of "stay silent"). All of this fussing with mediocre fill and crummy clues and for what? A few good long answers. This just wasn't for me at all.
Bullets:
14A: "Can anyone explain this?!" ("MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!") — the clue is a question and the answer isn't, and the clue makes it sound like you're addressing a crowd, while the answer feels like the kind of thing you'd say to a specific person. But I guess the idea was to make this clue (14A: "Can anyone explain this?!") rhyme with the next clue (17A: "Let me try to explain ..."). It's a nice idea. But I still don't think this clue is right.
20A: Coat on a tip? (POLISH) — the coat on the "tip" of your finger, i.e. your nail. Nail POLISH.
30A: Seaweed-based gels (AGARS) — I'm enduring AGARS and IOTAS and EKES and EMTS and OROs rather than getting four to six more entertaining longer answers. I don't get it.
32A: So-called "Champagne of Spain" (CAVA) — pfft. Nope. I maybe have heard of this, but completely forgot it. I know KAVA (Polynesian plant used to make a psychoactive beverage). But CAVA, not so much. "Champagne of Spain" sounds like "Champagne of Beers," i.e. a highly dubious marketing slogan:
40A: Something you can see right through (IRIS) — another rough clue. You see through your IRIS. You don't see "right" through it. No one would say that. But I guess that's the point. Still, I didn't need more aggravation from the slew of short stuff today. Not helping.
45A: New wave band with the 1979 album "Duty Now for the Future" (DEVO) — got this easily, but I really thought the 1979 album was Freedom of Choice. Maybe that was 1980 ... yup, May 1980. I got it as a present at my 11th birthday party, at Aldo's Pizza. I got Abba: The Album. I remember very clearly disdaining the Abba (not cool by young boy standards in 1980) and my mom giving me a very stern talking-to, right then and there, about gratitude. Years later I would come to think Abba was awesome. And that is my DEVO story. DEVO: cool then, cool now ... but the album in this clue is slightly obscure. It peaked at #73 and provided only one recognizable single: their semi-cover (?) of "Secret Agent [not 'Asian'] Man":
49A: Provide proactive help, in a way (RUN INTERFERENCE) — that clue did little to get me to the answer. It's accurate enough, I guess, but it doesn't quite get at the whole idea of "handling a bunch of secondary problems or distractions for someone so that person can focus on the primary task," which is how I think of the phrase RUN INTERFERENCE.
23D: 500 competitor (RACER) — no "Indy" or "Daytona" for you, solver. Just ... 500! Is that normal racing slang? Car racing, like casino shoes, and casinos in general—not my thing.
31D: People not to argue with, they say (FOOLS) — this was also weirdly hard. Do "they" really say this? I mean, it seems like good advice, but this is not a saying about FOOLS that I know. A fool and his money are soon parted, I know that one. Fool me once, shame on me, etc. That's another "fool" saying. You certainly shouldn't argue with people on the internet, ever (ever), but "don't argue with fools" does not have the zippy, memorable quality I associate with "sayings."
That's all for today. See you next time, hopefully with functioning internet (still using the hotspot on my phone until the new router arrives, later today)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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