Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: A. Tariq

Constructor: A. Tariq

Relative difficulty: Medium, maybe a little harder than the average Monday

THEME: groups — familiar terms clued (wackily, of course) as if the second word were a term for "group":

Theme answers:

HOUSE PARTY (17A: Group of Washington politicians?)
ICE PACK (29A: Group of diamond jewelry wearers?)
DEEP SET (47A: Group of profoundly insightful people?)
SEMI CIRCLE (61A: Group of big rig haulers?)

Word of the Day: AGHA (19A: Turkish title of honor) —

Agha, also Aga (Ottoman Turkish: آغا‎; Persian: آقا‎, romanized: āghā; "chief, master, lord"), is an honorific title for a civilian or military officer, or often part of such title, and was placed after the name of certain civilian or military functionaries in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time some court functionaries were entitled to the agha title. (wikipedia)

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Ehhhh ... this felt a million years old. Also, because of the "?" nature of the theme, slightly harder than a normal Monday. HEADS-UP was the one zingy answer, but then it duplicated the "UP" from DRAG UP, so ... that kind of undoes a lot of the good of the zinginess. I WIN and I WISH intersect :( Both ESSEN and ODESSA somehow escaped from Ye Olde Booke of Crossworde Place Names holding pen. I think AGHA helped them break out. There is somehow more than one cyan? And, of course, IGER is here again for some reason. He just shows up. No one invites him, and yet no one is surprised to see him. He's just there. Like a lamp. Two of the themers are way too short—I really thought 11D (VEGETABLES) and 28D (HODGEPODGE) were going to be themers. By rights (and length / position) they should've been. They are in the same position vertically that HOUSE PARTY and SEMICIRCLE are in horizontally. And yet, not themers. But the dumb short 7-letter ICE PACK and DEEP SET somehow are themers. It's all so weird. And the clues don't reorient the meanings of the words enough to be really zany. Well, at least the HOUSE PARTY clue doesn't. You've got the "group" meaning of "party" and the "woo hoo!" meaning of "party," but making the HOUSE part Congress means you've also got the political meaning of "party" interfering with whatever wordplay you're trying to get going there. It's clunky.

I guess the theme concept is OK. I mean, it works, technically. But the results aren't exactly hilarious, and as I say, the theme material is pretty dang thin. With a theme this thin, I expect a very clean, very snazzy grid. The grid is neither of these things. Why do we clue INDIE as if it's not mainstream? It's a term that has lost all meaning and lots and lots of self-styled INDIE music is extremely mainstream (37A: Nonmainstream, as music). A pirate's treasure is BOOTY. It just is. Any answer but BOOTY (say, LOOT, for example) is only going to be disappointing (34D: Pirate's treasure). O wow this stylization of NSYNC as apostrophe "N" space "S" lowercase "ync" is so godawful (36A: Title word sung 52 times in a 2000 hit by 'N Sync) ... it's bad enough that I live in a world where NSYNC (or N*SYNC) songs are basically oldies, now you give me this alt-spelling? I am going to stop thinking about this puzzle now.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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