Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Aaron Ullman

Constructor: Aaron Ullman

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: LEÓN (8D: Historic kingdom of Spain) —

The Kingdom of León (UK: /leɪˈɒn/, US: /-ˈoʊn/; Spanish: [leˈon]; Asturian: Reinu de Llión; Spanish: Reino de León; Galician: Reino de León; Portuguese: Reino de Leão; Latin: Regnum Legionense; Mirandese: Reino de Lhion) was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedoto the city of León. The kings of León fought civil wars, wars against neighbouring kingdoms, and campaigns to repel invasions by both the Moors and the Vikings, all in order to protect their kingdom's changing fortunes. (wikipedia)

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Had several strong negative reactions to this one, but before I get to those, I'll start with the highlights. The marquee answers there in the center of the grid are, by and large, very strong, especially TWITTERWARS, SPRINGFLING, WINORGOHOME, and HEWENTTHERE—I did have an initially negative reaction to that last one, because I think of it as a statement, not a question (31A: "Did I just hear him say that?!"), but in my head I can hear it as a question, so it's back to being in the plus column. It's always good when longer answers truly shine, as opposed to just meekly take up space, especially in a themeless puzzle, when you have so much freedom as to what longer answers you put in your puzzle, and those answers are really the puzzle's primary reason for being. Having four of six such answers be real winners is a nice achievement. As for the other two: WINDOW FRAME holds its own just fine. Solid. Which brings me to ... my first strongly negative reaction: HISTORY NERD. The HISTORY part is fine. It's the NERD part. What are you all doing to the word NERD? Just because you're in to something doesn't mean you're a NERD in any meaningful sense of the word. You're a HISTORY BUFF. That is what you are. I guarantee you that you are not a NERD, or at least that you're being into history does not make you so. What's next, TAROTNERD (I might know a TAROTNERD or two, actually ...). It was annoying enough to have HISTORY and no idea of what word might follow. It was then super-annoying to have that word be NERD. The dilution of that word continues apace, and I hate it. Math and science people are nerds. Historians are dorks, maybe. I mean, if you're being derogatory ... which was always my problem with the neo-meaning of nerd—it's faux self-deprecation. You call yourself a "NERD" because it retains this stereotypically negative air, but what you mean is that you're actually really smart. Down with faux humility everywhere! And leave the word NERD alone. Stop trying to make it a mere synonym for "enthusiast" (I've lost this battle, I know, but I haven't lost my annoyance, and that's what's important)

Still, those central answers are overwhelmingly nice, as I say, It's only once you leave the meaty center of the grid that things get dicey, both at the fill and at the cluing level. Do you want to start in the EOCENE section :( or the ENESCO section :( :( ??? That NW corner feels thrown away. It's where most people are going to start and there's absolutely nothing lovable about EOCENE or APEMEN or SEAMAP, esp. as (cutesily) clued (1A: Blue print?). Really really wanted to make EROTICA or something like that fit there. Alas. But mere blandness isn't so bad. Especially when the center is so good. But in the NW's counterpart—that is, the SE—things aren't merely bland. The NERD part of HISTORY NERD (already off-putting) leads straight into ... DADVICE (54A: Fatherly tips, to use a portmanteau coinage). Whose "portmanteau coinage"? Just "a" coinage? Look, I can accept DAD- as the first part of a lot of modern coinages. DADBOD. DADJOKE. Even DADCORE. But DADVICE!? That ... that portmanteau pun is so bad, it's one that a stereotypical "Dad" might've come up with ... but the whole point is that the coinage is going to come from someone else ... someone making fun of the dad? ... right? It seems like a desperate attempt to debut a word (and it is, in fact, a debut). But it feels try-hard, not fresh. When I search [dadvice] the first three sites that come up are about something called a "kidney health coach" (!?!?!) ... I see at least one site using it to refer to advice for dads (i.e. new dads). Anyway, I don't really think the term has the cultural oomph it pretends to. And whatever freshness it can lay claim to is totally eradicated by the ENESCO, the king of crosswordese composers.

The worst thing in the grid, though, was an answer I didn't even get a chance to be truly mad at because I didn't know the letters I put into the grid were, in fact, an answer, and since those letters made up the last answer of the solve, I got the "Congratulations, you finished the puzzle" message without understanding how that was possible. What in the world could "adunit" mean? (in my head, I'm pronouncing it "a-DUN-it" (rhymes who "whodunnit") (53A: Half-page, perhaps). But of course I see now that it's AD [space] UNIT, and wow I can't imagine ending on a lower note. I was like "imagine debuting ADUNIT!?" but apparently that honor went to someone else, seven years ago, and ever since then, constructors have been like "no thanks." Until today. AD UNIT? I can't even find the words to express how unlikeable the answer is, in a very specific, ruthlessly technical and oppressively boring kind of way. It's a little wad of technical jargon and banality. Very very bad luck to end the puzzle there. The opposite of "Big Finish" is ADUNIT.

Notes:

29D: Poet who wrote "A Child's Christmas in Wales" (THOMAS) — That's Dylan Thomas, for the record. And "A Child's Christmas in Wales" is not actually a poem, as the clue semi-suggests. It's prose, originally a radio piece that THOMAS did for the BBC:

A Child's Christmas in Wales is a piece of prose by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas recorded by Thomas in 1952. Emerging from an earlier piece he wrote for BBC Radio, the work is an anecdotal reminiscence of a Christmas from the viewpoint of a young boy, portraying a nostalgic and simpler time. It is one of Thomas's most popular works. (wikipedia)

26A: Initialism that might have a ring to it? (WBA) — The "B" stands for "boxing." Hence "ring." Or should I say "ring? ring? get it? 's a good pun, amirite?"
43A: Whet bar? (GRINDSTONE) — Why do some punny "?" clues work and some don't? I don't know. But this one works. I think it's primarily the simplicity—how much leverage one little letter has. Pronunciation remains largely the same, but meaning goes into another galaxy. Took me a while to get, and felt worth the effort.
46D: Sub text, maybe (EDIT) — I assume "Sub" is a verb here. Short for "substitute."
24D: Surfer girl (WAHINE) — learned this from crosswords. Unfortunately, today, I spelled it like TAHINI. There once was a lovely WAHINE / Who liked to eat toast with TAHINI ... [something something / something something / something] stained her BIKINI.