Ciudad official / SAT 1-29-22 / Bygone Japanese coin / Kid-lit authors Margret and H.A. / Nonhuman host of a talk show on HBO Max / Gambling venues with portmanteau name / Habitat for the addax antelope

Constructor: Andrew Ries and Caitlin Reid

Relative difficulty: Medium (mostly on the easier side, but with a few terms I didn't know that held me up)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day:  ALCALDE (12D: Ciudad official) —

Alcalde (/ælˈkældi/; Spanish: [alˈkalde]) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo (the municipal council) and judge of first instance of a town.  Alcaldes were elected annually, without the right to reelection for two or three years, by the regidores (council members) of the municipal council. The office of the alcalde was signified by a staff of office, which they were to take with them when doing their business. A woman who holds the office is termed an Alcaldesa.

In New Spain (Mexico), alcaldes mayores were chief administrators in colonial-era administrative territories termed alcaldías mayores; in colonial-era Peru the units were called corregimientos.

Alcalde was also a title given to Indian officials inside the Spanish missions, who performed a large variety of duties for the Franciscan missionaries. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a very nice grid, though the only challenges it presented came entirely from words / names I'd never seen—three, to be exact: ALCALDE, REYS, and HELISTOP. These things happen, of course, when you're solving a Saturday puzzle (or even a Monday puzzle, sometimes, if we're being honest), but I much prefer the kind of difficulty that comes with tricky clues to the kind that comes from words / names / term not commonly known (I won't get in an argument about how well known ALCALDE or the REYS are, but let's just say far far far far far less universally known than, well, look at almost all the other answers: GOLD MEDALS? Everyone knows that term. LOADED DICE, same. ELMO, ROLL, etc. ... you see how "hard" grids aren't really filled with "hard" answers—it's primarily the cluing that makes the puzzle hard, or it should be). It's the unevenness of the difficulty that really highlights how much this puzzle is offering up only one kind of difficulty. It took a little time to think my way through some reasonably toughish stuff in the NW—[Power forward] made me think basketball, rowing, and that clue on APB was a wacky (and tough) delight (19A: Catchy communication, for short?) (get it? ... "catchy" ... 'cause an APB is a "communication" they send out when they're trying to "catch" a criminal)—but after I got out of the NW, I went whoosh over the top, whoosh down the west side. The only struggles: every letter of ALCALDE (hard to see the RIDE part of FREE RIDE because of this), and then the STOP part of HELISTOP and the "Y" part of REYS. My blogging software is underlining HELISTOP in red, and I feel its pain. Woof. I of course wrote in HELIPORT, which is a word. HELISTOP is one of those words that makes me think "maybe there's such a thing as wordlist that's *too* big." The upshot of all this is that it was really hard for me to see NANCY PELOSI until I got the whole pre-"Y" part of her name. POOH Bear before PAPA Bear messed me up in there too, but even after I figured that problem out, I had trouble with the congresswoman. I spelled REES thusly at one point. It was all a bit of a mess. But not too much of a mess. I don't have a problem with ALCALDE or REYS as answers; I'm just hyper-aware of how "being unknown to me" is a far less satisfying form of difficulty than "being cleverly hidden from me," and there just wasn't enough of the latter for me today. But again, that's a cluing problem. The grid itself looks OK (though not nearly as snazzy as grids I've seen from both of these constructors before). [LOL I'm only realizing *just* now, after finishing the write-up and starting to put all the formatting in place, that the REYS (plural) are the authors of the "Curious George" books, so ... yeah, I know them, though clearly without the monkey, they're nothing]

It's not that there's not some trickiness in the cluing, here and there—it's just that it's fairly transparent. A "kite" is a bird (39D: Cousin of a kite = OSPREY)—maybe you're supposed to think it's a flying toy, but I never did. A "curler" is a winter athlete (38D: Curlers' equipment)—it's possible it could be a hairstylist, say, but again, even if I didn't know what use these clues were going for right away, I was well aware of the *potential* trickiness, and so neither clue slowed me down. I wanted more tricky clues, like the one on APB, or even more puzzlingly vague clues like [Growth from stagnation] for ALGAE. I just feel like people are mainly going to be stumped by unknown stuff rather than clever stuff. It's possible you knew the things I didn't, but maybe RIN was unknown to you (old crosswordese, nearly a gimme for me), or ALAN Ruck (I know him from "Ferris Bueller," not "Succession," but the point is I know him). Or maybe ROME, NY is unknown to you, or the Karate Kid kid's name (DRE). Hell, I didn't remember DRE, and I saw that movie many times in the theater and on cable as a kid. But crosses were a cinch. I wish the longer answers were more colorful. The only answers that made me really think "Nice!" were "I CAN RELATE" (48A: "We've all been there") and "SO YOU SAY" (35A: "A likely story"). This is not surprising, as I like a living human voice wherever I can find it in a crossword. 

What else?:

• 17A: Vuvuzela, for one (HORN) — my memory is that these were common noise makers at a recentish Men's World Cup ... maybe in South Africa? (Yes). I just remember that "vuvuzela" really seemed to burst into my consciousness all at once. Now that I look, that World Cup was in 2010, which ... wow, I have no idea what's "recentish" any more. 2010 feels like it just happened and also like it happened a million years ago and also like it never happened. What was 2010, even? Aging is a trip.
• 45D: Local borders? (ELS) — textbook "letteral" clue, where the "?" is an indication to treat one of the clue words in terms of its physical make-up rather than its meaning. Today, we are supposed to look at the "borders" (i.e. the edges, i.e. the first and last letters) of the word "local," which means we're looking at an "L" and another "L," so ... ELS. This is a cluing convention borrowed from cryptic crosswords.
• 27D: ___ artist (film professional) (FOLEY) — these are the sound people, the people who create the non-dialogue sounds in movies (the "reproduction of everyday sound effects" added to film in post-production, according to wikipedia). I don't know how I know this. I can imagine this answer tripping up some solvers quite badly.
• 
  29D: Nonhuman host of a talk show on HBO Max (ELMO) — my first thought was ALIG (who is, in fact, human) and my next thought was MAX HEADROOM (who wouldn't fit). I can't imagine watching even a single second of an ELMO-hosted talk show without wanting to tear my face off, but maybe it's for kids? I hope? Anyway, I remembered that the show existed, eventually, thankfully.
• 52A: Court feat of 2003 and 2015 (SERENA SLAM) — this is where you win (she wins) all four major tournaments in a row, but not in the same calendar year.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Renowned football club founded in 1899 / FRI 5-28-21 / Jazz trumpeter Jones / Bob Canadian ambassador to the U.N. / Resort with no snowboarders policy / Fabric made from cellulose / Space between ribs of insect wing / Heavenly dessert with lemony filling / Gay rights pioneer Marsha P Johnson for one

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Marsha P. Johnson (27A: Gay rights pioneer Marsha P. Johnson, for one: TRANS ICON) —

Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992), born and also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the  Stonewall uprising of 1969. Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera. Johnson was also a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene, modeling for Andy Warhol, and performing onstage with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches. Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street" due to being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. From 1987 through 1992, Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP. [...] Johnson initially used the moniker "Black Marsha" but later decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting Johnson from the restaurant Howard Johnson's on 42nd Street, stating that the P stood for "pay it no mind" and used the phrase sarcastically when questioned about gender, saying "it stands for pay it no mind". Johnson said the phrase once to a judge, who was amused by it, leading to Johnson's release. Johnson variably identified as gay, as a transvestite, and as a queen (referring to drag queen). According to Susan Stryker, a professor of human gender and sexuality studies at the University of Arizona, Johnson's gender expression could perhaps most accurately be called gender non-conforming; Johnson never self-identified with the term transgender, but the term was also not in broad use while Johnson was alive. (wikipedia)

• • •

Daughter is in town for just a few days so ... the write-ups might be a little light today and tomorrow. Sorry about that. As for the puzzle: TRANS ICON was cool, but the rest of it didn't do much of anything for me. I guess "WEIRD, HUH?" has a quirky, colloquial vibe that's kinda nice, but stuff like SCROLL SAW leaves me cold and HONOR ROLLS is absurd in the plural and THAD and REFI and ALTA and RIPA and ELENA and AREOLA and SMEE are all threatening to take the whole train to Crosswordese Town. Plus, TORT REFORM and DICK CHENEY, man, talk about bringing the room down. Yuck. TEASER AD is really just long crosswordese. I dunno, there just wasn't much delight to be had here for me. Worse, the puzzle really really thought it was being delightful, with almost a dozen "?" clues elbowing and nudge-nudging you and begging you to laugh at their cleverness. I only just now figured out how to make sense out of the DICK CHENEY clue. I forgot that there was a movie called "Vice" that was about him. It may surprise you to learn that I spend as little of my life thinking about DICK CHENEY as possible. 

Blank ROOM and Blank TIME in the SE made that section a little tougher than the others, and also, ultimately, blander, or more of a letdown. EAST ROOM? FREE TIME? OK, those are things, but it's Friday and I'm looking for a good time. I actually might've liked FREE TIME if it hadn't been burdened with yet another cutesy wink of a "?" clue (62A: What's not working?). Isn't a BEER BAR just a "bar." (1A: Building with many drafts). I have heard of cocktail bars but not BEER BARs. I also have heard of Angel food cake but not ANGEL PIE (14A: "Heavenly" dessert with a lemony filling). Again, I'm sure these things exist, I just don't care about them, so there's just nothing to warm the blood here. KARACHI is cool, keep that. But a single TEA LEAF? That's almost as dumb as the plural HONOR ROLLS it sits beside. Lastly, the clue on RAE is truly awful (43A: Bob ___, Canadian ambassador to the U.N.). Maybe it's some Canadian in-joke (since ALBERTA's in here, I figure maybe...). But I know you don't know Bob RAE, because I know you don't know any ambassadors to the U.N. Even ours (it's Linda Thomas-Greenfield, by the way). You can love Canada all you want, but you've already subjected us to RAE (again w/ the crosswordese), you don't have to pretend you invented some new crossworthy RAE. It's Issa, Charlotte, that explorer guy ... RAE Dawn Chong, maybe. I dunno. I just know this Bob guy ain't it. I had ELLEN before ESSIE (19A: Woman's name that sounds like two letters of the alphabet) and thus ABEL before ENOS (2D: 905-year-old in Genesis), but otherwise no other mistakes or big struggles. See you tomorrow.

 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Porgy novelist Heyward / SAT 9-8-18 / Useful list when troubleshooting computer / Balkan land on Olympic scoreboards / Half of 1980s sitcom duo / Member of Hoboken Four

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy (6:50, at which point I had a single blank square I didn't know, which made me just quit ... but then I came back and got it after running the alphabet ... still Easy overall)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TANGRAM (21D: Seven-piece puzzle) —

The tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qīqiǎobǎn; literally: "seven boards of skill") is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It is reputed to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. It became very popular in Europe for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most popular dissection puzzles in the world. A Chinese psychologist has termed the tangram "the earliest psychological test in the world", albeit one made for entertainment rather than for analysis. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, look: I found the Friday puzzle! Where were you yesterday, buddy? I missed you!

A pattern develops

Despite an epic faceplant right out of the gate, I torched this one pretty good. There were only a few roadblocks, and those were created entirely by terms / names I just didn't know, most notably DUBOSE, TANGRAM, and TAXI SQUAD (it's weird how much I hate football now, given how much I loved it as a kid (see: CTE, white supremacist owners, etc.); if I never saw another American football clue again, I'd be perfectly happy). TANGRAM in particular messed me up, because at the very end of the solve, I managed to get it down to -ANGRAM, but that last square had a cutesy "?"-clue cross and I just couldn't process it (21A: Scratch on the table?). And I thought "well PIP and PANGRAM would work fine ... but PIP can't be right ... Why Wasn't This PIP And PANGRAM!?" So I ragequit with one square to go, having finished the rest of it in under 7. But then I ragereturned and ran the alphabet and figured out the "T" (from TIP). So "scratch" in the clue is being used as olde-timey slang for "money." Weirdly, I knew the slang meaning of "scratch," and it was the very first meaning I thought of, but, in a bizarre series of associations that could've happened only in my brain, I was thinking of "money on the table" as a gambling thing, and *that* was driven *largely* by the fact that PIP is the term for any of the spots on dice. Once PIP got in my head, it pretty much dictated the whole arena in which my brain was willing to operate, apparently. In my world, PANGRAM is a much much much much more common term, but I recognize that in normal world (say, an ordinarily google search), TANGRAM is the far more common thing. I just didn't know it. Que sera.


So, the initial faceplant: TONY (4D: Stage award) to ALLY (20A: Half of a 1980s sitcom duo) to RETAIL (1D: Sell)!!! Nailed it! (Fun fact, ALLY was doubly wrong, as the sitcom duo is actually "Kate and ALLIE"). The fact that I got out of that mess as fast as I did is my real accomplishment today. For my speedy recovery, I would like to thank ... god help me ... the worst Beach Boys song of all time, "Kokomo." Like all terrible and traumatic things, it haunts you. I just have to *see* the worst ARUBA and my brain goes "Jamaica! Ooh I'm gonna take ya!" And then it dies a little. Anyway, ARUBA OBIE KATE MARKET. I mean, I literally did a little donut in the NW corner of the puzzle. Once around wrong, and then again around right.


Bullets:

• 39D: "Porgy" novelist ___ Heyward (DUBOSE) — OK, I know W.E.B. DUBOIS, and I know the opera "Porgy and Bess," but this novel and this novelist, no. He was a white author who wrote predominantly about African-American culture of the south.
• 33D: III, in Ithaca (IOTAS) — yes, those are several IOTAS all in a row, there. The misdirect is obviously that you're supposed to see the Roman numeral THREE, which is also five letters.
• 19D: Celine Dion, by birth (QUEBECER) — man that is a silly-looking word. I love it. Probably my favorite thing in the grid.
• 58A: Lab dept. (R AND D) (i.e. R&D, i.e. Research & Development) — ooh, an ampersandwich. Don't see those much any more.
• 7D: Ones sharing some shots (SNAPCHAT FRIENDS) — not quite as, uh, snappy as FACEBOOK FRIENDS. Feels like a weak analogue. But I acknowledge that it's a real thing. I guess I should be grateful the clue didn't try to do a crossreference with nearby PIX (8D: Movies, informally)
• 43A: Name for a big wheel (FERRIS) — this is cute cluing. A "big wheel" can be a VIP, so maybe that's the misdirect here. I also briefly considered cheese, before getting a cross or two and figuring out the right context.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Satirical 1968 hit for The Turtles / FRI 6-1-18 / Hall of Fame cornerback Herb / Former fort named for Union general / Intuition jocularly / Booker's title abbr / Opportunity for lesson that wasn't planned / Counterpart of tannins in wine-tasting / Hirsute character in Addams Family / Old TV's ___ Club

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:05)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Herb ADDERLEY (3D: Hall-of-Fame cornerback Herb) —

Herbert Allen Adderley (born June 8, 1939) is a former American football cornerbackwho played for the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Adderley played college football at Michigan State University and was an All-Big Tenoffensive star as a halfback.^[1] He is the only player to appear in four of the first six Super Bowls. (wikipedia)

• • •

Do people really put their GPA on their résumés?? Awards I get, but GPA?? Ugh, I just googled this, and all the advice is so smarmy and bad and desperate. I advise no, kids (and definitely no, adults over 25). I only got GPA because of GO TIME, which somehow I got first, and instantly (1D: Crucial hour, informally). ADDERLEY was totally unknown to me, so I worked it out from crosses and inference. Remembered (for once) that it's aunt ELLER, not aunt ELLIE, and after I got out of that NW corner, I screamed through the rest of the grid (figuratively—no occasion for actual screaming), missing a turn and veering off course here and there, but mostly just cruising ... until went over one of those tire puncture dealies at the very end trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the SE. Three answers there (well, one, and then two of its crosses) cost me a good 20 to 30 seconds, I think. Oh, the screwed-up spelling of ELENORE didn't help, either. How many damn ways are they to spell that name? ELENORE, gee your folks can't spell!

["You're my pride and joy, et cetera..."]

So the offending answer was LEGMEN (44D: Errand runners), which I know exclusively as a term for ... men who are into legs (as opposed to breasts, or butts). I looked up "legman," though, and it's definitely a thing. But trying to see it when you (confidently!) wrote in NOD at 56A: Academy recognition, informally (NOM) and had no idea what 62A: Booker's title: Abbr. (SEN) was after ... not so easy (Cory Booker is, of course, a SEN. from NJ). I was at a dead stop. Not sure how I finally understood that NOD was (improbably!) wrong, but I guess I have enough experience to start pulling out "correct" answers when you hit a complete impasse. LEGMEN! NOM SEN! Blargh. Not a pleasant way to end an otherwise very pleasant solve. Tiny stumble when I wanted YOU NAILED IT instead of YOU CALLED IT at 35A: "Spot-on prediction!" and bigger stumble when I had ACRID, and then considered ACERB, before ever thinking of ACUTE. Ugh to the five-letter, starts w/ A, [Sharp]-clued answer. But the long Downs were Super easy and the long Acrosses ... were largely taken care of by the longer Downs. I could've tolerated more difficulty here, and more difficulty evenness in particular, but overall I had a good time with this one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Egg-shaped Hasbro toys introduced in 1971 / SUN 12-17-17 / Nighttime Cartoon Network programming block / Protagonist in Infinite Jest

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Oh, One Last Thing" — familiar phrases have long "O" sound added to end, resulting in wacky phrases:

Theme answers:

• STIFF AS A BORDEAUX (24A: Comparatively strong, like some French wine?)
• VANITY PHARAOH (40A: Egyptian leader obsessed with his appearance?)
• NEW YORK MEZZO (43A: Certain Lincoln Center soprano?)
• ROLLING IN THE DEPOT (63A: Shooting craps while waiting for one's train?)
• I REST MY QUESO (85A: Comment from a cook who cools the cheese sauce before serving?)
• KOSHER PICCOLO (89A: Woodwind that's O.K. to play?)
• LOVE IS IN THE ARROW (104A: Cupid's catchphrase?)

Word of the Day: MIRA NAIR (44D: Director of 1991's "Mississippi Masala") —

Mira Nair (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spheres. Among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay!, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. (wikipedia)

• • •

What are we doing here? I mean ... what? Add-a-sound? That's it? What year is it? This was grating. I learned who MIRA NAIR is—that's the puzzle's one upside. I'm genuinely startled by the rest of it. Startle by how ambition-free it is. How 1998 it is. How not funny the theme clues are. Just startled. Also, a hearty "*&%^ you!" to 102D: Go forcefully (through). I had PLO_ and wrote in a "D" ... and then wondered how [Certain soft drinks, informally] could be DEDS. Wanted to change it to DADS (the root beer), but was 99% sure PHEROMONA was wrong. DEWS!? F*** that S***. Seriously, shove your skater-bro-speak nonsense. The puzzle had already lost me by this point, but finishing here, with this weird cross, took me from mere dislike to contempt. Don't get cute, especially when you haven't bothered to get serious about your *&$^ing theme in the first place. Man, I am swearing tonight. I care a lot. What can I say?


Misspelled PHARAOH, probably because of that stupid horse a few years back, and so that section of the puzzle got rough for me. Between the *G* SPOT and the MODEL *T*, parsing many answers in that area proved difficult. Also, I don't really know who LOUIS NYE is, though the name rings a faint bell (21A: Comedian who was a regular on "The Steve Allen Show"). MIRA NAIR, I absolutely did not know. The whole puzzle, I was thinking that "Mississippi Masala" was "Mississippi Burning" (1988, not 1991). Needed every single cross to get her, and still wasn't sure about it at all. Spelled HASEK like so: HACEK (90D: Goaltender Dominik in the Hockey Hall of Fame). Nope. I'm never ever sure if I've got the vowels right in AMIDALA. Can't believe anyone still knows what WEEBLES are (116A: Egg-shaped Hasbro toys introduced in 1971). They were advertised on TV when I was a kid and *I* forgot they existed. Really helped that for Saturday's puzzle I'd spent several minutes combing through Paul ANKA videos on YouTube (38D: Paul who sang "Lonely Boy"). I forgot that "Rolling in the Deep" was a thing, so ROLLING IN THE DEPOT was by far the hardest themer to pick up. But despite the proper noun trouble (all over), this was a pretty quick solve. Until PLOD / DEDS, that is. Ugh. Sundays, man.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Polanski could've been avoided. You have to *try* to add him to your puzzle. I don't get it. (TESS)

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German state or novelist / TUE 11-28-17 / Receptacle carried to crime scene / Wallace's partner in claymation

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: U-TURN (29D: Often-forbidden maneuver ... as hinted at four times in this puzzle) — names of four U-niversities make literal U-TURNs four times in the grid:

Theme answers:

• PRINCETON (north)
• CAL TECH (east)
• NOTRE DAME (south)
• CLEMSON (west) 

Word of the Day: MILA Kunis (32D: Kunis of "Friends With Benefits") —

Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (/ˈmiːlə ˈkuːnɪs/; Ukrainian: Міле́на Ма́рківна "Мі́ла" Ку́ніс; Russian: Миле́на Ма́рковна "Ми́ла" Ку́нис; івр: מילה קוניס‎); born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. In 1991, at the age of seven, she moved from the USSR to the United States with her family. After being enrolled in acting classes as an after-school activity, she was soon discovered by an agent. She appeared in several television series and commercials, before acquiring her first significant role prior to her 15th birthday, playing Jackie Burkhart on the television series That '70s Show (1998–2006). Since 1999, she has voiced Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy. (wikipedia)

• • •

I think I just achieved my best wrong answer of the year. It occurred in the only part of the grid that offered any resistance—the SE.  For some reason, after absolutely torching the rest of the grid, I got bogged down on the entire area fenced in by (and including) the answers RULE and ESE (RULE was way more general than 41A: "No shoes, no shirt, no service," e.g. (which is actually a couple of rules...) implied, and degrees-on-a-compass clues are never going to mean anything specific to me). Then, because I went with "N" instead of "S" in the damn compass clue, and couldn't see SPEECH (52A: Crowd chant to an award honoree). I eventually had to build that corner from the bottom up (I was lucky enough to know all the names down there). But before I did that, when the far SE was empty I tried—and failed—to drop that long Down (31D: Substance that decreases purity) into that corner. After slashing some Across answers through the top of it, I had the ADULT part and decided that the [Substance that decreases purity] must be ... an ADULT MOVIE. Me: "Well, 'substance' is weird, but ... maybe?" No, maybe not, but three cheers for epic wrongness. SPEECH! SPEECH!


The worst moment was RULE crossing RISE, mainly because I just did not understand how RISE fit the clue (41D: Opposite of set). And only Just Now did I get it. Literally, as I was typing that last sentence, I got the sun rise / sun set opposition, which is hilariously obvious. I went from not understanding it at all, to imagining it had something to do with baking. Wow, yeah, that SE corner was an entirely different experience than the rest of the puzzle, which I don't remember at all, so fast did I cruise through it.

Bullets:

• 51D: Costume that might involve two people (MOOSE) — so ... a costume literally nobody has ever worn except maybe parts of Maine and rural Canada? That "costume"? What a horrible, not-at-all real-world clue. I've seen two-person horses, I've seen two-person cows. MOOSE, no. I had GHOST for a few seconds.
• 70A: Singer of the 2012 #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" (GOTYE) — it is very weird to me that, five years after his 15 minutes, this guy seems to be showing up in crosswords more than ever. Definitely worth retiring, especially on early-week puzzles, until his fame is more ADELE- or ANKA- or even Irene CARA-esque.
• 9D: Paid part of a magazine (PRINT AD) — fair enough, but it's a "magazine," so my first thought is just AD. Then I was thinking something specific in a magazine ... something like WANT AD but not WANT AD. Anyway, it wasn't hard to come up with, but it reminded me how ubiquitous and annoying the entire language of AD-vertising is in crosswords. ADMAN. ADREP. Blargh.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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One of renters in Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat / FRI 1-13-17 / Family name in Sir Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor / First one was modified Ford D-Series truck / Author with restaurant at Eiffel Tower named for him

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: WES Montgomery (13D: Jazzman Montgomery) —

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of stroking the strings with the side of his thumb which granted him a distinctive sound.
He often worked with organist Jimmy Smith, and with his brothers Buddy (piano and vibes) and Monk (bass guitar). His recordings up to 1965 were generally oriented towards hard bop, soul jazz and post bop, while circa 1965 he began recording more pop-oriented instrumental albums that featured less improvisation but found mainstream success and could be classified as crossover jazz or early smooth jazz. (wikipedia)

• • •

SPECIAL MESSAGE for the week of January 8-January 15, 2017

Hello, solvers. A new year has begun, and that means it's time for my week-long, once-a-year pitch for financial contributions to the blog. The idea is very simple: if you read the blog regularly (or even semi-regularly), please consider what it's worth to you on an annual basis and give accordingly. In making this pitch, I'm pledging that the blog will continue to be here for you to read / enjoy / grimace at for at least another calendar year, with a new post up by 9:00am (usually by 12:01am) every day, as usual. Despite my regular grumbling about puzzle quality, constructor pay, and other things that should be better in the world of crosswords, I still love solving, I still love writing about puzzles, and I love love love the people I meet and interact with because of this blog. Well, most of them. Some I mute on Twitter, but mostly: there is love. The blog turned 10 in September, and despite the day-in, day-out nature of the job, I can't foresee stopping any time soon. The community of friends and fellow enthusiasts are all just too dear to me. You can expect me to be here every day, praising / yelling at the puzzle—independent and ad-free. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address:

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions (I. Love. Snail mail!) will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. This year's cards are "Cookery Postcards from Penguin"—beautifully designed covers of vintage cookbooks, with provocative titles like "Cookery For Men Only " (!) or "Good Meals from Tinned Foods" (!?). Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just say NO CARD.  As I say in every thank-you card (and email), I'm so grateful for your readership and support.

Now on to the puzzle!

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Wow, this was a treat. Clean, wide-ranging, current. Entertaining, or at least interesting, at every turn. I solved at 3am, having fallen asleep on the couch at 8:30pm the night before (half a large pizza and two glasses of wine will do that to me ... now), so I was deliberate and methodical in my solving (that's fancy-talk for "slow"). And even Frankenstein-monstering my way through this grid, I was done in five minutes. It was right in wheelhouse, and I only hesitated writing in answers a handful of times. Normally stacks (like the one mid-grid) take some doing—some hacking at the Downs before the Across components become visible. Not today. Got BUYER'S REMORSE (35A: New homeowner's feeling, maybe) from the B-Y, and PARODY ACCOUNT (39A: @fakechucknorris, for one) and MUSEUM EXHIBIT (40A: Diorama, maybe) fell almost immediately thereafter. I actually own "BORN THIS WAY" (27D: Grammy-nominated 2011 Lady Gaga album), so that was weird. I will always remember which March girl dies because of the "Friends" episode where Joey and Rachel spoil "The Shining" and "Little Women" for each other, respectively. "Beth DIES!" "Nooooooo!" So I threw BETH up in the NE and took that section out no problem. Occasionally I had to stop and think about something, like when I wrote in OSCAR and sort of thought it referred to the Sylvester Stallone movie of the same name ... (?!) ... (I know it doesn't) ... (now) ... or when I did the thing where you (wrongly) assume [President...] means "US President..." (48A: President who said "If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become president" => HAVEL). But those were just minor hiccups.


There was, however, one genuinely tough (albeit tiny) patch in the NE that stands out less for toughness than for uneven editing. I'm talking about ASHTON-over-PABLO (22A: Family name in Sir Walter Scott's "The Bride of Lammermoor") (26A: One of the renters in Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flat"). Why would you stack literary obscurities like that? Virtually anyone solving this puzzle would put both those clues at the top of the list of either "things I didn't know" or "things I wouldn't expect others to know." Either clue on its own is OK, I guess, but stacked character names from not-terrifically-famous books?! Proper nouns are always dicey—if you're going to make them abut, at least draw from different spheres of knowledge. It's not like PABLO or ASHTON can't be clued other ways. PABLO, for instance, can go to rap (Kanye West's 2016 album "Life of Pablo"), art (good old what's-his-name), '70s pop music (Pablo Cruise), etc. Dollars to donuts at least one of the ASHTON / PABLO clues isn't the constructor's original clue. Oh well, very small, technical, editorial blemish on an otherwise really vibrant and pleasing puzzle.


Bullets:

• 17A: Very much (A TON) — I really hate ATON and ALOT because ugh, right, I know it's one of you guys, why are you making me guess, I hate this game... I guessed wrong this time, but I guessed MME right somehow (23A: Fr. title), so I could see 2D: Fall had to be AUTUMN, and thus changed A LOT to A TON. Pivotal yet boring, this moment.
• 54A: Ricoh rival (EPSON) — I actually did OK this time. Normally on a clue like this (as I've said), I just get an EPSOM EBSEN EPSON pile-up in my brain and don't know what to do. Terrible vowel trouble. See also EFR( )M (24A: Zimbalist of old TV).
• 21D: "Toodles" ("SEE YOU SOON") — "SEE YA LATER!" also fits here. Perhaps you found that out yourself.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. like LEK, ADE has recurred (32A: Sweet pitcherful). Already. Clearly my "Let's Not" list is having no effect. Gonna be a long year.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Tickets in slang / SAT 9-17-16 / Book before Philemon / Cliched gift for prisoner / Staple of victorian architecture / Cry before rage-quitting / Round end of sort / Snack brand first produced at Disneyland in 1960s

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: FARMERS ONLY (37A: Website for people interested in "cultivating" a relationship) —

Carrying the tagline "city folks just don't get it," FarmersOnly.com launched with about 2,000 members, but grew to more than 100,000 users by 2010 as nonfarmers embraced the sensibility. // "You don't have to be a farmer," Miller, who's based in Cleveland, said. "You could work at a restaurant, or the feed store, but are looking for someone who has those values." (some Yahoo (appropriately) article)

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The only remarkable things here are NOT GONNA LIE, which is Great, and FARMERS ONLY, which is not. I am having the most ridiculous back-and-forths right now on Twitter with FARMERS ONLY defenders, or, if not defenders, FARMERS ONLY knowers. Not only have I never heard of it, it seems like some dumb-@$$ $!^#. Just reading about it made me stupider. It's unusual, though, I'll give it that. Anyway, everything else was pretty forgettable, except the NE, which had a lively bunch of first-person exclamations: "OH MY! WHAT A DAY! I'M SO MAD!!! ... Where are my DORITOS, TORI!?" A nice corner indeed. Almost makes me not notice AMU. Almost.

[LISA / LISA and Cult Jam: "His kiss is credit in the bank of love / Never leave home without it!"]

I didn't know Philemon *or* TITUS were books (of the Bible?) so that wasn't easy. I don't like I AM being in the grid with I'M SO MAD. It's a dupe, contraction be damned. Hey, look, it's the LeBron "King James" reference I asked for yesterday! Fast service! (18D: King James, e.g.). Can't believe I'm saying this, but this puzzle coulda eased up on the sports. UCLA (clued via tennis), CAV, BUC, GATOR, ATL, STEPH, FOUL LINE; we get it, you're a sports fan. Clues were suitably tricky, and that is some bonkers trivia re: DORITOS (22A: Snack brand first produced at Disney land in the 1960s). But mostly it was shrug and ugh. More shrug. Actually, not a lot of ugh. And then some good parts. So ... an average Saturday, I guess.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Bonkers in modern lingo / WED 5-25-16 / Eastern mediterranean port since ancient times / Dough in hand redundantly / Acronym on Beyonce records

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: JOHNNY ON THE SPOT (38A: Person who's ready and able to help ... or a literal description of four occurrences in this puzzle)— theme answers start with words that are also the last names of famous JOHNNYs, and each of those first words sits on top of an "AD" (aka a radio or TV "SPOT"):

Theme answers:

• CASH MONEY (17A: Dough in hand, redundantly)
• CARSON CITY (25A: State capital near Lake Tahoe)
• BENCH PRESS (52A: Gym activity that works the pectorals)
• ROTTEN EGG (64A: Last one in, say) (this clue isn't right—it's "Last one in, in a familiar expression," not "... say"; ROTTEN EGG is not a synonym for "Last one in"—in fact, "Last one in" is only a ROTTEN EGG in that one expression) 

[For other possible theme dimension, see P.S. below]

Word of the Day: DARYL Hannah (69A: ___ Hannah of "Blade Runner") —

Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American film actress. She is known for her performances in the films Blade Runner (1982), Splash (1984), Roxanne (1987), Wall Street (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989) and Kill Bill (2003). She is also an environmental campaigner who has been arrested for protests against developments that are believed by some groups to threaten sustainability. (wikipedia)

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The constructor is on social media now bragging (I think) that no one seems to be fully understanding his theme. I have no idea if I have or if I have not, but if I have not, and so many others have not, then maybe the problem lies not with the solvers. At any rate, this puzzle was interesting in that it took a rather pedestrian concept (first words are also last names over various JOHNNYs) and gave it not only a snappy revealer but this unexpected "AD" twist. What's funny / not funny is that the "AD" thing explains / causes some of the grid's crappier (i.e. crosswordesier) moments: ADEE, ADLAI, ADA. I don't understand why JOHNNY itself is not on top of an "AD"—seems like, conceptually, that would've been more consistent / elegant. Instead you've got ATTA under there, which is as bad as anything in the grid (see ADEE). But I think the theme works and I like the little "AD" twist and so it seems like a fine Wednesday puzzle overall.

[DARYL]

I blanked on DRAKE (9A: "Take Care" rapper, 2012), even *with* the "K" in place. I own two DRAKE albums. So that's oddly embarrassing. "Hotline Bling" rapper, I'd've gotten. Had TWIST CAP for TWIST TOP (40D: Resealable bottle feature). I also didn't get FEED at first go round (61D: Farm store purchase) and took a couple passes to back my way into the SW corner (BENCH PRESS and OH COOL not coming immediately to mind). That is the full tally of all my problems. Otherwise, this one was just see-clue-write-answer fast. Bam bam bam (3:36). Faster than yesterday, which was a pretty easy Tuesday. So the whole week is running super-simple so far.


Looks like we got EDINA back, after having to endure that not-famous Minneapolis suburb whose name I've already forgotten this past Sunday. DEANE? Oh, no, right: EAGAN. Blargh. The constructor is a Minnesotan, so EDINA is this puzzle's version of a home-state shout-out, I imagine. See also OH COOL, both because Minneapolis / St. Paul is a cool place to be (I visit my best friends there whenever I can) and because it's *&#^%ing cold there, but if you live there, you're used to it, so when you walk outside in January, you're like, "OH ... COOL. Better put on pants."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. it occurs to me that you can SPOT someone MONEY (a ten-SPOT, perhaps) and you SPOT someone on the BENCH PRESS and ... I don't know, a CITY (like CARSON CITY) is a SPOT (i.e. a location), and EGG ... uh, something to do with spot? SPOTted egg? Honestly don't see the egg angle. But maybe that's the elusive theme element the constructor is crowing about.

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