Media icon with eponymous Starbucks beverage / THU 5-29-14 / Afflictions known technically as hordeola / Facetious words of understanding / Where Macbeth Malcolm Duncan are buried / Hillary Clinton wardrobe staples / Writer with most combined Tony and Oscar nominations / The Sphinx's is bland pitiless as sun per Yeats

Constructor: Anna Shechtman

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SHARP —theme clues all contain the symbol their answers describe … it's hiding there in plain sight, as a simple number sign (i.e. "#")

Theme answers:

• 20A: #1 (TIC TAC TOE BOARD)
• 33A: #2 (POUND SIGN)
• 43A: #3 (SPACE MARK) — that's an "insert space" editing mark, in case that wasn't clear
• 52A: #4 (TWITTER HASHTAG)

Word of the Day: PAULO Coelho (15A: "The Alchemist" novelist ___ Coelho) —

Paulo Coelho (Portuguese: [ˈpawlu kuˈeʎu]; born August 24, 1947), is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. […] He is the recipient of numerous international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. The Alchemist, his most famous novel, has been translated into 80 languages. The author has sold 150 million copies worldwide. (wikipedia)

• • •

Just had the biggest "Ohhhhhhhh…" moment I've had in a long time. "Ohhhhhhhh…" moments are different from "aha" moments in that they are belated—moments of awareness that come not in the heat of battle, but afterwards, when you're staring at a puzzle going "… huh … I must be missing something." It was only when I began to type out the theme clues that I noticed the "#" symbol appeared in the clues themselves. My brain was just going "number one, number two …", never registering that the theme clues had always contained the image the theme answers were describing. So for that quite distinct and vaguely pleasant "Ohhhhhhhh…" moment (that's 8 h's btw), I give this puzzle a moderate thumbs-up.


I know Anna and am in a reading group with Anna and she disagreed with something I said about George Eliot earlier this week so I considered taking this opportunity to exact some petty passive-aggressive vengeance, but then reconsidered. I was oddly in tune with this puzzle and its cluing. I have this vague, completely unsupported theory that knowing someone personally, even in the most limited way, makes you better able to solve that person's puzzles. I mean, Brad Wilber used to give me fits. Now he's my friend and I *own* his puzzles (in that they now take me just an eternity instead of an eternity x 2). Feel free to test this theory for yourself. I'm sure Brad would love the attention. But back to Anna's puzzle—for me, there was an equal mix of frowny and smiley face where the fill was concerned. There were some grimace-inducing patches, mainly in the center north (from AAND across EPEES to ELEE and including INREM). TREN, TELEO, AS BIG, ISAO, ORAS, AHSO … these all gave me various feelings of uncomfortableness. But those long Downs are hard to resist, particularly BUBBLE WRAP, WHERE IT'S AT, and GAY ANTHEM. And there's even fantastic shorter stuff like HELL NO and SHTUP (!), the latter of which I wrote in immediately, certain it would be wrong but wanting to write it into the grid anyway. So despite the grimaces, I enjoyed myself.


Coincidences: I used both SCENARIO and RUBE in separate tweets (SANS TWITTER HASHTAG) just minutes before solving this puzzle. I had an OPRAH Chai Tea Latte last weekend (Wife: "What's the difference between the Oprah and the regular Chai Tea Latte?" Server: "Oprah is spicier.") (25D: Media icon with an eponymous Starbucks beverage). My STYE of EPICNESS is almost gone now, so that's not really much of a coincidence, really.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. "Ohhhhhhhh…" is to be said with a tone of slowly dawning realization, not orgasmically.
P.P.S. if you liked this puzzle, you really, really have to do this one (by one Mr. N. Fogarty). I mean it.

Read more...

Constructor: Steve Blais

Relative difficulty: Easy 

THEME:  Hats….or, things that GO ON AHEAD -- Phrases end in some form of hat/headwear.

Word of the Day: KOLAS (9A: Tropical nuts) —

ko•la (ˈkoʊ lə) 

n., pl. -las.

1. any tropical African tree of the genus Cola, grown for kola nuts (www.freedictionary.com). 

• • •

The King of CrossWorld has gifted me, Anna Shechtman, with his blogspot account for the night. 

Like Evan, yesterday's pinch-blogger, I am one of the so-called "Twenty-Under-Thirty" (also known as the Generation Y-ouDoWhatWithYourFreeTime?), which may or may not qualify me to assess today's puzzle.

Whoever recently declared the pun dead has clearly not been doing the New York Times crossword.  This debut puzzle by Steve Blais is heavy on the puns (s'pun-derful?) but otherwise fairly nondescript.

Let's start with the -- admittedly very cute -- theme:

Theme answers:

• 17A: Merlin Olsen, 14 times (PRO BOWLER) - Of the themed answers, I like this one the best.  As opposed to the others, it requires some manipulation of language (Pro Bowl --> Pro Bowler --> hat!).  It's not just one of those $10,000 Pyramid "all these things are hats!" answers….
• 23A: 1991 John Singleton film (BOYZ N THE HOOD) -- I totally botched the African American Vernacular English (AKA, the 'ebonics') of this title.  I wanted it to be BOYZ IN DA HOOD….oof. 
• 37A: Global Warming concern (SHRINKING ICE CAP) -- maybe this (25D) NOUN should have been pluralized.  It would be strange to have concern for just one ice cap, no?
• 48A:Annual 29-Down since 1934 (SOAP BOX DERBY) -- If you didn't get it, 29D: Speed Competition is a RACE.  I'm not entirely sure that this warrants a cross-reference-type clue, but that's probably because the clue for 29D wasn't very 19A: Full of life (ZESTY)…
• 60A: "I'll catch up!"….or what the ends of 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-across do? (GO ON AHEAD) -- Get it!?

[construction caveat: whatever Rex-like snark may follow, I should say that I am super impressed by Steve Blais' ability to fit five themed answers in a 15-by-15 grid.  Four is pretty standard.  Five is pretty great.]

More punny fill:

• 9A: Ones creating a lot of buzz in the music industry? (KAZOOS) --Cute, but I feel like i've seen this cluing before….perhaps here or here?
• 35A: Feminine one in France? (UNE) -- I like to imagine that this clue is just conciliation for those French students out there (c'est a moi qui tu parles?) who got tripped up on 25-down because les adjectifs en francais are 'pluralizable' too!
• 60A: Something to Chew On (GUM) -- Not quite a pun.  More like literalizing an idiom, right?Still, I like it.

In general, this is one of those Tuesday puzzles that confirms my suspicion that being 'good' at crossword puzzles really just means you've learned crosswordese.  [12D] ASTI, [33D] URAL, [20A] ERG, [68A]: EDSEL...

"I'll take 'words found in a crossword puzzle' for $10,000, Dick!"

Overall, I'd say A for cuteness, [1D] TYPE B+ for execution, Evan.

Thanks again for the blogotunity, Rex!

Anna

Read more...

Middle Earth's Green Dragon Prancing Pony / SAT 9-15-12 / De facto national carrier since 1932 / 1998 De Niro film memorable wrong-way car chase / Mother of Gobo Faline in children's lit / Colorful marine fish spiny fanlike fins / Hunk noted for streaking / Cherry ice cream smile wearer in Duran Duran hit

Constructor: Joon Pahk and Brad Wilber

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day:  — IRT (30-across: Bygone operator of N.Y.C’s Second Avenue El)

Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City.

• • •

Hi, blogosphere! My name is Anna Shechtman, and I'm subbing in for Rex tonight.  Somehow even though I’m the college student, Rex is the one drinking the night away…

For the sake of full disclosure, I will admit off the bat: I'm a first-time blogger.  My blogging frames of reference are Rex Parker and Carrie Bradshaw, which I suppose means I should aim for snarky girl-talk (no offense, Rex!)….I will do my best. 

I found this puzzle pretty easy for a Saturday.  The upper left contained some odd bedfellows (odder than Rex and Carrie?): PORTIA from Merchant of Venice and Joe Friday.  Stranger was that Joe Friday’s IM A COP (3-down: Start for Friday) crosses with DRAGONET (17-across: Colorful marine fish with spiny, finlike fins)….Is that a pun on DRAG(O)NET or just a strange cruci-coincidence? 

In keeping with Joe Friday, it would be fair to deem this the “Just the facts, ma’am” puzzle.  It was filled with definitional/fact-based clues that easily broke open the grid for me:

• 20-across: Miami Heat player who was the 2006 N.B.A Finals MVP (DWYANE WADE).  I'm pretty sure my dad would disown me if I got that one wrong.
• 36-across: Dr. Seuss book (THE LORAX).  No mention of the recent 3D film adaptation (which is probably for the best….).  Watch Dr. Seuss get corporate -- and your childhood innocence get shattered --  below.
• 47-across: Bug (BEETLE).  Something really bothers me about this clue.  It doesn’t even seem Monday-worthy.  Am I missing something?
• Strange to see ANNAS clued as (44-across: Christie and others).  It strikes me as pretty obscure (despite its Pulitzer Prize), especially when “Shechtman and others” was an option…

In addition to the “facts,” this puzzle was filled with risqué puns (some better than others) that felt like they should have been clued not with a ? but with a ;) 

Highlights include:

• 9-down: Pull up a seat for (MOON)
• 48-down: Hunk noted for streaking (METEOR)
• 34-down: Non-PC choice (IMAC).  I had the IM- and was about to fill in IMUS…

Maybe because 48-down was so scandalous – or maybe because I’m at home doing work on a Friday night – but I was pretty sure that 35-down (Good thing to be on while working) was ADDERALL.  Alas, it was SCHEDULE….man, kids these days.

“Clue of the day” definitely goes to 5-down (It makes mist moist).  I spend 10 minutes online trying to find ANO, some obscure chemical?, in the dictionary; it turns out the answer was AN “O”….I’m in the middle of an English paper and feel compelled to say something about how this clue really foregrounds the materiality of the word…I’ll show some restraint.

Overall, I’m glad this was a fairly easy Saturday.  I was sure I was going to miss Rex’s deadline, stumped by Joon Pahk and Brad Wilber.  I should probably get back to my paper -- I'm trying to stay on my 35-down….

Thanks for the blog opportunity, Rex! 

Anna

Read more...