Word of the Day:Anita O'DAY(6D: Jazz singer whose surname came from pig Latin) —
Anita O'Day (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006) was an Americanjazz singer.
Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer". Refusing to pander to any female stereotype, O'Day presented herself as a "hip" jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt as opposed to an evening gown. She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough," slang for money. (wikipedia)
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I remember thinking GOLDILOCKS ZONE would make a nice crossword answer the first time I heard it, five years or so ago (25A: Region around a star "just right" for habitable planets). It's a 14, and you don't see 14s very often (they are pains in the ass to construct grids around unless you really plan for them, for reasons I won't get into here; just trust me). I think 14s should be the new 15—constructors should hoard them and bring them out more often as marquee answers. They're really under-utilized. *Any*way, this puzzle might've been easier for me than it was for others because GOLDILOCKS ZONE came so readily. I have no idea how commonly known that phrase is. Of course everyone today is obsessed with this gravitational waves news (look for LIGO—Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory—coming to a grid near you, soon ... or not). But as for GOLDILOCKS ZONE, I'm not sure where I first heard it—probably from Neil deGrasse Tyson on "NOVA Science Now," which my daughter used to watch a lot. At any rate, it's the star (!) answer in this grid. CRY YOUR EYES OUT, also pretty wonderful. Most everything else is solid but unremarkable. Have we had BUZZFEED in a grid before? (64A: Presenter of many listicles) Feels ... not new, but that may just be because I solve the BUZZFEED crossword regularly and so the name has lost all 'zazz and novelty for me. Still looks nice in the grid. (PS, you should probably do today's BUZZFEED crossword—I haven't actually solved it yet, and I don't know what time of day it'll be up, but I know it's by Doug Peterson and Neville Fogarty, who are reliably fantastic) (Update: here it is)
This puzzle was very close to "Easy," but I got slowed down considerably in the final (SW) quadrant, and so while I still ended up on the easy side of things, I wasn't close to breaking any personal records. Always helpful when 1-Across is both long and a total gimme, as it was today (1A: One inclined to patronize a farmer's market => LOCAVORE).
After that my second through sixth answers into the grid were 4- through 8-Down, all in a row, bam bam bam (bam bam). After that, moved easily into the center of the grid and then NE and SW quadrants. Ended up not having an easy time entering the SW. DECATUR took some guessing (52A: Naval hero with five US counties named for him), and DYNASTY was very well hidden (some solvers affiliated with BUZZFEED were so eager to show off that their employer was in the puzzle that they tweeted spoilers just minutes after the puzzle went live ... which was partially annoying, but partially funny, in that the grid image I saw had some pretty important errors, one of which was WHISKEYS for 40D: Bourbons, e.g.; the other was GO FOR IT instead of GO CRAZY (20D: "Knock yourself out")). The classical lit dork in me loved the AENEID crossing ODYSSEYS crossing both GODDESS and ARES. That is one insane mythological party going on up there. Approved.
Word of the Day: QUAKER GUN (30D: Wood painted to look like a cannon) —
A Quaker Gun is a deception tactic that was commonly used in warfare during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although resembling an actual cannon, the Quaker Gun was simply a wooden log, usually painted black, used to deceive an enemy. Misleading the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement was an effective delaying tactic. The name derives from the Religious Society of Friends or "Quakers", who have traditionally held a religious opposition to war and violence in the Peace Testimony.
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Why would you paint wood to look like a cannon? What kind of absurd art trend is that? There is no way Quakers did that? — this was my reaction to QUAKER GUN, by far the strangest thing in the grid, and, I'd bet my antique hosiery collection, the thing in this grid that the fewest solvers will have heard of. So, the most obscure thing in the grid, I guess. I enjoyed learning about it, though, after I finished and looked it up, so I'm not mad at it. It imparted an odd and curious and not altogether unpleasant flavor to this uneven but mostly decent themeless puzzle. 70-worder really shouldn't have this much dreck in it, but the nice parts are nice. Opened with a couple of proper noun gimmes in the NW:
HUXLEY was the true gimme; SYD was one of those "I think so, but let's see..." answers. When you get a big fat "X" in the middle of your big fat themeless corner, well, advantage you. That corner was done before it knew what hit it. Helped that EARP CIGS and ASA were all gimmes too. Clean corner, nicely done.
Things got a little rougher after THAT. Right around THAT, actually. THAT is a fine answer. But HALEN's a partial and TRAC is junk and ALECS only looks good when you compare it to VERAS (?), which is easily the worst thing in the grid, insofar as ... well, at least several things. LIB is semi-derogatory and "IME" is "IME." No time for "IME" have I (or me). I always thought it was "END SCENE!" Or, rather, I thought it was "AND SCENE," but then thought I must be hearing it wrong (14D: Director's cry with a pause in the middle). ALBUS DUMBLEDORE was too much of a gimme for a central 15 (it's a nice 15, but make me work for it, at least a little) (34A: School head in a best-selling series of novels). And so, with my joy somewhat diminished after the nice NW opening, I arrived midway on my solving journey at ... this place:
The INCUS EVOKER lay in wait ... (cue scary music)
Very easy to get into the SE corner, since ANTES and AGAPE were hand-outs. Had trouble finishing EPIC VERSE because we usually just call those EPICs. I enjoyed remembering "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," and then I was done. Speaking of Holy Grail, or Arthurian literature, at any rate, I learned things today about Marion Zimmer Bradley (whose "Mists of Avalon" I quite admire) that I wish I could unknow. Gonna have to rewatch "Monty Python" a dozen times before I shake the ickiness off. Luckily, rewatching "Monty Python" a dozen times—not a problem.
THEME: ALIEN / ABDUCTION (1A: With 6-Across, subject of an eerie rural legend … illustrated by connecting nine identically filled squares in this puzzles with a closed line) — rebus puzzle where "ET" squares, when connected, for the outline of a flying saucer, which hovers above the lone COW square. Apparently this is a legend. I had no idea.
Word of the Day: NAIL SET (5D: Tool used with a hammer) —
n. A tool used for driving a nail so that its head is below or flush with a surface. Also called nail punch.
The ALIEN ABDUCTION "legends" I know about do not involve cows. At all. They involve probes. And humans. Rural humans. And orifices. Rural human orifices. Cows?—news to me. But I'm not rural, so that may explain my ignorance, at least partially. I like this puzzle's playfulness. I didn't love solving it that much—the fill is just OK—and 44 black squares is just insane (-ly high), but it's pretty original, and has several thematic layers, so even if I didn't have a rip-roaring time solving it, I do appreciate the artistry and effort. Probably would've made more sense to have the cow on the ground, but maybe the point is that the COW is being tractor-beamed up … yes, that must be it. It's weird, though, because COW's placement doesn't really give you a distinct sense of elevation. But then you'd probably need a FIELD square on the bottom, and that could be difficult to pull off.
GENII is a very rough plural that no one would ever use ever (17A: Whizzes). I see it listed there as a second potential spelling of the plural. Still sucks. Never heard of a NAIL SET, so that whole NW section was a bear for me at first (before I got the theme). It was home to what I believe to be the best wrong answer of the day: for 19A: Site of many hangings (CLOSET), I had CROSS. Happy belated Easter! I don't really get the "?" on 18A: Far south? (ANTARCTIC). What is the play on words there? The ANTARCTIC is, in fact, the "far south" of the globe, so … I don't get it. BEARDLESS is odd, and oddly clued. I can be BEARDLESS and yet not be [Clean-shaven]. See, for instance, anyone with a mustache. Or soul patch. or other hair formation that is not a beard. Liked the clue on OMOO (20D: Polynesian term for an island hopper), but man, it added difficulty to an already-difficult puzzle.
I figured out the theme somewhere in the west, when I wanted ROSETTE and TIE TO and neither of them "fit." Getting the "ET" helped me get ALIEN ABDUCTION, and the whole puzzle settled down to about an average Thursday after that. Didn't realize the "ET"s were symmetrical until I was done, and didn't realize a COW was involved until the very last square—made for a nice little exclamation point.
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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