Soap star Deborah / THU 2-26-15 / Eponymous Soviet minister of foreign affairs / Tabloid nickname of '80s / Hunter of wallabies kangaroos / Coin first minted in 1964 / Azalea with 2014 #1 hit Fancy / Liberian president Peace Nobelist Johnso Sirleaf /

Constructor: Caleb Emmons

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Half words — theme answers end with "half ___," represented in the grid by only the first *half* of the missing word; thus:

Theme answers:

• KENNEDY DOL (for "Kennedy half-dollar") (17A: Coin first minted in 1964)
• SUPER BOWL TI (for "Super Bowl half-time") (24D: Occasion for a much-hyped performance)
• GOING OFF COC (for "going off half-cocked") (10D: Acting rashly)
• FLYING AT MA (for "flying at half-mast") (54A: Signaling remembrance, in a way)

Word of the Day: Deborah ADAIR (48A: Soap star Deborah) —

Deborah Adair (born Deborah Adair Miller on May 23, 1952 in Lynchburg, Virginia) is an American television actress, primarily known for her roles in soap operas. […] In total, Adair has appeared in seven different projects produced by Aaron Spelling; Dynasty, Matt Houston, The Love Boat, Finder of Lost Loves, Hotel (in which she played four different roles between 1984–87), Melrose Place and the television movie Rich Men Single Women (1990). She has also appeared in a variety of other primetime series such as Murder, She Wrote, Blacke's Magic and MacGyver. She also played a supporting role as Kate Chase in the Emmy Award-nominated miniseries Lincoln (1988).

• • •

I was deep into this one before I understood the theme. Got KENNEDY DOL and thought "well, DOL is a cruddy abbr. for "dollar," so this should be interesting," forgetting that there is no such thing as a "Kennedy dollar." Got the whole center of the grid and then finished the tail end of SUPER BOWL TI and that's when the dime dropped. Ah … Half. Half-time. Half-dollar. OK then. I like the concept, though it makes for an ugly grid, with those nonsensical themers. It also just looks like the answers got lopped off.  The visual impact is poor. But the concept is solid. I wish it had been possible for all the themers to come out looking like actual phrases, a la FLYING AT MA! Maybe they could each have had their own wacky clues. FLYING AT MA could be [Like one involved in a family squabble?] GOING OFF COC is one letter shy of being fantastic. [Becoming celibate, perhaps?]. At any rate, relative ugliness of themers aside, the fill is remarkably solid, and the longer non-theme answers interesting and vibrant.


This was a pretty easy puzzle, but I got slowed by a couple of things. First, I couldn't tell which longer answers were and weren't theme answers. Long Acrosses both are and aren't themers. Long Downs both are and aren't themers. Because both 31A: Crazy place? (FUNNY FARM) and 38A: Company with a lot of bean counters? (STARBUCKS) ended with question marks, I thought they were in on the theme wackiness (failing to note that KENNEDY DOL did not have a "?" clue…). Also, answers that could've been clued in very familiar ways were given rather obscure clues. No Red ADAIR today. No [Comedian Degeneres], either (ELLEN). Those were both super-tough for me. I also found the partials a bit rough. Who says "JUDO chop"? And what is an ANNO mundi? A year of the world? What is that? I should know, I guess, but I don't. I also didn't know bees WAGGLED, or that waggling was dancing. But I did know IGGY. I'll cling to that.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS here's a nice article re: the upcoming charity crossword tournament in Ithaca (where I'll be next Saturday, Mar. 7). Lots of crossword folks were interviewed for this. Check it out.

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Hoppy brew for short / WED 1-14-15 / Millrose Games highlight / 501st royal daughter / Cousin of calypso / Borat portrayer Baron Cohen / Bit of cash in Kashmir / Band with 1987 6x platinum album Kick

Constructor: Caleb Emmons

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Unexpectedly Roman — common names / phrases are clued as if certain parts were Roman numerals:

Theme answers:

• LEMONADE MIX (17A: 1,009th juice drink?)
• PRINCESS DI (11D: 501st royal daughter?)
• IV DRUGS (39A: Four prescriptions?)
• XXX RATINGS (30D: 30 consumer reviews?)
• XL TEE SHIRTS (61A: 40 concert souvenirs?)

Word of the Day: Millrose Games (28D: Millrose Games highlight = MILE) —

The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011. The games were started when employees of the New York City branch of Wanamaker's department store formed the Millrose Track Club to hold a meet. The featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. (wikipedia)

• • •

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE aka "AMOR ON A STICK!"

This is one of those great ideas that just doesn't have enough great possible answers, so you either abandon the idea or force it. Today's offering is what "force it" looks like. Can you guess which two are the good theme answers—the ones that really work well? I'll give you time [Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo; doo doo doo doo DOO … doodoodoodoodoo … etc.]. The correction question is "What are LEMONADE MIX and PRINCESS DI?" The others are compromises. What's the big difference? Well, you probably can tell, but I'll spell it out anyway. See, MIX and DI are words/names that the clues convert to Roman numerals. This means the Roman-ness is totally hidden, completely unexpected, because MIX and DI are not already abbreviations. That is, their letters have not already been converted into initials / symbols. This makes the conversion extra cool. Converting XXX RATINGS (not really a phrase to start with) to 30 RATINGS does not involve much imagination and produces little to no "aha" feeling. To simplify: MIX-to-1,009 is not a conversion I could see coming, whereas IV-to-4 … is. Where is Otto DIX!? LIV Ullman!? Hell, even CD PLAYER would've felt more in-the-pocket than XL TEE SHIRTS (which both looks absurd written out ("tee?") and is not likely to be said as written, i.e. people still say "extra large" most of the time…). Sometimes good theme ideas should just remain ideas unless and until you have a full complement of Good Theme Answers.


The fill is once again labored and subpar, with the possible exception of MAXED OUT (which is sadly offset by its ridiculous symmetrical counterpart, ON A STICK). Everywhere you look, musty, tired fill. You see it. I see it. Everyone sees it. Why is this still happening? This has been a rough week for the NYT, an unexpected and unwelcome return to form after a pretty good holiday run of puzzles. Second ASAP we've seen this week. Second WAS, too.  These are the things one notices when there is next to nothing interesting in the puzzles to talk about. SQUASH over KETTLE is a nice little juxtaposition. That's all the good will I have to spend on this one. There's always tomorrow. Dum spiro spero. Etc.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Unusual diacritic used in Portuguese / SUN 10-26-14 / Lila Oscar winner for Zorba Greek / Yellow diner packet / Long-distance swimmer Nyad / Vice of Dorian Gray / English city where Magna Carta originated / Martial artist Jackie / March birthstone traditionally

Constructor: Caleb Emmons

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Winners' Circle" —

Puzzle note:

So the letters spell out CHAMPION or DEFEATED depending on whether you enter the winners' or the losers' names, respectively.

• HERCULES / HYDRA
• ACHILLES / HECTOR
• ALI / FOREMAN
• BATMAN / THE PENGUIN
• DEEP BLUE / KASPAROV
• DAVID / GOLIATH
• TORTOISE / HARE
• KING KONG / GODZILLA

Word of the Day: ESCARP (39A: Steep slope) —

n.

1. A steep slope or cliff; an escarpment.
2. The inner wall of a ditch or trench dug around a fortification.

tr.v., -carped, -carp·ing, -carps.

1. To cause to form a steep slope.
2. To furnish with an escarp.

[French escarpe, from Italian scarpa. See scarp.] (answers.com)

Read more:  http://www.answers.com/topic/escarp#ixzz3HCfkDLd3

• • •

I didn't see the note at first, so I just figured you were supposed to put in the winners … it is called "Winners' Circle," after all. Then I tried to guess what we were supposed to do with all those letters. Wrote them out (in order of appearance, not, as the note indicates, "roughly clockwise" proceeding from the upper left). Got ACHAMNIOP, which was enough for me to see CHAMPION. Then I connected the circles, figuring that perhaps there was some kind of figure I could make by doing so. Ended up with the world's ugliest star. Thought "if this is part of the puzzle design, that is Messed Up." But no, the "star" was my own invention. The part of the design I couldn't see (because, again, I hadn't seen the note and was just following the apparent directions implied by the title) was the fact that inserting the letters of the losers got you DEFEATED. That's ingenious. Didn't blow my mind, exactly, but made me nod in a vaguely appreciative way, which is something. [Note, the reason I didn't see the note at first is because notes in Across Lite are not printed anywhere you can clearly see—you have to notice that there's a little yellow note icon near the upper left corner of your grid, and then click on that]


My only issue with the puzzle (aside from occasional clonks like LOC CIT and IS MAN and IN ROME and O TILDE (!)) is that all of the battles depicted in the crosses are singular and definitive … except that between BATMAN and THE PENGUIN. If BATMAN had, indeed, "defeated" THE PENGUIN, then he would no longer be a character. Does anyone know when / where / how BATMAN "defeated" THE PENGUIN? No, you don't. Because Comics. THE PENGUIN is always alive and well somewhere (most notably, at the moment, on FOX's "Gotham"), and there is no victory. There is never victory. Or defeat. Not of the iconic main characters, anyway. There's just … comics. I can tell you when / where / how all the other battles in this puzzle went down. Not that one. So minus one there.

A couple of other things. First, you should check out Hayley Gold's webcomic about the NYT crossword, called "Across and Down." She's supposed to have a comic up tomorrow about this past week's meta-puzzle contest, so be sure to check that out. Second, the Crosswords LA tournament took place last weekend, and the entire set of tournament puzzles (specially constructed for the tournament by an all-California cast of top-flight constructors) are now available. Here's the blurb:

Curated by Crossword Fiend Amy Reynaldo, there are tough puzzles by David Quarfoot and Byron Walden, plus more approachable puzzles by Merl Reagle, Trip Payne, Patti Varol, and Melanie Miller. Also included are a pair of warm-up puzzles from Andrea Carla Michaels and Susan Gelfand -- and a puzzle suite by John Schiff (a team activity).

Eight crossword puzzles (+ the non-crossword puzzle suite) for just five bucks, with proceeds going to "a grassroots 501(c)(3) dedicated to cultivating a childhood love of reading (Reading to Kids)." Get the puzzles in either .puz or .pdf format here. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Flaming Gorge locale / THU 1-9-14 / Lucy title character in Sir Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor / Richard War Zone Diary journalist / Rock Roll Hall of Fame inductee with only one Top 40 hit

Constructor: Caleb Emmons

Relative difficulty: Medium (Easy, but having to do all that mental shifting was time-consuming)

THEME: SAN ANDREAS FAULT (7D: Site of slippage … both geographically and in this puzzle) — the entire grid east of SAN ANDREAS FAULT must be shifted up one square for the crossings to make any sense

[It's possible that BANANA PEEL (21A: You might slip on it) and PATCH OF ICE (48A: You might slip on it), because they involve slipping, are also theme answers, though what they have to do with earthquakes or fault lines, I don't know.]

[Is BREA on the fault? (38A: City in southern California) It's not a very big place, but that might also be a theme answer?]


Word of the Day: Frank ZAPPA (1D: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with only one Top 40 hit) —

"Valley Girl" is a song by the musician Frank Zappa and his then 14-year-old daughter, Moon Unit Zappa. It was released on Zappa's 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. Moon supplied Frank with much of the content, speaking typical "Valley girl" or "Valspeak" phrases she heard at "parties, bar mitzvahs, and the Galleria".^[1] Zappa intended to lampoon the image, but the single popularized the Valley Girl stereotype nationwide.^[2][3][4] There was a significant increase in "Valspeak" slang usage, whether ironically spoken or not (not the least of which was the film, Valley Girl). This song was also included in the compilation album Strictly Commercial.

The song was Zappa's only top 40 single in the United States, peaking at #32 in the Billboard Hot 100, although he had charted hits in other parts of the world. It is one of the most unusual Zappa tunes because of how relatively "normal" it is, and is played entirely in 4/4 with the exception of the 7/8 groove at the very end. (wikipedia)

• • •

THE PUZZLE: This is an interesting puzzle, but there's really not a lot to it. You just shift the east half of the grid up one. The end. There are no theme answers except the central one. I'd expect some kind of themeish action to be happening in the NW and SE. Maybe a quake-related word or two? Something? So it's thin. It's well made, otherwise. Fill is clean. PEACH FUZZ is a great answer (3D: Sign of puberty, maybe). It's not as exciting as it wants to be, however, because it's really just an easy themeless that's broken in the middle. I've seen an earthquake-related puzzle done before, and now I can't think of where. I'm waiting to hear back from my friends with better memories. But the existence of other fault line puzzles isn't a knock against this one. The main negative for me, actually, was just the headache of having to continually reimagine, or revisualize, I guess, how the fault-crossing answers worked. There was a significant element of tedium there. This is not to be confused with difficulty, of which this puzzle has very little. The weirdest / most interesting element of the grid is probably the lonely little "T" down there at the bottom (65A: ___-square). One of the few times you're going to see a true one-letter answer in a crossword puzzle.


Picked up the theme at SHINY (15D: Glistening, as Christmas ornaments), or, rather, at MESS (5A: Clutter), or, rather, at the whole north area. Got UTAH and TONI to fit in the grid, but the obvious answers above and below them (MESS and BANANA…, respectively) just didn't fit. I already had SAN ANDREAS FAULT at that point (that answer was transparent), so the first thing I thought was, "oh, right, slippage." The rest of the puzzle was just a matter of making the necessary mental adjustments. What's weird is, before I had any idea what the theme was, when I was still moving through the NW and W, I was thinking "this is a nice grid … can't see the theme yet, but this is really well filled. Ungratuitous Zs. MUTANT (5D: Certain horror film villain). Good stuff." And then there was the theme. Which was fine, but, as I say, obvious, and more annoying than interesting or difficult to work out.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Sed quencher / THU 6-21-12 / Dawson's Creek girl / Mongolian dwellings / Weird Al specialty / 1956 million-selling album / Fish whose name comes from Old English for spear

Constructor: Caleb Emmons

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Clue numbers are part of six answers — Note: "Parts of six answers have been entered in the grid for you."

Word of the Day: TESSERAE (44A: Mosaic squares) —

n., pl., tes·ser·ae (tĕs'ə-rē').
One of the small squares of stone or glass used in making mosaic patterns.

[Latin, from Greek, neuter of tesseres, variant of tessares, four.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/tessera#ixzz1yOLZAUII

• • •

Bad luck today. I just did this puzzle—a much tougher and more entertaining version of it, anyway. If you do Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest (and why don't you?), then you did it too (see here). This coincidence is no one's fault. Gaffney tells me BEQ did the same theme back in 2009, but you have to give constructors a little slack. It's sometimes hard to find out if your idea has been done before, especially if it hasn't been in a major publication (something in the cruciverb database). As I say, this is just bad luck. Mainly for me. I like this theme idea. If I'd never seen it before, I'd think it was clever. I don't think the puzzle needed a note. It's Thursday—if I can sniff out a rebus (and I can), then I can figure out what's going on with the clue numbers. Because the gimmick was transparent, and the cluing Tuesday-easy, I finished with my fastest Thursday time in several months. The only problem I had was in the SE. Jack Benny!?!? Wow, there's a bone for ... someone. Not me. Even if I'd realized it was part of the theme (I didn't), I still would have had trouble. Waaaaaaaaay before my time. "21 JUMP STREET"—now *that*'s my time (a movie version of the show came out earlier this year). Only other hiccup, besides that SE corner, was understanding what the hell 11D: Sed quencher meant. I'm guess "Sed" = "thirst" in Spanish (?). Like Jack Benny, Sed was beyond my ken. But none of this mattered much. Clever idea, so-so execution. Now go join the throng of Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest (MGWCC) solvers already.

Theme answers:

• 4D: Apocalyptic figures (4 HORSEMEN)
• 19D: A dystopian novel (19 EIGHTY-FOUR) — slightly awkward numbers-to-letters shift
• 21D: 1980s-'90s police drama (21 JUMP STREET)
• 39D: Like Jack Benny, as he always said (39 YEARS OLD)
• 18A: Standard golf outing (18 HOLE ROUND) — "HOLE ROUND" was not at all intuitive to me. I got HOLE easily, but then ... ? 
• 57A: Heinz offering (57 VARIETIES)

Bullets:

• 21A: "Dawson's Creek" girl (JEN) — played by 3-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams
• 52A: Fish whose name comes from the Old English for "spear" (GAR) — One of my sweet spots is the intersection of Old English and crosswordese, so this was no trouble.
• 59A: Weird All Yankovic specialty (POLKA) — wanted SPOOF at first.

• 62A: 1956 million-selling album ("ELVIS") — ALVA got me "ELVIS," which is how I dug myself out of the SE corner.
• 28D: Mongolian dwellings (YURTS) — as I'm sure I've said before, my sister's super-crunchy college had a central meeting space called "The Yurt." I don't think it resembled a Mongolian dwelling in the slightest, but I could be wrong.
• 52D: Many a Comicon attendee (GEEK) — this puzzle speaks truth. In case you somehow don't know, there are tons of "Comicons" all over the country—comic book conventions that draw the whole world of scifi / superhero / supernatural / comic art geekery into their orbit. Daughter and I keep talking about going to one, but haven't yet got there. I am a very half-assed comic book geek.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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