THEME: "Making Connections" — "IN" is added to beginning of familiar names & phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style. Whole theme tied together by 117A: Popular website whose name is a hint to this puzzle's theme (LINKEDIN) Theme answers:
INLET LIE (23A: "You can never moor a boat here"?)
INSURE ENOUGH (24A: Provide sufficient coverage from risk?)
INFIDEL CASTRO (39A: Atheistic Cuban leader?)
INBOX SEATS (46A: Desk chairs?)
INCAN OPENER (60A: Quechuan "hello"?)
INJURY TAMPERING (67A: Removing a Band-Aid too early?)
INFIELD GOAL (74A: Covering first, second and third base?)
INDUCT TAPE (91A: Add to the Video Clip Hall of Fame?)
INTAKE CONTROL (97A: Diet?)
INFANCY PANTS (112A: Diapers?)
Word of the Day: IMARI (39D: Japanese porcelain) —
Imari porcelain (伊万里焼) is the name for Japanese porcelain wares made in the town of Arita, in the former Hizen Province, northwestern Kyūshū. They were exported to Europe extensively from the port of Imari, Saga, between the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. The Japanese as well as Europeans called them Imari. In Japanese, these porcelains are also known as Arita-yaki (有田焼). Imari or Arita porcelain has been continously produced up through the present day. (wikipedia)
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I don't have any problem with an ultra-simple concept like this, but a. it should yield really entertaining results, and these were just OK, and b. it should not be so predictably repetitive. Quickly became clear that I could stick "IN-" at the beginning of every theme answer, which gave away info about the crosses (obviously) as well as info about the theme answers. The IN- addition just doesn't change things enough to give the resulting themers a truly wacky jolt most of the time. INFIELD GOAL practically sounds like a real thing. Same with INTAKE CONTROL. And INSURE ENOUGH *is* a real thing. The only one of the themes that made me go "Good one" was INFANCY PANTS. The "IN-" addition really makes that base answer swerve—you get a pronunciation change, and, well, there's not much that's "fancy" about "diapers," so you get a tonal shift as well. Good one. The rest I mostly shrugged at.
Fill-wise, this is probably above average, in that it's mostly average, with some great spots. Love this section:
I love the clue on HYPHEN (101A: Jack-in-the-box part) for its great misdirection, and I love the word PUSHBACK (84D: Resistance), which is dynamic and vernacular and feels quite fresh. I also adore SCARJO (no HYPHEN) because it's dead-on and dead awesome (it's short for Scarlett Johansson, which you probably knew or guessed by now) (102A: "Lucy" star, in tabloids). As with yesterday's OCR and (esp.) NSFW, I love when shortenings are very much in-the-current-language. I recently posted/shared on my Facebook page a link referring to this potentially great new clue for (otherwise ridiculous) ONER, and looky here (14D: Long, unbroken take, in film lingo). What a coincidence. Cool. I also love the clue on adjacentCERTS (13D: Roll by a cashier), largely because I *hated* it (had CENTS, then got CERTS and thought it was short for "certificates" and then thought "that is bull*%&t…") but then I got it. It's CERTS the breath mint. Two mints in one. Its by a cashier in that it's in the checkout aisle of your supermarket or drugstore. Probably. The best kind of surprise is when awareness of your own ignorance slaps you in the face, and you can't help but go, "yeah … good one."
One little but major issue with a certain crossing: namely, IMARI / A FLAT.
Dan's a professional pianist, so the "A" in A FLAT is probably a no-brainer for him (48A: Most common key of Chopin's piano pieces), but for many of us less musically inclined people, that letter is a crap shoot. It's A or B or C or D or E or F or G and who knows, so you wait for the cross. But the cross is this obscure piece of crosswordese, IMARI (39D: Japanese porcelain). That "A" was a flat-out guess, as I'm certain it will be for many if not most solvers. Now, IMARI was the only thing that sounded Japanese, but … I'm not even sure what that means. IMERI and IMBRI seem at least remotely plausible. The problem is that you have exotic crosswordese and can't really *confirm* it in the cross. Boo + hiss.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Relative difficulty: Medium (maybe slightly more difficult than the normal Tuesday)
THEME: Recycling Binge — -GE is added to ends of familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style
Word of the Day: Alan THICKE (46D: "Growing Pains" co-star Alan) —
Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffery; March 1, 1947) is a Canadian actor, comedian, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains. (wikipedia)
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Hey, look, it's 4-time American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Champion Dan Feyer, a man who can solve brutal puzzle in times that most people would (literally) not believe, and he's made a very solvable (not to mention delightful) Tuesday puzzle. Simple gimmick leads to genuinely amusing and clever theme answers, all in a grid that is both clean and interesting. I didn't have any problems solving it, but as soon as my wife said "well I'm going to have to make an educated guess at one square," I knew exactly what square she was talking about: THICKE / ECKO. She wanted to put "C" there, and I was like "What? Why would you do that?" and she said "OK, then it's 'K', I don't know ... you know how it is with *names* ..." And I do. Alan THICKE hasn't really been heard from since "Growing Pains," but in the '80s he was pretty famous both for that show and his failed late-night talk show. My favorite part of the solve today was hitting the *second* "Growing Pains" clue (47D: "Growing Pains" family name = SEAVER). I loved that show as a kid, both because it was pretty funny and because I had a thing for Joanna Kearns. Yes, as a teenager, my tastes ran more to sitcom moms than supermodels. In my defense, she was hot. Meanwhile, Alan THICKE's son is now a successful R&B singer.
Theme answers:
17A: Garbage scow that docked with Mir? (SPACE BARGE)
20A: Swapping out Sheen for Rose? (CHARLIE CHANGE)
35A: Boy Scout's reward for karate expertise? (BREAKING BADGE)
54A: Caveman's injury after discovering fire? (ORIGINAL SINGE)
59A: Feeling when one's voodoo doll is poked? (EVIL TWINGE)
Had to think here and there about a few answers. Stumped by 14A: Extra Dry brand (ARRID) because I figured it had to be a beer (or BREWSKI). "Starting with A ... ASAHI?" No. Not even close. I don't think of HEPCATs wearing ZOOT suits (21D: Cool one, once + 16A: Kind of suit worn by a 21-Down). I associate the suits more with a black/latino subculture in the '40s, whereas I associate HEPCATs with beatniks of the '50s. I'm sure there's some overlap, but that clue didn't quite work for me. ECKO (62A: Designer Marc) and SKIL (6A: Big name in power tools) are potentially tough, as brand names go—I don't think of them as very mainstream; I mean, not OREO-mainstream, anyway. Took me forever to parseI BLEW IT (34D: "My goof!"). Took me a second to remember there had once been a Chuck ROBB (23D: Former Virginia senator Chuck).
That is all.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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THEME: "Puzzle Envy" — theme answers are all two-word phrases where first word begins with "N" and second begins with "V"
Word of the Day: DAGMAR (3D: Blond bombshell of '50s TV) —
Dagmar (born Virginia Ruth Egnor, November 29, 1921 – October 9, 2001) was an American actress, model and television personality of the 1950s. As a statuesque, busty blonde, she became the first major female star of television, receiving much press coverage during that decade.
Hey, nice to see Dan working at construction again. In case you didn't know, he is the current and gajillion-time champion of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (coming back to Brooklyn once again this March). He is a pianist, and so I was on the lookout for musical answers—and I was not disappointed. Sadly, some of the musical answers got by me. But more on that later. This is a pretty straightforward theme—I've seen this ("envy" -> NV) pun in different contexts a million times before (OK, more like a handful than a million). The context that most readily comes to mind is the "Scott Pilgrim" comics series, where the title character's ex-girlfriend assumes the name "Envy" because N and V are her first two initials. Anyway, there appear to be a number of "N.V." phrases in the world, many of which are here in this grid. My favorite part of the theme isn't any particular answer—it's the stack of three theme answers at the center of the grid. Nice little feat. With a theme this straightforward, it would've been nice to see a little more sparkle in the fill, though I Really like all the 7- and 8-letters stuff in the SE corner—everything from PLAXICO (94D: The N.F.L.'s ___ Burress) east to DO-GOODER (89D: Well-intentioned activist).
For a number of reasons, I found this puzzle much harder than most Sundays. This is both because of and in spite of the theme. It took me forever to figure out, largely because the second theme answer I came to was completely befuddling. I hate hate hate it when [enemy] is used in a clue and it's just *assumed* to be [enemy of the U.S.]. It's ridiculous. Say what you mean. Anyway, I had no idea what the answer was there because the Downs that could've helped me in the NW and the North were either total mysteries to me ("DANCIN'"??? DAGMAR???) (1D: 1978 Bob Fosse Broadway revue + 3D: Blond bombshell of '50s TV) or were all screwed up. I knew "Les TROYENS" (9D: "Les ___" (Berlioz opera based on the "Aeneid"), but I could not get a spelling down. Started with TROI- but then 28A: ___ minute seemed sure to be IN A, so that's what I went with (it's ANY). [Moonstruck] means INSANE??? I love that movie, but it's about being IN LOVE, so I made no headway there. Strangely, despite having a weakness in the arena of musical answers, I had SPINETS nailed down fast (8D: Downsized uprights), but its neighbors, ugh. No idea what to make of the "Old" part of 32A: Old lad's wear (KNEEPANTS). How old? What is an old lad? You're a lad or you're not. A lad would wear KNEEPANTS, wouldn't he? I thought "old lad" was some technical term, so KNEEPANTS took a while to accept. Whole North was rough. Just couldn't get into it. E BOAT? Yikes (21A: W.W. II marine threat). There is a whole lot of what we call "Scrabblef*cking" going on in this puzzle (this is where you shove high-value scrabble letters into your grid in order to be showy, thereby resulting in drecky, compromised fill—some people have a propensity for this). The Scrabble-f@ickingest corner I've ever seen has to be the NE corner in this puzzle. AZERI??????? That is a tiny little corner that could've been filled any number of lovely ways, and that's the answer we get. This makes yesterday's ADENI seem common as dandelions. I would never have known that a resident of Azerbaijan was called an AZERI (and I'm sure a lot of folks won't even have known that Baku is *in* Azerbaijan (it's the capital)). JEJUNE is also a bit of Scrabble-f&cking (11D: Immature), but even though E BOAT is truly terrible, the other surrounding answers are solid, so no major harm done.
Theme answers:
23A: What some goggles provide (NIGHT VISION)
36A: Onetime enemy (NORTH VIETNAMESE)
65A: Wine taster's destination (NAPA VALLEY)
70A: Bad sign for a traveler? (NO VACANCY)
74A: 1942 Bette Davis film ("NOW, VOYAGER")
99A: Home of the world's largest naval base (NORFOLK, VIRGINIA)
118A: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" writer and star (NIA VARDALOS)
16D: 3.14159..., for pi (NUMERICAL VALUE)
47D: Hit 1944 film starring a 12-year-old actress ("NATIONAL VELVET")
Bullets:
38A: Reggae's ___ Kamoze (INI) — er ... yeah. I forgot about this guy. Totally. I might've gone with the pasta suffix, or something else, esp. as this crosses the less-than-lovely and not-universally-known UNSUB (35D: Remove from a mailing list)
45D: '60s prez (ABE) — hands up for LBJ ("confirmed" by BIAS) at first! Anyone? Just me? OK.
87D: Kardashian spouse Lamar ___ (ODOM) — this is a very harsh way to clue a very accomplished professional basketball player.
95D: James Bond's childhood home (SKYFALL) — no idea. That's what I get for waiting to see the film on Blu-Ray, I guess.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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THEME: JUGGLING PINS (54A: 51-Down's talent ... or what the circled squares represent?) — 51D: Circus performer = CLOWN; eight sets of three contiguous circled letters are scattered around the grid, each of them containing the word PIN.
Word of the Day: Marvin KALB (9D: Former "Meet the Press" host Marvin) —
Marvin L. Kalb (born June 9, 1930) is an Americanjournalist. Kalb was the Shorenstein Center's Founding Director and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy (1987–1999). The Shorenstein Center and the Kennedy School are part of Harvard University. He is currently a James Clark Welling Fellow at The George Washington University and a member of Atlantic Community Advisory Board. // Kalb spent 30 years as an award-winning reporter for CBS News and NBC News. Kalb was the last newsman recruited by Edward R. Murrow to join CBS News, becoming part of the later generation of the "Murrow's Boys." His work at CBS landed him on Richard Nixon's "enemies list". At NBC, he served as chief Diplomatic Correspondent and host of Meet the Press. During many years of Kalb's tenures at CBS and NBC, his brother Bernard worked alongside him. // Kalb has authored or coauthored nine nonfiction books (Eastern Exposure, Dragon in the Kremlin, The Volga, Roots of Involvement, Kissinger, Campaign ’88, The Nixon Memo, and One Scandalous Story) and two best-selling novels (In the National Interest and The Last Ambassador). His most recent book is about the haunting legacy of Vietnam ,co-authored with his daughter. // He hosts The Kalb Report, a monthly discussion of media ethics and responsibility at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the Shorenstein Center and George Washington University. He is a news analyst for Fox News, and a contributor to National Public Radio and America Abroad. (wikipedia)
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Hey, it's reigning American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion Dan Feyer. Nice guy, cool puzzle idea. Can CLOWNs really juggle *eight* pins? That seems like a lot. No wonder one of them hit the ground. This will sound extra-weird, but I think of CLOWNs as having minor juggling talent, i.e. maybe four balls or pins at once. I think of the real professional (?) jugglers as human beings, not CLOWNs. Not to dehumanize CLOWNs. Anyway, eight seems like a lot for your run-of-the-mill circus CLOWN is what I'm saying.
Seems like PIN in JUGGLING PINS should be circled. It's a PIN, it's in the grid ... circle it. If you can do eight, you can do nine, CLOWN. Also, would've been nice if JUGGLING PINS' symmetrical counterpart were somehow theme-related. NIPS IN THE BUD isn't juggly or clowny (20A: Squelches early) ... not that it isn't a great answer—possibly the best bit of fill in the whole grid. It's just a bit strange to have a non-theme answer be the only other long-Across in the grid. This puzzle's success rests entirely on the theme, as the fill is pretty ordinary. Ordinary, leaning crosswordese-ward (at least the crosswordese gets tricked out in fancy clues like 15A: Bejeweled headgear => TIARAand 42A: Raptorial seabird => ERN). But that's somewhat understandable given the number of PINS that have to be accommodated. DOM PERIGNON is fantastic (3D: Pricey bubbly). Most of the rest is just tolerable. Minor speed bumps for me included KALB and DONEN (who went in first as DONAT—an old-timey actor, not an old-timey director) (49A: Stanley who co-directed "Singin' in the Rain"), as well as the PACE part of KEPT PACE (41D: Stayed with the leader). SHRILL (29A: Like the sound of a teakettle) and HAIRDO didn't come right away either, possibly because I kept misreading the clue for HAIRDO (my eyes wanting to include "Butter or mayo" (29A) in the clue's own list of Weave, shag or braids). Is a "weave" a haircut? I thought it was fake hair.
I missed "Jeopardy" last night, but the buzz is that crossword constructor and speed-solver Joon Pahk won and will appear again tonight. This time I'll remember to DVR it. I'd say "good luck," Joon, but the show isn't taking place in real time, so ... congratulations! Here's a song from the Band with the 22x platinum album "Back in Black" (AC/DC), in your honor.
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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