Found this a bit of a slog, mostly because of the overly precious cluing. Double-digit "?" clues? When the number gets that high, it starts feeling like someone got carried away, and perhaps I'm supposed to be distracted from a not-altogther-scintillating grid. It's fairly clean, but with very few highlights—lots of decent stuff, but no real marquee answers. Also, sadly, that SW corner is dire, and that's the place I finished, so the taste that was left in my mouth was a bad one. PROSES next to OGIVE ... that would've made me redo that whole section. And then you go and make it harder with a very weird ORES clue (violating my "don't call attention to your lame fill with tough clues" rule) and that odd IRIS clue (55A: Color also known as endive blue ... I'm not sure I knew IRIS even *was* a color) and that GEORG guy (45A: Mathematician Cantor who founded set theory) ... whom I can tolerate, 'cause clearly he's somebody, but he's by far the most obscure proper noun in this puzzle and you've gone and stuck him in the OGIVE section. To be fair, though, the grid has only a handful of "ouch!" answer (ITES, MIL, SSS) and lots of longer stuff intersecting rather elegantly. But the cluing felt like it was Trying Too Hard (to be tough, to be clever) without succeeding sufficiently at being entertaining. And that SW corner. Yowzers. So that's two primary problems I had with this thing. Oh, and I resent DYNASTS, since a. DYNASTY is a better word, b. DYNASTY is a more familiar word (see a.), and c. DYNASTY fits the clue perfectly (35A: Line of rulers).
Also, this may be the least Scrabbly late-week puzzle I've ever seen. You have, what, one Absurdly shoe-horned "Q", which has been forced into a PDQ/QED crossing? And one "K" at AMOK/DESK. No "Z"s or "X"s or genuine "Q"s or "J"s ... plus nothing feels very current. Again, it's all very solid, but not very 2013. There's no reason why a not-so-Scrabbly, not-so-hip puzzle can't also be a very good puzzle, but I realize that I prefer my Fridays (and Saturdays) to bounce in a way that this one doesn't (much). This is a decent construction that just wasn't quite to my taste.
I watch PBS and have never heard of "NerdTV." I thought it might be CBS since they have that horrible show with "nerds" that is not funny and is mysteriously popular. Big error on my part misreading 22D: One putting the pedal to the metal as a *plural* (?!?)—thus LEADFEET :( This made RODEOS hard to see (42A: Occasions for bulldogging). Had MHO for 57D: 254,000 angstroms (brain: science + unit + three letters + starts with "M" = MHO), so IRENE was tough (60A: Rich of old films). I mean, she'd've been tough no matter what, since I have no idea who she is, but MHO made her tougher. TED'S is bad fill, but I do love "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," so ... I'll allow it. I initially grimaced at but now like a lot the clue on EIGHTIES (8D: Reagan was seen a lot in them). I don't think I knew that the GEICO gecko's accent was Cockney, exactly, but I just had to think "vaguely English" to get it quickly (45D: American company whose mascot has a Cockney accent). Oh, and best mistake of the day—I thought it was NAPS that got taken easily. Perhaps because I woke up from one to solve this. Anyway, it was weird to have crosses confirm the answer again and again and again. But not again. Also, appropriate that that final "again" was SCREWS (10D: Things driven on construction sites).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Word of the Day: John CABOT (1A: Contemporary of Columbus) —
John Cabot (known in Italian as Giovanni Caboto; c. 1450 – c. 1499) was an Italiannavigator andexplorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the mainland of North America since the Norse Vikings visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. The official position of the Canadian and United Kingdom governments is that he landed on the island of Newfoundland. (wikipedia)
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Whoa ... faster than either Friday or Thursday. Played somewhere between Wed. and Thur. for me. Very frustrating, then, to get to the very end and have to make a blind guess at a letter. I don't know who this CABOT guy is. Sincerely, never heard of him. Or, I *have* heard of him, and completely forgot about him. One or the other. At any rate, I guessed the "T" in his name because CABOT is a recognizable name, unlike CABON, the other answer I was entertaining. Only after I finished the puzzle did I see how TAG = [Put out, in a way] (baseball). I would be put out of someone kept NAGging me. But that was the only scary moment. Otherwise, I started with OSSIE (once crosses ruled out GEENA) (46A: Davis of "Bubba Ho-Tep," 2002), and worked off crosses straight through the whole damned puzzle. No jumping around or rebooting or nothing. HALTER TOPS off the HA- (57A: Summer wear for women). REEBOKS off the -KS (22D: Alternatives to Filas). NUT TREE off the -EE (28D: Almond, for one). Just not Saturday hard. Given the clue, BETSY ROSS (33D: A 1952 3-cent stamp honored her 200th birthday)was a cinch w/ just a cross or two. Few letters at the end of LADY GODIVA and she turned right up (17A: One barely riding?). There are no obscure or even strange words in the whole thing—which I guess is a plus, but somehow it all felt a little boring. Maybe the cluing was what was lacking. Maybe SPIELER (42D: Pitching ace?) next to ONE SHARE (37D: Minimal market purchase) and AMATOL (45D: Powerful explosive) is just snoozy stuff. Maybe I don't like the idea of more than one KROGER (38A: Some markets = KROGERS). Dunno. But this didn't do much for me, despite its smoothness and solidity. At 72 words, I expect some zing. With a few exceptions, or w/ slightly different cluing, this puzzle could've been from 30 years ago. Maybe more. Themelesses usually have seed answers—stuff the puzzle gets built around because it's Awesome. I don't know what those would have been today.
Lots of actresses today, only one of which I knew (13D: Cagney player on TV = GLESS). ALANA (14A: Actress De La Garza of "Law & Order") and BEA (33A: Lillie with a Tony) were new to me, but easily gettable via crosses. YMA is common crosswordese, so that was a gimme (50A: First name among exotica singers), and MERL is uncommon crosswordese, so ditto (63A: Keyboardist Saunders). No idea what Crockett Hotel's neighbor was, but it sounded westerny and I had enough crosses to make ALAMO the obvious choice. I guess "Rendering" is in the clue 31D: Rendering on Connecticut's state quarter is there because "Tree" would be too easy ... ? But I hardly think it mattered, and "rendering" is ugly (and long) as a clue word. There must be some happy medium between "tree" and "rendering." Improbably, I wanted SATIE at first for 48D: "The Liberty Bell composer" (SOUSA). I *always* want SATIE for a 5-letter composer (esp. starting w/ S). He's reasonably common. So is SOUSA, it's true, but I'd rather listen to SATIE, so ... SATIE wins, clue wording be damned.
I really like the clue on MAVERICK (8D: Sarah Palin, self-descriptively), but it's a Wednesday clue—if not outright obvious, certainly obvious after a cross or two. Whole puzzle suffered from this pushover quality. If there were such a thing as a Wednesday themeless, this would be a good example and I would've enjoyed it a reasonable amount.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Word of the Day: SCUDS (33A: Moves quickly, as a cloud) — intr.v., scud·ded, scud·ding, scuds.
To run or skim along swiftly and easily: dark clouds scudding by.
Nautical. To run before a gale with little or no sail set.
n.
The act of scudding.
Wind-driven clouds, mist, or rain.
A gust of wind.
Ragged low clouds, moving rapidly beneath another cloud layer.
[Possibly from Middle English scut, rabbit, rabbit's tail. See scut1.]
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This one made me woozy. Not ABSINTHE woozy (24D: Potent stuff called "the green fairy") — more punchy and dazed woozy. Took me twice as long as my normal Friday. In retrospect, the grid looks pretty harmless — but the clues, good lord. I couldn't understand what many of them were getting at, and even with the answers in place I remain puzzled by a few. My second-favorite bit of fill is also the iffiest thing in the grid. Never heard of a BOOSTER BOX (30D: Item-concealing shoplifting aid), and so looked it up — not in dictionary, and attestations online are poor. It's in the "Urban Dictionary," but then again so is the "Natick Principle." Pretty sure that's not good enough. Worse, the term BOOSTER BAG *does* appear to have legs, and may be what many people tried first down there in the SE corner. Me, I tried BOOSTER BRA. Looks like BOOSTER BRAs just help you boost boobs, not boost booty.
[Jane's Addiction, "Been Caught Stealing," after the annoying Bing / vampire ad...]
I couldn't get any kind of purchase on the puzzle's longer answers, except ACROPHOBIA (60A: Source of high anxiety?) and TEASPOON (38D: 1/768 gallon). At one I point I looked at my sorry, tattered grid and the only word longer than 7 letters that I had in place was Hal HOLBROOK (10D: Best Actor Tony winner for "Mark Twain Tonight!"), and I'd had to hack to get that. I got frustrated with the puzzle when I hit *three* actor clues very close to one another. I may have said, out loud, "O my God give it a rest!" But the long answers ... YELLOW BIRD (21A: American goldfinch)? Meaningless to me. BLUEBIRD, GREENBIRD, BLACKBIRD, BEIGEBIRD ... Color + bird. Wouldn't have guessed YELLOW BIRD was a technical name. More like something a child (or I) would say when pointing at a YELLOW BIRD. GAS GUZZLER, which is lovely (17A: Big wheels, often), remained hidden for a long time as a. "Wheels" can mean a lot of things, and b. while "wheels" = "car" (singular, i.e. "Nice wheels"), "wheels" = "cars" didn't click for me. "Z" crosses came late. Had the terminal "R" and wanted "something CAR." COPPER MINE? Just waited for lots of crosses. I've got no idea what a 52A: Bingham Canyon operation is. And I live in BINGHAMton! And then POSTER GIRL (3D: She's identified with a cause) — not a lot of luck there until I got the GIRL part and worked up.
Shrug-inducers:
67A: They're applied to some backs (waxes) — to remove hair, I assume? Talk about hiding the "X"...
1D: Port near Ogre (Riga) — Know RIGA, but Ogre, not so much.
5D: Sch. whose sports teams are the Violets (NYU) — part of me knows I should have known this and part of me (yet again) resents the provincialism of the NY puzzle. Must remember, despite its international solver base, it's The *New York* Times puzzle.
18D: Grammy category starting in 2007 (Zydeco) — with the "O" in place, wanted TEJANO, and then nothing.
9D: Willful (strong) — these words seem only tangentially related to me.
66A: The U.S. Treasury is on their backs (tens) — they're on the backs of lots of bills. "Backs" must be to tie in to the subsequent Across clue (see WAXES, above). [ah, this clue refers to the Treasury *building*, which is $10 bill-specific — duly noted]
33A: Moves quickly, as a cloud (scuds) — SCUDS are missiles to me. I had trouble believing that something as poetic-seeming as a fast-moving cloud could be described by as phenomenally ugly a word as SCUDS.
59A: Title locale in a Leonard Bernstein song where "life was so cozy" ("Ohio") — no idea. None.
56A: N.F.L.'er Olsen or Toler (Greg) — just Noooo idea. Wanted MERL, and wondered why. Then remembered the (legitimately) great and puzzle-worthy MERLIN Olsen (NFL Hall-of-Famer and "Little House on the Prairie" cast member).
27D: "Dawson's Creek" role (Andie) — show for teens that's been dead for nearly a decade!? I watched this show (briefly) and couldn't remember ANDIE (not one of the four main kids, not even on first season of the show). Dawson, Joey, Pacey, I know. ANDIE, ugh.
48D: Cabinda is an exclave of it (Angola) — gibberish to me, and I knew (from previous xwords) what an "exclave" was!
57D: "Nosferatu, _____ Symphonie des Grauens" ("Eine") — aargh, is "des" a German word!? "Symphonie des Grauens" looks totally French. I had OU LA here at first. Seemed plausible.
43D: Dog for logs (andiron) — still don't get it. "Dog?" Oh, wait, here we go. TENTH meaning of "dog": Any of various hooked or U-shaped metallic devices used for gripping or holding heavy objects. (answers.com)
13D: President who was born a King (Ford) — must look up. Hmmm, FORD was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., but his father was violent and so his mother left him and eventually married Gerald Rudolff Ford: "James M. Cannon, a member of the Ford administration, wrote in a Ford biography that the Kings' separation and divorce were sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King threatened Dorothy with a butcher knife and threatened to kill her, Ford, and Ford's nursemaid. Ford later told confidantes that his father had first hit his mother on their honeymoon for smiling at another man" (wikipedia).
7D: Kale kin (collard) — never seen the word without GREENS following it. Wanted ... some kind of CHARD. Or KOHLRABI (sp??), which I'm now being told by my wife is a bulbous root. Confused it with Broccoli RABE, I guess.
What else? Well, I got CARE BEAR pretty quickly, so pat on the back / hide face in shame for that (26A: Funshine, Grumpy or Love-a-lot). Couldn't decide between ELMER and ELSIE for a while at 31D: Bovine at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Got GLOBE right away (29A: Meridian shower), then noticed "GLOBE" in the clues — 40D: 2006 Golden Globe Best Actress (Streep). With So Many wonderful possibilities for cluing her, why use such a dull vague clue, anyway? On a day like this, I was actually very grateful to have ASTA show up (20A: Literary schnauzer). A fine-looking grid, with clues that just weren't on my wavelength At All.
Oh, and my favorite answer in the grid? WELCHERS (22D: Debt disregarders, slangily). Never mind that I thought the word was WELSHERS.
Despite some harrowing clues and answers, I finished this one up in about average Saturday time (circa 15 minutes, for me). One square was an utter and complete guess, and I was actually stunned when the Times site accepted my grid. I thought for sure I'd get the dreaded "Your puzzle is incorrect" message. I still don't understand how the answer fits the clue:
ARMS isn't even a French word, as far as I know. So I remain baffled. If you know the answer, let me know (NOTE: by the time you read this, it is likely that many people will have already answered the question in the "Comments" section, so if you know the answer, just check first).
The long answers are all worth noting, so I will note them now:
17A: Knee problem (grass stain) - love the triple "S"
21A: Capital, usually (metropolis) - hmmm ... not sure this is true. Maybe national capitals are, but ... is Carson City really a METROPOLIS? Salem? Olympia? Helena? I could go on.
3D: Feature of many a big do (teased hair) - recently thumbed through my high school yearbook, and saw much of this.
49A: Like Y, e.g. (next to last) - part of me admires this clue, and the other part feels like some essential ingredient is missing in the clue (or answer)
54A: Soft, high-fiber dish (mashed peas) - had the MASHED part and my first thought for the rest of the answer was YAMS. Why?
I like NONOS (9D: They're proscribed) and NO MAS (45D: Mexican uncle?) in rotational symmetrical positions. Also like TOADIES (35A: Hangers-on)and CULT (39A: Following group) together, in a kind of group hug with IDIOTS (38A: Other drivers (never you, of course)). My biggest problem with the puzzle was in the Far East, where the aforementioned ARMS and JOURNALESE make their homes. What those answers both have in common is that they cross the ruthless RAJAH (27A: Rogers Hornsby's nickname, with "the"). If you search ["the rajah"], you get only 72K Google hits, and none of the ones on the first page refer to Mr. Hornsby. And a search of [hornsby rajah] returns a scant 1090 hits. The greatest-hitting second baseman of the first half of the 20th century was somehow like an Indian king? Tell me more! Seriously, tell me more, 'cause I don't understand.
Many sparkling clues and answers today, including:
31A: Senior ctr.? (sch.)
34A: Before analysis, after "a" (priori) - see explanation here
1D: Maker of a historic touchdown (Eagle) - it has landed, or so I hear
7D: Had a causerie (chatted) - OK, this isn't so great, but I love the word "causerie" - I initially forgot what it meant; it sounds much more violent than "chatted" - like "caustic" or "cauterize"
10D: Jaunty (debonair) - what was great about this was not the clue or answer, but my initial wrong fill. I had HAZE instead of DAZE at 10A: Fog, and thus for 10D: Jaunty here I had HEB... and I was like "Heb...raic? Really? But it won't fit..."
39D: Game derived from 500 rummy (canasta) - reminds me of many a summer vacation up the west coast from Fresno to (eventually) Seattle, sitting in the back of the van, playing cards over and over and over again with my sister and stepsister. How we ever got hooked up with such an old-fashioned game, I don't remember.
42D: Light carriage with a folding top (calash) - well, SURREY wouldn't fit, and after that, I was all out of carriages. CALASH reminds me of an ethnic food of some kind on "The Simpsons" called "klav kalash."
Got a bit thrown by 57A: Topic lead-in (as to), as I was trying to think of a prefix that went with "topic." More problems with 31D: Do something emotionally to (stir) - I had SCAR. My big victory of the day was partially remembering the name of 23A: Leon who won both a Pulitzer and a National Book Award in 1963 (Edel). Off the "D" I wrote in EDER, which was very close and easily corrected. I know of Mr. EDEL only from doing crosswords.
The question marks:
1A: Vegetable oil, e.g. (ester) - at this point, I'm beginning to wonder what isn't an ESTER...
40A: Character lineup (rst) - I knew this, just couldn't believe it was right. I can tolerate answers like this, and DCC (55D: Multiple of LXX) in an otherwise very strong puzzle.
42A: Ammunition carrier on wheels (caisson) - learned the word from crosswords; before seeing the word in a crossword, never knew what it was exactly that went rolling along in that song.
46A: Target of a rabbit punch (nape) - I wrote in SIDE; thought it was a kidney punch.
56A: Red-bellied trout (char) - ... nope, don't know it.
4D: Neighbor of Monterey Park, briefly (East L.A.) - never fails to evoke the Cheech Marin song "Born in EAST L.A." (sung to the tune of Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."
8D: The sacred bull Apis was his embodiment (Osiris) - didn't know it, but his is an easy name to piece together from crosses.
11D: Botanist's angle (axil) - does a rose have an AXIL, 'cause that would make me happy.
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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