THEME: SILENT PARTNER (57A: Nonactive member of a firm ... or what G, H and W each have in 20-, 29- and 49-Across) — two-word phrases where both words have the same silent letter, therefore each letter is SILENT and has a PARTNER (twin) who is also silent:
Theme answers:
CAMPAIGN SIGNS (20A: Yard displays at election time)
GENGHIS KHAN (29A: Mongol Empire founder)
WRONG ANSWER (49A: "Nope, guess again")
Word of the Day: IDENTIKIT (32D: Aid in producing a suspect's picture) —
noun
trademark
noun: identikit; plural noun: identikits
a picture of a person, especially one sought by the police, reconstructed from typical facial features according to witnesses' descriptions. (google)
• • •
If you know people are going to have visceral, negative reactions to an answer, why do you put it in your grid? No one has ever put DOG MEAT in a NYT grid before ... and there's a reason for that. It is a divisive answer, as the clue itself points out (3D: Serving in Asia that's taboo in the West). This is a western paper, so even if we decide fine, different cultures, different ways, there's still going to be a repulsion factor here for many solvers, one that is totally and utterly avoidable if you're the constructor. It's incomprehensible to me that a constructor would think, "You know what this grid needs: DOG MEAT?" What value is added to the puzzle? You have to weigh the potential costs against the potential gains, and this is a totally undemanding corner to fill—why do you go here? Also, please note: I don't know about "taboo," but it's literally illegal to consume DOG MEAT in parts of *Asia* (specifically Taiwan). Also, there's something oddly stereotype-reinforcing about this clue ("Serving in Asia..."). Consumption of dog appears to be a. not that common in Asia as a whole, and b. declining. I recommend the DOG MEAT wikipedia page specifically for its matter-of-fact-references to the unregulated brutality of so much dog slaughter around the world. This answer is far too unappetizing a way to begin a puzzle. I barely noticed the rest of the grid. And next to DR. LAURA? Come on. Have mercy.
I think this theme is OK, and the fill (DOG MEAT aside) pretty weak overall. Most of the answers are dull or dated or kinda icky (HOS, SKEE, SNO, MAA).
THEME:two-word phrases where second word is found embedded in the first —
Theme answers:
WHOOPIE
GARBAGE
EARTH
MADE
PALE
SHOUT
AVERAGE
INSTANT
Word of the Day:EARTH ART(25A: Creative works utilizing the landscape) —
Land art, earthworks (coined by Robert Smithson), or Earth art is an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked. It is also an art form that is created in nature, using natural materials such as soil, rock (bed rock, boulders, stones), organic media (logs, branches, leaves), and water with introduced materials such as concrete, metal, asphalt, or mineral pigments. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation. Often earth moving equipment is involved. The works frequently exist in the open, located well away from civilization, left to change and erode under natural conditions. Many of the first works, created in the deserts of Nevada, New Mexico, Utah or Arizona were ephemeral in nature and now only exist as video recordings or photographic documents. They also pioneered a category of art called site-specific sculpture, designed for a particular outdoor location. (wikipedia)
• • •
Sure, OK. I don't know. It's a puzzle. The theme was easy to pick up and not that remarkable. Some of the themers are cool (SHOUT-OUT!), most are dull, and MADE MAD is just made-up; only slightly less made-up than MADE ADE would be. Fill is not terrible, but also not at all interesting. Even coming up with a Word of the Day proved challenging. So much blah. NE and SW corners, wide open and very isolated, provided some challenge, but the rest was a cake walk.
I gotta make this short, as I have a long, early day tomorrow. I made a series of mistakes in this puzzle, some of which make sense, some of which don't. Firstly, I came right down the middle of the grid, from RAPS through a bunch of crosswordese and down to 35D: Halloween costume. Having H-- and thinking "clothing," I wrote in HAT (in my mind, it was a witch's HAT), and then off that "T" at 46A: Magical creatures in Jewish folklore I fairly calmly wrote in TROLLS. So those were errors 1 and 2. Error 3 was imagining that 31A: Cleanerbrand (D----) was a drain cleaner and writing in DRANO. This error was compounded, badly, by two more errors (4 and 5) in that NE corner. Off the terminal "H" I wrote in SLOTH at 9D: One of the seven deadly sins (WRATH), and then "confirmed" it by writing in ALGERIA at 16A: French locale of fierce W.W. I fighting (ARGONNE). But themer up there was transparent, and so even with three errors (!) in one corner, I got out of there without too much struggle. Only other screw-up was spelling SPECTER Britishly (49D: Spirit). I think of a CARAVAN as something that goes across the desert, not on vacation, so that was puzzling (42D: Vacation vehicle), but the rest was Tuesday-easy.
Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (*for a Monday*—largely because of the preponderance of proper nouns, particularly the themers)
THEME:BIG PICTURE (58A: Long view ... or what the answer to each starred clue is?) — movie titles whose first words mean, roughly, "big":
Theme answers:
GRAND HOTEL (17A: *1932 Greta Garbo classic)
GREAT ESCAPE (11D: *1963 Steve McQueen epic, with "The")
SUPER-SIZE ME (24D: *2004 documentary about fast food)
TITANIC (37A: *Winner of 11 1997 Oscars)
GIANT (28D: *1956 James Dean western)
Word of the Day:LEN Berman(43A: Sportscaster Berman) —
Leonard "Len" Berman (born June 14, 1947) is an American television sportscaster and journalist who is based in New York City. He is currently hosting the morning show on WOR-AM with Todd Schnitt. // Berman is widely known for his career with NBC, specifically his work for the network's flagship station WNBC-TV. Berman spent twenty-seven years as the lead sports anchor for WNBC and also worked for NBC Sports covering Major League Baseball and the National Football League. He was employed by WNBC until 2009, and prior to that worked for WCBS-TV in New York from April of 1979 through August of 1982 and WBZ-TV in Boston. (wikipedia)
• • •
This felt easy, but I was a good 20 seconds over my average time for a Monday (statistically significant, at the speeds I travel). I think part of the issue was the trivia nature of the theme clues, which means you know it or you don't, and you have to go fishing with crosses. Titles / names are thornier than straight vocab if you aren't familiar with them, and the clues today were not that explicit. You get a year and and then one other details (star, number of Oscars). They are all well-known movies, but in early-week puzzles, tons of proper nouns tend to have a slowing effect. Which is weird, because in late-week puzzles, often, for me, they have a propelling effect. They are often the thing I get quickly when all the other words / phrases are clued hard. I handled today's movies OK, but totally forgot about "GIANT" and and with the "N" in place wrote in "SHANE" (despite knowing very well James Dean wasn't in that—it was Alan Ladd). Took me a while to pick up DISNEY, too—another film-related proper noun (20A: It acquired Lucasfilm in 2012). None of this was truly difficult; it just provided a mild headwind that affected my final time. But my own mistakes did that too. I had LE VOILA! instead of ET VOILA! My version literally means "there it is." I don't think the clue is good at all, in the sense that VOILA all on its own means "There you have it!" That ET is crucial (it means "And"). Clue should've been ["And there you have it!"].
I also flat-out misspelled / wrong-spelled HOARD (21A: Squirrel away). Went with HORDE. That hurt. Then there was LOPES, which I just couldn't see (49A: Easy runs), mainly because I had no idea how "runs" was being used. [Easy running paces] or [Easy paces] or even [Runs at an easy pace] I would've gotten a lot, well, easier. BOLSTER hard to see from just [Strengthen], and CALL A CAB not at all clear (to me) from 39D: Eschew Uber, say. My first inclination was to find some version of the answer "walk." Lastly, STOP BY was not intuitive to me at all (48D: Visit). I had STOP AT and stumbled around there fixing it. I thought the grid was quite clean overall. The theme was decent—seems like it could be infinite (lots of movies must begin with some synonym of "big"), but when you take movies starting in "(THE) BIG" off the table (as you have to here, because "BIG" is in the revealer), the number of usable movies shrinks considerably (usable means it fits the basic criteria of the theme *and* is Monday-familiar). Totally acceptable Monday fare.
THEME:ABC (64A: One way of
ordering things,
like all the
consonants in
rows three, six
and nine) - the consonants in these rows are indeed ALPHABETIZED Theme answers:
BOCA (17A) - DEFOG(18A) - HOJO(19A)
KOALA (28A) - MEN (30A) - PIQUE (31A)
ORS (44A) - TOV (45A) - WAX (47A) - YAZ (48A)
Word of the Day:SALTON Sea(51D: California's_______Sea)
We went to the Salton Sea in 2013 and there were many, many dead fish. Photo by Russell Bates
The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake
located directly on the San Andreas Fault, predominantly in California's Imperial and Coachella valleys.
The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink
in the Colorado Desert of Imperial and Riverside
counties in Southern California. Its surface
is 234.0 ft (71.3 m)[1] below sea level. The deepest point of the sea is 5 ft
(1.5 m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the
New, Whitewater, and Alamorivers, as well as agricultural runoff, drainage
systems, and creeks.(wikipedia)
• • •
Hi there Rexual Beings. I'm Amy and I'm filling in for Rex today. This was a last-minute arrangement and I just got back from a wine tasting, so please forgive me if I'm a little sloshy. I'm not sure I would have accepted this assignment on a similarly wine-fueled Thursday night.
This was a slightly more challenging and significantly more rewarding Tuesday puzzle than I've seen in some time. There's almost no crappy fill and some sections are truly delightful. While I didn't need to spot the theme in order to solve the puzzle, I found it very clever that constructors Don Gagliardo and Zhouqin Burnikel managed to arrange three solid lines of answers that cumulatively contain every English consonant in alphabetical order.
That said, as an alumna of the San Diego Zoo summer curriculum, I must take issue with the myth-perpetuation that a KOALA (26A) is a bear. A KOALA is a marsupial, and a slow, stupid (though adorable) one at that. As an aside, here in Los Angeles, the citizenry is bitterly divided on the recent Koala v. Mountain Lion controversy.
I wish ODIE (14A: "Garfield Drooler), AMIE (36A: French female friend) and MOIRE(57D: Wavy-patterned fabric) would take a break from crosswords. Maybe a forever break. I also hate ELIZ (35D: Part of QE2: Abbr) - who says "Eliz"? Nobody, that's who.
Brand names show up more than usual with SKOR (13D: Hershey toffee bar), TARGET (40A: Walmart competitor), DASANI (42A: Fiji competitor),PELLA (53D: Big name in windows), PIK (62A: Commercial ending with Water) and HARDEES (69A: Sister fast-food chain of Carl's Jr.).
I approve of ON A DIET(20A: Losing some love handles) and HOME GAMES (49A: They're never away), neither of which I've seen before in that context.
Signed, Amy Seidenwurm, Undersecretary of CrossWorld
THEME:"Binary Code" — all theme clues are double letter (e.g. [FF]); answer are common phrases which, when interpreted in a certain literal fashion, can refer to said double letters:
Theme answers:
SHOPPING CENTER (23A: PP) [because "PP" is the "center" of the word "shopping"]
DEAD ENDS (36A: DD) [because "D" is on either "end" of "dead"] [etc.]
NCAA FINALS (46A: AA)
WINDOW FRAME (64A: WW)
ONION RINGS (82A: OO)
JAZZ DUET (95A: ZZ)
MINNESOTA TWINS (110A: NN)
MARRIED COUPLE (15D: RR)
LEADOFF DOUBLE (52D: FF)
Word of the Day: SANGRITA (9D: Spicy fruit beverage often used as a tequila chaser) —
Sangrita (meaning "little blood"), whose origin dates back to the 1920s, is a customary partner to a shot of straight tequilablanco; a non-alcoholic accompaniment that highlights tequila's crisp acidity and cleanses the palate between each peppery sip. The basic conception of sangrita is to complement the flavor of 100% agave tequila, which is also peppery and citrusy in taste. Before increased worldwide popularity and corporate interest in tequila in the late 1990s and early 21st century, few outside of the Mexican Pacific region bordering the state of Jalisco, where tequila was mainly produced and consumed, knew of the existence of sangrita, and much less its recipe. As popularity grew, so did commercial efforts to recreate the mysterious red, spicy drink that was served with tequila. In fact the drink was not that mysterious. While most outsiders would reference its red make up as tomato juice and spices, locals and traditionalists agree that the one ingredient that most likely doesn't belong is tomato. (wikipedia)
• • •
Not a strong Sunday. This isn't a theme so much as a regular NYT cluing convention masquerading as a theme. That is, we regularly see, for instance, CEES clued as [Comedic duo?], [Psychic couple?], and the like. So today, we get that same, common cluing gimmick, but now ... it's a theme. Except the clever clues are ... answers. It's fine as an idle diversion, but it's not much as a core concept for the NYT's marquee puzzle goes. The concept not only isn't original—it recycles like crazy. Clues that have appeared in other puzzles: [Dead ends?] for DEES; [Minnesota Twins?] for ENS; [Jazz duet] for ZEES. The constructors even recycle their own work—they used [Shopping center?] to clue PEES in a puzzle they made for the LA Times in 2012. I guess the idea of making the "?" clues into answers is its own kind of novelty, but it's not much of one. There is nothing *bad* about this puzzle. It does what it does, consistently. And the grid is a little on the staid / old-fashioned side, but it's fine. The problem is that the puzzle does nothing but rehash the familiar; it's just too unimaginative for a NYT Sunday puzzle. Also too easy, but that's not nearly as big a problem.
There was a "Little Rascals" boy named FARINA? Like ... the cereal? Cream-of-Wheat? That is news to me. I know Buckwheat and Spanky and Alfalfa and Darla and Petey and ... maybe some others, but not FARINA. Dennis FARINA, yes. This FARINA, no. Also didn't know SANGRITA. So I learned two things, only one of which I am likely to remember (I drink more than I think about "Little Rascals"). AGELONG is a weird word I wouldn't ever use. I had AGELESS there. I should probably asterisk this puzzle's difficulty level, since I was tipped off by some eager numbskull on Twitter who decided he needed to tell Susan ORLEAN she was in the puzzle before the puzzle ever came out online (49D: Susan who wrote "The Orchid Thief"). I have a whole "crossword" stream open on Twitter, so I saw the tweet, and I don't think she'd've been a flat-out gimme for me, so ... maybe add ten seconds or so to my time (still "Easy"). I tried LYCRA before LISLE at 57D: Durable stocking fabric. Otherwise, no problems at all.
THEME: "As It Were" —words that can also be past tense forms of verbs, or IN THE PAST (124A: Back then ... or a hint to the ends of the answers to the starred clues)
Theme answers:
MINK STOLE (22A*Pricey wrap)
SEATTLE SLEW (23A: *Triple Crown winner who himself sired a Kentucky Derby winner)
POWER SAW (51A: *Carpenter's tool with a cord) ["with a cord"—how odd/awkward/random]
MARK FELT (94A: *Deep Throat's identity)
BREAK GROUND (122A: *Start a construction project)
NEW YORK MET (36D: *Tom Seaver, e.g.)
TOKYO ROSE (83D: *W.W. II propagandist)
KIDDIE LIT (45D: *Dr. Seuss' genre)
LITTLE BIT (13D: *Smidgen)
DOGLEG LEFT (48D: *Challenge for a right-handed golfer)
Word of the Day: MARK FELT (94A: *Deep Throat's identity) —
William Mark Felt, Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)special agent who retired as the Bureau's Deputy Director in 1973. After keeping secret for 30 years his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Felt admitted to being the Watergate scandal's whistleblower, "Deep Throat," on May 31, 2005. // Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, D.C. During the early investigation of the Watergate scandal (1972–1974), and shortly after the death of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on May 2, 1972, Felt was the Bureau's Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the FBI. While serving as Associate Director, Felt provided the Washington Post with critical information that eventually led to the resignation of PresidentRichard M. Nixon in 1974. In 1980, Felt was convicted of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground Organization, by ordering FBI agents to search their homes as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal. In 2006, he published an update of his 1979 autobiography, The FBI Pyramid. His last book, written with John O'Connor, is titled A G-Man's Life. On June 14, 2012, the FBI released Felt's personnel file at the agency, covering the period from 1941 to 1978. It also released files pertaining to an extortion threat made against Felt in 1956. (wikipedia)
• • •
Quaint. That's probably the best word I have to describe this. It's the kind of theme that you don't notice at all until the revealer. Or maybe you paid more attention as you were solving, I don't know. I got to the end and was like "Oh ... yes. I see." It's the kind of theme that could've run decades ago, and with the exception of APPLEPAY (66D: Google Wallet alternative), virtually every other thing about the puzzle would've been at home then too. The fill simply isn't polished to modern standards. It's competently arranged according to archaic standards, so you end up with more of the stuff that you used to expect to see all the time (your odd phrase parts and grid-friendly poem titles and foreign names and places and whatever you want to call that ASES/STRS thing down in the SE corner). People sometimes wonder why I criticize grids like this, when That's The Way It Always Been (and certainly was, largely, the way things were in the good old Maleskan / Weng days) (actually, to be fair, things were much worse then, crosswordese and arcana-wise). I mean, HAROLD is a British P.M. from 50 years ago? Jacques BREL and Mario LANZA are hanging around together? Tom Seaver is a NEW YORK MET? And so much of the fill is wince-y and throwback-y and just the kind of off-putting stuff that gives crosswords their stuffy rep. I just tweeted this: "Side-eye list for Sunday: 1A, 60A, 65A, 39D, 60A (x2, ugh), 49D (?), 113D, 115D, 120D, 121D, 99D (??), 105A, 84D, 110D, 77D, 15D. Minimally." It's possible to do so much better these days, not just in terms of fill, but in terms of cluing—thoughtful, funny, relevant: these types of clues are all possible. They are only occasionally on display here. Mostly the clues are grimly straightforward. Short and grimly straightforward.
[I've had this song in my head since writing in MARK FELT ... it makes little sense, I'll admit]
Here's what I like: I always admire dense themes and (especially) intersecting theme answers, and this puzzle has both. I also respect (though I don't always love) ambitious attempts to Make Things Work, and the whole DOG LEG LEFT / MARK FELT business radiates a kind of loopy creative confidence that I find charming. I kind of know what a DOG LEG LEFT is, and had no idea who this FELT guy was. But it was all gettable and even though under normal circumstances neither of those feels like the solidest of answers, they work here, and that is enough. Otherwise, though, this was a slog, though much easier than the word "slog" implies.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. honestly why is SERENADER / STRS not SERENADED / STDS??! Both answers are improved with the change to "D." This may seem tiny, and it is tiny, but it is indicative of bigger things. (Shout-out to the constructing maestro who pointed out this little issue)
THEME: "Double Down" — in Acrosses, two consecutive letters are rebused into one box; Downs that cross those rebused boxes have to be read twice to make sense—first with the first Across letter in place, and then with the second, e.g. "Y" and "L" are in the final box of 5D: One way to complete an online purchase because the answer is PAY PAL (i.e. first word takes the Y, second word takes the L)
Theme answers:
DIRTYLINEN / PAYPAL
HEARTWARMING / NOT NOW
GOODNATURED / MAD MAN
FINALNOTICE / KAL KAN
LAUNCHPARTY / HOT POT
EVENINGSTAR / GET SET
STATIONWAGON / NITWIT
PAPERTRAIL / RAGTAG
Word of the Day: TANTARA (93D: Bit of fanfare) —
n.
1.
a. A trumpet or hornfanfare.
b. A soundresemblingsuch a fanfare.
2. A huntingcry. (thefreedictionary.com)
• • •
Harder than usual, but not more pleasurable than usual. Actually, about as pleasurable as usual—it's just that "usual" these days is not what it once was, sadly. At least I had to fight this one a little. Cluing was tough all over, and I found myself stuck, at least briefly, much more often than normal. Very tough to me to get my head around the theme at first because there is an "L" right above the "INEN" in DIRT[YL]INEN, and I thought somehow that "L" came "Down" … and was also somehow supplying the "L" from PAY PAL (!?). Seriously, the "L" in EATS ALONE threw me quite badly for a decent amount of time. I was mystified. Wasn't til much later (maybe KAL KAN) that I "got" it. I had MAD at 46D: Lunatic and that seemed just fine to me. Never occurred to me it was MAD MAN. Actually, now that I think on it, it must've been HOT POT / LAUNC[HP]ARTY that got me on the right track. This brings me to the one thematic element that I like, or at least admire—all of the "double" squares happen precisely at the break between two words in a two-word phrase (or compound word). This is what I mean when I applaud "consistency"—not doing things in predictable ways that have been done before, but in setting the bar high / making the requirements stringent, and still pulling it off. Makes the puzzle more elegant and professional. Shows craft.
Still, I didn't exactly enjoy this. I've seen the basic conceit before (though perhaps it's applied slightly differently here), and solving ended up being more slog than revelation. I know I'm repeating myself here, but the fill remains substandard in too many places. The whole TITI BAABAA TANTARA ASWE ESSA section—everything in and around ESSA, actually—is really hard to look at directly. To say nothing of your EGERs and ITORs and EAPOEs (yipes) and et cetera. Wish more craft had been put into the non-theme stuff. But why should constructors care about that if the editor doesn't? I mean that. RESEED RESAND recycle. Longer stuff is pretty nice, but longer stuff often is. Weirdest moment in the solve was somehow remembering QOM and using that "Q" to get the QUOTA in IMPORT QUOTA (that answer was gonna be IMPORT [blank] forever…). Only I spelled it QOM, because … that is an acceptable spelling of that place (it's how it's spelled in wikipedia). Thankfully, RONNING A TAB is manifestly not a thing.
My friend Patrick Blindauer just informed me that the WSJ has a cryptic crossword this week! By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon! And it's supposed to be Great. So I'm gonna go do that now. If you'd like to do the same, Here You Go (.pdf).
Gonna go watch some more NBAERs play now even though no one calls them that. Go Warriors.
THEME: POLLINATION (62: Job done by the insects seen above the circled words in 17-, 26- and 50-Across) — grid features three flowers (IRIS, ASTER, ROSE) and a "BEE" atop each one:
Theme answers:
IRISH COFFEE (17A: Drink made with Jameson, maybe)
Pogo combined both sophisticated wit and slapstickphysical comedy in a heady mix ofallegory, Irish poetry, literary whimsy, puns and wordplay, lushly detailed artwork and broadburlesque humor. The same series of strips can be enjoyed on different levels by both young children and savvy adults. The strip earned Kelly a Reuben Award in 1951. (wikipedia)
• • •
Good morning. Late post today (7:15 am-ish). Poor night's sleep on Monday + full day teaching Tuesday + long walk in the woods with the dogs + first night of Binghamton Restaurant Week last night (which involved a Little alcohol) = me walking in the door last night and almost instantly falling asleep for ten hours. These things happen. The puzzle was cute. I didn't notice the theme at all until I'd finished, and then I had a nice little moment of "oh, look at that: BEEs." You usually see "hidden" (in this case "circled") words straddling the two words of a theme answer, but they're pushed off to one edge here for a reason—in order to more easily accommodate the BEEs. So that seems fine. Grid isn't crowded with theme answers, so the fill has a little room to breathe and as a result is not terrible. If I could send one answer back, it would probably be REDOSE. Maybe ROLEO or EDA, neither of whom I have ever seen outside a grid. But like I say, the rest seems pretty solid, particularly the long Downs. SWEET TALK wins Best Answer (11D: Cajole).
SWEET TALK was also the hardest thing for me to see. I did most of this puzzle at a Monday pace, but that NE corner held me up a bit because I couldn't see either of those long Downs for a bit. Had AMS (?) for 16A: Like early morning hours (WEE) (pro tip: when the clue clearly calls for an adjective, try an adjective). Never heard of Fort Donelson National Battlefield, so TENNESSEE had to come from crosses. Forgot there was a PETER Farrelly. And worst of all, had Mountain DEW *and* had never (ever) heard of "mountain ASH." I assume it's a … tree? Yes! "Mountain ash is a name used for several trees, none of immediate relation" (wikipedia). Useful! So there was a little struggle up there. The rest of the puzzle put up no resistance, except Miss ELLIE (51D: "Dallas" matriarch). She was a little ornery. Got her confused with a cow there for a bit (ELSIE).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Read more...
THEME: WOODROW (37A: First nam of a former president … or, read another way, what each of the circled lines is) — four "circled lines," each of which contains three words that can follow "Wood" in a common phrase/word:
CHIP STOCK PILE
CARVER WORK BIN
MAN WIND CUTTER
LAND CRAFT SHED
Word of the Day: Arthur RUBINSTEIN (28D: Polish-born musician who was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom) —
Arthur Rubinstein, KBE (January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982) was a Polish-American classical pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers and many regard him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time. He was described by The New York Times as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. He played in public for eight decades. (wikipedia)
• • •
This makes for an interesting visual gimmick, but not for an interesting solve. None of the theme answers are interesting. They're just plain words. So the grid has nothing going for it, from a solving perspective. Once you get WOODROW, then you know that the circled words follow "Wood," and then the end. "I DON'T BUY IT!" is a fine phrase—and the latter half of it was one of the few areas where I had to work to get the answer—but the grid is pretty dull otherwise.
Not much else to say. Blew through this in under 5. Main issue was remembering who the hell RUBINSTEIN was. The fact of someone's winning a Presidential Medal of Freedom is largely meaningless, from a solver's standpoint. It's not as if people keep track of such winners. It's a damn long list. Do you know who Russell Train was? Me either. He won one. Not diminishing him—seems like he did really important work. Just saying that winning this medal is not a significant datum from a solving perspective. [D.C.-born dancer who was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom] = CHITA RIVERA. See what I mean. Anyway, I completely forgot there was such a person as RUBINSTEIN, and so with RUBIN in place, I tried to stick RUBÉN BLADES in there. Yes, that really happened. Yes, BLADES is from Panama, his name's spelled RUBÉN (not RUBIN), *and* his name doesn't fit in the grid. And yet...
The end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Read more...
THEME: TRADEMARKS (62A: Intellectual property protection … or what the starts of 17-, 21-, 39- and 57-Across once were) — just what it says
Theme answers:
17A: Hiker's snack (GRANOLA BAR) — these are such a popular, everyday food that I hardly think of them as having any association with hikers. Gorp is super hikery. Kids have GRANOLA BARs in their lunch boxes.
21A: What's being discussed in the National Enquirer or Globe (TABLOID BUZZ) —ugh (see below)
39A: Provision in many a construction contract (ESCALATOR CLAUSE) — no idea what this is. Sounds vaguely familiar. Very vaguely.
57A: Poor weight-loss practice (YO-YO DIETING) — far and away the best answer in this grid.
Word of the Day: LANDSAT (18D: Imager of the earth's surface) —
The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat. The most recent, Landsat 8, was launched on February 11, 2013. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the United States and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography,geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance and education. Landsat 7 data has eight spectral bands withspatial resolutions ranging from 15 to 60 meters; the temporal resolution is 16 days. (wikipedia)
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I feel sorry for this puzzle. A little sorry, anyway. It looks much worse than it probably is by contrast with yesterday's wonderful effort. The theme here is painfully straightforward. I don't care at all that the first words of these phrase used to be TRADEMARKS. That is a fact, not a revealer. There's no playfulness, no real revelation. Nothing. Also, there's not consistency. Usually with this type of theme, you use the theme words in non-theme contexts—see for example YO-YO DIETING and ESCALATOR CLAUSE, where the initial words don't refer to the same thing referred to by the revealer (i.e. words are used metaphorically in the theme answers). But with the other two theme answers, those initial words are simply literal. GRANOLA BARs are made from granola. No metaphor. No change of context. Just … granola. So, the theme is a snore, and an inconsistent one at that. Further, TABLOID BUZZ is decidedly not a thing. Not a phrase. It googles so terribly that I can't believe it passed editorial scrutiny. Put it in quotation marks and google it. 9,000. That is a godawful number. By contrast, RESTAURANT BUZZ yields over 25,000 hits, and that is *definitely* not a coherent, self-standing phrase. TABLOID FARE gets you 16,300. Also terrible, but as you can see, less terrible (viability-wise) than BUZZ. Your Zs are worthless when they are forced like this.
Never heard of LANDSAT. Middle of puzzle was thus way more difficulty for me than any patch of puzzle normally is on a Tuesday. ECOTONE! Ugh (37D: Transitional zone between plant communities). Sorry, but that's just long crosswordese. Never encountered it outside a grid. Half as many long Downs today, and they are less than half as good. Crosswordese is more plentiful and more grating. Multiple CIAOS? A few people complained about yesterday's INKS, which is a stupid complaint if you know anything about comics or tattoos. Also, if INKS is a bad plural (and it isn't), then what about CIAOS? Are we just going to accept CIAOS? Are we just going to accept ASSNS ATEIN ATA ADREP *all in the same corner*? Looks like Kevin's puzzle yesterday was less a new trend and more an exception that proves the rule—the quality of the product here is slowly diminishing.
The fact that it is my birthday makes this puzzle especially disappointing. Oh well, at least There Will Be Cake.
See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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THEME: DOUBLEDAY (58A: Supposed inventor of baseball ... or a hint to 17-, 26-, 36- and 50-Across) — two-word phrases, where both words in the phrase can precede DAY in familiar phrases:
Theme answers:
17A: Research that may be outdoors (FIELD WORK)
26A: Variable spring period (HOLY WEEK)
36A: What employers tap to get employees (LABOR MARKET)
50A: Fortunate sort (LUCKY DOG)
Word of the Day: ARNEL (16A: Synthetic fiber) —
Arnel is the trademark name of a synthetic fiber developed in the 1950s. It was popular at first, but production was discontinued by the manufacturer in 1986 due to concerns about the toxicity of a chemical used to manufacture the fiber.
This is a fine expression of this type of theme. I don't enjoy this type of theme—it generally yields only a mild "aha" at best, and then only after I'm finished—but it is a theme-type that exists in the world, and as such, deserves some consideration, probably. I don't know. I do like the revealer—why not do something with DOUBLEDAY's name? It's a name that's crying out to be wordplayed in some way. So we get this. Which, as I say, is fine. Fill, with only a few exceptions, is pretty tight. I have a huge aversion to ARNEL. So big is my aversion that I never remember it. Perhaps because I never knew it in the first place, so it never sticks. That bit in the definition (see "Word of the Day," above) about "trademark name" and "discontinued by the manufacturer in 1986" explains my non-knowledge of that word and also reinforces my feeling that it's bad fill. I had the "R" and wrote in ORLON 'cause, you know, that's a thing. That still exists. Now, I don't Like like it, mind you. It just beats ARLEN (most things do).
There must be a million other DAYs out there—I suddenly want to see a parody version of this puzzle that has answers like DRE BANNER and WASHING OFF —nope, that one works too well ... let's go with RAINY FLAG instead. Didn't have too much trouble with this one. ARNEL was a big slow-down. I also had RAHS instead of YAYS (I don't like either, but somehow I like RAHS more, lord knows why). I had some trouble with the theme answer—that is, I needed a bunch of crosses to pick 'em up.
The best thing about this DOUBLE puzzle is PATTY DUKE (9D: Helen Keller's portrayer in "The Miracle Worker"). Here's why:
ABS SYSTEM (33D: Auto safety feature, redundantly) also offers a doubling of sorts. This puzzle may be cleverer than I thought.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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THEME: "SKYFALL" (26D: 2012 Bond film ... or a hint to six other Down answers in this puzzle) — letter string "SKY" appears in six other Down answers
Word of the Day: Darren ARONOFSKY (11D: "Black Swan" director Darren) —
Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an Americanfilm director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking. He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, which went on to become a National Student Academy Award finalist. Aronofsky has received acclaim for his often surreal, disturbing films and has been noted for frequent collaborations with cinematographerMatthew Libatique andcomposerClint Mansell. His films have generated controversy and are well known for their often violent, bleak subject matter. [...] His fourth film, The Wrestler, was released to critical acclaim and both of the film's stars, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, received Academy Award nominations. In 2010 Aronofsky was anexecutive producer on The Fighter and his fifth feature film, Black Swan, received further critical acclaim and many accolades, being nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Pictureand Best Director. Aronofsky received nominations for Best Director at the Golden Globes, and a DGA nomination. Filming on Aronofsky's sixth film, Noah, began in Iceland in July 2012. (wikipedia)
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Very mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, there are some great entries here, like ARONOFSKY and BUTTINSKY; on the other hand, the theme is just "answers with SKY in them," which feels exceedingly weak for a theme. The fact that they "fall" is not interesting at all. In crosswords, we call those answers Downs; and, as always, they make up half the damn grid. Nothing exceptional about an answer's "falling" Down. Further, there's lots of ugly short stuff (LARY, ANAS, ECT, etc.). Further further, I'm distracted by the lone non-Bond "SKY" (the vodka). The others all sound like "SKI." And one last further: RISKY MOVE feels like cheating; it's just RISKY with another word added. If MUSKY and PESKY can stand alone, so can RISKY. MOVE is only there to make the symmetry work out.
Theme answers:
1D: Like some perfume (MUSKY)
5D: Spirit in a blue bottle (SKYY VODKA)
11D: "Black Swan" director Darren (ARONOFSKY)
34D: Busybody (BUTTINSKY)
36D: Investing all one's money in a penny stock, say (RISKY MOVE)
53D: Like a mosquito (PESKY)
Bullets:
14A: Walrus-skin boat (UMIAK) — hardcore crosswordese. A good word to know. I think I remember a prior clue that suggested the word mean, literally, "women's boat."
20A: Saxophonist with the 12x platinum album "Breathless" (KENNY G) — 12x!?!?! What is Wrong with people?
32A: Repeated Michael Jackson lyric in a 1987 hit ("I'M BAD") — so this is legal now? Random lyrics from hit songs?
33D: Nickname for Reggie Jackson (MR. OCTOBER) — I had dinner two tables away from him last month in Monterey. Honestly, he looked like any other older guy in the Monterey area at first glance. Totally inconspicuous. But up close, unmistakable.
55D: Green critter in the Sinclair gas logo (DINO) — does anyone actually call "dinosaurs" DINOs? And "critter?" I still maintain that nothing bigger than a human being can be considered a "critter."
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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