OFF-ROAD VEHICLE [22A: "For our ad, how should we list the car that we found in the ditch?"]
NEW SHOCKS [39A: "... and how do we add that it was just struck by lightning?"]
LOW EMISSIONS [44A: "... and that the tailpipe is dragging on the ground?"]
BUCKET SEATS [67A: "... and what about the leaky roof?"]
KEYLESS ENTRY [82A: "... and the broken door locks?"]
QUIET RIDE [91A: "... and the defective speaker system?"]
REAR-WHEEL DRIVE [110A: "... and finally, the missing front tires?"]
It's Rafa again covering the blog today -- you're not quite done with me yet. Will I be back tomorrow? Who knows? You'll just have to come back and check and either by happy or disappointed. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Sunday puzzles. It feels like high highs and low lows. Either they really work or they don't and it's a big slog to get through. I guess it makes sense since it's a regular crossword, but bigger. Unfortunately this one was mostly in slog territory for me. I promise I actually like crosswords ... just yesterday's and today's weren't really my cup of tea. Though I did enjoy this one more, so maybe things are getting better and next week will be all bangers no skips, as the kids say these days.
The original IMAC from 1998
Ok, so, there's a theme. This kind of theme really rides or dies on "was this funny to you" and it just wasn't really funny to me. There's really nothing much else to say here. There just wasn't the kind of whimsy and fun and joy that these kinds of themes can provide. But that is very individual, and I hope that many (most? all??) of you found this theme amusing. It probably doesn't help that I'm definitely not a Car Person. I could not have told you what "bucket seats" were an hour ago. Or "shocks" if I'm being totally honest. Oh, and fun fact: cars are actually one of the safest possible places to be during a lightning storm because they act like a Faraday cage and protect the people inside!
An EEL -- a crossword favorite
Nothing much to say about the grid. It's not flashy, but really clean. Totally does the job. We even get the driving-related bonus in SPEEDERS. Oh, look, I just noticed the TOLL-FREE and FREELOAD dupe. We are living in a post-dupe world, though, and I love it! Dupes are a state of mind. Rid yourselves of the tyranny of dupes and enjoy your crossword without worrying about whether some word appears twice. Everything will be okay!
Another thing: do you guys pronounce SARI and SORRY the same? I think non-US accents are unlikely to, but I polled some US-accent friends and even they seem somewhat split (though same has an edge right now).
Mr. Potato Head and his pink EARS
The puzzle also played a little hard for me. No region in specific was a bottleneck, but the whole thing just seemed to offer a tad more resistance than I'm used to. Not a bad thing at all, but I wonder whether it played similarly for others or whether I just wasn't on the wavelength here.
Anyways, that's it from me today. Maybe I'll see you all tomorrow!
Bullets:
REVERE 25A: Massachusetts city named for a colonial patriot — I'd never heard of Revere, MA!
SIDE TRIP 81D: Planned detour — Similarly, I have never heard the term "side trip" but it's very easy to infer.
RICHER 92D: Like cheesecake vis-à-vis sponge cake — This made me really crave dessert but I'm trying to cut down on sugar so I'm going to be good and resist but man some cheesecake would really hit hard right now.
AUDI 32D: Mercedes alternative — Look, another car-related entry in the puzzle.
Signed, Rafa
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THEME: SPELL IT OUT (60A: Painstakingly explain something ... or a hint to 17-, 26- and 45-Across) — familiar phrases where "IT" has been changed to "OUT," creating wacky phrases:
Theme answers:
POUTY PARTY (17A: Group of grumps sitting around kvetching?) (from "pity party")
CHAMPS AT THE BOUT (26A: Ali vs. Frazier, e.g.?) (from "champs [not chomps] at the bit")
SPOUT IN THE OCEAN (45A: Welcome sight on a whale-watching cruise?) (from "Spit in the Ocean")
Word of the Day: "Spit in the Ocean" (see 45A) —
: poker in which each player is dealt a hand of cards facedown and combines them with cards faceup on the table to make a poker hand
specifically: a game in which each player is dealt four cards, a fifth card is faced on the take, and the faced card and all others of the same rank are wild
• • •
Normally a big fan of Doug's puzzles, but this one didn't quite get over the hump for me. Is that even an expression? "Get over the hump"? It felt right in my head, but it looks wrong in the light of day. But back to the puzzle—the theme here isn't as funny as I'd want a Wacky Puzzle to be. Somehow I'd expect the "IT"-to-"OUT" answers to pack more punch, or to be much, much wackier. The winner today is CHAMPS AT THE BOUT, I think, though champs simply *being* at the bout doesn't make for the liveliest of images. The other two are shrugs. They fit the bill, they follow directions, but the resulting wackiness just isn't Big enough. All of the base phrases today feel a little old-fashioned. Part of this is because I haven't played (and haven't really heard the term) Spit in the Ocean since I was a teenager (in the OLDE days, when Cheers was still on the air). I also can't remember the last time I heard "pity party." "Champs at the bit" is current enough, I guess. Or maybe timeless—though it was probably a more resonant saying when the culture was more horse-oriented (both transportation-wise and sports spectatorship-wise). Horse-racing was the most popular thing in the sports pages besides boxing and baseball in the early part of the 20th century, and while all those sports have fallen in popularity in recent years, horse-racing has arguably fallen the most. This has nothing to do with the quality of CHAMPS AT THE BOUT as a theme answer. I'm just trying to figure out why the themers are giving off a mild yesteryear vibe. References to Cheers and Clueless and Get Smart also fix this puzzle's center of gravity firmly in the last century. It was a perfectly good century, so I'm not mad, but the puzzle just felt like it lacked a certain currency and vibrancy.
The fill wasn't helping brighten things up much. The grid is dominated by what are essentially nine sections of 3-4-5s—three across the top, center, and bottom. Hard to squeeze a lot of excitement out of so much short stuff, and today's short stuff tends to OOZE rather than sparkle, shine, or some other more energetic word. There's nothing really bad about it. It's just deadening in its familiarness. Another day, another UBOAT, another OBOE, another [choke, gag] SESH. Maybe the idea was to make the fill as simple as possible so that people wouldn't have such a hard time working out the wacky themers. On the whole, I wanted this one to try harder. Sometimes I do a themed puzzle and I think "whoa, whoa, easy, you're Trying Too Hard!" (TTH™). But this feels like not trying hard enough. Were these the best IT-to-OUT options available? Could the fill not have been brought closer to a boil? The puzzle is best in the longer non-theme answers, which is often the case. Today's are solid, but there are only four of them (TRUE-TO-LIFE SUBURBAN in the NE, CLUELESS APOLOGIZED in the SW). Six letters is what passes for a "longish" answer in this puzzle, but there are also only four of those. So this puzzle feels like a placeholder. It's puzzle-shaped, it ticks all the essential boxes for crossword puzzleness, but it's not giving me anything special. Again, it doesn't seem to be really trying.
Weirdly wanted UPDOS at 1A: Lock combinations? (COIFS), only to have it appear a few seconds later (in singular form) at 24D: Red carpet hairstyle, perhaps (UPDO). I would never have guessed that Yamaha made OBOEs if I hadn't had that "B" in place. With the "B" in place, it was pretty obvious. They make pianos (and probably other instruments), why not OBOEs? I don't think I got held up much anywhere today. I thought the [Centerpiece of "The Hobbit"] (QUEST) was the SHIRE, so that slowed me down a bit. I had HAM IT (bad) before HAM UP (better) (27D: Overplay for the audience). REPEL took me a while because I can't really imagine how [Throw off] works as a clue. I suppose if you literally throw someone off of you, you REPEL them (?), but "Throw off" usually suggests "mislead," or else you could "throw off" the (hopefully metaphorical) chains that bind you, but even then, REPEL isn't really the right synonym. The "Throw off" / REPEL equivalency eluded me today. I also had no idea that HYATT was "H" on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), so I just waited for crosses there. The only real challenge in the puzzle involved working out the themers, which is pretty typical for a Wednesday, now that I think about it.
Bullets:
15A: Turner of old movies (LANA) — not my favorite actress, but a fine one. She's in several movies I really love, namely The Postman Always Rings Twice (with John Garfield) (1946) and The Bad and the Beautiful (with Kirk Douglas) (1952). She's also in one of my favorite poems. From one of my favorite collections (Lunch Poems (1964)), this is Frank O'Hara's "Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed!)":
Lana Turner has collapsed! I was trotting along and suddenly it started raining and snowing and you said it was hailing but hailing hits you on the head hard so it was really snowing and raining and I was in such a hurry to meet you but the traffic was acting exactly like the sky and suddenly I see a headline lana turner has collapsed! there is no snow in Hollywood there is no rain in California I have been to lots of parties and acted perfectly disgraceful but I never actually collapsed
3D: What makes a stud become studious? (IOUS) — it also makes Ted tedious. I don't know why you'd turn a perfectly good (or at least recognizable) word (IOUS) into a mere string of letters. Cluing IOUS this way feels awful, but it is also probably more interesting than anything you were apt to get from the more conventional stock of IOU clues. There's something perverse about this clue that I half-admire. To its credit, unlike much of the puzzle, this clue actually does seem to be trying.
42D: Suffix with beat or neat (NIK) — look, you get one suffix per puzzle and this puzzle decided to blow it on IOUS, so NIK is even more unwelcome than usual today.
25D: Jost's longtime "Weekend Update" co-anchor (CHE) — I have not been an SNL watcher for a long time, so I'm not that familiar with the Jost/CHE incarnation of "Weekend Update," but I'm more familiar with Michael CHE today than I was yesterday at this time because yesterday I listened to the latest episode of comedian Mike Birbiglia's podcast "Working It Out," and CHE was the featured guest. It's a funny and illuminating interview, esp. if you are at all into comedy. I like Birbiglia's interviews with other comedians because while they're funny (as you'd expect/hope) they can be charmingly earnest and frequently really technical—like, in-the-weeds stuff about composing jokes and working on material etc. Lots of good stuff about the creative process. Anyway, this talk with CHE is cool.
26D: Food you might eat wearing a bib (CRABS) — the "food" is CRAB. The countable creatures are CRABS. Something about the plural here felt weird (given the clue). Personally, I'd rather see CRAGS / GULL than CRABS / BULL. CRAGS has the advantage of not being another name for pubic lice.
38D: 1990s comedy inspired by "Emma" (CLUELESS) — happy birthday to Jane Austen, who turned the big 2-5-0 just yesterday!
47D: Just about anything on a string (CAT TOY) — loved this clue, mostly because I had no idea what it could possibly be until I got enough crosses, and then I saw it and thought "oh yeah, that's true." But honestly, you don't need to put anything actually on the string. The one object in the house that my cat Alfie is most obsessed with is a simple piece of string (twine, really) that we keep in a kitchen drawer. He knows the sound of the drawer. If you even stand near the drawer for more than a few seconds, he comes trotting over. You can drag the string around and make him chase it, but you can also just put it down and he'll just happily drag it around the house. The whole CAT TOY industry is unnecessary. This goes for CAT BEDs as well. Ida sleeps happily in the cardboard container that her cat litter came in. Often there's a comfy blanket nearby, but nope, box wins.
Speaking of pets, it's time for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now. Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
This is Nimbus. What did I tell you about cats and boxes?!
[Thanks, Uday!]
Here are Caroline and Nina. Add a wreath and voilà, instant "holiday" spirit. I am told that Caroline and Nina are "torbies," which is (allegedly) a mash-up of "tortoise shell" and "tabby." One of these cats seems happy with this sleeping arrangement. The other seems ... unsure. She might be leaving soon. Or hatching a plot for blanket dominance, we'll never know.
[Thanks, Mac!]
Here are Juno (lab), Stella (sweater), and Laila (crazy eyes) doing their best Three Magi imitation. "O Come Let Us Adore Him*" (*dog treats)
[Thanks, Theresa!]
Giulia and Piper hear reindeer on the roof! (this is how I've chosen to make sense of this as a "Holiday" picture):
[Thanks, Marilee!]
Lastly, a pair of opposing pet personalities from Monica. First, there's the diffident GIULIA, who would prefer not to be part of whatever "Holiday" photo scheme you've got cooked up. You may take her picture from there, but do not come closer.
And then there's dopey Duke, who will do whatever you want, sure, antlers, whatever, just tell him he's a good boy!
[Thanks, Monica!]
That's it. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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THEME: "Talkin' 'Bout My Generation" — familiar phrases clued as if the first word were a slang term from a specific generation (the generation in question is indicated in parentheses at the end of each clue):
Theme answers:
RIGHT ON TIME (23A: "Great job selecting a Person of the Year!"? (Boomer))
CHILL IN THE AIR (32A: Relax on a plane? (Gen X))
GHOSTBUSTERS (48A: Abruptly end all communications with D.E.A. agents? (Millennial))
STAN LAUREL (68A: Recognition for an ardent fan? (Gen Z))
FLY BY NIGHT (71A: Awesome after dark? (Gen X))
SNACK COUNTER (87A: One assessing the number of hotties at a party? (Gen Z))
SHIPPING LANES (104A: Promoting a romantic connection between characters played by actors Nathan and Diane? (Millennial))
SPLIT SECOND (116A: Leave just after the first person? (Boomer))
Word of the Day: CHITON (95A: Ancient Greek tunic) —
A chiton (/ˈkaɪtɒn,-tən/; Ancient Greek: χιτών, romanized: khitṓn[kʰitɔ̌ːn]) is a form of tunic that fastens at the shoulder, worn by men and women of ancient Greece and Rome. There are two forms of chiton: the Doric and the later Ionic. According to Herodotus, popular legend was that Athenian women began to wear the chiton as opposed to the peplos after several women stabbed a messenger to death with the bronze pins characteristic of the peplos. [...] Herodotus states the dress of the women in Athens was changed from the Doric peplos to the Ionic chiton after the widows of the men killed on military expedition to Aegina stabbed and killed the sole survivor with their peplos pins, each demanding where their husband was. This lynching 'seemed a thing more terrible than the disaster'. Thereafter their chitons were held with buttons, often styled with the face of the Gorgon. (wikipedia)
• • •
This is cute, I guess. I just wish the theme had been ... tighter, somehow. I was expecting the slang to all mean the same thing (i.e. cool, rad, awesome ... you know, in the same vein), or to have something in common besides just being slang. But no. It's just punny clues for familiar phrases, where the first word of the phrase is reimagined as slang belonging to (or characteristic of) a particular generation. I use most of these terms pretty readily. Not FLY, SHIPPING, or SNACK, but the rest of them, no problem, no irony. Some slang just works and some just feels wrong in your mouth and is never gonna feel right. I really thought "Stan" predated Gen Z. The clue says "Gen Z" but ... Gen Z were barely born (or not born at all) when the song "Stan" was released (2000). The noun meaning of "stan" ("ardent fan") appears almost immediately thereafter—OED says it appeared in New Musical Express (NME) in 2000, so ... yeah, that's fast. The first example of "stan" as a verb (meaning "to be an ardent fan of") doesn't appear in print until 2008, but either way, it seems like that bit of slang belongs more naturally to Millennials than Gen Zers. This is all to say that some slang feels very much of a (particular) generation and some of it just takes off among the general population and kind of loses its generational stink. "Right on" does feel a little dated, I guess, but "split" feels like slang that's been around forever and will be around forever. Of course I'm Gen X so younger people might be reading that last sentence going "bruh ... no one says 'split' any more."
The puzzle was easy enough to move through, though I got oddly hung up at a patch of squares right around the DEBT part of OLD DEBT (24D: Collector's item?). I was like "well, collectors collect lots of 'old' things, so ... this clue isn't helping. The adjacent RUEFUL also was not at all easy for me to get (42D: Shamefaced); and adjacent to that, I had TV HOST before I had TV STAR. So there was this weird hole in my grid for a bit until I was able to drive GHOSTBUSTERS through there, which gave me the "B" in OLD DEBT, and then I was good. Other mistakes included "AYE AYE" before "AYE SIR" and ELSA before OLAF (damned "L"!) (45A: "Frozen" character who says "I like warm hugs") and AMBIGUOUS before AMBIGUITY (46D: The headline "Kids Make Nutritious Meals," e.g.). I hesitated at NOM v. NOD, which is an AMBIGUITY (!) that feels like it's becoming more common (43A: Candidacy for an entertainment award, informally). That is, I feel like we've had both NOM and NOD clued as award recognitions in recent months, if not weeks. Yeah, we had NODS clued as [Award nominations, so to speak] earlier this month, though I guess there's no real AMBIGUITY there, as "nominations" is in the clue, so the answer would be NOMS. Anyway, you can get an Oscar NOM(ination) and you can get an Oscar NOD and they both mean the same thing. Which is why I left the last letter in NO_ blank today and just relied on the cross. I'm still not really sure how TIPS works as the answer to 12D: Tax code issues, annnnnnnd I think I just got it as I was typing this sentence. The TIPS are the income that servers make—like, how / whether to tax TIPS is a tax code issue. Got it.
The only thing in the grid that I've flat-out never heard of is CHITON, and I probably have heard of it. I've heard of lots of things that I promptly forget. CHITON has probably been in the puzzle before. . . wow, OK, yes, it has, but not since 2003, which is before my blogging days, so I don't feel so bad now. I thought that CHITON might be related to the letter CHI, which made me think CHIS (89D: X's, to Aphrodite) might be some kind of etymological dupe, but no, doesn't look like CHITON has anything to do with the letter "X."
Bullets:
40D: Head honcho (TOP BANANA) — here's a funny thing I probably would never have noticed if not for solving crosswords: if you have just the last two letters in place for this answer ("-NA"), then there are not just two viable answers, but two viable answers that fit the (3, 6) pattern—today's correct answer (TOP BANANA) and also BIG KAHUNA, which OED tells me jumped from surfing slang (for a skilled surfer or a big wave) to general slang sometime in the mid-60s. The term seems to have been popularized, in part, by the Gidget film and TV series. TOP BANANA, on the other hand, is originally a theatrical term referring to "the leading comedian in a variety show or cabaret" (1947).
73A: Toy with "barista" and "dog trainer" versions (KEN DOLL) — I forgot how hard this answer was for me to get. "Toy" was never going to lead me to a doll or action figure. A "toy" that starts with "K"? ... I was at a loss. Because you're curious, here you go:
[Man Bun Ken!]
[Fanny Pack Ken!]
21A: Bob or Helen in "The Incredibles" (PARR) — old movies I could not remember the details of, Part 1. Part 2 was MIB (aka Men in Black) (54A: Sci-fi series with J, K and Zed)
79A: Difficulty, to Hamlet (RUB) — aye ... there it is. First instinct, weirdly: RUE (from Ophelia, "O you must wear your RUE with a difference"). And then RUEFUL ended up being in the puzzle. As I say, weird all around.
32D: Jazz trumpeter Baker who was sometimes called the "Prince of Cool" (CHET) — yes, let's listen to some of that.
72D: Breed of Smoky, the first known therapy dog, familiarly (YORKIE) — Nearly made Smoky my word of the day. Let's see what we can find out about Smoky... rescued from a foxhole in New Guinea during WWII, she went on missions all over the South Pacific, and eventually became kind of famous. Seems like she was a therapy dog by accident, but whatever, it's a nice story. Look at this baby!
That's all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Universal Pictures commissioned the film in the wake of Easy Rider's monumental success. Hellman, who had previously worked in low-budget and independent films, developed the screenplay with Wurlitzer, then-known mainly as an underground writer, during an actual cross-country road trip. Filming took place in locations around the Southwest between August and October 1970.
On initial release, the film received generally positive reviews, but was not a commercial success. Over the years, it developed the reputation of a sleeper hit and a cult classic, and has been reevaluated as a major work of the New Hollywood movement. In 2012, the US Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (wikipedia)
• • •
Despite the avalanche of trivia (eight (8!) names, and that's excluding brands, institutions, geography, etc.), I really enjoyed this one, for a few reasons. First, it was hard enough. That is, it was punching at a Saturday level. It took a good lot of fussing around before I got anything like a grip on this puzzle, which is how it should be. And which brings me to my second reason for liking the puzzle—the exact moment that I got a grip. Nothing quite so thrilling (crosswordly speaking) as finally breaking through on a tough puzzle, and when that breakthrough comes in the form of shooting, sparkling answers like BARBIE DREAM HOUSE followed immediately by SIBLING RIVALRY, well, that feels like fireworks. Magic. Seriously, it was like my grid erupted in light and color.
Third, I liked the grid's weird, skinny shape (14x16 rather than the traditional 15x15). And then fourth, and more personally, I just liked how Of-My-Generation this puzzle was. It felt like being a kid ... or someone under 30, anyway. That is, it felt RAD. Two of my favorite movies in the same clue! (one made in the '70s, the other set in the '70s) (27D: Vehicles seen in the films "Dazed and Confused" and "Two-Lane Blacktop"). Sports legends I learned about as a kid (PISTOL PETE Maravich, LEN Dawson). Young JODIE Foster! The "Muppet Show"! The puzzle was speaking my language. Not always (LOL Frozen and Fifty Shades—still never seen either). But mostly.
So many false starts today. SUET (!?) before GHEE (23A: Kitchen alternative to tallow). DIVA before AIDA (10D: "Ritorna vincitor" singer); EKG before ORG (37D: ___ chart); "BAH!" before "GAH!" (44A: "Ugh!"); "CAN WE!?" before "CAN'T I!?" (47D: "C'mon, please?"). I almost went with RICE before ROTI, but sensed that that was probably wrong (too easy) (19D: Side order with curry). As usual, the toughest part of the puzzle was getting started. Seemed like Germany was probably good at lots of Olympic sports, so BOBSLED took some time. Parsing "I HAVE TO," yeesh, tough for me (14A: Words before ask, admit or go). I see "Berkshire," I think Massachusetts, so even though I kinda sorta wanted ETON at 6D: Berkshire institution, I didn't trust it ("Berkshire" is a "ceremonial county" in England; the Berkshires are mountains in New England). And DONG ... I must've learned this currency before, but I keep forgetting it, possibly because my brain has already slotted DONG in a different meaning category. At least a couple different categories, actually, but one ("1.") in particular.
But after the BARBIE DREAM HOUSE / SIBLING RIVALRY explosion, the puzzle got a lot easier—though not so easy that it got boring. STOPPED ON A DIME was also a highlight, as was some of the mid-range fill (THREW ON, BOBSLED, AIR KISS, RANG OUT). And I only had to dip into my Bag Of Old Crosswordese once (for ORAN—the thing about the Bag is that it's full of ugly things that are also very helpful things) (50D: Port WSW of Algiers). Actually, SNERD is probably in the Bag as well, but I knew SNERD before I ever started doing crosswords, so I don't think of him that way (12D: Mortimer who once made a guest appearance on "The Muppet Show"). No one area of the grid really stood out as too tough or too rough, which means that the puzzle played toughish but also smoothish.
Bullets:
29A: Black-and-yellow demarcation (POLICE TAPE) — another good long answer. Kinda grim, but solid.
34A: Foster kid in "Taxi Driver"? (JODIE) — this was a gimme, despite the attempted misdirection. Needed a more obscure young-JF vehicle. Maybe Freaky Friday, or better yet, Bugsy Malone.
3D: Crib for a doll (BARBIE DREAM HOUSE) — "Crib" here is just slang for "residence," which you probably knew, but just in case ...
12D: Mortimer who once made a guest appearance on "The Muppet Show" (SNERD) — also just in case ... just in case it's not clear, Mortimer SNERD is a ventriloquist's dummy of mid-century renown.
33D: Name in the baking aisle (KARO) — I think this is ... what ... like a sweetener of some kind. A corn syrup, I think ... yup, that's it. I sometimes get it confused with KNORR, which is a brand of bouillon:
51D: Gram alternative (NANA) — nickname for "grandmother"; I almost wrote in NANO here (thinking "Gram" was a bygone MP3 player, maybe?)
If the puzzle had too many proper nouns for you, here are some more proper nouns you're sure to love: I'm going to see WAXAHATCHEE tonight, with M.J. LENDERMAN and (a recent and, to me, thrilling addition) HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF tonight at an orchard (!) in central NY. This is my Christmas gift from my wife. Then tomorrow we're off for our annual Great Lakes vacation with my best friends. I'll blog a couple of times over the next week, but it'll mostly be my tried-and-true guest writers for a while (starting tomorrow, w/ Rafa). See you (...checks calendar...) oh, Monday. That's not so long. Until then, or whenever next time is ...
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Oh no, due to miscommunication, Rafa did *today's* write-up. So now there are two write-ups of this puzzle LOL. So scroll down to enjoy Rafa's work (Or click here if you’re on your phone). And then also look for him tomorrow.
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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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