2000s stage name for rapper Sean Combs / TUE 9-10-19 / Canonized pope of fifth century / Carr best-selling author of historical thrillers

Constructor: Ethan Cooper

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:11)

THEME: BLT (56D: Sandwich whose initials have been rearranged in five other ways in this puzzle) — BUT WHY?

Theme answers:

• LOVED TO BITS (18A: Absolutely adored)
• THIN BLUE LINE (23A: The police, metaphorically)
• LOWER-BACK TATTOO (37A: Body art that might be revealed by hip-hugger jeans)
• THIS LOOKS BAD (49A: "Uh-oh")
• BORN TOO LATE (56A: Like a millennial who's a huge fan of 1960s-'70s music, it's said)

Word of the Day: CALEB Carr (4D: ___ Carr, best-selling author of historical thrillers) —

Caleb Carr (born August 2, 1955) is an American military historian and author. Carr is the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz.

He authored The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness, The Lessons of Terror, Killing Time, The Devil Soldier, The Italian Secretary, and The Legend of Broken. He has taught military history at Bard College, and worked extensively in film, television, and the theater. His military and political writings have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals, among them The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in upstate New York. (wikipedia)

• • •

This, indeed, looks bad. What even is this? There are six permutations into which one can but any three letters: 3! = 3x2x1 = 6. OK, so ... we're just gonna do this with BLT. For ... no reason. Why would you do that to a BLT? Further, with this theme as precedent, why wouldn't a constructor repeat this theme with *any* three-letter abbreviation!? Why not, let's say, CBS! Let's see... "Better Call Saul," soft-baked cookie ... ugh. Seriously what is this? Why would this theme concept "tickle" anyone? I don't mind the individual theme answers as answers. The past tense on LOVED TO BITS is weird, but the others are OK. It's just ... the theme is not one. And the fill is pretty bad. Ordinary-to-godawful. SUMTO? URI *and* SURI? ISO *and* EXO? TONTO *AND* KATO!?!?! The dreaded STLEO. This is just rufffff. That's rough and also [dog bark sound]. I flattened it (it probably should've swapped places with yesterday's puzzle), but I didn't enjoy flattening it. At least the clue on LOWER BACK TATTOO wasn't [Tramp stamp]. Small blessings.


Sorry, I'm still hung up on this "theme." You absolutely have to have a reason—some kind of hook, a clever revealer, something—to justify trotting out five variations on a three-letter combo. You need to be able to answer the question "Why Are We Doing This?" The revealer clue doesn't even pretend to try to convince us there's a reason. "Look, the sandwich's initials have been rearranged in five ways, they just have. That's just it for today. Deal." And what is up with the clue on BORN TOO LATE? That is a long-winded and awful clue. Awful. A. if you're a huge fan of 1960s-'70s music, you were born just at the right time because you can listen to it whenever you want because the internet exists. B. "it's said"??? What? "It" is not "said"—like, there's no adage about millennials liking the Eagles. Also, what kind of category is "1960s-'70s music"!?!?!? That is not a meaningful category. Yikes on virtually every level to this clue.

[warning: here be profanity]

Other minor struggles: Blanked on CALEB Carr's name at first pass. Thought 34A: Rocket-building company since 2002 was referring to *model* rockets, LOL. Had no idea re: UNISEX because I don't think we call gender neutral bathrooms that (anymore?) (21D: Available to all, as a bathroom). I wanted USEABLE in there. Had HOT for LIT (duh) (57D: Flaming). Anyway, not MAD, just disappointed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Fishhook attachment / TUE 9-2-14 / Female students condescendingly / Hobo's accessory / Snoop Dogg for one since 2012

Constructor: Ethan Cooper

Relative difficulty: Challenging (***for a Tuesday***)

THEME: COLLEGE EXPENSES (54A: What tuition and the starts of 17-, 22-, 37-(?) and 47-Across are):

Theme answers:

• TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE (17A: Perfect illustration)
• ROOM TO IMPROVE (22A: Unfulfilled potential)
• BEER NUT (37A: Pub tidbit)
• BOARD MEETINGS (47A: Gatherings in which C.E.O.'s are chosen)

Word of the Day: PLASM (5A: Blood component) —

'Plasma.' It just means 'plasma.' Apparently you don't gotta say that last 'a' at all. And here I've been saying it with the 'a' all these years, like some kind of time-wasting sucker...

• • •

Mixed but mostly positive feelings about this one. On the plus side, it's timely (university semester starts tomorrow for me, and likely many other tens of thousands of people), and the puzzle overall feels very fresh. Even something like "UM, NO"—it's like when I see a young person wearing something stupid, but wearing it with confidence and style, such that I have to admit I'd rather see said stupid piece of clothing than Yet Another Backward-Baseball-Capped generic-looking dead-eyed conveyer-belt rider wearing what everybody else is wearing. In this example, "UM, NO" is the stupid piece of clothing and, let's say, ULNA is the conformist clothing, and college is the conveyor belt. I just decided that "UM, NO" is a lime green boa. Anyway, this grid has a kind of style. It's up to date on what Snoop's been doing lately, but still finds time for OBOES, and it likes to keep tabs on both the recent Batman moves (NOLAN) and old-school film noir (HUSTON). Seriously, that NOLAN / HUSTON row is pretty cool.

On the down side, this puzzle thinks card tricks are MAGIC (!?) (48D: Card tricks, e.g.). Also, there's a 3x3 patch there in the SE that is almost entirely Ss and Es. The ELSE'S EOE ISMS cluster*uck is kind of gross. I'm grateful that MAXIM is clued as a word and not the idiotic lad mag, i.e. porn for people who are afraid to buy porn. Themewise, there are a few issues. ROOM and BOARD really should be in sequence. They don't travel well alone. Presumably one will buy more than one textbook. Also, since all the other first words of the theme answers are used in non-college contexts, you could've pulled your BOOK answer even further away from the whole college context by going with something like BOOKKEEPER or "BOOK 'EM, DANNO" or something. But that's not a very big deal. The big deal is the BEER NUT answer. This is the answer that divides me in half—the half that thinks "ha, cute, good one," and the half that thinks "ugh, yes, great, let's wink at how awesome it is to binge-drink and date rape and exacerbate depression and all the other unfortunately very real things that often happen when college kids meet beer." That latter half of me is the half that has a daughter going to college in four years. It's also the half that has to overhear dozens of dumbass conversations every week about getting wasted, having gotten wasted, and the prospects for what will become next week's Having Gotten Wasted.


Oh, also, one BEER NUT? Really? A single BEER NUT? When have you ever seen and or eaten just one BEER NUT? That's ridiculous. It's a brand. The brand is BEER NUTS. Also, baseball helmets have earholes, not EARFLAPs (41D: Batting helmet feature). The word "flap" implies a certain mobility, an ability to fold back or away. The word does not apply to baseball helmets. Or shouldn't. So thumbs up to youthful exuberance, thumbs down to the whole fratboy vibe with the BEER and the COEDS (64A: Female students, condescendingly) and the MAXIM (I've decided it's a lad mag after all, no matter the clue).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

Tsar's Bride composer / TUE 10-2-12 / Straight-bladed dagger / Louis Braille Louis Chevrolet / Taken into account in terms of container's weight / Home 1996 Emilio Estevez film / Operating system since 1969 / Cricket World Cup powerhouse / NASA launch of 1990

Constructor: Ethan Cooper

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: WHEEL COMPONENTs (48A: Beginning of 20-, 25- or 43-Across) — theme answers begin with parts of a wheel:

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (20A: "The Tsar's Bride" composer)
SPOKEN WORD ALBUM (25A: It has its own Grammy category)
HUBBLE TELESCOPE (43A: NASA Launch of 1990)

Word of the Day: Tortellini in BRODO (31D: Tortellini in ___ (Italian dish)) —

a soup consisting of small, stuffed pasta in a clear broth (wiktionary)

• • •

I have this theory about puzzles that have15s on either side of the center line—they should be closer (one line between them) rather than farther apart (three lines). Now, normally, with theme answers, I think, "well, if they're farther apart, that opens up the grid, gives you more room to work, etc." But when sequential theme answers are 15s, I don't think this is the case. Easier to get a bunch of 3s to work (well) than it is to get 5s to do same. Eastern portion of this grid is a very, very good example of what I'm talking about. That's an abomination. I've never seen BRODO in my life (this is possibly the most obscure Italian word I've ever seen in a grid, though apparently the dish itself is reasonably well known), and I barely believe UNRIP is a word (32D: Tear open). WAR AT isn't winning any awards either (28D: "The ___ Home," 1996 Emilio Estevez film). I saw this problem happen on a grid of mine—a quote puzzle that had two 15s, one after the other, on either side of the center of the grid, just like this one. When they were 3-spaced (like this one), I got the grid done, but it was kind of icky. Distractingly icky. Then, even though I was "done," I decided to build it all over again with a grid where those 15s were just 1-spaced. As my testers, and anyone with an eye who sees the puzzle, can tell you, the latter was infinitely superior. The grid ended up way, way more smooth, and solvers could then focus on the awesome quote and not be distracted by whatever gunk I had gunking up the grid in the first version.


WHEEL COMPONENT is among the worst revealers of all time. It's a nothing phrase. The puzzle's in a bit of a bind, though, with this theme, and it's hard to see another way out—that's because there really *aren't* any more plausible parts of a wheel. Are there? And if not, well, three theme answers just aren't enough these days. If there were a fourth wheel component, then you could've just had the revealer as "WHEEL," and tucked it down at the bottom of the grid. But, we've got what we've got, and there's at least a few things to like. I like all the theme answers as answers. You don't see 14s much, and RIMSKY-KORSAKOV's a good one (part of the toughness today was spelling that damn name correctly). Junkiness at center of the grid is offset by mostly nice work in the small sections up top and down below. Scrabbly without forcing the issue (e.g. no attempts to pick up a "Z" at the expense of overall grid smoothness). And I always appreciate when a constructor really takes advantage of the long Downs. Make your long non-theme answers *count*! HOT MIKES (4D: Feedback producers) and SUCKED UP (39D: Was obsequious, informally) count. Good stuff.


Bullets:

• 5A: Mountains out of molehills (TO-DOS) — this took me forever. I had every letter and still didn't really get it. "What's a TODO?" I figured it out, after the fact. 
• 34A: Taken into account in terms of a container's weight (TARED) — a not-great word, unsurprisingly located in that whole problematic Middle Zone. Good thing it was a gimme. I think about the word "tare" a lot—every time I'm at the supermarket, or anywhere stuff gets weighed in containers.
• 47A: Cricket World Cup powerhouse: Abbr. (PAK.) — As country abbrev. clues go, I really like this one.
• 62A: Operating system since 1969 (UNIX) — I had the "U," so no problem. 
• 1D: One who knows what it means to travel (REF) — great clue but holy-crap hard. I had to run the alphabet to get that "F," because 17A: It's impressive (FEAT) wasn't doing anything for me. I kept thinking of things that make impressions...
• 7D: Straight-bladed dagger (DIRK) — it's in the crosswordese arsenal right next to the SNEE.
• 45D: Louis Braille or Louis Chevrolet (EPONYM) — got this without ever seeing the clue, which is a good thing, 'cause again, this seems hardish for Tuesday. The double-Louis thing is a total fake-out. Nice but late-weekish clue.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

Heraldic band / THU 8-16-12 / Hipster Captiol worker after collapsing / Singer with 1986 #1 album Promise / Cyclades setting / Speaker of line Listen to them children of night

Constructor: Ethan Cooper

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Keyboard words — wacky phrases made out of words on keyboard keys; clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: CCC (1D: New Deal work program, for short) —

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 17–23. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide employment for young men in relief families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression while at the same time implementing a general natural resource conservation program in every state and territory. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000; in nine years 2.5 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a small wage of $30 a month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families). (wikipedia)

• • •

It took me an inexplicably long time to get the theme. Perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough. I just plowed through answers at various places in the grid, assuming crosses would make sense of things, but for the longest time, they just didn't. I had completely traversed the grid without any of the theme answers coming into view. Of course once I finally picked up the theme, the puzzle seemed easy. So I'm guessing that's how it will go for most people—somewhat variable as to when the theme gets picked up, but afterwards, easy. Beyond the theme itself, the hardest thing for me to pick up was BAG CLIP (41D: Twist-tie alternative). Not a phrase I've ever said, though I know exactly what is meant by the phrase. We have several in the house. I think we call them CHIP CLIPS. Maybe we call them "clips." Or maybe we even call them BAG CLIPs and I somehow haven't noticed. Anyway, I had BAG and nothing at all made sense to me as a follower. Also, the things I clip with a (so-called) BAG CLIP are not at All things I would twist tie. I twist tie the plastic bag the bread comes in, or the plastic bags I put my vegetables in at the store. I clip bags that are not amenable to being twist-tied. So BAG CLIP is not so much an alternative as it is a completely different (if parallel) closing mechanism.

You didn't expect so much attention to be devoted to BAG CLIP, did you? You probably thought "He'll probably say he's seen this before and isn't impressed" or "he's gonna hate ORLE" (60A: Heraldic band) or "I'll bet he says something about how this is the second time we've seen a reference to WERNER Klemperer in recent days." But no—BAG CLIP! Excitement!

I actually have seen a number of keyboard-related themes. But this one is an interesting and (to my knowledge) original variation.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Prison guard system? (ESCAPE CONTROL)
• 30A: Hipster Capitol Hill worker after collapsing? (ALT-PAGE DOWN) — goofy, but enjoyable
• 39A: Bill at the "Star Wars" cantina (SPACE BAR TAB) — I like this
• 52A: Restyle a bit of a D.C. hockey player's hair? (SHIFT CAP'S LOCK) — supergoofy, to the point of preposterousness. And why not?

Not a fan of the Alphabet Soup answers, largely bec. I'll Never be able to remember any of them except TVA (1D: New Deal work program, for short => CCC). Couldn't come up with CHARD even though there's a boatload of it growing in our backyard (red chard, to be precise, but still...) (1A: Swiss ___). Wanted ABBA (no) and INXS (maybe, but no) before AC/DC (10A: Multimillion-selling band from Australia). Thought CIGNA was CITGO (which is gas, not insurance) (17A: Aetna competitor). Love the creepy clue on DRACULA, though I needed many crosses to get it (5D: Speaker of the line "Listen to them—the children of the night"). He's referring to wolves—not exactly an iconic line, but a great one nonetheless. I should be rereading that instead of reading "Camilla" (by Fanny Burney), which is breaking my back. It's eternal and it's all about dancing and the social mores of the elite and omg I want to call in Austen to do some script-doctoring. Did they not have editors in the late 18th century? And pacing. Come on. There's leisurely, there's slow, and then there's drifting aimlessly with no hope for rescue in sight, which is where this book lives.

Bullets:

• 48A: Company that introduced coin-slide washer in laundromats (MAYTAG) — sure, why not? That makes sense. Tougher than a clue referring to their iconic repairman.
• 63A: Singer with the 1986 #1 album "Promise" (SADE) — Default position for my brain is roughly 1986, so stuff like this tends to be my bread and butter. 
• 3D: Cyclades setting (AEGEAN SEA) — was having real trouble closing out the NW until I picked up this baby. 
• 51D: Two-finger salute (V-SIGN) — ha ha. I like how there is no indication of what the V-SIGN is supposed to mean in this case. It has ... multiple meanings. Clue allows you to think "peace" or "victory," but also allows you to be like me, and imagine someone gesturing "up yours!"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...