Eyebrow-filling technique / FRI 7-31-20 / Pants slangily / Brand with classic wavy varieties / Gymnastics eponym of a double back somersault with three twists / Country whose name is believed to come from ancient Greek for honey-sweet / Hilton pulitzer-winning critic for New Yorker

Constructor: Claire Rimkus and Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (Medium, but I had an eternal-seeming free fall in the SE corner, so that threw my time off badly)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MICROBLADING (9D: Eyebrow-filling technique) —

Microblading is a tattooing technique in which a small handheld tool made of several tiny needles is used to add semi-permanent pigment to the skin. Microblading differs from standard eyebrow tattooing because each hairstroke is created by hand using a blade which creates fine slices in the skin, whereas eyebrow tattoos are done with a machine and single needle bundle. Microblading is typically used on eyebrows to create, enhance or reshape their appearance in terms of both shape and color. It deposits pigment into the upper region of the dermis, so it fades more rapidly than traditional tattooing techniques, which deposit pigment deeper. Microblading artists are not necessarily tattoo artists, and vice versa, because the techniques require different training. // Microblading is also sometimes called embroidery, feather touch or hair-like strokes. (wikipedia)

• • •

This grid has many strengths, and I enjoyed solving it right up to the very end, when I hit a clue that made no sense to me and got completely stuck. Freefall stuck. Three blank squares left and ... no hope. Or so it seemed. The main problem is a clue that, in retrospect, seems actually very truly bad, on multiple levels. That clue is the clue for STUBS (48D: Movie reviewers often trash them). I worked that answer down to STU-S and ... nothing. No idea. I figured I had an answer wrong, since STUDS couldn't be right, and nothing came to mind that seemed remotely right. And the cross was 57A: Life partner, for which I had -IM-, and for which the only answer that occurred to me was TIME. Isn't TIME/Life a company of some kind? I seem to remember TV ads featuring TIME/Life operators, standing by ... to do ... something. Hang on, let me look that up... oh yeah, man, that company had a real racket going with their eternal series of books for whatever you're in to. Photography. Cooking. This baloney:


Point is, I am old and TIME seemed a very reasonable answer for [Life partner]. Then there was 52D: "___ pass" (IT'LL). I had the IT- ... but never considered IT'LL. Instead, the only thing I could think of was "IT'S A pass" (kinda like "It's a no" ... like, a way to phrase a rejection, as in "no thanks"). That left one answer that could—and eventually did—rescue me: 60A: Brand with "Classic" and Wavy" varieties (LAY'S). Really, really should've gotten this earlier, but I got so distracted by the stuff I couldn't make sense of, I didn't think this one through enough. The "wavy" part, combined with having -AY- in place, eventually got me LAY'S which got me ITLL which got me LIMB which brings me back to ... STUBS. What the hell does that clue think it's doing? Well, no, I know what it *thinks* it's doing. The STUBS are supposed to be *ticket* STUBS (I think), and you throw them away (or "trash them" after seeing a movie? OK, well, uh, two things. First, movie *reviewers* see screenings before the general public, right? I mean, now they probably just watch screeners, but the point is I don't know what the STUBS situation is like for movie "reviewers" because they just don't see the movies with the rest of us schlubs. I assume the tix are comped and STUBS aren't involved. Point is, I would never associate the general-public ticket *stub* with a movie *reviewer*. That's just nonsense. Further nonsense—even I, an old, don't even deal with STUBS any more. The last few movies I've seen in the theater, my ticket was on my phone. The ticket-taker scans it, bada-bing, I'm in. No STUBS to "trash." So this clue is somehow both factually wrong and dated. And that is what I'm left thinking, at the end of an otherwise nice grid. I'm left with that feeling of "why did you write such a bad clue?" (I have no idea who's responsible here; could be constructors, but editor rewrites lots of clues, as a rule). The clue is just a badly misguided attempt at wordplay, and it really detracted from the enjoyment I was having up until that point.

[Cinema ephemera of yore]

Wasn't sure about ELASTIGIRL because I don't remember "The Incredibles" (15A: Superhero in "The Incredibles"). I think I had both ELASTICMAN and ELASTICGAL in there before crosses led me to the right answer. Don't really like the clue on HALF at all (31D: Like 50 U.S. senators). Yes, 50 is HALF of the *number* of U.S. senators, but the clue is phrased like the adjective is going to describe them (like, in a fair and representative world, the answer could be MALE, say). Clue is awkward as is. Deliberately misleading, but not in a clever way. I also found the clue on LUSTS (24D: Groin pulls?) really truly CRINGEWORTHY. I get that it's about the fact that lust involves a "pull" (or attraction) on your "groin" (or genital ... area) but the image it conjures up, and that "pull" conjures up specifically, is that of a dude masturbating and ... yeah, in my crossword? It's a pass!

While I didn't love cringing, I did love CRINGEWORTHY as an answer, just as I loved "AMEN TO THAT!", MICROBLADING, and HIS AND HIS (saw right through that attempt to trip me with heterosexism, though HER did briefly occur to me as a possible last three letters) (31A: Like some monogrammed towels). Lots of women in this grid (DINAH SHORE! Now there's an old-school answer I can get behind) and in general the puzzle felt gender-balanced, not gender-biased the way it often can in the (somehow still) male-dominated world of NYTXW constructors.  So if I just look at the grid, I think this puzzle is really nice. I just found a few of the clues really off, or off-putting, and that kinda soured my experience.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Greek personification of darkness / FRI 7-24-20 / Final challenge of video game level / The Bell of Longfellow poem / Bit of poetry with same syllable count as this very clue / Cartoon referenced in Walt Disney Animation Studios logo

Constructor: Grant Thackray

Relative difficulty: Easyish (5:18)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: EREBUS (5D: Greek personification of darkness) —

In Greek mythology, Erebus /ˈɛrɪbəs/, also Erebos (Ancient Greek: Ἔρεβος, Érebos, "deep darkness, shadow" or "covered"), was often conceived as a primordial deity, representing the personification of darkness; for instance, Hesiod's Theogony identifies him as one of the first five beings in existence, born of Chaos. (wikipedia)

• • •

The grid is striking, but I'm not sure it yields the best results. Those loooooong black bars create sections that, yes, house a bunch of longer answers alongside each other, but that also give you *nine* (9) four-letter (or shorter) Across answers in a row (that is, stacked atop one another). That is a lot of short stuff. A lot. A lot a lot. Real feast-or-famine today. You've got your 10-and-overs and your 4-and-unders and not a hell of a lot in between. And the center ... really a dead zone today. Not a lot you can do with an isolated 5x5 section except try to survive without gunking up the grid too badly—mission mostly accomplished, I think: ESTER is def crosswordese, but only ODIST really feels off-putting. Considering how much damn short fill there is, it's not actually that bad. Not nearly as bad as it could've been. And having a ton of short stuff to cut through the banks of longer answers definitely makes getting those answers easy. Short answers are always (generally) easier to get than longer, so all those shorts give solvers lots of opportunities for toeholds. This puzzle should play easier-than-usual for most people, and who doesn't like that?  On the plus side, I think the marquee answers (the two 15s) are very much worthy, particularly STEAMBOAT WILLIE (10D: Cartoon reference in the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo). That answer next to PULL RANK ON and IN OVERTIME is very nice. I also thought LOWERCASE I was clever. Usually a random-letter answer like that (say, CAPITALO) feels pretty arbitrary, but the Apple clue here really gives the answer a sense of purpose. A heft. It's such a distinctive feature of the Apple brand names that it feels OK as a standalone answer in a way that LOWERCASE [some other letter] might not.


I had a very bad start and still finished pretty quickly. After getting SHALE instantly (1A: Rock in which fossils can be found), I wanted HEXA- (!?!?) at 2D: Prefix with -gram). I then wanted ROLE instead of PART (6D: Auditioner's hope), and then GOES instead of ISAT (7D: Attends). So I had to ditch that section because it was just a mess. Got really going with ELON NANA ALVA TUNA SPIN, in that order, one after the other, which gave me the fronts of all the long Downs coming out of the NE. Getting into the center from the SE wasn't easy because I had -OWNER (no idea) (42A: Stock character?) and -INTO (no idea) (29D: Admire, as a lover's eyes). Decided to jump right into the center with SORTA, and then when I wanted ELDER at 28D: Venerable sort, I noticed that the "D" from that would've work with SORTA but *would* work with KINDA. Rest of the center was no problem from there. Once I shot CRABCAKES up into the NW, I managed to work out all my problems up there (never heard of a BOSS BATTLE, so I'm really glad the crosses were gettable, though EREBUS was pretty tough).


Finished up in the SW, which the short crosses made very easy. The only answer that really made me wince in this grid was ATRI (truly primo crosswordese) (54A: "The Bell of ___" (Longfellow poem)), so with a bunch of solid-to-good longer answers, that's probably a win, overall. Now if only I could commit ARIE Luyendyk's name to memory. I keep wanting it to have a "Y" in it. Why!? "Y"!!!? ARYA. Is that ... anybody's name? Woof. The one thing about crosswordese (which ARIE's name definitely is) is that it's at least helpful. Knowing it (see ELON, ESTER, ATRI, etc.) gives you a quick leg up (one you feel kinda bad about because you just know this stuff, you don't know how you know it except from doing so many damn crosswords, it's not a measure of your intelligence, you don't feel like you earned it, etc.). But with [Racer Luyendyk] I can't even get his name to stick. Seen it a billion times, always want it to be slightly different. I think the name ARIE really has been completely taken over in my mind by musician India.ARIE and she's not moving. ANYA Seton ... there's another one I have to stop and think about. And AYLA, a character created by Jane AUEL (AUEL is easy for me, but AYLA I screw up regularly). Where was I? Oh, yeah, pretty good puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Joey Dee's backup group in 1960s pop / FRI 7-17-20 / Game played on 90-foot long court / Annual three-day celebration / Pinball player's undoing / Tokyo-based carrier / Woman's name in English that's man's name in Catalan

Constructor: Rich Proulx

Relative difficulty: Medium (6-something)

THEME: face — actually, none ... but the grid is a creepy face, for some reason

Word of the Day: GESSO (5D: Painter's mixture) —

Gesso (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛsso]; "chalk", from the Latin: gypsum, from Greek: γύψος) is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in artwork as a preparation for any number of substrates such as wood panels, canvas and sculpture as a base for paint and other materials that are applied over it. (wikipedia)

• • •

With so much short stuff cutting through the longer answers, this really looked like it was going to be a cinch, but those longer answers were so odd or off my wavelength that I was actually slower than usual. I don't understand what this grid is trying to do. I don't understand the grid-art face. I don't understand why, when you are making a themeless and can do *anything* you want, you go with *these* longer answers, none of which are in any way interesting. The one with the strongest claim to interesting is TILT MECHANISM, but ... what?? (33A: Pinball player's undoing). I've heard of "Tilt!" of course, but the phrase TILT MECHANISM is something I've never heard or seen. Did this come from somebody's wordlist? Why would you choose to put this in your grid? I mean, AUTO PARTS STORES ... what is that doing for you? (8D: Hose and belt sellers) How is that enlivening things? You have so much Freedom when filling a grid like this and AUTO PARTS STORES and STATE LEGISLATORS are your marquee answers? That's how you use your Freedom? The fill isn't really bad, but it's definitely not good either, and again, you have No constraints from a theme, so you have No excuses. Did you think smiley-face grid art would make it all OK? It just makes it all a little bit more insipid.


I have no idea who Joey Dee is, so you can be damn sure I don't know who the STARLITERS are (10D: Joey Dee's backup group in 1960s pop, with "the"). That whole center area was a near disaster as NEAR DISASTERS was very hard to see—had the NEAR; it didn't help, since it's just a synonym for "close." I assumed [Close ones] were relatives or friends. Kept wanting some version of "near and dear." And then there's the ART TEACHER clue (11D: One who might grade on the curve?). Even now, that "?" clue is inscrutable to me. She might grade on "the" curve? Not "a" curve? The phrase is "grade on *a* curve." Why is it "the"? Is that supposed to make it more like an art thing? I get (I think) that the teacher is grading you on the curves in your drawing or painting or whatever, but ... is that really what you're graded on in art class? And just the one curve? If you're going to get cute with the "?" clues, there shouldn't be room misinterpretation when all is said and done—hit your DAMN mark. Speaking of DAMN, that answer probably held me up more than anything else, as both DRAT and DARN seemed somehow more probable (45D: "Nuts!"). Having wrong answers there meant SOLO PERFORMER was really, really hard to see (54A: Person with no one to play with) until I finally had the front end (i.e. the SOLO part). In the end, this was disappointingly anemic. GERITOL crossing STARLITERS tell you much, if not all, you need to know about this one. Nothing new / fresh / current / sparkly about it. What a waste of a Friday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Sam Shepard play about warring brothers / FRI 7-10-20 / Subject of a 23-foot bronze statue in San Diego's Balboa Park / Brooklyn Nine Nine actor who played in NFL / Mission name in Martian / Ubernerd of 90s TV / 1197 film with tagline one wrong flight can ruin your whole day

Constructor: John Lieb

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:18)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: "TRUE WEST" (27A: Sam Shepard play about warring brothers) —

True West,  drama in two acts by Sam Shepard, produced in 1980 and published in 1981. The play concerns the struggle for power between two brothers—Lee, a drifter and petty thief, and Austin, a successful screenwriter—while they collaborate on a screenplay in their mother’s southern California home. Lee, who claims that he can write a “truer” western than Austin because he has actually lived the western life, convinces Austin’s producer that he is the right man for the project, and the role reversals begin: soon Austin is behaving like a thief, and Lee is the coddled Hollywood writer. This savage and blackly humorous version of the Cain and Abel story also satirizes the modern West’s exploitation of the romanticized cowboys-and-Indians West of American mythology. (Britannica.com)

• • •

I've never heard of "TRUE WEST" and I don't watch "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," so that meant two giant answers that were just mysteries to me. Actually, I take that back. I have heard of TERRY CREWS, and that ultimately helped, but I honestly wasn't really sure about the first name, and with -RRY in place I was very ready to entertain HARRY, or, in an emergency, LARRY (28D: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor who played in the N.F.L.). Need ELCID to come along and rescue me by providing the "E" which made TERRY the only option (33A: Subject of a 23-foot bronze statue in San Diego's Balboa Park). Speaking of that "T"—"TRUE WEST"! Yes, my long unknown proper name problem areas *cross*. Fun. But other proper names helped me out, so I can't complain too much. It's just that having the primary difficulty in a puzzle be the piecing together of names that don't really mean anything to you... it's not the Greatest feeling. Of course there are things I don't know in virtually every puzzle I solve, so that's not the problem. I think the problem is how disproportionate the difficulty was—it felt like All the actual work I had to do was concentrated in these answers. The rest was fine, but I blew through it. So I'm left with only really remembering the "TRUE WEST" / TERRY CREWS experience, and not the other parts of the grid. The grid overall looks ... fine. "THE CHRONIC" and MILHOUSE were right up my alley, and MOVEMBER over SLOW CLAP is pretty nifty. I remember LITE BRITE, so I enjoyed that answer as well. There's very little gunk in here today, though I do kinda consider Paula DEEN gunk (notorious racist).


ALBS was a throwback, for sure—in the sense that it's classic crosswordese and you don't see it so much these days (for example: ALBS made five appearances in 1995, but then made none for over six years during a stretch from 2012 to 2018)  (25A: Garb for the masses?). I'm never gonna remember SEGNO, which shows up like once a year just to mess with me (45D: Musical "repeat" mark). We have the always-horrid ASDOI / ASAMI dilemma at 37A: "Same here" (ASAMI). A few more stray short crosswordese answers, but really very minimal. Aside from the aforementioned long proper names, there were a few other answers that stalled me a bit. SHINY, for instance, weirdly threw me (1D: Well-polished). Built it entirely from crosses. Also AUNTIE—the reunion I had in mind was scholastic, not familial (21A: Reunion attendee, informally). I never saw "The Martian," so ARES was all crosses (21D: Mission name in "The Martian"). And I thought the [Startling sound] at 47A was POW, and very nearly left that corner with POW in place. Luckily, my eye caught sight of WERPS and knew something had to be wrong (49D: Suspects, informally = PERPS). Overall, far more good than bad (or even mediocre) here. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I got SEGNO (45D) eventually, but this criticism seems ... valid

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Hearst mag founded in 1886 / FRI 7-3-20 / Pitcher's push-off point / De y de sombra isabel allende novel / Singles player in 1950s

Constructor: Hal Moore

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:16)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: "De AMOR y de Sombra" (Isabel Allende novel) (50D) —

Of Love and Shadows (Spanish: De amor y de sombra) is a novel written by Chileannovelist Isabel Allende in 1984. // Irene is a magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Francisco is a handsome photographer and he comes to Irene for a job. As a sympathizer with the underground resistance movement, Francisco opens her eyes and her heart to the atrocities being committed by the state. Irene and Francisco begin a passionate affair, ready to risk everything for the sake of justice and truth. // In 1994, this novel was adapted into a film starring Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Connelly. (wikipedia)

• • •

Isn't Hal Moore the Green Lantern? Did we have this conversation? Oh, dang, it's Hal Jordan. Nevermind. I'm surprised it took this long to get ANTHONY BOURDAIN into a NYTXW grid, what with his themeless-friendly 15-letter name and all. He's definitely the highlight today, though there are a handful of other colorful longer answers that keep this one interesting. Stuff like PHOTOCURRENT and FIREIRONS and PIANOTEACHER just kinda lie there, for me, but I like NONSEQUITUR and SCOUTSHONOR and HUMANOID and "I'M IN HEAVEN" just fine. Short fill gonna short fill, for sure, and the SE corner is particularly wobbly (INURES BDAY ECARD EIRE plural SKYES), but it's clean enough. Passably clean. Though there really is a lot of short (5 and under) stuff. It's a good thing the longer stuff is mostly able to carry the load today, because even when it's reasonably clean, sub-5 stuff is hard to take in large doses, esp. on a Friday or Saturday, when your puzzle really should pop and sizzle and not bore. Every LEA and ACRE and AMOCO and ETON and NOTI makes a little deflating sound. But in the end, more good than bad. All credit for the enjoyable solve goes to ANTHONY BOURDAIN (37A: Author/TV personality who wrote "Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park"). Without him, this thing sputters.


My slowness / errors were all in the dumb short stuff areas. ABASE for ABASH, for instance—ugh, one of those only-yet-somehow-often-in-crosswords dilemmas where even choosing correctly doesn't feel very good. I had BUSSERS before BUSBOYS (24D: Some restaurant staffers) because I thought "oh, the clue is gender neutral, so the answers will be too," wrong. I know too many Los ___ places from having grown up in California, and so I was both unlucky and lucky today. Unlucky in that my first answer was Los BANOS, lucky in that I know Los GATOS and that slid in easily once my initial error became apparent. Had the most trouble deciphering the clue on PRIOR (60A: Record component), for obvious reasons (but I'll tell you anyway: the ambiguity of the meaning of "record"). Dumbest thing I did was not fully read the clue on the Beatles song (52A: Beatles hit about "a man who thought he was a loner"). Got cocky and figured I'd be able to just fill in a Beatles hit from the letters I had in place (the first few, I think). But my mind went blank. Even with "GET..." all I could think of was "GET A JOB" (not a Beatles song). Then I had EVITE instead of ECARD so that screwed with my Beatles mojo even more (48D: Modern party planning aid). Finally worked out "GET BACK" (a song I know well). Then I went back and read the whole "GET BACK" clue (52A: Beatles hit about "a man who thought he was a loner"). Would've gotten the answer immediately if I had just read the whole clue. Of course I would've had to speed-sing the song in my head from the lyric in the clue up to the "GET BACK" part, but that still would've taken less time than whatever the hell I did today. Partial clue reading is one of the dumb things you (I) do when you're (I'm) speed-solving. Whatever. Coulda been faster, but still fast. The moral of the story is take the *probably no more than two seconds* to read every clue to the end, sigh.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Hawaiian raw fish dish / FRI 6-26-20 / Mother of Hamnet Shakespeare / Love of Tony in hit 1978 song

Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (4:46)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: KITTEN HEELS (22D: They can give you a bit of a lift) —

A kitten heel is a short stiletto heel, usually from 3.5 centimeters (1.5 inches) to 4.75 centimeters (1.75 inches) high, with a slight curve setting the heel in from the back edge of the shoe. The style was popularized by Audrey Hepburn, and recent followers of the fashion include Theresa May, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

Shoes with kitten heels may be worn at work in an office setting by people who wish to wear feminine attire that is still practical. For parties, kitten heels are an alternative for those who find high heels uncomfortable. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is the Friday puzzle I keep talking about. The type that I live for. The type that I hope to encounter on Friday, so I can get the various recent themed disappointments out of my head. Wash the blues away! On Friday, I want a fresh, fun, bouncy grid that I can spar with for 4 to 7 minutes. I don't want your stunt grids, your structural feats, your whatever the hell you are doing to the grid to try to look cool or different when all you're really doing ultimately is creating dazzle camouflage to mask your weak fill and distract from a substandard solving experience. Nothing under 68 words, thank you very much. 70 or 72 preferred. And cleeeeean. Friday has the best potential every week to be The Best Day, and as I've said many times, if I could choose just one Friday constructor, I'd want Weintraub on that byline. Today's puzzle had everything I could ask for. Note that it also had junk like HES and STET and ABBR and weirdly plural OUZOS, but then note how I don't ****ing care because I'm too busy enjoying all the delightful answers dancing across the grid. Now maybe you're thinking, "YOU'VE CHANGED, man!" Well no. No I have not. These have been my themeless values all along. Why the NYTXW can't produce puzzles this current and fun every weekend, I don't know. Not my fault. DON'T LOOK AT ME.

["YOU'VE CHANGED ... your place in this world"]

Seriously look at all these long answers, covering such a wide variety of subjects. You get a COOL BREEZE in your PRIVATE BOX and then later you meet a FIELD MOUSE on your ESCAPE ROUTE (No I don't know what your escaping from, maybe something bad happened at the ballgame you, just roll with it...). My proudest moment, by far, was having the K-TT at the front end of 22D: They can give you a bit of a lift and thinking "KITTEN? ... are KITTEN HEELS a thing!? Let's try that!" And pow, right answer! I must've heard the term somewhere before, so I'd like to thanks my brain for actually retaining something useful for once. A RARE TREAT! Having KITTEN on the brain lately probably also helped.

May 17, 2020

June 25, 2020

Everyone thinks they're RAVENCLAW but a lot of y'all are Hufflepuff and that's OK. Own it! I had most trouble, weirdly-not-weirdly, with the worst stuff in the grid: ABBR. (25D: Ph.D., for one) and HES (46A: Ganders, e.g.) and STET (48D: Decide to keep after all), but the trouble was never considerable. VAUNT also eluded me for a bit (20A: Acclaim), mostly because I never use VAUNT and I never use "Acclaim" as a verb. Wasn't sure about the first letter in DALES (21A: Low-lying areas). Aren't VALES low-lying as well? Had STOP IN before STOP BY (23A: Visit). Just whiffed on the STONER clue (28A: One taking the high road?). That might've been the last thing I put in the grid. It's possible that some people will have trouble with the POKE / PEELE crossing, but you really should know Jordan PEELE by now (42D: "Get Out" director). Prominent director, great name for crosswords. He'll be in grids for decades. I appreciate this clue for POKE (42A: Hawaiian raw fish dish). And now I'm hungry and it's way too late for me to eat so now I'm sad. I'll just think some more about this puzzle and maybe the sadness will go away.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1970s rock band that launched the career of Sammy Hagar / FRI 6-19-20 / Kazakh capital renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 / Rocky's best friend in Rocky films / Craps throw called Little Joe / Measure equal to about 57º / Ad campaign featuring mustaches

Constructor: Greg Johnson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (more Medium, maybe) (6:49)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MONTROSE (20A: 1970s rock band that launched the career of Sammy Hagar) —

Montrose was a California-based hard rock band formed in 1973 and named after guitarist and founder Ronnie Montrose. The band's original lineup featured Montrose and vocalist Sammy Hagar, who would later go on to greater fame as a solo artist and as a member of Van Halen. Rounding out the original foursome were bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi. The group disbanded in early 1977. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's just nothing interesting going on here. I don't understand themelesses like this, where there are literally no marquee answers. There's some fine, solid stuff here and there, but there is Zero to make you go wow or hey or cool. The grid shape has a lot to do with it. Nothing over 8 in this grid; but still, you'd think there'd be a number of sizzling, interesting, colloquial, original, some other adjective 8s lying around for you to start with, as your seed entries. What ever *were* the seed entries here? Hard to imagine being excited about putting any of these answers in the puzzle. And it's not even like the grid is that clean overall. One potential solace of a boring grid is that it's fill is never yuck, but ANE and ERINS and LBO and ÉGAL / TÊTES in same corner and CIRC MACAO SNO ... that stuff starts to rankle when there's no great stuff to justify it. The NYTXW absolutely must run killer themelesses every single time, because right now, the New Yorker is just eating their lunch. They've got an elite stable of constructors turning out three timely, fresh, current, well-crafted themeless puzzles per week. Their constructing team is diverse and talented and (most importantly) ambitious. Hungry. It'll be a long time before the New Yorker competes with the NYTXW in terms of total audience, to say nothing of revenue, but they are clearly coming. Quality-wise, they've already blown past the NYTXW (where average themeless quality is concerned, anyway). What's worse (for the NYTXW) is that they've got some of what *had* been the NYTXW's best talent (Robyn Weintraub comes to mind). If the New Yorker added a couple of themed puzzles and went to a daily puzzle format, they'd immediately be the best daily in the country. These are just facts.


But back to this puzzle. MONTROSE? Oof. To me, that is a smallish northern Pennsylvania town about 20 miles from me. I knew Sammy Hagar was eventually in VAN HALEN (which fits!) and I knew he eventually had a solo hit with "I Can't Drive 55" (maybe there were others...?), but MONTROSE ... that's a new one. They appear to have had no real hits. Cool cool. Annnyway, everything around that answer was hard (not surprisingly). Had real trouble with ORDERING because of the deceptive clue (21D: Counter action — you order at a counter) and with FLOOR WAX for the same reason (12D: Coat placed on the ground). Forgot ASTANA existed but was able to work around it pretty easily (3D: Kazakh capital renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019). Wanted SPCA before PETA (41A: Rights org. whose logo includes a rabbit), but not much else proved that challenging. The STAGE part of STAGE SET weirdly took some effort (52A: Theater background). Oh, and REBOXED was briefly elusive (36A: Made more secure for shipping, say). I don't see the necessary connection between reboxing and security. I also think REBOXED is not the greatest fill. But then *nothing* was the greatest fill today. When EVEN KEEL and PUMP IRON are your stand-outs ... you need to try harder.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

SPOILER ALERT FOR TODAY'S NEW YORKER CROSSWORD

Ugh, the New Yorker crossword is taunting me today with its Robyn Weintraub loveliness! It's true that the puzzle is clued "too easy" (finished in ~3:30), but the grid, The Grid ... so much to love:

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Mitch's husband on Modern Family / FRI 6-12-20 / Onetime nickname in magazine publishing / Remote station locale

Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:21)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Geoduck (52D: Geoduck, e.g. = CLAM) —

The Pacific geoduck (/ˈɡuːiˌdʌk/; Panopea generosa) is a species of very large, edible saltwater clam in the family Hiatellidae. The common name is derived from a Lushootseed(Nisqually) word gʷídəq.

The geoduck is native to the coastal waters of western Canada and the northwest United States. The shell of the clam ranges from 15 cm (6 inches) to over 20 cm (8 inches) in length, but the extremely long siphons make the clam itself much longer than this: the "neck" or siphons alone can be 1 m (3.3 feet) in length. The geoduck is the largest burrowing clam in the world. It is also one of the longest-living animals of any type, with a typical lifespan of 140 years; the oldest has been recorded at 168 years old. (wikipedia)

• • •

Had to work slightly harder than I usually do for a Robyn Weintraub Friday, but only slightly. I always get so happy when I see her byline on Friday and I was not disappointed. Smooth, doable themeless with lots of fresh colloquial phrases and just a great sense of fun—that's what I've grown to expect from Robyn. Love the crossing questions "ANYONE HOME?" and "WHAT'S SO FUNNY?" (imagining coming home, shouting "ANYONE HOME?" and hearing only laughter ... "WHAT'S SO FUNNY!?"). "I AM SO THERE," also a winner. She does not waste her long answers. The "worst" ones are still solid, vivid things (MICROSCOPE, CROISSANTS). And the shorter stuff is all highly tolerable. The cluing felt toughish in places, which I'll discuss below, but my real hangup today came when I very confidently wrote in LOVELORN at 28A: Pining and then some (LOVE SICK). Because the clue on RIDESHARE had a toughish "?" clue (34A: Not go it alone?) and because I had a very wrong five-letter T-word for my [Island north of Australia], that eastern section got completely bogged down. I ultimately had to come at it from beneath—"I AM SO THERE" and CROISSANTS really saved my bacon (by the way, if you ever serve bacon and CROISSANTS, I AM SO THERE!). Oh, to be clear, the [Island north of Australia] was TIMOR, and I had TONGA, which, it turns out, is actually 169 islands, so ... missed it by That much!


Didn't enjoy HAHA as a [Reaction button option for a Facebook post]. It is true, if you hover your cursor over the Like button and *then* over the animated laughing-face emoji, it tells you that you are about to select the HAHA option. But it's an emoji, and letters are not involved, and so HAHA is making me sad (which is also, technically, a [Reaction button option for a Facebook post]. I also didn't like the clue on AGONY at all (59A: Sitting next to a constantly crying baby on a cross-country flight, maybe). Crying babies are crying babies, they happen, they're normal, and they aren't a tenth as annoying as the behavior of many grown-ass adults on planes. There's no worse look than ostentatiously grieving the fact that there's a baby on your flight. Grow up, you stupid baby (not the baby, you; you're the baby ... you see what I mean). The AGONY clue is a cruddy clue that makes me think about how selfish and impatient people are. So boo.


I wanted LISP at 33D: Shpeak thish way (SLUR), but I clearly didn't think that one through / sound that one out. Struggled with the misdirection on 1A: Fed (G-MAN). Struggled with the misdirection on 11D: In a row (AT IT) ("row" here is an argument). I wrote in FREE MEAL at first at 20A: Uncommon amenity on an airplane (FREE WIFI). I think that's it for trouble spots. See you tomorrow, when I expect the trouble spots to be somewhat more plentiful.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. there is a new daily blog dedicated to the USA Today Crossword Puzzle (which, in case you haven't heard, is under the editorial leadership of Erik Agard, and is, consequently, very good). Sally's Take on the USA Today Crossword is written by Sally Hoelscher and you can find it here.

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State of invincibility enabled by cheat code / FRI 6-5-20 / Quaint stationery shop item / Like a very cold night idiomatically / What recycling code 40 is used for / Old Eur domain

Constructor: John Wrenholt

Relative difficulty: Challenging (nearly 2x avg)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: SCOW (52D: Garbage disposal unit) —

: a large flat-bottomed boat with broad square ends used chiefly for transporting bulk material (such as ore, sand, or refuse) (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Having trouble concentrating on the details of the puzzle tonight since a morally rotten and sadistic police culture is currently gleefully bludgeoning unarmed people all over the country but I'll see what I can do. This was very much a Saturday puzzle, which is irritating. It was hard even for a Saturday (for me). I got completely and utterly stuck. Twice. This hardly ever happens, and certainly not on a Friday. The grid looks OK, I guess, but the cluing was irritatingly tough and/or off. Seriously, the whole NW was empty despite my having both lead-in answers (INKBOTTLE and SEAHORSE). I eventually guessed SIC (4D: Editorial insertion), but even then ... I don't associate SAUNAs with skiing, I don't know about skateboard parts (?), AGAIN is absurd (and I *have* a personal trainer...) (14A: Exhortation from a personal trainer). I thought maybe it was DIG IN (??). Yuck to struggle in such a confined space. And I had very similar though slightly less severe issues in the SW, where NSFW is attributed to a ... trailer? (62A: Trailer advisory) ... and the PUSH PIN clue is beyond hard (38D: Colorful spot on a map) and what the actual hell is a POODLE CUT (55A: Hairdo famously sported by Lucille Ball) ("famously"?). The expression HIS NIBS makes my skin crawl (50A: Mr. High-and-Mighty). I can't imagine using it, I hate hearing it, and I don't think I even know what it means, really. SCOW clue, superhard. The recycling code (??) for STEEL. I just couldn't follow any of this. Whatever sense of fun or entertainment the clue writers had, I did not share. I liked TRAIL BOSS and very little else about this thing (11D: Cattle drive leader).


THREE DOG on its own is idiotic (45A: Like a very cold night, idiomatically). Also, literally no one calls a "cold night" that. No! It's a band. THREE DOG ... just sitting there ... on its own. That's nonsense. BEAR is a [Direction word] sure I guess in the sense that if you give someone directions you might tell them to "BEAR right" but ugh over and over with this Trying Too Hard to be hard instead of fun. That "seasonal rut" clue on STAG, same issue. AIRALERT meant nothing to me. DEMOLITIONIST fit in BALLOON ARTIST's spot (37A: One whose work is always blowing up?). FOGY looks so dumb in print, my god. I thought it was an -IE word but FOGIE ... also looks kinda dumb. Had FRONT LAWN before FRONT YARD, so that (really) hurt (18A: Spot for a campaign sign). LHASA crossing DHAKA? A miniature crosswordese geography conference, cool (not cool). The grid design is part of the problem. When you try to make a grid with lots of short stuff difficult, ugh, disaster. It's a 70-worder but it feels much higher because of the choppiness of the grid and the attendant flood of 3-4-5-letter answers. I guarantee you I finish the Saturday puzzle faster than this (it's a Doug Peterson puzzle, I hear, so I know it will be good...)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Explanation for existence of evil in God's presence / FRI 5-29-20 / Evans who was 2009-10 Rookie of the Year / Thrombus more familiarly / Sister brand of 7Up / Sail-hoisting device / Corn or bean plant perhaps / Relative of histogram

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Not sure ... mostly easy ... I don't really know what a just-rolled-out-of-bed 6:43 time means on a Friday any more. Easy but with a chunk in and around CANNERY that was hard ... 

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TYREKE Evans (57A: Evans who was the 2009-10 N.B.A. Rookie of the Year) —

Tyreke Jamir Evans (born September 19, 1989) is an American professional basketball player. After playing college basketball for the Memphis Tigers, he was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings.^[1] Evans went on to win the 2010 NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in 2013 before being traded back to the Kings in 2017. After successive stints with the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers, Evans, who would have become a free agent at the end of the 2019 season, was dismissed and disqualified from the NBA in May for violating the terms of the league's anti-drug program. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was perfectly fine, though the only part that really sparkled was NIGHTY-NIGHT (4D: "Sweet dreams!"). Most of this was solid, but a little flat. Green-paintish* stuff like RUNS A LAP and ATE LUNCH didn't help. AT THE HEART felt kinda longish for an incomplete phrase. AT HEEL does not feel like a current phrase. Can't imagine using it. TO HEEL I can hear. You can bring a dog TO HEEL. Something might be at *one's* heels. Dunno. The word THEODICY looks and sounds like something I've seen, but I'd be lying if I said I actually knew it (18A: Explanation for the existence of evil in God's presence). ON A kick? Never heard this phrase without some descriptive word following ON A. RCCOLA ... exists still? (Also: 7Up exists still?) (13D: Sister brand of 7Up). Multiple ... THYMES? This just felt a teensy bit stale—the feeling was actually made worse by the *attempts* at contemporary colloquial flash that actually felt like ... well, they would've been much flashier in the '00s (EPIC FAIL, "WHAT THE ...," CYBERanything). Ooh, I enjoyed seeing BATGIRL in a non-gendered clue, that was cool (7D: Enemy of the Joker).


Never a fan of cluing a perfectly good English word (PANE) as if it were foreign (30D: Bread, in Bologna). TYREKE Evans is superobscure if you are not an NBA fan. I follow the major sports loosely, and his name definitely rings a bell, but after that ROTY award (note: I would, in fact, accept ROTY in a puzzle), he didn't do anything exceptional. I mean, he was a pro, so he was obviously very good, but he never made an All-Star team or won a championship or did anything that would make him particularly crossworthy. In fact, I'm looking at a list of NBA Rookies of the Year and TYREKE Evans is one of the only names I *don't* really know from the past 40 years. I'm a little hazy on Michael Carter-Williams (2013-14) and Mike Miller (2000-01), but beyond that you gotta go back to '81-82 to find a name I can't place (that name: Buck Williams ... I just forgot him: he was active during the time I was most pro sports-crazy). My point here is TYREKE looks cool but is more a personal indulgence than a great answer.


Made some costly mistakes today, most notably BOLT for VOLT (23D: Lightning unit). Nice trick, I guess. Feels cheap, since obviously lightning comes in BOLTs, and no one says "ooh, did you see those howevermany VOLTs of lightning," but sure, technically, that clue works for that answer. Lost most time on one of my most hated clue types—the "Name that becomes this thing if you do these things to it"-type clue. Like, find a MYRA to use in your clue or **** ***! Had the "M" and then the "R" and still wasn't sure what was going on. And that answer was adjacent to CANNERY, which took me several seconds to get Even After I Had -ANNERY in place (37D: Corn or bean plant, perhaps). See, it's the factory meaning of "plant," not the plant meaning of "plant." Cute. I also wrote in READ instead of SCAN (got the stupid "A" first and ... d'oh!) (48A: Pore over). I think of "scanning" as reading quickly and "poring over" as reading thoroughly, but whatever, this puzzle has its own ideas. Oh, and off the READ error I wrote in ROOF at 48D: Flat part of a flat. That is the wrong answer I'm most proud of (real answer: SOLE).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I associate the term PAIN PILL not with "relief" but with addiction (29A: What a relief!). :(

*green paint => an arbitrary phrase that, sure, one might say, but that doesn't really work as a stand-alone crossword answer

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