Father victim of Oedipus / MON 6-6-11 / 1836 battle site / 1971 Jane Fonda/Donald Sutherland film / Poem with exactly 17 syllables

Constructor: Gary Whitehead

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: WEST POINT (56A: School whose motto consists of the last words of 17-, 25- and 45-Across) — last words of theme answers are, in order, DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY; CADET sits in the middle of the grid (38A: Enrollee at 56-Across); bonus theme answer of USMA (1A: Initials for 56-Across).


Word of the Day: LAIUS (53A: Father and victim of Oedipus) —

In Greek mythology, King Laius, or Laios of Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth. Son of Labdacus, he was raised by the regent Lycus after the death of his father. (wikipedia)

• • •

Dull theme with a livelier-than-average grid. There's gotta be a zingier DUTY answer than CIVIC DUTY. I like BACK COUNTRY quite a bit, both because it's interesting / unusual, and because it changes the meaning of COUNTRY, taking it away from the sense it has in the West Point motto. I also ADMIRE the Zs and the Ks and the X, all in a grid that remains solidly Monday-level with one major, glaring, outlying exception: LAIUS (53A: Father and victim of Oedipus). If you lined all today's answers up on a "General Familiarity" scale, from Universally Known to Obscure Beyond Belief, I don't know where this answer would fall, but I do know the other answers wouldn't be anywhere near it. Completely valid answer, a nice bit of mythological trivia, but comparatively arcane in this environment. Not that that's so bad—at least it's a piece of trivia that seems worth knowing. And it's not as if it slowed me down much. I might have lost 5-10 seconds trying to piece it together from crosses. Not sure why I can remember JOCASTA but not LAIUS. I think her name is just more interesting.

I wonder if there was really no possible theme answer that could have symmetrically balanced out USMA. Or if there isn't a thematic way to clue ALTO (65A: Sax type).


Theme answers:

• 17A: Serving on a jury, e.g. (CIVIC DUTY)
  
• 25A: Bride's attendant (MAID OF HONOR)
  
• 45A: Rural area (BACK COUNTRY)
  

I love that CUMIN (18D: Curry ingredient) and ACUMEN (43D: Keenness of mind) are in the same column. My CUMIN ACUMEN is quite high, I think. You don't see the CZ- spelling of TSAR much in puzzles, if only because "TS" are so much more common letters. I'm happy to see the "Z" restored to its rightful place in GIZMO (34D: Thingamajig). I'm reading Tina FEY's book "Bossypants" right now, and it's unsurprisingly fantastic (8D: Tina of "30 Rock"). The chapter about her father is particularly great: simultaneously touching and hilarious.


There's some bonus military answers in the puzzle, which I suppose you could count as thematic were it not for the fact that they are answers that appear in puzzles all the time (NO SIR, SGTS, TROOP). I had TESTY for NASTY (19A: Mean-spirited), but other than that, and the mini-struggle with LAIUS, no trouble anywhere to be found.

Bullets:

• 48D: 1971 Jane Fonda/Donald Sutherland film ("KLUTE") — on my To-Watch list for this summer, my To-Watch list consisting of every crime movie, mystery, and thriller from 1960-1976, i.e. "Psycho" to "Taxi Driver." I've only just started with 1960, but I can already tell you that "Never Let Go" (w/ Peter Sellers in a non-comic role as a sadistic garage owner) is Brilliant. My first great accidental discovery.
  
• 42A: Jug band instrument (KAZOO) — great answer, great clue, though I have to admit that my first thought was "... jug?"
  
• 31D: Poem with exactly 17 syllables (HAIKU) — apparently today's "Bullets" are devoted exclusively to five-letter K-answers. Love them all.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

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Boldly patterned warblers / WED 6-9-10 / 1966 musical based on I Am Camera / Flexible blades / Shogun's capital / ASCAP alternative / Everglades wader

Constructor: Gary Whitehead

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: REDSTARTS — all theme answers begin with a word that can signify a variety of RED


Word of the Day: REDSTARTS (34A: Boldly patterned warblers ... and a hint to 17-, 24-, 50- and 59-Across) —

Redstarts are a group of small Old World birds. They were formerly classified in the thrush family (Turdidae), but are more often now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family (Muscicapidae). There are two main groups: the true redstarts of the genus Phoenicurus and the more aberrant and not too closely related White-capped, Plumbeous, Luzon, and White-bellied Redstarts. // These are insectivorous ground feeding birds, many of which have the red tail ("start" is the modern English reflex of Middle English stert, Old English steort, tail of an animal), which gives the group its name. Most northern species are strong migrants. (wikipedia)

• • •

So ... REDSTARTS. Never heard of 'em. Hard to love or adequately appreciate a puzzle when the revealer — the central component of the puzzle — is some "Old World" bird that's completely off your radar. Also, in the end, the puzzle is just "Kinds of red" or "These start with reds," the sort of "first-words-alike" puzzle we see all the time. Liked BLOOD MONEY, despite its gruesomeness; the others are just OK. Wife and I both had trouble (me a little, her a lot) getting into the NE corner because CHERRY CRUSH isn't exactly bursting with familiarity. I got it much easier than she did, but I she grew up in N.Z. where I doubt it exists, and I can't remember the last time I saw a CRUSH ad on TV or anywhere (used to be ads on TV in the '70s/'80s all the time, esp. for the much more common ORANGE CRUSH). Wife, however, had heard of REDSTARTS. Wife, however however, is kind of into birds. And it's not like she was particularly chuffed (her word, good word) to see the REDSTARTS. Both of us finished up at the second "T" in REDSTARTS—she *had* it in place and wanted to know why it was right; I did *not* have it, and only put it in place because I figured out why it was right — THEY is two words: THE Y (36D: Place with a gym). Cheap and unnecessary and been done. Too bad, as it cuts into the top of the SE corner, which is the prettiest of the bunch.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Part ofa drug lord's income, maybe (BLOOD MONEY) — we were trying to figure out what BLOOD MONEY would mean in this context — the clue seems right, but we couldn't come up with good examples
  
• 24A: Fruity soda (CHERRY CRUSH)
  
• 50A: Rolling Stones hit of 1967 ("RUBY TUESDAY")
  
• 59A: Certain mason (BRICK LAYER)
  

Trouble started for me in the NW, where [Flexible blades] made no sense to me. I don't think of EPEES as "blades." They can't cut. So lord knows what I put there. Couldn't figure out how anything starting with "S" could be [Stuff sold in rolls=>SOD]. Couldn't make ECONOCAR fit in the allotted spaces (the answer's ECONOMY; that's why) (3D: Rental car choice). Had IMPRINT for EMBLEMS (1D: Insignia). So it was a train wreck up there. Oddly, perhaps ironically, the key to my sorting out that whole corner was a tiny piece of crosswordese: EDO (23A: Shogun's capital). Had an "I" in first position and wrote in ITO, then thought "that's not right. That's a Japanese skater, or judge..." Fixed it, and the whole corner fell into place from there. Most other parts were more doable. Couldn't finish off CHERRY- but got EVEN SO off the initial "E" (28A: Still), and then USO SHOW off that "O" (13D: Base entertainment). Fortuitous. Middle of puzzle was tough, for reasons already stated. Damn birds. Botched the SE at first because I didn't take a close enough look at the dates in 45D: World Series-winning manager of 1981 and 1988 and dropped in LARUSSA instead of LASORDA. Built BOSSA (66A: ___ nova) off the "A," so LARUSSA was that much harder to get rid of. Fixing that answer let me finally see BRICKLAYER, and the rest was pretty easy. Finished up in SW and then went back to the lone empty box near the center. THEY!

Bullets:

• 41A: Big film shower (IMAX) — never been to one. I don't live where they ... exist. THEY!

• 6D: Actress Mary Tyler ___ (MOORE) / 7D: Co-star of 6-Down in 1970s TV (ASNER) — a lovely, simple pairing.
  
• 22D: When Emperor Henry IV was dethroned (MCV) — Probably more annoying than RRNs usually are because many will have looked to this answer as a way of getting the first cross after CHERRY. I'm doubting many (if any) solvers could have plunked down MCV with no crosses.
  
• 35D: Target of Pierre's prayers (DIEU) — "Target" sounds funny. "I'm gonna hit you with these prayers, God. Look out!"
  
• 40D: 1966 musical based on "I Am a Camera" (CABARET) — "I Am a Camera" was a play inspired by Christopher Isherwood stories. Title always makes me think of two songs.
  

• 43D: Gentle breezes (ZEPHYRS) — "Whan Zephyrus eke with his sweete breeth / Inspired hath in every holt and heeth..." and all that. That's how I know the word, anyway.
  
• 44D: Sides accompaniers (ENTREES) — completely backwards (Sides "accompany" entrees), which I didn't mind at all. Nicely loopy.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Philosophy in Bedroom author 1795 — SATURDAY, Nov. 21 2009 — Egyptian king credited with founding First Dynasty / Emperor's Snuff Box novelist

Constructor: Gary J. Whitehead

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MENES (3D: Egyptian king credited with founding the First Dynasty) — Menes is the name of the Egyptian king credited with founding the First dynasty, sometime around 3100 BC. Menes was seen as a founding figure for much of the history of Ancient Egypt, and was possibly a mythical founding king similar to Romulus and Remus for Ancient Rome. [MENES is a really dull and unimposing name for someone this important] (wikipedia)

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This was tough the way a Saturday puzzle should be, but blah in a way that a Saturday puzzle should not be. I kind of like the phrase RAMP UP SALES (1A: Increase business), but all the other long answers in this puzzle are forgettable bores, with the "J" at the beginning of JAPANESE LANTERN being about the most exciting going on in the grid. Actually, I take that back. Having CENTER ICE dead center is pretty sweet, but dear god, PEER ASSESSMENTS (6D: Some workshop critiques)?! First of all, take out the "E"s and "S"s and there's hardly any phrase there. I've heard the word ASSESSMENTS specifically derided by constructors as something you might want to keep Out of your grid. Zzzzzzz. Second, having been in and run many workshops where students read each other works, I can tell you that the phrase is not PEER ASSESSMENTS (though that's accurate enough on a literal level). It's PEER REVIEW(S). Terser, and with more interesting letters. SEEDAGE is the only answer that really makes me want to hurl (11D: Horitcultural practice), so it's not an offensive grid by any means. There's just nothing Scrabbly or sparkly or memorable about it. Oh, and the grid is the same as this grid from earlier in the year, with the one difference being that the center square here is white not black. I guess that ups the level of difficulty for the constructor, but as far as puzzle quality, it isn't even close. Sometimes (most times?) the less ambitious grid results in the more interesting puzzle.

I had real trouble getting any of the long Acrosses, esp. up top. I had a feeling the "line" in 12A: Green line was going to be something someone said, a "line" someone uttered, but I figured it would be a phrase popularized by someone named Green. But who? Lorne GREENE? Wrong spelling. Seth GREEN? I really doubt it. It was late in the puzzle, and only after I (finally) got the "P" from SPLITS (7D: Stock options), that SAVE THE PLANET came into view. That NW corner (where I normally start my puzzles) was the last thing to go. Thought I was done when I dropped MENOS into the grid ... then stared at UNITOR and thought "that ... isn't right" (16A: Minister at a wedding, e.g.). IDEAS (18A: Brains' gains) and AVATAR (2D: Personification) were the first things in the grid, and I figured that "V" would send me on my merry way. But no. Ended up rebooting in the NE and then headed diagonal to the SW, then over to SE. Then jumped all the way back to the ragged-looking top part in order to SAVE THE PUZZLE.

Bullets:

• 21A: "The Emperor's Snuff-Box" novelist (Carr) — saw same clue earlier this year. Helped me a bit today, though as I was solving, I was thinking it was Caleb CARR. It's John Dickson CARR.
• 24A: World Match Play Championship champ a record seven times (Els) — I don't know what "World Match Play" is in golf, but if it were all that important, Tiger would have won it more.
• 47A: Breaks while lifting, say (rest intervals) — this must be a technical weight-lifting term. Only vaguely familiar to me. Clue is nicely misdirective. Sounds like it refers to a clumsy shoplifter.
  
• 38A: "Philosophy in the Bedroom" author, 1795 (Sade) — Before "The Joy of Sex," there was this. I would describe the plot to you, but, well, it's pretty, uh, sadistic. If you don't flinch at sexually explicit *and* violent content, you can read about it here.
• 39A: "Man of La Mancha" production org. (ANTA) — OK, I take it back. SEEDAGE *wasn't* the only nauseating answer. ANTA stands for "American Norfolk Terrier Association."

[I know, this is a Norfolk, not a Norwich terrier — I want to say "six of one ..." but really don't want the indignant letters that would surely follow]

• 42A: Roller near a derailleur (rear tire) — a welcome gimme. I'm no cyclist, but I rode plenty of bikes with derailleurs as a kid (though I couldn't have spelled the word for you, then or now).
• 15D: Desert trial, for short (N-test) — thought this might have something to do with Moses or Jesus, but no — standard crosswordese, only question being A, N, or H?
• 30D: Karaoke problem (tin ear) — Not "karaoke standard?"
• 35D: Early American diplomat (Deane) — we Just had him, so despite knowing nothing about him, I got him here with no crosses.
• 44D: Mountain lake (tarn) — one of the few old-school repeaters from pre-Shortz days that *doesn't* grate on my nerves. Refreshing! You can keep your AMAHs and your ESNEs, but TARN's cool. So is ADIT, if it ever comes up.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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THURSDAY, Jan. 22, 2009 - G. Whitehead (Conformation defect in a horse / Sainted king known as "the Fat" / English essayist Richard)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "SHRUNKEN HEADS" (37A: Primitive trophies ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme) - a "HEAD" rebus where "HEAD" is "SHRUNKEN" and shoved inside its own square six times throughout the grid

Word of the Day: WICKIUP - 1. a hut used by the nomadic Indians of the arid regions of the western and southwestern U.S. that is typically elliptical in form and has a rough frame covered with reed mats or grass or brushwood; 2. any rude temporary shelter or hut (W3I)

A clever puzzle with some not-so-great fill. It seems this theme really forced the constructor into a corner several times, most notably in the west and southwest, where the wheels get a little shaky. Except for SWELL[HEAD] in the north, all the HEAD answers feel crisp and clean and right ... until the SW, where AX[HEAD] and [HEAD]end feel like the last gasps of a dying beast. Worse than that, though, is the far west, where ... I just don't know. If I bred or showed horses or were a vet or maybe had read "Black Beauty" or "My Friend Flicka" recently, maybe I'd know what the hell EWENECK is (50A: Conformation defect in a horse). You are going to have a hard time convincing me that EYENECK is any sillier an answer there - and that's the answer I had, what with my having been a toddler when "Rich Man, Poor Man" was written and thus not knowing my SHAW from a SHAY in the ground. You'd think that when crossing the "W" in EWENECK, you'd go with George Bernard. Further, I'd heard people say "Karmann GHIA," but I'd Never seen it spelled, so I was damned lucky to get that "H," frankly. Just a train wreck in the west. I thought once I got RADIO[HEAD] (after thinking TALKING HEADS and actually writing in MOTOR[HEAD]), that the west would be done. No.



The heads were symmetrical, which was elegant, but also mildly disappointing, in that I could fill them all in with just the top half of the puzzle done. This is the problem with symmetry in rebus puzzles - its desirability is truly debatable.

Theme answers:

• 1D: Macrocephalic (bigHEADed)
• 20A: Split (HEAD for the hills)

• 10A: Walking encyclopedia (egg HEAD)
• 13D: One way to meet (HEAD on)

• 9D: Egoist (swell HEAD)
• 33A: All over (HEAD-to-toe)

• 43A: Alternative rock band with four platinum albums (RadioHEAD)
• 45D: Nut jobs (HEAD cases)

• 54A: Traffic sign that indicates a possible temporary road closure (drawbridge aHEAD)
• 49D: Lady Jane Grey's fate (beHEADing)

• 58D: Chopping part of a chopper (ax HEAD)
• 66A: Front (HEAD end)
  

I like the inclusion of PATE in this puzzle (36A: _____ feuilletee (puff pastry)), even if it is pronounced Frenchily, and not like an English synonym for HEAD. As for KWIK-E (51D: _____-Mart) ... see, I love "The Simpsons," and thus I love the KWIK-E-Mart, but ... something about this answer kind of hurts. It threatens to open up the floodgates for EMART. LEHI felt horribly wrong until it turned out to be right (62A: Where Samson defeated the Philistines). If it's so famous, why don't I see it in xwords more often? There must be lots of times it would come in handy whilst constructing. When you don't want to use Bert LAHR again, for instance. As for OMAHAN (48D: Certain Nebraska native), it feels like it's missing a syllable. Does it rhyme with MAN? Or Genghis KHAN? More importantly, does anyone anywhere actually refer to him/herself that way?

Bullets:

• 1A: Opposite of someways (no how) - what dialect is this? I think Buddy Ebsen talked like this on "The Beverly Hillbillies" - you know, before he went on to fame as Uncle Roy in "Matt Houston."
• 34A: 1990s war site (Bosnia) - I wonder if other war sites fit here. I had USN (30D: Seal's org.) and ANKA (31D: "My Way" songwriter) in place, so BOSNIA came easily.
• 52A: Words on a Wonderland cake ("Eat Me") - a surprisingly common answer (and one that makes some of my readers the giggle, for some reason)
• 2D: Sainted king known as "the Fat" (Olaf II) - Roman numerals are a very very common way to handle a terminal "I" in longer answers. Or, in this case, a terminal "II."
• 39D: Wickiup, for one (hut) - learned "Wickiup" from puzzles, which seems hard to believe, but there it is.
• 47D: English essayist Richard (Steele) - Because Addison was the magnet, and this guy was STEELE
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Mingo player on "Daniel Boone" - WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22, 2008 - Gary J. Whitehead (Button below TUV / Genesis terminus)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BED / SIZE (68A: With 70-Across, what the end of 17-, 33-, 42- or 63-Across describes)

The most striking thing about this puzzle is how easy it is (for a Wednesday). I did this more quickly than I did yesterday's. Even the words I didn't know (e.g. NATAL - 31D: Brazilian seaport), where easy to infer and highly gettable from crosses. Theme answers are all kind of blah, except MAKE MINE A DOUBLE, which is fantastic. There was a lot of crosswordese - ASTER (48A: Provider of some fall color), ETNA (38D: Italy's Mt. _____), ILIE (56D: 1976 loser to Bjorn at Wimbledon), BAER (36D: Max of the ring), etc. - and I could have lived without ONEIS (30D: "_____ the loneliest number"), but overall it's a fine, solid Tuesday puzzle, which somehow got misfiled and ended up appearing on Wednesday.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Eng, for one (siamese TWIN) - Cheng and Eng
• 33A: Bar request ("Make mine a DOUBLE") - Whiskey and soda
• 42A: 1951 film named for a boat ("The African QUEEN") - Bogart and Hepburn
• 63A: "Circle of Life" musical ("The Lion KING") - nobody is buying that this is a "musical"; I mean, of course it is, and I see why it's clued that way, but it's a movie just like "THE AFRICAN QUEEN" is a movie. Would you clue "THE AFRICAN QUEEN" as [1935 novel named for a boat]? No, you wouldn't. Well, you might, on a Friday, I guess, but not here. The "1935 novel" clue is true, very true, but you wouldn't use it. Just admit that you have two movies in your theme answers. Worse things could happen. Or maybe by "musical" you meant "movie musical" and were not at all referring to the stage musical, in which case ... oh, nevermind. Prepare to have your ears tortured (seriously, I can't Stand this song):

I like how ED AMES (34D: Mingo player on "Daniel Boone") and MR SULU (22D: Crewmate of Capt. Kirk) act as twin sentinels, pillars holding the middle of this puzzle in place. Both men appear frequently in the grid, though usually only by their last names. Here we see them in full name regalia. Let's review the other names in the puzzle, as they are (almost) all frequent guest stars. Presumably everyone knows the good Dr. DRE (23A: Eminem collaborator, informally), though you might not have known him by this clue. "But when your album sales wasn't doin' too good / Who's the doctor they told you to go see...?"



Then there's EFREM Zimbalist (18D: Violinist Zimbalist), whose name I can never spell confidently, which I believe I've said before, and yet it's still true. I don't think LUKAS Haas (52D: "Witness" actor Haas) and Anthony QUINN (44D: Zorba player) were ever in a movie together, but they're alongside one another in the SW, in a crazy long line of people that stretches from ADONIS (32D: Dreamboat) to James AGEE (61D: Winner of a posthumous Pulitzer) and includes also BIBI Netanyahu (59D: Israel's Netanyahu, familiarly) and INEZ (60D: Don Juan's mother). LENORE (15A: Poe maiden) is probably a good name to remember, as she has Delicious letters for a crossword puzzle. Just don't get her confused with ELEONORA or ANNABEL LEE. Finally, there's the ubiquitous Lucy LIU (46A: Lucy of "Kill Bill"), currently starring in "Dirty Sexy Money," and the puzzle's favorite bar (or my favorite bar, anyway), MOE'S (45A: Springfield tavern).

Olio

• 5A: Genesis terminus (Ararat) - like it's a bus depot. Nice.
• 14A: Button below TUV (Oper.) - I don't text and almost never notice the letters on my keypad. This was an educated guess - I figured there weren't enough letter strings left in the alphabet after TUV to make it back underneath TUV, and OPER. fit. Tada.
• 21A: Meadow denizens (field mice) - "Denizens!" I had FIELD and just threw down MICE because it was so cute. And it worked.
• 41A: Bebe's intake (lait) - "intake" is hilariously technical-sounding here. It's a baby, not an engine.
• 12D: "Vissi d'arte" opera ("Tosca") - had the "CA," clue has "opera" in it -> TOSCA.
• 24D: Asylum seeker, perhaps (emigré) - elegant word
• 49D: Online current affairs magazine (Slate) - I like how the puzzle passed on yet another opportunity to use the "word" EMAG.
• 50D: Deducted from the gross weight (tared) - Torn between love and hate here. I've never seen TARE used in verbal form before. It's bold. I'll give it a thumbs up.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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THURSDAY, Aug. 21, 2008 - Gary J. Whitehead (IOWA COUNTY NAMED FOR AN INDIAN TRIBE / INTOXICATING POLYNESIAN DRINK / BULLDOGGER'S EVENT)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: AGE-LESS (68A: Eternal ... and a hint to 19-, 34-, 42- and 55-Across) - familiar phrases have the letter string "AGE" removed to create wacky phrases, which are clued (wackily)

Had to wrestle with this one a bit, but I eventually brought it down (to use a ... RODEO metaphor? (21A: Bulldogger's event)). I was frustrated enough at one point to Google mid-solve to see if something was right, which it was. SAC County (38A: Iowa county named for an Indian tribe)? Really? Why would anyone in the world outside Iowa have heard of that? Why wouldn't you go with SACramento or SAC fly or even the disgusting [anatomical pouch]? Especially when you've got yet another "Indian tribe" right on top of SAC (33A: Mountain West Conference player - UTE). That western section is as ungainly a section as I've seen in a while. Not only do I have to visit northern New Jersey (26D: Northernmost county in New Jersey), I have to endure RECOIN!?!?! (28D: Bring back, as silver dollars) - that hurts. Four geography clues are crammed into that little section, and they're all mildly to wildly insane. Well, SSRS is standard, but it's clued as a singular, which is annoying. And XENIA (49A: City near Dayton)? There's just a lot of reaching - answers that look interesting in the grid, but that are either wretchedly clued or not really crossworthy. I haven't even mentioned the newly ubiquitous non-Wiesel ELIE (46A: Designer Saab), who is super-crosswordesey. In summation, this section is terrible.

The rest was OK, though. Cute-ish theme. Average level of crappy common fill. Well, maybe slightly above average (letter strings, partials, UMA, ASP, ASST, UTE, ARID, ECO, ARE SO, ATE, STS, IRE ... AH ME indeed). I don't think the theme pops well enough to justify the merely adequate fill. SPORTS COVER? That does nothing. GARB DISPOSAL is the only theme answer with any life in it. Where's, I don't know, MESS IN A BOTTLE?

So, in second summation: meh.

Theme answers:

• 19A: Musical group that stays together? (adhesive band)
• 34A: Faith healing service? (mass therapy)
• 42A: Stadium's dome (sports cover)
• 55A: Donation to the Salvation Army? (garb disposal)

I wanted to talk about Baltimore today, since I just got back (it's a great city, from what I could tell), but I got massively side-tracked by a terrible article about crossword puzzles over at Slate. I told the editor lady (a very nice woman) who asked me to publicize it that I would not, but I'm changing my mind. Here it is.

I'm not going to say anything about it. Well, OK, two things:

1. Some of the comments in response to the article are priceless (Paula Gamache's is among the kinder, and smarter, comments)
2. The big question about the article is: Where am I? (a question I often ask myself when reading articles on any number of subjects). In all seriousness, if the author had read this or this (both in the sidebar under "Important Posts"), at least a couple of his working premises would have crumbled before he'd even begun.

Ignorance + bad writing + someone besides me getting paid for it = angry Rex.

[late addendum: 4-time ACPT champ Tyler Hinman has written a point-by-point evisceration of the Slate article. See it here]

Back to the puzzle:

• 1A: Capital on Lake Victoria (Kampala) - I had CAMPALA (based on what I thought was the correct spelling of CAVA: 1D: Intoxicating Polynesian drink => KAVA), but somehow it didn't look sufficiently ... Ugandan? Seth G is the resident authority on Uganda, and he took this phote in CAMPALA; coincidentally, it has double relevance for today's puzzle ...

• 22A: Herd : buffalo :: knot : TOADS - no idea. None, I didn't even know TOADS were inclined to hang out in groups - certainly not the way buffalo do. Did.
• 29A: Cryptanalysis org. (NSA) - had ASA back when I thought EONS (20D: Stretches of history) was ERAS
• 61A: 1960s sitcom title role (Jeannie) - Barbara Eden was definitely hot, though as JEANNIE she didn't do much for me. Even as a young boy, something struck me as awfully wrong, if not completely f'd up, about the whole "master" business. No offense to Larry Hagman, who is TV legend.
• 4D: Conseco Field House team (Pacers) - weird that a basketball team plays in a "Field" house. Seems wrong. Camden Yards is a lovely, if strangely generic, ballpark. I mean, all the brick is cool, but when you're inside, you generally get the feeling of anywhere USA. Very little Baltimorish or Oriolistic about it all. The 30,000+ Red Sox fans may have had something to do with that. One of those fans - constructor and fellow blogger Pete Mitchell, whom I accosted after the game, in a sea of people, after watching him for several minutes trying to convince myself that the very tall, familiar boy-faced dude was in fact the guy I'd met and talked to at the last ACPT. Pete blogs the NYSun puzzle, and I really should add his blog to my sidebar. . . it's called "Sun Blocks."
  
• 11D: It's hot in an Indian restaurant (tandoor) - the oven in which TANDOORI chicken is made. Didn't have Indian food in Baltimore, but can recommend, without reservation, the following places:

1. Max's Taproom (Fell's Point) - we spent hours sampling beers and relaxing and eating very good, simple beer-worthy food - mussels, burgers, even hummus. I loved this place. It came highly recommended and didn't disappoint. I recommend the Dupont Forêt - pretentious name, but a damned good beer for a steamy hot day. And it's organic!
2. Jimmy's (Fell's Point) - if you look under "diner" in the dictionary, this is what you will see - or should see. French toast, 2 eggs over hard, home fries, coffee - all of it Exactly Right. They know how to get the potatoes crispy on the outside and soft on the inside; same with the French toast. Why doesn't this place exist where I live????
3. Pitango Gelato (also Fell's Point) - the Spicy Chocolate is astonishing. If you want to cut the spice a little, try the cinnamon as a complementary flavor. Just brilliant. And, again, organic. Good cappuccinos as well.

• 23D: How "Moon River" is played (adagio) - just a guess; the music clue that really screwed me up was 48D: Beethoven's _____ Symphony )(Choral) - I had the "C" and went for "C MINOR"; brilliant!
• 27D: Chase scenes, in action films (staple) - looks plural, comes out singular, unlike SSRS, which looks singular (26A: Part of Easter Europe, once: Abbr.) but comes out plural. STAPLE is nicely clued.
• 59D: _____ Building, first skyscraper in Boston (Ames) - there are a remarkable number of viable AMES clues. People, places, buildings ... sadly, unless it's in Iowa, then the AMES in question rarely comes quickly to mind.
• 61D: Boxer's setup (jab) - I think a JAB can do more than simply set up the cross or uppercut or big punch, but yes, I guess it is generally thought of as a "setup" punch.

And I'm out. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, May 6, 2008 - Gary J. Whitehead (JAZZMAN ALLISON)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: The First State! (which is also, apparently, THE DIAMOND STATE) - four theme answers begin with DEL-, circled squares in middle of grid form a diamond shape that spells out DIAMOND STATE, and the theme is indicated by a clue in the far south of the puzzle: 70A: Capital suggested by the circled letters and by the starts of 17- and 63-Across and 11- and 29-Down (Dover)

I've notice a common pattern to my solving, especially in early-week puzzles. I start in the NW, like all right-thinking people, but then I tend to move across and down, to the point where I often end up in the ESE or SE before I really know what's happened. Then I end up sidling my way back across the grid, which feels awkward, as I end up coming at Across clues from their back ends. I think if I could drop into that western coastal section of the puzzle earlier - the Oregon / N. California section - I would have a more solid purchase from which to conquer the rest of the puzzle. But I always seem to get to that section last, or near the end. I feel like I'm always finishing in the SW or W.

In this puzzle there were no real obstacles. The theme covers a ton of square feet - 57 total squares, by my count - but it's all relatively easy to put together. My only problem was in the far west, where I finished the puzzle (yet again). I finished and yet couldn't stop staring at ONEG (35A: Universal donor blood type, for short). How in the world (I queried) is ONE G a "universal donor type?" I couldn't remember which "type" was "universal donor," but I was looking for some combination of A and B and possibly O, but when the O got in front of NEG, my brain went all hard-boiled on me and the only phrase I could see was ONE G. As in "How much will it cost for me to hire a torpedo to ice my husband?" "It will cost you ONE G, ma'am."
I looked it up - nothing. Many minutes went by before I realized that I had it parsed wrong. My wife, however, had trouble because 70A did not indicate state capital, and so DOVER made her think only of white cliffs and England.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Special Operations group (Delta Force) - had to hack at this to get it to fall. I seemed to recall a movie with this name, something violent and Reagan-era. I was right. "They Don't Negotiate with Terrorists ... They Blow Them Away!" So this is where our foreign policy comes from! Awesome.
• 11D: TV angel portrayer (Della Reese) - I very confidently entered DELTA BURKE at first. Wrong bad TV show.
• 29D: Overdue (delinquent) - the first letter I got was the "Q" - from QTRS (51A: N.F.L. periods)
• 63A: Highly pleasing (delightful) - wow these last two theme answers are Snoozers compared to the first two.

Papa, can you hear me? Can you? If so, Please put a moratorium on YENTL, YENTA, YENTAS (44A: Busybodies) and all YENT-related words. Immediately. Thank you. In their place, you may substitute SHTETL. Or KVETCH.

I didn't know UPSALA (58A: New Jersey college until 1995) - what's the shelf life on marginal colleges? I mean, how much longer will it be legal to clue UPSALA via a defunct college? Anyway, the UPSALA / LUNT (60D: Fontanne's stage partner) area of the puzzle was the only real rough patch for me. I had a weird lot of trouble getting ROTS (71A: Fails to keep). I had RIDS, though I assure you, I didn't like it. I loved the attempt at a fake-out at 54D: Cuban export, where CIGAR would have worked as well as SUGAR (the actual answer). I direct your attention to two answers which seem to be appearing with greater frequency of late (not just in the NYT, necessarily, but in all of puzzledom): GINSU (33D: Supersharp knife) and ERNIE Pyle (47A: War correspondent Pyle). Pyle was killed on an island in the Pacific in 1944 (thus not in the ETO - 6D: Ike's W.W. II arena), so he never got the chance to cover Francis the Talking Mule during the latter's wacky stint in the WACS (8D: 1954 war comedy "Francis Joins the _____").

All you rap-hating suckas have to suck it up today: both NAS (37D: "Illmatic" rapper) and DRE (40A: Dr. _____ formerly of Death Row Records) are both in the grid today - a fine antidote to the pathetic POP STAR that is Britney Spears (46D: Britney Spears, for one).

Other matters:

• 14A: Baseball's Matty or Felipe (Alou) - it was funny to me when recently some solvers claimed never to have heard of these guy. Time was that you couldn't go a week without running into an ALOU. I have a strange affection for this baseball family now.
• 16A: Danish-based toy company (Lego) - never think of them as Danish. LEGOs are such a staple of the toy landscape in this country that I never considered that they might not have originated here.
• 21A: Food giant that owns Ball Park Franks and Hillshire Farm (Sara Lee) - weird; SARA LEE was clued via the companies it owned a year or so ago, and I think a retraction had to be issued because there was an error ... perhaps involving Playtex ... mind is fuzzy. Nobody Doesn't Like SARA LEE.
• 50A: Nun, in Nanterre (Soeur) - French for "sister," in case you were wondering. Few French words freak me out more than SOEUR. That vowel combination ...
• 53A: "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" author (Aesop) - see ... this makes it sound like he wrote a short story with this title. He wrote fables. I'm always taken aback to see individual fables presented with formal titles like this. Not sure how they were presented when originally published (whenever that was).
• 55A: Takes to the police station (hauls in) - RUNS IN is the phrase I know best.
• 67A: Brooke's longtime rival on "All My Children" (Erica) - the puzzle rarely goes to soaps. ERICA is perhaps the best known soap character in recent American history (since Luke and Laura of 1980 "General Hospital" fame), as Susan Lucci became famous for her streak of not winning an Emmy for playing her (a streak eventually, mercifully, broken).
• 2D: Intestinal parts (ilea) - gross. I always want ILIA (insofar as I "want" anything to do with intestines).
• 13D: Jazzman Allison (Mose) - today's musical interlude.
• 24D: "Alas, poor Yorick!," e.g. (lament) - wow, this threw me. I know the speech well, but it took me a while to place it in the LAMENT category.
• 45D: 1773 jetsam in Boston Harbor (tea) - "jetsam" is a fabulous word.
• 61D: Publican's stock (ales) - goes nicely with TEA, in that "Publican" makes me think of Sam Adams makes me think of Boston makes me think of the first place Red Sox ... whoa, lost the thread.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Mar. 19, 2008 - Gary Whitehead (DECEPTIVE TALKER)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: JAM (56D: What 20-, 37- and 53-Across may do)

This puzzle was quite easy except for the part where I had to dig the @#$# theme answer out of its hiding place, all squirreled away down there in the deep, deep SW. I had just two words down there: ATE AT (61A: Really bothered) - which always makes me laugh because it looks like A TEAT - and ITO (57D: "Am _____ believe..."?), and nothing else would come. This was annoying not just because the theme-revealing answer was down here, but because there was a chocolate question that was not a gimme. I love chocolate - how is that possible? Perhaps it's the Chocolate Gods' way of paying me back for completely forgetting to make the pilgrimage to Jacques Torres's chocolate shop when I was in Brooklyn. I won't make that mistake twice. The clue: 64A: Chocolatier's gear (molds). The only thing my mind's eye could see was a white apron, and maybe a funny chef's hat. I decided to quit trying to hack into the corner and instead tried to figure out what the theme was by looking at the already-completed theme answers. What does a LASER PRINTER do? It ... jams. Literally, first thing I thought of. So what did I learn today. When all else fails, try actually thinking. Most disappointing revelation: the word JIVER (56A:Deceptive talker). Man, that's just a horrible word.

One quibble with the theme: printers JAM, and HARD ROCK BANDs (even wizened ones like Def Leppard) JAM, but TRAFFIC does not JAM, exactly. At least, not in common usage. You can be stuck in a TRAFFIC JAM (noun). Maybe TRAFFIC could JAM the roads ... but something about the TRAFFIC answer feels off: The PRINTER JAMmed, yes, the BAND JAMmed, yes, the RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC JAMmed ... you be the judge. We had traffic JAM here yesterday as anti-war protesters blocked traffic and tussled with police. That kind of stuff never ever Ever happens around here. Surreal. Worst part - at least two accidents in the lanes on the other side of the divided roadway from the protest. That's what slack-jawed gawking at 50 mph will get you (58D: M.p.h., e.g. - VEL). My favorite quotation from the write-up of the protest: "Pepper spray is pretty serious."

Theme answers:

• 20A: Desktop publisher's need (laser printer)
• 37A: Commuter's woe (rush hour traffic)
• 53A: Def Leppard, for one (hard rock band) - I can't believe I brought up Def Leppard just a couple of days ago (re: "Rock of Ages"), completely out of the blue, and here they are today in my puzzle. I have to admit that in the 80s, this band was an exceedingly guilty pleasure to me. Should I put them on iTunes ... well, Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is on right now, and it's too epic to stop. Maybe after it's finished.

Wife was grumbling this morning as she left the house about having trouble in the NW, where "some card game I've never heard of crossed some car I've never heard of." MILLE Bornes (1D: _____ Bornes (card game)) was one of those games I played maybe a handful of times in my life, and its name went copmletely out of my head until it was forced back into my head by a crossword puzzle I did some time in the past year. IROC is another word that exists in my head only because of crosswords. So I feel my wife's pain. A little.

I like all the thematic pairings (and triplings) in this puzzle, intentional or not.

• A couple of big cats: CHEETAH (14D: Spotted speedster) and OCELOT (24A: Wild cat)
• A couple of baseball answers: ORTIZ (26D: Baseball's Big Papi) and TIE (28A: Baseball rarity - timely, as there have been at least one of these in the preseason so far, though that may have been in some game that didn't count, as I don't see it reflected in the official standings)
• Three clues from the Middle East: AGA (41A: Turkish V.I.P.), PLO (11D: Mahmoud Abbas's org.), and ARABS (32D: Most Al Jazeera viewers)
• And three kinds of automobile: IROC (13A: Sporty Camaro), AUDI (35D: Q7 maker), and REOS (55D: Model T contemporaries)

Other stuff:

• 4A: Parasite's need (host) - gross. I like it.
• 32A: Company with a spokesduck (Aflac) - annoying. I feel sad to have lived long enough to see "spokesduck" enter the language.
• 45A: Did a glissade (slid) - the letters are all there, right inside "glissade."
• 49A: Like Duchamp's "Mona Lisa" (goateed) - most entertaining answer of the day. Had the GOA- and had to think on it a bit. That's not just any GOATEE. That's a super-waxed Dali special. Awesome.
  

• 59A: Fair-hiring org. (EEOC) - brain wanted OSHA, which is more common in puzzles than EEOC, but in this case happens to be completely wrong.
• 63A: Fishing boat (dory) - jeez louise, this word. I see it everywhere in my puzzles now. It's the New Black. A word I'd never heard of before xwords.
• 6D: Bollywood costume (sari) - great clue for a common word.
• 8D: Tutor of Nero (Seneca) - Just mentioned SENECA yesterday in my 17th-century lit class, so he was, weirdly, on my mind.
• 21D: Clinton's first secretary of labor (Reich) - he is tiny.
• 22D: Word with fire or water (tower) - I could have guessed words for the rest of my life and never come up with TOWER here. Thank god for crosses. [HA ha - I wrote "Table" here at first - ignoring my correct grid. That's how counter-intuitive TOWER seems to me: even my subconscious is vetoing it]
  
• 27D: "Vissi d'arte" opera ("Tosca") - had the -OS-, ran through my mental opera-name checklist, done. This clue could easily have read simply [Opera] and I'd have solved it as quickly.
• 29D: Way to indicate mistakes (in red) - I find that students don't care for this so much. The criticism is bad enough - red just makes them feel bludgeoned.
• 33D: Bach offering (fugue) - a word remarkable for the enormous distance between the ugliness of the way it looks/sounds and the beauty of the phenomenon it describes.
• 39D: More or less vertical, at sea (apeak) - wanna throw me off: go nautical. Yipes.
• 49D: The Cratchits' Christmas dinner (goose) - Inventive clue. God bless us every one. Except the goose; him, we eat.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS, I'm getting a lot of mail about [Hawkeye's home] = IOWA, with people insisting that Hawkeye Pierce was from Maine ... my answer: this clue has Nothing to Do with "M*A*S*H." A "Hawkeye" is a person from Iowa, just as a "Buckeye" is from Ohio and a "Sooner" is from Oklahoma.

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