Perfume ecclesiastically / THU 1-23-25 / Classic line from the Dick and Jane series / Advocacy org. that gained prominence in 1980s New York City / Steamed dumpling in Tibetan cuisine / E, in a musical mnemonic / Land whose name meant "between two rivers" / Bee-dazzler? / Literary husband of Zeena Frome

Constructor: Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: POTHOLES (56A: Obstacles for a driver ... or what this puzzle's circled squares represent) — four circled squares function as POTHOLES, i.e. they contain the word "POT," and they interrupt Down answers that mean "road"  (in the Across answers, the letters "POT" function normally):

  
Theme answers:

• RO[POT]AD / SEE SPOT RUN ((3D: Either of two diverging in a Robert Frost poem / 15A: Classic line from the Dick and Jane series)
• BO[POT]ULEVARD / NEPOTISM (9D: Sunset in the West? / 16A: Hiring practice at a family business, say)
• AVE[POT]NUE / MESOPOTAMIA (22D: Way / 32A: Land whose name meant "between two rivers")
• STRE[POT]ET / MAPO TOFU (38D: Word with clothes or cleaner / 55A: Sichuan bean curd dish)

Word of the Day: ACT UP (44A: Advocacy org. that gained prominence in 1980s New York City) —

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, and working to change legislation and public policies.

ACT UP was formed on March 12, 1987, at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City. Co-founder Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the state of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: "Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?" The answer was "a resounding yes." Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP.

At the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, in October 1987, ACT UP New York made their debut on the national stage, as an active and visible presence in both the march, the main rally, and at the civil disobedience at the United States Supreme Court Building the following day. Inspired by this new approach to radical, direct action, other participants in these events returned home to multiple cities and formed local ACT UP chapters in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Rhode Island, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other locations. ACT UP spread internationally. In many countries separate movements arose based on the American model. For example, the famous gay rights activist Rosa von Praunheim co-founded ACT UP in Germany. (wikipedia)

• • •

I thought this was a nifty little puzzle, with the one downside being that the revealer came as a huge anticlimax. You can see that those squares are "POTHOLES" as soon as figure out the rebus, which for me came at "SEE SPOT RUN." Once I saw that the cross was ROAD, and that the "POT" square disrupted ROAD (rather than being an actual part of the answer), I got it—the rebus squares are actual "POTHOLES." I don't know if it's possible to do the revealer any differently; that is, what else is it going to be but POTHOLES? But anyway, by the time I got to the bottom of the grid, POTHOLES was telling me something I already knew. Since the puzzle doesn't need a revealer in order to make sense of the theme, maybe there's some (as yet unconceived) answer out there that could have come at the concept obliquely. Something like BUMP IN THE ROAD (except not that, because "road" is already one of the answers). Anyway, POTHOLES felt superfluous. Like a sign saying "tree" next to a "tree." Like, yes, I see that that is a tree. That is obviously a tree. But leaving the problem of the revealer aside, the core concept here was lovely. Four different road types, all disrupted by "POT" holes. I love that "POT" doesn't work in the Downs. It's jarring, the way POTHOLES are jarring. And the "POT"s are all handled very nicely in the Acrosses. Those "POT" answers are all really interesting in their own right, and in none of them is "POT" actually a standlone word, i.e. the "POT" is well and truly "buried" in each answer (what I mean is that if one of the crosses was TEA POT, that would be less interesting/elegant than what we have here, which his "POT" hidden inside other words / phrases every time). The puzzle was too easy for a Thursday, but when the concept really works (as this one does), I don't mind the lack of challenge so much. I should add that the grid was very smooth overall, and had some nice non-theme answers, including "DREAM ON!" and "COME UNDONE." The J.A.S.A. Crossword Class puzzles are always really polished. You'd think puzzle-by-committee might get clunky, but nope. Reliably good stuff, every time.

There was only one answer I didn't know today, and that was MOMO (54D: Steamed dumpling in Tibetan cuisine). No Tibetan restaurants where I live. I know there's (at least) one in Minneapolis, where I visit frequently. I've driven past it a bunch. Maybe I'll make my best friends take me there next time I visit. This is a debut for MOMO ... at least as a food product. It last appeared in 1973, as an [Owl of Guam] (!?!?!?!?!). Wow ... I mean, wow. I'm kind of in awe of how obscure that is. Like, even the Gods of Crosswordese were like, "pass." First trotted out in 1942 ([Short-eared owl.]), then ... thirty-one years passed ... then [Owl of guam] ... then fifty-two years passed, and here we are, eating Tibetan food. I feel like this is a real story of perseverance and triumph. Instead of caterpillar-to-butterfly, we get owl-to-dumpling. All things are possible through crosswords.

Normally I would tell you where I struggled, but I struggled nowhere today. There will be many who (understandably) don't know who E.C. SEGAR, but I teach a course on Comics, so that's a name I know well (you see both ECSEGAR and SEGAR from time to time in puzzles) (the "E" stands for ELZIE, in case that's ever relevant ... which it has been, three times in NYTXW history). Bob ROSS, ETHAN Frome, Hall & Oates' "MANEATER," the Latin phrase DE NOVO—all these things are right over the plate for me. I'm guessing that for a lot of people, this will be among the fastest rebus puzzles they've ever completed—maybe not a record Thursday, as it's always a little time-consuming and fussy to enter the damned rebus squares, but still, I'm scanning the grid for real trouble areas and not seeing them. 

[35D: Hall & Oates hit with the opening lyric "She'll only come out at night"]

Bullets:

• 21D: ___ chips, snack from Hawaii (TARO) — so much tasty food in this one. 
• 28A: Bee-dazzler? (PETAL) — is it the PETALs that dazzle? I guess so. Bees are drawn to color. I just like that this clue references a ridiculous As Seen On TV product from the '90s:

• 31A: E, in a musical mnemonic (EVERY) — "Every Good Boy Does Fine" (or "Deserves Fudge")
• 47A: Laura of "Jurassic Park" (DERN) — there have been lots of tributes written in the past week for the late, great David Lynch, but Laura DERN's (which I just read today) is probably my favorite. Well worth your time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Pacific root vegetable / WED 5-20-20 / Canadian sketch comedy show of 1970s-80s / Tender kind of lettuce

Constructor: Natan Last, Andy Kravis and The J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:01 at a trotting pace)

THEME: 1 word, 2 words — three-word phrases where the second two words, combined, are spelled the same as the first word ... so that in the grid, every themer looks like it's just an eight-letter word repeated:

Theme answers:

• BRIEFEST BRIE FEST (18A: French cheese tasting that lasts only a minute?)
• MUSTACHE MUST ACHE (28A: "That handlebar has gotta hurt!")
• HEATHENS HEAT HENS (51A: Headline about a pagan rotisserie shop?)
• FLAGRANT FLAG RANT (68A: Screed about Old Glory that goes too far?)

Word of the Day: Buzzards BAY (55A: Massachusetts' Buzzards ___) —

Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay by the Cape Cod Canal. In 1988, under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agencyand the State of Massachusetts designated Buzzards Bay to the National Estuary Program, as "an estuary of national significance" that is threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse. (wikipedia) 

• • •

JAYBIRD (22A)

It's a simple idea, kind of a wordplay standard (i.e. the idea words can be broken apart to form other words), but rather than being lifted from some website of prefab answers, the group of theme answers involved here are carefully chosen, and have common properties that link them together, elevating the theme and giving it a certain amount of consistency and structural elegance. They're all 16, to start with, which means that they're (apparently) the same 8-letter word twice. Then, through the magic of wackiness ("?"-style cluing), the second 8-letter word turns out to actual be two words ... and each time, those two words are two 4-letter words, which means that each time the first word is reparsed as two words, it is split precisely in half. 8 + (4 + 4). No 8 + (5 + 3)s, no 8 + (2 + 6)s. An 8 and two 4s, every time. So yes, the theme is light, but there's an architectural preciseness about it that I like. I kind of wish the parsing made the second half clank more rather than less; that is, I like MUSTACHE MUST ACHE, which *really* changes sound from first half to last half. HEATHENS HEAT HENS similarly involves a big sound change (elimination of the "TH" sound). BRIEFEST BRIE FEST, on the other hand, is a little on-the-nose (and I'm not entirely sure that the latter part wouldn't be spelled as one word rather than two, since "-fest" is a suffix, technically, e.g. "gabfest," "lovefest," etc.). FLAGRANT FLAG RANT changes (pronunciation-wise) only in the vowels, though when I sit here saying it out loud (in my kitchen, to myself, like a weirdo), it does sound pretty different. All's I'm saying is that I like when the reparsing involves a *jarring* repronunciation. There's a corollary here to the Wackiness Rule—bigger is better. Go big or don't bother. Anyway, overall, this all worked fine for me. There's evidence of craft involved today. Nice change from whatever was going on yesterday.


The fill is also light years better than yesterday's, despite a preponderance of short stuff. Again, that's evidence of craft. Care. Attention to small details that no one is ever going to praise you for ... but those details absolutely matter to solvers' overall enjoyment, whether they're conscious of them or not. The fill is *clean* and occasionally snazzy. I'm never gonna cheer for abbrs. but as abbrs. go, IVF is a good one (11D: Modern reproductive procedure: Abbr.). It's, well, modern, like the clue says. Also modern—MERCH (33D: Concert tees and the like). Short answers can be interesting and fresh! And if the bulk of the short stuff is simply solid, woo hoo. I say "simply"—it's actually hard (and underappreciated) work to get all the short stuff (or the vast majority of it) to come out clean. I've complained about the THE in answers before, but THE ARMY isn't bad, as definite article-containing answers go. Annoyed by the clue on 29D: Anagram and antonym of 34-Down (UNTIE), but only because it makes me have to go look elsewhere in the grid for info, which I Never like. But, as those highly annoying types of clues go, it's fine, actually. I had the TABLA (48D: Small Indian drum) as a TABOR, which ... what is that? June TABOR is a folk singer ... hmmm ... (looks up TABOR) ... hey! It's also a drum! Oh good, now I don't feel so bad:

: a small drum with one head of soft calfskin used to accompany a pipe or fife played by the same person (merriam-webster.com)

Had real trouble getting HYBRID, since I took [Animal crossing] to mean "a place where animals cross the road, possibly to get to the other side." That was probably the point of that clue. But otherwise, no problems here. Simple, snappy fun.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. J.A.S.A. (Jewish Association for Services of the Aged) in NYC offers a crossword construction class on a regular basis; this puzzle is a product of one of those classes. For more info on the organization, including how you can donate (they're doing good work during this pandemic), please go here. Thanks.

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Ally in bygone legal drama / WED 9-25-19 / Setting for Forrest Gump movie poster / Prop for dancer Gypsy Rose Lee / Fashion trend that involves comfortable regular looking clothes

Constructor: Natan Last, Andy Kravis and The J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:47) (it's undersized, so not terribly surprising my time was fast)

THEME: BREXIT (34A: Subject of a 2016 U.K. referendum ... or a hint to 16-, 25-, 41- and 55-Across) — wacky two-word phrases where second word is just the first word again, without the "BR" (which has "exited"):

Theme answers:

• BRITCHES ITCHES (16A: Results of having ants in one's pants?)
• BREYERS EYERS (25A: Ones considering which brand of ice cream to buy?)
• HOMBRES' HOMES (41A: Casas?)
• CEREBRAL CEREAL (55A: Food for thought?)

Word of the Day: NORMCORE (15A: Fashion trend that involves comfortable, regular-looking clothing) —

Normcore is a unisex fashion trend characterized by unpretentious, normal-looking clothing. Normcore fashion includes jeans, t-shirts, sweats, button-downs, underpants, socks, and sneakers. Clothing is considered to be normcore when it is both cute and comfortable, and is viewed as 'normal' by all people. // Normcore is a portmanteau of the words normal and hardcore. The word first appeared in the webcomic Templar, Arizona before 2009 and was later employed by K-HOLE, a trend forecasting group, in an October 2013 report called "Youth Mode: A Report on Freedom".

As used by K-HOLE, the word normcore referred to an attitude, not a particular code of dress. It was intended to mean "finding liberation in being nothing special." However, a piece in New York magazine that began popularizing the term in February 2014 conflated it with "Acting Basic", another K-HOLE concept which involved dressing neutrally to avoid standing out. It was this sense of normcore which gained popular usage.The characters featured on the television series Seinfeld are frequently cited as exemplifying the aesthetics and ethos of normcore fashion.

The word normcore was named runner-up for neologism of the year by the Oxford University Press in 2014. It was added to the AP Stylebook in 2016. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, this was a nice way to wake up. You're usually in good hands when the byline includes either Andy Kravis's or Natan Last's name, and the J.A.S.A. puzzles are usually very carefully constructed, so disaster is unlikely. I found this one both simple and lively—probably more appropriate to a Tuesday than a Wednesday, but that's neither here nor there, really. Theme is very (very) straightforward, and the "singsongy phrases" route is whimsical in an old-fashioned (good old-fashioned) way. Though the theme type and execution are crossword NORMCORE, the fill is frequently flashy. You do have a lot of short fill, much of it created by the way the middle of the grid has been designed, but that very design seems to have been aimed at keeping the fill clean, and it worked, as the short stuff tends to be familiar but not gross. And the longer stuff often shines. It goes to NORMCORE, gives you a few SLY LOOKS, and then bang! It RAISES HELL with a GUITAR SOLO! It's got my favorite album from middle school ("RIO") and one of my favorite film noir actresses / directors (IDA), and, well, to be frank, this puzzle is by far the best thing to come out of the whole BREXIT debacle. Turning *that* into gold is some pretty amazing alchemy.


There's some clues I don't like (or get). [Much graffiti] is ART? What? All graffiti is ART. Or none of it is? Or ... who's to say whether it is or isn't. That's a weird judgment call, a weird, very very non-specific judgment call. And wet hair is LANK??? Who says that? Tall gaunt people are LANK. I see Merriam-Webster's got "hanging limp without spring or curl" as definition 3 (!) so OK, but I am curious if people actually use the word that way any more. I have no idea what it means to tip a DART, but I'm assuming it's some technical thing ... fine, I'll look it up ... not seeing it. Is it just that DARTs have .... tips!? What? Are there untipped DARTs? What would that even mean? Clue says it "might" be tipped. This clue is baffling. So many potentially great clues, not sure why this one went technical / confusing. My Playstation Vue kinda flattens all TV into one TVscape so I am really bad at determining what network different shows are on. Thus I wrote in SHO instead of HBO at 52A: "Big Little Lies" network (hazard of getting the "O" first). I never have any idea about the various -OHOs and where they are and what they are and what they mean, so I had to wait for the "S" to show up today (11D: Upscale London district). Favorite screw-up of the day, though, came after getting BREXIT, when I went straight to the "B" cross and, as a result of not reading the clue carefully at all, ended up adding "BILL O'Riley" to The Who's catalogue (you probably know it better as "Late Middle-Age Wasteland").

Speaking of "BABA O'Riley" aka "Teenage Wasteland" ... today is this blog's 13th birthday!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. did you know Gypsy Rose Lee (of 29D: BOA) was in a 1966 movie called "The Trouble With Angels," directed by IDA Lupino? Well now you do (I learned this just last night)


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Actor Astin of Pitch Perfect / TUE 10-9-18 / Mock Spanish expression of disapproval / Dinosaur in Super Mario World / Passover brisket seasoning

Constructor: Natan Last, Andy Kravis and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging to Challenging, largely due to proper nouns and "?" clues (3:51)

THEME: HIDDEN FIGURES (49A: 2016 Best Picture nominee ... or a hint to the circled letters in 20-, 25- and 43-Across) — "figures" can be found spelled out in the circled squares inside of the theme answers:

Theme answers:

• E PLURIBUS UNUM (20A: Coined phrase?) (prism)
• SECURITY BLANKET (25A: Something Linus carries in "Peanuts") (cube)
• NO SURPRISE THERE (43A: "Just as I expected!") (sphere)

Word of the Day: SKYLAR Astin (5D: Actor Astin of "Pitch Perfect") —

Skylar Astin Lipstein (born September 23, 1987), known professionally as Skylar Astin, is an American actor, model and singer. He became known for portraying Jesse Swanson in the musical films Pitch Perfect (2012) and Pitch Perfect 2 (2015). He was also in the original cast of the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, and has since appeared in films such as Hamlet 2 (2008), Taking Woodstock (2009), Cavemen (2013), and 21 & Over (2013). (wikipedia)

• • •

Yeah, that dude is *not* Tuesday-famous. I get trying to be all "Hello, Fellow Youths of America!" with your "What's the DEALIO?" (who says that ... anymore?) and your YOSHI and all, but the SKYLAR guy is a bit much. For Tuesday, as I say. But that's a minor issue. The (very) major issue here is this theme, which is not good. Those "figures" are not "hidden"—they are not there. They don't exist. There's as much as hidden PRISM in E PLURIBUS UNUM as there is a hidden PLUM, as much a hidden CUBE in SECURITY BLANKET as there is a hidden CITY. Is there a hidden SISTER in NO SURPRISE THERE? Simply finding a phrase—any phrase, especially a *15*-letter phrase, with any random four or five  or six letters in it, in non-consecutive order, doesn't strike me as particularly noteworthy. HIDDEN FIGURES is just begging to be a revealer, so I get why you'd go there, but this result is shockingly insufficient. I'm used to JASA puzzles being somewhat more solid, theme-wise.


The grid was way more lively than most Tuesdays, I'll give it that. Probably more Wednesday in difficulty level, again, largely because of SKYLAR (who, I guarantee you, will be the biggest mystery in the puzzle for most) (yeah, yeah, I see you, genius, but you're a single data point, not most) (and again, I'm sure SKYLAR's lovely, but Tuesday material, not yet). Thought the longer Downs were good, for the most part, except, oof, NO BUENO. Allow me to add my non-mock-Spanish expression of disapproval here. Please stow your "Mock Spanish." I just can't. Not in this country, not at this time, no. Tired tired tired of CASUAL racist crap. Such a blot on this otherwise smooth and inclusive grid. The other blot is the plural ETHERS, but that's somehow not as off-putting.


Five things:

• 23A: Bob who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature (DYLAN) — totally forgot this happened, so when I went with SKYLER (with an "E") at 5D, well, my guesses for this Nobel guy were all over the map. Bob TYLER? Did Bob TYLER write something? Ugh.
• 55A: Item cut up for a salad, informally (CUKE) — This is all perfectly true, but somehow I drew a total blank. Something about "item" for an edible object just seemed sterile and weird, and also infinity number of things might go on a "salad," so ... yeah, all from crosses.
• 4D: Puzzle (NONPLUS) — yeah I totally forgot this is what NONPLUS means. I try not to think about what NONPLUS means. I avoid it. Just like I avoid "begs the question." I'm never going to understand, and I'm just not going to enter the fray.
• 30D: "Parsley, sage, rosemary and ___" ("Scarborough Fair" lyric) (THYME) — wow this is pretty obscure, who remembers jk this is ridiculous. You may as well just say "the answer is THYME, folks, move along." Too many clue words wasted on something too too obvious. Even for a Tuesday.
• 49D: It may wind up at the side of a house (HOSE) — really feel like I've seen this clue before, but still love it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Astaire with steps / SAT 7-27-18 / Virginia senator Jim / "My Two" 80s sitcom / Cheryl "Curb Your Enthusiasm" / "Punk Rock, Teenagers, and" / Giants GM Al / Korean statesman Syngman

Constructor: Natan Last, Andy Kravis, and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: 8:03 (Saturday average: 18:26; Saturday best 6:03)

THEME: Themeless

Word of the Day: PHISHER (18D: "Nigerian prince," often) —

Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. The word is a neologism created as a homophone of fishing due to the similarity of using a bait in an attempt to catch a victim. According to the 2013 Microsoft Computing Safety Index, released in February 2014, the annual worldwide impact of phishing could be as high as US$5 billion. Phishing is typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter personal information at a fake website, the look and feel of which are identical to the legitimate site, the only difference being the URL of the website in concern. Communications purporting to be from social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators are often used to lure victims. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that distribute malware. (Wikipedia)

• • •

I always like the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class puzzles; even if the grid and execution aren't perfect, the effort, enthusiasm, and [17A: Camaraderie]: TEAM SPIRIT are evident. I wish there were more opportunities for people to learn crossword construction in groups and have some outlet for publication -- it's a fairly solitary pursuit, except for the occasional collaboration. Certainly the crossword blogs and social media have opened things up a bit. (Hey, if you like crossword blogs -- and you do, if you're here -- check out Life in the E-League, a new daily blog.) 

The center-triple stagger-stack felt reasonably fresh; as someone whose day job is in academia I can attest that the [37A: Modern college major]: GENDER STUDIES is likely a few decades old at most institutions, so it certainly qualifies as "modern." Some interesting choices for proper names: [1A: Astaire with steps]: ADELE is a nice punny clue for Fred's older sister (instead of, say, the British blue-eyed soul singer). We've also got WEBB the ex-senator, Cheryl HINES of "cringe comedy," ROSEN of baseball, arty ERTE, activist DIX, and international politician RHEE (instead of American educational reformer RHEE). I mean [48D: "Gimme a break!"]: YEESH, props to the team for that many propers.

[10A: "My Two ___" (1980s sitcom)]: DADS -- a modern family

Do we really need Bullets, since a themeless write-up is pretty much all Bullets? Ok, fine:

• [36A: Some detox diets]: JUICE CLEANSES — Your liver and kidneys do a fine job of cleansing the "toxins" in your body. The whole cleanse thing is pure woo-woo goop and quackery.
• [12D: Distributor of Penguin classics]: DC COMICS — Namely, classic comics featuring supervillain The Penguin, adversary of Batman. The Penguin was not bitten by a radioactive penguin; however, if you are not apprised of the origin story of a particular comic book superhero/villain, "bitten by a radioactive [animal]" is always a reasonable guess.
• [36D: Show that once had an April Fools' Day episode hosted by Pat Sajak]: JEOPARDY — The CrossWorld/Jeopardy crossover is legion: many, many top competitors at the ACPT and other tournaments have appeared (and become champions) on Jeopardy.
• [32D: One who sucks the joy out of the room]: FUN SPONGE — New one to me. I was all, DEBBIE DOWNER? I'm going to start using this all the time.

A plug: The American Values Club Crossword is offering free trial subscriptions. Just send an email to editor [at] avxwords.com (replace the [at] with the @ sign, as you know, we do that on the interwebz to prevent PHISHERS) with FREE PUZZLES in the subject line to get your samples. (Note: AV Club is not a PHISHER.) The AV Club also offers subsidized subscriptions for anyone who can't afford the yearly fee. If that's you, just let the editor know at that same email address, no explanation needed.

Another plug: Tomorrow (Sunday, July 29) is Boswords, the Boston Crossword Tournament, held at the Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury, MA (only a few miles from Natick!). If you're in the region, there's still room for competitors (register online at the link or in person at the venue), or you can order the puzzles to solve at home. We have an awesome team of Boston and Boston-adjacent constructors: Brendan Emmett Quigley, Joon Pahk, Lena Webb, Finn Vigeland, John Lieb, Andrew Kingsley, David Quarfoot, and Laura Braunstein (that's me).

See you tomorrow, then Rex will be back to cover Monday's puzzle.

Signed, Laura, Sorceress of CrossWorld

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Controversial food preservative for short / WED 3-7-18 / Women's rights activist Mott / Eazy-E collaborator informally

Constructor: Natan Last, Andy Kravis and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: PARALLEL PARKING (57A: Driving test challenge ... or a hint to this puzzle's circled letters) — two car makes are "parked" "parallel" to (i.e. directly alongside) one another three times

Theme answers:

• CLAUDIUS
• UPFORDISCUSSION

•   DOMINI
• ITSHOPELESS

• CHRISMARTIN
•    SHONDA

Word of the Day: TONG (25D: Chinese secret society) —

noun

1. a Chinese association or secret society in the US, frequently associated with underworld criminal activity. (google)

• • •

this is actually an AUDI next to a FORD; please respect my photo research

Winced a lot at the fill, but when I looked up at the end and saw the theme, I thought it was pretty clever. Two cars alongside each other is not, of course, PARALLEL PARKING—it's just .... parking—and the fact of parallelness is not what's remarkable about the theme—technically all Across answers are "parallel" to all others (see also Downs). But I still think the visual of two car makes, whose names are exactly the same length, pulled up right next to each other, works OK. No one in the U.S. drives an OPEL, so points off for lack of realism. SMART is not nearly, not by a long long shot, as common a make as the others, but in cities they will have a certain prominence, so I'm fine with their being here. Totally forgot CHRISMARTIN's name (42A: Lead singer of Coldplay, once married to Gwyneth Paltrow), but that's on me. I'm allergic to Coldplay. So the theme is functional and even cute, so good. The fill holds up in most places, but things started out grim with BHT over AAA, and then with DRE EEL and ESS in the next section, I worried about what kind of crosswordese hellscape I might be driving into. PSIS OTOE! But the only bit of fill that really made me shout "No!" at the puzzle was IRED (24D: Plenty angry), which should be removed from all crossword wordlists and then buried under three feet of concrete. It's a non-word holdover from darker times and I don't want to see it ever again (we all have words like this—my friend Doug *refuses* to put ÉTÉ (or worse, ÉTÉS) in his puzzles; I would submit to him that at least ÉTÉ is a real word that humans actually use, albeit only in Francophone countries). TEN-PENNY is absurd—what am I, a nail scholar?—but [Denoting a 3" nail...] reads so much like a parody of an obscure crossword clue that I kinda like it. At least it made me laugh.


Really loved "DON'T EVEN!" (41A: "You're really testing my patience right now ...") and while I didn't really love DOMINI, I really loved its clue (22A: D as in dates?) (because A.D. "in dates" stands for "anno DOMINI") (I mean, you probably knew that, but I'm explaining it anyway because not all solvers always understand all the trickiness) (and then I get mail) (I'm not talking down to you, I swear). EZINES will always be terrible (and bygone), but the clue was nice (in the sense of "cleverly misleading"). I was thinking 60A: Web issues was referring somehow to problems with my browser or internet service, not of "issues" of a maga-ZINE that come out E-lectronically. Got slowed down because I thought the gear was CAMO—couldn't accept that there was an "S" on the end (17D: Paintball gear, familiarly) (I obviously don't paintball or wear CAMO(S), ever ... no, wait—actually, my hiking boots are camo! Hunters will never see my feet! It's awesome!).

Remember, it's *OH* MY LORD but *AW* RATS. Also, apparently it's *SHA*LALA and not *TRA*LALA (learned this the hard way) (50A: Refrain syllables). OK bye. Good luck with your latest snowpocalypse, northeasterners. We're missing the brunt of it here in Binghamton (just 4" expected), but *just* east of us, yikes. Stay inside and do crosswords!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Gourd also known as vegetable pear / SAT 9-16-17 / O.C. protagonist / Underground activity in '50s / 1950s TV personality who appeared in Grease / Many 1920s Harper's Bazaar covers

Constructor: Natan Last, Finn Vigeland and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: CHAYOTE (40D: Gourd also known as a vegetable pear) —

noun

noun: chayote; plural noun: chayotes

1. 1.

   a green pear-shaped tropical fruit that resembles cucumber in flavor.
2. 2.

   the tropical American vine that yields the chayote, also producing an edible yamlike tuberous root. (google)

• • •

The grid is sprinkled with some lovely answers, though the loveliness is undercut somewhat by a rather strong dose of crosswordese (on a couple occasions, plural crosswordese), and a SE corner that's been bombarded with obscurities: a clue for TARA that was popular with Farrar, Weng, and Maleska, but has hardly been seen at all in the past quarter century (54A: Hill of ___, site of Ireland's Lia Fáil); something called TTY, which has only appeared in the NYTX three times, and is apparently somewhat dated nowadays (it's short for "teletypewriter"); and then CHAYOTE, which has never been in the NYTX before today, and which I'm seeing right now for the first time in my life. Yes, sure, learning new things is great, blah blah blah, but CHAYOTE nearly abutting TTY just reeks of bygone puzzles that sought to test your knowledge rather than to entertain. TTY in particular is weak (the meaning of those letters is totally uninferrable) (58D: Communication device for the deaf: Abbr.). You want people leaving your puzzle going "wow," not "wha?" Lastly, in that same corner, why am I *watching* the gap. I *mind* the gap. That's the famous expression, right? Is it a Brit v. US thing. "Mind the gap" is a snappy, coherent, in-the-language phrase. "Watch the gap" ... appears to be NYC-specific.


The NW is the real winner of a section here today (located, fittingly, on the opposite side of the grid from the SE, aka "SATAN's Corner"). Those Acrosses are a lovely way to open the puzzle, though they were somewhat hard to get at, given that two of them had "?" clues on them. I would throw ERTES and EER and ELAL and even PSYOPS back if I could, but on the whole, that corner is nice. EMERGEN-C and "SHARK TANK" give the puzzle a needed jolt of modernity, but ... what the hell is going on with that RYAN clue? (55A: "The O.C." protagonist). Of allllllllll the RYANs in the word, both last names and first names, you go to the protagonist of a show that's been off the air for a decade, whose name no one but die-hard fans would've known to begin with? I watched at least a season of that damn thing and ... RYAN? If you say so. I will never understand *that* clue for *that* name in *this* year.


I have no idea what a PANIC BAR is. "Door part"? Wikipedia says: "Crash bar (also known as a panic exit device, panic bar, or push bar) is a type of door opening mechanism which allows users to open a door by pushing a bar. While originally conceived as a way to prevent stampedes in an emergency, crash bars are now used as the primary door opening mechanism in many commercial buildings." So ... it's just that bar part that you push (un-panickedly, in my experience) to get in and out of many kinds of commercial buildings? I clearly don't share much of a cultural frame of reference with this puzzle. It's a solid effort with some standout answers. Not to my taste, but certainly acceptable work.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Acronym for class taught over Internet / SUN 5-7-17 / Bulked up in modern lingo / Rose's love on old Broadway / Animal avatar of Thoth / Blue symbol of Delaware / Chinese city known for its terra-cotta warriors

Constructor: Natan Last, Finn Vigeland and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Duality Quality" — theme answers are two-word phrases where only difference between the two words is the first letter, but the words are pronounced differently, vowel-sound-wise (verse clues do the same thing, which is pretty nifty):

Theme answers:

• DAUGHTER LAUGHTER (22A: "I know my girl enjoys her youth / When this fine sound escapes her mouth")
• BUDDING PUDDING (37A: "Right now, it's fine, no five-star food, / But this dessert will soon be good!")
• KOSHER NOSHER (57A: "This mensch looks up and shouts 'Delish!' / While downing snacks with real relish")
• GARDEN WARDEN (76A: "Your will to serve must be mature / To be this keeper of nature")
• MASSAGE PASSAGE (92A: "Go down this hallway: There's a couch / If what you seek's relaxing touch")
• BASELINE VASELINE (109A: "This may have been the umpire's doing; / Now sliding home is easy going")
• MODEL YODEL (15D: "Kate Upton strikes an alpine pose / And belts this out, with naught to lose")
• HATCH WATCH (69D: "I have this duty on my farm / To look as chickens keep eggs warm")

Word of the Day: MOOC (63A: Acronym for a class taught over the Internet) —

A massive open online course (MOOC /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs). MOOCs are a recent and widely researched development in distance education which were first introduced in 2006 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012. (wikipedia)

• • •

Er, well, hmm. I mean ... look, I love (like nephews) the two constructors involved in teaching this class, and there are moments (SWOLE! MOOC!) where I can feel their influence, and I like it. But this theme is not terribly exciting (despite the admittedly clever cluing). You can run this theme forever. TOUGH DOUGH. ROUGH COUGH. NEVER FEVER. CATCH MATCH. FORK WORK. HEADER READER. I dunno. The answers used here just weren't that exciting. I think the ones where the change is drastic and strange work best, like BASELINE VASELINE (that one's got a *double* vowel change). Strangely, I think the title might be the best example of the type. Maybe it's appropriate that it all feels somewhat remedial, since this is the product of (mostly) novices, after all. And it's certainly no worse than a lot of Sunday's I've been subjected to of late. But this is all a little too basic for my taste, despite the admittedly cute theme cluing conceit. I do have to give a lot of love to the clues, which, in their poetic non-rhyming, perfectly replicate the sound-change concept of involved in the theme answers themselves (and in consistent iambic tetrameter, no less!). But the actual answers, the actual grid, was a tad dull for me. Also, I really wish HATCH WATCH had had an Orrin clue.


This puzzle was shockingly easy. Seriously, I'M SHOCKED. I finished in 8 and half minutes (?), and that's despite getting flummoxed multiple times by proper nouns (and that "GoT" clue where the answer was IMPS). ANSEL and ALIX were total no-hopers for me, and XIAN (36D: Chinese city known for its terra-cotta warriors) ... rings faint bells, but not unfaint ones, so I used all the crosses there. I know next to nothing about BELGIUM, so that answer had to fill itself in via crosses as well (8D: Home to King Philippe). Do people know "The Adventures of ALIX"??? (103D: "The Adventures of ___" (European comics series)). I teach Comics *and* I just read a global history of Comics, and still, no clue. [Geflite fish fish] is PIKE, which I also didn't know. Considered HAKE. Didn't know if EMERSON (60D: Boston college) was maybe an EMERSEN or something dumb like that, so I waited for TACOS to solve it (TACOS can solve it!). Had IPOS before LBOS (49A: Some Wall St. deals). Struggled mightily with URBAN (38D: ___ studies (college major))—you hear that, Finn! Mightily! College, shmollege.


Hey, the newest episode (003) of "On the Grid," my crossword podcast with co-host Lena Webb, is now up on iTunes, and here. We went to the Finger Lakes Crossword Competition and drank Riesling and generally had a lot of mostly crossword-related fun. Please check it out if you've got ~38 min. to spare. Thanks.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Neighbor of Mozambican / FRI 8-14-15 / Randall recurring character in Stephen King novels / King of Israel who founded Samaria / Woe that's result of extreme materialism / Girl's name derived from name of ancient Anatolian kingdom

Constructor: Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: OMRI (18A: King of Israel who founded Samaria) —

Omri (Hebrew: עמרי, Modern Omri, Tiberian ʻOmrî) (fl. 9th century BC) was the sixth king of Israel after Jeroboam, a successful military campaigner, and the founder of the House of Omri, an Israelite royal house which included other monarchs such as Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, and Athaliah. Along with his predecessor king Zimri who ruled for only seven days, Omri is the first king mentioned in the Bible without a statement of his tribal origin: although some scholars speculate that Omri was from the tribe of Issachar, this is not confirmed by any biblical account (wikipedia)

• • •

The appearance of a JASA Crossword Class crossword (co-constructed with the class's teacher—always a well-established constructor) seems to be an annual event. Or maybe biannual. Anyway, I've seen a number of these, and they're always at least Good. This is probably a function of a. *lots* of time and care and craft and oversight and wisdom and input, and b. the whole "well-established constructor" thing. Whatever the cause, these puzzles have always been pretty polished, and today's is no exception. They went with the max word count for a Friday (72), which is a very, very good place for novice themeless constructors to start (and while Natan is no novice, the class most certainly is). Higher word counts => easier-to-fill grids. This grid is distinguished for its near total lack of crud. Substandard stuff is minimal and spread out, so that the longer, fancier answers can shine through. Cheater squares probably helped here as well. These are black squares that don't increase the word count but make the grid easier to fill (today, there are four: left of 21A/right of 48A, left of 10A/right of 64A). Only wonks like me are gonna notice cheaters, and today they are understandable (since they are helping keep the fill clean around longer, marquee answers, which are the core of the puzzle's entertainment value).


I thought I was going to break my Friday time record there for a bit when I threw down AFFLUENZA instantly (1A: Woe that's the result of extreme materialism), and proceeded to get most of the crosses in quick succession. But then I moved over to the NE and came to a dead stop—a series of knowledge gaps and mistakes and misunderstandings took me completely off the rails. Main problem was a total failure to parse OMA- at the beginning of 19A: Hearst publication since 2000 (O MAGAZINE). I wanted it to be some newspaper set in OMAHA. The STAR, maybe? Beats me, but OMAHA was the only thing I could imagine starting OMA-. Sigh. Then there's my complete bafflement at SWAZI. Is that a resident of Swaziland? Not sure I could find Swaziland on a map, to be honest, and I've certainly never seen SWAZI before. It looks like an unfortunate mash-up of "swastika" and "Nazi." It's a legit answer, but I needed every cross to get it. I also put in RATSO instead of RIZZO, PAIN instead of PINE, and ISN'T instead of ISSO. So my sad grid looked like this:

But I rebooted with ODEA (as you can see) and things picked up again from there. Randall FLAGG was the only real obstacle thereafter, and he was totally pick-uppable from crosses.


Grid is full of solid and occasionally zippy answers. Nice slangy colloquial stuff with AFFLUENZA, "I'M ON TO YOU," SNOCKERED, "SEE YA SOON," and TAKE A BATH. There were a couple of wonderful clues, too: 52A: What might make you a big fan? for JUMBOTRON, and 52D: Ring exchange for JABS. Here's PuzzleGirl's pic of the JUMBOTRON at Yankee Stadium (taken during Sunday's Blue Jays/Yankees game):

 [She labeled this one "Hyphen abuse"...]

And here's a nice picture she took of today's co-constructor, Natan Last (left), at Lollapuzzoola 8 this past Saturday:

 [That's crossword constructor and Columbia University enthusiast Finn Vigeland there on the right ... oh, and eventual Lollapuzzoola champion Francis Heaney in the background, with the shorts and the noise-canceling headphones]


See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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