Mother of Peer Gynt — WEDNESDAY, Dec. 2 2009 — Back to the Future bully / Banshees boast / Irish-themed Vegas casino

Constructor: Jack McInturff

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: HASTE MAKES WASTE (62A: Advice to the rash, and a hint to this puzzle's theme) — three theme answers are familiar phrases where "H" has been changed to "W" in the first letter of the final word.

Word of the Day: Ken WAHL (40D: "Wiseguy" actor Ken) — Ken Wahl (born October 31, 1954) is an award winning American film and television actor popular in the 80’s and 90's. In addition to co-starring with such greats as Paul Newman and Brad Pitt, Ken's accolades include a critically hailed television show, two-time recipient of the title of Sexiest Man on TV, an Emmy nod for best actor, and winning a Golden Globe. He was in high demand for lead roles until an unfortunate accident forced him to retire from acting and rendered him completely reclusive. (wikipedia)

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Wow, where to begin? HASTE MAKES WASTE isn't a good "hint" — HASTE turns into WASTE, HASTE becomes WASTE, OK. But MAKES? I see that that phrase is the basis for this puzzle, but as a theme cue, it's really, really awkward. Further, the answers are in two cases really boring, and in the case of SO PROUDLY WE WAIL ... not based on a self-standing phrase. "O say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hail at the twilight's last gleaming?" You can just pick out parts of familiar phrases now? And use them as your base phrase in a theme answer? I'd give you DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT or TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING, as they are noun phrases and don't mind standing alone so much. But SO PROUDLY WE HAIL is completely dependent on the "what." It's not a declaration. The basic meaning = "Can you see WHAT we hail so proudly?" Bah. [update — "SO PROUDLY WE HAIL" is apparently a WWII-era movie starring Claudette Colbert. That helps, some. Thx, knowledgeable readers] And yet SO PROUDLY WE WAIL is light years more interesting than PICTURE OF WEALTH or HEAD FOR THE WILLS, so I am ambivalent about criticizing it, since it at least shows imagination. BASE WIT is the clear winner of the day. Then there's the issue of changing "H" to "W" but still having "H"s in your phrases that you *don't* change. Never been a fan of that. WEAD FOR TWE WILLS, I say.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Bill Gates snapshot? (picture of wealth)
• 28A: Banshees' boast? (so proudly we wail)
• 39A: Comedic soldier during training? (base wit)
• 47A: Words to estate attorneys? (head for the wills)

But beyond the busted theme, this puzzle has even bigger problems. It is an enormous sacrificial pyre of bad short fill. And such a pyre can appeal to only one deity:

[For the origins of the God OOXTEPLERNON ... see the central Across line in this puzzle and the discussion it provoked in Comments]

The God of Bad Short Fill is glutting himself today. Don't believe me? (Deep breath ...)

1. ENOS
2. IDA
3. ODIE
4. AKA
5. AGHA
6. ISLE
7. HARI
8. ENO
9. NTEST
10. ADES
11. LEI
12. UAL
13. ILEA (yuck)
14. LIEUT
15. OBI
16. TERI
17. ESSO
18. OSHA
19. OAKIE
20. ARLENE
21. SYD
22. OSHEAS
23. ASE (the hurtiest of all)
24. STE
25. RAJA
26. ENE
27. TIARA

The longest Crosswordese Parade I've seen in a long, long time. And that's not including the mildly unpleasant LADES (34D: Does dock work), the only-when-backed-into-a-corner WAHL and PLAN A (30D: Primary strategy), and sad little OF LA. Even OOXTEPLERNON gets full. You can get away with maybe 6-8 answers on the above list, and no one's going to bat any eye. If you've ever tried to construct, you know that you don't get to have Every answer be gold. You need your RTEs and your OOOs from time to time to make the good stuff work. But 27 certified repeaters!? To get ... what, BASE WIT? I'm kind of stunned.

I had to hack my way through this grid with a machete. Progress felt very labored and slow. Checked the NYT site when I finished and found I would have been in second place at that point (!?!). So lots of people must have been finding this a slog, for whatever reason. I honestly can't say where the difficulty lies. I think there's just a cumulative sloggy effect. Inexact theme might be contributing as well.

Bullets:

• 1A: Whole bunch (ton) — once again, the NW was my main stumbling point. Yesterday it was KOUFAX for ALOMAR, today a far smaller, stupider LOT for TON. Dumb dumb dumb.
• 4D: In an ark, say (safe) — but ... ARKs can be raided.
• 42A: Lead role on "Providence" (Syd) — are you kidding me? People watch(ed) this? This show has been dead for seven years, and didn't last four to begin with. And her name (I see) was technically "Syndney." So ... "for short," maybe?
• 45A: Carrier with a hub at LAX (UAL) — always looks like some bygone Arab republic (e.g. UAR) to me.
• 12D: Heavy metal band with the triple-platinum album "Out of the Cellar" (Ratt) — I featured their "Round and Round" video here very recently. It has Milton Berle in it, in several roles (and in drag). Encore:

Ratt - Round and Round

• 32D: Adams who co-founded Group f/64 (Ansel) — great clue on a very common answer.
• 39D: "Back to the Future" bully (Biff) — along with SLUGGO (4D: Nancy's friend in the funnies), my favorite thing about the puzzle.
• 48D: Codgers (old men) — seems kind of mean to OLD MEN everywhere. "Codger" has at least a mildly pejorative connotation, doesn't it?
• 59D: Old Sinclair rival (Esso) — maybe you could do a puzzle theme based on crosswordese? [Kiss from a señorita at an old gas station?]=> ESSO BESO. On second thought ...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 11, 2006 - Jack McInturff

Solving time: 12:56

THEME: Familiar phrases with the final word reversed to spell another word (see 28A, below)

You can tell that the theme involved only the last words of phrases just by looking at the smeary inkfest that is the right side of my puzzle. I grasped the gist of the theme about midway through the puzzle, but somehow kept getting confused as to whether I was writing the familiar phrase or its perverted cousin into the grid. Fully three of my themed answers were originally written in "correctly," which is to say Wrongly. Another hazard of rushing. Le puzzle!

1A: Makes lace (tats)

It's Pantheon-tastic! Yet another word (like "adit" and "olio") that I would never have known were it not for the NYT Crossword Puzzle. Also spells "stat" backward. Here's a stat: Tigers 5, A's 1.

5A: It may do your bidding (eBay)

I am Very reluctant to put a corporation into the Pantheon, but I may have to if this trend continues.

9A: One played for a fool (chump)

I wanted "patsy" at first, but this is a much better word. "Pleasure doing business with you chummmmmmmmmmP!"









15A: Capital of Togo (Lomé)

I just included this for educational purposes. Who knew? Also, I like the LOME-on-LOAM action of this puzzle. (I know they don't technically rhyme because of the accent on the "E" - just let me have my fun.)

28A (THEME): Exterminator's job, maybe? (shooting rats)

"Star" turned around = "rats" (for my stance on rat anti-defamation, please see yesterday's puzzle commentary). I reversed the puzzle logic at first, thinking "the literal meaning is 'shooting rats,' so I should turn it to make 'shooting star.'" This resulted in a several-minute delay in the "Newark" vicinity of this puzzle, as, understandably in retrospect, I couldn't get any of the intersecting down clues to work. One of them, 27D: City on the Ruhr (Essen), would be a 5-letter Pantheon word, but as of yet, 5-letter words remain ineligible.

PS if your exterminator is shooting the rats, you might want to think about getting another exterminator.

38A: Healing balm (aloe)
43A: Remove, as text (dele)
72A: Las Vegas light (neon)
62D: Promise to a cook? (oleo) [clever]
63D: _____ Bator (Ulan)

And the newest members of the Crossword Pantheon are... these guys. Did I already put OLEO and his cousin OLIO in the Pantheon? I'll have to check. NEON is borderline, as it's a bit too ordinary a word to be Pantheon material, but I'll allow it. The quintessential Pantheon word is common in puzzles but Not in everyday speech. So ALOE is a bit weak too. Whatever, it's early in the selection process, and I'm feeling generous (I will install a little Pantheon link in the sidebar in the very near future, I swear)

44A: Like a designated driver, presumably (sober)

This made me laugh, and reminded me of the time Homer got pulled over and arrested for drunk driving, and the police allowed Barney to drive Homer's car home. This was back when Barney was drunk 24 hours a day.

49A (THEME): Vestiges of skin blemishes? (the last warts)

This was the first theme clue I solved. I looked at it and thought, "uh huh ... yes. That makes sense ... I don't get it. Was there a pun? Was the last word supposed to sound like something else?" Just as I was about to change 59A (THEME): Cautionary sign at a dog park (Watch your pets) from "Watch your step" to "Watch your shep" (!?), I somehow got the whole reverse angle. Because I'm quick like that.

41D: Panhandle state: Abbr. (Ida.)

I included this because, first, it's a bit tricky, as "panhandle" typically = FLA. or OKL. or maybe TEX. - less commonly IDA. Second, and more importantly, my grandma lives in Idaho - St. Maries, to be exact, which is in the panhandle. My earliest crossword memory involves being at the dining room table of my mom's house in Fresno - I was about 12 - and watching my grandma solve a puzzle - a real, grown-up puzzle from the newspaper (not sure which one - if the Fresno Bee had a puzzle it surely borrowed it from L.A. or S.F.). I remember sitting down and looking at the clues / answers and thinking "How in the %#^$ [profane even then] does Anyone understand Any of this?!" I "helped" her solve it - maybe I knew one or two answers - and then proceeded not to do another puzzle for about 8 years. But I know that this singular, weird moment of helping my grandma solve a crossword puzzle was probably instrumental in my eventually becoming the world-wide puzzling phenomenon that I am today. So thanks, grandma, for the example, or the genetics, or whatever went in to it. I'm grateful. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is as folksy, homespun, and greeting card-esque as you will EVER see me, so I hope you enjoyed it.

39D: It's slippery when wet (eel)
64D: Nile reptile (asp)

And the Pantheon gets a bit more wiggly.

58D: Bass-baritone Simon (Estes)

Alright, I give, the Pantheon is open to 5-letter words. Welcome ESTES and ESSEN and ... oh, why not, DEION (Sanders) can get in there too.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Late addendum: 7D: Indian nurse (amah) is total Pantheon material, and I inexcusably overlooked it this morning. My apologies to AMAH and her family.

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