Blue-skinned race in "Avatar" / TUE 9-23-25 / Gymgoer's goal, perhaps / Country that dropped "western" from its name in 1997 / Some Rhode Island Reds / Word before deck or hand / Iliac artery feeder

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: JUG BAND (40A: *Where the starts of the answers to the five starred clues can all be found) — theme answers start with JUG BAND instruments

Theme answers:

• SPOONS OUT (18A: *Serves, as soup or ice cream)
• WASHBOARD ABS (23A: *Gymgoer's goal, perhaps)
• JUG BAND (40A: *Where the starts of the answers to the five starred clues can all be found)
• STOVEPIPE HAT (51A: *Accessory for Abraham Lincoln)
• BONES UP ON (63A: *Refreshes one's knowledge of)

Word of the Day: Bones (see 63A) —

The bones, also known as rhythm bones, are a folk instrument that, in their original form, consists of a pair of animal bones, but may also be played on pieces of wood or similar material. Sections of large rib bones and lower leg bones are the most commonly used bones, although wooden sticks shaped like true bones are now more often used. Metal spoons may be used instead, as is common in the United States, known as "playing the spoons". The technique probably arrived in the U.S. via Irish and other European immigrants, and has a history stretching back to ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They have contributed to many music genres, including 19th century minstrel shows, traditional Irish and Scottish music, the blues, bluegrass, zydeco, French-Canadian music, and music from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. The clacking of the loose rib bones produces a much sharper sound than the zydeco washboard or frottoir, which mimics rattling a bone up and down a fixed ribcage. (wikipedia)

• • •

I have absolutely no experience of JUG BANDs that are not headed by Emmet Otter, although I now realize that my childhood memories have conflated Emmet Otter's JUG BAND Christmas with the animatronic Country Bear Jamboree feature at Disneyland, which I might be conflating with various animatronic musical acts at Showbiz Pizza (RIP, Showbiz—you were better, and weirder, than Charles Entertainment Cheese Pizza ever was).

If you'd asked me to name the instruments in a JUG BAND before I'd solved this puzzle, I would've been like, "Well, jug, first of all ... washboard (ding!) ... maybe spoons (ding ding!) ... some kind of makeshift string instruments? (bzzt!)." I had to look up "bones" (though I correctly surmised that they were literally bones, at least originally), and I still can't really conceive of how one plays a "stovepipe." Wikipedia doesn't have a separate entry for "Stovepipe (instrument)," but has it filed instead under "Jug (instrument)":

The stovepipe (usually a section of tin pipe, 3" or 4"/75 or 100 mm in diameter) is played in much the same manner, with the open-ended pipe being the resonating chamber. There is some similarity to the didgeridoo, but there is no contact between the stovepipe and the player's lips.

So it's jugesque. My main question today is a cultural one, namely "how does anyone know what a JUG BAND is (anymore)?" How popular are they? Where? With whom? In terms of broader pop culture, where do you even see them? Do younger people know about Emmet Otter? If not, what are their JUG BAND touchstones? Every experience of JUG BANDs that I have involves puppets or animatronic animals, which seems crazy to me. It seems like the kind of musical act that, in live-action fictional representations, might lend itself (strongly) to caricatures. Maybe that's why the JUG BAND scene is dominated by animal puppets. Annnnnyway, today we get JUG BAND instruments. Some of them. And then a very dull Tuesday puzzle on top of that. I can't say I had fun solving it, but I can say I had fun doing 15 minutes' worth of JUG BAND research.

[with Jughead, inaptly, on drums]

I have almost nothing to say about the non-theme material today. Lots of repeaters, no surprises. Haven't thought about THE CW for a while (1D: "Superman & Lois" airer). Is it still a network? ... apparently it is, look at that. I haven't had cable TV for so long, I no longer know which of seemingly hundreds of networks are still viable. But I do remember that Superman & Lois once existed, and that it aired on an off-brand network. It's possible I wrote in THE WB at first. I'm writing at length about this clue because it's possibly the only clue that made me think much of anything. Oh, I had to think about what things are in the gym (there are definitely MATs, but they are not among the first, say, ten things that spring to mind, so that clue was less easy than others) (30D: Gym sight). I wrote in ENOS as the [Son of Adam], but ENOS is not the son of Adam. He's the son of (... wait for it ...) SETH! Who is, in fact, the son of Adam. ENOS is not only the son of SETH, he is also a baseball player in the Hall of FAME (really awkward crossreference there) (58A: Slaughter in the Baseball Hall of 61-Across). Different ENOSes I assume (oof, man, I do not recommend trying to write ENOS in the plural; feels ... bad). That's it for trouble. Nearly nonexistent.

[Just pretend they're saying "ENOS"]

Bullets:

• 4D: Doesn't give proper respect (SLIGHTS) — really (really? really) thought this was spelled SLEIGHTS. Like Janet LEIGH (27A: Hollywood's Janet or Vivien).
• 43A: "On the Road Again," for one (TITLE) — hilariously arbitrary. Stunningly arbitrary. Spectacularly arbitrary. Of all the millions of TITLEs in the history of the word, today's example is ... a Willie Nelson movie title track from 1980?! Do JUG BANDs play this? Well, yes and no (yes they play a song by that title, no it is not the Willie Nelson song):

• 2D: Country that dropped "western" from its name in 1997 (SAMOA) — occupied by various "western" colonial forces (Germany, then NZ after WWI, then the U.N.), SAMOA gained its independence in the 1962 and finally eliminate "Western" from its name in 1997. The country does, in fact, lie just "west" of American SAMOA.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Honorific for Gandhi / MON 6-21-21 / Atlanta train system / 1950s-60s singer Bobby / 1963 Best Actress Patricia / Cracker brand with a yellow and blue logo / Vindaloo accompaniment

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:43 even with a tenacious, stupid typo)

THEME: "IT'S ALL RELATIVE" (52A: "Let's put things in perspective" ... or a title for this puzzle) —"blanker THAN blank" phrases, i.e. phrases expressing relativity:

Theme answers:

• LIGHTER THAN AIR (20A: Capable of floating, as a balloon)
• HOLIER THAN THOU (32A: Sanctimonious)
• LARGER THAN LIFE (39A: Imposing and then some)

Word of the Day: AVERY (50D: Big office supply brand) —

Avery Dennison Corporation is a multinational manufacturer and distributor of pressure-sensitive adhesive materials (such as self-adhesive labels), apparel branding labels and tags, RFID inlays, and specialty medical products. The company is a member of the Fortune 500 and is headquartered in Glendale, California. // The company was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1935 as Kum Kleen Products [ed: !!!!], a partnership of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Stanton Avery. (wikipedia)

• • •

The one thing I like about this puzzle is that all the themers are 14s. That is bizarre. Like ... no one likes to touch 14s, they're hard to work with. You see how you get all those three-letter answers under/above the black squares at the ends of the 14; how the grid is super-segmenty because the black squares wrap around the ends of the 14s in an "L" shape because otherwise you'd have real serious white-space problems? Yeah, that's because 14s are hard as hell to manage cleanly. They're ungainly. So ... this puzzle uses only 14s, which is bold. Beyond that, though, I don't really get it. I mean ... blanker than blank. That's it. The revealer isn't even that punny. I mean, usually, like on "Jeopardy!" or whatever (classically, if "Friends" has taught me anything), the category IT'S ALL RELATIVE means you'll be dealing with, like, aunts and uncles and cousins and what not. You know: relatives. But here, these are just relative phrases. THAN is a preposition that follows a comparative adjective. It's awfully literal, and not much fun. Also, because of the aforementioned hyper-segmented grid, most of the fill is short, so there's not even cool long bonus answers to break the monotony. PAD THAI. That's what this puzzle has for me. And while I like PAD THAI (YUM!)... I need more. A little GLUG GLUG, metaphorically speaking, if you know what I'm saying (full disclosure: I'm no longer sure exactly what I'm saying).

But wow was it easy. I flopped and slid around in the SE corner for what felt like a very long time because I wrote in LOBSE instead of LOBES (59A: Brain divisions) and so the Down crosses were all weird, and when I get going very fast, my brain sometimes doesn't really register simple mistakes like that ... and still I came in at 2:43, which is very fast for me. 10-20 seconds under my Monday average, and 10-20 seconds is a *lot* of time on a Monday. I had a bit of an IRMA / ERMA hesitation, I guess, but guessed correctly so didn't have to stop to fix anything (27A: Soul singer Thomas). Didn't really know MARTA but had MART- before I ever saw the clue (14A: Atlanta train system). MARTA is the first name of one of the creators of "Friends" (MARTA Kauffman). Did I mention that I'm in the middle of (re-)watching all of "Friends"? Speaking of IT'S ALL RELATIVE, we just watched the one where Rachel dates the guy who's a little *too* into his own sister. OK, bye!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Satirical cartoonist born 3/13/1921 / SUN 3-14-21 / Longtime name in cinemas / Ex-QB football analyst Tony / Eponym of an MLB hitting award / Kitchen brand whose name becomes an animal after adding a t

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: AL JAFFEE OF MAD MAGAZINE (101A: Satirical cartoonist, born 3/13/1921, known for dreaming up ridiculous inventions ... or are they?) — stuff that ... exists ... and that Al Jaffee "foretold" in the pages of MAD:

Theme answers:

• GRAFFITI-PROOF BUILDING (22A: Architectural innovation jokingly predicted by 101-Across in 1982)
• THREE-BLADE RAZOR (38A: Grooming tool jokingly predicted by 101-Across in 1979)
• SPELL-CHECKER (52A: Writing aid jokingly predicted by 101-Across in 1967)
• SNOWBOARDING (73A: Winter sport jokingly predicted by 101-Across in 1965)
• AUTOMATIC REDIAL (84A: Telephone feature jokingly predicted by 101-Across in 1961)

Word of the Day: Dave BERG (50D: Cartoonist Dave famous for "The Lighter Side of ...") —

Dave Berg (Brooklyn, June 12, 1920 – May 17, 2002) was an American cartoonist, most noted for his five decades of work in Mad of which The Lighter Side of... was the most famous. (wikipedia)

• • •

The tribute subject is more than worthy, but this was something of a letdown. Didn't in any way get at what has made Jaffee special and funny and enduring. It's just five things ... that exist now. That's it. That's ... it. And there's just five. Six themers total. On a Sunday? I regularly do Wednesdays with as many (or more!) themers than this. I don't mind a six-themer Sunday, in theory. but the theme really has to be stunning, conceptually, and this was just ... a list of things pulled off the wikipedia page for Al Jaffee? (seriously, I looked, and most of these "predictions" are mentioned on that page). I know Jaffee primarily from the Fold-In feature at the end of every MAD for my entire childhood, where you'd get some elaborate drawing and then some question and then you'd fold the page over (eliminating the middle part of the original drawing) and get some new funny visual answer to the question. I also know him for "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions." I don't remember his whimsical blueprints for inventions that didn't exist yet. But it doesn't matter whether I remember them, what matters is: how well do they work as a puzzle theme? I'm sad to say: not that great. I think I've actually *seen* a Fold-In-themed puzzle before (in the NYT or elsewhere, I don't remember). Maybe there is a way to make "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" work as a theme, I don't know. But this ... this is just a list or now-ordinary things. And the revealer is so forced. I mean the OF MAD MAGAZINE part is so tacked-on. I really wanted to like this, as MAD meant a lot to me as a kid, but between the dullish theme execution and the toughish / unrewarding fill, this felt like a slog.

There is a horrible name-patch today that gave me fits, and (once again, again and again), the unpleasantness of it all was exacerbated by the fact that the puzzle tried to get cute and in-jokey and winky. That is, it was made worse by the MAD Magazine-related clue on BERG (50D: Cartoonist Dave famous for o"The Lighter Side of ..."). If you had done that with a BERG placed somewhere near a bunch of ordinary words, off in some corner maybe, I wouldn't mind. He's a tough name to get (I knew him but still couldn't remember him, and because MAD is in the revealer, they couldn't even be specific about where "The Lighter Side Of ..." was published), but in the right context, he's fair. And yet: when you put a hard name clue (as opposed to an ordinary noun clue) on BERG, and you do so while BERG is sitting right in the middle of a thick patch of names (through LORDE, next to HOREB (!?!?), which is next to LOEWS which is crossing KLEE), you're not increasing anyone's solving enjoyment. You're just increasing the likelihood that someone's gonna get locked out by a bad cross. The very poor / vague clue on IN DETAIL also made that section a nightmare (51D: How anatomy charts are drawn) (IN DETAIL is not a phrase I'd ever associate with an anatomy chart, ever, any more than I'd associate it with many other kinds of charts or maps or whatever). On my puzzle print-out, I've basically just drawn an angry green cloud over most everything from the SNOW in SNOWBOARDING up to just underneath the RAZOR in THREE-BLADE RAZOR. 

No idea what a PUT-UP JOB is. Sounds old-timey. Also no idea what PERONI is. Sadly, PUT-UP JOB and PERONI cross. So that was fun. I think I'm not mad (!) at the puzzle so much as disappointed. That magazine, and Jaffee in particular, gave me a lot of joy as a kid. I wish this tribute puzzle could've captured a little of that.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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1933 Erskine Caldwell novel about a wealth-obsessed farm family / TUE 8-4-20 / Supporting timber in home construction / Notorious cinematic flop of 1980 / Certain Olympic athletes since 1900

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (actually Easy-Medium, but a couple of those themers seem like they might give people trouble)

THEME: FORSAKE (37A: Abandon ... or two words often seen next to the starts of 17-, 27-, 47- and 60-Across) — first words of themers can all fit into the blank space in "FOR ___ SAKE!"

Theme answers:

• "PETE'S DRAGON" (17A: 2016 live-action Disney film with an animated title character)
• CHRIST'S COLLEGE (27A: Where John Milton and John Oliver studied at Cambridge)
• "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" (47A: 1933 Erskine Caldwell novel about a wealth-obsessed farm family)
• "HEAVEN'S GATE" (60A: Notorious cinematic flop of 1980)

Word of the Day: ALEK Wek (26D: Supermodel Wek) —

Alek Wek (born 16 April 1977) is a South Sudanese-British model and designer who began her fashion career at the age of 18 in 1995. She has been hailed for her influence on the perception of beauty in the fashion industry. She is from the Dinka ethnic group in South Sudan but fled to Britain in 1991 to escape the civil war in Sudan. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. (wikipedia)

• • •

This played like an easy themeless, in that it had some cool longer answers and I, uh, saw no theme at all. I blew right through FORSAKE ... I could see that its clue was trying to tell me something about the theme, but it didn't seem worth slowing down to sort it all out. The themer clues were clearly just going to be straightforward, so whatever the trick or gimmick was, it wasn't necessary to my finishing the puzzle. So I read [Abandon], got FORSAKE, moved along. After I was done, I came back and figured out what was going on and, sure, that seems like a fine idea for a theme. Quirky, slightly profane ... I like it. The non-theme fill isn't particularly showy, but it's largely clean, and the themers are really original and interesting. I had no idea "PETE'S DRAGON" was remade in 2016. The version I know came out in the late '70s. I guess with advances in animation, it seemed ripe for remaking, but looking at the obviously impressive and undoubtedly expensive dragon from the 2016 version ... I dunno. I have a soft spot for the 2D animation and general late '70s wackiness of the original. I mean, come on: "Helen Reddy, in her first movie musical!" And she's dressed as the Gorton's Fisherman. What's not to love?


As for "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE," talk about Up My Alley. I am almost finished cataloguing my entire vintage paperback collection (my big summer project). This meant organizing the books in physical space, according to publisher, and building a master database. Erskine Caldwell was a major author in mid-century paperback publishing—smutty (or, uh, "earthy," I guess you'd call it) but vaguely literary enough that highbrows wouldn't be too embarrassed to buy it. Anyway, it hit some kind of sweet spot because his books went through printing after printing after printing in the '40s and '50s. I must have a dozen or more Caldwells in my collection, and probably at least three different versions of "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" alone. It strikes me, though, that Caldwell's fame fell off fast and hard after the '50s, as tastes changed and more sexually explicit fare became more mainstream. His once-controversial stuff probably quickly came to seem tame and quaint. Anyway, if you're under 60, it seems at least a little likely that you've never even heard of "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE." I can't remember the last time I saw it mentioned ... anywhere ... ever. But in my little niche world of paperback collecting—legendary.

I was very slow to start this, with first three Acrosses being "dunno" "got it!" and "wrong!" (BLT instead of PBJ) (11A: Popular sandwich, for short). First three clues I looked at in NW drew blanks. No idea on JOIST or JAPE or OPEN at first glances. Really left me spinning around—of course there are a bunch of gimmes up there, too, but somehow I saw them late and generally felt like I had to Work to get that corner. But once I did that, and then eventually fixed my BLT error, things evened out, and once I hit the middle of the grid, I really took off. Fast-Monday speed for the latter half of the solve ("GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" and "HEAVEN'S GATE" both being very very well known titles to me). Someday I will remember ALEK Wek. She is crosswordese that I keep letting slide out of my head. Weird to me that she's totally acceptable as a four-letter answer and yet WEK has never ever been in the NYTXW (11 ALEKs, 9 of them Wek ... and yet no WEK in the grid, ever ... curious!).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Twisted person / MON 2-24-20 / Do the honors with the turkey / Jules who wrote "Journey to the Center of the Earth" / Flurry

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: RAISING THE FLAG (15D: Activity depicted in a famous 2/23/1945 photograph ... and in three of this puzzle's answers) — Theme answers, which are all downs, feature the letters "FLAG" rising vertically from bottom to top.

Theme answers:

• DINING AL FRESCO (4D: Having a meal under the stars, e.g.)
• KING ALFRED (6D: Ninth-century English monarch known as "the Great")
• LEGAL FORCE (28D: What a law hasn't been repealed still has)

Word of the Day: SUET (35D: Tallow source) 

/ˈso͞oət/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, sheep, and other animals, used to make foods including puddings, pastry, and mincemeat.

• • •

Hi everyone! Jordan Siff here. I'm a brand strategist by day, but longtime fan of Rex's blog, so here I am to give you my take on today's puzzle. I live in NYC, so if you're reading this on the subway - perhaps refreshing Safari as you glide into a station that has cell service - you are my people!

So, I told myself that I didn't want to come across too jaded or critical in my debut post, but my job is to be honest here - this one missed the mark for me. I found it to be pretty tough for a Monday, more Tuesday-ish in difficulty, which may be due to the theme forcing some fairly obscure and long down answers. I see what RAISING THE FLAG was going for, but it didn't pan out too well as a theme because there wasn't anything unique about how it interacted with each answer. It was more or less "here are three answers that all have GALF somewhere in them." I might not be the biggest history buff, but I've never heard of KING ALFRED, and a somewhat random king from ninth century England feels a bit esoteric for Monday fare. LEGAL FORCE wasn't too exciting either. DINING AL FRESCO was a nice touch, but that's 1 out of 3. Perhaps the revealer helped some people solve the other themers once they knew that "GALF" would show up, but my experience was just finishing the puzzle and then scratching my head over the theme after the fact.

Outside the theme, this puzzle does have a few redeeming qualities. The clue for BARISTAS was clever - and I'll definitely need a nice, strong cup when I get back to my "daily grind" today. The cross between IOTA and ATOM, both clued as "Tiny bit," was cute. I liked the clue for CARVE, but for some reason had BASTE in there first? There wasn't too much hardcore crosswordese (looking at you, APSES), but some less common short fill that may have been a bit much for a Monday (e.g. SHOD AMAIN LOCI ROIL SUET).

Bullets:

• HINGE (21A: What a door swings on) — Call me a millennial, but referencing the dating app could have been a more modern or fun cluing on this one.
• MONGREL (25A: Opposite of a purebred) — This word definitely has a "playground insult" vibe, to me. I can't imagine someone matter-of-factly referring to their dog as a "mongrel."
• AGORA (38A: Ancient Greek meeting place) — For some reason, this is singed into my head as a vocab word from my 6th grade Ancient History class. Shoutout Mrs. Kolodney!
• AS IF (38D: "Yeah, I'm real sure!") — I'm trying to imagine someone sarcastically saying "Yeah, I'm real sure!" like that's a phrase that would be uttered out of a human mouth. AS IF!
• GAMY (66A: Like venison that's been sitting awhile) — I thought that venison was gamy in and of itself. If it's been sitting for awhile, that just sounds...rancid!?

Signed, Jordan Siff, New to CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Last ruler of United Kingdoms of Sweden Norway / WED 1-2-19 / Monk known as father of English history / 1980s-90s NFL great Lonnie / Vice president who became ambassador to Japan / Well in old Rome

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:15) (I have this feeling it might play slightly harder for folks, on average—lots of, let's say, unusual fill)

THEME: forks! — clues are [___ fork], where blank is something culinary; answer then proceeds Across until it literally forks, with one possible answer definition of the blank continuing on Across, and another going off at a 45-degree angle (on a path indicated by circled squares):

Theme answers:

• SHARK / SHAD (16A: *Fish fork)
• MARGARITA / MARTINI (17A: *Cocktail fork)
• GREEK / GREEN (38A: *Salad fork)
• CHERRY PIE / CHEESECAKE (59A: *Dessert fork)
• PEACH / PEAR (62A: *Fruit fork)

Word of the Day: OSCAR II (23A: Last ruler of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway) —

Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907) was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death, and the last Bernadotte King of Norway from 1872 until his dethronement in 1905.

Oscar was king during a time when Sweden was undergoing a period of industrialization and rapid technological progress. His reign also saw the gradual decline of the Union of Sweden and Norway, which culminated in its dissolution in 1905. He was subsequently succeeded as King of Norway by his grandnephew Prince Carl of Denmark under the regnal name Haakon VII, and as King of Sweden by his eldest son, Gustaf V.

Harald V, the present king of Norway, is a great-grandson of Oscar II, through his third son Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. (wikipedia)

• • •

I've seen this forking theme before! Actually, I haven't—not executed this way, at any rate. I just wanted to sound like I was trying to swear in "The Good Place." At first it was hard to understand what the fork was going on, but the circled letters taking off at weird angles eventually made it easy to piece together, and once you get the theme, it actually helps a ton. I used it a lot to get those diagonal circled squares. I really like the way the theme keeps all the forking in the realm of forks, i.e. in the culinary realm. I've never heard of a "fruit fork," but it appears to be a thing, as are all the other forks. That is, they exist as tined implements in the real world, which gives the overall theme a very nice coherence. Silverware in the clues, divided paths in the answers. And the answers go off all kind of ways, from the brief diversions of SHA/D and PEA/R to the skyrocketing CHE/ESECAKE. Themewise, I thought this was great.


Fill-wise, it wasn't bad as much as it was odd. Lots of longer answers that had me going "whaaa?" I know LEAN-TOs, but LEAN-TO TENT? (3D: Makeshift shelter) They come in tent form??? BEEEATERS (27D: Relatives of kingfishers) looked so wrong because of those sequential Es. I've heard of the bird, but barely, and the E-string made me think I had an error. OSCARII was a huge "?" to me. Started with the initial "O" and thought it must be OLAF (or OLAV) somebody. TSARDOM is a real word but an uncommon one (I had TSARIST but knew it had to be wrong because it was an adj. not a noun, as the clue clearly required). And then there's DOGBERT. Ugh. That comic. Not sure how I remembered DOGBERT existed, but I did. Difficulty of fill offset whatever help I was getting from knowing the theme, and my time ended up being pretty solidly average for a Wednesday.


Do y'all know what PISMO Beach is? I know it well—it's on the central Californian coast, and I went there many times with my parents when I was a kid. But it doesn't strike me as a nationally known place. I think PISMO is like the west coast's version of TRURO (a place name that baffled me the first time I encountered it). I would not be surprised if many solvers hadn't heard of it, especially east-coasters. Hardest answers for me today, beyond the weird longer answers I mentioned above, were CREASED (24D: Like envelope flaps) and CCTV (53D: Security guard's viewing, for short). For the former ... how are the flaps CREASED??? That implies, to me, that the flap *has* a crease, not that a crease was formed to make it. Pants are CREASED. If your envelope flap were itself CREASED, it would be hard to seal properly. As for what a security guard is viewing, in four letters, after PORN didn't work, I was out of ideas. I know CCTV (closed-circuit television) now that I see it, but apparently not before I see it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Shortz eventually apologized for yesterday's BEANER debacle. It's hard to believe an apology could actually make things worse, but Here We Are. Note: if you have to apologize, Just Apologize—don't do ... this:

[Sorry If You Were Offended™]

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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1800s president nicknamed His Accidency / MON 10-8-18 / Rap rock band with 7x platinum album Significant Other

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Easy / Easy-Medium, harder if you've never heard of LIMP BIZKIT (2:53)

THEME: AIRPORT (38A: Where to find the ends of 17-, 27-, 50- and 65-Across) — just what it says:

Theme answers:

• BATTERY TERMINAL (17A: Anode or cathode)
• GOLDEN GATE (27A: Iconic San Francisco bridge)
• CANNERY ROW (50A: Steinbeck novel set in Monterey)
• TAKING A BACK SEAT (65A: Letting others occupy the spotlight)

Word of the Day: LIMP BIZKIT (29D: Rap rock band with the 7x platinum album "Significant Other") —

Limp Bizkit is an American rap rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Their lineup consists of Fred Durst (lead vocals), Sam Rivers (bass, backing vocals), John Otto (drums, percussion), DJ Lethal(turntables), and Wes Borland (guitars, backing vocals). Their music is marked by Durst's angry vocal delivery and Borland's sonic experimentation. Borland's elaborate visual appearance, which includes face and body paint, masks and uniforms, also plays a large role in the band's elaborate live shows. The band has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, have sold 40 million records worldwide and won several other awards. (wikipedia)

• • •

The ROW and the SEAT are really part of the airplane, not the AIRPORT. I mean, the plane is there, sometimes, but SEAT is not anywhere on my list of "Top 100 Things You Might Find At An AIRPORT." I do like how the last words track your progress from curbside to your specific place on the plane, but still, AIRPORT doesn't quite work as a revealer. And even if it did, it still kind of Thuds. No wordplay or cleverness, just ... AIRPORT. I think the grid is pretty nice, though. Clean, no wincing. Only trouble I had came in the SW, where I couldn't get [Admission of perjury] (I LIED) right away, and so faced with T-P--- for 48D: Pinnacle, I wrote in TOP--- figuring that would be ... right somehow. Mostly I just flailed around a little, and then regained my footing without too much effort. Also couldn't come up with NO NAME right away, hesitated on everything following TAKING at 65A, and couldn't really believe that SEW was the answer for [Make clothing]. It's right, of course, but there seems a big gap between SEW and [Make clothing]. SEW is pretty humble and generic, and I associate it more with mending.  Lastly, I hesitated a bit at ON THE __, unsure if it was gonna be QT or DL (4D: Discreetly, informally).


Five things:

• 73A: 1800s president nicknamed "His Accidency" (TYLER) — that dude is smack dab in the middle of "presidents I don't know anything about. Clue may as well have just said [One of them there US presidents]
• 63D: Cut (down) (PARE) — weird how something so simple can be mildly confounding. I looked at this, had no idea, and just filled it in from crosses
• 11D: Relative of alcopop (WINE COOLER) — in the 80s, we did not have "alcopop," but we definitely had these things. Very big with the kids who wanted to get drunk but didn't like the taste of booze.
• 55A: Daytime store window sign (OPEN) — pretty presumptuous clue. Some stores are OPEN after sundown
• 34A: Response to "Who wants to go?" ("I WILL") — I prefer this "I WILL":

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Human rights advocate Jagger / MON 9-10-18 / Shaggy grazer / Mosque toppers / Device to remove water from ship

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging (by far my slowest Monday time since I've been recording them) (4:09)

THEME: CHEESE / SPREAD (28A: With 45-Across, savory topping found in tubs ... and the circled squares?) — four-letter cheeses are S P R E A D out inside theme answers:

Theme answers:

• FREE TRADE (17A: Zero-tariff policy) (FETA)
• DEAD CALM (31A: Complete lack of wind, as at sea) (EDAM)
• BURL IVES (43A: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" actor) (BRIE)
• BILGE PUMP (58A: Device to remove water from a ship) (BLEU)

Word of the Day: SOBE (35A: Iced tea brand in a bottle) —

SoBe (stylized as SoBe) is an American brand of teas, fruit-juice blends and enhanced water beverages owned by PepsiCo. The name SoBe is an abbreviation of South Beach, named after the upscale area located in Miami Beach, Florida. In the past, the SoBe name has also been licensed for gum and chocolate products. SoBe switched from glass bottles to plastic bottles for all of its beverages in 2010. (wikipedia)

• • •

You wouldn't describe this as "Hard" but I don't know, man, it played like a tough Tuesday / easy-medium Wednesday for me. Something about the way the revealer is laid out AND cross-referenced, and then some of the proper nouns, and some of the potential traps you might fall into, made this not a normal Monday, difficulty-wise. Again, it's a minute of my day. A minute off of average. But a minute on Monday is F O R E V E R. I just finished a Manhattan, and I definitely get a little sloppy and slow when I've been drinking, but even so, I thought I was gonna come in somewhere in the mid-3s. But over 4??? I don't have a recorded *Tuesday* time that's over 4. I don't think the puzzle is difficult overall. Or maybe it is, but my particular downfall was a couple of mistakes, one understandable (and lethal) the other just a dumb misreading of the clue on my part. In the first case, I answered 5D: "Start working!" as GET TO IT! Oh, man, did that hurt. The wrong part went right through the first half of the revealer, so ... ouch. Also, I totally convinced myself that maybe TOSSES could work for 21A: Orders (around) (BOSSES) and PODS could work for 24A: Beginning blossoms (BUDS). The clue on COMFY was awkward-sounding to begin with (33A: Feeling good to wear, say), but throw in a wrong letter, and things ... well, they got ugly. And the second error was due to a too-quick reading of the clue at 37A: "Where there's ___, there's hope" (LIFE). I wrote in WILL, because clearly my brain thought "Where there's a WILL there's a way" was what was happening there. Where is this dumb unattributed quote from. Dum spiro, spero, I know—is that what this is? Footnote, please!


BIANCA Jagger is a "Human rights advocate"??? I didn't know she was ... I just haven't seen her name at all, in a million years, so that clue meant nothing to me. Honestly, I'm not sure I saw the clue. I think I filled her in entirely from crosses. I was lucky to know BURL IVES, though I'm not sure how easy that is for non-TCM fan solvers. I struggled through BILGE PUMP. I have a vague idea what it is, but it's a pretty technical term. It's weird to call AARP a [Grp. making after-work plans?] because ideally you've made "plans" before you are even eligible to *join* AARP. I mean, what is my IRA if not a "plan"? Or maybe the "plans" are just ordinary junk one might do. Non-financial. It's just that the phrasing of the clue implies that the planning is happening Before You've Stopped Work, in which case... probably not in AARP yet. See, when you get cute, I get picky. It's a tit for tat situation. I don't know what I thought of the theme. As someone who once made a cheese-themed puzzle himself, I guess I'm favorably inclined toward this one. I don't know.  But CHEESE SPREAD ... I don't eat that (I couldn't even name a type or brand), so it's not on my radar, and "savory topping found in tubs" didn't help one iota. But honestly, I barely noticed the theme and (as you can see) had bigger problems to deal with.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Operatic baritone Pasquale / SUN 8/19/18 / Humphries of the N.B.A. / Peak NW of Athens / "Sonnets to Orpheus" poet / "Birds in an Aquarium" artist

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (Medium-easy except for the NE and SW; 19:51, which is probably a hair above my Sunday average these days)

THEME: PASSIVE RESISTANCE — The constructor is resisting the use of passive voice by turning five phrases that would typically be in passive voice into active voice. Or maybe it means the speakers/creators of these statements are the ones resisting the passive voice. Either way, there's no passive voice in the theme answers. 

Theme answers:

• HOW THEY WON THE WEST (23A: Classic film narrated by Spencer Tracy), The active voice version of "How the West Was Won."
• THAT DOES NOT AMUSE US (36A: Remark commonly attributed to Queen Victoria), The active voice version of "We are not amused."
• NO ONE HAS RATED THIS FILM (54A: Statement at the end of some trailers), The active voice version of "This film is not [yet] rated." 
• WE INCLUDED NO BATTERIES (77A: Toy manufacturer's disclaimer), The active voice version of "Batteries not included."
• PEOPLE MADE MISTAKES (91A: Non-apology associated with several U.S. presidents), The active voice version of "Mistakes were made."
• PASSIVE RESISTANCE (111A: Protest tactic ... as suggested by 23-, 36-, 54-, 77-, and 91-across)

Word of the Day: PIT SAW (62A: Tool that it takes two to operate) —

A whipsaw or pitsaw was originally a type of saw used in a saw pit, and consisted of a narrow blade held rigid by a frame and called a frame saw or sash saw (see illustrations). This evolved into a straight, stiff blade without a frame, up to 14 feet long and with a handle at each end, the upper called the tiller and the lower one being the box

• • •

I rarely enjoy Sunday puzzles, and this is no exception. The gimmick is kind of blah (editor's note: my husband enjoyed it, being somewhat of a grammarian), and once you realize it (the revealer fell for me before any of the other themers), the whole thing is a slog. I especially object to NO ONE HAS RATED THIS FILM, because the phrase is "This film is not yet rated." Where'd the "yet" go? Plus, the grid really groans under the weight of those six long answers slashing through the heart of the puzzle. There is a lot of junky fill and some really tricky-verging-on-Natick crosses that I'm sure will trip people up (especially MT OSSA crossing ESA).


I felt very slow throughout this puzzle, never really getting more than a couple clues at a time. I sort of meandered my way from the top to the bottom, where PASSIVE RESISTANCE fell pretty easily once I had some of the shorter downs in place (I believe at that time I had just AME, LSAT, ASTO, PANTS, and EPCOT). Once I figured that out, I was able to move back up by filling in the themers with relative ease.

In the end, I was stuck for a while on both the NE and SW. In the NE, I originally had "me" instead of "us" for the last word in the Queen Victoria themer, so that messed me up. And because I didn't know what channel "Madam Secretary" was on, I tried each of the three possibilities before recognizing my mistake, plunking in SABERS and the other two downs, and that was that. In the SW I originally had GDP (as I suspect many people will), leaving me DONU?LE. I sat there and stared for a long while before figuring it all out.

There is a lot of questionable fill in here. A partial list: EST, AEC, RECS, ISO, ESA, GNP, AST, ILOST, ESL, ENT, AMO, NES, ETD, OHS, ETS, DOR, INE, SST, AME. I mean, just the ones starting with E there are a lot. And some of these were clued in especially painful ways (EST is 45A: Third-person form of "être"; GNP is 85A: Measure of econ. health). It just wasn't very enjoyable for me.

There's not much I can say that I did like, probably because there not a single non-theme answer over seven-letters long. But the stuff I did like is here in the bullets. Thanks to Rex for letting me blog this weekend! I hope y'all enjoyed it, and I look forward to coming back and doing it again sometime.

Bullets:

• STEPMOM (11D: Carole Brady, to three of her kids) — The Brady Bunch house just sold for like a zillion dollars. Sadly, Lance Bass was not the winning bidder. 
• GATEAU (15D: Bistro dessert) — Sounds like the sort of thing they make on the "Great British Baking Show," which is the best show currently on television.
• CRAVAT (68D: Fancy neckwear) — I'd like to have an opportunity to wear a cravat. Any ideas? 
• NONUPLE (86D: Word hitting two Triple Word Scores in Scrabble) — I don't actually like this word so much, but it's the most interesting answer in the entire grid. *shrug emoji*
• BAYLOR (35A: The Bears of the Big 12 Conference) — Notable to me only because my mother-in-law went there.
• GOUDA (104A: City known for its cheese)  — Perhaps my favorite vacation story. Joel and I went for a Gouda tasting in Amsterdam. We had this very stern hostess who we called the Cheese Wench. We went through the goudas from newest (3 months) to oldest (3 years or so), and at the end she asked which was our favorite. I like young, creamy cheeses, so I said the youngest. She was absolutely aghast--if she could have thrown me out on my can, she probably would have. 

Signed, Morgan Polikoff for Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Morgan Polikoff on Twitter (but only if you like liberal politics and education policy]
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