Soybean snack / THU 5-12-16 / Greek colonnade / Sucker holder / World music's King Sunny / Courier Myriad / Ampersand follower

Constructor: James Tuttle

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Second verse, enclosed in the first — two-word phrases where letters of second word can be found (in non-consecutive order) inside the first. Circles indicate the letters in the second word:

Theme answers:

• MARATHON (17A: 1976 Dustin Hoffman thriller)
• WRESTLING (22A: Stage for Hulk Hogan)
• TRANSPARENT (34A: What 3M's Scotch is a brand of)
• ESTIMATED (51A: Arrival or departure approximation)
• ABSTRACT (57A: Rothko's field)

Word of the Day: Bitter ALOES (53D: Bitter ___ (purgative medicine)) —

Aloe ferox (known as the Cape Aloe, Bitter Aloe, Red Aloe and Tap Aloe), is a species of arborescent aloe indigenous to southern Africa. It is one of several Aloe species used to make bitter aloes, a purgative medication, and also yields a non-bitter gel that can be used in cosmetics. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was not bad, but it felt familiar, like a puzzle I might've done fairly recently. The fill did *not* feel very recent, and was rough in ways you can all see quite clearly, so I won't rehash it (much). The themers all do what they're supposed to. There's a cleverness there. There just something lacking—a punch, a snap, a zing. The themers dutifully follow a pattern; none of them is that interesting or impressive. ESTIMATED TIME is a teeny bit weak as a stand-alone phrase, but it didn't bother me much. This puzzle just ... was. I like DECREPIT very much as a word (2D: In bad shape). I like EDAMAME very much as a food (27A: Soybean snack). So some delight there. But between the vanilla theme and the reddi-wip (i.e. I'll pass) fill, I was mostly glad not to have struggled much, and just to be done with it.


Time was very fast today. Well under 5. I fell into one pretty bad pit—fittingly, the pit was TORTURE (instead of the milder TORMENT). Elsewhere, that [___it!] style of clue that I do not like at all made it very hard to see DRUM SET (30D: Beat it!). Then even when I got the gist of the clue, I wanted DRUM KIT. Also had [----ERS market] at 43A and wanted SELLERS (after BUYERS wouldn't fit). It is FARMERS. Dum duh dum dum dum dum Dum. I wish this puzzle had just said NOE to ALOES and SRTAS hanging out by the STOA with RST (whoever that is). SE is a bit of a wreck all around. But honestly I didn't wince or groan that much. It was all very typical stuff. I do wish typical were better, but here we are.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Noted French encyclopedist / TUE 1-27-15 / German WWI admiral / Indian state whose name means five rivers / President who lived at Oak Hill /

Constructor: James Tuttle

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Tuesday**) 

THEME: Er .. Oh …  — all theme answers end with final syllable that rhymes with "roh"

Theme answers:

• KILIMANJARO (17A: Africa's highest peak)
• DENIS DIDEROT (24A: Noted French encyclopedist)
• SUCH SWEET SORROW (38A: Parting, to Juliet)
• CENSUS BUREAU (48A: Group you can rely on when it counts)
• JAMES MONROE (60A: President who lived at Oak Hill)

Word of the Day: LOT (64A: Polish airline) —

Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (Polish pronunciation: [ˈlɔt], Flight), trading as LOT Polish Airlines, is the flag carrier of Poland. Based in Warsaw, LOT was established in 1929, making it one of the world's oldest airlines still in operation. Using a fleet of 55 aircraft, LOT operates a complex network to 60 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia. Most of the destinations are served from its hub, Warsaw Chopin Airport.

As Poland made the transition to democracy from 1989, the airline began a transformation from a Soviet-controlled carrier to a European flag carrier. LOT started a process of fleet renewal with the purchase of Western aircraft to replace old Soviet models. With the arrival of the first Boeing 767-300ER, LOT started inter-continental services to Chicago, Newark, Toronto, and New York City. These four main routes have been some of the most popular flights that LOT operates, especially during the summer season when many Poles seek to come back to their homeland for vacation.

LOT found itself undergoing constant management change in the late 2000s due to worsening financials and reductions in market share. After placing orders for several Boeing 787 aircraft and taking delivery of two, the carrier has found itself "nearly insolvent" due to the January 2013 grounding of the 787. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is an odd, loose theme, but I don't mind it. That is, I don't mind the idea. I mind, slightly, DENIS DIDEROT on a Tuesday—his relative obscurity makes him a massive outlier in this line-up. And I mind somewhat more SUCH SWEET SORROW, since it's essentially a partial. It's easy, and hence likely welcome to solvers trying to move through this harder-than-usual puzzle, but it's not good as stand-alone fill. Not at all. So the theme idea is just OK and the execution is a bit wobbly. The fill is quite bad. Demonstrably bad. I count eight (!) entries that I'd consider "Fill Of Last Resort," and that *doesn't* include the more typical crosswordese like AGAR, ONO, ROO, ETAS, OER, etc. On a Tuesday, fill should be *much* much cleaner than this. OLEA? (40D: Olive genus) Bad enough on its own, but somehow worse in a puzzle that already has LEA. Then there's EMER ETH SSE RUS ELUL NOI and SPEE (the last of which I botched because I confused it with that other crosswordese gem, SMEE). And what the hell is up with the clue on LOT? I've been doing puzzles a long, long time, and I'm not sure I've ever seen LOT clued as a Polish airline. I just checked the cruciverb.com database: of 253 LOTs, precisely zero have been clued via the airline. None. None. Again, it's Tuesday. I have no idea what that clue was all about.


Scouts earn merit BADGES, so MERITS (?) slowed me down (28A: Scouts earn them), as did my inability to get the vowels right in KIL-M-NJARO. Misread [Part of a televised movie review] as [… movie crew] and so had trouble with CLIP (had GRIP at some point). My SMEE-for-SPEE troubles mean PUNJAB was pretty tough to come up with (46D: Indian state whose name means "five rivers"). Everything else was fairly straightforward, though not necessarily instantly gettable. I was over four minutes today, which is pretty rare for me on a Tuesday. The relatively slow time matters not at all to me. The uneven, ultimately unsatisfying solving experience—that matters.


Hope all you New Yorkers are surviving the alleged End Times Snowstorm. We're only getting an inch or three here in central upstate NY.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Shelf prop / TUE 5-27-14 / Language that gave us guru pundit / Shot for those who have mastered English / Rebuke to eavesdropper for short

Constructor: James Tuttle

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: BOOKEND (37A: Shelf prop … or a hint to both parts of the answers to the sic starred clues) — two-part phrases (or compound words) where both parts can precede "book" in a familiar phrase.

Theme answers:

• OPEN SOURCE (18A: *Like software that can be freely used and altered)
• FLIP PHONE (26A: *Samsung or LG product)
• MATCH PLAY (47A: *Tournament competition)
• SCHOOLWORK (55A: *Class assignments)
• BABY BLUE (3D: *Like many a heartthrob's eyes)
• GOODYEAR (38D: *Company whose logo includes the winged foot of Mercury)

Word of the Day: Buck O'NEIL (7D: Baseball great Buck) —

John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil (November 13, 1911 – October 6, 2006) was a first baseman andmanager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he worked as a scout, and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball. In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

O'Neil's life was documented in Joe Posnanski's award-winning 2007 book The Soul of Baseball. (wikipedia)

• • •

One of those after-the-facters that never interest me that much. Also, revealer should really be BOOKENDS. That would've been much more elegant. Wouldn't've fit in the center of a 15x15 grid, but still: better is better. Top three theme answers are reasonably interesting in their own right, the others, less so, and the overall fill quality is probably a shade below average (INRE OON ATTA ANOSE etc.). At 78 words (the max) your fill should be Squeaky clean, though with this kind of theme density, I guess some allowances have to be made. Grid has a strange feel to it, where it's crammed with unattractive short stuff but also has these interesting somewhat open patches of long answers (parallel Downs in the NW and SE, and the nifty little StaggerStack™ in the middle). Those patches, especially the center, were the only places I met any resistance in this thing. First pass at the middle Acrosses didn't yield much, so I had to pepper them with crosses before they came to heel. Mostly I just flew through this without any clear sense of what was going on. I probably puzzled most over MYOB, an expression I haven't heard / seen in ages (not complaining—I actually like it; it's like proto-textspeak. Textspeak before there was textspeak. Unlike OMG, which had no life that I'm aware of before texts).


I always forget who Buck O'NEIL is, and always want instead either Buck OWENS (uh, not a baseball player) or Buck … the guy who manages the Orioles. Buck … Showalter! Yeah, he doesn't fit. So if this puzzle does nothing else, maybe it ETCHES Buck O'NEIL into my memory forever. One can hope.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Kind of acid in soapmaking / MON 1-27-14 / 1963 Elizabeth Taylor role / Mideast bigwig Var

Constructor: James Tuttle
Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: It's about TIME! Theme entries are comprised of two words that can precede or follow "time" in a phrase.

Word of the Day: FIBONACCI — [Eponym of a number series that begins 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ...]

Leonardo Fibonacci – was an Italian mathematician, considered by some "the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages." (wikipedia)

• • •

Matt Gaffney here, filling in for Rex this week while he's doing who-knows-what in historic Binghamton (probably just grading papers, but let's pretend he's parasailing days and drinking absinthe evenings).

Quick graf to establish my sterling bona fides: I've been a professional crossword puzzle writer for the past 15 years. I write a daily mini-puzzle here (easy), a weekly current events puzzle for The Week here (medium), and a weekly crossword contest here (difficult) . I also write a crossword blog here. And I do other crossword stuff which is easily Googleable. Or Bingable, since Rex lives in Binghamton.

On to the Monday NYX:

Theme answers:

• 17-A [*Flying] = AIR TRAVEL
• 24-A [*One placed between warring parties] = PEACEKEEPER
• 32-A [*Contestant's help on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"] = LIFELINE
• 45-A [*King, queen or jack] = FACE CARD
• 52-A [*Piece of furniture that might be under a chandelier] = DINNER TABLE
• 63-A [Vacation lodging purchase ... or an arrangement between the two halves of the answer to each starred clue?] = TIME SHARE

It's OK to do a crossword theme that's been done before, but if you're going to do it, do it with a new wrinkle. And that's what James Tuttle does today: each of the five theme entries (besides the revealer) consists of a two-word phrase, the first of which precedes the word "time" in a phrase, and the second of which follows it. So we have "airtime" and "time travel," then "peacetime" and "timekeeper," and then three more that you've probably already deduced.


This kind of "word that follows ...." theme is well-known, but I applaud the wrinkle here that the two phrases "share" the word TIME, as given in the TIME SHARE revealer. I'm told that real-life timeshares can be a huge pain in the ass, but this one was quite pleasant. So thumbs-up on the theme.

Bullets:

• Star fill: the aforementioned FIBONACCI, plus CLEOPATRA, I DUNNO, BLEND IN, and a FACE CARD which is always welcome in my beloved weekly Texas HOLD 'EM game. You want all of these in your crossword.
• But: Rex and other smart critics have repeatedly highlighted the Achilles' heel of the New York Times puzzle, which is early-week suboptimal fill, and as a crossword demon I can't let it pass without comment. OLEIC [Kind of acid in soapmaking], EMEER [Mideast bigwig: Var.], and OATEN [Like some cereals] don't belong in crossword puzzles period, and on a Monday I'll ding those three a full .75 on the 5-star scale used at the blog Diary of a Crossword Fiend. The "Var." tag should be used about three times a year in a daily crossword, and never on Mondays. Ne[Var.]. There's some other less-than-Monday stuff in here, too (EWERS, NICAD, IRANI) that you don't see in other top-level crosswords.
• I dig the amusing linked clues at 2-Down and 14-Across, TRIED and TRUE. Good decision to go unconventional on the cluing there.
• General un-dig: this crossword doesn't have a single clue that couldn't have been written ten years ago. How about a "Book of Mormon" reference for LDS, or a "Blue Jasmine" reference for ALLEN for Woody instead of Ethan, or a David SPADE reference instead of [Digging tool]? Would that've killed anyone? I'm not saying the NYX has to become one of the hipster crosswords, but every single clue in this puzzle could've been from pre-2004. [First number dialed when calling long distance] for ONE doesn't help the musty overall vibe, either.
• Not that there's anything wrong with classical: AENEID, DOLCE, AHAB and PENN are all solid items in the Western canon.  

On the Fiend scale I'd give the theme here a 4.30 out of 5.00, but the fill and overall stale cluing vibe a 3.50. We'll average that out to a 3.80, and I will say that I enjoyed the solve and look forward to the rest of the week, and congratulate Mr. Tuttle on what I see is his 4th Times puzzle. Bravo to him, and over and out until tomorrow.

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent for one week of CrossWorld

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Horse-drawn vehicle / THU 6-6-13 / Conquistador's quest / World capital that's setting for three Bond films / Doc Brown in Back to Future films / Kit Carson professionally / Food named six times in children's rhyme / Word before happiness majesty fame Shelley poem / Hoopster Ming

Constructor: James Tuttle

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: FALLING O(ut) (66A: Quarrel ... or a feature of five answers in this puzzle) — theme answers are two-word phrases where the second word is OUT. In the grid, the answer takes a 90-degree turn to the south at the "O"; thus the OUT appears to be FALLING.


Theme answers:

• 19A: Begin a journey (STRIKE Out)
• 16A: Explain in detail (SPELL Out)
• 25A: Discovers (FERRETS Out)
• 65A: Relax (CHILL Out)

Word of the Day: LANDAU (18A: Horse-drawn vehicle) —

n.

1. A four-wheeled carriage with front and back passenger seats that face each other and a roof in two sections that can be lowered or detached.
2. A style of automobile with a similar roof.

[After Landau, a city of southwest Germany.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/landau#ixzz2VOmmoDXh

• • •

Like the other puzzles this week, this one was super-easy. Unlike the others, this one entertained me a bit. Again, the fill isn't terribly interesting, but then rarely is actively offensive, either (though starting off with -ESE / E-CASH did not bode well). And though the theme was not hard to ferret out, it's pretty clever. Nice use of the revealer, literalizing a common expression. You can tell by the grid shape that something tricky is going on—none of the typical long theme answers one usually sees in a themed puzzle. This often suggests a rebus or some other gimmick that requires you to think outside conventional puzzle parameters. I picked up the theme very early, after I put in START at 19A and then immediately erased it based on the "K" from 4D: Modest kiss (PECK). Got SEE OUT easily, and thus STRIKE OUT was fully revealed to me without my having to try very hard (this was one minor inconsistency—free-standing OUTs in SEE OUT and I'M OUT, instead of the (preferable, I think) buried OUTs in ROUT, TOUT, and SCOUT). After discovering the theme, my only real hang-up was in and around LANDAU, a word I know but forgot. Most of the rest of the puzzle played like a Wednesday, and the bottom part closer to Tuesday.

There was definitely a bunch of stuff I didn't know today, but for whatever reason, it didn't prove a hindrance. I had trouble making sense of the Shelley clue (24A: Word before "happiness," "majesty" and "fame" at the start of a Shelley poem) (NOR), likely because I don't know this Shelley poem (the poem is "Political Greatness" ... ???). I thought the clue was saying the word came before those words in *titles*. I tried HER at first. Not up on my "Mikado" songs, so "TIT-Willow" came just from crosses (37A: "___-Willow" (song from "The Mikado")). I recognize the counting rhyme now, but during the solve, couldn't call it up (50D: Food named six times in a children's number rhyme (POTATO)). SE was so easy that I never even saw the clues on NASSAU (67A: World capital that's a setting for three Bond films) or EMMETT (69A: Doc Brown in the "Back to the Future" movies). Both of them might have given me trouble in other contexts. But not today.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Tennis winner's declaration / MON 4-18-11 / Distance on Erie Canal in song / Conqueror of Valencia in 1094 / Theater backdrop / Rod-shaped bacteria

Constructor: James Tuttle

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: GAME SET MATCH (57A: Tennis winner's declaration)— theme answers begin with tennis scores: LOVE, FIFTEEN, THIRTY, FORTY, ending with GAME SET MATCH!


Word of the Day: SIVA (58D: One of the Hindu trinity) —

Shiva ([...] meaning "auspicious one" ) is a major Hindu deity, and the Destroyer or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. In the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism, Shiva is seen as the Supreme God. In the Smarta tradition, he is regarded as one of the five primary forms of God. Followers of Hinduism who focus their worship upon Shiva are called Shaivites or Shaivas (Sanskrit Śaiva). Shaivism, along with Vaiṣṇava traditions that focus on Vishnu and Śākta traditions that focus on the goddess Shakti, is one of the most influential denominations in Hinduism. (wikipedia)

• • •

Did this untimed on the couch during commercials while watching DVR'd Thursday sitcoms. Felt easier than usual, but with a handful of specialized answers and a couple odd theme answers to give it a tiny bit of bite. It's a cute little theme, though FIFTEEN MILES isn't great as a stand-alone answers. FIFTEEN MINUTES (unit of fame) or FIFTEEN PERCENT (common tip) would've been great, but those are both 14, and 14s are Hard to make work, especially in a five-theme-answer grid. Other answers seem fine, and FIFTEEN MILES is certainly gettable (if you know the old song), so no big loss. STELA (23A: Inscribed pillar), SIVA (58D: One of the Hindu trinity), and SCRIM (55D: Theater backdrop) are slightly advanced, as Monday fare goes, and THANE was clued in such a way (56D: Feudal baron) that I needed several crosses to see it (no "Macbeth" clue today). Think of Hasbro and Fisher-Price as TOY companies or TOY brands. Think of elves as TOY MAKERs (speaking of elves, Will Ferrell was in "Elf," and Will Ferrell was in the episode of "The Office" I was watching while solving this puzzle—top that for meaningless coincidences!).



Theme answers:

• 20A: Tricky romantic relationship (LOVE TRIANGLE) — I think of a TRIANGLE as involving at least two relationships, plural.
  
• 28A: Distance on the Erie Canal, in song (FIFTEEN MILES)
  
• 38A: One approaching middle age (THIRTY-SOMETHING) — how in the World was this not clued as the '80s/'90s TV show???
  
• 46A: "Arabian Nights" band (FORTY THIEVES) — clue makes it sound like we're looking for a musical group that had a hit with the song "Arabian Nights"
  

Bullets:

• 9A: Karate schools (DOJOS) — Yes. Yes. Not TAI chi schools (21D: ___ chi (martial art)). Karate schools. Glad that's clear now.
  
• 19A: English P.M. William and others (PITTS) — this seems a slightly advanced Monday clue as well. This one is Pitt the Younger.
  
• 25D: Conqueror of Valencia in 1094 (EL CID) — had -LCI- and filled it in without looking. Risky? Not very.
  
• 31D: Rod-shaped bacteria (E. COLI) — I did not know rodlikeness was its distinguishing characteristic.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Minor despot / MON 1-10-11 / Scottish hillside / Highway route through Whitehorse Yukon / Ancient Asia Minor region

Constructor: James Tuttle

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: Follow THE BOUNCING BALL — two 13-letter answers (KARAOKE SCREEN, PING PONG TABLE) are clued as places "to follow the object named in the circled letters"—circled letters spell out THE BOUNCING BALL, and form a series of arcs that looks vaguely like the path of said ball


Word of the Day: SATRAP (52D: Minor despot) —

Satrap (Persian: ساتراپ) was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid (Persian) Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires. // The word satrap is also often used in modern literature to refer to world leaders or governors who are heavily influenced by larger world superpowers or hegemonies and act as their surrogates. (wikipedia)

• • •

[It's pledge week here at the Rex Parker site (thru Sat.) —read my pitch for donations in the opening paragraphs of Sunday's write-up, here ... and thanks for your faithful readership (and the many kind messages I've received so far)]

***

This one played out like a slightly toughish Tuesday or a very easy Wednesday puzzle. Quick glance at the early times at the NYT puzzle site suggests that I wasn't alone in taking longer than usual. You don't normally see gimmick puzzles like this on a Monday, and it's possible that the gimmick (specifically, getting the bouncing ball pattern to work out), forced the fill into somewhat tougher-than-usual territory—and yet there's not really much in the way of non-Monday fill here. SATRAP, sure, and maybe ALCAN (40A: ___ Highway (route through Whitehorse, Yukon)), and maybe (depending on your purchase on popular culture) THE SIMS (49A: Computer game with virtual people). But everything else seems easy. The cluing seemed vaguer or tougher than usual. But then again I started by falling flat on my face with SERBS for SLAVS (1A: Many Eastern Europeans), which I erased after I realized that Pierre's state had to be ÉTAT at 1D: Pierre's state: Abbr. (S. DAK.) (I just ignored that "Abbr." notation, apparently). So I was way behind before I ever left the gate. But elsewhere, PICNIC ... what? Needed crosses to see AREA (11D: Outdoor eating place where you might lay a blanket). Couldn't remember SANTANA despite how massive that 1999 album was (29A: Artist whose 1999 hit "Smooth" was #1 for 12 weeks). GEEKS for TECHS (31D: Computer whizzes). No hope for IONIA on first pass (44A: Ancient Asia Minor region). Tough to get to HOG TIE from the vague clue 50D: Immobilize. SATRAP is a word I know, but certainly didn't get straight away from the clue 52D: Minor despot. All of this made for a time in the high 3s, Very high for a Monday.

[Warning: there's some profanity in here]
As for the theme, it's cute, but supremely thin (even counting the circled letters). As for KARAOKE SCREENs (odd phrase, not nearly as in-the-language as, say, KARAOKE BAR) ... do their balls bounce that way? That is, does the height of the ball change as much as it does in this grid's rendering? Just a question, not a criticism of the concept. Pics I'm seeing online feature text that changes color, not text with a bouncing ball. Never having participated in KARAOKE, I can't comment on the finer points of the tech involved. This puzzle feels a bit like editorial kissing-up, as Will Shortz is well known as a PING PONG enthusiast (not just in a rec room kind of way—he competes at a pretty high level, as I understand it). At any rate, it's nice to have a gimmick puzzle to shake things up on a Monday. Wasn't crazy about it, but it's at least far more memorable than a lot of early-week fare.

Bullets:

• 6A: Air passage (DUCT) — botched this one too. Had VENT.
  
• 24A: Hannibal ___, vice president under Abraham Lincoln (HAMLIN) — brain went immediately to LECTER. That's a mildly tough trivia clue. Pied piper clue deemed too remedial, Harry HAMLIN clue deemed too dated, apparently.
  
• 54A: Old-fashioned paper copies (DITTOS) — whoa, I don't think I've seen or heard that word since elementary school.
  
• 60D: WXY, on a phone (NINE) — my favorite number! And it's a telephone keypad clue?! Ted Williams is rolling over in his grave.

[Number nine ... Number nine ...]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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