Many a Marvel character / TUES 3-28-23 / Wyatt of the Wild West / Beverages with tasting notes / Bakery unit / Red gemstone

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare, back for the last Tuesday of March. Hope everyone is having a good start to your spring. I saw the cherry blossoms here in DC yesterday, and they were stunning — the sky was clear and bright blue, and the blossoms were at about their colorful, fragrant peak. It was just… imagine a lot of people… now multiply that by about tenfold. But, yes, I still got some lovely photos. I'm also enjoying the weather warming up because it means I can ride my bike without having to wear seven layers of clothing. And, of course, I’m staying up-to-date on all the sports happenings in the world, especially the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments. 

Anywho, onto the crossword!

Constructor: Daniel Kantor and Jay Kaskel

Relative difficulty: Pretty easy

THEME: Emphatic gestures that use a body part

Theme answers:

• BROW WIPE (17A: [Phew! That was close!]) 
• KNEE SLAP (26A: [Har-har-har!]) 
• EYE ROLL (40A: [Puh-lease!]) 
• FACEPALM (51A: [D'oh!]) 
• FIST PUMP (64A: [Woo-hoo!])

Word of the Day: IDIOT (35A: Dostoyevsky novel about a "positively beautiful man," with "The") —

The Idiot is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1868–69. The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man." The novel examines the consequences of placing such a singular individual at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he becomes involved. (Wiki)

• • •

So that puzzle… existed. I don’t know. It was straightforward and fairly easy. The theme wasn’t overly special, but it was at least different from some of the usual themes we get. The gestures generally felt solid — except, I didn’t like BROW WIPE (17A); you wipe your brow, but I don’t think a BROW WIPE is a thing, is it? The theme didn’t take me very long to get, and once I got it, the answers came pretty easily. 

I think if you were in the mood for something kind of meh that you could do while listening to music and watching the South Carolina women win again in the NCAA tournament, you probably enjoyed this puzzle. On the other hand, if you wanted some inventive clues/answers with a really invigorating theme, this may not have been your favorite puzzle. 

I fell somewhere in between. There was some good to the puzzle. I don’t usually love bracket clues, but the theme used them well. PIE HOLE (30D: Mouth, slangily), SATCHEL (49A: Bag with a strap), LEMURS (66A: Madagascar's aye-ayes and sifakas), and TREETOP (28A: "Rock-a-Bye Baby" setting) were all fun words you don’t see that often in puzzles. The fill wasn’t too crosswordese-y. 

But, some of the puzzle just felt off. There was some laziness seemingly with ACT UP (46D: Make Mischief), EVENS UP (44D: Ties, as a score), and SHOOT EM UP (3D: Video game genre for Space Invaders) all having the same ending. Also, while I don’t blame the constructors for this, it was really poor timing to have an answer in the puzzle be SHOOT EM UP given Monday’s horrible events in Nashville. Having CRIMEA (8D: Black Sea peninsula) and RUSSIA (62A: Country that seized 8-Down in 2014) there in the puzzle felt somehow off to me, too — maybe it’s the clue for 62A, where “seized” is a pretty tame word for what RUSSIA did. 

I had “in the nude” rather than IN THE BUFF (36D: Not wearing any clothing) for a bit, which confused the SE corner for me before I saw the clue 68A: Douglas __ and knew the answer had to be FIR. I also had no idea what 25D: Chichi was. I’ve since Googled it, and I’m not convinced the definition of “chichi” really aligns with TONY. It seems the definition for TONY (not the award for excellence on Broadway) is aristocratic manner, fashionable, stylish, expensive. Chichi seems to be more about being elegant or trendy or elaborately ornamented in a pretentious way.

Misc.:

• I was all set to make EMIL (60D: Actor Jannings who won the first Best Actor Oscar) the “word of the day,” but looking through his Wikipedia page, I quickly learned that he was a Swiss-born German actor and starred in a lot of Nazi propaganda films.He even apparently carried his Oscar around to prove he’d been associated with Hollywood. Not sure we needed him in the puzzle… 
• Quick aside: Can anyone tell me why doornails are DEAD (57A)?! 
• With 28D: "Rock-a-Bye Baby" setting, if you look at the lyrics for “Rock-a-bye-Baby,” why in the world is this a nursery rhyme? “Down will come baby, cradle and all.” I guess there’s room for interpretation, but I’m pretty sure the baby dies there. Similar vibes as “Oh My Darling, Clementine,” where the woman drowns. 
• Thanks, but I didn’t really need another reminder about the TAMPA (12D) Bay Buccaneers winning the 2021 Super Bowl. As if Tom Brady really needed that seventh ring. Just rub it in, why don’t you? At least he’s retired — for now. Also, today I learned the city is just TAMPA, not “Tampa Bay.” 
• SLOPES (69A: They can be slippery) reminded me of the recent Alpine ski racing season that just ended where Mikaela Shiffrin had one of the most phenomenal years of any athlete in any sport ever. Having just turned 28, she now has the most wins of any skier all time (among a whole bunch of other records she set) and also won the overall title and two discipline titles (aka three Globes). Her win percentage in the races she enters is at about 35 percent, which is just insane and is also the highest of any athlete in any sport (higher than Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods). In case you can’t tell, I’m a big Mikaela Shiffrin fan. She’s pretty much the best. Let’s get her into some crosswords, okay?

And that's it from me. Have a great April!

Signed, Clare [Head Scratch] Carroll

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Product-testing nonprofit since 1936 / TUE 8-2-22 / Late-night show starting in 2003 / Moon-landing acronym / Vaccine shot in British lingo

Constructor: Jay Kaskel and Daniel Kantor

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: REPEAT AFTER ME (36A: Swearing-in words ... or a hint to 17-, 22-, 48- and 55-Across) — in each theme answer, a letter "repeats" after the letter string "ME" ... I think that's it

Theme answers:

• FOR OLD TIMES' SAKE (17A: In remembrance of former days)
• STEAMED DUMPLING (22A: Dim sum serving)
• CONSUMER REPORTS (48A: Product-testing nonprofit since 1936)
• "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE" (55A: Late-night show starting in 2003)

Word of the Day: KRONA (4D: Swedish currency) —

noun

1. 1. 

   the basic monetary unit of Sweden, equal to 100 öre.
2. 2. 

   the basic monetary unit of Iceland, equal to 100 aurar. (google / Oxford Languages)

• • •

Hello again from Lake Michigan. The write-ups for these next three days (T, W, Th) really are going to be shorter than usual because timing ... is just ... hard when you're on vacation. Drinking and eating and socializing really horns in on your crossword time, it turns out. So I'm sitting here just after 10pm writing fairly frantically while my wife and friends are all sitting around planning tomorrow's adventures. I could get up at 4:30am like at home but LOL that is not happening on this particular vacation. There's a reason I normally have people cover for me on vacation, and cover for me they will once my vacation switches VENUEs (headed to Los Angeles on Friday). But for now, you get squibs. Is that the word? Squib? Maybe I mean "stub," I don't know. Definitely not "squab," which is some kind of small fowl, I think. Onward!

It's possible I'm missing something today, because I don't see what makes this particular concept special. A double letter following "ME," is that really it"? I thought maybe the repeated letters would spell some relevant ... something, but no. S + D + R + L, that doesn't spell anything I'm familiar with. I have no idea how high or low the difficulty bar is here. Seems like there must be a million phrases that feature "ME" and then repeated letters. Today, the repeated letters break across two words every time (that is, the first of the pair (e.g. the "R" in "CONSUMER") is the last letter in a word and the second of the pair (e.g. the "R" in "REPORTS") is the first letter of the next word. That's ... something. But it's not a particularly flashy or even noticeable thing. The concept just doesn't feel tight enough. Also, there should be no other "ME"s in a puzzle like this. If the theme is REPEAT AFTER ME, then that should hold for all "ME"s in the grid, which is why "ME"s should occur only in themers. But there are, of course, other "ME"s, like in MEATS. Eliminating all non-theme "ME"s from the grid is a way to make the whole theme seem more elegant. And it wouldn't have been hard to do. The grid is not tough to fill—in fact, the fill really could be saucier and more interesting overall, given how little pressure the theme puts on the grid. Mostly what we get is very familiar and predominantly dull stuff. It was really hard even to decide on a Word of the Day today, so uninspiring was the fill. Basically, where the fill was concerned, this puzzle OGLED OGRES. The point is, well, twofold: there should be no non-theme "ME"s and the fill in general should've been much more interesting. 

There is nothing terrible about this puzzle. No big misses, nothing off-putting (except TASE, which, for me, is too strongly associated with police violence). The most jarring moment was trying to figure out 5D: Palindromic rental, getting D-D, and having no idea what that could be. I forgot that people still rent DVDs. Hell, *I* still rent DVDs, in that I still have (or recently re-got) the Netflix red-envelope snail-mail DVD/Blu-ray subscription dealie (and I love it). But cluing DVD as a rental still really threw me, since that is not how most people get their movies any more. OK, that's all, gotta go eat peaches. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Vanzetti's partner in 1920s crime / MON 10-30-17 / Chickens for roasting

Constructor: Jay Kaskel

Relative difficulty: Medium* (actually, no idea ... see below)

THEME: witches' brew — ordinary phrases are clued as if they related to witches, because it's October 30, which is of course Hallo ... wait a minute ..

Theme answers:

• SPELLCHECK (18A: Computer help for a witch?)
• CHARM SCHOOL (26A: Educational institution for witches?)
• WARTS AND ALL (41A: How one might be forced to accept a witch?)
• CURSE WORDS (53A: Utterances from witches?)

Word of the Day: INCUS (12D: Ear bone) —

noun

Anatomy

noun: incus; plural noun: incudes

1. a small anvil-shaped bone in the middle ear, transmitting vibrations between the malleus and stapes. (google)

• • •

The plural of INCUS is "incudes"!? WHERE DID THE "D" COME FROM!!?!?!?! Now *that* is EERIE.

 [SCHELL game]

This is actually fine. It's a cute-ish little pun puzzle about witches, and though it's not actually Halloween, it is Halloween-adjacent, so ... fine. The fill is very very very very average (i.e. not great), but it wasn't dreadful. This one is a "C"—average, OK, fine, you pass. You shouldn't have to go to either SCHELL (!) or INCUS on a Monday, but you pass. I thought SCHNELL, as so tried all Kinds of spellings. My main gripe today is not with the puzzle itself, but with the NYT crossword website, which would not not not cough up a .puz version of the puzzle for me to solve on my desktop with AcrossLite software; that is, it wouldn't give me the damned puzzle in my preferred format. Instead it gave me this stupid error message:

And so I had to solve on the NYT website itself. The "applet," I think it's called. And that was dreadful, because I'm used to how the keyboard behaves with AcrossLite, which is slightly, eerily, but significantly different from how it behaves on the applet. At high speeds, that difference is amplified, i.e. I move through the grid like a drunk person moves through an obstacle course, i.e. humorously badly. My time was slow, but I can't lay that all on the puzzle. Hence my default (i.e. "I don't know") "Medium" difficulty rating.


Had CLOT for CLOD (26D: Dirt clump). Both seem right, and OTS looks OK in the cross ... this is why you check your damned crosses. Now that I look at CLOT and CLOD, CLOD is obviously the better choice. CLOT = blood, CLOD = dirt, or some dumbass, I suppose. Can we all agree that [U.K. award]s are among the lowest forms of crossword answers. A notch below [Schoolyard taunt]s. I had the most trouble with WURSTS, because I wanted only BRATS and then no other words would form in my head. It was very frustrating. I like the little bonus themers of HAGS and EERIE, and also CRIES and PAINS crossing in the center. Very Halloweeny. All in all, a tolerable amuse-bouche of a Halloweenesque puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Big letters in home security / TUE 8-1-17 / Marijuana slangily / Net that netted Dory in Finding Nemo / Zin altnerative / Onetime Ron Howard role

Constructor: Jay Kaskel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Shocking!" — all theme clues are ["Shocking!," to a [somebody]] and then the answer is a phrase meaning "Shocking!" (in really olde-timey lingo) that is also a pun on the [somebody]:

Theme answers:

• "OH, MY STARS!" (17A: "Shocking!," to an astronomer?) (that "OH" is totally contrived, boo, no)
• "HOLY TOLEDO!" (25A: "Shocking!," to an Ohio tourist?)
• "I'LL BE DARNED!" (36A: "Shocking!," to a seamstress?) (the seamstress herself would not be darned ... just factually speaking)
• "WELL I NEVER!" (50A: "Shocking!," to a teetotaler?)
• "GOOD GRAVY!" (59A: "Shocking!," to a Thanksgiving guest?)

Word of the Day: ADT (5D: Big letters in home security) —

The ADT Corporation is an American corporation that provides residential and small business electronic security, fire protection and other related alarm monitoring services in 35 countries. The corporate head office is located in Boca Raton, Florida. In February 2016, the company was acquired by Apollo Global Management for $6.9 billion in a leveraged buyout. (wikipedia)

• • •

"Shocking!," to the cast of "The Andy Griffith Show." These expressions are all hilariously old. Like, OLD NAG old. Older-than-WKRP old. Not quite DINOS old. But old. Made this XER (ugh, that "word") feel waaaay too young for this puzzle. Almost like a teen AGER (ugh, that non-word). The concept almost works, except for the DARNED answer (see above), but it's all too cornball for me. The fill generally matches the theme, i.e. not from this century in any way shape or form. Grid is crowded with tired, old fill / crosswordese. There is a minor cute factor in the theme, if you're into that kind of thing, but the mustiness of the whole endeavor is rather too much for me. Rather! None of this, however, is shocking.


Puzzle was mercifully easy, though. The only hold-ups involved cheap stupid ambiguities like at 15A: "See you!"—I had ADI- and went ADIEU instead of ADIOS, and again at 39A: Childish comeback where I had AM TOO instead of IS TOO. See, fun, right? Sigh. The most interesting mistake I made came at the most interesting answer in the grid (interesting, in that it felt not at all in keeping with the mindset / humor / frame of reference of the Entire rest of the puzzle): HERB (25D: Marijuana, slangily). Had the "H-" and quickly wrote in HASH (seemed more like what someone who uses the expression "OH, MY STARS!" would call marijuana). This puzzle doesn't really warrant further comment.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Onetime MTV reality stunt show / WED 10-28-15 / 1950s mideast hotspot / Big name in 1980s jeans / Ouzo flavoring / Confident counterclaim / Political group unlikely to be swayed

Constructor: Jay Kaskel and Daniel Kantor

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Wednesday*) (not sure why, but my time was sky-high)

THEME: FOOD COURT (34A: Legal setting for 17-, 25-, 45- and 53-Across?) — food products clued as if they were involved in court cases (thus playing on the first, descriptive word in the food's name):

Theme answers:

• CANNED CORN (17A: 34-Across case involving ... wrongful termination?)
• SPLIT PEAS (25A: ... divorce proceedings?)
• DIRTY RICE (45A: ... political corruption?)
• BAKED BEANS (53A:  ... marijuana possession?)

Word of the Day: "JACKASS" (1D: Onetime MTV reality stunt show) —

Jackass is an American reality series, originally shown on MTV from 2000 to 2002,^[2] featuring people performing various dangerous, crude, self-injuring stunts and pranks. The show served as a launchpad for the television and acting careers of Bam Margera, Steve-O, and Johnny Knoxville, who previously had only minor acting roles. // Since 2001, three Jackass films have been produced and released by MTV corporate sibling Paramount Pictures, continuing the franchise after its run on television. The show sparked several spin-offs including Viva La Bam, Wildboyz, Homewrecker, Dr. Steve-O, Nitro Circus and Blastazoid. (wikipedia)

• • •

Cute idea, but the themers are inconsistent, arbitrary, and kind of dull. Foods really seem forced, conscripted, into the theme. The idea of a (literal) FOOD COURT is amusing, but there has to be a way to make this tighter / more amusing. Getting canned or split is not a crime, but being dirty or getting baked is (though ... do people go to court for simple possession still? Also, simple "possession" does not get you BAKED ... or so I understand). Lots of things are CANNED—CANNED CORN doesn't feel special or tight. Feels like it was just a "canned" answer that fit.  Also, DIRTY RICE is a whole dish, where the others are just single food items. Fill-wise, it's rough in many places, though you do get some occasionally interesting things in those giant, weirdly sequestered corners in the NW and SE.


I took a screenshot part way through when I got weirdly stuck. Looking back, it seems impossible that I couldn't instantly get SPLIT PEAS from this ...

... but my mind was racing to try to find types of peas. Like SWEET. Split is a form of processing. Brain just wasn't tilting that way. This brings up another inconsistency: no one eats SPLIT PEAS. As soup, sure, but just on their own? No. You could eat the others as they appear in the grid. But nobody eats just SPLIT PEAS. Google [split pea...] and all the suggestions are for soup. For A Reason.

Bullets:

• 32D: Unidentified hostile aircraft (BOGEYS) — had trouble with the plural part, but not with the answer in general. This is because I just watched "Top Gun" (on Saturday night). BOGEYS everywhere. Also oiled man-bods. Venetian blinds. And fans. Ceiling fans. Metal-cage desk fans. Just ... blowing. Lots of blowing.
• 47A: North Dakota city (MINOT)— fourth-largest city in the state! Which puts it under 50K. Not sure how I semi-remembered this. But I semi-did. Not great fill. I mean, beats ENERO and OUSE, but not by a ton.
• 9D: Stop for water (DAM) — clues like this one (a good one) are why this puzzle played a little hard for me. This is a tough, hard-to-read clue. It's got that whole "what does 'stop' mean?" thing going on. I was trying to decided if it was a verb or noun, but I was imagining a totally different form of noun (like an oasis). Tricky. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I made today's Buzzfeed crossword (a themeless). You can get it here. I would love it if you solved it. Thanks.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Goo goo eyed old style / TUE 8-11-15 / Ones steeped in tradition in England / Biblical kingdom its Utah namesake / Messy sandwich filler / Sweatship regulator / Nattering sort in Spiro Agnew speech / Classic beer once brewed in Detroit

Constructor: Jay Kaskel and Daniel Kantor

Relative difficulty: Dunno. I had to stop several times to let the rage subside.

THEME: PULLED PORK (59A: Messy sandwich filler ... or a hint to this puzzle's circled letters) — the letters P and O and R and K appear in order, but separated from one another, in four theme answers that start with P and end with K:

Theme answers:

• PHONE PRANK (17A: Frequent Bart Simpson antic)
• PUSH YOUR LUCK (23A: Ask the boss for more vacation time after getting a raise, perhaps)
• PIN ONE'S EARS BACK (34A: Scold a person)
• PLYMOUTH ROCK (50A: Landmark with the year 1620 inscribed on it)

Word of the Day: MINOT (51D: North Dakota city with a nearby Air Force base) —

Minot (ⁱ/ˈmaɪnɒt/ MY-not) is a city located in north central North Dakota, United States. It is most widely known for the Air Force base located approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of the city. With a population of 40,888 at the 2010 census, Minot is the fourth largest city in the state. In 2012, the Minot Area Development Corporation estimated that there were between 46,000 and 47,000 permanent residents within city limits. The city is the county seat of Ward County and is a trading center for a large portion of northern North Dakota, southwestern Manitoba, and southeastern Saskatchewan. Founded in 1886 during the construction of the Great Northern Railway, Minot is also known as "Magic City", commemorating its remarkable growth in size over a short time. // Minot is the principal city of the Minot Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers McHenry, Renville, and Ward counties and had a combined population of 69,540 at the 2010 census. In 2012, it was estimated that the population of the Minot Micropolitan Area was 73,146 (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle is unacceptable. No constructor I know, not a one, would've let a grid this unpolished get to print (to say nothing of the generally lackluster clues). I am genuinely tired of pointing this stuff out, but since most puzzle professionals won't say a damned thing publicly about how poorly conceived and edited the NYT puzzles can be of late, I'm kind of on my own here (although privately any constructor or editor worth his/her salt will tell you exactly what's wrong with this puzzle, exactly what could be easily changed, exactly where the wincing happens, etc.—you can probably do same). So ... the theme has promise (not the OLEO kind of Promise, but promise nonetheless). It's based on a common constructing gimmick: take a common/familiar phrase and literalize it in some way. Here, PORK is being PULLED apart in the various answers. If ever there was a reason for non-consecutive circles in a puzzle (which I normally don't care for), this is it. But there's one big problem: I know the gimmick from the jump. Once you get PHONE PRANK, all the circles and the revealer can be filled in immediately. So whatever cleverness is involved in the concept is offset by what happens at the actual solving level. Same letters are pulled over and over and over. Theme is way too transparent. But this is merely unfortunate. It saps the puzzle of its power to please and entertain, but it is not unprofessional.

["Hey guys, I'm looking for a Jacques Strap!"]

What *is* unprofessional, again (and again and again), is the outright sloppiness and laziness of the fill and the cluing. I literally stopped at SMIT (6A: Goo-goo-eyed, old-style) and took a time out because I couldn't believe the "Best Puzzle in the World" couldn't be bothered to remove such an obvious, horrible, easily fixable stupid archaic ye olde wart of an answer. We get NABOB for the Second Day In A Row, which says Everything about what's wrong here, and in general. Everything is so OLD HAT, so out-of-a-dusty-drawer or mothbally closet. I can't believe anyone put any care at all into making the grid, cluing the grid, editing the grid ... puzzles, even very easy puzzles, can be So much better than this. There's really no excuse for OHTO or SMIT or even (in the case of an easily fillable 78-worder like this) SKEE, MINOT, UELE, CEE, ECRU, ONEA, OLEO, LAPP, OSHA, MANO and probably many others. The grid is devoid of interesting or contemporary fill. The cluing is stale (with notable exception of [Ones steeped in tradition in England?] for TEAS, which is a winner). After the theme, the rest of the puzzle is just phoned in. A promising theme concept doesn't get the crafting and love it needs to become an overall Good 2015 puzzle, and so we get this—an echo of a memory of a puzzle from earlier times, decades ago, when fill standards were simply lower, when cluing was more straightforward and less artful. This is the kind of puzzle that gives crossword puzzles their reputation as a moribund pastime for the moribund.


The NYT is about to get serious, daily competition from two new outlets: the WSJ (which has published a Friday 21x21 for a long time) starts a daily 15x15 puzzle in the near future, as does BuzzFeed, which just posted specs and a sample puzzle yesterday. BuzzFeed is matching NYT's pay right off the bat, which is a great sign, as is the joyful enthusiasm of BuzzFeed's crossword editor, Caleb Madison. The BuzzFeed puzzle might end up playing a little poppy and youthful for some of you, but that's OK. Different kinds of solvers like different kinds of puzzles. What's not OK is slop. I have very high hopes for the future of crosswords in general. My hopes for the future of the NYT crossword in particular aren't as high. Great constructors will continue to submit, so the high points will still be high, but I have no reason to believe that the average quality level won't continue to slowly and quietly sink (or, perhaps, hover, while other outlets shine). Rigorous polishing and up-to-date, clever cluing don't appear to be a high priority at the NYT right now. Maybe the new competition will raise all boats. But I won't hold my breath.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Here's Oliver Roeder's write-up of Lollapuzzoola 8 for the NYT. I'll have my own write-up soon enough.

P.P.S. A friend of mine just wrote me, re: PIN ONE'S EARS BACK: "Using "one's" this way means you're pinning your own ears back. Why would you be scolding yourself??? As if there isn't enough wrong with this puzzle ...."

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Alternative to ASCAP / TUE 1-23-13 / Kohl's competitor / Old Carl Sagan series / Whiskey distillery supply / Metal between osmium platinum on periodic table

Constructor: Jay Kaskel

Relative difficulty: Challenging (a comical 8:17)

THEME: Byproducts of fat and moody dairy cows — ordinary dairy products (all two-word phrases, where first word is an adjective) are clued as if the adjectives in the products' names were indicative of the kinds of cows used to produce them, thus

Theme answers:

• 17A: Byproduct of a sad dairy cow? (BLUE CHEESE)
• 25A: Byproduct of a homely dairy cow? (PLAIN YOGURT)
• 37A: Byproduct of an exhausted dairy cow? (WHIPPED BUTTER)
• 52A: Byproduct of an irate dairy cow? (STEAMED MILK)
• 61A: Byproduct of a portly dairy cow? (HEAVY CREAM)

Word of the Day: Willy LEY (54D: Science writer Willy) —

Willy Ley (October 2, 1906 - June 24, 1969) was a German-American science writer, spaceflight advocate, and historian of science who helped popularize rocketry, spaceflight, and natural history in both Germany and the United States. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a cute theme, though STEAMED MILK is a bit of an outlier (all the others you purchase at the grocery store, whereas steaming is something you or a barista do to milk). Fill is solid, if mostly unremarkable (SOUR MASH is the big winner of the day—3D: Whiskey distillery supplier). But the only thing I will remember about this puzzle, if I remember anything, is the E-OD / TA-I crossing (38D: Gen. follower + 42A: Cry often made after a whistle), because it absolutely froze me. At first, I thought "oh you just have an answer wrong somewhere, keep moving," but then I got All the surrounding answers and nothing changed: still E-OD / TA-I. I kept checking the surrounding answers. Early on, I wasn't sure of IRIDIUM (how in the world do I know where it falls on the periodic table?) (26D: Metal between osmium and platinum on the periodic table), so I took out the -IU- only to have to put them back again. The Kia is an OPTIMA (33D: Kia model), the facial place is a SPA (34D: Place to get a facial), the suffix is clearly -OUS (49A: Suffix with cavern ... or gorge?), but Nothing Goes in the E-OD slot. That's just nonsense. And what kind of cry follows a whistle? TAVI? TAMI? I Ran The Alphabet In My Head. T.W.I.C.E. But I must've been doing it in that way where you know the end of the alphabet is going to be a bust so you don't really go all the way ... that's the only way I can explain not seeing TAXI. Eventually, I just though of all the possible words/answers that could possibly result from TA-I, and I hit it. And oh, yeah, good ole EXOD. Ugh. It's Really unfortunate that this failure on my part happened at precisely the ugliest part of the grid (EXOD. crossing -OUS = nobody's idea of a good time). But I can't blame the puzzle too much. I should've seen it, and didn't. And I mean *really* didn't. Faceplant City.


I'm not sure the times are going to come in "Challenging," but I'd bet they'll come in at least "Medium-Challenging," because this grid felt somewhat slow-going for a Tuesday even before I tanked it (a quick glance at some of the times at the NYT site seems to bear this out). I wrote in IRANI where FARSI belonged (45A: Tehran tongue). [Mercy!] could've meant a million things. Or at least two. GASP did not occur to me ... ever. Thought start of a cheer was HIP (it's SIS). Had SETS AT for GOES AT. DUMB for NUMB. But then there are other parts of the grid that I blew right through. Never even saw the clues for stuff like AIN'T and AGAS. Overall, just a weird, weird solve. EXOD. Dear lord, I'll be dreaming about that horrible abbrev. tonight.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Song of 1859 / FRI 12-24-10 / It has 3750 steps of penitence / Scrooge player of film / Sacred symbol to Zeus / Word on vin bottle

Constructor: Jay Kaskel and Daniel Kantor

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: SILENT NIGHT (59A: Song of 1959 ... or what the five circled letters represent?) — silent N, I, GH, and T can be found in circled squares in four Christmas-related theme answers


Word of the Day: IAN Ziering (52D: Ziering of "90210") —

Ian Andrew Ziering (born March 30, 1964) is an American actor best known for playing Steve Sanders on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210. (wikipedia) (so he *started* playing a teenage at 26 ...?)

• • •

Hot on the heels of the GHOTI / "Fish" puzzle, we get another puzzle based on the vagaries of the English language and its pronunciation. When I first finished, I did not get the "silent" part of the puzzle — I thought the fact that NIGHT was "hiding" in the circles (quietly?) was the feature signified by the word SILENT. That wrong conclusion lasted only a few seconds, as I realized it made no sense, and the circles didn't form a Christmasy shape that I recognized, so some quality of the letters themselves must be important (I reasoned) and bingo—theme solved. Helped (somehow) that NIGHT shares 4 out of 5 letters with GHOTI. The fact that the silent letters all appear in Christmas-related answers (including the date-specific CHRISTMAS EVE) is a nice touch. The puzzle felt a little slight for a Friday (possibly because of all the short, basic answers occasioned by the strange, black-square-heavy grid design), but there are very few weak spots and the theme is tight and clever. Thumbs up.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Carols, often (CHRISTMAS HYMNS)
  
• 24A: Scrooge player of film (MICHAEL CAINE) — when was that?? Ohhh...
  

• 38A: Polar opposites? (NAUGHTY OR NICE) — okay, That is a good clue
  
• 51A: Time before the present day? (CHRISTMAS EVE) — again, good clue
  

Started out tough for me and then opened right up. Then ended up tough again (started and finished in the NW). First things I put in the grid with any confidence were RARA (15A: Uncommon, in ancient Rome) and CRU (6D: Word on a vin bottle). Couldn't remember my lesser trigonometrical functions (i.e. ARCTAN, 4D: Inverse trig function), so had to move along and found GEHRIG (8D: The Iron Horse of baseball). From there I was able to get into the NE and once CHURCH HYMNS was in, I caught fire. The only real thorny parts were all part of that NW corridor that runs the length of MAURITANIA (2D: Its capital is Nouakchott) and MUSIC STAND (3D: Score keeper?). Never heard of the USAC (39D: Car-racing org.), so needed every cross there. Terrible trouble seeing MT. SINAI (didn't expect a mountain to have "steps") (29A: It has 3,750 "steps of penitence"). OH I and HEN were very well hidden (21D: "___ don't know" + 1D: Game ___), and it took me a while to give up on YES as the answer to 1A: Not an ideal answer to "Do these jeans make me look fat?" ("HMM...").

Bullets:

• 14A: Feu fighter (EAU) — another great clue, punning (I assume) on this band name:

• 17A: N N N (NUS) — Greek letters. That "N" was the last letter I filled in, I think.
  
• 57A: With 67-Across, sacred symbol to Zeus (OAK / TREE) — I did not know this. Pieced it together with little trouble. Lots of ancient stuff today, what with two Latin words and Zeus and Greek letters and MT SINAI.
  
• 5D: Exclamation hear 12 times in Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (RAH) — I am familiar with that part of the song, but somehow remember the syllable differently: MAH or BAH or LAH or maybe combinations of all those...

• 12D: Lady whom Don Giovanni tries to seduce (ANNA) — HMM ... opera. For me, this generally means "insert random woman's name here." And so it was today. Crosses: mercifully easy.
  
• 32D: "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" setting (THE RIVIERA) — this movie co-starred ... MICHAEL CAINE. Nice touch.

• 35D: Lily, in Lille (LYS) — as in "fleur-de-"

Merry Christmas Eve.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Ill-fated ship of film / WED 10-27-10 / 1920s chief justice / 1955 novel made into 1962 1997 films / QB's utterance

Constructor: Jay Kaskel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: COUNT DRACULA — four answers have a draculicious sound to them (clued with four "?"-style clues)


Word of the Day: "The POSEIDON Adventure" (9D: Ill-fated ship of film) —

The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 American action-adventure disaster film based on the novel of the same name by Paul Gallico. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner by a tsunami caused by an under sea earthquake and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to journey up to the bottom of the hull of the liner before it sinks. // It won the Academy Award for Best Song for "The Song from 'The Poseidon Adventure'" (also known as "The Morning After"), which became a hit single for Maureen McGovern, as well as winning an Academy Award for Special Achievement in Visual Effects. Shelley Winters was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a film for the role. The cast of the film includes five past Academy Award winners - Winters, Gene Hackman, Jack Albertson, Red Buttons and Ernest Borgnine - as well as numerous Academy Award-winning off-screen artists and technicians such as the film's composer John Williams, screenwriter Stirling Silliphant and editor Harold F. Kress, to name just a few. Parts of the movie were filmed aboard the RMS Queen Mary. (wikipedia)

[Wow, this song is Horrible]

• • •

Cute theme, interesting grid, not an obscurity in sight (with nifty little bonus theme answers in FANG — 62A: Part of a vampire — and GORIER — 34A: Displaying more violence). Tough getting started as the theme answers and theme-revealer are mutually referential (thus offering no initial help), but once I shoved REALITY BITES into place (square by square), and BLOOD showed up in the next theme answer, I had a good idea what I was dealing with. Still, struggled briefly in the NE (never saw "The POSEIDON Adventure," so that ship was Nowhere on my radar), and also briefly in the NW (tried NO DICE, NO SALE, and NO SOAP (!?!?) before NO DEAL (2D: "Sorry, Charlie")). But I absolutely killed the bottom half of the puzzle and ended up with a fairly normal Wednesday time in the end.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Comment on life by 52-Across? ("REALITY BITES")
  
• 28A: Deposit and withdrawal site for 52-Across? (BLOOD BANK)
  
• 43A: Crib plaything for a young 52-Across? (BAT MOBILE)
  
• 35A: Result of an encounter with 52-Across? (PAIN IN THE NECK)

I GUESS (46D: "Um ... OK.") you could consider ATHROB a nod to the horror theme (1D: Like the heart during a horror movie). Ditto HEROINE, as clued (49A: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, e.g.). Not a bad little Halloween-week puzzle, all in all.

Bullets:

• 16A: Makes less than a killing (DOES OK) — "a killing" is not on any scale that I'm aware of, making "less than" an odd direction.
  
• 60A: Frozen water, to Wilhelm (EIS) — Also, to Werner. And Waldheim. And presumably all Germans, whether their names begin with "W" or not.
  
• 39D: QB's utterance (HUT) — this may be the first time anyone's ever used "QB" and "utterance" in the same phrase. Fine word, but not a sports word. "Whilst we were in the huddle, Brett Favre once quipped..." Um, no.
  
• 47D: 1955 novel that was made into 1962 and 1997 films ("LOLITA") — teaching this in my 1950s Crime Fiction course this term. Movie-wise, I highly recommend the 1962 film [two Shelley Winters films in one puzzle!] and highly recommend that you avoid the horrid, humorless 1997 adaptation at all costs.
• 53D: 1920s chief justice (TAFT) — in four letters, I knew it was him, but I forgot that he was chief justice well *after* he was president. TAFT is from Ohio. Crosswords will ask you to know this at some point. Trust me.
• 54D: Subject of the book "Six Armies in Normandy" (D-DAY) — second "D" was the very last letter I filled in. Before I read the cross clue, the only answer that was popping into my head was DRAY...
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. "Puzzling Future" — article on crosswords featuring interviews with me and other Pomona College students/alums — is now online here.

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Parting words from von Trapps / MON 5-17-10 / Mount where Noah landed / Fully focused attentive / Suffix with labyrinth

Constructor: Jay Kaskel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Parting words... — theme answers are famous "Parting words" (which are the first words of every theme clue)


Word of the Day: SAXE-Coburg-Gotha (31A: ___-Coburg-Gotha, former British royal house) —

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (German: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) served as the name of two duchies, Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha, in Germany. They were located in what today are the states, Bavaria and Thuringia, respectively, and the two were in personal union between 1826 and 1918. The Duchy came to an end in 1918 with the other German monarchies, and the Free State of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was merged into the new state of Thuringia two years later. // The name, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, also may refer to the family of the ruling House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This family played many and varied roles in nineteenth-century European dynastic and political history. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, everybody. I got in very late last night (1:30am) and now it's 8am-ish and I'm running on reserve battery power, and precious little of that. So this will be brief, and I'll regale you with tales of my weekend trip to Idaho (for my grandma's 90th birthday) tomorrow. Lots of pictures, many of them crossword-related. Here's the short version: I saw the whole of my mom's side of the family; everyone was lovely; my grandma is beyond awesome and I'm not sure I believe she's actually 90 — her little house is filled with arts and crafts of her making, all of it legitimately appealing and not just "pretty good for a grandma with spare time on her hands." And her scones. Dear lord, those things were tasty. I was going to ask my wife why they were so delicious and before I could get the question out of my mouth, she said "butter." "Mmm, butter." OK, I'm drifting away into random anecdote land now, so I'll get to the puzzle and promise you slightly more coherence tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing — perhaps my favorite moment of the weekend was seeing my grandma at her 90th birthday. I crossed the room to say 'hi' and 'happy birthday' and give her a hug, and I didn't even make it within hugging distance before she exclaimed, "Take that cap off! I don't allow that." Thus, caught somewhere between embarrassment and laughter, I said "OK" and walked penitently to the outer hall, where I hung the offending item of apparel with my coat, thinking "man, grandma does not &*$% around." No wonder her whole family (excluding me, apparently) turned out so incredibly kind and polite and generous and well-behaved. Decorum will be observed! Seriously, my grandma is a force of nature, and a tough broad, and I have incredible respect and love for her.

[Did I mention she also enjoys giant margaritas?]

As for the puzzle — didn't much care for it. I think the theme is a really cute idea, but it's also really inconsistent. Some of them are real "parting words" ("HIYO SILVER AWAY!" / "I'LL BE BACK"), one is part of a longer parting ... song ("SO LONG, FAREWELL..."), one is involves a metaphorical parting of an abstract concept ("BYE BYE, LOVE") and the last has nothing to do with the speaker's parting. Trump is firing *you* — he's not going anywhere ("YOU'RE FIRED!"). Bigger problem was the fill, which was really subpar. Lots and lots of tiresome short stuff. The gangly crosswordese of ECARTE (28A: Card game for two) over SAXE was the epicenter of bad, but the bad spread all over, especially strongly from the OER/AER crossing down to the far SW corner and the plural of the word no one likes in the singular: ADES. I would list all the bad short stuff, but I haven't got it in me right now. Trust me, it's there. All over. Look in every corner. Search every cranny. Climb every mountain. Etc.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Parting words from the Everly Brothers ("BYE BYE LOVE")
  
• 23A: Parting words from the Lone Ranger ("HIYO SILVER AWAY!")
• 34A: Parting words from the Terminator ("I'LL BE BACK")
  
• 49A: Parting words from the von Trapps ("SO LONG, FAREWELL...")
  
• 57A: Parting words from Donald Trump ("YOU'RE FIRED!")
  

Bullets:

• 62A: Claudia ___ Taylor (Lady Bird Johnson) (ALTA) — I'm sure I've seen this clue before, but I completely forgot the answer. I know ALTA better as Sp. for "high" or (related) a ski area in Utah.
  
• 11D: Homer Simpson type (SCREW-UP) — I've been watching the show for 20+ years and still needed most of the crosses to get this. It's apt enough, but it's not a word the show uses. Plus, while he's a SCREW-UP, he's also remarkably successful (he has a beautiful house and family ... and a Grammy ... and he's been to outer space with Buzz Aldrin ... etc.)
  
• 40D: Fully focused and attentive (ALL HERE) — huh. I don't like this. ALL THERE, sure. ALL HERE ... lost a "T." But then again I've only had 4 hours of sleep and am currently jet-lagged, so perhaps I'm not ALL HERE myself.
  
• 47D: Mount where Noah landed (ARARAT) — this makes me laugh, as it makes it sound as if Noah landed on a horse (see "not ALL HERE," above).
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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