Youngest Downton Abbey daughter / MON 1-19-15 / Skype necessity / Shellfish hors d'oeuvres / Mystic's device with letters numbers

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Monday*) (Solving time: 3:06)

THEME: SNOW-CAPPED (31D: Like alpine peaks … or what each half of 3-, 7-, 9-, 37- and 44-Down can be?) — themers (which all run Down) are two-word phrases or two-part compound words, each part of which can be preceded by SNOW to make a familiar term:

Theme answers:

• WHITEBOARD (3D: Surface for a dry-erase marker)
• BANK JOB (44D: Heist of a sort)
• BUNNY SUIT (37D: Easter costume)
• CRAB BALLS (7D: Shellfish hors d'oeuvres)
• PLOWMAN (9D: Farmer with oxen)

Word of the Day: CRAB BALLS —

[I don't know … they appear to be just like crab cakes, except in ball form. More ball than cake. Else, same. Here's some recipes.]

• • •

The theme here is a real winner. Theme type is very familiar, but the density and the aptness of the revealer (with all the themers running Down) make this one more interesting than usual. And it's still pretty much Monday-easy. Nice work. I struggled more than usual (losing perhaps 15 to 20 seconds all told) because of BALLS. CRAB CAKES are approximately 12 thousand times more familiar than CRAB BALLS (which I've literally never seen anywhere). Every damn restaurant has CRAB CAKES on the menu. So that's a pretty significant potential pitfall right there. Easy enough to climb out of, because, after all, it's Monday, but still. Not getting BALLS meant increased trouble picking up both WEBCAM (I kept wanting WIFI … WI-something) and SYBIL (that show got old Fast and I'd totally forgotten the youngest daughter's name, though we just saw that actress in something recently … hmm … oh, "Black Mirror," which you should totally watch. She's in the second episode of that.). So this one was eelier than the average Monday, but not annoyingly so. Spellcheck is angrily underlining "eelier" in red ("you must mean, 'eerier,' you idiot"), but I stand by my comparative adjective.


While this puzzle has a very good theme, for a Monday, it botches the fill in several areas because, like an addict, it can't seem to lay off the high-value Scrabble tiles, and each one of them creates a mess. Actually, not true. The constructor contains the "J" in BANK JOB very nicely, with very little fallout—but that's a necessarily letter, a theme answer letter. The others are just gratuitous, and we all pay a price. EXGI is not good fill. EZEK and NOTER, really not good. ZOO and ZAHN are fine, but they cause the collateral damage of ANA and ONEA—yuck. When you're already testing your ick limit with TOPER and ACNES (plural!), and when your theme is already golden, your goal should be smoothness, not 8- and 10-point tiles. We know the editor really only cares about the theme, and fill shmill, and in this case, I think good theme beats less-than-good fill, but there's no reason it had to be this close.


I would've preferred a Chaucer clue for PLOWMAN (9D: Farmer with oxen) and a Sally Field clue for SYBIL (36A: Youngest "Downton Abbey" daughter). I watched "Maximum Overdrive" (1986) earlier this evening and it was fantastically terrible. I mention this because Marla Maples is in it (briefly), and for some reason Paula ZAHN reminds me of her (34D: Newswoman Paula). Why is that? It makes no sense. I think I'm confusing Paula ZAHN with the woman who took Jane Pauley's place on The Today Show … ugh, what's her name? Oh, Deborah Norville ... though why *she* should make me think of Marla Maples, I also don't know. Anyway, the moral of this story is, don't see "Maximum Overdrive." Or do—it's pretty hilarious. Giancarlo Esposito ("Gus" on "Breaking Bad") gets killed by an arcade. There are no typos in that last sentence.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Thanks to all who have sent me snail mail in the past week. I am considering starting a letters column, "Ask Rex," perhaps. In fact, here's the first installment:

Joan asks: "Will you do a column answering questions someday?"
Rex answers: Maybe!

Short, sweet, informative!

You all have some pretty great observations and anecdotes about puzzles (and other things). It's been a joy opening the mail this past week. Thanks. Keep 'em coming.

Read more...

Romanian Rhapsodies composer / WED 7-30-14 / Karmann classic German sports car / Rapper with 3x platinum single Hold On We're Going Home / Dress smartly in old parlance / Turbo Tax alternative for short

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Recluing kitchen stuff — items found in the kitchen are clued ("?"-style) as if they are not items found in the kitchen, but some other items altogether.

Theme answers:

• COOKIE SHEET (17A: List of user IDs?)
• MEASURING CUP (22A: Undergarment fitting device?)
• CAN OPENER (30A: Jailer with a key ring?)
• MICROWAVE (43A: Hardly an attraction for a surfer?)
• CUTTING BOARD (49A: Directors in charge of downsizing?)
• CHAFING DISH (58A: Attractive but annoying date?)

Word of the Day: "Cookie" (COOKIE SHEET (17A: List of user IDs?)) —

A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website. Every time the user loads the website, the browser sends the cookie back to the server to notify the website of the user's previous activity. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items in a shopping cart) or to record the user's browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited by the user as far back as months or years ago).

• • •

The theme on this one holds up pretty well. The fill really should've been edited into much better shape. It's rough and musty all over the place. Clearly someone got in there mucked with the cluing at 54D: Rapper with the 3x platinum single "Hold On, We're Going Home" (DRAKE), a clue that stands out like a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake [simile stolen from Raymond Chandler] compared to the hoary quality of the rest of the clues. But rapping up one clue hardly constitutes serious editing. In America, we say "first grade," not GRADE ONE (55A: Elementary start). We also never say TOG UP ever. GHIA is horrible as a stand-alone answer (though KARMANNGHIA would be righteous). Many NEINS? Nein. Then there's your usual assortment of tired stuff like ISAO and ENESCO (the grid-friendlist 6-letter composer—can also be ENESCU: handy!). STELA SAXE OSAGES-plural. NUM! I mean, you've got two sets of cheaters* (SW, NE)—the fill in those tiny sections should at least be passable. How 'bout GHEE! GHEE is a thing. A real thing. GHIA wishes it were GHEE.


The theme clues felt a tiny bit tortured, though I got a kick out of the CHAFING DISH clue, for sure. Reasonable theme, weak fill. Pretty much par for the course, of late. Actually, a bit better than some of the stuff I've seen since returning from my time among the MAORI (6D: Most Cook Islanders).

One thing about the theme—seems like you could make a pretty funny Sunday-sized puzzle out of it. The options seem manifold, if not limitless: [Sex in southern Ireland?] (9), for instance.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*cheaters (or cheater squares) are black squares that do not increase word count, inserted primarily to make a grid easier to construct [today, black squares before 10A and below 12D, as well as their rotational symmetry counterparts]

Read more...

Green in product names / WED 11-13-13 / Company founded by 17-year-old Swede / Cowardly Lion portrayer / Foofaraw

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: PESTO (61A: What you get when you blend the results of this puzzle's recipe instructions) — theme answers are instructions for making PESTO

Theme answers:

• 17A: Recipe instruction #1 (MINCE GARLIC)
• 22A: Recipe instruction #2 (GRATE PARMESAN)
• 33A: Recipe instruction #3 (CHOP BASIL LEAVES)
• 45A: Recipe instruction #4 (CRUSH PINE NUTS)
• 53A: Recipe instruction #5 (ADD OLIVE OIL)

Word of the Day: ANITA Diamant (37D: "The Red Tent" author Diamant) —

Anita Diamant (born June 27, 1951) is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books. She is best known for her novel,The Red Tent, a New York Times best seller. She has also written several guides for Jewish people, including The New Jewish Wedding and Living a Jewish Life. (wikipedia)

• • •

I'm less annoyed than I am tired. Tired of the onslaught of competent but dull and unambitious puzzles that the NYT is turning out this week. This is a well-meaning effort. It's a recipe. The revealer is … the thing that's being made. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, solving this was about as exciting as reading a PESTO recipe. So straightforward it hurts. ADD OLIVE OIL is weird since the other ingredients a. all involve transformative actions and b. have not yet been combined so technically there's nothing to ADD the OLIVE OIL to. But that's a nit. The bigger problem is the dullness. Also, the fill, which, Once Again, is manifestly, on its surface, obvious for all to see, subpar and crosswordese-laden. I don't really want to do a full list, but multiple OLEARYS, really? Since when? Is that in the song / legend? She has a husband? A family? It's just *her* cow, Mrs. O'LEARY'S cow. If there is a husband / family, who the hell knows that? Oh, look, my friend Amy pointed me to wikipedia, which reveals that Mrs. O'Leary "was married to Patrick O'Leary. The couple's son, James Patrick O'Leary, grew up to run a Chicago gambling hall." So the clue checks out, and yet it's still her damned cow. Hers. Not theirs.


We've also got ERB, OBE, ESTH, ALCAN, ENVIRO (?), MILORD, PIET, LAHR, etc. … only now that I look at it, that list (of xwordese and whatever ENVIRO is) is starting to feel average. Average for a NYT puzzle. A NIP!? Gah. Where is the joy? SPONGEBOB! That works. The rest is just a grind. Also, as a friend of mine just noted to me, re: 46D: Pizza cuts, essentially (RADII)—"that is wrong; nobody cuts a pizza that way." He's right. Birthday cake cuts, sure. Pizza, no.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

Moon jumper in Hey Diddle Diddle / MON 8-19-13 / Two in craps / Obsolescent Kodak product / Some Dadaist pieces / Tiny bagel flavorers

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Medium (*little* tougher maybe)

THEME: ON A / ROLL (62A: With 60-Across, doing great ... or where to find 18-, 24-, 35-, 51- and 57-Across?) — things that can be found in or on or are otherwise associated with rolls:

Theme answers:

• 18A: Tiny bagel flavorers (POPPY SEEDS)
• 24A: Two in craps (SNAKE EYES)
• 35A: Ones getting all A's (HONOR STUDENTS)
• 51A: Room decoration with a pattern (WALLPAPER)
• 57A: Obsolescent Kodak product (CAMERA FILM)

Word of the Day: EXIGENT (19D: Demanding immediate attention) —

adj.

1. Requiring immediate action or remedy. See synonyms at urgent.
2. Requiring much effort or expense; demanding.

[Latin exigēns, exigent-, present participle of exigere, to demand. See exact.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/exigent#ixzz2cMWmQOA9

• • •

This one felt a bit clunky to me, for several reasons. First the "ON" part of "ON A / ROLL" doesn't really work for all of these (hence the "?" on the revealer clue, I guess). SNAKE EYES *are* the roll. WALLPAPER and CAMERA FILM come *in* a roll. Further, the last two are the same *kind* of "roll" (i.e. the same meaning of that word, something that comes rolled up), where all the other theme answers use "roll" differently. Lastly, CAMERA FILM is an awkward phrase. Oh, and lastly lastly, "obsolescent" really threw me. I mean, I see what the clue is getting at—almost all photography is digital nowadays. But people do still use film, it's not like it's from the Olden Dayes. If the clue had left "obsolescent" off entirely, that answer would've been easier to get. As it was, I had FILM and wanted something like SEPIA or something else that belongs to a very bygone time. Oh, wait, lastly lastly lastly—hated the placement / breaking of the revealer. Totally random placement. May as well stick those answer parts anywhere if you can't give them a place that makes some kind of structural sense. Lastly x 4, the theme answers are just ... boring. OK, done with lastlys.


The fill here is fine. Average. NW stands out as the nicest area, although EXIGENT is easily my favorite single answer. Got slowed down some by [___ blind] (ROB), which is actually quite hard, and SLIMES, which is not a real word except in "Ghostbusters" (47D: Smears with gunk), and SIDESLIP, which is not a word I really know (though I can imagine what it is) (39D: Lose forward traction). Completely blanked on "Hey Diddle Diddle" lyrics and somehow ended up with THE COP jumping over the moon. Weird. Anyway, all those struggles/mistakes were enough to drive me over, but not considerably over, my normal Monday time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

Singer Julius of early TV / TUE 7-23-13 / Bygone Ford van / NBC newsman Richard / Styptic pencil targets

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: BEACHGOER (59A: One packing up the answers to the seven starred clues, maybe) — all beach items have non-beach clues

Theme answers:

• 17A: *Abrupt reversals of opinion (FLIP-FLOPS)
• 23A: *Uninjured, after "in" (ONE PIECE)
• 26A: *Hoosegow (COOLER)
• 36A: *Scandal damage control (COVER-UP)
• 39A: *Across-the-board (BLANKET)
• 49A: *Ghostly figures (SHADES)
• 51A: *Kind of insurance policy (UMBRELLA)

Word of the Day: Richard ENGEL (53D: NBC newsman Richard) —

Richard Engel (born September 16, 1973) is an American journalist and author who is NBC News's chief foreign correspondent. He was assigned to that position on April 18, 2008 after being the network's Middle East correspondentand Beirut Bureau chief. Engel was the first broadcast journalist recipient of the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for his report "War Zone Diary".

Prior to joining NBC News in May 2003, he covered the start of the 2003 war in Iraq from Baghdad for ABC News as afreelance journalist. He speaks and reads Arabic fluently and is also fluent in Italian and Spanish. Engel wrote the book A Fist in the Hornet's Nest, published in 2004, about his experience covering the Iraq War from Baghdad. His newest book,War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq, published in June 2008, picks up where his last book left off.

Engel is known for having covered the Iraq War, the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war.

• • •

Hrm. I found this one deeply unpleasant to solve. It was clued too hard for a Tuesday, but more than too hard, it was just annoying. Too choppy, too many abbrevs, a stupid partial for a theme answer, and in the end just a bunch of beach stuff. The grid isn't terrible, really. Long Downs are nice. But with eight theme answers (that's a ton), the fill creaks a little in spots. Perhaps it's remarkable that it's as good as it is, given the theme constraints. Long way to go, a lot of fuss, for a very little pay-off, theme-wise.

How is OHO "jolly"? In what universe? You know it's fundamentally different from "HO HO HO," right? If Santa caught you masturbating, he might say "OHO!" I don't know if his tone would be "jolly," though. Never happy to see Julius LAROSA—I know him, now, but I still don't like him (as an answer; I never met the man, obviously) (33A: Singer Julius of early TV). A pretty obscure piece of high-end crosswordese. Could not get from "furniture protection" to PRIMER to save my life. I was like "Uh ... ScotchGuard? WTF?" ECASH is ECASH, i.e. E-terrible. I have only ever seen the phrase "styptic pencil" in crosswords. Do people use those? Don't we put Band-aids on "NICKS"? I had -ICKS and still didn't know (35A: Styptic pencil targets). TICKS? And ["Daughters" rapper]?? That is some Saturday cluing for NAS. Crazy. I mean, it's a rapper in three letters, so not *hard*, exactly, but I'd never heard of it. Turns out it's the third single from his 2012 (!!?) album. He is not famous for that. Guaranteed. Song *was* nominated for a Grammy, but my point stands. Not famous. Peaked at #78. Not famous. Fine clue. Just not for Tuesday.

Lastly, I think I'd've clued SOPUP as [Beginning of heart-to-heart with small dog].

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

Ghostbuster Spengler / SUN 5-19-13 / NASA spacewalks in brief / Taverna offering / One of three Canadian aboriginal groups / Ristorante menu suffix / Twiggy's look in 60s fashion / Like Nasser's vision

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Befitting" — V-sounds are changed to B-sounds in common phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style

Theme answers:

• 23A: Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic? (TENNIS SERBS)
• 28A: Tour guide's comment at the primate house? (THAT'S A GIBBON) — Love
  
• 33A: Sign for tourists visiting the Bolshoi? (BALLET PARKING)
• 51A: Tropical paradise for Barbie and Ken? (BALI OF THE DOLLS) — "Bali" and "Valley" sound nothing alike to my ears, so this one feels off to me ... 
• 65A: Let Justin take care of everything? (LEAVE IT TO BIEBER) — Great, except for the inconsistency of a. not changing that first "V" and b. having a "B" that is *not* the result of a change. You'll note that none of the other theme answers suffer from either a. or b.
• 84A: Passed security at the troubadours' convention? (SHOWED A BALLAD I.D.) — Insane, in a good way
  
• 97A: Prepare to go canoeing? (GET OUT THE BOAT)
• 107A: Stadium binge? (HOT DOG BENDER) — Love x 2
• 116A: Fortunetellers' protest demand? (SIBYL RIGHTS)

Word of the Day: BAO (117D: Chinese steamed bun) —

A bāozi or simply known as bao, bau, humbow, nunu, bausak, pow or pau is a type of steamed, filled bun or bread-like (i.e. made with yeast) item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations. In its bun-like aspect it is very similar to the traditional Chinese mantou. It can be filled with meat and/or vegetarian fillings. // Two types are found in most parts of China: Dabao, measuring about 10 cm across, served individually, and usually purchased for take-away. The other type, xiaobao, measure approximately 5 cm wide, and are most commonly eaten in restaurants. Each order consists of a steamer containing about 10 pieces. A small ceramic dish is provided for vinegar or soy sauce, both of which are available in bottles at the table, along with chilli paste. (wikipedia)

• • •

Very simple change-a-sound theme. The only real criterion for theme answers of this type is That They Be Funny, and on that count, these answers definitely succeed. Even the BIEBER answer, which (as I note above) has double inconsistencies, was funny enough for me not to care that much. This is a constructor who has a pretty good ear for this kind of wordplay. Not sure what the title is supposed to signify. Nothing there about the "V," but ... whatever. The grid ... is a grid. It's fine. There are only two or so answers that make me want to pull my (no longer there) hair out: EMILIE (I'm supposed to know all the names of 79-year-old quintuplets?) (5D: One of the Dionne quints) and RITARD. (I'd give you RIT., but a six-letter "abbr." I will Not give you) (26D: Slowing down, musically: Abbr.). Found most of the puzzle very easy, but there was one little patch with a difficulty level All Out of Proportion to the rest of the grid—specifically, that 4x5 area in the south bounded on the west by ESSA (?) (109D: She, in Salerno). I had ELLA, so that didn't help. Had RIOT for 110D: Laughable (yeah, it doesn't work, part-of-speech-wise, but it was the best I could do at the time). Had no idea GYROs were associated with "Tavernas" (11D: Taverna offering). And totally forgot (because I barely ever knew) BAO. Oh, and then there's the two-word A HOOT (124A: Something hilarious). Not sure what I was looking for, but I know it didn't involve "A." And if I hadn't known the theme, SIBYL would've been Very hard to come up with. It was pretty hard to come up with as it was. So I spent probably two minutes or so fumbling around down there, and only 10 or so minutes on the entire rest of the grid.


Bullets:

• 31A: Twiggy's look in '60s fashion (WAIF) — do we need "in '60s fashion" here? Also, something about the "look" = WAIF equivalence feels ever-so off to me.
• 74A: Like Nasser's vision (PAN-ARAB) — Everything (and I mean everything) I know about NASSER I learned from crosswords. For instance, he was the president of UAR, an important territory on the "Crosswordese!" game board.
• 93A: One of three Canadian aboriginal groups (MÉTIS) — let it never be said that comic books (or, in this case, "graphic biographies") aren't educational. I learned about MÉTIS from the excellent graphic biography Louis Riel by Chester Brown. Gorgeous work. Highly recommended. 
• 104A: Ghostbuster Spengler (EGON) — ha ha. How many other EGONS can you name? (I'm guessing two) 
• 111A: Displayed an "Oh my God" reaction (GRIMACED) — first, "OMG" will do. Second, when I say "oh my God," I am rarely grimacing. More likely, I'm [Wide-eyed and open-mouthed] (AGOG).
• 39D: Ristorante menu suffix (-INI) — not great, but not a lot you can do when the theme answer placement is locking you into I-I.  
• 114D: British mil. decorations (DSOS) — how many of these are there. I've seen this kind of clue a million times, and still it's all just alphabet soup to me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. My friend Jeff Chen, whom you may know from awesome puzzles everywhere, has a new book of crossword puzzles out, all themed around the game of bridge. The title of the book is (wait for it ...) Bridge Crosswords. If you are a fan of bridge and crosswords, or just crosswords (and want a challenge), pick it up now.

Read more...