Fruity breakfast biscuit / MON 8-21-23 / National park with the notorious Angels Landing hike / Letter between sigma and upsilon / Hashtag that trended in a late-2010s movement / Fishy bagel topper / Spiny sea creatures

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Harder side of Medium (from Downs-only perspective)

THEME: Hearing the ocean — first words of theme answers are all homophones of various ocean phenomenon that one might "hear" if one were to put one's ear to a seaSHELL (40A: Something you might hold to your ear in order to hear the first parts of 18-, 24-, 52- and 62-Across)

Theme answers:

• TIED (tide) THE KNOT (18A: Got hitched)
• WAIVE (wave) CHARGES (24A: Not require fees to be paid)
• CURRANT (current) SCONE (52A: Fruity breakfast biscuit)
• EDDIE (eddy) MURPHY (62A: "Saturday Night Live" cast member from 1980 to 1984)

Word of the Day: AUDIE MURPHY (alternative (i.e. wrong) answer to 62A) —

Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was an American soldier, actor, and songwriter. He was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. He received every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valor that he demonstrated at the age of 19 for single-handedly holding off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, before leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition. [...] After the war, Murphy embarked on a 21-year acting career. He played himself in the 1955 autobiographical film To Hell and Back, based on his 1949 memoirs of the same name, but most of his roles were in Westerns. He made guest appearances on celebrity television shows and starred in the series Whispering Smith. (wikipedia)

• • •

For real had -DIE MURPHY and wrote in AUDIE MURPHY, thinking, "oof, pretty old-timey, but I guess that's crosswords for you!" I only know AUDIE MURPHY exists because crosswords have told me so. They've told me so many times, apparently, that I, a dead-center Gen X'er, went to AUDIE MURPHY, rather than EDDIE MURPHY, as the --DIE MURPHY I thought most likely to occur in the puzzle. When asked in 9th-grade French class (an oddly specific and strong memory) who my favorite actor was, I replied "EDDIE MURPHY"—perhaps with a French accent, who can say? The point is, crossword-solving has so badly corrupted my brain over time that bygone crosswordese now (apparently) springs to mind much more quickly than the beloved people, places, and things of my childhood. What an odd place to find oneself in, mentally. Anyway, I hope that those of you who have never heard of AUDIE MURPHY are now prepared for the unlikely event of an AUDIE sighting, sometime in the near (or distant) future. This error on my part did not add much to the difficulty level of the puzzle—I got out of it pretty quickly—but it did rattle me more than any of the other, more straightforwardly ambiguous (and therefore tougher) parts of the Downs-only experience. As for the theme, I'm somewhat impressed that so many oceanic movements have homophones! I don't believe anyone ever held a seaSHELL to their ear and thought, "Oh, I hear an eddy," so that themer struck me as the weakest by far, given the whole SHELL conceit, but on the whole, I thought the theme was cute. SHELL also doesn't quite strike me as descriptive enough. It really is SEASHELL that is the definitive shell type. But SHELL will do, I suppose.

First struggle, Downs-only wise, was committing to "ANY TIME NOW..." I really want the phrase to be "ANY DAY NOW...," esp. give the implicit impatience that I read in the clue (3D: "We're waiting..."). "DAY" just seems more on point, more sarcastic. I wrote in "ANY TIME NOW..." but it felt iffy, and when not one but two adjacent answers proved tricky (or just wrong), I actually lost faith in "ANY TIME NOW..." and pulled it. Sob. See, I had 21D: Above (OVER) as ATOP. And then alongside it, where OUTSET was supposed to go (4D: Very beginning), I had ... well, nothing. Couldn't come up with a word. So an iffy answer, a wrong answer, and a blank all conspired to give me fits, slightly, right where the first word of the first themer was supposed to come together. I got the TIED THE KNOT area and then worked back to the NW. Once I pulled ATOP, things righted themselves fairly quickly, and I saw the "tied" / "waive" water thing coming together (at least that's what I suspected, and I was ultimately right). Lower down, I flubbed the Greek alphabet (pretty customary for me), and considered things like PHI or PSI and maybe RHO before finally realizing "TAU! It's SIG "S" TAU "T" That was the name of the frat your roommate joined, those are the letters, that's it!" (45D: Letter between sigma and upsilon). Briefly considered ANAL (!) for PRIM (49D: Strait-laced) and even more strongly considered ROMPS for ROUTS (53D: Decisive victories). And not being sure about *those* three adjacent answers (TAU PRIM ROUTS), caused problems similar to the ones I had up top. And then the AUDIE MURPHY fiasco happened. But that was it for major trouble. Blanked on ZION for a bit (12D: National park with the notorious Angels Landing hike), so that was uncomfortable. But not fatal. Wanted RAKES *IT* IN (10D: Earns and earns and earns), so balked at the correct answer. And thought maybe ELI Lilly was ELY Lilly. But none of these minor issues caused substantial grief. Finished up with INANE, which the puzzle, thematically, was not. Again, I thought it relatively clever and inventive.

After going to NYC for the Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament ... I ended up having to come home early due to a minor household / housesitting "emergency," and so I missed the tournament entirely. It seems to have been a rousing success. You can still order the tournament puzzles—you can even have *them* print out and mail you the puzzles (there are some unconventional puzzle dimensions, as I understand it ... my wife printed our puzzles out, and I haven't made my way through them yet). Get the puzzles (and see tournament results!) here. My weekend wasn't a total loss. I actually got two good days in, both of which included my daughter (recently relocated from St. Paul to Queens!). We saw a musical ("Shucked!"), we saw art (the Van Gogh "Cypresses" exhibit at the Met), we ate a very pricey and good if atmospherically odd lunch on the Upper East Side next to a pair of very very catty and gossipy older ladies who seemed to hate their friends, and another couple who seemed extremely bored by even their most extravagant-looking food (so extravagant-looking that we then ordered it). Here are some pictures. The upshot: Summer in NYC—smells like trash and weed, and yet still *highly* recommended:

That last one was a bra my wife thought looked good. I just stared at her like "who even are you right now?" (though tbh I kinda agree with her). Doing even the dumbest stuff with my wife and daughter is just a blast. Now that the kid is in NYC (currently interviewing for positions in theater production and design), I hope I see her a lot more. See *you* tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Drifting platform for polar wildlife / MON 12-19-22 / Part of a swimmer's sidestroke / Archer's arrow launcher / Built in lag time to allow bleeping during a live broadcast

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday)

THEME: GIFT (38D: Something that can be wrapped with the starts of 17-, 24-, 40-, 51- and 64-Across) — things you use to wrap gifts:

Theme answers:

• TAPE DELAY (17A: Built in lag time to allow bleeping during a live broadcast)
• SCISSORS KICK (24A: Part of a swimmer's sidestroke)
• BOX SEAT (40A: Good vantage point at an opera house or stadium)
• PAPER TRAINED (51A: Like a puppy who's learned where to "go") ("quotation marks?" "really?")
• BOW STRING (64A: Archer's arrow launcher)

Word of the Day: ROLF (46A: Massage deeply) —

Rolfing (/ˈrɔːlfɪŋ, ˈrɒl-/) is a form of alternative medicine originally developed by Ida Rolf (1896–1979) as Structural Integration. Rolfing is marketed with unproven claims of various health benefits. It is based on Rolf's ideas about how the human body's "energy field" can benefit when aligned with the Earth's gravitational field.

Rolfing is typically delivered as a series of ten hands-on physical manipulation sessions sometimes called "the recipe". Practitioners combine superficial and deep manual therapy with movement prompts. The process is sometimes painful. The safety of Rolfing has not been confirmed.

The principles of Rolfing contradict established medical knowledge, and there is no good evidence Rolfing is effective for the treatment of any health condition. It is recognized as a pseudoscience and has been characterized as quackery. (wikipedia) 

• • •

This was pretty lackluster, as seasonal themes go. The concept is OK, but it's basically just a ho-hum first-words puzzle—an extremely well-established theme type. Nothing about the theme execution here is particularly striking or creative or memorable. It's dense, I'll give it that. And it has an extremely oddly positioned revealer, with GIFT jammed all the way over there to the right. The puzzle would've been improved at least slightly if the symmetrical answer (in this case, MALI) had also been part of the theme. You could've gone with XMAS / GIFT—I know we like to stay inclusive and not default to Christianity, that's fine, but from a strictly crossword standpoint, XMAS / GIFT beats plain old GIFT. Some people get offended by the abbr. XMAS, though, did you know this? I did *not* know this ... until I had a reader or two yelling at me a few years back when I used the abbr. casually in one of my write-ups and they took it as, I dunno, some kind of blasphemy or anti-Christian statement. Bizarre. As for the theme answers themselves, they're OK. The two more ... unusual ones were also the ones I got tripped up on, for very different reasons. I thought the swim kick was a SCISSOR (no final "S") KICK, so once I got SCISSOR, and even after I got SCISSOR S-, I didn't know what I could possibly be dealing with. I had to jump up into that NE corner and work it from the inside out. The other themer that gave me trouble was PAPER TRAINED, which ... er ... I'm kind of grimacing right now, trying to think of how to express my various distastes here. First, I like to think about urination and defecation as little as possible when I'm solving a crossword, so there's that, but whatever, I can deal. Bigger issue for me was having no idea PAPER TRAINED was really a thing you did. Why are you doing this? I've HOUSE TRAINED (the One True Answer For This Clue) a puppy and not once ever did we train her to go (as opposed to "go") on paper, yikes. We went straight to training her to go outside, no half measures. Maybe apartment dwellers teach their dogs to go indoors? I'm not familiar with this. I have (vaguely) heard of paper training, but ... oof, I considered POTTY before PAPER. Needed most of the PAPER crosses to get it. Luckily, those were easily obtained.

The fill was not bad, just drab. ASA ITWAS ENIAC ORANG LEI LUAU ASSN AMOR etc. The answer ROLF always makes me laugh, in that I always knew it as a slang word for "barf" and anyway ROLF is not [Massage deeply], it is proprietary pseudoscientific gobbledygook (see "Word of the Day" entry, above). Isn't ROLF the dog on "The Muppet Show"? Oh, darn, he's ROWLF (put *that* in your puzzle and smoke it!). Anyway, ROLF is silly, which is better than bad and/or boring, I suppose. Hey, what (the hell) is the difference between SEAR and CHAR (23A: Scorch)!?!? Definition of "SEAR" that I'm reading right now says it means "burn or scorch the surface of (something) with a sudden, intense heat" (google). That [Scorch] works for both words is ... confusing, not least because they both end in -AR (making that pair a hard kealoa*) (soft kealoas* only have one letter in common ... I'm making this stuff up as I go along, you understand ...). Hope the rest of your day is nice, or at least not EXECRABLE. Do not have A FOUL day, is what I'm saying. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*kealoa = short, common answer that you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.

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Tablecloth fabric / MON 11-16-20 / Green item proffered by Sam-I-Am / Jitter-free jitter juice / Roman poet who wrote Seize the day put no trust in the morrow / Shore phenomenon around time of the new and full moons

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium (3:04)

THEME: BABY STEPS (59A: Small advances ... or the progression suggested by the ends of 17-, 23-, 33-, 41- and 48-Across) — last words in the theme answers are "STEPS" in the normal motor-skill development of a "BABY":

Theme answers:

• JELLY ROLL (17A: Sweet item at a bakery)
• HOUSE SIT (23A: Keep watch while a homeowner's away)
• PUB CRAWL (33A: Bar-to-bar activity)
• MIC STAND (41A: What a speaker or musician may adjust before starting)
• CAKEWALK (48A: Easy win)

Word of the Day: SPRING TIDE (29D: Shore phenomenon around the time of the new and full moons) —

: a tide of greater-than-average range around the times of new moon and full moon (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Was briefly irked that only one of the theme answers actually contained a word related to "steps" (CAKE WALK), but then quickly came to accept that "steps" could refer to stages in a process, and that the process in question was adequately represented by the last words of the themers in today's puzzle, so I finally arrived at grudging acceptance, which is honestly the best I can do today. This theme works fine. The fill is fine. It's fine. It's visually unusual, in that most of its themers (2 through 5) are neither flush to the side of the grid nor centered. Four 8s in a row just sort of float off-center toward the middle of the grid. It's ... a look. It makes the whole center part of the grid look and feel very choppy, somehow; it's a very black square-heavy grid (40 of them, which is def on the high side). But if you're gonna cram in this many themers, it's not surprising that you'd have to make rather liberal use of the black squares, to keep the grid manageable (i.e. fillable in a way that is not awkward / ugly). For all the short fill this one contains, it never felt tiresome, and HORACE DOGSTAR DAMASK and SACHETS are all at least mildly interesting answers. In most themed puzzles, it's just a couple of longer Downs that hold any real interest, but this one didn't rely solely on SPRING TIDE and CAMERAWORK to liven things up, which is nice. 

I've had a couple glasses of wine tonight, which may have affected my speed skills, but I had a number of sticking points today, starting right off the bat at 1A: Tricked by doing something unexpectedly, with "out" (FAKED). It's a long, unwieldy clue, and it's got the whole "with 'out'" part to factor in, and my brain couldn't do anything with it for what felt like a long time (as long as it took me to get most of the crosses). KILO also took a bit, because the clue was so vague (3D: Metric weight, informally), and since FAKED and KILO cross, I stumbled rather than shot out of the NW. I also had a (metric) ton of trouble with CAMERAWORK; I watch a *ton* of movies, and think a lot about cinematography, so ... I don't know what I was expecting this answer to be, but nothing as informal as CAMERAWORK. I had the "C" and thought "... C ... INEMATOGRAPHY?" And even after I got CAMERA I wasn't sure what came next. [Job for a cinematographer] sounds like it wants, well, a specific job, a subset of what a cinematographer does, but CAMERAWORK is the totality of what a cinematographer does. I like the answer OK, but the clue was weirdly baffling to me. Worst part of the puzzle by far was trying to figure out what spelling of KEBAB they were gonna go with today. I managed to get *both* vowels wrong this time, yay me. Nothing else caused too much trouble. So I guess that's that. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Horizontal line on chessboard / WED 10-23-19 / Petite Grande / MacKenize beer mascot of 1980s / Cassady traveling companion of Jack Kerouac

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:44 on oversized 16x15 grid)

THEME: something about PLINY THE ELDER approaching MOUNT VESUVIUS while saying "FORTUNE / FAVORS / THE BOLD" — all of this is news to me, so ... I guess this all happened ... allegedly ... a long time ago?

Word of the Day: ANIMATRONS (4D: The T. rex in "Jurassic Park" and others) —

: a puppet or similar figure that is animated by means of electromechanical devices : an animatronic figure (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Couldn't have cared less. Even if I had ever heard of this ... event? ... I don't think I'd have cared. It's some kind of ADAGE (67A: Maxim), and then a Roman dude and a volcano. I do not care. There is no interest level here. There is no wordplay or trick or nothin'. Lots of 3-, 4-, and 5-letter answers, though, so woo hoo! I feel like people are out here making puzzle just to make them, just because they seem adequate, or like something they can imagine being in a paper, instead of making puzzles that might bring *them* joy, one's they can imagine *themselves* really loving. Just ... so much adequacy lately. So much mediocrity. Things haven't even been *interestingly* bad lately. Just meh. This puzzle has "ERASERHEAD," so that's cool, but that's all that's cool. TUNA BURGER!? I'm sure they exist, but not anywhere I've eaten lately. Tuna steak, sure. Tuna salad, of course. I dunno. Awkward adjectives like PUPAL and PAPUAN and then stupid archaisms like AFORE :/ and classic crosswordese like "IS IT I?" It was all a little exhausting. Big Shrug Energy, overall.


I drink coffee. Like, a lot. It is the most important ritual of my day. The happiest moment of my day. Literally nothing brings me greater joy that brewing that first pot of coffee just before dawn. I love everything about it. I've been drinking coffee for ~30 years. So ... what the hell is "Jitter juice" (JAVA)? Stop it. Stop with your dumb slang from some wannabe hipster, Daddy-O. JAVA is an actual coffee-producing island, you could go with that. There are lots of other slang terms of real merit. "Jitter juice"? This dumb clue has me borderline angry. I would love a cool coffee clue, but this really ain't it. I wrote in SLAV at 53A: Speaker of a language that has both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets because for the life of me I cannot keep SERB and SLAV straight ... and then bam, there's SLAV just waiting for me at 10D: Many a person once trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Always weird when your wrong answer one place becomes your right answer somewhere else. Only answer that was a total "???" to me was RENÉ Caovilla, but "high-end women's shoes," no surprise that's a little beyond me. "High-end" is such a bad euphemism. They're expensive. It's OK to say that. Cool to see ELENA clued as Ferrante this time. I feel like Kagan gets most of the ELENA glory. I had SCAM instead of SPAM at first, which seemed very plausible (10A: Many a phone call from one's own area code, nowadays). No real hang-ups or wrong turns in this one. Some wrestling with vague clues, and a tad slow overall, but nothing noteworthily difficult here. Time for bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Vain queen who boasted she was more powerful than / WED 10-3-18 / Presidential perk until 1977 / Where river meets sea / She responds to voice commands / Where Cassiopeia rules prior to her banishment / Rank for Jay Landsman on The Wire

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (maybe easy, but I just woke up...) (4:10)

THEME: POSEIDON (41D: God who banished 63-Across to the sky, as depicted by the constellation formed by the X's in this puzzle's finished grid) — theme answers are basic mythology trivia, and then there are five Xs that I guess look like the constellation CASSIOPEIA —since it's completely non-iconic, I googled it, and yeah, it checks out:

Theme answers:

• CASSIOPEIA (63A: Vain queen who boasted that she was more beautiful than 18-Across)
• THE NEREIDS (18A: Sea nymphs, in Greek mythology) 
• ETHIOPIA (3D: Where 63-Across ruled prior to her banishment)

Word of the Day: BRYCE (48A: Utah's ___ Canyon) —

Bryce Canyon National Park (/braɪs/) is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller, and sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,400 to 2,700 m). (wikipedia)

• • •

[N.B.: I did this write-up under the impression that the constellation in question was POSEIDON—please see POSEIDON clue to try to understand my confusion; anyway, my bad, the constellation is CASSIOPEIA, sometimes 5am blogging goes wrong, sometimes blogging goes wrong period. Good day] I have never heard of the constellation POSEIDON. Never thought out it. I mean, why not, there are scads of constellations, but it's not like the guy comes up as a constellation in regular conversation or (before today) crosswords or anything. I vaguely knew the story of CASSIOPEIA but honestly I mostly relied on the fact that I've been soaking in the world of literature and mythology for decades and all the names (like THE NEREIDS) are super-familiar to me, even when I can't exactly remember why. ETHIOPIA is a new bit of trivia to me. I clearly must not have paid much attention to the CASSIOPEIA myth before. When I finished this puzzle, I thought it was just an assortment of mythical answers, ho-hum. Then I connected the Xs. Still ho-hum, as that constellation pattern means nothing to me. Do other people really know off the top of their heads what the constellation POSEIDON looks like. Good for you, I guess. But it's less than satisfying to finish with what looks like an arbitrary shape drawn on your grid. Google image search confirms the shape's accuracy. But it's just five Xs. Kind of a shrug. But puzzle-wise, this one's still light years better than yesterday's monstrosity. This grid is much cleaner, and at least this grid *has* a revealer. Yesterday's not only lacked one, but couldn't have found one if it tried because the concept was meaningless. Sorry, still not over it. Go ahead and love Broadway all you want, but as a *puzzle*, that was junk. This one, tolerable.


I flew through this one, with hardly any answers slowing me down (weird moment where I wanted Snowden (20A: EXILED) to be EX-PAT and then ran into that same answer later in the grid) (40A: An American abroad). But it wasn't til I tried to get to the SW that I had any trouble, and then I had a bunch of it. It was all concentrated around BRYCE, which I completely forgot. I kept thinking of AYERS Rock, for some reason (better known now as ULURU), and then even after getting BRY- I was thinking BRYER, which is absurd. Didn't help that AUSTERE was very slow to fill in (44A: Like Brutalist architecture)—needed half the crosses easy before I could see it. And then I had an opposite-of-fortuitous mistake that really caused things to seize up: had -EM at 58A: Nonhumanities subjects, for short and wrote in CHEM. Stupid brain processed the clue wrong—it's "subjects," plural!!! Ugh. Anyway, CHEM messed me up good, especially because it added a seemingly plausible "C" to the already impossible-to-spell FUCHSIAS (38D: Purplish-red flowers). Rounding out the trouble was 45D: Handle (SEE TO), which could've been a verb or a noun and could've had a million meanings, so pfft. Changing CHEM to STEM was my final move.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Quaint train amenity / MON 10-16-17 / Substitute terms for sensitive subjects / Long-running PBS film series

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. Normal Monday) (3:00)

THEME: KILLER WHALE (59A: Creature found "swimming" in 16-, 22-, 28-, 42- and 47-Across) —letter string "ORCA" is embedded (i.e. "swimming") in all the themers:

Theme answers:

• RADIATOR CAP (16A: It must be removed before pouring coolant into an engine)
• WINDSOR CASTLE (22A: Elizabeth II's home outside London)
• PARLOR CAR (28A: Quaint train amenity)
• INDOOR CAT (42A: Feline that doesn't stray)
• LIQUOR CABINET (47A: Where rum and rye may be stored)

Word of the Day: BLAT (34D: Trombone honk, e.g.) —

verb

verb: blat; 3rd person present: blats; past tense: blatted; past participle: blatted; gerund or present participle: blatting

1. 1.

   make a bleating sound.

noun

noun: blat; plural noun: blats

1. 1.

   a bleat or similar noise.

   
   

   "the blat of Jack's horn" (google)

• • •

Retro City. Reminds me of doing a puzzle in the early '90s, with my good friends OBI and ALEE and AGUE and AGRA and hey there's SRO (Sold Right Out!)*. And the theme—also old school. I've embedded my share of words across two words in a theme answer before, but usually the words change. Ooh, no, the first puzzle I ever ever made had WINK in it four times (in honor of Palin's debate performance, which gives you a rough idea of how long ago I made it). Did a "beer bellies" puzzle once, but the embedded words were all *different* beer types. And revealers should be clever—they should make the whole theme snap into focus in some interesting way. KILLER WHALE is just ... KILLER WHALE. I am unconvinced by the "swimming" part of the clue. It's just an embedded letter string, like so many embedded letter strings in so many puzzles that have come before. As a puzzle from a quarter century ago, it's fine. As a puzzle from today, it's ... a puzzle from a quarter century ago.


This was not hard, but there were definitely sloggy parts. Had LIE for FIB (10A: Something that might be said with fingers crossed behind the back), which is what happens when the "I" is the first thing to go in there. That tripped me. Then I just ... don't think of NGOs, like, ever (well, not in crosswords, anyway), so no idea there. If you'd asked me to name "train amenities" off the top of my head forever, I'd never have arrived at PARLOR CAR (whatever that is). "P.O.V." isn't a show that leaps to mind when I think of PBS (though I do know of it). MS DEGREE is just an odd / unexpected phrase. GRE was cross-referenced. I had the "X" and guessed EXITS before AXLES (51D: Highway tolls may be based on the number of them). My answer is very very good, though. Stupid "X." I like CODE WORDS, but not much else here, though the crossing of TUDORS and WINDSOR CASTLE is pretty cute. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. my wife thought this was a Tolkien-related theme until she got to the revealer

*it's actually Standing Room Only (or, in another context, Single-Room Occupancy)

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Mountain Dew alternative / MON 5-25-15 / Polynesian carvings / Island nation for which distinctive cat is named

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday)

THEME: "I NAILED IT" (57A: Appropriate exclamation upon solving this puzzle?) — last words of theme answers describe a manicure (I think): first CLIP, then FILE, then BUFF, then SHINE, then POLISH. I hope I have this right.

Theme answers:

• VIDEO CLIP (17A: Excerpt shown on TV)
• CIRCULAR FILE (23A: Wastebasket, jocularly)
• TRAIN BUFF (33A: Visitor at a railroad museum, say)
• MOONSHINE (39A: Product of a backwoods still)
• SOCIAL POLISH (45A: What a boor sorely lacks)

Word of the Day: BABYLON (9D: Ancient Hanging Gardens city) —

Babylon [...] was a significant city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. // Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC. The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the "holy city" of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia. // The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires. // It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c. 1770 to 1670 BC, and again between c. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares (2,200 acres). // The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. (wikipedia)

• • •

I know nothing about manicures, but this theme strikes me as both clever and tight. I don't think I know what "SHINE" means. I mean, of course I know what that word means, but the difference between "SHINE" and "POLISH" is lost on me. Maybe there's some clear stuff that goes on before the "POLISH." If my daughter were nearby right now, I could ask. But she's not, so I'm 'just going to trust that this puzzle has the whole manicure verb progression right. Speaking of polish—the fill on this thing looks great. It's not what you'd call zippy, but that's understandable, given that the grid's trying to keep *six* long themers in place without having the rest of the grid go to hell. Failing to go to hell is all the non-theme parts of the grid had to do, and they did that admirably. All in all, a promising start to the work week ... only it's Memorial Day, so nobody's working, so ... just "week."


There were a couple things I didn't understand. One is technical—why are there cheater squares* (black squares before 31A and after 41A, respectively? Those sections should've been awfully easy to fill without having to add the cheaters. But I assume the constructor tried that, and just couldn't get the fill to come out clean enough, and so added the cheaters and got the job done. It's a very minor thing. I'm not even complaining—just wondering aloud, from a constructor's standpoint, why one would resort to cheaters *there*. The other thing I don't understand—why TRAIN BUFF?? I mean ... trains? If you needed "train" for your theme to work, OK, but "train" has nothing to do with the theme, so why not go with the much more familiar MOVIE BUFF? There are millions of MOVIE BUFFs and, like, seven TRAIN BUFFs in the world, so ... that choice mystifies me. Again, not complaining. Just standing here, baffled.


I got slowed down a bit by TRAIN BUFF (had TRAIN and had no idea what could come after). I also took a while to come up with SOCIAL POLISH, since it's not a phrase that stands alone that well. "Social graces" googles about 25 times better, for instance. It's an actual phrase, it's just not snappy or self-evident, hence the delay in my figuring it out. I also hesitated at SEIZE because I Swear To God I never know the I/E order there. SIEGE, I then E, SEIZE, E then I. I can tell myself that now, but in the heat of solving, that knowledge just isn't accessible and I end up guessing / checking crosses.


Lastly, sadly, Anne Meara died yesterday. I should say Anne MEARA, since her last name has been common crossword fare for decades now. She was also a crossword buff (!) herself, and a nice person to boot. Oh, and a comedy legend, obviously, but I just took it for granted that you all knew that. I hope someone's making a (good) tribute puzzle for her right now. She deserves it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*cheater squares = black squares that don't add to the word count (generally added by constructors solely for the purpose of making the grid easier to fill)

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Franciscan order member / MON 8-16-10 / End of week office dress policy maybe / Quaint computer insert / Drooping as rabbit's ears

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels and Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: TV DETECTIVE (60A: What each of the characters named at the ends of 17-, 24-, 38- and 48-Across is):

• Frank CANNON (1971-76) — LOOSE CANNON (17A: Unpredictable sort)

• Joe FRIDAY (Jack Webb years: 1949-59, 1967-70) — CASUAL FRIDAY (24A: End-of-the-week office dress policy, maybe)

• Nash BRIDGES (1996-2001) — BURN ONE'S BRIDGES (38A: Permanently sever ties)

• Adrian MONK (2002-09) — CAPUCHIN MONK (48A: Franciscan order member)

Word of the Day: CAPUCHIN MONK (48A: Franciscan order member)) —

The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (O.F.M. Cap; in England and Ireland, O.S.F.C) is an order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Capuchins, called a minister general, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri. // The order arose in 1520 when Matteo da Bascio, an "Observant" Franciscan friar native to the Italian area of Marche, said he became inspired by God with the idea that the manner of life led by the Franciscans of his day was not the one which St. Francis had envisaged. He sought to return to the primitive way of life in solitude and penance as practiced by the founder of his order.

• • •

Really liked this one, despite the fact that I (someone who starts teaching crime fiction again in something like two weeks) could identify only two of the four detectives. "CANNON" sounded like one of those one-named 70s cop shows I'd heard of (it is), but BRIDGES I could not identify. So I googled, only to have a powerful "D'oh" moment. "*Nash* Bridges." There was literally Nothing about that show that made me want to watch it, so I never did (as I avoided most '90s phenomena). I sort of forgot that Nash BRIDGES *was* a detective — whoa, I just realized NASH is in the grid—crafty (39D: Ogden who wrote "Candy / Is dandy / But liquor / Is quicker"). In my head, he is like a slightly more civilized and effete Walker Texas Ranger. Anyway, the theme answers themselves are fantastic, especially the highly unexpected and original CAPUCHIN MONK—the only answer in the grid keeping this puzzle from being flat-out "Easy" for a Monday. I hesitated only a couple of times while solving: once at SECY (58D: Cabinet head: Abbr.), an abbrev. I can't stand, and one which (consequently?) never comes readily to mind; and once at DELHI (33D: Indian metropolis), which I (once again!) misspelled on my first try. My brain will not let DEHLI go. Love the music in this one (esp. Stevie!).

Wife just called from the next room, re: clue on NIECE (15A: Uncle's special little girl): "Creepy!" Agreed. Only weirdish words today were FLOR (27D: Bloom: Sp.), which is more Spanish 102 than Spanish 101 (e.g. ESO, ADIOS, AGUA, etc.); and ALOP (31A: Drooping, as a rabbit's ears), which will make novice solvers go "???" but will be so familiar to constant solvers at this point that its presence is not likely to cause disturbance of any sort.

[My love for this man's music knows No Bounds—nothing can make me happier faster: Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie AMOUR"]

Bullets:

• 41D: Quaint computer insert (DISKETTE) — this clue made me laugh out loud, mainly because it made me imagine someone picking up one of these at a little antique store on the coast: "Look at this honey ... isn't it adorable?"
  
• 49D: Like some symmetry (AXIAL) — a bit of an oddity on a Monday, but I can tell you that I got this instantly based solely on the clue: symmetry seems to be a preferred way of coming at AXIAL.
  
• 67A: "Go, bullfighter!" ("OLE!") — this clue also made me laugh out loud, primarily at the idea of anyone, at any time, shouting "Go, bullfighter!" "Go, bullfighter! Throw a home run!"

About tomorrow's puzzle: I won't be around to blog it (though someone else will). I want to invite you, however, to write your own personal comments on your copy of the puzzle, cut it out, and send it to me at:

Rex Parker
4700 Vestal Parkway East, #279
Vestal, NY 13850-3770

Or else take a picture of yourself solving it, shredding it, making an airplane out of it, whatever, and send that along to me via email. Seriously.

I'll be back on Wednesday with a brief recap of this past weekend's Lollapuzzoola 3 tournament in Queens.

Thanks.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Apr. 17, 2007 - Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "FISHTAILS" (33D: Has the rear end move side to side ... or a hint to the five asterisked clues): each of the non-fish-related answers to the five asterisked clues ends in a word that that can be followed (or "tailed") by "fish."

And the fishy answers are:

17A: *Chicken (scaredy cat) => CAT FISH
23A: *Very good child (little angel) => ANGEL FISH, etc.
48A: *Venus (Evening Star)
59A: *Purple sandwich filler (grape jelly)
11D: *Short shadow caster (mid-day sun)

Cute theme with nice, symmetrical execution. FISHTAILS suggests to my ear that the words will follow, not precede FISH, but whatever; it works. Had the most trouble with GRAPE JELLY, first because I wouldn't let that stuff anywhere near my sandwich, second, because the clue should have read "spread," not "filler" (gross), and lastly, because the SE was just kind of a mess. I had TUILE and TOILE before I finally got TULLE (?) for 51D: Veil material (me and fabrics ... don't get along). Further, I could not think of any "Mae" but FANNIE, so 64A: _____ Mae (college money provider) eluded me in eel-like fashion for a few beats down there. Oh, and JAL (61D: Major Asian carrier, for short) - which I assume stands for Japan Airlines - was unknown to me. I've never been to Japan - or Asia, period, for that matter. Wow, is that true? Yes it is.

28A: Tiebreakers, briefly (OTs) - not always. I think of a "tie-breaker" as something that Definitely breaks a tie, not a period of time during which a tie might be broken.

39D: Frequent flier's reward (free trip) - not always. Sometimes you get upgrades.

38A: You might R.S.V.P. online to this (e-Vite) - I'm not sure which letter gets capitalized; the way I have it makes the answer look like the brand name of a vitamin drink. This answer is creeping into more and more puzzles. The Internet has been a Massive Boon to the crossword constructing industry.

35A: It lets things go (releaser) - yikes! Horrible odd-job answer. See also...

41A: Snugglers (nestlers) - I let this one pass because I know the Nestlers, and they are wonderful people.

43A: Reddish-brown (sienna) - When is Sienna going to come back on the show? Now that Craig has taken over Worldwide and changed its name to Montgomery Enterprises (abbreviated "ME," ha ha), I'd expect to see his ex-wife return to the show for some kind of shenanigans. If you don't watch "As The World Turns," just ignore the preceding comment.

44A: "Die Lorelei" poet (Heine) - I have this weird feeling that this clue / answer pairing was common about 20+ years ago, but not so much recently. I had to get it from crosses.

45A: Vietnam Memorial designer (Lin) - damn her and her common name, which I always forget.

1D: Photographer Adams (Ansel) - my family somehow knows his family. It's all kind of hazy to me, but true. I grew up in Central California, where Adams is like unto a god. When I was a kid, Adams and Leroy Nieman were the only artists (besides maybe Monet) whose work I could identify at a glance.

22D: Obviously injured (bleeding) - normally I'd have something smart-ass to say about this answer, but on the day after the (how many times can they say it) "worst mass-killing in American history," and on a day when I have to return to my own college campus and face a bunch of kids who look just like those Virginia Tech kids, in my own totally unsecured lecture hall ... I'm just not in the mood.

Take care,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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