Conductor Georg / THU 7-8-21 / Coffee liqueur originally from Jamaica / One of the Big Four domestic carriers once

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging to discover theme, Easy-Medium after that

[Those "AM" squares are actually "AM/FM" squares]

THEME: Two-way RADIO (39A: It can be two-way ... with a hint to four squares in this puzzle) — an "AM/FM" rebus, where "AM" works in the Across and "FM" works in the Down:

Theme answers:

• ALAMODE / OFFMIKE (17A: Fashionable / 3D: Not amplified, in a way)
• TIAMARIA / SELFMADE (21A: Coffee liqueur originally from Jamaica / 10D: Rich, but not born that way)
• MAMMAMIA / HALFMAST (56A: 2001 Broadway hit with an exclamation mark in its name / 43D: Certain flag position)
• YOGAMAT / WOLFMAN (62A: Something to meditate on / 49D: Figure in a horror film)

Word of the Day: ODE Records (6D: Onetime record label with a poetic name) —

Ode Records (also known as Ode Sounds and Visuals) was an American record label, started by Lou Adler in 1967 after he sold Dunhill Records to ABC Records. It was distributed by CBS's Epic Records except between 1970 and 1976, when the label was distributed by A&M Records. The original incarnation was closed in 1978 and CBS took over most of catalog, often with Epic logos replacing Ode logos on reissues.

Adler reactivated the label several times, including another short run with A&M in 1989. It was disbanded when A&M was sold to PolyGram in late 1989.

Ode is now part of Sony Music Entertainment (the successor to CBS), excluding:

• Cheech & Chong catalogue is controlled by Warner Music Group. After Cheech & Chong switched to Warner Bros. Records in 1978, they took also its past catalog to their new home label. Depending on reissue, they can have "Warner Bros. Records Inc.", "Warner Records Inc." or "Ode Records" printed as copyright owner. It is believed that Lou Adler still owns copyrights for its Ode releases.
• Soundtrack to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the London Symphony Orchestra's version of Tommy are still owned by Lou Adler, with reissues distributed under license to third party oldies labels like Rhino, Castle Communications and more recently, The Orchard, another subsidiary of Sony Music. (wikipedia)

• • •

WELL, WELL, that was tedious (except for WELL, WELL, which was easily my favorite answer in the grid). It's a one-note puzzle, where it's hard to find the note (because of unpleasant / deliberately hard cluing around that first rebus square in the NW), but once you find it ... well, that's that, really. You gotta wait on a (very) weak revealer, and then, of course, hunt down those other rebus squares, but they're a lot easier to find now, even if they weren't symmetrical (I prefer asymmetrical rebuses—I just assume that the constructor could get better overall fill results if they didn't artificially restrict themselves to the symmetrical rebus-square formation). AM/FM, AM/FM, AM/FM, AM/FM, toggle toggle toggle toggle, pffft. If the revealer had had some sparkle, or the themers had been particularly original or colorful, maybe this thing would've been able to overcome its essentially monotonous core. But mostly what you get is a very old-fashioned and dull grid overall (both in terms of its lack of any contemporary references, as well as its reliance on STP SSS SERA TREY NNE ERRED OBIE IBET YEA TWA, all the olden short stuff you've known for years). The classical music thing also becomes an annoying hobby horse. I listen to classical music regularly, and none of the answers gave me any trouble, but ugh, stop, we get it, Schubert, Beethoven, Haydn, Bartók, SOLTI, ART SONG, NOTATE, on and on and on. I think it's good when you give your puzzle a bit of your own personality (if that's what's going on here), but there's a point at which that personality starts feeling like a rut. A record skipping, if that metaphor helps. (Admit it: all you rap-haters would lose your collective *minds* if there was as much rap in a puzzle as there is classical music in this one)

Really rough going to start, as 1A: Slip could've been a billion things, so that even after I got BEACON and OAK, I couldn't get a grip up there at all. I wanted OFF-MIKE but it didn't fit (first clue that some trickiness was afoot), but I had CENTS before COINS (20A: Some change), and, because of that, GIFT before BOON (4D: Windfall). No idea about ODE Records (see Word of the Day, above—it's not a particularly distinguished or memorable label, and *again* with the bygone music ... not as bygone as Classical, or RAG, but still a good half century ago in its heyday). After fuddling around a bit more, then realizing I must be dealing with some kind of rebus, I struck oil, but unlike those who strike oil (I assume), I immediately wanted to stop digging, as this rebus was not about to make me happy or rich. A non-blogging me probably would have quit right here:

... though that's probably not true; I would've wanted to *confirm* that the only thing I had to look forward to was a bunch of AM/FM squares (and tepid fill). So maybe I would've quit with the revealer, which told me in no uncertain terms that those squares were gonna go two ways (AM, FM) and only those two ways. Of course actual two-way radio has nothing to do with AM/FM channels, but that's not really important, since two-way is obviously being repurposed in punny, hyper-literal fashion. The problem is the predictable repetition, and the fact that digging up the AM/FM squares doesn't produce any delight (except, I guess, the delight of mere discovery). There's a lot of repetition, from the theme, to the classical music, to the two EN-words (ENFOLD, ENLACE) to the two comparative adjectives (OILIER, VAINER) ... it all felt very same same same.

Having HOT PANTS and OGLE in a puzzle is an ... interesting choice. I was talking to a young woman constructor recently who told me she had actually deleted OGLE from her wordlist, so tired was she of having this creepy, objectifying, often actually threatening act be such a staple of crossword grids. She said she was keeping LEER, but would never clue it as an OGLE synonym (LEER is Spanish for "to read" and I think LEER is also the name of a major truck accessory company ... I feel like I've stared at the word on the backs of pickups a number of times ... yes, truck bed covers, also called TONNEAU covers, why have I never seen *that* word in a grid!?). Anyway, OGLE is a word and LEER is a word, you can't deny that, and if you don't want to see them banished, that's fine, but since OGLE and LEER are both age-old repeaters, it's not like you would be losing much. Your grids might get better if you took the sexual objectification out of your grid. Fight the patriarchy *and* ditch the crosswordese! Two birds, one stone.

I don't think OUTACT is much of a thing (50D: Best in a film audition, say). Roles go to the people who are best suited for them, not necessarily to the person who can act the best. Auditions aren't rap battles or poetry-slams ... I don't think. I struggled to get AVENGER, as I think of Thor as a god, not a comic book character (of course I know he is also that). So, yes, in case you were confused, Thor is an AVENGER (47A: Thor, for one) because he is literally one of the founding members of Marvel Comics' "Avengers" (along with Hulk, Iron-Man, Ant Man and the Wasp). I also struggled to get ANN'S (just never heard of it) (23A: St. ___, neighborhood in north London). Otherwise, the puzzle didn't contain any stumpers, and didn't present much difficulty once I finally got the gimmick sorted and got the hell out of the NW corner. And now its STATUS is "done" and this blog post's STATUS is "done" I can get on with my day. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Offered for breeding as derby winner / MON 3-9-20 / Bit on baby's bib / Classic symphonic rock group for short / Shylock's harsh demand in Merchant of Venice

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday) (2:55)

THEME: weights — themers are famililarish phrases that start with units of weight, each one bigger than the last (with every themer following a "[unit of weight] OF [some thing]" pattern):

Theme answers:

• GRAIN OF SAND (18A: What you should take dubious advice with)
• OUNCE OF SENSE (29A: What a complete fool lacks)
• POUND OF FLESH (46A: Shylock's harsh demand, in "The Merchant of Venice")
• TON OF BRICKS (58A: What "it" may hit you like)

Word of the Day: NATE the Great (19D: ___ the Great of children's literature) —

Nate the Great is a series of more than two dozen children's detective stories written by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat featuring the eponymous boy detective, Nate the Great. Sharmat and illustrator Marc Simont inaugurated the series in 1972 with Nate the Great, a 60-page book published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, and Simont illustrated the first twenty books, to 1998.[...] Nate is a detective, a child version of Sam Spade. He solves crimes with his dog, Sludge, introduced in the second case, Nate the Great goes Undercover (1974). Nate finds him in a field eating a stale pancake. (Both Nate and Sludge love pancakes.) (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, enough of Women's Month Week, back to men, right on cue. And back to a rather miserable experience. At least half a dozen ughs or groans, zero smiles. Let's start with the theme—I guess there are many grains in an ounce, many ounces in a pound, and many pounds in a ton, so there's a *kind* of progression here, but it's not a familiar one. Like, GRAIN OUNCE POUND TON does not track as a sequence. It's not clear exactly which weight system is being used here. Troy weight doesn't deal in tons. If it's just "English" or "Imperial" weights, then ... what happened to STONE ?(not to mention some other, far less known units). No, this sequence is tenuous. Weak. Not really a coherent thing. Also, OUNCE OF SENSE feels very weak. The only OUNCE OF phrase that I know at all is OUNCE OF PREVENTION. Maybe *ONE* OUNCE OF SENSE, that feels in the language (and makes a much more natural answer to the clue, [What a complete fool lacks]), but just OUNCE OF SENSE all by itself feels wobbly. The others are fine but bland. The bigger problem today is the fill, which is of yore and of yesteryear and very very much not interesting. I knew things were bad when I hit MY HAT, and then was proved right with (deep breath) OPEL APR GELÉE (!?!) ESTE ULEE PEE (!!!!?!?) ATRA ASTA EKESERLEEREELO .... wow. Just OOF. All over. ATSTUD!? You have got to craft your grids much, much better than this. Eliminate the dross. Clean stuff up. This grid might've passed muster 30 years ago, but there's no excuse for it today. Mothball city. C'mon, man.


Only trouble I had today was the SENSE part of OUNCE OF SENSE (again, just not an intuitive stand-alone phrase to me) and GELÉE, which is just not a word I ever hear. Do you mean hair gel? It's just called "gel," I'm pretty sure. And also ... I'm pretty sure [Cosmetic goop] ("goop!?!") is not a very spot-on clue for something as chichi-sounding as GELÉE. Maybe GELÉE is only for someone who DOLLS UP a lot (i.e. not me), who knows? If the rest of the grid weren't so dismal, maybe it wouldn't bug me so much. Oh, and I balked at the clue on DRIPPED (49A: Leaked, as an old faucet). I wanted DRIPPED, but couldn't figure out why a new faucet wouldn't also drop. Because it would. Oldness and leaking do not seem like related things to me. What is "old," exactly, in faucet-years? I assumed this clue meant [Leaked, as faucets of yore], so DRIPPED seemed ... wrong. I mean, jeez, DRIPPED!? Any faucet can drip. What if you just didn't turn it all the way off?? That could happen to a faucet of any age. So many potential for DRIPPED, and yet you somehow manage to trip on it. Can we do Women's Week again? Please? I didn't love every puzzle from last week, but I'll take *any* of last week's puzzles over stale and lukewarm stuff like this.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I miss my lapdog

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Pharaoh honored near Aswan / WED 8-22-18 / Apple application that's now banned / Tool with tapering blade / hi lois pooch / title of trash collector's memoir

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:20)

THEME: MB—>MP —wacky letter-change stuff

Theme answers:

• READY TO RUMPLE (20A: "You think the blanket needs messing up?")
• RULE OF THUMP (36A: Guideline for testing watermelon ripeness?)
• SLUMPERLAND (43A: Whence slouches?)
• DUMP AND DUMPER (58A: Title of a trash collector's memoir?)

Word of the Day: TANIA Mallet (47A: Actress Mallet of "Goldfinger") —

Tania Mallet (born 19 May 1941) is an English model and actress who is best known for her appearance as Tilly Masterson in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). [...] Tania is cousin of actress Helen Mirren. [...] Despite the film's phenomenal success, Goldfinger would be Mallet's only major big screen appearance. (wikipedia)

• • •

The NYT can't be this desperate for wacky Wednesday puzzles. Changing UMP to UMB ... well, it's a thing you can do, but as you can see from this puzzle, it's hard to see the upside. The themers simply don't come together, by and large. This is an example of a letter-change that one *can* do ... but, given the weak results, one probably *shouldn't* do (or, now, I guess, have done). If we accept the basic premise here (i.e. that just changing one letter in a three-letter sequence is sufficient basis for a theme), then I think RULE OF THUMP makes the grade, while the others do not. With RULE OF THUMP, the base phrase is a nice standalone phrase, and the new one evokes a very clear and specific image. It's cute. And that's what you want your wacky themers to be, at a minimum: cute. But READY TO RUMPLE does not have a good standalone base phrase (It needs "Let's get..." in front of it to be truly solid), and the clue evokes ... nothing. I don't even understand the context for the clue quote: "You think the blanket needs messing up?" What situation is happening there. READY TO RUMPLE is a question? Why would you ask about messing up a blanket? Why would there be a good and bad time to do that? It's idiotic, the whole thing. SLUMPERLAND is just absurd—the way SLUMPER is absurd, even before you stick -LAND on the end. DUMP AND DUMPER is about as bad as READY TO RUMPLE in terms of its making zero sense. Why would a "trash collector" (is that like a garbageman?) call his memoir DUMP AND DUMPER? Is it about a specific "dump" that he takes his trash to? And then ... he is the "dumper"? Or is the truck the "dumper"? It's not funny. It's confusing. Wacky Themers Have To Land Perfectly. These are just off and off and off.


Imagine thinking anyone in 2018 is going to know TANIA Mallet. What is even happening with that clue? She was in a single movie 50+ years ago. That is all. At least TANIA Raymonde (of "Lost" (ABC), "Goliath" (Amazon), etc.) is still acting, and has acted in More Than One Thing. I still think she's pretty obscure, but she beats Mallet by a long shot. Apparently there are people who think that "Goldfinger" is still current cinema. Mallet wasn't exactly famous when the movie was in theaters. Come on. The rest of the fill was OK, with the longer non-theme fill being reasonably entertaining. I like NOSE COUNT and PLUNK DOWN. I got -PEACE part of 17A: Topic for one of the Dalai Lama's "Little Book" series first, and so wrote in WORLD PEACE. I also blanked on SHAW (1A: Eliza Doolittle's creator) and had no idea that cement trucks had HOSEs attached (?@!). Thought the windows were PENNA. Thought a HOE had a "tapering blade" (63D: ADZ). Found THE very hard to come up with, given the clue (33D: "What ___?!"). Wrote in DRONE at first for 5A: Many an Amazon "worker" (ROBOT). The quotation marks around "worker" made me briefly wonder whether the puzzle was taking a swipe at their terrible labor practices. SLAVE seemed a bit pointed, though, esp for the NYT. So ... ROBOT. I don't associate ROBOTs with Amazon any more than I associate them with other large industrial operations. But I thought they were experimenting with DRONE deliveries; hence my (wrong) initial answer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Hey, check 48-Across ... now check the clue on 27-Across. Quality editing, right?

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Cape Cod resort town / MON 7-9-18 / Danglers on luggage / Computer crash investigator informally

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday) (3:31)

THEME: DIDDLY SQUAT (62A: What the exercise regimen in 17-, 25-, 37- and 51-Across is worth) — weightlifting puns (except for "twist"—I don't know what that is)

Theme answers:

• CHEESE CURLS (17A: Arm exercise at a dairy farm?)
• FORKLIFTS (25A: Shoulder exercise at a cutlery store?)
• PEPPERMINT TWIST (37A: Wrist exercise at a chandy factory?)
• WINE PRESS (51A: Chest exercise at a vintner?)

Word of the Day: TRURO (7D: Cape Cod resort town) —

Truro (/ˈtrʊəroʊ/; Cornish: Truru) is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is Cornwall's county town, only city, and centre for administration, leisure and retail. Truro's population was recorded as 18,766 in the 2011 census. People from Truro are known as Truronians. As the most southern city in mainland Great Britain, Truro grew as a centre of trade from its port and then as a stannary town for the tin mining industry. Its cathedral was completed in 1910. Places of interest include the Royal Cornwall Museum, the Hall for Cornwall and Cornwall's Courts of Justice. (wikipedia)

• • •

This one was just slightly off, all over. I'm in the gym 5 days a week, so I might be too close to the subject, but there are some slight problems with this answer set, from my pov. The connection between the body part in the clue and the "exercise" type in the answer feels tenuous. You can do curls with your arms, sure, OK, but LIFTS you also do with your arms, not specifically your shoulders. Shoulder PRESS is actually a pretty common "exercise," but chest is the body part that gets associated with PRESS, which is normally called a *bench* press, and while CURLS, LIFTS, PRESS, and SQUAT are all very familiar gym terms, TWIST ... ??? Wrist twist? I've never done one of these. I don't think I've heard of them. Even if they exist, they aren't nearly as common an "exercise" as the other gym-related answers. And what even is a PEPPERMINT TWIST (besides a dance)? I had PEPPERMINT SWIRL in there at first (before I knew the theme, obviously). And is the joke that you are literally curling cheese, lifting forks, twisting peppermints, and pressing wine (bottles?), and *that's* why the "exercise regimen" is worth DIDDLY SQUAT? On Mondays, I expect the theme concept to be tight and the execution to be bam bam bam bam. No "what?" or "... huh" about it.


Having themers with "?" clues automatically sets a Monday puzzle on a path to be harder than usual. And then there were soooooo many clues that were vague enough to trick me into initial mistakes—a lot of them. I haven't seen SWEATS in my gym in so long that that answers didn't even occur to me until I had over half the crosses. I thought Bo-Peep's sheep were a TRIO. Couldn't see POINTA for a bit. Figured [Totalitarian control] was IRON FIST. Then thought one of four in a grand slam was a RUN. Then stupidly wrote in SEEM for 71A: Consider to be. Thought the ICE was thin on Everest. And then I couldn't get either SEDGE or SALES off their initial esses. SALES was brutal for me, as I thought 53D: Business successes was referring to the, uh, success of the business, not a thing that is considered a success within the general sphere of business. Ugh. Unlike lots of solvers today (I guarantee you) I got TRURO instantly, but I still insist it has no business in any early-week puzzle and should only be trotted out in cases of extreme need. The very clue—[Cape Cod resort town]—should tip you off that is only regionally known, and the town population (18K???) should tip you off that it simply isn't Monday material. You can see how the themers get the constructor in a bind there, as he's gotta run --C-F and --U-O right next to each other, and the first one's pretty much gotta be DECAF, so ... yeah. You made it hard on yourself. But TRURO isn't acceptable (on a Monday). Only reason I know it is because a decade ago I yelled about its being ridiculously obscure. I guess I didn't yell loud enough.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

1/20 of a ton abbr. / SUN 12-31-17 / County in New Mexico Colorado / Three-foot 1980s sitcom character / Hip-hop's Shakur / Film director C Kenton / Historic Mesopotamian city / Kyrgyz city / Result of French powdered drink shortage

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New" —themers are wacky phrases where "O"s have been removed (in the top half) or added (in the bottom half) to ordinary phrases ... "Happy" New Year!

Theme answers:

• LAST TANG IN PARIS (22A: Result of a French powdered drink shortage?)
• CELL RECITAL (35A: List of things said by Siri?)
• POL GROUNDS (55A: Washington, D.C.?)
• I NEED A HUGO (76A: Struggling sci-fi writer's plea for recognition?)
• URANIUM OREO (96A: Treat that gives a glowing complexion?)
• SEVEN DAYS IN MAYO (113A: Weeklong Irish vacation?)
• SUM WRESTLER (15D: One having trouble with basic arithmetic?)
• FLOPPY DISCO (64D: Some loose dancing?)
• CAM GEAR (34D: Photog's bagful?)
• MAD CAPO (65D: Godfather after being double-crossed?)

Word of the Day: CCC (4A: New Deal org.) —

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men. Originally for young men ages 18–25, it was eventually expanded to young men ages 17–28. Robert Fechner was the first director of the agency, succeeded by James McEntee following Fechner's death. The CCC was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Over the course of its nine years in operation, 3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a small wage of $30 (about $547 in 2015^[2]) per month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families). (wikipedia)

• • •

 

I tried, you guys. I really did. I went in to this like, "Damn it, I am going to *like* a Sunday puzzle. This has been a terrible, terrible year for Sunday puzzles, but by gum (!), I'm gonna enjoy this one." And then the puzzle proceeded to hold up its middle finger at me for 11-12 minutes. It's inexplicable, this incredible decline. This grotesque charade. This completely uninventive and unclever and sad thing that the Sunday puzzle—the marquee puzzle of the week!—has become.

Add a letter, drop a letter, wacky wacky wacky, piles of crosswordese ... in 2017, with as much constructing talent as there is out there, it's baffling. The slimmest, frailest of concepts—it's a play on "ring," get it!?—is supposed to carry you through an entire 21x21 grid? Perhaps with a truly talented clue writer, a concept like this might be salvaged, might be carried out over a giant grid without becoming supremely tiresome. But instead: [Some loose dancing?] for FLOPPY DISCO!? That's it? That's your clue? And SEVEN DAYS IN MAYO gets [Weeklong Irish vacation?]? Can you not feeeeeel how boring that clue is. When your theme concept is this thin (add/subtract a single letter), and is entirely reliant on the wackiness really *landing*, then you better step up and make those themers and clues hum. You need to work. Care. Craft. Something! Anything! But no. It's all workmanlike. And then the fill: ERLE, BAIO, SPOSE, NEH, ENS, and on and on and on. Up the pay to $3000 for a Sunday (a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what they make off a single Sunday puzzle), give the puzzle the editorial care it deserves, and maybe some of the talent you've lost in the past few years will start to come back (there are Big Names you haven't seen in forever ... for a reason). Until then, loyalists will continue to create OK puzzles and the rest of the time, we'll get ... this.


Though the theme is weak, the worst part of this puzzle—the memory that so many are going to be left with—is the unforgivably atrocious crossing of 4A and 4D. Never. Ever. Ever cross answers at a letter that is an abbr. In Both Directions. And *especially* don't do it when neither abbr. is a common term. I honestly couldn't tell you what either CCC or CWT stand for, and the *only* reason I guessed the letter there successfully is that I'd seen CWT somewhere in a puzzle before. That's all. That's it. The only reasonable thing to do if you absolutely insist on going to press with a CCC / CWT crossing is to clue CCC as a Roman numeral. It's 300. The idea that people in 2017 should know the Civilian Conservation Corps is absurd. Let me be clear: it's not that it's not "worth knowing." It's that it's generally not at all well known any more. And when you give it the remarkably lazy and vague [New Deal org.] clue ... it's all so contemptuous of solvers who care about (not to mention pay for) the "greatest puzzle in the world." Constructors should sniff out bad crosses like this, and editors *especially* should sniff them out.

Toughest part for me was the NW, where NOSE BLEED (3D: Result of a haymaker, maybe) and STEALTH (19D: Good hunting skill) and TROOP (31D: Batch of Brownies?) (all abutting one another) all were clued in ways I couldn't decipher. And then of course there's the CCC / CWT thing right there. Is "camo gear" a real phrase? That feels phenomenally weak as a self-standing phrase. Also, I was not looking for a theme answer on those seven-letter Downs—not when you've got nine-letter Downs that *aren't* themed. MAD CAPO and CAM GEAR therefore gave me more trouble than all the other themers by far (because I didn't know they were themers). Other major slow-down came, unfortunately but somewhat predictably, at a very weak answer—the partial A HINT (92A: "Give me ___"). I had AH-N- and without hesitation wrote in A HAND. Pfffffft. It's one thing to be fooled into a wrong answer by a clever clue, when the answer itself is at least a real, even if not particularly interesting, word. But to get snagged by a fill-in-the-blank partial? It's just not fun. I'll give A HINT one thing—it's stronger than A LION (!?!) (37D). But still, fool me with cleverness, if you're gonna fool me. I won't bother enumerating all the tired, hackneyed short stuff here. You can see it all over, from ARP to SOLER to OTERO. May the New Year bring you, and me, better Sunday puzzles. This Is My Sincere Wish.


Happy New Year, everyone.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. "Floppy disk" is spelled With a "K" ... it really is. Type "floppy di..." into google and see what predictive text gives you. Go ahead, I'll wait. No, I won't wait—it's all "disks." Therefore FLOPPY DISCO is, to borrow a phrase from yesterday's puzzle, NOT VALID. I have no idea what this puzzle thinks it's doing.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Worker at Omnicrom Group / WED 6-29-16 / Fodder's place but not mudder's / 100 points to jeweler / Despised figure in Fiddler on Roof / Natty neckwear / bisschen not much Ger /

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium (felt Easy, but clock said otherwise)

THEME: gratis — clues (which all follow the pattern [It ___]) suggest something for which you don't have to pay, but answers take the clues in other, unexpected directions:

Theme answers:

• WEATHERVANE (19A: It's on the house)
• DEAD BATTERY (53A: It carries no charge) 
• EMPTY CHAIR (27D: It's free)
• RAVE REVIEW (10D: It's complimentary) 

Word of the Day: GELÉE (31D: Hair goop) —

noun

1.

a jellied substance, especially a cosmetic gel or a jellied food. (dictionary.com)

• • •

Not much to say here. This seems highly adequate: it's this, it's that, but not what you think, aha, I see, the end. Honestly, I had no idea what the theme was until I was done and went looking. Answers themselves told me nothing. Only after examining the clues for the longest answer did I see the pattern. Interestingly unobtrusive, this theme. Why wouldn't you say [It's free of charge] for DEAD BATTERY? Seems a much more natural phrase, and still literally applies to a DEAD BATTERY. Oh, right, I see. You've got [It's free] as one of your other theme clues. OK then. I guess "carries no charge" will have to do. Inelegant, but acceptable/necessary. Didn't mind the double [Pub offering] but the triple was irksome. Pubs don't offer SUDS. ALE and BREW are not slang, so the non-slang clue fits. SUDS needs slang in the clue to fly. Felt similarly about GELÉE, but in reverse. That's a formal word—one used way way less than simple GEL—so "goop" hardly seems appropriate. For GEL, sure, "goop." But GELÉE needs a less downscale word.


Not sure why you clue ARI as an abbr. except for the sole purpose of getting people to guess STL first (9D: Cardinals, in stats). "In stats" is a ridiculous phrase. It's not anything "in stats." It *is* something "in football stats," but then no one would step into your little trap. Traps should be clever! Speaking of clever, that COLLEGE clue (29A: Emerson or Dickinson). Now that's a trap. Or, rather, an incredible misdirection. Needed many crosses before I stopped looking for something to do with 19th-century American literature. Had HAM IT (a la PIG IT!) instead of HAM UP (26D: Overplay), IVORY before CAMAY (33A: Brand once billed as "the soap of beautiful women"), I LOSE before I LOST (24D: "You beat me"), and DIG DOWN before DIG DEEP (41D: Try one's utmost). Else ... you know, a puzzle. It's a puzzle. It's nice.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. here a little something on yesterday's HAREM clue and the broader problem it represents.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Old TV news partner of David / SAT 5-31-14 / Sect in ancient Judea / Discreet music musician / 1978 Broadway revue that opens with Hot August Night / Lead role in film known in France as L'Or de la vie / Woolly bear becomes one

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Jordan's Mount NEBO, from which Jericho can be seen (18A) —

Mount Nebo (Arabic: جبل نيبو‎ Jabal Nībū; Hebrew: הַר נְבוֹ‎ Har Nevo) is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 817 meters (2680 feet) above sea level, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of thePromised Land that he would never enter. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day. (wikipedia)

• • •

Decent. Dullish. Really not a lot to say about this one. Everything seems fine. And forgettable. Nice big corners, no standout answers. Phenomenal competence. Very little on the low end (AGR and REROOTED being the only real graters), but very little on the high end. Comme ci, come ça. Little bit of this, little bit of that. Win some, lose some. Etc. etc. Wasn't even particularly easy or difficult (though it leaned toward easy). Made consistent, methodical progress on it, from the west clockwise, until a bit of a stall in the NW (hardest for me by far). Really should've gotten ROUGHRIDER earlier (17A: Follower of Roosevelt). It's so literal, now that I look at it, I don't know what went wrong. I was kind of out of guesses after Truman. I have seen those foam noodles in pools before, but do not think I've seen or heard the full phrase POOL NOODLE before, so that one I was slow to accept (15A: Foam item at a water park). Key to my unlocking that corner was getting SPREE off just the terminal "E." Here's how weird a solver I am: ESSENES was a gimme (22A: Sect in ancient Judea), and EL GRECOS went in very shortly thereafter, very early in the solve, but all that other, more mundane stuff in the NW? It stopped me cold (for a bit). Still, the overall experience was not that taxing.


Is "In" being used … how is it being used? (32A: "In" => LIKED) Why is it in quotation marks? Even if it's being used slangily, it shouldn't require quotation marks. Or it should, and I just have no idea what's going on there. I managed to get "DANCIN'" despite never or barely having heard of it (39D: 1978 Broadway revue that opens with "Hot August Night"). Hmm, I just learned that Danny Terrio (who should appear in puzzles more often with a name like that) was in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This is what happens when an answer you don't know stirs a memory of some cheesy dance TV show from your youth that you can't quite remember, except for the fact that the host had an Italian name, and then you do a bunch of Googles, and under Dannys Bonnaduce and Osmond, you see "Terrio," and you're like "yes!", then you notice his name is actually "Deney" (!?!?!?!), and then you read his wikipedia entry.

[Danny … Thomas?]
Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

Some canapé picks / SUN 4-27-14 / Mop's commercial partner / Prankster's patsy / Catchy pop ditties / Hindu part of Indonesia / William who played Hopalong Cassidy / Houston pro informally

Constructor: John Lampkin

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Predictable Partings" — idioms meaning "left" or "departed" are clued in relation to professions that seem (on a literal level) to be appropriate to them:

Theme answers:

• The paparazzo … WAS GONE IN A FLASH
• The demolitionist … BLEW THE JOINT
• The civil engineer … HIT THE ROAD 
• The lingerie manufacturer … SLIPPED AWAY
• The chicken farmer … FLEW THE COOP
• The sound technician … MADE TRACKS
• The film director … QUIT THE SCENE
• The soda jerk … RAN LICKETY SPLIT (this doesn't really work … expresses movement but not specifically departure)
• The ecdysiast … TOOK OFF
• The percussionist … BEAT IT
• The van driver … MOVED ON
• The paper doll maker … CUT OUT

Word of the Day: William BOYD (54D: William who played Hopalong Cassidy) —

William Lawrence Boyd (June 5, 1895 – September 12, 1972) was an American film actor known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy. […] In 1935, he was offered the supporting role of Red Connors in the movie Hop-Along Cassidy, but asked to be considered for the title role and won it. The original Hopalong Cassidy character, written by Clarence E. Mulford for pulp fiction, was changed from a hard-drinking, rough-living wrangler to its eventual incarnation as a cowboy hero who did not smoke, swear, or drink alcohol (his drink of choice being sarsaparilla) and who always let the bad guy start the fight. Although Boyd "never branded a cow or mended a fence, cannot bulldog a steer", and disliked Western music, he becameindelibly associated with the Hopalong character and, like rival cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, gained lasting fame in the Western film genre. The Hopalong Cassidy series ended in 1948 after 66 films, with Boyd producing the last 12.

Anticipating television's rise, Boyd spent $350,000 to purchase the rights to the Hopalong Cassidy character, books and films. In 1949, he released the films to television, where they became extremely popular and began the long-running genre of Westerns on television. Like Rogers and Autry, Boyd licensed much merchandise, including such products as Hopalong Cassidy watches, trash cans, cups, dishes, Topps trading cards, a comic strip, comic books, radio shows and cowboy outfits. The actor identified with his character, often dressing as a cowboy in public. Although Boyd's portrayal of Hopalong made him very wealthy, he believed that it was his duty to help strengthen his "friends" - America's youth. The actor refused to license his name for products he viewed as unsuitable or dangerous, and turned down personal appearances at which his "friends" would be charged admission. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well it's a pretty dense theme, I'll give it that. The "jokes" are kind of corny, but they work OK. There is nothing particularly remarkable, bad or good, about this puzzle. You won't remember it tomorrow, and neither will I. What is there to say? Well … lots of phrases beginning with "I," such as I PASS, I ROAM, I DENT and I KON. I assume I, RAE is [Actress Charlotte's autobio]. BOYD was the only answer in the whole grid that was outside my PURVIEW. The puzzle started out very fast for me, but slowed down to normal when I got to the whole S / SE area, where SWORDS made no sense to me as an answer to 91D: Some canapé picks. Aren't canapés like … hors d'oeuvres of some kind. Do you run them through with little plastic swords? Is that what this clue is on about? For whatever reason, the cluing seemed somewhat tougher / vaguer in and around RAN LICKETY SPLIT (which, as I say, is the one real theme outlier). I did enjoy the BUTT/BONER crossing, though, I will admit.


Speaking of that SE section: what the hell is up with SIEG? That's either laziness or bad judgment right there? First off, you always pick the actual English word over the not-widely-known foreign word. Every. Day. Of. The. Week. The actual English word in this case, off the top of my head: DIET. INSPIRED / DIET / STATE. Look at all those real words! But SIEG!? No. No on foreign grounds, as well as no on Hitlerian grounds. Big fat no. Nothing else in the puzzle bothered me very much. Again, as I said, hardly any strong feelings either way on this one. Didn't know TOADS hibernated (106A: Some hibernators). That was my big aha moment of the puzzle. Kind of sad.

Puzzle of the Week: not the greatest week for regular themed puzzles. My favorite was a lovely little puzzle from Sam Donaldson in the LAT on Friday—a simple letter-change theme with (here's the key) genuinely funny results. Terminal "X"s are changed to "G"s, a retagging that's expressed in terms of film re-rating, i.e. phrases are now G-rated, not X-RATED. I also thought Brad Wilber's Saturday themeless in the LAT was fantastic (good week for the LAT)—it's got a SW corner that made me "ooh" out loud: ALADDIN over CRAB RANGOON over ZEPHYR, with MR. DARCY running through the lot. Brad is one of my very favorite themeless constructors—his puzzles are really wide-ranging in their content and the cluing is always really thoughtful. Tough and clever. But the best puzzles this week were contest puzzles (and both are ongoing, so I can't say too much about either one). Honorable mention goes to BEQ's current contest puzzle, "Let's Begin" (get it here), a meta puzzle that took me a little while to figure out. I saw one element right away, but the "six-word phrase" took me down a lot of dead ends before I found the non-dead one. Puzzle of the Week, though, goes (again) to a Fireball puzzle–specifically, Evan Birnholz's "White Lies," which was Hard As Hell, but worth it. Thankfully, though it is a contest puzzle, there is no meta angle to puzzle over. If you can manage to solve it (good luck), the answer will be obvious. Do it. I mean, subscribe to Fireball, then do it.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...