Opera character whose first name is Floria / THU 9-1-22 / Symbols used for tagging / Juicers use them / Mocktail with a rhyming name

Constructor: John Wrenholt

Relative difficulty: on the easy side, I think

THEME: NINETY-ONE (17A: This puzzle's solution) — the theme asks you to DO THE MATH (62A: "Figure it out!" ... or how to arrive at this puzzle's solution, using the answers to the italicized clues); the answers to the italicized clues, taken together, form an EQUATION (56A: Aid in some problem-solving), namely: TWO TIMES FIFTEEN TRIPLED PLUS ONE ... which gives you NINETY-ONE ... which ... I think is supposed to be a reference to today's date ... 9/1:

Theme answers:

• TWO TIMES (21A: Cheats on)
• FIFTEEN (23A: What comes after love)
• TRIPLED (40A: Didn't quite make it home, say)
• PLUS ONE (54A: Date for a party)

2 x 15 x 3 + 1 = 91

Word of the Day: Mireille ENOS (20A: Actress Mireille ___ of "Good Omens") —

Mireille Enos (/mɪəˈreɪ ˈiːnəs/; born September 22, 1975) is an American actress. Drawn to acting from a young age, she graduated in performing arts from Brigham Young University, where she was awarded the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship. Having made her acting debut in the 1994 television film Without Consent, she has since received nominations for a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, and an Emmy Award. [...] Enos' breakout role was on the AMC crime drama series The Killing; she played Sarah Linden, a Seattle-based police officer for the show's four seasons from 2011 to 2014. Her performance garnered her critical acclaim and earned her nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the Primetime Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award. (wikipedia)

• • •

I enjoyed this one for its long Downs. The rest of it, I enjoyed somewhat less. The first problem was a technical one, which is that my software doesn't do italics so it put all the theme clues in "quotation marks," which made them much harder to interpret somehow. "What comes after love" ... I thought this was some kind of adage, but then I just ended up with a tennis answer (from the scoring progression: love, fifteen, thirty, forty, ad in, game). The whole time I'm thinking that the quotation marks have some ... meaning. But they're just italics substitutes. Not a big wrench in the system, but a wrench nonetheless. And yet even if my clues had been formatted perfectly ... you're asking me to do math, which is like asking me to draw on my crossword when I'm done with it, which is to say: this Better Be Good. As far as I'm concerned, every crossword has a "solution," and it's just ... the finished grid. This extra math stuff had better lead somewhere! And where it leads is NINETY-ONE ... [cough] ... which *I think* supposed to make us think of NINE / ONE or 9/1 or September 1, which is today's date. The only reason I arrived at this logic is because of the clue on DAY (42A: The 2 in 1/2, e.g.). Otherwise I might still be wondering what NINETY-ONE has to do with anything. 

Strugglewise, the very worst part came inside the "solution." That is, since there is no real clue on NINETY-ONE, I had NINET- and when NINETEEN wouldn't fit, I got some end letters and decided that the answer was NINE TO ONE. This felt so right that I never even saw that an actual number, NINETY-ONE, would fit there. Compounding this problem inordinately was the clue on GEYSER (5D: Jumbo jet?), a "?" I could not make sense of to save my life, esp. since I was staring at GEOSER. Made me doubt GIG (5A: Short-term employment), but I couldn't get around it. Made me doubt EDEN (13A: Land next to the Land of Nod), which I thought was maybe ADEN (!?!?!), but still, stuck. Even when I pulled the "O" and looked at GE-SER, I couldn't see how any English word went there. I knew the clue was a fakeout clue, so I thought that instead of an airplane, the "jet" in question was ... the color black. "Jet" is a common synonym for "black" in the literature I teach, so that was my go-to Other Jet. But no, we're dealing instead with a "jet" of ... water. Great. Again, if the "solution" had been magnificent, if there'd been real pay-off, then my stupid struggles would've been forgotten as I marveled at the concept and execution. But instead I'm left with a NINETY-ONE trying to sell me on the idea that it's 9/1. A less-than-ideal conclusion.

As I say, I enjoyed the long Downs, though NADA COLADA is a pretty corny name for a drink (31D: Mocktail with a rhyming name). I guess that's what they're calling Virgin Coladas now, since the whole "virgin" thing has begun to feel inappropriately sexual and (thus) maybe a little creepy? Anyway, the "rhyming" part sure helped. Speaking of creepy, not sure why you'd want to evoke a (presumably sexual / romantic) student-teacher "relationship" with your clue on RATIO (44A: Relationship with a statistics teacher?). I guess it's "a" statistics teacher, not necessarily "your" statistics teacher. Still, that's how the clue read to me. Obviously literally the relationship is merely a mathematical one, but the "?" on the end of the clue feels like it's winking unethically at me. Seems like WINE FRIDGE should've had an abbr. or shortening signal somewhere in the clue—the term WINE REFRIGERATOR is the one I know—but I really like the clue, so ... it's OK (3D: Vintage appliance?) (nice bending of the word "vintage" here). Someone might order cannabis "by OUNCE"? That clue doesn't quite work for me, for obvious "the"-lacking reasons (22D: Someone might order cannabis by this). My [Biz bigwig] was a CEO at first, of course, and I could not get to the MUST of MUST-READS from the clue, which says only "recommendations" (8D: Bibliophile's recommendations). A "recommendation" is not a "must-read." If I "recommend" a book to you, I am not saying YOU MUST READ THIS! We've just let hyperbole take over everything and sometimes it's a drag. Worst drag ever. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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State of invincibility enabled by cheat code / FRI 6-5-20 / Quaint stationery shop item / Like a very cold night idiomatically / What recycling code 40 is used for / Old Eur domain

Constructor: John Wrenholt

Relative difficulty: Challenging (nearly 2x avg)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: SCOW (52D: Garbage disposal unit) —

: a large flat-bottomed boat with broad square ends used chiefly for transporting bulk material (such as ore, sand, or refuse) (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Having trouble concentrating on the details of the puzzle tonight since a morally rotten and sadistic police culture is currently gleefully bludgeoning unarmed people all over the country but I'll see what I can do. This was very much a Saturday puzzle, which is irritating. It was hard even for a Saturday (for me). I got completely and utterly stuck. Twice. This hardly ever happens, and certainly not on a Friday. The grid looks OK, I guess, but the cluing was irritatingly tough and/or off. Seriously, the whole NW was empty despite my having both lead-in answers (INKBOTTLE and SEAHORSE). I eventually guessed SIC (4D: Editorial insertion), but even then ... I don't associate SAUNAs with skiing, I don't know about skateboard parts (?), AGAIN is absurd (and I *have* a personal trainer...) (14A: Exhortation from a personal trainer). I thought maybe it was DIG IN (??). Yuck to struggle in such a confined space. And I had very similar though slightly less severe issues in the SW, where NSFW is attributed to a ... trailer? (62A: Trailer advisory) ... and the PUSH PIN clue is beyond hard (38D: Colorful spot on a map) and what the actual hell is a POODLE CUT (55A: Hairdo famously sported by Lucille Ball) ("famously"?). The expression HIS NIBS makes my skin crawl (50A: Mr. High-and-Mighty). I can't imagine using it, I hate hearing it, and I don't think I even know what it means, really. SCOW clue, superhard. The recycling code (??) for STEEL. I just couldn't follow any of this. Whatever sense of fun or entertainment the clue writers had, I did not share. I liked TRAIL BOSS and very little else about this thing (11D: Cattle drive leader).


THREE DOG on its own is idiotic (45A: Like a very cold night, idiomatically). Also, literally no one calls a "cold night" that. No! It's a band. THREE DOG ... just sitting there ... on its own. That's nonsense. BEAR is a [Direction word] sure I guess in the sense that if you give someone directions you might tell them to "BEAR right" but ugh over and over with this Trying Too Hard to be hard instead of fun. That "seasonal rut" clue on STAG, same issue. AIRALERT meant nothing to me. DEMOLITIONIST fit in BALLOON ARTIST's spot (37A: One whose work is always blowing up?). FOGY looks so dumb in print, my god. I thought it was an -IE word but FOGIE ... also looks kinda dumb. Had FRONT LAWN before FRONT YARD, so that (really) hurt (18A: Spot for a campaign sign). LHASA crossing DHAKA? A miniature crosswordese geography conference, cool (not cool). The grid design is part of the problem. When you try to make a grid with lots of short stuff difficult, ugh, disaster. It's a 70-worder but it feels much higher because of the choppiness of the grid and the attendant flood of 3-4-5-letter answers. I guarantee you I finish the Saturday puzzle faster than this (it's a Doug Peterson puzzle, I hear, so I know it will be good...)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Dark-tongued Chinese dogs / WED 9-18-19 / Prominent cockatoo feature / Green-headed duck

Constructor: John Wrenholt

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:42)

THEME: DOWN THE PIPE (53A: How a perfect pitch comes ... or a hint to the missing parts of the circled answers) — circled-square answers are [word in the grid] + PIPE, which you have to mentally supply; the PIPE answers are arranged like a PIPE descending the grid in staircase fashion

"Pipe" answers:

• HALF (3D: Feature of a skate park)
• TAIL (24A: Muffler attachment)
• STOVE (29D: Hat worn by Abraham Lincoln)
• LEAD (45A: Weapon in Clue)
• WIND (49D: Trachea)

Word of the Day: MANSE (60A: Rector's residence) —

noun

the house and land occupied by a minister or parson.

the dwelling of a landholder; mansion. (dictionary.com)

• • •

There's a little wobbliness to this theme, in that the overall shape of the "pipe" (from top to bottom of the grid) doesn't really suggest "pipe" that well, and a pitch that comes DOWN THE PIPE is the very opposite of the puzzle's "pipe" shape, i.e. it travels a pretty straight path. That said, I think the theme basically works. It has an admirable complexity (a missing "pipe" layer, and then an overall descending "pipe" layer) and a snappy revealer. The fill is no great shakes, but neither is it barfsome. Tending toward HO-HUM, but without causing me any SPLEEN or ODIUM. I was heading toward what felt like a record time, but then spun out with not one but two wrong answers, and so ended up with just a good time. My wrong answers: SEEDY for SHADY (33D: Of questionable repute) and CLOCK TOWER for WATER TOWER (11D: Tall landmark in many a town). I like both of my wrong answers, but particularly the latter one, as a CLOCK TOWER seems like a landmark you might actually treat like one, i.e. "meet me by the CLOCK TOWER at 7." Do people use WATER TOWERs as reference points? Anyway, WATER TOWER is a fine enough answer, I just had the misfortune of coming at that answer from underneath, i.e. I had TOWER and put CLOCK *right* in ... then it didn't work. Then I tried to move into the middle of the grid and work my way back to the NE, but that's where SEEDY was mucking things up. So, like I said, the wheels came off for a bit. But I put them back on.


Wanted SNORE at 1A: "Bor-r-ring" (HO-HUM) to start the puzzle, but then couldn't get a [Cobra feature] from S--- and then once I got DEF Leppard, I figured out the cobra had a HOOD, and then I made very few errors thereafter. I found "LET ME" a little hard to get ahold of (45D: "I can take it from here"), and I stalled briefly on both CHOWS (36A: Dark-tongued Chinese dogs) and AIRSHIPS (I had the AIR- and just blanked) (9D: Blimps and zeppelins). I had no trouble with the revealer, but I do think the clue is slightly off. A "perfect" pitch is likely not coming down Broadway; those are the kinds of pitches that tend to get clocked. I guess if you're the batter, a pitch that's DOWN THE PIPE is perfect. "Right over the plate" would've been more accurate / less ambiguous.

See you Thursday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Lebanese city that was once enter of Phoenician civilization / MON 1-16-17 / Penny Dreadful channel for short / Intestinal fortitude informally / Arrested suspect informally

Constructor: John Wrenholt

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY (63A: Completely ... with a summation of 17-, 30- and 47-Across) — previous three themers start with ONE WAY, TWO WAY, and THREE WAY, respectively, for a total of "six ways":

Theme answers:

• ONE WAY OR ANOTHER (17A: Somehow)
• TWO-WAY RADIO (30A: Walkie-talkie)
• THREE-WAY TIE (47A: Rare occurrence of "Jeopardy!") 

Word of the Day: SWAG (15D: Lavish party favors) —

The freebie swag, sometimes also spelled schwag, dates back to the 1960s and was used to describe promotional items. According to our files, early swag was everything from promotional records sent to radio stations to free slippers for airline passengers. In short order, this particular meaning of swag broadened and soon referred to anything given to an attendee of an event (such as a conference) as a promotional stunt. // This swag didn't gain much use until the 1990s, but it also didn't appear out of thin air. The newer meanings were based on an older, more established meaning that referred to goods acquired by unlawful means. (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

I do like the revealer phrase, and have been known to use it (or the "from Sunday" variation of it) from time to time. It is a weird idiom with a complicated history (read about it here). [Completely] is not how I use it. I think of it as meaning "all kinds of different ways," but I guess by extension you could get to "in every way imaginable" and thus "thoroughly." At any rate, "Completely" is certainly an accepted definition. But it's a wriggly phrase, in which (according to World Wide Words) the number "six" was only the most common number to be used (probably because of alliteration). All kinds of other numbers can be found in six's place over the years. One place I looked had "Forty ways to Sunday." It's a lively idiom. The theme is clever but also flawed. Adding up the numbers of the ways was strange (not necessarily in a bad way). I'm more concerned that the revealer has this totally non-thematic extra part to it, i.e. "to Sunday." It's fine for themers to have only one phrase part (first word, last word, etc.) involved, but a revealer is supposed to work from stem to stern. A good revealer snaps, and *all* of it is involved in indicating what the hell was up with the theme. This puzzle has zero to do with Sunday. If you want that phrase as a revealer, then it should mean something in its complete form. "To Sunday" just hangs out there ... left over. Unnecessary. Abandoned. Not great.

[Debbie Harry starred in a 1997 crime drama called ... "SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY"]

There was one hard patch in this where the cluing seemed both off and vague. The trouble started with SWAG, specifically a. the fact that the clue indicates a plural so I wanted it to end in "S," and b. the word "lavish." The fake-out on the plural is fair enough, but "lavish" ... ? I guess if you are an Oscar nominee and are at some party hosted by the MPAA, then sure, they'll give you an iPad or whatever, but SWAG is just slang for party favors. A gift bag. A bunch of promotional stuff. Anyone who's ever been given "a bunch of promotional stuff" (yeah, I just quoted myself), knows that ... "Lavish" doesn't enter in. Totally unnecessarily limiting adjective. Also, PEANUTS, in my world, needs "Packing" in front of it to make any sense in this context (4D: Alternative to bubble wrap). Also also, when I finally got SWAG, off of that initial "G" at 22A: Intestinal fortitude (GUTS), I wanted GRIT. I also was very tentative about the second vowel in DIVOT (32D: Golfer's gouge), and couldn't nail either ___ SAFE or GET ___ at first shot. Both of those were access points to other parts of the grid, and both required me hacking a crosses fill them out. Ended with a time slightly, but not significantly, north of normal.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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