Resort near venice / TUE 5-24-16 / African antelope with curvy horns / William Pilgrim father / Luminescent larvae

Constructor: Jonathan Gersch

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: TAPS (71A: Bugle tune ... or what one does to 1-, 18-, 35-, 43- and 62-Across) 

Theme answers:

• KEGS (1A: Frat party staples)
• PHONE LINES (18A: "Open" things for a call-in show)
• SHOULDERS (35A: Places for shawls)
• RESOURCES (43A: Coal and natural gas)
• MAPLE TREES (62A: Syrup comes from them)

Word of the Day: William BREWSTER (41D: William ___, Pilgrim Father) —

William Brewster (1568 – 10 April 1644) was an English official and Mayflower passenger in 1620. In Plymouth Colony, by virtue of his education and existing stature with those immigrating from the Netherlands, Brewster, a separatist, became a regular preacher and the leader of the community. (wikipedia)

• • •

A bunch of things one can tap. Well, a couple observations: as a list, it's pretty dull, and TAPS is an awkward revealer. Plain old TAP, or maybe some phrase containing TAP that allows for wordplay of some sort, would've made more sense. All the answers are plural ... but TAPS (with an "S") doesn't indicate a plural, it indicates the third person. It looks like, in order to get the [Bugle tune] cleverness to match up symmetrically with something, we've pluralized KEGS, and then ... well, that tips the dominoes and every other theme answer gets the "S." The non-corresponding "S"s between themers and revealer ... they're just awkward. It's mainly the third-person conjugation that clunks. I wouldn't notice this if the theme were at all interesting. Theme feels like something NYT used to publish but doesn't / shouldn't any more. I thought that yesterday about a CONEHEADS theme in the LAT, where all the first words of the themers were kinds of cones, but conceptually and execution-wise, that was a superior puzzle.


The fill had some strong points (DAEDALUS!! SAY WHAT?!), but was also heavy on the unpleasantness. Why on god's green would you *highlight* the fact that your grid has terrible abbrs. in it by giving them the same clue (N.C.A.A. part: Abbr.), as if their presence here were some kind of *feature*. There is no redeeming ATH, there is no redeeming ASSOC, and trying to tie them together with the same clue is like throwing water on an oil fire. If you need ATH or ASSOC, you quietly clue them (separately!) and move on. Imagine how "fun" it would be if you cross-referenced SSW and NNE ... [I'm waiting while you do this] ... yes, cluing ASSOC and ATH this way is precisely *that* much fun, possibly less. Grid shape means that there's a ton of 4- and 5-letter stuff, so no surprise that there's a lot of the old gang ("I, TINA"!), but it leaned toward the UGLY side in many places. ETTU, EZEK? I had maybe one wrong turn in this one: wrote in SUPT instead of SUPE (45D: Apartment building V.I.P., for short). My answer was correct. Just not correct for this puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Relating to the calf / WED 8-21-13 / Sci-fi author Ellison / Flying Cloud of old autodom / Where Duff beer is served / Post-apartheid ruling org / Female mil unit created 5/15/42

Constructor: Jonathan Gersch

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (though my time is current 35 seconds faster than the fastest time at the NYT applet, so I have no idea what's going on today)

THEME: TAN / LINES (61D: With 69-Across, beach markings ... 14 of which are hidden vertically and horizontally elsewhere in this puzzle) — word "TAN" can be found, easy word search-style, fourteen times in the grid.

Word of the Day: SURAL (35A: Relating to the calf) —

adj.
Of or relating to the calf of the leg.

[New Latin sūrālis, from Latin sūra, calf of the leg.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/sural#ixzz2cZ9wODcp

• • •

Who doesn't love a supremely easy word search in which you find only the same three-letter word over and over again and not even on diagonals!? (this guy). Not sure why you'd want to do a puzzle like this. T, A and N don't exactly set you up for scintillating fill. The fact of many TANs isn't even interesting. Or maybe it just touches the lowest underbelly of "interesting" in the way that something might be curious or out-of-the-ordinary but in no way compelling. Also, can we talk about SURAL? The absurdity of that word in the middle of this otherwise drab and ordinarily-filled puzzle? I can't say this enough—you don't want ugsome fill, and you especially don't want ugsome outlier / obscure fill, and you double especially don't want it when it stands out in stark contrast to everything else around it. SURAL!? It's never been in a puzzle before. For A Reason. My fellow blogger, who is also a medical editor, has never seen that word. SURAL ... it's like ... Siri's uncle, whom no one ever asks for information because he still uses corded phones and is afraid of ATMs. See also FACTA, which I have never seen in a puzzle (25D: Statements in a legal case). Cruciverb tells me that it's back (ta) after a 19-year hiatus. Talk about your unwelcome returns. That is some rough-ass Latin. In sum: Fill should be good! This fill is not! In fact, it's WAAC! (16A: Female mil. unit created 5/15/42) The end.

I did like seeing HARLAN Ellison (33D: Sci-fi author Ellison). I own a bunch of his stuff. He's very entertaining. Speaking of entertaining writers, R.I.P. Elmore Leonard, who was the best popular crime writer of them all. Brilliant, funny, effortless. I think he made it seem *so* easy that he didn't get enough credit for his artistry. Anyway, I'm sad. As soon as I get this Rowling pseudonym thing out of the way (it's pretty good, actually), I'm gonna tear into "City Primeval" and any other Leonard my library happens to have lying around.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1996 slasher film with villain Ghostface / TUE 12-13-11 / Kojak portrayer / 1980s defense secretary Weinberger / Singer with 1995 12x platinum album Pieces of You

Constructor: Jonathan Gersch

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ELMO (61D: Pal of the starts of 17-, 24-, 40-, 52- and 66-Across) of SESAME STREET (19A: With 63-Across, where to find all the characters at the starts of 17-, 24-, 40-, 52- and 66-Across) fame—theme answers begin with BERT, OSCAR, GROVER, TELLY (?), and ERNIE, respectively

 Word of the Day: TELLY —

Telly Monster, known usually as just Telly, is an eternally worrying, fuchsia monster Muppet on Sesame Street. He is puppeteered by Martin P. Robinson. // On his debut in 1979, he was known as the Television Monster, a character that was fixated on television. He had antennae standing out of the top of his head, and his eyes would whirl around when he watched television. After that stint through season eleven, producers worried that he would be a negative influence on their easily influenced viewers, and changed him into the worry-wart character that he has been ever since. [...] Telly is a triangle lover, and he has a pet hamster Chuckie Sue. He has been known to pogo stick uncontrollably around Sesame Street, often causing havoc with all that gets in his way. This segment is shown on Sesame Street Unpaved. Baby Bear is his best friend and appears occasionally in many of the main plots in the later series. Telly also has somewhat of a friendship with Oscar the Grouch, since they appear in many segments together. (wikipedia)

• • •

So the big revelation for me today was that there is a "Sesame Street" muppet named TELLY. Wow. By 1979 I wasn't watching "Sesame Street" any more, so I guess I just missed him and Never Picked Him Up. TELLY must *$&%ing hate ELMO. ELMO gets a big marketing campaign and he's all baby-voiced and cute or whatever, and TELLY's just an ugly depressed oaf. This theme is fine. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Felt very easy, except for a couple of moments when it wasn't. Those moments: ALBA (1D: Francisco Goya's "Duchess of ___")—really could've used a Jessica clue here; HISS (4A: Snake sound)—I wrote in HSSS (!?); the SE corner—I didn't make any errors, and even got WEAL off just the "W," but needed every cross to get LOT (73A: Drawing); VIERS (55D: Contenders)—it was my first guess, but I just couldn't convince myself it was a word; and ADWEEK (16A: Marketing pro's magazine)—absolutely no clue ... sounds vaguely familiar, but I needed virtually every cross. Still, finished under 4, which means if I didn't mention it in this paragraph, I torched it.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Cowardly Lion portrayer (BERT LAHR)
• 24A: "The Odd Couple" slob (OSCAR MADISON)
• 40A: President who was once New York's governor (GROVER CLEVELAND)
• 52A: Kojak portrayer (TELLY SAVALAS)
• 66A: 2011 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame (ERNIEELS)
  

Bullets:

• 57A: Stella D'___ (cookie brand) (ORO) — I do not know this cookie at all. Star of gold.
• 68A: Stately trees of Lebanon (CEDARS) — Stately Trees of Lebanon sounds like a band name. Like Kings of Leon, only much better.
• 8D: 1980s defense secretary Weinberger (CASPAR) — one of those answers that will tend to be a gimme to anyone who was an adult in the '80s, but possibly a mystery to the under-30 set. Political cabinet positions tend to work that way. I often get comments like "how could you not know J.F.K.'s Secretary of the Interior?" and I always want to reply "You don't know that because you studied it or because you're smart, you know it because you were breathing air in 1960." But mostly I don't reply at all. And the answer is Stewart Udall.
• 25D: Winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, and Oscar, and three Golden Globes (CHER) — a very dull clue for CHER. I mean ... CHER. Look at her. Look at her body of work. And "this* is your clue? Snore. Not nearly CHER-Y enough. I thought the answer was Rita Moreno at first.
• 34D: 1996 slasher film with villain Ghostface ("SCREAM") — my only comment here is I can't believe that movie is already 15 years old. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Sep. 23 2009 — 1992 presidential aspirant Paul / Apology starter / Island east of Java / A place you can go in 1979 #2 hit

Constructor: Jonathan Gersch

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: HENRY HUDSON (55A: Explorer who sailed into 46-Across in 1609) — 400th anniversary puzzle (?) commemorating Hudson's sailing into NEW YORK HARBOR

Word of the Day: Paul TSONGAS (8D: 1992 presidential aspirant Paul) — Paul Efthemios Tsongas (pronounced /ˈsɒŋɡəs/; February 14, 1941–January 18, 1997) was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a one-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Previously he also served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and held local political office as well. (wikipedia) — he won the New Hampshire primary, but James Carville dubbed Clinton the "Comeback Kid" because he did so well following a spate of bad press, and Clinton did indeed come back and leave other candidates in the dust.

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An utterly straight tribute puzzle that is crammed to the gills with theme answers, yet somehow produces zero joy. Fact. Fact. Fact. Zzzzzz. I have some tolerance for cross-referenced clues, but there isn't a single theme clue here that doesn't involve being directed to another theme answers. I lost interest at 1A. Of course the non-theme fill isn't that hot — you can't expect it to be with the serious restrictions placed on it by the theme density. In the end, it is what it is. If you enjoy uncovering little bits of trivia, this is the puzzle for you. Just not the puzzle for me.

Theme answers:

• 1A: With 69-Across, ship of 55-Across (HALF / MOON)
• 67A: With 8-Across, business of 55-Across's backers (SPICE / TRADE) — really wish SPICE and TRADE could have TRADEd positions here.
• 18A: Aptly named ship on a later voyage of 55-Across (DISCOVERY) — how is a "later voyage" relevant to this event-specific theme?
• 20A: Body of water sailed in by 55-Across (ARCTIC OCEAN) — sailed in generally, sailed in in 1609 ... ?
• 26A: Like most of the voyages of 55-Across (TRANSATLANTIC)
• 46A: See 55-Across (NEW YORK HARBOR)
• 55A: Explorer who sailed into 46-Across in 1609 (HENRY HUDSON)
• 61A: 55-Across's destination when returning to Europe (AMSTERDAM)

There are a TON of names in today's puzzle, which is fine by me, but do all their clues have to be so incredibly dull and straightforward? The most interesting one is 68A: Stephen of "V for Vendetta" (REA), and that's only because the movie involved is relatively recent and not "The Crying Game" again.

• 6D: Attorney General Holder (Eric)
• 11D: Laura of "Jurassic Park" (Dern)
• 12D: "A Day Without Rain" singer (Enya)
• 14D: Mrs. Gorbachev (Raisa)
• 19D: Psychologist Jung (Carl) — those last four Downs are sequential
• 32D: Educator Horace (Mann)
• 33D: Mayberry boy (Opie)
• 38D: Nabokov title heroine (Ada) — those last three are sequential
• 49D: "24" agent Jack (Bauer)
• 59D: Hall-of-Fame QB Graham (Otto)

All Downs, all clued with zero panache. I think my favorite clue of the day is 48D: German children (kinder), if only because it's an interesting / unexpected clue for KINDER (what with English options being readily available). Ooh, and I like the symmetrical HOODLUM in FETTERS (45D: Tough + 4D: Chains). That's nice. Otherwise, kind of a drag.

Bullets:

• 24A: Cornstarch brand (Argo) — went with SAGO ... isn't that right? No, SAGO is a starch for baking, but it's not from corn, but from the SAGO palm. Dang, I can see a can in my mind ... something to do with baking ... brand name ending "O" ... not named after Jason's ship ... grrr. Aha, it's KARO, and it's corn syrup. OK, I feel better now.
  
• 17A: Gossipy type (yenta) — unexpectedly common, this word. Started the puzzle by guessing HIYA (1D: Informal greeting) and confirming it off of this answer.
• 40A: Apology starter (Mea) — as in "mea culpa"; that eastern section took me longer than it should have because I dropped in TONGA (!?) where TIMOR was supposed to go (29D: Island east of Java).
• 3D: Nickname for someone who shares a name with the 16th president [of the United States] (Linc) — so, all name clues are boring, except this one, which is awkward and unwieldy. Great.
• 57D: "A place you can go," in a 1979 #2 hit (YMCA) — again, what is with the clue? Of all the lyrics in that song, that's what you pick? But ... "you can get yourself clean." "You can have a good meal." And best of all, "you can hang out with all the boys." Come on!

[My favorite accidental DISCOVERY of the day]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. Will has asked me to post this info about the upcoming tournament in Pleasantville, NY. (And by "upcoming" I mean Two Days From Now) Sounds like a good time. You should go. I found out about it too late or I'd be going myself. I know Caleb Madison will be there. He's adorable, so that alone should be enough of a draw. Come on, if you're in the area anyway, you should go. You don't have Friday plans, anyway. No you don't. Oh, come on, you're not fooling anyone.

Pleasantville Crossword Contest

This Friday, Sept. 25, will be the 13th annual Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament, held in Pleasantville, NY, hosted by Will Shortz. The event will go from 7:30 to about 9:45 p.m., at the St. John's Episcopal Church, 8 Sunnyside Ave. (corner of Bedford Road). The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. The puzzles will consist of the Monday through Thursday crosswords from next week's New York Times. Two of the four constructors are expected to be on hand as officials. Prizes are awarded in many categories. Regular Times constructors can't compete, but are welcome to help judge. The cost to enter is $30 (or $45 for a doubles team), which includes coffee and dessert, with all the proceeds going to the Pleasantville Fund for Learning. Registration can be done at the door. The site is convenient from MetroNorth or by car. For more information, call 914-773-7794 or visit <www.pleasantville-fund-for-learning.com>.

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TUESDAY, Jun. 12, 2007 - Jonathan Gersch

Relative Difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Knots" (36A: Word that can follow the starts of 17-, 23-, 51- and 59-Across)

I plodded through this deliberately - no hang-ups, and yet I was not the hot knife through butter I like to be on a Tuesday. Got off to a terrible start with 1A: Former U.N. chief Javier _____ de Cuéllar (Perez), which I did not know at all, and which took what seemed like a long time to come together, especially since I originally had two of the crosses wrong (LAST for PAST at 1D: Previous, and MOB for ZOO at 5D: Madhouse). Oh, actually I had a third PEREZ cross wrong, but this one didn't affect PEREZ - off the "R" I wrote in RAIN GEAR for RAIN WEAR, which may seem minor, but it kept @#$#-ing WINDSOR CASTLE hidden from me for far too many seconds. Anyway, none of these problems was severe. But no record time today. Not even close (high 5's).


Theme answers:

• 17A: Spoonerism, usually (slip of the tongue) - stumbled on this one, as I initially thought the answer itself was going to be a spoonerism
• 23A: Sight along the Thames (Windsor Castle)
• 51A: Hoedown folks (square dancers) - somehow "folks" threw me; "participants" would have clued me in better - I wanted HILLBILLIES or something less pejorative
• 59A: San Francisco tourist attraction (Fisherman's Wharf) - born in S.F., know it well.

Featured Five

12D: Crews' craft (sculls)

Got confused because "craft" is singular and "sculls" feels plural. This answer goes nicely with 39D: Crew's leader (coxswain), which took me a while to get (I wanted COXSMAN). COXSWAIN looks great in the grid but really wrong as a word.

15A: Gutter site (eave)
8D: Grandmother of Enoch (Eve)

Nice homonymic crossing. Speaking of "gutters," we really really need to clean ours. I think there are miniature trees growing out of them.

37D: "Happy Days" put-down ("Nerd!")

Strangely, I don't have a clear recollection of this term's being used on "Happy Days," which I watched Religiously as a child - it's the first primetime show I can remember watching: "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," bedtime. I was really hoping the answer would be "SIT ON IT," which I have never heard or seen used except on "Happy Days."



49A: Like some dental floss (unwaxed)

Had the -ED and could think only of WAXED and wondered what other types of floss there were. MINTED? GLOSSY? CINNAMON? Interesting to go with UNWAXED - it's strange to require a qualifying adjective to refer to a thing in its unaltered state. If you follow. I'm not sure I do.

57D: Gaelic language (Erse)
58D: Newts (efts)

Two old guys just hanging out in the corner, remembering the good old days and making fun of the young whippersnappers like YAHOO (7D: Popular e-mail provider) and the highly dubious WHA!? (62D: "Huh?"). ERSE and EFTS have been through the wars. In their day, candy bars cost a nickel and I think you still had to crank your phone to get it to work. I'm saying they're old old oldskool is what I'm saying. I have a strange affection for them.

And I'm done.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Feb. 20, 2007 - Jonathan Gersch

Solving time: just over 8 (on paper)

THEME: SIDNEY POITIER (47A: Actor born Feb. 20, 1927) - lots of theme answers related to "47A"

Happy Birthday, Sidney Poitier. You are a fine actor. That said, I hated this puzzle. I mean, viscerally. I resented it. This was Thursday-hard for me, with many answers I didn't know or had never heard of. Also, there is some crap cluing. I actually froze and had that free-fall feeling that usually occurs only in Thursday+ puzzles. Thoroughly unpleasant. Old people will probably have loved it, as POITIER's career will have reminded them of their youth. Me, no. No no no. Would have liked it, Maybe, on a Thursday. Today, just rotten.

Luckily for you (and me), I have no time to write extensively on a Tuesday morning, so just the highlights (or lowlights).

• 1A: _____ Island, Bahamas, boyhood home of 47A (Cat) - right away, I'm annoyed. Never heard of CAT Island. What a stupid name for an island. And I know it's considered a constructing feat to cram in as many theme answers as possible, but could you make them good answers? Thanks.
• 7D: Gallery (loft) - what? WHAT? These are synonymous now? A GALLERY is where I go to see art, and a LOFT is where a farmer puts hay. Or maybe where one lives, if one is a pretentious urbanite.

The following are ALL from the NE section of the grid! (If my initial flat-out guess of REAGAN - 19A: President with an airport named after him - hadn't been right, I think I'd still be working on the NE)

• 8A: Brook sound (murmur) - Brooks BABBLE. They MURMUR only in Wordsworth poems. I resent this stupid trap, especially on a Tuesday. You clearly know who R.E.M is (52A: Michael Stipe's band), so why the @#$#@ couldn't you have clued 8A as [52A's debut album]?????!
• 21A: Autobiography of 47A: ("This Life") - Oh, of course, I read it often. Come on!!!! Again, no offense to Mr. Poitier, but this is rank obscurity - made worse by the fact that 11D: Gift givers (Magi) did not end in "S," as most plurals do, so I had "S" where the "I" in LIFE should have been.
• 16A: Discomfort (unease) - I just hate this word. It's legal, but icky
• 8D: Classic cigar brand (muriel) - Again, what? MURIEL's a lady's name. EL ROPO is better known to me than MURIEL.

So the NE was the worst of all trouble spots in this puzzle for me. Even the stuff I had no problem with, such as 9D: Intl. grp. for which 47A was named an ambassador (UNESCO), seemed a bit recherché for a Tuesday.

More junk:

35A: Computer acronym about faulty data (GIGO) - a distant cousin of the ridiculous "I GO," I presume. Maybe I've heard of this "acronym" somewhere, sometime, but if so, I can't recall. Yuck.
28A: Film starring 47A with a chart-topping title song ("To Sir With Love") - I enjoyed this film, and got this answer quickly. I love the song, which, to complete the R.E.M. (52A) trifecta in this puzzle, was sung (and recorded) live as a duet by Natalie Merchant and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe at an inaugural celebration for President Clinton in 1993.
44A: Bamako's land (Mali) - whatever you say! This answer intersects the very, very lazy III (40D: Afternoon hour on a sundial) - see yesterday's MLII for a similar crappy use of Roman numerals.
54A: Debut film for 47A ("No Way Out") - does anyone Really know these answers? Or did you have to piece them together from crosses and inference like me!?! NO WAY OUT is a Kevin Costner film, as far as I know.

Here's a cutesy cluing technique I'm not that fond of - clue repetition:

50D: Relative of an ostrich (emu)
59A: Relative of an ostrich (rhea)

When asked what a RHEA is, my wife said, immediately, "It's a kind of a bird that looks a little bit like an ostrich." So somebody's heard of it. Not me. RHEA is the mother of the gods in Greek mythology, as far as I know. I claim that RHEA is Thursday fill, or Tuesday fill if the rest of the fill in the Tuesday grid is normal Tuesday level.

63A: Kind of acid used in bleaches (oxalic) - I give up. Puzzle wins. I cry "uncle." All this odd, off, difficult, yet not exciting fill has worn me down. I'm happy to say, though, per my many discussions of @#$#-ing European rivers, that I nailed OISE (69A: River to the Seine) with just the "O"; no great accomplishment for most people, perhaps, but it felt like a stroke of solving genius compared to most of my efforts in this grid.

I know I'm griping like a guy who couldn't even finish the puzzle, when technically I completed it in a vaguely respectable time. And like I said, most of my griping is a day-of-the-week thing. I have Tuesday expectations - I don't mind a snag or challenge, but solving this puzzle felt like slogging through mud. Possibly the hardest Tuesday puzzle I've done since I started blogging - oh, I take it back. I think the PFUI puzzle was a Tuesday. Maybe Tuesday is just a tricky day to get right - or there's just something wrong with me on Tuesdays. Who knows? Must go.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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