Result of a tense build-up? / FRI 9-4-26 / Use a fork for, in a way / Be exceptionally good, in modern slang / Super, slangily / Ludwig ___, post-W.W. II leader who led West Germany's economic recovery / Mars rover named in honor of a 19th-century activist / ger dubbed the "Matriarch of the Blues" / Like someone using autoreply, perhaps

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Constructor: Julian Xiao

Relative difficulty: Challenging (more like a Saturday for me)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Ludwig ERHARD (26A: Ludwig ___, post-W.W. II leader who led West Germany's economic recovery) —

Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (German: [ˈluːtvɪç ˈʔeːɐ̯haʁt]; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician and economist who served as the second chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. Affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU),^[b] he is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery (Wirtschaftswunder, German for "economic miracle") in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. During that period, he promoted the concept of the social market economy (soziale Marktwirtschaft), on which Germany's economic policy in the 21st century continues to be based.

In his tenure as Chancellor, however, Erhard lacked support from Adenauer, who remained chairman of the CDU party until 1966. Erhard failed to win the German public's confidence in his handling of a budget deficit and lacked public support for his direction of foreign policy. His popularity waned, and he resigned his chancellorship on 30 November 1966. (wikipedia)

• • •

It's certainly true that if SLINKY DOG were a known quantity for me (46A: Longtime Pixar character who says "I might be old, but I still got a spring in my step!"), this puzzle would've been somewhat easier, and yet even if I'd remembered a specific character from the one Toy Story movie I'd seen, I think this still would've played harder than usual, certainly harder than recent Fridays, which have gotten more and more simple over time. I don't mind the difficulty, but this had none of the sparkle and originality that I expect from a Friday. There are only a couple longer answers that seem at all original, and while much of the grid is solid, not many of the answers feel marquee-worthy. Fridays are supposed to zing and sing with freshness, and most of what you get here is merely solid. So the puzzle was hard without being bright or fun. 

[the only "Ludwig" in my life]

I guess the clues were trying to make up for the relative lacklusterness of the grid, which may in fact be why the puzzle played hard for me. That clue on JENGA TOWER is a good example (1A: Result of a tense build-up?). Actually, JENGA TOWER is the other answer besides SLINKY DOG that I'd put in the "Good Friday Answer" category today! But as with SLINKY DOG, I was baffled, in this case by the clue. Also, I've literally never played Jenga. I am familiar with the concept, though. But that answer eluded me longer than almost anything in the NW, in large part because its "J" cross (JINGLES) was also clued in a very deceptive way (1D: Change sounds). GUINEA got a "Leone" clue, I guess because of an attempted homophone thing (?) with the preceding clue (3D: Actress Lyonne) (her, I know). I could, and will, go on and on about the stuff I didn't know / struggled with, but the upshot is this felt like a Saturday puzzle to me. Might've liked it a bit more there, but I still think the fill, overall, just didn't have enough juice. INAUGURATE, NATIONAL TV, SPEEDSTER, PRESIDENTS, ATARI GAMES ... these all work fine, but "work" is the operative word. It's all very workmanlike.

TMAN or GMAN? (19A: Fed). Who knows? ERHARD? LOLOLOL who? No idea. Died before I was born, I know very little about "West Germany's economic recovery." Really balked at the second "R" in ERHARD because "No country starts 'SR-!'" I hilariously and fatally thought to myself as I read the clue 23D: First country to elect a female prime minister (1960) (SRI LANKA)—another answer that killed me. ELLY Mai before ELLA Mai (I keep doing that!) (Elly May is from Beverly Hillbillies!). The SW corner, everything ERHARD and below, was the real oof place for me today. ERHARD and SRI LANKA, we've covered. DRAGGY? (27D: Sluggish). Forget it. I had nothing and then at some point I had GROGGY (?). I nailed SLAP off the "P" but kept doubting it because I couldn't get any crosses at first (33A: Be exceptionally good, in modern slang). Then there was the SLINKY part of SLINKY DOG—that really wrecked me. I thought "well, weiner dog ... no? ... he had a name? pffffffff, Ok." Really thought POTTAGE had only a single "T" but at least knew what that was (35A: What Esau got in exchange for selling his birthright to Jacob). Never ever thought of a PUSH TOY as a toddler's "walking aid" (which makes it sound like the toddler is disabled, somehow). Wasn't sure what was meant by "autoreply" at 36D: Like someone using autoreply, perhaps (ON LEAVE). Sounded like a texting term, but of course automatic "out of office" replies are reasonably common in professional settings. I refuse to accept HECKA, what the hell(a)? (49A: Super, slangily). Is that like HELLA? Just say HELLA? Or "super," for that matter. And then ... oh, I think I had 56A: In the past (OVER) as ONCE at first. Again, the clue appears to be doing a bit there, echoing an earlier clue (5D: In the past), which is a much harder clue for OVER than it is for AGO. So ... yeah, things were mildly tough all over but, for me, majorly tough in that SW corner. 

Bullets:

• 21A: Buff (SWOLE) — again, the clue is rough. Roughly vague. So many meanings of "buff." I was thinking "polish," or "nerd / expert." But no. Still, even if I had thought of the gym-bod meaning of "buff," SWOLE might not have been top-of-the-brain.
• 24A: Mars rover named in honor of a 19th-century activist (SOJOURNER) — if I knew that rover was named after SOJOURNER Truth, I forgot. Still, this one was relatively easy to get, thanks to ETTA JAMES and her jaunty "J" (9D: Singer dubbed the "Matriarch of the Blues"). Side note: surprised that ETTA is considered "Matriarch of the Blues" when Big Mama Thornton exists (or Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith for that matter) (looks like Ma Rainey is called "Mother of the Blues," so that's something). Sorry, don't want to get too sidetracked, here's Big Mama: 

• 50A: Curve on a score (SLUR) — a gimme for me, but tough maybe for those who aren't familiar with musical notation.
• 12D: Stellar visual effects (CORONAE) — so "Stellar" as in "relating to an actual star, like the ones in the sky." The corona is the "outer layer of a star's atmosphere" (wikipedia), sometimes visible as a kind of halo.
• 54A: Asteroids and Space Invaders (ATARI GAMES)—yes, I put in VIDEO GAMES, of course I put in VIDEO GAMES. That's what they are, and that's a real phrase. ATARI GAMES is about as good as SEGA GAMES (i.e. not good).
• 37D: Start to congeal (THICKEN) — got this off the "N" and thank god because as you can see, above, I needed help in that SW corner something awful.
• 6D: Use a fork for, in a way (TUNE) — big miss here for me, as I put in LIFT.

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I have an EALA update. Yesterday I mentioned that with every match win, tennis player Alex EALA is inching closer to your crossword grid. Yesterday, she advanced to the third round at the U.S. Open, defeating Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-1, 6-4. 

 

P.P.S. Comments section non-function is a Blogger-wide problem and will be resolved … sometime!

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Shade akin to peridot / FRI 3-1-24 / First syllable of a rhyming film genre / Arpad ___ creator of an eponymous chess rating system / Of all the noises known to man, it is the most expensive, per an old quip / Challenge for some funny video compilations

Constructor: Julian Xiao

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Arpad ELO (22A: Arpad ELO, creator of an eponymous chess rating system) —

Arpad Emmerich Elo (né Élő Árpád Imre; August 25, 1903 – November 5, 1992) was an American-Hungarian physics professor who created the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. 

Born in Egyházaskesző, Kingdom of Hungary, he moved to the United States with his parents in 1913. He was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee and a chess master. By the 1930s he was the strongest chess player in Milwaukee, at the time one of the nation's leading chess cities. He won the Wisconsin State Championship eight times, and was the 11th person inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame. (wikipedia)

• • •

This one wasn't really showing me much. Kind of a placeholder. It skews a little quaint and old-fashioned ([Canoodle] / NECK, "THEM'S THE FACTS," that interminable "old quip" about OPERA, a host of overfamiliar short answers, etc.), and the cluing was frequently either flat or irksome. The worst part of the cluing was that the awful twin-clue convention was used not once not twice but thrice. The first time, it's used to predictably off and awkward effect, and right up front! Right out of the gate! Why? There's nothing "fun" about a double "conductor" clue that leads to CIRCUITS (?) and CUING (?). Yes, you have tapped into that astounding linguistic fact that "conductors" can mean multiple things! But [The works of many conductors] is such an awkward way of cluing CIRCUITS. What's the idea? Are you trying to misdirect people toward orchestra conductors (rather than electrical conductors)? Composers are the ones with "works," not conductors, although I guess recordings might be considered a conductor's "works." The fact that I'm having to think about this only reinforces my sense that the clue here is trying too hard. And then the puzzle goes and doubles down on the whole "conductor" business with CUING? (1D: Task for a conductor). I mean, yes, conductors do "cue" players in various ways, but CUING feels forced. Defensible, but not great because it's trying to do something no one actually cares about, i.e. echoing the 1-Across clue. You've also got two (2) "word found backward inside another similar word" clues (for ALOHA (HOLA) and TUNA (NUT))—fine when I saw it the first time, boring when I saw it again. But wait, there's more! You've also got two (2) "let's try to make bad fill interesting" clues (for SCI (Fi) and ROM (com)) (both clued as [First syllable of a rhyming film genre]). 

The reason I am focused upon this dumb c(l)uing minutiae today is there's not much to focus on in the marquee stuff, which just isn't marquee enough. The long Downs are all adequate, but not bringing much heat. I guess maybe golfers might chuckle knowingly at THREE-PUTT (12D: What might turn you red on a green). Who knows what golfers will do? I don't care about the game at all, and still that was the most interesting of the Downs for me. As for the long Acrosses, the 8s in the corners are very ho-hum, and then you've got the triple-stack across the middle. "THEM'S THE FACTS" has its charm, I guess, if you like faux-folksiness (fauxksiness!), and "ARE WE THERE YET?" is certainly an old (certainly clichéd) backseat refrain, but what the hell is TRY NOT TO LAUGH??? A "challenge"? Maybe, *maybe* if you'd clued this as an introduction to the revelation of an embarrassing fact, it would be OK. But as clued, it's awful. NOT LAUGHING is (maybe) the "challenge," but "TRY NOT TO LAUGH" is an impossible-to-imagine dare. It's a spoken phrase that needs a darer. Is someone saying this to me as they hand me their phone to show me a blooper reel, or cat videos? Bizarre. Not a phrase that stands alone well at all, and certainly not with this clue.*

Aside from the initial CIRCUITS / CUING awkwardness, there was only one part of the grid that offered any pushback, and (tragically) it involves some of the grid's weakest fill—GOSEE x/w ADSPOT. ADSPOT is on-its-face bad, a commercial redundancy that only biznessspeak speakers could love (50A: Social media post labeled "Sponsored," e.g.). I thought the clue was gonna point to some neologism along the lines of SPONCON ("sponsored content"), but all I got was ADSPOT, blech. As for GOSEE ... "modeling lingo"? I had no idea there was such a thing (44D: Open call, in modeling lingo). I believe the clue—that it's a real thing. And the clue is at least trying to make GOSEE interesting. But in general I'm not a fan of deliberately adding difficulty to the parts of the grid that are least attractive. You want people to linger on the Good stuff, not the bad (in this case, more mediocre than truly bad, to be fair). I think most of what I'm annoyed about today falls under the category of bad editing, not bad constructing (I have to finish editing a puzzle for the forthcoming These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 benefit collection today, so I maybe jinxing myself here ... or just pre-yelling at myself)

[Saw this same song—with this same clue—in another puzzle this past week, which is the only reason I knew it (59A: 2019 #1 hit by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello). I remembered it because in the other puzzle I had it as "SEDORITA" and wondered what that might mean ... turns out I had SHAVED where I should've had SHAVEN; the one upside of screwing up is the answers involved tend to stick your brain]

Other things:

• 38A: Shade akin to peridot (LIME) — I could've told you that peridot was a color, but apparently I could not have told you what that color was, or was akin to. I wrote ROSE here at first :(
• 3D: Nina of fashion (RICCI) — my first answer in the grid. Do you ever feel like your vast storehouse of crosswordese is a form of cheating? That's how it felt to get my first toehold in the puzzle with Nina RICCI, about whom I know nothing.
• 8D: One who has ways of making you talk ... (SPEECH THERAPIST) —again, what is going on with the cluing? What is that mysterious ellipsis doing there at the end (...) and why (dear god) would you evoke torture in your clue? Even cartoonish, TV-and-movie-bad-guy torture? 
• 35D: Simple bucket (LAY-UP) — they got me here. Was really looking for a bucket-shaped bucket here, not slang for a made shot in basketball.
• 18D: Luxury brand ... or a non-luxury option (COACH) — my favorite wrong answer of the day. I had C--CH and decided to go with the non-luxury sleeping option: COUCH. "Hmm, I'm not familiar with the COUCH luxury brand. Do they make handbags? Scarves? Funny that their name is so close to ... hey!" There should be an anti-luxury brand called COUCH. A perfume that smells like NACHO chips, something along those lines.

End of February. There were four 4️⃣ solo woman constructors this month! Four more than last month! Hurray?! 2024 totals now

Women 4
Men … 41

🎉😕

15 collabs so far this year;those skew M as well, but not nearly as bad, obvs

M/W: 8
M/M: 5
W/W: 2

— Rex Parker 🐈🐾☕️🐾🐈 (@rexparker) February 29, 2024

It's the end of February, so it's time for my Puzzles of the Month feature: three of the best NYTXW I solved this month: two themed, one themeless

February 2024 Puzzles of the Month:

Themed: 

• Sam Donaldson, "OPPOSITES ATTRACT" (Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024)
• Teddy Katz and Rich Katz, "DOUBLE OR NOTHING" (Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024)

Themeless: 

• Carolyn Davies Lynch and Jeff Chen (ROCKET SCIENCE / BRAIN SURGERY) (Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*Someone in the comments said TRY NOT TO LAUGH is a whole category of video on YouTube, which, if true, makes it more legit as fill, but endears it to me not at all

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"Bad plan!," in Southern slang / SAT 1-6-24 / Unfiltered brew / Comment after a revealing moment / Out-of-focus effect in photography, from the Japanese for "blur" / Cells that handle low-light vision / Thin slice of silicon at the heart of an integrated circuit

Constructor: Ben Tolkin and Julian Xiao

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: BOKEH (5A: Out-of-focus effect in photography, from the Japanese for "blur") —

In photography, bokeh (/ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə or /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay; Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image, caused by circles of confusion. Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects. Some lens designs blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce distracting or unpleasant blurring ("good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively). Photographers may deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions, accentuating their lens's bokeh.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all regions of an image which are outside the depth of field.

The opposite of bokeh—an image in which multiple distances are visible and all are in focus—is deep focus.

• • •

Well this ended up being *much* easier than yesterday's puzzle, so people will undoubtedly like it more, but I don't know that it's any better. I should say that I actually *liked* yesterday's puzzle pretty well. Probably should've been a Saturday, but it was really well put together. Loved YOINKED and SMARTASS and the clue on DEAD BATTERY. All the longer answers were solid to sparkling. I feel like I got caught up in my struggles yesterday and neglected to say the positive things I felt. I thought about yesterday's puzzle as I was solving this one, which was much easier but felt less impressive. The long answers just missed me today, for the most part, and the puzzle's attempts to be fresh were hit-and-miss—a little TTH (trying too hard) at times. I loved HAZY IPA (10D: Unfiltered brew), but it's really hard to get excited about a brand name like ACUVUE or something as mundane as UNMUTES. As for BOKEH, that was just five random letters to me, I'll confess. I've probably seen it on my camera phone's needlessly detailed array of options, but it never sunk in. I can see how that answer might be exciting to some, though, so that's fine. The biggest issues I had were with the marquee longer answers—the crossing 15s. Hmmm, what order to take these in? ... So, how about the order in which I solved them. Probably easiest to show you my grid after my first encounter with 29A: "Bad plan!," in Southern slang:

And now a clip from "Futurama":

And now a Waylon Jennings song:

And finally, how about a clip of this guy? Remember this guy?

At first I couldn't remember what the dog won't do, but then I got the "H" from SIGH (21D: [Aw, jeez!]) and I remembered, oh right, THAT DOG WON'T HUNT. Little did it occur to me that my problem with the answer wouldn't be the last word, but the next-to-last (semifinal??) word. I can see that people have also said "THAT DOG DON'T HUNT" but this non-Southerner has only ever heard the "WON'T" version, so "DON'T" registered a huge clank in my ears for sure. And I have DR. FREUD to thank for helping me find and confront my error. You can imagine my bafflement when I looked at 11D: Comment after a revealing moment and then looked at the grid and saw: "PAGING W-------!" Who am I paging? Wario? Wonder Woman? Got the "F" from BFFS but that didn't help. "PAGING WAFFLES! Come in, Waffles!" (note to self: mmm, eat waffles today). Not sure when "DR. FREUD" eventually popped into view ("You rang!?!"), but I know that I changed that "W" to a "D" and then just stared at "THAT DOG DON'T HUNT." Then felt bad that I'd misremembered the Southern expression. Only after finishing the puzzle and looking up the expression did I feel good again. "WON'T" was a perfectly good answer there. Only DR. FREUD could tell you otherwise, and, you know, I'm not sure I 100% trust him. 

Also, do people still / really say "PAGING DR. FREUD?" That's the kind of cutesy thing that, thankfully, no one in my immediate vicinity has ever said. I wish I could be more excited about it. I was more excited about "DAYS OF OUR LIVES," to be honest. My wife's secret history involves her complete addiction to "AS THE WORLD TURNS" (15) (five NYTXW appearances, dating back to 1976), which I always confuse with "DAYS OF OUR LIVES" (14) (four NYTXW appearances, dating back to 2002). I kinda miss afternoon soaps, a staple of midday programming when I was a kid. In the '70s, my mom would put us down for a nap and then watch "Ryan's Hope." I think this was what they now call "Me Time." I also liked HUMAN PYRAMID today, and the fact that it's kinda sorta at the top of its own pyramid of answers (10A: Stunt for three, six or 10 people, typically). I mean ... yeah, if you squint and are feeling generous, that is a pyramid of answers that it's a part of.

Mostly, this puzzle was a breeze, with only BOKEH and that WON'T / DON'T confusion giving me any kind of resistance. I knew the proper nouns (NAPLES, ACUVUE, CLINT), I knew PROG rock (27A: Lead-in to rock). I got the first eight clues I looked at today, which is pretty much the inverse of yesterday.

[TATA, then all its crosses, in order, then HUMAN PYRAMID, DECAL, and ACE]

I hope this puzzle gave you renewed confidence after yesterday's ... well, from the comments, it looked like a bloodbath. Does anything need explaining today? ACE is a "big deal" (17A: It's a big deal) because it's the highest card in the deck (in most contexts). "Bars" are segments of a song, so that's why NATIONAL ANTHEM works for 13A: Olympic bars? An AISLE can be "long" and "divide" a theater or airplane or whatever (25A: Long division?). RESTS are marks on a musical score (38A: Some score marks). The Fool is a card in the TAROT deck (I lit-erally have a candle lit, right now, right next to my desk, depicting "The Fool," so that was fun—seeing that clue and then looking over and ... seeing that clue (19D: Fool's deck)):

That's all for now. Time for the penultimate posting of Holiday Pet Pics!

[Again, nothing really "holiday" about this picture of Booga, but it's hard not to admire a cat who does the crossword (thanks, Alice! Now come on, get Booga a pencil and some coffee!)]

[No "holiday" aspect here either, just a reader who wanted to use their beautiful dog Charlie to prove to me that "bog bridges" really do exist (I had expressed doubt late last year) (thanks, anonymous person!)]

[Orion with his name in the grid (thanks, Judith)]

[George smash cat. George rest now (thanks, Jackie!)]

[Kip stands accused of cat vandalism! Verdict: not guilty by reason of entrapment, provocation, and cuteness! (thanks, Adam)]

["Guh ... hello. What are we doing? Is it treats?" I don't know this baby's name! (thanks, Mark!)]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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