Comedian Margaret / TUES 5-25-21 / Handicraft website / Court cutups / First noble gas to be discovered

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back for this last Tuesday in May. I’m writing this now as a law school graduate, which is quite exciting! The last three years were a bit of a slog, but now that part is over. Next up is the Bar Exam (save me)! I’m trying to study despite my desire to just sit around and watch sports all day — seriously, with the end of the Premier League (my Liverpool finished off the season strong!), the NBA playoffs, the WNBA getting started, the PGA Championship, NHL playoffs (go, Penguins), and now the French Open starting, there's always something on. Now, I’m procrastinating by doing this write-up rather than relearning contracts. 

Anywho, on to the puzzle...

Constructors: Kristian House and Mike Dockins 

Relative difficulty: Fairly hard

THEME: Colloquial expressions showing disbelief

Theme answers:

• I DON’T BELIEVE IT (20A: “Really?!” 
• NO FRIGGIN’ WAY (24A: “Impo-o-sible!”) 
• GET OUTTA HERE (45A: “Oh, come on now!”) 
• THAT’S CRAZY TALK (53A: “How ridiculous!”)

Word of the Day: STEIG (1D: Cartoonist William who created Shrek) —

William Steig (November 14, 1907 – October 3, 2003) was an American cartoonist, sculptor, and, in his later life, an illustrator and writer of children's books. Best known for the picture books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel's Island, and Doctor De Soto, he was also the creator of Shrek!, which inspired the film series of the same name. He was the U.S. nominee for both of the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Awards, as a children's book illustrator in 1982 and a writer in 1988. (Wiki)

• • •

I don’t have a ton to say about this puzzle, other than I didn’t really enjoy it. For the theme, yes, these answers are all sort of colloquial expressions that some people might say. But, there was no real payoff — nothing major tied the theme answers together, and there could be so many different sets of possible answers for each clue. My least favorite of the themers by far was NO FRIGGIN WAY (20A), as I think that “no freaking way” or “no freakin’ way” or even “no frickin’ way” are much more common ways of expressing disbelief. 

I got off to a somewhat challenging start with STEIG at 1D. It’s nice to get him in the puzzle, as Shrek just passed its 20th anniversary (and it’s an all-time classic). I only vaguely knew his name and ended up misspelling it. Then, what started off as one proper noun in that northwest corner multiplied seemingly exponentially throughout the rest of the puzzle. It definitely felt like there were more proper nouns than normal in this puzzle (TARA; BONN; ASTRO; EDIE; STEIG; TONI; ABEL; THE VOICE; ELIZA; ZEKE; OREOS; ETSY; INSTA; THOR; CHO; SYR; WNBA; etc…) 

The thing that sat with me probably the most after I finished the solve was 59A: Hot seasoning made with peppers because I’m still so mad at that clue. A seasoning is made up of crushed herbs and/or spices that you put on chicken to get invited back to the BBQ. A seasoning is not a sauce! CHILI SAUCE is a condiment, so this clue doesn’t work at all. On another note, I’m sure it’s a great school and all, but I think I’ve seen enough of RPI (37A) (and then also ENGR at 17A) to last a lifetime. 

Maybe it was the two constructors on the puzzle, or maybe I was just in a bad mood because the Penguins lost in overtime, but I found the puzzle somewhat disjointed and overall hard to get a foothold in. Then, it felt like the theme offered no spark, and a lot of the fill was overused.

Bullets:

• It was nice to see the WNBA Liberty (29D) get some love in this puzzle! It was especially timely, as they had a great win tonight, and are currently 5-1 on the season, and Sabrina Ionescu has taken the world by storm. 
• Even though I grew up watching Disney Channel, I somehow missed “ZEKE and Luther” (58D) completely. I’ve literally never heard of that show before. 
• If you’re going to have two actresses play the lead role of ELIZA (51D: Doolittle of “Pygmalion”), having Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn do so has got to be one of the best combinations in entertainment history. 
• And, lastly, what would this write-up be without me mentioning that BTS has released a new song called “Butter” that everyone should listen to!! If you can listen to it without 1) wanting to dance or 2) having it stuck in your head for days, you’re not human.  

Signed, Clare Carroll, law school graduate

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Vulcan's specialty / SAT 4-24-21 / Co-star of Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show" / Journalist Parker with a 2018 Pulitzer Prize / Lambert airport inits.

Constructor: Kristian House and Mike Dockins

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: None

Word of the Day: PARKER (Journalist Parker with a 2018 Pulitzer Prize) —

Ashley R. Parker^[1] is an American journalist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning White House reporter for The Washington Post, and senior political analyst for MSNBC. From 2011 to 2017 she was a Washington-based^[2] politics reporter^[3] for The New York Times.

• • •

Hi all, Rachel Fabi in for Rex Parker today (and for the early readers, apologies that this is late! That's on me! And because I'm running late, you're getting a Fabi-style writeup instead of a Fabi-imitating-Parker-style writeup-- this format may be familiar to readers of my New Yorker write-ups on Diary of a Crossword Fiend).  I solved this one in a bit of a panic since I knew I was late, so I'm not sure I can give an accurate assessment of its difficulty, but I finished it just slightly above my average time. Whether that's due to the puzzle being slightly more difficult than average or my frantic solve making it harder to see things I otherwise might have seen is unclear. But despite the state in which I solved this puzzle, I still really like it! It's got a cool grid, and some excellent long entries, and a bunch of clues that I really enjoyed. There's some fill I could live without scattered around the puzzle, but in general, I think this is a very solid Saturday offering.

First of all, that grid shape! I love grid designs with long lines of blocks through the the middle, and this one is no exception. I don't really know what else to say about that, other than that I think it looks rad and facilitates a sort of unique way of moving through the grid during the solve. 

The long entries I particularly enjoyed were HARRY STYLES / LADY FRIENDS / POINT OF VIEW / and KRIS KRINGLE. Although HARRY STYLES was clued surprisingly straightforwardly (there's so much you can do with that name, so it seems a wasted opportunity to settle for [19A: Singer who rose to fame on "The X Factor"]!), the other three have either fun or particularly tricky clues that I enjoyed. The clue on LADY FRIENDS in particular [9D: Some boos] likely tripped up some solvers who are unfamiliar with the term "boo" as a modern pet name for one's partner. The POINT OF VIEW clue was also tricky, being one of those one word clues [52A: Take] that could mean just about anything. And [22D: Stocking stuffer] for KRIS KRINGLE is fun because it's just adjacent to what we normally think [Stocking stuffer] means -- this is the guy who *literally* stuffs the stockings. 

Long entries aside, there were a few other clue/entry pairs in this puzzle that made me smile, and one that literally made me laugh out loud for the dad-joke of it all. The dad joke clue [39A: Sticky food?] for KABOB is cute and clever, and I adore it. I also really liked [49A: Coverage of the royal family?] for TIARA, [20D: Real posers?] for YOGIS, and [30D: "Cry me a river!" elicitor, perhaps] for SOB STORY. I got extremely tripped up on [34D: When?] as the clue for NOT IF. Once it clicked, though, I was pretty satisfied by that little bit of wordplay (because the entry fills in the implied blank [___ but when]). 

 

A few more things:

• 58A: Yeah, right: I wrote over the first four letters of I'M SO SURE, like, four times. I tried YEAH SURE, SURE SURE, and WELL SURE before finally landing on the correct set. I guess I was not so sure! 
• 62A: "___ a Pizza" (punnily titled children's book) -- I vaguely remember my little brother reading and enjoying "PETE'S a Pizza" and I like that punny title, so I will forgive the otherwise pet peeve of mine of having what looks like a plural name in the grid. Much better clue than just naming two random PETES!
• Fill I could live without: HRS, ALLI, NITTI (are we supposed to know mafia gangster henchmen by name??)

Well folks, that's all the time we have for today, because it is ACPT weekend and I need to go mentally prepare. Apologies again for the late post-- blame me, not Rex! 

Signed, Rachel Fabi, Queen-for-a-Day of CrossWorld

[Follow Rachel on Twitter]  

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

PS. Thank you to everyone who contributed to These Puzzles Fund Abortion! I know many of you did, and I really appreciate it. We've raised $32,000 so far (!!!), which is just unbelievable. If you still want to pick up a copy of the puzzle pack I edited to benefit the Baltimore Abortion Fund, you can do so here!
 

PPS. Even if you are not attending the ACPT today, you can pick up some independent puzzles from the "Virtual ACPT Puzzle Table" that Nate Cardin and I coordinated for constructors to show off their work this weekend. Those puzzles are available here (and includes one free BAF puzzle!). 
 

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Vocalist Gorme / THU 11-12-20 / Alexander historical mystery novelist / Shelley ode that begins Hail to thee blithe spirit / Unknown people slangily / Famous question first asked around 1600 / Baseball strategy that starts with a stolen base attempt

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed)

THEME: "To" => "Two" — familiar phrases that contain "to ___," where the blank is a homophone of a letter of the English alphabet; in the grid, the "to ___" phrase is represented as two (2) letters:

Theme answers:

• "To a Skylark" => AA SKYLARK (so, "'two-A" SKYLARK) (17A: Shelley ode that begins "Hail to thee, blithe spirit!")
• "Talk to you later" => TALK UU LATER (28A: "Bye for now")
• Floats out to sea => FLOATS OUT CC (45A: Gently leaves shore)
• "To be or not to be..." => BB OR NOT BB (61A: Famous question first asked around 1600)

Word of the Day: TASHA Alexander, historical mystery novelist (33A) —

Tasha Alexander (born 1969) is an American author who writes New York Times bestselling historical mystery fiction. [...] In 2002, while living in New Haven, Connecticut, she started work on her first novel, after being inspired by a passage in Dorothy L. Sayers's Gaudy Night. Carolyn Marino at William Morrow acquired the book, And Only to Deceive, which was published in 2005 as the first installment of the Lady Emily series. Following a move to Franklin, Tennessee, where Alexander wrote her second novel in a local Starbucks, she eventually relocated to Chicago, where she married British novelist Andrew Grant (brother of bestselling author Lee Child) in 2010.[...] The Lady Emily series, set in a time between the 1890s and 1900s and spanning across cities throughout Europe, follow the adventures of Lady Emily and her husband Colin Hargreaves. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well there's one main problem with the theme and it's so obvious that maybe I'm the only one who actually found it a problem. Always possible. The problem is, There are two letters ... lettersssssss ... Two As, two Us, etc. So what I'm looking at is "Two 'A's Skylark," not "Two A Skylark." It's two As ... then SKYLARK. It's not a compound adjective (i.e. a two-A skylark), because that makes no sense unless the answer were SKYLAARK (now *that* is a two-A skylark!). Unless you are thinking mathematically (which, ugh, I guess is what half of you all do), then the whole AA = 2A feels off. It's two "A"s, not two A. "TWO Bs OR NOT TWO Bs!, that is what I'm looking at!" If you can overlook this massive conceptual ... let's say, issue ... then you've got a pretty straightforward, basic, kinda old-fashioned Thursday on your hands. The grid is definitely a little heavy on the overfamiliar short fill, which often happens when the grid is built with massive amounts of 3-, 4-, and 5-letter answers—not much room for sparkle, lots of room for AÇAI and ALAI and etc. PLUGS AWAY and HIT AND RUN are just fine, "SIR DUKE" is always welcome, and I have an odd fondness for I.T. BANDS (perhaps because they are a constant concern in my own life). So, the theme is conceptually flawed, from where I stand, and the fill is a bit on the tepid side, but I did not have a bad time.

There are an awful lot of names in this puzzle, which is the one aspect of the puzzle that I can see moving the difficulty level much further up for some people. The names also skew older. It's at least a little dangerous to cross TANDY (30D: Jessica who was the original Blanche DuBois on Broadway) and EYDIE (44A: Vocalist Gorme), as neither of those names is particularly common / obvious / inferrable, and there's a good chance that people under 40, and especially under 30, would never have heard of either of them. I don't know any other TANDYs or EYDIEs *besides* these two, so if I didn't know them ... I'd have no way to get to them by analogy. Most of the other names seem like they wouldn't present too much problem *except* that KAROL / TASHA crossing, yikes. TASHA was the real yikes, actually. I feel very lucky that kinda sorta knew KAROL (26D: Pope John Paul II's first name) (wrote it in when I got the "K" from SKA), because the only TASHA I know is TASHA Yar from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and I didn't even actually watch that show (my wife did). Needed every cross for TASHA, and KAROL was by faaaar the diciest of those crosses. It's really really really best to avoid crossing not-universally known names, especially at letters that can't be easily inferred (this is what the term "Natick" was created to describe). And such crossings arguably happened twice today—though "A" is probably the only good guess at TASHA / KAROL, as KIROL seems pretty implausible... but if I'd never seen EYDIE, I'd think that was implausible too. Be careful with crossing names, please. Thank you. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Finance reporter Ron / SAT 9-26-20 / Atoms that have same number of neutrons / Click the X when vexed maybe / HSN alternative / Classic makeshift solution / Rachel seven-season TV role for Meghan Markle

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Medium (8 to 9, somewhere in there, solving slowly, early in the a.m.)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: KIRI Te Kanawa (9D: Soprano ___ Te Kanawa) —

Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa ONZ CH DBE AC (/ˈkɪri təˈkɑːnəwə/; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand former opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced".

Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage.

Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not reveal her retirement until September 2017. (wikipedia)

• • •

Proper names made this one a real minefield, or potential minefield, I guess. I'm not real big on using marginal names to achieve difficulty, and I don't know what INSANA and (as clued) ZANE are here if not marginal. Seven seasons on a TV show that the clue doesn't even name ... doesn't strike me as a thing. Did anyone really watch "Suits"? That "Z" took me a weird lot of time, as I scrolled the alphabet (all the way to "Z"!) to figure out how WI- could be [Virtuoso, informally]. Of course when I got it, it was a 'duh,' so maybe if I'd just been quicker i.e. more awake I would've blown past the ZANE thing too quick to be irked by it, who knows? INSANA was way more of a problem. No way I'm guessing any of those letters, and in terms of a "field from which names come," you couldn't pick one farther from my realm of caring than "hedge fund manager." Again, not even a show or a network to go on with INSANA (not that it would've helped). RAPINOE is very (recently) famous. LUCINDA ... well, she's very famous to me (saw her at the Beacon in '05) but even if you somehow don't know her, and least LUCINDA is ultimately a recognizable name (unlike, say, INSANA). It just seemed like there were a lot of places in the grid where solvers could into Name Trouble, which honestly is not the most enjoyable kind of trouble. KIRI / ROMERO? Gimmes for me, but I can imagine possibly not for others. 

On the other hand, there are some delightful moments, like CHEERIOS sticking together (never saw that coming, really looking for something science-y there), or the simple backyard pleasures of CORNHOLE (it's my understanding that you can watch competitive CORNHOLE on one of the ESPNs, during CORNHOLE season, whenever that is—the guys on my favorite baseball podcast talked about getting weirdly into it during the early pandemic, when all normal traditional sports had been effectively brought to a halt). And if you're gonna cross proper names at a vowel, then RAPINOE crossing LUCINDA in the dead center of your grid is probably the most glorious way to do that. Some of the relative current fill today actually felt weirdly ... well, kinda old already. That may be because I've already seen it in grids and therefore its novelty isn't as striking to me. Stuff like GLAMPING and RAGEQUIT (perfectly good fill, just lacking the zing it likely once had). NERD CRED ... is just an odd phrase to say (67A: Something you might earn by having a long crossword-solving streak, informally). Say it. NERD CRED. It's like much in your mouth. Reminds me of the "30 Rock" episode where everyone kept having to say the ridiculous movie title "The Rural Juror" over and over. Awkward. 

Biggest struggle was in the SW. I blame INSANA, though I also blame my inexplicable failure to come up with the BIKE part of ROAD BIKE (35D: Transport not meant for trails). Oh, and worst of all down there, I had PLIÉ instead of KNEE (56D: It's a real bender). Really really wanted EARS right from the jump, but I guess PLIÉ must've prevented me from going for it. Oh, sorry, there's another worst of all, which is, worst of all, PLIÉ baited me into putting RAISIN (!!!) in KAISER's place (64A: Kind of roll). When four letters "confirm" your answer, your answer is *usually* safe. Usually. No other real issues today. PENCIL before PENCAP, that's about it (7D: Ink saver). Have a lovely Saturday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Fluffy neckwear / SUN 11-3-2019 / Egg on / Spoil, as a Parade

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: easyish - medium

THEME: ALL THE RIGHT MOVES — An "e" sound is added to the name of movies in the form of "ie", "y", and "ee":

Theme answers:

• A ROOM(IE) WITH A VIEW (23A: Your apartment-mate, if you don't close the door before showering?)
• ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK(IE) (31A: Your wish, maybe, when a rambunctious terrier puppy is first brought home?) 
• RAGING BULL(Y) (50A: Tyrannic sort?)
• IRON(Y) MAN (54A: O. Henry?)
• JOHN WIK(I) (80A: Online reference about toilets?) (this one doesn't work b/c the movie is "John Wick" not "John Wik" so you're no longer just adding an "e" sound)
• GOOD(Y)FELLAS (82A: Guys who pass out Halloween treats?)
• STRANGERS ON A TRAIN(EE) (96A: What outsiders think about the new hire?)
• A HARD DAYS NIGHT(IE) (110A: What the exhausted working woman wears to bed?)

Word of the Day: SLUSH PILE (Editor's stack of unsolicited manuscripts) —

In publishing, a Slush Pile is a set of unsolicited query letters or manuscripts that have either been directly sent to a publisher by an author, or which have been delivered via a literary agent representing the author who may or may not be familiar to the publisher. (wikipedia). 

 ... so exactly what the clue says...

• • •

Back by unpopular demand, it is I, Jeff Lin, the guy who railed on David Steinberg that one time.  I didn't read the comments last time so I assume it was an EPIC FAIL.  Quick aside before getting to it.  So, since I started doing crosswords, I had a bit of an EGO and have been quite VAIN and elitist about only doing the Times (that brief period where I also did the USA Today puzzle aside).  But, based on recommendations from Rex, the commenters, and the NYTXW Twitter community, my friends and I (shout out to EB, LA, JB, and TW) gave the American Values Club Xword a shot (on top of, not in LIEU of, the Times) and have not been disappointed.  Their puzzles are refreshing and fun in all the ways the Times is old and stodgy, so I also highly recommend everyone check them out.

Anyways... The reason I wanted to highlight how refreshing the AVCXW puzzles are is because good lord were there a lot of gluey proper nouns in this one.  WOPAT, HOREB, KIRI, YGOR, OMARR, ZAK, READE, TOD, ISAAK, AACHEN, and OSCAN?  I knew a grand total of zero of THESE references.  Also not the usual URIS clue.  Non proper nouns like CHUBS, TABSET, and MAIS also whooshed over my head.  There were just so many of these crossing each other and slowing me down before I could pick up the theme.  Took a lot of BRUTE strength to get through all of them.  Just couldn't TORE through it (yes, I know the grammar is off, but I wanted to get another answer in the write up so just work with me here).

The RESTE of the puzzle was fine.  Didn't expect the YANG Gang to be the first 2020 ELECT(s)ion related answer, but Buttigieg is really hard to spell and pronounce (I had to double check myself to make sure I didn't go AMISS with the spelling; I still have no idea how to correctly pronounce it).  Overall, maybe this puzzle should have stayed in Will Shortz's SLUSH PILE.

Bullets:

• 28A: Expensive (PRICY) — I prefer "pricey" spelled with an E which would have kind of worked with the theme but fine
• 41A: Early Human (CROMAGNON) — Don't know why I thought it was cro-magnum like the P.I. or the wine as I don't really partake in either

One last aside before I go.  In light of the recent tragic end of Deadspin, one of my favorite sites to read, I just wanted to put in writing how grateful I am that Rex has this forum and that he (and idiots like me) can use it to not just "stick to crosswords".  Nothing in this world happens in a vacuum, crosswords included, and I hope sites like this and what Deadspin used to be continue to speak truth to power and get the support they deserve.  If you disagree, feel free to EAT ME.

Signed, Jeff Lin, The Antipope of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook] [I also have a Pierre Delecto-esque Twitter, but I only use it to follow Rex and others so no need to follow me]

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1948-94 in South Africa / MON 11-28-16 / Letter-shaped metal fastener / Southern corn breads

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE (58A: Children's game ... or the circled words in 20-, 28- and 48-Across)  — embedded in each themer is (in order) a duck, a duck, and a goose:

Theme answers:

• TRIBUTE ALBUMS (20A: "Bowiemania" and "Come Together: America Salutes the Beatles")
• APARTHEID ERA (28A: 1948-94, in South Africa)
• SWORN ENEMIES (48A: Bitter rivals) 

Word of the Day: NADINE Gordimer (50D: Literature Nobelist Gordimer) —

Nadine Gordimer (20 November 1923 – 13 July 2014) was a South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity". // Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned, and gave Nelson Mandela advice on his famous 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well I thought this was lovely. Very simple, but perfectly executed. Those are, indeed, a duck a duck and a goose, respectively. Plus the theme answers themselves were fairly novel. Clever, neat, easy—I really don't expect much more from my Mondays. Actually, scratch that last sentence, as it implies that doing this sort of thing is easy. If it were, I'd be writing something sunny like this every Monday. The truth is, coming up with a neat Monday theme concept, and then executing it cleanly, is really quite hard. There aren't that many people I trust to do it on a regular basis. Writing easy puzzles of high quality is, in fact, tough. So while I don't expect more from my Mondays than "clever, neat, easy," that actually ends up being a reasonably high bar.


I could've done without ABORC (which I always read as a single word—like some discarded Tolkien creature), and EDUCE (a word that always makes me want to egest my lunch), and ENACTOR (it's a word, but just barely) and PONES (OK in the singular, but somehow grating in the plural). Everything else is clean, though. I have a weird lot of admiration for CROP UP (54A: Appear, as problems). It's just a nice, crisp phrase, and, yeah, it duplicates the "UP" from GUSSIED UP, but that's a pretty minor dupe. Nice to have NADINE Gordimer (anti-apartheid writer) to offset the downerness of APARTHEID ERA. I also like NOGOODNIK. How do you not like NOGOODNIK? It's among the best of the -niks, along with refuse and beat and peace.  I am going to beat it now, so I can eat some more birthday cake. Peace.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Fur-lined cloak / 9-9-16 / Hideous foe of Popeye / Valve with disc at end of vertically set stem / Goddess who saved Odysseus / Adolescent program slangily

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: THEME — DESCRIPTION

Word of the Day: PELISSE (40A: Fur-lined cloak) —

A pelisse was originally a short fur lined or fur trimmed jacket that was usually worn hanging loose over the left shoulder of hussar light cavalry soldiers, ostensibly to prevent sword cuts. The name was also applied to a fashionable style of woman's coat worn in the early 19th century. (wikipedia)

• • •

Unpleasantly tough. I really hate it when Friday and Saturday aren't accurately placed. I realize this is an idiosyncratic peeve, but when Fridays are grinds and / or Saturdays are a snap, I kinda want my money back. It wasn't just the toughness today that irked me a bit. It was the cheapness of the toughness. Like ... GAZILLION. I mean, GAJILLION and BAJILLION and BAZILLION all seem like [Really huge (fake) number]s. And the J/Z thing keeps the ridiculous / no-one-says-that ZITCOM very, very hidden (3D: Adolescent program, slangily) (see also the REC / REW problem, which is also a ZITCOM cross). And then there's the archaism of PELISSE. What the hell? And it's not just a word in the puzzle—it's *the* word (well, one of two) that can get you into that NE corner. Literally no letter of PELISSE was gettable to me without crosses, despite the fact that it feels like a medieval word and I have some, uh, background in medievalism (it's actually a 19c. fashion, so I'm off the hook there, I guess). PELISSE is a Saturday word, if it's anything.


SPECS are a [Bridge pair, briefly?] how? Your nose? SPECtacleS on the bridge of your nose? Ugh. I got SPECS and thought of specifications, blueprints, architecture, who knows? None of this cluing stuff was amusing to me. Also, LENO is not "known for his garage." He's "known for" occupying a huge amount of time between Carson and Fallon (with that weird Conan hiccup in there somewhere). I get that he had some show with a garage because he collects cars blah blah blah. But he is not "known for" that. Moving on: No idea what a POPPET is. Own "Popeye" comics and didn't know SEA HAG. You spell HOMIES how? Also, we're still doing HOMIES? OK.


There were parts I enjoyed. In general, the banks of longer answers in the corners were good. Acceptable-to-good. But OUIDA is never good (61A: "A Dog of Flanders" author) and INO is never good (4D: Goddess who saved Odysseus) and ERGOT AIOLI, hoo boy, you do Not want any of that with your calamari. Nasty. Normally a couple of UPs in a puzzle don't bug me, but today, possibly because they're both short and near each other (DO UP / GAS UP), I was indeed bugged.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Squinting cartoon character / FRI 5-20-16 / Restaurant breakfsat innovation of 1971 / Peterhof Palace personages / Smell-O-Vision competitor of 1950s cinema / Order-flouting protester / Music player for break dancer / Roseola symptoms

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: TITIS (34D: South American monkeys) —

The titis, or titi monkeys, are the New World monkeys of the genus Callicebus. They are the only extant members of the subfamily Callicebinae, which also contains the extinct genera Xenothrix, Antillothrix, Paralouatta, Carlocebus, Lagonimico, and possibly also Tremacebus. // Titis live in South America, from Colombia to Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and north Paraguay. (wikipedia)

• • •

This one was beautiful, but man was it easy. I had slight misstep at first, entering ROO instead of EMU (4D: Prey for a dingo), and figured this was going to be a typical mildly tough Friday, so I took a screenshot of my first breakthrough:

And then ... less than 4 minutes later I was done. Done done. The whole thing took me 4:44, including screenshot time. Bonkers. Those corners are pretty segmented / isolated, so I figured I'd have at least a little trouble with one of them, but GO FOR THE JUGULAR (NICE ONE!) and ANJOUS meant the SW corner was toast, and then EMERGES and BARE meant the NE was toast, and then TITIS / TEN K meant the SE was toast. And that was that. In each corner, I got the answers that gave me a bloc of first letters easily. That is, BARE gave me all the first letters in the Acrosses in the NE. ANJOUS gave me the first letters of the long Downs in the SW. Those first-letter providers are crucial—way higher-value than other answers. Most answers are far easier to get from a first letter than from any other single letters. Not all. But most. So if you nail the first-letter provider, your time can speed up Considerably. And I got them all, everywhere, today. Hence 4:44. My friend Amy took the 4:44 as a challenge. Her time: 4:44. I had that screenshot handicap, but she claims to have had a brief conversation with her husband mid-solve, so: tie. Which is a huge win for me, as she is one of the fastest solvers in the country.

[My student Clare's graduation cap, all decorated and ready for action this weekend. If you look real close, you can see Joel Fagliano's name on one of the puzzles ... she made sure of this]

This grid is so smooth, so pretty, so polished. None of this look-at-me low word count baloney (which only a few can pull off well). It's a 72-word delight with nary a clunker in sight. One thing: I think GARBED is a clunker, and I don't know why it wasn't GARRET. "A garret is a habitable attic or small and often dismal or cramped living space at the top of a house. In the days before lifts (elevators) this was the least prestigious position in a building, and often had sloping ceilings." I lived in a garret apartment once. Being 6'3" ... it was pretty comical. Anyway, GARBED shmarbed. Other than that, though, there's just the occasional wee bit of crosswordese. Mostly what you get are glorious long answers and solid, shiny mid-range answers. Really nice work. I don't think GO FOR THE JUGULAR (3D: Attack viciously) and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (12D: Approachable, unglamorous sort) pair well (!!) but taken individually, they are fantastic. Huge props also to REFUSENIK (17A: Order-flouting protester). I just watched a beatnik-themed Roger Corman movie called "Bucket of Blood." Well, that's it for -nik news. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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First human character on Sesame Street / SAT 5-9-15 / First name among 1991 divorcees / Hamstrings kneecaps / John's accompanier / Royal who toured US in late 1970s / Main antagonist in Disney's Hercules / Marine mollusk named for its earlike tentacles

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: AGENA (61A: It was boosted by Titan) —

noun, Rocketry.

1.a U.S. upper stage, with a restartable liquid-propellant engine, used with various boosterstages to launch satellites into orbit around theearth and send probes to the moon and planets:also used as a docking target in the Geminiprogram. (dictionary.com)

• • •

Mostly enjoyable, totally acceptable Saturday puzzle that also serves as a mini-primer in old-school crosswordese (the kind that you see somewhat less now than you did, say, a couple decades ago—god bless you, computers). I didn't mind the crosswordese this time—it was lightly sprinkled around the grid, and it was a bit like meeting old friends. Or former enemies who have now grown up and moved on and have kids and you're like "Hey, how's it going, long time no see, I don't hate you any more because we've both grown up and moved on to other things." Like that. I mean how am I gonna be mad at AMAH? She hardly gets out any more. And AGENA? Poor guy barely gets work these days. Even AGHA and OGEE are mostly retired. Now MOATED is borderline nonsense, and REHONE is All The Way nonsense, so them, I resent a little. But I'd sit down for a beer with AMAH and AGAH. Talk over the good/bad old days. Sounds like a good time.


There's some decent long fill here, though I would've appreciated a greater "Wow" factor. I likely feel this way largely because I am jaded—or, rather, experienced; I have seen MUFFIN TOP (1A: Effect of tightening an extra-tight belt, maybe) and BATARANG (12D: Weapon for the Caped Crusader) and DOCTOR WHO (58A: Long-running show about a Time Lord) and most of the rest of the grid's bouncy fill before. If not in the NYT, other places. So if I were a less constant solver, this might have impressed me more. AS IF I CARE, ironically, was the answer I cared about most: love it. And I really like most of the 8+-letter fill, though at first I didn't think things were going to go well. Here's what my grid looked like, right out of the gate:

So it's enough of a Thing that I got it instantly, but also enough of a non-Thing that I stopped to take its picture. I stopped again at REHONE because … well, because REHONE. You don't see that every day. Just like yesterday, I was fortunate to hit a cross-reference clue at Just the right moment, such that, instead of holding me up (as such clues usually do), it propelled me into another part of the grid. Crosses gave me D-RW-- at 42A: Champion of 11-Down, and without even looking at 11-Down, I wrote in DARWIN (what other name fits that letter pattern?). Quick glance at 11D: Change of life let me know the answer was EVOLUTION, which opened up the whole NE.

Hang-ups were few today. Forgot that NATAL was a port, and that it meant "Christmas," so I needed crosses there. ISADORE was a guess based on having the IS- and then getting the "D" from DUTCH (56A: Reagan nickname). Had WAY for FAR (47A: Considerably), as in "my dog's WAY better than yours." Oh, and I had MATURE before MUTATE (29A: Undergo change). But I still finished in just over 7, and that's with the clock still running while I took multiple screen shots. So, yeah, Easy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

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Physicist Mach / TUE 3-3-15 / Flagmaker Ross / 1982 double-platinum Duran Duran album / Treat similar to Yodel / Neighbor of Ricardos / Foot for Greek god Pan / Space station that crashed in 1979 / Likable prez / Event featuring motocross snocross /

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: HUNTER S. THOMPSON (35A: Author of 50-/55-Across) — some answers related to the late writer

Theme answers:

• JOHNNY DEPP (18A: He played one of the lead roles in the film version of 50-/55-Across)
• GONZO JOURNALISM (23A: Writing style popularized by 35-Across)
• "FEAR AND LOATHING / IN LAS VEGAS" (50A: See 35-Across)

Word of the Day: SKYLAB (9D: Space station that crashed in 1979) —

Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA and was the United States' first space station. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 169,950 pounds (77 t). Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the last two manned missions, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by ready to rescue the crew in orbit if it was needed. […] Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it. However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia. (wikipedia)

• • •

Straight-up info puzzle. Just as I enjoyed remembering "The Sound of Music" on Sunday, I enjoyed remembering HUNTER S. THOMPSON today, but as puzzle themes go, this type always feels blah to me. (And, to be fair to Sunday, that had the whole musical scale thing going on, even though, as a very experienced puzzle-maker friend of mine pointed out, SOL should not have been the rebused note in that puzzle, since the lyric is not, obviously, "SOL, a needle pulling thread…" But I really, really digress) Nothing here elevates this theme above the literal plane: this is a man, he did this, he wrote this, this actor played him. The fill is pretty smooth, and there are lots of zingy little answers (HAD A GO, HELL NO, CUDDLE UP, X GAMES), so solving it was in no way an unpleasant experience, but themewise, it's a bit flat. Luckily, the themers themselves are inherently lively, so the puzzle doesn't feel as boring as it might. It's worth noting, also, that, though Kristian House (today's constructor) has published many puzzles in the NYT, this was the first one he ever had accepted (!), way back in 2008 (!?). He actually asked for it back about a year ago so he could clean up the fill some. Good for him for taking that initiative. And as for the editor's holding a puzzle for that long … I don't know, man. I just don't know.


Bullets:

• 1D: Tried (HAD A GO) — this answer, and my initial answer of SEALAB (!?!?) for SKYLAB, and my balking at MERTZ because I thought the clue suggested a plural (it doesn't) (41D: Neighbor of the Ricardos on "I Love Lucy"), meant that my time came out relatively average, rather than well below average, which is what I thought was going to happen. When with only minimal initial help from some crosses, you can fill in the entire set of theme answers without thinking, that puzzle falls under the "Easy" category, no matter what my time says. 
• 1A: Treat similar to a Yodel (HO-HO) — Wasn't entirely sure. Brain got stuck in between and wanted YOHO initially. 
• 8D: Aristocrats (GENTRY) — this answer may also have added slightly to my time, as it was a plural clue with a non-"S"-ending answer. Throwing "S" down quickly ended up being the wrong move there, obviously. See the flip problem at 33A: Fragrant neckwear (LEIS), where an apparently singular clue has a plural (and "S"-ending) answer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. please enjoy this ironic picture I took of my television screen last night:

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Joanie's mom to Fonzie / SAT 8-2-14 / Punch Out platform for short / Portmanteau bird / David had him killed / She came to Theseus' aid / Shakespeare character who asks To whose hands have you sent lunatic king / Perennial NCAA hoops powerhouse

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: VEAL OSCAR (17A: Dish with crab meat and Béarnaise) —

Veal Oscar is a culinary creation said to have been named in honor of Sweden's King Oscar II, who was especially partial to its ingredients. The dish consists of sauteed veal cutlets topped with crab or crayfish meat and bearnaise. Traditionally Veal Oscar is garnished with asparagus spears. Chicken can be used instead of veal to create Chicken Oscar. (wikipedia) [I would think anything could be substituted to create Anything Oscar]

• • •

10D + rotational symmetry counterpart 33D = Hello, Dolly! I'd've given the puzzle thumbs-up (as it were) on the basis of that little flourish alone.


Doesn't have the panache of yesterday's offering, but still holds up pretty well. Startlingly easy, though. I finished two minutes faster than I finished yesterday's, and pretty close to a Saturday record for me—somewhere in the low 5s. High word count + common answers + Fridayish cluing = breeze. Once I got a pace going, a bunch of the long answers just filled themselves in without much effort on my part. ROALD DAHL, for instance (44A: Subject of the 2010 biography "Storyteller"). I just looked at the letter pattern I had (which included the -AHL at the end) and just wrote it in. Got TURDUCKEN and ORWELLIAN after just a quick glance at each clue (62A: Portmanteau bird? and 32A: Like a Big Brother society, respectively). Had more trouble getting started than I did anywhere else, and even that wasn't too tough. I mean, what else is 2D: Operating without ___ (A NET) going to be?? Followed by 19A: Allen in history (ETHAN). Then NOAH (3D: Webster's first?) and we're off and running.


I would like to bench ENER RUY OWER ELEE VALS ANET PRIERS NES TSE and especially YEST, which is among my most detested alleged abbreviations. I would also like to bench, then fire, then exile the clue on NIECE (12D: ___-in-law). What's the word for something that is somehow simultaneously preposterous and transparent. A nice, actual clue there would've been very welcome. Only hiccups involved trying to come up with URIAH (16A: David had him killed, in the bible), thinking BUCKNAKED must be the answer in question, having to wait on crosses before spelling out KEBAB properly, and being forced eventually to change CLOP CLOP to CLIP CLOP (54A: Sound reproducible with coconut shells). Oh, and I wrestled with the BLUE part of BLUE STATE for like ten seconds, I think. And I blanked on SAVOIR, weirdly. OK, I think that's it. Fast, fun, and I'm not furious. That's what we call a "good day."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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