Relative difficulty:Challenging (mainly because of having to remember exactly how the gimmick works, not because of Inherent difficulty)
THEME:compass directions —Downs run North in the North, South in the South; Acrosses run West in the West, East in the East. Words extending from the center (which is supposed to house a compass rose, the note tells me) start with the relevant words:
Theme answers:
NORTHER (which has the direction meaning of "north" in it)
EASTMAN (which doesn't)
WEST END (which has the direction meaning of "west" in it)
SOUTHEY (which doesn't)
Word of the Day:SOUTHEY(43D: Contemporary of Wordsworth and Coleridge) —
Robert Southey (/ˈsaʊði/ or /ˈsʌði/; August 12, 1774 in Bristol – March 21, 1843 in London) was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843. Although his fame has long been eclipsed by that of his contemporaries and friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey's verse still enjoys some popularity. (wikipedia)
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I've seen this type of gimmick before, for sure. I'm quite sure that I've solved a puzzle that had a compass rose at its center before. And I know I've done puzzles were the answers appear to go backwards. The question is... why? What's the hook? Where's the fun? Here, there is none. I mean, yes, there's the NEWS thing (north east south west, I mean), but even that is slightly botched. You should bury your direction words in non-direction answers, or (less good but still acceptable) make them all direction answers. This grid, however, decides to split the difference. I say "decides" as if anyone was even thinking about this issue, which clearly they weren't. Filling this one grid was an unpleasant experience. Gimmick was obvious early, and then there was just this slog... because once you see that the answers run the "wrong" way half the time, all you're left with is a not-very-well-filled grid. There's no reason backwardsness alone should cause you to put PES and SCH and SATRAP and ADE into one little corner of the grid. Baffling. This lack of polish, or, rather, this reliance on Whatever Works without any care to make it Better, pervades the whole grid. It's choked with ARIL ELOI EFT AURIC SENAT HEL (?!) ELEM NOT I, and there's nothing to mitigate that onslaught. There's just this 1/2 backwards gimmick, which is not so much challenging as it is tedious. Even the clues don't look like they're really trying—mostly one-worders or straight trivia. Come on, man.
Do people know SOUTHEY? I have an English Ph.D. and I took a Romantic Poetry course in college and I've never read him and have barely heard of him. He's totally acceptable as a crossword answer, but he seemed very much like a familiarity outlier today. I wish I liked *something* about this grid, but I don't. SALIVATE and ERGONOMIC are fine answers, but they're not scintillating, and this puzzle really really needs some scintillating to pull itself out of the quicksand of crosswordese and tedium that makes up the rest of the grid.
THEME:AGES of man -- Each theme answer begins with one planetary age
Theme answers:
STONEHENGE (17A: *English rock group?)
ICE BREAKERS (24A: *Many party games)
IRON HORSE (37A: *Railroad engine, in old lingo)
SPACE NEEDLE (52A: *Seattle tourist attraction)
BRONZE STAR (62A: *Medal for bravery, maybe)
AGES (69A: A very long time... or a hint to the starts of the answers to the five starred clues)
Word of the Day: MESABI (Minnesota range known for its mining of metal)
The Mesabi Iron Range is a vast deposit of iron ore and the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. Discovered in 1866, it is the chief deposit of iron ore in the United States. The deposit is located in northeast Minnesota, largely in Itasca and Saint Louis counties. It was extensively worked in the earlier part of the 20th century. Extraction operations declined throughout the mid-1970s but rebounded in 2005. China's growing demand for iron, along with the falling value of the U.S. dollar versus other world currencies, have made taconite production profitable again, and some mines that had closed have been reopened, while current mines have been expanded. (wikipedia)
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Hi, my name is Ben Johnston, and I'm your guest blogger today. Unlike the people who have been ably filling in for the past few days, I have zero experience with crossword construction. I'm a high school English teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, and my only crossword connection is that I got hooked on them last year and solve a lot of them. It's EERIE... almost like there weren't a lot of volunteers to blog a Tuesday puzzle, am I right...?
Actually, this isn't bad for a Tuesday puzzle. As has been noted here before, the problem with Tuesdays is that while they're supposed to combine the cleanliness of a Monday puzzle with the higher challenge of a Wednesday puzzle, AS A RULE they tend to be puzzles that aren't clean enough to be Mondays and aren't interesting enough to be Wednesdays. In this case, the theme works well enough... the answers are nicely varied, they're all real things, and I didn't spot the connection until I got to the revealer. It might have been more elegant to have the ages appear in actual chronological order, but otherwise it works nicely.
Unfortunately, while the theme is fine, the fill is weak. This is a very choppy grid -- except for the themers, there's nothing longer than seven letters. I was honestly surprised to discover that there were only 76 words here, because it sure felt like more when I was solving. I guess once you've settled on IRON HORSE as your only nine-letter theme answer, you're pretty much splitting the grid in half across the middle. And the accompanying string of 3-letter downs (IF I, ENG, SHE, SOO, EON) made for a pretty unpleasant midpoint in the solve.
I don't recognize the constructor's name, but there's an assortment of bad fill: random foreign words (CHERE, TRES,MES, NUEVO), abbreviations (SRS, BVD, RDA, OSS, USMA), and iffy partials (KEPT OUT, URGE ON [which I keep wanting to pronounce like STURGEON], COLOR IN). That last one is almost saved by its clue -- 25D: Fill with a Crayola, say. I'm torn on DOOR ONE (3D: "Let's Make a Deal" choice)... somewhat against my better judgment, I think I like it.
Bullets:
48A: Minnesota range known for its mining of metal (MESABI) — By far the most obscure thing in the grid (at least from my Canadian perspective). And it crosses the terrible ACE TEN (49D: Sure winner in blackjack). Side note: I was in Vegas for the first time this summer, did the math wrong on an ACE, and accidentally hit on 21. And I drew a TEN, so I won anyway. What can I say, I'm not used to drinking free screwdrivers...
40D: Mornings, for short (AMS) & 61D: Evenings, for short (PMS) — Yeah, putting these right next to each other doesn't save them. None of the grid is what you would call clean, but that whole SW section is particularly brutal.
30A: ___ Joe's (supermarket chain) (TRADER) — We don't have these in Canada, but we were at one in Vegas and it's great!
66A: Dillon or Damon (MATT) — What a lovely excuse to include this excellent trailer for the upcoming film version of The Martian.
10D: Denali's home (ALASKA) — Timely!
54D: Lyric poem (EPODE) — I wanted ELEGY.
1D: One checking you out (CASHIER) — Great clue.
26D: Like some truths and flames (ETERNAL) — Another good one. In fact the cluing in this puzzle is solid across the board.
I think that's it. I don't know how to make the right date show up at the top of the post, but hopefully Rex will come along and fix it. Thanks for reading!
Slow start, fast middle, slow finish. The slow parts were very small, though, so overall this played on the easy side. Problem up front was RUTH. I was looking for someone named RUTH. Didn't help that I had ACRID instead of ACERB (5D: Sharp-tasting), so had RUTHRR- as the opening of that answer. Ugh. Once I got MARY BLIGE, I knew what was going on and flew through everything until ROCKEFELLER. My brain wanted *only* NELSON. Couldn't even think of another ROCKEFELLER. Needed all crosses to see JOHN. Oh well. Still, as I say, easy otherwise.
Theme doesn't thrill me. Very arbitrary assortment of names. List of names of potential theme answers here is virtually endless. CRAIG NELSON? JAMES POLK? MICHAEL FOX? ALFRED NEUMAN? Theme does provide an interesting manner of cluing, but otherwise, the concept leaves me pretty cold. Fill seems fine. Solid. Workmanlike. Inoffensive.Wish I had more to say about this one, but I don't. Guess I'll see you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Wife's puzzle was a total train wreck in the NW, as she did not know OROSCO (understandable) or ASHBY (somewhat understandable) or BREL (semi-understandableish) and also wrote in OSU for ORU (2D: Tulsa sch.). So she had Jesse OSOTCO and Jacques OREL and Hal ATHOY. So be glad you weren't her, I guess.
Read more...
THEME: ARTOO (73A: ___-Detoo ... or, when read in three parts, a hint to 17-, 31- 47- and 63-Across) — "AR" is changed TO "O" in familiar phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, clued "?"-style
Word of the Day: Veronica HAMEL (69A: "Hill Street Blues" actress Veronica) —
Veronica Hamel (born November 20, 1943, in Philadelphia) is an Americanactress. // Hamel graduated from Temple University, worked as a secretary for a company which manufactured ironing board covers, then began a career as a fashion model after being discovered by Eileen Ford. Her first film role was playing a model in 1971's Klute. Other early roles came in the disaster films Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and When Time Ran Out. She was the model in the last cigarette commercial televised in the U.S. (for Virginia Slims, aired at 11:59 p.m. on New Year's Day 1971 on The Tonight Show). Hamel had been a model in print ads not just for Slims, but also for Pall Mall Gold cigarettes. [...] Hamel is probably best remembered for playing Joyce Davenport, the hard-driving public defender and love interest of police captain Frank Furillo, in the long-running TV series Hill Street Blues. She was a five-time Emmy nominee for that role. [...] In recent years, Hamel had a recurring role in the NBC television series Third Watch and appeared as Margo Shephard, Jack's mother, in the ABC series Lost. (wikipedia)
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Woke up and did the puzzle first thing this morning, which is not my usual pattern. Normally, I solve it the night before, but I was just too tired last night. Solving in the early morning is definitely not recommended for speed-solvers. I didn't even try. I was thinking clearly, but could not work up the intent focus and slightly manic energy it takes to blow through a grid. I think this puzzle is of normal Tuesday difficulty, but can't say that with much authority. I can say that it seemed a solid enough puzzle, with some interesting features, most notably the split but sequential answer THE MEDIA, arrived at by way of John Gielgud's character in "Arthur" (23A: "I'll alert ___": Hobson, in "Arthur" (with 25-Across)). My one major issue with the theme is that all the theme answers come out sounding like Boston accents *except* TAKES UP OMS. I figured the theme *was* Boston accents, and despite taking a yoga class regularly, could not make heads or tails of TAKES UP OMS for a longish while (on Tuesday, maybe 10-20 seconds of fiddling). Even if you're not hearing Boston in the other three, the vowel sound is clearly, markedly different in OMS — longer and more rounded.
Thought the "when read in three parts" of the clue was a little awkward, even though it is kind of clever.
Theme answers:
17A: Try a North Atlantic fish for the first time? (DISCOVERCOD)
31A: Ekco or Farberware? (POTCOMPANY)
47A: Registers for a meditation class? (TAKES UPOMS)
63A: Store photographer? (SHOPSHOOTER)
Stumbled a few times during the solving process. Most notably, embarrassingly, and epically, I thought 3D: 1960s sitcom with a talking palomino, given how long it was, was a theme answer (?!), and so my first answer was the "wacky" "MR. EDWARD." Travis TRITT set me back on the right track (14A: Travis who sang "T-R-O-U-B-L-E"). I had to get a few crosses before FLORIN sprang to mind (12D: Old European gold coin). Doesn't feel like a Tuesday word. In fact, it's been in the NYT only once before (acc. to the cruciverb database). On a Friday. I know the word, but I should, given that I spent a lot of time in grad school studying "Old European" things. Lastly, I got stopped cold at the puzzle's very last letter — the crossing of HAMEL and OMB (64D: Govt. book balancer). I thought I was going to be annoyed at having an odd abbr. crossing an actress who works only sporadically. Then I realized I had typoed an "A" where the "O" was supposed to be. As soon as I put in the correct "O," the abbrev. no longer seemed odd: just short for Office of Management and Budget.
Bullets:
19A: Jamaican term of address (MON) — Once upon a time, this used to be an abbrev. for "Monday." This answer's crossing JEMIMA (11D: Aunt known for her pancakes) has me misremembering her as Jamaican. "Have some poncakes, MON."
60A: Houston baseballer (ASTRO) — Opening Day is just a couple weeks away... oh, and "baseballer" always strikes me as an odd word. The way "tenniser" would if it were a word (see also "netman").
2D: Spoon-bending Geller (URI) — There's gotta be another URI out there (and not just the University of Rhode Island). I'm sooo tired of this guy.
22D: Melonlike tropical fruits (PAPAYAS) — needed many crosses. Could think only of CASABAS, but they're not "tropical." Native to "Asia Minor," it turns out.
55D: Leaf opening (STOMA) — yikes. I'm adding this late, as I didn't even see it. I think I glanced at the clue and didn't know it, so moved on. Seems a pretty high-end botanical answer for a Tuesday. Then again, I absolutely cannot be trusted to tell you how common / uncommon any sciencey answer is. Not with any accuracy, anyway.
39D: Dweller above the Arctic Circle (LAPP) — has anyone done a LAPP OF LUXURY puzzle before. You could use Andy CAPP and ... well, I guess you can't really use Joseph PAPP, can you? [Unfair assault on theater founder Joseph?] = probably not passing the breakfast test.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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