Constructor: Mangesh Ghogre and Brendan Emmett Quigley
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Taj Mahal — circled squares form an outline of the Taj Mahal and contain information about the Taj Mahal (including the name "Taj Mahal," right at the top); then there's more Taj Mahal trivia scattered throughout:
Theme answers:
SHAH JAHAN (38D: Builder of the monument depicted in this puzzle)
ONION DOME (41D: Architectural feature depicted by this puzzle's arching circled letters)
INDIA (3D: Home to the monument depicted in this puzzle)
SPIRE (12D: Architectural feature depicted between 7- and 8-Down)
TOMB (75A: Type of structure that this puzzle's theme is a grand example of)
MINARETS (69A: Architectural features depicted by this puzzle's vertical circled squares)
FOUR (58D: Number of 69-Across surrounding the monument depicted in this puzzle)
AGRA (67D: Home to the monument depicted in this puzzle)
Word of the Day: SHAH JAHAN (38D) —
Mirza Shahab-ud-Din Baig Muhammad Khan Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also known as Shah Jahan I (Persian pronunciation: [ʃɑːh d͡ʒahɑːn]; lit.'King of the World'), was the fifth Muslim emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mughals reached the peak of their architectural achievements and cultural glory. He was Aurangzeb's father.
The third son of Jahangir (r. 1605–1627), Shah Jahan participated in military campaigns against the Rajputs of Mewar and the Lodis of the Deccan. After Jahangir's death in October 1627, Shah Jahan defeated his youngest brother Shahryar Mirza and crowned himself emperor in the Agra Fort. In addition to Shahryar, Shah Jahan executed most of his rival claimants to the throne. He commissioned many monuments, including the Red Fort, Shah Jahan Mosque and the Taj Mahal, where his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal is entombed. In foreign affairs, Shah Jahan presided over the aggressive campaigns against the Deccan Sultanates, the conflicts with the Portuguese, and the wars with Safavids. He also suppressed several local rebellions, and dealt with the devastating Deccan famine of 1630–32.
In September 1657, Shah Jahan was ailing and appointed his eldest son Dara Shikoh as his successor. This nomination led to a succession crisis among his three sons, from which Shah Jahan's third son Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) emerged victorious and became the sixth emperor, executing all of his surviving brothers, including Crown Prince Dara Shikoh. After Shah Jahan recovered from his illness in July 1658, Aurangzeb imprisoned his father in Agra Fort from July 1658 until his death in January 1666. He was laid to rest next to his wife in the Taj Mahal. His reign is known for doing away with the liberal policies initiated by Akbar. During Shah Jahan's time, Islamic revivalist movements like the Naqsbandibegan to shape Mughal policies (wikipedia)
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It's a picture. An intricate picture. Lots of trivia. As an architectural achievement (!) it's impressive. As a crossword puzzle, it wasn't terribly fun to solve. I figured out it was the Taj Mahal early. "OOH, look at that, the Taj Mahal, cool." And then all that followed was trivia. MINARETS, FOUR, AGRA ... yes, these are all true about the Taj Mahal, but this was all mere description. Once you see it's the Taj Mahal, the puzzle has nothing left to offer except some facts and figures. I did enjoy figuring out that the ONION DOME depicted in this puzzle actually spelled out TAJ MAHAL—that was a neat trick, and helped me remember what the hell "salt" was in Spanish (SAL) (25D: Spanish seasoning). And I'd never heard of SHAH JAHAN, so at least that bit of trivia was new (to me). But otherwise, solving this puzzle felt like coloring by numbers or completing a dot-to-dot puzzle. Very little actual crossword pleasure. The fill is very compromised by the (admittedly ambitious and complex) grid structure, so there's just a slew of short stuff, much of it unpretty. And then the hunk of material in the middle (HASNT ASTO ESIGNS LTGOV) is somewhat unpleasant as well. SWINGS AT MINARETS makes things somewhat more interesting down below (is that like "tilting at windmills"?), but mainly what you've got here is the outline of the Taj Mahal and then a bunch of highly segmented little nooks and crannies, all of them unsurprisingly stuffed with ho-hum or stale stuff. ELHI, yeesh, haven't seen that in a while. My favorite part (outside certain admirable parts of the theme execution) was probably VWJETTA into FJORD. I swept up into that crossing from below and it felt ... precarious and fun, like I'd gone around a hairpin turn really fast. Cool letter juxtapositions. Loved it. But no other fill gave me a thrill. And that "SPIRE," quote unquote??? I looked at the grid online to see if they'd done something elaborate with it and no, there's just a somewhat darker line (between REM and ANA). The "wow" of the puzzle kind of stops with the revelation that the puzzle is visually depicting the Taj Mahal. After that, it's mostly just symmetrical trivia and a lot of subpar fill.
Not a lot of real struggle today, though that SW corner felt dicey since JAHAN was unknown to me, and I wrote in LACK instead of LOSE (59D: Come up short), and there was yet another theme answer down there I didn't know for certain. But FOUR was probably always the likeliest number there (though FIVE fit just fine; you could have FIVE MINARETS, right? Seemed plausible). I never know who World Cup hosts are, but in three letters, probably USA (71A: 2026 World Cup co-host). So that tiny corner was briefly scary, but I got through it. I also had weird trouble getting LETHAL BLOW (31A: Knockout punch). Had the LET- and couldn't imagine how to get from there to a plausible answer. This was because I was pronouncing it like the word "LET" in my head—no hope there. But I went inside the Taj Mahal, got HASN'T, and then there it was—LETHAL. Otherwise, what else? Couldn't remember if it was CLAUDIA or CLAUDIO (28D: "Much Ado About Nothing" role), so just waited for the kangaroo cross on that one (JOEY, giving me the "O"). Had LEG room before REC room (26A: ___ room). I only ever see REC room in puzzles. Whereas I yearn for LEG room every time I fly (though weirdly I got upgraded to first class last time I flew and it felt wrong and excessive to have as much leg room as I had; the coffee in little ceramic cups, however, did not feel excessive; that felt right; as did the free booze). I do admire the intricacy of the puzzle today. It really went all out on architectural detail and the description thereof. I just found it somewhat of a drag to actually solve. Except for that part where I drove my VW JETTA along the FJORD, that was cool. See you tomorrow.
Relative difficulty: Very (this was a Thursday-type puzzle; my time was very very high, but I kinda stopped a bunch to be actively annoyed at this thing, so the clock isn't technically telling the truth ... but it took a while)
THEME: GANDHI (69A: Icon born 10/2/1869 ... with a hint to three squares in this puzzle) — squares contain "G" AND "HI":
Theme answers:
ROUGHIDEA / HIGHINCOME
NOTTINGHILL / WEIGHIN
LONGHISTORY / BIGHIT
Word of the Day: BRAHMA (29D: Preserver : Vishnu :: Creator : ___) —
Brahma (Sanskrit: ब्रह्मा, IAST: Brahmā) is the creator god in Hinduism. He is also known as Svayambhu (self-born) or the creative aspect of Vishnu,Vāgīśa (Lord of Speech), and the creator of the four Vedas, one from each of his mouths. Brahma is consort of Saraswati and he is the father of Four Kumaras, Narada, Daksha, Marichi and many more. (wikipedia) (wait, how can he be in an analogy with Vishnu and be an aspect of Vishnu ...?)
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Wow this was a terrible puzzle to wake up to. Not because of the subject matter (which is fine) but because of that NW corner, which was a nightmare. Didn't find the theme square until the end (which, in fact, is the moment I found *all* the theme squares). I usually turn up rebuses easily, but the combo of "it's not the right day of the week for a rebus" and the oddness of ROUGHIDEA and (especially!) HIGH INCOME as phrases meant I had no idea. But then also in that NW section, UNLINED is 13A: Not having wrinkles (????) Is this to do with human faces? So weird. I wanted UNIRONED so bad. And then ... DESC? Wow, that is bad. Just bad. Bad. Needed every cross to get a terrible abbr. Everything about the puzzle felt rough and TTH (trying too hard). I get the impulse to load the grid with Indian information, but none of it seemed terribly on-point for the man in question, and the straining for theme material meant that the grid overall suffered. Are we really trying to pass off crosswordese SRI as theme material? The theme just doesn't feel very thought-through. LONG HISTORY and HIGH INCOME are pretty green-painty* for themers. Like most tribute puzzles, it feels forced. I also thought the concept was corny. Here is this "icon" (as the puzzle itself notes) and we're celebrating his 150th birthday with ... a "GHI" rebus? Very anti-climactic. I would've liked a "Gone D" theme better, I think–where you take a "D" out of familiar phrases and ... I don't know, something. Anyway, today's theme expression is too clever for its own good.
LONGHISTORY is a rough themer, since LONGSTORY seems perfectly correct (57A: What a civilization like India or Egypt has) (why is Egypt in here?). Struggled a lot with this one, but didn't have too many outright wrong answers. WAY for SLY (68A: On the ___). ILL for WOE (31D: Misfortune). I think that's it. I enjoyed seeing MERLIN (24D: King Arthur's magician) and I like the phrase OLD MONEY (39D: Inherited wealth). Those were the highlights for me today. I gotta cram a lot into my day today, so I need to get going. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*"green paint" = answers that someone might say in normal conversation, but that don't stand alone as crossword answers very well. Adj./noun pairings are the most common type.
Constructor: Mangesh Ghogre and Brendan Emmett Quigley
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: JULY (59A: What the beginnings of 17-, 25-, 40- and 52-Across are each a fourth of, phonetically) — each "beginning" is a FOURTH OF 'JULY.' Get it?
Theme answers:
JAY GATSBY (17A: Title bootlegger in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel)
YOU ARE NOT ALONE (25A: "I'm here, too")
ELLE MACPHERSON (40A: Model with the most Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition covers (5))
WHY BOTHER? (52A: "What's the use?")
Word of the Day: MODISH (24D: Fashionable) —
adjective
derogatory
adjective: modish
conforming to or following what is currently popular and fashionable.
"it seems sad that such a scholar should feel compelled to use this modish jargon"
synonyms:
fashionable, stylish, chic, modern, contemporary, all the rage, in vogue, voguish, up-to-the-minute, à la mode, du jour;
informaltrendy, cool, with it, in, now, hip, styling/stylin', happening, phat, funky, kicky, tony, fly
"modish outfits for spring" (google)
This puzzle does what it says it does, so it's got that going for it. There's some rough fill, but overall, it floats. I mean, it does an interesting word-play-y thing with "Fourth of July," so, mission accomplished. I am having this creepy, eerie feeling (opposite of the Eagles' "Peaceful, Easy Feeling") that I have seen this theme before. A theme identical to this one. Same concept. Same holiday. Same. Maybe different themers, but otherwise, same. I can't be bothered to track it down, if it even exists. I know we just had a puzzle (last week?) that involved spelling out letters in some way, but that's not what I'm remembering. It's this J, U, L, Y, "fourth" thing ... maybe someone knows. Or (more likely) maybe I just *think* I've seen it before. [Update: holy crap, was I right! This theme is nearly identical to the NYT 7/4 puzzle from ... LAST YEAR!?!?!? Same. Concept. Same. Gag. How does an editor Forget That?!?!!?!??!] [P.S. I should add that this puzzle was accepted over a year ago and was going to be published in 2016 (!?!?!), except the editor I guess forgot he already had one for 2016 (!?), so he held it for a year ... anyway, again, I ask, how do you (A) accept a theme for 2016 that you have Already Accepted For 2016 and then (B) after realizing you have done this dumb thing, decide to run the duplicated theme the very next year!?!?!? Stunning.]
It's not that festive. I think it will be less than / harder than Easy if you don't know who ELLE MACPHERSON is. I had to explain her to my friend Lena (whose house I am at). "She was big like 20 years ago." That was my best explanation of her. "She was in movies ... a little ... I think." That was my follow-up, more specific explanation of her. YOU ARE NOT ALONE is weird, in that people are more likely to say "YOU'RE," I think. And ["I'm here, too"] is an insanely, stupidly literal clue for something people say *figuratively* all the time. "I don't like Pumpkin Spice things!" "Brother, YOU ARE NOT ALONE." You are not telling the guy, "Brother, I am standing in this room with you." You are indicating solidarity of spirit, a oneness of general feeling or purpose. Bah and feh. I would accept "YOU ARE NOT ALONE" as a lesser Michael Jackson song.
Hardest for me was 1D: Big name in camera film, because crossword brain went "what's that dumb film name you never remember Oh Right, AGFA!" And then, as I will do from now til kingdom come, I confused FUJI and FIJI. After that, all was easy, though I had ELSE for 6D: In addition (ALSO) and didn't trust FLUME at first (even though it's the first thing I thought of for 43A: Amusement park water ride) and mildly barfed at VETOER and needed most crosses to get THRU (48D: Directional word, for short). I am not fond of SEAEEL (10D: Anago, at a sushi restaurant) because it's just a vowel orgy, but I did have eel for lunch today, and even though my dish was Unaju and not Anago, I felt spiritually and psychically bonded to that clue somehow. Have a safe and festive 0.25.
Overate. Didn't feel like I was overeating. Felt measured and sensible, my eating. But I was out at a restaurant, and I'd had a drink, and I kept trying stuff, and by dessert, ugh. And now several hours later. Ugh. 43-year-old me simply canNot stuff his face without consequences, the way 23-year-old me (or even 33-year-old me) could. Maybe that's a good thing, but it does Not feel so good right now. I tell you all this mainly to explain how little I trust myself judging the puzzle's difficulty level tonight. I psyched myself out early on, then realized it wasn't that hard, then got ridiculously stalled in the bottom half of the grid. Came out with a higher-than-avg time, but it just can't be trusted. I'm not myself. Looking at it right now, I can tell it's a pretty normal Friday. My problem was that I couldn't bust into those long Acrosses down below, even after I totally busted into their middles via PEALE BEIGES MUSKET PASTORAL. Couldn't get SNIT from [Pet] — obvious now, but that meaning of "pet" is something I see exclusively in crosswords, and it just wouldn't come. Had DDE for IKE (47D: '50s politico). HONOR for VALOR and, off of that, HEMI for V-TEN. Got LEERERS early, but it didn't really help. Tried to get into the SW of the grid from above, but after I wrote in BIZET (27D: "L'Arlésienne" composer), I hit a wall. Nothing west of BIZET. Just, nothing. Many minutes later, after striking out in the SE, I returned to BIZET crosses and instantly got AMAZED (32A: Staggered) and AT IT (39A: Going ___). Where were you the first time, guys!? After that it was ARAPAHO and then (32D: Fox relative), with their front ends in place, the long Acrosses down there fell quickly. Done and done.
Thought the grid was OK, but deeply and obviously reliant on -ER and -S and -ERS words (esp. there in the SE—HEAVER crossing LEERERS kind of hurt). The 15s are very nice up top and just OK down below. The rest of it is solid but not impressive. Doug's stuff usually amazes me more than this puzzle did.
Off to stare at the TV, or the wall, until stomach pain subsides and I can sleep. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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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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