Symbol of transformation in "The Silence of the Lambs" / SUN 1-25-26 / Triangular sail / Property of curium, but not cerium / Either side of a cheerleader's "A" / Cable co. that was purchased by AT&T in 1999 / Canning package? / Prosthetic facial feature of Peter Falk / Sneaker brand that popularized cantilever heels / Pete who co-wrote "If I Had A Hammer" / N.H.L. team with the longest Stanley Cup drought, familiarly

Constructor: Mark MacLachlan

Relative difficulty: Medium

[59A: Sci-fi princess]

THEME: "Alert! Alert!" — computer alerts are clued as if they were alerts about ... something else entirely:

Theme answers:

• OUT OF DISK SPACE (23A: "That cabinet with plates looks awfully full")
• RUN-TIME ERROR (43A: "It's saying you completed the marathon in under two hours, which can't be right")
• VIRUS DETECTED (51A: "Is that a cough I hear?")
• WINDOWS UPDATE FAILED (70A: "Sorry, we'll have to put the old panes back in")
• STACK OVERFLOW (91A: "Those pancakes are piled way too high!")
• FILE TOO LARGE (98A: "Your emery board will never fit in this tiny toiletry bag")
• SEVER NOT FOUND (122A: "Your waiter's nowhere to be seen!")

Word of the Day: P.E.I. (75D: Smallest Canadian prov.) —

Prince Edward Island is an island province of Canada. It is the smallest province by both land area and population, and has the highest population density in Canada. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", "Birthplace of Confederation" and "Cradle of Confederation". Its capital and largest city is Charlottetown. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces.

Historically, the island has formed an integral part of the Mi'kmaw homeland, Mi'kma'ki, comprising one part of the district Epekwitk aq Piktuk (also spelled Epegwitg aq Pigtug, lit. 'PEI and Pictou'). Come 1604, Epekwitk would be colonized by the French as part of the colony of Acadia, where it became known as Isle St-Jean (St. John's Island). It was later ceded to the British at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War in 1763 and became part of the colony of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island became its own British colony and its name was changed to Prince Edward Island (PEI) in 1798. PEI hosted the Charlottetown Conference in 1864 to discuss a union of the Maritime provinces; however, the conference became the first in a series of meetings which led to Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867. Prince Edward Island initially balked at Confederation but, facing bankruptcy from the Land Question and construction of a railroad, joined as Canada's seventh province on July 1, 1873. (wikipedia)

• • •

A wholly unlikeable puzzle. Why would I want to see a bunch of error messages in my puzzle when they're so annoying in real life? I'm just trying to imagine whose idea of a good time this is. And anyway, most of these "alerts" are things that seem made up or extremely situational. The following mean nothing to me: STACK OVERFLOW; RUN-TIME ERROR. As for the others, I understand them, but I don't know that I have ever actually seen them, ever. Maybe if your entire life is working with computers, this all means something to you. To me, it was wall-to-wall off-putting. Nothing clever about it, either. I see all the wacky clues, and god knows I love wackiness, but in the service of these mundane error messages—blah. There was absolutely no pleasure to be had in figuring out what the "wacky" clues were going for. And by "wacky," I'm being very generous. Are you really asking me to imagine that someone would refer to plates as "DISKS?" (23A: "That cabinet with plates looks awfully full")? I understand, yes, plates are technically disks, in that that is their shape, but no one would ever ever ever refer to them that way (the way someone would, say, refer to a waiter as a "SERVER" (see 122A). Also, Isn't a plate a DISC? I would've said DISC. Also, given the context, I might've said DISH. But the DISK = "plate" idea is meh, at best. Add to that a highly choppy grid loaded with crosswordese and you have one heck of a bad time. A Sunday-sized bad time.  

And even in the non-theme fill, the puzzle goes back again and again to boring computer stuff. ACCESS LOG. CARTRIDGE. DATA SETS. Why don't you move your focus around a little, maybe branch out? And OPERANDI? That's a lot of real estate to give over to a Latin partial. Speaking of Latin (almost) ... LATEEN? Just what this puzzle needed—highly technical sailing language! (25A: Triangular sail).  I'm trying really hard to find parts of this puzzle that I genuinely enjoyed, and I'm not finding many. I always like thinking about Peter Falk, but usually I like thinking about what a great actor he was, not about his GLASS EYE (15D: Prosthetic facial feature of Peter Falk). My wife is a Kiwi so KIWIS is always an answer I can get behind. But otherwise we get an Apple TV show that started out OK only to get increasingly cloying and unbearable as the seasons wore on (TED LASSO) (6A: Apple TV comedy that received 20 Emmy nominations for its first season), another Apple TV show that is great, but is somehow not clued as an Apple show (SEVERANCE) (80D: Canning package?), CLUE ME IN instead of the more natural FILL ME IN (21A: "I want to hear about that!") ... bah. Really not for me, this puzzle. Yesterday's puzzle was such a joy. This is a real come-down. 

[Mikey & Nicky (d. Elaine May, 1976)]

There were definitely some moments of difficulty in this puzzle, but most of it was occasioned by the theme answers themselves, many of which weren't terribly familiar to me, so that I had to conjure them out of the letters I got from crosses. Some of the short stuff was a mystery to me as well. TCI???? (6D: Cable co. that was purchased by AT&T in 1999). What in the world is that? I was very much alive in 1999, and I have no memory of a .... cable company? ... called TCI. I know a university called TCU. I remember an MCI, because I was a young person at the height of the "Long Distance Phone Wars"—in which MCI was a major competitor of AT&T—but TCI ... you got me there. Was that regional? Hmm, Tele-Communications, Inc. ... nope, not ringing a bell. Bygone business initialisms—not exactly prime fill. TCI has appeared in the NYTXW eight times over the years. In true NYTXW fashion, only one of those times was from the period during which TCI was actually operative (1997). All others are from the post-1999 period, when it was defunct. A handful of appearances in the early '00s, but since then, pretty rare. This is only the third appearance since 2002, and the first in four years. Desperation fill, for sure. Not knowing TCI contributed to that northern section getting a little sticky for me (I abandoned it early on and then ended up finishing the puzzle there). No one section was particularly tough, but I just remember little things holding me up here and there. Orwell's given name, for instance. Or TICKS as clued (73D: Exam marks). I mark exams on a fairly regular basis, and while I have used checks (i.e. check marks, √√√), TICKS ... no, not really. Also, a weird confession: I've never seen Silence of the Lambs! I feel like I've seen it, since it's so much a part of popular culture, but nope, never seen it. So the clue 107A: Symbol of transformation in "The Silence of the Lambs" meant nothing to me. I eventually got it by remembering the MOTH image on the poster:

I'm generally a big Jodie Foster fan, and (according to my Letterboxd account) I watch hundreds of movies a year, so even I'm surprised I've never seen this movie. I think the reason I didn't see it originally was I was horror movie-averse, or certainly serial killer movie-averse, and then, even after all the Academy Awards and everything, I just ... never got around to it. Maybe this year. Yeah, I think I'll put it on my Watchlist now. Jodie Foster has a new French-language (!) movie coming out soon (I just saw a trailer for it last week). It's called A Private Life. Wikipedia calls it a "French black comedy mystery thriller film." Too many words, wikipedia. Those are words I like, but ... too many. Anyway, I'm gonna see it. 

Also of interest, perhaps, to some of you: Jodie Foster is the most recent person to do a Criterion Closet video:

Bullets:

• 20A: Home of Diego Velázquez's "Las Meninas" (PRADO) — I once did a jigsaw puzzle featuring Las Meninas. Fascinating, I know. I had the PRAD- here and without looking at the clue instinctively wrote in "A" for the last letter (as in The Devil Wears ___), but then remembered the museum existed and decided to actually read the clue (good general advice: read the clues).

[1656]

• 47A: Sneaker brand that popularized cantilever heels (AVIA) — I ... did not know these were "popular." Or that they were a thing at all. AVIA is, of course, brand name crosswordese, just like ARIA and AIDA are opera crosswordese, "ADIA" is pop music crosswordese, ODA Mae Brown is Ghost crosswordese, etc. etc. etc. (101D: ___ Mae Brown (Whoopi's role in "Ghost"))
• 127A: Chips may go into it (ONION DIP) — would've loved something a little more ... onion-specific here. Chips might go into literally any kind of DIP.
• 17D: Pete who co-wrote "If I Had A Hammer" (SEEGER) — this one made me laugh because there was so much folk singer drama yesterday, when half the world seemed never to have heard of Phil OCHS. And since the "H" in OCHS was crossed with yet another singer many solvers also didn't know (Charlie PUTH), there were many cries of "Natick!" I did not cry that, but some did. So when SEEGER showed up today I was like "here we go again!" But no Charlie PUTHs today. There is a Bob SAGET though (30A: Bob who hosted "America's Funniest Home Videos"). If you don't know Pete SEEGER or Bob SAGET, lord help you, you are stuck in Natick. By the way, I hope you do not literally get stuck in Natick today—if you live in the eastern 2/3 of the country, you should probably just stay home today; the storm looks like it could be Devastating.

• 29D: Either side of a cheerleader's "A" (ARM) — somehow I can imagine only a "V"—gonna need a visual, hang on ... well, here's GIF but ... that isn't an "A," it's a "V," so I don't know what we're doing here.

• 46D: One of Adolf Anderssen's sacrifices in the "Immortal Game" against Lionel Kieseritzky (QUEEN) — blah blah sacrifice blah blah game ... I got this fairly easily while understanding almost none of it. Luckily the "Q" was already in my head because I was in the process of trying to make an IRAN/IRAQ distinction (45A: Persian Gulf nation).
• 57D: Animal whose name sounds like a pronoun (EWE) — this is rebus puzzle 101 stuff, but that didn't stop my brain from going "EEL!" and then "No, EMU!" EEL kinda sounds like a pronoun. "Where's your brother?" "He went to the store but EEL be back soon." EMU has the "you" part down, but the "me" part is backward. Meanwhile, EWE = "you." Just like EYE = "I."
• 74D: N.H.L. team with the longest Stanley Cup drought, familiarly (LEAFS) — this is an iconic Canadian franchise so I was kind of stunned by this fact. Then again, I don't really follow hockey. I know that Mike Myers is a LEAFS fan because he was wearing a LEAFS jacket when I saw him in Kate Mantilini (a Beverly Hills restaurant) one time in the mid-'90s. Jon Cryer was also there (separately, gently swaying to Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" while he waited for his date to return from the restroom before they left). It was all very surreal. But the LEAFS jacket, I remember.  
• 108D: Property of curium, but not cerium (HARD C) — a "letteral" clue, in that it refers to a letter in the clue. The letter here is the initial "C" in "curium." It's hard ("k"). As opposed to the one in "cerium," which is soft ("s").
• 123D: Illegally interfere with, as an election (RIG) — not now, puzzle! I got enough horrifying political things on my plate at the moment, thanks.

Stay safe out there, fellow storm-sufferers. I'm probably gonna get a substitute for Monday's write-up since there's at least an outside chance that my power and / or internet will be compromised. So I'll see you when I see you.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. the Orca Awards (for achievements in crossword puzzle construction) are coming up next month (Feb. 23). More info on that later, but for now I wanted to highlight the fact that there's a charity puzzle pack associated with the awards featuring a whopping 81 (!) puzzles. Here's the info from organizer Rich Proulx:

14th ORCAS Puzzle Pack

 There’s something special about the 14th ORCAS.

Sure, we added five new awards (did someone say cryptics?) Yeah, the ballot contains 15 categories comprised of 124 nominations from 59 different outlets. But, this year, you can solve these spectacular ORCA-nominated puzzles in our first-ever puzzle pack!

All funds raised support The Trevor Project, a suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth. Although suicide rates for LGBTQ+ youth are surging (39% seriously considered suicide in 2024), HHS terminated its contract for FY2026.

The puzzle pack includes 76 ORCA-nominated puzzles from 44 outlets plus five original puzzles from the Constructor of the Year nominees. Along with the puzzle pack, donors will receive early access to the ORCAS ballot, which will be posted publicly on February 3.

For information on how to make a donation and receive the puzzle pack, email:  theorcaawards@gmail.com.

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Cartwheels and such / THU 11-11-21 / Holding in a cryptocurrency wallet / Bygone game show with a mobile set / Onetime radio host Don / Philippines battle site of WW II

Constructor: Mark MacLachlan

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (hard while you're trying get the theme, pretty easy after you get it)

THEME: COMPASS (65A: Provider of directions ... or a hint to the four "+" shapes in this puzzle's grid) — the "+" shapes have to have their points (spokes?) filled in with cardinal direction letters or order to make sense of the answers that run directly into them / out of them; the unchecked letters at the center of the grid provide an image of how you have to arrange N E S and W inside the "+" shapes:

Theme answers:

• NW "plus" = CORN ENDOW SALON CREW
• NE "plus" = TEEN EARL SATIN ENDOW
• SW "plus" = SALON ELBOW SCAN THAW
• SE "plus" = SATIN EMIT STEM ELBOW

Word of the Day: Cartwheel (19A: Cartwheels and such = HATS) —

A cartwheel hat (also cart wheel hat) is a hat with a wide-brimmed circular or saucer-shaped design. It may be made in a variety of materials, including straw or felt and usually has a low crown. It may be similar to the picture hatand halo-brimmed hat in shape. Typically, it is worn at an angle to show off the curve of the brim, rather than being worn at the back of the head in the manner of a halo hat. [...] The cartwheel became particularly closely associated with New Look fashions. Dior's Y-line collection of autumn 1955 showcased cartwheel hats, paired with pearls, princess-line dresses and stoles. While the size and shape of hats could be extreme, such designs were made not just for day but evening wear; the Victoria and Albert Museum archive includes a Christian Dior cocktail frock designed to be worn with matching tulle cartwheel hat. (wikipedia)

 

• • •

This was something of a slog, and ultimately a familiar one at that. I've seen compass-based themes a million times (give or take) over the years. This one has its own thing going on, but in the end, it's just the old NESW thing again (I was going to say "same old NEWS," but that would be corny, and far be it etc.). What I think is original about the theme is also the most annoying part of the theme, namely hiding the direction letters in the "+" signs. Those "+" signs do not suggest a compass; they suggest, perhaps shockingly, a "+" (or PLUS) sign, a sign of addition, perhaps representing the word "plus" or "and" or something. Calling them "'+' shapes" in the revealer clue only strengthened the impression that something math-y was going on. The (apparent) multiplication (or "x") symbol at the center of the grid had me (briefly) thinking the whole thing was going to be some kind of equation. It was only once I got one of the unchecked squares toward the center of the grid (from SLAW, probably), that the COMPASS concept came to me. There was an "aha" moment then, though it sounded more like a flat "oh..." And then the puzzle got Much easier to solve (once you know the gimmick, you get free letters all over the place (the direction letters, that is), and so filling in the grid becomes a cinch). It would've been cool to do this without populating the grid with apparent gibberish (e.g. ARL, NDO, ATI), but that would probably be a tall order. The answers with two cardinal direction letters—the ones connecting the "+" signs—added some architectural flash to the theme. Ultimately, this puzzle is a somewhat souped-up expression of a familiar idea.

The fill was OK, though there's nothing I would really single out as fabulous. Mostly it just holds its own. I liked PUP TENT (3D: Accommodations on a scouting trip) and GAS HOG (37A: Hardly a green vehicle) pretty well. I don't share this puzzle's idea of fun fill. "CASH CAB" barely means anything to me except dim memories of wondering what I'm looking at and trying to find the remote before I have to watch any more of it (1D: Bygone game show with a mobile set). Crypto still seems like a giant bro-scam to me, so I'm not going to enjoy seeing BITCOIN (8A: Holding in a cryptocurrency wallet) anytime soon. I did enjoy remembering the HUGH Jass joke, because I'm 10 years old, and the baseball clue on LASERS felt pretty fresh. GET A TIP is gruesome stuff. Makes EAT A SANDWICH seem elegant. If you're going to do "VERB a NOUN" then it should be an actual phrase, like LEND A HAND. I'd even accept EAT A PEACH if you wanted to get T.S. Eliot- (or Allman Brothers Band-) specific. GET A ROOM? Yes. GET A TIP? No. It makes bad noises in my brain machine. Didn't know TASHA, but ... well, that's a recognizable name, so ultimately gettable (27D: ___ Smith, star of Tyler Perry's "For Better or Worse"). Didn't know cartwheels were HATS, though I've seen them plenty, it turns out, since I spend roughly half my life watching mid-20th-century movies of one kind or another.

SUPERGS is a super-awkward plural. Hard enough to parse in the singular, let alone the plural. An event is an event. Singular. You wouldn't say WRESTLINGS? ARCHERIES? CLEAN AND JERKS? Even DOWNHILLS sounds really yuck. SLALOMS can at least be a verb, I think. Anyway, no fun getting that one. Also, how is TELECON "briefly"? I guess it's supposed to be "short" for TELECONFERENCE, but a. it doesn't seem very "brief," and b. do people still say this? "I've got a TELECON at 4, Jim?" Wouldn't you just say Zoom or Skype or, I don't know, some dumb E-word? I had TELECO- and honestly couldn't conceive the last letter. But admittedly the world of "business" and its -speak frequently eludes me. Apologies to Nadia Comaneci for briefly imagining that she was from ARMENIA. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S.

• CAPTCHAs are the things you have to type in to prove to the interbots that you are not one of them (1A: A test of one's humanity?)
• The "back" in [Back in college?] (ENDOW) means "support"
• AQUARIA house schools ... of fish (2D: School houses?)
• If your kid is a "TikToker" (!?) you might have bigger problems than screen time (10D: Many a TikToker)
• TOAT is a bag for carrying your oats. Yes, if you need to carry oats, TOATs do the job to a "T"! (49A: Exactly right)

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Grain disease / TUE 10-10-17 / 1967 Montreal event / Fur trader John Jacob / Superhero group including Beast Cyclops

Constructor: Mark MacLachlan

Relative difficulty: Normal

THEME: ATNO (67A: What "This" refers to, in this puzzle's theme: Abbr.) — theme answers begin "This," where "This" refers to the number of the clue, and the answer is the ELEMENT (a NOBLE GAS in each case) that has that clue number's AT. NO. (i.e. atomic number):

Theme answers:

• NEON (10A: This, on the periodic table)
• ARGON (18A: This, on the periodic table)
• KRYPTON (36A: This, on the periodic table)
• XENON (54A: This, on the periodic table
• HELIUM (2D: This, on the periodic table) 

Word of the Day: ERGOT (15A: Grain disease) —

Ergot (pron. /ˈɜːrɡət/ UR-gət) or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps. // The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea ("rye ergot fungus"). This fungus grows on rye and related plants, and produces alkaloids that can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals who consume grains contaminated with its fruiting structure (called ergot sclerotium). (wikipedia)

• • •

This one gets points for having a really weird theme-answer layout, as well as, like, three revealers (!). Not necessary, not entertaining, but different, and different is ... well, it's not always good, but it's better than tediously familiar. I don't really get why I should care that they are all NOBLE GASes. I guess that gives the theme a certain unity, but so what? You're doing it just to ... do it? No play on "noble" or anything? And the whole "This" way of cluing (at least in the dowloadable .puz version) is really awkward. Apparently the method of indicating "this" varies across platforms, w/ some getting "arrows" (?). I didn't get arrows. And about AT. NO. ... see, here's the thing about AT. NO. ... AT NO time is that a good answer. Making it your third (!?) revealer doesn't elevate it from its permanent status as cruddy crosswordese no one wants to see unless absolutely necessary" (see also LT. YR.).  There's the "This" trick and little else. It's just straightforward trivia for periodic table nerds. Fill is pretty weak up top (REVE ILES ERGOT REARM AGGRESS MTN), less horrible below.

[Warning: violence, profanity]

Weird to clue AUTO as [Modern prefix with complete or correct]. It is not a modern prefix. The terms "autocomplete" and "autocorrect" are modern, but that prefix ain't never gonna be modern, in any context, ever. It's an old prefix. Putting it in front of something new doesn't make it "modern." I have never seen ERGOT outside of crosswords. It is a word that destroyed me very early on in my crossword blogging career, and I have never forgiven it (see also ASOK, oy). And now I find out there's such a thing as "ergotism"!? I don't even want to click through to find out what it is. Sounds horrible. Although ... from a crossword perspective ... it is interestingly just one added letter away from "egotism." All hail the genius who can make an interesting theme out of that fact. Not much else to say about this one. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Fancy French shellfish dish / SUN 9-17-17 / Speed skater Karin who won eight Olympic medals / Pigment in red blood cells / Music genre for Weezer Shins Old outdoor dance sights / 1428 horror film address / Celestial object that emits radio waves

Constructor: Mark MacLachlan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Super Looper" — themers have a mini loop in them (signified by circles), so answer goes up one back one down one and then resumes its Across path:

Theme answers:

• LOBSTER THERMIDOR (23A:S Fancy French shellfish dish)
• BEVERAGE ROOM (oh come on, that is not a thing) (25A: Beer parlor)
• UNDER ONE ROOF (49A: All together, as a family)
• BLACKBOARD ERASER (51A: Classroom item)
• CONCERT SERIES (69A: Central Park's SummerStage, e.g.)
• COMPUTER OPERATOR (86A: Tech overseer)
• SPOILER ALERT (91A: Reason to stop reading)
• ROLE REVERSAL (116A: Premise of the film "Freaky Friday")
• BATTERY TERMINALS (118A: Some positives and negatives)

Word of the Day: Karin ENKE (38D: Speed skater Karin who won eight Olympic medals) —

Karin Enke-Richter (née Enke, formerly Busch and Kania, born 20 June 1961) is a former speed skater, one of the most dominant of the 1980s. She is a three-time Olympic gold medallist, winning the 500 metres in 1980, the 1000 metres in 1984 and the 1500 metres in 1984. She won a total of eight Olympic medals. (wikipedia)

• • •

Has the NYT just given up on the Sunday puzzle? You'd think they'd put a Lot more effort into recruiting great Sunday work, instead of this parade of tedium we've been getting. Either it's some cornball wacky theme (add a letter? change a sound?) with groaner dad humor from 1984, or it's some thin concept (like today) where nothing happens that is at all interesting. The loops do nothing but loop. Why do they loop? Who knows? Who cares? What do the looped letters spell out? Gibberish? What's the revealer? There is none. What does the title even mean? Uh ... it's a pun on this?


I honestly don't know. I just know that this puzzle was very easy and utterly without interest, in either the themers or the fill. Here's what I remember: I don't know how to spell "Thermidor." THERMADOR seemed so much more plausible. That error was the main contributing factor to the difficulty I had in that one small, northern section of the puzzle—along with the yucky / impossible-to-parse UT-AUSTIN (32A: Rex Tillerson's alma mater, for short) (Shortz's love affair with this White House continues apace ...).  EM DASH and FAIR USE (both fine answers) were not the easiest things in the world to uncover and so that little area east of STRUT and west of TORTILLA was memorable for its thorniness. The rest of the puzzle was barely there. Provided all the resistance of a light mist—a mist polluted by such small particles as LLANOS ESA HEME ARIE ETH OOM SIE ELMST OSO OLES EEN and ENKE (?). Who says ON A SLOPE? ON A SLANT, maybe. SLOPE? Nope. My favorite part of the puzzle was actually an error I made: faced with the clue 86D: ___ wolf (three letters, starting "C"), I went with ... COY! It's a thing!


Look how coy that wolf is. It looks all innocent, but ... it knows.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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One of founders of Westworld / THU 12-22-16 / International prize first awarded to Stephen Hawking in 1979 / Competitor of Sapporo / Competitor of eBay / Moon of Saturn that's French woman's name / Prepare for framing again / Region in western Germany

Constructor: Mark MacLachlan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: (AL)UMINUM / SIDING (45A: With 42-Down, home construction material ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme) — You have to supply "AL"s to front of every Across answer that touches the west "side" of puzzle and the back of every Across answer that touches east "side" of puzzle

Word of the Day: Captain KIDD (44A: Pirate captain mentioned in Poe's "The Gold-Bug") —

Captain William Kidd (c. 22 January 1645 – 23 May 1701) was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer. Kidd's fame springs largely from the sensational circumstances of his questioning before the English Parliament and the ensuing trial. His actual depredations on the high seas, whether piratical or not, were both less destructive and less lucrative than those of many other contemporary pirates and privateers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Like many Thursday puzzles, this one was tough-going to start, but then easy after the theme concept became clear. The NW was a real bear, as, even before I had issues with the Acrosses, I had BERG for FLOE and SAAR for RUHR (2D: Region in western Germany). Also had ELLE for 13A: Women's beauty magazine ((AL)LURE). Only way I got into that NW corner at all was backwards, from the back end of (AL)OHA SHIRTS. Had -ASHIRTS and even though ALOHA SHIRTS remain a concept I have never heard of outside crosswords (I just call them "Hawaiian shirts"), I figured ALOHA was right and maybe the "AL" just went outside. The "H" gave me RUHR and all the Acrosses made sense (with the "AL") from there. After escaping from that corner, the rest of the puzzle wasn't that hard; in fact, the edges got a Lot easier. Only a few difficulty issues. Trouble with DO A DE(AL) (icky, ugly phrase) crossing REMAT (ugh). Also, I had real trouble getting from [Punk] to LOUSY (is that usage still current?). Further, the ARNOLD clue mean absolutely nothing to me (26D: One of the founders of Westworld, on HBO's "Westworld"). That clue is current, but also *hyper*-exclusionary. Maybe it was supposed to be a speed bump for people who would be speeding along after figuring out the theme.


It's a somewhat cute theme idea, though once you pick it up, there's really not a lot to it. Plus, the placement of the revealer is incredibly inelegant. It's split, and the second part runs Down ... I don't know. Seems pretty ugly. UMINUM and SIDING are both 6, you'd think they could've been brought into some kind of symmetrical relationship to each other when you were building the grid initially. So, lots of "AL"s ... including a pretty nifty front-and-back "AL" with the central answer. ALE-SELLERS seems pretty weak to me, as a stand-alone phrase (40A: Taverns and such), but that and DO A DE(AL) were the only things that made me grimace. Everything else was fairly solid. Sturdy. Adequate Thursday fare.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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