1982 Stevie Wonder title query / THU 11-2-17 / Istanbul commander / SHIELD's enemy in Marvel comics / Pizza maker John Schnatter's nickname / Trounces slangily / Interstellar sitcom star / Where Mumtaz Mahal is entombed

Constructor: Peter Sagal and Mike Selinker

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: NEW YORK MARATHON (37A: Event held on the first Sunday in November, and whose path is recreated in this puzzle) — each BOROUGH is represented by a word that can follow that BOROUGH's name in a familiar phrase (45A: What each step in this puzzle lacks, in proper order). Clues for the BOROUGHs indicate the "Steps" (i.e. route) of the marathon:

Theme answers:

• [BRONX] CHEER (9A: Step 5: A show of contempt)
• [MANHATTAN] PROJECT (23A: Steps 4 and 6: A 1940s program)
• [QUEEN['?]S] ENGLISH (28A: Step 3: Ann upper-class accent)
• [BROOKLYN] DODGERS (51A: Step 2: An old baseball team)
• [STATEN ISLAND] FERRY (67A: Step 1: A passenger ship since 1817) 

Word of the Day: Issa Rae (47A: Actress Issa and others = RAES) —

Jo-Issa "Issa" Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985) is an American actress, writer, director, producer and web series creator. She is best known as the creator of the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl. Since the premiere of Awkward Black Girl, Rae has developed her own YouTube platform where she features various content created by people of color. Rae's shows have garnered over 20 million views and over 260,000 subscribers on YouTube. // As of October 2016, Rae is the creator, co-writer and star of the HBO series Insecure, which is partially based on Awkward Black Girl. (WIKIPEDIA)

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Timely and interesting, though there are some issues in the execution. There's something awkward about calling the boroughs "steps" and also having them not in order and also having one of the boroughs (MANHATTAN) be two steps and then also having one of the boroughs (QUEENS) be a differently punctuated word in the clue (QUEEN'S). Further, I cannot figure out the syntax on the revealer, specifically how you can "lack" something "in proper order." I get that the steps all lack their boroughs, and that if you follow the steps, through the various (missing) boroughs, you trace the route of the marathon, but the wording on that revealer clue is still jacked. Write a fuller, clearer revealer. It wasn't hard to figure out, but it wasn't pleasant to read either. Oh, and there's another way QUEEN'S is an outlier, besides the punctuation—all the other boroughs have clues related specifically to their boroughs. DODGERS are from Brooklyn, FERRY goes to/from Staten Island, etc. But QUEEN(')S ... no. Still, withholding the boroughs like this is a pretty interesting variation on the "Word That Can Precede" type of puzzle, and the grid holds up very well considering the theme density. We even get a couple blocks of longer Acrosses in the NW / SE to liven things up. I DON'T MIND that at all.


Issa Rae is great, but RAES (plural) is a shambles. Plural names are never great, but plural uncommon names look ****ing ridiculous. I resent this puzzle for making me think about the president* (27A: Trump is often involved in these) and PAPA ****ing John (43A: Pizza maker John Schnatter's nickname). But putting Stevie in the grid very nearly makes up for it. "DO I DO" looks insane as an answer (I wonder how many people are wondering "What the hell is a DOIDO and why would anyone sing about it?"). But it's got a great beat and groove and ... yeah, let's just listen to Stevie now.


I had trouble only in the SE section, where ATKINS messed me up (48D: Country singer Trace => ADKINS), and ROCK ON (which no one actually says) took forever to come together (47D: Comment with the pinkie and forefinger extended upward). I did not know Café NOIR was a thing. Is that just a pretentious way of saying "black coffee"? Not sure why you'd throw away your NOIR clue like that, especially during Noirvember, but to each his own.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Iberian wine city / SUN 9-22-13 / Spiderwick Chronicles co-author DiTerlizzi / my destiny be Fustian Dickinson poem / Old PC monitor feature / Satirical 1974 espionage film / Material beyond terrestrial plane in medieval science / English landscapist famous for burning of houses of lords commons / Classic sci-fi film billed as horror horde of crawl crush giants / 1960s-70s series starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr

Constructor: Mike Selinker

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Letterboxes" — "Crosswords Contest! In this special contest crossword, the completed grid conceals a familiar three-word phrase related to the puzzle's theme. 70-Across provides a hint as to where to find it, and you will need to print out the PDF to see some heavy lines that cannot be reproduced here (http://select.nytimes.com/premium/xword/2013/09/22/Sep2213.pdf). When you have the answer, e-mail it to crossword@nytimes.com. Twenty-five correct solvers, chosen at random, whose entries are received by 6 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, Sept. 24, will receive copies of The New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzles 2014 Day-to-Day Calendar, courtesy of Andrews McMeel. Only one entry per person, please. The answer will appear here on Wednesday, Sept. 25. The winners' names will be announced on Friday, Sept. 27."

[UPDATE: ANSWERS HERE]

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I'm going to respect the contest. That is, I'm not going to reveal any information here. I don't know why, really. I mean, the stakes are soooooo low that I have a hard time imagining anyone even taking the time to enter. A day-to-day calendar?!? Really?

But I'm going to respect the contest anyway. Call it professional courtesy. Call it laziness. Call it whatever. You're gonna have to come up with your own answers today.


I will say one thing: the reveal, i.e. the meta-puzzle, i.e. the "three-word phrase" mentioned in the contest description (above), is Great. A genuinely fantastic punch line. The fill in this puzzle is not great. Painful and cringe-worthy at times. But there's a reason. Is it a good reason? Well ... I've probably already said too much. Just know that the phrase at the end of the rainbow is not a dud. It may not excuse all the ouchy stuff you had to fill in to get there, but it's not a dud.


OK, that's all. Good night. I would say "don't spoil the puzzle in the comments," but you're grown people (mostly) and you can do whatever the hell you want.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[UPDATE: ANSWERS HERE]

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