Term for censored dissident in 1984 / FRI 1-1-21 / Title heroine of a James Joyce short story / Fast fashion retailer / Backdrop for the Compromise of 1850 / Park Corner London tube station / Appropriately named ghost in Nintendo games / Honorifics that can be repeated to indicate higher status

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Medium (6-something, but that's with repeated wrestling with the software over the number-boxes ... plus it's très oversized (16x16)

THEME: 2021 — numbers 2, 0, 2, and 1 go in the boxes at the center of the grid, resulting in the following number-containing answers:

Theme answers:

• CATCH-22 (19D: Inescapable bind)
• FOREVER 21 (39A: Fast-fashion retailer)
• 20 PERCENT (37A: A fifth)
• 01 ALUMS (38D: First graduates of the new millennium, informally)

Word of the Day: fast fashion (39A: Fast-fashion retailer: FOREVER 21) —

: an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

You'll forgive me if this write-up is short. I figure if I'm up this late, I may as well celebrate properly at 12:00 a.m., but that's in less than an hour, and once I figure in drink-pouring time, well, the writing window is tight. Today's constructor sent me his original clues so that I could see how much they'd been changed by the editor. It's an 80-word puzzle and Milo counts just 25 of his own clues among the published clues. That seems like a pretty heavy editorial hand, but every constructor has a tale or twelve about such heavy-handedness. I once had something close to a quarter of the entire *grid* changed between acceptance and publication—and on a Sunday-sized puzzle. Humbling / humiliating. I couldn't see how the changes were anything but a lateral move, but then I didn't have decades of editorial experience and wasn't in charge so who cares. Point is, our puzzles are our babies and none of us are that thrilled when they come back to us looking all ... different. But editors standardize difficulty and also give the puzzle a distinctive voice and their work is crucial to any smooth-running puzzle. When editors are good, they improve your work, and it's a gift. I'm not going to do a side-by-side clue comparison today (if Milo has any specific comment, I'll post it later), but most of the final clues seem to have been simplified, shortened, or made more accessible in some way. This means, sadly, that a lot of the life (that is, a lot of younger-skewing cultural specificity) has been wrung out of them. Still, most of the clue edits I'm looking at seem reasonable, if not necessarily inspired. The most interesting change to me is the lone grid change: RZA got changed to MBA (23A: Résumé asset). I can hear 90% of solverdom exclaiming "thank god," but I think RZA is a cool answer (originally clued as [Wu Tang founder/beatmaker]). Dude is legit famous. He raps, produces, acts, scores movies (parts 1 and 2 of Tarantino's Kill Bill, for example). Main problem, though, is that he's not a household name to most NYTXW solvers, so every cross on RZA has to be extremely gettable, and I'm not sure the "R" in RPG (i.e. role-playing games) is. So we end up getting MBA ... more ultra-common snoozy bizspeak. But it's viable. And on a short answer, that's good enough. And anyway, the main interest of the puzzle lies elsewhere.

Not usually into themed Fridays, but at least today's theme is date-specific, so I can forgive it. There's nothing terribly earth-shattering about the idea to express 2021 like this, but it's still nice. I will say that '01 ALUMS does not sound nice to my ears at all. I had '01 CLASS there at first, and while that doesn't sound nice either, it felt like a more coherent phrase. So that answer felt forced. But the others seem fine, even if 20 PERCENT is entirely arbitrary. They could've at least clued it as [Common tip amount] or something like that, but it is what it is. [A fifth]. Maybe that was some kind of whiskey-related misdirect. Not sure. I really liked SO LAST YEAR (51A: Passé). Good any day, but on New Year's Day, mwah! I struggled up front with IFORONE ARCH and IFS, and then wanted PSYCHOTROPIC before PSYCHOACTIVE at 18A: Like some mushrooms. After that, only the SW gave me any trouble, largely because I (bizarrely) couldn't parse FERGUSON at all (39D: Missouri setting of 2014 civil rights protests). Oh, and I wanted GRAS instead of GROS (53A: Opposite of petit), had never even heard of EVELINE (44A: Title heroine of a James Joyce story), and couldn't get my head at all around 61A: Complete a lap? (SIT). Groan. Even with SI-, I had no idea. SIP? Gah. Thinking track "lap" and dog-drinking "lap" ... never considered the lap you "complete" (again, groan) when you SIT. 

OK, Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks for coming around as often as you do (however often that is).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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LGBT activist Savage / THU 6-21-18 / DC comics hero with magic ring / Path in hit 1939 film / Salad items picked at midpoint of their maturity / Villainous army in 1968 Beatles film / v ohio landmark case barring illegally obtained evidence from being used in court

Constructor: Milo Beckman and David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Pride Flag — Different rows of the crossword have answers that are missing an initial color—supply the color (literally) and you get the Pride Flag

Theme answers:

• RED (EYES, CARPET, BARON)
• ORANGE (MEN, TREE, BITTERS)
• YELLOW (PEPPERS, BRICK ROAD)
• GREEN (BAY PACKER, LANTERN)
• BLUE (MEANIES, LAWS, HEN)
• PURPLE (PROSE, HEARTS, RAIN)

Word of the Day: ICC (24D: Old transportaiton agcy.) —

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including interstate bus lines and telephone companies. Congress expanded ICC authority to regulate other modes of commerce beginning in 1906. The agency was abolished in 1995, and its remaining functions were transferred to the Surface Transportation Board.

The Commission's five members were appointed by the President with the consent of the United States Senate. This was the first independent agency (or so-called Fourth Branch). (wikipedia)

• • •

I spent more time coloring the grid than I did solving the puzzle, but had a good time doing both. I didn't actually grasp that it was a Pride Flag until I was done and thought, "Oh, a rainbow ... flag ... and it's Pride Month! Oh, yeah, that's nice." The gimmick is easy to pick up, and most of the color answers are (then) very easy to get, except for a couple. I had no idea what kind of PEPPERS I was dealing with (there are so many colors), and I totally forgot that LAWS even was a theme answer, and so got a bit bogged down right there trying to figure out what [Shopping restrictions] could possibly be in four letters. Only when I was done with the puzzle did I finally see that it was (BLUE) LAWS. Weird that there was no revealer, though cluing ERA as [The Gay Nineties, e.g.] was pretty clever, and there were a couple of explicitly LGBT clues. Most of the fill was solid, and the very worst of the fill was a direct result of the stringency of the theme—ICC and SAK both have their first and last letters fixed by theme answers, and so it's not terribly surprising that that's where the grid strains a little. But emphasis on "little." Overall, as I say, it holds up well. It's a charming and timely puzzle.


 Picked this one up early with (ORANGE)MEN, then got nearby (RED)EYES, and quickly understood that this was a pattern that was going to continue (though I had no idea at that point what colors were coming, or where). Only a few spots gave me trouble. ICC was bad (never heard of it). USO clue didn't mean anything to me, and still ... doesn't (4D: What gets the show on the road, for short?). Is it that USO shows travel... to where troops are? It seems a pretty forced "?" clue. Beyond that, though, I had USE for PLY (unexciting) (32D: Wield), and had never heard of a PASTORATE (11D: Minister's office). Even with PASTOR- in place, I didn't know where that word was going. I assume the clue means "office" in the sense of a job, not a physical space [looking it up] ... yes. Also can refer to a body of pastors. Beyond that, there was no real resistance today. I don't really know Den HAAG, but I've seen it before, and crosses were easy (though I guess if you didn't know Delaware's mascot was the (BLUE)HEN, you might've gotten into trouble with that "H" cross. I can imagine a mascot named BLUE BEN. BLUE KEN, less so. Oh, I also had trouble with 47D: Home to every M.L.B. club whose name starts with "A" (AL WEST). True for team names: A's, Angels, Astros. But the only "A" I could picture in mind (despite being a very avid baseball fan) was the "A" on the cap of the Atlanta Braves ... who play in the NL EAST. I should probably mention that ALORS is very hard if you have no French (51D: Then: Fr.). Very, very. Crosses seem gettable, but who knows? I was lucky enough to get ALORS immediately, but it could easily cause some solvers to spin out. I hope not, though. It's the kind of puzzle that people should be able to take pride ... in solving.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Suffix with hater / THU 10-27-16 / Monster film hit of 1984 / Advice between buy sell / Sister publication of 16 Magazine / Some gold rush remnants / Suriname colonizer

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Not sure ... Easy-Medium? (forgot to watch clock)

THEME: GHOST ___ — themers are phrases/words that start with "GHOST," but instead of "GHOST" being written in the grid, it is imagined as an adjective and then represented literally (i.e. everything following "GHOST" is not there). Downs only work with "ghosted" answer. But if you put the word in, the Downs are still real answers (just ... unclued)

Theme answers:

• 22A: Like many celebrity memoirs ([ghost] WRITTEN) boo
• 24A: Some gold rush remnants ([ghost] TOWNS) boo
• 51A: Campfire entertainment ([ghost] STORIES]) boo!
• 53A: Monster film hit of 1984 (["ghost]BUSTERS") 

Word of the Day: HaterADE (33D: Suffix with hater) —

Etymology

Blend of hate or hater and Gatorade (a brand of sports drink)

Noun

haterade ‎(uncountable)

1. (slang, often capitalized) Hatred, as a metaphorical beverage. (wiktionary)

• • •

This was interesting, but didn't really feel like a "crossword," in that the theme answers were not "crossed" at any point. You have to infer the ghostiness by the fact of blanks. There are no Downs to help, is what I'm saying. I guess the fact of blanks is functioning like the additional (i.e. "cross") information you'd get from a Down ... somehow? Also, with ghosts visible, Downs still make sense, but ... the puzzle can't really incorporate this fact in any interesting way, as those Nu-Downs remain unclued. You just have to ... notice that they are also words. In fact, they are almost always More word-like than the Downs that are clued. REGINAL, ugh. THR!? RNDS!? Oy. Good thing "GHOSTBUSTERS" was obvious from its clue (53A: Monster film hit of 1984). I was like "Oh, BUSTERS gets 'ghosted,' OK." Then I got the other "GHOST ___" answers, though GHOST TOWNS took me a few beats (24A: Some gold rush remnants). TOWN-as-"remnant" = pretty hard stretch.


Fill is pretty bad in lots of places, esp near middle, wow, oh wow, ouch. Almost every 3 in there is actively hurtful. Not sure why that had to be. I did like how fresh and current the puzzle felt. The constructor is quite young, so ... that probably has something to do with it. There's nothing in here an older person couldn't / wouldn't have put in his / her puzzle, but the up-to-date cluing and (especially) lack (mostly) of tired arcana was nice. This was creative. I enjoyed it. It was somewhat troubling in places but, I mean, it's HAUNTED, so ... maybe that's OK.


Bullets:

• 37A: "Now I ain't sayin' ___ a gold digger" (Kanye West lyric) (SHE) — this made me literally LOL. Long way to go for SHE. "SHE" is also in the subsequent line of this song, but that line would never make it into a crossword clue. For ... reasons. Check the rhyme.
• 58D: Early fifth-century year (CDI) — Ugh, the RRN (random Roman numeral). NOT COOL, man. NOT COOL.
• 1A: Blu-ray ancestor (VCR) — "ancestor" made me laugh, but that was when I thought the answer was DVD. VCR still funny. Just not as.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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As I Lay Dying father / THU 1-17-13 / Midsize moon of Saturn / Dweller on Straits of Johor / Antarctic body named for Englishman / Battle of Fort Brooke locale 1863 / Automaton of Jewish folklore / City intersected by I-76 I-77

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: MIND THE [GAP] (62A: Tube warning ... or an apt title for this puzzle?) — the word "GAP" appears in what should be gaps between one side of the grid and the other

Word of the Day: TETHYS (4D: Midsize moon of Saturn) —

In Greek mythology, Tethys (Ancient Greek: Τηθύς), daughter of Uranus and Gaia^[1] was an archaic Titaness and aquatic sea goddess, invoked in classical Greek poetry, but not venerated in cult. Tethys was both sister and wife of Oceanus.^[2] She was mother of the chief rivers of the world known to the Greeks, such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and about three thousand daughters called the Oceanids.^[3] Considered as an embodiment of the waters of the world she also may be seen as a counterpart of Thalassa, the embodiment of the sea. [...] Tethys, a moon of the planet Saturn, and the prehistoric Tethys Ocean are named after this goddess. (wikipedia)

• • •

I like this puzzle but I *imagine* the GAP squares were black in the newspaper (is that true?). We got this big NOTE in AcrossLite (.puz) saying "This puzzle features elements that cannot be duplicated in electronic formats. We strongly suggest using the PDF file instead," so I  printed out the PDF version ... and it looked just like the grid in AcrossLite. I just solved it as a rebus (i.e. as it appears in the grid, except actually I left the GAP squares blank ... but the puzzle didn't accept that, so then I just put in "G"s and bam, done). Turns out "Print Puzzle" at the NYT site is Not the same as PDF, which is a separate, hard-to-see link ... No idea why the "Print Puzzle" option doesn't just print a .pdf, or in this case why the "Print Puzzle" option didn't give me the *proper* grid. Ugh. The tech on that site continues to be terrible and un-user-friendly. So the upshot of my experience is annoyance at the NYT for even offering the patently useless (today) "Print Puzzle" option. Now that I've seen what the puzzle is supposed to look like (actually two separate grids with empty space where the eighth column would normally be), I'm more impressed. Puzzle was probably easier if you saw it in this format, as the GAP is much, much more obvious. I picked it up at THE BIG APPLE, once I had the -PLE in place. After that, the theme answers were pretty easy, though the rest cluing and fill remained tough throughout. This was especially true in the NW—TETHYS next to ANSE (5D: "As I Lay Dying" father) is going to destroy some people. Those are not what you would call household names. I knew ANSE because, well, I know far too much crosswordese, but I was not at all sure about TETHYS. It's not like the awkward RAT-TAT (?) was much help in picking up that initial "T" in TETHYS. Other areas of the grid posed problems, but none were back-breaking.

Theme answers:

• 19A: Locational nickname with origins in horse racing (THE BIG APPLE)
• 32A: Noted series of paintings by Andrew Wyeth (HELGA PICTURES) — I love this answer, though I would've called them the Helga Paintings ... I mean, the "P" in GAP made "PICTURES" an easy guess, but the exact phrasing here was new to me.
• 39A: Preparing to be shot, say (STRIKING A POSE)
• 49A: Dweller on the Straits of Johor (SINGAPOREAN) — whoa. Funny-looking word. Got it by inference. 

The biggest strike against this puzzle is the duplication of TEA. Repetition of a specific noun like that (as opposed to repetition of, say, THE, which also happens in this puzzle) is very, very rare, largely because it's considered very, very bad form. Totally screwed me up in the NW, at least for a bit, because I refused to believe the puzzle would serve up two TEAs. Eventually, when there were no other options but TEA, I caved and wrote it in.

Bullets:

• 24A: Antarctic body named for an Englishman (ROSS SEA) — triple-S score! I think I learned about this sea while constructing a puzzle one time. Lots of very, very useful letters. 
• 42A: Medical subject of Time magazine covers of 1967 and 2010 (THE PILL) — great clue and answer. Not sure what the '67 cover was for, but the '10 cover was for the 50th anniversary of THE PILL's approval for use in the U.S.

• 11D: Battle of Fort Brooke locale, 1863 (TAMPA) — No idea. None. I didn't know anything important ever happened in TAMPA, or all of Florida, for that matter. Doesn't seem like a real place. No offense, Florida.
• 22D: Food with an inedible center? (DONUT) — yeah, that's good.
• 44D: Automaton of Jewish folklore (GOLEM) — there's a silent movie from 1920 called "The GOLEM" that's in my Netflix queue ... along with a thousand other movies that I haven't yet watched. 
• 46D: City intersected by I-76 and I-77 (AKRON) — needed the "K" to get this. Without "K," ???? With "K," easy.
• 50D: Architect ___ Ming Pei (IOEH) — Smugly thought, "HA, I know this," and then wrote in YEOH ... despite the fact that that would make him Y. M. PEI. D'oh!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Cyrillic letter between kha che / SAT 11-3-12 / 13th-century empire founder / Politico Michael / Union in 1999 news / Antagonistic org in Simpsons movie / 1990s party name / What may follow NO / Speaker of film line This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Eddie YOST (16A: Baseball's Eddie who was nicknamed "The Walking Man") —

Eddie Yost, a durable and reliable third baseman for three American League teams whose penchant for garnering bases on balls earned him the nickname the Walking Man, died on Tuesday [10/16/12] in Weston, Mass. He was 86. // Yost made his major league debut with the Washington Senators in 1944, when he was just 17, and never played in the minor leagues. Fourteen of his 18 big-league seasons were spent with the lowly Senators, who finished as high as fourth just once while he was playing for them. He was, however, a stalwart, playing in 829 consecutive games from August 1949 to May 1955, still the ninth-longest streak in baseball history.

He was the sort of pesky player who gave more powerful teams fits; in the early 1950s, the Yankees were known to covet him, though they never managed to pry him away in a trade. Casey Stengel, the Yankee manager, selected Yost for the 1952 All-Star Game, his only such honor, even though Yost was in the midst of a season in which he hit just .233.

“Every time I look up, that feller is on base,” Stengel explained.

Indeed, Yost’s forte was getting on base, especially by way of the walk. A student of opposing pitchers, he had a keen eye, a precise sense of the strike zone and the deft bat control to spoil good pitchers’ pitches by fouling them off. In one game, in 1953, he fouled off a total of 20 pitches in two consecutive at bats.

Yost led the American League in walks six times, and though he was a below-average hitter, his on-base percentage was over .400 — a stellar figure — in nine different seasons. He led the league in that category twice.

He also had some power, hitting 139 home runs in spite of playing most of his home games in Washington’s notoriously spacious Griffith Stadium.

Had Yost played a few decades later, in the “Moneyball” era, when the ability to get on base became a more valued quality, he might have achieved greater fame. For his career he batted just .254, but his on-base percentage was .394, higher than that of a long list of current or future Hall of Famers, including Frank Robinson (.389), Tony Gwynn (.388), Willie Mays (.384) and Derek Jeter (.382). (from NYT obit, 10/17/12)

• • •

A very enjoyable Saturday. Two minor gripes: 1. it was a little too easy (the Q-containing 1A and 11-letter 10D were out-and-out gimmes, and most of the rest rolled over easily), and 2. that YOST / ASTANA cross is as close to a Natick* as I've seen in a while [Natick = essentially an unfair crossing of proper nouns; see FAQ for definition]. I mean, I thought the TSE / STEELES cross was kind of brutal (57A: Cyrillic letter between kha and che / 43D: Politico Michael and others), but Michael STEELE (former RNC chairman) is a pretty high-profile guy, esp. during this election season, so I was able to work that one out easily. The YOST / ASTANA cross was a total guess based *solely* on the fact that I know another baseball YOST—Ned YOST, manager of the Kansas City Royals (my friend Robert hosts the radio post-game call-in show for the Royals' flagship station, 610SportsKC). I think Ned YOST actually appeared in a Sunday puzzle a while back. Anyway ... it's only because I knew of Ned that I went with the same name for Eddie. I'm just not sure how inferrable that "S" is. Seems like it could be a stumbling block. But maybe you all know your -stan capitals better than I do.

Puzzle starts out great in the NW—AIR QUOTES (1A: Sarcasm indicator) over CHEAT SHEET over HOT TAMALES is a delicious opening gambit. Puzzle's weakest in the W where ON NOW and NO EVIL are kinda wobbly and feel like partials, and TRINES is just ugly (as is the easier-to-get EGEST and SST). Actually, with the exception of the mighty WINGMAN (2D: Lead pilot's support), most of that area down into the SW is just OK at best. But things better in the SE, with the double-X EXXON-MOBIL (59A: Union in 1999 news) and the retro video EIGHT-BIT video game (38D: Like some old gaming consoles). I love Elvis Costello, so I was more than happy to ride "MY AIM IS TRUE" up into the NE (where all was smooth sailing, YOST / ASTANA notwithstanding) (10D: Elvis Costello's debut album).

I had some luck with names—I shouldn't have been able to get LEE ELDER so easily (I couldn't tell you anything about him, and my brain initially wanted something like LEE EVERS or EDGAR ... maybe a mash-up of MEDGAR EVERS????), but years of watching ESPN must've put his name in my brain somewhere (33D: First African-American golfer to play in the Masters). "Groundhog Day" is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I was surprised to blank on the director at --M--. Then I thought, "aha, DEMME!" Wrote it in, but it felt wrong. Finally remembered Harold RAMIS (34A: "Groundhog Day" director). Totally remembered OSMAN this time—got it with just the "O" and didn't even need that (6D: 13th-century empire founder). Can't believe it's taken this long, but I think I've finally got him tucked safely in my crosswordese arsenal. Then of course there's HAL, which I got off the "A"—another movie that I love. Really hard for me not to like a puzzle with Elvis Costello, "Groundhog Day," and "2001"— my happiness at encountering things I love is probably what's keeping me from harping on XOO (60D: Unhelpful noughts-and-crosses line) or EHLE (52A: Jennifer of the BBC production "Pride and Prejudice") or A TINGE (13D: Not much, colorwise) ... my favorite pop culture apparently acts like a muscle relaxant for my gripe muscle.

Bullets:

• 19A: Antagonistic org. in "The Simpsons Movie" (EPA) — I had forgotten this (only saw the movie once), but when I got it I laughed out loud. My first guess was FBI.
• 7D: Muse of comedy (THALIA) — memo to self: memorize world capitals and also muses.
• 11D: Tacky yellow thing (POST-IT) — excellent clue.
• 47D: 1990s party name (REFORM) — I could see (and, unfortunately, hear) Ross Perot in my head, but I totally blanked on the name of his party. I'm hoping that following the election on Tuesday, there is a good 3-month moratorium on all talk of politics anywhere in the vicinity of me. OK, 3 weeks. Everyone talk about literature or movies or music instead, OK? Great.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers / TUE 4-17-12 / Word repeated before Baby in hip-hop title / Asian gambling mecca / River separating Germany Poland

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ARROW — circles form an arrow and contain the letters in ARROW. Note reads: "The circled letters in this puzzle, when read in the correct order, spell the name of a shape. The four unclued answers are common three-word phrases usually accompanied by this shape." 

Word of the Day: ART ROONEY (21A: Founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers) —

Arthur Joseph "Art" Rooney, Sr. (January 27, 1901 – August 25, 1988), often referred to as "The Chief", was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football franchise in the National Football League. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a nice little puzzle. Everything makes sense—all the theme answers are real and the circles form the shape they spell out. Simple, neat, good. I was mildly annoyed at the [see note] clues, mainly because I had already started the timer and my printout did not have the note on it, so I had to stop the timer, open the file again, find the note, read it, then restart the timer. So now it seems like there should be an asterisk next to my (fastish) time. But this is not a problem with the puzzle per se; just a problem with my software (not printing the damn note right on the printout), and with my obsessive need to track my on-paper solving times in a spread sheet. I had only a few stumbles—wrote in ADANTE for ADAGIO (I was probably thinking ANDANTE, which means "in a moderately slow tempo," but faster than ADAGIO) (4D: A little faster than largo). Did not know ART ROONEY, though the name sounds familiarish in retrospect. Completely blanked on PLATH, as that title (53D: "The Colossus and Other Poems" poet) is not one I remember. And for some reason I really had trouble coming up with the first word in USE OTHER DOOR. First tried THE OTHER DOOR (!?), and when the "E" worked I thought, "that cannot be right." And it wasn't.


Theme answers:

• YOU ARE HERE
• USE OTHER DOOR
• I'M WITH STUPID
• THIS SIDE UP

I remembered the crosswordy MACAU, but not how to spell it (MACAO at first pass) (45A: Asian gambling mecca). Had trouble coming up with "ICE" (5D: Word repeated before "Baby" in a hip-hop title) because Salt-'n'-Pepa's "Push It" (with its "OOH baby baby, b-baby baby, OOH baby baby etc.") kept running brain interference. Threw down ODER on reflex (7D: River separating Germany and Poland); had the "OD-," saw "river," added the "ER." I wouldn't know more than a small handful of European rivers were it not for crosswords. I never like seeing EN AMI, which feels sad and desperate (29D: As a friend, to François), but there are so few sour patches today that I wasn't bothered much by the answer today at all. Not much to gripe about today. But there's always TOMORROW (10D: Day when procrastination ends, supposedly).


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Source of Erebus Gaia in Greek myth / THU 3-29-12 / Rhône feeder / Carrier whose main hub is Kastrup airport / Cousin of a bittern / Big name in kitchenware / Electrician's alloy

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: The opening notes of "TWINKLE TWINKLE, Little Star" and the "NOW I KNOW MY ABCS" song — rebus puzzle with those notes across the ... middle ... sort of. (It's a 16x14 grid, so it's a little wonky):

DO DO SOL SOL LA LA SOL / FA FA MI MI RE RE DO

Word of the Day: CARSON, CA (19A: Community near Los Angeles) —

Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, Carson had a total population of 91,714. Located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately 14 miles away from the Los Angeles International Airport, it is known as a suburb of the city.^[8] Incorporated on February 20, 1968, Carson is the youngest municipality in the South Bay region of Greater Los Angeles. (wikipedia)

• • •

An ambitious train wreck. Great idea to run the notes across the ... middle ... sort of, and NOW I KNOW MY ABCS works perfectly (in that you sing it to the tune of the notes on the left side of the grid), but then there's those notes on the right ... and nothing to sing them to ... and TWINKLE TWINKLE, which really only gets you through DO DO SOL SOL ... so the theme doesn't work. [Words sung to the beginning ...]—but what about the end notes? Again, great idea, but just Not There in the execution. Scrap. Drawing board. Next. Hey, HOW I WONDER WHAT is 14. Maybe you could shove YOU ARE in there somewhere. Symmetry would be blown, but at least those damned eastern notes would have something to do. Now, neglecting the fatal thematic flaw, the grid is not bad, and I always enjoy a rebus. Plus, the notes actually *did* (by the end), help me to get one of the answers (the SOL in SOLAR, to be exact) (44D: Kind of power), so fun was had. And I'll take ambitious over yawny (which many puzzles have been of late). But thematically this one just feels like a miss. Maybe a near miss, but still...

I thought the puzzle was actually pretty dang easy except for the whole center area. Even after I'd gotten the note / rebus thing, I had no idea what was going on song-wise, since I had only the eastern notes (broke through at ISERE; 24D: Rhône feeder) and couldn't / didn't sing them so had no idea what they represented. I thought maybe the western notes would be a mirror image. No. Once I finally broke NOW I KNOW MY ABCS open, I put it all together. Which reminds me—that damned SW corner (and, to a lesser extent, the NE corner) killed me a little. ROO instead of OWL (67D: Pooh pal) and DDE instead of IKE (69D: Two-time opponent of 32-Across). Ouch. Up top, I don't know / didn't remember CHAOS as a place (8A: Source of Erebus and Gaia, in Greek myth), and ["Shoot!"] always throws me, as my first idea for a synonym is always "DANG!" So even with -K in place, ASK didn't come right away. Everything else was pretty straightforward. The "L" part of SOL always surprises me, no matter how many times I see it written out. Went in expecting "SO," so MAUSOLEUM took slightly longer to come into view than it should have (28D: Commence hostilities). Time was a few seconds faster than last week's, though I'm pretty sure this one's going to play harder for most folks (if the NYT times being posted right now are any indication).



Bullets:

• 29A: Carrier whose main hub is Kastrup airport (SAS) — got it off the "S," but didn't really *know* it, and then doubted it after I couldn't make SPA work for 3D: Resting place (SOFA). Things worked out eventually.
• 49A: Cousin of a bittern (EGRET) — off the "E"; pretty common crossbird.
• 60A: Place for a butcher and two others (TUB) — Nice one. I like the "...and the rest" quality of "two others." 
• 43D: Electrician's alloy (SOLDER) — the fact that this word is a noun always surprises me. Solidly verby in my mind. 
• 14D: Big name in kitchenware (EKCO) — The fashion designer is Marc ECKO. I remember this because "CK" = Calvin Klein = fashion designer. Hell yeah it's a good mnemonic.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Muslim mystic / WED 10-26-11 / Actress Naldi of silents / Nicest room on ship / Funnywoman Martha

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: INCORRECT CHANGE (38A: Cashier's error ... as suggested by 17-, 22-, 47- and 58-Across) — familiar phrases containing coin denominations have those denominations swapped out for other, "incorrect" denominations. Wacky answers, but no wacky cluing involved.

Word of the Day: SUFI (46D: Muslim mystic) —

Sufism or taṣawwuf (Arabic: تصوّف‎) is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ). Another name for a Sufi is Dervish. // Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God." Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one's inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits." (wikipedia)

• • •

But these aren't funny. And there's no logic to the denomination changes. PUMPERQUARTER is pure nonsense. I don't know what's happening this week, but it's not good. The fill isn't even interesting enough to talk about. It's all very common. Not bad (except for that IIN / NMI juxtaposition, o man ...), and not good. Just boring.




GANG SIGNS is a cool answer (11D: Handy IDs in the hood?), and the clues on ESP (5D: Medium capacity?) and VERA (35A: Aloe additive?) and EROS (42A: Baby taking a bow?) were clever. That's about all I got in the way of praise for this one. I can't think of a puzzle about which I've had less to say. Well, one interesting feature—the puzzle has thirteen (!?) "?" clues. For a Wednesday ... for any day, that is a Lot. And still the puzzle was quite easy. Usually "?" clues act like speedbumps; today, that effect appears to have been negligible.




Theme answers:

• 17A: Exhibited perfect braking (STOPPED ON A PENNY)
• 22A: Nicest room on a ship, probably (CAPTAIN'S DIMES)
• 47A: Certain loaf (PUMPERQUARTER)
• 58A: Being frugal (PINCHING NICKELS)

Did you know that TAHOE is a 1,000-foot-deep lake that straddles a state line? Well, now you do. Seriously, I got nothing today. OTO, ADZE, AGAS, RESET, ILE ... what, exactly, am I supposed to dig into here?

["Pitchin' pennies, honies had the high-top jellies..."]

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Canonized fifth-century pope / MON 8-22-11 / 1982 Harrison Ford sci-fi film / Landon who lost to FDR in 1936 / Doughnuts topologically speaking

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Directions — theme answers start with the words RIGHT, LEFT, STRAIGHT, UP, and DOWN, respectively


Word of the Day: ALF Landon (38A: Landon who lost to F.D.R. in 1936) —

Alfred Mossman "Alf" Landon (September 9, 1887 – October 12, 1987) was an American Republican politician, who served as the 26th Governor of Kansas from 1933–1937. He was best known for being the Republican Party's (GOP) nominee for President of the United States, defeated in a landslide by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a very nice-looking grid, especially for a 78-word Monday puzzle. The short stuff was largely inoffensive, and the longer stuff felt very fresh. Didn't see theme until I was done—the theme itself was the only part of the puzzle I wasn't thrilled about, mainly because ... well, spatially, it was bugging me. These are directions ... where? In relation to what. I told me wife, "if there's an UP and a DOWN, and a RIGHT and a LEFT, then there should be a STRAIGHT and a BACK. I mean, there are three axes, and we get opposed directions on two of those axes, but only one direction on the third." To which my wife responded, "Oh, believe me, I know. That's the shape I make with my toes." I told her I was going to quote her, and I just did.

I stumbled badly in the beginning of the puzzle with that LEFT TO ROT error and an even more stupid AORTA error at ATRIA (21D: Heart parts). Still, I managed to recover and tear through the rest of the grid, coming in at just under 3 minutes.



Theme answers:

• 18A: Anti-abortion position (RIGHT-TO-LIFE) — so much for the NYT puzzle being an instrument of liberal propaganda. This puzzle even has a "Life begins at conception" clue on FETUS (55D: Baby-to-be)
  
• 24A: Abandoned, in a way (LEFT TO DIE) — morbid. I had LEFT TO ROT at first.
  
• 39A: Not shown in theaters (STRAIGHT-TO-VIDEO)
  
• 51A: Satisfactory (UP TO SNUFF)
  
• 60A: Having no illusions or pretensions (DOWN-TO-EARTH)

As if LEFT TO DIE weren't disturbing enough, we have the lovely image in the 1-Across clue: [Handkerchief stuffed in the mouth, e.g.] => GAG. Not the most upbeat way to start your Monday: with abortion controversy and images from a horror film. If [Superannuated] means OLD, why in the world does anyone ever use the word "superannuated?" Also, why is "Cry to a horse" even part of the clue at 20A: Cry to a horse that's the opposite of "Giddyup!" ("WHOA!"). Presumably [Opposite of "Giddyup!"] would work just as well. I mean, who else are you saying "Giddyup!" to??? Hmm. On second thought, don't answer that.


Lil' Kim : Whoa by BLACKMUSICS

I like "BLADE RUNNER" (28D: 1982 Harrison Ford sci-fi film) and I especially like the novel it's based on: Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I'm in the middle of the (epic) comic book adaptation, which threatens to go on forever. I also like doughnuts, topologically speaking or otherwise (TORI).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Composer known as Red Priest / FRI 6-24-11 / Old Go from flat to fluffy sloganeer / Rapid descent on skis / Beatles song complaining title

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: ITUNES PLUS (24A: Where purchases cost 69c, 99c, or $1.29) —

iTunes Plus - iTunes Plus is the name for the option in iTunes that allows customers to buy music at the iTunes Store that is free from digital rights management, or DRM. (about.com)

• • •

My first response on hearing that we would have yet another debut from yet another teenage boy going to yet another Ivy League School = yawn. Yes, it's impressive, but the NYT has a young smart boy fetish that I find a little creepy. It's cool to see young people getting into constructing, in that it gives a glimmer of hope that the craft might survive another generation (despite the fact that the main vehicle for the visibility / promotion of the crossword, the dead-tree newspaper, will be extinct in ... 3, 2, 1 ...). But I don't care if you are 15 and making your NYT crossword debut and going to Harvard in the fall (as this kid is, according to a tweet from Will Shortz that I read yesterday—yes, he's tweeting now, @Will_Shortz). I care only if your puzzle is good. And guess what. This puzzle isn't good. . . (wait for it) ... it's great.

Here's what I didn't like: the clue on ITUNESPLUS. It's a format, not a place, so the "Where" doesn't make any sense to me. The "Where" is still the ITUNESSTORE, which I tried to squeeze into the space provided—not hard if you imagine that ITUNES and STORE share an "S" in the official corporate name. I mean, they don't, but you can imagine they do. Anyway, aside from that, I haven't got a single complaint about this thing. I think I literally said "Wow" upon piecing together the NW. Such great, fresh, colloquial phrases ... and a track off the White Album (17A: Beatles song with a complaining title=>"I'M SO TIRED"). The SE corner is almost as good. I CALLED IT! (63A: "Told you so!") This puzzle just has a great SENSE of the language, as it's used, by human beings, many of them (gasp) under 40. And yet the puzzle didn't feel unduly teeny. Teen-y. Wow, I tried to invent an adjective there and instead just duplicated a word that already existed and means something irrelevant. OK, then. What I'm saying is that with perhaps the exception of CHILL PILL (65A: Remedy for a tizzy), everything in here should be at least vaguely familiar to someone who follows the news and gets out from time to time.



I would complain about two forms of the word SEX being in the same puzzle, but I can't bring myself to complain about getting SEX twice. I just can't. (8D: Type of reproduction + 21D: Titillating transmissions) Besides, the words that share SEX are totally unrelated. At least I assume they are. Are there such things as ASEXUAL SEXTS? "What r u wearing? I'm wearing tunic & cowl. Chastity is hawt."

The NE was hardest for me, mostly because of ITUNESPLUS but somewhat because of WINER (total unknown to me, even though he's an executive producer of one of my favorite TV shows, "Modern Family") (16A: Jason who directed 2011's "Arthur") crossing AWACS (which I know *only* because of crossword experience) (10D: ___ plane). That crossing is going to take at least one person down today. Otherwise, this one didn't give me too much trouble. Had some reservations about LADED (wanted LADEN) (26A: Burdened), and wasn't sure what the article was at 27D: "Der Ring ___ Nibelungen" ("DES") (I think of "DES" as French), but DES beat NES and I moved on. Don't particularly like the clue on UNRATED (7D: Like a first-time tournament player, usually). Tourney players are UNRANKED or UNSEEDED. DVD releases of movies with certain naughty bits restored are UNRATED.

Bullets:

• 21A: Rapid descent on skis (SCHUSS) — thought this was just a word for ski. Didn't know "rapid" had anything to do with it.
  
• 31A: Honorary deg. for many a writer (D.LIT.) — Hmm... sounds vaguely familiar, but I mostly had to infer it. Honorary degrees seem silly to me. Gotta be another way to honor people besides giving them fake degrees.
  
• 51A: Words accompanying an arrow ("THIS SIDE UP") — Great, though my brain wanted only "THIS END UP" and (initially) gave up when it wouldn't fit.
  
• 4D: $ $ $ head (CFO) — first answer in the grid.
  
• 53D: Old "Go from flat to fluffy" sloganeer (PRELL) — Got it off the "R" in 'ENRY. No idea how I knew it. I can't remember if this slogan is from my time or not. . . yep. No wonder it's familiar: it's from that late '70s sweet spot when I was soaking in pop culture like a sponge.

5D: Old Spice rival (AFTA) — When AXE BODY SPRAY wouldn't fit, I moved on. Somehow I think of AFTA as bygone. Apparently not.

45D: Composer known as the Red Priest (VIVALDI) — No fair. How am I supposed to know VIVALDI's pro wrestling name?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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