Poker snafus / THU 4-14-22 / Subject of rationing in the old English navy / Homer's self-satisfied assertion / Yam source historically / Facility often referred to by its first letter

Constructor: Ashish Vengsarkar and Narayan Venkatasubramanyan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: FROM STEM TO STERN (56A: Thoroughly ... or a hint for parsing some lowercase letters in four of this puzzle's clues) — you have to read "m" as "r n" if you want to make sense of the theme clues; the theme plays on the idea that if the kerning of a font is bad, "rn" can easily be mistaken for "m" (if you don't know what "kerning" is, see the Word of the Day, below):

Theme answers:

• WHAT A GOOD BOY AM I (17A: Homer's self-satisfied assertion?) (i.e. not "Homer's" but "Horner's..." (as in "Little Jack Horner / Sat in a corner etc.")
• SCOTTISH POET (29A: Bums, for example?)  (i.e. "Burns...")
• SPINNING WHEEL (35A: Yam source, initially?) (i.e. "Yarn source...")
• BRASS SECTION (43A: Place to find a comet?) (i.e. a "cornet")

Word of the Day: kerning (not in the puzzle, though I thought it would be ...) —

In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual letterforms, while tracking (letter-spacing) adjusts spacing uniformly over a range of characters.^[1] In a well-kerned font, the two-dimensional blank spaces between each pair of characters all have a visually similar area. The term "keming" is sometimes used informally to refer to poor kerning (the letters r and n placed too close together being easily mistaken for the letter m)

The related term kern denotes a part of a type letter that overhangs the edge of the type block. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)

• • •

Holy cow, that revealer! I don't think I've been as pleasantly, joyfully surprised by a revealer in a long, long time. By the second theme answer, I knew what the theme concept was, so I was just working my way down the grid waiting to see how the puzzle would end, i.e. how the revealer would express the theme. In my head, I thought, "well, this involves poor kerning ... so maybe KERNING is in the grid somehow ... that's an interesting word, but ... it's not going to fit in that long final themer ... and it's not part of any longer expression that I know ... so maybe the revealer is going to be one of the shorter answers ... or maybe ... oh, god, it's not going to be some kind of "kern" pun is it, that would be tragic ... maybe there's no revealer! ... ah well, I guess we'll find out eventually ... best to just keep solving and see what happens." Or something like that. This is to say that the concept was simple and I grokked it so I didn't think the puzzle had anything left to show me. And wow, was I wrong. FROM STEM TO STERN is so on-the-money that I was very nearly AGASP (which I thought was a mythical, crossword-only state until today).  They must've started with this phrase and built the puzzle around it, because it is right on the money: it's a familiar idiom that could stand on its own in any puzzle *and* it uses clever wordplay to indicate the theme (instead of just pointing at it) *AND* it's a perfect grid-spanning 15 letters long. This is what's known as "sticking the landing." So much of the pleasure of solving rides on this moment: the revealer revealing. And it is such a pleasure to have a revealer surprise you, especially when you already think you know (or actually do know) what's going on with the theme. Simple concept, absolutely killer reveal. FROM STEM TO STERN took me from Like to Love with one great flourish. The bow on the present, the icing on the cake. Yes, I'll take this.

The theme was deceptively simple. I say "deceptively" because Thursday is not gonna sneak up on me with its tricks. I know it's Shenanigans day, and I can see that the clues are question-mark wacky, so I'm proceeding cautiously, waiting for the booby traps to start springing. But with the first themer, I can see / feel that the answer is going to be WHAT A GOOD BOY AM I ... but then I thought "nope, you can't fool me, stupid puzzle. It can't just be WHAT A GOOD BOY AM I ... because that has nothing to do with Homer! That's not wacky at all. Where's the "D'OH!"? Oh no, it's not WHAT A GOOD D'OH! AM I, is it!?!?! Please say that's not it." The upshot of this wariness is that I left the BOY part blank because I figured that's where the wackiness was going to be ... but then the crosses eventually revealed no (apparent) wackiness at all. Just the familiar WHAT A GOOD BOY AM I. If I'd stopped to think about Where That Phrase Comes From, I might've figured out the theme early. But as it was, I didn't get it til the next themer, which I actually had to squint at to see if it said "Bums" or Burns" ... and then SCOTTISH POET has to be "Burns" ... but the clue (resquints) says "Bums," so ... aha! There it is. That's the theme. Not Homer but Horner, not Bums but Burns, etc. So that was my mini aha. And that was all the aha I thought I was going to get. Which is why the revealer was such a stunning delight. The only fault I can find with the theme is that SCOTTISH POET is not a good standalone answer (any more than BELGIAN POET or PERUVIAN POET is). It's a clue more than an answer. But for the purposes of this particular theme, it's fine. That's the thing about puzzles with clever themes that are elegantly executed—you forgive and even forget the faults of such puzzles very easily.

Five things:

• 1A: Tour de France leg (STAGE) — me, a genius: "ah, I know this one—it's ÉTAPE! ugh, not a great word, but at least I knew it!" And of course ÉTAPE shares three letters with STAGE, so it took me a minute to figure out I had the answer wrong. Very happy to have been wrong, even if knowing the word "ÉTAPE" did make me feel perversely proud for a half second.
• 61D: "J to ___ L-O! The Remixes" (2002 album) ("THA") — this feels like a long and weird way to go for THA (a remix album!?) ... but I like it. The early aughts seem like yesterday and ancient history simultaneously. I have no idea what happened. It's all just a blur of marriage kid house dog job ... and post 9-11 awfulness. Wars and what not. But apparently also J-Lo, which is nice.
• 30D: Caesar dressing? (TUNIC) — me, a genius: "TOGAE!!! ... but why is he wearing more than one ... just Caesar being Caesar, I guess ..."
• 12D: Band with the 4x platinum albums "Out of Time" and "Monster" (R.E.M.) — me, a genius who doesn't read clues all the way to the end: "ELO!" Also me, later: "'Monster' was 4x platinum!? Wow, I love that album but I had no idea so many people bought it."
• 44D: King of Saudi Arabia beginning in 2015 (SALMAN) — I didn't know this, and that made the cross at 53A a little harrowing—[Steps on a scale] could've been FAS or LAS, but in the end SAFMAN seemed ... unlikely. Behold the power of educated guessing!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Architectural pier — SUNDAY, Aug. 30 2009 — 1991 Tony winner Daisy / Worthless roadster / Music in Mysore / Maker of Fosamax and Zocor

Constructors: Ashish Vengsarkar and Narayan Venkatasubramanyan

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Literally So" — Clues are hyper-literal representations of their answers, which are (generally) familiar phrases, e.g. 86A: FI-TH WH--L = FIFTH WHEEL (i.e. SPARE) with "FEE" removed (i.e. with NO EXPENSE) => SPARE NO EXPENSE


Word of the Day: ANTA (83D: Architectural pier) — An anta (pl. antæ) (Latin, possibly from ante, 'before' or 'in front of') is an architectural term describing the posts or pillars on either side of a doorway or entrance of a Greek Temple - the slightly projecting piers which terminate the walls of the naos.^[1] (wikipedia)
-----

I declare this puzzle ingenious. I did not feel this way initially. Started off thinking it was fussy and confusing, mainly because I just didn't understand 23A: -IRC-MS-ANCES (take out of context). I could see that letters spelling "CUT" had been removed from "CIRCUMSTANCES," but "CUT" means "TAKE OUT" so it felt like the "right" answer should have been TAKE OUT OUT OF CONTEXT. . . Later answers proved clearer, and the puzzle became an enjoyable challenge. Once I'd finished I tried to figure out what was wrong with 23A, and finally realized I had the wrong meaning of "CUT." Your "CUT" (of profits, or stolen goods, or whatever) is your "TAKE"; it's a noun, not a verb. So -IRC-MS-ANCES = TAKE (i.e. "CUT") OUT OF CONTEXT (i.e. CIRCUMSTANCES). Got it. My brain hurts a bit from trying to make sense of these, but I do believe they all make sense. One downside — I do not believe that WORTHLESS ROADSTER is a thing (see 121A). All the other clues are versions of common words or phrases. 121A: W--THL-SS R-AD-TER feels entirely made-up.

I finished this puzzle with a sad error: had ANSA / SONAL instead of ANTA / TONAL. I knew ANSA was something, whereas I'd never seen ANTA (or forgot I'd ever seen it) (83D: Architectural pier), and since "SON-" indicated sound (i.e. of language) just fine, I didn't question SONAL as the answer to 95A: Like the Vietnamese language (tonal). I mean, yeah, SONAL hurt a little, but so do lots of little weird words. Bah. Turns out ANSA is a looped handle on a vase (or amphora). Also something to do with rings of Saturn, and last name of a novelist I don't know. ANSE is a character in Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."

Theme answers:

• 23A: -IRC-MS-ANCES (take out of context) — literally "CUT" (take) out of "CIRCUMSTANCES" (context)
• 36A: ANTI--VERNMENT UN--ST (bloodless revolution) — literally "ANTI-GOVERNMENT UNREST" (revolution) without "GORE" (i.e. bloodless)
• 52A: AR--CL- (the missing link) — literally "ARTICLE" (the) missing "TIE" (link)
• 70A: P---ARY CARE PHY-ICIANS (Doctors Without Borders) — literally "PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS" (Doctors) without "RIMS" (Borders)
• 86A: FI-TH WH--L (spare no expense) — literally "FIFTH WHEEL" (spare) with no "FEE" (expense)
• 98A: WHAT A -ANDA DOES IN -EIS-RELY FA-HION (Eats, Shoots and Leaves) — literally "PLUS" (and) leaves "WHAT A PANDA DOES IN LEISURELY FASHION" (eats shoots)
• 121A: W--THL-SS R-AD-TER (lemon drop cookies) — literally "WORTHLESS ROADSTER" (lemon) with OREOS (cookies) dropped

Aside from the mistake at ANTA / TONAL, the one real trouble area of the puzzle for me was the SW. This was due almost entirely to the heretofore unknown LOMI LOMI (107A: Hawaiian massage). Needed every single cross to get this one, even when I realized that the answer was going to be simply a four-letter string repeated. I got down to LO-I LO-I and even with two shots at getting that "M," I wasn't certain. You thread a MAZE? (109D: Something to be threaded) ... and MERE is 110D: Pure? I can see how both clues correct, but both clues are deliberately off-center. I chose "M" mainly because no other letter would do, and both resulting answers seemed OK. This video features a naked person who is well covered by a towel in the parts that might offend you but still if you fear even the suggestion of nudity Do Not Play

[tell me more about Graham...]

Was not a fan of EURO AREA (76A: Currency union since 1999), which (still) sounds made-up. Was a fan of the fully named THOM MCAN (66A: Shoe brand reputedly named after a Scottish golfer), a guy whose first and last names have good grid cred, but aren't known for hanging out together.

Bullets:

• 1A: Singer Lambert, runner-up on the 2009 "American Idol" (Adam) — something about the "the" in this clue makes it sound like it's being uttered by a very old person who doesn't watch the show: "Is that that fella from the 'Idol?' The gay one? He's gay, ya know."
• 29A: Hymn whose second line is "Solvet saeclum in favilla" ("Dies Irae") — like THOM MCAN (bet no one's ever said *that* about DIES IRAE before), this answer usually only contributes half of itself to the grid.
• 46A: Maker of Fosamax and Zocor (Merck) — I botched this at first because I typed in YOU AND I instead of YOU AND ME at 5D: Us, and it somehow fit because I typed it in fast without looking where the letters were going and everything was in the wrong place and long story short I thought this answer began with "D".
• 48A: Covered walkway (stoa) — knew it was one of those Greek words ... took a few beats to remember it.
• 84A: 1991 Tony winner Daisy (Eagan) — hell no. No way. No chance (except thru crosses). Never heard of her. 1991? Tony? Whatever you say.
• 55D: "Excalibur" star Williamson (Nicol) — hell no. And I've seen "Excalibur." NICOL Williamson is the Daisy EAGAN of "Excalibur."
• 120A: Modern home of the biblical Elam (Iran) — good guess. ELAM shows up in puzzles from time to time, often as an NFL place kicker.
• 128A: Bob in the Olympics (sled) — did not know "Bob" could stand independently of "sled" like this.
• 3D: "It's Time to Cry" singer, 1959 (Anka) — his daughter is married to Jason Bateman (of "Arrested Development" fame). I just learned that this week from NPR's "Fresh Air."

[Nuns...?]

• 14D: French river craft (bateau) — "river?" True, but "bathtub" is just as true. "Bateau" simply means "boat."
• 15D: National monument site since 1965 (Ellis Island) — would make a nice seed entry in an Egyptian Gods-themed puzzle.
• 81D: Music in Mysore (raga) — Mysore = #failedsocialnetworkingsitenames
• 89D: Wii alternative (XBOX) — XBOX is god's gift to crossword constructors . A convenient way to squeeze "X"s into tiny corners of your grid. WII is also a divine gift. Double-I that doesn't come from a ridiculous Latin ending or a pope or an act in a play.
• 99D: NBC inits. since 1975 (SNL) — "Saturday Night Live," of course. "1975" is often the giveaway for SNL.
• 102D: Cry after the rap of a hammer ("sold!") — I like this clue. My first thought was "order!"
• 34D: Company name that becomes another company name if you move the first letter to the end (Avis) — goes to VISA. I misread the clue and kept wondering what SAVI was known for.

Time for the Tweets of the Week (chatter about crosswords culled from "Twitter"). Forgot about this feature last week, so some of these are saved up. Thanks to PuzzleGirl for helping me keep track of these.

• SaBNY I am 5 squares away from finishing my first times crossword puzzle. All comments about it being monday can be kept to yourself.
• Woodie1942 Buy a crossword puzzle book, let your local Liberal Newspaper die!
• alice_wynn In Touch magazine crossword clue: kings of Leon song: "(blank) Somebody". WTF?
• Jencenator Why do i try and do the crossword puzzle every sunday, when i know its just gonna piss me off?
• rognbrow sometimes I hate my job! Just been sorting out the crosswords for bank holiday weekend, nightmare and woe-betide me if I get it wrong
• rognbrow we literally get thousand of complaints if there is ever anything amiss with the crosswords, not usually a design job apart from specials
• KristinCanWrite @1000thmonkey most important lesson i learned in the newspaper biz? if you eff-up the daily crossword layout, you better run for your life.
• ianmfahey You know you're a Star Wars nerd when the crossword answer to "Like Darth Vader" is "EVIL" and you think, "well, it's not that simple"
• deniserenee I suck at crossword puzzles. I just assume all the answers are kitty, glitter, or bob saget. I'm wrong every time.

Here's something I posted on Twitter yesterday, but you all should know about it: "New weekly crossword puzzle @thedailybeast, written by Matt Gaffney. Make it a habit. Please RT. http://shar.es/B0PW" — Matt Gaffney will now be writing a weekly puzzle (every Thursday) for the newsertainment website "The Daily Beast." Sunday-sized puzzles, about Wednesday-level of difficulty (so far). He's done two already. Here's the first (from which you can get to the second). Until "The Daily Beast" can develop a good applet and/or make puzzles available for download in AcrossLite, I recommend simply printing the puzzle out and solving on paper.

Finally, though it has nothing to do with the puzzle, I'm posting my new favorite photograph of all time: my best friend, August 11, 1977. There is nothing about this photo that is not great.



Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld


[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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SATURDAY, Dec. 6, 2008 - A.V. and N.V. (Bat portrayer / Town on the IJsselmeer / Posthumous Pulitzer winner of 1958 / Relief pitcher Robb)

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: TEN ORS (29D: Choir section ... and what are missing from the starred clues) - clues to ten answers have the letter string "OR" removed from them; resulting clue is still in recognizable English, and plausible as a clue in its own right, and thus Very misleading if you don't understand what the hell is going on

Weirdly, I got this theme very, very early - within the first minute or so of solving. And yet, it was still tough, partly because of the clever cluing, and partly because I am an idiot and Kept Forgetting what the "OR" was supposed to be removed from (I kept trying to take "OR" out of answers!). Ugh. Very very clever idea, and a very rare themed Saturday puzzle. This puzzle was constructed by Ashish Vengsarkar (a very nice man who has written great puzzles before) and Narayan Venkatasubramanyan, who may be making his debut, and who certainly has the longest name in the history of crossword constructing.

Theme answers:

• 1A: *Panama (view) -> [PanORama]
• 9A: *Popular rest area (Aspen) -> [Popular resORt area]
• 17A: *Bat portrayer (Sacha Baron Cohen) -> [BORat portrayer] - this is my favorite, in that it had me thinking of an actor (right) who played Batman (wrong).
• 54A: *Sty for youngsters ("Three Little Pigs") -> [StORy for youngsters]
• 61A: *Deal (trial) -> [ORdeal]
• 63A: *Cal _____ (reef) -> [CORal _____]
• 10D: *Male booster (shot in the arm) -> [MORale booster]
• 22D: *Words that come from clams (onomatopoeia) -> [Words that come from clamORs] - great, great clue; learned that I don't really know how to spell ONOMATOPOEIA. Ended up guessing on that first "A" - thought it might be an "O," but LADO felt wrong, even for a Russian car make I'd never heard of before (37A: Russian car make)
• 26D: *Aid in tailing (needle) -> [Aid in tailORing]
• 31D: *Famous son (Welles) -> [Famous ORson]

Parts of this puzzle were flat-out easy, particularly the middle - which is why I got the theme so early. TERI went in right away (41A: "Desperate Housewives" co-star of Eva and Felicity), and that terminal "I" meant that 23D: Career Golden Slam winner (Agassi) was a gimme. TGI (29A: _____ Friday's) was another no-brainer. The middle just filled itself in from there. There were a number of names that are very common crossword fill - perhaps not outright gimmes, given their cluing, but definitely gettable if you do puzzles with any regularity. These include AGEE (52D: Posthumous Pulitzer winner of 1958) and EERO (43A: Chair designer Aarnio) - the latter of whom I think I've never heard of, but EERO is in the puzzle all the time (or used to be) as the first name of architect Saarinen. I would not have thought of EDEL as easy two years ago, but having seen it several times now (and at least once clued precisely this way - 39A: Writer of the five-volume biography "Henry James"), it's approaching gimme status. Robb NEN was a gimme for me, and any other baseball fan, but maybe not for a lot of you (13D: Relief pitcher Robb). Oh, and ISAO should be a gimme for you all, if not today, then in the future (2D: Golfer Aoki). Like ROBB NEN, ISAO AOKI has first and last names that could (and do) easily show up in the grid.

There were definitely some potholes and dead ends and other hazards in this grid. I was virtually certain that 42D was REEKED. Seemed like a fine, even great, answer for 42D: Was apparently lit. I sat there and stared at EL-K as the answer for 50A: Its liners have stars on them forever. I put in every vowel - nothing. Finally convinced myself "K" must be wrong, and then right answer became obvious. Not ELAK, but the super duper common EL AL! Aargh. THALES (the "A" cross) is not familiar to me, clearly (45D: Pre-Socratic philosopher). I fell into another pit when I test-solved the puzzle, a pit which Will graciously filled in before the puzzle went live. The original clue for WINOS was not today's 31A: Red or white nuts?, but [Ones with red or white attachments?], which seems quite valid, but the vagueness of "attachments" made me think it was a word that was attached, in some way, to "red" and "white" - namely, the word "WINES." You know, red WINE, white WINE - red and white attachments = WINES! When you don't know how to spell ONOMATOPOEIA, having WINES for WINOS doesn't exactly set off any bells.

Remainder:

• 20A: Belafonte song opener ("Day O!") - another surprisingly easy answer.

• 34A: Town on the IJsselmeer (Edam) - dang: along with AGEE, EERO, and ELAL, yet another super-common answer hiding in a nutso-looking clue.
• 44A: Job for un docteur (cas) - oooh, un docteur of loi. Tricky. [Although I guess medical doctors also have "cases"] This clue has the same structure / logic as 56D: Father of une princesse (roi). Two of this kind of clue is one too many.
• 59A: Salad or sandwich request (no oil) - did anyone else have a brief moment of thinking, "... NOOIL? How do you pronounce that?")
• 55D: Where the land meets the sky: Abbr. (hor.) - one of the few ugh-y entries in this lovely puzzle
• 58D: Big name in water filters (Pur) - want to put a straight HOR. line atop the "u" but can't figure out how.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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