Upscale Swiss ski resort / WED 9-11-19 / 2000s Fox drama set in Newport Beach / One of three figures carved on Georgia's Stone Mountain / Onetime pop star Donny

Constructor: Ned White

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (5:00)

THEME: Pain in the ass? — how even to describe it ... theme clues are idioms following pattern "___ in the ___" where the second blank clues the whole answer, and the first blank clues  an answer that can be found *inside* the answer, in circled squares:

Theme answers:

• HIRED PERSON (17A: Bird in the hand?)
• CATTLE FODDER (24A: Snake in the grass?)
• MARS, FOR INSTANCE (38A: Come up in the world?)
• SPA ACCESSORY (50A: Throw in the towel?)
• PERFORATION (61A: Ace in the hole?)

Word of the Day: GSTAAD (33D: Upscale Swiss ski resort) —

Gstaad (/kstɑːd, ɡz-/; German pronunciation: [kʃtaːt]) is a town in the German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society and the international jet set. The winter campus of the Institute Le Rosey is located in Gstaad. Gstaad has a population of about 9,200 and is located 1,050 metres (3,445 feet) above sea level. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is one of the worst puzzles I've ever done. Just let that previous sentence sink in. Conceptually, it actually has promise. [___ in the ___] where the first blank is literally in the second blank. OK. Do not like the non-consecutive circled squares, seems a bit loose, but fine. But if you're going to do that, you're actual answer, the one in the grid, Has To Be A Thing. So let's see. HIRED PERSON? Well, right away, not a thing. Not off to a good start. CATTLE FODDER? Uh, closer, but the only fodder phrase I recognize, really, is "cannon fodder." This one is at best wobbly. OK, next— ... ... this is where the wheels came well and completely off for me: MARS, FOR INSTANCE??? FOR INSTANCE? Where I do even begin with this mess? First, the idea that "Mars" is an OK answer for "the world"??!?!?!!???!?!?!?! But then, FOR INSTANCE? What is FOR INSTANCE even doing in the answer?? How is anythingFORINSTANCE a legit answer in any puzzle anywhere at any time. I put in that first "S" (from GSTAAD, LOL, whaaaat?), as my very last letter in the answer, and I just stared at MARS FOR INSTANCE like "I don't know what I'm looking at." Most of "arise" is not even "in" MARS, it's "in" FOR INSTANCE. This answer, on its own, is an atrocity. Just ... I resent even having to explain any of this. I resent that no one inside the NYTXW is telling the person in power "you Must be joking with this." We haven't even gotten to SPAACCESSORY, woof. Another non-thing. Then there's PERFORATION, which is, to its credit, in fact, a word. Finally. Hard to imagine executing a theme worse than this. Stunning.


And we haven't even gotten to the fill yet—it stinks. STS RANDR ATNOON HAR ODDMAN (!?!?!), SDS XIS SNERD STET INIGO ANAT etc. But the thing that moves this puzzle from bad to outright offensive is the gratuitous celebration of the slavery-supporting traitor at 64A: One of three figures carved on Georgia's Stone Mountain (LEE). So... of all the famous LEEs in the world, in the history of the world, you not only went with the only one to lead an armed rebellion against this country in support of slavery, but you did so in a clue that is literally about honoring / commemorating that racist *&$%. So while people out in the real world are busy tearing down statues commemorating these m&$##$#f*$&ers, the editor of this here crossword puzzle is busy making sure we remember Dixie. Stop honoring racists. Stop even referring to them in your puzzles if you don't have to. If you do have to (which you clearly didn't here), then give them the clues they deserve—don't Go Out Of Your Way to flaunt the fact that they are memorialized by people mad 'cause the South lost and desperate to convince themselves and the world that the "War of Northern Aggression" had anything to do with honor.

Harper LEE. Bruce LEE. LEE Majors. Rickie LEE Jones. Jamie LEE Curtis. So many. So many. And hardly any of them led a war to preserve slavery. So, to sum up—the theme is botched to the point of malpractice, the fill is well on the stale side, and the puzzle essentially appears to be shouting "MY IDOL!" at the leader of a racist rebellion. Cool cool. Bye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Marx's collaborator on "The Communist Manifesto" / MON 7-8-19 / Al who created Lil' Abner / "For Better or for Worse" mom / 1980s tennis champ Ivan

Constructor: Ned White

Relative difficulty: Hard




THEME: P AND G — Theme answers start with P and contain G.

Theme answers:

• POINT GUARD (18A: *Basketball position for Magic Johnson or Steph Curry)
• PAY GRADE (20A: *Level on the military wage scale)
• PAINT GUN (26A: *Alternative to a brush when coating the side of a house)
• P AND G (36A: Consumer products giant, for short...or a hint to the answers to the eight starred clues)
• POP GROUP (41A: *The Beach Boys or Backstreet Boys)
• PEA GREEN (52A: *Shade akin to olive)
• PARTY GIRLS (54A: *Sorority types who go out a lot) 
• PUB GAMES (4D: *Darts and snooker) 
• PAN GRAVY (37D: *Roast accompaniment prepared with drippings)

Word of the Day: GHETTO (42D: Run-down area) —

A ghetto (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɡetto]), often the ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, typically as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure.^[1] Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city. Versions of the ghetto appear across the world, each with their own names, classifications, and groupings of people. The term was originally used for the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, Italy, as early as 1516, to describe the part of the city where Jews were restricted to live and thus segregated from other peoples. However, early societies may have formed their own versions of the same structure; words resembling "ghetto" in meaning appear in Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian, Germanic, Old French, and Latin. Ghettos in many cities have also been nicknamed "the hood", which is colloquial slang for "neighborhood" after it is shortened to 'hood.^[2]

 (Wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, it's a surprise Annabel Monday! Cool huh? Rex asked me to fill in this week, which is why he filled in for me last week. Happy to be here! I went camping this weekend. Also, my summer job is going great! I love working at the library.  I've been doing some filing, analyzing some data...it's really cool.

Anyway, this week's puzzle! I had a surprisingly difficult time for a Monday. Too many proper nouns, I think; that always throws me off. By the way, what are GRAN and NANA doing right next to each other? Who says POP GROUPS rather than BOY BANDS? I mean, I don't know that I'd call the Beach Boys a BOY BAND but hey, they're a band, they're all boys. I do have to note that nobody has said IMING since long before Myspace died. And do people actually say PAN GRAVY? I always just say gravy. Anyway, you can probably tell I can have a bunch of little gripes about the puzzle (and not just because of the Eagles reference!) so I'll tell you my absolute favorite thing about it: between AABA and ENGELS it briefly gave me a chance to flex my English-major muscles. Oh, so briefly.

The theme was fun, even if I found the corporation aspect a little weird. It helped me confirm PEA GREEN and solve PAY GRADE, so that was nice. And you have to give Ned White props for sneaking Products Giant into P AND G's clue. I do have one question:  What exactly are, uh...PARTY GIRLS? Like, just girls that go out to party? Would PARTY BOYS be a potential clue? I dunno. Just seems weird. But hey, it was a Perfectly Good theme for a Monday! Simple and Monday-y, just how I like 'em. 

Bullets:

• OREO (31A: ____ O'S [breakfast cereal]) — When I had almost all the letters of OREO (forget which ones I had missing) I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what the answer could possibly be instead. Surely they hadn't made a cereal that was literally just Oreos? But yeah, this is a thing, and I hope I'm never in any store that has it or else I have no idea how I'm supposed to stick to any sort of diet that isn't composed entirely of Oreo products. 
• PROM (52D: School event with a king and a queen) — I was going to post an embarrassing prom picture, but I don't have any because I've always looked cute. So instead I'll share my new favorite musical: 
• PRIUS (39A: Toyota hybrid)  — This is the kind of car I have!! Her name is Rey (after the Star Wars character) and she's turning fifteen next year and I love her so much. 
• PAINT GUN (26A: *Alternative to a brush when coating the side of a house)  — Seems like a pretty weird way to paint a house but ooookay?

Also, yeah, I know you all know what ghetto means. I just thought it was a good word to pause on for a minute. Help your community, even those who live in run-down areas.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...