Oblong yellowish fruit / MON 10-21-24 / Unenjoyable, to put it mildly / Mushy food for babies / Disposable BBQ dish / European ___ (Anguilla anguilla) / Green eggs go-with / Doctor's office jarful

Constructor: Neil Padrick Wilson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: ELMER'S GLUE (58A: What a kid might use to hold 17-, 24-, 35- and 47-Across together) — I have no idea what this kid is trying to make, tbh. Is it a face? 

Theme answers:

• PAPER PLATE (17A: Disposable BBQ dish)
• COTTON BALLS (24A: Doctor's office jarful)
• MACARONI NOODLES (35A: Elbows in a grocery store)
• PIPE CLEANER (47A: Makeshift twist-tie)

Word of the Day: DANA Carvey (6A: Carvey who portrays Biden on "S.N.L.") —

Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, screenwriter and producer.

Carvey is best known for his seven seasons on Saturday Night Live, from 1986 to 1993, which earned him five consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Carvey is also known for his film roles in comedies such as Tough Guys (1986), Opportunity Knocks (1990), Trapped in Paradise (1994), and The Master of Disguise (2002), as well as reprising his role of Garth Algar in the SNL spin-off film Wayne's World (1992) and its sequel Wayne's World 2 (1993). (wikipedia)

• • •

I have to say, I don't really get this. It's a child's art project of some kind, but why you'd glue all these things together, I don't know. I mean, I can see that it's some kind of PAPER PLATE art, but what it's supposed to represent, I can only guess. And my guess is: a face. COTTON BALLS for hair, MACARONI NOODLES for ... whatever, and maybe a PIPE CLEANER for a mouth? Did ELMER'S GLUE sponsor this puzzle? It's all so strange. Vague. Odd. Doesn't seem like a tight enough theme. Surprised it met NYTXW standards, but who knows these days.  [one of the commenters suggests that the theme answers represent a “makeshift Halloween mask,” and that seems like a reasonable, seasonal defense for this theme]. Anyway, that's it: a list of items in a child's art project. If there's something more here, I'm not seeing it. Hard to get excited about any of it. MACARONI NOODLES feels horribly redundant. MACARONI is noodles. You don't have to say "NOODLES." We know. Because that's what MACARONI is. Figuring that one out got a definite "ugh, no" out of me. Speaking of redundancy, yesterday we had the absurd AZURE BLUE, which, like MACARONI NOODLES, is clearly redundant, and here we are, one day later, and whaddya know? There's AZURE, all on its own (52D: Sky blue). It's almost like you don't even need the BLUE part. . . 

This puzzle started out very easy. Remarkably easy. I wrote in PAPAW like "I dunno ... not sure about that one" (1D: Oblong yellowish fruit). But then every other Down checked out and very quickly I was here:

The long Downs, while providing the only real points of interest today, also provided the only real resistance. ROPE TRICK was easy enough (got it with no crosses whatsoever), but NOT SO FUN, hoo-wee (hooey? hoo-whee?), that was NOT SO FUN to parse (8D: Unenjoyable, to put it mildly). I'm not sure the clue goes that well with the answer. The clue seems to suggest something very Very "unenjoyable," but NOT SO FUN does not convey very Very. Or even just very. If you are going for "deeply ironic understatement," OK, but NOT SO FUN does, in fact, seem mild. About the same mildness as "Unenjoyable." So the clue really threw me. Plus it's just hard to parse a three-word answer, especially since "Unenjoyable" is just one word. I was prepared for two words (maybe "NO something"), but three surprised me a little. When I finally tried NOT SO FUN and realized that all the crosses would work OK, I just had to cross my fingers and go with it. Was not at all certain I had it right, but it was the best I could do. A little less tough, but still a bit of a struggle, was NAKED LIE (37D: Obvious untruth). I basically got that one by trying out LIE at the end and then mentally testing "N" words in front of it. I had a teeny bit of trouble with PLOT HOLES, but only because I assumed (wrongly) that the only letter that the only thing VI-LA could be was VILLA. Also, once I got ELMER, I figured I'd be looking for some guy named ELMER. A Fudd or a Gantry, something like that. So I had to make GLUE appear via the Down crosses, which, thankfully, weren't that hard to turn up. The end.

Other things:

• 24D: Truck radio user (CBER) — that's an entry I'd tear my grid APART to get rid of, especially on a Monday. It's not hard so much as it is ugly. It reeks of olden crosswordese. Another answer I'd ditch is PAP. This is more a matter of personal taste. Nothing wrong with PAP, technically. I just find the answer repellent ... texturally. Pre-mushed food? Only in the case of a crossword emergency. Change YIP to GIN and everything's golden. GIN > PAP every time. 
• 12D: Tired and predictable (BANAL) — really wanted this to be TRITE. Really really wanted it to be TRITE. And then I really wanted it to be STALE. Really really wanted it to be STALE. 
• 32A: Family member who usually goes by one name (PET) — first of all, Santa's Little Helper. Second of all, does anyone in a family go by more than one name? What strangely formal family is this where they're all calling each other by their full names? I didn't look at Across clues while I was solving, but when I did look at this clue (just now), my first thought was "MOM?"

• 55A: Performer prone to theatrics (DIVA) — was wondering "when are we gonna see DIVA clued as [___ cup]?" (mainly because we're rewatching the first season of Hacks, which has a recurring DIVA cup joke in one episode). But then I went and looked it up and it turns out that while DIVA has not been clued this way before, DIVACUP has actually already appeared in the NYTXW, courtesy of none other than my First-Wednesday-of-Every-Month fill-in, Malaika Handa. Here's my write-up of that puzzle (Aug. 15, 2023). Did not expect to be dwelling on the menstrual potential of answers today, but I watch the TV shows I watch, and my brain goes where it goes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Comeuppance for package thief / TUE 2-11-20 / Ballet position on tiptoe / Actress Merrill of "BUtterfield 8"

Constructor: Neil Padrick Wilson and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium (in the mid/high 3's)

THEME: FLYING / COLORS (33A: With 35-Across, complete success ... or a hint to 18-, 23-, 46- and 51-Across) — things that feature literal FLYING / COLORS:

Theme answers:

• LASER SHOW (18A: Lighting display at many a rock concert)
• RAINBOW FLAG (23A: Symbol of pride)
• GLITTER BOMB (46A: Comeuppance for a package thief)
• PAINTBALL (51A: Sport that can leave you with welts)

Word of the Day: GLITTER BOMB (46A) —

Glitter bombing is an act of protest in which activists throw glitter on people at public events. Glitter bombers have frequently been motivated by, though not limited to, their targets' rape apologism or opposition to same-sex marriage.

Some legal officials argue glitter bombing is technically assault and battery. It is possible for glitter to enter the eyes or nose and cause damage to the cornea or other soft tissues potentially irritating them or leading to infection, depending on the size of the glitter. Whether a prosecutor would pursue the charges depends on a number of factors. (wikipedia)

• • •

[Comeuppance for a package thief]???? Please see the Word of the Day definition, above, to understand why this was the clue I struggled with the most today. I know glitter bombing only as a form of political protest. Are there really people who devote time to turning the foiling of porch pirates into a lavish art project? What insanely narrow context is this and why not just go with the much more common meaning of this word, especially since it's a modern / new term. Does the package literally explode in their face... with glitter? That still sounds dangerous. Bizarre. Seriously, just google [define glitter bomb] and every page will tell you it's a form of political protest. Too bad they bricked this clue so badly—the theme is actually very inventive. [update: I'm told this is some genre of youtube prank video ... ok] The fill in this puzzle, however, is all over the place. The long Downs give the grid much needed pizzazz, though the most original long Down, IT'S A BIG IF, feels out of tune (5D: "Things may well not happen the way you suppose")—you'd say THAT'S A BIG IF in response to someone else's "if." That may seem a small distinction, but not to my ear. I like what that answer was trying to do, though. Did not like the garbage dump of fill in the NW (ADWARE LEERAT singular ARREAR), but once you get out of there, things even out, and the objectionable stuff is less dense. Ultimately, this one is wobbly, but it holds up.


I've been in universities, and English departments specifically, for my whole adult life, and I can count the number of times I've heard the term "Lit CRIT" to describe a "class" (or, really, anything) on no hands. OK, maybe one, but honestly, it's not a thing. I promise you. It keeps showing up in crosswords because of inertia (this is suuuuuuuuuuch a common phenomenon), but it's good to reality-check your clues and answers every decade or so, and every time I see this clue on CRIT, I wince. I also wince because CRIT is just bad fill. So, double wince. There's a rapper called Big K.R.I.T. Maybe try him.


Jarring also to be told that I'LL BET is a thing when two-to-three hundred times a year (roughly) I'm asked to believe that I BET is a thing. What's next, I WILL BET! I SHALL BET! BET SHALL I! I WILL PUT A NOT INSIGNIFICANT WAGER ON THIS EVENT! Another word no one uses ever: OATEN (57A: Like granola, largely). We all tacitly agree to let it go 'cause we've seen it before and are 99% sure it's in a dictionary somewhere, and maybe we're just secretly glad it's not OATY (yes, OATY happens). But OATEN is a THUD for me. Every time. POPO is real enough slang, but somehow in the "mouth" of the puzzle it always feels ... well, like this:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Obsolescent aid for businessperson / SAT 11-9-19 / Stereotypical exclamation from Hercule Poirot / Aircraft that excels at water landings / Rapturous reception for Oprah Winfrey / Corporate shuffle for short

Constructor: Neil Padrick Wilson

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but once I got going, there wasn't much resistance—plus Twitter is *awash* in 'PERSONAL BEST SATURDAY TIME!" notices...)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FLOAT PLANE (11D: Aircraft that excels at water landings) —

A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. (wikipedia)

• • •

Solving first thing in the morning, my brain just doesn't operate quite right. I printed this one out, put it on the clipboard, sat down in the comfy chair to solve, and the first answer I went to was 23A: "And this affects me ... how?" Like, why would I do that? Why would I start there? That's' just weird. Maybe my eye caught the clue and its strange colloquialness just piqued my interest, I dunno. But I do know I spent like a minute just poking around that answer ("OK. SO?") and its crosses (I could get only EON and OPTTO). Then I was like "huh, well, this has been fun, wonder what the rest of the puzzle is like," hopped just an inch over to the NW (traditional crossword starting point!) and TEN INAPT NAPE ACHE whooooosh, off I went. ASPERUSUAL off the ASP-, "SUPER FREAK" off of nothing (an enormous gimme), and on and on. No idea if solving in the evening on computer would've gotten me a record Saturday time, but it seems possible. Only issues were spelling of MADEA (classical theater lover in me just instinctively went "MED-"), and, oddly, WOMAN, whose clue (44D: Amazon, e.g.) was ... I mean, accurate, I guess, but a bit like using ["Moby-Dick," e.g.] as a clue for BOOK or [Jack Lemmon, e.g.] as a clue for HUMAN BEING. Got the WOM- part and for a half-second thought I must have had something wrong. Then WOMAN dropped. OK. So?


I am trying to pinpoint why I didn't find this one very exciting, despite the fact that it's trying so hard. I like many answers in it. I like "SUPER FREAK" (even if the clue was Way too easy). I like SNOOZEFEST, I like "NO PROBLEMO!" (very early-Bart-Simpson). But ENGLISH TEA and FLOAT PLANE and USED AS BAIT and UTTER BORES (plural) felt like a wordlist dump. Who would even think to put ENGLISH TEA in a puzzle. I know ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA (too long for any non-Sunday grid), but ENGLISH TEA? FLOAT PLANE is a thing, for sure, but feels technical in a way that it's hard to imagine someone's really *wanting* that answer. ZORRO MASK looks cool, but isn't that just a mask? Like, a black mask that covers just your eyes? There's a movie called "The Mask of Zorro." The thing that really makes the Zorro look, besides the sword, is the hat. USED AS BAIT is a verb phrase that feels very iffy as a standalone answer. USE AS BAIT, USES AS BAIT, USING AS BAIT, are these all good? I'm fumbling around here trying to put my finger on why I didn't find this groovy, despite there not being much junk at all (TGI and NOTUS were my only real "ick" moments). I think it's that it doesn't have a voice. It doesn't feel like a human made it. Constructors, at their best, have voices, personalities, they have a feel to their puzzles. "Voice" is the best term I can think of. This one doesn't have a distinctive voice. It's like ... somewhere in the uncanny valley of Saturday puzzles. Like, it's very puzzle-like, very passable, and yet there's something ... off. Like a super-sophisticated but not-sophisticated-enough robot made it. "This is human fun, yes!?" I mean ...yes? I'm not outraged. But I didn't have a blast. "Your hot dog buns come in OCTETs, yes!?" Sure they do, Puzzy. Sure they do.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Literally dwarf dog / FRI 1-4-19 / Small mammals that secrete musk used in perfumes / Heraldic charge indicating supposed illegitimate birth / Certain mideast native / Avid fan of Stephenie Meyer young adult series / Serengeti stampeders

Constructor: Neil Padrick Wilson

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (skewed pretty easy until I hit the upper NE) (6:03)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: BAR SINISTER (11D: Heraldic charge indicating supposed illegitimate birth) —

In heraldry, a bend is a band or strap running from the upper dexter (the bearer's right side and the viewer's left) corner of the shield to the lower sinister (the bearer's left side, and the viewer's right). Authorities differ as to how much of the field it should cover, ranging from one-fifth (if shown between other charges) up to one-third (if charged alone). The supposed rule that a bend should occupy a maximum of one-third of the field appears to exclude the possibility of three bends being shown together, but contrary examples exist. Outside heraldry, the term "bend (or bar) sinister" is sometimes used to imply illegitimacy, though it is almost never true that a bend sinister has this significance, and a "bar sinister" cannot, by its nature, exist. [...] The usual bend is occasionally called a bend dexter when it needs to contrast with the bend sinister, which runs in the other direction, like a sash worn diagonally from the left shoulder (Latin sinistermeans left). The bend sinister and its diminutives such as the baton sinister are rare as an independent motif; they occur more often as marks of distinction. The term "bar sinister" is an erroneous term when used in this context, since the "bar" in heraldry refers to a horizontal line. [...] Sir Walter Scott is credited with inventing the phrase bar sinister, which has become a metonymic term for bastardy. Heraldry scholar Arthur Charles Fox-Davies and others state that the phrase derives from a misspelling of barre, the French term for bend. Despite its not being a real heraldic symbol (a bar cannot actually be either dexter or sinister since it is horizontal), bar sinister has become a standard euphemism for illegitimate birth. (wikipedia) (my emph. / my emph.)

• • •

Also:

In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon(shield). (wikipedia) 

I had to look up the answer *and* the clue phrase on that one. Yikes. This puzzle was pretty easy until the NE, where that top 3x5 section very nearly did me in. I don't really know SABRA, in that ... I have only ever seen it in crosswords, and even now, before looking it up, can't tell you with confidence what one is. I think it's something Israeli, but ??? Hang on ... Aha!

A Sabra (Hebrew: צבר‬, tzabar) is a Jew born on Israeli territory. (wikipedia)

So, you know, ballpark! But vague awareness of the term didn't help. At all. For a while I had just -A-R- and zero idea how anyone could make any "native" out of that. Also, typically, was not sure if "Mideast" meant Middle East or, like, middle part of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. Is that a thing? Looks like yeah, kinda. Here's an example:

Anyway, almost zero hope up there with SABRA. And something even closer to zero hope with SFC—oy, military classifications. So crosswordesey. Keeping them straight is like keeping all the UK military awards straight. DSO? OBE? RAF? ISAY? Even with -FC I thought maybe PFC (which, yes, is a thing: Private First Class). SFC is Sergeant First Class. Somehow I was able to guess the "B" after getting -ARSINISTER (Simon Bar Sinister ... is that someone??? Yes! He was a mad scientist on "Underdog," one of my favorite cartoons as a child!)

Guessing the "B" made me remember SABRA was a thing so I tried the "S" and boom, done! But man did lose a lot of time up there. Didn't help that it took me longer than it should've to get both ARIA (13D: It might have a cadenza ... I think I guessed SOFA at one point) and CORGI (18A: Literally, "dwarf dog" ... I wanted something like SIRIUS ... some constellation or something). Ironically, I've been listening to a lot of ARIAs lately, as I have developed a low-grade opera enthusiasm. I know nothing about opera, so it's all new and interesting to me. Do you all know this new opera podcast, "ARIA Code"? It's wonderful. I'm knee-deep in "La Traviata" because of it. Where was I? Oh right, I tanked the NE big time. The rest, mostly easy.


The longer answers in the SW were much friendlier and (to my mind) much nicer than their NE counterparts. I MEAN, REALLY! = divine. Most of the rest of this is fine. Lots of colloquial sass. I probably lost many seconds out of pure defiance when I, for the life of me, couldn't remember "Twilight." I could see the book cover. I could see the actors. But my brain just wouldn't click onto the dang title. Kept coming back to it, and it kept not coming back to me. "TWIHARD," ugh (22A: Avid fan of a Stephenie Meyer young adult series). Where are the TWIHARDs now? Those books weren't good (well, the one I bothered reading). I still can't believe that was a phenomenon. It really died ... hard. My only other sticking point came when I had -O--L for 50D: Texter's "too funny" and guessed LOLOL. Do people still do ROTFL? ROFL? Feels dated for some reason. I'm much more likely to write LOLOL despite the fact that the letters don't really mean anything once you get past the LOL part. I just think of the extra OL as an intensifier. You can add as many as you need. Did you know I was the first person to put XOXO in a daily NYT crossword. It's true. I had no idea, but then I saw the stats and was like "Dang! Look at me, putting such tenderness out into the crossword databases of the world!" Very on-brand.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. there's a Slate piece that came out yesterday about Tuesday's whole 2D/racial slur controversy. Not much in the way of new or surprising info, but it's a decent summation of the issues involved.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Devon cathedral city / TUE 1-31-17 / Hilarity in Internet-speak / Seinfeld stock character / Sean who played Mikey in Goonies / Pope who excommunicated Martin Luther / Item that might be wanted fervently by prisoner

Constructor: Neil Padrick Wilson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (somewhat north of my normal Tuesday time)

THEME: IN A BOTTLE (61A: Words that can follow the ends of the answers to the starred clues) — what it says:

Theme answers:

• CARGO SHIP (18A: *Vessel with a  large hold)
• QUALITY TIME (23A: *What a family spends together at the dinner table) (big assumption)
• FORKED LIGHTNING (whatever that is) (38A: *Branches in a storm?)
• TEXT MESSAGE (55A: *Its arrival may be signaled by a ding) (you're thinking microwave oven)

Word of the Day: Channing FRYE (43A: 6'11" Channing of the N.B.A.) —

Channing Thomas Frye (born May 17, 1983) is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6'11" power forward–center played college basketball for the University of Arizona. He was drafted eighth overall by the New York Knicks in the 2005 NBA draft, and was the first college senior to be selected in that draft. He has previously played for the Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, and Orlando Magic. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was brutal, as my wife can attest, as I could hear her laughing from the next room at my groans and profanity. Let's leave aside the fact that I have no idea what FORKED LIGHTNING is. None. That "K" was the last letter, and there were a few seconds in there where I thought "O my god I'm going to get Naticked on a Tuesday" (I may even have said this out loud, hang on ... wife says yes, I did). Also, SIR BARTON!?!? But whatevs, let's say those are Greeeeat answers and get to the two big problems. First, the theme. IN A BOTTLE!? Revealers can't just be random phrases. That phrase can't stand alone. I did something like this once with an ALL IN revealer, but ALL IN is a stand-alone phrase, and in my puzzle it preceded a lot of other phrases, not just the first / last word. IN A BOTTLE is a very weak revealer, and the whole theme feels like an interesting concept that got destroyed on execution. But the (much) bigger problem was the fill. I wasn't out of the NW before I was saying "Oh, no, this is gonna be bad." When you can't get out of a corner on a *Tuesday* without ABU and Dan bleeping ISSEL, yikes. And I knew ISSEL. I remember him from my childhood. But no. No. And it got worse from there. Eventually, the number of non-word / abbr.-words got downright comical. INCOG *and* COHAB!? What is happening? AGAZE? O, man, no.


Bullets:

• Channing FRYE — unless you are a pretty serious basketball fan, you don't know who that is
• LOLZ — I thought "lulz" was the preferred ... plural? 

• LE OX — it goes in Le YOKE

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...