Org with World Factbook / WED 9-4-19 / Extinct relative of ostrich / Detective show whose premiere episode was directed by Steven Spielberg / Genre introduced to Grammys in 1989 / Go Set Watchman setting

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: ha ha, apparently Easy, but my time was Medium-Challenging (4:44)

THEME: ice cream cones — three answers depict different cone orders: a SINGLE , DOUBLE, and TRIPLE SCOOP, consisting of some combination (I guess) of VANILLA, CHOCOLATE, and/or PISTACHIO

Theme answers:

• OV (14D: Yum! This won't last long, though!)
• OOV (31D: I bet these flavors taste great together!)
• OOOV (56D: Wow! Look at the size of this thing!)

Word of the Day: MOA (30A: Extinct relative of an ostrich) —

Moa were nine species (in six genera) of now-extinct flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 m (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kg (510 lb). It is estimated that, when Polynesians settled New Zealand circa 1280, the moa population was about 58,000.

MOA, Haast's Eagle, and me

Moa belong to the order Dinornithiformes, traditionally placed in the ratite group. However, their closest relatives have been found by genetic studies to be the flighted South American tinamous, once considered to be a sister group to ratites. The nine species of moa were the only wingless birds lacking even the vestigial wings that all other ratites have. They were the dominant herbivores in New Zealand's forest, shrubland, and subalpine ecosystems for thousands of years, and until the arrival of the Māori, were hunted only by Haast's eagle. Moa extinction occurred around 1300–1440 ±20 years, primarily due to overhunting by Māori. (wikipedia)

• • •

The constructor, depicted here at the
2014 ACPT with an imaginary MOA

Well, I see that lots of people are setting personal best times on this one, but I'm guessing they were fully awake. I solved this at 5am, first thing out of bed, and the whole gimmick just didn't compute, especially the cone pictures, which had clues, so ... I thought they should actually form words, especially since the Os kept seeming like they wanted to be the starts of OH or OOH or OOOH.  So my brain never fully grasped that those answers were supposed to look like cones. Also some stuff was just not for me. If you put "dog" in a clue for a three-letter answer that begins with "C" then I'm putting in CUR, that's just how that works. Ugh. Very much resent [Dirty *dog*] for CAD. I don't know the ranks of people in "Sound of Music" :( and despite knowing very well what a RABBLE is I couldn't see it to save my life, even with the "R" in place, so the NE corner alone had me flailing around badly.


Further, I can never remember who this MCKAY person is (even though I've said this before) (53D: Adam who directed "Vice" and "The Big Short"), and wow that is the weirdest CIA clue I've ever seen (43D: Org. with a World Factbook). Rest of the puzzle was indeed pretty easy, but the above issues caused me to come out very much on the slow end of things. Oh, the other thing I resent about this puzzle: PISTACHIO???? Yuck, what? That flavor seems very much not iconic (anymore?). Also, I had the CHI- at the end of it and figured it *had* to be some kind of CHIP. PISTACHIO is not a flavor I think of, ever, when I think of ice cream. So, again, 5am me just couldn't process this theme effectively. I love that the grid is wonky and asymmetrical, though I can't say I love the theme answer placement (random) or the cluing (either [See this, see that] or those cone clues. Cone answers look cool, but I don't like the cluing on them at all. Oh, and the clues on the flavors? I mean, look at them. [Ice cream flavor]. That's it. Three times. That's boring. Like a TRIPLE SCOOP cone in mid-summer, this was tasty but messy.


Other things that happen when you try to speed thru a puzzle at 5am: eyes got only as far as "Vladimir" in the clue 5D: Leader born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (LENIN), and I had the -IN, so I wrote in PUTIN. I read [Had a competition] at 47A: Had a conniption, so LOST IT took a few stabs. We've already gone over the whole CUR issue (in both these places, as with my first pass at PISTACHIO, the letters I had in place before looking at the clue really really misled me). Rest of the grid was pretty VANILLA. I knew the "COLUMBO" clue right off the bat (10D: Detective show whose premiere episode was directed by Steven Spielberg), so that really should've opened up that recalcitrant NE corner, but all it did was give me the "C" that made me think 10A: Dirty dog was CUR. Pah, bah, and pish. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Big outdoor gear retailer / MON 4-15-19 / Evergreens with fragrant wood / Tax org undergoing some reform in this puzzle's circled squares / Where heads of Pacific are found

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer and Samuel A. Donaldson

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:43) (one second off personal record)

THEME: "I.R.S." reform (69A: Tax org. undergoing some "reform" in this puzzle's circled squares) — IRS has been "reformed" (scrambled) all five different ways inside of today's five long theme answers:

Theme answers:

• GANGES RIVER (18A: It flows from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal)
• TENNIS RACKET (20A: Piece of sports equipment with strings)
• "AS I RECALL..." (36A: "If memory serves...")
• EASTER ISLAND (55A: Where heads of the Pacific are found?)
• DOLLAR SIGNS (60A: $ $ $)

Word of the Day: Cumberland GAP (19D: Cumberland ___) —

The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains, near the junction of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.

Famous in American colonial history for its role as a key passageway through the lower central Appalachians, it was an important part of the Wilderness Road and is now part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.

Long used by Native Americans, the Cumberland Gap was brought to the attention of settlers in 1750 by Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and explorer. The path was used by a team of frontiersmen led by Daniel Boone, making it accessible to pioneers who used it to journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee. (wikipedia)

• • •

"Tax reform" is a thing (13.6 million hits). "IRS reform" is not (22.9 thousand hits). That pretty much kills this theme. I mean, I actually liked it fine as a themeless. The grid is fairly clean. The so-called "theme" answers are colorful enough. But when you have a theme like this (actually, with any theme) you have to stick the landing. The revealer here just tries to get cute, tries to apply a term ("reform") to a word ("I.R.S.") it doesn't properly go with. Also, o my god please let me renew my Hatred of "?" clues on themers when they are not all "?" clues. If your theme is one of those wacky themes, then yeah, bring on the "?" clues. But don't put a "?" on a lone theme clue with wackiness is absolutely not part of the theme. It's just confusing. I know you believe your clue is clever and needs to be heard, but save it for the proper time. In a stray "?" themer is not the proper time. Now, they get in literally every IRS permutation possible, which is nice. And, I mean, it's timely, as today is tax day. But this one whiffed on the revealer and leaned a Little heavy on the crosswordese (SSTS *and* SSR?? Not to mention the ostentatiously anagrammed crosswordese pair of SRTA and TSAR). So I give it a MIDDLE C. Neither rave nor pan. A do-over. Or LET, if you will (65A: Serve that nicks the net).


Came straight down the west coast on this one and didn't have a second's hesitation until ... well, actually, I don't know when. I can never remember which is EINE and which is EINS, so I left that last letter blank at first (54A: German article). I balked at "AS I RECALL..." and LAPEL at first pass. I hesitated slightly at MIDDLEC because I had the back end of it first (-LEC) and it just looked weird. Oh, and of course the "?" on EASTER ISLAND. 95% of this puzzle's difficulty (such as it was) lay in that one "?" clue (55A: Where heads of the Pacific are found?). One of the good things about this puzzle's being so easy was I actually never saw that NRA was in the puzzle. I missed it. Completely. Ignorance is bliss! But now I'm not ignorant, only angry that constructors are still using this answer when they don't have to, and the editor keeps on letting them. Boo, hiss, etc. Why shill for that murderous org. if you don't have to? Cut it out.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. re: 63A: PBS-funding org. (NEA)—the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) funds PBS. From the CPB's FAQ: "PBS is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned by its member public television stations. PBS distributes programming to nearly 350 locally owned and operated public television stations across the country and is funded principally by these member stations and by CPB" (emph. mine)

P.P.S. If you like stories of editorial incompetence, please read this behind-the-scenes account of yesterday's crossword and how it came to be published. Truly inspiring stuff ...

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1992 Joe Pesci title role / WED 10-17-18 / One of 18 French kings / Siri's digital cousin / Mama lobster

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:28)

THEME: a stack of PANCAKEs — three PANCAKEs and then, beneath them, a PLATE (68A: Item that might go under several answers in this puzzle) ... Oh, and off to the sides, two [Syrup brand]s (AUNT JEMIMA and HUNGRY JACK)

PANCAKES:

• 21A: Kind of makeup
• 38A: Flatten
• 56A: Breakfast food item 

Word of the Day: SNELL (51D: Fishhook line) —

noun

1. 1. 

   a short line of gut or horsehair by which a fishhook is attached to a longer line. (google)

• • •

I assume the MAGIC (1A: Sorcery) is what's making these damned PANCAKEs levitate, but I don't know why in the world you'd use two types of syrup, or pour both of them off to the side of your PLATE. This whole theme is so nuts that I kind of like it, but visually it makes no sense. Or, not much, anyway. Weird grid shape opens up room for some nice long Downs, which are the real highlight of the puzzle, for me (I mean, from a puzzle-solving standpoint—hard to really "like" the PANCAKE thing as a solver because, well, once I got the second PANCAKE, the third one, and the PLATE, were just too easy). Forgot that HUNGRY JACK was a kind of syrup (can't say I've ever seen or had it), and would like to forget that AUNT JEMIMA is a kind of syrup (because of the racism). Too bad MRS. BUTTERWORTH or LOG CABIN wouldn't fit symmetrically in this one. The hardest part of this puzzle for me was, honestly, nothing. Seemed to fill itself in. I did balk at 64A: 10 bucks, in slang (DIME), which tells you how much into drugs I am (I know this use of DIME only in reference to the phrase "DIME bags," which is a quantity of marijuana, as I understand it, I don't really know, I'm quite square) (actually, I do know, I looked it up to make sure).


Five things:

• 6A: Serving of butter, as might go on top of several answers in this puzzle (PAT) — haha just noticed this alleged themer. My eyes must've just stopped at "serving of butter." PAT is pretty bad here. BUTTER, as they say, is (or would be) better. Yeah, it's six letters and can't sit in the center blah blah blah MAKE IT WORK! NIX the PAT!
• 39D: With 40-Down, something tapped at a pub (ALE / KEG) — considering the symmetrical positioning of these answer parts ... are we eating these PANCAKEs in a bar? If so, where is this bar and how do I get there?
• 50A: Siri's digital cousin (ALEXA) — wait, is Siri analog? 
• 4D: "Licensed to ___" (1986 Beastie Boys album) ("ILL") — uh, I think I am only just now learning that it's "LicenseD" and not "License"
• 27A: Hearing-related + 28A: Christianity, for one (AURAL FAITH) — I like when rows of answer make interesting phrases, like the names of hypothetical Christian metal bands

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1977 Warhol subject / SUN 7-2-17 / Cinematic composer Andre / Zombie flaming volcano / Revolver song McCartney described as ode to pot / Old movie theater lead-ins / pommes frites seasoning

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "The Long and Winding Road" — black squares form a long and winding road, of sorts, and then some answers need to go (or, maybe, "do it"?) in the road for one square to make sense. The road squares then spell out the name of another Beatles' tune: "DRIVE MY CAR" (as in, "Baby you can...")

Theme answers:

• "YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME" (22A: "With the Beatles" song written by Smokey Robinson)
• "GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE" (118A: "Revolver" song that Paul McCartney described as "an ode to pot")
• "AND I LOVE HER" (35D: "A Hard Day's Night" song that Lennon called McCartney's "first 'Yesterday'")
• "LADY MADONNA" (30D: "Hey Jude" song that mentions every day of the week but Saturday)
• "FIXING A HOLE" (48D: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" song whose title is followed by "where the rain gets in") (this ... is not themer-famous. The others are all iconic songs (even if one is iconic primarily because of Smokey). "FIXING A HOLE," on the other hand, is what we call "symmetrical...")
  
• "ALL MY LOVING" (40D: "With the Beatles" song playing in the E.R. when Lennon died)

Puzzle Note (.puz version):

Word of the Day: C.P. SNOW (91A: "Strangers and Brothers" novelist) —

Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, CBE (15 October 1905 – 1 July 1980) was an English physical chemist and novelist who also served in several important positions in the British Civil Service and briefly in the UK government. He is best known for his series of novels known collectively as Strangers and Brothers, and for The Two Cultures, a 1959 lecture in which he laments the gulf between scientists and "literary intellectuals". (wikipedia)

• • •

I could see the road straight off. I figured this was some kind of anniversary tribute puzzle, but I don't know what the anniversary is. "Sgt. Pepper's" was released on *June* 2, 1967, so it's close to the 50th anniversary of that event. But I think this puzzle probably has nothing specific to commemorate. It's just a nifty little architectural feat. I don't quite understand the wording of the "Note": "... another example of the theme"? What is ... that? You mean "another song"? "Another theme answer"? What is happening, road-wise is much more complex and interesting than whatever "another example of the theme" suggests. You drive a car on a road (I mean, mostly, I assume), so that particular song is particularly apt in terms of its placement on the "long and winding road." The road did weird things to the grid. On the one hand, it gave it a cool, distinctive look. On the other, it created huge banks of short fill that were particularly awful to trudge through. The west has TAV (wasn't sure it wasn't TAVI or TAV-some other letter, as I have never ever ever in two+ decades of solving seen TAV in a grid (that I can remember). ELE is also rare (for a reason). Fill suffers, at least a little, all over—but then again, I can give the puzzle a lot of slack because of the virtuosic design. You're gonna have to eat some GDS if you want something this ornate.


I nearly failed to finish, as the tiny SSE portion was virtually impenetrable to me. Ran the song right through it, but ... Warhol painted ALI? Cape Horn is just a TIP!?!? (that is the one that irked me). TYPE (!?) used to be made of lead? Even getting SKIS (121A: Footwear for a run) and (esp.) LIST (109D: Officially go (for)) was brutal. And I was trapped. No help forthcoming. All I had was AROSE. I finally guessed SKIS, and that got me the traction I needed, but that was a harrowing 10-, 20, 30 seconds, whatever it was. Beatles songs were all familiar, so all the strangeness / weirdness / difficulty was effectively counterbalanced, resulting in a Sunday puzzle of average Sunday difficulty.


Two crossword tournaments are coming up very soon. First (well, chronologically second), there's Lollapuzzoola 10 (!), the greatest (and, now, onliest) crossword tournament in New York (Saturday, Aug. 19). 200+ solvers, zany and inventive puzzles, summertime in New York ... what more could you want? Then there's Boswords, a Boston-area crossword tournament happening a couple weeks earlier (Sunday, Aug. 6). It's the inaugural tourney. The constructors for that one are pretty great (OK half of them are my friends, but my friends make pretty great puzzles). I'm going to both tournaments, because why not? (Actually, I'm going to Lolla because I always go to Lolla (barring scheduling conflicts), and I'm going to Boswords because my friend and podcasting partner Lena lives in Somerville, MA, so I don't need much of a shove to get me out there—I'm headed out there today, in fact). OK, so, get in on the late-summer tourney fun. Come meet your fellow puzzle-dorks. They are lovely humans.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Szezecin resident / WED 2-15-17 / Poet who wrote in dreams begins responsibility / Obama adviser Valerie / Crewmate of Sulu and Bones / Prov north of Northumberland Strait

Constructor: Jesse Eisenberg and Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: snowman made of food — Themers are food items that contain the names of body parts, clued as if they were being used to build a snowman...

Theme answers:

• CHERRY PITS (17A: "We used some food to make a snowman. Under his arms we put ___")
• BUTTERFINGERS (27A: "The we gave him ___")
• HEAD OF LETTUCE (44A: On top we put a ___")
• EARS OF CORN (58A: "Finally, we stuck in two ___. Yum!") 

Word of the Day: TROY (55D: Weight classification) —

Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals and gemstones. There are 12 troy ounces per troy pound, (373.24 g) rather than the 16 ounces per pound (453.59 g) found in the more common avoirdupois system. The troy ounce is 480 grains, compared with the avoirdupois ounce, which is  437 ¹⁄₂ grains. Both systems use the same grain defined by the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 as exactly 0.064 798 91 gram. Although troy ounces are still used to weigh gold, silver, and gemstones, troy weight is no longer used in most other applications. (wikipedia)

• • •

[A note on this new and apparently recurring "Celebrity Crossword" phenomenon. Celebrities are human beings, and deserve all the basic considerations afforded to other human beings, so my objection to this way of "marking the 75th anniversary of the NYT crossword puzzle" is in no way personal. Having famous people co-construct is a simple publicity stunt that has nothing to do with making good puzzles, and has no clear relationship to crossword puzzles, period. How about you "celebrate" your anniversary by paying your crossword constructors (much) more. Then you might get back some of the constructors you've lost. Then you might get a better overall quality of crossword submission. Constructor pay actually relates *directly* to puzzle quality, which is all any solver cares about in the first place. The NYT crossword is, pound for pound, the most profitable part of the paper (esp. in stand-alone digital form), so how about you double constructor pay immediately and maybe I won't be so put off by self-congratulatory publicity stunts. That said, I think Jesse Eisenberg is a good writer and actor and I saw him in LAX once and he was far shorter than I imagined but still handsome. Oh, and Patrick Blindauer is good at making puzzles. I was at his first wedding. Just kidding, his only wedding ... so far! Just kidding, he is happily married and his family is adorable. OK: puzzle]

The snowman is oddly constructed. I don't expect realism in a nutso puzzle like this. I mean something about the themers and their clues doesn't quite cohere. Two of the clues give you location, two don't. BUTTERFINGERS is the answer that's bothering me the most, for several reasons. It's got one of those non-anatomically-specific clues, so figuring it out was tough. It's also the only themer where the food is not a fruit / vegetable. It's also the only themer where the food word changes meaning in the full answer, i.e. BUTTER is one thing, BUTTERFINGERS (candy bars) are another. So are the snowman's fingers made from sticks of butter, or candy bars? The former, I think, but the fact that the addition of FINGERS creates another, separate, not-on-the-snowman food ... was awkward.


Let me try again to say what's weird about the theme: with CHERRY PITS, I assume that it's actual cherries that go on the snowman, and that (arm) pits are what the cherry represents, i.e. you aren't putting the pits on him, you're putting cherries on him *as* (arm)pits. With HEAD OF LETTUCE, however, I assume the head of lettuce represents the snowman's head *and* is the actual thing you put on the snow man. Same with corn: you put the whole ear of corn where the snowman's ears should be. HEAD OF LETTUCE is the head, EARS OF CORN are the ears, but CHERRY PITS are not the armpits. Cherries are the armpits. Same for BUTTERFINGERS—I don't put BUTTERFINGERS on the snowman; I put butter on the snowman *to represent* the fingers. So with two themers, the answer is the literal, actual thing I would put on the snowman, but with two others, there's a different form of wordplay involved, where I have to reimagine the literal meaning of the themer in order to picture what goes where on the snowman. This lengthy explanation is one of the saddest things I've ever written, but I feel it is necessary to convey the offness of this theme, which, otherwise, is harmless and even mildly enjoyable (the idea that one might think a snowman's pits in need of a visual signifier is absurd in the best possible way) (Kid, building snowman: "Ma, what're we gonna use for his pits?!" Ma: [worries her son has been out in the cold too long])


The rest of the puzzle is solid and smooth. Normally a whole lotta Scrabble-f***ing in a corner (today, the SW corner) would get side-eye from me, but all the JAZZ crosses work out very nicely. Nothing forced. This puzzle missed DARWIN's birthday by just three days (and Paula ZAHN's by nine). I had the most trouble in the SE, starting with CUT-OFFS, which I never considered a "style" of "jeans." Just something you do to your jeans with scissors when the lower part gets messed up or when you just need shorts real bad. So CUT- did not give the access to the SE that I needed. Then I couldn't get FELON (wanted FAKER or FEIGN or something actually [Counterfeiter]-specific). No idea where Szczecin is and since my brain pronounced it like "Chechen," that's the part of the world I kept thinking of (i.e. Chechnya, not Poland). Lastly, I had no idea, none, that TROY was a "weight classification"; that "T" was the very last letter to fall. So that corner was rough for me, but everything else fell to the easy side.

More snowman treatises tomorrow! Just kidding! Probably!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Peg solitaire puzzle brand / SUN 3-27-16 / Longtime soap actress Hall / Latin word in back of dollar bill / Composer of Windows 95 start-up sound / 1914 battle site / One-named hitmaker of 1950s-60s

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Pitch Imperfect" — famous advertising slogans, but with one word anagrammed into another word, creating wackiness and "?" clues and all that...

Theme answers:

• DON'T SQUEEZE THE RICH MAN ("Charmin")
• WE LOVE TO SEE YOU SLIME ("Smile") (what slogan is this??? oh ... looks like it was a McDonald's slogan for a few years in the early '00s)
• THIS DUB'S FOR YOU ("Bud's") (Budweiser)
• OBEY YOUR T-SHIRT ("Thirst") (is this Gatorade? Gah, YAH, Sprite! My bad...)
• THE FABRIC OF OUR VEILS ("Lives") (Cotton)
• YOU DESERVE A BAKER TODAY ("Break") (... another McDonald's!?!?! That seems ... like a foul)

Word of the Day: HI-Q (6D: Peg solitaire puzzle brand) —

Peg solitaire (or Solo Noble) is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. The game is known simply as Solitaire in the United Kingdom where the card games are called Patience. It is also referred to as Brainvita (especially in India). // The first evidence of the game can be traced back to the court of Louis XIV, and the specific date of 1687, with an engraving made that year by Claude Auguste Berey of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle by her side. The August, 1687 edition of the French literary magazine Mercure galant contains a description of the board, rules and sample problems. This is the first known reference to the game in print. // The standard game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole. The objective is, making valid moves, to empty the entire board except for a solitary peg in the central hole. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, it's my old pal, PB2 (PB1 = Patrick Berry). I didn't not understand this theme for the longest time. In fact, it wasn't until I was completely finished that I got the whole advertising slogan angle. I was too focused on random anagrams to notice much of anything else. I kept trying to find some kind of pattern, some rationale, and kept coming up empty. The advertising angle ties things together somewhat, but only very, very loosely. There's just not much (if any) logic to the anagramming. Sometimes it's the product name, sometimes it's not, sometimes the anagram's at the end of the phrase, sometimes it's not ... I don't know. And there are only six theme answers? With that few answers, I'd expect a much zippier and more colorful and cleaner grid than this one. With the exception of UNFRIENDED (79D: Cut ties with, in a way) and ROOMBA (76D: iRobot vacuum), this puzzle felt quite staid and dated. There were several patches of short fill that were very, very rough (ERES EVRY SEI RIEN—three languages in four adjacent answers?!; ISS SHH DEI OSHEA; TRURO DREI ESAU; etc.). It all felt somewhat old, somewhat uninspired, and the theme just didn't hang together neatly, or feel very special.


There must be a million advertising slogans, but it's actually probably very hard to find one where you can anagram a single word and make a wacky phrase out of it, so perhaps the theme is tighter, or at least harder to pull off, than I imagined at first. That said, the slogan seems to be "PLEASE Don't squeeze the Charmin," so some fudging has been allowed. That's fine. Was SMELT IN YOUR MOUTH, NOT IN YOUR HAND too long? Oh, yeah, way too long. GOOD TO THE LAST PROD? A LITTLE BAD'LL DO YA? LET YOUR FRINGES DO THE WALKING? THINK MALLS? I dunno. It's kind of fun to come up with these, but the concept still seems slightly weak. There's some hardcore old school proper noun crosswordese here, like TRURO and LEMA (both of which I learned from crosswords, both of which I've seen only in crosswords, only one of which I remembered today). ENDO ORDO AERO ... and then JEOPARDOUS, which is a word no one has ever used ever. I just kept waiting for this one to perk up, but it never did.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Daisy Mae's love in funnies / WED 12-3-14 / Mongolian for red / Jason who was 2000 A.L. M.V.P. / Nonpolygamous grouping / Swing Shift actress Christine / Suisse sweetheart

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: PANDA (38A: World Wildlife Fund logo … or a three-word hint to the answers to the four starred clues) — two-word phrases: first word P-, second word A- …

Theme answers:

• PARTY ANIMAL
• "PATCH ADAMS"
• PARK AVENUE
• PENNY ARCADE

Word of the Day: Jason GIAMBI (15A: Jason who was the 2000 A.L. M.V.P.) —

Jason Gilbert Giambi (/dʒiˈɑːmbi/; born January 8, 1971) is an American professional baseballfirst baseman and designated hitter who is a free agent. In his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, which began in 1995, he has played for the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Colorado Rockies and Cleveland Indians.

Giambi was the American League MVP in 2000 while with the Athletics, and is a five-time All-Star who has led the American League in walks four times, in on-base percentage three times, and in doubles and in slugging percentage once each, and won the Silver Slugger award twice.

Giambi took performance-enhancing drugs during his career, for which use he has publicly apologized. Giambi was named one of the Top 10 Most Superstitious Athletes by Men's Fitness. (wikipedia)

• • •

A light romp. Did it about a minute and a half faster than I did yesterday's puzzle, which is to say, I did it in reasonably normal Wednesday time. This feels like more of a Tuesday than a Wednesday concept; with a little cluing adjustment, this could've played yesterday and yesterday's could've played today, and while that would not necessarily made yesterday's puzzle more pleasant, it would've made it slightly more explicable. But enough about that, let's talk about this. It's very straightforward. It's a theme type I know I've seen before, possibly with CANDY (or the like) as the revealer. This is wordplay 101—take a common word, and then parse it differently, imagine it as multiple words, see where it leads you. Patrick's brain has been doing this in its sleep (and out of it) for years and years. There's nothing mind-boggling about this concept, or this grid, but the fill is reasonably clean and there are some interesting words and longer phrases, and so, as easy puzzles go, this seems like a success to me. I'm trying to think of other P and A phrases—seems like there should be a bunch—but I'm not having much success. PAUL ANKA, PLATE APPEARANCE (15!), PAPER AIRPLANE …


There's an added level of constructing difficulty here, as the themers cross. This is the reason that *these* themers (and not others) were chosen—they fit symmetrically in the grid. On the one hand, this gives the grid an interesting shape, with giant NW and SE corners (leaving only tiny NE and SW corners, and a rather choppy middle diagonal section connecting them). Sometimes it's nice not to have the themers be in the more predictable Across places. "PENNY ARCADE" is a popular, long-running webcomic, but I'm guessing that's well outside the knowledge base of your average NYT crossword solver. I'd've appreciated the comics clue, but only about a dozen other people would've felt the same, so oldey timey clue it is! I resent having to remember that "PATCH ADAMS" exists (not the way I want to remember Robin Williams), but having it in the grid did add to the list of potential answers for my "hidden African countries" puzzle (along with ANIMAL INSTINCTS (15!), that brings total such answers to two—I'm on my way!)


NYT still having issues with turnaround time. This puzzle was made in 2009 …

Patrick Blindauer has his own puzzle site where you can get a new free puzzle on the first of every month (which means there's a new one I haven't done yet … whoa … I'm doing it right now. The trick with the main theme answers is pretty amazing … go get it (under "Play")). He's also got a new Space Puzzlefest coming out later this month: a dozen puzzles that are part of a larger metapuzzle. Check it out.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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META-CHALLENGE SOLUTION

Here you go:

THEME: X MARKS THE SPOT / ALPHANUMERICS — if you take all the Xs in all the grids from the past week, in order, and change each one to a letter of the alphabet based on the number that's in its box (i.e. "X" in a box numbered "20" = T, "X" in a box marked "5" = E, etc.), you end up with the phrase

TEMPUS FUGIT (i.e. "time flies")

You can see the Xs in the today's grid are in the boxes numbered "7" (which represents "G", the 7th letter of the alphabet), "9" (which represents "I"), and "20" (which represents "T")—these are, as you can see, the last three letters in the solution phrase, "tempus fugit."

So the mathematical times symbol (i.e. "X") ends up indicating (via ALPHANUMERICS) the letters in a Latin phrase related to time.

[Note: "time flies" are the last words in the Tears for Fears video I posted Saturday. Not that that should've helped you any …]

Fugit-aboutit!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1977 PBS sensation / SAT 10-25-14 / Trumpeter Jones / Musical partner of DJ Spinderella Salt / Singer Aguilera's nickname / Mysore Palace resident / Sci-fi disturbances / Sassiness slangily

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Medium

[In lieu of a finished grid, please accept this picture of my dog balancing a cupcake on her head.]

THEME: none, except, you know, the META

Word of the Day: "PIE JESU" (42A: Requiem Mass part) —

Pie Jesu (original Latin: Pie Iesu) is a motet derived from the final couplet of the Dies irae and often included in musical settings of the Requiem Mass. // The settings of the Requiem Mass by Luigi Cherubini, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, John Rutter, Karl Jenkins and Fredrik Sixten include a Pie Jesu as an independent movement. Of all these, by far the best known is the Pie Jesu from Fauré's Requiem. Camille Saint-Saëns said of Fauré's Pie Jesu that "[J]ust as Mozart's is the only Ave verum corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu".

Andrew Lloyd Webber's setting of Pie Jesu in his Requiem (1985) has also become well known. It has been recorded by Sarah Brightman, Jackie Evancho, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Marie Osmond, Anna Netrebko, and others. Performed by Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston, it was a certified Silver hit in the UK in 1985. (wikipedia)

• • •

So I'm playing along with Management (NYT Management) and not posting the grid. Because Contest. Even though most people don't give a rap about the contest and would just as soon know what the meta is right now. I know, man. Believe me. I hear you. But since you don't even have to fully solve today's puzzle to get the meta-puzzle clues, I'm not sure how necessary a grid reveal is. If you were able to unveil the meta clues in today's puzzle *and* you have experience solving metas, then getting the answer should be a cinch. But don't feel bad if you're stumped. Many people's initial forays into meta-puzzling are fruitless and frustrating. But I love a good meta, and this one is at least good. My only problem is … I was right. About earlier grids—they were made weaker, fill-wise, because they were meta-weight-bearing, i.e. if there'd been no meta, Every Single One of the themed puzzles this week would've been better. But … on the whole, the puzzles weren't what I'd call "bad," and the meta is really quite nice.


I knew what the meta was before I solved this puzzle. I got an email from a well-known constructor telling me she was able to grok the meta early based on comments I'd made on my blog. This was surprising to me, as I had not solved the meta yet, and so anything I revealed via my blog was entirely accidental. So I made her tell me what it was I said that tipped her, and I was able to figure out the theme from there. My initial hunches were all good—there was just one little connection that I, a reasonably seasoned meta-solver, should've made, but didn't (a connection laid out pretty explicitly in today's grid). When she told me (or hinted at it, anyway), I did a sincere and hearty "D'oh!" The trick is something out of Meta-Solving 101, Rexy! Maybe 102. Anyway, many top meta-solvers were able to smoke out the meta answer early. I wasn't really trying very hard, but still, I think I should've seen what was up, considering I was sniffing around the right places.


OK, so … yeah. See you tomorrow, maybe. I forget what the prize is for this contest, but I hope you win it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Title carpenter of 1859 novel / FRI 10-24-14 / Flowering plant named for Greek god / Henchman first seen in Spy Who Loved Me / Richard March inventor rotary printing press / One with short hajj

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none — I mean, none on its own. There is, of course, the meta:

Word of the Day: Richard March HOE (25A: Richard March ___ (inventor of the rotary printing press)) —

Richard March Hoe (September 12, 1812 – June 7, 1886) was an American inventor who designed an improved printing press. […] In 1843, Richard invented a rotary printing press that placed the type on a revolving cylinder, a design much faster than the old flatbed printing press. It received U.S. Patent 5,199 in 1847, and was placed in commercial use the same year. In its early days, it was variously called the "Hoe lightning press," and "Hoe's Cylindrical-Bed Press," and was later developed into the "Hoe web perfecting press." (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, I don't think this puzzle has a theme, but who knows? I don't see anything "times"-related except a couple more "X"s (they're baaack…) and that lone watch clue for LCDS (4D: Watch things, for short). Maybe if I blacken all the letters in the word "TIMES," I'll get a picture of a beetle or a pterodactyl or Richard Simmons. I noticed that "ATE" appears 5 times (TIMES) in this grid. I don't think that means anything. I noticed "TEST" appears 3 times (TIMES) in this grid. I don't think that means anything either. I noticed that T.S. ELIOT is an anagram of TOILETS. You can do with that what you will. Mainly I noticed that this is the cleanest grid of the week, perhaps because it was the first one not required to do two things at once (i.e. have a theme *and* relate to the week-long meta somehow). Fill is mostly clean, and there's enough excitement in the SE corner for three puzzles. GIN JOINTS is easily my favorite answer in the whole damned puzzle.

Solved this one in a way that is increasingly familiar: slow start, then traction, *speed*, then slow finish (as, almost inevitably, the last place I arrive at in the puzzle is the toughest for me). At first I didn't have much besides EAU and STD and the incorrect FOBS (instead of LCDS). But for some reason [Patient looks?] all of a sudden became obvious (XRAYS), and that got me going. Never heard of an ORG CHART, but it was inferable, and so I was out of that corner pretty quickly after the initial push from XRAYS. Things sped up from there. The crosswordtastic LENYA got me into the SW and I destroyed that corner in a matter of seconds despite not knowing who UZO Aduba is (I guess I'll be seeing that last name in crosswords soon, too). LET IT BE instead of LET IT GO slowed me down a tad, but GANJA got me back in the game. EGOTISTS over ELITISTS at first (38D: They think they're special), but that didn't last long. Burned my way right up into the NE section, where I experienced my final, slower, push to completion after throwing up not CZARS but TSARS at 10D: Bygone emperors). This made ZIP UP and CRASS harder to get than they should've been. HOE was a mystery, but I expect he was designed to be. In the end, pressure from the words I did know in that corner forced TSARS to turn to CZARS and I was done.


Not sure why APTEST wasn't clued as an AP TEST, since we've already got one (even more strained) superlative adjective in the grid at SEDATEST. But I don't have any other nits, really. This was fine. Excited to see how all these puzzles tie together tomorrow. I've been asked not to comment on tomorrow's puzzle At All (because of the whole contest thingie …). I'll play that by ear. There will definitely be a post. Whether you'll get commentary or a grid, I don't know. Come back and find out, won't you?


Aw crap, I just realized that the first word of the first clue (1A: Times for speaking one's mind?) is TIMES so now it's back to that dimly lit room in my house where I keep all the clues and photos tacked to a wall and connected with pins and string like some cliché detective / serial killer in every hour-long murder drama on TV for the past two decades. I hate it in there!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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