Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Sam Berriman

Constructor: Sam Berriman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: not really, no — there's some Arthur Conan Doyle stuff, but I wouldn't call it a "theme"

Word of the Day: NED Kelly (17A: Infamous bushranger Kelly) —

Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police. [...] Historian Geoffrey Serle called Kelly and his gang "the last expression of the lawless frontier in what was becoming a highly organised and educated society, the last protest of the mighty bush now tethered with iron rails to Melbourne and the world". In the century after his death, Kelly became a cultural icon, inspiring numerous works in the arts and popular culture, and is the subject of more biographies than any other Australian. Kelly continues to cause division in his homeland: he is variously considered a Robin Hood-like folk hero and crusader against oppression, and a murderous villain and terrorist. Journalist Martin Flanagan wrote: "What makes Ned a legend is not that everyone sees him the same—it's that everyone sees him. Like a bushfire on the horizon casting its red glow into the night." (wikipedia)

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Couple problems here. One is this no-man's land theme/non-theme. When a puzzle cross-references, and crosses, two marquee answers like SHERLOCK HOLMES (1D: Guinness's second-most-portrayed literary character in film, after Dracula) and DEERSTALKER CAP (13A: Iconic accessory worn by 1-Down), you expect it to ... go somewhere. I was like "oh we're doing a theme on a Saturday, are we? That sucks." And then it turns out we were not, in fact, doing a theme on Saturday, and that also, somehow sucked. There's just not enough marquee material in this thing to start with—I figured what little there is would end up being all SHERLOCK HOLMES-related. Maybe one long Across or Down on each side of the puzzle. But no, just the two. Just the two sides. Went to the other sides hoping to find some rationale for the Holmes crossing, but all I found was a Michael Jackson song ("MAN IN THE MIRROR") (12D: One asked to "change his ways," per a 1988 hit), and a bunch of TEN-DOLLAR WORDS (45A: Sesquipedalia). Ten dollars!? Wow, inflation has really done a number on the price of those words—my high school English teacher used to say "don't use a twenty-five cent word when a nickel word will do." And now the half-dollar word is worth ten dollars. Crazy. (Apparently "twenty-five cent word" is also an acceptable term—wiktionary has several denominations listed, including "two-dollar" and "five-dollar," with the antonym to all those being "ten-cent" ... even the cheap words have doubled in price since I was in high school)

[two Michael Jackson songs! (28A: Get lost)]

So the non-theme theme was one problem. The other was the layout, which drives the number of 3-4-5-letter words sky high. There are ten longer answers, and that sounds like a lot, but they somehow get overwhelmed by all the short stuff, which includes virtually every answer *crossing* the longer answers, and then *all* the answers toward the middle. This dilutes the power of the longer stuff, which wasn't terribly strong to begin with, though I will say, I did love WHATABOUTISM (fresh) (11A: Deflection technique), and "WE'RE FRESH OUT" (also fresh [!] ... colloquial and fun) (11D: "Sorry, that's the last one"). But there's just too much OTS TBA EKEOUT ENT EIRE TSPS ATEAT CFO NIH-type stuff gumming up the grid. The SE corner is particularly gummy. All three answers under ENT are just letters: MFA IUD MRNA. If ENT had been clued as the doctor instead of the tree creature (34A: Tree creature of fiction), that would've created even more of a letter landslide. And all those all-initial answers are crossing TADAS, which is still the worst plural I've ever seen—and we've seen it three times this year, making 2024 the biggest year ever for TADAS. I hope the NYTXW resolves to bring that number down in 2025. I feel like I need a sign: "___ Days Since Last TADAS." Yeah, here we go.

No real difficulty today, especially considering it's Saturday. Had trouble with the PAGE part of SPORTS PAGE (1A: Fans flip for it) because I thought they flipped (as in "went crazy") for their favorite SPORTS TEAM, and anyway most fans don't read dead-tree newspapers anymore, so the "PAGE" part feels a bit last-century. Good clue, with a nice misdirection on "flip," but ... slightly dated. Also had some trouble up there because of PUKING (7D: First trimester woe, informally), which ... "informally?" LOL, yeah, I guess so. But what's the "formal" term? EMESIS? I was really looking for something much more pregnancy-specific. PUKING feels way more post-kegger than morning sickness, though I guess barfing is barfing is barfing. Speaking of, I'd rather not have barf in my puzzle at all. That is one element of the "breakfast test" that I can get behind: a barf ban. The only other sticking point for me today came at the end, in the SONGS BENDS ELLA section, largely because I had no idea who that ELLA was (43A: Jenkins known as "The First Lady of Children's Music"), but also because SONGS (37A: Singles, say) and BENDS (40A: Compromises) had tough / ambiguous clues. Otherwise, super-easy all around (for a Saturday).

Bullets:

23A: One for the books, in brief? (CFO) — "books" as in financial records; CFO = Chief Financial Officer.
25A: Feature of English, but not Chinese (TENSE) — Verb TENSE. I forgot this was true. I also forgot that TENSE had any homophones—literally said the word aloud to myself several times before hitting on TENTS, LOL (25D: Gear that's a homophone of 25-Across).
22D: Beverage that begins with a bee? (MEAD) — because MEAD is made by fermenting honey.
27A: Classic rubber dog toy (KONG) — this made me miss my dogs (d. 2019 and 2020, respectively). We still have their KONG toy around here somewhere.
4D: Singer in the family? (RAT) — the "family" here is the mafia, and a "singer" is one who violates omerta, who talks, who ... "sings."

10D: What's left of F1 (ESC) — I'll admit to cheating here. That is, I looked down at my keyboard. I never use my "F" keys (except the ones that control volume, which I identify by icon and not "F" number).
14D: Sources of retirement income (PENSION FUNDS) — definitely had PENSION PLANS in here at first.
18D: Paleolithic, for example (DIET) — technically true, though I've never heard the diet referred to as anything but "Paleo."
33D: World's highest-paid athlete in 2024 (RONALDO) — this blows my mind, as I associate him with football (i.e. soccer) of yesteryear. Kids were wearing his jersey around here back in the mid-'00s. (He'll turn 40 in February).
47D: Clock, e.g. (APP) — I ... guess so? Is the clock on my phone an APP? I just think of it as a full-time feature. Maybe there's a special "Clock" APP that I just don't know about. Yes, a proprietary Google APP called "Clock." Huh. Well. Alrighty. Super-ambiguous clue, but since I already had -PP in place before I ever looked at the clue, it didn't give me any trouble.

More Holiday Pet Pics now...

This is Winter, chief ornament inspector. She shuns the limelight. Her work is her reward.

[Thanks, John]

This is Hazel, solver of crosswords, friend to even the tiniest Christmas tree.

[Thanks, Loraine]

This is Cooper and Ella ("The Three-Legged Menace"). They are twins. I know it looks like they are different breeds, and very different sizes, but they insist: twins. Brave, handsome twins who deserve treats right now.

[Thanks, Lisa]

Winston's like, "Really? We're doing this again? [Sigh] Whatever. Take your picture so I can go back to sleep." That's the spirit, Winnie!

Finally, here's Scruffy. She showed up today because I showcased another dog named Scruffy earlier in the month, and that made this Scruffy cry "Impostor!" and "Doppelganger!" and so forth. So Burt sent her picture in so she could feel seen. Poor Scruffy, so sensitive. We see you, Scruffy!