Big shot on the internet / TUE 4-1-25 / Publication where this puzzle might be found / Chewing gum brand with red, white and blue packaging / Letter between "gee" and "eye" / Religion with 100,000 public shrines in Japan / One who works with ore or data

Constructor: Sande Milton

Relative difficulty: Medium? (Easy, but those pre-written letters might've confused you some)

THEME: Non-pristine IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE crossword puzzles — grid is meant to resemble an IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE crossword that has been partially filled in by a PRIOR PASSENGER; you would typically find such a puzzle in your SEAT BACK POCKET, and you might give up on such a puzzle once you are asked to RETURN YOUR TRAY TABLES ... (to their upright and locked positions, presumably)

Theme answers:

• IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE (18A: Publication where this puzzle might be found)
• SEAT BACK POCKET (29A: Where the 18-Across is commonly found)
• PRIOR PASSENGER (49A: Person who may have ruined your puzzle)
• "RETURN TRAY TABLES" (61A: Announcement that could put an end to the misery caused buy the 49-Across)

The answers that needed correcting:

• 17A: Declare openly (AVOW) — not "AVER"
• 41A: Genetic material (DNA) — not "RNA"
• 44D: ___ power (SOLAR) — not "HORSE"

Word of the Day: BAZOOKA (11D: Chewing gum brand with red, white and blue packaging) —

Bazooka is an American brand of bubble gum that was introduced in 1947. It is a product of "Bazooka Candy Brands" (BCB), which was a division of The Topps Co. until the latter’s acquisition by Fanatics, Inc. in 2022. [...] Bazooka bubble gum was launched shortly after World War II in 1947 in the U.S. by the Topps Company of Brooklyn, New York. The gum was most likely named after the rocket-propelled weapon developed by the U.S. army during the war, which itself was named after a musical instrument. // The bubble gum was packaged in a red, white, and blue color scheme and originally sold for 1 penny. Beginning in 1953, Topps changed the packaging to include small comic strips with the gum, featuring the character "Bazooka Joe". There are over 1,535 different "Bazooka Joe" comic-strip wrappers to collect. Also on the comic strip is an offer for a premium and a fortune.

• • •

If this is an April Fools puzzle, it's pretty mild on the "fooling." I'll admit to tiptoeing around those pre-written answers, unsure of what to do with them or how "correct" they were supposed to be. Turns out ... somewhat correct (much like many partially-filled airline crosswords are). Since it never occurred to me that the pre-written answers were going to actually be correct, I never got fooled by the PRIOR PASSENGER's wrong answers. First pre-filled answer I encountered with AVER. Since TONI Morrison was a gimme (13D: Nobel winner Morrison), it was obvious that AVER was wrong—well, half-wrong. This is the one thing I like about this puzzle—the realism of the pre-filled grid. It's always these scattershot wrong answers, like the passenger had never solved a crossword puzzle before and was just poking at it idly and randomly. Plus, the answers that are filled are precisely the kind that would be filled in—the true gimmes. . . except for AVER. That is a word only a real crossword solver is going to enter immediately and instinctively, and even then, that solver is probably more likely to leap to the more common word, AVOW (or not enter it at all because it's a klassic kealoa*). To be clear, I assume many non-solver *know* the word AVER, I just don't believe that in a mostly blank puzzle, with no crosses to help out, that a non-solver would confidently write in AVER (not when they couldn't even manage Gilda RADNER, or ATHENA, or the OSSO in [___ buco]). Also, an inexperienced solver would write in DNA before RNA at 41A: Genetic material, 100% of the time. Still, the "I'll just put an 'S' at the end of this answer 'cause it's a plural" thing is very real (you may have tried it yourself), and I love that we get those stray "S"s in this grid. Twice. The concept itself is cute and visually interesting. And I love that the software worked! That is, I had to overwrite only the incorrect letters. I decided not to overwrite the correct letters, just to test if the software would recognize squares I could have filled in myself (but didn't) as correct, and was stunned when I got that "Congratulations" message at the end. Nice job, software people.

 The one thing about the puzzle that really truly does not work is that final themer. "RETURN TRAY TABLES" on its own is not an announcement I've ever heard. If the clue had just started "Beginning of an announcement...," that would've been at least plausible, but "RETURN TRAY TABLES" alone is absurd. You are either asked to stow your tray tables, or (more commonly?) you are asked to "RETURN YOUR TRAY TABLES to their upright and locked position." Oh, and this answer is doubly bad because the clue makes no sense. "Put an end to the misery caused by 49-Across?" What misery? I guess if you are as terrible at solving crosswords as the last guy, maybe you were confused by his partially incorrect answers such that you couldn't even make it through the puzzle by flight's end. But as partially filled-in puzzles go, this hardly qualifies as "misery"-inducing (I've seen way worse ... grids that look like a war crime by comparison). Also, was it "miserable" to solve this puzzle? Is that what the puzzle itself is trying to tell me? Also, since when does having to stow my tray table mean I have to stop solving. I have a lap, I'm good. The last themer fails to stick the landing. Very rough. Which is a shame, because as I say, the basic premise is original and clever.

When I first started solving today, I thought the theme was going to have something to do with the weirdly interweaving letter pattern in the NW corner. First three Downs in that corner start AMI, MIN, INF, while the first three Acrosses in that corner also start AMI, MIN, INF. I thought I was losing my mind. "How long can they keep this up?" Not long, it turns out. I don't really have much else to say about this puzzle. It was Monday-easy (if you take the pre-written answers out of the equation). There are no clear trouble spots. If I never see the word INFLUENCER again, it'll be too soon, but I'll probably see it again before the day is up because that is the (stupid) world we live in, so I'm pretty inured to it (3D: Big shot on the internet). Didn't make me fully grimace. More of a half-grimace. Like "Final outcomes," END RESULTS always seems redundant to me, but again, it's a phrase, people say it, whatever, it's fine (31D: Final outcomes). Nothing much else of interest today, but the theme is interesting enough that that's OK. All the grid has to do is be fairly clean, and it was.

Anything else?:

• 58A: E.T. arrived in one (U.F.O.) — E.T. would probably dispute this. Also, when we first see E.T.'s ship, it's very identifiable. It's a giant spaceship. Weird to just use UFO as a synonym for spaceship, since once you know it's a spaceship, the object is, by definition, identified.

• 20D: Letter between "gee" and "eye" (AITCH) — possibly the worst of the written-out letter spellings. At least it was easy to get.
• 55D: "___, meeny, miney, mo" (EENY) — OK, so the fill has some rough patches, but at least this wasn't TEENTSY, amirite?! (man, y'all were real angry about that one).

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.  

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SEC school near Atlanta / WED 8-1-18 / Buccaneer's sword / German pop star who once had #2 song / Home to Queen Sonja / Capek play that debuted word robot

Constructor: Sande Milton and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:33)

THEME: EYELESS (36A: Unable to see ... or, when taken as a homophone, what today's puzzle answers and clues all are) — in addition to having themers where wackiness is created by dropping an "I," the grid is totally devoid of the letter "I," as are the clues for some reason...

Theme answers:

• RANDY QUAD (from "Quaid") (16A: Campus area for amorous students?)
• SOCAL BUTTERFLY (from "Social") (26A: Flutterer around Orange County and L.A.?)
• NEW YORK SLANDER (from "Islander") (44A: Put-down to someone from Manhattan or the Bronx?)
• GREEK RUNS (from " ruins") (60A: Marathons, way back when?)

Word of the Day: ED BURNS (43D: Co-star of H'wood's "The Brothers McMullen") —

Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director best known for appearing in several films including Saving Private Ryan (1998), 15 Minutes (2001), Life or Something Like It (2002), Confidence (2003), A Sound of Thunder(2005), The Holiday (2006), One Missed Call (2008), 27 Dresses (2008), Man on a Ledge(2012), Friends with Kids (2012), and Alex Cross (2012). Burns directed movies such as The Brothers McMullen (1995), She's the One (1996), Sidewalks of New York (2001), Purple Violets(2007), and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012). He also starred as Bugsy Siegel in the TNTcrime drama series Mob City and as Terry Muldoon in TNT's Public Morals. (wikipedia)

• • •

I don't get the appeal of this theme. I especially don't get the idea that People Will Love How We Remove "I"s From The Clues. What kind of dumb non-event is that? It's not like it affects cluing all that much, or is noticeable, beyond a certain stilted quality to some of the clues. Why mess with the precision / elegance of your cluing when Literally No One Will Notice Or Care. It's like people are making decisions for no good reason. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Does it add value? More importantly, does it add *more* value than it detracts? In this case, no. No one is going to go "ooooh ... no "I"s." That is not a plausible or valid response. Therefore, de-"I"ing the clues is ridiculous. Ultimately, this is just a "remove-a-letter" puzzle. The revealer isn't even good, in that EYELESS is not something anyone actually is unless they are Samson in Gaza in a Milton closet drama (look it up!) or, you know, one of the horses in "EQUUS" (what kind of morbid joke is that, having that answer in this puzzle?—booooo!).


This puzzle is maybe a little bit on the easy side, but I kind of crashed the car in the NE, where ___ WEEKS has a word break right at the entryway to that corner. This meant that though I had WEEKS, I did not have the first word, and I guessed wrong with OFF instead of BYE. Flailing ensued. Eventually I took out OFF, but still flailed some more, writing in POP UP instead of BLOOP (8A: Short fly ball) (final "P" was "confirmed" by PELE), and then by trying to write in SHE'S A at 15A: "___ a Grand Old Flag" ("YOU'RE"), which you can see just makes no sense. [Salty bagel topper] was never gonna give me LOX. Me: ".... salt?" So, yeah, OUCH indeed. Otherwise, not much trouble here beyond figuring out the dropped-I answers.


Bullets:

• 17D: What could make you take a deep breath (YOGA) — good example of I-less cluing being a hindrance. This makes no sense. The YOGA instructor might "make you take a deep breath," but the practice itself doesn't (any more than any physical exertion might). 
• 24D: Buccaneer's sword (CUTLASS) — Me, having the "C" and smugly admiring my own large vocabulary: "Woo hoo, I know this one: CORSAIR!" :(
• 56D: Ballet dancer Pavlova (ANNA) — total blank. Just ... nothing. Some Russian name, ends in "A" ... was all I could think of. I guess Karenina and Paquin have "I"s... 
• 2D: Boozehound (SOAK) — wait, what? What? I've been around crossword drunkard clues for approaching three decades, I know my tipplers and my sots and my elbow-benders and my lushes and their DTs etc., but ... you're telling me SOAK ... is a noun? Meaning "sot"? Ugh. You have a very versatile word you could clue a million ways and you go way, way, way out of your way to steer it toward yet *more* words for alcoholics? What's wrong with you? SOAK as a noun is absurd.

Hey, Lollapuzzoola, one of the two crossword tournaments I try never to miss, is happening again in less than three weeks, in NYC. I (along with my wife) am the defending Pairs champion, and I am returning to keep the title out of the eager mitts of my friend Neville Fogarty and his mother (and any other pair that wants to have a go). I have gone to this tournament for years and it is great fun. The people who run it (Brian Cimmet, Patrick Blindauer) always do such a great job. The puzzles are absolutely first-rate and entertaining, and the atmosphere remarkably loose and laid-back. Here's a blurb from Brian about the upcoming tourney:

Hey there, CrossWorld — Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer here, cohosts of Lollapuzzoola. Lollapuzzoola a kick-ass (yet super casual) crossword tournament coming up on Saturday, August 18, in New York City. Our theme this year is "Back to School", and we have a slate of amazing puzzles by Erik Agard, Jeff Chen, Aimee Lucido, Mike Nothnagel, Paolo Pasco, Doug Peterson, Patti Varol, and Yacob Yonas, plus a bonus puzzle suite. If you can make it to NYC, join us in person — and if not, you can play from home (we'll send PDFs of everything to you by email). You can sign up and learn more about the event at www.bemoresmarter.com/lollapuzzoola. We hope to see you there!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Big name in nail polish / WED 5-30-18 / 1953 Leslie Caron title role / Message system superseded by fax / Transparent sheet used for overlays / Gooey vegetable /

Constructor: Sande Milton and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:28)

THEME: MIXED BAG (35D: Assortment ... or a description of 32-, 39 and 42-Across?) — I guess in Scrabble™ you keep your TILES in a bag ... where they are mixed ... up. So TILES and STILE and ISLET are anagrams of each other ... because "bag" means "bag of tiles" and so TILES gets anagrammed twice ... this actually makes zero sense from a Scrabble perspective, but whatever, it's a kind of play on words. Then there are various Scrabble-related words around the grid, including SCRABBLE (31D: Game described by this puzzle's four racks), all of which are clued [Rack #_: (scrambled answer)]—actually, these seven-letter words form a sentence when taken in order: PLAYERS ARRANGE JUMBLED LETTERS.

Theme answers:

• PLAYERS (20A: Rack #1: AELPRSY)
• ARRANGE (25D: Rack #2: AAEGNRR)
• JUMBLED (56A: Rack #3: BDEJLMU)
• LETTERS (23D: Rack #4: EELRSTT)

Word of the Day: ÁVILA (40A: Historic walled city of Spain) —

Ávila (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈaβila]; Latin: Abula) is a Spanish town located in the autonomous community of Castile and León, and is the capital of the Province of Ávila.

It is sometimes called the Town of Stones and Saints, and it claims that it is one of the towns with the highest number of Romanesque and Gothic churches per capita in Spain. It has complete and prominent medieval town walls, built in the Romanesque style. The town is also known as Ávila de los Caballeros, Ávila del Reyand Ávila de los Leales (Ávila of the Knights, the King and the Loyalists), each of these epithets being present in the town standard.

Orson Welles once named Ávila as the place in which he would most desire to live, calling it a "strange, tragic place", while writer José Martínez Ruiz, in his book El alma castellana (The Castilian Soul), described it as "perhaps the most 16th-century town in Spain".

It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. (wikipedia)

• • •

Did you know 17x13 grids have four fewer squares than 15x15 grids? I figured this out through multiplication. Congratulate me. But it's kinda sorta interesting, in that the weird over/under-sized grid ends up being almost exactly the same number of squares as the standard one. I was trying to account for my fast time. I think the primary issue is a. it's just easy, and b. the [Rack] clues are non-clues. Far, far harder to get from a real clue to an answer than to anagram 7 letters. I do the damn Jumble™ every day. I anagram every dang sign I see. [Rack blah blah blah] is not a clue. It's a gimme. Also, those Rack clues make no sense. How are you getting from [Rack...] to whatever it's called when you use all your letters. Bingo? I don't know, man, I hate Scrabble™something fierce. Anyway, I figured out that the clue wanted me to use all the letters on the [Rack]s, but ... just saying [Rack] seems inadequate. This thing is conceptually a total mess. It's trying to do too much, and doing none of it particularly well. You've got the one core gag (MIXED BAG = bag of tiles, ergo The tiles in TILES are "MIXED" up thrice in the middle of the grid. But obviously that is a very slight theme, so the grid gets this radical segmentation, and then super-boring Scrabble-related words get their own section of the grid and their own [Rack...] clue, which, as I've said, both makes the puzzle super-easy *and* doesn't make a ton of sense, conceptually. I am sad I didn't get to blog yesterday's puzzle now. And you know things are bad when I am regretting the opportunity to blog a Tuesday.


The fill is kind of a MIASMA of oldenness. I haven't seen ALB in a dog's age. The OKRA ORCA I see much more often. SAS DST AGEE INCA ABIE ugh I'm bored already. Trust me, there's more of it. And USROUTE??? Oy. SABOTEURS is a cool word (4D: Some counterintelligence targets), and much of the rest of the longer fill is tolerable, but between the all-over-the-map theme and the crushing olde-timey routineness of much of the fill, there just wasn't much for me to enjoy today. And yet I do want to give some points for trying. This theme was at least unusual, as was the grid shape. If you're gonna screw up, better to screw up going big than going safe.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. UNCUT BARRE made me laugh. Not a great day for UNCUT BARR(E).

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