Old Hollywood actress born in Austria-Hungry / FRI 8-6-21 / "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" / Fruit used to flavor the liqueur patxaran / Fictional operator of the Discovery One spaceship

Constructor: SETH A. ABEL

Relative difficulty: MEDIUM (Played easy for me - 4:30, but I feel like it might cause problems for some)

THEME: NONE - Because it's...

Word of the Day: TETHYS (Moon of Saturn) —

Tethys, or Saturn III, is a mid-sized moon of Saturn about 1,060 km across. It was discovered by G. D. Cassini in 1684 and is named after the titan Tethys of Greek mythology.

• • •

Hello and welcome to your Friday puzzle! I'm Eli; I've been here a couple of times previously, and I deeply apologize for posting the Rebecca Black video. Before I get into things, I want to thank your host for the last two days, Malaika Handa. Malaika's 7x7 project has been a blast, and she's a fantastic constructor, even if her puzzles repeatedly destroy me. Between my solve times on her grids and her write-ups of the last two days, I think we're just on different wavelengths. And that's great! I love learning things and solving puzzles where I have to struggle a bit. It's always nice to expand my horizons. All right, enough ranting and gushing, on to the puzzle! 

So, 6 grid-spanning 15-letter entries and none of them are true clunkers? That's an impressive feat (I assume; I've never tried my hand at constructing). Of the sestet, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY was probably the least interesting to me, but I feel like I haven't seen it very often, so that's nice. ONE WAY OR ANOTHER could have been boring, but cluing it with Blondie lyrics will always get a thumbs up from me. When I saw the clue for 32A ("Response from Siri"), I felt like the answer would be a bad joke or something generic. But HERE'S WHAT I FOUND is something my phone has said to me dozens of times, and it felt very natural in the grid. I may have wanted LAH-DI-FRICKIN-DAH to be something more explicit, but that's just because I solve a lot of indie crosswords where swearing is acceptable. Seeing this was the answer to 48A ("Well, aren't you so darn special!") made me smile.

The sheer number of squares taken up by the 15s did put a bit of strain on the fill (I assume. Again: not a constructor). But the amount of true crosswordese was admirably small, in my opinion (AGAR, SLOE, COS), and most of the cluing seemed pretty fresh to my eyes. It mostly just felt a little nondescript at times. If that's the worst you can say about a puzzle, I think that's pretty good. After feeling like I was flailing in the Northwest for a while, I worried that I would struggle with this one. But having a massive gimme at 3D opened things up quickly and I didn't really slow down after that. 

There were a few proper nouns I wasn't familiar with. As noted in my clue of the day, even though I consider myself an astronomy enthusiast, TETHYS wasn't a moon I knew. I mean, Saturn has 82 moons; I'm supposed to know them all? Sylvia SYMS, ERICH Fromm, and Nate MCMILLAN (I've never been able to really get into basketball for whatever reason)were unknown to me, as well. But all of them were crossed fairly, so it's just a case of being trivia I didn't know. 

Bullets:

• ONE ARM — There's a few ways I can think of to clue this (Bandit/slot machine, The Fugitive), but I'm never going to complain about using semi-obscure Simpsons characters (even ones I don't really care for).
• DANTE — The clue (37A: "So-called "Father of the Italian Language"") almost feels like it's mocking him. For the record, I have no beef with Dante.

• AMALIE — I'm not a geography guy. I had a vague idea of what the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands was, but needed a few crosses just to remember the general direction I should be going, and then had to remember if it was "Emily" or spelled like the movie/Phillipa Soo musical. 

• OCLOCK — As I was solving, I kind of cringed at the clue (29A: "The end of time?"), but looking back, I think I actually like it? 
• LAWDY — I gave this one a side-eye as I solved it, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I spent 12 years living in the South, so it's not like I'm not aware of its existence, it just has the vibe of a phrase that comes out of minstrel shows. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to these things, and it didn't ruin the puzzle for me; it just didn't feel great. Regardless of the history, it feels like appropriation of a cultural dialect, and it's something I personally try to avoid.

Ok, I'm solving/writing this on Thursday night, which is a break in tradition for me. I normally solve in the morning along with my coffee, but solving the night before is a sacrifice I'll make for you lovely people. During the pandemic, my wife and I have turned Thursdays into a weekly Happy Hour at Home, so I'm going to finish my cocktail (a strawberry basil caipirinha that matches my shirt) and watch this week's RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars. We've hit the point in the season when I generally like all of the queens, but Ginger Minj has been the most fun to watch for me this season. And I'm rambling. See you all back here tomorrow!

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

[Follow Eli on Twitter]

Read more...

Common landscaping tree with acorns / SUN 6-9-19 / Graham Oprah's longtime beau / Stinky Le Pew / Anastasia's love in Disney's Anastasia / Surgical removal procedure / Seattle-based insurance giant

Constructor: Seth A. Abel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (9:41)

THEME: "Don't Quote Me" — Famous quotes that were never actually said, and the famous characters who didn't actually say them:

Theme answers:

• WICKED WITCH (58A) / "FLY, MY PRETTIES, FLY!" (23A: Line never said by 58-Across)
• CAPTAIN KIRK (83A) / "BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!") (36A: Line never said by 83-Across)
• EARL OF GREYSTOKE (17D) / "ME TARZAN, YOU JANE!" (44D: Line never said by 17-Down)
• SERGEANT FRIDAY (99A) / "JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM" (121A: Line never said by 99-Across)

Word of the Day: TTY (122D: Communication syst. for the deaf) —

A teleprinter (teletypewriter, Teletype or TTY) is an electromechanicaldevice that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Initially they were used in telegraphy, which developed in the late 1830s and 1840s as the first use of electrical engineering. The machines were adapted to provide a user interface to early mainframe computers and minicomputers, sending typed data to the computer and printing the response. Some models could also be used to create punched tape for data storage (either from typed input or from data received from a remote source) and to read back such tape for local printing or transmission. [...] Teleprinters have largely been replaced by fully electronic computer terminals which typically have a computer monitor instead of a printer (though the term "TTY" is still occasionally used to refer to them, such as in Unix systems). Teleprinters are still widely used in the aviation industry (see AFTN and airline teletype system), and variations called Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf (TDDs) are used by the hearing impaired for typed communications over ordinary telephone lines. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was hard to watch. Not hard to do, but hard to watch unfold. Why hard? Well, the theme is actually interesting, in my opinion: a fortuitous coming together of concept and answer lengths (i.e. it's amazing that these non-quotes and their non-sayers can be arranged in a neat symmetrical fashion. There's probably a website somewhere that lists "famous quotes that never actually happened," and then the constructor fiddled around with names and quotes until he noticed that he could get symmetry to work out with these four (here's a list of such quotations that has two of today's examples on it) (there are dozens more). So it's a short, random list culled from a website list, but it's cute, and fun, and informative, and a good reminder that even in the internet age, with so much info at your tips, we all go around in various states of delusion and misapprehension all of the time. I enjoyed remembering (or misremebering) the quotes. Fine. No great shakes, but good enough, esp. on a Sunday. But ... wow, the fill on this one is extremely dreadful. Like, regular Dreadful looks at this grid and thinks "Hey, maybe I don't look so bad."

ABLUR AJAM AHUM. ITY TTY. Plural GEDS and SOYS and PSHAWS (!??). OPA! PINOAK (!?!?!?). SOIN! ROXANE IN A CAN!!!!! (actually, the ROXANE part of that is fine, I just wanted to say 'ROXANE IN A CAN'). I finished up this puzzle by doing the Downs along the bottom, roughly from west to east, and it was like being repeatedly punched, with the near-knockout / ragequit / "Uncle!" blow coming at MTST, which I am pronouncing muttsutt! I can't say I haven't seen muttsutt before, because I have, but it is So Bad. Like, a partial *and* an abbr. combining for exponential terribleness growth. All over, everywhere you turn, this thing is ugly in the fill department. IDIGIT / STOPSIT / ATEITUP ...  seriously though, stop "IT."


The puzzle has a couple more big problems on its hands, both of which are causing distraction / annoyance / consternation among solvers, and both of which could've been easily avoided. Let's start with the clue on DIMITRI (18D: Anastasia's love in Disney's "Anastasia"). You might have no idea there's anything problematic or controversial about that clue, but if so, then you are not half the animation nerd that many early solvers of this puzzle appear to be:

It was not a Disney release, but Disney owns it now. The clue is defensible only in a strictly legal sense. When "Anastasia" became a big deal, i.e when it was released, it was decidedly not Disney. You wanna know how this confusion could've been avoided? It's pretty complicated, but try to follow along: drop "Disney" from the clue. The. End. Or just call it "the 1997 animated film 'Anastasia'." No need to bring Disney in and muck up the timeline and get people confused and riled etc. Unless Disney's paying you for product placement, in which case, knock yourselves out, I guess. The next avoidable problem, more serious, and slightly (but not much) harder to work around, is Why Is A Disgraced, Child Sexual Abuse-Enabling Football Coach In My Grid!?!?

PATERNO, yuck (94D: Former Penn State football coach). No. They took down his damn statue on the Penn State campus, you'd think the least the crossword could do is put his name on the No Fly list (the No Fill list?). Here is Washington Post editor Evan Birnholz's quick workaround in that corner:

Got rid of NOES and MRAZ and DEJA too, so it's better in every way. Amazing what a little elbow grease can do when you actually care about the quality and overall vibe of your puzzle product. Okay, I'm done for today. TTY Later.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

2000s teen drama set in California / WED 12-19-18 / 2002 animated film with woolly mammoth / Relative of discotheque / Cartoon uncle of Scrappy doo informally

Constructor: Seth A. Abel

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:24)

THEME: ANAGRAM (lol, seriously, that's the revealer) (38A: Each asterisked clue vis-à-vis its answer) — just what it says

Theme answers:

• SYCOPHANT (20A: *Acts phony)
• NATURALIST (11D: *A trails nut)
• GARBAGEMAN (28D: *Bag manager)
• THEHILTON (52A: *Hint: hotel)

Word of the Day: TOPSY (31D: Young slave girl in "Uncle Tom's Cabin") —

Topsy – A young slave girl. When asked if she knows who made her, she professes ignorance of both God and a mother, saying "I s'pect I growed. Don't think nobody never made me." She is transformed by Eva's love. During the early-to-mid 20th century, several doll manufacturers created Topsy and Topsy-type dolls. The phrase "growed like Topsy" (later "grew like Topsy") passed into the English language, originally with the specific meaning of unplanned growth, later sometimes just meaning enormous growth. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow this is not good. The theme has no cohesion. At all. The revealer is just ANAGRAM. So the clues are the anagrams of the answers? Well whoop-dee-do! Also, no. If you're going to do this, the clues Have To Function As Real Clues Do (even if they are somewhat odd and wacky-ish). This is to say you canNot have a verb phrase (i.e. [Acts phony]) cluing a noun (SYCOPHANT). A million billion times, no. The others are at least all match, clue to answer, in terms of part of speech. But that SYCOPHANT clue is absolute GARBAGE, MAN. Also garbage: THE HILTON. First because of the THE, and second because jeez come on give the theme *some* kind of unifying principle; at least let all the answers be *people*. Types of people. That's a very, very loose category, but at least it's Something. But no. No. THE HILTON. I'm just surprised this theme is as badly executed and as poorly thought through as it is. I'm surprised it was accepted at all. And the fill is so puzzlingly bad. I started rewriting corners out of boredom. Try it. It's fun.

But seriously, OENO- UNPC TVPG all in one 4x4 corner??? You gotta try to be that bad. And throw in Yet Another jokey SOTS clue (1D: Ones always tossing things back?). This puzzle's really ticking all the regrettable boxes. ITAT ALETAP SCOOB TOPSY THEOC TERR TAI. It's too rough in too many places. But can we go back for a second to the fact that the revealer is ANAGRAM. I'm just ... that is the answer. Sitting in the middle of the grid. That's the total extent of this puzzle's logic. That's all it's got. The answer set needs to be much tighter and the revealer needs to be ... something. Some kind of phrase with wordplay. Something infinitely better than the simple description, ANAGRAM. Amazing.


Hey, the NYT is raising their pay rates for constructors. I tweeted about it as soon as I found out:

They're still doing the stupid two-tiered pay system, where cronies (sorry, people who have had 10 or more puzzles published) get paid Considerably more. But the big bump up is a very welcome and long overdue development. Pay's still too low, but it's a big improvement. Base pay: $500 for M-Sat, $1500 Sun. After a constructor's 10th NYT puzzle publication, it goes to $750/$2250. Note, however: today's puzzle was the constructor's .... 12th. Just to give you some idea of what that sweet veteran pay scale is gonna buy you. . . .

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

SUNDAY, Dec. 2, 2007 - Seth A. Abel

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Car Talk" - every theme answer is a familiar phrase clued as if it had something to do with a make of car

I Smoked this puzzle. My best Sunday time ever: 12:06. I had an in-the-zone feeling that I've never had before - at least not in such a sustained way. It was a pretty cool feeling, I have to say. I had to allow some pretty iffy-sounding stuff to stay in place and just trust my instincts. It all worked out. Hallelujah. After yesterday's beat-down, this experience felt positively uplifting.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Ford purchased online? (Internet Explorer)
• 17D: Reliable Suzuki? (trusty Sidekick)
• 38A: Honda owned by one of the Simpsons? (Homer's Odyssey) - mmm, sweet ...
• 58A: City dweller's Acura? (urban Legend)
• 80A: Genuine Isuzu? (real Trooper) - would really have liked a STORM TROOPER answer, but this'll have to do...
• 96A: Tiny Volkswagen? (miniature Golf) - I have a highly irrational and childlike love of this "sport"
• 51D: Half-assembled Mitsubishi? (partial Eclipse)
• 113A: One of the first Buicks to roll off the line? (twentieth Century) - well, this is weird. It occurs to me that this is the first theme answer I got, and yet I started at the top of the puzzle and worked down. Not sure how that's possible. I must have got a theme answer or two without thinking about the rationale.

There was not a lot to test the brain today, though there were a handful of dicey-looking answers. We'll start with SHTETLS (65A: Old Jewish villages), which I've never seen before - but historian wife knew the word as soon as I asked her about it. Her exact words: "I think there were pogroms in some shtetls." Unfortunate association. Luckily, there were other happier Jewish references, like 1D: He ascended to heaven in a whirlwind, in II Kings (Elijah) and 101A: Hanukkah treats (latkes). Speaking of the Jewish "race or culture," what the hell is up with ETHNOS (45A: Group of the same race or culture)? "ETHOS" I know, and "ETHIC." But I've never heard of an "ETHNOS." A definite brow-KNITter (109D: Furrow). Here's another: THRO (87D: Poetic preposition). I have occasion to read a lot of poetry, and this is not a "word" I see often. Maybe occasionally. I wanted THRU, but that's more street sign than poetry, really. Then there's TADS (72D: Squirts). If you tell me you put anything but TOTS in there at first, I am calling you a liar. I guess if you got AIDA before you looked at the clue, you might not have gone with TOTS, but if you had the T and / or S, then you did. I'm tellin' you.

It's the first horribly snowy day of the season here in far upstate NY, and we've got to get to the store before the freezing rain comes, so this will be brief-ish.

Miscellaneous:

• 7A: It's beyond repair (total loss) - loved it, especially for its double-L's and S's.
• 25A: It's measured in degrees (burn) - even after getting this I had to think for a sec to understand it.
• 27A: Word with night or right (all) - "right all?" Oh, ALL right, ALL night, gotcha.
• 33A: It's needed to find the right key (ear) - clever
• 47A: Parts of the lunar landscape (mesas) - love that this intersects the puzzle's other spacey clue, 16D: Space clouds (nebulae)
• 62A: Kind of kick (on-side) - very good; took a few crosses to uncover.
• 77A: It's set partly at the Temple of Vulcan ("Aida") - I love how this is clued to make you think the answer might have something to do with "Star Trek."
• 83A: Like a pop fly (arced) - again, nice, and unexpected
• 120A: 1983 Stephen King thriller ("Christine") - killer car; see also "Cujo" - killer St. Bernard - and "Carrie" - killer prom queen.
• 122A: What a rake may do (leer) - he sure may - nice misdirection with "rake"
• 12D: Nuevo _____, Mexican state (Leon) - no idea, never saw the clue.
• 24D: Big name in stationery (Eaton) - one of the commenters claimed this answer is common, but I don't remember ever seeing it, and it took me a few crosses to come up with it.
• 39D: Emmy winner for "Roots" (Ed Asner) - unexpected - everyone I associate with that mini-series is black.
• 62D: Either sister starring in 2004's "New York Minute" (Olsen) - sticking with highbrow entertainment for the moment ... when I first read the clue, I thought the answer would be DUFF ... which means I know Way too much about teen girl culture.
• 68D: Genoa's Palazzo San _____ (Giorgio) - same as LEON, above, i.e., no clue
• 99D: Performance artist Anderson (Laurie) - is she still working? I remember her spiky hair and haunting visage from the 80's.

Good day to you people,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

SUNDAY, May 20, 2007 - Seth A. Abel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "More Headlines That Make You Go 'Huh?'"

I was not aware that there had been an original "Headlines That Make Me Go 'Huh?'" for me to have more of. That was a terrible sentence, but I sincerely hope that you followed it anyway. All these theme answers are cute, but all of these variations on "Man Bites Dog" are more clever than they are truly funny, and with no real link among theme answers besides a capacity to be misread, the theme added a good deal to solving time without adding a commensurate amount of pleasure to the experience [theme answers aren't really variations on "Man Bites Dog." I just like that movie and its botched headline title]. This is all to say that I'm not the biggest fan of this type of humor, but I do admire the puzzle's cleverness.

Your theme answers, ranked, objectively, from worst to best:

• 39A: Ambiguous headline about a protest? (March Planned for August) - First of all, worst headline ever - if the passive voice PLANNED is your verb, you aren't grabbing anyone. Second, no one but a space alien is going to misread this headline.
• 81A: Ambiguous headline about a California drug bust? (Feds Discover Crack in L.A.) - I'm guessing the ambiguity here has something to do with earthquakes and fault lines, but in my mind all I see is a plumber's CRACK.
• 120A: Ambiguous headline about attorneys' pro bono work? (Lawyers Give Poor Advice) - Lawyer joke + noun/verb switcheroo = C+
• 142A: Ambiguous headline about a stolen Stradivarius? (Man Gets Year in Violin Case) - well this is just silly. He'd never fit.

And now my top three, all of them violent, and thus all of them hilarious:

• 25A: Ambiguous headline about a man charged with killing his attacker? (Court to Try Beating Victim) - violence against crime victim: Funny.
• 63A: Ambiguous headline about school closings? (Teacher Strikes Idle Kids) - violence against schoolchildren: Funnier.

And your winner:

• 101A: Ambiguous headline about a vagrancy statistic? (City's Homeless Cut in Half) - horror movie violence against the most unfortunate people alive: Funniest.

Some People I Didn't Know (or Know Well)

• 10A: Former Connecticut governor Ella (Grasso) - name sounds familiar, can't place her (besides in Connecticut)
• 117A: Country singer Carter (Deana)
• 20D: Irish patriot hanged in 1803 (Emmet) - Sorta know him from crosswords, and that's all
• 116D: N.F.L. running back Barlow (Kevan) - When you have to go to a C-list football player to find someone who has the name you want, that should tip you off that it's not really a name at all.

I was happy to remember a couple of answers that had stumped me in the past, including 50A: Company with the slogan "born from jets" (Saab) and 41D: Composer Ned (Rorem) - I now own a Ned ROREM CD, so he's trapped in my brain forever. I'm gonna question the cluing on 24A: "No men allowed" area (harem) if only because of the quotation marks - I can't imagine such a sign hanging outside a harem. It's not a treehouse, for god's sake. Presumably there are other, subtler ways of signaling that men can't go in there - like a couple of giant eunuchs posted at the door or something.

Here are some ugly company names that all start with "A"

100D: Company with a "spokesduck" (Aflac) - remember when Pets.com had a spokespuppet? And Diane Sawyer interviewed it as if that weren't the most demeaning thing that could ever happen in her career? Good times.

125D: Transmission repair franchise? (Aamco) - I had AMOCO. That was wrong.

131D: Film brand (Agfa) - Mmm, Pig Latin. Nice. Subtle.

As an erstwhile medievalist, it is my duty to object to any medieval clues that I deem ... objectionable. First, why clue the year 1053 as simply 99D: 11-century year (MLIII) when so many clue-worthy events happened that year. For instance, according to this (hilarious) promotional video, Jesus Christ was born in 1053. Not important enough for you? And - slightly more seriously - why is ST. LEO the answer to 97D: Fifth-century pope? When he was a "fifth-century POPE," he was not a SAINT (although, strangely, I couldn't find any info on his canonization).

There are a couple great drinking words in the puzzle today: 106A: Moonshine (hooch) and 75D: Lush (dipso) - the drunk Teletubby. I had TRIPE instead of DRECK for a while at 67D: Schlock. I thought the cluing on 61D: Abnormal plant swelling (edema) was a little odd - isn't EDEMA "Abnormal person swelling" too? My doctorate is of the philosophical variety, and yet I'm pretty sure I'm right. I'd like to welcome TOR (87A: Rocky peak) back to the puzzle - this former king of krosswordese has been strangely absent this past year. I hope to see him more in the future. Not as much as I see @#$#-ing TSARS (93A: Peter and Paul, but not Mary), but still, more. Lastly, I didn't want Mr. Abel to think his cross-grid coffee pairing - MOCHA (5A: Yemeni port famous as a source of coffee) and JAVA (139D: Joe) - had gone unnoticed, or unappreciated. I'm off to have some coffee of my own now.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

FRIDAY, Dec. 29, 2006 - Seth A. Abel

Solving time: 14:25

THEME: none

Rex Parker is officially back from vacation, though I won't be blogging at full strength until tomorrow. You know how it is when you return to your house after a substantial time away: you're jetlagged and groceries need buying, plants watering, dog exercising, bills paying, etc. So I'm going to get my House in Order today and return full of vim and whimsy tomorrow.

Today, however, I will say a few things about the Friday puzzle, just to whet your appetite. O and by the way, apologies to the Thursday puzzle, which becomes the first puzzle since I started this blog (Sep. 25, 2006) for which I failed to produce a commentary. You're probably lucky, Thursday, because I was none too happy with your Far North. Not blogging means not having to carp at you.

Friday was gloriously easy for a Friday. I SAILed (45A: Move easily) through it, though I probably could have / should have charged ahead faster. I always slow down a bit on late-week puzzles, approaching them more deliberately for fear of entering multiple wrong answers and then never being able to find my way out of the mess I've created. But there weren't any tricky patches in this puzzle, just a few odd words and names. The long entries, perpendicular pairs of familiar 15-letter phrases, were all beautifully colloquial and totally familiar - though I'd always heard YOU AND WHAT ARMY?, not 3D: Retort to an improbable threat (You and whose army?). I also hesitated at 20A: Insult from a fashionista (That's so last year), first because the word "fashionista" is so horrifically ugly, and second because I thought the phrase might be THAT'S SO LAST WEEK (funnier, somehow).

6A: Slate, e.g., informally (e-mag)

Of all the E-prefixed neologisms, this is perhaps my least favorite. Do people really call Slate this? Have heard of E-ZINE, but perhaps the more underground, DIY-sounding "ZINE" is too lowbrow a term to be applied to high-minded Slate. I like how the Down cross here, 7D: Send off (mail), creates a little upside-down-L-shaped E-MAIL.

6D: Bygone Cadillacs (El Dorados)

I had no idea these were "bygone." This is the first long answer I got in this puzzle (off of E-MAG). These Spanish-sounding cars descend from the top to the middle of the puzzle, where they just kiss the verifiably Spanish 47A: 16th-century Spanish mystic (St. Teresa), of which there is a famous statue ... somewhere ... ah, yes, "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa," by Bernini, from the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome (ah, the return of graphix to my blog; aren't you happy?):

THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW

• 23A: KNO3 (niter) - my first thought: "Vanity license plate?"
• 28A: Runner in "The Sun Also Rises" (toro) - The second "O" was the last square I filled in, once I realized the clue was asking for an ANIMAL, not a person - TORA seemed an odd name for a literary character, and I was pretty certain that the phrase was not LOVE CANQUERS [CANKERS?] ALL (11D: Starry-eyed sentiment (Love conquers all))
• 52A: Pioneer in the math of Sudoku (Euler) - ick, I object, mainly because this clue is so inbred that only the puzzliest puzzle nerds are going to get it. HINMAN ("ACPT Champion") is a more familiar name to me than EULER, and you wouldn't put HINMAN in a puzzle ... would you? You should, actually. He's not Ken Jennings-famous (and Jennings was in a Sun puzzle earlier this year), but surely among puzzlers he's practically a gimme. Beats hell out of EULER ("Euler ... Euler ... anyone ... ?") [late addendum: OK, so EULER is a totally famous mathematician and I'm an idiot. Happy?]
• 58A: 1814 Byron poem (Lara) - Oh 1814! Ugh. I had MAUD, which I think is also a Byron poem. The only Byron poem I know (well) is "Don Juan"
• 63A: "The Phil Harris-Alice _____ Show" of 1940's-50's radio (Faye) - because "Tammy _____ Bakker" would be too easy
• 50D: Home of the Ashanti (Ghana) - the only Ashanti I know is an Awful pseudo-R&B pop star


• 25D: Some lobsters (hens) - yes, sometimes, in a clever ploy to get the fishermen to throw them back, lobsters start clucking and flapping their wings

48D: Hunt's sitcom co-star (Reiser)

How about "'Mad About You' also-ran"? Hunt, who was a huge star for about 4 years in the mid-late 90s (see, uh, Twister (1996), I guess), won a ton of Emmys, while Reiser ... didn't. He probably made a ton of money, though, so that's something. His great claim to fame, at least from where I sit, is that he is perhaps the most famous graduate of the university where I teach. When that's the best you've got for your promotional literature ... well, you can understand why we decided to invest so much energy in becoming a Division I athletics program. Sports give donors a reason to give, and "Mad About You" re-runs ... not so much.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...