Clichéd dismissal of Arizona's summer climate/ MON 3-25-24 / Woven creation of the Ojibwe people / Emma Stone's co-star on Showtime's "The Curse" / 2, 4, 6, 8, how do these numbers relate?

Constructor: Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: Opening Day (which is actually Mar. 28, but ... close enough!) — baseball theme: second words of two-word phrases are all words for players on a baseball diamond:

Theme answers:

• DREAM CATCHER (20A: Woven creation of the Ojibwe people)
• PANCAKE BATTER (29A: Thick liquid poured on a hot griddle)
• NATHAN FIELDER (47A: Emma Stone's co-star on Showtime's "The Curse")
• WATER PITCHER (56A: Pour thing?) [this puzzle is oddly horny for Emma Stone ... and pouring]

Word of the Day: NATHAN FIELDER (47A) —

Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his awkward persona and involvement in works that blur reality and fiction. His accolades include an Independent Spirit Award and a WGA Award, as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award. In 2023, he was featured on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Fielder was interested in comedy from a young age, and as a teenager was involved in his school's improv group, which also featured fellow comedian Seth Rogen. He majored in Business at the University of Victoria, which would later influence his work. After attending a comedy course at Humber College, Fielder started his career as a correspondent for CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes for the segment series Nathan on Your Side from 2008 to 2009. Fielder would later write and appear on the American sketch show Important Things with Demetri Martin (2011).

In 2013, he co-created and directed the Comedy Central parody reality show Nathan for You, in which Fielder stars as a slightly more awkward version of himself, who offers advice to struggling businesses. The show ended in 2017 and was followed by the HBO docu-comedy The Rehearsal (2022–present). Fielder also executive produced the HBO docu-series How To with John Wilson (2020–2023). In 2023, he and Benny Safdie created his first scripted show, Showtime's The Curse, in which he stars, alongside Safdie and Emma Stone. (wikipedia)

• • •

Among the easiest Downs-only solves I've ever done, although I will admit that I accidentally saw 1A: Rum-soaked cake (BABA) before I managed to toggle to Downs, so I probably got B AND B (ampersandwich!) faster than I would've otherwise. Still, I would've gotten BAKED POTATO even without that initial "B" from BABA, so I think it's safe to say that this will play on the easy side for Downs-only solvers. For regular solvers, I don't know. That NATHAN FIELDER cross would've stumped me. I had no idea he had a Showtime show with Emma Stone. I know him from The Rehearsal, which is ... I don't even know how to describe it. It seems like a documentary/reality series where he helps people prepare for some big event coming up in their lives, something they're worried about or dreading. That's the "rehearsal," and in those first couple episodes [actually, just the first episode!], the "rehearsal" is elaborate—building exact replicas of the locations where events are to take place and hiring actors to play patrons, that sort of thing. It's awkward and hilarious and surreal. But then the show takes a hard left turn when [starting in episode 2] Nathan himself gets pulled into one of the guest's stories [as the non-romantic partner of a woman ostensibly "rehearsing" to be a parent], and then the rest of the first-season episodes are all about that plotline. No new guests, just this bizarre trip into half-fake pseudo-reality TV land. I don't remember details well, but I remember my wife and I were constantly looking at each other like "What Is Happening?" Completely original and unpredictable in a way that TV almost never is. I guess I'll have to check out The Curse, but if it's conventional scripted fare, even good conventional scripted fare, I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed. The Rehearsal set the Weird Bar too high, and now that's all I want from him. Anyway, between that clue and the [Pour thing?] clue, I can see how actually having to deal with the Acrosses might've slowed you down. In the Downs, though—no resistance to be found at all.

The theme is very basic, of a type that would've been very at home in the 20th century, even the pre-Shortz era, but the actual theme answers themselves, and the overall cluing, felt reasonably fresh. "IT'S A DRY HEAT" really gives you something extra to admire today (26D: Clichéd dismissal of Arizona's summer climate). That's one of the few Downs I wrestled with for more than a second or two, mainly because the "cliché" I was thinking of was "IT'S NOT THE HEAT / IT'S THE HUMIDITY," and I kept trying to make either half of that expression work. Ah well. "IT'S A DRY HEAT" works too, and it actually fits the clue (fancy that) (26D: Clichéd dismissal of Arizona's summer climate). The hardest answer for me to get was the last one: PROXY (55D: Designated representative). I had the "R" but the other letters were all bland and not easily inferrable. YA- could've been YAP YAK YAM etc. DUET- looked like it could only be DUETS. SPAN- looked like SPANS, or maybe SPANO (there's an actor Vincent SPANO, isn't there?) (A: Yes). And STA- could've been many other things besides STAY. So I had to push letters around and think on it, but I got there eventually. Even with that late struggle, this played very easy.

The only part that made me go "boo!" ("boo! this is bad!" as opposed to "boo! scared ya!") was the clue on EVENS (34D: 2, 4, 6, 8, how do these numbers relate?). The "how" is what is bad. Clues are supposed to agree with answers grammatically, and EVENS is not a "how." I was looking for an adverbial phrase, maybe a prepositional phrase (How? Uh ... BY TWO?), but no, instead we get a mere synonym for 2, 4, 6, and 8: EVENS, i.e. even numbers. Sucks when the puzzle sacrifices clarity for cuteness. I love the idea (make it sound like a cheer!), but it doesn't work on the most basic wording level, so it doesn't work.

Looking forward to actual Opening Day (Thursday!). Baseball is currently mired in a massive betting scandal involving its reigning AL MVP and highest-paid player, Shohei Ohtani, but ... as with most of the unpalatable aspects of pro sports that I enjoy, I'm just gonna pretend none of it matters. Play ball! And, as always, Go Tigers!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. surprised that this is (apparently) Will Eisenberg's NYTXW debut. He's been constructing for what seems like years, but apparently only for other outlets (AVCX, New Yorker, etc.). Until now.

P.P.S. today's constructors (frequent collaborators) also co-constructed a fun puzzle in These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4. Am I still plugging that collection? Apparently I am. It just crossed the $40K mark! Go get the puzzles for yourself if you haven't already.

 

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Spills the beans / TUES 9-26-23 / Home of the palace Hanaiakamalama / First-year law student, for short / Cub Scout units

Hi, everyone, it’s a Clare Tuesday! Hope you all have had a good month and are staying safe and healthy while it seems like everyone is getting sick. I’ve been enjoying work and also enjoy all the biking I do with my commute and otherwise — and it’s getting even better now that the weather is becoming a bit cooler as we head into fall. Fall also means that football is back. (Go, Steelers!)! My Steelers had a rough opening game but have been looking better. And Liverpool has been doing great so far this season, with some new players on our team, so I’ve been pretty happy. We’ll see if any of this changes by next month, though… Anywho, on to the puzzle.

Constructor: Shannon Rapp and Rebecca Goldstein

Relative difficulty: Fairly easy (one of my faster Tuesday times)

THEME: FOOD WEB (38A: Dietary network in an ecosystem … or a punny hint to the answers to the starred clues) — All theme answers related to both food and computer terms  

Theme answers:

• SPAM FILTER (17A: Program that detects junk emails) 
• SPAGHETTI CODE (23A: Slang term for convoluted and unstructured computer programming) 
• HAMBURGER MENU (49A: Online icon comprised of three parallel horizontal lines, familiarly) 
• JAVA UPDATE (60A: Download that may improve streaming lags)

Word of the Day: CHLOE Zhao (6D: "Nomadland" director Zhao) —

Chloé Zhao (born Zhao Ting, 31 March 1982) is a Chinese-born filmmaker. She is known primarily for her work on independent films. Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Zhao garnered international recognition with the western film Nomadland (2020), which won numerous accolades. Earning four Academy Award nominations for the film, Zhao won Best Picture and Best Director. Throughout her filmography, Zhao carries relatively the same styles and techniques. The main actress in her film Nomadland, Frances McDormand, told Rolling Stone about Zhao's process, saying "she's basically like a journalist... she gets to know your story, and she creates a character from that" and that she "draws a razor-sharp line between sentiment and sentimentality". A Filmmaker Magazine article quoted Zhao saying "I want to find new ways to place the camera to evoke more of a feeling. My goal is to put the camera inside of [the character]". (Wiki)

• • •

This was a rather enjoyable puzzle! The theme was pretty cute and fun — it was nice that all of the theme answers were not only food items but were tied to computers. FOOD WEB (like the World Wide Web) worked really well as a revealer. I also liked that it was smack dab in the center of the puzzle. That’s a standard place for a revealer, but I thought the placement added extra meaning because the term functions as the center of a sort of WEB that’s reaching out to the theme answers. I love the visual that I get with SPAGHETTI CODE and am happy I’ve now learned the term. I also learned what a HAMBURGER MENU is. I will say that I’m not sure how a JAVA UPDATE relates to a streaming lag, but maybe my lack of data/computer knowledge is showing. 

To extend the food theme, there were some other answers in the puzzle that related back (whether intentionally or not). CHOP (6A: Hack (off)), which could be a pork chop; ALLA (19A: Penne ___ vodka); JAM (60D: Toast topping); FAT (48A: Major component of a ketogenic diet), that one gets from meat or nuts in the diet; ACME (63A: Tiptop), a supermarket chain where they sell food; and MOLE (67A: Beauty mark), which is a Mexican sauce. I liked how those were woven in there. 

Other than the theme, I really liked the long downs in the NE and SW corners. I especially loved SALAD BARS (11D: Places to see the romaines of the day?) because it made me chuckle, and I for some reason really like the word HUNCH, so 32D was fun. I’LL BE FINE (12D: "Don't worry about me") was the only long down that I thought was just fine. For another long-ish down, I liked RAMPART (4D: Fortification in "The Star-Spangled Banner"), which isn’t a word you often see. And the clue/answer for 45D: Parent in a blended family as STEPDAD is nice. 

There were a lot of clues with quotation marks, which I don’t always enjoy but didn’t mind too much in this puzzle (see: 10A, 12D, 18D, 33D, and 53D). Except I would like to never ever see the word NEATO (53D: “Cool beans!”) again. 

While the solve was pretty smooth and easy for me, I did have a few hang-ups. I had SPAM “folder” instead of FILTER for a while, which threw me off from the start. I could not wrap my head around 22D: Pre-year 1, in brief (BCE) and understand that it wasn’t referring to a specific year but rather an era. I was thinking the answer related to a kid being in pre-k or pre-school or something along those lines. I also had a hard time getting HIT IT (7D: Bandleader's direction) because I had no idea this is something a band leader ever says/said – no band I follow has ever uttered the phrase. My dad tells me HIT IT is actually a thing, but even Google doesn’t give me much information about it. When I think of HIT IT, I think of going water skiing or being in a tube on a lake and telling the driver of the boat to HIT IT (and then go faster). I also couldn’t get PHOTO (31A: Camera output) for a bit because that was just so obvious that it didn’t even cross my mind it would be the answer. 

I found GAVEL (51D: Courtroom banger) to be amusing. And then it tied in with ONE L (59A: First-year law student, for short) for a mini legal theme. HOE (28A: Groundbreaker?) also got a laugh out of me, which I think is more a sign that I need sleep than anything else.

Misc.:

• With LOVER (34D: 2019 Taylor Swift album with a romantic theme), we have to talk about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and their (completely PR, methinks) relationship. She went to his game yesterday and was in a box with his mom and seemed invested in the game. The Chiefs blew out the Bears, and then he rented out a restaurant for the Chiefs and Taylor Swift, fueling talk that maybe Kelce is Swift’s new LOVER. 
• When I see the topic of the mercator MAP (46A: Mercator projection, e.g.), I will always think of this clip from The West Wing where C. J. Cregg (the press secretary) meets with cartographers who argue for a different map. It’s absolutely incredible (and mind-blowing to realize just how distorted the sizes of some countries and continents are on the mercator MAP!) 
• I loved seeing CHLOE Zao (6D) and AVA Duvernay (56A) in the puzzle. They’re both incredible directors. If you haven’t seen Zhao’s movie “Nomadland” or Duvernay’s show “When They See Us,” do yourself a favor and go watch them now. 
• My family of professional writers has shaped me (warped me?) enough that a grammatical mistake in the clue at 49A (Online icon comprised of three parallel horizontal lines, familiarly) jumped up and bit me on the nose. It should be “composed,” not “comprised.” As my dad has drilled into me, the whole comprises its parts, but the whole is composed of, or made up of, those parts. 
• For 13D, I was thinking about what a steeped drink was and had a kind of brain freeze. And then I took a sip from my mug… of TEA. 

And that’s it from me! Stay safe and have a great and ~spooky~ October.

Signed, Clare Carroll, your resident INTERNET COOKIE

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