Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Shimon Kolkowitz

Constructor: Ilan Kolkowitz and Shimon Kolkowitz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: You can't see the FOREST for the TREES (64A: What you can't see due to the 38-Across in this puzzle? / 38A: See 64-Across) — images of trees appear in six black squares—those six squares hide letters necessary for the completion of six Across answers to which they are adjacent:

Theme answers:

(F)LOTUS (25A: *Abigail Adams or Eleanor Roosevelt, informally)
ELM(O) (29A: *Red denizen of Sesame Street)
(R)ASH (39A: *Hasty)
FIR(E) (45A: *"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a ___ to be kindled": Plutarch)
(S)PEAR (47A: *Pickle or asparagus unit)
APPLE(T) (52A: *Small, embedded program)

Also!!!: all the seemingly "wrong" theme answers (that is, the answers as they appear in the grid, minus the tree-letters) are, in fact, types of TREES: LOTUS, ELM, ASH, FIR, PEAR, APPLE] [!!!!!!]

Word of the Day: SCHWEPPES (31D: Big name in soft drinks) —

Schweppes (/ʃwɛps/ SHWEPS, German: [ʃvɛps]) is a soft drink brand founded in the Republic of Geneva in 1783 by Johann Jacob Schweppe; it is now made, bottled, and distributed worldwide by multiple international conglomerates, depending on licensing and region, that manufacture and sell soft drinks. Schweppes was one of the earliest forms of a soft drink, originally being regular soda water created in 1783. Today, various drinks other than soda water bear the Schweppes brand name, including various types of lemonade and ginger ales.
The company has held the British royal warrant since 1836 and was the official sponsor of Prince Albert's Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London in 1851.

• • •

Well I *could* see the FOREST for the TREES, pretty early, but that didn't keep me from enjoying this puzzle. The visual gimmick made the trick transparent (telling you exactly where the "hidden" letters were going to be); it also made the puzzle feel more Wednesday than Thursday in terms of difficulty. But the originality of the concept and the consistently entertaining and mostly clean grid kept the puzzle from being either boring or annoying. You really just need the first two tree letters (F, O) to see what's going on, and if you're working top down (as most of you do, right?), then they don't take long to appear today. I got ELM(O) first then (F)LOTUS, and that was that:

I ran into the TREES part of the revealer not long after:

[Note: extremely ironically, I never saw the fact that all the themers, as they are written in the grid, are actually trees themselves; that is, I couldn't see the trees for the forest!—this tree-name feature takes this puzzle from good to great, imo]

There is some visual wonkiness. Not that fond of the layout of FOREST and TREES—the placement of those words feels arbitrary (esp. TREES), and it's always nicer to have a full, snappy phrase than ... whatever this is (a phrase I have to complete in my mind). But this may be the best way to execute this concept, as the full phrase ("can't see the forest for the trees") is cumbersome, so the puzzle focuses on just the relevant parts (FOREST, TREES). Makes sense. I don't mind that the trees are not symmetrical. Forests are not symmetrical, after all. Looks good with the trees kind of grouped but scattered. There's no real logic to which answers the tree-letters go with—they only work in one direction. Why? Just 'cause. Primarily because the grid would've been way, Way harder to build if those tree-letters had to work for all adjacent answers, Across and Down. I admire the fact that the puzzle seemed to know its limits and stay inside them, making the overall solve pleasant, smooth, enjoyable. Try to do more with it, and you get into "look at me!" / stunt-puzzle territory—a puzzle that's architecturally impressive, but a drag to solve.

["But honeychild, I've got my doubts..."]

There were a few rough spots, and a few potential solving pitfalls. I'm not sure everyone is going to be familiar with ACTIN / TUN (5A: Cellular protein / 7D: Large cask for beer or wine). Those are both fairly specialized terms. I knew TUN, but not ACTIN, though ... ACTIN sounded right. Familiar. That may be due to the probably unrelated athlete's foot remedy, "Tough actin' Tinactin," but whatever gets you there gets you there! My daughter is home for a few weeks and solving the puzzles I print for her, and so, having seen the places she has found challenging, I'm thinking about what parts might give her (a reasonably intelligent casual solver in her mid-20s) trouble [note: yesterday, like a good many of you, she wiped out at HIRT/REOS; and like me, she had ANESUP (instead of ACES UP) for that damn solitaire game, only she couldn't see how to fix it]. I'm betting ACTIN/TUN is one of those places. The other one might be MNEME, lol, not the loveliest-looking Muse (at least not on the page—I'm sure in person she's a knockout) (37A: Muse of memory). You can infer at least the MNEM- part from the word "mnemonic," but that answer is still likely to be a toughie for many. But the crosses there are all fair. I have a hard time seeing anything else that is likely to give an experienced solver trouble.

The fill today is bouncy and pretty. I'm realizing just now that I never even saw "USE THE FORCE!" (!!?). That's how easy the puzzle was—that entire long Down just got filled in via crosses. Oooh, I'm also noticing that the grid is asymmetrical. I could see that the trees were asymmetrical, but wow, the whole grid, cool. I like the symmetry restriction in crosswords, but if there's a thematic reason to break it, go ahead and break it! ISOSCELES is a cool-looking word (4D: Literally, "equal legs"), as is SCHWEPPES (9 letters but just one syllable!). I like that "USE THE FORCE" runs through EMPIRES (since the Empire, famously, strikes back in the second "Star Wars" movie) and I like that (F)LOTUS sits atop SPOUSES (yes, it's "ESPOUSES," but I'm still not technically wrong) (if you have trouble finding a husband or wife irl, do you settle for an E-SPOUSE? God I hope not, that sounds sad ... wait, was that the plot of HER? (22A: 2013 movie co-starring Scarlett Johansson in which she is never seen). I never saw it). The only unsightly part of the grid is EES SST, and those answers are tucked well out of the way in the far SE, so I didn't mind them much.

[15A: Mars with bars]

Bullet points:

42A: What three is (CROWD) — not normally a fan of putting the article in the answer, but the answer here really Really wants to be "A CROWD." Three is A CROWD. I got it easily, but I might've made a little face.
46A: Eliot protagonist (MARNER) — so, George Eliot and Silas MARNER. My dad was a physician, and not much of a fiction reader, possibly because he was forced to read Silas MARNER in high school and haaaaaaated it (and to this day, despite having enjoyed other Eliot novels, I haven't touched Silas MARNER).
56A: Toward that place, quaintly (THITHER) — let it not be said that I can't handle some quaintness. I can handle precisely this much quaintness. THITHER weirdly made me smile. When you teach early modern literature, you build up a tolerance for certain quaintnesses.
9D: What a bad assistant might be (NO HELP) — not sure why I like this answer so much, but I do. Hard to make six-letter answers stand out in a good way, but this one did, for me.
34D: "___ the Doughnut," start of a children's book series ("ARNIE") — wow, what? I know Pete's a Pizza, but not ARNIE the Doughnut, to say nothing of the ... series? ... he's a part of. "Arnie the Doughnut was [Laurie] Keller's third book. Released in April of 2003 by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, it is the story of an anthropomorphic chocolate frosted sprinkle doughnut named Arnie, who changes his fate after being purchased by Mr. Bing." (wikipedia).

36D: Horseshoe enthusiasts? (FARRIERS) — these are literal shoers of horses. Because of the "?" I really thought the answer was going to be ... whatever the word is for someone who studies (horseshoe) crabs.

46D: John ___, author of "Annals of the Former World" (MCPHEE) — an exquisite writer. Every time he has a piece in the New Yorker, I read it word for word. I keep meaning to read more of his books. But then I keep meaning to read lots of things, sigh.
45A: *"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a ___ to be kindled": Plutarch ("FIRE") — forgot that this was a themer and thought the answer was actually "FIR" (like maybe you used the tree to start the fire?). Kinda cool that all the trees in the grid appear to be FIR trees (even though, again, FIR is not an actual answer in this puzzle)
42D: Like one who might have to hoof it (CARLESS) — I want to hate this answer, but then I wish much more of the world was CARLESS, so I have decided to like this answer (because "hoof it" is a phrase I associate exclusively with city walking, my first thought for this answer was CABLESS).