Movie villain modeled after Ernst Stavro Blofeld / FRI 6-9-17 / Austin Powers car with portmanteau name / Household brand famous for its infomercials / Ginny's brother in Harry Potter books / Famous introduction that was never actually used / Brokerage famous for its spokesbaby

Constructor: Steve Overton

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: LUZON (27A: Where Manila is) —

Luzon [...] is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. it is ranked 15th largest in the world by land area. Located in the northern region of the archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as well as Quezon City, the country's most populous city. With a population of 53 million as of 2015, it is the fourth most populous island in the world (after Java, Honshu, and Great Britain), having about 53% of the country's total population. (wikipedia)

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Between the casual sexism and the obsession with a 20-year-old movie franchise I never found funny, I was a hostile solver for most of this, which is too bad, as the constructor seems to have some skill, and that central Down is golden (15D: Not right, sarcastically => YOUR OTHER LEFT). I can't / won't take COEDS unless it is clued in relation to some old movie title or otherwise flagged as old-fashioned. The NYT crossword itself clued COEDS as [Female students, condescendingly] (emph. mine) just three years ago. Other recent clues have included the qualifiers "quaintly" and "in old lingo." But here, in 2017 ... no qualifiers. At five letters long, I confidently wrote in WOMEN. But then (fittingly / ironically) SHEILA proved the appropriate WOMEN wrong, and I knew it was COEDS. This moment happened pretty early in my solve (I had to abandon the NW when I got most of it but couldn't turn the corner), so ... yeah, my experience was colored by this. Negatively. SHEILA is another term I also find slightly condescending, and one I can only hear (in my head) in a man's voice. I wouldn't have reacted to SHEILA alone, but crossing COEDS, it somehow compounds the assumed male perspective. The ensuing "Austin Powers" answers (esp. SHAGUAR, ugh) do the same. DR. EVIL obviously has nothing to do with women, but doubling down on a movie with such juvenile humor and such an objectifying view of women ... yuck. COEDS got the ball rolling ... and then it just kept rolling.


UNODOS / TRES is ridiculous. Cluing MAR as a month, also ridiculous. Mostly, though, the grid is solid, with some notable strong parts. All the long central Downs hold up, as does WASH DOWN. Puzzle felt pretty easy, but ME TARZAN proved particularly stubborn. Trouble started with ENTER ___ for 14A: It'll give you a break. KEY was soooo anticlimactic. A break ... in your document? Pfffff, ok. I guess. Later, when I came back to this section, I just blanked on the Philippine island, as well as the [1972 top 10 hit that ran for 7+ minutes], so getting that section to finally come together took work. Clue on ME TARZAN was brutally vague (7D: Famous introduction that was never actually used). So that answer alone, and its environs, brought the overall difficulty for me back to normal.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. A historical note: COED hasn't been clued as a noun (meaning a female college student) since 2005.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Cousin of Manx / SAT 2-18-17 / Cold wine and nutmeg drink / Prison in which Timothy Leary was housed next to Charles Manson / Rennin results in them

Constructor: Steve Overton

Relative difficulty: Medium, leaning Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SANGAREE (36D: Cold wine-and-nutmeg drink) —

sangaree (countable and uncountable, plural sangarees)

1. A mixed drink common in the West Indies, similar to sangria and usually featuring wine or fortified wine and spices. (wiktionary)

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There is one interesting answer in this whole grid—EAR-TO-EAR (7D: Beam's path?). I should say "interesting clue"—the answer itself isn't that interesting, but that clue! Clever, but brutal. I had EAR-O-AR and still had no idea what I was dealing with. That clue wasn't just the most interesting thing; it was the most difficult thing. I spent 75% of my time in and around that answer. The rest of the grid was mildly toughish, but whatever struggles there were didn't last long. I usually proceed through the grid via crosses; that is, I never hop around unless I absolutely have to. I had to today, a few times, but I was always able to recover quickly. Flamed out in the middle, then rebooted with CLINK / ALEVE / KATE. Misspelled FOLSOM (first "O" as "U") and so couldn't make my way into the SW ... but then TENOR / REDO bailed me out quickly down there. End of SANGAREE (!?) was a total mystery to me—tried to extend "sangria" to SANGARIA. So, again, stuck. But then RAN got me SWEATSUIT, then MANSE, and that corner was done quickly too.


There's not much to talk about here. It was really adequate, really dull. I don't understand why this grid was remarkable enough to publish. Nothing stands out. None of the fill feels particularly original. Yesterday's puzzle had dull clues, sure, but at least the fill was lively. Today, nothing is lively. It's all slightly oldish, with stuff like DERRING-DO and a decidedly non-current cultural frame of reference. But that's not its problem. Its problem is blandness. All I will remember about this puzzle, if I remember anything, is how bad EAR-TO-EAR kicked my ass. The rest? Yawn. LET US PRAY that things improve in the near future.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Constructors: resist the urge to write yourself into the puzzle (12D). Good fill first, vanity second (or never).

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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