Home planet of TV's ALF / THU 11-22-18 / Jewish holiday with costumes / Letter that appears twice in the Schrödinger equation / Bygone orchard spray / Neighbor of Moldova

Constructor: Randolph Ross

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:29 ... but felt like the kind of puzzle I should've solved in 3)

THEME: ___-LESS words — clues are words with letters missing; answers are synonyms for the word, plus a ___-LESS word referring to whichever letter of the word is missing, resulting in "___-LESS ___" phrases:

Theme answers:

• HEADLESS CHICKEN (17A: OWARD) — i.e. "coward" = "chicken," "OWARD" = "chicken" without its head (first letter), thus: HEADLESS CHICKEN
• BOTTOMLESS PIT (25A: QUARR) — "Y" -less "quarry"
• ENDLESS SUMMER (42A: SEASO)— "N" -less "season"
• TOPLESS SWIMSUIT (57A: IKINI)— "B"-less "bikini"

Word of the Day: Ravel's "Gaspard de la NUIT" (54A) —

Gaspard de la nuit (subtitled Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand), M. 55 is a suiteof piano pieces by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem or fantaisie from the collection Gaspard de la Nuit — Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot completed in 1836 by Aloysius Bertrand. The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Viñes.

The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev's Islamey. Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire. (wikipedia)

• • •

No thanks. The theme concept is OK (though once you get the -LESS phrases arranged symmetrically, the cluing is completely arbitrary and potentially infinite). But HEADLESS CHICKEN is not a thing. "A chicken with its head cut/chopped off" is very much a thing. But HEADLESS CHICKEN, while it googles tremendously well, primarily results in ... well, the first hit is the wikipedia page for "Mike the Headless Chicken" (or "Miracle Mike!"):

Mike the Headless Chicken (April 20, 1945 – March 17, 1947), also known as Miracle Mike, was a Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off. Although the story was thought by many to be a hoax, the bird's owner took him to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to establish the facts. (wikipedia)

Then there's a bunch of stuff about the "headless chicken monster" (!?!). So what is this clue referring to. I assume it's not referring to Mike or the monster, because I have never ever heard of those. And if it's referring to the proverbial phrase, then the proverbial phrase does not not not not contain the phrase HEADLESS CHICKEN. It is, very specifically, "chicken with its head cut (or chopped) off." BONELESS CHICKEN is a thing. HEADLESS, not. The end. Themer discarded. Next. Please don't let "kinda in the ballpark" garbage themers into your grids. It's deflating and disappointing.


When I started this, I thought I was going to finish in something like Monday time. EMERALD, then all of the first four Downs, without even thinking. 10 seconds in, and the NW is done. But then the little section in the middle, just under the first themer, really really slowed me down. I still don't get (or, if I do get, really really don't like) the clue on ACHE (20A: Distress signal?). Your body has been "distressed" and so it ACHEs? I ...pfft. I guess. But that crossing SCALE, the clue for which I also hated (one of those [___ it] clues, like [Hit it!] for GONG or something) Today: 18D: Step on it). Could've been so many things (wanted STAIR). But it's just SCALE. Blah. Dumb old tired ambiguous-"worker" clue had me at HOE and ANT, but never BEE (32: Worker in a garden). Rough all through there.


Then super-easy again until the SE, where I totally forgot about "Alf," so couldn't use MELMAC to get into that corner, and even when I was in that corner, ESTH and NUIT and DIME were all somehow impossible for me to get, as was (oddly) ATATIME. Brain blanked out after it wasn't AT ONCE. So those two patches put me more at a normal Thursday time, despite the rest of the grid's being easy. Very, very uneven. The real problem, though, was the horrendous fill. Started with ELHI and ended with -STER. Bleepin' -STER. In between, junk city. Even the longer answers were somehow yuck: "IT'S A LIE" is terrible ("THAT'S A LIE!" is the phrase you want, and you should be ashamed of using the phrase "Fake news!" at all, anywhere). PRO RATA fully written out, ugh. ONE UNIT? Come on! Longer answers are supposed to be the *good* stuff.


I can't give much thanks for this puzzle. But I give thanks for you all, for your readership and letters and support and all of it. Even when I don't like the puzzle, I like writing this blog and engaging with all (or most :) of you. Enjoy your (probably headless) turkeys!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. if you use Twitter, join the discussion of the puzzle using hashtag #NYTXW—great way to see what other solvers are thinking and feeling. People start posting their times and first impressions pretty quickly after the puzzle comes out (10pm the night before, 6pm the night before for the Sun and Mon puzzles). You can also follow me @rexparker ...

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Whale constellation / THU 11-26-15 / Trans-Siberian Railway hub / Fluid-filled sac near joint / Computer cursor advancers / Accommodations along Black Sea / Lead in to boom de ay

Constructor: Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: TEN (71A: Number of mispelled [sic] words in this puzzle's clues (oh, by the way, watch out for those tricky circled squares!) — circled squares are areas in common words that are often misspelled. Today, the common misspellings will actually give you a *correct* answer in the Downs/crosses. Hence the "watch out" admonition in the revealer clue:

Theme answers:

• OCCURRENCE / DREW (not DRAW!)
• SEPARATE / PATS (not PETS!)
• PHARAOH / BALD and OHS (not BOLD and AHS!)
• CALENDAR / GRAY (not GREY!)
• DEFINITELY / CLICK (not CLACK!)

Word of the Day: PELHAM (45A: New York's ___ Bay Park) —

Pelham Bay Park is a public park located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of the Bronx and extending partially into Westchester County. It is, at 2,772 acres (1,122 ha), the largest public park in New York City. The section of the park within New York City's borders is more than three times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. The park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. (wikipedia)

• • •

I actually liked how this one started out. There were lots of snappy little words like CHOKED and DOCILE and BAD COP, and the clue on UNZIP was especially nice (18D: Drop, like flies?). But after POP TAB (which I enjoyed), the bottom started falling out of this thing. The fill started to deteriorate badly, and when you first themer is the horribly dull OCCURRENCE, well, that doesn't promise good things. As I went along, I saw that the random circles were filled with random vowels, vowels that didn't appear to anagram to anything or form any kind of pattern ... and I'm wondering what kind of dumb post-solve puzzle I'm going to have to solve. And then after enduring TARARA and PSAT and RELO and ATAP and IFAT and SSRS and ILA and All Of It (please let constructing software help you ... please!) I got to the revealer clue. My first two thoughts were negative: "Who cares if words in the *clues* are misspelled?" and "Who cares that people often misspell those words? How many people a. solve the NYT crossword and b. somehow *don't* know how to spell PHARAOH or DEFINITELY? If you are a reasonably good speller, this puzzle will go right by you." OK, I'm not sure that second thought was so coherent at the time, but that's the gist of it. It was only after a few moments, after I considered the implications of misspelling the words in the grid, that I noticed that, technically, all the crosses would *work* with the misspellings. *This* made me admire the puzzle, conceptually, a heck of a lot more, even though the only one of these misspellings with any hope of tripping me is "SEPERATE," which even now looks correct to my eyes. So though it wasn't terribly fun to solve and is way, way too chock full o' junk, the theme had real cleverness to it.


Why does the puzzle think I will want to count things in the clues? It tried to get me to count 49 "R"s a while back, and now it wants me to count misspelled words? No. Pass. Also, all hail the arrival of the new Stupidest E-Word Ever: EBATE!! I went initially with ESALE, as that seemed equally stupid but no less plausible. With each new dumb E-word, I e-love ECIG more. Let's see, what else? I think PELHAM is probably the hardest thing in the grid (for non-New Yorkers), and I definitely would've clued that thing ["The Taking of ___ 1, 2, 3" (1974 thriller set on a New York City subway car)], but the crosses all seem fair—unless, somehow, you've never heard of a DACHA, which seems slightly possible (25D: Accomodations [sic] along the Black Sea) (oh, look, I unintentionally found one of the misspellings!). Since the puzzle was so easy, I didn't make many mistakes. TAB SETS (is that a thing?) instead of TAB KEYS at first (44D: Computer cursor advancers). CERUS for CETUS (36A: Whale constellation). I think CERUS has to do with wax." Oh, ha ha, I quickly wrote in EVITA before fully reading the clue at 23A: Musical character who sings "Wouldn't it be loverly?" (ELIZA). Else, no problems.

["Let's not split at Thanksgiving / That would be too rough"]

Happy Thanksgiving, which is also my birthday. Just FYI—the proper way to give thanks for me is with bourbon and pie, though regional traditions do vary.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Statistician Silver / THU 11-27-14 / Second-largest moon of Saturn / Highest paid TV star of 2014 / State south of Veracruz / Sister of grand duchess Anastasia / Upwards of 170 beats per minute / Eastern terminus of Erie Canal / Actual first name of Tom Seaver Orson Welles

Constructor: Stanley Newman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME:  [Thanksgiving phrase] — "Thanks a lot" (roughly) in three different languages

Theme answers:

• MUCHAS GRACIAS
• MILLE GRAZIE 
• MERCI BEAUCOUP

Word of the Day: COO (53D: Corp. manager) —

A chief operating officer (COO), also called the chief operations officer, director of operations, or operations director, is a position that can be one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, comprising part of the "C-Suite". The COO is responsible for the daily operation of the company, and routinely reports to the highest ranking executive, usually the chief executive officer (CEO). The COO may also carry the title of President which makes that person the second in command at the firm, especially if the highest ranking executive is the Chairman and CEO. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was a reasonably solid themeless—yes, I see the theme there, but … I don't know. Those countries don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so while it's literally true that those are all "thanksgiving phrases" , the whole conceit seems rather thin. Also, the theme is just thin generally—just 35 squares total. So its feel is mostly that of a themeless. The most interesting thing about the theme is the way the clues exploit the first-letter-capitalized cluing convention to get you to think that the clues relate to capital-T Thanksgiving, when really they're related only to lowercase-T thanksgiving. The foreign angle … I don't really get. I guess those three phrases just fit nicely/symmetrically into the grid.


Solved this one slow-fast-stopped … then done. Got AAH and SCAM but nothing else in the NW. Then PECS and PSI got me going in the NE, though it still took me a while to throw MUCHAS GRACIAS back across the grid and into that NW corner. I had -RACIA- at the end of that answer, and I was like "… how is a [Thanksgiving phrase] going to end in 'RACIAL'???" After that top themer went in, the puzzle went down fast, until I put in MERCI BEAUCOUP. I thought with LAGS, AUEL, and BEAUCOUP going for me down there in the SE, I'd be set, but Nuh-o. Got TSP and PAST … still nothing. I just sat. I put the blame entirely on COO. Nobody expects a perfectly good word to be clued as an abbr. I will add that nobody *wants* it, either. Why you decide to clue a word as an abbr., I will not know. I guess just to f*** with solvers. Mission accomplished. Without GEORGE, I had no hope down there. No way I was getting RETORT from [Counter with a sharp edge] (clever) or SERAPES from [Clothing items with fringes] without much help from crosses, but those just wouldn't come. I just couldn't pick up any of those short Acrosses from their final letters. Somehow, finally, my brain managed to see through T---U-H to THROUGH, and only then did I realize, "Oh … COO." And then I was done.


I had no idea JUDGE JUDY was still on the air. Seriously. [Highest-paid TV star of 2014, by far]?? Wow.

Happy capital-T Thanksgiving,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Little Bighorn conflict / THU 11-28-13 / Horror film director Alexandre / Canadian-born comedian once featured on cover of Time / Mother of Nike in myth / Anti-apartheid activist Steve / Joe Louis to fans /

Constructor: Loren Muse Smith and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "SNAKES ON A PLANE" (61A: Cult classic whose title is depicted four times in this puzzle) — ASP appears on top of different kinds of PLANEs in the grid. What kinds of planes? Well, a BOMBER, a GLIDER, and a JET (also, the PLANE of the theme answer):

Theme answers:

• 15A: Joe Louis, to fans (THE BROWN BOMBER)
• 34A: One interested in current affairs? (HANG GLIDER)
• 42A: Gang Green member (NEW YORK JET)

Word of the Day: Alexandre AJA (40D: Horror film director Alexandre ___) —

Alexandre Aja (born 7 August 1977) is a French film director who rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror filmHaute Tension (known as High Tension in the US, and known as Switchblade Romance in the UK). He has also directed the horror films The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008) and Piranha 3D (2010). (wikipedia)

• • •

Mixed feelings here, though this is definitely a step up from T and W. The theme type is one that is invisible until the end, so the feel when solving is kind of blah. Straightforward (except that clue on HANG GLIDER, which is clever, but I hate when just one theme answer has a "?" clue—all or none; feels weird otherwise). There's basically no theme, not even an appearance of one, until the revealer. When this is the case, the reveal has to be great. Today, it's OK. Maybe good. Different snakes would've been great. Just ASP = less so. Fact that ASP is itself crosswordese doesn't help me love it. But I will say that this is a cute use of the movie title. "Cult classic" is a massive stretch. I've never heard it called that, and do not believe that anyone ever actually still watches this film. But it is a movie with some fame and some campy currency, so it's certainly revealer-worthy (fun fact: my friend Christa Faust wrote the novelization of "SNAKES ON A PLANE").

[PROFANITY ALERT—if easily offended, just don't press "Play"]
There's still far too much crud in the fill. This is largely by design—not that the plan was to glut the grid with crosswordese, just that when you make a grid like this, with such a preponderance of 3-to-5-letter stuff, and when you try so desperately to Scrabble up your grid, well, there will be blood. Won't list it all, but the ISPS / RIAA / IRR is ugly and AMS / ASSNS isn't making any friends either, and for this we had to (again) have cheater squares?* You probably noticed that the grid is a weird shape: 14x16 (on account of the revealer's length). About this, I have no opinion.

Found the puzzle very hard. At times, it felt like the puzzle was trying too hard to make things tough. You've got a Tue-Wed.-looking grid, and you're having to Thursday it up. So solvers have to struggle to get rather unremarkable results. Not a satisfying feeling. AJA is crosswordese. Cluing it via some horror director doesn't change that. Whole western part of the grid was brutal to me, largely because both CALYX and SIOUX WAR were big ???s. Had CAL- and S-OU--A-. I own an iPhone and SYNC didn't click for me. SPAWN could've been SCION. Or a host of other things. Rough. SIOUX WAR is a lovely answer, though. I wouldn't call anything else "lovely," but neither would I call the fill, in the main, any worse than average. In fact, average is about right. Xs are nice, but the ESPY EEW ENYA stuff kind of negates whatever glory is gained by those Xs.

[Again, PROFANITY ALERT—avoid "Play," avoid complaining]

Gotta run. Expecting my friend and fellow (much superior) speed-solver Katie Hamill and her daughter *any* second now. They have had a day-long bus odyssey/ordeal, so I have to prepare the bourbon.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*black squares that do not add to word count but make puzzle (often much) easier to fill (here, the black square next to the "8" square and before the "70" square)

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Two-time president of Romania / THU 11-22-12 / Pastry in Sweeney Todd / So-called African antelope / Fictional locale five miles from Jonesboro / Seinfeld character with catchphrase Jerry Hello / Early explorer of Southwest

Constructor: Joel Fagliano

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Initial initials — familiar phrases are reimagined (via "?"-cluing) as wacky phrases wherein the first two letters stand alone:

L.A. DIES FIRST (18A: Cackling cry from a mad scientist before unleashing havoc on southern California?)
R.A. IN CHECK (33A: Dorm V.I.P. having to move his king?)
B.A. BY BOOMER (39A: Proud academic achievement of football star Esiason?) 
B.O. ON DOCKS (50A: Evidence of longshoremen without antiperspirant?)
P.R. IS ON BREAK (64A: Why the press release has to wait?)

Word of the Day: E. J. DIONNE (70A: Political commentator E. J. ___) —

Eugene Joseph "E.J." Dionne, Jr. ( [...] born April 23, 1952) is an American journalist and political commentator, and a long-time op-edcolumnist for The Washington Post. He is also a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, a Senior Research Fellow at Saint Anselm College, and an NPR,MSNBC, and PBS commentator. (wikipedia)

• • •

What a weird and clever theme. Feels like the kind of theme that could go on and on (given how many two-letter abbreviations there are in the English language), but the fact that we could all come up with other answers doesn't take away from the pleasant wackiness of this set. I tore through this puzzle, with most of my time spent trying to get a handle on the theme in the NW. Once I figured it out, I found the theme answers all remarkably pliable (esp. if you know who Boomer Esiason is), and I ended up getting through this in a pretty normal time, which is actually a fast time given that the grid is extra-wide today (16x15). I feel like the potential for trouble was probably greatest in the NE, where ILIESCU holds many spelling perils (13D: Two-time president of Romania), where VAN DYKE is a feature that doesn't necessarily leap to mind with Lenin (14D: Vladimir Lenin had one), and where even HUSKIES (12D: Big East team) wasn't very intuitive (when asked for a team, I tend to think of the school name, not the mascot). I took an embarrassingly long time to get PIGLET; wasn't til I got the "G" that that answer became (painfully) obvious (31A: Hundred Acre Wood resident). Hesitated some at 29D: Not survive (DIE OF) because I read the "survive" as an intransitive verb; thus I wanted DIE OUT or DIE OFF, neither of which would FIT. But otherwise, there wasn't much bite to this one (though I'm seeing some longish times at the NYT site, so I wonder if I'm missing some potential pitfall). I didn't know (or didn't recall) DIONNE, but beyond that, everything else was somewhat-to-very familiar.

The SHIV / SHIVER duplication I could do without, but most of the rest of the grid, I liked. There are some pretty inventive long Downs in the grid today—specifically UNCLE LEO (24D: "Seinfeld" character wit the catchphrase "Jerry! Hello!") and BIKE TIRE (40D: 26" rubber band?). I was thrilled to learn some OKAPI trivia (57A: So-called "African unicorn"), the OKAPI being by far my favorite crossword animal. It's weird that it's called the "African unicorn"—is this to distinguish it from all the other "unicorns" out there? Also love the clue on the overly familiar TARA (63A: Fictional locale five miles from Jonesboro). My first thought was "pfft, how should I know?", but at just four letters, guessing the correct answers wasn't hard. It's good to add at least a little spice to the clues of the oft-appearing short stuff.

Anything else? No. Happy Thanksgiving!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Heavenly home of Norse gods / THU 11-24-11 / Ancient Egyptian talisman / Mrs Forsyte in Forsyte Saga / Gerard of Buck Rogers in 25th Century

Constructor: Sharon Delorme

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: NO GO (65A: Canceled ... or a hint to answering 17-, 27-, 34-, 45- and 57-Across) — phrases that begin with "GO" have the "GO" dropped, creating ... prepositional phrases! And who doesn't love those!?

Word of the Day: GIL Gerard (41A: Gerard of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century") —

Gilbert C. "Gil" Gerard (born January 23, 1943) is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Captain William "Buck" Rogers in the 1979-1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. (wikipedia)

• • •

Lots of things to be thankful for today, but this puzzle is not among them. Seemed both substandard (for a NYT Thursday) and misplaced (Wednesday-easy). Taking "GO" out of phrases is not interesting. At all. There is no cleverness here, no trickery, no unexpected delight. Nothing. Just ... NOGO. It's a remedial idea for a puzzle, and I'm surprised it was accepted at all. The grid is certainly adequate, but conceptually, this theme is weak. Aside from the fact that missing "GO" does nothing interesting to the phrases, there's the problem of "GO" being Not Missed At All from several of the phrases. BYTHEBOOK and OVERTHETOP are completely legitimate, self-standing phrases; if it weren't for the cluing, no one would blink at these entries—whereas FORTHEGOLD is nonsense. So many THEs ... a plural ARLENES ... EFGH ... I'm at a loss.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Try to win (FOR THE GOLD)
• 27A: Not vary from proper procedure (BY THE BOOK)
• 34A: Follow everyone else (WITH THE FLOW)
• 45A: Deteriorate (TO THE DOGS)
• 57A: Take things way too far (OVER THE TOP)
  

I think I was slightly slower than I might have been mainly because I spent the first half of the solve overthinking things. Once I finally accepted that the theme was as straightforward and obvious as it appeared to be, and that the grid was, at best, ordinary, words started to come a lot faster. Had only one real hang-up, with DEBT for CASH (13A: Bills, e.g.), and one real head-scratcher—IRENE (26A: Mrs. Forsyte in "The Forsyte Saga"). No idea what "The Forsyte Saga" is, but IRENE is the crosswordiest woman's name there is (esp. in five letters), so once I had the "I," I just guessed. Took me a while to get SCARAB (brain just kept saying "ANKH!?") (1D: Ancient Egyptian talisman) and ASGARD (9D: Heavenly home of the Norse gods) (learned it from crosswords, and often get it confused with AESIR, which I also learned from crosswords). "WHO'S NEXT?" is an album title (34D: Waiting room query). In what "waiting room" would you hear it as a query? Doctors know who's next. Most service providers with waiting clients do. Who is supposed to be making this query? The waiter or the waitee? Argh.

Anyone wishing to get a solid introduction to heavily overused crossword words could do worse than looking here first: OMERTA, GSUIT, OLLA, ARLENE(S), ASGARD, BABA, SRIS, ANO, ROO, EWES etcetcetc.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Introduction of 1927 — THURSDAY, Nov. 26, 2009 — Rabanne who was costume designer for Barbarella / Time manager's directive / Introduction of 1977

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: PARADE BALLOONs in the MACY's Thanksgiving Day Parade — three theme answers are famous characters clued by when they debuted as balloons in the MACY's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Word of the Day: PACO Rabanne (17A: Rabanne who was the costume designer for "Barbarella") — Paco Rabanne, born Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo on February 18, 1934 in San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque) in the Basque Country, Spain, is a fashion designer. He fled Spain for France with his mother when the Spanish Civil War broke out. He originally had an architect's education but became known as the enfant terrible of the French fashion world in the 1960s // Rabanne started his career in fashion by creating jewellery for Givenchy, Dior and Balenciaga. He started his own fashion house in 1966. He used such unconventional materials as metal, paper and plastic for his outlandish and flamboyant designs. // Paco Rabanne is known for his costume designs for such films as Barbarella. Also Françoise Hardy was a big fan of Rabanne's designs. // Rabanne also has an interest in paranormal phenomena, and became infamous for his false prediction of the Russian space station Mir falling to Paris in 1999. Some media referred satirically this episode as "Pacolypse". (wikipedia)

-----

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving (U.S.). I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing today, so much as I love Paula and her puzzle, I'm going to make this reasonably short. This seems a really original and fitting idea for a puzzle. Nice bit of serendipity getting the three different fictional animals and the theme-revealer to come out symmetrically, especially since other float possibilities would likely not have had the same ["x THE animal"] syntax that all of these do. For the second day in a row I blew through the puzzle like the Blackhawks through the Sharks' defense last night (that's for Tyler). Misplaced by a day, difficulty-wise, but I have no problem with the idea of throwing people a (relative) softball on Thanksgiving. Don't stress folks out — give 'em something they can do easily, perhaps with family (you could even show this one to your kids, as they'll at least know who KERMIT is ... right? They know KERMIT, right? Tell me they know KERMIT!).



Theme answers:

• 20A: Introduction of 1977 (Kermit the Frog)
• 31A: Introduction of 1927 (Felix the Cat)
• 40A: Introduction of 1963 (Elsie the Cow)
• 51A: What 20-, 31- and 40-Across were each introduced as by 47-Down (Parade balloon)
• 47D: See 51-Across (Macy's)

New to me was ADORA (11D: Marie Osmond's _____ Belle dolls). That's by far the most desperate answer here, and it's completely inferrable from the pun the answer produces — ADORA Belle = adorable, good one, Marie. I had issues with ROUX (21D: Gumbo thickener), mostly involving spelling it ROUE, aargh. "ROUX" Means "red-headed" in French, so I figured the thickener must be the other spelling, but no. A ROUÉ is a "lecherous, dissipated man" (answers.com). Then there's RUE meaning "street" and RUE McClanahan from "Golden Girls" and "You'll RUE the day!" and ROONE Arledge ... so much to keep track of.

La Roux - Bulletproof - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Loved YESHIVA and JACKKNIFE. Learned IMARET and RAREE from constant crosswording. AS FIT and EMAGS can bite me. Thankfully (thankfully!), they're outnumbered by good stuff.

Bullets:

• 14A: First step in a series (A to B) — I probably had more trouble in this wee NW corner than I did in the whole puzzle. Was looking for a command, e.g. "Put tab A in slot B" or the like.
• 55A: Big diamonds, maybe (aces) — did Not get this until I was done. The ACES are cards. Couldn't think only of rocks or baseball.
• 28D: They may be found in a tank (GIs) — same as with ACES. Couldn't parse it, and when I did, couldn't imagine what GIs had to do with tanks. How's that for dense? I was thinking "... like a drunk tank??"
• 1D: Sound on "Batman" ("Zap") — Did I miss the part where he carried a laser gun around?
• 22D: Time manager's directive? (edit!) — "Time" here = magazine. Feels a *little* clunky, this clue.
• 24D: "Solomon and _____," 1959 biblical epic ("Sheba") — Come back, little Sheba!

Two final things before I wrap up. First, Doug Peterson and Andrea Carla Michaels made a birthday puzzle for me entitled "King of the Blog." It is brilliant, but also sooooo insidery (all about this blog and its comments section) that I'm not sure how doable it will be for someone who reads me only casually. Still, you are more than welcome to give it a try. Get it in .puz or .pdf form here. Thanks, Andrea and Doug. It's an amazingly detailed and thoughtful puzzle, as well as an incredibly sweet gesture.

Lastly, please please please check out / distribute the puzzle I wrote to support Christina Applegate's breast cancer foundation. I wrote it a couple months ago, rewrote it over the past 48 hrs, and released it yesterday (Christina's birthday). To read about the puzzle and print it out or download it, go here (or just scroll down if you're on my main page — it's the post immediately before this one). And anything you could do to promote the puzzle to solvers you know would be greatly appreciated. (Thanks to Amy Reynaldo / Diary of a Crossword Fiend for hosting the .puz versions of the above puzzles)

I'm thankful for all y'all who read this, and to Will Shortz for putting on such an interesting show.

Signed, Rex Parker, 40

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THURSDAY, Nov. 27, 2008 - Patrick Berry (Dr. _____, 1990s TV therapist / Naively optimistic muppet / Spicy biscuit served at English teas)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Recycling" - theme clues end with phrase "with recycling?," which indicates that second half of said answer is simply the first half of said answer "recycled" (i.e. anagrammed)

This theme was very easy to pick up, and must have been inspired by the discovery that the marquee Down answer - STUCK ONE'S NECK OUT - had the same letters in its second half as it did in its first. Notice that the puzzle had to be lengthened by one row in order to accommodate that answer's 16 letters. Very cool little adjustment. Notice also the really elegant symmetry. Since all the theme answers are Downs, and the "recycled" parts all come at the end, the circled squares (they are circled online - perhaps they are shaded in the paper version) do not have rotational symmetry - BUT they occur in rotationally symmetrical answers, and symmetrical pairs of answer each possess the same number of circled (shaded?) squares, e.g. five in 3D and five in 33D, four in 10D and four in 41D, etc. TEAMMATE and BEST BETS were not that inspired, but the others were very interesting revelations. The non-theme fill is virtually wince-free. Patrick Berry remains (in my mind) one of the 5 best constructors walking the planet. Highly imaginative, but also meticulous. Love to see his name on puzzles.

Theme answers:

• 3D: Digestive system parts with recycling? (intes/tines)
• 5D: Most promising options with recycling? (best / bets)
• 7D: Took a risk with recycling? (stuck one / s neck out)
• 10D: Come back with recycling? (reap / PEAR)
• 33D: Livery blacksmith with recycling? (horse / SHOER)
• 41D: Imposition on drinking with recycling? (lega / LAGE)
• 43D: Sporting colleague with recycling? (team / MATE)

Look at the grid. Notice what there isn't much of - abbreviations; partials; tired old fill. You have to care about that @#$# to make it happen, and when it happens, many people aren't likely to notice, but I'm telling you, it's a feat - a feat Way more important to me than any feat of construction. Holy guacamole, does this puzzle have even *one* abbreviation??? I just ... don't see one. Some other answers come close - REV (44A: Accelerate) could have been clued as an abbrev., TWIXT (29A: Between) is a shortened form - but no. I don't see one. [Oh wait, NYSE is one - still, just one, that's impressive] And there's only one partial (IN ON - 31A: Zero _____), and the phrase involved is so colorful that I don't mind it at all. I even like it. It's sure to provide at least a little difficulty for some (right, honey?). And while the fill isn't always scintillating (AXEL, NYSE, ERE, SPAS, ASEA), compared to most other puzzles it relies very little on the available stock of overused fill. Again, I ask would-be constructors to study this grid. You don't always need shock and awe to make your puzzle amazing.

Love the placement of OPALS (22A: Export of 18-Across) directly under AUSTRALIA (18A: Country that has won the most Cricket World Cups). Usually here/there clues are set apart from one another and rarely, very rarely, are they parallel and contiguous. I also love the colorful pairing of ASIA MINOR (61A: Location of two of the classical Seven Wonders) and GINGER NUT (65A: Spicy biscuit served at English teas). I like that the clue sets ASIA MINOR in the past (since I think of it as a dated term). I also like that my eyes kept scanning the clue as "Location of two classics by Stevie Wonder." I told my wife "I've never heard of GINGER NUT." She said "you had GINGER NUT ice cream in New Zealand." She's probably right.

Assorted:

• 23A: Day trader's wish (fast buck) - great, lively phrase. Love that it intersects another great, lively phrase (STICK ONE'S NECK OUT) at the "K"!
• 36A: Dynasty in which Confucianism became dominant (Han) - much more highbrow than the clue I would have used (HAN Solo)
• 45A: Org. with a National Historic Landmark building in lower Manhattan (NYSE) - It's a landmark, alright. It's not marking anything very good at the moment.
• 51A: Danger for small craft (wake) - I call "WAVE" on many of you. Some of you. Admit it! Some of you had WAVE here, at first, if not to the bitter end. The cross, 48D: Kind of run (ski), was so plain and ambiguous that it wasn't necessarily much help. WAVE will seem so right to some people that they'll just be left wondering what the hell SVI can be.
• 52A: Contemporary of Kepler (Brahe) - why his name has stuck in my head, I don't know.
• 54A: Formula formulators (chemists) - I like this answer, in that it is both rare (in the grid) and ordinary (in real life, esp. in Britain). There's something sort of quaint and charming about it.
• 59A: Prince _____, Eddie Murphy's role in "Coming to America" (Akeem) - this May have been the first word I put in the grid...
• 68A: Dr. _____, 1990s TV therapist (Katz) - HA ha. Animated! And likely Obscure to many of you. Late 90s Comedy Central. Squigglevision:

• 1D: Symbol seen on viola music (C clef) - Didn't know this, but like the "CC" opening.
• 2D: 1944 film noir by Preminger ("Laura") - One of the reasons the term "film noir" was invented.
• 9D: Upscale office decor (art) - how about [Any office's decor]? I mean, my dentist has ERTE on the wall, my doctor, some ugly photography and water colors. No Degas or RODIN (28D: "The Age of Bronze" artist), but still, ART.
• 12D: Craft union of old (guild) - craft GUILDs were a big deal in Medieval England. I will spare you the lecture.
• 25D: Victorian gents' accessories (canes) - wife had CAPES, which is a great wrong answer. Unfortunately, "Zero IN OP" is not a known phrase.
• 38D: Naively optimistic Muppet (Ernie) - neither wife nor I think of ERNIE as "naive." "Today, on Sesame Street, Bert has to stop ERNIE from sending money to a 'Nigerian prince.'"
• 52D: So-called "king of herbs" (basil) - "So-called?" By whom, the herb itself? I was imagining some guy named Herb going "Hey, you know what they call me down at the plant? The King of Herbs, that's what they call me? Oh I'm a real big shot down there." Real King of Herbs = Herb Tarlek. He had good sports jackets:

64D: Sports _____ (bra) - well that was unexpected. It's an anagram of the answer I wanted.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Oh, yeah: Happy Thanksgiving

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