Put an edge on / TUES 8-3-21 / Butler in a romance / Website designer's code / Clears up a jumble

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the first Tuesday of the month! I had a good excuse for missing last Tuesday — I was taking the bar exam. But I’m now done with that endless studying, and fingers crossed that I passed! Since I finished, I’ve just basked in watching any and all of the Olympics that I can. I was able to watch a lot of the swimming, which was quite fun. (Go, Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky!). And, now, the track is incredibly interesting. Whatever you do, make sure to tune in to watch the women’s 400m hurdles final tonight — two Americans (Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin) who have been trading wins and world records are up against each other, so the race should be absolutely epic. 

Anywho, I’ll try to focus on this write-up instead of the track — we’ll see how that goes!

Constructor: TRIP PAYNE

Relative difficulty: MEDIUM

THEME: CORNER THE MARKET — Each corner of the puzzle contains the words “the market” scrambled

Theme answers:

• KAT; ETH; MRE 
• wHET; hARK; iMET 
• HTMl; AREd; KETo 
• HAT; MRT; EKE

Word of the Day: HAMAN (11D: Villain in the book of Esther) —

​​Haman (also known as Haman the Agagite or Haman the evil) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was a vizier in the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I but traditionally equated with Artaxerxes I or Artaxerxes II. As his epithet Agagite indicates, Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites. Some commentators interpret this descent to be symbolic, due to his similar personality. (Wiki)

• • •

I don’t have a ton to say about the puzzle today — maybe it’s because I was simultaneously doing the puzzle and watching the Olympics or maybe the puzzle was just particularly meh. I did really like the theme revealer of CORNER THE MARKET — it’s fun and clever and feels fresh. But, the result of the theme was some really quite ugly corners. And, I, at least, found the corners to be the hardest parts of the puzzle — especially the northeast and southwest corners. 

I didn’t know WHIP IT (10D: 1980 Devo hit) or HAMAN (11D), which put me in trouble in the northeast corner. On top of that, I tried to put “deck” instead of HARK for 16A: Start of a carol title, so I really did have some trouble up there. Then, with the southwest corner, I found DETRE (50D: Raison __) and A RED (65A: Run __ light) to be particularly ugly. 

Some of the longer answers were my favorite part of the puzzle. SERAPHIM (9D: Attendants at a heavenly throne) is unusual — and fun. I also enjoyed seeing WESTEROS in the puzzle (though, like every other Game of Thrones fan, do not get me started talking about what a disaster season 8 of that show was!). And, having GRATIS above REBATE was a nice touch. Looking back, I also noticed a bit of a religious theme with HAMAN, HARK, SERAPHIM, and EASTER. 

Other than that, this sort of just felt like a standard Tuesday to me!

Misc.:

• Watching some of these events in the Olympics, I’m convinced these athletes are where the phrase ABS (6D) of steel came from. They are very fit people! 
• Is SLOVEN (48D: Unkempt person) a real word? Google tells me it is, but I think of “slovenly” as the right form of the term. 
• I remember TKTS (13D: Times square sign for B'way fans) on Broadway very well from when my sister and I were absolutely desperate to see Hamilton and waited in line for a long time but, sadly, did not get to see the musical (until, of course, it was released on Disney+ and was the greatest thing ever).
  

Hope everyone is staying safe and has a great month of August! 

Signed, Clare Carroll, who's finally done with the bar exam

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Academica author / SAT 11-1-14 / 1979 comedy set at Camp North Star / Husband of Elisheba / European Parliament locale / Porter Ally McBeal role / 1989 AP Female Athlete of Year / 1977 law school memoir / Apostle of Cuban Independence / Subject of tribute album every man has woman

Constructor: Trip Payne

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: COVERT OPERATIONS — That's the title this puzzle was *designed* to have. Also, blurb was to have read: "No one said there was going to be math!" But fate and other nonsense intervened to give us this untitled puzzle with a condescending blurb.

Anyway, the basic idea is that the numbers in the themers relate to the numbered boxes in the grid, so you need to substitute the answers from those numbers and *then* read the equation out loud in order to make sense of the clues, ID EST

Theme answers:

• BATTLEFIELD (19A: 81 ÷ 27)—i.e. PLACE (81A) divided by WAR (27A), i.e. [Place divided by war]
• NEUTROGENA (34A: 61 + 86)—i.e. PERT (61A) Plus RIVAL (86A), i.e. [Pert Plus rival] ("PERT Plus" being a brand name)
• REPEATEDLY (63A: 56 x 42)—i.e. MANY (56A) times OVER (42A), i.e. [Many times over]
• GROSS PROFIT (83A: 33 - 21)—NET SALES (33D) minus COSTS (21A), i.e. [Net sales minus costs]

Word of the Day: NELLE Porter (37D: ___ Porter, "Ally McBeal" role) —

Nelle Porter is a fictional character on the Fox television show Ally McBeal. She is portrayed by actress Portia de Rossi and appears in Seasons 2 through 5 of the show. A Boston-based lawyer, Nelle joins the fictional law firm of Cage & Fish with the ambition of someday becoming a partner. Romantically involved with partner John Cage during Seasons 2 and 3, she later appears mainly as a source of comic relief. She is also notable for her close friendship with Ling Woo, one of the show’s most remarked-upon characters. (wikipedia)

• • •

Title-less-ness and lame-blurb-ity are just two of many indignities this puzzle has suffered over the past year. This puzzle is semi-infamous in crossword circles—it's the puzzle that was supposed to be an American Crossword Tournament puzzle (hence it's non-standard size), but Mr. Shortz decided to leave it out for cameras to see during a TV profile, and since it was (if memory serves) clearly labeled as a tournament puzzle. Ah, here we go … it was a  "Business Insider" profile. Shows the completed puzzle and everything. Big gaffe. So puzzle couldn't be used, and then [drama redacted], and here we are. It's a wonderful puzzle, and I don't think the title is necessary for many top solvers and regular meta-solvers. Actually, it may not be necessary at all, from an ease-of-solving standpoint. Whether you know the title is "COVERT OPERATIONS" or not, you still have to figure out that you aren't actually doing "math," but using the answers associated with the numbers to create phrases that would make appropriate clues. Cosmetically, I prefer the puzzle with the title. But you get what you get. And this is good stuff (back story aside).


I had no idea what was going on until I was done. Until after I was done. Like most of you (probably), I actually did the math. But I was bugged by [81 ÷ 27]. Why write it that way? Why not simply [9 ÷ 3], if we're just doing math? Made no sense… and that was beginning of the thinking that got me to look at the boxes with the numbers in them (the same way you had to look at the boxes with the numbers in them to make sense of the Patrick Blindauer meta-challenge from last month). When I noticed that the "56" in the clue for REPEATEDLY (63A: 56 x 42) was the clue number for MANY (56A: ___ a time), I thought "'MANY times …' aha!" and then sure enough, the "42" part was OVER (42A: Supervising). So REPEATEDLY is [MANY times OVER]. It sure is.


I started out pretty fast on this one, but then it turned out that I had to get Every Single Themer from crosses + inference. That definitely slowed me down. Difficulty level otherwise felt more Thursday than Saturday. No tough or obscure fill (except NELLE, ugh—I remain philosophically opposed to any and all "Ally McBeal" clues, and this only gets truer with each passing, blessedly "Ally McBeal"-free day) (37D: ___ Porter, "Ally McBeal role). Toughest parts of the puzzle for me, by far, were those tiny, mostly walled-off corners in the NE and SW. Somehow managed a good guess in the SW with YEARS leading to SPRY and things coming together from there, but in the NE I was not nearly as fortunate. Why? Well, I can't spell NEUTROGENA. I had it as NEUTRAGENA. Still seems reasonable. Anyway, as I had no idea what "Academica" was, 11D: "Academica" author was blank. I had it ending -ERA. So that effectively meant No Access to that NE corner. And since the clues up there were at least slightly vague / hard. I flailed around quite a bit before I put together the correct answers. Managed to finish and still be wrong. Had HOSTS for 21A: Lists for (this seemed reasonable from an Internet standpoint), and so with the NEUTRAGENA misspelling, my author ended up as CIHERA (™, by the way—it's my new pen name, and it's pronounced "Sierra").

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Mountain in Deuteronomy / SUN 11-20-11 / Will's ex-wife on Glee / Rank in kendo / Sci-fi series set in 23rd century / Italian province seaport / TV award discontinued in 1997 / Color whose name is French for flea

Constructor: Trip Payne

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Figure It Out" — in nine squares, letters share space with numerals (numeral in one answer, letter in the cross). PUT the NINE LETTERS IN ORDER based on the numeral they share space with, and you get NWODTNUOC ... which is to say, if you you take the numerals in reverse order, or count down, you get COUNTDOWN.

 Word of the Day: BERU (59A: Aunt ___ ("Star Wars" character)) —

Beru Whitesun Lars, the wife of Owen Lars, was a Tatooinian woman who raised Luke Skywalker after the fall of the Galactic Republic. Coming from a long line of moisture farmers, Beru Whitesun grew up near Mos Eisley on Tatooine. On a trip to Anchorhead, she met Owen Lars, the son of another moisture farmer, Cliegg Lars. Beru and Owen fell in love, and Beru later became part of the Lars family. // Shortly before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Owen's stepmother, Shmi Skywalker Lars, was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders, an event that brought Shmi's son, Anakin Skywalker, and his soon-to-be-wife, Padmé Amidala, to the Lars homestead. Three years later, when the galactic conflict came to a close, Beru and Owen became the guardians of their new baby nephew, Luke Skywalker, after his father turned to the dark side of the Force and became Darth Vader. // The Larses raised Luke like a son. Beru would often defend Luke's interests against Owen, who was overprotective of him out of fear that he would follow in Anakin's footsteps. Though Owen refused numerous times to let Luke go when he wished to leave home to attend the Imperial Academy with his friend Biggs Darklighter, Beru convinced her husband to let Luke go after staying on for only one more season. After a year had passed, Beru tried to convince Owen that it was time to let Luke move on, but they never had time to reach an agreement. The two were killed by Imperial stormtroopers, by order of Darth Vader, who were searching for a droid carrying the stolen Death Star plans. (Wookieepedia)

• • •

Very clever without being exceedingly difficult or overly fussy. Love the little twist on "IN ORDER" (doesn't say *which* order)—the discovery of COUNTDOWN ends up being a genuine aha moment. Overall, this is a very good puzzle about which I don't have much to say. Please note the relative lack of junk fill and the sparkling, original theme answers. I think REBIDS crossing REMEET at the "RE-" is about the only icky thing here. Except BERU, which is nuts. Hey, you know OOLA, whom you occasionally see in crosswords as ["Return of the Jedi" dancing girl]? Well, I just watched "Return of the Jedi" yesterday, and there she was ... only no one ever calls her by name. Not once. The idea that we're supposed to know the name of a character whose name is never uttered, and who is on screen all of five minutes, is bizarre. And yet, someone put her in a puzzle once. And then again. And now she's crosswordese. BERU, as far as I can tell, has never been in a mainstream crossword, though I feel like her name was probably at least uttered once. By Luke. When he was whining about having to stay on the farm and help his uncle for another season. But I digress.




Theme answers:

• 74D: Oscar-nominated sci-fi film of 2009 ("DISTRICT 9") — "C"
• 108A: "My sources say no" source (MAGIC 8 BALL) — "O"
• 14D: Fruit-flavored soft drink (CHERRY 7-UP) — "U"
• 58D: One step up from a four-cylinder (V-6 ENGINE) — "N"
• 35D: Sci-fi series set in the 23rd century ("BABYLON 5") — "T"
• 38D: It was first broken in 1954 (4-MINUTE MILE) — "D" ... this was the answer that really broke open the puzzle for me. Dropped it in with no crosses. It proved invaluable for navigating that tough middle of the grid.
  
• 23A: Computer animation option (3-D GRAPHICS) — "O"
• 2D: Dinner date request (TABLE FOR 2) — "W" ... love this answer, though one thing about these theme answers is that their use of numerals is not consistent. By which I mean, nobody uses a numeral when writing out this phrase, whereas in every other phrase, use of the numeral is accurate, or at least defensible.
  
• 79D: Thiamine (VITAMIN B1) — "N"    

[87A: Bob Marley's group, with "the"] 
CABLE ACE is a great retro answer, though a bit awkward, in that I've absolutely never heard the words "CABLE ACE" used without an "AWARD" chaser (83D: TV award discontinued in 1997). OMG I just noticed IRING, which is hilariously terrible (IRE as a verb is never welcome — usu. shows up in IRES or IRED form; I've never seen IRING before in my life, not in the grid, not out of the grid, never) (33A: Teeing off). Aside from BERU, my main "I did not know that" moment came with HOREB (34A: Mountain in Deuteronomy). I sure as hell needed every cross to get that one. I thought maybe GOREN, but that's the bridge column guy. Wife is a black belt, so I got DAN pretty easily (18A: Rank in kendo). I just a couple days ago looked up LEDE to make sure I was spelling it right (19A: Article's start, to a journalist). Only Gleeks are going to know 7D: Will's ex-wife on "Glee" (TERRI). Well, Gleeks and me, a reformed Gleek.  I wanted SHERI. The crosses seem fair. I know BARI from crosswords (briefly thought it might be BERI) and I learned that PUCE trivia some time ago ... then forgot it ... until I remembered it (96D: Color whose name is French for "flea").

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Companion of Algernon in Oscar Wilde play / FRI 3-19-10 / Joyner joiner / 1952 best seller set in California / Schaefer alternative

Constructor: Trip Payne

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: RUE (22A: Bitter herb) —

Rue (Ruta) is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20-60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia and southwest Asia. There are perhaps 8 to 40 species in the genus. A well-known species is the Common Rue. [...] It is very bitter. It was used extensively in Middle Eastern cuisine in olden days, as well as in many ancient Roman recipes (according to Apicius, and is still used, for example in northern Africa. In Italy rue leaves are sometimes added to grappa to obtain grappa alla ruta. [...] According to The Oxford Book of Health Foods, extracts from rue have been used to treat eyestrain, sore eyes, and as an insect repellent. Rue has been used internally as an antispasmodic, as a treatment for menstrual problems, as an abortifacient, and as a sedative. [...] Rue is mentioned in the Bible, Luke 11.42: "But woe unto you, Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs". (wikipedia)

• • •

Solid. Right over the plate. Almost generic in its Fridayness. Much more crosswordese than I care to see in a themeless puzzle, but otherwise just fine, with some very clever cluing here and there. Biggest trap in this puzzle — or the biggest one I fell into, at any rate — came at 20A: Joyner joiner? Took me a while to figure out what the clue could possibly be going for, but after a few crosses, I got it — it's the name that's "joined" to "Joyner" in the last name of track legend Jackie Joyner-KERSEY. That is how I spelled it. With a "Y." That seemed the only reasonable spelling, and its reasonableness was confirmed immediately by the "Y" cross: 21D: First name in design. Of course, the answer was YVES. Wham, bam, thank you, Ms. Joyner-KERSEY. But then I looked at NOSV- for 25A: They change people's profiles, and I knew something was amiss. But so sure was I of KERSEY / YVES, I actually yanked ERNEST for a bit, thinking maybe there was some other Wilde character starting ERNE- besides ERNEST (10D: Companion of Algernon in an Oscar Wilde play). Eventually pulled YVES and immediately got NOSEJOBS, but it never, ever occurred to me to pull the "Y." So I ended the puzzle wondering who this YERO guy was. Thought about it. Thought about it. Crosses check out. Must be r... oh, wait. It's not ... EERO!? KERSEE!? The revelation there was a big let-down. Never good when the big reveal involves a whole mess of "E"s.

A little heavy on the overly familiar crossword names today. EERO is just the tip of the iceberg. See also EDA, ELIA (11A: "The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers" writer), and ETTA (not to mention EMINEM — 45A: "The Way I Am" autobiographer). Throw in ORO (28D: Plata's partner) and LST (24D: Allied transport, for short) and NCOS and ETAS (19A: Viscosity symbols) and -ERN and a few others and it starts feeling pretty stale around the edges. No real marquee answers today. In fact, the more I think about it, the less this seems like a Trip Payne puzzle. It's just too dull. Even the longish answers are kind of listless. ALICANTE (37D: Spanish seaport) is really just high-end crosswordese. And ASSESSEE ... well, that's some kind of crossword crime against humanity (14D: Person who's been charged). I thought words like this (long, chock full of "E"s and "S"s) were considered beneath the great constructors. I've seen specific injunctions words like ASSESSMENTS before. Oh well. At least RAISE A STINK is kind of interesting (4D: Complain loudly).


Ingrid Michaelson "The Way I Am" (music video)


Where the puzzle does have pizazz is in its cluing. First two long Acrosses provide good examples. 1A: Land grant, of a sort (SHORE LEAVE). Complete repurposing of the familiar phrase "Land grant." And 15A: Person with a shaky story? (HULA DANCER) is even better. Lively, funny, wonderful. My first thought on encountering that clue was the much more morbid QUAKE VICTIM. Then there was 47A: Person from Moscow (IDAHOAN). Moscow is the home of the University of Idaho. My relatives used to live in nearby Lewiston, ID. My grandmother still lives in St. Maries, ID. Needless to say, this clue didn't fool me at all, but I suspect at least a handful of people blithely wrote in RUSSIAN.

Only mysteries today, beyond the spelling of KERSEE, were the Patty Hearst alias (TANIA) and the main ore of iron (HEMATITE). Figured the latter ended in -ITE. Got rest from crosses. Oh, and I'd never heard of RUE as clued. What else? ACORN gets a very fresh clue (8D: Voter registration grp. founded in 1970). Two physicists storm the grid, and run into each other in the process: FERMI (54A: Physicist with a unit of distance named after him) and AMPERE (49D: A in physics?). And OSSIE Davis turns out to have been in the '90s sitcom "Evening Shade" (34A: Davis of "Evening Shade"). That show had Hal Holbrook and Charles Durning too? Wow. That's talent. If they'd been the stars, I might have watched it. I *love* Charles Durning as Denis Leary's character's father on "Rescue Me." Fantastic, hilarious, unflattering role. Then there's this:



Bullets:

• 31A: Schaefer alternative (STROH'S) — not sure why, but this was the first answer I wanted. I think the last time I saw SCHAEFER in a puzzle, I wasn't even aware it was a beer. And yet somehow, today, I knew it was a beer and (eerily, i.e. without any crosses) knew the "alternative" that was called for.
  
• 67A: 1952 best seller set in California ("EAST OF EDEN") — not too hard when you have EDEN in place before you ever see the clue. Whole SE was a real piece of cake.
  
• 12D: It was last an official Olympic event in 1908 (LACROSSE) — had no idea that anyone outside of North America ever played this sport.
  
• 32D: Female octopus (HEN) — You'd think I'd know this by now. After considering SOW and EWE (?), I honestly contemplated writing "HER" in here.
  
• 35D: 1994 Michael Keaton film in which real journalists have cameo roles ("THE PAPER") — How in the world did I remember this move? I saw it in the theater. Once. Maybe 15 years ago. I remember almost nothing about it. And yet, there it was. I wanted to call it "THE PRESS" at first, but eventually it fell into place.
  
• 39D: Sheller's discard (POD) — that's what they call the hard outer casing of the crab.
  
• 50D: Pathfinder producer (NISSAN) — came across a picture of my old Pathfinder in the snow and got weirdly nostalgic. I really miss that car.
• 61D: Tibetan wolf's prey (YAK) — here are some stats you'll never need to know, courtesy of wikipedia:

Wolves can be a serious problem for livestock owners in Tibet. A study on livestock predation showed that the wolf was the most prominent predator, accounting for 60% of the total livestock losses, followed by the snow leopard (38%) and lynx (2%). Goats were the most frequent victims (32%), followed by sheep (30%), yak (15%), and horses (13%). Wolves killed horses significantly more and goats less than would be expected from their relative abundance.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Perform a wedeln e.g. / WED 1-20-10 / Contralto James / Gong Show regular Johnson / 1856 Stowe novel / Actresses Farrell Jackson

Constructor: Trip Payne

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "ONWARD AND UPWARD" (38A: Aspirant's motto ... or, phonetically, what 18-, 23-, 47- and 57-Across each consist of) — theme answers are two-word phrases where first word contains (at least one) "ON" and second word contains "UP" — thus an "on word" and an "up word"

Word of the Day: EPOPEE (46D: Heroic poem) —

n.

1. Epic poetry, especially as a literary genre.
2. An epic poem.

[French épopée, from Greek epopoiiā : epos, song, word + poiein, to make.]

Why this word exists when EPOS and (the much more common) EPIC already exist is beyond me.

• • •

My fastest Wednesday ever. Ever. 3:43?? That's insane. I never saw the theme, or rather, I saw the theme-revealing answer but never grasped what it meant until I was finished. Solved the entire theme revealer from just the -PWARD at the end and didn't take the time to look back (or think forward) since knowing the theme didn't seem necessary to getting the theme answers. I got *floored* by EPOPEE (just stared at EPO- wondering how I was going to make EPOS strettttch...) and was befuddled by SWARM INTO (35D: Overrun) (a phrase that doesn't quite feel natural), but the rest is kind of a blur. Now that I look back on it, I have to say that the theme is goofy in a way that I find totally charming. A very clever play on the words in a common phrase, and one that yields solid and unexpected results. The double "ON" in WONTON didn't bother me at all. If anything, it was like an exclamation point on the puzzle — a finish with a flourish.

Theme answers:

• 18A: It creates a small vacuum (suctiON cUP)
• 23A: Parts of double-blind trials (cONtrol groUPs)
• 47A: What national banks oversee (mONey sUPplies)
• 57A: Chinese menu option (wONtON soUP)

Would not have thought of MEAN and 1A: Stingy as meaning the same thing (I associate MEANness with cruelty), but that's definitely one of its definitions. A SNAP looks a little ridiculous in the grid, but fits perfectly with its clue (10D: No problem at all).

["Two snaps up!"]

I somehow rode CONTROL GROUPS across the grid from NW to NE and thus missed the N entirely on first pass. Last two answers to fall were SKI and "OF US." Never heard of a "wedeln" (9D: Perform a wedeln, e.g.) and had ISAAC at first for ISAAK (15A: Chris with the 1991 hit "Wicked Game"), putting a "C" where the "K" should have been in SKI. "OF US" is a rather ugly partial, and, with EPOPEE, the ugliest thing in the grid (19D: "The Sum ___" (Russell Crowe movie)). Since "L.A. Confidential" ... no, since "Gladiator," I have pretty much avoided all Crowe fare. See him (with Hugo Weaving) in "Proof" (1991), easily the best thing he's ever done (that I've seen).

[he's not in this scene ...]

Bullets:

• 17A: Roofless home (nest) — some NESTs have roofs. I don't know this for a fact, but I feel it must be so.
• 37A: 1856 Stowe novel ("Dred") — not, as you probably suspected, "Dr. Ed"
• 45A: Contralto James (Etta) — I thought "contralto" was a word applied to the voice of a different type of singer, namely opera. ETTA sings the blues.
• 62A: "The Gong Show" regular Johnson (Arte) — this guy's name used to be as common as ERNE or EPEE. It's nice to think of his name fading in crossword popularity. Gives me hope that, where popular culture is concerned, the puzzle can be adaptive and not (just) stuck in the past. ARTE is a fine answer, and I'm not sure we're any better off that he's been replaced (in terms of common four-letter pop culture names) by ENYA (34D: Popular singer born in County Donegal), but at least ENYA's still working. And has a huge body of work. And has won Emmys, and got an Academy Award nomination, and ... O man, she's never going anywhere, is she? On my deathbed (I'm hoping many decades from now) I'll be solving a puzzle with her in it. Well, that's an awfully weird first glimpse of 2060. . . wait, what was this comment about again? Oh, right. Commedia dell'ARTE.
• 7D: OS X runner (emu)
• 25D: Actresses Farrell and Jackson (Glendas) — first actress = !?!?!, second actress = gimme.
• 31D: Vengeful goddess (Hera) — she sure is. A totally unreasonable fantastic pain in the ass. But this is why I love her: total commitment. She's the real star of "The Aeneid."
• 58D: Grp. that meets in the Situation Room (NSC) — Wolf Blitzer has other people in there with him? (should I flag the comments wherein I'm kidding? I feel like today's write-up's gonna get me some mail...)
• 59D: Upscale hotel offering (spa) — well it's not terribly "upscale," but Brooklyn Bridge Marriott is where I'll be staying Feb. 18-20 for the weekend of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Hope to see many of you there. I'll be there. And today's constructor, Trip Payne, will almost certainly be there. In fact, if this year is like many other recent years, he'll be on stage, at the end, in the finals. He's fast. Former champions usually are.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Soft-rock singer Vannelli — THURSDAY, Dec. 10 2009 — Rich couple on Titanic / Jughead's topper / Becoming slower in music

Constructor: Trip Payne

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: END NOTES (68A: What some scholarly texts (and the 10-Downs to all the starred clues) have) — seven successive theme answers end with DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, and TI, respectively

Word of the Day: Gail DEVERS (2D: Three-time Olympic gold medalist Gail) — Yolanda Gail Devers (born November 19, 1966 in Seattle, Washington, USA) is a three-time Olympic 100 m champion in athletics for the US Olympic Team. Devers grew up near National City, CA and graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1984. National City, CA. Sweetwater's football and track stadium is named Gail Devers Stadium. [...] On February 2, 2007 [at age 40!], Devers edged 2004 Olympic champion Joanna Hayes to win the 60-meter hurdles event at the Millrose Games in 7.86 seconds - the best time in the world this season and just 0.12 off the record she set in 2003. // She is most easily identified by her long nails.

-----

[Last teaching day of the semester ... do a little dance ... OK, puzzle write-up]

I didn't get what this puzzle was trying to do until I was done, but then ... Wow. I've seen the notes of the scale used every which way in crosswords before, but never in such an elaborate and elegant way. Eight theme answers (nine if you count 10D ANSWER, which had to be a happy accident ... right?), including short STACKS in the NW and SE. Didn't know LENTANDO (Lentan ... D'oh!) but I knew the LENT- part and the -ANDO was inferrable *and* gettable from crosses. All the other theme answers are solid, interesting words, and nothing in the non-theme fill feels obscure or forced. I'm really impressed with this one. Just lovely.

Theme answers:

• 14A: *Becoming slower, in music (lentan DO)
• 17A: *First track on many a Broadway album (overtu RE) — this is the one glitch: that the "RE" in OVERTURE is not pronounced like the "RE" in the scale. (It's not, right?) I'm not sure I care that much.
• 32A: *Deli choice (pastra MI)
• 37A: *Role played by child star Carl Switzer (Alfal FA) — I would like to thank today's puzzle for making me conscious of something I've never really thought about before, to wit, I believe ALFALFA and Jughead to be biologically related somehow (8A: Jughead's topper => BEANIE)
• 41A: *Shade provider (para SOL)
• 47A: *Long smoke (panate LA) — learned it from xwords. Today may be the first time where I actually *remembered* it
• 65A: *Book reviewers, for example (litera TI) — well, that's debatable

... which brings us back to A DO! (1A: Flap). Kind of!

The puzzle felt pretty easy to me overall, though I was never quite able to break it open and speed through the grid. Never got stopped, but never picked up incredible speed, either. It was actually a pretty ideal solving sensation — winning, but having to work a little for it. ADO seemed obvious as the answer for 1A: Flap, and then DEVERS swam out of the back of my mind. Didn't trust ALOHA at first because it seemed too obvious (1D: Hawai'i _____" (island song)). Struggled a bit with the back end of LENTANDO, as I said, but then generally made good, deliberate, unbroken progress on the rest of the grid. The one hold-up was "ALLEGRO" (42D: 1947 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical). Shocking, right? I'm such a musical aficionado. I thought it was "ALL ... something!" "ALL Aboard!" "ALL For One!" Thankfully, the sweet musical stylings of GINO Vannelli (a mainstay of the pop charts when I first started listening to FM radio) came to the rescue.

["When I think about those nights in Montreal..."]

Bullets:

• 4A: Best-selling author Tami (Hoag) — great, great, dual-purpose name this woman has (you will see her as TAMI or HOAG for years to come)
• 23A: Sheik's home (Araby) — "Araby" is a term from a kind of fiction that romanticizes the Middle East (see Joyce's story of the same name). Not a real place (well, there's this place).
• 25A: Its punch is spiked (mace) — awesome. It's a pretty fearsome weapon that I remember well from being 10 and playing D&D.
• 57A: Backer's word (aye) — I like this clue.
• 67A: Rich couple on the Titanic (Astors) — people I learned about from xwords. It's been quite a (superficial) education, when I think about it...
• 13D: Self-appointed group, for short? (eds.) — I'm hip to this trick, seen it a million times, and *still* got fooled today. The "-appointed" part is a nice touch. Hard to see "Self" as a magazine title that way.
• 15D: Setting for an annual New York film festival (Tribeca) — not sure how I know this (and know that it's Robert DeNiro's baby), but I do.
• 28D: Bandoleer contents (ammo) — "Bandoleer" is the belt for carrying bullets worn over the shoulder. Popular with Chewbacca, Pancho Villa, and cartoon apes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

PS Please enjoy the newest Rex Parker Free Puzzle, "And They're Off..." — available here (or just scroll down to the following post...)

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SATURDAY, Jun. 27 2009 — Influential 1996 video game / Actress co-starring in TV's Burn Notice / Cocktails lacking hard liquor / RICO Act enforcer

Constructor: Trip Payne

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: LACTEAL (36D: Milky) — adj.

1. Of, relating to, or resembling milk.
2. Anatomy. Of or relating to any of numerous minute intestinal lymph-carrying vessels that convey chyle from the intestine to lymphatic circulation and thereby to the thoracic duct.

n. Anatomy.

A lacteal vessel.

[From Latin lacteus, from lac, lact-, milk.]

This one was easy around the edges, with a mild squares of death in the middle. The corners went down so fast that I don't remember working on them at all. I had an embarrassing revelation in the NE when I couldn't understand why I'd never heard of a poet called ANGELO [insert initial] ... and then I got the "U" (from SELF-CONSCIOUS -> 31A: Uncomfortable, in a way). Oh, right. Maya ANGELOU (12D: "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie" poet). Not that obscure after all.



But that's the only hiccup I had in any of the corners. The real issue for me was a roughly square area with 23A: Henchmen at the top and 46A: Yellow squares, perhaps at the bottom. This area was a bear. I had several answers traversing it — BLESS ME FATHER (35A: Start of a confession) and ANCESTOR (24D: Genealogical discovery) came quickly — but my inability to get SELF-CONSCIOUS and, especially, EYE CHART (the key to the whole thing) forced me to push letters around a bit in there. Wanted an "S" on the end of 26D: They have connections (kin), which hurt. Actually wrote in ELEPHANT once at 21D: It begins with an E (in two ways) and then tried desperately to figure out why it made sense (it didn't). Every F-starting gov. abbrev. in the world came to me at 39D: RICO Act enforcer except FBI. And I honestly never knew that TOMB RAIDER was a video game. I knew the movies were based on something ... now I know (43A: Influential 1996 video game). Still, this center-square problem was a problem only by comparison to the rest of the puzzle, which was cake.

EYE CHART!!!! I had E-ECHA-- and went through the alphabet to try to make sense of that second letter. Y, as you might know, is quite near the end of the alphabet.

Opening gambit: DO RAGS - GIA - AMIS. NW was done in about 30 seconds. Couldn't figure out 29D: Some pellets (sleet) and so had to reboot completely in the SW, which was, again, not hard. CHRIST - HIC - CRAT. SW up in flames. BLESS ME FATHER took me to the east coast, where I worked into the NE via the HO CHI Minh Trail (30D: _____ Minh). HOOD - HORSED - EAGER etc. Up here was the small ANGELOU snag, and one of two pop culture WTFs?!!? First, "Pushing Daisies" has been canceled. It ran for 22 episodes. LEE Pace is light years from a household name (27A: "Pushing Daisies" star _____ Pace). The show was critically acclaimed, to some extent, but ... I mean, not enough people watched it to keep it on the air, and even those people probably don't know the actors' names. Sharon GLESS's name I know, but not not not from whatever "Burn Notice" is (10D: Actress co-starring in TV's "Burn Notice"). Putting both those actors in one corner seems like contemporary marginal pop culture overload. And if you're overloading ME, that's saying something. But in the end, I didn't really struggle, so I can't complain too much.

Hammered away at the center, and once that broke, I entered the SE, expecting a fight, but not getting one. All three long Acrosses went over easily. Last letter was the "A" in UVA (47A: Sch. founded by a president) / RAVERS (44D: Movie critics, sometimes).

Bullets:

• 19A: Author of "Time's Arrow," 1991, a novel written in reverse chronological order (Amis) — TMI. The part where you describe the novel is trivia and does nothing to help solvers get the answer. You know "Time's Arrow" = AMIS or you don't. Not that trivia isn't interesting; it just feels gunky when it's used unnecessarily in a clue.
• 33A: Quebec's Festival d'___ (Été) — lots of easy short stuff like this in the puzzle. I didn't *know* it, but it's the first and only answer that came to me. Three letters, French, starts with vowel...
• 45A: Drink whose name suggests its vitamin content (Hi-C) — more easy short stuff.
• 48A: Receiver of some contributions (Roth IRA) — liked this. Hard to parse if you come at it from the front. From the back, a bit easier.
• 50A: Year that Acre fell in the First Crusade (MCIV) — knowing the First Crusade started in MXCVI helped narrow things down a little.
• 58A: Contents of a certain household box (cat litter) — breakfast test! ILL AT EASE! (52A: Uncomfortable).
• 5D: Hero of "Boyz N the Hood" (Tre) — never saw this clue. I saw the movie. Not sure I would have remembered the kid's name.
• 25D: Budgetary bigwig, for short (CFO) — off the "F" in SETS ON FIRE (28A: Lights). Still didn't help me get LACKEYS (23A: Henchmen). Kept wanting BACKERS (!?).
• 50D: Birthplace of poet Paul Verlaine (Metz) — METZ is easy to get. I recommend having the last three letters already in place before you ever look at the clue.
• 55D: BBC's Sports Personality of the Century (Ali) — yeah, he probably deserves that.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Whom Marlin sought in a 2003 film - TUESDAY, May 5, 2009 - T Payne (Evil computer in 2001 / Decide against reorganizing the pet store?)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "S" to "ZZ" - phrases have their "S" sound turned to a "Z" sound, resulting in wacky phrases which are clued, "?"-style

Word of the Day: FUSS AND FEATHERS - Needless commotion and display, as in There was so much fuss and feathers over the award ceremony that I decided not to attend. This expression probably survives because of its appealing alliteration. [Mid-1800s]; also the nickname of a general from the War of 1812 (Winfield Scott, aka "Old Fuss and Feathers") and a 1918 film.

Apologies to all, but I have a hellishly busy day, so I'm going to crank this one out quickly. I was not a fan of this puzzle. Sound change seems tired, examples seem arbitrary. I don't know what holds them together besides the sound/spelling change, and that doesn't seem like much. Resulting phrases are ho-hum (odd, considering how many "Z"s are involved, but true nonetheless). The strange "?" clues made the theme answers really hard to see at first, but that difficulty was more than offset by the ridiculously easy cluing on the rest of the puzzle. I just ignored the theme answers and tore through the rest, and ended up with a time that was actually a bit better than my average Tuesday. Ickiest thing here is "FUZZ AND FEATHERS," which is a phrase which, in its original form, I'd never heard or seen until just now. Unless I have seen it and forgot it. It feels very old-fashioned and out-of-the-language, not a great combination for a Tuesday theme answer. Further, FUZZ AND FEATHERS doesn't give much of a new valence to FUSS AND FEATHERS. If you had told me the former was the actual expression, I'd have believed you.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Decide against reorganizing the pet store? (don't move a muZZle)
• 38A: Conversation-filled places in a restaurant? (buZZing tables) - weird that the letter/sound change results in a part-of-speech change
• 61A: What chicks have? (fuZZ and feathers)

Bullets:

• 1A: Cheney's successor as vice presdient (Biden) - even just now, as I typed it in, I wrote GORE. While solving, I actually had to pause a second or so to remember whom I was dealing with.
• 6A: Prize in the ad biz (Clio) - One of the many awards it helps to know when solving crosswords. OBIE and HUGO are in there too.
• 44A: Evil computer in "2001" (Hal) - "evil" is pretty strong / moralistic. Not sure a machine, however murderous, can be judged in such moral terms
• 2A: Musical whose opening song is "All the Dearly Beloved" ("I Do, I Do") - Never heard of it. I know the ABBA song "I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO" (which was a crossword answer a while back)

• 5A: Jules et Jim, par exemple (noms) - "Names." Sort of misdirective, as "Jules et Jim" was a Truffaut FILM.
• 53A: Massless particle (photon) - my physics failed me. Not sure what I had here at first, but I had to piece it together from crosses. One of the few non-theme answers that gave me any resistance.
• 40A: Whom Marlin sought in a 2003 film (Nemo) - saw this identical clue in some other puzzle some time in the past few days, it feels like.
• 38D: Low-pitched instrument (bass tuba) - there are other kinds of tubas? I had BASS VIOL.
• 51A: Sudan/Saudi Arabia separator (Red Sea) - "Saudi Arabia" part of the clue made it easy. Sadly, I'm not sure I could have told you Sudan was on the western side. I knew Egypt was. There's one more country over there. Can you name it?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Apr. 26, 2009 - T Payne (Comedy webzine founded 2000 / * picada burrito filler / Anakin Skywalker flew one in "Star Wars Episode I")

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Roughly Speaking" - rebus puzzle with "ER" or "UM" (sounds of hesitation one might make when speaking) crammed into 35 (!!!!!) different squares


Word of the Day: ESDRAS - n. Bible. (Abbr. Esd. or Esdr.)

One of four books of the Vulgate, the first two of which correspond to Ezra and Nehemiah and the second two of which were rejected as apocryphal but are sometimes included as an appendix to the New Testament as 1 and 2 Esdras. (answers.com)

Wow. This puzzle is astonishing. I have never seen such a dense rebus puzzle. At times, it felt as if I was being riddled with bullets or pelted with tennis balls from a tennis ball machine, but more often I enjoyed myself and found myself amazed at the inventive ways Trip filled the grid. I actually had to fight with this puzzle, and sometimes fights annoy me - if the puzzle fights dirty, with cheap punches and what not - but today, even though I got smacked around a little, I ended up with respect for my worthy adversary.

The first big punch in the mouth came in the NW, where I couldn't parse 3D: Statement of philosophy to Save My Life. Latin phrase with two rebus squares clued as if it were a general term and not a very very specific, unique statement ... ugh. If I had ever seen the abbreviation SLC (1A: 2002 Winter Olympics host: Abbr.), I might have had an easier time with COGITO (ER)GO S(UM). But I couldn't remember where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held, and SL- did nothing for me. Slovakia? That can't be right. The main problem - if you're not looking for a multi-word Latin phrase, then parsing a long answer like that with even just a few missing squares can be rough. In that same section, I was balking at SISL(ER) (55A: Baseball Hall-of-Famer), which felt right, but which wasn't making COGITO (ER)GO S(UM) any easier to see. Never mind that this LYELL guy is a complete mystery man to me (34D: 19th-century geologist Charles). After finally finishing off the NW, I was actually mildly afraid to continue. How much more @#$#-slapping would I have to take? The answer was - some, but not as much as the NW had led me to fear.

In order to get so dang many rebus squares in a puzzle, you gotta ... stretch the limits of crossworthiness here and there. RALLYES (54A: Driving events that use checkpoints) are apparently real things, but what kind of spelling is that??? I had RALLIES, but then EBAI was clearly wrong (40D: Its first sale was a broken laser pointer). Further ESDRAS!? (30D: Either of two books of the Apocrypha). Wow ... I really should pay attention to that section of my Bible more often. Not only have I never heard of it, I was 80% sure it was wrong. ESTRUS I can imagine saying. But -SDR- is not a common letter sequence. And yet all the crosses seemed (and were) rock solid. So I left it. And it was right. In other Stuff I Didn't Know ... I've seen NO BID in puzzles a lot, but never CUE BID (75A: Bridge tactic). Bridge, opera, Broadway musicals ... all stuff I know very little about. And yet I manage, somehow.

My least favorite clue/answer of the day was 82D: Shoat holder (sty), as it reminded me of the swine flu that is about to destroy us all.

Bullets:

• 25A: Worries for ransom recipients [S(ER)IAL N(UM)B(ER)S] - love this. Great clue for an original (and very rebusified) answer
• 7A: J.J. _____, co-creator of "Lost" and director of 2009's "Star Trek" [ABRAMS] - he's everywhere right now, and the "Star Trek" movie is in a major hype phase. The latest issue of "Wired" is guest-edited by ABRAMS. It's got puzzle folks in it. You should check it out.
  
• 27A: Resident of Asmara [(ER)ITREAN] - without rebus, I wouldn't have known. But with just that one rebus square in place - gimme.
• 33A: Santiago, to Hemingway [OLD MAN] - nearly put in RED MAN. I wish I were kidding.
• 44A: Anakin Skywalker flew one in "Star Wars Episode I" [POD RAC(ER)] - that's the "Episode" when I stopped caring
• 52A: Greeting you shouldn't say at an airport [HI, JACK] - cheeky, but I like it. Really should have had a "?" on it, though. I could greet a guy named "JACK" with that greeting and absolutely nothing would happen. If I had that disease where I couldn't modulate my voice and so I shouted the greeting, then maybe I'd have a problem.
• 56A: Flanged weapons [MACES] - yeah, I've decided that "flanged" is up there among the most awful words in the English language.
• 70A: Salon product for flat hair [VOL(UM)IZ(ER)] - great, fresh answer with super rebus power
• 79A: Reason to get all gussied up [HOT DATE] - gotta call a foul here. The word "gussied" belongs nowhere near the word "HOT." There is nothing "HOT" about the word "gussied."
• 80A: _____ picada (burrito filler) [CARNE] - haven't heard this phrase. I know "CARNE asada," but only from "Taco Bell" commercials.
• 94A: Professional who may wear goggles [AVIATOR] - this came to mind instantly, but a. I didn't think you had to be a "professional" to aviate, and b. I feel like I just saw a clue that referenced the fact that "goggles" are antiquated or old-timey. No such indication here.
• 111A: Pitched quarters [TENT] - I think this is supposed to be tricksy ("pitched" = verb?), but this is another I got instantly.
• 113A: Seventh-brightest star in a constellation [ETA] - I learned the whole Greek-letter way of naming stars from crosswords. ETA is the seventh letter in Greek alphabet after alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon and zeta.
• 4D: Gang hanger-on [MOLL] - one of my favorite words from crime fiction. Best when preceded by "GUN"
• 9D: Guitarist Cooder and others [RYS] - misread it as singular at first and wrote in RYE ... did not look right.
• 11D: Bird once hunted by the Maori [MOA] - yay. I love this (gigantic, extinct) bird. Look out also for the (much smaller, non-extinct) KEA, a parrot that Will rarely puts in the puzzle, but that I've seen in other puzzles multiple times. KEA are common as pigeons in parts of NZ.
• 16D: Feather, to Fernando [PL(UM)A] - can you feel the PLUMA, Fernandooooo...?

• 17D: State trisected by a river of the same name: Abbr. [TENN.] - entertained CONN. and PENN. there for a while.
• 56D: Comedy webzine founded in 2000 [MOD(ER)N H(UM)ORIST] - I love fresh, contemporary answers, but what fresh hell is this? Never, ever heard of it. I live on the damned web. How embarrassing.
• 62D: 2003 sequel to a popular 1994 comedy [D(UM)B AND D(UM)B(ER)(ER)] - this deserves some kind of award. A four-rebus answers Intersecting Another Four-Rebus Answer -> B(UM)P(ER) TO B(UM)P(ER) (98A: Crowded, in a way). My god, he's got five rebus squares just in that little 3x5 section in the SE. Wow.
• 65D: Groucho Marx foil Margaret [D(UM)ONT] - didn't know it. Did she play the dowager figure in one/many of the movies? I think so.
• 70D: End of a famous claim [VICI] - see also SUM (3D)
• 75D: Dark quaff [COLA] - nice one. "Quaff" sort of suggests beer, but no ...
• 105D: Largest known dwarf planet [(ER)IS] - an example of why there is no substitute, when trying to get better at solving, for practice practice practice. As you all know, my knowledge of astronomy is iffy at best, but first ETA, and then ERIS went down easily. Having seen ERIS before, and knowing the "ER" theme, I didn't even hesitate here - even one year ago, there would have been hesitation aplenty.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
(waiting for someone to give me a wrap-up of yesterday's Crosswords L.A. Tournament)

PS Orange's write-up of Sunday (syndicated) LAT is here.

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