Feminist author Millett / SAT 6-20-15 / Chicago-born choreographer / Service begun in 1947 for short / Country created by Treaty of Sevres 1920 / Social media debut of 2010

Constructor: Kyle T. Dolan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Brienne of TARTH (10A: Brienne of ___, "Game of Thrones" protagonist) —

Brienne of Tarth is a fictional character in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fireseries of fantasy novels. She is a prominent point of view character in the fourth novel, A Feast for Crows, and a main character in the television adaptation. (wikipedia)

• • •

Need to wrap this up quickly, as I'm kind of at Peak Summer Cold right now, and also it's "Summer of Noir" on TCM so Friday nights are Always Something Good On nights, all summer. Nice to have illness dovetail with film noir marathon (and that is literally the only "nice" thing about this summer cold). I didn't love this one. Its marquee answers seemed not marquee enough—straining to be hip and relevant, but landing somehow just off the "Wow" mark. WIN AT LIFE is a phrase, I guess, but it left me cold, as did the '90s-era-Bud-ad "WASSUP!" and whatever SPANDRELS are (got that answer entirely from crosses).

[phase 1—tried "WHAT UP?" initially]

Really started to sour on this puzzle when I hit the truly hackneyed, seen-only-in-crosswords ICEAXE.

I've seen that answer a million times, and I doubt I've ever complained about it, and it's an actual thing, but it's … well, with SOG already in the books, it seemed to herald mediocrity. AMINO ACID, too, felt limp. Not bad. Just so-so. Didn't help that I immediately followed ICE AXE up with ENDO. ENDO is slang for pot. Just FYI, in case that ever shows up in a clue, which, in the NYT, it probably won't, but such a clue would almost make ENDO interesting. EMONEY will never be interesting unless someday there is a rapper called E MONEY. Or unless you clue that answer [How "Two Tickets to Paradise" singer signs his checks"]. The NE didn't liven things up much.

TARTH wants you to think it's fresh, contemporary fill, but it's not. It would be fine if it were necessary to hold something good together, but as a gratuitous "hey I watch GOT" reference, in a corner where we have to suffer through EASEIN and HENNAED, no, TARTH isn't good. Rest of the puzzle was too easy to be terribly remarkable.

[I have a crossword friend who *hates* seeing any reference to David Ortiz, aka BIG PAPI, in puzzles, so all such clues/answers make me laugh imagine his ire]

I almost like HAVE A BEER, in that I like having beer, but the clue (60A: Kick back while watching the ball game, say) struck me as odd. First, you HAVE A BEER as a possible addition to kicking back. You'd kick back *and* HAVE A BEER. You can certainly kick back without one, and I have been in plenty of baseball-watching, beer-drinking situations where I was not at all kicked back (if it's a tense game, I'm often standing and "talking" to the screen, decidedly unkicked back, possibly frightening my dogs and causing them to leave the room). Also, if that's your clue, then apparently any clue will do, e.g. [Relax after work], [Celebrate the end of the work week], [React to thirst], etc. It's weird that I find myself disappointed by beer, but here we are. Maybe STEAK RUB was supposed to be an exciting answer? It's acceptable, for sure, but like most of the rest of the grid's "highlights," it just didn't do much for me. Not a bad puzzle overall, but I'll forget about it as soon as I post this.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Read more...

French shipyard city / FRI 6-19-15 / Cosmetician Adrien / Seasons lithographer / Fictional Sicilian town of literature / Former Toyota model for 36 years / Jazz saxophonist Buddy / Chantilly's department / Nixon Brezhnev signed it 1972

Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: BREST (51D: French shipyard city) —

Brest (French pronunciation: ​[bʁɛst]; Breton: [bʀest]) is a city in the Finistèredépartement in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental Europe. With 142,722 inhabitants in a 2007 census, Brest is at the centre of Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area (with a population of 300,300 in total), ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 22nd most populous city in France; moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the préfecture (regional capital) of the department is the much smaller Quimper. (wikipedia)

• • •

A summer cold has made its way through our entire house. I am its ultimate victim. Because I would not stop for the cold, it kindly stopped for me. I'm awkwardly alluding to Dickinson, so you know something's wrong. Anyway, summer colds suck (Yeah, I know it's not "summer" yet, but give it a minute). So I did this puzzle after waking from a three-hour nap—gotta love those naps you have *right* before bedtime; exquisite timing. Still, I walked right through this thing, even with foggy post-nap summer cold head, so it must've been easy. What are my thoughts? Well, there's weirdly a lot of crosswordese, and not only where you'd expect it (i.e. crossing that quad stack). OISE ADANO ARPEL REPOS ERTE KNAR. All quite familiar, none hard to get. Just felt throwbacky, and not in a great way. But the marquee event up top is the double-author stack, which is pretty sweet. I also love the repackaging of vintage crosswordese ARLENE Dahl as full-named ARLENEDAHL. Somehow that uncrosswordeses (™) her name.  Eventually it came time to do the stack at the bottom and it wasn't hard. Also, that's an excellent stack. The crosses, predictably, hurt a little, but there aren't any howlers. So, mixed feelings.

[from "SATCHMO Serenades"]

Things got off to a fast start—CHOCOHOLIC off a single letter (and I'm not sure I even needed that)—the clue was transparent to me) (4D: One who might steal a kiss).

From here I pounded into the center of the grid pretty easily, but had weird bit of trouble trying to get JOHN STEINBECK, even after I had JOHN STE- … I think JON (no "H") Stewart was running interference in my head. But I dropped OPALESCENT like it was hot.

ANGELINA was a total gimme (8D: Brad's partner in 2005's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"), so JOHN STEINBECK and then the rest of the top of the grid fell into place pretty easily. I emerged from the top via ARLENE DAHL and then set to work on the quadstack.

I got the back ends of the quad first, but they didn't do much for me, so I went after other Downs, and found RAMIS AREI and COWGIRL just waiting for me. Made the stack very easy to see and take down.

About five seconds after this, I was done. I ended in the iffiest part of the grid (i.e. the no-"UE" MONOLOG MISADAPTed INAPEN), which often happens, actually—you end up at the place that you've been consciously or unconsciously avoiding, often for good reason. And so to bed. Or, rather, to Jon Stewart, which is apparently remarkable tonight—or so Twitter tells me. It's been a pretty terrible day, nationally, historically … I STILL DON'T GET IT seems apt, somehow.

Take care,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Read more...