Icelandic poet Sturluson / WED 9-25-24 / Senokot alternative / Dance counterpart of the Whip / County in northeastern Nevada / Pioneer in show recording / Word after double or day / AIDS researcher who was Time's 1996 Man of the Year / Tool with a bubble / Haitian unit of currency

Constructor: Peter Gordon

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (names names names)

THEME: Wall of Sound ... — the answers on the outer edges of the grid are made entirely out of the notes (do re mi fa etc.) of the musical scale. The puzzle has not one not two but three revealers:

Theme answers:

• FULL SCALE (30A: Life-size ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)
• RINGTONES (36A: Phone numbers? ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)
• SIDE NOTES (45A: Marginalia ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)

The wall (clockwise from the NW corner):

• RE DO 
• SO FA
• FA LA
• MI RE
• LA RE DO
• DO DO
• MI SO
• SO RE
• SO SO
• RE TI RE

Word of the Day: DAVID HO (3D: AIDS researcher who was Time's 1996 Man of the Year) —

David Da-i Ho (Chinese: 何大一; born November 3, 1952) is a Taiwanese American AIDS researcher, physician and virologist who has made a number of scientific contributions to the understanding and treatment of HIV infection. He championed for combination anti-retroviral therapy instead of single therapy, which turned HIV from an absolute terminal disease into a chronic disease.

David Ho was born in Taiwan in 1952 and immigrated to the United States in 1965, where he was educated at California Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School (through the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology) before getting his clinical training at UCLA School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is the founding scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, both housed at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. (wikipedia)

• • •

Rare that I wipe out right out of the box on a *Wednesday* puzzle, but that is what happened today, and though no other section gave me quite that much trouble, I did feel like I was working somewhat harder than usual to put the answers together today. Not hard hard. Just harder. There was at least some resistance all over, which I don't mind, but things have been so easy of late, across the board, that today's difficulty felt oddly elevated. Certainly, where the trivia / proper nouns were concerned, it felt more Thursday / Friday / Saturday than Wednesday. DAVID HO seems eminently worth knowing, but know him I did not, and encountering him first thing, in a section where I was already having some trouble (no idea what "show recording" meant, exactly in 16A: Pioneer in show recording—I wanted a person's name; hard (baseball) clue on RETIRE (1D: Strike out, perhaps), that slowed me down. I couldn't even get out of that section smoothly because the primary connecting word (that is, the word that was going to get me out of the NW and connect me to the rest of the grid) was *also* some trivia I didn't know or had forgotten (namely, GOURDE) (24D: Haitian unit of currency). Also didn't know GUTE (at least not the spelling ... GUTT?) and would not have remembered EDUARDO, probably, if I hadn't had a few of those last letters in place before I looked at the clue. I knew SNORRI, but then I'm a medievalist. I'm guessing most of you ... aren't? Twenty-six years since SNORRI's made an appearance in the NYTXW. He is a 12th/13th-century Icelandic poet and scholar who is believed to have written or compiled most of the Prose EDDA (or just EDDA), a very important source of Norse mythology (as well as a stock piece of crosswordese). "He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway." Fun fact!

As for the theme, it's actually quite elegantly done. The words one can make out of the scale aren't exactly scintillating, but the visual created by the *arrangement* of those words is at least interesting, and the triple revealer (!) more than makes up for any dullness in the note-answers themselves. Also, no all-note answer in the grid anywhere *except* the outer edge ... it's a nice touch. Maybe that was intentional, or particularly hard to do, but I like when the constructor keeps the theme entirely inside the theme ... no stray or accidental themers roaming around. And the revalers are pretty good, with clever wordplay all around. There are "notes" on the "side" of the grid, there are "tones" forming a "ring" around the grid, there's a "scale" ... hmm ... that answer doesn't work quite as well; that is, "full" doesn't really express the structure formed by the notes, the way "ring" and "side" do. But you do (eventually) get a "full" scale, i.e. every note from "do" on up and back to "do" again. Side note: I've been so indoctrinated by crosswords to believe that the note is spelled "SOL" that "SO" now looks weird and wrong to me. The fact that the three revealers all fit symmetrically, and that two of them drill directly into the outer wall, makes this puzzle architecturally elegant. Architecturally complicated puzzles can often feel fussy, with theme and non-theme answers alike feeling forced and awkward. Not so today. There's maybe more crosswordese-leaning stuff than I'd like (an ICI, an ESSO, a NAENAE in the ORRIN ODEA, etc.), but on the whole the grid holds up well, with lots of varied and even colorful answers (ANY OLD AVOCADO! ONE-OFF BISTROS!)

Bullet points:

• 21A: Stock quote? (MOO) — that's what the cow says. The cow says MOO. If you quote a cow, that is likely the quote you're going to get. If you got a different quote, I'd be a little surprised. ("Stock" here means "livestock," of course)
• 48A: Tool with a bubble (LEVEL) — Gotta get the bubble in the little liquid tube to sit inside the little marked area. That's how you know you're level. I think most levels are electronic now, but since I don't use levels on a regular (or even irregular) basis, I'm not a reliable authority.
• 55A: :"Toy Story" dinosaur voiced by Wallace Shawn (REX) — I of course knew that REX was the dinosaur in Toy Story, but I'd completely forgotten he was voiced by the great Wallace Shawn. What a career. From Manhattan to My Dinner with Andre to The Princess Bride to Clueless, an absolute delight, that guy.

• 9D: Fan fare? (FRANKS) — fans (of baseball) might eat FRANKS (i.e. hot dogs), which are common ballpark fare.
• 39A: Word after double or day (BED) — Peter really will sneak baseball references in wherever he can.

• 54D: Bowl feature (TIER) — think "bowl" as in "arena." The Hollywood Bowl, that kind of bowl. There are different levels (or TIERs) of seating. This clue actually gave me slight trouble. I had the "R" and ... nope, no help.
• 38D: Senokot alternative (EX-LAX) — eight appearances now for EX-LAX. Still no ENEMA, though. "ENEMA ... talk about great letters!" RIP, Merl Reagle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. this blog is now legally an adult. As you know, it takes a village, so thank you, villagers.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Walker who wrote "The Color Purple" / TUES 9-24-24 / [Not my typo] / "Bye-bye," to Bonaparte / Bread served with baba ghanouj

Hi, everyone! It’s Clare for the final Tuesday of September. Fall has officially started, and I for one am excited for (I hope) cooler weather and the spooky season. I’ve been going to a lot of concerts lately — it’s like all my favorite artists decided that coming to DC in the fall was a great plan. This is also an amazing time for sports, with the women’s basketball playoffs starting, the Premier League underway, the MLB playoffs about to start, and football kicking off. I, of course, cannot pass up a chance to mention that my Steelers have had a wonderful 3-0 start to this season! We’ll probably ruin that soon enough, but I’m gonna try to enjoy that for now. 

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Kevin L. Shellito

Relative difficulty: On the easier side

THEME: Puns based on the names of big city newspapers

Theme answers:

• VALLEY FORGE (17A: Washington post?) 
• FORTY NINER (31A: San Francisco examiner?) 
• PAUL REVERE (49A: Boston herald?) 
• TRAVIS KELCE (65A: Kansas City star?)

Word of the Day: PETRA (37D: World Heritage Site in Jordan) —

Petra, originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu, is a historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, Petra is also called the "Rose City" because of the color of the sandstone from which it is carved. The city is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as 7000 BC, and was settled by the Nabataeans, a nomadic Arab people, in the 4th century BC. Petra would later become the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom in the second century BC. (Wiki)

• • •

Well, that was fun! Quite a debut from constructor Kevin L. Shellito. The theme was clever, and some of the answers were fresh, while the unusual and trivia-filled clues were my favorite part of the puzzle. There was even a nice range to the theme answers. Two related to the Revolutionary War (VALLEY FORGE and PAUL REVERE). Then there were the FORTY NINERs, just predating the Civil War. And you get to the modern day with Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and Jason’s brother, TRAVIS KELCE (who’s sorta known for playing some football himself, too). 

 

I felt like I was learning something while solving the puzzle. I now know that there are approximately 20 quadrillion ANTs worldwide (which is mildly disturbing to think about) (64A). I learned that Ignacio Anaya invented NACHOs (33D). That EELs (18D) can swim backward. I was never a big science fair person, so I appreciated the reminder that baking soda and vinegar combine to create a LAVA effect (52D). And there were even more bits of trivia/facts for people — tahini is made from SESAME (38A); ELMS are the state tree of Massachusetts (23A); the Bosphorous is known for being NARROW (15A); etc. Basically, I’m ready to go crush it at trivia night right now. 

The clues were also quite fun. My personal favorite being Personnel in vestments as CLERGY (72A). That got me chuckling. I also liked how ERRANT (8D: Like a drive in the woods?) tried to throw us for a bit of a loop. And we got to see Zorro and Dracula in a puzzle with CAPE (55D). I enjoyed the reference to a TV show I know — “Euphoria” — with RUE (16A: Zendaya's role on "Euphoria") even if I only watched one season.

I hit a couple of snags from trying “awake” instead of ARISE (22D: Greet the day); I first put “scar” instead of SCAB (73A: Evidence of healing); I tried making it “Neet” instead of NAIR (26A: Hair removal brand); and I first typed “MBA” instead of the actual MFA (24D: R.I.S.D. grad's degree) because I didn’t recognize the acronym R.I.S.D. 

A few things didn’t quite work for me. In particular, a FORTY NINER (31A) was someone mining/panning for gold. Sure, they examined what they found, but they weren’t examiners. I also don’t know that I’ve ever seen a reference to a single FORTY NINER, unless you’re talking about a member of a certain football team. The people who descended on California in the mid-1800s were FORTY NINERs, plural. I also didn’t like SLEETS (44A: Comes down as a wintry mix) at all — even if it’s in the dictionary as a verb, it shouldn’t be. I think NACHO (33D) really needs to be plural. You don’t have a nacho. And NACHOs are a dish made of chips–and a whole lot of other goodies–not just a singular chip. 

But it was overall a smooth and enjoyable puzzle for a Tuesday!

Misc.:

• We could’ve had the Fever in the puzzle instead of the Indiana PACERS (51D: Hoosier hoopers). With the playoffs happening now, that would’ve been so timely. This season in the WNBA, we had the unanimous MVP A’ja Wilson (she’s legitimately incredible) and the unanimous rookie of the year Caitlin Clark, who plays for the Fever. 
• I didn’t think I liked PECAN (43A: Pie variety whose pronunciation inspires debate) pie for a while, but it turns out I just hadn’t given it a chance. Now it’s my go-to every year for Thanksgiving, and my family has become known for our tried-and-true recipe. 
• The New York Times agrees that it was a BRAT summer (11D). Charli XCX, anyone? Now what’s the fall going to be?? 
• While my Steelers have started strong, my mom’s poor FORTY NINERs have had a rough 1-2 start. My dad won my sister’s and my loyalty to his hometown Steelers when I was just 10 by buying us each a jersey. We haven’t looked back since! 
• I’m hopeful the DOG DAYS (9D: Hot summer period named for the constellation Sirius) are actually behind us. And speaking of the DOG DAYS, I’m going to end with one of my favorite Florence + the Machine songs, which is undeniably fun and catchy. 

And with that, have a great month of October!

Signed, Clare Carroll, a Steeler fan for life who knows that TJ Watt should win DPOY every year

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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