Bootleg booze / WED 3-26-25 / British politico Corbyn / Alternative to a Stella or Sam Adams / Handouts from street preachers / Rave over, metaphorically / Pre-covenant name for a biblical father / Alternative to a Stella or Sam Adams / Fabric that George Costanza said he'd drape himself in if it were socially acceptable / Downward force on earth, informally

Constructor: Nathan Hale

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: COVER ALL THE BASES (40A: Take care of everything ... or a hint to what four squares in this puzzle do) — black squares "cover" all the "bases" on a baseball diamond: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and home:

Theme answers:

• NOT MY [FIRST] RODEO (19A: "I've done this before")
• HAVING [SECOND] THOUGHTS (25A: Not so sure about a wedding)
• GIVES THE [THIRD] DEGREE (54A: Thoroughly interrogates)
• WRITE [HOME] ABOUT (63A: Rave over, metaphorically)

Word of the Day: SATIVA (3D: Cannabis variety) —

Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous flowering plant. The species was first classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The specific epithet sativa means 'cultivated'. Indigenous to Eastern Asia, the plant is now of cosmopolitan distribution due to widespread cultivation. It has been cultivated throughout recorded history and used as a source of industrial fiber, seed oil, food, and medicine. It is also used as a recreational drug and for religious and spiritual purposes. [...] The informal designation sativa and indica may have various, controversial meanings. Morphologically, the name sativa designates tall plants with narrow leaves, while indica refers to short plants with wide leaves. Among the marijuana community however, sativa rather refers to equatorial varieties producing stimulating psychoactive effects, whereas indica-type plants from Central Asia are used for relaxing and sedative drugs (THC:CBD > 1). (wikipedia)

• • •

I feel like you already know what the problem is here. Certainly if you've ever seen a baseball diamond, you know. How in the world do you make this puzzle and *not* put the "bases" in the right place???? Or at least in a "diamond"-type shape? I got the [SECOND] square first, then got the revealer and thought "OK, it's not gonna sit perfectly symmetrically, but that's OK, a rough 'diamond' will do, I guess." But no. I got no diamond. None. Just a squiggly top-to-bottom arrangement of the "bases." It's unfathomable to me that you would bother to do this theme without putting the bases in the right place. Four squares. "Where should I put them? I know... random places!" SMH, what the hell? And on Opening Day, no less. Oh, no, sorry, that's tomorrow, not today—one more thing this "tribute" to baseball gets wrong. I don't mind at all that the "bases" don't work with the Downs, but the non-diamond arrangement is killing me. The concept here is fine—I've thought of it myself, as has virtually any baseball-loving constructor, I guarantee you—but the point is it would be tough to do right because if you don't put those bases in (roughly) baseball-field position (which is a challenge!), your puzzle will look silly—kinda like this puzzle. I love baseball, and I particularly love Opening Day, so this puzzle just makes me sad. Disappointed, really.

So it's a non-starter, in terms of its execution. I do like the way the "bases" are handled, with black squares standing in for (or "covering") missing words in longer phrases, and all the phrases themselves are colorful, particularly NOT MY (1st) RODEO. Aside from the theme, the highlight of the puzzle for me was probably the very end, when I crossed PBR (51A: Alternative to a Stella or Sam Adams) with "BEER ME!" (52D: "I'd like a brewski") to close things out. I've had puzzles end on lowlights far too many times, so it was semi-thrilling to finally do one that went out on top—peak puzzle experience, right at the end. That PBR / "BEER ME!" moment was especially welcome because it followed hard on the heels of the absolute worst moment of the solve—"GOT YA!" The term is "GOTCHA!" You have to strain your mouth hole to say "GOT YA!" Like, you have to try to enunciate, and differentiate the "T" and "Y," because that "T"-to-"Y" shift just comes out "TCH".... which is why we have GOTCHA in the first place! GOT YA, lol, no, what, stop. You coulda just turned the YAMS into TAMS and been done with it. No one blinks, no one balks, no one winces. Some editorial decisions (or non-decisions) are unfathomable to me.

SOAMI remains one of the worst bits of fill on the planet, right up there with its kealoa* counterpart, SODOI (4D: "Likewise"). SLIGHT BIT feels odd to me, as I'd use ONE BIT or THE SLIGHTEST (as in "not in ___") before I'd ever used SLIGHT BIT. "LITTLE" is the adjective that wants to go with "BIT." I never cared for Seinfeld (Julia Louis-Dreyfus was the only one on that show I could stand to look at for very long—I watched every episode of Veep, a far superior show). Since George is such a dip, I figured the "fabric" he would cover himself in was VELCRO (33D: Fabric that George Costanza said he'd drape himself in if it were socially acceptable = VELVET). That's certainly the fabric I would cover him in, if called to do so. 

Bullets:

• 3D: Cannabis variety (SATIVA) — went into a dispensary for the first time in my life earlier this month, in Michigan, a state that screams "WE HAVE LEGAL WEED!" at you the second you cross the border from Ohio. I was with a friend who is far better versed in such matters, far more familiar with the cannabis world. I don't smoke, so I was mostly just a spectator. It was so professional, clean, well organized. The manager could've been the manager of a spa, she was so efficient and friendly. I don't know what I was expecting. Something ... else. Something cornier, honestly. Anyway, I may or may not have left with gummies which I may or may not have tried since and which may or may not have had any effect on me. Can't stand the smell of pot, so I won't be smoking any time soon, but I will admit to being cannabis-curious. Anyway, SATIVA and INDICA are familiar terms to me, as they should be to you by now, if only for xword purposes.
• 69A: Pre-covenant name for a biblical father (ABRAM) — after the covenant: ABRAHAM. I much prefer this clue for ABRAM to the Presidential middle name clue ... I can't even remember whose middle name ABRAM is!!?!? Ah, it's James ABRAM Garfield. Good to remind yourself of these things from time to time.
• 48D: British politico Corbyn (JEREMY) — So weird to me that we get JEREMY Corbyn before we get KEIR Starmer, the actual Primer Minister of the UK, and a guy whose first name (unlike JEREMY) is begging to become crossword-common (RIP, KEIR Dullea, you've done yeoman's work, buddy, but it's time to let someone else take over). Hey, did you know a KIER is a [Large vat for bleaching cloth]? Me neither, probably because the last time it appeared in a crossword was July 12,1992—the fourteenth (!) and final (!!) appearance of KIER. But I have a sneaking suspicion that KIER might be making a comeback very soon ...

[Severance, renewed for a 3rd season, hurrah]

I'm happy to announce (all this week) that a new edition of These Puzzles Fund Abortion is available now (These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5!). Donate to abortion funds, get a collection of 23 top-notch puzzles from some of the best constructors in the business—mostly standard U.S. crossword puzzles, but also some cryptic crosswords, variety puzzles, and even an acrostic. Rachel Fabi and C.L. Rimkus have done such a great job with these collections over the past few years, raising over $300,000 for abortion funds around the country. I support a number of charitable organizations, but hardly any of them give me crosswords in return. So I'm going to give TPFA5 my money today [update: done!], and I hope you do too. Here's the link.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.  

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

Read more...

Oregon trail vehicle / TUES 3-25-25 / Ren's cartoon buddy / Like Eeyore in "Winnie-the-Pooh" / Horse that excels in equestrian sports

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday in March! Hope it’s been getting warmer wherever you are — I start to feel more like a real person once it’s spring. My Monday was hectic because I had a court filing due today for an asylum hearing in a couple of weeks and I have a client’s green card interview in the morning… so I got to unwind with some sports on in the background and a crossword puzzle on my laptop. The rest of my family is into the Miami Open tennis, but I’m obsessed with the women’s college basketball. Namely: UConn. (I love Paige Bueckers. Who doesn’t love Paige Bueckers?)

In other news, my puppy is five months old! She’s over 28 pounds and is getting smarter (in annoying ways — like faking out that she was going to run down the stairs so I’d follow her… just so she could sprint into the other room to eat my sister’s dog’s food). My puppy gate is now practically useless because my puppy can figure it out any which way, and she’s learned how to jump into our giant bathtub. Puppies! 

Anywho, on to the puzzle!

Constructor: Bob Benson

Relative difficulty: Slightly harder than an average Tuesday

THEME: Phrases that end in a word that relates to film and/or TV

Theme answers:

• PLASTIC FILM (17A: "The Lego Movie"?) 
• SPACE PROGRAM (23A: "Star Trek"?) 
• WATER FEATURE (52A: "Finding Nemo"?) 
• WORLD SERIES (62A: "Planet Earth"?)

Word of the Day: SAD SACK (26A: Schlemiel) —

Sad Sack is an American comic strip and comic book character created by Sgt. George Baker during World War II. Set in the United States Army, Sad Sack depicted an otherwise unnamed, lowly private experiencing some of the absurdities and humiliations of military life. The so-called "unnamed private" was actually Ben Schnall, a true-life private in the US Army during World War II, member of Yank magazine and good curmudgeonly friend of Sgt. George Baker. The title was a euphemistic shortening of the military slang "sad sack of shit", common during World War II. The phrase has come to mean "an inept person" or "inept soldier". (Wiki)

• • •

I’ll get to the puzzle — with its cute theme answers and kinda meh fill that was a bit harder than a usual Tuesday — in a minute. But first, did anyone suffer from an apparent puzzle glitch (or horrible new design)? I somehow came out unscathed, as did my sister, who solved the puzzle on the app, but for my poor dad (and, it seems, many others) who were solving the puzzle on the webpage, there was a problem: What appeared to be an iPhone keyboard covered half the page. My dad, of course, immediately texted my sister and me to blame us for doing… something. We, of course, blamed him for being technologically inept. Then, we learned that a lot of people were having similar issues. Whoops! 

So now that we’ve talked about that (I hope it didn’t affect too many times or solves), we can move on to other, brighter things — like this being a good debut from constructor Bob Benson. I liked the theme answers and appreciated them the more I thought about them. It’s quite clever how the constructor combined specific movies/TV shows (“The Lego Movie,” “Star Trek,” “Finding Nemo,” and “Planet Earth”) with words that are synonyms for movies/common phrases that have to do with movies and TV shows (FILM, PROGRAM, FEATURE, and SERIES). That might’ve been obvious, but it occurred to me a bit after finishing the solve. (I’m also running a little bit on fumes, so make of my epiphany what you will!) 

CACKLE (18D: Laugh like a witch) was fun. The clue/answer for 45D: Spirit guide? as BAR MENU made me chuckle (not CACKLE, though). SAD SACK (26A) is a fun expression that I didn’t know the origin of. I liked seeing Eeyore in the puzzle at 14A: Like Eeyore in "Winnie-the-Pooh," even if I’d say he leans a bit more toward being depressed than just SOMBER. SOAP BOX (50A: Political platform, perhaps) is an interesting visual. And I liked the use of SIGN (26D: Communicate with the hands) and KOKO (34D: Gorilla that famously learned to 26-Down) together. 

Still, the puzzle did seem to skew a tad old. FRIAR’S CLUB (11D: Locale famous for roasts) is pretty old-fashioned. VOLARE (9D: Hit 1958 song officially titled "Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu") is an old-timey song. RICOH (47A: Tokyo-based company that produces cameras and office equipment) was a hot company… in the ’90s? And even though I liked SAD SACK (26A), it’s from a comic that debuted more than 80 years ago. 

I usually like my long downs, but other than FRIAR’S CLUB, the only one we’ve really got is DEPARTMENT (28D: Cabinet division), which is a bit boring. Having both IRE (30A: Fury) and IRA (19A: Oldest Gershwin brother) in the puzzle feels lazy. There’s also 12D: Alternative name for planet earth in the puzzle and then 62A: “Planet Earth”? I can’t think of a good reason why that would’ve been intentional. It’s also probably a stupid complaint, but STIES (37D: Complete messes) is an ugly, ugly word, and I hate it. 

But overall, this was a promising debut for the constructor — in a puzzle that seemed to focus on theme over fill.

Misc.:

• 26D: Schlemiel reminds me of how my dad used to be a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and once wrote a feature about sailing across the Atlantic in a 42-foot boat as a crew member in a race, having never sailed before. Just about everything possible went wrong over the 27 days at sea (according to him, 12 days of near-constant storms, 65-knot winds, 70-foot waves, signs that the boat was breaking up, and all sorts of other fun stuff.) So his lede was a play on Moby Dick: “Call me Schlemiel.” 
• I used to love playing HEARTS (49D: Game in which players tend to avoid the queen of spades) on our old desktop computer, and I was quite good at it! Granted, I was playing against computers, and I think I chose the difficulty, but who’s counting? 
• Both my sister’s and dad’s ALMA (21A) maters (Cal and Michigan State) are out of the women’s NCAA tournament; I guess we’ll have to root for the Spartans in the men’s tournament. (Yes, the Yale men lost to Texas A&M in the first round.) 
• WAGON (52D: Oregon Trail vehicle) makes me think of when I was in maybe third grade and played this sort of strategy game in our computer class that was loosely based on the trip many people took across the U.S. I probably died of dysentery a thousand different times. 
• My puppy keeps closing my computer as I’m trying to type. Maybe she’s telling me to go to sleep. Or maybe she’s saying she wants me to stop what I’m doing and take her to a PET SPA (5D: Places where puppies are pampered). Though I think she gets pampered enough at home!
• 

(Now doesn't that look like a pampered puppy?)

Hope you all have a great month of April!

Signed, Clare Carroll, president of the Paige Bueckers fan club

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]

Read more...