Relative difficulty: I don't know. I kept stopping to sigh and shake my head and take pictures of my grid. Medium?
THEME: HERO SANDWICH (57A: Sub … or a literal hint to 20-, 34- and 43-Across) — "HERO" is "sandwiched" inside three theme answers:
Theme answers:
BEACH EROSION (20A: Problem cause by ocean storms)
PITCHER OF BEER (34A: Bar order for the whole table)
LEARN THE ROPES (43A: Pick up basics)
Word of the Day: EZIO Pinza (65A: Opera singer Pinza) —
Ezio Pinza (May 18, 1892 – May 9, 1957) was an Italianopera singer. A bass with a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, he spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. At the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.
After retiring from the Met in 1948, Pinza enjoyed a fresh career on Broadway in the musical theatre and also appeared in several Hollywood films. (wikipedia)
• • •
This isn't just bad, it's comically bad. It's like someone set out to write a bad puzzle. It's like a parody of a bad puzzle. In fact … is it a parody? … [checking] … I don't see parody. I just see atrocity. And the thing is, so do you. None of you think this is good enough for the NYT. Even if your favorite thing is disagreeing with me, I don't believe you can defend this puzzle with a straight face. No, I see your face, and it is decidedly not straight. The fill is a 1 out of 10 (if we exclude the longer fill, it's a 0). The theme might have worked if the execution had been anything like interesting or competent, but it is neither. Sandwiches have two pieces of bread, and the filling touches the bread. So for the theme to work, you need two-word phrases, with letter string "HERO" shared between them. Only one of the themers does this (BEACH EROSION). In the others, BEER and LEARN just stick out there on the ends of their respective answers, like one of those colored toothpicks that sometimes get stuck in sandwiches. Or like a piece of fluff that really doesn't belong on a sandwich at all and isn't really edible. But the sad theme is just a sad theme. A kind of run-of-the-mill sad theme. Unacceptable for a puzzle of the NYT's stature, but not, in and of itself, a crime against humanity. It's the shamelessly terrible fill that's the real issue here. Did you see the NW corner? Did you? Here, let me refresh:
This is where I thought the puzzle was trolling me. Why is the fill this bad? It must be theme-related. Last time this constructor published a puzzle, the fill was also terrible, but there, at least, there was a thematic reason (severely limited letter bank). Here … dear lord, Why? And then there's EZIO over EZER, which is like some kind of terrible crosswordese joke. I could list many, many more total bummer answers. Probably a dozen Bad, another dozen Less-Than-Good. I nearly made RUER the Word of the Day because that is what I am. I rue that I solved this at all, rue that I had to write about it. Mostly, I resent that the position of editor of the NYT Crossword puzzle has become such a sinecure that stuff like this gets published, and will continue to get published, with absolutely no repercussions. Every single puzzle at the Indie 500 Crossword Tournament this past Saturday put the average NYT puzzle to shame—difficulty levels varied, but conceptual brilliance and overall polish did *not*. My fellow crossword critics (the two who were in attendance) agreed—almost zero scowling. Just joy. You'd think the self-described "Best Puzzle in the World" (!?) could at least come close to meeting that kind of quality standard. You'd think. And to think, I kept telling people this past weekend, "You know, last week's Times' puzzles were almost all really solid … I think things might be looking up." LOL.
The fault, once again, lies entirely with the editor, who a. never should've accepted this puzzle, and b. once he'd accepted it, should've … what's the word? … right, *edited* the damned thing to make it far less ABBR-ABRA-BAABAA-Bominable. An assiduous editor would've rejected it with a note indicating that the theme concept was indeed solid, but that the execution (including theme answer choice and overall fill) needed to be considerably improved. Then maybe you end up teaching a novice constructor something about professional standards. And maybe the puzzle he later resubmits to you is good. And we are all the better off for it. But this is not the puzzle world we live in. I thought this was a CHER tribute puzzle half way in. I think I might've liked it *slightly* better if it had been.
Go buy the Indie 500 puzzles ($10 for Play-at-Home option, under "Register"). You won't rue it. Oh, and the clue on NATE (44D: Silver of fivethirtyeight.com) reminds me—there is a World-Class Nate Silver-related clue in one of the Indie 500 puzzles (don't worry, he's in the clue, not the answer, so nothing's been spoiled). So good, I said "wow" out loud while solving (much to the annoyance, I'm sure, of the competitors in my vicinity).
When is a door not a door? When it's AJAR! When is Rex Parker not Rex Parker? When he's GUEST BLOGGER ANNABEL THOMPSON!
Constructor: David Woolf
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: "Chicken Soup for the Crossword Lover's SOUL/SOL/SOLE/SEOUL" — Theme answers feature homophones of "soul."
Theme answers:
SOL CERVEZA (17A: Popular Mexican brew)
SOLE BENEFICIARY (27A: The only trustworthy one?)
SEOUL SOUTH KOREA (48A: Where Kia and Hyundai are headquartered)
SOUL SISTER (63A: Woman's closest female friend)
Word of the Day: LOVE-IN (6D: Groovy 1960s event) —
A love-in is a peaceful public gathering focused on meditation, love, music, and/or use of psychedelic drugs. The term was coined by Los Angeles radio comedian Peter Bergman, who also hosted the first one in March or April 1967 (sources disagree) in Elysian Park.[1][2] It has been interpreted in different ways by different organizations, but is often connected to protesting local, social or environmental issues.[3][4] Such protests were held in opposition to the Vietnam War.[5]
• • •
This puzzle was a SNAP for me, actually; I got at least half the across clues on my first round, and I don't expect down-only people had much trouble today either. The fill was just OK, honestly, didn't learn a lot of new words and there weren't any neat arrangements. I did like all the Spanish words peppered throughout! ESOS...PESO...SOL CERVEZA...even DOS although it's supposed to be talking about hair arrangements. But I never took Spanish. Ay caramba!
The theme was...a Monday theme. Not much to say here. Except that I had GIRLFRIENDS in 63A for the longest time and was driving myself nuts wondering why nothing would work with it. (I briefly considered "gal pals," but it obviously wouldn't fit.) Until I realized "duh, that's a theme answer."
Wow, that really wasn't a very glowing review of this puzzle at all. Am I turning into Rex??? I͓͚̞̳͝ͅs̕ ͕̰ṭ̦h̨e̟̥̖̮͔̬̲
̷͚̣̖t͖̱͖͔r̷͎͇͓a͍̲̙̥͕͈͕n̗͇͍̠ş͎̼̠̠f͉̕o͕̰͝ṟ̣͟ͅm̻ͅa̦t͕͍̗͎i͙̻͎̫̫͉͡ọ̸n
̴̼̞̰̫͇s̭͈̙̣͉ṯ̼̰͓͞a̴r̦̙͚̪͙͍͓͝t҉̼̮i̴͖̘̭̣̼̩n҉̯̗̝̹̙̭g̵͓?͉̤̟̘͕͢?͎̭̖͇ͅ?̭̺͙̪̮ͅ?̫̤
Bullets:
LIQUORED UP (29D: Three sheets to the wind) — I have never once heard this expression used in my life. Maybe that's just how the kids don't talk these days?
OPAL (15A: Milky gem)— I'm at the point where I can't see the name of a gemstone without thinking of Steven Universe. So, here you go!
IN HEELS (22A: Wearing party shoes)— Please give credit to anyone who wears heels, ever. Prom happened the other weekend, and let's just say that I got way more blisters from my stilettos than I did from six days hiking the Appalachian Trail, even when I fell over a rock and, later, almost got bitten by a snake. And we're expected to dance in heels? Next time there's a formal dance, I swear I'm going in combat boots.
And finally, y'know, some guys just can't hold their ARSENIC..
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired high school student - and that's the last time I'll be writing that. Get ready for Annabel Thompson, tired RISING COLLEGE STUDENT, to start blogging!!!
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A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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