British poet/critic Sitwell / WED 3-2-16 / Muscular Japanese dog / Corrida combatant / Setting for highest-grossing movie of 1939 / Drive popular light-powered watch / Circus horn honker / George whose name is lead-in to film

Constructor: Fred Piscop

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: pasta puns —

Theme answers:

• 20A: Politician in charge of pasta? (ZITI COUNCILMAN)
• 40A: Pasta, apparently? (ORZO, IT WOULD SEEM)
• 58A: Card game with pasta for stakes? (PENNE ANTE POKER) 

Word of the Day: EVAN Hunter (12D: Hunter who wrote "The Blackboard Jungle") —

Ed McBain (October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) is one of the pen names of an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. While successful and well known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956. He also used the pen names John Abbott, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, Dean Hudson, and Richard Marsten. (wikipedia)

• • •

Pass.

This puzzle feels like an emergency replacement. Like, the puzzle you had booked canceled to do something better and now you're scrambling to find a new puzzle so you go halfway through your rolodex until finally this puzzle goes, "Sure, I'm not doing anything these days. Put me in." Even leaving my reasonably well-known pun aversion aside, this puzzle's theme feels weak. And thin. Puns are deathly boring. Clue on ORZO, IT WOULD SEEM doesn't make much sense. Not enough context for it to be amusing. [Pasta, apparently] is way way too general a clue for ORZO, IT WOULD SEEM to apply. Also, you have to pause (after ORZO) to make grammatical sense of the answer, in a way you wouldn't when just saying the base phrase. Bah. The other two seem like actual, viable puns, but [shrug]. And then the grid—it's all short stuff, all dull / ancient. This crossword actually seems nostalgic for a time when crosswords were more terrible. See the clue on OREO (35D: Dessert item that was clued as "Mountain: Comb. form" in old crosswords). Seriously? This puzzle belongs in 1986, and while I know there are some who long for Reagan's America, as it relates to crossword puzzles, this is not a nostalgia anyone should be getting behind.


Looking it over, I have no idea why it didn't play Easy. Possibly the puns, which I just couldn't make sense of. I had ZITI COUNCIL--- and still didn't know. COUNCILLOR? It's possible that once I got a whiff of the fill (right away), I just checked out mentally, and went about solving the whole thing half-heartedly, with worse and worser political speeches playing in the background. Is it possible that I would have enjoyed this puzzle had the soundtrack not been so dispiriting and heinous? No, it is not. But I might have disliked it slightly less. Slightly. I mean, there is Nothing of interest outside the three themers, and even with the themers, "interest" is being very kind. Missteps? Well, I had WHAT? for AHEM (1A: "Beg pardon...") so that was exciting. Also TRICE for TRACE (8D: Tiny amount). LADED for LADEN (53D: Filled with cargo). My mistakes are about as interesting as the puzzle was. I should go to sleep now.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Oil-producing matter in shale / TUE 3-1-16 / 2000-03 Disney Channel series with Shia LaBeouf / Sumatran swinger informally

Constructor: Freddie Cheng

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium ("Medium" only for KEROGEN !?)

THEME: ALL ABOUT EVE (56A: 1950 Bette Davis film hinting at something found 15 times in this puzzle) — Well, I'm not counting, but apparently the letter string "EVE" appears 15 times in this puzzle.

Theme answers:

• "EVEN STEVENS" (19A: 2000-03 Disney Channel series with Shia LaBeouf)
• EVEL KNIEVEL (26A: Daredevil who survived more than 400 bone fractures)
• SEVEN ELEVEN (44A: Place to buy a Slurpee)
• ...and the rest! 

Word of the Day: KEROGEN (37A: Oil-producing matter in shale) —

Kerogen (Greek κηρός "wax" and -gen, γένεση "birth") is a mixture of organic chemical compounds that make up a portion of the organic matter in sedimentary rocks. It is insoluble in normal organic solvents because of the high molecular weight (upwards of 1,000 daltons or 1000 Da; 1Da= 1 atomic mass unit) of its component compounds. The soluble portion is known as bitumen. When heated to the right temperatures in the Earth's crust, (oil window c. 50–150 °C, gas window c. 150–200 °C, both depending on how quickly the source rock is heated) some types of kerogen release crude oil or natural gas, collectively known as hydrocarbons (fossil fuels). When such kerogens are present in high concentration in rocks such as shale, they form possible source rocks. Shales rich in kerogens that have not been heated to a warmer temperature to release their hydrocarbons may form oil shale deposits. // The name "kerogen" was introduced by the Scottish organic chemist Alexander Crum Brown in 1906.

• • •

I guess the "ALL ABOUT" means "strewn all over the grid"? I only noticed that there were two in each (apparent) themer, i.e. long Across answer, and didn't think the revealer worked for a 2 x EVE puzzle, but I guess if it's ubiquiteve we're talking about, then yeah, on some level, it works. This is another example of the NYT trying to cover up a pretty flimsy concept with theme Density: an EVE in each long Down, two in each Across (excepting the revealer) and then assorted EVEs strewn about. There is some noticeable effect on the fill: there's a lot of iffy / old short stuff (AMATI ENERO ORANG ERTE STEN OLEO ANO HEXA, etc.), and then two outer-space answers: "EVEN STEVENS" (!?!?!?!?) (19A: 2000-03 Disney Channel series with Shia LaBeouf) and KEROGEN, which stand light years apart from the other answers in terms of general familiarity. KEROGEN is far too unfamiliar / technical for a Tuesday puzzle. I like that the puzzle is weird and kind of ambitious; its "flaws" are almost endearing. The inclusion of so many long Downs livens up an otherwise dull grid. So this puzzle has its charms. I'll just leave it at that.


Mistakes? I made a few. SPADE for SIEVE (2D: Forty-niner's tool). Actually, that might be the only outright mistake.  I was very unsure of spelling of KOPECK, so had to work all the crosses there (8D: Fraction of a ruble). No other struggles of note (except the aforementioned KEROGEN disaster). I need to go get coffee and properly wake up. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS HEXA is junk, but I must admit I like [Tri and tri again?] very much. 

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