Hearts minds military maneuver briefly / MON 11-21-16 / Alley shopping area for Harry Potter / Pop with no fizz / Amusement park with Nitro roller coaster / Qs Hostess brand

Constructor: John Lieb

Relative difficulty: Easy (though I solved the online / AcrossLite version, which just had regular old cluing...)

THEME: AGAINST ALL ODDS (60A: How an extreme underdog wins ... or this puzzle?) — in newspaper version of the puzzle, there are *only* even-numbered clues; then there are the theme answers, which begin with non-odd numbers, and the grid shape, which is 14x16 instead of the usual 15x15—so even the dimensions aren't "odd":

Theme answers:

• ZERO VISIBILITY (16A: Driving condition in a blizzard)
• TWO THUMBS UP (22A: Approval from Siskel and Ebert)
• FOUR TOPS (29A: R&B group with the #1 hit "Reach Out I'll Be There")
• SIX FLAGS (45A: Amusement park with the Nitro roller coaster)
• EIGHT MEN OUT (50A: 1988 film about the Black Sox scandal)

Word of the Day: Nitro roller coaster (at SIX FLAGS Great Adventure) —

Nitro is a steel roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, United States. It opened on April 7, 2001, as the fastest roller coaster in New Jersey and the tallest on the East Coast of the United States. It has been ranked number three in the Golden Ticket Awards Best Steel Roller Coaster every year from 2007 to 2012. It was ranked number four in 2013.

• • •

This is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of puzzle. Just throw all non-odd-numbered stuff you can think of in there. Theme answers are not really "against" anything. They're just a basic sequence from ZERO (not an even number, so weird here) going up two at each increment until EIGHT. Grid shaped different. And then (in a move that weirdly can't be replicated online or in the AcrossLite version), cluing is evens only. I don't know if this would've added any difficulty to the puzzle at all. I doubt it—principle of solving is still the same; nothing weird to figure out. Just different numbers. None of this anti-odd stuff really adds anything to the solve. I finished in near-record time (2:31) with no clear sense of theme at all. I guess this puzzle has unusualness going for it, and that's ... something. Fill is pretty boring / cruddy, except for a few of the theme answers, which are quite nice (esp. TWO THUMBS UP).


There are many SIX FLAGS theme parks, so 45A: Amusement park with the Nitro roller coaster seems ... let's say, overclued. That roller coaster is at SIX FLAGS Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. But there are SIX FLAGS all over the place. Per USA Today, "SIX FLAGS operates parks in 19 locations." SIX FLAGS is a fine stand-alone answer. Just not as (so specifically) clued. Speaking of weak clues: 57D: The Bible's Garden of ___ (EDEN). That is a clue that has given up on life. That is a clue that doesn't want to be a clue. That clue suffers from ennui. That clue phoned Phoning It In and told it to phone it in. That clue is the FLAT SODA of clues. That clue exists solely to make the clue [Cosmetician Lauder] look good.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. ADES is the worst please everybody stop stop stop using it. Thanks.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Civil rights activist Helen Burroughs / SUN 11-20-16 / Famous crosser / Some break dancers informally / Major theme of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep / Wham-O toy introduced in 1961 / Biblical figure referred to as son of desert / Fourth-largest news agency in world / Patron saint of soldiers athletes / Cassock wearer / Yossarian's tentmate / One dishing out digs

Constructor: Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Cross References" — bodies of water crossing the famous people who literally crossed them:

Theme answers:

• MAGELLAN / PACIFIC
• LINDBERGH / ATLANTIC
• MOSES / RED SEA
• MAO / YANGTZE
• WASHINGTON / DELAWARE
• NAPOLEON / BEREZINA

Word of the Day: BEREZINA River—

The Berezina or Biarezina (Belarusian: Бярэ́зіна; pronounced [bʲaˈrɛzʲinɐ]) is a river in Belarus and a tributary of the Dnieper River. [...] Napoleon Bonaparte's army suffered heavy losses (about 36,000) when crossing the Berezina in November 1812 during his retreat from Russia (see Battle of Berezina). Since then "Berezina" is used in French as a synonym of catastrophe. (wikipedia)

• • •

My friend Craig compared solving this to doing homework, and I have to agree. The crossing gimmick is OK, but it wears thin quickly. What you're left with is just trivia, and trivia of very uneven familiarity. WASHINGTON / DELAWARE came without my having to think at all, whereas the YANGTZE does not leap readily to mind when I think of MAO, and the BEREZINA? Well, I've never heard of that. Ever. I am certain I'm not alone in that. There's also the minor but pretty hilarious problem, caused by theme crowding, of LINDBERGH's crossing not only the ATLANTIC, but the RED SEA as well. Just him and MOSES ... leading the Israelites ... (if you know anything about LINDBERGH's, uh, political leanings, then this imagined team-up is especially funny). There are some interesting longer non-theme answers in the grid—I particularly like the DIET SODA / SEXOLOGY juxtaposition, for some reason—but overall, filling this in felt more like drudgery than fun.


The shorter fill is once again particularly noxious. A GIBER (AGE TEN!) who REPENs his XOUTS? Man, XOUTS really truly hurts. Can't fathom anyone's using or saying that ever. Lots and lots of other over-familiar repeaters, and not a lot of payoff. I have no problem with some low-rent junk if it's holding up something lovely, but not much is truly lovely here today. Today's difficulty was mostly in the vague cluing. [Entice] for BAIT, for instance. I needed 3/4 of that before I could tell what was going on. And occasionally there was (for me) difficult trivia, like ANZIO, NANNIE, and (as I've already said) BEREZINA. [7-up, e.g.] is a pretty good misdirect, though the uncapitalized "U" should've clued me in that it wasn't referring to the soda brand. See also the very next Down, 6D: Partridge family member (HEN), which I thought was referring to the musical TV show of the '70s. But there were no tenacious trouble spots. I had MACK at 10D: ___ truck instead of TACO. That probably caused the most problems.


So, hey, this week I'm launching "On The Grid," a (probably) monthly crossword podcast with my friend Lena Webb. We taped the first installment last month in Somerville, MA, and now it's edited and done, so if you have 24 minutes, give or take, check out Episode 001: "MAI / TAI". Thanks.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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