Engage in gasconade or fanfaronade / THU 11-4-21 / Only Monopoly railroad whose name doesn't contain "Railroad" / Make quickly as a pot of coffee / Puppy pickup place / Malicious group of computers / Outdated charging device? / Ermine in the summer

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Medium (some struggle to get the theme, then not much struggle thereafter)

THEME: SPLIT ENDS (62A: Hairy problem? ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme) — the "ends" of four longer answers "split"—that is, they are doubly clued and fork off (!) into two directions at either end; so you've essentially got two answers that share their central letters, and that differ only on the ends (first and last letters). The forked letters share the same square in the Downs:

Theme answers:  

S       E (17A: Only Monopoly railroad whose name doesn't contain "Railroad")

 HORTLIN

C       G (17A: Laughing gleefully)

S       N (11D: Web master?)

 PIDERMA

E       L (11D: Of the outer skin layer)

A     A (40A: Setting for "The Sound of Music")

 USTRI

B     P (40A: Greyhound journey)

G       T (34D: Expensive bar)

 OLDINGO

H       N (34D: Not letting go)

Word of the Day: Mothers of Invention (52D: Mothers of Invention musician => ZAPPA) —

The Mothers of Invention were an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.

Originally an R&B band called the Soul Giants, the band's first lineup included Ray Collins, David Coronado, Ray Hunt, Roy Estrada and Jimmy Carl Black. Frank Zappa was asked to take over as the guitarist following a fight between Collins and Coronado, the band's original saxophonist/leader. Zappa insisted that they perform his original material, and on Mother's Day in 1965, changed their name to the Mothers. Record executives demanded that the name be changed, and so "out of necessity," Zappa later said, "we became the Mothers of Invention." (wikipedia)

• • •

David Steinberg is the editor of the widely syndicated Universal Crossword. Under his leadership, that puzzle has gone from a "no thanks" to a very tight, professional, respectable daily. If this puzzle is his audition to take over the big chair at the NYTXW, then, kid, you're hired. Constructing is very different from editing, true, but David can do both really well, and this puzzle gives you some sense of his sensibility: cleverness, playfulness, thoughtfulness, polish. You've got a highly original and somewhat architecturally complex theme that plays out just as a Thursday should—head-scratching at first, then EUREKA!, and then the joy of discovering how the theme plays out in whatever theme answers you have left to uncover. All the while, the fill never buckles. Everything is smooth and gettable without ever getting DULL. Lots of unexpected and bright little answers keep popping up, so you aren't just drowned in a deluge or crosswordese and repeaters. The slanginess of OLD ME! The hard-to-parse weirdness of "NCIS: LA." The OOZE-ing CHURROS of Frank ZAPPA! JENGA! HUBBLE! OH DEAR! The puzzle stays interesting even in the non-showcase parts. This puzzle is a technical accomplishment that is *also* a joy to solve. David should be on the short list when the time comes to replace the current editor. I know, that time is never coming, but it should, it really should, sooner than later.

I had trouble with the theme at first because while I got GA(SC)AP easily enough, I wrote in only the railroad end of the answer: -HORT LINE. This gave me ORE- at the front of OR(EG)ON (seemed reasonable enough, except I didn't know what the theme concept was yet—I just knew there were double letters in some of the boxes, for the Down crosses, and so with OREGON I thought the double letter box was (GO) (the second square in GOUGED), not (EG). Eventually, I just skipped down to the revealer to see if I could figure out the theme concept before moving on, and after a little finagling, I got SPLIT ENDS to come into view, and after that, I remembered that the theme answers were *doubly* clued, which is to say I saw CHORTLING, which made me realize my OREGON two-letter square was misplaced. After that, I had absolutely no trouble with this one. Difficulty dropped to Easy immediately. Doubly-clued themers were now doubly easy to get. Loved swooshing around the grid picking up all the theme squares. Felt like playing a video game (stand-up arcade games from the '80s, like Pac-Man, I mean—I have no idea what "gaming" is like after ~1996). In short, this was a very good time.

Five things:

• 24A: Philadelphia's  ___ Center for the Performing Arts (MANN) — I know it's good to have MANNs in the puzzle other than Aimee but the trouble is I don't actually want MANNs in the puzzle other than Aimee. I guess I would accept either of the film directors—Anthony MANN ("T-Man," 1947), or Michael MANN ("Thief," 1981). I have nothing against this performing arts center. I just like Aimee (and crime movies) is all.

• 42A: France's ___ de Loire (VAL) — pretty sure I wrote in ILE here, then got the "A" and wanted EAU (!?). This "___ de something" answer pairs nicely with the "something de ___" answer at 13D: Fleur de ___ (fancy salt) (SEL)
• 63D: Edge (LIP) / 65A: "1917," e.g. (EPIC) — I had RIM / ARIA. Double-wrong! Epically wrong! Managed to work my way out of it pretty easily, though, thank god.
• 41A: Toothpaste tube letters (A.D.A.) — got the "A," wrote in AIM (a brand of toothpaste)
• 61D: Prefix with label (ECO-) — me: "no idea, so ... I'll try ECO- ... no idea what ECOlabel is, but ... well whaddya know: bingo!"

Going to go [Make quickly, as a pot of coffee] some coffee now. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. [Outdated charging device?] is a truly outstanding clue for LANCE. 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Popular gem-matching app game / WED 11-3-21 / Hebrew letter that also names a part of the body / Noted anonymous street artist / Increasingly outmoded circus role / Charles who helped invent the mechanical computer / Agere sequitur action follows being Lat

Constructor: Dan Harris

Relative difficulty: Medium, maybe skewing toward "Medium-Challenging" just because there's so much white space (for a Wednesday)

THEME: AFTERLIFE (54A: The great beyond ... or where each word in 17-, 24-, 35- and 45-Across might found?) — theme answers are made out of words that can follow "LIFE" in familiar phrases (life-long, life story, lifetime, LifeSavers, etc.)

Theme answers:

• LONG STORY (17A: It might be made short)
• TIMESAVERS (24A: Shortcuts)
• INSURANCE FORM (35A: Paper to fill out when asserting a claim)
• BLOODLINES (45A: Pedigrees)

Word of the Day: Charles BABBAGE (38D: Charles who helped invent the mechanical computer) —

Charles Babbage KH FRS (/ˈbæbɪdʒ/; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.

Babbage is considered by some to be [the] "father of the computer". Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, the Difference Engine, that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom. Babbage had a broad range of interests in addition to his work on computers covered in his book Economy of Manufactures and Machinery. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century.

Babbage, who died before the complete successful engineering of many of his designs, including his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, remained a prominent figure in the ideating of computing. Parts of Babbage's incomplete mechanisms are on display in the Science Museum in London. In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked. (wikipedia)

• • •

I was put off this puzzle right from the start, and despite some nice moments, it never really got me back. The low word count was out of place on a Wednesday. I took one look at the grid and thought "what is a Friday or Saturday grid doing in my Wednesday puzzle?!" 72 words is themeless territory. I couldn't even tell which answers were the themers, and solving the puzzle didn't improve matters much on that front. Only the revealer gave me any sense of what was going on, or where the themers even were. I don't really understand why the 9s (LONG STORY, AFTERLIFE) are parts of 9 *stacks*. Aesthetically, I just don't like when themers don't pop, when they're put alongside non-themers of exactly the same length. Admittedly, this is a matter of taste, but I don't think the grid is improved by the stacks in the NW and SE. I know that by asking for the eradication of the weirdly giant stacks in the NW and SE, it *seems* like I'm asking for more short fill, but really I'm just asking for an overall better-built / better-conceived grid, one where the themers stand out more, and one where I don't have to suffer through weak stack crosses like ARTE or EER (crossing -EER?) or whatever FIL is—I would've thought short for "father-in-law" but no, it's a brand name (strike one) part (strike two), and the brand is notoriously, iconically anti-LGBTQ (strike three ... please enjoy this baseball metaphor, in honor of the end of baseball season—congrats to the Atlanta baseball team: ownership and tomahawk-chopping, fake-war-chanting fans can continue to shove it). The worst part about the theme, though, is that it's an old type and a boring type. There's no real joy for the solver here. What happens is, you finish your grid, and then you read the revealer clue more closely, and then you go "huh..." and then you just go back and plug "LIFE" in front of each theme answer word part, and you think "whaddya know, those do make phrases ... gee." Seriously, "gee" is the emotional peak for the solver. Also, I don't know if you even bother going back and mentally putting "LIFE" in front of every single theme answer part (I sure didn't—sounds about as exciting as filling out an INSURANCE FORM). 

Further further, the themers themselves are fairly boring (as they often are in this well-worn theme type, where you are pretty restricted in terms of your answers and those answers therefore tend to be phrases made out of very common words). The themers aren't that interesting on their own, they don't stand out visually in the grid, you don't even know *that* they're themers until you're done, and having to go back and re-encounter them to make sense of the theme isn't any fun. On the plus side, you do get a lot more longer answers than you do in a typical themed grid, and some of them pay off. Well, PIANO SONATA pays off. The rest are fine. TARGET AREAS feels pretty original. I also liked seeing BANKSY. I like how BANKSY's real-life identity is also in the grid—I remember how shocked I was this past summer when BANKSY finally told the world that he was, in fact, Hollywood's Haley Joel OSMENT. That guy wasn't even on anyone's radar. No one suspected. What a coup.

The wide-open grid would've been more welcome if the fill had been stronger. BPOE AUS ALTA EER ERR ARTE FIL CAEN ESSE ADSITE LEONI IVANV THU BSIDE OKRAS (plural?) TGI (an exclamation ... part?), this is the glut of subpar fill that you usually avoid in a well-produced, wide-open, low-word-count *themeless* grid. Trying to go low with a theme putting restrictive pressure on the grid is always dicey. I confess that my reaction is likely more negative than most because the clue on 1A: Popular gem-matching app game was nails on a chalkboard, every inch of it. I can't think of anything I'd like less. Also, I got comics artist GIL Kane confused with cartoonist BIL Keane, so my "gem-matching app game" (it hurts just to write that) started with a "G" for a while. GEJEW- something something. Cluing the ordinary word BEJEWELED that way is ... I mean, maybe the puzzle thinks it's fresh and young and modern or whatever, but all I see are beleaguered people hunched over their phones on the subway or bus or in class or whatever. "App game" evokes screen addiction and depression to me. Dystopia. Not the direction I'd think you'd want to take a bright, shiny, perfectly good non-app word like BEJEWELED. But maybe you enjoy app games. Maybe you're playing one right now. Well then our respective experiences of that corner will be very different. And that's fine. I am slowly honing my Crusty Old Man Who Hates Everything skills, in preparation for what I hope will be a long life of crustiness and hating everything (but secretly loving everything and just being very disappointed in the world). Bah! See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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