Gen follower / WED 2-17-16 / One alternative of sentry's challenge / Twister Sister frontman Snider / Dwight D Ice in Shower / Old hairdo for Diana Ross / Toggery / Realm of King Midas

Constructor: Kyle Mahowald

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: cold people puns — famous names turned into winter-related puns (I think)

Theme answers:

• EDWARD SNOWED IN (20A: Informant trapped after an icy storm?)
• JODIE FROSTER (26A: Actress with an icy stare?)
• CURT CHILLING (44A: Pitcher of ice?)
• BARRY COLD WATER (52A: Next Republican nominee after Dwight D. Ice in Shower left office?)  (wording of the clue is very important here; Nixon was 1960 nominee, but DDE was still *in office* at that point.)

Word of the Day: "VEEP" (16A: HBO hit starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus) —

Veep is an American HBO political comedy television series, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, set in the office of Selina Meyer, a fictional Vice President, and subsequent President, of the United States. The series was created by Armando Iannucci, who created the British political comedy series The Thick of It, and also wrote and directed that series' film spin-off In the Loop (2009), all of which feature the same writing staff. [...] Veep has received critical acclaim and won several major awards. It has been nominated four years in a row for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, winning the award for its fourth season. Its second season won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series, and its third season won the TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. Louis-Dreyfus has won four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards and one Television Critics Association Award for her performance. (wikipedia)

• • •

I imagine the constructor first noticed the Snowden / "SNOWED IN" pun, then tried to find way to build a puzzle around it, and this is the result. EDWARD SNOWED IN is interesting. It's kind of funny. The others are less so, on both counts. JODIE FROSTER doesn't even make sense. What's a "froster?" Someone who frosts cakes? No, that's not in keeping with the winter theme. Seriously, when would you use "froster" in relation to cold weather? Or at all? Weren't there better answers out there? No EDDIE BLIZZARD (or WOLF BLIZZARD, I guess, but that's pretty awful)? FRIGID BARDOT? SLEET ULRICH? CLAMMY DAVIS, JR. (I guess the puns are all last names, so those wouldn't be consistent)? LASSE HAILSTORM? JAKE CHILLING ALL? BUSTA RIMES? AARON BRRR? Pick one. There are probably (many) more. I don't think having some form of "ice" in all the clues works either, as "icy storms" rarely "snow" anyone "in." Also, Dwight D. Ice in Shower is so bad it's not even groanworthy. It's grotesque. This puzzle wants desperately to be cute, but hits the mark only with its first theme answer. After that, the whole thing comes apart quite a bit.


I blazed through the non-theme parts of this—cluing seemed very Monday—but I couldn't even understand the theme for the longest time. JODIE FROSTER took forever, even with most of the crosses, for reasons largely explained above (i.e. WTF?). What I like about the puzzle is that the longer Downs seem to have been chosen with care, and with an eye to novelty. Well, most of them, at any rate. THE REAL ME and NEW IN TOWN are both nice, and BAD WORD and PHRYGIA (41D: Realm of King Midas), bring a colloquial and classical quality to the grid, respectively. This is important, because the rest of the fill is kind of subpar (With so much 3- and 4-letter stuff, this isn't terribly surprising). I couldn't make any sense of EXOD. for way too long (22D: Gen. follower) (abbr. of "Exodus," in case that wasn't yet clear). Mostly the fill isn't cringeworthy so much as it's dull—of the OLLA / ATAD / APSE variety. Puzzle skewed old, but not painfully. I suspect plenty of people will find the icy puns enjoyable. I am just not one of those people. Probably because of my icy, icy heart. Oh well.

• Phoebe Snow (10)
• Edgar Winter (11)
• Robert Frost (11)
• Vanilla Ice (10)

There's a weak theme I just made up. It's all yours. You're welcome.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Linotype machine nowadays / TUE 2-16-16 / Part of fishing line to which hook is attached / Andrea ship that sank in 1956 / Half of SWAK / Czech form of French Pierre

Constructor: Ron and Nancy Byron

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: FIGUREHEAD (55A: Carved decoration on a ship's prow ... or a hint to the first word of 17-, 25-, 37- and 45-Across) — first words of themers can *precede* (so, come before, or at the "head" of) "figure" in a common phrase:

Theme answers:

• FULL NELSON (17A: Banned wrestling hold)
• ACTION PLAN (25A: Aid in accomplishing a goal)
• STICK TO YOUR GUNS (37A: "Don't give up the fight!")
• GO FOR BROKE (45A: Risk everything)

Word of the Day: SADA Thompson (30A: Actress Thompson of "Family") —

Sada Carolyn Thompson (September 27, 1927 – May 4, 2011) was an American stage, film, and television actress. [...] Her portrayal of matriarch Kate Lawrence on Family won her the 1978 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and garnered her three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not sure I'm getting the use of "head" here. In the phrase "go figure," I don't think of "go" as the "head" of "figure." A word that simply precedes another word is not the latter word's "head." A prefix could be considered a head, or the first letter of a word (a common cluing wordplay trick). So we're stretching the meaning of "head" here a little bit. But  the "___ FIGURE" gimmick is consistent, even if the resulting "___ FIGURE" phrases are adjective, noun, noun, verb phrase. Still, all of them work. I'm more familiar with "plans of action" than ACTION PLAN(s), but again ... theme, technically works. The fill, however, was torturous. I would like to put it more nicely, but I don't have it in me. Dreadful, dreary, dated, and inexplicably bad. Worse, unnecessarily bad. Will or Joel should've quietly cleaned this mess up. A grid with this shape, with this many little corners, with this theme density, should be easy to fill at least moderately cleanly. There is no excuse for an EELY SNELL on a Tuesday, or any day. On and on and on the subpar fill goes. In case you can't tell, I ain't FER it. I'm agin it. Bobby DOERR, DON HO, and SADA Thompson probably think it's grand, but hoo boy no. No no no. AT NO no. Just no.

["Don't give up the fight!"]

Puzzle was pretty dang easy, except for RELIC, the clue for which was oddly hard (6D: Linotype machine, nowadays). I misspelled DORIA as DOREA, so that probably didn't help there. Also struggled to get PETR, as having Czech clued via French made my brain just balk. I should add: DORIA, PETR ... these are tolerable answers in a demanding, theme-dense, or otherwise sparkly grid. In *this* grid, they're just so much dreck. I'll resist the urge to spout all the junk. In order to resist, I need to get off the computer. Luckily, there is bread baking downstairs, so pulling myself away from the computer will not be hard. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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