Onward in Italy / SUN 9-18-16 / Reef-dwelling snapper / Sage swamp-dweller of film / Start of legalese paragraph / Handy take-along / Guy into hip-hop

Constructor: Jeremy Newton

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Make a Dash For It" —dashes in the Downs, wacky dashes in the Acrosses (7 times)

Theme answers:

• PUSH-UP BRA / B-LISTER PACK (32A: Troupe of lesser-known actors?)
• UH-OH / PHOENIX A-Z (24A: Actor Joaquin's complete bio?)
• THE PO-PO / G-RATED CHEESE (44A: Schmaltz in kids' films?)
• FREE WI-FI / AMERICAN GOT HI-C (65A: An airline now serves a Minute Maid beverage?)
• B-BOY / CHICKEN CO-OPS (87A: Some apartments for scaredy-cats?)
• TO-DOS / MOVING A-SIDE (100A: Record half that stirs emotions?)
• HA-HA / LO-CAL HERO (109A: Sandwich for a dieter?)

Word of the Day: REDFISH (35A: Reef-dwelling snapper) —

Redfish is a common name for several species of fish. It is most commonly applied to certain deep-sea rockfish in the genus Sebastes, or the reef dwelling snappers in the genus Lutjanus. It is also applied to the slimeheads or roughies (family Trachichthyidae), and the alfonsinos (Berycidae). (wikipedia) (my emphasis)

• • •

This is really quite clever. It's everything the average Sunday puzzle should be. It's got a clever, original gimmick, and it's genuinely funny, especially as the "wacky-clue"-type themes go. It's also got an elegant simplicity: real dash in the Down, fake one in the Across. Some of the wacky theme answers seem like very reasonable, plausible phrases (esp. LO-CAL HERO, G-RATED CHEESE, and MOVING A-SIDE), and then some ... well, some are AMERICAN GOT HI-C, which is as absurd as they get. Something about its having a phrasing similar to "America's Got Talent" really seals the deal for me. This puzzle is proof that the Sunday puzzle doesn't have to be overly complicated, difficult, or fussy to work. You can have relatively standard 7-answer wackiness and pull it off with aplomb. Also, with a few exceptions, this grid is fairly clean and lively. Not a lot of wincing. TO YOU ISMS is kind of wincey, and, you know, there's EEN and TOPED and ESS, but it's all so minor, especially in a grid this theme-dense and enjoyable.


Got the theme—or the idea of the dash-square, anyway—early, very early, with PUSH-UP BRA. Took me a little while longer to figure out what the hell was going on with the wacky-dash Acrosses. I did not get, for far too long, that the Acrosses were real, viable answers if you remove the dash. So I was looking at B-LIST ... and then B-LISTER ... and not really understanding what had to come next. Also, seeing THE PO-PO was *really* hard. Easy to see where the wacky Acrosses are, not so easy to see where the dash-having Downs are. So 18D: Cops, in slang were THE -O---. All I could think of was THE FUZZ. Had to get one or more of those P's before I had that D'oh! moment where you remember the theme after having let it temporarily slip from your mind. STEEL GRAYS is a truly painful plural, but it's made up for, at least partially, by its symmetrical counterpart, CROP CIRCLE. Well, not the answer so much (which is fine), but the clue: 74D: Work of extraterrestrials? —not! No one says "not" like that anymore (not for 20 years), so that was a bit awkward, but I love the light-hearted vibe there. Also, I love anything that mocks magical thinking / conspiracy-theory mind-set, which is destroying civilization.


Hey, NJ residents, there is a crossword tournament in your state very soon and you should check it out. It is part of the Collingswood Book Festival, and it is being hosted by Washington Post crossword writer/editor Evan Birnholz (puzzles will be upcoming NYTs). Here's the flyer (click on it if you want to embiggen it).

I have no idea where Collingswood is, but I assume a bunch of my readers live relatively nearby. So dare to attend a low-stakes tourney. You may find you like them. You'll meet other dorks like you. It's fun. Seriously.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

P.S. Peter Gordon made a Fireball puzzle with a very similar theme a few years back, but today's is fundamentally different and more ambitious in important ways. Go see for yourself.

Read more...

Tickets in slang / SAT 9-17-16 / Book before Philemon / Cliched gift for prisoner / Staple of victorian architecture / Cry before rage-quitting / Round end of sort / Snack brand first produced at Disneyland in 1960s

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: FARMERS ONLY (37A: Website for people interested in "cultivating" a relationship) —

Carrying the tagline "city folks just don't get it," FarmersOnly.com launched with about 2,000 members, but grew to more than 100,000 users by 2010 as nonfarmers embraced the sensibility. // "You don't have to be a farmer," Miller, who's based in Cleveland, said. "You could work at a restaurant, or the feed store, but are looking for someone who has those values." (some Yahoo (appropriately) article)

• • •

The only remarkable things here are NOT GONNA LIE, which is Great, and FARMERS ONLY, which is not. I am having the most ridiculous back-and-forths right now on Twitter with FARMERS ONLY defenders, or, if not defenders, FARMERS ONLY knowers. Not only have I never heard of it, it seems like some dumb-@$$ $!^#. Just reading about it made me stupider. It's unusual, though, I'll give it that. Anyway, everything else was pretty forgettable, except the NE, which had a lively bunch of first-person exclamations: "OH MY! WHAT A DAY! I'M SO MAD!!! ... Where are my DORITOS, TORI!?" A nice corner indeed. Almost makes me not notice AMU. Almost.

[LISA / LISA and Cult Jam: "His kiss is credit in the bank of love / Never leave home without it!"]

I didn't know Philemon *or* TITUS were books (of the Bible?) so that wasn't easy. I don't like I AM being in the grid with I'M SO MAD. It's a dupe, contraction be damned. Hey, look, it's the LeBron "King James" reference I asked for yesterday! Fast service! (18D: King James, e.g.). Can't believe I'm saying this, but this puzzle coulda eased up on the sports. UCLA (clued via tennis), CAV, BUC, GATOR, ATL, STEPH, FOUL LINE; we get it, you're a sports fan. Clues were suitably tricky, and that is some bonkers trivia re: DORITOS (22A: Snack brand first produced at Disney land in the 1960s). But mostly it was shrug and ugh. More shrug. Actually, not a lot of ugh. And then some good parts. So ... an average Saturday, I guess.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...