THEME: BLACKS OUT (67A: Redacts, as sensitive information (suggested by three of this puzzle's answers)) — three Across answers have "sensitive information" blacked out; that is, black squares appear where letter strings representing "sensitive information" should be. The theme answers redact SSN, PIN, and DOB, respectively:
Theme answers:
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (19A: Insomniacs have them) (redacted Social Security Number (SSN))
GOING UP IN FLAMES (38A: Failing spectacularly) (redacted Personal Information Number (PIN))
GROUND OBSERVERS (59A: Members of a wartime skywatching corps) (redacted Date Of Birth (DOB))
Word of the Day: en BANC (37D: Like Supreme Court hearings, with "en") —
In law, an en banc session (pronounced [ɑ̃ bɑ̃]; French for "in bench") is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court(before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a panel of judges selected from them. The equivalent terms in banc, in banco or in bank are also sometimes seen.
En banc review is used for unusually complex or important cases or when the court feels there is a particularly significant issue at stake. (wikipedia)
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The concept is clever and not at all hard to pick up ... assuming you start at the top. If I'd started at the bottom, I don't know how long I'd've been flailing around, because GROUND OBSERVERS?? An entirely meaningless term to me. I had the puzzle completed and still had no idea what info was supposed to be "redacted" inside that answer for I'm gonna say a good minute or so. GROUN---SERVERS suggested absolutely nothing to me. I had the back end of the answer as SERVICE for a bit because that sounded more war-related. The only way I worked out what was hidden was by assuming the first letter was "D" and kind of fumbling through three-letter abbrs. in my mental rolodex from there. Let me tell you, having your final experience of a puzzle be a meaningless pursuit of three-letter abbr. embedded in a longer answer that barely qualifies as an answer, that will really kill any nice feelings you had about the puzzle. GROUND OBSERVERS: that was my "aha." More "a-huh." Lowest-quality themer should probably not come last. No, change "probably" to "definitely." So I like the idea, but the execution kind of undermined my happiness there at the end, plus the whole thing had this military vibe that I don't particularly enjoy, with the GROUND OBSERVERS and the Blue Angels and the U.S. Space Force in there somewhere. Plus the right-wing billionaire finance chair of the RNC (and casino eponym, apparently) who "resigned amid accusations of sexual misconduct including harassment, assault, and coercion" (wikipedia), whose name really brought the mood way (way) down for me. Once again, F*** all Tr*mpists, now and forever, seriously. Not even gonna write that guy's name out.
I got the theme early, as the insomniacs question was obviously missing elements after SLEEP, and then those missing elements ended up being in the first place I looked. I wanted SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, saw that SSN would run on the black squares, wrote in IGHTS on the other side, and then confirmed it with SARI etc. Done and done. Oh, looks like I took the screenshot before I'd even bothered to confirm the crosses on "-IGHTS"... cocky!
I think of the phrase as "going down in flames," but yes, you can go up as well, so I guess that's fine. I had trouble with PHYS.ED. since we called it either "gym" or "P.E." and PHYSED just looks weird in the grid and [Gym] doesn't exactly scream "abbr.!" Also had SAFE before SALE (like my answer much much better) (4D: Something that's no good unless it's closed) and RED before RYE (24D: Alternative to white). Surprised to see just one HIGH BEAM (11D: Flashy car feature?). Is one of your headlights out? I don't think I knew that ATREUS was Helen's father-in-law. I know that for a time she's with Paris, in Troy, and Paris's father is Priam, but whatever, he didn't fit. I know Agamemnon and Menelaus as the "Atreides," meaning sons of ATREUS, so ... I guess I did, technically, now that I think of it, know Helen's father-in-law. Weird how you can not know something you know. I guess POT LEAVES is supposed to be edgy, but that's one phrase where I don't think I'd say "pot." I don't know why every time the NYTXW mentions "POT" it makes me laugh and think "narc." It's like you're trying to get with the time, only the times are 50 years ago. Anyway, I'm a square when it comes to all drugs besides alcohol, so I'm probably not the best judge of this answer. I think I'm done now.
THEME: Crossword add-iCS — -ICS is tacked to the end of familiar phrases to create wacky phrases, clued wackily ("?"-style!):
Theme answers:
DOT COMICS (17A: Much of Roy Lichtenstein's work?)
MATH CLASSICS (28A: Euclid's "Elements," Descartes's "La Géométrie," etc.?)
CARPENTER ANTICS (38A: Wacky shenanigans of a woodworker?)
FRYING PANICS (46A: Frights upon waking up from sunbathing naps?)
POP TOPICS (64A: Things that dad likes to discuss?)
Word of the Day: Roy Lichtenstein (17A) —
Roy Fox Lichtenstein(/ˈlɪktənˌstaɪn/; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.
Whaam! and Drowning Girl are generally regarded as Lichtenstein's most famous works.]Drowning Girl, Whaam!, and Look Mickey are regarded as his most influential works. His most expensive piece is Masterpiece, which was sold for $165 million in January 2017. (wikipedia)
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Well that's two days in a row now that we've had a Very old-fashioned theme concept and very old-fashioned and fairly tired fill. You add -ICS to words to get new words. OK. How does that work out for you? Nothing is particularly hilarious or even funny about the results, and the core concept doesn't even have a real hook. There's no reason for -ICS, no pun on "I SEE" or "ICY" or ... I dunno what you do to get "-ICS" to be special, but whatever it is, this puzzle isn't doing it. The Lichtenstein answer DOTCOMICS has some liveliness and cleverness, but the rest just thud into place, and once you know they all end in -ICS, an already-easy puzzle becomes that much easier. Just an exercise in filling in boxes. The only themer I had any trouble with was MATH CLASSICS, because I was fixated on the Frenchness of the Descartes title and wanted it to be FRENCH CLASSICS, which obv wouldn't fit. Actually, now that I look at the themers in the bottom half of the grid, I'm not sure I looked at their clues at all. There was no need. The short fill was so easy that those longer answers eventually just came into view. This puzzle didn't even have any vibrant or fresh longer fill to at least add some character and interest to the solving experience. AMERICAN ... EUROPEAN ... is there some inside joke there? A continental identity joke? Maybe an immigration theme of some sort? Wait, is this a hidden "Perfect Strangers" theme!? You've got an AMERICAN named Larry APPLETON who now lives in Chicago and gets an unexpected visit from his EUROPEAN cousin, Balki, and then, as with this puzzle, wackiness ensues. Oh this is much better than the surface theme. Much better.
This puzzle was so easy that before I ever got a theme answer I got bored and set myself a challenge to see if I could go corner to corner, NW to SE, in an unbroken string, having to use crosses all the way. And voila!
Now as you can see, I had an error there ("All the SAME" instead of "All the RAGE" at 41D), but whatever, I still got there. Mission accomplished.
This puzzle had a few OK moments. I enjoyed IDK (don't see that enough ... beats, say, IMHO, imho) and GAMEPLAN. But there's just too much gunk, ATEST and ASIT and ALLOF, and that's just the partials. You've also got an RRN (random Roman numeral) at MIII, and that's right next door to a plural scolding sound, TSKS ... it's rough all over. Some of this is clearly a product of grid design, where the (fixed) themers are forcing some very tough choices in the short crosses (both MIII and TSKS, for instance, run through *two* themers, so there really aren't a ton of great options there). I had no trouble with anything but ALAN Page, who ... yeah, let's just say my knowledge of Minnesota Supreme Court justices is limited. Limited to zero. Zero knowledge. ALAN Page rings a very, very faint bell (it turns out he's a really remarkable guy and kind of a big deal in Minnesota). I guess the "Minnesota Supreme Court" bit was to alert me that he was a Minnesota Viking. Yeah, that didn't help much. But it's a four-letter common name, it did no harm. What did do harm, though, was crossing AVI- with AVIATOR. You can't do that. Same root. AVIATOR already had AVI- in it. Look:
aviator (n.)
"aircraft pilot," 1887, from French aviateur, from Latin avis "bird" (from PIE root *awi- "bird") + -ateur. Also used c. 1891 in a sense of "aircraft, flying-machine." Feminine form aviatrix is from 1927; earlier aviatrice (1910), aviatress (1911). (etymonline.com)
So now you're just crossing the prefix with itself. Awful. This puzzle should really get an editor. OK, bye now.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Happy birthday to my dear daughter, who can now drink (legally). Or go to casinos, I guess, though that seems unlikely.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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