Popular sheepskin boots / WED 6-24-15 / Region known for its black tea / Monch Eiger for two / BC animal that goes ZOT / Classic Langston Hughes poem

June 23, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: High heel of Italy's boot / THU 6-25-15 / Org sponsoring literary fair / One-named musician with hit albums 18 Hotel / Death of 1793 David painting / Tinseltown terrier

≪ Previous: Deep blue dye / TUE 6-23-15 / Spanish liqueur / Wisconsin v landmark 1972 Supreme Court case on religious freedom / Stark Game of Thrones protagonist

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Constructor: Ian Livengood and J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: FIVE STARS (56A: What 17-, 23-, 33- and 47-Across each have) — five-star things, each answer having a somewhat different sense of what "five-star" means:

Theme answers:

• THE PIERRE (17A: Luxury hotel overlooking Central Park)
• OMAR BRADLEY (23A: First chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1949)
• SOUTHERN CROSS (33A: Constellation visible in Melbourne and Sydney)
• CHINESE FLAG (47A: Flier over Tiananmen Square)

Word of the Day: THE PIERRE —

The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 East 61st Street at the intersection of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. The hotel, which was designed by Schultze & Weaver, opened in 1930, and was later acquired by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces of India. Standing 525.01 feet (160.02 m) tall, it is located within the Upper East Side Historic District as designated in 1981 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. (wikipedia)

• • •

I've quite liked puzzle co-constructed by J.A.S.A. in the past (J.A.S.A. stands for Jewish Association Serving the Aging), but this one seemed a bit weak. The core concept just isn't that interesting or entertaining. And it doesn't cohere that great either. I've heard of a five-star general and a five-star hotel, but not a five-star constellation or a five-star flag. SOUTHERN CROSS and CHINESE FLAG are associated with stars, sure, but the number "five," not so much. Also, if, like me, you get your sense of the SOUTHERN CROSS from the flag of New Zealand, then you were under the (apparently mistaken) impression that the constellation actually had four stars. So that was weird. Also, do people who don't live in NYC know THE PIERRE? I'd never heard of it. I get that the class (like the puzzle) is NY-based, so there's nothing *wrong* with a parochial answer like that, but I don't think that answer's going to resonate much in the sticks (i.e. outside the five boroughs). Ian and his class have certainly polished the puzzle well—I hope you can see the difference between puzzles made by experienced, conscientious constructors (Joel on Monday, Ian today) and run-of-the-mill, under-edited puzzles that the NYT runs. No wincing! All answers real and (mostly) interesting! OK, ARMLET is weird, but I'm pretty sure it's real. Anyway, this wasn't terribly exciting. Acceptable, for sure, but too basic, conceptually, and too wobbly in the execution for my tastes.


Biggest troubles were in and around THE PIERRE, just because I'd never heard of it. Wanted SCHEMATA for SCENARIO (3D: Plot outline). Wanted TO-DO for STIR (29A: Hubbub). Wanted STALLS for STABLE (11D: 35-Down [i.e. HORSE] quarters). Oh, I also had trouble around RODGERS, because I also don't really know who Richard RODGERS is. Is he RODGERS and Hammerstein RODGERS? Ah, yes, look at that—so he is. Not knowing him made FRIED and LOVED and SKI TRAIL all weirdly tougher than they should've been. I somehow thought the AMA  was the ["Protecting and promoting your health" org.]—that's a mistake I can understand and live with. I still think the expression is TRUE DAT but there's plenty of evidence that, at least on paper, I'm wrong. Or, rather, TRUE THAT is more popular. Crossword mainstay Michael CERA recently released an album entitled "TRUE THAT," so put that in your crossword trivia pipe and smoke it.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

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High heel of Italy's boot / THU 6-25-15 / Org sponsoring literary fair / One-named musician with hit albums 18 Hotel / Death of 1793 David painting / Tinseltown terrier

June 24, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: City south of Kyiv / FRI 6-26-15 / Metadata collector for short / Patronizingly point out in modern lingo / Famous stutterer / Patron saint of chastity / Cherry plum relatives

≪ Previous: Popular sheepskin boots / WED 6-24-15 / Region known for its black tea / Monch Eiger for two / BC animal that goes ZOT / Classic Langston Hughes poem

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Constructor: David Poole

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: LEADBELLY (61A: Legendary guitarist … or a hint to eight answers in this puzzle) — rebus with "PB" (atomic symbol for lead) in the "belly" (very loosely defined) of eight answers (i.e. shoved into four total boxes):

Theme answers:

• POP BOTTLES / TOP BID
• UPBEAT / LIP BALMS
• DEEP BLUE / APBS
• RASPBERRY / CUPBOARD

Word of the Day: APULIA (24D: The "high heel" of Italy's "boot") —

Apulia (/əˈpuːliə/ ə-poo-lee-ə; Italian: Puglia) is a region of Italy in Southern Italybordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southernmost portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and its population is about 4.1 million. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, and Basilicata to the southwest. It neighbors Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, and Montenegro, across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The region extends as far north as Monte Gargano. Its capital city is Bari. (wikipedia)

• • •

A rudimentary rebus that I didn't care for much at all. Conceptually it's OK—"belly" seems a slight stretch when you are implicating just one little square in sometimes very long answers, and when that square is more near the edge than in the "belly" of the answer, but fine: take famous name, literalize it (in a way) in the grid. But it's a one-note trick. Same "belly" every time. It's just a "PB" rebus. Four "PB"s. Not that exciting. I thought I'd get to a peanut butter answer eventually, so LEADBELLY was better than what I was expecting. But still, once you figure out the rebus (took some effort for me), you just hunt the same two-letter square a few more times. Challenging, for sure, given the overall cluing and the odd rebus-square placement. And I do like a challenge. But terrible fill plus one-dimensional trick = shrug. Just OK, at best.


ATTN BELG CRESC is a junk bloc. ETTES is the worst form of fill, i.e. The Plural Suffix. Inexcusable. PSIS APBS USS ASSN, another junk bloc. ESTAB, ouch. Fill is a C-, and that's a gentleman's C-. Also, POP BOTTLES is a horrendous answer. Or, rather, it's got a horrendously misleading and inapt clue. What kind of bottles did Andy Warhol paint? Answer that question honestly. Write it down. OK, did you write down COKE BOTTLES? Because That's The Only Correct Answer. POP BOTTLES, come on. Junk junk junk. Here's me trying to see how many letters I have to type before Google suggests [Andy Warhol pop bottles]:

I got only a couple letters further and then google just gave up trying to figures out what I meant. Out of desperation, it started guessing in Spanish:

Clue accurately. Not *defensibly*. *Accurately*. "APT!" I should want to shout.


Lastly, what is up with the APULIA (?) / PALMA (??) crossing. Only the fact that -ALMA looked like it desperately needed a "P" made me guess correctly. Two northern Mediterranean geographical clues? Crossing at a barely guessable letter? That's no good. If I hadn't heard of an ancient novel called "The APULIAn Ass" or something like that, I wouldn't have trusted APULIA at all. Oh, now that I look it up, it's actually "The *Golden* Ass" by a Roman guy *named* "Apuleius." He was north African. Well. So much for my knowing anything about APULIA. Bad cross. Almost all the makings of a true "Natick" (obscure proper nouns crossing at an uninferable letter) except I guessed the "P," so it must, on some level, have been inferable.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

PS I assume ABA = American Book Association??? Nope. American Booksellers' Association (35D: Org. sponsoring a literary fair) Odd. Very odd. Not well known. Giving it a more obscure clue than the obvious legal clue does not improve it. It's still the same crummy little 3-letter abbr. we've been getting for years. Don't get cute w/ your crap fill. It will still be crappy, but now also annoying.

City south of Kyiv / FRI 6-26-15 / Metadata collector for short / Patronizingly point out in modern lingo / Famous stutterer / Patron saint of chastity / Cherry plum relatives

June 25, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Dinosaur in many Nintendo games / SAT 6-27-15 / Godfather of gangsta rap / Twain's Tom Canty / US built route that's mostly outside US / Bluegill crappie / Rice variety used in rice pudding / Handsome surgeon's nickname on Grey's Anatomy / Relatives of recitatives

≪ Previous: High heel of Italy's boot / THU 6-25-15 / Org sponsoring literary fair / One-named musician with hit albums 18 Hotel / Death of 1793 David painting / Tinseltown terrier

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Constructor: Erin Rhode

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ODESA (46A: City south of Kyiv) —

Odessa or Odesa (Ukrainian: Оде́са, [oˈdɛsɐ]; Russian: Оде́сса; IPA: [ɐˈdʲesə]) is the third largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,003,705. The city is a major seaport and transportation hub located on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. Odessa is also an administrative center of the Odessa Oblast and a multiethnic major cultural center. [So … just ODESSA … in Russianish … like Kyiv is "Kiev" in Russianish? … ugh]

• • •

This was a jarring mix of great and horrible. Thought the stacks in the NW and SE were mostly wonderful, even though I have no idea what SALT SPRAY is (55A: Product that puts waves in the hair)—I assume it's a thing. A thing I don't use, not least because I don't really have hair—certainly not hair you could put waves in. Elsewhere, though, things get a bit more wobbly. Don't love the 15s. Well, NASAL CONSONANTS is fine—not exciting, but certainly a real thing. "IS IT GOING TO RAIN?", on the other hand, is a question one might ask, but so is "DID YOU LEAVE THE STOVE ON?" or "WHEN IS DINNER?" and I don't think either of those (or most random questions) fly as crossword answers. It's a "green paint" question—i.e. it's something an English-speaking human might say, but it's Not A Thing. Then there's SORRY I'M NOT SORRY, which struck me as the Worst thing in the grid. Just derailed the puzzle for me. The expression … everyone who knows the expression (a fairly recent meme, in fact) knows it thusly: SORRYNOTSORRY. It's a damned hashtag. The formal "I'M" there just makes things ridiculous and odd and strange and weird. When something is so common in the real world as one thing, and then the NYT tries to get in on the act (belatedly) and steps all over it, man, that's irksome. Maybe most NYT solvers live in a world where ubiquitous memes never reach, and where all expressions must be grammatical or else. But the expression is "sorry not sorry." #sorrynotsorry. I ain't even the first sorry for pointing this out.

[WARNING: Profane as f***!]

Then there's the fill, which goes to hell in places. Seriously, constructors, take ALER(S) out of your damned databases. NLER(S) too, while you're at it. And one-S ODESA too. Just … delete it. I'll wait here. . . . OK, good. OYER, painful. ALTE, not much better. Most of the rest of it is tolerable. Certainly adequate. This is promising work, but you can't whiff on two out of three 15s. And your gutter fill, esp. in a themeless, has got to be RARE to non-existent. 

[I apologize for party rocking]

Loved MANSPLAIN, and the LUSITANIA / UBOAT cross-reference was pretty cool, if a bit morbid. But I faceplanted pretty badly right out of the gate when, presented with IM-T- at 15A: "You got me" ("I'M AT A LOSS") I went with I'M STUMPED. It fit. It was apt. It was wrong. Luckily I fixed it quick because NASAL CONSONANTS are my jam. First real hold-up came in the SW, where I couldn't make any sense of the divisible leap year clue (icky and forced way to get to the rather non-specific RARE—if we leap year every four years … wait, when do we *not* leap every fourth year? I can't remember ever not leaping on a divisible-by-four year … anyway, RARE seems like an understatement here). Real problems, though, were a. OLSON or OLSEN, and b. TACOS—which was the answer I knew had to be right for 48A: Food items in shells (TARTS). That is a deliberate and Not Very Apt trick clue. Don't TARTS have crusts? Do you ever call them "shells" w/o "pie" preceding? Blech. This was the issue I was having with the puzzle—it was just queasily off in places, both fill-wise and cluing-wise, so that many answers don't *land*. They just kind of … shuffle in and shrug at you.

As you can see in that screen grab, my brain could not accept ALERS (as all healthy brains cannot), so I had TEAMS in there. You can also see where I had AMID at 45A: About before PROTEAN forced the change. After I pushed through there, though, it was pretty much just a diagonal shot across the grid from SW to NE…

And then ran the terrible SORRY *I'M* [ugh] NOT SORRY down into the SE for the big finish.

The takeaway: know your memes, and get the phrasing right. Also, ALER and NLER got TO GO. Far away. To ODESA if need be.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Dinosaur in many Nintendo games / SAT 6-27-15 / Godfather of gangsta rap / Twain's Tom Canty / US built route that's mostly outside US / Bluegill crappie / Rice variety used in rice pudding / Handsome surgeon's nickname on Grey's Anatomy / Relatives of recitatives

June 26, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Green dwarf / SUN 6-28-15 / Actress Birch of "American Beauty" / Admiral Zumwalt / The City of a Thousand Minarets / Physics Nobelist Martin, discoverer of the tauon / Mountain, in Hawaiian

≪ Previous: City south of Kyiv / FRI 6-26-15 / Metadata collector for short / Patronizingly point out in modern lingo / Famous stutterer / Patron saint of chastity / Cherry plum relatives

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Constructor: Tim Croce

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: PONY CAR (62A: Mustang, e.g.) —

Pony car is an American class of automobile launched and inspired by the Ford Mustang in 1964. The term describes an affordable, compact, highly styled car with a sporty or performance-oriented image. (wikipedia) 

• • •

I was a bit worried when I started, as fat corners can be hard to fill well, but I think my eyes were playing tricks on me—the corners aren't that fat. In fact, this is a 72-worder (maximum for a Fri/Sat themeless), and those higher word-count puzzles usually yield pretty tasty results. And I did indeed end up enjoying the taste of this one, mostly. Didn't look like there were going to be many (any?) marquee answers—nothing longer than 8 in the grid, and only four of those—but puzzle gets a Lot of mileage out of those 8s, and the 7-laden corners come in pretty clean and occasionally sparkly. I definitely had to struggle a little with this one; with only narrow passageways in, those corners can go south on you real quick. But I was able to whack my way through the often tough cluing and finish in normal Saturday time. Satisfying work, overall.

[VOW]

Despite needing lots of help with both PAN FISH (?) and PAR FIVE, I got my claws into that NW corner pretty readily. Here's the opening gambit:

IRAS first (5D: They can roll over, briefly), and then, when TAPIOCA didn't work, somehow ARBORIO leapt right to mind. (I know TAPIOCA is not "rice"—why do you still insist on logic from me?) NBCNEWS followed shortly, and that was enough traction to get through the NW. Entire center felt very easy. Blew right through it. But the path into the NE was a little ... fraught. Wasn't sure the JOKE part of SICK JOKE was right. And I totally botched 8D: Leave an online game in a huff. Not a gamer, so when presented with -QUIT, I went with HATEQUIT, which I quite like. And since the "A" was right and gave me ARAL SEA, I got stuck for a bit. Luckily I knew ALCAN MATTY and NANO, so I worked RAGE QUIT out without too much trouble. Moved into SE where I forgot the SOUL part of KIA SOUL, but somehow remembered YOSHI, or at least the latter 3/5 of him (trust me, that "-SHI" mattered). Another corner down:

That left the SW, where I for sure had the most trouble. First, as I have never watched "Grey's Anatomy," I misremembered the guy's nickname as DR. DREAMY (38A: Handsome surgeon's nickname on "Grey's Anatomy"). Weirdly, ILE got me out of that ("CL-" yes, "RL-" no at 39D: Born Blonde brand). But this corner was tougher. MISHAPS just didn't come, even with MIS---S. Cluing ARIZONA as simply a "Brand name" was borderline cruel. HIT AT is always awkward to me. Didn't know if it was TICK or TOCK. Wrote in PONY CAR then felt like I'd just made it up, so took it out. Took some self-convincing to put it back. Got EASY-E but spelled it thusly. So between TICK and EASY-E, I "finished" with the "Brand name" as ARISINA:

Getting from there to the end didn't take much mental effort.

Have a nice day. Probably won't be as nice as Friday was, but we can always hope.

[grid courtesy of Matt Jones]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Green dwarf / SUN 6-28-15 / Actress Birch of "American Beauty" / Admiral Zumwalt / The City of a Thousand Minarets / Physics Nobelist Martin, discoverer of the tauon / Mountain, in Hawaiian

June 27, 2015, 9:01 pm

≫ Next: Bot that systematically browses internet / MON 6-29-15 / French city historically known for silk / Liesl's love in Sound of Music / Capital of Bangladesh old-style / Boo follower in triumphant shout / 1982 Harrison Ford sci-fi film

≪ Previous: Dinosaur in many Nintendo games / SAT 6-27-15 / Godfather of gangsta rap / Twain's Tom Canty / US built route that's mostly outside US / Bluegill crappie / Rice variety used in rice pudding / Handsome surgeon's nickname on Grey's Anatomy / Relatives of recitatives

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Constructor: Jeremy Newton

Relative difficulty: Big

THEME:"Getting in the Final Word"— Theme answers are familiar phrases containing the word "in." The phrases are situated so that the first part crosses (goes "in") the second part.

Hi, everyone! PuzzleGirl with you for your Sunday puzzle. Not sure how I always seem to get stuck with Sundays when I fill in. I find Sunday puzzles really ... big. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. It's just my preference to have my puzzles a little smaller. I guess what I'm saying is size does matter, people. Anyway.

I got an emergency call from Rex tonight because his power went out and so here we are. Unfortunately, I was pretty busy today and I've got an early start tomorrow, so I don't have a lot of time to be hanging out with you. Or maybe that's fortunate. Depends on who you are, I guess. Let's just make the best of it, shall we? Here are your theme answers.

Theme answers:

• WHAT HAPPENS [IN] VEGAS(30A/13D: Shorthand pact for a wild trip)
• YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND [IN] ME(52A/49D: 1995 Oscar-nominated Pixar theme song)
• COULD YOU PUT THAT [IN] WRITING(80A/58D: Request for an official document)
• DOUBLED OVER [IN] PAIN(101A/90D: Reacting to a gut punch, perhaps)
• JUST [IN] CASE(3D/18A: "To be on the safe side...")
• KEEPING [IN] MIND(16D/21A: Remembering)
• CALLING [IN] SICK(67D/104A: Talking with a fake rasp, perhaps)
• CAME [IN] LAST(109D/125A: Got the booby prize)

I rather enjoyed this puzzle. The theme was pretty easy to figure out and then it was just a matter of coming up with the phrases. Not too much junk in the fill either. For a Sunday anyway. "YO, DOG" (6A: "Sup, homie") tripped me up a little. Shouldn't that be DAWG? But my only erasure was RANTS for VENTS (103D: Lets it all out), so I guess it was overall easy? I don't know. So hard to judge difficulty.

"NAG NAG NAG!" (23A: "Geez, get off my back already!"), TOWN DRUNK (114A: Stock character like Mayberry's Otis), and OPIUM DEN (36D: Smoke-filled establishment) are all fantastic entries. And I loved the clues on ST. PETER (89A: Guard at a gated community?) and TATTOO (70D: Something you can't get off your chest?). Other than that, well, I thought it was just a big old Sunday-sized puzzle that was pretty fun to slog my way through. Let me know what do you think! And with any luck, Rex will be back tomorrow.


Love, PuzzleGirl

Bot that systematically browses internet / MON 6-29-15 / French city historically known for silk / Liesl's love in Sound of Music / Capital of Bangladesh old-style / Boo follower in triumphant shout / 1982 Harrison Ford sci-fi film

June 28, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Early Sony recorder / TUE 6-30-15 / 1990s Indian PM / Singer Josh whose self-titled 2001 debut album went 4x platinum

≪ Previous: Green dwarf / SUN 6-28-15 / Actress Birch of "American Beauty" / Admiral Zumwalt / The City of a Thousand Minarets / Physics Nobelist Martin, discoverer of the tauon / Mountain, in Hawaiian

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Constructor: Todd Gross and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (FOR A MONDAY) (3:11)

THEME: evolutionary succession of some kind—

Theme answers:

• WEB CRAWLER (17A: Bot that systematically browses the Internet)
• ALICE WALKER (28A: "The Color Purple" novelist)
• BLADE RUNNER (48A: 1982 Harrison Ford sci-fi film)
• RADIO FLYER (64A: Classic red wagon)

Word of the Day: LYON (30D: French city historically known for silk) —

Lyon or Lyons [...] is a city in east-central France, in the Rhône-Alpesregion, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located approximately 470 kilometres (292 miles) from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) from Marseille, 420 km (261 mi) from Strasbourg, 160 km (99 mi) from Geneva, 280 km (174 mi) from Turin. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais. // The small municipality (commune) of Lyon proper has a population of 491,268 (January 2011), and as such is France's third largest city after Paris and Marseille, but together with its suburbs and satellite towns Lyon forms the 2nd-largestmetropolitan area in France with a population of 2,188,759 at the January 2011 census. Lyon is the capital of the Rhône-Alpesregion, as well as the capital of the smaller Rhônedépartement. // The city is known for its historical and architectural landmarks and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lyon was historically known as an important area for the production and weaving of silk. Since the late 20th century, it has developed a reputation as the capital of gastronomy in France and in the world. // It has a significant role in the history of cinema due to Auguste and Louis Lumière, who invented the cinematographe in Lyon. The city is also known for its famous light festival, 'Fête des Lumières,' which occurs every 8 December and lasts for four days, earning Lyon the title of Capital of Lights. (wikipedia)

• • •

OK I guess. I don't really understand the progression. That is, I see that it goes from earth to sky, but I don't know why—what is being suggested or imitated in that progression? Some vague evolutionary idea, I guess. I don't know. It's a 76-worder and felt a little heavier, a little slower than your average Monday. Fill's not great, but it's also not terrible. I mean besides XCI and YAH and ONEG and DACCA (Mondays should not have to resort to "old-style" anything). Mostly I found this one dull. Not much to say about it. What to say? YAH is not detachable from BOO, no way no how. LYON, in my mind (and in reality, too) has an "S" at the end, so that was tougher than it should've been. ROLF was unknown to me. I know about "The Sound of Music" largely by rumor. I think of "Requisite" as an adjective, so NEED was odd. This dull accretion of solving details is precisely how exciting this puzzle was to me. Adequate. That's what the puzzle is. It's adequate.

I just finished watching "From Here to Eternity" (1953), which features several of today's answers, most notably SERGEANTs and LEIs (it's set in Hawaii in late 1941, and concludes with the attack on Pearl Harbor and its immediate aftermath). The rolling-in-the-surf bit with Deborah KERR and Burt Lancaster takes all of 5 seconds, and it comes early in the movie. Given how iconic that scene is, I expected more. A lot more. More surf-rolling! Instead it was a lot of drinking and men punching each other. I liked it a lot, it's just ... my surf-rolling expectations went unmet. It did cause me to look up Jack Warden because he has one of those "wait I know that guy from everywhere!" faces. Turns out he was the president in "Being There," which I saw earlier this year, and also had Matthau's coach role in the TV version of "The Bad News Bears" (this is *sure* how his face was imprinted onto my brain). Warden used to be a boxer, and "From Here to Eternity" was a lot about boxing. Also, Lancaster's character in "From Here to Eternity" was named Warden. Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine and Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed and Claude AKINS were in it too.



Maybe this theme was supposed to evoke a speech given by MLK (27A: "I have a dream" monogram) at a high school in Cleveland, OH on April 26, 1967 (text and audio here). It is, as usual, eloquent and moving, and it ends like this: "Well, life for none of us has been a crystal stair, but we must keep moving. We must keep going. And so, if you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Early Sony recorder / TUE 6-30-15 / 1990s Indian PM / Singer Josh whose self-titled 2001 debut album went 4x platinum

June 29, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Eniwetok blaster informally / WED 7-1-15 / Abu Simbel's waterway / Flanged construction beam / Toon tots of 90s-00s TV / Cause of 1773 party

≪ Previous: Bot that systematically browses internet / MON 6-29-15 / French city historically known for silk / Liesl's love in Sound of Music / Capital of Bangladesh old-style / Boo follower in triumphant shout / 1982 Harrison Ford sci-fi film

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Constructor: Susan Gelfand

Relative difficulty: Tuesdayish, maybe a tad harder than normal

THEME: famous person does something— noun phrases are reimagined as verb phrases involving famous people of various sorts:

Theme answers:

• ROCK GARDENS (17A: Comedian cultivates flowers?)
• POUND SIGNS (23A: Poet inks a contract?)
• PRICE TAGS (33A: Opera singer scrawls graffiti?)
• FIELD TRIPS (48A: Actress stumbles?)
• BACON STRIPS (53A: Philosopher removes his clothes?)

Word of the Day: BETACAM (38D: Early Sony recorder) —

Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. (wikipedia)

• • •

This felt a bit hack-y, the noun-to-celebrity-name gimmick. ROCK GARDENS in particular seemed really, really familiar. So I did a little archive digging. Actually ROCK GARDEN(S), though it has been used many times, has never been used in a Chris Rock switcheroo theme answer, the way I had imagined. But I knew this basic concept had been done before, possibly to death, so I went after a few more of the theme answers. Then I just searched *POUND* in the cruciverb database and, well, bingo, of sorts. A Monday NYT puzzle from seven years back with the following themers:

• 18A: Poet Ezra's favorite desserts? (Pound cakes)
• 4D: Writer Anne's favorite dessert? (Rice pudding)
• 27D: Writer Jack's favorite entree? (London broil)
• 62A: Essayist Charles's favorite entree? (Lamb shanks)

Now, it's been seven years, and the theme this time around has a different slant (verb phrases intstead of food types), so, probably no harm done. It's just ... two things. One, I'm quite sure this one example of the theme type is not the only one out there. With more digging, I'd certainly find more. And two ... this earlier puzzle, this food one ... is by the same constructor. She seems to have semi-plagiarized herself, or at least recycled a basic (very basic) wordplay concept that she had used before. I think as a constructor, if you have only one guiding principle, let it be that you don't make lame Ezra Pound jokes twice in your career. Pound me once, shame on me, etc.


In terms of difficulty, it's interesting that this puzzle didn't provide the famous person's first name, the way that 2008 puzzle did. Definitely adds a modicum of difficulty, withholding that name. But providing it, esp. in the case of someone with a name like Leontyne (!), would perhaps have rendered the puzzle too easy. Who knows? My time came out Tuesday-normal, so this cluing seemed fine to me. Fill is OK today—more junk than you want to see, but lots of interesting longer answers in the Downs. I had trouble coming up with both LOSER and POSER, which is probably telling, hopefully to my credit but maybe not from where you're sitting. My only real struggle, though, was in the SW, where I went with BRAVERY and BETAMAX, side by side. Luckily, the wrongness thereof was readily apparent. Finished with the "G" in Josh GROBAN, whom I once saw on the streets of Carmel, CA. This was peak GROBAN (so, like, a decade ago), and man the middle-aged ladies were happy to see him. He wasn't mobbed (Carmel's too sleep for mobs), but he was, let's say, surrounded. Politely and lovingly surrounded.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Eniwetok blaster informally / WED 7-1-15 / Abu Simbel's waterway / Flanged construction beam / Toon tots of 90s-00s TV / Cause of 1773 party

June 30, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Onetime lover of Riker on Star Trek TNG / THU 7-2-15 / Father of Erebus Nyx in Greek myth / Soba alternative / James Merritt pioneering lithographer / Protein constituent informally / Depression common during childhood

≪ Previous: Early Sony recorder / TUE 6-30-15 / 1990s Indian PM / Singer Josh whose self-titled 2001 debut album went 4x platinum

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Constructor: Ned White

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: lisping on the front end—familiar phrases that start with "S" have that changed to "TH-" and (with appropriate spelling changes) wackiness ensues:

Theme answers:

• THAW / MILL (1A: With 68-Across, release philosopher John Stuart from cryonic suspension?)
• THICK / PUPPY (9A: With 66-Across, slow learner in the litter?)
• THIGHS OF RELIEF (20A: Turkey servings for the famished?)
• THUMBER OLYMPICS (38A: Quadrennial competition for hitchhikers?)
• THEME'S OK TO ME (53A: TV critic's approval of a show's opening tune?)

Word of the Day: OMRI (57D: Father of King Ahab) —

Omri [...] (fl. 9th century BC) was the sixth king of Israel after Jeroboam, a successful military campaigner, and the founder of the House of Omri, an Israelite royal house which included other monarchs such as Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, and Athaliah. Along with his predecessor king Zimri who ruled for only seven days, Omri is the first king mentioned in the Bible without a statement of his tribal origin: although some scholars speculate that Omri was from the tribe of Issachar, this is not confirmed by any biblical account. //Mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as well as extra-biblical sources such as the Mesha stele and the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, Omri is also credited with the construction of Samaria and establishing it as his capital. (wikipedia)

• • •

Been in a murderous mood all day for no clear reason, so I'm going to try hard not to take it out on the puzzle, but it's not going to be easy because the concept here is tired and the fill is truly wretched. There's no way your really good constructors are gonna subject you to a raft of junk like this. The very fact that we're subjected to two "flanged" clues, like that's a clever/good thing, tells you how far from self-aware this puzzle is of its repugnance. At best, the fill is tired: ARLO TOSCA ELCID (those are all in one little section) etc. But it gets much worse. TNUT HBAR KER HOO EDA and then honestly the worst little corner I've seen in ages—that SE corner. There's no excuse for OMRI EMAG EGAL. Barf. Really, truly unprofessional. When ARIA is not even the third lamest thing in your tiny 4x4 corner, something is terribly, desperately wrong. That corner does have a bit of theme pressure on it, but then explain the next section over—the OLDE FDIC ILSA section. ONE CARD is not a thing. ASTRA next to NIHIL is lazy Latin terribleness. This, novice constructors, is a lesson in how Not to fill a puzzle. Embarrassing.


The theme is what it is. It feels old hat, but it has a certain cuteness. Didn't enjoy the fact that two of the themers were so radically cross-referenced. Awkward. Gimmick was obvious from the get go. Here's the opening:

Jeez I can barely look at this grid. Look how UGLI that initial fill is. Gah. Anyway, bing bang boom, cut through two *$%&ing "H-" answers (BOMB, BAR), and we get another cross-referenced themer:

The lisping gimmick was slightly weird, as it applied only to the first "S" sound and not to others. Long themers are mildly funny. But this is some prehistoric, wholly unsatisfactory grid-filling here today, folks. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

P.S. D CUPS > C CUPS (27D: Features of many bras) ... not intrinsically, just, you know, today.

---

Onetime lover of Riker on Star Trek TNG / THU 7-2-15 / Father of Erebus Nyx in Greek myth / Soba alternative / James Merritt pioneering lithographer / Protein constituent informally / Depression common during childhood

July 1, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Wood painted to look like cannon / FRI 7-3-15 / Eyeless in Gaza novelist 1936 / Sir Lancelot portrayer of 1975 / Purchases that are puffed slangily / School head in best-selling series of novels / Rock star's nickname derived from his jewelry / Charlotte cream-filled dessert / Poe gaily bedight gallant knight

≪ Previous: Eniwetok blaster informally / WED 7-1-15 / Abu Simbel's waterway / Flanged construction beam / Toon tots of 90s-00s TV / Cause of 1773 party

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Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (only because of one corner; otherwise Easy-Medium)

THEME: INVISIBLE INK (67A: What six of this puzzle's clues have been written with?) — theme clues are single letters, to which you must add "-INK" to get the full clue; ERGO:

Theme answers:

• ECCENTRICITY (18A: K) [i.e. Kink]
• FOUNDER (12D: S) [i.e. Sink]
• SPLIT SECOND (30A: W) [i.e. Wink]
• MEDIUM RARE (38A: P) [i.e. Pink]
• STOOL PIGEON (53A: F) [i.e. Fink]
• CONNECT (45D: L) [i.e. Link]

Word of the Day: ETYMA (11D: Root words) —

noun

plural noun: etyma

1. a word or morpheme from which a later word is derived. (google)

• • •

This concept is nice. Grid is oversized (16 wide) and still crammed to the gills with theme material. Perhaps too crammed—fill gets pretty strained at times. But core concept is solid and clever. Two things were weird for me about this solving experience. First, I took a ridiculous, circuitous route through the grid at the beginning, getting real traction nowhere, but somehow managing to proceed by crosses until I'd nearly traversed the whole grid. Second, I got stuck in one of the narrow-exit corners. Can you guess which one? Hint: the SW. It's the SW. I got stuck there. Those corners were much tougher than the rest of the puzzle. Corners that are mostly cut off and barely accessible can get very dicey. Since I moved into the NE from the front ends of some Across answers, I was able to get that corner under control without too much trouble. But backing my way into the SW proved much, much tougher. But let's start with that weird opening:

Look at that nonsense. I'm all over hell and gone. It's not like I didn't *try* to dig into various sections as I moved through them. It's just that I got thwarted, and so kept moving. You can see what thwarted me up top—two wrong answers (PAL for MAC, STEMS for (yuck) ETYMA). Anyway, the meandering you see above is decidedly not normal. But it had this weird, serendipitous upside, which is that the SE was the first corner I really nailed, and that just happened to be the corner that held the key to the whole theme. Thus, very shortly after the CHAOS you see above, I had this:

I was not yet aware that there were two more theme clues lurking in the tinier corners. Anyway, getting the theme revealer opened things right up. And not much later I tried to enter the SW. And failed. Well, mostly failed. I got UH OH and GANG WAR (though I was unsure of the latter). But even with -US ending I couldn't remember GENUS (haven't played Trivial Pursuit in a quarter century). Clues for both MUGGING (43D: Slice of ham?) and I HEAR YA (44D: "Tell me about it!") were opaque. Didn't know who DeWitt Clinton was, so NYC stayed hidden. Got IRE, but it didn't help. Know far, far too many 3-letter synonyms for [Roscoe] (most notably ROD and GUN), so GAT wasn't obvious. It took, finally, just guessing MIC at 43A: Word after open or hot to move things along. Thought I was done, but I'd left a square blank back at IVES / SLIT. So that's where I finished.


Did anyone else have GO UNDER for [S[ink]] at first?
Did anyone expect something much, much more interesting than ECCENTRICITY for [K[ink]]?
No? OK. That's fine.

Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Wood painted to look like cannon / FRI 7-3-15 / Eyeless in Gaza novelist 1936 / Sir Lancelot portrayer of 1975 / Purchases that are puffed slangily / School head in best-selling series of novels / Rock star's nickname derived from his jewelry / Charlotte cream-filled dessert / Poe gaily bedight gallant knight

July 2, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Villainess Vanderwaal of TV's Pretty Little Liars / SAT 7-4-15 / Actress Cadranel of TV's Lost Girl / Married supersleuths of 1970s-80s TV / musical set on island of Kalokairi / Musician who's great-great-grandnephew of Herman Melville / Treat with polar bear in logo

≪ Previous: Onetime lover of Riker on Star Trek TNG / THU 7-2-15 / Father of Erebus Nyx in Greek myth / Soba alternative / James Merritt pioneering lithographer / Protein constituent informally / Depression common during childhood

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Constructor: Brandon Hensley

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: QUAKER GUN (30D: Wood painted to look like a cannon) —

A Quaker Gun is a deception tactic that was commonly used in warfare during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although resembling an actual cannon, the Quaker Gun was simply a wooden log, usually painted black, used to deceive an enemy. Misleading the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement was an effective delaying tactic. The name derives from the Religious Society of Friends or "Quakers", who have traditionally held a religious opposition to war and violence in the Peace Testimony.

• • •

Why would you paint wood to look like a cannon? What kind of absurd art trend is that? There is no way Quakers did that? — this was my reaction to QUAKER GUN, by far the strangest thing in the grid, and, I'd bet my antique hosiery collection, the thing in this grid that the fewest solvers will have heard of. So, the most obscure thing in the grid, I guess. I enjoyed learning about it, though, after I finished and looked it up, so I'm not mad at it. It imparted an odd and curious and not altogether unpleasant flavor to this uneven but mostly decent themeless puzzle. 70-worder really shouldn't have this much dreck in it, but the nice parts are nice. Opened with a couple of proper noun gimmes in the NW:

HUXLEY was the true gimme; SYD was one of those "I think so, but let's see..." answers. When you get a big fat "X" in the middle of your big fat themeless corner, well, advantage you. That corner was done before it knew what hit it. Helped that EARP CIGS and ASA were all gimmes too. Clean corner, nicely done.

Things got a little rougher after THAT. Right around THAT, actually. THAT is a fine answer. But HALEN's a partial and TRAC is junk and ALECS only looks good when you compare it to VERAS (?), which is easily the worst thing in the grid, insofar as ... well, at least several things. LIB is semi-derogatory and "IME" is "IME." No time for "IME" have I (or me). I always thought it was "END SCENE!" Or, rather, I thought it was "AND SCENE," but then thought I must be hearing it wrong (14D: Director's cry with a pause in the middle). ALBUS DUMBLEDORE was too much of a gimme for a central 15 (it's a nice 15, but make me work for it, at least a little) (34A: School head in a best-selling series of novels).  And so, with my joy somewhat diminished after the nice NW opening, I arrived midway on my solving journey at ... this place:

The INCUS EVOKER lay in wait ... (cue scary music)


Very easy to get into the SE corner, since ANTES and AGAPE were hand-outs. Had trouble finishing EPIC VERSE because we usually just call those EPICs. I enjoyed remembering "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," and then I was done. Speaking of Holy Grail, or Arthurian literature, at any rate, I learned things today about Marion Zimmer Bradley (whose "Mists of Avalon" I quite admire) that I wish I could unknow. Gonna have to rewatch "Monty Python" a dozen times before I shake the ickiness off. Luckily, rewatching "Monty Python" a dozen times—not a problem.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Villainess Vanderwaal of TV's Pretty Little Liars / SAT 7-4-15 / Actress Cadranel of TV's Lost Girl / Married supersleuths of 1970s-80s TV / musical set on island of Kalokairi / Musician who's great-great-grandnephew of Herman Melville / Treat with polar bear in logo

July 3, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Bygone Chinese money / SUN 7-5-15 / Westernmost island of Aleutians / Indiana city where auto manufacturing was pioneered / Smack That singer / Art of flower arranging / Onetime Nair alternative

≪ Previous: Wood painted to look like cannon / FRI 7-3-15 / Eyeless in Gaza novelist 1936 / Sir Lancelot portrayer of 1975 / Purchases that are puffed slangily / School head in best-selling series of novels / Rock star's nickname derived from his jewelry / Charlotte cream-filled dessert / Poe gaily bedight gallant knight

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Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: TYSON GAY (19A: He became the fastest sprinter in the U.S. ) —

Tyson Gay (born August 9, 1982) is an Americantrack and fieldsprinter, who competes in the 100 and 200 meters dash. His 100 m personal best of 9.69 seconds is the American record and makes him tied for second fastest athlete ever, after Usain Bolt. His 200 m time of 19.58 makes him the fifth fastest athlete in that event. He has since received a 1-year ban for doping. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle was what I would call "aggressively youthful." Right on the edge of Trying Too Hard. But Sam is in fact aggressively youthful, so the puzzle probably felt just right to him. The difference between an aggressively youthful and an aggressively olde-timey puzzle is that we all have access to the present, so even though the contemporary TV clues here are almost laughable in their obscurity, historical flimsiness, and almost certain ephemerality (I don't even know what "Lost Girl" is), I generally liked the poppy and sassy nature of this puzzle, and prefer a puzzle like this to one that prefers to live in a world where time stopped right about the time Reagan was first elected. I can't get that mad at the pop culture today, anyway, since it was the source of most of my outright gimmes. After flailing around in the NW for a bit, I finally ran into a no-brainer (for me) in the east: "MIAMI INK" (27A: Former TLC reality show set in a Florida tattoo parlor). Pretty sure I just had a conversation with some constructors about whether this show, or its companion "L.A. INK," was a viable answer, and for how long. Anyway, here's what my first bit of traction in the grid looked like:

That TOMS was a total guess (12D: ___ River, N.J.). Not generally fond of puzzles that force me to rely on total guesses, but the crosses *seemed* (and ultimately were) solid, so I moved on. "MIAMI INK" + NICKI Minaj + AT THE ZOO were all gimmes, so I went right through the middle of the grid, and then down JEDI MIND TRICK into the SE, where KLONDIKE BAR (another gimme) opened everything right up. Surprised by NIRO—that's a name partial that I was once asked (by the editor of a "lesser" puzzle) to edit out of one of my grids (many years ago). This led me to believe that nobody puts NIRO in a corner ... I mean grid. Nobody puts NIRO in a grid. DENIRO, sure, NIRO, no. But here we are. Good thing NIRO is one of the few ICKY things about the grid (I'd add MOR to that list, and that might be all that I'd add).

["Nobody puts BBS in a corner!" That was the joke. Just sitting there. Oh, well. Next time.]

So, out of the south I rode the GLOW-IN-THE-DARK express up into the NW.

Or, rather, I threw that answer up there, but then moved over and dealt with the SW first. I weirdly mildly enjoyed being forced to remember "HART to HART" (46D: Either of two married supersleuths of 1970s-'80s TV) ("When they met ... it was murder!"). No real trouble down there. That just left the NW, which ... well, thank god for that terminal "J" at 13A: Staple of Mediterranean cuisine, because I never heard of TYSON GAY until [looks at watch] 15 minutes ago. I thought USAIN BOLT was the fastest, and he is, but, crucially, he's not from the U.S. So BABA GHANOUJ to the rescue. But dear lord I just guessed on the spelling. And nailed it. Dumb luck.

Once that went in, none of the answers up there had a chance. Clues on MOBY and INGA were virtually impossible without all the crosses, but luckily those crosses weren't hard to come by. Oh ... MOBY. I just got that (8D: Musician who's a great-great-grandnephew of Herman Melville). I've known who MOBY is for 20 years but the connection to "MOBY-Dick" never occurred to me. Weird.


Finished at WHIMS / HANGS. And ... scene.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Bygone Chinese money / SUN 7-5-15 / Westernmost island of Aleutians / Indiana city where auto manufacturing was pioneered / Smack That singer / Art of flower arranging / Onetime Nair alternative

July 4, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Smelting residue / MON 7-6-15 / Nairobi resident / Drawings that deceive / Human/ape "missing link" found in Indonesia in 1891

≪ Previous: Villainess Vanderwaal of TV's Pretty Little Liars / SAT 7-4-15 / Actress Cadranel of TV's Lost Girl / Married supersleuths of 1970s-80s TV / musical set on island of Kalokairi / Musician who's great-great-grandnephew of Herman Melville / Treat with polar bear in logo

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Constructor: Elizabeth C. Gorski

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:"Heads of State"— a Mount Rushmore puzzle. Nicknames of four presidents on Mount Rushmore appear as long Down answers, in the order (left to right) that the appear on the monument. Flanking the names are long, orienting answers: KEYSTONE, SOUTH DAKOTA / HOME OF MOUNT RUSHMORE

Theme answers:

• AMERICAN CINCINNATUS (22D: *Nickname for George Washington)
• THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE (4D: *Nickname for Thomas Jefferson)
• HERO OF SAN JUAN HILL (33D: *Nickname for Theodore Roosevelt)
• THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR (9D: *Nickname for Abraham Lincoln)

Word of the Day: TAEL (91D: Bygone Chinese money) —

noun

noun: tael; plural noun: taels

1. a weight used in China and East Asia, of varying amount but fixed in China at 50 grams (1 3/4 oz.).

   • a former Chinese monetary unit based on the value of a tael of standard silver. (google)

• • •

Sooo happy to see Liz Gorski's name when I opened my puzzle this evening. She told me she still had a few NYT puzzles coming out, and I guess the day after the Fourth of July is a reasonableish place to put this one. Only two of them are considered Founding Fathers, but one of them wrote the damned Declaration of Independence, so I'm gonna say this counts as a kind of bonus holiday weekend puzzle. I always think of Liz's puzzles as architectural and monumental—big ideas, artfully executed. She did the amazing Guggenheim Museum puzzle several years back. This one isn't as ambitious, and is in many ways straightforward, but I still found it mostly delightful. Also, I discovered that I am *terrible* at presidential nicknames. Just awful. I had filled in huge chunks of several nicknames and still couldn't land any of them. Look at this:

Actually, it's clear from this snapshot that Jefferson is THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE, but I must've just got that "PE-" because before that, no idea. I guessed the CINCINNATUS part of AMERICAN CINCINNATUS only because I remember looking up who CINCINNATUS was a few months ago and remembered that he was some kind of model Roman statesman. Did not know that was Washington's nickname. I couldn't even remember the name of Teddy Roosevelt's damn hill. Brain was blocked with BUNKER HILL. Also, SAM HILL, as in "What in SAM HILL is the answer to this clue?!?"

[This song reminds me of falling in love with my wife, so it is unimpeachable. Our first real date was actually on Labor Day, but that's neither here nor there.]

This grid structure results in a lot of short stuff, and that short stuff gets a little dicey at times. TAEL and ATTU reek of the crypt. A crypt that smells like pre-1993. And I nearly crashed the ship on the shoal of HOTE / AKON. And there's a lot of run-of-the-mill OREM OTOO NEET-type stuff, but it only made me EWW a little. Decent big idea, lively theme answers, some nice longer stuff like IKEBANA and KINSHASA and GROUND CREW, and I'm reasonably happy.

Bullets:

• REDINK— to dink again. The clue can tell me this is RED INK all it wants (5D: Debt, symbolically), but my brain knows what it knows.
• SPHERIC— AL had the day off (81A: Ball-like)
• ARIL / URAL— originally ANIL / ARAL. They all sound like "kinds of sex" to me now.
• AUDIE (61D: Cornish of NPR) — honestly, when I filled in her name, I said "Awww" out loud, like she was my daughter and she'd just won a ribbon or something.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Julie Delpy, for the win, for now, and for always. (28D: "The ___ Breathe" (2007 drama with Kevin Bacon and Julie Delpy))

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Smelting residue / MON 7-6-15 / Nairobi resident / Drawings that deceive / Human/ape "missing link" found in Indonesia in 1891

July 5, 2015, 8:55 pm

≫ Next: Luxury wheels until 2004 / TUE 7-7-15 / First premier of People's Republic of China / Lamar who married a Kardashian / Musical piece whose name is Italian for joke / Transport for Calvin Hobbes / Classic NYC venue for punk rock

≪ Previous: Bygone Chinese money / SUN 7-5-15 / Westernmost island of Aleutians / Indiana city where auto manufacturing was pioneered / Smack That singer / Art of flower arranging / Onetime Nair alternative

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MOVE ASIDE, Rex Parker! There's a new crossword solver in town...nah, it's just an Annabel Monday again.


Constructor: Lynn Lempel 

Relative Difficulty: Easy

THEME: Bric A Brac— Theme answers are either a three-word phrase containing the word "A" or a common two-word phrase where the second word starts with "A," depending on how you look at 'em.

THEME ANSWERS:

• WALKAROUND (17A: Decline to use the golf cart?)
• PLANAHEAD (25A: Design the lav?)
• TAKEAPART (36A: Accept one of the acting roles?)
• MOVEASIDE (51A: Pass the coleslaw or potato salad?)
• KNOCKABOUT (60A: Pan the boxing match?)

Word of the Day: JAVAMAN (41D: Human/ape "missing link" found in Indonesia in 1891) —

Java Man (Homo erectus erectus) is the popular name given to early human fossils discovered on the island of Java (Indonesia) in 1891 and 1892. Led by Eugène Dubois, the excavation team uncovered a tooth, askullcap, and a thighbone at Trinil on the banks of the Solo River in East Java. Arguing that the fossils represented the "missing link" between apes and humans, Dubois gave the species the scientific name Anthropopithecus erectus, then later renamed it Pithecanthropus erectus.

The fossil aroused much controversy. Less than ten years after 1891, almost eighty books or articles had been published on Dubois's finds. Despite Dubois' argument, few accepted that Java Man was a transitional form between apes and humans.[1] Some dismissed the fossils as apes and others asmodern humans, whereas many scientists considered Java Man as a primitive side branch of evolution not related to modern humans at all. In the 1930s Dubois made the claim that Pithecanthropus was built like a "giant gibbon", a much misinterpreted attempt by Dubois to prove that it was the "missing link".

• • •

Alright, Rex, go on. You can CONFESS it. Your grumpy face muscles made the slightest twitch in the direction of a smile for the first Monday in years, and you tried to blame it on a random twitch but we know. We all know. You liiiiiiiiked this puzzle. Seriously, come on, it was great for a Monday. It had a clever enough theme, with good fill (OP ART, ERSE, RECTORY) and good clues ("Haste" was "Waste maker, proverbially" and "Eve" was "The 'madam' in 'madam, I'm adam'"). And that TENT/SPENT on the bottom! Classic. I will say this: the bottom left corner was maybe a little bit hard. 39A (Wheedle) fit both COERCE and CAJOLE, 39D (Internet and cable giant) fit both COMCAST and VERIZON, 40D (John, James or Judas) fit both PROPHET and APOSTLE...yours truly had no IDEA what was going on. 

Theme was really clever, which is SO refreshing to see on a Monday. Who doesn't love wordplay? My personal fave was "move aside/move a side." Ooh, ooh, speaking of wordplay, I have a riddle:

If it's information you seek, come and see me.
If it's pairs of letters you need, I have consecutively three.
Who am I?

Bullets:

• YAP (21A: Sound from a pound)— So we babysat a dog last week. His name is Zuko and he's about the size of a loaf of bread. Now I know teeny dogs are supposed to YAP all the time, but the only time Zuko would ever, ever bark was when he watched an animal video.  Specifically an animal video...he didn't care if there were humans on the TV, but when there were kitty or puppy antics onscreen, he'd wag his tail and jump up and down and yap at them like they could play with him. 

Then he yapped at a video of my uncle. 

• ONION (29A: Pungent bulb) — 

• TOAST (24A: "Here's to the happy couple!", e.g.) — Toast also means super tired, exhausted, whatever. It's 11:30 p.m. and I'm on a train back from New York City where Rex's BFF and I saw Fun Home (it was amazing and made me cry even harder than Les Mis and Rent). This train is making me veeeeery sleepy. I'm toast. Bye guys!

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired RISING WELLESLEY WENDY CLASS OF 2019 COLLEGE STUDENT FINALLY YEAH BABY YEAH!!!!!

Luxury wheels until 2004 / TUE 7-7-15 / First premier of People's Republic of China / Lamar who married a Kardashian / Musical piece whose name is Italian for joke / Transport for Calvin Hobbes / Classic NYC venue for punk rock

July 7, 2015, 4:19 am

≫ Next: Singer O'Shea who shaerd stage with Beatles on 2/9/64 Ed Sullivan Show / WED 7-8-15 / Pale Prairie plant of central US / Collagist's supply / Sicilian province / Falafel sauce

≪ Previous: Smelting residue / MON 7-6-15 / Nairobi resident / Drawings that deceive / Human/ape "missing link" found in Indonesia in 1891

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Constructor: Daniel Raymon

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ILL conceived— theme answers contain two "ILL"s

Theme answers:

• CADILLAC SEVILLE (3D: Luxury wheels until 2004)
• HILLBILLY (21A: Hayseed)
• ILL WILL (37A: Hostility)
• CHILL PILL (54A: What a stressed-out person may need to take)
• MILLARD FILLMORE (11D: Last Whig president)

Word of the Day: BIMBO (58A: Dumbbell) —

noun

informal

noun: bimbo; plural noun: bimbos; noun: bimbette; plural noun: bimbettes

1. an attractive but empty-headed young woman, especially one perceived as a willing sex object. (google)

• • •

I SAY ... no. I BALKed like crazy at this one. I guess this puzzle was deemed worthy because of the two long Downs, themers intersecting other themers. Maybe that's considered ... special? I don't know. I know that "ILL"x2 is mildly weak sauce as a concept, and I Know know that the fill here is not up to standards. At best it just lies there (except in a few instances—SCHERZO, for instance, is nice). At worst it's a heap of decaying, rotting building material—this house won't stand! CMVIHIESALIA ... that is not a load-bearing stack. BAHATA! FOOZHOUODOM! These things are fun to say, but they make poor construction material. I ughed out loud at the VASISL cross. This is NYT at its worst, this attitude: theme = passable, fill = who cares!?


CADILLAC SEVILLE is impressive as a 15, but the answer loses all that bulk impressiveness by being bygone and by not really having two "ILL" sounds. That first "ILL" is on an unstressed syllable, so you kind of eat it. In all the others, you hear the "ILL"s quite distinctly. But as outliers go, it's not a disaster. More of a disaster is BIMBO. Cluing it as if it wasn't gender-specific (58A: Dumbbell) doesn't make it less gender-specific. It's a slur, and it's a slur used almost exclusively against women, and while it's dated, and doesn't really pack the punch of other gendered slurs, it's still creepy. You know the solving base is majority female, right? BIMBO is also totally unnecessary. Every constructor I know could redo that SE corner inside of five minutes without using a slur against women. Guaranteed. Also without STERE and ECONO, but we'll start with the basics.

[strong language, fyi]

This puzzle also had the bad fortune of following Lynn Lempel's lovely Monday puzzle, where there was neither a VAS nor a BIMBO in sight. Might go redo that puzzle now.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Singer O'Shea who shaerd stage with Beatles on 2/9/64 Ed Sullivan Show / WED 7-8-15 / Pale Prairie plant of central US / Collagist's supply / Sicilian province / Falafel sauce

July 7, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Latin diphthongs / THU 7-9-15 / Nabors title role of 1960s TV / South Pacific island nation that's only 8.1 square miles / French narrative poem

≪ Previous: Luxury wheels until 2004 / TUE 7-7-15 / First premier of People's Republic of China / Lamar who married a Kardashian / Musical piece whose name is Italian for joke / Transport for Calvin Hobbes / Classic NYC venue for punk rock

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Constructor: Ryan Milligan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT— this is the message that appears in circled squares, and is the putative answer to the answer/question: WHERE IS THE THEME? (60A: Question answered by this puzzle's circled letters)

Theme answers:

• THIRD DEGREE BURN
• INDIAN PLANTAIN
• SIGN OF THE TIMES 

Word of the Day: TESSIE O'Shea (48D: Singer O'Shea who shared the stage with the Beatles on the 2/9/64 "Ed Sullivan Show") —

Teresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea (13 March 1913 – 21 April 1995) was a Welshentertainer and actress. // Born in Cardiff to James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants, and his wife Nellie Theresa Carr, Tessie O'Shea was reared in the British music hall tradition. She performed on stage as early as age six, billed "The Wonder of Wales". By her teens she was known for her popular BBC Radio broadcasts and appeared on stages in Britain and South Africa. She frequently finished her act by singing and playing a banjolele in the style of George Formby. While appearing in Blackpool in the 1930s, she capitalised on her size by adopting "Two Ton Tessie from Tennessee" as her theme song. In the 1940s, she was a frequent headliner at the London Palladium, and established herself as a hit recording artist in the 1950s. [...] In 1963, O'Shea was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, she was popular enough that she came back in 1964 and shared the billing with The Beatles. Their joint appearance drew what was then the largest audience in the history of Americantelevision, helping bring her to American audiences. She was a member of the repertory company on the short-lived CBSvariety showThe Entertainers (1964–65). In 1968, O'Shea was cast in the television movieThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Drama. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not into this one. Too many unappealing things. First, the dreaded Non-Consecutive Circled Squares. There's just no joy in this format. There's nothing clever. There's nothing interesting about finding 5 or 6 letters inside of 14 or 15 letters. You can't claim that the circled squares are "hidden" on any level. I mean, you could claim there are all kinds of messages in virtually any grid you solve if you really wanted to. Also, you can't claim that anything is hidden in a grid where the allegedly "hidden" elements have what amounts to flashing neon lights around them. The circles say "LOOK HERE," thus negating the whole concept of "hidden."INDIAN PLANTAIN ... is that a thing? I know what a plantain is, but the "Pale" or "prairie" hints in the clue mean nothing to me. I have never heard of this thing. And then there's the nonsensical weird question/answer revealer. This seems like something that might've been a promising idea, but the execution is odd and void of joy or pop or surprise.


Fill is atrocious. ENNA ING ANAS (!?) ORMAN IAM NNE ESME (I haven't even left the NE yet) ... no. No. No. ATE LUNCH is a hilarious example of a "green paint" answer—of course you might say it, but you might also say ATE BRUNCH or ATE CHICKEN or ATE LISTLESSLY. Doesn't quite cohere enough to be a crossword answer. Also, TESSIE is hilariously non-famous. I read her whole wikipedia entry and she seems to be known on this side of the Atlantic *solely* for appearing, one imagines coincidentally, on "Ed Sullivan" when the Beatles were there. TESSIE isn't there to introduce us to something new. She's there because of all those enabler-letters (Ts and Es and Ss make constructing easier). On the up side, or the down side, or some side, this thing was very easy. My only real trouble was spelling SHAWN (I went with my best friend's spelling—the "U" version).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

---

Latin diphthongs / THU 7-9-15 / Nabors title role of 1960s TV / South Pacific island nation that's only 8.1 square miles / French narrative poem

July 8, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Aron's girlfriend in East of Eden / FRI 7-10-15 / 11th-century conquerors / 1920 birthplace of NFL / Tycoon with middle name Socrates / German architect who spent 19 years in Spandau prison /

≪ Previous: Singer O'Shea who shaerd stage with Beatles on 2/9/64 Ed Sullivan Show / WED 7-8-15 / Pale Prairie plant of central US / Collagist's supply / Sicilian province / Falafel sauce

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Constructor: John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: RIGHT ON CUE (61A: Prompt ... or a hint to entering five answers in this puzzle) — five theme answers start as Downs but then veer right (i.e. Across) at the letter "Q" (neat trick: the "Q" word formed by the Across is clued separately):

Theme answers:

• ILLEQUIPPED (1D: Not ready) / 24A: Produced laugh lines?
• SUMMERSQUASH (5D: Crookneck, e.g.) / 38A: Put down
• GIANTSQUID (10D: Army terror?) / 33A: Pounds
• PEPSQUAD (50D: School spirit raiser) / 67A: Leg muscle, informally
• ANYREQUESTS? (48D: D.J.'s invitation) / 68A: Challenges for knights

Word of the Day:  LORDE (11D: 2013 Grammy winner for "Royals") —

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known by her stage name Lorde, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Born in Takapuna and raised in Devonport, Auckland, she became interested in performing as a child. In her early teens, she signed with Universal Music Group and was later paired with the songwriter and record producer Joel Little, who co-wrote and produced most of Lorde's works. Her first major release, The Love Club EP, was commercially released in March 2013. The EP reached number two on the national record charts of Australia and New Zealand.
In mid-2013, Lorde released her debut single"Royals". It became an international crossover hit and made Lorde the youngest solo artist to achieve a US number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1987. Later that year, she released her debut studio album, Pure Heroine. The record topped the charts of Australia and New Zealand and reached number three on the US Billboard 200. Its following singles include "Tennis Court", "Team", "No Better" and "Glory and Gore". In 2014, Lorde released "Yellow Flicker Beat" as a single from the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. // Lorde's music consists of the subgenres of electronica, pop and rock, including dream pop and indie-electro. In 2013, she was named among Time‍ '​s most influential teenagers in the world, and in the following year, she was in the Forbes‍ '​s "30 Under 30" list. (wikipedia)

• • •

I'll start by saying I think the theme is clever and well-executed. Revealer is a solid phrase, and the theme is based on solid wordplay. The fact that the Across parts of the theme answers are all stand-alone answers, and are clued as such, is a nice added touch. Puzzle would be considerably less interesting if those Across parts were just clued with a "-" or something. So, good. But the problem, once again (Once. Again.) comes when we get down to everything that Isn't part of the theme. The fill. She is NOISOME. Not always, for sure. NOISOME, for instance, great. Actually, let me rephrase the issue. The fill is not overwhelmingly bad. It's creaky and unpleasant in perhaps too many places, but despite your LAIs and your EPHs and your INEs and your INYOUs and a lot of other less ugly but awfully common short stuff, it stays just this side of acceptable. Until it doesn't. Until the bottom drops out. Until the worst 3-letter answer I've ever seen, the worst 3-letter answer in the history of crosswords—worse than any Random Roman Numeral or plural suffix or anything. I challenge you—sincerely challenge you—to find a three-letter answer worse than OES (58A: Latin diphthongs).


You do not get to pluralize a diphthong. In this case, the diphthong is not two discrete letters. It's "Œ" (fittingly, today, made (on my Mac) by typing [Option-Q]). You can break it into two letters—it's certainly represented that way in writing at times—but you can't break it into two letters and then *pluralize* it. That's nonsense. I mean, nonsense. AES? Would that be an acceptable (non-Adlai Stevenson-related) answer? Jesus Mary and Joseph, I do Not understand how you don't tear out As Much As You Have To in order to refill the grid without OES. That answer is shameful. All the goodwill this puzzle built up with its cute little theme—right out the window. I will remember the atrocity that is OES and nothing else.


I got the theme quickly today. Here:

I guess at that point I didn't know that the pivot point would always be "Q," but I knew pivoting was the point and the point was pivoting. I had real trouble with SUMMER SQUASH, as "Crookneck" is totally meaningless to me. Also EPH. was NEH. and ETH. (?) for a while, and the trying-too-hard (TTH) clue on TAYLOR, predictably, threw me (9D: Swift, in music). Phrasing there is too forced not to have a "?" on the end of the clue. Later on, I wanted PEP RALLY and even PEP DANCE (?) before PEP SQUAD. ANY REQUESTS is a question, not an "invitation," so yuck to the cluing there too. See also "vehicle" as a clue for IRA. Why are you spending all this time trying desperately to cutesy-up the clues instead of spending it Getting Rid Of OES!? Gah. There is only one acceptable "O.E."—the common New Zealand term for "overseas experience." It's a longish period spent abroad, traveling and working, typically in one's 20s, traditionally in London. But even that term you'd be hard-pressed to pluralize. I mean, really. There's a reason OES hasn't been in the NYT since 1994 (!?). And even then it was clued, mysteriously, as [Whirlwinds]. I'm not sure the cruciverb database even has that right. [...does some googling...] OMG, there seems to be a definition of OE as follows: "a whirlwind near the Faeroe Islands." That Is One Specific Whirlwind.* I beg you to forget OES or anything I have told you about all the various OES. It's been dead and buried as an NYT answer for 21 years. Here's to 21 more.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*speaking of wind, "A"-less EOLIAN is pretty ugly too (65A: Wind-borne). Like OES, only 1 NYT appearance in the entire cruciverb database (2002).

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

Aron's girlfriend in East of Eden / FRI 7-10-15 / 11th-century conquerors / 1920 birthplace of NFL / Tycoon with middle name Socrates / German architect who spent 19 years in Spandau prison /

July 9, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Spanish compose Isaac / SAT 7-11-15 / Alternative to Pantene / Star close to Venus / Jordan was part of it in 1984 / 1970s-'80s Olds / Served with sauce of mushrooms tomatoes olives oil wine / Yossarian's Catch-22 tentmate

≪ Previous: Latin diphthongs / THU 7-9-15 / Nabors title role of 1960s TV / South Pacific island nation that's only 8.1 square miles / French narrative poem

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Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: David GROH (43A: David of "Rhoda") —

David Lawrence Groh (May 21, 1939 – February 12, 2008)^[2] was an Americanactor best known for his portrayal of Joe Gerard in the 1970s television series Rhoda, opposite Valerie Harper. (wikipedia)

• • •

My feelings were all over the map today. Jarring to get -IEST (The Worst) and then immediately get BEER O'CLOCK (The Best). More than jarring. Neck-snapping. Much of the rest of the solve was like that, though not quite so dramatic. Cluing also felt like it was everywhere at once. Some clues were just transparent (50A: Shankar at Woodstock), some cleverly hid their answers (7D: It may be thrown around at a party), some were dated trivia (GROH?), some dealt in bizarre red herrings (FIBER OPTICS, general; [Laparoscopy technology], absurdly specific). Whole puzzle skewed slightly older, in its cultural references (GROH!) as well as its acceptance of some terrible crosswordese that used to be considered QUITE normal (i.e. ABRA, ARILS, AARE, BRIC, etc.). I mostly enjoyed solving this, I think. The red patches on my printed-out grid (I mark the puzzle's trouble spots before blogging) are dense and livid in a couple areas (NW, SE), but non-existent in others. PLUSes outweight the minuses today, I'd say.

[Please stop watching after the great Perot bit (with Phil Hartman as Larry King!!), 'cause it gets real racist real fast in the next segment]

Here's that opening gambit. BEER O'CLOCK (15A: When it's acceptable to start downing brews) totally rescues that corner, which was nearly fatally wounded right out of the gate by ABRA and -IEST. I haven't even put ABRA in at this point, mostly because I'm hoping I've misremembered it.

I think maybe Barry's from Baltimore. He was at a dinner with me and a bunch of my friends in suburban D.C. recently, and I know he lived nearby, so ... maybe. Anyway, very Baltimore puzzle today, what with CHARM CITY and ORIOLE PARK (which I thought was "Camden Yards" ... full name = "ORIOLE PARK at Camden Yards," FYI). I got hung up badly in a few places. Weirdly, despite my early success in the NW, I couldn't get ARI ONASSIS to save my life. Was not looking for / expecting the shortened form of his first name, and having -RIO... had me looking for, I don't know, ORION somebody ... I certainly didn't imagine a break between the "I" and the "O." That "Socrates" part should've been a dead giveaway, but wasn't. Also had "I KNOW" (a thing people actually say) instead of "I KNEW" (less so), and that caused some trouble.

After that, though, all my trouble was in the SPEER / GROH / AREOLE / SCORNER (?) area. That is an unpretty ... area. Nabokov saved me down there. Protip: Nabokov novel in three letters: ADA; in four letters: PNIN. Finished with the "R" in AREOLE/GROH ... then realized I'd gone with ACED instead of ICED at 9D: Sewn up, resulting in ONASSAS ... fixed it. Finished.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Spanish compose Isaac / SAT 7-11-15 / Alternative to Pantene / Star close to Venus / Jordan was part of it in 1984 / 1970s-'80s Olds / Served with sauce of mushrooms tomatoes olives oil wine / Yossarian's Catch-22 tentmate

July 11, 2015, 4:32 am

≫ Next: Lobbying org. formed in 1944 / SUN 7-12-15 / Harry's 1948 Dixiecrat opponent / Berkshire racecourse site / Western city named after Shoshone chief / Children's heroine with dog Weenie / Tabloid show beginning in 1991 / Ruler entombed in Great Pyramid / Perambulates western-style / Fictional resort in 1988 #1 hit

≪ Previous: Aron's girlfriend in East of Eden / FRI 7-10-15 / 11th-century conquerors / 1920 birthplace of NFL / Tycoon with middle name Socrates / German architect who spent 19 years in Spandau prison /

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Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (but I did it first thing in the morning, before coffee, so ... it might be easier)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Isaac ALBÉNIZ (2D: Spanish composer Isaac) —

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (Spanish pronunciation: [iˈsak alˈβeniθ]; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms. Transcriptions of many of his pieces, such as Asturias (Leyenda), Granada, Sevilla, Cádiz, Córdoba, Cataluña, and the Tango in D, are important pieces for classical guitar, though he never composed for the guitar. The personal papers of Isaac Albéniz are preserved, among other institutions, in the Biblioteca de Catalunya. (wikipedia)

• • •

Saturdays are the worst ones to leave til morning. Morning brain is in total rebellion against ... cleverness, wordplay, etc. Brain say "This clue nonsense. Me quit." If I could have a normal morning, where I get up and take the dogs out and make coffee and generally warm up for about an hour, and *then* hit the puzzle—no problem. But me, I go straight from bed to desk to get this write-up done, so I'm like Frankenstein's monster solving this thing, all key-mashing and frustration and confusion. Still, this one managed to endear itself to me, after the gnashing and flailing had subsided. Look, put SERENA and LISA SIMPSON in your puzzle, and I'm basically yours. You could probably throw a OES or an- IEST in there and I'd barely notice. Luckily, this puzzle had nothing so horrid in it.

 [Don't try me, puzzle!]

SERENA was my first answer in the grid (16A: Star close to Venus), LISA SIMPSON took longer (my only problem with that answer is its clue, which is kind of corny and utterly non-iconic; Lisa has said a billion better things; but whatever) (24A: TV character who said "I learned that beneath my goody two shoes lie some very dark socks"). Despite SERENA and a few more answers in the NE, I couldn't get the corner to work, largely because of MARENGO (?) and LOGJAM—I had the "J" and still couldn't put that one together. Wanted my speechless one to be a MUTE. So ... I tried to get into the SE via MEESE RISE EXP, but NEX- made me want NEXIUM. Is NEXIUM a thing? Ah, yes. A heartburn pill. Probably not great for your hair. NEXXUS, ugh. That answer would have to wait for the very end.

So where to? Threw down NBADRAFT with no help (17A: Jordan was aprt of it in 1984), and that jumpstarted the whole northern section. Finished off the NW and, from there, put enough pressure on the NE (via LISA SIMPSON and TITLE SONG) to finish it off. But no hope getting out of NW via the bottom because ALBENI-... was a mystery. Now that I see the "Z," I know I've seen the name before. But today, no DICE (which is almost the answer I put in for 35A: Game for cats). Without the "Z," couldn't see EZPASS, so ... stuck. Rebooted in SW, which proved very, very easy, as ORS (actually ERS) led into the surprisingly obvious YENTAS (66A: Members of the meddle class?) and extremely literal ACIDITY (39D: Nonbasic property), bang bang.

After cleaning a few things up back in the NW, I moved over to the SE for my last stand, which was almost a disaster. I blame NEXXUS. I got all the longer Acrosses in the SE, no problem. But I got None of the Downs. -UNT, -ACE, -TER, nothing. STARTER I really should've gotten, since that was the person I was imagining in my head from the moment I read the clue, but FrankenBrain had no idea what that gun-firing race guy was called, so pfft.

Got ORR (gimme) (58A: Yossarian's "Catch-22" tentmate), then figured 45D: Unspecified quantity had to be something something-AMOUNT. Hey, XAMOUNT, OK. But ... but ... stuck. Stuck on a single letter. UN-RACE (!?!?!?!?) (46D: Free from tension) and M-A (55A: What a suit may hold). It's only because all the surrounding fill was indisputable that I didn't tear things out. I actually ran the alphabet once, but FrankenBrain either forgot "B" (classic FrankenBrain) or didn't recognize it. I was thinking "suit" = cards, not bizness. Anyway, FrankenBrain took a second (non-EZ) pass at the alphabet and finally got UNBRACE. Sad to end on the very worst stupidest stupid word in the grid, but ultimately I just thought back to SERENA and LISA SIMPSON and I started feeling better again.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Lobbying org. formed in 1944 / SUN 7-12-15 / Harry's 1948 Dixiecrat opponent / Berkshire racecourse site / Western city named after Shoshone chief / Children's heroine with dog Weenie / Tabloid show beginning in 1991 / Ruler entombed in Great Pyramid / Perambulates western-style / Fictional resort in 1988 #1 hit

July 11, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: American Progress muralist / MON 7-13-15 / TV journalist O'Donnell / Rapper with Harvard hip-hop fellowship named in his honor / Bygone cross-Atlantic jet for short

≪ Previous: Spanish compose Isaac / SAT 7-11-15 / Alternative to Pantene / Star close to Venus / Jordan was part of it in 1984 / 1970s-'80s Olds / Served with sauce of mushrooms tomatoes olives oil wine / Yossarian's Catch-22 tentmate

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Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:"Start Again"— Opening syllable of familiar phrases is doubled (and respelled), creating much wackiness:

Theme answers:

• CUCKOO D'ETAT (23A: Bird involved in French government affairs?)
• TUTU OF DIAMONDS (28A: Glittering ballet costume?)
• MIMI AND MY BIG MOUTH (45A: "La Bohème" song in which Rodolfo regrets saying too much to his lover?)
• AYE AYE, DOCTOR (53A: "I'll obey your medical advice!"?)
• CHOO-CHOO TOYS (85A: Lionel trains?)
• COCOA CONSPIRATORS (93A: Group planning a hostile takeover of Swiss Miss?)
• BYE-BYE PRODUCTS (107A: "That's my last trip to the store, ever!"?)
• CHI-CHI DEVIL (118A: One who's pretentious as hell?)

Word of the Day: AMVETS (38D: Lobbying org. formed in 1944) —

The American Veterans, Inc. (AMVETS) is a volunteer-led organization formed by World War IIveterans of the United States. It advocates for its members as well as for causes that it deems helpful to the nation at large. The group holds a Federal charter under Title 36 of the United States Code. It is a 501(c)19 organization.

• • •

OK so I complain from time to time about how some puzzles seem very Ye Olde in terms of concept and fill, seeming as if they could've been written 30+ years ago, completely adamant in their refusal to recognize all life post-Y2K. But here's the thing ... those puzzles usually feature cruddy, dated, good-enough-by-30-years-ago-standards fill. They usually feature a corny sense of humor *and* an obliviousness to all things current *and* at least one ETUI. Today's puzzle is definitely (at times) corny, and definitely void of contemporary relevance. But it manages to avoid irksomeness almost entirely. How? Well, today is what a resolutely, unapologetically old-fashioned, screw-the-modern-world puzzle would look like If It were Carefully and Thoughtfully Made, i.e. if it were good. I don't think it's anywhere near Berry's best work, but it's a pretty cool feat nonetheless: this puzzle has got the retro DNA to please a still-sizable solving demographic (the "I remember Maleska fondly..." demographic), while also meeting modern standards for clean, crisp fill *and* executing the theme with cleverness, consistency, and artfulness. And the wackiness is truly wacky. Go big or go home where wackiness is concerned. My favorite theme answers were CUCKOO D'ETAT and COCOA CONSPIRATORS, largely because that initial doubling results in a solid word where the two syllables are spelled differently, despite having the same sounds. Why that should be more pleasing than a simple doubling of sound *and* spelling, I don't think, but it is.


I don't have much to say about the puzzle, though, beyond polite applause for the theme. There are a couple of drawbacks to today's puzzle (type). The puzzle is conceptually basic, and the grid is constructed in a way that minimizes longer non-theme fill, so the puzzle ends up being both far too easy, and also, outside the thematic material, kind of boring. Solid, but dullish. Creamy smooth and inoffensive, but lacking that crunch and oomph and zazz that are semi-necessary to really scratch the itch of a constant solver. Everything in the grid is generally familiar. All this fill would've flown decades ago (except IPOD, I guess). There's just not a lot of fresh colloquial phrases, not a lot of wordplay, not even a lot of interesting vocabulary. It's all just fine. But not exceptional. This would make a very, very nice entry-level puzzle for people who enjoy crosswords but think the NYT is too highbrow, or who can get M and T OK, but start falling apart at W and never really try Sunday. The world does need starter-kit puzzles, and as those go, this is a good one.


TUTU OF DIAMONDS is the weakest link, as the base phrase (two of diamonds) is just a random card in a deck. But the it creates a nice visual, so it's not so bad. The most confusing themer for me was MIMI AND MY BIG MOUTH, as I didn't know what was "La Bohème" about it, or whether the base answer was going to be a real song, or what. I'm guessing someone named "Mimi" is in "La Bohème," is that right? I could look it up. [Does so] Ah, yes, look, a seamstress. Well, there you go. I'm sure Maleska-era solvers know that stuff like the backs of their hands. Anyway, that one took  me a little time because I was thinking of a song and all I could come up with was MIMI AND MY SHADOW (didn't fit).


My people are Idaho people, so POCATELLO was both fun and nostalgic for me (though I've never actually been to POCATELLO). Everything else in this puzzle, and I mean everything, is right over the plate. CHEOPS and AMVETS are probably the most "obscure" things in the puzzle, and they aren't. Obscure, that is. So, overall, this was vanilla, but tasty. Excellent vanilla. Simple, old-fashioned, over far too quickly.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

P.S. Peter Gordon is Kickstarting (re-starting) the themeless puzzle he used to edit for the Washington Post. Fittingly (-ish) it is called the Fireball Postmodern (get it?) Puzzler. You can support it here. Amazing constructors. Great puzzles (as good as the best NYT themelesses, for sure). Worth your support. At least watch the cute promo video here.

American Progress muralist / MON 7-13-15 / TV journalist O'Donnell / Rapper with Harvard hip-hop fellowship named in his honor / Bygone cross-Atlantic jet for short

July 12, 2015, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Blank portion of manuscript / TUE 7-14-15 / Carter-era FBI sting that inspired American Hustle / Aquanaut's workplace / Italian city on Adriatic / Surprising conversationalist of classic TV / Globetrotter's electrical device

≪ Previous: Lobbying org. formed in 1944 / SUN 7-12-15 / Harry's 1948 Dixiecrat opponent / Berkshire racecourse site / Western city named after Shoshone chief / Children's heroine with dog Weenie / Tabloid show beginning in 1991 / Ruler entombed in Great Pyramid / Perambulates western-style / Fictional resort in 1988 #1 hit

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Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Slightly harder than your average Monday (for me, 3:14)

THEME: FACEBOOK BUTTONS (62A: What the first words in 17-, 29- and 48-Across are) — They are Facebook actions. Buttons ... well, two of them, sometimes. Not "Comments." Not a button. Not.

Theme answers:

• LIKE WHITE ON RICE (17A: As close as close can be)
• COMMENT ÇA VA? (29A: "How's it going?," in Paris)
• SHARE PRICES(48A: Stock quotes)

Word of the Day: NORAH O'Donnell (28D: TV journalist O'Donnell) —

Norah Morahan O’Donnell (born January 23, 1974) is an American print and television journalist, currently serving as the co-anchor of CBS This Morning, a position she has held since July 2012, when she replaced Erica Hill. Before that, she spent one year as Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News in Washington, D.C., after moving to the network from NBC. She is also the substitute host for CBS' Sunday morning show, Face the Nation. (wikipedia)

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"Buttons" didn't sit right with me, and it turns out there's a reason. So, if you're on FB, these actions (Like, Comment, Share) aren't "buttons"—they're simply links. They do appear, in that order (nice), at the bottom of most FB posts, but as links, not "buttons.""Buttons," appear on non-FB sites, and connect some article or post to Facebook. Like ... yeah, here. Take this article about Natick, MA that I've randomly chosen from the Boston Globe. You can see a bunch of "buttons" at the top (also at the bottom). The FB one will allow you to "Share" the article (you should share it—it's got a great opening paragraph). Anyway, if you go around the internet, you will see "Like" buttons and "Share" buttons. You will not see "Comments" buttons. Buttons connect your site to FB. Comments, on the other hand, generally appear right on your site, and even when they're powered by FB, there's generally no "button," per se. Just your typical hyperlink, or maybe not even that. Just a "Comments" box. "Comment" is odd man out here, is what I'm saying. A huge outlier, compared to LIKE and SHARE. Here's an experiment. Google the following three phrases (in quotation marks): ["Facebook Like button"], ["Facebook Share button"], and finally ["Facebook Comment button"]. Now compare the numbers. Prosecution rests.


Fill was typical, old, tired. NEWSBOY I kind of like. The rest, excessively familiar in the short stuff, dullish in the long stuff. ARLO ACLU ROIS GIL ODIE HAI ATIT ORES SERT (ugh) OLE SST (ugh) ACTI LAOS ASIS ETD EMIR and that's just the tired stuff I picked up on a first scan of the grid. I did appreciate the NAS trivia, though. Otherwise, I think PEORIA is probably more exciting than this puzzle's non-theme fill. LIKE WHITE ON RICE is the marquee answer of the day—maybe the bar is so low on Monday that one winning 15 is good enough. Not sure. It's coolness is totally offset by SHARE PRICES, which you would be hard-pressed to surpass in boringness. Not too thrilled that LIKE and SHARE retain their pronunciations in the theme answers but COMMENT, yikes, way different. But they are all repurposed, meaning-wise, so maybe that's enough.

[18-Down: WILCO]

Also, I've seen Facebook action themes before. This just didn't strike me as special or clever (or smooth, or tightly executed) enough for the NYT.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on FACEBOOK and also Twitter]