Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor:Adam G. Perl

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:"THE TIMES / THEY ARE / A-CHANGIN'" (23A: With 38- and 52-Across, 1964 Bob Dylan song ... or a hint to the answers to this puzzle's starred clues) — answers to starred clues are anagrams of TIMES

Theme answers:

SMITE
ITEMS
MITES
EMITS
IT'S ME
I'M SET

Word of the Day:SMOOT-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930(1D) —

The Tariff Act of 1930 (codified at 19 U.S.C.ch. 4), otherwise known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff, was an act sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S.tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. // The dutiable tariff level (this does not include duty-free imports—see Tariff levels below) under the act was the highest in the U.S. in 100 years, exceeded by a small margin by the Tariff of 1828.^[3] The great majority of economists then and ever since view the Act, and the ensuing retaliatory tariffs by America's trading partners, as responsible for reducing American exports and imports by more than half. According to Ben Bernanke, "Economists still agree that Smoot-Hawley and the ensuing tariff wars were highly counterproductive and contributed to the depth and length of the global Depression." The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was one of the causes of The Great Depression as foreign trade with Europe as well as China, which the United States had just recently set up an "Open-Door Policy" with, was vital to the economy. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, I actually kinda like this. The theme, I mean. The fill ... er, that's another story. But the theme really works nicely. At first I ignored the starred clues, and just plowed ahead until I got the Dylan title, at which point I thought ... well, nothing really. Shrug. And then the puzzle was over (about a half minute faster than yesterday!). And *then* I saw what was going on, with the anagrams. So while I wish the puzzle had been a bit harder (so I'd've been forced to notice the theme during solving) and I really really wish the fill had been cleaner (it's quite poor), I think the concept is solid. And he picked up all the anagarms, too, I think. There are I-STEM verbs in Latin, but I don't think that's exactly a crossworthy answer. There are also the MÉTIS (one of Canada's official Aboriginal peoples), but again, not sure it's something you'd expect to see on a Wednesday, or ever.

The long Downs (IN THE MOMENT, INDIGO GIRLS) are just fine, but I wish the rest (and I mean all of it) had been torn out and redone. ILE DE N-TEST is one of the worst juxtapositions I've ever seen. Multiple RDAS? Multiple ATNOS? A C-TEAM?? IGO GES ESOS ... I'M AT the point where I would rather REOIL ISAO and ELIA than experience This much junk fill again. You gotta gotta gotta polish your grid better than this. Gotta. The last think you want is to have cringe-worthy fill taking attention away from your worthy theme.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Elizabeth C. Gorski

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:BALLOON (39A: Party staple suggested by connecting this puzzle's special squares) — if you connect all the "HE" squares (symbol for "helium"), you get a round shape, which I'm guessing is supposed to be a helium-filled BALLOON

Theme answers:

I CHEATED / ALL HERE
CHER / HENCE
SEETHE / ALCHEMIST
RHEA / HENNA
THEA / BATHE
HELIUM (?) / ACID HEADS
TUNA HERO
ACHE FOR
TITHE / THEO

Word of the Day:DUPLE(33A: Twofold) —

adj.
1. Consisting of two;double.
2. MusicConsisting of two or a multiple of twobeats to themeasure. (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

There's some cool parts to this—I like the improvised "HE"-containing fill, like ACHE FOR and "I CHEATED" and ALL HERE. I've never heard TUNA HERO, only TUNA SUB, but maybe that's regional (58A: Fishy deli order). I also don't believe in ACID HEADS. POT HEADS, of course (they're the ones ON POT). DEAD HEADS, so I'm told (I like how DEAD from DEAD SPOT intersects HEADS, making a little DEAD / HEADS crossing...). ACID HEADS seems over-improvised. It's one of those answers crosswords keeps trying to convince me is real, like ROLEOS and Laura INNES (sorry, Laura; not buying it!). Fill has rough patches, but is mostly lively and fun. The theme as a whole doesn't work that great. You can call it a BALLOON, and I see that there is HElium in those squares, but nothing about the BALLOON says "floating." It's a circle. It's just a circle. So there's nothing very BALLOON-specific (again, besides the HELIUM). Some way to simulate floating, which is to say, some way to simulate a string (for example) would've been nice. Not sure how one would do that. All I know is ... circle is circle is circle. It's a circle. Visually. That is what it is.

[update: apparently there was a string in the paper / pdf. Just not for us lowlifes who solve in AcrossLite or directly on the NYT app. Once again, the NYT fails to indicate this. Here you go]

DUPLE is a ridiculous non-word. I'd've done everything in my power to cull it. Not a big fan of RADO, either, though that, presumably, is a word people actually utter (when, say, they're buying a high-end Swiss watch), unlike DUPLE, which no one ever says ever. DUPLO is a kind of chunk faux-Lego, if I remember correctly. Crossing A NICE with A COLD is kind of an atrocity. Two bad partials ... crossing? Maybe the theme was taxing this grid more than I imagine. Anyway, I mostly enjoyed this. Didn't have too much trouble except for in and around DUPLE. I really need to stop writing that word. It's driving me a little nuts right now.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:David Phillips

Relative difficulty:Medium (maybe slightly harder than usual)

THEME:none

Important crosswordese:

Ned ROREM (5-letter composer of crossword fame; he'll bail you out of many spots)

Word of the Day:CELADON(34A: Green-glazed Chinese porcelain) —

[google]

• • •

This isn't very exciting, but it's very clean. Very polished. No wincing at all, which is surprising for a 66-worder. Something about it just feels tepid, despite the flashiness of GENERAL ZOD and the odd-but-pleasingly-retro IT IS DECIDEDLY SO (7D: Relative of "Without a doubt" in a Magic 8 Ball). Hard to keep up that level of excitement and enthusiasm, though, with fill like CELADON and MACLEAN and TREELESS and MAUNA LOA and LEAVENED and WELL READ and TESH and BOREDOM— all fine answers, but nothing to make you really sit up and take notice. The one aspect of this puzzle that really does deserve credit—not just credit, but a medal of some sort—is the clue on CAKE PAN (10D: Battery container?). I had to work that answer letter by bleeping letter, and when I finally got it, I Got It, and it felt good. Worth it. When the struggle is worth the payoff, there's really no better feeling as a solver.

My biggest struggle today was definitely that NW corner. I got nothing on my first pass, and ended up having to back into it via the tail ends of SUNTANNING and "ONE, PLEASE" (I had "---, PLEASE" for the latter and just ... guessed. I bet on loneliness, and won big!). But those longer Acrosses didn't come easily, and without them, I was lost in the NW. The answer that got me started was BONET (5D: Lisa of "The Cosby Show"), and, as happens every time I get a toehold with a pop culture clue, I don't feel good about it. Feels like cheating. BONET OUTER LUNA ERG to (Mary J.) BLIGE. Then I dropped ZOD and went back to save the stranded answers in the NW. The rest of the puzzle just played like a normal Friday for me. I did have to send several longer answers across the grid before I got any real traction (always an issue when there's lots of white space), but once I got the basic latticework going ...

[note the LEMON error...]

... the surrounding answers started to fall into place. I ended on PAR VALUE, which is fitting, as the puzzle was roughly as exciting as that answer is.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Samuel A. Donaldson and Brad Wilber

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:RIGVEDA(38D: Ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns) —

The Rigveda (Sanskrit: ऋग्वेदṛgveda, from ṛc"praise, shine" and veda"knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is one of the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. The text is a collection of 1,028 hymns and 10,600 verses, organized into ten books (Mandalas). [...] Rigveda is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language.Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500–1200 BC, though a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC has also been given. // Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu rites of passage celebrations such as weddings and religious prayers, making it probably the world's oldest religious text in continued use. (wikipedia)

• • •

A little too precious for me. Definitely way out of my wheelhouse. Technical terms (BRACKEN?) and magicians I've never heard of (BLACKSTONE) and not just the Vedas, which I have heard of, but RIGVEDA, dishes I'd never eat (VEAL MARSALA), maypole activities (?!) (WREATH), a Puffin relative that looks diminutive but somehow isn't (?) (AUKLET), a stock term I don't know (DAWN RAID), something called CREPEY ... so much of it was arcane to me. This was surprising, as I got the NW instantly—every first answer I thought of was right (well, I went with PAPA before MAMA BEAR, but I went in to the Downs very prepared to change that one).

So I thought it would be easy, if not terribly exciting. But then it got a lot harder, and somewhat more exciting, but not much. I didn't have any experience of "ooh, cool answer." All of the longest answers seem dull. Except VISIGOTHS—that's flashy. I don't know ... it's well made, just not to my taste. With the exception of SIPPY CUP and ME TIME (28D: What isn't working?), this feels more Maleskan than Shortzian in its general sensibility.

[10D: Shorts popular in the 1920s and '30s]

Do people know VIZSLA!? I used to pore over dog breed books, back when I had dog-ownership fantasies, 10+ years ago, before I got my first dog, Dutchess, a husky/shepherd mix we got from a shelter in northern PA, and well before I got my second dog, Gabby, a purebred chocolate lab I got because my friend was like "we're getting a chocolate lab puppy and there are unclaimed female puppies in the litter—you want one?" I mean, really. "Do you want a chocolate lab puppy?" What was I supposed to say??? Where was I? Oh, right VIZSLA? The *only* reason I knew it (and I had to struggle mightily to bring it to the surface) was because I had gone through those dog breed books cover to cover, and I'd taken those online tests What Dog Is Right For You, and the VIZSLA frequently came up near the top. "How exotic-sounding?" And I haven't seen the name since. Until today. Sounds like a car, not a dog. "Come Experience ... the 2017 Ford VIZSLA!" (because "VIZSLA: It's Everywhere You Want To Be" is too spot-on)

I spelled MASSAD thusly and didn't check the cross and so ended with a PORTA / MASSAD error. I don't like that cross, but I should've been able to infer that "O" from the clue, 43D: ___-Novo (capital on the Gulf of Guinea). Otherwise, it was fast, then slow, then done, with very few pleasure points. Clean, well-crafted, not for me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Yaakov Bendavid

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:"Message To Buyers"— theme answers are ... messages to buyers? ... notices you might in advertisements or on products you purchase ... but here, reclued wackily (with "?" clues and everything) through reimagined meanings of phrase words (underlined words, below, are given new wacky meanings in their clues):

Theme answers:

ASSEMBLY REQUIRED (23A: Notice regarding voting in a state legislature?)
INTEL INSIDE (34A: Sign on the N.S.A.'s entrance?)
CONTAINS SMALL PARTS (56A: Audition caution for a movie with a cast of thousands?)
BATTERY NOT INCLUDED (78A: Note on a watered-down assault indictment?)
NO MONEY DOWN (97A: Offer of free pillow fill?)
STORE IN A DRY PLACE (113A: Desert supermarket?)

Word of the Day:SUBIC Bay(10A: ___ Bay, former U.S. base on Luzon) —

Subic Bay is a bay on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of Manila Bay. It is an extension of the South China Sea, and its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, it is now the location of an industrial and commercial area known as the Subic Bay Freeport Zone under the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. // The bay was long recognized for its deep and protected waters, but development was slow due to lack of level terrain around the bay. (wikipedia)

• • •

It took me a while to figure out what was going on, as the coherence of the theme answers, as a set, is not immediately apparent. For instance, "INTEL INSIDE" is an ad slogan, not a "message to buyers" (any more than "Coke is It" is a message to buyers). So if you're solving from the top down ... it takes a while for the concept to become clear. And even then ... the theme is light (just six answers?) and the answers themselves are often slightly off-feeling. For instance, the most spot-on version of the first "message" is "someASSEMBLY REQUIRED." I'm sure the some-less version exists, but it's not le phrase juste. "INTEL INSIDE," as I say, is a real outlier, as it's not a "message" at all (it's a slogan). As with the first themer, the fourth has a more classic iteration: "Batteries (plural) not included." Spielberg even made a movie with that title. And I know the last themer as "store in a cool, dry place." So, you could get a lawyer (Lionel Hutz, say (see above)) to defend the phrases as they appear in the grid, but ... you shouldn't need a lawyer.

The fill has many rough moments, and can't come close to making up for the tepid, slightly awkward theme. Stuff one should try Desperately to keep out of one's grid: LEOVI (all LEO + Roman numerals, really), SUBIC (?), KPS (plural? really?), BSED (dear lord), STOL (old-school crosswordese), EEN, OCTA, "TO SIR"(unless it's clued ["___, With Love"]), TER (106A: Thrice, in prescriptions) (er, no, never, not any more, ask a doctor—I did), etc. I was fortunate enough to end on a high note—the highest note in the puzzle, actually:MAN'S MAN! (86D: Masculine icon). Took me a while to get, and gave me a great aha moment. And it was the very last thing I put in the grid. Not much about the rest of the puzzle was very exciting. I will say that with the exception of TE AMO, it's very clean through the middle, which is impressive, as that's a good chunk of white space to handle so smoothly. Seven adjacent 6+-letter Downs in a row there from ASSIST down to RIOTER. I just realized that if BSED had been clued the way people actually *use* BSED (i.e. BS'ed), my feelings on it would've done a 180.

Here's a message from Evan Birnholz, crossword constructor for the Washington Post:

"For anyone who may have missed my earlier puzzles because they weren't available in Across Lite format, they can get all of them for a limited time. Between now and February 8, my first eight published Post puzzles will be available for download in Across Lite format at this link. After that point I'm deleting their folder, and they'll have only the previous four weeks' worth of puzzles as normal. So they'll need to download them soon if they want them."

Evan is doing a great job over there. In just the past month, I've had two Pulitzer-winning writers tell me how impressed they've been with his work. I'm not sure what their having Pulitzers has to do with their puzzle judgment, but I thought I'd just drop that factoid in there as if it meant something. I hope you enjoyed it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

BRO, this puzzle was too much fun for Rex to do (because he's a no-fun-allowed type dude), so I, Annabel, am back to do some writing up! (JK. It's just the first Monday of the month, y'know, that's kinda my schedule. I just like to announce it at the beginning so nobody gets halfway through the article wondering why Rex is in such a good mood today.)

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: ROAD MOVIES— Theme answers are street names that are also the names of movies.

Theme answers:

WALL STREET (18A: Title locale in a 1987 Oliver Stone drama)
SUNSET BOULEVARD (26A: Title locale in a 1950 Billy Wilder film noir)
MULHOLLAND DRIVE (44A: Title locale in a 2001 David Lynch thriller)
ROAD MOVIES (58A: "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Thelma & Louise"...or a hint to 18-, 26- and 44-across)

Word of the Day: VIEIRA (29D: Meredith of daytime TV) —

Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953)^[1] is an American journalist and talk show and game show host. She is known for serving as the original moderator of the ABC talk show The View (1997–2006), and for co-hosting the long-running NBC News morning news program Today (2006–11). She is also known for being the original host of the U.S.syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, for contributing to Dateline NBC, Rock Center with Brian Williams, and for presenting Lifetime Television's Intimate Portrait series.
Vieira is a special correspondent for NBC News, contributor to Today, NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC, and host ofThe Meredith Vieira Show.

• • •

MY, MY, this one was...um...interesting. I wish I were more of a movie buff - I've never seen any of those ROAD MOVIES, and on top of that, the fill felt more packed with references to characters than actors than usual. Oh well - you do crossword puzzles to learn, don't you? Not a whole lot else going on with the fill, though, tbh. SHOALS, LUAU, ISLE and ADRIFT made me think of a nice relaxing vacation.

Yeah, like I said before, I probably would've liked the theme more if I actually knew any of the movies. Or if they had thrown some musicals in there!!! So instead of talking about the MOVIES part of this theme, let's talk about the ROAD part. So I gOT THIS NEW CAR AND IT WAS REALLY AWESOME AND the best part is it doesn't have an audio jack which gave me an excuse to listen to the same two CDs ("Heartthrob" by Tegan and Sara and "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" by Florence + The Machine) like several dozen times over winter break. I'm not even kidding. I'd just pop one the CD slot and drive around with it playing over and over. It was awesome. Is that how they did it in the olden days when cars didn't have audio jacks for your phone?

Bullets:

COED (17A: Like most college dorms nowadays) — This one gave me a chuckle because my entire college isn't COED! It's nice to be able to just do super-girly things all the time, like rugby.
WALL STREET (18A: Title locale in a 1987 Oliver Stone drama)— Like I said, never saw this movie, so my mom helped me out with this one.

BOBBLE (27D: Move up and down, as a doll's head) — Apparently this is Australian for "hair tie." Also, "thong" is Australian for "flip flop." You learn a lot of things at summer camp when half of your counselors are inexplicably from either Australia or the UK. Also, why do they all call flashlights "torches"? What do they call sticks that are on fire? "Torches: Classic"?
AMFM (1A: Switch that changes bands on the radio)— Is that like a PRNDL?

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student. (Not as tired as my roommate though - she's got an 8:30 class tomorrow, OMG!)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (significantly slower than normal) (4:08)

THEME:sky horizon sea ... stuff— HORIZON is in the middle and then above the HORIZON is a FLOCK OF BIRDS and a PLANE in the SKY and below is a SCHOOL OF FISH and some CORAL in the SEA

Word of the Day:YUGOS(8D: Cheap 1980s car imports) —

The Zastava Koral (Serbian Cyrillic: Застава Корал, pronounced [ˈzâːstaʋa ˈkǒraːl]), also known as the Yugo (pronounced [ˈjûɡo]), is a supermini built by the Yugoslav/Serbian Zastava corporation. It was designed in Italy under the name Fiat 144 as a variant of the Fiat 127. The first Yugo 45 was handmade on 2 October 1978 as a Fiat 127, under license from Fiat, with a modified body style. The Zastava Koral was sold with an updated design, priced at about 350,000 dinars (3,500 euros; 4,300 U.S. dollars), until 11 November 2008, when production stopped with a final number of 794,428 cars. The Yugo entered the United States by means of Malcolm Bricklin, who wanted to introduce a simple, low-cost car to that market. In total, 141,651 cars were sold in the United States from 1985 to 1992, with the most American units sold in a year peaking at 48,812 in 1987. Sales in 1992 were only 1,412 cars. Like the Lada, they were a common sight on the urban landscape in the cities and towns of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the late 1990s. The Yugo is still a common sight in Serbia; however, they are very rare in other ex-Yugoslav republics, particularly in Slovenia and Croatia. (wikipedia)

• • •

Short write-up today because I got sucked into watching election coverage (stupid stupid stupid why why why) and now I'm tired. Also, what to say about this puzzle? Well, it was much slower-going than normal for me (anything over 4 minutes is slow for me on Tuesdays). I attribute this to many things. First, the cross-referencing bonanza, starting at 1-Across and continuing throughout all the theme answers. There's nothing in the cluing that indicates directly what any of the theme answers are, so you have to get answers via crosses and then proceed by inference. Both SKY and SEA are clued via [Blue expanse]. I went with SEA up top, setting up the first of many erasures (see also FLOCK OF GEESE). So there was that. Then there was SOFT G (ironically, hard), and TMC (which ... ugh, The Movie Channel? Really? No one watches that, least of all "cinephiles") and wide open NE / SW corners and MACH who-knows-what and who-knows-what-TEST and a "Happy Days" quote not clued as a "Happy Days" quote but clued instead if it is actual viable non-dated slang ("SIT ON IT"). So, yeah, not Hard in an absolute sense. But slow going.

The theme doesn't actually make sense, as clued. See especially 57A: Group found below the 37-Across. I don't "find" anything "below the HORIZON." That's absurd. I can "find" things only above it, as I am a human being with human being-type eyeballs. "Hey, I found a SCHOOL OF FISH!""Where!?""Below the HORIZON!""....?""You know, near the CORAL?"".............?" And CORAL? Talk about arbitrary? SHARK? WHALE? ARIEL? So many other things Under the Sea. I don't know. This seems pretty rough / loose. Fill is also weak throughout. I'll spare you the full list, but I WERE LA VIE, plural NYETS and YUGOS, and OMANI ORONO SSR etc etc all give you a good sense of the scope of the problem. "NO CUTS!" was pretty cool. The rest, I don't know. Just seemed ragged and off. Gotta go listen to Bernie talk now. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy 75th birthday to the man who bought "Night Shift" on Laser Disc in 1982 and thus changed my life forever.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Tom McCoy

Relative difficulty:Easiest Wednesday I've Ever Done

THEME:MIDDLE CLASS (31A: Bourgeoisie ... or a descripti0n of each group of circled letters?) / CENTERFIELD(42A: Baseball position ... or a description of each group of circled letters)— inside (in the "middle" of... or "center" of ...) theme answers are words that can be a university CLASS (or FIELD of study):

Theme answers:

TAKE CONTROL (17A: Seize the reins)
UMA THURMAN (22A: Female lead in "Gattaca" and "Kill Bill")
ALL ATINGLE (47A: In eager anticipation)
DEATH EATERS (60A: Followers of Lord Voldemort)

Word of the Day:PANEM(6D: "The Hunger Games" nation) —

Panem is a nation that was established during an unknown time period in a post-apocalyptic world. It is situated primarily in North America, and the Capitol is located in an area formerly known as the Rocky Mountains, as it states in the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy. // Panem was run by an authoritarian-totalitarian dictatorship that was led by President Snow before the second rebellion. It is portrayed in the trilogy to be the dominant society in North America, and no other nations or civilized societies beyond Panem have been mentioned, so it is unknown if any exist at all. Panem was later led by Commander Paylor after the war. // The name Panem derives from the Latin phrase panem et circenses, which literally translates into 'bread and circuses'. The phrase itself is used to describe entertainment used to distract public attention from more important matters. Furthermore, by the government providing ample food and entertainment, the citizens would give up their political rights. // In Panem, the law is harshly enforced: After the Dark Days, a sadistic annual event known as the Hunger Games was established as a warning reminder of the past. // According to the Capitol. Panem has a population of 4,556,778 people. Adding up the Capitol and 12 districts gives it a population of only 1,905,286 people. (The Hunger Games Wikia)

• • •

I don't think I've ever broken three minutes on a Wednesday before, but I nearly did today: 3:02. That is insane. That is over a minute faster than yesterday's puzzle, to give you some perspective. Outside the theme, the puzzle was sub-Monday easy—all short answer with obvious, direct, transparent clues. The only trouble one could possibly have with this puzzle involves the kid lit: specifically the "Hunger Games" answer (PANEM) and the Harry Potter answer DEATH EATERS. I can see how those two answers might lock a bunch of solvers right out (or slow them down considerably, at any rate) But I've read the HP books, and my friend Lena put PANEM in one of our Buzzfeed crosswords last year, causing me to object with "WTF is this?" and "I think you want PAN AM." But then she was like "you're old, it's a big Hunger Games deal" and I was like "it's 'bread' in Latin and that is all that I will concede," but then she got other (relatively) young people to back her up and thus PANEM went into our puzzle. No one complained, so far as I know. I do think that HG / HP trivia really stands out in this grid, as every other clue/answer feels like it belongs in a Newsday Monday grid—super common, right over the plate (even the pop culture = old standbys like Christine LAHTI and REESE Witherspoon and UMA THURMAN etc.).

The theme, which I never saw during the solve, seems fine. Never seen a double-revealer before. Feels like maybe you should've gone with the better one, taken out the other, and then cleaned up / perked up the fill. Also, those "fields" / "classes" are none of them really in the "middle" or "center" of their answers.

I fell asleep last night before I got a chance to blog this, so now it's morning and I'm writing with my coffee tank on Empty, so I need to go before I get incoherent. Moreso. Oh, my former student Libby Cudmore had her debut novel released yesterday, and she gave her first reading from the novel here in town, and signed a copy for me, and I'm all ATINGLE for her. It's called "The Big Rewind" and it's a quirky, funny murder mystery set in contemporary Brooklyn. The story centers on a mix tape, which provides both the clues and a kind of soundtrack for the book. It's very cool to see one of my star Crime Fiction students grow up to write crime fiction. Also, the book has a cool cover, which contemporary books rarely do.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:Square ROOT— familiar phrases ending in successive square numbers (1, 4, 9, 16) instead end in the square roots of those numbers. Your clue to change the final number to its square root is in the circled squares of the SW corner, which spell out RO/OT in a little square pattern [Note accompanying the puzzle reads: "The four long Across answers are affected by a literal interpretation of the circled boxes"]

Theme answers:

HOLE IN ONE (one is the square root of ONE) (17A: Ace)
FANTASTIC TWO (two is the square root of FOUR) (28A: Marvel Comics group)
ON CLOUD THREE (three is the square root of NINE) (45A: Elated)
SWEET FOUR (four is the square root of SIXTEEN) (60A: Milestone birthday)

Word of the Day:Cabaret Voltaire(38D: Cabaret Voltaire iconoclasts => DADAISTS) —

Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916 as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes. Other founding members were Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp. Events at the cabaret proved pivotal in the founding of the anarchic art movement known as Dada. (wikipedia)

• • •

This opened up quickly. For reasons I don't understand, in a move I can't even plausibly recreate, the first clues that I looked at in this puzzle were in the NE. This never happens. Why would I look there first? First clue I remember seeing was 10D: Provider of contacts, informally (EYE DOC), and I thought "OPTISH?" Oh, no, now I remember that the first clue I looked at was 16A: Patient of a 10-Down, and I decided to see what the cross-ref was. Still weird that I was looking in the NE first. When I couldn't get either eye clue, I got HMM (9D: "That's odd..."), and then, because I knew eyes were involved (because of "contacts"), I got MYOPE. All of these unusual, uncharacteristic opening moves led to the accidental *quick* uncovering of the theme, when I dropped MODEST FEE down and then got FEN WEAR ONME ... and thus had TWO in place when I looked at the first themer I saw: 28A: Marvel Comics group. No ... that's not right. I traveled all the way down to SWEET FOUR. *That's* when I got what was going on (inferred the gimmick w/o actually having to fill in the circled squares. After that, the themers were practically transparent, and since very little in the grid was unusual or clued in a particularly tough way, I burned through this in just over five. That puts this on the border between Easy and Easy-Medium, but I felt like knowing OBAN (42A: Scottish seaport known for its single-malt Scotch) and BARACUS (24A: B.A. of the A-TEAM) gave me a weird advantage, so I adjusted my difficulty rating accordingly. (PS you all—well, most of you—have seen BARACUS before; he was in this puzzle buy joon pahk back in August)

This was a clean and enjoyable puzzle for the most part. Had trouble with DINK (7D: Surprise volleyball shot) and ADS (which is the answer I wanted, but a "pitcher" ... I'm not sure who that is here. A person? If so, s/he has ad ideas, right? Not ads per se? Something about the phrasing made me distrust ADS even though I kinda knew it was right) (6A: What a pitcher is full of?). [Baby BUMP] is a nice, modern clue. Same with TOM Ford. I'm never sure how the TSE is going to be spelled in LAO TSE (46D: Father of Taoism). I feel like TZE and TZU and TSU are all accepted variants—can that be right? Looks like TSU never, TZU rarely, TZE once (22 years ago), and TSE almost always. I'll remember that next time I need to plow forward. TSE! TSE! TSE!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Mary Lou Guizzo

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day:SONDE(35A: Balloon-carried probe) —

noun
noun: sonde; plural noun: sondes
an instrument probe that automatically transmits information about its surroundings underground, under water, in the atmosphere, etc. (google)

• • •

This was an interesting mixture of Great and Iffy. Luckily, all of the Iffy is in the short stuff (3- to 5-letter range). The grid-spanners are all fresh and solid and lovely, which is as it should be. When you stack 15s, you tend to have to stand for some junk, or at least some wobbliness; when you lattice (now a verb), you should be able to get your 15s all into the realm of Nice. The only issue I have with the 15s is the going back to the same "contemporary actress" well in successive long answers, i.e. following up SHAILENE WOODLEY with JESSICA CHASTAIN—both fine answers, but I like puzzlees better when they're drawing their answers from diverse realms of the knowledge spectrum. Here, if you are pop culture illiterate (and I'm looking at a whole lot of you), you don't get double-whammied in such short order. But again, on their own, both answers, fantastic, fair, good. And honestly this puzzle had me at "A MODEST PROPOSAL," so however much the thing stumbled after that, it was highly unlikely that I was going to look upon it in any way other than favorably.

I don't believe in GAWP. I just don't. So right out of the gate I had trouble. To [Stare in astonishment] is to GAPE. Later I was forced to change it—to GASP. But that left me with an opening of SH-T... for 3D: Question upon completing an argument, and that seemed ... unlikely (it's actually the wonderful "WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?"). When you have This Much short fill, with all but a small handful of non-15s in the 3-to-5 range, there will be blood. I consider AMPAS blood. American Pictures Association Of Somewhere? If it's an acronym related to movies and it's not MPAA, then I don't know it. Ah, "Arts & Sciences," ha ha. That's a pretty high-falutin' name for an org. that gives awards to [movie title redacted so as not to offend anyone]! Plural CSIS is awful. PREV, not much better, and you can see other scattered semi-wincey stuff throughout the grid. But I think the 15s do their job, i.e. capture our attention and admiration and keep us from caring too much about the rust and cracked paint and other minor structural imperfections.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:David Steinberg

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day:LOCARNO(36D: Swiss treaty city) —

The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland, on 5–16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic). Ratifications for the Locarno treaties were exchanged in Geneva on 14 September 1926, and on the same day they became effective. The treaties were also registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on the same day. // Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories: western, which were guaranteed by Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision, thus leading to Germany's renewed claims to the German-populated Free City of Danzig and mixed ethnic Polish territories approved by the League of Nations including the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia. (wikipedia)

• • •

A very Saturday Saturday. I had to struggle a good deal, but not in ways that I ended up resenting (the way I will when the fill is hyper-obscure or downright awful, or the cluing is suspect or downright awful, etc.). This one's got a nice variety of answers, from a broad cross-section of knowledge bases, and it feels very modern, which I always like (OK I don't *like* SELFIE STICKs, but I like that this puzzle *sees* them, knows they're there, and, I assume, sneers at them the same way I do). LONGING EYES felt wibbly-wobbly (WAWA-wobbly) to me. That is borderline Green Paint—[adjective] + EYES. Is there a famous instance of that exact phrase? BEDROOM EYES, I've definitely heard of. Also BLUE, LYIN', SNAKE, ITCHY WATERY, BEADY, CROSS, and BETTE DAVIS. When I google ["LONGING EYES"] roughly half the hits are for some hymn: "Jesus, Thy Church with Longing Eyes" by William H. Bathurst, 1796-1877." I doubt those were the kind of eyes the clue was going for. Anyway, that one prompted a squint-eyed suspicious glare from me. But all the other longer stuff seemed nice. I do hate DO TO A TEEEEEEEE (both that spelling and that phrase in general) and crossing it with HES? (8D: Drones and such). Ick. But there just aren't many moments like that. Mostly it's all ROSE CEREMONYs and MOONROOFs.

I had DISTRESS instead of ACID WASH right out of the gate (1A: Make look old, in a way). Same material (denim!), different words. I guess you can DISTRESS lots of stuff, but you probably don't ACID WASH anything but denim, right? Early '90s denim? So I was wrong there, but knew I was wrong when no Downs worked. Then I hit onto what is probably the weirdest opening solving pattern I've ever had on a Saturday. If I'd known RABIN Square (9D: ___ Square, center of Tel Aviv), I'd've had an impressively symmetrical, grid-spanning creature of some sort written into my grid:

It's like a one-armed guy waving hello. After this opening play, I figured the puzzle would be Easy. If I could cross the grid with virtually no effort, what could stop me!? (Plenty, it turns out). I know LUCERNE, but not LOCARNO, and they're both in Switzerland, and so, yeah, with C and R in there, I went with LUCERNE, and that screwed things up. Otherwise, it was just tough. Normal tough. Saturday tough, with a few nice gimmes thrown in for me (Pau GASOL, ROSANNE Cash, Simon LEBON). If I have a relative named BOWSER, I am unaware of it (18A: Relative of Rex). BOWSER, call me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:"Adding Insult"— "DIS" is added to familiar phrases, creating wacky blah blah you know the drill:

Theme answers:

DISCREDIT CARDS (22A: Damage a St. Louis team's reputation?)
TABLE OF DISCONTENTS (29A: Ones giving the waiter a hard time?)
DISPLAYS FOR A FOOL (48A: Harlequin exhibitions?)
DISBAND ON THE RUN (63A: Flee in separate directions?)
ELLA DISENCHANTED (86A: Result of the Queen of Scat's backup group messing up?)
CAMEO DISAPPEARANCE (101A: Jewel heist outcome?)
DISBAR AND GRILL (113A: Question harshly after not allowing to practice?)

Word of the Day:CARINA(24A: Southern constellation that holds the second-brightest star in the night sky) —

Carina/kəˈraɪnə/ is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for the keel of a ship, and it was formerly part of the larger constellation of Argo Navis (the ship Argo) until that constellation was divided into three pieces, the other two being Puppis (the poop deck), and Vela (the sails of the ship). (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle is unimaginably bad. Despite the fact that I criticize puzzles, even good ones, every day, all the time, it is actually very rare that I outright Hate a puzzle—that I resent the time it took me to solve it (let alone the time it takes me to write about it). So I'm not gonna waste too much time writing about this one. Let's just say that "Adding Insult" is about right. There are so many HURTERS (what the actual...!?) in this puzzle, it's hard to know where to begin. So I'll begin with the theme, which is tired, lazy, dated hackery of the first order. After I got the first themer (DISCREDIT CARDS, ugh), I said out loud (though no one was around to hear me), "Oh, no, this isn't just gonna be a bunch of DIS answers, is it?" I cannot—I mean canNot—believe this passed muster. First, I've seen variations on this exact theme before. Second, who cares? Why? There is nothing funny or interesting or clever about the resulting "wacky" phrases? Zero. Just add DIS ... over and over and over and over Why? So "Ella Enchanted" becomes "ELLA DISENCHANTED"!? That's it? Dear lord above, that registers like a 0.1 on the Wordplay Scale. Half the time DIS- is just used as a negative prefix. So "cameo appearance" becomes [drum roll] CAMEO DISAPPEARANCE! Get it!? Me either.

And the fill ... I can't believe I'm saying this, I can't believe it's physically possible, but ... it's worse. It's in even worse shape than the sad, hobbling, hackneyed theme. I circled all the semi-to-very objectionable answers on my grid, and it's just an inky mess now. It was like one of those All-Star games where they bring back the old-timers, only instead of people you want to see like Hank Aaron and Sandy Koufax, it's ABOU Ben Adhem and Perle MESTA and Mme. de STAEL and Warner OLAND (riding an ELAND). There's LOEWE on IWO. A SOR ON RYE. There's SELENE crossing DE SICA in what will surely be a Natick for someone (SELENA / DA SICA looks totally acceptable). OTOH, there's ULNAR A DUE (because it takes two to ULNAR). There's something I've never seen before called CARINA. The puzzle is sincerely asking me to believe that you can pluralize FM (!?) (37A: Most NPR stations). And then the coup de grace: NOT crossing NOT in the NE. Seriously. That actually happened. In short, this is the most inexcusably bad Sunday puzzle I've seen in ages. From top to bottom, stem to stern, APEAK to PAIUTE. Gooood night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Paolo Pasco

Relative difficulty:Normal, probably

THEME:IT COUPLES (61: Tabloid twosomes ... or a hint to the answers to the starred clues)— theme answers have a couple of "IT"s each:

Theme answers:

ITSY BITSY (17A: *Like a nursery rhyme spider)
NITTY GRITTY (11D: *Basics, informally)
SWIMSUIT EDITION (39A: *Big seller for Sports Illustrated)
CAPITAL CITY (26D: *Place often marked with a star on 24-Down [i.e. MAPS])

Word of the Day:ATP(22D: Org. for Nadal and Federer)—

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Bob Briner, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Drysdale became the first President. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the organization's name. In 1990 the organization was called the ATP Tour, which was renamed in 2001 as just ATP and the tour being called ATP Tour. In 2009 the name was changed again and is now known as the ATP World Tour. It is an evolution of the tour competitions previously known as Grand Prix tennis tournaments and World Championship Tennis (WCT). // The ATP's global headquarters are in London, United Kingdom. ATP Americas is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, United States; ATP Europe is headquartered in Monaco; and ATP International, which covers Africa, Asia and Australasia, is based in Sydney, Australia. // The counterpart organization in the women's professional game is the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). (wikipedia)

• • •

My time was ridiculous on this—Wednesdayish—but that's because I had a typo that led to a cross I could Not get, namely 22D AT- / 32A -RIT (should've been -RIG). I had no idea what the tennis org. was, and the only answers I was considering were ATA and ATF. If that final letter had been inferrable, I'd've caught my typo much quicker. Gah. I often make typos on early-week puzzles, because my fingers are awful clumsy on the keyboard, but those typos rarely lead to my getting (fake-) Naticked. While the fault is entirely mine, I don't understand putting ATP in this puzzle. It's not a well known initialism, not like NFL or MLB or NHL or NBA, so while it's definitely valid, it's not something I'd use unless I *had* to (i.e. it's not, uh, good). And here, you don't have to. LOB / OTT is better. Even LIB / ITT is better, frankly. It is true that PRIG beats TRIG for, let's say, color, but ATP is sub-desirable, for sure, and since it's easily eradicated, it should've been. Still, I must concede, I'm probably not pointing out this minor infelicity if I don't typo my way into a mess there. Maybe OTT would've been seen as too close to OTTO, and ITT to ITSY BITSY (?). It's possible.

The theme! It's pretty OK. I had to look up to see if people still use the term "IT COUPLE(S)," and it looks like they do. Mildly impressive there are zero "IT"s outside the theme answers. The fill was clean and lively for a Monday. I especially approve of GOLFCLAP, as I was the first person ever to put that answer in one of his puzzles.* And in *exactly* the same position in the grid, too. Thanks for the homage, Paolo.

[LAT, Jan. 19, 2011]

I should also point out the impressive arrangement of themers, with that central SWIMSUIT EDITION cutting right through the two long Downs. Always tricky to run long themers through one another. I also wanna give a shout-out to SNICKERS, which was the name of my childhood cat, as well as the name of the candy bar that my wife and I *demolished* in Wegmans today. I mean, I grabbed it at the register, total impulse buy, then the cashier asked if I wanted to "hold it" and I was like, "Do I!" Then I tore it open and bit and handed it to Sandy and she bit and that thing was gone before we hit the exit doors. It really satisfied us. Thanks, SNICKERS.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*Someone in comments claims that GOLFCLAP was in a Jonesin' crossword from 2004. Not in any database I use / have seen, but it's entirely possible. Also, "my" LAT puzzle from 2011 (pictured above) was actually *co*-constructed with Angela Olson Halsted.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty:Normalish?

THEME: THEME— compound words where the second part begins with "S" are reimagined as if they are verb phrases where the "S" is transferred to the end of the first part:

Theme answers:

BOMBS HELL (17A: Detonates a weapon in the underworld?)
UPS TARTS (21A: Raises the price of some pastries?)
TIMES HARES (34A: Clocks trainees for a fabled race rematch?)
CHOPS TICKS (43A: Cuts up little bloodsuckers?)
BEARS KIN (54A: Puts up with one's family?)
EYES HADES (61A: Scrutinizes the underworld?)

Word of the Day:Diana NYAD(57D: Long-distance swimmer Diana) —

Diana Nyad/ˈnaɪˌæd/ (née Sneed; August 22, 1949) is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattan (28 mi or 45 km) and in 1979 when she swam from North Bimini, The Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida (102 mi (164 km)). In 2013, on her fifth attempt and at age 64, she became the first person confirmed to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage, swimming from Havana to Key West (110 mi or 180 km). Nyad was also once ranked thirteenth among US women squash players. (wikipedia)

• • •

This gimmick is timeworn, but neatly executed. There's one wonky thing about this puzzle that is bugging the heck out of me. I noticed late that the first long Down is *also* a themer (PIRATES HIP) only ... it's not. No question mark clue ([Steals designs for a joint replacement?]). And the symmetrical Down (RED HERRING) has no theme qualities at all. My point here is the PIRATES HIP highlights the fact that you could replicate this theme All Day Long, with any compound word where the second part both begins with "S" and forms a new word when you remove the "S." The STICK possibilities alone are legion. So the theme is cute, but not exactly tight. And it's definitely been done. Strange and kind of funny—in a good way—to begin and end in the "underworld." I don't think UPS TARTS works that well, sense-wise; it's definitely the most strained phrase, in that all the others make instant (however bizarre) sense, but the price-raising meaning of UPS isn't readily apparent without the clue. You do the verb to the *price* of the tarts, not the tarts themselves (I think the clue is totally defensible, just wobbly compared to the others). Also, back to my point about how this theme is virtually infinite ... UPS WINGS, also viable. But it'll do. The fill is fine—better than fine, even. Very clean and very ... varied. Very varied. Very varied. Weird to say out loud, but it's accurate.

I can't be trusted as to Difficulty Level, as I solved first thing upon waking, when I'm frequently slow on the uptake. I had no idea what the theme even was until the grid was half filled. NW was filled very quickly, but I didn't trust the HELL part of BOMBS HELL for some reason, and wrote in TUTU for ZULU (an insane error where my brain was thinking TUTSI but ended up with Bishop Desmond TUTU). Took forever to get [Moor] to mean HEATH. Brain passed through at least two other "moors" before getting the right one. Had TAKE TO instead of MAKE DO at 45A: Get along. Wrote in THREE at 29D: Musketeers and blind mice, then used TIM / COOK to fix it (40A: With 43-Down, Apple C.E.O. beginning in 2011), but my "fix" led me to ... TRIAD. Clue is plural, answer should've been plural, but good luck telling 5:30am brain that.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:INTEGER (37A: The first parts of 17- and 22-Across are always this, the first part of 46-Across is sometimes this, and the first part of 55-Across is never this) — first parts of themers are NATURAL, WHOLE, RATIONAL, and IMAGINARY, respectively ... these are adjectives that (when they precede "number"?) do what the INTEGER clue says they do.

Theme answers:

NATURAL DISASTER (17A: Tsunami, for one)
WHOLE BEAN COFFEE (22A: Grinder input)
RATIONAL THOUGHT (46A: Sound judgment)
IMAGINARY FRIEND (55A: Hobbes, in "Calvin and Hobbes")

Word of the Day:NEC(32D: Japanese PC maker) —

NEC Corporation(日本電気株式会社Nippon Denki Kabushiki Gaisha) is a Japanese multinational provider of information technology (IT) services and products, with its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC provides IT and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies, and has also been the biggest PC vendor in Japan since the 1980s. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as just NEC. Its NEC Semiconductors business unit was one of the worldwide top 20 semiconductor sales leaders before merging with Renesas Electronics. NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group. (wikipedia)

• • •

I've heard from at least a couple people already tonight that they set personal Wednesday records with their solving times on this one, but it played only *sort of* easy, not very easy, for me (*last* Wednesday's was very easy—record-settingly so). Something about SEA ROVERS (?!) and STOMA and NEC provided enough resistance to keep things plausibly Wednesdayish, but I'm guessing most people who time themselves will find themselves on the fast side today. As for the theme—I don't care. I look at that Eternal clue on the revealer (INTEGER) and my head hurts. I'm sure that what it says about INTEGERs is true, but this adds nothing to the pleasure of the solving experience. Between the length and tediousness of that damned clue, and the fact that NUMBER is what follows NATURAL, WHOLE, RATIONAL, and IMAGINARY most readily in people's minds, I give this theme a 10 for technical accuracy but a 2 for joy. In fact ... where is "number" here? "The first parts of 17- and 22-Across" are NATURAL and WHOLE ... but don't they need to be "NATURAL number" and "WHOLE number" to be an INTEGER? "NATURAL" is not always an INTEGER. That just makes no sense, grammatically. So I'm really confused as to how this is supposed to work on a basic, literal level. As for the fill, it is pretty much NYT-average; no great moments, but not much that's terrible either. A placeholder of a puzzle. Adequate and forgettable.

Stupidest move by me was looking at 6D: Herod's realm, seeing the letter pattern --DE-, and writing in ... [drum roll] ... HADES. In my defense ... ugh, I don't have much of one, but when my brain scrolled through "realms" that fit that pattern, and it hit HADES, some part of it must've gone "Herod ... bad man ... sure, go with it." This made the north very rough (the only section that played that way). I wrote TIFF for HUFF (51D: Fit of pique). Again, brain misfired here—seems to have merged SNIT and HUFF and ended up with TIFF. Gonna go back to CNN now and catch the tail end of the NH Primaries coverage. Good night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:Famous people, initially — seemingly random words are actually meant to be read as two initials + a noun meaning "guy" or "woman"—so answers are famous men / women who fit the profile:

Theme answers:

MARIE ANTOINETTE (17A: Malady?) [her initials are "M.A." and she's a "lady"]
TOM ARNOLD (22A: Tamale?)
LINDA EVANS (30D: Legal?)
ROY ORBISON (27D: Roman?)

Word of the Day:LOLA(29A: Popular fragrance that's a girl's name) —

• • •

This is a clever idea, and I can't think of any other viable clues, i.e. word that can be reimagined as two letters + word meaning "man" or "woman." It's a pretty random assortment of people—would've been nice if there'd been a way to add more, I don't know, coherence to the whole thing. It wasn't that entertaining or exciting, as Thursday themes go, but it's consistent, and the core cluing trick is a good one. The constructor also worked out how to get her theme answers symmetrical, going with mirror symmetry over the usual rotational symmetry. I don't know if this was *necessary*, as I haven't taken / won't take the time to scroll through all the "ta males" I can think of (Tim Allen, Thomas Aquinas, etc.) or any of the other clue name possibilities to see if other theme answer arrangements were possible. I think TOM ARNOLD and LINDA EVANS date this puzzle terribly, as they were relevant 20 and 30 years ago, respectively, and have not been relevant since. MARIE ANTOINETTE and ROY ORBISON are both timeless, so no problem there. My general feeling is that, with so many options available (in theory), the names you go with should be either legendary or current. TOM ARNOLD and LINDA EVANS are neither. Perfectly good crossword answers, just ... when you have options, it's harder to justify them as your choices.

[Legal?]
Fill-wise, fine. Weak points, strong points. SPIT TAKE, always good (4D: "You did WHAT?" reaction). I had TIME SUCKS for TIME SINKS, so that cost me (34D: Mindless but addictive app games, e.g.).

The wikipedia definition of TIME SINK(S) focuses on games, though not on the games themselves, but on certain features in the games that encourage / force players to spend more time in the game without making progress. "Players may use the term disparagingly to describe a simplistic and time-consuming aspect of gameplay, possibly designed to keep players playing longer without significant benefit." TIME SUCK(S) googles better, but only slightly. I use TIME SUCK. I will never use TIME SINK(S). That said, I think it's a reasonable answer, even as clued, and certainly the most interesting answer in this grid.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Brandon Hensley

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day:Anita O'DAY(6D: Jazz singer whose surname came from pig Latin) —

Anita O'Day (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006) was an American jazz singer.
Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer". Refusing to pander to any female stereotype, O'Day presented herself as a "hip" jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt as opposed to an evening gown. She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough," slang for money. (wikipedia)

• • •

I remember thinking GOLDILOCKS ZONE would make a nice crossword answer the first time I heard it, five years or so ago (25A: Region around a star "just right" for habitable planets). It's a 14, and you don't see 14s very often (they are pains in the ass to construct grids around unless you really plan for them, for reasons I won't get into here; just trust me). I think 14s should be the new 15—constructors should hoard them and bring them out more often as marquee answers. They're really under-utilized. *Any*way, this puzzle might've been easier for me than it was for others because GOLDILOCKS ZONE came so readily. I have no idea how commonly known that phrase is. Of course everyone today is obsessed with this gravitational waves news (look for LIGO—Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory—coming to a grid near you, soon ... or not). But as for GOLDILOCKS ZONE, I'm not sure where I first heard it—probably from Neil deGrasse Tyson on "NOVA Science Now," which my daughter used to watch a lot. At any rate, it's the star (!) answer in this grid. CRY YOUR EYES OUT, also pretty wonderful. Most everything else is solid but unremarkable. Have we had BUZZFEED in a grid before? (64A: Presenter of many listicles) Feels ... not new, but that may just be because I solve the BUZZFEED crossword regularly and so the name has lost all 'zazz and novelty for me. Still looks nice in the grid. (PS, you should probably do today's BUZZFEED crossword—I haven't actually solved it yet, and I don't know what time of day it'll be up, but I know it's by Doug Peterson and Neville Fogarty, who are reliably fantastic) (Update: here it is)

This puzzle was very close to "Easy," but I got slowed down considerably in the final (SW) quadrant, and so while I still ended up on the easy side of things, I wasn't close to breaking any personal records. Always helpful when 1-Across is both long and a total gimme, as it was today (1A: One inclined to patronize a farmer's market => LOCAVORE).

After that my second through sixth answers into the grid were 4- through 8-Down, all in a row, bam bam bam (bam bam). After that, moved easily into the center of the grid and then NE and SW quadrants. Ended up not having an easy time entering the SW. DECATUR took some guessing (52A: Naval hero with five US counties named for him), and DYNASTY was very well hidden (some solvers affiliated with BUZZFEED were so eager to show off that their employer was in the puzzle that they tweeted spoilers just minutes after the puzzle went live ... which was partially annoying, but partially funny, in that the grid image I saw had some pretty important errors, one of which was WHISKEYS for 40D: Bourbons, e.g.; the other was GO FOR IT instead of GO CRAZY (20D: "Knock yourself out")). The classical lit dork in me loved the AENEID crossing ODYSSEYS crossing both GODDESS and ARES. That is one insane mythological party going on up there. Approved.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Peter Wentz

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day:SRSLY(58A: Possible "OMG!" follow-up) —

• • •

Played harder than usual for me, and Way harder than Wentz puzzles usually play for me. I solved upon waking, though, and that's never (or rarely) a good idea, if being at the top of my solving game is the goal, so I adjusted difficulty level accordingly (back to Medium). The puzzle looks like something that should've been far easier than it was. I needed only a little help to get ERYKAH BADU, and no help at all to get JUDGE WAPNER and IGGY POP. And thank god for BUTTERBEER (50A: Quaff at the Three Broomsticks inn), or I'd still be sweating out that SE corner. Clues on EONS (38A: Mountains have grown over them), F-STOP (45A: Setting for Ansel Adams), MUST-DO (?) (48A: Critical assignment), MEL (I had BOB) (48D: Krusty's sidekick on "The Simpsons") and OTTERS (39D: Some pups) were all uncrackable to me. And I seriously could not bring myself to believe in SRSLY. I wanted only "ORLY?" And the short stuff down there was useless to me: three-letter TV station next to three-letter TV station? Ugh. But TACT + TET + BUTTERBEER eventually rescued me, allowing me to finish the puzzle.

I've barely heard of NOSY PARKER (srsly), and getting to IVORY TOWER from 14A: Neocon's target of derision was rough. I was like, "Why would they deride the IVORY COAST?" and then later, "Do they really deride the IVORY TRADE? That's ... weird." All the little Acrosses in the NE were hard. I had STAN (10D: Van Gundy of the N.B.A.) and still couldn't get any. STEM forSLAB (10A: Foundation piece). TAPE for TIVO (16A: Prepare for a later showing, maybe). Later, misspelled WOPNER (thus) and thought Rihanna and Madonna had -NOMY, like ... MONONOMY, only that wouldn't fit (they have ONE NAME, of course). Wish ANTI had gotten a Rihanna clue. That would've been a nice (timely) cluing twofer.

I should probably say that I thought this puzzle was first-rate. Hard, wide-ranging, clean. Everything good.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Mary Lou Guizzo

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:"All You Need"— LOVE rebus; you know ... for VALENTINE'S DAY (31A: Romantic date)

The "Love"Songs:

LOVE ME DO (1A: The Beatles' first single, 1962)
BE MY LOVE (?) (14A: 1951 #1 Mario Lanza hit with lyrics written by SAMMY CAHN)
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT? (61A: 1994 Oscar- and Grammy-winning song for Elton John)
IS THIS LOVE? (75A: Hit song title for Bob Marley, Whitesnake and Survivor)
LOVE LETTER (78A: 2010 R. Kelly top 10 album) (wait, what? "album"?) [buzzer!]
LOVE TAKES TIME (86A: 1990 #1 hit for Mariah Carey)
TO SIR, WITH LOVE (93A: 1967 #1 hit for Lulu)

Word of the Day:Hank IBA(96D: Basketball Hall-of-Famer Hank) —

Henry Payne "Hank" Iba (/ˈaɪbə/; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American hall-of-fame basketball coach, winner of two NCAA Men's Division I basketball championships and two Olympic gold medals. (wikipedia)

• • •

I cannot feel the love tonight. Nevermind that that is not only The Worst Elton John song, but one of the worst (allegedly) popular songs ever written—I mean, unbearable. That's not the real issue. I mean, it's an issue, it really is, but it's not the main one. First, there's the fact that the theme is pretty trite and obvious. Also (not surprisingly) it's been done. And recently. Valentine grid shape *and* LOVE rebus, both, right here (one year ago today, in a puzzle by current WaPo crossword puzzle constructor Evan Birnholz). There's no real trick here, no great revealer or twist or anything. At least in the Birnholz version of this theme, there was a revealer ("MAKE A LITTLE LOVE") which tied into the whole rebus concept (you make "LOVE" little, so it can fit in the box). Here, just ... LOVE songs. Kind of yawn. Wore, though, was the fill, which was startlingly rough. I have come to expect pretty smooth work from this constructor, but that was not on display today. REPOT, REUNE, RESAND (!?). CMD MIDEAR DEHORNS ONE (bleeping) LIRA??? Somebody named IBA? TATTOOERS? I mean, TATTOO ARTISTS is obviously the correct phrase, but even TATOOISTS googles better than TATTOOERS. BARIC? UNAPT? Multiple ERTES? There were just groany answer after groany answer. So what we have here is a basic rebus with dated LOVE songs and weak fill. And a SILENT U. OK, Cupid. Whatever you say.

BABI YAR? Sorry, I said I was done, and I'm still going. ILIA! OK, I'll leave you to enjoy this puzzle, or not, as you see fit. OMICRON is a Greek "O," and the first letter in (i.e. the "head of") "Olympus" (Όλυμπος), so that explains that, I hope (84D: Head of Olympus?). I don't think anything else needs explanation. I did loveHOT MESS (85D: Spectacularly disordered sort), but it sadly ended up being a not UNAPT descriptor for the puzzle as a whole.

BOOLA ZOOM PLOP!
PELÉE MINH BOOLA!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:David J. Kahn

Relative difficulty:Not a Monday / More a Tuesday

THEME:Presidents Day, I think— let's see, there's a word ladder going from POLK to FORD through TAFT For Some Reason, and also the clues are kind of presidented up, randomly

SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL, SEMI-CHRONOLOGICAL WORD LADDER:

POLK
PORK
PARK
DARK
DART
DAFT
TAFT
TART
TORT
FORT
FORD

Word of the Day:ALIF(58D: A, in Arabic) —

Aleph is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician'Ālep , Hebrew'Ālef א, AramaicĀlap , SyriacʾĀlap̄ ܐ, and ArabicAlifا. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle makes me want to apologize to yesterday's puzzle for being too harsh on it. This is a train wreck. I can't find a single coherent organizing idea here beyond "vaguely presidenty things." Why POLK? Why FORD? Why go from POLK to FORD? Why through TAFT? What ... kind of structure or concept or idea is being played out here? Why all this congressional stuff on *Presidents* Day? It's not National Politics Day or Washington, D.C. Day. LEGISLATOR? You know the legislative and executive branches are ... different ... branches, right? This whole puzzle makes about as much sense, thematically, as PQR does as an answer in any puzzle ever for any reason. I let out an audible groan and really, desperately wanted to stop solving right about ... here:

Seriously, right before I wrote in PORK, I was thinking "please don't be a word ladder, please don't be a word ladder, please don't be a word ladder." When it turned out to be a word ladder, all goodwill drained out of me. Instantly. I thought for sure the puzzle would earn some of it back. Surely, there had to be a point to this oversized (16x15) word-laddered ... thing. But I don't see one. I CAN'T see one. I am a QUESTIONER of this theme's solidity and validity. EBON AERO ITER ALIF the end.

["a DARK horse riding up..."]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Bikini blast briefly / WED 1-27-16 / Service with bird logo / 2001 Sean Penn movie / Affair that led to Scooter Libby's 2007 conviction informally /

Lumberjack contests / THU 1-28-16 / Mother of Eos Selene / fishy deli order / Former liberal informally / Home of Carthage Palace / Souvenir of Russian trip / Burlesque co-star 2010 / Seeker of elixir of life /

Green-glazed Chinese porcelain / FRI 1-29-16 / Relative of Without doubt in Magic 8 Ball / 2008 R&B Grammy winner for Growing Pains / For-profit university with dozens of US campuses / Vehicle that's loaded in Harry Belafonte hit / Watt-second fraction

1914 battle locale / SUN 1-31-16 / Old Southwest outlaw / Title chameleon of 2011 animated film / Bay former US base on Luzon / Pope John X's successor / Explorer for England who mistook Canada for Asia / Nomadic northerner / News sensation of 10/4/1957

____ Crawley, countess on "Downton Abbey" / MON 2-1-2016 / "Love Story" author Segal / Longtime N.B.A. coach Pat / Sleep disorder / Four-baggers

Cheap 1980s car imports / TUE 2-2-16 / Genius's head / Paul 1993 World Series MVP / 1960s Angela Davis do

Superstate in 1984 / WED 2-3-16 / Land partitioned in 1945 / Scaly wall-scaler / Female lead in Gattaca Kill Bill

Cabaret Voltaire iconoclasts / THU 2-4-16 / Surprise volleyball shot / Atlas's disciples / River mentioned in Yosemite Sam's self-introduction / Special Forces unit court-maritaled for crime they didn't commit

Balloon-carried probe / FRI 2-5-16 / Clean freak of sitcomdom / Chicago exchange in brief / Sister brand of Alpha-Bits / Of wrath in hymn title / Avian symbol of Ontario / Threepio's first master

Filmdom's Chucky, for one / SAT 2-6-16 / Its icon contains pair of quavers / 2004 film with tagline One man saw it coming / Swiss treaty city / Duran Duran frontman Simon / So-called commander of faithful / Redolent ring

Resort island in Firthy of Clyde / SUN 2-7-16 / Orthoodox jewish honorific / Charlie Chan portrayer Warner / Legendary Washington hostess / Luna's Greek counterpart / Southern constellation that holds second-brightest star in night sky

Blue creature of old Saturday morning TV / MON 2-8-16 / 1962 007 villain

Bantu speaker of southern Africa / TUE 2-9-16 / Unwelcome sign for latecomers / Soapy powder mineral / Apple CEO beginning in 2011

Japanese PC maker / WED 2-10-16 / Hobos conveyances / Bodybuilder's dirty secret informally / Celeb parodied by Maya Rudolph on SNL / Exodus hero Ben Canaan

1968 Heineken acquisition / THU 2-11-16 / Fair-hiring watchdog for short / Secret identity of Dick Grayson / Reddit Q&A session briefly / Dweller on upper Mississippi / Gifting someone with clock in China / Perfect Elements maker

Noted jazz trombonist's nickname / SAT 2-13-16 / Neocon's target of derision / Charm City landmark / Arbiter of 1980s TV / Quaff at Three Broomsticks inn / Possible OMG follow-up

Roman road / MON 2-15-16 / Gossipy types / Jeweler's magnifying glass / Black to bard / Cal Dean's east of eden role