Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor:David Steinberg

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: add -STER— ... for wackiness

Theme answers:

HIPSTER FLASK (20A: Something carried surreptitiously into an alt-rock concert?)
DREAM TEAMSTER (27A: Perfect truck driver for the job?)
DRAGSTER QUEEN (44A: Female street-racing champion?)
FLASH MOBSTER (52A: Ostentatious member of the Mafia?)

Word of the Day:FO'C'SLE(6D: Ship part spelled with two apostrophes) —

Forecastle (pron. fowk-sul; commonly abbreviated "fo'c's'le") refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase "before the mast" which denotes anything related to ordinary sailors, as opposed to a ship's officers. (wikipedia)

• • •

As "+ X = Wackiness" themes go, this was OK. -STER changes the meaning of the word it's added to each time. I can't believe HAM-to-HAMSTER wasn't somehow involved, since the potential for primo wackiness there seems quite high. Also, the clues were either tepid of slightly off-seeming. "Ostentatious" is "flash-y" more than it's FLASH. Why FLASH wasn't imagined as a verb in that clue, I will never, ever, know, since that's the much funnier way of imagining the phrase FLASH MOBSTER. Also, there is nothing about "alt-rock concert" that makes me think HIPSTER. Zero. I barely know what "alt-rock" means anymore. *Maybe* "indie rock" would've got you there. This "Definitive Guide to Hipster Music Genres," while tongue-in-cheek, is pretty wide-ranging, and while alt-folk and alt-rap make appearances, alt-rock, no. Be accurate. Shoegaze. Twee. Those are ... closer, anyway.

This puzzle should've been very, very easy, he said to himself, looking back over the grid. So why was my time average, even slightly above. Well, in a ... word? I guess it counts as a word. In a word: FO'C'SLE (6D: Ship part spelled with two apostrophes). That is the horrid outcome of someone's wanting CHASE SCENE so bad that he's willing to completely ignore the nightmarish -CS- consequences in the cross. English doesn't want to do that. So we get this ship part I've literally never heard of or seen in this form, which, btw, may be spelled with two apostrophes but is also spelled with three apostrophes (in fact, the 3-apostrophe spelling seems much more apt, since that's how many you need to account for all elisions). If you had asked me what FO'C'SLE was short for, I would not have been able to tell you. Even on a guess. I looked it up, saw "Forecastle," and went "... huh. OK." Also, FIND as 6A: Edit menu option??? I can't think of a duller, more horrible terrible boring and unthoughtful clue for FIND. Infinite clues, and we get this beige, office-manager nonsense. Ugh. So, yeah, I was held up a lot right in the north.

[43D: Tight hug]

Turns out I really hate the word AGLET (48A: Tip on a sweatshirt string). Just ... hate it. It looks stupid, and it doesn't look like it's pronounced, and it can also be spelled AIGLET, and I would never use it. AD REP exists only in crosswords, so I'm not fond of it either. It has all the excitement of [Edit menu option]. How is TOOT a [Palindromic blast]? I get the palindromic part, but ... is it "blast," like "good time.?" Because it sure as hell isn't "blast" like "blast your horn."TOOT is to "blast" what "whisper" is to "yell." Had the D- and thought 35D: One of a Disney septet was (duh) DWARF. Completely and utterly forgot who Nathan Hale was (?!) (SPY). Had ZESTY for ZIPPY (64A: Full of oomph). I think that's all the trouble spots. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Brian J. MacDonald

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:fun and pun with STATE / POSTAL CODES (38A: With 59-Across, necessary substitutions, phonetically) — in familiar phrases, full state names replace words that sound like those states' postal codes when read aloud, e.g. [Bryan Cranston, e.g.*] could be a clue for MAINEWINNER, because he is an "Emmy" winner and "Emmy" => ME => state postal code of Maine.

Theme answers:

MONTANA NEST (17A: *Place where kids aren't found now) (Montana = MT = "empty")
NEBRASKA TIME (27A: *Whenever) (Nebraska = NE = "any")
ILLINOIS SEAT (44A: *Air passenger's request, maybe) (Illinois = IL = "aisle")

Word of the Day:Kings of LEON(53D: Rock's Kings of ___) —

Kings of Leon is an American rock band that formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2000. The band is composed of brothers Caleb Followill (b. January 14, 1982, lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Nathan Followill (b. June 26, 1979, drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Jared Followill (b. November 20, 1986, bass guitar, backing vocals), with their cousin Matthew Followill (b. September 10, 1984, lead guitar, backing vocals). // The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and blues influences, but it has gradually expanded throughout the years to include a variety of genres and a more alternative, arena rock sound. Kings of Leon achieved initial success in the United Kingdom with nine Top 40 singles, two BRIT Awards in 2008, and all three of the band's albums at the time peaked in the top five of the UK Albums Chart. Their third album, Because of the Times, also reached the number one spot. After the release of Only by the Night in September 2008 the band achieved chart success in the United States. The singles "Sex on Fire", "Use Somebody", and "Notion" all peaked at number one on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album was their first Platinum-selling album in the United States, and was also the best-selling album of 2008 in Australia, being certified platinum nine times. The band's fifth album, Come Around Sundown, was released on October 18, 2010. Their sixth album, Mechanical Bull, was released on September 24, 2013. The seventh studio album, WALLS, was released on October 14, 2016.^[1] The group has 12 Grammy Award nominations, including 4 wins. (wikipedia)

• • •

Very mixed feelings about this one. I was up down up down, feelings-wise. I think I ended up on the mostly positive side, but things didn't start out so great. That NW corner — my first two answers were SRA and ATPAR, ugh. When the answer I was struggling to see before I got out of there ended up being OTOES, well, my happiness dial was turned all the way down to 1, and my hopes were not high. Too much junk packed too tight into square one (figurative square one—there's like 25 actual squares in my "square one" today ... is "Square One" the name of a breakfast cereal, because if not, it really, really should be...) OK where was I ...? Oh, right. Junk fill party in the NW. Puzzles that begin that way usually continue that way—but, in an unexpected Thanksgiving miracle, not this one. This one cleaned up its act, and fast. With a couple of exceptions, short fill stayed tolerable, but then bam, those long Downs started coming in, and they are all fantastic: RATFINKS! ALL SMILES! SMELL TEST! GO TO TOWN! I mean, dang, that's a grand slam, where long non-theme Downs are concerned. It's weird how once I started enjoying the puzzle, I also started *flying* through the puzzle.

But there was another down turn. Namely, the theme reveal. I enjoyed discovering the theme up there at MONTANA NEST, hacking my way through that Bizarro phrase, then thinking about how it could possibly be the answer to [Place where kids aren't found now], and then ... Figuring Out How. In My Head. No. Revealer. Needed. I thought "Oh, this'll be fun, trying to figure out which states are involved and how ... cool." But then I run into this totally unnecessary, clunky, giant divided revealer, which is not only massively anti-climactic—it takes valuable real estate away from another potential themer. Puzzle buckles under the weight of its own ponderous over-explanation. You gotta have some faith that solvers can work this out for themselves, or else have some other, subtler way of doing the reveal. Maybe STATE alone could've borne that weight if clued properly. Anyway, that was a drag. But the generally cute theme and lively grid win out, I think. Hard to stay mad at a Thursday puzzle I do this fast (almost a minute faster than yesterday).

Bullets:

1A: Male hedgehogs (BOARS)— I had BEARS. I know this makes not a lot of sense, but they look more like bears than BOARS to me. This made my "tribe" (from 2D: First tribe encountered by Lewis and Clark) start with an E, so I thought ERIES. Unfortunately, my "tribe" went on to start ET- so ... unless there were some British boys who formed a lost "tribe" called the ETONS ... yeah, I knew something was wrong.
48A: Spanish dramatist ___ de Vega (LOPE)— I knew this. Unfortunately, I "knew" it was LUPE. I also thought I knew 8D: Film for which Gregory Peck had the highest-paid performance of his career, with "The" when I plunked down ROBE ... a film that Peck wasn't even in ... the answer is "OMEN."Then there was the small problem of thinking 1D: Cartoon title character adapted from a Felix Salten novel was BABAR (it's BAMBI).

16A: "My Orcha'd in Linden ___" (classic poem) (LEA)— I have no idea what I'm looking at here. Any part of it. It's gibberish to me. "Classic?""Poem?" If you google this, right now—my orcha'd—you will get an entire page of crossword bot sites (don't click on any of them, they're horrible SEO junkfests). My point is classic shmassic. It's by someone named William Barnes ... of whom I also have never heard.
46D: Cheats, euphemistically (STRAYS)— great clue. I also liked the basketballness of 51D: Baskets made from beyond the arc, informally (TREYS). Better basketball than Yet Another playing card-related answer. (Note: I'm not really mad at playing cards per se; just bridge; all bridge clues; can't stand 'em; never lead anywhere good? ONENO?! No, thanks)

Happy Thanksgiving,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. The blog gets mentioned in the New Yorker podcast this week. You can listen for yourself, if you want.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:ELLA Raines(6D: Actress Raines of "Tall in the Saddle") —

Ella Wallace Raines (born Ella Wallace Raubes, August 6, 1920 – May 30, 1988) was an American film and television actress. // Born Ella Wallace Raubes near Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, Ella Raines studied drama at the University of Washington and was appearing in a play there when she was seen by Howard Hawks. She became the first actor signed to the new production company he had formed with the actor Charles Boyer, "B-H Productions", and made her film debut in Corvette K-225 in 1943. Immediately following her role in that film, she was cast in the all female war film Cry 'Havoc', made the same year. In 1944, she appeared soon after D-Day as a most classy pin-up in the GI magazine, Yank. She starred in a series of big films including the film noirPhantom Lady, the comedy Hail the Conquering Hero, and the John Wayne western Tall in the Saddle. Soon, she began appearing in such films as 1945's The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry with Geraldine Fitzgerald and George Sanders and the 1947 thriller The Web. With the exception of Brute Force, in which Raines appeared with Burt Lancaster, none of her later films were nearly as successful as her previous movies and her career began to decline. (wikipedia)

• • •

Two puzzles. N/NW was the first—hard—and then the rest was the rest—mostly very easy. Took as long to do the N/NW as it did to do the rest of the grid. Maybe if I'd known who ELLA Raines was, or knew my cello attachments, or could see my way to any confident entries besides BOA and ARID, things might've been different up there, but ye gods. 1A: Strongly disparage (BASH) could've been many things. 14D: Marathon runner's bane (HILL) could've been many, many things. I went through all the 4x4s I knew, and while "piece of wood" crossed my mind, BEAM did not. Had RNS for MDS (32A: Ward healers, for short). Nice clue on TRAWL, but very hard (19A: Drag out of a bed?). So I had to claw for every damn answer up there. I think I got SEER and then inferred WAR at the end of 4D: Open hostilities (HOT WAR), and then put the "L" after the "W" before eventually getting TRAWL. Once IMPALA fell (23A: 1958 Chevrolet debut), then I crawled back up and across those long Acrosses (neither of which was anywhere near obvious).

But after that—no resistance. BYPRODUCTS went down easy (15D: Unlooked-for results). I stupidly went with RASSLE instead of RUSTLE at 25A: Take stock? and BAH instead of HEY at 9D: Affronted shout, and those errors caused some trouble, but not much. LEGOLAS helped me get the NE sorted (11D: Orlando Bloom's "The Lord of the Rings" role), and then I backed into LESSON PLAN and immediately dropped all those 5-letter Downs in the middle. Eventually, I was barely looking at clues. Got HEAVENSENT without looking (40A: Arriving at just the right moment). ESAU and TERM, same thing. HORATIO (37D: Speaker of the line in 40-Down) didn't even require my checking the cross-reference. I remembered "HAMLET" had come up earlier, so I assumed that was the reference, and was right. Had to wait a bit on the end of SPACE ___ at 56A: Landing gear? (SPACE SUITS), and had to change I'M FIRST to ME FIRST (39D: Selfishly eager cry), but no problems otherwise. Goes without saying that this is a well-made puzzle. Patrick Berry Fridays (or any days) are rarely anything else. Not exceptional by his standards, but his standards are ridiculous. And so to bed. Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgivings. See you Saturday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Paolo Pasco

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day:NATAL(27A: Brazilian state capital) —

Natal (Brazilian Portuguese: [naˈtaw], Christmas) is the capital and largest city of Rio Grande do Norte state, located in northeastern Brazil. As of the IBGE July 2014, the city had a total population of 862,044 (1,485,505 in its Greater Natal). (wikipedia)

• • •

Had to flat-out guess the last letter: guessed right, which means NATAL must've been somewhere in the back of my brain, but yikes, that is not a great cross. Definite Natick territory there, as LAMPED is (as its clue says) "British slang," so not likely familiar to most solvers (incl. me). Just a rough, rough cross. Should've set off alarms. But oh well, I got it right. I liked this puzzle fine, though it is perhaps overfond of proper nouns (current, to their credit, but still...). I know WHAT'S APP solely because of the fact that [Facebook acquired it in 2014 for $19.3 billion]—I've literally never heard of it or seen it in any other context—so that answer is current but dull to me. I had no idea MUSLIM ERA was a thing (29A: Religious period dating from A.D. 622). PANERA, sure, but MUSLIM ERA? News to me. I don't believe in RURALIST. Like, I don't believe anyone uses that word or identifies with that word or anything. The clue uses "city slicker" as RURALIST's counterpart, but the thing is, "city slicker" is a term that has been used. By humans. Living humans. Who in the world calls people from rural areas RURALISTs? Sounds like a term that a time-traveling Victorian might use. "I say, where might one find suitable accommodations in Nebraska? I am unfamiliar with the ways of you RURALISTs." I also totally disbelieve in PRIED UP (!?!?!) (8D: Raised, as a trapdoor). Oh, and noir detectives (and their novels) are hard-boiled, not HARD-EDGED (40A: Like noir detective novels, typically). Come on.

On the other hand, I did like TINFOIL HAT, and (with a heaping dose of ironic nostalgia) ACE OF BASE (both of them gimmes). PUB GOLF was also, oddly, a gimme, in that I knew it had to be [something] GOLF, and since drinking was involved ... and the remaining bit was three letters ... PUB (33A: Drinking game where each bar that's visited is considered a hole). I guess it could've been "BAR," but I had that stupid trapdoor answer ending in "UP," hence the "P," hence PUB. "F" from GOLF made EGOSURF easy, so no trouble up there. I never saw "THE MARTIAN" (16A: Sci-fi hit whose tagline is "Bring him home"), but I'm Twitter-friends with one of the producers because a. we went to the same college, and b. he is a crossword solver. I have a feeling Paolo Pasco knows this, as I am Twitter-friends with him as well (he is my daughter's age, btw). Speaking of age, today is my birthday. I am older than today's constructor and younger than dirt. It's an OK age to be. That is all. I need to go see how my birthday cake turned out...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty:A few clicks over average for an experienced but not professional solver.

THEME:"Mixology"— Words -- some in circles alternating with some not in circles -- are mixed together to form new words. A "mixologist" is a fancy word for "bartender"; I was hoping for a theme along the alcoholic line, but perhaps that's wishful thinking as we wind down the holiday weekend.

Word of the Day:SANTORINI(83D: Island whose volcanic eruption is rumored to have destroyed Atlantis) —

Santorini (Greek: Σαντορίνη, pronounced [sandoˈrini]), classically Thera (English pronunciation /ˈθɪərə/), and officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα [ˈθira]), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera. It forms the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km² (28 sq mi) and a 2011 census population of 15,550. It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, though what remains today is chiefly a water-filled caldera. The volcanic arc is approximately 500 km (310 mi) long and 20 to 40 km (12 to 25 mi) wide. The region first became volcanically active around 3–4 million years ago, though volcanism on Thera began around 2 million years ago with the extrusion of dacitic lavas from vents around the Akrotiri. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis. (Wikipedia)

• • •

Laura here, guest-posting as a birthday gift for Rex. You know what would be cool, faithful blog readers? How about donating to the blog as your birthday gift to Rex? (Either by PayPal via the link above or via SNAILED [64A: Moved at a crawl] mail.) He has written this thing every single day of every year for the past decade, save for a few days here and there from us guest-posters. That's maybe 340-ish days per year, brought to you ad-free (unlike puzzle host publication The New York Times), all out of the goodness of his heart (and he is a real person, with thoughts and feelings and a heart), and all because he's interested in and dedicated to solving puzzles. You know what I'm thankful for, this holiday season? This blog. Its MIXOLOGY has brought us together. Maybe I'm not fully clear on why or how, but it has, after all (as with the theme answers [see what I did there]).

Theme answers:

23A: Infant (BABY) + Straying (ERRANT) = Noted coach (BEAR BRYANT)
25A: Less polite (RUDER) + Wildly unconventional (GONZO) = Epicenter (GROUND ZERO)
34A: Urban woe (SMOG) + Squirms (WIGGLES) = Pool accessory (SWIM GOGGLES)
43A: Delay (LAG) + Dodos (PEA BRAINS) = Some compromises (PLEA BARGAINS)
60A: Remain (BIDE) + "Hmmm ..." (ODDLY) = R&B Great (BO DIDDLEY)
70A: Bill producers (ATMS) + Western wear (STRING TIES) = Info for events (STARTING TIMES)
80A: Show, informally (DEMO) + African capital (RABAT) = Adonis (DREAMBOAT)
97A: Pasty (PALE) + Vacation expense, maybe (RENTAL CAR) = Hospital specialty (PRENATAL CARE)
103A: See (DATE) + Umbrella alternative (RAIN HAT) = Warming option (RADIANT HEAT)
119A: Regarding (AS TO) + Undercoat (PRIMER) = Network with 303 stations (PARIS METRO)
122A: Day of the month (IDES) + Succeed (PAN OUT) = Some recital pieces (PIANO DUETS)

"Hmmm ..." That's a lot of themers. I need the services of a mixologist after typing out all of those. Felt like a very classic theme; nothing too sparkly or hip, but very familiar and homey (kind of like my Thanksgiving dinner). I wanted 119A: Network with 303 stations to be PUBLIC RADIO but no fit. Fill came together smoothly, if not too excitingly, some fresh (48D: Chain that sells chains [ZALES]) and some stale (118D: Bygone boomers, for short [SSTS]). The WNW gave me some trouble; could not get the obvious 62A: ___ season (DEER) even thought that's what it is right now here in northern New England. Also, there was quite a spate of geography trivia in the southern hemisphere of the grid, including the aforementioned Word of the Day (SANTORINI): 81D: After Rainier, highest peak in the Pacific Northwest (MT ADAMS); 91D: Capital where Robert Louis Stevenson died (APIA) (capital of Samoa); 110A: Remote land in the Pacific (NAURU). Send a postcard via 99A: Correo ____ (foreign mail stamp) (AEREO).

Bullets:

32A: In Tahitian it means "good" (MAITAI)— Here's our mixology! Usually we see this clued as "Mai ___" or "___ Tai" so it was refreshing (much like a MAITAI) to guess at the whole word. For the last word on MAITAIs in crosswords, listen to this refreshing new podcast.
14A: "Back to the Future" antagonist (BIFF Tannen). I've had enough with bullies. Do we need to go back in time to fix things?

Signed, Laura Braunstein, Sorceress of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Kristian House

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME: DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE (58A: Children's game ... or the circled words in 20-, 28- and 48-Across) — embedded in each themer is (in order) a duck, a duck, and a goose:

Theme answers:

TRIBUTE ALBUMS (20A: "Bowiemania" and "Come Together: America Salutes the Beatles")
APARTHEID ERA (28A: 1948-94, in South Africa)
SWORN ENEMIES (48A: Bitter rivals)

Word of the Day:NADINE Gordimer(50D: Literature Nobelist Gordimer) —

Nadine Gordimer (20 November 1923 – 13 July 2014) was a South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel– been of very great benefit to humanity". // Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned, and gave Nelson Mandela advice on his famous 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well I thought this was lovely. Very simple, but perfectly executed. Those are, indeed, a duck a duck and a goose, respectively. Plus the theme answers themselves were fairly novel. Clever, neat, easy—I really don't expect much more from my Mondays. Actually, scratch that last sentence, as it implies that doing this sort of thing is easy. If it were, I'd be writing something sunny like this every Monday. The truth is, coming up with a neat Monday theme concept, and then executing it cleanly, is really quite hard. There aren't that many people I trust to do it on a regular basis. Writing easy puzzles of high quality is, in fact, tough. So while I don't expect more from my Mondays than "clever, neat, easy," that actually ends up being a reasonably high bar.

I could've done without ABORC (which I always read as a single word—like some discarded Tolkien creature), and EDUCE (a word that always makes me want to egest my lunch), and ENACTOR (it's a word, but just barely) and PONES (OK in the singular, but somehow grating in the plural). Everything else is clean, though. I have a weird lot of admiration for CROP UP (54A: Appear, as problems). It's just a nice, crisp phrase, and, yeah, it duplicates the "UP" from GUSSIED UP, but that's a pretty minor dupe. Nice to have NADINE Gordimer (anti-apartheid writer) to offset the downerness of APARTHEID ERA. I also like NOGOODNIK. How do you not like NOGOODNIK? It's among the best of the -niks, along with refuse and beat and peace. I am going to beat it now, so I can eat some more birthday cake. Peace.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (*for a Tuesday*) (3:51)

THEME:"THE JOY OF COOKING" (40A: Classic kitchen volume ... or a hint to 18-, 24-/53- and 62-Across)— themers are two-word food items where the second word is a rough synonym for "JOY"

Theme answers:

ORANGE ZEST (18A: Marmalade ingredient)
TURKISH / DELIGHT (24A: With 53-Across, a sugary treat)
CORN RELISH (62A: Sweet and tangy picnic side dish)

Word of the Day:HAMAN(35A: Purim villain) —

Haman (Also known as Haman the Agagiteהמן האגגי, or Haman the evilהמן הרשע) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was a vizier in the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, traditionally identified as Xerxes I. As his name indicates, Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites, a people who were wiped out in certain areas by King Saul and David. (wikipedia)

• • •

Harder and weirder than most Tuesdays. Can't say clunkier, 'cause Tuesday's gonna clunk, historically speaking, that's for sure, and this one clunked about the normal amount ... but definitely harder and weirder. I like the germ of an idea that is underneath / behind this puzzle. When I finished, I honestly had no idea what was going on for ... about 5-10 seconds. That's actually an eternity when compared against the time it takes me to understand most Tuesday themes, which is no time. First thought was "those are foods ... you don't really 'cook' them ... I mean, you do ... but they're cold, so ... but ... where's the joy?" Then I realized why we were presented with this insane menu from the Association for Strange Food Cravings picnic: DELIGHT, JOY, RELISH. That's the "joy." It's a long, convoluted way to go for a joke. I admire the ambition, and I realize that there can't have been a lot of potential themers to work with. Pretty narrow straits. Still, between oddness of (cold) food types and that oddly split themer, I thought the execution here only so-so.

Played significant harder than most Tuesdays. Cluing often veered toward Friday. 30A: It might end with an early touchdown (RED EYE). That is a great clue, but one that probably should've been saved for when that serious ambiguity of wording (football "touchdown"?) could've helped toughen up a puzzle that requires toughening up. This one did not require it. Took me (comparatively) forever just to get out of the NW. I mean 1A: Croquet needs (PEGS)??? I see balls ... mallets ... those little arced goal thingies you hit the ball through ... and I'm out. I mean, when you show me PEGS, I can kind of see them, but a. no one really plays croquet and b. that is the damnedest clue for word like PEGS, which has So Many potential clues. I also had HOLD for BIND up there (17A: Secure). Only because I knew ELIHU did I get that all sorted out without serious solving time damage. But the difficulty / strangeness / wavelength issues just kept coming. From the feeling of "which touchdown?" to the feeling of "which Homer?" at 48A: Image of Homer, perhaps (CEL). And the SE corner: [Words to live by] in five letters? I got at least two other ideas before the (singular!) TENET occurs to me. No idea Beethoven was born in BONN. [Mother ___]!? Yes, LODE, that works, but that is down the list of Mother ___ things that might occur to me. None of this is really the puzzle's fault. Shoulda been a Wednesday, probably. Grid is decent, without too much junk, and with some interesting longer Downs.

Gotta run.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Molly Young

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:imaginary new products from Apple, all beginning with "i" (a la iPad, iPod, etc.), all of which are puns on words/phrases starting with "eye":

Theme answers:

iLIFT (14A: New push-up bra from Apple?)
iBALL (8D: New sports equipment from Apple?)
iSTRAIN (12D: New colander from Apple?)
iSHADOW (40D: New tracking device from Apple?)
iDROP (52D: New parachute from Apple?)
iLASH (66A: New whip from Apple?)

Word of the Day:Robert EDEN(36A: British P.M. between Churchill and Macmillan) —

Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative politician who served three periods as Foreign Secretary and then a relatively brief term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1957. [...] His worldwide reputation as an opponent of appeasement, a "Man of Peace", and a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in 1956 when the United States refused to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez Crisis, which critics across party lines regarded as an historic setback for British foreign policy, signalling the end of British predominance in the Middle East. Most historians argue that he made a series of blunders, especially not realising the depth of U.S. opposition to military action. Two months after ordering an end to the Suez operation he resigned as Prime Minister on grounds of ill health, and because he was widely suspected of having misled the House of Commons over the degree of "collusion" with France and Israel. (wikipedia)

• • •

Found this one pretty GRIM, for a boatload of reasons. As soon as I worked out iLIFT in the NW, all hope drained out of me. A bunch of *&$^ing "i-" words? Nonsense words? All over my grid? Lord, why? At that point, I didn't see the "eye" pun, but once I did, I didn't care. It didn't add anything pleasurable to the experience of putting fake i-products in the grid. Further, the theme material here is Obscenely thin. 34 squares by my count. That is Nothing. Your thinnest themes usually have ~40. And there are a ton of potential themers on the table. iPATCH and iTEST and iLINER iLIDS iCHART iLEVEL iCANDY iTEETH etc. etc. Then there's the matter of non-theme i-answers in the grid—a serious elegance f*&%-up. If your (superthin) theme involves i-starters, then no other answers should be i-starters. It's not hard to do. In fact, this grid almost does it, but for the inexplicable IBID / IED crossing, and then INA. Why is no one thinking of these little details? Again, there's hardly any theme here. No pressure on grid. Make it nice. And the fill, ugh. It's probably not too far below NYT average, but I mentally checked out at BOTA (30A: Leather bag for wine). With so little theme pressure, grid should've been soooooooo much better than it was. There is a germ of an idea here, but it's very awkwardly and poorly expressed here.

Appears the puzzle was considered overeasy at some point and so some of the clues were toughened up. That EDEN clue, yeesh. Prime Minister for like 2 years in the '50s? Sure, I know that ... :( ... That one's position near BOTA made that section a little rough-going. I had FORESEEN before FORETOLD (42A: Predicted), conflated WMD and IED and ended up at first with IMD, totally blanked on the meaning of [Perfidy] (!?!?) (DECEIT), and then misread 1D: Casual greetings (HIS) as a singular and wrote in HEY. There were what felt like a bunch of non-theme "?" clues too, esp. up front. Still, low 4s is a pretty normal Wed. time for me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:BEAN DIP (62A: Nacho accompaniment ... or a feature of 17-, 35- and 52-Across?)— the answers "dip" (down to the next line then back up again) at a word that is also a type of "bean":

Theme answers:

LOADED BAKED POTATO (17A: Dish topped with bacon, cheese and sour cream)
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (35A: Classic novel about an orphan girl mistakenly sent to Prince Edward Island)
THE MAGIC SCHOOLBUS (52A: Edutainment cartoon featuring a teacher named Ms. Frizzle)

Word of the Day:"THE MAGIC SCHOOLBUS"—

The Magic School Bus is a Canadian/American Saturday morning animated children's television series, based on the book series of the same name by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational series. Broadcasting & Cable said the show was "among the highest-rated PBS shows for school-age children." On June 10, 2014 Scholastic Media announced that it will be releasing an all-new CG animated series inspired by the original show, entitled "The Magic School Bus" [...] [Lily] Tomlin won a Daytime Emmy for her role as Ms. Frizzle. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was easy. So easy that I never saw the revealer. That SE corner came together fast, and when I filled in 55D: Instructed (BADE) the little Happy Pencil appeared and I was done ... never having seen the clue for BEAN DIP. So I just thought there were three answers that kinda sorta went around a little roadblock, randomly. But then that didn't seem like enough of a thing, so I went looking for the revealer, and there it was: BEAN DIP. Ah, yes, that makes sense. I guess there was no PINTO or BLACK because the idea was not to use beans that might actually be *used* in BEAN DIP. I think the idea here is quite clever. I'm especially fascinated by the architecture of this thing; since the dip thing has to work with all themers, it can't have normal crossword (i.e. rotational) symmetry. I mean, the grid does, but the themers can't be placed symmetrically (otherwise the lower themer would rise, not dip). But it's still the 3rd and 4th rows in that are involved, so there's a *kind* of parallelism there. THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS interests me most, because the other two have the bean dead center, whereas that one's bean is way off to the left. I guess you figure out what the grid might look like first, and then move your five-letter beans around and see what you can make work, theme-answer-wise. Result is pretty nice.

Fill is no great shakes, but it's certainly good enough. It was really only OHOS into ATRAS into AT PAR that made me wince at all. Everything else is quite solid, with WET KISS and BASS LINE and PELAGIC giving the grid a little pizzazz. Only trouble I had was, first, getting that first themer—coincidentally (given the revealer clue) I wanted LOADED NACHOS and spent a few seconds wondering how LOADED B = LOADED NACHOS. Man, that was one revealer I couldn't wait to discover. "How's he gonna pull that one off?" I wondered. But then I rounded the corner and saw that 18A didn't have a clue, just a "-" so I knew it was continued somehow from 17A ... and then it all became clear. I knew "THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS"—I knew it as a book, but just knowing the title was enough to make that answer to easy to pick up with some crosses. Outside the theme, only the western section was problematic. IMAC or IPAD? MEWL or PEWL? Is PEWL a word??? ... oh, god bless my mistake because it led me to SCOTS WIKIPEDIA: "The pewl or white maw (Larus argentatus), whiles kent as the willie gou or gray willie an aw, is a sea-bird fund on the shores that eats fish an ither peedie ainimals sic as partans an is thocht tae be awfu gleg." I want all of wikipedia to be Scots. Right now. And forever. "In basebaw, the Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians tae win the Warld Series for the first time syne 1908." Ah ... that's the stuff.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Suffix with klepto- (CRAT) is an epic subtweet

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Constructor:Andrew Kingsley

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:Paul DANO(29A: Paul of "There Will Be Blood") —

Paul Franklin Dano (/ˈdeɪnoʊ/) (born June 19, 1984) is an American actor, producer, singer, and musician. // Dano started his career on Broadway before making his film debut in The Newcomers (2000). He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for his role in L.I.E. (2002) and received accolades for his role as Dwayne Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006). For his dual roles as Paul & Eli Sunday in There Will Be Blood (2007), he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. // Dano has also received accolades for roles such as John Tibeats in 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Alex Jones in Prisoners (2013). His acting portrayal of musician Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy (2014), earned him a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor. (wikipedia)

• • •

Too much grinding fill here. There are definitely some nice moments, but it was so bad out of the gate that I stopped to take a picture (at first audible 'ugh'):

And as you can see, that was *before* I uncovered LAVABO (1A: Ceremonial basin) crossing ORLE (6D: Heraldic wreath). I mean ORLE? ORLE? Please take that answer out back and bury it. Then, if you must, dig it up once a year but ONLY in otherwise brilliant puzzles that need it desperately, not in an ordinary, fairly high word-count Friday. The puzzle just couldn't recover from this early mess. CIAOS? Plural? Stop no stop no. No. Start over. Later fill (outside of the broad N / NW) wasn't quite so disturbing, but the few nice longer answers couldn't make up for the unpleasantness of too much of the rest of it.

Favorite clue/answer today, by far, was 28D: Front ends? (CEASE FIRES). That's exactly what a "?" clue should be. Nothing forced about it, very clever. "Front ends" is an ordinary phrase with its own distinct, everyday meaning, and then the "?" comes along and reorients in a way that makes perfect sense ... if you think of both "front" and "ends" having meanings different from those they have in the ordinary phrase. Often clue writers torture "?" clues, using clue phrases that aren't on the money, phrasing-wise, or forcing words to have meanings they barely have. This one: bullseye.

SW corner was the hardest for me by far. Could not get 27D: Presumptive (A PRIORI) from its front end (APR- ... APROPOS? No...) and then couldn't get 49A: Bound (DELIMIT) from its back end (too many possible meanings for "bound"). I know the story of Phaëthon well, but I kept thinking "his dad is ... PHOEBUS? APOLLO? What the hell are they calling him here!?!?!" But even though Apollo is, in fact, the sun god, it's HELIOS who drives the sun chariot across the sky (Phaëthon steals it and wrecks it—kids these days...—creating the Sahara Desert in the process, if I'm remembering my mythology correctly) (37A: Phaëthon's father, in myth). Anyway, with no way in there (Some sloganeer? Some Pixar dinosaur??), I had to dive into the short stuff. First results:

I love ice cream, but Jerry's partner will always be TOM to me. At this point I was pretty stuck, but I knew enough to know TOM was the weakest length there, so I let it go and HAS DIBS slid in and I was done not long after.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Jason Flinn

Relative difficulty:Easiest

THEME: none

Word of the Day:RAE Sremmurd, hip-hop duo with the 2016 #1 hit "Black Beatles"(38A) —

Rae Sremmurd (pronunciation:/ˈreɪʃrˈɪmɜːrd/) is an American hip hop duo consisting of brothers Khalif "Swae Lee" Brown (born June 7, 1995) and Aaquil "Slim Jxmmi" Brown (born December 29, 1993) from Tupelo, Mississippi. The duo are best known for their platinum singles "No Flex Zone" and "No Type", which peaked at numbers 36 and 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively. They are based in Atlanta, Georgia.^[4] Their debut album SremmLife was released on January 6, 2015. The name "Rae Sremmurd" is derived from the duo's home label, EarDrummers, by spelling each word backwards. Their second album SremmLife 2 was released in 2016 to positive reviews, featuring the singles "Look Alive" and "Black Beatles", the latter of which topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving the duo (and Gucci Mane) their first number one. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well I'm guessing a lot of Saturday records were broken today. I got a heads-up from folks on Twitter that this one was gonna be easy, but that sort of advance notice usually makes me lock up and fall on my face. I am easily (self-) psyched out. But today, whoa. I mean, Whoa. I had the entire top quad filled in in 42 seconds. I actually lost about 5 seconds staring at grid / clock in astonishment. Then I went on and encountered only slightly more resistance. I didn't break 4, but I was close. What day of the week is it again? Saturday. I've had Tuesdays take me longer. Hell, I've had hard Mondays take me longer. Freaky. Today, I experienced a variation of my 1-Across Theory of Speed-Solving. With quad stacks like this, it's the 1-Down that matters, and today's (1D: John or Christine of Fleetwood Mac) was a hand-wrapped gimme served on a silver platter with a floral garnish. 8-year-old-me could've solved 1-Down without hesitation (not a joke). That is a Monday clue. On a *Saturday* *1-Down*. That ... is cluing it wrong (variant of "doing it wrong"). ETO, AREN'T followed fast and now I had the front ends of all the quads. And they fell bam bam bam bam. It was wonderful / horrifying.

Here are the only things I remember even having to think about during this solve:

18A: Something a server can give you (INTERNET ADDRESS)— so excited for how obvious this was that I just wrote in quickly: INTERNET ACCESSS, three "S"s and all.
21A: Swiss chocolate brand (LINDT)— only now, looking at the clue calmly, do I realize that it *doesn't* say "Swiss HOT chocolate brand..." My brain froze on "Swiss Miss" and even the LIN- wasn't helping (if I'd read the clue right, there would've been no hesitation).
32A: Old-fashioned (MOLDY)— M--DY and only "MOODY" was occurring to me. Sometimes your brain just locks up, what can I say?
36D: Orthodox group (HASIDIM)— Here, I knew the answer quickly, but the spelling of the proper answer, yipes. I probably spent more time rewriting this answer than I spent on any other single answer. HASSIDS was my opener. Then HASIDIC.
41D: Child actress Jones of "Family Affair" (ANISSA)— who? seriously, who? Got her (her?) entirely from crosses.

The only thing I really liked about this grid was EMANCIPATION DAY (just watched an episode of "Atlanta"—the best thing on TV—that featured a pretty hilarious "Juneteenth" party, so the concept was fresh in my mind) (48A: Juneteenth). I also liked the fleeting feeling of being a speed-solving superhero. Otherwise, it's pretty bland. Stacks are peppered with RLSTNE-loaded fare like VESTED INTERESTS and INTERNET ADDRESS and super-dull stuff like SYSTEMS ANALYSTS. Plus, any answer with ONE'S in it is basically self-parodic in a quadstack—ONE'S is done so often that it's a joke. Seriously, A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE has become shorthand for "tired and out of ideas but still determined to make a quadstack," and ONE'S in general is the quadstacker's most obvious crutch. Ditch it. And then there's that center, ouch. OR M x/w ORY is a Junk Cross for the Ages (30D: Agatha Christie's "N ___?" / 33A: Suffix with transit). Now, to be fair, that is one tight corner, and I don't think there are any easy fixes, given how locked-in the longer parts of the grid are, but dang. "OR M" is possibly the worst partial I've ever seen. And I've seen some doozies.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:"Action Stars"— actors whose names are turned into past tense verbs and clued as fill-in-the-blanks at the beginnings of vaguely movie-related sentences:

Theme answers:

ORLANDO BLOOMED ... into a major film star (23A)
HELEN HUNTED ... for just the right film role (34A)
JAMES GARNERED ... several filmmaking awards (52A) ("filmmaking??")
SEAN PENNED ... a new film adaptation (66A)
BRAD PITTED ... two film studios against each other (69A)
SHELLEY LONGED ... for meatier roles (83A)
GLENN CLOSED ... the film deal (96A)
RUSSELL BRANDED ... himself as a big-screen film star (111A)

Word of the Day:TIANA(4D: First African-American Disney princess) —

Princess Tiana of Maldonia is a fictional main character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 49th animated feature film The Princess and the Frog (2009). Created by directors Ron Clements and John Musker and animated by Mark Henn, Tiana is voiced by Anika Noni Rose as an adult, while Elizabeth M. Dampier voices the character as a child. // Tiana is loosely based on two princesses. Firstly, Princess Emma, the heroine of E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess. Secondly, the princess that appears in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale titled The Frog Prince (published in 1812) by which E.D. Baker's novel was originally inspired. (wikipedia)

• • •

Jodie Fostered ...
Cary Granted ...
Fredric Marched ...
Robert Donated ...
Gregory Pecked ...
James Earl Jonesed ...
Geoffrey Rushed ...
Sally Fielded ...

... and that's just when I thought the theme was actually consistent. Then I noticed GLENN CLOSED, the only answer where just "D" and not "ED" is added. If you just add "D," well, as you can imagine, more names become available (Demi Moored, Tom Cruised, Russell Crowed, Geraldine Paged, Stephen Read, etc., etc.). This theme is cornball, mediocre in conception and average (at best) in execution. The clues sometimes relate directly to the actors in question ... sometimes ... not (James Garner's in particular seems not right). I wonder if the cluing wasn't the result of the editor's just trying to salvage this thing. Trying to make something out of not much of a thing. You are all being acclimated to a new normal, similar to the way our country will acclimate to a new normal over the next four years. "It's fine ... it's fine." And then eventually you're wallowing in filth. This Mediocre Madness Must End. I mean, it won't, I'm just one voice in the wilderness, but solvers of "the best puzzle in the world" shouldn't have to settle for this lukewarm stuff. They should be AGOG or AGLARE or ADEN or something.

Fill was decent, if largely non-descript. I wonder if the constructor got a hold of a more robust wordlist. YEAH I BET and ZIPCAR and a few others are a bit more ... lively than what I've come to expect. ECOTAGE is more what I expect (ugh, 119A: Actions of environmental extremists) (also, see clue for LEED (36D), which has "Eco-" in it—no no no). Honestly, there isn't really anything here to comment on.Fill, fine. Cluing, pretty straightforward. Short. Dull. I hope you had more fun than I did.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Happy finals season! (It's Annabel Monday again. )

Constructor: NED WHITE

Relative difficulty: HARD (for a Monday, but still, whew!)

THEME: HEAD TO TOE — Theme answers are in the form of a phrase starting with a body part, beginning with HAIR and going all the way down to ANKLE. (They also all end in "er.")

Theme answers:

HAIR RAISER (17A: Something scary)
NECK SNAPPER (27A: It grabs one's attention)
CHEST BEATER (38A: Boastful sort)
KNEE SLAPPER (31A: Really good joke)
ANKLE BITER (61A: Rug rat)

Word of the Day: WORD (CLUE) —

Aga Khan (Persian: آقاخان‎‎; also transliterated as Aqa Khan and Agha Khan^[1]) is a name used by the Imam of the Nizari Ismailis. The current user of the name is Shah Karim who is the 49th Imam (1957–present), Prince Shah Karim Al Husseini Aga Khan IV (b. 1936)..
The title is made up of the titles agha and khan. The Turkish "agha" is "aqa" (Āqā) in Persian. The word "agha" comes from the Old Turkic and Mongolian "aqa", meaning "elder brother",^[2]^[3] and "khan" means king, ruler in Turkic and Mongolian languages.^[4]

(Wikipedia)

Chert! So pretty <3

• • •

Whew, this one was seriously a toughie for me!! Not only were some of the clues a little weird (I knew NARCOTIC, but how is OTIC a suffix?), many new-to-me words (however embarrassing that may be). AMPERE? ABNER? And what the heck is a CERT? Maybe those of you from a different generation can fill me in on that one - the only mints I eat are Mentos and Lifesavers. Maybe it's this geology class I'm taking, but I just kept thinking of CHERT. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Ned White is a bit of a techie...who else calls a mouse or keyboard PERIPHERALS?

The theme was pretty fun, although some of the phrases were definitely a bit of a stretch - NECK SNAPPER? I had NECK TURNER there for the longest time because at least it sounded more like HEAD TURNER, which is an actual saying that people actually say! It was still cool though. I didn't even notice that it went down from head to ankles until my mom pointed it out!

Bullets:

EMO (64A: Rock genre) — Ahhh, just this clue takes me back to middle school. I always wanted to shop at renowned EMO store Hot Topic, but I could never afford any of the ridiculously expensive corsets or black lipstick or whatever else it was they sold, because I was twelve. I guess that just gave me one more thing to be EMO about. *Evanescence songs playing in the distance*
FILL (58D: Complete, as a crossword grid) — Fourth-wall humor in a crossword puzzle! Love it!
SABRAS (47A: Native Israelis) — My mother was VERY offended that I didn't get this clue right away. In my defense, it's kind of an obscure word? Maybe?
REM (20A: Rock band fronted by Michael Stipe)— Please listen to this. Trust me.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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Constructor:Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (only because I couldn't make any sense out of the revealer at first, and also the fill is awful down there so I kind of stopped trying/caring)

THEME:"Little Drummer Boy"— circled squares at beginning of theme answers spell out PA-RUM-PUM-PUM-PUM and then last answer is 53A: Following the circled squares, the end to a seasonal song ('ME AND MY DRUM'); the song in question is "The Little Drummer Boy," in case that wasn't obvious.

Word of the Day:"Mr. PIM Passes By"(47D: Milne's "Mr. ___ Passes By") —

[some Milne play for which I could find no short synopsis except "When a woman's 'dead' husband returns she refuses to remarry her second until he consents to her niece's wedding," which comes from the imdb page for the 1921 silent movie of the same name]

• • •

ME AND MY DRUM. Couldn't pick it up. Such a weird phrase to stand alone. It fits here, since it is, in fact, the end of the seasonal song in question, and does follow the rum puh pum pum bit (I never say, nor have heard, that first PUM as PUM; it's more like "rump-a-pum-pum"...). But I had DRUM and then the whole preceding part was blank and I kept thinking of kinds of drums etc. The idea that a lyric was involved ... didn't occur to me. Didn't help that the fill in that trouble area was just stale and blargh and whatever PIM is. ADLER TNOTE SARAN AGATE ERROL ERGO it's *all* of it out of Common Boring Stuff That's Been Around Forever And Isn't Interesting. Of course the rest of the grid has a bunch of that too, but it was real bad down there. ULTIMA, ugh (45D: Final syllable of a word). [Like some boarding schools] = ??? I had PREP- and *still* had no idea. Because clothes are PREPPY, people are PREPPY, schools are preparatory. They're called prep schools for a reason. But the idea of an entire school being "PREPPY," again, not something that occurred to me. I LOST. NOT IN. Also, is this crossword an ad for Big Pharma. PFIZER *and* PROZAC (crossing AZT)? What gives?

Nothing more from me. I love Christmas music, I love my Christmas tree, I was very much in the mood for holiday puzzle goodness. This wasn't it. The fact that this particular Christmas song is one of my least favorite probably didn't help matters.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:David Steinberg

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:PAST TENSE (58A: Like either word in the answers to the five starred clues)—the puzzle is as described:

Theme answers:

FIXED COST (16A: *Expense independent of production)
LEFT-HANDED (23A: *How Clayton Kershaw pitches)
CUT ROSE (36A: *One of a dozen for a sweetheart)
SHOT PUT (38A: *Decathlon event)
LOST GROUND (47A: *Something to make up)

Word of the Day:MCLAREN(44A: High-end British sports car) —

McLaren Automotive (often simply McLaren) is a British automaker founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren and is based at the McLaren Technology Campus in Woking, Surrey. It produces and manufactures sports and luxury cars, usually produced in-house at designated production facilities. (wikipedia)

• • •

This has to be in the running for one of the dullest themes of all time. I don't understand why this concept ever seemed remotely interesting. A theme like this should involve a kind of aha moment where you notice that the revealer asks us to radically imagine the meaning of the words in the themers. But ... the first word in all of these answers is already past tense in the base phrase—or, rather, it's an adjectival form of the past tense, i.e. the cost is fixed 'cause someone FIXED it, the rose is cut 'cause someone CUT it, etc. There's just *one* answer where that does not hold true: LEFT-HANDED. So there isn't really much in the way of reorienting our understanding of nearly *half* the words in the themers, and the one answer that *does* reorient that first word is an outlier. Thus, even though we're asked to look at "either word," it's really only the second word that's being reimagined in any kind of remotely interesting way. Further, "remotely" is the key word there. "Oh yeah, COST can be a PAST TENSE verb ..." is about as much of an excited thought as you are going to have while solving this. Actually, you were probably more excited by DEAD DROPS (10D: Spy communication spots) and DEETS (27D: Specifics, slangily) than you were by *anything* having to do with the theme.

"Like either word" puzzles are often unpleasant because constructors tend to force words to go together that don't really want to do so, and so you get barely passable or awkward phrases. That wasn't so much a problem today, though I definitely lost some time with RED ROSE instead of CUT ROSE. I mean, when I got to a florist to buy flowers and ask for roses, they never bring me entire bushes to look at, so ... the phrase CUT ROSE, while it makes sense to me, isn't really familiar to me. Completely unfamiliar to me was MCLAREN. Needed every cross. Never heard of it. I must not live a very "high-end" lifestyle. MCLAREN / COOPTS was the toughest area of the puzzle for me, partly because I kept insisting on seeing the latter as a one-syllable word. Lastly, to acknowledge the elephant in the room, yes, IS BAD is bad.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:Abbreviation-as-word— two-letter abbreviations, where letters are normally pronounced individually, are clues as if they were two-letter words. Wackiness ensues.

Theme answers:

17A: Singers who go from "solo" straight to "ti"? (LA DODGERS)
25A: Comedians who do material on the Freudian psyche? (ID CARDS)
37A: "Young 'uns, yer cuzzins are heare" and others? (PA ANNOUNCEMENTS)
46A: Shipping containers on Italy's longest river? (PO BOXES)
58A: What Stephen King's editor provided for a 1986 novel? (IT SUPPORT)

Word of the Day:RADIOHEAD(3D: Band that used a pay-what-you-want model to sell their 2007 album) —

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments), Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums, percussion, backing vocals). They have worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. // After signing to EMI in 1991, Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992. It became a worldwide hit after the release of their debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). Their popularity and critical standing rose in the United Kingdom with the release of their second album, The Bends (1995). Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), propelled them to international fame; with an expansive sound and themes of modern alienation, it is often acclaimed as a landmark record of the 1990s^[1] and one of the best albums of all time. The group's next albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), recorded simultaneously, marked a dramatic change in style, incorporating influences from experimental electronic music, 20th-century classical music, krautrock, and jazz. Despite initially dividing listeners, Kid A was later named the best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the Times. [...]Radiohead have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Their work places highly in both listener polls and critics' lists of the best music of the 1990s and 2000s. In 2005, they were ranked 73rd in Rolling Stone's list of "The Greatest Artists of All Time"; Jonny Greenwood (48th) and O'Brien were both included in Rolling Stone's list of greatest guitarists, and Yorke (66th) in their list of greatest singers. In 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the second-best artist of the 2000s. (wikipedia)

• • •

Concept feels ancient, and much of the cluing feels quaint (by which I mean highly NYT-crossword-conventional, culturally and chronologically), but the theme is consistent enough, and you do get two nice long Downs in the bargain, so all in all, it's fine, I guess. The two Downs actually feel like they're from a completely different puzzle. It's like a pretty cool themeless from 2016 tried to shove its way into a fusty tea room where people still say POOP when they mean "inside information" and reminisce about Admiral NELSON while leafing through their Poor Richard's Almanacks as "Downton Abbey" plays in the background and NARY a scone crumb is left on one's plate (ELSIE the spokescow is a major figure in this imaginary world). But seriously, RADIOHEAD and IN THE ZONE are nice answers.

I don't like EX-ARMY, but I once put EX-NAVY in a puzzle, so I am formally barred from legitimate expression of dislike here. The puzzle was pretty easy overall. My only slowness came from wrong guesses, or (in one case) completely failing to understand the phrasing of the clue. It took what felt like forever just to get WOLF (once OGRE went in, anything else was hard to imagine) (1D: Villain in some fairy tales). And I compounded difficulties up there by guessing ROAN (?) over ARAB (2D: Spirited horse). ROAN was a "horse" reflex, and I reflexed wrong. I forgot what Poor Richard's Almanack was. Completely. So ADAGES took some crossing. 5x5s are always dicey propositions—no short toeholds to get you started—and so the NE and SW corners were mildly daunting: only one narrow way in, no way out. They definitely took more thought/time than other parts of the grid, particularly the SW, where I had to back in. Looking at that corner now, though, I must've just not looked at the themer initially, because PO BOXES is obvious from the clue (if you've figured out the theme already). Anyway, there was minor flailing down there.

The clue that threw me the most was 35D: Subj. group with a noted gender imbalance (STEM) (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I see what the clue is *trying* to do here, but ... a "subj. group" can't have a gender imbalance. Science is just Science. Engineering, engineering. The *field* (which is made up of people—teachers, majors, professionals, etc.) can / does have such an imbalance. But between the abbr. "Subj." (awk) to the context-free quality of the clue, I had no idea what I was looking at, what was being asked for, on a literal level. I was further hampered by having a daughter who takes a lot of STEM classes and wants to be an engineer, and who is being bombarded by promotional material from colleges touting the relative gender parity of their engineering programs (shout-out to tiny OLIN College, an engineering school that has the gender balance of their student population at almost 50/50; hey, there's a new way to clue OLIN—you're welcome, crossword constructors). Anyway, for personal reasons, my brain doesn't make the STEM-is-for-boys connection quite so readily as it's supposed to. Also, who says SCHMO when they mean "jerk"? Maybe someone in the Fusty Tearoom? I don't know. But the only appropriate clue for SCHMO that I know is [Joe ___].

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. the "T" in STEM and the "T" in IT SUPPORT mean the same thing. Judges say ... yeah, that's a dupe. Red card!

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Constructor:David Phillips

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day:Mont Cervin(31A: Mont Cervin and others=>ALPES) —

The Matterhorn (German: Matterhorn, [ˈmatərˌhɔrn]; Italian: Monte Cervino, [ˈmonte tʃerˈviːno]; French: Mont Cervin, [mɔ̃ sɛʁvɛ̃]), is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a huge and near-symmetrical pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres (14,692 ft) high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points and are split by the Hörnli, Furggen, Leone and Zmutt ridges. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt in the canton of Valais to the north-east and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. Just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides and a trade route since the Roman Era. (wikipedia)

• • •

Barely there. Nothing horrible here, but nothing interesting either. I mean ... nothing. Not knocking MELISSA MCCARTHY at all (she is Peak Answer here, for sure), but one actress's name just isn't much, pizzazz-wise. Fill is pretty clean for a 64-worder, but it's also phenomenally dull. Also, I'm somewhat surprised this *is* a 64-worder. Feels like 70, possibly because there are so many black squares, esp. toward the middle, chopping the grid up and resulting in a good number of short answers (not as common in low word-count puzzles). But 70-worders actually tend to be cleaner and more interesting than this. I guess the best that can be said is that those rather wide-open corners are not filled poorly. Still, I don't understand the entertainment value of a lower word-count puzzle like this, where the fill is so ... by the book. In a themed puzzle, I'd be satisfied with this fill, because the main interest of the puzzle would lie elsewhere (i.e. in the damn theme). But with themelesses ... you just gotta do better than this. You need some smashing marquee answers. Something.

DENTAL / PICK?? (53A: With 39-Across, teeth-cleaning aid). What on god's green is that? I know what a tooth pick is, and a water pick (pik?), but a DENTAL PICK? Is that just one of them plastic hooks you pick your teeth with? Why are you doing that? If you're out, toothpicks. If you're home, brush/floss. Crossing MARISSA (4D: ___ Mayer, Yahoo C.E.O. beginning in 2012) and MELISSA seems inelegant—not teeth-picking inelegant, but ... those names are 5/7 identical, come on. The only real groany thing in the grid is GOTAS (ugh ... see, groany) (25A: Received high marks). Oh well, at least IT'S OVER, and I got a sub-5 time I can feel good about (before I go to sleep and forget about it entirely).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Byron Walden

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:TESORO(45D: San Antonio-based refinery giant that acquired Arco in 2013) —

Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSOaka: "Tesoro Petroleum", or simply as "Tesoro") is a Fortune 100 and a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in Texas at San Antonio, with 2013 annual revenues of $37 billion, and over 5,700 employees worldwide. // Tesoro is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products, operating seven refineries in the Western United States with a combined rated crude oil capacity of approximately 845,000 barrels (134,300 m³) per day. Tesoro’s retail-marketing system includes over 2,264 branded retail gas stations, of which more than 595 are company-operated under its own Tesoro brandname, as well as Shell, ExxonMobil, ARCO, and USA Gasoline brands. (wikipedia)

• • •

Got a little frightened by the byline, as Byron Walden puzzles can be brutally hard (ask anyone who was there about Puzzle 5 at the ... 2006? ... American Crossword Puzzle Tournament—that thing broke even expert solvers in half). But this ended up being very tame. I realize now, though, looking over the puzzle, that I can say that only because these pretty obscure answers like "ERNANI" and NUNCIO (31A: Ambassador sent by the Vatican) are well known to me from decades of solving. Like, I couldn't tell you one thing about "ERNANI," but it slid right into place when my brain saw "opera" in the clue and looked at the terminal "I" in the answer. Bam bam. And NUNCIO I had seen before. Dumb luck. I don't know how widely that word is known, generally, but I had it in my back pocket, so I was able to fly through this thing based on what feels to me like specialized crossword knowledge (which, honestly, often feels like it doesn't count—like I got through it not via skill, but via a kind of inside-information scam). I did get bitten by an unfamiliar name, though: ETTORE! (13D: Automotive pioneer Bugatti) (in Arthurian legend, she's a she, so that's weird) (update: whoops, in Arthurian legend, the woman I'm thinking of is ETTARRE ... nevermind!). And then semi-bitten by TESORO, which I didn't know but was able to guess off the TES-.

SNOCKERED? (28A: Three sheets to the wind) I was favoring KNOCKERED or KNACKERED (which I think means "tired"), but ... SNOCKERED? OK. The more I say it to myself, the more plausible it sounds. There weren't many answers I *loved* here (except SLEEPER HOLD), but it held together pretty well. I had STAND NEAR TO for a bit, which is odd. I have never ever heard the phrase PET HATES (7A: Bugaboos). That was, oddly, harder to take than ETTORE. Not knowing an answer is one thing—getting it and feeling like it's phony, that's a much worse thing. But then I notice that the grid also contains "I'M TOO SEXY" and I find myself appeased. Weird how that works.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Tom McCoy

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:"Retronyms"— theme answers are ... retronyms (you'd think you could've tried a little harder with the title, there...)

Theme answers:

BRITISH ENGLISH (21A: Dialect that was called 22-Across before the age of colonialism)
SNAIL MAIL (33A: System that was called 34-Across before the Internet)
REAL NUMBER (35A: Concept that was called 36-Across before research into the square root of negatives)
BLACK LICORICE (52A: Food that was called 53-Across before Twizzlers and the like)
FLATHEAD SCREW (78A: Fastener that was called 80-Across before a rounded design was implemented)
SILENT FILM (96A: Entertainment category that was called 97-Across before talkies)
PAPER COPY (98A: Object that was called 100-Across before electronic documents)
ORGANIC FARMING (109A: Activity that was called 111-Across before pesticides)

Word of the Day:AREPAS(29D: South American corn cakes) —

Arepa (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈɾepa]) is a type of food made of ground maize dough or cooked flour prominent in the cuisines of Colombia and Venezuela. [...] The arepa is a flat, round, unleavened patty of soaked, ground kernels of maize, or—more frequently nowadays—maize meal or maize flour that can be grilled, baked, fried, boiled or steamed. The characteristics vary by color, flavor, size, and the food with which it may be stuffed, depending on the region. It can be topped or filled with meat, eggs, tomatoes, salad, cheese, shrimp, or fish depending on the meal. (wikipedia)

• • •

Easiest Sunday puzzle I've ever done. Nearly broke 8 minutes, which I have only ever done on like a Newsday or Globe Sunday (i.e. much less thornier brands). I don't really understand why this puzzle exists. The title tells you what the theme answers will be, and then there you are. The one tricky thing, from a construction standpoint, is you've gotta make sure you have a Down answers beginning at the front of the second word in every themer, so that the theme clues make sense when they refer to an "Across" answer where the number is not in its usual flush-left position. But that's the only thing separating this puzzle from one that is titled, say, "Big Cats," where the answers are JAGUAR, PUMA, etc. That is ... there's nothing to it. In fact, I started solving without looking at the title, and about midway I thought, "So these are just ... what's that word ... oh, yeah, retronyms." And then I looked at the title: "Retronyms." And I thought "you must be joking..."

There are four "IT"s in this puzzle, as well as one 'TIS—in a puzzle that already contains ITIS. So ... that happened. AREPAS are tasty, so I enjoyed thinking about them. Surprised they don't appear in crosswords more often, what with their savory taste and appealing letter combinations. Today's great crosswordese-retrieval triumph was reading 40A: Coins that pay for passage over the River Styx and, off the "O," putting OBOLS right in. Today's snags—such as they were—came in the NE, where TOA (not TOE?) (28A: ___ point) crossed ALGAL (17D: ___ bloom (result of fertilizer pollution)), and then again at NO ONE'S down below—came at that answer from the back end and needed every cross to understand what the hell was going on (116A: Not belonging to anybody). Oh, rounding the corner out of the N and into the NE was also mildly rough (!) because I had the UN- but not the HANDS of UNHANDS (12D: Releases, dramatically). That clue is vaguely phrased, both pre- and post-comma, so ... I circled back around and approached from underneath. There really isn't anything to say about this puzzle. The title tells you the theme. The theme answers are as promised. The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. [They go about two feet] is a great clue for SOCKS (42D)

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Constructor:Mark McClain

Relative difficulty:Challenging (3:34, about 35-40 seconds slower than normal)

THEME: LANGUAGE BARRIER (41A: Communication problem ... illustrated literally by the black squares before 5-, 19-, 26-, 54-, 65- and 73-Across)— languages are in circled squares, broken in two by black squares that form a "barrier" between the two parts of the "language":

Theme answers:

SHIN / DIEU
MASUR / DUTY
SEEGER / MANIC
TOPOL / I SHALL
KITH / AILED
SELA / TINS

Word of the Day:TOPOL(51A: Chaim who played Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof") —

Chaim Topol (Hebrew: חיים טופול‎‎; born September 9, 1935), mononomously known as Topol, is an Israeli theatrical and film performer, singer, actor, comedian, voice artist, writer and producer. He is best known for his role as Tevye the dairyman in the production of Fiddler on the Roof on both stage and film. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and a Tony Award, and has won two Golden Globe Awards. (wikipedia)

• • •

Should've been a Tuesday puzzle, both because Tuesdays normally suuuuck and this didn't, and because it played like a Tuesday, i.e. a tough Monday. Although LATIN? Really? You couldn't have stuck to "languages people actually speak"? Oh well, it didn't say "non-dead languages," so I guess it's fair, if not completely consistent. This puzzle played hard for me largely because of the proper nouns, vague cluing, and theme density (fill is always iffiest / toughest / least Mondayish around the theme answers). Forgot MASUR and then thought MAZUR (18A: Maestro Kurt ___)—didn't help that that answer crossed EPSOM, which I continue not to be able to spell right at first pass (EPSON? EPCOT?) (7D: English racing venue). ARENA got a bull-riding clue?? Total disconnect for me. I know TOPOL mononymously, so "Chaim" was a disaster for me, as my knee-jerk instinct, plus the placement of the "O"s, led me to enter POTOK right away. Ugh. Also LILLE as [City NNE of Paris]!? Not much to go on for a not-terribly-famous French city. I had I SWEAR for I SHALL (54A: Formal-sounding commitment), could not find the handle on SHRIFT (50D: Short ___ (quick work)), had no idea what Roman numeral of OLAF was called for (47A: Norway's patron saint), and once again had no idea about the ... Recording Industry Association ... something? (25D: Lobbying org. that fights music piracy).

Had SEE IN for LET IN (56D: Admit at the door). Could not get BAD ACTOR from the back end (i.e. -CTOR) (9D: Troublemaker). And I *knew* "ANTI" (43D: 2016 #1 album by Rihanna), which is definitely not a Monday clue, at least not with this crowd (i.e. you all ... I know you). Puzzle would've been even rougher, obviously, if I didn't listen to that album a lot (TRY IT!). Anyway, the theme is solid, I think, and if the fill's not Great, it's largely because the theme is very dense—plus, given ongoing declines in NYT fill quality, the fill here doesn't actually *feel* subpar at all. Far less demanding grids have had fill much worse than this. So I'm counting this a winner of a puzzle, despite my miserable solving experience. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. actually one of my readers has an objection to add:

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Ship part spelled with two apostrophes / WED 11-23-16 / Nathan Hale for colonies / Noneditorial magazine worker informally / Princess Peach's savior in video games

Cartoon title character adapated from Felix Salten novel / THU 11-24-16 / My Orcha'd in Linden classic poem / First tribe encountered by Lewis clark / Biz bigs / Viking character

Archaeological find of 1974 / FRI 11-25-16 / Cello attachment near bridge / Actress Raines of Tall in Saddle / Pax century preceding WW I / West Lips Sofa Dali piece

Clobbered in British slang / SAT 11-26-16 / Facebook acquired it in 2014 for $19.3 billionn / Religious period dating from AD 622 / Snackable treat on stick / Ancient playwright who specialized in New Comedy

"Back to the Future" antagonist / Tahitian "good" / SUN 11-27-16 / "The Highwayman" poet / Poetic Muse / Lisa, to Bart / Radial alternative / Mrs. Gorbachev / F = ma / Actress Hatcher / Saharan / Cheri of "S.N.L." / Carter Brezhnev agreement / Radial alternative

1948-94 in South Africa / MON 11-28-16 / Letter-shaped metal fastener / Southern corn breads

Classic kitchen volume / TUE 11-29-16 / Sorority sisters in old lingo / Purim villain / Image of Homer perhaps / Sweet tangy picnic side dish / One with zero chance of success / Connecticut collegian

British PM between Churchill Macmillan / WED 11-30-16 / Preceder of barbara clara / Iraq war danger for short

Edutainment cartoon featuring teacher named Ms Frizzle / THU 12-1-16 / Football Hall-of-Famer Newsome / Seussian environmentalist / Suffix with klepto- / Low-pitched part of song / Yosemite runner / Subject of 2011 book These Guys Have All Fun

Heraldic wreath / FRI 12-2-16 / Ceremonial basin / best or nothing sloganeer informally / Emulate popinjay / athletic wear named for anagram of what it does

Child actress Jones of Family Affair / SAT 12-3-16 / Noted Volstead Act enforcer / Giverny backdrop for Monet / Bill of 1960s-70s Weather Underground / Refined nutritional ingredient in many cereals meat products / Start of news story in journalism lingo

Doggie of old cartoons / SUN 12-4-16 / 7Up in old ads / nova musical style of late Middle Ages / Actions of environmental extremists / Eco-friendly building certification for short

1940s British guns / MON 12-5-16 / Are able, biblically / Native Israelis / One-named R&B singer who won a Grammy for his 2014 album "Black Messiah"

End to seasonal song / TUE 12-6-16 / Alfred who was follower of Freud / Filmdom's Flynn

Eponymous Belgian tourist locale / WED 12-7-16 / High-end British sports car / Mexican tourist city known for its silver / Diminutive fashionwise / Obese Star Wars character / Bluff-busting words

Octave's follower in some poetry / THU 12-8-16 / Subj group with noted gener imbalance / Groundbreaking 1990s ABC sitcom / Old-timey not / Hoppy quaff for short

Female hip-hop fan / FRII 12-9-16 / Sender of billet-doux / Song sung to Lilo in Lilo Stitch / Virginia Woolf's given name at birth

Coins that pay for passage over River Styx / SUN 12-11-16 / Skimobile informally / Purported rural shenanigan / Quaff in Middle-Earth / Nickname Game of thrones dwarf

Lobbying org that fights music piracy / MON 12-12-16 / Chaim who played Tevye