Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Don Gagliardo and Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SILENT PARTNER (57A: Nonactive member of a firm ... or what G, H and W each have in 20-, 29- and 49-Across)— two-word phrases where both words have the same silent letter, therefore each letter is SILENT and has a PARTNER (twin) who is also silent:

Theme answers:

CAMPAIGN SIGNS (20A: Yard displays at election time)
GENGHIS KHAN (29A: Mongol Empire founder)
WRONG ANSWER (49A: "Nope, guess again")

Word of the Day: IDENTIKIT (32D: Aid in producing a suspect's picture) —

noun
trademark
noun: identikit; plural noun: identikits
a picture of a person, especially one sought by the police, reconstructed from typical facial features according to witnesses' descriptions. (google)

• • •

If you know people are going to have visceral, negative reactions to an answer, why do you put it in your grid? No one has ever put DOG MEAT in a NYT grid before ... and there's a reason for that. It is a divisive answer, as the clue itself points out (3D: Serving in Asia that's taboo in the West). This is a western paper, so even if we decide fine, different cultures, different ways, there's still going to be a repulsion factor here for many solvers, one that is totally and utterly avoidable if you're the constructor. It's incomprehensible to me that a constructor would think, "You know what this grid needs: DOG MEAT?" What value is added to the puzzle? You have to weigh the potential costs against the potential gains, and this is a totally undemanding corner to fill—why do you go here? Also, please note: I don't know about "taboo," but it's literally illegal to consume DOG MEAT in parts of *Asia* (specifically Taiwan). Also, there's something oddly stereotype-reinforcing about this clue ("Serving in Asia..."). Consumption of dog appears to be a. not that common in Asia as a whole, and b. declining. I recommend the DOG MEAT wikipedia page specifically for its matter-of-fact-references to the unregulated brutality of so much dog slaughter around the world. This answer is far too unappetizing a way to begin a puzzle. I barely noticed the rest of the grid. And next to DR. LAURA? Come on. Have mercy.

I think this theme is OK, and the fill (DOG MEAT aside) pretty weak overall. Most of the answers are dull or dated or kinda icky (HOS, SKEE, SNO, MAA).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Hal Moore

Relative difficulty: Easy (like, really really easy, if you make the smart choice and completely ignore the Note and the bracketed numbers)

THEME: ab bc cd etc— here's the note:

So the clues are numbered 1 to 25, and 1 has "AB" in it, 2 has "BC" in it, 3 has "CD" in it, etc. etc. Are you not entertained!?

Word of the Day: SUVA (44A: Capital of FIJI) —

Suva (Fijian pronunciation: [ˈsuβa]) is the capital, second largest municipality and largest municipality with city status in Fiji. It is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Rewa Province, Central Division. [...] At the 2007 census, the city of Suva had a population of 85,691. Including independent suburbs, the population of the Greater Suva urban area was 172,399 at the 2007 census^] Suva, along with the bordering towns of Lami, Nasinu, and Nausori have a total urban population of around 330,000, over a third of the nation's population. This urban complex (not including Lami) is known also as the Suva–Nausori corridor. (wikipedia)

• • •

The puzzle is not in a good place right now. It just can't find its mojo, can't catch a break. I'm sure this theme sounded good ... in the constructor's head (??) ("I'll show 'em!"). But there is literally zero interest from the solver's point of view. Who. The. Hell. Cares. About two-letter strings? The entire puzzle seems to have been conceived to justify the entry BMWXSERIES (62A: Line of upscale German autos [23]). Like someone bet him that he couldn't pull this theme off because no way he could pull off "WX," man, that would be like jumping the Snake River Canyon! But then the constructor was like "Hold my laptop" and hopped onto his rocket-propelled motorcycle and zoom! "QR" required some ingenuity as well (BBQ RIBS). Beyond that, it's all very dreary. Yes, you get BWXSERIES, but you also get BCE and (ugh) OFGOD and PALME etc. Not worth it. I might've been at least mildly impressed if there had been only one instance of each sequential letter pair in the grid. But there are two "NO"s and like half a dozen "RS"s. So ... yeah, NO.

If any good comes of this puzzle, it's that I pass along to you how much I like WIM Winders movies (28A: Wenders who directed "Buena Vista Social Club"). His Road Movie trilogy (starting with "Alice in the Cities" 1974)) is quirkily beautiful. I've got "Hammett" (1982) set to record later this week, and "Until the End of the World" just sitting on my DVR waiting for a time when I have an unbroken 4 hr. chunk to dedicate to it. Gonna watch "Paris, Texas" next, since Harry Dean Stanton just died. A bunch of WIM Wenders movies are on FilmStruck (which, along with TCM and Netflix and all the EPIX channels, is practically all I watch). Anyway, WIM! That is my recommendation for the day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I had one "uh oh, careful" moment as I was zooming through the grid, right when I got to 58A: Fleur-de-___ (LYS). I wrote in LIS but my brain immediately registered the possibility of a different spelling, and wouldn't let me leave the corner until I had checked the cross (probably seconds later). And thus I never had to hunt down that error (as many will have had to)

P.P.S. I met a dog named "Hester" in the woods today (3D: Hawthorne who created Hester Prynne) (NATHANIEL). YEAH, I too thought it was weird. I mean, if your dog is an adulterer, no judgment, but do I really need to know that?

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Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: UEY (57D: Often-illegal maneuver that is key to answering the asterisked clues)—answers double back on the subsequent Across line (once they hit the black square):

Theme answers:

TWO-TIM / EL OSER (1A: *Adlai Stevenson as a presidential candidate, e.g.)
SALAR / Y CAPS (21A: *Limits on team payrolls)
STRIK / ES A BA / LANCE (31A: **Doesn't go to either extreme)
TATTL / ETALE (47A: *Snitch)
PRIVAT / E LINES (60A: *Individual telephone connections)

Word of the Day: GIVE EAR (25A: Listen (to)) —

Verb 1. giveear - giveheed(to);"Thechildren in theaudienceattendedtherecitalquietly";"Shehung on hiseveryword";"Theyattended to everything he said" (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

So the basic concept is solid—answers do a U-turn, and the comeback portion of the answer is itself a viable word in the Across. The double-UEY in the middle of the grid is a nice twist. The fill is just OK, but the theme is pretty demanding, so no strong complains there. What I dislike, to the point of resenting, is the deliberate trap set in the west. Now traps are fine, but when you set them where your Stupidest answers are, then falling into them is deeply unpleasant. A good trap should make you go "Ah, right, good one." But GIVE EAR (?!) is a phenomenally stupid thing, and crossing VEEPSTAKES ... ? Is VEEPSTAKES the thing where candidates decide on VP candidates? We gave that a name? The clue makes it sound like an official thing. It's not. There is not necessarily a "stakes" involved. Just pick a running mate. Anyway, back to the trap. 25D: A whole bunch (_O_S) ... crossing 36A: Social gathering (_E_). The latter was what really got me. I wrote in TEA and then that gave me LOTS for [A whole bunch]. And that was pretty much that. Had LI_EEAR and _EAPSTAKES and couldn't see how any answers I had were wrong. Because they weren't wrong. They were just wrong for This Grid because stupid GIVE EAR and stupid VEEPSTAKES thought they'd have a stupid party for ugly answers. Luckily at some point my "tear it all out" instinct kicked in, and somehow I was able to get to GIVE / GOBS / BEE / VEEP. Again, theme was solid, but not solid enough to absorb the blow from the GIVE EAR train wreck.

MISCALL is superdumb (28D: Poker blunder). What the hell is that? Where you call but shouldn't have? How is there a name for that kind of stupidity? What is an ALAIN Prost? (48D: Formula One racer Prost) People know that? People know Formula One racers? Talk about niche sports. Worst mistake I made all day wasn't the LOTS / TEA thing (that was a very reasonable mistake). No, it was reading "Scoville scale" (40D: Topping the Scoville scale) but thinking "Beaufort scale." So I could see the answer wanted to be HOTTEST, but ... winds aren't measure by hotness.

My favorite clue in this thing is probably 43A: George I or V? (SOFT G). Clever. Take it from an erstwhile medievalist, a knight does not "need" a LANCE, no way, no how, no. NOSED IN is almost as dumb as GIVE EAR. But again, most of the fill (though oldish and awkward at times) holds up, and the theme is fine.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Difficult

THEME:No theme

Word of the Day:TAPIOCA (35D: Thickening agent) —

Tapioca (/ˌtæpɪˈoʊkə/; Portuguese pronunciation: [tapiˈɔkɐ]) is a starch extracted from cassava root (Manihot esculenta). This species is native to the northeast region of Brazil, but its use spread throughout South America. The plant was carried by Portuguese and Spanish explorers to most of the West Indies and Africa and Asia. It is a tropical, perennial shrub that is less commonly cultivated in temperate climate zones. Cassava thrives better in poor soils than many other food plants.
Although tapioca is a staple food for millions of people in tropical countries, it is devoid of nutrition and low in food energy. In developed countries, it is used as a thickening agent in various manufactured foods. (Wikipedia)

• • •

TAPIOCA is great. It's the boba in BOBA TEA ((7) yet to appear in a NYT crossword puzzle) and it's in the pudding that you perhaps instinctively avoided as a child. I say let's bring it back, elevate TAPIOCA pudding, "Chef's Table" style. Hi, it's Lena filling in for Rex today.

Well I have to say it was weird having to jump out of the nest with barely any feathers into a tri-stack of 14s. I had to treat this like a downs only puzzle for a bit there and that put it on the challenging side for me. I hung around in the middle and then it was SARDINE (8D: Fish typically preserved in olive oil) that got me up to the North, followed by SEEN (5D: Not overlooked) and CERAMIC (3D: Kind of tile). Speaking of chefs and their tables, there is a nice restaurant here in Boston called haley.henry and they focus on tinned fish-- SARDINEs, anchovies, EEL-- and exceptional wines. And chips.

Anyway, are those would-be marquees ultimately worth not being able to get started in the across direction right away? Sure. ROMANTIC PERIOD (49A: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron wrote in it) is kinda boring but the rest, especially ICING ON THE CAKE (54A: An additional plus) and MI CASA ES SU CASA (1A: Welcoming words), are fun-- and all except THREE CAR GARAGE (16A: Roomy storage space) are debut entries.

I had ROUTS for ROMPS (44A: Humiliating defeats) because, well, of course that's what I'm going to put there-- I look up ROUT and get "disastrous defeat" whereas ROMP's main definitions have nothing to do with either humiliation or losing. We will, we will ROMP you <stomp stomp clap>

The short fill caused by the stacks isn't too bad but I was aware of the presence of both CTR (NFL Position: Abbr.) and CTRL (11D: PC Key). SIGURD (9D: Brynhild's beloved, in Norse legend) certainly did not spring out of the brain easily, and I hadn't heard of conductor ESA-Pekka Salonen-- so overall I would say the North gave me the most trouble. In the South, I enjoyed the tricky clue for DOCTOR (41D: One who's gotten the third degree?) but didn't feel similarly about the one for TIME INC (36D: Life preserver?). Then I started getting cranky about both of them. "What if you didn't get your Masters in between undergrad and grad school? Do you count your high school diploma?"

Overall though there are lots of clever clues in this puzzle (ONE(39D: Small square)!) and I liked INHERES (2D: Exists naturally) because now I have a deeper understanding of the word "inherent." Ta-da! So even though it was slow-going for me at times it was satisfying in the end, and an interesting grid with those 14s-- cheater marquees?

Signed, Lena Webb, Court Jester of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: Medium (16:17)

THEME: THEMEless

Word of the Day: IRENE (2D: ___ Neuwirth (designer jewelry brand) —

A native of Southern California, Irene's fundamental inspiration is the ocean. Its purity, power and colors are all key elements at the origin of her designs. Her fascination with intense colors and raw, un-manufactured gem cuts, have become signature trademarks of the line. (http://ireneneuwirth.com/)

• • •

Rex continues to have computer problems, so you had my PEN PAL (34A: Friend of note?) Lena yesterday as PART ONE (36A: Start of a series), and you get me, Laura, today and Sunday. I'd better GET BUSY (41A: Work order?). This puzzle certainly felt like it hit the SWEET SPOT (12D: Perfect place) of difficulty; I breezed on through most of every quadrant, then rounded on home up to the NW, and ... stared. For like 10 minutes. My time isn't anywhere near my HIGH SCORES (1A: List on a video game screen) for Saturdays, but I appreciated the challenge, and there's no need for the 36D: Opposite of schadenfreude (PITY) or a 14D: Sound of condescension (TSK). Funny thing, I love riddles like 5D: It has arms, legs and feet, but no hands (SOFA), and I had just typed SOFA in 25D: Part of many a studio apartment for DINETTE because I wanted SOFABED instead. Because the studio apartments I had -- no room even for a DINETTE. If I HAD UP (1D: Hosted at one's loft, say) a friend or two, well, we dined sitting on the SOFABED or the LOFTBED. Or practically in the BATHTUB.

Goodnight IRENE

Someone asked in the comments yesterday how Rex and/or the guest hosts decide which clues go in the title field of the blog post. Can't speak for others, but I tend to put clues that I figure people are most likely to google: proper names, interesting or unusual formulations, clues that are actually google-able, as opposed to something like 44D: Advantage, which would be to no AVAIL. Way back, many years ago, when I was first solving regularly, that was how I stumbled upon this site (wow, I thought, people actually blog about this stuff? cool!). There is no shame in researching answers as a way of finding out something new or learning about how puzzles are constructed.

Woman Constructor Watch: Robyn's puzzle today is just the third Saturday by a woman in 2017, for a total of 36 women out of 230 constructors this year, or 15.6%. Jeff Chen calls it at 14%, because he's averaging the percentages of women constructors over the week. In either case, as stated before, I'd like to see more women get published in the New York Times, and I'll reiterate my call for other women constructors who might be interested in sharing ideas and helping each other to get in touch with me. Hey Laura, ARE YOU DONE? (15A: Question after a rant). Nope. IT FIGURES (32D: "Why am I not surprised!").

Bullets:

46D: Old ___, pet name of Davy Crockett's rifle (BETSY)— Honestly, can't remember much Davy Crockett lore, except for the catchy TV show theme song, and that he died at the Alamo. But somehow it occurred to me that BETSY would be a good name for a rifle.
57A: Redhead of Hogwarts (RON WEASLEY)— The entire Weasley family attended Hogwarts, and all were notoriously redheaded. Perhaps Ron is simply the most prominent.
43A: Window component (JAMB) and 28D: Window component (PANE)— Had SASH for both of these at certain points in the solving process.

Ok, now I'm done. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Laura Braunstein, Sorceress of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy (19:00 exactly)

THEME:"State Lines"— Phrases are reinterpreted as if two-letter words were state abbreviations.

Theme answers:

23A: "Try not to miss Bangor and Lewiston"? CATCH ME (Maine) IF YOU CAN
34A: 2:00 in New York vis-à-vis St. Louis? ONE MO (Missouri) TIME
50A: Whistler from two Eastern states? MA (Massachusetts) AND PA (Pennsylvania) KETTLE
68A: "We shouldn't sell our Fort Wayne home"? LET'S KEEP THIS IN (Indiana) HOUSE
86A: "Sooner this, Sooner that ... can't you talk about any other subject? EVERYTHING'S OK (Oklahoma)
100A: Deal another blackjack card to a young woman from Salem? HIT OR (Oregon) MISS
117A: Midwest state secedes and will join the United Kingdom? OH (Ohio) TO BE IN ENGLAND

Word of the Day: EDH (5D: Icelandic letter) —

Eth (/ɛð/, uppercase: Ð, lowercase: ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called edd), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages but was subsequently replaced with dh and later d. It is often transliterated as d (and d- is rarely used as a mnemonic). The lowercase version has been adopted to represent a voiced dental fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet. (Wikipedia)

• • •

Given my extensive familiarity with the Icelandic alphabet, I confidently typed in ETH, and was stymied in the NW until finishing the puzzle. Actually, I LIED (105D: Fabulist's confession) -- I don't know any Icelandic. We've seen many, many state abbreviation themes, and this is a reasonably unique twist. Had a chuckle at LET'S KEEP THIS IN HOUSE and OH TO BE IN ENGLAND. MA AND PA KETTLE and ONE MO TIME seemed a bit of a stretch. There are a few missed opportunities with this one -- how about YOU CAN CALL ME AL (Mobile nickname?), or CO OPERATION (Legal weed business?), or DOOGIE HOWSER MD (Neal Patrick Harris dramedy set in Baltimore?), or KY JELLY (Homemade strawberry preserves from Louisville?). But overall, it MADE SENSE (47D: Added up), even if it was not necessarily TOP HOLE (52D: First-rate, in British slang). While we're making WACKO (12D: Nutsy) jokes about states, why isn't MO's motto "Missouri Loves Company"?

Gonna bring you barley, carrots and pertaters

So... my understanding is that repeated three-letter strings are awkward but often unavoidable, but that constructors should be STEERED (124A: Directed) away from repeated four-letter strings. That's why I had a bit of a 119D: "Who'da thunk it?!" (GEE) moment to see both MOAN (43A: Haunted house sound) and MOANA (95A: Big 2016 film set in Polynesia). I appreciated that AA MEETING (42D: Part of a recovery effort) and IN REHAB (65D: Getting help getting clean) were clued without cutesy jokes about addiction. EWE ELK EEL ETE EPI, EERO EDGE ESME ETUI.

Bullets:

125A: Having braids (TRESSED)— I don't think that's a thing. It's been used before, but, no. I'm sTRESSED just looking at it.
108D: Jeff ___, leader of the Electric Light Orchestra (LYNNE)— For once, ELO gets to be a clue instead of an answer.
28A: Kind of torch on "Survivor" (TIKI)— So remember how this photo went viral on the internets after those Nazi assholes marched in Charlottesville and carried TIKI© Brand torches while spewing racist crap? Turns out that even though the manufacturer of TIKI© Brand torches did indeed issue a statement denouncing the use of their product for racist crap by Nazi assholes, this particular sign regarding the use of TIKI© Brand torches for racist crap by Nazi assholes was actually a stunt by a Funny or Die writer.

Signed, Laura Braunstein, Sorceress of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (i.e. slightly harder than the average Monday puzzle, solely because of the crossing and cross-referenced themers)

THEME: hyphenated 10-letter adjectives where both halves (before and after the hyphen) intersect at the middle letter —

Theme answers:

HANDY / DANDY (17A: With 3-Down, useful)
HOITY / TOITY (19A: With 11-Down, snobbish)
HOTSY / TOTSY (39A: With 29-Down, sophisticated)
LOVEY / DOVEY (58A: With 48-Down, affectionate)
NAMBY / PAMBY (60A: With 51-Down, weak and indecisive)

Word of the Day: DIURNAL (43D: Active during the daytime) —

adjective
adjective: diurnal
1.
of or during the day.
synonyms: daily, everyday, quotidian, occurring every/each day

"the patient's moods are determined by diurnal events"
Zoology
(of animals) active in the daytime.
Botany
(of flowers) open only during the day.
2.
daily; of each day.

"diurnal rhythms"

synonyms: daily, everyday, quotidian, occurring every/each day

"the patient's moods are determined by diurnal events" (google)

• • •

Hey all. I hope you had fun in my absence. Many thanks to my sterling stand-ins, Lena and Laura, who responded to my emergency call. Actually, it was a double emergency. Emergency 1: my internet got (mysteriously) shut off. Just ... dead. All remedies useless. All technical assistance futile. Didn't get back up til today, when the cable guy got out of his van, took one look up the pole, and said, "Yeah, your cable was mistakenly disconnected." Good to know! And then there was Emergency 2: I had urgent business in New York City on Friday. You see, it was my daughter's 17th birthday, and somebody (possibly the world's greatest father) got her (and her best friend!) tickets to see some show called ... [checks Playbill] ... "Hamilton"? Have you heard of it? Grudgingly, my wife and I came along as chaperones:

Basically the (absolutely real) internet outage neatly coincided with my Broadway plans. Some tragedies have upsides. Note: Today's puzzle is not one of those tragedies. The quaintness here is cloying. Also, I don't think anyone says HOTSY / TOTSY ... like, ever. Wasn't one part of that expression recently in a grid? And it made everyone groan in anguish and the horribleness? Yes, I'm sure that happened. I honestly don't even know what HOTSY / TOTSY means. I would not have guessed [Sophisticated]. Sounds more like [Having pretensions to sophistication]. So befuddled was I by the expression that I spent many seconds looking at HO-SY / TO-SY wondering what else could work there *besides* the "T." My second biggest theme answer objection related to NAMBY-PAMBY, which is pejorative slang for a "weak and indecisive *man*." It's basically related to SISSY and therefore can f*** right off. It's meant to suggest "effeminacy," and it's meant to suggest it negatively (duh), so pfffftfefpfdgt bite me.

FOOD STAMP in the singular is weird—never seen it that way before (33A: Old coupon for the needy). DIURNAL is a pretty high-and-in-fastball SAT word, but I must've picked it up in some poetry class somewhere. Sounds Wordsworthian. Oh, snap! I just googled [Diurnal poem] and Wordsworth was the first hit! Shout-out to Arden Reed, my Romantic Poetry professor (Spring 1990). Some of it stuck!

Overall, the fill is just OK, but about as polished as it has any right to be given the onerous pressure the theme puts on the grid. BULLMOOSE is welcome in my grid any day (8D: Symbol of Teddy Roosevelt's political party).

Happy 11th birthday to this blog. The Bloggiversary is always a good time to revisit the first comment my blog ever got. A classic of its kind. Everything about it is so pure. Enjoy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Joy Behar and Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (gotta know comedian names *and* figure out all the punniness...) (still finished in just a shade over 3:30)

THEME: Comedian puns— familiar phrases reclued (and -spelled) as if they had something to do with famous comedians:

Theme answers:

PURPLE HART (17A: Comedian Kevin after having a sloppy jelly snack?)
PAW PRINZE (25A: Get frisky with comedian Freddie?)
PRYOR COMMITMENT (40A: Comedian Richard being sent to a psychiatric facility?)
BARR FIGHT (51A: Cause of comedian Roseanne's black eye?)
FALLEN IDLE (62A: Result of comedian Eric's untied shoelaces?)

Word of the Day: Freddie PRINZE (25A) —

Freddie James Prinze (/ˈprɪnz/born Frederick Karl Pruetzel; June 22, 1954 – January 29, 1977) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. Prinze was the star of 1970s NBC-TV sitcom Chico and the Man. He is the father of the actor Freddie Prinze Jr.. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle was ... a joy. (Sorry. Sorry ... But only kinda sorry.) The theme is simple but consistent, tight, and appropriate (to the celebrity constructor), and it all just works. Much more delightful and interesting than your average Tuesday puzzle—a low bar, yes, but it's the only bar that matters for a Tuesday puzzle. The fill is pretty darned clean, and you get some interesting longer Down answers in the bargain (I particularly liked RESCUE DOG). The comedians skew ... let's not say "old." Let's say, "established." Kevin HART is (by far) the youngest of the bunch, and the only one still doing stand-up. Unless Roseanne is still doing it and I'm just unaware. I don't think Eric Idle ever did stand-up. The other two comedians are long dead. You definitely have to be Of A Certain Age (i.e. my age or older) to remember Freddie Prinze, who died in 1977, in his early 20s. His son (Jr.) is a pretty successful actor.

The puzzle is pretty name-heavy—both because of the nature of the theme, and because of a lot of incidental names—and this sets up some pretty serious possibilities for failure. I had no idea how SUSIE Essman spelled her name, so I'm just lucky that I had (vaguely) heard of LOIS Lowry (and that LOIZ is not, you know, a plausible human name). It is absolutely completely possible to be a reasonably intelligent person and never have heard of LOIS Lowry or SUSIE Essman *or* Freddie PRINZE, in which case, yikes. NYAD is another bygone name that's come swimming out of the past and into this puzzle (44A: Swimmer Diana), and she could cause trouble, as her weird name has two *other* names crossing it; but dear god let's hope solvers know AMY March and IDA Lupino. That's pretty basic stuff. (Although now I kinda hope some poor sap out there guessed IRA Lupino)

I didn't like the clue on NOTORIETY, which is too abstract and vague a concept to qualify as an "Achievement." An "achievement" should be a specific thing, like a rank or a prize, not FAME or ILL-REPUTE or RENOWN etc. Maybe I would accept ORGASM, but that's not exactly NYT territory. Also, booo to the corniness at 54D: What Tarzan's friends advised him to do? (GO APE). Why are there friends here? Who "advises" a "friend" to do that?! The whole hypothetical situation is ridiculous and contrived. I mean, you can have your Tarzan/APE joke, I guess, but ditch the "friends." They just make it weird.

I haven't heard "Attention K-MART shoppers!" since I was a kid. Wikipedia tells me that: "At the height of Kmart's popularity, the phrase "Attention Kmart shoppers!" entered into the American pop psyche, appearing in films and other media such as Troop Beverly Hills, Six Days Seven Nights, Rain Man, Beetlejuice, Madea Goes to Jail, and Dawn of the Dead." That is one hell of a motley watch list. But now if anyone ever asks you what Troop Beverly Hills and Dawn of the Dead have in common, you'll have at least one answer. Unless there's a zombie Shelley Long in Dawn of the Dead that I forgot about. Then, two. Two answers.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (except for the mistake I made, ugh)

THEME: THREE-RING CIRCUS (42A: Confusing situation ... or what this puzzle contains literally?)— three "rings" (represented in the grid above by circled squares) contain acts one might see at a circus ... I think:

The Rings:

GLASS EATER
FIRE DANCER
WIRE WALKER

Word of the Day: SELAH (9D: Interjection occurring frequently in Psalms) —

exclamation
exclamation: selah
(in the Bible) occurring frequently at the end of a verse in Psalms and Habakkuk, probably as a musical direction. (google)

• • •

I've never seen any of those things at a circus. So there's that. Also, those aren't "rings." So there's that, too. Both the grid shape and the longer Downs in this one are pretty intriguing, and the fill is mostly clean ... except, you know, around those "rings." There, things get dicey ASSAI ESSES HESSE SWE dicey. In fact, so dicey, for me, that I finished with an error—one that I never would have found had the circled circus acts not been a part of the puzzle. I had GRAFT instead of GRIFT. These words aren't that different, either in look or in meaning. Obviously, if you ask me to choose which, of these two, better fits 64A: Petty swindle, I'm gonna go with GRIFT. But that is not how crosswords play themselves out. It woulda been *super* nice if the cross had been *any* help, but how the hell am I supposed to know how Ray NAGIN spells his damn last name. I mean, sure, there's FAGIN, for comparison, but there's also PAGAN and SAGAN. So the "A" went in easy and never came out. I cannot stress how bad that NAGIN / GRIFT cross is, at a basic design level. You know that second vowel in NAGIN's name is not gonna be a slam dunk, and then the plausible crosses are both Types Of Crime!? It was bad enough to have F-STAR up there (5D: Polaris, e.g., in astronomy), with its stupid take-a-random-guess first letter making that square essentially uncrossed (i.e. you better get FLAPS because I know you don't know what letter star Polaris is; no you don't, shut up). But then the whole NAGIN thing, ugh. You notice that all this weakness is Right On Top Of the stupid "rings." That is not a coincidence. Rings put a Ton of pressure on the grid. But it's the constructor's (and, uh, editor's) responsibility to make sure cleanness, clarity, and solvability reign.

Outside of the ring areas, the puzzle played pretty easy. The cluing was no great shakes. Take the clue on GRIFT—64A: Petty swindle. Now look it up on google. Go ahead. I'll wait. No I won't, here it is:

See? That's just ... lifting. Nothing colorful, thoughtful, specific, inventive. Just a definition lifted straight from a rudimentary google search. Most of the clues here are straightforward and dull. Even some of the longer fill, while original, is not exactly scintillating. TAX CLINIC? SAND GROUSES? Applause for novelty, but I hardly thought, "Dang, nice." I did think "Dang, nice" with CYPRESS HILL, though (24A: Hip-hop group with the triple-platinum album "Black Sunday"). That answer was satisfying to me, EMOTIONALLY.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy anniversary to my wife, whom I love an awful lot

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:PIÑATA (44D: Party item depicted in the middle of this puzzle's grid)—isolated bit inside the (alleged) PIÑATA is CANDY (35A: Likely contents of a 44-Down), which, a note tells me, is "C and Y"—two letters that appear nowhere in the rest of the grid ...

Word of the Day: Hale BOGGS (10A: Hale ___, House majority leader of the 1970s) —

Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. (February 15, 1914 – presumably October 16, 1972 but not declared dead until January 3, 1973) was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the House majority leader and a member of the Warren Commission. // In 1972, while he was still Majority Leader, the twin engine airplane in which Boggs was traveling disappeared over a remote section of Alaska. The airplane presumably crashed and was never found. Congressman Nick Begich, of Alaska, was also presumed killed in the same accident. [...] Hale and Lindy Boggs had four children: U.S. TV and public radio journalist Cokie Roberts, born December 27, 1943, and the wife of journalist Steven V. Roberts; Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., a prominent Washington, D.C.,-based attorney and lobbyist; Barbara Boggs Sigmund, who served as mayor of Princeton, New Jersey; and William Robertson Boggs, who died as an infant on December 28, 1946. In 1982 Mrs. Sigmund lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate to Frank Lautenberg. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is so poorly conceived. It's like one concept, with an entirely unrelated concept tacked on to it for no apparent reason. Who cares that there is no C or Y in the non-CANDY part of the grid? Those letters are not not not not not hard to do without. The puzzle wants you to think that a non-accomplishment is an accomplishment. Then there's the (alleged) PIÑATA, which I thought was a dog on some kind of weird leash (not sure if that was before or after I thought that it was some kind of desk or workbench). I do not read notes, ever, before solving. Unless your puzzle is a meta-puzzle, it should be solvable without reference to any "note." The PIÑATA would not hang properly if that's where the string met the horse's torso. Further, those legs are ridiculously long and skinny. Also, I'm told that on the website, the PIÑATA answer is yellow (!?), which, visually, is ... interesting.

So the theme, in all its parts, is just a mess. It's like a bar bet puzzle. "I bet I can do this?""Who cares?""BET ME!""OK, jeez, take it easy." I think the stack in the NW corner is nicely done, and GO JUMP IN THE LAKE is not bad, though I thought it was *A* lake. It's supposed to be a metaphor, not a recommendation regarding a nearby body of water. But I see THE is well attested, so some of my fondness for that answer remains.

There's not a single woman in this grid. There is only one woman mentioned in all of the clues, and she is mentioned only in relation to a man—and What a man! It's this editor's favorite man, the man he can't help working into the puzzle seemingly every day. Another day, another gratuitous Trump reference (57A: Melania Trump ___ Knauss) (NÉE). The guy really, really doesn't know (or respect) his solving base. But this sad NÉE clue is fitting for this puzzle, with its G.I. JOE and the NRA and all that fake manly crap and no girls allowed. A tiresome sausagefest of a party (with the world's dumbest-looking PIÑATA). I mean, the puzzle even manages to shit on the lone female *animal* in the puzzle (39A: No Triple Crown winner ever = MARE). That's some high-end chauvinism right there.

Bullets:

10A: Hale ___, House majority leader of the 1970s (BOGGS)— there's only one BOGGS. He played 3B for the Red Sox and then the Yankees and then I think maybe the (D)-Rays, but that last part I tend to block out.
16A: "Get ___, you two!" ("A ROOM")— since this is up there in the NE corner, I assume "you two" refers to G.I. JOE and ELMER Fudd.
34A: Well-planed (EVEN)— yes, I too read this as "well-planned." I'm guessing that was the plane.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: PHALANGE (38D: Bone of the hand or foot) —

Anatomy
another term for phalanx (sense 2). // i.e.
Anatomy
a bone of the finger or toe. (google)

• • •

This is a fine puzzle. Lots of zingy longer fill, very modern, very colloquial. Entertaining. The only parts that were truly irksome were those that were anomalously old and dumb like MOT (14A: Zinger). No one says MOT for "zinger." Maybe ironically, but not actually. I'd rather see this clued as a partial (e.g. [Bon ___], [Le ___ juste]) or even just as Fr. word meaning ... well, "word." Only the hyper-pretentious are going to call a "zinger" a MOT. Also no one says I DARE NOT (except maybe the guy who says MOT). That answer took me a while because it's impossible to imagine a non-fictional human saying it. I also got a little confused on the GENDER BINARY clue (20A: Male-or-female). Is it GENDER hyphen BINARY, i.e. is this a compound adjective??? The clue looks adjectival ... so ... yeah, the clue and answer don't swap out that well, to my ear. "GENDER-BINARY thinking" = "Male-or-female thinking"? ... I guess. Maybe. Anyway, that threw me. (My friend Angela literally just emailed me, unsolicited, complaining about this very answer, and calling the clue "hyphen abuse")

My biggest struggles (which were few) all cam in and around the long Downs in the east. I just couldn't get any of the short Acrosses to go at first, and so couldn't see the Downs very well. I actually wanted both PSY and USA, but the first seemed dumb (though I guess as an abbr. it's not inaccurate) (no one calls it that, but those are the three letters one would see in a course catalogue, say), and then the second (USA) I just wasn't sure of. And then there was MIC, with its ridiculous [insert tab A into slot B and fold into a swan to get the answer!]-type clue, which my brain always just rejects (62A: Item that names a person holding it when its middle letter is removed). I take one look and go Nope and move to crosses. See also the clue on TRES, ugh (39A: French 101 word or, with a different meaning, Spanish 101 word). Almost everything *not* on the east coast of this puzzle was super-easy. And, as I said up front, pretty fun.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: RIJKSMUSEUM (49A: Home of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch") —

The Rijksmuseum (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈrɛiksmyˌzeːjʏm]; English: National Museum) is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw. (wikipedia)

• • •

RIJKSMUSEUM is a perfectly good answer. Looks great in the grid. How. Ever. With a proper noun like that, especially one that is not LOUVRE / PRADO / MOMA-famous, you have to watch the crosses. Now the crosses on the MUSEUM part, maybe you can be less careful about, because if you get just part of MUSEUM, the rest is inferrable. But the crosses on the *&$^% Dutch part better be very fair, very clear. I now call your attention to 46D: Time of surrender in '45. And I now call your attention to the definition of V*E* DAY (per wikipedia):

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day, was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.

I then call your attention to the fact that that definition has both "1945" and "surrender" in it. And then I rest my case, my case being "man you people really don't take design as seriously as the self-styled Best Puzzle in the World should." I mean, yes, the "J" is Dutchier-looking, I guess, but ... that is a stupid thing to have to go on. Again, the museum's name isn't the problem. The terrible vague clue on VJ DAY is. Proper nouns (esp. foreign ones, esp. not-universally-famous ones) require special editorial attention in the crosses. Failure to give such attention here meant that my solving experience went from mostly delighted (it's a very nice grid) to eye-rollingly disappointed yet again.

God bless NPR's LAKSHMI Singh, the only LAKSHMI I know (32A: Hindu goddess of prosperity). I didn't know that was a goddess's name, but I had the LAK-, and I've heard Ms. Singh say her name so many times over the years, that I figured it was worth a shot; and it was. I always think it's KIMONO Dragon (41D: Island after which a lizard is named), so between that and the odd MAYBES, I had a small amount of trouble getting down into the SW corner. I have no idea how I remembered the term IDEAL GAS. Residual chemistry knowledge somewhere in my brain, I guess. Thought I really gunked things up at first in the NE when I had PHS- at the beginning of 6A: 7 is in the middle of it. I'd had the PH- and thought it was going to have something to do with a PHONE (the keypad, maybe(s)???). But the "S" was undeniable and I quickly realized "ah, PH SCALE." Nice, tricky consonant pile-up. Hardest part for me was that SE corner (that museum!). I had to dive into that corner with zero help from crosses (always daunting). But I got ARTE quickly (47A: Musica o danza) and guessed UBER (though LYFT also seemed possible) (52D: 9-Down [i.e. CAB] alternative), and then things really broke open with the obvious 55A: San Luis ___ (OBISPO). Cal Poly San Luis OBISPO was on my daughter's potential college application list for a while. Plus I grew up in CA so I just know the place. So the SE corner worked itself out. Then I was left to deal with the stupid VE/VJ DAY problem. So I'll leave you there as well. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Robert Fisher

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME:"That's One Way to Put It"— euphemisms? I guess?

Theme answers:

TESTING GRAVITY (24A: Falling down)
AWARD FOR FAST DRIVING (32A: Speeding ticket)
ECONOMICAL WITH THE TRUTH (61A: Lying)
CAREER SHIFT OPPORTUNITY (87A: Layoff)
BUDGET REINFORCEMENT (114A: Tax increase)
POST-RETIREMENT (130A: Dead)

Word of the Day: OTTO I (118D: Holy Roman emperor called "the Great") —

Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (German: Otto der Große), was German king from 936 and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 962 until his death in 973.^[b] He was the oldest son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda. // Otto inherited the Duchy of Saxony and the kingship of the Germans upon his father's death in 936. He continued his father's work of unifying all German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king's powers at the expense of the aristocracy. Through strategic marriages and personal appointments, Otto installed members of his family in the kingdom's most important duchies. This reduced the various dukes, who had previously been co-equals with the king, to royal subjects under his authority. Otto transformed the Roman Catholic Church in Germany to strengthen royal authority and subjected its clergy to his personal control. // After putting down a brief civil war among the rebellious duchies, Otto defeated the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, thus ending the Hungarian invasions of Western Europe.^[3] The victory against the pagan Magyars earned Otto a reputation as a savior of Christendom and secured his hold over the kingdom. By 961, Otto had conquered the Kingdom of Italy and extended his realm's borders to the north, east, and south. The patronage of Otto and his immediate successors facilitated a so-called "Ottonian Renaissance" of arts and architecture. Following the example of Charlemagne's coronation as "Emperor of the Romans" in 800, Otto was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962 by Pope John XII in Rome. (wikipedia)

• • •

Stunning. Actually, I shouldn't be stunned anymore. I should've lost my capacity. It's should be stunning that a puzzle this dated, unfunny, and clunky could appear in the NYT, but it's sadly become pretty standard in the late Shortz reign (I hope it's "late"—it could very easily just be "middle," god help us all). Just six answers (despite an oversized 22-wide grid), and all of them non-phrases that are incredibly awkward, and not in the least funny. There are no such things as ... any of these things. These aren't phrases one utters in any context. It's like the constructor isn't quite sure how either English or humor works. It feels like a robot from another planet came up with these answers. Who tests gravity? ["CAREER SHIFT OPPORTUNITY"] gets 161 hits total on google. For reference ... that's terrible. ["BUDGET REINFORCEMENT"] only gets 3300. So ... not funny, not clever, not in-the-language. Not good. Is this some kind of weird October Fools! puzzle, where the theme is, like, horror, or something? It's the best defense I could think of.

And the fill does nothing to help matters. It's laden with weird abbrevs. and German and god knows what else. THE O!? (92D: Where to accent "Laotian"). Hilariously, it has crosswordese AMALIE (18D: Charlotte ___, Virgin Islands) and crosswordese ADELIE (107D: Antarctic penguin) in symmetrical positions, so I *almost* want to applaud that. Hardest part by far was the south, from ENJOIN (109D: Officially prohibit) to AM DIAL (112D: It goes up to about 1700), the latter of which was brutal (haven't thought about the AM DIAL since, let's say, 1980). Then JET (122A: Take off quickly) and LIT OUT (134A: Took off quickly) were both very hard to pick up and very close together. And of course the themers were zero help, being dumb nonsense phrases (see above). So that little southern patch, rough. The rest, not too hard. There should be a word for "easy but deeply unpleasant." Maybe a German word? Sunday puzzles have fallen into a disgraceful state. I'm astonished to learn that they are now my most-disliked day of the week. I did not know one could be "worse than Tuesday," but here we are. I think I'm done.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Guess who has two thumbs, is turning 20 on Tuesday and is doing the writeup today! It's Annabel! Woohoo!

Constructor: TRENTON CHARLSON

Relative difficulty: EASY

THEME: ALPHABET STRINGS — Theme clues are strings of letters, leaving it up to the solver to find what each string represents.

Theme answers:

MUSIC NOTES (18A: A B C D E F G)
LETTER GRADES (23A: A B C D F)
CHEMICAL SYMBOLS (39A: B C F H I K N O P S U V W Y)
MOVIE RATINGS (52A: G R X)
BLOOD TYPES (62A: A B O)

Word of the Day: RIA (38A: Narrow inlet) —

A ria (/riːə/ or /riə/)^[1] is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Typically, rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches. This pattern is inherited from the dendritic drainage pattern of the flooded river valley. The drowning of river valleys along a stretch of coast and formation of rias results in an extremely irregular and indented coastline. Often, there are islands, which are summits of partly submerged, pre-existing hill peaks.

(Wikipedia)

• • •

This one was really fun! Mostly because I loved the theme. I dunno if it was just me, but it actually took me a while to put most of them together, and it was really satisfying when I figured out what each of the sequences meant. Except "chemical symbols," because I'm still confused - are those just the only letters that stand for an individual element? Eh. Also I totally had HIJKLMNOPQ clued for the 18A for an embarrassing amount of time - I thought it was one of those finish-the-pattern things! Hmm, that would be a pretty cool concept for a puzzle...

The fill was pretty cool too, but has anyone seen that FROST/NIXON? It's one of those things I feel like I heard of somewhere and probably shoooould know but didn't. Between LOFTS and BALES, I guess Trenton had hay on his mind. Maybe he was at a farm, or just really likes Monet paintings? And I liked seeing LOUNGE and RECLINE reclining vertically across the grid, that was a neat little detail.

None of the cluing really stuck out, but that was more than made up for by it being a well-balanced Monday! The clues for the three-letter words felt lazier than usual, but ALAS, TIS difficult to clue them better, I guess. The one exception: for AHA I definitely first had WHY, then WHA? Kind of ironic that that clue in particular turned out to be the "tough crossword clue." :P

Bullets:

HESS (13D: Company famous for its toy trucks) — Experienced crossword puzzlers: is this one obscure, or am I just too young? Cause, like, I never heard of this company at all. I just remember having Tonka toy trucks. Also a million Thomas the Tank Engine trains. And Hot Wheels. Man, what is it with little kids and vehicles?
EEL (28A: Slippery 1-Across) — "Could you show me how to tie my shoes?"
EARL (67A: _____ of Sandwich) — So um...which came first? Sandwiches or the Earl of Sandwich? Like, I know of him and I know he's some historical figure who conquered some islands but like...did he invent sandwiches? Did his ancestors just really like sandwiches? I know I could just Google this but it's so much more fun to have it be this eternal mystery.
FERMI (21D: Physicist Enrico) — In high school we did this musical called Zombie Prom (I had like three lines in it I think?) that was basically "Grease, but halfway through Danny - er, 'Jonny' - falls into a vat of nuclear waste and dies before coming back as a zombie." Because that makes sense? Anyway, the name of the high school in the show was Enrico Fermi High, and the point is now I tragically can't read the word "Fermi" without the entire show getting stuck in my head. I can hear the lyrics now: "I wish I could stop ya / But I know I can't / Jonny, Jonny, Jonny don't go / To the nuclear plant!"...Somehow they made this into a movie starring RuPaul and the whole thing's on YouTube if you're interested.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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Constructor: Chuck Deodene

Relative difficulty: Challenging (not sure why, exactly ... but 4:00 is slooow for me, for Tuesday)

THEME:CENTER / ISLAND (36A: With 38-Across, feature of an upscale kitchen ... or of 17-, 23-, 47- and 58-Across)— there are names of (actual) islands embedded in the center of each theme answer:

Theme answers:

BALTIMOREAN (17A: One might stare at the Sun)
BUSHEL BASKET (23A: It holds four pecks)
STATION AGENT (47A: Manager at a train depot)
FORMAL TALKS (58A: Discussions that might lead to a treaty)

Word of the Day: Carson DALY (26A: NBC host Carson) —

Carson Jones Daly (born June 22, 1973) is an American television host, radio personality, producer and television personality. Prior to 2002, Daly was a VJ on MTV's Total Request Live, and a DJ for the Southern California-based radio station 106.7 KROQ-FM. In 2002, Daly joined NBC, where he began hosting and producing the late night talk showLast Call with Carson Daly, and occasionally hosting special event programming for NBC, such as the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks show, and executive producing New Year's Eve with Carson Daly from Times Square beginning in 2003.
Daly has since been involved in more prominent roles at NBC, such as becoming host for its reality music competition The Voice in 2011, and joining NBC's morning show Today as a social media correspondent in 2013. (wikipedia)

• • •

So the islands are in fact dead center, which is a nice touch. I don't expect most people to notice this, but I appreciate attention to detail and careful craftsmanship. That first themer doesn't have the island broken across two words, which is of course the IDEAL (and the fate of all the other center islands), but the consistent centering makes me care about this little detail less. Also, that clue is pretty good (17A: One might stare at the Sun). I didn't find the puzzle particularly entertaining, largely because the themers were all either dull or unfamiliar to me (or both). Is it BALTIMOREAN like Delorean and Korean or like foreign. BALTIMOREEEEEAN? Or Baltimoran? You see, I've literally never heard anyone say it. See also BUSHEL BASKET (?). I know the phrase STATION AGENT only from the title of a movie I never saw, and FORMAL TALKS is about as interesting as beige paint. But, despite the fact that the theme type here is very old/common, it's done in a neat way, and the grid is satisfactory, so this certainly beats your average Tuesday puzzle.

There is one answer that I am having trouble stomaching, though, and that's 13D: Writing in digital format (E-TEXT). I can't begin to say how terrible this is, how tin-eared, how technologically illiterate-sounding this is. "I'll send you an E-TEXT!" Just try saying this to ... well, anyone with an E-TEXT-receiving device in the 21st century. I can't tell if it's another word for "text message," or a word for any writing (text) written electronically, or what? Is this E-TEXT? These words that you are reading right now? If so, how weird that I've been writing in E-TEXT, for the general public, for 11 years, and I have never even heard the term that apparently describes the thing that I am writing.* Also, how weird that I watch "Psycho" every year on Halloween—I've probably seen it more than any movie save "Dazed & Confused"—and I couldn't remember Norman's mother's name (NORMA). I had MOMMA at one point, ugh. Also, wtf, Norman's mother's name is NORMA? Norman, NORMA. That's ... not normal. I also struggled to get IN HELL x/w YAH and also x/w LA ROSA (which I had as DEROSA ... I only ever see that guy's name in crosswords).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*E-TEXT appears to be a word for electronic textbooks ... for scholastic use ... nothing about the clue suggests this ... ??

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Constructor: Evan Mahnken

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Where blah blah is "in the dictionary"— common two-word phrases are clued as if those phrases were indicating where the second word can be found (very roughly) in the dictionary:

Theme answers:

AFTER HOURS (17A: Where "house party" is in the dictionary?)
NEAR MINT (23A: Where "new" is in the dictionary?)
BY ITSELF (50A: Where "isolated" is in the dictionary?)
AROUND NOON (56A: Where "midday" and "one" are in the dictionary?)
UNDER FIRE (10D: Where "flanked" is in the dictionary?)
BENEATH ME (31D: Where "menial" is in the dictionary?)

Word of the Day: AMARNA (1D: Cuneiform discovery site) —

The Amarna letters (sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA) are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten (el-Amarna), founded by pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s – 1330s BC) during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are mostly written in Akkadian cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, rather than that of ancient Egypt. (wikipedia)

• • •

Appreciated this one more after I was done than while I was solving. While I was solving, the whole theme just seemed fussy. Who cares where these words are? Couldn't you make this puzzle infinitely, with any [preposition + noun] phrase as a theme answer? Also I would never use "beneath" or "under" or "around" to orient someone in a dictionary (in relation to another word). Add in the super-weird grid design (more on that later) and the pretty ugly fill that crops up an awful lot, and you have a somewhat less-than-enjoyable puzzle. After I finished, though, I noticed that the clues are very much relevant to their answers, i.e. it's not just some random "H" word that's AFTER HOURS, it's a "house party"—which would, of course, take place AFTER HOURS, just as someone who is "flanked" might be UNDER FIRE, just as "midday" and "one" are AROUND NOON (time-wise), etc. So I'm grateful that the cluing was so tight. And I am also grateful for SONIC YOUTH (30D: Band featured in the documentary "1991: The Year Punk Broke") and BROWNIE MIX (6D: Betty Crocker product), two great tastes that go great (I imagine) together. I GOT NEXT, also a fine phrase. I just wish the crosswordese didn't drag this one down so bad. "GAI MIL EDY DER NEE!" he said, in a sad language all his own.

So this grid is sooo weird. Those ridiculously giant NE and SW corners ... and yet it's a 78-worder (the max allowed)?? The center is so choppy, so full of tiny answers, that the NE and SW corners end up having to be these great wide-open things just to compensate, just to keep the word count below the standard max. Those corners, in addition to the "huh?" nature of the theme, made the puzzle feel harder than normal. My time, though, was pretty normal (low 4s). Oh, and the other thing that impeded swift progress through the grid was the isolation of the NW / SE corners. You can't move across the top or bottom. There's just no connective tissue. You gotta go six rows down (or up) to get around that wall + diagonal line of black squares. Structural strangeness. So it was very uneven, but there's a thoughtfulness in the theme execution that shows promise, for sure.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. MOO is in the grid and also in the GAI clue :( (46A: Moo goo ___ pan)

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Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Uplifting remakes— movie titles have qualitative adjectives changed to be more positive:

Theme answers:

"SPECIAL PEOPLE"(from "Ordinary People") (20A: Uplifting remake of a 1980 Donald Sutherland/Mary Tyler Moore film?)
"THE KIDS ARE SUPER" (from "The Kids Are Alright") (26A: Uplifting remake of a 2010 Annette Bening/Julianne Moore film?)
"AS GREAT AS IT GETS" (from "As Good As It Gets") (45A: Uplifting remake of a 1997 Jack Nicholson/Helen Hunt film?)
"MY AWESOME LADY" (from "My Fair Lady") (51A: Uplifting remake of a 1964 Audrey Hepburn/Rex Harrison film?)

Word of the Day: Kaaba (42A: Mecca's holy Kaaba, e.g.) (CUBE) —

The Ka'bah (Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة‎‎ al-kaʿbahIPA: [alˈkaʕba], "The Cube"), also referred as al-ka`bah al-musharrafah (The Holy Kaaba), is a building at the center of Islam's most sacred mosque, that is Al-Masjid Al-Ḥarām (Arabic: الـمَـسـجِـد الـحَـرَام‎‎, The Sacred Mosque), in Mecca, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia. It is the most sacred site in Islam. It is considered by Muslims to be the bayt Allāh, the "House of God", and has a similar role to the Tabernacle and Holy of Holies in Judaism. Wherever they are in the world, Muslims are expected to face the Kaaba when performing salat (prayer). From any point in the world, the direction facing the Kaaba is called the qibla. (wikipedia)

• • •

I don't understand how neither the constructor nor the editor can see what's wrong with the execution of this theme. It's too bad that the people involved didn't have the Merlesque patience to wait for the Perfect fourth themer to come along. Actually, I think "MY AWESOME LADY" is slightly wobbly, since "Fair" in the original title does not mean "so-so" (the way that "Ordinary" and "Alright" most definitely do in their titles). But the word "Fair" *can* mean "so-so," so let's allow it. But "AS GREAT AS IT GETS" is a face-flop failure. Not only does "Good" not not not mean "so-so," the original title, "As Good As It Gets," *already contains within it the concept of ideality, and thus greatness*. "AS GREAT AS IT GETS" doesn't change the meaning of the original title—it just sounds ****ing stupid. This puzzle has four tires but one is flat. Driving = hazardous, unpleasant.

I finished this one in four flat—pretty dang fast for me, for a Thursday. I know and have seen all the movies involved, so that helped. My biggest struggle was with CUBE, as I did not know what "Kaaba" was. And now I do. Hurray. (I hope this will do away with the idea that I "don't want to learn new things" or "only like answers from that are in my wheelhouse" ... but it won't). TRALA is gruesome and there are too many crosswordesey answers overall. I do like the clue on SEURAT, even if it is a little corny (perhaps because it is a little corny) (25D: Artist who went dotty?). When I finished the puzzle, I was quite prepared to be upset at 31D: Beats quickly, in a way (RACES) because I thought "racing has nothing to do with defeating anyone, per se!" But then I realized the clue was talking about the heart. And then I thought, "Oh, OK, that's fine. Nicely done." Did not like the ERA clue (47D: A good one is under 3.00, for short) because a. ERA is not the greatest stat for measuring pitcher quality, and b. an ERA under 3.00 is in fact *great* in today's game, especially for a starter. Only eight starters in all of baseball this year had ERA s under 3.00. Under *4.00* is better than average (i.e. good ... or at least fair).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ACOMA (29D: Historic pueblo near Albuquerque) —

Acoma Pueblo (/ˈækəmə/; Western Keresan: ʔáák’u [ʔɑ́ːk'ù]; Zuni: Hakukya; Navajo: Haak’oh) is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. Three villages make up Acoma Pueblo: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, and Mcartys. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity. The historical land of Acoma Pueblo totaled roughly 5,000,000 acres (2,000,000 ha). The community retains only 10% of this land, making up the Acoma Indian Reservation. Acoma Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark.
According to the 2010 United States Census, 4,989 people identified as Acoma. The Acoma have continuously occupied the area for more than 800 years, making this one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States (along with Hopi pueblos). Acoma tribal traditions estimate that they have lived in the village for more than two thousand years. (wikipedia)

• • •

Berry's puzzles are never not smooth. A three-stack of 12s crossing another three-stack of 12s, with all involved answers rock solid—impressive. It is becoming increasingly obvious, however, that Berry has zero interest in having his puzzles be current. His cultural frame of reference skews old. Old even for him—I think he's GenX like me, but his puzzles are solidly boomer. All the cultural references are things *I* had to learn from watching old TV and doing crosswords. I guess if you learn to make puzzles in an era when contemporary references were shunned (i.e. the pre-Shortz era), then maybe it's hard to learn new tricks, especially if you are soooo good at your old ones. But compared to the puzzles of under-40 constructors, this one feels as "Old-fashioned" as having a BARN as your "dance venue" (43D). The only "modern-style" answer has a badly botched clue (8D: Smoked, modern-style). Smoked, modern-style is ... smoked. People still smoke. Lots of 'em. And it's called smoking. Further, vaping is not not not smoking. It is a substitute. I struggled like crazy in that NW corner because I figured "Smoked" had to be slang, as in "beat handily at something." Also got undone by (old) "Catch-22" name, which I knew was crosswordese, but I couldn't remember which crosswordese, and I initially guessed wrong:

And then there was (old) guitar maker: FENDER part easy; first name ... pfft shrug. Wanted LES, but knew that was the other guitar guy (Paul). I would've been deeeeaaaad up there if I hadn't frantically and systematically gone through the orchestra to find any instrument that could fit the -I--AS pattern (8A: Orchestra section that plays mostly harmony). Once I hit VIOLAS, everything else locked in. Rest of puzzle didn't pose nearly as much of a challenge.

Old names get a little out of control in the south. Any puzzle with MOREY Amsterdam (34A: Amsterdam of "The Dick Van Dyke Show") over Vice President DAWES (36A: Coolidge's vice president) crossing JULES from a 23-year-old movie is still busing prepping for Y2K. Had no idea what ACOMA was. Probably seen it before, but certainly couldn't remember. Never every think of "philosophy" as SOCIAL STUDIES (which is a term I only hear used in relation to middle and high school civics courses), so the SOCIAL part was rough, just as the ACCOUNT part of ACCOUNT HOLDER was rough (32A: Recipient of blank checks). But that makes just two real rough patches. The rest was smooth sailing. And as I say, the grid is pretty impeccable (TINA'S not withstanding). It just ... doesn't want kids on its lawn. Part of me understands. Speaking of kids, I gotta go pick up mine. See ya.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: OSTERIA (39A: Basic Italian bistro) —

noun
noun: osteria; plural noun: osterias
an Italian restaurant, typically a simple or inexpensive one. (google)

• • •

Ouch. That one roughed me up. It's a glorious grid in many ways—scads (GOBS?) of long answers, thick stacks handled with deftness and precision. But despite a plethora of short answers (crossing the longer ones, in every corner), there just weren't many real toeholds, and getting traction was tough all over. Further, I just didn't know ... any of this stuff. Well, OK, I knew a bunch, but I haven't Not known this much in ages. OSTERIA (nope) crossing ON THE UP (nope). That was fun (i.e. harrowing). Only way I got that initial vowel was by inference. Jesus had a grandma? OK, sure. Her name was just ... ANNE? How did I miss this? I assume a SWAYBAR (?) is part of a car, but if I had to name a hundred car parts, that wouldn't be one of them (38D: Stabilizer in suspensions). "BEE SEASON"!? Did anyone see that. The title drifted into my mind ... somehow. No reason it should have. I can't tell you a damn thing about it, just that the title implanted itself in my mind at some point. Me while solving this puzzle: "Queen had a hit in 1989???" After getting nearly all the crosses, I figured out the first bit, and yeah, I can kind of hear the chorus, or the title anyway, but that's it. NAN Britton has probably been in front of my face before, since I was definitely into Harding scandals at one point, but I forgot her. Throw in the fact that even the stuff I did know was clued in tough to brutal fashion, and yeah, this was the hardest I've worked in a while.

ADORATION instead of ADULATION, argh (57A: Offering to an idol). Also, bigger argh, "YMCA" instead of "LOLA" (4D: 1970 hit with a spelled-out title). I know Very Well the year "YMCA" came out, and I know very well it's not 1970 ... hence the "argh." That stupid little mistake was probably the most lethal, in retrospect. And I dropped HAIG in like a boss! (1D: "Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy") But then pulled him because I couldn't make the corner work! HELLSCAPE, AXIOMATIC, and IDA LUPINO are all things / words / people I love, so it's pretty humiliating to have struggled so much. GOBS of trouble with GOBS, as it's one of those stupid bleeping -O-S words meaning "many." I tried both of the other (more common) words before finally getting the correct one. NATE the Great and OGRESS were two of the very few answers I got immediately (37A: Princess Fiona, for one). I had no idea PSYCHODRAMA was a "therapy" (?!) (46A: Form of therapy in which patients act out events from their past). I just thought it was a phenomenon describing, like, a hellish roomate's whole annoying deal. Anyway, I admire this puzzle, even thought it beat me up. One thing I don't admire, however, is PC LANGUAGE (24A: Unslurred speech?). What a bullshit term that is. That's not even a real thing. That's some right-wing crap. What the hell is it? Not saying "******"!? Seriously, just "not using slurs" is PC LANGUAGE? That's messed up. Here's what I tweeted shortly after I wrote that stupid answer in:

I stand by this.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Erik Agard and Alex Briñas

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:"Power Ballads"— clues are all [some superhero's favorite band/singer] and then there's some apt jokey answer. Final themer imagines them all together for a SUPERGROUP (114A: What the musical artists in this upzzle would form if they performed together?) (because they're super ... heroes ... YA DIG?)

Theme answers:

BILLY OCEAN (23A: Aquaman's favorite singer?)
ARCADE FIRE (25A: The Human Torch's favorite band?)
GREEN DAY (35A: The Hulk's favorite band?)
COLDPLAY (44A: Iceman's favorite band?)
TAYLOR SWIFT (55A: The Flash's favorite singer?)
METALLICA (68A: Magneto's favorite band?)
THE SPINNERS (78A: Spider-Man's favorite band?)
LIL WAYNE (89A: Batman's favorite rapper?)
MC HAMMER (99A: Thor's favorite rapper?)
FRANK ZAPPA (112A: Electro's favorite singer?)

Word of the Day: ELTON Brand (49D: ___ Brand, two-time N.B.A. All-Star) —

Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player. After playing college basketball for Duke, he was selected with the first overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, and later played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks. A two-time NBA All Star and an All-NBA Second Team selection in 2006, Brand is currently the General manager of the Delaware 87ers. (wikipedia)

• • •

I was in Ithaca tonight seeing Maria Bamford, so I did not see the Sunday puzzle when it first came out. Early tweets about it suggested it wasn't the greatest, so I was not looking forward to getting home late and having to solve Yet Another tedious Sunday. But honestly, this one seems far less tedious than average, esp. of late. I mean, it was very easy, and conceptually simple, but it worked. It wasn't inconsistent. It had a solid final answer / punchline (I wouldn't really call it a "revealer"). My only real issue with the theme was: who the hell is Iceman? All the other heroes are pretty famous. Half of them are downright iconic. But I teach a course on Comics and don't even know what an "Iceman" is. Oh, I see he is in fact one of the original X-Men. If I cared about / paid attention to Marvel more, I'd surely know that. Anyway, my not knowing Iceman hardly affected my pleasure—I just accepted that Iceman existed and COLDPLAY was obvious, and on I went. The fill in this one was pretty good, especially for a theme this dense. SAN FRAN! (38D: City by the Bay, informally) That clue on ALLEGEDLY! (3D: [legally covering our butts here]). I dunno ... it felt about what I wish an average Sunday puzzle were—a pleasant, living-in-this-century, competently-executed diversion.

Here were my main trouble spots (they weren't that troubling, for the record):

When I started, I couldn't get TSA (1A: Agcy. for Kennedy and Reagan) or TABS (1D: Things the police may keep on suspects), and thought "uh oh, this isn't promising." Kennedy and Reagan are airports! Who knew? I mean, I knew ... but I didn't know when first reading this clue ... you get the idea. Later clues were not so befuddling. I just wrote in PREGNANT at 28A: With child, informally, neglecting the "informally." I find the word PREGGERS off-puttingly cutesy, so my brain will do anything to keep me from having to deal with it, including causing me to misread clues. Anyway, PREGNANT caused SEDATE instead of SERENE (10D: Untroubled), so that took a little time undoing. But NAY / "YA DIG?" was by far the toughest and most baffling, both because the clue on NAY was inscrutable (93A: Not only that but also) and because "YA" is not a "word" I am used to "spelling." I hear "Feel me?" in other people's conversations, but "YA DIG?" less so. Anyway, I had to get that section right down to the last letter before I finally threw in the "Y." I had RECALIBRATE for RECALCULATE (67D: What 14-Across will do if you miss a turn) and despite years of practicing yoga I totally blanked on TREE pose. Whoops (109D: What the upright yoga pose vrikshasana simulates).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Vegetation along British golf course / TUE 9-19-17 / US city whose name looks oxymoronic / Aid in producing suspect's picture

Fitness program done to Latin music / WED 9-20-17 / Scottish hillside / Citrus named for its appearance

1927 automotive debut / THU 9-21-17 / Formula One racer Prost / Operative villains often / Vacuum tube innovation of 1946 / Ragtime legend Blake / Helmer of Doll's House

PC Key / FRI 9-22-17 / PC Key

Calculator math sects / SAT 9-23-17 / Wayne Manor manservant / 29% cream / Redhead of Hogwarts / Neuwirth designer jewelry / Summer Olympics discontinued 1936 / Opposite of schadenfreude / Davy Crockett's rifle / Tony winner Neuwirth

Old coupon for needy / MON 9-25-17 / Soupy oliver twist fare / Active during daytime

Writer Lowry with two Newbery Medals / TUE 9-26-17 / Robust-sounding teens of children's books / Prof's URL ender / Superfood Amazon berry

Dwarf planet beyond Pluto / WED 9-27-17 / Victims of fictional Morlocks / Epoch characterized by rise of mammals / Hip hop group with triple-platinum album black sunday

Popular beige work boots colloquially / THU 9-28-17 / Org with millions of members HQd in Fairfax va / Hale House majority leader of 1970s / Widely played sport developed at Amherst College in 1960s

Judith of TV's Nashville / FRI 9-29-17 / Sweet love of my lifei n 1976 bob dylan song / Brand of fruit-flavored hard candy / English socialite Middleton / Modern transports used while standing

Final Trojan king / SAT 9-30-17 / Island after which lizard is named / Secondary personas in role-playing game lingo / Substance obeying Boyle's Law / Brand of machine that turns change into cash vouchers / Flower whose name is Greek for flame

Animal depicted in Edwin Landseer's Monarch of Glen / SUN 10-1-17 / Old sitcom character who was 229 years olf / Stripes mismatch traditionally / Rathecting wheel mechanism / Underbrush clearer

B C F H I K N O P S U V W Y / MON 10-2-2017 / Longtime Time magazine rival, briefly / Lecherous figure of myth / Play and film about a 1977 series of interviews with a former president

Old-fashioned dagger / TUE 10-3-17 / Famed German hypnotist / Manager at train depot / Tureen dipper

Cuneiform discovery site / WED 10-4-17 / Edward longtime bishop of New York / Bird found on all continents including antarctica / Band featured in documentary 1991 Year Punk Broke

Mecca's holy Kaaba / THU 10-5-17 / uplifting remake / Bygone fords / Fictional ship on five-year mission / Madly for 1952 campaign slogan

Historic pueblo near Albuquerque / FRI 10-6-17 / Enfant terrible of children's literature / Catch 22 pilot who repeatedly crashes

2017 Tony-winning play about 1990s diplomacy / SAT 10-7-17 / Director costar of bigamist 1953 / Dystopian backdrop / Second-oldest national park in North America / Weapon swung by gaucho / Literally singing place / 1970 hit with spelled out title

Princess Fiona after sunset / SUN 10-8-17 / Brand two time nba all star / Sculptor collagist Jean