Popular game with sequel Riven / THU 8-18-16 / zero in sports slang / Car modified into Monkeemobile / Smokes once touted by Willie penguin / Sarge's sell my bonds telegram

Constructor:Parker Lewis and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty:Easy


THEME:reparsed 15s— 15-letter words imagined as if they were ridiculous phrases...

Theme answers:

• RECON SIDE RATION
• TEMPE RAMEN TALLY
• NONCOM MUNI CABLE

Word of the Day:KOOLS(20A: Smokes once touted by Willie the penguin) —

Introduced by Brown and Williamson tobacco company in 1933, as an unfiltered 70mm "regular" cigarette, Kool was the first menthol cigarette to be nationally distributed by the then burgeoning tobacco industry and thus, was the first popular menthol cigarette. Kool enjoyed continued success through the 1950s, when growing public concern about the health risks associated with smoking began take a toll on the Kool brand. Brown and Williamson responded to these concerns by releasing filtered varieties of Kool - first an 85mm "king-sized" filtered version in the 1960s that was followed by a 100mm or "long" filtered version in the 1970s. The 1980s saw the introduction of Kool lights and it was also during this decade that the Kool brand began to lose some marketshare to other menthol brands, such as Newport. In 2003, Brown and Williamson was purchased by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and as a result of this merger, Kool became a Reynolds brand. Soon after, Kool's iconic green and white pack, virtually unchanged for some 70 years, was overhauled and the original unfiltered Kool cigarette was discontinued around this same time. However, the changes did little to boost sales, as Kool continued to lose ground to Newport and other menthols. On June 12, 2015, the Kool brand became the property of Imperial Tobacco Company due to a merger between Reynolds American (R.J. Reynolds parent company) and the Lorillard Tobacco Company. (wikipedia)

I once made a puzzle like this, also a Thursday NYT, where words were parsed wackily. But in that case, every word was a type of cheese (e.g. GORGON ZOLA ...) and there was a revealer (SLICED / CHEESE) and so there was ... whaddya call it? Cohesion. Tightness. A concept. This puzzle has nothing like that. It's built around three random 15-letter words. Who the hell cares? It's a Fail, thematically, right out of the box. The only reason I gave it a "C" is because the grid is well-filled.  Stunned this got accepted. That it got made, even. It's not like the constructors are novices. Further, the puzzle was way too easy for a Thursday. I like Thursdays that a. have good themes, and b. have some bite. This didn't meet either criterion.


WET MARTINIS are not for me (23D: Drinks with plenty of vermouth). A waste of good gin. (I don't recognize vodka martinis as a thing—what's the point? If I had to drink vodka, I guess I might make my martini wet as hell, idk). ROSHAMBO, rosham-no. I have heard of it, though, so it didn't hold me up much. LOOK IT UP (4D: "There's this thing called Google ...") was my favorite answer / clue of the day, easy, though I also appreciated HONEYMOONED (24D: Did a tour after joining up?). Was there any resistance today? Not really. I would never have put that headline (6D: Newspaper with the headline "Mystery Hero Saves Falling Space Plane") with the DAILY PLANET. I was thinking more WEEKLY WORLD NEWS. I also wouldn't list SATIN among top five upholsterer fabrics, so that took some doing (25D: Upholsterer's fabric). I think the TALESE clue (29D: Gay who wrote "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold") probably shouldn't have had "Gay" in it, 'cause once you write "Gay who wrote..." the rest of the clue is pretty much pointless. It's TALESE. Also, I probably would've gone with his creepy motel book, "The Voyeur's Motel," as the reference in that clue. More current, topical, controversial, everything (though that Sinatra essay is classic). Most trouble I had all night was probably the CABLE part of NONCOMMUNICABLE. Short answers down in that corner weren't self-evident, so there was some minor flailing. But overall, not much fight in this one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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