Rules in force in England before Norman Conquest / TUE 1-10-17 / Disc-flipping board game / Perfumer Nina / Creator of logical razor

Constructor:David Poole

Relative difficulty:Challenging (solid minute over my normal time)

THEME: OTHELLO (23A: Disc-flipping board game hinted at by a word ladder formed by the answers to the nine starred clues), also known as REVERSI (50A: Another name for 23-Across)— word ladder going from BLACK to WHITE because those are the colors on either side of an OTHELLO piece

Theme answers:

• you can figure it out, I'm not even deigning to type the damn steps on the stupid ladder

Word of the Day:DANELAW(42D: Rules in force in England before the Norman Conquest) —

The Danelaw (also known as the Danelagh; Old English: Dena lagunema; Danish: Danelagen), as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. Danelaw contrasts West Saxon law and Mercian law. // Modern historians have extended the term to a geographical designation. The areas that constituted the Danelaw lie in northern and eastern England. // The Danelaw originated from the Viking expansion of the 9th century AD, although the term was not used to describe a geographic area until the 11th century AD. With the increase in population and productivity in Scandinavia, Viking warriors, having sought treasure and glory in the nearby British Isles, "proceeded to plough and support themselves", in the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 876. (wikipedia)

SPECIAL MESSAGEfor the week of January 8-January 15, 2017

Hello, solvers. A new year has begun, and that means it's time for my week-long, once-a-year pitch for financial contributions to the blog. The idea is very simple: if you read the blog regularly (or even semi-regularly), please consider what it's worth to you on an annual basis and give accordingly. In making this pitch, I'm pledging that the blog will continue to be here for you to read / enjoy / grimace at for at least another calendar year, with a new post up by 9:00am (usually by 12:01am) every day, as usual. Despite my regular grumbling about puzzle quality, constructor pay, and other things that should be better in the world of crosswords, I still love solving, I still love writing about puzzles, and I love love love the people I meet and interact with because of this blog. Well, most of them. Some I mute on Twitter, but mostly: there is love. The blog turned 10 in September, and despite the day-in, day-out nature of the job, I can't foresee stopping any time soon. The community of friends and fellow enthusiasts are all just too dear to me. You can expect me to be here every day, praising / yelling at the puzzle—independent and ad-free. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address:

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions (I. Love. Snail mail!) will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. This year's cards are "Cookery Postcards from Penguin"—beautifully designed covers of vintage cookbooks, with provocative titles like "Cookery For Men Only " (!) or "Good Meals from Tinned Foods" (!?). Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just say NO CARD.  As I say in every thank-you card (and email), I'm so grateful for your readership and support.

Now on to the puzzle!

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This was a quintessential Tuesday, i.e. a train wreck. Its wreckiness was worsened (for me) by being far tougher than it ought to have been, for all the wrong reasons (namely LEMAT—??????—and that entire NW corner, ugh). Bad fill, bad clues, and a godawful theme. I thought we agreed the word ladder was dead. Dead. Bye bye. Go away. There is no joy in you, word ladder. "Oooh, look how it goes from WHILE to WHITE!" said no one except LOCOS (which is not a word anyone uses at all, btw). GENL!? What is happening!? The fill is soooo bad. The NW is a disaster all on its own. LEMAT goes straight to the "Let's Not" list, where it will join ... LEK!!? Well, whaddya know? I've had the "Let's Not" list only one week and *already* a banned word has returned. LEK. I mean, LEK. Just ... LEK. Twice in 2017 already. LEK. AGA LEK. NIA LEK. EEO LEK. ERN LEK. ENIAC LEK. TEL LEK. MII LEK. ENT LEK. EPH LEK. ANO LEK. I can keep doing this! And why are we enduring this bad fill avalanche? Well, for one, no one cared to polish this thing. And for two, it's the damned joyless theme, which is dense and therefore taxes the grid tremendously. SLAPDASH, DANELAW, and KISSERS are the only things I would rescue from this thing.


But back to that NW for a second. On first pass I had AMASS (17A: Aggregate) and absolutely nothing else. Clue on KGS is absurdly vague (5D: Metric measures: Abbr.). Thought VAST might be RIFE (20A: Widespread). Couldn't come up with BRAVO at all (1D: "Congratulations!"). Wanted CASTE but didn't trust it. And about REBAG(14A: Switch from plastic to paper, say) ... OK, first, it's just bad fill. Second, [Switch from plastic to paper] is a tuh-errible clue. The switch from plastic to paper is a broad switch, a general switch, not a rebagging. Who actually literally removes things from a plastic bag to put them into a paper bag. What is the context of that? That is idiotic. Why did you put *&*%# in the plastic bag in the first place? And what are you gonna do with the empty plastic bag now, ya wastrel? It's nonsense. Like a sane person, I wanted some answer related to being eco-conscious. Also ... wait ... I'm sorry, I just caught plural TSKS (!?!?!) out of the corner of my eye and suddenly realized I can't go on expending energy on this puzzle. Inexcusable, this thing. STALE sits in the center of the grid, as if the puzzle knows. It knows exactly what it is. It knows.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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