Constructor:Joel Fagliano
Relative difficulty:Easyish
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THEME:"Grammar Lesson"— phrases related to grammar that are reclued super-wackily ("?"-style)
Theme answers:
THANK-YOU MESSAGEfor the week ending January 15, 2017
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Hello, solvers. Just wanted to thank everyone who made a financial contribution to the blog this week. The messages (both e- and snail-) of support, and the various solving war stories, have been entertaining and occasionally inspirational. I never have a very clear of who my audience is, where they live, etc., so it's thrilling (and somewhat educational) to have that audience suddenly become visible. Material. Actual. Real. Thank-you cards are forthcoming for those of you who sent me snail mail (and emails for everyone else). You are, of course, free to contribute at any time during the year. The mailing address...
Rex Parker
℅ Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton NY 13905
And the Paypal button...
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I like grammar. This puzzle, though, was something less than enjoyable. I solved it around my dinner table with my wife and visiting friends Lena and Brayden, and there was much gnashing of teeth (and swearing) and very few happy sounds and pleased comments. The theme type is very old (take a bunch of terms from any field, reclue them as if they are not from that field), but done well, common theme types can still be wonderful. But this one ... two answers basically ruin this theme. The first is SENTENCE STRUCTURE, which is a total outlier. The other theme answers are distinct, specific grammatical terms, but SENTENCE STRUCTURE is just a very vague, general concept. You can point to all the others. You can't point to SENTENCE STRUCTURE. It's loose. It's a category, and a big one. It can *contain* the other themers (e.g. RELATIVE CLAUSES are part of SENTENCE STRUCTURE). It just doesn't belong. The bigger problem, however, is the clue on OBJECTIVE CASE. First, the connection between Prada and "case" is so loose as to be laughable. If I asked you to name the top ten things you associate with Prada, first, you wouldn't get to ten, but second, however far you got, "case" would not be on the list. If you search [Prada case] you come up with random things like iPhone cases and sunglass cases (not iconically Prada). You also come up with "Prada gender discrimination case." Prada is a terrible, completely inapt point of reference for "case." Further, ironically, I can't make the answer make grammatical sense. Is "objective" an adjective or noun here? Even for fun and hoots and question-markical glee, it doesn't work. The case is your objective, fine, but OBJECTIVE CASE makes zero sense. No sense, on no level.
77-Down is disgusting, and continues the trend of the editor (and constructor, I assume, since they work together) gratuitously shoving neo-Nazis and neo-Nazi sympathizers into the puzzle at every opportunity. Oh, and this puzzle has an actual Nazi too, for good measure. There are any number (i.e. innumerable) ways to clue VON, you know? It's not like you had to clue WERNHER, in which case you'd pretty much have to use this Braun guy. It's all just so gross. TACKY, even. I really don't know what he thinks he's doing. But then I don't get how anyone can justify CSIS. "Oh, I watch many CSIS!" someone somewhere apparently says. Ridiculous.
Bullets:
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Relative difficulty:Easyish
Theme answers:
- FUTURE PERFECT (24A: Utopia?)
- INDEFINITE ARTICLE (31A: Piece still under consideration for a magazine?)
- PASSIVE VOICE (50A: "Village" newspaper that's namby-pamby?)
- RELATIVE CLAUSES (66A: Santa's nieces and nephews?)
- PRESENT TENSE (89A: Like shoppers worrying about getting the right gift?)
- SENTENCE STRUCTURE (103A: Jailhouse?)
- OBJECTIVE CASE (113A: The Prada that one really wants?)
Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside figs. Most are pollinators but others are herbivores. The non-pollinators belong to several groups within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, while the pollinators are in the family Agaonidae. While pollinating fig wasps are gall-makers, the remaining types either make their own galls or usurp the galls of other fig wasps; reports of them being parasitoids are considered dubious. (wikipedia)
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THANK-YOU MESSAGEfor the week ending January 15, 2017
Rex Parker
℅ Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton NY 13905
And the Paypal button...
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77-Down is disgusting, and continues the trend of the editor (and constructor, I assume, since they work together) gratuitously shoving neo-Nazis and neo-Nazi sympathizers into the puzzle at every opportunity. Oh, and this puzzle has an actual Nazi too, for good measure. There are any number (i.e. innumerable) ways to clue VON, you know? It's not like you had to clue WERNHER, in which case you'd pretty much have to use this Braun guy. It's all just so gross. TACKY, even. I really don't know what he thinks he's doing. But then I don't get how anyone can justify CSIS. "Oh, I watch many CSIS!" someone somewhere apparently says. Ridiculous.
Bullets:
- 102A: Specimen, for example: Abbr. (SYN.)— "Specimen" is a SYN(onym) of "example"; tricky.
- 43D: Insect that spends its larval stage inside a fruit (FIG WASP)— both Lena and Penelope (my wife) knew what this was. I read the clue and both said "wasp!" I said "... something WASP" and both said "FIG!" I didn't know there were wasp types.
- 6D: Toddler garment (ONESIE)— I wondered aloud if toddlers wear ONESIEs. Apparently some do. I associate the garment with babies. Newborns. Neonates.
- 84A: Also-ran for the golden apple, in myth (HERA)— my first thought was HARE (as in "the tortoise and the"), so I was ... close.
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