Actor Turner of Hobbit / THU 2-23-17 / rose English heraldic emblem / Cohen who cofounded ice cream companyDomain of Horus / Home of all-vowel-named town Aiea / Toiletry brand whose TV ads once featured Supremes /

Constructor:Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty:Eeeeeeeasy

THEME: Number madness— asterisked clues have answers that don't seem right—they're actual phrases, but the first word (a number in every case) is where the "correct" word should be. Turns out that the number corresponds to the numbered square in the grid where you will find the "correct" word.

Theme answers:

• THIRTY ROCK (3D: *1970s fad item) (30D = PET)
• TEN PINS (28A: *Bulletin board fasteners) (10D = PUSH)
• FORTY WINKS (9D: *Pulls a fast one on) (40A = HOOD)
• TWENTY QUESTIONS (62A: *"Which weighs more — a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?" and others) (20A = TRICK)  

Word of the Day:porte cochère(43A: Establishments that often have porte cochères => INNS) —

noun

 Architecture

noun: porte cochère; plural noun: portes cochères

1. a covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through, typically opening into a courtyard.

   • North American

     a porch where vehicles stop to discharge passengers.

Hey, this is a nifty theme. I just wish it had been about 3x harder—maybe then I'd've been forced to figure out what the hell the theme even was. This thing was so easy that despite my having no idea what, exactly, was going on with the numbers-replacing-words gimmick, I finished in the low 4s, which is a sizzling Thursday time for me. There's just no resistance anywhere, and there needs to be for the theme to have any real in-game implications. Discovering the theme after all is said and done does not make for a great aha moment. But again, from a conceptual standpoint, as well as a purely architectural standpoint, this crossword is good. Clever and ambitious, with a grid that is very clean, especially considering the constraints of the theme (which are considerable). It must've been interesting to construct. Before the grid is constructed, the long themers all have lots of possibilities where the replaced word is concerned; that is, the THIRTY in THIRTY ROCK could in theory have pointed to any answer at 30D (or 30A, depending on how you made the grid) that fit the "___ rock" pattern. Here, it's PET, but in some alternate universe puzzle it could've been KID or ACID or whatever. Lots of options also for "___ pins." Fewer for "___winks" and "___ questions." Anyway, looks like it would've been challenging (and fun) to make.


OK, well, um, I don't remember anything about solving this, honestly. Hardest part for me to get into, and the place where I wrapped things up, was the west. Just couldn't back into ARRID from the clue (35A: Toiletry brand whose TV ads once featured the Supremes), and SKY was not at all what I had in mind for Horus (I kept thinking "TIME" ... but ... I guess not) (26A: Domain of Horus, in Egyptian myth). If I hadn't had the "Z" from ZELDA, ITZA might've been tough. If I hadn't had the "Q" from QUESTIONS, NIQAB might've been tough. But in both cases, I did and they weren't. PAEAN was hard. I kept wanting PSALM (52D: Song that might have hosannas). But virtually everything else was wicked easy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Episode 002 of "On the Grid," the crossword podcast I do with Lena Webb, is now available. And we're on iTunes now! Check it out.

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