Beersheba's region / THU 5-4-17 / Comics character who was perpetually 19 / What dowsing rod or sling shot has / Hit 2002 animated film

Constructor: Loren Muse Smith and Tracy Gray

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: BLACK ICE (44A: Winter driving hazard ... or a literal hint to four squares in this puzzle)— in order for several clues to make sense, four different "black" squares have to represent the word "ice"

Theme answers:

• ADVICE COLUMN (21A: "Miss Manners," for one) / POLICE VAN (4D: Patrol wagon)
• NO DICE (29A: "Ain't gonna happen!") / SERVICE DOG (14D: Helping hound)
• OFFICE TEMP (41D: Crunch time helper, maybe) / "ICE AGE" (59A: Hit 2002 animated film)
• ARMISTICE DAY (66A: 11/11) / MR. NICE GUY (50D: Generous, affable sort)

Word of the Day: IDEM (67D: Footnote word) —

adverb

adverb: idem

1. used in citations to indicate an author or work that has just been mentioned.

   
   

   "Marianne Elliott, Partners in Revolution, 1982; idem, Wolfe Tone, 1989" (google)

Conceptually, this is probably the most solid thing we've seen in a while. It's an old idea, the black square rebus, and I'm kinda surprised this incarnation hasn't been tried before—it looks like BLACK ICE has actually never appeared in an NYT crossword *at all* before today. That is super weird. So there are four patches of BLACK ICE. That's really it here. Not exciting, but not the faceplants we've been seeing of late, either. Fill is rougher than it should be. Not sure why NW / SE corners weren't just turned into black squares. In the SE, you've just got plurals, so who cares. Make 'em singular. And in the NW, you get rid of the awk/awful YAWPS / YSHAPE and just give yourself ASPS / SHAPE–sooooooooooo many more cluing possibilities, and, you know, real words are better than jury-rigged goofiness. Plus changing WOLVES to SOLVES gives you a chance to do one of those winky self-referential clues, if that's your thing.


I started out very badly, largely because I thought it was Wednesday. Not kidding. When I got stuck in the NW, I couldn't understand how that was even possible on a Wednesday. Then when I got POL for 4D: Patrol wagon, I just stared at it resentfully for a bit. Eventually, I looked at the puzzle byline and saw the date. Then my brain shifted into the correct gear and things got better. Cluing was still old / out of my wheelhouse much of the time, so it wasn't exactly fun to solve. Most depressing / annoying moment was the cluing of JOAN (10D: "Mad Men" femme fatale). I love "Mad Men" and I love (Love) film noir and I had no idea what this clue was asking for. I guess colloquially "femme fatale" means something ... wrong, now? In my world, that "fatale" is *kind* of important. Joan was curvy and gorgeous and ambitious and smart ... but she's no more "fatale" than Peggy is. The idea that there's anything in JOAN that Leads Men To Their Doom ... is preposterous.



I had FLEECING for BLEEDING (13D: Extorting from), and I really really really like mine better. Also had BEER for LEER (34D: It might precede a pickup line), and, again, I prefer to live in my world of wrongness. Where I come from an OFFICE TEMP is just a TEMP, so that themer was tough for me to get. Last letter in was the "R" in LORE (65D: It's passed on) and METER (73A: One collecting money on the sidewalk?). Couldn't make the clues compute. That's all, I think. Overall quality here is what *should* be average NYT. But in the NYT's current state, esp. for themed puzzles, it's above average.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Time and ... TEMP? (64D: Time's partner, informally). Not in my lifetime.

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