Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel
Relative difficulty: Medium (felt very hard at first, but in the end, my time was only just a tad north of normal)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: EVA Green (30D: Green on the silver screen) —
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Brutal, brutal beginning, and then ... I dunno, guess things picked up, because I finished somewhere in the 7s, which is pretty normal. Oh, and daughter tried to talk to me mid-solve, and I *tried* to listen w/o telling her to buzz off, so ... even with that added level of difficulty, I still came in with a normal time. But to start, nothing, but nothing would work. Nothing. Tried ONIONS at 1A: Alternatives to olives (TWISTS) and it didn't get prettier from there. At least I had the cocktail part right. What's weird—we love our martinis and we *only* ever order them with TWISTS. So ... yeah, I think that counts as "ironic." Who is SOREL? I Do Not Know (6D: French philosopher who wrote "Reflections on Violence"). That hurt. Edward SOREL is a fantastic cartoonist; if you have to use SOREL, why not him? This French guy is Saturday, not Friday. But no matter. Had SATIRE instead of TRACTS (ugh, what a terrible, general, not-particularly-Swiftian answer) (1D: Swift writings). Is "center" really ever abbreviated CTR. in arena names? Yikes. AS AM I before SO DO I, 'cause... how would you know? (25A: "That makes two of us") And you can see, I'm not even out of the NW yet. As I say: brutal.
NE got me ATTN and THC, but zero thereafter. I somehow got a grip with TESH (how embarrassing) somehow, with the assumed "S" (at the end of 35A: Toaster components), I got SASHIMI at 37D: Dish often garnished with white radish. From there, I was able finally to get some traction (despite the mysterious, haven't-heard-the-name-since-childhood CHINET (43D: Big namein disposable tableware)), and after I got past the absurd MR. RED (MR. MET's weird cousin no one likes to talk about?) and the ugh-groan clue on FIRST (28D: Who's there) (took me many seconds of thinking to see how that was right), the puzzle all of a sudden opened up, and there wasn't much struggle thereafter. Weird how just a little momentum can send you barreling through a grid that 30 seconds earlier had been totally impenetrable. There ended up being many fine answers in this grid (incl. SOCIAL MEDIA and GENDER FLUID–which has been in the NYT before). My solve was just rough, and some of the cluing seemed rough (both as in "hard" and as in "yuck"). The BATTED clue is irking me no end (7A: Went for a run). I *assume* the context is baseball ... and no. You're trying to get on base. You're mostly trying not to make an out. Yes, you might "go for" (awk!) a "run," and I see what you're trying to do there with the misdirection, but the whole thing just ignores the actuality of baseball too much. The clue caused me actual pain. Not LEGIT, imho.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. I'm seeing people post re: their fast times, so my initial struggles could easily have been a personal anomaly.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (felt very hard at first, but in the end, my time was only just a tad north of normal)
Word of the Day: EVA Green (30D: Green on the silver screen) —
Eva Gaëlle Green (French: [ɡʁin]; Swedish: [ˈɡɾeːn] born 6 July 1980) is a French actress and model. She started her career in theatre before making her film debut in 2003 in Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Dreamers. She achieved international recognition when she appeared as Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem in Ridley Scott's historical epic Kingdom of Heaven (2005), and portrayed Bond girlVesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006). In 2006, Green was awarded the BAFTARising Star Award. // Since 2006, Green has starred in independent films Cracks (2009), Womb (2010), and Perfect Sense (2011). She has also appeared in the television series Camelot (2011), and played Angelique Bouchard in Tim Burton's big-screen adaptation of Dark Shadows (2012). In 2014, she played Artemisia in the 300 sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), and Ava Lord in Frank Miller's and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). She also starred as Vanessa Ives in Showtime's horror drama Penny Dreadful (2014–16). Her performance in the series earned her a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. In 2016, she played the titular character in Tim Burton's fantasy film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. (wikipedia)
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NE got me ATTN and THC, but zero thereafter. I somehow got a grip with TESH (how embarrassing) somehow, with the assumed "S" (at the end of 35A: Toaster components), I got SASHIMI at 37D: Dish often garnished with white radish. From there, I was able finally to get some traction (despite the mysterious, haven't-heard-the-name-since-childhood CHINET (43D: Big namein disposable tableware)), and after I got past the absurd MR. RED (MR. MET's weird cousin no one likes to talk about?) and the ugh-groan clue on FIRST (28D: Who's there) (took me many seconds of thinking to see how that was right), the puzzle all of a sudden opened up, and there wasn't much struggle thereafter. Weird how just a little momentum can send you barreling through a grid that 30 seconds earlier had been totally impenetrable. There ended up being many fine answers in this grid (incl. SOCIAL MEDIA and GENDER FLUID–which has been in the NYT before). My solve was just rough, and some of the cluing seemed rough (both as in "hard" and as in "yuck"). The BATTED clue is irking me no end (7A: Went for a run). I *assume* the context is baseball ... and no. You're trying to get on base. You're mostly trying not to make an out. Yes, you might "go for" (awk!) a "run," and I see what you're trying to do there with the misdirection, but the whole thing just ignores the actuality of baseball too much. The clue caused me actual pain. Not LEGIT, imho.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. I'm seeing people post re: their fast times, so my initial struggles could easily have been a personal anomaly.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]