Constructor: Natan Last, Finn Vigeland and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: CHAYOTE (40D: Gourd also known as a vegetable pear) —
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The grid is sprinkled with some lovely answers, though the loveliness is undercut somewhat by a rather strong dose of crosswordese (on a couple occasions, plural crosswordese), and a SE corner that's been bombarded with obscurities: a clue for TARA that was popular with Farrar, Weng, and Maleska, but has hardly been seen at all in the past quarter century (54A: Hill of ___, site of Ireland's Lia Fáil); something called TTY, which has only appeared in the NYTX three times, and is apparently somewhat dated nowadays (it's short for "teletypewriter"); and then CHAYOTE, which has never been in the NYTX before today, and which I'm seeing right now for the first time in my life. Yes, sure, learning new things is great, blah blah blah, but CHAYOTE nearly abutting TTY just reeks of bygone puzzles that sought to test your knowledge rather than to entertain. TTY in particular is weak (the meaning of those letters is totally uninferrable) (58D: Communication device for the deaf: Abbr.). You want people leaving your puzzle going "wow," not "wha?" Lastly, in that same corner, why am I *watching* the gap. I *mind* the gap. That's the famous expression, right? Is it a Brit v. US thing. "Mind the gap" is a snappy, coherent, in-the-language phrase. "Watch the gap" ... appears to be NYC-specific.
The NW is the real winner of a section here today (located, fittingly, on the opposite side of the grid from the SE, aka "SATAN's Corner"). Those Acrosses are a lovely way to open the puzzle, though they were somewhat hard to get at, given that two of them had "?" clues on them. I would throw ERTES and EER and ELAL and even PSYOPS back if I could, but on the whole, that corner is nice. EMERGEN-C and "SHARK TANK" give the puzzle a needed jolt of modernity, but ... what the hell is going on with that RYAN clue? (55A: "The O.C." protagonist). Of allllllllll the RYANs in the word, both last names and first names, you go to the protagonist of a show that's been off the air for a decade, whose name no one but die-hard fans would've known to begin with? I watched at least a season of that damn thing and ... RYAN? If you say so. I will never understand *that* clue for *that* name in *this* year.
I have no idea what a PANIC BAR is. "Door part"? Wikipedia says: "Crash bar (also known as a panicexit device, panic bar, or push bar) is a type of door opening mechanism which allows users to open a door by pushing a bar. While originally conceived as a way to prevent stampedes in an emergency, crash bars are now used as the primary door opening mechanism in many commercial buildings." So ... it's just that bar part that you push (un-panickedly, in my experience) to get in and out of many kinds of commercial buildings? I clearly don't share much of a cultural frame of reference with this puzzle. It's a solid effort with some standout answers. Not to my taste, but certainly acceptable work.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: CHAYOTE (40D: Gourd also known as a vegetable pear) —
nounnoun: chayote; plural noun: chayotes
• • •
The NW is the real winner of a section here today (located, fittingly, on the opposite side of the grid from the SE, aka "SATAN's Corner"). Those Acrosses are a lovely way to open the puzzle, though they were somewhat hard to get at, given that two of them had "?" clues on them. I would throw ERTES and EER and ELAL and even PSYOPS back if I could, but on the whole, that corner is nice. EMERGEN-C and "SHARK TANK" give the puzzle a needed jolt of modernity, but ... what the hell is going on with that RYAN clue? (55A: "The O.C." protagonist). Of allllllllll the RYANs in the word, both last names and first names, you go to the protagonist of a show that's been off the air for a decade, whose name no one but die-hard fans would've known to begin with? I watched at least a season of that damn thing and ... RYAN? If you say so. I will never understand *that* clue for *that* name in *this* year.
I have no idea what a PANIC BAR is. "Door part"? Wikipedia says: "Crash bar (also known as a panicexit device, panic bar, or push bar) is a type of door opening mechanism which allows users to open a door by pushing a bar. While originally conceived as a way to prevent stampedes in an emergency, crash bars are now used as the primary door opening mechanism in many commercial buildings." So ... it's just that bar part that you push (un-panickedly, in my experience) to get in and out of many kinds of commercial buildings? I clearly don't share much of a cultural frame of reference with this puzzle. It's a solid effort with some standout answers. Not to my taste, but certainly acceptable work.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]