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Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: REVERSING COURSE (60A: Backtracking ... or what 17-, 27- and 46-Across are doing?)— theme answers are three different kinds of "courses," all appearing backwards (or "reversed") in the grid:

Theme answers:

• LANOITANATSUGUA (17A: Home of the Masters) (Augusta National)
• ARBEGLAERP (27A: Something unknowns are introduced in) (pre-algebra)
• SREZITEPPA (46A: Starters) (appetizers)

Word of the Day: Alfred ADLER (1D: Alfred who coined the term "inferiority complex") —

Alfred W. Adler(/ˈædlər/; German: [ˈaːdlɐ]; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of inferiority, the inferiority complex, is recognized as an isolating element which plays a key role in personality development. Alfred Adler considered human beings as an individual whole, therefore he called his psychology "Individual Psychology" (Orgler 1976).

Adler was the first to emphasize the importance of the social element in the re-adjustment process of the individual and who carried psychiatry into the community.^[5]A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Adler as the 67th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. (wikipedia)

First, let's talk about why this theme is good and that Presidents Day theme a few days ago isn't. So, President's Day! "Let's put presidents' names in the clues!""OK, that is fine. That gives the theme a kind of unity. What next?""OK ... let's anagram them!""Wait, what? Why? Is there a title or a revealer or some catchy play on words that's going to explain why you're doing that?""No!" Well, that doesn't ma-""Also, let's add a letter to the president's names before we anagram them!""[blank stare]""Random letters!""[exasperated sigh] Do those letters at least spell someth-""No! They spell nothing! Random letterssssss!" And ... scene. Now today's. Answers go backwards. OK, why? Well, there's a play on words with the revealer: REVERSING COURSE. OK, but that's hardly enough, just running answers backwards. What's the hook? Each theme answer is actually a different kind of "course" that is being (literally, in the grid) reversed. So the REVERSING part makes sense, and the COURSE part makes sense, and everything you're doing ... makes sense? Sense!? What an idea.


I woke this morning to NRA in my grid (31D: Publisher of American Hunter magazine, for short) and this in my Twitter feed:

That's not just a sitting member of the US House of Representatives, that's *my* sitting member of the US House of Representatives. She takes gobs of NRA money and they've given her an "A" rating. So, constructors, if there's a way you can, I don't know, avoid NRA, or at least give it a clue that doesn't look like it was written by the NRA PR department, that would be cool.


I found the spelling backward gimmick easy to pick up, but then hard to enter into the grid. Typing words backwards is nuts, and I must've spent 10-25 seconds stumbling over the front (i.e. back?) end of "Augusta." Just couldn't get the letters, particularly the "U"s, in the right place. Also had SPAT for 19D: Bicker (with), and so ended up with PTE ALGREBRA (reversed) at first. Briefly considered AP ALGEBRA (impossible) and then realized SPAR was a better answer than SPAT. Some trouble getting fron AUN- to AU NATUREL at 33D: Nude, but otherwise not much trouble today at all. A brisk and pleasant solve. See you tomorrow...

Oh, wait, one more thing. So I wrote a bit about the AMAL Clooney clue yesterday because she's a human rights lawyer (which the clue mentioned) and I'd seen her name a bunch recently etc. Well, I only just found out, and I really need everyone to know, that the original clue there (the one that actually appeared in the damned paper, the one that some wise person made a late-change to for the digital editions) was [Mrs. George Clooney]. Just like it appears on her checks, I'm sure (!?).

God bless the non-famous crossword people at the Times who scramble to fix tone-deaf junk like this. Not the first time. Almost certainly not the last.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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