Longtime Walter Berndt comic strip / SUN 5-6-18 / Sultan Qaboos's land / Brand with arrow through its logo / Cinderella mouse / Angry Shakespearean cry / Constellation between Ursa Major Ursa Minor / Bit of nonsense in #1 Ella Fitzgerald hit

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium (10:33)

THEME:"Let's Play Two" — each theme answer is two board game names mushed together, creating a wacky answer (with a "?" clue that takes it literally):

Theme answers:

• BATTLESHIP RISK (23A: Underwater mine?)
• ACQUIRE TICKET TO RIDE (30A: Get a copy of a 1965 #1 Beatles hit?)
• SORRY DIPLOMACY (50A: Rather poor ambassador's skill?)
• MEMORY TROUBLE (67A: Reason a computer program wouldn't open?)
• CRANIUM TWISTER (85A: Incredibly hard puzzle?)
• CONNECT FOUR CHECKERS (101A: Link a quartet of supermarket employees?)
• TABOO OPERATION (117A: Something you're not allowed to do in math?)

Word of the Day: "SMITTY" (79D: Longtime Walter Berndt comic strip) —

Smitty was a newspaper comic strip created in the early 1920s by Walter Berndt. Syndicated nationally by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, it ran from November 29, 1922 to 1973 and brought Berndt a Reuben Award in 1969. (wikipedia)

I spent the better part of the afternoon in the hot sun at the ballpark. This included drinking most of a beer. Then I came home and had a nap. Then dinner and wine and then this puzzle. This is all to say I was woozy and fully expected to put a big Asterisk next to my solving time (which I do when solving conditions are very out of the ordinary, including when I am, er, impaired). But then I finished in 10:33, which is fully normal. So it's very possible that this puzzle was very easy and I was slow but I can't tell because my time was normal. I do think the theme was Very easy to uncover and understand, though some of these games, yeesh. Never heard of DIPLOMACY and never heard of *either* of the games in ACQUIRE TICKET TO RIDE—so glad I got the "Q" early and also know Beatles' songs. I really wish these theme answers had been funnier and the clues wackier. Or maybe I mean the answers wackier and the clues funnier. MEMORY TROUBLE is a real thing that doesn't lend itself to wackiness. [Link a quartet of supermarket employees?] is just bizarre. Not funny bizarre. Clue is way too literal. A synonym of "connect," a synonym of "four," and a synonym of "checkers," all in order. Where is the zany? Grid is so very choppy that there's not really a lot of room for longer themers to grow. I think it's a good theme, but somehow the execution felt blah-ish. Overall grid was pretty ordinary. But then again, just being adequate makes this puzzle easily superior to most NYT Sunday puzzles, so I'm gonna have to come down on the thumbs-up side, ultimately.


Fill started out so rough in the NW (ABEAM, ATRA, MOL) that I was a little worried, but once I got (the hell) out of there, things mellowed out a bit. Not too many major trouble spots. I managed to mostly remember the Mars moon this time (PHOBOS), but embarrassingly blanked on what sort of BERNIE there was in "Ocean's Eleven." I never saw the movie, but still, if you give me comic BERNIE ... (3 letters) I should get MAC right away and I didn't. He died a few years back and I hadn't thought of him for a while. MEMORY TROUBLE, indeed. No idea that DRACO was a constellation (35D: Constellation between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor). None zero none. Weird it doesn't get made more of. DRACO is Latin for "dragon," btw. Whereas KARO is Latin for "corn syrup." Probably.*


I had major trouble in and around the SW region, mainly around the entryways to the region. BLINIS?! With a freakin' S????!?! I thought BLINI was its own plural. Like, I don't know, fish or sheep or whatever. Yes. I am correct. BLINI = "pancakes [plural!] made from buckwheat flour and served with sour cream" (google). Jeez louise, BLINIS. Dire. Also, "SMITTY," WTF? I have never heard of this comic or its creator, which is mildly embarrassing, as I teach courses (plural!) on comics. He falls right into my comics knowledge dead zone: mid-century strips that were over and done before I could read, and that never had any kind of nostalgia or revival or nothin'. Walter Berndt worked as a young man for a number of comics artists I *do* know very well, including George Herriman. But "SMITTY," whoa, that got by me. Speaking of "whoa": "whoa" is an exclamation. "WHOO!" ... I have no idea what that is. WOO HOO! I recognize. I refuse to recognize WHOO! I assume it is said by people who don't know how to say things, such as the fellow who is excited to be served buckwheat pancakes and exclaims, "WHOO! BLINIS!"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*It's not; don't write me

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