Constructor: Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Medium (shading toward Easy-Medium for me) (5:30)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: HARLAN Stone (43D: Former Supreme Court justic Stone) —
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Slow fast slow. That's how this went. I struggled to get off the ground, and in fact abandoned the NW when I couldn't make it all come together, but then pushed through the NE and SE pretty easily before slogging my way back up the west coast to end near where I began—at the crossing of AU NATUREL and TEE SHOTS, both of which had menacingly vague clues (14A: Bare / 15D: Drives). Got that AUNA- at the beginning of 14-Across and figured I had to have an error. Crosses checked out, but "nothing starts that way," I reasoned. This puzzle seemed very name-heavy, and I had trouble with what felt like half of them (probably closer to 1/3). Historical names like SUTTER and HARLAN eluded me, whereas, clued differently, they would've been gimmes. Pitcher Bruce SUTTER? Author HARLAN Ellison (or HARLAN County)? Woulda nailed those. Alas. But I guess you gotta put in some speed bumps. Also had no idea re: GREG or MILO (confession: never read "Catch-22"). But I *did* know TERRI and DINA (solely from doing crosswords), so not all names were trouble ... but it's at least a little dicey to rely so heavily on names in your puzzle.
I don't know how taps work, apparently. So ... an AERATOR is attached to the tap? I assumed this was an ALE tap, but it's just an ordinary home faucet. It appears to be largely an anti-splashing technology. I really should pay more attention to ... stuff. I knew CHOATE solely because my cousins went there. Then straight to Yale. Which was not necessarily an obvious place for them considering they grew up in Idaho, but ... anyway, true story. The true story of how I knew CHOATE today. SAGITTA means "arrow" in Latin. I'm a Sagittarius (who has had a smattering of Latin). I still don't like this answer. I don't think I'd like CYGNUS or AQUILA either. If you need a short constellation like ARA or LYRA or URSA or maybe ORION to get by, find, but longer than that, and if you're not an ultra-famous constellation, then I object. I also object to STATE CAR, but mostly because I just don't know what that is. A kind of car? An official government car? It feels like some boat-of-a-car that Lincoln made circa 1981.
Was the CRISCO / CISCO thing supposed to be cute? KNURL may be my last favorite word. People don't like "moist," I don't like KNURL. At least "moist" can apply to brownies, which are delicious. You ever eat a KNURL? No, you have not, and if you did, it would be disgusting. KNURL sound like some kind of skin growth you get on your knuckle. A fleshy knob that curls into a KNURL. Puzzles should not have KNURLs. No KNURLS Allowed! I liked Z IS FOR ZEBRA, though its misdirecting clue (51A: Primer finish) failed to throw me because I had the Z-BRA in place before I even saw the clue. [Trim] for ADORN was hard, as was 44A: Court figure whose job is to detect 36-Across (TASTER), largely because of the phrase "Court figure," which suggests D.A. or judge or bailiff or stenographer or some such legal figure. I'd like to thank all the SOTS for giving me the penultimate vowel in IGUANODON, which I always think is an "A." The end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (shading toward Easy-Medium for me) (5:30)
Word of the Day: HARLAN Stone (43D: Former Supreme Court justic Stone) —
Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was an American political figure, lawyer, and jurist. He served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941 and as the 12th Chief Justice of the United States from 1941 to 1946. He was also the 52nd United States Attorney General. His most famous dictum was: "Courts are not the only agency of government that must be assumed to have capacity to govern." (wikipedia)
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I don't know how taps work, apparently. So ... an AERATOR is attached to the tap? I assumed this was an ALE tap, but it's just an ordinary home faucet. It appears to be largely an anti-splashing technology. I really should pay more attention to ... stuff. I knew CHOATE solely because my cousins went there. Then straight to Yale. Which was not necessarily an obvious place for them considering they grew up in Idaho, but ... anyway, true story. The true story of how I knew CHOATE today. SAGITTA means "arrow" in Latin. I'm a Sagittarius (who has had a smattering of Latin). I still don't like this answer. I don't think I'd like CYGNUS or AQUILA either. If you need a short constellation like ARA or LYRA or URSA or maybe ORION to get by, find, but longer than that, and if you're not an ultra-famous constellation, then I object. I also object to STATE CAR, but mostly because I just don't know what that is. A kind of car? An official government car? It feels like some boat-of-a-car that Lincoln made circa 1981.
Was the CRISCO / CISCO thing supposed to be cute? KNURL may be my last favorite word. People don't like "moist," I don't like KNURL. At least "moist" can apply to brownies, which are delicious. You ever eat a KNURL? No, you have not, and if you did, it would be disgusting. KNURL sound like some kind of skin growth you get on your knuckle. A fleshy knob that curls into a KNURL. Puzzles should not have KNURLs. No KNURLS Allowed! I liked Z IS FOR ZEBRA, though its misdirecting clue (51A: Primer finish) failed to throw me because I had the Z-BRA in place before I even saw the clue. [Trim] for ADORN was hard, as was 44A: Court figure whose job is to detect 36-Across (TASTER), largely because of the phrase "Court figure," which suggests D.A. or judge or bailiff or stenographer or some such legal figure. I'd like to thank all the SOTS for giving me the penultimate vowel in IGUANODON, which I always think is an "A." The end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]