First wife of Pablo Picasso / THU 8-23-18 / Third base in baseball lingo / Stunning creatures of Amazon / O greeting on many lolcat memes / Chain with pepper in its logo

Constructor: Kyle Dolan

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (6:57)

THEME: CROP ROTATION (50A: Common farming technique ... or a hint to solving this puzzle) — rebus puzzle where "crops" are found in three different squares; at those squares, the answers that feed into them "rotate" ninety degrees, with Across answers headed Down and Downs Across:

Theme answers:

• 20A: Title for Prince Charles's Camilla + 7D: Third base, in baseball lingo = DUCHESS OF CORN WALL / HOT CORN ER
• 28A: General amount of money that something sells for + 3D: Stunning creatures of the Amazon = P RICE RANGE / ELECT RICE ELS
• 46A: Behind-the-scenes worker in TV news + 25D: "Or even ..." = STO RYE DITOR / BETTE RYE T

Word of the Day: ABBA (24A: Biblical "father") —

Ab or Av (related to Akkadian abu^[), sometimes Abba, means "father" in most Semitic languages. (wikipedia)

Hmm. First, I've seen this type of theme before: two answers run into each other and then head off at ninety-degree angles. Not sure how many times, or what the revealers were in those instances, but I've definitely seen this. The repetition of a theme type, though, is less of a big deal than the fact the ninety-degree thing simply doesn't evoke "rotation" very well. I get that you've "rotated" the answer ninety degrees, but rotation makes me think circle, and at any rate the answer isn't "rotated" so much as rerouted. You rotate around an axis, which is not what is happening here. So whatever is happening here is neither like crop rotation nor like spatial rotation, so I don't know what it is. Despite having just three "crops" in it, the puzzle is kind of impressive, architecturally, especially since two of the "rotating" pairs of answers end up overlapping (i.e. ELECTRIC runs through DUCHESS, though they are not part of the same "rotation"). And there's some nice fill in here, particularly IT'S A TRAP, LET LOOSE, and I DECLARE. There's just something off about the theme expression, and off is off is off. Offness casts a pall over everything else. Precision matters.


I had no idea ABBA meant "father," biblically. That little answer caused me a heap of trouble, as did VALE, which has an ugh-ish "?" clue (13A: Setting for a peak viewing?). I can see "peaks" from Lots of places. Lots and lots. I've seen lots of peaks, but I'm not even sure I've ever been in a VALE. Plus "setting" and "viewing" suggested some kind of camera setting. "?" clues are so unsatisfying when they don't stick the landing. I have no problem being fooled if there's eventual payoff. I also thought the "?" on SCABS missed the mark (40A: Ones whose work is strikingly controversial?). "Controversial" doesn't quite get at what SCABS do. Too vague. Whereas [One who goes hog wild?] for BIKER seems just right.


Wanted TIE INTO before TIE ONTO (6D: Hook up with, in a way). Saw BARDO in a puzzle for the first time very recently (this past weekend), so very weird to see it again so soon (31D: "Lincoln in the __" (2017 George Saunders best-selling novel)). OIL was hard for me (35A: "Mona Lisa," e.g.) (I thought maybe the clue meant the Nat King Cole song), as was PLAY UP (32D: Emphasize) and LET LOOSE (wanted LECTURED) (18D: Delivered a rant). Thought Picasso's wife was maybe OONA (53D: First wife of Pablo Picasso => OLGA). Loved the fake plural in the clue for TOUPEE (19A: Alternative to plugs). LOL knowing any of those ghouls on "Shark Tank."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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