Constructor: Peter Wentz
Relative difficulty: Medium (5:36)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: "THE REF" (55A: 1994 Denis Leary comedy) —
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Hi there. I'm back from Minnesota, back from moving my daughter into Middlebrook Hall at the University of Minnesota, back from enjoying Minneapolis and the Minnesota State Fair, and back in town for the foreseeable future, finally (this was our fifth trip of the summer). Hadn't solved a puzzle in four days, then sat down to do the latest Liz Gorski Crossword Nation puzzle as a kind of warm-up, and then started in on this one. Felt all kinds of out-of-practice, and got stuck plenty, but still managed to come up with a slightly better-than-average time, so either this is a Medium difficulty puzzle or it was very very easy and I was just rusty. Take your pick. Had the most trouble, by far, with SHOCKS (I only just this second that the "installation" of the clue (1A: Garage installation) refers to the act performed on them by the mechanic (i.e. she *installs* the SHOCKS), not the physical arrangement of them in space inside of the garage (i.e. it's a garage, not a museum) ... OK, yeah, I'm a little rusty) ... and then STAY-AT-HOME DAD, which was shockingly hard for me to parse (12A: He works with kids). I had something like 10 letters in place and still couldn't make sense of it, because the letters I was missing were crucial. I had STA-ATHO-E-AD and my brain couldn't make a name, couldn't make anything out of it. Also, I had HYPED instead of AMPED for a bit at 7D: Jazzed, so that threw an errant "Y" in there. As you can see, the letter I needed was the "Y" from OYEZ, but ... ugh, OYEZ is awful fill *and* it has a "?" clue (3D: Court order?). Cardinal rule: don't give your terrible fill tricksy / hard "?" clues. It's the worst. It's so unsatisfying. It's barfsome. Solver enjoyment!!!!!! Just clue you stupid bad fill straight and move on. The rest of the puzzle is so good, why would you do this??? Anyway, OYEZ. Because bailiffs always say ... that ... I might've had RISE in there at one point, I don't know. Anyway, I did not say "o, yay" to OYEZ.
I was the first person to put TA-NEHISI COATES in a puzzle (3 years ago!), and, with apologies to everyone, I will never not mention this when I see his full name in a puzzle (51A: MacArthur Fellowship-winning author of "Between the World and Me"). It was a Buzzfeed crossword, back when that was a thing, and so only like 200 people saw it, but What Ever. First! My grid even had roughly the same shape as this one (largely because TA-NEHISI COATES is a 14 and they are notoriously difficult to manage, grid-wise—this little stagger maneuver, with stairstep black corners in the NW and SE, is one way to deal). Here was mine:
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Look at that. Same. Place. In the grid! Ooh, and they both have END in them! Eeeeerie ... Anyway, coincidences can be kooky.
I thought you "desalinated" water—is DESALT the same thing (are there "DESALTing plants"?). DESALT just felt odd to me. As for OBOE d'amore, Ha, if I ever knew that was a thing, I sure forgot it today. "Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the alto of the oboe family," says wikipedia. Ok then. Had OUTDID before OUTRAN (19D: Surpassed), and needed every cross to parseFIVE-O (39D: Fuzz). That's slang for "police," btw, in case you didn't know, which you probably did, but you never know. First answer was EWE, last answer was FBI, which has a beautiful symmetry to it.
Glad to be back. See you tomorrow. And, oh yeah, so ... it's *possible* that my wife and I might be kinda sorta thinking about moving to Minneapolis, so ... just puttin' that out there. At least one of us will need a job, probably. OK, bye!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Thanks to Matthew and Rachel for covering for me Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, and thanks as always to Clare for doing her last-Tuesday-of-the-month write-up. Nice to know the blog's in capable hands when I'm away.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (5:36)
Word of the Day: "THE REF" (55A: 1994 Denis Leary comedy) —
The Ref (Hostile Hostages in some countries) is a 1994 American black comedy film directed by Ted Demme, starring Denis Leary, Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey. (wikipedia)
(a ridiculously underrated movie; one of my favorite movies of the '90s; Christine Baranski can do no wrong; stupid Kevin Spacey had to go and ruin everything)
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I was the first person to put TA-NEHISI COATES in a puzzle (3 years ago!), and, with apologies to everyone, I will never not mention this when I see his full name in a puzzle (51A: MacArthur Fellowship-winning author of "Between the World and Me"). It was a Buzzfeed crossword, back when that was a thing, and so only like 200 people saw it, but What Ever. First! My grid even had roughly the same shape as this one (largely because TA-NEHISI COATES is a 14 and they are notoriously difficult to manage, grid-wise—this little stagger maneuver, with stairstep black corners in the NW and SE, is one way to deal). Here was mine:
I thought you "desalinated" water—is DESALT the same thing (are there "DESALTing plants"?). DESALT just felt odd to me. As for OBOE d'amore, Ha, if I ever knew that was a thing, I sure forgot it today. "Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the alto of the oboe family," says wikipedia. Ok then. Had OUTDID before OUTRAN (19D: Surpassed), and needed every cross to parseFIVE-O (39D: Fuzz). That's slang for "police," btw, in case you didn't know, which you probably did, but you never know. First answer was EWE, last answer was FBI, which has a beautiful symmetry to it.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Thanks to Matthew and Rachel for covering for me Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, and thanks as always to Clare for doing her last-Tuesday-of-the-month write-up. Nice to know the blog's in capable hands when I'm away.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]