Fermented milk drink / THU 9-13-18 / Pre-snap signal / Tatooine has two of them / Three barleycorns as defined by Edward II / Start of some hybrid music styles

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Medium (5:56)

THEME: IN BOX / OUT BOX (69A: Where work piles up ... with a hint to this puzzle's theme / 72A: Where finished work goes ... with a hint to this puzzle's theme) — rebus puzzle with an IN box and OUT box in each of the four long Acrosses:

Theme answers:

• CARP(IN)G AB(OUT) (18A: Finding fault with)
• THE FOUNTA(IN) OF Y(OUT)H (30A: Goal for Ponce de León)
• FROTH(IN)G AT THE M(OUT)H (47A: Incensed)
• RA(IN)BOW TR(OUT) (60A: Colorful food fish)

Word of the Day: CHARLY (10D: Oscar-winning Cliff Robertson title role) —

Charly (marketed and stylized as CHAЯLY) is a 1968 American drama film, directed and produced by Ralph Nelson, and written by Stirling Silliphant. It was based on Flowers for Algernon, a science fiction short story (1958) and subsequent novel (1966) by Daniel Keyes.

The film stars Cliff Robertson as Charly Gordon, an intellectually disabled adult who is selected by two doctors to undergo a surgical procedure that triples his IQ as it did for Algernon, a laboratory mouse who also underwent the same procedure; additional roles are co-played by Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney, and Dick Van Patten. Robertson was reprising his previous portrayal of the same role in a 1961 television adaptation, "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon", an episode of the anthology series The United States Steel Hour. (wikipedia)

I really like this theme, particularly the way the revealer answers resemble (in their stackedness) the thing they describe. I also like how tightly the theme is expressed: one IN, one OUT, with the former always preceding the latter, in each of the four themers. IN, OUT, IN, OUT, IN ... sounds a little dirty when I say it that way, but you get the picture. Consistency! But a hidden consistency that you have to suss out (i.e. where's the IN!? where's the OUT?). One big problem with the theme was FROTHING. The phrase is "foaming at the mouth." I lost valuable time wondering what the hell was going on with this non-foaming answer. I see that people (allegedly) also use this FROTHING expression, but (per google) less than half as often as they use the real, better expression. I don't know why "food" is in the clue for RAINBOW TROUT (60A: Colorful food fish). It adds nothing to the answer's gettability. It's just this weird extra bit of information—yeah, people eat it. Nobody cares, puzzle. [Colorful fish] would've worked just fine.


I found this one pretty easy as rebus puzzles go. Started very quickly in the NW (not surprising, given that everything up there is a short answer) and then got predictably bogged down in the NE all around the area of the first themer. I thought CARPING AT was a perfectly good answer for 18A: Finding fault with, so the rebusness of it all eluded me longer than it might have if I'd drawn a blank for that clue. I think I actually wrote in FATISH (?!) at one point for 12D: Somewhat stocky (STOUTISH). I finally figured out something weird was going on with the Ponce de León clue, which I *knew* had to be THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH ... but the letters I had appeared to be in the wrong place. But I had OF and then the terminal H, and so I put OUT in there and then I realized 9D: "Dancing With the Stars" co-host Andrews had to be ER*IN* and after that, things got Very easy. I spelled AHH"AAH" and there was the whole foaming/frothing confusion, but otherwise, I sped through this thing to the end. Nice to have it all end, thematically, at that strange revealer set-up in the SE. This (and only this) is why God invented random Roman numerals—to make worthwhile tricky corners work.


Pretty motley group of pop culture names today. Mostly older, occasionally marginal, all male. I barely know who Cliff Robertson is and I sure as hell don't know the movie "CHARLY"—he won an Oscar for that? It happened before I was born so I probably shouldn't be so surprised at not knowing that. And cluing Mark HARMON as just [Actor Mark] is hilarious. I feel like his level of fame require some extra info, like "of 'NCIS' fame" or whatever. I've never seen "NCIS" (which is somehow Still On The Air and has been since 2003!!!!). All I know about HARMON is he's married to Pam Dawber (of "Mork & Mindy" fame) and once pulled a guy from a burning car. Dick ENBERG and Jay LENO are also in this puzzle. It's a really weird men's club meeting today, is what I'm saying.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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