Constructor: Timothy Polin
Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (5:59)
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THEME: WALL — east and west halves of grid are completely separated by line of black squares. Three different answers jump the wall at the word WALL, so that the black square wall actually represents the word "WALL":
Theme answers:
So ... yup, it's a wall. So what? I've seen walls in puzzles before—grids with apparently completely segmented parts that end up being connected somehow. I wanted this one to do something, to have some meaning, some coherence, I don't know ... anything. But it's just a WALL. A senseless wall. Well at least we didn't throw a ton of money at it or creating child internment camps along it. I guess that's a plus.
This played alternative easy and hard for me. Very hard to start (in the NW), as I haven't read Vonnegut since high school and LECARRÉ was very hidden by his "?" clue (15A: Author known for the intelligence of his writing?), and DEEP does not mean [Not easily understood] in my world ("profound" is not the same as "confusing" or "recondite" or "unclear") and DESKTOP (WALL)PAPER was by far the hardest of the three themers to get, and it starts in the NW. Also [Chasséd] meant nothing to me (GLIDED). So that corner was fun. Could not remember the DiCaprio movie at all for a bit, even after having W-L-O- in place. But after that answer fell, things sped up considerably (largely because I understood the theme). Eastern part of the grid was much easier, though again the top part proved thorny, as the clue on HASIDIM wasn't much help (and HASIDIM's an odd plural anyway), and I had YUM for 14D: "Scrumptious!" and AXMAN is a guitar player to me, not an actual guy with an actual ax(e). Oh and DEGREASE was not clear to me at all, either (12D: Prepare, as hides for tanning). Finished with a couple of wrong squares because I somehow wrote in ENTENTE instead of DETENTE at 60A: Reduction of tension and just forgot to check the crosses.
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When my puzzle wasn't accepted, I thought for sure my error was at the PUP / PEN crossing, which I did not understand at all. Note: kind of a dick move to cross two "?" clues. Anyway, PUP seemed unimpeachable (38D: Lightweight boxer?). A boxer PUP would indeed be comparatively lightweight. Got it. But the clue on PEN made no sense to me at all (45A: Boardom?). I kept going through the different meanings of PEN that I know, and none of them had anything to do with "board" that I could see. Eventually, I realized that it was the world of boars, not boards, that the clue was interested in. And somehow boar-dom are all ... in ... PENs? There are all kinds of boars all over the world, and why would I think that a clue referencing the entire boar world would lead me just to some stupid enclosure on some stupid farm? Constructors/editors should not fall in love with your own "?" cleverness. Those clues have to land perfectly or they are Not worth it.
See you tomorrow!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (5:59)
Theme answers:
- DESKTOP (WALL) PAPER (19A: With 20-Across, pattern in back of a window)
- "WOLF OF (WALL) STREET" (35A: With 37-Across, hit Leonardo DiCaprio film, with "The")
- STONE(WALL) JACKSON (50A: With 52-Across, commander at the First Battle of Bull Run)
Ice-nine is a fictional material that appears in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. Ice-nine is described as a polymorph of water which instead of melting at 0 °C (32 °F), melts at 45.8 °C (114.4 °F). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8 °C, it acts as a seed crystal and causes the solidification of the entire body of water, which quickly crystallizes as more ice-nine. As people are mostly water, ice-nine kills nearly instantly when ingested or brought into contact with soft tissues exposed to the bloodstream, such as the eyes or tongue. (wikipedia)
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LOL building a wall (!) two days after putting a racial slur against Mexicans in the puzzle. You NYT guys are on Fire!So ... yup, it's a wall. So what? I've seen walls in puzzles before—grids with apparently completely segmented parts that end up being connected somehow. I wanted this one to do something, to have some meaning, some coherence, I don't know ... anything. But it's just a WALL. A senseless wall. Well at least we didn't throw a ton of money at it or creating child internment camps along it. I guess that's a plus.
This played alternative easy and hard for me. Very hard to start (in the NW), as I haven't read Vonnegut since high school and LECARRÉ was very hidden by his "?" clue (15A: Author known for the intelligence of his writing?), and DEEP does not mean [Not easily understood] in my world ("profound" is not the same as "confusing" or "recondite" or "unclear") and DESKTOP (WALL)PAPER was by far the hardest of the three themers to get, and it starts in the NW. Also [Chasséd] meant nothing to me (GLIDED). So that corner was fun. Could not remember the DiCaprio movie at all for a bit, even after having W-L-O- in place. But after that answer fell, things sped up considerably (largely because I understood the theme). Eastern part of the grid was much easier, though again the top part proved thorny, as the clue on HASIDIM wasn't much help (and HASIDIM's an odd plural anyway), and I had YUM for 14D: "Scrumptious!" and AXMAN is a guitar player to me, not an actual guy with an actual ax(e). Oh and DEGREASE was not clear to me at all, either (12D: Prepare, as hides for tanning). Finished with a couple of wrong squares because I somehow wrote in ENTENTE instead of DETENTE at 60A: Reduction of tension and just forgot to check the crosses.
When my puzzle wasn't accepted, I thought for sure my error was at the PUP / PEN crossing, which I did not understand at all. Note: kind of a dick move to cross two "?" clues. Anyway, PUP seemed unimpeachable (38D: Lightweight boxer?). A boxer PUP would indeed be comparatively lightweight. Got it. But the clue on PEN made no sense to me at all (45A: Boardom?). I kept going through the different meanings of PEN that I know, and none of them had anything to do with "board" that I could see. Eventually, I realized that it was the world of boars, not boards, that the clue was interested in. And somehow boar-dom are all ... in ... PENs? There are all kinds of boars all over the world, and why would I think that a clue referencing the entire boar world would lead me just to some stupid enclosure on some stupid farm? Constructors/editors should not fall in love with your own "?" cleverness. Those clues have to land perfectly or they are Not worth it.
See you tomorrow!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]