Constructor: Freddie Cheng
Relative difficulty: Medium (though for me it was more Medium-Challenging) (for a Tuesday) (3:50)
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THEME: ABSTRACT ART (61A: What may be created using the answers to the six starred clues?)— I guess they are phrases that might also, taken another way, be elements in a hypothetical abstract painting ... because they're just colored shapes and not necessarily pictorial ...
Theme answers:
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Hello! It's the first full week after New Year's Day and that means it's time for my annual pitch for financial contributions to the blog, during which I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. As you know, I write this blog every. Single. Day. OK, two days a month I pay young people to write it, but every other day, all me. OK sometimes I take vacations and generous friends of mine sit in, but otherwise, I'm a non-stop blogging machine. Seriously, it's a lot of work. It's at least as much work as my day job, and unlike my day job, the hours *kinda* suck—I typically solve and write between 10pm and midnight, or in the early hours of the morning, so that the blog can be up and ready for you to read with your breakfast or on the train or in a forest or wherever it is you enjoy the internet. I have no major expenses, just my time. As I've said before, I have no interest in "monetizing" the blog in any way beyond simply asking for money once a year. I hate ads in real life, so why would I subject you all to them. I actually considered redesigning the site earlier this year, making it slicker or fancier somehow. I even got the process partly underway, but then when I let slip that I was considering it, feedback was brisk and clear: don't change. Turns out people don't really want whistles and bells. Just the plain, internet-retro style of a blogger blog. So that's what you're getting. No amount of technical tinkering is gonna change the blog, which is essentially just my voice. My ridiculous opinionated voice yelling at you, cheerfully and angrily, about how much I love / hate crosswords. I hope that this site has made you laugh or taught you things or given you a feeling of shared joy, or anger, or failure, or even given you someone to yell at. I'm fine with that. I also hope I've introduced some of you to the Wider World of Crosswords, beyond the NYT. I am passionate about puzzles and I (mostly) adore the people who solve them—so many of my friends, and the thousands of you I've never met. I can't stop, and I won't stop, and I hope you find that effort worth supporting.
Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
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All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions (I. Love. Snail mail!) will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. This year's cards are illustrations from "Alice in Wonderland"—all kinds of illustrations from throughout the book's publication history. Who will get the coveted, crosswordesey "EATME!" card!? Someone, I'm sure. You, I hope. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just say NO CARD. As ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support.
Now on to the puzzle!
Relative difficulty: Medium (though for me it was more Medium-Challenging) (for a Tuesday) (3:50)
Theme answers:
- BLANK CANVAS (17A: *Starting point, metaphorically)
- BLACK BOX (26A: *Important part of a plane)
- TANLINE (40A: *A swimsuit might leave one)
- GOLD RING (51A: *Powerful object in "The Hobbit")
- GRAY AREAS (3D: *Ill-defined situations)
- RED SQUARE (36D: *Moscow landmark)
Nena (pronounced [ˈneːna]; born Gabriele Susanne Kerner, 24 March 1960) is a German singer-songwriter, actress, and comedian who rose to international fame in 1983 with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she released the song. The re-recording of some of her old songs rekindled her career in 2002 and she has sold over 25 million records, making her one of Germany's most successful music artists. (wikipedia)
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Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Now on to the puzzle!
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| "Red Square" (1915) by Kazimir Malevich |
I didn't enjoy this much, though I recognize there is at least a clever idea underneath it all. Also, I think the puzzle could really use a BLUE STREAK? For real, though, two things put me off—one is that the puzzle seems mildly derisive of its subject, as if ABSTRACT ART were merely a random conglomeration of different-colored shapes; the other is that the grid is (once again, second day in a row) just *crammed* with theme material, not because it's necessary, but because it's ... just ... more. This is a variation on the stunt puzzle, where the constructor gets super-enamored with a construction feat and (often) loses sight of whether the feat is worth it, from a pleasurable puzzle-solving perspective. Or even from a logical perspective. And the main problem with choking the grid with theme material is that the non-theme material suffers. Today's holds up OK, I guess, but there's an awful lot of crosswordese, and none of the non-theme stuff is very interesting. TEST CASE and TEARTAPE are the only points of interest, and they aren't that interesting (the latter actually messed me up badly, as I didn't really know the term and, having TEAR, wrote in TEAR LINE ... even though TANLINE was already in the grid ... again, I didn't know TEARTAPE had a name). OLA DEO IRE ONO *and* ENO NENA EDNA EROS etc. It's roughish. I kinda like the concept, or at least I like the thought of the concept, but the execution didn't result in an enjoyable puzzle, for me.
Some super-irritating things: ELISA ... if you don't have anyone famous for your name, don't use. The clue 24D: Form of Elizabeth = ??? It's also dull. Further, KOOK ... what the hell is up with the clue (18D: Loony)? Is "loony" supposed to be a noun? Because KOOK is a noun and LOON is a noun, and KOOKY is an adj., and so is LOONY, dammit. I could not accept KOOK, which slowed me down. Also I wrote in 'ALO instead of OLA :( (6D: Portuguese greeting). Had trouble getting into the SW because I knew the powerful object in "The Hobbit" was a RING ... but the GOLD part wasn't as intuitive. The thing that really killed me, though, is that I came at the revealer weird, from the back end, so I was certain that the revealer clue [What may be created...] was looking for some kind of TART. Somehow the asterisked answers were going to be the ingredients of a TART. And since noooothing in the revealer clue was specific to ABSTRACT ART, *and* since I had TEARTAPE as TEARLINE ... things got ugly down there in TREO land (I mean, TREO, come on (58A: Old Palm smartphone) ... the fill in this thing... Last time I saw TREO in a grid, the NAVI were in theaters.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Re: 60A: The adjectival phrase "Low-I.Q." is a Trumpism. Also, I.Q. is an outmoded, widely criticized concept. It's used in race science, racistly. DIM is a simple adjective with lots and lots and lots of potential clues. First the racist slur, then the Putin quote, and now this favorite term of the president* ... editing has taken a weird, bitter turn this year.
