Constructor: Jon Olsen
Relative difficulty: Easy if you figured out those center squares faster than I did; spent 5 min. on everything but the center, then another 90 seconds+ trying to work out the center (~6:30)
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THEME: :-)— long themers lay out in detail all the elements of a HAPPY FACE (3D: Response to solving this puzzle) (not at all) when you represent it as an EMOTICON(S) (don't ask why EMOTICONS is in the plural, it's terrible, I know) (35D: Images such as 3-Down). COLON, HYPHEN (18A: First two symbols in a 3-Down), and PARENTHESIS (61A: Final symbol in a 3-Down) are represented visually in the center of the grid as a rebus (where EYES, NOSE, MOUTH appear in successive boxes) (39A: Elements of a 3-Down)
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What is with the painfully straightforward earnest puzzles. Yesterday's was a remedial trivia test, and today, an extended explanation of what, exactly, an EMOTICON is (weak that the revealer is in the plural, considering there's just the one, but that's the least of this thing's problems). First, it's a SMILEY FACE, not a HAPPY FACE. Second, it's not just PARENTHESIS. It's very specifically the close PARENTHESIS. Please do not tell me the distinction does not matter. It is, in fact, the determining difference between a smiley face and a frowny face. You can't just say PARENTHESIS without specifying which one. One thousand boos! What else? Well, EMOTICONS are pretty dated now, what with the advent of emojis, but that's not really the puzzle's fault. The NYT is always living like 5-to-50 years in the past, so if we get an EMOTICONS puzzle 10 years after the heyday of EMOTICONS, you can't be too surprised. And most smiley face EMOTICONS lack the nose, honestly. Sigh. And the cutesy smugness of that clue on HAPPY FACE, ugh (3D: Response to solving this puzzle). Don't clue self-congratulatorily, people, please.
But then there are those center squares ... on the one hand, they're the only interesting thing about this theme. On the other, they occupy such a teensy (not EENSY, no one says that) portion of the grid that they hardly seem worth it. Oh and also they make things very messy. PIANO SEATS???? Benches or stools, OK. But SEATS feels forced. And EYESORE doesn't effectively bury the EYE. That is, it's got EYE in it, as a body part, so that feels like cheating. Note that the MOUTH in PLYMOUTH does not refer to the body part, nor the NOSE in PIANOSEATS. But the EYES in EYESORE are definitely the body part in question. So more boos! This just feels like a desperate HEAVE—lots of elements, but conceptually messy and awkwardly executed. Also, man did I want black squares to be involved somehow. I mean, how are black squares *not* involved in a puzzle about EMOTICONS!? If ever there was a theme begging to have black square design involved, this is it. Oh, and another thing—very bad editing to allow EMO in the same grid as EMOTICONS. You could've at least tried to deny the affiliation by cluing EMO the old-fashioned way: via [Comedian Philips]. But no. It's the [Indie rock genre], where the EMO refers to EMOTION just as it does in EMOTICONS.
As I look around the grid, I'm seeing that the fill is pretty weak overall, but with this much theme material, I'm not that surprised. EX-JETS? No one refers to Mickey Mantle as an EX-YANKEE. Curtis Granderson is an EX-YANKEE, but that's because he's still playing baseball ... for another team (currently, the Marlins). Do you mean "EX-" in that they are now retired football players, in which case they are EX-all the teams they played for. Needless to say, I had NYJETS here at first. I sincerely thought NOICE was one word—an affected way of saying "nice" (i.e. ["Neat"]). My struggles in the center were hampered considerably by a. writing in SNEERS at first for 46A: Shows derision, in a way (SNORTS), and b. not having any idea what a HORST is (44D: Raised block of the earth's crust, to a geologist). What do I look like, a geologist? I know, I know, a HORST is a HORST, of courst, of courst ... BAH!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy if you figured out those center squares faster than I did; spent 5 min. on everything but the center, then another 90 seconds+ trying to work out the center (~6:30)
- (EYES)ORE (39D: Blot on a landscape)
- PIA(NO SE)ATS (25D: Perches for some musicians)
- PLY(MOUTH) (26D: ___ Rock)
nounGEOLOGY
• • •
But then there are those center squares ... on the one hand, they're the only interesting thing about this theme. On the other, they occupy such a teensy (not EENSY, no one says that) portion of the grid that they hardly seem worth it. Oh and also they make things very messy. PIANO SEATS???? Benches or stools, OK. But SEATS feels forced. And EYESORE doesn't effectively bury the EYE. That is, it's got EYE in it, as a body part, so that feels like cheating. Note that the MOUTH in PLYMOUTH does not refer to the body part, nor the NOSE in PIANOSEATS. But the EYES in EYESORE are definitely the body part in question. So more boos! This just feels like a desperate HEAVE—lots of elements, but conceptually messy and awkwardly executed. Also, man did I want black squares to be involved somehow. I mean, how are black squares *not* involved in a puzzle about EMOTICONS!? If ever there was a theme begging to have black square design involved, this is it. Oh, and another thing—very bad editing to allow EMO in the same grid as EMOTICONS. You could've at least tried to deny the affiliation by cluing EMO the old-fashioned way: via [Comedian Philips]. But no. It's the [Indie rock genre], where the EMO refers to EMOTION just as it does in EMOTICONS.
As I look around the grid, I'm seeing that the fill is pretty weak overall, but with this much theme material, I'm not that surprised. EX-JETS? No one refers to Mickey Mantle as an EX-YANKEE. Curtis Granderson is an EX-YANKEE, but that's because he's still playing baseball ... for another team (currently, the Marlins). Do you mean "EX-" in that they are now retired football players, in which case they are EX-all the teams they played for. Needless to say, I had NYJETS here at first. I sincerely thought NOICE was one word—an affected way of saying "nice" (i.e. ["Neat"]). My struggles in the center were hampered considerably by a. writing in SNEERS at first for 46A: Shows derision, in a way (SNORTS), and b. not having any idea what a HORST is (44D: Raised block of the earth's crust, to a geologist). What do I look like, a geologist? I know, I know, a HORST is a HORST, of courst, of courst ... BAH!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]