Constructor: Erik Agard and Anne Flinchbaugh
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (I solved on paper without a timer)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: SANTOS (35D: Brazilian soccer team that Pelé played for) —
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Well OK then, hi, hello there. This is the Friday crossword content I am looking for (and congrats to Anne Flinchbaugh on what appears to be her NYTXW debut). After my initial annoyance at being thrown a "?" clue at 1A: Caseload? (BOTTLES)— not welcoming! — rather than wrestle with it, I just jumped over to the NE corner, got SIDEBET immediately, and settled in for what turned out to be a great, if brief, ride. I just kept filling in the grid and nodding. Yes. Oh sure, I like that. Good one. Oh, CHEAT CODE, huh, wow. It kept on like that. So smooth. So smooth that the rough bits (for me) really stood out. The rough bits are (unsurprisingly) all proper nouns that were "rough" because I didn't know them. Too bad so sad. The only truly rough bit, where "rough" can be understood as "unlovely," was OVULAR, which ... how many damn ways do we need to say egg-shaped in this ridiculous language? Were OVATE and OVOID not enough!? I guess my complaint here is more with the English language than with the puzzle, which, as I say, was mostly gold. The truly impressive thing to me was that it felt poppin' fresh while not really having *that* many long answers. Only six answers go longer than eight letters, and only three go longer than nine. And yet man do they make good use of the 8+ stuff: BADMOUTH, EVIL GRINS, RUNNER'S HIGH, CHEAT CODE, LUNAR CRATER. If you can maximized the wow value of your longer answers, keep your shorter stuff clean, and write occasionally interesting clues, well, that's all there is to it! Easy! (Editor's voice: not easy)
Favorite moments today were actually cluing moments, which I could probably just call "clues," but we're a high-class outfit here at "Rex Parker" and we like to deal in professional-seeming argot when we can. I loved the clue on DRS (what are the odds of That?) (25A: Mount Sinai people: Abbr.). Mostly I'm glad I saw the clue only *after* I'd filled it in from crosses, because wow that would've thrown me. My brain would definitely have gone "Bible" and not "hospital," and then I'd've been in Stuck City until the crosses helped me out (I bypassed Stuck City today, accidentally, by just doing the crosses). The other hurray moment for me with the cluing came at 43A: A mare might be found in one—before I read that clue, I had L--AR in place, so my brain was already thinking LUNAR, but when I saw the clue, I had a great (because brief) moment of "'mare,' what the ...?" and then snap, yes, got it. From the Latin for "sea," mares (actually ... looks like the plural is "maria") are "large, dark, basaltic plains on the moon" that early astronomers mistook for seas (wikipedia). They cover about a sixth of the moon's surface. Anyway, love both the DRS and the LUNAR CRATER clues, though I have to admit it was nice in both cases to be able to admire them without having had to go through that icky period where you're baffled by them. This puzzle was 95%+ good feelings, which is honestly about 30% more than I actually require. Please study the non-flashy parts of the grid to see what "smooth fill" means. Not JOSHING. Do it. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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P.S. I did not know who EGO Nwodim is because I don't watch "SNL" any more, but she's been on the show since 2018 (11D: Nwodim of "S.N.L."). I like the way Erik (here and in his the puzzles he edits for USA Today) helps me navigate the pop culture names I don't know by making sure crosses are superfair.
P.P.S. I could not process what the "in more ways than one" part of the PREGAME clue was getting at (16A: Time for warm-up shots, in more ways than one). I think the idea is that players take practice shots in PREGAME, and cameras take shots *of* the warm-up in their PREGAME shows? So, basketball shots and camera shots are the "more ways than one" ... if that's wrong, please don't tell me, because I'm honestly content with my explanation.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (I solved on paper without a timer)
Word of the Day: SANTOS (35D: Brazilian soccer team that Pelé played for) —
Santos Futebol Clube (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈsɐ̃tus futʃiˈbɔw ˈklubi]), commonly known simply as Santos, is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a bairro in the city of Santos. It plays in the Paulistão, the State of São Paulo's premier state league, as well as the Brasileirão, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system.The club was founded in 1912 by the initiative of three sports enthusiasts from Santos by Raimundo Marques, Mário Ferraz de Campos, and Argemiro de Souza Júnior as a response to the lack of representation the city had in football. Since then, Santos became one of Brazil's most successful clubs, becoming a symbol of Jogo Bonito (English: the Beautiful Game) in football culture, hence the motto "Técnica e Disciplina" (Technique and discipline). The most recognized Santista anthem is the "Leão do Mar" written by Mangeri Neto. This was largely thanks to the Peixe's golden generation of the 1960s which contained players such as Gilmar, Mauro Ramos, Mengálvio, Coutinho, Pepe and Pelé, named the "Athlete of the Century" by the International Olympic Committee, and widely regarded as the best and most accomplished footballer in the game's history. Os Santásticos, considered by some the best club team of all times, won a total of 24 titles during that decade including five consecutive Brasileirões, a feat that remains unequaled today. Os Santásticos won four competitions in 1962, thus completing a quadruple, comprising the Paulistão, the Brasileirão, the Copa Libertadores and the European/South American Cup. (wikipedia)
• • •
Favorite moments today were actually cluing moments, which I could probably just call "clues," but we're a high-class outfit here at "Rex Parker" and we like to deal in professional-seeming argot when we can. I loved the clue on DRS (what are the odds of That?) (25A: Mount Sinai people: Abbr.). Mostly I'm glad I saw the clue only *after* I'd filled it in from crosses, because wow that would've thrown me. My brain would definitely have gone "Bible" and not "hospital," and then I'd've been in Stuck City until the crosses helped me out (I bypassed Stuck City today, accidentally, by just doing the crosses). The other hurray moment for me with the cluing came at 43A: A mare might be found in one—before I read that clue, I had L--AR in place, so my brain was already thinking LUNAR, but when I saw the clue, I had a great (because brief) moment of "'mare,' what the ...?" and then snap, yes, got it. From the Latin for "sea," mares (actually ... looks like the plural is "maria") are "large, dark, basaltic plains on the moon" that early astronomers mistook for seas (wikipedia). They cover about a sixth of the moon's surface. Anyway, love both the DRS and the LUNAR CRATER clues, though I have to admit it was nice in both cases to be able to admire them without having had to go through that icky period where you're baffled by them. This puzzle was 95%+ good feelings, which is honestly about 30% more than I actually require. Please study the non-flashy parts of the grid to see what "smooth fill" means. Not JOSHING. Do it. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.P.S. I could not process what the "in more ways than one" part of the PREGAME clue was getting at (16A: Time for warm-up shots, in more ways than one). I think the idea is that players take practice shots in PREGAME, and cameras take shots *of* the warm-up in their PREGAME shows? So, basketball shots and camera shots are the "more ways than one" ... if that's wrong, please don't tell me, because I'm honestly content with my explanation.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]