German appliance brand / WED 3-4-20 / Dweller along Bering Sea / Major city of west central Syria / Hartz collar tag

Constructor: Tracy Gray

Relative difficulty: Challenging (over 5?)

THEME: ONE UP (69A: Outdo ... or a hint to entering four answers in this puzzle) — themers look like nonsense in the grid because the letters "NE" aren't there. Turns out this is because the letter string "ONE" in each themer is actually turned "UP" ... so the "NE" extends upward from the "O" and then, back at themer level, the answer continues as usual...

Theme answers:

• ZO(NE)DEFENSE (the "NE" are part of ENOLA) (18A: Strategy used in basketball and football)
• HOW O(N E)ARTH (the "NE" are part of ENOUGH) (33A: Exclamation of surprise)
• TATUM O'(NE)AL (the "NE" are part of ENOCH) (45A: "Paper Moon" Oscar winner)
• CLAUDE MO(NE)T (the "NE" are part of ENOKI) (60A: "Water Lilies" painter)

Word of the Day: HAMA (47A: Major city of west-central Syria) —

Hama (Arabic: حماة‎ Ḥamāh, [ħaˈmaː]; Syriac: ܚܡܬ‎ Ḥmṭ, "fortress"; Biblical Hebrew: חֲמָתḤamāth) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located 213 km (132 mi) north of Damascus and 46 kilometres (29 mi) north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000 (2009 census), Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. (wikipedia)

This one was unpleasant from beginning to end, for a host of reasons. The worst thing about it, though, was not the puzzle's fault—because the worst thing about it was that it's a Thursday puzzle posing as a Wednesday. This level of trickiness, where solvers get answers that look like garbage until they realize "oh, there's this bizarre trick," that's Thursday territory. No way am I looking for something this rule-breaking on a Wednesday. I lost so much time not understanding why the themers were gibberish—time I *never* would've lost on a Thursday, when I would have been *expecting* some kind of gibberish-explaining trickery. Don't slot Thursday puzzles on Wednesday; it's annoying, and kind of a violation of a tacit agreement between solver and puzzle, i.e. you can come at me with trickery all you want on Thursdays and Sundays. But on Wednesdays ... well, there better be good, clear reason for the trickery. Expecting me to make sense of gibberish is really too much to ask. And that's where this puzzle loses me entirely, actually: the gibberish. Even if this puzzle *had* run on a Thursday, I just can't get happy about having had to stare at HOWOARTH for literally any amount of time. It's so awful. It's such a not-good puzzle feeling. Finally (and I mean almost literally "finally") getting ONE UP did not make me think "oh, that was worth it." Not even close. Your tricks should delight. Even if they frustrate at various points along the way, there should be a playfulness that makes one happy to be along for the ride. Having a puzzle where you go from "that's nonsense" to "why in the world are they just removing NE from these answers?" to "that's it?!" ... I don't understand what's fun about any of that. HOWOARTH. That is my takeaway from this experience. HOWOARTH. I like the puzzle about as much as I like the fact that HOWOARTH is somehow a correctly entered answer in this grid. You gotta stick that revealer landing way, way, way better if you want to pull off grid gibberish, is what I'm saying.


Dislike the highly sequestered NW / SE corners, and especially the SE, where the revealer is, and where the other Acrosses were not exactly easy, and where I had OAT instead of NUT at 65D: Trail mix bit. When the corners are so cut off ... there's no air. Nowhere to go. It's claustrophobic and aesthetically unpleasing. Also aesthetically unpleasing: MISACTS (?), a word said by no one. Also FB STATUS, what? That is a stretch. Really dislike it. But then I really dislike "FB" in general, and all answers associated with it, so that answer never really had a chance with me. I've never heard of MIELE (20A: German appliance brand), a "brand" which appeared in the NYTXW once in 2013 but then you gotta go back literally 50 years before you find its next previous appearance. When I saw this clue, I wanted ... what's that brand? ... KRUPS, maybe? I don't know, but it sure wasn't MIELE. Also never heard of HAMA (47A: Major city of west-central Syria). Maybe because it's been 34 years (!) since the city of HAMA was last in a NYTXW grid. I had HOMS written in there and was *very* happy with it. HOMS is (or was, as of 2004) nearly twice as populous. And look how dang close the two cities are to each other:

How is your "HAMILTON" clue this boring? (41D: Winner of 11 Tonys in 2016). Such a dynamic and entertaining musical, and *this* is the clue you give it? I like SWOLE (23D: Extremely muscular, in slang) and WEDGIE (43A: Prank involving yanking underwear) alright, but honestly nothing else even came close to making me smile today.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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