Constructor: Ruth Bloomfield Margolin
Relative difficulty: Easy (4 flat, w/o really trying)
![]()
THEME: a SIX-WORD short story attributed to ERNEST HEMINGWAY: "FOR SALE: / BABY SHOES / NEVER WORN"
Word of the Day: [this whole theme] —
![]()
Why? So much Why? Why is this exceedingly non-Thursday quote theme running on Thursday, which is supposed to be the day for tricky and clever puzzles, innovative themes, nuttiness. Where is my nuttiness!? And why is a quote this simple and (overly) familiar running at all? Why is SIX-WORD (!?!) considered a valid revealer? Why is ERNEST HEMINGWAY clued as the "author" of the quote when there is in fact no concrete evidence of that? And above all, why oh why would you run a puzzle about a dead baby, particularly in the hot middle of a pandemic?! Weak theme, weak revealer, fake quote, tone-deaf timing. Did I miss anything? The fill is pretty crusty and olde-tymey, but only LEOIX (?) seemed particularly horrible. Otherwise it was just NYT-average, i.e. routine blah.
Got CANASTA right away (1A: Card game with melds) and just blazed down and through the center of the grid down to the far SE corner. Eventually hit a handful of trouble spots, none of them major. The worst of these was 24D: Cat hate (BATH). I could not understand the clue. I still can barely understand the clue. I guess that phrasing is supposed to mean "a thing a cat ... hates," but it sounds like the clue wants a word for "hatred *of* cats" ... it's just a terribly worded clue. I had -ATH and still no idea. Clue on ABO was also awkward (2D: ___ group (hospital classification)). Not having "blood" annnywhere in that clue is just bizarre. It's a blood typing system. That's what it is. It's like the editor knew this puzzle was way way way too easy and so instead of making hard-clever clues, instead made bizarrely worded clues. Not clever, not fun. I also had trouble with "IT'D" (32A: "___ better be good!"). The only word I want in that slot is "THIS." I wrote in GRIT before GUTS (20A: Fortitude) and SPIT OUT (!?) before SPILLED (8A: Divulged). Was not really sure about MIDI, but all the crosses checked out (I assumed that last "I" cross was LEOIX and not, say, LEOXX). Not much joy today. I wanted something much more fun and light-hearted on this otherwise depressing and chaotic day. I hope you all are following best practices during this pandemic. My university is requiring that all courses be taught exclusively online for the rest of the semester. It's gonna be a weird, lonely couple of months. But shuttings down is the right call. Gotta slow this thing down. Please don't hoard and panic and conspiracy theorize. Please do look out for the vulnerable. Wash your hands thoroughly and often, for others if not for yourself. I appreciate you all.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (4 flat, w/o really trying)
Word of the Day: [this whole theme] —
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." is the entirety of what has been described as a six-word story, making it an extreme example of what is called flash fiction or sudden fiction. Although it is often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, the link to him is unsubstantiated and similar stories predate him (wikipedia) (emph. mine).
• • •
Got CANASTA right away (1A: Card game with melds) and just blazed down and through the center of the grid down to the far SE corner. Eventually hit a handful of trouble spots, none of them major. The worst of these was 24D: Cat hate (BATH). I could not understand the clue. I still can barely understand the clue. I guess that phrasing is supposed to mean "a thing a cat ... hates," but it sounds like the clue wants a word for "hatred *of* cats" ... it's just a terribly worded clue. I had -ATH and still no idea. Clue on ABO was also awkward (2D: ___ group (hospital classification)). Not having "blood" annnywhere in that clue is just bizarre. It's a blood typing system. That's what it is. It's like the editor knew this puzzle was way way way too easy and so instead of making hard-clever clues, instead made bizarrely worded clues. Not clever, not fun. I also had trouble with "IT'D" (32A: "___ better be good!"). The only word I want in that slot is "THIS." I wrote in GRIT before GUTS (20A: Fortitude) and SPIT OUT (!?) before SPILLED (8A: Divulged). Was not really sure about MIDI, but all the crosses checked out (I assumed that last "I" cross was LEOIX and not, say, LEOXX). Not much joy today. I wanted something much more fun and light-hearted on this otherwise depressing and chaotic day. I hope you all are following best practices during this pandemic. My university is requiring that all courses be taught exclusively online for the rest of the semester. It's gonna be a weird, lonely couple of months. But shuttings down is the right call. Gotta slow this thing down. Please don't hoard and panic and conspiracy theorize. Please do look out for the vulnerable. Wash your hands thoroughly and often, for others if not for yourself. I appreciate you all.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]