Neighborhood intersected by Pomona Fwy / THU 3-19-20 / Parsley relative / Jeans that have been summerized / Play area at some fast food restaurants / Ralphie's ammo in 1983's Christmas Story

Constructor: Wayne Bergman and Gary Otting

Relative difficulty: Easy 

THEME: SHORT CUT (36D: Timesaver ... as a computer user would see in four answers in this puzzle?)— familiar phrases where one word is replaced by its equivalent computer short-cut command:

Theme answers:

• CTRL-C RIGHT (i.e. copyright) (19A: Protection from piracy)
• CTRL-X OFFS (i.e. cut-offs) (15D: Jeans that have been summerized)
• NICE CTRL-F (i.e. "nice find!") (28D: "Way to go!," to an antiques buyer)
• TOOTH CTRL-V (i.e. toothpaste) (49A: Crest, e.g.)

Word of the Day: MAME (13A: Broadway auntie) —

Mame is a musical with the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and a 1956 Broadway play, by Lawrence and Lee, that starred Rosalind Russell. Set in New York City and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.

In 1958, a film titled Auntie Mame, based on the play, was released by Warner Bros. Pictures, once again starring Rosalind Russell in the title role. Russell was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for her portrayal.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1966, starring Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur. The production became a hit and spawned a 1974 film with Lucille Ball in the title role and Arthur reprising her supporting role, as well as a London production, a Broadway revival, and a 40th anniversary revival at the Kennedy Center in 2006. (wikipedia)

Took one look at this grid and thought "uh oh"—something about the dearth of longer answers and preponderance of short fill just did not bode well. By the time I hit the second themer and thus figured out what was even going on with the first themer, I wanted to quit. I would've stopped solving this right then and there if it weren't my job to finish and then write about every damn puzzle. My only thought was "so it's just gonna be a bunch of CTRL-commands ... with CTRL-[some letter] in my grid a couple more times replacing ordinary words? That's it?" And that was it. Do you know how unsatisfying it is to look at CTRLCRIGHT? Or to know that the letter string CTRL is waiting for you in at least two more answers? Or to run into the revealer in some wonky asymmetrical out-of-the-way place (36D??)? I have a feeling the ultra-easiness of this puzzle is going to make people feel powerful, which will lead them to like this puzzle way, way more than it deserves. The fill is less than thrilling (see CFLAT, EASTLA, SRO, SUEY, RHODY, REBOX, V-DAY ... which btw is not a thing: VE-DAY is a thing, VJ-DAY too; V-DAY is baloney). Then there's the fact that many of us work on Macs where none of these commands are appropriate. I use the "command" key for all these functions. And to top it all off, STROM Thurmond? Clued as if he were merely a "longtime senator" and not a virulent racist and prominent segregationist? No. No. Pass.


The only "trouble" I had today was figuring out what the CTRLC letter string meant. Once I got CTRLXOFFS, I realized the command in that case was "cut," which made me realize the command in the first case was "copy." After that, the only issue was trying to figure out the bizarre NICECTRLF clue. "Nice ..." Nice what? That phrase "... to an antique buyer" wasn't helping me at all. I've heard the phrase "nice find" before, but never from an ... antique buyer, was it? Also, copy cut and paste all feel related, and find feels like an outlier ... you aren't doing anything to a text with "find." Whatever, the whole thing was just not interesting to me at all. If the NYT is sitting on a reserve of super-fun puzzles, I call on them to release those puzzles now. I believe it is in the national interest to do so. Take care, everyone.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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