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Channel: Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle
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Singer with the 2014 hit "Chandelier" / SAT 4-4-20 / Prison guard in the Harry Potter books / Company whose name is said to mean "Leave luck to heaven"

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Constructor:Yacob Yonas

Relative difficulty: Pretty Easy?


THEME: None

Word of the Day:LARA (48A: Nymph who divulged Jupiter's affair with Juturna, in Ovid) —
Larunda (also LarundeLarandaLara) was a naiad nymph, daughter of the river Almo in Ovid's Fasti.[1] The only known mythography attached to Lara is little, late and poetic [EMPHASIS ADDED], coming to us from Ovid's Fasti. She was famous for both beauty and loquacity (a trait her parents attempted to curb). She was incapable of keeping secrets, and so revealed to Jupiter's wife Juno his affair with Juturna (Larunda's fellow nymph, and the wife of Janus). For betraying his trust, Jupiter cut out Lara's tongue and ordered Mercury, the psychopomp, to conduct her to Avernus, the gateway to the Underworld and realm of Pluto. Mercury, however, fell in love with Lara and had sex with her on the way. Lara thereby became mother to two children, referred to as the Lares, invisible household gods. However, she had to stay in a hidden cottage in the woods so that Jupiter would not find her.[1]
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Hi all, Rachel Fabi in for Rex today. While I'm glad the NYT is back to running a themeless on a themeless day, this didn't really feel all that challenging for a Saturday! The grid is highly segmented, with each corner and the middle all playing as their own mini-puzzle, so the longest entries we've got max out at 9 letters. Although there was plenty of good stuff in here, and extremely clean fill, there were also a few fill choices that should be been ripped out entirely, which would have been *not super challenging* to do on account of the aforementioned segmentation. And, while there were some fun clues, there were also a few that felt a little tonally off, so overall I have some mixed feelings about this puzzle, despite the presence of a few real gems and a gorgeous-looking grid.

The puzzle started out just kind of unpleasant, with a BLOW DART (1A: Barb from the mouth) stacked on top of a stereotype about mathletes (ALPHA NERD) and the rather gross phrase GAPING MAW. Just not a super fun start, in my view. I did love seeing LLAMAS at 2D and learning (via old SAT analogy symbols) that their babies are called "crias," so I'd say that NW corner is fine but not great.

The vertical stack in the NE is better, with I DARE SAY and NINTENDO both spicing up the corner (while DATA PLAN kind of ho-hums on the side). The NINTENDO clue (12D: Company whose name is said to mean "Leave luck to heaven") piqued my curiosity— does it mean that or does it not?? It's "said" by whom?? These questions led me down a rabbit hole of websites contemplating the various possible interpretations of the characters that spell NINTENDO in Japanese, and let's just say it's 20 minutes I'm never getting back and which brought me no closer to an answer than I was before the rabbit hole.

Moving on to the SW corner, this is where I take issue with the fill choices. I'm not saying the fill is objectively bad, like acronym-soup bad or arbitrary-german-article bad, but it was a choice to include MORON and IDIOT in this grid, and it was a choice that didn't have to be made. Both terms are ableist and cruel, and could have been worked out! Would it have cost us CSI MIAMI? Probably. Is that a price worth paying to not have ableist slurs in your grid? I think yes. Ok, well, to satisfy my own curiosity I redid that corner in ten seconds and ended up with MURSE down there, which is silly but definitely better than MORON/IDIOT. And it didn't even cost us CSI MIAMI! One other questionable decision in the SW is the clue on ME TOO, which I have to imagine was an editorial, rather than a constructor, choice. Why clue this as "I'm with you" when the #METOO movement is right there? Anyways, those issues aside, I did like the clue for ON SAFARI quite a bit [35D: Where you might incur charges overseas], although I was wondering what happened to the question mark!

The SE corner was great, but it was also were I ran into my worst crossing. I love READ-A-THON (which I've decided is how we should rebrand social distancing) and the inclusion of DEMENTOR, although I suspect that may give some trouble to non-Harry Potter fans. My own issue came at the crossing of LATEN and LARA. I'm glad to see a new clue for LARA the perpetual tomb raider, but, if you look back at the word-of-the-day entry, "The only known mythography attached to Lara is little, late and poetic.""Little, late, and poetic" means I have no idea who this character is, and while in retrospect LATEN is obvious, in the moment I was running the alphabet to find a plausible letter to stick in that crossing.

A few other things:
  • 39A: Some online comments, for short (IMS)— I mean, no, right? IMS aren't "comments," they're *instant messages*
  • 31A: Covered porch (RAMADA) — I thought this was just a hotel brand! #learning
  • 36A: "Don't mind me!" (CARRY ON) — very into this double colloquial (clue and entry)
  • 1D: They can be everything (BAGELS) — They not only *can* be everything, in this moment I feel like carbs in general and bagels specifically *are* everything. Mmmmm. Everything BAGELS. Also a fantastic clue.

Overall, I liked a lot about this puzzle. I think the grid itself is very pretty, and some of the longer stuff is excellent, but I really wish a little more thought had gone into the SW corner. It didn't have to be like that! 


Signed, Rachel Fabi, Queen-for-a-Day of CrossWorld
[Follow Rachel on Twitter]

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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