Constructor: Benjamin Kramer
Relative difficulty: Medium (4:30)
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THEME: writing increments — last words of themers run from a mere PASSAGE all the way up to an entire OEUVRE:
Theme answers:
The theme is wobbly, as no one thinks of those words as a sequence; the units are arbitrary. And most books are not part of a "series." And OEUVRE is a pretty high-falutin' and overly broad place to end up. So it's off, but it's not any more off than a lot of NYTXW themes I've seen. That doesn't make it good, that just means that the theme, here, is not really the problem. Well, unless you're a math person, and then you are probably all knotted up over FIBONACCI SERIES, which several people are telling me is properly a "sequence," not a SERIES. I would not know. I'm just telling you what people are telling me. My main problem there (and a big one) was spelling FIBONACCI. How "B"s? How many "N"s? What is that second vowel?? Awful feeling to know the answer immediately and not know what letters to put where. But anyway, as I say, the theme is not this puzzle's primary problem. It shouldn't have passed muster, but it did.
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What really really shouldn't have passed muster is the fill. Let's start there. I hit LLANO (2D: South American plain) in the NW and that is a red flag. A crosswordese red flag. I'm thinking "oh, this isn't going to go well." Sometimes the puzzle surprises you and rights the ship. Today was not one of those times. I quickly thereafter, and in the same small section, hit HAP, and the wheels came off. I didn't even know what to do with HAP. Had the "H" and ... nothing. And then to get hit with INSITU and ADIN and ERG and then ew, ew, ew TOE JAM!!? (10D: Foot gunk). Can't put common body parts in the grid but you can put TOE JAM in there, for ****'s sake!? It's ONAGAIN AONE crosswordese all over the place. It's -CIDE? OPEN-ENDER!!?!??! (12D: Question whose answer can go almost anywhere). -DER? -DER? Don't put "words" in the puzzle that you can't even imagine a plausible context for. Could you really truly not fix that and make it OPEN-ENDED? Were you so wed to, I don't know, VERDURE and AVERY, that you had to inflict OPEN-ENDER on us? Speaking of AVERY ... there are famous people named AVERY. I cannot tell you how laughable and dumb the very clue [Big name in name tags] is. There are no big names in name tags. That is not a thing. Big name in garbage bags, yes, big name in salsa, maybe, but name tags ... is too niche (and too sad, somehow) to qualify for "big name" status in a crossword. Also, Tex AVERY called and said ... well, first he said "What's up, Doc?" then he said "What the hell, man!"
But the worst, the very worst, the king worst thing about this puzzle is 61D: This puzzle's clues have two of them (EGS). Where do I start? Well, let's start with the fact that that is not a thing. Not a thing you can pluralize. Nope. You can't. And how do I know? Well, if it's a three-letter answer, *someone* for sure would've done it before, and, hey guess what?
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More bad:
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P.S. SISTERS and CHAPTER have the same number of letters, which I found out today, the hard way :(
P.P.S. [Phat] ... first, wow, just wow. Second, I really feel like if you're gonna go full-'90s slang here, the answer should be DA BOMB.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (4:30)
Theme answers:
- SAFE PASSAGE (17A: Protection offered for a traveler in a dangerous area)
- SORORITY CHAPTER (24A: Group of Greek women)
- MACBOOK (36A: Member of the Apple family)
- FIBONACCI SERIES (50A: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.)
- HORS D'OEUVRE (59A: Canapé, e.g.)
Sydney Loren Bennett (born April 23, 1992), known professionally as Syd (formerly Syd tha Kyd), is an American singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She is a founding member of the band The Internet, and was a member of the alternative hip hop collective Odd Future. Bennett released her 2017 debut solo album Fin, followed by the EP Always Never Home. (wikipedia)
• • •
The theme is wobbly, as no one thinks of those words as a sequence; the units are arbitrary. And most books are not part of a "series." And OEUVRE is a pretty high-falutin' and overly broad place to end up. So it's off, but it's not any more off than a lot of NYTXW themes I've seen. That doesn't make it good, that just means that the theme, here, is not really the problem. Well, unless you're a math person, and then you are probably all knotted up over FIBONACCI SERIES, which several people are telling me is properly a "sequence," not a SERIES. I would not know. I'm just telling you what people are telling me. My main problem there (and a big one) was spelling FIBONACCI. How "B"s? How many "N"s? What is that second vowel?? Awful feeling to know the answer immediately and not know what letters to put where. But anyway, as I say, the theme is not this puzzle's primary problem. It shouldn't have passed muster, but it did.
But the worst, the very worst, the king worst thing about this puzzle is 61D: This puzzle's clues have two of them (EGS). Where do I start? Well, let's start with the fact that that is not a thing. Not a thing you can pluralize. Nope. You can't. And how do I know? Well, if it's a three-letter answer, *someone* for sure would've done it before, and, hey guess what?
Yup, EGS is unique (in the Shortz era) to this puzzle. In case you have no idea what EGS even means, it means that there is an "e.g." in one of the clues today (21A: LP, e.g.) ... and then there is another "e.g." in another clue (59A: Canapé, e.g.). Two "e.g."s => EGS. Yeah, I know. How you can't construct your way out of EGS, I have no idea. It's remedial. But what makes this answer the worst, from *my* perspective, was that because it was *so* bad, because it asked me to reflect back on the whole puzzle, and because it was in the *final* clue position, I assumed it was a revealer. It was the last thing I got, and at that point I didn't see the dumb theme sequence, and so I immediately went looking for how EGS contained the solution to ... whatever was going on here. Only it didn't. It did not contain that. So it's EGregiouS fill—really, truly distinguished on that front—and it (to my mind) was posing as a revealer. Bad and fraudulent. Abysmal.
More bad:
- 42D: Me, myself and I (EGOS) — no, that makes no sense. Sorry. Yeah, I see what you think you're doing, but uh uh
- 22A: Denim (JEAN)— as with the AVERY clue ... why? So many good JEANs out there. No one uses JEAN in the singular (who is not a ... tailor?) Seriously, Tex AVERY and JEAN Arthur are two of the most amazingly talented people who ever lived and I get name tags and denim!?!?!
- 60D: Lennon's lady (ONO)— Oh ... no. Don't do this. Please don't do this. I know you like alliteration, but some things you have to let go. Wouldn't have balked too much at "wife," but "lady," yeesh. Ease up on your sexist '60s lingo, Daddy-O. She's famous in her own right.
P.S. SISTERS and CHAPTER have the same number of letters, which I found out today, the hard way :(
P.P.S. [Phat] ... first, wow, just wow. Second, I really feel like if you're gonna go full-'90s slang here, the answer should be DA BOMB.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]