Constructor: Byron (old like me) and Harrison (EIGHT YEARS OLD) Walden
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:15)
![]()
THEME:"Animal Crossings"— "What do you get when you cross ___ with ___?" riddles, where the ___s literally cross right next to the answers to each riddle:
Theme answers:
![]()
You know what can make me like corny dad-joke riddles? Puzzles co-constructed by 8yo boys and their dads, that's what. Everyone should co-construct with a kid. They should do a whole week of that. Co-constructor has to be in elementary school, go! OMG this puzzle even has a title of that app or game that I keep seeing people mention but that I've been studiously ignoring because why are grown people playing children's games but here it is on a puzzle constructed by an actual child, so I am All In, sign me up, etc.! Only SMILES, sorry folks, I know you kinda like the grouch but Not Today. OK, if I were being really truly Scroogey, I would say EXTRA DRUMSTICKS isn't as much of a coherent stand-alone concept as the others, and LIGHTNING SPEED is not an entity, which makes it weird as a result of even fantastical cross-breeding, and crossing plural animals with singular animal is ... interesting. But pffffffffft, don't care. I think these are cute. The grid actually played hardish for me in places, though my time was totally normal (it's a post-Negroni time, too, so ... you should probably shave a minute off my time if you want to know what my time would be like under normal, not slightly buzzed conditions). I liked that there was a WAVETANK to go with all these EELS and FISH and what not, though tbh WAVETANK took me a long time to get. Also difficult for me: CAT'S EAR (don't ... know what that is), and AREOLE (did not know that sense of the word and also spelled it AREOLA at first). Oh, and HONEYBEE! Napoleonic symbol? News to me! Funniest word in the grid to me is ADZING, a present participle so improbable it makes me giggle.
I don't think I understand RECAST as the answer to 23A: Put in another light. Oh crud I just got it. I could not shake the idea that someone was changing a lightbulb ... or RECASTing a play and the star of the play was somehow metaphorically a "light." But "in another light" is metaphorical. Gotcha. Never heard of a RACER, so that "C," yipes (3D: Nonvenomous, fast-moving snake). NOMEN was hard because Latin (I thought "NOMEN" was just "name" but I guess it's the second of three usual names in ancient Roman, huh). Wrote in EAST END before WEST END, that was dumb (69A: London theater district). I hope that Harry was happy that he got to put PEE in the grid, though tbh it was probably Byron who was tittering at that one (118D: 16th letter). OUTOFIT is a really fantastic entry that I had trouble parsing. It's weirdly rare—twice this year now, but only five times in the Shortz era total. It took me til the last letter (which, ironically, was the first letter) to figure out. Seriously thought AUTOFIT might be a thing (64A: Dazed and confused), but it made zero sense for the clue.
Have as happy a Father's Day, or just day, as you can. XO
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (10:15)
Theme answers:
- ELEPHANTS / FISH = SWIMMING TRUNKS
- CHICKENS / SQUID = EXTRA DRUMSTICKS
- EELS / RHINOCEROS = ELECTRIC CHARGES
- FIREFLIES / CHEETAH = LIGHTNING SPEED
Hassan Rouhani (Persian: حسن روحانی, Standard Persian pronunciation: [hæˈsæn-e ɾowhɒːˈniː](listen); born Hassan Fereydoun (Persian: حسن فریدون) on 12 November 1948) is an Iranian politician serving as the current and seventh President of Iran since 3 August 2013. He was also a lawyer, academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric. He has been a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts since 1999, member of the Expediency Councilsince 1991, and a member of the Supreme National Security Council since 1989. Rouhani was deputy speaker of the fourth and fifth terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. In the latter capacity, he was the country's top negotiator with the EU three, UK, France, and Germany, on nuclear technology in Iran, and has also served as a Shi'ite ijtihadi cleric, and economic trade negotiator. He has expressed official support for upholding the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. In 2013, he appointed former industries minister Eshaq Jahangiri as his first vice-president.
• • •
I don't think I understand RECAST as the answer to 23A: Put in another light. Oh crud I just got it. I could not shake the idea that someone was changing a lightbulb ... or RECASTing a play and the star of the play was somehow metaphorically a "light." But "in another light" is metaphorical. Gotcha. Never heard of a RACER, so that "C," yipes (3D: Nonvenomous, fast-moving snake). NOMEN was hard because Latin (I thought "NOMEN" was just "name" but I guess it's the second of three usual names in ancient Roman, huh). Wrote in EAST END before WEST END, that was dumb (69A: London theater district). I hope that Harry was happy that he got to put PEE in the grid, though tbh it was probably Byron who was tittering at that one (118D: 16th letter). OUTOFIT is a really fantastic entry that I had trouble parsing. It's weirdly rare—twice this year now, but only five times in the Shortz era total. It took me til the last letter (which, ironically, was the first letter) to figure out. Seriously thought AUTOFIT might be a thing (64A: Dazed and confused), but it made zero sense for the clue.
Have as happy a Father's Day, or just day, as you can. XO
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]