Cause of death in Sherlock Holmes novel Sign of Four / THU 7-16-20 / Classic MTV show that launched a film franchise / Classic leading lady honored on both US and Swedish postage

Constructor: Evan Kalish

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but there was almost no resistance)

THEME: DARK ART (68A: Witchcraft ... or what each block of three black squares in this puzzle represents?) — just what it says—you have to imagine that each set of three black squares represents the letters ART in order to make sense of the answers leading to/from those squares:

Theme answers:

• ARTICLE I (29A: Part of the Constitution establishing the executive branch)
• POISON DART (20A: Cause of death in the Sherlock Holmes novel "The Sign of Four")
• ARTIFICIAL HEART (21D: Lifesaving prosthetic device)
• FLOW CHART (47A: Diagram at a business meeting)
• ARTHUR DENT (55A: Protagonist in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

Word of the Day: MATCHA (33D: Powdered green tea leaves) —

Matcha (抹茶, Japanese: [mat.tɕa], English /ˈmætʃə/ or /ˈmɑːtʃə/^[i]) is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves, traditionally consumed in East Asia. It is special in two aspects of farming and processing: the green tea plants used for matcha are shade-grown for three to four weeks before harvest, and the stems and veins are removed during processing. During shaded growth, the plant Camellia sinensis produces more theanine and caffeine. The powdered form of matcha is consumed differently from tea leaves or tea bags, as it is suspended in a liquid, typically water or milk. (wikipedia)

People will be warmly disposed toward this puzzle because it is Very Easy, and crushing a Thursday feels good. They will also like it because it's essentially a themeless with ... just some missing pARTs. I figured out ART was missing very early (ARTICLE II) and then just had to look out for missing ARTs and that's ... it. No wacky cluing or forced punniness of any of the junk that you sometimes encounter in themed puzzles. At first, I didn't know why the ARTs weren't there, they just weren't. Then I hit DARK ART, finally, and ... YES, I SEE. Not really an aha or OHO moment. More just ... an explanation. OK, fine. But it's ultimately a one-note "theme" that leaves a bunch of gibberish in the grid. I do now wish that FLOWCH was a word, though. It's vivid and sounds amazing when you say it out loud. Could be a verb or noun, or both, not sure. Anyway, themewise, this is a shrug, but there's some good fill here and there, and it wasn't unpleasant to solve.


It's a very bro-y puzzle right from the jump (1A: Classic MTV show that launched a film franchise = "JACKASS"). There's a very incidental reference to George Eliot (and GARBO!), but otherwise, solidly puzzbro (and slightly juvenile) in its focus. Also, I think the puzzle and I have *very* different notions of what "Classic" means—not a word I'd apply to either "JACKASS" or "BAMBI Meets Godzilla" (22A: "___ Meets Godzilla" (classic film short)). I think you just mean "old.""Classic" comes back again in the GARBO clue, where it's apt, but that's at least three "Classic"s in one puzzle; maybe vary your cluing language a little next time? I love STORY ARC (34A: Narrative through multiple TV episodes) and MATCHA (33D: Powdered green tea leaves), and that SW corner has a pretty nice Across stack. The rest of the fill is mostly common and familiar—nothing ugly, nothing scintillating (to take just one corner: RASTA SNEER INERT etc.). The only part where I struggled was with GROUPON. Is that still a thing? (43D: Company with a great deal of advertising?) The "?" clue did nothing for me—needed GROU- before I saw it. Oh, and POISOND ... that one made me squint a bit because I thought the answer was POISONS, and then thought, "really, they used more than one?!" The "D" was actually my last square, when I remembered "Oh, yeah, right ... there's a theme."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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