Constructor: Trenton Charlson
Relative difficulty: Medium (7-ish)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: HENRI Bergson (2D: French philosopher Bergson) —
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Full of things I don't care about (chess) or actively dislike (OK, maybe that's too strong a thing to say about "How I Met Your Mother," but I never understood the appeal of the show and every time it comes up in crosswords I assume the constructor is trying to kiss Will's ass since Will was featured on an episode of the show once ... I'm sure the show is fine, it just wasn't for me, kind of like this puzzle). SHAMU is off-putting because animal abuse is off-putting, and seeing the horrible DHS mentioned in the puzzle for the *second day in a row* was a downer. The grid seems largely solid, overall, but aside from containing a few of my favorite things (MAUS, LAURA Linney, Anne MEARA), it didn't give much joy today. Sputtered a bit up top in the NW and more so in the NE, but the part that really slowed me down was PAWN PROMOTION, a phrase I don't recognize at all. I'm familiar with the concept of your pawn getting turned into a queen if it makes it all the way to your opponent's back line or whatever you call it, but the PROMOTION part was a bear for me. Needed almost every cross. Math / science / chess guys assume you know the intricacies of all their ****; I don't really mind that these topics are in puzzles, since they're part of the world, but I really feel like there's more of that stuff ... to the exclusion of other stuff ... because a certain kind of man still dominates the constructor ranks. Very similar white math/sciencey guys. I know and love a few of them, but it's ... a lot. I just feel the compulsion to roll my eyes every time there's (yet another) dude byline and I have to deal with some minor mathematician or some chess terminology or whatever. And then BARNEY (I knew) ... random last name. Not too fun. Red meat for chess fans who watch CBS, but PAS my thing. Bottom half of the puzzle, esp. the SE, was Tuesday-easy.
Relative difficulty: Medium (7-ish)
Word of the Day: HENRI Bergson (2D: French philosopher Bergson) —
Henri-Louis Bergson (French: [bɛʁksɔn]; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented". In 1930 France awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Bergson's great popularity created a controversy in France where his views were seen as opposing the secular and scientific attitude adopted by the Republic's officials. (wikipedia)
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Surprised it took me as long as it did to finish considering how many gimmes there were. SHH "HEY YA" TSETSE LAURA Linney GRETA Gerwig MAUS BASSALE SLUR ARF REM, all no-brainers. But in addition to those long central answers that I didn't fully know, I got hung up around HENRI (whom I also didn't know), and then particularly in the NE, where I stupidly wrote in HODA instead of RIPA (16A: Gifford's talk show successor). Hoda Kotb is Gifford's co-host successor ... successor to Regis in Kathie Lee's life ... Anyway, four letters, female talk show personality associated with Kathie Lee Gifford, you can kinda see how I made the mistake. Kinda. I also thought 9D: Do some fast data processing? (CRAM) was CHEW ... because after you "fast" ... you then eat ... during which, presumably, you CHEW? And the food is the "data" you are "processing"? With your teeth? Question mark?
Lots of mistakes today. Aside from CHEW and HODA, I had HIS- before HER- (does anyone really still say "HERstory" ... feels very early '90s) (5D: Lead-in to story). I had SUNRA before SHAMU (I want to live in the world where SUNRA is the correct answer here) (4A: Performer for whom a San Diego stadium was named). I had HEIDI before HENRI and AGREE before AMITY (33D: Accord). And for 37A: Herb of the parsley family (ANISE), I had the -SE and wrote in PULSE ... yup, I sure did. That's a thing, isn't it? PULSE? [looks it up] Well, it's "the edible seeds of certain pod-bearing plants, like chickpeas and lentils," so it's *a* thing, and an edible thing at that, but it ain't related to parsley. Why would I go there and not just straight to the fairly common ANISE? I don't know. Anyway, I think that's it. Hope this puzzle resonated for at least some of you. See you tomorrow.