Constructor: Damon GulczynskiRelative difficulty: Medium (5:56)
THEME: none Word of the Day: JENA Malone (
53D: Actress Malone of the "Hunger Games" films) —
Jena Malone is an American actress who has appeared in over 40 feature films since beginning her career as a child actor in 1996. She gained critical acclaim for her film debut in Anjelica Huston's Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), followed by supporting parts in major studio films such as Contact and Stepmom (1998). She subsequently had roles in the cult film Donnie Darko, and the drama Life as a House (both 2001), before having starring roles in the independent American Girl (2002), the dark comedy Saved! (2004), and the drama The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005).
She co-starred as Lydia Bennet in the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice before making her Broadway theater debut as Sister James in Doubt, in 2006. Subsequent film roles include supporting parts in the arthouse drama Lying, the biographical drama Into the Wild (2007), and the supernatural horror film The Ruins (2008). In 2011, she appeared in the action film Sucker Punch before being cast as Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games film series, appearing in a total of three films between 2013 and 2015. She also had roles in Nicolas Winding Refn's controversial horror film The Neon Demon, and Tom Ford's thriller Nocturnal Animals (both 2016). (wikipedia)
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Felt like I struggled a lot, but I finished in under 6, so it can't have been *that* difficult. I think falling asleep for two hours (!) on the couch immediately after dinner may have disoriented me a bit, though it doesn't seem to have affected my solving time too much. I liked this one pretty well up top, but then slightly less as I went along, for various not-terribly-serious reasons. I am always here for
BAT FLIPS, in whatever form they take, and today they take crossword-answer form, which pleases me greatly (
15A: Showboaty home run celebrations). "
THEM'S THE BREAKS" is olde-timey in a way I actually quite like. Seems like something Daffy or Bugs would say. "
OZYMANDIAS" looks great in the grid, and that poem is always timely, even if I can't reliably spell it ("... dias? ... dius?"), so exiting the upper third of the grid, I felt pretty good about the direction this whole enterprise was headed. The middle of the grid was way less ... way more ... it was just wobbly to my ear. I keep looking at
ACCIDENTS HAPPEN and thinking both that it looks like a real expression and that I never hear that sentiment expressed quite that way. I feel like shit happens. Mistakes ... also happen. Or ... were made. I think my biggest problem with hearing this expression correctly is that the phrase that I've actually heard, over and over and over again, is "Accidents *will* happen." And I have heard it so often for the following reason:
I also just couldn't get a grip on the other two longer Acrosses in the middle of the grid. I had ___ TRIP and ___ TEST and in neither case was I sure what the first part was supposed to be. I think I put ROAD TEST in at first, and I know I wanted ACID TRIP at first (which I'm only just now realizing is hilarious and bizarre—wanting ACID to be the front end of one answer and having it turn out to be the front end of the other). I think I just don't use the term ACID TEST, even though I recognize it and would understand it in context (41A: Conclusive proof provider). And as for HEAD TRIP ... I think we just call them "trips" (31A: Mentally exhilarating experience). "That was a trip!""She's a trip!""Trippy!" The "head" part, while I'm quite certain it has colloquial validity, feels redundant to my ears. Like, where else is your "trip" going to happen, your leg? So, with none of the longer Acrosses really landing for me, the experience was less pleasurable in the middle section.
Things picked up again down below, though that SW corner (where I finished up) was oddly hard for me. I completely forgot the term CASING (45D: Door or window frame) and then had no idea in what context AGE would appear before a plus sign. I still don't. Is this to indicate "[some age] and up" (as in "people 50 and older")? I can hear someone saying "there were 50 plus people there," indicating "in excess of," but in that case you wouldn't write it out with a "+" so I just don't know. I'm going to ask someone on Twitter now, hang on ... people are shouting all kinds of things at me, like "jigsaw puzzle box" and "movie ratings" and "amusement park rides" and "board games," but the jigsaw / board game thing is more "ages ___ *and up*" (not "+") and the movie ratings I can think of with age are PG-13 (no "+") and I'll just have to take your word for it on amusement park rides ... this just seems an awkward clue since there's no definitive context here. Meh. And then the clue on SPOT was hard (55D: Word before check ... or a pattern), as I don't think "SPOT" is a pattern ("leopard spot," maybe ... but otherwise it's polka dot that's the pattern) and then I have never heard of JENA Malone despite her very long filmography. Bizarre that I watch as many movies as I do and have seen literally none of the dozens she's been in (she was not in the first "Hunger Games" movie, which I did see). The ZEE clue, ugh, totally got me (58D: Half of a jazz duo) (there are two "z"s in "jazz" so they're a duo, get it!?!?). Seems like it should have a "?" on it, but I'm not too mad about it. Thankfully I got ZEPPELIN without too many crosses, and then I rode the ZEPPELIN to victory (not all ZEPPELIN rides have such happy endings).
Notable mistakes I haven't yet mentioned: STOAT for
SHREW (51D: Cousin of a mole); STERN and STEIN for
STEEN (52D: Dutch painter Jan); ISLET for
ISLES (22A: Key chain?); ETA for
ETD (24D: A few minutes after your Lyft arrives, say) (had no idea what was supposed to be happening in those minutes ... I just assumed you were making a short trip). Oh, and OAFS before
APES (12D: Brutes). The last thing I will say is that
DISK always looks wrong to me (I think I use "disc" every time). There's something very uncircular about the letter "K." Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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