Chemistry Nobelist Hoffmann / FRI 12-13-13 / Sendler heroine of WW II's Polish Underground / Tennis star Petrova / Israel Philharmonic maestro / All-Star 18 consecutive times from 1967 to 1984 / Kid in shorts with cowlick / Novel followed up by Boyhood of Christ / Like Madrilenian millionairess

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (though the times I'm seeing at the NYT site suggest something closer to Challenging, so I don't Even know what's going on)


THEME: none

Word of the Day: IRENA Sendler (43D: ___ Sendler, heroine of W.W. II's Polish Underground) —

Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska, also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, Nom de guerre Jolanta; 15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008) was a Polish Roman Catholic nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children's section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of theWarsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity documents and with housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust.

The Nazis eventually discovered her activities, tortured her, and sentenced her to death, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations. Late in life she was awarded Poland's highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. She appears on a silver 2008 Polish commemorative coin honoring some of the Polish Righteous among the Nations. (wikipedia)

I'm not usually on Gary Cee's wavelength, but today was a dramatic exception. I couldn't be stopped. The only serious obstacle I had was one that I made for myself—misspelled TOCATTA thusly, and therefore couldn't make sense of either 18D: Chemistry Nobelist Hoffman (ROALD) or 23D: Hernando's hundred (CIEN) for a bit. Also, the indefinite article at the beginning of AN ACQUIRED TASTE threw me a little. Those don't normally get included. But once I dropped LIQUORED UP and that Q locked in, AN ACQUIRED TASTE went straight Across and I made steady, continuous progress around the grid from there. I had special knowledge advantage today, perhaps, as both FOUR-COLOR and ONE-OFF are very familiar terms from the world of comic books (about which I know a little). When I look at this grid, I just can't see where any major trouble could arise … but when I look at some of those times being posted at the NYT puzzle site, I know there must've been some serious pitfalls in there somewhere. The guy I normally chase, the guy whose time I measure my own by, who's almost always faster than me, was three full minutes behind me today. This is something that virtually never happens. Other names who normally post times roughly equivalent to my own were much, much farther back. So I'm baffled.


I didn't know some of the names (like IRENA and NADIA), but those were very guessable. I got MEHTA with no crosses. Wait, what does ATP mean? (39A: Need for muscle contraction, briefly) I'm only just seeing it now. From wikipedia: "Adenosine triphosphate is a nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism." I will confess I have never heard of this. Or I forgot it. ATP has something to do with tennis, doesn't it? Yes, Association of Tennis Professionals. That's the ATP I know. This ATP… not in my vocabulary. Wow, I lucked out with the crosses, that's for sure. Oh well, that's what they're there for—to keep your ignorance from destroying you.

My solve went a little something like this: From the NW, I worked my way into the NE until it was done and JOSHUA TREE dropped. Then I went back and worked on that TOCATTA / TOCCATA disaster until it cleared up (22A: Organ showpiece). Then it appeared I'd have some trouble working down the west coast, but BEEB threw me a lifeline (25D: English channel's nickname, with "the"), giving me the front ends of all those Acrosses. Once I dropped MAGNA CARTA, the rest was a blur. I knew as I was solving, especially when I hit the BLUE TOOTH area, that I was flying at some kind of insanely high speed. I felt very briefly what it must be like to be one of those Top 5 solvers; everything just leapt into view. In retrospect, I think the grid is really nicely filled. There's a good hunk of stuff that is unpalatable—the lackluster duo of ATAD and ASAD, the foreign bloc of FENG ANGE RICA ENSE CIEN, the not-terribly-lovable ENTRAIN / REHEM crossing. But mostly this one pops with fresh entries and interesting words and phrases. HERE'S HOW TO ORDER is a great grid-spanner (52A: Line near the end of an infomercial). I initially wrote in HERE'S THAT NUMBER! Thank god that was wrong.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld