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Channel: Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle
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Self-help guru Ferriss / FRI 3-12-21 / 1996 book on grammar whose title corrects a melodramatic cry / Frozen food famously lampooned by comedian Jim Gaffigan / Hip-hop's Hussle or comedy's Russell / Nom de guerre roughly translating to bringer of light / Singer who lent his name to a brand of breakfast sausages

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Constructor: Peter Wentz

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SAUDI Aramco (38A: ___ Aramco, world's most profitable company) —

Saudi Aramco (Arabicأرامكو السعودية‎ ʾArāmkū s-Saʿūdiyyah), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran.

As of 2020, it is one of the largest company [sic] in the world by revenue. Saudi Aramco has both the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 270 billion barrels (43 billion cubic metres), and largest daily oil production of all oil producing companies.

Saudi Aramco operates the world's largest single hydrocarbon network, the Master Gas System. Its 2013 crude oil production total was 3.4 billion barrels (540 million cubic metres), and it manages over one hundred oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia, including 288.4 trillion standard cubic feet (scf) of natural gas reserves. Saudi Aramco operates the Ghawar Field, the world's largest onshore oil field, and the Safaniya Field, the world's largest offshore oil field.

On 11 December 2019, the company's shares commenced trading on the Tadawul stock exchange. The shares rose to 35.2 Saudi riyals, giving it a market capitalisation of about US$1.88 trillion, and surpassed the US$2 trillion mark on the second day of trading. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Saudi Aramco was ranked as the 5th-largest public company in the world. (wikipedia)

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Wow, I thought seeing right-wing ghouls in the puzzle was depressing (and it is) but seeing SAUDI Aramco in the puzzle is ... well, not worse, but still quite awful. All that $$$$ because of world-destroying fossil fuels, from a country whose crown prince murders dissident journalists while the world yawns and gleefully drives their cars. There's nothing to like about that clue on SAUDI. I'm not mad at the puzzle, I'm mad at the world now. I think I'd've gone with [Jamal Khashoggi, for one] if I really wanted to get creative with my SAUDI clue. I'm fixating on this clue because it is *conspicuous*—the only thing (besides that TIM guy) in the puzzle that I didn't know, and clued in such a way as to hide the oil angle. Luckily, when I first read the clue, I already had the -DI, so I could make do with an educated guess. But oof, on Friday, it would be great if the clues could steer away from horror. The rest of this puzzle was a jolly good time. Pretty uneventful solve. Here's how it started:


I stopped at I'M SORE because it's such a ridiculous improvised phrase. Not sure what to call an answer that I don't like but that made me laugh (and that I got easily so don't really mind). But this is one of those. Only other real Dislike in this grid was the definite article in THE LAW (although the cleverish clue partially redeems the answer, since the THE is absolutely needed to make sense of the clue) (4A: It might be laid down if broken). I had HOCH- at the beginning 5D: Nom de guerre roughly translating to "bringer of light" and thought two things. One: "How am I supposed to know this random German guy!?" and Two: "So ... his name roughly translates to ... Lucifer? ... that is interesting." I also wrote in PEP SHOWS (!?) at first, until I remembered the actual performers are called PEP SQUADS, and noticed that that put a "Q" in a first-letter position in the cross (a highly likely place to find a "Q"). Moving on:


Nothing much in the way of trouble here (except for that TIM guy, as I say) (39A: Self-help guru Ferriss). The "Q" gave me QUINCY JONES easy, which gave me the "J," which was all I needed to get JIMMY DEAN (whom I know only from the sausage). From here, it's pretty easy to get into any of the remaining sections. I decided I'd do the small corners next:


Toughest part here was the "?" clue that kept me from seeing REPO MAN (21A: One who takes it all back?). Not much of an impediment, though. Just went Y'KNOW to ACT NOW and then filled in all the short Acrosses up there. Long Downs in the SW were all super-easy to pick up. Love the clue on NIPSEY. Very generationally inclusive (45A: Hip-hop's Hussle or comedy's Russell). 



After that, the SE was a cinch. Couldn't see PURGE right away, even with the PU- in place (47D: Completely remove), but KNOTHOLE and INBAD took me into that section easily enough. Only trouble there came (once again) from a "?" clue: 51A: Get smart? (DOLL UP). Cute clue, great answer. "BRAVEHEART" is a terrible film for reasons I won't get into because we'd be here all day. Also, I have a weird, perhaps singular perspective on this movie, as I wrote my Ph.D. exams on the source material, and the same weekend I did that (1995), I walked into a movie theater to take a little break and saw a life-size promotional cutout of ... the guy from the obscure Scottish poem I'd just written myself bleary over. That was a weird weekend. I was at the theater to see "Before Sunrise" and got ambushed by Cardboard Mel. Anyway, the surreal moment of seeing my Ph.D. exam subject dressed up as Mel Gibson (or vice versa, I guess), is not the problem. The actual movie "BRAVEHEART" is the problem. But again, not gonna go into it ... Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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