Constructor: Trenton Charlson
Relative difficulty: Easy (easiest Saturday in recent memory)
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THEME: XYZ — no theme, really, but those longer answers in the middle start with X, Y, and Z, respectively, and I'm guessing that's somebody's idea of whimsy
Word of the Day: SAMPAN (25A: Small boat of East Asia) —
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I'm high on leftovers and chocolate cake and the Great British Bake-Off finale so unlike most nights I'm wide awake at 10pm, ready to do the crossword (and write about it) right when it comes out. Either I am much, much faster at night than in the early morning or this puzzle was very, very easy. Or both, I suppose. All I know is it played like a Tuesday or Wednesday for me. I was solving at a leisurely, untimed pace and was still done in under 5. If I'd been *trying*, yikes, I might've gone sub-4, which on Saturday is record territory for me. The grid is so wide-open, with so many ways to come at all the answers, that you can't really get stuck. Well, I'm sure you can, but if you're reasonably experienced, you cannot. Maybe it's just a matter of getting that first toehold. Everything seemed to flow directly and unstoppably off of SCOFF (1A: Act the cynic, maybe). Had trouble confirming it was right at first (that FDR quote did not feel very FDR to me) (5D: Who famously offered this speaking advice: "Be sincere, be brief, be seated," in brief, unlike this clue, which is not brief at all, OK I added this last bit), but then I got CINEMAX and SAUNAS and zing, off we went. Got YELLOW PAGES off the YE- no problem (34A: The book of numbers), and XERISCAPING was in the puzzle not too too long ago, so I got it easily off the "X" (30A: Gardening practice that minimizes the need for water), though as you can see from my initial screenshot, I still haven't worked out the spelling:
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Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (easiest Saturday in recent memory)
Word of the Day: SAMPAN (25A: Small boat of East Asia) —
A sampan is a relatively flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat. Some sampans include a small shelter on board and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. Sampans are generally used for transportation in coastal areas or rivers and are often used as traditional fishing boats. It is unusual for a sampan to sail far from land, as they do not have the means to survive rough weather. (wikipedia)
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I used to spell it ZEROSCAPING, so I'm moving in the right direction, at least. After this, crosses just started falling like crazy, and I never experienced any serious hold-ups. The weirdest thing about the grid was probably the fact that the hardest answer for me to get was a 15. Usually you cut a few crosses through a 15 and you can see what's up, but I had UNDERCOV- and A-ENT before I saw what was going on with 16A: Operative (UNDERCOVER AGENT). That's about as disguised a clue for that answer as I can imagine. I was thinking adjective all the way. Very happy that my first guess at 15D: Rather inclined was correct (STEEP). I had no letters in place and just leapt in there. Luckily, that guess landed, and it gave me the traction I needed to destroy that corner. PUP would've been very hard to see without that terminal "P" (29A: Spot early on?). STALK also panned out as an early stab in the dark (46A: Something out standing in its field), giving me TUTEE, ASIS, and most importantly BANGKOK. Never heard of a ZOOPLANKTON, but it was highly inferrable. Thought maybe the abbr. at 26D: 5-Down, e.g., in brief (PREZ) might be PRES. but SOOPLANKTON ... was not convincing. I don't really get the XYZ stack. That is, I don't know why you think that's good / important / interesting. Your primary concern should be fill quality. As 12-stacks go, I guess this one's OK, but it's not great. I just don't think you should be building your entire grid around something as superficial and ticky-tack as an XYZ succession. Is it meant to echo the ABC in ABCTV? I don't know. I just don't want to encourage themeless constructors to compromise their work like this. Make the best grid possible! That's all that matters!
No idea where I pulled several answers from. PIANOLAS ... sounded like a thing I'd seen before? ARI Lennox ... same. And SAMPAN, again, my brain wanted it, and I just went with it. Pure instinct, zero certainty. But instinct was dead-on today. The TEST part of SOIL TEST took some crossing, but otherwise the bottom half of this puzzle went up in smoke. Down in flames? Out in a BLAZE of glory? Whatever, it was done fast. I probably liked "THE COAST IS CLEAR" over the VALKYRIES best of all. Overall, I had a reasonably good time, though (as usual) not as good a time as I had on Friday.
Explanations:
- Lists of FEES are called "fee schedules." I don't know why, they just are (4D: Schedule listings)
- "Head" is slang for "toilet," and in britslang, that's LOO (or LAV, I never know which, but guessed right today) (49A: Head of Hogwarts?)
- "Spot" is a common dog's name (or so convention would have us believe—I've never met a Spot; see also Fido, Rover). "Early on" in Spot's life, he was a PUP, presumably (29A: Spot early on?).
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