Constructor: Howard BarkinRelative difficulty: EasyTHEME: CT ... scan? (CROSSWORD THEME) — So, ignore that. Here's the deal: clues are quite literal but *also* follow the initial letter pattern of the initialisms found in their clues. So:
Theme answers:- 18A: TV talent show? (THE VOICE) (it's an actual "TV talent show" *and* its initial letters are TV)
- 28A: FM band on the radio? (FLEETWOOD MAC) (an actual band heard on FM radio with the initials "FM")
- 49A: Academy Awards M.C.? (MICHAEL CAINE) (an actor who has been nominated for an Oscar six times (winning two), whose initials are obviously M.C.)
- 64A: U.S. symbol? (UNCLE SAM) (he's definitely a symbol of the U.S., and, as you see, "U" for UNCLE, "S" for SAM)
Word of the Day: IMPALA (
14A: Antelope with lyre-shaped horns) —
The impala (, Aepyceros melampus) is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of the genus Aepyceros, it was first described to European audiences by German zoologist Hinrich Lichtensteinin 1812. Two subspecies are recognised—the common impala, and the larger and darker black-faced impala. The impala reaches 70–92 cm (28–36 in) at the shoulder and weighs 40–76 kg (88–168 lb). It features a glossy, reddish brown coat. The male's slender, lyre-shaped horns are 45–92 cm (18–36 in) long.Active mainly during the day, the impala may be gregarious or territorial depending upon the climate and geography. Three distinct social groups can be observed: the territorial males, bachelor herds and female herds. The impala is known for two characteristic leaps that constitute an anti-predator strategy. Browsers as well as grazers, impala feed on monocots, dicots, forbs, fruits and acacia pods (whenever available). An annual, three-week-long rut takes place toward the end of the wet season, typically in May. Rutting males fight over dominance, and the victorious male courts female in oestrus. Gestation lasts six to seven months, following which a single calf is born and immediately concealed in cover. Calves are suckled for four to six months; young males—forced out of the all-female groups—join bachelor herds, while females may stay back.
The impala is found in woodlands and sometimes on the interface (ecotone) between woodlands and savannahs; it inhabits places near water. While the black-faced impala is confined to southwestern Angola and Kaokoland in northwestern Namibia, the common impala is widespread across its range and has been reintroduced in Gabon and southern Africa. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the impala as a species of least concern; the black-faced subspecies has been classified as a vulnerable species, with fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining in the wild as of 2008. (wikipedia)
• • •
What is this lovely Tuesday, possibly Wednesday puzzle doing in the Thursday slot!? There is a tiny bit of twistiness to the theme, with its occasionally not-quite-plausibly literal clues (you wouldn't call
FLEETWOOD MAC an "FM band," for instance, but today for wordplay reasons you get the weird syntax). But so what, you throw "?"s on the ends of the clues and all's well. There is very little that is Thursday-tricky and absolutely nothing that is Thursday-tough about this one. I had trouble recalling
MOHANDAS (by which I mean I never quite recalled it and needed most every cross) (
8D: Mahatma Gandhi's given name). Beyond that, there were no struggles. Read clue, answer clue. Bam bam bam, straight down the line. Had AT ALL instead of
OF ALL (
57A: Ever) and for some reason blanked on
ANA Ortiz (
69A: Actress Ortiz), but honestly there wasn't another answer in the whole puzzle that caused any trouble. Tuesday stuff. Oh wait, I forgot that I absurdly wanted TALCUM (!?) instead of
TALLOW when I first looked at
6D: Soap ingredient. But that's just me being an idiot, not the puzzle being hard. So I'll just pretend this puzzle appeared on T or W and say I think it's nice. Not
TOO NICE, but just right. The theme is simple, elegant, clever. I'm impressed at the double-level of meaning in the clues, and even more impressed at the ones that are so dead on that if you didn't have the "?" at the end of the clue you might not even notice that there *was* a doubleness—
THE VOICE and
UNCLE SAM could be clued in most contexts with these very clues, minus the "?," and no one would blink. The
FLEETWOOD MAC and
MICHAEL CAINE clues are fudged a bit more. As I said, "FM band" is there to make you think "band on the dial" not music band, and MICHAEL CAINE never (as far as I know) took on the role of actual M.C. at the Oscars. But
FLEETWOOD MAC does appear on FM radio and
MICHAEL CAINE is one of the most Oscar-nominated actors in history, so the clues do still work on a *nearly* literal (if misdirective) level. I wish more Tuesday themes were this neat and thoughtful. I expect something thornier on Thursdays, but the constructor has nothing to do with the publication-day decision, so I'll just say "Good Tuesday!" and leave it there.
Speaking of
MICHAEL CAINE, I started watching "Deathtrap" last night as part of my plan to spend this year seeing most every movie that came out in 1982. Why else would anyone be watching "Deathtrap" in 2022? It's not ... great, but the cast is great ("Superman"'s Christopher Reeve! Crossword stalwart DYAN Cannon!), as is (normally) the director (Sidney LUMET).
MICHAEL CAINE plays a washed-up playwright—specifically, a writer of murder-mystery plays (!?)—who is so disheartened by his own failures, and so jealous of his naive protégé for having written a great first play ("Deathtrap"), that he decides to kill the young man and pass "Deathtrap" off as his own. I'm only halfway through, so I don't know how it ends. So far the best 1982 movie I've seen is "Poltergeist," followed by "Das Boot,""Smithereens," and "E.T." But I've got scores more to watch at this point, so that's a very preliminary Best Of list. As for
MICHAEL CAINE, for my money his best (and most frightening) role was in "Get Carter" (1971), as the titular mob enforcer-turned-avenger that everyone is trying to "get" by movie's end. Bleak British noir. Fantastic. Caine won his two Supporting Actor Oscars for "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "The Cider House Rules" (1999). He's been nominated for Best Actor four times but never won. He was also nominated for an Oscar in five straight decades, from the '60s ("Alfie") through the '00s ("The Quiet American"). Thank you for coming to my
MICHAEL CAINE talk. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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