Constructor: Joseph Greenbaum
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (depending on your familiarity with the proper nouns)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: LA CHOY (39A: Food brand since 1922 with a Chinese character in its logo) —
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Happy centennial to LA CHOY, I guess (I know there's *probably* not product placement happening in the NYTXW grid, but stuff like this—a brand you never see but that just suddenly appears on its 100th birthday, and gets its birthday mentioned in the clue ... it does make me wonder). LA CHOY was the only answer in the grid to give me trouble, even though, in retrospect, I've definitely seen it before, though not since I was a kid in California. Prepackaged food brands are all mostly just memories to me now, since my consumables consist mostly of a. produce b. liquor c. coffee (local roaster) d. baked goods (local baker) e. take-out (local pizzeria local Greek food local Chinese etc.). Most food / beverage purchased at local farmer's market. Couple that with my studied avoidance of TV / online advertising (when possible), and you've got a bad case of Plummeting Brand Awareness on your hands. Good for your brain, bad for crossword-solving! My stepbrother worked at a Chinese restaurant called LOY LOY growing up, and I really wanted to put that in the LA CHOY space for a while (esp. after I had the "L" and the "-OY"). Other than that, I had to infer VERMONSTER, but all the other names were familiar to me, including Ed "TOO TALL" Jones (I am the right age for his name to be permanently imprinted in my head, along with Mean Joe Green and Billy "White Shoes" Johnson and William "The Refrigerator" Perry and a few others). I'm also the right age for "SPACEBALLS," though I don't remember seeing it in the theater or caring for it all that much when I did see it (Some "classics" just miss me). The late comedian (and crossword-solver) Anne MEARA holds a special place in my heart, so it was nice to see her. "LIFE ON MARS" is one of the greatest songs ever written, so no problem there (though if you don't know that one from the lyric, I don't know how you're going to get to "LIFE ON MARS" from that clue!). It was an enjoyable grid overall. NOT TOO SHABBY (a nice self-review, as well as, to my mind, the best answer in the grid).
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (depending on your familiarity with the proper nouns)
Word of the Day: LA CHOY (39A: Food brand since 1922 with a Chinese character in its logo) —
La Choy (stylized La Choy 東) is a brand name of canned and prepackaged American Chinese food ingredients. The brand was purchased in 1990 from Beatrice Foods by ConAgra Foods during the LBO firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' dismantling of the company and is still currently a property of ConAgra. (wikipedia)
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There were a few sketchy moments. Well, there's yet another example of hesitation-sound creep—today: "UH, NO" (16A: "Yeah ... never gonna happen"). I've seen "UM, NO" and "UH, OK" and variations on this er um uh stuff and if I see it rarely I don't really care, but not thrilled about its proliferation, tbh. But the much bigger problem today is crossing TOO with ... TOO. No matter how many times constructors and editors perpetrate this on you, it remains an example of shoddy craftsmanship. Put the second TOO on the other side of the grid, and *maybe* we don't notice (there are two "NO"s today, and I didn't care that much, though I did NOtice). But don't cross them don't cross them don't cross them. I say this all the time about two-letter words, and I'm saying it even louder in this three-letter case. I mean, maybe the TOO/TOO cross is supposed to be part of some weird theme I don't understand involving also the LOO/LOO cross in the SE and the GOO/GOO cross in the center/west. But this seems unlikely. Further problems: the phrase is "turn bad" not TURN EVIL (45A: Stop working for good?). If you google "TURN EVIL" in quot. marks you get all D&D and WOW (World of Warcraft) hits. Not a great sign for the general-use status of your answer. Hmmm, looks like there are no further problem. AVLAB sounded weird to my ears (I say AV you say CLUB! AV! "CLUB!" AV! "CLUB!"). But I'm sure it's a thing. It sounds like a thing.
Only minor difficulties today. Hesitated at the YIPES / YIKES dilemma (a strong kealoa*, that one) (52A: "Jeepers!"). Wrote in LTD before LLC and NEE before AKA (1A: Letters between two names). I remembered OMB but weirdly spelled MAAD like that, with two "A"s instead of two "D"s. I had no idea that anyone anywhere thought the "Amber" in "Amber Alert" was an acronym, and I have even less of an idea why anyone would care to *invent* an acronym origin phrase, a phrase that is never used and that I've never heard of. And it's a super-clunky and non-intuitive one at that: "America's Missing"!?!?!?! "Abducted Minors" makes more sense, but ... too grim? Anyway, everyone knows what "Amber Alert" is so what the hell? Why does this dumb BACKRONYM exist!? ... well, the superintendent of my wife's school district just called (well, a recording of his voice called) and looks like she's got a four-day weekend now (ice, snow, instructional programs canceled), so I'm gonna go try to convince her to make me pancakes. Wish me luck!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld