Constructor: Victor Barocas
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium, somewhere in there
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THEME:"Pardon My French" — ordinary phrases where first word has been replaced by a French homophone, making them wacky phrases, clued wackily (i.e. as if the French word were literal):
Theme answers:
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I'm not sure I will pardon it. Your French, that is. The wackiness mostly doesn't land today, largely because of the often extreme grammatical awkwardness occasioned by the French translations. LAIT TO WASTE just doesn't read as a good answer to 96A: Spilled milk? when you render it as "milk to waste"; if you spilled it, it's wasted, I guess, but the "TO" just doesn't work. "Queen cats and dogs" is likewise iffy. I don't really get what "Rapunzel" has to do with anything? All the other clues contain the English version of the French word, but not so the clue on BELLE TOWER (51A: Where Rapunzel let down her hair?). There, I guess you are supposed to take BELLE as a substantive adjective (beautiful woman) and you are supposed to think of Rapunzel's definitive quality as beauty (I don't; I think of it as long-hairedness). The biggest problems, though, are pronunciation problems. Some of these are right on the money (OUI SHALL OVERCOME, C'EST CHEESE, EAU FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE). But REINE doesn't really sound like "rain" (it's closer to "ren"), and DIEU really really Really sounds nothing like "due"—it's more like "dyuh." It's a diphthong with absolutely no long-U sound in it. Huge miss on that one. If all the answers were spot-on, this would be an adequate, somewhat ho-hum Sunday concept you might've seen many years ago. But they aren't all spot-on, so it's somewhat less enjoyable than that.
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium, somewhere in there
Theme answers:
- OUI ("yes") SHALL OVERCOME (22A: Positive thinker's motto?)
- DIEU ("God") PROCESS (34A: Means of becoming a god?)
- BELLE ("beautiful") TOWER (51A: Where Rapunzel let down her hair?)
- EAU ("water") FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE (65A: Holy water?)
- C'EST ("it is") CHEESE (83A: Answer to "What is Roquefort or Brie?"?)
- LAIT ("milk") TO WASTE (96A: Spilled milk?)
- REINE ("queen") CATS AND DOGS (112A: The queen with her pets?)
A caryatid (/ˌkæriˈætɪd/ KARR-ee-AT-id; Ancient Greek: Καρυάτις, pl. Καρυάτιδες) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants".
An atlas or telamon is a male version of a caryatid, i.e. a sculpted male statue serving as an architectural support. (wikipedia)
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As if ATREE weren't annoying enough as a partial answer, this puzzle had to go and riddle it up, thereby calling attention to it, highlighting it in neon yellow, rather than cluing it as a much more humble fill-in-the-blank so we can just solve it and forget it ever existed (108A: What's clothed in summer and naked in winter, per an old riddle). Why people insist on drawing attention to their worst fill like this, I'll never understand. AT NINE is bad, but at least it's straightforward and easy, so its badness isn't likely to linger in your mind. The voiding of "nerdiness" of all meaning continues apace at 39D: Most likely to win at Trivia Night, maybe (NERDIEST). I know plenty of real nerds who don't concern themselves with trivia at all. Math, science, "Star Trek" and "Star Trek"-related shows, sure, but this thing where "nerd" just means "someone who knows trivial stuff," I dunno. It doesn't track that well. I had no idea GEICO was an acronym: "Give Everyone Insurance, Come On!"? Ah, no, I see it's "Government Employees Insurance Company." Huh. I feel like I've learned and forgotten this before. I had T-BOND before T-BILL because honestly I don't know financial things at all and when I'm solving I just put in plausible-sounding words and hope for the best (54A: It matures quickly, in brief) (T-bonds actually mature slowly—takes at least 20 years). There's not a lot else to say about this one. "ANNE WITH AN 'E'" is original, for sure, but that's the only non-theme answer that really stood out. The grid is mostly clean and clear. The theme just isn't up to snuff. Dommage.
Another Boswords virtual crossword tournament (or "league") is just around the corner. I think it's a "league" because competitors solve puzzles once a week over a period of months, as opposed to solving a bunch on one day. Anyway, this time it's the "Boswords 2022 Spring Themeless League"! Here's a few words about the tourney from tourney organizer John Lieb:
Registration for the Boswords 2022 Spring Themeless League is now open! This 10-week event starts with a Preseason puzzle on Monday, February 28 and features weekly themeless puzzles -- clued at three levels of difficulty -- from an all-star roster of constructors and edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to solve a practice puzzle, to view the constructor line-up, and to learn more, go to www.boswords.org.
The puzzles for these Boswords competitions are excellent, and as I've said before, if you're curious about what the world of crossword tournaments is like, if you wanna dip your toe in those thrilling waters, Boswords is a good way to find out. You can choose your own difficulty level. You can solve with a friend or family member as a pairs team. What've you got to lose!?
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. my daughter (who just graduated college in December) is currently on tour for her first professional theater gig—stage managing a regional tour of "Church Basement Ladies" across the upper midwest. They open on Thursday in Ottumwa, IA (yes, Radar O'Reilly's hometown, that Ottumwa). She also has a summer job lined up assistant stage-managing at a Shakespeare festival, but I'll tell you more about that later. Anyway, I'm proud, and my daughter is working, so hurray for a Theater degree, actually!
