Constructor: Sheldon Polonsky
Relative difficulty: Easy, maybe Easy-Medium
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THEME:"Cinemagrams" — movies clued as (allegedly) apt anagrams of their names:
Theme answers:
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I'm never going to feel much admiration or affection for a theme that can basically be lifted from a sporcle quiz (find at least two of today's anagrams here, for instance). I always assume that the "jokes" are lifted (borrowed, if you like) from somewhere else, and anyway, all you end up with, whether the anagrams are original or not, is a few movie titles in your grid. And today, I didn't even need to really read the clues very well. Just get a few crosses, and the very famous movie titles just slid right in. Even if I decide I am a lover of this type of humor, and the concept is the greatest thing I've ever heard of, still I don't know how any of these produce more than a polite, slightly forced smile—except for that last one. The clue for "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET" is eerily on the nose; plus the phrase "the teens" is just inherently funny to me. So my most generous assessment is that one of these six themers is good. That said, the clue for "THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA" barely makes any sense at all. Streep didn't even win the Oscar for that role (she did win a Golden Globe, but come on, no one takes those seriously). The "Wonderful Life" clue is dull, the "Harry / Sally" one is tortured ("M." Ryan?). You get the idea. All hail Freddy Kruger. The rest of these can go straight to video (a phrase that used to connote inferior quality, kids; ask your parents).
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Relative difficulty: Easy, maybe Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" (22A: "Sea captain: robber, thief (2003)")
- "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" (34A: "True fellow is a find (1946)")
- "THE TOWERING INFERNO" (52A: "Re: town fire one night (1974)")
- "THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA" (75A: "Evil Streep had award (2006)")
- "WHEN HARRY MET SALLY" (91A: "M. Ryan, what's her yell? (1989)")
- "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET" (110A: "R.E.M.: alarming to the teens (1984)")
Todd Michael "Leon" Bridges (born July 13, 1989) is an American soul singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his 2015 song "Coming Home", which received regular airplay and was also a Top 10 Most Viral Track on Spotify. Bridges' debut album, also titled Coming Home, was released on June 23, 2015, on Columbia Recordsand subsequently nominated for Best R&B Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
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What in the world is "ERE while"!?!?! (32A: Quaint lead-in to while). It's erstwhile, and ERE long. I read (and teach) a lot of stuff that has "ERE" in it, and "ERE while" does not strike my ears as very in-the-language for 1622 (to say nothing of 2022). Bizarre cluing move, that one. And crossing FORE!? Which is clued as [Front], which, frankly, is also pretty "quaint" ... that little section was unpleasant (and also, unfortunately, the last section I filled in). And then there's YESTER (56D: Lead-in to day or year)... [weary exhale]. The fill is definitely struggling in places today. I want to like VALSPEAK, but it's weird—in a puzzle like this, that doesn't appear to have a very up-to-date sensibility or strong sense of slanginess, I just assume that VALSPEAK was the semi-accidental byproduct of software armed with a giant wordlist. Still, however it got in the puzzle, it's definitely one of the high points—and a NYTXW debut (84D: Slangy SoCal dialect). My general aversion to billionairism means that things like 1.3 million-dollar CIGARs (99D: The world's most expensive one, the Gurkha Royal Courtesan, costs over $1.3 million) and the names of the characters on "Succession" (89A: One of the Roys on "Succession" = KENDALL) are going to be meaningless to me (this is not a knock against "Succession," which is very good, I hear—I just can't stand to watch another second of filmed entertainment detailing the lives of the morally decrepit 0.0001 percent ... at least not in its modern-day incarnation; which is to say, I am happily watching HBO's "Gilded Age"). As usual, the names in this puzzle were my only real stumbling block, and "stumbling" is an overstatement today. The theme was so incredibly easy, and the themers so incredibly long, that the grid opened up quite readily and didn't give me any opportunities to get truly stuck.
- 72D: Harvard dropouts, maybe? (ARS)— no letter looks dumber written out than "AR." This is one of the few times I'd say this, but I'm saying it: "Clue it as Latin, please."
- 20D: Onetime dentist's supply (ETHER) — this sounds like an erstwhile dentist just has some of the stuff lying around his garage. "Herb? Yeah, he retired, and now he just potters around the house ... you know, gardens, plays with his model trains, stockpiles ETHER..."
- 78D: Aid in putting together a fall collection (RAKE) — I like this clue. Nice fashion fake-out.
- 42D: School for the college-bound (PREP) — me: "... all of them?" This clue is weird. It's not 1950. All high schools PREP kids for college. I would've preferred [___ school] to this weird, unnecessarily snobby clue.
- 116A: "Louisiana ___," music show that helped launch Elvis's career ("HAYRIDE") — yikes, this pop culture obscurity crossed with AYA briefly felt threatening. But there was really no other way to go except with the "Y."
Last year, my friend Rachel Fabi organized a charity fundraising puzzle project called "These Puzzles Fund Abortion." Her fundraising efforts were so successful (> $60K raised in 2021) that she's back this year with "These Puzzles Fund Abortion Too"—fifteen original puzzles by top constructors, and all you gotta do is donate at least $15 to one of the seven abortion funds listed on their National Abortion Access Fund-A-Thon page. The need is dire (see Texas, the Supreme Court, etc.) and the puzzle quality is sure to be stellar. Here's the link. Go do it now before you forget. And here's Rachel's announcement of the project on Twitter:
The campaign page for "These Puzzles Fund Abortion Too" (#TPFA2) is available now! Donate between now and the pack drop on 3/1 to pre-order and ensure that you get your puzzles in the first release.https://t.co/0Xu393fNAM#FThon22pic.twitter.com/H3qQEjFg8n
— Rachel Fabi, PhD (@faBioethics) February 25, 2022
March 1 pic.twitter.com/ScBAMhA4gA
— Rachel Fabi, PhD (@faBioethics) February 1, 2022
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday,
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld