Constructor: Natan Last
Relative difficulty: Easy (except for that one word)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: PARI PASSU (7D: On equal footing, in Latin) —
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Well if you can't beat 'em join 'em, I guess—we get back to back New Yorker constructors this weekend. That's one way to keep the quality high! As with yesterday's puzzle, I really liked this, though as with yesterday's puzzle, there were a couple things that acted like a blight on the otherwise gorgeous landscape of the puzzle, and today's blights were somewhat bigger than yesterday's. Am I spelling that right? "Blights"? Wow, that is a weird-looking word, and the more I look at it, the weirder it looks. Anyway, yes, a "blight" is something that spoils or damages something, so ... the blights: The first is rather obvious, and that's the absolutely gigantic chunk of legal Latin that is floating in my puzzle soup. Legal Latin is a category nobody wants to hear from, even in its shortest forms, and PARI (space!?) PASSU is *not* its shortest form. It may be its longest form. It's certainly the longest lump of legal Latin I've ever seen in a puzzle. Nine letters!? You're giving *nine* letters of your beautiful Saturday puzzle over to PARI (space!) PASSU!? Not that it would've helped, but the clue doesn't even tell you it's legal Latin, which is the only way anyone besides Latin scholars could possibly know it. It's really gruesome, and especially gruesome in a grid where everything else is so clean and fresh and bright. As puzzle additives go, I'll take NONDAIRY CREAMER—hell, I'll take an INSECT—over PARI (again, I say, *space*) PASSU. I had a few years of Latin, which helped ... -ish. But no amount of Latin is going to make that answer good.
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Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (except for that one word)
Word of the Day: PARI PASSU (7D: On equal footing, in Latin) —
Pari passu is a Latin phrase that literally means "with an equal step" or "on equal footing". It is sometimes translated as "ranking equally", "hand-in-hand", "with equal force", or "moving together", and by extension, "fairly", "without partiality". [...] This term is commonly used in law. Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed., 2004) defines pari passu as "proportionally; at an equal pace; without preference". [...] This term is also often used in the lending area and in bankruptcy proceedings, where creditors are said to be paid pari passu, or each creditor is paid pro rata in accordance with the amount of his claim. Here its meaning is "equally and without preference". (wikipedia)
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The second blight, which is a lesser blight by far, is ASH (31A: Something picked up by a silent butler). I just don't get it. I don't know what a "silent butler" is or what it means to "pick" an ASH. Further, that "A" crosses A-LEVELS, which ... can't different letters go there. Aren't O-LEVELS a thing? I know little of British educational ... ways, but I know I had -SH / -LEVELS and only wrote "A" in there because ASH is a recognizable word (OSH being reserved for children's apparel name parts exclusively, I think) (side note: I've seen OSH and OSHKOSH but never B'GOSH, which ... isn't pretty, but it's prettier than PARI [breath] PASSU). Never like just guessing squares, even if the guess here was, in retrospect, the only viable one. Here the definition of "silent butler":
A silent butler, sometimes called an ash butler, is a small container, often of base metal, sometimes silver or silverplate, with a handle and hinged cover, used for collecting ashes or crumbs. They were more common prior to the modern period, and enjoyed some popularity being made as a home construction project in the US. They are now often considered collector's items, or are valued for their retro appeal. (wikipedia)If you google "silent butler" right now, you get this:
This tells you something of the term's obscurity—it's only being googled by people doing *this* specific crossword. Would not have gone with *that* clue, not with *that* (A-LEVELS) crossing. It leaves a solver (me) at the end wondering WTF? instead of thinking "what a delightful puzzle I just did."
Started out by writing in the incorrect ERECT at 4D: Put up (BUILT) but wrong ERECT was not entirely wrong—the "T" was correct, and off of that I guessed INSECT, and then YAW SAW CORNEA I was off to the races. Nice when wrong answers are fruitful instead of utterly destructive. The first moment of real joy came with NONDAIRY CREAMER. I don't put that stuff (or any stuff) in my coffee, but it's a snappy answer and I just love that feeling when a longer answer comes shooting out of a corner all the way to the other side of the grid. Feels like fireworks. I got a parallel thrill a little further down when I followed TIME LAG down to one of my favorite poets (no kidding, I pulled a (signed!) book of her poetry off the shelf just this week)—Gwendolyn Brooks! What a great clue for JUNE (22D: "We / Jazz ___" (line in Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool") (That line would also make a good clue for JAZZ, frankly.) And then to cross "We Real Cool" with the "THONG SONG"!?! Fantastic. Just so much great playful musical sass right there. Love it. Also love POUTINES (though if I ate them in the plural, I would be so sick so quick) and "BORN TO RUN" and HANK AARON and FLUNKIES (the word, not the actual people). JEEPERS CREEPERS, the long stuff in this grid was great.
- 3D: Musician who helped save Carnegie Hall from demolition (ISAAC STERN) —I get him confused with fellow violinist ITZHAK PERLMAN (whose first name I always confuse with that of former Israeli Prime Minister YIZHAK Rabin)
- 29A: 1924 tale of derring-do ("BEAU GESTE") — gonna have to make this Word of the Day at some point because it's an answer I "know" without knowing it at all. Crosswords tell me this is a proper clue for GESTE and I believe them, but only out of mindless obedience. I'm picturing a guy in a French Foreign Legion hat ... and now I know why?:
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| [Weird: Gary Cooper was also in the French Foreign Legion in "Morocco" (1930) opposite Marlene Dietrich] |
- 46A: It might work on a block (DRANO)— spent at least a few seconds wondering how the answer could be PIANO
- 11A: Pause in the middle of a line of poetry (CAESURA)— a common feature of Anglo-Saxon verse, nearly all of which is alliterative and nearly every line of which features a CAESURA. Every line is really two half-lines on either side of a CAESURA, which is typically indicated in printed versions of Anglo-Saxon poetry by a largish empty space (see layout here). This answer may have been easier for me than for most people because I teach this stuff. I have no idea how commonly known this term is.
See you tomorrow.
Oh wait, I almost forgot: CONGRATULATIONS TO PATTI VAROL, THE NEW EDITOR OF THE L.A. TIMES CROSSWORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are pleased to announce @PattiVarol as editor of the Los Angeles Times Crosswordhttps://t.co/GJW0uaRHEr
— Tribune Content Agency (@TribuneAgency) March 11, 2022
A woman now edits a major daily for the first time in my solving life, as far as I know. And not just any woman, but one of the loveliest and smartest and *experienced* editors around. It's about damn time. I'm so thrilled.
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