Constructor: Daniel Sheremeta
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: FAROES (3D: North Atlantic island group) —
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This one never really got off the ground. It's got all the BARE NECESSITIES, but it also wastes considerable space on not terribly exciting answers like BARE NECESSITIES (and PHOTOSYNTHESIZE and ONEONONE). LIFE HACK is about the freshest thing here, but that's an answer that no longer feels very fresh. "I'M A MORON" is trying for some sassy colloquial energy, but sad self-insults aren't really the vibe I'm looking for on a Friday, and anyway, that expression really wants to be "I'M AN IDIOT"—just rolls off the tongue better, feels more in-the-language, etc. There is nothing wrong with this puzzle, but there's nothing to really shake your tree either, you know? I am always happy to see CERBERUS and I'm always happy to see James Baldwin, and some part of my brain is pleased that the two of them have MOSEYed down to the SE corner together, presumably so they can listen to "YEEZUS" with REBA ... so maybe that SE corner is pulling its weight after all, but my imagination is doing an awful lot of the work there. Even the trouble I ran into was kind of pedestrian and dull. Is it DIET COLA or DIET SODA? (the latter). Is it SO DO I or SO AM I? (the former). These dilemmas don't exactly put the sizzle on the steak. Slowed me down in a perfunctory, predictable, easily overcome-able kind of way. Like coming across a downed branch that's blocking part of the road. "Oh, I guess I'll have to slow down to maneuver around this branch so as not to harm my car or run into any oncoming traffic ... OK, that's done [resumes driving normally]" (sorry, the freak snowstorm / multi-day power outage is still a fresh wound, so that's where my metaphors are coming from). I started in the NW, went clockwise til I hit an actual sticking point (29A: Winter slopes activity = _U_ING + 24D: Turn = GO-A- => shrug), and then went back to the NW corner and went counterclockwise instead. Ended up finishing precisely at that same sticking point (as you can tell from the grid screenshot today). Everything is by-the-numbers today. A very puzzle-shaped puzzle.
Explainers:![]()
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: FAROES (3D: North Atlantic island group) —
The Faroe Islands (/ˈfɛəroʊ/ FAIR-oh), or simply the Faroes or Faeroes(Faroese: Føroyar [ˈfœɹjaɹ]; Danish: Færøerne [ˈfeɐ̯ˌøˀɐnə]), are a North Atlantic archipelago and island country located 320 kilometres (200 mi) north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway between Norway(580 kilometres (360 mi) away) and Iceland (430 kilometres (270 mi) away). Like Greenland, it is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. The islands have a total area of about 1,400 square kilometres (540 sq mi) with a population of 53,792 as of March 2022. [...] While part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroe Islands have been self-governing since 1948, controlling most areas apart from military defence, policing, justice, currency, and foreign affairs. Because the Faroe Islands are not part of the same customs area as Denmark, the Faroe Islands has an independent trade policy, and can establish trade agreements with other states. The Faroes have an extensive bilateral free trade agreement with Iceland, known as the Hoyvík Agreement. In the Nordic Council, they are represented as part of the Danish delegation. In certain sports, the Faroe Islands field their own national teams. They did not become a part of the European Economic Community in 1973, instead keeping the autonomy over their own fishing waters. (wikipedia)
• • •
- 23A: Rivals of the 1980s "Showtime" Lakers, to fans (CELTS) — I lived in California in the '80s and stood out (badly) for being the only boy I knew who hated the Lakers and loved the Celtics (my 1986 yearbook is absolutely loaded with inscriptions from other boys talking shit to me about Laker superiority while also conceding that the Celtics did indeed win the championship that year, whereas the Lakers couldn't even get past the Rockets). So I was a "fan" of the Celtics ... and literally never referred to them as CELTS. I don't doubt that people (journalists?) called (call) them that. It's just that I grew up to become a medievalist (of sorts) and now say CELTS with a hard "C" ... so the shortened name for the basketball team now feels very inapt. And yet I can say soft-C "Celtics" no problem ...
- 25A: Regulation followers, for short (OTS)— speaking of basketball ... at the end of "Regulation," if the score is tied, you head into overtime (OT). Absolutely baffling to me while I was solving, even with the "O" and "S."
- 34A: Works with 17 units (HAIKUS)— the "units" are syllabic.
- 38A: Manhattan campus around Washington Sq. Park (NYU) — as a notorious partial-clue reader, I (predictably) wrote in KSU here.
- 42A: Name spelled with six dashes and six dots (MORSE) — cute that MORSE Code is used to spell MORSE, but in general I can't think of anything more ARCANE and annoying than MORSE Code-based cluing. Dit, dah, D'OH!
- 7D: Young male chicken (COCKEREL)— OK this is kind of a fun word. Even with COCK in place, it took me a few beats to remember it existed. Crosswords are reasonably big on chicken nomenclature. Lots of HENS clued ambiguously as [Layers] and, I don't know, POULTs and what not.
- 49D: Invoice info: Abbr. (HRS.) — no clue. Needed every cross. This answer is about as exciting as a filing cabinet or a manila folder. "More abbrevs. from the electrifying world of H.R.!" they definitely did not cry!
P.S. I have been solving a lot more cryptic crosswords, since they sometimes appear in the New Yorker, and the American Values Club Crossword publishes one weekly now. If you're at all cryptic-curious, I live-solve puzzles with my friends Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty every Friday at 7pm on Rachel's Twitch channel. You can find one of our broadcasts from a couple of weeks ago if you just scroll down a tad. Anyway, it's a lot of fun. For me, anyway.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]