Constructor: Alex Bajcz
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: PINBALL— theme answers contain words associated with pinball, circled squares contain letters that spell pinball and (I guess) trace a theoretical pinball trajectory:
Theme answers:
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Did the newspaper version have "Notes?" My puzzle popped a message up when I opened it, telling me that the circled letters would reveal a hint, but why? That's some remedial nonsense. It's obvious, once you're done, that those letters spell "PINBALL," and once you see that, you can make sense of what the theme answers have in common. Shoving the explanation in my face is the worst kind of dumbing down. Let People Figure Sh*t Out. It's part of how people get good at crosswords, part of how they learn to decipher patterns, find rebuses, etc. Stop the spoon-feeding, especially when (as with today) it's completely unnecessary. Condescending. The problem with the puzzle, though, isn't the notes—the notes are an editorial decision. Rather, the problem with the puzzle is that conceptually it makes very little sense. The circled squares are completely unevocative. They don't read like a pinball trajectory, they read like a wonky rectangle. If you had two FLIPPERs, maybe, and had them on the diagonal, you might be getting somewhere. A Sunday-sized puzzle might be a good place to work out a plausible pinball machine surface. Here, it doesn't even look like the "PINBALL" path is planned. It looks like an afterthought. You can find a very different, equally plausible "PINBALL" letter path in this grid if you really want to. Try it! You'll see. I don't know what a "COMBO" is (in pinball), but that's my problem. The weak execution of the theme? That is very much the puzzle's problem.
Got slowed down a few times by tricky clues, and by my own faulty processing skills. Couldn't make any sense of 1A: One inclined to go in and out (RAMP) until I had almost all the crosses. It's a freeway on / off ramp clue, very literal, very misdirective. I also needed every single cross for LACING (5D: Pretty trim). Had LA-ING and still no idea. Further, couldn't make sense of 23A: It may lead to a "no catch" ruling (INSTANT REPLAY) because there was no context. I guess "catch" was the context, or maybe "ruling," but I had INSTANT and still was lost. I thought maybe "no catch" had something to do with ... fishing? But again, working the crosses yielded results. Things smoothed out after that, though our two-car garage growing up did not have BAYS, unless that is just a word for "empty space where a car will fit." There was no demarcation, no boundaries, nothing separating one car spot from another car spot. The only answer that made actual sense for this clue was CARS, but that couldn't be the answer, for obvious reasons (56A: Two in a two-car garage). Again, with BAYS, as with aforementioned answers in this paragraph, I had all but one of the letters and still no clue. And again, crosses bailed me out. Nothing else in the puzzle presented much difficulty.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- COMBO MEALS (18A: Deals with fries and a beverage)
- INSTANT REPLAY (23A: It may lead to a "no catch" ruling)
- TILT AT WINDMILLS (36A: Fight a needless fight, metaphorically)
- BURGER FLIPPER (44A: One with a quintessential McJob)
- BUMPER CROP (53A: Extra-bountiful harvest)
Bleta Rexha (Albanian pronunciation: [ˈblɛta ˈɾɛdʒa]; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha (/ˈbiːbi ˈrɛksə/ BEE-bee REK-sə), is an American singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single "The Monster" (which later received the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Performance) and has also contributed songwriting to songs recorded by Shinee, Selena Gomez, and Nick Jonas. Rexha released her debut extended play in 2015, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, which saw the moderate commercial success of the singles "I Can't Stop Drinking About You" and "I'm Gonna Show You Crazy".[...] Rexha has also seen success with several collaborations including "Hey Mama" with David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Afrojack, "Me, Myself & I" with G-Eazy, "In the Name of Love" with Martin Garrix, and "Meant to Be" with Florida Georgia Line, the latter of which had large success as a country crossover single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. Rexha's debut studio album, Expectations (2018), reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and saw the success of its lead single, "I'm a Mess", and brought Rexha two nominations for Best New Artist and Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards. Rexha released her second studio album, Better Mistakes, in 2021. (wikipedia)
• • •
Did the newspaper version have "Notes?" My puzzle popped a message up when I opened it, telling me that the circled letters would reveal a hint, but why? That's some remedial nonsense. It's obvious, once you're done, that those letters spell "PINBALL," and once you see that, you can make sense of what the theme answers have in common. Shoving the explanation in my face is the worst kind of dumbing down. Let People Figure Sh*t Out. It's part of how people get good at crosswords, part of how they learn to decipher patterns, find rebuses, etc. Stop the spoon-feeding, especially when (as with today) it's completely unnecessary. Condescending. The problem with the puzzle, though, isn't the notes—the notes are an editorial decision. Rather, the problem with the puzzle is that conceptually it makes very little sense. The circled squares are completely unevocative. They don't read like a pinball trajectory, they read like a wonky rectangle. If you had two FLIPPERs, maybe, and had them on the diagonal, you might be getting somewhere. A Sunday-sized puzzle might be a good place to work out a plausible pinball machine surface. Here, it doesn't even look like the "PINBALL" path is planned. It looks like an afterthought. You can find a very different, equally plausible "PINBALL" letter path in this grid if you really want to. Try it! You'll see. I don't know what a "COMBO" is (in pinball), but that's my problem. The weak execution of the theme? That is very much the puzzle's problem.
Got slowed down a few times by tricky clues, and by my own faulty processing skills. Couldn't make any sense of 1A: One inclined to go in and out (RAMP) until I had almost all the crosses. It's a freeway on / off ramp clue, very literal, very misdirective. I also needed every single cross for LACING (5D: Pretty trim). Had LA-ING and still no idea. Further, couldn't make sense of 23A: It may lead to a "no catch" ruling (INSTANT REPLAY) because there was no context. I guess "catch" was the context, or maybe "ruling," but I had INSTANT and still was lost. I thought maybe "no catch" had something to do with ... fishing? But again, working the crosses yielded results. Things smoothed out after that, though our two-car garage growing up did not have BAYS, unless that is just a word for "empty space where a car will fit." There was no demarcation, no boundaries, nothing separating one car spot from another car spot. The only answer that made actual sense for this clue was CARS, but that couldn't be the answer, for obvious reasons (56A: Two in a two-car garage). Again, with BAYS, as with aforementioned answers in this paragraph, I had all but one of the letters and still no clue. And again, crosses bailed me out. Nothing else in the puzzle presented much difficulty.
Cringed at BURGER FLIPPER, which has such a sneering, classist ring to it, especially as clued (44A: One with a quintessential McJob). Not here for the largely white upper-middle-class "cultured" audience of the NYTXW looking down on "McJobs" (have never, ever liked that term in my puzzle, in any form). Nobody uses the term BURGER FLIPPER who is not in some way trying to denigrate the position of a fast-food worker. Tone matters, and the tone here sucks. Low point for fill was ASAMI x/w SUER. The former is always wretched (as is its counterpart ASDOI, and its other counterparts, SODOI and SOAMI, ugh, the lot of them can jump in the sea). SUER ... just looks dumb. Luckily, there wasn't much wretchedness in the rest of the grid. Except for CXX, whose idea was that? (55D: Roman numeral equal to 12% of M). That's the kind of crap you pull when you *need* those "X"s for some theme gimmick. But here ... there is no need. If your consecutive "X" plan involves a RRN (random Roman numeral), abort that plan. Please. Just fill the grid nicely. Spare me the Roman math. Thanks.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]