Constructor: Bruce Haight
Relative difficulty: Medium
![]()
THEME: -ET to -ETH— familiar phrases have "H" added to the end of one of the words, turning that word into a Shakespearean-sounding verb; the resulting wacky phrases are clued accordingly:
Theme answers:
![]()
It's probably a pretty tight theme set—there are other -ET-to-ETH phrases I could think of off the top of my head, but none of them were exactly Great. You have to be able to turn an -ET word to an -ETH word *and* have the resulting verb phrase be a wakily cluable phrase. So MULLET to MULLETH works, but there are no good MULLET phrases, so you're left with MULLETH HAIRCUT or something like that, which is actually kind of good on the wacky end, but the base phrase "mullet haircut" is just redundant. Anyway, for this theme, the set seems very solid. I just found the concept dreary. Extremely one-note. I got slightly excited there at ART SCHOOL because it had a "?" clue and I thought "oh, is this theme gonna venture into other, non-lisping archaic verb forms!?" But no, ART SCHOOL is not a themer (I mean, how would you clue that, anyway? "Hast thou students inside of ye, building?"). After I got PICKETH LINES, the rest of the answers were super-easy to pick up, and only PUBLIC TOILETH seemed really surprising or inventive. The others just ... fit the theme. The grid was oversized today so that the 8-letter FAD DIETH could sit dead center), so the solving PUBLIC definitely TOILETH longer than usual in order to finish this thing. The way the grid is built, the fill is overwhelmingly short, and unfortunately it's kind of stale (AD REP, OAST, PAAR, etc.). Attempts to unstale it mostly failed. VACAY is slangy in a horrid cloying way that already feels old (I've never felt the need to shorten "vacation" and have never had a conversation with someone who has—probably seen more in texts than heard irl), but maybe it seems fresh to you, that's fine. To me, it was the *fourth* "?" clue I'd seen inside of a small amount of real estate in the NW, so I was already put off the answer before I ever got there. With the "?" clue on VACAY, at least it feels like there's a payoff there, whereas the "?" clues on AMPM (1D: Day and night?) and ARK (4D: Months-long couples retreat?) feel more like lipstick on a pig. Plus, the ARK itself is not "months-long," so that clue should've gone back to phrasing school. I wish there were more high points to this one. It's entirely adequate but the theme just wasn't funny or outrageous enough on the whole, and the fill just did its job and nothing more.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- PICKETH LINES (18A: Doth choose a comedy routine?)
- PUBLIC TOILETH (24A: Citizenry doth work hard?)
- FAD DIETH (38A: Once-popular activity hath no more fans?)
- MARKETH PLACES (49A: Doth apply graffiti?)
- MODEL ROCKETH (58A: Runway walker hath megatalent?)
Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel (Arabic: أبو سمبل), Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km (140 mi) southwest of Aswan (about 300 km (190 mi) by road). The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments", which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae (near Aswan), and include Amada, Wadi es-Sebua, and other Nubian sites. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. They serve as a lasting monument to the king Ramesses II. His wife Nefertari and children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet, considered to be of lesser importance and were not given the same position of scale. This commemorates his victory at the Battle of Kadesh. Their huge external rock relief figures have become iconic.The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 under the supervision of a Polish archaeologist, Kazimierz Michałowski, from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary or they would have been submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the River Nile. The project was carried out as part of the UNESCO Nubian Salvage Campaign. (wikipedia)
• • •
I have "NO & NO" written in the margin by DOX (60D: Publish private info about online, in modern lingo), which is a textbook example of Scrabble-f*cking. Sensing (correctly) that the fill is pretty dull, the constructor decides to cram some Crooked Letters™ (e.g. X, J, Z, Q, K ...) into the margins of the grid in a misguided big to liven things up (you can see the three "X"s in the grid, all of them wedged into the margins). KIX and GEN-X are fine; the latter ends up necessitating some golfer I've never heard of (LEXI), but who cares, there's always some golfer I haven't heard of in the grid (36D: L.P.G.A. star Thompson). My issue was with DOX. The first "NO" I wrote in the margin was for "No, this is an abusive phenomenon used to intimidate and harass whistleblowers, particularly women, and your decorative 'X' is not worth my having to think about *that* in *this* venue." My other "NO" was for the spelling of the word, which I've always seen with two "X"s, but apparently DOX is an acceptable form as well. I don't like it, but I guess I'll accept it, reluctantly. I would not have resented the word nearly so much if it weren't such obvious, desperate Scrabble-f*cking. If you had needed the "X" to hold up some really cool "X" crossing, or if your theme had been "X"-related, then fine, it's a thing in the world, I can tolerate its presence, but only if it seems to be supporting something bigger and more wonderful. Here, it's not. So we get to contemplate online harassment ... for no good reason. Pass.
After the early abundance of "?" clues, there wasn't much more to slow me down. Clues were not always transparent, but I didn't get stuck or even noticeably slowed down at any point. I did have to pause at the classic kealoa*, ABIT v. ATAD (39D: Somewhat), but other than that perfectly ordinary obstacle, no trouble spots. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*kealoa = short, common answer that you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]