Constructor: Josh Kindler
Relative difficulty: Mediumish, though felt like slow going for me
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THEME: pock the cah at hahvad yahd or whatever— wacky "Boston" accent versions of familiar phrases:
Theme answers:![]()
Word of the Day: STAFFA (24D: Scottish island home to Fingal's cave) —
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Ah, the Boston accent theme. I guess they gotta bring this one back every five or ten years or however often, since someone somewhere won't have seen a version yet. Pronunciation themes are always dicey because the way people pronounce and even hear words varies so widely from region to region. Nothing about this set of wacky answers feels particularly "Boston" to me. This may be why I had no idea what the theme was supposed to be until well over 1/3 of the way into the puzzle. I didn't even know what DOC COMEDY was supposed to be doing. Both "doc" and "comedy" are related to movies ... I really thought there was supposed to be a "dot com" pun going on there, but the "C" (from TECH) would not budge, so ... DOC COMEDY? OK. Took me until the very end of MISSING THE MOCK to come up with the basic premise (wouldn't you be missing the "mockery," really? I also don't think of "late to" and "MISSING" as being synonymous, but that's another story). Anyway, my reaction is mainly "seen it" and "these don't really sound Boston-y at all." A simple -ARK to -OCK change doesn't give me anything, or only gives me a hint of what would be going on in the mouth of a (hypothetical) Bostonian. The vowel still doesn't sound right. The accent isn't that simple. Anyway, I'm lukewarm on this whole concept, though I do like the "if you're gonna do chaos, do chaos" energy of PICK A COD, ANY COD. When in doubt, throw fish around.
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Now I want a little B&W furball to call OREO! All I've got are these weird needy shedding tabbies ... oh who am I kidding I love them ... and they need to be fed, so good day!
Relative difficulty: Mediumish, though felt like slow going for me
Theme answers:
- DOC ("dark") COMEDY (17A: Jokes at Massachusetts General Hospital?)
- MISSING THE MOCK ("mark") (28A: Late to a Harvard Lampoon meeting?)
- PICK A COD ("card"), ANY COD (44A: Invitation at Beantown fish markets?)
- LOAN SHOCK ("shark") (58A: Unexpectedly high interest rate for a borrower from a Boston bank?)
Staffa (Scottish Gaelic: Stafa, pronounced [ˈs̪t̪afa], from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.
Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 miles) west of the Isle of Mull; its area is 33 hectares (82 acres) and the highest point is 42 metres (138 feet) above sea level.
The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter's Hebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. (wikipedia)
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I studied abroad in Scotland and have been there a couple times since and yet I have never heard of STAFFA. My wife is from New Zealand, which has a fern as its national symbol, and yet I have never heard of a FERNERY. These two facts made the STAFFA / FERNERY crossing ... interesting. Luckily, I was able to infer(n) FERNERY because, well, "ferns" are plants and plants are what you'd find at a "botanical garden," tada. Still, kind of a wicked cross for any day, let alone a Wednesday. I got bad vibes off the grid right away when it opened with ZITI / ZOD. Not that I mind that particular cross—it's great. But ... my thought was "oh, no, someone's gonna get enamored of crooked letters and the Scrabble-f***ing is gonna get unbearable." And, well, no Qs or Js, so Scrabble-f***ing wasn't really the problem, but the fill was a bit UGH throughout. ONKP is a real warning sign (very old skool). IPOS IPSO, MORRIE NONCOM, ABES OCHRE, UAE YAYS (plural?) ... really that whole SE corner, just dripping with gunky fill. No idea why you go with LEW / WILE over, say, LET / TILE. Is that "W" so important to you?? You really narrow your cluing options with the "W." You also get options that take you way way out of common speech. A single WILE? One of like two or three famous LEWs that ever existed (or, in the case of LEW Archer, "existed")? LET / TILE may seem "more boring" but it's so much cleaner and allows for so many many many more kinds of clues: straightforward, funny, hard, easy, whatever. LEW / WILE just backs you into an ugly corner. As I say, I don't get it.
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| FERNERY |
- 29D: 1990 #1 rap hit that ends "too cold, too cold" ("ICE, ICE, BABY")— the one answer in the puzzle (besides the double COD one) that I can really get behind. A lovable low point in rap history. Curious to see Vanilla Ice and LIL KIM in the same grid, but apparently they've shared the stage before: at a Gathering of the Juggalos in 2010 (still waiting to see JUGGALO(S) in my grid, #NYTXW editors, come on!)
- 4D: Facing ruin, say (IN CRISIS)— this answer and "NICE SHOT!" give the grid some pep as well. The short stuff kinda LIMPS today, but the longer stuff does alright.
- 53A: Waves, perhaps (SAYS "HI") — I had LAPSAT ... because waves ... lap at ... the shore?
- 63A: ___ O's (breakfast cereal) (OREO)— I like how this answer sits above TATS. Only the hardest of hardcore crossword fans ... or OREO fans, I guess ... would get OREO TATS. Gonna search the internet for OREO TATS now, pray for my eyes ... oh these aren't so bad. Some of them appear to be pet memorial tattoos :(
