Constructor: Patrick John Duggan
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: META (59A: Like casting Michael Keaton in "Birdman" as an actor who used to play a superhero) —
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So far the main thing this puzzle has done is drive me crazy trying to remember the pop song I know that contains the lyrics "All good things are wild and free," which I only just learned, from this puzzle, is a Thoreau quote. There's another song in my head blocking the song I want to remember. That ever happen to you? You want to remember a song and you try to say the lyrics to yourself but then all of a sudden whatever tune is in your head segues into "The Macarena" or something? It's awful. Anyway, I've got "The High Road" by Broken Bells in my head and it won't leave, and I have no idea why. I think I heard it once in a brewpub in Los Angeles last week, and I haven't thought about it since. And yet here it is, blocking the song I want to remember. Anyway, whatever song it is, weird to find out lyrics you just thought were lyrics were actually a famous literary quote. I also forgot that OVID wrote "Fasti" despite having taken an entire course on Ovid and having written on him and everything. It's true that "Fasti" is minor work for him, but still, I should've known, and instead I was like "... RUMI?" My literary brain is BATting .000 today, for real. I mean, I get one bookish thing right away and it's RAND? Yuck.
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: META (59A: Like casting Michael Keaton in "Birdman" as an actor who used to play a superhero) —
adjectiveUS
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This puzzle has two very worthy marquee answers. The rest is just OK. I wonder what the age cut-off is for "SMOOTH MOVE, EX-LAX" being a super-familiar "putdown to a klutz." Ex-Lax still exists, so there's no real reason the slang should be "dated," but it definitely is, so ... I'm quite sure Gen-X (and older) folks know it well. If you're younger, chime in, please. It's an excellent slangy 15, imho. "I WON'T MINCE WORDS" also has a nice colloquial quality. I no-looked the answer, having crossed it a bunch of times before ever bothering to look at the clue. Still good. Clue shmue. Outside the grid-spanners, though, this one is a bit limp. "I'VE HAD IT!" keeps some of the same energy as the longer answers, but the rest is mostly just adequate. The only real objection I have is (and continues to be) to TASE, which I find increasingly (and aptly?) jarring. I got an email from reader Arjun Byju the other day about this word, which I'm going to quote at length, because it's so clear and smart. I don't like TASE because it evokes police brutality specifically, but Arjun's email gets into greater detail about the term:
So even if you love seeing TASE in your grid, now you know have some more context for why others might not be so happy to see it.I'm writing because, like you, I was troubled by today's inclusion of TASE, which I've seen come up a time or two in the puzzle. You may already be aware of this (so apologies in advance) but it was only recently that I learned that the company that produces Taser — Axon International — has a pretty shady history of involvement with law enforcement, the courts, and medical examiners. This Reuters investigative piece examines many of Taser/Axon's connections to physicians and researchers who have advocated for the stun gun's safety and the pressure medical examiners have felt from the company.Last year, I wrote an article about Excited Delirium, a highly questionable "diagnosis" that is often invoked when people die in police custody and has been supported by Axon/Taser as a way to shift blame away from their devices. Eg: "No, this person didn't die from cardiac arrhythmia induced by multiple shocks from our gun. They died from excited delirium." Axon has used this defense quite successfully in court.So yeah, there's a lot to feel icky about when I see TASE in the NYT Crossword, and I thought I'd share some of the reasons why—beyond the basic unsavoriness of shocking civilians, it' tied up in a broader medico-legal controversy that allows police to avoid culpability for what would otherwise be considered murder.
I got into this grid easily. Wanted GUAM at first for 1A: Former British colony whose national flag includes the Union Jack, but that's just because it's a four-letter colonized place. FAST (1D: Unfading) put me on the track to FIJI and then ANEW and IWO JIMA and off I went. Wanted ZOO for ADO (7D: Big scene) and had TIVA before TEVA there at the end (38A: Big name in sandals), but otherwise, no real struggles.
Add'l notes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 46A: Member of high society? (POT USER)— sure, OK. Mostly what I see when I look at this answer is that it contains "POTUS." Can one president be POTUSER than another?
- 39A: One in a state of disbelief (ATHEIST) — I adore the juxtaposition of this answer with ST. PETER (42A: Bigwig in the admissions dept.?). Great thematic opposition. ("admissions dept." because ST. PETER is the one who "admits" you (or not?) to heaven)
- 20A: They're open to change (TIP JARS)— smiled at this one as I roared past. A very nice clue.
- 29A: Opera daughter of Amonasro (AIDA) — wanted AIDA but the name in the clue sounded Italian, so I waited for crosses. I see now that it contains "Amon," as in "Amon-Ra," the most popular Egyptian deity in CrossWorld. "Opera daughter" is a bizarre, crosswords-only kind of phrase.
- 38D: Russian ___ (iconic restaurant near New York's Central Park) (TEA ROOM) — I ate here once with my mom and sister in the summer of 1983. It's where I first had Chicken Kiev. Family lore has it that my father apparently once barfed in the planters outside the Russian TEA ROOM. I wish there were a zany, drunken story to go with this fact, but I think he was just sick. Sorry for breaking my own rules and bringing vomit on stage. Won't happen again.
- 4D: Literally, "sulfur island" (IWO JIMA) — read this as [Literally, "surfer island"] and thought "wow ... that is *not* how I know it."
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| [me and my [Striped cat] Olive] |
Explainers:
- YOLO = "You only live ONCE"
- "Green" in 30A: Green sort (INGENUE) means "inexperienced" or "naive"
Good day.
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