Constructor: Natan Last
Relative difficulty: Easy (for me ... not sure how the names are gonna play for the gen pop)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: OCEAN VUONG (27D: "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" novelist, 2019) —
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LOL, Natan, who created the "Natan Last Sucks" blog label!?! I go to key in your name, the way I key in every constructor's name, and it gives me two options: "Natan Last" and "Natan Last Sucks" ... so I just used both today, I hope that's OK. I assume one of my subs was just razzing you a long time ago. Why am I writing this like an open letter?! Anyway, the "Natan Last Sucks" label is surely an honor. No other constructor has a "Sucks" label (though I think Tom McCoy has a "Tom McCoy the GAWD" label ... you see how I really do let my subs have free run of the place when I'm gone). Anyway, Natan Last does not suck, not at making puzzles anyway, which you know if you solved this truly sparkling gem (or JEWEL, if you will). This had all the bounce and flow of a great Friday, with just a dash more toughness. I could've stood for more toughness, actually, but it turns out Natan and I apparently read the same books (or at least read New Yorker articles about the same books), because this puzzle was unabashedly literary and I ate it all up, happily. I no-looked GERTRUDE STEIN, that's how in the (literary) zone I was today. TONE LOC on GERTRUDE STEIN ... that may be my juxtaposition of the year. That is the sweet stack I've been longing to see. Literary scholars need to bring this kind of unexpected imagination to their work: "Tender Buttons and Wild Things: The Transgressive Erotics of GERTRUDE STEIN and TONE LOC," *that* is the academic paper I want to read. Maybe OCEAN VUONG's work has something to offer as well ... he's someone I've been meaning to read, but as yet know only from my aforementioned reading of the New Yorker. But at least I knew him. Or knew most of him. I wrote his name down as OCEAN VUOCO—where the hell did that come from?
Relative difficulty: Easy (for me ... not sure how the names are gonna play for the gen pop)
Word of the Day: OCEAN VUONG (27D: "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" novelist, 2019) —
Ocean Vuong (born Vương Quốc Vinh, Vietnamese: [vɨəŋ˧ kuək˧˥ viɲ˧]; October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. Vuong is a recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant the same year. (wikipedia)
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Anyway, the literature angle was pleasing to me, but of course that is not what makes the puzzle great. The real joy came from how chock full o' original answers this one, as well as how smoothly it flowed. I kept being happily surprised every time I turned a corner. There was no part that felt thrown away or neglected. From CROWDSURFS to SHOOED AWAY, I found this one charming. I might have found it easier than most because I solve the New Yorker crossword every day, and Natan is a regular constructor there. Their puzzles definitely run more literary than the NYTXW (Natan's most recent puzzle for them had ALLEN GINSBURG crossing NIKKI GIOVANNI!). So I've been secretly training for this, you might say. I recommend this same training to you. (YES, YOU!)
After that, the hits just kept coming. From CROWDSURFS to "BLUE'S CLUES" to POSE NUDE to SLUMPED to SUPEREGO, there's really nowhere to get bored. I think the NE corner was probably the weakest section, but it's not actually weak, it just looks a little STALE only by comparison to everything else, so ... we're good. I love the energy of B.S. METER (14D: Ability to detect misinformation, slangily) though I've only ever heard it referred to as a "bullshit detector." If someone said "B.S. METER" I'd probably ask them to repeat themselves. But it feeeeels like something someone would say, and I had no problem getting it, so OK. The only real grimace-face I made today was at DELINT (17D: Use a roller on, in a way), which I don't like as a word despite the fact that with two cats in the house I DELINT (i.e. DECATHAIR) quite a bit. As for MECHA, I recommend (mecha-mend?) that you store that one away, as I have seen it a bunch in other puzzles lately (most recently, I think, the LAT) (1D: Anime and manga genre involving robots). Constructors seem to have gotten wind that it is a thing, and they are beginning to put it into heavy rotation. Had a little trouble in the RAMA / MEMO area, for some reason (mainly just couldn't get MEMO (53A: Format of some N.S.A. leaks)), and then wrote in GAME ROOM and later GAME AREA before finally alighting on GALLERIA at 31D: Indoor arcade. Otherwise, this one was truly right on my wavelength, in the most delightful of ways. Hope your day was brightened by the solving experience, as mine was. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
I had my first "oh, dang, that's good" moment early on, when I stared at 19A: Final four? and then stared at HORS- and thought "what the hell do horses ... have to do ... with ... finality ... Ohhhhhhhhhhh! Dang, that's good."
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| [... of the Apocalypse] |
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