Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: BLACK SHEEP (31D: Familial outcast depicted three times in this puzzle) — three "black" squares contain names of different types of "sheep":
Theme answers:
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It's not just that this puzzle was well made, it's that it unfolded, for me, in a way that made it really delightful. With trick puzzles like this (ones where you really bend the "normal" rules of the game), there's always that initial tough part where you are wondering what the hell is going on, so you push letters around and wonder why nothing's coming together. And eventually (god willing) you pick up the trick. Maybe it's obviously great, or not; maybe the whole puzzle concept becomes evident to you in one whoosh, maybe you're still not sure what the point is. I like it best when my reaction to first getting the trick is "huh ... innnnteresting" because that means there more "aha" to come. So, black squares that actually stand for letters or words, I've seen that many times. The question, always, is "why?" Today, I did the initial "I'm kinda lost" struggle" and then finally picked up "RAM" (really needed the "X" from BOX SET to see EXT(RA M)AYO).
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Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- ASH(RAM) / EXT(RA M)AYO (34A: Place for a spiritual retreat + 21D: Sandwich order specification)
- CHEES(E WE)DGE / "HAV(E WE) MET" (56A: Slice of brie, e.g. + 45D: "Don't I know you from somewhere?")
- MORA(L AMB)IGUITY / (LAMB)ORGHINI (15A: Ethical gray area + 19D: Italian auto with a bull in its logo)
Squalius cephalus is a European species of freshwater fish in the carp familyCyprinidae. It frequents both slow and moderate rivers, as well as canals and still waters of various kinds. This species is referred to as the common chub, European chub, or simply chub. // It is a stocky fish with a large rounded head. Its body is long and cylindrical in shape and is covered in large greenish-brown scales which are edged with narrow bands of black across the back, paling to golden on the flanks and even paler on the belly. The tail is dark brown or black, the dorsal fin is a greyish-green in colour and all the other fins are orange-red. The dorsal fin has 3 spines and 7-9 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 7-10 rays. The vertebrae count is 42-48. It can grow to 60 cm standard length but most fish are around 30 cm. // The chub is distributed throughout most of northern Eurasia [...] It is most abundant in small rivers and large streams in the "barbel zone" where there are riffles and pools. (wikipedia)
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It's funny looking at the grid at this stage because you can see my solve just fall apart right where it runs up against the themers. Anyway, I was so happy to get RAM first because it left me to speculate: is RAM a verb? a brand of truck? is this puzzle gonna represent the whole damn zodiac!? So I *got* the gimmick but I still didn't *Get* it. Onward! And with almost my very next step, what should I encounter coming around the corner but a nice fluffy EWE!
And that got a big smile. I weirdly wasn't even thinking "sheep." I love when crosswordese (EWE!) gets upgraded to Special Element in a puzzle. I still had half the grid to go and I'd already had two "ahas." But again, I did not know the big picture: what's the revealer going to be? where are the other sheep hiding and what could they possibly be!? The answers to both questions came as genuine delights. I actually hit the revealer next, BLACK SHEEP, which, yeah, solid. That is, in fact, what is happening in this puzzle: SHEEP are in the BLACK. But then—again, by total happenstance—I end up finishing the puzzle up top (very uncommon), and this means that I—again, accidentally)—saved the best for last: the hidden LAMB! MORA(L AMB)IGUITY / (LAMB)ORGHINI is just a fantastic crossing on its own, but when you add the hidden "LAMB," I think it's really magical, and a fantastic place to have the entire puzzle come into view. Anyone else try to park a FERRARI in the Lambo's space at first? Pretty devilish that FERRARI fit perfectly (but FERRARI's logo is, of course, a horse ... of some kind). The theme gimmick itself (i.e. letters in the black squares) is fairly basic, but the concept here was clever, and it unfolded in just the right way for me.
The fill was pleasantly varied, and the only answers I truly balked at were SORORAL and HAHAS (the former for its rare adjectivity, the latter for its improbable plurality), but neither answer is bad. In fact, I'm not sure SORORAL isn't just fine—it's the counterpart to the very familiar "fraternal," and it's only because we have privileged brotherhood so much (in war, in fraternal orders) and generalized it to all humanity (in liberté égalité fraternité, "brotherhood of man," etc.) that it so outpaces SORORAL in its commonness. So it's a rare word, but a fine one. HAHAS really has no excuse, but the rest of the grid is so good, who cares? Loved AMY POEHLER. I remember when she debuted as a NYTXW answer, in a puzzle made by ... [checks notes] ... hey, me! Like the EWE, the WEE LADS made me smile. Possibly the WEE LADS are tending the EWE. And WEE is an anagram of EWE. It's all very Scottish, and I miss Scotland (I studied abroad there and later did research there, but haven't been back in over two decades). Love the HAIRBOW clue (29A: Accessory for Hello Kitty) because it reminds me that Shortz once rejected a puzzle by a friend of mine that had HELLO KITTY as an answer because he thought it was too obscure... Of course he then immediately encountered HELLO KITTY in the wild (in an airplane magazine, if I remember my friend's story correctly), and marveled aloud at what a weird coincidence that was (not weird—HELLO KITTY was already a worldwide phenomenon at that point). Stunned to see HARLEM SHAKE here! Hello, 2012! Is the HARLEM SHAKE really still a thing!? Wow, I thought it was just a meme. A now-olden meme. Apparently there is a real dance by that name, one that preceded the meme thing by decades. But, unsurprisingly, as wikipedia notes, "The dance that is done on the internet as a meme is not the Harlem Shake."
No real challenges today outside the theme. I had ERA for EON only to have ERAS show up later, so that was weird. No other weirdness though. Just a good Thursday time.
P.S. thanks for all the sympathetic comments yesterday re: the sudden death of my beloved wee cat, Olive. We learned in April that she had a severely enlarged heart and that the prognosis was bad, but medication gave her a completely normal and wonderful six months. And then she just went. Like that. It was awful. But also merciful. I loved her a whole, whole lot. I've had and loved (and lost) several pets in my life, but she was attached to me in a way I'd never experienced. It was a joy and privilege to have had her in my life these past two years. I don't know what else to say. Except, again, thanks for the kind words.
