Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels and Kevin Christian
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: AC/DC (55D: "Highway to Hell" rock group ... or a hint to electrical switches found in 16-, 23-, 36-, 44- and 57-Across) — theme answers contain both "AC" and "DC" letter pairs:
Theme answers:![]()
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The blog began years ago as an experiment in treating the ephemeral—the here-today, gone-tomorrow—like it really mattered. I wanted to stop and look at this 15x15 (or 21x21 thing) and take it seriously, listen to it, see what it was trying to do, think about what I liked or didn't like about it. In short, I gave the puzzle my time and attention. And I continue to do that, every day (Every! Day!). And it is work. A lot of work. Asking for money once a year (and only once a year) is an acknowledgment of that fact. There is nothing to subscribe to here ... no Substack or Kickstarter or Patreon ... and there are no ads, ever. I prefer to keep financial matters simple and direct. I have no "hustle" in me beyond putting my ass in this chair every morning and writing.
All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. My daughter (Ella Egan) has designed a cat-related thank-you postcard for 2023, just as she has for the past two years, but this year, there's a bonus. Because this year ... the postcard is also a crossword puzzle! Yes, I made a little 9x9 blog-themed crossword puzzle for you all. It's light and goofy and I hope you enjoy it. It looks like this (clues blurred for your protection):
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Well, apparently I am feeling well enough (finally) to attempt the Monday puzzle Downs-only again. Not only attempt, but finish, with little trouble. Unlike with most Downs-only endeavors, I got to actually see one of the themers this time—and the revealer, at that. Weird place for a revealer, but I guess if you cram in this many theme answers, space gets limited and you put it where you can. That's not a problem. What is a problem is how thin the concept seems. There's an "AC" and a "DC" but I don't get why that's interesting. I think the theme answers themselves are solid, particularly JACK AND COKE (which seems outright original), but the revealer was a massive let-down. Worse, the clue on it feels convoluted, like it's pretending that there's more going on with the theme than there really is. What are these "electrical switches" the revealer clue refers to? That makes it sound like something is being "switched" as part of the theme concept, but I think here the clue just means "there's an AC in there and a DC in there." That is, the phrasing makes it seem high-concept, but the reality is just deathly literal. I know that AC and DC are currents (alternating and direct, respectively), but the whole "switches" thing I am not getting. The worse issue, however, is purely editorial—how is the "BACK" from KICKS BACK allowed to not only duplicate but actually *cross* the BACK from BACKGROUND? It's one (bad) thing to dupe an over 3-letter word in the grid like that, but it's a much worse thing to have the dupes cross, *and* to have one of those dupes be your marquee theme answer. *And then* to put "laid-back" in the clue for yet another answer (57A: Behaved in a laid-back way) when you've already got KICKS BACK in the grid. It's like this wasn't proofed carefully at all. So the concept felt a little flimsy and the editing / proofreading was subpar. But as I say, the theme answers themselves are largely decent stand-alone answers, so the puzzle wasn't a total loss. It was fun to watch those longer answers come together using just the Downs.
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Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- SACRED COW (16A: Concept that can't be criticized or questioned, metaphorically)
- CRACKED CRAB (23A: Seafood often served with picks)
- BACKGROUND CHECK (36A: Pre-employment investigation)
- JACK AND COKE (44A: Cocktail named for two iconic beverage brands)
- ACTED COOL (57A: Behaved in a laid-back way)
S.Pellegrino is an Italian natural mineral water brand, owned by the company Sanpellegrino S.p.A, part of Swiss company Nestlé since 1997. The principal production plant is located in San Pellegrino Terme in the Province of Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, at 358 metres above sea level. Products are exported to most countries in Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Middle East, as well as in Asia in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. [...] In 1932, the Aranciata orangeade variant was introduced. Containing S.Pellegrino as its primary ingredient, the soda added concentrated orange juice. Today, Sanpellegrino S.p.A. also produces various other flavors of carbonated beverages: Limonata (lemonade), Sanbittèr (bitters), Pompelmo (grapefruit), Aranciata Rossa (blood orange), and Chinò (chinotto). (wikipedia)
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***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** How is the new year treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not great so far (COVID, you know), but I'm 95% better, and was never terribly sick to begin with, so I have every reason to believe things will turn around for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. I'm not sure what to say about this past year. This will sound weird, or melodramatic—or maybe it won't—but every time I try to write about 2022, all I can think is "well, my cat died." She (Olive) died this past October, very young, of a stupid congenital heart problem that we just couldn't fix (thank you all for your kind words of condolence, by the way). I'm looking at the photo I used for last year's fundraising pitch, and it's a picture of me sitting at my desk (this desk, the one I'm typing at right now, the one I write at every day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, staring at me, and making me laugh. It's a joyous picture. Here, I'm just gonna post it again:
I love the photo both because you can tell how goofy she is, and how goofy she made me. Her loss hurt for the obvious reasons, but also because she was so much a part of my daily routine, my daily rhythms and rituals. She was everyday. Quotidian. Just ... on me, near me, being a weirdo, especially in the (very) early mornings when I was writing this blog. She took me out of myself. She also made me aware of how much the quotidian matters, how daily rituals break up and organize the day, mark time, ground you. They're easy to trivialize, these rituals, precisely because they *aren't* special. Feed the cats again, make the coffee again, solve the crossword again, etc. But losing Olive made me reevaluate the daily, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a fundamental way, those small daily things *are* life. No one day is so important, or so different from the others, but cumulatively, they add up, and through the days upon days you develop a practice—a practice of love, care, and attention given to the things that matter. If you're reading this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an important ritual for you, just as writing about crosswords for you all is an important ritual for me. It gives me so much. I hope that even at my most critical, my genuine love for crosswords—for the way my brain lights up on crosswords—comes through. I also hope that the blog brings you entertainment, insight, laughter ... even (especially) if you disagree with me much (most? all?) of the time.
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| [man, I really wear the hell out of this red fleece...] |
How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
I had fun making this puzzle (thanks to Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who want to solve the puzzle, don't worry: I'll make the puzzle available for everyone some time next month. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Now on to today's puzzle...
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Outside the theme (and the BACK fiasco) the only real gripe I have with this one is the clue on LEMON SODA (33D: San Pellegrino offering). San Pellegrino does not, from what I can tell, make a product that it calls LEMON SODA. Also, it's Sanpellegrino, one word, in their branding. Here, I'll show you. Here's a can of the product in question (I assume this is the product in question: a "sparkling lemon beverage" called LIMONATA, i.e. "lemonade"):
Note the one-word spelling of "Sanpellegrino," and the fact that not once does the word "SODA" appear on this can. Now yes, if you look up the definition of "[any fruit] SODA," it basically matches what's going on here—some juice (or other natural or artificial flavoring) and some carbonation. OK. But it's Monday and *iconically* S.Pellegrino makes mineral water, not sodas, and anyway they don't use the term "soda" in their marketing, and so ... I don't get this clue at all. It's not indefensible, it just seems ... like you shouldn't need a defense team for a simple Monday clue.
My Downs-only whiffs were relatively few. I had to work to get LARVA (not sure why—should've been a gimme) (11D: Stage in a butterfly's development) and DWEEB (12D: Socially inept sort), and then LEMONSODA (obviously) and finally POLYP (52D: Coral reef producer), which was probably hardest of all the Downs to get with no Acrosses. It's clued the way it is because the puzzle is trying to do that cutesy successive-clue echoing it sometimes does: here, both 51D: Coral islet chain and 52D: Coral reef producer start with "Coral"—not the most intuitive way to clue POLYP, but it's fine, and only troublesome from a Downs-only perspective, and not that troublesome even then. That'll be all, I think. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]