Constructor: Christina Iverson and Samuel A. Donaldson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (with added difficulty for me, who refused to solve the puzzle with correct formatting ... more below)
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THEME:"Cheap Thrills"— theme answers are phrases meaning [Economizing], with each answers also represented elsewhere in the grid as a visual pun:
Theme answers:
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OK so I download the puzzle every day in what's known as the .puz format and then I solve it using software called Black Ink (the better-known software for solving .puz files is AcrossLite, but I like Black Ink better). This the software I have always used, ever since I started solving puzzles again after a hiatus that ran roughly from the late '90s (when I had a dead-tree subscription to the NYT) to the early '00s, when I realized "oh, wow, you can just solve these digitally now, cool." The NYT stopped officially offering puzzles in the .puz format a few years ago, but you can still get them using this special Chrome browser extension called "Crossword Scraper" (a godsend ... I almost don't want to mention it for fear that I'll jinx the whole magic set-up and .puz files will be well and truly discontinued). I am set in my ways, I am stubborn, and I resent the NYT making me solve in its app so that it can have all my data etc. Just let me have my puzzle and leave me alone. No stats, no streaks, no nothing. Just solving. Anyway, the point is that today I saw that there were "Puzzle Notes" accompanying my .puz file, and so I read them, and they told me that the software couldn't handle some of the formatting and that I should probably solve the puzzle at the source (i.e. the puzzle website or the app). To which I silently replied "**** that!" and just plowed straight into the puzzle. I'll read the little "Puzzle Notes," grudgingly, but if I'm told to change formats, my reaction is defiance. I happily accept whatever added difficulty is coming my way. I figure, I've solved a jillion puzzles, I can make the damn thing work without the fancy formatting. Weirdly, this all ended up in a Best Case Scenario today, as I was able to solve the entire puzzle, but one of the four "Economizing" visual gags was just ... invisible. You can see, in the finished grid (above) that SAW and AXE are in circled squares (for CUTTING CORNERS) and "SINGLE" (a "buck") is *stretched* out (each letter in the word repeated), and you can see the two rebus squares where "CENT" (a "penny") has been "pinched" (twice). But that left one themer unaccounted for: where, oh where, were the alleged "shaded squares" that would make sense of MAKING ENDS MEET!?!?! That was the question. And figuring out the answer to that question, dear readers, was the greatest damn experience of the whole solve. Where do "ENDS MEET" in this grid? What are "ends"? A letter string ("END" meeting "END")? Maybe it's words *meaning* end ... but where to look? Well, the other themers have their visual puns in symmetrical places, so ... where would the theme stuff be if symmetry were to be (roughly) maintained? How about the mid- ... oh my god!
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My "ends" hunt was actually a butt-hunt! Four butts! Meeting! Butt congress! Well that ... that was unexpected. One hell of an exclamation point, one bright red cherry on top of an already pretty good puzzle. Discovering the butts, rather than having them, uh, shoved in my face—that was delightful. This should've been a meta puzzle where readers had to *find* the damned "shaded squares," because I'm telling you ... I really feel like I earned those asses.
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And drawings! Commemorating the writers' deceased pets...![]()
... or my own ...
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And then there's this card, featuring drawings of my new cat IDA and her progress from Day 1 (bloodied, emaciated) to now (healed, somewhat fatter), which is really, really special (it's currently on our fireplace mantle, probably forever):![]()
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I'm very lucky to have such thoughtful (and creative) readers. Thank you all. And in case you're wondering how IDA is settling in to her new home, here's a picture from earlier today—the big tabby is her older "brother" ALFIE (whom, you may remember, we found in the bushes outside our house, almost three years ago, near the beginning of COVID Times, in a rainstorm, at four weeks old). ALFIE is a beautiful boy, but not ... always easy to get close to, so this ... this is something else, esp. considering they've only known each other three weeks :)![]()
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (with added difficulty for me, who refused to solve the puzzle with correct formatting ... more below)
Theme answers:
- CUTTING CORNERS (24A: Economizing, as represented by the circled squares?) ("SAW" and "AXE" appear in circled squares in the "corners")
- PINCHING PENNIES (40A: Economizing, as represented twice in 12-Down)
- BICENTENNIAL CENTER (12D: Former name of a Kansas arena that commemorated a 1976 U.S. anniversary) (two "CENT"s are "pinched" (into single squares) inside of this answer)
- STRETCHING A BUCK (94A: Economizing, as represented in 58-Down?)
- SSIINNGGLLEE (58D: Not in a relationship) (a "single" (dollar bill, or "buck") is "stretched" such that it takes up two squares instead of one)
- MAKING ENDS MEET (four words meaning "(rear) end""meet" at the center of the grid: INCAN, ASSET, BUTTE and ALBUM)
Nannie Helen Burroughs (May 2, 1879 – May 20, 1961) was a black educator, orator, religious leader, civil rights activist, feminist, and businesswoman in the United States. Her speech "How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping," at the 1900 National Baptist Convention in Virginia, instantly won her fame and recognition. In 1909, she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC. Burroughs' objective was at the point of intersection between race and gender.She fought both for equal rights in races as well as furthered opportunities for women beyond the simple duties of domestic housework. She continued to work there until her death in 1961. In 1964, it was renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor and began operating as a co-ed elementary school. Constructed in 1927–1928, its Trades Hall has a National Historic Landmark designation. (wikipedia)
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I like this theme quite a bit, in that it's got a very tight core concept—every phrase can be defined by [Economizing], and the theme phrases are all perfectly symmetrically arranged, and the visual puns are *also* symmetrically arranged. It's elegant and layered and nice. My way of solving also gave me another unintended layer—the butt layer. I haven't been this happy after finishing a Sunday puzzle in ... well, a long time.
I don't believe MINIPIGs are real and you can't convince me otherwise, what an absurd idea (79A: Little squealer). Don't like NON GRATA on its own, just sitting there, wondering where PERSONA went (99A: Unwelcome, so to speak). And YOGISM ... come on (11D: Tranquil discipline). Seriously, come on. You mean YOGA. That is one painful -ISMing. I love "DEMON RUM" as a colloquial expression, but then I read a lot of pulp fiction from the '20s. Seems like the clue could've indicated "colloquialism" a little more clearly, or at all (36A: Prohibition target). That's pretty much all the MOANing I have to do about this puzzle. It was pretty easy overall. Didn't know NANNIE, but she only slowed me down a little. Had RANK before RUNG (22A: Hierarchy level), but I think that's the only time I made an initial error. Oh, no, one other: I thought [Parts of a gig] were LEGS. I was thinking musical gigs (actually, musical tours), not gigabytes (MEGS). Oh, and I had no idea about ANI (86A: Hebrew version of the English pronoun "I"), so that was tough, but again, the crosses were all fair and came pretty readily. The thematic concept is strong, the execution is solid, and the Unintentional Ass Hunt at the end, [chef's kiss]! Cheap thrills, indeed.
That's all for today's puzzle. Just a note now to say that all thank-you postcards have now gone out to people who made financial contributions to the blog in January. We'll be completely up-to-date on the correspondence by tomorrow. A few recent (February) contributors have worried about being "too late" to get the special cat / crossword thank-you card. To be clear, there's no such thing as "too late." All year long, any snail-mail contributions get this year's custom postcard as a reply. We made sure to order plenty. I have received so many lovely letters this past month, and so many shared stories of pet love and pet loss. And pictures! Pictures of kitties and puppers!
