Constructor: Jem Burch
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: Z's? (actually, no, no theme)
Word of the Day: BEBE Rexha (51D: Singer/songwriter ___ Rexha) —![]()
Lukewarm on this one. I think I just don't care about the letter "Z" as much as this puzzle wants me to. With dystopic corporatespeak (ECORP, AGRIBIZ) and diseases (EBOLA) and creeps (SLEAZEBALL), it's like the puzzle was trying to be off-putting at times. Then there was the completely gratuitous Harry Potter content (15D: Animal form of Harry Potter's patronus), hard on the heels of that grotesquely intellectually dishonest "Defense" of noted transphobe and absolutely first-tier narcissist J.K. Rowling in yesterday's NYT. Do you know how many other ways there are to clue STAG? Infinite ways. If someone wanted to use SNAPE in their grid, well, OK, Harry Potter books are really the only way to go about it, but STAG? You don't have to "cancel" her, but you don't have to drive right up to her front door and leave flowers all the time either, yeesh. Just a vile public figure, that one. Is it AFFLUENZA? Who can say? Moving on. WON A PRIZE is today's entry into the EAT A SANDWICH sweepstakes, and it definitely wins a prize for [verb + A + noun] awkwardness. I have this inherent aversion to the puzzles that get all winky and meta and "we all like puzzles, don't we?"—always feels like pandering and self-congratulation, somehow—so PUZZLE BOXES didn't do anything for me. Also, truthfully, I don't really know what they are. Is it like the thing that all the different island-goers have to open at the beginning of Knives Out: Glass Onion? Is that a puzzle box? I mean, it's a box, and it's a puzzle, so why not? While I'm plugging Rian Johnson content, be sure to catch his new TV show "Poker Face" if you can. Really great neo-"Columbo"-type stuff.
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: BEBE Rexha (51D: Singer/songwriter ___ Rexha) —
Bleta Rexha (Albanian pronunciation: [ˈblɛta ˈɾɛdʒa]; born August 30, 1989) known professionally as Bebe Rexha (/ˈbiːbi ˈrɛksə/BEE-bee REK-sə) is an American singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single "The Monster" (which later received the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Performance) and has also contributed songwriting to songs recorded by Shinee, Selena Gomez, and Nick Jonas. Rexha released her debut extended play in 2015, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, which saw the moderate commercial success of the singles "I Can't Stop Drinking About You" and "I'm Gonna Show You Crazy". [...] Rexha's debut studio album, Expectations (2018), reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and saw the success of its lead single, "I'm a Mess", and brought Rexha two nominations for Best New Artist and Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards. Rexha released her second studio album, Better Mistakes, in 2021.
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I think PIZZA STONES was the one answer that really made me happy today, the one that really SIZZLED. I also enjoyed VAMPIRE BAT and (weirdly?) SHIRTFRONT. Not sure why that last one makes me happy. There's something apt and almost quaint about it. I just like the idea that at some point, someone was like "ugh, saying 'front of my shirt' is too long, too taxing, I need something shorter ... [snap] ... I've got it! We'll move the FRONT to the back and make it one word! SHIRTFRONT! Now all my tales of soup-eating mishaps will be slightly more economical!" It's a sneaky-fun word, is what I'm saying. The one answer I'm truly passionate about in real life (NOIR), I didn't even see its clue (this is what happens when the puzzle is far too easy) (52A: "The Third Man," for one). Definitely recommend Carol Reed's "The Third Man"—it's got one of the noirest speeches ever made on screen, courtesy of Harry Lime (played by the always redoubtable Orson Welles):
[really gets going around the 1:30 mark]
Had a malapop today at 19A: Kind of code (POSTAL). Could think only of PENAL at first, but it wouldn't fit ... until, later in the grid, it did (37A: Kind of code). That's a malapop—wanting an answer, having it be wrong, and then having that same "wrong" answer pop up later as a right answer! Pop! It happens more often than you'd think. I didn't have much hesitation or wrongness today. Had to leave 25D: Savages with two blanks in it until I could decide if it was MAIMS or MAULS. I couldn't remember ECORP (again, as with yesterday's "Succession" clue, I'm dubious about these deep deep dives into so-called "prestige TV" programs. Seems ultra-exclusionary. I actually watched "Mr. Robot" for a time and still couldn't recall ECORP at first. Always hesitant on the vowel at the end of TAZ- tea, but ROW took care of me (53D: Big fight). I teach literature from the period of the English Reformation and still struggled to get BOLEYN as clued (13D: Pivotal figure in the English Reformation). She's "pivotal" in so far as Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon so he could marry BOLEYN (already pregnant with Henry's child), but the pope was reluctant to grant the divorce, and this (in part) led Henry to start his own damn church, The Church of England, of which he was the Supreme Head (following the Act of Supremacy in 1534). So, yes, BOLEYN ... was indeed a "pivotal figure," I suppose, though not in the "actually doing something Reformation-y" way I thought the clue was suggesting. Hardest thing for me today was maybe EBOLA, simply because I had no idea what "index case" meant (33D: Its index case occurred in Meliandou, Guinea). I had EBO- but ... EBOOK was all I could think of (books have 'indexes,' I half-reasoned). But I couldn't figure out what EBOOKs had to do with Guinea, so I just ran a rolodex of five-letter EBO- words and turns out there aren't many. EBOLA is one of them. Ta da. See you tomorrow.