Constructor: Michael Baker and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME:"THE BABY IS ASLEEP" (38A: New parent's whispered admonition ... or a hint to four squares in this puzzle) — a "SHH" rebus (i.e. there are four "SHH" squares):
Theme answers:
This again? That was my thought when I found my first rebus square (extremely early—within the first 30 seconds of the solve). I was certain I'd seen this "bury the SHH theme before," and I have, at least twice before in the NYT.
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- ROSH HASHANAH / MESH HAT (16A: First of the Jewish High Holy Days / 2D: Headwear with breathable fabric)
- CORNISH HEN / CRASH HELMET (20A: Kitchen game? / 9D: Bit of X Games gear)
- FRESH HERBS / HUSH-HUSH (55A: Seasonings that chefs employ / 45D: Secret)
- BRITISH HUMOR / SMASH HIT (61A: Feature of "Monty Python" and "Peep Show" / 47D: Big success)
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.Normally carbohydrates in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is important in fueling brain function. However, if only a little carbohydrate remains in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies, the latter passing into the brain and replacing glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood (a state called ketosis) eventually lowers the frequency of epileptic seizures. Around half of children and young people with epilepsy who have tried some form of this diet saw the number of seizures drop by at least half, and the effect persists after discontinuing the diet. Some evidence shows that adults with epilepsy may benefit from the diet and that a less strict regimen, such as a modified Atkins diet, is similarly effective. Side effects may include constipation, high cholesterol, growth slowing, acidosis, and kidney stones. (wikipedia)
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| [Mar. 21, 2016] |
As you can see, those puzzles contained many of these same answers. Now, this one is a rebus, and the others weren't, so I guess it's got that going for it—this version gives us twice the shushiness (SHH in both the Across and Down). This version also adds the whole sleeping baby concept. So it's more ambitious and elaborate than its predecessors, but then it's Thursday, so that's expected (the others were Mon. and Wed.). At its core, conceptually, this is the same. So you get to see some "SHH" words and you get a specific context for the "SHH"s, and most of you won't have seen a "SHH" theme before (last one in the NYT was in 2016). But I found this one got boring / routine very quickly, and the revealer—the only real original thing about the puzzle—felt oddly formal (something about pronouncing the full "is") and also felt badly clued. "THE BABY IS ASLEEP" is only an "admonition" in the most tenuous of ways. It's really the "SHH" that is the admonition. The elements of reprimand and/or exhortation aren't really there. "THE BABY IS ASLEEP" is just a statement. Yes, it is a "warning," in context, and "warning" is a rough synonym for "admonition," but "admonition" felt like the wrong word here. "Whispered warning" would've been better—and it's alliterative too. Who doesn't love alliteration? Still, the revealer seems fine, not completely tin-eared or inadequate, just ... superficial. This is an old theme with a "Baby On Board" bumper sticker slapped on it. "New and Improved!"? Maybe, but not by much. It looks a little different than its predecessors, but it's mostly just a routine rebus.
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This puzzle gets in a couple of original "SHH" answers—CRASH HELMET and BRITISH HUMOR. I liked discovering those. I also liked that HUMAN / NATURE weren't just cross-referenced, but were literally crossing, as were NYT and IRONY, which seemed fitting given the way NYT was clued (22A: Co. that, in 1925, said of crosswords "The craze evidently is dying out fast"). There weren't that many highs or lows in this grid. The fill was maybe a bit on the dull side, but with a rebus puzzle like this, with so much thematic pressure on the grid, you're lucky just to get through the grid without wincing. So maybe the fill isn't sparkling, but it holds up fine. Plus, they've made this puzzle very, very easy, with very few obscurities and very easy clues, so that the rebus element (which always baffles a certain subset of solvers, particularly newer solvers) is relatively easy to uncover. Relatively painless. Here you can see how quickly I got the rebus. This is the moment—just 18 squares in:
The only struggles I had with this puzzle came (predictable) with the "SHH" words. What kind of humor is this? What kind of herbs are these? That sort of thing. I know the phrase as CORNISH GAME HEN, so mere CORNISH HEN took me a bit to process, but only a bit.
Other things:
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Other things:
- 27A: Major gold exporter (MALI) — I had no idea. Fun fact!
- 3D: Catch some waves? (HEAR) — so, sound waves.
- 8D: It might be on the tip of your tongue (SALIVA) — oh, right, this one slowed me down for a sec too. I wanted something like ... whatever the anatomical term for 'taste bud' is. It's not UVULA ... AXILLA is your armpit ... ah, it's PAPILLAE, which aren't the taste buds per se—the taste buds are located around them. As for SALIVA, what's this "might" business in the clue? "Might be on the tip of your tongue"? I assume some amount of SALIVA is always present on your tongue.
- 49D: Airbnb alternative (VRBO) — I was wondering when someone was gonna make VRBO happen. Too tempting for a crossword constructor to resist. And yet still no OZU, still no VARDA. These titanic figures of cinema remain locked out while a newish commercial venture with a funny spelling just jumps the line. What a world.
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