Constructor: Drew Schmenner
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME: SLEEPING CAR (59A: Accommodation for a long train trip ... or a hint to entering a certain letter 14 times in this puzzle)— theme answers contain letter strings that are also makes of car; those car names are replaced in each answer with "Z"s, so it's as if the "car" is "sleeping" (snoring, really, but you get the idea):
Theme answers:
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Well first of all it's "sleeper car" (or just "sleeper"). That's the phrase I know from old movies, that's the phrase Amtrak actually literally currently uses, that's the phrase. It's true that the phrase "SLEEPING CAR" exists (that is top billing at wikipedia), but SLEEPING CAR sounds old-fashioned, mildly confusing, and wrong to my ears. But it wasn't really a problem, since I knew what was up by the time I got down there, and when SLEEPER CAR wouldn't fit, it wasn't too hard to figure out what would. Second of all ... well, this is a solid theme concept, I think, but the grid got a little ugly for me in a couple of places because trying to see an answer with how sections just blocked out with "Z"s can be particularly hard. For me, the problem was worst by far with IZZZATSON. Unlike apparently every other crossword solver, I don't give a damn about "Jeopardy!" and haven't watched since the '80s. Trivia contests bore me. Shrug. But my non-viewership wasn't the problem today. The problem was parsing the damn answer, which ... I knew "Watson" existed, but forgot it had anything to do with "Jeopardy!" Also, IBM WATSON is such an odd phrase, in that it's not possessive. That is, I think I assumed it was "IBM apostrophe 's' WATSON." Made by IBM, belonging to IBM ... IBM'S. I had an answer in that slot and could not parse it to save my life. I just thought "well, I guess when I'm done I'll just look up car makes and go back and see which one fits?" But when I finished, I did not get the happy completion music! The puzzle just stared at me. Because I had an error. An error in the "Jeopardy!" answer. Sigh. This is what made this puzzle kind of annoying. Here, and with SZZZREA, there was confusingly clued short fill that made things fussy and icky. In the case of the "Jeopardy!" answer, it was CEO that was my problem (36A: Chart topper, for short?). Stupid crosswordese that they decided to get cute with in the cluing. If you give me [Chart topper?] and three letters and the first two letters are CE-, the only thing I'm thinking is CEE. That is, the "topper" (or first letter) of "Chart" is CEE. Done and done. Only here ... ugh it's a dumb org chart (is that what they're called?). And it's the CEO at the top of said "chart." I changed "E" to "O," immediately saw IBM WATSON underneath all the "Z" gunk, and bam, happy completion music.
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Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- IZZZATSON (i.e. IBM Watson) (3D: Technological breakthrough first seen on "Jeopardy!" in 2011)
- UPZZZZEBATE (i.e. up for debate) (17A: Worth discussing, as an issue)
- SZZZREA (i.e. ski area) (37A: Snowbird or Steamboat)
- "ICLZZZZUS" (i.e. "I, Claudius") (34D: Classic 1934 novel written in the form of an autobiography)
IBM Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's founder and first CEO, industrialist Thomas J. Watson.
The computer system was initially developed to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy! and in 2011, the Watson computer system competed on Jeopardy! against champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, winning the first place prize of 1 million USD.
In February 2013, IBM announced that Watson's first commercial application would be for utilization management decisions in lung cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, in conjunction with WellPoint (now Elevance Health). (wikipedia)
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With SZZZREA, quarters were so tight in there, so much of the answer was blocked by "Z"s, that I just ... didn't know. I think I knew "Snowbird" was a "ski area" but "Steamboat"!? News to me (looks like it's in Colorado). I see Steamboat, I think Willie.
And I wasn't even sure "Snowbird" was a proper noun, i.e. was truly capitalized (since *all* words are capitalized at the beginnings of clues). So SZZZREA was an answer where knowing the theme (which I got from UPZZZZEBATE, above) really helped. Me: "Hmm, OK, what's a short car make? ... well, there's KIA and oh hey that's it." The short stuff in there ... again, themers getting gunked up by crosswordese clued in an ugly fashion. That clue on RTE, yeesh (38D: Inbound or outbound thing: Abbr.). Only "inbound" or "outbound" things I know are planes or maybe trains. And then yet another abbr. at ETAS, which is *also* clued in clunky fashion (44A: Plane figures?). Why no abbr. indicator here? You just gave one for RTE. You had "for short" in there for CEO. But randomly you just ... omit any such indication for ETAS? All this garbage in a tight, constricted little part of the grid. Unpleasant.
But again, I do like the concept—cars under "Z"s. Just would've liked the more in-the-language reveal, and would've liked if the crosses on two of the themers hadn't been so obnoxiously unclear. Nothing more annoying than having fussy cluing for the most ordinary boring overfamiliar answers (CEO RTE ETAS). LST is old-school crosswordese and I would not be surprised if many younger solvers are seeing this answer for the first time (45A: D-Day vehicle: Abbr.). And again we've got troublesome short fill running through a themer! When the short fill isn't helping, the already potentially hard themers just get harder. That clue on MAID too, yikes. Just baffling (33A: Folder at work, perhaps). MAIDs do fold, it's true. But lack of wackiness indicator on the clue makes MAID very hard to see, even with letters in place. Funny to have OLD SOUL in the grid, when you also have "KIA" (sort of) in the grid. Because the Kia Soul exists, OLD SOUL suddenly seems like a used car. I could've (really really) done without the MAGA-speak "dad joke" at 55A: Q: "Did you hear about the cow that cried wolf?" A: "Fake ___!" (dad joke)."Fake News" is a Trumpism, no way around it, and making that guy's dumbass catchphrases—particularly the one attacking journalists—into cutesy crossword fodder, nah, nope, not for me. Not interested in hearing from this particular "dad" again on anything. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld