Constructor: Natan Last
Relative difficulty: ha ha ha I'm gonna say "Challenging"
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THEME: IMPULSE / CONTROL (60A: With 62-Across, Freudian concept of resisting temptation ... or a hint to four squares in this puzzle)— a rebus puzzle where ID is checking EGO four times (that is, ID occupies same square as EGO, with "ID" working for the Downs clues and "EGO" working for the Acrosses):
Theme answers:
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Well that was ... something. But what thing? Well the first thing that I should say that it was was brilliant. One of the best Thursday gimmicks I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. EGO checking ID = IMPULSE CONTROL = a wild idea you might have, but executing it? Forget about it. I'm used to seeing crisp and clean but relatively straightforward themeless puzzles from Natan and the JASA crew. This kind of top-shelf thematic hot sauce? No. No I did not see that coming. So in addition to being brilliant, this puzzle was very surprising. Now I'll get to the less pleasant thing that the puzzle was: humiliating. In retrospect, I could've done so much better if I'd just looked around. That is, I have this tunnel vision when I'm solving, as well as a bad habit of not even looking at longer clues until I have some crosses. The tunnel vision is a product of solving on screen as opposed to paper—much harder to see *all* the clues. In fact, you can't see them all at a glance. You have to scroll or toggle. So today is one of the days I definitely should've looked ... down, i.e. at the revealer clue. But I didn't. Worse, if I'd only *looked* at the clue for "MAMA SAID" when I made my first pass at the NW, it would've been a gimme, I would've realized it didn't fit, and I would've solved my biggest problem today, namely: Where Are These Damn Squares and also What Is Happening Besides "EGO"!?!? The most humiliating thing about this solving experience was how fantastically well I was doing early on. "HE GOT GAME" went in sooooo early! (the irony of this movie title, as it relates to my solving abilities, will quickly become apparent). Total luck to just know that piece of trivia and have it reveal one of the basic thematic elements: the rebus. So, very quickly, boom:
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Ooh, good, I'm glad I took this screenshot when I did because it allows you to see one of the two seemingly small but actually Major errors I made today. OESTE!? (39A: Durango dirección = NORTE) Had the -TE, wrote in OESTE. Is that even Spanish for "west," argh! Yes, it is, OK I feel a little less bad. What a horrible pit to fall in. I went from OESTE to YORE at 34D: Back then (ONCE), just brutal (I'm probably going to be using the word "brutal" a lot today, apologies). So I got stuck in that section and [headdesk headdesk headdesk] could not see what the "EGO" cross could be at 2D: Stored, as supplies. -EGOIN? That ... is nothing. OK, so ... EGO is switched out for ... something else. What? What? No idea. No clue. At that point, I didn't even know if all the rebus squares were going to be "EGO" squares or if those squares were going to look different each time or what. So instead of looking at the damn clue for "MAMA SAID" [headdesk headdesk headdesk] I just fumbled around the grid for an eternity. None of the other rebus squares would reveal themselves. "Where are you, you damned rebus squares? Leggo my EGO!" The rebus squares remained quietly hidden.
Relative difficulty: ha ha ha I'm gonna say "Challenging"
Theme answers:
- "HE GOT GAME" / LAID IN (17A: 1998 film featuring N.B.A. star Ray Allen / 2D: Stored, as supplies)
- MOVIEGOER / BRIDES-TO-BE (18A: Someone who sees the big picture / 10D: Ones who've answered "Yes!")
- OFFICE GOSSIP / "MAMA SAID" (34A: Dish near a water cooler? / 6D: Title lyric that precedes "There'll be days like this" in a Shirelles classic)
- RUBE GOLDBERG / OPIOID (43A: Only person whose first and last name together is listed as an adjective in Merriam-Webster / 26D: Codeine or methadone)
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Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg(/ˈruːb/), was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The cartoons led to the expression "Rube Goldberg machines" to describe similar gadgets and processes. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 1948, the National Cartoonists Society's Gold T-Square Award in 1955, and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award in 1959. He was a founding member and first president of the National Cartoonists Society, which hosts the annual Reuben Award, honoring the top cartoonist of the year and named after Goldberg, who won the award in 1967. He is the inspiration for international competitions known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, which challenge participants to create a complicated machine to perform a simple task. (wikipedia)
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Oh, I forgot to mention my second small-but-Major error, also precipitated by having one of the crosses already in place. Faced with --G at 4D: Trail, I immediately, instinctively, and unquestioningly went with ... DOG!? I mean, if you DOG someone, you follow (or "Trail") them, so ... yes, [Trail] is a defensible clue for DOG, but LAG is so much more straightforward / obvious / better. Infinite sigh. Starting this puzzle like Superman only to trip over my laces and fall on my face. "Frustrating" doesn't quite get at it (the aptness of "MAMA SAID there'd be days like this" is only just now hitting me). Even after getting CONTROL I had no idea what kind of CONTROL I was dealing with, so the SW corner of the puzzle, which should've opened right up, stayed closed until I went in there and slowly pried it open with a crowbar. I guess I didn't know IMPULSE CONTROL was a "Freudian" concept (despite knowing very well that ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO were). Worst part of that SW corner was the near-fatally ambiguous clue on STALLS (46D: Stable arrangement) (STASIS fit ... and even after thinking of the horse kind of "stable" I thought maybe the "arrangement" in question was STACKS (of hay bales???)). At this point, the puzzle becomes a maddening haze. Imagine Clark Griswold stumbling through the Arizona desert after having set off on what seemed like a simple mission to go find a tow truck. Confident ... then hot and disoriented ... then just loopy. That was me, solving this puzzle.
Eventually, I actually look at the clue for "MAMA SAID," and there's "ID," and then I put "ID" where "EGO" was in "HE GOT GAME," and the Down was suddenly totally obvious (LAID IN), and the puzzle suddenly became much more doable. "MAMA SAID" not only solved the whole problem of what to do with the rebus squares, it also gave me (finally) my second themer— I knew EGO had to go in that "ID" square, so bam, OFFICE GOSSIP (such a hard clue for an answer that is already hard by nature of its rebusness!). And then OPIOID gave me (finally!) RUBE GOLDBERG. I was looking for an honest-to-god ordinary adjective like ... what? RUBY-something? The only time you'd use RUBE GOLDBERG as an adjective is in front of "machine" or "contraption," but fair is fair and adjectival is adjectival so ... judges say "Fair!" And brilliant. But also knee-buckling. After getting the SW corner in shape, after turning ET AL to MISC (55D: Catchall category: Abbr.) and finally getting the IMPULSE part of IMPULSE / CONTROL, all I had left was the NE corner, which turned out to be the easiest thing in the grid. BRIDES-TO-BE up, MOVIEGOER over, land safely on ONO: done. Haggard, weary, possibly thirsty, but done. No impulses left to control.
Notes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 5D: Ellipse (OVAL)— picked a great day to confuse "Ellipse" with "Ellipsis"; couldn't make sense of this at all.
- 46A: Sport in a ring (SUMO)— hey did you know that JUDO does *not* take place in a ring? I ... did not.
- 51A: Caterwaul (YOWL) — hey did you know that HOWL is also a word that means [Caterwaul]?
- 68A: Phi ___ (college group, familiarly) (SIG)— the only part of this puzzle that I actively disliked. This is a frat? I've been on university campuses most of my life and I have no idea how all the Gr. letters and their abbrs. are supposed to work. Phi SIG means zero to me.
- 31A: "Miracle Workers" airer (TBS) — I have seen TBS in the puzzle roughly 10,000 times and I don't think I could name any show associated with it except ... is Samantha Bee's show "Full Frontal" still on? I think that was TBS. (I stopped watching all politically-oriented comedy (and other) shows in 2016.). This is all to say I have no idea what "Miracle Workers" even is. Presumably not about the Helen Keller multiverse. (Hey, it's got Steve Buscemi in it, so maybe it's actually good?)
- 62D: What's added atop a croque-monsieur to make it a croque-madame (EGG) — me: "ooh, that's the one with HAM ... but the HAM ... that can't go on top, can it? HAM ... is there a three-letter cheese? ..." [more evidence: brain fried (like an EGG) for most of this solve.]
- 21D: Accommodations that a bank might float a loan for? (HOUSEBOAT) — gonna leave things here, because this is just an all-time great "?" clue / answer, a splashy (!) answer in a rightfully marquee location. Even in all my thematic confusion, I managed to both get and admire this beauty.
Hope your solve was significantly more pain-free than mine, and that, however much pain was (or was not) involved, you managed to appreciate this epic construction. See you tomorrow.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]