Constructor: Lynn Lempel
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (Easyish but extra-wide (16x))
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THEME: HALFTIME (63A: Game break ... or a hint to interpreting the first parts of 17-, 26-, 36-, and 52-Across)— four-letter words at beginning of theme answers must be cut in "half" in order for the answers to makes sense for their wacky clues:
Theme answers:
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Nice to see Lynn Lempel's name back on the byline. Decades of experience making clever, solid, primarily early-week puzzles. When I wrote "decades" just now I thought "I'm pretty sure I've been seeing her name for two decades, at least, but I better confirm that."Two decades? Ha. I was off by over two decades! This is her 100th NYTXW puzzle in the Shortz Era* and her 102nd overall—her debut was a Sunday puzzle in 1979! I had no idea she'd been constructing so long, probably because even though she has aged (as we're all wont to do), her puzzles never seemed to get old. Anyway, congrats to her on yet another worthy effort. My only disappointment today was that the revealer wasn't snappier, or more apt, somehow. Specifically, the "time" part of HALFTIME doesn't appear to be doing anything. I guess that when it comes "time" for you to make sense of the answer, you have to break that first answer in "half," but that seems pretty tenuous. I was looking for something ... timier to be going on. For instance, BEAT THE CLOCK, which sits dead center, seems to be begging you to think about time. In music, you keep time by following the BEAT. And, well, CLOCK's connection to time is obvious on its ... face. So I thought maybe there was going to be some "time" concept built in, but I can't see it. If the TIME in HALFTIME is doing something I can't see, I apologize. The fact that those four-letter words break perfectly in half to create wackiness, that's plenty of pizzazz for a Tuesday theme. I'm just not sure that HALFTIME, as a revealer, sticks the landing.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (Easyish but extra-wide (16x))
Theme answers:
- MAIN DRAG => Ma in drag (17A: Parent dressed up at a pride parade, perhaps?)
- DOOR NAILS => Do or nails (26A: Choice between a haircut and manicure?)
- BEAT THE CLOCK => "Be at the clock" (36A: "Meet me under Big Ben"?)
- GOON SQUAD! => "Go on, squad!" (52A: "Continue with your routine, cheerleaders"?)
Enid (/ˈiːnɪd/ EE-nid) is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the county seat of Garfield County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,308. Enid was founded during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet in the Land Run of 1893, and is named after Enid, a character in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King. In 1991, the Oklahoma state legislature designated Enid the "purple martin capital of Oklahoma." Enid holds the nickname of "Queen Wheat City" and "Wheat Capital" of Oklahoma and the United States for its immense grain storage capacity, and has the third-largest grain storage capacity in the world. (wikipedia)
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Took me a half-beat to figure out the concept today. I was like "oh, she's punning on DRAG, OK, cool ... how is a parent 'MAIN'? One of the 'MAIN' ... people ... in your house?? That seems wr- ... ohhhhh, it's MA! MA IN DRAG! Ah, cool. Good for Ma." I don't think of DOORNAILS as real things—I think of them existing solely as a metaphorical point of comparison, something for people to be as dead as. But I suppose doors must once have had nails, and anyway, "dead as a doornail" makes it a familiar enough term. BEAT THE CLOCK is a general expression for making a deadline, but it's also the name of a long-running game show that has had many incarnations since the early days of television (1949!), the most recent being a kids show in 2018-19, but it's heyday was the '50s.
The fill ran a little on the stale side, but nothing made me cringe except SPOOR (8D: Wild animal's trail), and that's just because I'd rather not have animal droppings in my puzzle. You know, if it can be avoided. Huh, looks like SPOOR is any evidence left behind, anything that leaves a track, trail, or scent. Not just droppings. It's just that SPOOR ... I mean, it's got "poo" built in, so it feels like dropping. The word just has a mild ick factor for me. What "moist" is to some, "spoor" is to me. Then there's AGLARE, which is one of those "a-" words I never quite believe exist anywhere outside of antiquated poetry (46D: Shining brightly). I had AGLEAM in there at first—that's one hell of a kealoa**. If AGLOW had fit, I might've considered that as well. Or AGLIMMER. Is AGLAZE a word? My software is not red-underlining it, which troubles me. Phew, looks like it's a proprietary wax of some sort, and not an actual word, so do not add that to your list of potential six-letter AGL- adjectives. That list holds steady at 2. ABLAZE and AFLAME remain words. Lots and lots of luminescence in the "a"-prefixed adjective category, who knew? See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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*Joel Fagliano is the interim editor, but it's still Shortz's Era until I hear differently
**kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
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