Constructor: Mansi Kothari and Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Easy (assuming you can navigate those short names; otherwise, ????)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Tamil NADU (39A: Tamil ___, India) —
Hello, all. Short write-up today, as I have to leave early this morning (i.e. in a couple hours) (it's 4:28am right now!) for a day trip down to New Jersey. My wife has something she has to do there, and I'm coming along for the ride. Get to see my good friend Lee and [drum roll] my daughter, who's gonna pop over from the City and have lunch with us. Anyway, let's get to it. This looks like a debut from Mansi Kothari. Erik Agard's name, on the other hand, you will recognize if you've been doing puzzles for any length of time. Longtime constructor, American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (and Jeopardy!) champion, former editor of the USA Today crossword, he's one of the most prominent names in contemporary crosswords, and this puzzle has many elements of what I consider a typical Agard puzzle. First, and most important, I really enjoyed it. His grids are always so carefully, and thoughtfully, constructed, wide-ranging, and with a good sense of humor. I think of Erik as a kind of Reverse Maleska. Maleska was the editor that preceded Shortz, and he was (in)famous for putting things in the grid that he thought you *should* know. This included what struck many solvers as rank obscurity. Lots of three-letter rivers and animal genuses and what not. His was a very teacherly approach. Erik also has a teacherly approach, in that his grids include names he thinks you should know, or that he thinks are worth knowing, names that might strike some (traditional, longtime) solvers as obscure, but there are several big differences (imho) between these approaches, the most important of which is that Erik is trying to broaden our sense of what the crossword can be and (particularly) who it's for. He's taking U.S. puzzles beyond their historically Anglo-American frame of reference. His puzzles are Blacker and more international, more inclusive of women and younger people. But (and here's another difference from Maleska), the grids are crafted in such a way that people can *get* the names even if they don't *know* them (i.e. the crosses are fair), and they really do range widely, so it would be hard for any solver, from any solving demographic, to say "I'm not represented here at all." Lastly, there's a playfulness and sense of humor that makes it seem like the puzzle is supposed to delight instead of punish (I frequently felt like Maleska was punishing me—it's possible I kinda liked it, at times, but ... I wouldn't say that attitude was healthy). Anyway, this is a co-construction, and I don't want to diminish Mansi Kothari's contributions, but this had a definite Agard vibe, and I'm definitely here for it (even when I'm stumbling over my ignorance).
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Great answer, great wordplay in the clue (31D: Intricately plotted fiction). Zoom zoom, whoosh whoosh, Happy Friday to me. There were two other stellar clues on stellar answers. 11D: Inapt response when somebody says "Happy birthday!," presumably ("SAME TO YOU!") made me laugh out loud, and 55A: Petty person? for ANIMAL LOVER was adorable. I was really thinking of Tom Petty there, but HEARTBREAKER didn't fit. There were the usual assortment of proper names I didn't know. Tommy IVAN seems like a very, very deep cut, as far as ice hockey lore is concerned. He coached the Red Wings to several Stanley Cups ... in the '50s. Looks like he went on to coach the Chicago Blackhawks for over two decades and won a Stanley Cup there as well. Admittedly, I know hockey the least well of the Big Four U.S. sports. But he was new to me. I'm happy to learn him. I'm never that happy being asked to know a beauty pageant winner, of any kind, from any year, EVER, so as for LARA, good for her, but shrug (48A: ___ Dutta, winner of the Miss Universe 2000 pageant) (she's a very successful Hindi-language film actress—that seems a more worthy accomplishment to highlight—not that I would've known her, but that cluing would've made her seem more worth knowing. Pageant shmageant). As for NADU (also new to me), it's a geographical name part, and it's the part that bugs me a little (39A: Tamil ___, India). Tamil NADU is an Indian state (worth knowing), but NADU on its own is like AVIV on its own. Not good fill. Just because something's never been in the NYTXW before (and it hasn't) doesn't make it good. NADU means "land" in Tamil ... and now you know! Please don't turn NADU into neo-crosswordese, thank you. (Although, in its defense, it is a very common place name part in South Asia, primarily India)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (assuming you can navigate those short names; otherwise, ????)
Word of the Day: Tamil NADU (39A: Tamil ___, India) —
Tamil Nadu (/ˌtæmɪl ˈnɑːduː/; Tamil: [ˈtamiɻ ˈnaːɽɯ] [...] , abbr. TN) is the southernmost state of India. The tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population, Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, who speak the Tamil language, one of the longest surviving classical languages and serves as its official language. The capital and largest city is Chennai. (wikipedia)
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| [28A: Aunt ___ ("Bel-Air" role) (VIV)] |
Wow, that paragraph was longer than I expected. Down to business. Mötley Crüe's METAL UMLAUTs and EXTRA CHEESE pizza gave me big late-80s Pomona dorm room flashbacks, so I was pretty much sold on this one from the jump, but the moment where the puzzle seemed to go from "Good For Me" to "Good For Everyone" was right ... here:
I solved this puzzle fairly easily, despite a ton of missteps. GETS before GEMS (1D: Keepers), OCHO (my bad) before OTTO (3D: Quattro + quattro), SITE *and* SLOT before SPOT (29A: Place). Wasn't sure if it was VALE or DALE (43A: Low-lying area). I know about CAD from my daughter ... but only remembered this after I got it from crosses (54A: Modeling software, familiarly). Before that, no idea. Lots of schools have online offerings, I didn't know ASU was particularly "known" for that (8D: Southwest sch. known for its numerous online offerings). Seems slightly brutal not to have any geographical indicators in that clue, but luckily I knew RETTA (9D: One-named actress on "Parks and Recreation") which helped me get CHAR, which then seemed like the only reasonable answer for 6A: Toast, say (that gave me the "A" in ASU). Most solvers (I'd wager) are never going to have heard of Sylvan ESSO, so that made me laugh (61A: Indie pop duo Sylvan ___). I like them a lot! I mean, ESSO is still crosswordese, but why not give it a new spin (again, assuming the crosses are fair).
That's it. Once again, this write-up has not been as short as I promised. My apologies. Good day.
P.S. I'll be reminding you all week that These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 is now available. Here is my description of the details (from this past Sunday's write-up):
These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 (four!) just dropped this past week—over 20 original puzzles from top constructors and editors—and you can get the collection now (right now) for a minimum donation of $20 (donations split evenly among five different abortion funds—details here). You can check out a detailed description of the collection and a list of all the talent involved here. I not only guest-edited a puzzle, I also test-solved puzzles. I have now seen the finished collection, and it's really lovely, across the board. General editors Rachel Fabi and Brooke Husic and C.L. Rimkus put in a tremendous amount of work ensuring that it would be. The attention to detail—test-solving, fact-checking, etc.—was really impressive. Anyway, donate generously (assuming you are able) and enjoy the puzzle bounty!
