Constructor: Evan Kalish
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: ANVIL (44A: Block with a horn) —
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Easy, generic Friday. Couple of nice long answers ("THAT TRACKS,""DON'T MIND ME"), and ... the rest. None of it clunks, none of it sings. A pleasant enough way to spend 5-10 minutes. There are a flurry of "?" clues up front (three of the first four long Acrosses!), and they try to add some spice to the solving experience, but the humor in them is listless and they end up being largely transparent. I think I liked the NW corner the best—all three Acrosses are marquee-level answers, and I actually had to work a tiny bit to come up with them because (as is always true when you're just starting a puzzle) I didn't have any crosses to go on. But I ran through TIBET TATS HOLLA AWAIT ELITE TYKE so fast that the only real confusion I had over those Acrosses, after my initial glance at them, came when I was staring down IOW- at the beginning of a long answer and wondering how [Promise of a future return?] could have anything to do with IOWA. Because of the recently concluded NCAA Basketball Tournament, and Caitlin Clark in particular, I've had IOWA (Hawkeyes) on the brain.* But my brain separated the "I" from the "OW-" once TENTS went in (4D: Rentals for some weddings), and I could see "I OWE Y-," and that was that. Swarmed over the puzzle from there, in a roughly clockwise fashion, ending in LARAMIE, where I've never been but would be happy to visit some day (36A: Wyoming city, river or mountain range). What I remember of Wyoming is ... a lot of open space. See also Utah. Montana. The west is a good place to get lost. I grew up in California and have family connections from Oregon to Washington to Idaho to Colorado. I miss it. OK, that's it, I'm going to LARAMIE. Next year in LARAMIE! Oh, did I mention that I'm also going to New Zealand for the next eclipse? My wife's home town (Dunedin) is in the Path of Totality. 2028, baby! This will be the first total solar eclipse ever seen by humans in Dunedin, NZ. The last one was ca. 1100AD, ~200 years before human beings ever arrived. Only the MOA saw that one...
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: ANVIL (44A: Block with a horn) —
An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually forged or cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked").Anvils are as massive because the higher their inertia, the more efficiently they cause the energy of striking tools to be transferred to the work piece. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool. Before the advent of modern welding technology, it was the primary tool of metal workers.
The great majority of modern anvils are made of cast steel that has been heat treated by either flame or electric induction. Inexpensive anvils have been made of cast iron and low-quality steel, but are considered unsuitable for serious use, as they deform and lack rebound when struck. [...]
The horn of the anvil is a conical projection used to form various round shapes and is generally unhardened steel or iron. The horn is used mostly in bending operations. It also is used by some smiths as an aid in "drawing down" stock (making it longer and thinner). Some anvils, mainly European, are made with two horns, one square and one round. Also, some anvils are made with side horns or clips for specialized work. (wikipedia)
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[Gah, this was filmed at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor! I saw Television there with my friend Mike Berk! Sorry, grad school flashback, moving on ...]
Only a few notable hesitations today, and no stumpers at all to speak of. I was blocked from taking a counterclockwise path by the fact that I couldn't (quickly) come up with CAM (25D: Device that converts rotary motion into linear motion). If you want to slow me down, ask me about engine parts, for sure. Or poker. Or golf. Or a lot of things, actually, but especially engine parts. Oh, also, I couldn't get COB because I've never had corn on the COB for Thanksgiving in my life (23A: Bit of detritus from a Thanksgiving meal). I've seen COBs as Thanksgiving decorations, but the only vegetables I'm eating on Thanksgiving are potatoes and green beans. I'm not saying the green beans are traditional. I'm saying that's what we've always eaten and I would spurn your corn as non-canonical. So I headed clockwise and had to deal only with a few problems in that direction, like what vowels go in SEGEL (10D: Jason of TV's "Shrinking") (that's Apple TV; they should specify that, I think—very good show). I also had Chinese takeout on the brain (since that's the only way I eat it around here), and so HOT ___ left me scratching my head, after SAUCE wouldn't fit. Not real familiar with TEXAS TOAST, so had to let crosses guide me there (64A: Buttery side dish that's often grilled). And didn't know ANVILs had horns. Or I did, but only in the vaguest of ways, i.e. I know the rough shape of an ANVIL, but didn't know the pointy bit had a name. The ALFA / FIAT crossing was giving me AUDI / OPEL vibes, but those wouldn't cross properly. If the FIAT clue (40A: European automaker) had contained "Italian" instead of the vague "European," things would've been easier there, but they were easy anyway.
Constructors and editors seem constitutionally unable to lay off the "?" clues when it comes to ARSON (34D: Hot topic in criminology?). After ELOPE, I don't think there's a word out there that inspires more questionmarkery. In the past year, all four appearances of ARSON have featured a "?" clue: [Hot topic in criminology?], [Bad match on tinder?], [Bad lighting?] [Harsh lighting?]. A conflagration of puns. And that's just scratching the surface of ARSON's"?"-clue history. Looking over their cluing histories, ARSON actually appears to be worse than ELOPE, pound for pound, when it comes to attracting "?" clues, though the ELOPE clues tend to be more ... adventurous? [Not get reception?] [Expedite some union business?] [Opt for the window instead of the aisle?]. Damn, that last one is an all-timer. But mostly, as with today's ARSON clue, this "?" whimsy runs a bit stale, and transparent.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*speaking of the NCAA Basketball Championship, congrats to South Carolina and their coach Dawn STALEY, whose name has not yet been in the crossword, though it is more than worthy. The only STALEY ever to appear in a NYTXW was Gerry STALEY, a 4x All-Star pitcher, who appeared once in 1955. No offense to the pitcher, but his stature in his sport is nowhere near Dawn STALEY's in hers.
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[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]