Constructor: David Kwong
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: A STAR IS BORN (A STAR IS "B" OR "N") (63A: Thrice-remade movie ... or, when parsed as six words, a hint to the theme clues in this puzzle) — theme clues all start with stars (asterisks), which you have to imagine as either "B"s or "N"s in order to make sense of the clues:
Theme answers:
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Puzzle felt easy but that doesn't mean I wasn't several steps behind the theme at all times. Theme answers were discernible and (mostly) familiar things, and almost all non-theme fill in the puzzle was short and (therefore?) easy to get hold of, so I moved through the grid without much problem despite having no real idea why the starred answers were what they were (their clues appearing to make no sense). I was well into this puzzle (about half done) before I finally figured out the star trick, and then only because I was forced to—could not think of any answer ending in -RTNEY (was not thinking of names), and there was no way to get into that NE section without following that themer up there, so I had to jump into the void in the far NE and try to get that section with no help from crosses. Luckily I knew 12D: Anna May WONG, Hollywood's first Chinese American film celebrity, so I was able to hack my way through that section without much trouble, then had a "D'oh" moment when I pieced together MCCARTNEY. Only because that section forced me to pay attention to the themers did I stop to think about how "*Assist" could get you to MCCARTNEY and, well, it didn't take long. The * was a B! OK! Stars are letters! What do they spell!? Nope, they're all "B"s! Ballot! Bassist! Why are they "B"s!? Whoops, nope, Nacre, that's an "N" ... so they spell nothing and they're not all "B"s, what the ...? Best not think about it. And I didn't. When I finally got to the revealer (hard because the "N" in BORN was in SNIT and yikes, no idea (61D: Cross fit?)), I thought "Oh, the stars are "B""O""R" and "N" I guess" (clearly I hadn't been paying close attention). It was only after I'd finished and literally counted the words in "A STAR IS B, O, R, N" ("7!? But the clue says 6!") that I realized "OR" was one word, and that the stars were simply either a "B"OR an "N."
Relative difficulty: Medium
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| [sorry about all the blue eyes in the grid—I shut my puzzle before taking a screenshot so I refilled the grid with "Reveal All" rather than type it all in again] |
Theme answers:
- ELECTION DAY (17A: *Allot time) (Ballot)
- MOTHER OF PEARL (23A: *Acre on the ocean floor) (Nacre)
- RIVIERA (40A: *Ice is found on it) (Nice)
- THE CRETAN BULL (53A: *Ovid of Greek mythology) (Bovid)
- MCCARTNEY (10D: *Assist in a foursome) (Bassist)
- HATCHLING (32D: *Ascent stage for a bird) (Nascent)
In Greek mythology, the Cretan Bull (Ancient Greek: Κρὴς ταῦρος, romanized: Krḕs taûros) was the bull Pasiphaë fell in love with, giving birth to the Minotaur. // Minos was king in Crete. In order to confirm his right to rule, rather than any of his brothers, he prayed Poseidon send him a snow-white bull as a sign. Poseidon sent Minos the bull, with the understanding that bull would be sacrificed to the god. Deciding that Poseidon's bull was too fine of a specimen to kill, Minos sent the bull to his herds and substituted another, inferior bull for sacrifice. Enraged, Poseidon had Aphrodite curse Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, causing her to fall in love with the bull. She subsequently gave birth to the half-man, half-bull, Minotaur. Poseidon passed on his rage to the bull, causing him to lay waste to the land. (wikipedia)
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I think the theme's ingenious. I am less fond of the grid, which, first of all, is sooooo heavily segmented, with the huge NE and SW sections accessible only by the tiniest of passageways (through the themers), and the very far NE and SW sections really truly sequestered away, and the puzzle in general being so chopped up that you're virtually overrun with 3-letter words—only a couple of non-theme answers (up top and below) are longer than 5. Lots of hacking through less-than-lovely short stuff, with severely impeded flow due to the grid's segmenting. But the segmentation and preponderance of short gunk don't prevent the theme from shining through. I think it's all worth it, is what I'm saying—the theme is dense enough and weird enough to make the puzzle's infelicities tolerable.
Hardest parts for me were the "?" clues, specifically that SNIT clue, and then the AIM clue (34D: Sightsee?), which I guess just has to do with putting the sights of your ... gun? ... on something? If your gun has a "sight" then you "see" through it in order to AIM it. As for the SNIT clue (61D: Cross fit?), my brain went all over hell and gone trying to make sense of that one. The craziest thing I thought was that the clue wanted me to tell them what Jesus was wearing on the cross ("fit" being slang for "outfit"). I was like "dang, that's kind of morbid ... wait, what *was* he wearing? Some cloth? Rags? RAGS? Nope, doesn't work." Other difficulty in this puzzle came from those far far NE and SW sections, which I couldn't get into easily, the first time because I didn't understand the theme (see above), the second time (SW), because I only know the word HATCHLING if you show it to me. That is, if you'd asked me to give you a word meaning "nascent stage for a bird," I'm not sure how long it wouldn't taken me (without help) to come up with HATCHLING. I had -CHLING and still couldn't come up with it (!?). Just a total brain meltdown. Lastly, difficultywise, there was THE CRETAN BULL. I've known the story of Pasiphaë and the birth of the Minotaur for decades, but I had no, none, zero, absolutely no idea that the damn bull had a name. I got THE CRETAN BULL and thought "wait wait ... do you mean THE MINOTAUR? It's called THE MINOTAUR! What the hell kind of moniker is THE CRETAN BULL?!" Turns out it's just the Minotaur's dad. Wow. Deep cut, mythologically speaking. Also, "Bovid," great word. I use it occasionally as a late guess in Quordle when I want to burn those back-of-the-line consonants
Bullet points:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Bullet points:
- 19A: The False Good Samaritan, e.g. (CON) — no idea. I search it and get crossword sites. I guess this is a type of CON, i.e. scam.
- 29A: It'll all shake out (SALT)— Will it? All of it? Citation needed.
- 3D: Saber-toothed tiger in the "Ice Age" movies (DIEGO) — no idea. This is a very Hollywoody puzzle! Thrice-remade movies and movie tigers and Hollywood Walk of Fame markers and Anna May WONG. Also, RIAN Johnson (I happen to know the constructor and RIAN are friends, so that one actually made me smile)
- 5D: Bloomers worn around one's head? (LEI) — this is great, truly great, and I don't think it even needs a "?"
- 6D: Visitor from a faraway place (UFO) — not necessarily, no. The fact that it can't be ID'd doesn't mean it's from outer space. Could be some kind of kite or dirigible or maybe a pterodactyl escaped from Jurassic Park, you don't know!
- 35D: Name that's an anagram of BREAD (DEBRA)— ah, we're still doing this, I see. Truly the "I give up" of name-cluing. Somewhere, someone named DREAB is sad. "Finally, recognition! ... oh."
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]