Constructor: Aidan Deshong
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: WASPS (49D: Female flying group in W.W. II) —
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Haven't found a late-week themeless puzzle this unpleasant in quite a while. First off, it's got that super-segmented, every-corner-a-separate-puzzle design that tends to impeded flow and generally feel sloggier than other grids. But many puzzles have gone that route and still been enjoyable. This one just missed me in terms of its overall sensibility, that sensibility being that of the techbro / biznessspeak / "apps will make it better" / wealth extraction culture that makes so much of modern life so grim. "Convince me you're not a robot!" This was not the future I was promised. Robots asking me to prove I'm not a robot so that I can, what, download an app that mines my data or fill out some survey that is also a game that is also an ad. Ugh, "disruption" culture, so grim, esp. from a labor standpoint. I can't think of an uglier word than "UBERIZE" (17A: Disrupt with technology, as an existing industry), unless that word is "SYNERGY," are people still saying that? (65A: What might cause 1 + 1 > 2). Can someone disrupt "SYNERGY," please? Can someone UBERIZE "SYNERGY"? GAMIFY is what the NYT is doing to the crossword, as the puzzles get easier and more like Candy Crush ("look at the post-solve animation!"). More phone-friendly, but not necessarily (or at all) better, as puzzles. I know I'm going full "Old Man Yells at Cloud" today but kindly shoot UBERIZE and GAMIFY and DATAMINE and SYNERGY into the sun. And while you're at it, throw NUNHOOD in there too, what the hell? (59A: Sisters are a part of it). When the answer wasn't NUNNERY I thought "what is it? NUNDOM?""He's entered the priesthood," yes. "She's entered the NUNHOOD?" That sounds like she has donned a very large hooded nun garment, or else has moved to a neighborhood made up exclusively of nuns. Also, LES MIZ has a "Z" (43A: Musical originally released as a French concept album, for short = LES MIS). Just take the "Z" from UBERIZE—he won't be needing it where he's going (i.e. the sun). It's not that the fill is A MESS (although A MESS is not great), it's that the fill is so personally off-putting that I just couldn't get into it. It has some nice answers, but the funk of late-stage capitalism was just too much for me today.
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: WASPS (49D: Female flying group in W.W. II) —
In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) is a sociological term which is often used to describe white Protestant Americans of Northwestern European descent, who are generally part of the white dominant culture or upper-class and historically often the Mainline Protestant elite. Historically or most consistently, WASPs are of British descent, though the definition of WASP varies in this respect. WASPs have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. Critics have disparaged them as "The Establishment". Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1960s, the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics, and philanthropy. (wikipedia) [... whoops, sorry, wrong WASPS ... here we go]: The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft and trained other pilots. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II. Despite various members of the armed forces being involved in the creation of the program, the WASP and its members had no military standing. (wikipedia)
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["It takes a very STEADY hand ..."]
The three long answers through the center are solid enough, but not exactly exciting. The best answers in the grid are oddly symmetrical—"NO IT'S NOT" has both snappy colloquial energy and a fun hard-to-parse quality that made it fun to figure out (39D: "Nuh-uh!"). Side note: NUH-UH! has appeared twice in the NYTXW, and I wouldn't mind seeing it more. So hard to make five-letter answers interesting. The letters in NUH-UH! are not exactly grid-friendly, which may account for why we haven't seen it that much. But back to the puzzle. I also liked "NO IT'S NOT"'s counterpart, FIENDING (12D: Hankering, slangily). It's not a word I'd use (I'm still an old-fashioned JONESING guy...), but it's got a spicy slanginess that makes it more interesting than most answers today.
Seems a (long) stretch to say that opera lovers are SERENADED. By ... the people on stage? The recording on their home stereo? I thought "serenading" was when someone sang *to* you, not *at* you or *near* you. Also, "Like many opera lovers"? Which? And which ones aren't being SERENADED? I'm so confused. [NOTE: I have apparently misread the clue—see below] Not much else was genuinely confusing today. I hadn't heard of the WASPS (or had heard, and then forgot), so that took some work. Also, I haven't bowled in quite a while so that "/" clue had me needing four crosses before I got it ("/" indicates a SPARE in bowling scoring) (32D: What "/" can mean). I knew ALONSO (or rather, I was able to remember it from the -SO ending) so that helped a lot with getting into the NE, which was the last section to fall. I'm normally put off by all the corny punning that tends to happen around cannabis cluing, but the clue on STONERS today is actually pretty good (16D: Ones dealing with joint inflammation?). As someone dealing with (minor) joint inflammation in his wrist, maybe I should try a ... new remedy? (jk, smoking is very much Not For Me, I'll stick with drinking my problems away, thank you very much) (jk, I never have more than one drink, except for last night—sometimes you just gotta celebrate life's small wins).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Happy last day of May. See you tomorrow.
UPDATE:
