Constructor: Barbara Lin
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium
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THEME: Phrase of turn — first and last words of familiar words swap places, creating wacky phrases, clued wackily (i.e. "?"-style):
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium
Theme answers:
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This was slower-starting than it should've been. That's how it felt anyway. Completely broke down right out of the gate because of STELLA Parks (1D: Parks whose cookbook "BraveTart" won the James Beard Award), whose first name could've been any name in all of namedom as far as I was concerned. Looking her up just now, she seems to be known primarily for the one book (the title of which is only reminding me how much I hated Braveheart). I guess if you're a serious Serious Eats fan (where she wrote for a time), then her name may be quite familiar, but otherwise she seems kind of obscure, as crossword-famous people go. I mean, I don't know *lots* of names, but usually when I look them up, it seems like they're legit famous and I just missed them. Didn't quite seem that way with this name. And so my whole NW corner just caved in. Got SOB but then couldn't confirm it with any of the Downs and after a stab or two at some other things, I just abandoned the corner and went over to the adjacent section, where I got traction: TOO OAF OLE OLAF etc., but even there things were a little on the slow side, as it took me Every Single Letter to get that first theme. Nothing about the phrase seemed familiar. What is the pun? I wondered. I wanted, like, a Life of Pi pun, but no. Life of Riley? Sincerely, I had LIFE OF -AWS and thought maybe a giant tiger was ramming the boat (still on Life of Pi, I guess), and that the answer was going to be LIFE OF PAWS (!?!?!). Then IN JEST gave me LIFE OF JAWS and I just stared for a few seconds, not seeing it. Then I saw it—swap "LIFE" and "JAWS" and you get JAWS OF LIFE (a recognizable phrase!). So ... that's it. It's a word swap puzzle. Swap words, get wacky. Puzzle got a lot easier from there on out.
Bullet points:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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- LIFE OF JAWS (17A: Swim around, scare some people, ram a boat ...?)
- LOVE OF LABORS (22A: Good quality for a midwife?)
- FORTUNE OF CHANGE (37A: What the world's largest piggy bank holds?)
- LIONS OF PRIDE (51A: Heroes in L.G.B.T.Q.+ history?)
- ARMS OF COAT (59A: Jacket sleeves?)
Olaf Scholz (German: [ˈoːlaf ˈʃɔlts] ; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who has been the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor in the fourth Merkel cabinet and as Federal Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2021. He was also First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019, and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2009. [...] After the Social Democratic Party entered the fourth Merkel government in 2018, Scholz was appointed as both Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor of Germany. In 2020, he was nominated as the SPD's candidate for Chancellor of Germany for the 2021 federal election. The party won a plurality of seats in the Bundestag and formed a "traffic light coalition" with Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party. On 8 December 2021, Scholz was elected and sworn in as Chancellor by the Bundestag, succeeding Angela Merkel. (wikipedia)
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But did it get more enjoyable? Yes and no. Yes, in that I knew what I was dealing with, and there was a lot less flailing, and there was nothing else in the puzzle that stumped me like STELLA. The theme, though, feels slight. Well, it's simple, for sure, but you can do big things with simple things if you really nail the execution. If every themer is a Truly Wacky banger, then who cares if the trick itself is rudimentary? But only two of these seem to rise to the appropriate wacky standards. The animal ones. I like both of those. LIFE OF JAWS (esp. its clue) is pretty funny, and LIONS OF PRIDE is pretty good too, though frankly I like it better (in my mind) if the LIONS are actual, feline lions and not just "lions" in the metaphorical "bigwig" sense. Queer lions, proudly marching in the parade, that is what I want to see (and am seeing, in my mind's eye, right now). The other themers are just OK. LOVE OF LABORS is weird with LABORS in the plural. FORTUNE OF CHANGE is kind of boring on its face, and anyway, it would be a fortune in change (not "of"). And ARMS OF COAT is ridiculous because it just gives you a literal ordinary thing, like "hem of dress" or "laces of shoe" or something. The "wackiness" just doesn't land with that one. So ... it's so-so, on the whole.
After I got LIFE OF JAWS worked out, as I say, the puzzle got a lot easier. No real hang-ups, and eventually backed my way into that initially disastrous NW corner, picking up THEN (12A: Not now) and "OH COOL" (2D: "That's pretty nifty!") and BEHAVIORAL (3D: Like problems a schoolteacher might deal with) and other things that had eluded me. Speaking of that corner, really loving the LOVE OF LABORS / COITUS / ALIBI, "laboring" being a common euphemism (at least in 17c. poetry) for COITUS, and ALIBI being something you'll need, maybe, if your COITUS is of the illicit kind. Gotta get that COITUS ALIBI straight, for sure. "Did you do the COITUS!?""No, I have an ALIBI!""Well ... good, then." But back to difficulty (if any). I tried to spell Whoopi Goldberg's Oscar-winning role like the nail polish brand—well, not OPI MAE, but ODI MAE, for sure (49D: Whoopi's Oscar-winning role in "Ghost" => ODA MAE). I also had FUSS before FUTZ (54D: Mess (with)), and took what felt like an awful long time to get TOMATO (47D: Part of a club) (the "club" is a sandwich, it turns out). Otherwise, any part of the puzzle I haven't mentioned—piece of cake. The whole thing came out feeling just about right, difficulty-wise, for a Wednesday.
Bullet points:
- 57D: Lazarus with a sonnet on the Statue of Liberty (EMMA)— had the "E" and wrote in ... EZRA. I think the "z" in Lazarus, coupled with certain crossword-name reflexes, just ... pushed me in the wrong direction. Of course it's EMMA. Of course of course. EMMA is ... better than EZRA. EMMA is ... good:
- 23D: Usually dry streambeds (ARROYOS)— not a fan of froyo, but I am a fan of ARROYOS, as a word as well as a geographical feature. Would I eat froyo in an arroyo? Well first, I have questions about how I got in the arroyo in the first place, and second, no, I would not eat froyo in an arroyo. Just ice cream for me, thanks. I would eat gelato in a grotto, though, in case you were wondering.
- 52D: Statement of defeat ("I LOST")— I don't really have anything here, but the "LOST" part reminded me of this performance, which I became aware of only yesterday—one of the most improbable, jaw-dropping cover songs I've ever heard (do not press play unless you've got the 8 minutes to spare, because it's an experience you can't really shortcut): it's Kasey Chambers covering the Eminem classic "Lose Yourself" (from the movie 8 Mile):
Enjoy your day. See you next time.
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