Constructor: Ella Dershowitz
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME:"ANY TAKERS?" (35A: "Who's interested?" ... or, phonetically, what four answers in this puzzle are vis-à-vis the answers next to them) — take "NE" ("N" + "E" = "any!") from one answer, give it to the answer next to it:
Theme answers:
Extremely slow start because of the theme. And because of my lack of knowledge about water filter brand names. And because of my complete inability to distinguish a SIA song from a SZA song. And because even after I went looking for the themer so I could understand what was going on—and uncovered it quickly—I somehow convinced myself that there must be another revealer ... otherwise, how do you explain the missing "UR" from SEA TURTLE (24A: Stinging jellyfish). I know, I know, a turtle is not a jellyfish! But it's aquatic! And "UR" ("you are") seemed like the kind of phonetic element you'd use for a second punny revealer. Between the trickiness of the theme and the ridiculous machinations of my crossword brain, things were very rough up top indeed. Also, I only really read half the revealer clue, so I got the "NE" extraction part, but I didn't pick up the "NE" insertion part, so while THE ONE and FAR GONE weren't exactly hard, I did hesitate, wondering why there were these extra letters tacked on to the end of the "correct" answers. ARGH. But in the bottom half of the puzzle, things went much more smoothly. I had the theme concept down pat by then, and there was no more BAI (?) or SZA waiting to trip me up. Just the very familiar ANI DiFranco and SARA Bareilles, who made finishing the puzzle much easier than starting it.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- IMPA
NELING / THE ONE (i.e. impaneling / Theo) (17A: Selecting for a jury / 19A: Nickname alternative to Teddy) - SEA
NETTLE / FAR GONE (i.e. sea nettle / Fargo) (24A: Stinging jellyfish / 26A: North Dakota's most populous city) - HEADS TO
NE/ COCKNEY (i.e. headstone / cocky) (47A: Frank Sinatra's reads "The best is yet to come" / 50A: Arrogantly confident) NEWAGERS / ALL I NEED (i.e. New-Agers / allied) (56A: Proponents of crystal healing / 58A: On the same side)
Back before he was President, Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer. And before he was a lawyer, he was something else entirely—a bartender.Holders of the nation's highest office have often had a close relationship with booze, as George Washington established the nation's largest whiskey distillery in 1797 and Thomas Jefferson brewed his own beer. Andrew Jackson's inaugural party in 1829 was so legendary that we still drink the orange punch partygoers consumed (and you can find it on the menu at Big Jones). But Lincoln was the only president who was also a licensed bartender.
Lincoln was co-owner of Berry and Lincoln, a store/drinking establishment in New Salem, Illinois, where he lived from 1831 to 1837. [...]
In January 1833, he partnered with his friend from his militia days, William F. Berry, to purchase a small store, which they named Berry and Lincoln. Stores could sell alcohol in quantities greater than a pint for off-premises consumption, but it was illegal to sell single drinks to consume at the store without a license. In March 1833, Berry and Lincoln were issued a tavern, or liquor, license, which cost them $7 and was taken out in Berry's name. Stores that sold liquor to consume on the premises were called groceries. (chicagoist.com)
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| Cone BRA (34D) |
[24D: Singer with the 2023 #1 hit "Kill Bill" (warning: gun violence)]
That BAR / BAI cross was brutal for me because I assumed it was BAR but figured it was the *legal* kind of BAR, which is not an actual physical "workplace" (1A: Workplace for a young Abraham Lincoln). I mean, when you're admitted to The BAR, you aren't let in to an actual building. It's like a club. My mom was a lawyer, I should ask her. Anyway, "workplace" had me really unsure of the "B" in BAR. This is all to say that unlike much of our country, I was never much for Lincoln-olatry, never watched a movie or read a book about him. My wife is a U.S. historian, so I just picked up my knowledge of 19c. U.S. history kinda ... ambiently. People talk about Lincoln so much anyway that you feel like, you know, you get the gist. Do I really want to watch Daniel Day-Lewis doing Lincoln? I did not, and I do not—god save me from biopics, the absolute worst of all genres. Anyway, most of you probably knew that Lincoln owned a BAR, but wow, not me, not at all. That bit of info was not in my school curriculum. And BAI ... yeesh, no. I mean, I've heard of it, it's been in the puzzle before, but still ... did not come to mind (1D: Antioxidant-infused water brand). I had PUR in there for a bit (that's the three-letter water filter, alas).
[the only "Lincoln" I truly care about is this album (They Might Be Giants, 1988)]
That "Z" in SZA is really a choice. In the end, nothing else works, but if you don't know how SZA is (and I know some of you don't), that answer must've looked nuts. Must've had you doubting your knowledge of the Greek alphabet (I'll admit, after Epsilon, I have no idea what order the letters go in). Kind of brutal that SIA is also (like SZA) a popular contemporary singer. Luckily, I know the Greek alphabet well enough to know that while IOTA is one of the letters, IETA is not. So the "I" was out and the "Z" was in. I am a little (if only a little) familiar with SZA as a musical artist, so that helped. It also helped that I knew "-ASS" was an [Emphasis-providing suffix]. It's generationally behind me, but I had a kid who was, by definition, generationally behind me, and my students are generationally behind me, so this use of "-ASS" made sense to me. But I can see how people who don't know "-ASS" as a *suffix* might reason their way to -ESS as the answer here. I mean -ESS is a recognizable suffix, so it has that going for it. "Emphasis-providing," though? Not really. It's more "feminizing." As I stumbled to put that little area together, I wondered whether there were other stumblers out there ... and whether maybe some of those stumblers actually fell all the way over and never got up. I hope not.
Any notes? Yes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Any notes? Yes:
- 38D: Abdominal floor exercises (TOE TAPS) — my trainer has me do these sometimes, but if I didn't have a trainer, I wouldn't know what these are.
- 6D: "Must this conversation happen again?" ("CAN WE NOT?") — ah, perfect colloquialism, easily my favorite thing in the grid. I also enjoyed the freshness of PAN SEAR (a debut) (41D: Cook until a crust forms) and the clue on SPACES (61A: Totally forgets to do something, informally) and OWLET (4D: Baby that's up all night?) and SMOKE (64A: Tip-off that you've forgotten something in the toaster).
- 48D: Animated film character with a Scottish accent (SHREK)— because GROUNDSKEEPER WILLIE wouldn't fit
- 60D: Block in Atlantic City (DIE) — the kind you roll when you are gambling
- 8D: Fighting fish (BETTA) — despite encountering these things multiple times in the crossword by now, I still can't quite put the name together. When it comes to aquarium fish, after TETRA, I'm kind of at a loss. I think I remembered up to -ETTA today, but had to go to BOAST for the "B" cross (8A: Promote oneself).
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]