Constructor: Sarah Sinclair and Rafael Musa
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Daisies (12A: Bunch of Daisies => TROOP) —
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I really loved this puzzle, so I'm going to start with the worst thing about it, just to get it out of the way. And that worst thing is NARS (23A: Makeup brand known for its risqué product names). I don't so much object to a brand name I don't know—you get those from time to time. I just object to that name's being so incredibly, improbably ugly. Especially for a name attached to a beauty product. NARS? That's not a brand, that's a typo. Maybe you meant MARS—that's a cool-sounding name. But NARS ... NARS is one letter short of NARDS, which, of all the slang for testicles, is probably the least mellifluous. I got NARS entirely from crosses and just ... stared. Checked and rechecked the crosses, sure that one of them must be wrong. But nope. Nowhere to go but NARS. Thank god I knew that it was PRADA (9D: Hermès competitor) and not PRADO (which is a museum). Fashion name crossing fashion name at a vowel—that is maybe not the best choice. PRADA is (arguably) universally known, so that probably gets you out of Natick territory. But you're near Natick. You're close by. Like ... in Needham. That's what a near-Natick is called now: a Needham.
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OK, now that that's out of the way, what a great puzzle, just loaded with marquee answers of real distinction. And they really let loose the "?" clues today (8!), but in a way that somehow managed to feel non-obnoxious. They were mostly simple and cute and right on the money, starting with the winner at 1A: One with an "accept all cookies" policy? (SANTA). Iconically, that's Cookie Monster, or me, but neither of those fit, so I had to work a little to get SANTA, and getting it made me smile. Make me work a little, make me smile. I'm not looking for anything more than this on a Friday. The grid was delightfully uninundated with names. This cleared the way for the marquee name, so it could really shine—loved the way OLIVIA RODRIGO dropped down the damn center of this puzzle like a dagger, like tada! All other names step aside, the headliner's here. I wish the clue for her had been less boring (13D: Youngest artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100)—something more personal, or more specifically tied to her songs / albums, but I enjoyed seeing her nonetheless, cutting through 8 (8!) answers of 8 (8!) or more letters. She's really holding it all together. I'm a fan (of her in this puzzle, of her irl). I also love that she took The Breeders with her on tour. Such a bold choice. "Kim Deal [of The Breeders] said it was odd at first, but after learning Rodrigo knew St. Vincent and is a fan of Billy Joel and Sheryl Crow, she said "[Rodrigo]'s just really into music. Knowing that, it made more sense. She just really liked us!"" (wikipedia). The kid's got good taste.
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Notes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: Daisies (12A: Bunch of Daisies => TROOP) —
Daisy is the initial level of Girl Scouting. Named for Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low, they are in kindergarten and first grade (around ages 5–7). They meet in minimally groups of five girls with two adult leaders who help the girls plan activities to introduce them to Girl Scouts.Daisies earn the Promise Center and Petals, which focus on the Girl Scout Law and are placed on the front of the tunic in a daisy design. They also earn Leaves and Journey Leadership Awards. Their uniform consists of a light blue tunic. They may also wear their tunic with a white shirt and khaki bottoms or with an official Girl Scout Daisy uniform. The Girl Scout Membership Star is worn with blue membership disks and they wear the Girl Scout Daisy Membership Pin.
Daisies use the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting for Daisies and the National Leadership Journeys to work on activities, may camp only with a parent present, and have the option to sell Girl Scout cookies. They may earn the Daisy Safety Award and the Bridge to Brownies Award. (wikipedia)
• • •
Thirteen answers of 8 or more letters and not a clunker in the bunch. Love the unusual juxtaposition, like KIDS TABLE and BEER HALL ("You kids stay there, the grown-ups are ... going out for a while"). Or the politeness of "NO, I INSIST" alongside the rude impatience of TOOT-TOOT. I love the shade of "former" in 20A: Google's former motto ("DON'T BE EVIL"). I mean, there's no other way to clue that, but still, it's a reminder that their putative values have, uh, changed (evil is, as you maybe know by now, quite profitable). I also loved how the answer to 52A: Field of stars? was ASTROLOGY and not ASTRONOMY (which wouldn't fit). "In astrology, stars are seen as celestial powerhouses, radiating their energy and influencing our lives in profound ways." The clue felt like it was trolling astronomers and other science types, and that's fine by me. I liked the BLIND DATES with MERE MORTALs and the OLD NORSE guy who SLEPT LATE and I even liked LOLING, as it is an abbreviation I've actually used and it crosses NARS, which deserves to be LOL'd at.
Initial mistakes were few and unserious. RACY before SEXY (18D: Like many Halloween costumes), OPEN before SPIT (18A: Dentist's directive), BATS before ANTS (7D: Creatures that sleep by taking hundreds of minute-long naps throughout the day). Other than that, the only significant resistance in this thing came from the SW corner, where I found BETRAY very hard to get ahold of (40D: Reveal unintentionally). I wanted BLURT or BLURT OUT or BLAB or some other blithering "B" word. Also had some trouble parsing EASY A'S from the back end, especially given that "?" clue (57A: Understudy opportunities?). I was like, "... 'YAS! YAS!'? Is that something people ... exclaim? ... I don't get it." But no, it's EASY A'S, and the clue is actually great (after all, EASY A'S are classes where you can understudy (i.e. not study much at all) and still do well).
- 15A: Macronutrient grouping? (AEIOU)— we just had a whole supervocalic lesson here on the blog a few days ago, and bang, here we are again, with a word that contains each of the five vowels (AEIOU) only once. That's what a "supervocalic" is. Slightly weird to call them a "grouping," since the vowels are dispersed throughout the word (and don't appear in order). But I think the "?" on the clue takes care of any imprecision in the clue phrasing. It's a nice misdirective clue, actually.
- 30D: ___ Annie, role for which Ali Stroker was the first wheelchair user to win a Tony (ADO) — not being a musical aficionado, I know about ADO Annie solely from crosswords. She is a character in Oklahoma! and not, as you might expect, Annie Get Your Gun. I'm not sure ADO Annie even owns a gun. I mean, it's Oklahoma Territory in '06, she probably does. But nobody was yelling at her to go get it, is my point.
- 10D: Daisylike bloom (ASTER)— nice, unforced "Daisy" callback. The ASTERs are particularly lovely around here in autumn. Though you wouldn't know that today, as (for the first time this season) the ground is blanketed in snow.
See you next time.
P.S. looks like this is actually the second appearance of NARS in the NYTXW, and I was equally mad about it the first time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]