Constructor: Jeffrey Martinovic and Will Nediger
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME:"CONSIDER THE ODDS" (40A: Think before placing a bet ... or what solvers must do to fully appreciate each starred clue) — the odd squares in six answers (which are shaded in the grid) spell out words that are also answers:
Theme answers:
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These themers seem like good finds, but it also feels like the themers were "found" by some bit of simple code that someone wrote—one that searches a giant database of answers for words or phrases where the odd numbered letters, taken together, *also* form a word or phrase in that database. From those results, you check to see which pairs can be clued similarly, and voila. Maybe I'm wrong and the constructors just "found" these answers through trial / error / prolonged cogitation, but that sounds ... exhausting. Still, human beings have to conceive the concept, and the concept is clever. Some of the pairs do seem remarkably related—that GREEN PEAS / GENES one, for instance. Right on the money. FRAZZLE / FAZE are a solid pair as well. The rest are fine, with "book designer" pair involving perhaps the biggest stretch when it comes to cluing—I don't think of FOOTNOTEs as the purview of the book "designer," but I suppose there are certain layout and style considerations where FOOTNOTEs are concerned. Still, you could say that about literally any aspect of the book. Whatever, both answers are from Bookville, it's fine. The theme was architecturally interesting, but whatever it gained from the double-answer aspect, it lost (in terms of entertainment value and challenge) by being overly easy. You've got two shots at every clue, two answers going at the same time, and so twice the pattern-recognition power that you'd have with an ordinary clue. I certainly wrote in GENES before I remembered GREEN PEAS—so GENES ended up being a big help toward getting the longer answer. Same with FONT / FOOTNOTE and ALOT / ALL SORTS. This took a lot of the bite out of the puzzle. I wasn't that thrilled with the revealer either, which feels a little weak as a phrase. You play the odds, you weigh the odds ... somehow CONSIDER THE ODDS just doesn't have the standalone pop and oomph that I was hoping for (I got THE ODDS and then had to wait for help from the crosses to get the rather limp CONSIDER.
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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- GREEN PEAS (18A: *Mendel studied them) (odd letters spell GENES)
- FRAZZLE (20A: *Disconcert mightily) (odd letters spell FAZE)
- ALL SORTS (31A: *Tons) (odd letters spell ALOT)
- FOOTNOTE (46A: *Book designer's concern) (odd letters spell FONT)
- ARCHERS (61A: *Ones with good aim) (odd letters spell ACES)
- SITUATION (63A: *Mess that might be sticky) (odd letters spell STAIN)
noun
Slang.
• • •
Also, the revealer was kind of superfluous from a solving standpoint because, I mean, how could I *not* CONSIDER THE ODDS? You highlighted every single one of them for me. The puzzle forces your attention to those squares rather than letting you find them yourself. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is the kind of puzzle that might actually benefit from one of those post-solve animation dealies the NYTXW has increasingly used as visual glitz in recent years. It would have been nice to have the "odd letters" aspect of this grid appear as a kind of revelation. I guess I did get a kind of "aha," but it was muted, and very early. After the first themer, filling the others in was kind of painting-by-numbers. I was curious to see what the pairs would be, but with the big puzzle twist in my rearview, there just wasn't much aha left. More, "oh, I see.""Did you see!?" Yes, I SAW (56D: "You don't have to tell me").
On the plus side, the grid on the whole seems pretty polished (except that SE corner—what a mess of Es Ts and Ss). Lots of snazzy longer Downs. INNOVATE doesn't do much for me, but the others are actively good, including LAERTES, and particularly RADON TESTS (33D: Parts of many home inspections) and CINEASTE—a word, and magazine, that I love (8D: Film buff). I love it from afar, in that I would never use it in a sentence myself, but I like the way it looks, and I like that it exists. I also like having a few honest-to-god old-fashioned dead-tree magazine subscriptions, and CINEASTE is probably the one I most look forward to. That and the other movie magazine I get, Sight + Sound. I enjoy my New Yorker, but as you probably know, they pile up faster than I can read them. And the Guardian Weekly, oof, good reporting and writing, but I can't say I look forward to it. Every issue has some atrocity front and center, right on the cover. I mostly just hand that magazine to my wife immediately, and then she'll direct my attention later to whatever movie / book / culture article she thinks might be interesting to me. Honestly, I mainly get the Guardian for the cryptic crossword in the back (highly recommended if you are an American training to be a better cryptic solver and want to be humiliated by your insufficient skills (and non-Britishness) on a regular basis)
Bullets:
Annie, on the other hand, has decided that a fake tree is safer
Barney is making a return appearance. He was on the blog last year. He is now a very elegant 17 years old. After allowing you to take his photo, he is headed to the club to enjoy a cigar and a martini. Send the driver for him around 7pm, would you?
Maizie wants you to know that she is in no way a willing participant in this "Christmas spirit" stuff. She is simply warming her butt on the charging laptop. Any appearance of festiveness is completely coincidental.
And finally today we have Orzo and Moose, fighting over the NYT's special holiday Puzzle Mania section. Don't worry, guys, there are more than 50 puzzles, you can share! What? You don't want to solve the puzzles in Puzzle Mania, you just want to sit on it because it's rectangular and on a flat surface? Oh, well, then, fight to the death, I guess
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
Bullets:
- 1A: Flower in a children's rhyme (POSY) — first thought was IRIS, but that's only because my best friends have a child named IRIS. As soon as my brain went into "children's rhyme" mode, "pocket full of POSY" came to me straight away.
- 44A: Amazon Handmade competitor (ETSY)— wow, I didn't even know Amazon Handmade existed, so I'd say ETSY is (improbably) winning the branding wars. Amazon Handmade should try a shorter, more crossword friendly name. Worked with ECHO and (esp.) ALEXA. I mean, ask Apple about its choice to lean into crossword-friendly names. Or better yet, ask SIRI. All the free advertising anyone could dream of ... (IMAC, IPAD, IPOD, etc. etc. etc.)
- 40D: Lunchroom, casually (CAF) — now I know what this emoji 😒 is supposed to signify—it's my face when someone tries to convince me that people call the cafeteria the "CAF."
- 54D: Longtime Saints QB whose name has a windy homophone (BREES) — weird to add the homophone bit. Drew BREES is a future Hall-of-Famer. I can see adding the "windy homophone" helper on a M or T, but by W things should toughen up. I mean, you didn't use a "sounds like a Canadian gas brand" helper on Sylvan ESSO (12D: Sylvan ___ (electropop duo)), and that band is way Way more obscure than Drew BREES.
That's all for the puzzle today. Time to move on to our ongoing end-of-year feature, Holiday Pet Pics (submissions are now closed, try again next year!)
It's an all-cat extravaganza today. Instead of ending with a partridge in a pear tree, we'll start with kittens in Christmas trees ... again! (it's the most common genre of Holiday Pet Pic). This is Lilly, who has gone to all the trouble of getting into the tree but is now distracted by some piece of fluff on the ground that only a cat could possibly see or be interested in. Careful jumping down, Lilly!
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| [Thanks, Michelle] |
And here's another tree explorer, Remy. "I iz ornament?" For now, Remy, yeah. (Look at his silly hind leg hanging down. Hang in there, buddy!]
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| [Thanks, Olivia] |
Annie, on the other hand, has decided that a fake tree is safer
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| [Thanks, Kitty] |
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| [Thanks, Stacy] |
Maizie wants you to know that she is in no way a willing participant in this "Christmas spirit" stuff. She is simply warming her butt on the charging laptop. Any appearance of festiveness is completely coincidental.
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| [Thanks, Linda] |
And finally today we have Orzo and Moose, fighting over the NYT's special holiday Puzzle Mania section. Don't worry, guys, there are more than 50 puzzles, you can share! What? You don't want to solve the puzzles in Puzzle Mania, you just want to sit on it because it's rectangular and on a flat surface? Oh, well, then, fight to the death, I guess
.jpg) |
| [Thanks, Rob] |
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]