Coin to pay for passage across River Styx / SUN 5-31-15 / Anti-revolutionary of 1776 / Seasonal linguine topper / Choco Klondike treat / Park opened in 1964 / Chocolate mint brand with peaks in its logo / Hematophagous creature

Constructor: Tom McCoy

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME:"Making Projections"— theme answers "project" one letter above and below, and when you read the "projected" letters clockwise, starting with the top center letter, the letters spell out "SORE THUMB."

Theme answers:

• [S]HARKFIN (9D: Seafood soup base)
• [O]LD FAITHFUL (12D: Attraction that operates under its own steam?)
• [R]ADIO ANTENNA (15D: Catcher of some waves)
• SUNSHINE STAT[E] (59D: Words below a orange on a license plate)
• VAMPIRE BA[T] (72D: Hematophagous creature)
• OCEAN TRENC[H] (67D: Mariana, e.g.)
• DROP-DOWN MEN[U] (62D: It might contain a list of postal abbreviations)
• [M]OUNT MCKINLEY (4D: Peak that's known as "The Great One")
• [B]EAN SPROUT (6D: Crisp bit in a stir-fry)

Word of the Day: OBOL (36D: Coin to pay for passage across the River Styx) —

Charon's obol is an allusive term for the coin placed in or on the mouth^[1]of a dead person before burial. Greek and Latin literary sources specify the coin as an obol, and explain it as a payment or bribe for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Archaeological examples of these coins, of various denominations in practice, have been called "the most famous grave goods from antiquity." (wikipedia)

Hard to assess this puzzle adequately, as I did it very late, after a very full day of crossword tournamenting (about which more next week, when I have time to do it justice—short version: astonishingly good, especially for an inaugural run. Oh, and Joon Pahk won.). We were out to dinner at the world's slowest restaurant (my friend Finn timed my wine order: 55 minutes … to pour and deliver a glass of wine … but I digress), so Erin pulled out her phone and started looking at the puzzle and told us the title and we guessed the trick pretty quickly, without doing much of the grid. Then we went back to eating and drinking. Actually, we probably went back to waiting. Once I got my wine, I didn't really care. It was a gorgeous night in D.C. and we were eating out on the deck and the tournament had been really inspiring and impressive in everywhere, so Bring My Flatbread Pizza Whenever, Lady. I'm good.


I should say that we got the premise early, but not the Big Reveal, which I'd say is the one thing about this puzzle that is special—playing, as it does, on the expression "to stick out like a sore thumb." But the easy-to-grok premise and easy-to-solve themers made the solve less-than-scintillating. The cluing was pretty tough, though (in a good way), so at least the puzzle put up a reasonable Sunday-fight. I didn't have many interesting *moments* while solving, though I do have some disparate observations, and here they are:

Bullets:

• OBOL!— I remembered this. As you know, when you don't know something, and then you learn it from crosswords, and then you remember it in a subsequent crossword, you feel a huge onrush of victory in your veins. 
• EKE BY!— The longer I look at this, the more ridiculous it seems. You eke out or you scrape by. EKE BY can eke on by, as far as I'm concerned. 
• HELENA! — crossword constructor Doug Peterson was born there. Also, HELENA is the name of the best character on "Orphan Black." So there's some double-trivia for you.
• MOREL!— I did not know these were "seasonal." (19D: Seasonal linguine topper)
• REORGS!— this answer can also eke on by.
• SUH-WEET!— far and away the greatest thing in this grid. I was sort of psyched when I thought the answer was going to be "SWEEEET!" But "SUH-WEET" is DEF. better.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS here is a link to my wife's public (Facebook) album of photos from Saturday's Indie 500 Crossword Tournament, in case you're interested.

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