Cheap smoke in slang / SUN 6-14-15 / Creator of Stupefyin Jones / Rank above bey / Sally sweet bun / Dick popularized zone blitz / Slaughterhouse scraps / Tenor in flying dutchman

Constructor: Randolph Ross

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME:"The In Crowd" — two-word phrases, second word begins w/ prefix "IN-"; clued as if "IN" were, in fact, a separate word. Wackiness, theoretically, at least, ensues.

Theme answers:

• FIGHT IN JUSTICE (23A: Dispute between Loretta Lynch and her co-workers?)
• GENERAL IN FORMATION (37A: Army V.I.P. at a military parade?)
• BRAIN IN JURY (48A: Smartest one to consider a case?)
• COURT IN JUNCTION (64A: Municipal building located where major roads intersect?) (makes no sense—it would be *at* a junction, not *in* one…)
• SISTER IN LAW (83A: Nun for the defense?)
• PRIVATE IN VESTMENTS (90A: G.I. dressed like a priest?)
• CRIMINAL IN TENT (110A: Felon at a campground?)

Word of the Day: PUT (5D: Wall Street order) —

put op·tion

noun

STOCK MARKET

noun: put option; plural noun: put options

1. an option to sell assets at an agreed price on or before a particular date. (google)

I can't write a lot about this one, as I have very little nice to say. There is a theoretically humorous angle to this theme, but it's too basic, too transparent, and the end, too dull and repetitive to be a good basis for a Sunday puzzle, especially in the 21st century. The concept and the fill both felt ancient. There are terms and expressions here that aren't just unfamiliar to me—they're borderline nonsensical. Clue on PUT made zero sense to me, but I'll take PUT on the chin and say "my bad."PIG IT, however, I will not accept. That is possibly the dumbest thing I've seen in a grid, and I've seen … some stuff. In an attempt, I guess, to have a lower word count on these Sunday puzzles, we end up with big white spaces that are clearly too much for some constructors to handle well. But even the little sections … I mean, why is anyone suffering a MOL/ORDO crossing in such a tiny section of a grid in the year 2015? That's a MOLORDOrous crossing. But I can tell you right now the cross that's going to groin-kick more people than any other: EL ROPO / LUNN (68D: Cheap smoke, in slang / 76A: Sally ___ (sweet bun)). This is a bad cross; this is a cross that will thwart more solvers than any other single cross in this puzzle; this is a fact; this problem is utterly foreseeable, and (likely) utterly fixable with a little elbow grease. I know EL ROPO *only* from solving crosswords for a long time (the cigar-type clue is a pretty hackneyed / low form of clue) and I Don't Know What A Sally LUNN Sweet Bun Is At All. Was that big … sometime before 1969? I have no problem with old-skewing clues, but when that's all there is, and when the theme is moribund and the grid just Isn't Clean … well, it makes me want to play HOB with something. Now where did I put my hob?


Seriously, the hell? Play HOB with? HOB. [Frodo, familiarly?]. Also, AT NOON? IN A CAN? Random adverbial phrases... Ugh. It hurts.

To the puzzle's credit, it saved the best for last, themer-wise. If only they all could've been felons at campgrounds...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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