KRIS Jenner used to be married to Robert Kardashian. Robert Kardashian was a friend of O.J. SIMPSON. Just a few minutes before I did this Aimee Lucido puzzle, I did a different Aimee Lucido puzzle that had O.J. SIMPSON as an answer. So she's clearly celebrity-obsessed and needs help. Help her. Please. Somebody.
Kidding. I liked this puzzle. The only thing I didn't like was that it felt like it was trying maybe a little Too hard (TTH!) to be current by being hyper-pop-cultural. MICAH (1A: Child prodigy of "Heroes") and KRIS probably shouldn't be in the same puzzle, let alone that close to each other, because the former is already showing its non-staying power (I watched two seasons of "Heroes" and *I* couldn't remember his name), and the latter ... is famous for nothing. For being famous, I guess. Anyway, the point is, these two answers aren't just pop culture (which I love); they're the slightest, thinnest, weakest stuff that pop culture has to offer. At least the PARIS clue went in a non-Hilton direction (37D: "Midnight in ___" (2011 Woody Allen film). TREY Parker's also pop-culturey, but at least he has (co-)created something iconic, something of lasting cultural importance (64A: "South Park" writer Parker). Two things, if you count "The Book of Mormon." Three things, if you count "BASEketball."
Theme answers:
17A: Package full of syringes? (JUNKIE MAIL)
23A: Thesis topic for sex ed? (QUICKIE STUDY) — Love this one. Actually, both these first two theme answers are pleasingly edgy.
36A: Cameras taking pictures of permanent markers? (SHARPIE SHOOTERS) — I like the word SHARPIE when used to describe a "shrewd, cunning person, esp. a cheat"
46A: Pompom on a skullcap? (BEANIE SPROUT) — I don't really get the "sprout" part here. Because the pompom ... sprouts? ... from the top of the beanie?
57A: Police investigation of a betting house? (BOOKIE CASE)
Puzzle really does have a nice, contemporary feel, even if it is a bit celeb-obsessed (celebsessed). I know there hasn't been a new Austin Powers movie in a while, but MOJO still feels reasonably current (1D: It's stolen in an Austin Powers movie), as does the ubiquitous AÇAI berry (30A: Berry for the health-conscious). PARIS gets the recent Woody Allen movie treatment. Even OREO gets an ultra-current clue (56A: Cookie celebrating its centennial in 2012). Plus, my daughter's name is in the puzzle, so it's a good day all around (yes, we named our daughter TSAR—don't judge). I'll leave you to contemplate the RING-wearing PROBE that's covered with LUBE. Good day.
I have just published May 2012 issue of Rainbow Stamp News on blog with news and articles from the world of stamps. It can be viewed at : http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/
THEME: B AND B (28D: Quaint lodging hinted at by the outsides of 18-, 20-, 28-, 42-, 51- or 55-Across) — theme answers are two-word phrases where first word begins with "B" and second word ends with "B"
Word of the Day: BLUE CRAB (28A: Chesapeake Bay delicacy) —
Callinectes sapidus (from the Greekcalli- = "beautiful", nectes = "swimmer", and Latinsapidus = "savory"), the Chesapeake or Atlantic blue crab, is a crustacean found in the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific coast of Central America and the Gulf of Mexico. On the Pacific coast of Central America it is largely ignored as a food source as picking the meat is considered too difficult. It is the Maryland state crustacean and the subject of an extensive fishery. (wikipedia)
• • •
Neither offensive nor remarkable. Straight over the plate. Ably but not excitingly filled. It's a Monday puzzle. It happened. And though the core theme concept isn't eye-popping, the resulting theme answers (six of them!) are at least interesting. I can verify that puppies do indeed love BELLY RUBs (42A: Activity a puppy loves). As do dogs. As do some people. I flew through this, with one notable sticking point—see, I got BILLY BOB (20A: Actor Thornton of "Sling Blade"), and then got B AND B, and so (not having read the B AND B clue thoroughly) I assumed that each word in the phrase would *start* with "B." (I must've gone through BELLY RUB by that point, but somehow that didn't disabuse me of my incorrect assumption). Anyway, imagining the Bs would start both words in the phrase meant that when I got to 18A: Group that includes North, South, East and West, I had double-trouble. First, I'd made an incorrect assumption about the theme, and second, bridge??? I know nothing about bridge. I honestly don't even know what a BRIDGE CLUB is. I know a game of bridge has ESNW positions, but I don't know how "club" fits in. Is it the normal meaning of club? And if so, isn't saying a BRIDGE CLUB includes NSEW a bit like saying a book club includes words? As you can see, I'm out of my depth with bridge. Anyway, I had BRIDGE (easy) but then put in a B for the next letter and promptly got stuck. Also, imagined answer could be BRIDGE BETS. Eventually just solved the short stuff in that NE corner and everything worked itself out. Rest of the grid was a snap.
Other theme answers:
51A: Service provided at Meineke and Pep Boys (BRAKE JOB)
55A: Sparring injury, perhaps (BRUISED RIB)
Sales of new vinyl are actually up in recent years, so the "Old" part of 27D: Old LPs and 45s is patently unnecessary (actually, even if sales weren't up, it would be unnecessary). Everyone has some bit of tired, short fill they find particularly irksome. I have never thought about ranking said fill in terms of how much it bugs me, but I think if I could get rid of one short answer—just abolish it from all future puzzles—it would be ENNE. I do this on two counts—first, it's a suffix, and no one (least of all the constructor) actually *wants* suffixes in a grid. They are always a last resort. So, there's that. But ENNE is particularly annoying because its most common clue (today's [Feminine suffix]), can be two things: ETTE or ENNE. So you can't just write it in, move on, and *forget* about it (which is all anyone wants to do with a suffix). You have to actually work crosses. Now, I'm not opposed to work, but I am opposed to working for *that*. For no payoff. When crud adds *any* level of difficulty, it stands out more and irks more. "We're gonna make this puzzle a little more challenging by yanking one of your hairs out at the two-minute mark, OK?" That might actually be preferable to encountering ENNE again.
Please understand that I'm not faulting this puzzle for containing ENNE. *Lots* of puzzles have contained ENNE, some of them quite fine, I'm sure. I'm just saying that if I had a magic wand, ENNE would disappear. Forever.
Clue-wise, 10D: Something always sold in mint condition? (TIC TAC) is the big winner by far (despite the fact that there are non-mint TIC TACs; I like the orange).
Oh, also, [Cheese popular with crackers]? That's pretty racist.
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How To PlayTutorial Lessons, Instructions
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How To PlayTutorial Lessons, Instructions
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Ger Garland designed four stamps featuring the faces of four Titanic passengers, which have been unveiled in Cobh, Co. Cork.There are two 55c stamps - one with Co. Down Titanic shipbuilder Thomas Andrews and another of Irish photographer Father Browne, who left the ship at his hometown of Cork. There are also two 82c stamps.
One shows Titanic Captain Edward J. Smith surrounded by oblivious passengers on the doomed ship’s stern and the other is of life boat six survivor Molly Brown with the first class staircase behind her.
There’s a strong postal connection with the Titanic, which was also an RMS Royal Mail ship. It had five postal clerks on board, three Americans and two British. All lost their lives when the ship sank.
Titanic survivor Albert Thessinger was the last person to see them alive. “I urged them to leave their work,” he said. “They shook their heads and continued at work. I saw them no more.”
Titanic Captain Edward Smith is on the 82c stamp
Molly Brown on the Titanic
Fr Browne left the Titanic at Cobh, Co Cork
Belgium
The Belgium Post has issued a stamp sheet to commemorate the centennial of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
The sheet is sold together with the 3D glasses, in order buyers could enjoy the viewing of the Titanic movie in 3D issued in 2012 and directed by James Cameron.
THEME: "Infractions" — five theme answers with ordinal numbers and two theme answers with actual fractions in them have those numbers/fractions represented as fractions by having the numerator (which in very case is "ONE") take the place of the ordinal number in the answer, and then having the denominator be the answer directly below said numerator.
Word of the Day: Gherman TITOV (48D: Gherman ___, cosmonaut who was the second human to orbit the earth) —
Gherman Stepanovich Titov (Russian: Герман Степанович Титов) (September 11, 1935–September 20, 2000) was a Sovietcosmonaut who, on August 6, 1961,[1] became the second human to orbit the Earth aboardVostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1. Titov was the fourth man in space after Gagarin and Americans Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom (the latter two made suborbital voyages). (wikipedia)
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The theme simply doesn't work because of the HALF / QUARTER issue. With all the other answers, ordinal numbers are being represented as fractions, but with the HALF and QUARTER answers, fractions are being represented as fractions. Fifth in a sequence and one-fifth are totally different things. Half and 1/2 are not. That is a Major-League inconsistency.
Theme answers:
23A: With 26-Across, like grandchildren ([Third] GENERATION)
33A: With 44-Across, execute, in a way (DRAW AND [Quarter])
45A: With 50-Across, euphoric ([Seventh] HEAVEN)
71A: With 77-Across, high-end retail chain (SAKS [Fifth] AVENUE)
94A: With 103-Across, 1999 Shyamalan thriller ("THE [Sixth] SENSE")
105A: With 112-Across, compromise (MEET [Half] WAY)
122A: With 127-Across, classical work that's the source of the European Union's anthem (BEETHOVEN'S [Ninth]) — without thinking, I put a FIVE under that ONE instead of the proper NINE. Minor stumbling ensued.
Fill on this one is subpar, with a few notable exceptions (DIXIECRATS makes a nice answer, and I really liked THANATOS, thought that may just because a. I *knew* it, and b. it's fun to say) (80A: Political party that won 39 electoral votes in 1948 + 89D: Death personified, in ancient Greece). Since this is a puzzle about fractions, let's talk fractions. Consider the longer (non-theme) answers in this grid. Now consider how many of them are made up predominantly of the Wheel of Fortune letters, RLSTNE (with S and E being the real spotlight hogs). You need these letters, obviously, but when you cram your grid full of them, you really limit how interesting your fill can be. But back to fractions—RLSTNE presence, expressed in fraction form:
ABSCESSES (2/3)
ENLISTEES (8/9)
STEELIEST (8/9)
SOITSEEMS (2/3)
ATTHESTART (7/10)
Now, I can imagine a really interesting word that is RLSTNE-heavy, but that would be the exception, not the rule. When your long fill (the bang pow awesome stuff) is laden with RLSTNE, you diminish the overall interestingness of the grid considerably. Consider these grid neighbors and their RLSTNE content: TESTER, all of it; SUNUNU, just half. The latter is indisputably better. Now, I DO TOO is just 1/6 RLSTNE, and it's not exactly amazing, so the presence of these letters is by No Means the only consideration when filling a grid. But they are good letters to keep your eye on. I always tell my students to "kill linking verbs" (incl. all forms of the verb "to be"). Now, I don't mean this. I just mean, hunt them. If you find that they need to live, let them live. But be aware of them, because if they proliferate and overrun your prose, you are in a heap of trouble.
Also, no one is going to win any friends with answer like OSTEOID (95D: Bonelike), ARISTAE (75A: Botanical beards), or SEPTAL. I'm currently having a love/hate relationship with CASUIST (13A: Student of morality). It's obscure (bad), but unusual and interesting, esp. in this grid (good!).
Where's EIGHTH!?
PIXY seems like a [Var.] (70D: Sprite). Never seen it, except in the candy name PIXY Stix (which I would very much accept as a clue). OCHRE should've had some kind of [British] marker (markre?) in the clue (109D: Cousin of rust). The SW seemed to me the toughest part of the grid by a good margin. KnewISADORA (125A: Dancer Duncan) but not how to spell her—there are Lots of variants that ceom from that basic name template—ATLASES clue was Saturday-hard (128A: They have scales), no way I was guessing TINWARE was a "service" (though I see it now) (92D: Colonial service), AREOLAS was thornily under-clued (93D: Colored parts), never heard of "AMELIA" (98D: 2009 Hilary Swank biopic) and EXP. makes sense now (111A: Abbr. on many food labels), but I can't remember seeing it clued thus and had a hard time getting it even with the "X" in place. Oh, and I misremembered EDA as IDA (121D: Child-care author LeShan). I had some trouble in the PIXY / TWP (68A: County subdivision: Abbr.) / WRIT area too (which probably spilled into the SW). Otherwise, the rest of the grid seemed of avg. Sunday difficulty (unless you've never heard of GEORDI (11D: "Star Trek: T.N.G." role)—I guess that could've been rough).
Bullets:
53A: Faith that celebrates both Jesus and Muhammad (BAHAI) — really wanted ISLAM here.
113A: Ancient Balkan region (THRACE) — also Kara ___ (aka "Starbuck") of TV's "Battlestar Galactica"; here she is solving a puzzle (of sorts):
129A: Gave, as a hot potato (TOSSED TO) — Gave : Tossed :: Gave to : TOSSED TO. He gave John the potato : he tossed John the potato :: he gave the potato to John : he tossed the potato to John. Something's screwy here.
7D: "1984" superpower (EURASIA) — the great "1984" superpower conundrum for xword solvers: EURASIA or OCEANIA?
The bright yellow sunflower is native to North America and grown mainly in Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. Sunflower seed is a source of oil used for cooking, salads, paints and industrial lubricants. Non-oil varieties of sunflower are used as birdseed or roasted and eaten as a snack.
Hi ! Here is a wonderful set of five stamps issued by Australia Post on ‘Farming in Australia’ featuring cow rearing, fruit and flower cultivation in Australia. The stamps are so beautifully designed featuring fruits in the best possible view that it attracts a collector on the very first sight !! This stamp set is a nice collecting item for those collecting on fruits, flowers and cow breeds !!
The dairy industry is one of Australia’s major rural industries, ranking behind only beef and wheat. While all states and territories have dairy industries, most production occurs in the more temperate south-east areas of the country, and includes milk, yoghurts and a wide variety of cheese types. The most common dairy cow breeds are the Holstein Friesian and the Jersey.
The pineapple is a tropical fruit native to South America and in Australia grows best in tropical Queensland and northern New South Wales. Lutheran missionaries planted the fi rst crops in Brisbane in 1838 and the commercial industry was established in 1924. In 1946 canning plants were built at Rockhampton and Cairns.
Australia is consistently among the top 10 wine-growing countries in the world. Shiraz is the most produced variety, followed by chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. The main wine-producing states are South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, although Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and ACT also have wine industries.
The humble apple tree originated in Central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated plants in the world. Of the many apple varieties in existence, around 15 are produced commercially in Australia, with Pink LadyTM, Granny Smith, Gala and SundownerTM being the four most common. Victoria is Australia's leader in apple production and the market is primarily domestic, with the majority of fruit sold and consumed fresh.
Sande's fame was such that he was immortalized in a number of poems by Damon Runyon. Following his retirement in 1932, Earl Sande remained in the industry as a trainer. In 1938 he was the United States leading trainer and by the mid 1940s owned and operated his own racing stable. (wikipedia)
• • •
An usual triple-stack-laden puzzle, in that it played harder-, not easier-than-average for me. Usually, I can put a few Downs through those stacks and make them roll over pretty readily, but those Downs were a bit of a mess today (up top and below), and so I had issues. You can add triple-stacks (and quad stacks) to the list of alleged construction accomplishments I don't care for (see also pangrams). The problem is two-fold. A: the 15s are often hit-and-miss, at best, because phrases with friendly letters don't necessarily make for interesting phrases. Today, the lower stack was the only one I really cared for. The others are pretty dull. And this is a problem because in a stack-heavy puzzle, your stacks are virtually all you've got. Because B: the Downs you will need to make the stacks stick together are too often junky. Lots of short, awkward stuff. CENTO & HAUSA (our opening 1D and 2D punch) are about as ugly a pair of side-by-side answers as I've seen in any NYT puzzle, ever (1D: Poem comprised of quotations + 2D: Common language of Niger). Those are the kind of answers that would've reigned in the Maleska era, the kind that give crosswords a bad name ("I don't like crosswords because you have to know bygone Italian sausages and the Sasquatchian word for 'raccoon,' etc."). Mostly, though, it's the ordinary short stuff that clogs the bulk of the grid—that's what wears you down. This puzzle is by no means bad, as an example of its type. Its fairly typical. But it's a stale type. Most of my favorite themeless constructors will focus on making an exciting grid filled with new and/or vivid phrases and names and words. That's what I love. This was certainly a decent challenge, but the excitement just wasn't there.
I absolutely guessed NURSE CLINICIANS (17A: They may perform minor surgeries)— well, the NURSE part — since A: I don't really know what NURSE CLINICIANS are (are they like NURSE PRACTITIONERS, which is a thing I've heard of?), and B: CENTO and HAUSA were Martian as far as I was concerned. Had a slightly worse time in the CUERS (47D: Round dance officials) & SANDE portion of the grid. Looking at C-ERS, S-NDE, and --E (for 55A: Trucial States, today: Abbr.), I honestly thought I was dead. Started reconsidering EPICS (since I'd wanted TIKKA and not TIKKI to begin with (37D: McAloo ___ (burger at McDonald's in India)) ... but then EPICS was the only thing that made sense at 46A: Big pictures, so I left it). Eventually ran the alphabet at C-ERS and hit my mark, then stared at U-E ... and finally got it. Rest of the grid just wasn't that tough. Slow, steady progress took care of it.
Bullets:
26A: Old-time actresses Allgood and Haden (SARAS) — another thing about this grid that made it unappealing—it was Ruthlessly "old-time." From SARAS to SANDE to KAI (62D: Trombonist Winding), there is nothing in this grid that you couldn't have found in a grid 40 years ago. Maybe the ALE (a clue I really liked; 57A: Buzzsaw Brown, e.g.). "Old-time" stuff is fine, but it's nice when puzzles bear at least some small mark indicating that they were constructed in this millennium.
51A: Sycosis source, informally (STAPH) — not to be confused with the southern musicians' disease "zydecosis."
7D: Literary lion (ASLAN) — took me a while, which is especially ironic given that my wife fell asleep in bed next to me, not five minutes before I started this puzzle, reading (that is, rerererererererererere-reading) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
8D: 1955 sci-fi-film that was one of the first to use Technicolor ("THIS ISLAND EARTH") — the very best thing about this puzzle, both because it amazingly cuts through *all* the stacks and, at the same time, is better than every single one of the answers it crosses. I know this film mainly from the background of the comic Watchmen.
11D: Killers that may go through hoops (ORCAS) — those must be big hoops. I tend to avoid animal parks of all kinds, so I wouldn't know.
12D: City near Oneida Lake (UTICA) — I was bracing for something much more obscure. I've never been there, but know it well from a. "The Simpsons" (a single joke about hamburgers and Albany and Utica that I have never forgotten) and b. the fact that a friend of mine used to commute there to teach.
25D: Luis in the Red Sox Hall of Fame (TIANT) — I always get him confused with Dock Ellis (they pitched in the same era). Ellis was most famous, probably, for pitching a no-hitter while high on LSD.
33D: Ticket, informally (DUCAT) — I ... don't know what this means. Is it old-timey? I know DUCAT as a very old-timey coin.
35D: Color-streaked playing marble (IMMIE) — another triple-stack fill casualty. Not great.
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