Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle (2024)

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy

I'm already spending more time writing this than I'd planned to. So let's step on the gas here. As I say, the puzzle theme was not elevated enough to be interesting, and, because it involved palindromes, it also made the puzzle super duper easy. As I moved down the grid, I just kept filling in themers by writing in the squares that I knew would be doubled, before I even looked at the theme clues. If I got "-ALK" at the end of an answer, then I write "KLA-" in a the beginning because that's how palindromes work. So there were just freebie letters, all over the place. And even without this assist, the grid was really easy. Buncha names I didn't know (CORA TOM IAN) but they were all easy to get from crosses. Zero trouble spots otherwise. Hardest stuff for me was figuring out what followed OREO at 85D: Nabisco treat with ice cream and cookies (OREO CONE), and figuring out A-LISTER (1A: J.Lo or J-Law), a term I really don't care for or use. The clue on INFORM was also hard, because vague (8A: Brief). I had OOH before OOF (84A: "That's gotta hurt!") and, more disruptively, INNARDS before INSIDES (96D: Guts). I like my answer better. By a long shot. But whatever, none of these problems were real problems, none of these "difficulties" were very difficult, just as none of this puzzle was terribly interesting. I like the term FINAL CUT (14D: Version shown at the movie theater), and "STAY CALM" has a respectable amount of colloquial energy, but otherwise, look at the grid—there's just not a lot on offer. No real sparkle. Let's go to the lightning round...

Posted byRex Parkerat12:00 AM63comments

Labels:Jeff Chen

Constructor:ELI COTHAM

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (though I imagine your familiarity with 27A will have a pretty large bearing on whether you agree)

Nolita, sometimes written asNoLItaand deriving from "North ofLittle Italy",^[1][2][3]is a neighborhood in theboroughofManhattaninNew York City. Nolita is situated inLower Manhattan, bounded on the north byHouston Street, on the east by theBowery, on the south roughly byBroome Street, and on the west byLafayette Street.^[4]It lies east ofSoHo, south ofNoHo, west of theLower East Side, and north ofLittle ItalyandChinatown.

• • •

Hello, it's Eli filling in again! And I'm blogging about a puzzle from another Eli. Fun! I just got back from a 70mm screening of North By Northwest at the American Cinematheque and got a reminder on my phone that today's puzzle was mine, so here we are.

Unfortunately, I worry that those stacks strained the rest of the grid. I had a hard time getting going in the northwest corner. TOTO isn't the worst way to start a puzzle, but the clue felt a million years old(1A: In ___ (completely). COE (21A: Olympian Sebastian), OATEN(6D: Like some cereal), and PLUS (7D: Good thing)weren't helping. When ANTZ (24A: Debut feature for Dreamworks Animation)is the newest thing in your corner, it's going to feel dusty. WPA MURALS (14A: Some Depression-era public art) is nice, but not exactly pulling the puzzle into this century. COPAcould have been clued as the Copa America soccer tournament that ends tomorrow, but they went with the Barry Manilow song. But I do love that song, so it gets a pass.

The rest of the puzzle improves a bit, but it's not without issues. Do people outside of New York knowNOLITA? I knew it, but I don't know why, and I don't know how many people do. Also, according to the Wikipedia article that name was coined in 1996, so giving it credit for opening the first pizzeria in 1905 is a bit of a stretch. Kudos for bringing us pizza, though.

Quick Hits:

• 43D: Sam of "Jurassic Park" (NEILL)— Jurassic Park is legendary in my house, and Sam is a huge reason why. His delivery of "It's a bird cage" in Jurassic Park 3 has become an odd favorite amongst our friend group. Also, if you haven't seen Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople,it's amazing and he's fantastic in it.

• 48D: Home of the Peabody Museum of Natural History (YALE)— Do you think the constructor used this because he's an Eli? I know I would.
• 20D: Desire for a picnic (NO RAIN)— I imagine this is not a desire for Blind Melon, since they start to complain about it.

In the end, a bit of a mixed bag, but I had fun. OK, that's enough for now. I'LL SHUT UP (32D: "Sorry, that's enough out of me").

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Posted byeliselzerat5:00 AM78comments

Labels:Eli Cotham

Constructor: Malaika Handa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (if you know the proper nouns ... probably harder if you don't)

Speed round:

• 3D: "Because of Winn-Dixie" narrator (OPAL) — this story / movie missed me entirely. I am aware of the title, but literally nothing else about it. For all I know, it's about a talking dog. Is it? I feel like there's a dog on the cover of the book. Yesssss! There is. Does it talk? Please say it talks.

["I wuv you, wittle girl"]

• 36D: Carnival prize (TOY)— I wanted TAN (think Rio)
• 50D: Jewish noodle dish (KUGEL)— had the "K" and immediately wrote in KNISH; I knew it was wrong as I was doing it, but that didn't stop my fingers from typing the letters. My sincere apologies to the Jewish and culinary and Jewish culinary communities.
• 38D: Push one's buttons? (DIAL) — I love how wrong/right this answer is. That is, if you're literally DIALing, you don't push any buttons. We still use DIAL to refer to placing calls with a non-dial phone. Phones used to have literal DIALs kids. 9s took so long ... Things were better when they were clunky and slow and avocado green and not-at-all-mobile!
• 67A: Animated character who serves as an official Japanese tourism ambassador (HELLO KITTY)— always love seeingHELLO KITTYin the grid (this is its sixth appearance). Remind me of the story I've told here many times about when Andrea Carla Michaels told me Will Shortz rejected one of her puzzles that contained HELLO KITTY because he'd never heard of it and didn't think it would be well known, then shortly thereafter he saw an article aboutHELLO KITTYin an inflight magazine and told her what an amazing coincidence he thought that was. Anyway, clearly he came around, eventually. That story caused me to construct my first puzzle: a Norse gods puzzle (HELLO KITTY, "MOOD INDIGO," etc.), though I think I wasn't the first (or the last) to have that idea.
• 23D: First in a line of Egyptian pharaohs (RAMSES I)— I had the gist of it right but didn't figure on the "I" part and so tried to spell his name RAMESES

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Posted byRex Parkerat5:40 AM96comments

Labels:Malaika Handa

Constructor: Mat Sheldon

Relative difficulty: Easy

Theme answers:

• THE IRO(N L)ADY (16A: 2011 Margaret Thatcher biopic)
• RO(PE)-A-DOPE (24A: Defensive boxing strategy)
• PETRO(GR)AD(44A: Saint Petersburg, once)
• TRO(UB)ADOURS (52A: Musicians of the middle ages)

Word of the Day: ROPE-A-DOPE(24A) —

Therope-a-dopeis aboxingfighting techniquein which one contender leans against the ropes of theboxing ringand draws non-injuring offensive punches, letting the opponent tire themself out. This gives the former the opportunity then to execute devastating offensive punches to help them win. The rope-a-dope is most famously associated withMuhammad Aliin his October 1974Rumble in the Junglematch against world heavyweight championGeorge ForemaninKinshasa, Zaire.[...]The maneuver is most commonly associated with the match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". Foreman was considered by many observers to be the favorite to win the fight due to his superior punching power. Ali purposely angered Foreman during the match, provoking Foreman to attack and force him back on the ropes. Some observers at the time thought that Ali was being horribly beaten and worried that they might see him get killed in the ring.WriterGeorge Plimptondescribed Ali's stance as like "a man leaning out his window trying to see something on his roof." Far from being brutalized, however, Ali was relatively protected from Foreman's blows.Norman Mailerdescribed the advantage of Ali's rope-a-dope this way: "Standing on one's feet it is painful to absorb a heavy body punch even when blocked with one's arm. The torso, the legs, and the spine take the shock. Leaning on the ropes, however, Ali can pass it along; the rope will receive the strain."Ali's preparation for the fight, which involved toughening himself up by allowing his sparring partners to pummel him, contributed to observers' sense that Ali was outmatched. But Ali took advantage and won the match when Foreman became tired from the punches he was delivering. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is one of those puzzles that give you bad vibes right out of the gate. In this case, the bad vibes started withSTENOG, which kind of made me wince, followed by INOIL and then ALOP, which had me pausing, sighing exhaustedly, "so it's gonna be one of these puzzles," doubling over a little, that sort of thing. When the fill is that bad that early and that intensely, in such a small space, Nothing Good Is Coming. I exaggerate—"IT WAS ME" is up there too, and that answer is good—but when you get "ugh" fill right up front, in numbers greater than one, that's a sign. And once again, the sign was not wrong. Thankfully, the fill never got that intensely rough again, but neither did it get above average very often (and there was still ONRED and the absurd plural ODIUMS to come). And as for the theme: it's a one-note variation on a trick I've seen before (answer goes up, over, down again). In this case, I sussed it out very early, with THE IRON LADY—a complete gimme, and easy to get even if you've never heard of the movie (that was Thatcher's well-known nickname). THE IRON LADY wouldn't fit, but the two gray squares above that answer were like "hey, maybe put two of the letters here," so I did, and that was that. Shortly thereafter, with just the "MP" in place, I got BUMP IN THE ROAD, then looked up and saw that the "NL" in THEIRONLADY was in fact a kind of "bump" directly above "ROAD." But surely not all the "bumps" were going to be right over "ROAD"—that would be giving too much of the game away ... and. yet:

As you can see, I had to do a little work to come up with TROUBADOURS, but the rest of those themers went right in, immediately, no problem. So the theme stuff is over fast. And then there's just the grid, and as I've said, the grid doesn't have much to offer. A few minutes diversion, a walk through OK answers, but more lows than highs. I thought maybe the "bumps" would, I don't know, spell something? Do ... anything? But they just sit there, as bumps proverbially do (though usually on logs). Ultimately there's just not enough to this theme to give it any real Thursday power. And the fill is merely passable, with too many substandard bits. And that's that.

Bullets:

• 21A: Katniss's partner in "The Hunger Games" (PEETA)— how much longer am I going to be expected to retain "Hunger Games" lore? Too many universes to keep track of. I did remember PEETA, but it took some memory-jarring (i.e. some crosses).
• 1D: Kind of projection (ASTRAL) — this was, bizarrely, the first answer I got. I don't even really know what it is, but if you Match Game me with "___ projection," I'm giving you ASTRAL every time.

• 1A: They're made in the kitchen and not the gym, it's said (ABS) — Bro. Bro. Brah. Bruh. Do you even lift? (srsly by whom is this "said" and why are they not embarrassed?) (I'm at the gym at least twice a week and thankfully no one has ever "said" this to or near me) (ugh, apparently the phrase is "popular" in the "fitness community") (the idea is that diet, not (primarily) exercise, is the key to defined / visible ABS).
• 12D: Scratch (out) (EKE) — hey, it's the 100thEKEof the week! Everybody gets a prize! (sadly, that prize is anotherEKE, coming tomorrow). Actually, there have been only (only?) eightEKEsin the fa*gliano Era (i.e. in the past four months) (that's six EKEs, oneEKES, and one EKED). But eightEKEs... still feels like I'm being pummeled with EKEs.
• 36A: Bad thing to be caught on (TAPE) — not necessarily. Depends on what you're saying or doing. What are you saying or doing!?

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Posted byRex Parkerat5:43 AM80comments

Labels:Mat Sheldon

Constructor:Hal Moore

Relative difficulty: Medium

Theme answers:

• TIME TRIAL (8D: Segment of this puzzle's race)
• CHAMPS-ELYSÉES (16D: Typical ending point for this puzzle's race)
• GRAND TOUR (48A: Three-week bike race, such as the one featured in this puzzle)

Mountain ranges:

• ALPS
• PYRENEES

AnInternet Protocol address(IP address) is a numerical label such as192.0.2.1that is assigned to a device connected to acomputer networkthat uses theInternet Protocolfor communication.IP addresses serve two main functions: network interfaceidentification, and locationaddressing.

Internet Protocol version 4(IPv4) defines an IP address as a32-bitnumber.However, because of the growth of the Internet and thedepletion of available IPv4 addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the IP address, was standardized in 1998.IPv6 deploymenthas been ongoing since the mid-2000s. [...] The IP address space is managed globally by theInternet Assigned Numbers Authority(IANA), and by fiveregional Internet registries(RIRs) responsible in their designated territories for assignment tolocal Internet registries, such asInternet service providers(ISPs), and otherend users. IPv4 addresses were distributed by IANA to the RIRs in blocks of approximately 16.8million addresses each, but have been exhausted at the IANA level since 2011. Only one of the RIRs still has a supply for local assignments in Africa.Some IPv4 addresses are reserved forprivate networksand are not globally unique.

Network administratorsassign an IP address to each device connected to a network. Such assignments may be on astatic(fixed or permanent) ordynamicbasis, depending on network practices and software features. Some jurisdictions consider IP addresses to bepersonal data. (wikipedia)

• • •

[Best Director, Cannes 2024: Miguel GOMES]

If it's not TOUR DE FRANCE, then I really don't know what we're talking about, cycling-wise. TIME TRIAL? Did not know that a "trial" was just a leg of the race. GRAND TOUR? That's something young rich guys take through Europe in order to become "cultured" or whatever. A longish European voyage. See the great art and architecture, etc. It was a thing. A "finishing school for young aristocrats." I associate it with Henry James, for some reason. But a cycling term? I mean, if you say so, OK, but it's bizarre not to have the words "DE" or "FRANCE" in this puzzle, and to have the revealer, instead, be this punny whatever it is. The theme answers feel arbitrary. That is, they seem like a random bunch of Tour de France-related terms, but they appear to be picked solely because they would fit symmetrically in this grid. It's not a tight set. And the mountains, yeesh. The problem here is location and proportion, which is to say, those ranges are neither oriented toward one another that way on a map (unless the Alps moved to the NW of the Pyrenees and I didn't hear about it), nor do they appear to scale in this grid (last I checked, the Alps were the much bigger range). The mountain ranges do convey ... slope, I'll give them that. But all in all this feels like a first draft, a valiant attempt to get a concept down on paper, but with none of the kinks worked out. It's trying to do a lot, but it's a mess.

Hey, are EELS considered a VIAND? (40D: Food item, quaintly) (Segue!). Because I like EELED and VIAND about the same amount (i.e. naught, no amount, none). Also TINA'S in the ... possessive? ... not familiar to me (46A: "Tony n' ___ Wedding" (Off Broadway hit)). This is the same area of the puzzle with VICIOUS and GRAND, both theme answer parts that were not intuitive to me at all (CYCLES and TOUR, sure, those made sense, but the words that came before them, ????). And then running through (and near) alllll that, the VIAND and Tina and the front ends of the themers, was TEA CADDY (32D: Box filled with bags). Sigh. TEA CADDY. It's a thing, I know, but you know what else is a thing, a thing that is also much more "box"-like than a "CADDY"? A damned TEA CHEST, that's what! CHEST, also five letters, also starts with "C," bah humbug to CADDY. So anyway .... yeah, that section was a combination of ugly and difficult. As for the rest of the puzzle—besides the theme, I don't really remember it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. best error of the day was my complete misparsing of the answer at3D: Device identifier, in computing. I had IPAD up front and assumed that I was looking for some kind of IPAD equivalent to the "Find My iPhone" app. And then I ended up with an IPAD [space] DRESS and wondered if maybe people were "dressing" their IPADs (!?) and that's how they "identified" them??? Anyway, the IPAD DRESS—there's a money-making idea for some enterprising soul. You're welcome.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Posted byRex Parkerat5:41 AM108comments

Labels:Hal Moore

Constructor: Gary Larson and Amy Ensz

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (two toughish answers, else Easy)

More bust than boom today, I think. The concept just doesn't have enough juice. Simple concepts *can* yield snappy results, but these are all pretty limp. BOOMER BUST is probably the best, since the imagined context is mildly amusing and more than sufficiently Wacky, but the rest of these just kinda lie there. "OR" to "ER," as a concept, just doesn't have that many interesting places to go. And there aren't enough *good* "___ OR ___" phrases to choose from. Some of the ones we get today feel slightly fudged. "Boom or bust" is real enough, but "Boom *and* bust" is possibly more common (describing economic cycles). Merriam-webster dot com has "Boom-and-bust" but not "Boom-or-bust," and the first def. at the top of a google search for "Boom-or-bust" gives you the definition for "Boom-*and*-bust," and lists "Boom-or-bust" as a variant. Further, "form or fashion" doesn't really stand on its own very well. "In some form or fashion" is the full phrase. As for "Pass or fail," I've been on university campuses ... well, too long ... and while that phrasing is absolutely recognizable and acceptable, the common expression is "Pass/fail," like it's one word. "I'm taking it pass/fail." So the themer set as a whole is acceptable, but only just, and, well, it's hard to get excited about "acceptable."

Overall the puzzle played very easy, but there were two answers that slowed me down considerably (on Tuesday, any amount of slowing down beyond 5 seconds or so = "considerably"). The first, and most annoying, was PROLIFIC (40D: Like Stephen King and Isaac Asimov). I say "annoying," but that's just my speed-solver frustration talking. The clue is fine. It's just far more enigmatic than every other clue in the grid, and that answer appears at a very crucial point in the grid: the (extremely narrow) passageway from east to southeast, so while I expected to get the first letter or two and go plunging right down into the southeast, I ... did not. For all I know, Stephen King and Isaac Asimov went to the same university, or are both Pisces, or left-handed, or ... PR-, PR- ... PROFITABLE? PRINTERS? PRUDENT? For whatever reason, PROLIFIC just wouldn't come. And I'm not sure I knew that about Asimov. King, yes, for sure, I was talking about his prolificness with my wife this past weekend as we wandered some bookstore or other. I don't know Asimov's work nearly as well, and certainly don't see his stuff on bookstore shelves in anything like the numbers that I see King's books. Again, not questioning the clue, the clue is fine. Just didn't click for me.

The bigger non-click today, however, was KARA SEA (!?!?!?). Thank god all the crosses in KARA are fair because the very existence of this sea is News To Me. As near-polar seas go, I know the Antarctic ROSS SEA (a crossword "favorite" of old), but if I've ever seen KARA SEA in crosswords before, I've plum forgotten about it. Looks like its last appearance in the NYTXW was 25 years ago (May 6, 1999). And that was a Thursday. Doubt I saw KARA SEA then, as I was probably preoccupied that week with my job interview (for the English Dept. job I still have). Not sure why they flew me back for an interview so late in the annual interview process ... (actually I do know—they wanted someone else, but that person had put her foot in her mouth somehow, or otherwise made a "bad" impression, and so I got the call) (that other person was almost certainly the better candidate; she probably "offended" someone without knowing how or why; stepped on a toe, name-dropped an unfavorable name, who knows?; faculty can be, let's say, touchy. And capricious. And cruel.). Anyway, KARA SEA, yikes, infinitely more obscure than anything else in the grid. But easily gettable from crosses, so I learn something new without shedding too much blood, hurrah.

Posted byRex Parkerat5:55 AM69comments

Labels:Amy Ensz,Gary Larson