Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: HALF — a rebus puzzle with six "HALF" squares placed symmetrically around the grid (four in the corners, two near the center)
Word of the Day: PAREO (48A: Tahitian-style wraparound skirt) —
The pāreu or pareo (see below) is the Cook Islands and Tahitian word for a wraparound skirt. Originally it was used only to refer to women's skirts, as men wore a loincloth, called a maro. Nowadays the term is applied to any piece of cloth worn wrapped around the body, worn by males or females. It is related to the Malay sarong, Sāmoan lavalava, Tongan tupenu and other such garments of the Pacific Islands such as the islands of Hawaiʻi, Marquesas, Aotearoa, and Fiji. (wikipedia)
• • •
[It's pledge week here at the Rex Parker site (thru Sat.) —read my pitch for donations in the opening paragraphs of Sunday's write-up, here ... and thanks for your faithful readership (and the many kind messages I've received so far)]
An enjoyable and (mostly) easy rebus puzzle. A bit tough getting off the ground, but once I backed that first HALF into the corner in the NW, it squawked pretty quickly. Once the next HALF showed up, I knew what I was looking for and it was off to the races (esp. in the bottom half where I just put the "HALF"s in the corners and got the crosses instantly). Not a terribly ambitious rebus, but fine for a Wednesday (when most people aren't expecting to see one). The strangest thing about this puzzle is the grid—there's a boatload of black squares (42 by my count), including two giant blocks of nine squares each on either side of 1/2 AND 1/2. The chosen theme answers, and their placement, pretty much necessitate this blackness (1/2 AND 1/2 has to be centered, but because of the placement of the theme answers around the edges, nothing can go on either side of 1/2 AND 1/2). Whatever the reason, the result has some unfortunate consequences, namely a highly segmented grid with a *huge* amount of short (and hence uninteresting) fill. 28 three-letter words (I think). Is that high? That seems high? Add in the four-letter words (12, I think), and over half the answers are tiny. There's also some YAKky fill in the longer stuff, like NICOLET (?) (11D: Lake Michigan explorer Jean ___) and DESERET (?) (45D: Provisional Mormon state) and PAREO (!?). TO ANY is a
bad partial, but you gotta give a puzzle like this some leeway, especially in the middle where the "HALF" answers aren't safely hugging the wall, but right in the middle of everything. In the end, I liked it. Uneven, quality-wise, but ultimately enjoyable.HALF-BAKED is my favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. ONE HALF is, by far, the weakest theme answer. Would have loved to have seen HALF TIME, HALF WIT, HALFLING (D&D nerds know what I'm talking about), TWO AND A HALF MEN, or comics legend HAL FOSTER (creator of "Prince Valiant").
The HALFs:
- HALF BAKED / HALF TRUTH
- ONE HALF / HALF NELSON
- HALF AND HALF / SAWED IN HALF / HALF HEARTED
- BETTER HALF (37D: Wife, colloquially) / HALF DAY
- FIRST HALF / OTHER HALF (49D: Jacob Riis subjects, with "the")
I somehow don't think of BEAT OUT as conveying the "barely" part of 2D: Barely defeat. I had EDGE OUT (first thing in the grid). That NW corner was the hardest, not just because it came first (before I had the theme), but because of BEAT OUT and then TEXACO (Berle was waaaaay before my time—no idea about his corporate sponsors, 14A: Milton Berle's longtime sponsor), and then DONEN (musical theater names and I do not get along) (6D: "Singin' in the Rain" director Stanley). Knowing UKR. straight off helped. A lot. Potentially tricky words like TOLUENE and HULKS and TYRE (34A: Port on the eastern Mediterranean) all fell 1-2-3. Rest of the grid was a snap except the end, in the SE, where PAREO was a huge mystery, and P-ENUPS made no sense to me at all. I was parsing it wrong, breaking it between the "N" and "U." Something-UPS? After rechecking all the crosses, I had a "D'oh!" moment when PRE-NUPS came leaping forth (44D: Marriage contracts, briefly). Done and done.Bullets:
- 23A: "Misty" composer Garner (ERROLL) — more old musical stuff I don't know!? At least tap into some of my other ignorances. Spread the misery around!
- 66A: "Time After Time" singer Cyndi (LAUPER) — love her! "She's So Unusual" is great, and apt. Apt!
- 53D: Moe parodied him in some W.W. II-era Three Stooges shorts (ADOLF) — ... and yet you will never see HITLER in an NYT puzzle. I guess he's less evil when you call him by his first name.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
P.S. THE Song of 2010 ... translated. Awesomely. Adorably. (Sorry— the profanity is in the title itself, so I can't really hide it ... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment