The One in the Matrix / THU 2-23-12 / Meany of story / Famous cloth locale / Magazine once published by Playboy / Ancient Mexican / Big name in vacuums

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: AROUND (46A: Word needed to be added to 12 appropriately placed answers in this puzzle for their clues to make sense) — answers AROUND the edge of the grid need to be followed by AROUND to make sense

Word of the Day: MEGABIT (40A: Storage unit) —

The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix mega (symbol M) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 10⁶ (1 million),^[1] and therefore

1 megabit = 10⁶bits = 1000000bits = 1000 kilobits.

The megabit has the unit symbol Mbit or Mb.
Using the common byte size of 8 bits, 1 Mbit is roughly equal to 125 kilobytes (kB) or approximately 122 kibibytes (KiB). (wikipedia) [please don't ask me to explain the relationship of MEGABIT to "megabyte," because it's too late and I barely understand myself]

• • •

Just getting over a cold and I have to teach early, so this will be super-short.

I liked it fine. I can't decide if this benefits from or suffers because of the recent MARGIN FOR ERROR puzzle. This puzzle is certainly superior, but having just seen a "answers on the edges have x in common" puzzle, the revelation of this puzzle's gimmick did nothing for me. Shrug. I like all the Ks, and for a grid with a preponderance of short fill, it's pretty lively and interesting. Lots of Ks, which is rarely bad. The random placement of AROUND is a bit of a distraction (this gives the puzzle something in common with the MARGIN FOR ERROR, though the revealer placement there was more "train wreck" than oddity). I probably took longest to get the MEGABIT portion of the grid. Did not know that was a word. Or, I did, but then "megabyte" ate it alive and so I forgot it. That [Meany of story] clue should get a prize. Don't know if it's original, but it's good. Like a good chunk of America, I instinctively dropped in OGRE (it's OWEN). 

Theme answers:

• SHOOT
• ROOT
• JERK
• KNOCK
• FOOL (I wrote FART at first; not kidding) 
• POKE
• HORSE
• MESS
• KICK
• STICK
• COME 
• SHOP

Bullets:

• 17A: Many a nude beach visitor (OGLER) — this seems an unfair assumption. Why not just write [Many a beach visitor]? Seems at least as likely to be true.
• 34A: The One, in "The Matrix" (NEO) — recently had a class discussion about NEO. Students made lots of great comparisons between him and Aeneas.  
• 5D: Famous cloth locale (TURIN) — frowny face. Is this about the Shroud? Or do they really make cloth in TURIN?
• 29D: Items sometimes tossed in strongman contests (KEGS) — really? Can't picture it. I think I'm thinking of the Highland Games, where guys throw logs or hammers or sheep or something.
• 51D: Ancient Mexican (OLMEC) — the good thing about guessing AZTEC is you're 40% right.
• 54D: Johnny Storm a k a the Human ___ (TORCH) — did I mention I also teach Comics? The Human TORCH is one of the "Fantastic Four."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Kuomintang co-founder / SUN 11-27-11 / Italian automaker since 1906 / Dogpatch yokel / Sci-fi zapper / Villainous role for Montalban

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "YIN/YANG" — grid is half black (gray) / half white, with Yin/Yang symbol in the middle. Symmetrical theme answers contain words that are opposites / counterparts of one another.

Word of the Day: INIGO Jones (120A: Architect Jones) —

Inigo Jones (or Iñigo Jones) (July 15, 1573 – June 21, 1652) is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England. He left his mark on London by single buildings, such as the Banqueting House, Whitehall, and in area design for Covent Garden square which became a model for future developments in the West End. He also made major contributions to stage design by his work as theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson. (wikipedia)

• • •

Big thumbs up for this one. I vaguely admired it even before I realized that the dark and light parts of the grid contained opposites—cool shape, interesting fill, that was enough for me. The SUMMER/WINTER, HOT/COLD etc. thing just puts it over the top. Most Sundays are just oversized Wednesdays, and get a bit tedious about half way through. Not this one. Perhaps because the grid shape creates so many short answers, this puzzle felt quite easy. I was actually surprised I didn't come in under 10 minutes, as I hardly hesitated at all while filling it in. The theme answers in the yang (white) part of the symbol did not come easily, so there was some struggle there, and I wasn't sure what followed SUMMER at first, and I wrote in EJECT for 108D: Boot, in baseball, e.g. (ERROR), so that took a bit of undoing. But the longest theme answers (in west and east) went in almost instantaneously, and most of the short fill was not tough at all. Overall, it was a delightful solving experience. Imaginative. Lively. Good stuff.

A couple of weird / off things, though: first, the yin (black) part should have a white dot (square) inside it, technically. Obviously, this isn't really possible in a crossword puzzle. Or maybe it is, with some imagination. Also, LIGHT in LIGHT AS A FEATHER pairs with DARK in AFRAID OF THE DARK ... but it also pairs perfectly with a totally asymmetrical theme answer: HOT AND HEAVY. I find this very mildly distracting.

Theme answers:

• 24A: Full of strong feelings (HOT AND HEAVY)
• 31A: Something to enjoy on a beach (SUMMER BREEZE)
  

• 42D: Weighing hardly anything (LIGHT AS A FEATHER)
• 37D: Walter Mitty, e.g. (DAYDREAMER)
• 48D: Kuomintang co-founder (SUN YAT-SEN) — Kuomintang being an early form of Yahtzee, which is itself a corruption of the original triumphant shout: "YAT-SEN!"
  
• 116A: Started sneezing and sniffling, say (CAUGHT A COLD)
• 102A: He might put chills up your spine (OLD MAN WINTER)
• 16D: Suffering from nyctophobia (AFRAID OF THE DARK)
• 43D: Time in Hawaii, say (HONEYMOON)
• 45D: Question asked to one with a hangover ("ROUGH NIGHT?")     

Some things I did not know: that there were nine Thai kings named RAMA; That Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) was the Grp. with the 1973 gold album "Brain Salad Surgery"; that the SAHARA was the Bygone Las Vegas hotel/casino with a roller coaster; that LANCIA was the name of an Italian automaker since 1906. Many of the other proper nouns were right up my alley, however. HOMER didn't write "By their own follies they perished, the fools," but one of his translators surely did. L'il ABNER is a comics legend (20A: Dogpatch yokel), just as KHAN is an '80s scifi legend (27A: Villainous role for Montalban) (don't think he had a RAY GUN, though—14D: Sci-fi zapper). I only wish that Andy GIBB were in the white part of the grid, to counterbalance Marilyn MCCOO in the black (104D: Marilyn who hosted 1980s TV's "Solid Gold").





Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Big name in Bosox history / MON 10-31-11 / Passe TV hookup / Classic 1982 movie line spoken with outstretched finger

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: VAMPIRE (38A: Creature who might disagree with the saying at the ends of 17-, 22-, 48- and 56-Across) — ends of the theme answers, taken in order, make up the phrase "ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY"

Word of the Day: YAZ (59D: Big name in Bosox history) —

Carl Michael Yastrzemski (born August 22, 1939) is a former American Major League Baseball left fielder and first baseman. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989. Yastrzemski played his entire 23-year baseball career with the Boston Red Sox (1961–1983). He was primarily a left fielder, with part of his later career played at first base and as a designated hitter. Yastrzemski is an 18-time All-Star, the possessor of seven Gold Gloves, a member of the 3000 hit club, and the first American League player in that club to also accumulate over 400 home runs. He is second on the all-time list for games played, and third for total at-bats. He is the Red Sox' all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played, and is second on the team's list for home runs behind another Red Sox great, Ted Williams, his predecessor in left field. In 1967, Yastrzemski achieved a peak in his career, leading the Red Sox to the American League pennant for the first time in over two decades, in that season being voted the American League MVP, and being the last winner of the triple crown for batters in the major leagues. (wikipedia)

• • •

I like the grid, but I'm not sure about the theme. Why would a VAMPIRE have an opinion about this saying? What is he disagreeing with, exactly? He's the biter, not the bitten, so ... there's nothing for him to disagree with here. Or is it that he has already been bitten (which caused the vampirism in the first place)? OK, so ... disagreeing with this phrase means ... that he'd like to be bitten again? That's not how vampires work? They don't bite other vampires (do they?). Further, given that "ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY" is an idiom that has nothing to do with actual biting, let alone vampires, shouldn't the VAMPIRE clue have a "?" on it. This is kind of a clunky attempt to be cutesy. But, as I said, the grid is pretty sweet, and I enjoyed solving it, so no big complaints here.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Simultaneously (ALL AT ONCE) — I think of this as meaning "suddenly," not "simultaneously."
• 22A: Like many itchy mutts (FLEA-BITTEN)
• 48A: Be deliberative (THINK TWICE)
• 56A: Not wanting to be shot? (CAMERA SHY) — that little twist on "shot" caused one of the only slow-downs I had during this solve. The other was at EVADE (I went ELUDE, of course—I hate having those words in my grid for this very reason). Oh, and at CARNEY / CARAT, where I seriously had to think (twice) about whether to go with the "K" Or the "C" spellings on those words.
  

Ended up breaking the 3-minute mark on this one by exactly one second—pretty normal for me when I solve using software (I prefer Puzzle Solver over AcrossLite), but fast for me when I solve on the NYT applet (as I did today). Something about the way the cursor moves in the applet feels counterintuitive. No big deal. Got my speed today when I slingshotted from COWHAND to DITZ to YAZ without a hitch (59D: Big name in Bosox history). Bam bam bam. LOUPE is a good Halloween word (16A: Jeweler's magnifying tool), as it's (nearly) French for wolf. Loup-garou = werewolf. Also Halloweenish: "E.T. PHONE HOME" (24D: Classic 1982 movie line spoken with an outstretched finger). Was surprised to see the puzzle also includes the lesser known line from that movie, from when E.T. gets drunk: "E.T. HICS."




Bullets:

• 5D: Indigenous New Zealanders (MAORI) — other good crossword words from N.Z. include MOA, the criminally underused KEA, and, of course, HAAST'S EAGLE (never been in the xword — it's just my favorite bird of all time and I like to mention it every chance I get; if I were dressing up for Halloween, I'd go as a HAAST'S EAGLE. Like the MOA, these eagles are extinct. Unlike the MOA, they were giant flying predators who ate MOA for breakfast)
• 11D: "It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am" speaker (MUHAMMAD ALI) —I love that guy.

• 26A: Oscar : film :: ___ : TV (EMMY) — because I'd already seen ERNIE by this point (25D: Bert's pal on "Sesame Street"), I assumed "Oscar" was the Grouch.
• 38D: Passé TV hookup (VCR) — I found myself wishing I still had one the other day when I got a movie from interlibrary loan and the only format it came in was VHS. How is "Fatso" not readily available on DVD? Anne Bancroft directed!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Young migratory fish / WED 9-14-11 / 2004 movie featuring clash of sci-fi species / Discovery Channel survival show / Chewbacca kin

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: VS. — four different versions "___ VS. ___" plus one such phrase (1A) with an implied "VS."


Word of the Day: NEVIS (40A: Neighbor of St. Kitts) —

Nevis [...] is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 350 km east-southeast of Puerto Rico and 80 km west of Antigua. The 93 km² island is part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. The capital of Nevis is Charlestown. // Nevis, along with Saint Kitts, forms the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The two islands are separated by a shallow two-mile (3.22 km) channel, known as "The Narrows". Nevis is conical in shape, with a volcanic peak, Nevis Peak, at its centre. The island is fringed on its western and northern quadrants by sandy beaches that are composed of a mixture of white coral sand with brown and black sand, eroded and washed down from the volcanic rocks that make up the island. The gently-sloping coastal plain (0.6 miles/1 km wide) has natural fresh-water springs, as well as non-potable volcanic hot springs, especially along the western coast. (wikipedia)

• • •

RENT VS. BUY feels awfully weak, but I see that there are plenty of sites out there that bear witness to its common usage, so I can't complain too much. I've heard people ponder whether to rent or buy, but I've never heard the phrase "RENT VS. BUY," the way I've often heard "NATURE VS. NURTURE." The other three theme answers are titles / names, so they're solid. I don't really get why VS. is allowed to disappear in the SPY [VS.] SPY answer, but I sort of like its weirdness. Something about the missing "VS." is kind of cute. I'm quite sure there are many solvers who will never have heard of "MAN VS. WILD," just as there are some who will not have heard of "ALIEN VS. PREDATOR," but both are popular, so aside from the fact that they both come from the vague realm of popular (as does "SPY [VS.] SPY"), I don't think there's much to criticize there.


Theme answers:

• 1A: Foe of 71-Across in Mad magazine (SPY) / 71A: Foe of 1-Across in Mad magazine (SPY)
• 17A: Genetics-or-environment debate (NATURE VS. NURTURE)
  
• 35A: Discovery Channel survival show ("MAN VS. WILD")
  
• 45A: Home-seeker's decision (RENT VS. BUY)
  
• 64A: 2004 movie featuring a clash of sci-fi species ("ALIEN VS. PREDATOR") — speaking of sci-fi species ... WOOKIEES! (55A: Chewbacca and kin)
  

Felt like I blew through this very quickly, but ended up with a pretty normal Wednesday time. I guess I had enough trouble in the NEVIS / STRATEGY / HAND (53A: Standing O, say) / INCOG (67A: Wearing a disguise, informally) region of the grid to keep my time in check. I think I don't know what Generalship means. I have never used the word, and certainly didn't know it could mean STRATEGY. Not knowing NEVIS or understanding HAND and thinking INCOG was IN COS (as in "In Costume" ... not so weird if you know the term COSPLAY) made it Very difficult for me to see STRATEGY. Found BONES (7D: Our 206) and SKULKS (8D: Moves furtively) a little devilish as well. Mistakes included ORAL B instead of PLAN B, ELVIN for ELFIN, and SLYER for SLIER. Somehow, I was able to pull ELVER out of my crossword hat no problem (29D: Young migratory fish).

Bullets:

• 25A: "And ___ Was," 1985 Talking Heads song ("SHE") — along with "Please, Please Me," "Little Creatures" by Talking Heads was one of the very first CDs I owned. This is when CDs were still sort of a novelty. I got a CD player for Christmas, I think. Anyway, CDs weren't that common, and I didn't own many, so I completely wore out the ones I had. I know this Talking Heads album like the back of my hand. Better, probably.

• 48D: Austin Powers foe (DR. EVIL) — there are at least a handful of people across the country right now going, "... DREVIL? What kind of a name is DREVIL!?")
  
• 55D: Like moiré patterns (WAVY) — never saw this clue, which is good, as I could pick "moiré" out of a line-up.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Whoops, forgot to mention that there's an interesting article on Will's editorial process up at theatlantic.com. You get to see him work on a nice Liz Gorski puzzle. Enjoy.

Jocular term for fear of palindromes / WED 5-4-11 / Argonaut who slew Castor / Pole tossed in Scottish competition / Phrase inspired by Napoleon

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: U-TURN (65A: Maneuver required five times to finish this puzzle) — five Downs appear to end in a single, unchecked letter, but make sense if you read Down and then (making a U-TURN) read back up again


Word of the Day: REDLINING (8D: Discriminatory insurance practice) —

Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a Northwestern University sociologist and community activist. It describes the practice of marking a red line on a map to delineate the area where banks would not invest; later the term was applied to discrimination against a particular group of people (usually by race or sex) no matter the geography. During the heyday of redlining, the areas most frequently discriminated against were black inner city neighborhoods. For example, in Atlanta, through at least the 1980s, this practice meant that banks would often lend to lower-income whites but not to middle- or upper-income blacks. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow, this grid looks nuts. I like. I had a rough time with this one, even after I discovered the theme (which itself probably took me several minutes). Oooh, I just noticed that the black squares surrounding the ends of all the theme answers actually form the letter "U." That is Nice. Anyway, as I was saying, difficult for me, especially in the top middle—never heard of RED-LINING, and thought CABER (15A: Pole tossed in Scottish competition) was TABOR (which is a small drum, not a largish pole). I would never say PORT WINES (23A: Sweet beverages often served with dessert), as what else could PORT be? PORT nail polish? PORT answering machines? So, yeah, that whole wide-open section was a struggle. But a not unpleasant one. My favorite part of the whole puzzle is probably the clue on PHONE LINE (20A: It's often discovered dead in a horror film). Brilliant. AIBOHPHOBIA is from outer space, but given the theme, and the fair crosses, I kind of like it. All in all, one of the most creative and interesting-looking Wednesday puzzles I've seen in a while.

Theme answers:

• 2D: Lionized (DEIF[IED])
  
• 7D: Phrase inspired by Napoleon (ABLE WAS I ER[E I SAW ELBA)
  
• 12D: Kind of cuff (ROTA[TOR])
  
• 25D: Classic introduction (MADAM, I'[M ADAM]) — here's one thing I don't like: two of the theme answers are famous palindromes, phrases that exist only because some palindrome-lover invented them. This makes them unlike DEIFIED and ROTATOR, which are ordinary words that just happen to be palindromes, and AIBOHPHOBIA, a "jocular" term I've never seen before (30D: Jocular term for fear of palindromes)

Had trouble in the west with the Obscure IDAS (35A: Argonaut who slew Castor), and the odd SAN, which seems like it should have some Spanish-word-indicator somewhere in the clue (39A: Gabriel, for one). I went to school in the San Gabriel Valley. My graduating classes motto was ... palindrome. No fooling. I was class of 1991. Never heard of YATES (56A: Eastwood's "Rawhide" role), but most everything else seemed gettable. ORNE and ATTU and IRANI represent some unfortunate exotic crosswordese, but the BLESS YOU / YES, MASTER (49A: Genie's affirmative) / DR. WATSON (37D: Noted literary narrator) trifecta means that I hardly notice the garbage.

Bullets:

• 21D: Pardner's mount (HOSS) — If you have enough Rs in you to say "Pardner," then you can damn sure say "horse."
  
• 31D: Swing accompanier (SLIDE) — Me: "What's a 'swing & slide'? ... *oh*, like on a playground. OK."
  
• 32A: Exchanges (MARTS) — as in "my wife and I marted vows 8 years ago..."
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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