Female charmer of myth / FRI 11-11-11 / Norse equivalent of Mars / Layer of green eggs / Denigrates British slang

Constructor: Alex Vratsanos

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: 11 — not a theme, really; just an arrangement of black squares

Word of the Day: O.P.A. (48A: W.W. II rationing org.) —

The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA was originally to control money (price controls) and rents after the outbreak of World War II. // President Franklin D. Roosevelt revived the Advisory Commission to World War I Council on National Defense on May 29, 1940, to include Price Stabilization and Consumer Protection Divisions. Both divisions merged to become the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (OPACS) within the Office for Emergency Management by Executive Order 8734, April 11, 1941. Civil supply functions were transferred to the Office of Production Management. // It became an independent agency under the Emergency Price Control Act, January 30, 1942. The OPA had the power to place ceilings on all prices except agricultural commodities, and to ration scarce supplies of other items, including tires, automobiles, shoes, nylon, sugar, gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats and processed foods. At the peak, almost 90% of retail food prices were frozen. It could also authorize subsidies for production of some of those commodities. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was a little disappointing, only because I knew an "11" tribute puzzle was coming, and I expected something thematic, not just a black square arrangement. As themeless puzzles go, this one is OK. Long answers are nice, short answers are ... not so nice, often. Is all the 3-to-5-letter muck worth three decent 15s? Maybe. I really like IN FITS AND STARTS, CRIMINALIZATION, and SPRINKLER SYSTEM. I'm less keen on NATES and ENTOM. and OPA, as well as the slew of less irksome but still overly common stuff. This includes a rather large gathering of names from the Pantheon of Crosswordese: ARIE, DINA, CALE, ESAI. But I read that this is actually a much more polished version of the grid that was originally submitted, so let's just admire that damn "11" and be glad that the puzzle hangs together fairly well, without any particularly horrible patches.





Weird revelation of the day: I have no idea what "Concentration" is (old game show). Had -WE for 34D: "Concentration" pronoun (EWE) and wrote in I/WE.

11 Bullets:

• 4A: Media inits. since 1927 (BBC) — I think I wanted UPI. I wrote in RPI (which is a school).
• 7A: Music genre of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (SKA) — They're from Bos-ton. Get it?

• 36A: Denigrates, in British slang (SLAGS) — first guess correct! I usually tank British slang clues.
• 39A: Things gotten with a credit card, often (MILES) — me: DEBTS.
• 41A: Atlanta sch. with 30,000+ students (GSU) — Flat-out guess. It's big, it's in Georgia, it's abbrev'd. ... bingo.
• 44A: Carrie Chapman ___, founder of the League of Women Voters (CATT) — Took me a while to accept this answer, as I get my suffragists mixed up with my teetotalers (for good reason), and thus couldn't get Carrie Nation out of my head.
• 49A: Norse equivalent of Mars (TYR) — not the best known of the Norse gods. I learned about him from crosswords. 
• 51A: Female charmer of myth (LORELEI) — as 7-letter answers go, this one is pretty common. Always good to store away words and names made up mostly of vowels.
• 2D: 1940 Crosby/Lamour/Hope comedy ("ROAD TO SINGAPORE") — I knew it was "ROAD TO..." something. From there, I let ESAI and GSU guide me to the right destination.
• 10D: Carnegie Hall debut of 1928, with "An" ("AMERICAN IN PARIS") — Gershwin.

• 31D: Layer of green eggs (EMU) — Considered briefly whether ROE was indeed green. Then got the joke.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Hoosier university / MON 6-13-11 / Man in Iron Mask role Jeremy Irons / City midway between Dallas Austin / Tribe allied with Missouri once

Constructor: Alex Vratsanos

Relative difficulty: Medium (strictly time-wise, this might skew slightly harder)

THEME: PING / PONG (23A: With 57-Across, game that includes the starts of 17-, 29-, 48- and 64-Across) — self-explanatory


Word of the Day: ARAMIS (2D: "The Man in the Iron Mask" role for Jeremy Irons) —

C. René d'Aramis de Vannes (born René d'Herblay) is a fictional character in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père. He and the other two musketeers Athos and Porthos are friends of the novels' protagonist, d'Artagnan. // The fictional Aramis is loosely based on the historical musketeer Henri d'Aramitz.

• • •

I've got a house guest, so can't spend much time writing today. I was put off by this puzzle almost instantly because it seemed so nakedly ass-kissing, i.e. it's about PING PONG, which is Will Shortz's most favoritest thing in the world besides crosswords. PING PONG might even trump crosswords, I don't know. I noticed recently on Facebook that someone had tagged Will in some photos—they were PING PONG-, not crossword-, related. So I was audibly booing the theme, which is Totally unfair, but I'm just being honest. The grid is actually very interesting, and strangely wide-open-feeling for a 78-worder. Banks of long answers crossing other long answers in both hemispheres of the grid. Finished in 3:07, which is well within the bounds of normal for me on a Monday, but it definitely felt chewier than your average Monday as I was doing it. Theme didn't do much for me, but the grid is actually very nice.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Laundry that's often food-stained (TABLE LINEN)
  
• 29A: How much you really earned (NET INCOME)
  
• 48A: Hoosier university (BALL STATE)
  
• 64A: Lakeshore rental, perhaps (PADDLEBOAT)
  

There's one clue that seems wrong to me: 28D: Putting women down, e.g. (SEXIST). The clue is a nominative phrase, which is to say, it should have a noun as an answer. Putting women down is SEXIST, and the moon is spherical, but [The moon, e.g.] cannot clue SPHERICAL. It can clue SPHERE, but not SPHERICAL. SEXIST is an adjective. The clue is not an adjective. Clue and answer must match in terms of parts of speech.



See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

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[The following announcement will be up all week the week of July 18, 2011]

I'm coming to NYC for the Lollapuzzoola Tournament on Saturday, Aug. 6 (you should go—info here). But you know that. What you don't know (yet) is that I'm coming several days early to do some interviews for a crossword project I'm working on, and I'm hoping to interview some of You (New Yorkers) about your xword habit. I'm especially interested in talking to people who think they are unlikely solvers, or who solve in weird / interesting / iconic places, or who have good solving anecdotes, or who are famous / prominent in their fields, or any combo of the above. I'm also interested in ordinary everyday solvers. I'm not looking for fast or accomplished solvers. Just interesting solvers. If you live in NYC, this (probably) means you! If you are going to be in town on Aug. 4-5 and are willing to talk to me for a few minutes, drop me a line at rexparker at mac dot com. I'll be exceedingly grateful. I'll see what kind of response I get and set up a schedule from there. If I don't hear from you, I'll just have to wander the streets harassing anyone I see solving a crossword, even though this may result in my getting punched, or worse. So help me out. Thank you!