New York Times, Saturday, October 21, 2017
| Author: | Samuel A. Donaldson and Brad Wilber |
| Editor: | Will Shortz |
BRAD: As I recall, this collaboration started when Sam sent me a dense and ambitious block at the middle of the grid. EMOJI and ROGUE ONE were the clear stars. It was mostly beautiful, but I think there was some plural that set off my Hinky Meter.
SAM: What, ALGEBRAS is bad? More importantly, I now want to make a puzzle containing HINKY METER.
BRAD: I sent back something that kept ROGUE ONE and crossed it with a specific EMOJI that we thought lent verve in its debut.
SAM: Yes, credit to Brad for the use of a particular EMOJI, and double (nay, triple) credit to him for the [Sext symbols] clue. One of my favorites.
BRAD: Sam supplied another great pop-culture 15, and helped me out with the nice SET MENU in the NW, as I wanted to recycle COSMIC JOKE from an abandoned draft of something I did with Byron Walden. Sam was crushing it on the cluing front, too: 39A, 10D & 11D echo. We submitted two clues for 17A, both his, and I was hoping maybe to see the other one, which poked fun at an urban myth about their shelf life.
SAM: I love me a Wilber-Walden collaboration--a guaranteed thirty hours of staring and erasing (and fun).
BRAD: Sam and I both worked on all the remaining corners after the SW went in, trying out combinations off the Z, voting Version 1 or Version 2 like at the eye doctor. Always a joy to see Sam's mind and craft going on all cylinders.
SAM: Brad is one of the great collaborators in crosswords. I believe this is his 25th collaboration in the Times, a testament to how well he plays with others. (Hey, I now have something in common with Emanuel Ax!) He is forgiving and supportive, but his keen eye also gets you to perform at your best.
I haven't enjoyed a debut entry as much as COSMIC JOKE in ages. Not only is it a beautiful, existentialist, Vonnegutesque term, but I struggled so mightily with the -MICJ- string in the middle. It had to be wrong. Had to, had to, had to! What a joy to finally piece it together, sitting back and admiring the awesome entry.
HOSTESS TWINKIES and HOT PEPPER EMOJIS made for delicious feature entries. I know the former is bad for me. But gosh darn it, they're so satisfying. Especially when deep-fried. Twice. The latter wasn't entirely familiar to me, as I'm still not much of an emoji user. Aren't there a million emojis these days? Doesn't it seem arbitrary to choose these specific ones to feature? There's probably some hilarious special meaning to HOT PEPPER EMOJIS (that all the kids are giggling at me for not knowing).
Along with some MC ESCHER, SEA SNAKE, TINKERER, GREENLIT, there were enough strong entries to keep me happy.
Brad's Saturday Stumpers and themelesses in general are some of my most favorite and most feared puzzles. (That's how I'll define "Wilberian" from now on.) He has such a wealth of information, being a librarian and all, that I always pick up something new from his puzzles. He's usually good about not introducing too much, making sure that all the learning doesn't turn off solvers.
Today, it was STANHOPE. I enjoyed reading up on it, basically an old-school term for a horse-drawn carriage, named after an old English dude. I'll tuck this term away for trivia nights. STANHOPE being the sole new term for me, the puzzle didn't come across as teachy.
COACH K might be tough for some, but the longtime Duke bball coach (you might go by COACH K too if your last name was Krzyzewski) is no doubt crossworthy. Five NCAA championships!
I enjoyed COSMIC JOKE so much that I thought about handing out the POW! based on that alone. But with some wastage in MAIN GATE, SYSTOLES, RECAST, IMARETS — all fine entries, but all paling in comparison to COSMIC JOKE — and a bit of CEE, TO BED, NAES, it didn't quite make it.
Kind of a COSMIC JOKE that COSMIC JOKE made everything else seem less interesting in comparison!
1 D | 2 A | 3 M | 4 A | 5 S | 6 C | 7 U | 8 S | 9 T | 10 H | 11 E | 12 M | 13 G | 14 S |
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15 S | T | A | N | H | O | P | E | 16 H | I | L | A | R | Y |
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17 H | O | S | T | E | S | S | T | 18 W | I | N | K | I | E | S |
19 A | N | S | E | L | M | 20 M | E | N | D | 21 N | E | T |
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22 R | E | I | D | 23 I | 24 C | E | D | 25 S | 26 E | G | N | O |
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27 P | D | F | 28 S | C | H | N | O | 29 Z | 30 C | A | L | L |
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31 B | I | J | O | U | 32 I | 33 N | A | T | I | E |
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34 M | 35 R | 36 M | A | G | O | O | 37 I | M | A | R | E | T | S |
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38 C | O | A | C | H | K | 39 T | O | B | E | D | ||||
40 E | G | G | O | 41 E | 42 L | E | N | A | S | 43 J | 44 I | 45 G |
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46 S | U | N | N | 47 I | 48 A | R | A | B | 49 T | O | M | E |
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50 C | E | E | 51 T | 52 S | P | S | 53 W | 54 O | B | B | L | Y |
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55 H | O | T | 56 P | E | P | P | E | 57 R | E | M | O | J | I | S |
58 E | N | I | G | M | A | 59 S | E | A | S | N | A | K | E |
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60 R | E | C | A | S | T | 61 T | I | N | K | E | R | E | R |
| Across | Down | |
| 1. The Mideast's City of Jasmine : DAMASCUS 9. Backup for R&B's Booker T. : THEMGS 15. Open, one-seated horse-drawn carriage : STANHOPE 16. ___ B. Price, creator of the comic strip "Rhymes With Orange" : HILARY 17. Iconic snacks that re-debuted in 2013 : HOSTESSTWINKIES 19. Sainted archbishop of Canterbury : ANSELM 20. Darn : MEND 21. It may have butterflies : NET 22. Tara of the "Sharknado" films : REID 23. Clinched : ICED 25. Score mark indicating a passage to be repeated : SEGNO 27. Adobe document suffix : PDF 28. Honker : SCHNOZ 30. Poker action : CALL 31. Exquisite gem : BIJOU 32. Knotted : INATIE 34. Toon who often congratulates himself with "You've done it again!" : MRMAGOO 37. Near Eastern inns : IMARETS 38. Duke legend, to fans : COACHK 39. Phrase said five times by Lady Macbeth soon after "Out, damned spot!" : TOBED 40. Kellogg's brand : EGGO 41. Tennis players Dementieva and Makarova : ELENAS 43. Display of glee : JIG 46. World's largest religious denomination : SUNNI 48. Steed noted for its stamina : ARAB 49. "Personally ..." : TOME 50. Part of a Connecticut trio? : CEE 51. Amts. of powder, maybe : TSPS 53. Unstable : WOBBLY 55. Sext symbols : HOTPEPPEREMOJIS 58. The Mona Lisa's smile, e.g. : ENIGMA 59. Coral reef inhabitant : SEASNAKE 60. Put in another light : RECAST 61. Typical inventor : TINKERER |
1. Note in the B major scale : DSHARP 2. Expiated : ATONED 3. Cluster of mountains : MASSIF 4. Got in the game, say : ANTED 5. First name in children's literature : SHEL 6. Twist of fate you can't help but laugh at : COSMICJOKE 7. Paradoxical answer to appear among the Downs in a crossword : UPS 8. Thanksgiving offering at many restaurants : SETMENU 9. Add water to, say : THIN 10. Some deer : HINDS 11. Some deer : ELK 12. It's usually next to a ticket booth : MAINGATE 13. O.K.'d : GREENLIT 14. Contractions of the heart : SYSTOLES 18. Shared vow : WEDO 24. Shoe designer Jimmy : CHOO 26. Lame (but eco-friendly) birthday gift : ECARD 28. It may accompany an eye roll : SIGH 29. Dweller between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers : ZIMBABWEAN 31. Earnings, in slang : BACON 33. Turndowns across the Atlantic : NAES 34. Artist who drew "Waterfall" and "Hand With Reflecting Sphere" : MCESCHER 35. Second-highest-grossing movie of 2016 after "Captain America: Civil War" : ROGUEONE 36. Attractive : MAGNETIC 37. Where Macbeth is buried : IONA 39. Least likely to ramble : TERSEST 42. Certain Finn : LAPP 43. Household chore system : JOBJAR 44. "And my reaction was ...," in teenspeak : IMLIKE 45. Jet launcher : GEYSER 47. Word on an express lane sign : ITEMS 49. What's your beef? : TBONE 52. Small scrap : SPAT 54. Locale of Dostoyevsky's exile : OMSK 56. ___ Championship (event since 1916) : PGA 57. King, in Portugal : REI |
Answer summary: 6 unique to this puzzle, 1 debuted here and reused later, 1 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?