New York Times, Monday, November 23, 2015
| Author: | Parker Lewis |
| Editor: | Will Shortz |
This puzzle was a long time in the making! I submitted the first version back in early 2014. It was rejected because my central theme answer, THIRD CULTURE KID, was deemed too obscure. I did a bit more brainstorming for alternatives and landed on THIRD TIMES A CHARM — a much better entry, but one that requires a 16x15 grid.
After producing several possible grids, I resubmitted the puzzle in late 2014. I heard back from Will with a tentative yes, provided I could clean up a few iffy entries. At that time, I was using the entry FOURTH OF JULY and no matter how creative I was with my block placements, the J was proving to be quite a problem. Changing that entry to FOURTH ESTATE helped alleviate some constraints and I was able to come up with a much cleaner fill. I resubmitted again this February and it was finally accepted!
I'd say that THIRD TIMES A CHARM is an apt description of this creation process but looking through my records, I found about 15 drafts of a completed grid! In one version, there were no blocks between 12/36-Down and between 28/49-Down, but unfortunately the fill had too many compromises. I'm pleased that I was able to pack in five theme entries although it certainly complicates the construction process.
Will changed a number of my clues, mostly skewing easier, since I wrote the initial clues expecting this to be a Tuesday or Wednesday puzzle. Did you catch the tie-in from the clue for 27-Down?
I have the good fortune of living near Parker, so we meet up every other month or so. Nice to be in an area with many fellow puzzle people! Parker showed me an earlier version of this puzzle, and I remember being impressed by the idea. It's so fun to see FIFTH, FOURTH, THIRD … and then not get SECOND and FIRST! Cool to have another completely natural sequence-completer in HALF and WHOLE; one which was unexpected.
I also remember feeling like there were too many gluey bits in his earlier grid, so it was a relief to see Parker's final product. Not only is the crunchy stuff limited to the very minor LIRE, STS, SGTS, but Parker also worked in quite a bit of long fill. This is important, since the larger-than-normal grid (16x15), must captive the solver for that much longer. Uncovering bonus entries like NICE ONE, ALOHA STATE, STILL LIFES, EDIT MENU, ICE CREAM (yum!), AIRLIFT, even OCULUS Rift (one of the leading virtual reality headset companies) kept me entertained. Quite a nice construction, especially considering just having five themers is hard enough.
As Parker and I discussed his redo, I mentioned that the FIFTH ELEMENT was the weakest themer, since 1.) it omits "The" from the title and 2.) my guess is that it won't reach "classic" status. I thought there had to be something better. Could have been FIFTH WHEEL, FIFTH AVENUE, FIFTH COLUMN, but finding a "WHOLE ___" phrase with a matching length made it tricky. I liked WHOLE FOODS paired with FIFTH WHEEL, but WHOLE SHEBANG does make for a great final themer.
Nice to get a few insider's nods, with MASAI (Parker did Peace Corps in Africa a few years ago) and APP (he recently got a job as an ioS app developer).
A theme that cleverly misdirects + is accessible to novices + a smooth and meaty grid = a beauty of a Monday puzzle.
1 T | 2 A | 3 R | 4 P | 5 M | 6 I | 7 D | 8 D | 9 A | 10 Y | 11 A | 12 P | 13 P |
|||
14 O | D | I | E | 15 N | I | C | E | O | N | E | 16 L | I | L |
||
17 F | I | F | T | 18 H | E | L | E | M | E | N | T | 19 O | V | A |
|
20 U | N | F | A | I | R | 21 C | O | T | 22 S | H | O | T |
|||
23 F | O | 24 U | R | T | H | 25 E | 26 S | T | A | T | E |
||||
27 M | 28 A | 29 S | 30 A | I | 31 G | E | E | 32 S | P | A | S | ||||
33 A | C | T | I | 34 A | L | A | 35 S | E | S | T | 36 E | 37 T |
|||
38 T | H | I | R | 39 D | T | I | M | 40 E | 41 S | A | C | H | A | R | M |
42 H | E | L | L | O | S | 43 D | I | Y | 44 E | T | N | A |
|||
45 L | I | R | E | 46 F | I | G | 47 O | D | E | O | N |
||||
48 H | 49 A | L | F | M | A | 50 R | A | T | H | 51 O | N | ||||
52 O | M | I | T | 53 I | B | M | 54 O | C | 55 U | 56 L | 57 U | 58 S |
|||
59 G | I | F | 60 W | 61 H | O | L | E | 62 S | H | E | B | A | N | G |
|
63 A | G | E | 64 P | A | T | E | N | T | S | 65 E | M | I | T |
||
66 N | O | S | 67 M | I | S | S | U | S | 68 R | A | T | S |
| Across | Down | |
| 1. Cover during a rain delay : TARP 5. Noon : MIDDAY 11. "There's an ___ for that" : APP 14. "Garfield" dog : ODIE 15. "Yeah, that's good" : NICEONE 16. Rapper ___ Wayne : LIL 17. 1997 Bruce Willis sci-fi film, with "The" : FIFTHELEMENT 19. Latin for "eggs" : OVA 20. Not just : UNFAIR 21. Rollaway bed : COT 22. Whiskey purchase : SHOT 23. Journalistic profession : FOURTHESTATE 27. Native Kenyans : MASAI 31. "___ whiz!" : GEE 32. Workplaces for masseuses : SPAS 33. First part of a play : ACTI 34. Pie ___ mode : ALA 35. Six-line stanza : SESTET 38. Saying about persistence paying off : THIRDTIMESACHARM 42. Greetings : HELLOS 43. Like many home improvement projects, for short : DIY 44. Sicilian volcano : ETNA 45. Sicilians used to spend them : LIRE 46. ___ Newtons : FIG 47. Big name in theaters : ODEON 48. Race just over 13 miles long : HALFMARATHON 52. Withhold, as information : OMIT 53. Tech giant known as Big Blue : IBM 54. ___ Rift (virtual reality product owned by Facebook) : OCULUS 59. Repeating film snippet online : GIF 60. Entirety, informally : WHOLESHEBANG 63. 18+ to vote, e.g. : AGE 64. Protections for inventors : PATENTS 65. Send off, as rays : EMIT 66. Refusals : NOS 67. Wife, informally : MISSUS 68. "Doggone it!" : RATS |
1. High-protein food that often comes in cubes : TOFU 2. Game point, in tennis : ADIN 3. Speak extemporaneously (on) : RIFF 4. Org. against dog or cock fighting : PETA 5. "Cool" amount of money : MIL 6. Product from Ben & Jerry's or Baskin-Robbins : ICECREAM 7. Reduce in rank : DEMOTE 8. Performs, in the Bible : DOETH 9. Advice-dispensing Landers : ANN 10. "Are we there ___?" : YET 11. Hawaii's nickname : ALOHASTATE 12. Turning point : PIVOT 13. Center of a place setting : PLATE 15. Roman emperor known for his vanity : NERO 18. Revolutionary music device? : HIFI 22. Like a squirrel's acorns : STASHED 24. ___ fruit (relative of a tangelo) : UGLI 25. Op-ed piece : ESSAY 26. Guideline for a contractor, for short : SPEC 27. Subject with fractions : MATH 28. Feel the pain : ACHE 29. Paintings with fruits and vases, often : STILLLIFES 30. Evacuate by helicopter, say : AIRLIFT 34. Bewildered : ATSEA 36. Cube maker Rubik : ERNO 37. I.R.S. agent, for short : TMAN 39. Place to find an R.A. : DORM 40. It may give the options to copy, cut and paste : EDITMENU 41. [Ah, me] : SIGH 46. "The Fox and the Grapes" and "The Tortoise and the Hare" : FABLES 47. In times gone by : ONCE 48. Wrestler Hulk : HOGAN 49. Mexican friend : AMIGO 50. Civil disturbances : RIOTS 51. Sounds heard during fireworks shows : OOHS 55. Lyft competitor : UBER 56. Dalai ___ : LAMA 57. The "U" of I.C.U. : UNIT 58. Pepper and Friday: Abbr. : SGTS 60. Typist's stat, in brief : WPM 61. "Bali ___" : HAI 62. Alternatives to rds. and aves. : STS |
Answer summary: 4 unique to this puzzle, 1 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?