Puzzles

Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road / FRI 9-5-25 / Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves / Game with a 32-card deck / Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom / Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout / Money wasted on poor decision-making, jocularly / Belle ___, real-life celebrity outlaw celebrated in film and TV

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Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road / FRI 9-5-25 / Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves / Game with a 32-card deck / Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom / Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout / Money wasted on poor decision-making, jocularly / Belle ___, real-life celebrity outlaw celebrated in film and TV


Constructor: Bryan Cheong

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Greg EGAN (18A: Greg ___, author of the 1994 science fiction novel “Permutation City”) —

Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award. […] He published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos) and has also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His early stories feature strong elements of supernatural horror. […] Egan does not attend science fiction conventions, does not sign books, and has stated that he appears in no photographs on the web, though both SF fan sites and Google Search have at times mistakenly identified him as the subject of photos of other people with the same name. (wikipedia) // Permutation City is a 1994 science-fiction novel by Greg Egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, through various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality. Sections of the story were adapted from Egan’s 1992 short story “Dust”, which dealt with many of the same philosophical themes. Permutation City won the John W. Campbell Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year in 1995 and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award the same year. (wikipedia)

• • •

[31A: Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout]

Rough to end on an expression I would never say: EASES ON? (59A: Gently presses, as a gas pedal). I guess I can hear some parent telling their kid to do that when they are teaching them to drive, maybe, as a command, but … in the third person like that (EASES), it feels super awkward. This is only the second time ever that this phrase has appeared in the NYTXW, and the one other appearance (which I blame for putting this damn answer in people’s word lists in the first place) didn’t use the gas pedal as a frame of reference at all. [Dons effortlessly, as footwear]!?!? That’s not … better. Oddly EASE ON appears even less often—just one appearance, and the example that time was the brakes, not the gas. I don’t think I’d ever use EASES ON, and if I had to use EASE on, absolutely had to use EASE ON, I think I’d have to take the clue in this direction:

So that’s how it ended. The rest of it was hit-and-miss, with a bit more “???” than I’m used to encountering in Friday puzzles (esp. of late). That’s what got this one up off of “Easy” to “Easy-Medium,” stuff like SHOJI (which I’ve probably seen but forgot) (9D: Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom) and MIOSIS (?) (20D: Constriction of the pupils) and OSH (?!) (39A: Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road) and Greg EGAN—I thought there was a scifi writer called Greg BEAR … hey, there is! Or was—he died in 2022. Bear is the better known (and more award-winning) four-letter scifi Greg. He won five Nebulas, two Hugos, and was the co-founder of San Diego Comic-Con (!). Alas, he’s not in this puzzle. Greg EGAN is. The other big “???” for me was STAR-NOSED MOLE, which I can kinda sorta picture. That was my favorite of the unknowns today, by far. Marquee-worthy, for sure. Sadly, it was one of the few truly marquee-worthy answers in the grid. I really liked TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE as a central grid-spanner, and TERIYAKI SAUCE is also nice, but the rest of the long answers today didn’t have a lot of juice. DYNAMITE STICK sounds strange to me (“stick of dynamite” sounds more natural). IDIOT TAX feels made-up (never heard anyone say this, jocularly or otherwise). The pairing of SEÑORITAS and MUCHACHAS is cute, in its way, but neither answer on its own is any great shakes. The rest of the 8+ stuff is middling. Oh, “FINE, BE MAD!” is alright. I like that. But overall, the marquee fill on this one felt so-so.

There were other trivia answers that were familiar to me, but which seemed like they might not be familiar to most people. Scott ROLEN is kind of a deep cut if you’re not a baseball fan (47D: Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves). This is his third NYTXW appearance, but his first since 2004 (when he was actually still playing—he retired in 2012). He’s a Hall-of-Famer, though (as of 2023), so it might be helpful to remember his name. Belle STARR is another proper noun that seems like potential trouble (6D: Belle ___, real-life celebrity outlaw celebrated in film and TV). I got STARR fairly easily, but then realized I’d confused Belle STARR with Brenda STARR. I mean, whatever works, right? I have heard of the “outlaw” in question, but not often. 

Then there’s ÉCARTÉ, a card game I know of solely because of crosswords (like OMBRE and EUCHRE and FARO) (56A: Game with a 32-card deck). If you had a little trouble in that SW corner because of ECARTE / REB, I’m not terribly surprised. My only real trouble came from trying to parse STAR-NOSED MOLE, which happened to run through MIOSIS, which as I’ve said, I didn’t know. I know MEIOSIS and MITOSIS from biology class. I know MYOPIA and MYOPIC. But MIOSIS … ya got me. This is its 5th NYTXW appearance, but only the second since I’ve been blogging—so, I’ve seen it once, and that was fourteen years ago. 

[2D: Water brand whose logo shows the Alps]

More:

  • 1A: One who tries to make a good impression (DENTIST) — when ETCHER wouldn’t fit, I thought DENTIST, but waited for crosses to confirm it.  
  • 25A: Pro whose work might be shocking (EMT) — grim. Not a big fan of cutesy wordplay surrounding human suffering. Death can be funny in the abstract, but somehow a heart attack victim needing a defibrillator … isn’t. (It’s possible that I’m hypersensitized from watching too much of The Pitt, but I think I’d feel this way about this clue regardless)
  • 57A: Refreshers that can be served with green wedges (LIMEADES) — weird in the plural, and … “green wedges”??? … also weird. You mean lime wedges, I assume. I know you can’t say “lime” in the clue for LIMEADES, but still … “green wedges?” You could just say [Green refreshers] and leave it at that. See how concise! And no bizarre phrases!
  • 4D: Need for a demo, maybe (TNT) — today I (re-?) learned that TNT and DYNAMITE (STICK) are different explosives. Dynamite is more powerful, but TNT is more stable, and thus easier to handle and control.
  • 14A: It has its X’s and O’s (LOVE NOTE) — “X’s” for kisses, “O’s” for hugs
  • 44D: Obama family member with credits as a TV writer (MALIA) — come on, if you’re gonna use this clue, you gotta say the show. Don’t make people (i.e. me) look it up. Sigh, hang on … looks like she wrote for a limited series called Swarm (Amazon Prime): “Swarm is an American satirical black comedy television miniseries created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. It follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), a young woman whose obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn.” (wikipedia)

That’s all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. yesterday I got an advance copy of Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle by Natan Last (out Nov. 25). I’ll promote it closer to the release date, but since pre-orders are important to writers, I thought I may as well tell you about it now, since you’re probably gonna want a copy. The book is really comprehensive in its scope, but its focus is primarily on crossword-related developments (both technical and philosophical) that happen in this century, particularly the last 10-15 years or so. It covers the crossword world far beyond the NYTXW. You all (i.e. people who read crossword blogs) are kind of the ideal audience for this thing. I’ve only just started reading it, but I’m mentioned at least twice, so … thumbs up! (it has almost nothing to do with me, don’t worry!). Pre-order here.

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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