Yogurt-braised Indian entree / SAT 11-22-25 / Telekinetic intimidation tactic used in the “Star Wars” universe / Ruthless Records co-founder / Chris formerly of S.N.L. / Eponym of a renamed N.Y.C. bridge / Actress Kelly of Netflix’s “3 Body Problem” / Transit option since 2000 / Counterpart of “pls” / Outdoor setting for Plato’s academy / Charles ___, founder of Cablevision and HBO / Lead role in 1978’s “La Cage aux Folles”
Constructor: Blake Slonecker
Relative difficulty: Easy, maybe Easy-Medium because of all the names
THEME: none
Word of the Day: KORMA (52D: Yogurt-braised Indian entree) —
Korma, kurma, qorma or qurma (Urdu: قورمہ; Hindi: क़ोरमा; Bengali: কোরমা; Persian: قرمه; Kashmiri: قۄرمہٕ) is a curry dish originating in the Indian subcontinent influenced by Mughlai cuisine, versions of which later were modified to Anglo-Indian and then to British tastes. It consists of meat or vegetables braised with yogurt, water or stock, and spices to produce a thick sauce or gravy. (wikipedia)
• • •
Sorry-not-sorry to be a broken record about this, but: too easy. And then the only thing giving the puzzle any bite at all is actually another downside of the puzzle: too namey. The only time I slowed down at all while solving this was when I had to traverse some pretty marginal names. It’s so disappointing when a grid is mostly well built, when there are longer answers aplenty to admire, but a. the experience goes by so fast you hardly have time to appreciate them, and b. (worse) the only answers that really demand your attention are short names you’ve never heard of. The only memory I will have of this puzzle is that DOLAN / RENATO crossing (33D: Charles ___, founder of Cablevision and HBO / 45A: Lead role in 1978’s “La Cage aux Folles”). Who and who? Crossing at a vowel? The very idea that I should know the “founder of Cablevision (?) and HBO” … and then that you would cross said name with a foreign fictional character name so unusual that said fictional character is probably the only viable clue for it … bah. In the end (and it was the end—the very end), this didn’t hold me up so much as annoy me. I was able to work my way around the names and finally guess that last square (my finger hovering tentatively above the “A” for a second or two like “well, here goes…”). But yuck. Hard yuck. At least the other names are spread out a bit, though MARLO / DOERR offers a somewhat similar problem in the east. I know DOERR from the spine of some book or other that’s in our house somewhere, so that cross was less tough for me, but still—MARLO somebody from a show I didn’t know existed on a streaming service I stopped paying for because it’s mostly a sea of garbage? I know the *book* The Three-Body Problem; I even know its author (LIU), but MARLO … honestly I don’t even know if it’s MARLO Kelly or Kelly MARLO. I do know that MARLO Thomas’s birthday was yesterday. 88! Happy birthday to an icon of my childhood.
[the whole show! gonna watch all of this today. children’s entertainment was never better]
As for easiness (to say nothing of EAZY-Eness, which increased the easiness if you knew that answer, as I did) (54A: Ruthless Records co-founder), I don’t think I’ve ever had a Saturday puzzle open up quite this easily:
Just a ridiculous gimme, one that gave me footholds in two different parts of the grid. And the grid came together from there, first the southeast:
And then the NW, until I finally tied the two together in the middle:
At this point, I was eyeballing those NE and SW corners like “you’re gonna give me trouble, aren’t you?” But no, not really, aside from really abusing me with names (MARLO DOERR ELIA ZINN DOLAN RENATO etc.), they didn’t do much to slow my momentum. As for today’s marquee answers, some of them were delightful—really loved the QUID PRO QUO / JUMP FOR JOY pair (not really a pair, but they felt like a pair, both at the top of their respective Across stacks, both a tripartite “___ FOR (or, in Latin, PRO) ___” pattern, both with wacky “?” clues (14A: Foreign exchange? / 61A: Exhibit hoppiness?)). Good energy on those. OLIVE GROVE is solid (11D: Outdoor setting for Plato’s Academy) and KLEENEX BOX is hyper-Scrabbly, which is kinda fun. The rest of the longer answers don’t make much of an impression, or, in the case of FORCE CHOKE (!??) they make a bad impression (27D: Telekinetic intimidation tactic used in the “Star Wars” universe). More Star Wars universe junk? I’ve seen so many movies in that particular universe and yet I don’t know what this FORCE CHOKE is. Or I do, but didn’t know it had a name. Is this a FORCE CHOKE?
If so, OK, I’ve seen it, but didn’t know it had a name. ERASERMATE is product placement. UPPER BOUND seems fine, but I wanted UPPER LIMIT, which I like better as a phrase (17A: End of a set, in mathematics). In general, this was perfectly well made, but it could’ve used stronger marquees and fewer names (and name crosses).
Bullets:
- 16A: Essayist who wrote “If you wrest my words beyond their fair construction, it is you, and not I, that are the April Fool” (ELIA) — the pen name of Charles Lamb and an absolute staple of Old Crossword Grids. ELIA’s frequency tapers off once the Shortz Era begins, and ELIA clues also move decidedly in the direction (!) of ELIA Kazan. The ELIA balance of power has shifted. But you still see the “essayist” clues from time to time. Sidenote: old crossword clues are wild; or, rather, they are the opposite of wild. In the ’80s they’d just clue ELIA as [Lamb] or [Kazan]. No frills! Bare bones, baby!
- 29A: Number of Academy Award nominations for Best Actor received by Laurence Olivier (NINE) — one of them was for Wuthering Heights. I wonder what Olivier would think of this? (me, I can’t wait):
- 26D: Certain miniature vehicle, informally (RC CAR) — radio-controlled car. Not my favorite fill. Only ever seen this abbr. in crosswords.
- 21D: Sea foam (SPUME) — went with SPRAY at first. A much, much nicer word, SPRAY.
- 35D: Beverage that Ray Charles once touted as “The right one, baby!” (DIET PEPSI) — apparently product placement bothers me a lot less when the music of Ray Charles is attached. Loved this clue.
That’s all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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