Adam Aaronson sneaks up on us with a subtly strenuous Saturday puzzle.
SATURDAY PUZZLE — There’s a lot of cinematic action in this grid, which is Adam Aaronson’s third puzzle and his third tricky Saturday for The Times. (His most recent one was with Paolo Pasco, the KRZYZEWSKI/KYRGYZSTAN construction from last summer.) Mr. Aaronson writes in his notes that he’s a debut treasure hunter, and there are nine new entries today, including a few surprises, but there’s nothing forced or flashy about today’s solve.
Oh, there’s one thing — one of those debuts, in fact. The entry is great, a terrific piece of Americana and a poster child for fun crosswordese. And depending on your awareness of the famous line from the famous Christmas movie it refers to, the clue is fun, Lenny Bruce-esque or a little bit trollish. I’ll stay wholesome in the column, you all stay wholesome in the comments.
Tricky Clues
I bet that people had misdirects galore today; mine included “sedate” for MODEST and “Chicago” for ATLANTA. There always seem to be a lot of them when puns and shorter entries predominate. I also noticed a few little “combos,” entries that just go together and probably presage a themed puzzle at some point from this constructor (the two dogs in the northeast, one well hidden; the two knotty topics nearby, similarly presented). Gardeners may feel a little sting at the “honeydew” clue, as we’ve been a bit plagued this year, and newshounds (more dogs!) will know right away where those “big names” hang out.
1A: After so many solves, I don’t let first impressions dictate my take on a whole puzzle, but I do get a kick out of tricky first clues. I’ve never seen this term before. It’s the equivalent of the “script immunity” that every James Bond gets: PLOT ARMOR. The first place I looked for an explanation referred to this line from a 1942 movie tune: “For any villains we may meet, we haven’t any fears; Paramount will protect us, ’cause we’re signed for five more years.” And yet I still watch the stunt scenes through my fingers.
15A: This is a great pun, but it might be forever anachronistic unless Uber and Lyft bring back the RIDE SHARE option that people used before Covid-19 made stuffing yourself into a car with several strangers unappealing. The clue refers to a transportation “pool.” (And it seems as if the tactic these companies may take is to try to bring back sharing rides, but in autonomous vehicles — problem solved!)
24A: The “Chuck” at high speed in this clue refers to Mr. YEAGER, who broke the sound barrier in 1947. (He was flying a plane that popped out of another plane, something I didn’t recall from “The Right Stuff.”)
52A: During this long period of isolation, I imagine, there may be loads of people who have gone months without having a back-seat driver around. I’m lucky enough to have a constant companion who sees what I’m doing, knows a better way to do it and isn’t afraid to impart that knowledge, lavishly, at all times. My rude riposte of choice doesn’t fit here — “Who asked you!” — but the correct entry is really savage: AND YOU ARE?
2D: In case you were wondering, the Double Gulp drink from 7-Eleven has about six ounces of sugar and (presumably) about 44 ounces of water; the whole thing is 50 ounces, two-thirds of which is about one LITER. A collision of math and nutrition resulting in, for me at least, one or two possible misdirects.
6D: Mr. Aaronson is 21st-century only (or pretty close to it), but it isn’t our fault he keeps throwing in boomer/Gen X-er references. This is a good one, the actress who won four Emmys in the 1980s for playing Carla on “Cheers”: RHEA PERLMAN. And, weirdly enough, she had her debut in the crossword this year.
Constructor Notes
It’s great to be back in The Times for my third puzzle, and somehow also my third Saturday puzzle! I promise I make easier puzzles sometimes.
This one’s got a bit of an origin story. I’m always on the lookout for fresh entries to include in crosswords, whether it’s phrases I hear in conversation or stuff I see online. One day at school, my friends and I were brainstorming random entries to search in XWordInfo’s database. We were trying to find ones that had never appeared in the Times Crossword before (surprisingly addictive, try at your own risk).
At one point, my buddy Mark suggested PLOT ARMOR — zero hits on XWordInfo — and it was love at first sight. It’s such a juicy little term, plus it’s decently inferable if you’ve never seen it before. So I built this grid around it, and I’m pretty chuffed with how it turned out! I was especially happy to squeeze in 24-Down, even though the answer may or may not be missing a word at the end.
If you dug this puzzle and want more, I regularly post indie crosswords on my site, Aaronson.org, and only some of them are Saturday-level!
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May 29, 2021 at 09:00AM
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