Kristian House and Mike Dockins nudge us on our weekend.
SATURDAY PUZZLE — Solving this grid is like finessing a car out of a slippery spot. (If you’re a nondriving city person, it involves a lot of self-doubt, some ill-controlled acceleration, sudden stops and reversals.) I feel as if this is an apt comparison since there are, oh, 25 vehicular references in the clues today, or at least it felt that way at one point. There is also an absolute deluge of unusual trivia; I am here to tell you that I knew exactly one entry cold — ELOISE, natch — and I not only survived, but also found this solve ultimately very endearing.
Tricky Clues
A lot of laconic cluing today, with a few notable exceptions, makes for whole swaths of space where everything seems open to interpretation, broken up by a weird Gen-X cartoon reference or an Italian sports car (talk about highs and lows). There’s a name or two that I’ll have forgotten by this time tomorrow, but that’s all right — I’m sure MRS POTTS couldn’t care less. There are also quite a few examples that might take a layer of explanation: REST, for instance, as a musical symbol for a beat of silence. I have to hand it to Messrs. Dockins and House: Every time I tried to fight the aptness of a difficult clue, I lost badly.
13A: Sports, but there’s not an overabundance today — if you’re stuck on the Rocky Mountains, this reference is to baseball. When they’re not in Colorado, they’re the AWAY TEAM. (When they’re not playing at all, they’ve got a BYE week, although I don’t think that happens in baseball, just football. Speaking of football, did anyone else forget who just lost the Super Bowl? That’s all for sports today, although it’s not quite all for “sport,” which is a little hint.)
16A: I assume Dutch speakers know or can deduce this interesting etymology for WISEACRE, which I would have figured to be a version of “wisecracker” or “wise (derrière).” The nearby DIM BULB made me think of tulips instead of light fixtures, perhaps suggested by the glimpse of Dutch. (Did the Dutch soothsayers predict the bursting of the tulip bubble? Has anyone started selling tulip NFTs, yet? Because that’s really something we should do.)
19A: Honestly, who could resist following up on this factoid once you’ve figured out HARRY STYLES, unless you’re a “Directioner” who knew this entry on sight (presumably with a “squeEEeeEEee!”). I absolutely love this fellow but knew nothing of his origin story. Please don’t tell me it was a setup. Something about this just squees setup; he’s too cute not to have been famous as a small child. Although, on the other hand, this is his Times crossword debut, so he hadn’t peaked before now.
63A: Who could deny the quality of this word-loving bee pun, reminding you to check your grid and see that you’ve SPELLED everything right.
9D: This is another fun etymological excursion, the path from “beau,” or “beautiful” (pronounced “bootiful”), or “boo boos” to just “boos,” not as a scare but as a pet name for paramours, man or LADYFRIENDS. This is a debut, plural or singular.
22D: What a strange misdirect for a Christmas figure who presumably puts the coal and the oranges in the stockings, KRIS KRINGLE. I can’t imagine that’s what most solvers went to on this clue — I was thinking of a toe, a “little piggy,” myself.
Constructor Notes
Mike Dockins: I had only wanted to publish a NYT puzzle on a Saturday someday so it’s extra sweet that this is my debut! Kristian and I have written many puzzles, and most collabs have gone like this: I get stuck with about half a grid, maybe with a few marquee entries I’d like to keep, and then he keeps the best stuff and finishes the grid, also taking care of housekeeping issues like cheater squares and such. He knows how much I love cluing, so he lets me have first crack at the clues, then he’ll edit those and let me have a last look, and voilà. I absolutely adore ‘?’ clues — my fave part of the whole process is coming up with clever clues for as many entries as possible. It doesn’t hurt our creative process that we’ve been close friends for over 30 years. As for me, I’ve been an avid solver since 1996 or so, but I mainly solve (and construct) themelesses. My earliest constructions were dreadful. Early in 2020 (not originally having to do with the pandemic), I really dove in. I found dozens of unfinished drafts, and started many new projects. I work at crossword construction most days, some days for hours. I have a Ph.D. in poetry — my second book, Letter to So-and-So From Wherever, is available from C & R Press. I’m also a singer-songwriter — my band CLOP’s album, Fame for Zoe, is available on iTunes, Spotify and elsewhere. I’m also a self-described KenKen expert.
Kristian House: As Mike said, we have known each other for 30+ years. We met on our first day of college, and we’ve been friends ever since. I’m so happy that his debut puzzle is a Saturday NYT puzzle, as it has been a dream of his for years to get a themeless puzzle published in the Times.
This puzzle started the way most of our collaborations start: Mike sent me a partial grid with some great entries, and I worked through it to try to fill it without compromising the good stuff while trying to minimize the not-so-good stuff. I’m really happy with the result. I really like Mike’s stack in the upper left corner, and I like 9-Down and 30-Down. I also love some of the clue changes that the editorial team made, with my favorite being the clue for 63-Across. I hope everyone enjoys the puzzle as much as I enjoyed working on it with Mike.
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April 24, 2021 at 09:00AM
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"Word that comes from the Dutch for 'soothsayer'" - The New York Times
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