Constructor: Boaz Moser
Relative problem: Medium (regular Tues.)
THEME: LIGHT SLEEPER (50A: Simply woke up particular person … whose mattress could function a 20-, 31- and 41-Throughout?) — acquainted phrases that comprise elements of a mattress … and likewise … issues which can be “gentle“? (I feel?):
- SHEET OF PAPER (20A: Enter for a fax machine)
- AIR CUSHION (31A: Layer {that a} hovercraft floats on)
- CLOUD COVER (41A: Measure of how a lot sky is seen)
Phrase of the Day: CECIL B. DeMille (48D: “The Ten Commandments” director ___ B. DeMille) —
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 options, each silent and sound movies. He’s acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and essentially the most commercially profitable producer-director in movie historical past, with many movies dominating the field workplace three or 4 at a time. His movies had been distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. His silent movies included social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality performs, and historic pageants. He was an lively Freemason and member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York Metropolis. […] DeMille’s first movie, The Squaw Man (1914), was the primary full-length function movie shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story was commercially profitable, and the movie marked Hollywood as the brand new house of the U.S. movie business. It had beforehand been based mostly in New York and New Jersey. Based mostly on continued movie successes, DeMille based Well-known Gamers Lasky which was later reverse merged into Paramount Photos with Lasky and Adolph Zukor. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), was each a vital and business success; it held the Paramount income file for 25 years. // DeMille directed The King of Kings (1927), a biography of Jesus, which gained approval for its sensitivity and reached greater than 800 million viewers. The Signal of the Cross (1932) is claimed to be the primary sound movie to combine all points of cinematic approach. Cleopatra (1934) was his first movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Greatest Image. // After greater than 30 years in movie manufacturing, DeMille reached a pinnacle in his profession with Samson and Delilah (1949), a biblical epic that grew to become the highest-grossing movie of 1950. Together with biblical and historic narratives, he additionally directed movies oriented towards “neo-naturalism”, which tried to painting the legal guidelines of man combating the forces of nature.
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I confess I do not actually perceive how this theme works. Particularly, I do not get what the “gentle” a part of the revealer (LIGHT SLEEPER) is meant to suggest. My finest guess is that the extra (non-bed) phrases within the theme solutions are issues which can be famously “gentle.” I do know the phrases “gentle as AIR” and “gentle as a CLOUD,” however PAPER? “Mild as paper?” Is PAPER recognized for its “gentle”-ness. Perhaps in relation to ROCK or SCISSORS, however … generally? “Skinny”-ness, sure. One thing might be “PAPER skinny.” However SHEET OF PAPER simply looks as if a weird outlier to me … and that is assuming I am proper about what the theme is even imagined to be, which I am not completely positive of. SHEET OF PAPER can be an outlier when it comes to its construction (mattress half comes first as an alternative of final), however that bothers me lower than the truth that PAPER simply does not appear to work (or that the theme itself is not crystal clear). The themers had been nearly the one factor I struggled with on this puzzle. Do not you load a bunch of paper directly right into a fax machine? Or do you actually simply put in a single sheet at a time? And AIR CUSHION? I suppose I do not actually know what meaning in any respect, or what a “hovercraft” … is. Appears prefer it’s principally watercraft: “Hovercraft use blowers to provide a big quantity of air under the hull, or air cushion, that’s barely above atmospheric stress. The stress distinction between the higher-pressure air under the hull and decrease stress ambient air above it produces raise, which causes the hull to drift above the operating floor. For stability causes, the air is often blown via slots or holes across the exterior of a disk- or oval-shaped platform, giving most hovercraft a attribute rounded-rectangle form.” “Hovercraft” are also called “AIR CUSHION automobiles” (or ACVs), so the clue actually matches. I simply haven’t any familiarity with that exact … car. “Hovercraft” sounds fictional to me—like a near-future sci-fi car of some sort. Homer is aware of what I am speaking about …
Exterior the theme, the puzzle performed fairly sometimes for a Tuesday. The worst mistake I made got here at 28D: Zorro, Superman or Indiana Jones, the place I had A-TI- to start out with. My mind simply inferred an ANTI- starting and so I wrote in ANTIHEROES … whilst I assumed to myself “Actually? Superman? Appears off.” I additionally couldn’t perceive what the clue on CHORUS was attempting to do (18D: The place most songs use their titular lyrics). What does it imply for a tune to “use” lyrics, I puzzled. It is not like a songwriter sits round with a pile of lyrics and thinks “hmm, the place ought to I put these lyrics, that are additionally the title of the tune?” [Where a song’s titular lyrics are frequently found]?? [Part of song that often contains titular lyrics]?? One thing about “use” simply made the clue incomprehensible to me, within the second. I additionally did not just like the clue on OSCAR SNUB (55A: Disappointing awards season final result for a critically profitable film). The result of the season wouldn’t be a single SNUB. In reality, even the result of the Oscars alone would not be a single SNUB, if we’re speaking about a complete movie. An OSCAR SNUB pertains to a single class. It is a “snub” to be omitted from a kind of classes. A movie may get shut out completely, however that will contain a number of snubs. Exact wording on clues is necessary, and people clues each felt no less than barely tin-eared.
Different errors? Sure, minor ones. MULES earlier than ASSES (12D: Cussed animals).ORC earlier than ELF (38A: Pointy-eared inhabitant of Center-earth). ORCs have pointy ears, do not they? Yeah, fairly pointy, I might say:
My mind glitched at 41D: Pixar movie that revived the tune “Life is a Freeway” (CARS). I had the “C” in place, took one have a look at the primary phrases of the clue, went into my massive bag of animated films one may discover in crosswords, and got here out with … COCO. That is received music in it, proper? Most likely not “Life is a Freeway,” although. Man, why anybody would need to “revive” that tune is past me. It was so onerous to kill the primary time! (if you happen to had been alive within the early ’90s, you realize).
What else?
- 9A: Cheery goodbyes (TATAS) — we had TADAS the opposite day and I simply let it slide, however I am unable to be so beneficiant each time. Like TADA, TATA ought to by no means be pluralized. Tear that nook out and begin over.
- 10D: Web site of an apocalyptic ultimate battle within the Bible (ARMAGEDDON) — I positively forgot this. I solely know ARMAGEDDON as a generic time period for “a world-ending battle,” or as a mildly regrettable Ben Affleck car.
[“I was surprised when I heard Criterion was doing ARMAGEDDON…”]
- 32D: “___ if I do know!” (“HELL“) — Actually needed “DAMNED” so went with “DAMN” … may’ve been complicated the clue phrase with “DAMNED if I do, DAMNED if I do not,” however then once more, perhaps not.
[they sound pretty good for a hovercraft]
See you subsequent time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Glad eightieth anniversary to the perfect HITLER clue. On June 3, 1945, the NYTXW clued HITLER as [Man with glowing future.]. Once I first noticed the clue, I assumed it was predicting that the U.S. would nuke Germany, however no, higher: it was (I feel) predicting that HITLER, who had died simply two months earlier, would spend the remainder of eternity in hell. Superb. I feel we’re most likely higher off with out HITLER within the grid (final seen Oct. 12, 1984), but when the NYTXW needs to go onerous towards tyrants, I am not gonna stand of their manner.
