Natives of Scandinavia / SAT 5-10-25 / Some dragonflies / Pioneer in musical impressionism / Manufactured wood sheet / Mediterranean plant named for its brightly coloured flowers / Superb-grained rock that may be simply reduce in any course / George ___, voted “Coach of the Century” by the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame / Child blue, maybe / The place Ferrari is “RACE,” briefly

Constructor: Shaun Phillips

Relative issue: Difficult

THEME: none 

Phrase of the Day: DARNERS (29A: Some dragonflies) —

Aeshnidae, additionally known as aeshnids, hawkers, or darners, is a household of dragonflies, discovered practically worldwide, with greater than 50 genera and over 450 species.

The household contains among the largest dragonflies. […] 

There are 41 North American species in 11 genera on this household. Most European species belong to Aeshna. Their American identify “darner” stems from the feminine abdomens wanting like a stitching needle, as they reduce into plant stem once they lay their eggs by the ovipositor. […] Their abdomens are lengthy and skinny. Most are coloured blue and or inexperienced, with black and infrequently yellow. Their massive, hemispherical, compound eyes contact within the midline and practically cowl their heads. They’ve a particularly good sight, and are voracious insect predators, utilizing their sharp, biting mouthparts. They’re due to this fact very helpful to mankind. (wikipedia)

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Sure, that was a Saturday. At the least by way of issue, that’s what I bear in mind Saturdays being like within the outdated days. This puzzle is supposed to impress (and maybe daunt) you with its structure—its bizarre, brutalist form (so chunky—you do not see 3×3 black-square chunks too typically), and notably its wide-open white areas … which is to say, its very low phrase depend (60; most themeless puzzles are available round 68 or 70). So it is imposing, for certain. And initially, it was nearly impenetrable. That NW nook would not budge a lot in any respect. I had ESTER and “I MISSED” however could not do a lot else. I kinda needed AMID and HISSES however the crosses simply did not look proper (notably that “SM” that ended up being CHARISMA). If I might needed to grind it out, I suppose I might’ve hung round up there longer and perhaps I might’ve gotten that nook to fall by going on the brief solutions within the decrease portion (ANN and OWED appear they might’ve been fairly straightforward to choose up, for example), however I bailed out and went the place the solutions had been shortest—that NE nook. This was, and is, the proper intuition for anybody fixing a tricky puzzle—or any puzzle, frankly. Go At The Brief Stuff First. They’re higher-percentage photographs, they usually provide you with toeholds you typically must get anything. I stepped into that NE nook, with its little grouping of 4s, and completely devoured it—which, in flip, as I might hoped, set off a series response of appropriate solutions that prolonged properly into the center of the grid. Brief stuff comes first, lengthy stuff comes later. Repeatedly, the brief stuff acquired me out of the ruts. Anyway, after I acquired going within the NE, I acquired caught once more, and needed to flip to brief solutions once more (this time within the SE), after which acquired caught once more and needed to hit the brief solutions within the SW. By pushing inward on the grid from these pockets of brief solutions, I used to be in a position to convey the entire thing to heel … ultimately. Completed up the place I began, again within the NW, which does not appear too robust looking back, however that is the great thing about retrospect—no extra clean squares observing you.

As low word-count puzzles go, the fill on this one was pretty clear, and there have been some beautiful longer solutions. However I nonetheless cannot say I actually loved this. There’s only a perverse lot of technically actual however unusually area of interest longer solutions. Undecided how anybody’s ever going to get enthusiastic about stuff like CHIPBOARD (?) (10D: Manufactured wood sheet) or FREESTONE (?) (25D: Superb-grained rock that may be simply reduce in any course) or SUN ROSE (?) (38A: Mediterranean plant named for its brightly coloured flowers). This looks like stuff your wordlist tells you is a factor. All of these solutions had been compound phrases that I managed to resolve solely by inferring their components. Sure, CHIP and BOARD and FREE and STONE and SUN and ROSE, I do know these phrases, these look okay within the grid, fingers crossed! Sigh. The worst obscurity second, for me, was the swimming coach (!?!?!?) crossing DARNERS, a factor I’ve by no means heard of earlier than. Seen plenty of dragonflies in my time, can’t bear in mind ever studying the time period DARNERS. I assumed perhaps “dragonflies” was a stitching time period, or else perhaps darning was some phrase for a distinctively dragonfly exercise. So mad at HAINES / DARNERS that I did one thing I by no means do—I finished mid-puzzle and appeared up HAINES and DARNER to see if I used to be proper. And I used to be. So I suppose the puzzle just isn’t, technically, unfair. However yeeeeeeesh. I imply, swimming coach? (27D: George ___, voted “Coach of the Century” by the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame). Come on. You can be “Coach of the Millennium,” there is no means I am realizing you.

The one factor about going this low with phrase depend is that you simply begin to depend on sure crutches. One is arcane or in any other case out-of-the-way fill (see above). The opposite factor—and that is one thing that completely plagued this grid—is plurals, notably of the “ER” selection. So. Many. -ERS. Have a look at that run by the center: HUNGERS FOR, DARNERS, RECRUITERS, UTTERS, BOERS, ELDERS, DODGERS. From UTTERS to HUNGERS you’ve got acquired a five-step stairway of “S”s on the ends of these solutions. And the -ERS do not cease. ESTER, PEEPER, HOME OWNER, USER, ERRS, ALIEN ENCOUNTER … I feel I acquired ’em all now, although there are nonetheless one thing like a half a dozen -S plurals left to depend. Possibly most individuals will not discover this, however I discovered it aesthetically off-putting, and so noticeable that it stopped me in my tracks. I took an image of precisely once I seen it changing into an issue:

[DODGERS—one of the few absolute gimmes in this grid]

While you see the “-ERS” in isolation like this, earlier than the remainder of the grid is stuffed in, they’re extra noticeable. Nothing improper with solutions ending in -ERS, per se. However the pile-up … like I stated, it is a crutch. You may’t go low with out making some compromises. Possibly they had been value it, total, as there’s nothing within the grid that made me wish to hurl my laptop out the window, and lots of solutions are good: DROVE NUTS, NODDED OFF, HUNGERS FOR … I appreciated these simply nice.

I think about this puzzle was a lot simpler for individuals who know their Mary Poppins. I’m not a kind of individuals. I feel I noticed that film as soon as as a baby, and whereas I do know the tunes you may anticipate one to know (Supercalifrag-etc., Spoonful of sugar, what not), “LET’S GO FLY A KITE” just isn’t one I might hum for you (7D: “Mary Poppins” tune that begins “With tuppence for paper and strings / You may have your personal set of wings”). I do not bear in mind it in any respect. So “LET’S GO F-” had me stopped chilly and guessing all types of improper issues. “LET’S GO FOR A RIDE”!? That gave me the “O” that led me to write down in OUT for 30A: “I used to be caught in site visitors,” maybe (LIE). And since FOISTED ON (24D: Shoved down the throat of) and FREESTONE had been additionally mysteries (even with these “F”s in place!), I needed to depend on the brief solutions on the backside of that nook to assist dig me out: BESTS TABS SURE and so on. If nothing else, this was a correct Saturday exercise.