Constructor: Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock
Relative issue: Simple-Medium
THEME: Positional wordplay — solutions across the edges of the grid have clues that playfully (“?”-style) point out that place:
Theme solutions:
- MUTT (1A: Prime canine?) (a sort of “canine” positioned on the “prime” of the grid)
- LID (5A: Prime hat?) (a phrase for “hat” positioned on the “prime” of the grid)
- PISTOL (8A: Prime gun?) (a sort of “gun” positioned on the “prime” of the grid)
- MEMO (1D: Facet observe?) (a sort of “observe” positioned on the “facet” of the grid)
- BOARD (27D: Facet plank?) (a sort of “plank” positioned on the “facet” of the grid)
- PUNT (58D: Facet kick?) (a sort of “kick” positioned on the “facet” of the grid)
- LIMB (13D: Facet arm?) (a class that features “arm” positioned on the “facet” of the grid)
- PLATE (34D: Facet dish?) (a sort of “dish” positioned on the “facet” of the grid)
- TASK (65D: Facet job?) (a phrase “job” positioned on the “facet” of the grid)
- TROUGH (73A: Backside feeder?) (a sort of “feeder” positioned on the “backside” of the grid)
- RAY (74A: Backside line?) (a kind of “line” positioned on the “backside” of the grid)
- BUCK (75A: Backside greenback?) (a slang phrase for “greenback” positioned on the “backside” of the grid)
Phrase of the Day: Taxi! (61A: Well-known misquote of a James Cagney line from the 1932 movie “Taxi!” = “YOU DIRTY RAT!”) —
Taxi! is a 1932 American pre-Code movie directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney and Loretta Younger.
The movie features a well-known, and infrequently misquoted, line with Cagney talking to his brother’s killer by a locked closet door: “Come out and take it, you soiled yellow-bellied rat, or I am going to give it to you thru the door!” This line has usually been misquoted as “You soiled rat, you killed my brother”.
To play his competitor in a ballroom dance contest, Cagney really useful his pal, fellow tough-guy-dancer George Raft, who was uncredited within the movie. In a prolonged and memorable sequence, the scene culminates with Raft and his companion successful the dance contest in opposition to Cagney and Younger, after which Cagney slugs Raft and knocks him down. As in The Public Enemy (1931), a number of scenes in Taxi! concerned the usage of stay machine gun bullets. After just a few of the bullets narrowly missed Cagney’s head, he outlawed the apply in his future movies.
• • •
Onerous for a puzzle with quick themers to be very attention-grabbing. When you grasp the gimmick, you then’re simply going across the grid choosing up pretty apparent synonyms or tough equivalents, all of them 3-4-5s. Then, due to the theme (that’s, due to a preponderance of 3-4-5s), you find yourself with a really uneven grid with no hell of quite a lot of attention-grabbing issues occurring inside it. The NYTXW is meant to max out at 78 phrases, however this one goes to 80. What which means, for sensible functions, is there’s a complete lot of quick stuff happening. The marquee reply right here is “YOU DIRTY RAT!,” which I loved seeing, and studying about—I’ve seen imitations of Cagney that quote the road, however I did not know the place the road was from, or that it was a misquote. However for heaps (and plenty) of youthful (than me) solvers, that reply goes to imply completely nothing. You are asking individuals to know an iconic misquoted line that hasn’t actually been iconic since Cagney himself was iconic (once I was a child, sure, nonetheless, however now … solely to TCM followers like me) (observe: I do not even have TCM anymore since I lower cable and (ultimately) its streaming replacements, however I nonetheless really feel loyalty—it was my old-movie College for a protracted whereas). If I needed to title 5 Cagney motion pictures, Taxi! wouldn’t be amongst them. In reality, I’ve by no means seen the film and if I’ve heard of it, I forgot it. That is all to say—”YOU DIRTY RAT!” is a really deep lower for a Wednesday, and a extremely anomalous reply on this puzzle for that motive. Generationally divisive for positive. I believe it is probably the most attention-grabbing factor within the grid. Others … are (perhaps) not apt to really feel that manner.
All of the plays-on-words within the theme clues are precise issues, which is sweet. Generally when it’s a must to use repeated phrasing like this (prime prime prime, facet facet facet, and so forth.), you find yourself with a minimum of just a few clues that really feel compelled, however to me, solely “facet job” feels somewhat off, nevertheless it’s not; not likely. I believe it is largely been changed by “facet hustle,” and that is why it does not really feel as stable (to my ears) because the others. However it’s completely respectable. It is potential “facet plank” will not be well-known to some individuals, nevertheless it’s a fairly widespread core strengthening train (and, as vasisthasana, a staple of many yoga lessons), so there is no motive to object to it. I did not like how the connection between clue phrase and reply phrase was not constant. That’s, the reply is an instance of the phrase within the clue (e.g. PISTOL is a sort of “gun”) … however then, with LIMB / “arm,” the class / instance relationship will get reversed (e.g. “arm” is a sort of LIMB) … after which just a few different instances, the reply is only a synonym of the clue (e.g. BUCK and “greenback,” PLANK and “board”). The idea nonetheless works, nevertheless it retains altering how it really works, barely, from reply to reply.
However because the Octopus grew and multiplied, it grew to become needed to talk of him within the plural; and right here a complete host of difficulties arose. Some daring spirits with little Latin and fewer Greek, rushed upon octopi; as for octopuses, a person would as quickly consider swallowing one of many animals thus described as pronounce such a phrase at a decent tea-table. On this situation of affairs, we’re glad to know that just a few resolute individuals have begun to speak about Octopods, which is, in fact, the closest English method to the correct plural. (The Bradford Observer, 1873) (by way of merriam-webster.com)
- 20A: Quantity with 12 zeros within the U.S. however 18 zeros in different elements of the world (ONE TRILLION) — I have to know what these “different elements of the world” are and what (on the planet) they name the quantity with 12 zeros, then. I do know that ONE BILLION, till pretty lately, had a unique that means in Britain (the “lengthy scale” million million, or 10 to the twelfth energy, versus the “quick scale” 1,000 million, or 10 to the ninth, which is now the usual in all kinds of English). So a “lengthy scale” billion is definitely greater than our customary trillion. It is absurd to me that these values weren’t standardized throughout Englishes from the bounce.
- 31A: Widespread digital pockets service (CASH APP) — in accordance with Pew Analysis in 2022, 26% of U.S. adults have used this app a minimum of as soon as. I’m not a kind of adults. However I one way or the other “knew” this reply. It seems like a class of app and never an precise app (“hey, what CASH APP do you utilize?”), however nope, that is the title; CASH APP (previously “Sq. Money”).
- 8D: California school the place the author David Foster Wallace taught English (POMONA) — hey, it is the alma mater of … me! And NYT Mini Crossword editor Joel Fagliano! I used to be too previous (c/o ’91) to have had Wallace (d. 2008) as my professor, and Joel (c/o ’14) was too younger.
See you subsequent time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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