Constructor: Dan Caprera
Relative issue: Simple-Medium to Medium
THEME: “BUTT OUT!” (39A: “Thoughts your personal enterprise!” … or a touch to the 4 sides of this puzzle) — 4 solutions stick out (by one letter) on both sides of the puzzle; these letters spell out a synonym for “butt”:
Theme solutions:
- ROILS (2D: Muddies, as water)
- UPEND (5D: Flip topsy-turvy)
- MOPE (9D: Be down within the dumps)
- PLAID (11D: Crisscross sample)
- BRASS (15A: Generals and such)
- HALFTONE (30A: Musical pitch interval)
- AREA (49A: Area)
- FACET (67A: Aspect to consider)
- CHAIR (55D: One thing a waiter might pull out)
- SATE (63D: Fill totally)
- MENSA (58D: Sharp set?)
- DECOR (60D: Inside design)
- TAILS (13A: Coin toss name)
- UNIT (26A: Part of a curriculum)
- SENTRIES (46A: Halting audio system?)
- HEATS (65A: Qualifying races)
Phrase of the Day: My Neighbor TOTORO (37A: “My Neighbor ___,” 1988 Hayao Miyazaki movie)—
My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy movie written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. It stars the voices of Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Hitoshi Takagi, and focuses on two younger sisters and their interactions with pleasant wooden spirits in postwar rural Japan.
The movie explores themes similar to animism, Shinto symbology, environmentalism and the fun of rural dwelling. My Neighbor Totoro acquired worldwide vital acclaim, and grossed over $41 million worldwide on the field workplace; the movie additionally grossed considerably extra from house video gross sales and merchandise.
My Neighbor Totoro acquired quite a few awards, together with the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize, the Mainichi Movie Award, and Kinema Junpo Award for Finest Movie in 1988. It additionally acquired the Particular Award on the Blue Ribbon Awards in the identical 12 months. The movie is taken into account as one of many high animation movies, rating forty first in Empire journal’s “The 100 Finest Movies of World Cinema” in 2010 and the number-one animated movie on the 2012 Sight & Sound critics’ ballot of all-time biggest movies. The movie and its titular character have change into cultural icons, and made a number of cameo appearances in different movies. Totoro additionally serves because the mascot for Studio Ghibli and is acknowledged as probably the most fashionable characters in Japanese animation. (wikipedia)
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Conceptually attention-grabbing, however a drag to unravel. Having to think about letters outdoors the grid … I dunno, it isn’t probably the most enjoyable strategy to undergo a puzzle. I did not actually care what these letters spelled out, I simply knew I needed to bear in mind (16 occasions!) that the solutions have been going to come back up one letter brief. Is it cute that these letters spelled issues? Positive. Is it a pleasant contact that every one the theme solutions are actual phrases even with their (apparently) lacking letters? It’s. However the fixing expertise itself was not so sizzling. I am simply looking for lacking letters. So much. All for a pun designed to amuse a toddler. Worse, I acquired the pun very early, and after you get it, there’s actually nothing left to find.
I suppose it may need been attainable for a solver to get caught someplace after which really use the “butt” info to make sense of a solution, however the puzzle simply is not that tough. At no time did I cease to take a look at (or think about) what the “lacking” letters have been spelling. I by no means wanted to know. I did not even discover that the lacking letters have been symmetrical, showing in the identical locations on both sides of the puzzle. That too may’ve proved helpful in case you acquired caught. However there was no getting caught at the moment. Simply the considerably annoying expertise of getting to navigate a fussy theme in tight corners. The idea itself right here is simply high quality—intelligent, even. However there is not any pleasure past the revealer. Simply a whole lot of plodding work that makes fixing the puzzle slower, however not likely more durable.
Appears to be like like I made a small handful of errors, none of them associated to the theme (?!). OCEANAUT earlier than AQUANAUT (6D: One doing a little deep-sea exploration). Is OCEANAUT a factor, it actually seems like a factor, however my software program is red-underlining it prefer it’s not a factor. Hey, it is a factor! It means … AQUANAUT. Cool. AQUANAUT is just too near the hairspray to be helpful, imho.
Anyway, screwed that up for a bit, after which had NOT GET earlier than NOT SEE (24A: Fail to know) and ABOVE earlier than ALOFT (53D: Overhead). Additionally, due to ABOVE, I went with VIEW earlier than FACE(T) (67A: Aspect to consider). Completely no thought who this ALAIN-René Lesage is, though I really feel like perhaps I’ve seen LESAGE within the grid earlier than, and if I look him up, I’ll have an “oh, that man!” expertise, let’s discover out … [looks up Lesage] … oh, that man! He wrote Gil Blas, which ought to imply nothing to you until you solved crosswords within the olden days, once you completely had to have the ability to reply [“___ Blas” (Lesage novel)], or, (extra steadily) [“Gil ___” (Lesage novel)], although most frequently, esp. within the olden days, you’d simply get [“Gil ___”]. Severely, that is it. No context, simply [“Gil ___”]. This was the sort of arcane baloney that just about outlined the favored conception of crosswords for many years. Like so many four-letter solutions (ADIT!), BLAS was simply one thing you simply *discovered* in case you solved crosswords. I am not satisfied that the majority solvers might ever have informed you what Gil or Blas was alleged to be, or who Lesage was, however man, you’ll see this Lesage man and his alleged guide freakishly typically. And there was a ten-year stretch in there (earlier than my time) the place the *solely* clue for BLAS was [Gil ___]. Eleven occasions in a row from the mid-’60s to the mid-’70s, the puzzle used that actual clue (really, there was one notable change, which is that the NYTXW stopped placing “.” on the finish of each clue someday round 1966, so there have been a bunch of [Gil ___.] clues in a row after which abruptly they flip to [Gil ___] clues) (I’ve written about crossword trivia earlier than, however this can be the minutest remark I’ve ever made). Maybe my favourite a part of this complete Gil + Blas + Lesage odyssey is I nonetheless don’t know what the guide is about or who reads it. I perceive invoking Lesage if, say, you ‘ve acquired LESAGE in your grid, or BLAS, however it might appear to perverse to make use of him for GIL as of late, and why oh why would you go to this man for ALAIN when there are way more well-known and handsomer ALAINs out there?
A couple of extra notes:
- 46A: Halting audio system? (SENTRIES) — I do love this clue. It jogs my memory of the Brady Bunch episode the place Peter and Jan play SENTRIES in Hamlet, they usually should say “Halt! Who goes there!?” I feel that is the entirety of their traces. Though now that I consider it, it is in all probability “Hark! Who goes there!?” And it would’ve been Romeo & Juliet, not Hamlet.
- 1A: 2022 Jordan Peele horror/sci-fi movie (NOPE) — a terrific film. Very movie-heavy at the moment with NOPE and TOTORO and MIA Goth and “I am Simply KEN.” I’ve but to see a MIA Goth movie as a result of horror is usually not my bag. Which ought to inform you precisely how a lot of a “horror” movie NOPE is (it is not) (once more, nice nice nice, simply … not “horror,” regardless of a ugly second or two … that poor chimpanzee …)
- 21D: Bike and Bike+, e.g. (PELOTONS) — this can be a cult. A few of my associates are on this cult. To hitch the cult or to not be part of the cult, that’s the query.
- 33D: Who “can get in the best way of what I am feelin’,” in an Alicia Keys hit (“NO ONE“) — I discovered about this tune from crosswords. “NO ONE” is greatest identified to me as the reply I attempt to play in Spelling Bee each likelihood I get even supposing it will get rejected each time as a result of it is two phrases, not one.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
