Girl’s identify invented by Jonathan Swift / THUR 11-6-25 / "A braggart, a ___, a villain …": "Romeo and Juliet" / Maker of the i4 and i5

• My nitpick is I did not just like the phrase “stumbling block.” I suppose it really works within the context of “Wow, that was by chance very troublesome for me to learn aloud, what a tongue tornado!” however I do know it extra as a cute recreation. I actually needed one thing with “language barrier,” which after all didn’t match.

Theme solutions:

• FLEMISH is clued as [Language in which “zichzelf” is 49-Across]
• The corresponding reply is HIMSELF, which is an anagram of FLEMISH
• LATVIAN is clued as [Language in which “drosmigs” is 57-Across]
• The corresponding reply is VALIANT, which is an anagram of LATVIAN
• CROATIAN is clued as [Language in which “kabanica” is 10-Down]
• The corresponding reply is RAINCOAT which is an anagram of CROATIAN

Phrase of the Day: LOGOS (Prancing horse and golden bull, within the auto trade) —

The brand of the posh carmaker Ferrari is the Prancing Horse (Italian: Cavallino Rampante, lit. ’little prancing horse’), a prancing black horse on a yellow background. The design was created by Francesco Baracca, an Italian flying ace throughout World Warfare I, as a logo to be displayed on his aeroplane; the Baracca household later permitted Enzo Ferrari to make use of the design.

The world of bullfighting is a key a part of Lamborghini’s identification. In 1962, Ferruccio Lamborghini visited the Seville ranch of Don Eduardo Miura, a famend breeder of Spanish preventing bulls. Lamborghini was so impressed by the majestic Miura animals that he determined to undertake a raging bull as the logo for the automaker he would open shortly.

Good morning, buddies! We’ve got a One Day Late Malaika MWednesday as we speak, or as you might name it, a Malaika MThursday.

I discovered this puzzle very laborious. Really, I used to be an enormous hater all through 90% of the fixing course of. Then, I understood the theme and change into much less of a hater. (Many such instances.) I’ve solved a pair puzzles with language-y themes and it’s powerful as a result of a lot of the data is lacking. On this case, three of the lengthy solutions had been clued functionally as [Language] and one other three of the lengthy answered had been clued as [Please translate this non-English term]. That makes it tremendous laborious to interrupt into the puzzle. I stored checking my entries by a crossing reply, seeing that the crossing reply was a theme clue and going “UGHHHHH!” 

After all– that is the puzzle!! That is the purpose of a puzzle… you “puzzle out” what is going on on. I typically chastise new solvers who consider a crossword as a collection of 78 trivia questions that they will both straight fill in, or should skip and quit on. And but right here I’m, complaining for kind of the identical motive. This was not a highschool language take a look at the place the puzzle is seeing if I understand how to translate the Croatian phrase “kabanica.” It is a recreation with wordplay the place I’ve to determine the anagram trick by doing a whole lot of cross-referencing with entries which have simpler clues. And boy oh boy after I figured it out, I audibly breathed a sigh of reduction. I discover it very exhausting to jot down scathing opinions of puzzles on right here (although I’ve carried out it earlier than!!) and I’m glad that this was difficult in a method that fell into place and have become satisfying. Kind of the proper Thursday theme.

Talking of RAINCOAT, do you guys know the place I should buy a gorgeous yellow raincoat in order that I appear like Coraline

I want the grid had a little bit extra circulate, or connectivity, to it. On this case, I clocked the theme, crammed out all of the theme solutions, after which nonetheless had that top-right nook practically clean. It felt like fixing a mini puzzle that was impartial from the remainder of the expertise. All three sections alongside the highest felt fairly segmented from the remainder of the puzzle. However I perceive that grids with mirror symmetry are a little bit constrained to put out. 

I am curious what different language anagrams did not make the lower for this puzzle! It looks like one thing that would have labored nice as a Sunday-sized puzzle.

Bullets:

• [The 1987 film “Spaceballs,” e.g.] for FARCE — Oof, I didn’t like this clue. I had “spoof” for soooo lengthy.
• [Like many mustaches in film] for FALSE — Is that this true? I figured actors simply…. grew mustaches. Would have made extra sense for performs, not movies. Though it says “many” not “most” so that would imply something.
• [Museum’s entrance and exit?] for EMS — That is referring to how the letter M begins and ends the phrase “museum.” I hate clues like this, however alas, I personally generally write them.

xoxo Malaika

Now that I am carried out reviewing the puzzle, I will discuss a little bit bit in regards to the clue [Woman’s name invented by Jonathan Swift] for VANESSA. You may skip this half when you like.

I’ve heard ~two folks remark that the NYT puzzle will hardly ever clue an entry that may be a lady’s identify by merely mentioning an actual, well-known lady. (Options would come with utilizing a noun (like “daybreak” as a noun reasonably than an individual), utilizing wordplay (“Title that anagrams to xyz”), or describing the lady through her relationship to a person.) This isn’t a development that has stood out to me whereas broadly fixing (which isn’t to say it does or would not exist, simply that I have not seen!), however I did discover it with this clue, and it is suggestions that I take into consideration after I write my very own puzzles.

I usually write simple clues. For correct nouns (like Vanessa), I often to select probably the most well-known person who I do know with that identify, after which reference their most well-known work. (A number of subjectivity right here, after all! And an enormous flaw right here is that it could actually result in repetitive clues.) If I need to make the clue even simpler, I will point out different folks within the work as effectively. For Vanessa, my speedy thought could be:

• Simple clue: [Actress Hudgens of High School Musical]
• Even simpler clue: [Actress Hudgens who starred alongside Zac Efron in High School Musical]

After listening to the suggestions I discussed above, I puzzled if I ought to make an effort to clue ladies’s names independently of the lads that they’ve labored with. Finally, it’s not one thing that I made a decision to prioritize, however it’s one thing that I prefer to have in my mind whereas I’m writing clues. I like to consider folks’s suggestions whereas I’m working, even when I do not take that suggestions as a hard-and-fast rule. I believe it makes me a extra detail-oriented constructor.

What clue would you will have written for VANESSA? What suggestions would you want for me to maintain in my mind whereas I’m setting up?

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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