TUESDAY PUZZLE — True Story: The only time I ever saw my mother visibly drunk was when my father took her out for a celebratory dinner at the legendary Trader Vic’s and she took one for the team, alcoholically speaking, in order to be a good mother.
At the time, Trader Vic’s had a home on the ground floor of New York City’s Plaza Hotel, but had its own entrance on Central Park South, probably to keep the tiki-bar-loving, Pu-Pu Platter-seeking patrons away from visiting upper crust society.
My parents no longer remember what they were celebrating, and while MAI TAIS might have been on the menu, the waiter brought my mother the house drink, which was called a Menehune. It was a strong, rum-based concoction and was served back then in a tall, white ceramic glass shaped like the mythological Menehune sprites. It was so adorable that my mother asked if she could bring it home for her children, and the manager said she could. It was at that point that my mother remembered that she had two children, and we were just at the age where bringing home one item for two kids would have caused trouble. So she bit the bullet and had another one.
Well. Now she had two Menehune glasses, one for each child, and needless to say, wound up having an even better time than she had anticipated. I am not sure what happened to my Menehune glass, but I have retained the memory of my father carrying my mother in the door as she sang her way through the Broadway soundtrack of “South Pacific.”
All of this is to say that I love it when a crossword puzzle dredges up fond childhood memories like that. That’s what makes a puzzle come alive for me. And when you have a fascinating theme like the one on offer from Timothy Polin today, so much the better.
Mr. Polin’s theme set shows off his apparent potty mouth, with pairs of words clued in the Acrosses by standards-friendly oaths, and in the Downs by non-expletive hints. They’re connected by either the first or the last letters, and, in an impressive showing of Tetris-like expertise, Mr. Polin was able to fit eight theme entries into his grid. This seems like a theme for a Thursday, but I don’t mind it on a Tuesday. Yes, it’s not the easy solve most people expect, but it’s straightforward enough, and the nontheme entries are easy enough to assist with the theme.
In nontheme news, I really liked the three entries that make their New York Times debuts today: FRACTALS, which are explained well here and displayed in a trippy Mandelbrot set here, DEFRAG, which I still haven’t figured out how to do on my Mac, and FEMBOT, the androids from the “Austin Powers” movie. I also liked the idea that the wary keep ONE EYE open while sleeping. I thought that the clue “Harmful ALGAL bloom” sounded arbitrary, but apparently it’s a thing. As always, live and learn.
Clue of the Day for me was an unusual and amusing bit of wordplay at 57 Down. While “Darn it!” hints as HECK going across, 57 Down’s “Darn it” refers to something that is usually darned — a SOCK.
Let’s check in with Mr. Polin:
Constructor’s Notes:
Out of nowhere, it popped into my head one day that [Holy cow] would make a suitable clue for ZOUNDS as well as ZEBU. The hope that enough similar combos would constitute a decent theme led me to start searching for other such pairs. Discovering CURSES / BOWS was the crucial point of construction, as this puzzle, at least in its present form, might have proved impossible to build without it. In fact, if I hadn’t found those symmetrical entries for the SE corner, I probably would have just abandoned the effort altogether, since I liked ZOUNDS / ZEBU too much to consider making the puzzle in its absence.
Fresh entries in themed puzzles tend to be sweeteners to throw in when there’s room to maneuver, but sometimes those new entries do bail you out of a tight spot. FEMBOT and DEFRAG saved my butt around HOMBRE today. ENOUNCE is a tough word — especially on a Tuesday — but it is also a real word, with a shade of difference in meaning from “announce.” The best alternative fill in that area had LAMARR, SHARPE, IDIO, TRISH, SHORTIE, ASHE and AS LONG all falling over one another.
“Bring in the femBOTS!”
As always, thank you very much for solving and commenting. It is a true privilege every time to have to opportunity to appear here.
And we enjoy your puzzles, Mr. Polin.
Your thoughts?