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Constructor: Steve Salitan

Relative difficulty: Medium


























THEME: None

Word of the Day: IMPALAS (1D:  Savanna leapers) n. An African antelope noted for its leaping ability; the male has rigid, curved horns (wiktionary). 
I’m pretty surprised that, after four years of constructing, I don’t know this word: what great vowels!  Alas, the CrossWorld has only taught me one antelope native to East Africa – the ORYX. 
No doubt the King of CrossWorld would have known IMPALAS.  This is Anna Shechtman again, subbing in for Rex, who is on vacation.  To start with, I should say that I am completely enamored of this puzzle’s grid: the 15-letter “triple stack” never fails to amaze me.  ONE CELLED ANIMAL over CALCULATING MIND over ANTIPERSPIRANTS! Swoon!

I particularly liked the top stack’s homophonic clues: 1A: Straight person’s statement (I CANNOT TELL A LIE) over 16A: #1 Dire Straitshit (MONEY FOR NOTHING).  The latter totally stumped me – never heard it!  It falls right in my “music void” – not of my generation (The Game) nor of my parents’ (The Miracles) and therefore not on my iPod.  For first-time (or not-so-first-time) listeners, a clip follows:



In general, this was not one of those coolhipyoung puzzles, marked with the traces of twitter, youtube, and reality TV.  I am totally okay with that.  It had great fill, impressively few pseudo-words, and clues that, if not inspiring, stumped me well enough.  I really liked 40A: Need for war games(CARDS), but it threw me off for 37A: Justify (WARRANTS), which I got from the rest of the fill and kept reading as WAR-RANTS...some offshoot of the war cry?


I will never understand the crossword rules of the “?”. My gut tells me that it should apply when polysemy is involved: when the clue plays on a double meaning.  Alternatively, it just goes wherever Will Shortz says it does??  Let’s take a few examples to see if we can figure out the abiding “?” rule:

•    23A: Sweep spots? (SOOT) -- Not at all sure what this question mark means…is a “sweep spot” a (terrible) pun on “sweet spot”?  Is it a place to watch sweeps week?
• 46A: Turn around on Wall Street?(RALLY)  -- Is this an Occupy reference?  If so, the puzzle’s one effort at coolhipyoungness flops in my book.  I guess it’s a pun, literalizing the phrase “turn a profit”?
• 48A: Real lowlife? (ONE CELLED ANIMAL) -- Now, this!  This is a question mark used as it should be!  I think…
• 26D: Core units? (SEEDS) -- Again, I think this is an apt use of the mark, assuming that “core units” means something.  Like core courses?  Or each pack on a 6-pack?
• 46D: Not go out of service?(RE-UP).  --  Someone please explain this "?-usage" to me.  Am I too accustomed to seeing cell phones associated with "service" that I am missing the pun?  Is the "?" just there to buffer a mediocre clue?

My other quibble – and it is quibbling, because this really is a beautiful grid – is Salitan’s use of pluralization.

• 10D: Former Senate majority leader and family (LOTTS) A mouthful of clue – generally means that something’s not quite right with answer.
• 9D: Afflictions for the world-weary (ENNUIS) This strikes me as preposterous.  I guess in French, ennui can be pluralized (meaning something like troubles, problems, or snags) but no way does it work in English.  Waves of ennui?  Yes.  Ennuis?  No.
• 35D: Tiny dots on maps (HAMLETS)  Apparently hamlets are “small villages or groups of houses” (wiktionary), but, I would have gone with something like “princes with ennuis.”  See below for an ad-hoc greatest hits reel of such HAMLETS.

Thanks again for the blog-opportunity, Rex!A pleasure as always, Anna