ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ ALL KEYED UP]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ ALL KEYED UP]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I got suckered into watching the music-industry reach-around known as The Grammys last night. Who comes up with this stuff? Does anybody really think giving someone an award means that their music is more important than other’s music? (Repeat after me: “In a battle of the bands, nobody wins.”) Also, do the people who put these things together really think it’s a good idea to pair up two disparate legends of music for a duet? As much as I think Paul McCartney and David Grohl are both geniuses in their own rights, that retread of “I Saw Her Standing There” was pedestrian at best. And don’t get me started with Stevie Wonder paired with the Jonas Brothers. Suggestion for whoever puts it together next year: how about an all-star jam with Wu-Tang Clan, Big & Rich and a reunion of the Mahavishnu Orchestra?
Two quick positive Grammy thoughts: One, Herbie Hancock (see 24-Down) looks great at 68 years young. And, oh yeah, “Rockit” still rules 25 years later.
And two, congrats to Adele, whoever you are, for winning the “kiss of death” Best New Artist Grammy. You shall now live on in crossword infamy, occasionally replacing the old tired clue “Fred Astaire’s sister.” Take a listen to her here. (Actually not a half bad song. Though I thought “pavement” meant “sidewalk,” as in the margin of a street designed for pedestrians. Is that ever pluralized? Aren’t sidewalks the adjuncts that run up to the front doors of houses? What the hell does “Chasing Pavements” even mean? Did Pavement feel stupid that their name meant “sidewalk” in England? I need answers!) Anyway, welcome to the crossword club, Adele. Your vowel-heavy name is welcome here.
Adele, let me tell you. Your first crossword appearance as “2008 Best New Artist Grammy winner” will raise eyebrows as you’ll be considered “too obscure.” But give them time. Eventually, you’ll be one of the names we automatically fill in after reading a few words of the clue.
Some editors feel too many makes the puzzle very difficult — you either know it or you don’t. Any obscure name with a strange spelling essentially makes that entry essentially “unchecked” (that is to say, you’re getting that one exclusively with the crossings). Another argument against the notion of excessive name-dropping is that puzzles should have a timeless quality to them. Here today gone tomorrow celebrities don’t give it that eternal feel.
Should a puzzle be timeless? I say yes. But let me ask you: is it the puzzle itself, or is it the form that is timeless? Isn’t the reason the crossword is still so popular and timeless because of its durability? I think the popularity and “timelessness” stems from the continued innovation of puzzlemakers. Take for instance, in the late 70s, the New Wave of constructors led by Will Shortz, Merl Reagle and Henry Hook, dragged puzzling into the modern era by deemphasizing obscure words for obscurity’s sake, ramping up humor, and introducing the previously verboten brand names to grids. With changes like that (and pioneering work with the magazine GAMES), crosswording was given fresh new life.
Crosswords continue to be timeless as they adapt to the world around it. In the mid ’90s puzzle addiction was kicked into another level once every paper on the planet started posting their puzzles on the web. Computer-assisted construction has made previously nigh-impossible gridwork commonplace. Googling answers (and Googling entries for clue writing, for that matter) has became an acceptable practice. And now people are embracing the puzzle bug through alt.weeklies, iPhone apps, and blogs like this one.
Crosswords are eternal. I just don’t think that means we need to be doing puzzles from the ’40s, unless we’re talking about the 2040s.
Before everybody e-mails me or posts otherwise, I corrected the typo in 37-Across. Thanks.
I have to agree that the Jonas Brothers/Stevie Wonder thing was some of the most awful stuff I have ever witnessed. I thought the whole thing was a joke, although I did enjoy the Radiohead performance.
Not a grammies fan. Tried to watch some, three or four teasers for Sir Paul, and then a desultory throw-off of “I Saw Her Standing There”. Two good diversions: the BAFTAs were airing on BBC-A, a good reminder of how to do movie-type awards with some degree of class and decorum (oh, wait, I hear the orchestra telling me it’s time to shut up), and scanning the NYT I came across a full-page add for Van Morrison performing Astral Weeks…two days after the ACPT. That could be great. Surprised to see you mention the Mahavishnu Orchestra, thought they would have been on your father’s list with Steely Dan and the Doors.
I’ll have to google search that 1234 singer, the answer doesn’t look like a name. Same with the certain NCOs, never saw that answer before. 46down was an extremely clever clue. Thanks as usual.
Mahavishnu Orchestra. I don’t see that name NEARLY enough. Now if only you can work it into a grid…
I can’t say that the legacies of Lash LARUE and Jack OAKIE and VIRNA LISI are so transcendently great that they outweigh answers like NAS, DRE, the new ADELE, or OKGO—even if a decade from now, some of those newer names might fade from view. The names from the silent-film era and ’40s movies and ’50s TV—those aren’t innately timeless. They’re only timeless if the people remain seminal figures in their field. CAPRA is timeless, sure. But some people are in crosswords only because their names have a lot of vowels.
P.S. I didn’t do Brendan’s puzzle yet. Gosh, I hope LARUE and OAKIE weren’t spoilers!
One-Across drove me CRAZY. It should be clued as “end of the 13th century.” Beginning of the 14th is MCCCI.
Was going to comment on 1A, but see I don’t have to.
I nominated ADELE for future crossword coronation on my blog just a few days ago. Glad to see she’s staying on track. She actually deserved the award.
rp
15:26. ‘SISISI’ = rad.
Are you sure CLERIHEW’s not an antihistamine? I thought for sure a [Bridge defender] was a NEST … like someone in a Crow’s NEST … you know, defending the “bridge” of the ship … from, I don’t know, ROCs and other airborne menaces. Ships have “bridges,” right? Or is that just spaceships?
rp
re: timeliness. that’s one of the advantages of the web, no? when I edited the NYT xword books, I would go through and change any now-obsolete clues (Clinton Attorney General = RENO, say) to up-to-date versions. Ideally, new forms that wouldn’t then again go out of date in a couple years as the books should hopefully be on the shelf for some time.
It occurs to me that the Web offers similar advantages. An online crossword publisher could simply check through their database of clues every now and then (whenever it occurs to them that a commonly used clue is now out of date) and update as necessary, changing, say, the team affiliations of players who’ve been traded in the clues, so that the puzzles, which remain live for new solvers to encounter, are forever up to date….
Since Adele was my mother’s name, I doubt I’ll ever think it obscure. Nice to see it come into vogue, however. I don’t get 18D at all – wtf???
JannieB — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As opposed to CHUDs (cannibalistic humanoid underground dsomethings)
You bet Wilco and Ryan are not marketed to fogeys. The clue and answer were gibberish.
“Googling answers (and Googling entries for clue writing, for that matter) has became an acceptable practice.” By whom? I used to constrain myself to using pen for the Sat. Times. The convenience of online puzzles (my hands no longer smudged with newsprint, for one) has caused me to fall from grace in that respect. But I draw the line at googling. If I have to google to solve a puzzle, I count it as a fail.
Which may make me sound like a fogey, but I had no trouble with 17A. TMNT was worth a chuckle too. I *knew* there was something about those names….
Was the irony intentional? You talk about timeliness in a puzzle that references Malone, Feist, Alexie, Jet Li, Jimmy Choo, Lou Piniella, Tina/Sarah (I still don’t know who that is), Wilco, Ryan Adams, Andy Samberg, TMNT, Jeter and Ortiz.
I would know “Astaire’s sister” as I am a big movie fan. I never watch baseball, so the three baseball references in this puzzle were all more of a stretch for me. They are in puzzles all the time, but I still needed crosses for each of them. One person’s “timeless” is another person’s “obscure.”
Jeff: I think the crossword form is eternal. I think we should strive to make them very modern, hence all the stuff from today.
@Karma – thanks. I’d forgotten all about the turtles. D’oh! And I agree with @Still Cerumin about 17A. Guess that makes me a fogey too.