World's biggest private employer / TUE 7-15-14 / Obama's veep / Italian hothead? / River through Flanders / "Entertainment Tonig
Constructor: Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium, depending on how good you are at reading cross-referenced clues
THEME: Founders — Four entrepreneurs cross the companies they founded
Theme answers:
- TED TURNER (17A: Founder of 6-Down) / CNN (6D: World's most widely distributed syndicated news service)
- STEVE JOBS (63A: Founder of 47-Down) / APPLE (47D: "World's most admired company," per Fortune)
- JEFF BEZOS (11D: Founder of 36-Across) / AMAZON (36A: World's largest online retailer)
- SAM WALTON (34D: Founder of 58-Across) / WALMART (58A: World's biggest private employer)
alte• • •
- strong feminine singular nominative form of alt.
- strong feminine singular accusative form of alt.
- strong plural nominative form of alt.
- strong plural accusative form of alt.
- weak feminine singular nominative form of alt.
- weak feminine singular accusative form of alt.
- weak plural nominative form of alt.
- weak plural accusative form of alt. (OK, dictionary, you've made your point — via Wiktionary)
Hello, CrossWorld. Finn Vigeland here, your friendly neighborhood college-age intern, interrupting my Game of Thrones binge-watching (#latetotheparty) to sub for the man, the myth, Rex Parker. I had the pleasure of dining with Rex (and PuzzleGirl, and their families) on Saturday before he left for New Zealand. He was unironically wearing a koala T-shirt.
On to today's puzzle! A nice outing from C.C. Burnikel, injecting a higher than average, though not unwelcome, dosage of trademarked names into our grid. (From the Times' specification sheet on Cruciverb: "Brand-names are acceptable if they're well-known nationally and you use them in moderation.") Really liked seeing scrabbly JEFF BEZOS in the grid, and liked that the AMAZON crossing was at the Z and not at some lame-ass letter like O, amirite?
Anyway, I liked this straightforward theme all right, although it really would have been stellar to have all four companies be from the same field—all news outlets or tech or something. Also, was anyone else just a little put off by the way APPLE was clued: "World's most admired company," per Fortune? All the other company clues were legitimate, objective superlatives; surely Apple is the world's most something in some universally recognized measurement? But the more I think about it, the more I like it, because I'm a total Apple fanboy, and the company is certainly best known for making drool-worthy products.
Other minor nit: WALMART derives its name, obviously, from WALTON, and they cross in the grid at the L, whereas of course the other companies are not named for their founders. Slightly inelegant, but not a big deal. Would have liked to see some non-white / non-men founders, but sadly, as far as household names go, they're few and far between. Read up on some lesser-known names in entrepreneurship here, here, and here.
Tina TURNER via YouTube, which has a female CEO (though not founder)
Anyway, I liked this straightforward theme all right, although it really would have been stellar to have all four companies be from the same field—all news outlets or tech or something. Also, was anyone else just a little put off by the way APPLE was clued: "World's most admired company," per Fortune? All the other company clues were legitimate, objective superlatives; surely Apple is the world's most something in some universally recognized measurement? But the more I think about it, the more I like it, because I'm a total Apple fanboy, and the company is certainly best known for making drool-worthy products.
Other minor nit: WALMART derives its name, obviously, from WALTON, and they cross in the grid at the L, whereas of course the other companies are not named for their founders. Slightly inelegant, but not a big deal. Would have liked to see some non-white / non-men founders, but sadly, as far as household names go, they're few and far between. Read up on some lesser-known names in entrepreneurship here, here, and here.
Tina TURNER via YouTube, which has a female CEO (though not founder)
Puzzle ran on the easier side for me, with a few holdups in the NE, because I just straight-up forgot Nancy O'DELL (15A: "Entertainment Tonight" host Nancy) and I'm a bit rusty on strong feminine singular nominative forms of German adjectives (ALTE). I know I've seen the clue on ETNA (33D: Italian hothead?) before, but, especially next to a European river (banes of my existence), it still tripped me up. I was picturing some World Cup guy in a blue jersey yelling at a referee.
The fill was fine: you have your IONE AERIE ELIA EON EDO EMOTE ADE crutches, which we're all guilty of from time to time. But I quite liked SURECAN, YESIKNOW, BOREDOM, and BREAKSUP, which, strung together, sounds like the brief story of a failed relationship.
Bullets:
See you all tomorrow.
Signed, Finn of the House Vigeland, First of His Name and Slayer of Crosswords
The fill was fine: you have your IONE AERIE ELIA EON EDO EMOTE ADE crutches, which we're all guilty of from time to time. But I quite liked SURECAN, YESIKNOW, BOREDOM, and BREAKSUP, which, strung together, sounds like the brief story of a failed relationship.
Bullets:
- AERIE (52A: Hawk's home) — Hey, the EYRIE is a place on Game of Thrones. We've already had NED and ROBB clues updated for the Stark men, as well as SER… any chance we can use EYRIE and not have to include the dreaded "Var." tag? Will?
- ENOTE (66A: Cybermemo) — Raise your hand if you've ever said, "One sec, just gotta shoot my friend an ENOTE." *tumbleweed* (Can we please retire this answer?)
- BIDEN (3D: Obama's veep) — Required viewing:
See you all tomorrow.
Signed, Finn of the House Vigeland, First of His Name and Slayer of Crosswords
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