Filmmaker Nicolas / SUN 8-3-14 / Loser to Pierce in 1852 / Film title character who likes to high-five / Celebrated Bombay-born
THEME: "Chee Whiz!" — Add "chee" sound to the ends of words in familiar phrases, get The Wacky!
Theme answers:
- WOUNDED NIETZSCHE (24A: German philosopher with an injury?)
- FILTHY RITCHIE (30A: Guy who's covered in mud?)
- BLACK TAICHI (51A: African-American martial art?)
- THE LONE STARCHY STATE (64A: Only form that carbohydrates take?)
- I GUESS SOCHI (80A: Unsure answer to "Where were the 2014 Winter Olympics held?"?)
- TABLE FOR TUCCI (97A: Actor Stanley's dinner reservation?)
- ARCHIE-RATED MOVIE (107A: Film reviewed by Jughead's friend?)
Roc-A-Fella Records is a record label founded by Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke. It operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, being distributed by Universal Music Distribution. (wikipedia)
Livengood is top-notch, and if you see his name, it's really, really unlikely you're gonna get a tired puzzle. Today I thought the theme was just OK, but the theme answers he came up with were pretty funny, and since he let the the grid breathe (i.e. didn't try to cram a ton of themers in there) we get a nice overall solving experience. The non-theme fill is solid, even if there aren't That many longer answers on display. Short stuff doesn't have to be dull—I'm liking FIVE-O (which I had as FOUR-O at first … not sure why … I went through FUZZ and PO-PO and somehow "four" seemed like the number I wanted before that "O," but then, of course, "Hawaii FIVE-O"…) (98D: Police, in slang) and ZULU and BAWDY as well as the flashier, longer good stuff like ROC-A-FELLA and BATTLEAXE. I do have a criticism about the theme, though: I wish it had zagged more. That is to say, I wish the "CHEE" sound had been moved around the theme phrases more liberally. So many come at the end that I figured they all did. That made discovering LONE STARCHY STATE not thrilling (as it should've been) but annoying. I had three end-CHEEs by that point. Since there's only one more (that's 5 at the end, 2 not), those two stand out badly. If the CHEE had been sprayed around from the get-go … well, there'd've been more variety, and I would've preferred that to this. But I still liked this fine.
Today's write-up will have to be short, as I'm off again *early* tomorrow morning. Unless I get some volunteers pretty quick, I'll mostly be covering the blog myself while on Vacation 2 (The Shorter Vacation). So I got someone coming in tomorrow, but I'll likely be back after that. Or I won't. Who can say? Not me. Certainly not you. Alrighty then. Hey, wanna see something cool? Yes, you do. We were on our way to Ithaca to pick up The Daughter from music camp, and we stopped in Owego to get coffee (The Goat Boy—great place, look it up if you're ever in the neighborhood). Afterward we walked to ATM, and we walked past a used bookstore (Riverow: again, good, look it up), so of course we had to pop in. One quick peek in the bargain basement and … this was lying out. In plain view. Screaming at me. It's a 1925 magazine. A little "humor" magazine called Laughs & Chuckles, dated Feb. 1925 (!). Certain words on its cover made it, uh, stand out:
Those word? "X-WORD"! and "CONTEST"! Also, 1925!! I partly thought it was fake at first, but then … who would fake *this*? So I opened it up. And there it is: The Contest Puzzle. Un. Solved. I collect vintage paperbacks (two and three and four decades later than this magazine) and you virtually never find the crossword books at all, and if you do, they are usually at least partially solved. This one: untouched. And it's … let's just say we should all say a quiet thanks to Margaret Farrar tonight for taking the puzzle seriously and creating certain standards, because hoo-boy … good luck solving this (click image to enlarge):
I like 7-Down. I mean "7-Vertical". Great clue.
OK, see you soon.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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