Constructor: Michael Schlossberg

Relative issue: Easy-Medium

THEME: “Abridged Too Far” — theme solutions are literary works that include circled squares; these squares include names of different literary works (with, clearly, a lot shorter titles, therefore “abridged”); theme clues might be utilized to *both* work, and the entire theme is summed up by the phrase TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT (121A: “In a nutshell” … or an alternate title for this puzzle?):

Theme solutions:

• “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM” (“MEDEA”) (23A: “Play about love and heartbreak in historic Greece [1605, 431 B.C.]”)
• “THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS” (“HEIDI”) (37A: “Timeless youngsters’s traditional about nation dwellers’ friendships [1908, 1881]”)
• “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT” (“DUNE”) (64A: “Magnum opus a couple of younger man, household and the idea of free will [1866, 1965]”)
• “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE” (“HATCHET”) (“Hatchet”???????????) (76A: “Coming-of-age novel a couple of teenage boy and his isolation [1951, 1986]”)
• “FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS” (“OTHELLO”) (102A: “Tale about troopers and treachery in southern Europe [1940, 1603]”)

Word of the Day: RON MIX (104D: A.F.L. All-Time Team member with a regulation diploma) —

Ronald Jack Mix (born March 10, 1938) is an American former skilled soccer participant who was an offensive deal with. He is a member of the American Football League (AFL) All-Time Team, and was inducted into the  Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.

Mix attended the University of Southern California, the place he was an All American. Upon commencement, he performed proper deal with and guard for the AFL’s Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers (1960–69) and the National Football League (NFL) Oakland Raiders (1971). An eight-time AFL All-Star (1961–68) and a nine-time All-AFL (1960–68) choice, he’s additionally a member of the Los Angeles Chargers Hall of Fame. […] 

Mix went to the University of San Diego Law School within the low season and earned a Juris Doctor diploma in 1971. He was nicknamed “The Intellectual Assassin” for his mixture of mental excellence along with his model of bodily play. (wikipedia)

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***THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU*** Thus concludes my annual week-long pitch for monetary contributions to the weblog. It’s laborious to precise my gratitude in methods that don’t devolve into platitude (!) however I’m genuinely and sincerely appreciative of everybody who helps the work I put into this weblog. It’s been a delight listening to from readers this week. Most of the time, I’m conscious that y’all are on the market, however I haven’t got any actual sense of who you’re, the place you’re, how usually you learn, and many others. And then fund-raising week comes and bam, there you’re! Actual people who learn me with various levels of depth and pleasure (to not point out settlement). And although my fundraising-week encounters with you’re nonetheless, technically, digital, it nonetheless looks like we have confirmed one thing about one another’s actuality, and it is good. Your playing cards and letters started arriving this week, and I’m excited to dig into these (I’m anticipating many cat playing cards, cat footage, and cat tales, and I could not be happier about that prospect). My crossword thank-you playing cards are a bit late coming from the printers, however they need to arrive early this week and I’ll begin mailing them out instantly. 

[They’re coming …]

If you have been in a position to contribute this 12 months, that’s thrilling to me, however for those who weren’t in a position, that is additionally OK. Money is tight for a lot of and you’ll solely handle what you possibly can handle. This weblog will at all times be free to anybody who needs it or wants it, and whether or not you’re a monetary backer or not, I simply need you to maintain fixing and hold studying. Thanks for taking the time to concentrate to any of this. One final time, listed below are the varied methods you possibly can contribute. 

There’s PayPal:

There’s Venmo: @MichaelDavidSharp (the final 4 digits of my telephone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which it apparently does generally)

And there’s snail mail (please make checks payable to “Rex Parker”): 

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp

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Binghamton, NY 13905 

All this contact info lives full-time within the sidebar of my web site, in case you are feeling inclined to contribute months from now 🙂 

OK. That’s it. Mwah! You all imply loads to me. (Yes, even you, particular person taking a look at their display skeptically!) Thanks 1,000,000. Now this is your Sunday puzzle!

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This one felt compelled. Very compelled. Forced by its very nature (i.e. you gotta make one clue for 2 usually exceedingly completely different works). Further, “Abridged Too Far” does not actually get at what is going on on right here. I get the pun (on the e-book / film “A Bridge Too Far”), however … and I get the fundamental concept of “abridgment,” in that one title is a shorter title created from the letters of the longer title … OK … however is “Too Far” imagined to convey that the works will not be truly alike? Is it undermining the very concept of “abridgment”? Is it a joke? It … feels such as you simply wished the pun on “A Bridge Too Far” and determined “positive, that works, I assume” … so once more we’re again to my preliminary feeling in regards to the theme as a complete: “compelled.” This is a kind of Sunday puzzles that is obtained a title in addition to a revealer, they usually appear to be working at cross-purposes. The revealer feels way more apt, largely as a result of it does not have the dumb / complicated “Too Far” half on it, so it does not appear to be winking at or in any other case providing ironic commentary on the very concept of the theme. There’s positively a certain quantity of creativity on show right here—discovering the works within works after which discovering methods to clue them each which are at the very least vaguely believable. But each time I obtained a solution, I simply kinda squinted and thought “uh … positive … I assume.” I simply needed to belief that the clues have been correct among the time, as I do not actually know the plots of “THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS” or “HEIDI” and even “DUNE” that nicely. But at the very least these are genuinely traditional, exceedingly well-known items of writing … which brings me to probably the most compelled factor on this compelled puzzle, and that’s … “HATCHET.” What on god’s inexperienced earth is that? The distance between the celebrity of Every Other Work Of Literature on this theme and “HATCHET” is … I am unable to see that far. It’s a gulf. An abyss. An unfathomable void. “HATCHET?” This 53yo professor of literature who was very a lot alive (and really a lot a “teenage boy”) in 1986 has zero concept. Nil. None. My not realizing a piece is unremarkable in and of itself. But you possibly can’t have a themer be ttttthhhhiiiisssssssss a lot of an outlier, fame-wise. It’s method too jarring. Every work concerned in a theme like this could have at the very least an “oh yeah I’ve heard of that” stage of fame (esp. if actually all the opposite themers have that stage of fame after which some). Truly … head-shakingly bizarre alternative for an “abridgment.” 

[“‘A Wrinkle in Time’ and ‘THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS‘ / Hiding behind 

the summer clothes that billowed / On the line…”]

Speaking of jarring … TREPID (56A: Timid). I actually mentioned out loud “oh no, no no no, it will possibly’t be TREPID, can it?” And it was. Some phrases ought to be hurled into the ocean, and that’s certainly one of them. “Intrepid” = wordful. “TREPID” = immoral, illegal, bottom-of-the-sea-worthy. The different phrase that had me questioning “what?” was WHEATEN (112A: Yellow-brown shade). I do know an actor named Wil Wheaton, with an “O.” And a Wheaton College. But that’s the extent of my “Wheaton” familiarity. WHEATEN … for those who say so. WHEATEN is that no-good child that OATEN is at all times hanging out with. WHEATEN makes me really feel warmly protecting of OATEN (a phrase I by no means see anyplace however crosswords). But I’ve each religion that WHEATEN is the colour that the puzzle says it’s. A NUTSY-sounding colour, however a colour nonetheless. I’m additionally simply gonna belief the puzzle that BITROT is a factor (82A: Phenomenon also referred to as knowledge decay). 

By far the toughest a part of the puzzle for me was the ultimate sq.. Having zero, completely zero, no no no concept in any respect who RON MIX is, I wanted each cross, and never one however two of these crosses had me flummoxed, or at the very least extremely uncertain. I knew that REX meant king (hello there!), however so does REY (I believe), so solely the truth that -IY appeared an inconceivable last letter mixture, even for a correct noun, led me to favor REX over REY. But even then I used to be left with RO_MIX … was that one identify or two? Is there a man whose final identify is ROMMIX? ROEMIX? Let’s examine the cross: 115A: Mercury and Mars, for 2. And I’ve obtained TE-ORS. OK, nicely Mercury and Mars are … gods? … planets? … vehicles? Is “Mars” a automobile? Candy? Is “Mercury” a sweet? What the hell? The solely letter that works in any respect there may be “N” however how can TENORS be proper, I do not know any sing- … oh. Cute. [eyeroll] (the clue is referring to Freddie Mercury and (I assume) Bruno Mars). Would not have minded the misdirection on TENORS a lot if the reply hadn’t run via the patently obscure (and inscrutable) RON MIX. Tom Mix? Heard of him. Chex Mix? Heard of it. RON MIX? Well, no.

I’m 86% positive we simply had this precise clue for MIME, possibly simply previously week (62D: Act out?). I bear in mind my spouse studying me the clue with suspicion, and my rationale was “yeah, they carry out … publicly … like at first of “The Conversation” (1974) … so, “out” … until they’re implying that miming is homosexual … no, that may’t be proper, it is gotta be the primary one, the performing open air factor” (notice: I used to be proper—it was this previous Thursday, and the clue was [One who’s acting out?]).