Constructor: Adam Wagner

Relative problem: Easy-Medium (Easy for a rebus…)

THEME: INBOX ZERO (35D: Ambitious e mail aim, and a touch to 4 squares on this puzzle) — a rebus puzzle the place some phrase which means “zero” could be discovered “in” its personal “field” 4 occasions:

Theme solutions:

• HEAVEN ON EARTH / RENO, NEVADA (18A: Paradise / 10D: Home of greater than 16,000 slot machines)
• BIKINI LINES / VANILLA (3D: Targets of some waxing / 22A: Bland)
• LAUGH TEST / NAUGHTIER (40A: Proverbial evaluation of whether or not or not an concept could be taken severely / 32D: More more likely to get coal, maybe)
• JACUZZI PARTY / MARZIPAN  (64A: Hot tub shindig / 49D: Almond confection)

Word of the Day: “poisoned pawn” (68A: Captures a “poisoned pawn” in chess, e.g.) —

The Poisoned Pawn Variation is any of a number of collection of opening strikes in chess wherein a pawn is claimed to be “poisoned” as a result of its seize may end up in a positional lack of time or a lack of materials. […] The variation was used within the Monk episode “Mr. Monk and the Genius“. (wikipedia)

 

• • •

For a puzzle that began with ALBS (the crosswordesiest of priestly clothes) and handed by vomit (EMETIC), this one ended up being surprisingly contemporary and pleasant to unravel. Rebuses are minefields by design—you gotta work out the place the hidden risks are and defuse them or detonate them safely or no matter they do to mines to maintain them from harming folks. But typically the journey can really feel … not price it. Boring, possibly, like you must dutifully seek out these packing containers that each one say the identical factor. And typically the rebus squares find yourself making the fill really feel tortured, with barely off phrases or junky fill popping up all over the place you go. But right this moment the rebus squares have been surprises, even after I obtained the revealer, and far of the time they got here rising to the floor inside really authentic solutions, in order that there was pleasure not simply to find the rebus sq., however in PARSE-ing the solutions that crossed it. LAUGH TEST, JACUZZI PARTY, BIKINI LINES, HEAVEN ON EARTH, one after the opposite, the rebus squares and the solutions that contained them have been stunning and pleasing. This puzzle feels very considerate, very polished, and the revealer is each a energetic, up to date phrase and a real “aha” shock. After ALBS, I do not assume I winced as soon as whereas fixing this factor. And there was no time at which I used to be not having fun with myself. Honestly, that is type of a mannequin rebus puzzle. MARZIPAN JACUZZI PARTY could also be my favourite crossing of the 12 months. It’s simply enjoyable to say. MARZIPAN JACUZZI PARTY! I wish to go to at least one.

If ALBS (and boy do I) then this puzzle was seemingly very straightforward to open up. ALBS STEELS BAIT ABCTV CUKE all in a row, which made the BIKINI a part of BIKINI LINES straightforward to see. And because the phrase I needed to be VANILLA ended up trying like VANLA, I knew fairly shortly a. that there was an issue, and b. what the issue was—rebus alert! (pause to lament this puzzle’s VANILLA slander—a great VANILLA ice cream is something however “bland”; VANILLA malts are my favourite drinks after espresso and Manhattans). 

So I put NIL in its field and off I went, not but understanding why NIL was in a field, however assured that I’d discover out. Every subsequent rebus sq. concerned me tiptoeing as much as the sq., testing the bottom, after which finally discovering the goal. HEAVEN… [tap tap tap … check surrounding areas …] ah, there it’s, the NONE sq.! And so on. The AUGHT sq. was most likely the toughest, simply because I could not consider what sort of TEST was in play (I knew there was a TEST, simply not which type, at first). But NAUGHTIER mounted that (proverbially, naughty youngsters get coal as an alternative of toys at Christmas, in case that clue wasn’t clear). I obtained the revealer about midway by:

Knowing the premise made getting that AUGHT sq. a lot simpler than it might’ve been in any other case. That the puzzle remained fascinating even after the revealer did its revealing is an actual testomony to its total energy. This one has a powerful premise, however extra importantly, executes the premise in a approach that makes the entire remedy fascinating and entertaining. The second half of the remedy was at the very least as entertaining as the primary half. That … is one thing. And then to play me out with the world’s most splendidly miserable music!? Mwah, good. Thank you.

Six issues:

• 33D: Prefix which means “10” that is related to 12 (DEC) — I did not absolutely perceive the “12” half as I used to be fixing … my mind was yelling one thing about “doDECahedron” at me, however I wasn’t actually listening. After I used to be completed, I noticed that DEC. might be brief for “December,” i.e. the twelfth month.
• 56D: Small, oily fish (SPRAT) — bizarre that the man who may eat no fats could be named after an “oily fish” however OK.
• 59D: Stately property (MANSE) — I had MANOR. I nonetheless need MANOR. I affiliate MANSEs with monks … why is that? Perhaps as a result of “A manse () is a clergy home inhabited by, or previously inhabited by, a minister, often used within the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and different Christian traditions.” (wikipedia). There’s a MANSE, Nevada, I simply discovered. It’s within the far southern a part of the state, comparatively near Las Vegas and about 400 miles from RENO, NEVADA.
• 15A: Google’s streaming system (CHROMECAST) — weirdly by no means heard of this. Tried CHROMEBOOK on this house at first.
• 2D: Half of the one mom/daughter duo to be nominated for performing Oscars for a similar movie (LAURA DERN) — she and her mother, Diane Ladd, have been each nominated for 1991’s (fabulous) “Rambling Rose”

• 65D: Back (AGO) — not AFT!? But it is all the time AFT! Curses!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]