Redd's Roster of Crosswordese: Do not read if you hate DRNO

this would be a terrible word for reasons of age and obscurity but i would still like to see MCDLT sometime

pretty sure i've seen clara peller referenced before

I actually have heard whispers, well maybe heard is the wrong word, just sort of been in the big room at the ACPT when in the distance I seemed to see some insider or two talking quietly which turned out to be grumbling about successors to the throne. It was done very discreetly and my internal parabolic mic couldn't pick up any of it, but I asked someone later and they told me discreetly and in a roundabout nudge nudge way what that tiny Blow-Up moment I thought I witnessed was about.

Back to the topic at hand. Please forgive my POP PSYCH approach, but feel like people (excessively) grumbling about fill is partly or mostly really about their addiction to XWORDS not giving them the high it used to. Not saying, just saying. Is that all there is, as Peggy LEE sang.

Not every constructor is going to be the Crossword JESUS, sorry.

I can think of maybe one constructor who jumped out at me, that wasn't already some kind of name, well exactly one, Dan Naddor, who I came across while solving LATIMES puzzles.

let's make an ilx crossword

FUCKWASHINGAHAT is a handy 15 letters

Lol

https://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/dan-naddor/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jan-07-la-me-dan-naddor7-2010jan07-story.html
https://crosswordfiend.com/2009/12/31/dan-naddor-in-memoriam/
which links to https://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2009/04/interview-with-dan-naddor.html

jaymc used to construct, not sure if he is still doing that.

i don't mind crosswordese but i'd like better clues!
As noted above, enough already with Mel OTT; how about "way, way too much" instead?

"nhl's senators on a scoreboard"

Right? My problem with a lot of fill isn't the fill – it's trite crosswordish cluing. (Cluing, by the way, is a great word).

My favorite 'regular' constructor is Zhouqin Burnikel. Among the standards I like Lynn Lempel and Jeff Chen, because everybody does and they're great. Trenton Carlson is the only regular whose name alone intimates that I won't have fun. Too many Qs and Js and Zs. Oh, and whoever wrote last Sunday's puzzle. I don't like that person either.

Whoops. I missed your post, ulysses. Coulda just written 'ditto.'

let's make an ilx crossword

Athlete who "knows" about uranium? = BORAD

2 x 33 + 11 = SEVENTYSEVEN

Greetings from Ditka? = BEARSAYHITOME

Rockist setting for a bicycle? = GEIR

Unlikely event = NOTGONNAHAPPEN

Dave Matthews Band pan = BADANDHATED

I constructed three blatant failures a couple years ago (https://spooky.camp/~evan/) and I did try to be as annoyingly creative as possible with my cluing

Atop benjies

thing occurring in a marsh, seven letters

FENHAPS

lol

ilx would be a boon to any constructor, FUIUD

there was this article critical of old white editors a few months ago
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/03/fight-to-make-crosswords-more-inclusive/608212/

especially this editor's note

MARIE KONDO wouldn’t be familiar enough “to most solvers, especially with that unusual last name.”

I was I could say I stopped doing them to take the high ground, but yeah, they basically occupy some ultimately bland middle ground with various tweaks now and then here and there to make them a wee bit edgier.

(Don't tell my kitty corner across the street neighbor I said that!)

kitty corner

too blatant a provocation, sorry

last sunday’s was pretty uninspired.

today’s themeless on the other hand is extremely pleasing.

americans once you crack tomorrow’s sunday nytimes crossword we need to talk about 82 across.

Haven’t done a Sunday in months.

Friend of jaymc’s and mine who posted on this board once for a minute or two had an interesting post on social media about his solving times the other day.

why not James Redd?

I stopped doing xwords regularly a few years ago and especially find Sundays a slog.

i only do sundays when i'm streaking; i can't say i actually enjoy them

tbh all i want are fridays and saturdays

B-b-but what about Thursdays?

dnw rebuses

there was a thursday a couple years ago where like the NW was normal, the NE downs were normal but the acrosses were backwards, the SW had normal acrosses but the downs were backwards, and everything in the SE was backwards. (i am probably remembering this slightly wrong)

and, well, that's quite a technical feat! also incredibly joyless to solve, particularly on the app

Really hated solving on the app in general.

And yeah, rebus+app=not a good look

::SPOILERS:: (sort of)
Tracer, re:82 across. No, afaik that is NOT a thing here. Maybe it's some bougie molecular gastronomy thing?

It’s definitely bougie but how is the clue spelled? In my paper it’s “palette”.

Ha! Guess they fixed it for the app.

Yeah there's a note in the blog.

At first I thought “ooh clever” and went down a rabbit hole. Some kind of solvent? You do “courses” of bricks when building a wall and you might use a palette for your mortar. What do you clean that with? Etc

What blog?

I guess what is meant is Wordplay:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2020-07-19.html

I always thought the 82A between courses things was French. It's not common here but it's a good idea and I welcome it when I chance across it.

I get that palette was plainly an error. As the tired stock clerk at the art supply once said, "I can't palate another pallet of pallettes!"

But the culinary practice is right in the dictionary definition

SPOILER ALERT

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sorbet

Haven't done today's puzzle- yet! Meanwhile, back to the original purpose of this thread
DELE PELE TELE UELE

Also I see there is something called the Universal Crossword on Amy R's blog. Not sure what that is but the one I just tried was not bad.

BAST HAST OAST NAST

Maybe people hate XWORDESE because every piece of such they haven't committed to their already extensive Rolodex of such slows down their speed solving a microsecond and gives the advantage to the competitition with an even more extensive internal database?

OFAN OLAN OMAN ONAN ORAN
and, real old school
OBAN.

OBI
EMS and ENS

Speaking of LOA/KEA, I just died on the peak of OSSA/ETNA

Have I ever told you the full jeremaid of my dabbling in competitive speed solving and subsequent burnout? If not, would you like to know?