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

ASAMI
SODOI

You know I started a parody song using this stuff once for a theoretical performance at the dreaded ACPT talent show. Maybe I post what I had later if I can remember it.

this year there's been a weird shift toward THE___ clues a la

THESOX
THEFED
THEBREAKS

and I hate them all and they make me go

ERR
IRR
ARR

I despise clues of the 'direction between CITY 1 and CITY 2' sort where the answer is

ENE ESE SSE SSW WSW WNW NNW

Yep

(To the tune of "Take a Letter, Maria")
Last night I was ONKP
Across from the APO
I was EYED up by a dog named OTTO
Who report to the NCO

reports

ENE ESE SSE SSW WSW WNW NNW

What's the big deal? Just travel to one of those cities, find a high vantage point, get out your lensatic compass, and point it at a known landmark in the target city. Easy peasy.

Take your dog ASTA with you.

(some story about receiving a Dear John letter I haven't flesh out yet. Then...)

IBEX

So take a letter, a rebus
With pen or pencil you can write
To solve it electronically
You'd better find Across Lite

(Which is the chorus, which will repeat, with the last chorus changing to)
So take a letter, Merl Reagle
Address it to Will Shortz
Sit on a potato pan
I put soot on warts

There's just a weird lot of common / borderline crosswordese stuff. Seems like with a theme this (relatively) light, the fill wouldn't be so IRR AROD RIIS ESTA TELEX ORES ORSO ACTI ANTE AXLE etc. The worst of the short fill, though, was the GPO / EEOC crossing. Truly awful, if only because their crossing *initialisms*, which means if you don't know what the letters ... stand for ... you have no hope.

from rex parker's blog entry today. when i used to do the NYT crossword more often i enjoyed reading his takes and particularly his low tolerance for lazy crosswordese, when applicable

I think reviewing the crossword every day for however many years has driven him to madness, like Andy Daly in Review

I know it drove me a little mad, just doing them every day. Duolingo is a moderately better addiction.

ISSA RAE

ooh one i hate is EAPOE. have seen it in at least three xwords

oy and all those french rivers!

RHINE
RHONE
SEINE
LOIRE
OISE
YSER

ODER

(side note: I am probably way more forgiving of these than most, because my delight in solving is rooted in good cluing, interesting and/or tricky themes, interesting long answers - not, primarily, in avoiding crosswordese.

It's great when a constructor avoids EKE or ALOU, sure; but I don't construct puzzles so I don't know how easy or hard it is to do consistently interesting themed puzzles without ever resorting to ANTE or YSER or whatever. Definitely seeing some 20th-century stuff just age out of common use. ERNE and SST still pop up but are waning, in my experience.)

EIRE really grinds my gears

Sure, but it is at least Irish for Ireland - Erin and Erse can get to fuck, though.

sure could use a MRPIBB

what gets me are the ones that are slightly out of date, e.g.

EMAG
PDA for a device
HIRES for a monitor instead of HIDEF

equally annoying are the ones that are just a tad too current, like
1 Across: "It's ____!"
and the answer is POPPIN

Yeah the "archaism" is part of what makes me itchy about the clueing for Eire

always exciting to see if it'll be KEA or LOA

equally annoying are the ones that are just a tad too current, like
1 Across: "It's ____!"
and the answer is POPPIN

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, July 15, 2020 3:42 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

better clue would be "my lip gloss is _____"

okay, maybe not TOO current

The phrase TINKERS to EVERS to CHANCE just popped into my head, which used to be a crossword staple when I was coming up, seems to linger on and pop up every once in a while nowadays.
https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2009/04/tuesday-apr-21-2009-rj-nj-byron-1946.html?m=1

https://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/gonfalon/

always exciting to see if it'll be KEA or LOA

yeah this is like the cargo shorts of crossword clues. try harder

https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=7/3/1949

Yeah, when I see MAUNA __ and already have the final A, I wanna throw my UKE up in the air in frustration.

that 1949 puzzle is hardcore

In defense of crosswordese, sometimes it is the only way to crack into a difficult Saturday grid. Also sometimes it's fun to know all the different ways to clue, say,the hero of the thread title: Joseph Wiseman role, Crab Key denizen, etc. Or that famous fellow from the OP played by Bamboo Harvester.

45D Man's name. : ISIDOR

foh

what gets me are the ones that are slightly out of date, e.g.

EMAG
PDA for a device
HIRES for a monitor instead of HIDEF

ETAIL and EZINE always make me lol

Pearl Buck heroine

Oh man, I still have problems spelling that one.

ESAI

which led me this this old related thread somebody started long ago

When MRT studies to the NTH degree, he gets a PHD and is henceforth called DRT.

LORI and TONI drank an ORANGE NEHI in front of the ELHI.

OUIOUI, SISI
ADIEUX, MES AMIS

LIEU EKE

LIEU EKE

We gotta go

I said
UIE UEY
UAE UZI
Me gotta go
YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH

🎵 UEY UDAY
thou little tiny child
WIFI UEY UDAY 🎵

WII OREO now

I said

WII OLEO

(To the tune of "Take a Letter, Maria")
Last night I was ONKP
Across from the APO
I was EYED up by a dog named OTTO
Who report to the NCO

I’m with YMP, don’t actually know why, actually I think I do know why, people complain about crosswordese so much, it’s kind of the DNA or building blocks of XWORDS. It’s like people complaining about cliched chord progressions or cliches in general: they can be problematic but they can also be used creatively, it depends.

I have a book of Eugene Maleska-era puzzles, and trying to solve them is like getting ice water thrown in your face. They’re so insane you wonder how people actually finished them back then.

In Infinite Tuesday, Mike Nesmith talks about how he had an uncle who would do the Sunday crossword pretty quickly– presumably some Texas paper– and then throw it away. One day young Michael fished the paper out of the garbage and saw all these unpronounceable nonsense words. It was like that moment in the documentary when R. Crumb finally looks at his brother’s sketchbook to see his latest work.

Part of the enigma that was Uncle Chick came into a degree of focus one Sunday after he had finished the crossword puzzle and left for the golf course. It didn’t make sense to me, this extraordinary word skill, and Chick didn’t really discuss anything with me that gave any hint about his thought processes. So on this Sunday I pulled the paper out of the trash, where he had thrown it, and looked at the puzzle, searching for clues. When I first looked at the filled-in puzzle, it seemed normal. Words like moon and igloo and kayak were in their proper place. Then I started to notice words like fonqi and nmfberhng and qplltrkller. Then I finally saw that most of the words were unrecognizable, and weren’t words at all. As this sank in, I was glad I was alone in the house. I carefully folded the paper up, put it back in the trash, and backed away.

That is funny. I bet Maleska could find a way to clue fonqi though.

I remember being able to do early week puzzles and even a leisurely Sunday puzzle solve back in those days, although I never attempted to speed solve and barely even tried Friday and Saturday.

Interesting to see how the cluing of EGAN has evolved.

Check it out: EGAN was in three puzzles in a row, Sun through Tuesday, starting the week of Jan 9, 1994.

Prefer this clue for one of today's answers from 1994: Hagar the Horrible's honey.

bobdole/clinton entry in the NYT sunday puzzle apparently

Monday's puzzle chock-a-block with classic crosswordese.

crossword constructors breathe sigh of relief as ESAI morales is cast in the new mission impossible movie

Lol!

Was just reminded on Novelists No One Reads Anymore of SOBIG, which I recall seeing a lot although doesn't seem to be that often in Shortz Era NYT.

Have to ask - is there anyone who calls a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a PBJ irl? PB and J to be sure, or even PBNJ, but PBJ? this has recently risen to the top of my bugaboo list

i am okay with that one

less so with TAX BITE, which appeared the other day

Agreed, I remember that puzzle seemed to have a few answers that were questionable