Report Card - The New York Times

SUNDAY PUZZLE — This is Randy Ross’s 50th Sunday puzzle! As far as I can tell from xwordinfo.com, his 1991 debut was a Sunday grid; I couldn’t find a blank version but if you want to take a look to see how things have changed in almost 30 years, it’s neat.

Today’s grid is a running joke that works quite well, since even once you get the gist of the theme the rest of the entries aren’t spoiled. Also not a spoiler, I hope, is the fact that Mr. Ross is a retired high school principal who worked in schools in Queens, Great Neck and Plainview, N.Y., which gives the theme a memoir-ish quality.

Tricky Clues

This puzzle is really well put together and rich with jests of all kinds. There are definite “dad jokes” (TREAD, ALTAR and LIE IN IT, among others), vintage lady humor (CORSET) and some kid-style riddles as well, like the clue for NEST, as well as some great slow burners.

I got quite stuck on some of the fill — BOCK, GTE and MCAN, most notably. As always, crosses saved the day.

27A: Picking a number, or one who numbs, is the most important factor in my own search for a DENTIST; this clue makes me wish I could give Mr. Ross an award — maybe a little plaque?

34A: There’s been a wave of “takes,” in modern times, often sarcastic or world-weary, and I fell for that term here instead of TUDES, as in ’TUDES or attitudes.

44A: I found this startling at first, even though it’s been in the puzzle before, and a DART GUN is certainly part of a park ranger or wildlife conservationist’s equipment. It made me remember a book that I’d loved as a child, “Is There a Doctor in the Zoo?,” which stressed the usefulness of being able to tranquilize a large wild animal with an injury or illness in order to treat it successfully.

71A: Sports joke! Stealing a base means you risk getting thrown out, caught flat-footed or touched by the ball by any of the infielders, sending you back to the dugout. A LATE TAG means you’ve pulled off the heist and moved forward, even (rarely) across home plate.

107A: It’s not a joke, per se, but it strikes me as funny that, since “put” can be present or past tense, “tabled” or SHELVE can work equally for this clue.

112D: I confess to having “ess” here, as in “governess” and so on, and then shrugging my way through “etses” at 118A even though that looked terrible. ESQ and ET SEQ are perfect, once you see it, but this is a funny corner.

Today’s Theme

There are nine theme entries today in the acrosses and downs, all two-word phrases. They are all clued in two parts: The first part is a definition, in italics, of the first word in the entry; the second part is a letter grade. The name of the puzzle is “Report Card,” and that letter grade is a hint for the second word in the phrase. (Grading with letters, by the way, seems to be the international standard, with some exceptions.)

The letter grades run from A+ to D–, avoiding the nadir of student performance. You need to find a word corresponding to that letter grade that snaps onto that first word and forms a common phrase.

For example, let’s start with the most neutral of them all, at the very bottom of the across entries, 109A, Baseball skill: C. Well, we know about pitching, fielding, and that third thing, BATTING; with a “C,” you get BATTING AVERAGE, since a “C” grade is traditionally smack in the middle of a teacher’s expectations, perfectly AVERAGE.

I realize that everyone present is above average, but in this puzzle there are better and worse. It might have made it too easy to arrange the entries in a predictable sequence; instead, we bounce around a bit, although the cream of the crop is at the top, at 23A. Parenting: A+ becomes MOTHER SUPERIOR. On the flipside, look at 35A: Taming wild horses: D– is BREAKING (as in broncos) BAD.

These are the limits in today’s grid; once you’ve overcome any anxiety or grade school flashbacks, all of the ratings are certainly surmountable, and the graceful cluing makes the themers a lot of fun to guess at while you solve.

If you’re stuck on one:

49A, "Valet skills: B+," refers to a bane to drivers everywhere.

PARKING FINE

62A, "Hosting a morning news show: C+," refers to a Simon & Garfunkel classic.

SCARBOROUGH FAIR

81A, "Stuffing tip jars: D" refers to shifting blame.

BUCK PASSING

91A, "Employee efficiency: D+," refers to a portion of our society.

WORKING POOR

16D, "Stereo quality: B," refers to an agreeable response to a proposal.

SOUNDS GOOD

69D, "Fashion sense: A," refers to an enthusiastic response to a couple of spoonfuls.

TASTE GREAT

Constructor Notes

This is a milestone puzzle for me — my 50th Sunday Times crossword. I thought I’d reflect on this avocation that has given me so much pleasure and has allowed me to meet so many smart and creative people that I may not have met otherwise. Crossword constructing has been a super icebreaker when I meet people for the first time and having cruciverbalist on my résumé has helped me at job interviews more than once. I’m not surprised anymore that in spite of a 50-year career in education doing important things for children for families, people want to talk more about how crosswords are made than how children learn or how we can fix our schools.

I love both the art and craft of puzzle construction. My creative juices flow when thinking of a theme that is hopefully clever, usually punny, and internally consistent. Today’s puzzle, for example, of course came from my experience as an educator. Finding appropriate adjectives linked to letter grades is a common task for those of us who have been graders of student work. Using those adjectives in phrases makes for potentially fun word play resulting in a set of “Report Card” theme entries.

The craft of fitting those long entries into a grid is my favorite part of constructing. Working within the parameters of symmetry, under 140 words, and fresh entries is like solving a puzzle of another kind. Clearly that part of crossword construction has changed over the years with the advances of technology and the liberalization of what is an acceptable entry. My first Sunday Times puzzles about 30 years ago had to be done on graph paper, with hard-cover dictionaries and a ton of trial and error. I still get joy out of finishing a tough corner or coming up with a new entry to solve a seemingly impossible crossing. It’s hard to explain how when you’re stuck and you put a puzzle construction down for a while, often the solution occurs to you after some sleep or for no apparent reason at all.

The most challenging part of puzzling for me is coming up with good, original clues. I am in awe of my editors and fellow constructors who have that knack and play with words so effortlessly. I especially have admired fellow cruciverbalists like Bob Klahn, Merl Reagle, Rich Silvestri, Mike Shenk, Will Shortz, and so many others who create so much original word play for solvers to enjoy. I try to be as eclectic as possible with my word choices. Crosswords appeal across demographic groups. I believe creating and cluing them with one group in mind, whether they are older folks like me or younger solvers who have quite different vocabularies and interests, makes some unhappy but minimizes some opportunities to learn from each other’s generational knowledge base.

What fun it is to have this crossword puzzle hobby. I hope everyone enjoys today’s puzzle … and to those who like to critique — go to it! But remember crossword puzzles are entertainment, not to be taken that seriously, just a diversion from the real problems we all face living in a sometimes unfair and irrational world.

This isn’t an exam!

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