Thursday 18:10

Is it too much to ask for a Thanksgiving-themed puzzle on Thanksgiving? It's the one holiday almost nobody argues about. Anyway, the theme was Johnny Cash, and I'm OK with that. Theme answers were JOHNNYCASH, RINGOFFIRE, plus JOAQUIN and PHOENIX, who played him on film. Then there are four connected words where the word FIRE is missing (BALLS, STONE, BRAND, DANCE), so a "Ring of Fire," kinda. Pretty neat.

I usually like Rex Parker's crossword blog, but lately, it's too hateful. Some critiques are fair. He is right to call out bad crosswordese, inappropriate plurals, un-PC clues and things, even if I think he can go too far (I'm no fan of the NRA, but I don't flinch to see it in the puzzle). In this puzzle, he is right that Joaquin Phoenix is a little loose to count as a theme answer (although the other stuff is enough on its own, it's a bit thin). But his big complaint, the thing that ruined the puzzle, is that the "Ring of Fire" words were not a ring, but a square. Yep. That's the problem.

The fucking puzzle is made of squares, Rex! Even when they do some sort of more circular "ring," they usually do it with circled squares. And even then, it still won't be a true ring, more like a dodecagon at best, and this puzzle's concept doesn't lend itself to that type of thing. Also, when they do a meta-thing with circled squares, there's frequently a note about them. If the puzzle has a note, that's an automatic down vote in Rex's book. A good puzzle can usually stand on its own, but sometimes you need a little context to make sense of it. Rex is a smart guy, with a few published puzzles himself (real name Michael Sharp), but he's too judgmental, and dumps on a lot of puzzles that I like. I think Will Shortz's job is more challenging than Rex seems to think. As if the presence of a superior puzzle anywhere else is proof that the quality of Times puzzles has gone to shit. The Times puts out a puzzle every single day. The pool isn't really that large if you want to be diverse.