Feeding the Complicity Machine Nyt Wed December 6 2017

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New York Times, Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Author:

Clive Probert

Editor:

Will Shortz

Maker of outlandish products in Road Runner cartoons

This puzzle:

Rows: 15, Columns: 15 Words: 78, Blocks: 38 Missing: {JKQVWYZ} This is puzzle # 5 for Mr. Probert.

Stunt puzzle, every entry containing the letter M. We've seen plenty of these before, some with better raisons d'être than others. M ... read more

Stunt puzzle, every entry containing the letter M. We've seen plenty of these before, some with better raisons d'être than others. M AND M was meant to hint at the idea? I got confused. There's just one M in most entries, right? Why is M AND M apt?

Aha, every clue starts with the letter M too. Perhaps that's our second M? It's a mark of smoothness in the cluing that I didn't notice this right away — often, it's too easy to tell when clues are stunted up because many of them sound stilted. There was only one that gave me pause: I remember thinking that MODULES and [Mathematical sets] didn't quite match. Why not just clue it as [Sets]? Ah, right. The telltale M!

As with most stunt puzzles of this nature, there's a good amount of crossword glue — stuff that editors tell you to avoid, like abbreviations, partials, deep esoterica, etc. — to wade through. I stopped counting after I hit 10. For reference, I stop thinking a grid is elegantly crafted after I hit about 3.

That doesn't mean it's a bad puzzle or a bad grid. It's just the price you pay as a constructor for being able to achieve the feat. So much of construction is about trade-offs, what you're willing to put solvers through in order to pull off your idea.

I did like some of the long entries, ALMA MATER, METRONOME, ANGSTROM, and MOMENTUM in particular. But overall, it wasn't quite enough for me to feel like all the trade-offs were worth it.

I did enjoy the moment of clarity when I realized why M AND M was a good(ish) themer though, and there was a lot of solid work in cluing, making all the M-starts sound innocently natural.

1 E

2 M

3 M

4 A

5 F

6 I

7 R

8 M

9 M

10 A

11 I

12 D

13 M

A

N

N

14 O

C

C

A

15 M

16 A

C

M

E

17 M

P

E

G

18 R

A

M

B

O

19 D

A

M

E

20 E

L

M

S

21 U

M

P

22 D

23 I

A

D

E

M

24 T

E

E

T

25 I

M

E

26 H

U

M

M

E

D

27 R

M

S

28 M

O

L

E

29 M

I

30 A

31 S

32 A

33 M

O

S

34 M

A

M

E

T

35 I

A

M

36 E

L

E

M

37 M

A

N

E

S

38 M

E

T

E

39 A

M

T

40 M

E

N

D

S

41 M

O

S

E

S

42 M

A

R

43 E

D

O

M

44 S

U

M

45 M

O

46 H

A

I

R

47 L

I

M

E

48 A

49 D

50 E

51 M

A

N

I

L

A

52 D

I

M

53 N

M

E

X

54 A

T

O

M

55 N

56 A

O

M

I

57 T

A

M

A

58 N

E

M

O

59 S

I

M

B

A

60 U

N

U

M

61 O

R

E

M

62 M

O

O

N

63 M

A

R

S

© 2017, The New York Times 12/6/17 ( No. 24,865 )

Across

1

Miss Woodhouse, in literature : EMMA

5

Mattress description : FIRM

9

Marian, in Robin Hood legend : MAID

13

Manfred ___ (1960s band) : MANN

14

Medieval philosopher with a "razor" : OCCAM

16

Maker of outlandish products in Road Runner cartoons : ACME

17

Multimedia file format : MPEG

18

Macho stereotype : RAMBO

19

Maggie Smith, for one : DAME

20

Majestic trees : ELMS

21

Much-maligned official : UMP

22

Monarch's headband : DIADEM

24

Meeting info for golfers : TEETIME

26

Made music on a comb : HUMMED

27

Motel units: Abbr. : RMS

28

MI6 concern : MOLE

29

"Mamma ___!" : MIA

31

Member of the ancient Ionian League : SAMOS

34

Movie, play and book writer David : MAMET

35

Michelle Pfeiffer film "___ Sam" : IAM

36

Molybdenum, for one: Abbr. : ELEM

37

38

Measure (out) : METE

39

Milliliter, e.g.: Abbr. : AMT

40

Makes repairs on : MENDS

41

Mount Sinai climber : MOSES

42

Mo. with St. Patrick's Day : MAR

43

Moab's neighbor, in the Bible : EDOM

44

Math calculation : SUM

45

Material from Angora goats : MOHAIR

47

Mouth-puckering drink : LIMEADE

51

Muhammad Ali fight site : MANILA

52

Muted, as lights : DIM

53

Mountainous state: Abbr. : NMEX

54

Molecular unit : ATOM

55

Model Campbell : NAOMI

57

"Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction" writer Janowitz : TAMA

58

Marlin's son, in a Pixar movie : NEMO

59

Matthew Broderick voice role : SIMBA

60

Motto word on the Great Seal : UNUM

61

Mini-metropolis in Utah : OREM

62

Man in the ___ : MOON

63

Mount Olympus, at 72,000 feet, is its highest peak : MARS

Down

1

M. ___ Walsh, actor in "Blade Runner" : EMMET

2

Makers of cabinets and violins use it : MAPLE

3

Muse of memory : MNEME

4

5

6

Meaning of Caesar's "Veni" : ICAME

7

Maintainer of law and order north of the U.S. : RCMP

8

Midwife to the fairies, in Shakespeare : MAB

9

Manager of a house : MADAM

10

11

12

Make the judgment to be : DEEM

15

23

Multi-Emmy-winning "How ___ Your Mother" : IMET

25

Modern communications of a sort, in brief : IMS

26

Mansions, for some : HOMES

28

"Melts in your mouth" candy : MANDM

30

Midwest college town : AMES

31

Mining find : SEAM

32

Michigan State, for a Spartans alumnus : ALMAMATER

33

34

Main house on an estate : MANOR

37

38

40

More than a snack : MEAL

41

Mother's Day flower, in Australia : MUM

44

46

Message on a sign at a televised game : HIMOM

47

48

Microwave brand : AMANA

49

Make bones about something : DEMUR

50

Midterms, e.g. : EXAMS

51

Mexican's hand : MANO

52

56

Marksman's skill : AIM

Answer summary:

Analyzing...

Analysis

There are 15 rows and 15 columns, with 0 rebus squares, and 2 cheater squares (marked with "+" in the colorized grid below.)

The grid uses only 19 of 26 letters, missing JKQVWYZ.

It has normal 180-degree rotational crossword symmetry.

Average word length: 4.79, Scrabble score: 319, Scrabble average: 1.71.

Puzzle has 7 fill-in-the-blank clues and 0 cross-reference clues.

This puzzle has 0 unique answer words.

It has 0 words that debuted in this puzzle and were later reused:

These 34 answer words are not legal Scrabble™ entries, which sometimes means they are interesting:

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Day of week comparisons

The green highlighted squares show which daily puzzle average is closest to this puzzle for each statistical category.

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Distribution of answer words by length

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Letter distribution

Scrabble Score: 1

2

3

4

5

8

10

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Thumbnails

Various thumbnail views are shown:

• Standard view shows the grid pattern most clearly
• Open Squares (those which don't touch any block, even diagonally) are blue
• Vowel distribution
• Scrabble score uses the same color key as above
• Freshness view shows unique answers in red (see colorized grid below)

With answers

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Puzzles that may be similar to this one

Crosswords that share the most words with this one (excluding Sundays):

Unusual or long words that appear elsewhere:

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Identical grids

Other puzzles with the same block pattern as this one:

Topologically similar grids

Other crosswords with exactly 38 blocks, 78 words, 67 open squares, and an average word length of 4.79:

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Colorized grid for Wed Dec 6, 2017

The next two sections attempt to show how fresh the grid entries are.

In this view, unusual answers are colored depending on how often they have appeared in other puzzles.
Unique answers are in red, red overwrites orange which overwrites yellow, etc.

Cheater squares are indicated with a + sign.

Unique

1 other

2 others

3 others

4 others

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Freshness Factor

FF: 49.3 – 85.5 percentile, 98.7 Wednesday percentile

Freshness Factor is a calculation that compares the number of times words in this puzzle have appeared in other Shortz Era puzzles.
Click here for an explanation.

The chart below shows how many times each word has been used across all NYT puzzles, old and modern including Variety.

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Source: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/6/2017

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