Banned supplement / THU 5-7-20 / French city that was objective for capture on D-Day / Argus-eyed / Seafood staple of New England / Advertising icon with horns / Diggory student at Hogwarts

Constructor: Bruce Haight and Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (2/3 finished before I "got" a theme answer)

THEME: W/M spoonerisms — phrases where initial "W" and initial "M" sounds of words are switched, creating wacky phrases, clued wackily ("?"-style)

Theme answers:

• "BUT MATE, THERE'S WAR" (18A: Australian's caution against entering a battlefield?) (original phrase: "But wait, there's more!")
• MEN'S DAY WARNING (36A: "Just a reminder: the golf course is reserved for the guys tomorrow," e.g.?) (original phrase: Wednesday morning) (??)
• "CARE TO WAKE A MAJOR?" (58A: "Would you mind getting that officer out of bed?") (original phrase: "Care to make a wager?")

Word of the Day: Betty HUTTON (3D: Actress Betty of old Hollywood) —

Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. // In 1942, writer-director  Preston Sturges cast Betty as the dopey but endearing small-town girl who gives local troops a happy send-off and wakes up married and pregnant, but with no memory of who her husband is, except that a few "z's" were in his name. This film, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, was delayed by Hays Office objections and Sturges' prolific output and was finally released early in 1944.

The film made Hutton a major star; Sturges was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar, the film was named to the National Film Board's Top Ten films for the year, and the National Board of Review nominated the film for Best Picture of 1944, and awarded Betty Hutton the award for Best Acting for her performance. The New York Times named it as one of the 10 Best Films of 1942–1944. [...] 

Hutton's next screen triumph came in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which hired her to replace an exhausted Judy Garland in the role of Annie Oakley. The film, with the leading role retooled for Hutton, was a smash hit, with the biggest critical praise going to Hutton. (wikipedia)

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Cronyism? I can't really explain how else this thing gets published. I enjoy a good spoonerism, so as a thing you might do in your puzzle, I am in no way inherently opposed to the ploy. But ... there's virtually no concept here. You're spoonerizing? To what end? Why M/W? Is this some kind of weird, veiled gender commentary? M/W, Men/Women? The whole concept needs an explanation and Does Not Have One. What the hell is "Wednesday Morning"? How is that—How Is That—an acceptable base phrase. Is that the name of some lesser Betty HUTTON movie? Did she co-star with Victor Mature in "Wednesday Morning"? I love (Love) that the dead center of this puzzle is an exclusionary golf course clue. That is ... very, very on the nose. Emblematic. Fitting. This puzzle never should've seen the light of day. They moved the Thursday to Wednesday to make room for ... this? Wow. Editing!


The fill is crusty and stale all over. The clue on AVE is a crime—that's a common abbr. and you make it a Sp. bird??? (6D: Bird: Sp.) Yeesh. Own your mediocre fill! You can clue "avenue" in all kinds of ways. Or just go with ["___ Maria"] and be done with it. ETERNE, ugh. Also, ETNA AMIE POR CAEN HEEP ETTU TTOP APR ... ACH! ... YIPE! Etc. My great joy this morning was, after finishing this puzzle, heading to Twitter to see the #NYTXW hashtag lit up with "hell no" sentiment. I am not afraid to take an unpopular stance (my feelings are my feelings and I don't fake them for anyone) but it's nice, when you're so put off by a puzzle, to know that you weren't alone. Again, I am a spoonerism fan. But you gotta give me a reason to care. And you gotta give me a grid more polished than this.

I had real trouble getting started in the NW, which is full of things I normally love (old movies! baseball! 17th-century literature), but clued in ways that made none of it very gettable or fun. Don't really know HUTTON despite being Literally Immersed in movies from the '30s to the '60s since the Quarantine started. Not as much of a musical fan, I guess. Hate the clue for ATBATS because it doesn't even try to be specific (1D: Baseball statistic). Didn't really see the "?" on the end of the Friday clue so CRUSOE (which I teach regularly) never occurred to me (2D: One who might say "Thank God it's Friday"?). I think the quotation mark at the end of that clue somehow blinded me to the "?" that followed. Or maybe I mentally put the "?" inside the quotation marks? Not sure. Anyway, had to move far away to get started. Didn't really get a grip until ELSIE / ETTU (olden fill is good for something, I guess). Then went all the way down the grid into the SW before getting that first (in this case, the last) themer. I needed every single cross. Then I had to say it out loud to see the trick. Sigh. That NW was the place I finished up, and was the hardest part of the puzzle by far. I guess the theme helped me get it. MATE ... WAR ... wait more. Anyway, corny doesn't begin to describe it. But worse, it's arbitrary and pointless. If you turn an "M" upside-down, it's a "W" ... is that it? Who knows? (or cares?)


I CAN'T say any more about this one. Or, I won't. I've had enough. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. someone suggested that the black-square configurations are supposed to represent "M"s and/or "W"s. LOL. I think that actually makes this puzzle worse. Talk about misguided. Maybe put more effort into delivering an enjoyable puzzle and less into self-indulgent frippery that most people are never gonna see without "Puzzle Notes"; awful.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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