Six Pack... and a dance to boot! (New York Times 11/29/2020)

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For years authors have been showing readers how intelligent their characters (often the villains, for some reason) are by tossing in a line about being able to solve the New York Times Sunday crossword. In pen no less! While I'll admit that attempting any puzzle with the permanence of ink is gutsy, being able to solve a Sunday puzzle is attainable by anyone. 

Not just serial murderers and black-hat hackers in high-stakes thriller novels like those turned out by Patterson or Baldacci. 

No, solving the Sunday puzzle--or any crossword--is a combination of trivia knowledge, vocabulary, deduction and practice. Today's puzzle, constructed by Eric Berlin, utilizes a combination of all of those skills. The finished product relies on a few too many instances of crossword-ese and reuse of a common word (more on that later), but the themed clues and answers make up for any faults I could find in the rest of the grid.

Being the largest puzzle of the week at 21x21, long-than-average answers are the norm, and finding a solid start to this puzzle requires a little specialized knowledge. Proper nouns dominate the easiest horizontal clues. 1A clues us in to the ... GMAIL ... logo which luckily was staring me in the face from the adjacent browser tab. Further down at 32 & 79A two of a trio of plucky chipmunks fill in the grid with ... ALVIN ... and ... SIMON ... respectively. Hip-hop music also contributes to two answers a 27A and 118A with ... RAPS (Drake's output) and ... TYLER (Hip-hop's ___ The Creator). The next, and final, clue of the grid is one dedicated solvers should recognize quickly as a frequent answer thanks to many popular letters: 119A "First name in cosmetics" ... ESTEE.

Perusing the vertical clues, 8D "Dozens are sold" solves to EGGS, another mainstay of many puzzles. Another proper noun ... NATASHA ... follows quickly at 14D from the clue "Actress Lyonne." If you went to school in late 90's and early 00's 30D's answer should be immediately recognizable, even if the clue for him isn't. I've never read his book: "Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation," but since it was written by ... BILLNYE ... I might have to check it out! In the south-west corner my favorite ... ARCADES ... game makes an appearance, clued as 88D "Places to play skee-ball" and another proper name finds her spot in the south-east corner at 101D "Actress Zellweger" ... RENEE.

Eight themed clues can be found scattered across the puzzle, four across and four down. The composition of these clues leads to some very inventive answers that help fill in a lot of the board. Each clue is a pseudo-portmanteau combing two word answers into one long word. I say 'psuedo' because the word that's created doesn't make sense by itself but is ingenious when read as intended.

Starting with the ah-ha moment that allowed me to solve the first of eight. 74D posits "Entertainment host Ryan, that smart aleck!" I immediately found space for the '...SEACREST' party of the answer, but was stumped by what the clue wanted from the rest. Having already solved 71A, I had all but the first letter. Scrolling up just a little (thank you big puzzle!) hid just enough of Mr. Seacrest's name to turn on the proverbial light bulb. ?ISEACRE... solved to WISEACRE creating the delightful WI(SEACRE)ST. Oh Ryan, you smart aleck, you!

The rest of the themed clues follow a similar pattern, forming two distinct words that share six letters among them, hence the puzzle's name, Six Pack. For brevity here are six more in order of appearance:

3D "Emergency situation caused by a terrier" ... AI(REDALE)RT

11D "Salon job named after a comic book hero" ... SU(PERMAN)ENT

23A "Very short-lived gemstones" ... EPH(EMERAL)DS

34A "TV quiz program about an epic poem" ... GIL(GAMESH)OW

63D "Pounding on a pie topping" ... HAM(MERING)UE

93A "Magnificent plan of action" ... FIR(STRATE)GY

The final clue might find its way onto my list of favorite crossword answers ever. That's not saying much because the barrier to entry isn't exactly insurmountable. Any themed clue that even brings a smile to my face is apt to land on the list. But the visual image of  44 doing a popular party dance after passing a bill will be stuck in my head for a while.

107A "Dance celebrating 2010 legislation" solves to OBA(MACARE)NA

Good stuff, friends and neighbors! 

Now for the not-so-good.

It isn't easy to construct a puzzle with a lot of long answers. Credit where it is due to Mr. Berlin for making one that is both entertaining and approachable. But this puzzle isn't without its sins. The deadliest perhaps is the word ICE that shows up three times in the puzzle. Duplicate answers are not typically allowed in crosswords. While 4D's ... ICEMELT ... and 47D's ... ICIER ... aren't technically repeats, spiritually they are. 57D's answer ... BICEP ... also includes the word, although I'm willing to overlook that one.

An abundance of crossword-ese also plagues the vertical borders of this puzzle. All down the western side we have ENES, DES, IPA. On the east we have NEE, and across three rows in the middle DYS, INE, ITE, and EWES all crop up. DYS is particularly egregious as it is the final letter in 34D's "Very cold" answer... GELID, a word I had to look up when I was finished. Per the New Oxford American Dictionary it means 'Icy' which brings us full circle to my first gripe with this puzzle!

 Nitpicking aside, this was a well crafted Sunday puzzle, and one that was worth the ticket price. For a solid 45 minutes I was glued to my computer screen trying to solve it, and I'll take that over most alternatives any day. 

What did you think of today's theme? Any answers tickle your funny bone more than Obama dancing atop his desk in the oval office? Let me know in the comments! As always, the answer below...

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