New York Times, Thursday, November 20, 2014

The NAZI / DEICIDE crossing, which was by far the best possible fill, looked particularly morbid to me, so I tried to clue both entries in an oblique way that would make them interesting, rather than depressing.

The NAZI clue, I think, helps to camouflage the inherent distastefulness of the word itself, and is less heavy-handed than one such as "European jackboot."

As for DEICIDE, there was a pair of Maleska-era clues in the database: "Murder of a god" and "Destruction of a god." Dictionary-like clues of this nature felt too straightforward and explicit for this entry, though, given its crossings; I thought a specific mythological clue would work better, and there were two to choose from.

The first option was the story of Baldur and Hodur from Norse mythology. Baldur, one of the sons of Odin, is beloved by all living creatures—including the gods' bitter enemies, the frost giants. Having heard a prophecy foretelling Baldur's death, Odin's wife Frigg has every last thing in the world swear never to hurt Baldur. The mistletoe plant, believed to be harmless, is the only thing that fails to take this oath. The jealous trickster god Loki, however, takes a sprig of mistletoe and fashions it into a dart. The other gods have made a game out of throwing their swords and axes at Baldur, which all bounce off harmlessly, as even metal has sworn him no harm. Loki gives this dart to Baldur's blind and innocent brother Hodur, who has been unable to participate in the fun because he lacks a weapon. With Loki's guidance Hodur throws the mistletoe straight at Baldur, killing him.

The story behind the wicked god Set's murder of his brother Osiris is equally fascinating. Envious of his brother's position as king of Egypt, Set arranges for a beautiful sarcophagus to be made conforming to Osiris' exact measurements. At a gala celebrating Osiris' return from travels abroad, Set brings forth the sarcophagus and proclaims that it is a gift for the one who fits inside. Everyone in turn tries the sarcophagus, to no avail. Osiris is the last to climb into the box, which of course fits him perfectly. Set and his attendants thereupon slam the coffin lid shut, sealing it with nails and boiling lead (killing Osiris), before throwing it into the Nile. Osiris never again walks among the living.

It's curious that both of these tales qualify as fratricide as much as they do deicide, even if they occur under wildly differing circumstances (although both involve jealousy). As it seemed less obscure, I went with the latter story.

If you take nothing else from this brief discourse, take this: If you're ever offered a glass slipper to try on, go for it. If you're ever offered a coffin to try on, decline politely and find the nearest available exit.

Oh, and keep away from mistletoe. Dangerous stuff.

The mark of Zorro today, embodied by nine Zs arranged in the shape of a giant Z. Not being up on my Zorro trivia, I had a tough time finishing this one, but it was pretty neat to see the meta-Z slashed through the puzzle.

The Z is one of the Big Four of Scrabbliness, a tough little guy to incorporate smoothly. Of course, there are oodles of entries that contain a Z, but there are many fewer relative to, say, M, or even B. Making things more difficult today is the fact that the abundance of Zs meant that Tim had to be cautious about duping any Z words, i.e. if you use ZEE, that takes away ZED as an option somewhere else in the grid, as they have the same etymology.

Tim does well to segment his grid, almost approximating a house layout with nine rooms, in order to isolate each Z. Still, it's tough to execute smoothly with this many Zs. (It doesn't quite make our list of most Z's, but it comes close.) I rarely like seeing NAZI in my puzzles, but that's a personal opinion. And it would have been nice to get more of a ZOO CZAR GAZE feel than a ZEB EZER NAZI vibe.

Ah, BENZENE is perhaps my favorite compound in all of organic chemistry. Its hexagonal shape with shared electrons, the legend of how August Kekule ascertained its structure via a dream of Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail, its planar characteristic distinguishing it with elegance from cyclohexane's kinked conformations … oh, BENZINE (with an I) is the entry today? Harrumph.

Some sizzling clues today, M AND MS made me laugh. [Little green ones come from Mars]; how perfect, once you realize that Mars is the company that makes them. And [Having a sense of pride?] refers to a lion's pride, not man's ego. Beautiful way to make these middle-length pieces of fill really sing. Finally, reading Tim's account of the Baldur story was a highlight for me today. Loki's trickery made quite an impression on me as a youngster. So tragic.

I wonder if these pieces of Zorro trivia are generally well known? I kind of liked learning DON DIEGO / DE LA VEGA — such an awesome name! — but combined with THE CURSE OF / CAPISTRANO felt a bit too much of learning for my small brain to handle in one day. Loved the Z visual though.