About Two Feet
This explanation needs an example. Take 22-Across, the “1980 film that led to the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup.” This is a reference to David Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN, which required prosthetic makeup that took over seven hours to apply and two hours to remove. At 26-Across, “Mobile homes, punnily” solves to WHEEL ESTATE, which is a new one on me (and a debut in the crossword) but which pops up in plenty of business names and headlines. You will notice that these entries appear as so:
THEELEPHANTMAN
WHEELESTATE
The down entries that cross the letters H-E-E-L will further highlight the theme’s trick. Take 2-Down, “Its name derives from the Washoe for ‘lake’” — the entry is TAHOE, but it’s one letter short. The H in TAHOE takes up twice the usual space. In 4-Down, “G, in the C scale” solves to SOL; in this case, the L is doubled in size.
The theme pair closest to the center of the puzzle contains a particularly difficult clue. I struggled with 69-Across, “In which ‘P or Q, but not both’ is represented as (P∨Q)∧¬(P∧Q).” The entry, which appears for the first time, is SYMBOLIC LOGIC, a science that includes Boolean logic (a term I’m more familiar with). But 74-Across, “Peacock seen on TV,” sunk in more quickly; it’s the NBC LOGO. In the grid, the letters C-L-O-G are stacked on top of one another, and the crossing down entries — ECO; LOL; AUTOPAY; DUG — each contain one of the letters in CLOG.
Note the title of the puzzle, “About Two Feet.” It’s a reference to the appearance of two HEELs, two CLOGs, and two other types of footwear marching through. And, finally, the revealer, at 115-Across, is a punchline. “High standards established by a predecessor … or what you are presented with in this puzzle?” emphasizes the size of the theme entries: they are BIG SHOES TO FILL.
This is yet another idiom that’s been hijacked in my mind by “The Simpsons.” All I thought of when I got the revealer was clown shoes!
Source: The New York Times
