Star Wars surname / FRI 2-6-15 / Colonial heretic Hutchison / Fruit historically used for medicinal purposes / Fencing move that means arrow / Villain in Nativity play / 1960s Robert Loggia series about burglar-turned-bodyguard / Screenwriter who knew identity of Deep Throat / New England delicacies

Constructor: Kyle Mahowald

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ORGANA (40D: "Star Wars" surname) —

The House of Organa, also known as the Royal House of Alderaan, the Royal Family of Alderaan, or simply House Organa, was an Alderaanian Noble House that dated back to the earliest days of Alderaan's colonization. Throughout history, the Organa dynasty was the one that ruled over their homeworld the longest. Throughout several millennia of existence, the House Organa sired many well-known figures of the pan–galactic politics. Two of its most renowned scions were Viceroy Bail Prestor Organa and his adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa. Following the destruction of Alderaan in 0 BBY, the name of Organa died out. (wookieepedia)

• • •

This seems a fine puzzle, but it is radically misplaced on Friday. This was the hardest puzzle I've done in a very long time. I got stopped cold at least three times, the last time resulting in my staring at a smallish patch of grid for something like five minutes. Cluing difficulty overall was jacked way up, and there were a couple crucially placed WTF? proper nouns that made both the NW and the SE (or parts of them) seem like death traps. Also, FLECHE? Only vaguely familiar to me as a French word, and I had seven years of French. Other things I just didn't know:

• KILOBAR (got the KILO—and then just got the rest from crosses) (4D: Metric pressure unit)
• ATS (I'm never going to remember this cruddy thing) (9D: Cadillac model that debuted in 2012)
• POGOS (it's a dance now?) (26D: Dances by jumping in place)
• JAMAL (after the "-AL" I actually "knew" it, but kept doubting it and taking it out when I couldn't get crosses to work; more on that in a bit) (23D: Crawford who won the 2014 Sixth Man of the Year Award)
• ANNE Hutchison (no hope) (34D: Colonial heretic Hutchison)
• FLECHE (as I said) (46A: Fencing move that means "arrow" in French)
• AIR BOAT (got the BOAT—and then it was just a guess; had no idea those boats w/ giant fans were called that) (42A: Everglades transport)
• LTGEN (honestly didn't know that was even a rank; can't remember ever seeing it in crosswords) (45A: Geo. Washington was the U.S.'s first)
• CITRON (that's a real fruit?) (39D: Fruit historically used for medicinal purposes)
• "THE CAT" (hahahaha no) (20D: 1960s Robert Loggia series about a burglar-turned-bodyguard)
• ORGANA (hahahaha no) (40D: "Star Wars" surname)

I got this far without too much difficulty:

[You can just ignore that stray, incorrect ACT up there in the NE—that's just a reflex entry from seeing the phrase "When Romeo says…" in the clue] 

As you can see, I couldn't make the turn out of the NW and so had to start over completely in the SW, where HEROD was a gimme (or so I hoped when I wrote it in) (43D: Villain in a Nativity play), and HATRED was a good guess, and I gained traction from there. Once I finished the SW and threw THIS OLD THING across, I figured I was good to go.


But … no. I ended up with two Spots of Brutality: the J-SHAPED / "THE CAT" (!?!?!?!) crossing, and the single answer, ORGANA. In the first case, there was a pile-up of problems. J-SHAPED (23A: Like many hooks) was totally unexpected and the JS- looked wrong, so JAMAL went in and out a lot. "THE CAT" … I can't even say. Utter unknown. Blank. Ridiculous obscurity. But I was able to infer it, eventually, so … fairish? Then there was the brutal clue on nearby PALETTES (26A: Studio mixing equipment), which also made this little part hard to solve. I totally fell for the fake-out in that clue (imagining a music studio, not an art studio), so even with much of the answer filled in, I had no idea what was going on. Not knowing PALETTES meant I kept taking out and putting back in the "P" in POGOS. GOGOS? Who knows? So that section was a face-slap.

But the SW corner was worse. I was sure I had it. SCOURGES and TUBE TOP went in and I figured everything in their grasp would be mine. But the AIR- in AIRBOAT, no; LTGEN, no (out of desperation I almost tried USSEN, even though I knew a. that was wrong and b. that is not an acceptable abbr.). If I listed a million fruits, CITRON would not be one. I was running fruits like mad: CHERRY? CRAISIN? Is that a fruit? Gah! Could Not think of a fever-producer ending in "-O" (I wasn't considering abbrs., I guess, because no such thing was indicated). The worst thing here, though, is ORGANA. I wager than something way south of 5% of solvers had any idea there. I had none. Zero. I have a framed "Star Wars" poster on my living room wall. I'm guessing that this ORGANA crap is predominantly if not exclusively in those SCOURGES now labeled "Episodes I, II, III." Anyway, zero hope there. Only way I solved that corner was by finally shoving in ERAT and SNAP and *refusing* to take them out. Then I tried --GEN for the Washington answer, then just *guessed* that LTGEN was a thing. Can't believe I couldn't remember my cigarette brands, esp. a brand as familiar as SALEM(S). That might've made a big difference. But with AIRBOAT LTGEN CITRON ORGANA all barely or not at all known to me, hoo boy, that was rough.


Again, I think the grid is pretty solid. Lots of colloquialisms. Lots of zip. I am biased against this thing because it was misplaced on Friday and because its difficulty came excessively from proper nouns that I either had no way of knowing ("THE CAT"!?) or should not have to know because all "Star Wars" prequels are utter garbage (ORGANA).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld