Turkish bigwig / MON 1-21-19 / Early North American explorer John / Green building certification for short

Constructor: Sean Biggins

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:51)

THEME: CIVIL RIGHTS (57A: Cause championed by the figures named at the ends of 16-, 22- and 47-Across) — Martin Luther KING, Jr., Rosa PARKS, Sojourner TRUTH

Theme answers:

• 16A: Regal (FIT FOR A KING)
• 22A: Yosemite and Yellowstone (NATIONAL PARKS)
• 47A: Something promised in a court oath (THE WHOLE TRUTH)

Word of the Day: John CABOT (14D: Early North American explorer John) —

John Cabot (Italian: Giovanni Caboto; c. 1450 – c. 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 discovery of the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments elected Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed. (wikipedia)

• • •

As an MLK Day tribute puzzle, I think this is fine. It's a slightly weird set of CIVIL RIGHTS leaders, since Parks and King were contemporaries, while Truth was active a full century earlier. But maybe there aren't a ton of CIVIL RIGHTS leaders whose last names are also be other things. I might've tried to get WISHING WELLS or something like that in the grid, but again, it's hard to impugn the set. They're all iconic. The fill is reasonably clean and even zingy in some places (HIT THE HAY! SKETCH UP! HELLA!). If anything, it's the themers that aren't lively enough (this is the opposite of most puzzles' problem, which is that the themers are the *only* real interest in the grid). Maybe there weren't better answers to be had. I don't mind the first two, but the third felt oddly partial. It only exists as part of a larger phrase, and so it doesn't quite feel right standing alone. I really wish YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH were 15. It *is* 21, and it's never been used before, so Sunday constructors: have at it!


Five things:

• 1A: Turkish bigwig (PASHA) — This is the kind of 1A gimme that makes me feel slightly guilty. Relatively sure that word would never occur to me in a world without crosswords. As it is, I know AGA and AGHA and SATRAP and PASHA and BEY and DEY and EMIR and etc.
• 25D: Green building certification, for short (LEED) — I learned this from crosswords, and by "learned" I mean "experienced for the first time but still routinely forget"
• 41D: U.S.C. or U.C.L.A. (SCH.) — down near the bottom of my list of Crosswordese Ranked from Beloved to Despised. I remember the first time I saw it in a grid—I just stared at it, first disbelieving, and then seething. It feels fantastically fake.
• 40D: Native New Zealander (KIWI) — fun fact: my wife is a Native New Zealander. Not a *native* native New Zealander, though. That would be a MAORI. A white New Zealander is a PAKEHA. Put *that* in your grid and smoke it!
• 46D: "It's c-c-cold!" (BRRR) — normally I'd be up in arms about the stupid extra "R" but the fact that a. the clue tries to tip us to the three "R"s with the three "c"s in the clue, and b. it is HELLA cold right now where I live (5º and falling) means that today, I'll allow it

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]