Italian tourist town near Naples / TUE 9-6-22 / Alan folklorist who discovered legends like Woody Guthrie Pete Seeger / Yokohama-based automaker / Religion founded in Punjab / Longtime conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra / Brand whose logo's letters are covered in snow / Fried mideast fare

Constructor: Trenton Charlson

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: DOT DOT DOT (37A: Indication of more to come ... or a hint to a feature of three consecutive letters in 18-, 20-, 59- and 61-Across) — letter string "iji" appears in every themer (three "DOT"ted letters in a row):

Theme answers:

• SEIJI OZAWA (18A: Longtime conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra)
• HIJINKS (20A: Shenanigans)
• BEIJING (59A: Host city of the 2008 Olympics)
• FIJI DOLLAR (61A: South Pacific currency)

Word of the Day: Alan LOMAX (52A: Alan ___, folklorist who discovered legends like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger) —

 

Alan Lomax (/ˈloʊmæks/; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the US and in England, which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries, and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. He collected material first with his father, folklorist and collector John Lomax, and later alone and with others, Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, of which he was the director, at the Library of Congresson aluminum and acetate discs. (wikipedia) 

• • •

I've definitely seen a three-dot theme exactly (or somewhat) like this before, but that's not really a problem. The idea is cute, still. I just don't know about the execution, which is to say the themers themselves just aren't that interesting. SEIJI OZAWA is cool, but I also see (or saw) him a lot in crosswords. HIJINKS and BEIJING are super-short and super-ordinary things, which leaves FIJI DOLLAR, which, well, points for originality, for sure, but that answer feels desperate. I have no doubt that the FIJI DOLLAR is a real thing, but on the world currency familiarity scale, which I just made up, FIJI DOLLAR has to be somewhere near the bottom. I guess it's hard to shoehorn FIJI into a longer answer in any way that would feel natural, so here we are. FIJI WATER is a thing, but not long enough to symmetrically balance out SEIJI OZAWA. FIJI ISLANDS and FIJI AIRWAYS are both too long by an "S." Now would be a good time to confess that I always (Always) forget if it's FIJI or FUJI, in almost every instance. Mount ___? ___ APPLES? I'm completely hopeless. Anyway, MOUNT FIJI is not a thing. FIJI APPLES (!) (57A: Galas, e.g.) would've fit, but sadly, also not a thing. So we get FIJI DOLLAR, which is less than satisfying. Very narrow theme specifications, not sure what you're gonna do, but the concept was much better than the execution today, for me. 

The fill has some high points. Those big corners get you some bouncy 7s, like SIKHISM and FALAFEL and DONJUAN. ONE IOTA and "O CANADA" feel like 7-letter crosswordese, but they can't all be winners when you're doing stack after stack of 7s like that. I feel like the corners act as a kind of bonus themeless puzzle, in that they give you some open space and some longer, more colorful answers to look at beyond the theme, which actually doesn't have much in the way of colorful answers. Weird also that So Many answers in this grid are as long as two of the theme answers. Really makes those themers fade and disappear. Not what the eye cares about or wants to focus on. I mean, ZERO SUM pretty much upstages every theme element in this grid (25D: Like a balanced "game," in economics). So there are definitely solving pleasures to be had here. 

Non-pleasures were not abundant, but they were jarring. That clue on ICEE meant nothing to me, and so to have the answer ultimately be the crosswordesiest beverage of them all ... that was disappointing (16A: Brand whose logo's letters are covered in snow). I was like "does the IKEA logo have snow? The IAMS logo? That would be weird ... Why would dogs be associated with snow? Snow dogs! So cute! I want to play with snow dogs! I wonder if that Saint Bernard is still available at the shelter, you should check later, gah, OK come on, you're solving a puzzle, focus! ... OK ... [solves some more] ... oh, it's ICEE ... sigh, yeah, sure, whatever." Did not enjoy the clue on OARS (19D: Rest on one's ___ (take it easy)) in that I completely forgot the expression existed and who says this (anymore?) anyway?! If you give me "Rest on one's ___," I've got LAURELS and absolutely nothing else. I had OA-S and wanted to know why anyone would rest on their OATS. Thought LOMAX was a fine answer ... for a Friday or Saturday. I have heard of him and *still* forgot him, and I'm quite sure many Tuesday solvers will have no idea. The place where my brain most wanted to reject this puzzle was at DISCS, which is not in the puzzle, but is what the answer should've been at 66A: Some Olympics projectiles (DISCI). What a terrible Latin plural. DISCUSES is a normal thing where when you say it people know what you're saying. DISCI, on the other hand, is plural for "disco" on Planet AMALFI ISUZU (a very real planet, look it up). To have to "correct" DISCS to DISCI, and to have to do so while also filling in super-crosswordese AERIE, that is not how I would've had the ending of this journey go. But such is fate. 

[wikitionary]

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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