Features of deerstalker hats / TUE 5-7-24 / Victor Hugo character who works at Notre Dame / Micronesian nation made up of hundreds of islands / Deep-fried Mexican snack / Door-to-door salesman in a classic Arthur Miller play / Nobelist who conditioned dogs to salivate / Lee Republican political strategist of the 1980s

Constructor: Justin Werfel

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Tuesday)

THEME: RINGS A BELL (57A: Sounds familiar ... or performs an action associated with 16-, 23-, 35- and 47-Across?) — people (real and fictional) who ring bells:

Theme answers:

• WILLY LOMAN (16A: Door-to-door salesman in a classic Arthur Miller play)
• SANTA CLAUS (23A: Whom a Salvation Army volunteer might dress as)
• QUASIMODO (35A: Victor Hugo character who works at Notre Dame)
• IVAN PAVLOV (47A: Nobelist who conditioned dogs to salivate)

Word of the Day: LUSAKA (17D: Capital of Zambia) —

Lusaka (/luːˈsɑːkə/; loo-SAH-kə) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about 1,279 metres (4,196 ft). As of 2019, the city's population was about 3.3 million, while the urban population is estimated at 2.5 million in 2018. Lusaka is the centre of both commerce and government in Zambia and connects to the country's four main highways heading north, south, east, and west. English is the official language of the city administration, while Bemba, Tonga, Lenje, Soli, Lozi, and Nyanja are the commonly spoken street languages. // The earliest evidence of settlement in the area dates to the 6th century AD, with the first known settlement in the 11th century. It was then home to the Lenje and Soli peoples from the 17th or 18th century. The founding of the modern city occurred in 1905 when it lay in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia, which was controlled by the British South African Company (BSAC). The BSAC built a railway linking their mines in the Copperbelt to Cape Town and Lusaka was designated as a water stop on that line, named after a local Lenje chief called Lusaaka. (wikipedia)

• • •

Quick write-up today, as I have to give a final exam at the ridiculous (for them) hour of 8am. I wake up before 4am every day, so no problem here, but our class meeting time is normally 11:40am, so 8am (a time assigned randomly, as far as I know) feels cruel. Like an added layer of difficulty. Anyway, though I'm awake, I am in a bit of a morning time crunch. So, quickly: I spent most of the solve grimacing and wincing at the fill, both genuinely ugly stuff like ALTI- and (and!?) API- and ISA and AGERS, and stuff that's just particularly unappealing to me, like race-baiting creep Lee ATWATER (why are you still putting him in puzzles? I mean besides the fact his name is full of common letters?) to MENSA (the one ultracommon xword answer I'd love to never see again, IQ-based orgs. be gone!) to the THE in THE ALAMO (arbitrary THE inclusion, not my fav) to EARLAPS (man that word wants an "F"), to WAVED HI (again, the past tense makes it awk), to HAUL UP ("UP!?" I had "IN" because that's what you do to a perp, or so TV has taught me). I also half-failed the geography quiz (big ???? on LUSAKA)—that's not the puzzle's fault, and it's good that I can now place Zambia on a map, but doubling down on the geography quiz element with PALAU (even though I knew it, after getting the "U") felt like overkill (44A: Micronesian nation made up of hundreds of islands). The theme revealer, once I got there, did salvage things somewhat. More of an "Oh, OK" than a true AHA, but I actually think the theme is just fine. But the road to theme comprehension was a rocky and largely unpleasant one.

I never saw the PEALE clue, but that is a pretty way to clue a fairly obscure proper noun, tying it to the (bell) theme like that (54A: Charles Wilson ___, George Washington portraitist whose name is apt for this puzzle's theme). I also really like the word QUANDARY (how could you not?), and while neither HAPPY nor "I'M SAD" does much for me on its own, when you put them one atop the other, they make a funny contrasting mood pair. Actually, they might make one mood: "HAPPY I'M SAD" does get at a certain kind of paradoxical feeling inherent in wistfulness and nostalgia. Anyway, thumbs up to those two. Also, I always love a New Zealand shout-out (42D: Like New Zealand vis-à-vis New Jersey, by population = SMALLER—and by a lot, 5.1 million vs. 9.3). My mother-in-law arrived in NYC from Dunedin, NZ (via Auckland) last night, and my wife's going down to spend time with her (and our daughter Ella) in the city tomorrow and then bringing her mom back here on Sunday, where Penelope (my wife) will spend several days taking her mother to places where she is most likely to see ___ [fill in the blank with any number of North American birds that are ordinary to us but will be exotic to her—bald eagles, maybe!]. 

I completely blanked on QUASIMODO ... or, rather, when confronted with Victor Hugo, my brain leapt to and would not leap away from Les Misérables, and when the answer wasn't Jean Valjean, I was like "how many damn characters from Les Mis do they really expect me to know, yeesh!" Also, was really looking for a full name (i.e. first and last), not a one-named figure. Speaking of first and last names, I did not know PAVLOV's first name. You could've told me it was OLGA and I'd ... OK, no, I wouldn't have believed you, but IGOR, maybe, yes. I'm gonna leave you to contemplate the VEINY LANCE juxtaposition on your own. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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