1863 speech opener / WED 3-14-12 / Relatives of aardwolves / Hit 1942 film with song Love is Song / He wrote Jupiter from on high laughs at lovers perjuries / Lake of cryptozoological interest

Constructor: Dave Sarpola

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: PI DAY (65A: Mid-March celebration ... or a hint to the starts of 18-, 25-, 44- and 57-Across)— theme answers being with THREE, POINT, ONE, and FOUR, respectively

Word of the Day: OILER (26D: Titan, once) —

The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee,United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League. The Oilers won the first two AFL championships, before joining the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a very nice grid. The theme ... not interested. Didn't notice it, don't think of PI DAY as anything that anyone actually "celebrates"—more just an occasion for people to make nerdy observations on Facebook. St. Patrick's Day, *that's* a mid-March celebration. PI DAY is some made-up, inherently imprecise baloney. Further, we've had PI DAY puzzles before. Or puzzle, I guess. At least one. It was a PI rebus. Five years ago. Nothing wrong with doing another one. It's a stupid non-holiday; that's my only objection to this puzzle. As a themeless puzzle (which is how it played, lack of difficulty aside), I like it just fine.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Like some sloths (THREE-TOED)
• 25A: Bookie's concern (POINT SPREAD)
• 44A: Most stand-up comedy acts (ONE-MAN SHOWS)
• 57A: 1863 speech opener (FOUR SCORE...)

This puzzle gave me almost no trouble at all. I ended up well under 4 minutes—fast for me for a Wednesday. The only place I hesitated at all was the damn theme revealer. "Celebration" .... ? Starting with "P" ... briefly thought about variations on "St. Pat's Day" then just went to crosses. Luckily ASHCROFT (52A: Bush cabinet member) was (with just a couple crosses) a gimme and so that SE corner came together reasonably quickly despite my failure to turn up PI DAY on the first go round. The other sticking point—OILER. I thought maybe Titan was the name of some oil tanker that caused some famous spill or something. When I googled [oiler titan] I was confronted with the obvious (obvious to anyone who follows football ... which I *do*). Wow. Just missed the boat on that one. Still, that section was also highly gettable. I don't see any difficulty anywhere except *maybe* in that SE corner.


Bullets:

• 1A: Hit 1942 film with the song "Love is a Song" ("BAMBI") — tough clue (for me), but with a massive gimme at 1D: "Brandenburg Concertos" composer (BACH), it wasn't hard to turn this title up.
• 22A: Relatives of aardwolves (HYENAS) — wouldn't mine seeing AARDWOLF in a puzzle.

• 54D: He wrote "Jupiter from on high laughs at lovers' perjuries" (OVID) — should've been a gimme for me (classical, four letters), but I blanked. Got every other short Down in that section instantly, though, so no problem.
• 28D: Lake of cryptozoological interest (NESS) — Clue looks fancy, but it's really a gimme. Unless the word "cryptozoological" means nothing to you. Then you're kinda screwed.
• 37D: Kansas City ___, Negro Leagues team with Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks (MONARCHS) — another gimme. Puzzle might've played more like a Wednesday if I hadn't known this (sizable) answer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...