Spring jauntily / MON 10-7-2019 / Filmmaker Rob / Bird: Prefix / "Right," slangily / Skillful handling of a situation

Constructor: Keiran King

Relative difficulty: Easy

Theme: SQUARE ROOTS — Some Down answers are the square roots of their clue numbers.

Theme answers:

• ONE (1D: √This clue's number)
• TWO (4D: √This clue's number)
• THREE (9D: √This clue's number)
• FOUR (16D: √This clue's number)
• FIVE (25D: √This clue's number)
• SIX (36D: √This clue's number)
• SEVEN (49D: √This clue's number)
• SQUARE ROOTS (60A: Some Down answers in this puzzle)

Word of the Day: RAE (62D: Issa of HBO's "Insecure") —

Jo-Issa Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985),^[1][2] known as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, director, producer, and web series creator. She first garnered attention for her work on the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl.^[3] She subsequently gained further recognition for creating, co-writing, and starring in the HBO television series Insecure.^[4][5] For her acting work on Insecure, she has received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy^[6] and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Since 2011, Rae has continued to develop her YouTube channel, which features various short films, web series, and other content created by people of color.^[7][8]

• • •

Hi, it's Annabel! I'm late this week but that's because last Monday was Rosh Hashanah! This year is 5780, and now that we're in the 80s again I assume shoulder pads and teased hair are going to come back in style. I, for one, am psyched. L'shanah tovah to anyone else who celebrates!

This has been my favorite Monday in awhile. While I didn't love the theme, which seemed a little corny, I felt like it helped serve as a jumping-off point for some interesting fill. I hope there's no ARSONIST on the FOREST FLOOR but those were two of my favorites--love a little bit of wordplay for ARSONIST, and I just love the imagery of FOREST FLOOR. Maybe I'm just crunchy, but that phrase is up there with "cellar door" for me in terms of pleasing phrases in the English language. And there were lots of other nice, solid words, like THORAX and EXACTO. Loved the nod to ROMANTIC ERA poetry; it made me feel like my English degree was worth something!

Bullets:

• ORE (63D: Valuable rock) — Alternate clue: the second least valuable resource in Settlers of Catan, after sheep. Seriously, it feels like everyone ends up with piles and piles of ore and sheep, until the late game when you can't get ore for anything. 
• ARR (17A: Opposite of departure: Abbr.) — The restraint it took to not make this a pirate-related clue is quite frankly astounding. 
• SIRI (40A: iPhone voice) — I have an Android, which is usually amazing, but it does mean I don't get to experience things like this: 

  

Anyway, I've moved down to DC now. I got a Capitol Hill internship! I'm super psyched, it starts today! Wish me luck.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired.

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Lowest broadcast TV channel / WED 4-11-18 / One of 14 lands neighboring China / Old AT&T symbol

Constructor: Keiran King

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: search for words that punfully make up the names of composers why don't you —

Theme answers:

• "BARBER OF SEVILLE" (15A: Classic work by 16-, 31- and 51-Down, so to speak?) (ROWE / SCENE / KNEE)
• "CANON IN D" (24A: Classic work by 11-, 9- and 8-Down, so to speak?) (PACK / ELLE / BELL)
• NOCTURNE (39A: Classic work by 50- and 23-Down, so to speak?) (SHOW / PAN) 
• "MOONLIGHT SONATA" (52A: Classic work by 45-, 35- and 28-Down, so to speak?) (BATE / HOE / VENN)

Word of the Day: CANON IN D —

Pachelbel's Canon is the common name for a canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel in his Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo (German: Kanon und Gigue für 3 Violinen mit Generalbaß) (PWC 37, T. 337, PC 358), sometimes referred to as Canon and Gigue in D or simply Canon in D. Neither the date nor the circumstances of its composition are known (suggested dates range from 1680 to 1706), and the oldest surviving manuscript copy of the piece dates from the 19th century.

Pachelbel's Canon, like his other works, although popular during his lifetime, soon went out of style, and remained in obscurity for centuries. A 1968 arrangement and recording of it by the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra gained popularity over the next decade, and in the 1970s the piece began to be recorded by many ensembles; by the early 1980s its presence as background music was deemed inescapable.^[1]From the 1970s to the early 2000s, elements of the piece, especially its chord progression, were used in a variety of pop songs. Since the 1980s, it has also been used frequently in weddings and funeral ceremonies in the Western world. (wikipedia)

• • •

Oh, so *that's* why I had to endure the ridiculous BATE. OK got it thanks. I mean, the word is ABATE, but yeah, thanks.

[23A: What makes ale pale?] (PEE)

So many issues. From a solving standpoint, the idea that I want to look around to other answers in the grid ELEVEN times ... to find answers that I Haven't Even Filled In Yet ... I don't see how anyone thought that was a plausible let alone pleasurable activity. The only way I solved this was by taking ever themer as just [Famous music thingie] and getting each one from crosses. This proved semi-brutal when I tried to get the IND part of CANONIND because I thought maybe CANON was the front end of some work I'd not heard of, like, er, CANONADE or some such (?). Also I thought the [Big "G" for Google, e.g.] (25A) was a LOGO, not an ICON. Also, I (swear to god I) confused Giza with Pisa and wrote in ARNO at 26D: It flows past Giza (NILE). Also forgot that DAYS Inn exists (27D: ___ Inn). I sincerely can't believe that anyone solved this puzzle as it appears to want to be solved, i.e. where you actually look at all those Downs and figure out the pun and *then* write in the work title. Cross-references are death, and 11 are 11 deaths. Also, the puns are super-weak. Well, PACK ELLE BELL is, anyway. Maybe if you're British that vowel sound in "PACK" is right, but this is an American puzzle so nope. Lastly, where the theme is concerned, a single NOCTURNE is not in any way at all parallel to the other works, which are complete and famous in their own right, not just one of a set of works. Chopin wrote a bunch of NOCTURNEs. You can't just have one sitting there all by its lonesome. It would the equivalent of having just SONATA for the Beethoven one. No no no. How do people not see this? This seems elementary.

31D: "And ... ___!" (director's cry)] (SCENE)

And then the fill, I mean, it's fine, but the grid is necessarily choppy as heck (kind of a demanding theme—getting all those pun parts in there can't have been easy). Nothing bothered me much about the fill. But I do think this puzzle has a king-size bad idea in the cluing department. Truly, sincerely, one of the worst clue progressions I have ever seen: 35D: Tool for tilling (HOE)—that one's fine. But to follow it with 37D: Tool for telling? (QUILL)!?!? Whaaaaat is that? I needed every single cross to get QUILL and still had to ask a friend after I was done what it meant. I thought maybe William Tell (?) was involved. But no, apparently (and I'm not entirely sure), you "tell" people things ... in writing ... with your QUILL? ... because you live in the 18th century? I've never been a huge fan of the clue progression, since I solve like a reasonable person, i.e. *not* by reading the clues in order, and so the whole "effect" is often lost on me; also, the "progression" is often tortured. But this one ... this one makes "torture" sound nice. [Tool for telling?] Man, that is an epic bad call.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. what is with the "lands" in 55A: One of 14 lands neighboring China (LAOS)???? Are there 14 LAOSes neighboring China? 'Cause that is what the clue appears to be suggesting. [China neighbor] = look how easy that was. Or, if you must be absurdly verbose, [One of 14 countries neighboring China]. "Lands," my god ... I need to tell the world how bad this clue is. Fetch me my telling QUILL!

P.P.S. Someone tried to convince me that in that QUILL clue, "telling" referred to the thing that Ebeneezer Scrooge did, because he ran a "counting house" and so "telling" is supposed to refer to the verrrrry last definition of "tell" (2.4), here:

LOL OK, sure. Brilliant. The problem is that definition 1.1 is "communicate information, facts, or news to someone in spoken or written words." So whatever your little intended archaic wordplay joke was here, the ordinary definition of "tell" is kinda standing in your way. In fact, I'm not at all convinced that this "count" definition was the intended one. Feels like something the clue's lawyer dug up to try to excuse its behavior. "Your honor, if I may beg the indulgence of the court..." [GAVEL SOUNDS] [dramatic pause] "You may not."

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