Constructor: Peter Wentz
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: none
Word of the Day: William Gilmore SIMMS (
36A: Southern writer William Gilmore ___) —
William Gilmore Simms (April 17, 1806 – June 11, 1870) was a poet, novelist and historian from theAmerican South. His writings achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced.[1] In recent decades[when?], Simms's novels have fallen out of favor, although he is still known among literary scholars as a major force in antebellum Southern literature.[2] He is also remembered for his strong support of slavery and for his opposition to Uncle Tom's Cabin, in response to which he wrote reviews and a novel. [In case you wanna know what "being on the wrong side of history" looks like—here ya go] (wikipedia)
• • •
For how many long gimmes this one had, it put up a good fight. The real bone-crusher was
STUPA (
43D: Buddhist shrine), a word I've never seen before, and one that I'd consider "suboptimal fill" (to put it mildly). Not "stupid," which is what I want to say, for many reasons, but not ... yeah. The "T" cross took me (at the end) a full two runs through the alphabet to get. At that point, the puzzle has ceased being fun and has become a tedious chore. Oh well. Most of the rest of the time I was fairly well entertained, and though there's more clunky stuff than I'd like to see in a typical 70-worder, the grid also had some nice moments. I had the world's weirdest partial malapop* at
26D: "Lookie what I did!" (
"YAY ME!"), which I wanted to be "DIG ME!" (which I like better). But I just left ME there and moved on. You can understand my reluctance, then, to believe, later on, that
"DIG THIS!" (37D: "Dude, I got something to tell you ...") was right. Two "DIG" phrases in the same grid!? That's not ... oh, that's not what's actually happening. I see.
*
["malapop" = wanting an answer that's wrong, only to have it turn out to be the right answer somewhere else in the grid]
Dropped
F-STOP and
OLE in immediately and then stalled in the NW (but apparently never saw
CHANG the first time around, 'cause I'd've nailed that—
7D: Cho ___, romantic interest for Harry Potter). Other toeholds abounded. Actually, now that I think about it, I'd written in
AMNESIA (41A: "The Bourne Identity" plot device) and
HOLST (15D: "The Planets" composer) before I even felt like I'd officially "begun" the puzzle. My eyes hit those clues and I couldn't leave them for later. Ended up using
AMNESIA to get my first full corner in the SW—if I never see
AOXOMOXOA again it'll be too soon (
28D: Grateful Dead album whose title reads the same forward and backward). Yes, it's wacky, and yes, we've (or at least I've) seen it, and no, I'm not a Dead fan so I'll never remember it, so ... stow it.
WHAT A JERK is solid, of course (
27D: "Can you BELIEVE that guy?!").
SIMMS meant nothing to me, as did
HAYES (
33A: Compromise of 1877 figure) until I got it (haven't thought of the Tilden-
HAYES compromise—which
ended Reconstruction—since probably high school), so middle of grid was a little dicey. But
WALT (
47A: Cartoonist Kelly) and
OPERAHOUSE (
50A: View from the Sydney Harbour Bridge) gave me the SE (exc. &$&#ing
STUPA) in pretty short order, and then
DIVVY (
37A: Split (up)) gave me
REALITY TV (
11D: "Big Brother," for example) and
ARTICLE IV (
12D: It includes provision for the admission of new states) instantly. Bam bam. Amazing easiness punctuated by dead stops at brick walls. That's what this felt like. I rammed my head against the wall a full three times at
24A: Having a bad trip, maybe. You wouldn't think that, with SICK already in the grid, I would have much trouble, but ... SEA SICK? No. Oh, "R" from IRIS so ... AIRSICK? ... no? Really? Oh &$%! Me,
CARSICK?! Yes.
That's about where I ended (if you disregard
STUPA, which I'm willing to do).
Bullets:
- 16A: The Bay of Fundy has the largest one in the world (TIDAL RANGE) — I assume this just means that the tide goes out the farthest, and that a TIDAL RANGE does not involve mountains.
- 26A: QB who threw a record-tying seven touchdown passes in a single game (1962) (Y.A. TITTLE) — a name that's stuck w/ me from my NFL Encyclopedia-reading days (age 11 or so).
- 40A: Nickname in classic jazz (DIZ) — had the "D" and nothing else seemed plausible.
- 2D: "The Pearl Fishers" soprano (LEILA) — no idea. Seen her before, I'm sure, but still, no idea. I know LAILA Alie and LEELA from "Futurama," and LAYLA from "Layla," but not this lady.
- 13D: "A stronger America" sloganeer (JOHN KERRY) — ugh, no wonder that guy lost. I fell asleep just reading that clue.
- 23D: ___ Kramer, 2010 Dutch speed-skating gold medalist (SVEN) — who could forget ... ?(99% of America, probably ... still, super-gettable)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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