Female lead in Brigadoon / FRI 5-2-14 / 1901 Kipling book / Martin Chuzzlewit villain / Actor Franco of Now You See Me / US chain stores since 1985

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: DOTTIE West (32A: West of Nashville) —

Dottie West (October 11, 1932 – September 4, 1991) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists. Dottie West's career started in the early 1960s, with her Top 10 hit, "Here Comes My Baby Back Again," which won her the first Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965. In the 1960s, West was one of the few female country singers working in what was then a male-dominated industry, influencing other female country singers like Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette. Throughout the 1960s, West had country hits within the Top 10 and 20.

In the early 1970s, West wrote a popular commercial for the Coca-Cola company, titled "Country Sunshine", which she nearly brought to the top of the charts in 1973. In the late-70s, she teamed up with country-pop superstar, Kenny Rogers for a series of duets, which brought her career in directions it had never gone before, earning Platinum selling albums and No. 1 records for the very first time. Her duet recordings with Rogers, like "Every Time Two Fools Collide," "All I Ever Need Is You," and "What Are We Doin' In Love," eventually became country-music standards. (wikipedia)

• • •

Despite scads of stuff that I just didn't know, I managed to get through this puzzle in something close to normal time. My frustration at the proper noun onslaught was alleviated nicely by some high-quality fill, smart cluing, and an impressive overall polish to the grid. Got distracted by my failure to instantly recall the damn Delaware Indians …. which I knew started with "L" and had a "P" and … then I just blanked and went with LAPORE and LEPANE and god knows what else. Ridiculous. LENAPE is a tribe I learned about from crosswords, and knowing it has come in very handy in the past, but today, the word just wouldn't come. Also thought [Big ___] was SUR and have never ever heard of London's HENRIETTA Barnett School (I mean never Ever ever), so the NW roughed me up a bit. In fact, I never really did get out of it. Even when I had it filled in, I just couldn't move south. Didn't know [Strabismus], so even CROSS- didn't help. Thought it might be some kind of cloud (?). So I drifted east and then spread down into the heart of the puzzle and out from there. Didn't properly finish off the NW until the very end, when I was staring down CROSSE-E-ES. I figured the singer must be DOTTIE (never heard of her), but that left the final letter—which I had as an "M" at first, "ADAM'S Pleasure" sounding like a perfectly reasonable title for a Chaplin movie. But CROSSED EMES: not a thing. Then finally CROSSED EYES became obvious. I'm sure I've heard "strabismus" before, but like LENAPE, it got away from me today.


So HENRIETTA, DOTTIE West, Strabismus, "A DAY'S Pleasure," FIONA from "Brigadoon," Physicist ANDRE-Marie Ampère, Fashion designer LEANNE Marshall, DAVE Franco (54A: Actor Franco of "Now You See Me"), JONAS (34A: "Martin Chuzzlewit" villain) … all totally unknown to me. All but proper nouns (or in the case of "strabismus," highly specialized professional vocabulary). Not usually the way I like my difficulty served up. But it's really hard to resist a puzzle with CLICK BAIT as its 1-Across (1A: Modern traffic director?). It's a pernicious phenomenon, but great fill. Also truly loved the marquee answer (Make Your Marquee Count, kids). In case you don't quite understand the answer: FIVE THIRTY-EIGHT is the name of the newish website run by former NYT / current ESPN stats maven Nate Silver (hence [Silver screen name?]). Long answers in all the corners are mostly lovely and solid. A tough but entertaining experience overall.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Intelligence researcher Alfred / THU 5-1-14 / Polynesian term for island hopper / Tolkien's Prancing Pony / Chemical restricted by Stockholm Convention / Goods stolen by Knave of Hearts / Integral can compute it

Constructor: Brandon Hensley

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: ALIEN / ABDUCTION (1A: With 6-Across, subject of an eerie rural legend … illustrated by connecting nine identically filled squares in this puzzles with a closed line) — rebus puzzle where "ET" squares, when connected, for the outline of a flying saucer, which hovers above the lone COW square. Apparently this is a legend. I had no idea.

Word of the Day: NAIL SET (5D: Tool used with a hammer) —

n.
A tool used for driving a nail so that its head is below or flush with a surface. Also called nail punch.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/nail-set#ixzz30QWh9dwn

• • •

The ALIEN ABDUCTION "legends" I know about do not involve cows. At all. They involve probes. And humans. Rural humans. And orifices. Rural human orifices. Cows?—news to me. But I'm not rural, so that may explain my ignorance, at least partially. I like this puzzle's playfulness. I didn't love solving it that much—the fill is just OK—and 44 black squares is just insane (-ly high), but it's pretty original, and has several thematic layers, so even if I didn't have a rip-roaring time solving it, I do appreciate the artistry and effort. Probably would've made more sense to have the cow on the ground, but maybe the point is that the COW is being tractor-beamed up … yes, that must be it. It's weird, though, because COW's placement doesn't really give you a distinct sense of elevation. But then you'd probably need a FIELD square on the bottom, and that could be difficult to pull off.

GENII is a very rough plural that no one would ever use ever (17A: Whizzes). I see it listed there as a second potential spelling of the plural. Still sucks. Never heard of a NAIL SET, so that whole NW section was a bear for me at first (before I got the theme). It was home to what I believe to be the best wrong answer of the day: for 19A: Site of many hangings (CLOSET), I had CROSS. Happy belated Easter! I don't really get the "?" on 18A: Far south? (ANTARCTIC). What is the play on words there? The ANTARCTIC is, in fact, the "far south" of the globe, so … I don't get it. BEARDLESS is odd, and oddly clued. I can be BEARDLESS and yet not be [Clean-shaven]. See, for instance, anyone with a mustache. Or soul patch. or other hair formation that is not a beard. Liked the clue on OMOO (20D: Polynesian term for an island hopper), but man, it added difficulty to an already-difficult puzzle.


I figured out the theme somewhere in the west, when I wanted ROSETTE and TIE TO and neither of them "fit." Getting the "ET" helped me get ALIEN ABDUCTION, and the whole puzzle settled down to about an average Thursday after that. Didn't realize the "ET"s were symmetrical until I was done, and didn't realize a COW was involved until the very last square—made for a nice little exclamation point.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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