Little Wire gangster / SUN 12-5-10 / Second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan / Polly of literature / Alternative to plata / Pedestal toppers

Constructor: Ben Pall

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "On a Roll" — theme answers are directions, which, properly followed, produce a six-sided die


Directions: CUT ON BOLD LINES / SHADE THE CIRCLES / FOLD ALONG DASHES / USE TAPE ON EDGES

Word of the Day: JEHU (110D: King in II Kings) —

Jehu (Hebrew: יֵהוּא, Modern Yehu Tiberian Yēhû ; "Yahweh is He") was a king of Israel. He was the son of Jehoshaphat, and grandson of Nimshi. // William F. Albright has dated his reign to 842-815 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 841-814 BC. The principal source for the events of his reign comes from 2 Kings 9-10. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well ... two things. No, three. 1. Puzzles with answers that are instructions = death. Can't stand them. Nothing less exciting than the prose of an instruction manual. 2. "Circles"? SHADE THE CIRCLES?? There are no "circles." There are "O"s. "O"s are letters. 3. So put off was I by this "do some crap to your puzzle after you've finished it"-type puzzle that I completely neglected to care what it was I was supposed to be making. As it's the holiday season, I just assumed that the instructions would have me make a box ... some kind of gift box. And the shaded "circles" would just be decorations on the wrapping paper? Only after I noticed the pattern of the "circles" did I realize I would be making a die. If I'd read the title of the puzzle, that also might have given me a clue.



No problems solving this one except (to some extent) in the OMAR (64A: ___ Little, "The Wire" gangster) / SEPOY (68A: ___ Rebellion of 1857-59) section. I misremembered SEPOY as SAPOY (it was a Word of the Day a while back), and I didn't know OMAR. Because of SAPOY problem, thought Greek god was ARES, not EROS (69D: Gree god whose name is one letter off from 118-Down).

Not much else to say about this one. Straight to bullets, I guess.

Bullets:

• 65A: Old Philadelphia stadium, informally, with "the" (VET) — Something I know without knowing why I know it. Veterans Memorial Stadium. Forget who used to play there. The Phillies? Yes, and the Eagles.
  
• 74A: Alternative to plata (ORO) — I botched this and went with RIO. I know "ORO y Plata" as the state motto of ... Montana? Yes. But why "alternative." ORO *y* plata. Gold *and* silver. Why should I have to choose?
  
• 112A: Some funerary ware (URNS) — "ware" makes it sound like you're going to eat some thing with / off of it.
  
• 91A: Plug's place (CORD) — had -ORD and still couldn't make sense of it. Could think only of hair plugs.
  
• 92A: It's between green and black (OOLONG) — the "between" has to do with how the amount of oxidation. Has anyone tried matcha before? I bought some today. It has to be whisked. I'm a little freaked out by it. But I thought I'd give it a try. One of my readers is a chef who is really into it.
  
• 125A: Pedestal toppers (BUSTS) — BUSTS of Pallas? Just above your chamber door? (speaking of Greek gods sometimes referred to as "Pallas," see APOLLO, 49D: Artemis' twin)
  
• 41D: Polly of literature, e.g. (AUNT) — Do not know AUNT Polly ("Tom Sawyer," it turns out). Could think only of Polly Anna ... Pollyanna.
  
• 53D: Rapper with the 1988 platinum album "Power" (ICE-T) — Featuring the single "I'm Your Pusher" (with extensive citation of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman")

• 71D: Second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan (LJUB... just kidding, it's OSH) — Can't wait to hear how all my readers knew this and grew up there and what not. OSH ... if it's not followed by KOSH, I don't know it.
  
• 89D: Superstate in Orwell's "1984" (EURASIA) — wanted OCEANIA, which is... also right.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. pictures of a finished die and a .pdf of this puzzle are available at "Wordplay" (thanks to Patrick Merrell for the heads-up)

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