Event of 4/29/11 / THU 4-28-11 / Logo of Clemson Tigers / French-speaking land of 12+ million / Mythological sprite / Utah winter vacation spot

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: ROYAL WEDDING (20A: Event of 4/29/11) — answers related to this event


Word of the Day: EURE (24D: French river or department) —

Eure is a department in the north of France named after the river Eure. [...] The main tourist attraction is Giverny (4 km (2.49 mi) from Vernon) where Claude Monet's house and garden can be seen, as well as other places of interest. (wikipedia)

• • •

Here's the Facebook status I posted just a handful of seconds after I started this puzzle:

Sorry, tomorrow's puzzle, but I hate you on principle. Just threw my pencil down in disgust and I've only got about 6 answers in there...

Anglophilia is a disease and this upcoming ROYAL WEDDING ranks in importance somewhere between the rantings of Charlie Sheen and the White House's release of Obama's "Certificate of Live Birth" (Gasp! Really?! He's a citizen!?). Throw in the In Ex Plicable EURE / TEN crossing (as my friend Jeffrey said, "Even I can fix that crossing") and one of my most hated names (DAAE), and, yeah, Big Dislike. Also, way way way too easy. I mean, when I can fill in every theme answer on a Thursday with Absolutely No Help From Crosses, then something is terribly, horribly wrong. If you're going to commemorate this circus, at least do something clever, tricky, interesting. ANYTHING. I don't know what's more shocking: the decision that this event was worth commemorating at all (esp. in an *American* crossword), or the decision to accept a theme so dull and straightforward. Wedding, groom, bride, titles, zzzzzzzzz.

Mark Oppenheimer sums up my ROYAL WEDDING feelings pretty well:

Of all the annoying things about the royal wedding—the crass materialism, the outrageous invasion of a young couple's privacy, the bad TV—none is more troubling than the occasion this event gives for the non-English to transform themselves into besotted Anglophilic wusses. It is one thing for the English to care about the wedding. Paying attention to the royal family, even if only to read sensationalist tabloid articles about them, is one of the proper jobs of English people. But for an American to be excited about the royal wedding is undignified and lame. And, I would add, if you get up at 3 a.m. on Friday to watch the wedding on television, you are a traitor to your country. (Mark Oppenheimer, Slate, Apr. 25, 2011)

Theme answers:

• 20A: Event of 4/29/11 (ROYAL WEDDING)
  
• 30A: Bridegroom of 4/29/11 (PRINCE WILLIAM)
  
• 38A: Bride of 4/29/11 (KATE MIDDLETON)
  
• 51A: 30- and 38-Across someday, presumably (KING AND QUEEN)
  

Amy (fellow blogger Crossword Fiend) suggested that EURE might not be (the much more sensible) EURO so as to avoid partial duplication in the EURAIL cross. My response—if that is true, that is an epic fail. First, EUR is EUR is EUR, esp. if you are still in *&^$ing France. Second, EURE is so ugly and obscure that including it so as to avoid EURO is like covering a small blemish with a giant, dirty band-aid. The cure is worse than the disease.

There are tons of other answers that could be passed off as theme answers, at least as clued: OBE and POOL (?) and ALTAR and WALES etc. I just don't care.

Bullets:

• 16A: Home of the Gardermoen airport (OSLO) — not sure how I've never seen this OSLO clue before. You think the airport name would be a common go-to answer.
  
• 45A: "La ___" (traditional Mexican nuptials song) ("BAMBA") — Needed every cross here. No idea that Ritchie Valens was singing a traditional nuptials song.

• 55A: Violinist Leopold (AUER) — learned his name accidentally when his grandson, actor MISCHA, was mistakenly clued as a violinist, leading to much complaining and even more frantic googling from confused solvers.
• 60A: Mythological sprite (PERI) — learned from crosswords, just like the answer on top of it (ALTA) (54A: Utah winter vacation spot).
  
• 1D: Logo of the Clemson Tigers (PAW) — first answer in the grid. Then UMA, AMEBA, and WALES —that was the point at which I had an inkling about what was going on, theme-wise. Downhill from there.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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