Mass exodus of expertise / MON 4-4-11 / Gaelic spirit whose wailing portends death / Trophy for great college gridder / Scented bag in drawer

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: Body rhymes — rhyming two-word phrases where first word is a part of the body

Word of the Day: BANSHEE (25D: Gaelic spirit whose wailing portends death) —

The Banshee, from the Irish bean sídhe [bʲæn ˈʃiː] ("woman of the síde" or "woman of the fairy mounds"), is a feminine spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. (wikipedia)

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Simple, sprightly theme with really exceptional fill (for a Monday). Big corners, with lots of interesting words, and still Monday-easy. Still don't have this speed-solving-on-paper thing down yet, but I was definitely better than last week. Speed bumps for included EARLIER for EARLY ON (2D: Toward the beginning) and a complete inability to come up with SOUR (15A: Like unripe apples). S- ... SO- ... SOFT? Unh! (it's SOUR). Crosses sorted things out (and amazing crosses they are up there—CONFABS (11D: Chatty discussions) /CUTICLE/TRINKET form a fantastic trifecta). Stupidly wrote a "D" at the end of "NER-" before I looked at the clue (18D: Tyrannical Roman emperor=>NERO). I wonder if the pattern in which you solve makes a difference in terms of speed. I went mostly clockwise from NW back around to SW, and that last part had me approaching lots of Acrosses backwards, from the back end, which doesn't feel like the optimal way to pick up a word. Eh, maybe it doesn't matter.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Mass exodus of expertise (BRAIN DRAIN)
  
• 25A: Hiker's carryall (BACKPACK)
  
• 37A: Upside-down maneuver (HANDSTAND)

• 53A: Salon work (HAIR CARE)
  
• 63A: Recommended by cardiologists (HEART SMART)
  

Wife got thrown (though not badly) by two theme elements. First, she thought the first and second words of theme answers would all be spelled (in the rhyming parts) the same, and so had some trouble coming up with HAIR CARE. Also, she asked "why do some start with Hs and some start with Bs?" Sure enough, first two theme answers start B, last three start H. I hadn't noticed. So ... why? Total coincidence, I imagine.



As I said, really liked much of the fill here, incl. the whole NE corner, BANSHEE, VERVE, and LONG RUN (46D: Period extending well into the future). Frustratingly, I got held up on the very last answer I entered—the second [Language of Kenya] clue I encountered, this one the Abbrev. Me: "There's aNOTHer language of Kenya that I should know? Dear lord, what could it ... E- ... oh. Right. OK. Of course. ENGlish." Done.

Bullets:

• 8D: Argentina-based musical ("EVITA") — not sure why the phrasing on the clue seems weird to me. Maybe because its structure seems analogous to that of "plant-based lifeform." A musical whose very substance is Argentina.
  
• 42D: Trophy for a great college gridder (HEISMAN) — Ha ha. "Gridder." So crosswordy. Reminds me of this joke: a gridder, a cager, and a netman walk into a bar ...
  
• 49D: Scented bag in a dresser drawer (SACHET) — which rhymes with CACHET, which I always confuse (spelling-wise) with CACHE.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]