Relative difficulty: Challenging
THEME: ITALIAN / SONNET (2D: With 49-Down, its form follows the pattern of the circled letters) — rhyme scheme appears in circles: ABBA / ABBA / CDE / CDE
Word of the Day: "RUDDIGORE" (34A: Gilbert and Sullivan's follow-up to "The Mikado") —
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan. It was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London on 22 January 1887. (wikipedia)
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Wow, this one was rough. Rough to solve, and rough to look at. Theme is unambitious and strange. Most people couldn't tell you the rhyme scheme of an ITALIAN SONNET. I could barely tell you, and I teach the damned thing every year. Rhyme schemes, yeesh (there's actually another possibility for the sestet besides CDECDE: CDCCDC. Wikipedia says that there was eventually also a CDCDCD version). Then there's the odd embedding of the circles—all of it to the left, for some reason, and only half of it split across words in the answer. Only MANIC DEPRESSION (
57A: "An Unquiet Mind" subject) demonstrates the classic embedding style, with embedded word touching every word in the theme answer. I had no idea SABBATH BLESSING (27A: Friday night ritual, in Judaism) was a thing, any more than ... any other kind of BLESSING might be a thing. Never heard the phrase. Also never Ever heard of EN BANC DECISIONS (plural ... or singular, for that matter) (45A: Some Court of Appeals work). Jeff is a lawyer (I know because I gave him feedback on a grid of his back in early 2010), so this answer probably felt very natural to him. I guess the weakish theme was supposed to be bolstered and bulked up by the grid-spanning answers. Instead, the whole set-up feels awkward and teetery, with the second and third answers really feeling like reaches. CABBAGE PATCH KID was the only theme answer anywhere near my wheelhouse (17A: Adoptable doll of the '80s). So let's just say the puzzle is adequate, but (despite the poetry) not really my cup of matcha (a word I'd love to see in the puzzle).
As for the rest of the grid—touch and go. Never Ever seen anyone, "gridder" or otherwise, say "HI, DAD" on TV (28D: Gridder's on-air greeting, maybe). Had "HI, MOM" and then "HI, MAN!" (!?). Had SETS AT for LETS AT (26A: Sics on), which made the "monologist" (ugh, come on, LENO's bad enough; now I have to think him as a weird word no one would ever use to describe him?) impossible to see for a while ("SEN-???"). These two issues made the central answer, "RUDDIGORE," even more laughable (to me) than it would have been with no problems in the crosses. Never heard of "RUDDIGORE." Don't even know how to pronounce it. A third-string G&S opera? Right across the center??? Wow. I'm pronouncing it "Rudiger," if only because that's one of Bart Simpson's fake names (episode 1F05, "Bart's Inner Child").[38D: Car tower, maybe => REPO MAN]
Didn't know what Carnaby Street was, but pieced together MOD easily enough (11A: Like Carnaby Street fashions). Figured the drug taken in "Rent" was HEROIN (it was about A.I.D.S., after all), so went looking for 3-letter slang ... only to find that the drug is the A.I.D.S. drug AZT. Never played Duck Hunt, but I know my gaming consoles pretty well from seeing them so often in crosswords. Knew it was too old to be WII, so NES was the next LOGICal choice (64A: Duck Hunt gaming console, briefly). "LA BAMBA" was the only gimme among the long Downs for me (3D: Biopic about Ritchie Valens). Very big when I was in high school. Made Lou Diamond Phillips a star. I know ANTIOCH better as a college (located ... I don't know where ... oh, Ohio, it turns out; Horace Mann was its first president) (44D: Ancient capital of Syria).Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. A Message From The Future ... (6/29/11) ...
This website now has a Facebook page. I wanted to install a "Like" button here on the site, but, well, I'm wrestling with installing the code properly, i.e. I'm a technologically incompetent old man. Ugh. I expect I'll get it done in the next few days somehow. In the meantime, the page is here. I'll figure out ways to use it to complement this site. I have a biggish project I'm embarking on, one that will require some, let's say, audience participation ... so I'll probably use the FB page to help me with that ... but more on that later. Right now, if you're on FB, just go Like the page, dammit. I mean, please.[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
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