Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: BATISTE (12D: Fine, soft, sheer fabric) —
Batiste is the softest of the lightweight opaque fabrics. It is made of cotton, wool, polyester, or a blend. (wikipedia)
• • •
Felt pretty easy, but "MOGAMBO" was a gimme for me, so I feel like maybe I started out with a momentum not everyone shared (1D: 1953 film classic with a Swahili title). I went through a powerful Grace Kelly phase when I was in grad school, and watched every one of her films that I
could get my hands on (VHS—not easy). Speaking of grad school, I got my Ph.D. in medieval English literature and never saw the word ANGLIC used to mean [Old English]. It was "Old English" or "Anglo-Saxon" and that's about it. So I honestly didn't know what to do after ANGL-. Was able to slide down the west coast of the grid fairly easily, with another big, lucky gimme at TRI-STAR (36D: Studio with a Pegasus logo). Went OMIGAWD at first, until OMIGOSH became the clear choice. I got stuck down here somewhere around Twain's "celebrated" frog (DAN'L), and so rebooted in the NE, just going after short answers trying to get some traction. At first all I had was ELS (11D: Hollow center?), but once I changed SHRUNK to SHRANK, things got moving a little. That corner is by far the ugliest thing about this otherwise decent grid. BATISTE / ANODIZE (13D: Coat by electrolytic action) / BENEFIC (?) is a triad one would rather not look at for too long. Anyway, I finished up, took it on faith that SNCC was something (5D: Grp. organizing '60s sit-ins), and went and mopped up things in the S and SE. Had a residual mistake in the NE because I thought the (ultra vague) 22A: Chemical ending (-IDE) was -ANE or -ENE and I neglected to fix it. Then I fixed it. Done.Lots of pop culture today. In addition to the two aformentioned filmic gimmes that helped me make short work of the west coast, there was NATHAN LANE (16A: "The Birdcage" drag queen player), Goldie HAWN, MITZI Gaynor, Apollo "The Master of Disaster" Creed and Rocky "The ITALIAN STALLION" Balboa (7D: Master of Disaster's ring rival), and the famous line from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "She turned me into a NEWT!" ("... I got better").
I think the CANNIBALS clue is also from pop culture, since the idea of someone being put in a pot of hot water as part of some cannnibal feast seems straight out of the cartoons (42A: Ones who may get you into hot water?). And then there's MARMS! (41A: Quaint ladies with buns, often) Has there really ever been more than MARM in one place at one time (and has there really ever been a MARM whose name wasn't prefaced by "School"?)? I wonder how many ladies James DOLE picked up with the line "... they call me the Pineapple King" (48D: James who was known as the Pineapple King).
Lastly, I love the clue on MORNING (28D: Eastern daylight time?).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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