Old townhouse feature / FRI 11-6-15 / Myers 24 character / Stable character of old TV / Weighted weapon used by Inca army / Leader of battle of Alesia / Word derived from another that has related meaning like wisdom from wise

Constructor:Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty:Easy (PARONYMnearly raised it to Easy-Medium, but not quite)


THEME: none 

Word of the Day:PARONYM(49A: Word derived from another that has a related meaning, like "wisdom" from "wise") —

(google)

Well this was just lovely. I kept pausing to admire it because I could tell early that it was going to be too easy, and thus over too quickly. There's a real Patrick Berry-like smoothness to the grid, though this one has a ton of life and bounce and currency (unlike some of Patrick Berry's recent offerings, which have felt a little staid). The highlights here are the colloquialisms—scads of them, long ones, traipsing all over the grid [side note: I just looked up "traipsing" to make sure I was using it right, and it's a Weird word. The first definitions of "traipse" relate to walking "wearily" or "casually," and "traipse" has synonyms like "trudge,""trek,""tramp,""tromp" ... BUT "traipsing" also appears to shade toward "gallivanting" or "gadding," words with far lighter, springier, bouncier implications, ... suggesting aimless pursuit of entertainment more than slogging. Anyway, I imagine the colloquialisms in this puzzle skipping hither and yon ... not trudging. Just to be clear]. I got "THAT SAID ..." instantly, and then ran a bunch of the Downs from there. Loved finding "SAME HERE!" right underneath, and then, under that, the jarring commercial juxtaposition of PRILOSECSPEEDOS. Swooped into the middle of the puzzle and made my first (and only) big mistake—though it was one that was very easily fixable:

I don't mind falling into traps I can easily crawl out of. Traps where I get out of them going "Ha ... you got me ... good one," as opposed to those in which I just lay at the bottom, groaning. MR. ED (34D: Stable character of old TV) got me out of this particular trap, allowing me to change "I'M UP FOR ANYTHING" to "I'M UP FOR WHATEVER," and then the creamy center of the puzzle practically filled itself in. Another great colloquialism ("NO BIG DEAL") took me up to the NE, which went down pretty easily (though those sequestered corners—dead ends! no way out!—always feel dicey to me). Then I rode "The LEGO MOVIE" down into the SE, where I finally had to do a little Work. I had issues after getting to here:

Couldn't see DARKLY (and wasn't sure whether I could trust the "-LY" ending there, since we already had one in HARSHLY). Couldn't remember my 1977 AL baseball players (which is slightly embarrassing, considering that's an iconic year for me—the first year I collected baseball cards as a kid). Couldn't think only of EXIT VISA at 54A: Something an alien may have ... and couldn't figure out how a [Time for a party] could be (apparently) plural. Then, literally as soon as I took the above screenshot, I got NEW YEAR'S, CAREW, etc. until we reached the heart of the problem in the SW: PARONYM, which I didn't know at all.


I then eyeballed the SW corner and thought, "Narrow entrance, no exit .... deep breath." You never know what you're going to find in these little rooms. But this one proved more bunny than bear. I sent FOREIGNER down there, and then its neighbors IOTA and SARIS. I somehow went with EXCITE over INCITE, but that was the only hiccup. Puzzle finished when CAESAR called a TRUCE.


Bullets:

• 16A: Mark on a golf course (O'MEARA)— very nice clue. Had the "O" and thought "One ... something ...?"
• 41A: 2015 Super Bowl winners, familiarly (PATS)— I read the clue as [2015 Super Bowl winners, finally], and thought, "Jeez ... partisan much?"
• 13D: Old townhouse feature (ORIEL)— bay windows that project from the walls of buildings but do not reach the ground. I get these confused with another kind of window ... something about an "eye" ...  that is also crosswordese ... it's slipping my mind right now. Aha: OXEYE, also known as "oeil-de-boeuf."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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