Cassim's brother of folklore / FRI 12-18-15 / Prison design that allows surveillance of any inmate at any time / Indian drawer / Massenet opera set in 11th-century Spain / Coins worth 100 kurus each / Sparky of 1970s Yankees / Llike ET riding Elliott's bicycle / Nickname of dictator who created Tontons Macoutes

Constructor:Andrew Zhou

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium


THEME:none 

Word of the Day:PANOPTICON(1A: Prison design that allows surveillance of any inmate at any time) —

The Panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all (pan-) inmates of an institution to be observed (-opticon) by a single watchman without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. Although it is physically impossible for the single watchman to observe all cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that all inmates must act as though they are watched at all times, effectively controlling their own behaviour constantly. The name is also a reference to Panoptes from Greek mythology; he was a giant with a hundred eyes and thus was known to be a very effective watchman. // The design consists of a circular structure with an "inspection house" at its centre, from which the manager or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter. Bentham conceived the basic plan as being equally applicable to hospitals, schools, sanatoriums, daycares, and asylums, but he devoted most of his efforts to developing a design for a Panopticon prison, and it is his prison which is most widely understood by the term. // Bentham himself described the Panopticon as "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example." Elsewhere, in a letter, he described the Panopticon prison as "a mill for grinding rogues honest". [...] Most influentially, the idea of the panopticon was invoked by Michel Foucault, in his Discipline and Punish (1975), as a metaphor for modern "disciplinary" societies and their pervasive inclination to observe and normalise. "On the whole, therefore, one can speak of the formation of a disciplinary society in this movement that stretches from the enclosed disciplines, a sort of social 'quarantine', to an indefinitely generalizable mechanism of 'panopticism'". The Panopticon is an ideal architectural figure of modern disciplinary power. The Panopticon creates a consciousness of permanent visibility as a form of power, where no bars, chains, and heavy locks are necessary for domination any more. Foucault proposes that not only prisons but all hierarchical structures like the army, schools, hospitals and factories have evolved through history to resemble Bentham's Panopticon. The notoriety of the design today (although not its lasting influence in architectural realities) stems from Foucault's famous analysis of it. (wikipedia)

Shout-out to all my fellow 1990s humanities / social sciences grad students, every last damn one of whom likely got 1-Across (PANOPTICON) immediately, after (probably) doing a massive double-take. Very cool answer, very specific (in my mind, and in that of many others, I have no doubt) to Michel's Foucault's "Discipline and Punish," a book on heavy grad-seminar-syllabus rotation In My Day. The PANOPTICON always reminds me of my grad school friend Sean who liked Pearl Jam (it was the style at the time) and would sing "Jeremy Bentham" (the name of the PANOPTICON's designer) to the tune of "Jeremy spoke in" (a repeated phrase in the song "Jeremy"). Ah, Ann Arbor in the early '90s. Good ... well, sometimes good ... times. Knowing that answer right off the bat resulted in my having a rather weird opening answer structure:

Three answers of 7+ letters in length that I got with no letters, one letter, and one letter in place, respectively. This, right here—these three answers—is why the west was so much easier for me to tackle than the easy. This is the "Easy" part of the "Easy-Medium" difficulty rating. Even though there are four passages to the east of this grid, they are all very narrow, which gives the sense that the grid has two very distinct hemispheres. I found getting into the eastern hemisphere a minor challenge, despite NO LOVE LOST being not too difficult to come up with. 14D: Capable of doing well does not seem parallel to ADEPT AT. It seems parallel to ADEPT. So I hesitated there. And at 30A: First name in W.W. II (ENOLA), where I had the EN- and first wrote EN LAI (!?!). Eventually I took a flier on ATM at 11D: Bill passer?, and that began to open things up. Once I stormed down into the SE, the puzzle was over very shortly thereafter.


The grid has a weird leering quality, with the WOLFISH CATCALL, and the boobs served up for men's delectation (39A: Products once advertised with the slogan "Hello boys" => WONDERBRAS) combined with the slut-shaming UNLADYLIKE. But overall I found this really varied and entertaining. My main objection is that the answer to 31A: Reality show gear, informally (CAMS) is not CAMO. I had CAM- and plunked that "O" down with a flourish of certainty. Exhibit A:

The defense rests.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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