Brother player of old TV film / SAT 12-19-15 / 18 title setting of 1961 novel / 1969 Alan Arkin comedy drama / Comedian Nick with self-titled Comedy Central show / Tour often featuring Black Sabbath

Constructor:Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty:Medium


THEME:none 

Word of the Day:"POPI"(16A: 1969 Alan Arkin comedy/drama) —

Popi is a 1969Americancomedy-drama film directed by Arthur Hiller. The screenplay by Tina Pine and Lester Pine focuses on a Puerto Ricanwidower struggling to raise his two young sons in the New York City neighborhood known as Spanish Harlem, and stars Alan Arkin and Rita Moreno. (wikipedia)

This puzzle was memorable only for its beginning, which involved a weird yo-yo-ing down then back up the west side of the grid. After that, things got ugly (not difficulty-wise, but just ... grid attractiveness-wise). I wanted ACCRA at 1A: Gulf of Guinea metropolis) because I have a store of instantly available 5-letter world capitals in my head (from a quarter century of solving crosswords) and that was the first one that popped up (fun fact: I learned ACCRA from crosswords, way back when this blog first started). But I had zero confidence in it, and couldn't make crosses work, so I abandoned it. Put in KROLL (17A: Comedian Nick with a self-titled Comedy Central show) but didn't feel good about it (getting a pop culture answer like that, first thing, always feels a bit like cheating). But that didn't lead me anywhere either. I guessed OBS and then guessed the UP part of what became CHOPS UP. "P" from UP got me DUPONTS (30A: Influential industrial family), which spilled into CONTRACT (24D: Something the ink has dried on), which ... was wrong. I figured this out quickly by checking crosses, noticing 42A: Rapper who publicly feuded with Dr. Dre, and *knowing* the answer was EAZY-E (not EAZY-A). So CONTRACT, out. By GOLLY, in. Then LEO and back up the grid to YOU GO GIRL and eventually the improbably spelled AYKROYD (1D: "Brother" player of old TV and film) (I had a "C" in the second position and stared at CAHO- at 14A: Email option for what felt like a Long time).


Once I worked my way to the lower bottom, though, the fill got a lot uglier. That whole block from REPOT east to the -INS part of MERLIN'S is pretty rough. Very Very rough. PEDI OREN TSOS is an abominable stack. A 70-word themeless should have no rough patches that bad, and this one has a few. See also LLANOS / ILS / INSTR and EVEL / EVILER / MILA. Also, "POPI," which ... no. There's some funnish stuff here and there, but overall there's too much on the low end. ICEE FOSS ENTS! Not really feeling it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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