Sagan wrote about his brain / WED 1-6-16 / gibbon zoo primate / Sikorsky of aviation / Taiwanese PC maker / Automaker whose name means listen in Latin / Jazz saxophonist Coleman

Constructor: Jules P. Markey

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: CROSS-REFEENCES (34A: "See also" notations ... or what can be found in the circled squares in this puzzle?) — OED crosses OED four times in this grid

Notable crosswordese:

• OTOE
• AMO
• ENERO

Word of the Day: LAR gibbon (29D: ___ gibbon (zoo primate)) —

The lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), also known as the white-handed gibbon, is a primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is one of the better-known gibbons and is often seen in zoos. (wikipedia)

There are some things the English language just doesn't want to do, and one of those is have "OED" all lined up in a single word. So we get pelted with past tenses, and the "OED" strings so painfully restrict adjacent fill that it cries out in pain. That NE is an atrocity, from LAR (!?!) to CHRON to CHOU, but it would be very hard to fill any better, given the OED placements. In the SW, the ramifications are somewhat less dire: just crosswordese like TSKED and OTOE, and then whatever BROCA is (!?!?!). The OEDs are handled somewhat better in the two other instances, but still, the fill suffers tremendously, everywhere: AEIOU NNE TEAC ENERO IDES AMO LEROI ECTO TROU (in addition to the aforementioned stuff). The longer Downs are pretty shiny—even the "OED"-containing ones—and the revealer is decent, with a nice metacrossword, self-referential aspect to the cluing. But the basic concept was a. too easy (you can fill in all the circles once you pick up the gimmick) and b. too restrictive for the fill to come out nice and tasty. I mean, jeez ... LAR? Jeez...


This puzzle pretty much exhausts the _OED options: TOED, HOED, COED—just to give you an idea of how severely limiting the "OED" letter string is. There's an odd strain of stupidity running through the grid, with IDIOTs and DODOS and a DENSE guy (on a SEAT in the corner). The climate is DRY. ARID, even. Like my house in ENERO (i.e. right now). HIDE is also a Facebook action, and would've completed the FB trifecta (along with TAG and POST) nicely. The roe deer all want to know why they were left out of this puzzle, as do the all the robots in the ROBO-education classes. Robots and deer, amassing on my lawn as we speak, asking "Why!?" Gonna put on ORNETTE Coleman now, and sip some bourbon ON ICE. Happy January 6th.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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