Cheap 1980s car imports / TUE 2-2-16 / Genius's head / Paul 1993 World Series MVP / 1960s Angela Davis do

Constructor:Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (significantly slower than normal) (4:08)


THEME:sky horizon sea ... stuff— HORIZON is in the middle and then above the HORIZON is a FLOCK OF BIRDS and a PLANE in the SKY and below is a SCHOOL OF FISH and some CORAL in the SEA

Word of the Day:YUGOS(8D: Cheap 1980s car imports) —

The Zastava Koral (Serbian Cyrillic: Застава Корал, pronounced [ˈzâːstaʋa ˈkǒraːl]), also known as the Yugo (pronounced [ˈjûɡo]), is a supermini built by the Yugoslav/Serbian Zastava corporation. It was designed in Italy under the name Fiat 144 as a variant of the Fiat 127. The first Yugo 45 was handmade on 2 October 1978 as a Fiat 127, under license from Fiat, with a modified body style. The Zastava Koral was sold with an updated design, priced at about 350,000 dinars (3,500 euros; 4,300 U.S. dollars), until 11 November 2008, when production stopped with a final number of 794,428 cars. The Yugo entered the United States by means of Malcolm Bricklin, who wanted to introduce a simple, low-cost car to that market. In total, 141,651 cars were sold in the United States from 1985 to 1992, with the most American units sold in a year peaking at 48,812 in 1987. Sales in 1992 were only 1,412 cars. Like the Lada, they were a common sight on the urban landscape in the cities and towns of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the late 1990s. The Yugo is still a common sight in Serbia; however, they are very rare in other ex-Yugoslav republics, particularly in Slovenia and Croatia. (wikipedia)

Short write-up today because I got sucked into watching election coverage (stupid stupid stupid why why why) and now I'm tired. Also, what to say about this puzzle? Well, it was much slower-going than normal for me (anything over 4 minutes is slow for me on Tuesdays). I attribute this to many things. First, the cross-referencing bonanza, starting at 1-Across and continuing throughout all the theme answers. There's nothing in the cluing that indicates directly what any of the theme answers are, so you have to get answers via crosses and then proceed by inference. Both SKY and SEA are clued via [Blue expanse]. I went with SEA up top, setting up the first of many erasures (see also FLOCK OF GEESE). So there was that. Then there was SOFT G (ironically, hard), and TMC (which ... ugh, The Movie Channel? Really? No one watches that, least of all "cinephiles") and wide open NE / SW corners and MACH who-knows-what and who-knows-what-TEST and a "Happy Days" quote not clued as a "Happy Days" quote but clued instead if it is actual viable non-dated slang ("SIT ON IT"). So, yeah, not Hard in an absolute sense. But slow going.


The theme doesn't actually make sense, as clued. See especially 57A: Group found below the 37-Across. I don't "find" anything "below the HORIZON." That's absurd. I can "find" things only above it, as I am a human being with human being-type eyeballs. "Hey, I found a SCHOOL OF FISH!""Where!?""Below the HORIZON!""....?""You know, near the CORAL?"".............?" And CORAL? Talk about arbitrary? SHARK? WHALE? ARIEL? So many other things Under the Sea. I don't know. This seems pretty rough / loose. Fill is also weak throughout. I'll spare you the full list, but I WERE LA VIE, plural NYETS and YUGOS, and OMANI ORONO SSR etc etc all give you a good sense of the scope of the problem. "NO CUTS!" was pretty cool. The rest, I don't know. Just seemed ragged and off. Gotta go listen to Bernie talk now. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy 75th birthday to the man who bought "Night Shift" on Laser Disc in 1982 and thus changed my life forever.

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