Highland slopes / TUE 6-4-13 / GPS above-the-Equator fig / Great detective of children's literature / Bewhiskered frolickers / How are things in Glocca 1947 hit song / Herr's honey / Archie's sitcom wife

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium



THEME: Snakes— circled squares that wind through various parts of the grid spell out the names of five snakes (COBRA, ADDER, MAMBA, PYTHON, and ANACONDA). There are also two more snake-related answers...

Theme answers:

• 24A: He drove the serpents from Ireland, in legend (SAINT PATRICK)
• 52A: Indian pipe player, maybe (SNAKE CHARMER)

Word of the Day: Arthur Wellesley (45A: Britain's Arthur Wellesley, with "the") (IRON DUKE)—

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (1 May 1769– 14 September 1852), was a British soldier and statesman, a native of Ireland from the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. He is often referred to as the "Duke of Wellington", even after his death, even though there have been subsequent Dukes of Wellington. (wikipedia)

Ah, circles. The idea is cute, though the fill is less than. I wasn't even out of that NW corner before I was wincing a little. The CMDR / MORRA / BRAES (20A: Highland slopes) patch was a little hard to take. Now, that's right in the middle of a snaky patch of grid, so, OK, your fill will be compromised some, but ... today there was maybe a little more short junk than I'd like. On the other hand, there was some interesting fill like UNDERWEAR, SCAFFOLD, and ARM CANDY, which I had as EYE CANDY at first (40D: Companion who's a knockout). In fact, that section accounted for virtually all my trouble with this grid. Puzzle would've been flat Easy if not for that little mistake Plus not knowing IRON DUKE Plus NLAT, yikes (47D: GPS above-the-Equator fig.). That's a really horrible bit of fill. I had to read the clue repeatedly even to understand what was being asked.


And you could've squeezed BOA in there somewhere? I mean, I see him, partially uncircled, in the NW, but I don't think that counts.

R.I.P. Jean Stapleton, Archie's sitcom wife (EDITH), who died just a few days ago.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld