2005 Survivor island nation / WED 6-5-13 / Exclamations of tsuris / Tower of puzzle with pegs rings / Work containing 21 epistles / Kia subcompacts

Constructor: Mark Bickham

Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: T.N.T.— theme answers are three-word phrases where the words begin with T, N, and T, respectively. Revealer = 66A: Sound suggested by the first letters of the words in 17-, 26-, 44- and 58-Across (BANG!)

Theme answers:

• "THERE'S NO TELLING"
• "THAT'S NOT TRUE"
• "TILL NEXT TIME"
• THE NEW TESTAMENT

Word of the Day: PALAU (32A: 2005 "Survivor" island) —

Palau ([...] /pəˈlaʊ/, sometimes spelled Belau or Pelew), officially the Republic of Palau(Palauan: Beluu er a Belau), is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country's population of around 21,000 is spread across 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands. The most populous island is Koror. The islands share maritime boundaries withIndonesia, Philippines and the Federated States of Micronesia. The capital Ngerulmud is located in Melekeok State on the nearby island of Babeldaob. (wikipedia)

This week is leaving me speechless—not in awe, but in uh, as in "uh ... I don't have anything to say about this." The concept here is interesting, the execution somewhat bland (though I certainly can't come up with more vivid "TNT" phrases off the top of my head). The fill, once again, is dire. It's been bad all week. It's bad enough again, today, that I don't even have to point it out. You can see it. There. And there. And over there. Partials, French possessives, super-stale abbrevs. and phrases, whatever -UAL is .. I couldn't even find an interesting candidate for Word of the Day (though finding out that the capital of PALAU is "Ngerulmud" was kind of exciting). Three of the theme answers are spoken phrases. One isn't. Three begin with "T." One begins with "THE," a definite article whose first letter never gets counted in alphabetizing or initialisms. One-L "'Til next time" googles about 8x stronger than Two-L "TILL NEXT TIME." Many OYS, indeed (48A: Exclamations of tsuris).

I blazed through this, never noticing (or needing) the revealer. Felt like I stumbled a lot, especially in the area of TARGET (in SALES TARGET, 10D: Figure for a rep to achieve), which I couldn't see. Kept wanting "GOALS" even though it clearly didn't fit. Maybe QUOTA? QUOTAS? Anyway, there was some bumbling. Also, Tower of HANOI, wtf? Talk about your outliers. This must've been an attempt to make the puzzle harder, and I guess it did, by about 10-15 seconds (62A: Tower of ___ (puzzle with pegs and rings)). Nothing else seems at all out of the ordinary, except perhaps PALAU, which I just remembered for some reason (seen it in xwords, and was probably still watching "Survivor" back in 2005).

Hoping for more excitement, or at least a cleaner grid, tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld