Mantra-chanting priest / WED 5-18-16 / Pie old British dish / Worrisome call at home / Internet-based phone provider / Great Lakes freighter load perhaps / African nation renamed in 1997 / Chinese dynasty after Qin / Souped up vintage auto

Constructor:Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty:Medium


THEME:fore!— three answers that have four Cs, four Ts, and four As, respectively, are cross-referenced in clues for three words that are rough homonyms of four Cs (FORESEES), four Ts (FORTIES), and four As (FORAYS):

Theme answers:

• ANTARCTIC CIRCLE (17A: Where the midnight sun can be observed) / FORESEES (4D: What 17-Across has, phonetically)
• "THAT'S A MOOT POINT" (38A: "No need to discuss it") / FORTIES (26D: What 38-Across has, phonetically)
• FANTASY BASEBALL (61A: Rotisserie League game) / FORAYS (47D: What 61-Across has, phonetically)

Word of the Day:RHEA Seehorn(37A: Actress Seehorn of "Better Call Saul") —

Rhea Seehorn (born May 12, 1972) is an American actress best known for playing Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul. From 2011 to 2013, she was one of the main characters in NBC's Whitney. She is also known for her role as Cheri Baldzikowski in ABC's I'm With Her and Ellen Swatello in TNT's Franklin & Bash. (wikipedia)

This theme is very loose, but unusual enough, and well-executed enough, to be interesting/entertaining. The homophones are slightly uneven in quality, in that FORESEES is perfect, FORAYS is perfect, but FORTIES sounds a bit off because the "T" comes out more as a "D" when you say it. You can hear the "TEES" in, say, "expertise," but not so much in "forties." Is that a regional thing? If I say "forties" naturally, it sounds far more like I'm saying "FOUR DEES" than "FOUR TEES." But no matter. Close enough. Interesting that this theme catches all the possible "four [letters]" combinations. I ran the alphabet and nothing else works (except, for me, the aforementioned "FOUR DEES"). There's "four eyes," but that doesn't follow the thematic pattern. I imagine there are a gajillion phrases with four Cs, four Ts, and four As, but we have these three phrases, and they seem fine. The puzzle played slightly easy in most places *except* toward the center—entirely a function of that central themer not being obvious, and two of the Down themers running right through it. It took a long time for me to get FORESEES. I had FORES-ES and still no idea what was going on. All I could see was FOR ESSES (!?). Had -EL for 28A: ___ pie (old British dish) and still had no clue. None. With such a bizarre clue, I figured the answer would have to be some French word like SEL, not a common word like EEL. But that cross, and the exact wording of the central themer, were the only real speedbumps.


I was wondering when someone was going to clue (crosswordese) RHEA as RHEA Seehorn, who is *amazing* on "Better Call Saul" (which is the best show on television). She's not "Emmy-winning" yet, but she will be, and then you'll be seeing her name in puzzles FOUREVER. Does VONAGE still exist? (2D: Internet-based phone provider) I used to see ad after ad after ad for it, but seeing it today ... it feels dated. Bygone. Erstwhile. I do not thing PENITENT means "showing sorrow." Or, rather, I think it means showing a Very Specific Kind of Sorrow—for having done wrong. Remorseful or repentant. Just "showing sorrow" seems incomplete. Also, STRIKE TWO is not a [Worrisome call at home]. Professional baseball players don't "worry" at STRIKE TWO. Tony Gwynn hit just over .300 when down to his last strike. So, yes, statistically, you're more likely to get out in two-strike situations than you are in 1- or no-strike situations, but "worrisome" is a bit melodramatic.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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