Modern brain-scanning procedure for short / SAT 9-10-16 / Crazy in 2010 Shakira hit / Capital where hell is pronounced johm riab sua / Animal whose name is derived from Latin for ghosts

Constructor:Peter Wentz

Relative difficulty:Medium (or Easy, or who knows)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day:DOGCART(38D: Light carriage) —

noun

noun: dog cart; plural noun: dog carts; noun: dogcart; plural noun: dogcarts; noun: dog-cart; plural noun: dog-carts

1. a two-wheeled horse-drawn cart, with cross seats back to back, originally incorporating a box under the seat for sportsmen's dogs. (wikipedia)

Wow, if I don't get 1-Across right off the bat, I am in trouble. Today, no hope there, or at PHNOM PENH (15A: Capital where "hello" is pronounced "johm riab sua") (that's ... Khmer?) or ALEX ROCCO(17A: He played Moe Greene in "The Godfather") (seen movie many times, never knew actor's name) or FMRI (?), so NW was a waste. Sadly, my first answer was ICE IN (20A: Block at an airport, perhaps). I almost feel guilty about that, since no human would ever guess that naturally. That's pure crossword instinct. Then EPOCH and HIVE and then there was a moment of whoooosh and I GLIDEd right down into the SE, picking up the very easy NE along the way. PALMOLIVE (60A: Brand once pitched with the slogan "You're soaking in it") was the absolute gimme I *wish* I'd had at 1-Across. Anyway, I backed my way back into the NW and took it down and then circled around and brought my solving to a point—the grid all filled in except the SE. Narrow access point, but I figure, I got this. I figured very, very wrong. Here's what my grid looked like before the freefall.

Can you see the wrong answer, the wrong square, that strangled me? It's the "M" in (wrong) MOHLER. Faucet names? Ugh. I apparently conflated KOHLER and MOEN. And let me tell you, "M" looks just fine there, until you can't make any answer work in the across (47A: Batting a thousand, say). I tried ON A SCREAM once, desperately. I also could not remember SKEE-LO (48D: Rapper with the 1995 hit "I Wish") despite being able to picture him and the music video and being able to sing the chorus of the song (roughly). I had COOLIO in my head, and I knew that was way wrong, but ... just stuck. Also, the GECKO is a mascot, not a "symbol" (argh). I managed to get DIM and RIALS (which Of Course ended up being RIELS). But otherwise I was in freefall for minutes. DOG CART??? TAROT from *that* clue (64A: The Devil, e.g.). I finally finally finally figured out that "Y's" were NEXT .... TO LAST. And that did it. Well, until I got DOG CART / ON A STREAM and wondered WTF. Both seemed off. But just one. Just one. Puzzle seems fine. I usually groove on Wentz puzzles a lot more than I did on this one, but I have no complaints. People seem to be finding this one relatively easy. I just had a slow start and a very, very bad ending.


It's weird, though, now that I think of it. My time was only a little north of my normal Saturday time. I think because so much of it was easy, the hard parts felt devastating. Also, I'm used to being right in step with Wentz puzzles, and today ... it's like you don't even know me, Pete!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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