Anoint in western pacific / THU 9-15-16 / Isabel of mathetmatics fame / Squire message / Manila alternative in guessing game / Clan from ocean / Gaiter locales for short / Wand representer in myth / Croat who won academy award in 1999

Constructor:Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty:Challenging (hilariously so)


THEME:ANAGRAM THE / FIRST WORD / IN EACH CLUE—just what it says

Word of the Day:Deseret(63A: Steered, today => UTAH) —

The State of Deseret (ⁱ/ˌdɛzəˈrɛt/) was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon. (wikipedia)

More than 2x my normal Thursday time. Not really a problem in and of itself, but what I spent that time doing: ugh. Seriously, 2x ugh. Slow start, not surprisingly, but not that long into my poking around and getting nowhere, I picked up the anagram gimmick. Seeing that there were three parts to the "revealer," though, I figured there were three elements to the gimmick. There were not. There was just the one. And I had already discovered it. And the rest of the long, tedious solve was just ... anagramming. Over. And over. To what end? Just to ... the end. Considered opening an anagram tab an just plugging in first words so I wouldn't have to bother with the stupidity of it all, but decided just to gut it out. SATS are *things* that high schoolers obsess over? I resent having to anagram a word in order to get something as stupid and vague as "things.""O, CANADA" is a "strain"? Gah. And the grid is just ... instructions plus a forgettable themeless. That's what the puzzle boils down to. Solver pleasure given zero consideration here. One "aha" moment followed by a long slog to the finish line.


The fill doesn't even matter. There's nothing to say. Anagrams. The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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