Violinist Kavafian / SAT 1-21-17 / Bulbous perennial / Xmas for Jimmy Buffet / First name in infamy / Dumb Dumber drive destination

Constructor:James Mulhern

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day:TARPONS(33A: Prized game fish) —

noun

plural noun: tarpons

1. a large tropical marine fish of herringlike appearance. (google)

This was pretty enjoyable. Had to wrestle with it A WEE BIT, and fell into many traps along the way, but in the end it was slightly more tractable than your average Saturday fare, I think. Couple of nice long Downs, for sure, and then a very solid, serviceable grid, with little in the way of junk. I'd call EDESSA junk (it's certainly high on the list of 6-letter crosswordese), buuuut it really helped me solidify traction in the north, so I'll just give it a polite nod and move along. The proper nouns are a little dated at times (NEVE over BOYER!) but then there's Paul RUDD and BIG PAPI, so maybe things balance out. Oh, ANI. ANI is not good. You can clue it however you like (Skywalker, DiFranco ... some violinist ...), it's always gonna be crosswordese. But the overall state of the grid is strong.


How many holes did I fall into? Let's count

1. Had the -OW at the end of 2D: Words of understanding and was *certain* that answer ended in KNOW.
2. Had the O (from YOKO) and U (from RUDD) in the answer for 27D: Works of a lifetime and *confidently* wrote in OPUSES.
3. Opened the puzzle with an amazing run of Downs (KTEL! BOO! ADREP!) and then, after getting the -UM part ... PODIUM!! (8D: Oration location). 
4. I don't even feel bad about the MARLINS-for-TARPONS mistake, tbh. I'm only human.
5. RYE before ALE ... never fail?
6. Aaaand my favorite wrong answer of the day: for 57D: Appropriate answer for this clue, I had: ANS.

That'll do for today.

AS EVER,

Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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