Noah's predecessor / SAT 5-6-17 / Play movie about noted 1977 series of interviews / Doktor Faust composer / Japanese import that debuted in 1982 / One asking for Ahmed Adoudi / Herb of PBSs ciao italia / Urban lab transporter

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Bovarism (26A: Bovarism => EGO) —

n. a conception of oneself as other than one is to the extent that one's general behavior is conditioned or dominated by the conception; especially:  domination by such an idealized, glamorized, glorified, or otherwise unreal conception of oneself that it results in dramatic personal conflict (as in tragedy), in markedly unusual behavior (as in paranoia), or in great achievement (merriam-webster.com) [1900-05;< Frenchbovaryisme,afterEmmaBovary,acharacterinFlaubert'snovelMadameBovary] (dictionary.com)

Highly enjoyable Saturday. Right about where I like them: consistently tricky, but not painful, and loaded with juicy and highly varied answers. There was one scary moment where an obscure proper noun felt like it might be undoing—honestly, the worst thing that can happen in crosswords—but then the "K" from KAPPAS gave me BEER KEG(25D: Center of a blowout, maybe) and BUSONI (!?) was no longer the lethal threat he (he?) appeared to be (25A: "Doktor Faust" composer). Obscurity of BUSONI was more than offset by the giant gimme that was "An INNOCENT MAN" (27A: 1983 7x platinum Billy Joel album, with "An"). That is a Monday clue. That "7x platinum" part should tell you that. That album came out in the heart of my music-obsessed adolescence, and though I was not obsessed with *that* album, the ubiquity of its songs meant that even 34 years later, I remember it well. I think that was the album with "Uptown Girl" on it, where the video had his then-wife Christie Brinkley in it, and at the end these kids start popping (to a Billy Joel song!?), and it Totally blew my mind. I didn't care about the song or the bulk of the video, I just sat there waiting to see the kids.


LAP was the obvious starting place here (22A: It disappears after rising). That helped me start working on the ends of those Downs in the NW (-ES after the "L"; ON after the "P"), and then SENTRA / LIRA / LOOP / SHIMON went in pretty quickly thereafter, and I came back at the NW corner from the back ends of the long Acrosses. HAD IT and the Billy Joel album got me into the NE, where PREP for GRAD was my major screw-up (besides simply not knowing BUSONI). KAPPAS took me into the SE, where the "P" got me PET-something and the "S" got me the obvious STEWART (45D: Noah's predecessor). (STEWART crossing STEW, btw, not great). MARK O'MEARA and ANTI-VAXXER went straight in, based solely on their terminal letters. Ended in the SW, where PRANK for CRANK in CRANK CALLER held me up a bit ("prank call is the more preferred term, by a good margin"), and where I totally bit that "Herb" was some guy in 38D: Herb of PBS's "Ciao Italia" (OREGANO). The end.


One note re: FEMS (19A: Partners in many lesbian couples). Yes, some lesbian couples do have a gender role binary thing going on (though I'd say "some lesbian couples," not "many (?) lesbian couples"). My bigger concern with FEMS is ... well, here, I'll let google predictive text explain:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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