Eldest of Pleiades / SAT 6-2-17 / Palmlike tropical plant / Smallest infinite cardinal number / Cousin of polecat / Assigned as to do charity work in modern lingo

Constructor: John Guzzetta and Michael Hawkins

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: CYCAD (3D: Palmlike tropical plant) —

noun

noun: cycad; plural noun: cycads

1. a palmlike plant of tropical and subtropical regions, bearing large male or female cones. Cycads were abundant during the Triassic and Jurassic eras, but have since been in decline.

Origin

mid 19th century: from modern Latin Cycas, Cycad- (order name), from supposed Greek kukas, scribal error for koikas, plural of koix‘Egyptian palm.’ (google)

Misplaced (felt way more Saturday than Friday) and irksome in its unevenness. Also, it just wasn't on my wavelength, anywhere, ever. VOLUNTOLD? No. Please, stop. It's one thing to put "new" things in a puzzle—a good thing—but use discretion. See also BACONATOR.  Here's what I liked: SQUEAMISH, IDRIS ELBA, PIECEMEAL. The rest is fine but unrermarkable, except for the following remarks I have about some bad patches. Actually, the grid divides neatly into thirds—doable / clean middle and eastern thirds, and then a western third that I wish a massive earthquake would cause to fall into the Pacific. CYCAD? MAIA? ALPEH (!??!!?!) NULL? Go ahead and high-five yourselves, math nerds, but that answer is crap. Seriously, all my red ink is on the left side of the grid. ("Red" signifies pain)

The esoteric fill is one issue. There's not a ton of it, but there was enough of it, strategically placed, that things got gunked up good. Then there was the bizarro cluing, like 1D: Company once named Socony-Vacuum (MOBIL). That clue tells me precisely nothing. I had -OBI- and had to run the alphabet. I didn't have the "M" because I thought 1A: Churchill Downs, to horse racing fans (I am not one) would be specific, not this dumb MECCA answer. Why is LTD Lucasfilm specific? (22A: Abbr. for Lucasfilm) It's a general company designation. If you think that NW corner was clean, then you have low standards of clean. You probably have BACONATOR ON YOU.


Had ROAR for CLAP (26D: Sound in a storm), ANNOY for IMPLY (29A: Get at) (I was probably thinking [Get to]), nothing for MAIA(35A: Eldest of the Pleiades) (?), nothing for ALEPH (!!?). In fact, I literally just had NULL (38A: Smallest infinite cardinal number). Down below, jeez louise, 55D: Relative of "die" is brutal. That clue could have gone so many different ways. Here (in case you still haven't figured it out, which seems plausible), "die" means "the" in German and "LES" means "the" in French and so ... relatives? Eh? Eh? Arf. Another rough clue: 57A: Plasma, for one (STATE). Had the second "T" and thought "some kind of TV." So this thing had competent parts but they were overshadowed by blecch. Not outnumbered, but overshadowed. Doesn't take much blecch to bring a whole puzzle down.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]