Dwarf planet beyond Pluto / WED 9-27-17 / Victims of fictional Morlocks / Epoch characterized by rise of mammals / Hip hop group with triple-platinum album black sunday

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (except for the mistake I made, ugh)

THEME: THREE-RING CIRCUS (42A: Confusing situation ... or what this puzzle contains literally?)— three "rings" (represented in the grid above by circled squares) contain acts one might see at a circus ... I think:

The Rings:

• GLASS EATER
• FIRE DANCER
• WIRE WALKER 

Word of the Day: SELAH (9D: Interjection occurring frequently in Psalms) —

exclamation

exclamation: selah

1. (in the Bible) occurring frequently at the end of a verse in Psalms and Habakkuk, probably as a musical direction. (google)

I've never seen any of those things at a circus. So there's that. Also, those aren't "rings." So there's that, too. Both the grid shape and the longer Downs in this one are pretty intriguing, and the fill is mostly clean ... except, you know, around those "rings." There, things get dicey ASSAI ESSES HESSE SWE dicey. In fact, so dicey, for me, that I finished with an error—one that I never would have found had the circled circus acts not been a part of the puzzle. I had GRAFT instead of GRIFT. These words aren't that different, either in look or in meaning. Obviously, if you ask me to choose which, of these two, better fits 64A: Petty swindle, I'm gonna go with GRIFT. But that is not how crosswords play themselves out. It woulda been *super* nice if the cross had been *any* help, but how the hell am I supposed to know how Ray NAGIN spells his damn last name. I mean, sure, there's FAGIN, for comparison, but there's also PAGAN and SAGAN. So the "A" went in easy and never came out. I cannot stress how bad that NAGIN / GRIFT cross is, at a basic design level. You know that second vowel in NAGIN's name is not gonna be a slam dunk, and then the plausible crosses are both Types Of Crime!? It was bad enough to have F-STAR up there (5D: Polaris, e.g., in astronomy), with its stupid take-a-random-guess first letter making that square essentially uncrossed (i.e. you better get FLAPS because I know you don't know what letter star Polaris is; no you don't, shut up). But then the whole NAGIN thing, ugh. You notice that all this weakness is Right On Top Of the stupid "rings." That is not a coincidence. Rings put a Ton of pressure on the grid. But it's the constructor's (and, uh, editor's) responsibility to make sure cleanness, clarity, and solvability reign.


Outside of the ring areas, the puzzle played pretty easy. The cluing was no great shakes. Take the clue on GRIFT—64A: Petty swindle. Now look it up on google. Go ahead. I'll wait. No I won't, here it is:

See? That's just ... lifting. Nothing colorful, thoughtful, specific, inventive. Just a definition lifted straight from a rudimentary google search. Most of the clues here are straightforward and dull. Even some of the longer fill, while original, is not exactly scintillating. TAX CLINIC? SAND GROUSES? Applause for novelty, but I hardly thought, "Dang, nice." I did think "Dang, nice" with CYPRESS HILL, though (24A: Hip-hop group with the triple-platinum album "Black Sunday"). That answer was satisfying to me, EMOTIONALLY.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy anniversary to my wife, whom I love an awful lot

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]