Southernmost active volcano in world / THU 10-26-17 / Lily Tomlin's one ringy dingy character on old TV / Opera that takes place in 1800 premiered in 1900

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging (for me, anyway ... probably actually Medium)

THEME: MT. EREBUS (59A: Southernmost active volcano in the world ... or a cryptic hint to certain squares in this puzzle)— an "MTE" rebus puzzle

Theme answers:

• FORT SUMTER / FARM TEAM
• ASSAM TEA / WISDOM TEETH
• TIM TEBOW / WILLIAM TELL

Word of the Day: Larry ELGART (46A: "Bandstand Boogie" bandleader Larry) —

Lawrence Joseph Elgart (March 20, 1922 – August 29, 2017) was an American jazz bandleader. With his brother Les, he recorded "Bandstand Boogie", the theme to the long-running dance show American Bandstand. (wikipedia)

Filled in the NW corner super fast and then just died. Next section over, I had OAFS(4A: Klutzes) and then ... nothing. Actually jumped down to the bottom via the cross-referenced AREA, picking up REST and starting again from there (60D: With 23-Across, picnic table locale). So I ended up getting MT. EREBUS pretty early, but didn't really *get* it, and then when I *did* get it, my brain processed it as "MT" REBUS. I mean, you would rebus MT because a MT is a thing (abbr. for Montana, abbr. for mountain), whereas an "MTE" rebus ... WHAT THE &$^% is an MTE!?!?!?!?! Is this seriously a "three-random letter" rebus? My brain was right to reject that &$^%. I've never seen a more meaningless rebus square. Unbelievable. I understand seeing "REBUS" inside "MT. EREBUS" and thinking "Ooh, tempting!" But I do Not understand thinking it would be fun to make your repeated rebus square "MTE." That, I do not understand.

I finished with an error, namely ELZART / ZAMBIA. There is so much wrong with this cross. First of all, who the &$^% is Larry ELGART?! What the ... why ... I'm just staring at his name, and even his wikipedia entry, dumbfounded that his name is a thing that is considered common knowledge. EL-ART coulda been so many letters. And then you give me -AMBIA, when ZAMBIA is an actual African country yet somehow *not* the actual answer (47D: Its capital is an Atlantic port). But then the actual answer is GAMBIA!? And I'm like "Why ... don't I know about this country?" Well, two reasons. One, do you know how small it is? They need an inset even to find it on the map they use on its own wikipedia page:

Further, do you know what the country is *actually* called (per its wikipedia page)? Here:

The Gambia (/ˈɡæmbi.ə/ ( listen)), officially the Republic of The Gambia,^[3] is a country in West Africa that is entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its coastline on the Atlantic Ocean at its western end. It is the smallest country in mainland Africa.

What the hell!? Straight-up GAMBIA isn't even an option here. How are you gonna perpetrate like GAMBIA is a country without the damned definite article!? Come on, man? This ELGART / GAMBIA crossing is a hellscape. It's so bad, it made me forget how dumb the rebus was. And now all I can think of are the non-entity-ness of "MTE" and the fact that ZAMBIA is landlocked and like 5500 miles away from *THE* GAMBIA. You wanna talk about other elements of this puzzle, go right ahead. I haven't got time for the pain. It's all too much. Besides, I gotta start getting ready for the Malaysia Technology Expo 2018! See you all there!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. if that answer was originally Ansel ELGORT and the editor changed it I Swear To God ... !

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