1831 Poe work / FRI 2-9-18 / Iowa town where American Gothic is set / Cyclops killer of myth / Good genre for maze maker / Pro-sustainability in lingo / Online hilarity / Literary nickname for Dolores / Battle of Soissons setting

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ELDON (42A: Iowa town where Grant Wood's "American Gothic" is set) —

Eldon is a city in Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 927 at the 2010 census. Eldon is the site of the small Carpenter Gothic style house that has come to be known as the American Gothic Housebecause Grant Wood used it for the background in his famous 1930 painting American Gothic. (wikipedia)

ZIPPER / IPA / NARUTO / ELTON / ROOM ... is what I would've done in the west.

As of 2017, Naruto is the third best-selling manga series in history, selling more than 220 million copies worldwide in 35 countries outside Japan. It has become one of Viz Media's best-selling manga series; their English translations of the volumes have appeared on USA Today and The New York Times bestseller list several times, and the seventh volume won a Quill Award in 2006. Reviewers praised the manga's character development, strong storylines, and well-executed fight scenes, though some felt the fight scenes slowed the story down. Critics noted that the manga, which has a coming-of-age theme, makes use of cultural references from Japanese mythology and Confucianism. (EMPHASIS MINE)

I mean I literally would've done *anything* to get ELDON (???) out of there. Also, SCENEII is meaningless without an Act number (59A: When Caesar says "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look"). I mean, I assume the clue means Act I, SCENE II, but you'd never just say SCENEII to refer to happenings in a Shakespearean play. That said, I found this puzzle immensely entertaining and just the right level of difficulty—pugnacious, but not grueling. Tons and tons of "?" clues (or so it seemed), and yet none of them made me want to throw my computer across the room. I don't think [High-minded sort?] is great for AVIATOR because there's not a great connection between "minded" and flying, but it was easy enough to get. I kinda like [Scare quote?] for BOO. "Quoth the raven, 'BOO'!" Speaking of Poe, as you can see from the posted grid, above, my last square was in that damned "TO HELEN" poem, which I don't know at all (61A: 1831 Poe work). Poe has a bevy of poems that one might see in a grid. "Ulalume,""Annabel Lee,""Lenore" ... in the olden days, "Eulalie." And now apparently this one, which I'm sure is not new to the NYT, I just couldn't remember it.


EMPHASIS MINE is fantastic (19A: [Can you believe they wrote this?!]). Puzzle is worth it for that answer alone. I know SQUAT THRUSTS but not SQUAT JUMPs (20D: Exercise started by crouching), but no matter; I could piece it together. LATE CALL is also nice, though I hesitated after LATE because LATE FLAG is a thing in (American) football (11D: It may come long after the play). Biggest slowdown for me (or one of them) was SETS ABOUT for 6D: Aspires to do something (SETS A GOAL). The "O" worked (from BOLA), and so I got bogged down and only worked my way out because of PLURAL (39A: What "they" can only be, to grammar sticklers) (sticklers are losing this one, btw).

OK I'm off to the gym, hopefully not to do SQUAT JUMPs. Mwah.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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