Vague threat from Stooge / SAT 5-5-18 / Mr once played by Leslie Nielsen / Made bubbles as ocean wave / Food described in Exodus / 2013 Best Picture nominee with major unseen female character / Geographical hexagon / Unstable subatomic particle

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Easy, maybe creeping toward Easy-Medium (6:17)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ABDUL Aziz bin Fahd, Saudi prince (7D) —

Abdul Aziz bin Fahd (Arabic: عبدالعزيز بن فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود‎) is a Saudi Arabian Prince and member of the Royal House of Saud. [I read his whole wikipedia bio and don't really get why he's puzzle-famous except for his family and wealth—there are lots and lots of puzzleworthier ABDULs out there...]

Woo-hoo! High word-count themeless once again! Keep 'em coming! Despite a few weakish moments (ADOZE!? SPUMED!?), this one popped and crackled and largely won me over. The hardest stuff for me ended up being the math / coding / digital lingo (no surprise), but even those I got pretty easily; after a very rough start in the NW and N, I tore through the grid with very little resistance. Started by slogging through the top of the grid with very little to show for it. SNUG UGANDA POGO, fine, but not much else. Actually *wanted* SPUMED (1D: Made bubbles, as an ocean wave) but couldn't convince myself it was a word. Ended up having to jump out of that corner and over to the northern section, where I promptly plopped down UDON at 15A: Japanese bowlful (SOBA). How sad that the answer that finally began to turn the tide for me, the one that allowed me to get some certainty underneath my feet, was was the Leslie Nielsen movie Mr. MAGOO (8D: Mr. once played by Leslie Nielsen). Put him next to ENO, and you get MUON DOOMS ADAM etc. Moved over to NE where I still wasn't quite out of the woods: threw down END TIMES easily but had LIP (?) for HIP at 9D: Axilla : armpit :: coxa : ___, and had zero idea what 9A: Minds could be (HEEDS). Had to fill in the east and then work back up to get DIGERATI (12D: Tech-savvy group) and finally HEEDS. After that, once I corrected OH, MAN to AW, MAN (30A: "Geez, that just ain't right!"), the jets came on and Zoom: I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR, to this puzzle! If you could see my marked up grid (I print it out and write all over it), you would see that the top half is awash (not AGAPE or ADOZE, but awash) in trouble-spot annotations, but the southern hemisphere is almost totally clean.


So there was struggle up front, but then END TIMES went down with just one letter in place, and then WHY I OUGHTA went all the way down with just WH- in place and then I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR went clear across the grid with just -SIR in place (37A: "Take a hike, bub!"). Slow start offset by incredible luck with the longer answers. Should've been similarly fast with HIGH-FALUTIN' (a word I enjoy), but I couldn't get the last letter in T-PPED (46D: Gave a little extra). I was like, "TOPPED? That ... doesn't seem right." Then I ran the vowels and hit "I" and thought "Oh. Sure, OK." Then zing, HIGH-FALUTIN', and a bit later, zong, GET UP AND GO. Top half felt like regular Saturday, bottom half felt like record-breaking Saturday. More like a Wednesday. I'm grateful for POE Dameron (59D: ___ Dameron, fighter pilot for the Resistance in "Star Wars" films) because without him, I would surely have clung to MANNA at 62A: Food described in Exodus (MATZO) much longer than I did. May the Fourth be with me! (I know it's the fifth, but I solved this on the fourth, so the stupid pun stands!)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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