Brazilian city at mouth of Amazon / SAT 5-12-18 / Despot exiled in 1979 / Title setting for Shakespeare / Faux gold / Certain religious proselytizer informally

Constructor: Alex Eylar

Relative difficulty: LOL gonna guess here at Easy-Medium because I really don't know (see below) (10:22)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: OROIDE (53A: Faux gold) —

Oroide is copper and zinc, or copper and tin, often employed inexpensively for decorative purposes where a gold-colored metal is desirable.

Oroide may refer to:

• Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc that has a bright gold-like appearance
• Bronze, an alloy of copper and (in modern times) tin
• Other gold-colored copper alloys (wikipedia)

I have to remember never, ever, ever to solve Saturday puzzles in the a.m. Never ever. The difference between night-solving and first-thing-in-the-morning solving is noticeable for all days of the week, but on Saturday it can get hilarious, and today was one of those days. I had a Challenging time. The whole center was just blank for what felt like ever. Even the corners, which I could tell were pretty easy, were kinda fighting me. I mean, 1A: Husky relatives—I shoulda dropped AKITAS in there without hesitation. I love dogs, known dog breeds, solve crosswords regularly. Shoulda been a piece of cake. Instead I just stared at it and wrote in the "S" at the end. Then SAD, which was fitting (6D: Bummed). And that was just the opening gambit. My feelings about the puzzle are completely colored by the ridiculousness of the solve, the power of my brain fog, the annoyance at a giant chunk of white space in the middle of my puzzle. Stunt puzzles ("oooh, look at my white space!") bug me on a good day, and today was not a good day. That said, the center held up pretty well, ultimately, though BELEM (?) (25D: Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon) next to FENSTER (?) (21D: Window: Ger.) can go to hell. Get those to come out to less obscure foreignisms, and you've got yourself kind of a great middle. Cluing wasn't so great, as nobody is signing his letter FRATERNALLY; even as a 19th-century conceit, that clue seems stupid (18D: Letter closing from one brother to another). Also, thanks for spoiling the magic trick for me, jackass (31A: Where the magician hides the rabbit). Actually, I hate "magic" and don't care. I was more annoyed at myself for writing in TABLE BOTTOM (see BELEM and FENSTER being of No help here).
Cross-reference clues are never pleasant, but at least LONGS / FOR was a pair of successive Acrosses. That, I can tolerate. Part 2 in the NE and part 1 in the damn SW, no. NO TELL / MOTEL is such a great answer, the pleasure of which was gutted by my having to leave my section (NE) to go figure it out (54A: With 19-Across, spot for a tryst). No one ever uses [Girth] for anything but thickness / fatness / largeness, so I wrote in plain old SIZE, but didn't like it. I teach Arthurian literature and still balked at AVALON (1D: Place of eternal happiness). I *am* shy but still wrote in ASIDE (??) for ALOOF (44D: How shy people may stand). I think I meant APART. ALOOF implies snobbery, which is infuriating. Shy people are not talking to you because mixing with strangers is somewhat-to-very uncomfortable, not because they look down on you.
Grateful to Bobby SEALE and Eve ENSLER and Myrna LOY today for slapping my face and being like "hey, buddy, snap to it." Oh, speaking of, I had SNAP! at 20A: Response to a burn or a pun (OUCH). So it was flailing and missing all around. And yet people were posting personal record times on Twitter, so I know my experience was not typical.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. "Despot""exile""1979" four letters long—that's four different elements that screamed, well, something other than AMIN.

P.P.S. Is MOONIE not a slur? (51A: Certain religious proselytizer, informally). 'Cause it sounds slurry.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]