Satirical 1968 hit for The Turtles / FRI 6-1-18 / Hall of Fame cornerback Herb / Former fort named for Union general / Intuition jocularly / Booker's title abbr / Opportunity for lesson that wasn't planned / Counterpart of tannins in wine-tasting / Hirsute character in Addams Family / Old TV's ___ Club

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:05)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Herb ADDERLEY (3D: Hall-of-Fame cornerback Herb) —

Herbert Allen Adderley (born June 8, 1939) is a former American football cornerbackwho played for the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Adderley played college football at Michigan State University and was an All-Big Tenoffensive star as a halfback.^[1] He is the only player to appear in four of the first six Super Bowls. (wikipedia)

Do people really put their GPA on their résumés?? Awards I get, but GPA?? Ugh, I just googled this, and all the advice is so smarmy and bad and desperate. I advise no, kids (and definitely no, adults over 25). I only got GPA because of GO TIME, which somehow I got first, and instantly (1D: Crucial hour, informally). ADDERLEY was totally unknown to me, so I worked it out from crosses and inference. Remembered (for once) that it's aunt ELLER, not aunt ELLIE, and after I got out of that NW corner, I screamed through the rest of the grid (figuratively—no occasion for actual screaming), missing a turn and veering off course here and there, but mostly just cruising ... until went over one of those tire puncture dealies at the very end trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the SE. Three answers there (well, one, and then two of its crosses) cost me a good 20 to 30 seconds, I think. Oh, the screwed-up spelling of ELENORE didn't help, either. How many damn ways are they to spell that name? ELENORE, gee your folks can't spell!

So the offending answer was LEGMEN (44D: Errand runners), which I know exclusively as a term for ... men who are into legs (as opposed to breasts, or butts). I looked up "legman," though, and it's definitely a thing. But trying to see it when you (confidently!) wrote in NOD at 56A: Academy recognition, informally (NOM) and had no idea what 62A: Booker's title: Abbr. (SEN) was after ... not so easy (Cory Booker is, of course, a SEN. from NJ). I was at a dead stop. Not sure how I finally understood that NOD was (improbably!) wrong, but I guess I have enough experience to start pulling out "correct" answers when you hit a complete impasse. LEGMEN! NOM SEN! Blargh. Not a pleasant way to end an otherwise very pleasant solve. Tiny stumble when I wanted YOU NAILED IT instead of YOU CALLED IT at 35A: "Spot-on prediction!" and bigger stumble when I had ACRID, and then considered ACERB, before ever thinking of ACUTE. Ugh to the five-letter, starts w/ A, [Sharp]-clued answer. But the long Downs were Super easy and the long Acrosses ... were largely taken care of by the longer Downs. I could've tolerated more difficulty here, and more difficulty evenness in particular, but overall I had a good time with this one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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