Dweller along Don / THU 9-6-18 / Link popular online comedy duo / Blood of gods in Greek myth / Superhero's defining quality / Literally hopeful person / Mosque of shrine in Jerusalem

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (6:48)
      
                 I    C     E    B     E    R    G
THEME: TIP OF THE ICEBERG (62A: Hidden trouble indicator ... or what you'll need to finish this crossword?) — "tips" of some Downs at the top of the grid (which extend beyond the top of the grid) spell out ICEBERG

Theme answers:

• (I)SLAM (2D: It's symbolized by a star and crescent)
• (C)OVER CHARGES (4D: Entry fees)
• (E)MERGES (5D: Comes out)
• (B)ARES (7D: Exposes)
• (E)ASTERN (9D: Like Confucianism and Taoism)
• (R)ENUNCIATION (10D: Formal rejection)
• (G)UN IT (12D: Put the pedal to the metal)

Word of the Day: LAPIN (51D: Rabbit fur) —

lapin. 1 : rabbit; specifically : a castrated male rabbit. 2 : rabbit fur usually sheared and dyed. (m-w)

This doesn't work. On a grammatical level, it is completely broken. I see what the constructor's trying to do, especially with having ICEBERG literally above the grid, the way the TIP OF THE ICEBERG would be above the surface of the ocean, but that's the problem: "What you'll need to finish this crossword" is the tip ... of a bunch of answers. You do not, in fact, need the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. In fact, worse, you actually need THE WHOLE DAMN ICEBERG. So, double fail: first, the tips you need are not "of the iceberg," and second, you've got an entire iceberg on top of your grid, not just the tip. Why go forward with a theme that doesn't stick the landing. We are in the era of "good enough." Someone should be telling constructors when their tricky gimmicks don't actually work. Or (in the case of the A.T.s puzzle ... which apparently literally had 8 "T"s in it !?!?!?!) when their gimmicks are just bad ideas. I think we're supposed to see it as an accomplishment that the "wrong" answers (the tipless Downs) are all actual words in their own right. Maybe you're supposed to be left wondering how all those answers are supposed to work for their respective clues, I don't know.


Picked up the gimmick without too much trouble. There was just so much going wrong at the top of the grid that I knew something was up, and eventually I figured out that 9D: Like Confucianism or Taoism had to be (E)ASTERN, which instantly made me reevaluate the handful of Downs I'd already had trouble with up there. Still didn't know that the "tips" of the answers spelled anything because I Was Solving Online, ugh, so I struggled some to get the NE corner, and I was honestly looking for more answers to be poking out of the grid, possibly along the bottom. Those never came. Never heard of RHETT, possibly because I couldn't name even an unpopular "online comedy duo" (18A: ___ and Link (popular online comedy duo)). I also weirdly struggled with ABILITY—despite the fact that I'm currently teaching a course on early superhero comics. I put in AGILITY. ABILITY is such a banal word, but I guess it's vaguely accurate. Superheroes have "abilities." I think of them as powers, but whatever. NO IDEA that the bomb-riding guy was Major KONG despite having seen "Strangelove" multiple times. Weird. Still don't get how SALSA refers to *two* kinds of dips? Like ... it *is* a dip, and you can ... ohhhhh ... dancing, I bet. OK. I liked the ASPS clue (33D: The snakes in the movie line "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?") because I just read this comic today, which, honestly, they should still make:

If only Steve Ditko (1927-2018) could still draw it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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