Porgy novelist Heyward / SAT 9-8-18 / Useful list when troubleshooting computer / Balkan land on Olympic scoreboards / Half of 1980s sitcom duo / Member of Hoboken Four

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy (6:50, at which point I had a single blank square I didn't know, which made me just quit ... but then I came back and got it after running the alphabet ... still Easy overall)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TANGRAM (21D: Seven-piece puzzle) —

The tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qīqiǎobǎn; literally: "seven boards of skill") is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It is reputed to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. It became very popular in Europe for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most popular dissection puzzles in the world. A Chinese psychologist has termed the tangram "the earliest psychological test in the world", albeit one made for entertainment rather than for analysis. (wikipedia)

Hey, look: I found the Friday puzzle! Where were you yesterday, buddy? I missed you!

A pattern develops

Despite an epic faceplant right out of the gate, I torched this one pretty good. There were only a few roadblocks, and those were created entirely by terms / names I just didn't know, most notably DUBOSE, TANGRAM, and TAXI SQUAD (it's weird how much I hate football now, given how much I loved it as a kid (see: CTE, white supremacist owners, etc.); if I never saw another American football clue again, I'd be perfectly happy). TANGRAM in particular messed me up, because at the very end of the solve, I managed to get it down to -ANGRAM, but that last square had a cutesy "?"-clue cross and I just couldn't process it (21A: Scratch on the table?). And I thought "well PIP and PANGRAM would work fine ... but PIP can't be right ... Why Wasn't This PIP And PANGRAM!?" So I ragequit with one square to go, having finished the rest of it in under 7. But then I ragereturned and ran the alphabet and figured out the "T" (from TIP). So "scratch" in the clue is being used as olde-timey slang for "money." Weirdly, I knew the slang meaning of "scratch," and it was the very first meaning I thought of, but, in a bizarre series of associations that could've happened only in my brain, I was thinking of "money on the table" as a gambling thing, and *that* was driven *largely* by the fact that PIP is the term for any of the spots on dice. Once PIP got in my head, it pretty much dictated the whole arena in which my brain was willing to operate, apparently. In my world, PANGRAM is a much much much much more common term, but I recognize that in normal world (say, an ordinarily google search), TANGRAM is the far more common thing. I just didn't know it. Que sera.


So, the initial faceplant: TONY (4D: Stage award) to ALLY (20A: Half of a 1980s sitcom duo) to RETAIL (1D: Sell)!!! Nailed it! (Fun fact, ALLY was doubly wrong, as the sitcom duo is actually "Kate and ALLIE"). The fact that I got out of that mess as fast as I did is my real accomplishment today. For my speedy recovery, I would like to thank ... god help me ... the worst Beach Boys song of all time, "Kokomo." Like all terrible and traumatic things, it haunts you. I just have to *see* the worst ARUBA and my brain goes "Jamaica! Ooh I'm gonna take ya!" And then it dies a little. Anyway, ARUBA OBIE KATE MARKET. I mean, I literally did a little donut in the NW corner of the puzzle. Once around wrong, and then again around right.


Bullets:

• 39D: "Porgy" novelist ___ Heyward (DUBOSE)— OK, I know W.E.B. DUBOIS, and I know the opera "Porgy and Bess," but this novel and this novelist, no. He was a white author who wrote predominantly about African-American culture of the south.
• 33D: III, in Ithaca (IOTAS)— yes, those are several IOTAS all in a row, there. The misdirect is obviously that you're supposed to see the Roman numeral THREE, which is also five letters.
• 19D: Celine Dion, by birth (QUEBECER) — man that is a silly-looking word. I love it. Probably my favorite thing in the grid.
• 58A: Lab dept. (R AND D) (i.e. R&D, i.e. Research & Development) — ooh, an ampersandwich. Don't see those much any more.
• 7D: Ones sharing some shots (SNAPCHAT FRIENDS)— not quite as, uh, snappy as FACEBOOK FRIENDS. Feels like a weak analogue. But I acknowledge that it's a real thing. I guess I should be grateful the clue didn't try to do a crossreference with nearby PIX (8D: Movies, informally)
• 43A: Name for a big wheel (FERRIS)— this is cute cluing. A "big wheel" can be a VIP, so maybe that's the misdirect here. I also briefly considered cheese, before getting a cross or two and figuring out the right context.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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