Locale of Tuvalu and Nauru / WED 9-19-18 / Frank Sammy ultimate event 1989 documentary / Naively optimistic muppet

Constructor: Scot Ober and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:40)

THEME: YIDDISH (38A: Source of the six longest Across answers in this puzzle) —

Theme answers:

• TCHOTCHKE (16A: Knickknack)
• SCHMALTZ (20A: Excessive sentimentality)
• CHUTZPAH (24A: Shameless audacity)
• OY, GEVALT! (47A: "Jeez!")
• MEGILLAH (53A: Long, involved account)
• VERKLEMPT (58A: Choked up with emotion)

Word of the Day: MEGILLAH (53A) —

slang

1: a long involved story or account [so clue is just lifted from dictionary (nearly) verbatim, boo] Shaffer has Salieri declaring war on Heaven … and determined to ruin Mozart because God's voice is speaking through him. Shaffer turns Pushkin's metaphor into a whole megillah.—Paulene [sic!] Kael

2a: an elaborate, complicated production or sequence of events Today's affair is a luncheon … . In fact, the whole megillah has a furtive vibe to it, half shameful …—Jeff MacGregor… a simple matter of identifying the dead man … turns into a big political megillah.—Marilyn Stasio

b: everything involved in what is under consideration : BALL OF WAX"The only thing that could interest me is if I could win. I'm not talking about the nomination, I'm talking about the whole megillah."—Donald TrumpThat's $18 million between the whole group. Throwing in Miller makes $22 million. Say they decided to donate the whole megillah last year.—Jason Rhode (m-w) (my emph)

Is this a Yom Kippur puzzle? Is that what this is supposed to be? There are two weird things about that. One, it's Just A Bunch Of Yiddish Words. No twist, no wordplay, no nothin'. There must be something you could do, themewise, with, say, ATONE, or something, but all we get is a word list. So, yeah, there's Jewish content, but nothing very interesting or Yom Kippur-specific. It's a boring dumb list, UGH. Also, it is my (new) understanding that very observant Jews do not write, at all, on Yom Kippur, which means, uh, no crossword (I assume). For instance:

So the whole concept, and execution, and timing—it's all mildly bizarre to me. From a strictly puzzle standpoint, though, I can't say this strongly enough: a bunch of YIDDISH words isn't a theme. It's a list. Yes, there are Yiddish words that have entered English. There are lots of words that have entered English via lots of languages. Unless you're gonna do something interesting with that fact, you don't have a theme. You don't. It's not. Also, DR. OZ is a quack and his very presence ruins everything I hope you're happy.


Five things:

• 44A: Rose Bowl, e.g. (OVAL)— *that's* your iconic OVAL? Ugh. Tracks are ovals, The Rose Bowl is an arena, or a game, or etc. Boo. 
• 62A: Naively optimistic Muppet (ERNIE) — I had -IE and wrote in ROSIE (thinking ... that the "optimistic" part was some kind of hint). Is there a ROSIE? O M G ROSIE is the name of ERNIE's bathtub!?!?!?!?!?! Also that answer is right on top of SOAP, so my mistake has unlocked a whole weird world of Muppet coincidence...
• 56D: Major N.Y.S.E. events (IPOS) — bricked it and wrote ISPS. Stupid common crossword initialisms!
• 53D: Org. advocating highway safety (MADD)— very, very generic clue for the *specifically against DRUNK (and possibly now DISTRACTED?) driving* org. that is MADD. I was looking for some kind of government initialism concerned with overall safety. 
• 35D: Alternative to Israir Airlines (EL AL) — OK first of all, ISRAIR!? If that's a known thing, how has it never been in the crossword!? And second, please don't give this answer credit for being "bonus Jewish content." Same with SINAI. Those damned words are always hanging around the grid. They get no credit for showing up today. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. since when is a MINIBAR"Fancy"??? (42D: Fancy hotel room amenity)

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