Maupassant's first novel / THU 9-5-13 / 1841 rebellion leader / Titular judge played by Stallone / Lead role in film La Cage aux Folles / TV character who will never speak unless he has something to say / Blind jazz piano virtuoso / Three-time Hart Trophy winner / Return of Jedi battle site /

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Either or— four answers (the middle answer on each grid edge) is a four-letter word with -OR- in the center. If you read it as a conjunction, the answer indicates (thru its clue) that a certain square on the grid will be correct if *either* the letter before the "OR" or the letter after the "OR" is entered in the grid (though AcrossLite accepted only one letter as correct, refusing to give me Mr. Happy Pencil and thus violating the whole "OR" spirit of the thing):

Theme answers:

• 7A: Dessert wine ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 50-Across and 51-Down (PORT), giving you SPUTTERED/PANSY or STUTTERED/TANSY
• 37D: 1841 rebellion leader ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 56-Across and 56-Down (DORR), giving you DICERS/DUST or RICERS/RUST
• 68A: Comedian Sahl ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 1-Across and 1-Down (MORT), giving you MAOISM/MOIL or TAOISM/TOIL
• 27D: N.Y.S.E. listing ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 24-Across and 25-Down (CORP.), giving you SCATTERED/CHI or SPATTERED/PHI

Word of the Day: Thomas Wilson DORR —

The Dorr Rebellion (1841–1842) was a short-lived armed insurrection in the U.S. state of Rhode Island led byThomas Wilson Dorr, who was agitating for changes to the state's electoral system.

I can appreciate the intricacies of this puzzle, from a constructor's standpoint, but it didn't do much for me as a solver. The puzzle was too easy/straightforward for the trick to mean much of anything. I just filled it in like a themeless. Knowing the gimmick isn't just useless as a solving aid, it's a distraction. You don't need to know it. Just solve the puzzle. Your answers are right. Oh look, several of your answers could've been different answers and still been right? Shrug. Again, in retrospect, I can see how challenging this would be to make (esp. with the systematically placed -OR- answers). But the theme is superfluous to the solve. Also, I don't quite get ODD OR EVEN ... it's a weird answer to have in an OR-driven puzzle. It's not thematic ... but it's got an "OR." Also, there's ORE, ORR, O'ER ... which is just a bunch of crosswordese that gets to pretend to be important today? Or not? I can't tell. See also NOR.


All the difficulty here was in proper nouns—never learned about DORR in school, so that answer crossing EDER (who? did he write the multi-volume bio of Henry James that I know about only from xwords? No, damn, that's Leon EDEL—never mind...) really hurt (45A: Critic Richard). Also, RENATO? Re-NO-to. No idea. Forgot "UNE VIE" was a thing. Thought the answer was going to be "UNEVIL." Hey, RENATO (9D: Lead role in the film "La Cage aux Folles") is just one letter off its symmetrical counterpart, RENT TO. I ... don't think I like that. Kind of how I felt about how close S-ATTERED and S-UTTERED were. SE corner was the hardest one for me to get into, but I got bailed out by yet another proper noun: SELENA Gomez (66A: Gomez of "Ramona and Beezus"). Oh, and ART TATUM gave me fits (39D: Blind jazz piano virtuoso). I did not know he was blind. Which means, I don't really know him at all beyond his name (which I do know). I'm a big fan of NIGHT OWL and TIGHTWAD.


Did anyone actually enter MOIL or TANSY? I've never even seen those words outside of crosswords.

And so to bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld