So-called black national anthem / THU 10-18-18 / Nickname of singer of 2007's Umbrella / American dance move illegal in Saudi Arabia / Savory Scottish pudding

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Medium (5:46)

THEME:"LIFT EVERY VOICE" (16D: So-called "black national anthem," informally ... or what 4-, 6-, 22- and 34-Down do, in part?) — the voices BASS, TENOR, ALTO and TREBLE (?) can be found, respectively, running backward / up in the theme answers:

Theme answers:

• DIDN'T MISS A BEAT (4D: Said something in response almost immediately)
• BARONETCY (6D: Noble domain)
• HOT LAVA (22D: Volcano's spew)
• ENGELBERT (34D: German composer Humperdinck)

Word of the Day: THE DAB (1A: American dance move that, for whatever reason, is illegal in Saudi Arabia) —

Dabbing, or the dab, is a simple dance move or gesture in which a person drops the head into the bent crook of a slanted, upwardly angled arm, while raising the opposite arm out straight in a parallel direction. Since 2015, dabbing has been used as a gesture of triumph or playfulness, becoming a youthful American fad and Internet meme. The move looks similar to someone sneezing into the "inside" of their elbow. wikipedia)

Is there cold lava? Also, what is TREBLE? Actually, I looked it up, and it appears to be a voice only children have, something like "boy soprano." Also, where's SOPRANO? Oh, right, there's Donna ELVIRA, soprano in "Don Giovanni." Hey, Donna, what's up? OK, so this played like a themeless, for sure. Figured that the longer Downs in the east and west were maybe themers, but had no idea I was dealing with themers in the middle. Was 80% done with the puzzle when I got LIFT EVERY VOICE, and didn't bother to go back and figure out how that was gonna work—I mean, I was so close to the end, why would I do that? It's a cute theme with a nice revealer, though, again, the voice set is super duper weird without SOPRANO. Not sure what answer exists that could contain the letter string ONARPOS, though. SONAR POSITION? That's all I got, and that is bad. It does say LIFT EVERY VOICE, though, and without soprano ... the revealer is kind of a lie.


I had a wrestle with this puzzle a couple of times, but the only time that mattered was at the tail end of BARONETCY. I am 100% certain that this will be the roughest part of the puzzle for most people. I knew that word was spelled weird, but my version of the weirdness was BARONETRY. And I was getting no help from the crosses and adjacent words. I figured [Squirt] was TOT, so that was good, but GOO was not intuitive at all (27D: Halloween "blood," e.g.). and the clue on COLON was just a nasty breaking pitch (36A: Middle of time?), especially if you aren't certain of that first letter. I ended up with ROLON for the answer, checked all the crosses, realized BARONETRY was the only one I wasn't sure of, and fixed it. Yeesh. Other mistakes included STONIER for STERNER (40D: More flinty), and DIDN'T HESITATE for DIDN'T MISS A BEAT, though in that case my wrong answer didn't actually fit. I did type it in, though.

Five things:

• 32A: Nickname of the singer of 2007's "Umbrella" (RIRI) — I did know this, but I want to thank "The Good Place" for reminding me of it very recently (in the sense that I re- and rere- (RIRI!) watched the entire run of the show last month). It's a passing reference, but it's memorable.
• 18A: Lady Gaga or Judy Garland (LBGT ICON) — Very much helped by being very much certain that both CFL and HAGGIS were right; this gave me an answer that started LG-, which seemed impossible, and then immediately didn't.
• 61A: Big tech news website (RECODE) — I have no idea what this is
• 46A: Kufrin of the 2018 season of "The Bachelorette" (BECCA) — I have no idea what this is
• 41A: 8: Abbr. (AUG.)— AUGust is the 8th month. I'm only explaining this because I know there are at least a few people out there who will not have put it together and are slapping themselves in the forehead right now. Hey, what's up, guys? It's cool. Sometimes the trick gets by us. It happens.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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