Former colony that's gambling mecca / WED 11-7-18 / Meaning of Simba in Swahili / Tricky bowling situation / 1060s muscle car / Gin rummy combo / Baseball throw that might thwart squeeze play / Comic strip opossum

Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:27)

THEME: PISA, ITALY (38D: Home to this puzzle's featured structure, as hinted at by the starts of the answers to the starred clues) — LEA / NIN / GTO / WER (?) spelled out and depicted in the grid, and then there's a bunch of themers that start with synonyms for "lean":

Theme answers:

• TIP SHEETS (4D: *Bettors' aids)
• ANGLE FOR (18A: *Seek surreptitiously)
• TILT AT WINDMILLS (39A: *Fight imaginary enemies)
• PITCH OUT (60A: *Baseball throw that might thwart a squeeze play)

Word of the Day: CAMELLIA (16A: Shrub used to make tea) —

noun

1. an evergreen eastern Asian shrub related to the tea plant, grown for its showy flowers and shiny leaves. (google)

This puzzle wins the Trying Too Hard award for the year, man. I mean ... so much stuff, and none of it works. It's kind of amazing. First, that tower ... it's leaning a preposterous, physically impossible amount. As an approximation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy, as you insist), it's hilariously off-the-mark. Then there's the fact that the revealer is absurd. PISA, ITALY? As opposed to PISA, TEXAS? And then the verbs at the "starts" of the theme answers aren't ones you'd ever use in relation to that tower. And then the tower itself is built out of discrete words (... kind of interesting ...) except the foundation, which is just -WER. And poor DELI's just sitting up there like "what about me? Come on, let me in! How 'bout this: DE LEANING TOWER!? That sounds good, right? Guys!" This puzzle is what happens when you draw something, and it's not quite right, so you add a new element, and now it's actually worse, so you try another little fix and, nope, still worse, and etc. Also, lots of crosswordese and also EOLIAN and CAMELLIA :(


LOL I almost forgot about MIDGUT, what the hizzeck is that? I'm literally laughing at that dumb answer. When would you even use that? "I hit him in the gut.""Which gut?""Uh ... MIDGUT?" I mean, "gut" kinda already implies "mid," as in the midsection of your body. Also, the clue is dumb. Your intestines are ... you've seen anatomy textbooks and doctors' office diagrams and stuff, right? Your intestines are not in one place in your "gut" (still laughing at the scientific precision of all this). They are all over your "gut"—left to right, top to bottom. What is this answer? What is this clue? I'd redo the entire SW corner before I let MIDGUT stand.

Gonna go cap off this mixed-result but generally good election night with a shot of whiskey. Mwah!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]