Player of mother on Black-ish / SAT 11-17-18 / Band since 1922 / Gem that's been polished but not faceted / Catlike Pokemon with onomatopoeic name

Constructor: Doug Peterson and Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Medium (8:08) (a.m. solve)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: CABOCHON (29D: Gem that's been polished but not faceted) —

A cabochon (/ˈkæbəˌʃɒn/, from Middle French caboche "head") is a gemstone which has been shaped and polished as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse. Cutting en cabochon (French: "in the manner of a cabochon") is usually applied to opaque gems, while faceting is usually applied to transparent stones. Hardness is also taken into account as softer gemstones with a hardness lower than 7 on the Mohs hardness scale are easily scratched, mainly by silicon dioxide in dust and grit. This would quickly make translucent gems unattractive—instead they are polished as cabochons, making the scratches less evident. (wikipedia)

Ah, what a pleasant surprise. Two of the best constructors, who are also two of my favorite people. I did not get much sleep (because I went to see Richard Thompson in Ithaca last night, which ... probably more about that another time) and Saturdays are daunting no matter the solving conditions, so it was nice to see friendly names; even if they both are capable of making wicked-hard puzzles, I felt confident that I was in good hands. And my confidence was not misplaced. This had just the right balance of breeziness and brutality. When I look over my marked-up grid, the trouble isn't located in one spot so much as All Over, but none of that trouble was fatal, or even painful. Even the answer from outer space (for me, CABOCHON), was thoroughly gettable from crosses—had it as CABUCHIN for the brief moment I wanted 48A: Band since 1922 to be WIRE-something, but that was easily fixed. As far as proper noun trouble goes, the one answer that's going to at least half-flummox a lot of solvers is TRACEE ELLIS ROSS (15A: Player of the mother on "Black-ish"). I lucked out there, for a few reasons. One, her *first* name has been on my radar for a while (I mean, this is crosswords, right, so ... obviously). Also, I watched "Black-ish" early on. Also, I had this weird experience of opening up a spiral-bound notebook I owned in grad school and seeing this ad for Sprint's FONCARD (!?) (put that in your grid and smoke it!), and, uh, look who it is (I think):

I mean, I'm *pretty* sure that's her. The '90s were crazy. Anyway, I knew the TRACEE part, and I knew she had three names, and I kind of felt / fumbled my way forward from there.


So the clue on 1A: Going in was just malevolent (AT FIRST). I wanted some kind of verb phrase and then didn't know what I wanted. I was also having trouble with ATTACH (1D: Staple, e.g.), in part because I had HSN as MSN (which, if I was thinking straight, would've been MSNBC...) (24A: Basic cable inits.). The PILOT part of TELEVISION PILOT took some doing—I guess the PILOT is kind of a "pitch," isn't it? Anyway, my brain kept wanting TELEVISION PITCH. Seriously. It did. I kept trying to reason with it but it was like "Nah, it's PITCH." Sigh. Despite the cluing being ratcheted up quite a bit, there were enough helpers along the way (TREXES, ABDUL, KABUL, ECO, LLOSA, HONDAFIT) that I never got stranded or totally stuck. A tough workout that is fun and not maddening—that is what I want from a Saturday, and that is what I got.


Five things:

• 45A: 2011 musical with the highest-charting Broadway cast album since "Hair" in 1969 ("BOOK OF MORMON") — My theater-major daughter went to see this by herself (her first show by herself) in Minneapolis a couple of days ago and was so excited. "I got to sit in a box! The woman next to me ... was not sober, but it was OK." Anyway, this show was at the front of my brain for this reason, so no problem.
• 9D: "It has one syllable" and "Its fourth letter is T" (HINTS)— I'm just gonna go ahead and give this one "Clue of the Year" for 2018
• 47D: Catlike Pokémon with an onomatopoeic name (MEW) — I as all set to be resentful at having to know some Pokémon **** but the clue really helps you out so I'm fine.
• 35A: Plied, in a way (WINED) — one of the hardest answers for me to get for sure, not least because I kept reading it as [Piled]. Also thought the adjacent answer (40A: Is up on) was READS.
• 31A: *scratches head* ("HOW ODD...") — Me, after getting final -DD: "Wait, there's no six-letter word that ends in "DD." But those Ds are definitely right ... how odd?)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]