Nightclub singer who was given nickname Buddha by Frank Sinatra / TUE 12-4-18 / Brooke Shields sitcom set at trendy magazine

Constructor: Peter Gordon

Relative difficulty: Easy for all of you, Medium for me 

THEME: S- S- — two-word phrases where both words start with "S" and the second letter of each word moves from "A" (in the first themer) through all the vowels to "Y" (in the last themer):

Theme answers:

• SAMPLE SALE (17A: Clothing store event to get rid of excess merchandise)
• SECRET SERVICE (22A: Government agency charged with protecting the first family)
• SIMPLE SIMON (28A: Nursery rhyme character who met a pieman)
• SOMEDAY SOON (40A: In the near future)
• "SUDDENLY SUSAN" (47A: Brooke Shields sitcom set at a trendy magazine)
• SYLVIA SYMS (57A: Nightclub singer who was given the nickname "Buddha" by Frank Sinatra)

Word of the Day: SYLVIA SYMS (57A) —

Sylvia Syms (December 2, 1917 – May 10, 1992) was an American jazz singer and actress.

She was born Sylvia Blagman in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, she had polio. As a teenager, she went to jazz nightclubs on New York's 52nd Street and received informal training from Billie Holiday. She made her debut in 1941 at Kelly's Stable.

In 1948, performing at the Cinderella Club in Greenwich Village, she was seen by Mae West, who gave her a part in a show she was doing. Among others who observed her in nightclubs was Frank Sinatra who considered her the "world's greatest saloon singer." Sinatra conducted her 1982 album, Syms by Sinatra.

She was signed to a contract by Decca Records, having her major success with a recording of "I Could Have Danced All Night" in 1956, which sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.^[2] Syms made regular appearances at the Carlyle in Manhattan. At times, impromptu, while enjoying a cocktail in the bar of the Carlyle, she would walk on stage and perform with the cabaret's other regular, Bobby Short. (wikipedia)

I could tell this was mostly Really easy as I was doing it, but I made initial errors in two different places, and then just didn't know who SYLVIA SYMS was, so my solving time was quite normal. If I hadn't face-planted twice with dumb bad first guesses, I might be singing a different tune, but with B- at 25D: Nincompoop I went with BOOB and then that first "O" turned out to be right so I was like "woo hoo!" but then [Old Russian autocrat] had me thinking TSAR, which didn't work, so ... I went back to the "B" [Nincompoop] word and changed BOOB to BORE ... BOAR ... nope, it's spelled BOOR, and it's wrong anyway. Great. Cleaned up that mess, but lost many valuable seconds. Then fell into a worse mess at 37D: Blushed or flushed. Had RED-, wrote in -FACED. That pretty much killed any chance I had at a faster-than-normal time. I could survive having to hack my way through SYLVIA SYMS (who I think I've at least heard of), but misguessing twice, that was fatal. Hyperbolically speaking.


The theme ... was a theme. Here it is. Theming all over the place. I don't know. Seems like a placeholder. It works, but it doesn't exactly produce exciting results, and doesn't have any particularly entertaining elements. Theme is consistent, grid is clean, but it's pretty dull overall. Even the fill is a little subpar, now that I look it over. Not terrible by any means, but pretty heavily reliant on repeaters like APOP ATARI ORES PPS ERLE ASSN LTYRS NOELS SSE UHURA ENERO etc. The only truly remarkable thing about this puzzle is the clue on NRA (2D: Org. opposed by Everytown for Gun Safety). I still think constructors should delete NRA from their wordlists completely, but if you're gonna use it, yes, clue it as the ****ing villain. Because it is. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS oh yeah I also floundered a bit trying to understand 64A: Hot Chocolate or Vanilla Fudge (BAND). These were, in fact, BANDs. They were popular 40 and 50 years ago, respectively. Older than "SUDDENLY SUSAN," not as old as Eva PERON. You are forgiven for not knowing them.

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