Jim of 1960s TV / SAT 4-6-19 / Supermarket chain since 1926 / Woolly Sesame Street character whose first name is Aloysius

Constructor: Ned White

Relative difficulty: Medium (8:05)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FLAM (56D: Deception, informally) —

: a drumbeat of two strokes of which the first is a very quick grace note (m-w) 

but also?


I am befuddled by this one. When I look at the grid, it seems like something I should've enjoyed. But I found it kind of wearisome, and I don't know why. I mean, I have some ideas, but none of them really explain how little any of the clues or answers in this puzzle moved me. And maybe I'll start with the clues, because those answers up top, that stack, looks nice in the grid, but the clues ... they feel forced. Stilted. Awkward. "Any chance of success, though?" I know it's hard to approximate the exact zing of the answer phrase in your clue phrase, but all these clues sound like something A.I. would say, something aliens who had just learned our language would say. Just off. So I had trouble getting all those answers and then when I did, I was like "Oh ... I guess, yeah." Not the aha reaction I really long for. No one says ITSY. No one says FLAM. I learned it as FRA LIPPO LIPPI—stunned to see that "FI-" shoved in there (58A: Renaissance artist who's famous for his "Coronation of the Virgin"). Stupid Browning, teaching me wrong stuff...


NUNHOOD? I see that it is a word (1D: What one may be in the habit for?). I'm pretty sure SISTERHOOD is the more common word. BIG ONE really, Really needs "The" (either in the grid or in the clue) (12D: Earthquake that everyone's been waiting for). "I'm waiting for BIG ONE"? No. "IT'S A HIT" is just random (23D: Baseball announcer's cry). I watch a lot (a Lot) of baseball, and I wrote in "IT'S GONE!" which an announcer is far (Far) more likely to "cry" than "IT'S A HIT!" When the clues miss, the experience suffers. Again, I think the grid (despite a small spate of crosswordese) is very solid. It's not a HOT MESS; I'm just not NUTS ABOUT it.

Five things:

• 3D: Jeffersons (TWOS)— me: "Ooh, easy: TENS!"UGH.
• 40D: Quickly grab (SWOOP UP) — Wanted SNAP UP, but it wouldn't fit.
• 7D: 1979 platinum album with the hit "I'll Never Love This Way Again" (DIONNE) — 1979 pop hits!? Now you're in my wheelhouse. This is the first answer about which I was (mostly) certain.
• 57A: "___ Day Will Come" (1963 #1 hit) ("OUR")— Covered by DIONNE Warwick on her 1982 album Heartbreaker, just FYI

• 37D: Jim of 1960s TV (NABORS)— had the terminal "S"; wrote in BACKUS.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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