Noted 1950s-70s DJ dubbed fifth beatle / TUE 4-16-19 / Flower cluster whose name can also be read as challenge / Hope classic soap opera / Cinch commercial trash bag name / Shurb that might cause rash / Some college participants

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:00) (for a Tuesday) (entirely because of one answer)

THEME: ¿Qué? — themers all end with "kay" sound

Theme answers:

• COMMUNIQUÉ (18A: Bulletin)
• TOOTH DECAY (24A: Dental problem)
• SOBRIQUET (36A: Nickname)
• MURRAY THE K (52A: Noted 1950s-'70s D.J. dubbed a "fifth Beatle")
• ARE YOU OKAY? (59A: "Is everything all right?")

Word of the Day: MURRAY THE K (52A) —

Murray Kaufman (February 14, 1922 – February 21, 1982), professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. During the early days of Beatlemania, he frequently referred to himself [!??!?!] as the fifth Beatle. (wikipedia) (emph!?!?!? mine)

Late start, not much time today, sorry. Here's the tl;dr version: No. This is barely a theme, first of all. I'm guessing a bunch of you didn't even know there was a theme. I finished and looked for a revealer, thinking maybe it was ARE YOU OK? ... like, do those letters (R, U, O, K?) all appear in the answers? Maybe in order??? Or are an O and a K involved ... somehow? But no. There is no revealer, and theme is just the final sound. On top of that, the grid is stale, with a cultural center of gravity only a boomer could love. (Note: "RYAN'S HOPE" went off the air *thirty year ago*) (55D: "___ Hope" (classic soap opera)). And the crosswordese? Who would've thought to stack abbreviated directions (ENE over SSW)!?!? What bold anti-art! Actually, it's junk, and why you'd want to paint your junk (!) neon by giving both answers matching "Denver"-containing clues, I have no idea. Spreak your junk out (1) and mask it (2). These are the rules of junk. Ugh. DITS, blargh. I had DATS. Are DATS not a Morse Code thing? Is Morse Code still a thing? But the most baffling and absurd part of the puzzle is obviously MURRAY THE K, Whoever That Is. How is this person a theme answer *on a Tuesday*. I've literally never heard of him. Even after looking him up, I feel like you'd have to be a pretty hard-core early Rock & Roll guy (i.e. an older-than-me white dude) to have any hope at this. Proper nouns are always dangerous, and if you don't know how to handle them, or don't calibrate the difficulty right, they ruin puzzling experiences. Spent most of my time in the MURRAY THE K region of the grid, getting that answer cross by awful cross. The worst thing about it, of course, is the "K," both because it's a cheap way to get the "K" sound into your theme, and because of the cross. My god the cross. Grade "F" for that cross alone. This puzzle is a SAK of something, alright. (46D: Cinch ___ (commercial trash bag name))


Slowed down by ELECTORS, whose clue I just did not get until I was done (4D: Some "college" participants). COMMUNIQUÉ is an unusual enough word that I had a little trouble, needing to come at it from crosses in the NW, which were all too long to be gimmes, so that took some time. The TBS / CBS thing was obnoxious (both those stations air March Madness games) (5A). The weirdest struggle I had was with TV STUDIO, even after getting TV. I just couldn't think of the word that followed. STATION was the only thing coming to mind. Or SET. Ugh, that's on me. Just terrible brainwork. Oh, and RACEME, LOL, I kinda sorta know the word, so a few crosses was all I needed, but the latter part of that clue? (16A: Flower cluster whose name can also be read as a challenge). No help at all. I get it now: you can parse it "RACE ME!" But the clue is kind of a confession that the word doesn't belong in a Tuesday puzzle. Maybe you could've given one of those booster clues to MURRAY THE stupid "K"?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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