Mac former Bay Area hip hop great / FRI 4-19-19 / Sportscaster inducted into Television Hall of Fame in 2013 / Tayside turndown / Opera with Gypsy song

Constructor: Caleb Madison

Relative difficulty: Medium (6:19)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Mac DRE (22A: Mac ___ (former Bay Area hip-hop great)) —

Andre Louis Hicks (July 5, 1970 – November 1, 2004), known professionally as Mac Dre, was an American rapper and record producer based in Oakland, CA.  He was instrumental in the emergence of Hyphy, a cultural movement in the Bay Area hip-hop scene that emerged in the early 00s. Hicks is considered one of the movement's key pioneers that fueled its popularity into mainstream, releasing songs with fast-paced rhymes and baselines that inspired a new style of dance. As the founder of the independent record label, Thizz Entertainment, Hicks recorded dozens of albums and gave aspiring rappers an outlet to release albums locally.

In 2004, Hicks was killed by an unknown assailant after a performance in Kansas City, Missouri, a case that remains unsolved. (wikipedia)

An average experience, but average on Friday is pretty nice. A nice assortment of answers here, and very little junk. IDE rather not see IDE anywhere, but nothing else in the whole grid is really that wince-worthy. Smoothness, with an occasional little crispy or crunch treat. Is an amoeba really a BLOB? That seems somehow ... I dunno, unscientific? Had trouble with BLOB / BLIP, as well as SKAT (50D: Three-player game), which I wanted to be SPIT (which I think is also a card game ... maybe). Took a hilariously long time getting CLAUS (41A: Santa ___). My crossword reflexes are super sharp—perhaps too sharp; so sharp, in fact, that "Santa" makes me think instantly of ANA(S), and nothing else. Maybe ANITA, but this had "S" at the end. Just blanked. Also wrote in GEE for 5D: An end to smoking? (ASH) ('Cause, uh, "smoking""ends" with the letter "G"). Wrote in ALOT for 4D: Large number (HOST). Wrote in RIOT for 6D: Hilarious sort (HOOT). Hey, what do hilarious sorts race? HOOTRODS! Please use that inscrutably corny joke whenever you like. Anyway, as you can see, several of my errors came in succession in the NW, which was where I spent close to half my solving time. The rest of the puzzle was not nearly so rough to get through.


ALTERED is an anagram of ALERTED, and it's directly above ALERTED, and my brain keeps wanting to make these facts meaningful, but I'm pretty sure they're just coincidences. I am frequently against cross-referencing clues, but SNOOP and DRE really do cry out for each other. I've never heard of today's DRE, but some of my much hipper musical friends are impressed by his inclusion here, so I'm going to defer to them. Seemed like the MICHAELS clue was really tough; I mean, you didn't give me "Al" or nothin' ... people who know nothing about sports are going to be super-confused by that one. Maybe just as confused as if you'd handed them "Al," but at least "Al" would've given them some of hope jarring MICHAELS loose via in-the-air name association. Enjoyed the clues on TETRIS (20A: Game where you don't want to reach the top) and ANDREA (25D: Girl's name in the U.S. that's a boy's name in Italy). Briefly doubted the thingness of COLD ROOM (12D: Food storage spot), but my friend Lena set me straight.

Lena also shared my most cherished error of the day. I wrote in MOTE for 39D: Tiny bit (MITE) and so ended up with a whip-wielding LOON TAMER at 42A: Person who's whip-smart? (LION TAMER). Loon-taming's gotta be at least as hard as lion-taming. Next time you want to use "herding cats" as a metaphor for a leadership challenge, may I suggest you substitute "taming loons"? It's more colorful, and a hell of a lot less cliche.

So yeah. Overall, a good time was had by me. The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. pretty sure "epistaxis" is just a "medical term"—not sure where "fancy" comes in (26A: What "epistaxis" is a fancy medical term for = NOSEBLEED). "Myocardial infarction" isn't "fancy." It's technical. Respect the Greek, man

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]