Engraved stone marker / WED 5-1-19 / Article's start in journalism jargon / Compassionate Uncle Tom's Cabin girl

Constructor: Joel Fagliano

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:24)

THEME: Anagrammed STATE CAPITALS (36A: What the answers to the starred clues are each anagrams of):

Theme answers:

• IN SLANG (Lansing) (20A: *Not formally worded)
• UP LAST (St. Paul) (21A: *Like the pitcher in a batting order, often)
• MALES (Salem) (26A: *Peacocks, but not peahens)
• ROVED (Dover) (44A: *Wandered)
• ANTI-U.S. (Austin) (54A: *Like some foreign protests)
• HAIR GEL (Raleigh) (55A: *What keeps a part apart)
• DOMAINS (Madison) (24D: *Internet addresses)

Word of the Day: Samantha BEE (36D: Killer Bee?) —

Samantha Anne Bee (born October 25, 1969) is a Canadian-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actress, and television host. Bee rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where she became the longest-serving regular correspondent. In 2015, she departed the show after 12 years to start her own show, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

Bee became a US citizen in 2014, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. In 2017, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. (wikipedia)

I'll try not to dwell on this one, since early Twitter feedback seems to indicate that everyone already knows what's wrong with it. There's just no point to this. Why are you anagramming STATE CAPITALS? Why not anagram cheeses or dog breeds or characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And what is the point of the anagram? Why anagram and not, I don't know, make them run diagonal or form circles or something. I keep expecting there to be another level here, something beyond a puzzle that straight-up tells you "these answers are anagrams of STATE CAPITALS" and that's it. Maybe the state codes of the states in question ... spell something out? ... no? ... uh ... is this a metapuzzle scavenger hunt, some epic quest that only like four people will understand and if you go to all these capitals in a certain order ... you win a THING? Am I currently in a VR GAME? There must be some explanation for why this puzzle is happening. But I'm at a loss. Also, why punish solvers by making them do homework at the end of the solve For No Reason. Of course I couldn't resist de-anagramming these capitals, but I did not feel good doing it. "MUST I!?" Turns out, yeah, I must, but only because I'm compulsive.


There are three UPs in this puzzle. Probably not high on your list of "things wrong with this puzzle," but it's really jarring to me, especially since two of them appear in crossing answers (UP LAST, HAUL UP). DUE UP is a pretty flagrant dupe (i.e. answer containing a duplicated word), with the baseballiness of the phrase really calling attention to UP LAST and its explicit baseball clue (21A: *Like the pitcher in a batting order, often). UP UP UP. Yuck. Also, ST. PAUL is an abbrev. ... which feels like cheating. You can't anagram the abbrev. version! Also, ANTI-U.S. is an abbrev. but nothing in the clue signals it. SAM I AM and SAMANTHA feels like a dupe, esp considering she's known commonly as "Sam Bee." Also, why is her clue [Killer Bee?]. It's great if you're a fan of hers, but "Killer" hardly gets at who she is or what she does except in a very metaphorical, highly elliptical way. Sometimes you actually do need to resist the wordplay.


FAN SITE (18D: MuggleNet or The Leaky Cauldron, for "Harry Potter" readers) and VR* GAME (45D: Something that requires a special headset to play, informally) are cool, but they're overshadowed by this nothing of a theme.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*VR = virtual reality

P.S. PRNDL stands for "Park Reverse Neutral Drive LOW," i.e. the gears on an automatic transmission

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]