Moon of Saturn named after Greek oceanid / SUN 5-12-19 / Nickname for Thomasina / WW II admiral nicknamed Bull / Three-time Pro Bowler Culpepper / Nevada's largest county by area / Home of Sinbad Island / Early 20th century author who foresaw TV wireless telephones /

Constructor: Victor Barocas

Relative difficulty: Medium (10:12)

THEME:"Measure for Measure"— things measured by different scales appear in the Across themers, while the names of those scales appear in NW-to-SE diagonal circled squares, with all of it coming together in the revealer, ON A SLIDING SCALE (112A: Adjusted to some index — or how 23-, 35-, 66- and 93-Across are measured per this puzzle?)

Theme answers:

• MINERAL HARDNESS (23A: What's measured by [Circled letters])
• TEMPERATURE (35A: What's measured by [Circled letters])
• WIND SPEED (66A: What's measured by [Circled letters]) 
• EARTHQUAKES (93A: What's measured by [Circled letters])

Word of the Day: TELIC (35D: Tending toward an outcome) —

Directed or tending toward a goal or purpose; purposeful.

Greek telikos from telos end ; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots. (yourdictionary.com)

This was mostly a boring trivia test (theme-wise) with the only real interest involving waiting around to see what the big Revealer would be. Revealer was fine, but not exactly worth the dutiful entering of factual information for the scales and the things that they measure. Having every clue be the same bland phrase didn't help matters. It's a perfectly serviceable theme that has none of the zing that your marquee puzzle should have. "C" for the theme execution, "B" for the revealer, "C-" for the fill. I've disliked Sunday puzzles much more than I disliked this, but this still just isn't good enough. The fill in the NW is particularly egregious, with TELESTO and (especially!) TELIC (!?) teaming up for some painful obscurity, and then NRA showing up (yet again) and helping normalize a terrorist organization with Zany Wordplay!  (7D: Packers' org.?). Puzzle would have to be a looooooooooot better than it is to recover from such an ugly start.


The funny (not LOL funny, curious funny) thing about TELIC is I talk about teleology and use the term "teleological" all the time in my literature classes when discussing narrative (particularly the Aeneid, which is so obsessed with the importance of the story's ultimate telos: Augustan Rome ... is "ultimate telos" redundant? ... can you have more than one telos? ... I'm not even gonna try to pluralize that ... ANYway). ANYway, until just now I did not know the adjective TELIC existed. So that's weird. Had TELESTA before TELESTO because ??? Got a little scared when I couldn't come up with the author at 9A: Early 20th-century author who foresaw TV and wireless telephones (BAUM), and had S.O.S. at 11D: Letters at sea (U.S.S.) and had absolutely no idea what the first word was at 12D: Crustaceans that carry their own camouflage (MOSS CRABS). Eventually remembered L. Frank BAUM (of "Wizard of Oz" fame), so I survived, but MOSS CRABS??? Sid(l)e-eye.


I don't think Henry VIII gave much of an actual damn about religion. The only reason he defied the Pope was his desire for a divorce. So yeah, he made himself the head of the Church of England and got excommunicated, dissolved the monasteries, etc., but calling him ANTI-PAPAL, and claiming he held that position "religiously," seems a stretch. "Henry maintained a strong preference for traditional Catholic practices and, during his reign, Protestant reformers were unable to make many changes to the practices of the Church of England. Indeed, this part of Henry's reign saw trials for heresy of Protestants as well as Roman Catholics." (wikipedia).


QUAL RSTU ENOL PAESE EPOS ISM INGE ENERO RETHREW (!?!?!?!). Too much of this kind of stuff. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get some EYE REST (72D: Break from screen viewing). Good day. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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