Coinage of 2000 / SAT 6-8-19 / Sleepy stil / High-quality coffee variety / Oxymoronic break

Constructor: Andrew J. Ries

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:48)
THEME: none

Word of the Day: SULU Sea (33D: ___ Sea, body of water between Borneo and the Philippines) —

The Sulu Sea (Tausug: Dagat sin Sūg; Chavacano: Mar de Sulu; Cebuano: Dagat sa Sulu; Hiligaynon: Dagat sang Sulu; Karay-a: Dagat kang Sulu; Cuyonon: Dagat i'ang Sulu; Malay: Laut Sulu) is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayas to the northeast. (wikipedia)

Solid, if somewhat tepid, and very easy. The long stuff didn't shine as much as I'd like, and there's some glaring bits of crosswordese like INRI and ADEN and EELPOT (not fond of ODE over ODED, either), but in the main the puzzle holds up well, and it's hard not to like an extremely crushable Saturday puzzle. Yesterday's puzzle was dicier in the short stuff, but much better in the long stuff, and so I liked it slightly more. But yesterday had that terrible, almost disqualifying TOLTEC / FATHA cross, and it had NAPERY ... nothing that bad or wacko here. This one was certainly smoother, but more ho-hum. It's all such a tricky balancing act. The hardest parts for me today were the last four letters of DEVELOPMENT HELL (7D: Long gestation for a film, informally) (I had DEAL, and the "E" and "L" were correct, so the error stuck), and then the NERF / ERAS crossing. NERF War is not a term I know (or, now, like ... at all). NERF War is a nothing burger to me, and also it is like "nothing burger" in that I hate it as a term. Anyway, that cross was rough for me. Aside from some struggling to get ahold of the SW corner, I didn't struggle much anywhere else.


Wrote in CAREE- at 3D: Proceed wildly (CAREEN) but then pulled up short because CAREEN and CAREER both fit the clue.

m-w.com

• Crosswordese you should know: INRI, ADEN, EELPOT (the entire vocabulary of eeldom, really), URAL (esp. that "Risk territory" bit)
• Proper noun watch: NOLTE, MITZI, PEALE, ATWOOD, SHREK, NOLTE, DAMON ... and yeah, even PEALE, knew 'em all. Was gonna say "Why go with N.V. PEALE (45D: Norman Vincent ___, best-selling motivational writer) over the far more famous and current Jordan?" but Jordan is PEELE, not PEALE. Clue on SULU was the one proper noun clue that threw me. REILLY seems like the hardest name in the grid (41D: Ignatius J. ___, protagonist in "A Confederacy of Dunces"), but if you've read the novel (as I did, long ago) that name's a gimme. Overall, the names were handled well. No bad crosses.
• Tricky clues: 
• 25A: Sleep still? (CEL)—because a still pic of Sleepy (from "Snow White") would be an animation CEL
• 11D: Local leader (UNION REP)—because "local" is a noun here meaning "local branch of a trade union"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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