Action film director Zack / FRI 6-14-19 / Mythological judge of dead in underworld / Supreme god of universe in ancient Egypt / Banjoist Fleck / 1/746 horsepower / Schooled on field / Royal stand-in

Constructor: Caitlin Reid

Relative difficulty: Mediumish (maybe on the easier side ... I wasn't in speed mode, honestly) (6:01)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Zack SNYDER (14D: Action ifilm director Zack) —

Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with a remake of the 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead. Since then, he has done a number of comic book and superhero films, including 300(2006) and Watchmen (2009), as well as the Superman film that started the DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel (2013) and its follow-ups, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017). He also served as co-screenwriter for 300, Sucker Punch (2011), and 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), an executive producer for Suicide Squad (2016) and Aquaman (2018), and as co-writer of the story for Wonder Woman (2017) and Justice League. (wikipedia)

This was some kind of ride. A roller coaster. A BEAST! (27D: World's longest wooden roller coaster, with "The"). Actually, not a beast at all—at least not difficulty-wise. But my emotions were certainly getting thrown all over the place. No sooner would I "ugh" than I'd "whoa" and then "WHOA!" In the end, there were more whoas than ughs, so the whoas have it (whoas are good, btw, in case that wasn't clear). Winced at PREGGO (that and "preggers" just ... no) (I mean, good, in-the-language slang, just ... cutesy euphemisms for normal bodily things make me cringe ... whatever, sometimes words just rub you the wrong way ... please don't put BUN IN THE OVEN in youtr grids, thanks. "KNOCKED UP" is a movie, so that's fine). I probably would've winced harder if the constructor had been a dude, but ... yeah, not a pleasant "word" to me. So the puzzle and I got off on the wrong foot right away, but then when I got HARD PASS, I was like "OK, maybe this is going somewhere good." Totally stymied trying to get out of that corner, so I came down via ASIS / RAMS / AMENRA, the last of which made me go "ugh" again (this time, for crosswordese reasons), and then ENROLLEE, another disappointing blow (buncha 1-point tiles strung together), but Then DEAD SEXY and WINK WINK lifted me up again. This pattern kept repeating. But at the finish (in the eastern part of the grid, generally) the good far outweighed the bad.  The NW corner is particularly nice. Overall, a bold, daring, contemporary grid.


Things I thought as I solved this thing:

• 15A: Reading Fightin Phils, e.g. (AA TEAM)— Eastern League! The Fightin Phils are coming to town to play the Binghamton Rumble Ponies next month. Might catch one of those games.
• 3D: Put away a sandwich, perhaps (ATE LUNCH)— my go-to example of an arbitrary-phrase (or "green paint") answer is "ATE A SANDWICH." I don't know how much better ATE LUNCH is better, but you can see how ATE ___ can get out of hand. ATE BRUNCH? ATE A SNACK? Where will it all end!?!?
• 33A: Actors' unions? (SHAM MARRIAGES)— just killed me. Had the SHA- and thought it would be "SHARED ... something" (because "unions"?). Even after getting it, I thought it was supposed to have something to do with actual screen actors, movie stars, specifically gay actors who were trying to present a straight image to the outside world. I think this used to be more of a thing. But of course the "actors" in this clue are simply the people pretending to be (i.e. acting as if they were) married.
• 8D: Die, as a light (GO OUT)— me, mid-solve: "whoa, GOOUT looks crazy in the grid! It's like someone's shouting "GOUT!" 
• 25A: "It's no use" ("CAN'T WIN") — wow I hate this clue. Complete sentence cluing incomplete sentence = yuck. Also, I can't imagine someone saying "CAN'T WIN" without a pronoun, specifically the "I." Even if you mostly eat the "I," you're still saying it. I had CAN'T and just ... couldn't. CAN'T BE? CAN'T DO IT? Ugh.

• 27A: Celebrity mug shot, typically (BAD PR) — LOL. Again? (twice in two days!)
• 39D: Reply often made with a sigh ("YES DEAR") — not feeling this. Something about the caricature of marriage as some kind of hell hole where your overbearing spouse is constantly harshing your buzz ... nah. Something normatively sexist about it. Don't like it. Not the phrase, per se, but the clue. I'm assuming the "sigh" is put-upon.
• 57A: Pro QB Manning, by birth (ELISHA) — Me: "Uh ... PISCES?"
• 4D: Royal stand-in (REGENT)— first thing I put in the grid. I spend a lot of time with kings and queens in the courses I teach, so after "viceroy" (which didn't fit), this was the first thing to spring to mind.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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