Trixie's mom in comics / FRI 7-26-19 / Eccentric fashion designer in Incredibles / Either of two highest trump cards in euchre / Small fruit high in pectin / 1939 film banned in the Soviet Union / Starcy-producing palm tree

Constructor: Trenton Charlson

Relative difficulty: Challenging (7:42)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ZEBRA FINCH (5A: Bird named for its black-and-white markings) —

The zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) is the most common estrildid finch of Central Australia and ranges over most of the continent, avoiding only the cool moist south and some areas of the tropical far north. It can also be found natively in Indonesia and East Timor. The bird has been introduced to Puerto Rico and Portugal. (P.S. its markings are not very Zebraish)

This grid looks pretty good, but man none of these clues meant anything to me. I'm exaggerating a little, but I haven't struggled to get started this much in a long long time. I feel like a minute or two of my time was just a freefall at the beginning, where I roamed around the grid, dropping in stray answers here in there, but totally unable to put a run together. If I'd looked at the clue for RAZORBACK (a gimme) early on, things might've gone much better (I tend to overlook longer clues when I'm starting out, stupid stupid stupid). But as it was, I put in FELT and LOIS ... and froze. Then AMY and CNET ... and still nothing. RIC was the only thing I could put in the center. Then TIS and THANE, and finally, finally, I surmised EXES and then got TWIX and IWANNASEE, and despite short answers that were completely beyond me (wtf do I know about euchre, ugh (50A)) (and ZEKE??? wtf is that? (58A)) I managed to put that corner together, and then the SW corner, and then I creeped around filling in the rest of the grid. Would've been great if this had been clued a. like a Friday as opposed to a Saturday, or b. in ways that I personally clicked with or found interesting or enjoyable. But again, if we just look at the grid, I think it's good.


My daughter just walked in the door, after 7 weeks of working in New Zealand, so I'm gonna wrap this up quickly if you don't mind (also if you do).

Five things:

• 23D: Pismire (ANT)— I'm sure I've known that this word means "ANT," but today I got it confused with "quagmire" and wrote in BOG. And then FEN.
• 3D: Item sold at Burger King but not at most McDonald's (ONION RING) — No. In the plural, sure. In the singular (!?!?!), no. Buger King does not sell a single, stand-alone ONION RING, I guarantee it.
• 45A: Taboo word (MUST'NT) — oof, what? So it's a word you use when you are defining something *as* a taboo, and also speak like a quaint 19th-century governess? OK.
• 25D: Rembrandt or Vermeer (OIL) — ugh. Yes, we use artists' names as metonyms for their paintings, and we use "OIL" as a kind of substantive adjective, I guess, for an "OIL painting," I guess, but all the transitive properties in the world can't make this pleasant. 
• 38A: Your heart may go out to it (ORGAN BANK) — thanks for making me imagine my own untimely death. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. just for fun, here's Garbo in "NINOTCHKA" (33D: 1939 film banned in the Soviet Union)


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