Relative of weasel / MON 9-9-19 / Neckwear with letters A B C D

Constructor: Dan Schoenholz

Relative difficulty: Ha ha ha ha I have no idea. It was my slowest Monday ever, but don't mind me, I'm kind of out of it tonight (4:15 LOLOL 30 seconds slower than my slowest Monday, wheeeeee!)

THEME: LION EYES — -ize words imagined as two-word phrases

Theme answers:

• TENDER RYES (17A: Very soft loaves of bread?)
• ALPHABET TIES (26A: Neckwear with the letters, A, B, C, D, etc.?)
• STANDARD DYES (44A: Indigo, henna, etc.?)
• SOCIAL LIES (57A: "You haven't aged a bit" and "I love that jacket you're wearing"?)

Word of the Day: RUMBA (18D: Cuban ballroom dance) —

Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, namely Abakuá and yuka, as well as the Spanish-based coros de clave. According to Argeliers León, rumba is one of the major "genre complexes" of Cuban music, and the term rumba complex is now commonly used by musicologists. This complex encompasses the three traditional forms of rumba (yambú, guaguancó and columbia), as well as their contemporary derivatives and other minor styles.

Traditionally performed by poor workers of African descent in streets and solares (courtyards), rumba remains one of Cuba's most characteristic forms of music and dance. Vocal improvisation, elaborate dancing and polyrhythmic drumming are the key components of all rumba styles. Cajones(wooden boxes) were used as drums until the early 20th century, when they were replaced by tumbadoras (conga drums). During the genre's recorded history, which began in the 1940s, there have been numerous successful rumba bands such as Los Papines, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Clave y Guaguancó, AfroCuba de Matanzas and Yoruba Andabo.

Since its early days, the genre's popularity has been largely confined to Cuba, although its legacy has reached well beyond the island. In the United States it gave its name to the so-called "ballroom rumba" or rhumba, and in Africa soukous is commonly referred to as "Congolese rumba" (despite being actually based on son cubano). Its influence in Spain is testified by rumba flamencaand derivatives such as Catalan rumba. (wikipedia)

Wow, just not my night. Couldn't make any sense of this theme At All, and, to make matters much worse, I also couldn't type accurately, or even semi-accurately. I mean, I had ONE drink. It was strong, but still, it shouldn't have thrown me this bad. I had MOLE at 3D: Relative of a weasel (is it, tho? I feel like the MOLE must at least be a distant cousin of the weasel...) and had something OROIN at 14A: The Hunter constellation. At one point I put in AFFIRM (45D: State as fact), and then took it out because the letter combinations (possibly in the themer???) seemed impossible ... but then it *was* right? Ugh. Had -UM-- staring at me at the Cuban dance clue (18D: Cuban ballroom dance) and my brain delivered precisely zero information to my ... brain, I guess. Just zip. Seriously thought "is MUMBA a dance?" But the real issue was the themers, which are all wacky and "?"'d and I had zero, nada, no idea what they were supposed to mean until after I was done. Everyone was a baffling struggle. ALPHA BETTIES??? Like, when BETTY dominates Veronica? TENDER RYES, I mean ... I got that last and could barely wrap my head around it. Are the double-letters supposed to be part of the theme. Like, the second word in each themer is not just a word that rhymes with '-ize' but a word that begins with the same letter that the first word in the phrase ends with? Pfft, man I do not care. This felt like a Tuesday, and a not-too-pleasant one, at that. The wacky was not Wacky Enough. Just flat. Not the right day of the week, not the right level of wacky.


Had PANG for WANT (32A: Desire). Had no idea about NOTED until I had almost every cross (13D: Eminent). Not much else to say about this one. The fill is pretty boring. Very disappointing when the Monday is not on point. Oh well. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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