Canadian hockey great Eric / SAT 1-18-20 / Relative of slate / Indicator of interest on Match.com / Self-described bluesologist Scott-Heron / Old World grazer / Opening for Mughal masterwork / So-called African unicorns

Constructor: Ryan McCarty

Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (untimed)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: HALOGEN (6D: Chlorine, for one) —

The halogens (/ˈhælədʒən, ˈheɪ-, -loʊ-, -ˌdʒɛn/^[1][2][3]) are a group in the periodic table consisting of five chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and astatine (At). The artificially created element 117 tennessine, Ts may also be a halogen. In the modern IUPACnomenclature, this group is known as group 17.

The name "halogen" means "salt-producing". When halogens react with metals they produce a wide range of salts, including calcium fluoride, sodium chloride (common table salt), silver bromide and potassium iodide.

The group of halogens is the only periodic table group that contains elements in three of the main states of matter at standard temperature and pressure. All of the halogens form acids when bonded to hydrogen. Most halogens are typically produced from minerals or salts. The middle halogens, that is chlorine, bromine and iodine, are often used as disinfectants. Organobromides are the most important class of flame retardants, while elemental halogens are dangerous and can be lethally toxic. (wikipedia)

The first thing I noticed was the cool / strange grid shape on this one—its symmetry is along the NW-to-SE diagonal axis. Not your typical rotational symmetry, nor your less typical but still reasonably common L/R mirror symmetry. At first I thought the grid was just a damn free-for-all, black-square-wise, but then my brain woke up a little more and saw the pattern. Why not mix it up on Fri and Sat. I am a huge believer in symmetry (part of the crossword's charm is its physical look, and also the symmetry requirement creates pressure on the constructor to be creative. Strictures lead to inventiveness! Limitations give things meaning!), but go ahead and get your symmetry however you can. Or ... maybe ditch symmetry but come up with some other meaningful pattern. I guess that could be cool. It's just I've heard people say "no one cares about symmetry, why not let constructors put black squares wherever if it leads to better fill etc." and let me tell you right now that kind of thinking is a road to hell. I'm just imagining the ugly sloppy-looking nonsense that we'd start seeing coming our way. Rules are there to give definition to the form. If you break them, you break them *meaningfully*—the break actually *means* something because the "rule" exists. SONNETS AREN'T 18 LINES LONG FOR A REASON. Anyway, cool symmetry, bro.


I really hope you know a lot about hockey, or a little about '80s soul, because I can see that LINDROS / JARREAU crossing absolutely eating some people alive, especially younger non-hockey fans. I'm not sure that "R" cross is inferrable. I lived in Michigan for eight years, where you pick up *some* knowledge of hockey merely by osmosis; LINDROS is a name I've definitely heard before (43A: Canadian hockey great Eric), but I couldn't put the latter part of it together without the crosses. Thanks, Al!!! The word SUDSED and its different forms (SUDSES) will never not make me laugh at its stupidity, and I think this is the second time we've seen it in a themeless this year. Not a big fan of crossing UP with UP in the SE. I would totally SUDS ... SUDSE? ...  that part of the grid if I could. But it's a tiny matter. Literally. Three squares total. Tiny.


I thought the so-called African unicorns were RHINOS because of course I did. Though ... do they have two horns? Oh, they do, but it's really that main fore-horn that you notice. Thankfully, GIL Scott-Heron (my first answer in the grid) (24A: Self-described "bluesologist" ___ Scott-Heron) gave me the "I" I needed for OKAPIS. I though chlorine was a HALO GAS at first because I am so good at science stuff. Wrote in WAVE at 9A: Indicator of interest on Match.com because that seemed kinda sweet, but then it ended up being WINK and I literally cringed, ew, go back to waving, please! You know who WINKs suggestively at you before they really know you—probably BADDATES, that's who (35D: "Emergency calls" may save you from them) (nice clue; nice use of scare quotes). There'll be time enough for winking! Slow your roll, Match.


Muffed the IRMA / Erma thing because that's what I do (Pretty sure I confused her with ERMA Franklin, Aretha's sister). Got mad at and am still mad at BLUESTONE for being very very dubious in regards to its status as a thing (35A: Relative of slate). Blue gray, steel gray, slate, OK, but BLUESTONE ... sounds like a creamery. I'm sure it "exists," in that the color spectrum is infinitely divisible and you can call any part of it any damn thing you want, but I've never seen anything described as BLUESTONE in my life. I enjoy the BLUES TONE of GIL Scott-Heron, I do not enjoy the BLUE STONE of alleged color. I also enjoy all the music (not just GIL but Al and ERMA as well), and I enjoy vibrant phrases like POP A WHEELIE and "I'VE MOVED ON" (man, there is a whole bad-date story arc in this puzzle). Enjoyed the mild misdirection of 9D: Leisure activity for which you need glasses (WINE TASTING). And mostly enjoyed having very few occasions to shout "No!" at the grid. Thumbs up.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. 37A: Opening for a Mughal masterwork is TAJ because it's the opening (eh! eh!) word in TAJ MAHAL.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]