Locale for Ernst and Young / THU 1-23-20 / Mideast diplomat's request when itching to be challenged / Anti-apartheid activist Steve / Overpopulated mazy districts

Constructor: Barbara Lin

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed clipboard solve)

THEME: AYE (59A: Vote heard on the floor ... and at the end of 20-, 31-, 35- and 50-Across) — basic add-a-sound theme:

Theme answers:

• ROCKS THE BOW TIE (20A: Proudly dresses like Bill Nye or Pee-wee Herman?) (base phrase = "rock the boat")
• GIMME A SINAI (31A: Mideast diplomat's request, when itching to be challenged?) ("gimme a sign")
• THE GOOD WIFI (35A: Premier internet connection?) ("The Good Wife")
• FREE VERSAILLES (50A: Liberate Louis XIV's palace?) ("free verse")

Word of the Day: SONORA (13A: Estado south of Arizona) —

Sonora [...], officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (English: Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo. Sonora is bordered by the states of Chihuahua to the east, Baja California to the northwest and Sinaloa to the south. To the north, it shares the U.S.–Mexico border primarily with the state of Arizona with a small length with New Mexico, and on the west has a significant share of the coastline of the Gulf of California. (wikipedia)

Very unusual (and cool) to see a solo woman constructor on a Thursday. And this is a debut, I think (name is not in my "labels" list yet). So, cool and cool. The theme has strengths and weaknesses. The wackiness level here is appropriately high for this kind of thing. The phrases are bonkers in a good way, with the most suspect of them actually being the best of them—the first three themers add the "I" sound without any change to the pronunciation of the base phrase, but FREE VERSAILLES ... I do not pronounce the first "E" in VERSAILLES the same way I pronounce the first "E" in "verse." But as I say, that answer is so wildly inventive that I don't really care about the sound wobble. The main issue I had with the theme was how weak the revealer was, and thus how weak the overall concept was. Yes, adding the "I" sound gets you wackiness, but you need a rationale much stronger than just "here is a thing that also rhymes with 'I'." You need a phrase that punnily suggests the "I"-addition. THIS IS WHERE I COME IN ... well, not that, it won't fit, but, you know, something. *Something*. Just plunking sad little AYE down there in the corner is very low-concept. Very 20th-century off-brand theme move. I also don't get the clue on GIMME A SINAI at all. Or, I don't get the last part of the clue: "itching to be challenged?" Is this some kind of reference to the fact that Sinai is a political and diplomatic hotspot? Also, "GIMME" is not a "request," also that is not how a "diplomat" would speak, also putting an indefinite article before a unique thing is bizarre. GIMME A GATEWAY ARCH! Yeah, there's just the one, so ... ? This themer bummed me out because nothing about "diplomat" was useful in getting the answer. And that whole "itching to be challenged thing" was just detritus. Bleh. But I did enjoy seeing the other themers, so that was nice.


The grid is oddly built. Really alop (to borrow a word I've only ever seen in crosswords). Those NW / SE corners are super open, and completely closed off from the rest of the grid except for the most narrow of passageways. Then the rest of the grid is this super choppy 3- and 4-letter-answer extravaganza. Felt very much like I was in two different solving modes: a M/T mode through the broad middle of the grid, and a F/Sat mode in the NW / SE. Those open corners come out pretty well, or could have come out worse. UNICORN (3D: Start-up worth a billion dollars, in a modern coinage) and CHILLAX (41D: "Simmer down!") make them worth it. Overall, this was a mostly enjoyable experience. The theme definitely needed something extra, but what was there was solid. My biggest mistake of the day was confidently writing in AREOLAE at 2D: Astronomical rings (CORONAE) ("ick" to all Latin plurals, btw). Oh, also PLY for HEN (30A: Layer), though to my slight credit, as soon as I ditched PLY (because astronomical rings weren't gonna end in "L"), HEN was my next first guess. My favorite clue of the day by far was 58A: Locale for Ernst and Young (SENATE). That one got me. It really got me. I was thinking of the accounting firm right to the end. (I liked this one despite the fact that Ernst (Iowa) and Young (Indiana) are both currently protecting a manifestly corrupt president*, so ... yeah, that is some clue)

Five things:

• 1A: Concerning vision (OCULAR) — I bit hard on this one. That is, I read "concerning" as an adj. meaning "of concern," rather than as the preposition that it is (meaning "regarding"). Me: "How is an OCULAR a 'concerning viszzzh ...' oh. Oh, I see."
• 49A: Ali who retired undefeated (LAILA)— not sure how I've been putting her into grids for two decades or so and still cannot reliably spell her name correctly. So, LAILA is the boxer, LEILA is a name but not a famous one unless you go to Byron ("Don Juan") or Bizet ("The Pearl Fishers"), LEELA is the one-eyed spaceship captain from "Futurama" (voiced by Katey Sagal, whose first and last names are common crossword fare); and then LAYLA is the Eric Clapton / Derek and the Dominos song. Good luck remembering all that. I know I can't. 
• 11D: Something with an "x" factor? (ALGEBRA) — had the -BRA part and was completely certain this was going to be an undergarment. "What kind of bra has an 'x' ... maybe the one where the straps cross in the back ... do those have a short name ...?" 
• 40D: Angers (IRES) — never. Stop doing this. Bury this answer at sea.
• 35D: Premium network (TMC) — LOL this channel still out here trying to get into puzzles. At least no one is trying to convince us that it is "popular" or HBO's "rival" or some other nonsense this time. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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