Former kingdom of central Vietnam / SAT 2-1-20 / Grain bristles / Home away from home sloganeer / Wine often paired with Roquefort cheese / Champagne-fueled song finale /

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Easy (except for ... well, you'll see) (untimed, clipboard solve)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ANNAM (13D: Former kingdom of central Vietnam) —

Annam (Vietnamese: An Nam or Trung Kỳ, alternate spelling: Anam) was a French protectorateencompassing the central region of Vietnam. Before the protectorate's establishment, the name Annam was used in the West to refer to Vietnam as a whole; Vietnamese people were referred to as Annamites. The protectorate of Annam became in 1887 a part of French Indochina. Two other Vietnamese regions, Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ) in the South and Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ) in the North, were also units of French Indochina. The region had a dual system of French and Vietnamese administration. The Nguyễn Dynasty still nominally ruled Annam, with a puppet emperor residing in Huế. In 1948, the protectorate was merged in the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, which was replaced the next year by the newly established State of Vietnam. The region was divided between communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam under the terms of the Geneva Accord of 1954. (wikipedia)

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Well this one was full of surprises. When I saw the constructor's names, I thought, "uh oh, this one's gonna be tough, you're never on this guy's wavelength, good luck." Diehl's puzzles always strike me as ... I'd say old-fashioned tough. But not bad. Just a grind. For me. So the first surprise of the puzzle was absolutely tearing through it. AWNS SUE THOU and then WHATLLITBE (15A: Line at the bar) and *then* OBSTRUCTS (9D: Plugs up). So before I even finished filling in the NW, I was already down into the center. It was wild. Like being on a hot streak, where every shot you take goes in, every move you make is the right one, every step you take I'll be watching you. . . no, that's the Police. Where was I? Oh right, just shredding this puzzle. I kept waiting for the catch ... surely there was some trap door or some Minotaur or something that was gonna come along and stop me cold. But no, right down the west coast, into the center. Ironically, the first thing to cause me any trouble was an answer I *knew* but couldn't remember: the last name of the guy from One Direction. He's not Harry Styles famous, but he's very famous (with a certain demo), and I damn sure have seen his name many times, but ... blank. And since I also didn't know how PENTO- was going to end (30D: Puzzle piece made up of five squares) (?), no way I was getting into the SE. So I just went up and around. Tiny hesitation at 30A: Spear carrier?, even with PICK- in place, but then bam, PICKLEJAR, giving me the high-value "J," making DIY PROJECT very easy to get. Really closing in on it now...

Instead of finishing off the NE, I went down the ANGLE PARKING. Now here was the second surprise (well, third, if you count my totally forgetting Zayn MALIK's name): I don't know what GANTRY means. I know Elmer GANTRY and that is all I know about GANTRY, so I needed every single cross and even when I was done, I didn't know why the clue was right (38A: Cape Canaveral sight). I'm guessing it's something to do with rocket launches ... yup. The "2a" def of GANTRY at Merriam-Webster is a movable structure with platforms at different levels used for erecting and servicing rockets before launching." So if you didn't know, now you know. I wish it were just some dude named GANTRY. "Who's that over there watching the launch?""Oh, that's old man GANTRY. He's always here." Anyway, GANTRY! Blew through it 'cause the crosses were easy (thank goodness). Headed into the SE with trepidation, but CLIME GUITAR PARKING just opened it right up. Zero trouble finishing it, despite never having heard of a PENTOMINO and despite the probably not-great proper-name crossing of MALIK and ALEK (who is like IMAN and EMME in that they are four-letter models who show up occasionally to help constructors keep their grids from falling apart) (44D: Supermodel Wek). But if you think MALIK / ALEK was a not-great crossing, well ... you ain't seen nothing yet.

So I head up to the NW to polish this thing off, feeling very triumphant, and there, at the very end, is the trap door / Minotaur / pick your damned metaphor. A Natick. A textbook Natick. A Natick the likes of which I haven't seen since I gave the Natick its name (when the"N" in NATICK crossed the "N" in "N.C. WYETH"). You know the cross I'm talking about. You probably came here hoping to see me complain about it. Well here you go: The 11A/13D crossing. Is. Inexcusable. Absurd. Ridiculous. Why? Well, crossing 1. two proper nouns 2. of non-universal fame 3. at a vowel 4. that is completely uninferrable—that is the recipe for the perfect Natick, and that is exactly what we've got here. Naticks are *unfair*; there are ways to stump people that are fair, and then ... there are Naticks. I've literally never heard of ANNAM. I am not that old, and while I knew Vietnam was part of what was once called French Indonesia, ANNAM ... never made it into my brain. So _NNAM ... you could've convinced me of anything. And the dude on the Argo!?!?! I've read The Voyage of the Argo and taught classical literature and I *still* couldn't remember that dude. *Only* the fact that I *had* read the work and *had* been around the classics and classicists my whole life saved me at this crossing. I plugged the "A" in and thought "... yeah, IDAS feels right. It looks *insane*, but it feels right. IDAS / ANNAM ... gotta be it." Closed my eyes, pressed the button, and bingo. I guessed right. But literally everyone, me, you, every solver talking about this puzzle on Twitter right now, *everyone* knows that's a bad cross. How did the constructor not know? The editor? Editor's helpers?? Not going to blame the proofers, who *surely* knew, because WS is known for ignoring their concerns. Why would you do this? Once you "get" it, you can't even be sure you've "gotten" it without looking stuff up, which is, lemme tell you, the most dissatisfying way to end things.

I do think the "A" is the best guess there at ID-S / -NNAM) ... you can eliminate the "E" and "O" because those are answers that would've been clued other ways in the Across (i.e. IDOS and IDES, being familiar things, would never get clued this way). So you're left with "A""I" and "U" ... actually "A" probably feels the *least* classical-namey of all those options, but INNAM and UNNAM look truly insane. I don't know. The point is, no solver should be in the position of engaging in this kind of stupid guesswork. Again, no one is saying IDAS on its own shouldn't be in puzzles (although ... it shouldn't really, it's bad, don't). And no one is saying ANNAM shouldn't (sigh ... if you must). But recognize that they are both patently obscure, and treat them that way—with totally fair crosses. Crossing them at "A," wow. No. Absolutely not. That's editorial incompetence. Or negligence. At any rate, it's bad. And for the constructor ...you make this *whole* puzzle, most of which is just fine, lovely even, but now the only thing anyone's gonna remember is IDAS / ANNAM and the residual icky feelings it caused. Why would you do that? This is an editing fail of the highest order. Jaw-dropping. That is all.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a Twitter reaction sampler: