Tusked savanna dweller / SAT 3-21-20 / Cathedral eponym / We move world sloganeer / we deliver for you sloganeer / Mobile dwelling on steppe / Slangy part of conversation recap

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (3/4 easy, 1/4 Challenging)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: DELTA BURKE (20A: Two-time Emmy nominee for playing Suzanne Sugarbaker) —

Delta Ramona Leah Burke (born July 30, 1956) is an American actress, producer, and author. From 1986 to 1991, she starred as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom Designing Women, for which she was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Burke's other television credits include Filthy Rich (1982–83), Delta (1992–93), Women of the House (1995) and DAG (2000–01).^[1] She has produced and starred in made-for-TV movies, appeared in the film What Women Want (2000), and had a recurring guest role in the drama series Boston Legal (2006–07). She has also starred in the  Broadway productions of Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003) and Steel Magnolias (2005). (wikipedia)

I don't really remember anything about this puzzle besides the NW. I think it was easy. Very easy. So easy it's just a blur to me. This is in high, high contrast to the NW, where ... I haven't been that stuck in a long time. There were a total of seven Downs up there that I could not make sense of:

The Downs:

• 1D: Pound sign? (SPCA) — Had the "A" ... wanted ... maybe EZRA? I forget
• 3D: Where the biblical Esther and Daniel are purported to be buried (IRAN) — shrug, if you say so
• 5D: ___ tear (ACL) — this is the very heart of the matter. I, like untold thousands, wrote in ONA here. Because, with no additional info, and *especially* no info telling you you're going to bet an abbr., you go for the most obvious culprit. With ONA in there (fairly securely, in my mind), the Acrosses were all hopelessly gummed up. I think this clue is cheap. Of course an ACL tear is a thing, but so is the pact between solver and puzzle that the puzzle will give *some* indication when an answer is an abbr. Awful.
• 7D: Instrument with a bent neck (LUTE) — shrug, if you say so. Did not know that was a distinguishing feature, and "instrument" could mean bleeping anything, any tool, so I was lost here
• 8D: Proofreader's abbr. (ITAL.) — again with the "hard for hard's sake" cheap trickery. Of course with this clue everyone wants STET or DELE, so let's go with this other thing that is not nearly as tightly associated with proofreading, sure. Boo. Come by your difficulty honestly, you stupid puzzle!
• 9D: R. J. Reynolds brand (KENT) — why the &#$@ are you shilling for tobacco companies. My reaction to this clue was "f*** those guys" and I have no idea what the names of cigarettes are anymore. There are so many things that are called KENT. It's a human name, a place name, part of a university name. But you want Big Tobacco? Again, boo.
• 10D: Attempt (ESSAY) — and the last bit of cheapness ... this. ESSAY and ASSAY can both mean "attempt," so that's fun (narrator's voice: it was not fun)

I see that there was a puzzle world outside the NW today, but I don't remember it. Didn't find it remarkable. Looking it over, it seems fine. But the NW felt blecch, and that's where I spent all my time, so ... there. It's slightly instructive to look back and remember that my brain kept thinking "it's CHARLATANS ... I really wish it were CHARLATANS, 'cause that seems right ... why can't I think of another word that long that means [Fakes]??? ..." Ugh, stupid ONA. Also worth remembering that I actually *considered* ACL at one point but immediately discarded it because of the aforementioned lack of abbr.-signalling in the clue. In summation: NW annoying, the rest of the puzzle way, way too easy. Fill looks good, but the cluing just missed wide in both directions—ugly hard in one direction, blandly easy in the other. Editing is an art! OK, bye!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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