1800s migrant / SAT 4-18-20 / Old parent company of RCA / Distressing character in Bible / Reward for bad NBA team / Obsolescent music holder / Runner-up to Affirmed in every 1978 Triple Crown race

Constructor: Ryan McCarty

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (6:40)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: John WYCLIFFE (33D: John ___, English philosopher and theologian who made an early translation of the Bible) —

John Wycliffe (/ˈwɪklɪf/; also spelled Wyclif, Wycliff, Wiclef, Wicliffe, Wickliffe; c. 1320s – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford. He became an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism.

Wycliffe attacked the privileged status of the clergy, which had bolstered their powerful role in England. He then attacked the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies.

Wycliffe also advocated translation of the Bible into the vernacular. In 1382 he completed a translation directly from the Vulgate into Middle English – a version now known as Wycliffe's Bible. It is probable that he personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament, while his associates translated the Old Testament. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed by 1384, additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey and others in 1388 and 1395. (wikipedia)

This was just fine. I never really enjoy heavily segmented quadrant designs like this, where you have very little interconnectedness and are essentially presented with four different puzzles (today, five, counting the center). You could do very well and then hit a small-necked corner and not even be able to get in, so these can be "hard" in a weird, uneven way, solely because of their structure. But this one offset the inherent structural difficulty with (to my mind) pretty gettable clues, and so it all averaged out to pretty typical Saturday stuff, difficultywise. But then I knew WYCLIFFE, which seems like a name that a. a lot of people might not know, and b. a lot of people might not be able to infer the letters of. Cross it with ROLF (a name I didn't *really* know) and you could have yourself some trouble down there. I had my trouble (and my only real trouble) in the NE. Getting into that corner from the bottom up proved impossible, which was slightly scary, because I just had to pray that something in that little section would give me enough traction to work my way down and out again. Luckily, I am a "Scooby-Doo" connoisseur, so, between DAPHNE and PDA, I got what I needed (still took some work—weirdly couldn't get OPTIC or the TEST part of APTEST (wanted CHEM?). As for THE FORCE (10D: "A mixture of what appears to be ESP and early Christian faith," per a 1977 New York Times film review) and IN STOCK (11D: Shelved, for now?), good clues on those, but very very hard to see if you've only got the last letters. I felt a little better when I finally got them and realized I actually had very little chance of getting them off just the -CE and -K, respectively. Though, now that I really *see* the full clue on THE FORCE ... I feel like I probably should've gotten that off just the -CE. We're talking about the 1977 movie that I saw the most. By far. In fact, I haven't seen any movie in the theater, ever, as much as I saw "Star Wars" that summer.


This grid holds up nicely, even through the center, which is architecturally impressive. I wish "architecturally impressive" did more for me. LOTTERY PICK and CYBER ATTACK are nice answers; the rest of the stuff in there is fine, but still I think a puzzle like this feels more "look at me!" whereas a more open Friday (like yesterday) feels more "have some fun!" I guess I do appreciate variation in grid look. I'm just trying to get at the difference between appreciation and love, between admiring craftsmanship, on the one hand, and barely noticing craftsmanship because you're just so happy with the experience, on the other. This is undoubtedly all a matter of personal taste. It's just that the "architectural feats" have a tendency to leave me cold. This one, as I say, didn't. I genuinely liked it. So maybe that is a big deal—a stunty looking grid that, despite its stuntiness, managed to be reasonably fun to solve.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. shout-out to COOL MOM, which is inspired (34D: Stereotypically lenient parent)

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