Bone cavities / THU 6-11-20 / Bag in commercialese / Where to find American in Moscow / 1960s TV character who often said Surprise surprise surprise / Old TV knob abbr.

Constructor: Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium (???) (I refused to read the "Notes," so I had to find and decode the 2-letter squares without any visual aid) (any difficulty this one had involved those squares and their crosses) (although it probably helped to be old and/or a longggggtime solver 'cause hoo boy is this one rooted in the past)

THEME:"MY WAY" (41A: Hit for 20-/22-Across (1969 or 1977)) — 20-/22-Across = both FRANK / SINATRA *and* ELVIS / PRESLEY (giants of POPULAR / MUSIC); you gotta write both their names in (resulting in two letters per square) to get the correct result in the Downs

Gotta imagine FRANK SINATRA over ELVIS PRESLEY for Downs to work:

Word of the Day: Gertrude EDERLE (2D: First woman to receive her own New York City ticker-tape parade (1926)) —

Gertrude Caroline Ederle (/ˈɛdərli, ˈeɪd-/ ED-ər-lee, AYD-; October 23, 1906 – November 30, 2003) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her "Queen of the Waves." (wikipedia)

There's probably potential in this whole "they have the same number of letters in their first and last names" thing, but this execution was a Huge miss. The doubled-up letter thing ... OK, fine. It wasn't particularly tough, it was slightly annoying to fill in on computer, but it works OK. The problem is ... there's really nothing to do with this fact. The rest of the grid is so limp. "MY WAY" is just five letter and then ... really, POPULAR / MUSIC, *that's* what you're gonna use to anchor the entire bottom half of the grid, thematically. POPULAR / MUSIC was astoundingly, painfully anti-climactic. All this action up top, and then pffffffffft down below. Also, oof, the cluing. It's just a bunch of numbers and dashes and cross-reference commands. With this, Giant in that, See this, Hit for them, With this, see that. There's zero content in those clues. No color, no zazz, no nothing. I just can't get over how bad POPULAR / MUSIC is as your big finale. What's more, the fill on this one is particularly unpalatable. It's worst at the ANTRA SAK connection (woof and woof) but HOR FEH EKE DER RNC OOH BARI x/w OREM ESTE ASTA EDERLE —none of this is doing you any favors.


So, let's see, sports stars of the '20s and movie dogs of the '30s and singers of the '50s and TV stars of the '60s ... wow, this one really was aggressively nostalgic. The entire 21st century can f*** right off, I guess. I mean, when your idea of a current event is Nick NOLTE's being named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine, that tells you a lot about the narrow segment of the population for whom this puzzle is exclusively intended. Diversify your content or don't bother to make puzzles, thank you.


My favorite answer today is ROCK STAR (4D: Moon or Mercury). The clue involves great misdirection, and with ROC- in place, I figured something ROCKET-y must be happening. I mean, two heavenly bodies in the clue, gotta be a rocket involved somehow, right? Right?! Wrong. Keith Moon (The Who). Freddie Mercury (Queen). Nice. The rest of this puzzle, less nice. Again, the main problem is how badly a potentially interesting theme idea was fumbled in the execution.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. you can find an American in Moscow in IDAHO because there's a Moscow, IDAHO (home of the University of Idaho)

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