Flower of tree Prunus mume / MON 7-13-20 / Dee director of Bessie Mudbound / One-named singer with hit Dark Lady

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:51)

THEME: MAH-JONG TILE (50A: Game piece on which 20-, 33- or 39-Across might be pictured) — I guess this is true ... I take the puzzle's word for it:

Theme answers:

• PLUM BLOSSOM (20A: Flower of the tree prunus mume)
• NORTH WIND (33A: Bringer of cold weather)
• RED DRAGON (39A: Winged beast on the Welsh flag)

Word of the Day: Dee REES (65A: Dee ___, director of "Bessie" and "Mudbound") —

Diandrea Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films Pariah (2011), Bessie (2015), Mudbound (2017), and The Last Thing He Wanted (2020). Rees has also written and directed episodes for television series including Empire, When We Rise, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. (wikipedia)

Felt like I struggled a bunch with this one, but it's hard to use the word "struggled" with a straight face when your time comes in under 3. It's possible my new Monday normal is closer to the 2:30 than the 3 mark, which makes 2:51 feel ... slow? I dunno. All I know is there was a lot of stuff I just didn't know. I didn't know 1A: One-named singer with the hit "Dark Lady" (CHER), *for instance*! Yikes. When the hell was "Dark Lady" from. I know "Believe" and "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves" and maybe ... "Half-Breed," what was a song, right? Oh, and in the '80s, when she sang on the deck of a naval war ship in fishnets ... I forget the song ... why do I have Belinda Carlisle's "I Get Weak" in my head, that's weird. Oh, right, "If I Could Turn Back Time!" That's a CHER song I know. "Dark Lady," wow, no. So that meant my whole "ace the top row and then do all the Downs" strategy was 1/3 thwarted—I got the other two Acrosses up top and drilled down from there, then had to swoop back up to deal with the NW corner ... which was doubly hard because PLUM BLOSSOM!?!? Wow, no. "Prunus mume"? That is a Saturday clue and answer. Yipes. But with the other short easy stuff up in that corner, it wasn't That difficult to work out the singer and the flower. I had a little trouble getting OUTTA SIGHT (had the OUT-, wanted OUTSTANDING, which did not fit) (11D: "Awesome!"). Then had issues with TWISTS, which I can picture as a [Hairstyle option] now but could not retrieve At All while I was solving. The lower half of the grid was considerably easier. I forgot Dee REES's name, and the FOR YOU part of GOOD FOR YOU required some crosses (29D: Comment made with a pat on the back), but otherwise, superfast.


I don't know anything about Mah-Johng. Hell, I thought it was spelled Mah-Jonng or -Jongg ... where was I getting those extra letters from?? Aha! It looks like the double-g spelling is actually a thing. Good. I only feel half-insane now. Anyway, theme answers are things on the tiles, apparently. Interesting. So glad I didn't actually have to know that to solve (and enjoy) the puzzle. I think this is a lovely, clean, straightforward Monday. PLUM BLOSSOM and the clue on WREN (31D: Bird whose head doesn't make a sound?)* both seem more Fri/Sat than Monday, but on Mondays, when the bulk of the fill is easy to blow right through, a tough answer or two is not really gonna do much damage. In short, I have no real BEEFS with this puzzle. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*"head" in this clue refers to the "head" (or first) letter of WREN, the "W," which is silent, i.e. "doesn't make a sound"—apologies for over-explaining, but ... I get mail

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]