Constructor: Kristian House
Relative difficulty: Medium (8 to 9, somewhere in there, solving slowly, early in the a.m.)
THEME: none Word of the Day: KIRI Te Kanawa (
9D: Soprano ___ Te Kanawa) —
Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa ONZ CH DBE AC (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand former opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced".
Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage.
Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not reveal her retirement until September 2017. (wikipedia)
• • •
Proper names made this one a real minefield, or potential minefield, I guess. I'm not real big on using marginal names to achieve difficulty, and I don't know what
INSANA and (as clued)
ZANE are here if not marginal. Seven seasons on a TV show that the clue doesn't even name ... doesn't strike me as a thing. Did anyone really watch "Suits"? That "Z" took me a weird lot of time, as I scrolled the alphabet (all the way to "Z"!) to figure out how WI- could be [
Virtuoso, informally]. Of course when I got it, it was a 'duh,' so maybe if I'd just been quicker i.e. more awake I would've blown past the
ZANE thing too quick to be irked by it, who knows?
INSANA was way more of a problem. No way I'm guessing any of those letters, and in terms of a "field from which names come," you couldn't pick one farther from my realm of caring than "hedge fund manager." Again, not even a show or a network to go on with
INSANA (not that it would've helped).
RAPINOE is very (recently) famous.
LUCINDA ... well, she's very famous to me (saw her at the Beacon in '05) but even if you somehow don't know her, and least
LUCINDA is ultimately a recognizable name (unlike, say,
INSANA). It just seemed like there were a lot of places in the grid where solvers could into Name Trouble, which honestly is not the most enjoyable kind of trouble.
KIRI / ROMERO? Gimmes for me, but I can imagine possibly not for others.
On the other hand, there are some delightful moments, like
CHEERIOS sticking together (never saw that coming, really looking for something science-y there), or the simple backyard pleasures of
CORNHOLE (it's my understanding that you can watch competitive
CORNHOLE on one of the ESPNs, during
CORNHOLE season, whenever that is—the guys on
my favorite baseball podcast talked about getting weirdly into it during the early pandemic, when all
normal traditional sports had been effectively brought to a halt). And if you're gonna cross proper names at a vowel, then
RAPINOE crossing
LUCINDA in the dead center of your grid is probably the most glorious way to do that. Some of the relative current fill today actually felt weirdly ... well, kinda old already. That may be because I've already seen it in grids and therefore its novelty isn't as striking to me. Stuff like
GLAMPING and
RAGEQUIT (perfectly good fill, just lacking the zing it likely once had).
NERD CRED ... is just an odd phrase to say (
67A: Something you might earn by having a long crossword-solving streak, informally). Say it.
NERD CRED. It's like much in your mouth. Reminds me of the "30 Rock" episode where everyone kept having to say the ridiculous movie title "The Rural Juror" over and over. Awkward.
Biggest struggle was in the SW. I blame
INSANA, though I also blame my inexplicable failure to come up with the BIKE part of
ROAD BIKE (35D: Transport not meant for trails). Oh, and worst of all down there, I had PLIÉ instead of
KNEE (56D: It's a real bender). Really really wanted
EARS right from the jump, but I guess PLIÉ must've prevented me from going for it. Oh, sorry, there's another worst of all, which is, worst of all, PLIÉ baited me into putting RAISIN (!!!) in
KAISER's place (
64A: Kind of roll). When four letters "confirm" your answer, your answer is *usually* safe. Usually. No other real issues today. PENCIL before
PENCAP, that's about it (
7D: Ink saver). Have a lovely Saturday.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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