Poor cell connection? / SAT 4-9-22 / Devices used to sterilize medical equipment / Garment of the Middle East / Chinese food also called nagaimo / R&B artist with the 3x platinum 1995 debut album Miss Thang / It turns red in Exodus

Constructor: Sam Buchbinder

Relative difficulty: Medium (proper Saturday)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: AUTOCLAVES (29D: Devices used to sterilize medical equipment) —

An autoclave is a machine used to carry out industrial and scientific processes requiring elevated temperature and pressure in relation to ambient pressure and/or temperature. Autoclaves are used before surgical procedures to perform sterilization and in the chemical industry to cure coatings and vulcanize rubber and for hydrothermal synthesis. Industrial autoclaves are used in industrial applications, especially in the manufacturing of composites.

Many autoclaves are used to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to pressurized saturated steam at 121 °C (250 °F) for around 15–20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents. The autoclave was invented by Charles Chamberland in 1879, although a precursor known as the steam digester was created by Denis Papin in 1679. The name comes from Greek auto-, ultimately meaning self, and Latin clavis meaning key, thus a self-locking device. (wikipedia)

I thought this was a really solid Saturday puzzle, and I really enjoyed solving it ... which made the fact that I ended with an error that much more depressing. All the joy just leaked out of me as I (carefully, fruitlessly) double-checked the grid, hit "Reveal All," and then realized by stupid-but-understandable (by-me) error. The mistake is my fault, not the puzzle's, but it is a direct result of a "?" clue, so it feels ... mean and personal. Ah well. So, I had the bulk of the puzzle solved, everything from the NW to the SE, and I'd already thrown two Acrosses into the SW, so I left that area and went up to work on the much-more-difficult-to-get-into NE. After my failure to get *any* of those short Acrosses up top (except, tentatively, APBS), or any of the longer Downs, I went all the way to the dregs of that section, to the little answers at the bottom ... and promptly put in wrong answers For Both. Wanted LGS for GES and then BRIE for PATÉ. But because I wasn't sure of my first instincts, I let my mind wander to second instincts, and then I could see: PATÉ over GES just fit. I didn't *know* it was right, but I knew. And then ACTED UP confirmed it (11D: Caused a ruckus), and I sighed in relief; not a huge fan of these cut-off corners where you can feel so desperately trapped, so getting ACTED UP made me feel like yes, I've got this. Then I looked at the -AG at the end of 12D: Poor cell connection? Now it's very very important that I looked *here* first and not at 30A: People of Burundi first ... but since at that point I didn't have the initial "T" maybe looking there wouldn't have helped. Anyway, I know very well that TUTSI are a people, and I believe that if I had had the "TU-" in place and looked there first, I would've written in TUTSI. But I looked at 12D: Poor cell connection? first, and with the "P" beginning and the "AG" ending, I thought about connectivity problems and wrote in the one word I most strongly associate with said problems: LAG. Completely convinced myself that PHONE LAG was a thing. And then when the People of Burundi ended up being TULSI, I just thought, "huh, that must be the people they named her after, I did not know that." That is, if TULSI hadn't been an actual famous human being's name, no way I'm going with TULSI. But it is, and I did, the end. Just a perfect storm of misunderstanding and bad luck. I actually thought my wrong letter was the LAT / TULSI crossing! LAT felt very, very ... well, it felt right (short for "latitude") but as a little abbr., it also felt like maybe I was missing a different possibility. Awful all around. All because of a "?" clue.