Japanese guitar brand / SAT 2-15-14 / Eighth century apostle of Germany / Tycoon Stanford / 2009 Grammy winner for Make It Mine / Iconic Seinfeld role / Home to Vila Hugel / Newfoundland in Naples Nogales / Green with five Grammys / Company that added four letters to its name in 1997

Constructor: Julian Lim

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ST. BONIFACE (25D: Eighth-century Apostle of Germany) —

Saint Boniface (Latin: Bonifatius) (c. 675? – 5 June 754), born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom ofWessex, probably at Crediton, was an Anglo-Saxon missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empireduring the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany, the first archbishop of Mainz and the "Apostle of the Germans". He was killed in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others. His remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus which became a site of pilgrimage. Facts about Boniface's life and death as well as his work became widely known, since there is a wealth of material available—a number of vitae, especially the near-contemporary Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi, and legal documents, possibly some sermons, and above all his correspondence.

Norman F. Cantor notes the three roles Boniface played that made him "one of the truly outstanding creators of the first Europe, as the apostle of Germany, the reformer of the Frankish church, and the chief fomentor of the alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian family." Through his efforts to reorganize and regulate the church of the Franks, he helped shape Western Christianity, and many of the dioceses he proposed remain until today. After his martyrdom, he was quickly hailed as a saint in Fulda and other areas in Germany and in England. His cult is still notably strong today. Boniface is celebrated (and criticized) as a missionary; he is regarded as a unifier of Europe, and he is seen (mainly by Catholics) as a German national figure. (wikipedia)

Mostly enjoyable, this one. Could've been cleaner, overall, but there's a good deal of zing in here, plus ALAN MOORE over ZEN GARDEN, which is hard (for me) not to love. What was odd/frustrating was how two-toned the puzzle felt—that is, everything from NW to SE was easy, but the NE and SW corners were like little puzzles unto themselves, and a good deal harder. I think the SW corner was hard because of the preponderance of names, only some of which I knew. I used to scream about stupid "Ally McBeal" names and then, poof, they were gone. I felt so powerful. But now here we are, years later, and bam: NELLE? Nobody Remembers That Show. Ugh. Are there not other NELLEs? Sorry, personal vendetta there. I won't go on. MELLON is a name in banking, which I didn't know. Is that the MELLON of Carnegie-MELLON? Of the MELLON Dissertation Fellowship I had in grad school? Yes, Andrew MELLON. Whom I confuse with Andrew Carnegie, for reasons both university- and Andrew-related. IBANEZ I "knew" as soon as I saw the clue (47A: Japanese guitar brand), but did not at all trust, not least because I thought IBANEZ was Spanish. Like Raúl IBAÑEZ. ST. BONIFACE I've heard of, but couldn't get from the clue (25D: Eighth-century apostle of Germany). Could think only of Al Green at 62A: Green with five Grammys; took a while to see CEE-LO. But WHALE BONES saved me (26D: Old collar stiffeners). It was a guess, but a fruitful one. I still can't parse the clue on 25A: Certain guy "ISO" someone (SWM). Had to ask a friend: it means "in search of," presumably in singles ads. I figured that was the context from SWM (single white male), but … clearly I don't read singles ads (in case my wife needed proof—there it is).

I tanked (mildly) the NE because of how long it took me to make anything out of SOLAS- (14D: Totally out). Again, parsing problems (ended up being a great answer: SO LAST YEAR). Also, -IST is a suffix for LEGAL?? I see, upon looking it up, that it can be, but that's pretty rough. And I hate when crap fill gets a rough clue. ended up writing in the "P" in PEÑA because that was the only name I could make work (42A: Mexican president Enrique ___ Nieto). I own Steely Dan's greatest hits but don't remember a song about KATY (ah, crap, it's from the *album* title, "KATY Lied," not a song title. D'oh!). That "K" was the last letter to go in—seemed a good bet, as it made a name, and then it hit me that KOP = Keystone KOPs = [36D: One of a silent force?] (i.e. they were big in the *silent* film era).


Liked imagining the SOUP NAZI on PAXIL really liked the clue on KAMA SUTRA (1A: Position papers?). Fill is probably weakest in the top half of the NE (ENERO / ONE NO / ENOTES / IST). Interestingly, its symmetrical counterpart (i.e. the SW) is similarly rough (NELLE / ANILL / ESSEN). But because the roughness was not a source of great difficulty, and because there were a number of delightful patches, I had a decent time solving this one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld