Investments since 1975 / FRI 2-28-14 / Philatelic goals / Suffix with Edward / Singer who's a Backstreet Boy's brother / Salk Institute architect Louis / Shakespeare sonnet mentioning Philomel's mournful hymns / Modern-day locale of ancient Nineveh / City with major avenues named Cincinnati Columbus

Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FLAUTIST (28D: Sir James Galway, e.g.) —

n.
One who plays the flute; a flutist.

[Italian flautista, from flauto, flute, from Old Provençal flaüt. See flute.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/flautist#ixzz2uaH5RK8E

Constructing, shmonstructing. Welcome to the age of database management!
I laughed when I opened this puzzle. Out loud.

I wish I could've been on some game show where, after seeing the constructor's name, I could've put All My Money on "Quadstack." I'd be so rich.


I feel like I need some boilerplate language I can just cut and paste into every quadstack (or wide-open "record-setting" low-black-square-count puzzle) I write up. You know: long answers have a combination boring / made-up feel, short crosses are weak / forced, etc. So let's just assume that unless I say otherwise, I am *always* saying that for these kinds of puzzles. So here's what I enjoyed about this puzzle:

• XXX
• TEXAS-SIZE
• LIVING WAGE
• Toughish cluing
• I learned how to spell FLAUTIST (I would've gone, and did briefly go, FLOUTIST)

I think this puzzle must surely have set a record for "TION"s. I count four. Including, dear lord, three "TIONAL"s all on top of one another in those middle answers. Repeated letter strings of any length (say 4+) are generally frowned upon / kept to a minimum. So you really gotta love the gutsiness of stacking three 6-letter strings. Or you don't have to love it. Probably you don't.

I, ANA is terrible in all circumstances until the day when former SNL cast member Ana Gasteyer writes an autobiography with that title.

Did you know there are more than 100 species of MALARIA PARASITE? I  learned this when I googled [MALARIA PARASITE] to see if it was a real phrase. Much to my surprise, it is. I would've thought "malarial."

HAD A TIN EAR has all the moral authority of ATE A HAM SANDWICH (15!)

AT SIX now has me rethinking whether XXX was truly worth it.

OK that's enough. Goodbye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld