Heavenly figure in Hesse / THU 3-6-14 / Singer with 1986 #1 album Promise / Tullius in Marcus Tullius Cicero / Land name before 1939 / Paris-based grp since 1945 / Honey-soaked dessert / Some kind of Dick Van Dyke comedy

Constructor: Daniel Raymon

Relative difficulty: Challenging


THEME: SOAP BOX (37A: Platform … or something that appears four times in this puzzle?) — rebus puzzle where four squares contain the names of four different bar soaps:

BRONZESTAR / SEIZES THE DAY
RADIAL TIRE / DIALECT
PISTON ENGINE / MOONSTONES
BRATISLAVA / BAKLAVA

Word of the Day: BIBI Andersson (56A: Actress Andersson) —

Bibi Andersson ((Swedish pronunciation: [ˈbɪ.ˈbɪ ˈandɛˈʂɔn]); born 11 November 1935) is a Swedish actress. […] After completing school, she agreed to join the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, which she was associated with for 30 years. Her first collaboration with Ingmar Bergman was in 1951, when she participated in his production of an advertisement for the detergent "Bris". In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, she starred in more than ten Bergman-directed pictures, including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Brink of Life, The Magician, The Passion of Anna, The Touch and Persona. (wikipedia)

My difficulty rating may be due partly to my illness hangover, but I do think this one was tougher than normal. I knew something was wrong when I couldn't get decent traction anywhere, and then I saw that there was something going on with BOX, so I figured out that it was a rebus at PISTON ENGINE, but at that point I didn't have the SOAP part of SOAPBOX, and I had no idea that TONE was even a soap brand, so I fumbled around a bit more until finally SOAP fell into place. After that, the first thing I did was go looking for DIAL—a true godsend for my truly messed-up NE corner, where I had had FATE for [Lot] and ACRID for [Sharp], and simply no idea about [Prima ___]. The worst hole I fell into, however, was BROCADE where BRONZESTAR was supposed to go (4D: Military decoration). I feel certain that some military uniforms feature BROCADE as a decorative element. Maybe I'm thinking of the gold rope stuff … attached to epaulets? Whatever the rationale, BROCADE stuck for a while. Only got into that section, finally, by working my way up from LABOR. Finished things up in the SW, which was harrowing, as I had no idea about the [Capital on the Danube], even after getting BR-, and so I was basically staring at a blank 4x5 grid down there. A lot can go wrong in that small a space. But OTIS and RUBIK were gimmes, and somehow off just "O" I guessed KABOB, and everything kept falling into place until I finally had that last damned rebus square cornered.


Have to go to bed now. Need more recovery sleep. Need to teach tomorrow. Above all, need to be healthy for my trip to Brooklyn this weekend. Which reminds me, I should really get a blog sub for Saturday and Sunday … I always forget until the last minute. PuzzleGirl won't be able to do it 'cause she'll be in Brooklyn with me. Speaking of, a million thanks to her for covering for me on almost no notice last night. My wife was actually the one who had to ask her to fill in for me, because *I* was in one of those illness-stupor-sleeps that cannot be stopped by mortal hand. Sleep paid off. Much much better today. Hoping the trend continues tomorrow.

And so to bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld