Swing-era bandleader ___ Cates / FRI 3-15-24 / Dom maker / Region of Italy that lends its name to a pepper / Words from a paper pusher? / Bill originating in Texas / Vegetable whose name comes from Igbo / Bacteriologist Walter who conducted Yellow Fever research / Fish named for a weapon / Opposite of rubicund

Constructor: Daniel Grinberg

Relative difficulty: Medium if you knew PHILLIS WHEATLEY, Challenging if (like me) you didn't

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: PHILLIS WHEATLEY (17A: "On Being Brought From Africa to America" writer, 1768) —

Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.

On a 1773 trip to London with the Wheatleys' son, seeking publication of her work, Wheatley met prominent people who became her patrons. The publication in London of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Prominent figures, such as George Washington, praised her work. A few years later, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in a poem of his own. (wikipedia)

[Where my brain went when asked for an Italian pepper]

This is a solid grid, but the editing felt off. The biggest issue for me (in fact the only answer I really remember now) was the way the puzzle handled PHILLIS WHEATLEY. She's a worthy answer, but when you have a name that a lot of people are simply not going to know, you have to be careful how you cross it. My main gripe with crossword editors, across the board, is that they aren't careful enough with their proper nouns. No matter what sphere or time period they come from, names that are not universally famous can be dangerous—they're gimmes for some and total blanks for others, and so already have the potential to create a very divided solving experience. So it's crucial that the less famous, and the more unconventionally spelled, the name is, the more you have to ensure that every cross is fair. To be clear, I think it's great to put names in puzzles that have never been there before, names that maybe aren't household, but that are of clear historical and artistic significance, which definitely applies to PHILLIS WHEATLEY. And I have no way of knowing exactly how many people know her name, but if I, who have spent my whole life around teachers of poetry, have only a dim recollection of her name, then it seems reasonable to think that some significant number of solvers won't know her at all, and so ... crossing her with a "Swing-era bandleader" who's even *more* obscure than she is? I do not understand that decision (5D: Swing-era bandleader ___ Cates). I also don't understand putting PHILLIS WHEATLEYright next to the answer describing what she is, but giving us nothing but a crossreference clue for help (15A: 17-Across, for one). If I don't know PHILLIS WHEATLEY, then I sure as hell don't know she's a POET (I can tell she's a writer from her clue, but POET, no). Her name also crosses a region of Italy / pepper I've barely heard of (11D: Region of Italy that lends its name to a pepper), an absolutely brutal clue for AT HOME (8D: Familiar (with)), and a flat-out incorrect clue for ESP (19D: Unlikely gift)—that "gift" is not "unlikely," it's nonexistent, please stop cluing ESP like it's real. There's also the OLE / RAH dilemma up there (12D: Scream for a team), and then a clue on ROSTRA (ugly word) that had me writing in RISERS (21A: Campaign platforms, perhaps). That whole area from OPIE to CALABRIA was a Saturday+-level hornet's nest. The rest of the puzzle was pretty standard, difficulty-wise.  So you can add "unevenness" to the problems created by not handling PHILLIS WHEATLEY crosses skillfully.