Bluegrass genus / SAT 3-22-15 / Virginia willow's genus / Opera conductor Daniel / Granite paving block / Hafiz knows it by heart / Go anywhere do anything sloganeer / Theodore Dreiser travelogue / Means of maritime defense /

Constructor: Frederick J. Healy

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: none

Word of the Day: Daniel OREN (54D: Opera conductor Daniel) —

Daniel Oren (born 1955) is an Israeli conductor. […] Oren has conducted opera productions all over Europe and the United States. Since 2007, he is the artistic director of the Verdi Opera House in Salerno, Italy. Oren conducts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan in New York, the Arena in Verona, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Bastille in Paris and the opera houses of Rome, Trieste, Genoa, Florence, Parma, Turin, Venice, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Tokyo, Huston, Washington and many others. He also leads many symphonic concerts with orchestras such as the Santa Cecilia in Rome and the orchestras of Florence, Koln, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and the Berlin Philharmonic.

His opera repertoire includes many Verdi operas, including Aida, Simon Boccanegra, La Traviata, Rigoletto and Nabucco; Puccini operas such as Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Turandot; as well as Andrea Chenier (Giordano), Norma (Bellini), La Juive (Halevy) and Carmen(Bizet).

At the Israeli Opera he conducted Nabucco (Verdi), La Bohème, Tosca (Puccini) and La Juive (Halevy). (wikipedia)

Ah, the good old triple/triple stack. You know what? Fifteens are all solid. The rest of the grid ... much, much less so. This is, of course, the danger with the long stacks—easy to be happy when you're reading Across, but man, don't look Down. I got ten pieces of fill in my grid that I have circled to indicate their deep sub-optimality: nine of them are Downs. This isn't terrible surprising, since outside of the 15s there really aren't that many Acrosses (compared to Downs). Still, if you can't manage your Downs, you have no business going to press. Everyone knows the Downs won't be Great (how can they be in a stunt puzzle like this), but you should be limited to only one or two groaners, tops. Tops. And certainly no more than one "genus." Genuses (or "genera," if you're gonna be a jerk about it) are the lowest form of crossword answer. They say "I give up, I was desperate." So if you have to put even one "genus" in your puzzle, you better have a good reason and you should do so only with great contrition. Two genuses is a war crime. And *these* genuses!? Hoo boy. POA?! (4D: Bluegrass genus). That "O" was the very last letter I put in up top, and I just stared at that answer. POA. Someone said "Sure, that should be in a puzzle." That fact blows my mind. Apparently veteran solvers know POA from the olden days when short obscurities reigned. But I caught only the tail end of the Maleska era, and POA never made it into my word bank. See also (the improbably worse) ITEA (23A: Virginia willow's genus). That is head-shakingly weak. ITEA! I, TEA? [Leoni memoir?] [Oolong memoir?].


What is a USM? Is that Univ. of Southern … Mississippi? People know that? Also, people know the OREN guy? Looks like he's been in the grid before, though lately O-REN Ishii from "Kill Bill" seems to be the preferred clue for all your OREN cluing needs (you should try to set your OREN Cluing Needs at "zero"). EFS is hilarious because no no no no. Fs. People get Fs. Those are the grades they get. EFS, LOL. But to repeat—the 15s are good. The 15s are good. That is *an* accomplishment. Please disregard the rest of the grid.


For the record, this is how I broke this thing: I recognized 1A: 1968 hit with the line "I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag" as a Stones song, but couldn't remember which. "SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL" wouldn't fit. So I went at the Downs. Not much luck, really, but enough luck (KORAN FLACK!) that key letters in the Stones song turned up, and thus, I was off…

Then this is where I stopped to take a picture of the Rare Spotted POA:

Middle section was like its own, free-standing puzzle, so I went at the Down crosses again, and again a small handful cracked it open:

And then here's the place where I stopped to take a picture of the answer that probably really wanted to be IKEA but wasn't:

In both the top third and middle third of this grid, the genus clue was the last letter I put in. "O" in POA, "I" in ITEA. Lower third was easier, as I knew ERIE DARA DUNST SHAK TBA MUFTI YOGI.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld