Actor David of Dark Shadows / THU 3-19-15 / Successor company to Northern Natural Gas / Republic founded in 1836 / Nestle chocolate bar since 1988 / Title ship in W.W. II film / 1979 #1 hit whose title is sung with stutter / Musicians Russell Redbone

Constructor: Todd Gross

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: imagined encyclopedia entries  — theme answers are common phrases in the pattern "___ TO ___" where the second word starts with the same letter as, and alphabetically follows, the first:

Theme answers:

• BACK TO BASICS (4D: Encyclopedia volume on education* reform?) *(EDU is in the grid (23D)—not cool)
• MADE TO MEASURE (17D: Encyclopedia volume on tailoring?)
• NEXT TO NOTHING (7D: Encyclopedia volume on poverty?) 
• RAGS TO RICHES (21D: Encyclopedia volume on wealth accumulation?)

Word of the Day: METACOMET (41A: Indian chief called King Philip) —

Metacomet was the second son of the sachem Massasoit. He became a chief in 1662 when his brother Wamsutta (or King Alexander) died shortly after his father Massasoit. Wamsutta's widow Weetamoo (d. 1676), sachem of the Pocasset, was Metacomet's ally and friend for the rest of her life. Metacom married Weetamoo's younger sister Wootonekanuske. No one knows how many children they had or what happened to them, but Wootonekanuske and one of their sons were sold to slavery in the West Indies.

At the beginning he sought to live in harmony with the colonists. As a sachem, he took the lead in much of his tribes' trade with the colonies. He adopted the European name of Philip, and bought his clothes in Boston, Massachusetts.

But the colonies continued to expand. To the west, the Iroquois Confederation also was fighting against neighboring tribes in the Beaver Wars, pushing them west and encroaching on his territory. Finally, in 1671 the colonial leaders of the Plymouth Colony forced major concessions from him. He surrendered much of his tribe's armament and ammunition, and agreed that they were subject to English law. The encroachment continued until hostilities broke out in 1675. Metacom led the opponents of the English, with the goal of stopping Puritan expansion. (wikipedia)

There's a cute idea at the core of this thing, but the execution just doesn't work. It just doesn't. Those imagined encyclopedia volumes are laughably short, and the whole point of encyclopedias is that they cover a variety of topics, in alphabetical order—and yet these imagined volumes are clued as if they are on a single topic. It all just doesn't work. On at least two levels. Nice (if possibly accidental) touch that the theme answers are themselves in alphabetical order. Also nice: some of the fill, namely JERUSALEM, "MY SHARONA," TIM BURTON. I'd add METACOMET, but honestly I've never seen that before in my life. I'm torn between calling an obscurity foul and embracing the weirdness of this new (to-me) name. It's a comet that comments on its own comet-ness. METACOMET!


The rest of the fill, however, is pretty poor. That NW corner is inexcusable, honestly. SELBY over ONEAD :( :( :( A little elbow grease and that corner could be a ton better. See also … lots of places. Yeesh, that western section. Just as the terminal "I" at 1D in the NW creates problems, so the terminal "U" starts a cascade of bad fill in the west. TABU INON ANYA BOSSA, all interlocking, none of it good. No reason these smallish areas should be so heavily laden with word parts and hackneyed fill. OHO YMA ASSNS IMET OLE OHO AHEM YMA AERO ODIE SELA TELE XII HIER… there's just a lot you have to endure in order to enjoy the good stuff.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld