NFL Hall of famed Bronko / TUE 4-21-15 / Voting bloc from Reconstruction to 1960s / Chinese divination book / Slow Spanish dance / Cezanne et 4-verticale / Bettor's comeback / Hwy cut into two parts by Lake Michigan

Constructor: Gerry Wildenberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging (**for a Tuesday**) (time: over 4 minutes)

THEME: (SA- thru SU-) x 2 — two-word phrases where both words start with "S" and the subsequent letter in each case is a vowel, starting with "A" in the first theme answer and ending with "U" in the last:

Theme answers:

• SATURDAY SABBATH (17A: Jewish observance)
• SESAME SEED (22A: Hamburger bun topper)
• SIMPLE SIMON (33A: Nursery rhyme character "going to the fair")
• SOLID SOUTH (49A: Voting bloc from Reconstruction to the 1960s)
• SURGE SUPPRESSOR (55A: Power strip part)

Word of the Day: Bronko NAGURSKI (37D: N.F.L. Hall-of-Famer Bronko ___) —

Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski (November 3, 1908 – January 7, 1990) was a Canadian-born American football player. He was also a successful professional wrestler, recognized as a multiple-time world heavyweight champion. (wikipedia)

America: we are all supposed to know who Bronko NAGURSKI is. I know, I know, it's not fair, but this is Obama's America, so love it or leave it or something. I first griped about the obscurity of this guy earlier in the month, in an indie puzzle (I think), but then some kid taunted me by saying it was a gimme, but I wrote that off to the kid's being a show-off (pfft, kids). But now here we are. From never-seen-him to seen-him-twice inside a month. I can see how his name would have a certain allure for odd name fetishists, i.e. most crossword constructors. I still think he's as far from a Tuesday answer as Ceres is from Mercury, and that placing him in that particular place (37D), where his name is the *only* way into the top part of the SE, was particularly cruel (and had an even greater De-Tuesdaying effect). But Bronko NAGURSKI is the new normal. I am learning to live with it.


The theme … I didn't notice until I was done. Well after I was done, actually. Immediately after, I went to google to confirm that SURGE SUPPRESSOR is baloney, or at least not the thing one first thinks of when confronted with the phrase "SURGE ___." And I was right. Tell 'em, google:

I wanted PROTECTOR. Everyone wanted PROTECTOR. Yeah you did. Shut up, you did so. That answer and SATURDAY SABBATH (which I always thought was just SABBATH) both felt forced, especially compared to the others, which were tight—though, full confession, I flat-out Did Not Know SOLID SOUTH. Never heard of it. I took US History. And yet … I had nothing. Run NAGURSKI through SOLID SOUTH and SUPPRESSOR (which this puzzle does) and you can see where I spent most of my time floundering. That SE was like it's own little mud pit. Muddy because difficult and muddy because kinda ODORiferous, fill-wise (USTEN EMOTER OOP… and TOE SIN: The Lowest Sin Of All). The rest of the grid felt pretty clean.

Lesser: ALTI, EXC, MDI
Greater: "LEAN IN,"CASHIER, CLAMOR

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld