Beer brand owned by Pabst / 5-1-13 / Trek ending in Mecca / Chekhovian sister of Masha Irina / J'adore fragrance maker

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: LEI / DAY (39A: With 41-Across, annual May 1 celebration) — circled squares form a kind of ring, in which LEI is spelled out repeatedly. Two other theme answers are stuck in the NE and SW corners, respectively:

• 9A: Word heard on 39-/41-Across (ALOHA)
• 70A: Performances on 39-/41-Across (HULAS)

Word of the Day: PIELS (31D: Beer brand owned by Pabst) —

Piels Beer, aka Piel Bros. Beer and Piel's Beer, is a regional lager beer, originally brewed in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York, at 315 Liberty Avenue. Piels, in its present incarnation, is generally regarded as an inexpensive beer. (wikipedia)

I'm legitimately mystified as to how a puzzle this poorly filled gets published. It's laughable. I stopped *three* answers in, at the ALOU / ALIA crossing, and thought "Oh boy, this does not bode well ..." And it didn't. Never mind that *all* the theme material is itself crosswordese—I guess it's LEI / DAY (did not know that), and there's a ring in the puzzle, sort of LEI-shaped, so ... fine. It's a dull theme, but you can have it. And yet why in the world are we subjected to so much manifest garbage? Lots and lots and lots of tired material, and then a bunch of stuff you should never see except in emergencies. SERIE? (25D: Something watched on télévision) FELID!?!!?! (34A: Member of the cat family) No idea what the hell PIELS is. YEOWS (pl?) crossing YIPE? APLOT crossing AFLOW (?) in close proximity to AGLARE? YALEU? Then there's the south. I mean, EEO next to IER? The whole grid just reeks of not caring. One of my good crossword friends (who also Hates bad fill) thinks last Tuesday's was much worse, and while that puzzle was indeed not good, I disagree. That one had some howlers, but the theme was more interesting, and there was less garbage overall. Also, this puzzle, unlike last week's, is ... let's just say "not a debut."


I am finishing up my 17th-century Lit course next week, so I have a certain fondness for JAMES II (4D: King replaced by William and Mary). FILMDOM is not bad, and it's hard to hate LUMMOX (58A: Clodhopper), which is a great word. BE AN ANGEL is kind of an interesting phrase, and LOVERLY is cute. Oh god, I just noticed EELERS (51D: Fishers with pots) and now the very tenuous good-feelings spell has been broken. Sorry. I got nothing left to say about this puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld