88 98 of autodom / TUE 6-9-15 / Marsupial that looks like small bear / Much-discussed program of 1960s-70s / Eponymous chair designer

Constructor: Roy Leban

Relative difficulty: Tuesdayish


THEME: Triple Crown winners — theme answers are just years in brackets. Answers are the horses that won the Triple Crown that year. [Note on puzzle reads: "The five Across answers with only years for clues are the five most recent members of a particular category."]

Theme answers:

• CITATION [1948]
• SEATTLE SLEW [1977]
• AMERICAN PHAROAH [2015]
• SECRETARIAT [1973]
• AFFIRMED [1978]

Word of the Day: DIRE (55A: Descriptive of some undesirable consequences) —

adjective

1. (of a situation or event) extremely serious or urgent. 

   "dire consequences"

   synonyms:

   terrible, dreadful, appalling, frightful, awful, atrocious, grim, alarming;More

   • (of a warning or threat) presaging disaster.

     "dire warnings about breathing the fumes"

     synonyms:

     ominous, gloomy, grim, dismal, unpropitious, inauspicious, unfavorable, pessimistic "dire warnings of fuel shortages" (google)

This is a non-theme. About as vanilla as a "tribute" puzzle can get. This is the kind of thing where you observe that the last four Triple Crown winners' names can be arranged symmetrically, and then you observe that AMERICAN PHAROAH is a 15, and so you quickly build a grid (with essentially found, prefab theme answers, this is not hard), and … wait with your fingers crossed for the results of the Belmont? The symmetricality is indeed fortuitous, but the puzzle itself is totally unimaginative, and poorly filled to boot. For a puzzle that had to be made ahead of time, you'd think it would be much more clever, or at least more polished. This is basically a game of "hey, remember that horse?" posing as some kind of "Mission: Impossible"-style, "how'd-they-turn-that-around-so-quickly!?" ultra-current piece of constructor/editorial wizardry. Independent outfits manage to be at least this topical and nimble, while also being clever and polished and entertaining, on a very regular basis. Not sure why the NYT "tributes" always seems like just sad lists—symmetrical arrangements of stuff in a grid because stuff fits symmetrically in a grid.


Bullets:

• 19D: "Isn't she cute?!" ("AWW") — I had "AAW." Exciting, I know. 
• 30D: Onetime Mideast grp. (UAR)— crossing USSR! How … something. HISTorical, maybe.
• 1A: Marsupial that looks like a small bear (WOMBAT)— easily my favorite thing in the grid. I hereby offer to the constructing world the potential theme answer "Mortal WOMBAT." I don't know the theme exactly … puns on video games … or Australian fauna … or a K/W swap dealie … be creative!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]