Constructor: Peter Wentz
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: noneWord of the Day: Raymond MASSEY (
14D: Raymond who played Abraham Lincoln) —
Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian/American actor. [...]
Massey scored a great triumph on Broadway in Robert E. Sherwood's play Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and he repeated his role in the 1940 film version (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor). Massey again portrayed Lincoln in The Day Lincoln Was Shot on Ford Star Jubilee (1956), and, in a wordless appearance this time, in How the West Was Won (1962). A fellow actor is said to have remarked that Massey wouldn't be satisfied with his Lincoln impersonation until someone assassinated him. (wikipedia)
• • •
"
I LUV It"! (
5D: "___ It" (2006 Young Jeezy single)
Nice, toughish puzzle—clean, fresh, and with hardly a clunker or true obscurity in sight (exception:
CASS!? (
10D: Lewis ___, loser to Zachary Taylor in 1848); Yikes—really need to brush up on my presidential also-rans, apparently). Even though Mr. Wentz is younger than I am, I tend to be on his level, (pop) culture-wise, and today was no exception. He just handed me
"WHIP IT" (1A: 1980 New Wave classic), "SPACE JAM" (7A: 1996 hybrid animation/live-action film), JAR-JAR (39D: Sci-fi's ___ Binks), HAMELS (15A: Cole ___, 2008 World Series M.V.P.), and
"TAKE ON ME" (38A: 1985 #1 whose video won six MTV Video Music Awards). I remember being mesmerized by that video in 1985, watching it over and over while on vacation at my aunt and uncle's house in Bellevue, WA (vacation being the one time we could watch MTV with virtual impunity, my parents having gone through a brief but memorable phase of imagining that the network was warping my ... uh, moral sensibilities or something? ... who can say? They were not really the censorious types, but one partially seen Boomtown Rats video with a snake on a naked lady, and all of a sudden it's all Moral Majority up in my house ... never mind that the "naked lady" was actually Bob Geldof ... wait, where was I?).
Even though
UNDER GOD and
FAZOOL are, technically, partials, I *really* like that SE corner. It's sassy and lovely and
GORGEous (yes, I just did that). Absolutely love the abutting full-named senators in the NE (
12D: 1995-2013 senator from Arizona / 13D: 1985-93 senator from Tennessee). Had a little bit of trouble with the end of "
WHAT'S UP, G?" Shouldn't that be "WHAT UP, G?" Sounds better that way. More authentic. And who better to speak to the authenticity of urban slang than me!? No one, that's who.
Hardest part of this puzzle for me was the SW, where, for a bit, I had only
COLECO (42D: First marketer of Cabbage Patch Kids). Then I saw the
JAR-JAR clue and quickly got the front ends of all the longer Acrosses, and *still* couldn't make headway. JOE...? ANN...? RES...? Also, crossing-wise, TAX...? Damn French clue was killing me (
48D: ___ concours (unrivaled: Fr.) = HORS). So was the cross-referencing of clues within this tiny patch that I didn't have (
EXIT / REST STOP). Man I hate when cross-referenced clues are on top of each other. "Hate" is too strong. It's just that if they happen to fall in a patch you're struggling with, it's maddening. You *can't* refer to the other clue because it's In The Same Damned Empty Area. Anyway, I just guessed
ANNE RICE and then *finally*
JOE BOXER came to me (should Not have taken so long), and everything fell into place. Except for a typo I had in the SE, which I had to hunt down (PAZOOL? Brain must've tried to fit PASTA in there).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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