Victor at Gettysburg / WED 9-12-12 / When repeated hit 1997 movie / Tokyo-based carrier / Edson Arantes do Nascimento to fans / City founded by Pizarro in 1535 / Letter to Odin / Palace of Nations locale

To contact us Click HERE
Constructor: Robert W. Harris

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Move the S — familiar two-word phrases where the second word begins in "S" are clued as if the "S" is the possessive ending of the first word; wackiness ensues.

Word of the Day: Harvard's NIEMAN Foundation for Journalism (45D) —

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in 1938 as the result of a $1 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of The Milwaukee Journal. She stated the goal was "to promote and elevate the standards of journalism in the United States and educate persons deemed specially qualified for journalism." It is based at Walter Lippmann House in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, being on Twitter actually helped me solve a puzzle. I Follow the NIEMAN Journalism Lab at Harvard (@NiemanLab), which is the *only* way I know that name. Not sure how I started following them in the first place, but ... who cares!? That little bit of knowledge probably took 20-30 seconds off my time. You're always in good shape when you are at least familiar with all the puzzle's proper nouns, as I was today. Les NESSMAN, check (31A: WKRP's Les). Whatever his name is MEADE, check (37A: Victor at Gettysburg). "LIAR, LIAR," check (1A: When repeated, a hit 1997 movie). Even when the clues seemed mysterious, the answers always ended up being very familiar. See LIMA (19A: City founded by Pizarro in 1535), PELE (36A: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, to fans), and GENEVA (43D: Palace of Nations locale).

Couldn't remember what (the hell) "feldspar" was (turns out it's a MINERAL), but other than that, most stuff was in my wheelhouse. This felt pretty hard at first. Couldn't see the theme for a very long time—I'd gone from the top of the grid to the bottom without solving a single theme answer. Then COMIC'S TRIP off of TRIP, and once the gimmick was out of the bag, the other answers went from "???" to cinches.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Index, middle, ring and pinkie fingers? (THUMB'S CREW) — my favorite theme clue of the day
• 29A: "Lord, make me impervious to Raid?" (BUG'S PRAYER) 
• 43A: Reason everyone whispered during the afternoon on Gilligans' island? (GINGER'S NAP)
• 57A: Excursion for Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock? (COMIC'S TRIP)

I like this theme, even though it's very simple and feels like something I've seen several times before. The key is the clues, and at least half of them are funny—a good batting average for this sort of thing. The one that doesn't work for me at all is BUG'S PRAYER. I like the clue—I just don't think of a "bug sprayer" as a thing. "Bug spray," sure, but not "sprayer." The other theme answers are based on tight, familiar, common phrases. That one's just a little ... loose. Defensible, but nobody wants "defensible."

Bullets:

• 21A: Loudness units (BELS) — See also SONE, another loudness unit I've never seen anywhere but crosswords.
• 10A: Tokyo-based carrier (JAL) — The one other important Japanese aviation-related crossword answer I can think of is NARITA (Tokyo's airport).
• 25D: Letter to Odin? (RUNE) — Cute clue. I'm technically a medievalist (if my Ph.D. is to be believed), so, no problem here.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld