Constructor: Mark Feldman
Relative trouble: moderate
MOTIF: ROUND-TRIP TICKET (65A: Traveler’s option … or everything you don’t can get on a 17-, 27- or 48-Across) — theme email address details are all games discussing (theoretically) one-way trips — I’m maybe not convinced you can’t come-back from NO PLACE …
Word-of the Day: John NANCE Garner (35D: F.D.R. veep John ___ Garner) —
GARNER, John Nance, a Representative from Texas and a Vice President regarding the US; created near Detroit, Red River County, Tex., November 22, 1868; had restricted educational benefits; examined law, accepted into club in 1890, and commenced training in Uvalde, Uvalde County, Tex.; judge of Uvalde County, Tex., 1893-1896; member, state-house of representatives 1898-1902; elected as a Democrat to your Fifty-eighth and to the fourteen succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903-March 3, 1933); served as minority floor leader (Seventy-first Congress) so that as Speaker of the House of Representatives (Seventy-second Congress); reelected to your Seventy-third Congress on November 8, 1932, as well as on the same day was elected Vice President regarding the US from the ticket headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt; reelected vice-president in 1936 and served because workplace from March 4, 1933, to January 20, 1941; resigned to exclusive life and resided in Uvalde, Tex., until their death here on November 7, 1967; interment in Uvalde Cemetery. (Biographical Directory associated with United States Congress)
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Good small palate cleanser after yesterday’s spicy meatball. Areas of this were simple, but there were enough small hiccups as you go along maintain me personally at a completely typical time (for me personally, on Mondays, it is someplace in the lowish 3’s). We destroyed precious moments out of the gate, when I had no clue what direction to go with 4D: Cutting element of a lumberjack‘s device (AXHEAD). My mind banged into crosswordese equipment: ICE AXE? No. AXE … exactly what? Had the “E” and attempted AXEEND. When that did not work, I really had AXEEAR (!?). As soon as I tossed HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN over the grid, I got it just good, but i am telling you, if you are solving quickly, moments tend to be valuable, hence had been enough to hold myself from a faster-than-avg. time. Also bad, because after that on out we killed it. Slowed slightly at NANCE (that we didn’t know), and got just a little tentative with OTARU (though I happened to be confident it absolutely was right) (39A: Japanese port). Had the VIOLATION the main the final motif response to start with and considered ELECTRONIC TICKET … that it is quicker, for me, to battle through crosses til a solution becomes visible than it really is for me personally to take time to check all the theme answers and determine what the revealer might-be getting at. We usually do not observe Monday motifs until After I’m done. True once more today. As for the motif, it’s strange and smart, however was not the complete point of HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN that Michael Landon *came back* and did stuff for folks and gave guidance or something like that??? That demonstrate had most of the selling point of “Touched by an Angel” (i.e. not one) for me personally, thus I have no idea. Yes! he is an “angel delivered down to earth” (wiki). Therefore … there! I like to consider M. Landon as all good-hearted Us americans do: as Charles (“Pa”) in “minimal House regarding Prairie.”
Theme responses:
- 17A: 1980s TV show starring Michael Landon (“HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN”)
- 27A: 2002 Tom Hanks/Paul Newman film (“ROAD TO PERDITION”)
- 48A: Onetime Alaska boondoggle (BRIDGE TO NOWHERE)
Bullets:
- 38A: business for geniuses (MENSA) — my partner, in just one of her not-so-charitable moments, exclaimed as she solved this “Why don’t they ever clue this as [Organization for pretentious twits] — just the term wasn’t “twits.” Close. Although not.
- 43A: Cranium contents (MIND) — i may have lost a couple of seconds here, also, thinking “articles” would clue a plural.
- 47A: Big Japanese computer maker: Abbr. (NEC) — there was a period once I was not familiar with this abbrev. Never ever enjoy it when abbrevs. mix stuff I’m not sure (right here, NANCE). In the conclusion, no issue these days.
- 27D: Oblique-angled, four-sided figure (RHOMB) — Wife not happy right here often. “Is RHOMBUS plural?” Um, no. RHOMB is merely just what RHOMBUS’s pals call him.
- 34D: Willow whose twigs are employed in basketry (OSIER) — discovered early in my resolving profession. For no obvious explanation, We have an affection because of it. Relevant (via basketry) to RAFFIA, which is why i’ve no particular love.
Finalized, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld