![]() 42A: The so-called Island of the Gods ( BALI) - weird: whenever the Judeo-Christian God or anything biblical is in the puzzle, you never see any of this "so-called" nonsense.51A: Rappers' covers ( DO-RAGS) - Some rappers' covers, sure.29A: Letters signifying quality brandy ( VSOP) - I know this only from crosswords.18A: "Guaranteed relief every time" sloganeer ( EX-LAX) - not my favorite way to get two Xs, but daring nonetheless.17A: 1958 Buddy Holly hit (" MAYBE BABY") - nice answer, and one that was a joy to uncover, mainly because it had me combing through and humming the Buddy Holly catalog.I might have indicated that MARIO KART had a misspelled word-it would've gone nicely with the " WE R WHO WE R" clue, which did the same. Cluing on SONO- could've saved the one cross. Objectively, the crosses I have discussed are bad. I knew the Ke$ha song and the video game and the tributary, but I can still see that it's going to (unfairly) screw other people up. The point isn't what I, personally, do and don't know. Please note: I gave you two examples of Naticks today. If I'd done it on paper, I would've been blissfully unaware that SOLO / ULALOVA was wrong. Actually, a whole lot of people are going to have errors and Never Know. This is what happens when you don't take care to avoid this kind of crap-it's what people remember. Dear lord, if you're going to have a terrible answer like SONO, and your cross is from *&^%ing ballet, at least clue it as a prefix or something. I mean, it's a *&^%ing aria, and SOLO is a *&^%ing Italian word. Obviously ULANOVA sounds more correct now that I see it, but it's not like "L" is an absurd guess, and SOLO seems sooooo much more plausible than SONO ( 20A: "Dove _" (Mozart aria)). This is all to say that I had SOLO / ULALOVA. Every solver is ignorant of something, and the beauty of Crosswords is that he/she can save herself from having that ignorance completely derailing the solving experience. It's fine to have all manner of answers in your puzzle, including all manner of oddities and obscurities, but you do not cross unfamous proper nouns at an uninferrable letter and you Especially do not do so when both answers are from the same cultural world. Again, two proper nouns of dubious fame, but this time, both from the Same General Sphere of Knowledge (the sphere of classical music, broadly defined). The other Natick (the one that got me) was SONO / ULANOVA.
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