Shop dresser / SUN 12-19-10 / 1914 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel / Superhero played Liam Neeson 1990 film / Clone optical medium's contents

Constructor: Kevin G. Der

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE (125A: Event on Dec. 21, 2010, viewable in North and South America, depicted visually in this puzzle) — mostly a rebus a puzzle, with the MOON going BRIGHT, DIM, DARK (rebus squares in upper left of grid) until it's directly aligned with the EARTH (rebus square) and SUN (rebus square), then goes DARK, DIM, BRIGHT again (rebus squares in upper right of grid). In a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, the SUN is CASTING / A SHADOW on the MOON (137A: With 146-Across, what the center of this puzzle is doing during a 125-Across). Oh, and apparently at its climax, the MOON will TURN RED (35A: What the focus of a 125-Across will do at its climax) during a TOTAL ECLIPSE.


Word of the Day: AMNION (96D: Protective membrane) —

n., pl., -ni·ons, or -ni·a (-nē-ə).
A thin, tough, membranous sac that encloses the embryo or fetus of a mammal, bird, or reptile. It is filled with a serous fluid in which the embryo is suspended. (wikipedia)

• • •

An incredible architectural achievement (on an oversized 23x23 grid) that I didn't enjoy much at all. Did not understand (and still mostly don't) the BRIGHT, DIM, DARK squares, and that BRIGHT square in the west was a total bear. I mean, that section was bleeping hard. Had IN UTERO and ERST and that's it. If I'd gotten the BRIGHT on the other side first, things would've been so much easier (I mean, Madeleine AlBRIGHT—easy!). But back to BRIGHT DIM DARK. Why does the MOON go DARK before the alignment with SUN and EARTH, and *then* TURN RED!? Oh, here's an explanation:

The Moon does not completely disappear as it passes through the umbra because of the refraction of sunlight by the Earth’s atmosphere into the shadow cone; if the Earth had no atmosphere, the Moon would be completely dark during an eclipse. The red coloring arises because sunlight reaching the Moon must pass through a long and dense layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, where it is scattered. Shorter wavelengths are more likely to be scattered by the air molecules and the small particles, and so by the time the light has passed through the atmosphere, the longer wavelengths dominate. This resulting light we perceive as red. (wikipedia)

But does the MOON ever get wholly DARK, then? Confusing. The whole concept felt forced in terms of its physical execution in grid-space. I mean, there are some inspired (if brutal) answers in this puzzle because of all the theme mumbo jumbo. CD IMAGE, ouch! Criminy (47A: Clone of an optical medium's contents). And what the hell (I thought) is the center square in AT THE — SCORE. "At the [blank] Score," what kind of a title is that? (SCORE is not a self-standing word at all—answer is "AT THE EARTH'S CORE"). RARE EARTH is not a term I've ever heard except as a band name (59D: Terbium or thulium). I thought turbium and thulium were RARE metals? RARE elements? Pfft. I finished with a wrong letter: AMNEON / TE AMO instead of AMNION / TI AMO (119A: Italian lover's coo). This error is ironic for reasons I'll tell you about in a few days.



BRIGHT spots: MAHARANI (120A: Indian royal) over XRAY SPEX (124A: Novelty glasses), PEA BRAINS (57A: Dummies), and the clue on LITERATI (116A: Book set?). Lowlights: ENARM (64D: Prepare to fight), OLOGY (86D: Science), TEEMER (98D: One that overflows), INBUILT (150A: There from the start), and the clue on MXLV (120D: The year 1045). Also the partial A MERE, ugh (89A: "Honor is ___ scutcheon": Shak.). Again, that little section in the west, just nasty. Oh, and I almost forgot: ARRANT?!?! I have literally never seen that word before (95D: Out-and-out). Maybe I've *heard* it and thought it was spelled "ERRANT." Yeeeeesh.

Theme answers:

• BRIGHT IDEA (63D: Promising proposal) / BRIGHTEN (63A: Remove drapes from, as a room) -- ALBRIGHT (69A: First female U.S. secretary of state) / BRIGHT SIDE ) (71D: Optimist's focus)
  
• ON A DIME (40A: One way to stop) / DIMAG (41D: Yankee great Joe, colloquially) -- CD IMAGE / DIMLY (48D: How things may be lit or remembered)
  
• AFTER DARK (29A: At night) / DARKMAN (30D: Superhero played by Liam Neeson in a 1990 film) -- DARK HORSE (32A: Long-shot candidate) / DARK AGE (32D: Era of ignorance)
  
• MANY MOONS AGO (26A: A long time past) / MOONING (27D: Youthful prank in a car)
  
• AT THE EARTH'S CORE / RARE EARTH
  
• GOES UNDER (140A: Folds) / SUN-UP (143D: Dawn)
  

Studied Chaucer forEver and never once did I hear "HEROIC couplet" used in relation to his work (16D: Kind of couplet for Chaucer). That is a term I associate with much later poets (18c) who wrote in a much more regular meter. Chaucer's lines in "Canterbury Tales" are, generally, rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter, and that, apparently, is good enough for him to get credited all over the place with writing in HEROIC couplets, but this seems imprecise. "HEROIC" just doesn't fit for "CT." Except maybe "The Knight's Tale." Here's the definition of "HEROIC couplet" from "Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms":

Named from its use by Dryden and others in the heroic drama of the late 17th century, the heroic couplet had been established much earlier by Chaucer as a major English verse‐form for narrative and other kinds of non‐dramatic poetry; it dominated English poetry of the 18th century, notably in the closed couplets of Pope, before declining in importance in the early 19th century.

This makes sense—invented in the English Augustan Age and then grafted back onto Chaucer. Dryden was, after all, one of Chaucer's most important translators. It's the "for Chaucer" part of the clue that bugs me. "HEROIC couplet" was not a term "for Chaucer." It didn't exist in the 14th century.

Bullets:

• 11A: Shop dresser (ADZE) — so "dressing" is some kind of woodworking term? This clue was hard.
  
• 23A: Rama's kingdom (SIAM) — King Mongkut of "The King and I"? — Rama IV? Confusing.
  
• 38A: Glossy black bird (DAW) — crossword instinct: this was my first guess. Also had good luck recalling another crossword regular, SATO (51D: 1974 Japanese Nobelist).
  
• 103A: Loser to McKinley (BRYAN) — trouble, as this went through the mysterious ARRANT...
  
• 151A: It marks the target on a curling rink (TEE LINE) — target is shaped like bullseye, isn't it? Not a line ... this is some technical thing I clearly don't understand.
  
• 18D: Paper for which Murray Kempton and Jim Dwyer won Pulitzers (NEWSDAY) — who?
  
• 101D: Jordan's Queen ___ International Airport (ALIA) — ugh. yuck. How was this not NOOR?
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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