Constructor: Erica Hsiung Wojcik

Relative problem: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ELLIE Greenwich (41D: ___ Greenwich, co-writer of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” and “Da Doo Ron Ron”) —

Eleanor Louise Greenwich (October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009) was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and report producer. She wrote or co-wrote “Da Doo Ron Ron“, “Be My Baby“, “Maybe I Know“, “Then He Kissed Me“, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy“, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)“, “Hanky Panky“, “Chapel of Love“, “Leader of the Pack“, and “River Deep – Mountain High“, amongst others. […] Still in school, in 1962, Greenwich bought her first break within the enterprise when she traveled to the Brill Building to satisfy John Gluck, Jr., one of many composers of the Lesley Gore hit “It’s My Party“. Needing to maintain one other appointment, Gluck put in Greenwich in an workplace and requested her to attend. The workplace turned out to be that of songwriter-producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Hearing piano music from the cubicle, Leiber poked his head in and, anticipating Carole King, was startled to see Greenwich, who launched herself and defined her causes for being there. Recognizing her potential as a songwriter, Leiber and Stoller agreed to permit her to make use of their services as she wished in change for first refusal on songs she wrote. They finally signed Greenwich to their publishing firm, Trio Music, as a employees songwriter. […] On October 28, 1962, [Jeff] Barry and Greenwich married, and shortly afterward determined to put in writing songs solely with one another […] Barry was subsequently signed to Trinity Music, and he and Greenwich got their very own workplace with their names on the door. Before the top of 1963, Barry-Greenwich had scored hits with songs reminiscent of “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You” (The Ronettes), “Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” (The Crystals), “Not Too Young To Get Married” (Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans), and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love, all co-written and produced by Phil Spector. (wikipedia)

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Well, immediately is the primary day since earlier than my NZ journey that I’m making an attempt to do issues on a “regular” schedule; that’s, sleep throughout sleeping hours after which get up at 4:30am to unravel and weblog. Puzzle got here out at completely different (and far more humane) hours in NZ. Then, after I bought house, jet lag made resuming an everyday schedule instantly not possible, so I stayed up late to unravel/weblog … then I bought COVID (not enjoyable!) (thanks, 16-hour airplane journey with actively sick unmasked individuals throughout me!). So my sleep schedule remained ****ed and I used to be writing in the course of the night time, at any time when I occurred to be awake. But I’m feeling a lot better now, and so … sure, making an attempt to renew a standard, or at the very least normal-shaped, schedule. Up and at ’em! Results immediately: nicely, not nice. A breezy zoom-zoom Friday, for me, this was not. It began that approach, however by the point I hit the center of the grid, this one changed into a correct Saturday puzzle. Proper noun after correct noun that I both flat-out did not know or that I knew … however is *that* the way you spell it? (EMORY, John TURTURRO). I’m greater than keen to put in writing off a lot of my wrestle to post-COVID out-of-shapeness and normal fatigue. But the primary a part of the puzzle was so promising! I actually “awwwww”‘d at FUR BABIES!

But issues turned slightly for me popping out of that nook, beginning with LTE, which I understand is an actual abbr. that I see on my cellphone on a regular basis, however oof, of the trendy initialisms, it’s one in every of my least favourite (I truthfully nonetheless do not know what it stands for, and I’ve appeared it up a bunch of occasions!). And then got here the identify avalanche: Port LOUIS (no thought), TURTURRO (knew it, however needed it to be TUTTURRO for some motive), YODA (knew it!), VIET (nope … however inferred it … however wasn’t 100% certain …), EMORY (“*not* EMERY *not* EMERY *not* EMERY…”) … all operating by the toughest of all of them, for me: JUDITH HEUMANN (35A: Leading incapacity rights activist within the 2020 documentary “Crip Camp”). If you do not know her, that final identify, yee-ikes. I’ve seen “Crip Camp” drift previous on the Netflix house display just a few occasions, however have but to observe it. Maybe now? I’ve heard good issues. Anyway, all these lengthy Acrosses have been laborious for me to see (and I do not actually get the wordplay on [Big ticket item?] => COURTSIDE SEAT … you could have a “ticket” to a “huge” … sporting occasion? I suppose). Then the right noun parade continued out of the middle with JR PACMAN (not, in some way, PACMAN, JR.) and ELLIE and CONAN and ouch that clue on BRIE, that stung … Look, this a lot name-ness makes the puzzle really feel like a trivia take a look at, and even when the “recent” names occur to be proper up my alley, there is a restrict to how a lot I can take and nonetheless benefit from the puzzle. Every identify right here appears completely puzzle-worthy, however when, as a solver, you get hung up making an attempt to place collectively names, this tends to sap your potential to understand and even keep in mind the extra entertaining and intelligent parts of the puzzle. But once more, my mind is just not again to 100% so it is doable that on a standard day, this performs a lot nearer to the snappy Friday that I really like and yearn for all the time. 

[“We’ll dress like Minnie Pearl!”]

Had “I’LL BE FINE” earlier than “I’LL MANAGE” (56A: “Don’t fear about me”), which might’ve been a hell of a lure if that nook hadn’t been in any other case very, uh, manageable. Had LOVE SC- and nonetheless could not see LOVE SCENE, which is certainly on me and my out-of-shape fixing mind (12D: Hot take?). Overall, if there have been some method to carry the identify temperature down on this one, I believe I might’ve loved it fairly a bit. Something concerning the mixture of trivia and my present bodily state made fixing a little bit of a slog immediately. Sigh. Onward! [headdesk, crawl to kitchen for coffee…]