Constructor: Jeff Stillman

Relative issue: Easy

THEME: INITIAL HERE (38A: Contract directive … or a touch to what’s lacking from 17-, 20-, 58- and 62-Across) — The “initials” H, E, R, and E are (respectively) omitted in 4 names

Theme solutions:

• WILLIAM [H.] MACY (17A: “Fargo” actor)
• ALFRED [E.] NEUMAN (20A: Mad journal image)
• EDWARD [R.] MURROW (58A: Pioneering journalist who helped expose McCarthyism)
• CHUCK [E.] CHEESE (62A: Rodent with a restaurant chain)

Word of the Day: EDWARD R. MURROW (58A: Pioneering journalist who helped expose McCarthyism) —

Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and conflict correspondent. He first gained prominence throughout World War II with a collection of reside radio broadcasts from Europe for the information division of CBS. During the conflict he recruited and labored carefully with a staff of conflict correspondents who got here to be referred to as the Murrow Boys.

A pioneer of radio and tv information broadcasting, Murrow produced a collection of experiences on his tv program See It Now which helped result in the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, Bill Downs, Dan Rather, and Alexander Kendrick think about Murrow one in every of journalism’s best figures. (wikipedia)

• • •

Many moods for this puzzle. First, annoyance that WILLIAM MACY was within the grid with out the damned “H,” what the hell? Then, aid upon discovering, with ALFRED NEUMAN, that the lacking preliminary was really a bit the puzzle was doing. Then, pleasure upon questioning what these lacking initials would possibly spell, and what the revealer is likely to be. Then (and largely lastly), disappointment at discovering the revealer phrase so uninteresting and bureaucratic, in addition to ever-so-slightly … off. I believe a part of the rationale my mind is resisting this revealer is the truth that “preliminary” additionally means “coming first,” which after all not one of the “initials” do. I admit that this isn’t totally truthful—it is my mind refusing to let issues simply imply what they imply. But after I have a look at that revealer, all I can do is think about a wholly completely different theme the place the *first letters* H, E, R, E are lacking, for some purpose. Mostly the revealer simply does not snap, each as a result of it is inherently boring (as initially paperwork is boring), and since it does not fairly describe what is going on on, at the very least not in an ideal, dead-on manner. I perceive what the revealer desires me to suppose, however as a result of it is INITIAL HERE and never (the nonsensical) INITIALS HERE, you retain having to again up and repeat the phrase so as to make it make sense: the preliminary “H” is lacking, the preliminary “E” is lacking, and so forth. So there is a very intelligent concept right here someplace (spelling one thing with the center initials of well-known individuals / spokesrodents), however that concept solely will get so-so realization right here. 

The larger, a lot larger, drawback is the fill, which is persistently weak regardless of two pairs of cheater squares (these are the black squares that don’t change the reply depend, those added to a grid solely to make filling simpler—in the present day, see the black squares after STAR and CARB, earlier than CLAY and ROMP). It’s a reasonably dense theme, so I give the puzzle just a little leeway the place shorter junk is anxious, however there’s an terrible lot. Cheater squares needs to be used in the event that they get you from iffy to clean, however these seem solely to have gotten the grid to iffy. Not positive why I’m seeing AHME and ALII and UPC CNET SSE, then AHS (after we Already Have an AH in AHME!? Such a simple repair, too … baffling); then ISAY DAW SYS in a single unlucky clump, then that INLA LAALAA stack, my god, after which NRC YOHO (you employ a cheater sq. and all it will get you is … YOHO!?). Working my manner via this grid was form of a chore, with only a few attention-grabbing and even clean patches to brighten the journey.

P.S. Bonus Content: this is the primary web page of the MAD paperback pictured above: