Sophomoric J

I don't normally comment on here, but man... its like this puzzle didn't want to be fun. I spent 6 hours trying to solve this without lookups, and I wish I could get that time back. I really liked the NE and SE sections, but NW and SW were chores to get through. I was stuck with DRYBAR, RHOUSE, MOUTHS and ADVICE for soooo long. I had "teen MOUTHS" for a long time (they french a lot?) and "case ADVICE" (counsel on getting "a lead"). The "by-the-wind sailor" was especially unfair, because you needed to a. know what that is b. know its another name for Velella and c. know that they're BLOB shaped. Also having LEA SALONGA crossing GALOIS, OCELO and THOS is just... cruelty. All four of those terms are so relatively niche, and having them all cross like that is heavily unfair. I don't mind the challenge, and it makes it more satisfying when I'm able to overcome it, but in the end I still wanna have fun. I don't want to have to do homework before hand.

This might have gone under the radar for a lot of people, but the answer for 56A was directly referenced in another Wordplay article for May 9th's puzzle, when referencing Ari Shapiro's similarly titled memoir. Seeing the clue here with the exact same title actually made me feel pretty good since I was rewarded for reading the Wordplay article, and I was satisfied seeing the symmetry in both radio journalists getting their proper recognition.