David J.

Hmm. I'm surprised to see the complaints. I am the first to gripe (to myself; this is my first comment ever) when niche proper nouns cross, but I worked this one without any lookups at the long end of my usual Saturday range. I found the "trivia" was all gettable with fill from the crosses combined with the Times EGO/ALDA/OBOE etc. heuristic. It made for a good but challenging Saturday. My two cents. d

Just to balance things out a bit, I thought this was a challenging but fine, well-clued Saturday puzzle. I finished it at the long end of my "normal" expected Saturday range (after some errors in the SW). I found some of the featured answers fresh, and the clues a bit harder than average but never unfair. No puzzle is everyone's cup of tea, but I don't get the (attempted) shaming of the constructor or Eds.

Great puzzle! (Sorry Kevin.) d