Cedar Revolution locale / SAT 8-26-17 / Advice for wannabe loser / 1998 Disney princess / Storied party host / Phrase used as basic tenet of improv comedy / Literary hero who gets resurrected

Constructor: Peter Wentz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: BOYLE'S LAW (15A: PV = k, to a physicist) —

Boyle's law (sometimes referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law, or Mariotte's law^[1]) is an experimental gas law that describes how the pressure of a gas tends to increase as the volume of the container decreases. A modern statement of Boyle's law is

The absolute pressure exerted by a given mass of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to the volume it occupies if the temperature and amount of gas remain unchanged within a closed system.^[2][3]

Mathematically, Boyle's law can be stated as

${\displaystyle P\propto {\frac {1}{V}}}$

or

${\displaystyle PV=k}$

where P is the pressure of the gas, V is the volume of the gas, and k is a constant. (wikipedia)

• • •

I don't think I've ever needed a good puzzle so bad before. Between presidential bigotry and a massive, lethal hurricane, the world was a little too much to take this evening. So it was wonderful to spend time with such a smart, artful, wide-ranging, *living* puzzle. It somehow contained several things I did not know *and* was right in my wheelhouse. The things I didn't know just didn't stand a chance. This is how I like to encounter "things I didn't know": as objects I am flattening on my way to the goal line. There is no part of this puzzle, no nook cranny or corner, that isn't fresh and clean and entertaining. Even the jury-rigged weirdness of "TASTE OK?" made me happy. Once I imagined someone saying / asking it, I realized, "Yeah, that clue's accurate" (8D: "How's the food?"). I hate the word KNEEHOLES (63A: Some office openings). That is the only negative thing I have to say about this puzzle.

[16A: "Um ... I'm standing right here!"]

I knew I was in for a rollercoaster ride when I went swooping into the puzzle via 1D: Former laptop line (iBOOK):

Boom boom boom! OK, that last boom was more thud, as I somehow failed to register the date of the Disney princess (23D: 1998 Disney princess) and missed by eighteen years. And I saw "MULAN" in the theater, too! Ugh. Always hurts to whiff on something you actually know cold. But no matter. Got the NW done quickly and glided over to the NE via EPEE and CHASE, and made short work of that corner as well, despite not knowing LESH (11D: Grateful Dead bassist Phil), or BODYMAN (38A: President's personal aide). Once I worked out "MULAN", getting into the SW was a tad tricky, as I thought the "Forum" of 36A: Forum icons (AVATARS) was Roman, not digital, but YES AND, TAG, and GREG got things moving. Last obstacle was trying to make sense of 43A: Advice for a wannabe loser (DIET TIP). "That's worded weird ... who wants to be a loser?" Who indeed. SE threatened to be difficult, but COME ALIVE proved a good guess at 61A: Start hopping, and ta da, done. Under 7, and that's *with* stoppage time for an early screen grab.


Wishing everyone ... well, just survival, at this point, would be nice.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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