___ / Enemigo de un ratón / Repeated word in the Star Wars” prologue / Indigenous person of northern South America

Constructor: Larry Snyder

Relative difficulty: Medium (by old standards—by recent standards, more Medium-Challenging)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: “Alea iacta EST” (24A: “Alea iacta ___” (“The die is cast”)) —

Alea iacta est (“The die is cast”) is a variation of a Latin phrase (iacta alea est [ˈjakta ˈaːlɛ.a ˈɛs̺t]) attributed by Suetonius to Julius Caesar on 10 January 49 BC, as he led his army across the Rubicon river in Northern Italy, between Cesena and Rimini, in defiance of the Roman Senate and beginning a long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates. The phrase is often used to indicate events that have passed a point of no return.

According to Plutarch, Caesar originally said the line in Greek rather than Latin, as ἀνερρίφθω κύβος anerrhī́phthō kýbos, literally “let a die be cast”, metaphorically “let the game be played”. This is a quote from a play by Menander, and Suetonius’s Latin translation is slightly misleading, being merely a statement about the inevitability of what is to come, while the Greek original contains a self-encouragement to venture forward. The Latin version is now most commonly cited with the word order changed (Alea iacta est), and it is used both in this form, and in translation in many languages. The same event inspired another related idiom, “crossing the Rubicon“. (wikipedia)

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Struggled more than usual, but I feel like some of that struggle was caused by sleepiness. I mean, it should not have taken me as long as it did to get MEGHAN, for instance (42D: Duchess of Sussex beginning in 2018). I don’t care about royals at all and generally zone out whenever they’re mentioned, but still, she’s pretty famous. The only name I could think of, though, was CAMILLA (sp?), so … pfft. And then stuff like VERGE (55A: Border (on)) and SEE (48A: Call at the table?) … seems like these should’ve come to me instantly, but they didn’t, so … I think it’s just taking my brain longer than usual to come back online this morning. There did seem to be an awful lot of “?” and otherwise trick clues today. Ambiguous or deliberately misleading. Some of it worked—the clue on DELETED SCENES is really quite good (33A: Takes in the trash?). But then some of it worked … less. Or felt more awkward, anyway. The clue on CREASED, for instance, or HATEWATCH. They’re clever, in their way, but they are really … trying. I feel like the clues themselves are going “Get it? get it? See, it’s clever because …” and I’m like “yeah, I see now … relax.” If something’s CREASED, it’s (arguably? maybe? if you use language in a weird way?) in need of “evening out” (49A: In need of an evening out?). The “an” before “evening” in the clue makes you think “evening” is a noun meaning “night.” So I get the “joke.” But I also wouldn’t say “this crease needs evening out,” ever (“ironing out,” yes). So … the “joke” landed oddly for me.