Constructor: Aimee Lucido

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: DRUM ROLL (55A: Display of skill on might request from 17-Across and 8- and 28-Down … depicted literally four times in this puzzle) — the letters D, R, U, and M appear in four-square pattern four times, and the letters “roll” (i.e. rotate) one place in each subsequent iteration, if you follow the “DRUM” configurations clock- or counterclockwise starting … really anywhere. There are also three famous drummers in this grid (!)

Theme answers:

• MEG WHITE (17A: Half of a 1990s-2000s rock duo with six Grammys) [The “duo” in question is The White Stripes]
• JOHN BONHAM (8D: Member of Led Zeppelin)
• RINGO STARR (28D: One of the Fab Four)

Word of the Day: Franz Anton MESMER (61A: Doctor who lent his name to a therapeutic system) —

Franz Anton Mesmer (; German: [ˈmɛsmɐ]; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorised the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; this he called “animal magnetism“, sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer’s theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the 19th century. In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term “hypnotism” for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word “mesmerism” generally functions as a synonym of “hypnosis”. Mesmer also supported the arts, specifically music; he was on friendly terms with Haydn and Mozart. (wikipedia) /// Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmerin the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (Lebensmagnetismus) possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. He claimed that the force could have physical effects, including healing. // The vitalist theory attracted numerous followers in Europe and the United States and was popular into the 19th century. Practitioners were often known as magnetizers rather than mesmerists. It had an important influence in medicine for about 75 years from its beginnings in 1779, and continued to have some influence for another 50 years. Hundreds of books were written on the subject between 1766 and 1925, but it is no longer practiced today except as a form of alternative medicine in some places. (wikipedia)

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OK, wow, so … I was wellllll into my write-up before I realized that the theme wasn’t just the rolling “DRUM,” that there were actual drummers in the dang grid. This is to say, I Literally Didn’t Read the Revealer Clue (completely), Even Though I Typed It Into The Theme Explanation Above, WTF!? I was all “Oh, huh, the ‘DRUM’ thing’s cute, but this is basically a Wednesday themeless blah blah blah.” Here’s what I had written before the very, very belated “Aha / OMG!” kicked in. As you can see, I’d written A Lot: 

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I don’t know that I’ve seen a less consequential theme. I don’t mean that it’s bad. It’s perfectly fine, clever even, but this rotating set of four letters affects the overall solving process virtually not at all, and since there are no proper theme answers (except the revealer), what you’ve got here is essentially a Wednesday themeless … which is fine by me! I mean, I see the theme, hello there, theme, you’re looking well today, but the theme here is merely decorative. Ornamental. A little frosting for your mostly themeless cake. It’s the grid that holds almost all the interest, and (because it’s not laden with pesky “theme answers”), it’s actually a really vibrant and entertaining grid. A little on the name-y side, for sure, which is why I have its difficulty set a little high today—a lot of y’all are simply not going to know MEG WHITE, or maybe even JOHN BONHAM, and I had trouble myself coming up with things like DIGG and MESMER (I guess I completely forgot, or never knew, that Mesmerism was considered a full-blown “therapeutic system”). I will confess that I actually did require help from the theme to get me through one of the corners. I saw all those LOTR movies (ponderous, humorless, can’t imagine rewatching any of them), but the names never really stuck with me, and I don’t think I ever read the books as a kid, so I ended up calling the Dwarf (GIMLI) with the classic early-aughts cinematic flop, “GIGLI.” I probably would’ve figured out my mistake from the cross (HAMMER), but noticing that my “DRUM” was a “DRUG” actually got me out of the jam sooner.

So, theme shmeme, let’s look at the grid … it looks good! Little heavy on the names—and again, as with one of last week’s puzzles, it’s musical names that dominate—but the names are all legit famous and the crosses are fair. There were no dull or unpolished parts of the grid, even if things do get a little (BY) GUMmed up in the “DRUM” areas (I’m looking at you, UNDOER). The thing about this theme is that while you don’t really notice it (much), it still puts a lot of pressure on the grid. Very hard to construct cleanly around a spinning “DRUM,” and I thought this puzzle met that challenge pretty well. There was no one part of the grid that stood out, but it really felt like it was shimmering all over. The JEERING RUTABAGA crossing MEG WHITE and COME TRUE is all very nice. RINGO STARR and JOHN BONHAM feel like stan…

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That last sentence was supposed to read: “RINGO STARR and JOHN BONHAM feel like stand-ins for proper theme answers.” Cue infinite LOLs. The theme answers are staring me in the face and I’m just walking past them like “Hey guys, weird that you’re all music people, right? Anyway, where’s the theme?” Wow. OK, so … my appreciation of this puzzle just went through the roof. That’s a *lot* of theme material. There’s theme *everywhere*. And yet it feels like a snazzy themeless-ish grid!? All that theme and a JEERING RUTABAGA too!? Feels like magic.

WISTERIA SICK DAY! The constructor has truly GUSSY‘d up this grid, BY GUM! Just cramming themeless-worthy entries into the non-thematic nooks and crannies of this grid. It’s so nice. And now that the Musical Names (we’ve established) are actually part of the theme, the grid looks much more varied in its overall concerns. ONEIDA JARGON STAKEOUT WHITTLE NEW CAR, these are all really good answers, especially in a puzzle with this much thematic density. The more demanding the theme, the harder it is to keep up the vibrancy of your fill, but this grid makes it look easy. I did fumble around a little more than usual for a Wednesday today, starting with COME TO BE at 14A: Materialize (COME TRUE). I then couldn’t quite figure out what the clue on JEERING was doing (7D: Ballpark fill served with raspberries?) so I imagined there was some kind of extended fruit pun going on and I wrote in JEERIES (slang for ‘jeering’ that is also a pun on ‘cherries’!?!?).