Conditional construct in computer programming / SAT 6-4-16 / Opera genre for Tosca Pagliacci / Hooked projection on bird feather / 1980s electronic innovation from Detroit / Lily Tomlin character headset

Constructor: Byron Walden and Brad Wilber

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: VERISMO (23A: Opera genre for "Tosca" and "Pagliacci") —

Like Gran Turismo... it's like a video game thing ... it just tells it like it is. It's the rawest of all opera genres. (Lena, trying to say out loud what she thinks VERISMO means). If you google it, it's all Starbucks coffee stuff. Braydon: "Ugh, it's Starbucks Keurig."

 OK, the actual opera definition: "In opera, verismo (meaning "realism", from Italian vero, meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and Giacomo Puccini." (wikipedia)

• • •

Byron Walden and Brad Wilber! Double B-Dubs!

Hi from D.C., where I solved this puzzle in a hotel room with my wife and my friends Lena and Brayden. I have no idea how hard it was. My time was really slow, but I was having a conversation while solving, and reading various clues out loud, so the time tells me nothing. It felt normal. Toughish. Pretty old school. When I saw ADIT, I was like "Oh, hello, old friend." From TOP CAT to Dan ISSEL to MOGAMBO to CESAR ROMERO to ERNESTINE to RAMON Novarro, this definitely skewed olden. Very much so. There were some nice moments, but most of it just lacked  the quality and pizzazz I expect from these constructors. ELSEIF? Clue for WATER-LOVING is so literal that it's laughable ... I don't even know where you'd use that term. MISS IDAHO is one of the green paint-iest answers I've ever seen. MISS [any state]? That's legal? Ditto OHIO-BORN. [Any state]-BORN??? Yuck. Also, "People" has an ART EDITOR? There are too many questionable things. And if not questionable, arcane (see BARBICEL).

I live in a New York city on the Pennsylvania border and I couldn't tell you where the hell OLEAN is (36A: New York city near the Pennsylvania border). Lena says SRO stands for "sold right out"; sounds good. I still don't believe ECOCIDE is a thing, no matter how cutely you clue it. Half of us think it's too made up to have that tricky of a clue. Half of us don't. Question: Does "hoops" sufficiently clue you into the fact that N.I.T. is an abbrev.? Is it supposed to? (37A: ___ Season Tip-Off (annual hoops event)). Also, how does [Common Allen wrench?] work? I get that it's Woody Allen, and that ANGST is a "wrenching" feeling ... is that it?

OK, it's morning now and I have to go to the Indie 500 Tournament in a few minutes. Take care.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS we like [Tender towards one's exes?] a lot as a clue for ALIMONIES.

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