Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Pagliacci clown / THU 2-2-12 / NHL's Laperriere / Oscar Wilde poem By the * / Cinematographer Nykvist / When doubled Miss Piggy's white poodle / L * du jeu 1939 Renoir film

2012-02-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Stu Ockman

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Confucian aphorism — REAL KNOWLEDGE IS / TO KNOW THE EXTENT / OF ONE'S IGNORANCE

Word of the Day: Howell RAINES (42A: Journalist Howell) —

Howell Hiram Raines (born February 5, 1943 in Birmingham, Alabama) was Executive Editor of The New York Times from 2001 until he left in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal. He is the father of Jeff Raines, one of the founding members of the rock band Galactic. He is currently a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio, writing the magazine's media column. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is my Thursday? An incredibly banal quotation? No thanks.

The grid is weird. I do like those looooong Downs (a lot), but the rest, not so much. TACHOIALITHEAIS! Is that corner for real? For real? And was ALET really unavoidable? That section does not look that hard to fill.

Honestly, this is just a dull quotation puzzle with an inexpertly filled grid. While I'm teaching, if Thursday puzzles aren't damn good, I can't spend a lot of time with them. I just can't.

Also: Journalist Howell? Really? Somewhere eventual Hall-of-Famer Tim RAINES is weeping for your silly New York provincialism.

Also: [More] = OTHER = painful.

[I'm hearing from sources (literally, just this second, via email) that this is a debut, so I feel slightly bad, but my feelings are my feelings. If nothing else, this never should've run on a Thursday]

Bullets:

14A: Oscar Wilde poem "By the ___" (ARNO) — nuts. The problem with making your clues for short fill really obscure is that there's no payoff. Just a "... huh. OK." At best.
15A: Ingredient in traditional medicine (ALOE) — I have no idea how "traditional" is being used in this clue. My doctor has never prescribed ALOE.
20A: Man's name that's Latin for "honey" (MEL) — again, nuts. French helped me here.
35A: TV network that broadcast live from Opryland USA (TNN) — the one area that gave me trouble, first because of [More] / OTHER, and then because I'd transcribed the quotation wrong and put a "T" where the "H" was supposed to go (had [More] = OFTER for a bit).

5D: Not being such a daredevil, say (SANER) — boooooooooo. SAFER is so much more appropriate here. Not clever, just annoying for its trying-too-hardness.
54A: Together, in Toulon (UNIE) — French helped me here, too, though less so. "États-Unis" led me to the wrong spelling here.
10D: "La ___ du jeu" (1939 Renoir film) (RÈGLE) — French helped me here, too. This is pretty tough, as French words in U.S. puzzles go. I knew most of the other proper nouns, like ED ASNER (19D: "Elf" co-star, 2003) and IRENE (26D: Memorable 2011 hurricane) and even TONIO (learned from crosswords) (33D: "Pagliacci" clown). Would've guessed Miss Piggy's poodle was Fifi, but it's not such a long way from there to FOO Foo, I guess. The only Lap... oh, it's not "Lapierre," it's "Laperriere" (!?!?!?! who????). I was going to say "the only 'Lapierre' I know is Wayne."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy birthday, dad.

Columnist Hentoff / WED 2-1-12 / Queen Wheat City of Oklahoma / Prefix with mom in 2009 news / Olympic skating champion Lysacek / Ranch in Giant / Soda brand since 1905 / Brand of movable collectibles / Tommie of Miracle Mets

2012-02-01T05:26:00.001-05:00

Constructor: Elizabeth C. Gorski

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "WAR AND PEACE" (39A: Classic novel of 1,000+ pages ... or a hint to the word ladder formed by the answers to the starred clues) — word ladder goes from HAWK to DOVE. There's also a note: "When this puzzle is completed, the 10 circled letters, reazd from top to bottom, will spell a name associated with 39-Across"—that name: LEO TOLSTOY

Word of the Day: EVAN Lysacek (30D: Olympic skating champion Lysacek) —

Evan Frank Lysacek (... born June 4, 1985) is an American figure skater. He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, the 2005 & 2007 Four Continents champion, the 2007 & 2008 U.S. national champion, and the 2009/2010 Grand Prix Final champion. (wikipedia)

• • •

One of the most interesting and clever word ladder puzzles I've ever done. Has a real sense of purpose, illustrates the central answer perfectly. The circles are ridiculous and unnecessary, but that does nothing to alter the basic integrity of the puzzle. Here is a 78-worder that actually has lots of interesting fill throughout. This is likely because there are no lengthy theme answers (besides the one), and though the word ladder is certainly a restriction, there is still the freedom to make the longer answers anything at all. Though there's still a lot of short stuff, there's *not* a lot of tired, dreadful short stuff. The longer answers are bouncy and the shorter stuff is solid. The only drawback (and that word may be too strong) was that the puzzle was so easy that I didn't even notice the word ladder existed. I read [Classic novel...] and, based on existing letters, knew exactly what I was dealing with. Had the whole thing done in roughly 3 and a half minutes with absolutely no idea of how WAR AND PEACE related to the circles (which I assumed were integral). Turns out it was the asterisked clues that were the important thing, and the circles a superficial afterthought (not very hard to find LEO TOLSTOY in your grid; you can find those letters, in order, top to bottom, in yesterday's puzzle, for instance). The note also seems entirely unnecessary, in that I don't need the circles to finish the puzzle, and while I'm no Encyclopedia Brown, I can sleuth hard enough to figure out that the circles, when taken in order, contain a name. And what's with the note's description of LEO TOLSTOY? "A name associated with ['War and Peace']"?! That implies the connection is much more tenuous than it actually is. "It's funny, I always associate LEO TOLSTOY with 'WAR AND PEACE'." "Huh. Interesting. Maybe that's because HE WROTE IT." What harm could there possibly be in just saying he's the "author of 39-Across"?

Ladder:

HAWK / HARK / HARE (22A: *Storied also-ran) / CARE / CORE / COVE / LOVE / DOVE

You can, of course, get to DOVE at least two steps faster—HAWK / HARK / HARE / DARE / DAVE / DOVE. Or can you not use names? Well, at any rate, LOVE is patently unnecessary (which was, coincidentally, the title of the Beatles' darker, never-released follow-up to "All You Need Is LOVE").

Bullets:

5A: Prefix with "mom" in 2009 news (OCTO-) — easy, though wife was visibly stunned that this "story" was already this old.

14A: Tommie of the Miracle Mets (AGEE) — needed every cross. Just couldn't remember his name. Much harder AGEE than that author guy (whom I don't really know except by crossword reflex).
37A: Article in rap titles (THA) — wanted "DA" but that's absurd, obviously. I love that THA is now totally normal crossword fill.
42A: Columnist Hentoff (NAT) — I know the name very well, but not as a "columnist." The weird thing is, even looking at his wikipedia page, I have no idea *how* I know his name so well. I must've had to read some of his writing in college or grad school, but I don't know what.
52A: Brown in the funnies (CHARLIE) — mentioned him in my Comics class yesterday (first day of classes) while discussing the fact that the Sunday funnies are essentially a graveyard. When most of your comics are *at least* three decades old, and the author of your front-page, above-the-fold, lead comic has been dead for over a decade, you know you've got a nostalgia problem. [For a genuinely funny contemporary comic that should be in newspapers but isn't, see Kate Beaton's "Hark a Vagrant" (now in book form) which at least 66% of you will Love. Brontë soul with a punk attitude—specially designed for liberal arts grads and anyone who likes awesome]
59A: "Give me an example!" ("NAME ONE!") — I love this.
4D: New Zealand parrots (KEAS) — very close to my heart. Here's my nephew Rob (age 6, 2003) with a kea, in the Southern Alps.

And here's my nephew Ben—who is going to be an extra in "The Hobbit"—sitting smack in the middle of Hobbit country (age 8) (2003)

24D: Item in a thole (OAR) — I only ever see THOLE in the grid itself and part of me always thought it was really T-HOLE. Don't laugh. Are you laughing at me? Man, you're such a T-HOLE.
45D: Brand of movable collectibles (PEZ) — they do ... move ... I guess!
46D: Soda brand since 1905 (RC COLA) — that double-C is always an adventure. Makes me think soda will be Irish.
53D: Ranch in "Giant" (REATA) — do puzzles long enough, and you'll learn more about RI(E)ATAs than you ever wanted to know.
61D: Queen Wheat City of Oklahoma (ENID) — I have been singing "Queen Wheat City" to the tune of "Detroit Rock City" ever since I laid eyes on this clue.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Chilean novelist Allende / TUE 1-31-12 / Victime of springtime hoax / MP3 player that weighs less than ounce / Newspaper puzzle with anagrams

2012-01-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Olla podrida — theme answers are familiar phrases whose last words all mean "mishmash"

Word of the Day: Katherine HEIGL (30D: Katherine of "Knocked Up") —

Katherine Marie Heigl (... born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and producer. She is possibly best known for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on ABC's Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series in 2007. She has also starred in films such as Knocked Up, Zyzzyx Road, 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth, Killers, Life As We Know It, New Year's Eve and One for the Money. (wikipedia)

• • •

Weird, I just added Katherine HEIGL to my database, like, a couple days ago.

The theme is hardly brilliant, but it hardly matters. This is what a Tuesday should be: easy, solid, well-filled, with bouncy theme answers and some interesting other answers thrown in for good measure. Fill seems a *tad* on the mundane side of Doug, but that's more the nature of the grid than anything else (lots of short stuff). I know it as simply the JUMBLE, but the "DAILY" part sounds at least familiar. I had LEMONADE and no idea what followed. So there was at least a few surprises and a mild amount of drama, despite the overall easiness. Stuff like YAKIMA, GO UP TO, and GIRLIE make me happy. Nice when your mid-range stuff is so snazzy. Not much else to say today—and Tuesday and Thursday write-ups could be a little brief for the foreseeable future, as I start back up at school tomorrow with a godawful early start time that makes early-morning write-ups impossible. So everything has to be done at night on the very night I need to be getting to sleep earliest. Anyway, this is just to say that if T and Th (or T and R, in my Univ's code) seem a bit thin, there's a reason.

Theme answers:

17A: Newspaper puzzle with anagrams (DAILY JUMBLE)
28A: MP3 player that weighs less than an ounce (IPOD SHUFFLE)
47A: Frenzied rush (MAD SCRAMBLE) — I had MAD STRUGGLE ... maybe I thought JUMBLE was RUMBLE and SHUFFLE was SCUFFLE and just invented a new theme in which STRUGGLE would be the logical answer; yes, I like that.
63A: Tart powdered drink preparation (LEMONADE MIX)

Screw-ups: DALE for VALE (DALE works too, right? Yes! "Synonym: VALE." We really should get rid of one of these words); that and MAD STRUGGLE may have been the only real stumbles. Took me too long to get ADJS (5D: Sm., med. and lg., e.g.)—and that clue has far too many "." in it. Never have liked YOS as a plural answer (69A: Informal greetings), though I know I've been tempted to use it on more than one occasion. I wrote an entire puzzle around the answer APRIL FOOL'S! once, so 11D: Victim of a springtime hoax was a nice familiar face. I have read exactly one ISABEL Allende novel—in college (67A: Chilean novelist Allende). It was required. And it wasn't "House of the Spirits." I want to say it was "Of Love and Shadows." Anyway, clearly it didn't leave a lasting impression. She lingers in my mind primarily because her first and last names are very grid-friendly.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Big Apple list / MON 1-30-12 / Ones not entirely gay or straight / Soothing juice / Food giant whose brands include Gerber and Goobers / Wrist elbow connectors

2012-01-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Francesco Trogu

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: NEST (66A: Where 38-Across [BIRDS] lay 1-Across [EGGS] ... or a word hidden in 20-, 27-, 44- and 51-Across) — just what it says

Word of the Day: SETH Rogen (9D: Rogen of "Superbad") —

Seth Rogen (pronounced /ˈroʊɡɪn/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was canceled after one season due to poor ratings. He then got a part on the equally short-lived Undeclared, which also hired him as a staff writer. // After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by film producer Judd Apatow toward a film career. Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet. Rogen has done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. He became engaged to fellow screenwriter Lauren Miller, with whom he married in October 2011. (wikipedia)

• • •

Here's the thing about "hidden" word puzzles: the "hidden" word should touch every word in the theme answer. That's the ideal. If not, then your answers better sizzle, but the only one I really like here is BONE STRUCTURE (and that is the lone answer where NEST actually does touch every word in the answer). The puzzle has a somewhat bigger problem than banality of concept, however: ITUNES TOP TEN is a terrible, terrible answer. I have used iTunes for years. I have no idea what TOP TEN is being referred to here. One of many lists off to the side telling you what's selling well in a certain genre? That is hardly a thing. Google the phrase inside quotation marks and you get 200K+ (not great), with many of the hits being phrases inside sentences rather than references to a Specific List. By contrast, to choose a random example: if you Google "Sherman Alexie" you get 1.4 million+ hits.

Theme answers:

20A: Not-so-fancy places to stay (ONE-STAR HOTELS)
27A: Maryland's nickname (OLD LINE STATE)
44A: Big Apple list (iTUNES TOP TEN)
51A: Osteoporosis threatens it (BONE STRUCTURE) — very weird clue. BONE STRUCTURE is a phrase I've heard *only* in relation to someone's face. Osteoporosis threatens your bones, period. This is like saying that faulty wiring threatens my house structure.

Made a tremendous number of tiny errors for a puzzle this easy. FLUBS for SNUBS (not sure what I was thinking there) (5A: Social slights); ULNAE for ULNAS (understandable) (24D: Wrist/elbow connectors); AXIS for AXLE (semi-understandable) (63A: Wheel turner); SINCE for HENCE (not-so-understandable) (57A: Therefore). Love the long Downs on this one, particularly GAG ORDERS (3D: Judges' decrees to keep information from the public). The rest of the fill is average. Grid is so easy to fill that I'm not sure why there are cheater squares*, but there they are.

*black squares that do not add to word count—they exist solely to make grid easier to fill and are generally kept to a minimum and used on an As Needed basis. Here, the black square after ALSO / before FARM.

Bullets:

34A: Ones not entirely gay or straight (BIS) — bad fill redeemed by a very progressive clue.
42A: Soothing juice (ALOE) — I don't think those two clue words go together. "Juice" just isn't a soothing word.
12D: Rostropovich's instrument (CELLO) — I know very well what instrument he played, and yet still, looking at ---L-, my only thought, for several seconds, was VIOLA. Didn't write it in because my brain was like "Idiot. Who ever heard of a famous violist?"

6D: Food giant whose brands include Gerber and Goobers (NESTLE) — "Goobers" is a word I could happily never see again. It's just "boogers" with "b" and "g" swapping seats.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Locale of St. Catherine's Monastery / SUN 1-29-12 / River to Korea Bay / Sheiks garments / Simpsons character with platform shoes / George nicknamed Mr Basketball / Mythical figure blinded by Oenopion / Leucippus Deocritus philosophically / Gold rush town of 1899

2012-01-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Networking Event" — familiar phrases wherein the first word is also a TV network; "?"-clues imagine that the phrases are network-related

Word of the Day: HONE (101A: You might rub a knife across it) —

n.
A fine-grained whetstone for giving a keen edge to a cutting tool.
A tool with a rotating abrasive tip for enlarging holes to precise dimensions.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/hone#ixzz1knqNc9m9

• • •

Found the cluing on this oddly hard. Clues were *just* out of my familiarity zone. I've never used [Savvies] or GROKS, for instance. I've been entranced, but never HEXED. I know HONE as a verb, but not a noun. I know ALBS, but not ABAS (64D: Sheiks' garments). I have no idea what trio a LAMPPOST could possibly be part of (79D: One of a secretive trio). I didn't not know ION was a TV network *or* that ION EXCHANGE was a thing. I did not know that beads of any kind came from CORALS. I spelled PAYTON thusly. Etc. I actually had an error up top because the clue for SINAI was utterly meaningless to me, devoid of anything SINAI-ish at all, and so when I ended up with SENAI (because of BEER instead of BIER at 5D: Drink served with Brezeln), I didn't even question it (18A: Locale of St. Catherine's Monastery, said to be the world's oldest working monastery). If the clue is fantastically esoteric, it must be because it's trying to justify the importance of some strange geographic location I've never heard of, I reasoned. Quality-wise, everything in this puzzle seems just fine.

Theme answers:

22A: Fancy footwear at a TV station? (SPIKE HEELS)
24A: Advertising department at a TV station? (E-MARKETING)
36A: Slide show at a TV station? (ENCORE PRESENTATION)
56A: Q&A at a TV station? (ION EXCHANGE)
72A: Expert at a TV station? (HISTORY BUFF) — this one doesn't repurpose HISTORY very well (or at all)
86A: Enrollment at a TV station? (LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP)
104A: Recruiters at a TV station? (FOX HUNTERS) — nothing about this said "FOX" to me. These days, with shows like "House Hunters," seemed like any three-letter word could've come before "HUNTERS"
106A: Fish holder at a TV station? (OXYGEN TANK)

Bullets:

5A: Cowboys' home, familiarly (BIG D) — I remember the first time I saw this in a puzzle, mainly because it Naticked me (thought I was dealing with one word, and the cross was ... something, clearly)
27A: ___ Levy, four-time Super Bowl coach for Buffalo (MARV) — I hear the fifth time's the charm...
35A: Classic toy company whose name is its founder's middle name (LIONEL) — Toy trains. Does anyone under 40 still "play" with those? Reverend Lovejoy of "The Simpsons" is a model train enthusiast. No idea if the same can be said for DISCO STU (8D: "The Simpsons" character with platform shoes)

50A: River to Korea Bay (YALU) — a river I know mainly from constructing. It's a lifeline I generally refuse to use (unless there's no alternative, obviously—so far that hasn't been an issue).
82A: George nicknamed Mr. Basketball (MIKAN) — I wanted MIKUS. I think that's the last name of some of my parents' friends. Somebody and Connie? Where is this info coming from?
103A: Country singer David Allan ___, writer of "Take This Job and Shove It" (COE) — parents were big POE fans, I'm guessing.
109A: It's picked in the Pacific (UKE) — I took "in the Pacific" literally.
10D: Gold rush town of 1899 (NOME) — Gold, four letters, this is it.
14D: Mythical figure blinded by Oenopion (ORION) — their names are disturbingly similar. I did not know ORION was "blinded." My daughter would likely laugh at my ignorance (so don't tell her, for god's sake; she's stroppy enough as it is).

49D: Leucippus and Democritus, philosophically (ATOMISTS) — "The atomists theorized that the natural world consists of two fundamental parts: indivisible atoms and empty void." (wikipedia). ADAMISTS, on the other hand, are nudists. There's an interesting Venn diagram waiting to happen.
88D: Half of a title role for John Barrymore or Spencer Tracy (MR. HYDE) — took a lot of doing. You never know what "half" is going to mean in a clue like this. MATA could be half a title role, for instance. I mean, not here, obviously, but, well, you get my point. Or you don't.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

King Hussein Airport locale / SAT 1-28-12 / Silverwing flier / Aretha's Grammy-nominated sister / Incredibles family name / Sheila's welcome

2012-01-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: SAND BARREL (56A: Many a crash cushion at a construction zone) —

[can't find a definition—[define "sand barrel"] yields very few hits. Looks like barrels filled with sand ??? never seen the term before]

• • •

Solve from NW to SE, and this is one puzzle (easy); solve it along the other diagonal, and it's something else (hard). Those NE and SW corners were light years harder than the other corners. Not sure why that should be, but that's how it worked out. This was a typical Barry Silk puzzle—solid but unflashy grid with clues designed to be as tough at every turn. Very few flat-out gimmes (mine were MEAL PLAN, BAG, RED, G'DAY (17A: Sheila's welcome), PEAR, and INDIE). Several places where I had all but one letter of an answer and still had no idea (first letter of -ICS for 27D: P.R. releases ... and my final letter, the "W" in BREW and BLEW, which I had to run the alphabet to get) (9D: Java, for one + 21A: Messed up). NE was hard mostly because all the shorter crosses for those 10-letter answers were fantastically vague. The one I was sure I had correct ended up being wrong (I had STOATS; answer was STOLES—14D: Some ermines). In the opposite corner, same problem. PARR and ERMA side by side? That's very rough play. (53D: "The Incredibles" family name + Aretha's Grammy-nominated sister)

Wrong answers: STOATS for STOLES, SHAD for HAKE (8D: Cod relative), ENL for LTR, ETON (?) for ELON (63A: School in the Piedmont region). I think that's it. Never heard of SAND BARREL or ROAD GRADER (62A: Civil engineering vehicle), which tells you how much time I've spent on construction sites. I don't think "'02" is enough of a signal that 5D: One of the subjects of the best-selling '02 books "The Conquerors" is an abbr. (HST). Also having trouble accepting the phrase NO TAIL as a "trait" (13D: Manx trait). It's not there, so it's not a trait—the "NO" part is what's bugging me. RED HAIR or GREEN EYES or adj. / noun of any kind, I'd buy as a "trait." I thought "coulee" was a racist term for a Chinese man ... but I was thinking "coolie" (see here). How is OMAN the toe of a boot? Italy is a boot. I have never, ever, ever heard the Arabian peninsula referred to as a "boot." Booooooooooo ... t.

Bullets:

1A: Concern for a dermatologist (LUMP) — this is what we call a "F&ck You" clue, in that it takes this form *only* to trick you into writing in a wrong answer, in this case ACNE. Maybe we should call it an asshole clue, but "F&ck You" clue just has too much poetry on its side.
22A: Roster curtailer: Abbr. (ET AL) — inventive, if weird, cluing
39A: Signs near a teller's window, maybe (ENDORSES) — there should be a term for this–where clue is written to suggest a word is one part of speech (here a noun) when it's really another (here, a verb)
47A: Silverwing flier (CESSNA) — I know nothing about planes, but I had the "C" and I also know that CESSNA is a reasonably grid-friendly plane.
24D: Her help was solicited in a hit (RHONDA) — I guess this was pretty close to a gimme too.

38D: Universidad de las Américas site (SANTIAGO) — pfft, no idea. But I had the -GO, which was enough.
40D: "Children of the Albatross" novelist (NIN) — she's a crossword double threat. First and last names, very useful.
51D: Daughter of Zeus and Themis (IRENE) — guessed off the "I"; seemed reasonable, though the possibility of IRENA crossed my mind. Then I decided that sounded more like a Russian tennis player than a mythological character.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Mosel tributary / FRI 1-27-12 / Scrooge star 1951 / Henry James biographer / Wailuku's county / French expert in body language

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: EEEEEasy

THEME: BOX (36A: Enclosure ... and an alphabetical listing of letters not appearing elsewhere in this puzzle's answer) — BOX appears free-floating, in the middle of the grid, inside a BOX made of black squares

Word of the Day: TALIA Shire (37A: Sylvester's "Rocky" co-star) —

Talia Shire (born April 25, 1946) is an American actress most known for her roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Pennino in the Rocky series. // Shire was born Talia Rose Coppola in Lake Success, New York, the daughter of Italia (née Pennino) and arranger/composer Carmine Coppola. Talia is the sister of director and producer Francis Ford Coppola and academic August Coppola, the aunt of actor Nicolas Cage and director Sofia Coppola, and the niece of composer and conductor Anton Coppola. She was married to composer David Shire, with whom she had a son, Matthew Orlando Shire. She has two other sons, actors/musicians Robert Schwartzman and Jason Schwartzman, from her second marriage to the late producer Jack Schwartzman.(wikipedia)

• • •

Yesterday we had a Wed. trying to be a Thur., today a Thur. trying to be a Fri. (while being as easy as a Wed.—full circle!). Freakishly easy, and interesting only at the architectural level. I want to fail it as a crossword, given that nothing "crosses" BOX, but you need (or can use) info outside the BOX to solve BOX, so ... good enough, I guess. Maybe "think outside the box" was the impetus of the phrase, since you (sort of) have to (literally) do that to solve the puzzle. At any rate, aside from the arrangement of the black squares, it's a dull and easy puzzle that suffers from the problems every pangram suffers from—most notably, a general all-over junkiness of fill that seems patently unnecessary. I mean, look at that eastern section. Ghastly. Inexplicable ... until you realize: W's gotta go somewhere (I don't know *what* the SW's excuse is. You already got your Q up top... In fact Z, Q, J, and K are all dispatched in exactly two Acrosses up top). Anyway, the fact that TALIA is the Word of the Day tells you nothing interesting is happening inside the grid. You got a box. A little picture. There you go.

[Yes, that *is* Tilda Swinton]
Started with EMMAS and never stopped (1A: Actress Stone and others). What was the logic behind making the cluing so easy? The only place I hesitated at all was the far SE, and then only because there were a pair of self-referential clues down there and I didn't know that ALDA was the host of PBS's "Scientific American Frontiers." AMPS also froze me out (even with -MPS in place) (55D: Concert pieces). But I finished this thing in under 5. Except for that one ridiculously fluky Friday where I finished under 4, this was almost certainly my fastest Friday ever. EDEL (63A: Henry James biographer) and SIM (5D: "Scrooge" star, 1951) are mildly obscure to ordinary folk, but to longtime solvers they're as ordinary as houseflies. MARCEAU is an interesting name and close to the most interesting thing in the grid (23A: French expert in body language?). Actually, I think JUST MY LUCK is my favorite answer (21A: "Figures I'd have this problem!"). Bouncy, colloquial, fresh—everything the rest of the grid is not.

Bullets:

56A: Baseball All-Star Kinsler and others (IANS) — an attempt to toughen up the puzzle a bit, I gather. I watch a lot of baseball, so this was a gimme. Also, two plural names in the same (easy) grid? (see also EMMAS) Not great form.
57A: "1984" shelfmate ("ANIMAL FARM") — interesting clue, but far, far too easy. Now if the answer had been "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" (my shelf holds allegories...), that would've been a surprise.
34D: Mosel tributary (SAAR) — one of your lesser-used 4-letter European xword rivers.
51D: The Charleses' pet (ASTA) — to the NYT's credit, this dog is not nearly as common as he once was. But when you stick him in a corner like that SW corner, well, it's like he's at a group meeting for his 12-step "recovering crosswordese" program. O man, I didn't even see AGRA until just now. Quaint euphemism! It's old-timers' day at the crossword.
2D: Wailuku's county (MAUI) — you don't say ... hey, has "YOU DON'T SAY" ever been an answer? 'Cause I think it'd be a good one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

W.W. II Pacific battle site / THU 1-26-12 / Moore who wrote Gate at the Stairs / Horseshoe-shaped lab item / 1980s sitcom filmed with puppet

2012-01-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ST- — common phrases have "ST-" added to beginning of one of the words in said phrases, creating wackiness

Word of the Day: TRUK (39D: W.W. II Pacific battle site) —

Operation Hailstone (known in Japan as Japanese: トラック島空襲 Torakku-tō Kūshū, lit. "the airstrike on Truk Island") was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 17–18, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory. (wikipedia)

• • •

What the TRUK?!

This was a Wednesday dressed up as a Thursday (i.e. with fairly difficulty cluing throughout). The theme concept is not really Thursday-worthy—just a pretty loose add-a-letter (OK, two letters). No rhyme or reason to the add-ons. It's a theme that could be replicated over and over and over again, ad infinitum. I'd be shocked if it hadn't been done several times before. At least the ST-s could've been added to, say, all R-words (you're 3/5 there! STRAP MUSIC ... STRIPE FRUIT ... STRING FINGER ... come on!). JACK THE STRIPPER is mildly cute; the rest, shrug. And the fill. Pretty lousy. I cannot believe that that TRUK / UTUBE fiasco was unavoidable (44A: Horseshoe-shaped lab item). The grid parameters just aren't that challenging. The whole thing smacks of laziness, esp. at the fill level. Then you've got the AGASP / AROAR crossing (abarf) and then junky stuff all over the place. Not the NYT puzzle's finest hour, by any stretch.

Theme answers:

17A: Private quarters in a stable? (STALL FOR ONE)
23A: Dallas tourists, perhaps? (TEXAS STRANGERS)
37A: Name for a bachelorette party performer? (JACK THE STRIPPER)
49A: Vacation spot for some who stop working? (STRIKERS ISLAND)
60A: Not saluting for quite some time? (STILL AT EASE)

Bullets:

15A: Moore who wrote "A Gate at the Stairs" (LORRIE) — ambivalence ... she is crossworthy, for sure, but she is only here (or in any puzzle) because of her friendly letters, and I don't like seeing her except where she's propping up something Very nice (in an otherwise very-difficult-to-fill section). LORRIE / ARRET is (yet) another inglorious crossing (7D: Stop over in Paris?).
41A: Announcement that comes from an envelope (OSCAR) — timely, as the nominations just came out. I've seen practically nothing. "Bridesmaids." I saw that. I am familiar with every film and its cast because I make it my business to keep up with this stuff—important for solvers as well as constructors. I tear through my "Entertainment Weekly" as soon as I get it and write down all the interesting-looking names that I didn't previously know.VIOLA Davis, for instance, or Berenice BEJO.
5D: 1980s sitcom filmed with a puppet ("ALF") — he ate cats. My sister looked like sister on that show. My best friend in college liked (likes?) this show. I've never seen an episode all the way through. I associate ALF with MR. T. I don't know why.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Ian who won 1991 Masters / WED 1-25-12 / City of Kyrgyzstan / Palm smartphone / Sweet filling in commercial names

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Gareth Bain

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: TREE RINGS (38A: Indicators of age ... and a hint to this puzzle's theme) — CIRCLES in the grid hold three-letter TREE names

Word of the Day: Ian WOOSNAM (2D: Ian who won the 1991 Masters) —

Ian Harold Woosnam OBE (born 2 March 1958) is a Welsh professional golfer.
Nicknamed 'Woosie', 'Woosers', or the 'Wee Welshman', Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europe competitive in the Ryder Cup. His peers in this group were Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, and Sandy Lyle (wikipedia)

• • •

Four sad, sparse circles in the grid don't make for a very strong visual statement. The theme is a cute repurposing of the phrase "TREE RINGS," but I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have since a. there weren't very many trees, and b. I've done a much more difficult and more satisfying tree rebus before. I know it was by Byron Walden, and I'm almost certain it was in the NY Sun several years back. Plus, this grid has some fill I'd try *really* hard to keep out of my grids, including BAI—I'd have gone HAMAS / SALTS / BAT or something like that; my guess is Gareth wanted to get "original" answers in there with MILLARD and HAMID, but being first with an answer just isn't good enough reason to make a corner rougher than it has to be. BAI is too high a price to pay for virtually anything. I mean, good god, even BAE is better than BAI. Other less-than-great stuff: OSH, INNO, KREME, ANGE, TREO, SSGT, OTIC, SIG, TROU, "ADIA," and (singular) BEE GEE (coincidence: I listened to Side A of "Spirits Having Flown" on vinyl today. Several times. While cooking. Good stuff). To the puzzle's credit, it has KAN[YEW]EST and COLD[ASH]ELL (an oath! EGAD!). I just tested a puzzle with KANYEWEST in it yesterday. That constructor is not going to be happy ... but I guess KANYE still hasn't appeared in full-name, unrebused form, so it'll still seem like an original answer.

Theme answers:

GOSPELMUSIC / ELMER
WABASH / COLDASHELL
EYEWITNESS / KANYEWEST
MISFIRES / FIRST-AID KIT

Had a pretty easy time with this one. Always easy to solve rebuses when the relevant squares are marked for you. First indication of the rebus came with the short answers up top, actually—the bull name and the river both looked ridiculous, so something had to be up. Once I figured it out, the rest of the puzzle was a cinch. Had no recollection of WOOSNAM at all—needed every cross there. Briefly blanked on SNERT. Needed a nudge to get TAY. Otherwise, no trouble.

Bullets:

5A: Classic sci-fi terror, with "the" ("BLOB") — is "terror" the creature itself? Or is the movie the "terror?"
26A: Followers of lambdas (MUS) — better than short for "music," I guess.
32A: Phyllis's never-seen TV husband (LARS) — from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." How long will it be before this sitcom reference (very gettable to people over 40) is seen as unfairly obscure?
47A: Pursuers of the Sopranos, for short (GMEN) — I wrote in GATS at first ...
40A: Sweet filling, in commercial names (KREME) — I think you mean "commercial name." Singular.
28A: Song title for both Fleetwood Mac and Starship (SARA) — only one of these is listen-to-able.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

1941 Frank Capra film / TUE 1-24-12 / He played Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost / Noted talk show retiree of 2011 / Site of Haleakala National Park

2012-01-24T07:50:00.001-05:00

Constructor: Alex Boisvert

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: D- bag — theme answers all three-word phrases containing word "D-E," where center letter of that word changes with each answer, running through all vowels from A to Y

Word of the Day: THE EDGE (42D: U2 guitarist) —

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music. // As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". (wikipedia)

• • •

A weird Tuesday outing. First, I learned that DANIEL DAE KIM (Korea's answer to Daniel Day-Lewis?) is famous enough to be a theme answer. I know "Lost" was a popular show, but ... I've certainly had puzzles rejected for "too obscure" theme answers that had greater name recognition than him. Second, so much black. 44 dang squares. Then I noticed that the grid was 16 wide and has 81 (!) answers (max is 78, typically, but I guess that extra column buys you 3 more??? I have a 16-wide coming out, and I remember thinking "still gotta keep it under 78"; and I did. Apparently there are rules, and then there are rules. Good to know). Throw in a handful of cheater squares and you have a somewhat interesting vowel progression theme inside a not-too-interesting grid filled with mostly 3-5-letter words.

Theme answers:

18A: He played Jin-Soo Kwon on "Lost" (DANIEL DAE KIM)
20A: "Through the Looking-Glass" character (TWEEDLE-DEE) — one of only two snags I had in the puzzle. Wrote in DUM because I thought the cross was RUM (16D: Drink sometimes indicated in comics by "XXX" — ALE)
31A: Some collectible toys (DIE-CAST CARS)
41A: 1941 Frank Capra film ("MEET JOHN DOE")
55A: Cornerstone of the American legal system (DUE PROCESS)
59A: Some hippie wear (TIE-DYE SHIRTS) — my second snag: I thought the hippie (singular) was wearing a TIE-DYED SHIRT

There is a *kind* of symmetry in the "D-E" word placement within the theme answers. Second third first third first second. Then there's the vowel progression—another nice feature. Dense theme, good theme answers, adequate grid, Tuesday-easy.

Bullets:

29A: Site of Haleakala National Park (MAUI) — seemed a good guess off of "-A-I"; BALI or CALI or MALI seemed unlikely
1D: "Cop Killer" singer who went on to play a cop on TV (ICE-T) — never did like "Law & Order" in any of its incarnations, but ICE-T's reality show "Ice Loves Coco"—now that's good TV.

52D: Noted talk show retiree of 2011 (OPRAH) — she gave her name to crosswords. She will be missed.

I've decided that from now on, I'm calling U2's guitarist "THEEDGE" — one word, one syllable. Sure, it's silly, but is it really any more silly than THE EDGE?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Wife in The Good Earth / MON 1-23-12 / Stimpy's canine pal / Blue 1971 Cy Young Award winner / Pagan nature religion / Popular soup legume

2012-01-23T07:56:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Sarah Keller

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Head over heels —three-word expressions, where the first and third words are body parts

Word of the Day: VIDA Blue (60D: ___ Blue, 1971 Cy Young Award winner) —

Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. (born July 28, 1949) is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 17-year career, he pitched for the Oakland Athletics (1969–77), San Francisco Giants (1978–81; 1985–86), and Kansas City Royals (1982–83) He won the American League Cy Young award and Most Valuable Player Award in 1971. He is a six-time all-star, and is one of only four pitchers in major league history to start the all-star game for both the American League (1971) and the National League (1978); Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay would later duplicate the feat. (wikipedia)

• • •

I feel like I'm missing some key component of this theme. Body part + word + body part? Is that it? Not a lot of consistency there. All answers involve parts of the face ... except one. All answers have a preposition for the middle word ... except one. The one obvious answer that would fit the theme isn't even in the grid ("head over heels") (presence of HOOF also reminded me of "HOOF and mouth" disease ... not a great entry, or a pleasant thing to think about—I was in Britain during their epidemic of 2001. Lots of questions at customs about time spent on farms and what not. But back to the puzzle ...). Further, there are only four theme answers and still the grid is a festival of dull crosswordese (ARNE OLAN EDIE LIRR LSATS and on and on and on). The theme answers are pretty colorful, but this is a somewhat below-average Monday, overall.

Theme answers:

20A: Fiercely (TOOTH AND NAIL)
35A: Embarrassingly imprudent (FOOT-IN-MOUTH)
42A: Next to one another (CHEEK BY JOWL)
59A: Fast and in large amounts (HAND OVER FIST)

I learned in this puzzle that I don't know how to spell the simple word MAUL (1A: Manhandle horribly). I went with MAWL ... is that a type of hammer or something? I feel sure I've seen the word before ... nope, the hammer is also spelled with a "U" ... I'm sure all those years of reading Chaucer are to blame, somehow. Clue misreading had me wondering what Latin phrase there could possibly be that would refer to how someone does lawn work ("PRO BONO? Why would you cut someone's lawn for fr- ... oh, "law." Yes, that makes more sense"). My wife, who knows very little about sports (particularly American sports, particularly American sports from before she and I met) knew VIDA Blue because that is the name I gave to one of my daughter's stuffed animals many years ago (60D: ___ Blue, 1971 Cy Young Award winner). Against her will. "That's not his name!" "I had his baseball card as a kid. I think I know VIDA Blue when I see him." I can't be the only one who torments his (then) 4-year-old this way ... can I?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Funeral song in Scotland / SUN 1-22-12 / Hero who debuted in Weird Tales 1932 / Villains in 1939's Stagecoach / Hallmark of Philadelphia sound / Duo with 2003 hit All Things She Said / Switched On Bach instrument

2012-01-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Adam Fromm

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Snow White's Employment Agency" — all clues follow [Bad job for [dwarf name]?] pattern.

Word of the Day: CORONACH (52D: Funeral song in Scotland) —

A coronach (also written coranich, corrinoch, coranach, cronach, etc.) is the Scottish Gaelic equivalent of the Goll,being the third part of a round of keening, the traditional improvised singing at a death, wake or funeral in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland. Though observers have reported hearing such songs in Ireland or in the Scottish Highlands, and melodies have been noted down and printed since the 18th century, audio recordings are rare; not only was the practice dying out or being supressed through the 19th century, but it was also considered by its practicioners to have been a very personal and spiritual practice, not suitable for performance or recording. (wikipedia)

• • •

Good idea. Very cute. Dopey's bad job was super-arbitrary (ALGEBRA TEACHER) and Doc's wasn't really a job at all (VILLAGE IDIOT), but other than that, the answers were pretty close to spot-on. Grid was easy to move through, though the west felt disproportionately tough—in part, perhaps, because of the arbitrariness of the Dopey answer (i.e. could've been *anything* TEACHER). My lanterns at the start of evening were UNLIT (duh), not RELIT. My experience with MINIMs is in the realm of medieval manuscripts, so this MINIM didn't leap immediately to mind (38D: Half note), and SOCIABLE (49D: Convivial) ... well, I didn't have the "B," so even with SOCIA- I didn't get anywhere at first (SOCIAL didn't fit, SOCIALLY was the wrong part of speech). A word about TATU (64D: Duo with the 2003 hit "All the Things She Said")—that word is 'ugh.' They were never big here. Two girls have a top 20 hit one year, kiss on TV, like, once, and now they're an acceptable crossword answer? No. Yes, 4-letter "U"-ending words are in short supply and Very Very necessary to constructors, but No. Banish. (I'm surprised to see this answer only once in the cruciverb database, and then only as a var. of TATTOO—I could've sworn I'd seen this "band" in puzzles before. Let's just make sure it never happens again).

Theme answers:

Bad occupation for Happy? (GOTH MUSICIAN)
Bad occupation for Sleepy? (NIGHT WATCHMAN)
Bad occupation for Sneezy? (FLORAL ARRANGER)
Bad occupation for Grumpy? (MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER)
Bad occupation for Dopey? (ALGEBRA TEACHER)
Bad occupation for Doc? (VILLAGE IDIOT)
Bad occupation for Bashful? (TV PERSONALITY)

Tripped hard on CORONACH, a word I've never seen ever. That "H" was a total guess, though seemed like the most plausible letter, however improbably it might be that any novel would end with the word "THE" (86A: Last word of "Finnegans Wake"). Other "never heard of it" words include VOLAR (98D: Relating to the palm of the hand) (because the palms are what you fly with?), and CANEM (4D: Cave ___) (Latin for "Beware the dog" [!?]). Put in BIGWIGS when what was called for was (the much worse) BIGGIES (115A: Honchos). Got stumped by both "market" clues—didn't know "Best" was a verb in 84A: Best in the market (OUTSELL), and thought the [One going to market] was a person of some kind, not the PRODUCT itself. I would not have known how to spell ALAKAZAM (46D: "Voilà!"). It's about the most exciting thing in the grid.

Bullets:

32A: Hero who debuted in Weird Tales magazine in 1932 (CONAN) — I used to read this comic and it still took me forever to figure out which hero was intended. I think I know too many pulp heroes.
44A: Villains in 1939's "Stagecoach" (APACHES) — A John Ford film I have never seen. I should fix that.
105A: Hippocampus hippocampus, e.g. (SEAHORSE) — pfft, no way. I mean, in retrospect, yes, "hippo" means "horse," I know that much, but the hippocampus is a part of your brain, right? Needed many a cross to pick this one up.
25A: Group with the 1995 #1 hit "Waterfalls" (TLC) — hard to remember now, but for a few years in the '90s, they were Huge. I remember seeing their TV debut on "Arsenio" and thinking "What The...?"

82D: "Switched-On Bach" instrument (MOOG) — clueless once again, but a four-letter "instrument" starting with "M" can't be many things, and the "Switched-On" clue helped me get this one right.
96D: Hallmark of the Philadelphia sound (HORNS) — some great acts were part of this "sound," particularly Melvin & the Blue Notes. Here's some O'Jays for you.

99D: Apple software bundle that includes GarageBand (iLIFE) — well it's i-something, right? I'm a Mac owner, so this wasn't tough.
104D: "The Gondoliers" bride (TESSA) — if I knew anything at all about "The Gondoliers," this would be the time when I would tell you.

A million thanks to everyone who made a financial contribution to this blog over the past week. It means more to me than I can say.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Fiddlehead sources / SAT 1-21-12 / Dodgem feature / Oberhausen opera highlight / Golden Pavilion setting / 1976 Rodgers Harnick musical about Henry VIII / Supporter of Yoda / Opera's Obraztsova

2012-01-21T00:19:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: LENOS (63A: Soft, meshed fabrics) —

n. pl. le·nos
1. Weaving in which the warp yarns are paired and twisted.
2. A fabric having such a weave. (freedictionary.com)

• • •

[It's pledge week here at the Rex Parker site (thru Sat.) —read my pitch for donations in the opening paragraphs of Sunday's write-up, here ... and thanks for your faithful readership (and the many kind messages I've received so far)]

• • •

I did this puzzle in pencil, untimed, so I'm not exactly sure of how tough it was. Felt suitably Saturdayish. Why do people continue to pursue the 4x15 stack? It just doesn't yield very good answers. SEEDLESS RAISINS is essentially an excuse to cram a lot of RLTNE letters in there (40A: Sultanas, say), and PRIME is about the only interesting part of PRIME REAL ESTATE (though I do like the clue—38A: Great parking spot, slangily) (note the doubling of STATE near bottom of the grid). Unsurprisingly, the non-central areas of the grid are more interesting, particularly the spooky pairing of "ARE YOU ALONE?" and "COME INTO THE OPEN" (no thanks, I'm gonna stay hidden til you go away, k? K) (14A: Phone query before a private conversation + 17A: Emerge). When I first saw the clue at 5D: Somme silk, I said, out loud, "ugh, fabrics," an exclamation I was to repeat. Twice. Fabrics tend to have short, foreign, terrible, and (to me) unmemorable names. SOIE I got just because it's a French word and I had some French. CIRÉ I managed to remember because of some prior experience, and some sense that it's etymologically related to the (again) French word for "wax" (31D: Highly glazed fabric). LENOS, on the other (other) hand, I had noooo shot at. So strange was that word to me that I really felt like the "N" was a total guess (later, I ran the alphabet and realized "N" was the only viable option)—which brings me to the A PLAN clue (47D: "But not without ___": Pope). What the hell? It's *Alexander* Pope, in case you were wondering, and the quotation is from "An Essay on Man." That's a major literary work, but ... well, it's hardly "Othello" or "Moby-Dick" or some other quotable literary classic. Feels like a very "screw you" kind of clue.

PAL UP is not an expression I know (6A: Get chummy). PAL AROUND (with), sure. But I PAIR UP. PAL AROUND, PAIR UP. I also don't remember Yoda using a CANE (20A: Supporter of Yoda). My little Yoda figurine must have lost his CANE somewhere along the way. George TAKEI's name looks like a "free offer" only if the offerer is prone to using Roman numerals. He's well known, and a major gay activist, so surely there's a reasonable way to clue him. I thought for sure that [Match game?] was ARSON (nope, LOTTO), so it was interesting to see fire-language misdirection later on in the grid with the clue for PYROMANIA (54A: Lighting problem?), which I would've clued as a Def Leppard album, but that's just me.

Really loved the clues on SEX (21A: Masters focus) and ZONED (13D: Like a lot, maybe). Both of them stumped me, especially the latter.

Bullets:

1A: Fiddlehead sources (FERNS) — one of the symbols of NZ, so I should know this. A "fiddlehead" is the "furled frond of a young fern" (wiki).
25A: Dodgem feature (CAR) — I learned "dodgem" from a crossword puzzle long ago. I think it was a Word of the Day. So some things actually do stick.
53A: "Mickey" singer Basil (TONI) — huge gimme. On heavy rotation I was an MTV-addicted youngster.

60A: Roquefort source (EWE) — took me longer than it should have. Went looking for a French word (EAU? No).
62A: 1976 Rodgers and Harnick musical about Henry VIII ("REX") — saw the clue and thought "Damn, I know this. I wrote about it a few months back ... it's something short and weird ..."
12D: Opera's Obraztsova (ELENA) — suitably Saturday. Better than the already-tired [Justice Kagan].
25D: Roosevelt established it as Shangri-La (CAMP DAVID) — nice bit of trivia. Guessed it off the -VID.
30D: Oberhausen opera highlight (ARIE) — German word for "ARIA?" Pretty terrible, though I gotta give some credit for trying to invent a new clue for this answer. OK, not *new* new, but certainly not common, i.e. not R&B singer India.___, not Racer Luyendyk.
48D: Golden Pavilion setting (KYOTO) — My first thought was "isn't that a supermarket chain in southern California?" (it's just "Pavilions"). On geographical ignorance, see also [Seti river setting] = NEPAL.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Bourbon enemy / FRI 1-20-12 / 1997 film with song Tupelo Honey / Head nurse on Scrubs / North American home 30,000 islands / What dickey simulates / Inventor given gold medal by Titanic survivors

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: BITT (5A: Mooring post on a ship)

n.
A vertical post, usually one of a pair, set on the deck of a ship and used to secure ropes or cables.

tr.v. bitt·ed, bitt·ing, bitts
To wind (a cable) around a bitt. (freedictionary.com)

• • •

Deceptively simple. So clean and clear that it starts to border on ho-hum. Nothing here is gonna jump out and bite you, or make you jump up and cheer. It's all just ... creamy. No particularly grabby or contemporary answers, but all of it solid, which is remarkably hard to pull off when you have this much white space to fill. I found the puzzle extremely easy until I hit the NE, which stopped me cold. Couldn't come up with the latter parts of BUYS OUT (24A: Secures every share from) or RAN SHORT (28A: Had some inventory problems), and while I got LITHE OK, I put in both ABAFT and STERN before finally alighting on ABEAM (16A: Nautical direction). Thought maybe [Prompter] was a relative adjective, or else something akin to a cue card, so CATALYST was tough to come up with. I had no idea LAKE HURON had that many islands (12D: North American home of 30,000 islands). Astonishing. While I think the whole concept of RENT-TO-OWN is a terrible idea, I think that answer looks mighty nice in the grid (11D: Like some store furniture). Only other issue was putting in NATCH for NO DUH (1D: "Well, of course"). Otherwise, very smooth sailing.

Bullets:

9A: Head nurse on "Scrubs" (CARLA) — not a show I ever watched, and yet I can picture the character clearly. Weird. "Scrubs" featured actor Donald FAISON. He has a name that could be useful in crosswords, but so far, no one's used it.
19A: Highly rated 1997 film with the song "Tupelo Honey" ("ULEE'S GOLD") — ULEE is super-common in crosswords, of course, but, strangely, this marks the crossword debut of the full title "ULEE'S GOLD."
37A: Inventor given a gold medal by Titanic survivors (MARCONI) — Something to do with radio, no doubt. He didn't invent the lifeboat, did he?
52A: Colorful Amazon swimmer (NEON TETRA) — worked by inference here, and managed to get the whole thing off just the "N"
41A: U.K. Triple Crown racecourse site (EPSOM) — standard xword fare. Very much worth knowing.
26D: Bourbon enemy (BONAPARTE) — me: "But ... how could anyone hate bourbon? It's sooooo good."
3D: Mammy's son (ABNER) — something to do with the comic strip, no doubt. I was utterly stumped.
13D: Tiramisu ingredient, often (AMARETTO) — wanted some kind of cheese, possibly ricotta. The actual cheese in tiramisu is mascarpone.
38D: Leroux who created the Phantom (GASTON) — knew this without knowing how/why.
30D: The Village ___ (musical group with the 1963 hit "Washington Square") (STOMPERS) — well, I guess that's as good a STOMPERS clue as you're going to see. Maybe [Tantrum throwers, at times]. Or these.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Bret harte/mark twain play / THU 1-19-12 / 1994 Ray Liotta action film / Holy Roman emperor who succeeded father 973 / 1920s-40s baseballer / Big gobbler

2012-01-19T08:15:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Derek Bowman and Sarah Keller

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: TO-DO LIST (66A: Agenda ... or, together, what the seven starred clues and their answers constitute?) — all the starred clues have answers that are synonymous with "TO-DO" (i.e. "disturbance")

Word of the Day: "AH, SIN" (9D: Bret Harte/Mark Twain play) —

Ah Sin (1877), a play by Bret Harte, Mark Twain. [ Fifth Avenue Theatre, 35 perf.] Broderick (Edmund K. Collier), a “knave through circumstances over which he ought to have control,” attacks Uncle Billy Plunkett (P. A. Anderson), “the Champion Liar of Calaveras,” leaving him for dead and attributing the attack to mill owner York (Henry Crisp). Just as a lynch mob is about to hang York, the wily Chinaman Ah Sin (Charles T. Parsloe) solves the crime by connecting an incriminating coat to Broderick. The Augustin Daly production, developed from a character in Harte's poem, was a failure, but it is remembered because of the speech Mark Twain, dressed in white, gave at the end that many critics claimed was better than anything in the play. Sensing a poor reception, Mark Twain began by wryly telling the audience that the play was “intended rather for instruction than amusement” and suggesting, as an example, that “for the instruction of the young we have introduced a game of poker.”

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/ah-sin#ixzz1juDeJaQy

• • •

Maybe it's just the 10 hours (!) sleep talking, but I *loved* this puzzle. Thorny without being filled with annoying, obscure words; delightful in the broad subject range of its answers; and smart in its theme and the execution thereof. Very clever repurposing of "TO-DO." And So Many Theme Answers—all symmetrical, all *intersecting* other theme answers, and yet nowhere does the grid feel strained or awkward. The only thing that bugged me had nothing to do with the quality of the puzzle—why does HULLA have two "L"s but "BALOO" doesn't? My brain rejects this lack of "L" symmetry. I don't know who Derek Bowman is, but Sarah Keller is an old pro—though usually you see her stuff on Monday or Tuesday. Whatever they've got going is working and they should do it again sometime.

Theme answers:

1A: *Rumpus (BROUHAHA) — more spelling issues here. I mean, "OU?" It's not HOUPLA or HULLABALOU or HOUHAH, after all...
7D: *Hubbub (HURLY-BURLY)
16A: *Excitement (HOOHAH)
10D: *Turmoil (COMMOTION) — stands out like a sore thumb for being the one theme answer one might actually use unironically / unsillily.
32D: *Tumult (KERFUFFLE)
63A: *Foofaraw (HOOPLA)
30D: *Ruckus (HULLABALOO)

With so little connection between the east and west halves of the grid, this really was like two different puzzles, though both ended up being about the same in terms of difficulty. I've been constructing puzzles over the past week (for eventual publication as well as for private clients) and I think being in constructing mode helps your solving brain, if only slightly. I used OAXACA in a clue yesterday (3D: Southern Mexican state), and I had to write a KSU clue a few days ago (P.S. almost all KSU clues are the same as this one—32A: The Wildcats of the N.C.A.A.). When you construct, you not only encounter all the words that eventually end up in your grid, but all the words that could've been in your grid, the ones you select, discard, put back in, spin around, write your friends about to see if they're good / terrible, etc. Anyway, I didn't need much special help or luck today, as the short answers were generally easy enough to give me significant purchase on the longer stuff. ANA and UNS in the NW, LMN and YMA near the middle, TAM and EBAY (51A: Web site that includes the heading "Dolls & Bears") in the SE. Do boxers have "matches" (25D: Match enders, briefly = TKOS)? I guess they do. But that's a word I associate more with soccer (aka football). Boxers have "bouts."

Bullets:

17A: Like the maximum-height New York City apartment building that's not required to have a fire evacuation plan (SIX-STORY) — I think I spent half my solving time reading this clue. Shouldn't every NYC building have, at least, a "plan" for getting people out of the building if it's burning?
28A: Inits. on many uniforms since 2002 (TSA) — good clue; had me stumped all the way.
34: Figure on Scotland's coat of arms (UNICORN) — I was looking for THISTLE, but luckily already had some important crosses, most notably the "U"
64A: They may be painted in a bathroom (TOENAILS) — I always imagine women doing this on the couch while watching soaps and eating bon-bons. Not accurate?
37D: Hungarian hero ___ Nagy (IMRE) — Crosswordese 102. Not much else available in the -MR- department.
39D: 1994 Ray Liotta action film ("NO ESCAPE") — never heard of it, and yet I got it easily, off of "NOES-." I've been watching 1987 movies lately. I recommend seeing "Black Widow" (starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell) and avoiding "The Bedroom Window" (starring a completely miscast Steve Guttenberg ... but also a frequently naked Isabelle Huppert, so ... you could choose to take the bad with the good, I guess). The fact that both movies have the initials "BW" is a complete coincidence, as far as I know.
45D: 1920s-'40s baseballer with a retired "4" (MEL OTT) — lack of any indication of how great he was left me searching for a much less legendary player. The fact of a retired no. doesn't tell me much about real greatness. No "Hall-of-Fame," no position, no team ... totally gettable, but not the gimme it might have been.
46D: Holy Roman emperor who succeeded his father in 973 (OTTO II) — [Holy Roman emperor who [some random bit of trivia that will clarify things for you not at all]]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Country singer Clark / WED 1-18-12 / Oil well firefighter Red / Schemer called to mind by Madoff swindle / Univac I predecessor / King who had Labyrinth built

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Chris Handman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: SPARE TIRE (64A: Trunk item ... or what has been put on 18-, 24-, 41- and 53-Across)— familiar phrases have letters T, I, R, and E added to their beginnings, respectively, creating wacky phrases, clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: TERRI Clark (6D: Country singer Clark) —

Terri Lynn Sauson (born August 5, 1968), known professionally as Terri Clark, is a Canadian country music artist who has had success in both Canada and the United States. Signed to Mercury Records in 1995, she released her self-titled debut that year. Both it and its two follow-ups, 1996's Just the Same and 1998's How I Feel, were certified platinum in both countries, and produced several Top Ten country hits. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was cute, but the theme answers weren't winners. They were just OK. There was some pleasure in figuring out the theme and then trying to parse the answers, but I'm a little surprised that with such a wide-open theme (possibility-wise) there weren't zingier theme answers out there to be had. The fill is mostly ordinary—not bad, not great, not remarkable either way. Maybe a bit on the pedestrian side. It's a 78-worder with mostly short fill, so there's not a lot to be done. Best you can do is not muck the grid up too bad. Had one big hold-up—could not, for the life of me, figure out what [Hawks] was getting at, even when had all but one letter. I also put in ARE SO instead of AM TOO (playground—or sandbox—retorts being among my most hated of all clue-types), and didn't fully correct it (ended up with ARTOO, which is a correct answer for an entirely different clue). Lost about 10-15 seconds there. Otherwise, no issues. Lucked into TERRI. I'd just been (co-)constructing a puzzle, and you come across all kinds of potential fill when that happens. Had to remind myself who had the name TERRI, just so I could gauge if it was usable. I determined it was not. Wouldn't put her in a puzzle unless I had just about zero other options. And crossing EEE and GTS? Well, let's just say that that part of the grid is probably best left in our rear-view mirror.

Theme answers:

18A: Monopolist's clothing accessory? (TRUST BELT)
24A: Designers for Microsoft Windows? (ICON ARTISTS)
41A: What Martian invaders may be intent on? (ROUT OF THIS WORLD)
53A: What the backer of a failing business may do? (EAT ALL COSTS)

Constant solving came in especially handy today. Good old standbys Red ADAIR (38A: Oil well firefighter Red ___) and ENIAC (2D: Univac I predecessor) were there to lend a hand. I could've answered [Bewhiskered frolicker] in my sleep. No need even to see how many spaces are involved. Maybe KITTEN would get that clue, but how often do you see KITTEN in a puzzle. Rarely. OTTER, however, has much grid cred. He's old friends with ADAIR and ENIAC. Love the word/name PONZI (1D: Schemer called to mind by the Madoff swindle), though it took several passes for my eyes to register what the hell kind of word "Schemer" was. It was like looking at some hybrid of Schumer and schmear.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

River on Texas/Louisiana border / TUE 1-17-12 / Rodent-eating reptiles / Season-ending events on Bachelor / Sting Ray informally

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Elizabeth A. Long

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: VINCENT / VAN GOGH (48A: With 50-Across, Dutch painter represented by this puzzle's circled letters) — circled letters form the image of and contain the words representing the images of a human face, sans left ear—EYE, EYE, EAR, NOSE, MOUTH

Word of the Day: FLOSSY (43A: Showily stylish) —

adj., -i·er, -i·est.
Superficially stylish; slick: wrote flossy articles about the lifestyles of the rich.
Of, relating to, or resembling floss.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/flossy#ixzz1jgNGdjoN

• • •

OK, this was kind of adorable, in a grotesque way. The reveal genuinely made me go "Oh! Cool," which is about the best thing that can happen on a Tuesday (you know how Tuesdays are ... always stuck in that awkward phase ... neither here nor there ... I think my friend Wade once referred to them as the red-headed stepchildren of puzzles ... no offense to redheaded stepchildren intended). Would've been cool to have the body parts embedded / hidden inside other answers, but also would probably have been too much to ask. Sometimes keeping it simple works. Interestingly, though self-portraits show VAN GOGH with a bandage on his right ear, it was his left ear that he maimed.

Puzzle felt very easy. I had only a couple minor hiccups—no idea what RATSNAKES are (32D: Rodent-eating reptiles), and had WAVE instead of WAKE at first (58A: Evidence of a ship's passing), *and* couldn't remember the damn Texas/Louisiana border river, so I had a little moment of "uh oh" there in the west for a few seconds. Eventually caught that the reptiles must be RAT SNAKES (and not, as I briefly imagined, RAT KNAVES), and so got out of there without much harm. The only other issue was FLOSSY (43A: Showily stylish), which feels very old-fashioned. Isn't that a horse's name? Why do I think that? I can't recall ever seeing / hearing the word in the wild. I like it a lot. Feels like something a character in a '30s gangster movie would say. I wrote in NEPAL instead of KOREA (57A: It used to be called the Hermit Kingdom), forgot a Sting Ray was a 'VETTE (50D: Sting Ray, e.g., informally), and spelled GREY wrong (67A: "Pardon me, would you have any ___ Poupon?"). Otherwise, I was writing (typing) almost as fast as I could.

Not much more to say today. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend if you had one. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Flower shrub common in South / MON 1-16-12 / Letter before ar / Hamlet's reply to What do you read my lord / Northern constellation

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: 3x5 — each theme answer = 3 x 5-letter word

Word of the Day: LANTANA (16A: Flowering shrub common in the South) —

n.
Any of various aromatic, chiefly tropical shrubs of the genus Lantana, having dense spikes or heads and small colorful flowers.

[New Latin Lantana, genus name, from Italian dialectal lantana, wayfaring tree, viburnum, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *lentāgō, *lentāgin-, from Latin lentus, light, flexible.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/lantana#ixzz1ja2YUbl0

• • •

Very weird Monday. Started out tough (cross-referenced clue at 1-Across?? LANTANA?????), and then got so easy it was laughable. Did not know "WORDS WORDS WORDS" was a famous quote, but once I hit PICKY PICKY PICKY and saw what was happening, the other theme answers took no effort at all and if I hadn't written in GOADING for GOOSING (68A: Prodding into action) (clue fits GOADING better), I would've set a personal NYT record. Because theme answers are just a 5-letter word twice-repeated, I didn't find it terribly cute or charming, and it's slightly less clean than most of Ms. Michaels's early-week grids (she's set a high standard ... I mean, KUE (35D: Letter before ar)? ESTEES?). I do like that every theme answer is the same grid-spanning length. JASMINE over EMPEROR is very elegant, and TACTILE STOOGES is kind of funny, and it's only a Monday after all, so lighten up, Rex. But the thing is—it's Ms. Michaels herself who taught me that "it's only Monday" is a diminishing and unfair assessment of Monday puzzles. Just because they're all easy doesn't mean that it doesn't matter how artfully constructed they are. And the well-constructed Monday puzzle is a beautiful, if ephemeral, thing. This one was just OK.

Theme answers:

17A: Hamlet's reply to "What do you read, my lord?" ("WORDS, WORDS, WORDS")
32A: "You're too hard to please!" ("PICKY PICKY PICKY!")
42A: 1976 Abba hit ("MONEY, MONEY, MONEY")
63A: How the trolley went in a 1944 song ("CLANG CLANG CLANG!")

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. The only DRACO I know is a Malfoy (51D: Northern constellation).

Taft's partner in a 1947 act / SUN 1-15-12 / Light reflection ratio / Shade of swan's bill Keats poem / California beach town with racetrack / True Colors singer 1986

2012-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Finn Vigeland

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Weather Report" — 66A: Weather comment represented visually by this puzzle's circled letters (IT'S RAINING CATS AND DOGS) — Six Down answers contain breeds of cats or dogs spelled out in non-consecutive circles

Word of the Day: ALBEDO (15D: Light reflection ratio) —

Albedo [...] , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it. Being a dimensionless fraction, it may also be expressed as a percentage, and is measured on a scale from zero for no reflecting power of a perfectly black surface, to 1 for perfect reflection of a white surface. (wikipedia)

• • •

A special message for my audience in syndication (i.e. those of you reading this on January 22, 2012): I've decided to make mid-January the time for my annual pitch for financial contributions to this blog. While one might call the blog a hobby (in that I enjoy it and do it in my "spare" time), I treat it more like a job. A job that has not gone undone for a single day in five years. While I have had many offers and suggestions regarding ways to "monetize" (an ugly word) the blog, I've never found any of them appealing, since they would generally involve advertising (no thanks) or in some other way giving up the real or perceived independence of my voice (again, not for me). I much prefer to deal with my readers directly and ask that they consider what the blog is worth and donate accordingly. There is a Paypal button in the sidebar, and a mailing address here:

Rex Parker
4700 Vestal Parkway East, #279
Vestal, NY 13850-3770

I am well aware that many people do not believe in paying for what they can get for free, and still others are not in the position to give away any money they don't have to. Understood. It's important to me that this site be free and available to everyone. Give what you think fair, or give nothing at all. Some twenty-five thousand people read this blog every day, and somewhere between one-half and two-thirds of that audience reads me in syndication (i.e. 1 or 5 weeks after I've done my initial write-up). To all of you, especially those who have taken time out to send me a kind note, or complain, or otherwise commiserate about our shared obsession, I remain incredibly grateful.

. . .

Now the puzzle: The core of this theme isn't that interesting to me. I've seen a Cats and Dog rebus before, I think, and I'm certain that you could create theme answers ad infinitum that fit this them. How many breeds of dogs are there (a ton)? Cats (I don't know ... but several, probably)? And for any given breed, an untold number of potential answers that contain those letters in non-consecutive order. So we're dealing with a massive potential fund of answers. That's how the constructor was able to manage to get all the Downs to intersect the central Across so symmetrically and perfectly. He surely had an arsenal of theme answers to begin with, and then found three pairs with matching lengths (not that many for a Sunday) and letters in the right place to make the intersection work out. Still, he did get it to work out, and those answers are pretty great. CABLE SITCOMS is a little weak, but the others are all good-to-great (my favorites are MASON-DIXON LINE and PHONOGRAPH NEEDLE). The rest of the grid is very solid and not-at-all cringe-inducing. DEUS EX MACHINA! Sweet. Never heard of a CASTLE IN SPAIN (was looking for "IN THE SKY," which at first made me suspect a rebus was involved), but everything else was at least vaguely familiar and generally zippy. Only trouble I had came in the NE, where I had PHI instead of PSI and couldn't remember ALBEDO (which has probably been a Word of the Day before), so SORBETS (24A: After-dinner choice) looked like it was gonna be HORNETS, which are not an after-dinner choice I'd make. Oh, I also had a little trouble over there in the west, with ATC, which I now understand is an abbrev. of Air Traffic Control. I've never seen that abbrev. in puzzles before. I wanted FAA.

Theme answers:

39D: Shows that can be racier than their network counterparts (CABLE SITCOMS)
41D: Cheating (BREAKING THE RULES)
31D: It's north of the South (MASON-DIXON LINE)
29D: You probably raise you arm for this (ANTI-PERSPIRANT)—not me, I just like to wedge it up in there
13D: It's lowered to hear music (PHONOGRAPH NEEDLE) — nice raise / lowered balance on those last two clues
34D: Big Apple team (BRONX BOMBERS) — my OLD BAG was an OLD HAG at first, so I didn't see this right away

Bullets:

54A: PBS flagship station (WNET) — I know this only from crosswords. Think I noticed these letters for the first time only recently, after a "Great Performances" or a "NOVA" or something.
73A: Plant tissue (XYLEM) — had the "X" and bam, XYLEM. How I know that word is unclear to me. Almost certainly from crosswords. Usually my brain is busy spewing out a bunch of useless answers, all at once, so to have one come out clean and clear and accurate was refreshing. The other flora answer took a bit more time to develop (23D: Leaf pores => STOMATA)
82A: Shade of a swan's bill in a Keats poem (EBON) — Is "Sleep and Poetry" a major poem. I took a whole course on Romantic Poetry in college and never saw this one.
99A: Austrian physician who lent his name to an English word ending in "-ize" (MESMER) — he was German by birth. He lived in Vienna for a time.
102A: "True Colors" singer 1986 (LAUPER) — I think she's fantastic. And so unusual.

4D: 2000 title role for Richard Gere (DR. T) — Feels like I haven't seen this once-common answer in a while.
14D: Taft's partner in a 1947 act (HARTLEY) — perhaps unsurprisingly, I get Taft-HARTLEY confused with SMOOT-HAWLEY.
45D: Angry Birds, e.g. (FAD) — I wanted APP.
97D: California beach town with a racetrack (DEL MAR) — I think I had dinner here last year after the Crosswords LA tournament (info on the 2012 tournament, including a free "warm-up" puzzle by Doug Peterson, HERE).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Vexations composer / SAT 1-14-12 / Yellow fever carrier / Roman count / Pfizer brand since 1997 / Coastal setting of The Birds / Provider of relief for finger / Thornburgh's predecessor as attorney general

2012-01-14T07:55:00.001-05:00

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ESTRAY (8D: Animal that has escaped from its owner) —

Estray, in law, is any domestic animal found wandering at large or lost, particularly if the owner is unknown. (wikipedia) [so ... a stray, then]

• • •

This one kicked me around pretty bad. On the other hand, if I'd simply been able to recall CONROY as readily as I should have (big Duh moment when I got that one), and if I'd taken LUNATIC out sooner (34A: Nutty as can be => IDIOTIC), and if I'd simply been able to see the very obvious CREWMATES (I had CREWMA---S and couldn't think of word that would fit...) (1A: Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins), I might have had this done in half the time. Cluing and content was hard all around, though I started off very quickly. ADIT (crosswordese, wheeee!) and MEESE (5D: Thornburgh's predecessor as attorney general) and WISHI went in 1, 2, 3 (or UNO DUE TRE, I guess — that answer was brutal; 12D: Roman count?). But then the CREWMA- blank happened, and I wrote in UTAH STATE (not having read the clue very well, obviously), and then I was just stuck (19A: A.B.A. team that signed Moses Malone out of high school => UTAH STARS). Then for a while all I had in the NE was RELO, EMORY, and SPY STORY (14D: Le Carré specialty). NO MAS was easy, and that got me into the SE, where, after much fumbling around (including ESSES for MASTS (42A: The U.S.S. Constitution has three) and ETHOS for MORES), I got everything sorted out down there. NW and SE done, other corners, patchy and empty, respectively.

I worked on patchy (NE). And worked. All The Long Downs (the 9s) are "?" clues. That's torture. I've never seen anything like it, that kind of "?" density. What the hell is a CAMEO RING? I mean, I can guess, but come on (11D: Provider of relief for a finger?). Took me forever to get LIPITOR (30A: Pfizer brand since 1997) because I had TRACES for TRICES. Eventually my crosswordese skillz kicked in and I got AEDES (20A: Yellow fever carrier). Honestly, I can't even reconstruct the exact order of things in the NE. It was just ugly. Once I dared to put in CONOID and took out LUNATIC, the previously impossible SW opened right up. CIGAR ASH went right in (32D: Cuban remnant). How do I "know" BODEGA BAY?? I thought I was making it up, but then all the crosses worked (26D: Coastal setting of "The Birds"). "AGNES GREY"?? Wow, there's a Saturday answer. My Ph.D. in English did not prepare me for that one—maybe I've heard of it, but the bell it's ringing, if it's ringing one, is pretty faint (40A: Anne Brontë's first novel).

I'd say this grid looks pretty good overall (with the notable exception of the stupid word ESTRAY). Hard to fill a low word-count puzzle like this in such a smooth way. Commendable. Cluing was brutal, but it's Saturday. I can't expect to down them all in 10 minutes.

Bullets:

47A: Grounation Day celebrant (RASTA) — April 21 – The anniversary of Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica. Needless to say, I did not know this.
37A: Storms on the road (GEOS) — I take issue with the "on the road" part of this clue, in that I haven't seen one ... lately.
31D: Locust tree feature (POD) — no idea what kind of tree this is, so I was clueless for a long time here.
45D: Post-marathon posts (TIMES) — Vexations! "Posts" can mean lots of things.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Onetime Taliban stronghold / FRI 1-13-12 / Eaters of halal food / Natural Affection playwright / Nine Stories title girl / Rachel McAdams's Sherlock Holmes role

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Todd Gross and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TORA BORA (33A: Onetime Taliban stronghold) —

Tora Bora [...] , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains (Safed Koh) (Safed Koh is the Dari form for Spin Ghar) of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately 50 km (31 mi) west of the Khyber Pass and 10 km (6.2 mi) north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan. Tora Bora was known to be an important area for the Taliban and insurgency against the Soviet Union in the 80's. Tora Bora and the surrounding White Mountain range had natural caverns formed by streams eating into the limestone. (wikipedia)

• • •

36 black squares? In a themeless? Not sure I've seen that before. 33 last week, for instance, and that was in a 72-worder (the maximum). There's only 66 words in this thing.

This puzzle was over almost before it began. Started off with a dead-obvious 1A: Eaters of halal food (MUSLIMS) and from there the top section was done in about a minute. The middle section, however, proved somewhat more challenging. STRIPLINGS was by far the hardest word for me to come up with (3D: Youth). In fact, the very last letter I put in this damned thing was the "L" in STRIPLINGS / PALISH (?) (21A: Unhealthily light). I half-resent the clue on PALISH. I'm flat-out PALE and don't think I'm unhealthy. TAN is unhealthy. But I'll leave my ghostly gripings aside for now. More problems in the middle: I couldn't find TORA BORA on a map, sadly, so I certainly had no idea it had anything to do with the Taliban, and I (like half of humanity, I'm guessing) I fell for the AVATAR fake-out (38A: Hit film directed by James Cameron (ALIENS)), despite having FAULT (and thus the "L") in place to begin with (28D: Geologist's big break?). Then the bottom was super-easy again. Got MANIFOLD off the "D" (48A: Car exhaust part), and then dropped a bunch of the short stuff down off of that. Doubt the bottom took me any longer than the top. So, wicked easy in parts, but only Easy-Medium overall. As for the puzzle as a whole: I like the fill, but don't enjoy the grid shape. Well, I like looking at it, and it made the puzzle easy to solve, but it feels slightly ... cheap; I need a better word that sounds less derogatory. None of the fill is very exciting. Doug Peterson usually has a handful of winners in his grids. Not sure what happened here.

Bullets:

11D: Partridge family setting (NEST) — I really should've noticed that lowercase "f" ...
30D: Rachel McAdams's "Sherlock Holmes" role (IRENE ADLER) — never saw it, but woman + Sherlock Holmes = only one (very crosswordy) thing. Another super-easy clue.
22D: "Natural Affection" playwright (INGE) — could've been "Any Title" playwright and I'd have handled it the same way—wait for at least one cross and then dip into my trusty arsenal of 4-letter playwrights.
14D: "Nine Stories" title girl (ESME) — yet another common crossword name. Do crosswords long enough, and you know ESME (also a name from the "Twilight" universe, FYI).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Old name of San Jose Sharks arena / THU 1-12-12 / Pet rat in 1972 #1 song / Popular Italian scooter / Veld flower

2012-01-12T06:43:00.002-05:00

Constructor: Gareth Bain

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: CANADIAN PROVINCE (39A: What each of the 10 abbreviations in this puzzle's answer stands for) — rebus puzzle with 10 province abbrevs. arranged symmetrically around the grid

SK = Saskatchewan
MB = Manitoba
ON = Ontario
NB = New Brunswick
AB = Alberta
BC = British Columbia
QC = Québec
PE = Prince Edward Island
NL = Newfoundland and Labrador
NS = Nova Scotia

Word of the Day: La PLATA (1A: La ___ (Argentine city)) —

La Plata (English: The Silver) is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the 2001 census [INDEC], the city proper has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants. // La Plata was planned and developed to serve as the provincial capital after the city of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880, and it was officially founded by Governor Dardo Rocha on 19 November 1882. Its construction is fully documented in photographs by Tomás Bradley Sutton. La Plata was renamed Eva Perón City (Ciudad Eva Perón) between 1952 and 1955. (wikipedia)

• • •

16 wide, heavily segmented, a jillion (give or take) black squares—these are the things I noticed first. I also knew very quickly (while still in that NW corner) that I was dealing with a rebus. Something just didn't smell right. Sure enough, ON fell into place, but then SK showed up and I had no idea what kind of rebus I was dealing with. It's not clear—are these postal abbrevs.? What kind of abbrevs.? Because I've seen most of these provinces abbreviated differently before (ONT, PEI, etc.). Even with the extra column in the grid, the 9 rebus squares is pretty impressive. I'd say the symmetry of those squares is also impressive (it is), but here's my feeling about symmetry and rebuses—unnecessary. In fact, unwanted. What fun is a rebus if you aren't going to be surprised by where the squares turn up (for half the grid, anyway)? The grid is good, but I can't help wondering if it would've been better if the rebuses hadn't been locked into place. The placement of the rebus square in both MARLO[N B]RANDO and COMPA[Q C]ENTER is gorgeous—right at the place where the first word ends and the second word begins. But ON and PE are just hugging the wall. Rebus square symmetry is nice for people who really struggle with rebuses, but for me it halfway defeats the fun. So I applaud the architecture, but .... give me scattershot rebus squares placed in interesting ways over strict symmetry any day.

The constructor really, really wants you to know he's from South Africa. So, in case you didn't gather that fact from the (at least) three different South Africa-oriented clues—[Windhoek-to-Pretoria dir.], [Andries Pretorius, e.g., who gave his name to a national capital], [Veld flower]—now I'm telling you directly. He's from South Africa. Nice guy.

Bullets:

27D: They're flicked (BICS) — I remember this from an old ad campaign, but I have not heard the expression "flick my BIC" in decades.

65A: American Shakers founder (AN[NL]EE) — SW corner was threatening to be one of the toughest until I hit this answer. A very crossword-friendly name (in fact, I definitely learned this bit of trivia from crosswords).
48A: Pet rat in a 1972 #1 song (BEN) — Michael Jackson. I think BEN was also a pet bear from a '60s TV series. He was "Gentle," by which I assume they mean "heavily drugged so as not to kill the actors."
67A: Popular Italian scooter (VESPA) — the epitome of mod-cool when I was in high school. Maybe at other times as well.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Oka River citiy / WED 1-11-12 / Five-time All-Star second baseman Chase / Mecca for oenophiles / Toy consisting of 80 feet of wire

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Chuck Deodene

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: HATCH CHECK — "CH" is added to end of "-AT" word in familiar expressions, creating wacky expressions, which are clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: Chase UTLEY (52D: Five-time All-Star second baseman Chase ___) —

Chase Cameron Utley [...] is a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. A native of the Greater Los Angeles area, he was raised in the city of Long Beach. He was a star baseball player at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, before moving on to UCLA. He now currently plays for the Philadelphia Phillies as a second basemen. (wikipedia)

• • •

Simple add-some-letters theme with no revealer—not very impressive, but you do get one great theme answer (BATCH OUT OF HELL), which is often as much as you can expect from this type of theme. I'm kind of mesmerized by this grid, specifically by how its middle is chock full of theme squares but with black squares placed so artfully that the theme answers don't seem to crowd each other or create any complications at all. And it's not like this grid has an excessive number of black squares (40 is a little high, but not distractingly so). The grid's not even at the maximum word count (the max is 78—this one's 76). It takes some care to get a 14/15/14 progression of theme answers to come out well, with a nice light touch and no real strain on the fill. Fill-wise, there's nothing spectacular, but only -ITES is really irksome. The rest is very solid (though I could do without the ORAL / OREL pairing). So the puzzle is skillfully made, if not scintillating.

Theme answers:

17A: Fabric store employees? (SWATCH TEAM)
23A: Repair for a torn pullover? (PATCH ON THE BACK)
35A: Attend a tennis tournament because one is a fan of? (GO TO THE MATCH FOR)—this wins the award for Most Awkwardly Phrased Clue Of All Time. Why not just [Support by attending a tennis tournament]?
50A: Cookies baked by Satan? (BATCH OUT OF HELL)
59A: Arrest made on a side street? (ALLEY CATCH)

I made pretty good time through this one, with my one and only big holdup coming at 54D: Sidestep (EVADE). I had the "V," which is about the least helpful letter to have with that clue. I wrote in AVERT. When that proved wrong, I could think only of AVOID. Bah. Annoying to get held up by something so rudimentary. Got COLD CASES pretty easily, but not sure why the investigations are "Dead-ended" as opposed to "Dead-end." Maybe because they hit a dead end ... in the past? I think that still means they are "dead-end" in the present, but whatever. Interesting to see OKA in a clue here today (39D: Oka River city => OREL) after it featured so prominently in my write-up of that disastrous Friday puzzle. Did not know that a [Young termite, e.g.] was called a NYMPH. Very incongruous with the images of NYMPHs that dance in my head (from time to time). Broadway clue looked impossible to me until it wasn't (3D: 2005 Broadway hit based on a 1974 film => "SPAMALOT"). My parents live reasonably close to NAPA, but I've never been (14A: Mecca for oenophiles). Do they still make the SLINKY (13D: Toy consisting of 80 feet of wire)? It's fun for a girl and a boy. It's fun for a girl and a boy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Brazilian port of 1.4 million / TUE 1-10-12 / Actor Sam of stage screen / Lapel attachment / One not looking for individual glory

2012-01-10T08:07:00.001-05:00

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: TEPEE (40A: Indian home ... or a hint to nine other answers in this puzzle) — two word answers, where first word starts with "T" and second word starts with "P"

Word of the Day: Sam LEVENE (52D: Actor Sam of stage and screen) —

Sam Levene (August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was an American Broadway and film actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1927 with five lines in a play titled Wall Street, and over a span of nearly 50 years, appeared on Broadway in 37 Shows, of which 33 were the original Broadway Productions, many now considered legendary. Levene made his film debut in 1936 as Patsy recreating the same role he had created on Broadway in Three Men On A Horse (1935). Levene also appeared in the USO Tour of this same Show; the Radio Version; the Musical version that opened on Broadway called Let It Ride (1961) as well as the 1969 Broadway Revival of the play directed by 'George Abbott', the original Broadway Director and co-author. (wikipedia)

• • •

The deal seems to be that if you have a pretty weak theme, if you just cram a ton of theme answers in, that cramming will more than make up for it. I'm not a fan of cramming (in most situations), as it leads to discomfort. Today, specifically, a pretty rocky grid with at least one Highly unfortunate cross. What the hell is a TACK PIN? I know what a TIE TAC(K) is (from crosswords), and I know what a LAPEL PIN is, but TACK PIN is mysterious. Never heard of it. Very odd for a Tuesday puzzle. Odder still, though, is the LEVENE / BELÉM cross. Most people are just guessing at that "E" because it seems like the most plausible letter. I don't care if *you* knew LEVENE and/or BELÉM (57A: Brazilian port of 1.4 million), those simply aren't commonly known (proper!) nouns, and there is no way in hell they should be crossed at the "E." None. LEVENE has been in precisely one puzzle in the last decade (acc. to cruciverb.com), almost ten years ago. His name is also spelled differently from other LEVINEs, so with the "I" different I was not sure at all that the first "E" was a given.

Now throw in BELÉM. It's a city of over a million, you say. Uh huh. But no way in hell most Americans can name it. Some, perhaps. But not most. I know it *only* because I was poring over my Atlas recently marveling at all the cities in the world with 1 million+ populations that I had never heard of (and even then I wasn't sure if it was BELAM or BELÉM). BELÉM is dwarfed, population-wise, by NINGBO. Never heard of it? What about (much larger) HARBIN? SURAT? FAISALABAD? You can see why the "the population's over a million!" argument doesn't impress me much. I mean, BELÉM is only the 11th most populous city in Brazil. Can you name the other 10? No. No you can't. You can name three: RIO, SAO PAULO, and (maybe) the captial, BRASILIA. Once again (and again and again and again) the the point isn't whether BELÉM or LEVENE should be allowed in a puzzle. They should (though maybe not on a Tuesday—that's a judgment call). But they shouldn't cross, and they damn sure shouldn't cross at an "E." And again (and again and again and again), I guessed right, so I'm not sour-grapesing this thing. It's. A. Bad. Cross.

Theme answers:

17A: Essay, say (THINK PIECE)
21A: Lapel attachment (TACK PIN)
58A: Backup group for Gladys Knight (THE PIPS) — as my wife said, "when one of your 'T' words is 'THE,' maybe there's a problem ..."
63A: One not looking for individual glory (TEAM PLAYER) — I admire both TEAM PLAYER and THINK PIECE very much
11D: Group associated with 2009's Taxpayer March on Washington (TEA PARTY) — also [Group having no success influencing the election of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee]. Romney 2012! Feel the Inevitability!
39D: Singer with the Heartbreakers (TOM PETTY)
25D: La Brea fossil preserve (TAR PITS)
4D: Coach on a court (TENNIS PRO)
36D: Disneyland, e.g. (THEME PARK)

Also, I want the revealer to be TPS (i.e. pulls a Halloween prank), even though TPS is itself a initialism for "toilet paper." Feels more accurate (not to mention entertaining), and the "S" suggests the plural (i.e. there are nine TPS in the puzzle).

Bullets:

16A: Major-leaguer Tony or Alejandro (PEÑA) — forgot about the latter, but grew up with the former, who was a 5-time All-Star in the '80s.
13D: U-___ (Berlin railway) (BAHN) — did not know this. Figured answer was probably not HAUL. Inferred BAHN from "autobahn."
45A: Fireplace (INGLE) — does anyone say this? The only time I've ever seen this word is in 16th-century Scottish literature.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Fragrance of roses / MON 1-9-12 / Doughnut shapes mathematically speaking / Fantasy realm of C.S. Lewis / Like Dubai's Burj Khalifa

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Michael Dewey

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: blank LIKE A bird of some kind

Word of the Day: SCALAWAG (4D: Rapscallion) —

In United States history, scalawag was a derogatory nickname for southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War. (wikipedia)

• • •

Another very slight theme. 76-word grid, decently filled. All in all, fine. Completely forgettable, but fine.

[42A: Rockers Clapton and Burdon]

Theme answers:

20A: Soar (FLY LIKE AN EAGLE)
38A: Tell everything to the coppers (SING LIKE A CANARY)
51A: Carefully guard (WATCH LIKE A HAWK)

Weird thing about solving experience for me was getting all the way to the bottom of the grid before I had a single theme answer or any idea of what the theme was. Had the SCA- of SCALAWAG but couldn't do anything with it, so I ended up riding ICICLE down to ISAAC over to ASIAN down to SNOB over to BUTANE (with some small detours along the way, I'm sure). All very quickly. Then got WATCH LIKE A HAWK, but it wasn't until a bit later, with SING LIKE A CANARY, that I picked up the (very) slight theme. Had some confusion along the way. Started with ILLS for WOES. Read [Number after a © symbol] as [Number after a @ symbol] and so YEAR made No sense. Clue on TALL is pretty ridiculous (11D: Like Dubai's Burj Khalifa). Michael Jordan is TALL. Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. TALL is bathetic in the extreme. Calling that building TALL is like calling the Great Wall of China LONG. Understatement. Clue out of proportion to answer. Absurdity.

I like how SLIP and KNOT(TY) are right next to each other. I also like how this puzzle has no J. Yes I do.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Musician Montgomery / SUN 1-8-12 / Glen Canyon reservoir / Adaptable aircraft / Clive Cussler novel settings / 2010 Emma Stone comedy

2012-01-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Tony Orbach

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Doing Without" — familiar phrases with "WITH" have that "WITH" removed, resulting in all kinds of wackiness

Word of the Day: HOLI (69D: Hindu spring festival) —

Holi (होली), is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. In some states of India such as West Bengal and Orissa, it is known as Dolyatra (Doul Jatra) [...], or Basanta-Utsav ("spring festival")[...]. The most celebrated Holi is in the Braj region, in locations connected to the Lord Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi. (wikipedia)

• • •

Didn't care for this. Theme didn't feel like much of one, and the resulting phrases just didn't yield much in the way of funny. Plus, the grid was Heavily segmented and a lot of the fill was less than stellar (my new word for "less than stellar" = ULNAR) (103D: Kind of nerve). Beyond that, I don't have much to say about this one. Felt slightly harder than normal, but only slightly. Had never heard of LAKE POWELL or HOLI or EARLE. I had heard of DULCINEA, thank god, because that might have been brutal. I think I wrote in CASTILIANS for CABALLEROS, and I know I wrote in RAT HOLE for RAT TRAP. Oh, and I went with the adjectival FLAKY over the nominal FLAKE (108D: Eccentric). The seven-letter answers up top are kind of nice, but nothing else really STAND(EE)s out for me.

Theme answers:

24A: "Just do drills for now"? ("DON'T PLAY MATCHES")
30A: Disturb one's neighbors at night? (KEEP UP THE JONESES)
52A: Duffer's feeling toward a putting pro? (GREEN ENVY)
54A: Meeting one's soul mate, perhaps? (DATE DESTINY) — [See a stripper?] having been discarded, presumably
67A: Successfully perform a download? (GET THE PROGRAM)
87A: Applied foil at the Hershey's factory? (SEALED A KISS)
91A: One man's declaration to an upset party planner? (I'M THE BAND)
105A: Drive by the United Nations? (PASS FLYING COLORS)
117A: Impostor's excuse? (I ONLY WANNA BE YOU)

Bullets:

6A: Hannibal's foil in "The Silence of the Lambs" (CLARICE) — still haven't seen it, but know her name well (though I thought CLARISE, at first)
38A: Inflation-fighting W.W. II org. (OPA) — Office of Price Administration; part of the Alphabet Soup group of abbrevs. that I can never keep straight.
57A: Clive Cussler novel settings (SEAS) — I know the name, but not the subject matter. Wanted SIAM for a good deal of time.
7D: Constellation whose brightest star is Regulus (LEO) — constellation, three letters: ARA! No? Dang.
14D: "Little" singer of the '60s (EVA) — The quotation marks are ironic; EVA weighed 350 pounds.
32D: 2010 Emma Stone comedy set in high school ("EASY A") — a common crossword answer with a new, cinematic clue as of 2010. I just read today in the New Yorker that Emma Stone and Taylor Swift are friends ... thus ends my Emma Stone news for the day.
90D: Adaptable aircraft (STOL) — Short Take-Off and Landing. Learned it the hard way, from a crossword failure.
118D: Musician Montgomery (WES) — how did I know this? I feel like he is a jazz musician ... maybe saxophone ... nope, jazz guitar.

Gotta go watch my Lions get shredded by the Saints now.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Longtime Guiding Light actress Beth / SAT 1-7-12 / Progress by intelligent design / Barbizon School painter Jules / Hellenistic-era galley / Proust's Parisian courtesan / Hockey player Roloson wrestler Johnson / Glacial pinnacles / Wack in hip-hop

2012-01-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TELESIS (14D: Progress by intelligent design) —

Telesis (from the Greek τέλεσις /telesis/) or "planned progress" was a concept and neologism coined by the American sociologist Lester Frank Ward (often referred to as the "father of American sociology"), in the late 19th century to describe directed social advancement via education and the scientific method. The term has since been adopted as the name of numerous groups, organizations and businesses. (wikipedia)

• • •

Took one look at the grid and thought "well, this is going to suck." Given that expectation, the puzzle was not so bad. As stunt puzzles go, this one was about average. Passable, but with seriously ugly stuff in the margins. One huge plus: the eight interlocking 15s are all remarkably solid. And not a SCARLET TANAGERS or A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE in sight. The rest of the grid is predictably mediocre-to-weak, with a particularly bad patch in the NE (think TELESIS / LAE / CCXII / SERACS). Lots of names no one really knows, like EHLERS (30A: Longtime Guiding Light actress Beth), and DUPRE and ODETTE (16D: Proust's Parisian courtesan) and DWAYNES (34D: Hockey player Roloson and wrestler Johnson) (OK, I've heard of DWAYNE Johnson, aka The Rock, but "Johnson" isn't exactly a giveaway name). Also, WAS OLD!? Yeesh. That is some LESSER OF nonsense. Also, two COURSEs!? Two REDs, OK, but Two COURSEs?! Ugh. But still, as I say, as this kind of low-word-count, "hey ma, look at me"-type puzzle goes, it holds together, mostly.

It felt hard at first, when I couldn't get many of the short answers (where I usu. start with a puzzle like this). But after putting TRY AS and ICER next to each other, I decided to actually look at the clues for the long answers, and off the "-YE-" I got STAYED THE COURSE. From there I got TACIT and ECON, which gave me access to the whole west and (eventually) south sides. Had some trouble moving up the central alleys to the NE (where I eventually finished things up). SERACS (29A: Glacial pinnacles) was a mystery, and I couldn't remember the exact boiling point of water, or that damned Papua New Guinea port (which I've seen in several, usually weak, puzzles), so I was blocked there. Never heard of a CAT BOAT (8A: Craft with one mast and one sail), never heard of "A COOL Million, though some muscles and tendons were ROPY ... so, yeah, access to that NE corner was tough. But I made out the COURSE part of EXTENSION COURSE, and eventually brought DEAD AS A DOORNAIL back across, which then let me work all the kinks out. TELESIS was a Hail Mary, but looking at it now, I don't see how it could've been anything else. I know TRIREME from various ancient Greek stuff I've had to read over the years, so I figured BIREME must be ... something (31A: Hellenistic-era galley).

Bullets:

36A: Waterwheel parts (VANES) — well, of course. Who doesn't know their waterwheel parts. Elementary school stuff.
11D: Frank's place (BUN) — had this as DOG at first, then realized the DOG *is* the "Frank." BUN followed shortly.
28D: Wack, in hip-hop (ILLIN') — "Wack" has far more currency than "ILLIN'," which peaked adjectivally in the mid '80s.

43D: Brooklyn Park setting: Abbr. (MINN.) — oh sure, right next to COON RAPIDS. Who doesn't know this? Child's play.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Volga tributary / FRI 1-6-12 / 2010 Ke$ha chart-topper with creatively spelled five-word title / 2005 horror sequel / 1990s series originally set in year 2193

2012-01-06T00:09:00.004-05:00

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: OKA (61D: Volga tributary) —

Oka (Russian: Ока́, IPA: [ɐˈka]) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds 1,500 kilometres (930 mi). The Russian capital Moscow sits on one of the Oka's tributaries—the Moskva River. (wikipedia)

• • •

There is much that I love about this puzzle: it has a contemporary feel but is well balanced with answers from many different realms of knowledge and many different eras; it's full of unexpected, interesting answers; it has lots of Xs; etc. But there are two things that were disappointing. First, the difficulty level was wildly uneven—it was supremely easy for long stretches, and then there'd be some obscurity like "TIME TRAX" (?) or some oddity like WIGWAG (?) and things would grind to a strange, temporary halt. Puzzle seemed to over-rely on pop culture titles to provide difficulty ("FOXY LADY," "TIME TRAX," "WE R WHO WE R"). Never a great puzzle feature. The bigger problem, however, was that there are two completely terrible crosses in this puzzle—one I got, one I didn't.

In both cases, the crosses are both proper nouns of dubious fame, that cross at a not-completely-inferrable letter. This is the definition of a "Natick" (for a definition of the "Natick Principle," go here and scroll down to the glossary). And this puzzle has two. Firstly: yes, MARIO KART is a major video game franchise, but most adults (not all—MOST) are going to be familiar with MARIO but have No Clue about the strange, un-video-game-sounding KART (and its spelling). And only hard-core crossworders know what the hell the OKA is. The only reason I got this one was that I knew OCA was a South American tuber, so the spelling was probably something else. Now that I look at this corner, I know it's going to be a total disaster for many, esp. many older solvers. Ke$ha song with a title from outer space crossing "SAW II" and L.A. GEAR. That's a whole lot of commercial names in one little place. And WIGWAG is down there too, so, yikes (I had WIGWAG as WAFFLE and then WIGGLE...).

The other Natick (the one that got me) was SONO / ULANOVA. Again, two proper nouns of dubious fame, but this time, both from the Same General Sphere of Knowledge (the sphere of classical music, broadly defined). That's a huge no-no. It's fine to have all manner of answers in your puzzle, including all manner of oddities and obscurities, but you do not cross unfamous proper nouns at an uninferrable letter and you Especially do not do so when both answers are from the same cultural world. It doesn't give the solver a chance. Every solver is ignorant of something, and the beauty of Crosswords is that he/she can save herself from having that ignorance completely derailing the solving experience. This is all to say that I had SOLO / ULALOVA. Obviously ULANOVA sounds more correct now that I see it, but it's not like "L" is an absurd guess, and SOLO seems sooooo much more plausible than SONO (20A: "Dove ___" (Mozart aria)). I mean, it's a *&^%ing aria, and SOLO is a *&^%ing Italian word. Dear lord, if you're going to have a terrible answer like SONO, and your cross is from *&^%ing ballet, at least clue it as a prefix or something. Ugh. This is what happens when you don't take care to avoid this kind of crap—it's what people remember. Actually, a whole lot of people are going to have errors and Never Know. If I'd done it on paper, I would've been blissfully unaware that SOLO / ULALOVA was wrong.

Please note: I gave you two examples of Naticks today. One got me. One didn't. The point isn't what I, personally, do and don't know. I knew the Ke$ha song and the video game and the tributary, but I can still see that it's going to (unfairly) screw other people up. Objectively, the crosses I have discussed are bad. Cluing on SONO- could've saved the one cross. I might have indicated that MARIO KART had a misspelled word—it would've gone nicely with the "WE R WHO WE R" clue, which did the same.

Bullets:

17A: 1958 Buddy Holly hit ("MAYBE BABY") — nice answer, and one that was a joy to uncover, mainly because it had me combing through and humming the Buddy Holly catalog.

18A: "Guaranteed relief every time" sloganeer (EX-LAX) — not my favorite way to get two Xs, but daring nonetheless.
29A: Letters signifying quality brandy (VSOP) — I know this only from crosswords. See also OKA and ARIE
51A: Rappers' covers (DO-RAGS) — Some rappers' covers, sure. Many non-rappers' covers too.
42A: The so-called Island of the Gods (BALI) — weird: whenever the Judeo-Christian God or anything biblical is in the puzzle, you never see any of this "so-called" nonsense. You could just put the phrase "Island of the Gods" in quotation marks. "So-called" sounds snarky.
3D: Chickens for dinner (FRYERS) — I wanted POLLOS ... because ... of arroz con pollo? I don't know.
9D: Eponym of a frozen food (EDY) — don't normally think of ice cream as a "frozen food" (I think more of frozen vegetables or Stouffer's dinners and the like). But, of course, ice cream is indeed a frozen food. And this eponym was very easy to come up with.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Grammy winner Elliott / THU 1-5-12 / Org featured in 1983's WarGames / Book after Zechariah / Miniscule lengths / Early gangsta rap group featuring Dr Dre

2012-01-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Dan Schmiedeler

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ALL FOR ONE / ONE FOR ALL (34A: With 21-Down, catchphrase that provides a hint to eight answers in this puzzle) — words with letter string "ALL" in them are clued as if they were words that had that same letter string replaced with "ONE"—and symmetrical vice versa

Word of the Day: ALTON B. Parker (19A: ___ B. Parker, Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 opponent for president) —

Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American lawyer, judge and the Democratic nominee for U.S. president in the 1904 elections. (wikipedia)

• • •

I imagine people will like this one, but all I see are lots of ONEs and ALLs—neither word very exciting, as fill goes. I do think the idea is clever, and despite the fact that the concept was easy to uncover, and gave away huge swatches of real estate in the grid, I still got turned around a few times, forgetting that the switch was on and instead writing the Same word in two different (symmetrical) places in the grid. So a puzzle that really should've been Easy came in a pretty solid Medium. Nothing very interesting in the grid, though I do sort of like both MALACHI (1D: Book after Zechariah) and TWEEZES (42D: Plucks, in a way). But DOUAI? (44A: French city near the Belgian border) OATSEED? (43D: Cereal grain) Those are pretty rough. What really stands out (badly), though, is the single longest partial I've ever seen: LESSER OF. The rule on partials is—not longer than five letters, except on rare occasions. I had assumed that on rare occasions that meant that a six might slide in. But eight. Eight is horrible. LESSER OF is not a valid answer.

Theme answers:

3D: Set up, as software (IN STONE) / 41D: Fixed (INSTALL)
4D: Schoolyard game (T-BONE) / 49D: Certain steak (T-BALL)
14A: "That was funny!" (GOODALL) / 59A: Jane who wrote "In the Shadow of Man" (GOOD ONE)
24A: Captivates (ENTHRONES) / 47A: Crowns (ENTHRALLS)

Bullets:

33A: Grammy winner Elliott (MISSY) — really feels like she's dropped off the map. Very big a decade+ ago.
37A: Org. featured in 1983's "WarGames" (NORAD) — "Shall we play a game?" Right in my teenage nerd wheelhouse.

46A: Early gangsta rap group featuring Dr. Dre (NWA) — I expect complaints here. They are not legitimate. This is one of the most influential rap groups of all time. Lots and lots and lots of profanity, so beware:

52A: Miniscule lengths (MILS) — I've only ever encountered this word in crosswords. It's now a gimme.
50D: Part of a Caesarean trio (VIDI) — Weird to see "Caeserian" used in non-birthing context—not that the clue was deceptive at all.
11D: Shells of shells (CASINGS) — Nice, tough (for me) clue. I kept looking for something pasta-related.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

1980s Salvadoran president / WED 1-4-12 / Detroit rapper a-Che / Org whose logo features letter pi with arrow through it / Courtier who invites Hamlet to duel with Laertes

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Quip puzzle — 18A: Start of a quip by 44-Across [Brendan BEHAN]: "I SAW A NOTICE / WHICH SAID / DRINK CANADA DRY AND I'VE / JUST STARTED"

Word of the Day: Brendan BEHAN (44A: Writer Brendan) —

Brendan Francis Behan ([...] 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army. (wikipedia)

• • •

So he's Irish, but he was in Canada once, I guess? Or he's drinking Canadian whiskey? I like the quip, but the fact of his not being Canadian is slightly confusing to me. I don't know BEHAN at all—doubt it would've helped much with this difficult puzzle. Quote puzzles are notoriously time-consuming (compared to other themed puzzles) because there is no pattern to pick up and no way to know where the quip is going (unless you've heard it before or it's moving in some very predictable direction I guess). I am not familiar with the use of "NOTICE" in this quip, though I'm guessing it simply means advertisement. Once I got the quip as far as CANADA DRY, I knew vaguely what the joke would be. I like the punchline's terseness. As for the rest of the grid—it is eye-popping. Very tough, but very light on junk. Enjoyable, but much more a Thursday than a Wednesday puzzle. Combine BEQ's sensibility (which involves tricky, often very contemporary cluing) with a quip puzzle, and you have a recipe for toughness. My near downfall was the FSIX / SIM CARD crossing. I never use F keys so that clue meant nothing to me. And I can't remember the last time I saw or used the phrase SIM CARD (26D: Data holder on a cellphone). Scary, but that "S" was (in the end) inferrable via F-SIX (25A: Key in the middle of the top row), though I'm sure there are people out there right now wondering what an AIM CARD and a FAIX key are. Or a LIM CARD and a FLIX key. Etc.

I'd completely forgotten the name DUARTE (1980s Salvadoran president). Was totally flummoxed by ONE DOWN (1D: You are here). Had BEYONCÉ for BELUSHI (2D: Only person to have the #1 movie, #1 album and #1-rated late-night TV show all in the same week) (really should've read the clue all the way to the end...). Clue on CIG was rough (22A: Parliament, e.g., in brief). Wanted ZIT to be NIT at first (51D: Small blemish, in slang). Briefly wondered why Eisenhower would've been the [Subj. of the 1948 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine]. "Ohhhhhh ... DDT! Yeah, that makes more sense." JEEZ and ANAL seem borderline profane, so I like that they are symmetrical.

Bullets:

14A: Org. whose logo features the letter pi with an arrow through it (NEA) — I think this is my wife's union. I've never seen their logo.
24A: Courtier who invites Hamlet to duel with Laertes (OSRIC) — minor character, but I used him in a puzzle once, so he's an easy pick-up. The word "courtier" (as well as the 5-letter length) is a give-away.
4D: Feature of Dr. Frankenstein's lab (SWITCH) — a great but (again) very tough clue for SWITCH.

21D: Detroit rapper ___-a-Che (RIC) — sounds like "ricochet." Don't think I've ever heard him, but I've definitely seen the name before. Possibly in another BEQ puzzle.
37D: ___ Kitchen (organic frozen food company) (AMY'S) — wow, do people know this company? I do, but only because I shop in the little "healthy" ghetto in Wegman's (where all the whole grains and loose leaf teas and soy milk and gluten-free junk is). I enjoy some of AMY'S veggie burgers. The pot pies, not so much. Too much crust.
48D: Thing watched while driving through a speed trap (NEEDLE) — it's hard to shoot heroin and drive at the same time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Chaiken co-creator/writer of The L Word / TUE 1-3-12 / Hitter of 511 career home runs / Baseball brothers George Ken / Fictional reporter Kent

2012-01-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium (leaning toward Medium-Challenging)

THEME: Middleton and Jackson —two-word phrases where second word is an anagram of KATES

Word of the Day: EROSE (26D: Not even, as a leaf's edge) —

adj.
Irregularly notched, toothed, or indented: erose leaves.

[From Latin ērōsus, past participle of ērōdere, to gnaw off. See erode.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/erose#ixzz1iOeXeH2N

• • •

Highlight: LORETTA! (25D: "Get back, ___ ... Go home" (Beatles lyric)) (also [Two-time All-Star second baseman Mark])
Lowlight: ILENE (no offense to her personally, but she's an outlier here, fame-wise) (46A: ___ Chaiken, co-creator/writer of "The L Word")

Didn't think much of the theme, but LOVE the grid. It's essentially a themeless grid (i.e. low word-count, in this case 72) and from NE to SW corner, and particularly in the middle, it is very wide-open. I wasn't even sure where the theme answers were at first. Long Acrosses don't really jump out in a grid like this. Anyway, I'm impressed that a 72-worder can be Tuesday-easy. Maybe this was a *little* tougher than usual, but I was still well under 4, which is not outside my Tuesday norm at all. Hardest answer for me By Far was (irony!) MEL OTT (12D: Hitter of 511 career home runs), the crosswordiest baseball player of all (pace ALOU family). Simply was not expecting that answer to be anything except a single last name. "Who the hell is ... MELIOT? MELOIT? Who is this French Guy!!?" Had a little trouble up there also because I misspelled SELASSIE ("A" for "E" in that second slot), and then wrote in ABBOT for 16A: Often-consulted church figure (ELDER). I also had a little trouble getting into the SW because of a tenacious wrong answer at 45A: Expensive coat? (GILT). I had PELT, which works (or appears to work) for every cross but one—the "P"; if it hadn't been for the manifest wrongness of NEPLECTS (the last answer I got), I'd have finished with an error. As it was, I made an easy fix. Strange that I was willing to buy CUTEES as an appropriate spelling, but I was.

Theme answers:

17A: It goes in the ground at a campground (TENT STAKE)
24A: Four-wheeled wear (ROLLER SKATE)
35A: Tenderized cut of beef (MINUTE STEAK)
47A: "Huh ... what?" reactions (DOUBLE TAKES)
56A: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" poet (JOHN KEATS)

Speaking of MELOTT, this was an über-basebally puzzle, with a double dose of MELOTT (see also GIANT), and then a double double dose of baseball baseball brother brothers. There should be some way to clue the fact that you will only have heard of one of the brothers. George BRETT is a Hall-of-Famer active during my prime baseball fan years (ages 8-14), his brother... ? (22D: Baseball brothers George and Ken) Joe TORRE is the legendary Yankee manager. Frank ... ? (52A: Baseball brothers Joe and Frank)

[10D: Fictional reporter Kent]

Beware the CARROT ID of Jennifer ANISE-TON! It's an orange, licoricey nightmare!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Statesman Root / MON 1-2-12 / One providing nonmedical support for woman in labor / Old Detroit brewery name / George M Yankee Doodle Boy composer / Pulitzer-winning 1920 Eugene O'Neill play

2012-01-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SIGHT UNSEEN (62A: Literal description of something that is 18-, 24-, 40- or 49-Across) — answers are all [preposition THE place] phrases describing locations that one cannot (yet) see.

Word of the Day: DOULA (58A: One providing nonmedical support for a woman in labor) —

A Doula is someone who provides non-medical support to women and their families during labour and childbirth, and also the postpartum period. (wikipedia)

• • •

Didn't care for this one. First it was supereasy and boring, then it got less easy but more annoying. Never heard of "BEYOND THE HORIZON," but it won the Pulitzer, so I suppose it's worth knowing. Doesn't seem Monday, but no big deal. Bigger issue for me was UNDER THE COUNTER—could not figure COUNTER out at all. Needed nearly every cross. Heard of paying someone UNDER THE TABLE. Don't know the COUNTER phrase so well. But again, that's mainly my problem. What's not my problem is the revealer. First, SIGHT UNSEEN, as far as I've ever heard it, is used in relation to something that has been bought or otherwise accepted. Literally, the answers in this puzzles could be described, I suppose, as UNSEEN, but SIGHT UNSEEN is discordant. Further, there's no reason I can't (literally) see under a counter. Depends on where I'm standing (same can't be said for other expressions). Further further, the corners on this thing look like they were filled by a computer. TKOS, ASSN, and LIRAS (pl!?) all in the same small corner. Lazy. ERITU crossing ELIHU!? (26D: Statesman Root) That's a black hole of crosswordese. Mildly cutesy idea, executed averagely. If a puzzle going to go 16 wide, there should be good reason, and the grid should be especially well filled. Neither of those criteria were met here.

Theme answers:

18A: Elderly, so to speak (OVER THE HILL)
24A: Soon to arrive (AROUND THE CORNER)
40A: Pulitzer-winning 1920 Eugene O'Neill play ("BEYOND THE HORIZON")
49A: Secret or illegal (UNDER-THE-COUNTER)

Remembered the [Old Detroit brewery name] (STROH) but had no clue about the "The Yankee Doodle Boy" composer (George M. COHAN). Thankfully, I have a cousin who's a midwife—though I probably would've known DOULA anyway. I've never seen it in crosswords. I have no idea how well known the word is. It's about the only thing interesting in this puzzle. Original. I though DSL was AOL (9D: Broadband inits.), but otherwise, nothing about the top half was very troubling. Oh, LISLE (13D: Smooth cotton fabric). Ugh. Fabrics. No idea what I had at first. I should've known there'd be gratuitous French somewhere.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld