Peaceful race in Avatar / TUE 8-24-10 / Self-proclaimed astronaut of boxing / Huge poetically / Sport with shells

Constructor: Caleb Madison and J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: TAXI CABANA — "-ANA" is added to the ends of familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, clued "?"-style


Word of the Day: "My Friend IRMA" (24D: "My Friend ___" of 1950s TV) —

My Friend Irma, created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard, was a top-rated, long-run radio situation comedy, so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated to films, television, a comic strip and a comic book, while Howard scored with another radio comedy hit, Life with Luigi. Marie Wilson portrayed the title character, Irma Peterson, on radio, in two films and a television series. The radio series was broadcast on CBS Radio from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954. (wikipedia)

• • •

Ah, Professor Madison. At it again. Still got another year left in high school, and here he is, doing his second (at least, right?) stint as a teacher of crossword construction. J.A.S.A. stands for "Jewish Association for Services for the Aged," and they offer a range of continuing education courses for older people. Here's the blurb on the class from the Fall 2010 catalog:

• Get A Clue!
• A Comprehensive Course on Crossword Construction
• Instructor: CALEB MADISON
• This class will outline the basic principles of crossword puzzle construction. It will begin with some basic crossword history, but focus mainly on how to come up with a theme, a useable grid, and create the fill. Building puzzles will improve our solving skills. At the end of the semester, the class will come up with one final puzzle to be submitted for publication in The New York Times.

I've taught a similar course to a similar audience here where I live (mine geared more toward solving puzzles, as well as navigating the world of puzzles online), and had a blast. A really smart, engaged audience. Maybe Caleb will chime in in the comments and say a little something about how this puzzle came together. No, scratch that. Not "maybe." Caleb will. You hear me, Caleb!?

Right off the bat this puzzle felt livelier than your average early-week fare. ZOWIE! Pretty simple theme concept — add three letters — but as I've said before, simple is great if the resulting phrases have pop, and these mostly do. MR. NICE GUYANA, while being kind of a funny phrase, isn't really cluable in a way that makes any sense, even wackily, but the others work just fine. BANDANA and BANANA are a little close to one another. Greater variety would have been nice, but ... these are minor points. Two long Downs are wonderful, and the whole grid is pretty neatly filled. For a group effort from a largely inexperienced lot, this is really high-quality work.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Title for a South American mensch? (MR. NICE GUYANA)
  
• 34A: Result of heating a certain fruit too long? (SMOKING BANANA)
  
• 42A: Informal headwear that can't be shared? (ONE-MAN BANDANA)
  
• 56A: Secretive singer Baez? (JOAN OF ARCANA)
  

Interesting that there's no theme-revealer today. No ANAGRAM or ANAPEST or ... ANACONDA (none of those would have been any good). Nothing to explain the gimmick. It's pretty self-evident. CLEAR, even (62A: Transparent). I stubbed my toe on "IRMA" (either never heard of it or heard of it and then forgot it—only "Friend" I know is FLICKA) and MAUS (my German is not very ... what's the German word for "good?") (66A: What a Katze catches). Self-inflicted slowness occurred in the NE, where I completely botched the spelling of MUHAMMAD ALI (11D: Self-proclaimed "astronaut of boxing") despite having his signature hanging not three feet from where I'm typing. MOHAMMED was what I had. The "O" was the bigger problem. Ended up with COBA for 16A: Destination of many 1960s-'70s hijackings) and then though it must be CABO (as in San Lucas???). Thankfully CABO was manifestly wrong, and CUBA leapt to mind. Nothing else to throw me off today. Want to make sure I give Caleb et al. props for crossing the letter "T" with the letter "T" in "TO A T" and "T-BONE." Nicely done. Also liked the sequential Acrosses NAPS (6A: Siestas) and "I'M UP!" (10A: "No need to wake me!").



Bullets:

• 6D: Peaceful race in "Avatar" (NAVI) — proud that this answer has become a gimme for me without my ever having had to see the damned movie.
  
• 33D: Sir Geraint's faithful wife (ENID) — Countdown to my Arthurian Literature class: 7 days. I'm sure the students will get a good dose of ENID in there somewhere.
  
• 44D: Final movie of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, with "The" ("MISFITS") — tried to watch it once. Failed.
  
• 59D: Sport with shells (CREW) — this is pretty wicked cluing for a Tuesday. Could think only of three-card monte, which I assumed (rightly) was not a "sport."
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]