Relative difficulty: Challenging
THEME: none
Word of the Day: Jo Ann PFLUG (37A: "Candid Camera" co-host) —
Jo Ann Pflug (born May 2, 1940; Atlanta, Georgia) is a former American motion picture and television actress, who retired in the 1990s. // Pflug's first major role was as U.S. Army nurse Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider in 1970's MASH. Other notable roles include the voice of Invisible Girl in the 1967 animated version of Fantastic Four, Lt. Katherine O'Hara in the television series spin-off of Operation Petticoat and Cynthia Vaughn in 1997's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (her last role to date). // Pflug was also a frequent panelist on the television game shows Match Game from 1973–81, a co-host with Allen Funt on the 1970s version of Candid Camera, and a regular on the TV series The Fall Guy in 1981-82. [...] She also landed guest appearances on The Love Boat, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Love, American Style, Adam-12, Quincy, M.E. and Charlie's Angels. // Pflug's only marriage was to game show host Chuck Woolery. The couple married in 1971 and divorced in 1981. They have one daughter, Melissa. [...] A born-again Christian, she now tours as a motivational speaker. // When asked once whether Pflug was her real name, she replied: "Pflug is a name you change from, not to."
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About the difficulty level: I'd break it down as 75% Easy/Medium, 25% Brutal, that 25% being the entire SE quadrant. South of PFLUG, east of RONDO (48D: Many a Beethoven work). Total and complete disaster, fixed only after I finally entertained a non-vowel for the missing slot in P-LUG. Honestly, I spent so much time (comparatively) on the SE quadrant that I remember virtually nothing about the rest of the puzzle. Never heard of a HOBO BAG (54A: Boho-chic accessory). That HOBO could have had any number of things. Never heard of URB (45D: L.A.-based music magazine). 
Had URT and URC in there at various points (HOBO TIE? HOBO CAP?). Had IRIS for ARUM (cursed flora!) (55D: Jack-in-the-pulpit, e.g.). Couldn't decide if NEC or AEC was right (49A: Post-Manhattan Project org.). Never in a million years could have guessed HUNH was an acceptable spelling (57D: "What the ...?") (I liked my first answer better: "I SAY!"). BAS for BSS (61D: Some four-year degrees). TIL for THY (56A: "___ plaintive anthem fades": Keats). SEEDY for SEAMY (50A: Hardly wholesome). INTER / INURN / ENURN for MOURN (52D: Emulate Electra) (clearly got her confused with Antigone). J.M. SYNGE = only barely familiar name (43D: Playwright who co-founded the Abbey Theatre). Thing of "AW GEE" as something the Beav says in frustration — very different in tone from ["That's a shame"]. Clue on WOO was good (58A: Try one's suit on?) but I had no way of seeing WOO without help — thought ... BID? But no. And forget getting those long Acrosses down there with only two solid crosses in place. In the end, if I'd simply conjured up the "F" in PFLUG earlier, the rest would have fallen earlier. Weird that so much the grid hinged on one square.Weirdest moment of the solve. Wrote in INTER at 52D (wrong) and "confirmed" it with REBOUNDATE at 60A: One often picked up after a split (REBOUND GUY) ... yes, that's right: REBOUNDATE. In my elation at having a breakthrough, I apparently saw double: specifically, I saw two Ds where clearly there was only one.
And here I thought I was out of the woods when I escaped the raging NW. Toughest bit of fill up there: EDIT MENU (9D: Paste container?). I got it down to EDI-MEN- and had No idea what the hell was up. Paste as in glue? Paste as in cheap jewelry? Paste as in a soon-to-be-defunct indie culture magazine? And of course, once again, that $&^% PFLUG wasn't giving me any help with the final letter. NW had some toughness going on — nice clue on GREEN BELT, by the way (13D: What may encircle a rising chopper?) — and the SW threw a few punches as well — I had ROY ROGERS for RING A BELL, by Faaaar my favorite wrong answer of the day (33D: Trigger familiarity). But those early challenges were all typical Fri/Sat fare. Not in same league of viciousness as the SE.
No problem getting started today, with HEURE (2D: 3,600 secondes) and ERN (19A: Follower of directions) and BOZ (4D: Name attached to some 1836 "Sketches") and SUEZ CRISIS (17A: Campaign setting for Moshe Dayan) going in, in that order, very quickly. From there just guessed that the first word of 1A: 1956 film that earned an Oscar nomination for 11-year-old Patty McCormack ("THE BAD SEED") was probably THE, and that blew the NW wide open. Misremember LOM (25A: Player of Clouseau's superior) as LUM, and STARR (47A: Whitewater navigator?) as STERN (?), and thought a [Budgeting concern] might be a budget GAP instead of a CAP, but otherwise, a tractable puzzle (SE excepted).Bullets:
- 15A: Victorian conveyance (VELOCIPEDE) — Wasn't too hard to piece together. Seems like a word Mr. Burns would use, or has used, on "The Simpsons."
32A: Protagonist bound for Mordor (FRODO) — just got into my first of what I imagine will be many "Lord of the Rings"-related arguments with daughter, who has recently discovered Tolkien and become obsessed. She wants a LOTR-themed party. Some suggestion that the cake should be ring-shaped. Me: "But then the cake will drive you crazy." Her: "It doesn't drive you crazy." Me: "Uh, yes it does." Her: "No. It can. Over time." Me: "Whether I shoot you in the face, or poison you slowly 'over time,' you will still be dead. That ring drives you crazy. 'Over time' doesn't make any difference." Her, in dramatically exasperated fashion: "It makes all the difference in the world..." I stopped arguing there.- 64A: Person not credited for a save? (UNSUNG HERO) — nice. Figured it would begin with a negative prefix, but had "I" there from "IRIS," which could have made said negative prefix "IN-," and so I kept IRIS (and thus didn't see ARUM) for far too long.
- 66A: High point of 1980 news (MT. ST. HELENS) — so all three long Acrosses are essentially "?" clues, but since two (incl. this one) are literal (in their own special ways), only one actually has the "?" ... yes, a mountain is a "high point," though the mountain in question was somewhat less high after the massive eruption.
- 3D: Classmate of Felicity on "Felicity" (ELENA) — a secondary character on a bygone show that never meant anything to me. Hurray. "Felicity" is the new "Ally McBeal."
- 14D: Churchyard, quaintly (GOD'S ACRE) — I know the Erskine Caldwell title "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE." It is really not "quaint," and has nothing to do with churchyards. It's chock full of sexual language and activity, and was the object of an obscenity trial in NY, so ... I'm pretty sure these people have never read it.
- 24D: Coin with the monogram of King Harald V (KRONE) — Current King of Norway. Fun fact: acc. to wikipedia, he is 63rd in line to the British throne.
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