Rambo's drive / WED 1-19-11 / Locale for lashing / Dory's affliction in Finding Nemo / Onetime Sixers great / Like prefall Humpty Dumpty

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: GEE WHIZ! (37A: Beaver Cleaver expletive ... or what you might need to be to answer 18-, 23-, 51- and 60-Across?) — common phrases have (self-standing) letter "G" added to their beginnings, creating wacky phrases, which are clued wackily


Word of the Day: String theory (51A: Guess as to how the thong came to exist?=>G-STRING THEORY)—

String theory is a developing theory in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for the theory of everything (TOE), a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system. The theory has yet to make testable experimental predictions, which a theory must do in order to be considered a part of science. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle could've been Rough (it wasn't) and I'd still have been beaming at the end, if only because of G-STRING THEORY. Best repurposing of scientific/mathematical terminology Ever. The theme today is very simple, but very entertainingly executed. I especially like the longer theme answers, and the creative way the central GEE WHIZ is used to bring it all together. Some of the fill is rough around the edges—the short stuff a bit too short stuffy—but all the 7+-letter answers are good-to-great (except maybe UNROLLS (28A: Puts down, as the red carpet), which is at least not bad). I can put up with a lot of short junk if I get stuff like BLOOD LUST and LOZENGE (4D: Sore throat soother) in return. If your theme is solid and engaging, and your longer fill has zing, you can get away with some unpretty connective tissue (e.g. ONEI, OSE, TSE, ELEE, etc.). All in all, a very nice Wednesday experience.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Part of the house where one might check Google messages? (GMAIL ROOM) — doesn't the "G" *stand* for "Google?"
  
• 23A: Cry for help on an F.B.I. cruise? ("G-MAN OVERBOARD!")
  
• 51A: Guess as to how the thong came into existence? (G-STRING THEORY)
  
• 60A: Where Neil Armstrong might store his gear? (G-SUIT CASE)
  

This puzzle was not terribly difficult to solve, but the cluing was vague or misleading enough in places to make it sufficiently thorny for a Wednesday. Had a weird lot of trouble up north, where I could think of only WELT for 6A: Locale for a lashing (MAST), which I knew wasn't really a "locale," but tell that to my brain. Getting the "T" on the end didn't help. Then I couldn't get to SEA at all from 8D: Deep blue. Is SEA a color, a kind of blue, or is "Deep blue" an idiomatic phrase referring to the SEA? Either way, I was lost. At SEA. Tied to the MAST. In danger of being thrown OVERBOARD (nice nautical theme up there!). Only other problem spot was in the Rambo region, where I couldn't make sense of 11D: Rambo's drive (BLOODLUST). I thought maybe they meant his ride, like ... the car / tank he drove (?). Also, I had AIRMAIL instead of AIRDROP (10D: Certain plane delivery), which was an obvious mistake given the proximity of GMAIL, but ... once again, my brain didn't care.

Bullets:

• 47D: Dory's affliction in "Finding Nemo" (AMNESIA) — misread "affliction" as "affection" and thought it was asking for a character name. A character name I couldn't remember (yes, I saw the damn movie).
  
• 56A: Like a prefall Humpty Dumpty (OVATE) — I had WHOLE. "Prefall" is funny as a term for Humpty Dumpty. I imagine him eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and then becoming overcome with shame as he realizes ... he is an egg.
  
• 68D: Lubricates / 69D: Kangaroo babies (OILS JOEYS) — Ew. Why would you do that?
  
• 31A: Alan who was born Alphonso D'Abruzzo (ALDA) — not sure if I knew this or not, but Alan in four letters ... that's either LADD or ALDA. Or FUNT, I guess.

• 63D: Onetime Sixers great (DR. J) — this may be the greatest 3-letter answer in existence. Not that I've thought about it much. But come on—complete name, no vowels, a terminal "J" (!?) ... it's pretty great.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. I co-constructed today's L.A. Times puzzle, along with my sometime stand-in PuzzleGirl. Here's how you can solve it:

• Get the .puz file via cruciverb.com (see the link in their sidebar)
• Solve right on the L.A. Times's own applet here.
• Get a simple .pdf file here
• OR you could just go out and get your local paper (assuming your local paper isn't the NYT). It might be in there.

I think SethG is doing the write-up over at PuzzleGirl's L.A. Crossword Confidential blog—it'll probably be a puff piece, since he's our friend, so go over there and add a dose of reality to the conversation if you feel like it. I assume the post will be up by around 9am EST.