Carmine's cousin / SAT 3-19-11 / Pitch setter / Rockling, e.g. / Basilica di San Nicola locale

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: easy-medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MASTIC (Resin used in varnishes) —

(Greek: Μαστίχα) is a resin obtained from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus). In pharmacies and Nature shops it is called "arabic gum" (not to be confused with gum arabic) and "Yemen gum". . . Mastic is used as a raw material in the production of some varnishes. Mastic varnish was used to protect and preserve photographic negatives. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello, treedweller here. For those who may not be aware, this weekend is the ACPT in Brooklyn, so our regular host is occupied and he has given me another opportunity to sit in the driver's seat. Some of you may recall my previous outing was also on a Saturday and I got slaughtered. My saving grace that weekend was to give a little solace to all the other clueless (answer-less?) puzzlers who are routinely demoralized by Rex's comments in the vein of "I dropped in [something you never imagined was even a word] immediately with no crosses and was done in four minutes."

This time, I find myself discussing another Saturday puzzle. I've improved over the last year or two and no longer consider it a miracle when I finish a Fri/Sat puzzle, but I still fail as often as I succeed (yesterday, for example). Today, I actually finished without cheating in just over half an hour, which is not quite good enough for the ACPT but faster than most of the Saturdays I've completed. It's probably Rex-Easy, but I threw in the hyphen-medium to make myself feel a little better about my success*. Those of you who still can't even get a toehold on Saturday have my permission to rate it Beyond Challenging. Go ahead, have fun, it's just us kids today.

This struck me as a light offering for the weekend. It was definitely a tough puzzle, but seemed a little mundane. Saturdays, I expect to be quizzed on the moons of Jupiter or the operatic works of [someone opera people would know but I don't because the only opera I know came from puzzles]. This was all pretty in-the-language stuff clued Saturday Hard. As with most of my successful Saturdays, I got a smattering of answers, some of which proved wrong, and I was sure I'd never finish, but then I slowly picked up an AAVERAGE (57A: It's between 90 and 100) here and an AIR IRAN (47A / 48D: it stopped flying to New York in 1979) there, and before I realized it I was closing in on the final squares (*correcting my error at 28D: Pitch setter -- CLEF, as it turns out--more on that later). The most obscure trivia I see is BARI (52A: Basilica di San Nicola locale) and my word of the day, MASTIC (27A: Resin used in varnishes). Unfortunately for me, the latter tripped me up and I finished with an error.

Actually, the problem started with DEFIANT (40A: Unwilling to stay in line), where I got the 'D' and the ANT and confidently threw down "deviant". So when I came to 28D: Pitch setter (which, I must say, had me mystified for most of the time I was solving), I suddenly realized it had to be "elev", never mind there's no indication of an abbreviation in the clue. And so I spent a few minutes post-solve trying to figure out what "mastie" was. Some of you are probably saying, "How long has he been at this that he doesn't know MASTIC?" but it's a new one on me, or at least one I figured out once and promptly forgot.

Bullets:

• 29D: Spirit of the Caribbean (JAMAICARUM)— I totally fell for the "spirit" misdirection, which contributed to the struggle I had in the SE until almost the end, and then realization dawned. And then I spent several seconds trying to figure out how to fit JAMAICANRUM in there. I'm still a little bitter about that, truth be told.
• 38A: Strategy game with disks (REVERSI) — Started with Othello (and wondered why the play wasn't referenced in the clue), then briefly tried PACHISI, though I was grumbling to myself that there's precious little strategy in that game. Maybe this should have been W-O-T-D, since I am a game fiend and yet I have never seen, much less played, REVERSI. Oh, wait, a little googling reveals that it's just an alternate name for Othello. Which is, of course, just a simplified version of Go. Which will make it into precious few puzzles since it's only two letters. God forbid we ever see "gos" or "goes" (clued in this context). I might welcome an outlaw puzzle with two-letter entries, but it had better be pretty damn good.
• 59A: To a very great degree (INSPADES) — This was one of those Saturday clues that revealed a very colloquial phrase. I like those.
• 37A: Borderline fare? (TEXMEX) — This was an obvious ploy to me, in that I was immediately looking for food, but I still took awhile getting the right answer. I kept trying "tacos" and "enchiladas" and other yummy-sounding stuff that didn't fit. Being as I'm in / from Texas, this may be an example of the specialist struggling where the amateur has no problems.
• 15A: Item removed before showering (TOUPEE) — FTW!
• 56D: "Knots Landing" actress ___ Park Lincoln (LAR) — sounds like a car dealership to me--which reminds me--
• 7A: They make vehicles very volatile (CARBOMBS) — I was quite pleased to quickly fill in "gas tanks" here, and a little disturbed to finally reveal the correct answer. Given the recent news from Japan, I had a similar reaction at 60A: Shake (TREMOR). I usually frown when the PC crowd starts trying to arbitrarily limit options based on personal concerns, and I am not lobbying to take these words out of the mix for future puzzles, but, nevertheless.

I'm back again on Sunday. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get it done without cheating. Good luck to all the competitors.

Signed, treedweller,
on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Dom Pedro's ill-fated wife / FRI 1-7-11 / Indus outlet / Overseas fabric spun from flax / Ice cream eponym / Subject 2002 Senate authorization

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: CENTAVO (56A: Bit of change in Cuba) —

Centavo is a Spanish and Portuguese word, derived from the Latin centum, meaning "one hundred", and the suffix -avo, meaning "portion" or "fraction". Centavo means, strictly, "one-hundredth". // It is a fractional monetary unit, used to represent one hundredth of a basic monetary unit in many countries around the world [...]. (wikipedia)

• • •

The grid is solid, with impressive wide-open spaces in the NW and SE. But there's nothing remarkable, nothing memorable—at least not in the way of fill. Here's what I don't get: why would anyone bother making a themeless At All if the grid didn't *start* with at least a couple killer, original entries. Feels like the grid *shape* was driving this one more than anything (it does look cool). Some of these entries are probably original, but none of them *feels* original, current, interesting. They're fine words and phrases all around, and there's nothing particularly unattractive about this grid. But there's not much to love, either, and precious little to comment on ... which I guess makes my job easy tonight. Perhaps I should be grateful.

I was slowish on this one because of a bad start in the NW. Got ISERE (5D: French department or a river that runs through it) and EDY (7D: Ice cream eponym) and then CREASED (15A: Iron-deficient?), but went nowhere after that. Lots of tentative entries, all of them retracted. Got going for real near the grid's center, where the wrong answer, CAP, seemed right after I got RASTA. DEBI (20A: Actress Mazar of HBO's "Entourage") was a gimme (though not from "Entourage," which I've never seen), and she got me SILENT ... something, but I couldn't tell which "part" of "carriage" was supposed to be SILENT. The "I" or the "A?" Or the "E?" Thankfully, the cross told me the answer instantly—I just (finally) ordered my books for Spring semester today, and at the top of the list was "INFERNO" (33A: Source of the line "Midway upon the road of our life I found myself within a dark wood..."). Very famous opening lines. Anyway, SLAP ON (instead of SLAM ON—36A: Apply with force) really killed my chances of seeing ARMORED CAR for a while (28D: Robber's target), but other than that, SE was comparatively easy.

Had a rough go of it in the SW, where 38D: Spade mashie (SIX IRON) was gibberish to me ... only "mashie" rattled some golf/crossword memory in my head. "Spade," however, is a detective to me, so I had no idea what was going on, and though I wanted KLAXON at 45A: Loud horn, I had no idea how that "X" could factor into the "mashie" clue so I wavered there. Very proud of plonking down CENTIVO (56A: Bit of change in Cuba)! OK , so it's CENTAVO—that's still some pretty good (if wrong) guessing. DUET was the real problem down there in the far SW (49D: Puccini's "O Mimi, tu più non torni" e.g.). I wanted ARIA (of course), and then had AVA as the [Palindromic girl] (ADA). Once I accepted that STOUTEN was a word (58A: Bulk up), I figured everything else out. The "K" in KLAXON was enough to get me TAKEN TO TASK (4D: Censured), and from there the NW was not nearly as tough as it initially seemed. SECTION ONE seems weak and arbitrary (3D: Prime seating area at sporting events, maybe), but I really like RICKETY (17A: Unstable). The "W" in SCREWS (1D: Pressure, metaphorically) / WHINE (22A: Complaint) was the last letter that went into the grid.


Bullets:

• 16A: Subject of 2002 Senate authorization (IRAQ WAR) — might have been a lot harder if HQS hadn't been so easy (11D: Command ctrs.).
  
• 40A: Dom Pedro's ill-fated wife (INÉS) — I got this by remembering Don Juan's mother, who is INÉZ (which is also my grandmother's name). No idea who Dom Pedro is. . . 14th-century Portuguese prince. His dad had INÉS killed because he didn't like her influence on Pedro. Does not appear that INÉS was actually his wife at the time of her murder (though Pedro claimed they were secretly married). According to wikipedia, "Legend has it that [Pedro] had Inês's body exhumed from her grave and forced the entire court to swear allegiance to their new queen by kissing the corpse's hand. She was later buried at the Monastery of Alcobaça where her coffin can still be seen, opposite Peter's so that, according to the legend, at the Last Judgment Peter and Inês can look at each other as they rise from their graves." Morbid.
  
• 2D: Overseas fabric spun from flax (IRISH LINEN) — just pieced this together from crosses. --N-N gave me the "fabric" and IRI-- gave me the "overseas" part.
  
• 9D: Indus outlet (ARABIAN SEA) — like the "in"/"out" opposition in the clue.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

East River novelist 1946 / SAT 11-20-10 / Fess Parker's TV co-star / Blue old Kerosene brand / Three of these make O / Group 1968 album Time Peace #1

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: NAT Holman (39A: Basketball Hall-of-Famer Holman) —

Nat Holman (October 19, 1896 in New York, NY – February 12, 1995 in Bronx, New York) was one of the early pro basketball players and one of the game's most important innovators. // Known for his exceptional ball-handling and his accurate shooting, Holman was a star player at New York University and an important part of the Original Celtics (no relation to the Boston Celtics). Also a gifted passer and excellent floor leader, Holman has been a prototype to later playmakers. Although he played pro basketball until 1930, he took over the head coaching position at the City College of New York in 1920. Known as Mr. Basketball, Holman guided CCNY to the so-called grand slam of college basketball, winning both the NCAA and NIT titles in 1950, a feat that has never been achieved since. Holman compiled a 421-190 record in 37 seasons at CCNY, retiring in 1960. In his later years, he lived and died at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. // Holman also founded Camp Scatico in 1921 and ran the camp until he sold it to his niece and her husband in 1964. (wikipedia)

• • •

A tough little number (that's "number," not "number"—get that straight; 27D: Number in a pack?=>ICE), but still half as tough, for me, as yesterday's was (I realize I was an outlier yesterday; I'm just sayin'). The grid cops a seriously swastikish pose (i.e. it looks swastika-like), but then so do a lot of grids, at least vaguely. It happens. It's coincidental. Please, no conspiracy-theory letters. Today, the toughness came more through names than devilish cluing, which is not my favorite way to come by toughness. Loads of names. Many of them long (i.e. full—ALAN ARKIN (1D: Oscar-winning actor with the autobiography "Halfway Through the Door"), NATHAN HALE (58A: Hero whose statue appears in front of Chicago's Tribune Tower), ED AMES (7D: Fess Parker's TV co-star), SAM THE SHAM (20A: Pharaoh's head?), and, of course, '60s hipster DAD BLASTED). My main complaint here is that names from the same universes were crammed into the same spaces in the grid. Relatively obscure sports names almost side-by-side in the NW (NAT and KEENAN—30A: Coach Mike of the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning Rangers). Less obscure but still not ragingly phamous '60s music names in the NE (SAM THE SHAM and THE RASCALS—>5A: Group whose 1968 album "Time Peace" was #1), which are in turn crossed by a '60s TV name! (ED AMES). Soviet women somewhere in the middle (RAISA and BONNER—>41A: Yelena ___, Soviet dissident and wife of Andrei Sakharov). 20th-century authors nearly on top of one another (ASCH!!! (encore!)—>9D: "East River" novelist, 1946, and ELIOT—>29D: "The Sacred Wood" writer). Proper nouns just seemed oddly paired.



The difficulty level felt oddly uneven, too. Clue on RAISA was Monday level (26D: Mrs. Gorbachev). Clue on CAL was Tuesday level at most (31A: ___ Poly, school nickname), as was clue on PSAS (52D: Free TV spots, for short) and EENY (53D: Start of a children's rhyme). But these were thrown in among much more vague and hard-to-get stuff. Not sure what kind of floor is made of ASPHALT TILE (42A: Flooring option). Garage floor? Hmm, looks like it's a pretty ordinary household tile. We have wood floors. And I've only ever lived with carpet, wood, or linoleum floors. That I can recall. That ASPHALT part took a while for me to get. Never heard of SEED PEARLS either (50A: Tiny, valuable beads). Do you use them to seed ... something? Something like a PEARL? Or is it just that they are seed-sized and valuable in their own right? Looks like it's just a size thing. I had no idea the CESTA attached to the wrist. I always thought it was gripped with the hand (47D: Item of sports equipment worn on the wrist). I remember ALLELE (44D: One may be dominant) from crosswords of a BYGONE ERA (2D: Time past) (that era being fairly recent, actually). It's a word I will forever associate with "foodie" (frequent commenter on my site; also, a neuroscientist—I'd never heard of the word; it was a gimme for her. Somehow she let me know this without making me feel like an idiot). Without a doubt, my favorite part of this puzzle is the DAD-BLASTED (28D: No-good) / GLASSY-EYED (60A: Expressionless) nexus. Otherwise, just a solid workout, with no real sour patches. Lots of black squares, though, for a Saturday (35). Word count is low, but lots of black space is carved out to make that happen, so there are an oddly high number of 3-4-letter words along with the long stacks that dominate the grid.



Bullets:

• 18A: Subject of 1987 Congressional hearings (IRAN-CONTRA) — "IRAN-CONTRA" doesn't feel like a "subject"; more like a moniker for the hearings themselves. I was thinking yesterday, when I didn't know BEBE Rebozo, that something from my era that I would've known just from being alive then was OLLIE NORTH ... only that's a bad comparison because OLLIE NORTH is actually historically important, and BEBE is just some guy who happened to be Nixon's friend. I still don't get why he was news.
  
• 21A: Bibliophile's suffix (-ANA) — a flat-out gimme. That clue, that answer, now and forever into the future. Know it.
  
• 4D: ___ Blue (old kerosene brand) (ESSO) — not a gimme, exactly, though once I got just one of those "S"s, I wrote in ESSO immediately. It's old, it's fuel, it's four letters in a crossword, it's ESSO. Speaking of fuel, had UCLA for USMA (57A: Classic football rival of Notre Dame: Abbr.) at first and so wondered why I hadn't heard of the part of the car called the something-PULPS (it's FUEL PUMPS, 33D: Tank-to-carburetor conduits).
  
• 6D: African capital of 1.5+ million (HARARE) — Capital of Zimbabwe. Been in a recent puzzle, I think.
  
• 32D: Highly seismic area off the Greek coast (IONIAN SEA) — AEGEAN SEA fits, but I have no idea about its relative seismicness.
  
• 51D: Three of these make on O (DAHS) — Aargh! Good clue. Morse code!!
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Pugilists' org. / 7-10-10 / Artist's place / Looney Tunes animator Friz / London weekly, with "The"

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: None

Word of the Day: INFRA DIG (33D: Beneath one's self-respect) —

This derives from the Latin infra dignitatem, literally - 'beneath (one's) dignity'. It is first recorded by William Hazlitt in Table talk; or, original essays on men and manners, 1822 …. The first person to put the shortened infra dig. version into print was Sir Walter Scott. He uses it in his 1825 novel Redgauntlet …. It is now more commonly written without the full stop. Even most of those who realize it is an abbreviation now consider it to be well-enough established not to require it ….

[The Phrase Finder]

• • •

Hi, everyone. PuzzleGirl here with you for this week's Saturday puzzle. Rex is off, I don't know … doing something somewhere. Who cares? The important thing is that we're here and there's a puzzle to talk about.

As you might know, I'm always nervous when I cover for Rex late in the week, because it's not a sure thing that I'll even be able to finish the puzzle. And as much as I know it's nice once in a while to read someone who's, ya know, mortal when it comes to puzzle solving, it still feels like a big drag to me to have to admit my failure so publicly. Fortunately, I didn't have too much trouble today. Yay, me! I mean, I wasn't 100% sure FRELENG (30A: Looney Tunes animator Friz) and INFRA DIG were right (HAha! Just mistyped INFRA DOG), and I still don't get why OTC is 23A: Share letters?, but the crosses on all three of those words looked solid so I put my pencil down and called it good.

This was a typical late-week solving experience for me. First time through the clues, I only had a couple I was sure of: like ALE TAP (12D: Fixture in a pub), OVATION (24A: Big hand), and FIN (43A: 1950s car feature). I built from those few gimmes and plugged away long enough to put it all together. Sure, I mistakenly entered wise men for THE MAGI (49A: Storied gift givers), metals for STONES (14D: Precious ones, possibly), and WBA for IBF (33A: Pugilists' org.), but that all worked itself out eventually. (Just in case you're interested, I did not have that kind of luck with today's L.A. Times puzzle. The post on that puzzle — which, as of right now, I haven't written but I'm sure will be completely pathetic — will be over on my blog. Damn you, Doug Peterson!)

Favorite answers in the grid for me were SOUP BONE (1A: Stock maker's addition) and FAKE TAN (20A: You might have one after spraying yourself). I thought SOUP BONE was going to be some kind of barn or ranch … field or something. (Is there such a thing as a ranch field? It looks pretty dumb now that I've actually typed it out.) And when I got SOUP BONE I thought to myself, "Now there's an awesome 1 Across answer." You know what else that would be awesome as? A blues musician's nickname: Walter "Soup Bone" Hutchins. (I just made that up, but it sounds pretty good, right?) And FAKE TAN makes me think of The Ohio State University wrestling team, which I'm sure no one reading this blog understands or cares about at all. (Let's just say that there's not enough sun in Columbus, Ohio, in the dead of winter for those boys to be that toasty looking.)

Bullets:

• 9A: Field's pair (OSCARS). I assume this is Sally Field. I'm kind of surprised she only has two.

• 15A: Site of a college stadium that seats over 100,000 (ANN ARBOR). I thought this might be referring to the stadium at Penn State (which I've seen and is massive), but ANN ARBOR's is twice as massive. Wow! Oh wait, that's wrong. Beaver Stadium started out at under 50,000, but has been renovated since then and is now the third largest stadium in the world. Michigan Stadium has room for about 200 more people. So I was close! (Also: Hi, foodie!)
• 17A: Not taken in (YET TO SEE). I have YET TO SEE "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," and the second movie in the series is already out, so I believe I'll get my butt in gear and see it this weekend.
• 41A: Big pistol maker (BERETTA). I misspelled this at first as BaRETTA. Which reminds me: Sammy says "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

• 51A: Detective's question (WHO DID IT). For some reason, this really tickled me. I was thinking "Where were you …?" "Can you describe him …?" "Did you notice anything unusual …?" But WHO DID IT? That's a little on the nose, don't you think?
• 4D: "Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful" novelist, 1981 (PATON). This is an anti-Apartheid novel by South African Alan Paton. Sounds interesting.
• 6D: London weekly, with "The" (OBSERVER). Tried Guardian first.
• 10D: Upset (SHAKEN). Not stirred.

• 22D: Artist's place (ATELIER). I distinctly remember learning this word from Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
• 42D: Extremely (EVER SO). Does Dorothy use this phrase in "The Wizard of Oz"? Because whenever I see it, in my head I hear it in her voice.

See you back here tomorrow!

Love, PuzzleGirl

[Follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter.]

P.S. If you live in the D.C. area or are close enough that you would consider attending a puzzle tournament here, please pop over to my blog and participate in the poll I've just added. It will only take a second — the poll is right at the top of my sidebar. Thanks!

Norwegian novelist feminist Skram / SAT 6-12-10 / 1994 Kathleen Turner movie / Electronic product sensation 2005 / Tony's consigliere familiarly

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: EYE RHYME (14D: Wood for food, maybe) —

Eye rhyme, also called visual rhyme and sight rhyme, is a similarity in spelling between words that are pronounced differently and hence, not an auditory rhyme. An example is the pair slaughter and laughter. // Many older English poems, particularly those written in Middle English or written in The Renaissance, contain rhymes that were originally true or full rhymes, but as read by modern readers they are now eye rhymes because of shifts in pronunciation. An example is prove and love. (wikipedia)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)

• • •

A toughish Saturday, which is to say, a Saturday. This one leaned slightly toward "Challenging" for me (not surprising for a name-heavy puzzle), but not enough to take it out of "Medium" range. As is typical on Saturdays, I struggled up front, in the NW, when I might have made much faster headway if I'd started elsewhere. It was only after failing in the NW and then methodically taking out the NE that I finally saw the two fat gimmes that opened the whole puzzle up: SERIAL MOM (28A: 1994 Kathleen Turner movie) and ROXY MUSIC (36A: "Love Is the Drug" group, 1976). If I saw "SERIAL MOM," I've forgotten it, but I remember Ms. Turner's psychotic look on the movie poster, and I just generally love (director) John Waters (whose new memoir I just bought — hope to read a little of it this weekend). As for ROXY MUSIC—I listen to my Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music Greatest Hits album all the time. "Love Is the Drug" was a staple of college, when I first discovered who the hell ROXY MUSIC were, making this answer one of the longest, fattest gimmes I'm ever likely to see on a Saturday.


[Bubbles!]
And still, I struggled the way one should on a Saturday. Most of the struggle was in the NW, which, as I say, I abandoned and came back to. It stumped me at first even though I was able to throw down ELP (21A: Aid, to Eliza Doolittle), FOAM (4D: Bud head), RIME (9D: Natural coat), and SLY (10D: Sneaking), all of which turned out to be right. Still, couldn't get anywhere, so abandoned it and ended up not returning til the very end. I had a wee moment of panic thinking I wouldn't be able to follow 7D: Things that get longer and longer for procrastinators back *in* to the NW. That answer was going to be my ladder, but when I'd finished with the middle of the puzzle, all I got was -STS to help me out. Luckily I remembered that Tony's consigliere, familiarly, on "The Sopranos" was S-L, and when that "L" flickered into view, so did LISTS, and thus TO DO LISTS. Since RIME and SLY were already in place, the "D" in TODOLISTS gave me THE ACADEMY (17A: Much-thanked group), which gave me EXHALE (2D: Release), which gave me EXXON-MOBIL (15A: Corporate giant based in Irving, Tex.).



Started in the NE wanting A-something for 20D: Strong as ___ (AN OAK), and using that "A" to get ALTAR (20A: Promising site). Then put in the fairly easy ASHY at 16A: Pallid and then got IS IT TIME? (12D: "Now?"), LIFE (18A: "That's ___), and FALL ILL (11D: Become sick) in quick succession. Though I'd (astonishingly) never heard of EYE RHYME, I managed to finish off that (lovely) corner fairly quickly. Then came the revelations of SERIAL MOM and ROXY MUSIC. ART MONK I was able to get off the "-NK," with a little thinking (33A: First N.F.L. player to record 100 receptions in a season). SW went down easiest of all, as ROXYMUSIC has some very useful letters. Wrote in INTO IT with only "T" in place, and that gave me YOU KNOW... (37D: "The more I think about it ..." — great clue/answer) and STRUTS (45A: Bars under cars) and thus everything else.

ROCK CLIMB (29D: Do some scaling) ironically provided the visual of a spelunking rope, dangling down into a cave—nothing else down there. Just cavernousness. Totally empty. Totally dark. "OK. Turn on the light. Look around. What do you see?" [Click of flashlight] "Not much. Just ... O dear god! No, no! Pull me up, pull me up, it's the C.H.U.D. Aaaaaa—" [sound of flesh being devoured]. Actually, it was all somewhat more pleasant than that. Just took some work to get going. Just as SIL helped in the NW, so ANKE helped in the SE (50D: Huber of women's tennis). ANKE + RAT (53D: Not a good confidant) got me "ASK ME LATER" (55A: "I don't have time to answer you"). Once again, didn't even see the clue for THE BREWERS until I'd struggled a bit. If I'd looked at it *first*, I'd have been off and running (57A: Miller Park squad). Had MLB for PGA (42A: Club wielder's club: Abbr.) and had to guess that "Goldilocks" were ASTERS (44D: Goldilocks and others). So, to recap, Bottom easier than Top due largely to big boost from SERIAL MOM and ROXY MUSIC.

Mysteries of the day:

• BETSEY (1D: Fashion designer Johnson)
• AMALIE (6D: Norwegian novelist/feminist ___ Skram) — most obscure person I've seen in grid in while; the clue made me laugh out loud.
• EYE RHYME
• EBEN (8D: Irving Bacheller's "___ Holden") — never heard of the book or the author.
• ENCASH (5D: Covert at Barclay's, say) — ow, my eyes! My ears!
• "Goldilocks" = flower

Bullets:

• 19A: Sitcom character who said "Not many people know this, but I happen to be famous" (SAM MALONE) — Nice. I like all the double letters in the NW. The double-E / double-X box, with the double-M of SAMMALONE right underneath, adds a little visual flavor to the grid.
  
• 35A: Homophone of 25-Across (ERE) — didn't see this til after I was done (solved it all from crosses). Aaaargh. Really would have helped me get into the NW, as it would have given me HEIR much more quickly (25A: A throne has one).
  
• 39A: Certain match results (TKOS) — Other match results: 0-0. Hey, World Cup. Be More Exciting!
  
• 54A: Electronic product sensation of 2005 (NANO) — iPod variety. I'd forgotten it was ever a sensation.
  
• 32D: Spare (EXTRA ONE) — The ONE here is OK, but a little wonky, since "Spare" and "EXTRA" swap out perfectly. "Do you have a spare?" "Do you have an EXTRA?" You're using "Spare" as a substantive adjective but then asking me to pretend that "EXTRA" isn't one, i.e. that it's merely an adjective and needs the noun "ONE" to make sense. Not true.
  
• 42D: Steiger's "Jesus of Nazareth" role (PILATE) — knew it was gonna be a bad guy, but could think only of JUDAS.
  

[this scenery-chewing scene made me laugh — warning: profanity]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]