Soul's 1970s TV co-star / SAT 4-2-11 / Start of dogwatch / New York find 10/16/1869 / 1980s TV private eye / Pee-wee's Playhouse mail lady

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: RAKEHELL (16A: Libertine) —

A rake, short for rakehell, is a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, frequently a heartless womaniser. Often a rake was a man who wasted his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process. The rake was also frequently a man who seduced a young woman and impregnated her before leaving, often to her social or financial ruin. // The Restoration rake was a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat whose heyday was during the English Restoration period (1660–1688), at the court of Charles II. They were typified by the "Merry gang" of courtiers, who included as prominent members the Earl of Rochester, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Dorset, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. At this time the rake featured as a stock character in Restoration comedy. // After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the cultural perception of the rake took a dive into squalor. The rake became the butt of moralistic tales in which his typical fate was debtor's prison, venereal disease, or, in the case of William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, insanity in Bedlam.

• • •

Felt mostly quite easy, but not knowing THE CARDIFF GIANT (or, rather, forgetting it until I had the THE CARDIFF part) slowed me down enough that my time was just average (34A: New York "find" of 10/16/1869). Strangely, the most befuddling part was the COURSE part of COURSE FEES (28A: Tuition portion). Had FEES and just couldn't think what kind of FEES could be involved. Also, I had a ridiculous fit of second-guessing after I dropped down ARE YOU KIDDING ME (off just the A--Y!) (7D: "Really?!"). I read the clue at 33A: Animal whose tongue is long enough to clean its eyelids and ears and thought "sounds like a GECKO" (actually, OKAPI). Then was *sure* it was a GECKO after that "K" got me "AKA" for 30D: Cover letters? I mean ... that's a genius clue for AKA. It's a pretty good clue for SPF, I guess, but it's *really* good for AKA. Anyway, this made me doubt ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Ugh. So tripping in the middle took me from what would probably have been a Thu/Fri time right back to a Saturday time.

No trouble at all in any of the corners. Little bit of mucking around in the SW when I put in ENGIRD (!) for ENCASE (42D: Surround). Proudest / most embarrassing moment (I can't decide)—knowing instantly that 19A: Soul's 1970s TV co-star was going for the brown-haired guy from "Starsky & Hutch." I knew that if I just got a cross or two, his name would come to me. And it did (GLASER). Also, in the same TV-of-my-youth vein, I nailed STEELE with hardly any effort at all (44D: 1980s TV private eye). And though I never played it, "Legend of ZELDA" feels like a gimme handed to me from my youth (or maybe young adulthood) as well (40A: "The Legend of ___").


[How did I remember this? How? I must have had some pretty profound encounter with Mr. Soul earlier in my life. He clearly left an impression ... of some sort]

VHS forced me to change NOONIONS to NOCHEESE (38D: Whopper request). TEENER came far too easily for being such a dated / weird word (45D: "American Bandstand" viewer). My crossword instincts / memory must be getting pretty well developed, because NITER came eerily easily too, despite my not really knowing what it is (48: Atacama Desert export). I had to look up Atacama very recently (what, two days ago?), so at least I knew what part of the world we were dealing with—not that that helped with NITER. Had to run the alphabet at DI-O to remember DIDO (23A: "Thank You" singer, 2001). DI-D'OH! Should've been easier, as she was a major pop star when I was in grad school.



First answer in the grid: "ADAM'S RIB" (7A: 1949 comedy about husband-and-wife lawyers on opposing sides of a murder case). As with Mr. Soul, I don't really know how I know this. I just do. I must have watched, or tried to watch, the movie at one point. My aunt lives in San RAFAEL, which didn't help until I had the "AE" part (lots of SANs in CA). Despite knowing about the "CHE" biopic of 1969 (from crosswords, naturally), I didn't pick up SHARIF until the "F" (11D: Guevara portrayer). It's just so weird what your brain will and won't do for you when you're in the middle of solving. The brain giveth, the brain taketh away, the brain getteth distracted by thoughts like "a TWO-SPEED bike? Really?" (39D: Like some Schwinns)

Bullets:

• 31A: Voice of Fredricksen in "Up" (ASNER) — big fat gimme. ASNER is super common in crosswords, and he's also the most famous voice actor in that movie.
  
• 49A: Wallis and Futuna (ILES) — whoa. This one was hard. Gibberish hard. Turns out they are (combined) a French territory in French Polynesia
  
• 55A: "Doubt" co-star, 2008 (STREEP) — knew it ended in "P" before I ever saw the clue, so no problem (never saw the movie, but seem to remember that STREEP plays a nun, along with the Lovely Amy Adams)
  
• 9D: Sharing common alleles (AKIN) — "alleles" is yet another word I learned from crosswords. Pretty shmancy way of getting to AKIN.
  
• 56D: "Pee-wee's Playhouse" mail lady (REBA) — what a great REBA clue. Wish I'd seen it. Got REBA entirely from crosses before I ever had a chance to see the clue; figured it must be about the country / sitcom star.
  
• 54D: Destructive 1966 hurricane (INEZ) — "Destructive" is weird. Redundant, I'd think. I mean, if it's a hurricane we might be expected to remember, then I'm guessing it was probably pretty "destructive."
• 1A: Start of a dogwatch (FOUR PM) — is this related to "bells," i.e. metaphors for telling time in the Navy? Turns out, yes, sort of. "Dogwatch" = work shift, half the length of a regular watch (2 as opp. to 4 hours). Interesting info about etymology (related to Sirius? evolved from "dodging the watch?") here.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Red wear for Speedy Gonzales / SAT 2-5-11 / Sack starter / Ohio town where there's happiness/ Band self-titled 1982 album #1 nine weeks

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: Allan DWAN (29A: Allan who directed "Sands of Iwo Jima") —

Allan Dwan (April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter. [...] After making a series of westerns and comedies, Dwan directed fellow Canadian Mary Pickford in several very successful movies as well as her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, notably in the acclaimed 1922 Robin Hood. // Following the introduction of the talkies, in 1937 he directed child-star Shirley Temple in Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm the following year. // Over his long and successful career spanning over 50 years, he directed over 400 motion pictures, many of them highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office smash, Sands of Iwo Jima. He directed his last movie in 1961. (wikipedia)

• • •

Pretty much an exemplar of Saturday puzzleness. Right over the plate. Saturday in every way. A very typical and pretty good Saturday puzzle. What to say, what to say? I realized today that I think in Saturday—I mean, my crossword brain is most comfortable in Saturday mode. It's not that I think Saturdays are easier than other days. The vast majority of the time, they aren't. It's that my solver brain assumes every clue is a Saturday clue, that around every bend will be some off-kilter, punning, misdirective godknowswhatkindof clue waiting to knock me on my ass. I'm a fast solver, but pure speed — short sprints in open (Monday/Tuesday) space — will never be my strong suit. Give me some resistance, and I feel like I'm at my best. If you look back over the past, I don't know, year, maybe more, I think you'll see that the puzzles I found most vexatious (!) were not Saturdays. They were probably Thursdays and Fridays, more often than not. Puzzles that try to find a middle-ground, difficulty-wise, are horribly unpredictable, and while I might take one apart quickly, it's just as likely I'll get on the wrong side of its few tough parts and end up flailing. But on Saturday, I know I'm getting a tiger, and I'm ready. And happy. It might take me longer than any other day of the week, but it rarely rattles my confidence.

No Wow Factor with today's grid, though a couple strong answers do stand out: DREAMSVILLE (24D: Ohio town where "there's a happiness" in an old Glenn Miller song), which I love despite never having heard of it, and CEMENT SHOES (9D: Things that may be word by someone sleeping with the fishes), which is today's crown jewel, as far as I'm concerned. Biggest WTF moment for me was DWAN—a moment made even WTFier when I found out he *wasn't* Japanese [I realize there's nothing particularly Japanese about DWAN, but between the "Iwo Jima" in the clue and that never-seen-it-in-English-before amalgamation of letters, my brain jumped the Pacific ... I realize that the closest name analogue I have, Michelle KWAN, is Chinese, not Japanese, but, well, KWAN is also the name of hip-hop band from Finland so who can say, really?]. I have frowny faces next to YER (6D: Saw attachment) and KNAP (63A: Sack starter), half-words I don't care for. Then there's the ugly safety net in the far SE where ESSES crosses ASSES (52D: Zebra kin). Makes it a bit easier to fill those open corners when you put in that kind of padding. But everything else looks pretty good.



I had a Very bad start on this one. Went STEADED to ELSE to EL SOL (!?) — wrong wrong wrong. Should've been SPELLED to EENY to YACHT. Speedy Gonzales's ASCOT (28D: Red wear for Speedy Gonzales) got me headed in the right direction, as did my sense that 31A: Corn-filled state probably had to end with -NESS (HOKEYNESS). Knowing Agnes MOOREHEAD helped a lot (42A: Actress who played Endora on TV's "Bewitched"), as did knowing SHAQ was an L.S.U. alum (41D: Nickname for a noted L.S.U. grad). Got GLISSANDOS off just the "L." What!? It's true (58A: Dramatic piano effects). Surreal to see me flex some musical muscle, but whoomp there it is. Ended up in the NW, which I found toughest, though looking at it now, I'm not exactly sure why.

Bullets:

• 34A: Mineral in the form of quartz or flint (SILEX) — barely know this word, and then only from xwords. Just needed that terminal "X" to knock SILEX off.
  
• 36A: South-central U.S. city named for a woman in English Literature (ENID) — I thought ENID was named for the first postmaster's daughter or something like that. Man, what city was that? Someone out there must have done the crossword with the clue I'm talking about ... help me out.
  
• 57A: Band whose self-titled 1982 album was #1 for nine weeks (ASIA) — I'm just the right age for this one. 1982 is probably the most important year in the history of my musical consciousness, in that it's the first year I had one (of my own — before that, my tastes derived almost completely from my parents, who thankfully didn't have terrible taste)

• 33D: Korean-made sedan since 2001 (KIA OPTIMA) — not many answers are going to give you the letter string "IAO" (OK, there's CIAO, but not much else).
• 55D: Alcopop brand (ZIMA) — do people really drink that? I'd sooner eat at Applebee's.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

"Pret-a-Porter" actress / SAT 1-1-11 / Where the biblical lost tribes were held captive / Area where blood vessels enter an organ / Drawn-out chemical

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: None

Word of the Day: SALADIN (41D: Sultan who captured Jerusalem in 1187) —

Saladin was a Kurdish Muslim who became the first Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria and led Islamic opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, he ruled over Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, and Yemen. He led the Muslims against the Crusaders and eventually recaptured Palestine from the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem after his victory in the Battle of Hattin. His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lionheart. Rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry. (Wikipedia)

• • •

Well hi there! And Happy New Year! Bet you didn't think you'd be seeing PuzzleGirl again so soon, did you? Neither did I. It's a long story and it's not very interesting so I won't bore you with it. I'll just say that it involves Rex becoming unsure about which day it was yesterday. It actually sounded a little like some kind of alcohol-induced confusion but I don't really have anything to base that on. Total speculation. Absolutely no facts. Nothing at all to indicate that Rex was actually drunk yesterday when he forgot what day it was. I mean I'm sure there are many other reasons a person would be confused about what day it is. Even a person who's drinking! I mean, just because a person is drinking doesn't mean that's the reason they can't remember stuff. Ya know what? Again, this is a completely unfounded rumor — the one about how Rex was drunk and couldn't blog today — so we really shouldn't even be talking about it. Just forget I said anything.

This is going to be a quick write-up because, well, you know, it's New Year's Eve and all. Plus I figure you all are hungover today and probably can't solve the puzzle, much less read some crazy lady running her mouth about it. This New Year's Eve is actually kind of interesting. PuzzleSon, our 6th grader, is at a New Year's Eve party put on by the county at a community rec center. PuzzleHusband dropped him off there at 8:00 and will pick him up at 1:00. That's right. 1:00 A.M. My baby is out there doing God only knows what and we won't see him until practically the middle of the night. It's a little unnerving. Sure, the people running the party were all wearing bright green "STAFF" shirts, and there were two cops at the door, and parents will be required to show I.D. to pick up their kids, but just because the people putting on the party have done every single thing they can do to calm the fears of the overprotective high-strung North Arlington parents doesn't mean that something TERRIBLE WON'T HAPPEN TO MY BABY! I mean they CAN'T ANTICIPATE EVERY POSSIBLE PROBLEM! ::deep cleansing breaths:: Oh man, teenage years are gonna be rough on the Mommy in this house. ::in with the good air, out with the bad air:: Tell ya what — let's talk about the puzzle.

I really enjoyed this one. I plunked in MR. ROBOTO with no crosses whatsoever and felt like I was off to the races. That southwest corner fell pretty easily and that's probably why I have an overall positive feeling about the puzzle. It was so nice and Scrabbly down there! I did run into a little trouble when I plopped in BALE OF HAY where BANJO PICK was supposed to go (55A: Barn dance accessory), but that didn't take long to straighten out. I knew LOKI was right for 59A: Mythological trickster who was punished by being held to a rock, so even though I wasn't entirely sure what 52D would be, I was pretty sure it wouldn't be *FL**. Obviously, you can never be too sure, especially on a Saturday, but it felt like a wrong-wrong start, not just a not-really-wrong-but-tricky start. So I erased BALE OF HAY, caught on to JOEY right away from its clue (56D: Bouncing baby) and was excited to add that J to the U, Y, Z, X, and V already in that part of the grid. Love it!

The rest of the grid was a little tougher. I'm sure I've seen the name ANOUK AIMÉE before (16A: "Prêt-à-Porter" actress), but I have no idea who she is and it took me a lot of crosses before her name actually came into view. Once I got her in there, I thought 7D: Dingbats looked like it should be LOONEYS (which I think is actually a better answer than the correct GOONEYS), so that made LIGHT SHOWS (5A: Concert spectacles) hard to see.

Let's do a few bullets and then you can all get back to nursing your hangovers. My suggestion? Peanut butter toast and 7-Up. Or next time maybe don't drink so much.

Bullets:

• 1A: Star of India, once (SABU). I do not know what this means.

• 30A: N.Y.P.D. descriptor (FINEST).
• 32A: Cry to get 40-Across (SEND HELP). I tried NEED HELP first, which is a crappy answer. Especially cuz it's, ya know, wrong.
• 42A: "Rock Me ___" (1984 hit) (TONITE). I don't remember this song. At first I was thinking "Rock Me Amadeus," and actually the year isn't that far off (1986). "Rock Me TONITE," though, is a Billy Squier song and its Wikipedia page explains that "The video for the track …, which shows Squier dancing around a room in a pink tank top, frequently appears on 'worst music video ever' lists." Well that's something, I guess.
• 45A: Simon & Schuster's parent (CBS). I did not know that.
• 51A: Leaving lines (TA-TAS). Heh heh. You said TATAS.

• 57A: Onetime Chevy Blazer competitor (ISUZU RODEO). Have any of your ever heard Rosie Pérez say "Isuzu Trooper"? It's the funniest thing. I'm pretty sure it was on Letterman when I saw it, and it was like a real thing. Like Letterman said, "Okay, I've heard you do this before, so now, if you would, please say 'Isuzu Trooper' for this audience." And then she said it and everybody cracked up laughing. I wish I could find a clip of it. (SethG?)
• 8D: Dug in, with "down" (HUNKERED). This is an awesome, awesome word and we all should use it more often.
• 11D: Area where blood vessels enter an organ (HILUM). This was my WTF answer of the day. I'm not real good at the science-y stuff.
• 38D: Hit from the 1983 platinum album "Kilroy Was Here" (MR. ROBOTO). Don't try to act like you didn't know this was coming.




• 47D: Yanks' foes (BOSOX). I started a new job a couple weeks ago and the guy I work for is a huge baseball fan. He has season tickets to the Nats and that's his main team (he grew up in this area, so he was a Senators fan back in the day). So I cornered him one day and said, "Okay, I know you're a Nats fan, but if you had to pick: Yankees or Red Sox?" He was all, "Ohhhhh, this is a trick question. I really don't want to screw this up." Don't worry, I let him off the hook.

I'll be here tomorrow with a special guest, so come on back and check us out. It's sure to be entertaining. Oh and here's a tip for tomorrow. At the very bottom of the New York Times crossword blog, there's a note: "The Sunday crossword will be available on the Premium Crosswords page in both Across Lite and PDF format …. Three clues in the PDF and print version use foreign alphabets; the Across Lite version uses English-letter transliterations." So make sure you don't let that trip you up. See you tomorrow.

Love, PuzzleGirl

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter] [or PuzzleGirl]

Widows allowances / SAT 11-13-10 / European neolithic monument / Kitschy stuffed toys / Red cocktail for short

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: Ehud BARAK (46D: P.M. before Sharon) —

Ehud Barak (Hebrew:, born Ehud Brog on 12 February 1942) is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He is currently leader of the Labor Party and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's not a single answer in this grid that I haven't heard of (including, I think, IAN — 53A: Actor Somerhalder of "Lost"), and yet it was still pretty damned hard. That NW corner should've been easier than it was, what with COSMO (1D: Red cocktail, for short), ODES, and ATONE going straight in. But STONEHENGE wouldn't stretch far enough at 17A: European neolithic monument (STONE CIRCLE), and then I really screwed myself by seeing straight through the clue at 6D: Supermarket lines, for short but entering not UPC but ... CPU! Ugh. Had to abandon the NW and reboot in the NE via STERE and ENSUE. Had trouble over there as well, where I wanted HOSTELIER (a word I apparently made up) or HOSTESSES instead of HOSTELERS for 14D: They may take you in at night, and FIRESTONE instead of WIRESPOKE for 12D: Kind of wheel. Would've gone with JUMP ROPE at 32A: Play at recess (SKIP ROPE) were it not for the resulting terminal "J" it created at 8D: Five Norwegian kings (HARALDS). Even after I got the NE corner, I couldn't follow it down to the SE and had to reboot yet again. Somehow sussed out DEMOS at 44D: Shows at an expo — probably by just inferring the past tense suffixes on ERRED and YARDED — and then threw OPINIONATED across off just the "O" (my only real coup of the night) (57A: Like critics). Managed to fight my way through the underbrush down there, and then moved into the SW (via HIBACHI, which was obvious from its terminal "I" — 34A: Coal holder). At this point, things sped up considerably, and I (finally) blew into the NW, discovered my CPU-for-UPC error, and finished things up. Last letter was the "L" in LUTED (2D: Played some dulcet tones).

Liked the puzzle, in case that wasn't clear. SOCK MONKEYS (59A: Kitschy stuffed toys) and CLAP PUSH-UPS (1A: Calisthenics for show-offs) are (symmetrical!) winners, and everything else is very smooth. Biggest surprise—how Didi CONN spells her last name (52D: Didi of "Grease" and "Grease 2"). I wanted KAHN. Or CAHN. EYE WINK feels slightly redundant (I mean, really, what other kind of WINK am I going to give you? HAND WINK? EAR WINK?) (38D: Sign meaning "Let this be our little secret"). YARDED is probably the iffiest looking thing in the grid, and it's not so bad (31D: Penned in). Crossing an "ERR" word (ABERRANCY) with an "ERR" word (ERRED) at the "ERR" ... well, that's not great, but otherwise, a very nicely constructed puzzle.

Bullets:

• 25A: Bit of centurion gear (SANDAL) — For a while, just had the "L," and couldn't think of a thing.
  
• 36A: British form of 33-Down (SNOOKER) / 33D: See 36-Across (POOL) — One of the funniest parts of the new IFC show "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" involved a back-and-forth between Todd (David Cross) and a professional SNOOKER player over the proper pronunciation of SNOOKER. Pro ends up getting angry and beating Todd severely with a SNOOKER cue.
  
• 39A: Widows' allowances (DOWERS) — no idea why I knew this. Feels medieval.
  
• 40A: Many a character on "The Big Bang Theory" (NERD) — really enjoyed Conan's interview with actress Charlyne Yi the other night, wherein she told a hilarious story about getting hired and fired from this sitcom before it ever aired.
  
• 41A: Web site with the subheading "Merchant Services" (PAYPAL) — took me far too long, considering I'm a regular user.
  
• 52A: Air traveling over snow? (CAROL) — Oh. "Air." I see.
  
• 54A: Rental for many an apartment dweller (MINI-STORAGE) — good answer. Went looking for an actual object, not ... space.
  
• 26D: Hamilton and Hunt (LINDAS) — Two H-actresses. Nice touch.
  
• 55D: Word accompanying "Much," "Little" and "Late" in a 1978 #1 hit (TOO) — whoa, serious childhood flashback. Very memorable song ... from the summer my parents got divorced; coincidentally, that's the summer I really started listening to the radio. In earnest. Kind of obsessively. I know Top 40 songs from the late '70s very, very, scarily well.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. Happy Birthday to my mom! (and, coincidentally, crossword constructor Natan Last)

First blond Bond / FRI 9-24-10 / Jean Rhys opus / Dixie rival / Tip preceder / Firedome fireflite / Free cookie distributor / My little girl early TV

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none


Word of the Day: "My Little MARGIE" (40D: "My little" girl of early TV) —

My Little Margie premiered on CBS as the summer replacement for I Love Lucy on June 16, 1952, under the sponsorship of Philip Morris cigarettes. Its success prompted NBC, at the sponsor's request, to give it a regular berth - Saturday at 7:30 pm(et) - on its fall schedule, where it lasted for two months. In January 1953, it returned to CBS [Thursdays, 10pm(et)], where it remained until July. Two months later, it was back on NBC (for new sponsor Scott Paper Company) on Wednesday nights at 8:30, where its final broadcast was on August 24, 1955. In an unusual move, the series—with the same leads—aired original episodes on CBS Radio, concurrently with the TV broadcasts, from December 1952 through August 1955. Only 23 radio broadcasts are known to exist in recorded form. // Set in New York City, the series stars Gale Storm as 21-year-old Margie Albright and former silent film star Charles Farrell as her widowed father, 50-year-old Vern Albright. They shared an apartment at the Carlton Arms Hotel. Vern Albright was the vice president of the investment firm of Honeywell and Todd, where his boss was George Honeywell (Clarence Kolb). Honeywell's partner in the firm was played by George Meader. Roberta (Hillary Brooke) was Vern's girlfriend, and Margie's boyfriend was Freddy Wilson (Don Hayden). Mrs. Odetts (Gertrude Hoffman) was the Albrights' next-door neighbor and Margie's sidekick in madcap capers reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel in I Love Lucy. When Margie realized she had blundered or got into trouble, she made an odd trilling sound. Also in the cast were Willie Best as the elevator operator and Dian Fauntelle. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, that was easy. ERECTS (2D: Puts up) to VETS (21A: Ones doing lab exams?) to ANAT (18A: Coroner's subj.) to WEAVE (14D: Hair extension) — then I saw the clue for WIDE SARGASSO SEA (14A: Jean Rhys opus) (which I would have gotten even without crosses), and the puzzle was very tractable from there on out. Toughest part was getting the long Downs to drop. Bah. Got the front halves without knowing what the back halves were (CORPORATE .... HONCHO? BIGWIG? SEASON ... ALALLERGIES?) until I got all the way down to ABIT. Then I dropped both long Downs and WEBSITE (35D: Free cookie distributor) into the middle of that bottom section, and cleaned everything up easily from there. Only slightly slower than yesterday's (pretty fast) time.

Not too fond of the fill in this one. The long Acrosses (the marquee answers in a grid like this) are OK but nothing very memorable, and WIDE SARGASSO SEA I've definitely seen as a grid-spanner before. GOOGLE CHROME, GOOGLE DOCS ... several other GOOGLE answers would have been interesting. GOOGLE DIRECTORY isn't (50A: Aid to researching 35-Downs by topic). Everything here just seems straightforward and dullish. On Fri. and Sat., I like fresh, contemporary answers and/or a good dose of Scrabbliness. Got neither today. Also, LUTED? That hurt a bit (20A: Performed as a minstrel, maybe). Never heard of SOLO brand ... paper cups? (24A: Dixie rival). Yep, that's what they make: cups. Huh. Marginal actors round out the didn't know / don't like list: BIRNEY (12D: David of St. Elsewhere") and RAE (30A: 1971 Tony-winning actress ___ Allen).

[No lutes, but good minstrelsy nonetheless]

Bullets:

• 16A: Psychoanalyst Fromm (ERICH) — I've heard of this guy, and yet I still wanted ETHAN. And then ENOCH (?)
  
• 34A: She quipped "I've been in more laps than a napkin" (MAE WEST) — way too obvious. Good quote, though.

• 41A: ___ de Noyaux (almond-flavored liqueur) (CRÈME) — seriously overthought this one. Tried to recall the French word for "almonds" (turns out, it's "amandes"—not that it's relevant here).
  
• 5D: Carl Ichan or T. Boone Pickens (CORPORATE RAIDER) — I learned who Both these men are via xwords. It's true. Clearly billionaires don't interest me much.
  
• 8D: Tip preceder, maybe (PSST) — if the tip is "you're fly's open," I guess...
  
• 11D: Firedome and Fireflite (DE SOTOS) — no way of knowing this, but I got it easily from crosses.
  
• 31D: First blond Bond (CRAIG) — Daniel CRAIG: the current incarnation.

• 48D: Invader of Rome in 390 B.C. (CELT) — I'm used to dealing with the CELTs as the invadED, not the invadERS.
  
• 49D: Credits date for "Cinderella" or "All About Eve" (MCML) — That's about as much as I'm ever going to like a Roman numeral clue. Major movies, nice round date. For whatever reason, I know that "All About Eve" is a 1950 movie, so this was a gimme.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Title guy in HBO animated sitcom / SAT 9-4-10 / Hollywood acronym / Zeros in sports slang / Tekka-maki sushi source / Steam engine pioneer

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none


Word of the Day: "The Life & Times of TIM" (4D: Title guy in an HBO animated sitcom) —

The Life and Times of Tim is an HBO comedy animated television series, which premiered on September 28, 2008. The series was created by Steve Dildarian, and is about a hapless man in his mid 20s named Tim (Steve Dildarian) who lives in New York City with his girlfriend Amy. Throughout the series, Tim constantly finds himself in increasingly awkward situations in both his work and personal life. The first season aired in 2008 and has since been aired in numerous countries, and has developed something of a cult following. The second season debuted on February 19, 2010 on HBO. On June 4, 2010, HBO announced it was canceling the show, but there are rumors that it may be picked up by another network--perhaps even Comedy Central, which originally rejected the show before HBO picked it up. On the 16th of August it was announced HBO had gone back on their original decision to cancel the show and as a result a third season was ordered. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, that was fast. One of my fastest Saturdays ever. Might have been my fastest if I could have convinced myself sooner that SET OF CLUBS (12D: Course load?) and NESTING SITE (55A: Swift retreat?) were real things—by which I mean, valid, believable answers. I think they're pretty terrible, actually. Most of the rest of the fill seems fine, if unremarkable. Actually, I like BAIT BUCKETS alright (1A: Fishing gear), and I like FOR ALL I CARE (49A: Apathetic person's words) even more. The rest, just OK. That [Number] trick is super old and didn't fool me for a second (26D: Number of folks?=>ANESTHESIA). Honestly, I barely remember the rest of this. Again, getting started (NW) took the longest, but today, not so long, and after that, the puzzle felt more like a Thursday to me. Here's what my grid looked like after maybe 30 seconds:


I knew then that I had a good chance to break the puzzle wide open. With the exception of SEE OUT for SEE OFF (21A: Walk to the gate, perhaps), I just didn't guess wrong anywhere. Most frustrating parts were BAGELS (25A: Zeros, in sports slang), because I really really feel I should get all sports slang instantly (and didn't); and TANIA (30A: "Lost" actress Raymonde), as I resolutely refuse to watch this show *but* have seen TANIA clued this way before, *and yet* still couldn't come up with it quickly. ELSIE THE COW (15A: Company mascot introduced in the 1930s that has never been put out to pasture), ANESTHESIA, and IBMTHINKPAD (53A: Laptop tested aboard the Endeavour) all went in with hardly any crosses, which made 3/4 of this puzzle a cake walk. Struggled a bit more in the NE, despite having the middles of all those long Downs ... finally went down to get their ends, and then used FOREMAN to get ALI/FOREMAN (13D: Like the 1974 rope-a-dope fight) and finish that section off (nice tie-in with DON KING, btw => 37D: Promoter of the 13-Down fight). Finished with the "F" in PFC (45A: E-2 Marine) / FRAT (46D: Frequent party planner, for short), though at that point the grid practically filled itself in. No tough words, nothing terribly obscure ... just not a typical Saturday. A decent, but overly quick ride.

Bullets:

• 16A: Group with the '79 double-platinum album "Discovery" (ELO) — Right era, three letters ... gotta be ELO (though I've always got one eye open for ELP now ...)
  
• 17A: Stance in a fashion magazine (GLAMOUR POSE) — Weird to me that "GLAMOUR" is not an exclusively British spelling.
  
• 34A: Popular spectator sport that's not in the Olympics (SUMO) — didn't say it was popular in America.
  
• 38A: Babe-in-arms alternative? (STROLLER) — none of the tricky ones were tricking me today. Had the first letters: piece of cake.
  
• 52A: John L. Lewis was its first pres. (CIO) — did not know. Would not have gotten. Filled itself in from crosses.
  
• 5D: Aid to King Hrothgar, in literature (BEOWULF) — after blowing the medieval English DANELAW clue yesterday, I was happy to redeem myself on this one (anyone who's ever read "BEOWULF" should have gotten this instantly). I needed this answer to make sense of BAIT BUCKETS. Before that ... BAIT ... SUCKERS?
  
• 11D: Comic strip adoptee (SWEE' PEA) — That "W" from ELSIE THE COW came in reeeeeeal handy there.
  
• 25D: Incentive to buy a CD, maybe (BONUS TRACK) — nice attempt at misdirection here, as a "CD" can be a Certificate of Deposit as well as a compact disc.
  
• 30D: Hides on a frame (TEPEE) — Clever clue—nice attempt at misdirection with "Hides"
  
• 36D: Tekka-maki sushi source (BLUEFIN) — had the "LUE," so again, bam bam bam. No sweat.
  
• 42D: City of 15+ million whose busiest street in Chandni Chowk (DELHI) — cluing just too easy. Massive city in India. Five letters. Not tough.
  
• 44D: Steam engine pioneer (WATT) — uh, not sure how I guessed this, as I know nothing in particular about WATT's association with the steam engine. Is this the same WATT as the light bulb eponym? Yes. Acc. to wikipedia:

The watt is named after James Watt for his contributions to the development of the steam engine, and was adopted by the Second Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1889 and by the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1960 as the unit of power incorporated in the International System of Units (or "SI").

• 45D: Parental term of endearment, in Spain (PAPI) — had second "P" from IBMTHINKPAD. As you can see from multiple examples today, getting one long answer in the quadrant of a pinwheel-shaped grid like this one can really help you annihilate the short crosses, and thus get the other long answers, and thus move on.
• 13A: Hollywood acronym (SAG) — that's "Screen Actors Guild."
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Concordia University locale / SAT 7-17-10 / British home of Cow Tower Dragon Hall / End of tile game's name / I.B.M. event 1915 / Visionary 1921 drama

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: W. C. HANDY (41A: Father of the Blues) —

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a blues composer and musician, often known as the "Father of the Blues". // Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a not very well-known regional music style to one of the dominant forces in American music. // Handy was an educated musician who used folk material in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from several performers. He loved this folk musical form and brought his own transforming touch to it. (wikipedia)

• • •

Yesterday I said that it seemed like I said the same thing about puzzles all the time, esp. the late-week ones—got off to a slow start! Well, that was *not* true today. Got off to a fast start, demolishing the NW at a Wednesday/Thursday clip. Problem: I couldn't get out of the NW. Threw some feelers out, but nothing. If I'd only surmised at first (as I did later) that the "coach" in 5D: Short coach signified a BUS, I'd have gotten into that SW much more quickly. As it was, I had to reboot in the Far SE, and while that little bit went down quickly, the rest did not. It took nearly everything I had to make those long Acrosses behave. Literally had -EA CANISTER before TEA came to me (49A: Its contents may get strained). I steep my tea. I don't even strain my loose leaf green tea. Bah! Stupid me. O'DARK THIRTY (55A: Very early morning, in slang) is completely new to me. Inferred the THIRTY and then ... waited. GET A LICKING feels quite off (53A: Be shellacked)—TAKE A LICKING, sure (via Timex commercials). GET one? You could, of course, but the phrase wobbles. Bigger problem was (embarrassed admission) never having heard of W. C. HANDY (41A: Father of the Blues). When I was done, I actually googled [W. CHANDY]. OREO OS (43A: Former chocolaty Post cereal) were also unknown to me. Forgot CERF completely (feel like he was in the puzzle once before at least—or maybe he was in "You Are Not A Gadget" or "The Shallows," books about the Internet I read recently) (42A: Vint ___, Father of the Internet). Guessed on NORWICH (37D: British home of Cow Tower and Dragon Hall) after I got the -WICH part. So in the end, despite the fast start, the puzzle leveled off at Saturday-normal and pretty much stayed there (though the pace picked up again at the very end, one I got STIPPLE into that NE (24A: Pointed artwork?), which revealed HOLD, PLEASE (12D: Call waiting line?), which pretty much finished things off. "F" in WOLF/CERF was my last letter.

Soooo many question marks today. I find that when that total gets about, say, half a dozen, I start to get annoyed. Today: a full dozen "?" clues by my count, some good (7D: Shell collection? PUMPS — finished the puzzle before I understood that one); some just OK (39D: Way of the world? TAO); some obvious (51D: Runner given the boot? SKI); and at least one a crossword cliché (35A: Is for more than one? ARE). Kind of liked the odd double-Gymnastics school supply / supplies clues (CHALK / MATS), even though my go-to answer, TALC/S, was wrong in both cases. JIVEY is jive (30D: Swinging) and JONGG looks wrong, but isn't (30A: End of a tile game's name). Nursery stuff was new to me in both cases: TREE TAGS (10D: Nursery IDs) and ROSE LEAVES (13D: Bouquet greenery), though the latter wasn't unheard of, just ... not a coherent, crossworthy entity in my mind.



Bullets:

• 15A: Bauxite or cryolite (ALUMINUM ORE) — "-ITE" suffixes tell you ORE. A few crosses tell you the rest.
  
• 17A: One whose shots reveal lots (BIKINI MODEL) — was thumbing through a beautiful book of Gil Elvgren pin-ups before starting in on this puzzle. An American Treasure, that man. He and Rockwell are the yin/yang of mid-century American illustration. Fantastic.
  
• 25A: Concordia University locale (ST. PAUL) — see, once I finally got BUS, this answer leapt forth. Before I knew it ended -UL, I wanted ... ISRAEL. I know, Concordia is Latin, whatever.
  
• 32A: Hydroelectricity providers? (EELS) — kind of obvious. The "?" here reveals more than it conceals (anomalous).
  
• 45A: ___ Poke (candy on a stick) (SLO) — neeeeever heard of it. Before my time, but like much retro candy, available from online specialty shops.
  
• 48A: Visionary 1921 drama ("R.U.R.") — another short gimme. A 1920s play in three letters. I can think of only two plays in three letters, and TRU is much later.
  
• 22D: I.B.M. event of 1915 (IPO) — and another short gimme, though I did have the "I" before I saw the clue, so maybe that made it easier than it might have been otherwise.
  
• 26D: 2003 spy thriller starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell ("THE RECRUIT") — can't even remember seeing ads for this. "THE ... something FRUIT?"
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]