Classical name of Troy / THU 4-14-11 / David of infomercials / Commercial prefix with dyne / Gravlax ingredient / Wahhabi's belief

Constructor: Pete Muller

Relative difficulty: Challenging [but, then again, I never saw the "note," which *might* have made things easier/clearer—the downloaded puzzle I used had *no* indication there even was a note. . . annoying]

THEME: UMBRELLA — "UMBRELLA" is the clue for four theme answers, only it's found not in the clues, but inside circled squares, which, when connected form an approximation of the shape of an UMBRELLA. All theme answers are clued only by empty brackets.

Puzzle note: (not visible unless hunted down under one of the toolbar menus in my software program): "Four answers in this puzzle are missing the same eight-letter clue - a single word that can be spelled from the eight circled letters. When the puzzle is done, connect the circled letters in order with a line, and you will get an outline of the object the word names."



Word of the Day: RADO (33A: Pricey Swiss watch brand) —

Rado is a Swiss manufacturer of watches, with headquarters in Lengnau, Switzerland. It is noted for its use of scratch-proof materials, a field in which it is considered a pioneer. Today the company produces about half a million watches a year with a staff of about 470 in total. [...] RADO watches vary in pricing according to model, age and materials but the core collection of RADO pieces will range from about US$700 to about US$28,000. Models that include pave dials of diamonds and baguette diamonds can cost approximately US $30,000 to $250,000. (wikipedia)

• • •

This took a while, and was not entirely pleasant. Creative and memorable, though, I'll give it that. The empty-set clues for the theme answers made the experience frustrating, which I guess was the point. Wasn't sure if TRAVELERSLOGO was TRAVELER'S LOGO or TRAVELERS LOGO, and in both cases the logos that were presenting themselves to my brain were wrong. Could think only of the haloed Good Samaritan guy you see on stickers on RVs, or else the bear from TRAVELODGE. SHADE PROVIDER = elm, of course. GENE KELLY PROP? Uh ... cane? Only with the HIT FOR RIHANNA did I realize what the puzzle was getting at. Never heard of RADO (33A: Pricey Swiss watch brand), did not know ORECK was associated with infomercials (29D: David of infomercials), forgot about ILION despite teaching Trojan War literature all the time (had ILIUM, which is also right) (12D: Classical name of Troy), never Ever heard of whatever TELEdyne is (40A: Commercial prefix with dyne), blanked on the Hebrew month NISAN (49D: Passover month), can't believe I had to deal with RANDR twice in one week (38D: Service break), and ... and then there's APISH! (10A: Imitative) Took me about 50% longer than my average Thursdays of late. But I got it, and mostly enjoyed the struggle. The UMBRELLA shape (created by the circles) doesn't look Terrible, except for the handle. What the hell? The distance between "U" and "M" is comical. That "U" should be where the second "E" in ELOPED is.



My favorite moment of the solve—wondering what the hell kind of temple features LAPDANCEs (40D: Temple performance). Turns out it's Shirley Temple, and actual answers is TAPDANCE. "Ohhhhhhh.... nevermind."



Cluing was tricky. Started out with clues about docks and pirates, and answers that had nothing to do with the ocean. I know ARIEL as a servant of Prospero and as a book of poetry by Sylvia Plath, not as a Durant (20A: One of the Durants who wrote "The Story of Civilization"). "Gumbo" comes from BANTU. Whu knu? ILLE Pu! (43A: Langauge from which "gumbo" comes) I know what a snow leopard is, but chamois? Isn't that what you use to clean your car? (66A: Where chamois and snow leopards live: Abbr.=>MTNS) Don't remember what gravlax is at all. Sounds like an OTC medicine: "For Serious Constipation: GRAVLAX." Twyla THARP is my homegirl (25D: "Movin' Out" choreographer) ... well, she attended my alma mater, and her last name is one letter (one step in the alphabet) off from my own (real) name, so ... good enough (yes, my real name is UHARP). Weird that I though TRAVELER'S LOGO was related to a halo and then got HALOS at 14D: Nickname for the Anaheim Angels. RADO / RADON intersection is at least mildly unfortunate (intersecting identical four-letter strings not being ideal). This puzzle is 16x15. The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Spy vs. Spy cartoonist Prohias / THU 4-7-11 / Clothing company since 1992 / Pousse multicolored drink / Rum-enhanced dessert / Painter Schiele

Constructor: Henry Hook

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: ... with "The" — Theme clues all end with the phrase "with 'The'" (a common crossword direction), but in this case, the direction is literal, i.e. you have to supply the letters "THE" at the beginning of the answer to make any sense of it


Word of the Day: ANTONIO Prohias (14A: Original "Spy vs. Spy" cartoonist Prohias) —

Antonio Prohías (January 17, 1921 – February 24, 1998), born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, was a cartoonist most famous for creating the comic strip Spy vs. Spy for MAD Magazine. [...] Although he is most famous for Spy vs. Spy, the majority of his comic strips, such as El Hombre Siniestro, La Mujer Siniestra, and Tovarich, were published mostly or only in Cuba. Altogether, only about 20 of his roughly 270 contributions to Mad were of anything other than the spy series. As a result, most of the available information on this other work comes from the Spy Vs Spy Complete Casebook (Watson-Guptill, 2001). (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow. I did not like this at all. An idea that should have been discarded (if only for yielding ridiculous mangled answers in the grid), but was instead worked up into a whole puzzle. It's a one-note puzzle, and a bad note at that. Yes, there's a clever twist on a common crossword convention (that is, the convention of using "with 'The'" to indicate that the def. article won't appear in the grid). But the problem is that the actual grid results of that twist are dreadful and joyless. Potential theme answers could have been anything under the sun beginning with "THE-," and this group has nothing more than that holding it together, so theme coherence is terrible. Throw in a bunch of out-of-left-field proper nouns, and you have ... whatever this is. Big thumbs-down.

I can see how someone might have found this enjoyable and clever. I'll give you 'clever,' esp. for the initial gimmick idea. But the execution of that gimmick just rubbed me the wrong way.

Theme answers:

• 19A: Churchill subject, with "The" (IR FINEST HOUR)
  
• 30A: Rodgers and Hart song, with "The" ("RE'S A SMALL HOTEL")
  
• 36A: George C. Scott movie with a rock band namesake, with "The" ("EY MIGHT BE GIANTS") — this is where I picked up the theme, because it's the first theme answer I knew. Before that, I assumed there was some kind of IOU theme ... because the "I" from BASIC (1D: Computer language from 1964) appeared to be where an "OU" should be in the Across answer: [OU]R FINEST HOUR. But no...

• 48A: Hit movie of 1991, with "The" ("LMA AND LOUISE") — so, two movies and a song and a ... subject. Nice tight grouping [/sarcasm]
  

Pousse-what? (21A: Pousse-___ (multicolored drink)) Prohias who? Pierre wha? (50D: Pierre who wrote "Pêcheur d'Islande") (Oh, *that* Pierre...([/facetiousness]) (actually, those last two were kicking around the dark recesses of my skull somewhere, but ... wherever it was, it was Really dark). I would not willingly RETASTE this puzzle.

Bullets:

• 7A: Rum-enhanced dessert (TORTONI) — not familiar. Sounds like pasta. Easy enough to piece together from crosses.
  
• 58A: Big band brothers (DORSEYS) — adding to the decidedly olde thymey flavor of this thing. Had trouble here primarily because I had BAHRAIN as the answer to 37D: Its coat-of-arms includes a marlin and a flamingo
  
• 8D: Topic of Weird Al Yankovic's "The White Stuff" (OREOS) — never heard of it. Have heard of Weird Al's other White song: "White and Nerdy"...

• 13D: Lemieux milieu (ICE) — Mario Lemieux. Former hockey great and current owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
  
• 26D: Utterance from Reagan mimics ("WELL...") — this made me laugh, though ... for anyone not at least a teen in the 80s, good luck.
  
• 44D: Clothing company since 1992 (FUBU) — haven't seen, thought about, or heard of FUBU in what seems like at least a decade. Forgot it existed. I associate the brand with mid-late-90s hip hop.
  
• 46D: Actor who played himself in 1988's "Moon Over Parador" (ASNER) — no idea, but ... when in doubt, guess ASNER.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Orioles hurler 1966 champs / THU 3-31-11 / Solo crooner Oh My Pa-Pa #1 1954 / 140 pounds in Britain / 1970s sitcom ended with title character Congress

Constructors: Jeremy Horwitz and Tyler Hinman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: PERFECT PITCH (19D: Something the eight people at 3-, 9-, 28- and 30-Down have all strived for?) — theme answers are all names shared by World-Series-winning Major League baseball pitchers and #1-charting singers / musicians


Word of the Day: TAI CHI CHUAN (62A: Dojo discipline) —

Tai chi chuan (simplified Chinese: 太极拳; traditional Chinese: 太極拳; pinyin: tàijíquán; Wade–Giles: t'ai⁴ chi² ch'üan²) (literal translation "Supreme Ultimate Fist") is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits. It is also typically practiced for a variety of other personal reasons: its hard and soft martial art technique, demonstration competitions, and longevity. As a consequence, a multitude of training forms exist, both traditional and modern, which correspond to those aims. Some of tai chi chuan's training forms are especially known for being practiced at what most people categorize as slow movement. // Today, tai chi has spread worldwide. Most modern styles of tai chi trace their development to at least one of the five traditional schools: Chen, Yang, Wu/Hao, Wu, and Sun. (wikipedia)

• • •

As much as yesterday's puzzle was outside my wheelhouse, this one is in it. Right in it. I just clobbered this one. Minute and a half faster than yesterday, and a good minute faster than last Thursday. Seven of the eight men involved in the theme answers are well known to me—the only one I'd never heard of was the pitcher EDDIE FISHER, but I was able to get singer EDDIE FISHER off just the EDD-, so no sweat. Even TAI CHI CHUAN was in my back pocket—I'm guessing most folks know the TAI CHI part, but not the CHUAN. Annoyed to see that the same damn stupid clue for TAI CHI (CHUAN) is still being used — "Dojo" is from a different language and refers to different martial arts from a different country. Come on. Have some respect—China and Japan are different. Their martial arts are different. Terminology is different. Practiced TAI CHI for years and never saw or heard the word "Dojo" (for good reason). I see that there are a few places out there using the word "dojo" to describe their TAI CHI studios, but that's probably for commercial purposes, i.e. people are familiar with the term from pop culture. Please keep "dojo" away from TAI CHI clues. I'm sure "Dojo" is, in some rigmarolish way, defensible, but I don't care. It's not right. Thank you. End rant.



Only places I struggled were in a couple of corners—a little bit in the NE (where PEDICAB took its sweet time showing up (7A: Way around Shanghai), and where I had DORA for CORA (11D: Mrs. Dithers of the comics)), and a lot in the SE, where SIC for SUE (65A: Go after) and NAB for NET (71A: Capture) made a hash of things down there until MAUDE (55D: 1970s sitcom that ended with the title character in Congress)! And then there's MAUDE! She saved the day (god bless you, Bea Arthur). The only weird thing about the theme is that DAVE STEWART of the Eurythmics is *not* a singer, which makes PERFECT PITCH slightly odd, since that's a phrase I've only ever heard in relation to the voice. But instruments have pitches too, obviously, so ... it'll stretch. I especially like that all the pitchers won World Series and all the music folk hit #1. That's oddly serendipitous, theme coherence-wise. KENNY ROGERS actually once pitched a PERFECT game. DAVE STEWART didn't, but he did throw a no-hitter.



Theme answers:

• 3D: Yankees hurler (1996 champs) / Solo singer of "Lady" (#1 in 1980) (KENNY ROGERS)
  
• 28D: Orioles hurler (1966 champs) / Solo crooner of "Oh! My Pa-Pa" (#1 in 1954) (EDDIE FISHER) — father of Princess LEIA
  
• 9D: A's hurler (1989 champs) / Eurythmics musician on "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (#1 in 1983) (DAVE STEWART)
  
• 30D: Giants hurler (2010 champs) / Beach Boys vocalist on "Help Me, Rhonda" (#1 in 1965) (BRIAN WILSON)
  

Bullets:

• 20A: 140 pounds, in Britain (TEN STONE) — had ...-TON- part and really wanted something-TONS, despite the fact that 140 pounds isn't anywhere near a ton.
  
• 24A: Distant sign of affection? (AIR KISS) — nice clue, nice answer.
  
• 47A: 1994 Costner title role (EARP) — Wow, there was a movie called "EARP?" That one got by me.

• 57DA: "Less Than Zero" (ELLIS) — more wheelhouseness. "Less Than Zero" was a Big movie when I was younger. ELLIS's "American Psycho" was big (controversial) news when I was in college.
  
• 67A: Car co-created and named by John DeLorean (GTO) — well that's some odd trivia that I am sure to forget right ... now.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Rock bassist Weymouth / THU 3-24-11 / Muckraker Tarbell / Camp historic Mormon expedition / Ruth chaser 1961 / TMZ twosome

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: JETS — single circle opens each of 4 long theme answers; these four circles spell out JETS, which, in turn, is the clue for every long theme answer (all of which are clued [See circles])

• JACUZZI FEATURES
• ENGINES ON A PLANE
• TEAM FROM NEW YORK
• SHARKS' RIVAL GANG

Word of the Day: TINA Weymouth (55D: Rock bassist Weymouth) —

Martina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth (born November 22, 1950, Coronado, California) is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club (co-founded with husband and Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz). (wikipedia)

• • •

Circles, clueless answers, and answers that are really clues (here, with the "answer" in every case being JETS) are all things I tend Not to like in my puzzles. The last category especially bugs me, as the resulting fill is usually somewhat forced and not totally natural-sounding. That said, this puzzle was executed about as well as a puzzle of this type can be. Circles actually add an interesting twist (and an interesting limitation on the theme answers). All theme answers are exactly 15 letters long, and, with the slight exception of ENGINES ON A PLANE, feel like very believable crossword clues for JETS. DANO was a mystery to me (36A: Paul of "There Will Be Blood"), but everything else felt very familiar, with only the clues providing difficulty (this is a good thing). So, despite moments of exasperation, I liked it fine.



Had no idea how to get to YEAGER from the clue: 48D: Flier of the X-1—no idea what an "-1" is. Also no idea (until I had just one letter left) what [Keen] could possibly be if not SHARP (my first answer). SWELL? So it's dated slang, like NEATO. Argh. That little region roughed me up a bit. Clue on TRAPS was good but vicious (19D: Green surroundings?). I had no idea. TRACT? TRAIL? Weirdly, I wanted SAHIB (35A: Title of respect) from the get-go, but wouldn't put it in because TRA-S didn't seem plausible as a potential answer for 19D. Thought clues on LUTE (16A: Subject of a lesson for Katharina in "The Taming of the Shrew"), SHAW (65A: The 1999 comedy "She's All That" is based on his work), and ZION'S (18D: ___ Camp, historic Mormon expedition led by Joseph Smith) were all pretty hard. On the other hand, I had good luck with ATELIERS and PIE PLATE (39D: Makeshift frisbee), putting both of them in right away (once I got a cross or two to confirm them). West gave me perhaps most trouble of all. END AT just sounded wrong as answer for [Finish on], and ALOHA shirt (41A: ___ shirt (colorful short-sleeved attire))??? In America, we call them "Hawaiian shirts" (I feel as if I've written that exact sentence before). And DANO, as I say, is no one to me.



I almost made a stupid mistake at 66A: Unveiled, writing in BORE as if it were the past tense of "bare," when of course it's the past tense of "bear." Luckily, I love Talking Heads and knew TINA Weymouth, who gave me the "A" that showed me that [Unveiled] was an adjective, not a verb=>BARE.

Bullets:

• 23A: Muckraker Tarbell (IDA) — pretty much the top of the IDA list.
  
• 43A: Ruth chaser in 1961 (MARIS) — one of the few very easy clues in the puzzle.
  
• 32D: Kindle download (E-BOOK) — got slightly confused here, as I thought that EBOOK was a specific format that Kindle did not, in fact, handle. . . but E-BOOK is just a general term for electronic book, and in that sense, this clue is fine. I mostly use my Kindle to read the NYT (I pay for the privilege, so all this new paywall stuff is just noise to me right now). Read a bit more of "Count of Monte Cristo" on my Kindle today, in fact. It was a snow day (lousy Smarch!) and family was home, so not a lot of work happened. Mainly, this happened:

And a little bit of this:




Could've been worse.

See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. though she won't see this today, probably, all my love and best wishes to my good friend (and fellow crossword junkie) who underwent major surgery yesterday. Just got notified that all went well. Can't wait to have you back, sweetheart.

First part psychosexual development / THU 3-17-11 / Hundred-eyed monster myth / Devout Lhasan / Politico memoir Courage Consequence

Constructor: Anna Shechtman

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging


THEME: IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME (41A: Totally confused response)— rebus puzzle with four Greek letters (ALPHA, BETA, PI, OMEGA) located in squares throughout the grid

Word of the Day: MALLOMAR (24D: Chocolate-coated treat) —

In the US, Mallomars are produced seasonally at Nabisco. A graham cracker circle is covered with a puff of extruded marshmallow, then enrobed in dark chocolate, which forms a hard shell. Mallomars were introduced to the public in 1913, the same year as the Moon Pie (a confection which has similar ingredients). The first box of Mallomars was sold in West Hoboken, NJ (now Union City, NJ). Nabisco discusses it with a short story printed on Mallomar boxes. // Because Mallomars melt easily in summer temperatures, they can become difficult to find during the summer: they are generally available from early October through April. Devoted eaters of the cookie have been known to stock up during winter months and keep them refrigerated over the summer; though paradoxically, Nabisco markets other fudge-coated cookie brands year-round. Seventy percent of all Mallomars are sold in metropolitan New York. The issue of Nabisco's choice to release Mallomars seasonally became a parodied topic on a sketch delivered by graphic artist Pierre Bernard on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. // According to the box, Mallomars are made in Canada by Kraft Foods. In Canada, these are known as "Dream Puffs." (wikipedia)

• • •

This didn't work for me, despite the fact that I think the rebus-square-containing answers are pretty genius in places. I'm almost certain I've seen a theme like this before, but that's not the real problem. I just don't get the letter selection. Random Greek letters??? Why these letters? Further, why lead with ALPHA BETA and then follow with ... PI OMEGA?? Boo to not being St. Patrick's Day-themed, first of all (not the constructor's fault, obviously), and then double-boo to PI and OMEGA. I went looking for St. Pat's theme, and then when I got the theme I went looking, naturally, for GAMMA DELTA. That's the progression. There is no "aha" to getting PI OMEGA. More of an "... oh. Huh. OK." Not a fan of arbitrariness. That said, very impressive the way OMEGA got worked in here as part of INCOMEGAP and HOMEGAME. ORALPHASE (1D: First part psychosexual development) and BETAWARD (19A: Annual prize won multiple times by Beyoncé and LeBron James), also nice. Fill on the puzzle was just fine. Theme just fell flat for me.

Theme answers:

• ALPHABETSONGS / ORALPHASE
• TIBETANMONK (9D: Devout Lhasan) / BETAWARD
  
• WHOOPI (63A: First name on "The View") / LIGHTPINK
  
• INCOMEGAP / HOMEGAME

Not buying LIGHTPINK (42D: Color of many nurseries). Buying PINK, but not buying LIGHTPINK. Not loving the NW corner at all, where NOBIS (Latin) (2D: "Dona ___ pacem" (Catholic Mass phrase)) and esp. SIEG (Ger.) (18D: German "victory") were completely avoidable (I can fix that corner sitting here, without any software aid at all, which means there must be many ways to make those weak foreignisms, as well as the horrid plural SETAE, disappear). Top of the puzzle much easier than the bottom, mostly because of the GAMMA DELTA goose chase. PI, not surprisingly, was the hardest of the four Greek letters to find—much easier to turn up a big sucker like OMEGA than a slip of thing like PI. Had to sing "Over the Rainbow" to myself, and still couldn't find the end because the song kept getting interfered with in my brain by Whitney Houston's "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" (an unexpected downside of watching "Idol" right before I solve)

Bullets:

• 5A: "Big Love" setting (UTAH) — never watched it, but I understand it's about polygamy.
  
• 15A: The "doll" in Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (NORA) — no idea. I'm more a NORA Dunn / NORA Charles kind of guy.
• 14A: Politico with the memoir "Courage and Consequence" (ROVE) — forgettable title = forgot this book ever existed. Now "Bush's Brain," I remember.
  
• 32A: Setting for Seurat's "Un dimanche après-mide à l'île de la Grand Jatte" (ÉTÉ) — the "setting" is summer? Boo.
  
• 48A: Big inits. in Detroit (GMC) — General Motors Co.
  
• 53A: Lion : pride :: ___ : husk (HARE) — no idea. Doubt it gets used much, since googling turned up primarily sites dedicated to animal collectives (murder of crows, etc.), i.e. curiosities, not common terms.
• 69A: 1998 Goo Goo Dolls hit ("IRIS") — relentless radio hit of the late '90s. I used to call it the "Sea Chantey." You'll see why. Or you won't. It made sense to me:
  

• 7D: Hundred-eyed monster of myth (ARGUS) — guardian of Io until he was slain by Hermes. His story is told in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," among other places.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

French department in Pyrenees / THU 3-10-11 / Country US goes to war Wag Dog / 1973 nonfiction best seller about woman with multiple personalities

Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: WORDS PRONOUNCED / DIFFERENTLY / WHEN CAPITALIZED (16A: With 36- and 58-Across, what the answers to the starred clues are) — four theme answers fit the bill:

• READING (1A: *Poet's performance)
• RAINIER (65A: *Like Seattle vis-à-vis Phoenix)
• MOBILE (22D: *Not fixed)
• POLISH (31D: *Shine)
• [Update: when originally submitted, the puzzle had an asterisk on the clue for DIFFERENTLY as well ...]
  

Word of the Day: ARIÈGE (45D: French department in the Pyrenees) —

Ariège (French pronunciation: [aʁjɛʒ]; Occitan: Arièja) is a department in southwestern France named after the Ariège River. // Ariège is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4th, 1790. It was created from the counties of Foix and Couserans. // Foix is the administrative capital of the Ariège. It is an ancient medieval town with a fortress Chateau de Foix perched on a hill overlooking it. The fortress has been attacked many times without capture, including an attempt by Simon de Montfort. It has also been used as a prison, and the names of English Prisoners of War can still be seen on the cell walls. Another famous chateau in the Ariège is Montségur, located on a rocky outcrop at a height of 1200 metres (3,900 ft). During the Albigensian Crusade and siege of 1244 AD the chateau was largely destroyed, with more than two hundred Cathar priests burnt at the stake as heretics. The chateau was gradually rebuilt by Royalists over a period of the next three hundred years.

• • •

Early morning tomorrow, so short write-up, which is good, because the only thing of substance that I have to say is fairly succinct. I tend not to like puzzles where instructions or explanations of the theme are a dominant part of the fill. This was especially true today, where 41 squares are used to explain to me what's happening with just 26 other squares. The proportions just feel off. Having only four *real* theme answers hardly seems to warrant the amount of space taken up by the explanation—and yet because the explanation takes up that amount of space, you have a puzzle with a fairly dense 67 total squares of theme material. Normally I'd praise theme density, especially when the rest of the fill holds up pretty well (as it does here, with the long arcane name DEMAREST (36D: William who played Uncle Charley on "My Three Sons") and the whatthewherethe geographical oddity ARIÈGE being the only notable negatives). But long instructions/explanations in my grid just leave me cold. Idea here is clever, but in practice, the whole puzzle feels out of balance, and none of the theme answers have a pop or an aha quality to them. I didn't need the theme and didn't use knowledge of the theme to get any of the four relevant words. Matt's a super-talented constructor, but this one just wasn't for me (that's three in a row now ... hoping the streak breaks tomorrow).

Bullets:

• 14A: Country with which the U.S. goes to war in "Wag the Dog" (ALBANIA) — I'd completely forgotten this. Took a while to see, as I had THE BAY instead of the correct RAW BAR at 1D: Seafood lover's hangout for a while.
  
• 19A: 1973 nonfiction best seller about a woman with multiple personalities (SYBIL) — "SYBIL" was a term to be defined on the midterm I just gave. Not this SYBIL.
  
• 40A: Figures on the ceiling of la Cappella Sistina (ANGELI) — didn't take the time to notice that this was in Italian, so had ANGELS to start with...
  
• 54A: Bette's "Divine" stage persona (MISS M) — Gimme. A nice five-letter answer.

• 2D: Nancy Drew's aunt (ELOISE) — uh ... OK. Guessed it from the -ISE. Figured it wasn't Gary SINISE ... although I guess both DENISE and LOUISE were more plausible possibilities.
  
• 12D: Flower that shares its name with a tentacled sea creature (ANEMONE) — used this word in a puzzle once and have never forgotten it. My daughter asked me about a sea creature today. Specifically, her question was: "What's a Kraken?"

• 34D: Burglar in detective stories (YEGG) — one of the all-time great bits of olde-timey crime slang.
• 15A: Who "saved my life tonight" in a 1975 Elton John hit ("SOMEONE") — I love this clue, and this song. "Sugarbeeeaaaar"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Starpeace recorder 1985 / THU 3-3-11 / Language gjuho shqipe / Quested Passage to India woman / Subject of sailor's weather maxim

Constructor: David J. Kahn

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: ANDREW JACKSON/JOHNSON (39A: Either of the two presidents who also served as a 17-Across (U.S. SENATOR) from 62-Across (TENNESSEE)) — central answer in the puzzle works whether you choose JOHNSON or JACKSON


Word of the Day: Gilbert ADAIR (60A: Gilbert ___, author of "A Void," a 290-page novel without the letter E) —

Gilbert Adair (born 29 December 1944 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish author, film critic and journalist. He won the Author's Club First Novel Award in 1988 for his novel The Holy Innocents. In 1995 he won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for his book A Void, which is a translation of the French book La Disparition by Georges Perec. The original book contains no instances of the letter e; Adair translated it with the same limitation. His works are compared to those of Julian Barnes, A. S. Byatt and Patrick Gale. [so ... more "translator" than "author" ... not that knowing that would've helped me one whit] (wikipedia)

• • •

Another tricky DJK tour de force. This one was tough all over for me, and it was not until the bitter end that I figured out what was supposed to be happening in the central answer ("'Either of the two...?' But ... no two presidents had the same names ... except ADAMS ... JOHN ADAMS ... well that's not right"). My version went with ANDREW JOHNSON because I came at the last name from 33D: It's rich in sugar (CANE/CAKE), and I wanted CANE from the second I got the "C." HOOK came easily too (41D: Captain James of the high seas). Only problem was BOLLS, which looked so wrong (37D: Cotton ___) ... and yet I knew that "boll weevils" were a thing ... a bug ... that gets after cotton? Seemed OK. Turned out to be right (though, curiously, my software recognized only JACKSON as "correct").



I had to struggle at least a little in nearly every part of the grid. The worst part was the NW, where TURKEY for IGUANA (1D: Creature with a dewlap) started things badly, and then, later, INCHES for LOSSES (2D: The "5" in "6-5," e.g.) really put me in a hole. Wanted GO IT ALONE early on (14A: Act independently) but INCHES said nay. Finally figured out the theme answer must be U.S. SENATOR, dumped INCHES, and it all fell into place quickly. Wanted YALE at 9D: School whose 1910 football team went undefeated and unscored upon (NAVY). Never heard of either of the literary characters (ADELA or ABBIE) (16A: ___ Quested, "A Passage to India" woman / 42A: Wife in "O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms") or the so-called "author" of "A Void" (ADAIR). But I nailed IMO with no crosses (61D: Start of many a blog comment), even though no one ever starts comments on my blog that way, and that little answer helped make the SW the easiest quadrant by far. SE was also doable (learned "jipijapa" from an earlier puzzle, which helped). Really the NW and the eastern middle that held me up the most. I enjoyed figuring this one out, and had a genuine aha moment at the end. This is very much in the mold of the famous CLINTON / BOBDOLE puzzle of election day 1996 (wherein either answer worked and the clue was something like [Winner of today's election]). That puzzle spooked people. I doubt this one will have the same effect. But it's still pretty dang good.

Bullets:

• 24A: Food sometimes eaten with a small fork (OYSTER) — Had the "O," wanted OMELET (?)
  
• 32A: Year the first Tour de France was held (MCMIII) — if you gotta have a giant Roman numeral, it should at least have an interesting clue like this (one that was actually semi-helpful in getting at least the first three letters)
  
• 52A: Subject of a sailor's weather maxim (RED SKY) — at night, sailor's delight. This confirmed COOK for me. I mean HOOK. I think.

• 7D: "Starpeace" recorder, 1985 (ONO) — knew it, somehow—possibly from the three letters, possibly from having seen it in xwords before, and possibly for the vaguely ONOish-sounding quality of "Starpeace"; give starpeace a chance, man.
  
• 11D: Real-life character in the 1950 western "Broken Arrow" (GERONIMO) — strangely, I think the first answer that popped into my head was RED ADAIR. He was real, and there was at least one movie based on his exploits...
  
• 12D: Language known to native speakers as "gjuho shqipe" (ALBANIAN) — Whoa. Whoa. That is possibly the weirdest-looking language I've ever seen. Needed many crosses, the most helpful of which was the "B" from VERBS (18A: Come and go, e.g.)
  
• 27D: 1940 Henry Fonda role (TOM JOAD) — I prefer the 1968 Henry Fonda role of "Frank" in "Once Upon a Time in the West"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

God of south wind / THU 2-24-11 / Fashion rule for liberated / Muscovite prince moneybag / End of 1978 new-wave album title

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: NO UNDERWEAR (35A: Fashion rule for the liberated ... or one of four arrangements found literally in this puzzle) — letters "NO" are found underneath the letters "WEAR" four times in the grid


Word of the Day: GIING (64A: Cleaning, as if for military inspection) —

tr.v. Slang, GI'd, GI'ing, GI's.
To clean (barracks, for example) thoroughly for or as if for an inspection.

• • •

People will probably like this one for its sassy theme — which is undeniably clever. I didn't care for the construction of the grid overall, though, which is disappointing, because I really want to like this puzzle. I just didn't think the fill was, in general, up to the quality of the theme. I want to love WE ARE DEVO (20A: End of a 1978 new-wave album title), but the constructor in me balks at the idea of the "end of a ... title" (esp. one of that length) being a suitable stand-alone answer in the grid. The NE felt a little icky — ARIANA (11D: Afghanistan's national airline) is one of those answers constructors know and (speaking for myself) try hard not to have to use because it's a relatively obscure proper noun and a massive grid crutch, giving you lots of handy letters in a handy arrangement. PHENOL crossing wasn't lovely either (24A: Embalming chemical).


But let's write my reaction in that NE corner off to personal prejudice. Fine. My dislike for the SW corner is going to be harder to write off. That is one ugly mixture, from the insanely improbable-looking GIING (dear lord) to the random pope+Roman numeral *crossing a prince+Roman numeral* (!!!) (44D: 10th-century pope interred at St. Peter's Basilica + 58A: Muscovite prince known as "Moneybag") to the apostrophized WEARIN' (50A: "The ___ o' the Green" (old Irish ballad)) to the bizarreness of an alleged god named NOTUS (54A: God of the south wind) . . . yikes. ROSSSEA (46A: Body of water named for an English explorer) is like ARIANA to me — all I see is "exotic crutch." It's hard not to love a puzzle with a GOLD PIANO (55A: Elvis instrument now in the Country Music Hall of Fame) and NO UNDERWEAR, but I didn't love this one. Again, smart theme, but subpar fill.


Side note: didn't like the clue on the revealer, NO UNDERWEAR. Specifically, I didn't like "rule." It's a state of being, not a "rule." Do people really make the non-wearing of underwear a "rule?" What a weird issue to be a hardliner about. Also, did not like that the "WEAR" in "WEARIN'" is from the same semantic universe as the "WEAR" in UNDERWEAR (whereas the other "WEAR" strings have nothing to do with clothing or the lack thereof).

Bullets:

• 1A: Zapper's casualty (GNAT) — me, immediately: "TVAD"
  
• 43A: Lötschberg Tunnel locale (ALP) — just ... an ALP. One of them, over there, somewhere.
  
• 55D: Sound heard at the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody" (GONG) — I do not remember this, and yet I got it off the first "G"
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Company concerned with automobile history / THU 2-17-11 / Andy's dinosaur in Toy Story / Radioactive enemy of Captain Marvel / Cutesy in London

Constructor: Mike Nothnagel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: WAR & PEACE (33D: What's broken out of the answers to the starred clues? & 40A: Opposite of 30-Down) — WAR is removed from familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, clued "?"-style


Word of the Day: ASHLAND (4D: Henry Clay's historic Kentucky estate) —

Ashland is the name of the plantation of the nineteenth-century Kentucky statesman Henry Clay, located in Lexington, Kentucky, in the central Bluegrass region of the state. It is a registered National Historic Landmark. // The Ashland Stakes, a Thoroughbred horse race at Keeneland Race Course run annually since the race course first opened in 1936, was named for the historically important estate.

• • •

This was a lot of fun—best Nothnagel puzzle I've done in a while. Remove a letter string / Get wacky phrase = an old trick, but this had many wonderful things going for it: interesting and occasionally funny theme answers (especially liked FLASH FORD), clean and fresh fill, and a theme revealer that was not just the missing word (WAR), but a second word (PEACE) symbolizing the first word's absence. Having the opposites WAR and PEACE cross each other in the grid's dead center, as well as having the revealers combine to form the title of a Russian novel = icing. Choked a bit on EXACTOR (23A: Tax collector, e.g.) ... I think I had EXCISOR (?!) ... but otherwise experienced no feelings of unpleasantness. Loved the nowness of CARFAX (34A: Company concerned with automobile history) and "SEEN IT" (15A: Jaded response to a movie suggestion), the colloquialness of "NOT BAD" (69A: "I'm impressed"), and the deeply insightful intersection of SEXY (60D: Hot) and REX (67A: Andy's dinosaur in "Toy Story"). Truly NOT BAD.

Theme answers:

• 18A: *Photogenic athlete from Cincinnati? (HANDSOME REWARD)
  
• 22A: *Cozy rooms for playing? (GAME WARDENS)
  
• 56A: *Social gathering for auction participants? (BUYER BEWARE)
  
• 61A: *Diatribes from captured criminals? (ARREST WARRANTS)
  
• 3D: *Commercial for a private school? (ACADEMY AWARD)
  
• 35D: *Expose oneself to a former U.S. president? (FLASH FORWARD)
  

There were several answers about which I had no clue, but they fell easily from crosses. These included ASHLAND, which I know much better as the site of an annual Shakespeare Festival, and Lew AYRES, whose name I've seen before, but only in crosswords (53D: 1948 Best Actor nominee for "Johnny Belinda"). Love the way the puzzle steered around a partial at AND ... GO! (7D: "Start ... now!"). That could so easily have been [Touch ___]. It's funny how dated PRETEENS looks now (39D: Much of Nickelodeon's target audience). That word has been largely supplanted by TWEENS. They're the same group of kids, right? I'm not criticizing PRETEENS; it's a fine word. Just observing how quickly language can change.

Bullets:

• 29A: Food made from fermented beans (MISO) — ugh, embarrassing how long this took me. Wanted TOFU, then had the M and S and wanted ... I don't know, MASH? I'm pretty sure we have a container of MISO in our fridge...
  
• 43A: Indian city now known as Chennai (MADRAS) — I did not know that. CHENNAI seems like a word that wants to be in crosswords, but I've never seen it (to my knowledge). Got this answer easily from just a cross or two.
  
• 24D: Halloween costume, maybe (CORPSE) — I don't get this clue at all. Even after getting CORP- I refused to write in the answer. A CORPSE is not a costume. A sheet—that's a costume. But a CORPSE? And plus, don't you mean "zombie?" A CORPSE would not be much of a costume. You'd just ... lie there. If you are animated (ambulatory, etc.), then you are not a CORPSE; you are undead. This distinction is important.
  
• 25D: Cutesy, in London (TWEE) — got this right away. This was a word I had never seen or heard used before 2008, when I first encountered it as a genre of contemporary music.
  
• 37D: Marked, as a questionnaire (X'D IN) — this answer looks wrong, but feels right, so ... I'll allow it.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Accented part of poetic foot / THU 2-10-11 / Glazier's frame / Line of cliffs / Star of TV's 8 Simple Rules / Part of New Haven landscape

Constructor: Derek Bowman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Name word ladder — from KARAN to SEGAL in four moves


Word of the Day: ARSIS (28A: Accented part of a poetic foot) —

n., pl., -ses (-sēz').

1. 1. The short or unaccented part of a metrical foot, especially in quantitative verse.
   2. The accented or long part of a metrical foot, especially in accentual verse.
2. Music. The upbeat or unaccented part of a measure.

[Middle English, raising of the voice, from Late Latin, raising of the voice, accented part of a metrical foot, from Greek, raising of the foot (marking the upbeat), the unaccented part of a metrical foot, from aeirein, to lift.] [oh, no, Definition 1 isn't confusing and contradictory-sounding at All...]

• • •

Kept waiting for the trick to come into view. It never did. I was done and wondered what had happened. Then I saw the name ladder. Ho hum. Grid is OK, except the NW, what with the odd-looking REEDIT and MENTEES and the from-outer-space ARSIS (never heard of it, and I teach poetry on a regular basis—if it's obscure to a poetry-teaching English Ph.D., it's ObScure). I cannot imagine having any occasion to talk about something called the ARSIS—maybe the musical meaning is more common to musicians than the poetic one is to literary scholars. Little heavy on the odd names (TESSA, ROS, a pretty marginal O'CONNER) (38A: 2010 Olympic ice dancing gold medalist ___ Virtue + 59A: Children's author Asquith + 2D: Patricia who wrote "Woe Is I"), the RE-words (REEDIT, RENAMING, the vomity REASSESS), odd plurals (MENTEES, SETTERS), prefixes (ENTO-, SACRO-), and ITs (IT'S WAR, TAKE IT, KEEP AT IT). I do love MAIGRET. And KATEY SAGAL. And SERRANO peppers. Other than that, the best thing I can say about the puzzle is that it was wicked easy—about a minute faster than yesterday's. Only part that really held me up was the part where Ben Franklin apparently writes about CHESS (43D: Benjamin Franklin's "The Morals of ___"). I had no idea, just as I have no idea why anyone would want to go from KARAN to SEGAL. What's the point?


[IT'S WAR!]

Theme answers:

• 16A: Big name in women's fashion (DONNA KARAN)
  
• 20A: Supreme Court justice who was formerly a U.S. solicitor general (ELENA KAGAN)
  
• 31A: Host of an Emmy-winning PBS series (CARL SAGAN)
  
• 47A: Star of TV's "8 Simple Rules" (KATEY SAGAL) — more iconic parts for her include Peg Bundy on "Married... With Children" and the voice of Leela on "Futurama."
  
• 52A: Author who co-wrote the screenplay for the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" (ERICH SEGAL)
  

Bullets:

• 15A: Glazier's frame (SASH) — forgot what "glazier" meant—someone who cuts and sets glass.
  
• 54A: Part of the New Haven landscape (ELMS) — ugh. Why should anyone know or care what kind of trees are common at Yale? Eli-tist clue. I had ELIS!
  
• 57A: New York city where Ogden Nash was born (RYE) — yet more northeastern provincialism.
  
• 4D: "___ Man Answers" (1962 Bobby Darin / Sandra Dee film) ("IF A") — never heard of it, but the answer here was pretty easily inferrable.

• 11D: He said "I just put my feet in the air and move them around" (ASTAIRE) — another name for this very name-heavy puzzle. I barely saw the clue. Had the whole middle section, saw that the clue was asking for a person, looked at what I had ... and wrote in ASTAIRE.
  
• 15D: Line of cliffs (SCARP) — this eluded me for a bit, as all I could think of was ARETE.
• 39D: Oscar-winning actor who played Napoleon, Mussolini and W.C. Fields (STEIGER) — as in Rod, whom I used to get confused with ROD Serling (before moving to Rod Serling's birthplace). Guys just aren't named ROD anymore. I think ROD Carew was officially the last one.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]