Bandmate of Johnny Rotten / WED 3-23-11 / Ancient land in modern Jordan / Onetime exam in British schools / Home to Da Vinci's L'Ultima Cena

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: JULIUS CAESAR (54A: Speaker of the Latin quote hidden in the answers to the starred clues ... and the English language-quote hidden in the answers to the double-starred clues) — "VENI VIDI VICI" and "THE DIE IS CAST," respectively

Word of the Day: AKIO Morita (57D: Sony co-founder Morita) —

Akio Morita KBE (盛田 昭夫 Morita Akio, January 26, 1921, Tokoname, Aichi – October 3, 1999, Tokyo) was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony Corporation along with Masaru Ibuka. (wikipedia)

• • •

Solved on paper, in preparation for my run at next year's B Finals (ACPT 2012) (all puzzles are done on paper at the ACPT). I tend to solve on-screen because it's so much more convenient, but the mechanics of on-paper solving are completely different, and something I need to get much more used to. I learned to solve crosswords on paper, but that was long before I got very good, and well before I'd even heard of software that allowed for on-screen solving. At any rate, I'm moving back to paper for my NYT-solving now, for the most part, which means having to get used to a whole new set of difficulty norms (on-paper times are inevitably slower). This is all to say that I don't really know how difficult this was. I had moments of sputtering, but overall it felt very doable—perhaps even a bit moreso than an average Wednesday. Hardest part was figuring out the second part of the theme, i.e. seeing THE DIE IS CAST "hidden" in the answers to those four double-starred clues (I'd have been more impressed with a hidden ALEA IACTA EST). I'm ambivalent about the theme—the double-star, double-language aspect is interesting, but those words aren't exactly hard to "hide," and the quotes are unrelated, and only one of the "hidden" words actually touches more than one word in its answer. So ... I'm on the fence. Neither up nor down for me. I came, I saw, I shrugged.

Theme answers:

• EVENINGDRESS VIVIDIMAGE SIDVICIOUS (Soiree attire / Indelible picture in the mind / Bandmate of Johnny Rotten)
  
• THEIR ADIEU VISIT CASTE ("His/her" alternative / Parting word / Sojourn / Social grouping)
  

Pencil-solving allows me to see quite vividly where I struggled. I rarely take the time to erase, choosing instead to scrawl new letters on top of old, leaving a strange palimpsest for the judges/computers to interpret (no problems so far). Today, the place de resistance was the NE, where failure to come up with the RX-8 carmaker (HONDA? ACURA? No, MAZDA) and failure to guess quickly what followed EVENING (DRESS, it turns out), meant that that corner gave me minor fits. I think I got TEES (12D: Concert souvenirs), and then DRESS, and then tried HONDA, and when that didn't work, MAZDA, and it went down from there. Tournament experience has taught me that in speed-solving, you are in your own world where time runs differently—what feels like epic struggle might only be 10-15 seconds. I thought I was really getting beaten up by Puzzle 5 as I was solving it at the tourney ... but I ended up with the 11th best score on that puzzle (out of 650 or so solvers). Of course on the easiest puzzle (Puzzle 1), I got so caught up in speed that I left a square blank—a horribly costly error (I'd have been close to the Top 20 overall if I'd simply filled that stupid little square in—it's not like the cross was tough; I just missed it).

Two other hiccups today: LIMO for SEMI (7D: Hard-to-park vehicle) and E'ER for O'ER (63D: Poetic contraction). Otherwise, pretty smooth sailing.

Bullets:

• 34A: Onetime exam in British schools (O LEVEL) — did not know the O LEVELs were "onetime." I've seen A LEVEL and O LEVEL several times in recent puzzles, after (or so it seems) never having seen them before. Weird.
  
• 50A: Ancient land in modern Jordan (EDOM) — one of many four-letter Mediterraneanish geographical clues I can't keep straight. See also ELEA, which I also confuse with ALEA, which, given today's theme, is interestingly coincidental.
  
• 11D: y= 3x + 5 representation, e.g. (LINE) — true enough, though I couldn't see it. Technically, y = x is a LINE, right?
  
• 23D: Home to da Vinci's "L'Ultima Cena" (MILANO) — I was just wondering what it was about this clue that indicated the Italian spelling, when I realized that the "L'Ultima Cena" is Italian for "The Last Supper." Aha.
  
• 33D: Danish city where Hans Christian Andersen was born (ODENSE) — vaguely rings a bell. Got most if not all of it from crosses.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Fashion designer Posen / SAT 1-8-11 / Hamlet composer / 1981 best seller set in Castle Rock, Me. / Film composer Brion / Suffix with railway

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: KOSCIUSZKO (9D: Highest mountain in Australia) —

Mount Kosciuszko is a mountain located in the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park. With a height of 2,228 metres (7,310 ft) above sea level, it is the highest mountain in Australia (not including its external territories). It was named by the Polish explorer Count Paul Edmund Strzelecki in 1840, in honour of the Polish-Lithuanian national hero and hero of the American Revolutionary War General Tadeusz Kościuszko, because of its perceived resemblance to the Kościuszko Mound in Krakow. // The name of the mountain was previously spelt "Mount Kosciusko", an Anglicisation, but the spelling "Mount Kosciuszko" was officially adopted in 1997 by the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. [...] Various measurements of the peak originally called Kosciuszko showed it to be slightly lower than its neighbour, Mount Townsend. The names of the mountains were swapped by the New South Wales Lands Department, so that Mount Kosciuszko remains the name of the highest peak of Australia, and Mount Townsend ranks as second. [!?!?!?] (wikipedia)

• • •

So this is why I don't normally solve first thing in the morning. This took me longer than any puzzle has taken me in years (excluding a Newsday Saturday Stumper, which every once in a while I don't even bother trying to finish). Names. Just ... names. Dead in the water on the Polish Aussie mountain. I know baseball and don't remember JOSE JIMENEZ very well at all (remembered it vaguely, though, so could piece it together when the time came) (12D: He pitched a no-hitter in 1999). SHAN? No. JON? No. ZAC? No. I mean, you've got ALFIE over MILO over EBAN in the west (thankfully I'd at least heard of all those). A lot of names, is what I'm saying (23A: It lost to "Born Free" for Best Song of 1966). ROSALYN? No. (40D: Calvin's baby sitter in "Calvin and Hobbes") Had ROZALYN and then ZEE for [Jazz piece?]—that was the mistake that kept the center mostly empty til the bitter end. In the end, looking back, this is definitely a tough puzzle, but if I'd simply remembered the Major composer LISZT (37A: "Hamlet" composer) as a possibility for --S-T (me: "BISET? HOLST? No, that's not right"), I could have had a much more normal time.

Major objection to R.E.M. not being clued as an abbr. (2D: Post-retirement occurrence). It was the first answer I thought of, but I discarded it because of the non-abbr. cluing. If ELO is an abbr. (signified by "grp." in its clue, 45A: "Rocakaria!" grp.), then (non-band) R.E.M. sure as hell is.

Other danger of solving a Saturday first thing in the morning. No time for write-up. Straight to bullets.

Bullets:

• 10A: 1981 best seller set in Castle Rock, Me. (CUJO) — King's "On Writing" was the first book I read this new year (Great stuff) so this came easily. One of the few things that did (see also IRE, UTE, A LEG, MEME, WHA / ITCHY, MAT, ELO, YALIE (though I wavered on it a lot), EMO (22A: Dashboard Confessional's genre) ... I know that looks like a lot, but they are all small and well spread out.
  
• 14A: Midwest city in the middle of the I-70/I-71/I-75 triangle (XENIA, OHIO) — a favorite 9-letter answer of late-week constructors (or at least one I've seen before—see also ALAN ADALE, only moreso: 60A: 1902 Kentucky Derby winner that was named after a fictional character). Had RIAL for LIRA, but that "I" was enough to get me OHIO, and then I just guessed XENIA because "X" is a Roman numeral.
  
• 19A: Operculum (LID) — Oh, come on. No fan of the deliberately obtuse clue.
  
• 27A: Grammy-nominated film composer Brion (JON) — Google wants to know "Did you mean ... BRIAN?" I wish.
  
• 35A: Golfe setting (MER) — I guess Golfe (whatever that is) is on a sea somewhere. Huh.
  
• 52A: With 36-Across, school gathering equipment (TRAWL / NETS) — remedial cluing trick that fooled me for a shamefully long time.
  
• 62A: RadioShack stock (TAPE DECKS) — What year is it!?!? I had the "A" and "S" and plunked down BATTERIES.

• 10D: Virtuosic improvisation (CADENZA) — sounds like a piece of furniture to me, but I was able to guess it anyway.
  
• 23D: Its first word is "Congress" (AMENDMENT I) — doubted this one, as I've never heard it referred to this way, but figured it had to be right (what with that terminal "I").
  
• 21D: Place for a hanging piece (HOLSTER) — to show you how slow my brain was this morning—after considering art, I immediately thought of gun. I even imagined the gun hanging from someone's hip. . . nothing. Considered GUN RACK. Ugh.
  
• 47D: Measure associated with Leyden jars (FARAD) — If you say so. I think I had FERMI in here at one point.
  
• 29A: ___ buckle (eye surgery procedure) (SCLERAL) — Should have gotten this off the "SC-"—didn't. Needed LISZT to see CLIMAXES AT (30D: Doesn't get any higher than) to get SAX to get SCLERAL. Or SCLERAL to get SAX, I forget now.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

PS do you know about Patrick Berry's puzzle website, A-Frame Puzzles? You should. He's the best crossword constructor in the business. I almost never bother with non-crossword puzzles, but his Rows Gardens are a ton of (tough) fun. There are six of them available free from his website. Have at them! (oh, and if you are an aspiring crossword constructor, you should definitely read his "Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies," but we'll talk about that some other time).

Jewelry designer Elsa / SUN 11-7-10 / Lex Luthor alter ego / First near-Earth asteroid / Spot overseer / Sitcom role for Brandy Norwood / Has 21 spots

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Leading Articles" — familiar two-word phrases where second word starts A+[double letter] have double letter turned to single letter and "A" detached (to function as an "article"), thus creating wacky three-word phrases, which are clued "?"-wise


Word of the Day: Elsa PERETTI (14D: Jewelry designer Elsa) —

Elsa Peretti (born May 1, 1940) is an Italian jewelry designer. // She was born in Florence, Italy, the daughter of a well-to-do Roman family. She became interested in making jewelry while in prison [ed.: !?!?!]. Educated at Volbicela School in Rome, with a diploma in interior design. In early jobs she was a French teacher, a ski instructor and a model. She moved to New York in the 1960s, where she began designing jewelry for a handful of top designers, including Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo and Tiffany & Co. (wikipedia)

• • •

This played much tougher than the average Sunday. Far fewer gimmes, and a theme that (at least for me) took a while to figure out. Also, cluing that was thorny. Deliberately vague or misleading, all over the place. I didn't like it so much as I was solving, but on reflection, there is much that I admire. This discrepancy between solving and post-solving attitude is possibly due to the fact that I didn't *fully* understand the theme until just after I finished — that is, I didn't get how "LEADING ARTICLES" was at all relevant. "LEADING" had me looking at the front of the *whole* answer, and finding no "article," I was just annoyed. But once I noticed that the theme answers involved not just double-to-single-letter switches, but the detachment (in every case) of the "A" from the second word, such that it became the indefinite *article* "A" ... well, then I had to revise my opinion of the theme a bit. Revise it upward. Really, I should welcome the added challenge on Sundays—too often, Sundays just feel like bloated Wednesdays, with themes that, once cracked, offer little enjoyment. This one required work, and the grid was at least interesting, and often quite compelling, everywhere I looked.

That NW was just ridiculously hard for me to get into. No idea that Telly SAVALAS had been Oscar-nominated. Despite the Greekness of the clue, he was Nowhere on my radar (1A: Oscar-nominated actor with the given name Aristotelis). VIS-A-VIS, ugh! (3D: With 4-Across, in relation to). No hope (for a while). Started with correct SIR and AGE, but then figured 19A: "Fine, tell me" was "GO AHEAD!" (instead of "I GIVE UP"). That pretty much shut things down up there (for the second day in a row, I finished in the NW). The section just underneath that was no picnic either. DUAD!? (28D: Couple) Oh, my eyes/ears! Tried DYAD but "Y" didn't work. EDEN was forgotten by me (30D: British P.M. between Churchill and Macmillan), and AD EXEC (grumble grumble) was a no-hoper as well (43A: Spot overseer). [Vigorous] wasn't exactly a direct route to DYNAMIC. So the entire NW region was a slog.

NE had issues too—total middling proper noun fest. Jewelry designer I've *barely* heard of (and then only from xwords) (PERETTI). Same with the opera singer (18D: Opera singer Simon => ESTES). No hope for "RAMA" (21D: Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous With ___"). BENIN I guess at, correctly (17D: Neighbor of Nigeria and Togo). POWERPC (93A: It was developed by Apple, IBM and Motorola) / HAVASU (102A: Lake ___ City, Ariz.) region was fraught with rough waters as well. So I earned my Happy Pencil today. Not much to complain about, honestly. Thought ATOM MAN was a bit beyond the pale (I know a little something about comics and did not know this) (130A: Lex Luthor alter ego, once). Fell into the MORLEY-for-LESLEY pit (128A: First name on "60 Minutes"). Not much else to tell.


Theme answers:

• 22A: Try staying awake? (RESISTING A REST)
  
• 36A: Pinned down? (UNDER A TACK)
  
• 72A: Really enjoy going to carnivals? (LOVE A FAIR)
  
• 106A: Straddling one's opponent? (UPON A RIVAL) — winner!
  
• 123A: Frisking Dracula? (CHECKING A COUNT)
  
• 16D: Mechanic's task? (EVENING A TIRE)
  
• 64D: What the dissatisfied female giftee might do after Christmas? (RETURN A DRESS)
  

Bullets:

• 21A: Steve who played the title role of Hercules in a 1959 film (REEVES) — a gimme. Nice multivalent mini-theme, with "Hercules" recalling NEMEA down in the SW (109D: Site of Hercules' first labor), and REEVES recalling *George* REEVES, who played TV's Superman, who is apparently a foe of ... ATOM MAN!
  
• 54A: Popular word in German product packaging (NEU) — I went with the less probable NIE! ("Never!")
  
• 104A: Prepresidential title for Bill Clinton or Woodrow Wilson (PROF.) — don't think I knew this; needed a couple crosses to pick it up.
  
• 113A: First near-Earth asteroid to be discovered (EROS) — because asteroids are erotic? EROS backwards is SORE. How unfortunate.
  
• 23D: Kingdom overthrown in 2008 (NEPAL) — weird to get your news from crosswords, but that's most certainly how I learned this about NEPAL. Another fun fact about NEPAL that I learned from xwords: its flag has five sides.
  
• 39D: The "K" of James K. Polk (KNOX) — some day, after being beleaguered by this clue for years, I will remember the answer. Today was not that day.
  
• 45D: Handyman's exclamation ("GOOD AS NEW!") — I had no idea even where to begin with this one. "I MADE THAT!"
  
• 61D: It may involve punitive tariffs (TRADE WAR) — went with TRADE LAW; bad mistake, if only because it looked and felt so right.
  
• 62D: Sitcom role for Brandy Norwood (MOESHA) — '90s! UPN! She was a super-talented teen sensation. MOESHA is a great crossword name ... until the show fades so far into the past that no one remembers it anymore. I think this clue is harder now than it would've been a decade ago.
  

• 94D: Sitarist Shankar (RAVI) — Dude is virtually crosswordese. One of a smallish batch of flat-out gimmes for me today.
  
• 108D: Unpopular baby name (ADOLF) — Hitler killed ADOLF. Did Amin kill IDI? I know Stalin didn't kill JOSEF / JOSEPH.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. just want to plug my friend Patrick Blindauer's latest suite of puzzles, "I Know Where I Was Last Summer," a 10-puzzle affair that is also a contest with pretty great prizes (GET IT HERE). Also, he has a new freebie puzzle at his website (GET IT HERE). You may know Patrick's puzzles from such publications as The New York Times ... and virtually everywhere else that publishes puzzles. He's one of the best.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

1969 Peace Prize grp. / SAT 10-23-10 / "84 Charring Cross Road" author Hanff / 2008 book "How to Break a Terrorist" / "King Joe" composer

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Medium


SHATNERESQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you and good night!

Hi! It's Andrea Carla Michaels again, held over one more night, because Rex is still gone (Because what happens in the Village of Hempstead, about 25 miles (40 km) east of New York City, stays in the Village of Hempstead, about 25 miles (40 km) east of New York City … especially if there is an LIRR strike!)

NO NO NO NO there is no strike. Where do you think he is, France? He just asked if PuzzleGirl and I would step in one more time. Because Angela is crazy busy with her new job, I will babble and PG will embed.

I am tempted to just have a one-word post … that word being SHATNERESQUE!!!!!!! And maybe throw in a video of Kevin Pollak doing William Shatner doing James T. Kirk doing Shakespeare … but then all our heads would implode and there may be a good puzzle coming up Sunday!



Plus Will Nediger who is fast becoming one of my favorite constructors deserves much more space and praise than one word! Glancing at the database, he seems to only have been making puzzles for about five years, and they are mostly Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays awash with Z's and Q's and J's. I mean REALLY awash!

Remember that Sunday that was all long phrases starting with Q and A like QUIET AMERICAN, QANTAS AIRWAYS? Or the one where he had like ten words that he added a QU to (SQUEAL OF APPROVAL, QUEASY RIDER)? Or that composer one (BIZET SIGNAL, PLAY LISZT). We are talking serious puzzle genius here!

This one is an X short of a pangram, but 27D "Shell Alternative" (ESSO) has been renamed EXXON, so I count that.

Where to begin? The NW corner overall had a slightly negative vibe, what with NO NO NO NO, I DARE NOT, NONE, and, if you speak franglais, I suppose IN ON can be parsed I, NON. But what fun, imagining all the possibilities for 1A "Couples' activities once considered scandalous." My first instinct was SWAPPING, but finally decided it may still be slightly scandalous … in parts of Fresno. WALTZING? Who knew? WALTZING must have been the Lambada of its day. But what day exactly was that?

Yesterday I posted a film clip of "I, ME, MINE" that featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono WALTZING … and just because I love him and that clip made me cry, I will post it again. Oh no? (Ono?) Who's gonna stop me?



My biggest dilemma was 43A "Athlete stripped of 1994 national title." I mean, which sport? It's a sad state of AFFAIRs that it could have been any sport. Like there was that Canadian runner who had his medals taken away, and what about Flo-Jo, and all the steroid baseball guys … and the ones that bet on their own teams … and that swimmer … and the Tour-de-France bicyclist … and that African runner who may be a man. I mean, who hasn't had their title stripped?

But in the end it was just that mean skater girl, TONYA HARDING. Though, I can't believe that was 1994 and I can still hear Nancy Kerrigan crying over and over again "Why me? Why meeee?" So many times that I started to feel a weird, misplaced temptation to break her other knee. (By the way, I will actually forgive TOO HARD crossing with HARDING, because I am Queen … for a Day!)

In a psychic (but wrong) moment, I actually had YA in the spaces above the YA in TONYA, because my initial entry for 38A "I'm gone" (ADIOS) was SEE YA. I didn't change SEE YA to ADIOS till I got the S from SAVANNA (39D "Zebra zone"). But what the heck are zebras doing in Georgia?!

Do you see how clever Will JKQXZ Nediger slipped the Z's into the Zebra zone clue even when they weren't in the answer? I actually considered Zambia and Tanzania first. Thank god they were both too short and too long, respectively.

JAI ALAI (53A Activity requiring three walls) all spelled out elevated it from crosswordese to fabulousness. Plus the little classical cluster of JUNO and ARGO was saved by making the former a film reference.

So other than little cleanups along the way, e.g. 58A Coo had to become CAW and 14D Cows transmogrified into EWES … (Damn, I keep trying to type transmoogrified as a little joke and spellcheck keeps correcting it.) Plus I had to change my STUFFED shirt to a more demure V-NECKED one.

HELENE/HEREIN gave me pause, as HELENo/HERoIN seemed more amusing.

Yet again, my illiteracy loomed as I haven't read "84 Charing Cross Road," but I did see the film, and HELENE seemed a fitting name for the Anne Bancroft character. (My mom went to high school with her so we had to see every movie of hers that ever came out … and this one isn't so bad. It has Anthony Hopkins and Dame Judy Dench … and it's based on a true-story.) Never mind the Charing Cross, I have to discuss the crazy-assed-possibly-Natick-y-Z AL ZARQAWI/FOOZLE cross. Hint: When in doubt, Will Nediger + Saturday = Z! FOOZLE?! OK, so golf is filled with words like FOOZLE and MULLIGAN and, um, PAR.

30D "Fire man?" was clever. SAINT ELMO, patron saint of fire and being tickled.


My final entry was the last letter in AL ZARQAW- . So, what was the first letter of 42A "1969 Peace Prize grp."? I had – LO, so I had a choice: I was pretty sure the PLO hadn't won any peace prizes … yet. ELO seemed more likely to have orchestrated Electric Lights than a peace treaty … and J.LO would have been a very little Jenny from the Block in those days, if she were even alive. (Actually, Ms. Lopez coincidentally was born in 1969, but I don't think they give out peace prizes just for being born … yet). So, by process of elimination, it must be ILO, the International Labour Organization. (OK, I admit I googled that and J.Lo's bday post-solve).

And now, I must leave you .… I know I'm going to be up all night as it is, wondering what exactly is "discreet" about punishment meted out in the WOODSHED. Perhaps a couple is getting the strap for WALTZING??! Will Nediger, you naughty naughty boy! Thank you for this dance. ;)

— ACME

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Italian sculptor Nicola / SUN 9-5-10 / Wielder of sword Tizona / Short-billed rail / Starting material coal formation / Kazakh land feature

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "TURNING BACK" — second word in familiar two-word phrases is "turned back," i.e. reversed, creating a wacky phrase, clued "?"-style


Word of the Day: EXOCET (10D: Antiship missile used in the Falklands War) —

The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Hundreds were fired in combat during the 1980s. (wikipedia) [I inferred this answer from AVOCET, which I thought was also a missile but which, it turns out, is a bird, as is CRAKE (29A: Short-billed rail), which intersects EXOCET, and which I know only from the Margaret Atwood title "Oryx and CRAKE"]

• • •

Would have liked some unifying principle, some phrase, some idea, something to account for reversing the second word. Lots of words can be reversed to make other words, so presumably this theme could go on forever. So the whole concept doesn't feel tight enough to me. That said, I like most of the chosen "wacky" phrases, and the grid overall feels predominantly smooth, and contains lots of high-interest longer (6+) answers, so I enjoyed solving it. [Full disclosure: I have a puzzle coming out somewhere, some time, that has a vaguely similar gimmick, though it's far more thematically focused than this—I doubt it's better, however; it was the first puzzle I ever had accepted] Had one lethal crossing today: PISANO (61A: Italian sculptor Nicola) / TORR (55D: Unit of pressure). Total guess for me. Thankfully, a correct guess. So I guess it wasn't "lethal" after all. Just potentially lethal. Found the NE corner pretty dang thorny (misspelled both TIRANE (TIRANA) (48A: Capital of Albania) and POMELO (POMOLO) (16D: Fruit with a thick rind), for example), but otherwise, found the puzzle to tilt considerably toward the Easy side of the fence.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Taking the dimensions of busybodies? (MEASURING SNOOPS)
  
• 42A: Done swimming? (OUT OF THE POOL)
  
• 45A: Giving an award to the wrong person? (PRIZE SLIP-UP)
  
• 70A: Slandering a Thanksgiving side dish? (TURKEY TORT) — this is my favorite wacky phrase, by far
  
• 74A: Othello, before Act V, Scene II? (LIVING MOOR)
  
• 99A: Comment in a woman's mag? (COSMO REMARK) — one of two "Seinfeld" references today. Huzzah... (see also 4D: Surname of TV's George, Frank and Estelle=>COSTANZA)
  
• 101A: Summary of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? (INDIANA RECAP) — uh, ARKS is in the grid (89D: Torah holders). No biggie.
  
• 123A: Pious spouse's ultimatum? ("LOVE ME, LOVE MY GOD") — honestly, this doesn't sound wacky at all. I'm not sure if I could have told you before this puzzle which one ("god" version or "dog" version) was the common phrase. I can totally imagine some religious ... let's say "stalwart" ... saying this very thing.

[I have no reason for playing this except I love the song —by John Prine— and this is the best version I could find]
Here's some stuff I didn't know. ST. OLGA — she's new to me. Had the ST. part and exclaimed "Aw Come On! That's no help!" Figured ANNE was most likely, given her common letters, but no (36A: Her feast day is Jul. 11). Have certainly heard of EL CID, but had no idea that he was the 67A: Wielder of the sword of Tizona). I don't know anything about "La Vie en Rose," so ... oh, wait, I do. It's about EDITH Piaf, right!? Sure, *now* I get it. Ugh (121A: Marion's "La Vie en Rose" character). Wait, who's Marion? Ah, Marion Cotillard, who somehow won the Best Actress Academy Award while I wasn't paying attention. Ymir is only vaguely familiar, so I had to wait out some crosses before I got NORSE and OGRE (131A: Like Ymir + 132A: Ymir, for one). I wrote in PUPATE on faith—faith in my ability to make up plausible words from parts of other words (35D: Metamorphose, as a larva). I didn't know the picture of Jordan jumping was called a "Jumpman," so 40D: Sneaker with a Jumpman logo (AIR JORDAN) confused me for a bit. Else, smooth sailing.

Bullets:

• 9A: Its slogan begins "15 minutes could save you..." (GEICO) — if you don't know this, then you watch precisely Zero television. Ubiquitous.
  
• 20A: Ship written about by Apollonius of Rhodes (ARGO) — right over the plate for me. Mentioned voyage of the ARGO in class just this past Thursday. Other fat gimmes include "STAN" (38A: Eminem song that samples Dido's "Thank You"), which is a pretty great song, and CRISTAL (6D: Champagne often mentioned in hip-hop songs), which made me feel like years of enduring rap cliches had finally paid off. Here's a song with a CRISTAL reference:
  

["Cristal by the case men, still in they mother's basement"]

• 31A: Starting material in coal formation (PEAT) — didn't know. Due to misspelling of POMELO ("O" for "E"), nearly left misspelled as "POAT."
  
• 56A: Indian guy in National Lampoon's "Van Wilder" movies (TAJ) — yes, there are "Van Wilder" movies, plural, for some reason
  
• 63A: Follower of White or Red (SOX) — this eluded me til I got the "X."
  
• 81A: Many Maurice Sendak characters (BEASTS) — true enough, esp. in "Where the Wild Things Are"
  
• 129A: Drink in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (OUZO) — Greek drink, four letters, not tough (never saw the movie)
  
• 12D: Cloak, in Córdoba (CAPA) — tried CAPO at first. Many other, better clues for that.
  
• 15D: Wearer of a famous ring (THE POPE) — "The Precious!"
  
• 44D: Hit 1989 biographical play ("TRU") — crosswordese. See also "TABU" (70D: Brand advertised as "the forbidden fragrance")
  
• 53D: Dish with greens and ground beef (TACO SALAD) — are the greens something other than lettuce? Because "greens" threw me. Was trying to think of something much fancier.
  
• 78D: Cuckold's purchase, perhaps (SPYCAM) — ooh, drama.
  
• 96D: Sweetheart's telephone comment ("I MISS YOU") — aw, sweet.
  

And now your Tweets of the Week, puzzle chatter from the Twitterverse:

• @psyence53 I really should stop doing crosswords and go to sleep. I shall get changed, and do crosswords in bed, then. Addicted much? Oh dear.
• @kristine_lang Pleased to announce that this morning, in under 30 minutes, I, Kristine Lang, completed the NY Times crossword.
• @Nerdandahalf1 So absorbed in my crossword, I got on the wrong train... And I actually was going to make it on time
• @DangerChicken Stop calling me old. I'm only doing crossword puzzles, not dancing the Charleston. Although.....
• @ladonnaDOLCE Look at queena being collegiate with her crossword puzzle http://tweetphoto.com/42867509
• @TommyHB Enjoying a latte and crossword outside Edinburgh castle. Would it be rude to tell the bagpiper to shut the eff up?!
• @Edwin6Biscuits There's this old white lady who works in Rollins and all she does is READ her crossword puzzle and stare at us... Can I have ur job?!? Lol
• @iLoveTaraBriona Ima have my mom do this crossword puzzle this is bullshit! Ugh I give up!
• @ryangrammatico This guy next to me in this waiting room has his eyes open, doing a crossword puzzle but he sounds like he is sleeping #heavymouthbreather
• @TheRules Rule No. 771: Finishing the New York Times crossword is at least 900% more impressive than finishing the USA Today crossword.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Veracruz's capital / WED 7-7-10 / Czar of Russia between Feodors / Relative of aardwolf / Symbol of simple harmonic motion

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Composer commands — common phrases are changed to include a pun on a composer's name, and then clued as a "command" of some kind


Word of the Day: TOKAY (33D: Hungarian wine) —

Tokaji (Hungarian: of Tokaj) is the name of the wines from the region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary. The name Tokaji (which is of Protected Designation of Origin) is used for labeling wines from this wine district. This region is noted for its sweet wines made from grapes affected by noble rot, a style of wine which has a long history in this region. Tokaj is mentioned in the official national anthem of Hungary. Tokaji is a Hungarikum, a term used to refer to uniquely Hungarian products, especially cuisine.

• • •

NE (of the United States) is still hot as @#$%, so, once again, my time here will be brief. Technically, I could take this laptop into the little air-conditioned bunker where my wife and I are sleeping until the heat breaks, but then I'd be type type typing and I doubt my wife (who enjoys her sleep) would appreciate it. So, I'm here under a nearly completely impotent ceiling fan, banging this out as fast as I can.

This was a good bit harder than recent Wednesday offerings, mainly by way of the inclusion of odd / obscure / exotic proper nouns. JALAPA (1A: Veracruz's capital) was not a pleasant way to begin. Needed every cross. Heard of Uccello, but had no idea his first name was PAOLO (22A: Uccello who painted "The Battle of San Romano") (that whole NE corner, small though it is, was the roughest part of the grid for me). There was apparently a non-Muppet named ELMO at some point in history, so that was interesting to learn (65A: Adm. Zumwalt, chief of naval operations during the Vietnam War). A tsar named BORIS? OK. Lots of great BORISes out there, but ... whatever. You want a tsar, you got a tsar. Oh, wait, I see that today, it's a "czar" for some reason. Arbitrary (55A: Czar of Russia between Feodors). What else? Oh, Jacques Cousteau's middle name? It's YVES. Some agent is named ARI (shocker) (23D: Talent agent ___ Emanuel). Okay TOKAY (33D: Hungarian wine). Then there were the heaps of familiar names. Awfully namey, overall. Theme-wise, the puns didn't quite come off. They're supposed to be commands, but they do Not sound like commands unless you really force the issue, and punctuate the answers differently in different cases, e.g. BIZET exclamation point SIGNAL exclamation point, but THROW comma BACH period. The puns range from perfect (HAYDN) to way off (BACH). In the end, the "command" feature just doesn't work for me, as a unifying principle. Seems forced, and the puns aren't good enough to redeem it. I will say that I liked the added challenge on a Wednesday, and that the grid, despite being exceedingly name-heavy, is at least interesting. Spicy. Scrabbly.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Command to a French composer at an intersection? (BIZET! SIGNAL!)
  
• 30A: Command to a Hungarian composer at the piano? (PLAY, LISZT.) — nice that the Hungarian composer crosses the Hungarian wine.
  
• 46A: Command to a German composer on a baseball diamond? (THROW, BACH.)
  
• 61A: Command to an Austrian composer on a scavenger hunt? (HAYDN! GO SEEK [that thing that you are supposed to be seeking]!)
  

ABS OF STEEL (11D: Hard core?) is a commercial product, and the only reason the phrase is in the language at all. Clue was way, way too vague for me to pick on until the very end. Also tough up in that corner: the aforementioned PAOLO; the Really vaguely clued EXPO (13D: Fair — I had SO-SO); and the semi-toughly clued APE (11A: Bonobo, for one). If you think I'm exaggerating about the name-i-ness of this grid, consider this: there are nine (9) names stacked (however jaggedly) on top of each other in this grid: LISZT on YVES on LOREN (39A: Sophia of "Marriage Italian-Style") on SAKI (43A: Author who famously ended a short story with the line "Romance at short notice was her specialty") on BACH on DAISY (50A: Jay Gatsby's love) on BORIS on HAYDN on ELMO. Beat that.


Bullets:

• 7A: Its motto is "Semper paratus": Abbr. (USCG) — not an abbr. you see too often in the grid. Had the "G" from GAL PALS (10D: Bachelorette party attendees), but was really, really doubting it for a little while.
  
• 8D: Symbol of simple harmonic motion (SINE WAVE) — this is nice. I keep reading the clue as "harmonic convergence," which was some New Agey thing that allegedly happened ... when? The 90s? Nope, late 80s. Most hilarious claim on the wikipedia page for "Harmonic Convergence": "The convergence is purported to have "corresponded with a great shift in the earth’s energy from warlike to peaceful."
• 26D: Relative of an aardwolf (HYENA) — another very tough clue. I can't even picture an aardwolf, so no help there.
  
• 28D: Truth, archaically (SOOTH) — when you read a lot of Chaucer (as I did, at one point in my life), this becomes an ordinary, everyday word. Like "EEK" for "also."
  
• 29D: 1939 title role for Frank Morgan (WIZARD OF OZ) — got very quickly despite not knowing who Frank Morgan is. When you have WIZ- in place, your options are limited.
  
• 32D: 1964 title role for Anthony Quinn (ZORBA) — I wanted ZORBA right away, but I had AMEBA at 49A because I'd written it in the wrong damned slot (should've been spelled differently and then shoved in 44A: Cell on a slide). Then I read the clue correctly (49A: Lessen, as fears), and promptly wrote in ABATE. It's ALLAY :(
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Cosmonaut Makarov / SAT 5-22-10 / Exobiologist's query / Young Republican 1980s sitcom / Player of logical crew member / Puffed product since 1937

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none


Word of the Day: Max BROD (24A: Kafka confidant Max) —

Max Brot (Hebrew: מקס ברוד) (May 27, 1884 – December 20, 1968) was a German language Czech-Jewish, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist, known for his close friendship with Franz Kafka. // Max Brod was born in Prague, then part of the province of Bohemia in Austria-Hungary, now the capital of the Czech Republic. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is most famous as a friend, biographer, and literary executor of Franz Kafka. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow. Followed up my fastest Friday of the year with my (by far) fastest Saturday of the year. Possibly my fastest Saturday ever (I tend to time these less often than the other days, so I don't really know). 8:23. Started writing in the NW and never stopped. And I wasn't racing. Just deliberately moving through the grid. Solved it with utter continuity (using crosses the whole way) and never hit a significant snag. My only issue was with the "B" in BROD. I had to wait to see what the cross was, as it was clued via another clue (24D: 31-Across alternative). And then, I knew it would be BUS before I actually knew the answer to 31A: One in line at a station (CAB). I had CAR, but that did nothing for me at 27D: Negev native, e.g. (SAR...?), so I waited on the word I knew I knew, but couldn't recall. Didn't take long for SABRA to spring to mind (it's a name I learned from xwords). Only other bump in the road was entering TREMOR for (what turned out to be) STUPOR at 32A: Result of a great shock. Everything else came very easily.

This may be the first time ever that my Saturday time was faster than my Thursday time. 1A: Body measurement did nothing for me, but 15A: Throw off was obviously (to my brain) EMIT. I just read the clue with my Saturday goggles on (i.e. shaking off the obvious, apparent clue meaning and doing some lateral thinking). Then I simply knew MILA (17A: Actress Kunis of "That '70s Show") — she also does the voice of Meg on "Family Guy." With EMIT and MILA stacked neatly atop one another, I destroyed that NW corner: STAGGER (4D: Make zigzag) and MEMO PAD (1D: Place for notes) went straight in, OLEG (19A: Cosmonaut Makarov) went across, and there we were. ATTENDING and DEBRIEFS (28A: Questions about a flight, say) went easily across, giving me great access to both the NE (via FREE GIFT) *and* the SW (via NIMOY — 26D: Player of a logical crew member). I followed FREE GIFT (6D: Product recipient's surprise) to AGENT (23A: Gig getter, often) to AWNING (8D: Shade provider), etc. The only hold-up up there was 16A: Exobiologist's query ("ARE WE ALONE?"). I clearly did not know what an "exobiologist" was. I figured it was someone who studied exoskeletons. "ARE WE ... NOT MEN? ... ARE WE ROACHES?" (see 24A). Eventually JO MARCH (12D: Literary tomboy) et al in the far NE made the query clear.

Getting into the south = absolutely no problem with the big, fat, long gimme 29D: Ailurophile sitting there. I tried CAT LOVER and it wouldn't fit, but I knew that that's what "Ailurophile" literally means, so I just thought of another phrase: CAT PERSON. But that answer just stuck down into a bunch of empty space, so I decamped for NIMOY country. Put in the aforementioned bad answer, TREMOR, but because ENID was a gimme (43A: "Idylls of the King" woman), I was able to see TIN FOIL as the answer for 33D: Cheap hat material and erased TREMOR accordingly. ALEX (P.) KEATON is as familiar a pop culture figure as any that lives in my brain, so my only problem there was taking out the (to my mind necessary) "P" (54A: Young Republican of a 1980s sitcom). From there I pretty much rode the KEATON momentum like a wave over that little black bar in the SE, finally crashing down with a flourish in the (easily handled) SE, with the second "E" in TRESTLE being my last letter (40D: Sawhorse, e.g.).

All in all, I liked it. I don't trust my judgment much today, though. People almost always love the puzzles that they defeat handily, especially late in the week. Will worried out loud yesterday about having to follow Patrick Berry's beauty from yesterday, but I don't think this compares poorly at all. That was meant to sound like a compliment. To be a compliment. Honestly, I liked it.

Bullets:

• 27A: Capital near Potosí (SUCRE) — well, I know SUCRE is in Bolivia, but I have no idea what/where "Potosí" is...
  
• 47A: "Touché!" elicitor (ZINGER) — this is how I decided between CONK and ZONK at 47D: Fall into a 32-Across, with "out"
  
• 55A: ___ Caovilla, maker of high-end women's shoes (RENÉ) — as far as I'm concerned, this guy is from Potosí, i.e. way off my radar. Thankfully, I needed to know his name not at all. Never saw this clue.
  
• 5D: One putting a tale in the air? (BALLADEER) — only just now occurred to me that "air" here means "song." I figured "in the air" referred to the fact that his voice was audible, i.e. sound waves "in the air."

• 32D: Bands appearing after split-ups? (SPECTRA) — I assume this has something to do with prisms or other things that refract light. Thank god for ALEX KEATON, who helped me see that this ended in "A," not "S."
  
• 34D: Ascii alternative (UNICODE) — took one look at this and though "Oh, crud ..." Sounded techy. Ended up being at least vaguely familiar. Gettable, anyway.
  
• 39D: Andy Warhol subject (SOUP CAN) — actually wrote in SODA CAN (!?!?!) before immediately changing it, while repeatedly calling myself an idiot.
  
• 50D: Puffed product since 1937 (KIX) — again, I owe ALEX KEATON a debt of gratitude. I knew loving / identifying with that guy would come in handy some day.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]