Ice-T Ice Cube persona / SAT 9-24-11 / Warszawa instrumentalist / Disallowed FedEx destination / Museu do Indio site / Aarnio innovative furniture designer

Constructor: Jeremy Horwitz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ELLEN Ochoa (13D: Astronaut Ochoa) —

Ellen Lauri Ochoa (born May 10, 1958) is a former astronaut and engineer, and current Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center. (wikipedia)

• • •

Ha. More, please. I loved this puzzle, in part because I Smoked it, but in greater part because it's all-around fun, and [Bum rap?], in particular, is up there with the greatest clues of all time ("BABY GOT BACK").




I don't know what the record for "?" clues is, but this one has a ton: ten, to be exact. I tend to get annoyed around the half dozen mark, and today was no exception on that count, but today there was always some new revelation or joy to take away that annoyance almost as soon as it arose. The trickiest part of the whole puzzle for me was the NE, which wasn't really hard except I couldn't figure out what RESED meant or what it had to do with fixing ribs. Turns out the "Put" in 26A: Put on cloud nine is past tense, which means SENT, not SEND, which means the ribs are RESET, not RESED. Figuring out PREFER (9A: Go for first) and settling that RESED business took more time than anything else in the puzzle, and still I came in under 8 (Fast for me, for a Saturday).






I dropped in HEADLAMP instantly (1A: Bit of miner's gear), and had HEADLAMP, HEP, POSITIVE, and MOVIE THEATER (7D: Place to witness a big scene?) without even beginning to break a sweat. That NE corner put a little resistance into the puzzle (only know one Ochoa, and her name's LORENA), as did EVAS (not familiar to me) (27A: Spacewalks and moonwalks, briefly) and ARLEN (I always forget him—I know ARLEN better as the home of Hank and Peggy Hill) (45D: Composer nominated for an Oscar for "Blues in the Night"). Had MACRO for MS/DOS (34D: Kind of PC command), so that needed undoing. SIT UNDER is a weird expression (53A: Attend the lectures of), but it was inferrable. No idea who Wallis Simpson is, but there are only so many "titles" and with a few crosses, HER GRACE came up easily (49A: Title for Wallis Simpson). The biggest baffler of the day was [Bum rap?] ... "something about BABY ... GOATS? What the hell?" Always good to work up a high level of annoyance toward a clue and then, upon solution, have that annoyance change to an equally high level of admiration.






I had some vague memory of DEIMOS (4D: Martian moon) but let the crosses fill it in nonetheless. My Saturn moon knowledge is shaky, but I knew about FedEx and P.O. BOXes (22A: Disallowed FedEx destination) (and I had the "X" from LATEX), so I was able to polish of DEIMOS and move into the western portion of the grid. Not sure what I was looking for before AERIALS (37A: Once-common urban skyline sights), but I'm sure it was something Much more antiquated than the actual answer. I've almost completely forgotten high school trigonometry, so SECANT (57A: Curve-cutting line) needed some nudging from crosses, but wasn't too tough. TEA LEONI is a constructor's best friend if said constructor needs some eight-letter fill (58A: She played Jane in "Fun With Dick and Jane," 2005). Really wish she was in more stuff, so she didn't seem like eight-letter crosswordese. I thought "bloomers" in 59A: Where traditional bloomers gather were flowers, so ANKLES was a (pleasant) surprise. Never heard of "Warszawa," but three letters, starts with "E," instrumentalist—yeah, that's ENO (2D: "Warszawa" instrumentalist), just like "Fictional creature blah blah blah," three letters, starts with "E"—that's ENT. Also, a three-letter site for something Portuguese-sounding? Probably RIO (56D: Museu do Indio site).






Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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]