Confessions of Drunkard writer 1822 / SAT 2-18-12 / Vertical Prefix / 1950s-60s singer Jackson Queen of Rockabilly / Nickname for Warren Weber in old sitcom / Final pharaoh of fifth dynasty whose pyramid is near cairo

Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: UPSTAIRS / DOWNSTAIRS — puzzle note: "This puzzle has two bonus answers in appropriate places. Can you find them?" (yes, I can—string of black squares through center of grid function as a staircase, of sorts)

Word of the Day: UNAS (10D: Final pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, whose pyramid is near Cairo) —

Unas (also Oenas, Unis, Wenis, or Ounas) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, and the last ruler of the Fifth dynasty from the Old Kingdom. His reign has been dated between 2375 BC and 2345 BC. Unas is believed to have had two queens, Nebet and Khenut, based on their burials near his tomb. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not until I started this write-up did I notice the note on the puzzle. Grid did seem a little dull, which seemed odd for a Ginsberg puzzle—there's usually some insane trick or gimmick involved. So now I see that the grid is hamstrung somewhat by the requirements of the UPSTAIRS / DOWNSTAIRS letters.  Is the (belated) pay-off worth it? I don't know. It's cute. Mildly. I think I'd rather have sizzling fill (esp. in an easy-to-fill 72-worder) than a rather prosaic puzzle that culminates with a  delayed "huh, interesting." Mainly, I just wish that OPA / CASCO / ORTH stack would go away. It's hard to justify that much gunk, that close together.


I actually found this puzzle quite easy, but I think I might be an outlier of sorts. I had half done in around five minutes, then stalled for a good 30 seconds or so, then did the second half in something like two. Mid-7 finish time. Started with the "S" in what ended up being ROASTERS and immediately wrote in SALIERI for 8D: "The Brandenburgers in Bohemia" composer (SMETANA).  I erased that pretty quickly because LONI seemed the obvious answer to 28A: Anderson who wrote "My Life in High Heels"—I quickly confirmed her final "I" with the cross (21D: Junior Jr. = III), and then wrote in HAIR and headed SW, eventually looping up via CHAPEAU to circle back around and take care of the NW (site of the OPACASOORTH fiasco). Then it was down to the SW, which provided no resistance. Then I sat. Put in ILONA (47A: Massey of "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman") and SLR. Sat some more. Wish I'd seen the clue for MARLEE earlier, as it was a gimme. As it was I eventually ran into 13D: Classic actress who played the principal in "Grease" and grimaced and then tentatively wrote in EVE and then ARDEN just came to me. Once I got IN LOVE (16A: Like Fiennes's Shakespeare), then I just sort of tumbled down the whole east coast of the grid. Finished at the "B" in RBI (51A).

Just a few mysteries. Didn't know, or didn't remember, UNAS. Also couldn't remember which broadcasting system was the "This is a test. For the next 60 seconds ..." org. (EBS). Stands for Emergency Broadcast System. Lastly, no idea who AMY Klobuchar is (40D: Minnesota senator Klobuchar). There are a lot more women senators than I thought. Not "a lot," by any means (17), but a lot more than I thought. There are four states where both senators are women: Washington, New Hampshire, California, and Maine.

Bullets:

• 29A: 1950s-'60s singer Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly (WANDA) — She's still singing. Proof:

• 37A: "Save the ___" (conservationists' catchphrase) (TIGERS) — Random. Could've been virtually any answer. SLOTHS, say (seriously, "Save the Sloths" is a real catchphrase). The truly famous catchphrase, of course, is "Save the Whales." 
• 52A: Nickname for Warren Weber in an old sitcom (POTSIE) — I forgot how Mrs. C. used to call him "Warren." Adorable. 
• 6D: "Confessions of a Drunkard" writer, 1822 (ELIA) — gimme, along with SLR, III, AGORA, GORP, ILONA, and OORT.
• 28D: "___ on First" (1981 comedian's biography) ("LOU'S") — got this very early on. LOU is of course LOU Costello, half of the comedy team that made the "Who's on First?" routine famous.
• 34D: Offensive formation (WISHBONE) — "Offensive" as in "pertaining to an American football offense."
• 46D: Gossip opening ("I HEAR...") — first thought: HARD G.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Archer's wife in Maltese Falcon /THU 9-8-11/ Nevada county containing Yucca Mountain / Italian scientist who lent name to number / Episode VI returnee

Constructor: Matt Ginsberg and Pete Muller

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom WOLFE (25A: Author of the 1968 work named in the circled letters (reading clockwise)) — WOLFE is in the grid along with KESEY (44A: Leader of the 35-Across) and MERRY PRANKSTERS (35A: Subject of the 1968 work)


Word of the Day: STU ERWIN (1A: He played Joe Palooka in the 1934 film "Palooka") —

Stuart Erwin (14 February 1903, Squaw Valley, California — 21 December 1967, Beverly Hills, California) was an American actor. Erwin began acting in college in the 1920s, first appearing on the stage, then breaking into films in 1928 in Mother Knows Best. He was cast as amiable oafs in several films such as The Sophomore, The Big Broadcast, Hollywood Cavalcade, Our Town, International House and Viva Villa!. In 1934 he was cast as Joe Palooka in the film Palooka, and in 1935 he had a supporting role in After Office Hours (starring Clark Gable). He co-starred in the Paramount Pictures all-star revue Paramount on Parade (1930). // In 1936, he was cast in Pigskin Parade, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. // In Walt Disney's Bambi, he did the voice of a tree squirrel. // In 1950, Erwin made the transition to television, where he starred in Trouble with Father, which was eventually retitled The Stu Erwin Show. He co-starred with his wife, actress June Collyer. He later appeared in the Disney films Son of Flubber and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. He also appeared with Jack Palance in the ABC series The Greatest Show on Earth during the 1963-1964 television season. // Erwin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Blvd. He is buried in Chapel of the Pines Crematory. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well, that was something. On the one hand, I like the theme idea, though I don't quite understand what the answer going around the perimeter clockwise has to do with the theme. It's a cool trick, but it is related to the book somehow? No matter, that part is fine, though this is one of those themes that favor (heavily) older solvers. The New Journalism and '60s drug culture aren't really on the radar for people who didn't live through the '60s. I got the references, but I have a Ph.D. in English, so I'm not exactly typical. But, again, fine. Narrow, and old-skewing, but fine. The fill in this puzzle, however, was often less than fine. I'LL NEVER and I LEAVE aren't not free-standing phrases in any way, shape, or form. They are partials pretending to be something more substantial. Will doesn't generally allow partials longer than five letters, but apparently he'll allow Two if he likes your theme and you can dress the partials up as legitimate independent phrases. If the MERRY PRANKSTERS skews old, STU ERWIN skews superold. He also happens to look Horrible in the grid. TRACTILE should have its wordness revoked (17A: Able to be drawn out), and PTUI (30A: Cartoon "Yuck!") and O'TEA think I don't see them, but I do. All in all, a little too much KLUDGE for my taste (44D: Workable if awkward solution to a crossword computer problem).



Had weird issues with the NYT solving applet, which was cutting off the ends of some clues, such as 46D: Last word in a showman's spiel [sp...] (VOILA!) and 48A: Like ruckuses or roadster roofs [roo...] (RAISABLE). OK, RAISABLE should've been on my horrible fill list, above. Firefox hates it (giving it the red underline treatment) and really, a ruckus? Sure, and a fit is pitchable. Bah. I actually thought I might sail through this one at first, when SETH (1D: MacFarlane who created TV's "Family Guy") and TARE (2D: Amount ignored in weighing) and USAF (3D: Org. with the ad slogan "It's not science fiction. It's what we do every day") went right in and gave me the first letters of all those long Acrosses in the NE. I got none of them. Never (or barely) heard of STU ERWIN, even EAST- couldn't get me EASTERLY (tried EASTWARD) (15A: Like the trades) and TRACTABLE (a real word) didn't fit at 17A. After some struggle, picked up the theme and again thought I'd sail through (theme got me a lot of free squares). But no. Clued (and filled) to a solid Thursday/Friday level. Very much liked "YOUR MOVE" and SIDEKICKS. Rest of the fill seemed tolerable to poor.



Bullets:

• 8D: Nevada county containing Yucca Mountain (NYE) — Oh, *that* Nevada County. [facepalm] [facedesk] [deskfacepalm]
  
• 18A: National park whose name means "the high one" (DENALI) — so-named because the natives smoked a Lot of weed. It's medicinal, man.
  
• 19A: Bunny fancier (HEF) — there is a new show starting this fall about the Playboy Club. It looks like something that will last ... about five weeks.
  
• 39A: Source of the saying "The gods help them that help themselves") (AESOP) — AESOP knew that welfare just gives poor people incentive to be lazy. Aesop '12!
  
• 34D: Language from which "spunk" is derived (ERSE) — one of the few words less appealing than ERSE is "spunk"
  

We're having epic rains here: schools canceled, record flooding, 10,000+ people evacuated from their homes. Population centers get all the media attention, but upstate NY and New England have just been getting destroyed the past two weeks. Combine climate change patterns (our last "70-year flood" was in 2006, for example) with climate change denial and general gov. brokeness and unwillingness to invest in infrastructure improvements, and things don't look good for near future. It's enough to make me wanna take some acid and get in a van and go do some merry pranking, man. And I'd do it. It's just that the funds aren't RAISABLE at this time.

Happy 10th birthday to my amazing nephew, Miles.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Beer served without artificial carbonation / SUN 9-4-11 / Hero of John Irving best seller / Word derived Latin uncia / Highway route from Dawson Creek

Constructor: Dana Delany and Matt Ginsberg



Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging? I really don't know, 'cause I quit mid-solve.



THEME: "That's Disgusting" — "IC" (i.e. sound of "ICK") is added to familiar phrases (which sometimes does and sometimes doesn't involve changing the spelling thereof), creating wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style.





Word of the Day: REAL ALE (2D: Beer served without artificial carbonation) —

Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1973 for a type of beer defined as "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". The heart of the definition is the maturation requirements. If the beer is unfiltered, unpasteurised and still active on the yeast, it is a real beer; it is irrelevant whether the container is a cask or a bottle. If the yeast is still alive and still conditioning the beer, it is "real". (wikipedia)

• • •

I have very little to say about this one because I quit about a quarter of the way through. It was OK when it was just an add-a-letter (or two letters) puzzle. Theme answers I had, like ISLE OF MANIC and CLASSIC ACTION SUIT, were kind of forced, but whaddyagonnado? It's Sunday. [interlude: ISLE OF MANIC what!?! "MANIC" is an adjective! ... but moving on ...]. But I had what looked like gibberish for 22A: Heads-up in Ireland? No idea about several of the crosses. REAL ALE? REALly? EEW!?! That's the spelling!?!? (6D: "Ick!") I had EEK at first because I didn't realize EEW was a thing. Had LTD for LLC (5D: Cousin of Inc.), barely remembered ANA (7D: Tennis's Ivanovic), etc. And then when I hacked (and I mean hacked) my way through it all, the resulting answer was GAELIC WARNING. "But ... what's a GAEL WARNING???!?" I look it up. It is some Irish music band.







"But ... they can't possibly be famous enough to be the base phrase for a theme answer. This ... They ... They can't possibly mean GALE WARNING, can they?" All theme answers I had, to that point, were simple +IC answers. No spelling changes. Also, GALE WARNING is not that familiar a phrase to me—no more so than [insert natural disaster here] WARNING. I was already finding the fill a little wobbly and the cluing a little precious and then GAEL (ugh) WARNING happened and I just quit. For the first time ... possibly for the first time since I started blogging. I mean, I've quit puzzles in the middle before—they just haven't been NYT puzzles. Turns out other theme answers in this puzzle have spelling changes too. Huh. Oh well. Don't care. I can live without having to have written in ECRUS or ISTS or TELEO- (66D: Complete: Prefix) or (dear lord in heaven) ARS (48D: Married couple?). That's how you spell out the letter "R"!?! How would anyone know? IC.



Theme answers:

• 22A: Heads-up in Ireland? (GAELIC WARNING)
  
  
• 29A: Superman's attire, e.g.? (CLASSIC ACTION SUIT)
  
  
• 40A: Farm pails? (RUSTIC BUCKETS)
  
  
• 64A: "I feel the earth move under my feet," e.g.? (KING LYRIC)
  
  
• 70A: Fancy garb for Caesar? (FINE TUNIC)
  
  
• 83A: Antisthenes, notably? (ORIGINAL CYNIC) — again, glad I didn't have to solve that one. Pick a "cynic" that I believe that you actually know and have heard of.
  
  
• 98A: Something talked about on "Today"? (TOPIC OF THE MORNING)
  
  
• 111A: Extremely occult? (GREATLY MYSTIC) — "greatly miss" is your base phrase? Wow. OK.
  
  
• 3D: Vacation spot that's crazily busy? (THE ISLE OF MANIC)
  
  
• 51D: Prank involving a hammer and nails? (CARPENTER ANTIC)
  
  

Here are some proper nouns that maybe you knew and maybe you didn't:

• 13A: Hero of a John Irving best seller (T.S. GARP) — the "T.S." part being less well known than the GARP part.
  
  
• 19A: Beverage whose logo was once the bottom half of a woman's legs (NEHI) — interesting. One thing this puzzle did have was a raft of interesting trivia clues. See also: ARP (105A: Surrealist who avoided the draft by writing the day's date in every space on his induction paperwork); "ALIENS" (52D: 1986 film shot partly in a decommissioned power plant); and INCH (80D: Word derived from the Latin "uncia," meaning "one-twelfth").
  
  
• 20A: Actress who co-starred in "Havana," 1990 (LENA OLIN) — she's in crosswords all the time, but doesn't really have a definitive, go-to, recognizable star turn that a clue can rely on.
  
  
• 27A: Australia's Great ___ Basin (ARTESIAN) — no idea.
  
  
• 47A: City raided in "Godzilla Raids Again" (OSAKA) — that is a Great movie title. Now *that* is a play on words I can get behind.
  
  
• 50A: ___ Highway (route from Dawson Creek) (ALCAN) — Dawson Creek the TV show, or ... whatever, it didn't help me get ALCAN.
  
  
• 57A: Boxer on season four of "Dancing With the Stars" (LAILA ALI) — So, just this weekend, I've been expected to be familiar with "America's Best Dance Crew" and "Dancing With the Stars." I can't wait for next Sunday's "Toddlers & Tiaras" clue.

• 120A: "The War Is Over" writer/singer (OCHS) — Phil. Good name to know, crosswordwise. Well before my time.

Anything else? Not really. 9D: End of July by the sound? (LONG I) — the astonishing convolution of that clue pretty much says it all. Why isn't the clue [Sound at the end of July?]. WHY!? OK, I'm really stopping now. I'm kinda absorbed in the "Toddlers & Tiaras" clip now anyway ...



Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

First Congolese P.M. Lumumba / SUN 4-17-11 / Scottish psychiatrist R. D. / French walled city on English Channel / Tree-lined path in une foret

Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "End of the Line" — 7 punch lines, or parts of punch lines. That is all.


Word of the Day: R.D. LAING (34D: Scottish psychiatrist R. D.) —

Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of serious mental dysfunction, greatly influenced by existential philosophy, ran counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience rather than simply as symptoms of some separate or underlying disorder. Laing was associated with the anti-psychiatry movement although he rejected the label. (wikipedia)

• • •

I did not care for this one, despite finding a couple of the punchlines funny. Couldn't you just open any Giant Book Of One-Liners (or the equivalent) and just collect punchlines and then once you have critical mass, find pairs of equal lengths, and voila, puzzle? Especially if, as this puzzle does, you use *parts* of punchlines. Matt's puzzles usually feature spectacular, complicated, ingenious themes. This one ... doesn't. It's also got some ugmuff fill, all over the place. That PATRICE (14D: First Congolese P.M. Lumumba) / ALLEE (22A: Tree-lined path in une forêt) / MEOR corner is pretty bad. Also not digging IRID (50D: Crocus or freesia, botanically), and really not digging USAR. Mostly the fill is heavy on the short stuff (a preponderance of 3- and 4-letter answers), which the theme required you to hack through, since large chunks of the punchlines were simply not gettable (to me) without significant, sometimes almost total, help from the crosses. I knew the Woody Allen punchline at first sight and had a good idea of the gist of the Stephen King punchline; the Groucho one was reasonably easy to infer. The Mitch Hedberg one was funny, but everything after I STILL DO required crosses. The Bill Hicks one was the worst in every way. Couldn't pick it up at all. Didn't think it was that funny. And I'm not thrilled with the punchline from "Anonymous" (!?!?!). Also not thrilled that IN A PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY has as many spaces as IN A PEDESTRIAN'S POCKET, and is, to my ear, much funnier (for being both subtler and less morbid).



Theme answers:

• 23A: "I used to do drugs. ___": Mitch Hedberg ("I STILL DO, BUT I USED TO TOO")
  
• 36A: "The car stopped on a dime. Unfortunately, the dime was ___": Anonymous ("IN A PEDESTRIAN'S POCKET")
  
• 58A: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it ___": Woody Allen ("THROUGH NOT DYING")
  
• 68A: "Whoever named it necking was ___": Groucho Marx ("A POOR JUDGE OF ANATOMY")
  
• 79A: "You know what I hate? Indian givers. ___": Emo Philips ("NO, I TAKE THAT BACK")
  
• 101A: "I don't mean to sound bitter, cold or cruel, but I am ___": Bill Hicks ("SO THAT'S HOW IT COMES OUT") — there really should be a comma after "am" in the clue
  
• 120A: "I have the heart of a small boy. It ___": Stephen King ("IS IN A GLASS JAR ON MY DESK")
  

Cluing felt significantly harder than normal for a Sunday, perhaps because of the aforementioned preponderance of short stuff—short answers are typically much easier to turn up than longer ones, so perhaps to counter that effect, the clues were amped up. Difficulty achieve through vagueness as much as anything else. FEN could've been BOG (46D: Wet lowland), "SIT up!" could've been "EAT up!" (97A: Dinner table command, with "up"), FEAT could've been ... lots of things, probably. I had BELT (FEAT seems a really weak answer for 72D: Grand slam, e.g.). Didn't know ST. MALO or PATRICE, but everything else seemed at least vaguely familiar. Seemed a lot of higher-end French in the puzzle, though I'm mainly just talking about SEUL and ALLÉE. I appreciated the two or three laughs the puzzle provided, but overall it was kind of a disappointment, kind of a slog.

Bullets:

• 10D: J.F.K.'s successor (ARI) — do not like the presumed abbrev. equivalence of J.F.K. (initials) and ARI (a shortened form of a name)
  
• 56A: Biblical name meaning "hairy" (ESAU) — hairiness is pretty much ESAU's main trait. That, and getting screwed out of his inheritance.
  
• 75A: Sci-fi film with a hatching egg on its poster ("ALIEN") — ads for this film and for "The Shining" pretty much ensured that I had nightmares throughout the entirety of 1979.
  
• 87A: Crush, sportswise (OWN) — very contemporary. Nice.
  
• 124A: Classic role-playing game (D AND D) — as in "Dungeons & Dragons"
  
• 1D: Feature of many a Jet Li film (TAI CHI) — yay for a clue that recognizes TAI CHI as a martial art, and doesn't place it in a "dojo."
  
• 12D: 1960s doo-wop group with an automotive name, with "the" (EDSELS) — did they *want* to fail?

• 59D: Start of a fitness motto ("USE IT...") — not, as I imagined at first, "NO PAIN..."
  
• 100D: Ann Landers or Ayn Rand: Abbr. (PSEUD.) — I had them both as PRESByterians at first.
  

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]

Business TV newsman Ron / THU 2-3-11 / 1980s hairstyle long strand in back / Excellence as virtue ancient Greeks / King international prominence 1922

Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: What's next ... ? Blank clues are supplied by the clue that follows (either Across or Down), e.g. with 17A: -- / 18A: Held up, [Held up] works for both clues; instructions for solving are in the grid itself: IF A CLUE / IS MISSING USE THE / NEXT ONE (Advice for solving this puzzle)


Word of the Day: Ron INSANA (35A: Business TV newsman Ron) —

Ron Insana (born March 31, 1961) is a reporter for Market Score Board Report with Ron Insana, syndicated by Compass, and a former Senior Analyst at CNBC. He was Managing Director of Insana Capital Partners from inception to collapse. He was the anchor of CNBC's "Street Signs", which aired weekdays during stock market hours. Until December 5, 2003, he and Sue Herera co-anchored CNBC's then flagship nightly financial news program, Business Center. He is a resident of Tenafly, NJ. (wikipedia)

• • •

Clever, but a pain in the ass to solve, especially in AcrossLite. I have never ever solved clues in order—highly inefficient. I'm always working crosses, going back and forth quickly between Across and Down clues, so the notion of "Next" was not instinctive to me (though it makes perfect sense on paper). Also, the middle of this grid was full of concepts and names that were absolutely foreign to me. Never heard of INSANA. Never heard of P AND L (28D: C.F.O.'s concern). Crossing two specialized business finance-related clues like that seemed kind of ... not great. Had to look up what "P AND L" even stood for: profit & loss. But you probably knew that. FLAUNTER!? (26D: Exhibitionist) I lost much time simply trying to will the word FLASHER to be longer. I typically do not like puzzles with instruction-answers, but I liked this one OK. It's pretty ingenious. Not the most fun for me to solve, but nicely put together, with some cool, unusual fill (e.g. SINISTRAL, WET SPONGE).


I actually got the NW corner pretty quickly despite the blank clues. I had no idea why RAKES and BORNE were there, but they fit, so I just moved on. Then there was just stoppage, all over the place. North was almost empty, even after I got SPONGE. Middle, as I say, not happening. I know the hair style as a RAT TAIL, not RAT'S TAIL (44A: 1980s hairstyle with a long strand in the back), so I was all messed up over there. It was very late in the game before I even looked at the clues for STYX (40D: Frightful river to cross) and TYS (46A: Baseball's Cobb and others), both of which were gimmes. Not sure what took me so long to see them—they really would've helped get the "USE" part of the instructions, which was a mystery to me for a while. Had CASTE for NASTY (49D: Rank). Wanted AIR for SOW (43A: Broadcast). TANS for SUNS (48A: Goes for the bronze?). ATTAR for ESTER (67A: Perfume ingredient).

Got APERTURE before I ever had the theme. Thought I might have to solve almost the whole damn thing by just intuiting the answers, but I finally broke the post-MISSING part of the instructions and then things weren't so bad.

Bullets:

• 10A: Longest river entirely in Switzerland (AARE) — Educated guess / gimme. Crosswordese. Comes in handy.
  
• 19A: Slaughter who dashed home to win the 1946 World Series (ENOS) — another gimme. This is how I pieced together APERTURE.
  
• 32A: There is a "super" one every four yrs. (TUE.) — Nice clue, though I want "Super" to be capitalized...
  
• 58A: Earl of ___ (Sir Anthony Eden) (AVON) — no idea ... but guessed correctly.
  
• 1D: Official traditionally seen in a black hat (RABBI) — no idea why, but this was the first answer that popped to mind (when REF and UMPIRE came and went, that is).
  
• 21D: Like the poem "Tam o' Shanter" (BURNSIAN) — Easy, but weird. Why does he get his own adjective? I mean, that's some Shakespeare / Chaucer STATUS right there. You'd never say a poem was ANGELOUSIAN. In fact, do any women have adjective status? AUSTENIAN? No. DICKINSONIAN ... I think that's a word. Not as common as DICKENSIAN, but real nonetheless. I think. Moving on.
  
• 33D: "Choice" agcy. (USDA) — Tricky. Beef! Had to get "Pro-Choice" out of my head.
  
• 45D: King who gained international prominence in 1922 (TUT) — stupid TANS kept me from seeing this for Far too long.
• 22A: Excellence as a virtue, to ancient Greeks (ARETE) — that's going pretty far out of your way to hide your crosswordese...
  
• 4D: Harem guard, typically (EUNUCH) — good-looking word. Do harems still exist and are they still guarded by EUNUCHs? Seems like something I learned from western caricatures of eastern potentates. No idea about historical validity or persistence. I do, however, know that ODA is the name of a harem chamber. You don't see it that much any more, thankfully, but it's still handy to know.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Shipyard worker fired in 1976 / FRI 12-3-10 / Angel Cheryl / Powerful scent of real clean sloganeer / Oxymonoric chances / Game played dotted ball

Constructor: Matt Ginsberg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ALCHEMY (8D: 13-, 20-, 49- and 57-Across, commonly?) — word ladder going from LEAD to GOLD


Word of the Day: GOURDE (36D: Haitian currency) —

The gourde (French: [ɡuʁd]) or goud (Haitian Creole: [ɡud]) is the currency of Haiti. Its ISO 4217 code is HTG and it is divided into 100 centimes (French) or santim (Creole). (wikipedia)

• • •

Surely someone at the NYT should have remembered that this theme has been done before—just this past August! But then this is also kind of a themeless (just 70 words, very thin theme content), so ... I don't know. Feels betwixt and between, and for that reason, and despite the manifest greatness of BOLLIX UP (10D: Bungle) and THERMOPYLAE as answers (9D: Where Persia defeated Sparta in 480 B.C.), I didn't enjoy it much. Actually, as a themeless, it's not half bad. A bit on the easy side, but full of mostly interesting words. Had a weird lot of trouble getting started, but once I got going, had no real trouble. Obvious theme (helps when you've seen it before) made GOAD and GOLD super easy to pick up, and so I had toeholds all over the place on this one. I think I realized why I tend not to like Fridays of late—they seem to be the "overload on '?' clues" day. Always one (or more) too many of them. Just too cutesy for my tastes. At least today's are mostly terse and not strained. [Secretive group?] is probably my favorite (GLANDS), although HERMIT (which took me Forever to get) is also pretty good (25A: Definitely not a company man?). I'm oddly proud of getting SHOAT with no crosses (5D: Young hog). No one ever calls Spade a 'TEC in The Maltese Falcon, that I recall (35A: Spade, e.g., for short), so I wish people would stop using him in 'TEC clues.

Theme answers:

• 13A: Sleuth's quest (LEAD)
  
• 20A: Weight or freight (LOAD)
  
• 49A: Pointed encouragement (GOAD)
  
• 57A: What some hearts are made of (GOLD)
  

Just a few things I truly didn't know today. The A-TWO? Nope, not up on my Americanized spellings of German superhighways (1A: German superhighway connecting the Ruhr with Berlin). "GYPSY"? Heard of it, but know nothing about it: not its date, not any of its songs (36A: 1959 Broadway hit with the song "All I Need Is the Girl"). Had no idea a SQUASH ball was dotted (39D: Game played with a dotted ball). Otherwise, everything else in the grid is at least somewhat familiar to me (including GOURDE and HANSOM (43D: Victorian taxi), both learned from ghosts of crosswords past).

The clue on HARLEY (21A: Road hog?) gives us a nice "hog" mini-theme (along with clue on SHOAT, and then QUAHOG: 42A: Edible clam).

Bullets:

• 26A: Endangered Arctic presence (SEA ICE) — "presence" is bugging me. It's a defensible use of the word, but ... I might have gone with "entity," for the alliterative clue if nothing else.
  
• 38A: "The powerful scent of real clean" sloganeer (PINESOL) — Powerful is right. Headache-inducingly powerful.
  
• 55A: Angel Cheryl (LADD) — Mmmm, softball. "Charlie's Angels" is one of my earliest TV memories (after "Electric Company" and "Mr. Rogers," of course).
  
• 3D: Shipyard worker fired in 1976 (WALESA) — honestly wanted ROCKY here. Was he a shipyard worker? Was he fired? I know "Rocky" was 1976. Kind of funny when SLY showed up later in the grid (28D: Rocky, really).
  
• 14D: Walking the dog and others (CHORES) — wanted (yo-yo) TRICKS.
  
• 34D: Oxymoronic chances (EVEN ODDS) — Had ODDS. Put in EVEN, but because I had TIME NOR TIDE (?), EVEN looked wrong, so I took it out. Put it in. Took it out. Eventually changed NOR to AND (24D: They won't wait, in a phrase).
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]