Joe Btfsplk's creator / FRI 12-17-10 / Cryptogram playwright 1995 / Popular name for tolnaftate / Word on Harry Powell's left fingers Night Hunter

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none


Word of the Day: BURETTES (24D: Liquid dispensers in laboratories) —

A burette (also buret) is a vertical cylindrical piece of laboratory glassware with a volumetric graduation on its full length and a precision tap, or stopcock, on the bottom. It is used to dispense known amounts of a liquid reagent in experiments for which such precision is necessary, such as a titration experiment. Burettes are extremely accurate - a 50 cm³ burette has a tolerance of 0.1 cm³ (class B) or 0.06 cm³ (class A). // Burettes measure from the top since they are used to measure liquids dispensed out the bottom. The difference between starting and final volume is the amount dispensed. (wikipedia)

• • •

[Dear syndicated solvers—It's pledge week here at the Rex Parker site (thru Saturday) —read my pitch for donations in the opening paragraphs of this past Sunday's write-up, here ... and thanks for your faithful readership (and the many kind messages I've received so far)]

This is pretty beautiful, especially considering how much damned white space there is in the middle of the grid. Tiered 13s transected by a 15 and two 8s. Oh, and two 10s. So much to hold in place, and yet it all works beautifully. I mean, I didn't know BURETTES, but I'm going to write that off to science-ignorance and not the word's obscurity. There's something quaintly old-fashioned about the long answers. People talking on their WALKIE TALKIES (33A: Staples of old police work) while riding MOTOR SCOOTERS (29A: Noisy vehicles) on the way to their PAROLE HEARINGs (32A: Meeting in which one person is anxious to leave — great clue). Where PENCIL SHARPENERS (7D: Means of getting the lead out) are being used, for some reason. Also, EGG TEETH (51A: Aids in breaking shells)? That must be something from the olden days, right? Right? Why have I never heard of them? Ohhhhh ... HA ha ha, that's because they aren't for cooks. Dear lord, I was way off on this one: "In some egg-laying animals, the egg tooth is a small, sharp, cranial protuberance used by offspring to break or tear through the egg's surface during hatching. It is present in most birds and reptiles, and similar structures exist in monotremes, Eleutherodactyl frogs, and spiders" (wikipedia).

Started out guessing LAG (1A: Progress too slowly) and LATTE (1D: Milky drink) ... and it worked. Amazing. Also, I have no idea where Alfred Krupp was born, but five letters starting with "E"—that's gonna be ESSEN (most common German place name in the crossword). Took a weird route after nailing down that NW corner. Got PENCIL SHARPENER easily, and then started building the S and SE off of it. So NW and SE were done first, and then I started shading in the middle. SW and NE corners with last—former wasn't too hard, latter was somewhat harder but not too bad. Beat myself for not remembering ELLSBERG (12D: Analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers). Forget what I had in there—MOSSBERG? Maybe? Ugh. Stupid. Anyway, rest of that corner was easy enough for me to get over that hump without much grief. Last square was "B" in BURETTES / BIRD (24A: Frequent flier).

Biggest mystery of the day (for me): how in the world did I know Dumbarton OAKS (31D: Dumbarton ___ Conference (1944 meeting that laid the groundwork for the U.N.)). OK, so I spelled it OCHS, but still, how did that name get in my head, when I couldn't tell you a thing about that Conference? Otherwise, no other mysteries. Just a lovely grid, with clever, if slightly easier-than-usual, clues. A pleasant Friday—my favorite Friday in a good long while.

Bullets:

• 4A: Joe Btfsplk's creator (CAPP) — Some weird name's creator in four letters is Often Al CAPP. Guessing CAPP here helped me change ESP to PSI (6D: Clairvoyance and such)
  
• 28A: "The Cryptogram" playwright, 1995 (MAMET) — another playwright for the crossword pantheon. The date gave this one away. That, and the first "M," which I already had (from the super gimme MORISSETTE — 28A: Canadian singer with a 1995 album that went 16x platinum).
  
• 17A: Popular name for tolnaftate (TINACTIN) — fast actin'! Didn't know it, but guessed it off the TIN-.
  
• 36A: Welsh word in a Pennsylvania college name (BRYN) — too easy. Unless you don't have any crosses, then I guess you could've gone with MAWR.
  
• 52A: Arthur who wrote "The Symbolist Movement in Literature" (SYMONS) — wow, that's pretty obscure. I barely recognize that name, and I studied literature for a Long time. I would've gone with the still obscure but somewhat more interesting (to me) [British crime fiction writer and scholar Julian].
  
• 54A: 1950 film noir ("D.O.A.") — Gimme. Only one film noir I know of in three letters.

• 9D: Embroidery expert (LIAR) — figurative meaning of "embroidery." Nice.
  
• 15D: Word on Harry Powell's left fingers in "Night of the Hunter" (HATE) — Love the old-time crime movie feel of this grid, with "D.O.A." and "Night of the Hunter" and the WALKIE TALKIES and what not. Very cool.
  
• 32D: Three-time N.B.A. Coach of the Year (PAT RILEY) — Full name! Nice. He's now president of the Miami Heat, I think. He was coach of the Lakers during the great Lakers-Celtics rivalry of the '80s. Man, I hated that guy.
  
• 39D: Slush Puppie alternative (ICEE) — I used to love Coke slushies. I used to love 7-11 in general. Would ride my bike there and get candy and baseball cards when I was in elementary school. Then when I was a bit older, would go to Round Table Pizza around the corner and play Donkey Kong for hours on end while listening to Joan Jett's "I Love Rock & Roll" on the juke box. Good times.

• 47A: 1969 bed-in participant (ONO) — again, too easy.
  
• 49D: Roman I (EGO) — pronoun "I" = EGO. I stupidly had UNO.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]