2007 Ellen Page title role / TUE 2-8-11 / First woman in Greek myth / Father of songs according to Pindar / Argentine strongman Peron

Constructor: Robert W. Harris

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: State abbrev. phrases — Two-word phrases that start with words that can double as state abbreviations — clued statily, for maximum wackiness


Word of the Day: LESLIE Howard (4D: Howard of "Gone With the Wind") —

Leslie Howard (3 April 1893 – 1 June 1943) was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939) and roles in Berkeley Square (1933), Of Human Bondage (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The Petrified Forest (1936), Pygmalion (1938), Intermezzo (1939), Pimpernel Smith (1941) and The First of the Few (1942). [...] Howard died in 1943 when flying to Bristol, UK, from Lisbon, Portugal, on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777. The aircraft, "G-AGBB" a Douglas DC-3, was shot down by Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88C6 maritime fighter aircraft over the Bay of Biscay. Howard was among the 17 fatalities, including four ex-KLM flight crew. (wikipedia)

• • •

Long day tomorrow, so this'll be short. Liked it. Weird cheater squares* up top and down below, but they probably helped make the fill smoother. This took me way way longer than most Tuesdays, but only because of a single, stupid mistake—wrote in STAGES instead of STAGED (20A: Put on, as plays), and then was baffled by TIESY-S (also couldn't figure out how HOS- could be 28A: Where runs may be made — had HOME). Checked every cross ... and then noticed that I'd read the wrong verb tense at 20A. So when I factor in my own stupidity, the puzzle isn't hard at all. It's kind of on the OLD-TIME side, fill-wise (40D: Kind of religion, in song) — what with this LESLIE guy and JUAN (5A: Argentine strongman Perón) and TRAPP and IRMA and DELANO and MAE and Paul Revere and the RAIDERS (2D: Paul Revere's bandmates in 1960s-70s music) and the non-internet-radio PANDORA (13D: First woman, in Greek myth) — but there is a spiffy contemporary clue for JUNO (5D: 2007 Ellen Page title role), at least. Fill is solid and bright throughout. I particularly liked the SNEAKY WEIRDO.


Theme answers:

• 16A: Proper way to behave in Biloxi? (MISS. MANNERS)
  
• 23A: Evaluation in Eugene? (ORE. ASSAY) — my least favorite of the bunch. Not at all snappy. Too bad CAL somebody wouldn't fit here...
  
• 32A: Syncopated piano piece for Seattle residents? (WASH. RAG)
  
• 45A: Chicago balloonists' needs? (ILL. WINDS)
  
• 52A: Commuter trains in Boston? (MASS. TRANSIT)
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

*black squares that don't affect the overall word count; here, the ones on either side of JUAN and YSER—making those squares black makes the grid easier to fill.