Angel of south wind / SAT 5-21-11 / Online multiplayer gaming service / Two-time Hugo Award winner Gaiman / 19 season NHLer Robitaille / Half sechzehn

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: None

Word of the Day: SQUIRREL BAFFLE (48A: Bird Feeder Protector) —I'm sure Rex would go to Wiki and post the actual definition of a SQUIRREL BAFFLE, but I prefer to make up my own. Yes, you got jesser in charge of blogging today. And yes, the world may, in fact, end. But not because of the religious loon, but because Rex left me in charge of the blog for a night/day. Crazy man. I'm gonna buy an Eminem album as penance. Anyway, SQUIRREL BAFFLE: A mostly failed invention crafted by men to keep very smart rodents out of expensive yard decorations. Real nature lovers let nature take its course and watch the squirrels baffle the birds -- and ants, and hornets, and everyone else who wants into the bird feeder. Go SQUIRRELS!

• • •

I nailed this puppy in about 32 minutes with a cadre of Friday night revelers gathered around being sometimes helpful. "1 Across (It may flow on a ranch) is shit!," shouted Bill the biologist. He was, of course, wrong. It was MANE, which I thought for a while would be Milk but it wasn't. Those dairy ranches! Genni came up with ALBINO (Colorless) crossing AMINO (Essential acid) at the 8A/D intersection. Then she pointed out that my wine tasted like what Bill thought 1A was gonna be. We got a new bottle out.

Friday nights at Casa Jesser are exercises in bringing the nieghborhood in to play 9 ball and drink and tell lies. We've been doing it for years, and this is the first Friday night I've had no liquor this late into the night. Rex is good for my liver. Anyway, I performed the marriage ceremony for the aforementioned Bill and his now-wife, Avis. I wrote a beautiful ceremony, and when it came time for her to recite her vows, as Bill had just done, she blurted out, "DITTO!" 44D (Put me down, too) had very special neighborhood significance on that account.

There was great confusion at 5D (She might try an agent), where I initially had DorA the Explorer, thinking travel agent. DIVA came into view only after we agreed that COQ AU VIN (French chef's specialty) had to be right, based on the good ol' X BOX LIVE (Online multiplayer gaming system).

I did the heavy lifting, despite all the committee's help, and marched through the grid pretty much from the east back toward the west, with the NW the last to fall.

Best clue/answers:

• 19A (Sharing of thoughts on a TV show) VULCAN MIND MELD. I am not good with posting the links and such, so imagine a picture of Spock getting all intimate with the hand on the face of some creature from a Douglas S. Adams novel. (Genni and I tried to make more links. It wasn't happening. PuzzleGirl helped us get the grid in there. We decided after that to go back to drinking. Well, SHE's going back; I'm STARTING! Yay!)
• 39A (It's not long in going down a mountain) MINI SKI. Really? Do they come in skirt lengths? Are MINI SKIS inherently sexier than midi SKIS, and do the fundamentalists ski in Maxis? The only time I tried to ski, at Taos Ski Valley in 1996, I crashed into a Volvo in the parking lot. While getting lessons. From off the bunny slope. I stopped skiing that day.

I feel I should write more. Rex is really good at this. I'm liking rap music more and more as I sit here.

Let's talk writeovers. In addition to the aforementioned Dora/DIVA mess, there was the deceptive SPIKEd hEel (Femme fatale wear) at 27D. That really mucked up the SE until the READ ONLY (Kind of file) pointed out that I really needed to revisit that area. And since I was clueless despite the clue for 47A (Half of sechzhen), I really needed those HEELS to put the CH together in ACHT, which allowed me to plop in the A, which then made AFROS at 47D (Big tops?) appear. I love when a plan comes together. Did Mr. T actually have an AFRO mohawk? I think he did. I digress. I also briefly had aRIEL at 45D (Angel of the South Wind) until the DUPLEX came through. I own a duplex. I rent one side to a flighty gay couple with two poodles and the other side to a woman with two greyhounds. It is an interesting yard when the greyhounds go into chase mode, because the poodles look remarkably like those things they make greyhounds chase at the actual dog track. Other than that, landlording is largely overrated.

I never knew Truman CAPOTE (22A) said "Beat literature isn't writing at all -- it's typing." Look at me. I'm a Beat literature typer! Thanks, Rex! And Happy Weekend Rexites! You'll get another guest write-up tomorrow, but not from me. Be prepared to be pleasantly surprised is all I'm saying. :-)

Signed, jesser, sitting in for Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]