Hoosier university / MON 6-13-11 / Man in Iron Mask role Jeremy Irons / City midway between Dallas Austin / Tribe allied with Missouri once

Constructor: Alex Vratsanos

Relative difficulty: Medium (strictly time-wise, this might skew slightly harder)

THEME: PING / PONG (23A: With 57-Across, game that includes the starts of 17-, 29-, 48- and 64-Across) — self-explanatory


Word of the Day: ARAMIS (2D: "The Man in the Iron Mask" role for Jeremy Irons) —

C. René d'Aramis de Vannes (born René d'Herblay) is a fictional character in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père. He and the other two musketeers Athos and Porthos are friends of the novels' protagonist, d'Artagnan. // The fictional Aramis is loosely based on the historical musketeer Henri d'Aramitz.

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I've got a house guest, so can't spend much time writing today. I was put off by this puzzle almost instantly because it seemed so nakedly ass-kissing, i.e. it's about PING PONG, which is Will Shortz's most favoritest thing in the world besides crosswords. PING PONG might even trump crosswords, I don't know. I noticed recently on Facebook that someone had tagged Will in some photos—they were PING PONG-, not crossword-, related. So I was audibly booing the theme, which is Totally unfair, but I'm just being honest. The grid is actually very interesting, and strangely wide-open-feeling for a 78-worder. Banks of long answers crossing other long answers in both hemispheres of the grid. Finished in 3:07, which is well within the bounds of normal for me on a Monday, but it definitely felt chewier than your average Monday as I was doing it. Theme didn't do much for me, but the grid is actually very nice.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Laundry that's often food-stained (TABLE LINEN)
  
• 29A: How much you really earned (NET INCOME)
  
• 48A: Hoosier university (BALL STATE)
  
• 64A: Lakeshore rental, perhaps (PADDLEBOAT)
  

There's one clue that seems wrong to me: 28D: Putting women down, e.g. (SEXIST). The clue is a nominative phrase, which is to say, it should have a noun as an answer. Putting women down is SEXIST, and the moon is spherical, but [The moon, e.g.] cannot clue SPHERICAL. It can clue SPHERE, but not SPHERICAL. SEXIST is an adjective. The clue is not an adjective. Clue and answer must match in terms of parts of speech.



See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

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[The following announcement will be up all week the week of July 18, 2011]

I'm coming to NYC for the Lollapuzzoola Tournament on Saturday, Aug. 6 (you should go—info here). But you know that. What you don't know (yet) is that I'm coming several days early to do some interviews for a crossword project I'm working on, and I'm hoping to interview some of You (New Yorkers) about your xword habit. I'm especially interested in talking to people who think they are unlikely solvers, or who solve in weird / interesting / iconic places, or who have good solving anecdotes, or who are famous / prominent in their fields, or any combo of the above. I'm also interested in ordinary everyday solvers. I'm not looking for fast or accomplished solvers. Just interesting solvers. If you live in NYC, this (probably) means you! If you are going to be in town on Aug. 4-5 and are willing to talk to me for a few minutes, drop me a line at rexparker at mac dot com. I'll be exceedingly grateful. I'll see what kind of response I get and set up a schedule from there. If I don't hear from you, I'll just have to wander the streets harassing anyone I see solving a crossword, even though this may result in my getting punched, or worse. So help me out. Thank you!