W.W. II Pacific battle site / THU 1-26-12 / Moore who wrote Gate at the Stairs / Horseshoe-shaped lab item / 1980s sitcom filmed with puppet

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ST- — common phrases have "ST-" added to beginning of one of the words in said phrases, creating wackiness

Word of the Day: TRUK (39D: W.W. II Pacific battle site) —

Operation Hailstone (known in Japan as Japanese: トラック島空襲 Torakku-tō Kūshū, lit. "the airstrike on Truk Island") was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 17–18, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory. (wikipedia)

• • •

What the TRUK?!

This was a Wednesday dressed up as a Thursday (i.e. with fairly difficulty cluing throughout). The theme concept is not really Thursday-worthy—just a pretty loose add-a-letter (OK, two letters). No rhyme or reason to the add-ons. It's a theme that could be replicated over and over and over again, ad infinitum. I'd be shocked if it hadn't been done several times before. At least the ST-s could've been added to, say, all R-words (you're 3/5 there! STRAP MUSIC ... STRIPE FRUIT ... STRING FINGER ... come on!). JACK THE STRIPPER is mildly cute; the rest, shrug. And the fill. Pretty lousy. I cannot believe that that TRUK / UTUBE fiasco was unavoidable (44A: Horseshoe-shaped lab item). The grid parameters just aren't that challenging. The whole thing smacks of laziness, esp. at the fill level. Then you've got the AGASP / AROAR crossing (abarf) and then junky stuff all over the place. Not the NYT puzzle's finest hour, by any stretch.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Private quarters in a stable? (STALL FOR ONE)
• 23A: Dallas tourists, perhaps? (TEXAS STRANGERS)
• 37A: Name for a bachelorette party performer? (JACK THE STRIPPER)
• 49A: Vacation spot for some who stop working? (STRIKERS ISLAND)
• 60A: Not saluting for quite some time? (STILL AT EASE)
  

Bullets:

• 15A: Moore who wrote "A Gate at the Stairs" (LORRIE) — ambivalence ... she is crossworthy, for sure, but she is only here (or in any puzzle) because of her friendly letters, and I don't like seeing her except where she's propping up something Very nice (in an otherwise very-difficult-to-fill section). LORRIE / ARRET is (yet) another inglorious crossing (7D: Stop over in Paris?). 
• 41A: Announcement that comes from an envelope (OSCAR) — timely, as the nominations just came out. I've seen practically nothing. "Bridesmaids." I saw that. I am familiar with every film and its cast because I make it my business to keep up with this stuff—important for solvers as well as constructors. I tear through my "Entertainment Weekly" as soon as I get it and write down all the interesting-looking names that I didn't previously know.VIOLA Davis, for instance, or Berenice BEJO.
• 5D: 1980s sitcom filmed with a puppet ("ALF") — he ate cats. My sister looked like sister on that show. My best friend in college liked (likes?) this show. I've never seen an episode all the way through. I associate ALF with MR. T. I don't know why.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Sylvia who played Queen Mother in Queen / THU 10-6-11 / Extinct kin of kiwi / Mad face / Moroccan topper / Eastern nanny

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Silly underwear joke — And here it is: DID YOU HEAR ABOUT / THE LAWSUITS / BETWEEN / HANES AND BVD? / BRIEFS WERE FILED.

Word of the Day: Sylvia SYMS (67A: Sylvia who played the Queen Mother in "The Queen") —

Sylvia M. L. Syms OBE (born 6 January 1934) is a British actress. She is probably best known for her roles in the films Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), Ice-Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959) , Victim (1961) and The Tamarind Seed (1974). She remains active in films, television and theatre. (wikipedia)

• • •

"Silly" in this case = supremely lame and predictable. So predictable, in fact, that (unlike with most quotation puzzles) I tore through this in record Thursday time—under 4 minutes. Most of the non-theme answers are short (3-5 letters) and most of the clues are very (even painfully) straightforward, so despite not having any idea about the joke at the beginning, I tore through all the crosses and pieced the first part together. Once I got HANES, the entire rest of the joke fell limply into place. I don't think I hesitated much at all. I somehow got Leroy NIEMAN stuck in my head where Alfred E. NEUMAN (5D: Mad face?) was supposed to go; I wasn't sure what kind of spelling I was going to see on those Sinister laughs (HEH HEHS), and I have no idea who this SYMS person is. Otherwise, I was typing as fast as I could read the clues. Coolest thing about this puzzle is EAR PIECE (9D: Standard-issue item for a Secret Service agent).



I have TOD Browning's "Freaks" sitting on my DVR (58A: Browning who directed "Dracula," 1931), waiting me to have a creepy horror movie binge sometime this month. I'm always happy to see MOA (21A: Extinct kin of the kiwi), as extinct N.Z. birds make me happy (still haven't seen HAAST'S EAGLE yet, but I hope to someday—those suckers were massive. Pick-up-a-MOA-and-fly-off-with-it" massive. The clues on AMAH (64A: Eastern nanny) and FEZ (63D: Moroccan topper) are straight out of the mustiest of crossword cupboards. I have nothing more to say about this puzzle. Congrats to crossword phenom Joon Pahk who won of "Jeopardy" for the third time last night. He was partially pre-empted by the sad news of the death of Steve Jobs, but CBS returned to regular programming in time for Final Jeopardy (one of the easiest ones I've ever seen—answer: Don Quixote), which Joon and the others all got right. Joon, who was leading before Final Jeopardy (thanks to some score recalculating during the commercial break), bet the bank, so ... yeah, wow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Finnish city near Arctic Circle / SUN 8-21-11 / 1936 Loretta Young title role / Edible Andean tubers / French island WSW of Mauritius / Will of Bible

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld



Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: "Underwater Search" — => Note accompanying puzzle reads: "When this puzzle is done, look for a name (hinted at by 37-Down [FINDING NEMO]) hidden 17 times in the grid, each reading forward, backward, down, up or diagonally, word search-style." That name is "NEMO"





Word of the Day: OULU (42A: Finnish city near the Arctic Circle) —

Oulu [...] is a city and municipality of 141,742 inhabitants (31 January 2011)^[2] in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the sixth most populous city in the country. It is one of the northernmost larger cities in the world. (wikipedia)

• • •

I didn't even know this puzzle had a "note" attached until I saw a constructor friend's Facebook status update, which read: "Shouldn't have read the Sunday puzzle notepad." I assume he "shouldn't have read it" because it makes a very easy puzzle even easier. Ah look, another constructor has chimed in on Facebook: "I agree. I read it [the note], knew what the theme was, and decided I didn't need to bother solving the puzzle." So I'm happy to have been ignorant today. There wasn't too much pleasure in this solve, but at least part of whatever pleasure there was (for me) came from having to piece together what the nature of the theme was. It didn't take long, and it didn't provide much of an "aha" moment, but it was something. The "note" seems like over-explaining. You could've put the "hint to this puzzle's theme" direction in the clue for FINDING NEMO and left it at that, though even that seems like overkill. All you have to do is look at all the long answers and figure out what they have in common. Letter string? No, not exactly. Letter grouping? Yes—either NEMO or OMEN. Realize that the reversal must mean that there's something word-searchy going on. See other NEMOs. The end.



There was one sticky part in this puzzle for me: EASEMENTS (92A: Rights of passage) over LATE DATE (99A: Back end of a time estimate), neither of which I understood from their clues. I'm still kind of fuzzy on the LATE DATE clue. If it's the "back end of a time estimate," wouldn't that be "at the latest" or the "the latest date?" I can't figure out how to use LATE DATE in a sentence in a way that fits the clue. Clue on EASEMENTS is clever. Didn't see that "Rights" in the clue wasn't spelled the way it's supposed to be spelled in the familiar phrase "rites of passage." Clever. MEET, which traverses both these answers, was the very last thing I put in the grid (93D: It often has dashes).



There was quite a bit of strange fill. I'll start with ASMARA (103D: Capital of Eritrea), which is totally valid, as it's a world capital, but still—not your most familiar of capitals. Then there's OULU. I'm actually shocked at how big it is, population-wise. Since I've never heard of it, or seen it (much?) in crosswords, I figured it would be about the size of, oh, let's say TRURO (my go-to example for "town that is way too small to be in a damned crossword"). KECK was from outer space, as far as I was concerned (115D: Sergeant in "The Thin Red Line"). I know that title from the 1998 movie, which was based (it turns out) on a 1962 James Jones novel. There was also a 1964 film. And of course, there was the 1986 debut album from Glass Tiger, and the title cut therefrom:





Theme answers:

• ONEMORETIME (23A: Again)
• MNEMONICS (25A: "I before E except after C" and others)
• ENGINEMOUNTS (38A: Attachment points under the hood)
• NOTTOMENTION (57A: Also)
• DIVINE MOTHER (83A: Part of the Hindu Godhead)
• NOMENCLATURE (101A: Terminology)
• ONEMOMENT (119A: "Just a sec") — nice double-NEMO
  
  
• STATESWOMEN (121A: Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi) — never heard this term before. "Statesman," yes. "Spokeswoman," "Chairwoman," "Congresswoman," seen 'em all. But not STATESWOMEN. Threw me.
  
  
• UNEMOTIONAL (43D: Stoic)
  
  
• "FINDING NEMO" (37D: 2003 Pixar film)

[Please stop emailing me to tell me there are 17 NEMOs. I know there are 17 NEMOs. I say so up front, in reproducing the "note." I just don't *care* that there are 17, and figure you, or your (small) children, can work a word search. Thank you. P.S. remember to count *two* in "ONEMOMENT"—i.e. outside theme answers, there are only 6 to find]



Bullets:

• 33A: Old turkish V.I.P.'s (AGAS) — one of a slew of answers from the Constant Solver's Bag of Tricks, including OCAS (107A: Edible Andean tubers), ARN, ENOL, ENIAC, -OTE, IRMA, SASE, "USE ME," ULAN, IT I, NO OIL, ELON, TRA LA, ROO, ESAU, ITT, SRTA, INRI, ROEG, and GRO.
  
  
• 94A: 1936 Loretta Young title role (RAMONA) — The only RAMONA I know is Beasley. No idea who Loretta Young is or what type of production "RAMONA" even is. Hmm, seems it's a movie adaptation (the third one, first talkie) of Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel of the same name. Yeah, I'm gonna forget that right away.
  
  
• 116A: Suffix with planet (-OID) — I had -EER.

• 24D: French island WSW of Mauritius (REUNION) — no idea.
  
  
• 40D: U.S.A. or U.K. (INITS.) — old trick that still got me.
  
  
• 54D: Lower layer of the earth's crust (SIMA) — frowny face. I've seen this once before, but still think it a pretty weak four-letter word, esp. in a grid with So Many weak four-letter words. But the Word Search God must be fed, I guess.
  
  
• 78D: Will of the Bible (FERRELL)
  
  
• 120D: Annual b-ball event (N.I.T.) — as I've said before, I'm very familiar with this tournament, as my home town University (Fresno State) won it in 1983.
  
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Prince's partner / THU 7-28-11 / Greek island where Zeus said to be raised / Baltic Sea feeder / Anatomical dividers / Villainous monk Da Vinci Code

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: UP — an "UP" rebus wherein all the Down answers that contain an "UP" square must be read from the bottom UP to be understood


Word of the Day: Wade BOGGS (1D: Five-time A.L. batting champ) —

Wade Anthony Boggs (born June 15, 1958) is a former Major League Baseball third baseman. He spent his 18-year baseball career primarily with the Boston Red Sox, but also played for the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. His hitting in the 1980s and 1990s made him a perennial contender for American League batting titles, in much the same way as his National League contemporary Tony Gwynn. Boggs was elected to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. With 12 straight All-Star appearances, Boggs is third only to Brooks Robinson and George Brett in number of consecutive appearances as a third baseman. His finest season was 1987, when he set career highs in home runs (24), RBI (89), and slugging percentage (.588). He also batted .363 and had a .461 on-base percentage that year, leading the league in both statistics. In 1999, he ranked number 95 on the Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. (wikipedia)

• • •

I grew up idolizing Wade BOGGS, so this puzzle got off on the right foot with me. Actually, that's not true. It took me a little while to get BOGGS, as BRETT and CAREW were my first guesses (both former A.L. batting champs—Carew 7 times, Brett 3). At first I floated through the grid, in and around what would turn out to be the rebus squares. SEPTA to NEAT to LTR to RA I to AS TO ... SHALT to TSE TSE to TOIL to OUTER to ECOLE to SATIRIC and DOLOR. Finally saw MEASURED [one square] and new "UP" was the key. Took me at least another minute before I figured out why 27D: Union requirement, maybe? and, a little later, 3D: Prince's partner weren't working. --UP-- = PAUPER ... but then SEPTA becomes SERTA, which made me wonder if there was some bygone mattress commercial with a prince that I was forgetting. Once I realized PAUPER just wasn't going to work, I put "P" back in SEPTA and the upside-downness of the answer became clear. Needless to say, after that bottom half of the grid was somewhat easier than the top half (but still tough). I enjoyed this ambitious and legitimately tricky puzzle, even though I finished with an error. At 19A: Refill when you don't really need to (TOP UP), I wrote in TOPE. Seemed very, very right. Sadly, NOE (the resulting cross) makes no sense at all for 13D: Over (NOPU, i.e. UPON). Crosschecking your answers = always a good idea, esp. in a minefield of a puzzle like this one.

Three tenacious wrong answers: IN AWE for [Taken] (IN USE), WINDOWS for [They may be cleared with a spray] (SINUSES), and (funniest of all) WEES for [Pygymy couple?] (WYES)



Theme answers:

• GO UP IN SMOKE / REPUAP
  
• TOP UP / NOPU
  
• MEASURED UP / PUNERP
  
• SIT UP FOR / TPUS
  
• STANDS UP TO / STESPU
  
• UP-DOS / PUHW
  
• COME UP SHORT / SPOUS
  

Note that the word "UP" appears in all Acrosses and no Downs (well, it's a word part in UP-DOS, but I'm gonna count it), creating a nice, consistent signal for you to read UP.

Bullets:

• 15A: Villainous monk in "The Da Vinci Code" (SILAS) — once again, forgot his name. I think I just really resent this clue, which expects me to read Dan Brown or see some horrible-looking movie. Would be nice to see some love for Paul SILAS now and again, if you really don't want to use a George Eliot clue.
  
• 41A: Actor Johnson of "Plan 9 From Outer Space"(TOR) — ugh, as if this puzzle weren't hard enough. Also, OUTER is in the grid. Whoops.
  
• 48A: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" shower (HBO) — I think I prefer "airer" to "shower."
  
• 68A: Greek island where Zeus was said to be raised (NAXOS) — also, a fine discount Classical CD label. I have a lot of NAXOS music.

• 5D: Indication of deflation (SSSS) — easily the worst answer in the grid. A puzzle this ambitious and interesting can get away with an answer or two like this (and assorted detritus like ODER (14A: Baltic sea feeder), AHSO, RAREE, LAK, OLA, etc.)
  
• 11D: It may be the only thing in a bar (WHOLE NOTE) — probably my favorite clue/answer pair in the whole puzzle.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. If you cannot attend the Lollapuzzoola 4 crossword tournament (coming up next Saturday, Aug. 6—details here), the tournament creators are giving you an opportunity to Solve At Home! From the tournament website:

"NEW -- Solve at home! Can't attend the tournament, but still want to play? No problem! For the low low price of $10, the complete set of puzzles from this year's tournament will be hand-delivered to an email address of your choosing. We'll ship the puzzles (in PDF format) on August 7, the day after the tournament in New York. This offer is only available through Sunday, August 14, so if you want to participate in the fun and games from afar, act quickly!"

Ruler deposed 1979 / TUE 5-10-11 / Trackers Prizms once / Hoops play maker / Entertainment at many Cuban wedding / Indoor outdoor war game

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: BALL to BALL — a word circle, where two-word theme answers begin with the word that the preceding theme answer ended with, creating a loop

Word of the Day: "L'IDÉE Fixe" (43A: Magritte's "___ Fixe") —

[Year: 1928 // Medium: Oil on canvas // Museum: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin]

• • •

Nice, tight, unassuming theme. I sort of like that POINT and PAINT are both in the word chain, but their physical similarities are utterly coincidental to the theme. My first thought on finishing was "POINT above, PAINT below ... what?" Then I saw the light. A few small weak spots here and there. Not a fan of BAAED in general, especially when crossing something as ughy as PEDE (hands up for PEDI! Yeah, your hand is up). Crossing partials IGET and WEARE also not ideal. ONLOW is not great, and even less great crossing -ENNE. And L'IDÉE is probably the ickiest answer of the day. And yet ... yet! Really liked the long and mid-range Downs, especially TEAM USA (10D: Olympics squad in red, white and blue) and GOTCHA. A solid effort overall.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Paper Mate product (BALL POINT) — I can't imagine hearing the product described as BALL POINT, unless someone died or choked in the middle of saying the actual product name: BALL POINT pen.
  
• 25A: Hoops play maker (POINT GUARD)
  
• 31A: Junkyard's security, maybe (GUARD DOG)
  
• 45A: Place for one in disfavor, so to speak (DOG HOUSE)
  
• 51A: Sherwin-Williams offering (HOUSE PAINT)
  
• 63A: Indoor or outdoor war game (PAINT BALL)
  

Bullets:

• 24A: Ruler deposed in 1979 (SHAH) — one of my first political memories was the taking of American hostages in Iran following the Islamic Revolution. Don't remember learning anything about the SHAH, but you couldn't get away from Ayatollah Khomeni's face in 1980. Also everywhere in 1980:

• 30A: Trackers and Prizms, once (GEOS) — Trackers and Prizms, still, I'm pretty sure. Just because GEO went out of business doesn't mean those cars don't exist any more (however much their owners wish that were true).
  
• 66A: Yoga position (LOTUS) — would've wanted ASANA if I hadn't had crosses already in place. Done yoga for years and have never once been asked to sit in LOTUS.
  

In the shameless self-promotion department—in case you missed it yesterday (I added it to the post mid-day), there's a radio story about this blog and crossword blogs in general that came out yesterday. Not sure when / where / if it aired, but you can hear it all here. If you've got a spare 12 minutes after that, be sure to check out the bonus audio of me solving and commenting on a Newsday puzzle in real time. Completely improvised—I had no idea I'd be asked to do any such thing. That puzzle ended up being by the great Doug Peterson, who, coincidentally, co-constructed today's LAT puzzle along with my good friend and frequent fill-in Puzzle Girl. So check out the radio spot, do Doug and PG's puzzle (.pdf), and ... have a good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Marco Island locale / WED 3-16-11 / What's in carrots not celery / Morlocks victims / Modern screening device / Meal with Four Questions

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: FULL-COUNT PITCH (59A: With 61-Across, follower of the five starred clues) — Starred clues are "three BALLs and two STRIKEs," which, in baseball, is known as a FULL COUNT. What "follows" a 3-2 count? A FULL-COUNT PITCH, though ... I don't know what part of this puzzle represents the "pitch," exactly


Word of the Day: EILAT (51D: Israeli seaport) —

Eilat [...] is Israel's southernmost city, a busy port as well as a popular resort, located at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Eilat (or Gulf of Aqaba). Home to 46,600 people, the city is part of the Southern Negev Desert, at the southern end of the Arava. The city is adjacent to the Egyptian village of Taba to the south, the Jordanian port city of Aqaba to the east, and within sight of Saudi Arabia to the south-east, across the gulf. Eilat's arid desert climate is moderated by proximity to a warm sea. Temperatures often exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in summer, and 21 °C (70 °F) in winter, while water temperatures range between 20 and 26 °C (68 and 79 °F). The city's beaches, nightlife and desert landscapes make it a popular destination for domestic and international tourism. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's a good idea here somewhere, but I don't quite understand how the theme revealer makes sense. Something "follows" the "starred clues"? In theory, or in actuality? I'm guessing the former, since the clues themselves can't be the "PITCH," and I don't see a "PITCH" anywhere else. Also, FULL-COUNT PITCH only works if it's imagined as a "follower" of the starred clues *taken as a set*, which is not clear from the wording of the clue. Add in the odd visual placement of the revealer (PITCH behind, i.e. to the left of, FULL-COUNT), and the whole "reveal" moment feels clunky as all-get-out. But it's always possible there's some brilliance I just don't see. Puzzle felt super-easy except for the far south (the CURIAE section), which took probably a third of my total time. I've seen CURIAE before, but couldn't dredge it up. Ditto EILAT. Took me a while to deduce COMEDIENNE—always tricky to figure out the answers in these reverse-clue-type theme answers (i.e. where the clue is the answer and the answer is the clue). "Answers" never quite feel natural (e.g. BOWLER'S ... COUP? OK. Not a phrase that trips off the tongue, but accurate enough). Not much else to say... no great answers. Not much dreck. Just a theme that feels wonky to me.

Theme answers:

• 17A: *Ball (GREAT TIME)
  
• 24A: *Strike (WORK STOPPAGE)
  
• 29A: *Ball (LAVISH PARTY)
  
• 40A: *Strike (BOWLER'S COUP)
  
• 46A: *Ball (TV COMEDIENNE)
  

Bullets:

• 26A: What's in carrots but not celery? (HARD C) — old trick, though I considered other letters before realizing it was the first one.
  
• 62A: Marco Island locale: Abbr. (FLA) — All the answers I didn't know were in one place: CURIAE, EILAT, FLA, DUFFY (this last one was particularly confusing, since Julia is also the name of a *character* in "Designing Women": Julia Sugarbaker, played by the late, great Dixie Carter (49D: Julia of "Designing Women")).
  
• 47D: Modern screening device (V-CHIP) — I've never seen one of these in action, so the answer rarely occurs to me right away.
  
• 66A: Meal with the Four Questions (SEDER) — I've been to precisely one SEDER, 22 years ago. Memorable enough for me to get this with only the slightest hesitation.

Going to trying to sleep now, though the news out of Japan is going to make that slightly difficult, I fear.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Gaucho's plain / TUE 12-21-10 / Windblown soil / Keatsian Pindaric / Composition of Jack Haley's Oz character

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: 3 steps back — "L" is moved back three spaces in familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, clued wackily


Word of the Day: LOESS (25D: Windblown soil) —

Loess (pronounced /ˈloʊ.əs/, /ˈlʌs/, or /ˈlɛs/) is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt and lesser and variable amounts of sand and clay that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate. It is usually homogeneous and highly porous and is traversed by vertical capillaries that permit the sediment to fracture and form vertical bluffs. // The word loess, with connotations of origin by wind-deposited accumulation, is of German origin and means “loose.” It was first applied to Rhine River valley loess about 1821 (wikipedia)

• • •

Very strange theme. Not sure there is any rhyme or reason to the movement of the "L"—some turn of phrase that is being visually illustrated, for instance—but if there is, I can't see it. Just looks like a "move-the-L" puzzle to me, and that seems as good an excuse for a Tuesday theme as any. Can't say I'm that fond of any of the resulting theme answers, except possibly CHRISTMAS CLAROS (37A: Holiday smokes?). PLANE BOARDS is dull (17A: F.A.A. supervisors?), MIND BLOGGING comes out awkward as a verb phrase (24A: Object to online commentary?), BLOTTED WATER is not much less dull than PLANE BOARDS (48A: Cleaned up after a spill?), and ADAM SLANDER ... that's pretty good, I guess (58A: Defamation in the Garden of Eden?). Luckily, there are other answers to spice up this grid, like THE KINKS (!) (5D: "Lola" band) and LACERATE (39D: Cut jaggedly) and CARRY-ON BAG (29D: Allotment of one, usually, for an airline passenger). All of those are lovely, and go a long way to making up for ODIC (26D: Keatsian or Pindaric) and LOESS (25D: Windblown soil) and AMIR (40D: Mideast potentate: Var.) and LLANO (15A: Gaucho's plain) and ISM (19A: Belief suffix) (all less-than-desirable crosswordese), as well as the EREIMANIASET Partial Experience.



I think I would have liked MIND BLOGGING better if it had been clued as MIND-BLOGGING ... maybe something like [Psychokinetic online commentary].

Really wish I had more to say about this one, but I don't. So, rather than blather to fill space—straight to Bullets.

Bullets:

• 3D: Shepard in space (ALAN) — constructor signature. Nice.
  
• 15A: Gaucho's plain (LLANO) — Are there LLAMA on the LLANO? Or are they just in the Andes?
  
• 30A: "Waiting for Lefty" playwright (ODETS) — What are we up to now: ALBEE, INGE, ... ODETS. Oh, and IBSEN (12D: "The Wild Duck" playwright Henrik). Weird: I'd consider IBSEN the more famous playwright, and yet the clue provides IBSEN's first name, but doesn't provide ODETS' (Clifford).
  
• 64A: Playing pieces in Rummikub (TILES) — No idea what "Rummikub" is. Sounds Finnish. Is it Finnish? ... nope, Israeli. No matter: "playing pieces" was enough to make this easy.
  
• 11A: Composition of Jack Haley's Oz character (TIN) — no idea what to make of this at first because I was thinking of "Oz" the TV show ... ERST on HBO (56D: Once, old-style + 16A: "Six Feet Under" network)
  

Did you see the TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE last night? Me either.

Happy Winter Solstice.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]