TV oilman-turned-private eye / TUE 10-25-11 / Scout's rider of early TV / Time in title of 1965 Wilson Pickett hit / Grotto isle of Italy / Cylindrical sandwich

Constructor: C.W. Stewart

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: WHERE ART THOU? (57A: Question that follows "O Brother" in film ... and a hint to this puzzle's theme) — "THOU" is hidden inside four theme answers

Word of the Day: MATT HOUSTON (28A: TV oilman-turned-private eye) —

Matt Houston is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1982 to 1985. Created by Lawrence Gordon, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling. // Matt Houston stars Lee Horsley as a wealthy mustachioed Texas oilman named Matlock "Matt" Houston who worked as a private investigator in Los Angeles in his abundant free time. The show also stars Pamela Hensley as his lawyer sidekick, C.J., and George Wyner as his continuously frustrated business manager. During the show's third and final season (1984–85), Buddy Ebsen joined the cast as Matt Houston's uncle, Roy Houston. (wikipedia)

• • •

MIDNIGHT HOUR is essentially a partial and the theme revealer is a partial and one of the other theme answers is an extremely short-lived '80s crime drama—all these things add up to a not-so-lovable theme. Also, since you can't divide "THOU" anywhere but between the "T" and the "H," the puzzle theme may as well have been "two-word phrases whose second words start "HOU-"; that's certainly what I thought I was dealing with until the end. Grid is almost completely devoid of non-theme answers longer than five letters. What few there are are forgettable, or annoyingly weird (IN FUTURO? TEE SHIRT? It's a TEE, or a T-SHIRT ... see every other crossword where this word has ever appeared). Puzzle also features one of the least clever and most annoying clues of all time (___ Kong). The only time I ever want to see that clue is if the answer is DONKEY. The whole "Is it KING or is it HONG?" gimmick is bush league. Fill is generally solid, and I think the puzzle's heart is in the right place, i.e. I can see how the idea might have seemed promising and clever initially. But if a promising and clever idea yields only mediocre results ... scrap it.



Theme answers:

• 20A: Time in the title of a 1965 Wilson Pickett hit (MIDNIGHT HOUR)
• 28A: TV oilman-turned-private eye (MATT HOUSTON)
• 39A: Multiple-dwelling buildings (APARTMENT HOUSES) — tried TENEMENT HOUSES here, only to find it wouldn't fit.
• 46A: Droopy-eared dog (BASSET HOUND)

Bullets:

• 61A: Grotto isle of Italy (CAPRI) — easy once I got the "I." Before that, I had an "O" because I tried to solve 40D: Vacation souvenir wear without looking at the clue and wrote in TEE SHOTS. 

• 31D: Scout's rider of early TV (TONTO) — which means "stupid" or "foolish" in Spanish (trivia I learned from crosswords) 
• 57D: Cylindrical sandwich (WRAP) — even with the "W" in place I had a little trouble with this. TACO and GYRO kept insisting that I consider them.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Actress Berger / SUN 6-12-11 / Superman II villainess / Old Church of England foe / Seaport on Adriatic / Diamond substitute / Line of cliffs

Constructor: C.W. Stewart

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Pullet" — theme answers (signaled by starred clues) are things that can be pulled. A pullet is a young chicken.


Word of the Day: SENTA Berger (103D: Actress Berger) —

Senta Berger (born May 13, 1941) is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author. // Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include three Bambi Awards, two Romys, an Adolf Grimme Award, both a Deutscher and a Bayerischer Fernsehpreis, and a Goldene Kamera. // Berger married director and producer Michael Verhoeven in 1966. They are the parents of actors Simon and Luca Verhoeven. (wikipedia)

• • •

The title just doesn't work. I get that it's a pun (sounds like "pull it"), but the puzzle has nothing to do with chickens and there's no real play on words when you just have one word that has zero to do with the puzzle. Then there's the fact that "things that can be pulled" just doesn't make for a very satisfying theme. Clues are just ... literal. They're things. Nothing to discover. No aha moments. Just ... "Hmm. OK." Then there's ONE'S LEG, which is fine in theme context but Horrible as an answer to its clue, 51D: *Something to stand on. ONE LEG is the answer to the clue. ONE'S LEG is an absurdity. What else are you going to stand on? And which leg? Just makes no sense. (I also had a major issue with 66D: Ain't fixed? (IS NOT) as well—[Ain't fixed] is AREN'T. What's "wrong" with "ain't" is not the apostrophe. Parallel construction matters). I WANNA is too long for a partial (20D: Start of a childish plaint). The less said about HER'N, the better (8D: Not his'n). SENTA? Not on my radar. RELIC of the past??? What kind of redundancy is that? Ugh, I see that it has a lot of users, so it's valid, but I really hate it. ESNE!? I thought we'd buried you forever (76D: Feudal serf). GUN TRIGGER???? "Pull the gun trigger!" he said, redundantly. "Or else we'll just be a relic of the past!" I liked ALL-NIGHTER and LITURGY (89D: Service arrangement) and SHORTIE (13D: Shrimp) and not much else. No, wait—Ironically (or fittingly), I liked SOURPUSS (104A: Killjoy).


Middle of the puzzle was by far the hardest. IS NOT was part of the problem, as was NAIR v. NEET (67D: Classic brand of hair remover). Could not remember LINTEL (52D: Piece over a door or window) to save my life. Adriatic seaport also a mystery for a while (56A: Seaport of the Adriatic=>RIMINI). ONE'S LEG ... you know how I feel about that. Bah. Rest of the puzzle was pretty easy.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Boardwalk offering (SALT WATER TAFFY) — my favorite of the theme answers by far
  
• 38A: *Diamond substitute (RELIEF PITCHER) — I usually think of the RELIEF PITCHER as the guy who comes in for the guy who's been pulled, but you can certainly pull a RELIEF PITCHER, so it works.
  
• 64A: *Handy things for toys? (PUPPET STRINGS)
  
• 93A: *Staple of "Candid Camera" (PRACTICAL JOKE)
  
• 114A: *Radio Flyer, e.g. (LITTLE RED WAGON)
  
• 3D: *Certain study session (ALL-NIGHTER)
  
• 51D: *Something to stand on (ONE'S LEG)
  
• 75D: *It may be found near a barrel (GUN TRIGGER)
  

Bullets:

• 87A: "Up in the Air" actress Kendrick (ANNA) — actress #2 that I don't know today.
  
• 123A: "Superman II" villainess (URSA) — I've been bitten by this one before.
  
• 9D: Ad-packed Sunday newspaper section (TRAVEL) — now the puzzle is trying to get you to read other parts of the paper. Interesting.
  
• 14D: Old Church of England foe (PAPIST) — Weird. I never knew anyone to call himself a PAPIST. I've only ever seen the word in anti-Catholic rhetoric. Rare to see someone self-identify as a PAPIST. Webster's 3rd Int'l says "usu. used disparagingly." Clue should've marked the word's prejudicial nature.
  
• 16D: Chinese dynasty of 1,200 years ago (TANG) — pfft. I dunno. Wait for crosses. (and come on: TANG is an orange drink, or [Zestiness] ... it is also a fish ... as well as uncluable slang; well, uncluable in the NYT, that is)

• 68D: Line of cliffs (SCARP) — I went with ARETE. They're both produced by erosion. Sadly, that didn't make my answer right.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Fred's dancing sister / TUE 3-1-11 / International writers org. appropriate initials / Old TV antenna / LEM maker

Constructor: C.W. Stewart

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:23)

THEME: SPOT OF TEA (35D: 4 p.m. British refreshment ... or what can be found in 18-, 25-, 47- and 58-Across and 3-Down) — two-word phrases in which "TEA" is embedded


Word of the Day: PEN (36D: International writers' org. with appropriate initials) —

International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. // PEN originally stood for "Poets, Essayists and Novelists", but now includes writers of any form of literature, such as journalists and historians. // Other goals included: to emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views. // It is the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. (wikipedia)

• • •

If this had run yesterday and yesterday's had run today, I don't think anyone would have blinked. As it was, yesterday came in as one of the more challenging Mondays ever and this one ... well, we'll see, but it's certainly no tougher than average, and felt a bit easy. Now, for me, we really are talking about matters of seconds when it comes to making difficulty distinctions. Yesterday's high-3s was way outside my normal Monday solving range, whereas today's was well within my normal Tuesday range, though somewhat on the low side, and a good half minute faster than yesterday's. But none of this has anything to do with how good the puzzle was, and it was good. Very good. C.W. Stewart is quickly becoming my favorite early-week puzzle constructor. Her grids are smooth and her themes are simple, clever, and coherent. She probably had a *bunch* of "TEA"-containing phrases on the table, but the ones she chose were all solid phrases, all with "TEA" touching each word of the theme phrase, and all the right length to allow for 4 Acrosses *and* 2 Downs, including the (great) revealer. This is a model early-week puzzle. Study it, aspiring constructors. You've got a stray bit of crosswordese here (AMAH), a slightly unappealing word there (IDEATE), but otherwise everything just hums. A+.

Theme answers:

• 18A: It measures less than 90° (ACUTE ANGLE)
  
• 25A: Say "nay" to (VOTE AGAINST)
  
• 47A: One who was detained, maybe (LATE ARRIVAL)
  
• 58A: Old TV antenna (RABBIT EARS)
  
• 3D: Shrivel to nothing (WASTE AWAY)
  

I realized that I get held up most (in easy puzzles) by long answers that my clue window can't contain (one of the perils of solving online and forgetting to expand your clue window to max width before starting). This gave me trouble toward the end, when I hit the clue for SPOT OF TEA and especially the clue for PEN (36D: International writers' org. with appropriate initials), which is a Thursday-type clue for PEN, frankly). Only other answers that slowed me down at all were NET SALES (8D: Income statement figure)—just didn't leap out at me for a while—and the PTS / QTS center, mainly because I held off on writing it in, deciding to wait for crosses, not realizing that one of the crosses was the identical clue ... so, not tough, just confusing at high speeds.

Bullets:

• 17A: LEM maker (NASA) — Lunar Excursion Module. I always forget what the "E" is supposed to stand for ("...Escape?")
  
• 28A: Fred's dancing sister (ADELE) — I really want this clue to die since this woman is already way more famous than Fred's dancing sister ever was (to most of America, if not to the bulk of constant crossword solvers):

• 66A: Garbage hauler (SCOW) — still having the "C" / "K" problem
  
• 11D: Most common inert gas in the atmosphere (ARGON) — is XENON inert? It's what I wanted, stupidly.
  
• 56A: Keepers of jewels (SAFES) — watched "Wait Until Dark" (1967) yesterday. Preposterous in many ways, but gripping nonetheless. Anyway, there's a safe that plays a minor role in the movie, even though it ends up being a bit of a red herring.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]