All Way Lyricist / WED 6-15-11 / Leftorium proprietor on Simpsons / Noel who played Lois Lane / Sid's sidekick / Diamond complements /

Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: What X has? — three pairs of theme answers. First answer of each pair is just an answer, while second has a clue that asks [What [the first one] has?], a clue which is meant to be taken literally; thus HAAGEN-DAZS has a HIDDEN AGENDA, because "AGENDA" is "HIDDEN" inside the answer "HAAGEN-DAZS" ...


Word of the Day: LEO Gorcey (25D: Actor Gorcey) —

Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917 – June 2, 1969) was an American stage and movie actor who became famous for portraying on film the leader of the group of young hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs he participated in, young Leo was the filmic prototype of the young punk. He was the shortest and the oldest of the original gang. (wikipedia)

• • •

The theme is loose, to say the least—three pairs of answers that have virtually nothing to do with each other besides the literal meaning of the second clue in each pair. No thematic unity. There have been two INSIDE DOPE puzzles since I started blogging (here and here). The second one inspired me to write my own version (here). Cute wordplay involved in today's puzzle, but lack of theme coherence made it less than totally enjoyable. Also less than enjoyable were the random oooolde-timey actors I've never heard of: LEO Gorcey? Noel NEILL? (50D: Noel who played Lois Lane) LILA Kedrova? (57A: Oscar winner Kedrova) Then there were the olde-timey names that are genuinely famous, like IMOGENE Coca (9D: Sid's sidekick of early TV) and Sammy CAHN (1D: "All the Way" lyricist). We get it. You like old stuff (see Wechsler's last puzzle, here). OK. Enough already. Give the last quarter century some love. If anyone wrote a puzzle that was as aggressively contemporary as this one is aggressively dated, people would lose their ... let's say "minds." To this puzzle's credit, it has NED (41D: Leftorium proprietor on "The Simpsons"). Also to its credit, despite the slew of obscure proper nouns (LEO, NOEL, and LILA), it was very doable. I was under 4 minutes—fast for me, for a Wednesday, and faster even than yesterday's puzzle. ENNEADS (40D: Diamond complements) and CEMENT NAIL (10D: Fastener for basement flooring, perhaps) are less than lovely, as long answers go, but USED CAR LOT is OK (26D: Sleazy salesman's site, stereotypically), and overall I thought the puzzle was reasonably enjoyable.

[LILA Kedrova as Madame Hortence, a role for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award]

Theme answers:

• 16A: Food product whose name is an example of "foreign branding" (HAAGEN-DAZS)
  
• 22A: What 16-Across has? (HIDDEN AGENDA)
  
• 28A: Guest worker, e.g. (RESIDENT ALIEN)
  
• 39A: What 28-Across has? (DENTAL FILLING) — this is the answer that caused me to get the theme. Took a few, awkward seconds.
  
• 46A: Ribbon-cutting event (GRAND OPENING)
  
• 58A: What 46-Across has? (INSIDE DOPE)
  

Bullets:

• 21A: Thousand-dollar sums, slangily (GEES) — I would not write out "GEE" like that. Just the letter. Five Gs, e.g.

• 24A: Quark-binding particle (GLUON) — all the -ONs, (MU- GLU- etc.) I know about only from crosswords. "Glue" binds, so GLUON is one of the easier -ONs to remember.
  
• 27A: Hobby farm denizens (ANTS) — Are there other "hobby farms" besides ANT farms?
  
• 2D: Computer serviced at Genius Bars (IMAC) — *might be* serviced at Genius Bars (which is just the name of service desks in Apple stores).
  
• 7D: Former NPR host Hansen (LIANE) — Will's weekly interlocutor for many years.
  
• 47D: Piece of kabuki costumery (OBI) — I'm just including this because I like the word "costumery."
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

She hid Zeus from Cronus / FRI 6-3-11 / Literally barley / Biblical 912-year-old / Misanthrope We are all born mad / Principal player Grease

Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: WALLY COX (15A: Voicer of Underdog on TV) —

Wallace Maynard Cox (December 6, 1924 – February 15, 1973) was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. TV series Mr. Peepers (1952–55), plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films. Wally Cox was the voice of the popular animated cartoon character Underdog. Although often cast as a meek milquetoast, he was actually strong and athletic. He married three times and was a close friend of Marlon Brando. (wikipedia)

• • •

I got demolished by this puzzle. In fact, I was borderline certain that I would not Ever get the NW corner, which was empty save SIRS (23A: Generic addressees) for something close to ever. I often tease puzzles for feeling "old," which is generational bias on my part, I realize, but holy moly this puzzle reeks of mothballs. Is there anything post-1965 in the whole thing? Jeez louise, check out this litany:

• WALLY COX
• AL OERTER (3D: Winner of gold in four consecutive Olympics, 1956-68)
• EVE ARDEN (37D: Principal player in "Grease") (I guess "Grease" is 1978 in this case, but EVE ARDEN's career has its center of gravity way, way earlier. She was 70 when "Grease" came out; "Grease 2," starring Michelle Pfeiffer, was her last movie (1982). In case it's not clear from the clue, EVE ARDEN played the school principal, not the principal (i.e. main) role.
  
• Peter O'TOOLE (who gets a "Ratatouille" clue, but come on...) (16A: Voicer of Ego in "Ratatouille")
• RICH (bleeping) LITTLE (!?) (51A: Great ape?)
• Nina SIMONE (I do love her) (47D: She had a 1959 hit with "I Loves You, Porgy")
• BATES MOTEL (I do love "Psycho") (24A: Chilly shower setting?)

SPACE AGE is right (1A: Launch time?). I'd have thrown ANTONIO Vivaldi (42D: Composer Vivaldi) and CATO (56D: Foe of Caesar) in to that list to strengthen the point, but you get the idea. This is a puzzle that (912-year-old) SETH would have loved. It's also aggressively high culture (the anti-(current) pop culture folks have their ideal here, I think): ROSS, ESTRAGON, RHEA (29A: "King Richard II" lord; 39A: Misanthrope who says "We are all born mad. Some remain so"; 20A: She hid Zeus from Cronus). Throw in some high-end SAT words like NEMATODE (59A: Wheatworm, e.g.) and PALLIATE and you have a very challenging puzzle. I'd be stunned if this was easier than normal for most folks (esp. those under 50), though I would Not be stunned if the majority of my audience had a far easier time with this than I did. I haven't tanked a puzzle this bad in months.


Spent close to half my (long) solving time in the NW, as I say. The worst part was that I had EXERTED, and that "X" should have been Gold; but it gave me nothing. In the end, I guess I've vaguely heard of WALLY COX, but not such that I could plunk him down without significant help from crosses, which was Not forthcoming. Ironically, the only reason I was able (eventually) to make a dent in that corner At All was AL OERTER, someone I've never seen or heard of outside of crosswords. I learned his name because I had to (it's very vowely, and thus shows up from time to time). This allowed me to get OAT (??? come on!) milk. I must have put UTE in and taken UTE out a million times. A single UTE warrants an entire museum? Interesting. She must be quite impressive. (30A: Subject of a museum in eastern Colorado)

Stupidest thing I did was fail to get HUES (28D: They can be saturated). I looked at HU-S, and then actually ran the alphabet and still only came up with HUTS ("wow, that is lame," I rightly thought). This kept TERSE well hidden for a long time (33A: Without any embroidery). No hope on "ALOUETTE" (17A: Children's song that's based on an old work song melody). Had SWAPS OUT as an early guess (1D: Exchanges), but it yielded little until I got AL OERTER in there. Wanted PLEBS to be the much nicer-looking/sounding PEONS (19A: The unwashed). People juggle CLUBS? (4D: Set for juggling) BALLS, yes. Bowling pins, sure. CLUBS? OK ... looks like those things I thought were bowling pins were actually just CLUBS. Hmm. ACT was brutally clued (6D: More than talk). Figured GAB or YAK would be the answer. GOT was also nearly impossible without crosses (7D: Confounded). And despite knowing what PALLIATE means (2D: Ease), it took me Forever to get there.


Grid as a whole seems just fine, but this one was Way out of both my comfort and pleasure zone. Best part of the puzzle by far, for me, was the clue on BATES MOTEL (24A: Chilly shower setting?).

Bullets:

• 46A: Alternative to being tapped ("PSST!") — again, Saturday-tough. No idea why anyone thought this was a Friday.
  
• 55A: Literally, "barley" (ORZO) — got this easily, but have no idea why. Four letters, small and grain-like ...
  
• 14D: They might provide coverage for racecars (DECALS) — clever, but again, quite tough.
  
• 36D: Spinning device giving the illusion of motion (ZOETROPE) — I know this only as the name of Francis Ford Coppola's studio (American ZOETROPE, actually). Now owned entirely by Coppola's children, Roman and Sofia.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]