Hockey East town / FRI 11-18-11 / Partner of ciencias / Cry repeated Whiffenpoof Song / 1955 Belmont Preakness winner

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TOGGERY (39D: Duds) —

n. pl. tog·ger·ies

1. Clothing; togs.

2. A clothing store. (freedictionary.com)

• • •

A relatively easy and almost completely unremarkable puzzle. Fridays and Saturdays should have fresh, original, splashy answers. This one doesn't. I like AND I QUOTE ... but I've seen it before. NO MYSTERY is vaguely interesting. Otherwise, it's a solid but completely generic puzzle. Well, solid except for TAUR, SASES, IFY, and SEATER. And maybe SEINER.





["MAKIN' It" — 50A: "___ It," 1979 top 10 hit)] 

[What the hell?]

Got a fast start on this one with RIDGE (too easy) and then ENOS (5D: Grandson of 21-Across) (which I wrote in without even confirming what 21-Across was—seemed obvious). Whole NW went down from there, with only ARTES (19A: Partner of ciencias) giving me any trouble (couldn't piece together what "ciencias" was; thought it was 100 ... something, but now that I say it out loud, its real meaning seems more obvious). No real problems through the middle. Needed crosses to get NASHUA (28D: 1955 Belmont and Preakness winner that shared its name with a U.S. city), wrote in SONY for SEGA at first (46A: Big maker of consoles), but nothing slowed me down much. SE was as easy if not easier than the NW (except for the part where I wanted ELI instead of BAA—42A: Cry repeated in "The Whiffenpoof Song"). Really dislike IN A BIKINI (32D: How some calorie counters eventually want to look good)—it's just not not not a stand-alone phrase, any more than IN A PANTSUIT or IN A MUUMUU. NE and SW proved somewhat more difficult. Finally cracked the NE when I guessed (off a few crosses) SCHNITZEL (18A: Veal dish). DIANA ROSS helped as well (6A: Billboard once named her "Female Entertainer of the Century"). SW was probably the toughest, primarily because of TOGGERY (!?!?!) and NO MYSTERY (57A: Something transparent), which I kept trying to make into a fabric like POLYESTER. Guessed ORONO much the same way I guessed ENOS—had a letter in the right place, and it just felt right (44D: Hockey East town). ENOS and ORONO are everywhere. Every constant solver knows them. Crosswordese is a massive fund that we draw on almost instinctively when making educated guesses about 3-5-letter words. See also SASES.






[30D: "Love Sneakin' Up on You" singer, 1994 = Bonnie RAITT]
Bullets:

• 35A: Pollux and Aldebaran (K-STARS) — had the KST- part before I ever saw the clue, so it was easy. Just finished watching "The Empire Strikes Back" with my daughter. Aldebaran sounds like somebody's home planet. 
• 37A: Capone portrayer, 1959 (STEIGER) — I did not know that. He won an Academy Award for "In the Heat of the Night"; he also did other stuff.

• 10D: Environmental datum of concern to asthmatics, for short (AQI) — Air Quality Index. Pretty sure I learned this from crosswords.
• 50D: Fashion designer Jacobs (MARC) — here is an interesting datum about Mr. Jacobs: "He is perhaps best known as the designer of STEVE Jobs' (13D: Either co-founder of Apple) rimless eyeglasses, which became a sought-after item following Jobs' death in 2011 and sold out in stores around the world" (wikipedia).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Neurotic Martin Short character / SUN 10-23-11 / Slayer of his brother Bleda / Like average folks in Britain / Start of 1957 song

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Take It From The Top" — Familiar phrases beginning with "IT" have "IT" removed, leaving ... odd phrases, clued wackily ("?"-style)

Word of the Day: Jennifer EHLE (119A: "Pride and Prejudice" actress Jennifer) —

Jennifer Ehle (born December 29, 1969) is a British-American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice. (wikipedia)

• • •

I pity the fool who has to follow Patrick Berry.

[For those who are solving this in syndication on Oct. 30, this puzzle followed a massive 6-day metapuzzle spectacular by Patrick Berry; I guess you all won't get to participate in the contest (don't worry, the prizes were terrible anyway), but I assume you'll be getting the first of those puzzles in about four weeks time—at least I hope so, for your sake. They were amazing]

This is one of those Sunday puzzles that makes me wish I didn't have to do Sunday puzzles anymore. It seems like a puzzle that was called into being by the title—it's so spot-on, that it almost makes me think it came first. I can't believe that's true, but if I found out it were, I wouldn't be terribly shocked. The resulting phrases aren't funny, even with wacky "?" clues, and the fill was forgettable at best, horrific at worst. I have UGH written next to whole sections. The DYNAST / SALVIA (69A: Plant known as "seer's sage" because of its hallucinatory effects) / AMIENS (75A: Somme place) / LINO / ELY section. The IDEAL GAS (115A: Matter in statistical mechanics) / EHLE (!?) / CAA (?) section (104D: Major org. representing entertainers and athletes). The AD REM / ONEISH / QUI section. The PPG / AMSO section. NON-U, ugh (97A: Like average folks, in Britain). AVISOS, ughwordese (117A: Dispatch boats). TAX SALE ... zzzz (1D: Transference of property to pay assessments). Frankly, the whole thing feels auto-filled. A human being would / should balk at much of this stuff.

I know Merril HOGE, but didn't figure he'd be well known enough for the puzzle (20D: Longtime ESPN football analyst Merril ___). And spelling his name, forget about it (it's pronounced "HODGE"—not sure where the "D" went). What's annoying is how much more constructors earn for making a Sunday puzzle (5x what a weekday puzzle fetches!). I have never, not once, had five times the pleasure or joy from a Sunday puzzle. I have (many times) had 5x the tedium. Yet another inexplicable and backward feature of the crossword world ... kind of like the technical incompetence of the people who run the NYT "Crosswords & Games" web page (who have had two big screw-ups in the last two days). No reason for it, and yet ... there it is.

All the theme answers are down, so "IT" is literally taken "from the top." That's a vaguely interesting architectural feature, I'll give it that.

Theme answers:

• 3D: Gets up for the debate? (STANDS TO REASON)
• 7D: Beats it and won't explain why? (GOES WITHOUT SAYING) – see, this just doesn't work, even at the wacky level. The clue supplies the "why" that is *clearly missing* in the answer
• 8D: Proof that a "Jersey Shore" character has an incontinence problem? (DEPENDS ON THE SITUATION) — Ew. On many levels, ew.
• 13D: Arrests an entire crime syndicate? (RUNS IN THE FAMILY)
• 42D: Contents of Lenin's tomb, e.g.? (REMAINS TO BE SEEN)
• 33D: Eschews Mensa material when going to parties? (DOESN'T TAKE A GENIUS) — by "material" do you mean a human being? A date? Clue is weird.
  
• 50D: Merits at least a 20% tip? (SERVES YOU RIGHT) — people *usually* drop the "IT" when saying this phrase.   

Bullets:

• 1A: Onetime propaganda source (TASS) — Considered ITAR and USSR as well.
• 32A: Neurotic Martin Short character (ED GRIMLEY) — whoa, talk about dated. I'd completely forgotten about this guy (and he was before my "SNL" time, anyway — my "SNL" time being the Phil Hartman years to the present)
• 38A: Start of a 1957 hit song ("DAY O") — He's got a new book. Belafonte, I mean.
• 65A: 1985 film based on "King Lear" ("RAN") — gimme. Kurosawa is superb.
• 90A: His debut album was "Rhyme Pays" (ICE-T) — he used to be a crossword standard, but I feel like he's fallen off the grid is recent years. He raps a lot in "Breakin'" (1984).

• 99A: ___ Park, classic Coney Island amusement locale (LUNA) — I knew this only because I have a graphic novel called "LUNA Park"
• 11D: Athlete's attire, informally (UNI) — short for "Unicycle"
• 15D: Slayer of his brother Bleda (ATTILA) — how come no one's named "Bleda" any more?
• 94D: Untraditional, as some marriages (SAME SEX) — really really dislike this clue. If you're going to have an "untraditional" marriage, then maybe it will be open, or bi-coastal, or sexless, or brodcast on the internet, or ... I don't know. But you're just not going to say "oh, their marriage is very untraditional ... it's SAME SEX." I see why the clue is the way it is, I know what it's getting at, but no. Clue should simply read [Like some marriages]. Done and done. You could even add "New York" or "Iowa" to the clue if you wanted.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

1990 Clint Eastwood cop film / FRI 9-16-11 / Actress Diana / Minnesota home of Martin Luther College / Morse who sang "Cow-Cow Boogie"

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ELF OWLS (46A: Small night creatures) —

The Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi) is a member of the owl family Strigidae that breeds in the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is the world's lightest owl, although the Long-whiskered Owlet and the Tamaulipas Pygmy-owl are of a similarly diminutive length.^[2] The mean body weight of this species is 40 grams (1.4 oz). These tiny owls are 12.5 to 14.5 cm (4.7-5.5 in) long and have a wingspan of about 27 cm (10.6 in).^[3] Their primary projection extends nearly past their tail. They have fairly long legs and often appear bow-legged. They can often be heard calling to one another just after dusk or at sunset. Their call is a high-pitched whinny or chuckle. The male and female dart around trees and call back and forth. (wikipedia)

• • •

RP is away at some fellow's wedding this weekend, so you've got some guest bloggers filling in for the next few day. I'll leave my identity a mystery until the end of this post - you can be like one of the owls in this post asking, "Who?"

There were many people in this puzzle I've never heard of. Frankly, I doubt I'll ever hear of them again. Who is (33A: Wallace) STEGNER (who wrote "Angle of Repose")? I suppose that question answers itself. The Modern Library listed it as #82 on its list of top English-language novels of the 20th century, which I guess makes it fair game, but doesn't change my ignorance. Fair enough are THIN OUT (2D: Become sparse) and the cute (3D: Change one's image, in a way?) for RESCALE. That's something I'm fairly familiar with as a substitute blogger - grabbing pics from the net and rescaling them. Do we need both "in a way" and the ? in the clue? I don't think so. There was only one word crossing this one that I didn't think was completely fair, but the letter was guessable. We'll get to it shortly.

Who was  (6D: Actress Diana) DORS? Turns out she was the "English Marilyn Monroe." Diana Dors fun-facts:

• When she was 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls Royce.
• She was once married to "Family Feud" host Richard Dawson and gave him two children.
• She was born Diana Fluck, but changed her name. Can't imagine why, especially since much of her work was borderline pornographic.

And who is ELLA MAE? She's Ms. (38D: Moore who sang "Cow-Cow Boogie"). There is not other option but to just simply let you listen to the song:

Who is NOAM (22A: Pitlik who directed "Barney Miller" and "Mr. Belvedere")? Again, I guess I've answer the question myself. Prolific TV director and actor with many supporting/ancillary roles. How I'd know his name I'll never know, but he's won an Emmy for outstanding direction, so I guess that makes him fair game. His crossing are a subset of Stegner's no no great issue here. But we do have a big Where? to contend with.

You might remember Rex's Natick Principle from a few years back. Tell me: Where is NEW ULM? (Okay, it's the (29D: Minnesota home of Martin Luther College).) But have you heard of it before? Fact: There are more characters on the Wikipedia page for New Ulm than people in that town. (Admittedly, Tippi Hedren was born there.)

I think it qualifies as a place that less than a quarter of solvers - even Friday solvers! - have heard of. So it's an educated guess on Stegner, an "I think so" on TWA being the (35A: Old "One mission. Yours." sloganeer) and figuring out that it's an M to start MFG, the (49: Abbr. before "Co." in some company names). Fairly fair, as I guessed right on all of them, but it felt like there was much more luck than I cared for here. This isn't a craps table; luck shouldn't be a big factor. And it looks like it should be New Elm, but you know HEINOUS has to be right for (37A: Worse than awful) - at least once you move past trying to fit HELLISH in. Did you have as big an issue with New Elm as I did? I feel like I'm channeling Angry Rex - perhaps he's displeased with his hotel accommodations. Let's go to a happy place.

No "who" necessary for HAN SOLO, though - that (47A: Reckless smuggler of sci-fi) was played by none other than Kris Kristofferson. What follows is perhaps the most memorable scene from all six films:

Han was the first thing to fall with 100% certainty, so I worked from there slowly but sure. Man this took a while and was just a bunch of jumping all over.

Bullets:

• (1A: Reduce to bare bones) STRIP DOWN — This is one of those entries where, were it not in The Times, I imagine the clue would been much more colorful, like (Pay a poker penalty) or something like that.
• (31A: Firm) AL DENTE — Too often I go to restaurants and they claim al dente but the word they are looking for is raw. Please don't undercook your pasta!
• (63A: Spread quickly over the Internet) GONE VIRAL — Like my favorite, Nyan Cat! He's so cute! Wait - did you think that was a real cat? Nope!
• (39D: "From my perspective...") I, FOR ONE — And this entry could clue answers like FIRST PERSON PRONOUN and ROMAN NUMERAL. I smell a chain theme coming in the future where theme entries are clued by the previous entries. Not sure whether I look forward to solving something like that.
• (37D: Alice Cooper's appropriately titled theme song for "Friday the 13th, Part VI") HE'S BACK — This is an appropriate one to end on as I reveal my identity - the song first, and then my name.
  

Signed, Neville, Prince of CrossWorld

Carmine's cousin / SAT 3-19-11 / Pitch setter / Rockling, e.g. / Basilica di San Nicola locale

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: easy-medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MASTIC (Resin used in varnishes) —

(Greek: Μαστίχα) is a resin obtained from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus). In pharmacies and Nature shops it is called "arabic gum" (not to be confused with gum arabic) and "Yemen gum". . . Mastic is used as a raw material in the production of some varnishes. Mastic varnish was used to protect and preserve photographic negatives. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello, treedweller here. For those who may not be aware, this weekend is the ACPT in Brooklyn, so our regular host is occupied and he has given me another opportunity to sit in the driver's seat. Some of you may recall my previous outing was also on a Saturday and I got slaughtered. My saving grace that weekend was to give a little solace to all the other clueless (answer-less?) puzzlers who are routinely demoralized by Rex's comments in the vein of "I dropped in [something you never imagined was even a word] immediately with no crosses and was done in four minutes."

This time, I find myself discussing another Saturday puzzle. I've improved over the last year or two and no longer consider it a miracle when I finish a Fri/Sat puzzle, but I still fail as often as I succeed (yesterday, for example). Today, I actually finished without cheating in just over half an hour, which is not quite good enough for the ACPT but faster than most of the Saturdays I've completed. It's probably Rex-Easy, but I threw in the hyphen-medium to make myself feel a little better about my success*. Those of you who still can't even get a toehold on Saturday have my permission to rate it Beyond Challenging. Go ahead, have fun, it's just us kids today.

This struck me as a light offering for the weekend. It was definitely a tough puzzle, but seemed a little mundane. Saturdays, I expect to be quizzed on the moons of Jupiter or the operatic works of [someone opera people would know but I don't because the only opera I know came from puzzles]. This was all pretty in-the-language stuff clued Saturday Hard. As with most of my successful Saturdays, I got a smattering of answers, some of which proved wrong, and I was sure I'd never finish, but then I slowly picked up an AAVERAGE (57A: It's between 90 and 100) here and an AIR IRAN (47A / 48D: it stopped flying to New York in 1979) there, and before I realized it I was closing in on the final squares (*correcting my error at 28D: Pitch setter -- CLEF, as it turns out--more on that later). The most obscure trivia I see is BARI (52A: Basilica di San Nicola locale) and my word of the day, MASTIC (27A: Resin used in varnishes). Unfortunately for me, the latter tripped me up and I finished with an error.

Actually, the problem started with DEFIANT (40A: Unwilling to stay in line), where I got the 'D' and the ANT and confidently threw down "deviant". So when I came to 28D: Pitch setter (which, I must say, had me mystified for most of the time I was solving), I suddenly realized it had to be "elev", never mind there's no indication of an abbreviation in the clue. And so I spent a few minutes post-solve trying to figure out what "mastie" was. Some of you are probably saying, "How long has he been at this that he doesn't know MASTIC?" but it's a new one on me, or at least one I figured out once and promptly forgot.

Bullets:

• 29D: Spirit of the Caribbean (JAMAICARUM)— I totally fell for the "spirit" misdirection, which contributed to the struggle I had in the SE until almost the end, and then realization dawned. And then I spent several seconds trying to figure out how to fit JAMAICANRUM in there. I'm still a little bitter about that, truth be told.
• 38A: Strategy game with disks (REVERSI) — Started with Othello (and wondered why the play wasn't referenced in the clue), then briefly tried PACHISI, though I was grumbling to myself that there's precious little strategy in that game. Maybe this should have been W-O-T-D, since I am a game fiend and yet I have never seen, much less played, REVERSI. Oh, wait, a little googling reveals that it's just an alternate name for Othello. Which is, of course, just a simplified version of Go. Which will make it into precious few puzzles since it's only two letters. God forbid we ever see "gos" or "goes" (clued in this context). I might welcome an outlaw puzzle with two-letter entries, but it had better be pretty damn good.
• 59A: To a very great degree (INSPADES) — This was one of those Saturday clues that revealed a very colloquial phrase. I like those.
• 37A: Borderline fare? (TEXMEX) — This was an obvious ploy to me, in that I was immediately looking for food, but I still took awhile getting the right answer. I kept trying "tacos" and "enchiladas" and other yummy-sounding stuff that didn't fit. Being as I'm in / from Texas, this may be an example of the specialist struggling where the amateur has no problems.
• 15A: Item removed before showering (TOUPEE) — FTW!
• 56D: "Knots Landing" actress ___ Park Lincoln (LAR) — sounds like a car dealership to me--which reminds me--
• 7A: They make vehicles very volatile (CARBOMBS) — I was quite pleased to quickly fill in "gas tanks" here, and a little disturbed to finally reveal the correct answer. Given the recent news from Japan, I had a similar reaction at 60A: Shake (TREMOR). I usually frown when the PC crowd starts trying to arbitrarily limit options based on personal concerns, and I am not lobbying to take these words out of the mix for future puzzles, but, nevertheless.

I'm back again on Sunday. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get it done without cheating. Good luck to all the competitors.

Signed, treedweller,
on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Dom Pedro's ill-fated wife / FRI 1-7-11 / Indus outlet / Overseas fabric spun from flax / Ice cream eponym / Subject 2002 Senate authorization

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: CENTAVO (56A: Bit of change in Cuba) —

Centavo is a Spanish and Portuguese word, derived from the Latin centum, meaning "one hundred", and the suffix -avo, meaning "portion" or "fraction". Centavo means, strictly, "one-hundredth". // It is a fractional monetary unit, used to represent one hundredth of a basic monetary unit in many countries around the world [...]. (wikipedia)

• • •

The grid is solid, with impressive wide-open spaces in the NW and SE. But there's nothing remarkable, nothing memorable—at least not in the way of fill. Here's what I don't get: why would anyone bother making a themeless At All if the grid didn't *start* with at least a couple killer, original entries. Feels like the grid *shape* was driving this one more than anything (it does look cool). Some of these entries are probably original, but none of them *feels* original, current, interesting. They're fine words and phrases all around, and there's nothing particularly unattractive about this grid. But there's not much to love, either, and precious little to comment on ... which I guess makes my job easy tonight. Perhaps I should be grateful.

I was slowish on this one because of a bad start in the NW. Got ISERE (5D: French department or a river that runs through it) and EDY (7D: Ice cream eponym) and then CREASED (15A: Iron-deficient?), but went nowhere after that. Lots of tentative entries, all of them retracted. Got going for real near the grid's center, where the wrong answer, CAP, seemed right after I got RASTA. DEBI (20A: Actress Mazar of HBO's "Entourage") was a gimme (though not from "Entourage," which I've never seen), and she got me SILENT ... something, but I couldn't tell which "part" of "carriage" was supposed to be SILENT. The "I" or the "A?" Or the "E?" Thankfully, the cross told me the answer instantly—I just (finally) ordered my books for Spring semester today, and at the top of the list was "INFERNO" (33A: Source of the line "Midway upon the road of our life I found myself within a dark wood..."). Very famous opening lines. Anyway, SLAP ON (instead of SLAM ON—36A: Apply with force) really killed my chances of seeing ARMORED CAR for a while (28D: Robber's target), but other than that, SE was comparatively easy.

Had a rough go of it in the SW, where 38D: Spade mashie (SIX IRON) was gibberish to me ... only "mashie" rattled some golf/crossword memory in my head. "Spade," however, is a detective to me, so I had no idea what was going on, and though I wanted KLAXON at 45A: Loud horn, I had no idea how that "X" could factor into the "mashie" clue so I wavered there. Very proud of plonking down CENTIVO (56A: Bit of change in Cuba)! OK , so it's CENTAVO—that's still some pretty good (if wrong) guessing. DUET was the real problem down there in the far SW (49D: Puccini's "O Mimi, tu più non torni" e.g.). I wanted ARIA (of course), and then had AVA as the [Palindromic girl] (ADA). Once I accepted that STOUTEN was a word (58A: Bulk up), I figured everything else out. The "K" in KLAXON was enough to get me TAKEN TO TASK (4D: Censured), and from there the NW was not nearly as tough as it initially seemed. SECTION ONE seems weak and arbitrary (3D: Prime seating area at sporting events, maybe), but I really like RICKETY (17A: Unstable). The "W" in SCREWS (1D: Pressure, metaphorically) / WHINE (22A: Complaint) was the last letter that went into the grid.


Bullets:

• 16A: Subject of 2002 Senate authorization (IRAQ WAR) — might have been a lot harder if HQS hadn't been so easy (11D: Command ctrs.).
  
• 40A: Dom Pedro's ill-fated wife (INÉS) — I got this by remembering Don Juan's mother, who is INÉZ (which is also my grandmother's name). No idea who Dom Pedro is. . . 14th-century Portuguese prince. His dad had INÉS killed because he didn't like her influence on Pedro. Does not appear that INÉS was actually his wife at the time of her murder (though Pedro claimed they were secretly married). According to wikipedia, "Legend has it that [Pedro] had Inês's body exhumed from her grave and forced the entire court to swear allegiance to their new queen by kissing the corpse's hand. She was later buried at the Monastery of Alcobaça where her coffin can still be seen, opposite Peter's so that, according to the legend, at the Last Judgment Peter and Inês can look at each other as they rise from their graves." Morbid.
  
• 2D: Overseas fabric spun from flax (IRISH LINEN) — just pieced this together from crosses. --N-N gave me the "fabric" and IRI-- gave me the "overseas" part.
  
• 9D: Indus outlet (ARABIAN SEA) — like the "in"/"out" opposition in the clue.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

East River novelist 1946 / SAT 11-20-10 / Fess Parker's TV co-star / Blue old Kerosene brand / Three of these make O / Group 1968 album Time Peace #1

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: NAT Holman (39A: Basketball Hall-of-Famer Holman) —

Nat Holman (October 19, 1896 in New York, NY – February 12, 1995 in Bronx, New York) was one of the early pro basketball players and one of the game's most important innovators. // Known for his exceptional ball-handling and his accurate shooting, Holman was a star player at New York University and an important part of the Original Celtics (no relation to the Boston Celtics). Also a gifted passer and excellent floor leader, Holman has been a prototype to later playmakers. Although he played pro basketball until 1930, he took over the head coaching position at the City College of New York in 1920. Known as Mr. Basketball, Holman guided CCNY to the so-called grand slam of college basketball, winning both the NCAA and NIT titles in 1950, a feat that has never been achieved since. Holman compiled a 421-190 record in 37 seasons at CCNY, retiring in 1960. In his later years, he lived and died at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. // Holman also founded Camp Scatico in 1921 and ran the camp until he sold it to his niece and her husband in 1964. (wikipedia)

• • •

A tough little number (that's "number," not "number"—get that straight; 27D: Number in a pack?=>ICE), but still half as tough, for me, as yesterday's was (I realize I was an outlier yesterday; I'm just sayin'). The grid cops a seriously swastikish pose (i.e. it looks swastika-like), but then so do a lot of grids, at least vaguely. It happens. It's coincidental. Please, no conspiracy-theory letters. Today, the toughness came more through names than devilish cluing, which is not my favorite way to come by toughness. Loads of names. Many of them long (i.e. full—ALAN ARKIN (1D: Oscar-winning actor with the autobiography "Halfway Through the Door"), NATHAN HALE (58A: Hero whose statue appears in front of Chicago's Tribune Tower), ED AMES (7D: Fess Parker's TV co-star), SAM THE SHAM (20A: Pharaoh's head?), and, of course, '60s hipster DAD BLASTED). My main complaint here is that names from the same universes were crammed into the same spaces in the grid. Relatively obscure sports names almost side-by-side in the NW (NAT and KEENAN—30A: Coach Mike of the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning Rangers). Less obscure but still not ragingly phamous '60s music names in the NE (SAM THE SHAM and THE RASCALS—>5A: Group whose 1968 album "Time Peace" was #1), which are in turn crossed by a '60s TV name! (ED AMES). Soviet women somewhere in the middle (RAISA and BONNER—>41A: Yelena ___, Soviet dissident and wife of Andrei Sakharov). 20th-century authors nearly on top of one another (ASCH!!! (encore!)—>9D: "East River" novelist, 1946, and ELIOT—>29D: "The Sacred Wood" writer). Proper nouns just seemed oddly paired.



The difficulty level felt oddly uneven, too. Clue on RAISA was Monday level (26D: Mrs. Gorbachev). Clue on CAL was Tuesday level at most (31A: ___ Poly, school nickname), as was clue on PSAS (52D: Free TV spots, for short) and EENY (53D: Start of a children's rhyme). But these were thrown in among much more vague and hard-to-get stuff. Not sure what kind of floor is made of ASPHALT TILE (42A: Flooring option). Garage floor? Hmm, looks like it's a pretty ordinary household tile. We have wood floors. And I've only ever lived with carpet, wood, or linoleum floors. That I can recall. That ASPHALT part took a while for me to get. Never heard of SEED PEARLS either (50A: Tiny, valuable beads). Do you use them to seed ... something? Something like a PEARL? Or is it just that they are seed-sized and valuable in their own right? Looks like it's just a size thing. I had no idea the CESTA attached to the wrist. I always thought it was gripped with the hand (47D: Item of sports equipment worn on the wrist). I remember ALLELE (44D: One may be dominant) from crosswords of a BYGONE ERA (2D: Time past) (that era being fairly recent, actually). It's a word I will forever associate with "foodie" (frequent commenter on my site; also, a neuroscientist—I'd never heard of the word; it was a gimme for her. Somehow she let me know this without making me feel like an idiot). Without a doubt, my favorite part of this puzzle is the DAD-BLASTED (28D: No-good) / GLASSY-EYED (60A: Expressionless) nexus. Otherwise, just a solid workout, with no real sour patches. Lots of black squares, though, for a Saturday (35). Word count is low, but lots of black space is carved out to make that happen, so there are an oddly high number of 3-4-letter words along with the long stacks that dominate the grid.



Bullets:

• 18A: Subject of 1987 Congressional hearings (IRAN-CONTRA) — "IRAN-CONTRA" doesn't feel like a "subject"; more like a moniker for the hearings themselves. I was thinking yesterday, when I didn't know BEBE Rebozo, that something from my era that I would've known just from being alive then was OLLIE NORTH ... only that's a bad comparison because OLLIE NORTH is actually historically important, and BEBE is just some guy who happened to be Nixon's friend. I still don't get why he was news.
  
• 21A: Bibliophile's suffix (-ANA) — a flat-out gimme. That clue, that answer, now and forever into the future. Know it.
  
• 4D: ___ Blue (old kerosene brand) (ESSO) — not a gimme, exactly, though once I got just one of those "S"s, I wrote in ESSO immediately. It's old, it's fuel, it's four letters in a crossword, it's ESSO. Speaking of fuel, had UCLA for USMA (57A: Classic football rival of Notre Dame: Abbr.) at first and so wondered why I hadn't heard of the part of the car called the something-PULPS (it's FUEL PUMPS, 33D: Tank-to-carburetor conduits).
  
• 6D: African capital of 1.5+ million (HARARE) — Capital of Zimbabwe. Been in a recent puzzle, I think.
  
• 32D: Highly seismic area off the Greek coast (IONIAN SEA) — AEGEAN SEA fits, but I have no idea about its relative seismicness.
  
• 51D: Three of these make on O (DAHS) — Aargh! Good clue. Morse code!!
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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