Ljubljana dweller / MON 2-20-12 / Some reddish-orange caviar / Big supermarket chain / White-feathered wader / Dish marinated in sweetened soy sauce

Constructor: Samuel A. Donaldson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

 THEME: PRESIDENTS DAY (52A: February occasion, some of whose honorees can be found in the answers to the five starred clues) — theme answers hide five president names

• 18A: *Some reddish-orange caviar (SALMON ROE)
• 23A: *Major road (TRAFFIC ARTERY)
• 31A: *Nancy Pelosi was the first person ever to have this title in Congress (MADAM SPEAKER)
• 40A: *Parliamentary procedure (RULES OF ORDER)
• 60A: *Really hunger for (LUST AFTER)
  

Word of the Day: ARIAL (15A: Sans-serif typeface) —

Arial, sometimes marketed or displayed in software as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Fonts from the Arial family are packaged with Microsoft Windows, some other Microsoft software applications,^[1] Apple Mac OS X^[2] and many PostScript 3 computer printers.^[3] The typeface was designed in 1982 by a 10-person team, led by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, for Monotype Typography. (wikipedia)

• • •

I'm stunned that there has never been a Presidents Day puzzle—or at least not one with the answer PRESIDENTS DAY in it (according to cruciverb's database).  Hide some president names in some answers—seems about as basic as "hide some country names in some answers" (see yesterday's puzzle). Despite the slightly awkward placement of PRESIDENTS DAY in the penultimate theme answer position, and the awkward/redundant TRAFFIC ARTERY (a major road is simply called an "artery"), the puzzle worked fine. MADAM SPEAKER is a nice, original answer, and combining TAFT with lust is a stroke of genius. I like imagining him as a heavyweight lothario. I had two weird sticking points. The first was in the SE, where 69A: Show of overwhelming love just Did Not Mesh with my idea of SWOON. "Show" implies some kind of intent, and no one has ever set out to "show" love by swooning for someone. Plus, I've been reading Dante, and that dude swoons a lot in the beginning of Inferno—mostly from terror or pity, which, I guess, is a kind of love ... anyway, that threw me. So did MONDO—I had MUNDO (66A: World, in Italian). Later, I got weirdly hung up on SEE PAST (42D: Purposely ignore), which I couldn't SEE at all. SEEPS AT? Something AT? I just couldn't read it right. Similar problem with RULES OF ORDER. The "FOR" in there kept causing me to misread it as RULE ... FOR ... something. Also imagined ORS was ERS (because I kept thinking it had the 30D: Hesitant sounds clue that I'd actually seen earlier). All of that was, of course, self-imposed nonsense.

Bullets:

• 1A: Patriot Allen with the Green Mountain Boys (ETHAN) — that *really* sounds like a bluegrass band. 

• 47A: Big supermarket chain (KROGER) — I know this chain well, as there are KROGERs all over Michigan, but I didn't know it was widely known outside the midwest.
• 10D: Ljubljana dweller (SLOVENE) — I always want to pronounce this place "Jub-Jub," because I sure as hell can't pronounce it like it's supposed to be pronounced. 
• 11D: Dish marinated in sweetened soy sauce (TERIYAKI) — before I started eating sushi, I'd always order chicken TERIYAKI any time we went to a Japanese restaurant. Tasty.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Flirty toon Betty / MON 2-13-12 / 1954 Hitchcock thriller / Samuel Beckett play with unseen character / Chicken tikka go-with / Roman poet who wrote To be loved be lovable

Constructor: Ellen Leuschner and Victor Fleming

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: a deer, a female deer — theme answers all end with the sound of "DOE"

Word of the Day: ADEN (31A: Port of Oman) —

Aden [...] is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately a million people. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a low isthmus. This harbour, Front Bay, was first used by the ancient Kingdom of Awsan between the 5th and 7th centuries BCE. The modern harbour is on the other side of the peninsula. (wikipedia)

• • •

A pretty nice Monday. Fill is generally boring (as it can be in a 78-worder), but the five theme answers are fairly interesting, and I especially like the grid-spanning "WAITING FOR GODOT" in the middle. Had no idea what the theme was til I was done (and I was done in 2:39, which is largely why I never noticed the theme). I always feel that if a puzzle is 78 words, there should be almost no cruddy fill. High word-count grids are easiest to fill, and 78 words is the max. I'm saying this only to explain why stuff like ON YOU and OREG annoy me more on a day like today than on, say, a Friday (I wouldn't like them there either, but I'd understand them). So—stale fill, but solid theme answers and a cute little theme. Fine.



Theme answers:

• 17A: It's kneaded at a bakery (BREAD DOUGH)
• 23A: "Doonesbury" cartoonist (GARRY TRUDEAU)
• 35A: Samuel Beckett play with an unseen character ("WAITING FOR GODOT")
• 47A: Vito Corleone portrayer (MARLON BRANDO)
• 57A: 1954 Hitchcock thriller ("REAR WINDOW") — went through a big Grace Kelly phase in grad school. This remains one of my very favorite movies. Curiously, and perhaps unexpectedly, my big Grace Kelly phase was followed closely by my big Mamie Van Doren phase.
  

Bullets:

• 15A: Flirty toon Betty ___ (BOOP) — big thumbs-up to the phrase "flirty toon"
• 29A: Roman poet who wrote "To be loved, be lovable" (OVID) — this was from his treatise on picking up hot chicks entitled Ars amatoria (roughly translated, it means "hot piece of ass")
• 37D: Chicken tikka go-with (NAAN) — the puzzle remains the only place I ever see the term "go-with." Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to have some tea and chocolate (my "Downton Abbey" go-withs).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Old-fashioned music hall / MON 2-6-12 / Ruble Russia * Poland / Leave drawers in drawer say / Mannerly man briefly / Kind of day, grooming-wise

Constructor: Tom Pepper

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: GO ahead — five theme answers are two-word verb phrases that start with the word "GO"

Word of the Day: BAHA Men (1A: ___ Men ("Who Let the Dogs Out" group)) —

The Baha Men are the American singers in a Bahamian band. They play a modernised style of Bahamian music called Junkanoo. [...] "Who Let the Dogs Out?" also earned the band several awards: a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Dance Recording; Billboard Music Awards for World Music Artist of the Year and World Music Album of the Year; and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favorite Song. In 2002, they won another Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Band. (wikipedia)

• • •

Things looked bad after 1-Across, but thankfully they picked up from there. 3/5 of the theme answers are fantastic, and the others are fine, and I don't know what more I can expect from a Monday. I haven't heard the phrase "GO COMMANDO" since a late-'90s episode of "Friends," but it still feels contemporary. Certainly more contemporary than most of the slang you're apt to see in the NYT ("Nerts!"). "GO BELLY-UP" and "GO HALFSIES" are likely somewhat older, but both have a kind of timeless, shiny, colloquial quality that I can't help but admire. The other longer theme answers are solid, though BAD HAIR (45D: Kind of day, grooming-wise) is pushing tolerance limits. It's barely more of an answer than HAIR DAY. I'm not quite sure what "GO OP!" and "GO LF!" mean. Maybe "Go, Hammett protagonist!" and "Go play left field!" respectively. At any rate, good show.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Split a bill evenly with someone (GO HALFSIES)
• 11D: Malfunction (GO HAYWIRE)
• 39A: Flip out (GO CRAZY)
• 35D: Fail financially (GO BELLY-UP)
• 62A: Leave the drawers in the drawer, say (GO COMMANDO) — nice clue, too, btw
  

I'm writing this during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. The Giants just intercepted Brady, if my Twitter feed isn't lying. As you can probably gather, I'm not terribly invested in the game, but people in this area certainly are. The diner this morning featured the typical mass of churchgoers, but today they were festooned in Giants gear. Entire families. Didn't see much of said gear back when the Giants were 7-7, but nothing breeds fandom like winning. As for the puzzle—blew through it (well under 3 minutes), which is mildly surprising given the sassy unexpectedness of many of the theme answer. My only hesitation was an odd 5-second paralysis at 51A: Natural barriers between yards (HEDGES). Something about the coincidence of "yards" and Super Bowl Sunday threw me off at first, and then when I realized the type of yards in question, my mind patiently reconstructed the topography of a typical yard. HEDGES! I don't think MOS Def's name is MOS Def anymore. I think I remember that he gave that name to Stephen Colbert because he had taken some new name ... "In September 2011, Mos Def announced that he planned to use the name Yasiin instead of Mos Def beginning in 2012" (wikipedia). No idea what that's about, but YASIIN looks very promising, crosswordwise.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Big Apple list / MON 1-30-12 / Ones not entirely gay or straight / Soothing juice / Food giant whose brands include Gerber and Goobers / Wrist elbow connectors

Constructor: Francesco Trogu

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: NEST (66A: Where 38-Across [BIRDS] lay 1-Across [EGGS] ... or a word hidden in 20-, 27-, 44- and 51-Across) — just what it says

Word of the Day: SETH Rogen (9D: Rogen of "Superbad") —

Seth Rogen (pronounced /ˈroʊɡɪn/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was canceled after one season due to poor ratings. He then got a part on the equally short-lived Undeclared, which also hired him as a staff writer. // After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by film producer Judd Apatow toward a film career. Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet. Rogen has done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. He became engaged to fellow screenwriter Lauren Miller, with whom he married in October 2011. (wikipedia)

• • •

Here's the thing about "hidden" word puzzles: the "hidden" word should touch every word in the theme answer. That's the ideal. If not, then your answers better sizzle, but the only one I really like here is BONE STRUCTURE (and that is the lone answer where NEST actually does touch every word in the answer). The puzzle has a somewhat bigger problem than banality of concept, however: ITUNES TOP TEN is a terrible, terrible answer. I have used iTunes for years. I have no idea what TOP TEN is being referred to here. One of many lists off to the side telling you what's selling well in a certain genre? That is hardly a thing. Google the phrase inside quotation marks and you get 200K+ (not great), with many of the hits being phrases inside sentences rather than references to a Specific List. By contrast, to choose a random example: if you Google "Sherman Alexie" you get 1.4 million+ hits.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Not-so-fancy places to stay (ONE-STAR HOTELS)
• 27A: Maryland's nickname (OLD LINE STATE)
• 44A: Big Apple list (iTUNES TOP TEN)
• 51A: Osteoporosis threatens it (BONE STRUCTURE) — very weird clue. BONE STRUCTURE is a phrase I've heard *only* in relation to someone's face. Osteoporosis threatens your bones, period. This is like saying that faulty wiring threatens my house structure.
  

Made a tremendous number of tiny errors for a puzzle this easy. FLUBS for SNUBS (not sure what I was thinking there) (5A: Social slights); ULNAE for ULNAS (understandable) (24D: Wrist/elbow connectors); AXIS for AXLE (semi-understandable) (63A: Wheel turner); SINCE for HENCE (not-so-understandable) (57A: Therefore). Love the long Downs on this one, particularly GAG ORDERS (3D: Judges' decrees to keep information from the public). The rest of the fill is average. Grid is so easy to fill that I'm not sure why there are cheater squares*, but there they are.

*black squares that do not add to word count—they exist solely to make grid easier to fill and are generally kept to a minimum and used on an As Needed basis. Here, the black square after ALSO / before FARM.

Bullets:

• 34A: Ones not entirely gay or straight (BIS) — bad fill redeemed by a very progressive clue. 
• 42A: Soothing juice (ALOE) — I don't think those two clue words go together. "Juice" just isn't a soothing word.
• 12D: Rostropovich's instrument (CELLO) — I know very well what instrument he played, and yet still, looking at ---L-, my only thought, for several seconds, was VIOLA. Didn't write it in because my brain was like "Idiot. Who ever heard of a famous violist?"

• 6D: Food giant whose brands include Gerber and Goobers (NESTLE) — "Goobers" is a word I could happily never see again. It's just "boogers" with "b" and "g" swapping seats.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Wife in The Good Earth / MON 1-23-12 / Stimpy's canine pal / Blue 1971 Cy Young Award winner / Pagan nature religion / Popular soup legume

Constructor: Sarah Keller

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Head over heels —three-word expressions, where the first and third words are body parts

Word of the Day: VIDA Blue (60D: ___ Blue, 1971 Cy Young Award winner) —

Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. (born July 28, 1949) is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 17-year career, he pitched for the Oakland Athletics (1969–77), San Francisco Giants (1978–81; 1985–86), and Kansas City Royals (1982–83) He won the American League Cy Young award and Most Valuable Player Award in 1971. He is a six-time all-star, and is one of only four pitchers in major league history to start the all-star game for both the American League (1971) and the National League (1978); Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay would later duplicate the feat. (wikipedia)

• • •

I feel like I'm missing some key component of this theme. Body part + word + body part? Is that it? Not a lot of consistency there. All answers involve parts of the face ... except one. All answers have a preposition for the middle word ... except one. The one obvious answer that would fit the theme isn't even in the grid ("head over heels") (presence of HOOF also reminded me of "HOOF and mouth" disease ... not a great entry, or a pleasant thing to think about—I was in Britain during their epidemic of 2001. Lots of questions at customs about time spent on farms and what not. But back to the puzzle ...). Further, there are only four theme answers and still the grid is a festival of dull crosswordese (ARNE OLAN EDIE LIRR LSATS and on and on and on).  The theme answers are pretty colorful, but this is a somewhat below-average Monday, overall.



Theme answers:

• 20A: Fiercely (TOOTH AND NAIL) 
• 35A: Embarrassingly imprudent (FOOT-IN-MOUTH)
• 42A: Next to one another (CHEEK BY JOWL)
• 59A: Fast and in large amounts (HAND OVER FIST)

I learned in this puzzle that I don't know how to spell the simple word MAUL (1A: Manhandle horribly). I went with MAWL ... is that a type of hammer or something? I feel sure I've seen the word before ... nope, the hammer is also spelled with a "U" ... I'm sure all those years of reading Chaucer are to blame, somehow. Clue misreading had me wondering what Latin phrase there could possibly be that would refer to how someone does lawn work ("PRO BONO? Why would you cut someone's lawn for fr- ... oh, "law." Yes, that makes more sense"). My wife, who knows very little about sports (particularly American sports, particularly American sports from before she and I met) knew VIDA Blue because that is the name I gave to one of my daughter's stuffed animals many years ago (60D: ___ Blue, 1971 Cy Young Award winner). Against her will. "That's not his name!" "I had his baseball card as a kid. I think I know VIDA Blue when I see him." I can't be the only one who torments his (then) 4-year-old this way ... can I?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Flower shrub common in South / MON 1-16-12 / Letter before ar / Hamlet's reply to What do you read my lord / Northern constellation

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: 3x5 — each theme answer = 3 x 5-letter word

Word of the Day: LANTANA (16A: Flowering shrub common in the South) —

n.
Any of various aromatic, chiefly tropical shrubs of the genus Lantana, having dense spikes or heads and small colorful flowers.

[New Latin Lantana, genus name, from Italian dialectal lantana, wayfaring tree, viburnum, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *lentāgō, *lentāgin-, from Latin lentus, light, flexible.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/lantana#ixzz1ja2YUbl0

• • •

[It's pledge week here at the Rex Parker site (thru Sat.) —read my pitch for donations in the opening paragraphs of Sunday's write-up, here ... and thanks for your faithful readership (and the many kind messages I've received so far)]

• • •

Very weird Monday. Started out tough (cross-referenced clue at 1-Across?? LANTANA?????), and then got so easy it was laughable. Did not know "WORDS WORDS WORDS" was a famous quote, but once I hit PICKY PICKY PICKY and saw what was happening, the other theme answers took no effort at all and if I hadn't written in GOADING for GOOSING (68A: Prodding into action) (clue fits GOADING better), I would've set a personal NYT record. Because theme answers are just a 5-letter word twice-repeated, I didn't find it terribly cute or charming, and it's slightly less clean than most of Ms. Michaels's early-week grids (she's set a high standard ... I mean, KUE (35D: Letter before ar)? ESTEES?). I do like that every theme answer is the same grid-spanning length. JASMINE over EMPEROR is very elegant, and TACTILE STOOGES is kind of funny, and it's only a Monday after all, so lighten up, Rex. But the thing is—it's Ms. Michaels herself who taught me that "it's only Monday" is a diminishing and unfair assessment of Monday puzzles. Just because they're all easy doesn't mean that it doesn't matter how artfully constructed they are. And the well-constructed Monday puzzle is a beautiful, if ephemeral, thing. This one was just OK.

 

Theme answers:

• 17A: Hamlet's reply to "What do you read, my lord?" ("WORDS, WORDS, WORDS")
• 32A: "You're too hard to please!" ("PICKY PICKY PICKY!")
• 42A: 1976 Abba hit ("MONEY, MONEY, MONEY")
• 63A: How the trolley went in a 1944 song ("CLANG CLANG CLANG!")

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. The only DRACO I know is a Malfoy (51D: Northern constellation).

Fragrance of roses / MON 1-9-12 / Doughnut shapes mathematically speaking / Fantasy realm of C.S. Lewis / Like Dubai's Burj Khalifa

Constructor: Michael Dewey

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: blank LIKE A bird of some kind

Word of the Day: SCALAWAG (4D: Rapscallion) —

In United States history, scalawag was a derogatory nickname for southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War. (wikipedia)

• • •

Another very slight theme. 76-word grid, decently filled. All in all, fine. Completely forgettable, but fine.

[42A: Rockers Clapton and Burdon] 

Theme answers:

• 20A: Soar (FLY LIKE AN EAGLE)
• 38A: Tell everything to the coppers (SING LIKE A CANARY)
• 51A: Carefully guard (WATCH LIKE A HAWK)

Weird thing about solving experience for me was getting all the way to the bottom of the grid before I had a single theme answer or any idea of what the theme was. Had the SCA- of SCALAWAG but couldn't do anything with it, so I ended up riding ICICLE down to ISAAC over to ASIAN down to SNOB over to BUTANE (with some small detours along the way, I'm sure). All very quickly. Then got WATCH LIKE A HAWK, but it wasn't until a bit later, with SING LIKE A CANARY, that I picked up the (very) slight theme. Had some confusion along the way. Started with ILLS for WOES. Read [Number after a © symbol] as [Number after a @ symbol] and so YEAR made No sense. Clue on TALL is pretty ridiculous (11D: Like Dubai's Burj Khalifa). Michael Jordan is TALL. Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. TALL is bathetic in the extreme. Calling that building TALL is like calling the Great Wall of China LONG. Understatement. Clue out of proportion to answer. Absurdity.



I like how SLIP and KNOT(TY) are right next to each other. I also like how this puzzle has no J. Yes I do.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Statesman Root / MON 1-2-12 / One providing nonmedical support for woman in labor / Old Detroit brewery name / George M Yankee Doodle Boy composer / Pulitzer-winning 1920 Eugene O'Neill play

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SIGHT UNSEEN (62A: Literal description of something that is 18-, 24-, 40- or 49-Across) — answers are all [preposition THE place] phrases describing locations that one cannot (yet) see.

Word of the Day: DOULA (58A: One providing nonmedical support for a woman in labor) —

A Doula is someone who provides non-medical support to women and their families during labour and childbirth, and also the postpartum period. (wikipedia)

• • •

Didn't care for this one. First it was supereasy and boring, then it got less easy but more annoying. Never heard of "BEYOND THE HORIZON," but it won the Pulitzer, so I suppose it's worth knowing. Doesn't seem Monday, but no big deal. Bigger issue for me was UNDER THE COUNTER—could not figure COUNTER out at all. Needed nearly every cross. Heard of paying someone UNDER THE TABLE. Don't know the COUNTER phrase so well. But again, that's mainly my problem. What's not my problem is the revealer. First, SIGHT UNSEEN, as far as I've ever heard it, is used in relation to something that has been bought or otherwise accepted. Literally, the answers in this puzzles could be described, I suppose, as UNSEEN, but SIGHT UNSEEN is discordant. Further, there's no reason I can't (literally) see under a counter. Depends on where I'm standing (same can't be said for other expressions). Further further, the corners on this thing look like they were filled by a computer. TKOS, ASSN, and LIRAS (pl!?) all in the same small corner. Lazy. ERITU crossing ELIHU!? (26D: Statesman Root) That's a black hole of crosswordese. Mildly cutesy idea, executed averagely. If a puzzle going to go 16 wide, there should be good reason, and the grid should be especially well filled. Neither of those criteria were met here.


Theme answers:

• 18A: Elderly, so to speak (OVER THE HILL)
• 24A: Soon to arrive (AROUND THE CORNER)
• 40A: Pulitzer-winning 1920 Eugene O'Neill play ("BEYOND THE HORIZON")
• 49A: Secret or illegal (UNDER-THE-COUNTER)

Remembered the [Old Detroit brewery name] (STROH) but had no clue about the "The Yankee Doodle Boy" composer (George M. COHAN). Thankfully, I have a cousin who's a midwife—though I probably would've known DOULA anyway. I've never seen it in crosswords. I have no idea how well known the word is. It's about the only thing interesting in this puzzle. Original. I though DSL was AOL (9D: Broadband inits.), but otherwise, nothing about the top half was very troubling. Oh, LISLE (13D: Smooth cotton fabric). Ugh. Fabrics. No idea what I had at first. I should've known there'd be gratuitous French somewhere.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Albino rocker with 1973 #1 hit / MON 12-26-11 / Furrowed fruit / Letters before xis / Physician with daily talk show

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: SEASON FINALE (39A: With 41-Across, good time for a cliffhanger ... or what each of 17-, 24-, 50- and 63-Across) — theme answers are two-word phrases where second word is a season

Word of the Day: EDGAR WINTER (50A: Albino rocker with a 1973 #1 hit) —

Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their popular song, "Free Ride". He has albinism. (wikipedia)

• • •

A very tired theme with a very cool revealer—actually, I'm not sure I've seen this theme done quite this way; typically the seasons are in the plural, largely because JONATHAN WINTERS is a grid-spanning 15 letters long and far more famous than EDGAR WINTER. Once I saw the theme (after getting FALL, then SUMMER), I physically deflated a little, but after hitting the nice little revealer, I recovered a bit. Grid is very interesting—it's got the maximum 78 answers, but doesn't feel segmented and choppy the way some high word-count puzzles can. This is largely because of two lovely long Downs (IN NAME ONLY, MOSEY ALONG), and two pairs of 7s (also Downs) in the N and S, respectively. Seasons aren't in order, but that's a small matter. I like the seasonal YEAR END directly over WINTER in the grid. Nice work.

Theme answers:

• 17A: What a slippery sidewalk might cause (NASTY FALL)
• 24A: "Last Dance" singer, 1978 (DONNA SUMMER)
• 50A: Albino rocker with a 1973 #1 hit (EDGAR WINTER) — I have no idea why the clue doesn't tell you the name of the song; if "Albino" didn't give the answer away, then sure "Frankenstein" wouldn't have either:

• 63A: Spa locale (HOT SPRING)

Found this puzzle remarkably easy. Fumbled around a bit with the typos, but still managed to come in well under 3 (which I hadn't done in a while). For some reason, I seem to be a good deal faster solving a downloaded puzzle on my desktop than I am solving on the NYT applet itself. Perhaps the navigation system is more intuitive for me, or perhaps the software's slightly more responsive than the web-based applet, or perhaps knowing that I'm not being timed by Big Brother loosens me up a bit. Anyway, none of this will matter come tournament time (just under 3 months away now), when all solving is done with pencil and paper. Nothing slowed me down much today besides my own typing clumsiness. Didn't know NUS, but crosses took care of that (26D: Letters before xis). Didn't know an UGLI was "furrowed" (27D: Furrowed fruit). I was just looking at the DR. OZ logo the other day and wondering why I hadn't seen that answer in puzzles more often (57D: Physician with a daily talk show). Other than that, my only tiny struggle was figuring out 2D: Wheedle (COAX). Ironic, given that I'd been watching "Downton Abbey" earlier in the evening, and one of the characters had suggested that another was "flanneling" her. This sent me to my dictionary to look up the verb "flannel"; from http://www.phrases.org.uk:

Collins' Dictionary of Slang says that the noun "flannel" has been used to mean "rubbish, albeit plausible rubbish" since the 1920s, and the verb "to flannel" has meant "to talk nonsense in a soothing, plausible manner, esp for the purposes of charming a woman one wishes to seduce" since the 1940s. I imagine the original metaphor was flannel's function as wrapping, padding or muffling material.

 So, yes, wheedle, indeed.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Homer Simpson's favorite meat item / MON 12-19-11 / Amazing magician / Tree-lined way in France

Constructor: Richard Chisholm

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "We" — first words of theme answers are all homophones

Word of the Day: RANDI (48A: "Amazing" magician) —

James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928) is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician named The Amazing Randi, but after retiring at age 60, he began investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls "woo-woo." (wikipedia)

• • •

[FOR MY READERS IN SYNDICATION: It's pledge week here at the Rex Parker site (thru Sat.) —read my pitch for donations in the opening paragraphs of Sunday's write-up, here ... and thanks for your faithful readership (and the many kind messages I've received so far)]

• • •

Seen it.

Once, from the back end, here.

And again, earlier (before WII was invented), in the New York Sun (June '06)—theme answers WEE WILLIE WINKIE, OUI MONSIEUR, and WE SHALL OVERCOME. This is the kind of stuff you're supposed to check before embarking on a puzzle.

Blew through this like it wasn't there until the very very end when I lost precious seconds in the southwest. Took me a couple beats to get the front end of -CONSOLE (GAME wouldn't fit, then the theme dawned on me). Then I ran into the WIT / WAG issue (54D: Joker). Correctly went with WAG, but then erased it when I saw [Pond swimmers] would then start with "G." Must be WIT / TOADS, I reasoned. So, yeah, I hate the idea of GEESE as "swimmers" (though, of course, they are). I also hate the definition on CONDONE (40D: Overlook, as something that's illegal), a word that strongly implies approval or endorsement, not mere overlooking. I see that "overlook" is listed as a synonym in places, but I still think it sucks as a definition. Anyway, just that little hiccup there kept me from getting under 3 minutes.




I like "GIVE IT A TRY" (3D: Encouragement after "Go on") and PORK CHOP (39A: Homer Simpson's favorite meat item). You can have the rest of the puzzle back.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Young girls in Glasgow (WEE LASSIES)
• 26A: First words of the Constitution ("WE THE PEOPLE...")
• 43A: Polite assent in Paris (OUI, MONSIEUR)
• 54A: Piece of Nintendo game equipment (WII CONSOLE)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Former Houston footballer / MON 12-12-11 / Gloomy in verse / Dutch painter Jan / Onionlike soup ingredients

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ERS (37A: Hosp. parts ... or what the answers to the six starred clues each have twice) — six two-word phrases, where both words end in -ER

 Word of the Day: VLOG (19A: Journal on YouTube, maybe) —

(Video bLOG) A Weblog (blog) that includes video clips to be downloaded and viewed immediately or transferred to a portable player. Also called a "vog," "vid-blog" and "movie blog," the vlog can be exclusively videos with text used only for captions, or text entries may be included. A venue for people who like to remix audio, video and graphics in some artistic expression, as well as novice and experienced videographers and movie makers, the material is distributed in popular video formats such as Windows Media, QuickTime and Flash. See diavlog, blog, audioblog and vidcast.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/vlog-technology#ixzz1gHNN1PlX

• • •

I just can't get too excited about a bunch of -ER words. I consider them my mortal enemy. Well, my enemy, at any rate. Hyperbole? Maybe. Yes. But still. I stand by my feelings.



Theme answers:

• 17A: *One who's an empty threat (PAPER TIGER)
• 26A: *Willie Mays, positionally (CENTERFIELDER)
• 45A: *What a waiter might be holding when he says "Say when" (PEPPER GRINDER)
• 59A: *Lawn-Boy or Toro product (POWER MOWER)
• 10D: *Enclosure with a manuscript or résumé (COVER LETTER)
• 23D: *Spider-Man's alter ego (PETER PARKER)
  

The fill on this one is solid and the interlocking theme answers are a nice touch. This one was very easy, as almost all Mondays are, but there are degrees of Easy ... so let me give you some sense of the difference between fast and blistering. Today I was fast. Normal fast. It doesn't take much in the way of speed bumps to keep me in the normal range on a Monday. It almost always feels like I could break my own speed records, but for that to happen, I have to play the Whole Thing almost flawlessly, and today, I had four slip-ups—they probably cost me only 30 seconds total, but that's an ocean of time on a Monday. First, DUPE (3D: Bamboozle). Just couldn't find it. Couldn't find the handle. D- ... DU- ... nope. Needed the "P" from PAPER TIGER before I saw it. Minor glitch, but the toggling / thought time cost several seconds. Then there was LEGS (13D: Important parts of dancers). I brilliantly wrote in TOES. Seemed a better answer, though admittedly I was thinking of ballet specifically, and not dance generally. Anyway, committing to a wrong answer is a bit of a killer, as the undoing, however quickly done, is costly. Another miscue with POWER TOOLS ... the clue's not even in the plural, so my answer doesn't make sense, but POWER MOWER, in the 21st century, is basically a MOWER, so that phrase just wasn't leaping to mind. Worst of all was STILLERS. I had everything but the "I" and still didn't get it. Figured I had a wrong cross somewhere. Only after getting PEPPER GRINDER did I remember that actors Ben STILLER and Jerry STILLER are son and father. And that, my fellow solvers, is all the resistance it takes to turn a sub-3-minute solve (Easy) into a mid-3-minute solve (Medium) 



Bullets:

• 16A: Woodwind able to provide an orchestra's tuning note (OBOE) — "able to"? That sounds weird. It generally *does* provide said note. What's this "able to"?
• 39: Dutch painter Jan (STEEN) — "Daily life was Jan Steen's main pictorial theme. Many of the genre scenes he portrayed, as in The Feast of Saint Nicholas, are lively to the point of chaos and lustfulness, even so much that a Jan Steen household, meaning a messy scene, became a Dutch proverb (een huishouden van Jan Steen)". (wikipedia)
• 53A: Former Houston footballer (OILER) — the current Houston footballers *just* (yesterday) clinched their first playoff berth ... ever.
• 62A: Actor/songwriter Novello (IVOR) — crosswordese of a pretty high order.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Designer Schiaparelli / MON 12-5-11 / TV newsman Roger / Mock rock band in 1984 film

Constructor: Kenneth J. Berniker

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: N-T — your standard vowel progression puzzle

Word of the Day: CYRUS (22A: Founder of the Persian Empire) —

Cyrus II of Persia (Kuruš (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen. (wikipedia)

• • •

Felt very easy, but my time was only just a bit under my average for Monday. The theme is completely unremarkable, but the grid manages to get some spice in there with LOOSE BALL (timely—if you're doing the puzzle on football Sunday, as I am), "SPINAL TAP," and "I'LL WAIT" (nicely clued—26D: Sarcastic "Go ahead, keep talking"). Biggest complaint is the clue on "NOT ON A DARE" (49A: "Fuhgeddaboudit!"). It doesn't substitute well at all (i.e. I can't imagine anyone saying the one saying the other), plus I tend to think of "Fuhgeddaboudit!" as an exclamation suggesting either that something is no big deal *or* that something is amazing / to die for. I also didn't really care for the clue on NUTCRACKERS—if by "productions" the clue means "performances," then that seems weak, especially given that a nutcracker is a concrete, practical thing that comes in a handy, natural plural form. Oh well. At least it's timely(ish).


Theme answers:

• 18A: "Rambin' Rose" singer, 1962 (NAT KING COLE)
• 23A: Earnings after expenses (NET PROFITS)
• 38A: Knuckleheads (NITWITS)
• 49A: "Fuhgeddaboudit!" ("NOT ON A DARE!")
• 56A: Christmastime productions (NUTCRACKERS)

I have been trying to memorize all the world capitals (on account of the beautiful new ATLAS I got from Oxford UP), so I was a little surprised to see that the puzzle thinks Pago Pago is in SAMOA. Actually, Pago Pago is the capital of *American* SAMOA, a completely different country, and also a completely different (albeit nearby) island. The capital of SAMOA is, of course, as all constant solvers know, APIA. It's true that the island group is sometimes known as the "Samoan Islands," but SAMOA has specific national meaning, and thus this clue is terrible.

Bullets:

• 24D: TV newsman Roger (O'NEIL) — no idea who this guy is. I thought the answer would be AILES.
• 32A: Designer Schiaparelli (ELSA) — never can remember her name. She's the xword alternative to the lioness from "Born Free"
• 59D: U.K. record label (EMI) — constantly get it confused with the music licensing organization, BMI

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Springfield's minor league team on Simpsons / MON 11-28-11 / 1940s-50s wrestler with golden locks / Kansas town on Chisholm Trail / Notorious 1920s-30s bank robber

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Appearance-related Name — four well-known names that begin with an adjective related to attractiveness

Word of the Day: FICHE (19A: Piece of microfilm) —

n.
A microfiche. [?!] (answers.com)

• • •

Love the theme answers, but the theme seems awfully loose. PRETTY and UGLY go together, but PLAIN and GORGEOUS are less obvious complements. Plus, three of these are specific people and one is a type of person. Further PRETTY BOY FLOYD ruins theme consistency a bit, since the BOY doesn't really have anywhere to go—not part of the theme, not a name like BETTY, JANE, or GEORGE. Seems like an OK theme idea that didn't quite come out of the oven looking like it should. Not terribly fond of the partials posing as actual answer (SLOE GIN, NO MEN), not to mention the actual partials (ANAME, ONAN). The FICHE and REUNE corners could surely be better. I do like how this grid has a relatively low word count (for a Monday—74), which allows for some very interesting longer answers, like HOFFMAN, ABILENE, WISEGUY, ISOTOPES (5D: Springfield's minor-league team on "The Simpsons"), PILSENER (39D Light-colored beer or the glass it comes in) and GALUMPH (25A: Walk clumsily). Difficulty level seemed pitched right at perfect Monday level. An enjoyable if imperfect little puzzle.


Theme answers:

• 20A: Notorious 1920s-'30s bank robber (PRETTY BOY FLOYD) — wanted CLYDE BARROW at first ...
• 33A: America Ferrera's Emmy-winning role (UGLY BETTY)
• 44A: Hardly a beauty queen (PLAIN JANE)
• 54A: 1940s-'50s wrestler with golden locks (GORGEOUS GEORGE)

Why in the World do you clue ABILENE (10D: Kansas town on the Chisholm Trail) as a Kansas town (pop. 6,844), esp. on a Monday??? The Texas city of the same name is about 15 times larger. I could barely bring myself to write in ABILENE, and then, when I did, I beat myself for thinking all these years that ABILENE was in Texas ...



Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Actress married to Kurt Weill / MON 11-21-11 / 1970 hit by Sugarloaf / Older woman's plaything in slang / Old dagger / Funnywoman Rudner

Constructor: Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: iTUNES (67A: Where to find the songs in this grid ... or an appropriate title for this puzzle) — songs with a color and some form of "EYE" in the title

Word of the Day: LOTTE LENYA (11D: Actress married to Kurt Weill) —

Lotte Lenya (18 October 1898 – 27 November 1981) was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and as the sadistic Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963). (wikipedia)

• • •

Not really a Monday, and definitely not a puzzle for anyone under 30. Old songs with "eye" in them. Two -EYED, one EYES. Cutesy reveal. It's OK, I guess, if you enjoy LAYERs and BRAYERs and CD PLAYERs. Four partials is at least two too many for my taste. I'm guessing that if you know the music and like the music, you'll like this puzzle, and if not, not. I went through a classic rock phase in high school (yes, all these songs were already classic rock 25 years ago), so I knew all the titles, though "GREEN-EYED LADY" was by far the hardest to come up with, mainly because no one today, including most of those who actually lived through the very early '70s, could pick Sugarloaf out of a line-up. I actually listened to the opening of The Who's "Quadrophenia" today (a remastered version appears to have just been released—it's featured on Spotify), so seeing them at 1A was a strange coincidence.





Theme answers:

• 1A: With 10- and 65-Across, 1971 hit by The Who ("BEHIND / BLUE / EYES")
• 28A: 1967 hit by Van Morrison ("BROWN-EYED GIRL")
• 44A: 1970 hit by Sugarloaf ("GREEN-EYED LADY")

No serious sticking points—just a general feeling that the cluing was slightly tougher / vaguer than the usual Monday cluing. Clue on BAR for instance (53A: Legal profession). Perfectly good clue, but there are way more Mondayish clues for that one. I wanted LAW. Nice musical clue on REUNITE, but again, took some crosses to figure out (42D: What the Beatles never did). No big deal. Probably the most interesting feature of the grid is the crosswordesey LOTTE LENYA showing up here in her full-name form. I had to learn both her first and last names as part of my ongoing crossword training, but I don't think I've ever seen them together in the grid like this. Speaking of crosswordese, let's pause a moment to acknowledge the presence of both SNEE (62A: Old dagger) and ELY (66A: Cathedral town near Cambridge), but of whom YOU will be seeing again, if you haven't had your fill of them already.




Bullets:

• 16A: Hollywood's Howard and Perlman (RONS) — wish Perlman had been replaced with Jeremy. Lots of actors today. MEL Brooks (58D: Funnyman Brooks). RITA Rudner (42A: Funnywoman Rudner). The aforementioned LOTTE LENYA.
• 23A: Older woman's plaything, in slang (BOYTOY) — disappointingly, not SEX TOY. I guess sex toys could belong to women (and men) of any age.
• 51A: Who said "The joke's on you, Riddler!" (BATMAN) — it seems he said this at least once in the '60s TV series ... in keeping with the general old-timeyness of this puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld