Leandro's partner in Handel title / TUE 2-21-12 / Rowdy Rawhide cowboy / Old nuclear regulatory org / Brew named for Dutch river / Like much of Pindar's work / State capital main street Last Chance Gulch

Constructor: Caleb Madison

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: BEST PICTURE names (59A: What the starts of 18-, 24-, 38- and 49-Across each won) — theme answers are movie people with BEST PICTURE first names

Word of the Day: Rowdy YATES (50D: Rowdy ___, "Rawhide" cowboy) —

Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. Starring Eric Fleming andClint Eastwood, the series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. [...] Usually the episode would be introduced by Gil Favor but sometimes by others. The typical Rawhidestory involved drovers, portrayed by Eric Fleming (trail boss Gil Favor) and Clint Eastwood (ramrod Rowdy Yates), coming upon people on the trail and getting drawn into solving whatever problem they presented or were confronting. Sometimes one of the members of the cattle drive or some of the others would venture into a nearby town and encounter some trouble from which they needed to be rescued. Rowdy Yates was young and at times impetuous in the earliest episodes and Favor had to keep a tight rein on him. (wikipedia)

• • •

Big thumbs up. Clever, toughish, unexpected. The theme is nicely tight—movie names all belong to movie people: director Stone (himself an Oscar-winner), and actors Oswalt, DeMornay, and Feldman. With the exception of Stone, theme answers aren't exactly first-tier celebrity names, which is why I think the puzzle might skew tough for a lot of people. I knew all the names and it still skewed tough for me. I think older solvers will have trouble with PATTON OSWALT (who is a hugely successful comedian / actor with a firing-on-all-cylinders Twitter feed) and younger solvers with MARTY FELDMAN (whom I know only from "Young Frankenstein" and from a parody of "Bette Davis Eyes" called "Marty Feldman Eyes"—he had some congenital issue that made his eyes appear to bug out). REBECCA DE MORNAY could end up stumping young and old. If you missed "Risky Business" (or, slightly less famously, "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle," or, much less famously, "And God Created Woman" (1988)), you missed her. I wonder if there are other movie people with BEST PICTURE first names ... didn't Casablanca Jones star in some blaxploitation films in the '70s? What about porn star Cimarron Sinclair? Or pro-wrestler-turned-action-star The Hurt Locker Davis?

Theme answers:

• 18A: "Platoon" director (OLIVER STONE) — "Platoon," also a BEST PICTURE winner
• 24A: Comedian who voiced the lead role in "Ratatouille" (PATTON OSWALT)
• 38A: Tom Cruise's "Risky Business" co-star (REBECCA DE MORNAY)
• 49A: Igor player in "Young Frankenstein" (MARTY FELDMAN)

I had the most trouble with this puzzle in the south, where YATES was totally unknown to me, and I had TOTALS for 68A: Sends to the dump (TOSSES). I was not aware that BONES was Dr. McCoy's real first name (30D: Sci-fi physician played by DeForest Kelley). Wait, it's not. It's Leonard. So ... is the colloquial "sci-fi" supposed to cue the nickname? That seems a Stretch. Still, I love the answer, and its symmetrical counterpart—from another "Star" franchise (3D: "Star Wars" weapon = LIGHT SABER). The other real winner in this grid is "OH, STOP" (4A: "You flatter me too much!"). Original, colloquial, fantastic. Almost makes me excuse REPINE (???) (15A: Complain). Wasn't too fond of ODIC (25D: Like much of Pindar's work), ERO (22A: Leandro's partner in a Handel title), or singular O'JAY (16A: Any of the singers of the 1973 #1 hit "Love Train") but those are insignificant when the bulk of the grid and the marquee answers are so good.

Bullets:

• 57A: Old nuclear regulatory org. (AEC) — Atomic Energy Commission. An impt. abbr. to know. The non-old nuclear regulatory org. is named, shockingly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• 5D: State capital whose main street is named Last Chance Gulch (HELENA) — wow, that is ... improbable. That's some Knotts-Berry-Farm-recreation-of-a -Wild-West-town naming right there.

• 46D: Brew named for a Dutch river (AMSTEL) — pretty well-known beer, reasonably common crossword answer. Don't think I knew it was a river. Also, did not know how to spell Bob SAGET's name. I spelled it as if he were the creator of a restaurant guide: Bob SAGAT.
• 33D: ___ Kross ('90s rap duo) (KRIS) — they had an impossibly infectious song out during my first year in grad school. Ridiculous. Silly. Ubiquitous. Hard to resist. Uh huh, uh huh.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I'm quoted in this article (on last Thursday's cluing of ILLEGAL) and so are several commenters! 

Marquis de Sade delivered his eulogy / TUE 2-14-12 / Coal-rich region of Germany / Cocktails made with Southern Comfort sloe gin amaretto orange juice / Anti-bullfighting org

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: AMO, AMAS, AMAT (64A: Classical trio found inside 18-, 28- and 49-Across) —those three words are "hidden" inside three theme answers

Word of the Day: JITNEY (60A: Small bus) —

A dollar van (also known as a commuter van, jitney) is a privately owned type of bus service used to carry passengers in the United States of America. Dollar vans typically operate in neighborhoods within urban areas that are under-served by public mass transit or taxis. Some of the dollar vans are licensed and regulated, while others operate illegally. Passengers may board them at designated stops along their route or hail them as share taxis (although the latter practice may be technically illegal). The name comes from the fact that it would only cost about one dollar or so to ride with such transit. Dollar vans are primarily owned and used by inner-city African/Caribbean American, Latino, and Asian American populations. The vehicles used range from 15-seat Ford Econolines to 29-seat minibuses. Travelers cite cost and greater frequency as factors in choosing jitneys over larger bus service, whereas safety and comfort are cited for choosing buses. (wikipedia)

• • •

I did this puzzle under unusual circumstances (with two TV cameras trained on me), so my estimation of its quality might be off, but I generally liked it. Seemed slightly harder than a normal Tuesday, but that may be because I was talking and commenting while solving. That SANTA MONICA clue was a stumper (for a Tuesday). I kept scrolling my mind for Italian place names beginning SANTA and eventually got SANTA MONICA almost entirely from crosses. Also, getting to DECI- from [Prefix with bel] proved nearly impossible, for some reason. Also, I continue not to know the word JITNEY, despite having encountered it now several times. Also, the SW was oddly tricky: had SOIL for ROIL (56D: Make muddy) so couldn't see the FARM and certainly couldn't get FAST [Partner of hard]. I wouldn't have put hard and FAST together except in certain contexts which I'm *sure* the NYT wasn't intending. Theme answers aren't exactly scintillating, but the Latin-hiders are all 15 (nice), and LATIN LOVER is an interesting bonus. I wonder if Paula didn't have a number of AMAS- and AMAT-containing answers at the ready; I say this mainly because I know how hard it can be to cross *three* theme answers *six* times (all the Downs in the far west and far east, essentially). Seems like it might take you several organizational attempts to get that section of the grid to work out so smoothly.


Theme answers:

• 18A: Neighbor of Venice (SANTA MONICA)
• 28A: Cocktails made with Southern Comfort, sloe gin, amaretto and orange juice (ALABAMA SLAMMERS)
• 49A: Perfect Sleeper and others (SERTA MATTRESSES)
• 39A: With 42-Across, one who might memorize 64-Across [i.e. AMO, AMAS, AMAT] (LATIN LOVER)

I do like a puzzle that repurposes crosswordese. Take the tired, stale fill (AMO, AMAS, AMAT) and make something new and pretty out of it. It only just now occurred to me that today (which is to say, tomorrow) is Valentine's Day, and that this puzzle's Latin loveyness ties right in. Cool. Much nicer than that pseudo-heart-shaped grid we got on Saturday.

Bullets:

• 9A: Cathode's counterpart (ANODE) — pretty easy. Just notice that both of these sound like girls' names. The Ode sisters: Cath and Ann.
• 16A: Examiner of sunken ships, perhaps (DIVER) — this also took a little thinking. I'm telling you—ever-so-slightly thornier than your avg. Tuesday. 

• 36A: Anti-bullfighting org. (PETA) — not how I usually think of them, but that makes sense.
• 4D: Old Spanish coin (PESETA) — doesn't sound "old" to me. Is that because it's simply the pre-Euro denomination?Yes. Well that explains that.
• 19D: The Marquis de Sade delivered his eulogy (MARAT) — I did not know that. I was pleased to get MARAT off just the "R."
• 47D: Paris and Hector, e.g. (TROJANS) — helps that I'm teaching the Aeneid. I'll have cameras trained on me tomorrow while I do that, too.
• 63D: Fad item of 1962 (YO-YO) — It's not really a fad if it never goes away, is it? Or did the YO-YO really have its hula hoop moment in 1962? I wasn't there.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Three-masted sailing ship / TUE 2-7-12 / Funny Fields / Its Internet addresses end in .ee / Up on things in 40s / Hispaniola's western half

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: VANITY (50D: Unappealing personal trait ... or a word that can precede the start of 17-, 28-, 46- or 60-Across) — just what it says:

Theme answers:

• MIRROR OF THE MIND (17A: Imagination, metaphorically)
• CASE WORKER (28A: Investigator of family problems, say)
  
• PLATE GLASS (46A: It's seen in shop windows)
• FAIR-HAIRED CHILD (60A: One who's favorably looked upon)

Word of the Day: XEBEC (57A: Three-masted sailing ship) —

A xebec ( /ˈziːbɛk/ or /zɨˈbɛk/), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. It would have a long overhanging bowsprit and protruding mizzen mast. It also can refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. (wikipedia)

• • •

Clearly misplaced, difficulty-wise, by a good day at least. I was somewhat over my average Wednesday time, and the times at the NYT site are much higher than average. For all that work, I was hoping for something more than a simple "words that can follow" puzzle, especially one where two of the expressions aren't well known to me (MIRROR OF THE MIND, FAIR-HAIRED CHILD), and one of the VANITY phrases is completely unknown to me (VANITY case? Never heard of it). Further, XEBEC? "Outlier" doesn't begin to capture that word (in this puzzle). NIM? TOTIE? (65A: Funny Fields) (words I know only from crosswords) -IAL? -ISH? Cheater squares? It's not terrible, by any means, but it hardly felt worth the (above normal) effort.
 
I get lots of hits when I google "MIRROR OF THE MIND," but in the first handful of results, I'm seeing that the face is the MIRROR OF THE MIND, or that language is the MIRROR OF THE MIND ... seems like it's just a phrase that sounds profound (perhaps through the force of alliteration) but doesn't mean much of anything at all. The Jackson 5 had a song called "Mirrors of My Mind," and of course Dusty Springfield had a hit with "Windmills of Your Mind," but I can't see using this phrase as a simple substitute for "imagination." I assume the FAIR-HAIRED CHILD thing is a metaphor (and should be clued as such), because a FAIR-HAIRED CHILD is just as likely to be demonic as not.


Difficulty all over—which spelling of AMON-RA today (the "O" one) (6D: King of gods, in Egyptian myth). ASIA, not URSA Minor, a Saturday clue for ESTONIA (19D: Its Internet addresses end in .ee), a tough/vague clue for REACH (18D: Be rude at the dinner table, in a way) ... uh ... XEBEC! And, ugh, ISLED. I've been asked before, if I could kill one bit of crosswordese, what would it be; now I think I know: anything that suggests ISLE is a verb (though IRED is another good candidate).


Bullets:

• 16A: Indiana's smallest county or the river it touches (OHIO) — again, I'd suggest this is very much a late-week clue
• 64A: Dullea of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (KEIR) — got destroyed by his name in a previous puzzle, and that helped me semi-recall it here. Really wish he did anything noteworthy besides this movie. Really hard to remember.
• 5D: There has been one with every Pixar film since 1998 (SHORT) — interesting trivia. I did not know that.
• 12D: High tone? (TING) — I don't get this. Is it high, like, on the scale? Higher than what? A gong? Yuck.  

• 52D: City across the Delaware River from Philadelphia (CAMDEN) — no idea. I remember NJ being over there, but I didn't remember which part. I seem to remember Rutgers, or a Rutgers campus (?), being relatively close to Philadelphia (I'm right: there's a CAMDEN campus). It's been a while.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Chilean novelist Allende / TUE 1-31-12 / Victime of springtime hoax / MP3 player that weighs less than ounce / Newspaper puzzle with anagrams

Constructor: Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Olla podrida — theme answers are familiar phrases whose last words all mean "mishmash"

Word of the Day: Katherine HEIGL (30D: Katherine of "Knocked Up") —

Katherine Marie Heigl  (... born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and producer. She is possibly best known for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on ABC's Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series in 2007. She has also starred in films such as Knocked Up, Zyzzyx Road, 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth, Killers, Life As We Know It, New Year's Eve and One for the Money. (wikipedia)

• • •

Weird, I just added Katherine HEIGL to my database, like, a couple days ago.

The theme is hardly brilliant, but it hardly matters. This is what a Tuesday should be: easy, solid, well-filled, with bouncy theme answers and some interesting other answers thrown in for good measure. Fill seems a *tad* on the mundane side of Doug, but that's more the nature of the grid than anything else (lots of short stuff). I know it as simply the JUMBLE, but the "DAILY" part sounds at least familiar. I had LEMONADE and no idea what followed. So there was at least a few surprises and a mild amount of drama, despite the overall easiness. Stuff like YAKIMA, GO UP TO, and GIRLIE make me happy. Nice when your mid-range stuff is so snazzy. Not much else to say today—and Tuesday and Thursday write-ups could be a little brief for the foreseeable future, as I start back up at school tomorrow with a godawful early start time that makes early-morning write-ups impossible. So everything has to be done at night on the very night I need to be getting to sleep earliest. Anyway, this is just to say that if T and Th (or T and R, in my Univ's code) seem a bit thin, there's a reason.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Newspaper puzzle with anagrams (DAILY JUMBLE)
• 28A: MP3 player that weighs less than an ounce (IPOD SHUFFLE)
• 47A: Frenzied rush (MAD SCRAMBLE) — I had MAD STRUGGLE ... maybe I thought JUMBLE was RUMBLE and SHUFFLE was SCUFFLE and just invented a new theme in which STRUGGLE would be the logical answer; yes, I like that.
• 63A: Tart powdered drink preparation (LEMONADE MIX)

Screw-ups: DALE for VALE (DALE works too, right? Yes! "Synonym: VALE." We really should get rid of one of these words); that and MAD STRUGGLE may have been the only real stumbles. Took me too long to get ADJS (5D: Sm., med. and lg., e.g.)—and that clue has far too many "." in it. Never have liked YOS as a plural answer (69A: Informal greetings), though I know I've been tempted to use it on more than one occasion. I wrote an entire puzzle around the answer APRIL FOOL'S! once, so 11D: Victim of a springtime hoax was a nice familiar face. I have read exactly one ISABEL Allende novel—in college (67A: Chilean novelist Allende). It was required. And it wasn't "House of the Spirits." I want to say it was "Of Love and Shadows." Anyway, clearly it didn't leave a lasting impression. She lingers in my mind primarily because her first and last names are very grid-friendly.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

1941 Frank Capra film / TUE 1-24-12 / He played Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost / Noted talk show retiree of 2011 / Site of Haleakala National Park

Constructor: Alex Boisvert

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: D- bag — theme answers all three-word phrases containing word "D-E," where center letter of that word changes with each answer, running through all vowels from A to Y

Word of the Day: THE EDGE (42D: U2 guitarist) —

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music. // As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". (wikipedia)

• • •

A weird Tuesday outing. First, I learned that DANIEL DAE KIM (Korea's answer to Daniel Day-Lewis?) is famous enough to be a theme answer. I know "Lost" was a popular show, but ... I've certainly had puzzles rejected for "too obscure" theme answers that had greater name recognition than him. Second, so much black. 44 dang squares. Then I noticed that the grid was 16 wide and has 81 (!) answers (max is 78, typically, but I guess that extra column buys you 3 more??? I have a 16-wide coming out, and I remember thinking "still gotta keep it under 78"; and I did. Apparently there are rules, and then there are rules. Good to know). Throw in a handful of cheater squares and you have a somewhat interesting vowel progression theme inside a not-too-interesting grid filled with mostly 3-5-letter words.


Theme answers:

• 18A: He played Jin-Soo Kwon on "Lost" (DANIEL DAE KIM)
• 20A: "Through the Looking-Glass" character (TWEEDLE-DEE) — one of only two snags I had in the puzzle. Wrote in DUM because I thought the cross was RUM (16D: Drink sometimes indicated in comics by "XXX" — ALE)
• 31A: Some collectible toys (DIE-CAST CARS)
• 41A: 1941 Frank Capra film ("MEET JOHN DOE")
• 55A: Cornerstone of the American legal system (DUE PROCESS)
• 59A: Some hippie wear (TIE-DYE SHIRTS) — my second snag: I thought the hippie (singular) was wearing a TIE-DYED SHIRT 

There is a *kind* of symmetry in the "D-E" word placement within the theme answers. Second third first  third first second. Then there's the vowel progression—another nice feature. Dense theme, good theme answers, adequate grid, Tuesday-easy.


Bullets:

• 29A: Site of Haleakala National Park (MAUI) — seemed a good guess off of "-A-I"; BALI or CALI or MALI seemed unlikely
• 1D: "Cop Killer" singer who went on to play a cop on TV (ICE-T) — never did like "Law & Order" in any of its incarnations, but ICE-T's reality show "Ice Loves Coco"—now that's good TV.

• 52D: Noted talk show retiree of 2011 (OPRAH) — she gave her name to crosswords. She will be missed. 

I've decided that from now on, I'm calling U2's guitarist "THEEDGE" — one word, one syllable. Sure, it's silly, but is it really any more silly than THE EDGE?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

River on Texas/Louisiana border / TUE 1-17-12 / Rodent-eating reptiles / Season-ending events on Bachelor / Sting Ray informally

Constructor: Elizabeth A. Long

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: VINCENT / VAN GOGH (48A: With 50-Across, Dutch painter represented by this puzzle's circled letters) — circled letters form the image of and contain the words representing the images of a human face, sans left ear—EYE, EYE, EAR, NOSE, MOUTH

Word of the Day: FLOSSY (43A: Showily stylish) —

adj., -i·er, -i·est.

1. Superficially stylish; slick: wrote flossy articles about the lifestyles of the rich.
2. Of, relating to, or resembling floss.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/flossy#ixzz1jgNGdjoN

• • •

[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)]

• • •

OK, this was kind of adorable, in a grotesque way. The reveal genuinely made me go "Oh! Cool," which is about the best thing that can happen on a Tuesday (you know how Tuesdays are ... always stuck in that awkward phase ... neither here nor there ... I think my friend Wade once referred to them as the red-headed stepchildren of puzzles ... no offense to redheaded stepchildren intended). Would've been cool to have the body parts embedded / hidden inside other answers, but also would probably have been too much to ask. Sometimes keeping it simple works. Interestingly, though self-portraits show VAN GOGH with a bandage on his right ear, it was his left ear that he maimed.



Puzzle felt very easy. I had only a couple minor hiccups—no idea what RATSNAKES are (32D: Rodent-eating reptiles), and had WAVE instead of WAKE at first (58A: Evidence of a ship's passing), *and* couldn't remember the damn Texas/Louisiana border river, so I had a little moment of "uh oh" there in the west for a few seconds. Eventually caught that the reptiles must be RAT SNAKES (and not, as I briefly imagined, RAT KNAVES), and so got out of there without much harm. The only other issue was FLOSSY (43A: Showily stylish), which feels very old-fashioned. Isn't that a horse's name? Why do I think that? I can't recall ever seeing / hearing the word in the wild. I like it a lot. Feels like something a character in a '30s gangster movie would say. I wrote in NEPAL instead of KOREA (57A: It used to be called the Hermit Kingdom), forgot a Sting Ray was a 'VETTE (50D: Sting Ray, e.g., informally), and spelled GREY wrong (67A: "Pardon me, would you have any ___ Poupon?"). Otherwise, I was writing (typing) almost as fast as I could.



Not much more to say today. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend if you had one. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Brazilian port of 1.4 million / TUE 1-10-12 / Actor Sam of stage screen / Lapel attachment / One not looking for individual glory

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: TEPEE (40A: Indian home ... or a hint to nine other answers in this puzzle) — two word answers, where first word starts with "T" and second word starts with "P"

Word of the Day: Sam LEVENE (52D: Actor Sam of stage and screen) —

Sam Levene (August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was an American Broadway and film actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1927 with five lines in a play titled Wall Street, and over a span of nearly 50 years, appeared on Broadway in 37 Shows, of which 33 were the original Broadway Productions, many now considered legendary. Levene made his film debut in 1936 as Patsy recreating the same role he had created on Broadway in Three Men On A Horse (1935). Levene also appeared in the USO Tour of this same Show; the Radio Version; the Musical version that opened on Broadway called Let It Ride (1961) as well as the 1969 Broadway Revival of the play directed by 'George Abbott', the original Broadway Director and co-author. (wikipedia)

• • •

The deal seems to be that if you have a pretty weak theme, if you just cram a ton of theme answers in, that cramming will more than make up for it. I'm not a fan of cramming (in most situations), as it leads to discomfort. Today, specifically, a pretty rocky grid with at least one Highly unfortunate cross. What the hell is a TACK PIN? I know what a TIE TAC(K) is (from crosswords), and I know what a LAPEL PIN is, but TACK PIN is mysterious. Never heard of it. Very odd for a Tuesday puzzle. Odder still, though, is the LEVENE / BELÉM cross. Most people are just guessing at that "E" because it seems like the most plausible letter. I don't care if *you* knew LEVENE and/or BELÉM (57A: Brazilian port of 1.4 million), those simply aren't commonly known (proper!) nouns, and there is no way in hell they should be crossed at the "E." None. LEVENE has been in precisely one puzzle in the last decade (acc. to cruciverb.com), almost ten years ago. His name is also spelled differently from other LEVINEs, so with the "I" different I was not sure at all that the first "E" was a given.

Now throw in BELÉM. It's a city of over a million, you say. Uh huh. But no way in hell most Americans can name it. Some, perhaps. But not most. I know it *only* because I was poring over my Atlas recently marveling at all the cities in the world with 1 million+ populations that I had never heard of (and even then I wasn't sure if it was BELAM or BELÉM). BELÉM is dwarfed, population-wise, by NINGBO. Never heard of it? What about (much larger) HARBIN? SURAT? FAISALABAD? You can see why the "the population's over a million!" argument doesn't impress me much. I mean, BELÉM is only the 11th most populous city in Brazil. Can you name the other 10? No. No you can't. You can name three: RIO, SAO PAULO, and (maybe) the captial, BRASILIA. Once again (and again and again and again) the the point isn't whether BELÉM or LEVENE should be allowed in a puzzle. They should (though maybe not on a Tuesday—that's a judgment call). But they shouldn't cross, and they damn sure shouldn't cross at an "E." And again (and again and again and again), I guessed right, so I'm not sour-grapesing this thing. It's. A. Bad. Cross.





Theme answers:

• 17A: Essay, say (THINK PIECE)
• 21A: Lapel attachment (TACK PIN)
• 58A: Backup group for Gladys Knight (THE PIPS) — as my wife said, "when one of your 'T' words is 'THE,' maybe there's a problem ..."
• 63A: One not looking for individual glory (TEAM PLAYER) — I admire both TEAM PLAYER and THINK PIECE very much
  
• 11D: Group associated with 2009's Taxpayer March on Washington (TEA PARTY) — also [Group having no success influencing the election of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee]. Romney 2012! Feel the Inevitability!
  
• 39D: Singer with the Heartbreakers (TOM PETTY)
• 25D: La Brea fossil preserve (TAR PITS)
• 4D: Coach on a court (TENNIS PRO)
• 36D: Disneyland, e.g. (THEME PARK)    

Also, I want the revealer to be TPS (i.e. pulls a Halloween prank), even though TPS is itself a initialism for "toilet paper." Feels more accurate (not to mention entertaining), and the "S" suggests the plural (i.e. there are nine TPS in the puzzle).



Bullets:

• 16A: Major-leaguer Tony or Alejandro (PEÑA) — forgot about the latter, but grew up with the former, who was a 5-time All-Star in the '80s.
• 13D: U-___ (Berlin railway) (BAHN) — did not know this. Figured answer was probably not HAUL. Inferred BAHN from "autobahn."
• 45A: Fireplace (INGLE) — does anyone say this? The only time I've ever seen this word is in 16th-century Scottish literature.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Chaiken co-creator/writer of The L Word / TUE 1-3-12 / Hitter of 511 career home runs / Baseball brothers George Ken / Fictional reporter Kent

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium (leaning toward Medium-Challenging)

THEME: Middleton and Jackson —two-word phrases where second word is an anagram of KATES

Word of the Day: EROSE (26D: Not even, as a leaf's edge) —

adj.
Irregularly notched, toothed, or indented: erose leaves.

[From Latin ērōsus, past participle of ērōdere, to gnaw off. See erode.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/erose#ixzz1iOeXeH2N

• • •

• Highlight: LORETTA! (25D: "Get back, ___ ... Go home" (Beatles lyric)) (also [Two-time All-Star second baseman Mark])
• Lowlight: ILENE (no offense to her personally, but she's an outlier here, fame-wise) (46A: ___ Chaiken, co-creator/writer of "The L Word")

Didn't think much of the theme, but LOVE the grid. It's essentially a themeless grid (i.e. low word-count, in this case 72) and from NE to SW corner, and particularly in the middle, it is very wide-open. I wasn't even sure where the theme answers were at first. Long Acrosses don't really jump out in a grid like this. Anyway, I'm impressed that a 72-worder can be Tuesday-easy. Maybe this was a *little* tougher than usual, but I was still well under 4, which is not outside my Tuesday norm at all. Hardest answer for me By Far was (irony!) MEL OTT (12D: Hitter of 511 career home runs), the crosswordiest baseball player of all (pace ALOU family). Simply was not expecting that answer to be anything except a single last name. "Who the hell is ... MELIOT? MELOIT? Who is this French Guy!!?" Had a little trouble up there also because I misspelled SELASSIE ("A" for "E" in that second slot), and then wrote in ABBOT for 16A: Often-consulted church figure (ELDER). I also had a little trouble getting into the SW because of a tenacious wrong answer at 45A: Expensive coat? (GILT). I had PELT, which works (or appears to work) for every cross but one—the "P"; if it hadn't been for the manifest wrongness of NEPLECTS (the last answer I got), I'd have finished with an error. As it was, I made an easy fix. Strange that I was willing to buy CUTEES as an appropriate spelling, but I was.


Theme answers:

• 17A: It goes in the ground at a campground (TENT STAKE)
• 24A: Four-wheeled wear (ROLLER SKATE)
• 35A: Tenderized cut of beef (MINUTE STEAK)
• 47A: "Huh ... what?" reactions (DOUBLE TAKES)
• 56A: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" poet (JOHN KEATS)
  

Speaking of MELOTT, this was an über-basebally puzzle, with a double dose of MELOTT (see also GIANT), and then a double double dose of baseball baseball brother brothers. There should be some way to clue the fact that you will only have heard of one of the brothers. George BRETT is a Hall-of-Famer active during my prime baseball fan years (ages 8-14), his brother... ? (22D: Baseball brothers George and Ken) Joe TORRE is the legendary Yankee manager. Frank ... ? (52A: Baseball brothers Joe and Frank)

[10D: Fictional reporter Kent]

Beware the CARROT ID of Jennifer ANISE-TON! It's an orange, licoricey nightmare!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

1948 John Wayne western / TUE 12-27-11 / 1954 monster film setting / Linda Ronstadt hit co-written by Roy Orbison

Constructor: John Dunn

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: WATER COLORS (61A: Some Winslow Homer art ... or what five answers in this puzzle are?) — all theme answers follow the model [color + body of water]

Word of the Day: James LEVINE (17D: James of the Met) —

James Lawrence Levine ( /lɨˈvaɪn/; born June 23, 1943) is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has conducted 2,512 Met performances. In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. (wikipedia)

• • •

Another very easy puzzle, and another puzzle saved by a great revealer. As I was doing this, I was like "oh, great ... colors." Then realized that they were attached to bodies of water. OK, mildly more interesting. Strangely, I *never* saw the answer WATER COLORS while I was solving. My eyes must have glided over the clue, but when it failed to register anything, I must have gone on and solved the entire answer via crosses. A good revealer is really valuable—it's an emphatic expression of the puzzle's organizing principle, and is successful to the extent that it is both accurate as a statement of what the puzzle's about and clever in its wordplay. Outside the theme, the grid is solid—vivid and interesting and light on junk. Very Scrabbly without feeling forced.


Theme answers:

• 16A: 1954 monster film setting (BLACK LAGOON)
• 22A: 1948 John Wayne western (RED RIVER) 
• 50A: City that's home to the winner of the first two Super Bowls (GREEN BAY)
• 10D: It's between Korea and China (YELLOW SEA)
• 32D: Linda Ronstadt hit co-written by Roy Orbison ("BLUE BAYOU")
  

I confess to having no idea who James LEVINE is (17D: James of the Met). I was not even sure if "James" was a first or last name. That answer, and the entire southern region, caused the only hold-ups in the entire solve. In the south, I had GO FOR instead of GUESS (50D: Take a stab), and that took some undoing. Took a while to get to GAPS from 67A: Reasons for braces. CREATOR took a few crosses to see (45A: Brahma, in Hinduism). Otherwise, everything else just fell into place quickly (hence my never seeing the most important theme answer of the lot).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Word on biblical wall / TUE 12-20-11 / Writer John who won Pulitzer for Annals of Former World / John Constable Camille Pissarro / Shore dinner staple

Constructor: Julian Lim

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: SPLIT PEA (36D: Kind of soup ... or a hint to the answers to the five starred clues) — letter string "PEA" is "split" across two words in familiar phrases

Word of the Day: John MCPHEE (10D: Writer John who won a Pulitzer for "Annals of the Former World") —

John Angus McPhee (born 8 March 1931) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, widely considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. // Unlike Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, who helped kick-start the "new journalism" in the 1960s, McPhee produced a gentler, literary style of journalism by incorporating techniques from fiction. McPhee avoided the streams of consciousness of Wolfe and Thompson, but detailed description of characters and appetite for details make his writing lively and personal, even when it focuses on obscure or difficult topics. He is highly regarded by fellow writers for the quality, quantity and diversity of his literary output. // Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. (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)]

• • •

This just didn't work for me. First, I am really prejudiced against these word-splitting themes when the split word does not touch every single word in the theme phrase. So that HOPE hanging out there at the end of the first theme answer and that DOPE hanging out there at the end of the third are really irksome distractions (blame Patrick Berry, who beat it into me that the "touch-every-word" feature was ideal). Then there's the fact that HOPE AGAINST HOPE and ROPE-A-DOPE seem like they could secede and start some other theme. Then there's TYPE-AS, which is clearly a "SPLIT PEA" but is not clued as such and at any rate does not have a symmetrical thematic counterpart. The whole set-up just felt very wonky. Outside the theme, things are mostly decent. I found the puzzle harder than the average Tuesday (by close to a minute)—from the BARK AT / HOWL AT trap at 1A: Serenade, as the moon to the never-ever-heard-it-used-that-way REHABS at 31D: Fixes up, as an old house to the interesting but unusual stuff in the SW corner, most notably ONE LB and ON AUTO (the latter didn't come together until I got every single cross). Even [Shore dinner staple] didn't quite compute for me. I can get CRAB anywhere ... Cool to see John MCPHEE in the grid. He's a good writer.





Theme answers:

• 20A: *Wish desperately (HOPE AGAINST HOPE)
• 28A: *Be worry-free (SLEEP EASY)
• 43A: *Muhammad Ali ring tactic (ROPE-A-DOPE)
• 53A: *John Constable or Camille Pissarro (LANDSCAPE ARTIST) 
• 4D: *Like some bunnies and puppies (LOP-EARED) 

Bullets:

• 14A: Colored part of the iris (AREOLA) — I associate this more with the breast than the eye.
• 42A: Facebook competitor (MYSPACE) — yes, the way the Washington Generals are [Globetrotters' competitors]. 
• 1D: Dinner from previous dinners (HASH) — another example of an answer's just not coming easily. Tried to think of a shortish word for "leftovers."
• 2D: Modern ice cream flavor (OREO) — as opposed to what, *ancient* ice cream flavor. First, it's not a flavor, it's a brand. Second, "Cookies & Cream" has been around a long time, and that's essentially what OREO ice cream is. So "modern" is an odd term. Is anything besides the five Canonical flavors (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Rocky Road, and ... Butter Brickle??) considered "modern?"

• 42D: Word on a biblical wall ("MENE") — Grandma got me a book once about phrases in the Bible—the title was "MENE MENE TEKEL." Never read it, but turns out I learned something valuable just by reading the title.
• 52D: "The ___ is out there" (catchphrase on "The X-Files") (TRUTH) — yet another TV show that everyone around me seemed to love but that I never watched. Never ever cared about the paranormal or the loopy people who believe in it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

1996 slasher film with villain Ghostface / TUE 12-13-11 / Kojak portrayer / 1980s defense secretary Weinberger / Singer with 1995 12x platinum album Pieces of You

Constructor: Jonathan Gersch

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ELMO (61D: Pal of the starts of 17-, 24-, 40-, 52- and 66-Across) of SESAME STREET (19A: With 63-Across, where to find all the characters at the starts of 17-, 24-, 40-, 52- and 66-Across) fame—theme answers begin with BERT, OSCAR, GROVER, TELLY (?), and ERNIE, respectively

 Word of the Day: TELLY —

Telly Monster, known usually as just Telly, is an eternally worrying, fuchsia monster Muppet on Sesame Street. He is puppeteered by Martin P. Robinson. // On his debut in 1979, he was known as the Television Monster, a character that was fixated on television. He had antennae standing out of the top of his head, and his eyes would whirl around when he watched television. After that stint through season eleven, producers worried that he would be a negative influence on their easily influenced viewers, and changed him into the worry-wart character that he has been ever since. [...] Telly is a triangle lover, and he has a pet hamster Chuckie Sue. He has been known to pogo stick uncontrollably around Sesame Street, often causing havoc with all that gets in his way. This segment is shown on Sesame Street Unpaved. Baby Bear is his best friend and appears occasionally in many of the main plots in the later series. Telly also has somewhat of a friendship with Oscar the Grouch, since they appear in many segments together. (wikipedia)

• • •

So the big revelation for me today was that there is a "Sesame Street" muppet named TELLY. Wow. By 1979 I wasn't watching "Sesame Street" any more, so I guess I just missed him and Never Picked Him Up. TELLY must *$&%ing hate ELMO. ELMO gets a big marketing campaign and he's all baby-voiced and cute or whatever, and TELLY's just an ugly depressed oaf. This theme is fine. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Felt very easy, except for a couple of moments when it wasn't. Those moments: ALBA (1D: Francisco Goya's "Duchess of ___")—really could've used a Jessica clue here; HISS (4A: Snake sound)—I wrote in HSSS (!?); the SE corner—I didn't make any errors, and even got WEAL off just the "W," but needed every cross to get LOT (73A: Drawing); VIERS (55D: Contenders)—it was my first guess, but I just couldn't convince myself it was a word; and ADWEEK (16A: Marketing pro's magazine)—absolutely no clue ... sounds vaguely familiar, but I needed virtually every cross. Still, finished under 4, which means if I didn't mention it in this paragraph, I torched it.



Theme answers:

• 17A: Cowardly Lion portrayer (BERT LAHR)
• 24A: "The Odd Couple" slob (OSCAR MADISON)
• 40A: President who was once New York's governor (GROVER CLEVELAND)
• 52A: Kojak portrayer (TELLY SAVALAS)
• 66A: 2011 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame (ERNIEELS)
  

Bullets:

• 57A: Stella D'___ (cookie brand) (ORO) — I do not know this cookie at all. Star of gold.
• 68A: Stately trees of Lebanon (CEDARS) — Stately Trees of Lebanon sounds like a band name. Like Kings of Leon, only much better.
• 8D: 1980s defense secretary Weinberger (CASPAR) — one of those answers that will tend to be a gimme to anyone who was an adult in the '80s, but possibly a mystery to the under-30 set. Political cabinet positions tend to work that way. I often get comments like "how could you not know J.F.K.'s Secretary of the Interior?" and I always want to reply "You don't know that because you studied it or because you're smart, you know it because you were breathing air in 1960." But mostly I don't reply at all. And the answer is Stewart Udall.
• 25D: Winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, and Oscar, and three Golden Globes (CHER) — a very dull clue for CHER. I mean ... CHER. Look at her. Look at her body of work. And "this* is your clue? Snore. Not nearly CHER-Y enough. I thought the answer was Rita Moreno at first.
• 34D: 1996 slasher film with villain Ghostface ("SCREAM") — my only comment here is I can't believe that movie is already 15 years old. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld