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)
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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).
THEME: Pronouns — seven theme answers begin with WE, I, THEY, HE, YOU, SHE, and IT, respectively
Word of the Day: "HE GOT GAME" (50A: 1998 Spike Lee joint) —
He Got Game is a 1998 American sports-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington as Jake Shuttlesworth, a prison inmate convicted for killing his wife. The father of the top-ranked basketball prospect in the country, Jesus Shuttlesworth (played by NBA star Ray Allen), Jake is released on parole for a week by the state's governor in order to persuade his son to play for the governor's alma mater in exchange for a heavily-reduced prison sentence. (wikipedia)
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I had no idea what the theme of this puzzle was until well after I was finished. Well, not "well" after ... maybe 15 seconds after. Started out seeming very easy, and then I hit some of the odder, more vaguely clued theme answers, and things toughened up slightly. Strangely, my biggest trouble was in the SE, where I could not for the life of me make sense of the clue 67A: Election Day no. (even just now, I typed "mo."). My brain was like "NOV? TUE? NOV? TUE? etc." I had no idea what "no." could be at issue. I had the "P" but that didn't help. It only made me doubt SOAPY. Also started doubting NOPE for 59A: "Can't help ya!" (not the most exact match, to my ear). So I lost time mainly to fumbling, not to any intrinsic difficulty, though I do think some of the theme answers are going to slow people up. Clue on "I CAN DREAM" is vague (also, is that really the best "I" phrase out there??). And "HE GOT GAME" wasn't exactly a ground-breaking, memorable film. Still, those theme answers are at least interesting, which is more than I can say for most of the rest of the grid. Not a big fan of ABCTV (who calls it that?) or SOR. (again, really?) or U OF A (Vic's just shoehorning in a reference to his home state here) (42A: Fayetteville campus, briefly). Overall, this is fairly typical Tuesday fare—just fine, nothing to write home about.
Theme answers:
17A: Shout upon reaching a destination ("WE MADE IT!")
34D: "Just my luck" ("IT FIGURES") — at this point, I figured we had an "IT expressions" theme
26A: "Wouldn't that be nice" ("I CAN DREAM")
38A: Intro to many an adage ("THEY SAY...")
50A: 1998 Spike Lee joint ("HE GOT GAME")— sort of surprised to see the clue use "joint" in this context; it's how Lee refers to his own films, but I've never see anyone else ever refer to their films that way (unless they were aping / parodying Lee)
63A: "Well, look who's back!" ("YOU AGAIN!?")
11D: Wicked women (SHE-DEVILS)
KISSY KISSY would be a great answer. As a half-phrase, it's only so-so. "Hizzoner" would also be a great answer (MAYOR). Of the LEWs you are likely to see in crosswords, all of them have last names ending in "A"—Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Ayres (an actor, I think), and Archer (detective in Ross Macdonald novels). Something oddly amusing (to me) about having ICHING and ITCHES right on top of each other. Was discussing Tatum O'NEAL in "Paper Moon" just the other day in class, in the context of teaching "Taxi Driver" (Academy Award-nominated child actress connection—O'NEAL won).
THEME: YOU (62D: Object of affection in 17-, 25-, 47- and 61-Across) — theme answers are song titles that span the grid, but each title is missing its final word: "YOU"
Word of the Day: "GIRL I'M GONNA MISS YOU" (47A: "___ 62-Down" (1989 Milli Vanilli hit)) —
"Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" is a song recorded by Milli Vanilli and released as a single in 1989 off the album Girl You Know It's True. The single was a big success, hitting the #1 spot on American and European charts. (wikipedia)
• • •
I'm not feeling the Valentininess of this one. YOU is ... missing. But then it's there. Down there. I get that they are all love songs — at least I assume they are; "I'M WALKING BEHIND YOU" song sounds pretty stalker. But why cut YOU out? Conceptually, that move doesn't say "love" to me. It says break-up or death or something other than happy union. This puzzle was also weirdly uneven, in that All the difficulty lay in the song titles. Puzzle compensated for that relative toughness by making the rest of the grid mind-numbingly easy. So my time was normal, but the experience was not smooth. Plus I got the idea right away, with the first theme answer, so there was no reveal or aha moment or anything. Just "Missing YOU," which was a big John Waite song, which would have made a Nice revealer on a puzzle like this. The Stones' "Miss You" might have worked too. Then you could've ditched the painful-to-remember Milli Vanilli song to avoid repeating the "MISS." But no. Songs themselves aren't a very impressive lot. In order, I would rate them good, ???, "ow, my ears!," and yawn.
Theme answers:
17A: "___ 62-Down" (1962 Ray Charles hit) ("I CAN'T STOP LOVING")
25A: "___ 62-Down" (1953 Eddie Fisher hit) ("I'M WALKING BEHIND")
61A: "___ 62-Down" (1995 Hootie & the Blowfish hit) ("ONLY WANNA BE WITH YOU")
Not much else to say. Had to slog through the first couple titles by crosses, and then wrestled a bit with the spelling on the Hootie song, but otherwise, it all went down quickly. I liked LUNCH BOX (40D: Carrier of a sandwich, soda and cookies, say). Wife questioned the clue on BMX (68A: Big name in stunt bikes), since the sport itself is called BMX (bicycle motocross). Is BMX a brand of bike as well? I know it's a type ... "name" just seems odd.
Word of the Day: Ally SHEEDY (4D: Ally of New York City) —
Alexandra Elizabeth "Ally" Sheedy (born June 13, 1962) is an American film and stage actress, as well as the author of two books. She is best known for her roles in the Brat Pack films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. (wikipedia) ["... of New York City???" You can clue actors by where they live?]
• • •
It's rare that I say this about a Saturday puzzle, or any puzzle, but this one was too easy. I'm sure my skills are improving, but I really shouldn't be able to do a Saturday puzzle in just over 6 minutes—without racing. A leisurely 6+ minutes. And that's with an initial wrong answer (LOANER for MASHER, 1D: Advance man?), a failure to turn the corner at 10D: Declaration of determination (I CAN — I had I'M IN), and a serious stall in the SE as I tried to figure out what was on the other side of AUDIO and MAIN — I had FILE and TOPIC instead of the correct CLIP and THEME at first. But the rest of it?—blew through it like it wasn't even there, esp. the SW and NE, which went down like Tuesday/Wednesday corners. I'll admit to having a slight edge over many of you because I happen to own the Blu CANTRELL song in the clue 13D: Singer Blu with the 2001 hit "Hit 'Em Up Style (Ooops!)," but besides that, there's nothing even slightly off-road here (except small stuff that you can blow right by).
Got "I'LL HAVE THE USUAL" off the "I'LL" and got WOMAN OF THE WORLD off the -OFTHEW-, which was there before I ever looked at the clue. OK, maybe Glenn Miller's real first name is weird, but I had ALT- and -ON seemed like (and was) the only way to complete it. And the "Die Fledermaus" maid? Once I had AD-, I knew she was ADELE or ADELA, and from context I could see it was ADELE. Overall, I love the intersecting 15s, and the FORT / APACHE team-up worked out nicely (25A: With 43-Down, storied Bronx station house), but the rest of it is a little dull. In particular, it's a little RLSTNE-heavy. "Wheel of Fortune" letters everywhere. Nothing too snazzy.
Not much else to say—straight to bullets, then.
Bullets:
27A: Like Russ., once (SOV.) — this "S" was a bit scary for me. Had no idea what -OV or the cross, -NO, could be (27D: ___ Mountain (Pennsylvania ski resort)—SNO). Then: "Ohhhh. SOViet. That's an abbrev??? OK."
28A: Eaves lounge chair feature (SWIVEL) — could've been tough, I guess, but I had the "SW-," which gives you just one option as far as I can tell.
11D: Murray of silents (MAE) — OK, this is kind of obscure, but I never even saw the clue. Tough stuff doesn't really matter when the crosses are super-breezy. This method of solving, where crosses do all the lifting in a potentially tough clue, happened again at ONO (55D: "Walking on Thin Ice" singer) and again at OTTOS (60A: Physics Nobelist Stern and others).
40A: "In My Own Words" missionary (TERESA) — I mean ... it's a missionary. You need only a cross or two, if that, to guess who it is.
53A: Gothenburg's river (PLATTE) — And again, tough, but I had the "P" and PLATTE was the very first, and only, thing that occurred to me.
24D: He was declared dead in absentia in 1982 (HOFFA) — guessed this one before I ever saw the clue. H-F-A? What else? Sorry, broken record, but it was one of those days.
25D: Spot follower, perhaps (FIDO) — well, they're both dog names. I guess one could "follow" the other...
31D: Neighbor of Loire and Ain (RHONE) — No idea what "Ain" is, but it doesn't matter because "Loire" provided the only context I needed. Too easy.
Word of the Day: BEBE Rebozo (15A: Nixon pal Rebozo) —
Charles Gregory "Bebe" Rebozo (November 17, 1912 Tampa, Florida –May 8, 1998) was a Florida banker who gained fame for being a close friend and confidant of President Richard Nixon. [...] Rebozo first met then U.S. Representative Nixon in 1950 through Florida Representative George Smathers. Smathers had recommended Key Biscayne as a vacation destination to Nixon, who eventually set up the Florida White House in the area. While Nixon was vacationing in Key Biscayne, Smathers had Rebozo take Nixon deep sea fishing. Rebozo and Nixon then started a friendship that lasted 44 years. // In 1976, Rebozo was the subject of a bank fraud investigation. The loan application filed with Hudson Valley National Bank (Yonkers, New York), stated that the loan was for real estate when it was actually used as a business loan. Rebozo repaid the loan with interest, and the bank declined to file a complaint. (wikipedia) (That's why he's famous: because he was Nixon's friend—HE MADE THE COVER OF LIFE BECAUSE OF THIS?)
• • •
For reasons that aren't entirely explicable, this was perhaps my worst puzzle performance of the year. Embarrassing. Started out great (NW, SW), then things got a little rocky (far N, far S), then a bit rockier (SE), then so rocky that I just stopped (NE). Never heard of NOL. (the worst thing I've seen in a grid in a while) (10A: ___ pros. (court record abbr.)). Never heard of BEBE. Just ... never (I suspect this is generational blindness on my part; I was born during the Nixon administration, and didn't start paying attention to current events til the Reagan administration. Side note: it's kind of cute that this puzzle contains a friend of a president, as the constructor himself counts at least one former president among his friends). Oddly enough, the only reason I was able to solve this corner, in the end, was by guessing the name BEBE from B--E and seeing what would happen if I just wrote it in. I had LOST, AÑOS, SCALP (24A: Massage locale), *and* TOOK TEA and *still* couldn't see either NEONATAL (10D: Kind of ward) or OBSOLETE (11D: Superseded) (went looking for a past tense construction on the latter). But the real, horrible, stupid reason I failed so miserably was my own fault: I just couldn't see OUSTER (28D: Dispossession), and I even ran the alphabet at the second letter position (OA-TER, OB-TER, etc.) and went Right Past "U" without picking up on anything viable. Thus I couldn't see OUTEATS (which I thought was going to be some kind of noun, i.e. "tops" = article of clothing?) (30A: Tops at the dinner table?). SOTTED is ridiculous (BESOTTED, maybe) (24D: In one's cups). With SO--ED in place, I of course wanted the more reasonable SOUSED. [Barbers]=STYLES? "Let me barber your hair for you"? Wow. Half of my annoyance is directed at crappy fill, but the bigger half is directed at the complete breakdown of my crosswording skills.
This puzzle started out strong, with great answers like PYRRHIC VICTORY (4D: Win offset by losses) and GET IT ON (25A: Start a scrap), but then sort of degenerated into a combination of crosswordese (ITER, DR.NO (47A: Crab Key villain of book and film), ORES) and semi-marginal names (TANYA, ASCH (22A: "Moses" novelist), CHET (29A: Lemon on a baseball field), RON ELY (42D: Miss America host after Bert Parks), BEBE). Stuff like NOL and SOTTED and OBOLI (7D: Old Greek coins) make this puzzle hard to love, but most of the rest of it seems adequate, with (as I said) patches of niceness.
Bullets:
19A: 1980s-'90s women's magazine (LEAR'S) — neeeever heard of this. Thankfully, I never saw the clue until just now.
20A: Rockies rangers (ELKS) — hate ELKS as plural (prefer ELK), but love the basebally clue.
38A: Did as suggested in a Gershwin musical? (ATE CAKE) — it is clear that Judge Fleming (the constructor) lives in a parallel universe from mine, as we apparently share almost no frames of reference. I just don't know anything in this puzzle. With "K" in place I could infer this answer, but I can't name a Gershwin musical besides "Porgy & Bess," I don't think (I'm being told "Porgy & Bess" is an opera; sorry). Musical in question here: "Let 'Em Eat Cake" (1933)
48A: Ciliary body setting (UVEA) — didn't know what a "ciliary body" was (eye anatomy = yet another knowledge fail today)
6D: Colonial stinger (FIRE ANT) — tricky use of "colonial"
32D: Deep-fried mouthful (TATER TOT) — (unintentionally) timely, as this crispy treat was a major part of the storyline of this week's episode of "Glee" (tots are taken away from school cafeteria, sparking "Norma Rae"-esque protest)
41D: 2009 Grammy winner for "Relapse" (EMINEM) — Hey! The puzzle finally speaks my language! Thank god, because even with EMINEM and EUROPE (40D: Grand tour setting) in place, I had trouble with the SE.
48D: Aptly named hybrid (UGLI) — don't think of it as particularly "UGLI."
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. 
