You've got every right to a beautiful life, come on !

Je devrais être en train d'étudier les Math's, la Physique, la Chimie & la S.V.T. en vue de l'épreuve de Bac blanc anticipée de demain. Mais je fais une pause, j'ai ai trop marre là n__n".

Ce matin j'ai passé le Français, on est tombé sur le théâtre ( yihouuuuu ) & je n'étais vraiment, mais alors vraiment pas inspirée, que ça soit pour la dissertation ( il y avait une partie à faire sur les représentations théâtrales, & je ne me souviens jamais des noms des metteurs en scène des pièces que je vais voir ! ) ou pour le commentaire de texte ( impossible de trouver des axes à ce fichu extrait de Britannicus ). ( Merci Racine ! ). Du coup, je me suis rabattue sur l'écriture d'invention ( & tous ceux qui sont en Première ou en Terminale savent à quel point il est dangereux de prendre l'écriture d'invention ... Ô, malheur à toi petit lycéen qui aura voulu tenter de t'essayer à cet exercice Ô combien difficile qu'est l'écriture d'invention, blablabla ). En gros, il fallait faire un prologue sur le même principe que le prologue d'Antigone de Jean Anouilh ( de loin une de mes pièces de théâtre préféréééééées ! ♥ ). Dieu soit loué, j'avais lu l'avant veille La répétition ou l'amour puni de Jean Anouilh ( je vous l'avez montré dans une vidéo :D ) & je l'avais ADORÉ ( Awww, Jean Anouilh ♥♥♥ ), donc j'ai pris du plaisir à écrire quand même, malgré que je savais que je prenais un risque en tentant l'écriture d'invention. Voilà, je ne sais pas quelle sera ma note, mais je pense que j'aurais la moyenne ( qui est déjà pas mal ). Maintenant, stressons pour les épreuves scientifiques, & pire : l'oral de Français que je passe Vendredi à 9h30.

Trêve de blablatage, voilà un petit look tout simple mais que j'affectionne beaucoup parce qu'il est totalement confortable. 
J'ai piqué un jean à mon Papa la semaine dernière & je l'ai coupé puis délaver avec de la javel pour en faire ce qu'il est aujourd'hui ( il faut que je vous avoue que je suis plutôt obnubilée par les petits shorts en jeans destroys que j'ai l'impression de voir partout en ce moment ....... ). Bon, comme c'était un jean à mon Papa il est forcément un poil trop grand, mais est-ce que quelqu'un ici s'en souci vraiment ? n_n'. 
Avec ça, un tee-shirt payé environ 4 euros dans un magasin appelé Zeeman, un truc du style Tati ou Vêt'Affaires qui propose des trucs pas trop mal pourtant ! J'adore le turquoise du bleu, & je ne m'attendais pas à une matière aussi douce & agréable à porter. The bon plan quoi. Il y avait aussi pleins d'autres coloris qui seraient tout à fait géniaux pour cet été tel qu'un rose/corail, un vert pomme, un jaune citron & etc. 
Pour les chaussures, j'ai ressorti mes Converses marrons vieilles comme le monde ( bon, ok, vieille comme des Converses de quelques années ).


Vous revoyez encore la coiffure que j'avais il y a deux articles de ça parce que je n'étais pas encore allée au coiffeur quand j'avais pris ces photos ;'). 

That week, I have big exams, & actually, I should be studying but I really needed a break so this an article with an outfit :). 

I stole a jean of my Dad & then I cut these shorts in it. I faded them & that's it ! ( I have to admit that I'm currently kinda obsessed with tiny destroyed shorts ..... ).

Very confortable outfit, with my old Converses & a simple blue T-shirt that I love, hope you'll like it n_n.

I have the same hairdressing as the last time because I took those photos before going to the hairdresser ;'D.

Shorts : self made, top : Zeeman, shoes : Converses All Stars,

bag : ?, tights : H&M, belt : New Look.

Some photos of the beautiful blossom trees that I took a few days ago !

My favorites of the moment ! ♥♥♥.

P.S. : thank you so much for all the lovely comments for my new haircut, I love you !

P.S. 2 : un énorme merci à Inès pour m'avoir cité dans un de ses articles, ça m'a fait vraiment très plaisir & j'ai trouvé ça absolument adorable *o*.

P.S. 3 : priez pour le Japon, faîtes des dons. Cette tragédie est tellement horrible. 

Pray for Japan, give something. This tragedy is so horrible.

Je ne fais pas que manger, promis.

Un week-end à la campagne chez Martin...

Un dej avec Bouchra au Breakfast in America... (Vidéo la semaine prochaine sur Do it in Paris-Le Blog)

Une pause pancakes avec Margaux, toujours au Breakfast in America...

India, Place des Vosges...

Les "Miam pictures" de la douce Noémie Porotti...

Company that produced Twister Candy Land / MON 3-14-11 / Hershey's vatful / Antianxiety drug with palindromic name / Area west of Bowery

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: MALT to MULT — a vowel progression puzzle, with theme answers all starting with M-LT and the "-" being a different vowel in each case: A, E, I, O, and U, respectively.

Word of the Day: CIVET (21D: Spotted cat) —

A civet (pronounced /ˈsɪvɨt/) is a small, lithe-bodied, mostly arboreal mammal native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. Civet may also refer to the distinctive musk produced by the animal. (wikipedia ... which says nothing about the civet being a "cat," though it does say CIVETs "have a broadly cat-like general appearance")

• • •

A bouncy little Monday puzzle from the Other Divine Miss M. This one felt slightly thornier than her usually offerings, perhaps because she went with a 76- rather than a more typical (for a Monday) 78-word grid while also throwing down some high-value Scrabble tiles. My time was pretty average for a Monday, but I felt like I was working somewhat harder than I normally have to on a Monday — not a bad thing. There were some weird things about this puzzle. First, it seemed like its theme was sweets—60% of the answers either are or refer to sugary treats. Then there was the fact that two of the M-LT words were very nearly synonyms of one another (MELTING, MOLTEN), with both words having chocolaty contexts. Slight feeling of repetition and redundancy. Lastly, I was mildly UPSET (4D: Overturn) with MELT IN ONE'S MOUTH, since that phrase is taken directly from M&Ms' slogan, and thus (in my mind) should be quoted perfectly, i.e. MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. That is what they do. That is what the ads say they do. Nothing about "ONE'S" in the ads. I'm happy to have constructors fudge the ONE'S/YOUR distinction generally, but in the case of a direct quotation, not so much. Still, this glitch did LITTLE (3D: Wee) to diminish my enjoyment of the puzzle as a whole.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Fountain treat (MALTED MILK) — I don't know that I've heard this phrase. A MALTED MILK shake, I've heard of. "MALTED MILK" appears to be some kind of powder... but maybe in some bygone era this phrase was totally normal for the "fountain treat" in question.
  
• 23A: What M&M's do (MELT IN ONE'S MOUTH)

[What the...?]

• 37A: Company that produced Twister and Candy Land (MILTON BRADLEY)
  
• 50A: Hershey's vatful (MOLTEN CHOCOLATE) — I assume this refers to some imagined vat at their factory... we live very close to Hershey, PA, but have never been.
  
• 56A: The "3" in "6 x 3 = 18" (MULTIPLIER) — ugh, I tripped over the final letter. Somehow couldn't process what the clue was asking for, and the cross just didn't help at first — clue on RES. feels weirdly redundant; RES. is an abbrev. for "home." "Phone number" part just confused me. For a few seconds, anyway.
  

Normally don't have to deal with detritus like CIS, MELO, and ABAA in Andrea's grids, but again, I think the tradeoff — theme density and Scrabbly letters — is worth it.

Bullets:

• 5A: WWW letters (HTML) — one of those either/or clues: is it HTML or HTTP?
  
• 17A: Jamie Foxx's "Yep ___ Me" ("DAT'S") — again, very un-Andreaesque, this kind of non-word. I do like the clue, though. Don't know the song. Let's hear it.

• 55A: Antianxiety drug with a palindromic name (XANAX) — always strikes me as a name better suited to an anti-gas drug. I think I've been conditioned by GAS-X and MAALOX.
  
• 27D: ___ Reader (eclectic bimonthly) (UTNE) — not much you can do with a U--E set-up (which the theme answer arrangement puts in place). ULEE. UTNE. URGE may be your best bet there. But UTNE is a solid, if crosswordy, choice.
  
• 44D: Pre-cable TV adjunct (AERIAL) — "adjunct" threw me slightly, for reasons I don't quite understand. Also, is there any difference in this context between ANTENNA and AERIAL?
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Soviet foreign affairs minister during Cuban missile crisis / SUN 3-13-11 / Ziggurat features / Onetime Freud collaborator / Kaaba visitor's faith

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging


THEME: Reverend Spooner, U.S.P.S. — theme clues combine to form a monologue by Reverend Spooner, who describes his new career with the USPS in (at least vaguely) USPS-related spoonerisms (the theme answers)

Word of the Day: Andrei GROMYKO (41D: Soviet foreign affairs minister during the Cuban missile crisis) —

Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (Russian: Андре́й Андре́евич Громы́ко; Belarusian Андрэ́й Андрэ́евіч Грамы́ка; 18 July [O.S. 5 July] 1909 – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1987). Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1987. In the West he was given the nickname Mr. Nyet ("Mr. No"). (wikipedia)

• • •

As an example of the story-theme type, this puzzle is quite good. It's not my favorite type of theme, as it results in some pretty contrived dialogue (and answers). Also, whenever I see that theme answers are going to be spoonerisms (yes, it's happened before, under tournament conditions no less), my heart sinks a little. My brain just doesn't process them well; also, I never get the chuckle that pun-loving people do. It's mainly just work for me. But most of today's theme answers were at least cute, and the consistently postal nature of the puns made the set cohere in a way that allowed me to overcome my normally poor ability to handle spoonerisms. So ... up from 'poor' to 'mediocre.' Base phrases of a couple of theme answers don't hold together very well ("pack your crate?" "hound growling?") and the last one ("filled with cheer") has nothing whatsoever to do with the postal service, but the rest are tight.

Difficulty-wise, there was the general struggle to get the wordplay, and then there was GROMYKO, and then there was ABACO (91A: The Bahamas Great ___ Island). There was also the issue of how to spell AMIDALA (15D: Queen in the "Star Wars" saga), and my failure to make sense of either of the crossing non-S plurals BOWMEN (73A: Drawers of war?) / RAIMENT (56D: Wardrobe items). Other than that, this was pretty typical of a Sunday, difficulty-wise. Always love seeing LEE Marvin (39A: Marvin of "Cat Ballou"), who is possibly my favorite hard-boiled actor of all time (that's right—sorry, Bogie), and MR. MOM (1D: 1983 Michael Keaton comedy), which features one of my earliest celebrity crushes: Martin Mull ... I mean Teri Garr! Also love HOMERS (59A: Round-trippers, in sports lingo) because it reminds me that the baseball season is right around the corner. Loved the clue on IOUS (which is saying something—I wonder how many hundreds of times Patrick Berry has had to clue that damned word) (44A: Poor writer's scribblings?). Kind of cool that the puzzle has two horror film directors (ELI Roth and WES Craven). Kind of not cool that the clue for SATYR, [Forest flutist], did not include the additional (some would argue necessary) word "fictional."

Theme answers:

• 23A: "I suppose it might seem odd that a reverend like myself would suddenly begin ___..." (MARRYING THE KALE)
  
• 31A: "... but I've always thought ___ had a more fun job than I do" (MOST PASTORS)
  
• 35A: "For an avid philatelist like me, sorting envelopes is thrilling—I might spot a ___!" (STAIR RAMP)
  
• 48A: "When a man is nervous about shipping breakables, I tell him, '___ carefully, sir' ..." (CRACK YOUR PATE)
  
• 60A: "... and I write '___' on the box, which seems to reassure him" (CANDLE WITH HAIR)
  
• 68A: "The best part of the job, of course, is when I'm out on the street ___" (RAKING MY MOUNDS)
  
• 80A: "I'm a bit leery of dogs—it's unsettling to enter a yard and hear some ___ at me ..." (GROUND HOWLING)
  
• 96A: "... but dogs can't spoil how much I enjoy driving around in the ___" (TRAIL MUCK)
  
• 99A: "Homeowners get excited when they see me opening their ___ ..." (BETTER LOCKS)
  
• 109A: "... and when I hand-deliver a package, the recipients are positively ___—it's very satisfying!" (CHILLED WITH FEAR)
  

Bullets:

• 27A: "Dirt cake" ingredients (OREOS) — total guess, but a good one. Where I come from, dirt cakes are made of dirt, and maybe some water.
  
• 76A: Mesabi Range export (IRON ORE) — located in northern Minnesota, the Mesabi Range is the chief deposit of iron ore in the U.S. (wikipedia)
  
• 2D: Single-named "Hollywood Squares" regular (CHARO!) — she was married to that Cugat guy, right? Er, what's his name? ... Xavier Cugat! I knew her as "that coochie coochie lady who guest-starred on 'Love Boat' sometimes."

• 9D: Ziggurat featues (TIERS) — getting ziggurats confused with Zagnut bars, I think.
  
• 14D: Onetime Freud collaborator (ADLER) — Alfred ADLER. I know nothing about him except his not uncommon (in crosswords) name.
  
• 51D: Bygone Tide rival (RINSO) — when will I start seeing the new Johnny Depp movie "RANGO" in my puzzles?
  
• 93D: Bird that may nest on volcanic ash (NENE) — also, the starting center for the Denver Nuggets.
  
• 102D: 1980s-'90s Chrysler offerings (KCARS) — my favorite letter is "K," so I kind of want to drive one of these, even though I have a feeling they are/were cruddy.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Mouvement

Avant hier soir, nous étions au Studio Sfr, là où se produisait Cocoon.

Le concert était parfait, le live fidèle à ce que l'on connaît, pas une fausse note.

Et surtout la complicité du duo n'a pas laissé insensible le public.

Je ne connaissais pas le lieu, mais wow !

En dehors de la salle de concert, assez intimiste, là ou nous avons passé le plus du temps, c'était aux toilettes... Incroyables !

Des miroirs sur tous les murs, Martin a foncé la tête la première dedans, drôle.

A la fin du live, nous sommes montés à l'étage où nous avons été accueillis par des sushis et du champagne. Agréable, nous avons pu échanger quelques mots avec les organisateurs de la soirée, les membres du groupe et ce fût l'occasion de croiser quelques têtes que l'on connaissait.

Petit flashback - Milan. Deuxième jour, deuxième look.

L'hôtel était d'une beauté à couper le souffle et malgré la lumière qui embellissait la ville, c'est en rentrant d'une soirée que j'ai embêté ma mère : "Prends la photo ici !" "Non, ici, il y a plus de détails !"

Jean - H&M

Pull - Crimson

Veste - H&M

Chapeau - H&M

Chaussures - L.K Bennett

Sac - Vintage

On clôture ce billet avec une nouvelle vidéo de Margaux.

Bon week-end à tous !

King of Tartary in Turandot / SAT 3-12-11 / Marquand title character / Tiger's successor computerwise / Nickname Mahattan jail / Bathing resort Lahn

Constructor: Joon Pahk

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging


THEME: none

Word of the Day: APLEY (9D: Marquand title character) —

The Late George Apley is a 1937 novel by John Phillips Marquand. It is a satire of Boston's upper class. The title character is a Harvard-educated WASP living on Beacon Hill in downtown Boston. // The book was acclaimed as the first "serious" work by Marquand, who had previously been known for his Mr. Moto spy novels and other popular fiction. It was a bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1938. An article in The New Yorker decades later called the book the "best-wrought fictional monument to the nation's Protestant elite that we know of." (wikipedia)

• • •

Very tough for me, possibly because I'm solving it at 2am after having fallen asleep around 9pm (?!), but possibly also because it was simply tough. I wish there had been somewhat fewer odd / obscure proper nouns, both because I wouldn't have floundered the way I did, and because I think odd/obscure proper nouns are icky and should be kept to a minimum. I was at a complete loss on RENI (5D: Painter of the "Crucifixion of St. Peter" in the Vatican), APLEY, BREA (11D: City next to Fullerton) and TIMUR (28A: King of Tartary in "Turandot")—the last one by far the most obscure, as well as the most unfortunate (crossing, as it does, another odd, albeit somewhat more familiar, proper noun in "ULALUME" (12D: Poem set "in the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir")—I have a Ph.D. in English and I'm only vaguely familiar with that poem title; there is precisely nothing inferrable about the name, making this cross a guaranteed knee-breaker for some people, since you can't really infer the "M" in TIMUR either). I took care of RENI from crosses, but APLEY's proximity to BREA and TIMUR, as well as my completely blanking on SAMISEN (even with -A-ISEN in place) (7D: Its three strings are plucked with a bachi) meant that the NE took a long time to come into focus. The upside of that particularly nightmare was that the big reveal, the "AHA" moment, was OSCAR BUZZ (6A: It's generated for high-quality pictures). Nice, bold, surprising way to finish off a puzzle. Once those "Z"s were in place, it was all over. Only way I overcame my DEAD STOP (38A: Brake-slamming result) in the NE was by running the alphabet at the first letter of SAMISEN—it worked; I hit the "S," remembered the "M," got I'M ALL EARS (after wanting only I CAN DIG IT) and OSCAR BUZZ, and that was that.



I still can't believe I threw down HARPER LEE effortlessly ... and it did virtually Nothing for me in the NE (16A: Lifelong friend of Truman Capote).

Beginning was more auspicious, with LASER (1A: Kind of beam), EXILE (15A: What many are forced to live in), and AXL ROSE (2D: Frontman on the 2008 rock album "Chinese Democracy") coming straight away. Couldn't work across the top and so went down the coast. After changing SONS to SEED (31D: Progeny) and GETS AT IT to GETS IT ON (30A: Begins brawling), the SW was fairly easy to get into—but then again I own a Mac (that runs Snow LEOPARD) (35D: Tiger's successor, computerwise) and I follow the N.F.L. reasonably closely (got DREW BREES off the "W"). Stalled out trying to exit the SW, so went over and rebooted in the SE with the quick 1-2-3 of TIER / TE AMO (later changed to TI AMO) / AMPLE. Barely heard of TRIMSPA (39D: Big name in weight-loss supplements), but crosses were easy to come by, so no sweat. Changed HARD STOP to DEAD STOP (38A: Brake-slamming result), and ended up in the mean NE. Ugh, BAD EMS (32A: Bathing resort on the Lahn River), why did you have to be right under TIMUR?? And why did you have to abandon my mind completely? I think that when I'm tired / disoriented (as I seem to be when I solve just after waking), my proper noun recall is horrrrrrrible. That's my theory, anyway. Frustration aside, I enjoyed the challenge, and thought the grid had some really nice fill.

Embarrassed how long it took me to get "SILENT T," considering I watch "The Colbert Report" every night (or, rather, every morning, thanks to TiFaux, aka the DVR) (3D: "The Colbert Report" ends with one).

Bullets:

• 17A: Crazy, in rap slang (ILLIN') — uh ... wow. Yes. In precisely one song that can recall. From high school ("Today you won a ticket to see Dr. J!"):

• 33A: Issachar's uncle (ESAU) — now there's an ESAU clue I've never seen before...
  
• 42A: Exercise done while pedaling (ETUDE) — I had TRADE at first. See if you can figure out how I got there...
  
• 43A: Nickname for a Manhattan jail, with "the" (TOMBS) — no idea. Guessed it from the "T" and "M" (seemed a suitably depressing moniker)
  
• 1D: Battle of Nations site, 1813 (LEIPZIG) — again, no clue. Saw it only by entertaining the possibility of ZONE at 22A: Court area.
  
• 8D: Accessory popularized by Louis XIV (CRAVAT) — you know that lyric from Carly Simon's song "You're So Vain" that goes "you had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte?" I always thought it was "... you watched your silk CRAVAT," which would make for a suspiciously odd fixation on neckwear considering the song has already observed at that point that "your scarf it was apricot" ... but I heard what I heard.

And then there's this...

• 34D: Lands around mansions (DEMESNES) — DOMAINS... doesn't fit! I know this word, so I really should have gotten it sooner than I did.
  
• 43D: Capital whose central plaza is Skanderbeg Square (TIRANE) — got it of the -ANE, though to be honest I wrote in TISANE, which I believe is some kind of tea drink. Never saw the clue at 54D: 43-Down's place: Abbr. (ALB.).
• 36D: Lee who advised Reagan and Bush (ATWATER) — one of the first political operative names I ever remember learning. What I remember is that he died of a brain tumor, and that he played guitar.
  
• 47D: One going off on somebody? (PAGER) — not in this century. I had LUGER!
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. in case you missed it yesterday, Angela Halsted and I made yesterday's Guest Puzzle at BEQ's website—check it out. (It's a double-rejectee! Rejected once for not "tickling" the editor, and another time for having a theme answer that was simply deemed not famous enough)

French novelist Pierre / FRI 3-12-11 / Columbarium object / Daughter in Cherry Orchard / Children's author Eleanor

Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: Eleanor ESTES (14D: Children's author Eleanor) —

Eleanor Estes (May 9, 1906 – July 15, 1988) was an American children's author. [...] Estes's book Ginger Pye (1951) won the Newbery Medal, and three of her other books (The Middle Moffat, Rufus M., and The Hundred Dresses) were chosen as Newbery Honor books. She also received the Certificate of Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature and was nominated for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. By the time of her death at age 82, Estes had written 19 children's books and one novel for adults. (wikipedia)

• • •

Just fine. Not MA-S's best work, by a long shot, but very competent for a themeless puzzle with stacked 15s running across the center. Here's the thing—stacked 15s are hard to pull off, so you have to admire the feat on some level, and yet ... it's Been Done, many times, so there's no longer any novelty in it. Unless you get some Fantastic answers in there, the feat seems a little meaningless at this point. I'm not sure any of the 15s qualify as Fantastic, though I like SOUND THE RETREAT best of all. Can we please retires A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE? That's at least three times I've seen that particular 15 in recent months. Otherwise, there's very little in the way of groany stuff (only CORMS (32D: Bulblike bases of stems), LOTI (31D: French novelist Pierre), NEI (54A: Verdi's "___ giardin del bello"), CITER, and DORSA rubbed me the wrong way). Good work, but without any particular sizzle, I won't remember it in a few hours, let alone tomorrow.

Biggest problem area for me was, not surprisingly, that vast white middle. Top and bottom were pretty cinchy, but I didn't know there was a SINAI DESERT, and I thought "etiolate" mean something like "taper" or "deteriorate" (not WHITEN), so I had trouble getting into the middle at first. At first pass, only OLIN, DRESS FASTENERS, ELDEST, AT 'EM, and SESS fell in. Those last three eventually allowed me to see A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE, and I made good headway from there. Once I got into the bottom, the SW threatened to be pretty recalcitrant, mostly because ARCADE was really hard to turn up (43A: Game keeper), but it all fell into place. SE played like a Wednesday. The End.

Bullets:

• 1A: Cosmonaut's craft (SOYUZ) — learned the name from crosswords. Picked it up from the helpful gimme ZED (5D: Letter in the Globe and Mail)
  
• 19A: Cabinet dept. since 1965 (HUD) — Housing and Urban Development. I had HHS at first.
  
• 1D: What the narrator "threw up" in "The Night Before Christmas" (SASH) — Loved this one, as it reminded me of my mom, who read me this poem a lot when I was very little. It may be the first poem I ever knew by heart. You'll have to ask her.
  
• 2D: Baseball's Lefty (GROVE) — well, it should've been GROVE, anyway...

• 4D: Columbarium object (URN) — Who can forget Keats's "Ode on a Columbarium Object?" Beauty is truth, truth beauty. I have no idea what "Columbarium" is (wikipedia says it's "a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns."
• 10D: Onetime owner of Sheraton Hotels (ITT) — I thought maybe OTT. Then thought, "Cousin ITT? Really?"
• 33D: Daughter in "The Cherry Orchard" (ANYA) — went for ANNA then thought "nah, needs to be more Russiany." That "Y" helped me finally get the oddly clued LITERARY STUDIES (how is that a concentration for an English major????? Virtually any course an English major takes is LITERARY STUDIES. You'd concentrate, maybe, in a period or genre or something like that. I mean, do math majors have concentrations in "number studies?" (please don't answer that)
  
• 53D: Tom T. Hall's "Mama Bake ___" ("A PIE") — got it easily without knowing the song or even who Tom T. Hall is (sounds familiar, but ...). Let's see ... ooh, he's a "country balladeer," says wiki. Let's listen.

Now compare with ... [profanity warning]


Discuss.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. puzzle by me and Angela Halsted over at Brendan Emmett Quigley's website today. Check it out.