Spelling clarification that Aziz might use twice / MON 4-16-12 / Common marmalade ingredient / Cartoondom's Deputy / Biblical kingdom east of Dead Sea

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Foodies — two-word idiomatic expressions for types of people, where the second word is a kind of food

Word of the Day: MATZOH (29A: Bread eaten during Passover) —

n., pl., -zos, also -zohs (müt'səz, -sōs') or -zot or -zoth (mät-sôt').
A brittle, flat piece of unleavened bread, eaten especially during Passover.

[Yiddish matse, from Hebrew maṣṣâ.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/matzo#ixzz1s9MJxvKj

• • •

This grid is great. I don't think the theme is as tight as it could be, but I also don't care. Interesting theme answers, cool long Downs, no real groaners—all the makings of a decent Monday. I object slightly to HUMAN PRETZEL, since a. it applies to very few people (primarily contortionists; b. it applies to a person only when he/she is *doing* a very particular thing (unlike all the others); c. answer relies on a *literal* connection between food and person in a way that none of the others do; d. it's got HUMAN in it, thus forcing food-human connection in a way that none of the others do. Also the clue on SWEETIE PIE is terrible. The phrase [Precious sort] implies a *kind* of person who is "precious" in the sense of having affected mannerisms. Something about "sort" just feels wrong. That phrase calls more for [Lovable person]; or else ["Sugar"] or ["Hon"] or ["Darlin'"]. I see now that "sort" is in every theme clue (ugh), so I guess if I really wanted to keep that theme link in the clues (I wouldn't), I'd've gone with [Lovable sort].


Theme answers:

• 17A: Sexy sort (STUD MUFFIN)
• 23A: Influential sort (BIG ENCHILADA)
• 39A: Amiable sort (GOOD EGG)
• 50A: Supple sort (HUMAN PRETZEL)
• 59A: Precious sort (SWEETIE PIE)

This took me slightly longer than my average Monday, but only slightly, and that slowness was largely self-inflicted. I hedged at MATZOH, thinking there might be a billion ways to spell it (there are only a couple), and then I wrote in WIPED at 37A: Tired (WEARY), mostly because that is the phrase my wife uses—so much so that it's kind of a household joke. Then (less surprisingly) I wrote in ACHE for PINE (45A: Yearn (for)). I knew that area was a wreck, so rather than try to fix it immediately, I relied on the middle and ends of the long Downs to bail me out—once I had ZEBRA and -GE RIND, the front ends were very gettable and the mistakes I'd made ironed themselves out.


Bullets:

• 1A: Yankee's crosstown rival (MET) — balked at this one. Instinctively wanted BOS or SOX because, honestly, when was the last time you could consider the METs a real "rival" to the Yankees? 2000?
• 1D: Reader's notes alongside the text (MARGINALIA) — great word. I love finding MARGINALIA in my old books. Weird to see what people think is important.
• 30D: Spelling clarification that Aziz might use twice (Z AS IN ZEBRA) — insane, and easily the best thing about the grid. Coincidentally, I had just been looking at a picture of Aziz Ansari at Coachella on Buzzfeed's Facebook page (That is a sentence that just five years ago would have made absolutely no sense to me, and probably makes only partial sense to millions of people still).
• 13D: Biblical kingdom east of the Dead Sea (MOAB) — never saw the clue. Always thought it was weird this place didn't rhyme with "lobe."
• 31D: Common marmalade ingredient (ORANGE RIND) — we've eaten our way through the chocolate chip cookies this weekend, so I might have to make do with marmalade on toast for dessert tonight. Worse things have happened.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld