Daddy Warbucks's henchman / THU 5-10-12 / City near Entebbe airport / 1942 Tommy Dorsey hit / Marine snail / Eastern dance-drama / Breakfast cereal propeller-headed alien / Galerie art museum on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue

Constructor: Jules P. Markey

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: JUMP (69A: Word that can precede each set of circled letters, forming a literal hint for entering certain answers in this puzzle) — circled letters spell out words that can follow JUMP, and the Down answers literally JUMP the letters, i.e. when entering Down answers with circles in them, treat circles as if they do not exist. Just JUMP them.

Word of the Day: ESTELLE Parsons (40A: Actress Parsons) —

Estelle Margaret Parsons (born November 20, 1927) is an American theatre, film and televisionactress and occasional theatrical director.

After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961. During the 1960s, Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and was also nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel (1968). (wikipedia)

• • •

A great idea that seemed kind of unfair at the end. The whole point of *cross*words is that every letter is crossed, i.e. part of an Across and a Down answer. Providing JUMP just isn't sufficient to make up for the fact the circled letters aren't crossed. I could've run JUMP phrases all day and might not have hit "jumpsuit." I just lucked out that I lived in a suite my freshman year and had SUITEMATEs—but that took a lot of just staring thinking of words for "apartment." The BAIL in BAILEY'S also took some doing, and did the SHIP in COURTSHIP (though I was only stalled a few seconds with that one). So finishing the puzzle was a little annoying—it wasn't "hard" at all, actually. There was just a lot of dead air toward the end while I tried to come up with SUIT. Once I got the theme, and it didn't take that long, the non-circled part of the puzzle was certainly much easier than average. But throw in the rule-breaking circles, and you've got yourself a fairly time-consuming Thursday. Times at the NYT site are hilariously high (took me 10:21 on paper—at the time I finished, that would've put me in second place ... and online solving is generally at least a little faster than on-paper solving)


Circled JUMP answers:

• SUIT inside SUITEMATE (17A: One sharing an apartment)
• SEAT inside LET'S EAT (21A: "Chow down!")
• ROPE inside EUROPEANS (33A: Poles, e.g.)
• BALL inside "CAT BALLOU" (43A: Film for which Lee Marvin won Best Actor)
• BAIL inside BAILEY'S (53A: Big Irish cream brand)
• SHIP inside COURTSHIP (61A: Engagement precursor)

As I said, nothing particularly challenging, fill-wise, about this grid. Let's see ... somehow remembered QUISP (9A: Breakfast cereal with a propeller-headed alien on the front of the box)—or sort of remembered with a little help. Remembered the "Q" anyway, which helped change EMIT to QUIT (9D: Give out). KABUKI (23A: Eastern dance-drama) was actually one of the first answers I got after KAMPALA (5D: City near Entebbe airport), BLANC (24D: Mont ____), and WHELK (8D: Marine snail) gave me crosses—this was how I knew the circles were screwy: no headway around circles, easy headway everywhere else. THE ASP was actually my very first entry (20A: Daddy Warbucks's henchman), and I was lucky, because that gave me something very solid and secure in that rough NW corner. Somehow solidified my sense that the circles were screwing things up—if the crosses weren't working, it sure wasn't THE ASP's fault. Tommy Dorsey returns (?!) with an even earlier song than last week's "OPUS ONE." Today it's "TAKE ME" (51A: 1942 Tommy Dorsey hit with Frank Sinatra vocals). Nope, don't know that one either. guessed the BAR part of I-BAR (48A: Flanged structural element), which was good enough (confirmed by 'BAMA; 49D: Rival of Ole Miss). I think I had dessert once at a cafe near or adjoined to the NEUE Galerie (38D: ___ Galerie, art museum on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue). Got confused at 41D: Five-time U.S. Open winner (SAMPRAS) because I couldn't think of a tennis (or golf) player whose name was SAM besides Snead ...


And I'm done. Didn't exactly *enjoy* it, but it provided an interesting challenge.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld