TV's hipster doofus / FRI 5-18-12 / 1997 #1 hit with nonsense title / Ticker with cachet / Retail giant mascots Red Ruff Blue Mews / Cartoon character who cries You eediot / 2006-08 heavyweight champion Maskaev

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: MR. RAKE — anagrams thereof

Word of the Day: OLEG Maskaev (60A: 2006-08 heavyweight champion Maskaev) —

Oleg Alexandrovich Maskaev (Russian: Олег Александрович Маскаев; born March 2, 1969, inZhambyl, Kazakh SSR) is a Russian professional boxer and a former WBC heavyweight champion. He is an ethnic Mordvin. [...] Oleg is known for his powerful right-hand punch: he has knocked out former WBO heavyweight challenger Derrick Jefferson, contender Alex Stewart, and twice knocked out former WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. However, he is also noted for a weak chin that was evident in his knockout losses to contenders Oliver McCall, David Tua, Kirk Johnson, Lance Whitaker, Corey Sanders and journeyman Nagy Aguilera. (wikipedia)

• • •

Flimsy excuse for a theme. Do a real themed puzzle or do a themeless? This puzzle's kind of stuck in no man's land. The cluing on it is very good, though, and tough in places. I wouldn't like "scrapper" or "bugger" in a grid, probably, but in the clues they were interesting, in that I wasn't quite sure at first what they were going for (11A: Many a bugger = SPY; 28D: Scrappers put them up = DUKES). I had no idea the cat and the dog in the PETCO logo had names (49D: Retail giant with the mascots Red Ruff and Blue Mews)! Clue on SPEECH, good (4D: Word chanted at a celebratory party); clue on ROLEX *killed* me, but it's good (40A: Ticker with cachet); I had the "X" but thought it must be some kind of exchange like NASDAQ ... only ending in "X." NYNEX? Is that something? Hmmm, a former northeastern telcom ... no, not what I was thinking. Anyway, that SW corner was the toughest for me by far. Had AVIA for MCAN (37A: Big name in footwear). Blew the ROLEX answer. Found clue on CALORIES remarkably hard (34D: What water lacks). Big issue down there was actually annoying cluing on all the short answers. I'm not big on clues where I know instantly what the clue is getting at but don't have enough information to make a choice. So, I knew instantly that it was UIE ... or UEY (58A: It's often illegal to hang one). Not "hard," just ... annoying. Same with the NL West clue (55A: N.L. West team, on scoreboards). I can name every team in in the NL West, but with no crosses ... I just wait. No way to get it otherwise. And again, with LES (61A: Article in the Louvre?)—I know all the "articles" in French, but ... there are several that are three letters long, so ... wait. Difficulty by clever cluing is better than difficulty by annoying vagueness, especially clustered annoying vagueness. To be clear, this is different from the vagueness of a clue like, say, [Point] (is it a dot? is it a location? the gist of something? what a free throw's worth? a verb meaning to indicate with the finger?). That kind of vagueness can be maddening, but also interesting. But the vagueness in the SW has no mystery, no surprise. I instantly surmise a limited set of possible answers, and then just wait around to figure out which one it is. UIE can't really be fixed, but ARI and LES could've had more specific clues.


Theme answers:

• 20A: It may be acknowledged with a slap (OFFENSIVE REMARK)
• 34A: TV's "doofus hipster" (COSMO KRAMER) — I was thinking of Bob Denver's character on "Dobie Gillis," who I now recall was named MAYNARD G. KREBS
• 51A: Bad tool for a toddler to find (PERMANENT MARKER)

I don't see how a SIDE TRIP is a "bonus" (63A: With 14-Across, cruise bonus). Did you not pay for it? Was it unexpected? That was odd to me. I messed up several answers initially, including PUTS down for MOWS down (5D: Routs, with "down"), and MMVI for MMII (6D: When the Salt Lake City Olympics took place). Wanted MACARENA for 5A: 1997 #1 hit with a nonsense title, but it wouldn't fit ("MMM BOP"). Had trouble getting from [Wish] to PLEASE and [Watch it] to SPECTATE, but there was nothing truly mysterious except *all the names in the SE corner*—never heard of any of 'em, not COLIN (50A: "9 to 5" director Higgins) or SARA (57A: Ramirez of "Grey's Anatomy") or OLEG (60A: 2006-08 heavyweight champion Maskaev). Yeesh. Still, managed to work it out in reasonable time.


That is all.

Just a reminder about the Crosswords LA tournament puzzles:

P.S. For anyone with an interest in solving the puzzles from this year's Crosswords LA tournament, they're now available online at http://alexboisvert.com/xwla/. They are certified Fantastic—I test-solved all of them.

For $5, you get six tournament crosswords (by Donna Levin, Aimee Lucido & Zoe Wheeler, Todd McClary, Trip Payne, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Byron Walden), two bonus crosswords (by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson), and a clever team game (by John Schiff). As always, proceeds from puzzle pack sales are donated to charity.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Mother of Valkyries / FRI 5-4-12 / Designer Gernreich / Goldeneye relative / Jazzman Montgomery / ESPN anchor Kolber / Holden Irving Bacheller novel / Follower of Help / Emergency extractor

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TEXAS STAR (32A: Ferris wheel in Dallas that is the tallest in North America) —

Texas Star is the tallest Ferris wheel in North America. It is located at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, and operates during the annual State Fair of Texas, where it is the most popular ride.

The structure has an overall height of 212 feet (64.6 m) (approximately 21 stories) and can carry up to 264 passengers in its 44 gondolas. It will be superseded as the tallest Ferris wheel in North America if the proposed 286-foot (87 m) Pepsi Globe proposed for American Dream Meadowlands, in New Jersey, is constructed. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wheeeeeee! Fun, and easy, except for a couple of places where I got dead-stopped. This is where difficulty gets tough to gauge. A puzzle might be tough overall and take you, say, 10 minutes, or it might be easy everywhere except that one damn corner you can't figure out w/o struggling, and take you 12. So I guess the latter puzzle is "harder," but that hardly gets at the flavor of the puzzle ... which is perhaps why I wrote semi-complete sentences about the puzzle instead of just slapping a difficulty rating on it and leaving it at that. "Challenging!" "Three Stars!" Man, that would be nice/easy. I should do that on days when I'm just not feeling it. Anyway, I got slowed down three times, to varying degrees. In order of devastation, from least to most devastating: the NE, where ERDA (14D: Mother of the Valkyries) / PENNA (21A: Only one of the 13 Colonies not touching the Atl. Ocean) is particularly unpretty (I'd change the "A" to an "E"—sure ERDE (German for "earth") is bad, but worse than "ERDA?" I doubt it. And PENNE beats PENNA hollow); the DEALER / DRY MOP (42A: Collector of dust bunnies) crossing—not knowing that single letter (even with -EALER in place) meant I was way slower getting into the SE than I would've liked; and the SW, where side-by-side obscure names really took the wind out of my sails. I just realized that if a solvers have never heard of ODER-NEISSE (54A: ___ Line (international boundary)), they are likely screwed in that corner, as RUDI (46D: Designer Gernreich) and EBEN (47D: "___ Holden" (Irving Bacheller novel)) are not exactly household names.


When I saw -EALER for 42D: Crack investigator's target?, I thought the answer might be SEALER. Because ... you seal cracks? It made a kind of sense at the time.

This puzzle lost me at 1A: Goldeneye relative (SMEW) (I got "goldeneye" confused with "goldenrod"—a SMEW is a duck), but then immediately got me back with the highly-made-up-yet-exciting SIXERSGAME (1D: Wells Fargo Center event, informally). Then I was permanently won over at JAWS OF LIFE (5A: Emergency extractor). Is that a NYT xword first? So good! Really really hate ODER-NEISSE as an answer (an old, not-loved grid denizen), but then along comes "RUBBER SOUL" to ease the pain (50A: Follower of "Help!"). MAELSTROM's a lovely word (37A: Very turbulent situation). I don't know ... with the exception of a few fill hiccups, this looks nice in retrospect.


Bullets:

• 17A: Jags of the 1960s and '70s (XKES) — a crossword gimme, though often the letters come back to me all out of sorts. "X ... J .. Ks?"
• 34A: Angle in botany (AXIL) — another crossword gimme; got it off the "I"
• 43A: ESPN anchor Kolber (SUZY) — she's pretty well known to ESPN-watchers. There's a popular NFL humor blog called "Kissing SUZY Kolber."
• 4D: Jazzman Montgomery (WES) — first word in the grid! This has become yet another crossword gimme for me.
• 20D: Three-time All-Star pitcher Pappas (MILT) — under the influence of the election season, I misremembered this guy as a MITT.
• 24D: Annual "Hot 100" publisher (MAXIM) — good clue, absurd magazine.
• 28D: Cardinal for 22 years (STAN MUSIAL) — I think I'd have gotten this with no crosses. He's The Cardinal.
• 51D: "Still Crazy" star, 1998 (REA) — wow, 1998 is a dark dark hole for me, movie-wise. Once I had -EA, I was fairly sure who I was dealing with, though.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Koran memorizer / FRI 4-27-12 / Finnish architect Aalto / Pick-up sticks piece / Warp drive repairman on original Star Trek / North Pole author 1910 / Tom Detective 1896 novel

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MARTA (35A: Commuting option in Georgia's capital) —

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA ( /ˈmɑrtə/) is the principal rapid-transitsystem in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting of 48 miles (77 km) of rail track with 38 train stations. MARTA operates almost exclusively in Fulton andDeKalb counties, with bus service to two destinations in Cobb county (Six Flags Over Georgia and theCumberland Transfer Center next to the Cumberland Mall) and a single rail station in Clayton County atHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. MARTA also operates a separate paratransit service for disabled customers. As of 2009, the average total daily ridership for the system (bus and rail) was 482,500 passengers. (wikipedia)

• • •

I am getting worse and worse at puzzles. This is by far my slowest, clunkiest week in the past six weeks, and today, I can't even blame the puzzle's thorniness. I just ... don't know. I get bogged down somewhere and bump my head against a wall instead of moving on, putting answers in, taking them out. This puzzle's pretty dang normal, now that I look at it; I just got hung up on stupid things. Like ... oh, I don't know, insisting to myself that 48A: Some ruminants (DEER) must end in an "S" and therefore Not putting in SAWYER (36D: "Tom ___, Detective" (1896 novel)), which is the only answer my brain wanted (and the correct one, it turns out). Wanted "TELL ME ... something" instead of "TALK TO ME" (great answer, btw) (31D: "I want the lowdown!"), and just the wanting of TELL over TALK kept me from seeing the *easy* PACED (34A: Expended some nervous energy) for an absurd amount of time. Wanted SPINE (?) instead of SHIRT at 5A: Back cover? Could not retrieve ALVAR to save my life (11D: Finnish architect Aalto). Here is the one place I think the puzzle itself (and not just me) is actually weak: over-reliance on odd names. This is especially true in the southern half of the puzzle, which is crammed with proper nouns, many of them totally unknown to me (MARTA? KURTIS? EWELL? — I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" just last summer, and that name clearly didn't stick At All). Never would've gotten YNEZ (50A: Santa ___ Valley (winegrowing region)) if not for OYEZ (43D: Courtroom cry). Other parts of this grid, I cut right through. But a slow start and a ridiculous amount of fussing in the region in and around (esp just SW of) JACKSTRAW (26D: Pick-up sticks piece) put me over my normal time by a good margin. BEAT for DEAD (41D: Utterly exhausted) was kind of a backbreaker too. Weak, weak work on my part. Embarrassing. I don't even know what a JACKSTRAW is. Maybe that would've helped.



Love the long answers here. "THREE TIMES A LADY!" (20A: First #1 hit for the Commodores) Not my favorite Commodores song, but good. And 15! They mostly make up for the not-great name-i-ness of the grid.

[The best Commodores song]

I think I resent KURTIS (40A: Former "CBS Morning News" co-anchor Bill) (seriously, who?) so much because a. you already forced me to remember ALVAR (!), and b. the clue wasn't this guy (the world's greatest KURTIS):



Bullets:

• 8D: Like a town that used to be a ghost town (REPEOPLED) — because of SPINE (ugh), I had this starting "NEW-" for a while.
• 5D: Warp drive repairman on the original "Star Trek" (SCOTTY) — one of the few things I had in the grid early on. Sadly, also the answer (along with IMAM ([Koran reciter])) that convinced me that SPINE was right at 5A.  
• 6D: Koran memorizer (HAFIZ) — youch. Neverheardofit. Probably should've been my WOTD. According to wikipedia, this is "a term used by modern Muslims for someone who has completely memorized the Qur'an."
• 18D: "The North Pole" author, 1910 (PEARY) — Admiral, I presume. I didn't know if it was PERRY or PEARY, so I just waited (for ERSATZ—one of the language's greatest words).
• 9D: Schooner features (TOPSAILS) — any time the clue goes nautical, I'm pretty much doomed. I was also thinking maybe "schooner" was a kind of beer glass. Hey, look, something I'm not wrong about. For once.
• 27D: English physician James who gave his name to a disease (PARKINSON) — So the disease is his 4D. 
• 42D: Literary governess's surname (EYRE) — this and MARLA and MERKEL were my flat-out gimmes in the South. If I'd moved out of the SW and found them earlier, this thing would've been wrapped up much more quickly. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Breezing Up Fair Wind artist 1876 / FRI 4-20-12 / Part of intro to piece of Champagne Music / Old game co that made D&D / Advertiser with computer-generated mascot / Passage to Marseille actor 1944

Constructor: Mike Nothnagel

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Winslow HOMER (50D: "Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)" artist, 1876) —

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter andprintmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art.

Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator.^[1] He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations. (wikipedia)

• • •

Tore this one apart in just over half the time it took me to do yesterday's puzzle. There's only one word in the puzzle that I can imagine not being common knowledge to a regular solver—SLOANE (9D: ___ Crosley, author of the 2008 best seller "I Was Told There'd Be Cake"). Luckily, I knew the name, not because I've read her, but because I remember being in Barnes & Noble and picking up her book and thinking "who is this writer I've never heard of who has these good blurbs" and "huh, SLOANE is a cool name for a girl." I know *of* books more than I know books, sadly. Kind of embarrassing for someone with a Ph.D. in English, but I'm working on it. Anyway, everything else in the grid is common / famous. This didn't have the overall sizzle that I've come to expect from Nothnagel puzzles, but it did have LIKE HERDING CATS (36A: Frustratingly difficult), which (given the otherwise clean grid) is enough for me. Got started with Fred's iconic ASCOT and mostly roared forward from there.

Had two minor hangups, one at the beginning and one at the end. First, I tried to make OMELET work at 19A: Light breakfast (ONE EGG). Then I remembered the last OMELET I had and thought "... light?" Was able to fix it when I realized that short people were probably not very well assisted by LOAMS (2D: Assistance for short people? = LOANS). If you say SLOANE's LOANS over and over you get this crazy infinite LOANS loop. Where was I? Oh, right, second hangup. Happened at the end, in the NE corner, where I Could Not get either BLEED (16A: Run) or COPAY (18A: Figure in a doctor's office) (esp. the latter) until I had all four of the first letters for each, and even then I had to think a bit. What, exactly, makes a cross-country trip an ODYSSEY? I mean, what's the magic ingredient that separates an ODYSSEY from a mere cross-country trip? Getting lost in rural Wisconsin? Getting caught in an epic, God's-Vengeance thunderstorm in Montana? (I've done both). Just curious.


Bullets:

• 23A: Old game co. that made D&D (TSR) — one of those crosswordy answers that I never quite feel I have a grasp on. "T ... something?" Today, I guessed and got it right on the first try. 
• 24A: Tree with catkins (ALDER) — off the "A." I don't think I even knew that an ALDER *was* a kind of tree until I started doing crosswords.
• 46A: Part of the intro to a piece of "Champagne Music" (A-TWO) — proudest solving moment of the night. Got it off the "W." Something about the cluing just shouted out "Lawrence Welk! "A-One and A-TWO and ..."; I've watched a complete episode of "The Lawrence Welk Show" exactly never. It Still Airs On My Local PBS Station, in all its creepily soulless glory.
• 47A: Area in front of a basketball net, informally (PAINT) — first thought: CREASE (wrong sport).

• 61A: Advertiser with a computer-generated mascot (GEICO) — way to ruin the illusion, Mike!
• 63A: Thomas Cromwell's earldom (ESSEX) — through a path too circuitous to retrace, I learned just now that "The role of Anne of Cleves was played by actress and singer Joss Stone in the Showtime cable television series The Tudors." (wikipedia)
• 7D: Intl. soccer powerhouse (ARG.) — I went with ENG. at first. That's not ... laughably wrong, is it?
• 8D: Original airer of "The Jetsons" (ABC) — had the "A" so ... yeah.
• 15D: N.F.L. All-Pro player Chris (SNEE) — Played alongside Mike Snick. Quite a team, those two.
• 25D: "Passage to Marseille" actor, 1944 (LORRE) — Had "L---E" and struggled to come up with the name LOREN only to realize that's ridiculous for many reasons. LORNE Greene? Also ridiculous. Then hit on Peter LORRE. Of course. 
• 60D: "___ Yu" (collection also known as "The Analects of Confucius") (LUN) — OK, so there's not *no* junk in this puzzle. Just very little. (side note: my Tigers are currently getting whipped by *Yu* Darvish—who will visit your puzzle one day, trust me—and the rest of the currently indestructible Texas Rangers)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Olympians brought them down / FRI 4-13-12 / Upper house support / Big inits in paperback publishing / Pulitzer-winning poet Armantrout / Home of U.S. Army Women's Museum / Word repeated before lama sabachthani in Mark 15

Constructor: Tim Croce

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: COWBIRD (36A: Follower of grazing cattle) —

Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus Molothrus in the family Icteridae. They are brood parasitic New World birds which are unrelated to the Old World cuckoos, one of which, the Common Cuckoo, is the best-known brood parasitic bird. (wikipedia)

• • •

I think I was psyched out / put off my game just by the sight of this one. I am over the whole 15-stacks thing. Just seeing them now makes me depressed. 15-stacks are the new pangram, i.e. a pointless achievement that's been done many times so who cares? Now, when they're really great, they can be reasonably delightful. But it's hard to get all good phrases and mostly non-ridiculous crosses. The 15s on this one are actually 2/3 strong up top (not a fan of any phrase with "ONE'S" in it) and 2/3 strong below (PASSES ON DESSERT = PAINTS ONE'S HOUSE = not a thing). The crosses, however, are dire, esp. up top. That stretch of Downs from ESTS to RAES (inclusive) is about the worst set of five consecutive Downs I've ever seen. No one answer is beyond the pale, but together they're a mess. So, stack-wise, you've got mixed results.

The rest of it is OK, though ROOF TRUSS is ??? (32D: Upper house support) and the non-"Time Machine" ELOI is annoying (39A: Word repeated before "lama sabachthani" in Mark 15)—look, you've got ELOI in your grid; accept it. Don't pretend it's something interesting. It's cruddy fill you had to use. Just "Time Machine" it and move on. Actually, the whole west area is unattractive: FT. LEE, ROOF TRUSS, WTO, ELOI. I like IT HURTS (40D: "Ow-w-w!"), which rescues that section from utter ruin. Middle was really, really hard for me to get into, mostly because I (stupidly) couldn't come up with DEO volente, which, even though it's small, would've helped a lot with every one of its crosses (all of which stumped me for a long time). Having ENSNARE for ENTWINE (21D: Tangle up) was my big undoing. That was hard to come back from. If I've heard of a COWBIRD, I don't know when. Anyway, if I hadn't bit on ENSNARE, and if I'd remembered DEO, I could have shaved minutes off this thing. As it was, this took me longer than any puzzle (including Sundays!) I've done since Mar. 19 (when I started keeping track of my times on paper). Not astronomically long, but way longer than a Friday should be taking me. I blame the 15 stacks, or rather my disgusted reaction to them, for putting me off my game.

Bullets:

• 19A: Flutter the eyelids, say (STIR) — this puzzle is definitely clued at a Saturday level. I had three crosses (ST-R) before I figured this one out. 
• 30A: "Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress" novelist (DEFOE) — a much-needed gimme, though of course I misspelled it (Willem) DAFOE. Also nailed LETHE (43A: River that the dead drank from, in myth). Yay, literature background.
• 35A: Intl. group whose biennial conferences are focuses of protest (WTO) — I could see the damned fake anarchists in my mind, but couldn't bring up more than the "W" part of the initialism. World ... Health Organization? No. No. You wouldn't clue WHO that way! Ugh. My bad. 
• 41A: Frames wind up on them (FILM REELS) — this is what I mean about Saturday cluing. There are hardly any reliable toeholds in that center section. 45A: "Love Actually" co-star, 2003 (NEESON)??? Didn't that movie have like a thousand "famous" people in it?
• 1D: You'll get it from CliffsNotes (GIST) — yuck on this clue, for a number of reasons. Much as I think CliffsNotes is a stupid product, those pamphlety things provide *way* more than the GIST.

• 10D: Pulitzer-winning poet Armantrout and others (RAES) — more mutton dressed as lamb. See also ELOI.
• 31D: Home of the U.S. Army Women's Museum (FT. LEE) — hell if I know. Being in the awkward west section, this was a tough pick-up for me.
• 25D: Chiwere speakers (IOWAS) — not a gimme, but I had the "IO-" so ... easy.
• 49D: "Rotten School" series author (STINE) — As in R.L. Inferrable since he did that whatever series for kids in the '90s. "Goosebumps!" I associate that series with "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," because I associate both with the godawful early '90s.
• 23D: Winner of over 100 Pulitzer Prizes, briefly (NY TIMES) — gratuitous self-promotion? Why not? Not off-putting at all.
• 58D: "Odi et ___": Catullus (AMO) — "I hate and I love": don't go getting any ideas about ODI in your puzzle, please, constructors.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Political writer Bai / FRI 4-6-12 / Grandnephew in 1960s TV / Six-time Tony winner of 1984 / Figure on front of Olympic medals since 1928 / Home to school of pre-Socratic philosophers

Constructor: Mike Nothnagel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: USAID (57A: Foreign assistance org. since 1961) —

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the United States federal governmentagency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas authorized by the Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.^[3] The Congress updates this authorization through annual funds appropriation acts, and other legislation. Although technically an independent federal agency, USAID operates subject to the foreign policy guidance of the President, Secretary of State, and the National Security Council.^[4] USAID's Administrator works under the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of State. (wikipedia)

• • •

Loved this puzzle. Do not love how badly I performed. At first, I was blazing through it, from the NW down through the middle and into the SE with hardly a problem. Then I tried to get into the SW. Now, if MATT Bai (33D: Political writer Bai) had meant anything to me, I would've been OK, but I'm not kicking myself over that. What I'm kicking myself over is not seeing "LA CAGE AUX FOLLES" for sooooo long. I had "GEAUX" and nothing. Then I CAN'T WAIT (32D: Words of anticipation) and BLOW A FUSE (30D: Lose it) gave me "L-C-GEAUX..." and still nothing. Why? Well, I was looking for an actor. Something about the clue, [Six-time Tony winner of 1984] made me think actor, despite the fact that six is a preposterous amount of Tony for one person to win in one year. But see, I'm only thinking that now. At the time, I was really only processing the first few words. Other big problem there was not knowing USAID and so having UMAID because I was sure that the [Contents of the rightmost column of a table] was some kind of GAMES. LOST GAMES was my first guess. ROAD GAMES? AWAY GAMES? Wasn't til I got LA (not LE) CAGE AUX FOLLES that I was able to see RARE GASES. After that, NE was a bit tricky, but more on par with the rest of the grid. So my time was pretty rough, but my overall experience was that this was on the easy side, and only my personal failings as a solver (and not the puzzle's intrinsic difficulty) are to blame for my below-average time.


Loved GOLDEN BOY (17A: Much-favored person) and actually exclaimed "Wow. Cool." when I got NOT MY CUP OF TEA (14D: Passing remark?). Wish the answer at 28A was DOG SIT and not DOGS IT [Loafs on the job], which is a phrase I know but never hear in real life. I thought OPIE was Andy's son (9D: Grandnephew in 1960s TV). Wow. Weird [OK, it's Aunt Bee—and yes, that's how you spell it—who is OPIE's great aunt; stop emailing me! :)]. Love the clue on ANN (6D: Rule among true crime writers), and as letteral clues go, [Comedic duo?] (for CEES) is pretty good. Had noooo idea NIKE was on Olympic medals (54D: Figure on the front of Olympic medals since 1928). That little answer was temporarily infuriating. I actually had to run the vowels after getting N-KE!


Helper monkeys of the day (that is, gimmes/footholds) were:

• LODES
• BRED
• ATRA
• EYRE (15D: "Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!" speaker)
• ELEA (22A: Home to a school of pre-Socratic philosophers)
• ELY
• A NOSE
• GEOS
• AGT
• ESTES (63A: Rob of "Melrose Place")

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy 40th birthday to my little sister, who is home today with a sick child (I hope it's still just one...)

1991 Jackie Chan film / FRI 3-30-12 / Actress Watson / First name in 1970s tyranny / Tell Me More broadcaster / Pirates hangout

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: EMMA Watson (13D: Actress Watson) —

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and model.

Watson rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series. Watson was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays.^[2] From 2001 to 2011, she starred in all eight Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.^[3] Watson's work on the Harry Potterseries has earned her several awards and more than £10 million.^[4] She made her modelling debut for Burberry's Autumn/Winter campaign in 2009. (wikipedia)

• • •

If I never saw another quad stack again in my life, that would be fine. Ideal. It's been done many times, and the whole set-up usually doesn't allow for very interesting fill—though this stack is not bad, by any means. In fact, this is as much as I've enjoyed a Krozel puzzle in a Long time (amazing what you can do when you're not stunting or going for a super low word-count). I think the puzzle might actually be Easy—I was somewhat faster than my average, but I see now that this puzzle is super-sized (15x16), so that makes my fast time even faster (relatively speaking). Took many of the small crosses to bring down a lot of those 15s, but in the end there were only a couple points of any significant struggle:

• Couldn't figure out 30D: Formed another congress. Had RESAT, and then REWED (stupid ETHS can be spelled EDHS, as well, hence the D/T confusion) (40A: Old English letters). Got to REMET only after I somehow figured out IMITATION BUTTER (38A: Promise, e.g.). To do that, I had to change SEWN ON to SEWN IN (22D: Like many monograms on clothing).
• My John Paul II was a POPE before he was a POLE. I can't be the only one who made that mistake. I also wrote in EPIC instead of EPOS at first (53D: "Beowulf" or "Gilgamesh").

Every other part of the grid, I moved through steadily. Stuff like DOMES and ISTH. and ARRESTEE took some pondering, but not too much. My favorite part of the grid, by far, is TRIPLE WORD SCORE (29A: Great red spot?). Great answer, even greater clue—and I despise Scrabble.



Bullets:

• 17A: Dubious claim after crying wolf ("I MEAN IT THIS TIME") — took a lot of work, esp. since I came at it backwards.
• 56A: 1991 Jackie Chan film ("OPERATION CONDOR") — Wow. Talk about your wayback machine. This is several years before Chan became a star in America.
• 61A: Megillah book (ESTHER) — "Megillah" is a new word for me. I'm guessing it's not meant to be followed by the word "Gerillah." 

• 6D: First name in 1970s tyranny (IDI) — first thing in the grid.
• 31D: N.B.A. great Thomas (ISIAH) — another significant gimme.
• 32D: Pirates' hangout (PITTSBURGH) — "Hangout"'s a bit of a stretch, but PITTSBURGH's a good-looking answer.
• 46D: Starbucks has one (AROMA) — virtually everywhere has one. :(
• 57D: "Tell Me More" broadcaster (NPR) — they really like shows with "Tell Me" in the title, apparently.
• 58D: Runner with a hood (CAR) — another semi-strained clue, but very gettable, nonetheless.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Here's a birthday / tribute puzzle for you. Warning: it revolves around the lyrics to a song. If you don't know the song, the puzzle will be doable, but at least partially mystifying. The song was very popular, so I'm hoping it resonates with at least some of you. You can get the .pdf or .puz file here (at Amy's place). And here's the SOLUTION. And (spoiler alert) here's the song it's based on.
UCanSolveThis