Untouchables villain / SUN 10-30-11 / William Morris workers / Subject of Magritte painting / Classical Italian typeface / Cousin of ampule

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels and Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Hollywood from Right to Left" — Movie titles have an "R" changed to an "L," creating wacky titles, clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: HEL (5D: Daughter of Loki) —
In Norse mythology, Hel is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the dead. Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In addition, she is mentioned in poems recorded in Heimskringla and Egils saga that date from the 9th and 10th century respectively. An episode in the Latin work Gesta Danorum, written in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus, is generally considered to refer to Hel, and Hel may appear on various Migration Period bracteates. // In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of Loki, and to "go to Hel" is to die. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim. In the same source, her appearance is described as half-black and half-flesh colored, and as further having a gloomy, down-cast appearance. The Prose Edda details that Hel rules over vast mansions, her servants in her underworld realm, and as playing a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr. (wikipedia)




• • •

Very cute, though the fact that there are Rs that don't got to L in the theme answers undermines the whole concept just a little. ANGEL MANAGEMENT is and FANTASTIC FOUL didn't work well for me because the movie involved in the former is not that famous and the movie involved in the latter is much, much better known as a comic. The funniest answer by a longshot was PILATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (though, unlike all the others, that one involves a massive pronunciation change in the affected word). Fill is lively an interesting throughout. Only things I really balked at were HEL (barely heard of her) and TINLIKE (which feels pretty rickety—about as solid as [any element]LIKE) (60A: Cheap and flimsy, as metal). Stunned to see "IL TROVATORE" again (the odds of an 11-letter word appearing in back-to-back puzzles must be pretty damned long) (17D: Opera whose second act is called "The Gypsy"). Really disliked the clue on TWO, mainly because the clue made no sense to me (86A: Number of X's in this puzzle's answer). There are multiple "answer"s in the puzzle. The puzzle does not have one "answer." My first instinct was to write in "OOO," thinking the clue was somehow playing around with the crossword convention of cluing a tic-tac-toe line; thus "OOO" would be zero. It made sense at the time. In my head. It did. I have no idea what ENDICOTT College is (32D: College in Beverly, Mass.), but ENDICOTT, NY is just down the street from me. It has a couple of claims to fame, most notably for being the "birthplace of IBM" (true fact), the birthplace of Johnny Hart (of "B.C." comic strip fame), and the childhood home of David Sedaris (who was born in Binghamton).

Theme answers:
  • 23A: One of St. Peter's heavenly duties? (ANGEL MANAGEMENT)
  • 42A: "Snakes on a Plane," e.g.? (SCALY MOVIE)
  • 52A: What a lazy mover prefers to carry? (THE LIGHT STUFF) — good clue
  • 67A: Workout class on a pleasure cruise? (PILATES OF THE CARIBBEAN)
  • 88A: Unbelievable court infraction? (FANTASTIC FOUL)
  • 96A: Cabby's nonstop patter? (TAXI DRIVEL)
  • 119A: Guests at a Hatfield/McCoy marriage ceremony? (WEDDING CLASHERS)
The NE corner is like a crosswordese convention—Miss ELLIE rubbing elbows with LITA Ford, Frank NITTI (25A: "The Untouchables" villain) crossing paths with Joseph ALIOTO (16D: 1960s-'70s San Francisco mayor). IMEDLA Marcos and Sheena EASTON wanted to get in (45D: "Morning Train" singer, 1981), but as you can see, they were kept waiting just outside—not enough grid cred. Sorry ladies.




Bullets:
  • 50A: Subject of a Magritte painting (PIPE) — no, "Ceci n'est PAS une pipe," so there's nothing to see here. Move along.
  • 74A: William Morris workers (AGENTS) — not a good time to confuse William Morris and Philip Morris.
  • 75A: Cousin of an ampule (VIAL) — I had FEUF for FIEF (71D: Feudal estate) and so had VEAL here at first. "What the hell kind of meat is ampule!?"
  • 81A: Film special effects, briefly (CGI) — Me: "EFX?"



  • 2D: Classical Italian typeface (ARNO) — I did not know this. ARNO is a river to me. A crosswordesey river.
  • 12D: City that was the site of three battles in the Seven Years' War (QUÉBEC) — Damn. All those [This Many] Years' Wars had me thinking Europe.
  • 47D: Ancient May birthstones (AGATES) — ??? AGATES are ancient? Or ... these used to be May birthstones in ancient times? I'm confused.
  • 61D: Automaker since 1974 (KIA) — Sportage is on my list of potential cars (down the list, but on it). We are, as of now, a one-car family.
  • 101D: Co-star of Kate and Farrah, in 1970s TV (JACLYN) — that's a nice, economical spelling. None of this Frenchified "QU" business. Just brass tacks.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

76 comments:

foodie 12:30 AM  

Rex, I agree both about it being fun and cute and about being surprised to see IL TROVATORE two days in a row!

I loved all the theme answers but I think my favorite is ANGEL MANAGEMENT! Tough job!!

Actually, the title confused me and I expected to see names of Hollywood stars or movies morph within the theme answers (I realize now it would have said left to right, not right to left, but I write in both directions). So, when I got ANGEL... I thought ANGELINA (Jolie)... Then got stuck for a bit and hit THEL (for the LIGHT STUFF!), and thought THELMA??

Anyhow, it took a while to get WEDDING CLASHERS and tumble to the theme. It was smooth sailing after that.

This is probably not PC, but it's true. The first time I landed in Japan, on the way from the airport to Tokyo was a huge ad with a photo of a beach, a beautiful sunset, some gorgeous human carrying a surf board, and spelled in big bright letters: CARIFOLNIA! It woke me right up, made me smile and made me feel more excited about my trip!

North Beach 12:31 AM  

Being a San Francisco resident born in Massachusetts, I had some advantages in this puzzle. Although I didn't know ENDICOTT and was trying to make EMERSON fit. Finally got it off END***** since that is an old WASP name in the area. I liked the ALIOTO clue but I assume there will be grousing from solvers east of Oakland. I often see his daughter, Angela, in my eponymous neighborhood (for better or worse...).
I usually save the Sunday puzzle for the morning, leisurely solved while sipping a latte and nibbling a pastry from Caffe Trieste but I'm going to the 49ers (5-1, who'da thunk it?) game tomorrow, so had to get this one under my belt (sorry Tobias..). Thank you Ms ACME and Patrick.

CoffeeLvr 1:12 AM  

Nice puzzle, cute theme. Today, I knew how to spell the opera. I think of repeats like this as little rewards (from Will?) for solving consistently.

I did not know 65D HINGIS, and it took me a very long time to realize that the clue for 65A (Bob, for one) was not looking for a surname.

Very few erasures: Est before ERA for ballpark fig. and FEte before FEST.

Like PUNCHLINE, ABDICATE, OPAQUE, HYSTERIA. Thanks to our construction crew today.

Anonymous 1:14 AM  

j

GILL I. 1:42 AM  

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Napa and up HWY 1 to Mendocino. My only regret was missing Patrick Berry's meta challenge week and being part of a contest I was sure not to win.
BUT THEN....I was met with a delightful surprise! ACM and another favorite PB.
I really enjoyed this. The cluing is always so much fun when Andrea constructs a puzzle. It's like a set of finger prints all over the place...You just know that distinct style. "Right back at cha!" indeed and it's positiveley
1A.
It was hard to pick a favorite theme but if I had to, it would be TAXI DRIVEL.
I also loved some of the refs. to Verdi: IL TRAVATORE, ARIOSI, ARIA, AMATI (Shaks. Othello or Verdi's Otello)= MOOR - although in my world he is a Mozarabe.
This was a sit in my favorite chair sipping Pete's coffee Sunday kinda puzzle - even though it's Sat. night!
En hora buena ACM and PB

chefwen 2:15 AM  

This was one fun puzzle. Would we expect anything less from Andrea and Patrick? I think not.

65D HINGIS was given to me by sports loving husband. Only other area that gave me fits and starts was 108D where I went from rite to fete to fest. 52A was the favorite of the day THE LIGHT STUFF. That would depict me on moving day. "I'll take the cat, you grab the sofa".

Thanks ACME and Patrick, you can occupy my Saturday night anytime.

jae 3:30 AM  

@ CoffeeLvr, me too for FETE and EST plus EARNED for REAPED. But, that was about it. So, easy-medium works. Cute amusing breezy Sun. Nice job folks.

So, Andrea, did you know about the repeat of ILTROVATORE in advance?

r.alphbunker 8:23 AM  

Very enjoyable puzzle. I did not want it to end. I thought the theme answers were very funny. They were not contrived like other puzzles of this type. Probably a pangram since Q, Z and X are in it.

Captha is "sessess" which would be convenient as a bottom across answer.

Jp 8:25 AM  

Very easy for me. Only problem area was the SW little corner. Had FETE instead of FEST. So I had TEAZE and EASER. So DNF. Got the theme right away from WEDDING CLASHERS. Nice and clever. Saw the constructors names and figured it would be a fun puzzle. And fun it was.

Leslie 8:35 AM  

Fun, cute puzzle; I'm with Gill on liking TAXI DRIVEL the best of all the theme answers.

But it's going to take a while to get the earworm out: "My baby takes the morning train; He works from nine to five and then, He takes another home again to find me waiting for him . . ." (etc., etc., over and over) Sheena Easton, goddess of 1950s domesticity!!

swimslikeafish 8:41 AM  

I agree that this was a fun puzzle but since I am not an opera buff and didn't know singer Ford or the Untouchables villain, I DNF in the NE corner. Nice mix of opera, sports, foreign language, science, popular culture clues...should make all Rexites happy, a tough job!
Thanks, Andlea Calla Michaels and Patlick Blindauel!

MaryBR 8:44 AM  

Found this to be very easy with just the FEte/FEST write over and then tried to finish out the NE. Got completely Naticked by the ALIOTA/NITTI/LITA crossing, none of which I had ever heard of.

Cletus 9:41 AM  

I read 75A as "cousin of an amputee" and immediately thought STUB.

jberg 10:00 AM  

Drat! (Or rather, DANG!) I just tried to copy my comment and deleted it instead! Second try:

I started out taking 'right to left' literally, and looking for answers to write backward, like ScooP at 15A, which works with two of the crosses. MEDUSA gave me the N, and ___MANAGEMENT, so that didn't last long, and the ANGEL part came a couple of minutes later which gave me the theme.

Loved the theme, esp. PILATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: drastic changes in both pronunciation and meaning, all with one letter. And ridiculous, which makes it even more fun.

Two Natick crosses: NITTI/LITA, CGI/HINGIS. I guessed Z for the first, got the 2d right. Also misspelled HiSTERIA/JACLiN, so I finished with two errors.

What is CGI, anyway?

I think maybe ARIA & ARIOSO are forms of the same word; and although it's true that ONT is west of QUEBEC city, the cross-reference cue really implies the province - but those are really minor quibbles, this was a great romp.

joho 10:07 AM  

You know it's going be great when 1A starts off with "Right back at cha!" Another clue I loved set up
PUNCHLINE. Plus we've got interesting facts like an IGUANA's tail makes up half its body's length. Who knew? Lots of froth and fun this morning thanks to Andrea and Patrick!

r.alphbunker 10:16 AM  

@jberg
CGI is an acronym for "computer generated imagery".

jackj 10:21 AM  

Fancy that, Acme and Plauer, the Fred and Ginger of the crossworld community, give us a pangram Sunday puzzle, sans ACME in the grid. Evil Doug will be pleased; Rex will not.

No matter, it’s a terrific Sunday puzzle, with a clever theme, changing familiar film titles by switching “R” in each film's title to “L” and then, r(l)ight on cue, hearty chuckles ensue.

The fill is superb, with such as “Crystal on the dinner table” for NACL (you know, salt, that crystalline compound), EVENTUAL for “Occurring someday” and IONIZE for “Charge, in a way”.

Need more? Try TVDINNER, ABDICATE, PIEDISH, or ARMREST and the reason the puzzle excels becomes apparent.

Only mini-gripe, not all “film special effects” are CGI, computer generated images; just ask the matte artists at Disney.

It was nice to see a wonderful college on the North Shore of Massachusetts, ENDICOTT College, included in the puzzle. A former all-girls school (from 1939), until going co-ed in 1994, it has some 2200 students and, now, even sports a NCAA Div. II football team which has a stellar 8-1 record so far this year. The school, in the Brahminish estate section of Beverly, Mass., directly on the Atlantic Ocean, is considered one of the most scenic campuses in the United States. It’s worth a look-see by any student looking for a first-rate smaller school.

Nice coupling, Andrea and Patrick!

archaeoprof 10:29 AM  

Challenging at first, as I struggled to understand the theme. My aha moment was ANGELMANAGEMENT.

Then an enjoyable romp.

Thanks, ACME and Patrick!

quilter1 10:29 AM  

Very nice and fun puzzle. Finished before church so rate it easy. All the theme answers made me smile, a lovely way to start the day. Thanks to Andrea and Patrick.

Anonymous 10:38 AM  

i'm longing for the day when they decide to run tough sunday puzzles again. solving used to be a big part of my sunday morning, but this one took less than 15 minutes. and what happened to clever themes? yes, these were cute, but not exactly brain teasing in any way.

exaudio 10:40 AM  

So glad to see I wasn't the only one caught by the NITTI/LITA crossing. A DNF between that and putting GATA for 36 across (and who knows how to spell il trovatore, even when it was there yesterday).

Mel Ott 10:55 AM  

@Acme: Surprised at the jockish sub-theme. Basketball clues for FANTASTIC FOUL (a theme answer to boot) and TRAVELED; plus HINGIS & LENNOX LEWIS.

Not only IL TROVATORE on consecutive days, but GOIN' for the second time this week I think.

In Europe they called it the Seven Years War, but in this part of the world it's the French and Indian War.

DBGeezer 10:59 AM  

@rex, Your comment had a typo, switching the L and D in IMELDA. If her name had been IMELRA, I woud have thought you were working the theme right to left an extra time.

Anonymous 11:24 AM  

I was a great fan of the too-soon cancelled AMC series "Rubicon."

A central trope to the show was messages being passed through, I believe, the duplication of clues/answers in various crossword puzzles printed across the world.

I often do the weekend crossword puzzles of the Wall Street Journal and the Times back-to-back.

Paranoia runs deep. "Sneered at" in both the same weekend? Coincidence?

foodie 11:26 AM  

I hope, Andrea and Patrick, that you will tell us a bit of background about this puzzle... How the theme idea was born, how the construction played out. Always fun to hear!

The cluing is really terrific (I agree with JackJ re Crystal on the Table!).

Lately, I've been thinking that I might stop doing Sundays. This has reinstated my sense that Sunday puzzles can be truly enjoyable. Thanks guys!

Norm 12:01 PM  

Lovely puzzle. Can't agree with any of Rex's nits. From the title, I expected movie titles running backward or something that, so I was baffled for the longest time (not unusual for me). Saw the light at FANTASTIC FOUL. Much fun.

CoolPapaD 12:06 PM  

Had to come out of hiding to express my love for this puzzle! Only error was the "I" in NITTI/ALIOTA.

I suspect the seed was PILATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.

Thanks!

Beadola 12:21 PM  

Jumped all over the puzzle and got the theme at "Taxi Drivel". Favorite theme answer was "Scaly Movie". Same problem as so many with 108D, (fest) but it got fixed. Same thought process as Rex with 86A. Tried OOO for the same reason. I think the clue should have been "Number of X's in this puzzle's SOLUTION". Then it would have made sense.
All in all lots of fun.

Sparky 12:23 PM  

My favorite was PILATESOFTHE CARIBBEAN where I first mispelled Carribean but laughed anyway. Small hole in NW as never realized TRAVELED could be basketball and did not enter it. Thus missed ANGEL also. Too bad. Enjoyable late evening, morning effort. Thanks Andrea and Patrick.

ACME is in the clues, wearing the beret.

The snow yesterday was like slush falling out of the sky. Today, all gone.

Tobias Duncan 12:27 PM  

I almost never do Sunday puzzles, so glad I happened to catch sight of Andrea's name this morning or I never would have done it.
Printed out a stack for the coffee shop,I think this will be a good into to Sundays for my friends.
Andrea get in here and give us the back story already, dont wait till the end of the day to post!!!!!

@North Beach I hope you enjoy your sporting event! I trust the team from your area is far more virtuous than the team challenging them.

syndy 12:34 PM  

Okay my nit is the magi did not come until twelve days after christmas! so there! not jumpin on this love train.so there also! PIEDISH 'nuff said.SEE that big ole TADA in the middle?alright so it's gorgeous.lets not get HYSTERICAL

Z 12:36 PM  

Anyone else have an image of Johnny Depp and Keith Richards in leotards running through their heads? Thanks ACME and PB.

Clark 12:48 PM  
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Clark 1:19 PM  

This was THE LIGHT STUFF. A Sunday theme with a light touch. My day was unfortunately too hectic to do the puzzle at one sitting and experience the acme-zen-smoothness of the thing. And ALIOTO/NITTI/LITA wasn't happening for me. But overall it was a FIENNE puzzle. (There was intercontinental skype puzzling going on in the house yesterday, but I missed it.)

Rube 1:23 PM  

Very enjoyable puzzle. Got home late last night and fell asleep about half way thru the solution. Finished up this morning, well, almost finished... did not know "... the LIME in coconut", Magritte's PIPE, RAP made no sense as Rat-a-tat, and MTS on globes? Made it SCALY MOVIE only because the theme required it. So DNF despite going from gala to FEte to FEST in the SW.

Suspected the theme at ANGEL MANAGEMENT but wasn't sure this was from a movie. With THE LIGHT STUFF the light went on.

I must say that PIEDISH was the low point in an otherwise delightful puzzle. FWIW, there was a guy named Donald Frisbee who was CEO of Pacific Power & Light for many years. Chuckled every time I saw his name.

600 1:36 PM  

For the first time ever, I noticed the constructors' names before I started--and they meant something to me! Only since Patrick Berry's meta week have constructors begun to mean something to me, and I'm delighted this one was ACME!! ACME, ACME, ACME! Didn't she just tell us she was only a Monday through Wednesday kind of constructor? Wrong.

I enjoyed the puzzle. Found it medium, and in the end DNF for the same reason as @Jp. I did not notice that FETE gave me TEIZE and EASER, neither of which made any sense. But I'm not hanging my head. I just wish I'd double checked before considering myself finished. Oh, well.

I almost didn't bother to come here because between @Jp and @CoffeeLvr, my experience was perfectly reported already. Didn't know HINGIS and stared at _AIRDO I don't know how long trying to make a last name out of it. The light for HAIRDO finally came on.

Also, today I knew the opera, but I couldn't believe it was going to be right two days in a row!

A week or so ago I commented that I have more fun watching Jeopardy when I have some kind of connection to the contestant, even one as slim as another blogger (whom I obviously don't really know) knows her. (Yes, I'm pointing at you, @Tobias.) Well, it's also more fun, I've just learned, solving a crossword when I have just the slimmest of relationships with the constructor. Hope I get as familiar with the whole pack of them as many of the rest of you already are.

Isabella di Pesto 1:41 PM  

My house guests from Tours, France, told me the SSTs never flew out of Orly. ?

Anyone?

chefbea 2:10 PM  

Great theme!! Got it with Wedding clashers.

Loved Roast slightly and crystal on the table!!!

Happy snowtober everyone

quilter1 2:21 PM  

I also finished the LAT puzzle before church, fun and easy and funny.

I was surprised to see Andrea's name on this as she doesn't *do* Sunday puzzles, but I guess she deigns to construct them. As I read the comments I appreciate this puzzle more and more.

Stan 2:43 PM  

What an excellent Sunday! Went to bed last night exhausted from storm prep, with snow falling and no power. Woke up to lights, heat, coffee, waffles, and this romp of a puzzle.

Theme answers overall were unexpected and perfectly matched to their clues. By the way, from my years in NYC, I can attest that TAXI DRIVEL is a real thing.

As noted, nice clue for NACL. We also liked 'Sandcastle engineering equipment,' 'Your, in Tours,' and 'Org. with a sub division.'

pauer 3:14 PM  

Thanks for all the nice comments. I'll let Andrea talk about the process and the seed for this one when she gets a chance. Needless to say, working with her is a blast, and we have so much fun together.

For those interested in such things, we started working on this back in November of 2010 and submitted it on 2/17/11, but had to redo the 44D/45D area because of ESSMAN crossing LAURIA. Luckily, HINGIS came to the rescue and allowed that area to pass muster.

MYSTICLIVER and FILESTARTER were a pair of 11's that we considered; can you think of any other possible theme answers?

edmcan 3:35 PM  

Nice to have an amusing, doable puzzle, thanks ACME and PB!

Tobias Duncan 3:38 PM  

THECOOKTHETHIEFHISWIFEANDHERROVER

Stan 4:46 PM  

LOMAN HOLLIDAY

TWELVE ANGLY MEN

Searching For Ghosts 4:47 PM  

After last weeks glorious solving experience, I read the clue at 86 across as a Meta of some sort and spent a great deal of time trying to find a unifying 'answer' that had 2 X's in it . . . What a dolt eh? Puzzle was really fun nevertheless! Great job ACME, pauer and Will!

~Daniel who never posts

Spotted the Ghost 5:21 PM  

AHA! Figured it out . . . Lex Nexman was in charge of radio media for all the films in today's puzzle. Brilliant!

~Daniel

Stan 5:37 PM  

LUSH HOUR

A LOOM WITH A VIEW

THE GILL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Okay I'll stop. Three and out!

JenCT 6:28 PM  

Just got back from watching the games at a sports bar (no power, no cable, no telephone here, going on 17 hours now) - go Giants!!!! The snowstorm hit CT hard - my younger trees were bent over & touching the ground this morning.

Finally got to do the puzzle - I love @ACME puzzles, and @pauer adds to the enjoyment. Thought the theme answers were really cute & they made me smile. Couldn't quite finish the NW corner; oh well.

FANTASTICFOUL, TAXIDRIVEL, and NACL were my favorite answers.

Here's hoping for a sunny week with power restored for all...

Norm 6:31 PM  
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Norm 6:33 PM  

@Stan LUSH HOUR is priceless (even if it has the second R that Rex disapproved of). A LOOM WITH A VIEW is cute too. Good job!

Tobias Duncan 6:37 PM  

If anyone does the weekend puzzle with Will, I am pretty sure the answer is Ashelly Escallopa...

Anonymous 6:43 PM  

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE LING ?
FLIED GREEN TOMATOES?
LENT-A-KID

obscure but funny

O BROTHEL, WHERE ART THOU

Lewis 6:49 PM  

@stan -- I love TWELVE ANGLY MEN

My earworm for the day is "The lime in the cocoanut".

REAL WINDOW
BLINGING UP BABY

Lewis 6:51 PM  

Oops -- coconut

Kathy 7:10 PM  

This is my first Sunday crossword without my sweetheart, who passed away yesterday. He was a crossword genius, and there were many write-overs and a DNF for me today. But some good moments, too. Gotta keep trying.

foodie 7:41 PM  

Oh, Kathy! That is so sad... I'm sorry for your loss.

I hope you will keep on solving and getting better and better. Think of it as a tribute to his memory. Nothing better than Rexville to make that happen.

Wishing you peace.

Tobias Duncan 7:49 PM  

@Kathy I know we cannot take the place of your loved one but perhaps we can provide some company and some crossword banter.This is a great place to come when you DNF.If Rex does not explain some of those mysteries, just ask and someone will.
Also you are here at the very end of the day so it will be a bit quite from here on out.

chefbea 8:13 PM  

@Kathy...sorry for your loss. Come here often for comfort

Anonymous 8:51 PM  

Enjoyed the theme which became clear after PILATES. Stumbled on Nitti and Lennox Lewis, but DH helped out, as did I when he flailed.

THE FRY

Lewis 8:54 PM  

@Kathy -- sending you loving thoughts and prayers...

santafefran 9:14 PM  

@Kathy--how very sad. Wishing you comfort and strength and happier crossword days ahead.

JenCT 9:15 PM  

@Kathy: so sorry for your loss.

joho 9:20 PM  

@Kathy, I, too, send my condolences. So sorry for your loss.

chefwen 9:20 PM  

@Kathy - My deepest sympathy. Don't be a stranger, we are here for you.

RI Squasher 9:48 PM  

I takes me a bit longer to do Sundays then the rest of you and I do them on paper which means I have to wait until I actually get the Times in the morning so by the time I'm done and ready to look here it's usually too late to comment. As others have said the title had me looking for some kind of trick. I thought the themes were going to be written from right to left. 86A confused me only because I originally had SFX as the answer for 81A which meant more than two X's in the grid. I finally got CGI which made it all make sense.

I was hoping Rex would have a Shaun Cassidy video for us today.

Another movie that fits the theme:

THE BLEAK FAST CLUB (The Breakfast Club) Any club that revolves around fasting would be pretty bleak.

Mike 9:48 PM  

I have to protest the NE corner, which I consider 16 thru 19D and 25 and 29A to be a quadrupal Natick (and I could mention 22 and 36A, although I knew them).

Sparky 11:25 PM  

@Kathy. So sorry for your loss. Keep coming here for company. We'll be around. As @ Hazel says in her blog, it's a special square in each day for many of us.

JFe 3:02 AM  

@Kathy...so sorry for your loss, but come here...these are "special" people.

Anonymous 11:14 PM  

ENDICOTT was a gimme! Hey, I grew up there (well, Endwell, Endicott was of course our cross-town rival), and now live in Massachusetts where ENDICOTT College has been a customer of my business. It's a hoot when the cards fall just the right way to match your own particular set of trivia!

TheAnalyst 7:01 PM  

Anger Management not famous? Aw c'mon. And we had EFX too before I realized it was CGI, Course movies is my business.

Anonymous 11:51 AM  

In fact, the B.C. Open, in honor of homeboy Hart, is still held in Endicott; it is attended by all those who are not going to the (British) Open Championship that same weekend.
Thanks, A&P, for a very fun puzzle! A bit on the easy side, but hey, we don't have to challenge our poor overworked brains EVERY day, do we? The theme entries are FANTASTIC, but I saw no FOUL to speak of. This was just a pleasure throughout, remarkably clean. I can forgive the stale SSTS and the unheard-of abbr. of FISC for all the other goodies.
As I said, I'm used to harder work on Sunday, but if this is THELIGHTSTUFF--it's also THERIGHTSTUFF!
Spacecraft

harple: Christie's heroine goes to heaven.

Anonymous 12:29 PM  

Anyone else get MOOP at 82d? The card says Moop.

@Mel Ott 10:55 AM:
Also could have had 23a - Baseball position in Anaheim?

I'm guessing co-constructor performed at SF's 49d at some point.

LOAD TO NOWHERE
FLEE WILLY
HARRY POTTER AND THE OLDER OF THE PHOENIX
THE LOYAL TENENBAUMS
DIAL M FOR MULDER
THE FILM

Moving in the opposite direction:
STEER MAGNOLIAS
R.A. CONFIDENTIAL
ROOK WHO'S TALKING
ROVE STORY
CHRISTMAS IN JURY
CASA BRANCA (hapless pitcher's Mexican home)

Anonymous 1:04 PM  

Here's a bonus 15 for everyone.
Clue = Fanning the flames?

Anonymous 3:21 PM  

Stephen King's FILESTARTER
LAY (Charles biopic)
THE BLUES BROTHELS
THE LOAD WARRIOR

and...

the story of a triumphant hatchling

ESCAPE FROM NEW YOLK

Spacecraft

Dirigonzo 3:33 PM  

Writing from syndicationland, I loved this puzzle! My dog ELLIE is in there, POLI-Sci was my major (a long, long time ago) and the theme answers made me laugh out loud! Only disappointment was to come here and not find a post from ACM giving the back-story on the puzzle's creation.

This comment from Jackj 10:21 am seemed mildy obscene: "Nice coupling, Andrea and Patrick!", but I agree with the sentiment (I think).

Let's take a quik look back at this date in 2006 to see what's going on in Rexville (where @PAUER was a very early visitor):
- "Solving time: 6:03 (on screen, very clumsily, constantly mistyping)"
- "I love the letter "K" in general because ... well, I believe it to be the wackiest letter in the alphabet. I'll develop that theory later in my writing career, but trust me, I've thought long and hard about it, and I have good reasons for my beliefs."
- "Despite the fact that no one ever asks me any questions about this website, I think I should have a FAQ. A Fake FAQ. "1. Rex, how do you manage to be so smart, funny, and handsome simultaneously?" "2. Where can I buy Rex Parker merchandise?" "3. What's with your obsession with Olivia Newton-John?""
- "Memo to people who exercise in close proximity to others: I would rather smell sweat than your nose-piercing chemical bath Any Day Of The Week."
- There was one comment from @Shaun (but porbably not the one at 37a in today's grid).

pauer 3:49 PM  

Some funny alternate answers, y'all. Good stuff.

Glad you liked the puzzle!

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