MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2006 - Harvey Estes

Solving time: 4:54

THEME: Movies with cities in their titles

Parents still in town, so I'm dashing this off now while I have a little bit of time - while eating breakfast, drinking tea, and neglecting my daughter who sits downstairs watching classic Looney Tunes.

14A: Anouk of "La Dolce Vita" (Aimée)

You know your puzzle is old-timey when Anouk Aimée is one of your more contemporary answers (not that Ms. Aimée isn't great, and hot). I have no idea how old Mr. Estes is, but he seems to have grown up in the 30s and 40s. Please check out the following clues:

• 17A (THEME): 1944 Judy Garland Movie (Meet Me in St. Louis)

• 29A: Facing trouble (in dutch) (etymology forthcoming)

• 38A: Krazy _____ of the comics (Kat) (big in the 30s)

• 52D: Irene of "I Remember Mama" (Dunne) (1948)

• 54D: Poet Clement C. _____ (Moore) (wrote "'Twas the Night Before Christmas")

OK, that last one is so old-timey that it's mid-19th-century, which probably doesn't accurately reflect Mr. Estes's age, but still, the frame of reference here is very Our Gang: "Hey, Spanky, you gotta help me. I'm in dutch with Miss Crabtree!"

I do love "Krazy Kat," though, I must say. That comic is pure surreal genius of the kind that would Never see the light of day today. If I were to get a tattoo, I would get one of Ignatz Mouse throwing a brick at Krazy. Way better (and less clichéd) expression of the Way of the World than, say, a yin / yang or ankh or other symbol stolen from a culture of which you are not credibly a part. And by "you" I mean nobody who might be reading this blog, clearly.

62A: Nickelodeon's _____ the Explorer (Dora)

I mention this only because I have to look at a huge likeness of Dora every night - her face graces my daughter's bedspread.

63A (THEME): 2000 Richard Gere/Winona Ryder movie (Autumn in New York)

This angers me, as I had gone to a lot of trouble in order to successfully purge my brain of this ill-conceived movie about dying young. And Estes has to bring it right back, in all its noxious, useless glory. Worst movie about dying young since Dying Young. And hey, Richard Gere was in Autumn in New York, while Julia Roberts was in Dying Young ... I guess that's what you get for starring in a movie that romanticizes prostitution: death-movie penance (that, and tremendous wealth and fame).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld