Vultures were sacred to him — FRIDAY, Jul. 31 2009 — It contains 613 mitzvot / Oscar-nominated portrayer of Frida Kahlo / TV commentator Timex ads

Constructor: Mike Nothnagel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Mitzvot (10D: It contains 613 mitzvot => TORAH) — pl. of MITZVAH n., pl. -voth (-vōt', -vōs') or -vahs.

1. 1. A commandment of the Jewish law.
   2. The fulfillment of such a commandment.
2. A worthy deed.

[Hebrew miswâ, from siwwâ, to command.]

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Another even shorter write-up today. Today's early morning errand: car to garage for new front brakes, alignment, oil/filter change, etc. Bah.

A mostly enjoyable Friday puzzle pitched to just the right level of difficulty. Maybe *slightly* on the easy side, but not significantly. This grid is less wide open than most late-week grids — no daunting stacks of long words, no harrowing blocks of white. And yet the puzzle still proved thorny, and still entertained. Had a little trouble getting started, but then I saw 17A: Oscar-nominated portrayer of Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), a nice long gimme that opened things right up. Before that, the only thing I had in the grid was ARM (4D: The Adriatic vis-a-vis the Mediterranean), and I wasn't very sure of that. SALMA HAYEK plays Jack's (Alec Baldwin's) girlfriend on "30 Rock" and is hilarious. I've never liked her more than on that show. HAYEK turned AMIN to SHAH (14D: Onetime C.I.A.-backed foreign leader), and the NW went down fairly easily, with only DOYENNE (6D: Helen Thomas in the White House press corps). I do not like the word DOYENNE. Or MAVEN. Or MAUVE, for that matter, but that's not really relevant here.

After escaping the NW, I ran into only one more trouble spot: LEYDEN JAR (32D: It might store an electric charge). Turns out ... I don't know what that is. This probably should have been the word of the day, but I don't have time to change things at this point:

Leyden jar (lī'dən) , form of capacitor invented at the Univ. of Leiden in the 18th cent. It consists of a narrow-necked glass jar coated over part of its inner and outer surfaces with conductive metal foil; a conducting rod or wire passes through an insulating stopper in the neck of the jar and contacts the inner foil layer, which is separated from the outer layer by the glass wall. By modern standards, the Leyden jar is cumbersome and inefficient. It is rarely used except in laboratory demonstrations of capacitance.

So I had to hack my way through the SE, getting most of LEYDEN JAR through crosses. Then we came to the bitter end, where I had the weird experience of having not one but two single-letter shoot-outs at the end: one minor, one major. First, there was the "C" at the intersection of CHAIRS (43A: Heads up) / CELLED (43D: Single-_____). I had to back that "C" into a corner before it would show itself. But the even squirmier letter in the south, and my final letter overall, was the "W" in BOW (56D: It comes after the last number) / WED (62A: Bond). Had to run through the alphabet for that one — and like FA, that's a long long way to run.

Bullets:

• 6A: Factory staple (die) — Friday cluing. Felt like it could have been anything.
• 21A: What a player may mean by knocking on the table ("I pass") — poker, I presume. Not my game.
• 26A: Subject of the 1955 film "The Last Command" (Alamo) — more Friday cluing. If ALAMO gets a film clue, it's usually as the title of the John Wayne movie.

["The $12-million epic!"]

• 29A: Band members with long necks? (sitars) — never think of these being part of a "band."
• 31A: Many students on "Gilmore Girls" (Elis) — never seen it, but knew it had something to do with Yale.
• 32A: It's 11 miles NNW of JFK (LGA) — sure seemed longer by car.
• 37A: Roll top? (schmear) — great clue. Very difficult to make sense of.
• 42A: Early TV news commentator famous for doing Timex ads (Swayze) — I remember a Timex ad with Shari Belafonte (from my childhood) where she referred to Swayze and I had No idea what she was talking about.

• 56A: Comics character with a "gang" (Bazooka Joe) — he always looks good in the grid.
• 60A: Passage enabler ("open sesame") — more tough cluing. I thought the answer would have something to do with passing legislation.
• 63A: City in 1917 headlines (Ypres) — Site of WWI battle.
• 15D: Plumber seen in an arcade (Mario) — got his start in Donkey Kong, but then ended up in all kinds of Mario Bros. games for Nintendo.
• 23D: Computer debut of 1998 (iMac) — just read article about all the free advertising Apple is giving NYT in its iPhone ads. Beginning to think Apple's products are also given crossword friendly names so that they have yet another way to keep their product names in front of people on a regular basis. Really, how often do you see ZUNE in the puzzle? Now IPOD? See what I mean? Sinister.
• 27D: Slimming option, for short (lipo) — -suction
• 30D: Fast Eddie's girlfriend in "The Hustler" (Sarah) — about the most obscure clue on SARAH that I've ever seen.
• 34D: Vultures were sacred to him (Ares) — why "were?" Why not "are?" If he's a god, and immortal, then he still likes his vultures.
• 58D: "My baby at my breast," in Shakespeare (asp) — HA ha, gruesome. Love it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. my write-up of today's Scrabbletastic LAT puzzle is here.

Syndicated Comments Thread

THURSDAY, Jul. 30 2009 — Jiltee of myth / Voltaic cell meas / Royal son of comics / Kowtower / Actress Williams of the 1960s-'70s

Constructor: Ashish Vengsarkar

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: FOUR-LETTER WORDS (16A: Profanities (and a hint to this puzzle's anomalies)) — 8 theme answers are represented in the grid by a strings of identical letters; those strings, when read aloud as plural letters, are homophones of the desired answers, e.g. 1A: Facility = EEEE (i.e. Es, or "ease")

Word of the Day: EDY Williams (55D: Actress Williams of the 1960s-'70s) —

Throughout the 1960s, Williams appeared in several television series and film including roles in The Beverly Hillbillies, Batman, Adam-12, Lost in Space, The Naked Kiss, and the Sonny & Cher film, Good Times.

In 1970, she appeared as Ashley St. Ives in Russ Meyer's first mainstream film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, followed by his second mainstream film The Seven Minutes (1971). Meyers and Williams married in 1970, shortly after the release of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. (wikipedia)

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Short write-up this morning as I have a dentist appointment to get to.

Fantastically inventive puzzle this morning from Ashish Vengsarkar. Perfect Thursday fare: wordplay gimmick plus double thematic layer (letter string answers and two regular, grid-spanning 15-ltr answers). I was going to rate this puzzle "Medium," but then I watched my wife get Nowhere on it last night and figured that it might be hard for some to find / understand the gimmick. Once you get the trick, the puzzle is very tractable — all those letter-string answers (since they're symmetrical) go down very easy. I picked the gimmick up pretty early, after trying EASE at 1A. This gave me EERIEST (4D: Like H.P. Lovecraft among all popular writers?), but the other stuff wasn't working, and I was pretty sure 2D: Abbr. in a help-wanted ad was EEO (or EOE or something like that). Then I saw the 12A clue, [Jiltee of myth], and knew immediately that it was MEDEA (I feel like this exact clue was used very recently ...). This made EDU easy (3D: E-mail ending), and there I had a ridiculous number of Es in 1A. Es ... EASE. Of course. And I was off. Got IIII (19A: Peer group?) without understanding how it was right ("Am 'I' my own peer???? Oh, 'peer' as in look with your EYES ... got it"). The rest were less befuddling.

Theme answers:

• 1A: Facility (EEEE) — "ease"
• 8A: Signals (QQQQ) — "cues" (consecutive Qs, wow)
• 19A: Peer group? (IIII) — "eyes"
• 20A: Razz (TTTT) - "tease"
• 47A: Garden sights (BBBB) — "bees"
• 49A: Is behind (OOOO) — "owes"
• 61A: "Man oh man!" (GGGG) — "jeez!"
• 63A: Hip (YYYY) — "wise"
• 51A: Record holders? (and a punny hint to this puzzle's anomalies) (repeat offenders) — you can have a "record" after only one offense, so I didn't like this clue so much)

Last letter I filled in was the "A" in ABT (45D: Dance grp. at the Met). Never seen that in the puzzle, though I could infer its meaning, I think. Let me guess: American Ballet Theater? ... well, yes, but ugh, they spell THEATRE the stupid British way ("stupid" only when used in America by Americans). Never see today's ALI clue, but that was inferrable as well (13D: Iranian supreme leader _____ Khamenei). EDY and RUY (neighbors!) were both new to me. Chess names, again? Is this a trend? If so, reverse it, please (56D: _____ Lopez (chess opening)). Or at least counterbalance it with things only a comic book fan would know. Seems only fair ... to me. Though, come to think of it, there is probably a lot of nerd overlap with chess players and comic book fans. Hang on, I'll draw a Venn diagram...

Bullets:

• 14A: Yamaha offering, in brief (ATV) — all-terrain vehicle
• 34A: Alley of Moo (Oop) — "of Moo"? Did not know that.
• 40A: Blood, e.g. (gangster) — edgy! It's strange how GANGSTER does not evoke Crips and Bloods or any of the street gangs in "The Warriors" for me (those are "gang members"). It evokes the mob. Or Dillinger. But of course gang members are GANGSTERS. Not sure why the disconnect.
• 1D: Voltaic cell meas. (EMF) — Can never remember what EMF stands for -> electromotive force.
• 6D: Part of a 2005 SBC merger (ATT) — that's AT ampersand T.
• 24D: Royal son of comics (Arn) — good ol' ARN. Where's your mom, ALETA? Haven't seen her much these days.
• 29D: Kowtower (toady) — love the word TOADY. The word "kowtower" ... looks alien.
• 36D: Starts of some sporting events (face-offs) — loved it. Also loved the inventive ONE TO TEN (32A: Scale range) and the bouncy JIGGLE (33A: Do what Jell-O does).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

WEDNESDAY, Jul. 29 2009 — 1970s self-improvement program / Where Olaf I or Olaf II sat / Storied monster informally / Cold War propaganda disseminator

Constructor: Tim Wescott

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Division representatives — circled squares in theme answers contain the names of team members from each division in Major League Baseball

Word of the Day: GARRET (19D: "La Bohème" setting) — n.

A room on the top floor of a house, typically under a pitched roof; an attic.

[Middle English, from Old French garite, watchtower, from garir, to defend, of Germanic origin.]

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What this puzzle has going for it is a rather intricate intersecting pattern of theme answers. Rare to see this much theme interlock — definitely a challenge to make it all work out. What the puzzle lacks is strong rationale. At first I thought the teams were completely arbitrary, i.e. "here are six team members from completely random teams. Enjoy!" I then searched for some kind of organizing principle and realized that each team represented one of the six different divisions in Major League Baseball. OK, that's something. But unless I'm missing something, there is no particular reason why these teams are here. Whole premise feels a little loose. Further, some of the theme answers were not so strong. I have no doubt the term "SHORT-WINDED" exists, but who says that? And, as my wife said last night, "Is NORWEGIAN THRONE ... a thing?" Of course, said throne does exist, but it doesn't make for a very nice stand-alone crossword answer. CROP SPRAYER felt a little forced. CROP DUSTER, sure. SPRAYER? Meh. Further, the incorporation of the team member into the theme answers is haphazard. RAY doesn't even stretch across two words. Ever other team member does, but some of those touch every word in their respective phrases, and others don't, adding to the overall arbitrary feel of the answers. Clearly concessions were made in the elegance of the construction in order to get the interlock to work out. This puzzle really needed a theme-revealing answer, a clue that gives us some sense of the puzzle's unifying principle. Something with "division" in it ... something. Would have liked puzzle much better if it had had a theme-revealer and no circles (please tell me you all had circles in the dead-tree version this time...)



Theme answers:

• 28A: Pesticide spreader, e.g. (crop sp RAY er) — A.L. East
• 48A: Terse (shor TWIN ded) — A.L. Central
• 11D: Juicer remnants (o RANGER inds) — A.L. West
• 24D: Shake hands (co MET o terms) — N.L. East
• 17A: Argue forcibly (make ASTRO ng case) — N.L. Central
• 61A: Where Olaf or Olaf II sat (Norwe GIANT hrone) — N.L. West

Despite the fact that the theme execution is a mess, I mostly enjoyed solving it. But I like baseball.

Bullets:

• 32A: Brian of ambient music (Eno) — I really wish Brian ENO would do something ... this century. We need new clue material, Brian.
• 37A: Name in bankruptcy news (Enron) — what do you get when you cross Brian ENO with a registered nurse?
• 69A: Cold war propaganda disseminator (TASS) — Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, usually seen as the second part of ITAR-TASS.
• 71A: Like Yogi Berra, physically (squat) — I misread this clue. Read it too quickly and thought it referred to the position Yogi had to assume during play. A rare instance where misreading led me to the right answer.
• 2D: Bibliophile's suffix (-ana) — I am a bibliophile, and yet I rarely have occasion to use -ANA, and I never have occasion to use it in relation to any of my own books.
• 9D: Bridge no-no (renege) — never played bridge, had to wait for almost all the crosses here. When is RENEGE ever not a "no-no?" It's a very ugly word, both in appearance and sound.
• 10D: 2007 Michael Moore documentary ("Sicko") — Haven't seen a Michael Moore film since "Fahrenheit 9/11."
• 26D: It's most useful when broken (bronco) — no fan of riddles. Got this one somewhere near the end. Football answer clashes with the theme.
• 40D: Storied monster, informally (Nessie) — Any reference to an imaginary creature is apt to be something less than "formal." "That's Ms. Monster to you, buddy!"
• 52D: _____ the custom (traditionally) (as was) — all kinds of OUCH. Horrible partial. Nothing to cue the past tense (AS IS makes just as much if not more sense). Ugly.
• 65D: 1970s self-improvement program (est) — Did people really "improve" their "selves?" "est" appears to have lasted into the 80s, btw. Surely some of you went through it. Stories welcome.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

TUESDAY, Jul. 28 2009 — Insect monster of Japanese film / Banjoist Scruggs / Cheech or Chong persona / Gitmo mil branch

Constructor: Tony Orbach

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Possibilities — five theme answers express various degrees of certainty about some unnamed, hypothetical event's happening.

Word of the Day: MOTHRA (3D: Insect monster of Japanese film) —

Mothra (モスラ, Mosura) is a kaiju, a type of fictional monster who first appeared in the novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga. Since her film début in the 1961 film Mothra, she has appeared in several Toho tokusatsu films.

Generally regarded as female by English-speaking audiences, she is a giant lepidopteran with characteristics both of butterflies and of moths. The name "Mothra" is the suffixation of "-ra" (a common last syllable in kaiju names, viz. Hedo-rah, Ghido-rah, Ebi-rah, Godzi-rah) to "moth"; since the Japanese language does not have dental fricatives, it is approximated "Mosura" in Japanese. In the American dubbing of Mothra vs. Godzilla, Mothra is also referred to as the Thing. She is occasionally an ally to Godzilla but more often than not engages in conflict with the King of Monsters due to his anger toward the human race.

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This is undoubtedly an inventive puzzle, and the grid architecture is impressive, in that the theme answers are arranged in a way the perfectly expresses diminishing certainty. As you move down the grid, certainty diminishes, and each step down is figurative (though not literally) equidistant from the previous step. But despite this thematic inventiveness, I didn't find the solving experience very enjoyable. There are two main reasons for this. First, many of the expressions could have been lots of things, and often alternate expressions came to mind more readily: WITHOUT A DOUBT, MAYBE SO MAYBE NO, NOT LOOKING (SO) GOOD ... all kinds of annoying variants came to mind, and finding out the actual answer was more chore than joy. Second, there is a massive variation in degree of colloquialism, from the rather formal WITHOUT QUESTION to the brokedown AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Throw in the clues, all of which are roughly equivalent expressions, and the whole thing's a mess, tone-wise. Am I supposed to imagine the same person saying all these phrases? That's hard to do. With tons of black squares, there are a ton of little 3- and 4-worders and no long Downs, which means there's little of interest outside the theme. I know this is a reasonably well built puzzle; I just didn't like it. More a matter of taste, likely, than anything indisputably defective in the puzzle itself.

Difficulty level today reflects my slightly longer than average solving time, which was likely a result of the theme phrase confusion I mentioned above. In the end, there's nothing very tough about the puzzle (though if you got slowed down anywhere, I'm guessing it was in the SE — more on that below).

Theme answers:

• 17A: "Sure thing" ("Without question")
• 28A: "Chances are good" ("In all likelihood")
• 35A: "It could go either way" ("Maybe yes, maybe no")
• 43A: "Doubtful" (Not looking so hot")
• 56A: "Forget it!" ("Ain't gonna happen")

Most embarrassing moment for me, solving-wise, came in the NW, where I had UNISO- at 2D: Oneness and couldn't figure out the answer. The *only* word my brain could churn out was UNISOM, a sleeping aid. At one point I thought the cross was going to be IT ALL LOOKS GOOD, so I had UNISOT. That is officially insane. I finally got the "N" for UNISON and couldn't believe that so common a word had eluded me entirely. Main trouble spot was the SE, where, first, I couldn't finish off the fourth theme phrase very easily (i.e. HOT didn't come quickly). I also never though of Cheech or Chong as a hippie. To me, they have always been just guys who really like to get high. Apparently their comedy did directly deal with "hippie" issues more broadly at one point. Nothing about their post-1980 life suggested anything but STONER to me. Then there's THE NET (49D: Where one might see "OMG" or "TTYL"). Ugh, that "THE." It's valid, but still feels awkward. As an answer, it seems Way too broad for the clue. THE NET is massive. OMG and TTYL belong to the realms of chat rooms and texting and email, which are subsets of the Gigantic Entity known as THE NET. Analogous clue/answer pairing might be: [Where to find Oslo] => EARTH. True, but come on.

Bullets:

• 54A: Counselor's clients, perhaps (couple) — the final nail of difficulty down there in the SE. Clue cleverly suggests a plural when the answer is a singular word.
• 40D: Bailed-out co. in the news (AIG) — in case this answer didn't depress you enough, there's also a Gitmo reference for you: 53A: Gitmo mil. branch (USN).
• 19D: Banjoist Scruggs (Earl) — I've posted videos of Flatt & Scruggs before, so let's do something slightly different today.

• 32D: God, in Roma (Dio) — why this doesn't come easily to me, I don't know. Wanted DEO, DEI, DIA ...
• 65A: Apt to pout (moody) — had MOPEY until I was rescued by NEO (58D: Keanu's "The Matrix" role)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Highly collectible illustrator — MONDAY, Jul. 27 2009 — College professor's mantra / 1944 Jean-Paul Sartre play

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Vanity puzzle — theme answers are all phrases that end with homophones of the constructor's last name

Word of the Day: OSAGE orange — n.

A dioecious spiny tree (Maclura pomifera) native to Arkansas and Texas and having pulpy, inedible, orangelike multiple fruit.

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This took me a half-step longer than most Monday, due mainly to a boatload of old-timey proper nouns, some of which I had to use crosses to get. I think MAXFIELD PARRISH is kind of an odd Monday theme answer. He's famous, but ... well, I'm guessing he'll give some people trouble. My wife wanted MAXWELL PARRISH and ended up for a little bit with MAXWIELL PARRISH written in there (she had never heard of FRITZI, and, again, I doubt she is alone — people who read comics in the 60s and earlier, no problem; others ...). Wife also doesn't think PERISH and PARISH are homophones, but I told her we were going to shove those worms back in the can because that is the last conversation I want to have today. Neither of us knew what an OSAGE orange was, though I had heard of it (from puzzles) and so I pieced it together. We both agreed that CASPAR is a friendly ghost and we have no idea who this alleged wise man is (26D: One of the Wise Men). All of these potential little trouble spots are very close to one another, which raises the likelihood that people will struggle (again, relatively speaking — it's still a Monday puzzle). Brief look at the times on the NYT site suggests this was tougher than avg. I was faster than my fellow blogger, (non-OSAGE) Orange, on this puzzle, and that happens with fewer than 1% of puzzles, so something screwy was going on. Maybe Orange was solving drunk again. It happens.

Theme answers:

• 17A: College professor's mantra (publish or PERISH)
• 38A: Highly collectible illustrator (Maxfield PARRISH)
• 59A: Lafayette or Orleans (Louisiana PARISH)

When ALI is the most modern thing about your puzzle, your puzzle is old. ("How old is it?"). It's so old, it thinks people who ice cakes are called GLAZERs (54A: Finisher of pottery of cakes). So old, it went to college with Adolph OCHS (13D: Adolph who was chief of The New York Times from 1896 to 1935) and saw "NO EXIT" when it first opened (24D: 1944 Jean-Paul Sartre play). So old, it has no idea who these "Matt Lauer" and "Meredith Vieira" whippersnappers are! (33D: Matt Lauer or Meredith Vieira for "Today") Etc.

What are the odds of COHOSTs both having three consecutive vowels in their names? Can't be good.

My favorite part about breaking this puzzle down last night was trying to explain to my wife why the clue on AWAIT was just fine (15A: Stand in a queue for, say). My example, which I began before thinking it through: "I stand in a queue for tacos ... I AWAIT tacos." "I AWAIT tacos" is a phrase I encourage everyone to use. I'm saving it as a possible title in case I ever write my memoirs (which would mainly involve my sitting at a desk, typing, but that's another story). At any rate, "I AWAIT tacos" would be a very, very odd way to answer the question, "hey, what are you standing in line for?" Oh, and "queue?" If you put @#$#ing "queue" in a clue, the answer had better be seriously and exclusively British. Wait, is AWAIT a Briticism? Further, and unrelatedly, why does "TIPPER" have a "?" in its clue (9D: One leaving cash on the table?). A TIPPER does, in fact, leave cash on the table, so ... ???

In conclusion, I loved AGE GAP (40D: Feature of a May-December romance) and GET SET (52A: Gird oneself). I also like the interrelated AWOLS (7D: Mil. truants) and RENEGADE (41D: Deserter). And, of course, it's really hard not to like DAIQUIRIs (5D: Rum and lime juice drink), on every level.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Highest worship in Catholicism — SUNDAY, Jul. 26 2009 — Onetime MTV animated title character / 1971 peace nobelist from Germany / Bilbao bloom

Constructor: Kevin G. Der

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Story Circle" — An Arthurian Legend puzzle. Circled squares in the middle of the grid form a kind of ring. Each circled square contains the word "SIR," and collectively those squares signify the KNIGHTS OF / THE ROUND TABLE (14D: With 76-Down, 1953 Ava Gardner film as depicted elsewhere in this puzzle?) [NOTE: apparently the rebus ("SIR") squares were NOT circled in the dead-tree version of the puzzle. Failure to standardize the puzzle appearance across the different formats = tiresome incompetence.]


Word of the Day: LATRIA (122D: Highest form of worship in Catholicism) — Latrīa is a Latin term (from the Greek λατρεια) used in Orthodox and Catholic theology to mean adoration, which is the highest form of worship or reverence and is directed only to the Holy Trinity. (wikipedia)
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An ambitious puzzle, with two different theme levels (long answers and rebus) an oversized grid (23x23) and L/R (as opposed to the normal rotational) symmetry. With a big, multi-layered production like this, it feels as if Mr. DER is auditioning to become the next Liz Gorski — and doing a pretty fine job of it. I have taught college courses on Arthurian Literature, so this one was about as solidly in my wheelhouse as any puzzle ever will be, but I think that all of the titles involved should be familiar enough to virtually anyone that the theme itself should have posed much of a problem. Further, of all the rebus puzzles I've seen before, this one was probably the easiest to detect and solve. I got the entirety of A CONNECTICUT YANKEE / IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT the first time I looked at the clue, with only a handful of the first two or three letters in place, and I knew instantly that those circled squares in the middle must have something to do with the Round Table. Thankfully, there were enough zigs and zags in the puzzle, enough thorny cluing and odd little words, to keep the solving experience interesting. The grid is a kind of architectural marvel. He stacked 15-letter theme answers right on top of each other. I don't think I've ever seen that done. As with any architectural marvel, there were some compromises in the fill — a few that made me wince a little — but overall, the puzzle gets a very solid thumbs-up.

Theme answers:

• 137A: 1963 animated film with the song "Higitus Figitus," with "The" ("SWORD IN THE STONE")
• 143A: 1998 animated film featuring the voice of Pierce Brosnan ("QUEST FOR CAMELOT")
• 2D: 1984 film in which Helen Mirren plays a sorceress ("EXCALIBUR") — side note: I am watching movies from 1969 right now (arbitrary, yes, but it's leading to some amazing discoveries), and I just finished Michael Powell's "Age of Consent," which was Mirren's first film. She was very young in that film (playing 17, but really in her early 20s, I think). Also brilliant and beautiful. Also quite naked. It's worth watching, is what I'm saying.
  
• 4D: With 12-Down, 1889 Twain novel ("A CONNECTICUT YANKEE / IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT")
• 14D: With 76-Down, 1953 Ava Gardner film as depicted elsewhere in this puzzle? ("KNIGHTS OF / THE ROUND TABLE")
• 71D: 2001 Anjelica Huston miniseries, with "The" ("MISTS OF AVALON") — here we come to my one quibble with this theme. The puzzle is already heavy on screen versions of stories. I don't know how popular this miniseries was, but I do know that the novel "Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley was phenomenally popular, and remains in print. I think the book, not the miniseries, should have been the basis of the clue (you could, if you'd really felt the need, added "which was adapted into a 2001 miniseries" or something like that). The very word "miniseries" feels laughable to me in the 21st century. It's not as if "Mists of Avalon" (2001) was "Roots" or "The Thorn Birds."

Kevin Der's love of animated films (ask him about his job at Pixar) is evident in this puzzle. A little too evident for me, as I haven't seen "Wall-E," and thus was perfectly willing to believe that 91A: Wall-E's love in "Wall-E" was something called EVO. The "O" came from AMON RA (78D: Supreme Egyptian deity), which is one of three (3) acceptable ways of spelling this particular god's name (AMON, AMUN, AMEN). It was only after grimacing at that answer (EVO) that I realized it might be something else. Obviously EVE is the only reasonable *human* name that fits the in the "Wall-E" answer, but if your clue is asking for a robot name, then there's no reason EVO might not be perfectly reasonable, esp. when the cross (in this case "O") is rock solid.

Bullets:

• 16A: Sky Chief company (Texaco) — no idea what Sky Chief is. I see now that it is some olde-timey brand of gasoline. I'm assuming that it couldn't make your car fly.
• 28A: 2001 headline maker (Enron) — I had ELIAN. Off by a year or so.
• 33A: Michael of "Juno" and "Superbad" (Cera) — if you are buying stock in crossword answers, I recommend investing in CERA. CERA and MALIA are my Hott Pickz of the Week! (CERA gained fame in the TV show "Arrested Development" and is now something close to a legitimate movie star — very funny).
• 53A: Tulsa sch. (ORU) — Oral Roberts U.
• 55A: Subject of a tipster's tip (nag) — my brain died on this one. I had NAG and still couldn't figure out what it meant. I was thinking of someone giving a "tip" in a criminal investigation. NAG is, of course, a horse.
• 56A: Joe Montana or Jerry Rice, informally (Niner) — as in San Francisco 49er. I was born in SF, so I should have been a fan, but never was. Could've backed a winner. But no. I backed the Seahawks. Still do. So sad.
• 58A: Additions to a musical staff (bar lines) — these are the vertical lines that separate measures. Other BAR LINES: "Come here often?" and "What's your sign?"
• 60A: _____ but when (not if) — for some reason, I Love this clue.
• 69A: Dried seaweed in Japanese cuisine (kombu) — that's a pretty foodie answer. It's familiar, but only vaguely.
• 100A: Tandoor flatbreads (nans) — I've never seen this pluralized with an "S"; looks about as good as "breads"; "Can we get some more breads, please?" "No, you cannot."
• 105A: Bones may be found in it (stock) — another great clue. So many possible answers, and this one was dead on.
• 127A: Island where Sundanese and Madurese are spoken (Java) — Mmm, sundae-nese. I would like to speak that right now (and it's only 7:36 a.m.)
• 136A: Operatic heroine wooed by Beckmesser (Eva) — no idea. All from crosses. EVE and EVA were clearly out to get me today.
• 151A: Org. in Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" (NSA) — Never read a Tom Clancy book. I imagine that the Red Storm is something bad and possibly Communist... yes. Tom Clancy is also a big name in video games, and this novel provided the name for Clancy's game development company, Red Storm Entertainment.
• 3D: Onetime MTV animated title character and others (Darias) — really? There's more than one DARIA? Can you name one?

• 5D: Weathercast figure (low) — cool, unusual cluing.
• 17D: Relative of a grapefruit (ugli) — a hybridized grapefruit and tangerine, in case anyone asks.
• 20D: Bilbao bloom (flor) — took me a few passes. Thought the answer would be a particular kind of FLOR.
• 37D: River that flows past more than 40 castles (Rhine) — interesting stat. That's a Lot of castles.
• 63A: "Winnie _____ Pu" ("Ille") — one of my most hated bits of fill. An absolute, hail mary, nothing else will work here answer. Someone should make a robot movie called "Ill-E" so that this answer becomes more legit.
• 66D: Pot-_____ (French stew) (au feu) — Parlez-VOUS français? (112D). Today, it would help if you did.
• 69D: Conductor Lockhart and others (Keiths) — no clue. Oh, he's conductor of the Boston Pops. Huh. Interesting. With Fiedler gone, I don't think the Boston Pops are nearly as well known any more (outside Boston) as this clue thinks they are.
• 108D: 1971 Peace Nobelist from Germany (Brandt) — man, there was a Lot I didn't know today. Why was this puzzle so easy, then?
• 117D: Heroine in Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (Leonora) — not sure I knew this either, but she's got a very Poe-esque name, so I pieced it together pretty easily.
• 123D: Antisub weapon (ashcan) — isn't this slang?
• 133D: What an inflectional ending is added to (stem) — very nice STEM clue.
• 134D: Certain netizen (AOLer) — up there with ILLE on the answera non grata list.

And now, time for the "Puzzle Tweets of the Week" (Twitter chatter about Crosswords):

• Natron602 I want a gorgeous brunette foreign girl to hang out in bed in her panties while I do crossword puzzles. is this a lame fantasy?
• Faina_I Doing a crossword in a Starbucks, and a kid is staring at me through the window. Now I feel pressured.
• thisisdannyg proof of my intelect #489: didn't know crossword clue "'As I Lay Dying' father" but immediately knew "Andy Griffith Show" tyke
• J_Waite I'm anti-all this french in crossword puzzles.
• annthewriter holy freaking shit. you'd be amazed how painful it is to drop the NYT supersized book of Sunday crossword puzzles on your bare foot. ow.
• ikforman I have no idea why I'm trying to hard to hide I'm cheating on the crossword from my train seatmate
• michelehumes "Ste." is a French abbreviation for a (female) saint, not an English one. No fair. #impeachwillshortz
• akuban 7 Down ... "Who Let the Dogs Out"? Seriously, Will Shortz? Thanks for putting that shit song in my head.
• evenerual je "parle" mauvaus francais mais aujuord'hui dans le crossword il y as un phrase francais et i was all over that

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

SATURDAY, Jul. 25 2009 — Model Melissa Aronson familiarly / Sing parts of in succession / Philosophy of Montague or Santayana / Hairy clue-sniffer

Constructor: Victor Fleming

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TROLL (3D: Sing the parts of in succession) —

v., trolled, troll·ing, trolls. v.tr.

1. 1. To fish for by trailing a baited line from behind a slowly moving boat.
   2. To fish in by trailing a baited line: troll the lake for bass.
   3. To trail (a baited line) in fishing.
2. Slang. To patrol (an area) in search for someone or something: “[Criminals] troll bus stations for young runaways” (Pete Axthelm).
3. Music.
   1. To sing in succession the parts of (a round, for example).
   2. To sing heartily: troll a carol.
4. To roll or revolve.

v.intr.

1. To fish by trailing a line, as from a moving boat.
2. 1. To wander about; ramble.
   2. Slang. To patrol an area in search for someone or something.
3. Music. To sing heartily or gaily.
4. To roll or spin around.

n.

1. 1. The act of trolling for fish.
   2. A lure, such as a spoon or spinner, that is used for trolling.
2. Music. A vocal composition in successive parts; a round.

[Middle English trollen, to wander about, from Old French troller, of Germanic origin.] (answers.com)

The only TROLL I know lives under a bridge and terrorizes the Billy Goat Gruff family. I tried TRILL and then (somewhat desperately) TRA LA before the crosses finally rescued me.
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A solid Saturday outing from Judge Fleming. Solved it in a leisurely manner, with pencil on paper, lying on my couch. Much more enjoyable than trying to plow through it on my computer (I like solving on the computer, generally, but I'm sitting at this thing So Damned Much that it's nice to be just about anywhere else, especially at the very end of the week). Nothing particularly sparkly here. Just solid fill and thorny cluing. Slightly on the easy side for me, but definitely Saturday-worthy. Got AFTA right away (1A: Brand seen near razors), even though I've never used the stuff and can't recall anything about it (what the bottle looks like, what the ad jingle is ... weird). AFTA has solid crossword cred, so it's the first shaving brand that came to mind (after ATRA, which this answer clearly wasn't asking for). Got a couple more answers up there, but then bogged down a bit as 19A: Roman _____ wouldn't come. That one took me a while. Honestly, I had the ACLE- and was looking at it thinking that there is No word in the English language that looks like that. ACLER? What's an ACLER? Then I parsed it. À CLEF. Roman À CLEF. Man. Parsing. Parsing! Rookie mistake.

NE proved thornish (thornyish?) too, as I went for St. KITTS over St. BARTS (10D: St. _____ (Caribbean hot spot)) at first. Let me tell you, an errant "K" can !@#@ you up. Thank god the ultra-crosswordy, ultra-easy NIAS was up there to get me going (12D: Actress Long and others). She gave me STE (21A: One may be prayed to: Abbr.), which made me pause — STE seems like it should be valid only in French. We don't spell female "saints" any differently than we do male "saints," do we? I have written "STE" in the grid a million times, but only now is it striking me as weird that there should be an "E" on this abbrev. *in English*. Also, does the "E" save the answer from being accused of replicating a word in the clues (namely, the BARTS clue)? I think so. Anyway, after I gave in to the Frenchness of 9D: Word of politesse and wrote in MERCI, things started to happen. First, PROPOSE MARRIAGE went down (17A: Inquire about a union contract?). Had that "G" from -SGT ... which turned out to be the rarely or never-seen-by-me TSGT (13D: U.S.A.F. NCO). Seen SSGT and MSGT; TSGT not so much. Figured 16A: Philosophy of Montague or Santayana was some kind of -ALISM. ARBOREALISM? Nope, doesn't fit. Took me til the last letter (i.e. the first letter) before I understood what the hell I was looking at. NEO-REALISM. Parsing!

Once I hit the middle of the puzzle, things started to open up very quickly. Got NUMISMATIST (35A: Quarter master?) off just the "M" in AMIS (27D: "London Fields" novelist, 1989). The other two long Acrosses also came with very little coaxing. The main problem for me, after the top of the puzzle was settled, was figuring out what the tail end of 7D: Losing the fuzz? was supposed to be. I thought it was about ripening, like a peach, or else ... COMING INTO manhood. Like, "Oh look, no more peach fuzz — now you have manly whiskers. Enjoy shaving those for the rest of your life. Or wearing a bush on your face. Either way." Even with "F" from DECAF (which I got easily, despite almost never touching the stuff — 46A: Certain joe), I was still puzzled. FORCE? FORM ... S? FLOWER? Honestly considered FRUIT, thinking something botanical was going on. Decided maybe just working on the other parts of the bottom section might help. It did. Whole bottom turned out to be reasonably easy. ELECTRICAL STORM came quickly (60A: Meteorological shocker?), and gave me the "C" I need to (finally) get COMING INTO FOCUS. I have to admit that the clue on that one is valid. It clearly did its job (being Saturday tough) for me today.



Bullets:

• 57A: Father of Eleazar, in the Bible (Aaron) — got it after choking down EATER at 47D: One working on the side?, which resulted in the initial double-A. Of all the "?" clues in the puzzle — and there are a lot, as this seems to be the preferred way of adding difficulty to late-week puzzles — the EATER clue was the loopiest. It was the first thing that came to mind, but my initial thought was "No way. Ridiculous."
• 28A: Trumpeter with a prominent neck (swan) — not HIRT (whose neck I know nothing about)
• 59A: Psychics claim to see them (aurae) — somehow I doubt that most psychics use the Latin plural.
• 64A: Model Melissa Aronson, familiarly (Emme) — had -MME before I ever saw this clue, so knew the answer right away. Famous "plus-sized" model who is in the puzzle a lot.
• 66A: Relative of a chestnut (roan) — horses.
• 5D: It'll cover you: Abbr. (ins.) — insurance. Really really wish this one had been tied to the answer it intersects at the "I": INCUMBENTS (5A: They're in seats) — those answers are synonyms! But I see that "in" is in the clue for INCUMBENTS ... and maybe INS is short for INCUMBENTS? I always thought INS just meant the people were "IN" office. Hmm. Anyway, I like that collision up there.
• 8D: Heavens: prefix (urano-) — something tells me I've seen this clue before ... and that it stumped a lot of people. Certainly stumped me until I got a few crosses. Daughter is very into mythology now, so I'm going to have to brush up on my Greek/Roman lore or be schooled by my daughter on a daily basis.
• 29D: Superior setting: Abbr. (Wisc.) — goes nicely with 53D: Mocha setting (Yemen).
• 30A: Hairy clue-sniffer (Asta) — something very disturbing about the proximity of sniffing and "hairy." ASTA is far too dignified to deserve such cluing.
• 33D: Seaman whose last words were "God and my country!" (Nemo) — Verne's captain from "20,000 Leagues." His name means "no one" in Latin.
• 36D: Kindergarten "grade" (star) — love the contemptuous quotation marks. It's like a second-grader wrote that clue.
• 38D: Biological interstices (areolas) — If you want to be as unsexy as possible, that is the phrase you go with.
• 49D: Edible pomegranate parts (arils) — totally strange to see ARILS without its usual "seed coverings" clue. Even with ARI-S in place I blinked dumbly at the clue for a few seconds.
• 55D: Wellsian race (Eloi) — like NIAS in the NE, this was a neatly wrapped gift for any crossword enthusiast. "Having trouble? Here, have an ELOI. That should help."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Max of video game fame — FRIDAY, Jul. 24 2009 — Sinatra 1982 collaborative jazz album / Local regional boy scout gathering / Diagonally set spar

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: CAMPOREE (29D: Local or regional Boy Scout gathering) — A camporee is a local or regional gathering of Scouting units for a period of camping and common activities. Similar to a camporee, a jamboree occurs less often and draws units from the entire nation or world. (wikipedia)
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Hey, it's the greatest constructor on the planet. That's a hard title to live up to day in day out. I liked this puzzle a lot as I worked my way through the top, but then somewhat less by the time I hit the bottom. It's got a lovely, smooth, swirly quality that I kind of like. Then again, it kind of reminds me of an intestine. It's even got a BUTT (24A: You might grind it out) at one end (the wrong end ... sorry, I never know where my mind is going to go when I start typing). My main problem with this grid is its heavy reliance on proper nouns, particularly names. And I'm a name-lover, generally. But they're clogging up the NE something awful — DAN'L is one of those answers I accept as occasionally inevitable in high-caliber grid, but it's super-sub-optimal (23A: "Young _____ Boone" (short-lived 1970s TV series)). GUSTAVE Courbet is famous enough (11D: French painter Courbet), but the TURNER guy is a mystery to me (13D: Pulitzer-winning historian Frederick Jackson _____). The main point here is that normally you don't want to logjam proper nouns, as the "knowitoryadon't"-ness of names can really make a puzzle undoable if you're not careful.

In the case of the NE name logjam, there was nothing offensive. But warning lights went off. In the SW, however, I let out a YELP and then censors had to BLEEP me a little as I filled in the answer SYMS (35D: "_____ by Sinatra" (1982 collaborative jazz album)), an unfamiliar and dubious-looking name. I checked and rechecked those crosses, and finally decided it had to be right, no matter how nuts it looked. Turns out the SYMS in "SYMS by Sinatra" is Sylvia SYMS. She's the singer. Sinatra's the conductor! Interesting. The "Y" from YELP was the last letter I put in this section, though the "P" was slightly suspect too, as CAMPOREE was new to me. So uncertain was I of this word that I wondered for a second whether there weren't such things as YELB and JANTABILE (that would have given me JAMBOREE, a word I recognize) (29A: Musical direction that means "lyrical" in Italian => CANTABILE).



After taking the SPIRAL STAIRCASE (43A: It gets you up and around) across the southern portion of the grid, I figured I'd make short work of that last little bit in the SE. I figured wrong. First I had to wrestle with two names I didn't know, PAXTON (42A: Folk singer Tom with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award) and PAYNE (34D: Max of video game fame). The latter was at least a little familiar to me, the former not at all. Worked my way to the tippy top of this puzzle's tail and ended up with TUP as a [Snooping aid]. Made no sense to me. At this point, I checked all the crosses ... and decided they were all rock solid. Rock Solid. Now, this is where having your brain *fully* turned on can help you. If you had to organize words or phrases into categories, it's very easy to see how you (I) might group [Maximally] and UTMOST together. They sound very much related. Problem 1, they are not the same part of speech (adverb vs. adj./noun). Problem 2 ... well problem 2 is that TUP is just BLEEPing wrong. If the clue had been about the reproductive habits of sheep, then maybe. But [snooping aid]? No.

My favorite part of this stupid mistake is my initial solution: Change the "T" to a "C." [Snooping aid] = CUP, as in the CUP you hold to your ear and press to the door when you want to hear what's happening on the other side. Does that even work? I saw it on an episode of "Growing Pains" once. This gave me CARTARS, which then sent me searching for ways I could turn CARTARS into [Medieval conquerors]. Changed BARMY (39A: Foolish, in British slang) to BALMY: CALTARS! OK, now we're getting ... somewhere. A few moments later and I was like "screw it," it must be TUP. I then emailed fellow blogger Orange and asked what the hell was going on with 32A: Snooping aid. Her answer: "wiretap." Me: "Oh ... but ... ohhhhhhhhh ... TAP ... I see ... now. 'AT MOST.' Yeah, that makes sense." The end. I thought the puzzle overall was on the easy side, but at this point in my solving career, failure is failure is failure. Still, overall, thumbs up for the puzzle.

Bullets:

• 16A: Bloomer after whom bloomers are named (Amelia) — more names! I got this with a cross or two, though if pressed I couldn't tell you who the hell she is. Aha, a 19th-century woman's rights and temperance advocate. Wife (19c. American historian) will surely laugh at me for not knowing that. And she will be right to do so.
• 30A: Actor who debuted in "Kung Fu: The Movie" (Brandon Lee) — more names. This name was far better known 16 years ago, when BRANDON LEE, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, died on the set of what would become his most famous movie, "The Crow." Accidental shooting due to prop gun malfunction (brought on by negligence, I'm guessing).

• 35A: Activities at punk rock concerts (slam dances) — forerunners of mosh pits.
• 48A: Words from one who won't settle ("See you in court!") — nice that this crosses SUE (45D: Good name for a trial lawyer).
• 3D: Diagonally set spar (sprit) — I learned SPRIT from crosswords. This is how I learned most nautical words I know.
• 7D: Spike's former name (TNN) — yes, Spike is a TV station. I get TNT and TNN badly confused.
• 9D: Bibliog. equivalent of "ditto" (ibid.) — wow, "bibliog." sure is ugly. Sounds like a name from Tolkien. Like a hobbit-orc hybrid.
• 15D: Fish that can move equally well forward and backward (eels) — that clue really sounds like it wants a singular answer. But no!
• 22D: Fluid dynamics phenomenon (eddies) — the "S"-shape of the grid and the swirliness of EDDIES and the SPIRAL STAIRCASE are all working together to produce a kind of deliciously dizzying subtheme. "EELS in the EDDIES" = #rejectedhorrormovies.
• 25D: Convertible carriage (landau) — another crossword pick-up for me. Crosswords are the only places where carriages still exist. Look out for surrey and hansom.
• 36D: Reaganomics recommendation (tax cut) — More evidence the NYT is a leftist paper: this answer intersects BARMY.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. my write-up of today's L.A. Times puzzle is here.

Bullet train type — THURSDAY, Jul. 23 2009 — Neurotic cartoon character / Milo's canine pal / She-foxes / K2 locale

Constructors: Gary & Stephen Kennedy

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT" (7D: Hit song from 2000 ... and a hint to 10 symmetrically arranged Across answers) — 10 different answers have the word "DOG" in them somewhere, but for each one, you have to take the "DOG" out in order to fit the answer in the grid.

Word of the Day: MAGLEV (20A: Bullet train type) — Maglev, or magnetic levitation, is a system of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles, predominantly trains, using magnetic levitation from a very large number of magnets for lift and propulsion. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems. The technology has the potential to exceed 6,400 km/h (4,000 mi/h) if deployed in an evacuated tunnel.^[1] If not deployed in an evacuated tube the power needed for levitation is usually not a particularly large percentage and most of the power needed is used to overcome air drag, as with any other high speed train. (wikipedia)
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Haven't disliked a puzzle this much in a while. Just miserable to solve. I had the main theme answer, "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT," very early, and still couldn't figure out what the hell was going on for a while. There are so many problems here. First, the song. One of the worst, most painful ear worms you can possibly give someone. Second, the lyrics, which undermine the intentions of this puzzle.



See? There are dogs in the song, just as there are dogs in the video. You can hear them. They bark. They also pant. People are asking "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?" not because the dogs have been abducted or have magically disappeared, but because they are *running amok*. Roaming packs, in the streets, up to no good. Dogs Everywhere. So, in making DOGs invisible, this puzzle theme runs directly against the spirit of the song. Further, there are at least two dogs in this damned puzzle, so the puzzle is a lie. A self-contradiction. If there are no dogs, then tell !@#$ing REN and @!#@ing OTIS to get the @#$# off my lawn (17A: Neurotic cartoon character + 31A: Milo's canine pal). Even further still, there are dogs in the clues. Look, either the dogs are out, or they're not. You can't say they're out and then put "pups" or even "animal" in the clues. Well, you can, but it's crap. I get that "DOG" is being interpreted as a letter string today. I just don't like it. AT ALL (69A: One bit).

Further, the cluing overall was just off. Everywhere I turned, tortured stuff like 4D: With "the" and 32-Across, describing an old Matryoshka doll (made in / [the] / U.S.S.R.). This may be my most hated clue of all time. Any time you have to supply a mid-phrase word in your cute tie-in attempt, your cute tie-in is a failure and you need to try something else. "With 'the' and some other answer" is ugly and confusing. The fact that I have never heard of the doll in question didn't help my enjoyment level. Staying in Russia, some Russian guy name Alexander who popularized a chess opening? I'll take your word for it. Crosses were fair enough. I thought the mysterious Russian crap was continuing in the bullet train I'd never heard of, but as you can see from the above description, MAGLEV is short for "magnetic levitation." Leaving the absurd Russian stuff behind, let's take a clue like 45D: Sitcom with the character B.J. ("Reba"). That is a non-clue. That is a horrible, unimaginative, nothing clue. About a quarter step better than if the clue had read [Sitcom with a character named Susan]. "B.J." isn't terribly unusual or distinctive. [Kraft Foods drink] for TANG? Again, what? Do ... something. Make it distinctive. Interesting. Relevant. This puzzle feels like a bad imitation of a clever Thursday puzzle.



Theme answers:

• 1A: Show-off (hot dog)
• 9A: U.S. Marine (devil dog)
• 15A: Leader of the pack (alpha dog)
• 34A: Animal control officer (dog catcher)
• 36A: Folded corner (dog ear)
• 46A: G.I.'s ID (dog tag)
• 47A: Person who raises and sells pups (dog breeder)
• 70A: One falling into good fortune (lucky dog)
• 72A: Old sailor (salty dog)
• 74A: Cutthroat (dog eat dog)

Here's what I liked: VISCERA (25A: Innards) and KASHMIR (23D: K2 locale) and OPEN UP! (60A: Cry that may accompany pounding).

Bullets:

• 49A: City containing a country (Rome) — contains Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.
• 73A: Animal in a lodge (otter) — ???? Acc. to wikipedia, "The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge or romp." Is this common knowledge? I've spent many a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium looking at the otters, yet somehow missed this bit of information.
• 11D: She-foxes (vixens) — this word is good. I feel like there was a hair band from the 80s with the name "VIXEN" ... oh yeah. Bingo. [best youtube comment seen while searching for this video: "I'm gay, and there are only 5 women I would go straight for: REBA McEntire, and the ladies in Vixen."]

• 21D: Super Bowl of 2023 (LVII) — mmm, arbitrary future events.
• 37D: With 48-Down, for example, south of the border (por / ejemplo) — more cross-referencing confusion. Thought "for example" was a cue, not the meat of the clue.
• 54D: Feature of a pleasant summer day (zephyr) — I'm reading an epic Osamu Tezuka comic from the late 60s called "Swallowing the Earth." The hero/villain is a woman named "Zephyrus." Super-disturbing and highly recommended. Hard to go wrong with Tezuka.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]