Writer Moore Moorehead / FRI 3-29-13 / Isle near Mull / Matsuhisa celebrity chef / My Name Is Earl co-star Suplee / Second-simplest hydrocarbon / Autodom's ZR1 for one / Whom Turkey's Weeping Rock is said to represent / Annie characters / Cackling loon with white coat

Constructor: Josh Knapp

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Battle for WORLD DOMINATION (36A: Goal for many a 26- or 43-Across)—

26A: Cackling loon with a white coat (MAD SCIENTIST)
43A: Mighty heavy (SUPER-VILLAIN)

Word of the Day: NOBU Matsuhisa (32D: ___ Matsuhisa, celebrity chef and restaurateur) —

Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa (松久 信幸 Matsuhisa Nobuyuki; born March 10, 1949) is a celebrity chef and restaurateur known for his fusion cuisineblending traditional Japanese dishes with South American (Peruvian) ingredients. His signature dish is black cod in miso. Nobu Los Angeles ranked 13th in the Elite Traveler World's Top Restaurants Guide 2012. (wikipedia)

• • •

We are taking care of a little dog this week—in addition to the two bigger dogs we already own. This is her first night here and she is not at all comfortable being out of her element yet. She also has this "thunder vest," which is just a piece of dog clothing that hugs her body and keeps her calm. She seems like a pretty mellow dog, so I guess the vest really works. Still, she is up and down and up and down (I can hear her upstairs now in my daughter's room, all paws and jangling collar, having trouble getting settled). It's awfully distracting. I tell you all this as a way to try to explain why I spent the first two minutes of my solving time tonight absolutely spinning my wheels. Yes, I blame the dog. Actually, I don't know what kept me from getting my head into the game. The first few minutes were a total train wreck. Or free fall. Or choose your metaphor. And then ... I was done. And I don't really know what happened in between stuck and done. Even when I tried to retrace my steps, I couldn't quite remember how I finished. I drifted aimlessly for what felt like ever, then got some traction, then five minutes later I was done. So how difficult was this? No idea. My time says slightly harder than average. But my experience was "impossible" followed by "piece of cake." So I split the difference.

After stumbling around for a bit, I finally wrote in AWNS at 31D: Stiff bristles and then figured out THE / NBA very quickly (35A: With 40-Across, "Inside ___" (postgame show)). Somehow, between THE and NBA, I was able to creep into the middle of the grid. Actually, I think finally seeing (and instantly getting—why didn't I see it earlier?) OBOE (7D: Strauss wrote a concerto in D for it) was also instrumental. Got NIOBE off that B (15A: Whom Turkey's Weeping Rock is said to represent), then guessed TNN (4D: "Larry's Country Diner" channel), got THROB (4A: Beat), and then "got" BENEFITING (which I eventually changed to BENEFICIAL) (8D: Doing good). Yes, working from little answers in E, W, and N, I was finally able to get the grip I needed to throttle this thing. Then, strangely, clues that seemed inscrutable suddenly became obvious. Everything except GRAPE SHOT (33D: Small cannon balls) —never heard of that. Overall, this grid looks very nice, and the "theme" (such as it is), is entertaining, and pretty well-hidden. I mean, those theme clues are heavy on the misdirection (the first seems avian, the second adjectival). There's maybe a bit too much contemporary throwaway pop culture here. "Larry's Country Diner" *and* Lindsay LOHAN (57A: "I Know Who Killed Me" star, 2007) *and* ETHAN Suplee (whom I know by sight but not at all by name—if he were solidly xword-famous, we'd've seen SUPLEE in a puzzle by now) (47A: "My Name Is Earl" co-star Suplee)? You want your puzzles to feel modern and fresh, but not cheaply so. But all these answers were gettable via crosses (and LOHAN is legit famous, at any rate), so I didn't find the poppy stuff too distracting. Very disappointed with myself for not getting ALAN straight off (20A: Writer Moore or Moorehead). Never heard of ALAN Moorehead, but I've been reading a huge stack of papers on ALAN Moore's Watchmen, and still his name didn't even occur to me here. I'm so not used to his being referred to as, simply, a writer, though that is certainly what he is.

Best clue: [One preparing an oil pan?] => ART CRITIC. "Letteral" clues often mean an uptick in email for me, so I'll just explain straight out that ["Annie" characters] => ENS refers to the letter "N," which appears twice in the word "Annie."

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld