Sporty Lotus model / SAT 8-31-13 / Beast hunted by Hemingway in Green Hills of Africa / Self-titled debut album of 1991 / Kazaam star informally / Work set mostly in Cyprus / Wilde wrote De Profundis in one / Southern site of 1865 battle

Constructor: Josh Knapp

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: KUDU (37A: Beast hunted by Hemingway in "Green Hills of Africa") —

n. pl. kudu or ku·dus also koodoo or koo·doos

Either of two large African antelopes (Tragelaphus strepsiceros or T. imberbis) having a brownish coat with narrow, white vertical stripes and, in the male, long, spirally curved horns. (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

This is excellent work. Fantastic long answers everywhere, tough cluing, and hardly any clunkers. Never heard of (or seen, in a puzzle, ever) KUDU, but everything else here is reasonably to very familiar. I had to wrestle with this one quite a bit, and got a little panicked toward the end there, when I was down in the SE and within four blank squares of victory and yet quite stuck ([Sporty Lotus model] for ELISE!?! People know that? Yikes). But finally saw through the toughish / vague cluing on OMEGA and AMENS and ALUM and so closed this thing out. I remain unconvinced that SAGE TEA is a thing (that answers screams 'computer word list assistance') and SHADS is bad(s), but overall I'm quite stunned by how clean this damn thing is.


Like many, probably, I wrote in CONAN O'BRIEN at first for 1A: TV host who won a Best Comedy Album Grammy (JIMMY FALLON), but "LAS Meninas" made me realize very quickly that I had the wrong host in there. I watch "Late Night" off and on, so the Fallon-related answers, IRISH and SNL, ended up being gimmes. After the NW was done, I kind of stalled out—had real trouble moving over to the NE. Got lucky in that the only three answers I had any confidence in over there (TICKS, A LA, and something TEA) made BLOCKADES pop right into view. Not much trouble in that quadrant after that. Toughest part for me was probably the lower middle. Could not, at all, see "A TOAST!" (47A: Reception opening). Also had CONCEDE for CONSIGN (44D: Hand over (to)), couldn't come up with OATS, and needed some of those long Downs at the bottom in order to come up with "ALANIS" (48D: Self-titled debut album of 1991). The easiest section was probably the SW, since I got both SHOOT 'EM UP (great answer) and ITALICIZE off their first letters.


I didn't know Marco Polo had "tales"—I think I know ROC from Sinbad "tales" (18A: Beast in a Marco Polo tale). There's some great cluing today—see esp. [His, modern-style] for YOS (bad answer redeemed by great clue), and [It opens during the fall] for PARACHUTE. Very, very nice work overall.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Female adviser / FRI 8-30-13 / Comcast center hoopster / Player of bad teacher in bad teacher / Folman who directed 2013 film Congress / Big source for modern slang / 458 Spider F12 Berlinetta / Org with clenched fist logo / Hedin discoverer of Trans-Himalaya / Old oscilloscope part briefly

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: EGERIA (7D: Female adviser) —

Egeria (Latin: Ēgeria) was a nymph attributed a legendary role in the early history of Rome as a divine consort and counselor of the Sabine second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion. Her name is used as an eponym for a female advisor or counselor. (wikipedia)

• • •

Today was my first day back teaching and I am not used to so much talking and it's hot and I have a headache so I won't take long. Speaking of not taking long—this puzzle! Under 6, pretty fast for a Friday. It seems a solid offering, better across the top than across the bottom. URBAN DICTIONARY is a nice entry—that thing is kind of useless, but it's definitely crossworthy—look, you can find a very garbled definition of "Natick" in there (61A: Big source for modern slang). PEER ASSESSMENTS, however, is laughable—ASSESSMENTS is one of those words that constructors joke about putting in puzzles because it's such an obvious crutch (62A: Some critical comments from co-workers). Had trouble at first because I spelled MICHELE BACHMANN's name wrong (two Ls, one N) (1A: First female candidate to win the Ames Straw Poll), but I just drifted down to the lower grid, which proved Much easier, and then eventually floated back up top, finishing with the "R" in EGERIA, I think (have seen that word several times in puzzles now, can Never remember it, perhaps because I call a "female adviser" an "adviser").

There was one letter that I was slightly unsure of—the "C" in NCO (21D: Top kick, for one: Abbr.). I don't understand that clue at all, but I do know that CAN can be a synonym for [Rear] (end), so the "C" seemed the only logical guess. It appears that "[i]n the Army and Marines, the first sergeant is often referred to as "Top," or "Top Kick."" (usmilitary.about.com). Never heard of SVEN Hedin, but it wasn't too hard to figure out his name once I had that "SV" intro (53A: ___ Hedin, discoverer of the Trans-Himalaya). I had no idea the TERPs played at The Comcast Center (56A: Comcast Center hoopster).  Rough clue, but again, the crosses were so easy that not knowing the answer didn't really matter. Same goes for that Homer clue (47D: Emulates Homer => PAINTS). Wasn't either of the Homers I was thinking of (epic poet, cartoon buffoon), but crosses took care of the answer (and it's Winslow Homer that the clue is referring to, in case you didn't know). I don't know much about cars but got FERRARIS off the "F" (35D: 458 Spider and F12 Berlinetta). DIAZ was a gimme, so that helped things along (24A: Player of the bad teacher in "Bad Teacher"). So, yeah, this is pretty good but not exactly memorable. There were a few little answers (and EGERIA) that maybe I'd throw back if I could, but otherwise it's a stout, modern puzzle. Pretty good. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. here's a Friday bonus for you: Neville Fogarty's most recent crossword—it's free and fun.

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Exonerated boxer who is subject of Bob Dylan song / THU 8-29-13 / Fig mentioned in Miranda warnings / Ambassador from Holy See / Nevada birthplace of Pat Nixon / That being said in textspeak / Minor-leaguer whose team is named after Coney Island roller coaster / Giant Ferris wheel on Thames / Onetime sponsor of what is now Minute Maid Park

Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: EYE of the storm — Theme answers include TYPHOON, KATRINA, and long answers that contain the words HURRICANE (i.e. HURRICANE CARTER) (17A: Exonerated boxer who is the subject of a Bob Dylan song) and CYCLONE (i.e. BROOKLYN CYCLONE) (55A: Minor-leaguer whose team is named after a Coney Island roller coaster). There is a free-standing EYE at the center of the grid, and the answers all flow, directionally, in the direction that winds would flow around the eye of a storm, i.e. roughly 1/4 S to N, 1/4 E to W, 1/4 N to S, and 1/4 W to E (so ... with both the Acrosses and the Downs, 9 are going "right" way, 6 the "wrong"). Puzzle note: "a certain three-letter word, appropriate to this puzzle's theme, goes in the unnumbered center square." The EYE is part of all four of the answers that flow toward it or away from it:

• GIMLET EYE (34A: Piercing gaze)
• EYE OF NEWT (35A: Ingredient in a witch's potion)
• LONDON EYE (7D: Giant Ferris wheel on the Thames) (??!)
• EYE OPENER (43D: Enlightening experience)

Word of the Day: ELY, NV (50A: Nevada birthplace of Pat Nixon) —

Ely (/ˈiːli/, ee-lee) is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906. Though the railroads connecting the First Transcontinental Railroad to the mines in Austin and Eureka have long been removed, the railroad to Ely is preserved as a heritage railway by the Nevada Northern Railway and known as the Ghost Train of Old Ely. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,255. (!!!!!!!?) (wikipedia)

• • •

An ingenious puzzle that I didn't care for. I mean, it's architecturally amazing. So many thematic elements co-mingling in such a chaotic but ultimately logical grid.  Really something. But solving it was a chore, largely because of the backward thing. I honestly didn't see that there was a real pattern to it all until very, very late. I thought the theme was HURRICANE and the grid had just been destroyed, i.e. words were backward and forwards willy-nilly, even though some part of my brain knew that Couldn't be right. Anyway, the result was that I thought every answer was a kind of coin toss as to whether it was right way 'round or not. There are also symmetry issues, which really killed me toward the end. Why are both KRYPTO and AIG going W to E? Why are both ANTI and NUNCIO going N to S? Why aren't any of the EYE answers going the "wrong" way? The fact that KRYPTO was facing the "right" way made me accept EDGES as the right answer just above it. The clue is 27A: Transition. Not that EDGES is a good answer, but it was holding as "plausible" for me because KRYPTO was above the center line and headed the "right" way, so why shouldn't EDGES go that direction too? But the correct answer is SEGUE (backwards), which I only got because of THE SADRI = ???? I had to go through letter by letter with that answer and imagine alternatives before I saw that it was THESAURI (ugh) (I really hate that word *and* its clue) (2D: Hustling is the same as cheating, according to these authorities).  I guarantee that this not only plays "Challenging," but is the most challenging Thursday of the year, probably by a wide margin.


I knew HURRICANE was the guy's first name, but had no idea about his last name, and early on it hardly mattered, as the grid was gibberish. I knew ANDRE was 100% correct, and when crosses did not make sense, I knew something terrible was afoot. Eventually tried ANDRE backward (for some reason) and made ANTI work, and then thought "oh, it'll be something about answers starting with odd numbers or whatever." Ugh. Honestly, after that, I just solved this like a puzzle where an answer might be backward or forward and who knows why? It was doable on that level. A KATRINA is not a storm type, it's a storm name, so that theme answer doesn't really work for me, but other than that, and the symmetry thing, I don't really have structural quibbles. Again, it's a piece of work, this puzzle. It just wasn't fun to solve. Not for me, anyway.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Mathematical physicist Peter who pioneered in knot theory / WED 8-28-13 / Man whose 1930 salary was $75000 / Chestnut colored flying mammal / Rathskeller order / Vicina della Francia

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: 60A: Quote from BABE / RUTH (aka THE SULTAN OF SWAT) on why he outearned PRESIDENT HOOVER: "I HAD A BETTER YEAR"

Word of the Day: Peter TAIT (58D: Mathematical physicist Peter who pioneered in knot theory) —

Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory, which contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture. (wikipedia)

• • •

Love the theme. Simple, elegant, and *snappy* in the revealer/punch line. What a great find—all those 15s and a symmetrical BABE / RUTH. Very nice. The fill, I'm less thrilled with. It's OK, but both dull and rough in places. Kind of unadventurous, a little over-reliant on the boring. There's no good fill outside the theme. It's adequate at best. But it's not a disaster, by any means, and the theme is pure Win, so I'm happy. Mainly, I was happy just to get the puzzle, because while the NYT website appears to be back up now after yesterday's "malicious external attack," it is not up for *my* browser so I had to find a generous friend to shoot me the puzzle (thx, PuzzleGirl). I am not a Yankees fan, but it was cool to see a Yankees-oriented puzzle just two weeks after seeing a Yankees game at the new Yankee Stadium  with Erik Agard himself. In fact, here we are (w/ friends) at BABE / RUTH Plaza (we're in the back, I'm making some kind of rabbit-ears gesture behind his head ... good times).

This puzzle played very, very easy in parts. Once I got BABE, for instance, then both RUTH and SULTAN OF SWAT went in instantly. And I motored through short crosses in several places. But in other places I got strangely held up. Worst pitfall was having -OL- at 16A: One's part? and writing in ROLE. This made ISSUE (10D: Time piece?) look ridiculous. Just botched that corner. Also could Not see PUNTED for the longest time (23D: Gave up by giving up control), even though the clue seems perfectly apt. Same with A-TEAMS (28D: Units of brilliance?). I'm noticing that I'm mainly being done in by "?" clues. I guess I don't mind tricky clues as a way of amping up difficulty on a Wednesday. Makes the puzzle a bit more fun when I have to struggle at least a little. TAIT is an absurdity in this grid. Total outlier. That's a pretty obscure proper noun, and (more importantly) way way way more obscure than anything else in the puzzle. TAIT's neighbor ORCH is no prize pig either. Oh well, that's a pretty theme-dense little section. No harm done.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Dog on TV's Topper / TUE 8-27-13 / 1982 Fleetwood Mac hit whose title is sung three times after Come on / Children's game in which players knuckle down / Happening with lots of laughs

Constructor: Jacob McDermott

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: TWO-DOOR (41A: Coupe, e.g. ... or a hint to 17- and 64-Across and 11- and 34-Down) — two word phrases in which both words can precede "DOOR" to describe ... a type of door (or a state of doorness, in the case of OPEN).

Word of the Day: "HOLD ME" (35A: 1982 Fleetwood Mac hit whose title is sun three times after "Come on and") —

"Hold Me" is a single by British-American rock group Fleetwood Mac. The song was the first track to be released from the 1982 album Mirage, the fourth album by the band with Lindsey Buckingham acting as main producer with Richard Dashutand Ken Caillat. [...] The music video for Hold Me features the band in a surreal scenario set in a desert based on several René Magrittepaintings. In the video, Christine is in a room with many paintings, searching for Lindsey in the desert with a telescope. Lindsey discovers Stevie lying on a chaise longue and paints her, while in other scenes John and Mick are archaeologists. The desert itself is littered with broken mirrors, which serve as a motif in the video, and with violins and the electric guitars and other instruments. [...] Due to the band members' strained relationships at the time, the video shoot in the Mojave Desert was "a fucking nightmare" according to producer Simon Fields. "[They] were, um, not easy to work with" agrees Steve Barron, who directed the clip. "It was so hot, and we weren't getting along" recalls Stevie Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham was still not over their breakup six years earlier, nor her subsequent affair with Mick Fleetwood. Further, she elaborates, the rest of the band was angry with Fleetwood because he had then begun an affair with Nicks's best friend, who left her husband as a result, causing serious issues for Nicks.

• • •

This is a nice little puzzle—about as good as this type of puzzle ("Both words can precede...") is ever gonna get. Usually, at least one of the theme answers feels forced or strained with this theme type, but all of these are rock solid (and at least moderately interesting to boot). Fill is very clean and surprisingly unboring, considering how much short fill there is. I mean, yes there's IRAE and ARA and ENT and typical stuff like that, but not in such numbers that it becomes numbing. "Numbers" ... "numbing" ... I should probably rewrite that sentence, but no time. Speaking of time, I made very good time on this one. 3:08, if I remember correctly (already reset the clock in order to print my wife out a clean copy). It felt very easy, and yet at least twice I came to dead stops and had to move and regroup because things just weren't computing. Surprisingly (for me—perhaps unsurprisingly for you), I didn't blow through the middle of this. Got frustrated when I couldn't figure out the apparently simple H--- answer at 28D: Happening with lots of laughs (HOOT). Perhaps this is because I would never describe a HOOT as a happening, but let's not dwell on the past. I also couldn't grok DOUR at first pass (37D: Forbidding, as an expression). But what makes my failure to sail through here really surprising is that I had the "H" and the "E" and still didn't get "HOLD ME," despite that Fleetwood Mac album being on super-heavy rotation during a very formative summer in my early adolescence (summer of '82, long family road trip, where different siblings had different albums that they wore out—my sister's was Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage." Mine was The Motels' "All Four One." Consequently, I know both albums like the back of my hand). "HOLD ME" used to make us laugh because of the little dog yip that appears to coincide with the third "HOLD ME" in the chorus. Listen (above).


Other trouble spots didn't provide much trouble at all. BATH OIL, for whatever reason, failed to come right into view (45D: Aromatherapy purchase). There was a brief moment there where I was like "... BAT GIRL???" But no. Big mystery of the day (for me) was NEIL (59D: Dog on TV's "Topper"). First of all, NEIL? Who names a dog NEIL? Second of all, "Topper?" Who names a TV show "Topper?" Lastly, I came at the tennis tourney answer (64A) from the back end and actually tried to make it BRITISH OPEN, despite the fact that a. that's not a tennis tourney and b. it didn't fit. All that, and still: 3:08. A lot can happen in three minutes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Actress Gershon of Bound / MON 8-26-13 / Ersatz butter / Largest inland city in California / Onetime Joker portrayer ___ Romero / Distinctive Cindy Crawford feature / Colorful city bordering Newark / Hooch container

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: LOW-HANGING FRUIT (7D: Simple things to pick ... or what 5-, 11-, 29- and 38-Down have?) — theme answers are Downs that end in fruits—thus the fruit part of the answer hangs low...


Word of the Day: GINA Gershon (3D: Actress Gershon of "Bound") —

Gina L. Gershon (born June 10, 1962) is an American film, television and stage actress, singer and author, known for her roles in the films Cocktail (1988), Showgirls (1995), Bound (1996), Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1996), Face/Off(1997), The Insider (1999), Demonlover (2002), Category 7: The End of the World (2005), P.S. I Love You (2007), Five Minarets in New York (2010), and Killer Joe (2011). She has also had supporting roles in FX's Rescue Me and HBO's How to Make It in America. (wikipedia)

 

• • •

I did this in about two and a half minutes, so I didn't quite see how the theme expressed itself as I was solving—I just knew that I thought the central revealer was super-cool. When I was done and looked at the theme, though, I was really impressed. It's such a great twist on the old "final words have something in common" theme because of the way the theme is expressed visually. Fill is astonishingly clean, esp. for a 78-worder with a lot of short stuff. I knew from the second I hit "MAN UP!" (17A: "Come on, stop being such a wimp!") in the NW that this was going to be an entertaining puzzle, and it didn't disappoint. Lovely.

Today the long Acrosses do the work that long Downs normally do, i.e. provide non-thematic color. Both CENTER CUT and SWEET TALK are solid and snappy. Only trouble I had was with GASSY (6D: Bloated). Had the "Y" and may have tried something like FATTY. Otherwise, things came together pretty fast. Very raggedly (felt like I was all over the map rather than moving through the grid methodically), but fast. I grew up in the [Largest inland city in California], so that gave me a brief but potent nostalgia rush. It's interesting to me how many answers today contain a single letter, i.e. V-NECK, HIGH C, D PLUS, PLAN B, EASY A. That's a lot. A Lot. Five! But I like them just fine—such answers often add a little life, 'zazz, and unexpectedness to an otherwise ordinarily filled puzzle.

Gotta go eat. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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White-suited Dukes of Hazzard villain / SUN 8-25-13 / Kaley of Big Bang Theory / Where Charlie may ride forever in song / Peyote saguaro / Jeff Bridges sci-fi classic / TV show on which Charlie Sheen replaced Michael J Fox

Constructor: Victor Barocas

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Capital L's" — 6-letter US capital cities are formed by two L-shaped answers, an Across and a Down, which provide the first and last three letters of the capital name, respectively. Thus:

Theme answers:

• TOP dogs (27A: Big kahunas) + eurEKA (9D: Cry of epiphany) => TOPEKA
• DENounce (35A: Censure) + cleaVER (16D: Butcher's tool) => DENVER
• JUNiper (37A: Berry used to make gin) + ThorEAU (20D: He wrote "It is life near the bone where it is sweetest") => JUNEAU
• BOSs Hogg (71A: White-suited "Dukes of Hazzard" villain) + ShelTON (46D: Connecticut city) (???!) => BOSTON
• AUStere (73A: Spartan) + TinacTIN (43D: Athlete's foot treatment) => AUSTIN
• ALBerts (104A: Einstein and Camus) + TiffANY(81D: Renowned jeweler) => ALBANY
• HELoise (106A: Hint-giving columnist) + "MacarENA" (77D: 1990s craze) => HELENA
• PIEtas (116A: Religious art figures) + Le CaRRE (94D: Best-selling author who once worked for Britain's MI6) => PIERRE

Word of the Day: TRIPTYCH (51A: Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights," for one) —

A triptych (/ˈtrɪptɪk/ trip-tik; (from the Greek adjective τρίπτυχοs ("three-fold"), from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works. The middle panel is typically the largest and it is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels. The form can also be used for pendant jewelry. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a very interesting construction. I found it rather difficult, first because it took me a little while even to see the theme, and then because I kept forgetting about the theme or not seeing where the theme was in play. Found it very hard to get into the far north, for instance, until I (finally) realized, "oh, right, the answer to [Cry of epiphany] does an L-turn..." into TOPEKA. Same thing happened with [Butcher's tool]—I just kept forgetting when I was looking at L-shaped answers, especially with those Downs. I don't think it was hard so much as flummoxing. Required a lot of attention to detail, a constant reassessing of what the hell was going on. Which is just fine. I admire the architecture of the puzzle—the execution of the theme—but I didn't find it that entertaining. Sort of like solving a sudoku—fine to pass the time, but not very mentally engaging. There's no hook, no cleverness, no humor. Just a really nifty physical feature of some answers. Fill was OK—got a little rough in parts (CUOCO???? (32D: Kaley of "The Big Bang Theory") PUD??? (127D: British dessert, for short) TATAS!?!? (contemporary slang for breasts, maybe, but multiple [Byes], no)), but otherwise held up pretty well.

I did quite enjoy seeing BOSS HOGG, and the clue on ROCK CONCERT (24A: Rush job?) and CRISCO (103D: It's been shortening for over 100 years) were nice. Couldn't believe how long it took me to get LUCAS (I saw "Star Wars" eight times as 7-year-old, and yet I wanted CUKOR at [Director George] —?????). Had a very rough start because I wanted -NESS for 2D: Suffix with hard or soft (-WARE) and ENID for 3D: Girl's name that's also a place (ERIN). Lots of trouble in the NE too, as I only just now understood 18D: Head of state? (INTER-) and wanted 14A: Peyote and saguaro (CACTI) to end in an "S". Forgot that Charlie Sheen was ever on "Spin City" (that move from Michael J. Fox to Charlie Sheen must've been jarring; thankfully for my sanity, I'd stopped watching "Spin City" by the time Fox left). Speaking of "Charlie," if you have no idea what the hell "song" 44D: Where Charlie may ride forever, in song (MTA) is referring to, you aren't alone. You gotta be pretty old to remember that one. I certainly don't—learned about it the same way you may be learning about it right now—from crosswords. It's probably pitched perfectly, though, for the average age of the crossword-solving crowd. Thus, fair.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Bygone country name or its currency / SAT 8-24-13 / One of muskrats in 1976 hit Muskrat Love / Director/screenwriter Penn / Pippin Tony winner / It springs from Monte Falterona / Brand of literature / Chain of off-price department stores / Human Development Report publisher in brief / Or else despiser of good manners Shak

Constructor: Frederick J. Healy

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none, except for that SPARE TIRE clue (28D: Likely result of excess 17- and 53-Across), which I don't think constitutes a theme

Word of the Day: STEIN MART (8D: Chain of off-price department stores) —

Stein Mart is a nationwide department store based in Jacksonville, Florida. The company reported a profit of nearly $24 million in 2009 with operation of 264 stores in 29 states. Stein Mart has locations primarily in the Southeast and Texas. Stein Mart's stores carry recent trends in clothing for both men and women. Additionally, home décor, accessories, and shoes are all available at discounted prices. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was pretty damned easy up top, but then I just couldn't come down south of KICKSTART without rebooting completely (starting w/ MARLEE and then SAM in the SE) (41D: Actress Matlin + 48A: One of the muskrats in the 1976 hit "Muskrat Love"). None of the Downs running through KICKSTART were computing for me off their initial letters, and I could *not* get out of that little eastern portion. RANG took me Forever (30D: Seemed to be) and with --KEY, I strangely couldn't see ON KEY (39A: Not at all sharp, maybe). But then there were enough gimmes down south to get me going again, and I finished in very good time, somewhere in the 8s, with the second "E" in EPEE my last letter.

[This really happened]

Quality-wise, this puzzle seems (rings?) quite nice. Feels like it has a lower word count than it does—likely a result of that choppy midsection, which piles up the 3- and 4-letter words. A RUDE is a terrible partial, but beyond that, nothing here really bugged me at all. Long answers are very clean and crisp, if a tad on the  staid side. I've never heard of STEIN MART, so that was a challenge ... actually less of a challenge than it should've been, as I got the STEIN part entirely from crosses, and then without too much trouble was able to infer the -MART part—a not uncommon store suffix, that. I thought 26D: "Exodus" character was a gimme, and it was, in that alternative universe where the answer is ELI. In this universe, however, I just screwed up, and with a neighboring screw-up in KAL Penn (25D: Director/screenwriter Penn), that little section took some rewriting to get through. But for a Saturday, there wasn't that much resistance. I enjoyed this one. It had no junk, it had some good answers, and I made very good time. I can ask for more, but not that much more.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Mezzo-soprano Troyanos / FRI 8-23-13 / Young colleen across North Channel / Grammy-winning singer from Barbados

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TATIANA Troyanos (58A: Mezzo-soprano Troyanos) —

Tatiana Troyanos (September 12, 1938 – August 21, 1993) was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent, remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation" (Boston Globe). Her voice, "a paradoxical voice—larger than life yet intensely human, brilliant yet warm, lyric yet dramatic"—"was the kind you recognize after one bar, and never forget," wrote Cori Ellison in Opera News. Troyanos led a distinguished international career and made a variety of admired operatic recordings, and beginning in 1976 was additionally known for her work with the Metropolitan Opera, with over 270 performances spanning twenty-two major roles. "She was extraordinarily intense, beautiful, and stylish in roles as diverse as Eboli, Santuzza, Geschwitz, Venus, Kundry, Jocasta, Carmen, and Giulietta, in addition to her great 'trouser' roles," said the Met's longtime Music Director, James Levine. (wikipedia)

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Weird puzzle. Felt like I was tanking this thing. Twice. And yet I finished with a time in the low 6s, which is not bad at all for me on a Friday. First tanking feeling was in the NW, and it wasn't a tank so much as an annoyance at not being able to get out of there. Did Not know PAPA (1D: Quebec preceder, to pilots), which kept me from seeing PANARAB at first (17A: Like some Mideast ideology) and left me uncertain about whether ARIGATO was spelled with an "A" or "O" at the beginning. So the NW corner didn't come together until I'd left it and then built it back up from the middle, later. Center went pretty quickly. Knowing JUBA was a big plus. Didn't know WELSH (36A: It's known to locals as Cymraeg) but it hardly mattered, as I built the bulk of that one quickly from crosses. OK, so now we get to where I felt like I was tanking—the SE, which, for me, was far far harder than any other section. Medium-Challenging to everything else's Easy. I had WHOLE and no idea what followed. [Wastes] was too vague a clue for me to see RUBS OUT easily (I had RUNS OUT at one point). And EPIC WIN was practically invisible because nothing about that phrase says "improbable" to me. EPIC does not equal upset. It's just a major win—maybe it's an important game, maybe it's a blow-out, I don't know, but "improbability" doesn't make something EPIC. Not on its own. Also, TATIANA who??? Tough (but good) clue on IOWA. So, yeah, struggle down there. Once I gave in to the WIN part of EPIC WIN, I started making headway.

Then I just had these very daunting-looking 7x5 corners left to do. That kind of white space is often the place I go to die, puzzle-ly speaking. In the SW, RWANDA / STRAWS helped reduce the square footage of white space and I managed to get through there w/o much trouble. Then, last stand, NE. Scary, but got RAISINS right away, and then it turns out all the proper nouns up there were gimmes (BERT, DUNST, RIHANNA). So ... done. Grid is clean and lovely and full of fresh answers, everywhere I look. My favorites are RIDE SHOT GUN and BOBBLE HEAD, which has a nice, tough clue (7D: Spring figure?).

Bullets:

• 45A: Fisherman's Wharf attraction (SEALS) — been there many, many times, still couldn't get this even after having SE-LS. Or, rather, that's how much I needed before I click click click "Oh!"

• 46A: Young colleen, across the North Channel (WEE LASS) — something about the homophonousness of "colleen" and "collie" has made me never like the lower-case "colleen" as a generic for "girl." Feels like calling an Italian guy a "guido." But it doesn't matter what I feel about it, as I am not Irish (much, probably).
• 39D: Fried tortilla dish (CHALUPA) — I swear I thought this was a made-up Taco Bellism.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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