Guilt Trip actress Graynor / SAT 11-2-13 / One may be played by geisha / Game in which lowest card is 7 / Austrian conductor Karl / Scandinavia's oldest university / 2002 Cesar winner for Best Film / They were labeled Breakfast Dinner Supper

Constructor: Tom Heilman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Karl BÖHM (5D: Austrian conductor Karl) —

Karl August Leopold Böhm (August 28, 1894 in Graz – August 14, 1981 in Salzburg) was an Austrian conductor. […] Böhm was praised for his rhythmically robust interpretations of the operas and symphonies of Mozart, and in the 1960s he was entrusted with recording all the Mozart symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic. His brisk, straightforward way with Wagner won adherents, as did his readings of the symphonies of Brahms, Bruckner andSchubert. His 1971 complete recording of the Beethoven symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic was also highly regarded. On a less common front, he championed and recorded Alban Berg's avant-garde operas Wozzeck and Lulu before they gained a foothold in the standard repertory. Böhm mentioned in the notes to his recordings of these works that he and Berg discussed the orchestrations, leading to changes in the score (as he had similarly done, previously, with Richard Strauss).

• • •

Unlike yesterday, where I thought I was slow and my time was normal, today I thought I was fast … and my time was normal. Well, normal-ish. Somewhat on the low side, but not as low as I thought. With no significant hang-ups, I thought I was gold, but I guess there was one significant hang-up—namely, the entire bottom of the puzzle. There must've been a good minute or so in there where I lost my grip on the puzzle and just couldn't punch down into the south. I had NOOGIE, NUTS and POISE, and also USTINOV (46D: 1967 Emmy winner for playing Socrates), but still found the puzzle intractable for a bit. Eventually tested MORE at the end of ONE MORE—still don't quite understand how the clue works (45D: What a slightly shy person may request)—and that seemed to do the trick. Got ROT, guessed UTTER, and away I went.

Back to ONE MORE—I get that "shy" can mean "not having enough money" or "socially reserved" … but I guess here it just means "short of some unstated, desired amount." Like, when I'm shy one pancake and I ask for ONE MORE. Or something. Don't like it, though I'm sure it's defensible, somehow. The rest, I liked. I think the made-up modern lingo is a bit out of control in the NE—never even heard of JAM CAM (9A: Traffic reporter's aid) or KIDULT (18A: Grown-up who's not quite grown-up), though both are inferable—but everything else seems fair and aptly, often cleverly, clued. I missed the part in baseball where the Twins and ORIOLEs are "rivals" (16A: Twin's rival). They're not in the same division and not from the same part of the country, so … another full-court sports clue boner. But [Result of knuckling down?] is great for NOOGIE, and [Troubling post-engagement status, briefly] makes nice use of misdirection on "engagement," so overall the cluing seemed pretty decent. I like the workaround on ILLIN' today (27A: "You Be ___" (1986 hip-hop hit))—no more wading into the whole "does it mean 'doing well' or 'doing badly'?" mare's nest. Just quote Run-DMC and move on (good advice, generally).


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld