Chaplin of Game of Thrones / SUN 11-2-14 / James Joyce's Ulysses per 1921 court decision / Juliet's combative cousin in Romeo Juliet / Classic glam band named for extinct creature / Show tune with repeated line come to me

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "BP Station" — words in common phrases have their initial "B" changed to an initial "P," resulting in wackiness:

Theme answers:

• PLAQUE ART (23A: Engraving on an award?)
• SECRET PALATE (29A: Food critic's love of fast food, maybe?)
• CHRISTIAN PAIL (48A: Collector of offerings at a revival?)
• PERTH CANAL (55A: Waterway of Western Australia?)
• "THAT'S MY POI!" (79A: Admonishment to someone eating off your plate at a Polynesian restaurant?)
• THE THREE PAIRS (85A: What's promising about a K-K-Q-Q-J-J-7 rummy hand?)
• PLAYS OF GLORY (108A: Buzzer beaters and game-winning catches?)
• PERCH PIER (118A: Place to reel in some freshwater game fish?)

Word of the Day: William O'NEIL + Co. (brokerage) (77D) —

William J. O'Neil (born March 25, 1933) is an American entrepreneur, stockbroker and writer, who founded the business newspaper Investor's Business Daily and the stock brokerage firm William O'Neil & Co. Inc. He is the author of the books How to Make Money in Stocks, 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success and The Successful Investor among others, and is the creator of the CAN SLIM investment strategy. (wikipedia)

• • •

On the plus side, this was not the typical (of late) Sunday cream puff. This had teeth. Clues were harder than usual all over. Annoying when this involved proper nouns outside my ken (O'NEIL?!), but mostly welcome. The theme … shrug. I think something this simple has to be much funnier, has to land its jokes harder and more frequently. THE THREE PAIRS just dies. Most of the others are OK, but only THAT'S MY POI really made me laugh. I like how the puzzle has that Merl- (as in Merl Reagle) -esque punchline thing going on, where the final theme answer doubles your pleasure/fun. Worth noting that it's not a simple letter substitution. Every B-to-P change brings with it other spelling changes to the altered word. This gives the puzzle a greater consistency and complexity, but it's the kind of subtlety that only dogs can hear. I'm the dog. I like dogs. But still, the key to a theme like this is funniness of the resulting wacky phrases, and these were just middling, for me.


Wife just brought me a Manhattan, so I'm gonna make this relatively quick. I flailed around so badly at the outset that I seriously considered the possibility that some kind of BP or GAS rebus was at play. Why so hard getting started? Didn't know DOLLEY had an "E," never considered OLLA as a "cookware item" (though clearly it is), [Ill] looks like Roman numeral "3" so WOE was never gonna happen, etc. I had TYBALT and SEALAB and not a lot else for a bit. Couldn't make any sense of what the context was supposed to be for [Collector of offerings at a revival?], so I had virtually all the letters in place, from crosses, before I finally got CHRISTIAN PAIL. Didn't know MIMI. Never heard of A-LINER. I know a female track star with JOYNER in her name, but I don't know an Al. No one would ever refer to a SCENE TWO without an ACT (whatever) preceding it, so that "Tempest" clue at 72A: When Prospero makes his entrance is nuts. Had TI--TER and still had no idea about TIGHTER. Never heard of ACES UP. Had RATTY for TATTY. Like I said, hardish all over. But that, I didn't mind. Bring the heat on Sundays. Fine by me.


See you tomorrow… oh, no, I won't. Annabel Thompson will be back for her first-Monday-of-the-month write-up, so that will surely be a welcome break from me. Come by and read her.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. clue of the day = 123A: "Well, I'd love to keep talking …," probably (LIE)