Google Wallet alternative / SUN 8-16-15 / Highest provincial capital in Italy / Strong sideless wagon / Two New Sciences author / Actress Diana nicknamed Blonde Bombshell / Luxury Hyundai / Relative of Contour plus / Household brand with lowercase first letter / Dad-blasted / MacMillan 1950s-'60s British PM / Hall shortest Harlem Globetrotter / Plants above timberline / Letter-shaped girder / Two Towers denizen

Constructor: Don Gagliardo and Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "As It Were" —words that can also be past tense forms of verbs, or IN THE PAST (124A: Back then ... or a hint to the ends of the answers to the starred clues)

Theme answers:

• MINK STOLE (22A*Pricey wrap)
• SEATTLE SLEW (23A: *Triple Crown winner who himself sired a Kentucky Derby winner)
• POWER SAW (51A: *Carpenter's tool with a cord) ["with a cord"—how odd/awkward/random]
  
• MARK FELT (94A: *Deep Throat's identity)
• BREAK GROUND (122A: *Start a construction project)
• NEW YORK MET (36D: *Tom Seaver, e.g.)
• TOKYO ROSE (83D: *W.W. II propagandist)
  
• KIDDIE LIT (45D: *Dr. Seuss' genre)
• LITTLE BIT (13D: *Smidgen)
• DOGLEG LEFT (48D: *Challenge for a right-handed golfer)

Word of the Day: MARK FELT (94A: *Deep Throat's identity) —

William Mark Felt, Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent who retired as the Bureau's Deputy Director in 1973. After keeping secret for 30 years his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Felt admitted to being the Watergate scandal's whistleblower, "Deep Throat," on May 31, 2005. // Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, D.C. During the early investigation of the Watergate scandal (1972–1974), and shortly after the death of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on May 2, 1972, Felt was the Bureau's Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the FBI. While serving as Associate Director, Felt provided the Washington Post with critical information that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. In 1980, Felt was convicted of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground Organization, by ordering FBI agents to search their homes as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal. In 2006, he published an update of his 1979 autobiography, The FBI Pyramid. His last book, written with John O'Connor, is titled A G-Man's Life. On June 14, 2012, the FBI released Felt's personnel file at the agency, covering the period from 1941 to 1978. It also released files pertaining to an extortion threat made against Felt in 1956. (wikipedia)

• • •

Quaint. That's probably the best word I have to describe this. It's the kind of theme that you don't notice at all until the revealer. Or maybe you paid more attention as you were solving, I don't know. I got to the end and was like "Oh ... yes. I see." It's the kind of theme that could've run decades ago, and with the exception of APPLEPAY (66D: Google Wallet alternative), virtually every other thing about the puzzle would've been at home then too. The fill simply isn't polished to modern standards. It's competently arranged according to archaic standards, so you end up with more of the stuff that you used to expect to see all the time (your odd phrase parts and grid-friendly poem titles and foreign names and places and whatever you want to call that ASES/STRS thing down in the SE corner). People sometimes wonder why I criticize grids like this, when That's The Way It Always Been (and certainly was, largely, the way things were in the good old Maleskan / Weng days) (actually, to be fair, things were much worse then, crosswordese and arcana-wise). I mean, HAROLD is a British P.M. from 50 years ago? Jacques BREL and Mario LANZA are hanging around together? Tom Seaver is a NEW YORK MET? And so much of the fill is wince-y and throwback-y and just the kind of off-putting stuff that gives crosswords their stuffy rep. I just tweeted this: "Side-eye list for Sunday: 1A, 60A, 65A, 39D, 60A (x2, ugh), 49D (?), 113D, 115D, 120D, 121D, 99D (??), 105A, 84D, 110D, 77D, 15D. Minimally." It's possible to do so much better these days, not just in terms of fill, but in terms of cluing—thoughtful, funny, relevant: these types of clues are all possible. They are only occasionally on display here. Mostly the clues are grimly straightforward. Short and grimly straightforward.

[I've had this song in my head since writing in MARK FELT ... it makes little sense, I'll admit]

Here's what I like: I always admire dense themes and (especially) intersecting theme answers, and this puzzle has both. I also respect (though I don't always love) ambitious attempts to Make Things Work, and the whole DOG LEG LEFT / MARK FELT business radiates a kind of loopy creative confidence that I find charming. I kind of know what a DOG LEG LEFT is, and had no idea who this FELT guy was. But it was all gettable and even though under normal circumstances neither of those feels like the solidest of answers, they work here, and that is enough. Otherwise, though, this was a slog, though much easier than the word "slog" implies.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. honestly why is SERENADER / STRS not SERENADED / STDS??! Both answers are improved with the change to "D." This may seem tiny, and it is tiny, but it is indicative of bigger things.  (Shout-out to the constructing maestro who pointed out this little issue)

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