One-named Spanish-born actress / TUE 10-24-17 / Japanese eel-and-rice dish / Mustachioed character on Simpsons / Loamy soil / Horses that could be hounds badgers / 2006 cult classic action film

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Medium (I was slow, but the puzzle is a plus-size 16 squares wide)

THEME: ANOTHER DIMENSION (59A: What a sci-fi portal might lead to ... or what's added successively to the ends of the answers to the starred clues) — each step in the sequence POINT LINE PLANE SPACE represents an incremental jump of one dimension

Theme answers:

• "THAT'S NOT THE POINT" (18A: *"You fail to understand what I'm saying")
• PICK-UP LINE (24A: *Cheesy fare served at a bar?)
• "SNAKES ON A PLANE" (38A: *2006 cult-classic action film)
• "I NEED SPACE" (53A: *"This relationship is smothering me)

Word of the Day: Jerome KERN (57D: Jerome who composed "Ol' Man River") —

Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Long Ago (and Far Away)" and "Who?". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg. // A native New Yorker, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejected, earlier musical theatre tradition. He and his collaborators also employed his melodies to further the action or develop characterization to a greater extent than in the other musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals. Although dozens of Kern's musicals and musical films were hits, only Show Boat is now regularly revived. Songs from his other shows, however, are still frequently performed and adapted. Many of Kern's songs have been adapted by jazz musicians to become standard tunes. (wikipedia)

• • •

Again with the renegade "?" theme clue! (24A: *Cheesy fare served at a bar?). Ugh. If your theme is not entirely "?"-based, save your "?" for the rest of the fill, man. It's just common courtesy. This theme is interesting to contemplate upon completion (kudos to you if you noticed the theme before getting the revealer). No D — One D — Two D — Three D. Alrighty then. But again we run headlong into the stubborn fact that the NYT doesn't give a *******$&%&$*# what happens beyond the theme. The fill is a cavalcade of last-century laffers, STET ACAI! LEI OONA! MOLE OLE! AERO CHARO! ELSA LECAR! (best stripper name ever!) What is the ETA on better fill? Maybe we'll see some INDO near future? I'm SOU upset—why does the puzzle keep PAREE-tending this is acceptable? EWE know what I mean? KERN you believe it? Ugh, I'm at a LOESS.


I spent at least two full seconds wondering what an IPAD DRESS was (37D: Certain network ID). I got the IPAD part quickly, and, well, it's hard to unsee that IPAD once you've seen it. I once again wrote in OOMA instead of OONA for 32A: Chaplin of "Game of Thrones" because once again, no matter how many times I get the Chaplin clue (and it's A Lot by now), I freeze up and pick the wrong letter. Is OOMA even a name??? UMA, OONA. That should be so easy to remember. I thought 5A: Shakespeare, informally was BARD, and then, I thought, "Oh, *informally*...," and wrote in BILL. This left me wondering what BIND POWER was (5D: Energy source from a "farm"). Hardest clue for me was, in retrospect, the cleverest—70A: Horses that could be hounds or badgers? (NAGS). I kept wondering what kind of weird equine slang I was dealing with; only after finishing did I see that NAGS is a synonym of "hounds" and "badgers" (the verbs, not the animals). OK, I gotta get some sleep now. Later.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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