Quaint train amenity / MON 10-16-17 / Substitute terms for sensitive subjects / Long-running PBS film series

Constructor: Jennifer Nutt

Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. Normal Monday) (3:00)

THEME: KILLER WHALE (59A: Creature found "swimming" in 16-, 22-, 28-, 42- and 47-Across) —letter string "ORCA" is embedded (i.e. "swimming") in all the themers:

Theme answers:

• RADIATOR CAP (16A: It must be removed before pouring coolant into an engine)
• WINDSOR CASTLE (22A: Elizabeth II's home outside London)
• PARLOR CAR (28A: Quaint train amenity)
• INDOOR CAT (42A: Feline that doesn't stray)
• LIQUOR CABINET (47A: Where rum and rye may be stored)

Word of the Day: BLAT (34D: Trombone honk, e.g.) —

verb

verb: blat; 3rd person present: blats; past tense: blatted; past participle: blatted; gerund or present participle: blatting

1. 1.

   make a bleating sound.

noun

noun: blat; plural noun: blats

1. 1.

   a bleat or similar noise.

   
   

   "the blat of Jack's horn" (google)

• • •

Retro City. Reminds me of doing a puzzle in the early '90s, with my good friends OBI and ALEE and AGUE and AGRA and hey there's SRO (Sold Right Out!)*. And the theme—also old school. I've embedded my share of words across two words in a theme answer before, but usually the words change. Ooh, no, the first puzzle I ever ever made had WINK in it four times (in honor of Palin's debate performance, which gives you a rough idea of how long ago I made it). Did a "beer bellies" puzzle once, but the embedded words were all *different* beer types. And revealers should be clever—they should make the whole theme snap into focus in some interesting way. KILLER WHALE is just ... KILLER WHALE. I am unconvinced by the "swimming" part of the clue. It's just an embedded letter string, like so many embedded letter strings in so many puzzles that have come before. As a puzzle from a quarter century ago, it's fine. As a puzzle from today, it's ... a puzzle from a quarter century ago.


This was not hard, but there were definitely sloggy parts. Had LIE for FIB (10A: Something that might be said with fingers crossed behind the back), which is what happens when the "I" is the first thing to go in there. That tripped me. Then I just ... don't think of NGOs, like, ever (well, not in crosswords, anyway), so no idea there. If you'd asked me to name "train amenities" off the top of my head forever, I'd never have arrived at PARLOR CAR (whatever that is). "P.O.V." isn't a show that leaps to mind when I think of PBS (though I do know of it). MS DEGREE is just an odd / unexpected phrase. GRE was cross-referenced. I had the "X" and guessed EXITS before AXLES (51D: Highway tolls may be based on the number of them). My answer is very very good, though. Stupid "X." I like CODE WORDS, but not much else here, though the crossing of TUDORS and WINDSOR CASTLE is pretty cute. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. my wife thought this was a Tolkien-related theme until she got to the revealer

*it's actually Standing Room Only (or, in another context, Single-Room Occupancy)

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