Roxane's beloved, in classic literature / SUN 5-17-26 / Guido ___, Baroque painter from Bologna / Crazylegs Hirsch, from 1949 to 1957, informally / Lotto commission? / Upscale shirtmaker / Showy kind of push-up / Surname for a family of fictional Kansans / 1957 #1 hit for Debbie Reynolds / Pollster Lou or singer Emmylou / John ___, personification of Objectivism, for Ayn Rand / Purple dish eaten with a spoon

Constructor: Derrick Niederman

Relative difficulty: Easy

[6D: Iconic role for Harrison Ford = HAN]

THEME: "Double Meanings" — theme clues are familiar two-word phrases (or compound words) where each word (or word part) must be interpreted as a separate definition; the first word in the clue corresponds to the first word in the answer, and the second word in the clue corresponds to the second word in the answer. The resulting two-word (or compound word) answer is itself a familiar phrase:

Theme answers:

• DRAWING BOARD (22A: Lotto commission?) ("Lotto" = DRAWING, "commission" = BOARD)
• PEN NAMES (24A: Prison terms?) ("Prison" = PEN, "terms" = NAMES)
• RAIN DELAY (29A: Shower stall?) ("Shower" = RAIN, "stall" = DELAY)
• CARPALS (38A: Automates?) ("Auto" = CAR, "mates" = PALS)
• WARRANT (48A: Battle cry?) ("Battle" = WAR, "cry" = RANT)
• CHICKEN SANDWICH (65A: Yellow submarine?) ("Yellow" = CHICKEN, "submarine" = SANDWICH)
• HOT FOOT (87A: Stolen base?) ("Stolen" = HOT, "base" = FOOT)
• KINSHIP (94A: Blood vessel?) ("Blood" = KIN, "vessel" = SHIP)
• CAN OPENER (102A: Fire starter?) ("Fire" = CAN, "starter" = OPENER)
• MATTRESS (102A: Padlock?) ("Pad" = MAT, "lock" = TRESS)
• TRUST BUSTERS (116A: Confidence men?) ("Confidence" = TRUST, "men" = BUSTERS)

Word of the Day: GWEN Verdon (16D: Verdon of "Damn Yankees") —

Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and she served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in Damn Yankees, the title character in Sweet Charity, and Roxie Hart in Chicago.

Her second husband was director-choreographer Bob Fosse, with whom she worked on a number of theater and film projects. After Fosse's death, she worked to preserve his legacy. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was rough. It was hard to find very much to be positive about. I don't understand the appeal of this theme. I see that a certain thoughtfulness and cleverness must have been involved to make the clues and answers work out so (well, relatively) neatly, but from a solving standpoint ... pffft. There was nothing. Or, rather, instead of eleven elaborate or playful theme clues there were essentially twenty-two one-word clues. Lotto = DRAWING. Commission = BOARD. Prison = PEN. Terms = NAMES. And on and on and on. And I mean, on. "I see what you did there." That was my reaction. Eleven times. None of the answers ever got anything more out of me than a shrug. A couple of them got a "huh?" though. CARPALS? Is that ... like, the bones in your wrist? OK. I guess that's OK. And TRUSTBUSTERS? Is that something to do with antitrust laws, or Teddy Roosevelt breaking up the monopolies?? Yes, a "federal official who prosecutes trusts under the antitrust laws." Yeah, that answer checks out too. Not exactly a term you hear every day ... or ever, really ... but it's a thing. I kinda sorta almost like the theme clues/answers when the answer is a compound word where I really have to pull the two terms apart in order to see what is going on, e.g. MATTRESS ("Mat" = "tress") and CARPALS ("Car" + "pals"). But the others are just two one-word clues => two one-word answers. Again, the actual experience of solving those answers was completely without joy, and almost without struggle. A real baffling swing/miss on the theme today. 

And the fill, yeah, that got real bad in lots of places. So much so that I stopped early to take a screenshot (always a bad omen):

 

That NNE / TBONES / ASTI / THEUN / AHOLD run made me (quiet) shout "make it stop" ("it" = crosswordese barrage) and then RENI came hot on the heels of all that (37A: Guido ___, Baroque painter from Bologna). It was a lot to take. A lot of middling to bad, with no allaying good. The worst section, to my ear, was in the west, everything between WADE and ETON ... Let's see, there's TAY DERMO AVANT ... IN MAY!?!?! (superyeesh) ... and I'm pretty sure it's avocado ON TOAST, not OVER TOAST. It's really just called "avocado toast," but if you absolutely had to describe the relationship of the avocado to the toast, you would say "on." Horribly fitting that ERRANCY runs right through OVER TOAST. The thing is, though, that if the theme had been even halfway decent, or there had been sparkly longer fill, it's possible the bad short stuff would not have rankled as much. But when the theme gives you nothing and the long answers are ho-hum at best, now the rest of the fill is exposed. You can hear every creak and clank. I will not SPIT AT this puzzle (as spitting at anything is disgusting) and I won't even say "IT STINKS." My main reaction was a big "OK ... SO?" 

Bullets:

• 81A: "___ a stinker?" (Bugs Bunny line) ("AIN'T I") — one of the worst partials you're ever going to see. I suppose remembering Bugs Bunny takes some of the sting away, but yeesh. To make matters worse, this clue contains "stinker" when "stink" is already in the grid ("IT STINKS"). Your cluing options are pretty limited for "AIN'T I," so maybe ... maybe tear down that whole little section and rebuild it. What would you be losing ATF? AIN'T I? KITED? IN OIL!?!? The one good thing about this section is that "AIN'T I IN OIL?" is making me laugh. "AIN'T I IN OIL"? (Bugs Bunny line from "It's Sardine to Look a Lot Like Christmas")*. 
• 59A: Upscale shirtmaker (ETON) — I knew ETON was a kind of collar, but I did not know they were a shirtmaker. I wanted POLO and IZOD before ETON.
• 53A: A good Wordle starting word, by the looks of it (STARE) — I think this is punning (?) on the idea that "STARE" means "look (intently)." But it really is a good starting word. Way better than ADIEU, what are you ADIEU people doing, why is that starter so popular!? It's not great.
• 78A: Surname for a family of fictional Kansans (GALE) — these are the Kansans from The Wizard of Oz. The most memorable member of said family is Dorothy Gale.
• 105A: Showy kind of push-up (ONE-ARM) — me: "some ... kind of bra."
• 119A: 1957 #1 hit for Debbie Reynolds ("TAMMY") — I love Debbie Reynolds the actress / dancer, but Debbie Reynolds the pop star, uh, no, I am not familiar with her work ... though "TAMMY" rings a faint bell, let's hear what it sounds like ... nope, no bells. False alarm. The song is from a movie called Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) (also not ringing a bell). Reynolds had already done Singin' in the Rain (1952) and (one of my favorites) The Tender Trap (1955) by this point. Hey, her co-star in Tammy and the Bachelor was Leslie Nielsen!?!? And it co-stars the ubiquitous Academy Award-winning character actor Walter Brennan? I might have to check it out soon.

• 5D: Colonial news source (CRIER) — always want this to be CRYER. Town CRIER, Jon CRYER. Is that a helpful mnemonic? It is not. But I'm gonna see if I can make it work.

• 75D: It's a wrap (STOLE) — dropped SARAN in there so fast. Whoops.
• 95D: Pollster Lou or singer Emmylou (HARRIS) — Why is "pollster Lou" even here? Just let Emmylou have her own clue. She's famous enough that she shouldn't have to share her clue with anyone. I know you're doing a rhyming "lou" thing here, but still. I'll take my Emmylou straight, thanks.

• 79D: Brian in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (ENO) — it was Brian ENO's 78th birthday on Friday. I'm sorry I failed to acknowledge it. His birthday really should be some kind of Crossword Holiday. 343 lifetime NYTXW appearances. OK, not all of those ENOs were Brian (before 1985 ENO was always [Wine: prefix] or [Wine: comb. form]), but most of them were. Happy birthday, big guy (with a little name)!

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*poetic license!

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