City between Boston Gloucester / TUE 5-19-15 / HIV-treating drug / 1961 #1 R&B hit for Lee Dorsey / Hit David Bowie single album 1983 / Minneapolis radio station that carries lot of news, appropriately / Automne preceder / Greta Garbo's mysterious lady co-star / Small freshwater fish / 1990s GM make

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Tuesday)

THEME: anagrams of GLEAN —

Theme answers:

• FALLEN ANGEL (17A: Lucifer, notably)
• OBLIQUE ANGLE (27A: It's not right)
• JESSICA LANGE (48A: Oscar-winning actress for "Blue Sky")
• CONRAD NAGEL (63A: Greta Garbo's "The Mysterious Lady" co-star)

Word of the Day: "YAYA" (36A: 1961 #1 R&B hit for Lee Dorsey) —

"Ya Ya" is a song by Lee Dorsey. The song was written by Lee Dorsey, Clarence Lewis, Morgan Robinson and Morris Levy. Levy’s participation in the writing has been previously called into question. In fact, the Flashback release of the single (image) lists only Dorsey and Lewis as writers, as do the liner notes to the American Graffiti soundtrack. // The song was inspired by a children’s nursery rhyme. (wikipedia)

• • •

An ancient theme type. Not as ancient as GALEN, but close. Theme doesn't hit all the possible anagrams, but it can't / shouldn't—the point is that they're all at the ends of names / phrases, so GALEN and GLEAN wouldn't really work. Most everything about this puzzle is dated. BRANDI Chastain brings us close to the 21st century, but not quite, and only briefly (6D: Soccer's Chastain). Mostly, our cultural center of gravity is somewhere back around Lee Dorsey's time. At least that song is entertaining. Fill is stale, but has its moments (most notable "LET'S DANCE" and REDHEAD). Sadly, another dated thing about the puzzle is its desperate attempt to achieve pangram status, as if that were an actual accomplishment anymore. Today at least provides me a Textbook example of the Scrabble-f*cking required to get the whole alphabet in there. Is there anyone, anywhere, who thinks the puzzle is improved by the answer OOX? Because that's the cost of the pangram—that ridiculous non-answer (64D: Losing tic-tac-toe row). OOXTEPLERNON* is well pleased. Others ... well, others are probably so acclimated to that kind of junk that they've come to accept it as normal. You should accept bad fill when it gets you something in return. You should not accept it when it's there just so a constructor can accomplish an imaginary feat that most people won't even notice. Embarrassing.


I nearly got stopped cold by PON- (23D: Ride at a kids' fair) / "-A YA" (36A: 1961 #1 R&B hit for Lee Dorsey). I've never seen a PONY at a kids' fair. Honestly, I don't even think I know what a "kids' fair" is. I've only been to real fairs, where there is kids' fare and adult fare in fairly close proximity to one another. My point is that I considered POND and PONG (?) before I got to PONY. PONY as "ride" is accurate, but ... when "ride" is paired with "fair," different, more mechanical rides come to mind. So that was oddly tough for me. I know the song "YA YA" well from my years of oldies-listening in high school, but I didn't know the song's name or the artist's name, so for all I knew it was "MAYA" or something else. Otherwise, the grid was of a pretty typical difficulty level (not difficult). I had DRAM for DOSE (33D: 5 milliliters of medicine) and ANT (?) for TNT (42A: What can make molehills out of a mountain?).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*OOXTEPLERNON is the God of Bad Short Fill. He made his first appearance, like Jesus in a tortilla, as the central row in this puzzle from Oct. 30, 2009.

[Follow Rex Parker on Facebook and Twitter]

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Sci-fi knight / TUE 3-10-15 / City in 1960 Marty Robbins chart-topper / Obsolescent bank item / Who said knock you out in an LL Cool J hit / Longtime Nascar sponsor

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Before cars — three theme answers are all two-word answers where the second word is also a term for a wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle…

Theme answers:

• MARTIN LANDAU
• PAPER CARRIAGE
• BATTING COACH

Word of the Day: BABUSHKA (10D: Russian grandmother) —

noun

1. (in Poland and Russia) an old woman or grandmother.

   • NORTH AMERICAN

     a headscarf tied under the chin, typical of those worn by Polish and Russian women. (google)

• • •

Weird in a number of ways. The positive: for an olde-timey puzzle (Horse-drawn vehicles! PASSBOOKs! PAPER CARRIAGES!?!) that has clearly been filled without any computer assistance and that is a mere 72 words (on a Tuesday?!), the grid is not terrible. There are parts that are downright smooth. ABEE and APIN are unfortunate, and PARI-, sure, yuck, but overall, that's a lot of white space that has been hand-filled with pretty solid results. You are forgiven if you had no idea what the theme was—especially if you are not a regular solver and/or are under … some age. I don't know. Possibly 120. You'd have to be pretty damn old to have lived at a time when coach types were carriage types were widely, commonly known. I think that you'd actually have to be dead. But many still know them, of course. I know them, and I am well under 120. But I solve a lot. Anyway, the fill is halfway decent, but the theme doesn't work that well for me since I think of LANDAU and COACH as types of CARRIAGE. Actually, both CARRIAGE and COACH seem like general terms, whereas LANDAU seems specific. LANDAUs are fancy. Two facing seats with two retractable / removable roof sections. Like so:

Actually, it seems CARRIAGE is the very general term, and both COACH and LANDAU are types of CARRIAGE. I guess you could argue that, in this puzzle, the general term is in the middle, and the types are flanking it on top and bottom, creating a kind of symmetry. I don't buy that, but you *could* argue it. Anyway, this is close to a non-theme. An easy themeless.

[GRASSLE in a COACH!]

The one unforgivable thing in this grid is GRASSLE (42A: Karen of "Little House on the Prairie"). That answer is 100% absurd. The percentage of people who are gonna be familiar with that name is something close to zero. Well, closer to zero than twenty, that's for sure. Compare that with the familiarity of virtually every other answer in the grid (w/ possible exception of PARI-—also not great). GRASSLE is why you should not be afraid to let computers help you out with filling your grid. The theme here is not demanding: just 37 squares total. So grid should be squeaky, and utterly obscure-actress-free. *Especially* *On* *A* *Tuesday*. GRASSLE is nuts. She played Caroline, the mom—admittedly, a major role. But she has not been in the public eye in any significant way for 30+ years, and even I, who watched that show A Lot, didn't know her name. Yeah—everything in that DIR (29D) / PARI / GRASSLE region (exclusive of themers) should've been torn out and redone. GRASSLE! When you rassle on the grass: GRASSLE! It's such an outlier here … in a tough themeless, maybe. In a much more theme-dense puzzle, perhaps. On a Tuesday in a thin-themed puzzle? No excuse.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Socialite who inspired 1950's "Call Me Madam" / MON 9-1-14 / Carpentry spacer / Old politico Stevenson / 1957 hit covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968 / One of 1980s demographic /

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Monday**)

THEME: TAMES anagrams (30D: Breaks … or an anagram of the ends of five Across answers in this puzzle):

Theme answers:

• PERLE MESTA (17A: Socialite who inspired 1950's "Call Me Madam")
• SHIPMATES
• DELI MEATS
• LOSE STEAM
• LEGAL TEAMS

Word of the Day: PERLE MESTA —

Perle Reid Mesta (née Skirvin) (October 12, 1889 – March 16, 1975) was an Americansocialite, political hostess, and U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg (1949–1953).

Mesta was known as the "hostess with the mostest" for her lavish parties featuring the brightest stars of Washington, D.C., society, including artists, entertainers and many top-level national political figures. (wikipedia)

• • •

I finished this in normal Monday time, but the times posted at the NYT website are running much more Tuesday than Monday, so I think this played slightly harder than usual. There might be many reasons for this. PERLE MESTA, for one. No one under 50 knows who that is. And when I say "50" I'm being generous. Clue is no help, as no one knows what "Call Me Madam" is either. Trust me. That's a rough Monday themer for the pre-retired set. I know her because of that one time I didn't know her and fell flat on my face. Since then I've seen either her first or her last name several times in puzzles. Never her full name, though, that I recall, so I almost want to give the puzzle credit for originality there. The theme in general is surprisingly rudimentary—the kind I'm surprised make the grade any more. Feels very MUSTY, to say the least (28A: Stale-smelling). The number of plurals necessitated by the theme makes the puzzle especially blah. And SSGT is bad enough in the singular. In the plural, it literally makes me laugh (49A: Army NCOs). I enjoyed the banks of 7s in all the corners, especially ZERO SUM ICECUBE (3D: Like a game with equal winners and losers + 2D: Drink cooler), which would make a nice band name or title for a dadaist sculpture of some kind. Fill is not terrible, but neither is it above average. It just is. This puzzle is. See you tomorrow.


Happy September.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Rag Mop hitmakers 1950 / MON 5-13-13 / QB Steve who won Payton Award / 1986 Tom Cruise/Val Kilmer action film / Metal-joining technique / Small Indian drum

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: MEAS. — four theme answers start with words made from letters M, E, A, and S

Theme answers:

• 20A: Chicago Cubs spring training site (MESA, ARIZONA)
• 26A: "Rag Mop" hitmakers, 1950 (AMES BROTHERS) — "hitmakers," HA ha. Whatever you say.
• 48A: You've heard it many times before (SAME OLD STORY)
• 56A: Metal-joining technique (SEAM WELDING)

Word of the Day: Steve MCNAIR (9D: QB Steve who won a Payton Award) —

Stephen LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 – July 4, 2009), nicknamed Air McNair, was an American football quarterback who spent the majority of his National Football League (NFL) career with the Tennessee Titans
[...] McNair led the Titans to the playoffs four times, and the Ravens once, and played in Super Bowl XXXIV with the Titans. He is the Titans' all-time leading passer. McNair was selected to the Pro Bowl three times, was All-Pro and Co-MVP in 2003, all as a Titan. // On July 4, 2009, McNair was fatally shot by his mistress, Sahel Kazemi, in a murder–suicide. (wikipedia)

.

• • •

What the hell is a "Payton Award"? Dude was a 3-time Pro-Bowler and you go with "who won a Payton Award"??? Is that some award named for Walter Payton? (A: yes) OK, because I know *you* don't know, here you go: "The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football as chosen by a nationwide panel of media and college sports information directors. The honor was first given in 1987 to the outstanding player in the division, but in 1995, eligibility was restricted to offensive players, as the Buck Buchanan Award for defensive players was inaugurated" (wikipedia). This is an odd accomplishment to put in a Monday clue. Also, it's Monday, and you don't even say what *team* the guy played for? He remains the leading passer in Titans' history. What the hell? In short, that clue is an Absurdity. Why am I talking so much about this clue? Well, a. it is terrible, as I say, but b. there's not a lot else to talk about. It's a remedial theme type with a grid filled mostly with tired, predictable stuff. Heavy on the crosswordese. A six-letter prefix related to intestines (and at least three prefixes overall). None of this is really doing it for me today. The long non-theme Acrosses are confusing, as they have roughly the equivalent length of the themers, but aren't. Inelegant, and slightly confusing if you're trying to figure out the theme (which is not the kind of theme you notice 'til you're done). Only noteworthy moment of the entire solve was when I utterly blanked on the capital of New Jersey—even with many crosses in place. Pathetic. Oh, and I went with TABOR over TABLA at 51D: Small Indian drum.


Hoping for better stuff tomorrow. See you then.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Hole-positioning gadget / MON 4-22-13 / Ugandan site of 1976 Israeli rescue / Automated Web program

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Bat-to-But vowel progression puzzle —

• 18A: Louisville Slugger, e.g. (BASEBALL BAT)
• 24A: Wager that's not made at the site of the race (OFF-TRACK BET)
• 37A: Hole-positioning gadget (CENTER BIT)
• 56A: Automated Web program (INTERNET BOT)
• 62A: By no means (ANYTHING BUT)

Word of the Day: CENTER BIT —

n. A drill bit having a sharp center point, used in carpentry for boring holes.

• • •

Found this one pretty dull. Vowel progression puzzles are common, and need to have some damned spicy answers in order to be at all interesting / not reek of antiquity. Today, theme answers are adequate, and they actually get better as the puzzle progresses, but the cluing is ultra-snoozy—perhaps because it's Monday and the cluing needed to be as transparent as possible. Clues are just so literal. [Not made at the site of the race] => OFF-TRACK. [Web] => INTERNET. Plodding and unimaginative cluing combined with just OK theme answers = not much joy in Rexville. Doesn't help that the non-theme fill is from some dusty crossword attic. Perversely, my favorite part of this grid is AAA over RRR. That's some daring stacking. I wonder how far someone could take that idea—stacking triple-letter answers. Consider the gauntlet thrown.

Puzzle would've been Easy if not for CENTER BIT, which I've never heard of. Needed literally every cross. I know what a bit is, and a drill bit, but not a CENTER BIT. I also briefly blanked on the old-school crosswordese AMAHL (41A: Menotti's "___ and the Night Visitors"). Hate when that happens. That stuff's supposed to be right at my fingertips, but I fumbled it. No big time loss—just 10 seconds or so, probably. Just a loss of pride.


OK, that's it. Brace yourself for tomorrow's puzzle. The early chatter is ... insane (it was one of the puzzles at the Marbles crossword tournament that took place this past weekend; my friends were ... let's say 'impressed'; yes, that's non-commital enough).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1977 Boz Scaggs hit / TUE 1-8-13 / 1974 John Wayne crime drama / Volga River native / Coal-rich area in Europe / Bird with red-eyed yellow-throated varieties

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: DECK OF CARDS (54A: Something with which you might do the actions at the ends of 20-, 27- and 45-Across) — pretty self-explanatory

Theme answers:

• 20A: 1977 Boz Scaggs hit ("LIDO SHUFFLE")
• 27A: Source of ground chuck (SHOULDER CUT)
• 45A: All-in-one offer (PACKAGE DEAL)

Word of the Day: SAAR (34A: Coal-rich area in Europe) —

The Saar Protectorate was a short-lived post-World War II protectorate (1947–56) partitioned from defeated Nazi Germany; it was administered by the French Fourth Republic. Since rejoining West Germany in 1957, it is the smallest Federal German Area State (Flächenland), the Saarland, not counting the city-states Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. It is named after the Saar River.

The region around the Saar River and its tributary valleys is a geographically folded, mineral rich, ethnically German, economically important, heavily industrialized area. It possesses well-developed transportation infrastructure that was one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution in Germany and formed, around 1900, from the Ruhr Area and the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, the third-largest area of coal, iron and steel industry in Germany. From 1920 to 1935, as a result of World War I, the region was under the League of Nations mandate of the Saar. Near the end of World War II it was heavily bombed by the Allies as part of their strategic bombing campaigns. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a simple theme—one that surely must have been done before. But I wonder if I (always) care about such things. I mean, if the theme answers feel fresh and the grid is solidly filled and you throw some nice big corners into the bargain (see, for example, this puzzle), maybe that's perfectly adequate for a Tuesday. Or maybe we should expect more than merely "adequate" from the NYX. At any rate, I had no strong objections to this puzzle. The theme seemed almost incidental—didn't really notice it, and I don't think it helped me get any of the answers (I somehow managed to remember the SHUFFLE part of "LIDO SHUFFLE" with only a cross or two, which is good, because otherwise I would've been singing the song to myself, in my head, for the rest of the solve, and since the word "SHUFFLE" appears precisely nowhere in the actual lyrics, such singing would've yielded nada except terminal earworm). I know virtually nothing about cuts of meat, so SHOULDER CUT was by far the hardest of the theme answers to come up with. In fact, off the "C" in "MCQ" (which I also mysteriously managed to remember), I'm pretty sure I wrote in COW as the last part of the ground chuck answer. There's nothing scintillating in the fill, but nothing too dire, either. This is a puzzle that would've been right at home in the mid-'90s, but it's a decent effort nonetheless


Where were the snags? Well, there weren't many. I started off with PEST at 1A: Constant nuisance (BANE), but ditched that after 1D: Big New Year's Day events pretty much demanded the answer of BOWLS (apparently there's a verrrrrry lopsided bowl game going on right now, as I type). I half-wanted TIBER at 43A: Volga River native (TATAR), but only because I had the "T" and "R" and obviously wasn't reading the clue clearly. Had an oddly hard time making sense of 64A: At least once (EVER). I had the whole thing before I realized how it worked. I am growing proud at my bird-retention—never heard of a VIREO before I started solving crosswords, and now it's right there in my back pocket, ready to go whenever a 5-letter bird ending in "O" is called for (31A: Bird with red-eyed and yellow-throated varieties). I semi-enjoyed the paired music genre clues (5D: Dance music genre (TECHNO) + 10D: Nondance music genre (EMO)). I had completely forgotten that Nicole KIDMAN won an Oscar for "The Hours." She should've won for "To Die For," in which she was Fantastic.




I like how EDMOND Hoyle is tucked in there, quietly overseeing the whole card game (25A: Hoyle of "Hoyle's Rules of Games").

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorldt

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1970 Freda Payne hit / TUE 11-20-12 / 51 ufologist's interest / Weekend publication since 1941 / Sampson of the 1980s-'90s NBA / Deputy Terrytoons character / Cannonball of jazz fame

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: (The Macy's Thanksgiving Day) PARADE — first words of theme answers are all associated with a PARADE

BALLOON PAYMENT (20A: Provision for ending many a mortgage)
FLOAT PLANE (35A: Aircraft with pontoons)
BAND OF GOLD (42A: 1970 Freda Payne hit) 
PARADE MAGAZINE (53A: Weekend publication since 1941)

Word of the Day: Cannonball ADDERLEY (38D: Cannonball of jazz fame) —

Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928 – August 8, 1975) was a jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. // Adderley is remembered for his 1966 single "Mercy Mercy Mercy", a crossover hit on the pop charts, and for his work with trumpeter Miles Davis, including on the epochal album Kind of Blue (1959). He was the brother of jazz cornetist Nat Adderley, a longtime member of his band. (wikipedia)

• • •

Unless I have the theme wrong and it's actually about the *last* words of the theme answers. Maybe a drug-smuggling puzzle (where MAGAZINE refers to the ammo-holding part of an automatic weapon)? But no, it's parade season (starting Thursday), so let's just stick with PARADE. This puzzle feels like a very sturdy, serviceable effort from 1987. I guess AOL (23A: 2011 Huffington Post purchaser) would have to put the puzzle somewhat later, but not much later. Let's say 1991, the year of Chris ISAAK's one big hit (which I will always associate with David Lynch's "Wild at Heart," because that's where I first heard it).

[26D: Chris with the 1991 hit "Wicked Game"]

Wait, I don't think Suze ORMAN was famous in 1991 (8D: Financial adviser Suze). OK, I take it all back—this puzzle is Totally contemporary.

I think the puzzle might have been slightly on the tough side for a Tuesday (though my time was pretty normal). I have heard "BAND OF GOLD" many times in my life, but that clue was gibberish to me. Freda Payne?! Weird that that name totally escaped me for, let's see, 42 years. I think I got it confused with "Wedding Bell Blues" by The Fifth Dimension (which was #1 on the day I was born—there's some Rex trivia for you). Anyway, between that clue and wanting TOOLA or LALAS or god knows what for LOORA (39D: Irish lullaby syllables), I had a slight slow-down in that AREA (2D: ___ 51 (ufologist's interest)). Everything else in the grid seemed like very standard crossword stuff—you got your ESTES and your EFTS and your ICE-T (and that's just the SE corner). Nothing offensive, nothing to write home about.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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"Hair" producer Joseph / WED 7-11-12 / ___ the Tentmaker / Depression-era agcy. / Org. for R.V. owners / The Plame affair, informally / "Giant Brain" of 1946

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: PRIMARY ENDS — The theme answers end with synonyms of primary. No wackiness ensues.

Word of the Day: DRAX (12D: "Moonraker" villain) —

Sir Hugo Drax is a fictional character created by author Ian Fleming for the James Bond novel Moonraker. Fleming named him after his friend, Sir Reginald Drax. In both versions of Moonraker, Drax is the main antagonist. Hugo Drax is a billionaire living in California in a château that was imported from France. He owns Drax Industries, which constructs space shuttles. An example of the Drax character's ruthlessness as portrayed in the film is given by the manner in which he disposes of enemies. Bond follows a trail around the world to investigate the theft of a space shuttle on loan to the UK by Hugo Drax, starting in California at Drax Industries, and following it to Italy, then to Brazil, then into space.

• • •

Hey there cruciverbalists! Greetings from Portland, Oregon where Summer is finally starting. It's your new Rex for a day Bret A. making my second appearance in CrossWorld. It's nice to be back for my second 15 seconds of micro-celebrity.

So about the puzzle... meh. The theme has been done and done and seems misplaced on a Wednesday. The theme answers are also completely flat. There is some trickyish cluing to try ratchet up the difficulty to Wednesday, but it doesn't quite get there. It's a 78-worder (the max word count for the NYT), and you definitely get the smooth grid you'd expect from such a high word count. There's no real junk in the grid, and the worst of it is easily inferrable. The longest non-theme answers are only 7 letters, but they are the most interesting in the grid, as it should be. It's a "Q" short of a pangram, so there's that. There's not a single "?" in any of the clues. No junk. No wackiness. No sparkle. Just meh. I was really hoping for something really good or really bad for my stay here. This is just... fine.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Joe Clark in "Lean on Me," e.g. (SCHOOL PRINCIPAL)
• 29A: Item on a superintendent's chain (SKELETON KEY)
• 48A: Ripe territory for pirates, once (SPANISH MAIN)
• 63A: Losing player in the first Super Bowl (KANSAS CITY CHIEF)

Hey, the MLB All-Star Game was in Kansas City tonight. INNING and RBI are down in that part of the grid too making for a mini baseball theme.

Bullets:

• 1A: Body part first transplanted in 2010 (FACE) — Actually, this was first done in the 1997 Travolta/Cage classic Face/Off.
• 15A: ___ the Tentmaker (OMAR) — If I had my way, this would always be clued with some sort of reference to "The Wire."
• 55A: Depression-era agcy. (NRA) — There's that cluing, trying to make this feel like a Wednesday. How about a clue like (Group of piece advocates?) It's still easy, might as well try to be funny. Or punny at least.
• 6D: Whisk broom-wielding official, for short (UMP) — More baseball!
• 25D: "99 Luftballons" singer (NENA) — Well, that's stuck in my head now. 

• 38D: "___ pig's eye!" (IN A) — This is the funniest thing in the grid. That's sad.
• 46D: Some steaks (RIBEYES) — Mets legend/broadcaster/"Seinfeld" guest star Keith Hernandez calls RBIs RIBEYES, and they cross in the grid. Sure, that's probably only interesting to me. But still, more baseball!

 

That's it for me. Rex will be home before you know it. Let everyone know how much you miss him in the comments. 

Signed, Bret Agins, HEPCAT of CrossWorld

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TV's hipster doofus / FRI 5-18-12 / 1997 #1 hit with nonsense title / Ticker with cachet / Retail giant mascots Red Ruff Blue Mews / Cartoon character who cries You eediot / 2006-08 heavyweight champion Maskaev

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: MR. RAKE — anagrams thereof

Word of the Day: OLEG Maskaev (60A: 2006-08 heavyweight champion Maskaev) —

Oleg Alexandrovich Maskaev (Russian: Олег Александрович Маскаев; born March 2, 1969, inZhambyl, Kazakh SSR) is a Russian professional boxer and a former WBC heavyweight champion. He is an ethnic Mordvin. [...] Oleg is known for his powerful right-hand punch: he has knocked out former WBO heavyweight challenger Derrick Jefferson, contender Alex Stewart, and twice knocked out former WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. However, he is also noted for a weak chin that was evident in his knockout losses to contenders Oliver McCall, David Tua, Kirk Johnson, Lance Whitaker, Corey Sanders and journeyman Nagy Aguilera. (wikipedia)

• • •

Flimsy excuse for a theme. Do a real themed puzzle or do a themeless? This puzzle's kind of stuck in no man's land. The cluing on it is very good, though, and tough in places. I wouldn't like "scrapper" or "bugger" in a grid, probably, but in the clues they were interesting, in that I wasn't quite sure at first what they were going for (11A: Many a bugger = SPY; 28D: Scrappers put them up = DUKES). I had no idea the cat and the dog in the PETCO logo had names (49D: Retail giant with the mascots Red Ruff and Blue Mews)! Clue on SPEECH, good (4D: Word chanted at a celebratory party); clue on ROLEX *killed* me, but it's good (40A: Ticker with cachet); I had the "X" but thought it must be some kind of exchange like NASDAQ ... only ending in "X." NYNEX? Is that something? Hmmm, a former northeastern telcom ... no, not what I was thinking. Anyway, that SW corner was the toughest for me by far. Had AVIA for MCAN (37A: Big name in footwear). Blew the ROLEX answer. Found clue on CALORIES remarkably hard (34D: What water lacks). Big issue down there was actually annoying cluing on all the short answers. I'm not big on clues where I know instantly what the clue is getting at but don't have enough information to make a choice. So, I knew instantly that it was UIE ... or UEY (58A: It's often illegal to hang one). Not "hard," just ... annoying. Same with the NL West clue (55A: N.L. West team, on scoreboards). I can name every team in in the NL West, but with no crosses ... I just wait. No way to get it otherwise. And again, with LES (61A: Article in the Louvre?)—I know all the "articles" in French, but ... there are several that are three letters long, so ... wait. Difficulty by clever cluing is better than difficulty by annoying vagueness, especially clustered annoying vagueness. To be clear, this is different from the vagueness of a clue like, say, [Point] (is it a dot? is it a location? the gist of something? what a free throw's worth? a verb meaning to indicate with the finger?). That kind of vagueness can be maddening, but also interesting. But the vagueness in the SW has no mystery, no surprise. I instantly surmise a limited set of possible answers, and then just wait around to figure out which one it is. UIE can't really be fixed, but ARI and LES could've had more specific clues.


Theme answers:

• 20A: It may be acknowledged with a slap (OFFENSIVE REMARK)
• 34A: TV's "doofus hipster" (COSMO KRAMER) — I was thinking of Bob Denver's character on "Dobie Gillis," who I now recall was named MAYNARD G. KREBS
• 51A: Bad tool for a toddler to find (PERMANENT MARKER)

I don't see how a SIDE TRIP is a "bonus" (63A: With 14-Across, cruise bonus). Did you not pay for it? Was it unexpected? That was odd to me. I messed up several answers initially, including PUTS down for MOWS down (5D: Routs, with "down"), and MMVI for MMII (6D: When the Salt Lake City Olympics took place). Wanted MACARENA for 5A: 1997 #1 hit with a nonsense title, but it wouldn't fit ("MMM BOP"). Had trouble getting from [Wish] to PLEASE and [Watch it] to SPECTATE, but there was nothing truly mysterious except *all the names in the SE corner*—never heard of any of 'em, not COLIN (50A: "9 to 5" director Higgins) or SARA (57A: Ramirez of "Grey's Anatomy") or OLEG (60A: 2006-08 heavyweight champion Maskaev). Yeesh. Still, managed to work it out in reasonable time.


That is all.

Just a reminder about the Crosswords LA tournament puzzles:

P.S. For anyone with an interest in solving the puzzles from this year's Crosswords LA tournament, they're now available online at http://alexboisvert.com/xwla/. They are certified Fantastic—I test-solved all of them.

For $5, you get six tournament crosswords (by Donna Levin, Aimee Lucido & Zoe Wheeler, Todd McClary, Trip Payne, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Byron Walden), two bonus crosswords (by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson), and a clever team game (by John Schiff). As always, proceeds from puzzle pack sales are donated to charity.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Chaiken co-creator/writer of The L Word / TUE 1-3-12 / Hitter of 511 career home runs / Baseball brothers George Ken / Fictional reporter Kent

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium (leaning toward Medium-Challenging)

THEME: Middleton and Jackson —two-word phrases where second word is an anagram of KATES

Word of the Day: EROSE (26D: Not even, as a leaf's edge) —

adj.
Irregularly notched, toothed, or indented: erose leaves.

[From Latin ērōsus, past participle of ērōdere, to gnaw off. See erode.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/erose#ixzz1iOeXeH2N

• • •

• Highlight: LORETTA! (25D: "Get back, ___ ... Go home" (Beatles lyric)) (also [Two-time All-Star second baseman Mark])
• Lowlight: ILENE (no offense to her personally, but she's an outlier here, fame-wise) (46A: ___ Chaiken, co-creator/writer of "The L Word")

Didn't think much of the theme, but LOVE the grid. It's essentially a themeless grid (i.e. low word-count, in this case 72) and from NE to SW corner, and particularly in the middle, it is very wide-open. I wasn't even sure where the theme answers were at first. Long Acrosses don't really jump out in a grid like this. Anyway, I'm impressed that a 72-worder can be Tuesday-easy. Maybe this was a *little* tougher than usual, but I was still well under 4, which is not outside my Tuesday norm at all. Hardest answer for me By Far was (irony!) MEL OTT (12D: Hitter of 511 career home runs), the crosswordiest baseball player of all (pace ALOU family). Simply was not expecting that answer to be anything except a single last name. "Who the hell is ... MELIOT? MELOIT? Who is this French Guy!!?" Had a little trouble up there also because I misspelled SELASSIE ("A" for "E" in that second slot), and then wrote in ABBOT for 16A: Often-consulted church figure (ELDER). I also had a little trouble getting into the SW because of a tenacious wrong answer at 45A: Expensive coat? (GILT). I had PELT, which works (or appears to work) for every cross but one—the "P"; if it hadn't been for the manifest wrongness of NEPLECTS (the last answer I got), I'd have finished with an error. As it was, I made an easy fix. Strange that I was willing to buy CUTEES as an appropriate spelling, but I was.


Theme answers:

• 17A: It goes in the ground at a campground (TENT STAKE)
• 24A: Four-wheeled wear (ROLLER SKATE)
• 35A: Tenderized cut of beef (MINUTE STEAK)
• 47A: "Huh ... what?" reactions (DOUBLE TAKES)
• 56A: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" poet (JOHN KEATS)
  

Speaking of MELOTT, this was an über-basebally puzzle, with a double dose of MELOTT (see also GIANT), and then a double double dose of baseball baseball brother brothers. There should be some way to clue the fact that you will only have heard of one of the brothers. George BRETT is a Hall-of-Famer active during my prime baseball fan years (ages 8-14), his brother... ? (22D: Baseball brothers George and Ken) Joe TORRE is the legendary Yankee manager. Frank ... ? (52A: Baseball brothers Joe and Frank)

[10D: Fictional reporter Kent]

Beware the CARROT ID of Jennifer ANISE-TON! It's an orange, licoricey nightmare!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Flying Cloud maker / SAT 11-19-11 / Old shippable shelter / Sea bream in sushi bar / Faux amateurs / For Laughing Out Loud memorist / Brand of literature

Constructor: Allan E. Parrish

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: McPeople — A pair of intersecting Mc- names in each quadrant of the grid

Word of the Day: ETESIAN (13D: Like some annual Mediterranean winds) —

adj.
Occurring annually. Used of the prevailing northerly summer winds of the Mediterranean.

[From Latin etēsius, from Greek etēsios, from etos, year.]

etesian e·te'sian n.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/etesian#ixzz1e7OCpPHJ

• • •

This played Easy-Medium for me, but I can tell from the times at the NYT website that I'm in the minority, and I understand why. If I didn't teach a course on comics, and thus have at least a passing familiarity with the name George MCMANUS, I don't know what would've happened to me in that (deathly) NE corner. That thing was its own puzzle. Both Mc's were phenomenally obscure / old. Old-timey intersecting Old-timey coupled with ETESIAN intersecting NISI (!?!?) (22A: Like some divorce decrees) coupled with "The CID" ("The" When is it ever not "El"!?!?!) (10D: Alfonso VI exiled him, with "the") coupled with TAI (31A: Sea bream, in a sushi bar) — that's a recipe for trouble. I was bailed out several times in this puzzle by personal and/or puzzling experience. I'd seen [Flying Cloud maker] in puzzles before (REO). I know NISI is a Latin legal word, so even though the context here was baffling to me, I got it ("S" = last letter into the grid). IPO and CLU and EMU (33D: Noted six-foot runner) were all gimmes (cluing / answer length on IPO and EMU were dead giveaways). Biggest luck-out, besides the MCMANUS thing, was QUONSET (40D: Old shippable shelter), which I know about only from stumbling on it in some other crossword. Misspelled it QUINSET, but figured LOINS was probably not another word for [Fruitcakes], and fixed it. I thought figuring out the MC- theme would make this thing a piece of cake, and it certainly helped, but the cluing got ratcheted up enough to offset the McHelp.



Theme answers:

• MCGWIRE (1A: Cardinal making many round trips) — nice clue
  
• MCCOURT (1D: 1997 Pulitzer-winning memoirist)
• MCCAREY (?) (8A: "Going My Way" Best Director winner)
• MCMANUS (8D: George ___, "Bringing Up Father" cartoonist)
• MCQUEEN (38A: The King of Cool)
• MCCLAREN (?) (38D: Formula One racing legend Bruce)
• MCMAHON (42D: "For Laughing Out Loud" memoirist)
• MCBRIDE (42A: Martina with five #1 country hits) — by far the easiest of the Mc's to get
  

[29D: 1978 Grammy winner for the jazz album "Friends"] 
Not that fond of CARSON'S or its clue (17A: "___ Comedy Classics" (syndicated TV series)); I've never seen / heard of this alleged series. Is it still on? I assume it's something to do with Johnny Carson. Yes, here you go. It's a terrible partial, is what I'm saying. MADAMES isn't the greatest plural, but it saved my neck in the NE, so no complaints (18A: Pompadour and others). I was frustrated that I couldn't get the second half of either ICE- or RAIL- during my first pass at them (28A: Producer of a chilling effect + 47A: Track team member?). My brain actually went to COLA and CONE (?) before CUBE. The "Carmen" clue is mean-spirited, of course, but once I got the "CE-" I figure out what it was after. TAI was rough, though I know I've seen it before. BECCA, also rough (30D: Daughter on ABC's "Life Goes On"). That's going way back for a secondary TV character from a never-that-popular show. No idea who Baal Shem Tov is, but I had enough crosses to make HASIDIC pretty easy (61A: Like Baal Shem Tov's sect). Can't for the life of me remember who ETHAN Brand is. I wanted ELTON, but he plays basketball. Well, I guess I can be forgiven, since it's from a Nathaniel Hawthorne short story. One that I didn't read in college, apparently (20A: Brand of literature). My favorite clue / answer of the day was RINGERS (24D: Faux amateurs). I don't have a good explanation for why.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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