Virginia-born Pulitzer Prize novelist of 1942 / MON 4-19-10 / Theme song of bandleader Vincent Lopez / Greek portico / Auto financing inits

Constructor: Randy Sowell

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Screw Edinburgh" — Theme answers are people whose last names are European capitals, except ELLEN GLASGOW, whose last name is just a big city



Word of the Day: ELLEN GLASGOW (33A: Virginia-born Pulitzer Prize novelist of 1942) —

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873-November 21, 1945) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist. Born in Richmond, VA, she published her first novel, The Descendant, in 1897, when she was 24 years old. With this novel, Glasgow began a literary career encompassing four and a half decades that comprised 20 novels, a collection of poems, short stories, and a book of literary criticism. Her autobiography, A Woman Within, appeared posthumously in 1954. (wikipedia)

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This felt way harder than the average Monday puzzle, but my final time suggests it was only slightly harder (3:37). Any time you've *never heard of* half the theme answers and still get in and out in anywhere close to your average time, you should consider yourself lucky, I guess. HAROLD ROME has a vague ring of familiarity to it, but ELLEN GLASGOW? No way. I got nothing. Picked up her last name because I saw the theme (this *rarely* happens on Mondays — using the theme to solve the puzzle ... usually just going too fast). She's out of place here, not just in terms of contemporary fame (I'm guessing ROME has some fame among Broadway aficionados), but in terms of her name not being like the others. Not a capital. This puzzle feels old-fashioned, not just in terms of its content (all people whose fame was achieved over 60 years ago), but in terms of its theme type. Last names are all cities ... yawn. This theme *has* to have been done before, somewhere, by someone, possibly (probably) in the days before databases started being kept. Fill is OK. I will remember the name ELLEN GLASGOW, so I guess that's something. Coincidence: I did this puzzle immediately after reading a review of the new biography of Muriel Spark (an actual famous writer). She was born in ... Edinburgh.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Broadway lyricist/composer who wrote "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" (HAROLD ROME)
  
• 33A: Virginia-born Pulitzer Prize novelist of 1942 (ELLEN GLASGOW)
  
• 42A: "God Bless America" composer (IRVING BERLIN)
  
• 61A: "The Call of the Wild" author (JACK LONDON)
  

You hear an ECHO when you say "Anybody home?" How big is your damned house? I don't mind a couple of partials in a 15x15 grid, but I wish they didn't both have "ON" in them (see ON OR, ON A). Oh, but I guess there are Many more partials, technically (A CASE, A LA, A TO, yeesh). I think of WOLFMAN (5D: One who changes for during a full moon) as a specific character (owned by Universal) — the general term is, of course, WEREWOLF. [Dweebs] => TWERPS doesn't quite compute for me. I'm not quite up on my bandleaders of the '20s-'30s, so "NOLA" was all from crosses (24D: Theme song of bandleader Vincent Lopez). There were also many times when I just misfired: FDIC for GMAC (10D: Auto financing inits.), MISTER for SISTER (55A: "You said it, ___!"), MYNAH for MACAW (1A: Noisy bird), and, most pathetically, ADAZE for WOOZY (7D: Mentally unclear).

Bullets:

• 29A: Gas log fuel (PROPANE) — I looked at this clue and couldn't make anything of it. It was like three random words were having a tea party. Didn't get that "gas log" was one unit.
  
• 50A: Japanese site of the 1972 Winter Olympics (SAPPORO) — Saw only the "Japanese" part of the clue and filled it in (had a few crosses in place). Thought clue might have read [Japanese beer], which is how I know SAPPORO. Oh, I also know it because of the common OBI clue [SAPPORO sash].
  
• 35D: Is low around the waist, as pants (SAGS) — didn't like this because a. the phrasing on the clue is just awkward ("Is low...?"), and b. it's not really true — "low" pants aren't even close to the waist. They're down the hips or (on some young men) even lower.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Currie who wrote Parliamentary Affair — WEDNESDAY, Dec. 9 2009 — Famed Chicago livestock owner / Ancient Greek portico / Buchanan's predecessor

Constructor: Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: NEW WORLD ORDER (38A: Shake-up in the global balance of power ... and a hint to the circled letters) — letters in "WORLD" are reordered inside four theme answers

Word of the Day: EDWINA Currie (2D: Currie who wrote Parliamentary Affair) — Edwina Currie née Cohen (born 13 October 1946) is a former British Member of Parliament. First elected as a Conservative Party MP in 1983, she was a Junior Health Minister for two years, before resigning in 1988 over the controversy over salmonella in eggs. By the time Currie lost her seat in 1997, she had begun a new career as a novelist and broadcaster. [...] As part of the 2009 TV Show Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Currie teamed up with Declan Donnelly and two other celebrities to release a cover version of the Wham hit song, "Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)". [She also had a four-year affair with former Prime Minister John Major!]

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Well, nut-job conspiracy theorists will Love today's puzzle. I've heard the phrase NEW WORLD ORDER from exactly two sources: 1. George H.W. Bush talking about his vision of a world where diverse cultures live peaceably among one another, and 2. Paranoid crackpots who think the U.N. is going to take our guns and women and force us into gulags. The latter loves loves loves to cite the former's speeches as "evidence" of the global conspiracy to undermine American sovereignty. Just go to youtube and search "new world order" — hard to find a vid that *isn't* posted by NWO conspiracy theorists. Here's one (of many):



So now the NWO believers have a puzzle they can add to their pile of "evidence" that they're being watched by Big Brother. It's a sign! A sign! Call Dan Brown.

Puzzle skewed harder-than-usual for me for reasons that don't quite add up, frankly. Idea for this puzzle is cute enough, but SWORD LILY!? Yikes. Not in my vocabulary. That and EDWINA whoever-she-is tore me up in the NW and made this a slightly slower-than-usual Wednesday. SUDS and HASPED weren't helping me out much up there either. Don't like the clue on "SUDS" bec. clue is plural (5D: Some cold ones) but SUDS isn't really plural, or rather it is, but kind of in that way ALMS is plural, in that you would never see a single SUD / ALM. So BEERS are SUDS? I like SUDS for BEER, but not [Cold ones]. HASPED is fine, just odd (1D: Latched, in way). Rest of puzzle wasn't nearly as much of a problem.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Gladiolus (sWORD Lily)
• 23A: They're usually aimed at heads (bLOW DRyers) — found this clue nice and tough, actually
• 53A: Need a nap (feeL DROWsy) — Had INLETS for ISLETS (48D: Keys) and wondered what it meant too FEEL DROWNY. Probably not a good feeling.
• 63A: It's done outside a lab (fieLD WORk) — took a long time to see; not a phrase we have much call for in the Humanities ...

Kind of rough going in the SE as well. Went with STREP for STAPH (49A: Health menace, briefly), which slowed things down a bit there. ANIONS was a gimme and forced STREP out almost as soon as it was in, but with the RenFest diction (LANCE! HARKED!) and the randomish Roman numeral (59D: Year the Vandals sacked Rome, CDLV), that corner didn't GEL (7D: Solidify) as quickly as I would have liked. Sometimes I wonder how things like ANIONS and STOA (32A: Ancient Greek portico) and AXILLA (6D: Armpit) became outright gimmes for me, and yet I still can't spell EWW (29D: "How disgusting!"). I figured the vowel sound needed to be elongated, so I had EEW. That left me with EON for 33A: Captured, which left me thinking "... ??? ... that's not a valid clue for EON."

Bullets:

• 20A: Spic and Span competitor (Pinesol) — I find the smell kind of nauseating.
• 8D: Joseph _____, who lent his name to some ice cream (Edy) — clue is oddly loose and casual. "Some ice cream?" "Hey kid, you know that cone you got in your hand — his name's 'Joseph' now. Say hi to Joseph kid ... say it!" Actually, you can't call him an "ice cream maker," as EDY was technically a confectioner — hence (probably) the odd, loose cluing here.
• 26D: Jet engine's output (roar) — yeah, true enough. Kind of a groaner, but valid.
• 38D: Roger Maris, for the Yankees (nine) — with respect, there is one number NINE (my favorite number), and his name isn't Roger.

• 41D: The Pistons, on the scoreboard (DET) — apparently Magic has some stuff to say about Isiah (one of the greatest DETroit Pistons of all time) in his new book (with Larry Bird), which my mom got me for my birthday. Can't wait til semester is over so I can finally read it.
• 46: Famed Chicago livestock owner (O'Leary) — her cow and the lantern and the barn etc.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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