Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Chinese-American virtuoso cellist

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Ohio — Phrases that begin with the exclamation "OH"

"OH, BY THE WAY" 16A: "Incidentally..."
"OH COME NOW" (10D: "Let's be serious here ...")
"OH MY GOD!" (38A: "Holy cow!")
"OH, BROTHER" (32D: "You've gotta be joking!")
"OH, FORGET IT" (61A: "Never mind")

Word of the Day: RONZONI (42D: Packaged pasta brand) —

In 1881, a young boy emigrated from the small fishing village of San Fruttuoso, Italy, to the United States. His name would become synonymous with a kitchen cupboard staple and one of the most recognized brands in America: RONZONI. // Emanuele Ronzoni was in his teens when he got started in the macaroni trade in New York. Just eleven years after arriving in the U.S., he launched his own small macaroni company with a partner and, later, joined forces with two others to create the Atlantic Macaroni Company in Queens, NY. // In 1915, he went into business on his own, starting the company that still bears his name, the Ronzoni Macaroni Company. By the time World War I ended, RONZONI and its famous Genoa-style, or fancy-cut shaped noodles, had firmly established itself as one of the best-known brands in the east. [...] Today, RONZONI is part of the New World Pasta family of brands, a leading dry pasta manufacturer in the United States. New World Pasta brands include Ronzoni® Healthy Harvest®, Ronzoni® Smart Taste® and Ronzoni Garden Delight®. (http://ronzoni.newworldpasta.com/pasta_story.cfm)

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This is good. Five fresh phrases, rock-solid fill. Not sure why this is so hard to do, but it is. Not much resistance, so having the solving experience punctuated by exclamations was a nice way to liven things up. A few answers might have posed some problems, however minor. I'm guessing a sizable contingent of you aren't terribly familiar with the work of DENNY McLain (36A: 1968 A.L. M.V.P. and Cy Young winner ___ McLain), though as you can see from the clue, he pretty much owned 1968, baseball-wise. Tigers (McLain's team) won the World Series that year in an epic battle with the Bob Gibson-led Cardinals (Gibson was the N.L. M.V.P. that year, and absolutely destructive that year—I mean, a 1.12 ERA???? Complete games in Games 1, 4, *and* 7 of the World Series!?!? There is a reason that man is my favorite pitcher of all time). Where was I? Oh (OH) yeah, DENNY requires being a baseball fan or being reasonably old for it to be a gimme. PRAT is not a word I've ever seen (I swear) outside crosswords (68A: Rear end). GAFFS is kind of a specialty word (51D: Large fishing hooks). And RONZONI is whatever RONZONI is—that's the only word in the puzzle that was a total mystery to me. But it's Monday and crosses were a cinch.

["There's more to me than you'll ever know / And I got more hits than Sadaharu ___!"]

So PRAT caused a wee slow-down, and I wrote in GAFFE for GAFFS for some reason, and then NO FAT for LO FAT (64A: Like much diet food, informally). Besides those issues, and RONZONI, there was only one breakdown—I wrote in TWOS for 30A: Pairs and immediately had this strange feeling of dread—didn't I just see this clue, and didn't I just write in TWOS? Yes. Crosses wouldn't work and so I had to do some writing over to get DUOS. I like PERP (43A: Suspect, in cop lingo), YO-YO MA (8D: Chinese-American virtuoso cellist) and TOO BAD in the grid (19A: Response of sympathy). I like "THE HELP" in the grid, too, though I really Really doubt I would've liked it in the theater. Not much else to say today. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld