MON 10-6-14 / Bobby of 1950s-'60s pop / Cheri formerly of "S.N.L." / Citi Field player for short / Lime-flavored cocktail

Hello CrossWorld!!! I'm Annabel, a Maryland high school senior and total newbie to this whole crosswording thing. You might remember me from this July, when Rex's BFFs were unavailable (read: forgot) to blog and so I had to step in. I loved the whole experience and emailed Rex, letting him know I would be available to blog on any Monday that he needed me. To my surprise, he told me he would be willing to let me blog on a semi-regular basis, because as you may know by now, Rex hates Mondays. So, here I will be on the first Monday of every month! YAY!!!!

Here I am in a Dalek hat.

Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: MEDIUM for me, but like I said, I'm still a newbie.

THEME: MISSIN' G — The five theme clues all were -ING words without the G.

Word of the Day: OAS (13A: Western Hemisphere treaty grp.) —
The Organization of American States (Spanish: Organización de los Estados Americanos, Portuguese: Organização dos Estados Americanos, French: Organisation des États Américains), or the OAS or OEA, is an inter-continental organization founded on 30 April 1948, for the purposes of regional solidarity and cooperation among its member states. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS's members are the 35 independent states of the Americas.
Since 26 May 2005, the Secretary General of OAS has been José Miguel Insulza.
In the words of Article 1 of the Charter, the goal of the member nations in creating the OAS was "to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence".

(Wikipedia)

• • •

This one took me 20 minutes, and yes, as you can see, I cheated on 14A/4D. (I had GETS and OGE, respectively. No, I don't have any idea what OGE means, but I reasoned, maybe it's a New York thing?) I thought pressing "Check" would just tell me whether I solved the puzzle or not, rather than tell me which squares were wrong, but alas...

(kind of like me driving)

Loved loved loved the theme! Anything that can make me hum "Puttin' on the Ritz," "Movin' Out" and then "Singin' in the Rain" is certainly a plus in my eyes...in fact, most of these turned out to be pretty good songs. (I say "most." Sorry Eagles.) To be honest, before I got the answers to the theme clues I assumed that "missing" meant these were actually missing works - IMA (63A: "___ changed man!") bit slow to the uptake, eh? At least once I did get the answers, I figured it out!

Hmmm, wonder how hard it would be to play all these songs on the OBOE (4A: Cousin of a clarinet)?

Theme answers:

• 17A: 1975 Eagles hit about a woman having an affair (LYIN'EYES)
• 24A: Title hit of a 1952 Gene Kelly musical (SINGIN'INTHERAIN)
• 47A: 1930 Harry Richman hit whose title describes ostentatious living (PUTTIN'ONTHERITZ)
• 59A: 1978 Billy Joel hit that gave its name to a 2002 Broadway musical (MOVIN'OUT)
• 36A: Lost...or, in two words, an apt description of 17-, 24-, 47- and 59-Across (MISSIN'G) 

 I really found this theme to be super-duper...


Bullets:

• SRS (58D: Class older than jrs.) — YAY CLASS OF 2015!

• AROAR (10D: Loud, as in a crowd) — All I can say is, what a gorgeous word. I'm going to try to use it in a sentence every day this week. "The house was aroar when the Orioles SWEPT the Tigers last night - sorry, Rex."

Interestingly, Autocorrect does not believe "aroar" is a word. Then again, it seems to not believe "Autocorrect" is a word.

• REBELS (57A: Antigovernment force) —There are a lot of places this is relevant right now, but this is a crossword blog, not a political blog, so I'm biting my tongue. On that note: LES MIS!

• CHEMISTRY (12D: Element-ary school subject?)  — YAY PUNS! Wow, I have been saying "yay" a lot in this writeup. EXCITABLE (31D: Easily enthused) much?

Seriously, thank you REX (35A: Tyrannosaurus) for giving me this opportunity! While you will always be the king, I will aspire to someday become, at least, the democratic leader of a small principality in CrossWorld. Signed, Annabel, tired high school student

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Actress Graff / MON 7-19-10 / Location in Donizetti opera / Environmentalist in Dr. Seuss story / Citi Field player for short

Constructor: David Blake

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: -MORE "rhymes" — even though "MORE" rhymes with only one of these endings ...


Word of the Day: LAMMERMOOR (62A: Location in a Donizetti opera) —

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor. The opera premiered on September 26, 1835 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Donizetti revised the score for a French version which debuted on August 6, 1839 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris. The story concerns a feud between two families, the Ashtons and the Ravenswoods. When the opera begins, the Ashtons are in the ascendancy and have taken possession of Ravenswood Castle, the ancestral home of their rivals. Edgardo (Sir Edgar), Master of Ravenswood and last surviving member of his family, has been forced to live in a lonely tower by the sea, known as the Wolf's Crag. The Ashtons, despite their success, are threatened by changing political and religious forces. Enrico (Lord Henry Ashton) hopes to gain the protection of the important Arturo (Lord Arthur Bucklaw) to whom he intends to marry his sister Lucia. (wikipedia)

• • •

As rhyming goes, this is pretty (read: very) inexact stuff, but the lively (mostly proper noun) theme answers make for a very interesting grid indeed. That LAMMERMOOR / AMALIE (47D: Charlotte ___, capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands) / ILENE (65A: Actress Graff) bit alone make this a bit gnarlier than the average Monday. Also thought the clue on RIVALS (48D: Coke and Pepsi, e.g.) was pretty tricky. Not the word that first comes to mind. COLAS? SODAS? Etc. Not RIVALS (though clearly, they are, in fact, RIVALS). [Michigan and Ohio State, e.g.] I'd have gotten right away. But I'm not complaining; just explaining the (relative) difficulty ranking today. JAY MOHR is certainly crossworthy, but not a household name for a lot of you, probably. BENJAMIN MOORE is familiar, though my mind went "SHERWIN-WILLIAMS" and then went blank. I have never seen ENDIVES before (49A: Salad greens), but that's one of the few really fishy answers in the grid (see also REEDIT—57A: Go over again with a blue pencil). Longer stuff is really lovely, esp. POLEMICAL (3D: Tending to cause an argument) next to SILLY ME (4D: Words before "And here I thought ..."). PLETHORA too, and I have a soft spot for the word STEVEDORE (34D: Longshoreman)—no idea where I got that! So I was entertained, even though the theme seems awfully flimsy.

Speaking of ENDIVES (i.e. odd plurals), when we got back from our walk in the woods with the dogs today, I looked over and noticed that the treats we've been giving the dogs lately are called PURE BITES. Before she could get out of the car I said, "Hey honey, you know what that anagrams to?" Her: "Tell me." Me: "PUBERTIES!" Her: "I love being married to you." I think I detected a *slight* tone of mockery in that last bit. Less adoring wife, more patient woman humoring man with persistent and only occasionally amusing behavioral disorder.

Theme answers:

• 17A: "Yes, go on" ("TELL ME MORE")
  
• 24A: 1969 Stevie Wonder hit ("MY CHERIE AMOUR")
  
• 38A: Former host of TV's "Last Comic Standing" (JAY MOHR)
  
• 51A: Big name in paint (BENJAMIN MOORE)
  
• 62A: Location in a Donizetti opera (LAMMERMOOR)
  

Bullets:

• 15A: Environmentalist in a Dr. Seuss story (LORAX) — blanked. Wanted HORTON.
  
• 19A: William ___, Hopalong Cassidy player (BOYD) — I'm sure I've seen this clue before, and I'm equally sure it made no difference today. Blanked. BOYD is a character on the fantastic F/X drama "Justified":

• 33A: Famed '50s flop (EDSEL) — this, I knew. I appreciate the alliterative cluing.
  
• 9D: University attended by J.K. Rowling (EXETER) — I had no idea. And I thought EXETER was the equivalent of high school. EXETER Academy. Crap, that's probably a U.S. prep school. Yep, Phillips Exeter Academy. Never mind.
  
• 12D: Louisiana waterway (BAYOU) — balked at this one, as I always think of BAYOU as swamp, i.e. not moving, i.e. not a "way" to anywhere in particular. Seems I'm mistaken.
  
• 61D: Card game based on matching groups of three (SET) — never heard of it or seen anyone play it. I know I've encountered it in xwords, but since it's a perfectly ordinary word, it never sticks as a game. Unlike NIM. Bah.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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