Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Cloud producer for short

Constructor: Ian Livengood and J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: CHRISTMAS / BONUS (57A: With 63-Across, extra holiday pay ... or what's in 17-, 22-, 34- and 45-Across)— DESCRIPTION

Word of the Day: Michio ITO (20A: Dancer/choreographer Michio) —

Michio Itō (1892-1961) was a Japanese dancer, and choreographer, an associate of William Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, Angna Enters, Isamu Noguchi, Louis Horst, Ted Shawn, Martha Graham,Lillian Powell, Vladimir Rosing, Pauline Koner, Lester Horton and others. He was interned and eventually deported from the United States after the outbreak of World War II. (wikipedia)

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I have had people—readers of this blog, in fact—get legitimately offended by my use of "XMAS" as shorthand for "CHRISTMAS," so it is with some amount of glee that I solved this puzzle. I'm just imagining dozens of the indignant and easily-offended faithful firing up their AOL accounts to dash off a miffed missive to the heathens at the NYT. Or maybe there are only a couple of cranks in the world who get offended by that kind of stuff and they both just happened to read and email me on the day I used "XMAS.' Who can say? Anyway, I like this puzzle. It was simple and interesting, and the grid is pretty cool. I don't know how many people it took to make this (or how they're getting paid; let's see, $200 divided by ...), but the end result holds up. Nice use of non-theme long answers (both Across and Down), nice big corners in the NE and SW, nice timely puzzle, all with a minimum of gunk. Well, not a minimum. But not an abundance, either.

Theme answers:

17A: Gamer's midday meal? (XBOX LUNCH)
22A: Working hours for director Shyamalan? (M. NIGHT SHIFT) — this is a little clunky
34A: N.Y.C. subway line in one's imagination? (A-TRAIN OF THOUGHT)
45A: Bozo in a big Mercedes? (S CLASS CLOWN)

Got off to a decent start with this one. Wanted EERIE at 1A: Hair-raising but crossword reflexes told me 1D: Old German duchy name was SAXE, so EERIE became SCARY pretty quick. Left the NW in my rearview mirror, with the parting observation, "hmm, CAN'T I / INCOG / ATH is less than great..." Luckily, no other part of the puzzle would be that densely packed with junk. The one problem I had—and it threatened to be a big one—was with the cross-referenced clues at 21A: Villains in the "28-Down" films, e.g. (SICKOS) and 28D: See 21-Across ("SAW"). Never saw any of the "SAW"s, so I don't know if SICKOS is the literal name of the villains or just a generic catchall for the particular type of villains involved. Got SICKOS entirely from crosses, and then when I got over to where "SAW" was supposed to be, I wasn't sure of the "A" or the "W." I wanted "SAW," because it is the only three-letter horror film I can think of, and the "A" fit in the cross, but the "W" was hard to make work. Even when I (finally) got WEE, I didn't get the connection to [Atomic] at first. Then I thought, "oh, they mean [Atom-sized]." And so they did.

Bullets:

13D: Cloud producer, for short (N TEST) — a non-Christmas bonus. I thought "Cloud" was computer-related at first.
43D: Japanese or Javanese (ASIANS) — the plural here fooled me. Wanted ASIAN, but then gave it up 'cause it wouldn't fit. But then it really was ASIAN. Just with an "S" on the end.
48D: Umpire of Hamlet's fencing match with Laertes (OSRIC) — an oddly useful name to have in your quiver. He makes an appearance in one of my NYT puzzles (I think). Not a high-profile name, but a crossword-useful name, to be sure.
52D: French town in '44 news (ST-LO) — like OSRIC, N-TEST, SAXE, etc. this answer is next-to-autmoatic for a constant solver.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld