Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Coastal plunger

Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: EURE (48D: River at Chartres) —

The Eure is a river in northern France, left tributary of the Seine. It rises at Marchainville in theOrne département and joins the Seine near Pont-de-l'Arche. Two départements are named after the Eure, namely Eure and Eure-et-Loir. (wikipedia)

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Indulge your 15 fetish if you've got one. I don't, but if you do ... have some.

No idea what TRACTION ENGINES are (36A: Road locomotives) or what a PHILIPPINE EAGLE looks like (10D: Southeast Asian soarer), and I generally just call BINOCULAR VISION "vision" (3D: Aid in judging distances). I like ERIC THE RED on DINAH SHORE (14A: Icelandic saga subject + 17A: "Chantez-Chantez" singer, 1957), but there's not much interesting about the rest. Impressive grid, ordinary fill (with some dips into less-than-ordinary). I am making a ton of costly mistakes lately. Today's was GMAT for LSAT (a very, very stupid mistake, given letter likelihood) (21A: It's taken by some coll. seniors). This kept both long Downs in the east hidden for too long. Also could do nothing with the central 15s, despite having first five letters of each in place. AIR CONDITIONERS should've been obvious (37A: Runners often seen in windows). No idea what was going on there. The other two I understand, but AIR CONDITIONERS ... that should've fallen. Couldn't remember SATINS (23D: The Five ___, 1950s million-selling doo-wop group), couldn't get HENIE (29D: "Iceland" star, 1942) or PETE (33D: Rose family member) from the clues, initially. Bah, this should've been much easier than it was. Not much else to say.

Bullets:

1A: "I'm a Survivor" sitcom ("REBA") — is that the theme song. I've never seen even a second of that show.
5A: "West Side Story" girlfriend (ANITA) — if not MARIA, then, ANITA.

25A: Class Notes subject, informally (ALUM) — no idea what "Class Notes" is. Google is no help and I don't really care.
27A: "___ Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" (Bach cantata) ("ACH") — never heard of it. Guessed it eventually.
40A: Idaho motto opener (ESTO) — gotta love the state motto opener clues.
43A: Norman with a legendary swing (GREG) — Like AIR CONDITIONERS, this is one I really should've gotten much more quickly.
2D: Journalist Burnett of 55-Down (ERIN) — got it from crosses. Heard of her. Had the ERI- and ruled out ERIC (which this answer crosses). Never looked at 55-Down (CNN).
1D: Hester Prynne's stigma (RED A) — pretty sure it's scarlet, but OK.
34D: Waldorf-Astoria muralist (SERT) — wrote in ERTE then realized I'd confused my crosswordesey mid-century artists.
42D: Spyder rival (MIATA) — so the Spyder's a car ... I'm guessing. Yes. Actually, lots of cars.
15D: Director Angelopoulos who won the 1988 Palme d'Or (THEO) — The film was "Eternity and a Day." Yeah, I haven't seen it either. THEO is also Kojak's first name.