Gershwin biographer David / SUN 1-26-14 / Merry Drinker painter / Back to Future villains / Li'l Abner's surname / Funeral delivery of old / Movie director who was himself subject of 1994 movie / Title girl Chuck Berry hit / Pop singer Del Rey / Cynic Bierce

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "It's All Relative" — Cross-referenced clues (stacked one atop the other) make sense only in reference to each other, i.e. based on their position relative to one another, you (the solver) have to supply the word [under] or [over] to make sense of one part of each answer pair.

THUS … :

• 51D: 3-Down, relatively (BEWITCHED) … which is (literally) [under] A SPELL (3D)
• 6D: 73-Down, relatively (NO WAY, JOSÉ) … which is (literally) [over] MY DEAD BODY (73D)
• 52D: 8-Down, relatively (FEELING THE HEAT) … which is (literally) [under] THE GUN (8D)
• 12D: 93-Down, relatively ("TALK TO YOU LATER") … which is (literally) [over] AND OUT (93D)
• 82D: 14-Down, relatively (SHELTERED) … which is (literally) [under] LOCK AND KEY (14D)
• 42D: 95-Down, relatively (EXCESSIVE) … which is (literally) [over] THE TOP (95D)

Word of the Day: ELOGE (99D: Funeral delivery of old) —

n. a virtual theater seat (I assume)

• • •

Wow. I'm not sure there's a puzzle that better exemplifies the discrepancy between concern for theme and concern for fill than this one. Essentially, if your theme passes muster, you can put virtually anything you want in your grid and no one is going to say 'boo.' This is a clever and ambitious theme, but the fill is hilariously bad in many, many places. I say "hilariously" not figuratively (with some kind of dismissive sneer in my voice), but literally, as in "I literally laughed out loud at how bad this fill was—multiple times, LOL, for real." I knew things were Not going to go well in the NW (this is often the case, i.e. I can tell from the NW corner alone how good/bad the entire puzzle is going to be, fill-wise). LAICAL just hurts (more than LAIC, even), as did PIS, ONAN, and esp. KAS. But that's not exactly unusual in its mediocrity. Certainly not sub-NYT at this point. But then I hit TREELET and the wheels came off (55A: Sapling). That answer made me laugh so hard I almost didn't see ODI (!?). TREELET appeared once in a puzzle 13 years ago. Lord knows what *that* guy's excuse was. Hee hee. TREELET. Rich.


And here's the thing—it's a shame. Because as Annoying as I find extensive use of cross-referencing in clues (esp. theme clues), in the end, this theme was imaginative, and air tight. Nice symmetrical alteration between "under" and "over" phrases. Good. But this should've been sent back for refilling. The south is probably the worst part—the part that best exemplifies how shoddy the fill is. EWEN is bad, in that it's an obscure proper noun, but let's say any given section can have a clunker like that. But Right Next to ELOGE? What kind of antiquated nonsense is that. Again, database says some guy used it once (7 years ago), so … fair game! Better care and craft could minimize this arcane / bygone / anything-goes nonsense. But somebody, Somebody, has got to overrule the computer. SLIGO? SEHR? Again, it's not that any one of these answers shouldn't be permissible. It's the constant onslaught of foreign or antiquated or partial stuff that significantly detracts from the pleasure one should be having piecing together this more-than-decent theme. My friend recently made the following chart, and it is crude and unfair, but it gets at a certain general truth:

There is no polishing going on. There is accepting and rejecting based on whether a theme "tickles," but there is nothing between us and IRED, ERSE, etc. A smattering of that stuff is tolerable. A spate, however, is just too much.

The Puzzle of the Week this week was a tough call, with a cute "Monster Under the BED" puzzle by Matt Jones (Jonesin' Crosswords) and a genuinely astonishing, NSFW themeless by independent constructor Peter Broda (The Cross Nerd). But the winner by a nose was Doug Peterson for his Newsday "Saturday Stumper" (themeless). Sunday through Friday, Newsday produces a solid, easy themed puzzle, but on Saturday, woooo look out! Fill gets much more ambitious and the clue difficulty goes to 11. The great thing about Doug's puzzle was how *clever* the hard clues were. [It might cover your elbows] is PASTA SAUCE, [Something found around a tree] is SHOE, [Grades above 86, typically] is OCTANES. Over and over again, the clues fake right and go left. The fill is smooth as hell. I mean "Put Most Themelesses To Shame" smooth, while sacrificing nothing in the way of interesting longer answers (HAD KITTENS, "MARIO PARTY," VOODOO DOLL, etc.). I just love solving Doug's puzzles generally. Always smart, funny, clever—*enjoyable*. No cheapness anywhere. Pick up his book of Easy puzzles here ("Easy as ABC Crosswords"), and check out the Newsday "Saturday Stumper" every Saturday (available, like so many puzzles, via Amy's "Today's Puzzles" page).

In case you missed it, here's my review of Ben Tausig's recent book "The Curious History of the Crossword," which appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Read it here.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Hip-hop devotee in old slang / THU 8-8-13 / Trypanosomiasis transmitters / Transvestite of song / Mughal Empire rulers / Another name for opportunity Ralph Waldo Emerson

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: things shaped like letters (?) — theme clues are letters, and answers are things shaped (very roughly) like those letters

Theme answers:

• 17A: J (FISH HOOK)
• 11D: Y (WISHBONE)
• 37A: U (HORSESHOE)
• 37D: O (HULA HOOP)
• 62A: X (TIRE IRON)

Word of the Day: SYNfuel (61D: Prefix with fuel) —

Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel obtained from coal, natural gas, oil shale, or biomass. It may also refer to fuels derived from other solids such as plastics or rubber waste. It may also (less often) refer to gaseous fuels produced in a similar way. Common use of the term "synthetic fuel" is to describe fuels manufactured via Fischer Tropsch conversion,methanol to gasoline conversion, or direct coal liquefaction. (wikipedia)

• • •

Didn't get this one. Or, maybe I did—you can check my description of the theme. But I didn't fully get it as I was solving. I vaguely got it, but thought the answers were common nicknames or alternate names for the letters themselves. I felt like I'd seen "J" referred to as FISHHOOK before. So I thought the name/letter association was going to be close. And it is ... for three of them. TIRE IRON is from outerspace. Forced to name 10 things that look like an "X," I would not put TIRE IRON on the list. Forced to name 100 things, possibly. OK, I probably can't even name 10 things shaped like an X, but I know TIRE IRON would not have come to mind no matter what list I made. And HULA HOOP? A million things are shaped like an "O." The whole concept just didn't compute, or did, but dissatisfyingly. As for the rest of it, it seemed fine, mostly. ERASABLE and RIDABLE in same grid is horrible, I don't know what MENORCA is or why only "locals" call it that (oh, I see it's Minorca, just w/ Spanish spelling—huh), SYNfuel is only very vaguely familiar to me (this violates my "don't call attention to cruddy fill with tough cluing" rule). LESSEE and TSETSES in same corner, also far less than great.

Making matters worse, I found the SW almost totally undoable. This was my worst Thursday time in recent memory, largely because I just sat there with only SHR[A/U]NK and SEGO in place down there. Just sat. This is, unsurprisingly, the absurd HULA HOOP corner. Thought maybe some kind of HALO might be involved. Thought the letters on a stamp (USDA) might be ATTN or RECD or VISA or god knows what. Thought the Mughal Empire rulers were AGHAS. Never considered that Gettysburg Address was a EULOGY (though of course it is). SMUSHES? RIDABLE? Not words that occurred to me. I resent MAILS IN—since roughly the late 19th century, and certainly since WWI, we *phone* things in. Vague theme and obnoxious cluing made this an unpleasant experience all the way around. I mean, really, how many TONYAS are there?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Norwegian P.M. Stoltenberg / SUN 7-14-13 / Lacoste offering / Rock Roll Hall of Fame inductees from Texas / Bully's coercive comeback / Instruments played with mallets / Womb jocularly /Faunus's Greek counterpart

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium

NOTE: I couldn't get AcrossLite to make a "¢"k symbol, so instead I have used ... a spider.

THEME: "Show Me the Money" — theme answers have dollar signs or cents signs in them, which means an "S" or "C" crosses an "I" (so the crossing letters form the dollar or cent symbol when letters are drawn together in same square). All theme answers are money-related. Theme revealer is DOLLAR$ AND ¢ENTS (65A: Money ... or a hint to how six crossings in this puzzle are to be represented, superimposing one letter over another)

Theme answers:

• 23A: Investing in a growth company (GOING LONG) / 3D: Some liquid assets (CASH ON HAND)
• 25A: High-risk investments (PENNY STOCKS) / 16D: Spot on a demand curve (PRICE POINT)
• 62D: With 58-Down, financial topic of 2012-13 (FISCAL / CLIFF)
• 110A: Quotation sources, once (TICKER TAPES) / 70D: Key business figure (BOTTOM LINE)
• 112A: Unrecoverable investment expenses (SUNK COSTS) / 73D: AA or AAA (BOND RATING)

Word of the Day: JENS Stoltenberg (34A: Norwegian P.M. Stoltenberg) —

 Jens Stoltenberg (help·info) (born 16 March 1959) is the Prime Minister of Norway and leader of the Norwegian Labour Party. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg was also Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001. (wikipedia)

• • • 

This is a home run. Says who? SAYS ME! (71A: Bully's coercive comeback) This thing just kept unfolding new and better layers of goodness. The I/S and I/C crossing thing, I've actually seen before. Somewhere ... some database hound out there will be able to tell me where [update: turns out Brendan Emmett Quigley did a very similar theme, two years ago, in a 15x15 grid]. Anyway, I floundered a bit in the NW and then finally got the "$" thing at GOINGLONG. Then thought "ho hum." I did not yet realize that ALL the answers involved in the symbol intersections (Across and Down) were financial terms—super impressive. I also had not yet encountered some tremendous fill, the highlights of which (for me) were FISCAL / CLIFF (split, themed, brilliant) and the self-abutting NYMPHO/MANIACS (standing ovation there) (88D: Crazies / 94D: Lead-in to 88-Down). There are only six "rebus" squares, but you could hardly call that a small number given the whole Across AND Down angle. I don't think the clue on the revealer needed to be sooooo explanatory. You should be able to figure that superimposition stuff out your own damned self. But that's a minor quibble. This puzzle is Stunning. I'm going to pretend I didn't see ASHINE (44D: Glowing) and give this one an A-plus.


I had some trouble getting started with this one, and then struggled a bit in other places because I didn't understand that the four non-central "rebus" squares would be at the intersection of long, themed answers—which is to say that I couldn't find the $ or ¢ squares down below for a bit. In fact, I didn't know there *was* a ¢ square for a while. I found a $ and figured all such squares would be $ squares. Thus TICKER TAPES took me forever (again, I wasn't thinking fiscal theme at all, so "quotation sources" was just not clicking for me). Also thought there was another ¢ in the SE, specifically in the "C" from the Down ONSPEC (86D: Without a contract). So sorting out that mess took some effort. Never heard of KICK as 95A: Beef. Not sure how that works. Also never heard of the Norwegian P.M. Otherwise, everything else was pretty familiar and neatly clued and just a whole lot of fun. Of course, I did solve it while listening to Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" on repeat, so that may have primed me to have Very Good Feelings about this puzzle, but I think I'd've liked it anyway.


Bullets:

• 13A: Heckle or Jeckle of cartoons (MAGPIES) — Aargh. I could see their damn huge heads/beaks, but I could not figure out what the hell bird they were. They're black ... orange beaks ... bah! Needed many crosses.
• 81A: Request from a guest over an apartment intercom ("LET ME UP!") — a bit demanding as a "request," but as a creative bit of colloquial fill, I like this.
• 106A: Instruments played with mallets (MARIMBAS) — did not come quickly. Brain first wanted MARACAS :(
• 5D: Lacoste offering (POLO) — so confusing, as I grew up thinking of Lacoste's IZOD and Ralph Lauren's POLO brands as rivals. But the shirt style is indeed POLO, so clue is fine.
• 28D: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees from Texas (ZZ TOP) — running this answer through the similarly double-Z'd DIZZY is just another example of this puzzle's great sense of fun. A "Z" party, totally unforced! Great stuff.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Swiss pharmaceutical giant; "Family Ties" mother; Tuesday, May 29, 2012; Do some logrolling

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: medium

NOTEPAD: The circles in this puzzle are contained in words that form a sequence. Connect these circles, in the order of the sequence, to form an appropriate image.

THEME: Connect the dots — The numbers one to seven are spelled out throughout the grid, each clued to a postage stamp denomination and containing a circled letter. When you connect the circles numerically you draw the BACK OF THE ENVELOPE (39A Location for some quick calculations).

Word of the Day: ROCHE (47D Swiss pharmaceutical giant) —

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. is a Swiss global health-care company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
                                                                       • • •

Hello, Rexworld. This is treedweller again, filling in. In keeping with recent trends toward oddball Tuesdays,  today we get a 17 X 13 grid that facilitates the opportunity for us to draw a picture of an envelope when we finish filling in our answers. It's the sort of gimmick that always draws comparisons to Liz Gorski; I don't think this one will dethrone the queen, but it pulls off the trick without paying too high a price.

Ultimately, opinions on this will probably split along the lines of those who like gimmicks and those who don't like to draw on their puzzles. For my part, I solved without seeing the notepad; I scratched my head a bit trying to figure out what to do with the circles until I looked it up. My best guess was some kind of origami project, so the five-line drawing was a bit of a letdown. Anyway, as I was solving, this it seemed like an oddly shaped themeless that had a few answers that were just some semi-random low number.

As such, I liked it pretty well, though it seemed a little uneven. Like yesterday, the short corner fill was serviceable, at best. A few words seemed a little out of Tuesday's league, like HEMATOLOGY (12D Study of blood), but overall it was a peppy, fun solve with fair crosses. I liked the phrases: RAN RIOT, IT'S OPEN, START IN ON, NOT SO FAST. I was less enthralled with UNSOCIAL, RESOURCE, and POUNDERS. 

Theme answers: I am not going to type all these.

• 1D, 11A, 16A, 18A, 44A, 51D, 69A all ask for the price in cents of a stamp based on the year of release and the president appearing on it. FOUR, THREE, ONE, SEVEN, TWO, FIVE, SIX. I will leave the discussion of postage rates for the comments.
• 39A Location for some quick calculations BACK OF THE ENVELOPE

So the first themed clue I saw was 16A, which elided "Price in cents" and left me wondering if I would need to know some obscure stamp trivia. Despite my youthful efforts to become a Renaissance man, most of my philatelic impulses died early (roughly when I finished the Stamp Collecting merit badge), so I was a little worried. As soon as it became clear I was just looking for low numbers, I began to gain momentum.  Philatelists clearly have a major advantage on this one, though, so all times scored in the NYT applet will include an asterisk in the record books.

Bullets:

• 4A High beams BRIGHTS — I liked the colloquial nature of both clue and answer. Sensitive listeners should probably skip Evil Doug's comments today.
• 37D "The Phantom Menace," in the "Star Wars" series EPISODE I — I only mention it to re-post this review, which some of you will remember from when Rex linked to it a few years ago. NSFW language
• 56A Chihuahua, e.g. TOY DOG — I had to replace "lap" DOG. Whenever I see the word "chihuahua," I hear Les Nessman saying it in my head.
• 32A Do some logrolling BIRL — I had to look this one up after I was done. It has no business being in a Tuesday puzzle.

I would just like to conclude by saying it is an honor and a pleasure to stand in for one of the greatest writers of our time.
Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Japanese native / SUN 4-8-12 / Lurid 1979 film about John Dillinger's girlfriend / Athlete wearing calligraphic D logo / Cockney greeting / Ex-senator Bayh / Sasquatch's kin / Letter seen twice in Philadelphia / Stone-pushing Winter Olympian / 1997 Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones flick

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "In-Nuendos" — Answers follow pattern "___ IN ___" but are represented by a description of the word in the second blank, INside of which are circles containing the word that belongs in the first blank.

Word of the Day: AINU (99A: Japanese native) —

n., pl., Ainu, or -nus.

1. A member of an indigenous people of Japan, now inhabiting parts of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.
2. The language of the Ainu.

[Ainu aynu, person.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/ainu#ixzz1rPFUC99H

• • •

Oh boy, non-contiguous circles! This should be good! ... is what I didn't say when starting this puzzle.

Interesting idea, but the preposterousness of the actual answers made me mostly dislike this one. I think "IT'S TOLD USING A WATCH" basically killed any affection I might have had for this puzzle. Audible groan! Literally, I emitted an audible groan. Also, no one has ever called "wool" "sheep's clothing," facetiously or otherwise. WTH? Some of the longish answers are interesting (see esp. PARCHEESI, MEAT-EATER, HONEYDEWS) (114A: The Royal Game of India; 85D: Tyrannosaurus rex, archetypally; 7D: Breakfast items often eaten with spoons), but then there's stuff like TREF, AINU, 'ELLO (90D: Not kosher; 99A: Japanese native; 91D: Cockney greeting) ... Kind of a wash. If you thought the theme cute, I envy you.



Theme answers:

• 22A: 1997 Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones flick (AFRICAN-AMERICAN) — this is where I got the theme, and it took some doing. Got very hung up in the north, with PEST for TICK (12D: OFF! target), SUM for ARE (9D: Total), and ESCAPED for VACATED (8A: Left). Figuring out that "MEN" was in the circles got me ARE, and things righted themselves from there. Sped through puzzle after that.
• 36A: Preventive measure, proverbially (IT'S TOLD USING A WATCH)
• 51A: Headstone phrase (TREATY RESULT)
• 69A: Lurid 1979 film about John Dillinger's girlfriend, with "The" (COLOR FOR VALENTINE'S DAY)
• 88A: "To be on the safe side ..." (JUDGE'S MATTER)
• 101A: Golf ace (THE LONELIEST NUMBER)
• 121A: One who looks friendly but isn't (WOOL, FACETIOUSLY)

Bullets:

• 67A: Athlete wearing a calligraphic "D" logo (TIGER) — 2-0, thanks for asking! First game was a nail-biter, next was a delicious blow-out. So happy baseball season is underway and Verlander and Cabrera and Fielder all look magical.
• 79A: Letter seen twice in Philadelphia (PHI) — Greek letter, that is.
• 97A: Stone-pushing Winter Olympian (CURLER) — At least the clue didn't say "athlete."
• 130A: Spouse's acquiescence ("YES, DEAR") — this clue actually creeped me out a little. 
• 13D: Ex-senator Bayh (EVAN) — he was a darling of the Dems at one point. Not sure what's up now.
• 52D: Sasquatch's kin (YETI) — "kin"? Yes, insofar as they are both non-existent, sure. I guess they are also "kin" of the unicorn.

• 72D: "Game of Thrones" protagonist ___ Stark (NED) — can't bring myself to read this. Wife says "don't bother" but then keeps reading ... she's weird that way. I'm reading Patrick Rothfuss's "The Name of the Wind" (vol. 1 of the Kingkiller Chronicle). If you are at all into all that fantasy / Hobbit / Harry Potter / whatever, you *must* read this guy. Fantastic. I'm not generally a fan of the genre, but this guy can Write.
• 102D: Percussion instrument with a pedal (HI-HAT) — One H didn't give it to me. Two Hs did.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Premium Cuban cigar brand / SUN 2-26-12 / Multiple Grammy winner contestant Dancing with Stars / Fastener patented in 1939 / Feeling pervading Brat Pack movies / Spanish winds / Sod house locale

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Back to the Start" — theme answers appear to be missing their last three letters; to find them, you have to go "back to the start" (i.e. the missing last three letters are the first three letters of the answer)

Word of the Day: KEGLER (57A: X X X lover?) —

n. A person who bowls; a bowler. [German, from kegeln, to bowl, from Kegel, bowling pin, from Middle High German kegel, from Old High German kegil, peg.] (freedictionary.com)

• • •

This is a theme that might be clever in theory but is not so enjoyable to work through in practice. Whatever the overriding thematic principle may be, the upshot is that the grid is full of nonsense like TONIBRAX (great potential space alien name, btw). Might have to name the kind of puzzle that has nonsense fill in it a TONIBRAX. Anyway, as I say, the concept is interesting, but I didn't even know what it was until I was completely done with the puzzle. I just thought "I bet those missing endings are gonna be important somehow" and I kept plowing ahead assuming I'd hit a revealer or explanatory note of some kind. No luck. Turns out I never actually looked at the title, but I doubt it would've helped much. It's not like the theme answers were tough, so I didn't really need to know the theme. The fill (with a couple of notable exception) is very solid. Better than average for a Sunday, I'd say. Yes, we can all find a handful of short stuff we're not that fond of, but that's expected in a grid this big. Overall, it's a feisty, jaunty, bubbly grid with lots of Scrabbly letters and cool answers like TROGLODYTES (37D: Cavemen) and TWIST TIE (124A: Fastener patented in 1939). But what the hell is up with KEGLER? People know that word? It seems ... not common, and that is the *last* kind of word you want to start getting cute with in the cluing. Not sure why you go with KEGLER there; it's utterly unnecessarily (I rewrote that part of the grid in my head in five seconds just now). Maybe the constructor actually *wanted* that word in the grid. Seems unfathomable, but maybe. Anyhoo ... that was about my least favorite moment of the solve (also, my last moment). I also had no idea what a COHIBA was (66D: Premium Cuban cigar brand). Was sure either KEGLER or COHIBA would end up being wrong. Not so.



Theme answers:

• 23A: Aide for a V.I.P. customer (PERSONAL SHOPPER)
• 25A: Multiple Grammy winner who was a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars" (TONI BRAXTON)
• 35A: Prozac, for one (ANTI-DEPRESSANT)
• 59A: Freudian concept (PLEASURE PRINCIPLE)
• 78A: Mountains, rivers, plains, etc. (PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY)—I didn't know there was another kind.
• 99A: Fancy salad ingredient (ARTICHOKE HEART)—you can get them at your local supermarket. I wouldn't say "fancy."
• 117A: London transportation (UNDERGROUND)
• 119A: Marlon Brando ("ON THE WATERFRONT")

I'd be surprised if a significant minority of solvers didn't have some trouble in the NE (toughest section of the puzzle for me). TONI BRAXTON seems fair game as a puzzle answer, but as a tricky theme answer like this, in an already tough section of the grid? Seems a bit mean, esp. with odd words like FRIARY (I had PRIORY) (15D: Brother's place), and a very trickily clued SEXT (19D: Send some pixxx?) and awkward TRAS and that stupid BENET guy I know only from crosswords (14D: Pulitzer winner for "John Brown's Body"). I worked it all out, but I actually own TONI BRAXTON music. I wonder if the majority of solvers are very familiar with her (I never know with you people). Could / will break along age lines, to some extent. If you listened to the radio in the '90s (or watch reality TV in the '10s), you know her. She had one of the nicest R&B radio voices of the '90s.


Bullets:

• 1A: Bulb holders (LAMPS) — wrong, right out of the box. I had STEMS.
• 54A: It may be popped for fun (WHEELIE) — great answer, and a good example of how fun much of the language in the grid is. I also particularly enjoyed YODELER (73A: Jimmie Rodgers or Tex Owens, musically), MCQUEEN (86A: "The Magnificent Seven" star), and "I AM A ROCK" (61D: Song that starts "A winter's day in a deep and dark December").
• 92A: Spanish winds (AIRES) — oh I don't like this. I'd've gone with AIDES / LUDES (!) / SERTA / ROOMS. You can put drug slang in puzzles, right?
• 44D: Modern December birthstone (ZIRCON) — Pfft. "Modern." You really gonna take your cues from a 1912 National Association of Jewelers decree!? How dare they undermine the purity of the birthstone tradition. I guess anything goes nowadays, with the long hair and loud music and sexting on the ipads and what not. ZIRCON!? Bah. It's turquoise or nothing!
• 102D: Feeling pervading Brat Pack movies (ANGST) — Remember yesterday when I explained exactly how much of a [Reagan-era teenager] I was. So, yeah, I got this one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Violinist Leopold / THU 12-8-11 / Old Apple product marketed to schools / Roundish with irregular border / Jason who sang I'm Yours 2008

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Say it! — theme answers have two consecutive circled squares inside them. The letters in those squares, when read out loud, provide the clue for the whole answer, e.g. "M" and "T" are circled, so when you say "M T" you essentially say "Empty," which is the clue for the entire answer: ITEM TO RECYCLE

Word of the Day: Renée ADORÉE (16A: Renée of silent films) —

Renée Adorée (September 30, 1898 – October 5, 1933) was a French actress who had appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s. [...] By the end of 1930, she had appeared in forty-five films, the last four of them talkies. That year she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, Adorée lived only a few years longer. Adorée went against her physician's advice by finishing her final film, Call of the Flesh, with Ramon Novarro. At its completion, she was rushed to a sanitarium in Prescott, Arizona, where she lay flat on her back for two years in an effort to regain her physical health. In April of 1933, she left the sanitarium. At this point it was thought she had recovered sufficiently to resume her screen career, but she swiftly weakened and her health declined day by day. She was moved from her modest home in the Tujunga Hills to the Sunland health resort in September 1933. // She died there, a few days after her 35th birthday, on October 5, 1933 in Tujunga, California. She is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California. (wikipedia)

• • •

I've seen variations on this theme before—where circled letters are meant to be read aloud—so this theme wasn't terribly difficult to pick up, though I was all the way down the western seaboard at ABREEZE before I figured it out. I just didn't waste too much time pondering the theme until that point. MT and NV are states, and I had those first, but the state thing didn't make sense, so I just kept moving along I hit EZ. After that, the puzzle was.



While this idea is clever, the theme answers are (by necessity) a bit forced. Well, the three longer ones are, anyway—EVEN ONE and A BREEZE feel pretty natural. GREEN VICE, on the other hand, feels yucky. Yes, "envy" is a VICE, and one can be GREEN with "envy," but "envy" itself is not a GREEN VICE. When I google ["GREEN VICE"], I get all kinds of people with the last name of GREEN who are VICE presidents of something or other. Still, despite awkward definition-type answers, this puzzle was reasonably pleasurable. The grid is pretty solid, with only the bygone and barely remembered EMAC making me cringe (even though I remembered it this time). This puzzle has some interesting features, such as a set of German anagrams (NIE, EIN), and a PROSTATE. The longer non-theme fill is all wonderful, and the grid is nicely Scrabbly and still smooth. 

Theme answers:

• 7A: EVEN ONE
• 18A: ITEM TO RECYCLE
• 35A: GREEN VICE
• 52A: COMMERCIAL COW
• 62A: A BREEZE

Despite a clunky start (CAVORT for PRANCE—1A: Gambol about), I finished fairly quickly, even though I lost about 30 seconds trying to track down an error. Two errors, actually. First one was stupid spelling error: SLILY and GUIANA instead of SLYLY and GUYANA (59A: Neighbor of Suriname). The second one was also a spelling error, but one that was not so easily fixed. I could not get my head around 21A: It comes in a chicken variety, even with PO- in place, and I thought the narrator of "A Clockwork Orange" was ALEC. But POC was obviously nonsense, so ... I was stuck for a bit, until I plugged in the only other letter that could plausibly complete a man's name that starts ALE-. Interesting to see AMOEBIC in the grid (3D: Roundish with an irregular border), given that various spellings of AMOEBA and its plurals show up all the time. You rarely (if ever) see the adjectival form. I mostly remembered AUER this time—I learned him a long time ago when his son (an actor) was mistakenly clued as a violinist. I remembered that he ended -ER ... but needed help with the "U." How I know Jason MRAZ is less clear to me (54D: Jason who sang "I'm Yours," 2008). Someone must have sung one of his songs on "Idol" once (or twice or thrice). That's a last name you don't forget.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1994 denis leary kevin spacey flick / SUN 7-17-11 / Monster of Norse myth / Article for Lil Wayne / Creator of Thidwick / Swan Lake maiden

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "The End Is In Sight" — familiar phrases where the last word appears to be missing, but is actually represented by the circled letter(s) in that same answer. Connect the circles to form a picture of someone mooning you ... or the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; I can't tell which.


Word of the Day: NUNCIO (108A: Papal legate) —

n., pl., -os.
A papal ambassador or representative.

[Italian, from Latin nūntius, messenger.] (answers.com)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/nuncio#ixzz1SJmgonoL

• • •

Printed this out and solved it on paper rather than on-screen. Sunday puzzles are sucky to do this way, because either your puzzle runs onto a second page (annoying), or it all fits on one page but the type on the clues is mind-addlingly small. I went with the latter option. First sight of circles of course sent a shudder down my spine, but once I got into the puzzle and caught onto the theme, I didn't mind them at all. They're integral to the theme, and all circled letters represent the sole appearance(s) of those letters in their particular answer, so they didn't seem arbitrary and stupid the way circles sometimes can seem. With the exception of the icky LACS (7D: Varnish resins) and NUNCIO (108A: Papal legate), the grid was reasonably clean. Cluing was suitably tough—not exceedingly difficult, but I wasn't able to blow right through it the way I sometimes can on a Sunday. Weirdest thing about the grid is its girth—22x21 instead of the normal 21x21. It was my understanding that Will wasn't taking outsize Sunday puzzles anymore, but I swear I've seen at least a small handful this year. Maybe it's just 23x23s in particular that are out (though one exceptional puzzle earlier in the year was certainly that big). Not sure why 23x23s are out, but they are. Officially, at any rate.

UPDATE: Some clarifying info from Mr. Shortz himself:

To clear up the confusion regarding 23x crosswords ...

Kevin McCann misquoted me on Cruciverb. I never banned them. I simply discouraged them, because they're difficult for me to use in the downsized Sunday Times Magazine.

A couple years ago the Sunday Magazine had its trim size significantly reduced. I can no longer print a 23x and KenKen and the KenKen answers from the previous week on a single page. The KenKen answers have to go elsewhere in the Magazine, for which I need to get approval, which is a pain and an uncertainty. So I just discourage 23s.

But for a 23x (or any odd-size puzzle) I really like, I'll still take it. I'll find a way to use it.

Note that a 22x21 isn't really affected by the above rule. By shortening the clues a little, I managed to fit everything into the usual space.

Theme answers:

• 25A: Parting words from the busy type (PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO)
  
• 36A: Hans Christian Andersen story ("THE PRINCESS AND THE")
  
• 53A: Hardly breaking a sweat (WITH RELATIVE)
  
• 66A: End of a command at the Battle of Bunker Hill ("... THE WHITES OF THEIR")
  
• 82A: "Godspeed!" ("BEST OF LUCK TO")
  
• 93A: End of a Benjamin Franklin aphorism ("... HEALTHY, WEALTHY, AND")
  
• 111A: 2009 fantasy film based on a best-selling book ("WHERE THE WILD THINGS")
  

Little pockets of this puzzle were quite enjoyable. Love almost everything from SHEPHERD (8D: Jesus, to Christians) down (south-south-westerly) to "THE REF," which is one of my favorite movies and one of the most underrated movies of all time, perhaps because the premise is preposterous and people thought Denis Leary was just some MTV buffoon (56D: 1994 Denis Leary/Kevin Spacey flick). But the movie has Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis, and Christine Baranski, all of whom are astonishingly good comic actors, and the dialogue throughout is really topnotch.


Had a little trouble with ALOU (12D: Jesús, for one) and GIPP (13D: Notre Dame football legend) up north, and had to think a bit about the clues on PEEP SHOW (86D: Something to watch when there's nothing on?) and TAP DANCERS (74D: Some clickers), but otherwise, a fairly uneventful solve.

Bullets:

• 31A: Area in a 1969 Elvis Presley hit (GHETTO) — and his mama cries ...

• 48A: Island known for having "the wettest spot on Earth" (450+" of rain per year) (KAUAI) — Had the "K" and "I," so once I read [Island] I knew what I was dealing with.
  
• 56A: Article for Lil Wayne (THA) — love this clue. It's an article for Lil Wayne in particular not just because he's a rapper, but because he has a series of albums called "THA CARTER" (number IV is set to be released next month)

• 65A: Monster of Norse Myth (KRAKEN) — I know this only from the movie "Clash of the Titans," thus I thought it was Greek.
  
• 73A: Granter of an honorary degree to George Washington in 1776 (HARVARD) — "Granter" is awkward, but this is an interesting bit of trivia.
  
• 89A: Pianist Albéniz (ISAAC) — I think I get this guy confused with Claudio ARRAU.
  
• 103A: Most clueless (DITSIEST) — Really really want this answer to have a "Z" in it.
  
• 117A: "Swan Lake" maiden (ODILE) — crosswordese! I know this only from crosswords. Very handy answer to have in your back pocket.
  
• 120A: Tree with fan-shaped leaves (GINKGO) — whoa. Back-to-back days for a word I (almost?) never see in the grid. Weird.
  
• 16D: Chicago mayor before Emanuel (DALEY) — He's completely dropped off my radar since the mayoral election. I realize now that he *kinda* reminds me of Anthony Weiner.
  
• 26D: Creator of Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose (SEUSS) — not from any story I know, but that didn't matter because I never saw the clue.
  
• 38D: 1980s lightweight boxing champ (CAMACHO) — The Macho Man. Hector "Macho" CAMACHO. From back when people cared about boxing.
  
• 54D: They moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles in 1960 (LAKERS) — Somehow I always thought it was several years later than that.
  
• 96D: 2006 comedy title character from western 2-Down ("BORAT") — this is what I'd call an Extraordinarily weak cross-reference. ASIA? You use this clue to get to ASIA? Unnecessary and awkward. If cross-reference doesn't seem tailor-made, don't force it. I mean, GINKGO and ZEN are both better options if you really must have your cross-reference (and, let's be honest, you mustn't).
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Announcement for New Yorkers:

I'm coming to NYC for the Lollapuzzoola Tournament on Saturday, Aug. 6 (you should go—info here). But you know that. What you don't know (yet) is that I'm coming several days early to do some interviews for a crossword project I'm working on, and I'm hoping to interview some of You (New Yorkers) about your xword habit. I'm especially interested in talking to people who think they are unlikely solvers, or who solve in weird / interesting / iconic places, or who have good solving anecdotes, or who are famous / prominent in their fields, or any combo of the above. I'm not looking for fast or accomplished solvers. Just interesting solvers. If you live in NYC, this (probably) means you! If you are going to be in town on Aug. 4-5 and are willing to talk to me for a few minutes, drop me a line at rexparker at mac dot com. I'll be exceedingly grateful. I'll see what kind of response I get and set up a schedule from there. If I don't hear from you, I'll just have to wander the streets harassing anyone I see solving a crossword, even though this may result in my getting punched, or worse. So help me out. Thank you!

P.S. Google still hates me and is not indexing individual pages (i.e. individual write-ups) from this website properly (grrr...). Still no idea what the deal is, esp. considering Google owns Blogger :( Let me know if you have a clue. Thx.

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Toy rocket company since 1958 / SUN 5-8-11 / First player listed Total Baseball / Millennia old Jordanian city / He wrote None but brave deserves fair

Constructor: Daniel A. Finan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Working in Opposition" — two-word phrases where first word is an adjective and second word is its opposite (in plural noun form) ... except for the central theme answers, which somehow has a third central neutral part: (BAD FAIR GOODS)


Word of the Day: RISIBLES (65D: Sense of humor) —

n. pl: sense of the ridiculous : SENSE OF HUMOR {an article which tickled my ~ immensely—Vinnie Hicks} (Webster's 3rd Int'l Dictionary) [Vinnie Hicks??? That's an authority?]

• • •

Puzzle concept is fine, I suppose—pretty typical Sunday fare—but some of the fill was less than ideal. I think that Theme Density is overvalued, and that lots of puzzles are getting published lately that have tremendous Theme Density but also (likely because of said Density) significant flaws and infelicities in the fill. Eleven theme answers today, but ... it's not like the theme is scintillating, so do I really need eleven? Wouldn't nine do, especially if the grid could be cleaner?

Couple of rough crosses that I didn't fill in until all surrounding squares were filled: BIAS TIRE (35D: Radial alternative) / ESTES (54A: Toy rocket company since 1958) (never heard of the latter, and had BIO-TIRE at first because I assumed the first word of FAULTY SOUNDS was FOUL ...); and SUA (58D: ___ sponte (legal term)) / NOURI (64A: "Flashdance" actor Michael) (unusual (in xwords) Latin word and marginal actor with uninferrable name? Not good). Real puzzle of the day is RISIBLES, which is the terriblest word I've seen in a while (if RISIBLES is a word, then so is "terriblest"). Hard to find on the internet — well, hard to find in English. In French, it's common enough. I believe in RISIBLES only slightly less than I believe in RIBLET (51D: Barbecued bit) (did you know there's a RIBLET Mansion overlooking the Spokane River, named for Royal Riblet. Or that "The Riblet Tramway Company was once the largest ski chairlift manufacturer in the world" (wikipedia)?). As names go, DAVI is pretty terrible / obscure. Didn't know KERRI either, but at least that sounds like a name that someone might have (10D: Walsh with 2004 and 2008 gold medals in beach volleyball). Not sure I've ever seen ALI cross ALII before. I wonder what it's like to fly EL AL during the month of ELUL (67A: Month before Tishri). Those flights should be required to distribute crosswords to all passengers, esp. those headed to TEL AVIV. What else is there to say about this one? Not much.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Capris? (LONG SHORTS)
  
• 30A: Domes to let in London? (ROUND FLATS)
  
• 38A: Pre-2004 purchase from G.M.? (NEW OLDS)
  
• 47A: Sour notes? (FAULTY SOUNDS)
  
• 56A: Fractions of acres? (LITTLE LOTS)
  
• 70A: Shabby wares sold at an expo? (BAD FAIR GOODS)
  
• 83A: What socialists campaign for? (LEFT RIGHTS) — this one just doesn't sound right. Really sticks out.
  
• 91A: B and O, for presidents #43 and #44? (LAST INITIALS)
  
• 101A: Career criminals? (PRO CONS)
  
• 111A: Material for a biographer with a recorder? (TAPED LIVES)
  
• 121A: Best-looking rear ends? (TOP BOTTOMS)
  

Couldn't decide between TUT and TSK at 122D: Utterance of a finger wagger, but now see that TUT was already in the grid at that point (66A: "King ___," song premiered on SNL on 4/22/78). My favorite finger wagger was Dikimbe Mutombo, although his utterance would've been something like "not in my house" or "no, you may not put the ball into the basket at this time."

Bullets:

• 37A: Verizon forerunner (GTE) — I had MCI, which is apparently now a subsidiary of Verizon.
  
• 60A: He wrote "None but the brave deserves the fair" (DRYDEN) — the poet who gets most screwed by the typical Brit Lit I / Brit Lit II survey course divisions. He tends to fall into the gap, like Howard falling between the beds on his second honeymoon with Mrs. C in Season 6 of "Happy Days."
  
• 78A: Lead singer of the fictional Pussycats (JOSIE) — who's the lead singer of the *real* Pussycats?

• 89A: First player listed in "Total Baseball" (AARON) — "Total Baseball" being a statistical encyclopedia. Not hard to get even if you don't know baseball. Hank AARON is kind of a big deal.
  
• 95A: Battlefield sorting system (TRIAGE) — so, if you guessed Dewey Decimal System, you were wrong.
  
• 7D: Millennia-old Jordanian city that's a World Heritage site (PETRA) — learned it from crosswords and actually *remembered* it today, possibly for the first time. Did not know, and thus could not remember, the [Modern locale of ancient Illyria] (ALBANIA)
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. You can now purchase five crosswords from this past weekend's Crosswords L.A. Tournament. Price is just $5, all of which goes to the charity Reading to Kids. Worth it for the Tyler Hinman puzzle alone. Go here to purchase the set. You'll be glad you did.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter or Tumblr]

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