Knuckleballer Wilhelm / WED 7-29-15 / Russell of "Black Widow" / More than half of Israel / Breath mint in a tin / It lacks depth

Constructor: David J. Lieb

Relative difficulty: Smooth sailing

THEME: "DOUBLE DOUBLE" — Each of the theme answers is a two-word phrase (or compound word) where both words (or parts of the word) can be preceded by the word "double" to make a new phrase

Word of the Day: SPOOKY (34D: Like a haunted house) —

  

Not to be confused with "spoopy" or "Shipoopi."

• • •

Andy Kravis here, filling in for Rex. Today, David J. Lieb messed* around and got a DOUBLE DOUBLE (65A: Statistical achievement in basketball ... or what the answer to each starred clue is). 

There are some naughty words in this video. You have been warned.

In basketball, a double-double is achieving a double-digit number in two positive statistical categories (two of, in order of frequency: points, rebounds, assists, steals, or blocked shots). You can't get a double-double in turnovers and number of terrible teammates, but if you could, James Harden would've been NBA MVP last year.

In this puzzle, though, a DOUBLE DOUBLE is a phrase where both words can be preceded by the word DOUBLE to make two entirely different phrases.

Theme answers:

• STANDARD TIME (18A: *It's divided into four zones in the contiguous U.S. states). DOUBLE STANDARD and DOUBLE TIME. Is it just me, or is "U.S. states" a weird construction? Maybe this was just a typo in the online version, and the print edition says something different.
• TAKEOVER (27A: *Coup d'état, e.g.). DOUBLE TAKE and DOUBLE OVER. 
• CROSSTALK (33A: *Incidental chatter). DOUBLE CROSS and DOUBLE-TALK (which according to whatever dictionary Google uses, is "deliberately unintelligible speech combining nonsense syllables and actual words." You might know it better as doublespeak.) 
• PLAYBILLS (47A: *Handouts to theatergoers). DOUBLE PLAY and DOUBLE BILLS (I had no idea what "double bills" were. It turns out to be a synonym for "double features." Maybe it's a regional/generational thing, but I've never heard the phrase "double bill" before.)
• BACKDATE (53A: *Make retroactive). DOUBLE BACK and DOUBLE DATE.

Including the revealer at 65A, there's an impressive amount of theme (6 entries, 58 theme squares)! The base phrases are all very much in-the-language, even if a couple of the "double ___" phrases were beyond my ken. This kind of theme (i.e., this word can precede theme answers X, Y, and Z) has been played out quite a bit, but I really appreciate that (a) the revealer word can precede both parts of every theme entry, (b) that there were five two-part theme entries besides the revealer, and (c) that the revealer does double duty in not only telling you the preceding word but also telling you that both parts of every themer can take the preceding word. Really nice stuff IMHO.

Given how densely packed this grid was with theme content, the surrounding fill wasn't bad. As in most puzzles, there was some stuff I didn't love: 'UNS, AN OUT, ESTAB., ELLS crossing ESSES. But mostly the fill was reasonable for a Wednesday, and there were a few nice long answers (notably COATROOMS and GOLDEN BOY, but also NOOGIE, SPOOKY, CAJUN, STIGMA, CAR WASH, and "I'M SOLD"). Also, ALTOID singular!

Bullets:

• 42A: HOYT (Knuckleballer Wilhelm) — Hoyt Wilhelm (not the order you thought those names were gonna go, huh?) was an MLB pitcher in the 1950s and 1960s, most notably with the World Series-winning 1954 New York Baseball Giants. In 1985, Wilhelm became the first relief pitcher to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• 57A: THERESA (Russell of "Black Widow") — "Black Widow" is one of these late '80s/early '90s films with a femme fatale (see also "Fatal Attraction," "Basic Instinct," "Damage," "The Last Seduction," etc.). In this one, Theresa Russell plays a woman who kills a bunch of wealthy middle-aged white dudes for who-knows-what-reason, and Debra Winger's character has to try to bring her to justice.
• 12D: NEGEV (More than half of Israel) — The Negev is a desert that covers most of southern Israel. Now you know.
• 56D: EUBIE (Ragtime pianist) — A true master.

In conclusion: nice puzzle, good job.

Now, I'd like to bring your attention to a couple of excellent crossword-related items:

1) If you're here, you love crosswords. And if you love crosswords, you will love Lollapuzzoola 8: Lollapuzzocho, an upcoming crossword tournament in NYC. It's on August 8th (that's a Saturday in August), and it is absolutely not too late to sign up! It is always the most fun, and the lineup of constructors is terrific (Do the names Anna Shechtman, Mike Nothnagel, Doug Peterson, joon pahk, Patrick Blindauer, and Kevin G. Der do anything for you? Of course they do). Feel free to bring a friend. If you can't make it to the live tournament, you can still sign up for the At-Home Division to get the puzzles by PDF shortly after the tournament ends. 

2) Friend and frequent collaborator Victor Barocas has just launched an awesome project on Kickstarter! 

Ada Cross, Crossword Detective will be a series of murder mysteries featuring a detective (Ada) and her colleagues. You'll solve a series of meta-crosswords along with Ada to solve murders. In addition to the text and the puzzles, the stories will have illustrations by Hayley Gold, who writes the Across and Down webcomic. 

You can read more about (and back) the project on this Kickstarter page. If you like crosswords (and especially if you like metas), you will like this. 

Signed, Andy Kravis, (H/T)ipster of CrossWorld

*If you're reading this, Ice Cube, I'm sorry I messed around with your artistic integrity. In spite of the fact that it's a modern classic, "Today Was A Good Day" falls a little below the breakfast Mendoza line.

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Anise-flavored liqueur / TUE 4-7-15 / Leader of Transcendentalism movement / Aquino's successor in Philippines / Parapsychologist's study

Constructor: David J. Lieb

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: I think it's that the first word of all the theme answers ends "-OUGH," and the pronunciations of the vowel sound are all slightly different from one another. I think.

Theme answers:

• COUGH MEDICINE (20A: Robitussin or Vicks product)
• DOUGHNUT HOLE (28A: Petite sweet treat)
• TOUGH ON CRIME (43A: Advocating long sentences, say)
• PLOUGH THROUGH (53A: Complete without a break, as a labour)

Word of the Day: NANOGRAM (38D: One-trillionth of a kilo) —

noun

1. one billionth of a gram. (google)

• • •

Currently soliciting names for a puzzle that fails thematically, but that is so charming (in terms of overall content) that you don't really care. Someone suggested "Hudson Hawk," which I agree fails, but which I never found charming. So the search for the right term is still on. There are several puzzling things about this theme. The first: what is it? I think my above description is accurate, but that's phenomenally light, and weak, as themes go. When you say all those words (or, in case of DOUGHNUT, word parts), in a row, you don't really feel anything interesting going on. -GH is silent sometimes, pronounced "-FF" other times. This means that the (slight) change in vowel sounds really doesn't register. What you hear are the changing "-GH" sounds. I think the final themer there is supposed to contain a bonus "-OUGH" word in the second position. That is, I think THROUGH in PLOUGH THROUGH is part of the theme. But that answer leads me to yet another problem with this theme: who spells PLOUGH that way, particularly when writing that phrase? I see that the clue tries awkwardly to signal Britishness with the tacked-on "as a labour" [grimace], but thumbs down. "Plow through" out-googles the PLOUGH version something like 5 to 1, and Britishizing one of your themers feels cheap.


But the grid! It's great. What's amazing is that it's *this* lively (so many lovely long Downs) and *this* easy. I haven't finished a Tuesday in under 3 in a while, but I did today. And that's whilst having No Idea what a NANOGRAM was. (note: clue on that one was the puzzle's one other serious fault—you can't abbreviate "kilo" and then not have an abbr. as the answer, esp. on a Tuesday; that's crap). Love MALE MODEL and AÑO NUEVO and PIE CRUST and BEDEVILED (EGGS!), and nothing made me go "ick." OK, maybe VIET and OSE did, but they're so tiny! So, in sum, theme is inadequate, but the overall grid is kind of a hoot.

Now, back to more sports-watching. Great opening day for my Tigers (1-0), who shut out the Twins 4-0. Don't really care about the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, but I picked Wisconsin to win it all three weeks ago, so … go Wisconsin, I guess. Here's a couple baseball names I think you should know, largely because their 2014 seasons put their names in the realm of legit crossword fare. First, José ALTUVE, second baseman for the Houston (A)'STROS, who was the AL batting champion last year (.341). Second, Corey KLUBER, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, who was last year's AL Cy Young Award winner. I saw them face each other earlier tonight, and wondered aloud about their crossword prospects. My dog, the only one who could hear me, had no answers.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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