1969 Cream hit / THU 5-24-12 / Hot corner Yank / Commercial district / Capital known in literature as Thang Long / Youngest golfer to shoot his age in PGA event

Constructor: Derik Moore

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "CROSSROADS" (62A: 1969 Cream hit ... or a hint to the seven "mathematical" clues in this puzzle) — answers are American cities; clues are written [number + number], representing the two ROADS that CROSS in each city

Word of the Day: RAMAL (9D: Of a branch) —

The Ramal, is a metro line, part of the Madrid Metro, with only two stations and a total length of 900 m. "Ramal" in Spanish means "branch". The line opened between Opera and Norte on 27 December 1925. At that time Norte was the main railway station for trains going to northern Spain and this short metro line was built to link the Norte railway station with line 2 of Madrid metro.

However in 1995 the Norte railway station was renamed Principe Pío because most long-distance trains traveling north were now terminating at the new Chamartín Station. The Norte station still has RENFE services, but it has been scaled down and only local trains stop here. Part of the former station complex was converted into a shopping centre. Also in 1995 Lines 10 and 6 were extended to Principe Pío to interchange with the Ramal. The Ramal uses 4 car trains of CAF Class 3000.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/ramal-madrid-metro#ixzz1vkbEmx6s

• • •

Very, very easy. This is one of those puzzles where any sparkle it possesses is a result of the cluing—here, the "mathematical" bit. Otherwise, it's just random American cities. I'm guessing this started as a list of just that—American cities. Since virtually every major American city will have two major "roads" (i.e. numbered highways) running through it, all you really need to do is figure out which cities you can make symmetrical. Why this city and not that city? Who cares. Just plug in cities. That's how I solved all seven theme cities—I just substituted the clue [Major American city] for every equation and had precisely no trouble with any of them. Thankfully, the grid is a 78-worder, which means that the fill is not especially taxed by the relative density of the theme. In fact, I cringed only once, albeit hard—at RAMAL. Talk about your outliers. Maybe ALEPPO (20A: City of Syria) or FIONA Apple (22D: Apple on iTunes) is a *little* off the beaten path, but at least they are in someone's language. RAMAL!? I know a little Latin and still was like "RAM- ... IC? AL? There's an adjectival form of RAMUS now?" (RAMUS itself being pretty outré to begin with). Several online dictionaries define RAMAL as "Of or relating to a ramus." Thanks, dictionaries!



Theme answers:

• 17A: 65 + 20 (BIRMINGHAM)
• 4D: 55 + 40 (MEMPHIS)
• 11D: 5 + 10 (LOS ANGELES)
• 40A: 75 + 20 (ATLANTA)
• 30D: 29 + 80 (OMAHA)
• 44D: 75 + 94 (DETROIT)
• 28D: 35 + 10 (SAN ANTONIO)

Still don't get how TONER is found on a drum (45A: It may be found on a drum). Is a "drum" a part of a printer? I'm guessing yes. Had some trouble coming up with SCALER (10D: Tackle box item) and went through a whole WCS / LAV / LOO thing at 41A: London facilities. Otherwise, straight shot.


Bullets:

• 53A: Carpentry item in a common simile (DOORNAIL) — "simile" part is cute, but it also made getting the answer terribly easy.
• 13D: Jungle camping supply (MESH) — I assume this is like netting? To keep out mosquitoes? I wrote in a terminal "S" and had to fix it later—one of only a small handful of write-overs. 
• 52D: Syrian strongman (ASSAD) — Why are tyrants so damned crossworthy? OK, I'm thinking mainly of IDI AMIN, but still—I'd be happy to never to see this guy's name in the grid again.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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