Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Eric Tentarelli

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Football teams - wacky clues whose answers are made up of three NFL football team names (in the singular)

Merry Christmas. Not a very Christmasy puzzle. I guess we got ours on Sunday. Not only is this puzzle not Christmasy, it seems to suggest that Santa has, in fact, been killed - at least that's my interpretation of the RED SNO at the bottom of the grid?

[too gruesome? It gets nicer and more Jesus-y toward the end]

Not spending too much time writing this one up - gotta give myself a little rest on Christmas Eve / Day. So, after describing the theme answers, I think I'm just going to do the whole write-up as a long bullet list, with no more than two sentences per bullet. This is a challenge I set myself ... challenge accepted.

Theme answers:

20A: Chestnut-colored mustang offspring? (brown bronco colt)
38A: Main dedicatee of an Austin cathedral? (chief Texan saint)
55A: Hefty invoice for boots and spurs? (giant cowboy bill)

Cute clues. Wonder who wrote them? The theme is something I think I've seen before. Feels familiar. The team names don't go together for any particular reason except that they make a coherent phrase, which is enough, I guess.

Bullets:

1A: Choker component (clasp) - Had PEARL, which got me off to a slow start
6A: Music pioneered by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (ska) - Educated guess (3 letters, and I know it's not RAP ... coulda been EMO, I guess). My intro to ska:

16A: Bygone Olds (Alero) - 21st century crosswordese. Other answers I got because of constant crosswording include O'SHEA (25D: Dublin-born film star Milo), ARAL (12D: Asia's _____ Sea), IONA (56D: College in New Rochelle, N.Y.), and LUCE (43A: Time-honored man?) - "Time" is a magazine title in that last one, in case you were still or ever wondering.
17A: Sorkin who created "The West Wing" (Aaron) - total gimme; loved "Sports Night," never watched "The West Wing." Tons of names in the puzzle today, including ARNE (23A: "Rule, Britannia" composer), ALAN ALDA (8D: Star of Broadway's "QED," 2001-02), AGNEW (31D: Predecessor of Ford), SNEAD (69A: Masters champ of 1949, 1952 and 1954), and some guy named NOLAN I've never heard of (47A: David _____, founder of the Libertarian Party).
22A: Its coat of arms includes a vicuña (Peru) - find the vicuña!

33A: Pitcher Hideo Nomo's birthplace (Osaka) - had the "K," which made it obviousish.
66A: Last name of Kipling's Kim (O'Hara) - very Irish up in here: O'SHEA, O'SAKA, now O'HARA ...
6D: Pelvic bone (sacrum) - yoga instructor mentions this bone a lot.
13D: Shed (molt) - had LOSE (as in "shed some pounds"). Grrr...
21D: Bust holder (bra) - what's a three-letter word for "pedestal?" Oh, you mean boobs.
30D: The City of a Thousand Minarets (Cairo) - as with OSAKA, I had the key letter in place (in this case, the "C" - though the "O" might have been telling too)
48D: Light ratio in astronomy (Al Bedo) - good ol' AL (I did not know this one, clearly - and I know it's one word and not a guy's name, so hold the email, thanks)
59D: Family name suffix in taxonomy (-idae) - the original version of this puzzle did not have the word "suffix" in it, hence my mild confusion. Don't like this and IDEA (35A) in the same puzzle - what's the big IDAE!?
58D: Cousin of a treecreeper (wren) - didn't know it. Just asked wife if she knew what a "treecreeper" was, and she answered: "Is it a bird? .... Is it a kind of WREN?" Damn her and her birdishness! How can I steal her powers?
46D: Home of Fort Scott National Historic Site (Kansas) - this one tripped me up badly, but only bec. the orig. clue was written with an abbrev. -> [Home of Fort Scott Natl. Historic site], and so naturally I expected one in the answer.

I'll leave you with two very different versions of my favorite Christmas carol (three if you click the link you just read over)

Enjoy whatever it is you eat today. I love you guys! (and I'm not even drunk ... yet)

xoRP

PS, click here to find out the answer to "What Was In the Basement?" - it is unbelievably fantastic, and the photo doesn't even begin to do it justice. P.S. I got my wife more than just the mug (though the mug is unique, handmade, and awesome)