Menotti title character / WED 5-9-12 / Phoenician port / Townsman in Fiddler on Roof

Constructor: Eshan Mitra

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Get off my quays! — terminal -ACE sounds are turned into terminal -AZE sounds in familiar phrases. Wackiness ensues.

Word of the Day: JAFAR (10D: "Aladdin" villain) —

Jafar (Arabic: جعفر‎ Ǧaʿfar, Ja'far) is the main antagonist of the first two films. He is voiced byJonathan Freeman in both films and in the Kingdom Hearts series of video games. An inspiration to the character is the villain Jaffar, played by Conrad Veidt in The Thief of Bagdad, from whichAladdin borrows several character ideas and plot elements. (wikipedia)

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This is quite solid. Theme is consistent and theme answers are cute. Seems like the theme could've been extended to a Sunday-sized puzzle, but then the theme might have begun to grate at the 7th or 8th theme answer. Again I find myself without much to say. The fill is all familiar, and there is nothing particularly sparkly or dreadful. The only potential pitfalls I can see today are proper nouns, most notably JAFAR (which I forgot, never having seen the film in question) and AMAHL (which I remembered because of that one time long ago when it sunk me). The "title" of [Menotti title character] is "AMAHL and the NIGHT Visitors," only the clue couldn't tell you that because NIGHT is in the grid (with a great clue, btw—24D: Comment to one who's retiring). Besides those names, though, everything feels very common-knowledge. And if not common, crossword-common at least.


Theme answers:

• 17A: What company bosses do for employees? (SET THE PAYS)
• 23A: Best meal of a cow's life? (AMAZING GRAZE)
• 37A: Having a successful theater career? (IN THE RIGHT PLAYS)
• 45A: Guantánamo and others? (MILITARY BAYS)
• 57A: The second round of betting, for one? (POKER PHASE)

I forgot GOMEZ (12D: Mr. Addams of "The Addams Family") and JAFAR and couldn't pick up FEMA (19A: What comes as a relief?: Abbr.) at first, so that corner was the most trying (left it and came back to it at the end). Had a bit of trouble getting started since SETT-E---- and its clue (17A: What company bosses do for employees?) looked like it would be SETTLE something. Took a bit of thinking to parse that one and thus get INHUMANE coming down (5D: Barbaric). I wrote in a terminal "S" at 31A: Star followers and then later wondered what the heck GRST was at 25D: Sandpaper surface. Thought the D&D enemy at 60A: Common enemy in Dungeons & Dragons (OGRE) was ORCS, though crosses got me out of that one pretty quickly. Otherwise, besides Briticizing MITER (31D: Kind of saw), I didn't have any trouble at all. Well below my Wednesday average time.


Oh, maybe TYRE (35D: Phoenician port) was a bit thorny for some people. Probably less well known than JAFAR. I know the story of Apollonius of TYRE from ... I don't know, being a medievalist, I guess. It was just in the air. Shakespeare wrote Pericles, Prince of TYRE, and wikipedia tells me Apollonius of Tyre was a source for both Twelfth Night and Comedy of Errors as well. TYRE is also the British spelling of "tire."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Bean on screen / TUE 9-14-10 / It's driven over ice between periods / Christine's lover in Phantom of Opera

Constructor: Eshan Mitra

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: BREAKABLES (59A: Fragile articles or a hint to the things named by the circled letters) — words formed by circled letters are things you can break, and those words are visually "broken," with first part occurring at beginning of theme answer and second part at the end


Word of the Day: ORSON Bean (21A: Bean on the screen) —

Orson Bean (born July 22, 1928) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He appeared frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including being a long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. [...] He was a regular on both Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spin-off, Fernwood 2Nite, and also played the shrewd businessman and storekeeper Loren Bray on the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman throughout its six-year run on CBS in the 1990s. He played John Goodman's homophobic father on the sitcom Normal, Ohio. He played the main characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the 1977 and 1980 Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and The Return of the King. He also played Dr. Lester in Spike Jonze's 1999 film, Being John Malkovich. [...] Bean was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s for attending two Communist Party meetings, but made numerous appearances on television and in the theater. A conservative Christian, he came out in support of the Proposition 8 ballot initiative in California. He is father-in-law to Andrew Breitbart and describes his own children, who are all married, as "little communists". He was once a proponent of Orgone therapy and published a book about it titled, Me and the Orgone.

• • •

Second day in a row of puzzles without very strong concepts. Difference today is that the theme feels much looser and weaker, and the grid, overall, isn't as snazzy. Didn't like the revealer on this one: BREAKABLES. Problem for me is that Lots of things can break. Lots and lots and lots. Why these? Three literal, one figurative. With exception of MIRROR, all very short words that could have been broken across lots and lots of possible theme answers. The concept just doesn't feel very tight, and the theme answers don't pop. Grid seems smooth and solid enough, and I love ZAMBONI (39D: It's driven over the ice between periods) and CHUTZPAH (4D: Cheekiness), but the rest of it was just OK for me.

Theme answers:

• 17A: In consecutive order (SEQUENTIAL)
  
• 25A: Just barely legit (BORDERLINE)
  
• 36A: What a slow person may need (HEAD START)
  
• 50A: Slip-up (MINOR ERROR) — the "MINOR" part of this was not at all obvious to me from the clue.

Madonna - Borderline

There was quite a bit that caused me to slow down and think—odd for a Tuesday. Cluing in NW seemed particularly ramped up, with both ESS (1D: What makes a pin spin?), TIER (5D: Auditorium balcony, e.g.), and 14A: Rolls for dinner (SUSHI) stumping me initially. The eastern section also took a bit of work— didn't know EDMOND (49A: Astronomer Halley) and couldn't get .PDF (Portable Document Format, a common file type) easily from the clue (46D: Alternative to a print version: Abbr.). Wanted BROKEN something instead of BREAKABLES at first. Had NIL instead of ZIP (39A: Nada). Had no idea ALLAH was on the Saudi flag (42A: Word written on the Saudi flag), or that ODES were features of Sophocles plays. Then again, I was solving on paper (not the norm), so maybe I wouldn't have noticed many of these as much if I'd been in computer mode.

Bullets:

• 54A: Sound accompanying a cloud of smoke (POOF) — this seems more like comic book sound effect than actual sound. Is the context a magic show?
  
• 22D: It's smelled when something's fishy (RAT) — love the animal switch in this one.
  
• 26D: ___ by chocolate (calorie-heavy dessert) (DEATH) — I knew this, but I don't know if I've ever actually seen it on a menu ... oh, I must have. But I couldn't describe to you what it actually consists of. Chocolate something, I'd imagine.
  
• 38D: Team that has a tankful of rays in the back of its ballpark (TAMPA BAY) — I don't like the city name as the "team." The team is the RAYS. TAMPA BAY is the home of many teams. The Rays will be in the playoffs this year, almost certainly. They're currently locked in a pretty close race for the A.L. East with the Yankees. Looks like the Rays beat them in extra innings today. That puts the Rays a half game up.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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