Unused parts of cell phone plan /MON 9-12-11/ Question that's classic pickup line / Person who uses five finger discount / Apple devices with earbuds

Constructor: Keith Talon

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Monday*)


THEME: "GOOD / DOG!" (57D: With 65-Across, comment that might be heard after the start of 17-, 28-, 45- or 59-Across) — theme answers begin with ROLL OVER, SIT (DOWN), COME (HERE), and STAY, respectively

• ROLL OVER MINUTES (17A: Unused parts of a cell phone plan)
• SIT-DOWN DINNER (28A: Formal meal at a table)
• COME HERE OFTEN? (45A: Question that's a classic pickup line)
• STAY OF EXECUTION (59A: Death row inmate's hope)

Word of the Day: VITIATE (27D: Impair the quality of) —

tr.v., -at·ed, -at·ing, -ates.

1. To reduce the value or impair the quality of.
2. To corrupt morally; debase.
3. To make ineffective; invalidate. See synonyms at corrupt.

[Latin vitiāre, vitiāt-, from vitium, fault.]

• • •

Cool theme answers make this a delightful Monday puzzle. ATROPHY (24D: Wither) and VITIATE (27D: Impair the quality of), despite their negative vibes, really class up the grid, while also toughening it up a bit. And I doubt anyone was prepared for the return of Rebecca DE MORNAY, whose name I haven't seen since the late '80s (you may remember her from such famous movies as "Risky Business"). As for the theme, the only issue I have is that it's not clear what's meant by "start of" in the theme revealer. I assume you tell your dog "SIT," but "SIT DOWN" is at least remotely possible. Same goes for "COME" (normal command) and "COME HERE" (which essentially means the same thing, though the extra word makes it less-than-ideal for dog communication, I'd think). My dogs can do three of today's commands quite well. I've never understood why anyone would want their dogs to "ROLL OVER" ... although I guess there's no real use for "SHAKE," either, and both my dogs can do that. The top line, PAW + FLOOD + I GIVE was eerily relevant to me today, as I took a trunkful of pet supplies up to the Humane Society's emergency, make-shift shelter (their regular space was under FLOOD water for days). (1A: One of the "hands" in the command "shake hands" [really? "hands???" who adds the "hands" to the command? that's confusing and silly]) + 4A: Result of a burst dike + 9A: "O.K., O.K. ... tell me!")


I have never heard of FLO & Eddie (4D: Pop music's ___ & Eddie). They're from "pop music," you say? It seems they were the founding members of The Turtles, but it also seems that as FLO & Eddie they charted ... never. So I don't see how they are from "pop music" (by those names) in any but the most attenuated ways. They seem to have done a lot of backing vocals for famous pop acts, but that hardly makes them crossworthy (here's their wikipedia page). FLO Rida and FLO the waitress are still the only acceptable FLOs, as far as I'm concerned.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Elements of Style updater / TUE 5-11-10 / Hapless Corleone / 1889 statehood achievers / Frenzied place rock club / Super slangily

Constructor: Keith Talon

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: MARTINI (37A: Cocktail called "the elixir of quietude" by 4-Down (i.e. E.B. WHITE)) — theme answers are ways one might order one's martini, clued jokingly, via plays on words, as the martini orders of various famous people


Word of the Day: EMAC (42A: Apple originally marketed to schools) —

The eMac, short for education Mac, was a Macintosh desktop computer made by Apple Inc. It was originally aimed at the education market, then available as a cheaper mass market option over Apple's second generation iMac. The eMac design closely resembled first-generation iMacs. It sports a PowerPC G4 processor significantly faster than the older iMac's G3 processor, and a larger 17" flat display. // The eMac was discontinued by Apple on July 5, 2006 and replaced with a cheaper, low-end iMac that, like the eMac, was originally sold exclusively to educational institutions, but later released to the general public in September 2006.

• • •

A snazzy grid and fantastic theme, though far more suited to a Wednesday than a Tuesday in terms of its fill and cluing. The middle of the grid is horrendously ugly. Why in the world do you go with EMAC — something I didn't know existed til this very second — instead of, either, IMAC / MILT, or, say EMMA (then change FOOL to POOL)? Yikes almighty, EMAC!? The answer that CAME back! (that's what I'll say if I ever see it again). But enough about that massive flaw — let's look at the rest. Very bouncy and fresh all around, though the "Q" seems pretty gratuitous: if you have to go to QUOITS for your "Q," is it really worth it (49A: Ringtoss game)? But QUOITS was (I feel) recently in the puzzle, if not the NYT, then some other one, so no trouble there, but lots of trouble all over the place just getting the answers to fall in Tuesday fashion (i.e. easily). I liked the challenge. Take out EMAC, and I'd have Loved this puzzle.



Theme answers:

• 20A: Tiger and Elin Woods's 37-Across order? (ON THE ROCKS) — this feels a little mean
  
• 11D: O. Henry's 37-Across order? (WITH A TWIST) — because of his ironing
  
• 53A: Paula Abdul's 37-Across order? (STRAIGHT UP) — HA ha. Great. I miss Paula on "Idol." Ellen is far too ... coherent. And Kara ... don't get me started.
  
• 29D: Popeye's 37-Across order? (EXTRA OLIVE) — the second theme answer I got, before I knew the theme ... I thought puzzle was going to be something about missing "VIRGIN"s or something ...
• 4D: "The Elements of Style" updater (E.B. WHITE) — no idea he held forth on MARTINIs. My respect for him continues to grow.

Will makes a nice little self-referential gesture in today's cluing — which you won't notice at all unless you saw last night's episode of "How I Met Your Mother," in which Will had a substantial part. At a posh party, Will confirms for the show's (super-excited and geeked-out) main character and his friends that ULEE (today's 18A: Beekeeper played by Peter Fonda) is indeed in the grid so often, as the character has always told his (uninterested) friends, "because of all the vowels." Will also sings barbershop and has a conversation with Arianna Huffington and Peter Bogdanovich, and at one point runs off in search of a MINI QUICHE. All very cute.

Bullets:

• 27A: It might start "E FP TOZ LPED" (EYE TEST)— very nice clue
  
• 44A: Figure of Greek myth with a statue at Rockefeller Center (ATLAS) — somehow I went with ERATO at first :(
  
• 46A: 1889 statehood achievers, with "the" (DAKOTAS) — weird. Got it without too much trouble, but ... they achieved statehood as North and South Dakota, not as the DAKOTAS, so clue feels slightly odd.
  
• 65A: The hapless Corleone (FREDO) — Clue made me laugh. Also, I had FRODO.
  
• 67A: "Peter Pan" fairy, for short (TINK) — Should have gotten this right away, as I remember the "Think TINK" merch from the last time I was at Disney World. Instead, I wanted her to be T-BELL or some such street-sounding name.
  
• 13D: Some turns and boxing punches (LEFTS) — makes complete sense in retrospect, but mid-solve, clue read like gibberish.
  
• 22D: Wise old Athenian (SOLON) — was he not always wise, i.e. wise before he was old. I didn't know age was part of his schtick.
  
• 26D: City known as Colombia's sports capital (CALI) — and not, as you suspected, its drug capital.
  
• 28D: "Car Talk" dubbed it "the worst car of the millennium" (YUGO) — "She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene ... put it in 'H'!"
  
• 43D: Frenzied place at a rock club (MOSH PIT) — do these still exist. Like PHAT (23A: Super, slangily), this feels dated already.
  
• 46D: Cisco Kid's horse (DIABLO) — no idea. Got it off DIA-. "Oh DIABLO Canyon 2, why can't you be more like DIABLO Canyon 1?!"
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

R.I.P. legendary sci-fi/fantasy artist Frank Frazetta and legendary singer/actress (and crossword stalwart) LENA Horne

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Company founded by Ingvar Kamprad -THURSDAY, Jul. 3, 2008 - Keith Talon ("Scenes of Clerical Life" author, 1858 / HOME OF THE 1,612-FOOT RIBBON FALLS)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Typos - three theme answers are editorial words (and one phrase) that (ironically?) aren't spelled correctly - further, clues are all self-referential, so that the answer becomes in some way self-descriptive

Meh. This was OK. We had a misspelled word puzzle not long ago (a Sunday, I think), so nothing here was surprising, and the clues really made the theme quite obvious - one theme answer even contains the word "error," just in case you were having trouble picking things up. It's also a little disappointing that the first two "errors" in question are not ones that anyone would make. I just typed TYPOGRAPHICAL quickly a few times, and the "I" changed to a "J" once, and I while I did insert an "A" between the "P" and "H," I didn't lose the first "A." In fact, if you touch-type, you know it's really really really hard to make a mistake between "R" and "A." I suppose you might miss the "A", but you are not not not going to squeeze any letter in between the "R" and the "A" - that's a very fluid, very fast, very instinctive letter combo. Further, the theme answers are noun, adjective, and then noun-adjective. And two of the clues are "?" clues, where one isn't. It all just seems a bit loose, a bit off.

Must go quickly. Sister and nephews and brother-in-law arriving any moment for pancakes.

Theme answers:

• 20A: What this answer could use? (proofreadinng)
• 37A: Like this answer's error? (typogrpahical)
• 53A: This answer contains one (mispelled word)

The non-theme parts of this puzzle were very easy. I'm trying to anticipate where people might have had trouble. Maybe in and around the "K"s? Not sure why, but TIKI came to me instantly (15A: _____ bar) and was confirmed by the fairly obvious IKEA (7D: Company founded by Ingvar Kamprad). In the SE, RISKS (49D: Takes a chance on) was pretty easy, which made LATKE (61A: Hanukkah staple) much much easier to turn up than it would have been without the "K" in place. Some stuff I couldn't remember readily - PEPSI is a good example (30D: It "hits the spot" per an old jingle) - but crosses made things simple. I grew up in CA and went to YOSEMITE many times but have no recollection of Ribbon Falls, which made 38D: Home of the 1,612-foot Ribbon Falls (Yosemite) something of a surprise when I finally got it. I don't know if I've ever seen beggars cup their hands outside of the movies, so CUPPED (1D: Like beggars' hands) felt a little weird. If only the MINTER (33A: Coiner) could get together with the beggars ... hmm, I just noticed that this puzzle has both ESTEE (50D: First name in beauty products) and ESTEE ... M (41A: Prize). Ouch.

Listington

• 1A: "_____ Si Bon" (1950s Eartha Kitt hit) - gimme. Here she is:

• 5A: Post-diet, ideally (slim) - wavered between this and THIN for a few seconds
• 14A: Dinosaur National Monument locale (Utah) - only ever been to their airport. Seems like a gorgeous state. I want to go, but ... can you get coffee there?
• 16A: "Scenes of Clerical Life" author, 1858 (Eliot) - and then one hundred years later...
• 17A: 1958 World Cup hero (Pele)
• 24A: With 19-Across, language from which "steak" and "eggs" come (Old Norse) - one of those few times that my academic training has come in very, very handy. This was a gimme.
• 28A: Alaska vacation destination (Denali) - it's a national park and the gigantic mountain found in that national park.
• 32A: Federally funded program since '65 (NEA) - I like "'65" as a way of indication "abbreviation ahead"
• 52A: _____ Jemison, first black woman in space (Mae) - I did not know that ... though something tells me she's been in my crossword before.
• 64A: "_____ Eyes" (1969 hit) ("These") - Ah, the Guess Who. Instant gimme.

• 65A: Irwin who wrote "Rich Man, Poor Man" (Shaw) - I seem to remember this as a major mini-series when I was very young.
• 4D: One of the "Cosby Show" kids (Theo) - I read this new comic yesterday; I think it's meant for kids (like ... preteen), but it's beautiful and really entertaining and made me care about Captain Marvel for the first time in my entire life. It's called something something Captain Marvel, or maybe SHAZAM ... I forget. But it's beautifully illustrated and colored and the story is smart and cheeky in the way that tolerable children's entertainment can be sometimes. Really great stuff. Most stuff aimed at kids, as you might imagine, is dreck. Sub-dreck. O ... why am I telling you this in reference to THEO? Because Captain Marvel's arch-nemesis is Black Adam, whose real name is ... THEO Adam. WHAM! (56D: Pow!)
• 12D: Mother of the stars and the winds (Eos) - usually clued as goddess of the dawn
• 31D: "Was it _____ I saw?" (classic palindrome) ("a rat") - never heard of it, but was able to piece it together really easily
• 35D: Steering system part (tie rod) - bought a new car yesterday. Well, a new very used car. My 1991 Pathfinder needed to be put down, so when a cheap, somewhat younger alternative came my way (quite by accident), I took it. So today is the first day of my new car life. My old car life lasted 17 years - the longest, closest relationship I've had with anyone or thing besides my mom, dad, and sister. Moment of silence ... moving on. Oh, one last thing: when we were cleaning out the years and years of accumulated crap (mostly coins) under the seats of the Pathfinder, my wife turned up ... my wedding ring, which had been missing for over three years.
  
• 37D: Instruction at a horse show (trot) - there was all this kerfuffle last night about pony camp ... apparently it might not happen, which would disappoint Sahra no end, but as long as she's with her best friend that week, I doubt she'll care much.
• 39D: Property divider (hedgerow) - good answer
• 54D: "The Dukes of Hazzard" spinoff ("Enos") - sweeeet.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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