Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Leonard Williams

Relative difficulty: Easy

Hi, everybody. PuzzleGirl here with you again for your Tuesday puzzle fun. I flew through this puzzle with only one really small glitch and Seth reports this was his third fastest puzzle ever, so don't try to talk me out of the "easy" rating. (Wade was too busy watching "The Sopranos" to get an accurate assessment.) The theme? I didn't love it and didn't hate it, but have two minor quibbles with it.

THEME: "Sit Back and Listen" -- Phrases that introduce stories.

Theme answers:

20A: Fairy tale's start ("Once upon a time….")
34A: Grandpa's start ("When I was a boy….")
41A: Mom's start ("Back in the day….")
56A: Legend's start ("In years gone by….")

So here's my thing with the theme. These are good theme answers. Fine, fine theme answers. The clues on the other hand are, as a group, a little off. The fact that the clues echo each other (i.e., [something]'s start), to me, indicates that they should be more alike than they are. Fairy tale's start = Start of a fairy tale. Legend's start = Start of a legend. So far, so good. Grandpa's start = Start of a grandpa? Sorry but that doesn't work for me. Similarly, "Back in the day…." isn't the start of a mom. And, even worse, it's not even the start of a mom's story. It's the start of a prison inmate's story. I think the phrase that would actually fit for a "mom's story" (whatever That is) is "In my day…." Of course that doesn't have enough letters. So let's talk about the rest of the puzzle.

1A: Music played by Ravi Shankar at Woodstock (raga). Wikipedia warns that these "melodic modes in classical Indian music" should not be confused with ragga (which is short for "raggamuffin music"). The things you learn.

25A: Thor Heyerdahl craft (Ra I). This one tripped me up because Kon-Tiki wouldn't fit.

51A: Cooke who sang "You Send Me." I know we talked about this song not too long ago, but we were focused on the lyrics, not the artist. Did you get this one?

66A: It produces more than 20 million bricks annually (Lego). Seth suggested the accompanying picture. It's a two-fer, fitting both this answer and the theme: uphill-both-ways Legos!

3D: Ice cream flavor Cherry _____ (Garcia). I've never been tempted to try this particular flavor. Also not a huge Grateful Dead fan. Except for "Casey Jones." And "Friend of the Devil."

9D: Where Schwarzenegger was born (Austria). Is it weird that he's referred to by his last name only?

27D: Pastoral composition (idyl). I think that spelling deserves a "Var."

34D: Chinese cookers (woks). This word -- and virtually any Asian-sounding surname -- reminds me of something that happened once when I was working at a law firm in downtown D.C. When the receptionist would page someone, she would say, for example, "Mr. Parker, please. Mr. Parker." Of course you can't hear the inflection she used, but it was very calm and soothing and it was always the same. So one day, I swear to God, she paged two people right in a row. "Mr. White, please. Mr. White…. Mr. Huang, please. Mr. Huang." I never did find out if she did that on purpose.

36D: Rudiments (ABCs). It's easy as 1-2-3:

37D: Yuri's love in "Dr. Zhivago" (Lara). Let's just consider this our daily shout-out to Omar Sharif.

38D: Curved saber (scimitar). I knew this word but really had no idea how to spell it.

So I want to thank you all again for letting me hang out with you the last couple days. I'm scheduled for tomorrow's post too, but I think I'm going to hand it off to Wade. If I can pry him away from the TV.

Signed, PuzzleGirl, on behalf of H.R.H. Rex Parker