Elemento número 79 / THU 7-5-12 / 1985 N.L. M.V.P. Willie / Like some observant Brooklynites / Poet Teasdale / Toyota model beginning in 1984 / Red Roof Inn competitor / Asian nurse / Hide's partner

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: DEAL WITH IT [edit: or Medium-Challenging if you're anon]

THEME: SHIFT KEY (68A: Something that's pressed, which helps explain this puzzle's theme) — The Down answers include the numerals 2 through 6, and the respective Across answers use the symbols that you get when you hold down the SHIFT KEY while typing the numbers on a keyboard

Word of the Day: OSSObuco (31D: ___ buco) —

Ossobuco (pronounced [ˌɔsːoˈbuːko]) is a Milanese specialty of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata and traditionally served with risotto alla milanese.

There are two types of ossobuco: a modern version that has tomatoes and the original version which does not. The older version, ossobuco in bianco, is flavored with cinnamon, bay leaf and gremolata. The modern and more popular recipe includes tomatoes, carrots, celery and onions. Gremolata is optional. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello again! =0

Marvin here, filling in for Rex while he's on the other side of the world, in New Zealand.  (Isn't that where they filmed that movie with ENTS?)

I know Thursday is when the dirty tricks come out, but today's puzzle felt more like a barrel of Thursday jungle juice, with numerals, symbols, squares that read differently Across and Down, and a slew of tricky tricky clues everywhere else.

Though it was quickly apparent some kind of rebus was involved, the dual nature of the squares kept me from figuring out the theme's schtick until I'd gotten around half of the grid filled.  (In particular, the E section got me barking up the wrong tree, thinking 5 AGES had something to do with the classical Ages of Man.)

Theme answers:

• 2PAC (6D: Big name in 35-Across [RAP MUSIC])
• 3DTV (11D: Reason to wear glasses at home?)
• 4RUNNER (26D: Toyota model beginning in 1984)
• MAROON 5 (28D: Band with the 2004 hit "She Will Be Loved")
• MOTEL 6 (44D: Red Roof Inn competitor)
• SASQU@CH / SASQU[AT]CH (1A: Mysterious figure)
• EX#ING / EX[POUND]ING (9A: Stating in detail, with "on")
• SAND$ / SAND [DOLLAR] (22A: Potential beach find)
• %AGES / [PERCENT]AGES (51A: Portions)
• ^AKERS / [CARET]AKERS (67A: Nurses, e.g.)

After a slog through the non-theme answers, the puzzle suddenly broke open once I figured out the theme, and since the theme answers take up so much of the puzzle, that gave me enough momentum to finish.  I came close to a DNF a few times along the way, but came away satisfied; since nearly all the payoff was in the theme answers, your experience will probably hinge on whether you cracked the theme before giving up (hence the difficulty rating).

ELIAS / AMAH in the SE was the weakest cross I encountered; I wasn't familiar with either one.

A bit eerie that today's theme came after the keyboard-themed ESC in yesterday's SW corner.

All ten(!) theme answers make sense with little to no stretching, there's symmetry with the numbers on top in the northern half and numbers on the bottom in the southern half, and as with this Tuesday's puzzle, the final theme answer is a bit of a sucker punch (in a good way).  Fun solve, and the theme is executed well enough to forgive a few cracked-out moments in the fill (esp. in the SE).

Random: HASIDIC crossed with RAP MUSIC in the W/NW reminded me of Matisyahu, though he's actually reggae and not rap.

Bullets:

• 17A: Do-overs at a card table (NEW DEALS) — First thought MULLIGANS (too long).  I guess it sort of makes sense, but it also feels like a joke missing part of the punchline.  Maybe it could have been Roosevelt's card table.
• 18A: Maestro Toscanini (ARTURO)  — Crossword fans probably only know his first name because his full name happens to be 15 letters.
• 48A: Elemento número 79 (ORO)  — Not sure if anyone's ever done chemistry and Spanish in one clue before.  If it weren't ORO I suspect we'd be seeing chairs through windows at breakfast.

• 65A: Neighbors, in a way (LIES ON)  — ...Maybe?  This was one of the shakier clues/answers today.
• 66A: One with a lap cat, maybe (CARESSER)  — Legitimate, but a grand misdirection; I was thinking of types of VILLAINS or Ernst Stavro Blofeld until I had enough crosses.
• 3D: Put in stitches (SEW)  — Thought CUT at first (as in "I'll cut you"), but later realized the pun was on "Put in" and not on "stitches".
• 7D: Cooler part (CELL)  — Turns out 'cooler' is a slang term for prison, though it could also refer to the closed-cell foam in a styrofoam cooler (but I'm pretty sure that wasn't intentional).
• 14D: Hulled grain (GROATS)  — Surprised to learn this was a word.  (Before I got the theme I was suspecting [QUAKE]R OATS.)  It sounds more like something out of Jabberwocky.

• 43D: Sign holders (ZODIACS)  — Got ZODIAC_ early on; suspected the final square was a rebus and only got the S from  SHIFT KEY.  The clue seemed obtuse enough that it probably should have had a question mark.
• 45D: Head cases? (CRANIA)  — Had CRANIi at first.  I felt like Tony Guida up against Rex on the CBS Evening News; "my Latin... my Latin."

Signed, Marvin, CARESSER of CrossWorld
(don't TASE me BRO)

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Tureen accessories / TUE 7-3-12 / Jewel box contents / Darling of baseball / Italian fashion house / Figure in a Rimsky-Korsakov opera / Hockey player Bobby / Princeton Review coursework

Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative difficulty: NOT BAD

THEME: INSTERTION — that is, creating a new phrase by adding [STER] to the middle or end of a well-known phrase or name

Word of the Day: THANE (50D: Macbeth's title) —

The term thegn (or thane or thayn in Shakespearean English), from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves. It is also the term for an early medieval Scandinavian class of retainers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello there! =0

Marvin here, filling in for Rex while he's on the other side of the world, in New Zealand.

This puzzle didn't strike me as particularly hard for a Tuesday; I cruised right through without any stumpers or overwrites, and the most likely words to cause a logjam (i.e. the three-letter sports names ORR and RON) were adequately crossed.

Gimmes were legion, from ARLO (16A: Singer Guthrie) all the way down to DORA (55D: Animated "Explorer").

Theme answers:

• GO TEAM[STER] (17A: Cheer to an interstate trucker?)
• WEB[STER] BROWSER (28A: One who peruses the dictionary?)
• MINI[STER] COOPER (45A: Newsman Anderson with a theology degree?)
• YO-YO MA[STER] (59A: One who's very good at rocking the cradle?)

Today's puzzle gets a load of bonus 'interesting points' through no fault of its own, as it comes less than 24 hours after Anderson COOPER publicly announced that he is gay, surprising no one, but possibly raising the ire of a MINISTER or two in the process.

There isn't a whole lot of consistency in how the theme is applied (add letters in the middle? at the end? phrases into phrases? names into phrases? names into phrases with names?), and I suspect if Rex were here, he'd come out with guns blazing, but the answers themselves aren't bad and I find it hard to hate when the pun-tacular YO-YO MA[STER] is the final pun-chline.

That said, today did feel a little flat with the cluing, with so many words clued in an 'obvious' way (cf. DOG (1D: Toto, for one), CART (41D: Golfer's vehicle)) that felt like missed opportunities, even by Monday standards.  I had visions of Siem REAP (not far from LAOS) and Fort TRYON Park dancing in my dreams soon after finishing.

On a better note, the fill was surprisingly straightforward, with only ATRA (20A: Razor brand) and AFIRE (35D: Burning) meriting a raised eyebrow.

Bullets:

• 25A: "Sometimes you feel like ___" (A NUT) — "...sometimes you don't."  From the Almond Joy/Mounds ads.  A gimme if you remember the commercials, a possible head-scratcher if you don't.

• 27A: Word repeated in both James Bond and Justin Bieber film titles (NEVER)  — My first thought was BABY but that didn't line up with Bond or the five-letter blank.
• 58A: Commotions (ADOS)  — This, crossed with the Macbeth-clued THANE, lent a decidedly Shakespearean flavor to the SW corner.
• 6D: Jewel box contents (CDS)  — Initially thought GEM, but I didn't trust it and the clue suggested a plural.  Had to get it on crosses; I usually think of the CD holders as 'jewel cases', not boxes.
• 10D: Tureen accessories (LADLES)  — Notable mainly for the five-dollar word in the clue; I only learned it a couple months ago from reading The Hunger Games, which, oddly enough, has a disturbing fascination with tureens.
• 29D: U-turn from NNE (SSW)  — A departure from the usual geographical compass clues, but as noted above, one requiring much less brain power than usual.
• 36D: In medias ___ (RES)  — One of those where you either know it or you don't (or you know enough Latin to BS your way through).  I mostly remember it from Alan W. Pollack's musicological analysis of the Beatles' "Girl".

And there you have it!  Mooching off Rex's fame for a day is a dream come true (see right).  The parade of magical mystery bloggers continues tomorrow.

See you soon, hopefully!

Signed, Marvin, THANE of CrossWorld
(because Governor General was taken)

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