Mario with the 1951 #1 hit "Be My Love" / MON 10-5-15 / Part of the eye / Mounts for cowboys / Lightest coins ever minted in the U.S., used in the 19th century / Greeting in Rio

It's an Annabel Monday!!! Hooray!!!

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: CHANGE IS GOOD — Theme answers included coins.


Theme answers:

• 7D: Lightest coins ever minted by the U.S., used in the late 19th century (THREE-CENT PIECES)
• 20A: Showtime series named after an old fiction genre (PENNY DREADFUL)
• 38A: Charging for every little extra (NICKEL AND DIMING)
• 52A: Mounts for cowboys (QUARTER HORSES)

Word of the Day: ARLO (18D: Guthrie of Rising Sun Records) —

Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer.^[1] Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice. Guthrie's best-known work is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a satirical talking blues song about 18 minutes in length. His song "Massachusetts" was named the official folk song of the state in which he has lived most of his adult life.

(Wikipedia)

• • •

Hi!!! I'm so excited to be back, especially since it's only been two days since my eighteenth birthday!!! I celebrated by getting tea at the campus cafe with my friends. We go very wild and crazy here at Wellesley. However, the anniversary of my birth isn't the only anniversary I'm celebrating...it's also been exactly a year and ONE day since I officially started blogging for Rex!!!!!!!!!!

Have I learned a lot about myself, grew and changed as a person, discovered all I CANDO as a blogger? Yes. Have I figured out how to solve a crossword puzzle in under 20 minutes?.....These things take time.

This was probably the easiest puzzle I've done so far. I've never gotten so many Acrosses (does...does Across have a plural that actually works?) on my first try! So, perfect for a Monday, IMO. NESS/NEST, RHEA/AMENRA, and ADEN/OPEN were nice little touches.

Theme was a Monday thing, not a lot more to say for it except that I loved THREECENTPIECE. This was the first puzzle that I've blogged with a Down clue in the theme.

Bullets:

• TECHNIQUES (35D: Ways to do things) — TECHNIQUE? TECHNIQUE?!??!?! TECHNIQUE TECHNIQUE TECHNIQUE TECHNIQUE!!!

(That part at the end is definitely still Spongebob.)

• HOWTO (14A: Do-it-yourselfer's book genre) — Speaking of which, I have been learning HOWTO play rugby! Yep. I went to a random open rugby practice, loved it, and joined the team totally on a whim. It's so much fun, I get to tackle and maul people!!! No, seriously, "mauling" is an actual rugby thing. I love my sport. <3
• NESS (65A: Loch ____ Monster) — also the name of an "Earthbound" character. Since ATARI was also in the puzzle (even though Earthbound is Nintendo), have some awesome music!

• RHEAS (33A: Cousins of ostriches) — I was done with my writeup but then I was like, look at this bird.

  

  LOOK AT THIS RHEA FLOOF ITS WINGS OUT

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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German prelate who was first person to be canonized AD 993 / MON 6-15-15 / Relative of wood engraving / Google's image organizer / Kingston Trio hit that inspired CharlieCard for Boston commuters / Where Magna Carta was sealed / tropical grassland

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Monday**) (time: 3:09)

THEME: MAGNA CARTA (19A: Document issued on June 15, 1215) — theme answers are trivia relating to this document

Theme answers:

• RUNNYMEDE (20D: Where the 19-Across was sealed)
• DUE PROCESS (57A: Heart of the U.S. legal system, with roots in the 19-Across)
• KING JOHN (38D: He sealed the 19-Across)
• INNOCENT (10D: Pope who issued an annulment of the 19-Across)

Word of the Day: ULRIC (23A: German prelate who was the first person to be canonized, A.D. 993) —

Saint Ulrich of Augsburg (c. 890 – 4 July 973), sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Bishop of Augsburg and a leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. He was the first saint to be canonized. [I like how ULRIC is not an option for spelling his name here … interesting] (wikipedia)

• • •

Not a Monday puzzle, difficulty-wise, and some of the fill was farcical—AS A TEAM? IN A SUIT? (picking up where IN A CAN and SIP TEA left off yesterday, I see). Still, I'll give this puzzle points for a. getting the exact publication date right (for once), and b. nailing RUNNYMEDE through two other themers. That's nifty. But there's a cost to pay, and that cost is ULRIC, WTF? That is about as un-Monday a piece of fill as you're likely to find. Outright obscure. But given the way the grid was constructed the "U" and the "C" were fixed, and good luck getting a decent five-letter word that starts "U" and ends "C"; I mean, what with the economy the way it is and everything … Big corners and occasionally not-famous fill (I'd put both RUNNYMEDE and ULRIC in that category) make the puzzle slow-going, but we can mostly ignore the difficulty expectations when anniversary puzzles are in play. The theme here isn't anything more than symmetrically arranged trivia, so it's dull, conceptually, and the fill is odd here and there, but mostly NYT-normal. OK. Shrug.



Bullets:

• 6D: Cheeky (SAUCY) — I has SA--Y. Wrote in SASSY. That was fun.
• 37A: Pig sound (OINK) — just givin' a little shout out to "PIGgin' IT!," my new favorite expression. I take it back, 8-Down in yesterday's Sunday puzzle; you are a totally for-real thing. I can't stop using you. You are Instant Klassic fill. So OINK OINK.
• 25A: Movie critic, often / 30D: Broadcaster (RATER / AIRER) — two terrible tastes that taste worse in close proximity to one another. Constructor totally pigged it, right there.
• 50D: Google's image organizer (PICASA) — this still exists? Why does it feel so 2008? 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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1953 hit for Julius La Rosa / THU 2-5-15 / Half-betazoid on Enterprise / Movie pizzeria where Radio Raheem ate until he got killed by police / Sheena Easton hit from Bond film / Madcap Martha / Online provider of popular study guides lesson plans

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Easiest Thursday I've Ever Done (give or take)

THEME: three songs Down, three songs Across — all 15-letters long … yes, that is the theme … yes, it is … I swear.

Theme answers:

• "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY"
• "LONELY TEARDROPS"
• "LEADER OF THE PACK"
• "ANYWHERE I WANDER"
• "I BELIEVE I CAN FLY"
• "PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE"

Word of the Day: ARNEL (11D: Trademarked fabric name) —

noun

trademark

1. a synthetic fiber made from cellulose triacetate.

   • fabric made from Arnel. (google)

• • •

Beat my Tuesday (!) and Wednesday times on this one. Seconds away from breaking the four-minute mark. The fill is Monday-easy (possibly easier, since this grid doesn't have Monday's ridiculously unMonday JON SEDA). Anyway, anyone who thinks this is some kind of amazing feat—finding six 15-letter songs that can intersect like this—clearly has zero experience with the multiple databases and websites and other resources out there. I'm sure it took a little while to get six songs that worked, but a. why? They have nothing in common besides being songs; and b. filling in the grid from there is a cakewalk. There's nothing ambitious or interesting here. It's all paint by numbers stuff. The puzzle isn't bad; it's pointless. On a Thursday?—the marquee, pull-out-the-stops, kick-out-the-jams bad-ass theme day?—very disappointing.


Honestly, I have nothing to write about. I know a lot of song titles, so getting the 15s was no trouble. Barely needed crosses. The one exception was the [1953 hit for Julius La Rosa], which is an LOL outlier, esp. for anyone under 60. I can sing at least the chorus, and in most cases much more, of the other five songs. Julius La Rosa is from the pre-Rock era, so I have literally never heard a thing he's ever sung. But classic rock and oldies stations were playing Jackie Wilson and the Shangri-Las regularly when I was in high school (and trying to reject '80s pop music), so that stuff is super familiar to me even though it was popular before I was born. Other than Mr. La Rosa, not much trouble. Mistook the play on words in 3D: French capitalists? (PARISIANS)—thought "capital" would refer to currency (a la [Mexican capital?] = PESO), but it's the capital city that was at issue. Let's see, what else? Nothing. See you tomorrow.

[15!!]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Steel giant founded in 1899 / WED 5-21-14 / Friedrich units for short / Google co-founder Sergey

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: wacky homophones, I guess — two-word phrases are reimagined with homophones in place of the original words

Theme answers:

• PLANE RAPPER (17A: Freestyling pilot?) (plain wrapper??? like "plain brown wrapper" only not "brown"?)
• BANNED LIEDER (28A: Music forbidden in Germany?) (bandleader)
• WHIRLED PIECE (44A: Top?) (world peace)
• HOARSE SHOOS (59A: Throaty dismissals?) (horseshoes) 

Word of the Day: ARMCO (43A: Steel giant founded in 1899) —

AK Steel Holding Corporation is an American steel company whose predecessor, Armco, was founded in 1899 in Middletown, Ohio, United States. In 2007, the company moved its corporate headquarters from Middletown to West Chester, Ohio.

The company derives its name from the first letters of "Armco" and "Kawasaki Steel Corporation," which entered into a limited partnership with Armco in 1989. The company was formally renamed AK Steel in 1993 when it became a publicly traded company. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not going to write much about this because I didn't like it and I don't really get it and (consequently?) I don't have much to say. Are two-word homophone shifts like this really that hard to find? Are there none better than PLANE RAPPER? I honestly had no idea what was going on for most of the solve? The phrases are odd and decidedly Not funny. Fill wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good, either. ARMCO just seems awful, frankly. Can't remember ever seeing it. Also it doesn't exist anymore. Hasn't existed for over 20 years. Ugh. I just guessed that "A" because I've never ever heard of Friedrich brand air conditioners, so [Friedrich units] sounded like something sciencey. I thus really doubted ACS, but any other vowel there seemed preposterous.  Just a ridiculous crossing. NW was absolutely disastrous for me too, mostly because I have not heard the phrase GIRLS DORM in a long time. I didn't go to a prep school, and when I went to college, No One would've said "girls." So I just stared at -SDORM for a bit. Also what on god's green earth is "Land o' Goshen!"???? I wrote in EIRE and ERIN … "MY, MY!" For &%^#'s sake, who says that? Tepid theme, tepid fill, weird / dated frame of reference. Not a great experience. The end.


No, not the end. BEWIG!? OK, now the end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Unyielding Dr Seuss character / TUE 3-19-13 / Comic who sang I love to laugh in Mary Poppins / Multiple-company building to Brits / Eric who played villain in 2009's Star Trek / Ship with Mighty Stinger / Repeated Wayne's World cry / Vintage Jags

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "PARTY ON" (40A: Repeated "Wayne's World" cry ... or a hint to each half of 17-, 26-, 51- and 63-Across) — Each half of two-word phrases can preced the word "PARTY" in a familiar phrase. So the PARTY is attached ON to the answer parts, I guess.

Word of the Day: CANAL ZONE (36D: Former U.S. territory) —

The Panama Canal Zone (Spanish: Zona del Canal de Panamá) is a 553-square-mile (1,430 km²) former unorganized US territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending five miles (8.0 km) on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of the Canal Zone. Its border spanned two of Panama's provinces and was created on November 18, 1903, with the signing of the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty. When reservoirs were created to assure a steady supply of water for the locks, those lakes were included within the Zone. (wikipedia)

• • •

The perils of solving bleary-eyed, first thing in the morning—I've never heard of ZAX (59A: Unyielding Dr. Seuss character). Like, ever. I had SAM there. MKES sounded like plausible Jaguars, but CANALSONE was clearly wrong. And I wanted it to be ZONE. I really did. But SAM seemed indisputable (to my newly awakened brain). So we just sat there for a while. Anyway: ZAX. There you go.


This is not a theme type I enjoy that much because it's essentially a themeless, with utterly unlinked and dullish theme answers. Then you get the revealer and (maybe) you see that they were linked after all. It's a good revealer, in that I enjoy remembering "Wayne's World." Also, I'm really loving USS WASP (even though I've never heard of it) (28A: It's known as the Ship With the Mighty Stinger) and the lovely GERSHWIN (coincidentally, I was looking at an old grid of mine last night that had SCHWINN in that exact spot) (10D: "They All Laughed" composer). My big triumph of the day was managing to remember that stupid NIM game—which I have never ever seen outside crosswords (39A: Game with matchsticks). If I''d clued this puzzle, MARGE, ABE and ITCHY would've all had "Simpsons" clues. ITCHY seems at least as famous as ZAX. To anyone born after 1970, anyway.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Kind of mint (AFTER DINNER)
• 26A: Chicken coop (HEN HOUSE)
• 51A: Traditional Chinese beverage (GREEN TEA)
• 63A: Multiple-company building, to Brits (OFFICE BLOCK)

Gotta run.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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2009 Star Trek villain / THU 3-14-13 / Showy bloom to flower enthusiasts / 1940s quartet with #1 hit Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall / Wood in Tolkien films / Cerium samarium are rare ones / Allegheny plum

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: quote from ALBERT / EINSTEIN — "CREATIVITY / IS THE RESIDUE OF / WASTED TIME" (18A: Beginning of a quote by 3-/31-Down on which Stephen Colbert commented "I hope teenagers aren't watching this right now")

Word of the Day: DHOTI (30D: Indian attire) —

The dhoti also known as pancha, panche or veshti is a traditional men's garment worn in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. It is a rectangular piece of unstitched cloth, usually around 4.5 metres (15 ft) long, wrapped around the waist and the legs and knotted at the waist, resembling a long skirt. (wikipedia)

• • •

Under five minutes on a Thursday is pretty dang good for me. The thing that confuses me most about this quotation is the clue. It needs context. Without it, I don't know what the joke is—is it that teenagers are already lazy and don't need encouragement? Most of the teenagers I know are fantastically over-scheduled, so the "teenagers waste time" thing doesn't ring very true. But I like the quotation. It's a nice sentiment. You don't see quotation puzzles that much any more. I tend to like them funny, when I like them at all, but as pithy, motivational quote puzzles go, this is fine. Solving-wise, I just had some minor hiccups here and there—nothing that held me up much at all. If I've heard of a DHOTI before, I forgot about it today. That one answer made the SW slightly hard to get into, just as RHODO (WTF-O?) partly blocked my entry to the NE. I do not think of "Rock, Paper, SCISSORS" as a "kids' game" (13D: One of three choices in a kids' game)—adults play it. Hell, some adults play it competitively. Yeah, there are tournaments and everything. So that answer took some effort. I also forgot BARI existed, so I had to hammer it together from crosses (59A: Italian port). Nothing much else here to remark on. Oh, I saw OSSIE Davis in "The Cardinal" (1963) the other day. I bet not many of you can say that.


NERO was a gimme (daughter is a newly minted Trekkie who just watched the 2009 "Star Trek" movie for the first time last week) (37A: 2009 "Star Trek" villain). There wasn't much in my wheelhouse, but I was oddly proud of my ability to pull the olde-timey stuff out of my bag of tricks quickly today. Got SAHL instantly, with no crosses (51D: Comic who said "A conservative is someone who believes in reform. But not now"), and got INK SPOTS off just the IN- (33D: 1940s quartet with the #1 hit "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," with "the"). You know, I've never actually seen "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"—weird. Anyway, if the crosses hadn't prevented it, I'd probably thrown down TIM CURRY at 11D: Player of Eddie in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (MEAT LOAF). He and Susan Sarandon are the actors from that movie that come to mind most readily. Bummed at my slowness picking up SEÑORITA (34D: Eligible one in El Salvador). Something about the election of a pope from Latin America today put my brain in the wrong frame of mind on that clue.


Puzzle could've used a little toughening up (Actress Sorvino? Actor Davis? Really?), but it was interesting and inoffensive.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Tec group in old France / THU 1-31-13 / Trumpet blares / Turkey chicken dish served cold / Threaded across down / Trademarked Intel chip / Toon/live action film of 1996 / Titan booster

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: T-SHAPES (23D: This puzzle's theme)— black squares form a bunch of Ts. Also (and I assume this is part of the "theme," even though this is in no way related to "shapes"), the homophones TEAS, TEASE, and TEES are running across the center of the grid. Also, all clues start with "T."

Word of the Day: GALANTINE (27D: Turkey or chicken dish served cold) —

A galantine is a French dish of de-boned stuffed meat, most commonly poultry or fish, that is poached and served cold, coated withaspic. Galantines are often stuffed with forcemeat, and pressed into a cylindrical shape. Since deboning poultry is thought of as difficult and time-consuming, this is a rather elaborate dish, which is often lavishly decorated, hence its name, connoting a presentation at table that is galant, or urbane and sophisticated. In the later nineteenth century the technique's origin was already attributed to the chef of the marquis de Brancas. The preparation is not always luxurious: Evelyn Waugh in his novel Men at Arms mentions "a kind of drab galantine which Guy seemed to remember, but without relish, from his school-days during the First World War". (wikipedia)

• • •

Yikes. This week has been pretty dire. First, black squares are not a "theme." They are a curiosity, at best. So, we have essentially one line, 13 squares, of true theme material here. Beyond that, we have a painful themeless. Painful, and also comical, since it Perfectly illustrates the folly of the pangram. Multiple ENEROS! Multiple SINES! Something called a FARON (21A: "This Little Girl of Mine" country singer ___ Young) and a GALANTINE (27D: Turkey or chicken dish served cold) and an OUTGO (one word?) (45A: Tide's ebb, e.g.). That OUTGO section was nearly a complete deal-breaker for me. HSN? I barely know it exists. TANTARAS? I ... don't even ... know (34D: Trumpet blares). SURETÉ!? If I weren't a longtime solver with a somewhat decent memory, then uh uh, no way (43D: Tec group in old France). Terri GIBBS? Same thing. I know her only from clues for TERRI (46D: Terri with the 1980 country hit "Somebody's Knockin'"). Partial O SOLE! Brilliant! (I'm actually grateful for that one, as I needed the gimme pretty bad). WAHR! (28A: True: Ger.) And what is all this [fill-in-the-blank] fill in service of? Nothing. Buncha black squares and a single line of true "theme" material. Making every clue start with "T"—a late attempt to deepen the "theme," I'm guessing—really only makes matter worse. With great fill, that gimmick works. Without ... now you're just torturing folks. NETLIKE! (48A: Threaded across and down) It's like a net, only ... not? Who knows? I give up.


Bullets:

• 1A: Toon/live action film of 1996 ("SPACE JAM") — starring Michael Jordan. I forgot this existed. Not an original answer, but a nice one.
• 17A: "Three Sisters" playwright Chekhov (ANTON) — made things much harder on myself by misreading this clue as asking for a sister's name.
• 19A: Trademarked Intel chip (CELERON) — no idea. Or, rather, no idea until I had -ELERON. Then something clicked. Little Late!
• 3D: Titan booster (AGENA) — never heard of it or seen it outside crosswords. Crosswordese of a pretty high order.

The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Start of thought by British journalist Miles Kington / WED 12-19-12 / Calculus familiarly / Conquistador's booty / Poet whose work inspired Cats / Onetime Dodge / JAG spinoff with Mark Harmon / Flower-shaped decoration / Falstaff's princely friend / Bamboo muncher

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: 17A: Start of a thought by British journalist Miles Kington — "KNOWLEDGE IS / KNOWING A TOMATO / IS A FRUIT / WISDOM IS / NOT PUTTING IT IN / A FRUIT SALAD"

Word of the Day: FELIPE Alou (31D: One of baseball's Alous) —

Felipe Rojas Alou (born May 12, 1935), is a former Major League Baseball outfielder, first baseman, and manager. He managed theMontreal Expos (1992–2001) and the San Francisco Giants (2003–06). The first Dominican to play regularly in the major leagues, he is the most prominent member of one of the sport's most notable families of the late 20th century: he was the oldest of the trio of baseball-playing brothers that included Matty and Jesús, who were both primarily outfielders, and his son Moisés was also primarily an outfielder; all but Jesús have been named All-Stars at least twice. The family name in the Dominican is Rojas, but Felipe Alou and his brothers became known by the name Alou when the Giants' scout who signed Felipe mistakenly thought his matronymic was his father's name.

During his 17-year career spent with the Giants, Milwaukee & Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Montreal Expos, andMilwaukee Brewers, Alou played all three outfield positions regularly (736 games in right field, 483 in center, 433 in left), and led the National League in hits twice and runs once. Batting regularly in the leadoff spot, he hit a home run to begin a game on 20 occasions. He later became the most successful manager in Expos history, leading the team from 1992 to 2001 before rejoining the Giants in 2003. (wikipedia)

• • •

Started *very* fast on this one and then slowed down a bit because, well, you know,it's a quote puzzle, so you really gotta work the crosses to figure out the theme material. At least you do at first—with this one, I figured out the punch line once I hit "WISDOM." My main problem is the highly inelegant phrasing on the quotation. I lost most of my time on this puzzle not with any one or two hard answers, but with my brain's absolute refusal to believe that any quotation worth commemorating would begin with the painfully redundant phrase "Knowledge is knowing..." I had -OWING and my brain just dug in its heels: "No Way that word is KNOWING, buddy, so we are not gonna let you write it in." Alas, eventually, my brain had to concede that the puzzle was what it was, ugly or not. Otherwise, not a lot to say. It's a very solid grid, overall, with only -KIST giving me any cause for wincing (23D: Commercial ending for Sun or Star).



As I said, very fast opening, with PANDA being a gimme at 1A: Bamboo muncher, and all the crosses falling in quick succession. AKELA is a word / concept I've only ever seen in crosswords—so much that it's become a gimme for me (15A: Scout pack leader). Just did a puzzle in the past couple of days with ROSETTE in it (21A: Flower-shaped decoration), which I think made this answer come to mind faster than it might have otherwise. Took one look at 56A: Conquistador's booty, wondered briefly what the Spanish word was for "ass," then wrote in the far more likely (and correct) Spanish word for "gold": ORO. I have never understood the connection between ELIOT and "Cats," and I have never tried, for trying would mean spending time thinking about "Cats," which I have no desire to do (9D: Poet whose work inspired "Cats"). Clue for AKA seemed slightly off (61D: Rap sheet entry). Turns AKA into a noun. An "alias" might be an "entry" on your rap sheet, but an "AKA?" Maybe "entry" is being stretched to mean something I don't quite get. I see today's anonymous JANE is a ROE (54A: Anonymous one, in court). I feel like she was DOE in a recent puzzle, so I left the letter in question blank on first pass. First thought on reading 37D: Spirit of Islamic myth was JINI ("what an odd spelling," I thought). Then I remembered JINN (which, it turns out, can be spelled a lot of different ways). I think of "calculus" as a small stone, but I guess TARTAR (11D: Calculus, familiarly) is also called "calculus" ... by dentists? Alrighty. Good to know.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Astronaut Cooper informally / TUE 8-7-12 / Saturn's second-largest moon / Plotter against Cassio in "Othello" / Staple of IHOP booths

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: punny quip —>

• 20A: With 38-Across, a complaint (DOC, I'M ADDICTED TO / TWITTER)
• 40A: With 57-Across, response to the complaint (SORRY, I'M NOT FOLLOWING YOU)

[this is "funny" because of the play on the word "FOLLOWING," which is what one does to other people (or companies, or other entities) on Twitter if you want to receive their "tweets"]

Word of the Day: LYDIA (8D: Neighbor of ancient Phrygia) —

Lydia (Assyrian: Luddu; Greek: Λυδία) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minorlocated generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian.

At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia (known as Sparda by the Achaemenids) was a satrapy (province) of the Achaemenid Empire, withSardis^[1] as its capital. Tabalus, appointed by Cyrus the Great, was the first satrap (governor). (See: Lydia (satrapy)).

Lydia was later the name for a Roman province. Coins are thought to have been invented in Lydia^[2] around the 7th century BC. (wikipedia)

• • •

Greetings from Gold Beach, OR, where my family (15 of us) are enjoying a weeklong vacation in a gigantic home overlooking the Pacific. The home belongs to a TV actor of some note, and his less famous actress wife. They were on TV shows in the '70s-'80s. One of those shows was "CHiPs." If this all sounds a little surreal, you are correct. Oh, and I just found out that my artist friend, Emily Jo Cureton, lives very near here, so I'm hoping to see her tomorrow. She did a series of drawings based on NYT crossword puzzles a few years back. They are legendary. Check them out if you haven't already.

As for the puzzle: Groaner. If you are someone who actually calls your physician "Doc," I'm guessing you liked this. As punny quips go, this is ... one. It's fine. Trying to make any kind of sense out of DOCIMADD wasn't too fun, but the play on "Following" is solid, if not particularly scintillating. Cluing and fill felt tough for a Tuesday, and quote puzzles generally play slower-than-average—hence the difficulty rating. I just asked my dad, a retired physician, if any patient ever called him "Doc":

Not really. Maybe a few times. Usually 'Doctor' or 'Doctor Sharp.' Calling your doctor 'doc' is more a military thing. You'd say that to your doctor in the military. Soldiers respect you as a doctor, and respect what you know, but they also see you as more of a peer and are less hung up or worried about rank around you, so that's why you have the informal 'Doc.' But in private practice, no, patients are generally more formal.

My dad is a smart, no-nonsense man. Now, he also told us, on our way to the store, that my sister *didn't* need more store-bought pie dough when she had, in fact, explicitly told him she *did* need more store-bought pie dough, so ... he does make mistakes. My sister and I agree, this is very much a dad thing, not an age thing. He's human. He's wrong sometimes. But I trust him on this 'doc' thing. Mainly because the whole "calling your doctor 'doc'" thing sounds so unlikely/olde-tyme jokey to me. A joke convention. Something someone who likes to tell jokes and thinks he's good at telling them would say. Doc.

I am on Twitter. I have something like 2100 Followers. People who aren't on Twitter often have hostility toward it, usually in inverse proportion to how much they know about how it actually works. I like Twitter because I can "follow" people/news feeds that I like and trust, and the rest of the noise of the Twitterverse never touches me. It's customizable. Brilliant. Useful. A huge time-suck if you're not disciplined, it's true, but overall, it's been a big plus for me. Whenever I sit down to my computer, I go Facebook, Twitter, email acct 1, email acct 2, done. I try not to spend more than 15 min. online any time I check my updates (this is because I already spend tooooo much time sitting at the damned computer). My family makes me feel like my computer addiction is normal. In fact, they make me look like a moderate user. There are so many laptops and iPhones and tablets in the house (which is full of 15 members of my family), that mine hardly rates a notice (though my nephew think it's cool—I'm on a MacBook Air, which is paperthin and light and lovely). But I (really) digress. [...] I need to cut to the chase because a. my family is wondering what's up with my antisocial, leave-the-table-to-use-the-computer behavior, and b. my nephew is hurling stuffed animals off the interior balcony in a way that is not conducive to my focusing on anything. Asked why he's throwing them off the balcony: "I'm just throwing them." He's kind of inscrutable.

I honestly don't know who Gordon Cooper is, so I sure as hell don't know GORDO (1D: Astronaut Cooper, informally). That made the NW toughish, esp. as I also had SLOTH for SNAIL (4D: Symbol of slowness). I was just thinking, earlier today (and I swear this is true), that one often sees AGIN but rarely sees FER in the grid. And now here's AGIN. Again. Had trouble seeing how a STAB was a [Wound] (31D: Wound for Cassio). If I had a knife wound, I doubt I would ask people to tend to my STAB. (I would probably be shouting all manner of profanity, truth be told. I do like the idea of my calmly stating: "Pardon me, could someone please tend to my STAB? I appear to be bleeding quite profusely"—but I think adrenalin would wreck havoc with my genteel fantasy persona). Also: I had BUOY for QUAY and decided to spell BROOCH as BROCHE for some reason. Also: Saturn's second-largest moon (RHEA)? WTF, Tuesday? Clues on IAGO (37A: Plotter against Cassio in "Othello") and DREAM (50A: Subject of a painting by Picasso or Rousseau) were no help, the first because of name confusion (Cassius for Cassio, which made me think "Julius Caesar" instead of "Othello," even though the clue Clearly states "Othello"...), the second because nothing about either of those artists says "DREAM" to me. At all. But I managed to remember Dean RUSK, so that's something (considering I was alive for only one month of the 1960s, and that month is, consequently, kind of hazy) (66A: 1960s secretary of state Dean).

I think my favorite part of this grid is the inclusion of both COVERGIRL (10D: Beauty on display) and GQMODEL (44D: Hunk on display). The clue on SYRUP—delicious, and accurate (54D: Staple of IHOP booths). I also like HANDMIX. I'd love to have some HANDMIXed whipped cream on the peach pie I'm about to consume, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to settle for the spray-on kind. It's a hard life wherever you go, I guess.

Once more from Oregon tomorrow, then a couple of travel days during which Puzzlegirl will do the write-ups (uh, hey ... Puzzlegirl ... I have something to ask you ...), and then it's back to Normal on Saturday.

One last thing—the Alzheimer's Foundation of America is holding a crossword-puzzle contest, with puzzle(s) created by the legendary Merle Reagle. You should get in on it, fer sure. Contest begins Sep. 30 at 3 pm Eastern.

Later.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Pioneering jazz standard 1917 / WED 6-27-12 / Penniless in Pennington / Repeated Laura Petrie line on Dick Van Dyke show / 2011 Grammy-winning song by Jay-Z Kanye West / Its symbol is AA on New York Stock Exchange / Like areas where cattails thrive

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: PENTOMINOES (37A: Complete set of 12 shapes formed by this puzzle's black squares)— that's pretty much it. Plus two more theme answers, which are accurate enough, but ... I don't get how they provide essential information:

• 15A: Descriptive of this puzzle's grid (LACKING SYMMETRY)
• 54A: Like this puzzle's 37-Across (NON-INTERLOCKING)

Word of the Day: "TIGER RAG" (35D: Pioneering jazz standard of 1917) —

"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle is lost on me. I'm just not qualified to evaluate it fairly. No idea what PENTOMINOES are (though now that I see them, I get it—shapes made out of five contiguous squares). No idea why LACKING SYMMETRY or NON-INTERLOCKING should be relevant phrases here. I like that this grid looks weird, and I like STORM IN A TEACUP (7A: Much ado about nothing) and BIG OX (42A: Oaf), but otherwise it's a lot of black squares and a concept I don't really get. I hope many of you felt otherwise. I guess that because of the concept, there had to be that lone unchecked square. Haven't seen a *truly* unchecked square in ... I don't know how long. Since no one is in danger of not getting ARENA, I guess it doesn't matter much.

Started with SWAMPY and SEC rather than MARSHY (1A: Like areas where cattails thrive) and MIN (1D: One sweep of a hand: Abbr.), so that wasn't good. Otherwise, the only trouble I had was the *entire* length of PENTOMINOES (?) and the "LOCKING" part of NON-INTERLOCKING. I had NON-INTERSECTING. Never heard of "TIGER RAG" or PIC (!?!?!) (23A: Jack Kerouac's last novel). Or SKINT, yipes (53D: Penniless, in Pennington). Still came in at *precisely* my average time for Wednesdays.

Bullets:

• 17A: Its symbol is AA on the New York Stock Exchange (ALCOA) — had the final "A" and guessed that there must be another on the other end. Then just ... thought of a company. Bam.
• 50A: 2011 Grammy-winning song by Jay-Z and Kanye West ("OTIS") — I somehow managed to ignore that album last year. Too much hype. And I've ignored the Grammys for years, so this one was a Mystery.

• 26D: Repeated Laura Petrie line on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ("OH, ROB!") — classic. Knew it. Thanks, re-runs.
• 6D: Verb from Popeye (YAM) — as in "I YAM what I YAM"; in case you doubt the officialness of the "verb"—proof:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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