Smallest Indian state / THU 7-4-13 / Professor Bobo of Mystery Science Theater 3000 / English king nicknamed Longshanks / Car slangily

Constructor: Barry Franklin & Sara Kaplan

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: THE FOURTH OF JULY (57A: Date on which 17-, 24- and 36-Across died) — apparently three of the first five PRESIDENTs (49A: See 17-, 24- and 36-Across) died on this date:

• THOMAS JEFFERSON [One of the first five 49-Acrosses]
• JOHN ADAMS [One of the first five 49-Acrosses]
• JAMES MONROE [One of the first five 49-Acrosses]

Word of the Day: GOA (23A: Smallest Indian state) —

Goa [...] India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western coast. Goa is India's richest state with a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole. It was ranked the best placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.

Panaji is the state's capital, while Vasco da Gama is the largest city. The historic city of Margao still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese, who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants and conquered it soon thereafter. Goa is a former Portuguese province; the Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it wasannexed by India in 1961.

Renowned for its beaches, places of worship and world heritage architecture, Goa is visited by large numbers of international and domestic tourists each year. It also has rich flora and fauna, owing to its location on the Western Ghats range, which is classified as a biodiversity hotspot.

• • •

Happy Presidential Death Day, everybody!

I was hoping for something snappy and special on my first day back from vacation, but instead I get about the least exciting holiday puzzle I've ever seen. Painfully straightforward. USA Today-type stuff. Here's a PRESIDENT. Here's another PRESIDENT  Still another PRESIDENT  Today's date. The End. It took two people to make this? Huh. OK. Fill on this one looks positively radiant next to yesterday's crime scene of a puzzle, but it's still not what you'd call "good." NW corner has some color but awkward AOKS and lengthy partial ASTAGE kind of mucks it up. JU-JITSU is of course fantastic  (esp. crossing BOITANO—so athletic, this puzzle). "Jiu-jitsu" appears to be the more common spelling, but JU- is acceptable. But the rest of it just kind of clunks along, although I will say my friends are currently (right now, on FB) raving about the clue at 39A: Professor Bobo of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," e.g. (APE). That seems obscure as heck (I watched "MST3K" for a good while and don't remember Professor Bobo at all—I think I stopped watching after Joel left) but this clue gets some major "Trying To Be Interesting" points. In fact, all such points in this puzzle are earned by this clue alone.


I thought the humorist at 6D: Humorist who wrote "Happiness is having a scratch for every itch" (Ogden NASH) was NAST. Wanted NYQUIL at 1A: Insomnia medicine (AMBIEN). Tried RUS. for ROM. (29D: Neighbor of Ukr.). Had some trouble coming up with NO CATCH because, while it is indeed a [Baseball umpire's call], it's not exactly an everyday one. Forgot BROKAW preceded Gumbel (3D: "Today" show host before Gumbel). As I understand it, flexitarianism (-ism?) is a way of eating, not a time-limited "diet," so I don't like the clue for DIETED much at all (30D: Was on a flexitarian plan, maybe). Toughening up an otherwise easy puzzle were clever clues at 36D: Chain stores? (JEWELERS) and 45A: Pump for a heart, e.g. (ANALOGY). Not often that my graduate studies help me out with a puzzle, but I've actually written an article dealing with The Hammer of the Scots, aka, Longshanks, aka EDWARD I, so that clue was nice (27A: English king nicknamed Longshanks). You may remember him from such movies as "Braveheart" (which is what my article was actually about).


Hoping for something a little more inventive tomorrow. It's good to be back home and at the keyboard again. Thanks to all my substitutes, who did a great job, from what I could tell. I mostly stayed away from the computer as much as possible last week—Family and the gorgeous Oregon coast provided sufficient distraction. Had fantastic view of MT. HOOD (2D: Home to North America's only year-round ski resort) as I flew into Portland and spent most of the week in a big house on the beach with my extended family (parents, siblings, nieces & nephews). Not a ton to do in Bandon, OR, but I'm not much of a "doer" anyway. Mostly slept, read, hung out with my family, and walked the beach for miles and miles and miles. Not a bad life, for a week or so. Currently in a red-eye fog, not having properly slept in something like 48 hours now. A four-hour red-eye flight is a Useless Thing. Gives you a 2.5-, maybe 3-hour window in which to get all your sleep for the night. So under optimal conditions you'll get to sleep maybe three hours. I'm 6'3", didn't have a neck pillow, and flew coach, so ... conditions Not Optimal. But it's a small price to pay for such amazing down time.  Portland just rocketed to the top of our "Places We Might Live Next" list. Minneapolis better step it up...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Coastal Brazilian state / TUE 2-19-13 / Ottoman nabob / Sainted king who inspired carol / Old one in Austria / Elongated fruit from tree / Pertaining to Hindu scriptures / Furry allies of Luke Skywalker

Constructor: Barry Franklin and Sara Kaplan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Interrogative-ish — first syllables of theme answers (mostly) sound like question words "who" "what" "when" "where" "how" and "why"

Word of the Day: BAHIA (6D: Coastal Brazilian state) —

Bahia (local pronunciation: [baˈi.ɐ] is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size. Bahia's capital is the city of Salvador, or more properly, São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, and is located at the junction of the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of All Saints,officially first seen by European sailors in 1501. The name "bahia" is an archaic spelling of the Portuguese word baía, meaning "bay". (wikipedia)

• • •

BAHIA + BEV = wretched. The latter is especially wretched because *utterly* unnecessary. Who says "BEV"? That's a woman's nickname, at best. Change that "B" to "R" or "N" or something that makes -EV recognizable. Do waitresses say "BEV?" Who Says BEV?! With the exception of LET IT SNOW (3D: Phrase sung three times in a row in a holiday song) and KNEE SOCKS (4D: Shin coverers) (both nice), the fill is so-so, at best. With six theme answers, this is perhaps not surprising. Anyway, I didn't enjoy this, partly because of the BAHIA / BEV thing, partly because of the multiple Christmas songs out of season, and partly because I've apparently been pronouncing WATSON wrong all these years. It's WHAT-son, is it? Those vowel sounds are from different worlds when I say them, whereas the others are pretty close matches.

Theme answers:

• HOOVER DAM (18A: Construction on the Colorado River)
• WATSON AND CRICK (23A: DNA modelers)
• WENCESLAUS (I do not like the carol and I do not like the ridiculous spelling of this guy's name) (29A: Sainted king who inspired a carol)
• WEREWOLVES (these, I like) (41A: Lycanthropes) 
• HOUSING PROJECT (45A: Publicly funded residential complex)
• WYATT EARP (55A: Lawman at the O.K. Corral)

Crosswordese expertise came in handy today—for the first time ever, I got PAPAW right off the bat (or more accurately off the "P") (1D: Elongated fruit from a tree). Recent puzzle of mine had the theme answer BEY OF PIGS, so BEY was front-of-brain (58D: Ottoman nabob). Konrad Adenauer was known as "Der ALTE," or so crosswords tell me; at any rate, ALTE's a gimme for me now (59A: Old one, in Austria). And everyone knows the EWOKS, or should (37A: Furry allies of Luke Skywalker). I have to say that while I don't like EELY or ERINS or TERRI (10D: Country singer Gibbs) in that NE corner, I do like VEDIC (11D: Pertaining to Hindu scriptures). It just looks cool. Also, I like PLANK, esp. as clued (12D: Pirate ship feature). Took me several crosses to pick it up, and when I got it, I thought, "Yes. That's good." I'm in the middle of a great comic about pirates right now—"Cursed Pirate Girl" by Jeremy Bastian. No PLANKs yet, but I'm only about half done.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Bandleader Kay / TUE 9-4-12 / Olive genus / Inscribed pillar / Pretzels chips in adspeak

Constructor: Barry Franklin and Sara Kaplan

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: TWENTY-SEVEN (62A: Age at which Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse died) — theme answers all refer to "62-Across" and are all examples of what "TWENTY-SEVEN" means to different types of people (mathematicians, astronomers, etc.)

Word of the Day: Carol HEISS (48D: Carol ___, five-time world figure-skating champion) —

Carol Elizabeth Heiss Jenkins (born January 20, 1940 in New York City) is an American figure skater and former actress. She is the 1960 Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, 1956 Olympic silver medalist and five-time World Champion (1956–1960). (wikipedia)

• • •

Well at least they didn't die in vain.

This is morbid and weird. The things that are "27" are arbitrary. The fill is not ... great. I don't have much time for this—on many levels, the most important of which is that I start teaching again tomorrow, so I really need to get to bed.

Theme answers:

• 17A: 62-Across to a mathematician (PERFECT CUBE)
• 23A: 62-Across to an astronomer (MOONS OF URANUS)
• 39A: 62-Across to a Yankees fan (WORLD SERIES WINS)
• 50A: 62-Across to a student of Semitic languages (HEBREW LETTERS)

I don't have much to say. Grid feels like it was filled by hand on graph paper—i.e. it's serviceable, but the fill is obvious and skewing toward dated / old-fashioned / xwordesey. My friend, who was going to blog the puzzle for me tonight due to my time constraints / lack of enthusiasm, wrote me and said "I don't know if my puzzle is right ... 30-Across (OLEA) and 66-Across (STELA) are total guesses. And I thought, "Yes. Exactly." Many more solvers will be in the same head-scratching position, because only xword cognoscenti / olive or pillar experts have any clue what those words are about. This is quintessential crosswordese—words that most people don't really know (outside of crosswords) and that most people only very, very rarely (if ever) see (outside of crosswords). I doubt either one of these was necessary. And there are many, many other examples that are less irksome individually but plenty irksome in the aggregate.

Bullets:

• 31A: Politico whose name is an anagram of GAOLER (AL GORE) — what is the point of this? The anagram is not relevant to who he is (unless he's running a British jail now), so ... yuck.
• 60D: Pretzels and chips, in adspeak (SNAX) — The proximity of the "J" to OLEA and the "X" to STELA makes me seriously question the upside of having Scrabbly letters in your grid in this case.
• 68A: Bandleader Kay (KYSER) — in case you hadn't gotten your fill of dead musicians.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Weasley family owl / WED 11-2-11 / Elegantly dressed bloke / 1970s-'90s film company / Grammatical infelicity / Apple communication tool

Constructor: Barry Franklin and Sara Kaplan

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SPLIT INFINITIVE (37A: Grammatical infelicity ... or what 17-, 23-, 48- or 60-Across is?) — theme answers (all clued as [See 37-Across]) are all infinitive phrases that mean "to SPLIT"

• TO DIVORCE
• TO PULL UP STAKES
• TO GO FIFTY-FIFTY
• TO SHATTER

Word of the Day: TOFF (40D: Elegantly dressed bloke) —

n. Chiefly British Slang
A member of the upper classes, especially one who is elegantly dressed: "champagne, once a raffish drink suitable for toffs and weddings" (Ian Jack).

[Probably variant of TUFT, a gold tassel worn by titled students at Oxford and Cambridge.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/toff#ixzz1cVj6u8YC

• • •

I had no idea what this theme was about until well after I was finished. Thus, it wasn't that fun to solve. And yet, once I figured it out, I had to admit it was pretty clever—nice repurposing of the central phrase, with a different meaning of "SPLIT" evident in each theme answer (though SHATTER is a bit of a stretch for "SPLIT"). I'll spare you the lecture on SPLIT INFINITIVEs and whether they are indeed infelicities (OK, short lecture: they aren't). It was frustrating to try to solve those theme answers when they had no clue. I think that's where the "no fun" part of my assessment comes from—filling in unclued phrases whose shared trait is impossible to see (at first). I'd have parts of the phrases and think "???" — e.g. "TO GO FIFTY ... FIVE? What the hell?" Got the theme answers almost entirely from crosses. With the puzzle offering near-zero assistance with the theme answers, this one should've been harder than usual, but my time says otherwise. Maybe I just lucked out in guessing RIGATONI (9D: Pasta variety) off the final "I." If that hadn't happened, the whole thing could've taken me a minute longer. Anyway, this is an "admire-it-after-the-fact"-type puzzle, and as such, it's fine.



RASPY (9A: Like E.T.'s voice) is not a word I associate with E.T. It's a word I associate with smokers. But I guess his voice qualifies. Weird to see ORION clued as a bygone film company (49D: 1970s-'90s film company)—seems a very Saturday-type clue (though I managed to remember it and get it with just a couple crosses, so maybe it's more obvious than I think). Just sent my SPIRO Agnew watch to the repairman, so he's fresh on my mind (32D: Vice president Agnew). Had the weirdest malapop* ever when at 34A: Clingy wrap (SARAN). Had the -AN and thought "AFGAN?" Yeah, it's the wrong spelling, and AFGHANs aren't particularly clingy, but that didn't stop my brain from thinking it. Anyway, it was SARAN, of course, but then bam, not a minute later, there's AFGHAN after all (46D: Crocheted item).

*["Malapop": when you want a certain answer that ends up being wrong, only to find that that "wrong" answer actually appears elsewhere in the grid.]



Bullets:

• 28A: Provider of a jawbone to Samson (ASS) — this makes it sound like the ASS just handed it over ...
• 58A: Where the brain resides, slangily (ATTIC) — never heard this expression, though it wasn't hard to piece together.
• 6D: Weasley family owl in Harry Potter books (ERROL) — read 'em all, but still somehow can't seem to remember ERROL.
• 16A: Apple communication tool (iCHAT) — i don't CHAT, so, like ERROL, iCHAT frequently eludes me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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