Motor oil letters / SAT 9-1-12 / Big name in taco kits / 1980s Cosby co-star / Ricky Martin's springboard to fame / Gondoliers girl / Victors of 1879 Battle of Isandlwana

Constructor: Tim Croce

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: AYR (8D: Robert Burns's birth county) —

Ayr (Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Àir: Mouth of the River Ayr) is a town and port situated on the Firth of Clyde in south-west Scotland. With a population of around 46,000, Ayr is the largest settlement in Ayrshire, of which it is thecounty town, and has held royal burgh status since 1205. Ayr is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area, which is the unitarylocal authority. (wikipedia)

• • •

Played on the slow side for me, but then again I solved it while "watching" "Swimming to Cambodia" (1987), so ... when I adjust for distraction, my time is pretty normal. This grid is fine. Not very exciting, but mostly quite smooth. The one exception is that SW quadrant, which is noticeably uglier than the rest of the grid: ON THE, SAE (50A: Motor oil letters), ALMAPASATIASENNA (though you have to love the "PEACE OUT" / "LATER, MAN" crossing). I liked the NW the best, by far. The center is also pretty nice. Clues seemed quite tough, but it *is* Saturday, so that fact is probably not that noteworthy. Honestly, not much to say here. It's a decent Saturday puzzle.

Where was the trouble? Well, anywhere there were answers foreign or esoteric, I floundered a bit. Misread the clue for AYR, and so scrambled through my geography rolodex in search of what possible *country* he could've been born in. NORway? It's relatively close to Scotland. SYRia? Seemed unlikely. Eventually reread the clue and figured it out. TESSA = random opera woman's name (25A: "The Gondoliers" girl). Never like those.  Thought ED KOCH (24D: Subject of the musical "Mayor") was ALIOTO. Didn't know Lake TANA—that second "A" was the last letter in the grid (46A: Lake from which he Blue Nile begins). Had DETER at 51A: Avoid for an awfully long time. Convinced myself that AVEEDO and ELECTEE could be right. Never bothered to think that DETER simply isn't a synonym for [Avoid]. Somehow, the ORANG came to my rescue. An unlikely rescue, as I started out cursing the idea that I should know some random Malay word, then thought, "you know, it's probably not random..." I had CEE and CAT down there already, and when I imagined ORANG sliding in there (because I had the "R" and had seen ORANG in puzzles many times before), it really looked good next to CEE (61D: Mercury's core?) and CAT. Plausible, you know? So after a stall of some undetermined length, I moved forward and the SE corner, and thus the whole puzzle, went down from there.

Bullets:

• 11A: Co. now known as Ally Financial (GMAC) — totally fair clue / answer, but about as exciting as I generally found this puzzle. If I never see ONEO and CAT as cross-referenced answers again, it will have been a good life.
• 19A: Vision, in Vichy (VUE) — also, a Saturn model
• 53A: Scientist for whom an element is named (NOBEL) — I spent a good deal of time imagining / hoping that there was a Dr. BORON somewhere in the Science universe.
• 3D: Big name in taco kits (ORTEGA) — I just like the phrase "taco kit" for how preposterous and unappetizing it is. 
• 2D: Ricky Martin's springboard to fame (MENUDO) — a boy band with revolving members (specifically, you revolve out of the group after puberty, I think). After "LA VIDA LOCA" wouldn't fit here, I remembered MENUDO.

• 10D: Victors of the 1879 Battle of Isandlwana (ZULUS) — no idea. "ZU" made it obvious.
• 12D: Dancer known for her execution (MATA HARI) — brain kept yelling "Martha Graham" at me.
• 22D: 1980s Cosby co-star (RASHAD) — this was my first guess (kind of a gimme), but I wonder how lucky other people were here. RASHAD / TESSA seems a potentially rough cross.
• 14D: Air-breathing swimmer (CETACEAN) — took a while. I was looking for more common names of animals within this order of mammals (whales, dolphins, etc.).
• 63D: Symbol of rebellion on many T-shirts (CHE) — Ah, "symbol," metaphorically. OK. I was imagining that anarchy "A" (you know, an actual symbol).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Navy Blue singer Renay / WED. 5-19-10 / "The Gondoliers" girl / Bibliophile's suffix / Mr. who squints / Northern terminus of U.S. 1 / Cybermemo

Constructor: Robert A. Doll

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: 2010 Guinness world records — that's it.


Word of the Day: DIANE Renay (65A: "Navy Blue" singer Renay) —

Diane Renay (b. July 13, 1945; born Renee Diane Kushner) is an American pop singer, best known for her 1964 hit song, "Navy Blue." [...] Renay's only other single release to crack the national Billboard chart was "Kiss Me Sailor," which reached number 29 later in 1964. Subsequent singles, including "Growin' Up Too Fast," "Watch Out Sally," "It's In Your Hands," and "Happy Birthday Broken Heart," were hits in certain local markets such as Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Miami [!?!?!], but failed to break nationally. Renay moved to the Fontana label in 1969 and attempted a comeback with covers of "Yesterday" and "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me," but these also failed to chart. She did not record again until the early 1980s. // She remains active as a performer today and recently released Diane Renay Sings Some Things Old and Some Things New, a double-CD compilation album of her work (including many previously unreleased tracks) from the 1960s through the 1990s. (wikipedia)

[Forget her, go back to the organist — he's fabulous]

• • •

Well this week is off to a thud. Didn't care for this at all. Random 2010 records. Boring. Who cares? Not me. Non-theme fill—yawn, bordering on lazy. SLEWS of bad stuff (SLEWS? Seriously?) (64A: A whole bunch). Stale stuff everywhere. I don't get the appeal of this one at all. Wow, that's a heavy pumpkin. Wow, that's a long mustache. Wow, those are two really fat guys on motorcycles! (this is the enduring image of the Guinness Book of World Records for me). And then there's out-of-left-field proper nouns like TESSA (24D: "The Gondoliers" girl) ("The Gondoliers" = Gilbert & Sullivan opera, btw) and the oddly-clued DIANE (never heard the song in question). Even with theme answers that required many crosses to guess (HIGH DIVE? Again, random), I did this in just a shade over four. But then I'm someone who can go OMERTA to ERGOT with no crosses (this is not a talent—it's a tic).


Theme answers:

• 17A: 2010 Guinness world record at 1,689 lbs. (HEAVIEST PUMPKIN)
  
• 29A: 2010 Guinness world record at 11 ft. 6 in. (LONGEST MUSTACHE)
  
• 39A: 2010 Guinness world record at 72 lbs. 9 oz. (LARGEST MEATBALL) — how is "LARGEST" different from "HEAVIEST" in this instance, exactly?
  
• 57A: 2010 Guinness world record at 115 ft. (HIGHEST HIGH DIVE)
  

If ENA sends an ENOTE to ENO, and EBERT flies EL AL to ARG., how long do I have to wait before Rose ROYCE puts me out of my misery with their funky ode to the wet working man (and woman) (15A: Rose ___, group with the 1977 #1 hit "Car Wash")? Answer: not long at all.

[It's a movie theme song to boot!]


[This is the version to play loud, right now — full version, great sound, hot guitars. Wish all disco was this good. Dance!]

Bullets:

• 16A: Bibliophile's suffix (-ANA) — Like this much better as part of "Santa ANA" or as a woman's name. Examples of this suffix include AMERICANA, SHAKESPERIANA, et ceterana.
  
• 21A: Cybermemo (E-NOTE) — I used to think E-CASH was my least favorite of the recent E-coinages. Today's encounter with E-NOTE has me thinking twice about how I award my E-DEMERITs (10D: Class clown's "reward," often). I would do everything humanly possible to keep the loathsome E-NOTE out of any puzzle I was constructing.
  
• 25A: 1975 Pulitzer-winning critic (EBERT) — Dude is a Twitter hero and blogging phenom. More popular (beloved, actually) now than ever, I think. Who can forget his long-running friendship/rivalry with E-ERNIE? I mean Siskel.
  
• 61A: Mr. who squints (MAGOO) — He can't see well. Comedy!

["Terpsichorean endeavors!" — OK, that was funny]

• 30D: "I Am ... ___ Fierce," #1 Beyoncé album ("SASHA") — whoa, how did I know this!? Must be ferociously "in the air" for me to know it. This album had the much played, much parodied "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" on it. On it. On it. Here is the newish, astonishing, freaky, morbid, Tarantinoesque Beyoncé video, "Telephone," featuring Lady Gaga. Whoops, sorry—got that backwards. It's a Lady Gaga video featuring Beyoncé.
  

• 47D: Northern terminus of U.S. 1 (MAINE) — yeah, it's up there. Never been. John MAINE is a pitcher for the N.Y. Mets. I feel that bit of info may be important to you someday.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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