Henry Higgins's creator —WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7 2009 — Laura's 1960s sitcom hubby / Botanical angle / Dendrite's counterpart / Richard Petty's racing son

Constructor: Tim Wescott

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: BASEBALL DIAMOND (57A: Setting for a 20-Across ... as represented by this puzzle's circled letters) — circles form approximation of a BASEBALL DIAMOND, and at each corner, they spell out the base in question, i.e. FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, and HOME. 20A=WORLD SERIES GAME and 42A: Center of 57-Across = MOUND

Word of the Day: ALMA Kruger (54D: Actress Kruger and others) — Alma Kruger [...] was an American actress.

She had a long career on the stage before appearing in her first film while in her sixties, These Three (1936). She then proceeded to act in over forty films in the space of little more than a decade. Among her notable roles was Nurse Molly Byrd in the popular Dr. Kildare film series, appearing in all but the first two of the sixteen movies. She also portrayed Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in Marie Antoinette and the would-be mother-in-law of Rosalind Russell's character in His Girl Friday. Her last film appearance was in the 1947 Twentieth-Century Fox production of Forever Amber.

In 1960, Alma Kruger died in Seattle, Washington at the age of 91 from natural causes. (wikipedia)

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Didn't notice this puzzle's best feature til I was done — the circles actually DO something today. Hurray. As I was solving, I was thinking a. this is a really choppy grid and b. @#$#ing circles. I thought the circles were simply providing a diamond shape. If that had been their sole purpose, I would have booed this puzzle off the MOUND. But the spelling of the bases = WIN, and even if WORLD SERIES GAME feels kind of arbitrary (yes, it's October, but no, the World Series isn't on yet — why not hold the puzzle a couple of weeks!?), and even if the puzzle does have an ungodly 42 black squares, and even if some of the fill is a tad unpleasant, I really do have to give this thing a thumbs-up.

The high black square count (which I experienced as "a choppy grid") can be excused for two reasons. First, it's always hard to build a workable grid when your theme is dense, and in this one, theme squares are Everywhere. Second, in order to build the MOUND in a visually convincing manner, you really do need to isolate it pretty strongly, i.e. border it with black. As for the less-than-pretty fill, the main issue for me was the absured plurals: ALMAS and EMMAS (5A: Austen and Flaubert heroines) and IANS (40A: Writers Fleming and McEwan), for starters. And the there's LOAMS (68A: Farm soils). But when your only real problems are ugly plurals, you're doing pretty well. I had one minor hold-up in this puzzle, in and around AALTO (54A: Finnish architect Alvar _____). I had the -TO and knew / remembered that his name started with "A," but once I had AA-TO, I had to wait out that final letter (as the Shakespeare quotation would not come quickly — 56D: "Thou _____, most ignorant monster": Shak. (liest)). Stumbled over the finish (not Finnish) line with SHOE where SIZE was supposed to be (59D: 9 1/2 narrow, e.g.). I have a feeling this grid might skew Easy for most solvers, but it was pretty close to a normal Wednesday for me.



Bullets:

• 1A: Sailor (swab) — once again, trouble out of the gate. The first answer I got up here was WACO (?) (2D: Home of the Dr Pepper Museum).
• 16A: Ask (pray) — trouble here as well...
• 24A: One likely to lend a needed hand (pal) — and here ...
• 35D: Chipped part of a statue, maybe (toe) — and here. Just not firing on all AXONs somehow (58D: Dendrite's counterpart).
• 39A: Dominican-born player in the 600 club (Sosa) — out of place here on first base, as he never played a WORLD SERIES GAME.
• 45A: When repeated, statement after an explosion (temper) — I can't imagine this "statement" being said in any way that would not make the addressee want to punch the speaker.
• 64A: Botanical angle (axil) — or a profitable marijuana-growing business; that could also be a "botanical angle"
• 13D: Richard Petty's racing son (Kyle) — couldn't rekall him. Needed that "K."
• 31D: _____ Maples Trump (Marla) — tried to make IVANA fit :( It's a name-heavy day today, it seems. I like how "MARLA Maples" goes with Shelley's "ODE to Naples" (38D).
• 41D: Referral for further information (see below) — my favorite answer in the grid. A common phrase that I've never seen in the grid. Plus, it really is BELOW (i.e. it runs to the bottom of the grid).
• 49D: Laura's 1960s sitcom hubby (Rob) — Oh, Rob! Great, pioneering sitcom.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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WEDNESDAY, Jul. 29 2009 — 1970s self-improvement program / Where Olaf I or Olaf II sat / Storied monster informally / Cold War propaganda disseminator

Constructor: Tim Wescott

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Division representatives — circled squares in theme answers contain the names of team members from each division in Major League Baseball

Word of the Day: GARRET (19D: "La Bohème" setting) — n.

A room on the top floor of a house, typically under a pitched roof; an attic.

[Middle English, from Old French garite, watchtower, from garir, to defend, of Germanic origin.]

-----

What this puzzle has going for it is a rather intricate intersecting pattern of theme answers. Rare to see this much theme interlock — definitely a challenge to make it all work out. What the puzzle lacks is strong rationale. At first I thought the teams were completely arbitrary, i.e. "here are six team members from completely random teams. Enjoy!" I then searched for some kind of organizing principle and realized that each team represented one of the six different divisions in Major League Baseball. OK, that's something. But unless I'm missing something, there is no particular reason why these teams are here. Whole premise feels a little loose. Further, some of the theme answers were not so strong. I have no doubt the term "SHORT-WINDED" exists, but who says that? And, as my wife said last night, "Is NORWEGIAN THRONE ... a thing?" Of course, said throne does exist, but it doesn't make for a very nice stand-alone crossword answer. CROP SPRAYER felt a little forced. CROP DUSTER, sure. SPRAYER? Meh. Further, the incorporation of the team member into the theme answers is haphazard. RAY doesn't even stretch across two words. Ever other team member does, but some of those touch every word in their respective phrases, and others don't, adding to the overall arbitrary feel of the answers. Clearly concessions were made in the elegance of the construction in order to get the interlock to work out. This puzzle really needed a theme-revealing answer, a clue that gives us some sense of the puzzle's unifying principle. Something with "division" in it ... something. Would have liked puzzle much better if it had had a theme-revealer and no circles (please tell me you all had circles in the dead-tree version this time...)



Theme answers:

• 28A: Pesticide spreader, e.g. (crop sp RAY er) — A.L. East
• 48A: Terse (shor TWIN ded) — A.L. Central
• 11D: Juicer remnants (o RANGER inds) — A.L. West
• 24D: Shake hands (co MET o terms) — N.L. East
• 17A: Argue forcibly (make ASTRO ng case) — N.L. Central
• 61A: Where Olaf or Olaf II sat (Norwe GIANT hrone) — N.L. West

Despite the fact that the theme execution is a mess, I mostly enjoyed solving it. But I like baseball.

Bullets:

• 32A: Brian of ambient music (Eno) — I really wish Brian ENO would do something ... this century. We need new clue material, Brian.
• 37A: Name in bankruptcy news (Enron) — what do you get when you cross Brian ENO with a registered nurse?
• 69A: Cold war propaganda disseminator (TASS) — Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, usually seen as the second part of ITAR-TASS.
• 71A: Like Yogi Berra, physically (squat) — I misread this clue. Read it too quickly and thought it referred to the position Yogi had to assume during play. A rare instance where misreading led me to the right answer.
• 2D: Bibliophile's suffix (-ana) — I am a bibliophile, and yet I rarely have occasion to use -ANA, and I never have occasion to use it in relation to any of my own books.
• 9D: Bridge no-no (renege) — never played bridge, had to wait for almost all the crosses here. When is RENEGE ever not a "no-no?" It's a very ugly word, both in appearance and sound.
• 10D: 2007 Michael Moore documentary ("Sicko") — Haven't seen a Michael Moore film since "Fahrenheit 9/11."
• 26D: It's most useful when broken (bronco) — no fan of riddles. Got this one somewhere near the end. Football answer clashes with the theme.
• 40D: Storied monster, informally (Nessie) — Any reference to an imaginary creature is apt to be something less than "formal." "That's Ms. Monster to you, buddy!"
• 52D: _____ the custom (traditionally) (as was) — all kinds of OUCH. Horrible partial. Nothing to cue the past tense (AS IS makes just as much if not more sense). Ugly.
• 65D: 1970s self-improvement program (est) — Did people really "improve" their "selves?" "est" appears to have lasted into the 80s, btw. Surely some of you went through it. Stories welcome.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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WEDNESDAY, Jul. 8 2009 — Big name in women's apparel since 1949 / Batcave figure / Style of truck with vertical front / Ants archaically

Constructor: Tim Wescott

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Magic Squares — Completed puzzle features nine magic squares (square-shaped arrangements of letters where the sequential Across words and Down words are identical). See "Note: When completed, this puzzle grid will contain an unusual feature that appears nine times. Can you find it?"

Word of the Day: EMMETS (22A: Ants, archaically) — n. Archaic.

An ant.

[Middle English emete, from Old English æmete.] (answers.com)

Short write-up today. Not a lot to say about this one. There are nine magic squares, of differing sizes, arranged (with rotational symmetry) throughout the grid. There they are. I'm sure this was challenging to construct and probably deserves some applause. I solved it quickly and had no idea what the "theme" was — just this vague sense that a lot of the intersecting words seemed a lot alike. I did notice that ABOVE intersected ABOVE in the middle of the grid, but didn't stop to ponder why that was important. When I finished and saw the note, I'm pretty sure I said some version of "ugh" out loud. I'm solving a crossword here, not playing Word Find or looking for Waldo.

Saw a lot of word crosses (e.g. ABOVE/ABOVE, OPE/OPE) and thought that was the deal, but there were too many of those. Then saw that 2 TREES and 2 HEARTS formed a square at the middle of the puzzle. Finding the other squares was easy.

• NW: ROB x BEE
• N: BING x GATE
• NE: CRAM x METS
• W: CUD x DEN
• Ctr: HEART x TREES
• E: WES x SAL (like this one 'cause it's all names — party of three)
• SW: CHAS x SHED (this one's weird because all SW-to-NE lines parallel to and including the diagonal ("SSSS") are made up of just a single letter)
• S: RUMP x PRAY
• SE: ROE x EEN

Bullets:

• 36A: Hindu god (Deva) — didn't know this. See (unrelated and differently pronounced) "Diva" at 2D: Diva's workplace (opera house).
• 38A: Style of truck with a vertical front (cab over) — another unknown.
• 41A: "101 _____ for a Dead Cat" (1981 best seller) ("Uses") — possibly the best clue for USES I've ever seen.
• 45A: 1978 Yankees hero Bucky (Dent) — I'd have gone with [Gotham D.A. Harvey] here, but I'm a Sox fan, and a Batman fan, so no surprise there. Would have made a nice tie-in with 1D: Batcave figure (Robin).
• 55A: Bacardi concoction, perhaps (rum punch) — I'd have gone with the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name. "Bacardi" makes RUM part too easy.
• 5D: "Aha!" elicitor (idea) — I had TADA. HA ha.
• 9D: Dorky sort (schmo) — "Dork" and "SCHMO" aren't in same universe to me. "Dork" skews toward "nerd," where "SCHMO" skews toward "any schlubby nobody you might see on the street, i.e. Joe SCHMO."
• 12D: Mine opening (adit) — my very favorite bit of crosswordese. One of the first that I collected and remembered in the early 90s when I started solving. Thanks, Eugene T. Maleska.
• 24D: Sneak peek, informally (prevue) — when you just can't bring yourself to write that seventh letter.
• 31D: Louisiana city named for the fifth U.S. president (Wes T. Monroe)
• 32D: Big name in women's apparel since 1949 (Evan Picone) — here's what's troubling me this morning: How Did I Know This?
• 54D: Arthur who wrote "A Hard Road to Glory" (Ashe) — I actually said out loud to my wife last night "Who's Arthur ASHE?" (thinking he was a writer as opposed to the tennis player). Wife: "You know who Arthur ASHE is, honey."
• 56D: Super, slangily (Uber) — on crossover of word from German to English, see here. For the T-Pain album "UBER" ... you'll have to wait 'til November. (T-PAIN is a very famous rapper whose name will eventually appear in a puzzle — his songs are characterized by heavy use of Auto-Tune to give his voice an aggressively digitally altered sound). [if you are easily offended, there is a good chance there's something you won't like in this video, so don't hit "Play"]
  

T-Pain Ft. Yung Joc - Buy U A Drank

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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TUESDAY, Jan. 20, 2009 - T. Wescott (Silents actress Normand / Rock band fronted by Michael Stipe / Hobbit's enemy)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MEAT balls - the word "MEAT" is anagrammed within oh who am I kidding it's another Obama puzzle.

Word of the Day: AUDACITY - daring boldness with assurance, presumption, or open disdain of restraint [Webster's 3rd Int'l]

Three in ten days. I voted for the guy, was elated by his victory, and even I'm starting to get a little weary. I can't think of a single event that has caused this much crossword ink to spill. Ever. It's a singular even in our nation's history, this inauguration, so if the glut of Obama crosswords is unprecedented, perhaps that's understandable, if not entirely optimal from a regular solver's point of view. This one we had today is really impressive in terms of theme density. Plus, it's got ... layers. First you've got the serious business of the themed fill - covering god knows how much of the grid (I'm just not going to give you ILL or BAR or even DAIS, but even so, there's a Lot of Inaugural fill here - 56 squares from the four 15-s alone). Then, for the fireworks at the end, the big "O" behind the president lights up with "YES WE CAN" and then rotates around and shoots off sparks like Wheel of Fortune meets the Fourth of July. Then it morphs into a halo and settles just over the top of the president's head. The end.

The long Downs are decidedly weaker than the Acrosses. AUDACITY OF HOPE (20A: Book by 52-Across, with "The") and PRESIDENT OBAMA (52A: Oath of office taker on 1/20/09) are real phrases one might actually say. LEADER OF AMERICA (3D: 52-Across, starting 1/20/09) less so, and CAMPAIGN RIVALRY (11D: 52-Across had one with John McCain) ... look, it's not the Lakers/Celtics. It's a single event - one race - the end. No "Rivalry." Plus, I mean, really, a RIVALRY implies some kind of parity. When one side hands the other side its ass, and does so only once ... again, not a rivalry. I like that Wescott was able to sneak JOE / BIDEN in there, like the wacky afterthought that he is (29D: With 36-Across, 52-Across's number two). Never mind the indignity of being clued as somebody else's "number two."

My favorite non-theme answer: BEEHIVES (36D: 1960s hairdos).

Other answers of note:

• 5A: Sheetful of cookies (batch) - mmm, inaugural cookies. I should make those.
• 17A: Representation of a state on the U.S. flag (star) - I had SEAL at first, thinking of the state's own flag
• 18A: Silents actress Normand (Mabel) - no clue, but cool name. Wow, this is oddly informative for a random youtube video:

• 39A: _____ Office (Oval) - crossing ORAL (28D: Transmitted by speech)? Really? Really?
• 42A: Rock band fronted by Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) - Stipe sang at the MTV Inaugural Ball for President Clinton in 1992. This is the performance I remember best (interestingly, a song of appreciation for a black man):

• 45D: "Maybe later" (not yet) - "NOT YET" implies that something will happen later, whereas "maybe later" implies said thing might not happen at all. Wanted NOT NOW, but then noticed that NOT intersects NOW (50A: "_____ what?").
• 32D: Suffix for many a computer attachment (pdf) - speaking of - allow me to present a PDF file of an Inauguration Day puzzle that, for reasons that will eventually become obvious, couldn't very well be published in a major newspaper. Why? Well, it's got bite. It may not be your political cup of tea, but as a feat of construction, it's impeccable. Here it is: "Almost a Pangram" by Ashish Vengsarkar (AcrossLite version can be downloaded easily here):

AshishInaugPuz

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Puzzles Puzzles & Games bush obama

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS my friend Kathy posted the following picture today - from Berlin:

["According to people in Berlin, Germany, this is Obama's favorite dish, so I hope you all are eating Smoked Chine with Sourcroot in celebration of the inauguration. Happy inauguration day!"]

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WEDNESDAY, Dec. 31, 2008 - Tim Wescott (Letters after two slashes / Support with stone, as an embankment / One of a seasonal octet)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: URL suffixes - circled squares in four theme answers spell out common web address suffixes; first letters of theme answers are H, T, T, and P (respectively) (the letters at the beginning of all web addresses) - bonus theme answer of WWW (40A: Letters after two slashes)

It's the final puzzle of 2008 - I really wish I liked it more. I wanted to end the year on a high note, but there is a messiness about this theme that I find somewhat off-putting. My gut feeling is that the puzzle is trying to do too much. When I first test-solved the puzzle, the initial letters of the theme answers were Not circled, and when I finished, I could not understand the rationale for accepting the puzzle - the circled square coverage is thin and (contrary to the highest standards of puzzle-writing) the circled squares don't touch every word in each theme answer. Only PLAYING OVERTIME seemed legit, and as a stand-alone phrase, even that wasn't that strong. Taking COM from the first three letters of COMMITMENT seemed so cheap and easy that I was surprised the puzzle hadn't been rejected out of hand. Now that I see the H, T, T, P thing, I understand what the constructor was trying to do, and I like the puzzle better, but I'd still rather have the suffixes breaking across both words of two-word phrases in every theme answer. AVIATOR GOGGLES would have been awesome. Which brings me to my second, more minor criticism - where is ORG? It's conspicuously absent, the only common URL suffix missing from the puzzle.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Feel like quarreling about something (have a boNE To pick)
• 23A: No halfway effort (total COMmitment)
• 49A: Basis of a false arrest, perhaps (trumpED-Up charge)
• 51A: Going past the fourth quarter, say (playinG OVertime)

REVET (3D: Support with stone, as an embankment) is a giant clunker in an otherwise beautifully filled grid. OK, maybe ONE PM (8D: Common lunch hr.) and US ONE (53D: Auto route from Me. to Fla.) don't belong in the same grid, but they're far enough apart, spatially, for anyone to be too bothered by the word repetition. Meanwhile, we get the seasonal DASHER (41D: One of a seasonal octet), the sassy SKORTS (9D: Women's hybrid clothing), the tasty GUMBO (56D: Okra stew), and the intriguing intersection of SEXY (68A: Like the Beatles' Sadie) and SCREWY (48D: Off the wall).



Carmel (by-the-Sea) is lovely, by the way; but if you've ever been here, you know that. Ooh, I think I had a celebrity sighting earlier today. I was walking on one of these little roads near the beach where cars have to drive very slowly because of narrowness and pedestrians and what not, and this red convertible sports car drives by with a fat fortyish blond guy behind the wheel, ostentatiously smoking a cigarette and chatting to his lady friend in the front seat. I could've sworn the guy driving the car was John Daly. The fact that I could see Pebble Beach from where I was standing when his car drove by only deepens my belief that that's who it was. He looked very happy.

Bullets:

• 5A: Meal-in-a-can brand (Alpo) - did anyone else have SPAM? I had SPAM. Both times I solved this, I had SPAM. I still want it to be SPAM.
• 20A: Gangster's code of silence (omerta) - one of the fancier, more exotic-sounding terms I've learned from crosswords.
• 28A: Writer's guidelines (specs) - short for "specifications." I like this. Surprised I don't see it more.
• 41A: Grounds for a good night's sleep? (decaf) - I did Not have DECAF after dinner tonight. Hence my boundless energy and laser-like focus at this late hour. Did you know DECAF backwards is FACED? See - laser-like!
• 58A: Suffix with hotel (-ier) - HOTELIER is ugly enough without you comically cleaving it in two like this.
• 59A: Richard and Jane in court (Roes) - Here are the rules (such as they are) on Roe and Doe in legal cases. Mildly confusing.
• 66A: Hamburg's river (Elbe) - I would love to see a puzzle with a bunch of 4-letter European rivers embedded in it - or better yet, winding through it. Yes, I am serious.
• 69A: U.K. military medals (DSOs)- the Brits give out so many damned awards that I have no hope in hell of ever learning them all, let alone telling them apart from one another.
• 5D: Monastic jurisdiction (abbacy) - oddly, we saw this answer not too long ago. It is otherwise unusual.

• 6D: "Bus 9 to Paradise" author Buscaglia (Leo) - a gimme, though I have no idea why I know this guy.
• 10D: Steal, slangily (cop) - a word invented because the phrase "steal a feel" just sounded too silly
• 13D: Native of NE Siberia (Yakut) - Excellent REVETters, the YAKUTs.
• 24D: When a ball may be hiked (on two) - a daring and (to my mind) admirable answer
• 38D: "How _____ Has the Banshee Cried" (Thomas Moore poem) ("Oft") - now if I only knew who Thomas Moore was...
• 46D: "Obey your thirst" sloganeer, once (Sprite) - feels fairly recent ... yes, here's an example:

• 51D: Range extending south from the Kara Sea (Urals) - when in doubt, this should be your go-to mountain range.
• 52D: "At the Milliner's" painter (Degas) - hmmm, a non-ballet-related DEGAS clue. Interesting. Coincidentally, I used the word "milliner" just today. Not normal conversational fare for me.
• 57D: They're guarded at the Olympics (epees) - even more common than the URALS. I'm assuming that "guarded" means they can't do you any real harm [no - refers to the bell guard that covers competitors' hands]
  

I have to say that I was grateful to notice the "HTTP" portion of this puzzle when I solved it tonight, because the thought of finishing the year with a wholly negative review was depressing me. Seriously. Sitting on the beach watching the sunset with my wife earlier this evening, I was thinking about this write-up, and wondering how I was going to manage to be honest, but also strike the right kind of tone for a year-end write-up - one that was hopeful, even grateful.

[See Rex wonder ...]

I have no interest in writing a blog wherein I do anything but give you my candid, largely uncensored reaction to the puzzles - but writing from the gut and under the gun results at times in what one might reasonably call a lack of sensitivity on my part. If I worry too much about hurting someone's (i.e. a constructor's) feelings, then the natural energy that drives me to write this thing every day gets ... well, MUTED (25D: No longer bright, as colors). So in case it's not completely clear, let me say: I'm genuinely grateful for every puzzle I get to do. The criticism I offer, even the harsh stuff, is meant as a sign of respect (as in "I respect the endeavor you're engaged in enough not to blow sunshine up your skort when your work strikes me as less than adequate"). So, as 2008 ends, I offer genuine thanks to every constructor whose work I've had the pleasure and displeasure of solving this year. Your work provides the basis for a wonderful, lively, ongoing conversation that I feel privileged to reinitiate every morning, rain or shine (when I don't pawn the job off on unpaid lackeys, that is).

That said, I'd like to make a few suggestions. First, if you aren't reading the Comments section, consider starting. Lots of interesting conversations tend to develop throughout any given day, and if you have additional questions about the puzzle, the Comments section is the place to look first (you know, before you email me directly). Second, if you haven't commented on a blog write-up before, consider starting. We can always use fresh voices. The commenters might seem like a group that's known each other for a long time, but actually most people "know" each other only from this site. Their skill levels are widely divergent and they're mostly really nice folks, so there's no need to be intimidated, even if you're a relative beginner. Lastly, to current commenters - consider writing somewhat fewer and more concise comments, at least for the next month or so, as I try to encourage participation from a greater cross-section of my reading audience. Thanks for your support and understanding.

O man, that's about as much earnestness as I can handle for one day. Back to my more typical snarky blather tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Jul. 9, 2008 - Tim Wescott (MEXICAN MURALIST OROZCO / OLD GERMAN DUCHY NAME)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Numbers (HINT = 65A: "The first word of the answer to each of the six starred clues describes the number of that clue," e.g.)

Trying to write this during puppy nap, which is already half over. This puzzle seemed ingenious, but maybe the Math folk (NDE?) can tell me if I'm right or not. I don't know what a "perfect" number is (though apparently "6" is one of them), and I'm not sure why "33" is any more "real" than other numbers (perhaps because it's on every bottle of Rolling Rock beer ...?), but no matter. This is a smart theme, and there were very few groaners required to achieve it. Huzzah.

Theme answers:

• 4D: *Balance in personality (EVEN tenor)
• 6D: *Pitcher's dream (PERFECT game)
• 11D: *They don't belong (ODD men out)
• 25D: *Basic Scout ties (SQUARE knots)
• 33D: *It's no fake (REAL McCoy)
• 37D: *It follows the evening news (PRIME time)

On the non-theme front, SYSTOLE (24A: Part of a heartbeat) and POMACE (9D: Crushed pulp) gave me some trouble. I know the word "systolic," but couldn't think of the nominative form, and I wanted to spell POMACE something like PUMICE, which is also a word. Happier experiences included:

• 10A: Mexican muralist Orozco (Jose) - the only "Orozco" I know is former Mets pitcher Jesse, but I'm happy to learn this one (if only because he didn't violate the NATICK Principle - see sidebar under "Important Posts")
• 15A: Major-league team member through 2004 (Expo) - I like how EXPO has gone the way of ALERO, SST, and SSR (among others), in that it continues on in the puzzle despite only fairly recently achieving "bygone" status.
• 16A: Month before Nisan (Adar) - hey, I finally got this without blinking, after years of encountering it and thinking "oh ... starts with 'A' ..."
• 19A: Year Cortes conquered Cuba (MDXI) - thankfully, a Roman numeral year without a pope clue. More of these!
• 20A: "Rhoda" and "Frasier" (spin-offs) - very nice. "Why won't SITCOMS fit!?"
• 25A: Suffix with moon (scape) - took me way Way too long to get
• 27A: Mathematician's "ta-da!" (Q.E.D.) - I just like the "mathematician-as-magician" angle here.
• 40A: Supermodel Carangi (Gia) - like ADAR, she finally went down without a fight.
• 47A: Former Notebook maker (IBM) - I live nextdoor to the original home of IBM. Not that that helped me here.
• 53A: Stimulus response (kinesis) - nice sciencey symmetrical pairing with SYSTOLE
• 1D: Jawbone of _____ (biblical weapon) - this seems wildly desperate, and yet I love it.
• 12D: Old German duchy name (Saxe) - Didn't anything happen in MDLI that could have made this SALE (or MDVI / SAVE)?
• 13D: Land o' blarney (Erin) - the puzzle loves the Irish; the "E"-words alone would fill a small satchel or whatever it is Leprechauns carry their gold in.
• 58D: Gay Talese's "_____ the Sons" ("Unto") - this guy is the oft-omitted name when people speak of "New Journalism"; Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe tend to get more credit.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of waiting on a damned mouthy puppy hand and foot

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