1906 Massenet opera based on Greek myth / TUE 4-24-12 / TV doctor Sanjay / 1940s Bikini blasts / Public place in Athens / Number of Los Lonely Boys

Constructor: Adam G. Perl

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: "The GIRL WITH The Dragon Tattoo" (1A: With 10-Across and the circled letters, a best-selling novel, with "The") — puzzle also contains the "heroine" (LISBETH SALANDER) and "hero" (MIKAEL BLOMKVIST) of the novel

Word of the Day: "ARIANE" (43D: 1906 Massenet opera based on Greek myth) —

Ariane is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Catulle Mendès after Greek mythology (the tale of Ariadne). It was first performed at the Palais Garnier in Paris on October 31, 1906, with Lucienne Bréval in the title role. (wikipedia)

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There is only one reason this puzzle exists—because the constructor noticed that the two heroes of the "Dragon Tattoo" have 15-letter names. I know "everyone" has read these books, but I haven't, and filling in random Swedish names does absolutely nothing for me. I'm guessing the circles have some relation to the book—maybe the dragon tattoo is in a shape roughly approximating the stripe on Charlie Brown's shirt?—but if so, I don't know what that relation is. I got the title easily, actually, and filled in all the circles very quickly. I also vaguely remembered LISBETH SALANDER because Rooney Mara was nominated for an Oscar for playing her, so her name must have crossed my path a few times this year. But MIKAEL BLOMKVIST!? Forget about it. I thought that SW corner was going to stop me completely, and in fact if my (real) name weren't "Michael," it might have taken me even longer than it did for me to come up with that "A" at MIKAEL / "ARIANE" (43D: 1906 Massenet opera based on Greek myth).



Speaking of "ARIANE," !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Wow. Now, come on, I know "obscurity" is relative, but *that* is obscure. I actually wanted ARIADNE there, but, obviously, it didn't fit. Between the "hero"'s name, "ARIANE," and the insane clue on GLIDE (40D: Dance movement—really? With that clue, I was looking for something like GLISSÉ or ... I don't know, something not ordinary), and the other not-totally-obvious stuff down there, I was in trouble. Was over my normal Tuesday time by a full minute. Times at the NYT site are quite high for a Tuesday. As with yesterday, this puzzle feels misplaced by a day. I found it mostly annoying, but my opinion is that of someone who hasn't read the book. Maybe "Dragon Tattoo" lovers will love it. Who knows?

Strangest moment of the solve came right away, when I got "GIRL" and thought "GIRL ... Interrupted?," then figured out the actual answer, and *then* ran into WINONA Ryder (10D: Actress Ryder), who was, of course, in the movie version of "Girl, Interrupted." Freaky. Stunned to see G-SPOT make such a quick return (34D: "The ___ and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality" (1982 best seller)). I'm sure there's a joke in there about G-SPOT coming multiple times, but I'm too tired. The non-theme, non-SW-corner parts of the grid all seem normal. Not exceptional, not terrible. Onward and upward.

Bullets:

• 29A: Zero personality? (OPERATOR) — great clue, but Hard clue. Another answer that added to the later-in-the-week feel, difficulty-wise. 
• 42A: Silicon Valley city (LOS ALTOS) — familiar to me, but I'm from California. This seems like it might be tough for some.

• 40A: TV doctor Sanjay (GUPTA) — was wondering when I'd see him in a grid. Maybe I already have and am forgetting.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Ruler after diet / MON 4-23-12 / Ruler in vegetable garden / Cone-shaped shelter / Folded Mexican dish / Ruler with custard desserts

Constructor: Michael David

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Rulers — words ending in "KING" are reimagined (in the clues) as phrases related to KINGs

• 4D: Ruler after a diet? (THIN KING)
• 20A: Ruler on a golf course? (PAR KING)
• 10D: Ruler on a beach? (TAN KING)
• 20D: Ruler in a Utah city? (PROVO KING)
• 40D: Ruler with custard desserts? (FLANKING)
• 42D: Ruler in a W.C.? (LOO KING)
• 53A: Ruler in a vegetable garden? (PEA KING)

Word of the Day: CLOY (57D: Fill to excess) —

v., cloyed, cloy·ing, cloys.

v.tr.
To cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant, especially something rich or sweet; surfeit.

v.intr.
To be too filling, rich, or sweet.

[Short for obsolete accloy, to clog, from Middle English acloien, from Old French encloer, to drive a nail into, from Medieval Latin inclāvāre : Latin in-, in; see in-² + Latin clāvāre, to nail (from clāvus, nail).]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/cloy#ixzz1sourhDlt

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LOO KING, but no PEE KING?

Despite the abundance of KINGs (i.e. tons of squares that are easily filled in once you catch on to the theme), this one played harder-than-normal for a Monday, for several reasons. First, there's 1A: Late, as a library book (PAST DUE). Tens of thousands of people will either think or (as I did) write in OVERDUE, as that is the more commonly used phrase. The phrase in the grid is totally valid, just not the one that is likely to leap to mind first (if, like my wife, you are smart and check the crosses before writing anything in, then this answer won't affect you much, if at all). Then there's the fact that it's not obvious where the theme answers are in this grid, so when you first encounter a "?" clue, it's not going to be clear that it's theme material. Could just be any old "?" clue. This was true for me at 4D: Ruler after a diet? (THIN KING). I was sure that the pun was on "diet" and that (because of "ruler") I was supposed to think of "diet" in the sense of "legislative assembly" (e.g. Diet of Worms) (wife, strangely, had same thought). Then there was the fact that the SUMMON (32D: Order to come) / FUME (40A: Be furious) nexus was just tough. Those clues were hard (I thought "to come" meant "in the future" and assumed [Be furious] was RAGE). Both wife and I got hung up there. Then there's the meaning of CLOY that I was not familiar with (57D: Fill to excess). I knew "be sickeningly sweet," but not "overfill." At four letters, of course I wanted SATE there (also wanted EEK at 56A: Comic strip cry, since I was going off the K—if clue had said ["Cathy" cry], I wouldn't have made that error). Then there's PULE (53D: Whine). It's a word. Just not that common a word. I've seen it only in crosswords. Wife claims never to have seen it.

So this played more Tuesday than Monday. Quality-wise, it has pluses and minuses. The theme is actually cute and kind of funny, and though having So Many (a cloying number of) KINGs in the grid feels excessive, the amusement offered by the clues as well as the relative difficulty of the rest of the grid mostly made up for what could have been an annoying repetitive feature. The fill undoubtedly could've been stronger in more expert hands. There's a Lot of crosswordese (and whatever TING is). But overall, I think this is a decent effort. Maybe I'm biased because my (real) first name is Michael and my middle name is David and so it looks like 2/3 of me constructed this puzzle. But I doubt it.



Thanks to (crossword constructor) Alex Boisvert for recently tweeting about the ROYGBIV mnemonic (66A: Rainbow mnemonic). I'm sure I would've gotten it easily anyway, but Alex's tweet ensured that the answer was right at the top of my brain.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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