Tsar's Bride composer / TUE 10-2-12 / Straight-bladed dagger / Louis Braille Louis Chevrolet / Taken into account in terms of container's weight / Home 1996 Emilio Estevez film / Operating system since 1969 / Cricket World Cup powerhouse / NASA launch of 1990

Constructor: Ethan Cooper

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: WHEEL COMPONENTs (48A: Beginning of 20-, 25- or 43-Across) — theme answers begin with parts of a wheel:

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (20A: "The Tsar's Bride" composer)
SPOKEN WORD ALBUM (25A: It has its own Grammy category)
HUBBLE TELESCOPE (43A: NASA Launch of 1990)

Word of the Day: Tortellini in BRODO (31D: Tortellini in ___ (Italian dish)) —

a soup consisting of small, stuffed pasta in a clear broth (wiktionary)

• • •

I have this theory about puzzles that have15s on either side of the center line—they should be closer (one line between them) rather than farther apart (three lines). Now, normally, with theme answers, I think, "well, if they're farther apart, that opens up the grid, gives you more room to work, etc." But when sequential theme answers are 15s, I don't think this is the case. Easier to get a bunch of 3s to work (well) than it is to get 5s to do same. Eastern portion of this grid is a very, very good example of what I'm talking about. That's an abomination. I've never seen BRODO in my life (this is possibly the most obscure Italian word I've ever seen in a grid, though apparently the dish itself is reasonably well known), and I barely believe UNRIP is a word (32D: Tear open). WAR AT isn't winning any awards either (28D: "The ___ Home," 1996 Emilio Estevez film). I saw this problem happen on a grid of mine—a quote puzzle that had two 15s, one after the other, on either side of the center of the grid, just like this one. When they were 3-spaced (like this one), I got the grid done, but it was kind of icky. Distractingly icky. Then, even though I was "done," I decided to build it all over again with a grid where those 15s were just 1-spaced. As my testers, and anyone with an eye who sees the puzzle, can tell you, the latter was infinitely superior. The grid ended up way, way more smooth, and solvers could then focus on the awesome quote and not be distracted by whatever gunk I had gunking up the grid in the first version.


WHEEL COMPONENT is among the worst revealers of all time. It's a nothing phrase. The puzzle's in a bit of a bind, though, with this theme, and it's hard to see another way out—that's because there really *aren't* any more plausible parts of a wheel. Are there? And if not, well, three theme answers just aren't enough these days. If there were a fourth wheel component, then you could've just had the revealer as "WHEEL," and tucked it down at the bottom of the grid. But, we've got what we've got, and there's at least a few things to like. I like all the theme answers as answers. You don't see 14s much, and RIMSKY-KORSAKOV's a good one (part of the toughness today was spelling that damn name correctly). Junkiness at center of the grid is offset by mostly nice work in the small sections up top and down below. Scrabbly without forcing the issue (e.g. no attempts to pick up a "Z" at the expense of overall grid smoothness). And I always appreciate when a constructor really takes advantage of the long Downs. Make your long non-theme answers *count*! HOT MIKES (4D: Feedback producers) and SUCKED UP (39D: Was obsequious, informally) count. Good stuff.


Bullets:

• 5A: Mountains out of molehills (TO-DOS) — this took me forever. I had every letter and still didn't really get it. "What's a TODO?" I figured it out, after the fact. 
• 34A: Taken into account in terms of a container's weight (TARED) — a not-great word, unsurprisingly located in that whole problematic Middle Zone. Good thing it was a gimme. I think about the word "tare" a lot—every time I'm at the supermarket, or anywhere stuff gets weighed in containers.
• 47A: Cricket World Cup powerhouse: Abbr. (PAK.) — As country abbrev. clues go, I really like this one.
• 62A: Operating system since 1969 (UNIX) — I had the "U," so no problem. 
• 1D: One who knows what it means to travel (REF) — great clue but holy-crap hard. I had to run the alphabet to get that "F," because 17A: It's impressive (FEAT) wasn't doing anything for me. I kept thinking of things that make impressions...
• 7D: Straight-bladed dagger (DIRK) — it's in the crosswordese arsenal right next to the SNEE.
• 45D: Louis Braille or Louis Chevrolet (EPONYM) — got this without ever seeing the clue, which is a good thing, 'cause again, this seems hardish for Tuesday. The double-Louis thing is a total fake-out. Nice but late-weekish clue.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Replacement Rex / MON 10-1-12 / BFFs

Aloha from your favorite alternate bloggers, aka Liz and Jenny, aka Rex's BFFs, aka, the Replacement Rex.  (And also Annabel hi :)

(Annabel is Liz's daughter who is Replacement Rexing with us because she's on the A-List too.)

We've re-dubbed ourselves as the Replacement Rex because our ability to fill in for the pro Rex is awfully similar to the ability of those NFL replacement refs.  In fact, Liz just threw a flag on the field because Jenny misspelled Jong. 

We get your excitement guys.  That's how we felt when we first got here too!

(FYI-we KNOW that the real refs are back, but Replacement Rex...that's Awfully Amusing)

Constructor: Susan Gelfand

Relative difficulty: Absolutely eAsy

THEME: THE A LIST — People whose first and last names start with the letter A

Word of the Day: Aggravated  —

ag·gra·vate

   [ag-ruh-veyt] Show IPA

verb (used with object), ag·gra·vat·ed, ag·gra·vat·ing.

1.

to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil,disorderly, or troublesome: to aggravate a grievance; toaggravate an illness.

2.

to annoy; irritate; exasperate: His questions aggravate her.

3.

to cause to become irritated or inflamed: The child's constantscratching aggravated the rash.

Origin: 
1425–75; late Middle English  < Latin aggravātus  (past participleof aggravāre ), equivalent to ag- ag-  + grav-  ( see grave² ) + -ātus-ate¹ ; compare aggrieve

• • •

After much begging, we agreed to be Replacement Rex because Rex has been sooooo aggravated (and aggravating) with the puzzles for the last several days.  And now, like most BFFs, we feel the same way...someone stop us before we say yes again (oh wait...we're already lined up for another day).

Theme answers:

• 20A "The Second First Lady" / Abigail Adams
• 28A "American Dance Theater Founder" / Alvin Ailey
• 35A "Oscar Winning Actor for Little Miss Sunshine" / Alan Arkin
• 48A "Tennis Champion With A Stadium Named After Him" / Arthur Ashe
• 56A "Achieved Great Fame...Or, What 20, 28, 35, and 48 Across Did" / Made The A List

What can we say about this theme?  We know someone who said "The theme makes no, or poor, sense. Maybe if all those people were heavy drinkers who had to go into rehab, the whole initial thing would make sense."  We agree.  As soon as we wrote "Abigail Adams", and saw the next theme clue, we knew immediately what was going on.  And it kind of made it un-fun because there was no real challenge to filling in these answers.

Some clues were fun.  Here are some that we liked:

• We liked the cross of 68A (One Giving Orders - BOSS) and 60D (Occupation - JOB) 

• 34A Football Field Units: Abbr. - YARDS, because we love all things Football (Go Ravens!)    Did you know that last season, Liz beat Rex in a football pool?  In fact, she was the season winner.  (Interestingly, there isn't a pool this year.) 

• 52A ____ The Impaler — VLAD because what's not to love about the name Vlad?

Here's a list of answers that we are sick and tired of seeing every single week:

• 6A Indian Prince - RAJA
• 65A Ye ____ Shoppe - OLDE
• San ___, Calif -  RAFAEL (or any other San ___ or Los ___ or Las ___)
• 63A Corrida Cheer - OLE (we cheer when we see a puzzle without this tired clue)
• 64A Across-the-Atlantic flier of old, briefly - SST 

Any puzzle without these clues gets an automatic A+ from us.

Signed, Liz and Jenny, aka Rex's BFFs, aka the Replacement Rex

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