Boss Tweed lampooner / WED 1-2-13 / Singer/actress Luft / Actress Pflug / Japan's largest active volcano / Hit for Guy Lombardo 1937 Jimmy Dorsey 1957 / FDA banned diet pill ingredient / Italian city that is title setting of Walpole novel / Newsgroup system since 1980 /

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: FROOT / LOOPS (1A: With 71-Across, breakfast choice .. or a punny hint to this puzzle's theme) — circles in the grid form loops, and those loops spell out types of fruit.

• WATERMELON
• BANANA
• PAPAYA
• CHERRY
• ORANGE
• CANTALOUPE

Word of the Day: JO ANN Pflug (51D: Actress Pflug) —

Jo Ann Pflug (born May 2, 1940) is a former American motion picture and television actress, who retired in 1997.

Pflug's first major role was as U.S. Army nurse Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider in 1970's MASH. Other notable roles include the voice of Invisible Girl in the 1967 animated version of Fantastic Four, Lt. Katherine O'Hara in the television series spin-off of Operation Petticoat and Cynthia Vaughn in 1997's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (her last role to date).

Pflug was also a frequent panelist on the television game shows Match Game from 1973–1981, a co-host with Allen Funt on the 1970s version of Candid Camera, and a regular on the TV series The Fall Guy in 1981-1982. In 1984, she was the first actress to play Taylor Chapin on the unsuccessful syndicated soap operaRituals. According to Soap Opera Digest, Pflug's highly publicized departure from the burgeoning drama was because her role called for sex-related scenes involving characters not married to each other, which conflicted with her Christian beliefs.

She also landed guest appearances on The Love Boat; The Dukes of Hazzard; Knight Rider; Love, American Style; Adam-12; Quincy, M.E. and Charlie's Angels.

Pflug's only marriage was to game show host Chuck Woolery. The couple married in 1972 and divorced in 1980. They have one daughter, Melissa. (wikipedia)

• • •

This works. Now, the fill is not great, and by "not great" I mean decidedly below average. Scads of crosswordy names, foreign words, Latinisms, a meeting of the ASSAYERs and IRONERS Union Local 3010, ODORIZE, and whatever ONE C is (I mean, really) (41D: Ten sawbucks). But the theme is really tight and beautifully executed, and puts extraordinary demands on the fill, so ... I extend forgiveness for the ugliness. I mean, he really sticks the landing here. All the LOOPS are symmetrical. All the fruits start at the top of their respective loops. The vast majority of answers in the grid TRANSECT theme material. It's a very high bar. So, yeah, OTRANTO (and FLOR, but thumbs-up for theme ambition (46D: Italian city that is the title setting of a Walpole novel + 1D: Dona ___ (1976 Sonia Braga role)).


I got off to a slow start, first because I couldn't remember Mies's last name (2D: Architect Mies van der ROHE). I had it as RIES at first, but that's just an echo of his first name. Then I remembered the "O" sound but wanted it ROHS ... ugh. I also just couldn't figure out the FROOT part. No idea what "breakfast choice" could start FRO- ... but then the LOOPS part became obvious just from the arrangement of circled squares, and I pieced it together. Do people really know ESA and ASO. I must know the former, as it was my first guess, but the latter was All Crosses. I did not know NON-ARAB was a thing (57A: Jewish or Iranian, e.g.), but then I didn't know ODORIZE was a thing either, so too bad for me. E-PUB is possibly the worst of the E-words (56D: Digital book file extension), surpassing even E-CASH and E-NOTE. I clearly don't have my noise meanings down pat, because I struggled with both YAH (42A: Cry of derision) and AYS (32D: Sorrowful cries). No one uses SOAPER any more (33D: Melodramatic series, in slang), I guarantee you. Oh, maybe "Variety" does, I don't know. But no humans. I think the SOAPER works with the IRONERS at the laundry.



Names posed the biggest problem in this puzzle. Never heard of LORNA Luft; she is the half-sister of Liza Minnelli, among other things. Learned about the NAST / Tweed connection in a puzzle about five years ago, and never forgot it (15A: Boss Tweed lampooner). Not sure how I knew "SO RARE" (55A: Hit for Guy Lombardo in 1937 and Jimmy Dorsey in 1957), except perhaps from having seen it suggested by my crossword-constructing software, whereupon I would've said "I have no idea what that is. I'm not putting that in my grid." I forgot USENET even existed (23D: Newsgroup system since 1980), and thought the answer was going to be some kind of Itar-Tass equivalent. AP? UPI? Something like that.

This is what I'd call an ugly win. But it's a win.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Salsa singer Cruz / 1-1-13 / Rickover known as Father of Nuclear Navy / Knit fabric in lingerie swimwear / Comment from kvetcher / Jetsam locale / Role for diminutive Verne Troyer in Austin Powers films / Dacha villa

Constructor: John Farmer

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: 150th anniversary of the signing of the EMANCIPATION / PROCLAMATION by ABRAHAM / LINCOLN, which brought about the ABOLITION / OF SLAVERY in the U.S.

Word of the Day: HYMAN Rickover (68A: Rickover known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy) —

Hyman George Rickover (January 27, 1900 – July 8, 1986) was a four-star admiral of the United States Navy who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of Naval Reactors. In addition, he oversaw the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor used for generating electricity.

Rickover is known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy", which as of July 2007 had produced 200 nuclear-powered submarines, and 23 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and cruisers, though many of these U.S. vessels are now decommissioned and others under construction.

On 16 November 1973 Rickover was promoted to four-star admiral after 51 years of commissioned service. With his unique personality, political connections, responsibilities, and depth of knowledge regarding naval nuclear propulsion, Rickover became the longest-serving naval officer in U.S. history with 63 years active duty.

Rickover's substantial legacy of technical achievements includes the United States Navy's continuing record of zero reactor accidents, as defined by the uncontrolled release of fission products subsequent to reactor core damage. (wikipedia)

• • •

It's an important historical date to commemorate, and the symmetry of all the answers is indeed fortuitous. Still, this was not very interesting to solve. I don't think I actually read one theme clue. They all just seemed to fill themselves in. Once you got the gist of who / what was involved, the theme became obvious and the only resistance was provided by the fill. I had trouble with the NW as I confidently wrote in BUSTY for 2D: Big-bosomed (BUXOM). If I'd bothered to check a couple of those crosses, I'd've seen the error earlier, but with easy / early-week puzzles, I'm typically flying around the grid, and sometimes overlook these matters (however briefly). Got sloppy again in the SE when I wrote in singular IOWAN where plural IOWAS belonged (53D: Early Great Plains residents). And then in the far south I had no idea about HYMAN and got a little concerned when I couldn't remember the exact name of the [Canopy tree]. Specifically, I couldn't remember the last letter: M? N? R? I wasn't 100% sure. But then I got HYMA- and figured that "N" was the only plausible answer—correct. Most everything else felt pretty easy to me, but somehow, even with the ÜBER-easy theme and a mostly piece-of-cake grid, I still ended up w/ a pretty average Tuesday time. Maybe it's all the time I took to finally get ROBINS (49A: Signs of spring) that really did me in. Who knows? Moreover, who cares?


Theme answers:

• 23A: With 51-Across, presidential order signed on January 1, 1863 (EMANCIPATION / PROCLAMATION)
• 37A: With 39-Across, signer of the 23-/51-Across (ABRAHAM / LINCOLN)
• 18A: With 61-Across, goal of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman (ABOLITION / OF SLAVERY) — ABOLITION on its own would've been a perfectly appropriate answer to this clue, but, you know, symmetry

First thought for 1A: Dacha or villa (ABODE) was HOUSE. But ARETE was a gimme (1D: Mountain ridge), and so ABODE was the obvious next choice for 1A, and I got all the Downs in order from there (except BUXOM, which I botched, as I say...). The south was a proper noun death trap—potentially. I wouldn't call any of the names—ORBACH (48D: Jerry of stage and screen), CELIA (65A: Salsa singer Cruz), HYMAN—obscure, but any time you get a cluster of non-universally-known names like that, gaps in knowledge can sneak up and bite you. I nearly got bitten by HYMAN (under the BANYAN tree, as I say...). I don't think I could pick TRICOT out of a fabric line-up (10D: Knit fabric in lingerie and swimwear), but it's got that frenchy ending like "haricots (verts)," and I'm sure I've seen it before, so I pieced it together, no problem. Misread 35D: Role for diminutive Verne Troyer in "Austin Powers" films (MINI-ME) at first and was left pondering (briefly) what short people Jules Verne ever wrote about. OY VEY! (52D: Comment from a kvetcher)


Thanks to all who read and support this blog for another enjoyable year. I'll have a big charity project to announce in the very near future. Also, I'll probably redesign the site sometime soonish—it's about time for a conceptual and stylistic makeover, frankly. But the core of what I do should, like the domestication of the dog, continue unabated.

Happy New Year,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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