Island off Gabonese coast / THU 5-2-13 / Diplomat Annan / It's a kick in a glass sloganeer / Shrek creator / Part of pedestal between base and cornice / Dormant volcano in Cascade Range / McCarthyite paranoia / Modern response to hilarity

Constructor: Josh Knapp

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: NEITHER (here) NOR (there) (35A: *Irrelevant ... or what the answers to the five starred clues have?) — familiar phrases that start with HERE or THERE have those words removed, so the puzzle contains "neither here nor there."

Theme answers:

• 19A: *2007 Best Picture nominee ("[There] WILL BE BLOOD")
• 25A: *"Hope this works!" ("[Here] GOES NOTHING!")
• 51A: *"Abbey Road" track ("[Here] COMES THE SUN")
• 56A: *Start of many limericks ("[There] ONCE WAS A MAN...")

Word of the Day: H-HOUR (15A) —

H-Hour is the specific hour on D-Day that a military operation is set to commence. For amphibious operations, H-Hour denotes the time that the first assault elements are scheduled to reach the beach or landing zone. (about.com)

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Thought this was Medium-Challenging, then realized that it's 16-wide (to accommodate the even-numbered central theme answer), so of course I took a bit longer than normal. All my struggle came early and late, and all of it in the NW. Immediately wrote in SCAB (1A: Target of union hatred) and then ASCETIC (3D: Like monastery life). Then stopped. Never heard of H-HOUR. Wanted IPSO and -ESE, but they conflicted with the obviously right ASCETIC (so much more spot-on than AUSTERE), that I didn't bother testing them. Instead, completely abandoned the NW and again had trouble getting my footing. Conflated MELVIN and MARIO and came up with MARVIN Van Peebles (8D: Director Van Peebles). VAIO (23A: Sony laptop line), STEIG (9D: Shrek creator), and BANE (20D: "The Dark Knight Rises" villain) finally got me going, and very shortly thereafter I got [There] WILL BE BLOOD. [Here] GOES NOTHING came weirdly easily, and so the revealer, when I got to it, was a piece of cake. Put it right in. After that, no trouble until I had to return to the NW. Well, CHACO gave me a little trouble. Knew SHASTA (9A: Dormant volcano in the Cascade Range), did not know CHACO (48A: New Mexico's ___ Canyon). So, batting .500 on Geography. But back to the NW—I had short-lived but legitimate fear that I was going to go into freefall. Entertained MIDGITS (?) for 21A: Mental lightweights (NITWITS). Actually wrote in PERUSE for 4D: Look around (BROWSE). But going back to basics (the IPSO and the -ESE that I suspected way back at the beginning) got me rolling up there, and that was that.


Overall, I liked this one. Theme is a clever twist on a familiar phrase. It's true that you're left with something close to nonsense in the grid (bunch of very long partials), but I have no problem with the idea of mentally supplying a missing word. Oh, and the fill on this one is tight. For once. Thank god. 

Bullets:

• 32A: "It's a kick in a glass" sloganeer, once (TANG) — seems pretty saucy for a TANG-era slogan. Took me nearly every cross to get this, as I thought it had something to do with panes of glass...
• 59A: Part of a pedestal between the base and the cornice (DADO) — no idea, though I guessed it after a cross or two based on my having seen it somewhere before in relation to carpentry. 
• 10D: Wandering soul (HOBO) — I don't quite get the "soul" part here. Seems tonally off from HOBO.
• 12D: Island off the Gabonese coast (SÃO TOMÉ) — rough, though once I had the SAO, I could guess.
• 37D: McCarthyite paranoia (RED SCARE) — first RED SCARE predates McCarthy era by a good bit, but his was the second and still counts.
• 30D: Whom some novelty disguises imitate (GROUCHO) — Even with the GROU- I had no idea what was happening here. Seems a very dated clue.
• 46D: Modern response to hilarity (ROFL) — got this instantly, though I think I see it more often with the "T" in it. Come to think of it, I haven't seen this initialism much at all lately (in the last couple years). I think it might have died.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Beer brand owned by Pabst / 5-1-13 / Trek ending in Mecca / Chekhovian sister of Masha Irina / J'adore fragrance maker

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: LEI / DAY (39A: With 41-Across, annual May 1 celebration) — circled squares form a kind of ring, in which LEI is spelled out repeatedly. Two other theme answers are stuck in the NE and SW corners, respectively:

• 9A: Word heard on 39-/41-Across (ALOHA)
• 70A: Performances on 39-/41-Across (HULAS)

Word of the Day: PIELS (31D: Beer brand owned by Pabst) —

Piels Beer, aka Piel Bros. Beer and Piel's Beer, is a regional lager beer, originally brewed in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York, at 315 Liberty Avenue. Piels, in its present incarnation, is generally regarded as an inexpensive beer. (wikipedia)

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I'm legitimately mystified as to how a puzzle this poorly filled gets published. It's laughable. I stopped *three* answers in, at the ALOU / ALIA crossing, and thought "Oh boy, this does not bode well ..." And it didn't. Never mind that *all* the theme material is itself crosswordese—I guess it's LEI / DAY (did not know that), and there's a ring in the puzzle, sort of LEI-shaped, so ... fine. It's a dull theme, but you can have it. And yet why in the world are we subjected to so much manifest garbage? Lots and lots and lots of tired material, and then a bunch of stuff you should never see except in emergencies. SERIE? (25D: Something watched on télévision) FELID!?!!?! (34A: Member of the cat family) No idea what the hell PIELS is. YEOWS (pl?) crossing YIPE? APLOT crossing AFLOW (?) in close proximity to AGLARE? YALEU? Then there's the south. I mean, EEO next to IER? The whole grid just reeks of not caring. One of my good crossword friends (who also Hates bad fill) thinks last Tuesday's was much worse, and while that puzzle was indeed not good, I disagree. That one had some howlers, but the theme was more interesting, and there was less garbage overall. Also, this puzzle, unlike last week's, is ... let's just say "not a debut."


I am finishing up my 17th-century Lit course next week, so I have a certain fondness for JAMES II (4D: King replaced by William and Mary). FILMDOM is not bad, and it's hard to hate LUMMOX (58A: Clodhopper), which is a great word. BE AN ANGEL is kind of an interesting phrase, and LOVERLY is cute. Oh god, I just noticed EELERS (51D: Fishers with pots) and now the very tenuous good-feelings spell has been broken. Sorry. I got nothing left to say about this puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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