Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: LOW-HANGING FRUIT (7D: Simple things to pick ... or what 5-, 11-, 29- and 38-Down have?) — theme answers are Downs that end in fruits—thus the fruit part of the answer hangs low...

Word of the Day: GINA Gershon (3D: Actress Gershon of "Bound") —

Gina L. Gershon (born June 10, 1962) is an American film, television and stage actress, singer and author, known for her roles in the films Cocktail (1988), Showgirls (1995), Bound (1996), Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1996), Face/Off(1997), The Insider (1999), Demonlover (2002), Category 7: The End of the World (2005), P.S. I Love You (2007), Five Minarets in New York (2010), and Killer Joe (2011). She has also had supporting roles in FX's Rescue Me and HBO's How to Make It in America. (wikipedia)

• • •

I did this in about two and a half minutes, so I didn't quite see how the theme expressed itself as I was solving—I just knew that I thought the central revealer was super-cool. When I was done and looked at the theme, though, I was really impressed. It's such a great twist on the old "final words have something in common" theme because of the way the theme is expressed visually. Fill is astonishingly clean, esp. for a 78-worder with a lot of short stuff. I knew from the second I hit "MAN UP!" (17A: "Come on, stop being such a wimp!") in the NW that this was going to be an entertaining puzzle, and it didn't disappoint. Lovely.

Today the long Acrosses do the work that long Downs normally do, i.e. provide non-thematic color. Both CENTER CUT and SWEET TALK are solid and snappy. Only trouble I had was with GASSY (6D: Bloated). Had the "Y" and may have tried something like FATTY. Otherwise, things came together pretty fast. Very raggedly (felt like I was all over the map rather than moving through the grid methodically), but fast. I grew up in the [Largest inland city in California], so that gave me a brief but potent nostalgia rush. It's interesting to me how many answers today contain a single letter, i.e. V-NECK, HIGH C, D PLUS, PLAN B, EASY A. That's a lot. A Lot. Five! But I like them just fine—such answers often add a little life, 'zazz, and unexpectedness to an otherwise ordinarily filled puzzle.

Gotta go eat. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Jacob McDermott

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: TWO-DOOR (41A: Coupe, e.g. ... or a hint to 17- and 64-Across and 11- and 34-Down) — two word phrases in which both words can precede "DOOR" to describe ... a type of door (or a state of doorness, in the case of OPEN).

Word of the Day: "HOLD ME" (35A: 1982 Fleetwood Mac hit whose title is sun three times after "Come on and") —

"Hold Me" is a single by British-American rock group Fleetwood Mac. The song was the first track to be released from the 1982 album Mirage, the fourth album by the band with Lindsey Buckingham acting as main producer with Richard Dashutand Ken Caillat. [...] The music video for Hold Me features the band in a surreal scenario set in a desert based on several René Magrittepaintings. In the video, Christine is in a room with many paintings, searching for Lindsey in the desert with a telescope. Lindsey discovers Stevie lying on a chaise longue and paints her, while in other scenes John and Mick are archaeologists. The desert itself is littered with broken mirrors, which serve as a motif in the video, and with violins and the electric guitars and other instruments. [...] Due to the band members' strained relationships at the time, the video shoot in the Mojave Desert was "a fucking nightmare" according to producer Simon Fields. "[They] were, um, not easy to work with" agrees Steve Barron, who directed the clip. "It was so hot, and we weren't getting along" recalls Stevie Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham was still not over their breakup six years earlier, nor her subsequent affair with Mick Fleetwood. Further, she elaborates, the rest of the band was angry with Fleetwood because he had then begun an affair with Nicks's best friend, who left her husband as a result, causing serious issues for Nicks.

• • •

This is a nice little puzzle—about as good as this type of puzzle ("Both words can precede...") is ever gonna get. Usually, at least one of the theme answers feels forced or strained with this theme type, but all of these are rock solid (and at least moderately interesting to boot). Fill is very clean and surprisingly unboring, considering how much short fill there is. I mean, yes there's IRAE and ARA and ENT and typical stuff like that, but not in such numbers that it becomes numbing. "Numbers" ... "numbing" ... I should probably rewrite that sentence, but no time. Speaking of time, I made very good time on this one. 3:08, if I remember correctly (already reset the clock in order to print my wife out a clean copy). It felt very easy, and yet at least twice I came to dead stops and had to move and regroup because things just weren't computing. Surprisingly (for me—perhaps unsurprisingly for you), I didn't blow through the middle of this. Got frustrated when I couldn't figure out the apparently simple H--- answer at 28D: Happening with lots of laughs (HOOT). Perhaps this is because I would never describe a HOOT as a happening, but let's not dwell on the past. I also couldn't grok DOUR at first pass (37D: Forbidding, as an expression). But what makes my failure to sail through here really surprising is that I had the "H" and the "E" and still didn't get "HOLD ME," despite that Fleetwood Mac album being on super-heavy rotation during a very formative summer in my early adolescence (summer of '82, long family road trip, where different siblings had different albums that they wore out—my sister's was Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage." Mine was The Motels' "All Four One." Consequently, I know both albums like the back of my hand). "HOLD ME" used to make us laugh because of the little dog yip that appears to coincide with the third "HOLD ME" in the chorus. Listen (above).

Other trouble spots didn't provide much trouble at all. BATH OIL, for whatever reason, failed to come right into view (45D: Aromatherapy purchase). There was a brief moment there where I was like "... BAT GIRL???" But no. Big mystery of the day (for me) was NEIL (59D: Dog on TV's "Topper"). First of all, NEIL? Who names a dog NEIL? Second of all, "Topper?" Who names a TV show "Topper?" Lastly, I came at the tennis tourney answer (64A) from the back end and actually tried to make it BRITISH OPEN, despite the fact that a. that's not a tennis tourney and b. it didn't fit. All that, and still: 3:08. A lot can happen in three minutes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: 60A: Quote from BABE / RUTH (aka THE SULTAN OF SWAT) on why he outearned PRESIDENT HOOVER: "I HAD A BETTER YEAR"

Word of the Day: Peter TAIT (58D: Mathematical physicist Peter who pioneered in knot theory) —

Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory, which contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture. (wikipedia)

• • •

Love the theme. Simple, elegant, and *snappy* in the revealer/punch line. What a great find—all those 15s and a symmetrical BABE / RUTH. Very nice. The fill, I'm less thrilled with. It's OK, but both dull and rough in places. Kind of unadventurous, a little over-reliant on the boring. There's no good fill outside the theme. It's adequate at best. But it's not a disaster, by any means, and the theme is pure Win, so I'm happy. Mainly, I was happy just to get the puzzle, because while the NYT website appears to be back up now after yesterday's "malicious external attack," it is not up for *my* browser so I had to find a generous friend to shoot me the puzzle (thx, PuzzleGirl). I am not a Yankees fan, but it was cool to see a Yankees-oriented puzzle just two weeks after seeing a Yankees game at the new Yankee Stadium with Erik Agard himself. In fact, here we are (w/ friends) at BABE / RUTH Plaza (we're in the back, I'm making some kind of rabbit-ears gesture behind his head ... good times).

This puzzle played very, very easy in parts. Once I got BABE, for instance, then both RUTH and SULTAN OF SWAT went in instantly. And I motored through short crosses in several places. But in other places I got strangely held up. Worst pitfall was having -OL- at 16A: One's part? and writing in ROLE. This made ISSUE (10D: Time piece?) look ridiculous. Just botched that corner. Also could Not see PUNTED for the longest time (23D: Gave up by giving up control), even though the clue seems perfectly apt. Same withA-TEAMS (28D: Units of brilliance?). I'm noticing that I'm mainly being done in by "?" clues. I guess I don't mind tricky clues as a way of amping up difficulty on a Wednesday. Makes the puzzle a bit more fun when I have to struggle at least a little. TAIT is an absurdity in this grid. Total outlier. That's a pretty obscure proper noun, and (more importantly) way way way more obscure than anything else in the puzzle. TAIT's neighbor ORCH is no prize pig either. Oh well, that's a pretty theme-dense little section. No harm done.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: EYE of the storm— Theme answers include TYPHOON, KATRINA, and long answers that contain the words HURRICANE (i.e. HURRICANE CARTER) (17A: Exonerated boxer who is the subject of a Bob Dylan song) and CYCLONE (i.e. BROOKLYN CYCLONE) (55A: Minor-leaguer whose team is named after a Coney Island roller coaster). There is a free-standing EYE at the center of the grid, and the answers all flow, directionally, in the direction that winds would flow around the eye of a storm, i.e. roughly 1/4 S to N, 1/4 E to W, 1/4 N to S, and 1/4 W to E. Puzzle note: "a certain three-letter word, appropriate to this puzzle's theme, goes in the unnumbered center square." The EYE is part of all four of the answers that flow toward it or away from it:

GIMLET EYE (34A: Piercing gaze)
EYE OF NEWT (35A: Ingredient in a witch's potion)
LONDON EYE (7D: Giant Ferris wheel on the Thames) (??!)
EYE OPENER (43D: Enlightening experience)

Word of the Day: ELY, NV (50A: Nevada birthplace of Pat Nixon) —

Ely (/ˈiːli/, ee-lee) is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906. Though the railroads connecting the First Transcontinental Railroad to the mines in Austin and Eureka have long been removed, the railroad to Ely is preserved as a heritage railway by the Nevada Northern Railway and known as the Ghost Train of Old Ely. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,255. (!!!!!!!?) (wikipedia)

• • •

An ingenious puzzle that I didn't care for. I mean, it's architecturally amazing. So many thematic elements co-mingling in such a chaotic but ultimately logical grid. Really something. But solving it was a chore, largely because of the backward thing. I honestly didn't see that there was a real pattern to it all until very, very late. I thought the theme was HURRICANE and the grid had just been destroyed, i.e. words were backward and forwards willy-nilly, even though some part of my brain knew that Couldn't be right. Anyway, the result was that I thought every answer was a kind of coin toss as to whether it was right way 'round or not. There are also symmetry issues, which really killed me toward the end. Why are both KRYPTO and AIG going W to E? Why are both ANTI and NUNCIO going N to S? Why aren't any of the EYE answers going the "wrong" way? The fact that KRYPTO was facing the "right" way made me accept EDGES as the right answer just above it. The clue is 27A: Transition. Not that EDGES is a good answer, but it was holding as "plausible" for me because KRYPTO was above the center line and headed the "right" way, so why shouldn't EDGES go that direction too? But the correct answer is SEGUE (backwards), which I only got because of THE SADRI = ???? I had to go through letter by letter with that answer and imagine alternatives before I saw that it was THESAURI (ugh) (I really hate that word *and* its clue) (2D: Hustling is the same as cheating, according to these authorities). I guarantee that this not only plays "Challenging," but is the most challenging Thursday of the year, probably by a wide margin.

I knew HURRICANE was the guy's first name, but had no idea about his last name, and early on it hardly mattered, as the grid was gibberish. I knew ANDRE was 100% correct, and when crosses did not make sense, I knew something terrible was afoot. Eventually tried ANDRE backward (for some reason) and made ANTI work, and then thought "oh, it'll be something about answers starting with odd numbers or whatever." Ugh. Honestly, after that, I just solved this like a puzzle where an answer might be backward or forward and who knows why? It was doable on that level. A KATRINA is not a storm type, it's a storm name, so that theme answer doesn't really work for me, but other than that, and the symmetry thing, I don't really have structural quibbles. Again, it's a piece of work, this puzzle. It just wasn't fun to solve. Not for me, anyway.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: EGERIA (7D: Female adviser) —

Egeria (Latin: Ēgeria) was a nymph attributed a legendary role in the early history of Rome as a divine consort and counselor of the Sabine second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion. Her name is used as an eponym for a female advisor or counselor. (wikipedia)

• • •

Today was my first day back teaching and I am not used to so much talking and it's hot and I have a headache so I won't take long. Speaking of not taking long—this puzzle! Under 6, pretty fast for a Friday. It seems a solid offering, better across the top than across the bottom. URBAN DICTIONARY is a nice entry—that thing is kind of useless, but it's definitely crossworthy—look, you can find a very garbled definition of "Natick" in there (61A: Big source for modern slang). PEER ASSESSMENTS, however, is laughable—ASSESSMENTS is one of those words that constructors joke about putting in puzzles because it's such an obvious crutch (62A: Some critical comments from co-workers). Had trouble at first because I spelled MICHELE BACHMANN's name wrong (two Ls, one N) (1A: First female candidate to win the Ames Straw Poll), but I just drifted down to the lower grid, which proved Much easier, and then eventually floated back up top, finishing with the "R" in EGERIA, I think (have seen that word several times in puzzles now, can Never remember it, perhaps because I call a "female adviser" an "adviser").

There was one letter that I was slightly unsure of—the "C" in NCO (21D: Top kick, for one: Abbr.). I don't understand that clue at all, but I do know that CAN can be a synonym for [Rear] (end), so the "C" seemed the only logical guess. It appears that "[i]n the Army and Marines, the first sergeant is often referred to as "Top," or "Top Kick."" (usmilitary.about.com). Never heard of SVEN Hedin, but it wasn't too hard to figure out his name once I had that "SV" intro (53A: ___ Hedin, discoverer of the Trans-Himalaya). I had no idea the TERPs played at The Comcast Center (56A: Comcast Center hoopster). Rough clue, but again, the crosses were so easy that not knowing the answer didn't really matter. Same goes for that Homer clue (47D: Emulates Homer => PAINTS). Wasn't either of the Homers I was thinking of (epic poet, cartoon buffoon), but crosses took care of the answer (and it's Winslow Homer that the clue is referring to, in case you didn't know). I don't know much about cars but got FERRARIS off the "F" (35D: 458 Spider and F12 Berlinetta). DIAZ was a gimme, so that helped things along (24A: Player of the bad teacher in "Bad Teacher"). So, yeah, this is pretty good but not exactly memorable. There were a few little answers (and EGERIA) that maybe I'd throw back if I could, but otherwise it's a stout, modern puzzle. Pretty good.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Josh Knapp

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: KUDU (37A: Beast hunted by Hemingway in "Green Hills of Africa") —

n. pl. kudu or ku·dus also koodoo or koo·doos
Either of two large African antelopes (Tragelaphus strepsiceros or T. imberbis) having a brownish coat with narrow, white vertical stripes and, in the male, long, spirally curved horns. (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

This is excellent work. Fantastic long answers everywhere, tough cluing, and hardly any clunkers. Never heard of (or seen, in a puzzle, ever) KUDU, but everything else here is reasonably to very familiar. I had to wrestle with this one quite a bit, and got a little panicked toward the end there, when I was down in the SE and within four blank squares of victory and yet quite stuck ([Sporty Lotus model] for ELISE!?! People know that? Yikes). But finally saw through the toughish / vague cluing on OMEGA and AMENS and ALUM and so closed this thing out. I remain unconvinced that SAGE TEA is a thing (that answers screams 'computer word list assistance') and SHADS is bad(s), but overall I'm quite stunned by how clean this damn thing is.

Like many, probably, I wrote in CONAN O'BRIEN at first for 1A: TV host who won a Best Comedy Album Grammy (JIMMY FALLON), but "LAS Meninas" made me realize very quickly that I had the wrong host in there. I watch "Late Night" off and on, so the Fallon-related answers, IRISH and SNL, ended up being gimmes. After the NW was done, I kind of stalled out—had real trouble moving over to the NE. Got lucky in that the only three answers I had any confidence in over there (TICKS, A LA, and something TEA) made BLOCKADES pop right into view. Not much trouble in that quadrant after that. Toughest part for me was probably the lower middle. Could not, at all, see "A TOAST!" (47A: Reception opening). Also had CONCEDE forCONSIGN (44D: Hand over (to)), couldn't come up with OATS, and needed some of those long Downs at the bottom in order to come up with "ALANIS" (48D: Self-titled debut album of 1991). The easiest section was probably the SW, since I got both SHOOT 'EM UP (great answer) and ITALICIZE off their first letters.

I didn't know Marco Polo had "tales"—I think I know ROC from Sinbad "tales" (18A: Beast in a Marco Polo tale). There's some great cluing today—see esp. [His, modern-style] for YOS (bad answer redeemed by great clue), and [It opens during the fall] for PARACHUTE. Very, very nice work overall.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: John Farmer

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: "Persons of Note"— rebus puzzle where theme squares read as a number in one direction and a name in the other—number is a denomination of U.S. paper currency, and the name is the person appearing on said currency. Jokey revealer: "DON'T TAKE ANY OF / IT AT FACE VALUE" (31D: With 33-Down, Skeptic's advice ... or a "noteworthy" hint to seven Across answers in this puzzle). Also, my wife just informed me that the black squares toward the middle of the grid form a "$"—Nice!

Theme answers:

DENZEL (Washington / 1) SEC
LOU (Grant / 50) CENT
BO (Jackson) / MATCHBOX (20)
ARETHA (Franklin) / HAIRCUT (100)
ELMO (Lincoln) / HIGH (5)
LINDA (Hamilton) / HANGS (10)
GEORGE (Jefferson) / AGE (2)

Word of the Day: ELMO Lincoln (119A: First film Tarzan) —

Elmo Lincoln (February 6, 1889 – June 27, 1952) was an American film actor.
Born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt, the actor is best known in his silent movie role as the first Tarzan in 1918's Tarzan of the Apes as an adult -- (Gordon Griffith played him as a child in the same movie). He portrayed the character twice more—inThe Romance of Tarzan (also 1918) and in the 1921 serial The Adventures of Tarzan.
Following the end of the silent movie era, Elmo left Hollywood and tried his hand at mining. In the late 1930s, he returned to the film industry, most often employed as an extra. He appeared, uncredited, in two Tarzan films in the 1940s—as a circus roustabout in Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), and as a fisherman repairing his net in Tarzan's Magic Fountain(1949).
His final work saw him also playing a brief, uncredited role in Carrie, starring Laurence Olivier. According to Tarzan of the Movies, by Gabe Essoe, Lincoln was quite proud of his work in this film, as he was an admirer of Olivier.
Lincoln died of a heart attack on June 27, 1952 at age 63. He is interred in a niche at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle was very entertaining and hilariously difficult. I say "hilariously" both because of the enormous number of proper nouns (and other stuff) that were totally unknown to me, as well as the proper nouns (and other stuff) that I knew, but that I also knew many many many people would not know. The arrival of MTV (discovered by me in 1982) was such a momentous occasion in my life that I know the name of every band that was on heavy (or even light) rotation on the network from about 1982 to 1985. That channel introduced me to music I never would've heard of in my Top 40-dominated little (actually pretty big) town (actually city). This is all to say that I owned a HAIRCUT 100 album back in the day. Owned it. An album. I have no idea how you would know this band if you are a. an American and b. did not watch MTV in the early '80s. They did have a couple of minor hits, but ... wow. I laughed Out Loud when I wrote them in. And I thought MATCHBOX 20 (earlier in my solve) had been tough to uncover—their clue was beyond useless, but at least that group was a. very popular and b. made music in recent memory. HAIRCUT 100!? Oh, man. I would love this puzzle for that answer alone. Thankfully, there are many more reasons.

But first, here's HAIRCUT 100's big hit, "Love Plus Washington":

The gimmick here, as well as the revealer, was really wonderful. I like that the Sundays appear (lately) to be getting tougher. They've had a tendency to be kind of tedious. I mean, just fine, but long. I feel like Sundays need to be very funny/clever and/or need to have these added levels or layers to them in order for them not to feel like a slog. This puzzle had obscurities in it, yes, but I think they were all work-outable, and the puzzle had so much ridiculous weird attitude that I couldn't help but love it. I mean, I have Never heard the phrase HIT IT FAT, but how am I supposed to knock it? It's too awesomely colloquial for me to do anything but just tip my hat, hold the door, and say "after you, sir."

Here's the stuff I'd never heard of:

HIT IT FAT (53A: Strike turf before the ball, in golf)
AMESLAN (!?!!) (91D: Acronym for the hearing-impaired)
ELMO LINCOLN (ha ha ha, seriously? Read the wikipedia snippet above to see how "big" he was)
Rabindranath TAGORE (!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! x infinity) (98D: 1913 Literature nobelist from India)
USX (84A: Steel giant, formerly)
ZOE Kazan (4D: Actress/screenwriter Kazan)
DUBAI (70A: Burj Khalifa locale) (to be clear, heard of DUBAI, but not "Burj Khalifa")

And the stuff I'd barely heard of:

ARGONNE
ERNST (2D: Bond villain ___ Stavro Blofeld)
DOOD (1D: "I ___ it!" (Skelton catchphrase))
GODEL (spelling = hard for me)
OATES

I spent a lot of early energy just eating up answers where I could, with no real idea about the theme. I thought 1A Star of four Spike Lee films should be DENZEL, but he didn't fit. I thought it was DENZELL for a bit, but didn't like that at all, since nothing in the clue was cuing "first name only." Eventually I cornered that 1/Washington square, and the theme was apparent. But even then, the puzzle was still Tough. So you've got two toughness layers—picking up the theme, and then just solving the damned thing. Lots of places to get bogged down if not outright stuck. But all good fun.

Lastly, Happy Birthday to Bruce Cozadd, who turns Grant today, and whose wife is very (lovingly) persistent.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. If you've got some extra time, here's a free, very current puzzle for you from Andy Kravis, Cruciverbalist at Law—Enjoy!

Constructor: Jim Peredo

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "We call it 'maize'..."— ends of theme answers all rhyme with "Maize" (with the 'aize' sound spelled different each time)

Theme answers:

17A: "Theme From Shaft" composer, 1971 (ISAAC HAYES)
25A: Part of a project just before the end (FINAL PHASE)
53A: Condiment that can remove crayon marks (MAYONNAISE)
66A: Intense look (STEELY GAZE)
11D: Team in "Moneyball" (OAKLAND A'S)
33D: The Fonz's sitcom ("HAPPY DAYS")

Word of the Day: GTO (32D: Old Pontiac muscle car) —

The Pontiac GTO is an American automobile built by Pontiac Division of General Motors from 1964 to 1974, and by GM subsidiary Holden in Australia from 2004 to 2006.
It was a muscle car classic of the 1960s and 1970s era. Although there were earlier muscle cars,^[1]^[2] the Pontiac GTO is considered by some to have started the trend with all four domestic automakers offering a variety of competing models. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was ... a puzzle! Done in 2:36, which is "Easy" for me, but I seem to be slightly ahead of the curve today, so I'm gonna knock this one back to "Easy-Medium"—appropriately Mondayish, probably slightly easier than usual. I thought the theme must have something to do with 1A: "What ___ in the 5-Down!" at first. Often, cross-referenced 1-Acrosses are thematic. Since it's Monday, I didn't slow down to figure out what was going on; I just blew through all the crosses. Never noticed the theme until I was done. Two things this theme has that it *has* to have to get into the NYT—a. 6 answers (i.e. a lot of answers), and b. 6 different ways of spelling the rhyme. Just having a bunch of rhyming words would not be sufficient. We could all come up with theme answers that end with rhymes for "maize" ad infinitum—the bar needs to be a bit higher for the theme to be NYT-worthy. I didn't love this, but it's an appropriately easy lark of a puzzle, and the fill is quite clean. It's like a nice, easy themeless that, look, just happens to have a theme. The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Dan Schoenholz

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: We— Clues are all homophones of "We"; answers are all definitions of those clues

Word of the Day: "CON AIR" (43D: 1997 Nicolas Cage thriller) —

Con Air is an 1997 American action-thriller film directed by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, producer ofThe Rock. It stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Colm Meaney and John Malkovich. The film borrows its title from the nickname of the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System. While scanning a newspaper article, ScreenwriterScott Rosenberg first learned of the special program, then visited its Oklahoma City base "to get an eyewitness perspective of the incredible operation, which quickly formed the genesis for Con Air." (wikipedia)

• • •

This one not so great. Not a big fan of the definition-for-answer thing to begin with. Then there's the fill, which is just dead. Just .. lying there. Not interesting, well below average in overall quality. Exhibit A: -STERS. I don't really need other exhibits, I don't think. Plural suffixes are the lowest form of crossword life. The rest of the grid is mostly crosswords and yawning. Also, I don't say the initial consonant in "Whee!" the same as I do all the others. I'm very aitchy with 'whys' and 'wherefores' and 'whatnots.' I just noticed that ASST is sitting on top of ASSETS and now I'm a little sadder than I was ten seconds ago. It's like a little bad answer sitting atop a bloated version of The Same Bad Answer. ELAH? (15D: "In the Valley of ___" (2007 film)) Is that right? This just isn't working on any level. That "?" clue on AGEIST does not work at all (44D: Like the philosophy "Out with the old, in with the new"?). I mean, you have to lean on the "?" pretty hard, and even then, it's not funny, cute, clever. Just weird. I do like RANGY, though, I'll say that (10D: Long-limbed). I had LEGGY ... which I also like.

Theme answers:

17A: Wii (XBOX RIVAL)
23A: Oui (FRENCH FOR YES)
36A: We (PERSONAL PRONOUN)
46A: "Whee!" (CRY OF DELIGHT)
58A: Wee (MINIATURE)

Onward.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Joel Fagliano

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:29)

THEME: Say the letters— famous people whose first names are represented by letters that sound like the names when said aloud as individual letters:

Theme answers:

17A: "Laugh-In" comic (RT JOHNSON)
21A: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" author (EN FLEMING)
36A: Daytime host starting in 2012 (KT COURIC)
46A: Punk rock icon (DD RAMONE)
56A: One of two acting brothers (KC AFFLECK AND THE SUNSHINE BAND)
66A: Noted groom of 10/20/1968 (RE ONASSIS)

Word of the Day: KNUT (56D: Unit of currency in the Harry Potter books) —

Currency in the wizarding Britain consists of three different coins. In decreasing order of value, they are: Galleon, Sickle and Knut. They are gold, silver, and bronze, respectively. According to Rubeus Hagrid, there are 17 Sickles in a Galleon, and 29 Knuts in a Sickle, meaning there are 493 Knuts to a Galleon. Around the edge of each coin is a series of numerals which represent a serial number belonging to the Goblin that cast the coin. (harrypotter.wikia.com)

• • •

Theme feels stuffy and very seen-it-before. People don't have anything in common. There's just a lot of them. Just didn't care for it. Started out weirdly hard for me, as the first half dozen clues I looked at (in the NW) yielded nothing. [Craigslist offering] could be a million things. [Baseball club designation], ditto. I have trouble interpreting words like "designation" in xword clues. Anyway, I thought [Amphorae, e.g.] were VASES and that didn't fit, couldn't see OATH immediately at 2D: It can be a curse, and (since we don't have them anywhere I've ever lived) had no clue about BAJA Fresh (though I feel I must have seen one in my travels at some point). Not until AFLAC did I have a secure entry. Once I picked up the theme, things went considerably faster, but the theme was joyless, and the fill is just OK (with LUDACRIS, PARASAIL and TWO-FACE being big exceptions) (22D: Rapper with the #1 hit "Money Maker" + 24D: Fly over the water + 45D: Batman villain who makes decisions by flipping a coin). I've read all the Harry Potter books and had zero clue about KNUT. Crossing that with the Lesser Affleck seems kind of mean, but I guess the "K" is inferrable, although lord help you if you don't know that CATE Blanchett spells her name with a "C." Overall, cluing seemed slightly harder than usual, which I don't mind at all. It's just the lack of a great payoff in terms of theme or fill that's the problem.

Examples of hard cluing: ["Is Shakespeare Dead?" writer] for TWAIN. That's a Saturday clue. Cool deep cut from the TWAIN archive, but still, yikes. Lots of folks will have struggled to come up with LUDACRIS, and some will still be wondering if that can possibly be right ("Did you mean 'ludicrous'?" No, I didn't). Never can tell how a puzzle is going to want to spell AMON (AMUN? AMEN?). The aforementioned BAJA and KNUT, both (potentially, depending on who you are) toughly clued. Some solvers just flat-out won't have heard of Dee Dee Ramone or Casey Affleck. Doesn't make those answer unfair, just means that a good chunk of solvers will be slowed down, if not stopped. More observation than complaint. Nothing else to say about this one. Just didn't do much for me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Either or— four answers (the middle answer on each grid edge) is a four-letter word with -OR- in the center. If you read it as a conjunction, the answer indicates (thru its clue) that a certain square on the grid will be correct if *either* the letter before the "OR" or the letter after the "OR" is entered in the grid (though AcrossLite accepted only one letter as correct, refusing to give me Mr. Happy Pencil and thus violating the whole "OR" spirit of the thing):

Theme answers:

7A: Dessert wine ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 50-Across and 51-Down (PORT), giving you SPUTTERED/PANSY or STUTTERED/TANSY
37D: 1841 rebellion leader ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 56-Across and 56-Down (DORR), giving you DICERS/DUST or RICERS/RUST
68A: Comedian Sahl ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 1-Across and 1-Down (MORT), giving you MAOISM/MOIL or TAOISM/TOIL
27D: N.Y.S.E. listing ... also what can fill the square at the crossing of 24-Across and 25-Down (CORP.), giving you SCATTERED/CHI or SPATTERED/PHI

Word of the Day: Thomas Wilson DORR —

The Dorr Rebellion (1841–1842) was a short-lived armed insurrection in the U.S. state of Rhode Island led byThomas Wilson Dorr, who was agitating for changes to the state's electoral system.

• • •

I can appreciate the intricacies of this puzzle, from a constructor's standpoint, but it didn't do much for me as a solver. The puzzle was too easy/straightforward for the trick to mean much of anything. I just filled it in like a themeless. Knowing the gimmick isn't just useless as a solving aid, it's a distraction. You don't need to know it. Just solve the puzzle. Your answers are right. Oh look, several of your answers could've been different answers and still been right? Shrug. Again, in retrospect, I can see how challenging this would be to make (esp. with the systematically placed -OR- answers). But the theme is superfluous to the solve. Also, I don't quite get ODD OR EVEN ... it's a weird answer to have in an OR-driven puzzle. It's not thematic ... but it's got an "OR." Also, there's ORE, ORR, O'ER ... which is just a bunch of crosswordese that gets to pretend to be important today? Or not? I can't tell. See also NOR.

All the difficulty here was in proper nouns—never learned about DORR in school, so that answer crossing EDER (who? did he write the multi-volume bio of Henry James that I know about only from xwords? No, damn, that's Leon EDEL—never mind...) really hurt (45A: Critic Richard). Also, RENATO? Re-NO-to. No idea. Forgot "UNE VIE" was a thing. Thought the answer was going to be "UNEVIL." Hey, RENATO (9D: Lead role in the film "La Cage aux Folles") is just one letter off its symmetrical counterpart, RENT TO. I ... don't think I like that. Kind of how I felt about how close S-ATTERED and S-UTTERED were. SE corner was the hardest one for me to get into, but I got bailed out by yet another proper noun: SELENA Gomez (66A: Gomez of "Ramona and Beezus"). Oh, and ART TATUM gave me fits (39D: Blind jazz piano virtuoso). I did not know he was blind. Which means, I don't really know him at all beyond his name (which I do know). I'm a big fan of NIGHT OWL and TIGHTWAD.

Did anyone actually enter MOIL or TANSY? I've never even seen those words outside of crosswords.

And so to bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Brad Wilber and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TREE GUARDS (28D: Barriers used in urban renewal projects) —

Tree guards are fences around the perimeter of a tree pit that provide a physical barrier between a tree and our sometimes harsh urban environment. These tree guards reduce soil compaction, shield the trunk from physical damage, and prevent pet waste from entering the tree pit. Tree guards have been proven to extend the longevity of trees, reduce mortality rates, and can also provide a small protected planting bed for gardening. (nycgovparks.org)

• • •

Another lovely, virtually spotless creation from Wilber and Peterson — or, as I mistakenly called them the other day and will forever call them, in my head if not elsewhere, "Brad and Wilber." This one played pretty easy, though I kept getting oddly hung up. Oddly because ... I didn't have that many wrong answers, I just had trouble seeing the answers right in front of me. Pattern recognition problems, I guess. NW was the best example of this problem. Got PUCE straight off. Also ENYA(19A: Singer born Eithne Ní Bhraonáin). And ORAN (2D: Port where Camus set "The Plague"). And VARY. So, first three letters of *all* the long Acrosses aaaand ... none of them make sense to me. A few seconds later I got CARROT CAKE, and eventually I got URANIUM ORE and figuratively smacked myself in the head—I know "Notorious" well but was conflating it with "North by Northwest," the where there is microfilm, not URANIUM ORE, involved (15A: Wine bottle contents in Hitchcock's "Notorious"). POVERTY ROW I've never heard of (1A: Old Hollywood low-budget studios, collectively), so when I saw POV- I thought "oh, clue specifically doesn't use word "movie," so that must be in the answer: 'MOV-... something'." Oh, poor, naive, 10 minutes-ago me.

Also, I didn't know some of these terms, like TREE GUARDS and SANTA CLARA (27D: Site of the last battle in the Cuban Revolution) (wanted SANTIAGO, which is in Chile *and* doesn't fit).

After I got out of there, things sped up a bit, though I didn't know WEEDEATERs functioned as edgers, i.e. I didn't know one used them for precision work. I might have tried WEED EDGER in there at some point. Also, I thought GELATOS were colorful desserts. GELATIN to me is the horse hoof stuff that Junior Mints thankfully doesn't use any more. So unsure of spelling of STEADI-CAM (29A: Director's alternative to a dolly) that I almost let GELATYN stand. Yipes. Tore up the bottom of the puzzle thanks Entirely to the MENDOZA Line (42D: Baseball's ___ Line (.200 batting average)). I collected baseball cards at the right time for that answer to be deeply meaningful to me. I can still see poor Mario in his (also poor) Seattle Mariners uniform. At least he got to be an eponym. Most big leaguers never get anything close to that.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Julian Lim

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Riddick BOWE (1D: Champion between Holyfield reigns) —

Riddick Lamont Bowe (born August 10, 1967, Brooklyn, New York City) is an American professional boxer. He is a former two-time World heavyweight champion, first winning the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in 1992, becoming undisputed heavyweight champion. Bowe's second reign as heavyweight champion was in 1995 when he won the WBO title. Bowe retired in 1996 but made a return to the ring in 2004. He has currently been inactive since 2008.
Riddick Bowe became the first fighter to defeat Evander Holyfield when he beat him in 1992 for the world heavyweight title. He then became the first fighter to knock Holyfield out, when he beat him in their rubber match in 1995. Bowe's professional boxing record stands at 43-1-0 (1 NC) with 33 KO's. He has defeated every opponent he has fought except Buster Mathis, Jr. (their bout ended as a no-contest). Bowe was ranked as the 21st greatest heavyweight of all time by Boxing Scene. (wikipedia)

• • •

Had to work for this one. Thought my relative slowness (in the 12min. range) was due to dinner/beer (mostly beer), and that may be true, but times posted so far at the NYT applet are slower than normal as well. The funniest part of this puzzle (in retrospect—less funny mid-solve) was seeing 1A: World's tallest building and thinking "Oh, I just learned this! It was just in a clue for DUBAI! It's ... two words ... got a "Q" in it ..." I was half right. And a "Q" is *kinda* like a "J", so ... yeah. YEAH. This puzzle seems like it was made expressly for 1A. Nothing much else feels very special or flashy. Pretty standard. Middle is especially dull. I do like CAN'T HACK IT. Cringed at 24A: So-called "weekend pill" once I got the answer (CIALIS). Ew. I mean, use whatever drugs you need, god bless you, but "weekend pill"? ... who is "calling" it this? That's a euphemism that creeps me right out. "Boner pill" is preferable to me. At least it's honest and direct. Also ... never on weekdays? Really? Dishonest and/or sad.

So my first pass through the NW yielded virtually nothing. RASP and LIES (which I wasn't entirely sure of). My next answer shocked me—I got PG THIRTEEN with no crosses (12D; Like every Bond film since 1989). Just ... threw it down. And it fit? And was right? Hurray for good guessing (made up for that whole 1A fiasco). Moved thru the NE and then over to the NW and managed to get the latter into shape without too much trouble (though I spent far too long thinking what could possibly end "-ILOT") (ugh). Had hard time breaking open the bottom. Stupid mistake kept me stalled for too long—had ERA for EON, and so "Holy" SONNETS (which I will be teaching in about a month) were totally invisible to me (37D: "Holy" group in 17th-century literature). I had "Holy" SOA-something. Bah. Also, I thought 44A: Some partial appointments (CRONYISM) had to end in "S" (wrong) and so I had (ugh) SCAD at 48D: Whole bunch (MESS), which caused me to happily throw down QUE SERA SERA at 53A: "C'est la vie" while thinking "that's a great clue!" I was lucky enough to know that Sibelius was Finnish, so HELSINKI really helped get me into both the middle (which was oddly tough) and the SW (38A: Site of the Sibelius monument). Off that "H" I got CAN'T HACK IT, and the rest fell from there. Last letter = "L" in CIALIS/LAM.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Pete Muller and Sue Keefer

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Bumper Cars" — car models are lined up (bumper to bumper) to form silly phrases, clued "?"-style

Theme answers:

23A: Search for a cradle-robbing woman in New York City? (PARK AVENUE COUGAR QUEST)
37A: High-handed ambassador stationed off the Italian coast? (CAVALIER CAPRI DIPLOMAT)
55A: Peace treaty between a predator and its prey? (BOBCAT RABBIT ACCORD) (my favorite theme answer)
67A: Tom Brady, in the 2002 Super Bowl (INTREPID RAM CHALLENGER)
78A: Musical piece for a "Star Wars" battle scene? (STORMTROOPER SONATA)
98A: Advocate for pro-am tournaments? (CELEBRITY GOLF DEFENDER)
116A: Diminutive Aborigine? (MIDGET OUTBACK EXPLORER)

Word of the Day: TESSERA (96D: Small mosaic tile) —

A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive tessella) is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a cube, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus. // In early antiquity, mosaics were formed from naturally formed colored pebbles, but by 200 BCE cut stone tesserae were being used in Ancient Roman decorative mosaic panels and floor mosaics. Marble or limestone were cut into small cubes and arranged into representational designs and geometric patterns. // Later, tesserae were made from colored glass, or clear glass backed with metal foils. The Byzantines used tesserae with gold leaf, in which case the glass pieces were flatter, with two glass pieces sandwiching the gold. This produced a golden reflection emanating from in between the tesserae as well as their front, causing a far richer and more luminous effect than even plain gold leaf would create. (wikipedia)

• • •

Very straightforward Sunday puzzle. Bit of a step back from recent Sunday puzzles in terms of theme conception, fill quality, and difficulty. There is a mildly cute quality to the clues for the theme answers, but that's about it, interest-wise. Mostly it's just rote fill-it-in stuff—we're back to a high word-count puzzle with lots and lots of short fill, which usu. makes the puzzle easier and the fill more bland. There's really not much to talk about today. No real tough spots. No scintillating moments. A pretty run-of-the-mill Sunday. Not at all bad, just not that remarkable. The only surprises were the few car models I did not know—DIPLOMAT (Dodge) (bygone), BOBCAT (Mercury) (bygone) (barely existed) (Pinto variant), STORM (Geo) (Haha) (bygone!), CELEBRITY (Buick? ... nope, Chevrolet) (bygone), MIDGET (MG) (bygone) (in retrospect, I *have* heard of this).

Difficulty I encountered was scarce and unexciting. Took me a while to see AIRWAVE (3D: Broadcast medium), even after AIRWA- (wanted -WAYS) (??). Tried SHEIK and SAUDI before SWAMI (46A: Turbaned type) (clearly not thinking there). Took a while to come up with ROLL / TALE, due only to standard clue vagueness (53D: Sushi bar offering + 63A: Relation?). Went through SNEER and SNORT before hitting on SNIFF (83D: Disdainful response). Had OCTA instead of OCTO (I'm putting myself to sleep just writing these little hiccups out) (51D: Twice tetra-). Had -ORKED and stared for a while before hitting on FORKED (102D: Split). Most weirdly of all, wrote in FTA at the very end, when I clearly meant ATF (95A: Smuggler-chasing org.). When I didn't get the Happy Pencil, I thought for sure I'd spend many minutes tracking down whatever stupid error I had, but it turns out the stupid error was the last thing I'd written in, so I found it instantly.

I think my favorite thing about this puzzle is the clue for RIOT (99D: Pussy ___ (Russian girl group)). I look forward to the day the NYT prints the name of their future male counterparts, Cock Revolt.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Football words— last word in every theme answer can relate to American football—actually, taken in order, said words form a sequence ending in a touchdown:

Theme answers:

18A: Wage increase (SALARY HIKE)
24A: Journalist's credential (PRESS PASS)
36A: "Observant of you to notice the error!" ("GOOD CATCH!") — I'd've said "Nice catch," but GOOD works.
50A: 1960 John Updike novel ("RABBIT, RUN")
57A: It may be composed to accompany a movie (MOVIE SCORE)

Word of the Day: Walter KERR (17A: Theater critic Walter) —

Walter Francis Kerr (July 8, 1913 – October 9, 1996) was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals as well as the author of several books, generally on the subject of theater and cinema. (wikipedia)

• • •

I guess I'm spoiled — this seems awfully plain and straightforward. More along the lines of what one might have expected 20+ years ago. I do like that this theme has the sequencing going for it, but otherwise it's a just a dullish "words-that-relate-to-X" puzzle. The theme answers have no snap to theme, I think that's the real problem. The Updike one is probably the best of the bunch. Not much else is remarkable in the puzzle, except HELLUVA, which I love, and ROULADE, which, along with KERR, was about the only thing in the puzzle that caused me to hesitate at all. Had a few-second struggle trying to parse GUNSHY, but otherwise (except for the aforementioned two answers), I solved almost as fast as I could type. One second slower than last week. I'm slipping!

This is a timely puzzle, in that it arrives the Monday after the start of the 2013 NFL football season. I am ambivalent about football. The more research that comes out, the more it is clear that the dangers of the sport, especially the dangers of head injuries, have actually been underrated. There is not much I would forbid my child to do, but I would forbid him to play football. Luckily for me, I just have a girl and she has yet to show any interest in contact sports. She swims. I can live with that. And yet ... I love watching football. So I and many, many people I know are hypocrites, decrying the terrible things about a sport that we continue to consume and enjoy. I'll be consuming it less from now on — but it won't be easy. I see the Lions won and now all I want to do is go watch highlights. Luckily, I've got baseball to keep me sated, sports-wise, through October. Tigers have been doing some late-season sucking, but I like their chances.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: CHINESE (71A: Language that's the source of the words answered by this puzzle's starred clues) — the phrasing is pretty convoluted, but you get the idea

Word of the Day: ELKO (47A: City in Nevada) —

Elko (Shoshoni: Natakkoa, 'Rocks Piled on One Another' is a city in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 18,297 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Elko County. The city straddles the Humboldt River.
Elko is the principal city of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Elko and Eureka counties and had a combined population of 46,942 at the 2000 census. It is the largest city for over 130 miles (210 km) in all directions, making it, as its city motto states, "The Heart of Northeast Nevada".
It is home to Great Basin College, as well as to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office serving most of northern and central Nevada. (wikipedia)

• • •

The most exciting thing about this puzzle so far is that I learned the word "micropolitan" while looking up ELKO. Cool word. This puzzle offers up some slightly interesting trivia. I'm not at all surprised to learn that GINSENG comes from CHINESE. There's very little element of surprise or revelation here, except for KETCHUP—I had no idea KETCHUP came from CHINESE. Slightly weird to see Korean HYUNDAI right there alongside (and longer than) the CHINESE theme answers, but not a big deal. My favorite part of this puzzle is likely completely coincidental: STEAMED / ARTICHOKE. That's a nice, delicious crossing right there. Central and symmetrical and tasty. The fill is weak in places, but not much worse than average, I'd say. Much of the weakness was likely related to theme density.

Theme answers:

1A: *Relative of an orange (KUMQUAT)
8A: *Tropical storm (TYPHOON)
23A: *Lingerie material (SILK)
37A: *Act deferentially (KOWTOW)
43A: *Like an eager beaver (GUNG HO)
52A: *Food, slangily (CHOW)
70A: *Root used in some energy drinks (GINSENG)

I thought this was *much* harder than it ended up being. My first pass at the NW yielded almost nothing. Had KALES and wasn't even sure about that. Yipes. Corners felt somewhat big and open for a Tuesday, so I had a feeling of flailing around a bit more than I normally do on a Tuesday. But then I finished at the clock said 3:14, which is actually faster than last week. My bearings were likely thrown off by my having been solving puzzles out of Patrick Blindauer's new book, "Wide Screen Crosswords," just before solving this one. I was using the Downs-only method—tough. So I figured Tuesday NYT using Acrosses *&* Downs would be a breeze. So then I overestimated how much I was struggling. I swear this all somehow makes sense.

QID was painful, but again, I'll write it off to the theme density in that corner (4D: Four times a day, in an Rx). Wrote in RENO for ELKO (no surprise there). Wanted something like "OK, OK!" at 61D: "I know! I know!" ("OH OH!") —I think I was putting the stress on the wrong (i.e. latter) word in "I know!" Knowing NERO (14D: Villain in the 2009 "Star Trek" film) and RONIN (51D: 1998 De Niro crime thriller) and having recently been thinking, against my will, about "We Built This City" by Starship (which has a reference to MARCONI) (64A: Radio pioneer), helped me zip through this relatively unobstructed. All hail disposable pop culture and the wondrous bounty it provideth.

See you Wednesday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Autumn? — circled squares for a WARM-to-COLD word ladder

Theme answers:

16A: Endothermic (WARM-BLOODED)
23A: Birth place (MATERNITY WARD)
37A: Life-size likeness of Elvis, maybe (CARDBOARD CUTOUT)
47A: A fan might need one (EXTENSION CORD)
58A: Unaffected by emotion (COLD-HEARTED)

Word of the Day: "PEYTON Place" (28A: "___ Place") —

Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks. It was adapted as both a 1957 film and a 1964–69 television series.
The fictional Peyton Place is a composite of several real New Hampshire towns: Gilmanton, Gilford, Laconiaand Manchester. Grace Metalious and her husband George first considered Potter Place (the name of a real community near Andover, New Hampshire). Realizing their town should have a fictional name, they looked through an atlas and found Payton (the name of a real town in Texas). They combined that with Place and changed the "a" to an "e". Thus, Peyton Place was created, prompting her comment, "Wonderful—that's it, George. Peyton Place. Peyton Place, New Hampshire. Peyton Place, New England. Peyton Place, USA. Truly a composite of all small towns where ugliness rears its head, and where the people try to hide all the skeletons in their closets." (wikipedia)

• • •

Odd. This one is just odd. A four-step word ladder. I feel like I'm missing some twist or trick. I am so used to Patrick's puzzle's having some brilliant or devilishly clever element that I keep waiting to see something like that here. But I think it's just WARM becoming COLD in four steps. Fill is quite run-of-the-mill, with the possible exception of FORT MYERS, which I wouldn't exactly call "good"—just somewhat unusual. Unless there is something I'm missing, I'd say this is pretty a workmanlike effort. I like the central answer—CARDBOARD CUTOUT—but not much else about this puzzle really stood out.

I had an odd lot of trouble getting started. Just couldn't see JAWS of Life even with the JA- in place. I kept moving away and coming back to it—maybe two or three times—before something clicked. FORT MYERS also took many crosses to see. Went with AYE instead of NOD at first—that held me up a bit. But my biggest screw-up happened around what eventually became the CARDBOARD area. First, I had PARE for 28D: Clip (PACE). Seemed a perfectly good answer. Then, stupidly, with the -OM- in place, I wrote in ROME for 25D: Final "Romeo and Juliet" setting. It didn't *feel* right, but the letter pattern seemed to ask for it, and it's Italian, after all, so I just threw it down. This left me with the very interesting RARDEOAR- as the opening to the Elvis answer. I don't know much, but I know that unless there is some very complex theme involving ciphers or backwardsness, RARDEOAR- is not the beginning of anything. I think I got TOMB, after getting MATERNITY, and then RARDBOARD quickly became CARDBOARD. Nothing after that held me up much. Felt slow, but ended up 26 seconds faster than last week, i.e. with a pretty normal Wednesday time (4:03)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Superman— Each of the three parts from the tagline of the old Superman TV show appears in the grid, clued via reference to the last word in some other theme answer, i.e.

IT'S A BIRD (24A: Remark about the end of 18-Across) is clued via reference to Jack SPARROW (18A: Film lead character featured in a Disney World attraction)

IT'S A PLANE (39A: Remark about the end of 31-Across) via ref. to Bubble JET (31A: Kind of printer for home or office)

IT'S SUPERMAN (56A: Remark about the end of 49A) via ref. to Jeff KENT (49A: 2000 N.L. M.V.P. who played for the Giants)

Word of the Day: JEFF KENT—

Jeffrey Franklin Kent (born March 7, 1968 in Bellflower, California) is a retired Major League Baseball second baseman. Kent won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 2000 with the San Francisco Giants, and is the all-time leader in home runs among second basemen. He drove in 90 or more runs from 1997 to 2005, a streak of run production unprecedented for a second baseman, a position typically known for its defense. Kent is a five-time All-Star and his 560 career doubles put him tied for 21st on the all-time doubles list. (wikipedia)

• • •

Very cute theme. Took me a long time to pick it up—this often happens with themes that involve multiple cross-references (not my favorite). I just get turned around and confused and lost. By the time I had the first inclination of what the theme was, I was way down at the bottom of the grid, inferring the "IT'S" in IT'S SUPERMAN and wondering, then, what JACK SPARROW had to do with Superman. But once I saw PLANE there, I got it. I knew SPARROW had to be right (was not at All sure about it until that moment, the clue being some but not much help). So everything's going pretty Thursdayish to this point. I've never heard of a BUBBLE JET, but everything else seems reasonably familiar. But then I went to finish things up in the NE. And then, for a long time, nothing happened. I mean, I had JACK SPARROW up there and *nothing* else. Oh, no, wait, I had ELAN for 23A: Pizazz (ZING), so that was nice. I wanted AWARD at some point at 8A: Badge, maybe, but even that didn't help and so I didn't keep it there long. [Tube inits.]? Thought it was to do with TV. [Black Sea getaway]? I don't know, the horribly-spelled ODESA? [View from Valence]? No idea what or where Valence is. Without the "Z," no real shot at WAR ZONE (9D: Where a photographer might take shots?). [Bros]? Nope. DAWGS not forthcoming (that clue is tin-eared, as I can see the equivalence in the singular, but not in the plural—"bros" are a specific thing that plural DAWGS are not—I don't think anyone would even use DAWG(S) were it not for Randy Jackson, but I digress).

The real killer up there—the thing that I kept thinking I should get but just couldn't, was [26A: Hamlet's parts]. The more I thought about the clue, the more the clue made no sense at all. Can't be related to the play. Hamlet *is* a part in a play. Could it be ASIDES? Are those parts? But BOL has to be right. SOL is not a thing (not in S. America, anyway). When I finally got ABODES (after testing ACRID and having it work out), I was, let's say, unhappy. That is a ridiculous clue for ABODES. Anything in a "hamlet" is a part of it. ABODES? I guess Will had some idea of quaintness linking the two, but that is one of the worst clues I've ever seen. No necessary relationship between clue and answer. It's like [City parts] cluing ATMS. It is true that they are all over NYC, but Come On. So thumbs up for the general theme concept and most of the fill, but the sucky cluing on ABODES just sucked all the pleasure out of this thing at the end. Likely not the constructor's fault.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Medium

Word of the Day: LANOLIN (Stuff used to soften baseball mitts)

For breastfeeding mothers. Soothes and protect[s] dry, cracked skin. Breastfeeding cream is hypoallergenic and completely natural. It is recommended for the treatment of sore nipples. (cvs.com)

• • •

Or, rather, in this clue's context, it's an agent for breaking in one's baseball glove, lubricating the tense virgin leather so it can drape more intimately about the flesh of the hand. But whether applied to mitts or tits, lanolin is a wax secreted by sheep and found in their coats.

Hi, this is Ben Tausig, guest-blogging for Rex, who tonight is watching the worst movie ever made. You might know me as editor of the famous American Values Club xword (formerly in The Onion), a weekly indie puzzle available here. Sometimes I write puzzles, too. Hi.

But not this one. Today's crossword, a 66-word affair, was constructed by the estimable Patrick Berry, who as ever puts on a clinic in puzzle making. (Patrick is estimable like Rafael Nadal; that is, he's really a legend but we soft-pedal because he's active). Speaking of oiled, rippling Spanish athletes' torsos (we were, weren't we?), the torso of this grid is a muscular semi-stack of seven entries, including 29A: RUMORHASIT, 40A: COINPURSES, and 34: LANDLINES (clued elegantly as "Cell alternatives"), with the awkwardly adjectival 35A: FOURLETTER the only sign of flab. And through that dense set runs a 15D: METEORITE and an 24D: IRONLUNG, the latter of which was my favorite entry in the puzzle and among the quickest long pieces to fall. The clue for 21D: TARTNESS, "Crab apple's quality," evoked Edna Crabapple, a literary name in the classic tradition that it took me years to grasp.

From a construction standpoint, the middle was almost certainly the most difficult section for Berry to fill. That region and its tributaries comprise roughly two-thirds of the grid's total mass. With wide-mouthed entries to the northeast and southwest, there's nowhere to hide when you're working a chunk like this. The northwest and southeast, on the other hand, are relatively enclosed, but no less pristine for being so. Speaking of the southeast, not to brag or anything, but I'm a big Greek salad guy, and 37D: OREGANO ("Greek salad ingredient") was a pleasant "a ha" moment after running through the more substantial ingredients mentally--feta, cucumber, black olives, iceberg lettuce, red onion, tomato. I once made a crossword that was also a recipe, and I think it was one of my worst.

Here's fattoush, which is sort of similar to a Greek salad, from Yotam Ottolenghi:

As an editor accustomed to quick turnarounds, it was moderately disappointing to see a clue for 53A: NOTREDAME set in 1935, when just the other night my wife and I (U-M alums both) watched the Wolverines roll over the Irish for the final time at the Big House; Notre Dame is sorta-joining the ACC, which constrains their schedule and means no more annual game against my alma mater--the end of a very long rivalry. There's topical gold in those hills. I likewise wanted 5D: PRIDE to say something about Anderson Cooper or the demise of DOMA; alas.

But a Berry puzzle doesn't much need glitter. The open spaces (and what they're filled with) shine plenty bright.

Bullets:

51D: LAO— Lao is one of my favorite scripts. I can read it, sort of; the below says "Lao alphabet."
12D: LAVORIS—Absolutely no idea what this is, but presumably it's real and refreshing.
23A: GLUTEI— As in, the plural of gluteus. I'd personally be concerned that the unfamiliar plural wouldn't bear the load of a ? clue, but such is Friday. "Muscles in twerking" would also suffice. There's also "What bums sit on," if it's not too insensitive.
14A: LASERBEAM— Great answer with a stretchy clue in "Reading light for an audiobook?" I was gearing up for an incredible payoff when I first read the clue, expecting a reference to some kind of book with content that would make for a short (and thus light) audiobook. A picture book or something? None came.

L'shana tova, friends.

Signed, Ben Tausig, cutpurse of Crossworld.

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Aldrich AMES (5D: Subject of the 2012 book "Circle of Treason") —

Aldrich Hazen Ames (born May 26, 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst, who in 1994 was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia. So far as is known, Ames compromised the second-largest number of CIA assets—second only to those betrayed by Robert Hanssen.
While spending nine years working in CIA counter-intelligence, he declared an annual income of $60,000 but his credit card spending of up to $30,000 a month funded a lifestyle that included a new Jaguar and a $540,000 house (2012 value: $810,000) paid for in cash. (wikipedia)

• • •

A snazzy Saturday puzzle. Really impressive on the cleanliness front. Very little to snipe at here, at least in terms of the fill. Pretty tame on the Scrabbly letters except for that 1A, which was definitely a seed answer, and which, like all 1As, can hold Scrabbly letters more easily than most other answers (since it puts the tough-to-handle letters at the beginning of all the Downs). Little bit of Scrabble-f*cking there in the SW, but the resulting fill (except for LYIN') is good, so no harm done. What's most impressive here are not the 9-stacks in the NW and SE—though those are nice; it's how clean the fill stays through those two rather large 7-(ish)-stacks in the puzzle's midsection. I also like the preponderance of colloquialisms and 3-word phrases. Really gives the grid some character.

[NEW WAVE / OVER]

Parts of this puzzle felt very easy, but others stopped me cold, at least for a while, and so my time ended up pretty normal. PIZZA JOINT went right in, but after that corner was polished off, things slowed down a bit. I really really really have to learn to look at all possible avenues out of any given section, however unlikely it seems that they'll be fruitful. Today, I had the initial "T" at 23D: Temptation for Luke Skywalker but didn't even look at the clue when trying to exit the NW because the odds of my getting an answer that long with just the one letter in place are low, and my clue-looking-at time was (odds are) better spent in the east, where I had the initial letters for a lot of considerably shorter answers. Just playing the odds. Except that I eventually got bogged down, later in the puzzle, with the entire SW still wide open, and I had to jump into white space with no crosses to guide me (always terrifying). If I'd only looked at the clue for THE DARK SIDE right then, I'd've got it instantly and probably finished a good minute faster. Instead, I threw down INHERIT, and did a bunch of other stuff in there and when I *finally* looked at the "Star Wars" clue I had it 50% filled in. Got this horrible "Why Did I Not See This Clue Earlier!?" feeling. Gah.

No real screw-ups today. Hardest section for me was the far NE, where WI-- and LL-S and -SSO just were not computing. That ESSO clue (14D: Standard breakup creation), with its disguised proper noun "Standard," totally fooled me. Eventually just put vowels in that first slot, and was like "well, ESSO is at least a thing, so .... Ohhhhhh." Biggest snag in the rest of the puzzle was HTS—that clue is Ri-Dick-ulous (that is "ridiculous" + "dickish"). "O"? When was the last time someone abbreviated "Ohio" that way? Again, the rule with terrible fill (which HTS is) is "don't do stupid things to make it hard." Because now it's bad *and* I resent it. "O." The only reason "O" is here is because people specifically *don't* associate it with geography (which makes the HTS abbr. harder to come up with). Since "Oregon" is a state that exists, I never considered Ohio, i.e. never considered a state at all. Junk. Also, Broadview HTS— is nowhere. It's not famous. I thought "Oh, this must be some famous place I just don't know about." But no. Population 19,400. Again I say "What the hell?"

Also tough: SNL ("Celebrity Jeopardy!" sounds like a real thing), SPENCE (he wasn't actually involved in the O.J. trial, the way the clue makes you think), LYIN' (clued via Young instead of via Eagles), and JANE (6D: Porter created by Burroughs) (Q: Which Burroughs?) (A: Edgar Rice, of "Tarzan of the Apes" fame). Also tough—having east/west dyslexia, which I do. Hence GO EAST for 25D: Follow the sun? Hence trouble.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Actress Gershon of Bound / MON 8-26-13 / Ersatz butter / Largest inland city in California / Onetime Joker portrayer ___ Romero / Distinctive Cindy Crawford feature / Colorful city bordering Newark / Hooch container

Dog on TV's Topper / TUE 8-27-13 / 1982 Fleetwood Mac hit whose title is sung three times after Come on / Children's game in which players knuckle down / Happening with lots of laughs

Mathematical physicist Peter who pioneered in knot theory / WED 8-28-13 / Man whose 1930 salary was $75000 / Chestnut colored flying mammal / Rathskeller order / Vicina della Francia

Female adviser / FRI 8-30-13 / Comcast center hoopster / Player of bad teacher in bad teacher / Folman who directed 2013 film Congress / Big source for modern slang / 458 Spider F12 Berlinetta / Org with clenched fist logo / Hedin discoverer of Trans-Himalaya / Old oscilloscope part briefly

Sporty Lotus model / SAT 8-31-13 / Beast hunted by Hemingway in Green Hills of Africa / Self-titled debut album of 1991 / Kazaam star informally / Work set mostly in Cyprus / Wilde wrote De Profundis in one / Southern site of 1865 battle

Theme From Shaft composer 1971 / MON 9-2-13 / Classic computer game set on island / Alternatives to Slurpees / So-called mansiere essentially in Seinfeld episode / Complement of Disney dwarfs

1997 Nicolas Cage thriller / TUE 9-3-13 / In Valley of 2007 film / Suffix with road hip / Onionlike vegetables

Unit of currency in Harry Potter books / WED 9-4-13 / One of two acting brothers / Rapper with #1 hit Money Maker / Org with its HQ in Fort Meade / Noted groom of 10/20/1968 / Daytime host starting in 2012 / Fresh Tex Mex restaurant chain / King of gods in Egyptian myth

Maupassant's first novel / THU 9-5-13 / 1841 rebellion leader / Titular judge played by Stallone / Lead role in film La Cage aux Folles / TV character who will never speak unless he has something to say / Blind jazz piano virtuoso / Three-time Hart Trophy winner / Return of Jedi battle site /

LBJ biographer Robert / FRI 9-6-13 / Hit from 1978 disco album Cruisin / Coppelia attire / Port where Camus set Plague / Old Hollywood low-budget studios collectively / Wine bottle contents in Hitchcock's Notorious / Map inits created in wake of Suez Crisis

Guitar maker Fender / SAT 9-7-13 / Singer of 1987 #1 country hit Do Ya / Bygone yellow-roofed kiosks / Servant in Discworld novels / Champion between Holyfield reigns / Holy group in 17th-century literature / Largest river of southern California

Idomeneo heroine / SUN 9-8-13 / Musician with gold-selling album Sugar Lips / Candy bar featured in Seinfeld episode / Country composed of 200+ islands / Lenovo competitor / Pussy Russian girl group

Theater critic Walter / MON 9-9-13 / Far Eastern housemaid / 1960 John Updike novel / Ernest of Country Music Hall of Fame / Best actor for Hamlet 1948

1998 De Niro crime thriller / TUE 9-10-13 / Former Israeli P.M. Ehud / Some B&N wares / Major swag / Nutrient-rich cabbages / Root used in energy drinks / Sleuth in slang / Villain in 2009 Star Trek film

Dr. Larch's drug in Cider House Rules / WED 9-11-13 / Joyous Cosmology subj / Life-size likeness of Elvis maybe / Former Giant Robb / How many bootlegs are sold

Black Sea getaway / THU 9-12-13 / Hamlet's parts / Short-story writer Munro / View from Valence / Subj of Austin library museum / Trendy features of some high-end gyms / Film lead character featured in Disney World attraction

Heavy and Clumsy / FRI 9-13-13 /Ikura or Tobiko / Dark side / Old-fashioned respirator

Porter created by Burroughs / SAT 9-14-13 / Assistant played by Bruce Lee / Fuel for warp drive engine on Star Trek / First capital of Last Frontier / Ham's handoff / Basidium-borne body / Drink said to have originated on Lesbos