Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Daniel Kantor

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: CHANGE OF HEART (37A: Decision reversal ... or, literally, what can be found inside 17-, 22-, 49- and 58-Across) — rearrangement of letter string "heart" can be found in each of four 15-letter answers.

GREAT HORNED OWL (17A: Yellow-eyed birds of prey)
SECRET HANDSHAKE (22A: Part of a fraternity ritual, perhaps)
COMPUTER HACKERS (49A: Cybermenaces)
SEEN BUT NOT HEARD (58A: How children should be, in a saying)

Word of the Day: COHOS (54D: Some Pacific salmon) —

The coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, (from the Russian кижуч kizhuch) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". It is the state animal of Chiba, Japan. [...] The traditional range of the coho salmon runs along both sides of the North Pacific Ocean, from Hokkaidō, Japan and eastern Russian, around the Bering Sea to mainland Alaska, and south to Monterey Bay, California.^[2] Coho salmon have also been introduced in all the Great Lakes, as well as many landlocked reservoirs throughout the United States. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was an extremely easy puzzle. My not-so-impressive time represents a. my dealing with rather upsetting pet issues *right* before sitting down to do the puzzle (I just wasn't in a mood to speed) and b. my spending 30 seconds or so looking for a stupid IPADS for IPODS error (66A: Apple products since 2001). One look at the year in the clue, or at the cross, would've told me PAD not POD, but I guess I was distracted. Anyway, there was not one point in the puzzle where I slowed down or struggled. In a very segmented grid like this, there are lots of short answers, and that tends to signal "easy." Here's the downside of not driving longer Downs through more than two theme answers: lots of short stuff and not a lot of sizzle. Since all the themes (except the reveal) are 15s, you can't sneak a long Down around any of them, so there's no non-theme answer longer than 6 in the whole puzzle. Hence easiness, and dullness. Now, the theme answers themselves are gold. Really great individual answers. The theme is not exciting—I immediately thought "I've seen this before ... this must have been done a bunch." Which is not true. Or, rather, it's true that the revealer has been a theme answer a bunch before, but the concept has not been executed in quite this way. So basically this is a grid with four very good answers. Theme isn't that clever and fill is clean but unremarkable. I had to pause slightly at RAW BAR (11D: Where to order oysters), NAIFS (25D: Unworldly ones) and ABA (44A: Counselors' org.) (I had APA, thinking of a different kind of "counselor"). My favorite non-theme answer in the puzzle by far is "I'M LIKE..." (12D: "My answer was ...," in teen-speak). It's terribly, horribly accurate, and not just for teenagers. Plenty of grown-ups, most of my students, and occasionally I use this phrase. I have often found myself standing in line for coffee on campus, counting the "LIKE"s in the conversations around me. You get up into the double-digits very, very quickly. Sometimes within a few sentences. This is all to say that the phrase "I'M LIKE..." is ubiquitous. I also really like the clue on PAC (32D: Pre-election ad buyer, maybe). Still waiting to see SUPER-PAC in a puzzle (I think).

That's it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: PRO AND CON (1A: With 4- and 7-Acros, both sides ... or the missing starts for all the remaining Across answers) — all across answers start with (missing) PRO- or CON-, i.e. you have to supply it mentally in order for the answer to make sense. [Forgot to mention last night: black squares in middle of the grid form pluses and minuses, representing, presumably, PRO AND CON—nice visual touch]

Word of the Day: TERCET (13D: Group of three rhyming lines) —

n.
A group of three lines of verse, often rhyming together or with another triplet.
Music. See triplet (sense 4).
[French, from Italian terzetto, from diminutive of terzo, third, from Latin tertius.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/tercet#ixzz2MA4BnT6M

• • •

I love the puzzle that this puzzle wishes it was.

Why promising ideas are allowed to go to press in this bad a state of disrepair is beyond me. Let me illustrate what I mean with one simple suggestion: change 14A to DONE. Go ahead. With one very simple move, you have removed the most laughable bit of fill in the whole puzzle. Seriously, I laughed as I was filling it in. NOED? (9D: Declined) One of my friends suggested it should've been clued "Don't do it, Asner!" I mean ... it's utterly unnecessary. And nobody caught it, no one suggested a change. Stunning. The level of inattention to fill quality is stunning. *I* should not be able to improve a puzzle with one minor change like that. A constructor who actually cares about clean fill, or an editor, or assistant, or someone, anyone, should've looked at NOED, thought "oh come on," and noticed the fix. This is to say nothing of ASE'S (!?) (4D: "___ Death" (Grieg work)), FICT (50D: Half of a best-seller list: Abbr.), and the ridiculously spelledPNOM (1D: ___-Penh)—the answer single-handedly responsible for all the slowness I experienced in this puzzle—I thought for sure the puzzle was a rebus, because PHNOM (the correct spelling) wouldn't fit. Then there's the fact that CONCHA (23A: Bowl-shaped part of the ear) and CONCHES (62A: Big shells) are essentially the same word. If you saw them both in the same grid normally, you'd be like "what the hell? that's not right." So I don't know why that sentiment shouldn't apply here as well.

The core concept is clever, in its way, though PRO AND CON isn't the strongest self-standing phrase. PROS AND CONS, sure. But I don't have a problem with the core concept. It's the pitiful execution, the absolute tin ear when it comes to fill, that is maddening.

Bullets:

37A: Family name on "Roseanne" (CONNER)— really wanted it to be DAN before I got the theme.
49A: 1997 Nicolas Cage/John Malkovich thriller (CON-AIR)— really wanted it to be "FACE/OFF" before I got the theme. I must've thought the clue said "Nicolas Cage/John Travolta."
5D: Conjunction that's usually part of a pair (NOR)— first thing in the grid, which eventually helped me figure out the middle word of the revealer (AND), which eventually got me to the theme. It took a while, but NOR got me there.

Initial reports from the American Red Cross indicate that "American Red Crosswords" has raised at least $10,000 so far. That's just the amount that came in via the link we provided on the website, and I know of many people who donated via other links, so the amount is likely somewhat higher. The crossword collection will be coming to iPhone and iPad soon. Stay tuned.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Doug Peterson and Brad Wilber

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Zach BRAFF (48D: Zach ___, "Garden State" actor/director) —

Zachary I. "Zach" Braff (born April 6, 1975) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian, and director. Braff first became known in 2001 for his role as Dr. John Dorian on the television series Scrubs, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.
In 2004, Braff made his directorial debut with Garden State. Braff returned to his home state New Jersey to shoot the film, which was produced for $2.5 million. The film made over $35 million at the box office and was praised by critics, leading it to gain a cult following.^[2] Braff wrote the film, starred in it, and compiled the soundtrack record. He won numerous awards for his directing work, and also won the Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album in 2005. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a wonderful grid, but oof, I did not move through it easily at all. I was nodding off on the couch in the minutes leading up to puzzle-release time, then forced myself upstairs to solve the puzzle right at 10pm. I literally slapped myself two or three times to try to wake up fully before solving. Given how much I struggled to get started, and then just went into freefall at the end, I should've slapped myself a few more times. Like, thirty. Thirty more times. Even adjusting for my sleepiness, this puzzle feels slightly on the tough side. I was the victim of both ignorance (I clearly have never played CAT'S CRADLE, as that clue meant less than nothing to me — Vonnegut, I would've gotten; the game, no) (1A: Game with the figures "soldier's bed" and "fish in a dish") and stubborn wrongness (RHEO for AERO held me up forEver in the NW (2D: Prefix with -stat), and POLICE COUP (?) for PALACE COUP did something similar in the SE (61A: Regime change catalyst)). CANS for JARS (20A: Larder lineup). EWOK for ENTS (18A: Fangorn Forest denizens). No idea who the IGOR guy was (11A: Real-estate mogul Olenicoff). SENIOR (?) for RINSER (24A: Dental patient, often). I know DIURNAL only from poetic contexts, so I think of it as meaning roughly "daily" as opposed to "the opposite of nocturnal" (8D: Like the snowy owl). Needless to say, even -RNAL didn't clue me in at first. Other parts were easy. The SW, for instance: total breeze, probably because I remarkably remembered how to spell Zach BRAFF's name, despite *major* interference from the Canadian ski resort BANFF. Just glad I didn't go with my very first instinct, BRAMF.

How the hell does Superman shave himself with HEAT VISION? (15A: Superpower with which Clark Kent shaves himself). I'm gonna guess "mirror," because otherwise he'd have to invent a new superpower called "being able to see your own face without a mirror." 19A could've been clued [Quitter of note] or [He stepped down today] or [There isn't one]. But instead it's high school English, which paid off nicely. Cultural center of gravity in this puzzle is not old, exactly, but it's pretty heavy in the '60s/'70s. "The Munsters" *and* "I Dream of Jeannie" (41D: Yvonne of "The Munsters" + 25D: Part of an iconic Eden outfit). "DIRTY HARRY" *and* TWA (58A: 1971 film with the tagline "You don't assign him to murder cases. You just turn him loose." + 30A: First carrier to offer regular in-flight movies, 1961). But you've also got GANGSTA RAP (12D: Genre that glorifies gunplay) as well as a wide sampling of answers from diverse realms of knowledge. This keeps the puzzle varied and surprising. I have a puzzle in the pipeline that has 10-block corners very much like this one, and while I like mine fine, I really envy this one's cleanness. I don't think I winced once.

Good Clue awards go to 33A: They're no longer tender in a typical trattoria (LIRE) and 21A: It moves along via a series of belts (FIGHT).

And so to bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FLO and Eddie (23A: Eddie's partner in musical comedy) —

Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman, "Flo" aka "Phlorescent Leech", and Howard Kaylan, "Eddie") are a comedic musical duo.
The two were the original founding members of the Top 40 rock group The Turtles. After the Turtles dissolved, Volman and Kaylan first joined The Mothers of Invention as "Phlorescent Leech & Eddie". Due to contractual restrictions made early in their career, Mark and Howard were prevented from using the name "The Turtles", as well as their own names in a musical context.^[1] "The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie" were originally nicknames of two of the Mothers of Invention road crew that the pair appropriated. (wikipedia)

• • •

Lovely stuff all over, with just one pocket of ickiness there in the east. I started out very fast in the NW and even threw down FDR MEMORIAL very early (off just the "D"!) (23D: It features a statue of a Scottie next to his master), but shortly thereafter I came to a terrible halt. And then another. Felt like there was a lot of free-falling once I hit the middle of the grid. In retrospect, if I had *any* clue at all who FLO and Eddie were, I would've probably shaved several minutes off my time. With that route into the NW completely blocked (doubly blocked, as I also had WRY for SLY at 21D: Arch), I had only one other path in to that section, and that path started at the icky place, so ... I had to save the NE for last. Clues were slightly ruthless today—22A: People pick pockets in it was genius, but I had -OOL and still had no idea what was going on. [Blast alternative?] for DRAT!? Again, brilliant and virtually impossible. Lots of little names I'd never heard of, like DORA (48D: "Cannery Row" brothel owner) and GIL (4D: Drug czar Kerlikowske) and ALEC (11D: "I'll Be Around" songwriter Wilder). Love the answer ZOOPLANKTON, though I've never heard of it (7D: Jellyfish and krill). Thought it would be an "S"-plural, which of course made CAN impossible to see. Don't think I know this CESAR dog food (43D: Alpo alternative). Don't know how the Ducks are or what the Atlantic League is, but I had LONG so the ISLAND add-on wasn't too hard to figure out (27D: Home of the Ducks of baseball's Atlantic League). In general, I went NW, SE, SW, NE, with the difficulty being Easy, Medium, Easy, Hard, respectively. Last letter in was the "P" in PLS, which was, again, virtually impossible to get. I know that PLS means "please," but the only "thank you" I've ever seen in text-speak is "thx." "TY" looks bleeping ridiculous. More typo than abbreviation (33D: Texting counterpart of "TY"). That whole eastern area was by far the roughest of the grid. Did not get PETIT for a long time (33A: Minor, legally), thought 34D: Sno-___ (winter blower brand) was TORO (that's a snow blower brand, Right!?), and [Mr. T's real last name]???? Uh, no. No hope in hell. Only way I got the THRO / TERO cross was by imagining a snow blower THROwing snow.

I did some good guessing today. No idea what 10A: Symbol of Einstein's gravitational constant was, but I figured it had to end in "A," and that got me ADORN, and the traction I needed to finally get going up there in the NE. No idea what 58A: Grocery product with green leaves in its logo was, but but had "S-L-" and so just wrote in SALAD, with no idea what could come next. Just that little headway helped me confirm EAST ASIA (36D: Orwellian superstate). There were a decent number of gimmes for a Saturday. First answer in the grid was LAHR (2D: Player of a big scaredy-cat?). I'm not sure I knew OTIS dealt in escalators, but still [44A: Escalator pioneer] in four letters fairly shouted his name. Another answer whose four-letterness helped matters along was "DR. NO" (47D: 1958 spy novel set in Jamaica). First thought was Fleming, and then when I saw that the answer was a four, I knew what it was. I thought Clarkson was in NY (42D: Clarkson College locale => OMAHA), but that must be a different Clarkson (yes; a university in Potsdam, NY). Former ACPT champion Tyler Hinman went to RPI and likes to talk hockey smack about Clarkson on Twitter. A lot. Let's see, what else? Oh, yeah—this:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Just got the most recent update for my Puzzazz app (iPhone) and damned if "American Red Crosswords" isn't up and running!! Go here http://www.puzzazz.com/ and download the free app for iPhone or iPad (or just search "Puzzazz" in the App store). Then get the book. There's a "Donate" button right in the app, so you can give to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund before getting down to solving business. I'm solving the puzzles on my phone right now and the whole thing just looks great. Kindly spread the word that "American Red Crosswords" has gone digital. Thank you.

Constructor: Samuel A. Donaldson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Seven Blurbs for Seven Biographies" — Clues are imagined blurbs for wacky book titles, which are created by taking phrase that follows the pattern "THE x OF y" and reversing "x" and "y"

Theme answers:

22A: "It's worth it just for Ms. Behar's famous lasagna recipe" ("THE COOKING OF JOY")
35A: "An insightful look at how playing Miss Brooks took its toll on Ms. Arden" ("THE DESTRUCTION OF EVE")
48A: "You don't have to be a gardener to dig this book about Kerouac's tools" ("THE SPADES OF JACK")
58A: "Finally, we learn how one Jonas brother defined an entire generation" ("THE TIME OF NICK")
73A: "Clinton's a well-known southpaw, so this exposé on his other-handed punches is an eye-opener" ("THE RIGHTS OF BILL") [awkward clue]
87A: "Required reading for all 'Purple Rain' fans who think their idol is too goody-goody" (THE DARKNESS OF PRINCE)
103A: "A gripping narrative about one folk singer's violent turn against Paul Simon" (THE WARFARE OF ART") [weird that this is the only clue w/o title subject's last name in it ... well Prince just has the one name, but still ...]

Word of the Day: Paul ERDOS (28A: Mathematician Paul) —

Paul Erdős (Hungarian: Erdős Pál [ˈɛrdøːʃ paːl]; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory.
He is also known for his "legendarily eccentric" personality. (wikipedia)

• • •

Recently Will Shortz declared somewhere (I forget where) that he was looking for Sundays with lower word counts in the hopes that it would result in more interesting fill. I am paraphrasing and perhaps garbling the message, but that is what I remember (someone will surely correct me). Anyway, this puzzle seems to be something like he had in mind—there's a Ton of white space for a Sunday. Huge open spaces that do, to some extent, achieve the "interesting fill" goal. But I have this feeling the push for more whiteness is going to yield diminishing returns after a point. For every bit of interesting fill (say, EASY DOES IT or BLISTER PACK) there's something ham-fisted (like CORD OF WOOD) or there's a passel of short junk. NE and SW are good examples of the tension between short and long fill. I'd take one less 9 in both those corners if it would result in no PARAS, LIRAS (79D: Old Italian dough), PARTER, A PAIR, NO SEE, GO ASK, EENIE, etc. Unnecessary acrobatics (i.e. many showy long Downs) in those corners resulted in much wincing when it came to the small stuff. Plus there's the ERDOS / PASSIVATE crossing, which was absolute gibberish to me (28A: Mathematician Paul + 17D: Give an anticorrosive coating to). I had to flat-out guess at that "S"—the fact that I guessed right means it's inferrable, I suppose, but still: rough. If I'm alone on that score, I'll eat my hat. In general, more white squares to fill adequately = more reliance on computer assistance with the construction, which *can* result in an acceptance of adequate as opposed to a striving for great. This is especially true in an era when the Theme is Everything. Why bother polishing your work. Your word list is a virtual guarantee that whatever your construction software suggests to you has been used before, and is thus valid, or was, in some context, at some point. This theme is indeed very good. Cute and funny (despite my audible groan at THE WARFARE OF ART—I've only ever heard that title rendered as "The Art of War"). So this is by no means a bad puzzle. I just want to speak out against this "more white space for more white space's sake" idea. If I end up having to choke on stuff like OFST and DORS (32A: British actress Diana) and ATTWO and ANTEGG (1A: Insect pupa sold as fish food) and GEOG and GUNNS and EELER etc., then I don't see the point.

I lost a full minute of time when I actually stopped solving and checked to confirm that ERDOS and PASSIVATE were real things. This almost *never* happens—that a cross is so baffling that I am compelled to check my work. Theme was easy to uncover and easy to solve, and should've made the puzzle easier overall, but didn't. Which is fine—harder Sundays I can get behind. But there was something a bit sloggy about this one.

Bullets:

50D: Food Network host Guy (FIERI)— he's been in the (food) news a lot lately, and not in a positive light. I really wish the clue here could've referenced this amazing NYT review of FIERI's Manhattan restaurant, Guy's American Kitchen and Bar, or this (amazing) parody menu.
7A: Doesn't get the memo, maybe (MISREADS)— a hard, hard clue. I had MIS-EADS and didn't get it. "MISLEADS?"
41A: Cole Porter title woman (KATE)— wanted OTIS.

82A: Chicago lakefront attraction (NAVY PIER)— one of the nicer answers in the grid.
16D: Start of Willa Cather's Great Plains trilogy ("O PIONEERS") — I don't think I've ever read Cather. I read an Alice Munro short story that was indirectly about her. But nothing by her. Still, got this easily.
32D: Some bathroom crystals (DRANO) — again, brutal. The DORS crossing didn't help. Had to guess that "D."
40D: Composer of the "Gold and Silver" waltz (LEHAR) — rhymes with (see 22A) "Behar." I think.
65D: Fargo's partner (WELLS) — I never thought of those names as belonging to different people. They exist as one word in my brain: WellsFargo. So I thought ... I don't know what I thought, actually. But I sure didn't know it straight off.
75D: Sexologist's subject (G-SPOT) — maybe, I guess, but do sexologists still talk about this? It feels very ... '70s to me. Maybe '80s. But according to wikipedia, the topic still generates considerable debate. More than you could possibly want to know here.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: RHO (35D: Greek letter that sounds like the ends of 16-, 22-, 36-, 47- or 58-Across) — just like it says:

Theme answers:

16A: Legal thriller author who wrote "Presumed Innocent" (SCOTT TUROW)
22A: Illustrious warrior returning from battle (CONQUERING HERO)
36A: King Tut, e.g. (EGYPTIAN PHARAOH)
47A: Four-time Daytona 500 winner (CALE YARBOROUGH)
58A: Journalists' office (NEWS BUREAU)

Word of the Day: NELL Trent (43A: "Little" Dickens girl) —

The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London.
The Old Curiosity Shop was one of two novels (the other being Barnaby Rudge) which Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serialMaster Humphrey's Clock, which lasted from 1840 to 1841. The Old Curiosity Shop was printed as a separate book in 1841. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow, looks like I'm in top form for this weekend's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Sarcasm! Stumbled all over myself trying to get the correct words in the grid and then hit "Done" with one square still blank. *That*'ll cost you come tournament time. A lot. It's a really, really good thing that all solving is done on paper, because I spend much of my on-line solving time (on easy puzzles particularly) fixing typos and trying with only varying degrees of success to get the cursor where I want it to go. You'd think with so much typing and solving practice I'd have this all down by now, but no. Today, I was cruising along thinking this was the easiest puzzle I'd done in a while, but my stupid fat fingers kept betraying me, and so I ended up with a normal time. Still, I have to think the puzzle will play on the Easy side, so I'm splitting the difference with my difficulty rating. Anyway, none of this has much to do with the puzzle, which is quite nice. A very strong Monday. Very simple theme, very grabbily executed. All "RHO" sounds are spelled differently, which is a nice (necessary, but still nice) touch. I suppose it's possible that either or both of the names SCOTT TUROW and CALE YARBOROUGH might not be familiar to some solvers, but both of them are major contributors to Crosswordese: CALE for his first name, and TUROW for his memoir "ONE L."

The NW, with its OHI (?) / ASSOC crossing, is slightly ugly, but most everywhere else looks good. I got slightly slowed down in various places. With just "G" in place, I didn't know GROIN (3D: Body part often pulled in sports). I thought GLUTE, but wrote in nothing. Couldn't remember if SLOAN was right for 7D: M.I.T. business school name. It was my first instinct, but in my brain it had an "E" on the end. I also, very briefly, considered SLONE (?). Blanked at 9A: Daffodil-to-be (BULB) and 12D: Name said before and after James (BOND) when I first saw them. As I've said before, I hate *all* [Laugh syllable] clues, so screw you, HAR. Looked at 38D: Sit ___ by and could Not get my head around it. Figured it must be a partial. Racked my brain for two-word answers that worked. Eventually stopped racking and moved on. That's all my lowlights. As I said, it's a solid Monday puzzle overall. Thumbs up to puzzle, thumbs down to my abysmal speed-typing skills.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Gareth Bain

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "WHERE IT'S AT" (62A: Happening place ... or a hint to 18-, 23-, 39- and 51-Across)— letter string "IT" is changed to "AT" in familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style

Theme answers:

18A: Second of two spouses? (LATTER MATE)
23A: Nest? (HATCHING POST)
39A: Wing or fang? (BAT PART)
51A: Like a good quilt maker? (PATCH PERFECT)

Word of the Day: Mark RUFFALO (47D: Mark of "The Kids Are All Right") —

Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Apart from portraying Marvel Comicscharacter Bruce Banner / The Hulk in Marvel's The Avengers (2012), he has starred in films such as You Can Count on Me (2000), Collateral(2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Just Like Heaven (2005), Zodiac (2007), and Shutter Island (2010). For his role in The Kids Are All Right (2010), he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. (wikipedia)

• • •

I think this is an exceptional Tuesday puzzle. Catchy reveal precisely describes the theme. Wacky phrases aren't hilarious, but they are clever. One problem: I do not like the second "AT" in LATTERMATE. This implies the base phrase was LITTERMITE. Which it isn't. But that's a minor deduction. Fill is thoughtful, varied, and interesting despite being mostly short stuff (in the 4-5-letter range). Not easy to make a grid that's heavy on the short stuff interesting. The puzzle definitely played on the hard side for a Tuesday, both because of the nature of the theme (all "?" clues, somewhat tough to bring into focus in advance of the revealer), and because of a particularly tough patch in the east. Somewhat frustrating to be undone by "A CUP," but I had no idea what was going on there ... until, of course, I had that answer completed, at which point I was like "oh, right ... 'A CUP A CUP A CUP A CUP A CUP'!" But that answer, and the crossing SPAR (31D: Boom or gaff), and SPAR's crossing, ERROR (46A: Standard ___ (statistician's calculation)), all took me some time to see. I was lucky to know Mark RUFFALO instantly. Not sure all solvers are going to be so lucky. He's Oscar-nominated, so more than legit, but still maybe a little outside the mainstream *for a Tuesday*. I don't remember ever seeing his name in a puzzle before. Looks good.

Hesitated at 13D: The Gabor sisters had many. It ended up being EXES, which made a nice cross for LATTER MATE. I'm a devotee of debauchees, so SATYR was a cinch (actually, I had the -YR before ever looking at the clue and new instantly that it was SATYR). Dr. Bain mixes it up with a long philosophical clue for a simple answer at 68A: "___ is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies": Aristotle (LOVE), a couple of smart but devilishly tricky clues (41D: It might be seen out of the corner of one's eye => TEAR + 12D: Diamond in the sky? => KITE), and then his signature South African stamp at 45A: Paul Kruger of Krugerrand fame, e.g. (BOER). If this puzzle had been harder, I might have shaken my fist at the sky and shouted "BAIN!" As it was, I nodded silently and approvingly and moved along.

Just a reminder that "American Red Crosswords" is now available for iPhone and iPad. Download the free Puzzazz app from the App Store, use the in-App button to donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, and then use their very cool interface to solve 24 great puzzles (ed. by Patrick Blindauer, introduced by Will Shortz). You can use an on-screen keyboard OR use their TouchWrite™ feature, which allows you to put a letter in a square by drawing that letter with your finger on the screen. It's pretty cool. Tell a friend.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Richard Chisholm

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: tic tac toe— theme answers all have three consecutive Os in them

Theme answers:

18A: Lacks pizzazz (HAS NO OOMPH)
26A: Overly partisan (TOO ONE-SIDED)
47A: Animal on display (ZOO OCCUPANT)
61A: Inuit, maybe (IGLOO OWNER)

Word of the Day: DOS (44D: Built-in feature of the Apple II) —

Apple DOS refers to operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from late 1978 through early 1983. Apple DOS had three major releases: DOS 3.1, DOS 3.2, and DOS 3.3; each one of these three releases was followed by a second, minor "bug-fix" release, but only in the case of Apple DOS 3.2 did that minor release receive its own version number, Apple DOS 3.2.1. The best-known and most-used version was Apple DOS 3.3 in the 1980 and 1983 releases. Prior to the release of Apple DOS 3.1, Apple users had to rely on audio cassette tapes for data storage and retrieval, but that method was notoriously slow, inconvenient and unreliable. (wikipedia)

• • •

Did not like this one at all. Those aren't real phrases. They're totally arbitrary, and I can think of scores off the top of my head that might work just as well. STARTS TO OOZE. BOO ORIOLES. SWITCH TO OOLONG. KANGAROO OMELET. I mean, really, ZOO OCCUPANT? The chimps aren't on a year-to-year lease. Fill is OK on this one, but the absurd theme answers made the whole thing rather unpalatable. I was a little on the slow side today, but not remarkably so. Most of my slowness came from my expecting the theme answers to be real things, and then remembering "oh, right. The theme." I liked BLEW OFF a lot, though it took me a ridiculously long time to come up with it. I may have gone with BLED OFF first, thinking it some kind of Briticism. I'm not familiar with the rank of LT. GEN., though I've likely seen it in puzzles before, so that took some piecing together. I had no idea what DOS had to do with Apple. I think of MS/DOS as an IBM thing. I'd've gone with DOC there and then, to avoid CHAD duplication, changed CHAD to CHAR or CHAN or something. Maybe CHAP and then change DICE to PIKE or PINE. I'd've killed DOS as subpar fill, is what I'm saying. I had MEHTA conducting the 2000s Vienna State Opera at first (it's OZAWA) (27D: 2000s Vienna state Opera conductor). Otherwise, I a pretty normal Wednesday at the office.

Got PAPA DOC early (and loved it) (20A: Former Haitian leader Duvalier), but took Forever to see THREADS (22A: Clothing, slangily). It was a weird day for not seeing fairly obvious stuff (see BLEW OFF, above). Would've taken a while to get CORFU (16A: Ionian Sea vacation isle) if I hadn't had the -FU before ever seeing the clue. Misread 21D: Light tennis shots that fall just over the net (DINKS) as singular, and so couldn't figure it out. But for all these little mistakes there was at least one flat-out gimme. IRMA (11D: Rombauer of cookery) and SFPD (12D: "Bullitt" law enforcement org.) made the NE a cinch. IMUS helped out in the center (23A: Radio host who often wears cowboy hats). Misspelled SID as SYD (24D: Caesar of old TV). I am now just cataloguing ordinary ticky-tack mistakes, so I'll stop. I'm headed to NYC tomorrow, in advance of the ACPT in Brooklyn (which starts on Friday night). There will be subs filling in for me here while I'm gone, though I'm sure I'll pop in now and again. Have a lovely week.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Jim Page

Relative difficulty: easily medium challenging. Or, How Much Do you Like Baseball?

THEME:HOT CORNER (35A Third base, in baseball lingo ... or a hint for answering eight other clues in this puzzle)—all eight answers around the outside of the grid require adding "HOT" in front to fit the clues.

Word of the Day:SLIVOVITZ(Plum brandy)— a distilled beverage made from Damson plums.^[1] It is frequently called plum brandy. There's a lot more on wiki about all the places that make this stuff and what they call it, but this will suffice for our purposes.

• • •

Hello, Rexworld. This is treedweller filling in. As you are probably aware, this weekend is the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn. So, no doubt, Rex is sharpening his pencils, laying out his lucky outfit, studying atlases (MT. APO!), practicing with a mockup of the giant-sized puzzle he will see in the finals, and meditating over peppermint tea in preparation for the competition.

Though it's likely a large number of regular readers here are similarly occupied at the Super Bowl of Cruciverbalists, Mr Shortz was kind enough to leave a puzzle for us schlubs who couldn't make the trip. Some of us should find it to be a fairly easy Thursday offering. The rest of us have lives outside of baseball.

Theme answers:

1A Difficult political situation: (Hot) POTATO
1D Snacks in the frozen food aisle: (Hot) POCKETS
7A Chili: (Hot) PEPPER
12D Lover of souped-up engines: (Hot) RODDER
42D Spicy pretzel dip: (Hot) MUSTARD
43D It's hard to score: (Hot) TICKET
63A Real good-looker: (Hot) TAMALE
64A Showed off: (Hot) DOGGED
35A Third base, in baseball lingo ... or a hint for answering eight other clues in this puzzle: HOT CORNER

I am not a sports guy, but I grew up in a sports family, so I usually know the lingo pretty well. HOT CORNER is a new one on me. For a while, I thought 32D might be a nine o'clock scholar (...__'clock scholar: ATENO) and wondered if Hen Corner could be a thing. Maybe in quilting bees.

Each theme entry I filled in, I had a niggling thought that it didn't really make sense, though it would if preceded by HOT, but I still failed to put it together until I was three-quarters done. So this came out challenging for me. I think most people will find it easier than that. In the end, I guess it was kinda fun to see all the HOT phrases, but I was hit in too many blind spots and just plowed my way through it.

Bullets:

61A Gird: ENSTEEL— I envision enlivened enwranglement ensuing around this entry, though personally I find it perfectly cromulent.
18A Plop preceder: KER— pretty easy, once "cup of coffee" didn't fit.
TAL ELAM REE IGER ORECK ENID OLAS SISTA CITI— IRAE EZINE NUS
51D Latin lover's words: TEAMO— If I have to pick a team, I will happily choose Team O.

Of course, in ACPT there are no teams. It's you against the grid. You have to dig deep. You have to fight through the hard times. In this, Rex's last appearance, we send encouragement and inspiration to him and all his fellow contestants.

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day:DER ALTE(18A Old West German moniker) —
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman. As the first post-war Chancellor of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963, he led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that forged close relations with old enemies France and the United States.^[1] In his years in power Germany achieved

prosperity, democracy, stability and respect.^[2] He was the first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a coalition of Catholics and Protestants that under his leadership became and has since remained the most dominant in the country.
Adenauer, dubbed "Der Alte" ("the old one"), belied his age as the oldest elected leader in world history by his intense work habits and his uncanny political instinct. (from wiki)

• • •

It's Friday, and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament festivities begin this evening. First competitive puzzles are in the morning. Bookmark that link if you'd like to track results, as scores will be posted there whenever judges have them available.

This is treedweller, filling in for Rex so he can ~~drink and socialize~~ prepare for the event. In case you haven't heard, our fearless leader has announced this will be his last time to compete. And if that doesn't entice you, I hear there is a betting pool in a secret forum at one of the other blogs. Just send a couple of emails around and I'm sure you can get in. If you can pick the exact finishing order of all 579 contestants, I think it's paying twenty-to-one.

So, anyway, this is Friday and I finished without cheating. That usually qualifies as easy, but only because there is nothing easier in the ratings system. This is the kind of experience I always hope for late in the week: hard enough that I don't think I'm going to get more than a few answers at first, then I don't think I'll get more than half, then I

think I'll never get that last corner, then I realize the last three answers are obvious. Most of the time, I don't reach the last step or two more than once per weekend, so look out for tomorrow.

Plenty to like here, and nothing to complain about. Oh, I'm sure someone will drum something up to make conversation, but nothing that isn't worth the trade. Wait, got one: LADY GAGA crossing READY-TO-WEAR? As if!

Bullets:

43A Imitated a wound-up toy YIPPED—
29D Behave with respect to DO BY—At first, I YIPPED at DO BY, but I just needed a second to figure out why it works. That Y gave me a very confident YoyoED, which hurt me for some time. When I finally got it, it was off the P in
44D Ruthless sort PIRANHA— So, I enjoyed the bonus of imagining little, yippy dogs being atacked by PIRANHAs. Also, I never know where to put the H. I think the dogs would escape and possibly even kick the ~~pirhana pirahna~~ piranhas' AAAS. Those guys have some nippers. Pi ran. Ha!
40D Kia model SORENTO— I'm not even going to launch my usual rant about the corporate plug because it made possible a corner with a MOB BOSS (39D Icing supervisor?) and BEER GOGGLES (57A Bar glasses?).
15A One of the Big Three in credit reports EQUIFAX— Still not, even though my initial thought was Expedia, which led to a Travelocity-Orbitz-Priceline tangent. Because that got us
BEST BUDS (1D One of a tight pair)—I suppose the guy who introduced them would be their pairer, though I doubt you'd ever hear that colloquially. Please respect the children as you further discuss this clue in the comments. I don't want to get one of those google XXX flags on Rex's site the second day he's gone.
and aSUN BATH (17A Baking session). I already had a cross or two to rule out "batches" and was stumped for a second guess. I didn't even like it as an answer, but there it was. So I did a lot of undo/redo stuff here.
45DEatery seen in a "Manhattan" scene ELAINE'S—Still not, because this is iconic and I feel so sophisticated when I get the New York clues. Or, as they say in "The City," the Big Apple.
cf. 10D Parts of the Big Apple BOROS— It's Friday. They don't have to clue it as a variant or anything. But the urbane, modern, renaissance man picks these things up. I get around.
36A "The Whiffenpoof Song" ending BAA BAA BAA—I do have limits. I have only the vaguest idea what this song is. But once you get one BAA, you pretty much get them all.

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: David Steinberg and Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day:RONDEL(48D Chaucer's "Merciless Beauty," for example)— A rondel is a verse form originating in French lyrical poetry, later used in the verse of other languages as well, such as English and Romanian. It is a variation of the rondeau consisting of two quatrains followed by a quintet (13 lines total) or a sestet (14 lines total). The rondel was invented in the 14th century, and is arguably better suited to the French language than to English. It is not to be confused with the roundel, a similar verse form with repeating refrain.

• • •

Merciless Ambiguity

Your Number Five Puzzle will stump me suddenly;
Their wordplay mocks me who was once overweening;
Straight through its heart the long Down mocking, mean.

Only the right word will fill the injury
To my split grid, while yet the clock is running -
Your Number Five Puzzle will stump me suddenly;
Their wordplay mocks me who was once overweening.

Upon this clue, I tell you faithfully
My life and death in this contest does depend;
For with this fill the whole grid shall be seen.
Your Number Five Puzzle will stump me suddenly;
Their wordplay mocks me who was once overweening;
Straight through its heart the long Down mocking, mean.

Today, the contestants in Brooklyn for the ACPT stake out a chair, sharpen their pencils, get one last cup of coffee, make one last pit stop, array their lucky talismans, and launch into the official competition puzzles. It's been all socials and gladhanding up to now, but the tiger awakens when the timer starts and you hear the whoosh of five hundred sheets of paper being flipped simultaneously. Some tear into the puzzle like wild animals and propel themselves to the upper echelons. Some falter when a crucial answer will not come. A few doodle in the margins and plan to work their puzzles after the convention so they can savor them more. But none of them will have time for this extra newspaper puzzle.

Ha, ha! See what I did there? I was kidding. Every Single One Of Them will at least attempt this puzzle before the competition begins. Most of them solved it last night. A few of them have already posted to their blogs about it while I am sitting here typing.

Nevertheless, I think Mr. Shortz decided to go easy on us Average JOEs (31A Mud) while the serious solvers are at the tournament. I always know I have a fair chance when I see Mr. Silk's name in the byline, but this was not the challenge I expect on a Saturday. I'm not complaining, mind you. In fact, I feel godlike on these rare weekends when I can complete both Friday's and Saturday's puzzle. I might even get my taxes done today. And wash the dogs.
Bullets:

20A Bicycle support, informally SISSY BAR— I know some people are offended by the S word, and maybe the double entendre here is pushing the limits, but it makes me think of kids riding bikes. I like it.
9D Sominex alternative ADVIL® PM—well, after yesterday, I couldn't overlook this blatant shill.So, will I give it a pass on my standard of facilitating worthwhile fill?Since it crosses both sissy bar and Warren Zevon, I will.ButI DARE YOU to try that again.
42D Lugs GALOOTS— I learned it as a BRAT from watching Warner Brothers on many long-ago Saturday mornings.
55A Wine-tasting accessory SPITTOON— so, if you were thinking about getting into wine tastings, but wanted to be sure you could look suave and sophisticated as you participated, now you know. You spit into a bucket.
61A One stoked to provide warmth WOOD FURNACE— I thought it said "stroked" at first. Write your own wood jokes here.
28A Title science teacher of an old sitcom MR PEEPERS— Like, really old. Like, 1952 old (thank you, google). Because there's no way a guy named Mr. Peepers could get a job working with kids today.
Gets in a lather SUDSES— I haveses reservations about this word. It seemses made up.

Good luck, ACPT puzzlers. Remember, you're all winners. Don't get too worked up if things go badly. This is not healthy: [WARNING: NSFW language]

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Finn Vigeland

Relative difficulty: easy-medium-to-impossible, or, how quick do you catch on to rebuses?

THEME: "Condensation"— Seven pairs of crossing entries share a square that uses a dual interpretation of "WATER." In one direction, the word WATER is condensed into the square. In the other direction, the chemical notation for water is used (HHO, or, as it more commonly gets expressed, H₂O).

Word of the Day: TARTINE (89D Open-faced sandwich topped with a fancy spread) — An open sandwich, also known as an open face/faced sandwich, Ulrich Sandwich, bread baser, or tartine, consists of a single slice of bread with one or more food items on top. (per wiki)

• • •

The ACPT is through the first day of preliminary puzzles. This is treedweller, filling in while our regular host vies for all the glory. After six puzzles, Rex Parker is in 41st place overall, 16th in the B division. He is separated from the B Finals by 325 points. That's kind of a lot, but this morning's round is traditionally a Sunday-sized puzzle with more points available, so maybe a comeback is still possible. You can do it, Rex!

I first got an inkling of the rebus at MOUTH HOLE, but no combination of letters seemed to belong together as a subset. I knew there was a HO here and HO there, but still couldn't make my guesses match the required number of letters/boxes. I finally caught the twist at BATTLE OF WATERLOO

and filled things in pretty steadily after that. Final letter was the N of TARTINE/ENYO. I couldn't see a better guess, but got the "All squares filled" message instead of "Successful completion." I finally decided to admit defeat, asked for the solution, and saw that I'd only missed the rebus squares. Feel free to click on the link for the Wordplay blog's instructions on entering these answers properly, and if you found the magic combo of letters that gives Across Lite or the standalone ipad app satisfaction, please let us know in the comments.

Theme answers:

1D Refuse to hand over WITHHOLD
27A Subject of big 1970s headlines WATERGATE SCANDAL
16D Ski mask feature MOUTHHOLE
35A The second African-American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Oscar ETHEL WATERS
14D Last possible moment ELEVENTH HOUR
50A Seltzer CARBONATED WATER
67A Best Picture inspired by a Pulitzer-winning series of newspaper articles ON THE WATERFRONT
68D What an optimist has HIGH HOPES
Sinatra's classic song High hopesby tb139
85A Necklace decoration that's not from the sea FRESHWATER PEARL
80D "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" song HEIGH HO
102A Coastal structures countering erosion BREAKWATERS
84D Prominent features of the theme from "StarWars" FRENCH HORNS ---Not sure I like this. I don't really hear FRENCH HORNS as much as trumpets and synthesizers.
109A Historic event on June 18, 1815 BATTLE OF WATERLOO

Occasionally, someone new will find out I solve the NYT puzzle and ask why I like it. I get the biggest reactions when I talk about how I enjoy rebuses. To the uninitiated, it is appalling and unthinkable that sometimes you might need to enter more than one letter in a single square. But for me, and I think a lot of us, these are the days to look forward to. Having the double representation of water is a nice bonus. But, if tradition holds, the times people record on the applet will skew longer than usual. In fact, I just noticed the "puzzle info" in the ipad app calls it "nearly impossible." As a fan of the genre, I thought there were plenty of very gettable theme answers to alert us to the trick and allow the breakthrough for a fairly easy solve. This may just be the luckiest weekend of my life and all my first guesses turned out to be right. Anyway, my difficulty meter seems to be out of calibration recently. Go with what feels good to you.

I often find Sundays exhaust my interest before I get to the end, but this one came alive once I saw the rebus and I was a little surprised when I finished.

Bullets:

4D Software for touch-up artists PHOTOSHOP— I was trying to get off the whole product placement thing, but this is two Adobe products in two days. It did get us WATERGATE, a currently impossible-in-the-real-world HOLY SEE and somewhat related TRIPTYCHS. You call this one.
1A Direct descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrims, e.g. WASP — As in, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Not necessarily the 80s' metal band, W.A.S.P.
49D N.Y.U. athlete VIOLET— My worldly wisdom does not extend this far. I was highly skeptical that a school's mascot would be the girl who turned into a giant blueberry in Willie Wonka's factory. Turns out, it's just the color. The mascot is a bobcat.
97A Unilever soap brand LUX— [sigh.] I give up.

As always, I have been honored to take the reins here for a while, but I gotta tell ya, it's exhausting. Every day another freaking puzzle! If you enjoy reading Rex's commentary day in and day out, consider clicking the Donate button to the right of your screen. Believe me, he earns it.

I leave you with what is still my favorite ACPT video:

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Happy Monday!!! The BFFs are back because Rex is bussing it back to Binghamton after a glamorous weekend in New York City at the ACPT (Annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament? American Crossword Puzzle Tournament? Something like that). So when Rex asked for our help, we were thrilled as always to stand-in for the 31st fastest crossword puzzle solver in the universe. Or for the 40th fastest. Or the fastest in Westchester/Upstate New York. Whatever his rank, he'll always be number one to us.

Constructor:Robert Fisher

Relative difficulty: Monday = Easy (that's why Rex lets us blog)

THEME: ANIMALS - all of the theme answers begin with the name of a male animal

Word of the Day:BREVITY

brev·i·ty
noun \ˈbre-və-tē\
plural brev·i·ties
Definition of BREVITY
: shortness of duration; especially : shortness or conciseness of expression

Of course this word wasn't in the puzzle, but, we're tired and cranky because of the stupid time change (it's daylight SAVING time, not SAVINGS!!!). Also, the blog website was acting really buggy, (maybe it has FLEAS?), so we really need to get this done before it crashes (again) and we lose everything (again!)

• • •

Theme answers:

17A Prankish activity - TOMfoolery
23A Double-whammy economic condition - STAGflation
35A Without a stitch on - BUCKnaked
50A Impromptu, wide-ranging conversation - BULLsession
58A Shoddy and unsturdy - RAMshackle

The clue answers were pretty good, although we're not really sure that "TOM" fits as an animal. But we'll let it slide because we imagine that our BFF Rex managed to engage in some TOMFOOLERY while hanging with his puzzle friends in New York.

Clues we liked:

16A Rest ____ (roadside stop) - AREA — Rex took a bus from Binghamton to Brooklyn.
21A Attic accumulation - DUST — Whoever has dust in their attic is luckier than Liz. She has raccoons.
25D One nipping Nipper, maybe - FLEA— We loved this one. Even though in addition to the raccoons, Liz also had a flea infestation 2 years ago (I blame the "pet friendly" hotel in West Virginia, but, that's a story for another day).

How's that for brevity?

Signed, your favorite BFFs

Constructor: Bruece Sutphin and Neville Fogarty

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: Wax and wane — pairs of opposites hidden inside longer answers

Theme answers:

17A: Finishing up (WINDING TO A CLOSE)
30A: Window-shopping locale (STOREFRONT)
48A: Great source of humor (COMEDY GOLD)
63A: Ponce de León's quest (FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH)

Word of the Day: FALSE RIB (10D: Bone of the lower chest) —

The false ribs are the five sets of ribs below the top seven true ribs. A rib is considered to be "false" if it has no direct attachment to thesternum, also known as the breast bone. Of these:
the first three (eighth, ninth, and tenth rib) have their cartilages attached to the cartilage of the rib above (vertebro-chondral):
the last two (eleventh rib and twelfth rib) are free at their anterior extremities and are termed floating ribs or vertebral ribs because they connect neither with the sternum nor with another rib.^[1] These ribs are relatively small and delicate, and are capped by a cartilaginous tip. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello. How are you? I am fine. Also, I have a trophy that says "1st Place" on it.

I'll tell you all about my weekend at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament tomorrow (when I have more time and am less tired). For now, I'll just say it was, by far, the best time I've ever had at the ACPT. I still am not convinced that I want to continue competing (a lot of pointless adrenaline), and it's awfully expensive (after registration fees, room, food, etc.), but I know that at a minimum I'll continue to go back for the wacky cast of characters. I saw old friends and made many new ones. More people just walked up and introduced themselves to me this year than ever before. And yes, OK, some of those people accosted me in elevators and demanded apologies for my wrong-headed comments on their puzzles (I'm looking at you, Stu), but most were really quite kind and appreciative. I can now reconfirm that anyone who has suspected for even a second that they might enjoy going to one of these things really, really should. Tons of brilliant, genuinely nice people, and next to no pretension. A painfully decent yet massively entertaining lot, crossword people.

But back to my workaday gig here at the blog: it's like the Puzzle Gods are trying to harsh my weekend tournament buzz with today's offering. It's a quintessential gawky Tuesday puzzle, about which I liked virtually nothing (except the second co-constructor, Neville, who is my friend and who normally does exceptional work—you should really check out his personal puzzle blog, where he offers up a new puzzle every week) (I don't know Neville's co-constructor, Bruce, personally; if I did, I'd say nice things about him here). I think some of the independent puzzlers are beginning to send Will their cast-offs and hoarding their good stuff for their own puzzle endeavors. At the current puzzle pay scale, I can't blame them. At any rate, this one has all the things that irk me about Tuesdays: non-consecutive and seemingly arbitrarily placed circles; a bunch of dreadful short fill; clues that seem off and/or answers that don't seem appropriate for the day of the week. And then an inconsistent theme to boot— In & Out, Come & Go, To & Fro (all yeses); Win & Lose (no). Basically, it was non-love at first sight.

Ugly stuff: ISE next to ASE near OKEMO below IZZY (21A: "Miami Vice" informant) ... IZZY??? With that clue? What year is it? I've never heard of this character (from a 25-year-old TV show that I'm guessing most crossword solvers didn't watch when it was on the air). That answer represents a very bad case of Scrabble-f*$%ing, I think. Pyrrhic Zs. Yipes. And crossing olde-timey AYRES? (19D: Actor Lew) Just ... rough. Mostly, clues were hard by virtue of vagueness. [Acts] = LAWS slowed me down. [Big failure] = FLOP slowed me down (any constant solver can instantly name at least three other 4-letter answers that'll work there). So while I don't like this puzzle, I'd have not liked it less on a Wednesday. Initial times posted at the NYX site show that I am not alone in my comically slow time. If you're gonna be tougher than usual, be gooder than usual! None (or very little) of this Tolkien meanie / Prince Valiant's son / Hawaiian bird / Oklahoma city / "Born Free" lioness / Nash's lama baloney.

I like I'M A PC, but not on Tuesday (27D: Apple ad line). Seems more Saturday to me. Love the SE corner, but I'm guessing not everyone knows and loves ED WOOD the way I do (50D: Director of "Bride of the Monster"). 15A: City with Aces Ballpark (RENO)? Only constant solvers and Nevadans know that. Between toughness and crosswordesiness, there was a general unpleasant feeling. Biggest issue I had was with cluing on COMEDY GOLD, which is an answer I didn't get forEver. I had COMEDY GALA (OKEMA seemed fine for the Vermont ski resort, and AAA seemed fine ... apparently I didn't look at the clue at first—[46D: Oklahoma city] = ADA). First, the phrase itself, COMEDY GOLD, is not the most familiar thing in the world. I'm sure I've heard it—maybe even used it—but it doesn't spring to mind easily. And then there's the "source" part of the clue. Would've thought the COMEDY GOLD was the humor itself, not the "source" of the humor. You go to a mine to get gold. The mine is the source. Anyhoo, I fumbled that answer badly.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Joe DiPietro

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: OPERA (64A: Each of this puzzle's long Across answers sounds like one) puns — Wacky, "?"-clued phrases that sound like famous operas

Theme answers:

17A: Lady paid for one insect? (MADAM BOUGHT A FLY)
26A: Rodent that lets air out of balloons? (DEFLATER MOUSE)
44A: Spanish rum cake? (BABA OF SEVILLE)
57A: Headline after one of Becker's Wimbledon wins? (BORIS GOOD ENOUGH)

Word of the Day: ALLELE (31A: Gene arising through mutation) —

n.
One member of a pair or series of genes that occupy a specific position on a specific chromosome.

[German Allel, short for Allelomorph, allelomorph, from EnglishALLELOMORPH .]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/allele#ixzz2NNmaYcrT

• • •

Hey! Puns and opera! Who doesn't like puns and opera? I mean, besides me.

I think this is a decent, cute puzzle. Nowhere near my wheelhouse, or pleasure center, or splash zone, or whatever, but whaddyagonnado? They can't all be custom-made for my delectation, sadly. Found this one pretty slow going, both because puns were somewhat challenging to piece together, and some of the clues were tough. Actually, biggest problem was the arcane words in a couple of clues. No idea what a heckelphone is, so no idea what its "cousin" was either, until I had many crosses (41D: Heckelphone cousins = OBOES). And I blanked on what a taradiddle was. My failure to get to FIB from [Taradiddle] was, by far, the biggest thorn in my side. See, I assumed MADAM had an "E" on the end. I really feel like "MADAME BUTTERFLY" is how I've seen it in print, somewhere, before. And it seems I'm correct, that is the spelling ... in the English version of the OPERA title. But here, the clue apparently indicates not a title ("Madame"), but just a woman ("MADAM"). Wish I'd understood that while solving, because man did I screw up that answer on the first pass. When my grid was (finally) done, I was staring at MADAMEOUGFTAFLY. Not ... pretty. The "F" comes from my (wrong) answer at 9D, OOF, which is not only defensible, but, given the (terrible) clue, preferable. ["That's gotta hurt"] gets you OOH? OOH conveys only pleasure or awe to me. I can see how one might say it with a tone that would give it a "That's gotta hurt" feel, so it's defensible, but OOF, it's pretty flimsy. Anyway, I had to go through that first answer cross by cross to figure out what the hell was wrong. Tardiddle heckelphone. Taradiddle heckelphone. Taradiddle heckelphone. Quaint.

[42A: Sweet 'un]

Friendly crosswordese helped me out along the way today. OJAI was a gimme (2D: City easy of Santa Barbara), REO came off the "R" (21A: Old touring car), and I somehow got NOYES with just a cross or two in place, which almost never happens (despite having seen NOYES in puzzles many times over the years, my brain has no idea where to put him and so puts him nowhere) (13D: Poet best known for "The Highwayman"). AGORAE was also easy, though I went with AGORAS at first (I think of -AE as a Latin plural ending, and it is, but apparently it's a Greek plural ending as well) (6D: Ancient markets). As with NOYES, I learned the word ALLELE from crosswords (31A: Gene arising through mutation), though that one has stuck with me better, perhaps because a onetime reader of this blog was a neuroscientist who told me she encountered the word regularly after I claimed to have encountered the word never. Little exchanges like that can make words stick. Not much else to speak of. Got COFFEE MILL pretty easily (11D: Grinder of a sort), though felt odd writing in the MILL part (seems archaic / strange). Got BIAS from [Diagonal] with no crosses, which pleased me greatly. Had DRIES OUT before DRIES OFF (you do the latter with a towel, not a fire—come on) (39D: Sits by a fire after a drenching, say). So ... OK. That's it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a little something about this past weekend's ACPT. There have already been numerous good write-ups. Eric Berlin's is particularly good on the details of the finals. This year's tournament was won, once again, by Dan Feyer, and it wasn't really close. Anne Erdmann came in 2nd, a big big deal for her after several years of 3rd-place finishes. Five-time champion Tyler Hinman came in third, and was courageous and hilarious in defeat.

As for me, I came in 40th, or so I thought. I appear to have fallen another slot to 41st in the past couple of days as scores get recalibrated. 41st is a ten-position drop from where I ended up the last time I competed (2011), but I did manage to beat my regional nemesis, Arnold Reich, as well as this other pesky solver named Jennifer Turney, who was *right* on my tail until the very end. Thus I claimed my first ever First Place trophy for the New York / Westchester region. Hurray? Yes, hurray. My ten-point drop in the standings can be explained almost entirely by the always vicious Puzzle 5, which was more vicious to me this year than it had ever been before. I've almost always solved that beast of a puzzle much more quickly than most of my peers, but not this year. I had a terrible time: around 20 minutes. But at least I finished, and with no errors. The vast majority of competitors didn't even manage to finish in the allotted 30 minutes. And it was a Patrick Blindauer puzzle! I'd been hanging out with him. Jeez louise, I'd watched him edit puzzles for weeks back when we were putting together American Red Crosswords. You'd think I'd have some feel for his work, some insight into his constructor-brain. Apparently not. Or not a lot. Still, I'm pleased. I finished every puzzle cleanly. Only 60 some-odd contestants out of 570-something can claim that. The main joy of the tourney, however, was seeing friends. I think fully a third of my total number of Facebook Friends were at the tournament, and it felt great to see people I know and like everywhere I turned. (Full tournament results here)

[Jeff Chen posing with Ann Erdmann and her trophies]

If you find tournaments daunting or intimidating, first of all, they're not. Second of all, you should try the Lollapuzzoola tournament this summer—it takes place at All Souls Church, on the upper east side of Manhattan, on Sat., Aug. 10. The atmosphere is very relaxed and informal, and there is a, let's say, zany element that you don't get at the ACPT, even though the puzzle quality is every bit as high. Plus, it's just $25. Register here now. NOW. For real. I guarantee you will be glad you did.

And so to bed.

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: quote from ALBERT / EINSTEIN — "CREATIVITY / IS THE RESIDUE OF / WASTED TIME" (18A: Beginning of a quote by 3-/31-Down on which Stephen Colbert commented "I hope teenagers aren't watching this right now")

Word of the Day: DHOTI (30D: Indian attire) —

The dhoti also known as pancha, panche or veshti is a traditional men's garment worn in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. It is a rectangular piece of unstitched cloth, usually around 4.5 metres (15 ft) long, wrapped around the waist and the legs and knotted at the waist, resembling a long skirt. (wikipedia)

• • •

Under five minutes on a Thursday is pretty dang good for me. The thing that confuses me most about this quotation is the clue. It needs context. Without it, I don't know what the joke is—is it that teenagers are already lazy and don't need encouragement? Most of the teenagers I know are fantastically over-scheduled, so the "teenagers waste time" thing doesn't ring very true. But I like the quotation. It's a nice sentiment. You don't see quotation puzzles that much any more. I tend to like them funny, when I like them at all, but as pithy, motivational quote puzzles go, this is fine. Solving-wise, I just had some minor hiccups here and there—nothing that held me up much at all. If I've heard of a DHOTI before, I forgot about it today. That one answer made the SW slightly hard to get into, just as RHODO (WTF-O?) partly blocked my entry to the NE. I do not think of "Rock, Paper, SCISSORS" as a "kids' game" (13D: One of three choices in a kids' game)—adults play it. Hell, some adults play it competitively. Yeah, there are tournaments and everything. So that answer took some effort. I also forgot BARI existed, so I had to hammer it together from crosses (59A: Italian port). Nothing much else here to remark on. Oh, I saw OSSIE Davis in "The Cardinal" (1963) the other day. I bet not many of you can say that.

NERO was a gimme (daughter is a newly minted Trekkie who just watched the 2009 "Star Trek" movie for the first time last week) (37A: 2009 "Star Trek" villain). There wasn't much in my wheelhouse, but I was oddly proud of my ability to pull the olde-timey stuff out of my bag of tricks quickly today. Got SAHL instantly, with no crosses (51D: Comic who said "A conservative is someone who believes in reform. But not now"), and got INK SPOTS off just the IN- (33D: 1940s quartet with the #1 hit "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," with "the"). You know, I've never actually seen "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"—weird. Anyway, if the crosses hadn't prevented it, I'd probably thrown down TIM CURRY at 11D: Player of Eddie in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (MEAT LOAF). He and Susan Sarandon are the actors from that movie that come to mind most readily. Bummed at my slowness picking up SEÑORITA (34D: Eligible one in El Salvador). Something about the election of a pope from Latin America today put my brain in the wrong frame of mind on that clue.

Puzzle could've used a little toughening up (Actress Sorvino? Actor Davis? Really?), but it was interesting and inoffensive.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MULETAS (28A: Matadors' red capes) —

n.
A short red cape suspended from a hollow staff, used by a matador to maneuver a bull during the final passes before a kill.

[Spanish, small mule, crutch, muleta, diminutive of mula, she-mule, from Latin mūla, feminine of mūlus, mule.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/muleta#ixzz2NZZASJMh

• • •

If your puzzle requires a MULETAS / MINAS crossing, then your puzzle is not worth making. It's that simple.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Julian Lim

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Carmen MCRAE (37A: Singer Carmen) —

Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable.^[1] McRae drew inspiration from Billie Holiday, but established her own distinctive voice. She went on to record over 60 albums, enjoying a rich musical career, performing and recording in the United States, Europe, and Japan. (wikipedia)

• • •

A mostly enjoyable Saturday effort. Many tough parts for me, but I still got through it in very respectable time—8:57, on paper. Pangrams (of which this puzzle is an example) are generally less disastrous in themelesses than they are in themed puzzles because there's just so much more freedom for a constructor, i.e. you're not trying to shove every letter of the alphabet into a grid that's already pretty well taken up with theme answers. Still, whenever I see one, I have to wonder if the fill could've been better had the constructor put kwality above A-to-Z-ness. INURN is always very painful, and with ENTS (14D: M.D.'s with tiny flashlights) and FRESCAS (!), contributes to a rather ugly patch there in the NE. Also, DUCTED? Yuck-ted. URE PERF!? (8D: Strict follower? + 9D: Stamp feature, in philately lingo) Hoo boy, no. But: there's lots of spice and pizzaz here to make up for the short gunk. I especially liked QUICK BUCK, "I WAS HAD!", and CRAZY IDEA, and the entire SE (minus the R.R.N. at 60D) really looks great. I don't know what a HOME LAB is. I assume it's a LAB that you have in your HOME. I had noooo idea who ALAN PAGE was (40A: Football Hall-of-Famer who became a Minnesota Supreme Court justice), so I had to build him brick by brick. But it's a *cross*word puzzle, so even though I was ignorant about the football player, I could use *crosses* to fill in every letter. Also, because ALAN and PAGE are both common names, even if I hadn't known all the crosses, I could've *inferred* virtually any letter in ALAN PAGE's name if I'd had to. Sorry to get all basic on you, but sometimes it's important. ("¡Minas Muletas!")

I'm somewhat surprised at how quickly I got through this thing given how laden it is with "?" clues and cross-referencing—things that tend to slow all solvers down. Maybe it wasn't so much the amount of cross-referencing as the placement. 24D: Like 49-Down is at the heart of the puzzle, connecting all the various parts together, and yet ... you can't get at it unless you get down into the SE *or* just piece it together from crosses. I chose the latter route, and ended up filling in RUBBERY and then using that to help me guess 49D: Stuff in a swim cap (LATEX). 11D: What a 64-Across may comprise was another important long answer that you needed to look elsewhere to understand. So again I just hammered at it with crosses until it resembled a word that might go with the clue at 64A: Gift for a TV buff. Getting ONE SEASON helped me change a wrong answer—IBMS to ABMS (not sure why I decided ICBMS might also be IBMS, but I did). I think the biggest aids to my quick solving today were the rapper and the JAZZ singer, both of whom were gimmes. God knows why I remember JA RULE, but I do (26A: Rapper with the 2002 #1 hit "Always on Time"). The "J" from JA RULE was undoubtedly important, but it's MCRAE who really opened up the grid, especially with the nearby cross-reference answer JAZZ (43A: Genre for 37-Across). "Z"s will break a puzzle Open! CRAZY IDEA and TANZANIAN came pretty quickly thereafter.

Bullets:

10A: High-hatter's wear? (TOQUE)— Got it easily. Don't "get" it. It's high why? Does a pilot wear a TOQUE? I thought it was a chef's hat.
17A: Sheepskin source (ALMA MATER) — Nice clue. Hard to see at first because I had the first letter as "N" for a while (from incorrect HINDI at 1D: Studier of sutras (SWAMI), which I changed after finally deciding MOSTEST was correct at 19A: Maximum, nonstandardly).
38A: Fukuda's predecessor as Japan's P.M. (ABE)— yeah, I'm never gonna be able to keep Japanese P.M.s straight. Thank you, crosses!
39A: Italian game akin to pétanque (BOCCI) — seems tough until you realize, c'mon, how many "Italian games" do you actually know? That's right. You know one. This one.
49A: Yuri's beloved, in literature (LARA) — she of the Theme. Gimme gimme gimme.
2D: Final aim, to a philosopher (TELOS) — I use this word all the time in my teaching. Still took me a while to get.
13D: Supervillain from Krypton (URSA) — you'd think I'd've committed this non-contellation URSA to memory by now. You'd be wrong.
27D: Pace of "Pushing Daisies" (LEE) — uh, OK, if you say so.
31D: Baroque "key of glory": Abbr. (D MAJ.) — got the MAJ and waited ... for DUCTED. :-(
47D: Role for both Burton and Amos in a 1977 miniseries (KINTE) — "...blah blah blah 1977 miniseries." Answer achieved.
53D: With 54-Down, start of a historic telegraph message ("WHAT / HATH ...") — bit scary there for a bit, since I could only think of "Come here, Watson, I need you..." (yeah, phone, I know). Also, I had LED IN, not HAD IN at 58A: Welcomed to one's house, so instead of -HAT -ATH I had -LAT - ETH . After rejecting "FLAT BETH!", I proceeded in a more reasonable direction.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: J. R. Leopold

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Any Pun For Tennis?" — familiar phrases, clued as if they related to tennis

Theme answers:

23A: Tennis clinic focusing on drop shot skills? (NETWORKING EVENT)
38A: Coaches who help you use your wrist in shots? (SPIN DOCTORS)
49A: Tennis players who clown around? (COURT JESTERS)
67A: "For a righty, you hit the ball pretty well on your left side," and others? (BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS)
88A: Line judge's mission? (FAULT-FINDING)
96A: "Nothing" and "aught"? (LOVE HANDLES) — this clue (unlike all the others) has nothing directly to do with tennis. Odd.
116A: Luke Skywalker's volley? ("RETURN OF THE JEDI")
17D: Mistakenly hitting into the doubles area during a singles match? (ALLEY OOPS)
78D: Start of a tennis game? (SERVE TIME)

Word of the Day: RUBATO (54A: Having freedom of tempo)—

n., pl., -tos.
Rhythmic flexibility within a phrase or measure; a relaxation of strict time.

adj.
Containing or characterized by rubato.

[Italian (tempo) rubato, stolen (time), rubato, past participle of rubare, to rob, of Germanic origin.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/rubato#ixzz2Nki0gE1x

• • •

An important announcement up front about a friend of mine and a frequent contributor to this blog's comments section, Jennifer Tanner (JenCT). If you've attended the ACPT in Brooklyn in past years, you've seen her—long brown hair, bright smile, wheelchair. Jen has MS. She was not at the ACPT this year because she was off picking up her new service dog, Ollie (a gorgeous black lab). Here they are together:

I have a particular affection for Jen—I sat and watched the ACPT finals with her a few years back, and got to meet her and her family (incredibly sweet people). Jen has also made neckerchiefs for both my dogs out of this crossword-patterned fleece material. Now, I generally shun all crossword-patterned garments, but my *dogs* wear those neckerchiefs proudly, every day. Anyway—Service dogs are super expensive, and Jen is trying to raise $9500 to offset the cost of raising her dog. The non-profit NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services, aka Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans) does amazing work, and Jen has a personal webpage there that allows people to donate directly to the cost of her dog. Please, if you are at all able, if you have enjoyed this blog and/or the people who read it, if you have even a spare $10, please consider contributing to Jen's cause. If you were considering donating money to this blog this year (as many of you generous people have), please, give it to Jen instead—at least 'til she meets her goal. Then, by all means, send all your spare cash to me. Jen is a lovely woman and an important part of the community that has grown up around this blog. Any help you can provide would be Phenomenal.

Read her story and donate HERE: http://www.neads.org/pages/donate/client-pages/client-tanner-jennifer

[Be sure to select "JENNIFER TANNER" from the drop-down menu on the Donation page]

Thanks!

===

THE PUZZLE!

I took one look at the title and shouted "No! God, no! No puns for tennis!" Then I accepted my fate and dove in. As pun puzzles go, this one is pretty good. Answers themselves aren't punny, but their clues turn them into a species of pun, I suppose. Aside from the fact that there's nothing particularly tennis-y about the clue on LOVE HANDLES, the theme was consistent and the "puns" at least mildly interesting (I like the idea of Luke Skywalker swapping out his light saber for a tennis racket). Lots of middle-length non-theme fill gave this one some life. JOE JONAS (32D: Middle brother in a 2000s pop trio) and OCTOMOM (35D: Epithet for Nadya Suleman) gave the puzzle a contemporary feel, and most of the other 7+-letter Downs, while not scintillating, are at the very least solid. DIM PAST was the one that took me longest to get—found it really irritating until I got it; then I thought, "yeah, OK, that works" (52D: Barely remembered days of old).

I do want to point out, however, that this is the third day in a row with a questionable cross. I should not be able to tell you at what exact square most people non-finishers / mistake-makers will wipe out, but I can tell you with almost complete certainty that today, that square is the RUBATO / SUBIC crossing. Let's all agree that SUBIC (44D: ___ Bay, former U.S. base in the Philippines) is by far the more obscure term of the two, and probably the most obscure thing in the grid. The vast majority of solvers are going to have to piece SUBIC together *entirely* from crosses, and all those crosses are common phrases or terms from non-specialized languages—except RUBATO, which requires specific, specialized knowledge indeed. I pulled RUBATO out of god knows where (after entertaining a "G" and an "M" for that square), but the point isn't how I got it or what I do or don't know or whether you, specific dear reader, "knew it." It's that one can foresee the inevitable failure of many solvers, right there. In that square. Guaranteed. This is not a flaw in the solvers—it's a flaw in the construction. It's not about whether you should or shouldn't know RUBATO or whether it's valid. Of course it is. Not the point. It's that you've got a *highly* obscure geographical term crossing clearly specialized knowledge at a totally uninferrable square. This is a design flaw. To illustrate my point further, let me direct you to SUBIC's symmetrical counterpart — an equally nutso-looking bit of fill, NACIO (70D: "Singin' in the Rain" composer ___ Herb Brown). As with SUBIC, I had to hammer that thing out *entirely* from crosses. But check out NACIO's crosses: COMPLIMENTS, RARE, SAUCER, FINDING, ODE. Not a specialized term or odd word in the bunch. Clue 'em as trickily as you want, everyone has a fair chance of getting them, eventually. This is why I can tell you that despite NACIO's obscurity, no one is wiping out on that side of the grid. *If* they are wiping out, they're wiping out across town, where the manifestly bad cross is. This is not a "bad luck" problem, the way some struggling solvers seem to assume. This is a structural problem, an editorial / construction flaw, and people who make these things for a living know it. The problem is that ordinary people don't test these things. Pros do. And sometimes I wonder if they can see where crosses are going to go terribly, horribly wrong. Today's isn't as bad as either Friday's (yeesh) or Saturday's (that obscure LEE guy had not one but two not-that-famous proper noun crosses—totally avoidable clusterf**k). But I still think you gotta do something about a crossing that will predictably and unentertainingly blow up the grids of a sizable chunk of solvers.

Of course it's possible your problems involved OLERUD / AMIDOL (59D: Batting champ John + 64A: Photo developing compound) ... or that you had no problems whatsoever.

Again, I liked this puzzle. Solid work. The bad cross thing has Got to stop, though.

Bullets:

9A: Classic verse that begins "Ah, broken is the golden bowl!" ("LENORE") — EAPOE! (now *there*'s some ugly fill). Sort of in my wheelhouse and it still took a good deal of effort.
32A: Young actor Smith (JADEN)— Will Smith's son. I could think only of JADA for a good long while (she's W. Smith's wife).
119A: Hit single-player game of the 1980s (SIMON) — Ha ha. Awesome. I was totally baffled until I got the last cross, and remembered that damn fat disc with the primary-colored buttons that would play a sequence that you'd then have to play back. That was SIMON, right? Clue had me thinking video games. Big mistake.
2D: Setting for a 1935 Marx Brothers comedy (OPERA) — as in "A Night at the..." Not a big Marx Brothers fan. Took me a while. I thought "setting" would be a geographical location at first.
9D: Modern kind of name (LOGIN) — Clue felt nonsensical at first. But it's ... sensical enough.
68D: Anchor-hoisting cry ("HEAVE HO!") — I love this. And TIP JAR (99D: Container on a counter, maybe). Seriously, there's really not That much gunk in here. It's just that the small bits of gunk are Pretty Gunky (see above).
80D: Either Zimbalist (EFREM) — I admire the "whatever" attitude of this clue.
92D: 1958 hit with the line "Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip" ("GET A JOB") — I love a clue I have to sing to get. Yes, that literally happened—me just saying "yip" a bunch of times. Hey, it worked.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Daniel Landman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: S.I. UNITS (38A: Basic physical measures ... or a hint to 17-, 27-, 48- and 63-Across)— theme answers are two-word phrases, first word starting with "S," second word starting with "I."

Word of the Day: S. I. UNITS (38A: Basic physical measures ... or a hint to 17-, 27-, 48- and 63-Across) —

n
(Mathematics & Measurements / Units) any of the units adopted for international use under the Système International d'Unités, now employed for all scientific and most technical purposes. There are seven fundamental units: the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, candela, and mole; and two supplementary units: the radian and the steradian. All other units are derived by multiplication or division of these units without the use of numerical factors (freedictionary.com)

• • •

This puzzle made me laugh out loud. I don't think I have ever not known the revealer on a Monday. I mean, never ever heard of it!? I just assumed it was one of those weird moments where I don't know something that everyone else does. But since I confessed not knowing it (on Twitter and Facebook), scores of folks have come out of the woodwork and admitted same. I'm sure it's an ultra-familiar term for many, many people, particularly scientists, but my Humanities friends and I were baffled. No big deal, though, as I was able to infer the "I" in S.I. UNITS from just a quick glance at the theme answers. I probably would've guessed "I" even without the theme answers to guide me, but dang if I can ever remember stupid Bob IGER's name. I'm not very impressed with this theme. I haven't tried to come up with "S.I." phrases, but I'm guessing there are many. Or several. The ones that populate this grid ... are not exactly scintillating. But they're fine. They're acceptable. The whole puzzle is acceptable. I did get a bit of a kick out of GRIMALDI (8D: Ruling house of Monaco) and UPTURNED (40D: Like a snob's nose), but most everything else was just 4- and 5-letter OK-ness.

Theme answers:

17A: Native Floridians (SEMINOLE INDIANS)
27A: Denizen of the least populous New York City borough (STATEN ISLANDER)
48A: Clark Kent vis-à-vis Superman (SECRET IDENTITY)
63A: Stickler's grammatical no-no (SPLIT INFINITIVE)

Aside from the revealer, there wasn't much in the way of resistance today. MICAH is a slightly tough 1-Across (Book after Jonah), but all the crosses were so easy that it materialized quickly nonetheless. I had the tiniest of hiccups at 10A: Floating arctic mass (FLOE— wanted BERG ... might've written BLOG ...) and at 68A: Board game insert (RULES— wanted BOARD ... which never had a chance, really). My wife is highly dubious that anyone has ever actually written the letters "S.W.A.K." on a love letter (69A: Love letter abbr.). She got it all from crosses and then inferred the meaning ("sealed with a kiss"). I didn't blink. Seen it in puzzles before (but only in puzzles). I guess it beats SDAK.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Yellow-eyed birds of prey / WED 2-27-13 / Cybermenaces / Sonata finale often / Late 19th-century anarchist's foe / Pre-election ad buyer / Online party reminder

Bowl-shaped part of ear / THU 2-28-13 / French wave / Family name on Roseanne / 1997 Nicolas Cage John Malkovich thriller / Bit of mountain flora

Real-estate mogul Olenicoff / FRI 3-1-13 / Whitman Cantata composer / Fangorn Forest denizens / Greg Evans comic strip / Part of iconic Eden outfit / Genre that glorifies gunplay / Regime change catalyst / Baccarat cousin

Eddie's partner in musical comedy / SAT 3-2-13 / Cannery Row brothel owner / 1958 spy novel set in Jamaica / Jellyfish krill / Texting counterpart of TY / Clarkson College locale / Toxicodendron diversilobum

Mathematician Paul / SUN 3-3-13 / British actress Diana / Chicago lakefront attraction / Cole Porter title woman / TV's Peter literature's Ben / Gold Silver waltz composer / Insect pupa sold as fish food / Fargo's partner / Sexologist's subject / Start of Willa Cather's Great Plains trilogy

Grassy expanse in Southwest / MON 3-4-13 / Nevada city on Humboldt River / Little Dickens girl / M.I.T. business school name / Bovine mouthful / Four-time Daytona 500 winner / Legal thriller author who wrote Presumed Innocent / Cantina chip

Repeated lyric in Java Jive / TUE 3-5-13 / Boom gaff / Paul Kruger Krugerrand fame / Seoul-based automaker / Operating system since 1969 / Oscar-winning film set in Iran

Ionian Sea vacation isle / WED 3-6-13 / 2000s Vienna state Opera conductor / Caesar of old TV / Rombauer of cookery / Built-in feature of Apple II / yalie's cheer word / Light tennis shots that fall just over net / Fenway nine on scoreboards

Gird, Certain kitchen knife, Eisner's successor at Disney, Spanish waves

Bald Mountain's Range, The woman in a J. P. Donleavy novel, Star of 2009's Fame Ball Tour,

Jane who was Chicago's first female mayor, Image on a denarius, Soviet attack sub, Kind if root in math

Greek war goddess, Puccini piece, Adriatic resort, Actress Eleniak

BFFs, Mon 3/11/13, Champion, Bugs, Fleas, Tomfoolery, Bussing

brev·i·ty

Definition of BREVITY

Miami Vice informant / TUE 3-12-13 / Director of Bride of Monster / City with Aces ballpark / Little Miss Sunshine vehicle / Bone of lower chest / Home of lion that Hercules slew

Gene arising through mutation / WED 3-13-13 / Like St Augustine in 1565 / Poet best known for Highwayman / Heckelphone cousins / City east of Santa Barbara

2009 Star Trek villain / THU 3-14-13 / Showy bloom to flower enthusiasts / 1940s quartet with #1 hit Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall / Wood in Tolkien films / Cerium samarium are rare ones / Allegheny plum

Matadors red capes / FRI 3-15-13 / Zaxxon maker / Gerais Brazilian state / corde piano pedaling direction / Doris Day film with song Ten Cents Dance / Pliable protein / Crescent-shaped bodies / What a biblical black horseman symbolizes

Fukuda's predecessor as Japan's PM / SAT 3-16-13 / Supervillain from Krypton / Final aim to philosopher / Baroque key of glory / Role for both Burton Amos in 1977 miniseries / Italian game akin to petanque / Football Hall of Famer Minnesota Supreme Court justice / Yuri's beloved in literature

Having freedom of tempo / SUN 3-17-13 / Bay former US base in Philippines / Classic verse that begins Ah broken is golden bowl / Middle brother in 2000s pop trio / Epithet for Nadya Suleman / Young actor Smith / Hit single-player game of 1980s / Either Zimbalist

Disney chief Bob / MON 3-18-13 / Basic physical measures / Ruling house of Monaco