Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Zhouquin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (for a Tuesday)

THEME: SILENT (69A: ___ movies (8-, 20-, 39- and 57-Across, in a way)— first letters of all the movies are silent:

Theme answers:

PSYCHO (8A: 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller)
WRECK-IT RALPH (20A: 2012 John C. Reilly animated film)
DJANGO UNCHAINED (39A: 2012 Quentin Tarantino western)
KNIGHT AND DAY (57A: 2010 James Mangold action comedy)

Word of the Day: George MEADE (27D: General at Gettysburg) —

George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a career United States Armyofficer and civil engineer involved in coastal construction, including several lighthouses. He fought with distinction in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War. During the American Civil War he served as a Union general, rising from command of a brigade to the Army of the Potomac. He is best known for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

• • •

The premise feels slightly flimsy, and I don't like the revealer clue at all (essentially a non-clue), but for what it is, this puzzle holds up OK. Theme is consistent, silent letters are all different, and the movies are nicely varied by genre (though much less so by time period). The proper noun-ness of it all, coupled with some tough and/or not-great cluing, made this lean slightly toward the harder side for me. I blame this mainly on COAT TREE (41D: Front hallway item), a term I never encounter. I had RACK, of course, which is a term I *do* encounter. Then when that proved wrong, I had nothing there for a bit. Really, really could've used tail end of that answer to get into that southern section, as the [Rice on a shelf] clue (ANNE) was wicked for a Tuesday, as was [Jet fighter?] (SHARK), and that movie down there, "KNIGHT AND DAY"??? …. WTF? What is a "James Mangold"? Also, what is that movie? Besides the worst and more tiresome pun ever? Here is the theme's one big flaw—that movie is a super-outlier, fame-wise. All the others are Academy Award-nominated movies. This one: isn't. Holy crap, I just looked this movie up—Mangold is a director (?!), and this movie starred … Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz!?!? Was this a hit? 'Cause it *really* got by me. Wikipedia says box office was $260 million worldwide. I have no idea what those numbers mean anymore.

I would never in a million years have thought to clue "WRECK-IT RALPH" as a [2012 John C. Reilly animated film]. I'd've gone with a general description of the film for the clue—animated films aren't as readily identifiable by the actors as regular films are, and anyway, it's not like you'd have ruined theme cluing consistency, as this clue is *already* the outlier (all the other theme answers being clued by their directors).

Bullets:

68A: Arabic name meaning "high" (ALI)— had the "A" and wrote in AGA … then ALY. … never mind that those are not Arabic terms. The middle eastern-ness plus the "A" plus "high" triggered some spontaneous crosswordese reaction in me that I was powerless to stop.
66A: Knitted item for a baby (BOOTIE) — had trouble here, both because I feel like this word sometimes gets spelled differently in puzzles (namely as BOOTEE) and also because my first stab was ONESIE.
1D: Beginning or end of "Athena" (SCHWA) — another Tuesday toughie. Needed many crosses to get this one. With another answer that often befuddles me, PRE-K, I lucked out, as I had both the "P" and the "K" before I ever saw the clue.

Hope you enjoyed the USA victory over Ghana, or are not too sad about Ghana's loss to the USA, or enjoyed continuing not to care about soccer. All I can say is it's a good thing these footballers are not USA-famous, because our crosswords would soon be overrun with about 200 new names, all of them 4 to 5 letters long: AYEW, NANI, ETO'O, ENOH, WEBO … those last three just from the Cameroon squad alone. Oh, and FYI, the US coach is JÜRGEN KLINSMANN (15). Seems like he might've just become fair game.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Amy Johnson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: BLANK TILE (58A: What you'd need to play 26-, 29-, 43- or 45-Across) — A Scrabble-related theme, where all the theme answers contain two of a letter for which there is only one tile in Scrabble (hence the need for the BLANK TILE to play the word—BLANK TILEs can be any letter you want them to be, or so I understand; I don't play)

Theme answers:

JUJITSU (26A: Japanese "soft art" (max opening score of 92 points))
TSKTSKS (29A: Sounds of censure (max opening score of 80 points))
SPAZZES (43A: Totally inept sorts (max opening score of 104 points))
XEROXED (45A: Ran off, in a way (max opening score of 94 points))

Word of the Day: SEAL (7D: One-named singer who married Heidi Klum) —

Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel (born 19 February 1963), known by his mononym Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and is known for his numerous international hits, including "Kiss from a Rose", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1995 film Batman Forever. He was a coach on The Voice Australia in 2012 and 2013.
Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award. As a songwriter, he received the Ivor Novello award, for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, in consecutive years for "Killer" (1990)and "Crazy" (1991). [ed.: IVOR!] [wikipedia]

• • •

This puzzle had a tough hill to climb with me from the get-go, as I can't stand Scrabble. I won't go into detail, but, yeah, joyless game for insufferably competitive word-list memorizers (except you—you're not like that at all; I wasn't talking about you). Yuck. I think I read some of WORD FREAK a decade or so ago—whenever it came out. But I couldn't finish; nothing to do with the writing, everything to do with the culture being documented. So, as I say, I was not predisposed to like this. Adjusting for that prejudice, this seems a decent enough puzzle. It doesn't seem any great shakes to get these particular words into the grid. Lots of words have two "K"s, or two "Z"s, so the word choices seem quite arbitrary. Also, TSKTSKS is possibly the worst word ever invented—no joy seeing that in the grid. But the puzzle has a consistent core concept, and WORD FREAK is a good, reasonably contemporary tie-in, and the fill is no worse than average, so I'll give this a passing grade. If nothing else, the Scrabbly letters get you some colorful crosses.

I was under the impression that SPAZ(ZES) was pejorative / offensive, and several dictionaries say "yes," but other sites say that the word lost whatever offensiveness it used to have, or that, at any rate, offensiveness is contextual. To me this word is like "retard," in the sense that I used it all the time when I was a kid to refer to, say, my sister, but I would never use it now (having acquired a somewhat larger vocabulary and a somewhat greater desire not to offend people unnecessarily). I found the word jarring, however Scrabble-legal. But I can't get too mad at a puzzle that contains EAT ME, PRICK!

Bullets:

1D: Mini-metro (TOWN)— I had no idea what this was getting at. To me, a "metro" is a form of public transportation. I think I wrote in TRAM.
6D: 1974 Mocedades hit whose English version is titled "Touch the Wind" ("ERES TU")— the only (and I mean only) thing that redeems this lengthy piece of pure crosswordese is its symmetrically with Yet Another U-ending word (XANADU).
65A: Guinness word (MOST) — it only occurred to me just now that this answer has nothing to do with beer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Medium (took a little longer than normal, but it's a little bigger than normal, so …)

THEME: TWENTY QUESTIONS (17A: Classic 1940s-'50s quiz show) — Twenty of theclues are written out as questions. Black squares form a "?" in the middle of the grid.

Word of the Day:"TTYL" (5D: What best-selling 2004 young adult novel was written entirely in the form of instant messages?) —

ttyl is a young adult novel written by Lauren Myracle and is also the first book in the 'Internet Girls' series. In 2004, it gained attention for being the first novel written entirely in the style of instant messaging conversation. The novel was a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and a Book Sensebestseller. "ttyl" is internet slang for "Talk to you later". (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle manages to be both a ridiculous and annoying themed puzzle and a fairly accomplished themeless puzzle. Thank god crossword clues aren't normally written in this trivia-question type way: hugely grating. Also, jarring to have conventional "?" clues (the ones with plays on words and what not) alongside these dumb trivia clues that end in "?" But as I say, the grid is impressive in its way, with lots of longer, interesting answers shooting both down and across the puzzle. All the long answers are arresting (and mercifully Real) words and phrases, except (ironically?) for the second theme answer: TOO TIRED TO THINK, which is not a thing. TOO DRUNK TO ****, that's a thing. This song, also a thing:

But TOO TIRED TO THINK? Despite its googling very well, I don't think so. Most of those google hits don't feature the phrase in self-standing form (usually it's "too tired to think about x y z…"). And anyway, what does tiredness have to do with anything? Or is this answer even a theme answer? Who Can Say? The answers to the "TWENTY QUESTIONS" (i.e. the 20 clues that are written in question form) are spread all over the grid willy-nilly, such that I have no idea what's holding this grid together beyond the black-square "?" picture in the middle. There's just no value in this theme. You could take any crossword grid and write 20 of its clues as questions—so what? So what we have here is an interesting themeless puzzle baked inside a pictorial grid, with some annoying, watery theme frosting spread over the top.

Today's mistakes included INBRED for INNATE (47D: Not acquired, say), NATO for OPEC (1A: What group founded in 1960 currently has 12 members?), TWO STAR for ONE STAR (49A: What rating does the Michelin Guide give to "a very good restaurant"?), and [blank stare] for LEONIA (44D: Neighbor of Teaneck, NJ).

Bullets:

6D: What is the oldest academic quiz competition in the U.S. (since 1948)? (HI-Q) — never heard of this, though it's oddly inferable. Clue seems to be (once again) largely lifted from wikipedia.
37A: School head, slangily (PREX)— Yuck. First I had to get used to PREXY (a term I've only ever seen in crosswords) and now you're telling me PREX is legit too? How is a PREX different from a PREZ? Who decided we needed a different abbr. when we already had a perfectly good one?
13D: What California congressman heads the House Oversight Committee? (ISSA)— Darrell. His brother Mel is also in the puzzle (42A: MEL ISSA).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ST. AFFA (whoops, nope, that's one word: STAFFA) (40D: Scottish island that's home to Fingal's Cave) —

Staffa (Scottish Gaelic: Stafa, pronounced [s̪t̪afa]) from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island, is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basaltreminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.
Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of the Isle of Mull. The area is 33 hectares (82 acres) and the highest point is 42 metres (138 ft) above sea level.
The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter'sHebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. (wikipedia)

• • •

I know at this point my not liking a quad stack puzzle is not remarkable, but this one really is terribly put together. There's just no concern for pleasure or (in parts) even general do-ability. A ton of people are just going to get trounced by the absurd proper nouns in this puzzle, mainly the names LETTS and (esp.) ETTORE (!?!). Honestly, both the "R" and the "E" in TRE (20A: ___ cord (piano direction)), were, for me, an out-and-out guess. Cross your fingers, hope for the best. It's just an obscure proper noun / foreign word train wreck right there. Also, who is LORA Leigh? What is "Hug O'WAR"? What is "A DOSE of Rock 'n' Roll"? If the fill in any of these cases was actually interesting and not the kind of horrid compromises we always see in quad stack crosses, maybe. But … wow. Even making allowances for my own personal anti-stack predilection, I found this miserable. Honestly, when I saw that there were not one but two ONE'S phrases in the first stack, I just stopped trying / caring. When we invent *joke* 15s, that is the kind of crap we make up—random phrases with ONE'S in them. ONE'S is now such a huge, obvious, joke of a crutch, that unless you can make a stack without resorting to such a phrase, just give up. Give. Up. See also REAL ESTATE SALES, a flimsy answer that exists solely to provide a long string of very common letters (54A: Focus of GHTV's "House Hunters").

HES, THES, THEE, AT ME… the absurd Scrabble-f***king in the east and west … the laughably obscure STAFFA… it's beyond me. You can have it. Good + night.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Brad Wilber and Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: W. C. Handy (22A: Handy talent? => BLUES) —

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a blues composer and musician.He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues".
Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a regional music style with a limited audience to one of the dominant national forces in American music.
Handy was an educated musician who used folk material in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from several performers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Ooh, a supergroup. Can a supergroup have just two members? I say yes. These are two of my favorite constructors, so when I say it was slightly weaker than I expected, keep in mind that I expect Amazing when I see either of these constructors' names. What I got was solid and entertaining—a nice Saturday challenge—but tepid in places (namely the whole big SW quadrant), with this one odd answer that's irritating me like an eyelash in my eye that I can't get out. That answer is RIS (32A: ___ d'agneau), an answer so … bad? I wanna say "bad"… that I feel like virtually all other alternatives in that "R"'s place would've been better, even ones that result in partials, abbreviations, unlikely plural names, etc. So I've never heard of this lamb dish (clearly). I've also had 7+ years of French and have no idea what "RIS" means unless it means "smile." Is the lamb smiling? Something tells me no. Here's the wikipedia definition:

Sweetbreads or ris are culinary names for the thymus (also called throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread) or thepancreas (also called heart, stomach, or belly sweetbread), especially of the calf (ris de veau) and lamb (ris d'agneau), and less commonly of beef and pork.

Still not sure exactly what "RIS" means, but I think it's a. French and b. not widely known outside specific culinary contexts. I'm torn here, in that the dishes are real things, so "RIS" is clearly a thing (though autocorrect has now turned it into "rid" half a dozen times so far during this write-up). But I'm deeply opposed to not-commonly-known foreign words. Maybe if the clue on OLDS were clearer, I would've simply forgotten about RIS. But it wasn't so I'm talking about this stupid little three-letter word instead of everything else the puzzle has to offer. And I guess this is my point—the last thing you want is to have something off, something rankling, in the connective tissue of your grid. It is apt to leave solvers with a bad taste, and take attention away from the worthier parts of the grid. NONI (also not a great answer) doesn't bother me nearly as much as the crosses are all clear, i.e. that one word, NONI, is not going to keep me from getting any of the crosses. But I had OLD_ and I looked at the clue, 19D: Onetime Toronado, e.g., informally, and I had no idea at first what was even meant. "Onetime" means that OLDS is no longer a brand name? If that's so, then the phrasing seems off. It didn't used to be a Toronado and then become something else or enter some new state of being. I wasn't even sure the thing in question was a car. Was worried this was a historical or a sports clue and the answer was going to be OLD [some letter]. But I took a flier on the car and it worked out. And still I am talking about this little section. . . Gah!

Really liked the NE—in fact, the whole eastern side of the grid is pretty nice. I'm much cooler on the west. NADERITE gets my vote for Most Original Answer of the Day (36D: Voter with a Green button, once). Crosswordese muscle memory helped me get DIONE (44A: Moon of Saturn) and ISERE (45D: River bordering the Olympic host sites Grenoble and Albertville). I wanted SOVIET ERA before STALIN ERA (29D: Setting for "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"). I got Dennis confused with what's his name, the prince … Prince Herbert, the guy who doesn't want to marry, doesn't want to inherit his father's land, but just wants to … sing!

So I had HEIR and even SIRE before SERF (33D: Dennis in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," e.g.). Dennis, you'll recall, is the "Constitutional Peasant"— a Marxist avant le lettre …

["Oh 'king', eh? Very nice."]

["King of the who?"]

["I thought we were an autonomous collective"]

["I'm your king.""Well I didn't vote for you."]

["You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"]

["Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!"]

TAD LINCOLN sounds like a heartthrob, but I'm guessing he wasn't (18A: Onetime White House resident with a cleft palate). Oh, he died at 18. That's sad.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Elizabeth C. Gorski

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME:"Dime Store"— rebus puzzle where the "¢" sign (represented by an "I" in the Down and a "C" in the Across) must be written into ten different squares in the grid, always as the first letter in the letter string "CENT" in the Across answer—ten "CENT"s = a dime, hence the puzzle's title:

Theme answers:

¢ENTENNIAL (23A: 2014, for Doublemint gum)
VI¢ENTE FOX (25A: Mexican president of the early 2000s)
¢ENTRIST (40A: Middle-of-the-road)
IRIDES¢ENT (44A: Like mother-of-pearl)
RE¢ENT PAST (66A: Several days ago, say)
¢ENTIPEDES (70A: Bugs that technically are misnamed)
PER¢ENTAGE (93A: Agent's cut)
TEN ¢ENTS (96A: Total value of the symbols created by the special crossings in this puzzle)
DE¢ENT MEAL (113A: Something square to eat?)
"I'M INNO¢ENT!" (116A: Defendant's cry)

Word of the Day: THI (29D: Summer weather stat.) —

Temperature-Humidity Index, or THI, a number used to indicate the discomfort caused by the combined effects of heat and moisture in the air. The formula used to calculate the index is designed to yield a value ranging from 70 to 80. In general, almost all persons are comfortable when the index is 70, and almost no one is when it is 80. In 1985, the National Weather Service officially adopted the Heat Index to replace the THI, but in some areas the THI is still given with summer weather data. (HowStuffWorks.com)

• • •

Did you read this interview with Liz Gorski last week (on the Ravishly.com website)? I forget if I linked to it here or just posted about it on Twitter and Facebook. Anyway, it's charming and interesting and well worth the read.

The "Challenging" part of my "Medium-Challenging" rating is entirely for the time it takes you to pick up exactly what is going on with the Across/Down, "I + C = ¢" thing. Once you get a feel for it, the puzzle plays pretty normal, maybe even a little on the easy side (since you know all those CENTS are coming down the pike). I'm a bit surprised to see this theme appear so soon after a very similar Sunday theme—Daniel Finan's DOLLAR$ AND ¢ENTS puzzle from last year, which I Loved, and which had not only the I/C rebus, but the I/S rebus (for the "$") as well. That puzzle appeared in the NYT less than a year ago (7/14/13), and while Liz's version is clearly not identical, and does have both the "Dime Store"/TEN¢ENTS angle and the "¢ENT" letter string angle (neither of which featured in last year's puzzle), still, it's a bit strange to repeat a basic core concept in so short a period of time.

Anyway, this puzzle looks pretty good on its own, less good when compared to Finan's masterpiece from last year. Once you pick up the concept, as I say, things get easy, and there's not a lot of oomph left in the grid. Nothing that's going to surprise or amuse you. Just more ¢ signs. There were bits here and there that I found entertaining, like the double-rebus answer PA¢NP¢LL (12D: Percocet, for one), or the phrase NO RELATION (28A: Tyler Perry, to Katy Perry, e.g.), which is common, but which I can't remember ever seeing before (nice clue on that one, too). But otherwise the puzzle felt pretty average, fill-wise. Good chunk of common crossword stuff, lots of RLSTNE words. An unfortunate pair of anatomical partials in EYE ON and EAR TO. A word I didn't know was a word (SMOOTHEN? Next you'll be telling me ENSMOOTHEN is a word… what's wrong with How is SMOOTHEN different from SMOOTH?). Most baffling answer was THI—I was happy to see that this is a standard of measurement that hasn't been used by the National Weather Service for almost 30 years; made me feel better about my ignorance. That is perhaps an initialism we should put out of its misery right bleeping here and now.

It's late and I smell like campfire and I want to go to bed, so I'm going to rattle off my

Puzzles of the Week

for the last three weeks in pretty quick succession here.

First week of June: Patrick Blindauer's "Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark" (patrickblindauer.com)—a puzzle you can get here for free (under "Play"). It's a toughie, so A. pay attention to the title, which is very important, and B. remember that the "Solution" is also available at his site (again, under "Play").

Second week of June: Merl Reagle's "The Homer That Never Happened" (Merl Reagle's Sunday Crosswords), an astonishing Sunday-sized puzzle about a familiar MYTH. Can't describe it much without giving it away. You'll want to do this one. Merl described it to me as more of a "killer find" than a "killer feat," but … well, you'll see. I see what he means, but he's being modest.

Third week of June: Caleb Madison's "Put the Gun Down" (American Values Club), a smart and entertaining oversized (18x19) offering. Tricky, funny, and very contemporary. Despite two short music answers that absolutely gave me fits (Because I Am Oldish), I found this one irresistible. Get it here for a buck (or just subscribe to AVC already)— or read about it here, at Crossword Fiend.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: YO-YO TRICKS (26D: what 5-, 7-, 10- and 15-Down all are) — all clued in non-yoyo-specific ways …

Theme answers:

ROCK THE CRADLE (5D: MTV competitive reality show featuring children of pop stars)
AROUND THE WORLD (7D: Where Phileas Fogg traveled "in 80 days")
FLYING TRAPEZE (15D: Circus act above a net)
WALK THE DOG (10D: Do a chore with a pet)

Word of the Day:"ROCK THE CRADLE" (5D: MTV competitive reality show featuring children of pop stars) —

Rock the Cradle is an MTV reality show in which the offspring of R&B, pop, and rock stars from the 1980s and 1990s vie in a six-week singing competition. The show debuted on Thursday, April 3, 2008. [and ran for … one season, for a total of … six episodes …] (wikipedia)

• • •

I can't really blog adequately tonight because of the post-World Cup exhaustion I am currently experiencing. My house has never, ever been that loud … and it was just me and my wife (and the dogs occasionally running for cover because they thought we were angry, which, to be fair, we sometimes were). Also, I am currently distracted by the neighbor kid who is recently out of school and apparently has decided to dedicate this summer to dribbling a basketball for 4-5 hours a day directly outside my office window. Fun times! Anyway, the puzzle—played very choppy for me. I thought I was well on the slow side, but I still finished under 3 (if just barely), and that's a pretty normal Monday time for me. Still, grid *is* choppy, dominated by 3- and 4-letter words. This means the only grid interest is in the theme answers, which are OK. I have to call foul on "ROCK THE CRADLE," though, at least as clued. How a show *that* short-lived, *that* marginal, is allowed to be a *Monday* theme answer is beyond me. Way beyond me. If you can have [Do a chore with a pet] (however awkward) as a theme clue, then you can have [Do a chore with a child], right? The central themer is basically a glorified partial. So while I wouldn't say I WAS ANGRY with this puzzle (49A: Saw red), but it mainly just sat there … being a puzzle … but, again, I'm probably not the best judge of anything right now. My heart has stopped pounding, but the searing memory of that late goal lingers.

Are there *non*-flying trapezes??? That phrase really only makes sense because of the song with the daring young man, right? Otherwise, it's a redundancy (of sorts), unless, again, there are various trapeze types of which I am unaware.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Heather Valadez

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Tuesday*)

THEME: COVERT OPERATION (40A: Secret military mission … or a hint to the circled letters in this puzzle?) — circled letters in the theme answers spell ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, and DIVIDE, respectively

Theme answers:

STAND-BY MODE (18A: Sleep state for an electronic device)
SUBCONTRACT (24A: Outsource, as part of a job)
MULTIPLAYER (50A: Like World of Warcraft and other fare for 66-Acrosses)
DRIVER'S SIDE (62A: It's on the left in the U.S. and the right in the U.K.)

Word of the Day: ICE MELT (21D: Magnesium chloride, e.g.) —

[I can't find a definition of this—is it just "something that melts ice"? If so … ??? Ah, it appears to be something they sell at Auto Zone—possibly something like rock salt, to de-ice your sidewalks and what not. I think of the term 'ICE MELT' as relating specifically to polar ice caps and what not—the phenomenon of melting ice, not the thing that does the melting]

• • •

Oh, non-consecutive circles spelling out "hidden" things … how are you? I have not really missed you. This puzzle was definitely on the tough side, with the first and last themers being particularly hard to come up with, and with ICE MELT making no sense to me (even now). The charm of the puzzle seems to rest largely on the revealer, which is cute, but I'm having a hard time being impressed by the "hiding" of "subtract" in SUBCONTRACT or the hiding of "add" in anything. I actually like all the theme answers just fine, on their own. If I saw any of them in a themeless I'd say "pretty good." But the theme concept here is just OK. On the plus side, the fill is pretty nice for an early-week puzzle. Light on junk (except EAPOE, yipe), heavy on interesting shorter stuff like FJORD and BOOZE and REDUX.

Several clues seemed close to gibberish to me, at first (and sometimes second) pass. First, the ICE MELT (or is it ICEMELT?) clue. Then [Sleep state for an electronic device]. I see what is meant, in retrospect, but "Sleep state" was doing nothing for me. I was imagining … some kind of alarm function … I don't know. I needed every cross before I understood the clue onMORTAR (46A: What covers many blocks?). I completely forgot KENAI— just … blanked (38D: Alaskan peninsula). Front part of DRIVER'S SIDE was hard to get, and having a cross-referenced clue in one of the answers down in that corner (66A: See 50-Across) didn't help. Seemed closer to a Wednesday puzzle over all. And again, I liked the contents of the grid fine—the theme just didn't do much for me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Wacky cluing of phrases that start with -LESS words — Three phrases, each beginning with words that end with the suffix "-LESS," are clued in a wacky way that reimagines the meaning of the part of the first word that precedes -LESS:

Theme answers:

TIRELESS WORKERS (20A: Goodyear employees when they're on strike?)
LISTLESS FEELING (39A: Result of Santa misplacing his papers?)
RUTHLESS TACTICS (56A: What the Red Sox had to start using in 1920?)

Word of the Day: ELMO Zumwalt (32D: Admiral Zumwalt) —

Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt, Jr. (November 29, 1920 – January 2, 2000) was an American naval officer and the youngest man to serve as Chief of Naval Operations. As an admiral and later the 19th Chief of Naval Operations, Zumwalt played a major role in U.S. military history, especially during the Vietnam War. A decorated war veteran, Zumwalt reformed U.S. Navy personnel policies in an effort to improve enlisted life and ease racial tensions. After he retired from a 32-year Navy career, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate. (wikipedia)

• • •

I liked this very much. Didn't think the clues were as funny as they could've been—for instance, I like the idea of cars stuck in traffic with no tires better than the idea of a Goodyear plant simply not functioning. It's the wacky principle—if you're going to do the Wacky Thing, be Very Wacky (like, Absurdist Wacky) or don't bother. But the humor got better on LISTLESS FEELING and RUTHLESS TACTICS, so all in all, this worked well. Lovely restraint on using just the three grid-spanners for the theme answers. This allows for a grid that breathes, full of solid short- and mid-range answers. Clean as a whistle, this one. Even MRS. WHO (a complete WTF to me) earns her keep by being interestingly anomalous (8D: Woman in "A Wrinkle in Time"). This one felt old-fashioned in a good way: simple, well-crafted, fun.

MRS. WHO and ELMO were my big sticking points today, though they weren't That big in the end. I never liked "The Big Lebowski" as much as everyone I know seems to think I ought to, especially considering I love (like, Love love) Raymond Chandler and that was supposed to be the Chandler installment of their crime fiction trilogy or whatever (I think Cain was "Blood Simple" and Hammett was "Miller's Crossing"… I don't know what "Fargo" was … besides Perfection). So I didn't get all atingle at THE DUDE, but I do like it very much as a contemporary crossword answer. I got slightly more atingle at SLAPSTICK, as I do love Buster Keaton (38D: Buster Keaton genre). Also, BUS ROUTE, as I ride on one many times a week (just today, in fact) (9D: It may be diagrammed on a city map). LEGO LAND, also snappy (40D: Theme park based on a toy). Did not at all like the clue on GREEK MYTH, though (answer good; clue not as good) (4D: Story set on Mount Olympus). I want the word "often" to be in there. Plenty of GREEK MYTHs (most?) are set Not on Mount Olympus. It's like cluing WESTERN with [Story set in Tombstone]. Off. But again, most of this puzzle: On.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Pawel Fludzinski

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: IN BED (40A: How breakfast may be served … or how the answers to the eight starred clues should be entered?) — starred clues refer to words that are embedded inside the letter string "BED" (the result of which is a new, entirely unclued answer in each case)

Theme answers:

BLOCKED (3D: *Bit of hair) (LOCK)
BROACHED (17A: *Motel) (ROACH)
BRUSHED (11D: *Bit of excitement) (RUSH)
BLASTED (42D: *Like Pisces, in the zodiac) (LAST)
BALLOTED (58A: *Divide up) (ALLOT)
BROOMED (38D: *Leeway) (ROOM)
BROKERED (49A: *Longtime TV weatherman) (ROKER)
BRANCHED (24A: *Dressing choice) (RANCH)

Word of the Day: AURICLE (10D: Outer ear) —

n.
Anatomy.
The outer projecting portion of the ear. Also called pinna.
See atrium (sense 2).
Biology. An earlobe-shaped part, process, or appendage, especially at the base of an organ.
[Middle English, auricle of the heart, from Old French, little ear, from Latin auricula, ear, earlier diminutive of auris, ear.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/auricle#ixzz35i1yCNqu

• • •

Not [Fortune addendum]?

Didn't care for this one much. Results of the em-BED-dening are just random, unclued words, and (monotonously) past tenses of verbs in Every Case. BED is always divided at the same place, between B and E. Why these words? Is this hard to do? Why isn't IN BED in the center? Why is the non-theme fill so poor? EDEL ADDONS ERENOW AUREOLE EDMEESE ABOO ALERTER (!?) ASSTDA OATSEED AMBS AWS ALB ISS LYS— all far less than ideal. There's just not an entertaining coherent theme here. Each themer was a little word puzzle, which is fine, in some Games-like magazine or non-crossword context, but the purposelessness of IN BED, the way the resulting answers just hang out there, all naked and arbitrary and without cluing, means that there's no clear identity or point to the puzzle. Move letters around. Put words in grid. Ta da? I found it hard to care.

All of the difficulty in the puzzle is related to uncovering the theme, which you (probably) needed IN BED to do. I gummed it all up from the get-go by having ALT at 1D: It's between B.C. and Sask. instead of the ALB abbrev. that was called for. This meant I had TR-ACHED for the [*___ Motel] clue (nonsense, obviously), and even after I got IN BED, my lack of "B" there (from ALB) meant that I couldn't see what was going on until I saw ROKER inside whatever was happening at 49A: *Longtime TV weatherman. From there, I pieced the theme together, changed ALT to ALB, and got through the rest of the puzzle pretty easily.

BROOMED is a word? If you have to resort to that strange a B-ED word, try try again. BROILED, BRAIDED … honestly, it feels like you could go on forever (part of the theme's problem—the utter arbitrariness of the themers). Today's wrong answers (besides ALT) included CAROMS for SERUMS (19A: Some shots), EERIER for EDGIER (28D: More out there), and, best of all, SIREN for SIDE B (7D: Rod Stewart's "Maggie May," for one). I liked ROUNDER (as clued) (29D: Habitual drunkard) and the parallel adjacency of YOKO ONO and LENNON. There wasn't a lot else to recommend here.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: GIMEL (25A: Dreidel letter) —

n.
The third letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[Hebrew gîmel, of Phoenician origin.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/gimel#ixzz35nsIyLTi

• • •

A pretty nice puzzle that started out breezy and then got very bumpy toward the end. This is an interesting grid shape, with three grid-spanners going Across and one going Down, and then sizable banks of mid-length answers in the corners. This results in a grid that feels paradoxically both wide open and very choppy. There were probably more crosswordy answers than I normally like—not crosswordese, exactly, but stuff (mostly proper nouns) that I know only because I've done a million crosswords: UGARTE and ELY and PETRA and (esp.) EL ORO (24D: Ecuadorean province named for its gold production), the last of which I technically only vaguely remembered. "Ecuadorean province" is pretty much quintessential Maleska-era clue language, i.e. rank arcana. But these are spaced out and not too offensive. I'd say the cluing was as much the source of pleasure in this puzzle as the words themselves. [Celebrates wordlessly] had me thinking "silence"—wrong (APPLAUDS). I couldn't get my head around what part of speech "Cry" was in [Cry when rubbing it in], so TOLD YA came as a nice surprise (one I figured out only after going "wait, nothing ends in '-DYA'…"). Even ET TU got a decent, surprising clue (31A: Surprising words from Shakespeare?), though the words are more "surprised" than "surprising" (which is, I guess, why the clue has a "?").

The most unfortunate part of my solve was that the answer that held me up the most, that caused me to stall out the longest, was also manifestly the worst answer in the grid: ITHAS (41A: "___ to be!"). I see how this works as a partial. Now. But not then. It's pretty tortured as partials go. And I just stared at "-HAS" for what felt like ever. Because I couldn't imagine an answer there, the whole lower middle got held up. The other problem was that HOT AS BLUE BLAZES was not coming to me (47A: Sizzling)—that phrase happens to be weirdest right in the middle, i.e. right in the place where I was having trouble because of nearby ITHAS. I could see BLAZES were probably involved because I had the "Z," and I got HOT pretty easily, but I wanted HOTTER THAN BLAZES (doesn't fit). So between ITHAS and the middle of the BLAZES phrase and the tough clue on TOLDYA, I got bogged down. But I still like the grid, for the most part, and thought it was clued with a good Friday amount of difficulty and cleverness.

Oh, and DRS / RENI was a total guess. Probably had to be the "R" because who else but DRS develop therapies? But RENI? (12D: "Crucifixion of St. Peter" painter) Yipes. No clue. John WAITE, however, I remembered. Pays to be an '80s adolescent. I just looked, and I can sing every word to every #1 song of 1984. No sweat. 30 years ago today, this was #1. And yep, every word (though I think I'm making some of the words up):

Wrong answers: DUNS (?) for BUMS (7A: Borrows without intending to repay) … I think that's it. I had some terrible *ideas* (SCRIBE for SCREEN, ICBM for STEN, EXE for ELY) but I didn't actually write any of them in.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Josh Knapp

Relative difficulty: Medium (leaning Easy)

THEME: none

Word of the Day:"BAD SANTA" (27A: 2003 Billy Bob Thornton crime film) —

Bad Santa is a 2003 American Christmas black comedy film directed by Terry Zwigoff, and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, and Lauren Graham, with Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom, and John Ritterin supporting roles. It was Ritter's last film appearance before his death in 2003. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Perfectly adequate Saturday fare. I felt like the showier answers fell flat because they all felt like things I'd seen in themeless puzzles before. Like … things that would've been impressive a decade ago (XRAY VISION, KAFKAESQUE, AZERBAIJAN, etc.). I mean, those are perfectly good answers, but they are also about where this grid maxes out, interest-wise, so the wow factor was minimal. I actually found some of the less showy stuff, like ARE YOU SURE? and START SMALL, more impressive, because they seemed like fresh interesting colloquialisms. But overall everything seemed just fine—Saturdayesque. Clean grid, light on the junk, interesting answers, appropriate difficulty level. But nothing really gives the puzzle personality or makes it memorable.

I stared by running the short Downs up top, only I went AGEE instead of PUZO at 2D: Two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, so despite having many others right, I got a bit stuck. First real coup was getting TSING-TAO, with no crosses (7D: Beer named for a port on the Yellow Sea). This got me OCT and ABCTV, and then ECO allowed me to shoot VACCINES across the grid, and from there I had footholds galore. Well, a couple. Muffed it by writing in CDRACK instead of CDCASE (49D: Obsolescent media holder). So the media is obsolescent, not the holder? For some reason, the rack strikes me a amore obsolescent, but the clue does seem valid. SW corner was very easy to get into because of the piece of cake clue on B FLAT MAJOR (27D: Key of Schumann's Symphony No. 1). No, I didn't know the key, but I had the B, and … what else was it going to be. I wrote in B FLAT M--OR instantly. JUNE gave me MAJOR. Rest of the corner went up in smoke. Had the most trouble with TEE ZED, specifically the TEE part. I was sure (for quite a while) that it was THE ZED, which I almost liked for its insanity.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME:"Downright Tricky!"— six theme answers travel down and then veer to the right; the reason is explained in the clue for EL CID (108D: Spanish hero whose 113-Down is represented enigmatically six times in this puzzle)— i.e. the theme answers form six ELs and all the ELs are three-part phrases where each part begins with "C,""I," and "D," respectively:

Theme answers:

8D: Lament about modern men (CHIVALRY IS D/EAD)
13D: Pachelbel classic, familiarly (CANON I/N D)
32D: Major African humanitarian concern of the 2000s (CRISIS IN DAR/FUR)
38D: Like the contents of many attics (COVERED IN DUST)
50D: 1982 holiday country hit by Alabama ("CHRISTMAS IN DIXIE")
71D: "Right away, boss" ("CONSIDER IT DONE")

Word of the Day: PICARO (100D: Rogue) —

n., pl., -ros (-rōz', -rōs').
A rogue or adventurer. Also called picaroon.
The main character in a picaresque work when that character is a man or boy.
[Spanish pícaro, perhaps from picar, to prick, from Vulgar Latin *piccāre. See pique.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/picaro#ixzz35yjdOs9v

• • •

Phew. As I wrote on my Facebook page last night, I was all set to knock this one out while the pizza was in the oven (timer on 11 minutes), but then I saw Byron Walden's name and immediately aborted that plan. Pizza would've burned, I reasoned. And turns out I was right—took me somewhere north of 14, longish for me. I didn't see the EL CID thing til the very end, so I had no idea how many of these right-turners were coming or even exactly where they were. CANON I … sounded plausible as an answer for 13D: Pachelbel classic, familiarly, even though that usage wasn't "familiar" to me. Anyway, the whole thing felt like a bit of a minefield, plus the cluing was on the tough side. This is all to the good, though, as I found the solving experience predominantly enjoyable. CRISIS IN DARFUR and COVERED IN DUST felt a *little* contrived/arbitrary as self-standing phrases, but not so much that it hurt, and considering the very high bar set by the theme (six C.I.D. phrases), I am happy to let those pass right on by.

The fill here is mostly solid and graceful (I'm just ignoring AAAA… though it pairs nicely with BBB). There's also tons of interesting little tidbits throughout, like MS. PAC-MAN and I HAD A HUNCH and PADDED BRA and HOG CALLER and MOSH PIT and whatever SEA HOLLY (12D: European coastal plant once thought to be an aphrodisiac) and SPIKED ACES (17D: Ray-finned fishes of the Southwest U.S.) are (whoops, that's just one word: SPIKEDACES). There were all kinds of pesky little stumbling blocks in this one. Right out of the box I face-planted on 4D: Quince, e.g.. I can see a "due" misdirect coming a mile away, but got blind-sided by the Spanish word for "fifteen." Had BANTER for BICKER. Imagined Hollywood was in CA and not FLA. And on and on. Highly pleasing—one of the best NYT Sundays I've done in a while (not the highest bar, but still, dang good).

Puzzle of the Week goes to Zoe Wheeler this week for her American Values Club Puzzle, "Flexibility" (get it here for $1 / read about it here). The AVC is starting to pull away from the pack a little in terms of overall quality (though every week Fireball is right there too). Zoe's puzzle just has a perfect reveal—theme elements are a great visual representation of a well-known expression. You can't ask much more from a themed puzzle—especially from a relatively easy themed puzzle. Easy- to Medium-difficulty themed puzzles are some of the hardest to do well. Cleverness and easiness are tough to combine. Not that American Values Club puzzles are "easy"—they tend to run in the Wed.-to-Fri. level range for me. But Fireball puzzles (also great) tend to be routinely Saturday-hard, so the two puzzles contrast one another a bit, and together provide nice coverage of the themed puzzle difficulty gamut. Nearly every week I find myself solving AVC and Fireball and thinking, "this would've made a good NYT Thursday."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty: Medium, leaning tougher than usual (3:09)

THEME: FL-+— vowel sound progression, from long A to long U:

Theme answers:

BOBBY FLAY (17A: Celebrity chef and host of the Food Network's "Boy Meets Grill")
SPANISH FLEA (25A: Theme music for TV's "The Dating Game")
TSETSE FLY (39A: Insect that causes sleeping sickness)
TRAFFIC FLOW (55A: It's typically slow during rush hour)
YUPPIE FLU (66A: Dismissive term for chronic fatigue syndrome)

Word of the Day: COROLLA (48D: Flower part) —

n.
The petals of a flower considered as a group or unit and usually of a color other than green; the inner whorl of the perianth.

[Latin corōlla, small garland, diminutive of corōna, garland. See corona.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/corolla#ixzz364kpAK00

PERIANTH— n.The outer envelope of a flower, consisting of either the calyx or the corolla, or both.
[French périanthe, from New Latin perianthum : Greek peri-, peri- + Greek anthos, flower.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/perianth#ixzz364l3zN7N

CALYX— n. pl. ca·lyx·es or ca·ly·ces (kl-sz, kl-)1. The sepals of a flower considered as a group.2. A cuplike structure or organ, such as one of the cuplike divisions of the pelvis or of the kidney.3. A collecting structure in the kidney. (thefreedictionary.com)

SEPAL— n.One of the separate, usually green parts forming the calyx of a flower.
[New Latin sepalum, perhaps blend of Greek skepē, covering and Latin petalum, petal; see petal.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/sepal#ixzz364lTHXRy

• • •

This is a nice little vowel progression puzzle. Three of the five theme answers are quite fresh and lovely (1, 2, 5), and the others are just fine (3, 4). The trick with this simple concept is to make sure your theme answers don't just fit the pattern, but charm, amuse, and entertain. If they're not fresh and interesting, then your progression comes off as a sad little yawny exercise. The fill here is a net plus, with the banks of biggish words in the corners providing something in the way of unusualness, and with not a lot of terrible short stuff gunking up the grid. There is some tepidity here and there (USERFEE, TOPSEED, SERENER), but surrounding fill more than makes up for it. Any time a Monday puzzle takes me more than 3 minutes, that means it's leaning tough for me. Today, the longer Downs (which required a few crosses in most cases) were enough to ensure a little slowage, and then there were some clues that seemed less-than-straightforward. [Flower part] was vague enough that I had to cross it many times to pick it up. Had to think about both "Dating Game" clues (what a weird, wonderful little clue pairing that was). [Disentangled] didn't get me to UNDID without almost all of the crosses. I don't (readily) think of a "You Are Here"MAP as a "Poster"… But overall, it evened out to normal Monday difficulty level. Solid stuff. Thumbs up.

Enjoy the hot week ahead (at least in the NE). I will be spending my days in library coolness, except when I'm yelling at soccer, but at least then I'll have my friend beer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: DON'T — songs that start with DON'T, at least a few of which you will have heard of:

Theme answers:

"DON'T BE CRUEL" (18A: Appeal from Elvis, 1956)
"DON'T WORRY BABY" (25A: Reassurance from the Beach Boys, 1964)
"DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'" (39A: Encouragement from Journey, 1981)
"DON'T YOU WANT ME" (52A: Plea from the Human League, 1982)
"DON'T YOU CARE" (64A: Reproach from the Buckinghams, 1967)

Word of the Day: RINGALEVIO (12D: Game similar to hide-and-seek) —

Ringolevio (also spelled ringalevio or ring-a-levio)^[1] is a children's game which may be played anywhere but which originates in the teeming streets ofNew York City, and is known to have been played there at least as far back as before World War I.^[a] It is one of the many variations of tag. It requires close team work and near-military strategy. In Canada, this game is known as Relievio. In Boston and Ireland in the 1960s, it was also called Relievio and is mentioned in Roddy Doyle's Booker prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and Bill O'Reilly's book, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity. (wikipedia)

• • •

I have another DON'T for you—DON'T put RINGALEVIO (Whatever That Is) in a Tuesday puzzle if you want people to remember anything else about your puzzle. I've never heard of it. It googles terribly poorly. It is so patently, obviously, manifestly *not* a word for an easy, early-week puzzle that I have no idea WTF the constructor / editor was thinking here. If you had clued this as [Harry Potter spell used three times in "Harry Potter and the Temple of Doom"], I would've believed that at least as much as I believed this clue. I got every letter from crosses, though "well, *that's* wrong," and then finished the puzzle and Ding! it was right. So at least the crosses were fair, I guess, and the puzzle was certainly easy otherwise, so no real harm done, but sweet lord o'mercy that is nuts. Bananas. Just a magnificent error in calibration and judgment. On a Friday or Saturday, I can see throwing this answer at us. But Tuesday? Ha. The contrast between that answer and Every Other Answer In The Grid, in terms of familiarity, is bone-jarring. "DON'T YOU CARE" was unknown to me too, but at least those are recognizable words strung together.

Oh, I didn't know PLUTON either (8D: Mass of crystallized magma). Cool word, but not sure why it's here. It's not holding together a very good (or very hard to refill) section of the grid. AFC POR TIERRA and APPTS are all subpar. You have to really *love* PLUTON not to rewrite that whole area, and I can't really believe anyone loves PLUTON. PLUTO, sure. But not PLUTON. And then there's everything else, which was pap—child's play. Fast-as-you-can-write stuff. I did enjoy remembering the songs, mostly, and I guess the oversized grid gives us more bang for our buck, but with a theme that's just OK, that RINGALEVIO answer makes this thing a pretty badly wounded duck.

Hey, I do know "DON'T YOU CARE." Weird. Totally forgot about it. And now here it is. Cool.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Jeff Chen and Dick Shlakman

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: blanks blank blanks— verb phrases where some plural does something to some other plural and all three of the words in the phrase rhyme:

PEAKS PIQUE PEKES (17A: MOUNTAINS TICK OFF TOY DOGS)
BOARS BORE BOERS (28A: SOUTH AFRICANS ARE UNEXCITED BY SWINE)
PAIRS PARE PEARS (42A: COUPLES PEEL FRUIT)
IDYLLS IDLE IDOLS (54A: PASTORAL POEMS INCAPACITATE TEEN FAVES)

Word of the Day: Guinea-BISSAU (28D: Guinea-___ (West African nation)) —

Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ⁱ/ˈɡɪni bɪˈsaʊ/, gi-nee-bi-sow, (Portuguese:República da Guiné-Bissau, pronounced: [ʁeˈpublikɐ dɐ ɡiˈnɛ biˈsaw]), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west. It covers 36,125 km² (nearly 14,000 sq mi) with an estimated population of 1,600,000. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow. Well wide of the mark. This is the hoariest kind of wordplay. Very surprised that a theme this basic and corny passed muster. Felt like something out of … ELD, I guess (48A: Antiquity, in the past). Nonsense phrases that rhyme? Maybe in [insert other puzzle's name here], but it's pretty sub-NYT stuff, or ought to be. The fill doesn't improve things much, either. My greatest delights were R KELLY (if only for the contemporariness and awesome opening letter combination) (43D: Singer with the 1994 hit "Bump n' Grind") and ABANDON SHIP (an answer I got very late because I stupidly had SRI at 20A: Honshu honorific (SAN) for a while and really Really stumbled trying to pick up everything in the REPAYS MANS SMARTY D-DAY DADA section) (3D: Final order from the captain). SETS A RECORD has a terrible ad hoc quality to it (26D: Becomes worthy of the Guinness Book, say), and most of the rest of the fill just sits there. BISSAU is pretty terrible, as it is just a name part, not a real name, and a pretty long (and mildly obscure) name part at that. Also, I'M NOT QUITE SURE WHY THE CLUES ARE SHOUTING AT ME. When the theme clues have you actually missing "?" clues, something is wrong.

Grid shape provides us with scads of 3- and 4-letter words, which rarely leads anywhere good. I don't know, what else? … I dunno … so … Hell of a soccer match, that was. 90+ minutes of boredom/torture, then a last-minute point-blank shot to (miraculously, unjustly) win it that somehow goes high, and then an overtime that was as exciting as any I've seen this World Cup. USA's keeper was outstanding in the face of extreme duress. I look forward to seeing TIM HOWARD in a puzzle soon. Congrats to Belgium.

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Luke Vaughn

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: MOUNT ST. HELENS (39A: It left part of itself in 11 states in 1980) — ASH from this volcano can be found all over the grid (in 11 different squares)

Word of the Day: ASHTON Eaton (60D: Olympic decathlon gold medalist ___ Eaton) —

Ashton James Eaton (born January 21, 1988) is an American decathlete and Olympic champion, who holds the world record in both the decathlon and heptathlon events, and is only the second decathlete (afterRoman Šebrle) to break the 9,000-point barrier, with 9,039 points.
He competes for the Oregon Track Club Elite team based in Eugene, Oregon. In college, Eaton competed for the University of Oregon, where he was a five-time NCAA champion, and won The Bowerman award in 2010. In 2011, Eaton won the first international medal of his career, a silver, in the decathlon at the 2011 World Championships. The following year, Eaton broke his own world record in the heptathlon at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, and then went on to break the world record in the decathlon at the Olympic Trials. After setting the world record, Eaton easily won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (wikipedia)

• • •

The more I look at this one, the more I like it, at least in terms of the theme conception. Didn't catch the "11 states" / 11 theme squares connection until I started preparing this write-up—that's a very nice touch, considering the central revealer seemed strong enough on its own to hold this thing together. There is some very nice fill in here, particularly where the hidden ASHes are concerned. The rebus square is always better when it is well and truly hidden (in this case, I mean 'inaudible'), so I liked ONA SHORT LEASH and TEXAS HOLD 'EM the best of the rebus-related answers. My main problem with this one was that once I discovered the gimmick (ASH squares), there wasn't anything left to do but find them. In practice, I found this somewhat tedious. On the one hand, I was grateful for the rebus, as it *definitely* helped me solve: SE corner went down in a flASH because SODASHOP (49D: Place to get a malted) was a gimme once I knew what I was looking for. But uncovering SLASH after CLASH after GNASH, well, it ground me down a little after a while. So this puzzle falls under the category of "Puzzles That I Recognize Are Very Well Made But That I Enjoyed Only A Little For Reasons That Are Probably Highly Personal And Idiosyncratic." There is one problem though—see if you can spot it:

That NW corner was a killer, first because it was where I started, and I could get only the weakest of footholds before falling down again and again, and second because even after I got the ASH theme, I couldn't figure out 1A: Sheepish (ASHAMED). All I wanted was ABASHED, which fit the clue, and fit in the grid, but did not otherwise work. Forgot ASHCROFT ever existed and spent some time trying to remember the other Bush appointee who was so terrible … still can't remember his name … Gonzales? *Yes*, Alberto Gonzales! If this had been an ALE rebus, I'd've been in business. But no. It was a really good day if you're a big fan of the early 2000s, what with ASHCROFT and EVE (4D: Female rapper with the 2002 hit "Gangsta Lovin'") and ASHANTI (53D: One-named singer with the 2003 hit "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)") in the house. That is probably not the kind of company ASHCROFT is used to keeping, but whoomp, there it is. MOS DEF (28A: Half of hip-hop's Black Star) adds to the puzzle's strong Hip-Hop flavor/a.

One other main problem: wanted FELT instead of WEPT (43A: Had pity (for)). Seems small, and it is, but the consequences of that mistake seemed huge. Kept me from coming down easily into that SE corner of the grid. The inclusion of ASHEN in this puzzle is a tad disappointing, as it's the only ASH that actually relates directly to ASH. Would've been more elegant to run the table with non-ASH-realted ASHes. But again, this is good work. Much better than SO-SO (57A: All right). The ASH onslaught was a bit relentless, but that was, in its way, fitting. In parting, let me make the random observation that MOUNT ST HELENS can be parsed as MOUNTS THE LENS, and now that is all I can see when I look at the grid.

I leave you with a flick called (almost) OON FLIC:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: AGRICOLA (17A: First-century governor of Britain, whose name was Latin for "farmer") —

Gnaeus Julius Agricola (June 13, 40 – August 23, 93) was a Gallo-Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. Written by his son-in-law Tacitus, the De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae is the primary source for most of what is known about him, along with detailed archaeological evidence from northern Britain.
Agricola began his military career in Britain, serving under governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. His subsequent career saw him serve in a variety of positions; he was appointed quaestor in Asia province in 64, then Plebeian Tribune in 66, and praetor in 68. He supported Vespasian during theYear of the Four Emperors (69), and was given a military command in Britain when the latter became emperor. When his command ended in 73, he was made patrician in Rome and appointed governor of Gallia Aquitania. He was made consul and governor of Britannia in 77. While there, he completed the conquest of what is now Wales and northern England, and led his army to the far north of Scotland, establishing forts across much of the Lowlands. He was recalled from Britain in 85 after an unusually lengthy service, and thereafter retired from military and public life. (wikipedia)

• • •

NEWTS / TENT (1D: Witches' brew ingredients / 19A: Trade fair presentation) … those are the first two words I put in the grid. If not for that stupendous, foolhardy double-error, this might've been close to my fastest Friday ever. As it was, it was just fast. As usual with Patrick Berry puzzles, this one is elegant and brimming with exciting fill—center-intersecting colloquialisms, vivid phrases, and not a junky answer in sight. Seriously. Nowhere. That's just unheard of. A handful of junky answers = normal. A small few = impressive. But none? None = impossible. I'm not sure I can find a real *fault* with this puzzle. Intersecting identical four-letter strings (e.g. BATTLE-SCARRED / BATTER UP) = probably less than ideal, but … I can't really level that criticism with any conviction or even a straight face.

Trouble today came from proper nouns—namely FERRIS, the eponymous wheel guy who I didn't know was the eponymous wheel guy (30D: Columbian Exposition engineer)—and that little word at the end of HAVE A NICE … (15D: Send-off for the dear departed?). The question mark tells me it's not really an obituary or anything about the dead. It's a play on words, something you say to someone you love who is leaving. OK. HAVE A NICE … TIME? (buzzzzz). Oh, maybe it's very sad and the person is going away for ever and so HAVE A NICE … LIFE? (buzzzzzzzz). Gah. Finally [Veins' contents] and [Olympic skater Katarina] (both gimmes) got me FURROW, and thus, with that "R" cross, TRIP. HAVE A NICE TRIP. To my, let's say, credit, when I type "have a nice" into google, the first two suggested searches are completed by DAY and LIFE. If I'd only had the "T" from POT, but I just couldn't see that answer given the (very nice) clue (39A: All you can take with one hand).

I am not kidding when I say everything else in this grid, everything I haven't already mentioned, went down so fast I barely remember it. So, perhaps too easy, but terribly beautiful nonetheless.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Theodore BIKEL (13D: Theodore of "The African Queen") —

Theodore Meir Bikel (born 2 May 1924) is an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, and composer. He made his film debut in The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for an Academy awardfor his supporting role as Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones (1958).
Bikel is President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America and was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Partners for Progressive Israel, where he also lectures. His autobiography, Theo, was published in 1995. (wikipedia)

• • •

I have to give this grid credit—considering how low the word count is (62), the fill is quite strong. But I didn't enjoy solving this one, and rarely enjoy puzzles that venture into super-low word count territory. The cluing today seemed both brutal and dull, with ordinary fill (e.g. MIRO, HESSE) clued in ridiculously unidentifiable ways, or clued very vaguely. There was no point where I thought "ooh, good clue" and only one point at which I thought "ooh, good answer": BIKER CHICK (25D: Woman in a leather jacket, maybe) (though it's worth noting that if you google image search "biker chick," you don't see many leather jackets, or non-leather jackets, or clothing period). Actually, I like GENDER BIAS too, though I don't really like the clue (9D: Male issue?), largely because the clue itself is gender-biased. Not that men don't often have that issue—there's just something irritatingly ingratiating about that clue, as if it should be followed by "amirite, ladies!? [wink]."FAKE IDS over DIVE BAR is, in retrospect, a lovely little juxtaposition. Actually, you can throw JIM BEAM into the equation too (27A: Big brand from Clermont, Ky)—a perfect triple stack for a BIKER CHICK to drive through. But I think I just don't enjoy the challenge in a challenging puzzle coming from the white spaces being so open that I can't get any footholds, and then finding out that the thing that was holding me back was SCARF RING (wtffffff?) or GEAR OIL or GARDENA or BIKEL or some other thing I've barely or never heard of.

I killed myself today in a couple of places, most notably at 29D: Dot preceder, where I wrote in SITE NAME, and so much of it was confirmed that I left it in for far, far too long. That one, dumb error kept me from really opening up the middle for a good long time. I also had SGT where NCO was supposed to go, and YOUR HEAD (and then ONE'S HEAD) where COOL HEAD was supposed to go. Table-turner up there was finally seeing RAN IN (6D: Took for booking)—little phrase, big difference-maker. Struggled to make much headway in the SE until I stuck the -ICK down into it. Then it rolled over pretty readily (before that, it was SALLE and SUN GOD and a whole lotta nothing).

Puzzle felt like three puzzles—the NE-to-SW middle part, and then the two fat and isolated corners. That's another feature I find off-putting in puzzles: hyper-segmentation. There's just that one little square's worth of passage into either of the corners, so you have very little opportunity to build off of stuff you've already got. This is all fair, but it makes the experience less enjoyable for me. Still, as I say, the grid quality is truly remarkable.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Daniel C. Bryant

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:"Oh, Say…"— buncha facts about "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" (65A: This puzzle's theme, whose first notes are indicated by shaded squares); shaded squares (represented here by circles) form a visual representation of the anthem's opening notes as they would appear on a musical STAFF (8D: Locale for this puzzle's shaded squares).

Theme answers:

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY (24A: Lawyer who wrote 65-Across)
EIGHTEEN FOURTEEN (30A: Year 24-Across wrote 65-Across)
BRITISH PUB SONG (40A: What the music to 65-Across was, originally)
WHITNEY HOUSTON (88A: Performer who gave a memorable rendition of 65-Across in 1991)
PRISONER EXCHANGE (99A: Mission that 24-Across was on when he wrote 65-Across)
BALTIMORE HARBOR (113A: Where 24-Across was inspired to write 65-Across)

Word of the Day: Matt BAI (69D: Political writer Matt) —

Matt Bai /ˈbaɪ/ is national political columnist for Yahoo! News. Prior to that, he was the chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, where he covered both the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Bai often explores issues of generational change in American politics and society. His seminal cover stories in the magazine include the 2008 cover essay “Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” and a 2004 profile of John Kerry titled “Kerry’s Undeclared War.” His work was honored in both the 2005 and 2006 editions of The Best American Political Writing. Bai is a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University in Medford, MA. In 2014, Bai appeared as himself in the second season of TV show House of Cards. (wikipedia)

• • •

Happy 6th of July, everybody!

This puzzle lost me at 1-Across, and continued to lose me more and more as that little NW corner filled itself in. I just don't have patience for fill this mediocre/bad any more. I wrote in ADINS immediately (1A: Serving edges), but with sincere hope that it was wrong. No dice. Here is my very smart and very kind tennis fan / constructor friend's best defense of ADINS:

We...e..e...e...ll, no denying it's a strained plural. You can't have a simultaneously co-existing handful of AD-INs, as you can balls, or strawberries, or All-England Club towels. But I suppose you could say, "Federer has not captalized on four AD-INs and is still serving as the length of this game stretched to seven minutes.

Why is there creaky, junky fill in an easy-to-fill little section of the grid? It just shouldn't be. Shouldn't. Be. So theme shmeme, I was already opposed to this puzzle before I'd even begun. First impressions are often right, because if that little NW corner isn't filled well, what are the odds any of the rest of it will be? (A: slim).

The theme consisted mostly of arbitrary trivia about the national anthem. The real thematic coup de grâce was the visual representation of the anthem's opening notes, which is very nicely conceived and executed. Sadly, it causes HEMIC, which is kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul, elegance-wise. There was some longer fill in here that I liked quite a bit: YOKOHAMA, COLD CASH, ESCAROLE, and NEOPHYTE, all lovely. I also like FACTOTUM, a word I never use and rarely see but like nonetheless. Seems like it should mean something completely different, like … a small bit of data or … some kind of sacred object or amulet or something. Maybe I never hear it any more because no one has "general servants" (whatever those are) anymore? Anyway, thumbs up to that SAT word. I read "The great Gatsby" for the first time (true story) last year and I don't remember the MEYER Wolfsheim at all. And yet I remember the TITI (15D: New World monkey) and Val d'ISERE (29A: Skiing destination Val d'___), so who can say how my brain works?

Not much else to say here. Puzzle was extraordinarily easy. I was done in well under 10 despite knowing nothing about the national anthem besides FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. Oh, I have one other thing to say: let's never, ever do tribute puzzles on off days. Hit the day on the nose or don't hit it at all. Ridiculously anti-climactic to have this arrive two days late.

Puzzle of the Week this week goes to Patrick Berry for his Friday NYT themeless. Its only fault was it was too easy. Otherwise, it's as close to perfect a piece of themeless grid construction as you're ever going to see.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Kennedy aide Sorensen / TUE 6-17-14 / Beginning end of Athena / Kabayaki fish / Swordsman of book film / 2010 James Mangold action comedy / 2012 John C. Reilly animated film

2001 best seller about competitive Scrabble / WED 6-18-14 / One-named singer who married Heidi Klum / Bindle toters / Wonderland cake message / Newport Beach isle

1/100 of Danish krone / THU 6-19-14 / Best-selling 2004 young adult novel written entirely in form of instant messages / Oldest academic quiz competition in US / Neighbor of Teaneck NJ / Mercedes roadsters / Russell Anna Huxtable on Cosby Show /

White-crested ducks / SUN 6-22-14 / Summer weather stat / 2014 for Doublemint gum / Town on south shore of Long Island / Southern university whose newspaper is Hullabaloo

MTV competitive reality show featuring children of pop stars / MON 6-23-14 / English racetrack site / Ladies service org since 1850s

Sleep state for electronic device / TUE 6-24-14 / SXSW festival setting / Author of Gothic short stories, for short / Protected bird in Hawaii / Norwegian tourist attraction / Mopey donkey of children's literature / Potter's potions professor

Nickname for filmdom's Lebowski / WED 6-25-14 / Woman in Wrinkle in Time / Admiral Zumwalt / Field for Gerard Depardieu Audrey Tautou / Porch light circler

Pulitzer winning biographer Leon / THU 6-26-14 / 2008 action thriller with Liam Neeson / Blues rocker Chris / Radiant light around head / Quimby Beverly Cleary heroine / Reagan cabinet member who was previously counselor to the president

Ruined rose-red city of Jordan / FRI 6-27-14 / Weapons inspector Blix / Singer John with 1984 #1 hit Missing You / Language in which talofa means hello / Its bottles feature red triangles / Dreidel letter / Barnacle James Joyce's wife muse

2003 Billy Bob Thornton crime film / SAT 6-28-14 / Beer named for port on Yellow Sea / Literally different lizard / Ruler with palace near St Mark's / Start of ave maria line / Guy from Tucson in Beatles song / Obsolescent media holder / 1960 historical film written directed John Wayne

Theme music for TV's Dating Game / MON 6-30-14 / Dismissive term for chronic fatigue syndrome / Handbag monogram / Dashing Flynn of old films / Thin Man pooch / Great Expectations boy / Stimpy's TV pal

Game similar to hide-and-seek / TUE 7-1-14 / Mass of crystallized magma / Reproach from Buckinghams, 1967 / Plea from Human League, 1982 / Reassurance from Beach Boys, 1964 / Encouragement from Journey, 1981

Kosygin of Russia / WED 7-2-14 / Honshu honorific / Often kicked comics canine / Lecherous goat-man / Boy of song who hated his name / Singer with 1994 hit bump n grind / pugilistic combo / Mountains tick off toy dogs / south africans are unexcited by swine / pastoral poems incapacitate teen faves

Half of hip-hop's Black Star / THU 7-3-14 / Female rapper with 2002 hit Gangsta Lovin / One named singer with 2003 hit Rock Wit U Awww Baby / Aptly named Olympics star / Dwarf planet beyond Pluto / Detective of '60s-'70s TV

Columbian Exposition engineer / FRI 7-4-14 / First-century governor of Britain whose name was Latin for farmer / Signer of Kansas-Nebraska Act / Through Dark Continent author 1878 / Creature outwitted by Hop-o'-my-thumb

Broadway inspector / SAT 7-5-14 / Old Pokemon platform / Farm painter 1921 / Part of Roman empire in modern-day NE France / Greek city where Paul preached / Magister Ludi writer / Neckwear slider

Overlapping fugue motifs / SUN 7-6-14 / New World monkey / Star in Summer Triangle / Four-time NBA all-star pau / Setting of James Clavell's Gai-Jin / Wolfsheim gambler in Great Gatsby / Initialism in Beatles title / Title name in 2000 Eminem hit / City whose name was source of word sherry