Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: FIFTH / COLUMNS (15D: With 45-Down, subversive groups … or what the answers in the circled squares comprise?) — all the circled Downs (five "columns" in all) have an implied / missing "Fifth" at the beginning of their clues:

Your "Columns":

JUPITER (1D: Planet) / BORON (46D: Chemical element)
SOL (4D: Note on the musical scale) / DEUTERONOMY (25D: Book of the Bible)
PIERCE BROSNAN (6D: James Bond portrayer)
AUGEAN STABLES (18D: Labor of Hercules)
ALAN SHEPARD (9D: Man who walked on the moon) / MAY (59D: Month)

Word of the Day: BURR (46A: Part of a Scottish accent) —

noun
1.
a rough sounding of the sound r, especially with a uvular trill (a “French r ”) as in certain Northern England accents.
2.
a rough edge or ridge left on an object (especially of metal) by the action of a tool or machine. (google)

• • •

Well this is certainly the nicest puzzle of the week thus far, and far and away the best filled. There's a groaner here and there, but way too much solid, interesting stuff for the lesser stuff to become a real distraction. Themewise, I like that the pentacular (it's a word now) theme has two components—the missing "Fifth"s as well as the five total "columns" that are involved. The main problem, as I see it, is one of entertainment value. The cluing offered no opportunities for anything but the most literal approach. Most of the time, the missing "Fifth" wasn't relevant or even noticeable; I got all the longer theme answers with virtually no crosses in place (though having the "AU-" in place on the Herclues one definitely helped) (also of help—having some longstanding familiarity with that guy's labors). Cluing was just blah, and missing "Fifth" wasn't noticeable / couldn't be registered in any kind of compelling way. So I love the idea, and the look of the grid, and I think it's nicely filled, but between the puzzle's overall easiness (under five minutes?!) and the aggressive straightforwardness of the cluing, there was somewhat less scintillation that I would've liked in my Thursday puzzle. Still, I'll take it over any of this week's M-W stuff.

I only learned the term "fifth column" a few years back, when I was looking for theme answers for my marijuana / "THC"-themed puzzle "Inside Dope." That puzzle also contained BIRTH CANAL. Edgy! Anyway, knowing the term allowed me to get the revealer without even looking at the clue. I got COLUMNS from crosses and then … I dunno, I just never even looked at 15-Down. My main issue up there was going with RADII for 19A: Neighbors of ulnae (CARPI). CARPI is probably my least favorite thing in the grid (and keep in mind this grid has ESS and YERS). It's a real plural, but I've never seen it (that I can remember). TARSI, I've seen. CARPI sounds like it would describe a fish-like odor. At any rate, I was playing around with my dog's FOREPAWs earlier in the evening, so that answer came to me easily and helped me straighten out that corner (the only part of the puzzle that gave me the slightest trouble). Stuff like NIA, ENYA, NAOMI, OREO, all just came too easily. Middle of the grid might've been harder had not the long themers there been a total cinch. PASSADO and GAG RULE make a really lovely center "column." This puzzle definitely has more pluses than minuses.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FAIR ISLE (40D: Shetland sweater style) —

Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. It is named after Fair Isle, a tiny island in the north of Scotland, that forms part of the Shetlandislands. Fair Isle knitting gained a considerable popularity when the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII) wore Fair Isle tank tops in public in 1921. Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or so colours, use only two colours per row, are worked in the round, and limit the length of a run of any particular colour.
Some people use the term "Fair Isle" to refer to any colourwork knitting where stitches are knit alternately in various colours, with the unused colours stranded across the back of the work. Others use the term "stranded colourwork" for the generic technique, and reserve the term "Fair Isle" for the characteristic patterns of the Shetland Islands.
Other techniques for knitting in colour include intarsia, slip-stitch colour (also known as mosaic knitting). (wikipedia)

• • •

I didn't enjoy this much, but it's definitely as bad as I thought it was about 1/3 of the way in. I didn't get FACE PALM, KILOHERTZ or (toughly, nicely clued) GEOCACHING (9D: Coordinated activity?) til very late, and what I got early … wasn't pretty. This isn't terribly surprising, as I tend to need to hack at the short stuff (more likely to be ugly) before I can uncover the long stuff. It's just that I went a considerable amount of time today with virtually no long stuff. ONA. NON and ICI. EFILE OLEO MEWL ROM TERI. EMTS. And I was missing old stuff that was way out of my wheelhouse. A song about Timbuktu … a partial about Teddy Roosevelt (really mad at myself there, as I watched all that damned Ken Burns documentary and apparently it did me virtually no good) … a sweater type (which, it turns out, was popularized by a Prince of Wales from a century ago…?). I actually developed open antipathy for this puzzle just reading the clue at 12D: Joe of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", which only increased when I realized that could've had a "Star Wars"-related clue (LANDO). GERITOL, indeed.

["Got another lover in Timbuktu…"]
But as I say, the ship righted itself somewhat in the latter half of the solve, as more interesting fill started to show up. I had some early-morning gunk in my head, apparently, as I not only had SILL for SLAT (2D: Blind spot?) (right idea, wrong answer), but had -OBS and just stared, too lazy even to run the alphabet properly. COBS, of course. Ears of corn. Also had MI-ER at 18A: One likely to take an elevator to work and wondered why a MISER wouldn't want to take the stairs … but of course, MINERs take an elevator to and (if they're lucky) from work.

There are some things that shouldn't be plurals, and EEKS and (especially!) CIAOS are among those things. [Inuit companion] should be "qimmiq" (aka the Canadian ESKIMO DOG). Also, they aren't Inuit "companions" much any more since the breed is virtually extinct. The American ESKIMO DOG originated in Germany (go figure) and as a breed is very much alive and well, thank you.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Kevin G. Der

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: UNICUM (17A: Hungarian liqueur sold in green bottles) —

Unicum is a Hungarian herbal liqueur or bitters, drunk as a digestif and apéritif. The liqueur is today produced by Zwack according to a secret formula of more than forty herbs; the drink is aged in oak casks. During Communism in Hungary, the Zwack family lived in exile in New Yorkand Chicago, and Unicum in Hungary was produced using a different formula. Before moving to the US Janos Zwack had entrusted a family friend in Milan with the production of Unicum based on the original recipe. After the fall of communism, Péter Zwack returned to Hungary and resumed production of the original Unicum.
Unicum is regarded as one of the national drinks of Hungary. The production facility offers tours which include a tasting session of the three different varieties (Unicum, Unicum Next, and Millenicum). Though Millenicum was a special edition, it can still be found at a few retailers. It is somewhat stronger than the original, with a slightly sweeter aftertaste. Zwack Frissitők is a pineapple-based version of the drink. According to the manufacturer, the original Unicum is no longer distributed in the US, having been replaced by Unicum Next (a sweeter, thinner-bodied drink with a more prominent citrus flavour), re-branded as "Zwack". (wikipedia)

• • •

Wow, this one was easy. Wicked easy. I was going to track my progress through the puzzle, with periodic grid snapshots, but no interesting patterns emerged because my solve was smooth and very nearly unbroken. I can describe it very simply: start in NW and get everything but fail to move into the center because STUDIO??? and HOME … GAMES, maybe (no). So restart with ALA / AWE, and from there, just finish the whole puzzle in one big swoop—across the NE, down to the -HIRT in LOSE ONE'S SHIRT, which lets you pick up STUDIO SET (aha) and HOME MATCH (a haha), and then DETECTIVE WORK and KIDS THESE DAYS become unmistakable, then LED ASTRAY and DIVE INTO down into that SW, then SEDATIVES and SWAN'S… NECK, maybe (yes), down into that SE corner, which is done in about ten seconds (not much exaggeration). Never even saw the nutso clue on UTA (42A: German-born photographer Barth). Speaking of nutso, UNICUM. In a supremely easy puzzle, that thing is a crazy outlier. Definition (as clued) didn't even show up on a straight-up google search of [UNICUM]. Apparently there are *other* definitions of UNICUM that google thinks I want to know more (including Urban Dictionary's, which … you don't want to know; let's just say it involves unicorns…). I had to add "Hungary" to the search to get this alleged "liqueur." Not great answer with obscure clue, which is weird, because a. it didn't make the puzzle much harder at all, and b. the rest of the grid is not only filled with much more familiar terms, it's just much better overall. This is a very clean, non-gunky grid. Had we ditched the UNICUM and toughened up the cluing quite a bit, we'd be in near-ideal Saturday territory.

It all starts from ALA / AWE, though. When I look back, it's that moment that propels me into the grid. Not sure where I'd've gotten into the grid if not there. Hard to imagine a path not taken. Maybe ELLY / SKYLIT. Maybe EVA / DIVE INTO. But neither of those crossings is positioned for maximum grid leverage. ALA / AWE sits at the front ends of a bunch of words in that quadrant. Got WELD and ETHEL immediately and then swoosh, off I went. Wouldn't have been able to push off with the same force if I'd started other places. My first entries were actually, as I said earlier, in the NW: HAS / YENTA, weirdly enough. That gave me MY WORD at 1A: "I swear …", which was fantastically wrong, but the "O" was right, and it gave me ON CD, which confirmed STUDDED, so MY WORD didn't mess me up for long. Only other errors I had were DEFACER for DEFILER, a misspelled VELURE ("velour"), and … yep, that's it. No, wait, I did have HOME GAMES before HOME MATCH. But IMED (one of the few less-than-great answers) set me right.

["Lithuanians and Letts [!] do it …"]

Hope those who normally struggle with Saturdays had some success today. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:"Twist Ending" — familiar phrases where last two letters have been switched ("twist"ed?) to create wackiness (with customary "?" cluing)

Theme answers:

I CANNOT TELL A LEI (23A: "Those wreaths all look the same to me!"?)
SCAREDY CAST (3D: Group of actors who all have stage fright?)
YOU'VE GOT MALI (39A: Start of an oral listing of African nations, perhaps?)
RAISING THE BRA (53A: Showing less cleavage?)
A QUARTER TO TOW (84A: Cheap roadside assistance?)
ILLEGAL A-LINE (99A: Knockoff dress labeled "Armani," say?)
ANNIE, GET YOUR GNU (116A: Caution to an orphan girl not to leave her wildebeest behind?)
OBTUSE ANGEL (70D: Lovely but stupid person?)

Word of the Day: LINDIED (96D: Did a 1930s dance) —

The Lindy Hop is an American dance that evolved in Harlem, New York City, in the 1920s and 1930s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. It was very popular during the Swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based on jazz, tap, breakaway and Charleston. It is frequently described as a jazz dance and is a member of the swing dance family. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is not the kind of theme I expect to be able to pass muster anymore. Can't imagine why it was accepted. It's completely adequate, but the core concept is ancient, and not terribly imaginative, and Sunday is a marquee day. I don't understand how a theme like this deserves showcase status. This theme is (more or less) infinitely replicable. Just find any word where the "twist" thing with the last two letters works, find a phrase that ends in one of the variations, boom, theme answer (DIRTY POLO, FORD PINOT, etc.). Now, it's possible that if your answers and/or clues are truly, genuinely funny, then the tiredness of the concept won't be an issue, and this puzzle does manage to get off a couple good phrases, most notably RAISING THE BRA and ANNIE, GET YOUR GNU (which is enjoyably ridiculous). The rest are just OK, at best, and I CANNOT TELL A LEI doesn't make sense at all, even as clued. You can't tell them … apart … you mean? Right? You would never use that phrasing to mean what the clue says you mean. Never.

The fill here is often ILLY chosen. It's probably average-ish, over all. The NE and SW corners deserve some praise, but there's probably a bit too much ENERO ATEM AMENRA for my taste. This puzzle has this weird thing it's doing with both adjectival and past tense -ED suffixing. That is, stuff, that I never see with that suffix somehow has that suffix. ENCORED? PILLARED? LINDIED? All defensible, I'm sure, just like PETTER (?) is probably defensible. It's just odd. ANISES? If you say so. At least that one makes me (or my inner 8-year-old, which is just a euphemism for "me") laugh.

[Time has made this … disturbing. Moreso …]

I published a puzzle once called "Final Twists" (Penguin Classics Crossword Puzzles, ed. Ben Tausig). But there, the "twists" involved the whole word (not just the final two letters) *and* (this is key), they all involved titles of crime novels (which, of course, typically feature "final twists"). [Raymond Chandler crime novel about giant banana skins?] = THE BIG PEELS. Etc. So the theme, you know, made sense. Here, "Twist Ending" is just this random thing you're doing to totally unrelated phrases, so the theme lacks coherence. Also, A QUARTER TO TWO would never fly as a crossword answer, so it shouldn't be able to fly as a base answer for a theme phrase.

Hey, the 3rd Annual "Finger Lakes Crossword Competition" is coming up on Saturday, March 7, 2015 in Ithaca, NY. I'll be there again this year, doing a Q & A and judging. Ithaca's own Adam Perl will be constructing puzzles especially for this competition. You Northeasterners (and esp. you central NYers, you know who you are) should consider coming. Last year was a lot of fun. Proceeds benefit Tompkins Learning Partners, which supports adult literacy in the community. Click HERE to get more info.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Patrick Blindauer's "Space Puzzlefest"— 13 interconnected puzzles that lead to a final answer — is now available at his website. It's a contest, the grand prize of which is a book of poetry written by Eugene T. Maleska (who knew?). Here's the "Space Puzzlefest" description:

Patrick Blindauer's Space Puzzlefest consists of about a dozen crosswords, each of which leads to an answer (in a different way each time). All of these answers get combined at the end to form a final answer, which you can email to Patrick to be entered in the Feb. 27th drawing for the Grand Prize: a copy of "Sun & Shadows," a book of Vogonesque poetry written by former New York Times crossword editor Eugene T. Maleska. You can enroll at http://patrickblindauer.com/puzzlefest.php; for only 17 Buckazoids you'll receive an invitation to Patrick's Space Puzzlefest Google Group where you can access the PDF of puzzles. Come on a stellar puzzventure with Patrick Blindauer's "Space Puzzlefest" (oxygen not included)!

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Medium-ish (my time was a teeny bit high for a Monday)

THEME: FRESH START (56A: New beginning … or what 16-, 23-, 31-, 38- and 45-Across each have?) — theme answers are familiar two-part phrases/names where first part can also be a synonym for "fresh" in the sense of … well, multiple senses, actually … I was going to say "sassy," but … just, see below…

Theme answers:

FLIP WILSON (16A: 1970s comedian whom Time magazine dubbed "TV's First Black Superstar")
SMART COOKIE (23A: Clever person)
PERT PLUS (31A: Shampoo in a green bottle)
BOLD TEXT (38A: Type meant to stand out)
FORWARD PASS (45A: Counterpart to a lateral)

Word of the Day: APISH (26A: Copycatting) —

adj.
1. Resembling an ape.
2. Slavishly or foolishly imitative: an apish impersonation.
3. Silly; outlandish. (thefreedictionary.com)

• • •

This has a couple problems on the theme front. First, the "fresh"ness of someone who is forward (i.e. the guy who gets slapped by the girl for being excessively presumptuous) is very different from the "fresh"ness of someone who's just giving you lip, backtalk, sass, what have you. And "bold" feels like only the loosest of synonyms. So the "fresh"nesses see like they're offering themselves up as a coherent set, but I don't think they are. Second, BOLD TEXT… sat ill(y) with me. It googles fine, but that "type" is called "BOLDFACE" if it's called anything. I'd've liked that better, despite its X-lessness. Hell, I'd've liked BOLD MOVE better. BOLD TEXT feels "green paint"-ish. Like ITALIC TEXT or UNDERLINED TEXT. Meh. Then there's the fill. Now, I'm a big fan of the multiple long Downs, all of them at least solid. But I'm surprised Ian-not-SEAN (nice vanity clue there) (62A: Ian : Scotland :: ___ : Ireland) had to resort to such low-rent fill so often. GOERS at 1A: Attendees was just painful, and then to have RUER in the puzzle too. Nominalizing verbs w/ -ER always feels mildly half-assed, but some (say, RUNNERs) are better than others (say, GOERS). I have no issues with RISER or PARER, but here they add to an unfortunate overall ER(R)-ness.

And then APISH, oh, man. No. Here's what happens when you try to google [define apish]:

See. Google's like "Nah, you mean this other, similarly ridiculous thing, right?" Then when you insist "no, I really mean 'apish'," you get a definition that has only the most tangential relationship to the clue:

Clue says [Copycatting]. I guess the second definition pictured above covers "copycatting," in that apes are imagined to be copiers of human behavior (hence the *verb* ape, aping). [Copycatting] as APING, I'd buy. But APISH? As you can see by the helpful chart, no. That is not a word one uses these days. And on a Monday? Come on. Anyone using APISH at all, particularly on a Monday, should be a RUER indeed.

Bullets:

62A: Ian : Scotland :: ___ : Ireland (SEAN) — botched this very badly on the first go-round because I didn't fully scan the clue. Had the final "N" and saw "Ireland" and instinctively wrote in ERIN. :(
41D: "The Garden of Earthly Delights" artist (BOSCH) — blanked hard on this. Had -OSC- and could think only of TOSCA.
30D: Winning "Hollywood Squares" line (OOO) — well, it beats [Losing "Hollywood Squares" line], but not by much.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: James Tuttle

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

THEME: Er .. Oh … — all theme answers end with final syllable that rhymes with "roh"

Theme answers:

KILIMANJARO (17A: Africa's highest peak)
DENIS DIDEROT (24A: Noted French encyclopedist)
SUCH SWEET SORROW (38A: Parting, to Juliet)
CENSUS BUREAU (48A: Group you can rely on when it counts)
JAMES MONROE (60A: President who lived at Oak Hill)

Word of the Day: LOT (64A: Polish airline) —

Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (Polish pronunciation: [ˈlɔt], Flight), trading as LOT Polish Airlines, is the flag carrier of Poland. Based in Warsaw, LOT was established in 1929, making it one of the world's oldest airlines still in operation. Using a fleet of 55 aircraft, LOT operates a complex network to 60 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia. Most of the destinations are served from its hub, Warsaw Chopin Airport.
As Poland made the transition to democracy from 1989, the airline began a transformation from a Soviet-controlled carrier to a European flag carrier. LOT started a process of fleet renewal with the purchase of Western aircraft to replace old Soviet models. With the arrival of the first Boeing 767-300ER, LOT started inter-continental services to Chicago, Newark, Toronto, and New York City. These four main routes have been some of the most popular flights that LOT operates, especially during the summer season when many Poles seek to come back to their homeland for vacation.
LOT found itself undergoing constant management change in the late 2000s due to worsening financials and reductions in market share. After placing orders for several Boeing 787 aircraft and taking delivery of two, the carrier has found itself "nearly insolvent" due to the January 2013 grounding of the 787. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is an odd, loose theme, but I don't mind it. That is, I don't mind the idea. I mind, slightly, DENIS DIDEROT on a Tuesday—his relative obscurity makes him a massive outlier in this line-up. And I mind somewhat more SUCH SWEET SORROW, since it's essentially a partial. It's easy, and hence likely welcome to solvers trying to move through this harder-than-usual puzzle, but it's not good as stand-alone fill. Not at all. So the theme idea is just OK and the execution is a bit wobbly. The fill is quite bad. Demonstrably bad. I count eight (!) entries that I'd consider "Fill Of Last Resort," and that *doesn't* include the more typical crosswordese like AGAR, ONO, ROO, ETAS, OER, etc. On a Tuesday, fill should be *much* much cleaner than this. OLEA? (40D: Olive genus) Bad enough on its own, but somehow worse in a puzzle that already has LEA. Then there's EMER ETH SSE RUS ELUL NOI and SPEE (the last of which I botched because I confused it with that other crosswordese gem, SMEE). And what the hell is up with the clue on LOT? I've been doing puzzles a long, long time, and I'm not sure I've ever seen LOT clued as a Polish airline. I just checked the cruciverb.com database: of 253 LOTs, precisely zero have been clued via the airline. None. None. Again, it's Tuesday. I have no idea what that clue was all about.

Scouts earn merit BADGES, so MERITS (?) slowed me down (28A: Scouts earn them), as did my inability to get the vowels right in KIL-M-NJARO. Misread [Part of a televised movie review] as [… movie crew] and so had trouble with CLIP (had GRIP at some point). My SMEE-for-SPEE troubles mean PUNJAB was pretty tough to come up with (46D: Indian state whose name means "five rivers"). Everything else was fairly straightforward, though not necessarily instantly gettable. I was over four minutes today, which is pretty rare for me on a Tuesday. The relatively slow time matters not at all to me. The uneven, ultimately unsatisfying solving experience—that matters.

Hope all you New Yorkers are surviving the alleged End Times Snowstorm. We're only getting an inch or three here in central upstate NY.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: I bet you think this song is about YOU — Songs that have YOU in their titles, arranged in pieces, symmetrically, such that the YOU at the center of the puzzle is shared by every title:

Theme answers:

I'VE GOT / YOU / UNDER MY SKIN (1A: With 38- and 46-Across, 1966 4 Seasons hit) (I had no idea they did a version of this song; I don't associate with them At All)

I WANT TO TAKE / YOU / HIGHER (26A: With 38- and 67-Across, 1970 Sly & the Family Stone hit)
ALL / YOU / NEED IS LOVE (10A: With 38- and 50-Across, 1967 Beatles hit)
JUST THE WAY / YOU / ARE (21A: With 38- and 65-Across, 1977 Billy Joel hit)

Word of the Day: ODAS (39A: Harem rooms) —

Oda (Turkish: oda, "a room, chamber") is a room within a harem found in the Ottoman Empire. // During Ottoman period the harem division of the Topkapı Palace was home to the Valide sultan (Sultan's mother); the odalisques and wives of the Sultan; and the rest of his family, including children; and their servants. There were nearly 300 odas in the harem and it housed as many as 500 residents, which sometimes amounted up to 300 women, their children, and the eunuchs. (wikipedia)

• • •

They all share that YOU, and they are symmetrical. But I don't see what's enjoyable about any of it, except if you happen to like some or all of the songs involved. Remembering songs can be nice. But as a crossword, it's just fussy. Multiply cross-referenced clues, chopped up answers … no pleasure there for me. It's architecturally interesting, in its way, but mainly it seemed messy. Titles smashed to bits. Interesting upon reflection, but not very pleasant to solve. The fill (once again) is remarkably poor in places. It's a 76-worder w/ cheaters, so why the RIV / IPSO, why the AWET / ODAS, why the ERES / ILO / AAU / KAI, why the EHLE / AROW / LOGY, and why the THE JETS? It all felt so terribly unpolished. Yes, everybody likes these songs. They are popular, they are old, they are going to play well with the NYT's core demographic. And there's definitely some decent longer, non-theme stuff in there (weirdly, unusually, that may be where this puzzle is strongest—RUN ALONG, GRAPE NUTS IMPOSTOR! You can have HAIR COMB (?) back, but the other longer stuff is pretty decent. But the short stuff is too often unbearable, and the theme has no appeal except nostalgia.

Bullets:

14A: Scope (ROOM) — strangely, this little nook in the north caused me the most difficulty. Took me a while to get ROOM, in part because 7D: Makes a wrong turn seemed so … turn-specific. Took me a while to consider the general ERRS. Also ELK was well (and pretty nicely) hidden at 7A: Popular game? Is it popular? Really? Well, at any rate, I like the play on "game."
48A: U.K. neighbor (IRE)— that is a nice attempted save, emphasis on "attempted": still no good to have IRE and IRATE in the same grid.
47D: "6 Rms ___ Vu" (1972 play) ("RIV")— Honestly, I went with "WIV." Thought we were doing baby talk play on a Forster title. "Me want woom wiv vu!" I have never heard of this "play." It was probably a big deal when these songs were (more) popular.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: John Farmer

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "CUT OUT THE / MIDDLE MAN" (17A: With 58-Across, buy or sell direct … or what to do in this puzzle three times?) — three times there are black squares where you will want to put "MAN"… those black squares are situated between (i.e. in the "middle" of) two MEN … or MANs, I guess: one on top of said black squares, one on the bottom.

Theme answers:

RAIN (20A: Best Picture between "The Last Emperor" and "Driving Miss Daisy")
THE ICE / COMETH (34A: With 37-Across, drama set in New York's Last Chance Saloon)
AGUA (53A: Central American capital)

Word of the Day:"ACT ONE" (3D: 2014 Broadway play based on Moss Hart's autobiography) —

Act One is a play written by James Lapine, based on Moss Hart's autobiography of the same title. The play premiered on Broadway in 2014. // Act One premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center on March 20, 2014 (previews), officially on April 17, 2014. Directed by James Lapine, the cast features Santino Fontana, Tony Shalhoub (as George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart) and Andrea Martin. Martin plays three women in Moss Hart's life; Shalhoub also plays three roles: as the older Hart, Moss’s father, and George S. Kaufman. The play closed on June 15, 2014 after 67 performances and 31 previews. It was filmed to be shown on the PBS television program "Live from Lincoln Center." (wikipedia)

• • •

This is a puzzle that doesn't seem to know what either "middle" or "cut out" means. For the premise, CUT OUT THE / MIDDLE MAN, to make any sense at all, you have to imagine that there was a MAN where three black squares are, where the expected but absent MAN would have sat between one MAN (on top) and another MAN (below). So, you (solver) "cut out" a "man" that was in the "middle" of two other "men." Only I, the solver, do not do that. What *I* do is cut out MAN. I just don't enter it. Or, rather, I enter it twice, once above where it should've gone, and again below. The cut-out MAN isn't in the "middle" of anything except this ridiculously contrived, entirely theoretical "MAN" stack. "MAN is not in the "middle" of "RAIN [Man]"—it's at the end. The only place I "CUT OUT THE / MIDDLE MAN" is with "THE ICE [man] COMETH." There, MAN is in fact in the middle. Otherwise, *I* just cut out (or leave out, because I have nowhere to put it) MAN. The fact that that "MAN" (in an impossible, imaginary, non-existent grid) would have sat in the "middle" of a MAN sandwich has nothing to do with me. *I* didn't do anything to said sandwich. This puzzle is a conceptual mess with inaccurate, confusing instructions. And the fill is no good, but you knew that. Actually, it's probably NYT-average. At this point in the NYT's history, that is not a compliment.

Never heard of PEKING MAN (23A: Archaeological discovery of the 1920s whose fossils have been missing since 1941). Real familiarity outlier, given how common the other "MAN"-containing answers are. The other *huge* outlier is AGUA. You just snapped that word in two, whereas with the others, you removed the word"MAN" (also, those other two altered answers are titles of dramatic performances, making [Man]AGUA an even huger outlier: foreign, broken, not a drama. Difficulty for me came entirely from the man-sandwich angle; I could see how "MAN" was missing, but then it kept turning up. I thought we were cutting MAN, but we're not … except sometimes. Putting it all together, finally, did not make for an AHA moment. More "oh" [shrug]. Never heard of "ACT ONE" (3D: 2014 Broadway play based on Moss Hart's autobiography), though that seems like a fine clue for otherwise not great fill. Heard of GTOS, but to me Road Runner is Time Warner's high-speed internet service (33A: Onetime Road Runner rivals). I'm still not sure how 24D: Chapter seven? works for ETA. Is it that … ETA is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and chapter is some kind of fraternity/sorority reference? I hope not, 'cause that is weak. And the expression is "Well I'LL BE a monkey's uncle" (not "I'M A") (59D). It's like … you wouldn't say "Well I'M damned." You'd say "Well I'LL BE damned." It's like that. That "I'M A" clue was the most painful thing in a largely unpleasant puzzle.

I feel like I would've felt more warmly about this puzzle if MANWICH had somehow been involved. Seems to express what's happening better than today's revealer does.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: David Phillips

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: SEGOS (9D: Mariposa relatives) —

The Sego Lily, Calochortus nuttallii, is a bulbous perennial which is endemic to the Western United States. It is the state flower of Utah. (wikipedia) // Calochortus /ˌkælɵˈkɔrtəs/ is a genus of plants that includes herbaceous, perennial and bulbous species. The genus includes approximately 70 species distributed in North America from south west British Columbia to northern Guatemala and east to Nebraska and the Dakotas. Calochortus is the most widely dispersed genus of Liliaceae on the North American Pacific coast. Of these, 28 species are endemic to California. The genus Calochortusincludes Mariposas (or Mariposa lilies) with open wedge-shaped petals, Globe lilies and Fairy lanterns with globe-shaped flowers, and Cat's ears and Star tulips with erect pointed petals. The word Calochortus is derived from Greek and means "beautiful grass". (wikipedia)

• • •

Someone tweeted at me that this was the easiest Friday he'd ever done. I saw the tweet before I did the puzzle, so naturally I thought, "well, now I'm jinxed." But no, it was, in fact, easy—not the easiest Friday I've ever done, but in the ballpark (a hair's breadth under 5). I got so much positive feedback on my posts where I walk you through my solve with screen grabs of the grid at various stages of completion that I decided to do it again today. Turns out that when I do this with a super-easy puzzle, the results aren't so interesting. I set the timer for 3 minutes and set out. When it went off, I was here:

Then I set it for another three minutes and was done well before the timer ever went off. For me, puzzles always look most chaotic in the first third of the solve. I actually started in the NW (where I got most but not all of that section), then jumped to the NE via "SCHOOL'S OUT" (where I got most but not all of that section), and then branched out from there. Filling in the top center put necessary pressure on my problem areas in the NW (where I had WANE for SHED) and NE (where I couldn't find SEGOS or REAGENT, partly because I don't really know what they are…). Once those early rough spots were ironed out, sailing was pretty damned smooth. I rolled tanks over the middle and bottom of this grid. As you can see from the partial grid, I've got NEF- and DRU- just locked and loaded; both of them went down the moment I looked at their clues (though I apparently need several attempts to spell NEFERTITI correctly—I went NEFRI-, I think).

I actually know what SEGO lilies are, but I had no idea "Mariposas" were also lilies. I thought butterfly. Then I thought, "Oh, these are tribe names I just haven't heard of." But no. Flowers. There were two moments that made this puzzle Really speed up. The first was getting that double-I in WII SPORTS. Obviously WII something (which gave me the "W" I needed for SHREWD), and then two seconds of thought tells me "probably SPORTS." The other quickening agent in this grid was BROAD AX. Got BROAD. Realized SWORD didn't fit. Tried AX. That "X" was all I needed for XEROXED, which blew open the E and SE. It also helped having pop culture gimmes lying around all over the place. "SCHOOL'S OUT" features strongly in one Richard Linklater movie. ETHAN Hawke features strongly in at least four others. So if you're a Richard Linklater fan, this was your lucky day. I never watched "GILMORE Girls" or "The Mentalist" (46A: Setting for TV's "The Mentalist"), but I had enough crosses in place to make the answers to those clues easy.

[Julie DELPY]
For a puzzle that went down so easily, it tripped me up a lot. Wrong answers included WANE (for SHED), FOAM (???) (for MOAT), LATTE (for CAFFE), OCTAD (for OCTET), A DOSE (??!) (for A DASH), and TEEN (for GEEK) (50D: Fanboy or fangirl). Overall, I liked the puzzle fine. There was some longer stuff I found less than enjoyable: EPEEIST, CARTOONED, ALLEMANDE, REAGENT. I like CARTOONED right up until the -ED ending, when I liked it less. The ADASH SEGOS REAGENT CEE-LO part is a bit weak. You'd say "IS THAT OK?" not "IS IT OK?" You'd say "IS IT OK if …" Little things like that grate. But overall, this thing has good bones, and the marquee answers are generally quite entertaining. It's weird to me that it's just 66 words, since it played like and looks like a 70- or 72-worder. I think this is a result of all the cheaters (black squares that don't increase word count—i.e. the black squares after SHREWD and before CASBAH, after "SCHOOL'S OUT" and before SACRAMENTO, after OFF HOURS and before PHARAOHS, after PASTES and before IS IT OK? Highly segmented grid, lot of opportunities to get a foothold, clues set to Medium-Low … all this made solving a breeze. A mostly enjoyable breeze.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. The indomitable Bernice Gordon has died at age 101. She was a long- (LONG-) time crossword constructor. Please check out her obituary (beautifully written by Deb Amlen).

P.P.S. Also read constructor David Steinberg's remembrance of Ms. Gordon, which is awfully touching.

Constructor: Tim Croce

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: OMER (55D: Post-Passover period) —

Counting of the Omer (Hebrew: ספירת העומר, Sefirat HaOmer, sometimes abbreviated as Sefira or the Omer) is an important verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot as stated in the Hebrew Bible: Leviticus 23:15-16.
This mitzvah ("commandment") derives from the Torah commandment to count forty-nine days beginning from the day on which the Omer, a sacrifice containing an omer-measure of barley, was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, up until the day before an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple on Shavuot. The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover (the 16th of Nisan) for Rabbinic Jews (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform), and after the weekly Shabbat during Passover for Karaite Jews, and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, the 'fiftieth day.'
The idea of counting each day represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for the giving of the Torah which was given by God on Mount Sinai at the beginning of the month of Sivan, around the same time as the holiday of Shavuot. The Sefer HaChinuch(published anonymously in 13th century Spain) states that the Hebrew people were only freed from Egypt at Passover in order to receive the Torah at Sinai, an event which is now celebrated on Shavuot, and to fulfill its laws. Thus the Counting of the Omerdemonstrates how much a Hebrew desires to accept the Torah in his own life. (wikipedia)

• • •

I want to start with ME LIKEY, because it's creeping me out, but I fully realize that my reaction is not necessarily going to be the most common one. I always felt there was some element of ethnic/racial mockery in that phrase (part of that whole "ching-chong" racist caricature of Chinese English—though some other source I just read claimed the phrase derives from Afr.-Am. / creole speech). People definitely use that phrase, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority use it with absolutely no racial inflection. And yet, I found it icky. I'm not judging: just putting a big "Question Mark" on top of that answer. (Many thanks to Erik Agard for responding to my Twitter query about this phrase with a link to this WaPo article, which refers to what must surely be "ME LIKEY"'s newsworthiness apogee). (And here are more relevant links: one referring to an instance of "ME LIKEY"'s being used in a caricature of Chinese English in a 1930s Charlie Chan film, and the other going into considerable academic detail about the etymological origins of "ME LIKEY," touching on Asian pidgin, creole, Long Duk Dong, and "Family Guy").

I mostly liked this puzzle; it's loaded with colloquialisms, most of them far more unambiguously enjoyable than the one I just mentioned. "I'M AWARE,""HOOK ME UP,""HUMOR ME," and "OH BOO HOO!"—all great. This thing seemed pitched pretty hard, though it may just seem that way by contrast with yesterday's puzzle, which was uncharacteristically easy. Getting started was a bit hard. ARUGULA was a gimme (2D: Plant called "rocket" outside the U.S.), and I clawed my way from there up into the NW corner, but then couldn't escape. Or, rather, I did this weird board game-type move where I landed on one square and used it to jump to a completely different place in the board. That is to say, AGE allowed me to infer YRS (34D: 19-Across units), and then, miraculously, that "Y" bought me GUYLINER. But then I was stuck again. Grid looked like this:

[Minion's reply] = YES … MA'AM? That was all I had for a while. Just couldn't come down out of the NW cleanly. Eventually worked from NEE to get up into the NE (after changing SIGN ME UP to HOOK ME UP). Found the whole NE very hard, despite getting ON A DIME, because HEARTHS was just never gonna come with that clue (8A: Some gathering spots) and I just did an -UP answer and didn't expect to see another so soon (ORDER UP), and Kurwenal shmurwenal and tough (but good) clue on SPELLER (14D: Person breaking his word?). Had to squeeze that corner from both sides to bring it under control. Then went crashing into the SE, thought I was on a roll, but got stuck again, here:

Wanted POOL ROOM and no other ROOM at 63A: You might take a cue from this (REC ROOM). Never heard of OMER (that I could recall—I thought he wrote "L'Illiade") and was never going to get WACO. Also, I appear to have believed that the [Common combo vaccine] was MDM, which, in this case, is 100% wrong, though I am going to assume that there is some similar vaccine initialism out there with at least one "M" in it. At this point in the solve, I was a bit worried, but ETES (50A: Conjugation part between "sommes" and "sont") and NORSK (45A: Like Grieg, to Grieg) ended up being gimmes, and they got me going again in the SW; not much trouble after that. I think I have never heard of EM SPACE. Just "em dash." But inferring was not hard. The end!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Early-morning reader mail. This made me laugh: "I’ve never gathered at a hearth even though I have a fireplace."

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME:"This n' That" — common "___ AND ___" phrases are reimagined as two-word phrases where the first word is a homophone of the "___ AND" part, with every first word ending in an "n" sound:

Theme answers:

SUMMON SUBSTANCE (instead of "sum and substance") (23A: Content of a demand to attend?)
COFFIN WHEEZE (32A: Freaky funeral noise?)
HERON MAKEUP (17D: Feathers, pointy bill, long legs, etc.?)
DRAGON DROP (49A: Dive from a fire-breathing creature?)
FOREIGN TWENTY (71A: Venti, vingt or zwanzig?)
KRAKEN PEEL (93A: Woe for a sunburned sea monster?)
FISSION CHIPS (110A: Intel products used at a nuclear facility?)
WARREN PEACE (70D: Period when rabbits stop fighting?)
FOREMAN FUNCTION (119A: Overseeing a work crew, e.g.?)

Word of the Day: ELIS (94D: Site of ancient Greek Olympics) —

Elis /ˈɛlɨs/, or Eleia /ɛˈlaɪ.ə/ (Greek, Modern: Ήλιδα Ilida, Ancient: Ἦλις Ēlis; Doric: ἎλιςAlis; Elean: Ϝαλις Walis, ethnonym: Ϝαλειοι) is an ancient district that corresponds to the modern Elis regional unit. Elis is in southern Greece on the Peloponnesos peninsula, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, and west by the Ionian Sea. Over the course of the archaic and classical periods, the polis of Elis controlled much of the region of Elis, most probably through unequal treaties with other cities, which acquired perioikic status. Thus the city-state of Elis was formed.
Homer mentions that Elis participated in the Trojan War.
The first Olympic festival was organized in Elean land, Olympia, Greece by the authorities of Elis in the 8th century BC, with tradition dating the first games at 776 BC. The Hellanodikai, the judges of the Games, were of Elean origin. (wikipedia)

• • •

Mixed bag. The theme didn't work well for me for two reasons. First, the "___ & ___" phrases were not all that tight. "Four and twenty"? As in blackbirds baked in a pie? Yeah, something like that can stand on its own precisely never. "Crack and peel"? When has that ever been a self-standing phrase? I know it's something dry skin or paint can do, but …???? I'm not that familiar with the phrase "sum and substance," as I've never heard anyone use it ever. "Form and function" feels only slightly more familiar. And yet stuff like "fish & chips" and "War & Peace" and "drag & drop" feel rock solid. Indisputable. Real. So first issue: base phrases are of widely varying quality / realness. Second, there's just no fun here. Neither the answers nor the clues are very funny. 23A is paradigmatic. SUMMON SUBSTANCE is dead weight, and [Content of a demand to attend?] barely makes sense grammatically, and contains no twist, turn, zing. . . nothing. Cluing is painfully straightforward all the way around, with the wonderful exception of the HERON MAKE-UP clue, [Feathers, pointy bill, long legs, etc.?]. That clue/answer pairing did … what's the word … let's say "tickle" me. The rest all had some level of malfunction.

Fill is predominantly good, as is true of most Steinberg grids. He's a careful constructor. HBS and LAR were the only things that really made me wince (I know "halfbacks" are real things, but I can't say I've ever seen that abbr., where as RBS and even FBS, I've seen). And LAR… well, at least it's not LER, I suppose. There's a beauty contest for you: which one would you rather have in your grid: LAR or LER? Sorry, "None of the above" is Not an option.

I had three main trouble spots. This grid (representing roughly me at the 1/3-done point), neatly illustrates at least two of said spots:

Since "crack and peel" is not a real phrase, nothing there. [Skeletal enemy in Mario games] meant nothing to me, though at this point I already wanted DRY BONES (correct). After I got DRY BONES and then KRAKEN PEEL, the biggest problem was having ELIS in the "E" cross, and not being at all sure that I was spelling KRAKEN right. KRAKEN / ELIS was a bit of a roll of the dice (other vowels just looked so much worse). Bigger snafu, however, was up in the north/west/central part of the grid where, as you can see, I was flummoxed. No idea what "Castaway" was, so its director … ??? COON as a [Garbage collector, informally?]? I get it now—raccoons will get into your garbage—but COON always sounds like a racial slur to me, and having the clue refer to "garbage collector"… somehow, my brain would not let the answer Actually be COON. Too sensitive? Just google [COON]. See what comes up. My friend teaches in COON Rapids, MN, a source of never-ending amusement. I'm guessing it's pretty white up there. But back to the puzzle. ROEG / COON / PROLIFIC had me dead-stopped. But I was able to get down into the SE pretty easily, and picked up momentum again from there. Last problem I had was at the place in the grid where I finished—ON POST / BACOS / MARACAIBO. That "B" was the last thing in. MARACAIBO was today's ABADJAN (which is actually spelled ABIDJAN, so apparently I've learned very little since I blew that answer a few weeks back). Just didn't know it. Needed every cross. ABIDJAN is my new substitute for "Waterloo"—a geographic place name on which your solving campaign comes to a catastrophic end. Today, MARACAIBO was my ABIDJAN. Except I finished, so no *actual* catastrophe. Just a near one.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. if you missed David Steinberg's touching remembrance of the late Bernice Gordon, you really should read it. Here.

Happy February 2nd, everybody! And it's an Annabel day again!

Happy February 2nd, everybody! And it's an Annabel day again!

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler

Relative difficulty: Medium-difficult (for a Monday)

THEME: THE BIG APPLE [34A: Empire State Building locale ... or a hint to three letters in 16-, 19-, 52- and 57-Across]— Answers for 16A, 19A,52A and 57A contained "NYC."

Theme answers:

16A: "Some Like it Hot" actor [TONYCURTIS]
19A: "I must do this" [DESTINYCALLS]
52A: Indictment for a serious offense [FELONYCHARGE]
57A: Executive's free "wheels" [COMPANYCAR]

Word of the Day: ERNO (61A: Rubik who invented Rubik's Cube) —

Ernő Rubik (Hungarian: [ˈrubik ˈɛrnøː]; born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, and Rubik's Snake.
While Rubik became famous for Rubik's Cube and his other puzzles, much of his recent work involves the promotion of science in education. Rubik is involved with several organizations such as Beyond Rubik's Cube, the Rubik Learning Initiative and the Judit Polgar Foundation all of whose aim is to engage students in science, mathematics, and problem solving at a young age.

• • •

This puzzle was surprisingly difficult to me...it felt like there were more name clues than usual. That intersection of TONYCURTIS [16A: "Some Like It Hot" actor] andBOYD [4D: William who played Hopalong Cassidy in old westerns] ended up really frustrating me! However, it's definitely one of my favorite Mondays so far. When I finally figured that 47A: Aioli, mostly wasn't actually talking about food at all but about VOWELS, I actually laughed out loud. Other great clues include 56A: "This skull has ____ in the earth" -Hamlet [LAIN] and 38D: Dimpled breakfast items [WAFFLES]. Anyway, would anyone care for a JUMBO ONION?

The theme's not much to speak of. . Or maybe I'm just bitter because I had NEWYORKCITY in 34A for around fifteen minutes. :P

Bullets:

23A: TV show that popularized the phrase, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" [WHATSMYLINE]— Rehearsals for the school play have just started up. And so, I've been hearing this a lot. Fortunately, I, a star, have all my lines memorized!...all, uh, five of them, so far...
50D: Mob bosses [CAPOS] — You have to love words that can go with many, many clues. The clue could have been the device that changes the pitch of strings on a guitar; "chief" in Italian or "of a chicken" in Latin; a Jim Jones album. A pretty versatile word!
14A: Prime draft classification [ONEA]— I would have recognized this a lot better if the clue had been Hot Cross Buns-related [____ penny, two a penny?], because my sister is learning to play the piano...

(I'm obviously the kid in the striped shirt)

25A: Item on a birthday cake[CANDLE]— Speaking of birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD!!!!!! He is the best dad in the entire universe and I love him a lot.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired high school student.

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Challenging (*for a Tuesday*)

THEME: missing initials — all Across clues are common initialisms that are missing one initial; answers to those clues are the words that the missing initials represent. So all the Acrosses are "theme answers."

Word of the Day: GRIG (1D: Small eel) —

noun
BRITISHdialect
1.
a small eel.
2.
a grasshopper or cricket. (google)

• • •

I found this one weirdly compelling. I mean, yes, there is predictably god-awful fill like GRIG and LUANA (?) and multiple DRATS etc., but somehow puzzling out the missing initials ended up being a reasonably entertaining way to spend five minutes (way Way higher than my average Tuesday time—this should've been a Wednesday, for sure). Difficulty on this one arose from several factors, but chief among them was the non-transparency of many of the initialisms in the Acrosses. Some of them were quite easy to pick up (once you figured out the gimmick), but others required a lot of work. Wanted UPS before GPS, SWAT before SWAK, BMW before BTW, etc. And if you can't figure out the initial straight off, you really have to work the crosses, or else run the alphabet looking for the initial you're not thinking of. Either way, you're spending way more time thinking about many answers than you normally would on a Tuesday. I'm highly disappointed in myself for not knowing a 2008 Taylor Swift "hit" (20D: Things "on my guitar" in a 2008 Taylor Swift hit = TEARDROPS). Then I looked it up and found out the song (which is actually called "TEARDROPS On My Guitar") only "hit" number 48 on the Hot 100 charts. That is not a real hit. That is a middling single. Only someone utterly unfamiliar with popular music could clue TEARDROPS that way. And yet now I feel better armed for the Swiftian future I will inevitably be inhabiting. Still, kinda disappointed the answer wasn't NOTCHES.

Even the junky fill ended up being, at times, interesting. I like how the consecutive answers at 10- and 11-Down, neither of them very desirable on their own, become almost a pop star when you look at them side by side.

B+ idea, C+ execution, so all in all, above average work.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Julian Lim

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Out in the middle of some phrase … — phrases that follow ___ OUT ___ pattern are clued for maximum wackification.

Theme answers:

CHECKOUT COUNTER (17A: Eye an election official?)
TAKE-OUT ORDER (26A: Decimate a monastery's occupants?)
LOOKOUT POINT (48A: Warning shouted to a lacrosse defenseman?)
WORKOUT ROUTINES (61A: Develop one's comedy acts?)

Word of the Day: LIEF (42A: Happily, old-style) —

adverb
archaic
as happily; as gladly.
"he would just as lief eat a pincushion"(google)

• • •

Come on, now—MAKE OUT SESSIONS [Descry Senator Jeff?]! It's a perfect 15! Cosmo says, "the best sex often starts with a make out session," in case you were wondering whether "make out session" is a real thing. It is real. It's both real and sexy. And it will not be denied.

swing out sister - break outby papafonk

This theme definitely needed *something* to heat it up, because it is tepid in the extreme. I sort of like the ultra violence implied in the clue for TAKE OUT ORDER, but otherwise, yawn. [Eye an election official?]??? These types of theme clues need zing. They demand it. If you can't make clever and imaginative and daring and funny clues for your "let's make something wacky" puzzle, then we all suffer. And the fill here does nothing to rescue the workmanlike theme. It's not terrible, but it's not good. Winced at ALII / LIEF and especially the super-ugly, no-one-writes-it-that-way KAYOED. ALOAD / ODED, also wobbly. My favorite part of the puzzle was the crossing of paddled REARS with sexual URGE. *That* is interesting. Ditto the HOT PINK Victoria's Secret item, which (symmetrically) EXCITES. The rest of the puzzle … BAH and YAK.

Are the letters CPR on first-aid kits, is that it? (39A: Letters on some kits)

Hey, if you FLUNKED your course, you still "made the grade" (43D: Didn't make the grade?). It's just that that grade was "F."ATTA BOY!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Easiest Thursday I've Ever Done (give or take)

THEME: three songs Down, three songs Across — all 15-letters long … yes, that is the theme … yes, it is … I swear.

Theme answers:

"FOR YOUR EYES ONLY"
"LONELY TEARDROPS"
"LEADER OF THE PACK"
"ANYWHERE I WANDER"
"I BELIEVE I CAN FLY"
"PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE"

Word of the Day: ARNEL (11D: Trademarked fabric name) —

noun
trademark
a synthetic fiber made from cellulose triacetate.
fabric made from Arnel. (google)

• • •

Beat my Tuesday (!) and Wednesday times on this one. Seconds away from breaking the four-minute mark. The fill is Monday-easy (possibly easier, since this grid doesn't have Monday's ridiculously unMonday JON SEDA). Anyway, anyone who thinks this is some kind of amazing feat—finding six 15-letter songs that can intersect like this—clearly has zero experience with the multiple databases and websites and other resources out there. I'm sure it took a little while to get six songs that worked, but a. why? They have nothing in common besides being songs; and b. filling in the grid from there is a cakewalk. There's nothing ambitious or interesting here. It's all paint by numbers stuff. The puzzle isn't bad; it's pointless. On a Thursday?—the marquee, pull-out-the-stops, kick-out-the-jams bad-ass theme day?—very disappointing.

Honestly, I have nothing to write about. I know a lot of song titles, so getting the 15s was no trouble. Barely needed crosses. The one exception was the [1953 hit for Julius La Rosa], which is an LOL outlier, esp. for anyone under 60. I can sing at least the chorus, and in most cases much more, of the other five songs. Julius La Rosa is from the pre-Rock era, so I have literally never heard a thing he's ever sung. But classic rock and oldies stations were playing Jackie Wilson and the Shangri-Las regularly when I was in high school (and trying to reject '80s pop music), so that stuff is super familiar to me even though it was popular before I was born. Other than Mr. La Rosa, not much trouble. Mistook the play on words in 3D: French capitalists? (PARISIANS)—thought "capital" would refer to currency (a la [Mexican capital?] = PESO), but it's the capital city that was at issue. Let's see, what else? Nothing. See you tomorrow.

[15!!]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Kyle Mahowald

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ORGANA (40D: "Star Wars" surname) —

The House of Organa, also known as the Royal House of Alderaan, the Royal Family of Alderaan, or simply House Organa, was an Alderaanian Noble House that dated back to the earliest days of Alderaan's colonization. Throughout history, the Organa dynasty was the one that ruled over their homeworld the longest. Throughout several millennia of existence, the House Organa sired many well-known figures of the pan–galactic politics. Two of its most renowned scions were Viceroy Bail Prestor Organa and his adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa. Following the destruction of Alderaan in 0 BBY, the name of Organa died out. (wookieepedia)

• • •

This seems a fine puzzle, but it is radically misplaced on Friday. This was the hardest puzzle I've done in a very long time. I got stopped cold at least three times, the last time resulting in my staring at a smallish patch of grid for something like five minutes. Cluing difficulty overall was jacked way up, and there were a couple crucially placed WTF? proper nouns that made both the NW and the SE (or parts of them) seem like death traps. Also, FLECHE? Only vaguely familiar to me as a French word, and I had seven years of French. Other things I just didn't know:

KILOBAR (got the KILO—and then just got the rest from crosses) (4D: Metric pressure unit)
ATS (I'm never going to remember this cruddy thing) (9D: Cadillac model that debuted in 2012)
POGOS (it's a dance now?) (26D: Dances by jumping in place)
JAMAL (after the "-AL" I actually "knew" it, but kept doubting it and taking it out when I couldn't get crosses to work; more on that in a bit) (23D: Crawford who won the 2014 Sixth Man of the Year Award)
ANNE Hutchison (no hope) (34D: Colonial heretic Hutchison)
FLECHE (as I said) (46A: Fencing move that means "arrow" in French)
AIR BOAT (got the BOAT—and then it was just a guess; had no idea those boats w/ giant fans were called that) (42A: Everglades transport)
LTGEN (honestly didn't know that was even a rank; can't remember ever seeing it in crosswords) (45A: Geo. Washington was the U.S.'s first)
CITRON (that's a real fruit?) (39D: Fruit historically used for medicinal purposes)
"THE CAT" (hahahaha no) (20D: 1960s Robert Loggia series about a burglar-turned-bodyguard)
ORGANA (hahahaha no) (40D: "Star Wars" surname)

I got this far without too much difficulty:

[You can just ignore that stray, incorrect ACT up there in the NE—that's just a reflex entry from seeing the phrase "When Romeo says…" in the clue]

As you can see, I couldn't make the turn out of the NW and so had to start over completely in the SW, where HEROD was a gimme (or so I hoped when I wrote it in) (43D: Villain in a Nativity play), and HATRED was a good guess, and I gained traction from there. Once I finished the SW and threw THIS OLD THING across, I figured I was good to go.

But … no. I ended up with two Spots of Brutality: the J-SHAPED / "THE CAT" (!?!?!?!) crossing, and the single answer, ORGANA. In the first case, there was a pile-up of problems. J-SHAPED (23A: Like many hooks) was totally unexpected and the JS- looked wrong, so JAMAL went in and out a lot. "THE CAT"… I can't even say. Utter unknown. Blank. Ridiculous obscurity. But I was able to infer it, eventually, so … fairish? Then there was the brutal clue on nearby PALETTES (26A: Studio mixing equipment), which also made this little part hard to solve. I totally fell for the fake-out in that clue (imagining a music studio, not an art studio), so even with much of the answer filled in, I had no idea what was going on. Not knowing PALETTES meant I kept taking out and putting back in the "P" in POGOS. GOGOS? Who knows? So that section was a face-slap.

But the SW corner was worse. I was sure I had it. SCOURGES and TUBE TOP went in and I figured everything in their grasp would be mine. But the AIR- in AIRBOAT, no; LTGEN, no (out of desperation I almost tried USSEN, even though I knew a. that was wrong and b. that is not an acceptable abbr.). If I listed a million fruits, CITRON would not be one. I was running fruits like mad: CHERRY? CRAISIN? Is that a fruit? Gah! Could Not think of a fever-producer ending in "-O" (I wasn't considering abbrs., I guess, because no such thing was indicated). The worst thing here, though, is ORGANA. I wager than something way south of 5% of solvers had any idea there. I had none. Zero. I have a framed "Star Wars" poster on my living room wall. I'm guessing that this ORGANA crap is predominantly if not exclusively in those SCOURGES now labeled "Episodes I, II, III." Anyway, zero hope there. Only way I solved that corner was by finally shoving in ERAT and SNAP and *refusing* to take them out. Then I tried --GEN for the Washington answer, then just *guessed* that LTGEN was a thing. Can't believe I couldn't remember my cigarette brands, esp. a brand as familiar as SALEM(S). That might've made a big difference. But with AIRBOAT LTGEN CITRON ORGANA all barely or not at all known to me, hoo boy, that was rough.

Again, I think the grid is pretty solid. Lots of colloquialisms. Lots of zip. I am biased against this thing because it was misplaced on Friday and because its difficulty came excessively from proper nouns that I either had no way of knowing ("THE CAT"!?) or should not have to know because all "Star Wars" prequels are utter garbage (ORGANA).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day:"EASY ACES" (7A: Hit radio comedy about a bridge-playing couple) —

Easy Aces, a long-running American serial radio comedy (1930–1945), was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, airing as often as five times a week, Easy Aces wasn't quite the ratings smash that such concurrent 15-minute serial comedies as Amos 'n' Andy, The Goldbergs, Lum and Abner, or Vic and Sade were. But its unobtrusive, conversational, and clever style, and the cheerful absurdism of its storylines, built a loyal enough audience of listeners and critics alike to keep it on the air for 15 years. (wikipedia)

• • •

From one of the easiest Thursdays I've ever done to one of the hardest Fridays I've ever done to this: a beautifully Saturday Saturday. Many answers I didn't know, many traps I fell into or mistakes I made, and it was all quite pleasurable and entertaining. Cluing was not convoluted or tortured, and even the obscure stuff was clued and crossed in a way that made it ultimately inferable or otherwise fair. Grid shape also minimizes chances you'll get cornered—with the exception of the NW and SE (both relatively small), you can come at the answers in this grid from multiple angles. Always at least two escape routes. Not surprisingly, I had the most trouble at the beginning, scratching for traction, but after I got the NW settled (this took some doing and redoing), I was able to head up to the NE and then swing around and down, completing the puzzle in a fairly consistent clockwise manner. I was lucky to have that NE passage available to me, because I was *not* getting into the SW from up top. LEVI'S Stadium was a total unknown to me (I had LUCAS at one point), and I couldn't get WAVERED from -RED, and so all I really had was ATRIA. So north through the BROUHAHA I went, despite the dauntingly unfamiliar radio show (!) about a bridge-playing couple (!?!?). At least the constructor *knew* it was obscure and gave you a clue that helped you out a little.

So my stumbles. Yes, they were plentiful. Let's start with the odd procession of answers I had at 1D: Producer of a cough and shivers (GRIPPE). Well, at first, I had nothing. Actually, at first, I had this: first the Across, then the Down, bam bam:

["Be in—rule on!"]

When EDT and AL HIRT came pretty easily, I was feeling pretty good about my chances. Then I wrote in CROUPE at 1D. It's possible that just before that, I had written in CRABBE (!?!) at 1A: Ameche's "Moon Over Miami" co-star, 1941 (GRABLE). Buster CRABBE is an actor, right? Yes! And a swimmer. From the right era, too. Just, in this case, super-wrong. So I had the CRABBE CROUPE (a terrible, grid-stymieing affliction). After further forays into the grid, I fixed some things and ended up with CRABBE CRIPPE. This meant that Wimbledon had to be played in BON- … BONHOMIE? Who could say? Complicating things was my poor knowledge of chemistry. I had [Red cabbage juice, in chemistry class] not as a PH INDICATOR but as a PH INHIBITOR. It fit, and it had a whole bunch of correct letters (got me SNOOD and YOUR, it did!). This mess led to many ridiculous things, like BAYED for CAWED, and (most convincing and thus most wounding) ENGINEERS for ENGINEMEN (6D: Some Navy specialists). Fact that I couldn't think of any [Disco fabrics] ending -EES caused me to rethink ENGINEERS. But real breakthrough when I decided to take out all the letters in PH INHIBITOR that weren't confirmed by crosses. Persistent stuckedness usually means something's wrong. At that point, you need to pull out stuff that looks right. And so I did. And zoom, off I went.

Whole east side was a piece of cake. I was helped mightily by TRIBAL NAME (which I got off the "T") and then HOBBS and HILITER and "WE CAN Do It!" and (jackpot) DESI ARNAZ, JR, the last of which ensured that the SE would be done lickety-split. Last real hurdle was working up the western seaboard from the bottom. ALTAIR IV (?) (30D: The planet in the sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet") made this difficult, but not at all impossible. Finished up with the "I" in SIM (43A: ___ card). This one deserves praise for its overall smoothness (esp. considering the fairly low word count) and its playfulness. Seemed designed to challenge and delight. Seemed designed with solver pleasure in mind. More of that, please.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Jeremy Newton

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME:"Multifaceted"— theme answers feature two sets of circled squares, which, when combined, spell out a precious stone. Between the two sets of circled squares, running DOWN in each case, is the letter string "SET"; thus the revealer: 52D: With 59-Down, permanent … or, literally, a feature of the answers to the seven starred clues (SET IN / STONE).

Theme answers:

GARNER ATTENTION (22A: Get noticed) / 8D: *Biter in Niger (TSETSET)
CRUISES BY (40A: Easily defeats, in sports) / 13D: *One making the rounds at a party, perhaps (CHEESE TRAY)
PONY EXPRESS (47A: Enterprise for which a 14-year-old Buffalo Bill worked) / 6D: *Like puberty at age 16 (LATE ONSET)
GAME THE SYSTEM (67A: Exploit a loophole, say) / 50D: *First spacecraft to orbit a comet (2014) (ROSETTA)
POP A WHEELIE (85A: Lean back and enjoy the ride?) / 81D: *Chooses in the end (SETTLES ON)
WATERGATE (96A: Washington landmark that lent its name to a Senate committee) / 73D: *Car dealership option (LEASE-TO-OWN)
QUARTER-SIZE(d) HAIL (115A: Big fall from the sky?) / 99D: *Goals for underdogs (UPSETS)

Word of the Day: OMRI (61D: Ahab's father) —

Omri (Hebrew: עמרי, Modern Omri, Tiberian ʻOmrî; short for Hebrew: עָמְרִיָּה, Modern Omriyya, Tiberian ʻOmriyyā ; "The Lord is my life") (fl. 9th century BC) was the sixth king of Israel after Jeroboam, a successful military campaigner, and the founder of the House of Omri, an Israelite royal house which included other monarchs such as Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, and Athaliah. Along with his predecessor king Zimri who ruled for only seven days, Omri is the first king mentioned in the Bible without stating of his tribal origin. Though some scholars speculate that Omri was from the tribe of Issachar, this is not confirmed by any biblical account.
Mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as well as extra-biblical sources such as the Mesha steleand the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, Omri is also credited with the construction of Samaria and establishing it as his capital. (wikipedia)

• • •

This will be slightly short because a. I want brownies and they are downstairs and they aren't getting any warmer, and b. daughter is watching "Dance Moms" (long story), and it's hard to concentrate when the loud lady keeps yelling at Jojo and the door to my home office is only so thick. So in my head I have this 1-5 scale of success, where 3 is a pass, and in that scenario this puzzle is just short of 3. I just don't think the theme works (despite its good-naturedness and its ambition). SET isn't really IN the STONE. Or, rather, it is *is* defensibly IN the STONE in the case of PONY EXPRESS, but not in any other case. GARNE is so far away from the crossing "SET" that it barely seems like they have a relationship to each other at all. Circled squares are like fire (stay with me)—they can provide warmth and light, but if you're not careful … actually, they're much more boring than fire. My point is just that you have to use them carefully. Here, they are used just a bit too loosely. I do like some of the theme answers in their own right (esp. POP A WHEELIE and GAME THE SYSTEM), but in the end, the theme felt a little off, a little forced to me.

Also, the fill was uneven—lovely in some places (CHEESE TRAY, NERF GUN, YUMMIER) but (literally) groan-inducing in too many other places (seriously, ask my wife about the sounds I was making as I solved this at the kitchen table; they weren't healthy sounds). First set of groans came for the CBER and his XII SWISSES. Then there were the ALTI and their HAI notes. The ONE-D D-CUP and the ETAILING SPAZ. The SILENT L in NELL. The idea that MLK is a "symbol" of anything (60D: Symbol of equality, briefly). SHIER REPOs of the EEN. The epic clash between AEIOU and RSTLNE for Letter Jumble Of The Universe. I had a hard time taking much of this. NO GOOD 'UNS in my EEL POT. You know what I'm saying. Or you don't. Whichever. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. If you're looking for a challenging puzzle with a little bite (and who isn't?) then consider subscribing to Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest (weekly crossword meta-puzzles of the Highest Order). Puzzles cycle from easy to brutal and back again. Frequently the most puzzle fun I have all week. HERE IS THE SITE. Makes a great gift for that guy who does his puzzles in pen and thinks he's such hot *&$%^. Seriously, he'll love it. So will you.

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (should've been a Tuesday)

THEME: Who Killed Waldo and Then Hid His Dismembered Body in Some Theme Answers? — rearranged letters in WALDO can be round in consecutive circled squares inside four theme answers, as indicated by the clue to the revealer, "WHERE'S WALDO?" (58A: Popular children's book series … whose protagonist is "hiding" in the circled letters)

Theme answers:

SUPER BOWL AD (17A: Expensive annual commercial)
COLD WATER (25A: What may be poured on a bad idea)
MEADOWLANDS (36A: New Jersey home to two New York teams)
SLOW DANCE (49A: Typical prom concluder)

Word of the Day: SEDONA (31D: Arizona city known for its red sandstone) —

Sedona /sɨˈdoʊnə/ is a city that straddles the county line between Coconinoand Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the State of Arizona. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,031.
Sedona's main attraction is its array of red sandstone formations. The formations appear to glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun. The red rocks form a popular backdrop for many activities, ranging from spiritual pursuits to the hundreds of hiking and mountain biking trails.
Sedona was named after Sedona Arabella Miller Schnebly (1877–1950), the wife of Theodore Carlton Schnebly, the city's first postmaster, who was celebrated for her hospitality and industriousness. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well the grid is good—lots of interesting, lively fill—but the theme is botched completely, so I can't give this one a pass. Two problems make this theme D.O.A. First, Waldo isn't "hiding" in the "circled letters" (as the clue states). If anything, he's "hiding" inside the answers proper, and the circles are giving away his damned location. Seriously, worst hiding ever, Waldo. So, phrasing-wise, the clue is just wrong. Second, he's not hiding so much as he is dismembered. The axe murderer has "hidden" Waldo's body inside four different theme answers. If I accept this puzzle's premise, then the word "hiding" just loses all meaning. So, to recap—he's "hiding" in the answers, not the circled letters, and *he's* not hiding—his mangled body is.

Once again the puzzle is mismatched with its day of the week. Apparently last week was not an aberration. No idea what is going on at test-solving central, but there appear to be some quality control issues. The puzzle was certainly easy, in absolute terms, but the theme answers mostly took some piecing together (the theme type felt more T than M) and relatively open corners meant that slightly more exertion went into this than typically goes into a Monday (in time terms, this means about I was a good 30 seconds off my average—an eternity where easy puzzles are concerned). I liked the double-"Tootsie" clues (Dorothy's FALSIES and WIG) and FRUMPY and COVETOUS and DREAMY certainly pep things up adjectivally. I might've been slightly faster if a. I'd known CAROB was a tree (50D: Tree that yields a chocolate substitute), and b. I'd read that clue completely (eye just picked up "chocolate" and "tree" and thus went with COCOA and then CACAO (?)). Overall, the puzzle was funnish, but the theme's just broken.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Constructor: Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Sick day — phrases meaning, vaguely, "ailing," are clued as if they had specific relation to some occupation:

Theme answers:

OUT OF SORTS (17A: The ailing postal worker was …)
FEELING PUNK (24A: The ailing rock star was …)
UNDER THE WEATHER (38A: The ailing meteorologist was …)
WAY BELOW PAR (47A: The ailing golfer was …)
IN THE DUMPS (59A: The ailing trash collector was …)

Word of the Day: George WYTHE (50D: George who signed the Declaration of Independence) —

George Wythe (1726 – June 8, 1806) was the first American law professor, a noted classics scholar and Virginia judge, as well as a prominent opponent of slavery.^[1] The first of the seven Virginia signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.^[2] Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.

• • •

Tuesday being Tuesday. This was pretty painful from start to finish. Got the first theme answer and just sort of slumped here in my chair. Four more of these groaners *and* I have to blog? So I won't dwell on it. First, puns, yuck. Second, the puns are neither great nor consistent. We've got one (FEELING PUNK) that virtually no one says (anymore? Maybe they said it at some point, but not in my lifetime / in my vicinity). Then we've got another that is an obvious, ridiculous cheat. If you want them all to be parallel (and you do), you can't add "WAY" to beginning of them. WAY BELOW PAR is as real / valid as WAY OUT OF SORTS, i.e. no no no. You feel BELOW PAR. "WAY" is an adverbial cheat to make symmetry happen. No. You have to stop yourself when stuff like this happens and find a better way through the forest. Well, maybe you don't, since the puzzle was somehow accepted and published, but … I'm still gonna say you do.

[This movie is great]

And the fill—well, actually, it's a mixed bag there. I like a couple of the longer Downs (namely SHOOT 'EM UP and STEEL BANDS) (my daughter plays in one of the latter). But the rest of the grid feels like it was filled in a tin-ear, careless kind of way. I'll eat my hat if this was software-assisted—there are just too many weird, rough parts that could've been smoothed out. Multiple HOME PLATES—that's a long answer where you could add color and interest to you grid, and instead all I can think of is "they don't come in sets." You go with that answer only if baseball is a foreign concept to you. And WOMYN, dear lord. I live my life surrounded by feminists of all stripes, and except in some kind of weird, retro '80s/'90s ironical fashion, no one, I repeat, no one, actually calls "Half of humanity"WOMYN. It could make a cute answer a. on a different day of the week, and b. with a much much better, more appropriate clue. But here, with this clue, no. And then, in the massive outlier category, we have WYTHE. Who? PSHAW to that. This is a Tuesday puzzle with familiar, sub-rudimentary fill, and then (completely unnecessarily, as this grid could've been filled infinite ways) you plunk down some guy who signed the Declaration of Independence and was never heard from again? Lastly, there's just the overall quality of the short fill, which is demonstrably poor. ODON SUEY OLES DAT APER ANA ASTO OSAY. This is a 78-worder! That's the max. You are not going to get an easier grid to fill, and you can't (please, I'm begging you) just fill it with "whatever works."

Done.

No, one last thing. FEELING PUNK has a weak connection between clue and answer. All the other clue/answer pairings have close, obvious connections; meteorologists deal with WEATHER, golfers try to shoot under PAR, and so on. But only a small fraction of "rock stars" have anything to do with PUNK. It's like the clue writer doesn't really know the topic and assumes that rock = punk = "whatever, I don't really listen to it." No HOME PLATES for this puzzle!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Fencing thrust / THU 1-22-15 / Part of Scottish accent / Nonlethal ammo brand / Quaint preposition / Lab assistant for Dr. Frederick Frankenstein / James Bond portrayer / WWII noncombatant

Shetland sweater style / FRI 1-23-15 / Tonic for tired blood / Phishing fodder / Onetime dwellers along Big Blue River / Starting point of train trip to Timbuktu in song / Hill historic home of Theodore Roosevelt / Filaments in wrought iron / Shepherd of old movies

German-born photographer Barth / SAT 1-24-15 / Hungarian liqueur sold in green bottles / Traditional Japantown feature / Ancient Moorish palace in Granada / Meaningful language unit / Ohio university nicknamed Big Red

Republican politico Michael / SUN 1-25-15 / Embroidery loop / Did 1930s dance / WIth Reagan memoirist / Secure as sailor's rope / Cutlass model of 1980s-90s / Whirlybird source / Kiss drummer Peter / She's asked When will those clouds all disappear in 1973 #1 hit

Longtime Yugoslav leader / MON 1-26-15 / Tangy teatime offering / West Point newcomer / Looped calf-catcher / Shampoo in green bottle / Chinese-born American architect

Noted French encyclopedist / TUE 1-27-15 / German WWI admiral / Indian state whose name means five rivers / President who lived at Oak Hill /

Silent screen vamp Naldi / WED 1-28-15 / Simple ragtime dance / Classic violinmaker / Gustav whose music was banned by Nazis

2014 Broadway play based on Moss Hart's autobiography / THU 1-29-15 / Onetime Road Runner rivals / Archaeological discovery of 1920s whose fossils have been missing since 1941 / TV debut of 1975 / Piece in rockhound's collection / Longtime Crosby partner

Mariposa relatives / FRI 1-30-15 / Foreign fortress / Setting for TV's Mentalist / Chemical synthesis component / Eldest sister in classic 1868 novel / Heavy-metal band with #1 album "Far Beyond Driven" / Popular video game for wannabe athletes / Weapon in fantasy role-playing game

Post-Passover period / SAT 1-31-15 / His servant is Kurwenal in opera / Cousins of harriers / Animistic figures / Thickburger seller / Alternative to babka / Part of goth dude's look / Warriors in L'illiade / Carlos Jackal raided its HQ / Song with lyric until we meet again

Nymph jilted by Paris / SUN 2-1-15 / Roman guardian spirit / Missal storage site / Skeletal enemy in Mario games / Destination of NASA's Dawn probe / Picayune quibble / Vampire Diaries protagonist /

William who played Hopalong Cassidy in old westerns / MON 2-1-2015 / Indonesian tourist destination / British runner Sebastian / Bridle strap / University of Maine's home / Cigar residue

Small eel / TUE 2-3-15 / Doughnuts mathematically / Actress Patten Anders / Rocker Barrett / Good in Jewish exclamation / Sports star turned model Gabrielle / Things on my guitar in 2008 Taylor Swift song /

Happily old style / WED 2-4-15 / Desk jockey's happy yell / Der Goldfisch painter / Rich European dessert

1953 hit for Julius La Rosa / THU 2-5-15 / Half-betazoid on Enterprise / Movie pizzeria where Radio Raheem ate until he got killed by police / Sheena Easton hit from Bond film / Madcap Martha / Online provider of popular study guides lesson plans

Star Wars surname / FRI 2-6-15 / Colonial heretic Hutchison / Fruit historically used for medicinal purposes / Fencing move that means arrow / Villain in Nativity play / 1960s Robert Loggia series about burglar-turned-bodyguard / Screenwriter who knew identity of Deep Throat / New England delicacies

Hit radio comedy about bridge--playing couple / SAT 2-7-15 / 1980s MP nicknamed old crocodile / Queen who rallied Dutch resistance in WWII / First noncanonical psalm / Soloist on Green Hornet theme / Moniker after lifestyle change / Red cabbage juice in chemistry class / Cavaradossi's lover

Ahab's father / SUN 2-8-15 / Princess of Power from 1980s cartoons / Cold-climate cryptid / Cable airer of vintage films / Givens on Wheel of Fortune / Alternatives to cheddars

Othello evildoer / MON 2-9-15 / Tree that yields chocolate substitute / Typical prom concluder / German composer of Tristan und Isolde / Retired Brazilian soccer sensation

Flag carrier of Japan / TUE 2-10-15 / Where redneck gets red / George who signed Declaration of Independence / Higgledy-piggledy