Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: About right for Tuesday

THEME:"ESTEE" PHRASES — Phrases with the initials S.T.

Word of the Day: SOUL TRAIN (58A: *Bygone R&B showcase) —

Soul Train is an American musical variety television program which aired in syndication from 1971 until 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco and gospel artists also appeared. The series was created by Don Cornelius, who also served as its first host and executive producer. --Wikipedia

• • •

Let me start by saying that when I filled in for Rex in summer of 2014 the puzzles received grades of A-, C+, A, B, A-, B+, and when I was here last summer they got a C-, B-, C, B, A-, A, and A. Just want to give you some context for what comes next.

Let me also say that I know this constructor knows what he's doing, since I've seen him do good work before and he's been nominated previously for my Crossword of the Month.

But this is, to be blunt, the least impressive crossword I've seen in a major publication this year. Let's start with the big problem, an automatic DQ, which is that the revealer of ESTEE(68A: Girl's name that phonetically provides the initials to the answers to the asterisked clues) is no good. The only ESTEE that anyone's heard of is Estee Lauder, and that's pronounced "ess-tay," not "ess-tee." This is quite obviously a fatal flaw, and alone should've kept the puzzle from publication. I've never heard the name outside of Ms. Lauder, and there's certainly no one else legit famous with it.

So DQ right off the bat, but let's move on: revealer aside, the theme idea is unexciting but not bad on its own. But for some reason the constructor made the poor decision to pack 12 theme entries into the grid, instead of choosing 5 or 6 of the best ones. So the choices of S.T. were then constrained by what fit in the grid instead of what might be a lively entry. Some are good -- SOUL TRAIN, STAR TREK, SWEET TOOTH, SIT TIGHT -- but then we get awkward plurals SORE THUMBS and SURE THINGS, arbitrary SEASON TWO, dull SIDE TABLE and SONG TITLE, dated SNEAK THIEF, and not-a-thing SEA TRIP. Sea cruise, boat trip, yes -- sea trip, no. So this is like a restaurant whose food isn't the best but they give you so much of it!

And then the fill suffered due to the extreme packing of theme: Tuesday's too early for ENOW, COSI, EMLY, REWED, ESTES and APOLO. And it also relegated the revealer to a random spot in the bottom left of the grid.

And don't get me started on the clues! Musty vibe all over; there's literally nothing in the clues or grid keeping this puzzle from being written 10 years ago. I don't hate the past, but if you're going to clue FAB to the Beatles and BORIS to Rocky & Bullwinkle, you probably don't need to clue SPOT as (Dick and Jane's dog).

Again, let's find the three most interesting/clever/amusing clues: (Ones whose business is picking up?) is CABS, (Irritating subject for an ophthalmologist?) is STYE, and maybe ("Fancy meeting you here!") for OH, HI. There's really no effort put into the clues at all to be interesting. Even evocative phrases get straightforward, dull definitions: SWEET TOOTH is (Craving for desserts), SORE THUMBS are (Things that stick out conspicuously), etc.

Well, I'm looking for something nice to say about this puzzle. How about: there is a lot of theme. I'll give it that.

So we have a dullish theme that also happens to be fatally flawed; fill (and theme entries) compromised due to a grid that emphasized quantity of theme entries over quality; musty, uninspired clues; and a misplaced revealer to the flawed theme.

Before I go, compare this puzzle to the NYT from June 14th of this year. The constructor there used E.Z. words, which are far more restricted than S.T., and had the snappy revealer EASY DOES IT (instead of just the phonetic ESTEE, which even if correct wouldn't be a great reveal). The constructor in that puzzle also limited herself to four theme entries, which allowed the amusing reveal to be placed logically. This is a much better execution of this theme idea.

This puzzle was not ready for publication. Letter grade of F. I take no pleasure in it. Tomorrow is another day.

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent of CrossWorld for 5 more days

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Natan Last, Finn Vigeland, and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty:A-OK for a Wednesday

THEME:RING CYCLE— Theme entries are things with between 1 and 5 rings

Word of the Day: PATCHOULI (13A: Scent in incense and insect repellents)—

Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth) is a species of plant from the genus Pogostemon. It is a bushy herb of the mint family, with erect stems, reaching two or three feet (about 0.75 metre) in height and bearing small, pale pink-white flowers...The word derives from the Tamil patchai (Tamil: பச்சை) (green), ellai (Tamil: இலை) (leaf). -- Wikipedia

• • •

This crossword gets the solver intrigued quickly: you hit 16A and the clue is (Place to find one O) and you say aha! Something is afoot here. Like a book passing the page one test; you want to see what happens next.

The answer there was THE HOBBIT, which does indeed have one O -- but it can't be that simple, of course. Soon you hit the clue for 22A (Place to find two Os) and the answer is VENN DIAGRAM. I got it there, and you probably did, too: these are not the letter O, but rings. The other three are:

CIRCUS TENT(28A: Place to find three Os), AUDI DEALER(40A: Place to find four Os) -- that's the automaker's logo -- and OLYMPIC FLAG(45A: Place to find five Os).

But wait, there's more! A reveal of RING CYCLE(59A: Wagner work ... or a possible title for this puzzle).

That's a nice Wednesday, don't you think? A little mystery, a theme idea you haven't seen before, a wide-ranging theme set, an apt reveal to tie it all together, and a little sense of self-satisfaction that you puzzled it all out.

Not to mention the clues, which are much more vigorous than the past two days. Let's try the best-three-clues test here: BOOYAH(8D: "How do you like dem apples?!"), SAGELY (19A: In a Yoda-like manner), and ECHO (3D: "Hello ... hello ... hello ..."). Also notice the (Snatched) and (Snatches) pair at 52A and 53A for STOLEN and NABS.

A nitpicker might pick the following two nits: 1) Wagner's RING CYCLE contains four works, so having five entries instead of four throws that off a tiny bit. And 2) the number of rings is set for 1, 3, 4, and 5, but a Venn Diagram can have three or four or more rings, so not quite as tight as it could be there. Maybe WEDDING HALL instead? Though perhaps the constructors didn't want to have two wearable rings as 1-2, so a reasonable decision. Very small dings there. And I'm not a nitpicker anyway, so I won't bring these two points up.

The fill is fine in retrospect, but you know what? I didn't even notice it while solving because I was so entertained by unraveling the theme. And incidentally the reveal was at the end, where it was supposed to be, so I got a chance to figure out what was going on before having it made plain.

Trying to decide between B+ and A-, and a final look over the puzzle pushes me to A- because I do dig that little trick with the letter O actually representing a ring. I bet the constructors realized that THE HOBBIT has one O in it, so we'd still go on thinking for a couple more minutes that it was going to have to do with how many O's the theme entries had. Also note the timeliness of the Olympics entry.

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent of CrossWorld for 4 more days

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Adam G. Perl

Relative difficulty:On the easy side for Thursday

THEME:LOST ART— Eight grid entries are missing the letters ART as clued, but still form familiar words

Word of the Day: AEROFLOT (42A: One of the carriers in the SkyTeam alliance)—

OJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines (Russian: ОАО "Аэрофло́т-Росси́йские авиали́нии", OAO Aeroflot-Rossiyskiye avialinii) (MCX: AFLT), commonly known as Aeroflot (English pronunciation:/ˈɛəroʊˌflɒt/ or ⁱ/ˌɛəroʊˈflɒt/) (Russian: Аэрофлот, English translation: "air fleet", pronounced [ɐɛrɐˈflot]), is the flag carrier^[3] and largest airline of the Russian Federation.^[4] The carrier operates domestic and international passenger and services, mainly from its hub at Sheremetyevo International Airport.
Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the world, tracing its history back to 1923. During the Soviet era, Aeroflot was the Soviet national airline and the largest airline in the world.^[5]^[6] Following the dissolution of the USSR, the carrier has been transformed from a state-run enterprise into a semi-privatised company which ranked 19th most profitable airline in the world in 2007.^[7] Aeroflot is still considered the de facto national airline of Russia.^[8] It is 51%-owned by the Russian Government. As of September 2013, the Aeroflot Group had 30,328 employees.

• • •

I knew something was up when I couldn't get that northwest corner to work. Finally puzzled out that 1-Across was CHIEF (Auto booster), which I didn't understand but figured it must be some car slang I didn't know. Turns out it was C(AR T)HIEF, since 39-A (Letter writing, they say ... or a hint to eight answers in this puzzle) was LOST ART.

So these entries lose their ART but leave another (unclued) word. That's mildly amusing. Not a barn-burner of a theme, since it's not really that fun to go searching for the remaining missing ARTs, but it's not unpleasant, either. I would cap this idea at a B+, so it's only a B+ if the constructor did pretty much everything else very well.

Which he in fact did, as follows:

1) He made the ART-less (not "artless") entries symmetrical. This is both elegant and a nice courtesy to the solver, since the post-reveal hunt could be a bit tedious without it.

2) He didn't overstuff the grid with theme. Eight looks like the sweet spot here, especially since you've also got the central LOST ART to contend with; any less would seem thin, but any more wouldn't let the fill breathe.

3) He gave himself the chance for a nice grid with 2), and then knocked it out of the park. Look at all those above-average 6's, 7's, and 8: EAT WELL, MR. TOAD, AEROFLOT, FEEL FREE, TAKE THAT!, ESTEFAN, POLARIS, LET'S GO, EDWARD I. That's some fine word-weaving; every 20 seconds of my solve I kept mentally noting "good entry" over and over. I would have worked obscure SAAR out (just make it SEAR with EDEN crossing) but not much else beyond that. Very good grid.

4) While the theme per se is only moderately interesting, its eight words are well chosen. C(AR) THIEF is a nice find that might have been overlooked, and was interesting to finally parse, And that "The Artist" becomes THEIST is also fun. BENDER/B(ART)ENDER is an interesting pair, since bartenders have seen many drinkers on a bender. M(ART)INIS is another good one. The others are P(ART)ISANS, P(ART)IES, P(ART)ONE, and REST(ART)ED.

While I don't think this theme is quite snappy enough to put an A on, it's still perfectly good and the constructor maximized the concept and execution nicely. This is a skillfully crafted piece of work. Letter grade B+.

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent of CrossWorld for 3 more days

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty:Took me 8:46, so good for a Friday

THEME: None

Word of the Day:SPY KIDS(20A: 2001 fantasy/adventure film with three sequels )—

Gregorio and Ingrid are the two greatest secret agents the world has ever known: masters of disguise, mavens of invention, able to stop wars before they even start. Working for separate countries, they are sent to eliminate their most dangerous enemy...each other. But in an exotic corner of the world when they finally come face to face, they fall in love instead and embark on the most dangerous mission they have ever faced: raising a family. Now nine years later, after their retirement, having exchanged the adventure of espionage for parenthood, Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez are called back in to action. When their former colleagues, the world's most formidable spies, start disappearing one by one, the Cortez's are forced to take on techno-wizard Fegan Floop and his evil, egg-headed sidekick, Minion. But when the unthinkable happens and they too disappear, unfortunately there are only two people in the world who can rescue them...their kids. -- IMDb

• • •

Not today's constructor's fault, but I've been binge-solving a bunch of old New York Sun themelesses by Byron Walden this week and those things pack a punch. Crazy letter combinations everywhere, unexpected Z's and K's and J's all over, wicked cluing. Just kills it. So while this is a competently written themeless, I didn't get the same kick from it.

The two long 15s are good, TEACHABLE MOMENT(17A: Teen's fender bender, maybe) and BIOLOGICAL CLOCK (54A: Concern in family planning). But then there are a lot of dullish longs like INTERSECTS, ANGLOPHONE, COGITATING, STRENGTHS, and ONE PERCENT. Even the better ones seem a little old-fashioned (GRAY MATTER, CHEST HAIR, THE BEE GEES).

The grid itself is rather compartmentalized, so it felt a bit like solving three different crosswords. If not for the T's in THOUGH and NICEST it would've felt extremely compartmentalized. So not great grid flow. Not very Scrabbly, either -- the Q feels cheap because of QAID (52D: Muslim judge of North Africa) and the only other rare letter is an X tucked away in a corner. Buncha K's and H's, though, at least.

Some good stuff among the middle-length entries: QUICHES, INK BLOT, BAUBLES, CHURCHY, SPY KIDS. But overall this didn't amuse me like the best themelesses do. The only time I had one of those "How can this possibly be right? Do I have an error somewhere?" moment was briefly with SP?KI??. Thought "Nothing fits there, I must have an error," but then the penny dropped (see our Word of the Day).

Grid was very clean, too, as the three worst entries test shows: TORIC, QAID, and maybe BRASI? So not much there to object to.

Wavering between B and B-; let's go with a letter grade of B since it's not the constructor's fault that I stumbled upon this book earlier in the week in a box in my house (we're moving, so lots of boxes around).

*****

Before I sign off for the evening, here's a note from puzzle friend Mike Selinker about a charity puzzle project he's created. Very successful so far -- over 4,000 puzzle bundles sold!:

This week, my team at Lone Shark Games and Humble Bundle launched a major feel-good puzzle project: the Humble Puzzle Bundle. It’s a collection of puzzle books by Patrick Berry, Francis Heaney, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Patrick Merrell, and many other legendary puzzle makers—and you can get them for whatever you want to pay, even a dollar. My book The Maze of Games (electronic and hardback) is in there too, with an all-new hint book called The Theseus Guide to the Final Maze. A lot of the books are brand new, never seen before. Best of all, a big chunk of your contribution goes to charities like Worldbuilders, the It Gets Better Project, and Child’s Play. We wanted to do something fun and positive for the puzzle community, which has been through a lot this year. So if you’d like to get about a zillion puzzles and contribute money to cool charities, head on over to the Humble Puzzle Bundle. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent of CrossWorld for 2 more days

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Lily Silverstein

Relative difficulty:11:36, slightly tough for Saturday (not a humblebrag, just telling you my time)

THEME: None

Word of the Day:ALSTON(29A: Charles who created murals for Harlem Hospital and the American Museum of Natural History) —

Charles Henry Alston (November 28, 1907 – April 27, 1977) was an African-American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Alston was the first African-American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Alston designed and painted murals at the Harlem Hospital and the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. In 1990 Alston's bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House. -- Wikipedia

• • •

Eerily similar to yesterday's puzzle: competently written, very clean, perfectly pleasant to solve...but lacking much punch, noticeably un-Scrabbly, and highly compartmentalized. The clues were more interesting than yesterday's, though, so this is safely a B instead of on the line between B and B-.

The three showcase answers are fine but not more: CHANCE MEETING (32A: Start of many a romantic comedy), A HUNGER ARTIST (34A: 1922 Kafka short story), and PLATELET COUNT (35A: Hematologist's measure).

That 34-A is a nasty trap; raise your hand if you plunked METAMORPHOSIS down there like I aaaaalmost did until I hesitated since my hazy memory was that that's a novella or novel. I vaguely recalled the right answer, but even at ?HUN?ERARTIST I wasn't sure. THUNDER ARTIST? Finally the A fell into place. But not a story I recall reading and 11 of 13 letters are Scrabble 1-pointers, so kinda meh. 11 for 13 also on PLATELET COUNT.

Once you had the center nailed down it was a matter of knocking out the four peripheral sections one by one. As with yesterday, not good grid flow since it plays like a series of mini-puzzles. All four are pretty snappy, though, and feature pleasantly wicked cluing, especially the SW corner, where FISTS was (Sparring partners?), AMOEBAS are (Slide presentations?) and BIT PART is (It doesn't have much to say). Nice.

To illustrate the cleanliness of the grid let's apply a five-worst-entries test: ITAL, ENG, ALBA, SIM, ABA. So that's good. Best fill was CHALK UP TO (32D: Attribute as the cause of), amusing TINA FEY (18A: "Mean Girls" screenwriter), AEROSOL CAN, RIGHT ANGLE, and PAPER THIN. Which are all good, but as a best-of list in a themeless, a little underwhelming; none is really a marquee answer.

Letter grade of B.

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent of CrossWorld for 1 more day and then Rex is coming back and we're all gonna be in trouble! Let's clean the house really fast and nobody tell him about the lawn parties.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor: Ruth Bloomfield Margolin

Relative difficulty:Not very tough

THEME:MAKE "IT" A DOUBLE— each theme entry contains two IT rebus squares

Word of the Day: ENDGAME (115A: Lead-up to mating)—

In chess and chess-like games, the endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when few pieces are left on the board.
The line between middlegame and endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with the quick exchange of a few pairs of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important as endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank. The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame. It can be brought to the center of the board and act as a useful attacking piece. --Wikipedia

We've reached the endgame of my time here this year -- thanks to Rex for giving me the keys for a week, commenters for their perspicacity and civility, and the constructors and NYT team for putting these things out there. ICYMI, check out my websites here and here.

On to the puzzle. Not the most exciting idea: each theme entry contains a pair of (IT) rebus squares, and then the reveal is KEEP (IT) TOGETHER, clued as (Stay cool ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme). I guess if you've never seen a rebus theme before you'd be impressed, but otherwise the solve gets sloggy quick.

Theme answers:

SW(IT)CH POS(IT)IONS (22A: Flip-Flop)
CRED(IT) OR DEB(IT) (31A: Question asked at the cash register)
IN(IT)IATION R(IT)E (59A: Occasion to learn a secret handshake)
L(IT)TLE WH(IT)E LIE (80A: Fib)
PATERN(IT)Y SU(IT) (107A: Way to get to know a father in law?)
SECUR(IT)Y DEPOS(IT) (16D: Landlord's request)
(IT)SY-B(IT)SY SPIDER (58D: Climber in a children's rhyme)

Very slightly offputting to include a pair of downward theme entries in a rebus like this; messes with the optics a little bit, obscuring that each theme entry has two ITs. I do like the symmetric and amusing crossers F(IT)B(IT)S and N(IT)W(IT)S, each of which crosses two theme entries and required some delicate footwork to include.

Big blot, though, at 82D("It was you,"à la Verdi) for ERI TU. Pretty standard in a theme like this not to have any stray rebus pieces laying about, so the unused (IT) in this entry should certainly have been caught and excised. Might seem harsh but that's about .25 of a letter grade right there.

I remember the fill being pretty good, though during a sloggy solve you're always on the lookout for gimmick squares so it's tougher to appreciate it. But points for ALL CAPS, JOCULAR, MEMO PAD, TV HOSTS, BUST A GUT, both ARSENIC and POISON, LOW TECH, and TOM-TOM. Lots of theme entries so tough to keep it both interesting and clean, but she pulled it off well I think.

Hard to rise above a dull theme on a Sunday. Wavering between C+ and C, but that ERI TU thing removes the +. Letter grade of C.

*********

LOLLAPUZZOOLA 9:

Before I return you to Rex: be aware that the 9th edition of Lollapuzzoola takes place in Manhattan, NYC, USA on Saturday, August 13th, 10AM-6PM. I've been to this very enjoyable crossword tournament three times in the past and can highly recommend it -- casual, fun, one day only so not a big investment of time, very high quality puzzles. Tournament organizers Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer keep things amusing and make sure everyone has a good time. Sometimes people throw food. Check it out here:

www.bemoresmarter.com

Signed, Matt Gaffney, Regent of CrossWorld until midnight tonight

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Welcome back to another Annabel Monday!!!!!

Constructors: Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette

Relative difficulty: Easy, actually. Weird, right? Like this took me 10 minutes less than usual. I'm so proud of myself.

THEME: TO-DO— Theme answers contained "to" and "do".

Theme answers:

TOY DOLLS (17A: Barbies, e.g.)
TOUCH DOWN (25A: Land, as a plane)
TOMMY DORSEY (36A: Big band trombonist)
TOP DOLLAR (49A: The highest price)
TO DO LIST (59A: Planner's aid ... or what 17-, 25-, 36- and 49-Across are?)

Word of the Day:ATTAR(53A: Rose oil) —

Rose oil (rose otto, attar of rose, attar of roses or rose essence) is the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of rose. Rose ottos are extracted through steam distillation, while rose absolutes are obtained through solvent extraction or supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, with the absolute being used more commonly in perfumery. Even with their high price and the advent of organic synthesis, rose oils are still perhaps the most widely used essential oil in perfumery.
...It takes many pounds of rose petals to distill one ounce of essential oil. Depending on extraction method and plant species, the average yield can range from 1:1,500 to 1:10,000.

(Wikipedia)

• • •

This is probably my favorite puzzle so far, actually. I dunno, something about the clues and how it's laid out just work really well, and there's a lot of fun in it! There's LATEST - ASAP - NOW, which reads like a three-word short story about a frenzied news reporter. There's the fact that TOUCHDOWN doesn't have the obvious football clue. There's the way the constructors somehow managed to make DOT, of all things, into an interesting clue. Rex, you can't be totally grumpy about this one, right?!? I did get stuck in the lower left corner for a while, mostly out of a stubborn refusal to admit that ATTAR is a real word (which might or might not be why I made it word of the day). Also, I had DNA for 31A for like a million years. Again, this is why I'm an English major, not a bio major.

The theme was...eh. I'm actually great at checking off everything on a TO DO LIST, but the hard part is making one in the first place! I never know what I actually need TO DO, or what I just want TO DO, or what I should DO later rather than sooner, and in the end I just end up kind of going with everything as it comes. But for those of you who live by them, it's a great Monday theme! You can check off "do the first crossword puzzle of the week." :D

Bullets:

TEPEE (39D: Conical home for a Plains Indian)— Uh...do you mean TEEPEE? Or TIPI? I've genuinely never seen it spelled this way, and I was very confused.
DIP (1A: Guacamole, e.g.)— Oh my God I know I already wrote about the cool parts of this puzzle, but I just realize this combines with the corner to make DIP and DOT. Dippin' Dots. Like the ice cream. I love this puzzle.

Picture only slightly related.

YACHTING (38D: America's Cup sport)— As a sailor, I believe I know what I am talking about when I say the America's Cup cannot accurately be described as yachting. The word "yachting" evokes peacefulness and leisure. The America's Cup is about FEAR AND DANGER.
OTTER (8A: Playful animal on a stream bank)— Otters have been my favorite aquatic mammal since the third grade. Here is why.

Plus, otters hold hands in their sleep so they don't float away from each other. <3 ...well, I read that on the Internet one time, so it's probably true. It's a cute sentiment, anyway.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Paula Gamache

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

THEME:-LESS— so ... lots of "-LESS"-suffixed words, with the "... didn't want to be?" clues turning the answers into species of pun ... yes, that seems to be what is going on. The grid is chock full of this type of ... fun.

Theme answers:

COLLARLESS (17A: What the beat cop didn't want to be?)
RUTHLESS (21A: What the 1920s Yankees didn't want to be?)
ARTLESS (35A: What the museum curator didn't want to be?)
BASELESS (50A: What the G.I. didn't want to be?)
MOTIONLESS (54A: What the trial attorney didn't want to be?)
HELPLESS (3D: What the mansion owner didn't want to be?)
SEAMLESS (36D: What the coal company didn't want to be?)

[You do realize, of course, that the theme answer possibilities here are almost literally endless. ENDLESS, I say!]

Word of the Day:PIERO di Cosimo(7D: Painter ___ di Cosimo) —

Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was a Florentine painter of the Italian Renaissance. // He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to have abandoned these to return to religious subjects under the influence of Savonarola, the preacher who exercised a huge sway in Florence in the 1490s, and had a similar effect on Botticelli. The High Renaissance style of the new century had little influence on him, and he retained the straightforward realism of his figures, which combines with an often whimsical treatment of his subjects to create the distinctive mood of his works. Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the mythological subjects have an individual and quirky fascination. (wikipedia)

• • •

Oy, I picked a bad day to return to "work." Tuesday being Tuesday, which is to say, Tuesday being irksomely substandard. So much ... LESS. Why? And the (pseudo-) puns. They hurt, and not so good. So bad. They hurt so bad. And the fill did not improve matters. The smarmy class ASPIRE-ation in this puzzle, ugh. "Help" = "servants in your 'mansion'"? "THE CAPE"? (where you summer when you're not in your ... mansion?) PAREE? (your cutesy name for that place you like to brag you've been to a lot, making a great ECLAT at the many FESTS you're invited to, no doubt; that is, when you aren't touring all the wonderful museums, seeing the various Monets and Corots and PIEROs, etc.). I can't relate to this puzzle at all. I'm sure COLLARLESS means something in this puzzle's world (maybe you keep your COLLARLESS ... things next to your ALINEs?), but honestly I'd have to GUESS AT it. This whole puzzle—theme and fill—is unimaginative, dated, FUSTY, and froofy, which is probably not a word, but I'm standing by it.

The puzzle was much harder than the typical Tuesday (a few seconds more and I'd've called this "Challenging"), and that *despite* having so many giveaway -LESSes. The difficulty was partly in the cluing of the themers (no way I could get to HELP from "mansion," almost no way I could get to COLLAR from "beat cop," SEAM from "coal company," etc.) and partly in the bizarro fill like IN HELL (?) and AT LUNCH (!?). Then you've got a solid bank—4-wide—of people's names in the SW. I wouldn't care at all about the difficulty if the payoff were worth it, but it's not even close. As for my own personal faceplants (nobody's fault but mine), I went with FETES over FESTS(25D: Fun gatherings) and CELT over PICT (10A: Briton of old). I also had no idea what was going on in the (by far) ugliest clue/answer pairing of the day: 23D: Part of F.N.M.A.: Abbr. (MTGE). I mean, just read that over. Again. And again. It's essentially a cat on a keyboard—lots of letters, only two actual words. Junktastic.

I'm so grateful to the brilliant Matt Gaffney for taking over last week (and to Annabel for her usual First-Monday sparkle). I hear Shortz showed up in the Comments again (and again, predictably, when he published a terrible puzzle and got told so publicly). Sounds like fun. I wouldn't know. I didn't do a single puzzle last week, and didn't look at the blog once. It was glorious. But ... I am glad to be back. Had lots of great indie puzzles waiting for me in my Inbox, and, as always, I still have hope that the NYT will right the ship. The good days are still very good. It's just that I have to suffer through too many of These Days to get them. Dum spiro, spero!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Neville Fogarty

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:"Gerund in the noun" songs, literally— song titles that follow the pattern "blankin(g) in the blank" are represented "literally" in the grid, with the first word being sandwiched inside the two halves of the second word (with the "the" inferred ... by me, the solver; or implied, by Neville, the constructor):

Theme answers:

WI BLOWIN' ND (17A: 1963 hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, literally)
DE ROLLING EP (31A: 2011 hit for Adele, literally)
DA DANCING RK (48A: 1984 hit for Bruce Springsteen, literally)
RA SINGIN' IN (66A: 1952 hit for Gene Kelly, literally)

Word of the Day:AL OERTER(36A: Winner of four consecutive Olympic gold medals, 1956-68) —

Alfred Oerter, Jr. (September 19, 1936 – October 1, 2007) was an American athlete, and a four-time Olympic Champion in the discus throw. He was the first athlete to win a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympics. Oerter is an inductee of the IAAF Hall of Fame. (wikipedia)

• • •

Frustrating start, as I both failed to read the theme clue completely and forgot what day of the week it was. I started this thing with Tuesday Mind, and when I encountered Themer 1, with its apparently nonsensical array of letters, I could feel myself getting annoyed. "Nothing Starts WIB...," I internally exclaimed. So it turns out I missed the key word, "literally," at the end of the first theme clue. I don't know that it would've helped me get the gag straight away, but at least I would have had some idea that the WIB- start could (as it was) just be part of some letter-arrangement gimmick. I have no idea when the theme kicked in. Well, I have some idea. It was "Rolling in the Deep" that did it; I just don't remember when. I think at that point I saw the literally, and perhaps the -INGEP, and my crossword brain kicked in (it's been slow to come back since my vacation). Anyway, after all this struggle, I ended up with a highly average Wednesday time (low 4s). Theme is pretty straightforward and, uh, literal, so no oohs and aahs. Also, two -INGs and two -IN's where the initial song title word is concerned, which is an exceedingly minor detail, but my brain is nothing if not princess/pea where that stuff is concerned. At a minimum, the theme is adequate, and I thought the rest of it was probably a notch above average. Definitely a step up from yesterday (though most puzzles are).

["Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face"]

I tripped over 1D: Hamlet's relative in the predictable manner. I could not come up with RENTAL(8D: Airport pickup) despite having (literally) picked up a RENTAL at the airport just last week. WISE TO was a real problem (18D: Not tricked by), as not getting it effectively blocked an important escape route out of the NW. So you can see how my NW felt like a bit of a disaster at first. Didn't realize I'd still have to know the characters in the "Doonesbury" universe in 2016, so ALEX bit me (12D: Mike Doonesbury's daughter in "Doonesbury"). For someone who gets PEEVEd a lot, that one sure took me a while. I have an unaccountable prejudice against OERTER in crossword grids, even in his full-name state. Something about that OE- opening feels like cheating. Like ... no one puts him in a grid 'cause they want him. You put him in because you need him. You need his reliable, dependable, discus-hurling presence to keep your grid in line. He's not sexy, but he'll do the job. Actually, I've seen pics, he's sort of sexy. I'm talking about his name. Not his body. Where was I? Oh yes, The ALOERTER / ELIAS Howe / ERNIE Kovacs trio was not a highlight for me. Too much name, too much bygone. But FOUND MONEY is fantastic, and I liked the trick clue on LOS ANGELES (11D: Where Venice is). I liked remembering AARON Paul—I remember him from ... earlier this evening when I watched "Bojack Horseman" (in which he plays "Todd"—you're gonna wanna know this stuff, trust me). I have odd sounds emanating from my talocrural joint, AKA ANKA ANKLE, so I should go.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Jonathan M. Kaye

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging

THEME: BOOT (59D: Result of a parking violation ... as illustrated four times in this puzzle?)— "O" in the names of car models turns into a "Q" in the Down cross, thus somewhat mimicking the shape of a BOOT on a car:

Theme answers:

SILVERADQ (21A: Incapacitated Chevy?)
EXPLQRER (25A: Incapacitated Ford?)
CHERQKEE (46A: Incapacitated Jeep?)
NAVIGATQR (52A: Incapacitated Lincoln?)

Word of the Day:ABERDEEN(10D: North Sea oil port) —

Aberdeen (ⁱ/æbərˈdiːn/; Scots: Aiberdeen listen (help·info); Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain[ˈopər ˈʝɛhɪn]; Latin: Aberdonia) is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 37th most populous built-up area, with an official population estimate of 196,670 for the city of Aberdeen itself and 228,990 for the local authority area. // Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which can sparkle like silver because of its high mica content.^[3] Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe. The area around Aberdeen has been settled since at least 8,000 years ago, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don. The city has a long, sandy coastline and a marine climate, the latter resulting in chilly summers and mild winters. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is one of those rare puzzles that I really don't enjoy while solving, but that grows on me in retrospect. The problem was that I had zero idea what was going on until the very, very last letter. I was literally filling in BOOT one cross at a time. My last letter was somewhere in BOOT. My first thought on completion was "that's it? four Q/O squares? that's ... nothing." But then as I thought about the visual, and the fact that all the booted answers were actual car models, with just the one "O" in their names, I started to warm to this thing a little. Just a little. Puzzle felt hard to me (though my time was in the Normal ballpark), first because the "Q"s just meant nothing to me and made nonsense of the Acrosses, second because I assumed "Lincoln" and "Ford" were presidents (61A: Roosevelt predecessor? didn't help!) ... then thought maybe "Chevy" was Chase. Only at "Jeep" did I begin to get an inkling of what was happening. Getting the "Q" early in most of the themers actually did much more harm than good. Couldn't see the answers to save my life.

Not a fan of DRONE BEE (60A: Queen's mate). Feels redundant, especially as clued. A drone *is* a bee. Also super-not a fan of the ASLANT clue (1A: Like the Miller beer logo). Who *%&#ing cares about that stupid logo, and in what universe does anyone think of it as a locus classicus of slanting? Don't mind corporate names in my grid, but that clue was gratuitous. BOSH instead of (Pish-) POSH? (16A: Malarkey) Whatever. ACES are "dogs"? Whatever. TOITY!? The most made-up ARNE in the history of ARNEs? Pass and pass. The long Downs were wicked hard and wicked good. 9D: Tails, of a sort (PRIVATE EYES) was just a brutal clue, and somehow PRACTICABLE(23D: Realistic) evaded me until very nearly the last cross. And the [Indian flatbread] wasn't NAAN? Rough. Fill seems average to slightly above-average, overall. Nothing terribly cringy. I feel like this puzzle lives in a slightly different cultural neighborhood than I do—one with absolutely no women, apparently. Oh, except SARA Teasdale and CELIE and QEII. About five times that many men in this puzzle, but 3 isn't 0, to be fair.

["Yeah ... We're doin' this one for all the ladies... for the 9-3, you know what I'm sayin'?"]

PS I like that Jai alai didn't make it into the grid but decided to hang out in the clues anyway (18A: Jai alai bet of 1-3-7, e.g.)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty:Challenging

THEME:none

Word of the Day:EPHESUS(65A: Temple of Artemis city) —

Ephesus (/ˈɛfəsəs/; Greek: ἜφεσοςEphesos; Turkish: Efes; ultimately from HittiteApasa) was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, three kilometres southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era it was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League. The city flourished after it came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. According to estimates, Ephesus had a population of 33,600 to 56,000 people in the Roman period, making it the third largest city of Roman Asia Minor after Sardis and Alexandria Troas.// The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In 268 AD, the Temple was destroyed or damaged in a raid by the Goths. It may have been rebuilt or repaired but this is uncertain, as its later history is not clear. Emperor Constantine the Great rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. Following the Edict of Thessalonica from Emperor Theodosius I, what remained of the temple was destroyed in 401 AD by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom. The town was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 AD. The city's importance as a commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by the Küçükmenderes River. (wikipedia)

• • •

If I just look at the grid, things look OK, but the experience as a whole was more frustrating and annoying than entertaining. First, this should've been a Saturday. Second, the cluing was TTH (trying too hard) a lot of the time, with attempts at cleverness and cutesiness sometimes landing, but sometimes not. "TEEN JEOPARDY" is an "event" (OK, I guess) "informally" (??)? Those two clue words made getting that answer incredibly hard, and without the "J,"JELLO SHOT was well nigh impossible to see (great clue—20D: Colorful swallow?—but Saturday clue), and without JELLO SHOT, JIGGLED (43D: Moved like a 20-Down) ... no hope. Without JIGGLED, GAH is impossible (50A: Frustrated cry) ... so there was this domino effect that meant that not only was the puzzle hard, but it was annoyingly hard, not AHAingly hard. "TEEN JEOPARDY" and JELLO SHOT are both good answers—probably the puzzle's marquee answers—but whatever joy I might've gotten from them had evaporated by the time I actually solved them (very very late—that cross was one of the last things to fall).

FLAGRANT FOUL was the only excellent answer that was excellently clued (55A: Real hack?). It was also very helpful in making me realize neither OCCUR nor ENSUE was right at 51D: Come about (ARISE), and NUNCHUCKS was not a correct spelling (not here, anyway). And about that: NUNCHUCKS *is*, in fact, a legit spelling of that weapon (look it up), while NUNCHAKU appears to be plural all on its own (i.e. no final "S" needed). I'm just going from wikipedia, so maybe there is some specialized and / or variant usage; that's entirely possible. I just know that the spelling of NUNCHAKUS is a nightmare, even if you know (as I did) the weapon in question. And it's *especially* nightmarish dropping through EPHESUS (you could be forgiven for not knowing that last vowel) and the ridiculous RUGLIKE (60A: Resembling a heavy curtain, say). RUGLIKE is this puzzle's nadir. "Your curtains are RUGLIKE..." Who says that? STENOS? AIRACES, after coming home from HOT WARS? And if you don't know LUPE Fiasco (and I'm guessing many of you don't), then, man, things could get really rough down there. That SW corner is unlovely.

Things were just hard all over. [Italian dictators] are DUCES (I only know the term in the singular, applied exclusively to Mussolini) and not DOGES. [Put away] was neither EAT nor ATE but HID (?), we don't even get Eric HEIDEN's first name to help us with that clue (32D: U.S. athlete who won more gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics than all but two non-U.S. countries) (side note: weird to have "U.S." in the clue twice when the answer lies right next to USA, USA!). [Injured: Fr.] is not BLESSÉ, so .... no clue there (LÈSE). Despite a few glitzy answers, solving this was a bit of a drag. Wonky cluing + too much overfamiliar stuff (ARE TOO, SOLI, CAHN, OOH, ANI, ATAD, RIA, CTA, AGHA...). Misplaced on Friday, and just not edited with the style and personality and precision that I'm used to from BEQ's puzzles on his own site (new puzzles 2x/week—you should be on that).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:David Phillips

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:none

Word of the Day:NEO DADA(37D: Genre of some of Yoko Ono's art) —

Neo-Dada was a movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. In the United States the term was popularized by Barbara Rose in the 1960s and refers primarily, although not exclusively, to work created in that and the preceding decade. There was also an international dimension to the movement, particularly in Japan and in Europe, serving as the foundation of Fluxus, Pop Art and Nouveau réalisme.// Neo-Dada was exemplified by its use of modern materials, popular imagery, and absurdist contrast. It was a reaction to the personal emotionalism of Abstract Expressionism and, taking a lead from the practice of Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters, denied traditional concepts of aesthetics (wikipedia).

• • •

Yeah, so, somebody switched the Friday and Saturday puzzles this week? Did any of you actually find this harder than yeterday's? I crushed yesterday's time by three minutes (an Eternity). In fact, I was better than my Friday average today, and right around my Saturday average yesterday, so ... Freaky Friday (Saturday). While I do love slaying a late-week themeless (and I really needed this—my times since coming back from vacation have just been Off), this one might've been a little too easy. I solved two other puzzles right before this one, so maybe I was just warm. I've never tested the "warm-up" theory before, mostly because I just conceived of the "warm-up" theory right now. Perhaps there is some merit to it. But FLASHMOB was just a silver-platter gift (1A: Spontaneous public gathering), and gifted 1-Acrosses are often harbingers of Very Easy puzzles. The only place I got any resistance today was in the NE, where who the hell knows Morse code (my most hated of clue devices) and "Stain-free" is somehow metaphorical (SINLESS) and HELEN gets a great / tough clue (18A: Paris attraction?) and why can't I ever remember DHL (today's stab at it: DSL). I also wanted the [Shoulder-to-hip belt] to be a BANDOLERO (sp?), but luckily my erstwhile medievalism / D&D-playing brought BALDRIC back to mind.

I wanted to dislike NEO-DADA ... or, actually, I *did* dislike it (feels ridiculous and mildly made-up), but it's got a reasonable-sized wikipedia entry and Ono is, in fact, listed as one of the artists associated with the genre, so ... OK. Speaking of Ono. Interesting to see crosswordese used in value-added ways tonight, with Ono ending up in a clue instead of the grid, and ELIHU getting the full-name treatment (the only treatment that makes me not cringe at seeing his name in a puzzle). I didn't use JEDI MIND TRICKS to destroy this puzzle, but I did feel like I had a Vulcan Mind Meld with the constructor. I was taking down answer after answer with just one letter in place. PELOSI off the "I"; BUM A RIDE off the "B"; USA TODAY off the "S" (!); OLYMPIA off the "O"; etc. It was just my day. Finally. No great errors. Just OPEDS for OBITS (25D: 21-Down runs them) and STOAT for SHOAT (4D: Certain weanling) (you'd think I'd've stopped confusing the weasel with the pig by now, but no).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Samuel A. Donaldson

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:"Anchor Lines"— phrases we associate with news anchors are given wacky, wordplay / pun clues:

Theme answers:

TOP STORIES (23A: "What's in your attic? Anddo penthouses have better resale value? Find out in today's ___")
BREAKING NEWS (29A: "Museum officials report a priceless vase has shattered. Stay tuned for the ___")
DETAILS ARE SKETCHY (43A: "A courtroom artist has been arrested for fraud. ___")
THE LATEST (66A: "Schools are cracking down on their most tardy students. We'll have ___")
BACK TO YOU (68A: "Coming up, a pistol dueler tells us his stance. Now ___")
TRAFFIC AND WEATHER (93A: "After the break, people are leaving the city during winter because of crime. Also ___") (man, this one's weak)

FILM AT ELEVEN (111A: "Our camera crew entered a one-hour photo shop at ten. ___")
STANDING BY (118A: "With more about those defending the accused, our reporter is ___")

Word of the Day:"BROWN EYES, Why Are You Blue?"(17A: About which it was asked "Why are you blue," in a classic song) —

• • •

One of my least favorite theme types. It's executed adequately, but this thing where you just put a bunch of phrases related to some field, any field, in the grid, and then write these wackified clues, always feels ultra-cheap. You can do it With Any Field. Just find eight, say, baseball phrases. Or knitting phrases. Or laundry phrases or auto racing phrases or elk-hunting phrases or whatever. Are they interesting? Who cares?! All the "fun" will be in the totally-not-tortured nutty clues you'll write. This is the floodgates I imagine being opened up when a puzzle like this appears. It's a template of been-done-ness and mediocrity. Do some of the clues make you smile? Maybe. Do some make you cringe or just stare in non-comprehension? Probably. The end. There is no other interest. The fill ... is fill. Not that far below par (though INAS over VOCE over ERES, come on...), but not remarkable in a good way either. I mostly just want to hurry up with this so I can back to watching Olympic coverage of entertaining and/or hilarious sports I only get to see once every four years.

I drove past Natick on this one. Didn't get off the highway (you can get off anytime you like, but you can never leave), but definitely saw how someone might get lost and end up there. Which is to say I drove past the OCHOA / OGHAM crossing and thought, "O, man, that's gonna wreck *someone*." No telling how many, but ... oh, look, first casualty came From Inside The House (my wife, five minutes ago, walking up the stairs with her laptop in hand: "Honey ... I have a Natick"). Should you know Lorena OCHOA? (89A: Mexican-born golfer Lorena) You know, probably. But as with all proper nouns, you really gotta cross them fairly, and there is no way you should be expected to know OGHAM (I sure didn't, and a. I'm a medievalist; b. I've definitely seen it in grids before) (77D: Old Irish character). So honestly, if you don't know OCHOA, there is no way in hell, except by luck, you can infer that "H." And ... I mean, YEESH, what a train wreck that section is. The Natick, plus adjacent ELOI and ONAT. To quote Friday's puzzle, GAH!

Puzzle was very easy overall, despite having a few things ("BROWN EYES," OGHAM, MAENAD, ALAIN Locke, etc.) about which I had no clue. Had PUPPY for POOCH (2D: Doggy); MMA (?) for UFC (55A: Mixed martial arts org.); YIKES for YEESH (70D: "Oh jeez!"); ERICA (??) for ERICH (44D: Actor Bergen of "Jersey Boys"). As you can see, at least two of those are demonstrably terrible guesses. No other problems. Good night and good luck. Courage. Etc.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Zhouqin Burnikel and Don Gagliardo

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging (*for a Monday*—largely because of the preponderance of proper nouns, particularly the themers)

THEME:BIG PICTURE (58A: Long view ... or what the answer to each starred clue is?) — movie titles whose first words mean, roughly, "big":

Theme answers:

GRAND HOTEL (17A: *1932 Greta Garbo classic)
GREAT ESCAPE (11D: *1963 Steve McQueen epic, with "The")
SUPER-SIZE ME (24D: *2004 documentary about fast food)
TITANIC (37A: *Winner of 11 1997 Oscars)
GIANT (28D: *1956 James Dean western)

Word of the Day:LEN Berman(43A: Sportscaster Berman) —

Leonard "Len" Berman (born June 14, 1947) is an American television sportscaster and journalist who is based in New York City. He is currently hosting the morning show on WOR-AM with Todd Schnitt. // Berman is widely known for his career with NBC, specifically his work for the network's flagship station WNBC-TV. Berman spent twenty-seven years as the lead sports anchor for WNBC and also worked for NBC Sports covering Major League Baseball and the National Football League. He was employed by WNBC until 2009, and prior to that worked for WCBS-TV in New York from April of 1979 through August of 1982 and WBZ-TV in Boston. (wikipedia)

• • •

This felt easy, but I was a good 20 seconds over my average time for a Monday (statistically significant, at the speeds I travel). I think part of the issue was the trivia nature of the theme clues, which means you know it or you don't, and you have to go fishing with crosses. Titles / names are thornier than straight vocab if you aren't familiar with them, and the clues today were not that explicit. You get a year and and then one other details (star, number of Oscars). They are all well-known movies, but in early-week puzzles, tons of proper nouns tend to have a slowing effect. Which is weird, because in late-week puzzles, often, for me, they have a propelling effect. They are often the thing I get quickly when all the other words / phrases are clued hard. I handled today's movies OK, but totally forgot about "GIANT" and and with the "N" in place wrote in "SHANE" (despite knowing very well James Dean wasn't in that—it was Alan Ladd). Took me a while to pick up DISNEY, too—another film-related proper noun (20A: It acquired Lucasfilm in 2012). None of this was truly difficult; it just provided a mild headwind that affected my final time. But my own mistakes did that too. I had LE VOILA! instead of ET VOILA! My version literally means "there it is." I don't think the clue is good at all, in the sense that VOILA all on its own means "There you have it!" That ET is crucial (it means "And"). Clue should've been ["And there you have it!"].

I also flat-out misspelled / wrong-spelled HOARD (21A: Squirrel away). Went with HORDE. That hurt. Then there was LOPES, which I just couldn't see (49A: Easy runs), mainly because I had no idea how "runs" was being used. [Easy running paces] or [Easy paces] or even [Runs at an easy pace] I would've gotten a lot, well, easier. BOLSTER hard to see from just [Strengthen], and CALL A CAB not at all clear (to me) from 39D: Eschew Uber, say. My first inclination was to find some version of the answer "walk." Lastly, STOP BY was not intuitive to me at all (48D: Visit). I had STOP AT and stumbled around there fixing it. I thought the grid was quite clean overall. The theme was decent—seems like it could be infinite (lots of movies must begin with some synonym of "big"), but when you take movies starting in "(THE) BIG" off the table (as you have to here, because "BIG" is in the revealer), the number of usable movies shrinks considerably (usable means it fits the basic criteria of the theme *and* is Monday-familiar). Totally acceptable Monday fare.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME:same answer twice (or, once, thrice)— answers are pairs of mutually cross-referential repeated-word phrases

Theme answers:

ZOOM / ZOOM (5A: With 9-Across, an auto ad slogan) (9A: With 5-Across, quickly)
AUTHOR / AUTHOR (24A: With 26-Across, 1982 Al Pacino film) (26A: With 24-Across, 1962, P.G. Wodehouse books)
NEW YORK / NEW YORK (40A: With 42-Across, Frank Sinatra signature song) (42A: With 40-Across, where Broadway is)
HEAR YE / HEAR YE (52A: With 55-Across, town crier's cry) (55A: With 52-Across, Aaron Copland ballet)
SING / SING [ / SING] (71A: With 72-Across, noted maximum security prison) (72A: With 71- and 72-Across, classic Louis Prima tune)

NOTE:

Word of the Day:TEDY Bruschi(27D: Former New England Patriot Bruschi whose name is a bear to pronounce?) —

Tedy Lacap Bruschi (/ˈbruːski/; born June 9, 1973) is a former professional American football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons. He played college football for the University of Arizona, and was a two-time consensus All-American. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 1996 NFL Draft, and played his entire professional career with the Patriots. Bruschi won three Super Bowls and was a two-time All-Pro selection. (wikipedia)

• • •

Finished this with absolutely no idea about the second clues. In every case. I honestly only ever saw the first one and then filled in the second part and so never saw clue 2. It's not the best-conceived theme, in that regard. Also, it's wicked easy and I can't say it's a great feeling to solve a puzzle in which so much of the fill is just repeat fill. I'm surprised this is the puzzle Lollapuzzoola wanted to feature. I associate the tournament with *much* more interesting / creative puzzles, but perhaps they wanted to give the (correct) impression that the tournament is designed for and welcoming to solvers of widely varying skill levels (If you can complete a Thursday puzzle, you'll do fine). It's always nice in a tournament setting when the first puzzle is an easy one like this. You're usually loaded with absurd levels of unwanted adrenaline, so it's nice to get an easy one under your belt early. Unless you tank it, which I have done at least once. Anyway, it's nice to see Lollapuzzoola getting press like this—if you are in the NYC area, you should check the tourney out this weekend, though word is that the venue is close to capacity, so if you're going to register, do it now. Yes, literally, like, right now. (Or just sign up to play at home)

Almost all of my struggles (such as they were) came from my poor reading skills. I know very well who TEDY Bruschi is, but somehow when I read the clue I both missed the football angle and registered that the answer would be a woman. I keep looking at the clue now, trying to imagine how that is possible. And I can't. I also botched (predictably) the crosswordese 6D: County in Colorado or New Mexico. I wanted OSAGE ... but then I thought no, it's the other one (?), by which I *meant* OTERO, but what came out was OTAGO, which makes a kind of sense, as that's the University my wife attended in New Zealand, but ... not the right answer here. I had "AUTEUR / AUTEUR" at first (not a joke). Really hate the corny clue on 34D: What generals keep up their sleevies? which I'm only just now realizing says "sleevies" instead of "sleeves," making me hate it even more. Ugh. Your wacky clues should at least make *some* literal sense. At least *wave* at the meaning of the words that are in your clue. Fill is bygone-NYT standard. Normal and dull ... though I do love "CHINATOWN" (the movie, anyway), and YOU BETCHA! is not a bad answer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:David C. Duncan Dekker

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME: QUINTUPLE (33A: Like each letter of the alphabet in this puzzle, at minimum) — all letters of alphabet appear in grid at least five clues, which you probably gathered from such activities as "reading the clue"

Word of the Day:RAKI(3D: Turkish brandy) —

Rakı (Turkish: Rakı, Ottoman Turkish: راقى, pronounced [ɾaˈkɯ]) is an unsweetened, anise-flavored alcoholic drink that is popular in Turkey, Greece, Iran, Turkic countries, and in the Balkan countries as an apéritif. It is often served with seafood or meze. It is similar to several other alcoholic beverages available around the Mediterranean and the Middle East, e.g. pastis, ouzo, sambuca, arak, Aragh Sagi and aguardiente. In Turkey, it is considered a national drink. (wikipedia)

• • •

Pangrams are stupid, so this is 5 x stupid. QUINTUPLE stupid. That must be some kind of record. Not wasting my time. I am sorry that I am not sorry.

Gonna go hang out with my dog, who has been sick. Later.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Constructor:Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty:Medium-Challenging

THEME:say the circled letters— all themers are clued [See circled letters]. If you say the circled letters aloud (i.e. if themer has two circled Cs, "seize"; if it has two circled Gs, "Jeez!"; etc.) you get the clue for that answer:

Theme answers:

CONFISCATE (Cs = seize)
LIFE OF RILEY (Es = ease)
GOOD GOLLY (Gs = Jeez)
FLIRT WITH (Ts = tease)
SCRUTINIZES (Is = eyes)
RUN THROUGH (Us = use)

Word of the Day:Niobium(24D: Mythical eponym of element #41) —

Niobium, formerly columbium, is a chemical element with symbol Nb (formerly Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite. The name comes from Greek mythology: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus since it is so similar to tantalum. (wikipedia)

• • •

I've seen the "say the letters, get a word" conceit several times before. This was a hard version of that. Nice to have a challenge on a Thursday, though I can't say the experience was that pleasant. Bumpy. Very bumpy. With some superdumbass stuff like SPYFI (really?) (check out this ultra-not-legit-looking wikipedia page) (47D: "Mission: Impossible" genre) and especially IZZAT SO? (43D: "Oh, really?!") Stop. Stop. No. Stop. Not a thing. Who has that in their database? Remove it right now. I insist. IS THAT SO, THAT SO, even DAT SO is better than the gratuitously Z-laden abomination we have here today. Also, "Tease" is not a very precise clue for FLIRT WITH. The others are all spot-on, but, while one might (I guess) "tease" in an attempt to flirt, most flirting I've seen / heard of / experienced has not involved "teasing." That is a subset of flirting, if it's anything. "Tease" sounds like something a jerk (or SCHMO or NIMROD, apparently) might call a woman he *thought* was flirting with him when she turns him down. Boo.

Cluing was generally hard, mostly by being vague. The thing that might crash and break is a WAVE. Antarctica is ARID (not whatever cold-related adj comes most readily to mind ... COLD, maybe). Musical trio refers not to the players but the notes. Etc. etc. etc. On my first pass through the top, answers were pretty sparse. I thought Lake Volta was in S. America, and so I was thinking LAPAZ or SUCRE at 1A: Capital south of Lake Volta (ACCRA). RERUN for REAIR (14A: Show in syndication, say). I didn't know "Cant" and ARGOT could be synonyms. I think of the former as dishonest, self-serving talk and the latter as simply a specialized language. So that was weird. One of my first certain entries (besides TACO) was EDMOND (21A: ___ Dantès, the Count of Monte Cristo). Hurray literature. But then I totally blanked on O'BRIEN (38A: Winston's tormenter in "1984"). Boo, literature! Tough, but ultimately fair. Solid, acceptable work, even if I was irked more than I was scintillated.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Kelly Clark

Relative difficulty:Easy

THEME:none

Word of the Day:DAVIT(43D: Hoist on a ship) —

noun
noun: davit; plural noun: davits
a small crane on board a ship, especially one of a pair for suspending or lowering a lifeboat. (google)

• • •

Very clean, very easy. Almost too much, on both counts. Only SICK AS A DOG, AGENT ORANGE, and maybe SOFT PRETZEL made me think "hey, nice," but never, not once, did I think "ew, gross," so on balance, I'm very pleased. There aren't any big traps, but there are several little ones. I guessed wrong two times, falling into the PLOTS / PLOYS trap (14D: Schemes) *and* the SCAN / SPAN trap (24D: Go over). Managed not to fall into the POLE / POPE trap (25D: John Paul II, e.g.), largely because POPE seemed way too easy, but also because I got the "L" from ALOT pretty quickly (33A: Tremendously). I had GENIE instead of PIXIE at first, and really struggled to come up with DAVIT (just forgot the word) and TEN (wanted NYG) (52D: Eli Manning, on the field). But when your 1-Across is a fat gimme like PETUNIA PIG (1A: Porcine paramour), as I've said in the past, chances are you're in for a fast ride. Not untrue again today. (No offense, Petunia, but you are a fat gimme)

I actually came to a hard stop coming out of the NW because SPROUT (24A: Little 'un) is not a word I'd use unless the context was Green Giant commercials. That's when I jumped to SCAN (whoops) and therefore had real trouble with 29A: Disappearing exclamations (POOFS). I couldn't make sense of the clue on any kind of level, and eventually I had COO-S (?) and then COOFS (??). Thankfully, I didn't accept that as a real thing and double-checked my crosses. Had to do the cross-check thing for PLOTS/PLOYS too. Why is [Comic's nightmare?] (BOO) question-marked? Is the "scariness" of a nightmare supposed to be connoted by "BOO!?" No one has ever said BOO! in my nightmares. They tend to be scary for other, less childish reasons. [Comic's nightmare] seems fine on its own, as a thing a comic dreads. I'm not getting the "?". Do VETS still "ALTER"—I thought "spay" and "neuter" were universal terms now. I only know ALTER from ... I don't even know. Seems dated. Or maybe it's progressive, as it's sex-neutral? All's I know is Bob Barker did not say "Have you pets altered." So there.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Constructor:Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day: Tenzing NORGAY(33D: Hillary's mate) —

Tenzing NorgayOSN GM (/ˈtɛnsɪŋˈnɔːrɡeɪ/; 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer. Among the most famous mountain climbers in history, he was one of the first two individuals known to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. (wikipedia)

• • •

Finished in just over 8, despite not really racing, and despite having just woken up from a, let's say, premature sleep, and despite having no idea who EILEEN / FISHER is, and despite needing every last cross to get NORGAY (the last cross being ... well, the last cross). Hey, EILEEN and FISHER are symmetrical are symmetrical! That's nice. Still don't know her. Is she friends with Ann Taylor? My sister used to work at Ann Taylor Loft (that's a thing, right?), so I know Ann Taylor. My sister never mentioned Eileen. Come on! Eileen! Anyway, she at least has a recognizable American first and last name, so she didn't really mess things up that much. This grid is creamily smooth, but like many creamily smooth things, slightly on the bland side for me. Still, filling those huge chunks of white space so cleanly is a real accomplishment. So what if the longer answers are non boat-floating stuff like STABAT MATER and CARDINAL RED and JOB TITLES. This grid is polished to the point of gleaming, and corners are nice too, so thumbs up.

I have said many times, including yesterday, that a gimme at 1-Across usually signals an easy puzzle, and again (again) this was true, even though the gimme in question was just four letters (1A: Player's fee => ANTE). 1-Acrosses give you a whole array of first letters for the initial Downs, so they have tremendous accelerative power. Today, "N" gave me NO U-TURN (2D: Junction injunction), which gave me ANY (32A: Whatever), and that "A" plus the "A" from ANTE was all I needed for ALFALFA (1D: Fodder for dairy cattle). So that corner is pretty much owned only 30 seconds or so into the solve. Coming out of that corner via LUDENS was hard because a. that "S" didn't give me much information, and b. I wasn't sure it *was* an "S" (LUDENZ, maybe!?) (23A: Cough drop brand). So I exited via CARDINAL RED (9D: Deep scarlet shade), which I think I had as ... CARMINIDINE? Which is what happens when you take CARMINE (an actual shade of red) and pump it full of wish-fulfillment steroids (or what happens when one shade of red, CARMINE, and another shade of red, INCARNADINE, love each other very, very much ...). I then got ICEMAN and then got stuck, but immediately got unstuck with PERK (18A: Private jet, maybe), which was obvious to me for some reason, and gave me both SOP and TOKENS. And off I went.

[ICEMAN]

TWEENAGERS I got, but with a grimace on my face, as no one calls them that. They are TWEENS. TEENAGERS, yes, TEENS, yes, TWEENS, yes, TWEENAGERS, shhh no. But I'll take it, as that answer provides a bevy of first letters for the central Downs. So I washed through the middle, aided tremendously by the giant gimme "BEING THERE" (40A: 1979 film that ends with Peter Sellers walking on water), which I have seen relatively recently, and which I would've gotten even if I hadn't. I just need "1979" and "Peter Sellers" to know what movie I'm dealing with there. Then B SHARP, easy (40D: Note that sounds like a direction to think). TALIA SHIRE, massively easy (no crosses needed) (53A: Actress sister of Francis Ford Coppola). ALEC, a crosswordese gimme (48D: ___ Ramsay, hero of "The Black Stallion"), ASP, ditto (54D: Symbol of Tut's power) ... so easy, slightly old-skewing, not exactly glitzy, but expertly crafted and enjoyable to solve.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS two things: 1. I still don't get how EGOS are [26D: Psychic mediators] and 2. "STAN" is not just an [Eminem song about an obsessed fan] (15D), it is now a (derisive) slang word for the obsessed fan in general. Lowercase. Also, a verb. To "stan" someone is to adore that person unquestioningly and kind of scarily. And now, if you didn't know, you know. (p.p.s. h/t to crossword constructor Kameron Austin Collins, from whom I learned the term, true story) (p.p.p.s. "h/t" means "hat tip" ...)

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Constructor:Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty:Medium

THEME:"Moral Thinking"— "-al" sound added to familiar phrases; wackiness follows:

Theme answers:

THE OLD GRAY MERYL (23A: Actress Streep playing a centenarian?)
BARTLETT PERIL (31A: Risky business for a compiler of quotations?)
KODIAK BARREL (52A: Alaskan beer container?)
MARKET SHERYL (72A: Promote singer Crow's music?)
BILL OF FERRELL (92A: Debt for comedian Will?)
HANDLE WITH CAROL (104A: "I can't help you, but the Brady Bunch mom will be happy to assist"?)
ICY STEROL (35D: Frost-covered biochemical solid?)
THIN ERROL (48D: Like actor Flynn post-dieting?)

Word of the Day:WIDOW(63A: Typographical no-no) —

2.Printing
a last word or short last line of a paragraph falling at the top of a page or column and considered undesirable. (google)

• • •

Add-a-sound. This type of thing has to be perfectly executed for me to enjoy it, and this one just wasn't. There was an arbitrariness and pointlessness to this that made it seem ... listless. Like a placeholder. You know those photos that come *with* the frames? The ones that *look* like family photos and certainly could play them on TV, but that don't move you in any way because they're clearly not just not *your* family—they're not anybody's family? So that's about the level at which this puzzle hit me, emotionally. It's like a plausible facsimile of a puzzle. A puzzle you'd see in an acid reflux medication ad. Is that a crossword? Sure looks like one? Huh, OK, what were we talking about? Oh, right, Prilosec. Add-a-WHATEVER themes must be tight! I mean, for pete's sake, they should at least be tight enough to result in a meaningful title. "Moral Thinking"??? So ... "More '-al' Thinking?" Is that it? But ... "More Thinking" is not anything. What a mess. "Gimme Moral"! "Moral Bounce to the Ounce!""... Baby One Moral Time!" Something!

Was weirdly slow to start, and then picked up speed quite a bit toward the middle and end. Tried to get cute and fill in 5A: Means of going down a 36-Down without looking at 36-Down, which caused problems (shocker) at both 5-Across and 36-Down. I put in RAMP at 5A, and then later, when I got it changed to RAFT, I put in RIVER at 36-Down. I'd say 1/3 of the puzzle's total resistance came from my total mishandling of this cross-reference situation. Slowest section was WNW, where SNIPER wouldn't come (33A: Good shot?), and where AMY'S really wanted to be EDY'S (44A: ___ Kitchen (frozen food brand)), and apparently I don't know what "onomastics" means, ugh (34D: Focus of onomastics (NAMES)). Had a few issues in the NE too, where SEDATE preceded SERENE (29A: Unruffled), DOLTS preceded DODOS (13A: Meatheads), and SOLELY was toughly clued at 17D: 100%. Really enjoyed both GAG ORDER (77D: It stops talking) and COLD CALL (80D: Telemarketer's action), particularly the former, as the clue *and* answer are first-rate. Overall grid quality is decent, actually, but the theme's just a dud for me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Discombobulate / TUE 7-26-15 / Yodeling locale / Defensive tennis shots

2003 Bennifer Bomb / WED 7-27-2016 / Itemize / Refusal from Putin

Gloria of Miami Sound Machine / THU 7-28-2016 / Sweetums / Kind of chat

Match Makeup / FRI 7-29-2016 / Doughnutlike / Catacomb component

Ladder's counterpart / SAT 7-30-2016 / Writer Sedaris / Pet name meaning "faithful"

Mentalist Geller / SUN 7-31-2016 / Leaf / It may require a password

Rose oil / MON 8-1-2016 / Big band trombonist / IV units / One doing carbon 14 testing / America's Cup sport / Game piece with pips

Orbiting info relayer / TUE 8-2-16 / French mathematician Blaise / Part of FNMA / Pro bono spots briefly / Martha's Vineyard alternative

YSL perfume named for drug / WED 8-3-16 / Time for latish lunch / Mike Doonesbury's daughter in "Doonesbury" / Winner of four consecutive Olympic gold medals 1956-68 / Hamlet's relative

Historic kingdom in Spain / THU 8-4-16 / North Sea oil port / Saknussemm discoverer of center of earth journey / Predators of elephants in myth / His brother was given name Israel / Offering from urban streetcar

Temple of Artemis city / FRI 8-5-16 / Colorful swallow / Ottoman honorific / Compost heap bit / Resembling a heavy curtain / Eponym of annual Golden Globe award for lifetime achievement

Dwarf warrior in Lord of Rings / SAT 8-6-16 / Morse Toto totally / Certain weanling / Scandalous Manet painting of 1863 / Shaggy Scottish dog / Spontaneous public gathering / Red White 2005 rock album

Eschew Uber say / MON 8-8-16 / Sister brand of Gillette's Sensor / 1956 James Dean western / 1963 Steve McQueen epic / 1932 Greta Garbo classic

County in Colorado New Mexico / TUE 8-9-16 / Ottoman bigwigs / Casino game that looks like thou in reverse / What generals keep up their sleevies

Acronym for outdoor fantasy game / WED 8-10-16 / Warm alpine wind / Turkish brandy / Part of neutron's makeup / South African tongue / Thompson aka Honey Boo Boo

Winston's tormenter in 1984 / THU 8-11-16 / Capital south of Lake Volta / Longtime resident of New York's Dakota apartments / Font akin to Helvetica / No-holds-barred Q&A / Biogradable neckwear / Parts of Santa Claus balloon

Porcine paramour / FRI 8-12-16 / Foe of Big Boy Little Face / Hoist on ship / Founder of Rhyme $yndicate Records / Pacific dietary staple / Leaves Navels artist

Hymn set to music by Vivaldi Haydn / SAT 8-13-16 / Bandleader whose band was New Orleans Gang / Human member of old tv trio / 1979 film that ends with Peter Sellers walking on water / Horror film remake released on 6/6/06 / Psychic mediators