Ghostbuster Spengler / SUN 5-19-13 / NASA spacewalks in brief / Taverna offering / One of three Canadian aboriginal groups / Ristorante menu suffix / Twiggy's look in 60s fashion / Like Nasser's vision

Constructor: Jean O'Conor

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium




THEME: "Befitting"— V-sounds are changed to B-sounds in common phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style

Theme answers:

• 23A: Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic? (TENNIS SERBS)
• 28A: Tour guide's comment at the primate house? (THAT'S A GIBBON) — Love
  
• 33A: Sign for tourists visiting the Bolshoi? (BALLET PARKING)
• 51A: Tropical paradise for Barbie and Ken? (BALI OF THE DOLLS) — "Bali" and "Valley" sound nothing alike to my ears, so this one feels off to me ... 
• 65A: Let Justin take care of everything? (LEAVE IT TO BIEBER)— Great, except for the inconsistency of a. not changing that first "V" and b. having a "B" that is *not* the result of a change. You'll note that none of the other theme answers suffer from either a. or b.
• 84A: Passed security at the troubadours' convention? (SHOWED A BALLAD I.D.) — Insane, in a good way
  
• 97A: Prepare to go canoeing? (GET OUT THE BOAT)
• 107A: Stadium binge? (HOT DOG BENDER) — Love x 2
• 116A: Fortunetellers' protest demand? (SIBYL RIGHTS)

Word of the Day: BAO (117D: Chinese steamed bun) —

A bāozi or simply known as bao, bau, humbow, nunu, bausak, pow or pau is a type of steamed, filled bun or bread-like (i.e. made with yeast) item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations. In its bun-like aspect it is very similar to the traditional Chinese mantou. It can be filled with meat and/or vegetarian fillings. // Two types are found in most parts of China: Dabao, measuring about 10 cm across, served individually, and usually purchased for take-away. The other type, xiaobao, measure approximately 5 cm wide, and are most commonly eaten in restaurants. Each order consists of a steamer containing about 10 pieces. A small ceramic dish is provided for vinegar or soy sauce, both of which are available in bottles at the table, along with chilli paste. (wikipedia)

Very simple change-a-sound theme. The only real criterion for theme answers of this type is That They Be Funny, and on that count, these answers definitely succeed. Even the BIEBER answer, which (as I note above) has double inconsistencies, was funny enough for me not to care that much. This is a constructor who has a pretty good ear for this kind of wordplay. Not sure what the title is supposed to signify. Nothing there about the "V," but ... whatever. The grid ... is a grid. It's fine. There are only two or so answers that make me want to pull my (no longer there) hair out: EMILIE (I'm supposed to know all the names of 79-year-old quintuplets?) (5D: One of the Dionne quints) and RITARD. (I'd give you RIT., but a six-letter "abbr." I will Not give you) (26D: Slowing down, musically: Abbr.). Found most of the puzzle very easy, but there was one little patch with a difficulty level All Out of Proportion to the rest of the grid—specifically, that 4x5 area in the south bounded on the west by ESSA (?) (109D: She, in Salerno). I had ELLA, so that didn't help. Had RIOT for 110D: Laughable (yeah, it doesn't work, part-of-speech-wise, but it was the best I could do at the time). Had no idea GYROs were associated with "Tavernas" (11D: Taverna offering). And totally forgot (because I barely ever knew) BAO. Oh, and then there's the two-word A HOOT (124A: Something hilarious). Not sure what I was looking for, but I know it didn't involve "A." And if I hadn't known the theme, SIBYL would've been Very hard to come up with. It was pretty hard to come up with as it was. So I spent probably two minutes or so fumbling around down there, and only 10 or so minutes on the entire rest of the grid.


Bullets:

• 31A: Twiggy's look in '60s fashion (WAIF)— do we need "in '60s fashion" here? Also, something about the "look" = WAIF equivalence feels ever-so off to me.
• 74A: Like Nasser's vision (PAN-ARAB)— Everything (and I mean everything) I know about NASSER I learned from crosswords. For instance, he was the president of UAR, an important territory on the "Crosswordese!" game board.
• 93A: One of three Canadian aboriginal groups (MÉTIS)— let it never be said that comic books (or, in this case, "graphic biographies") aren't educational. I learned about MÉTIS from the excellent graphic biography Louis Riel by Chester Brown. Gorgeous work. Highly recommended. 
• 104A: Ghostbuster Spengler (EGON)— ha ha. How many other EGONS can you name? (I'm guessing two) 
• 111A: Displayed an "Oh my God" reaction (GRIMACED)— first, "OMG" will do. Second, when I say "oh my God," I am rarely grimacing. More likely, I'm [Wide-eyed and open-mouthed] (AGOG).
• 39D: Ristorante menu suffix (-INI)— not great, but not a lot you can do when the theme answer placement is locking you into I-I.  
• 114D: British mil. decorations (DSOS)— how many of these are there. I've seen this kind of clue a million times, and still it's all just alphabet soup to me.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. My friend Jeff Chen, whom you may know from awesome puzzles everywhere, has a new book of crossword puzzles out, all themed around the game of bridge. The title of the book is (wait for it ...) Bridge Crosswords. If you are a fan of bridge and crosswords, or just crosswords (and want a challenge), pick it up now.