Group Theatre playwright of 1930s / THU 12-3-15 / Patriotic Clint Eastwood movie / Lyre player of mythology / Town whose exports are waxed / Medium for Biggie Smalls

Constructor:Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty:Easy


THEME:Fun with Roman numerals— circled squares contain Roman numerals, which, in the Across theme answers, stand in for the letters in their English equivalent (e.g. I = "ONE"). In the Downs, the letters in the Roman numerals cease to be Roman numerals and function simply as letters:

Theme answers:

• RUNNING [ON E]MPTY (20A: Almost out of energy)
• DA[TE N]IGHT (32A: Time to get a babysitter, maybe)
• "FLAGS O[F OUR] FATHERS" (38A: Patriotic Clint Eastwood movie)
• CA[TWO]MAN (45A: DC Comics character with a whip)
• CB[S EVEN]ING NEWS (52A: Rather informative program, once?)

Word of the Day:"ZZZ"(13D: Last entry in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary) —

1.

(usedtorepresentthesoundofapersonsnoring.)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2015. (dictionary.com)

This strikes me as quite clever. The theme isn't tough to uncover, and once uncovered, it all goes very quickly. Also, at 78 words, this grid is highly segmented and thus doesn't have many interesting longer answers outside of the themers. But the theme is solid and the chosen theme answers are varied and creative enough to keep things interesting. I enjoyed figuring out what Roman numerals went where, and why. Biggest wow factor was on CB[S EVEN]ING NEWS. I somehow wasn't looking for VII, and that is a truly inventive way to hide it. On the fill front, I am not at all a fan of TOX (22D: Food safety subj.). Is that short of tox ... ins? icity? It's horrid. I honestly considered TAX. And I gave a little side-eye to the creaky ERATO / ET ALIA crossing (though ET ALIA got a very nice clue—30D: String substitute?). But I don't have very many other complaints. It was too easy; that's the only serious complaint I have. Even the Scrabble-f*%&ing in the NE didn't bother me. I mean, if you're gonna do it, I say go All In. Four "Z"s in a 3x3 section!? Sure. Go on. Go ahead. And if you somehow don't know who AZIZ Ansari is (16A: ___ Ansari of "Parks and Recreation"), please watch the series "Master of None" (10 episodes, on Netflix) right now. Best scripted show I've seen since "Transparent." Oh, also, there's a new episode of "Transparent" available (Season 2, Episode 1) right now on Amazon Prime. Not sure why I'm telling you all this ... just spreading the Gospel of Good TV, I guess. (Don't get me started on the Great British Baking Show, though, because I am a convert and like all converts I am annoyingly zealous)


Bullets:

• 24A: Group Theatre playwright of the 1930s (ODETS)— I started with YEATS. Something about "playwright" and spelling of "theatre" and the fact that my dear friend Catherine is a Yeats scholar—not to mention the five-letter length of the answer—made me do it. YEATS died in 1939, so my answer is chronologically plausible, if no other kind of plausible.
• 28A: Works of Carl Maria von Weber (OPERAS)— I get this dude confused with sociologist Max Weber. It's probably the whole last name thing.
• 63A: Medium for Biggie Smalls (RADIO)— this is a very weird clue. Presumably RADIO is a Medium for virtually any singer in the history of singers. Does Biggie have a song about RADIO? Why Biggie? I mean, I'm happy to see his name, but the clue feels weirdly arbitrary. LL Cool J makes more sense. Or Elvis Costello. Or R.E.M. Or Talking Heads. Etc. 

• 66A: "That's not for me" ("I PASS")— I went with "I'M OUT!"

And I'm out.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]