____ Crawley, countess on "Downton Abbey" / MON 2-1-2016 / "Love Story" author Segal / Longtime N.B.A. coach Pat / Sleep disorder / Four-baggers

BRO, this puzzle was too much fun for Rex to do (because he's a no-fun-allowed type dude), so I, Annabel, am back to do some writing up! (JK. It's just the first Monday of the month, y'know, that's kinda my schedule. I just like to announce it at the beginning so nobody gets halfway through the article wondering why Rex is in such a good mood today.)

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Easy




THEME: ROAD MOVIES— Theme answers are street names that are also the names of movies.

Theme answers:

• WALL STREET (18A: Title locale in a 1987 Oliver Stone drama)
• SUNSET BOULEVARD (26A: Title locale in a 1950 Billy Wilder film noir)
• MULHOLLAND DRIVE (44A: Title locale in a 2001 David Lynch thriller)
• ROAD MOVIES (58A: "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Thelma & Louise"...or a hint to 18-, 26- and 44-across)

Word of the Day: VIEIRA (29D: Meredith of daytime TV) —

Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953)^[1] is an American journalist and talk show and game show host. She is known for serving as the original moderator of the ABC talk show The View (1997–2006), and for co-hosting the long-running NBC News morning news program Today (2006–11). She is also known for being the original host of the U.S.syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, for contributing to Dateline NBC, Rock Center with Brian Williams, and for presenting Lifetime Television's Intimate Portrait series.

Vieira is a special correspondent for NBC News, contributor to Today, NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC, and host ofThe Meredith Vieira Show.

MY, MY, this one was...um...interesting. I wish I were more of a movie buff - I've never seen any of those ROAD MOVIES, and on top of that, the fill felt more packed with references to characters than actors than usual. Oh well - you do crossword puzzles to learn, don't you? Not a whole lot else going on with the fill, though, tbh. SHOALS, LUAU, ISLE and ADRIFT made me think of a nice relaxing vacation.


Yeah, like I said before, I probably would've liked the theme more if I actually knew any of the movies. Or if they had thrown some musicals in there!!! So instead of talking about the MOVIES part of this theme, let's talk about the ROAD part. So I gOT THIS NEW CAR AND IT WAS REALLY AWESOME AND the best part is it doesn't have an audio jack which gave me an excuse to listen to the same two CDs ("Heartthrob" by Tegan and Sara and "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" by Florence + The Machine) like several dozen times over winter break. I'm not even kidding. I'd just pop one the CD slot and drive around with it playing over and over. It was awesome. Is that how they did it in the olden days when cars didn't have audio jacks for your phone?

Bullets:

• COED (17A: Like most college dorms nowadays) — This one gave me a chuckle because my entire college isn't COED! It's nice to be able to just do super-girly things all the time, like rugby.
• WALL STREET (18A: Title locale in a 1987 Oliver Stone drama)— Like I said, never saw this movie, so my mom helped me out with this one. 
• BOBBLE (27D: Move up and down, as a doll's head) — Apparently this is Australian for "hair tie." Also, "thong" is Australian for "flip flop." You learn a lot of things at summer camp when half of your counselors are inexplicably from either Australia or the UK. Also, why do they all call flashlights "torches"? What do they call sticks that are on fire? "Torches: Classic"? 
• AMFM (1A: Switch that changes bands on the radio)—  Is that like a PRNDL?

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student. (Not as tired as my roommate though - she's got an 8:30 class tomorrow, OMG!)

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