Bagful on a pitcher's mound / MON 3-7-16 / Omar who portrayed Dr. Zhivago / Boots brand big in grunge fashion / Onetime big name in Japanese electronics

I'm still mad about the way that February 29th JUST BARELY stole my thunder last week. I would've blogged that day if it was any other year. Stupid Leaping!

Anyway, happy Annabel Monday again! WOOHOO!

Constructor: Damon Gulczynski

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: 90s fads — Theme answers are fads from the 90s.

Theme answers:

• TAMAGOTCHIS (3D: Hand-held pets with digital "faces")
• THE RACHEL (18A: Hairstyle popularized by Jennifer Aniston's character on "Friends")
• THE MACARENA (27D: Dance associated with a #1 Los del Rio hit)
• DR MARTENS (60A: Boots brand big in grunge fashion)
• 90S FADS (39A: What the answers to the four starred clues are)

Word of the Day: FUGUE () —

In music, a fugue (/fjuːɡ/ fewg) is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition.  ...

A fugue usually has three sections: an exposition, a development, and a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugue's tonic key. Some fugues have a recapitulation.^[4] In the Middle Ages, the term was widely used to denote any works incanonic style; by the Renaissance, it had come to denote specifically imitative works.^[5] Since the 17th century,^[6] the term fuguehas described what is commonly regarded as the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint.^[7]

Guys. GUYS. GUYS. I REALLY liked this puzzle. Not only is this my first crossword puzzle with numbers in it (I thought for sure there was some alternate answer for 9PM, but no), but ALSO the 90S is easily one of the best ERAs in human history. Pokémon! Boy bands! Riot grrrl bands! The rise of flannels!!!!!! I wish I had gotten to spend more than three years in this beautiful decade. I've heard the argument that the 90s didn't end until 2003, and honestly, I kind of agree - everyone I knew had a Tamagotchi and/or a Furby. (God, Furbys were terrifying, weren't they?)

Oh, right, the rest of the puzzle. Nice fill, didn't learn any words but didn't really see any overused puzzle words either. I chuckled at the clue for STY - the constructor could have gone with "Where pigs live" or something similarly bland, but instead he decided to describe the natural state of my room in high school. Also, BREAK/LANCE sounds like what the actors at the Renn Faire do when they go out to the club - that was some excellent placement. Basically I'm excited to see more from Damon Gulczynski, even if I might be a little biased because of the whole 90s thing.

(My favorite Pokémon is Torkoal, by the way.)

Bullets:

• UNHIP (43A: So not cool) — I can't be the only one who noticed that this word itself is unhip. (Who's used any variation of "hip" seriously since the 70s?) Now isn't that ironic, don't you think? ...a little too ironic, don't you think? IT'S LIKE RA-I-AAAAAAIN

but seriously that poor guy. he was just doin his job

• THE RACHEL (18A: Hairstyle popularized by Jennifer Aniston's character on "Friends") — Hey, do you all want to hear a story about how my mom is a total troublemaker? This was taken at the Warner Brother's Studio tour in LA 3 years ago. They took us to see the set of Friends. We sat on the couch and handed the tour guide our camera to take our picture. Him: "Actually, you're not allowed to sit there, you're supposed to stay behind the line." Her: "Oops. Oh well! Take the picture and we'll get off!"

• SMURFS (57A: Little blue cartoon characters whose adversary is Gargamel) — I'm getting war flashbacks to the time I had to sit through the CGI/live-action The Smurfs 2 with my sister. Maya, I hope you know that I reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally love you.
• NANA (46A: Mom's mom)— With all this emphasis on the 90s, let's not forget the second-best decade for music ever: the 2000s! And now, my favorite song in the world from about third grade. Nananananananananana... 

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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