Classical promenades / WED 4-6-16 / Creamer of LPGA / Old TV title role for Raymond Burr / Spring's counterpart tidewise / Conical topper / Yenta's gift / Right on to hipster

Constructor:Timothy Polin

Relative difficulty:Challenging (for a *Wed*, for me, though I *was* watching baseball while solving, so *maybe* that threw me off ... maybe)

THEME: What Is It?— that was the clue for all three themers, with each clue punctuated differently:

Theme answers:

• 17A: What is "It"? (STEPHEN KING BOOK)
• 31A: With 43-Across, "What is it?" ("DO YOU NEED / SOMETHING?") 
• 59A: What is it? (PERSONAL PRONOUN)

Word of the Day:PAULA Creamer(15A: Creamer of the L.P.G.A.) —

Paula Caroline Creamer (born August 5, 1986) is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. As a professional, she has won 12 tournaments, including 10 LPGA Tour events. Creamer has been as high as number 2 in the Women's World Golf Rankings. She was the 2010 U.S. Women's Open champion.

It (...) is a pretty cute theme, but yoiks it was hard for a Wednesday. Just getting that first theme answer was a bear. Didn't anyone else write in BEAT at 1D: Outduel, e.g. (BEST)? Man, that was a lethal error—that error-square is the *first square* in the theme answer (that answer was hard to parse anyway, but with an error in the first square ... yeesh). I ended up coming at the first themer from the back end, and so ATEP-----INGBOOK made about as much sense then as it does now when you look at it. Then there's the golf PAULA. No idea. None. I know many PAULAs, many Wednesday-level PAULAs (Deen, Poundstone, Abdul) ... this isn't one. I see she's won a major, so her general crossworthiness isn't in question. Her Wednesdayness ... sort of is. I had her as CARLI for a bit because of the whole S*I*NK IN vs. SANK IN trickery in the clue at 9D: Hit home (can't tell whether "Hit" is present or past tense at first glance). Had AH, YES for OH, YES, because why not? (5A: "Absolutely!"). But all this was just tough, not bad. OPEN LINE ... I don't think I know what this means. [5D: Metaphor for easy access]??? Is this a phone-line clue? From pre-call-waiting days? I had OPEN LANE. I am much, much more familiar with the "easy access" (to more freeway, to cash registers...) that those provide.


Why are DENS"Men's"? (29D: Men's studies?). Is this a Brady Bunch thing? Mike certainly had a weird patriarchal den there where he did his drafting and gave fatherly advice. But I didn't realize the gendered association was so hard and fast. Anyway, it looks like virtually all my trouble was up top, but it was a Lot of trouble. I definitely struggled with APART as well, because of its ambiguous clue (51D: Split up) (clue phrase functions adjectivally, despite looking like a verb). Quite a workout, with a clever theme. Fill wasn't great, but (aside from STOAS) (66A: Classical promenades) it wasn't bad at all. Maybe a little old-timey with its crosswordese (good ol'ESAU and ECRU and SRI  and TKO), but it all felt pretty benign.


Was gonna write about ACPT last night but left my computer charger at school and computer died and wife's computer somehow wouldn't let me be Rex Parker. Just .... spun whenever I tried to make any blog changes, so I am having to do this write-up fairly quickly in the morning. Tonight, I'll do a short ACPT recap *and* blog the Thursday. Or so I hope.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Happy Birthday to my little sister, the original pain in my ass. Actually, 90% of whatever sense of humor I have comes from countless hours of childhood banter / fighting / silliness / watching the brothel-in-a-morgue movie "Night Shift" together. Good times.

["Nice frame..."]
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