Ankle bones / MON 6-6-2016 / Six-time N.B.A. champion Steve / "N.Y. State of Mind" rapper / N.Y.C. airport code

It's Annabel Monday and I have some important news to report: I AM NOW SLIGHTLY LESS TIRED!!!! Because it's summer and I finally got a vacation...for two weeks before I started my summer class. Sigh. Oh well.

Constructor: Mary Lou Guizzo

Relative difficulty: Hard enough that I thought I clicked on the wrong puzzle by accident!!



THEME: REDUNDANT — Each and every theme answer was a redundant and superfluous multiple-word phrase. ;-)

Theme answers:

• FIRST BEGAN (11D: Started)
• END RESULT (17A: Outcome) 
• HEAD HONCHO (29D: Top dog)
• TWELVE NOON (36A: Midday)
• REVERT BACK (43A: Return to a former state)
• REDUNDANT (61A: Like 17-, 36- and 43-Across as well as 11- and 29-Down)

Word of the Day: TWYLA (28D: Choreographer Tharpe) —

Twyla Tharp (/ˈtwaɪlə θɑːrp/; born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works inNew York City. In 1966, she formed her own company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often utilizes classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.

From 1971 to 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance toured extensively around the world, performing original works. In 1973, Tharp choreographed Deuce Coupe to the music of The Beach Boys for the Joffrey Ballet. Deuce Coupe is considered to be the first crossover ballet. Later she choreographed Push Comes to Shove (1976), which featured Mikhail Baryshnikov and is now thought to be the best example of the crossover ballet.

In 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre, since which time ABT has held the world premieres of 16 of Tharp's works.

Oh my gosh why was this puzzle so hard? I hardly got any Across clues on my first try, and some of the clues were worded pretty strangely. Wouldn't you think "how kids are grouped in school" would be GRADE instead of BY AGE? And the only ankle bones I've ever heard of are the fibula and tibia -how is FARSI right? Ah well. At least that meant we got some really choice words, like TORERO,  and LUCRE - and STY, which pretty much describes my room at all times.

Funny thing about the theme: Before I really looked at the theme clues, I thought it was going to have something to do with the word "on," because of ONTO, TWELVE NOON, LIGHTS ON, and HAS ON. But as it was, the redundancies thing was pretty cool - and it gets points from me for using Down answers as clues, I love puzzles that do that! I prefer oxymorons to redundancies, though. Jumbo shrimp, anyone?

Bullets:

• SOX (69A: Chi-Town team) — As a sort-of Massachussite, I am VERY offended. The White Sox are not nearly as cool as the Red Sox. I bet Mary Lou Guizzo is a darn Yankees fan! - or she just didn't want to have to spell out "Sawx."
• THE NERVE (4D: "What gall!")  — The nerve of that guy and his driving eyeballs!
• ALTOS (56A: Voices above tenors) — I swear, I have read the word "alto" or some variant of it in every. Single. Puzzle. Do puzzle constructors just hate sopranos and tenors and basses or something? 
• ATALANTA (41D: Maiden who raced Hippomenes, in myth)— So, like...one time my high school theater put on this super-artsy interpretation of Jason and the Argonauts, and I was Atalanta. And, well, I guess this video speaks for itself.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student

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