Cub scout leader named after character in Jungle Book / MON 9-19-16 / 1981 Alan Alda/Carol Burnett comedy / Bite-size Krispy Kreme offering / Long-armed banana lovers

Constructor:Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty:Easy (close to record time, and on a 16-wide grid!)

THEME: HOLLYWOOD SQUARES (41A: Classic TV game show ... or what 18-, 25-, 55- and 66-Across are, in a way)— theme answers are movie titles that contain square numbers:

Theme answers:

• "NINE MONTHS" (18A: 1995 Hugh Grant/Julianne Moore romantic comedy)
• "THE FOUR SEASONS" (25A: 1981 Alan Alda/Carol Burnett comedy)
• "SIXTEEN CANDLES" (55A: 1984 Molly Ringwald coming-of-age comedy)
• "ONE FINE DAY" (66A: 1996 Michelle Pfeiffer/Goerge Clooney romantic comedy)

Word of the Day:Adolph RUPP(21A: ___ Arena, home to the Kentucky Wildcats) —

Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was one of the most successful coaches in the history of American college basketball. Rupp is ranked fourth (behind Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight, and Dean Smith) in total victories by a men's NCAADivision I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching. Rupp is also second among all men's college coaches in all-time winning percentage (.822), trailing only Clair Bee. Rupp was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 13, 1969.

Hey, this is cute. I mean, thematically, conceptually—a great use of HOLLYWOOD SQUARES as a revealer. There are a couple of issues with the execution. First, there's the relative iconic-ness of the movies, which ranges from solid ("SIXTEEN CANDLES") to non-existent ("ONE FINE DAY"? What is that?). Is there really not a better / more familiar ONE movie out there. I mean, it's bad enough you have to subject us to the fairly execrable "NINE MONTHS"—"Nine" movies are pretty hard to come by. "District 9" uses the numeral. So I'll give you "NINE MONTHS." But you gotta give me something better in the "ONE" department. There's no reason the "ONE" has to come first. Who cares? Just get the "ONE" in there and we're good to go. If you want to do this theme Right, as opposed to just Do it, then you need the movies to be good non-marginal, and you need to move things around until you get it right. Also, ideally, the movies go in numerical order ... but that's a higher bar, for sure. Perhaps impossible. The fill was subpar today, for sure; surprisingly so. Well beneath what I expect at this point from this constructor. That west section is pretty emblematic. Total BAH-fest. BAHA-fest. AKELA-fest. AMOK/AMOI-city. Too much junk, too much mustiness.


I finished so fast that I'm just gonna focus on those places where I tripped—where I added seconds to my solve. Even at high speeds (for this one, 2:36), there's always time to be shaved. 

Hiccups:

• MDT (7D: Summer hrs. in Colorado)— wrote in CDT. My family lives there; I should know better.
• MPEG (19D: Digital video file format)— wrote in JPEG. Dumb.
• MENDS (14D: Gives a darn?)— had the -S and just blanked. Wanted only ... DARNS. Tough day with the "M" words.
• AKELA (46A: Cub Scout leader named after a character in "The Jungle Book")— one of those words I know *exclusively* from crosswords, and one that I always remember as AKETA :(
• "I RULE!" (56D: "Go me!") — that's not punctuated right. There must be a comma between "Go" and "me." Must. Ugh and BAH. Couldn't parse it, slowed me down.
• "CAN IT!" (58D: "Zip your lip!")— had "---IT" and just had to wait on crosses. 

That's it. The only other hold-up was having zero clue what the hell "ONE FINE DAY" was (movie-wise). Overall good puzzle, with some significant but not fatal wobbliness.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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