Republican pol Haley from South Carolina / MON 1-9-17 / Black covert doings / English monarch with lace named after her / 1990s tv series about murder in town in Washinton

Constructor:Neville Fogarty

Relative difficulty:Easy-Medium

THEME: BED HEAD (39A: Result of failure to comb the hair after sleep, maybe ... or a feature of 17-, 25-, 49- or 61-Across)— theme answers all start with a size of bed, thus there's a BED at the HEAD of each answer:

Theme answers:

• TWIN PEAKS (17A: 1990s TV series about a murder in a town in Washington)
• FULL HOUSE (25A: K-K-K-5-5, e.g., in poker)
• QUEEN ANNE (49A: English monarch with a "lace" named after her)
• KING COBRA (61A: Hooded snake)

Word of the Day:NOAA(14A: U.S. weather agcy.) —

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA; pronounced /ˈnoʊ.ə/, like "Noah") is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment. In addition to its civilian employees, 12,000 as of 2012, NOAA research and operations are supported by 500 uniformed service members who make up the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps. The current Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at the Department of Commerce and the agency's administrator is Kathryn D. Sullivan, who was nominated February 28, 2013, and confirmed March 6, 2014. (wikipedia)

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Now on to the puzzle!

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As first-words themes go, this one was cute. Very nice wordplay in the revealer, and nice progression of bed sizes from smallest to largest. You could do this theme with FLOWER something, FEATHER something, OYSTER something, etc. But this incarnation has the virtue of simplicity and size progression. It's a tight theme. Simple, tight. That said, I had no idea what the theme was until I was done. I mean, I got BED HEAD and saw that it was the revealer, but was on to the next answer so fast that I didn't think about how the revealer worked. Sometimes going too fast has consequences, such as causing you, ultimately, not to go as fast as you would've liked. Today, though, no real issues w/ speeding past the revealer. Had real trouble right off the bat with NOAA, of which I have never heard. It has never been in a NYT crossword, I don't think. There's only one instance in the cruciverb database, and that's from a Boston Globe puzzle from almost 15 years ago. I couldn't even begin to guess what most of those letters stand for without looking NOAA up, so that answer is a Weird One, esp. esp. esp. for a Monday. It's a very real agcy., but ... looks more like the answer to the clue ["Does this take a D battery?" response, perhaps]. And yet, once I got it from crosses, I crossed my fingers and moved on. Quickly. Only hesitation/slowness came at the end because I typo'd UNSHORE instead of UNSHORN and so had the end of of the [English monarch...] themer as -NANEE (?). Had to back into that SW from the tail end of BORN FREE. Could not come up with AUGER from the terminal "R" (59A: Drilling tool) But I knew KYRIE (yay, sports) (67A: N.B.A. star ___ Irving), and so all was soon clear. 2:47. Just south of normal Monday time.


Here's a problem: Two SETs. A SET of SETs. Two SETs is one SET too (!) many. ALL SET. PRE-SET. Probably should've SET one of those aside. I bet NIKKI Haley is a debut (52D: Republican pol Haley from South Carolina). Might've been tricky, spelling-wise, but I already had the double-K in place before I looked at the clue. The AREA of REST AREA caused me to stop because STOP fits right where AREA sits and I was unsure (47A: Place to pull over on an interstate). I would say "when's the next REST STOP?" But I'm from California originally and we do weird things like put "the" before our highway numbers so you probably shouldn't listen to me. This was a solid puzzle. Nice Monday. See you Tuesday. Pray for atypical (i.e. good) Tuesday!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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