Brit's teapot cover / MON 8-14-17 / First symbol on musical staff / Colorful flower also known as heartsease

Constructor: Rich Proulx

Relative difficulty:Normal Monday (so Medium, shading easy)

THEME: MEATLESS MONDAY (51A: Weekly occurrence when 20-, 31- and 38-Across might be consumed)— three themers have clues Meal Option #1 (and #2 and #3)

Theme answers:

• MUSHROOM BURGER
• SPINACH LASAGNA
• BLACK BEAN CHILI

Word of the Day: Lena OLIN (27D: Actress Lena of "Chocolat") —

Lena Maria Jonna Olin (born 22 March 1955) is a Swedish actress. She has been nominated for several acting awards, including a Golden Globe for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and an Academy Award for Enemies, A Love Story (1989). Other well-known films in which she has appeared include Chocolat (2000), directed by her husband Lasse Hallström, Queen of the Damned (2002), Casanova (2005) and The Reader (2008). Olin was also a main cast member in the second season (and a recurring guest star in later seasons) of the television series Alias. Olin starred in the Swedish sitcom Welcome to Sweden. (wikipedia)

Too straightforward. Just three vegetarian options. Nothing clever about it, except that, by running the puzzle on Monday, the revealer (MEATLESS MONDAY) becomes somewhat self-referential. I don't know who started MEATLESS MONDAY or when. Feels like something of fairly recent vintage. Let me take ten seconds and google it:

Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet. // Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns Inc. in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthCenter for a Livable Future. Meatless Monday was founded in 2003 by marketing professional Sid Lerner. (wikipedia)

So you've got a new clue for SID now, too, if you want it (I'm not serious, don't do that). In my experience, MUSHROOM BURGER is not that common a thing. Portobello Burger, sure, yes, very much so. The other two answers are fine, but they just ... lie there. I like BIKE ROUTE (57A: Path for cyclists). That's kind of fun. But the fill on this thing is solidly in a traditionalist RUT. The grid is built in a choppy way that gives us lots of short fill, and so all the uber-common stuff just batters you. And then there's the occasional WISC or EGAL that really hurt, unless you are numb from being subjected to them so much. LUI? It's Monday, come on. Your fill has to be smoother than this. Next!


Some more stuff!:

• IRATE (58A: Fit to be tied)— that clue sounds too quaint for what I imagine IRATE to be.
• BOIL (40D: Directive in pasta recipe)— not a verb I considered at first. BOIL is literally the only thing you do to pasta (besides maybe salt), so "recipe" had me thinking of something ... else. I don't know what else, but else.
• PANSY (3D: Colorful flower also known as heartsease)— LOL what? "Colorful flower" tells me nothing, and "heartsease" tells me less. Easily the hardest clue of the day. Oh, [In ___ way] was no cakewalk either (HARM'S). And [XXX] leads to simply ADULT? Can't believe I finished this in 2:49 considering how iffy some of these clues are.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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