Green precious stone / MON 12-25-17 / Charlotte rich dessert / Columbus campus / Cartoondom's Olive / Govt of the Rebs / Sorvino of "Mighty Aphrodite" / Hairlike projections on cells / "Slumdog Millionaire" setting / Vice president between Gore and Biden

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:08)



THEME: HIT PARADE— (58A: List of popular songs ... or a hint to the ends of the answers to the starred clues), all of which mean "hit," metaphorically.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Game-quickening timer in basketball: SHOT CLOCK
• 28A: Snowbirds' destination: SUN BELT
• 47A: Long vegetable with a yellow pod: WAX BEAN
• 11D: Marinara sauce thickener: TOMATO PASTE
• 24D: Dispenser of psychiatric advice to Charlie Brown: LUCY VAN PELT
• plus a bonus related non-themer: 35A: Clobber in the ring: KAYO

Word of the Day: RUSSE (20A: Charlotte ___ (rich dessert)) —

A charlotte is a type of dessert or trifle that can be served hot or cold. It can also be known as an "ice-box cake". Bread, sponge cake or biscuits/cookies are used to line a mold, which is then filled with a fruit puree or custard. It can also be made using layers of breadcrumbs. Classically, stale bread dipped in butter was used as the lining, but sponge cake or ladyfingers may be used today. The filling may be covered with a thin layer of similarly flavoured gelatin. (Wikipedia)

Glad tidings, crosswordoblogosphere! Rex is taking a day off, and it is I, Laura, filling in for Christmas as Jewish friends have done from time immemorial. We've got ourselves a coherent little puzzle for a Monday, no holiday thematics at present. You have here your classic "bunch of phrases with words at the end that all mean something similar, metaphorically" -- which is standard Theme Type #Whatever in the panoply of theme types. Really, no aspersions cast; if you're learning to construct, this is a good one to practice and know, and Lynn is a pro at execution.

Like a Charlotte RUSSE, our container is filled with standard fare, including not too many difficult proper names -- we have a little Dick (12D: Vice president between Gore and Biden): CHENEY, MIRA (56D: Sorvino of "Mighty Aphrodite"), and (10D: "Jeopardy" host Trebek): ALEX, as well as grid staples ILIE (55D: 1970s tennis champ Nastase) and (51A: Mel honored in Cooperstown): OTT. I'm curious how many solvers might not know that LUCY of the Peanuts comic is a VAN PELT, now that the strip runs only in syndicated "flashbacks" and the TV specials air only intermittently, and then just as Gen-X nostalgia. Oh, right -- I always forget that (5D: Swede who developed a temperature scale): CELSIUS was an actual person.

What's on your HIT PARADE tonight? On mine ... it was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank. I can see a better time, when all our dreams come true.


Bullets:

• 21A: Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush— TEXANS. Or another vice president, plus the president that 12D was Vice for.
• 27A: Columbus campus, briefly— OSU. Apparently, the official title of this institution is THE Ohio State University. If I omit the THE, will I be pelted with buckeyes? I grew up as a U of M fan, so pardon my (43D: Social gaffe): FAUX PAS.
• 33A: Tie, as figure skates— LACE UP. I just saw I, Tonya, the Tonya Harding biopic (tinged with satire), just in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Think figure skating is about athleticism, about who is the best at the sport? Nah. It's a pretty-girl contest.  

That's likely it for my (25D: Notable achievement): FEAT of guest-posting for Rex in 2017. Best wishes for whatever you celebrate, if anything, as we wind down this year, with hope for peace and justice as we ring in the next one.

Signed, Laura Braunstein, Sorceress of CrossWorld

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