Province of Saudi Arabia / SUN 8-18-13 / Main hood in Little Caesar 1931 / Old-fashioned street conveyance / You Gotta Be singer 1994 / Island group in Bahamas / New Guinea port from which Amelia Earhart left on her last flight / Old-time announcer Johnny / Michael Clayton director Tony

Constructor: Elizabeth C. Gorski

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging


THEME: BORDERLINES (69A: Gray areas, maybe ... or a hint to 12 incomplete answers in this puzzle) — every edge word in the grid (i.e. word that can be found AROUND THE / PERIMETER) (38D: With 56-Down, where to find this puzzle's 12 theme answers) must be followed by LINE in order to make sense.


Theme answers:

• 1A: It may come down in a storm (TELEPHONE)
• 10A: Divider in a musical score (BAR)
• 13A: Hang-out locale? (CLOTHES)
• 19D: Hobby activity (SIDE)
• 42D: Court stripe (FREE THROW)
• 100D: Bottom of a contract (DOTTED)
• 123A: Supermarket time-saver (EXPRESS)
• 124A: Draw a mark through for cancellation (RED)
• 125A: Means of one-to-one communication (DEDICATED)
• 1D: Movie theater sight (TICKET)
• 50D: Quarterback protectors (OFFENSIVE)
• 107D: Locale for finished works that haven't yet appeared (PIPE)

Word of the Day: Tony GILROY (45D: "Michael Clayton" director Tony) —

Anthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroy (born September 11, 1956) is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films, and directed the fourth film of the franchise. He has been nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. Gilroy wrote and directed Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. (wikipedia)

Picked up the concept fairly early, but still had a very, very hard time getting into the center of the puzzle. Also, hard time remembering every time I was supposed to put LINE after a damned edge-word.  But the most frustrating part was definite the center. Every way in felt vague, and I'd just have a terminal -ES, say, or -ER, or something equally unhelpful. GRAB BAG (44D: Mixture), very hard to see, even with both "G"s. SENATE, ditto (66D: Galactic ___ ("Star Wars" setting)). I don't know INTERBRED, only CROSSBRED (47D: Hybridized). No idea who Tony GILROY is. So, to repeat, getting in there was annoying. Disappointed to get AROUND THE / PERIMETER, which is accurate, but also obvious by the time you get in there. Not obvious exactly what the phrasing is going to be, but obvious what the phenomenon being described is. Also, not a fan of BORDERLINES as "gray areas." If something is "borderline" (adj.), then OK, but as a noun, I think of BORDERLINES as quite distinct. Often marked by things like gates and checkpoints, or, on a map, thick black lines. ASIR (75A: Province of Saudi Arabia), E LEE, and LAE (89D: New Guinea port from which Amelia Earhart left on her last flight) are always very hurty, but most of the time you're gonna have a handful of that junk on a Sunday, and this one *is* both theme-dense and wide open, so the junk doesn't really hurt much. It's a fine puzzle—though by EG standards, it's average. The "seen it" quality of the theme (versions of this "edge-answers-all-the-same"-type puzzle have been done many times before) and the unremarkable redundancy / superfluity of the AROUND THE / PERIMETER answer made it less than scintillating for me. I will say that some of the fill is fabulous and I do enjoy a bit of a challenge on a Sunday once in a while (they'd been getting quite easy, or so it seemed).


Grandmaster Flash - White Linesby hushhush112
I started with POWER LINE at 1A, which seemed so ... right, especially after several of the crosses worked just fine (ETS, NEESON, EDDY). I had MUNI for RICO (thinking "gangster actor" rather than "gangster character") (53A: Main hood in "Little Caesar," 1931). Had a weird '90s flashback at DES'REE (61A: "You Gotta Be" singer, 1994)—that song was everywhere, but shortly thereafter, DES'REE wasn't. Anywhere. That I know of. I didn't know Johnny OLSON was "old-time," so that clue threw me for a bit. I got the [Island group in the Bahamas] off the terminal "I", though if you'd asked me what BIMINI was before I started this puzzle, I'd've said "... uh ... an island ... somewhere ...?" (74A: Island group in the Bahamas) My favorite answer of the day was FOUR-COLOR, as that describes the printing of old-school comics, of which I am fond (51D: Like some printing).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld