Shady places / MON 6-4-18 / Boneless cut named for a New York restaurant / Brand that "nobody doesn't like" / Active types / Deborah of "The King and I"

Ciao! It's Annabel Monday.


Constructor:Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty:Hard



THEME: DOUBLETREE INN— Theme answers each contained the names of two trees.

Theme answers:

• 18A: "Nonsense!" (BALDERDASH)
• 29A: Boneless cut named for a New York restaurant (DELMONICO STEAK)
• 49A: Jet that avoids radar detection (STEALTHFIGHTER)
• 62A: Hilton hotel chain...or what 18-, 29- and 49-Across each have (DOUBLETREE)

Word of the Day: GLADS (40A: Some showy blossoms, informally) —

Gladiolus (from Latin, the diminutive of gladius, a sword,^[2]) is a genus of perennialcormousflowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae).^[3]
It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural gladioli).^[4]
The genus occurs in Asia, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa, and tropical Africa. The center of diversity is in the Cape Floristic Region.^[5] The genera Acidanthera, Anomalesia, Homoglossum, and Oenostachys, formerly considered distinct, are now included in Gladiolus.^[6]

Whenever I say a Monday is hard I always want to add "for a Monday!!!!" But still, with that caveat, I did have a relatively tough time with this puzzle. I got stuck on the left side for a while. I'm not really sure why, other than knowing I'll hold a grudge with the constructor for that clue for ARBORS (I was expecting it to be ALLEY or something, not "shady" in the literal sense!). LEWD is one of my least favorite words in the whole world--it's up there with "moist". I think I've expressed my frustration with seeing ERA and directions like NNE clued the exact same way in every Monday ever, but other than that, no real ISSUEs with the fill, other than perhaps a little blandness. I like to be learning lots of new words in my puzzles.

The theme, on the other hand, was the opposite of bland! It took me much longer than I'd like to admit to find the trees in each answer (and I'm still not 100% sure I got them all right, honestly). And I actually didn't knowwhat analder was.  Deb Amien in the NYT's Wordplay column commented on the weirdness of constructing a puzzle around a brand name. I think it was definitely worth it for the creativity, though, and it didn't feel like an ad at all.

Bullets:

• DROOLS (54A: Slobbers)— Okay, with this right next to KENNEL I basically have to post a picture of my dog. Like, legally speaking. Her name is Juliet and I love her and she likes rolling around on her back and getting covered in grass. 

look at this absolute baby.

• BEE (23A: Flier from flower to flower)— Have I ever talked about my brief stint as a spelling bee star on this blog? I won my school's spelling bee, and made it to 12th place in the county bee before being defeated by the word TAIGA. Seven years later, I'm still mad that the girl who went after me only had to spell DREIDEL. I mean, come on, I'm Jewish, I totally would have gotten that one!
• DR. DOOM (4D: Enemy of the Fantastic Four)— This is the most ridiculous name for a villain ever and I have no idea how this series has been going this long without them changing it to something else. But I love it. 
• UFO (34A: Saucer in the sky, for short)— Appropriately, I've had this song stuck in my head for days for some reason. So now it can be stuck in yours!

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student. (For one more year, anyway.)

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