Peer Gynt widow / TUE 2-26-13 / Figure in the tale of Jason and Argonauts / Times Square sign shown in lowercase letters / Liquide clair / Raccoon relative

Constructor: Gary Cee

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: Road music — songs about roads

• THUNDER ROAD (17A: Where "we can make it if we run," per Bruce Springsteen (1975)
• VENTURA HIGHWAY (24A: Where "the nights are stronger than moonshine," per America (1972)
• PENNY LANE (37A: Where "all the people that come and go stop and say hello," per the Beatles (1967)
• ELECTRIC AVENUE (52A: Where "we gonna rock down to," per Eddy Grant (1983)
• BAKER STREET (61A: Where "you'll drink the night away and forget about everything," per Gerry Rafferty (1978)

Word of the Day: Alaska's KENAI Peninsula (14A) —

The Kenai Peninsula is a large peninsula jutting from the southern coast of Alaska in the United States. The name Kenai is probably derived from Kenayskaya, the Russian name for Cook Inlet, which borders the peninsula to the west. (wikipedia)

An odd Tuesday. My time says "normal," but the sensation was odd. At 74 words, it's got a more open grid than you usually see on Tuesday (the result of which is longer non-theme answers: to wit, a bunch of 7s and a couple 9s running Down). Also, the theme seems like it will be very easy for those who follow popular music (me) and perhaps not for those who don't. Even though all these songs are at least 30 years old (holy @#$&, Eddy Grant was 30 yrs ago!?), I still imagine that many solvers will have to methodically piece together (from crosses) at least one of these—whereas I could enter them all with no crosses. These are not obscure songs, but still, all-pop-culture themes can really lock some people out (while inviting others right in). Lastly, on the oddness front, is the KENAI / TKTS crossing. If I hadn't had some vague glimmer of a recollection that TKTS was a theater-related abbreviation appropriate to "Times Square," I would've been dead (1D: Times Square sign shown in lowercase letters). I know I've seen KENAI before, but it sure wasn't coming to me. That [Times Square sign shown in lowercase letters] is gonna be even more you-know-it-or-you-don't than the theme answers: a gimme for New Yorkers (and theater-lovers, maybe), and a giant WTF "?" for many others. My favorite part of the solve was the brief moment where I had T-TS at 1D and thought "hmmm, Times Square, eh?... let me see ..."

There are two Extreme Ugh answers in this grid: HELLE (47A: Figure in the tale of Jason and the Argonauts) and ASE (65A: "Peer Gynt" widow). Terrible, obscure stuff that really has no business in a Tues. (or most any day). But as I've said before, any time you have a grid where you are trying to drive Downs through *three* theme answers, problems are bound to follow. It's kind of amazing there isn't more ickiness, actually. The center, for instance, is pretty clean. I started very slow on this puzzle, largely because of the mysterious TKTS. Also because I didn't look at theme answers early enough. If I had, I would've taken off. Whatever time I lost futzing around up front I made up for with my accrued pop music knowledge / storehouse of thousands of song lyrics that live in my head through no effort of my own. I liked the theme—it's consistent, and, insofar as I kinda had to sing to myself to get the answers, fun. Also, I just like the image of John Paul STEVENS (46D: Former Supreme Court justice often seen in a bow tie) in his bow tie crossing ELECTRIC AVENUE.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld