SEC school near Atlanta / WED 8-1-18 / Buccaneer's sword / German pop star who once had #2 song / Home to Queen Sonja / Capek play that debuted word robot

Constructor: Sande Milton and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium (4:33)

THEME: EYELESS (36A: Unable to see ... or, when taken as a homophone, what today's puzzle answers and clues all are) — in addition to having themers where wackiness is created by dropping an "I," the grid is totally devoid of the letter "I," as are the clues for some reason...

Theme answers:

• RANDY QUAD (from "Quaid") (16A: Campus area for amorous students?)
• SOCAL BUTTERFLY (from "Social") (26A: Flutterer around Orange County and L.A.?)
• NEW YORK SLANDER (from "Islander") (44A: Put-down to someone from Manhattan or the Bronx?)
• GREEK RUNS (from " ruins") (60A: Marathons, way back when?)

Word of the Day: ED BURNS (43D: Co-star of H'wood's "The Brothers McMullen") —

Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director best known for appearing in several films including Saving Private Ryan (1998), 15 Minutes (2001), Life or Something Like It (2002), Confidence (2003), A Sound of Thunder(2005), The Holiday (2006), One Missed Call (2008), 27 Dresses (2008), Man on a Ledge(2012), Friends with Kids (2012), and Alex Cross (2012). Burns directed movies such as The Brothers McMullen (1995), She's the One (1996), Sidewalks of New York (2001), Purple Violets(2007), and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012). He also starred as Bugsy Siegel in the TNTcrime drama series Mob City and as Terry Muldoon in TNT's Public Morals. (wikipedia)

I don't get the appeal of this theme. I especially don't get the idea that People Will Love How We Remove "I"s From The Clues. What kind of dumb non-event is that? It's not like it affects cluing all that much, or is noticeable, beyond a certain stilted quality to some of the clues. Why mess with the precision / elegance of your cluing when Literally No One Will Notice Or Care. It's like people are making decisions for no good reason. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Does it add value? More importantly, does it add *more* value than it detracts? In this case, no. No one is going to go "ooooh ... no "I"s." That is not a plausible or valid response. Therefore, de-"I"ing the clues is ridiculous. Ultimately, this is just a "remove-a-letter" puzzle. The revealer isn't even good, in that EYELESS is not something anyone actually is unless they are Samson in Gaza in a Milton closet drama (look it up!) or, you know, one of the horses in "EQUUS" (what kind of morbid joke is that, having that answer in this puzzle?—booooo!).


This puzzle is maybe a little bit on the easy side, but I kind of crashed the car in the NE, where ___ WEEKS has a word break right at the entryway to that corner. This meant that though I had WEEKS, I did not have the first word, and I guessed wrong with OFF instead of BYE. Flailing ensued. Eventually I took out OFF, but still flailed some more, writing in POP UP instead of BLOOP (8A: Short fly ball) (final "P" was "confirmed" by PELE), and then by trying to write in SHE'S A at 15A: "___ a Grand Old Flag" ("YOU'RE"), which you can see just makes no sense. [Salty bagel topper] was never gonna give me LOX. Me: ".... salt?" So, yeah, OUCH indeed. Otherwise, not much trouble here beyond figuring out the dropped-I answers.


Bullets:

• 17D: What could make you take a deep breath (YOGA) — good example of I-less cluing being a hindrance. This makes no sense. The YOGA instructor might "make you take a deep breath," but the practice itself doesn't (any more than any physical exertion might). 
• 24D: Buccaneer's sword (CUTLASS) — Me, having the "C" and smugly admiring my own large vocabulary: "Woo hoo, I know this one: CORSAIR!" :(
• 56D: Ballet dancer Pavlova (ANNA)— total blank. Just ... nothing. Some Russian name, ends in "A" ... was all I could think of. I guess Karenina and Paquin have "I"s... 
• 2D: Boozehound (SOAK)— wait, what? What? I've been around crossword drunkard clues for approaching three decades, I know my tipplers and my sots and my elbow-benders and my lushes and their DTs etc., but ... you're telling me SOAK ... is a noun? Meaning "sot"? Ugh. You have a very versatile word you could clue a million ways and you go way, way, way out of your way to steer it toward yet *more* words for alcoholics? What's wrong with you? SOAK as a noun is absurd.

Hey, Lollapuzzoola, one of the two crossword tournaments I try never to miss, is happening again in less than three weeks, in NYC. I (along with my wife) am the defending Pairs champion, and I am returning to keep the title out of the eager mitts of my friend Neville Fogarty and his mother (and any other pair that wants to have a go). I have gone to this tournament for years and it is great fun. The people who run it (Brian Cimmet, Patrick Blindauer) always do such a great job. The puzzles are absolutely first-rate and entertaining, and the atmosphere remarkably loose and laid-back. Here's a blurb from Brian about the upcoming tourney:

Hey there, CrossWorld — Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer here, cohosts of Lollapuzzoola. Lollapuzzoola a kick-ass (yet super casual) crossword tournament coming up on Saturday, August 18, in New York City. Our theme this year is "Back to School", and we have a slate of amazing puzzles by Erik Agard, Jeff Chen, Aimee Lucido, Mike Nothnagel, Paolo Pasco, Doug Peterson, Patti Varol, and Yacob Yonas, plus a bonus puzzle suite. If you can make it to NYC, join us in person — and if not, you can play from home (we'll send PDFs of everything to you by email). You can sign up and learn more about the event at www.bemoresmarter.com/lollapuzzoola. We hope to see you there!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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