British luxury SUV / MON 10-28-13 / Star-making title role for Mel Gibson / Gulager of Last Picture Show / Thinker's counterpart / Full political assemblies

Constructor: Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: dog names— iconic dog names can be found at the end of four theme answers


Theme answers:

• 30A: *It's a happening place (IN SPOT)
• 34A: *Sophocles tragedy ("OEDIPUS REX")
• 43A: *British luxury S.U.V. (RANGE ROVER)
• 45A: *Star-making title role for Mel Gibson (MAD MAX)

Theme is tied together by the two-answer song lyric "WHERE OH WHERE HAS / MY LITTLE DOG GONE" (17A: With 62-Across, question in a children's song)

Word of the Day: MAD MAX—

Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller, written by Miller and Byron Kennedy over the original script by James McCausland, starring Mel Gibson.

It became a top-grossing Australian film, holding the Guinness record for most profitable film for decades and has been credited for further opening up the global market to Australian New Wave films. It was also the first Australian film to be shot with a widescreen anamorphic lens.^[3] The first film in the series, Mad Max spawned sequels Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior) in 1981 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985. A fourth installment, Mad Max: Fury Road starring actor Tom Hardy as Max, is currently in production. (wikipedia)

First, the question is "OH WHERE OH WHERE etc." There is an initial "OH." You can't just leave it out. Or, rather, apparently, you can, but that's just stupid.

[Stupid wrong answer was almost worth it just to get to see this LOL-bad animation]
Second, OH ME is not a thing. Leaving aside the replication of OH from the stupid wrong / incomplete song lyric, OH ME is just not a thing. It's part of a thing, maybe. "OH ME OH MY" is a part of some song lyrics, somewhere. But OH ME? No. No me. Look, if you have to have ridiculous "quaint" expressions no one actually says in your puzzles, I'll give you (barely) "AH, ME" (which you do see from time to time, sadly). Otherwise, you'll have to go with the more normal "OH MY!" or you'll have to tear out your easily refilled corner and do something less lazy. IMHO.

Third, MAX is not an iconic dog name. No. No. Yes, there are surely dogs named MAX in the world; MAX is probably a reasonably common dog name. But it is no REX. It is no SPOT. It is no ROVER. It is no, let's say, FIDO. That is, it doesn't even come close, in its iconic quality, to those other names. LADY is a. a more iconic dog name, and b. a name that might work as the last word in a reasonably common phrase, i.e. there are surely theme answers ending in LADY out there. Maybe not six-letter ones, but why not go HOT SPOT (waaaaaaaaay better than IN SPOT) and FAT LADY ([It's not over until she sings, in a famous expression]). 7 and 7. Rebuild your grid around those. But in the NYT's current low-bar environment, I guess easy suggestions for improving a puzzle aren't seen as worth making. Too time-consuming? Too much of a hassle to polish a Monday? Probably. I mean, it's "just a puzzle."


There are some nice answers in here (I'm a fan of PRESAGES, and MAD MAX, despite its utter inaptness as a theme answer, is great fill), but this thing's dead in the water. A non-starter. A possible starter, but as it stands, in its current state, a wholly inadequate offering.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld