Speaks impertinently to / MON 9-7-2020 / Designer Oscar ____ Renta / Where Jericho and Bethlehem are located / Entranceway to London's Hyde Park

Theme answers:

• MARBLE ARCH (17A: Entranceway to London's Hyde Park)
• TIC TAC TOE (25A: Kids' game that usually ends in a draw)
• TAR HEEL (38A: North Carolinian)
• LEMON SOLE (47A: Popular food fish that's actually a flounder)
• ABOUT A FOOT (59A: How tall Barbie is...or what the ends of 17-, 25-, 38- and 47-Across are)

Word of the Day: VIREO (12D: "Black-capped" or "yellow-throated" songbird) —

The vireos /ˈvɪrioʊz/ make up a family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. "Vireo" is a Latin word referring to a green migratory bird, perhaps the female golden oriole, possibly the European greenfinch.^[1][2]

They are typically dull-plumaged and greenish in color, the smaller species resembling wood warblers apart from their heavier bills. They range in size from the Chocó vireo, dwarf vireo and lesser greenlet, all at around 10 centimeters and 8 grams, to the peppershrikes and shrike-vireos at up to 17 centimeters and 40 grams.^[3]

(Wikipedia) 

It's the first Annabel Monday of graduate school! The homework is pretty intense so far--there's a lot of it and it deals with heavy philosophical stuff like "What is information?" I love it though. I'm so excited to be a librarian!

On to the puzzle. I felt like it was a solid little Monday. Not too hard, some typical eye-roll clues ("go 'boo-hoo-hoo'"?), decent fill. No AGO or ADO or any of the way overused three-letter word/clue combos, which is a win in my book. And no baseball clues, woo-hoo! In fact, this puzzle was light on obscure pop culture in general. As all Mondays should be. There weren't even really any tough crosses I noticed. If there's one complaint I have, it's that we didn't really learn what kind of NERD Bain is; I like when puzzles show the constructor's interests, like if there are a lot of science-based clues or a lot of answers in French. 

Is Barbie really about a foot long? Can someone whose children have Barbies confirm? I thought six inches at the most (I even had FOUR INCHES written in). Other than that the theme was fine. Again, a pretty typical Monday, nothing to really write home about. 

Bullets:

• RAGE (31A: Ranter's emotion) — Sing, O Muse. Nah, but for real, this one really stumped me for a while because for some reason I really wanted to put RAVE. Like ranting and raving? But I knew logically that that wasn't an emotion. Ugh. 
• ANDRE (13D: ____ the Giant (legendary 7'4" wrestler)) — Let's take a look back. What a fantastic guy. 
  
  
• WORK (58A: Ending for "right to" or "put to") — Now I know what you're thinking. "Annabel, you're in graduate school, but where are you working?" In an independent bookstore! It's one of my favorite jobs I think I've ever had, second only perhaps to my stint at the library. I'm still getting used to working retail but it's all worth it when I get to call people to tell them their books are ready. 
• BIEL (42A: Actress Jessica) — Unbelievable. Un-Jessica-Biel-ievable. 

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired graduate student--hah, take that, commenters! Now that I've started grad school, I have a new excuse to include "tired" in my signature!  

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