Short player wise as in hockey / TUE 5-20-14 / Montreal Canadien familiarly / Blue-turfed home for Boise State football / Former fort on Monterey Bay / Beef cuts named for New York restaurateur / Illinois home of Caterpillar

Constructor: Peter A. Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: HIDDEN COST (59A: Unexpected expense … or a feature of 17-, 23-, 35- and 49-Across) — "COST" is "HIDDEN" inside theme answers:

Theme answers:

• TACO STANDS (17A: Informal eateries with Mexican fare)
• BRONCO STADIUM (23A: Blue-turfed home for Boise State football)
• DELMONICO STEAKS (35A: Beef cuts named for a New York restaurateur)
• TEXACO STATION (49A: Service site with a star)

Word of the Day: DELMONICO STEAKS —

Definition: Delmonico steak is a steak cut from the beef short loin and named for Delmonico's, a steak house in New York where it is said to originate. 

Delmonico steak is a triangular steak with an L-shaped bone. The Delmonico steak somewhat resembles a T-bone steak, but it comes from the front part of the short loin, the part nearest therib. In contrast to the Delmonico steak, the T-bone steak comes from the center section of the short loin. 

The Delmonico steak is also different from the T-bone in that the Delmonico steak doesn't have any of the tenderloin muscle. 

Because it is a tender cut of meat, the Delmonico steak is good for dry-heat cooking methods such as grilling and broiling. (about.com)

This is about what I expect an average NYT Tuesday puzzle to be. Simple theme, apt revealer, interesting (if not scintillating) theme answers, mostly solid fill with at least a little zing in the longer Downs. As it stands, I think this is probably a little better than most of the easy themed fare we've been getting in recent days, if only because a. there's nothing terribly groan-inducing in the fill, and b. there is absolutely nothing to quibble about in the theme (except, I suppose, whether either BRONCO STADIUM or DELMONICO STEAKS is sufficiently well known to be in a Tuesday—I'd say "probably" and "it's beside the point; both are easily gettable/inferable via crosses). HIDDEN COST is not what I'd call a sparkly revealer. It is a phrase that one might use, but it has all the pizazz of a corporate newsletter. But it works. This puzzle does what it says it's going to do, and dammit, some days, that's good enough.


I, like many others, I'm sure, was thrown for a loop by "thrown for A LOSS" (50D: Thrown for ___). I think the "loss" version is supposed to be a term from American football. I can't imagine another scenario where I'd use the phrase. Anyway, my initial mistake was easily fixed. I had Schrödinger as an EDWIN at first. Need every single cross to get TINNED, and still am only somewhat sure I understand it (48D: Plated, in a way). If something is tin-plated, it's TINNED? Is that right? I like the tabloidy sequence of Downs in the NE: "SHANIA—DUST-UP AT HOME!" I'm not sure having a grid with both NOLA and NOLO is ideal, but there are no rules against it. My geography got aaaaalllll messed up, because my brain had INDiana farther west than Illinois as I was solving, so having IND. as the answer to 27D: Oh./Ill. separator just didn't compute. Yikes. I always forget INDiana's there. I used to live in Michigan, and I knew Ohio was underneath me, and Illinois was on the other side of the lake, but INDiana … most I ever did was clip the top of it heading to Chicago. Why my brain wants to put it out in Iowaland, I don't know.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS I wonder if non-hockey fans know HAB (59D: Montreal Canadien,  familiarly). I didn't until I got slammed by it a while back in a crossword. Now I see it all the time—for instance, the HABs are in the NHL Eastern Conference finals right now against the Rangers.