1960s Borgnine sitcom title role / TUE 2-17-15 / Clock radio toggle switch / Skateboarder's challenge

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT" (22A: 2000 novelty hit … or a hint to the answers to the nine starred clues) — starred clues are words that are also dog breeds. Black squares at center of the grid form a dog profile (see 1A: Enemy of the pictured animal (CAT))

Theme answers:

• CHOW (1D: *Grub)
• POM (11A: *Fruit juice brand)
• BOXER (4D: *One working on a canvas?)
• BLOODHOUND (53A: *Relentless pursuer)
• HUSKY (66A: *Like Lauren Bacall's voice)
• BEAGLE (10D: *Darwin's ship)
• SETTER (34D: *Volleyball position)
• PUG (56D: *___ nose)
• POODLE (47D: *Kind of skirt or haircut)

Word of the Day: POM —

POM Wonderful, LLC is a private company which sells an eponymous brand of beverages and fruit extracts. It was founded in 2002 by the billionaire industrial agriculture couple Stewart and Lynda Rae Resnick. Through Roll Global, their holding company, they are also affiliated with Teleflora, FIJI Water, pesticide manufacturer Suterra, and Paramount Agribusiness. As a private company, POM Wonderful does not disclose its profits. In 2006, Newsweek has estimated that the company sales have increased from $12 million in 2003 to $91 million in that year. In recent years, the company has long been the subject of government prosecution due to its illegal marketing schemes. (wikipedia)

If Tuesday's not a disaster, I'm happy, so I'm happy. I mean, the fill is pretty bad all over the place (AMAH ORA OONA CRAT TYR ASA NTHS (?!!) ANEEL DONEE ORTO ENNE), and the "novelty song" in question is best left in the dustbin of history where it belongs, but I'm having trouble resisting the picture of the doggie. Apparently grid tricks are now good enough to placate me on a Tuesday. The dog breeds … well, there they are. Hither and yon. But the random placement of the dogs fits somewhat with the spirit of the puzzle. I mean, when you let the dogs out, they don't line up symmetrically in your yard. If they do … something deeply troubling is going on. I'd run. Fast.


If you can't decide whether to READ TO OR TO SAY HI TO TOTO, why not do both. And hey, TOTO's a dog, so that's kind of a bonus answer, as is RCA (with that "His Master's Voice" dog) and TYR (63D: Norse god of war), who is "destined to kill and be killed by Garm, the hound dog of Hel" (wikipedia). Don't say you never learned anything from the Rex Parker blog. I'm chock full of canine-related information.

My time was pretty normal, despite the biggish white spaces in the E and W. The puzzle is oversized by a column (16x15), so I figure if my time was normal despite the puzzle's being beefier, the overall difficulty must be somewhat easier than normal. Your experience may vary according to whether or not you recognize the STREET as a [Curb's place]. I don't. I think of the STREET as curb-adjacent, just as Della STREET is Mason-adjacent. SAMOAN is an anagram of A MASON. I would READ TO you from a Perry Mason if I had one handy, but I don't. Nope, wait; I lied. I collect vintage paperbacks, so I am actually adjacent to scores of Perry Mason paperbacks as we speak. "The card was in Della Street's handwriting and said, 'C.B. CAME IN. GOT CHECK $100. LOTS OF VISITORS—OFFICIAL—WAITING.'" That's from The Case of the Cautious Coquette. There are other Perry Mason cases which involve dogs, I'm sure, although the only ones I can see without digging too far into my collection are ones involving a crying swallow, a fan-dancer's horse, and a caretaker's CAT—Bam! Full circle. 1-Across! Didn't think I was making it back to the puzzle, did you?

 Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. you probably shouldn't have [Box up] as a clue when you've got BOXER in the grid. Probably.