Psychiatry writer R.D. / THU 4-9-15 / Brown-eared comics character / Against a thing legally / They say it in Spain in old Andrews Sisters hit / Part of FIOS / Tryptophan leucine / Tiny adjustment to atomic clock / Andean article

Constructor: Jacob Stulberg

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: That "Who's on First" routine from a million years ago—maybe … Abbot and Costello?? [checking…] Yes, correct — Who's on first, what's on second, I don't know's on third (thus: "who""what" and "I don't know" are rebused in the Across squares, and "first""second" and "third" in the same squares, respectively, heading Down);

• BASES (63A: Contents of three squares in this puzzle, per an old comedy routine)

Theme answers:

• THE BOY [WHO] CRIED WOLF / HEAD [FIRST]
• GUESS [WHAT]! / LEAP [SECOND]
• TELL ME SOMETHING [I DON'T KNOW] / [THIRD] RAIL

Word of the Day: Frank LLOYD (15D: Frank ___, two-time Best Director Oscar winner) —

Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a Scottish Americanfilm director, scriptwriter and producer. Lloyd was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and its president between 1934 and 1935.

Lloyd was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a Scottish mother, Jane, and a Welsh father, Edmund Lloyd. He is Scotland's first Academy Award winner and is unique in film history having received three Oscar nominations in 1929 for his work on a silent film (The Divine Lady), a part-talkie (Weary River) and a full talkie (Drag). He won for The Divine Lady. He was nominated and won again in 1933 for his adaptation of Noël Coward's Cavalcade and received a further Best Director nomination in 1935 for perhaps his most successful film, Mutiny on the Bounty. (wikipedia)

"Old comedy routine"—three words to set the young solver's heart aflutter. The routine in question was, in fact, quite famous, but there's going to be a very clear generational divide today, with this thing likely titillating the retired set and likely proving somewhat of a drag (if not a total mystery) to younger solvers. I was stuck in a kind of no man's land, remembering very well "Who's on first …" but being less sure of "What's on second…" and not at all sure what the hell was on third (the fact that it's "I don't know" = apt!). Combine the tricky concept with the datedness of the concept (and fill) and the mostly hard cluing, and you've got a puzzle that, for me, was very challenging (as Thursdays go). Double my normal Thursday time. The whole middle threatened not to open up at all, partly because I stupidly thought the longer answer (which ended up being BLUE PENCIL), not the central answer, would be the themer. Also, I had ---IONARY and still couldn't figure out the [Roman soldier] (LEGIONARY). EASY TARGET, yeesh! (40A: It gets more than its fair share of jokes)—needed every cross and am still not sure I get how "gets" is being used there. Tortured cluing. Also, I've never ever ever heard of PETE ROUSE and am not even certain that his name's not PETER OUSE. Let me check... Hmm, looks like ROUSE, not OUSE. Also Looks Like He Was Only *Interim* Chief of Staff And Only For Three Months WTF!?!? The bar for crossworthiness is somewhere near floor-level today, I guess. Wow.

Ah, who can forget Frank LLOYD? I mean, besides me, who? He's 2/3 of an architect! He won Oscars for directing "The Divine Lady" and "Cavalcade". How could I, or anyone, not know that?! Those are (probably, to someone) classics! I'm feigning enthusiasm! Hurray, sarcasm! It's one thing to have your core concept be old—that's not a bad thing (though expecting current common knowledge of this particular routine to run deep might be a bad thing). But to have the rest of your puzzle run old and (often) clunky … that's a problem. There's nothing fresh about this puzzle. It's cultural center of gravity is decades and decades ago. There are some brave attempts to freshen things up with the clues on LATTE (18A: Iced ___) and OPTIC (6D: Part of FiOS), but it's pretty old-fashioned, overall. To be fair, though, the theme type is pretty contemporary—the split Across/Down square concept is not original, but this iteration is clever and conceptually up-to-date. There's just a combination of hard and stale that makes this one feel like a zombie puzzle, risen from the Maleska era. Again, some will enjoy that. I mean, the Andrews Sisters?! Come on, man. Why so aggressively olden? Can't you meet me halfway? You don't have to come all the way forward to Scissor Sisters. I'd settle for Pointer Sisters.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld