Verso's flip side / THU 5-9-13 / Northern duck / Fats Domino's first name / Island in the Thames / Children's author who won three Edgars / Solder and others / Confucian scholar Chu ___

Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Medium. Ish. Kinda.



THEME: Happy Mother's Day! Again!

Good morning, everyone. How y'all been? Seems like I haven't been here in a while but I guess it's been less than a month. Lucky you. Lucky me! Rex had some life stuff to take care of tonight and asked me to fill in and I'm always happy to do it. Well almost always. Actually, sometimes I say no and sometimes I say yes even though I don't want to. So, yeah. Not so much with the "always happy to do it."But before we get started I want to tell you that I'm trying a new kind of ice cream tonight. I think it's called Salted Pretzel Caramel. Salted Caramel Pretzel? Something like that. And it's pretty good. But enough about me -- let's see what I think of the puzzle!

Theme answers:

• 17A: Interstitially, say (BETWEEN THE LINES)
• 28A: Wearer of a red-starred tiara (WONDER WOMAN)
• 47A: Marquee Actress (LEADING LADY)
• 58A: May delivery (HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY)
• Unchecked squares across the middle of the grid: HI MOM

I enjoyed the unchecked letters part of the theme the most. I got the H first, then the I, so it was pretty easy to figure out the rest. I will say that I'm kinda hoping we're done with Mother's Day themes for this year, though I imagine we'll see one again on Sunday. More than one seems a little excessive to me. Just my opinion. I was tripped up a little right at the beginning because I plopped AJAR in without even thinking (1A: Allowing some ventilation, say), but then looked at 14A: Teen woe and assumed the answer would be ACNE. I guess I didn't realize MONO was most common in teens. I had something very MONO-like when I was about hmmm, plus six, carry the one ... I guess 27 or 28? But I was really immature so maybe that made me more susceptible. Anyway, I erased AJAR but (obviously) ended up putting it back in later. The only other false start I had was at 34A: '40s blowups, where I filled in BOMBS right away thinking I would wait to see if the first letter was an A or an N. It turned out to be N-TESTS. I briefly wondered if VOICE COACH (15A: Singer or actor's helper) was part of the theme, but its symmetrical entry is IT'S USELESS (63A: "Why bother?!"), which doesn't seem particularly Mother's Day-ish, so I guess not.

Highlights in the grid for me include JOE COOL (2D: Cartoon character with shades) and MACADAM (43D: Driving surface). I wasn't crazy about the three-letter entries around the edge of the grid, especially AHS (13D: Sounds at a fireworks display), but I didn't really dwell on them because I was distracted by those unchecked letters. They just look weird, right? My eye kept being drawn toward them and my brain was working like crazy trying to figure out what they might mean.

Bullets:

• 31A: Bitter herb (RUE)— I'm sure I knew this at one time, but needed all the crosses for it today.
• 32A: One in the doghouse? (FLEA)— Odd clue, right?
• 50A: Twofold (BINAL)— Ugh. I'm sure it's a perfectly real and legitimate word, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. And putting it right next to RECTO (52A:Verso's flip side) makes it seem a little ... dirty.
• 64A: Title parent in a TLC reality series (KATE)— I'm embarrassed that this was a gimme for me. PuzzleDaughter watches a lot of reality shows. The other day I was looking at a Sporcle quiz about names that begin with J and I tried to make a list of all the Duggars kids. Thankfully, I didn't get very far so I didn't have to kill myself.
• 1D: Government rep. (AMB.)— I wanted this to be AGT. But it wasn't.
• 3D: Fats Domino's first name (ANTOINE)— This is another one where I knew I'd seen it before but couldn't come up with it without a few crosses in place. Now ANTOINE is not a real flashy name or anything, but I'm thinking it's still better than FATS.
• 16D: Lawyer's need (CLIENT)— Lawyers have their little joke "This job would be great if it weren't for the clients!" Of course everybody else has better jokes. About them. (My personal favorite: What's the difference between a lawyer and an accountant? The accountant knows he's boring.)
• 18D: Literary character who says "Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!" (EYRE)— Boring entry, but I like this clue. Adds a little drama to the whole thing.
• 35D: Title boy in a 1964 Disney film (EMIL)— Okay, before I look this up, I'm going to test my memory. The name of the film is "EMIL and the ... Something" Some type of animal? But it's plural, right? "EMIL and the Bears?" No no no, not an animal. "EMIL and the Detectives"? Let's see if I'm right. Ding! Ding! Ding! Tell her what she's won, Johnny.
• 37D: Certain monarchy (EMIRATE)— Monarchy? More like Emirate! AMIRITE?
• 58D: In (HIP)— So wanted it to be HEP.
• 60D: Confucian scholar Chu ___ (HSI)— Whatever you say.

Thanks for hanging out with me today. With any luck, Rex will be back tomorrow.

Love, PuzzleGirl