Author: Kevan Choset
Theme: Three former "Mouseketeers"
- 4d: Singer who kissed Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards (BRITNEY SPEARS). Points for referencing the girl-girl kiss, instead of all the other screwed up ways you could have clued Britney.
- 6d: Costar of Andy Samberg in a popular "Saturday Night Live" video (JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE).
- 8d: Onetime spokesperson for Skippy peanut butter (ANNETTE FUNICELLO).
- 22d: 4-, 6-, and 8-Down, early in their careers (3 MOUSEKETEERS).
This theme was easy enough, but frankly it didn't do much for me, as none of the names are people about whom I particularly care nor with whom I particularly identify. The grid is 15x16, to accommodate the longer theme entries.
Sunny Spots:
- 68a: Bumpkin (YOKEL). Yokel's a cool word. So is bumpkin.
Sundries:
- 11a: 300-game winner Glavine (TOM).
- 15a: ___ nerve (what "tickles" when the funny bone is hit) (ULNAR). I've broken my ulna (and radius) before, so I tend to remember this one.
- 16a: "Woman" singer's woman (ONO). Referring to this song by John Lennon.
- 18a: "Crime and Punishment" heroine (SONYA). I'll admit it. I never read it, and I got this from the crossings. But it's probably something I should know.
- 19a: Character in a best-selling computer game (SIM). My son plays Sim games all the time. I never realized there was such thing as a sim, though. I thought it was just the name of the game.
- 20a: Sporty Mazda (MIATA).
- 21a: "Family ___" (TIES). Old sitcom starring Michael J. Fox.
- 22a: Park where the Giants used to play (3COM).
- 23a: 17th-century Baroque sculptor (BERNINI).
- 25a: Hall of fame (TAMMANY). Cute.
- 27a: North Carolina university (ELON). I only know this from puzzles, and I don't always remember what it is. This time I did, though when I was looking at ELO_ and hadn't read the clue yet, my first instinct was ELOI. Oh, look! 7d: Frugivorous race of fiction (ELOI).
- 38a: With 51-Across, Requiem Mass hymn (DIES / IRAE). These both show up with regularity, so they may as well show up together.
- 39a: Willingly (LIEF). I only know this from crosswords. Seems like a bit of a stretch for a Tuesday.
- 40a: Like most people (ASIAN). Very clever, and accurate, clue. Asia has over 60% of the world's population. Sure, the United States has the third largest population in the world, but India is more than three times as populated, and China is more than four times as populated. In fact, China has more than a billion more people than the United States. Those are some freaky numbers.
- 41a: Opt for the window instead of the aisle? (ELOPE). I loved this clue the first time I saw it. Now, it feels a little passé.
- 43a: Darth ___ (MAUL). From the "Star Wars" prequels (or maybe just the first one, I don't know). Frankly, I was not impressed with the prequels at all. I've heard better dialogue in porn. (It's just an expression, Mom.)
- 49a: Johnson of "Laugh-In" (ARTE). I vaguely remember watching this when I was younger.
- 53a: Letter opener, maybe (DEAR SIR).
- 60a: ___ & Allies (board game) (AXIS). I never played this, but I had friends that did.
- 61a: Ballet bend (PLIÉ). I have no idea why I know this, but it's deeply ingrained. I think it must be from when my sister took ballet when I was young.
- 63a: Oscar winner Davis (GEENA). Here she is with Susan Sarandon in "Thelma and Louise".
- 65a: Public bathroom division (STALL). I'll give this one credit for spicing up a potentially dull fill. Even better might have been "Where some Senators might be seen doing some footwork?".
- 70a: Marv Albert's catchword (YES). This one reminds me of the song "Perfect Sense" of the Roger Waters solo album "Amused to Death". It's one of the most moving albums I've listened to in the past 20 years, with deep, cutting lyrics and phenomenal guitar work by Jeff Beck. Headphones are a must, as there are just too many subtleties that slip by otherwise. This is not background party music. Anyway, if you're patient enough to listen to the whole clip (and you should be), you'll hear Marv Albert's famous "Yes!" in a somewhat unfamiliar context.
- 72a: 60% of 72-Across (ESSES). Clever, self-referential clue.
- 1d: Skewed square (RHOMB). Okay, I figured it out easy enough, but I've never heard it called a RHOMB, with the US. Just because it's in the dictionary doesn't mean I have to like it.
- 3d: Elephant of kiddie lit (BABAR).
- 9d: Deny (NAYSAY).
- 11d: Opera set in Rome in 1800 (TOSCA).
- 13d: "I Saw ___ Kissing Santa Claus" (MOMMY). One of my favorite Christmas songs. Also, it goes well with 53d: ___ Warbucks (DADDY).
- 24d: Santa's time of year (NOEL). Speaking of Christmas.
- 29d: "East of ___" (EDEN). Steinbeck novel and Elia Kazan film.
- 50d: Move stealthily (TIP TOE).
- 52d: "Eat Drink Man Woman" director (ANG LEE).
- 57d: Makeovers (REDOS). I agree that to redo is to makeover, but as a noun, a redo tends to mean a second chance, like "Can I have a redo?". Again, it's probably technically correct, but it just feels a little off to me.
Suns of Bitches:
- 1a: Hasidic teacher (REBBE). I really don't care for obscurities in the 1a spot, and I find this pretty obscure. RABBI, sure. But REBBE? On a Tuesday? Please.
- 14a: George of "La Cage aux Folles" (HEARN).
- 45a: Politician Grasso who was one of Time's Women of the Year in 1975 (ELLA).
- 47a: City in Moravia (BRNO). Even with the crossings, I couldn't believe this was correct.
- 65d: Screenwriter Bartlett and others (SYS). That's the best you could do for a Tuesday SYS clue? Hunh.
This was an okay puzzle. That's as far as I'm willing to go. Personally, I wasn't crazy about the theme; not that it was bad, just not my cup of tea. There was plenty of decent fill, but very little that I found really above average. And I could certainly do without BRNO and REBBE in an early-week puzzle.
Thanks for listening.
- Pete M.
10 comments:
I was convinced (briefly) that it was a rebus, when I saw RHOMB(us), before looking at the longer entries. Brno threw me, I didn't look at the clue and just entered BONO before looking at it again and deciding it was wrong.
Maybe REBBE falls under the heading of "things New Yorkers know that are fair game for the Sun"?
Being a nice Jewish boy, I knew REBBE. I wouldn't expect anybody else to as RABBI fills this in quite nicely.
I'm not sure what i think of 3 as an answer. Orange, could I get a ruling?. I'm also not sure of the mixing of eras for Mouseketeers. As a matter of form, shouldn't they all come from the same period?
Hi Pete, I agree REBBE was not Tuesday fare...though I guessed at the crossing RHOMB, I wasn't that familiar with the term, and having HEARN below REBBE pushed the NW well out of my wheelhouse.
well at least the clue was "chasidic" teacher and not "cheder" teacher... regardless -- whenever i see "teacher" and something related to judaism, i'm fairly confident it's gonna be either "rebbe" or "rabbi," enter the "r" and the "bb" and then check the crosses for the appropriate vowels... fwiw (saith the nice jewish girl)... ;-)
"brno" was the only serious "sun of a bitch" for me. only learned today, though, that "rhomb" is not an abbreviation for "rhombus" but stands on its own (even if it is a bit slanted!).
;-)
janie
i'm at best two thirds of a "nice jewish boy" (and at worst zero thirds, depending on who you ask), but i didn't blink at REBBE once i realized from crosses that it couldn't be RABBI. and BRNO seems like something i've seen in crosswords at least a couple of times before. ELLA, HEARN, and SYS, though, were very much suns of bitches for me, too.
crime and punishment is actually my favorite novel ever, and one of the very few that i've read more than once. (i'm not much of a re-reader.) of course, that clue didn't help me much at all, as the answer could have been SONIA (my first attempt), SONYA, SOFIA, or SOFYA. i'm still waiting to see RASKOLNIKOV in a grid. i've started trying to make themelesses, but it still looks daunting.
not only have i played AXIS & allies, but i've made a solemn vow (more than once!) never again to play AXIS & allies. it's that good, and that bad.
i'm pretty sure i don't know who ANNETTEFUNICELLO is outside of the context of the mouseketeers. did she later go on to do anything else? for the timberlake clue, i really, really, wanted the answer to be CHRISPARNELL. lazy sunday is so good i need to watch it again. be right back.
ah, there we are. oh, and for a ruling on the "3"? wasn't it just a week ago we had "99"? this 3 didn't faze be a bit. a friend of a friend of mine legally changed his middle name to 3com and then tried to get the company 3com to pay him sponsorship money. to my knowledge, it didn't work.
fwiw... "brno" appeared most recently in the wsj (4/11/08 -- by some guy named "hinman"...). prior to that, though, no appearance since 9/00 -- in a friday klahn nyt and a wednesday piscop sn (is that the abbreviation for "crossynergy"?). prior to that, it made 3 appearances in '99 -- 2 sundays, 1 thursday... which is to say -- it's not yer standard early week fare. still -- the crosses made it gettable (despite my looking at the fill with an expression of serious skepticism).
;-)
j.
i did that WSJ puzzle with BRNO. i think maybe the other time i saw it recently was on orange's blog as opposed to actually in a grid.
ooh -- good call, joon. i don't usually read the write-ups of puzzles i haven't done. may not be a bad idea to do so after the fact!
;-)
janie
i don't either, but i do all the puzzles that orange blogs. they're good puzzles.
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