THURSDAY, June 17, 2010 — Robert W. Harris

Theme: Movie Mash-Up — Theme answers are names of movies with other (shorter) movie names embedded in them.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Alan Alda feature with a Will Smith short (CALIFORNIA SUITE).
• 27A: William Hurt feature with a Warren Beatty short (ALTERED STATES).
• 47A: Barbara Stanwyck feature with a Dustin Hoffman short (NO MAN OF HER OWN).
• 62A: Michael Redgrave feature with a Helen Gahagan short (THE LADY VANISHES).

Not my favorite puzzle of the year. I like the idea, but I'm not crazy about the execution. First, the theme clues absolutely need to end in question marks. I'm all "Really? Alan Alda did a movie that featured a Will Smith short? Huh." Well, no. He didn't. Second, I haven't heard of four of the theme films, and all four of those are in the bottom of the grid. THE LADY VANISHES sounds vaguely familiar, but none of the others rang any bells whatsoever. That sort of detracts from the enjoyability factor for me. I can't figure out how I feel about seeing nine straight-up crosswordese answers in the grid. That seems like too many for a Thursday. On the other hand, I struggled with parts of this grid (particularly in the south) so the crosswordese helped quite a bit.

Quick Hits:

• 5A: Hall & Oates hit "__ Smile" (SARA). This video has nothing to do with "Sara Smile." But I ran across it while I was looking for an appropriate video and it's just too good not to share.



• 39A: Terhune collie (LAD). I had no idea what this meant. I assumed Terhune was a place in Ireland and collie : boy :: lassie : girl. But no. Albert Payson Terhune wrote novels about his collie whose name was Lad. Not sure I'm excited about knowing that.
• 65A: Ipse __ (DIXIT). Latin for "he himself said it."

• 66A: Grand Marquis, briefly (MERC). The Grand Marquis is a car made by Mercury.
• 5D: Norman athletes (SOONERS). Oh, I like this tricky one. The teams at the University of Oklahoma (in Norman, Oklahoma), are called Sooners.
• 8D: Klingons, e.g. (ALIENS). I think that would depend on where you are at the time you make the assertion.
• 38D: Rice, to Montana (TEAMMATE). I haven't paid attention to football in many, many years and I couldn't grasp the idea that Jerry Rice and Joe Montana were from the same era. I thought Rice might have been Montana's MENTOR (which, obviously, doesn't fit). Turns out their stints with the San Francisco 49'ers overlapped from 1985 to 1992. Also, Jerry Rice is black. I swear I didn't know that until just now.

Crosswordese 101: Time to learn about Morse code. Did you know that Morse code's dots and dashes are also called "dits" and "DAHS" (40D: Some code signals)? Well now you do. The letter T in Morse code is one "dah." The letter E is one "dit." You probably know the sequence for SOS from watching Hogan's Heroes or something.

Other crosswordese in the puzzle that we've already covered:

• 15A: GM subsidiary since 1929 (OPEL).
• 46A: Montana motto word (ORO).
• 53A: Former flier (SST).
• 68A: "Gymnopédies" composer (SATIE).
• 70A: Kiln for drying hops (OAST).
• 35D: Sign at a popular musical (SRO).
• 49D: Indian royal (RANI).
• 64D: Dada daddy? (ARP).

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Everything Else — 1A: Tired (LIMP); 9A: Beast of burden (LLAMA); 14A: Higher than (OVER); 15A: GM subsidiary since 1929 (OPEL); 16A: Lady who reportedly exchanged barbs with Churchill (ASTOR); 20A: Like some condors (ANDEAN); 21A: Net worth factor (DEBT); 22A: __ leaf (TEA); 23A: Part of a process (STEP); 25A: They take vows (NUNS); 32A: Prefix with sac (OVI-); 33A: Familiar saying (SAW); 34A: Fuses, as ore (SMELTS); 36A: Prepare to fire on (AIM AT); 41A: Hot fragment (EMBER); 42A: Sets aside for later consideration (TABLES); 44A: "Excellent!" ("RAD!"); 51A: Frantically (AMOK); 52A: Management ally of a sort (SCAB); 56A: Dick of adventure fiction (MOBY); 58A: WWII encryption machine (ENIGMA); 67A: Depressing situation, with "the" (PITS); 69A: Spot (ESPY); 1D: Crazy, in a Ricky Martin song (LOCA); 2D: Russian John (IVAN); 3D: Blend (MELD); 4D: Christian guide (PRIEST); 6D: Boston Marathon mo. (APR.); 7D: Split apart (REND); 9D: Job application line (LAST NAME); 10D: Fightin' Tigers' sch. (LSU); 11D: Working (AT IT); 12D: Small particle (MOTE); 13D: Region (AREA); 18D: Inevitable outcome (FATE); 19D: Borders (ABUTS); 24D: Big ring (PEAL); 26D: 31-Down opposite (STEM); 27D: Bird-related (AVIAN); 28D: Dance at a bar (LIMBO); 29D: Doc, for one (DWARF); 30D: Attention-getting joint (ELBOW); 31D: 26-Down opposite (STERN); 32D: Cereal grass (OAT); 37D: __ mater (ALMA); 43D: Hair net (SNOOD); 45D: Propriety (DECENCY); 48D: "I find that acceptable" ("OK BY ME"); 50D: San Luis __ (OBISPO); 53D: Agreed-on guidelines: Abbr. (STDS.); 54D: Branch of Islam (SHIA); 55D: Message often sent using thumbs (TEXT); 57D: First name in fashion (YVES); 59D: Karmann __: sports car (GHIA); 60D: 1986 World Series champs (METS); 61D: Helper: Abbr. (ASST.); 63D: First-century date (LII).