Arabian Nights bird / MON 7-9-12 / Birthstone name of a Hitchcock film / Chris who won six U.S. Opens / Hits in dodgem cars

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Hello again from Rex Parker's BFFs Jenny and Liz! Rex is still enjoying his vacation in New Zealand, which from his pictures and descriptions, sounds amazing. For example, did you know that they have Starbucks in New Zealand? Rex has visited more than one! He is also enjoying working on a jigsaw puzzle because who wouldn't want to sit on a plane for what, 24 hours, and then sit down to do a jigsaw puzzle?!  


Okay, on to the puzzle:


Constructor: C.W. Stewart (who we hear is "super cool," just like we are now that the power has been restored after last week's derecho (that we talked about last time), left many of us without power for up to 8 days, in 100+ degree temperatures. But we digress...)


Relative difficulty: Easy as pie, as in "Pie in July," one of our favorite things about this month (along with guest blogging for our bestie) when our favorite food store features reduced prices on pie for the whole month (we don't want to throw in any free plugs here, so let's just say that the pies at this store are usually so expensive it can feel like you're spending your "Whole Paycheck")
Anyway, on to the puzzle:




THEME: "intermission" —  all of the theme answers contain words that can be preceded by the word "break". (As in what happened to the utility lines after the derecho hit...  sorry it was quite traumatic)

Word of the Day: Schmo -
schmo, shmo [ʃməʊ]
n pl schmoes, shmoes
US slang a dull, stupid, or boring person
Once again, we've chosen a word that appears nowhere in the puzzle.  But, since Rex referred to us as schmoes in one of his comments on last week's blog (where he described that he first met us "back when I accepted any old schmo as my FB friend"), we deduced that despite the definition above, in New Zealand-ese schmo obviously means BFF. Thanks Rex, we <3 you too!
 

Theme answers:

• 17A. [Attorney-to-be] - Law Student
• 24A. [Transaction at Chase or Wells Fargo] - Bank Deposit
• 38A. [Rachel Maddow or Rush Limbaugh] - News Commentator
• 46A. [Def Jam or EMI] - Record Label
• 59A.  [You might carry a bucket to one at a hotel] - Ice Machine

We don't have much to say about the theme of the puzzle, but personally the theme of the week for us has been the fact that Rex is living in the future in New Zealand, yet has not given us any hints into what's to come each day. And he calls himself our BFF??

Bullets:

• 32A.  SAME [Identical] — yes, we are, and yes sometimes we know what the other one is thinking but no, if you hit one of us the other one can't feel it
• 46D.  RAVES [All-night party] — of note only because this was an answer in last week's puzzle too. Neither of us have ever attended one, but perhaps something in the universe is suggesting that we do...?
• 54D.  CHAR [Blacken on the grill] — it was so freaking hot here all last week that you didn't need a grill to blacken your steak, the sidewalk would have easily done it. In fact, it was so hot that the chickens that live in Liz's backyard were laying hard-boiled eggs! (ba dum dum)

Thanks, we'll be here all month!

Signed, Jenny and Liz, Rex Parker's schmoes, er BFFs