Simon of opera / FRI 9-7-12 / Speed Six maker / Azadi Stadium setting / Currency taken out of circulation 1953 / Great 18th century ruler / Bait fish for pike angling / Like joule watt-second

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Constructor: Martin Ashwood-Smith

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: none

Word of the Day: William DEMAREST (20D: William of "My Three Sons") —

Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 28, 1983) was an American character actor.^[1] A veteran of World War I, Demarest became a prolific film and television actor, working on over 140 films. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles. [...] He started in show business working in vaudeville, appearing with his wife as "Demarest and Colette", then moved on to Broadway. His film career began in 1926 and spanned the decades up to the 1970s. Demarest worked regularly with director Preston Sturges, becoming part of a "stock" troupe of actors that Sturges repeatedly cast in his films. He appeared in ten films written by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction, including The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. His most famous TV role was in the ABC and thenCBS sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replacedWilliam Frawley, whose failing health had made procuring insurance impossible. Demarest had worked with Fred MacMurray previously in the 1935 film Hands Across the Table, the 1945 filmPardon My Past, the 1948 film On Our Merry Way and the 1955 film The Far Horizons and was a personal friend of MacMurray. (wikipedia)

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Not much to say about this one tonight, both because I am tired and have already spent valuable blog-writing time watching the President speak at the DNC, and because the puzzle is really good. Stacks often drive me nuts because, typically, at least one of the longer answers feels forced and several of the crosses are just painful. But except for ECH, ASLOPE, and maybe A DEAD, I don't see that much to complain about, which is especially remarkable given that the central 3-stack is really, through its nine-letter center, a 5-stack! Plus there are great bits of fill all over the place, like COLD SWEAT and FAKE IT. Oh, I don't know what DACE are (6D: Bait fish for pike angling) ... and there's some bygone currency I've never heard (RIN) — and yet I'm not inclined to hold these little answers against the puzzle, especially considering how good the grid is overall. I NEED A VOLUNTEER (30A: Statement resulting in hand-raising) and LET THERE BE LIGHT are really golden grid-spanning answers.

Quick start with ALECS at 1A: "The Black Stallion" hero and others and LOTTS at 2D: 1990s Senate majority leader and family. (I just realized that that's two plural names in one tiny little section, which is ... less than good)  EELS, TAD, and ESTES (once a mystery, now a gimme; 14D: Simon of opera) got me into the NE. LOW-COST AIRLINES (11D: Options for reduced fare) took me down into the SE, which fell pretty easily, but the center was harder to get into. I started with SO I instead of I'LL at 30D: "___ see", so that didn't help, but at least I had the good sense to ditch it quickly when it didn't mesh with the next two answers I got, which were adjacent: NEE and EAT. Managed then to get LET THERE BE LIGHT (37A: First commandment?) off just that initial -ET, and from there brought the rest of the center into light.

There was a bunch of stuff I didn't know at all, but the crosses made them easy to sort out—stuff like IRAN (50A: Azadi Stadium setting) and EZIO PINZA (a name I know *exclusively* from xwords) (55A: Lana Turner's "Mr. Imperium" co-star, 1951), and BENTLEY (25D: Speed Six maker). I've heard of "TEEN ANGEL"(57A: #1 hit song that asks "Are you somewhere up above?"; isn't "hit" redundant here?), but the only song I can call up with "Angel" in the title at this point is "Earth Angel." Or "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton. Or "Johnny Angel." OK, I can call up a lot if I sit here in try. I just can't hear "TEEN ANGEL" in my head. So I'll hear it now:

Bullets:

• 13D: Mimic Mae West (TEASE) — odd. She did some teasing, I guess. But there are so many other things she did (not to mention so many other ways to clue TEASE) that this clue just felt like an awkward fit. 
• 43D: Player of TV detective Spenser (URICH) — watched "Spenser: For Hire" a lot in the '80s. My mom thought Robert URICH was handsome, a feeling I respected a lot more than her fondness for a certain *other* P.I. named Magnum.
• 44D: Auxiliary memory for fast retrieval (CACHE) — nice modern clue on this one.
• 53D: Currency unit taken out of circulation in 1953 (RIN) — Ew, bygone currency. Didn't even see this one. I'd've gone with ["There's no ___ 'team'"]. Just makes more sense.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld