Title French orphan of film / FRI 11-9-12 / Athlete turned actor Buster / Machine worked in Norma Rae / Bygone laborer / Fudge ingredient Alice B Toklas cookbook / One-named actor from Tel Aviv / Hawaiian smoker

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Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging



THEME: none

Word of the Day: NEAL Boortz (27A: Radio host Boortz) —

Neal A. Boortz, Jr. (born April 6, 1945) is an American radio host, author, and self-describedlibertarian political commentator. His nationally syndicated talk show, The Neal Boortz Show, airs throughout the United States on Dial Global (formerly Jones Radio Networks). It is ranked seventh in overall listeners, with 4.25+ million per week. The content of the show centers on politics, current events, social issues and miscellaneous topics of interest, which Boortz discusses with callers, correspondents and guests. Boortz touches on many controversial topics and refers to himself as an "equal opportunity offender." (wikipedia)

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A fine grid, with some diabolical cluing, but way outside my wheelhouse. Felt like it was probably an older person's puzzle, which is fine—they can't all hit my sweet spot. No idea what a NEAL Boortz is, but he sounds classy. No idea what a TOPOL is (49A: One-named actor from Tel Aviv). Some idea what a LILI is, but just some (54A: Title French orphan of film). I don't know how old "Old SHEP" is, but a lot older than me, I'm guessing. Relationship between PIE / TIN and cobblers = mystery to me (61D: With 19-Across, item for many cobblers) [oh, the kind of cobbler you eat ... gotcha]. Machine worked in "Norma Rae"? That was a guess. I know Donny OSMOND, but could never have placed that quotation without a lot of crosses (first guess: EMINEM) (1A: He said "I don't want my album coming out with a G rating. Nobody would buy it"). EARLE Combs? I was thinking Puffy (53D: Combs of Murderers' Row). "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook"!? Apparently they were all so high back then, they forgot how to spell "hashish" (16A: Fudge ingredient in "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook" = HASHEEH). Even my gimmes were pretty ancient: NELL and CRABBE saved my bacon for sure (5D: Dudley's love, in cartoons / 44D: Athlete-turned-actor Buster). Without them, my list of gimmes is very small, indeed. Needless to say, this played far more like a Saturday than a Friday for me.


PAM Oliver is familiar now that I look at her, but that didn't help me guess her name (23A: Fox Sports reporter Oliver = PAMS). In addition to the names I'd never heard of, there was a lot of tough (but clever) cluing that kept me stymied in many places. The one that got me worst was 18A: Wave recipient? (OUTER EAR). I had OUT-REAR and still had no idea what I was looking at (this is where having *any* idea what "Old SHEP" was would've come in handy). [Dentist's #6 and #11] was also trouble. I thought maybe they were elements ... no, that makes no sense ... something to do with ether ... I don't know. Not until I got the back end of TEETH did I figure out what was going on there. I can't see making a spear out of an ICICLE—well, I guess if you had a reasonably thick glove ... but still, most icicles would break if you tried to spear anything of substance (17A: Temporary spear). I'm familiar with SHOESTRING CATCH in inverse proportion to how familiar I am with EQUATORIAL PLANE (37A: Where chromosomes gather between poles during mitosis). I know the latter phrase as a geometrical thing, not a chromosomal thing. Oh well, at least I had ESNE (56D: Bygone laborer). Good ol' ESNE. Loyal. Reliable. Eternal.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld