04.25 Mon

M O N D A Y

April 25, 2011
Jennifer Nutt

Theme: Getting Your Ears Lowered - Things that that get covered in Hairstyling 101.

Theme answers:

• 16A: Near miss (CLOSE SHAVE).
• 22A: Boxer's fit condition (FIGHTING TRIM).
• 37A: Neckwear accessory (TIE CLIP).
• 49A: Specially edited version of a film (DIRECTOR'S CUT).
• 61A: Establishment where the ends of 16-, 22-, 37-and 49-Across take place (BARBER SHOP).

Good morning, puzzlers - Neville here, standing in with scissors in hand while PuzzleGirl finishes up her move. (Poor thing - she's without Internet at the moment!)

So we've got your BARBER SHOP basics in this puzzle - SHAVE, TRIM, CLIP and CUT. None of these is directly related to hair as clued, and that's nice to see. As someone always in search of the perfect CLOSE SHAVE, though, this one could be construed in a hair care fashion. I still like it a lot though, because it's a great entry, and a great theme overall.

I suppose the partner puzzle for this moves down the body a bit: PLUCKED STRINGS, WAX POETIC... erm, STEVE MCNAIR? This needs work - I'll leave the hair removal puzzles to Jennifer, I think.

Bullets:

• 9A: "___, poor Yorick!": Hamlet (ALAS)... I knew him, Horatio:
  
  
  
  Yeeeeeeeah!
  
• 15A. Tibetan spiritual master (LAMA). At the ACPT I was reminded of that gem by Ogden NASH (60A):
  
  The one-L lama,
  He's a priest.
  The two-L llama,
  He's a beast.
  And I would bet
  A silk pajama
  There isn't any
  Three-L lllama.
• 25A: Texas city across the border from Ciudad Juárez (EL PASO). I hope you remembered Juárez from last Thursday's puzzle! Okay, enough blatant self-promotion.

• 43A. It's younger than a yearling (FOAL) - not a MONTHLING.
• 46 & 48A. Police action (RAID & ARREST). Hey, Jennifer - give it ARREST!
• 54A. Regal pronouncement (EDICT). We've got a royal wedding coming up! I wish I had this Friday off.
• 7D: Succeed in every way (HAVE IT ALL). Are the kids these days still listening to Jesse McCartney? I don't think this song is terrible:
  
• 27D: Cut the peel from (PARE). With the P in position, I questioned if the answer could be PEEL, but that's not allowed.
• 59D: Acme (APEX). see 27D above, but replace P with A.

Crosswordese 101 Round-up:

• I don't think there's any real crosswordese in this puzzle? Think I missed something? Kvetch below!
• Okay, on second thought, PG has deemed 21A. Glacial ridge (ARETE) as crosswordese in the past. Let's all remember it (and its classical meaning of excellence) from now on so we don't have to revisit this one. 

[I'm still not on it, but if you are, you should totally follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter.]

Everything else - To be updated!