T U E S D A Y August 17, 2010 Steve Salitan

Theme: Presidents' Day — Theme answers are famous singers each of whose last name is also the name of a U.S. president.


Theme answers:

• 17A: "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" singer (BRYAN ADAMS).
• 29A: "How Glad I Am" Grammy winner, 1964 (NANCY WILSON).
• 45A: "Total Eclipse of the Heart" singer (BONNIE TYLER).
• 61A: 1971 Oscar winner for "Theme from 'Shaft'" (ISAAC HAYES).
• 12D/36D: Patriotic song that's a hint to this puzzle's theme (HAIL TO / THE CHIEF).

I know I promised to give you details about Lollapuzzoola 3 and, believe me, I will. But for now I just want to tell you one little part of the day that relates to this puzzle. At the lunch break, a bunch of us decided to walk a couple blocks over to a little coffee shop type place. It was me and, like, six other people. Not to be a name-dropper but it was Rex Parker, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Patrick Blindauer, Tony Orbach, Ashish Vengsarkar and … (to get to the point) Steve Salitan! I met Steve at last year's ACPT. Super, super nice guy. Kinda shy but definitely managing to fit right in. So at lunch, Steve was like super attentive to me. He was opening doors for me, pulling out my chair, making sure I had a menu … he even asked the restaurant manager to turn down the air when I mentioned I was cold. And when the waitress brought me the wrong sandwich (no bacon?!?), Steve took care of it for me. Kind of weird how sweet he was being. Not really sure what that was about. So, anyway, awesome puzzle, right? Waaait a minute .… Do you think he was buttering me up so that I'd give him a rave review? That scoundrel!*

So the theme is pretty cool. Impressive that he was able to fit the reveal in the way he did — did you notice THE CHIEF crosses two theme answers? I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bothered by NANCY WILSON. My first thought was the Nancy Wilson in Heart (who is awesome), but 1964 seemed a little early for her (just looked it up, she would have been 10 years old that year). So I decided it must be one of the Supremes, although I thought 1964 was early for her to have done anything solo that would have earned her a Grammy. Plus, as it turns out, her name is Mary Wilson, so all of the other wrongness doesn't really matter anyway. I'm gonna say if you know just a tiny bit more about jazz than the average person, you probably know Nancy Wilson. I know quite a few jazz musicians' names, but Nancy Wilson doesn't make my list. I'm pretty sure that says more about me than it does about her. Just perusing her Wikipedia entry makes me feel a little stupid for not knowing her. There's really only so much room in my brain though. You know what I think I'll do? I'm going to kick David Sanborn out and give his spot to Nancy Wilson. Done and done.

The only other thing I'm going to say about the theme answers is this.



As for the fill, it's really nice for a Tuesday. For some reason, TATTLE and PILSNERS (22A: Be a snitch / 40D: Pale lagers) jumped out at me as awesome. No one likes to see AGIN' (23D: Opposed to, in dialect), but I'm going to assume it couldn't be helped and not overthink it.

Misc.:

• 14A: Preminger and Klemperer (OTTOS). I know OTTO Preminger is a director … or something. Right? But whenever I see OTTO Klemperer's name I think of Col. Klink.
• 24A: Shower wall growth (MILDEW). It's not a coincidence that MILDEW ends in EW.
• 36A: Tuckered out (TIRED).
• 52A: Tuber also known as a New Zealand yam (OCA). Just a reminder of how much you can learn here at LACC!
• 57A: 12/24 or 12/31 (EVE). That would be December 24 (Christmas Eve) and December 31 (New Year's Eve).
• 64A: One of the HOMES lakes (ERIE). HOMES is a mnemonic for remembering the names of the five Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

• 11D: Main arteries (AORTAS). I left the last letter off this answer until I could confirm it with crosses. Sometimes those medical terms that come from Latin (?) take an E for their plurals.
• 46D: In flames (ON FIRE). This answer (like a lot of things) reminds me of a scene on the tragically canceled "Sports Night." Unfortumately, YouTube won't let me embed the video but here's the dialogue. (They're in the newsroom. Casey has just invited Jeremy to join them at a local bar called El Perro Fumando.)
  

  Jeremy: El Perro Fumando?
  Dana: The flaming dog.
  Casey: The smoking dog.
  Dana: Not the flaming dog?
  Casey: The dog's not gay.
  Dana: I wasn't suggesting the dog was gay, I was suggesting the dog was on fire.
  Casey: He's not smoking on fire, he's smoking a cigarette.
  Elliott: He's smoking a pipe.
  Kim: He's smoking a cigar.
  Dan: I say he's gay.

That's it for me for today. Very nice debut, Steve. Looking forward to seeing more from you!

[Follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter.]

* Note: All of this is a joke. Steve did none of these things.

P.S. Today's New York Times puzzle is a debut by our own Rex Parker. I hope you'll solve it and comment over at his blog.

Everything Else — 1A: Jib supports (MASTS); 6A: Apparel (GARB); 10A: Waikiki's island (OAHU); 15A: Skinned knee, to a tot (OWIE); 16A: Pained sound (MOAN); 19A: Where the pupil is (IRIS); 20A: School cheer (YELL); 21A: Tofu source (SOY); 26A: Fireplace fuel (LOG); 27A: Broke fast (ATE); 28A: TV network with an eye logo (CBS); 32A: Prefix with violet (ULTRA-); 34A: Gladiators' venue (ARENA); 35A: Mexican money (PESO); 38A: Gym iterations (REPS); 42A: Dislike big-time (ABHOR); 44A: Fess up (ADMIT); 50A: Tissue layer (PLY); 51A: Beatle bride Yoko (ONO); 53A: Does spectacularly (EXCELS); 55A: From the beginning (AFRESH); 58A: Ice cream holder (CONE); 60A: In apple-pie order (TIDY); 65A: Be deserving of (EARN); 66A: Techie's clients (USERS); 67A: In-basket stamp: Abbr. (RECD.); 68A: Pool table cloth (FELT); 69A: "One of __ days, Alice ...": Ralph Kramden (THESE); 1D: Melville's "__-Dick" (MOBY); 2D: Quaking (ATREMBLE); 3D: Hair salon staffers (STYLISTS); 4D: "... and __ a good-night" (TO ALL); 5D: Fig. in an identity theft case (SSN); 6D: Decrease in value (GO DOWN); 7D: On vacation, say (AWAY); 8D: Backboard attachment (RIM); 9D: Presented, as an honor, with "upon" (BESTOWED); 10D: Forget to include (OMIT); 13D: Not visible (UNSEEN); 18D: On the bounding main (ASEA); 25D: Evidence in paternity suits (DNA); 26D: Orpheus' instrument (LYRE); 28D: Sugar borrower's amount (CUP); 30D: Haul in one's arms (CARRY); 31D: Fat in the pantry (LARD); 33D: Horse coloring (ROAN); 37D: Greek "i" (IOTA); 39D: One on the payroll (EMPLOYEE); 41D: Porker's pad (STY); 43D: Life stories, for short (BIOS); 44D: Rainbow shape (ARC); 45D: Yachtsman, e.g. (BOATER); 47D: From Scandinavia (NORDIC); 48D: Pianist/actor Oscar (LEVANT); 49D: Corp. bigwig (EXEC.); 54D: Online shopping outlay (E-CASH); 56D: Watched warily (EYED); 57D: __ of Sandwich (EARL); 59D: Latin "to be" (ESSE); 62D: MS. enclosure (SAE); 63D: Crude abode (HUT).