I can name drop today because the puzzle was rife with proper names: ELIROTH, BODEREK, KRISTEN (Bell), Never have seen "Veronica Mars" even tho i think my classmate Chris Clemenson played an evil guy, or her father or someone! 51D: Certain badger or raccoon ( BOAR) - had nooooo idea what this meant, until I realized BOAR was probably just the word for the male of the species.49D: "Welcome to the human network" sloganeer ( CISCO) - I read this as "Welcome to the human sloganeer network" - ominous.Not sure I could pick KRISTEN Bell out of a line-up either, but I've heard her name before, and I've definitely heard of "Veronica Mars" (one of those critical favs that don't get enough viewers and then get axed and then everyone goes on and on about the injustice of it all) ( 42D: "Veronica Mars" star Bell). 25D: Actress Kruger of "Unknown" ( DIANE) - Never heard of actress, never heard of film.11D: Article in man a hip-hop title ( THA) - such as "THA Carter," "THA Carter II," "THA Carter III," and "THA Carter IV".We're a one-car family now, and so far, so good. I was shopping for a new car until I realized I don't really need one. 2D: Civic or Corolla competitor ( ELANTRA) - a very highly rated sedan.39A: "Tarzan, the Ape Man" star, 1981 ( BO DEREK) - never heard of this movie, but BO DEREK became superfamous a couple years earlier with "10." I was lucky to know both her name and ELI ROTH's name, because the film names alone weren't doing it for me.8A: Features of some crooked enterprises ( MOB TIES) - another great answer."K" gave me EEL-LIKE and from there it was a short battle until I finally wrapped it up with the hard-to-parse I NAS NIT ( 55A: Noticeably peeved). Ended up finishing in the SE-threw down DAWS ( 52D: Crows' kin) and then, from N-W-, I got NEW COKE. Had to abandon that section for a while and come back when I got DANDIES and NORMANS ( 7D: 11th-century invaders). Had ENRON ( 19A: Company in 2002 headlines) and RTES and MOWN and OREOS ( 4D: They come in a Triple Double variety) pretty early, but still couldn't get those long Acrosses quickly. Anyhoo, the long Downs up there were hard to get without the right little word in there. I considered only O'ER and E'ER because those apostrophes actually elide a syllable. I don't really consider ERE "syllable-saving" I guess the idea is that it has one less syllable than "before" (?), but that's pretty weak. ERE gave me untold amounts of trouble in the NW (the hardest section of the grid for me). I also like that the maddeningly ambiguous s ( ERE and O'ER) were symmetrical. I like the "V" crossing of the two title "relatives" of drama: VINNY and VANYA (I would've said "title 'relatives' of THEATRE," but that's a bit of a stretch for "My Cousin VINNY") ( 27D: Cousin of film + 27A: Title relative in a classic Russian play).
Cluing tough and playful, answers solid and entertaining. I love the freshness of " YA THINK!?" and NEW COKE ( 58A: Famous pop flop) as well as the pairing of " MY TREAT" and " I INSIST," and with the exception of the high-end wine crosswordese of OLOROSO ( 15A: Wine whose name means "fragrant") and the slightly Odd Jobby ENCODER, there was virtually nothing that made me wince. While it's true that there are no daunting white expanses, and no answers at all longer than seven letters (?!), this grid is incredibly clean *and* has some crackling mid-range fill. This one has 72 words, the max for a NYT themeless puzzle. actually for most themeless constructors not named Patrick Berry: keep your word count on the high end. A lesson for all you aspiring themeless constructors out there. It definitely felt like a struggle, but I still somehow managed to come in under 10 minutes, which is in the Medium range (maybe even on the low end of that range). This one played pretty average for me, time-wise, but I can see by the times at the NYT site that it's playing slightly more difficult than that for most folks.
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