Rex Parker in the News — famous advertising slogans, but with one word anagrammed into another word, creating wackiness and "?" clues and all that... (6D: Peg solitaire puzzle brand) — Peg solitaire (or Solo Noble) is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. The game is known simply as Solitaire in the United Kingdom where the card games are called Patience. It is also referred to as Brainvita (especially in India). // The first evidence of the game can be traced back to the court of Louis XIV, and the specific date of 1687, with an engraving made that year by Claude Auguste Berey of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle by her side. The August, 1687 edition of the French literary magazine Mercure galant contains a description of the board, rules and sample problems. This is the first known reference to the game in print. // The standard game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole.

The objective is, making valid moves, to empty the entire board except for a solitary peg in the central hole. Hey, it's my old pal, PB2 (PB1 = Patrick Berry). I didn't not understand this theme for the longest time. In fact, it wasn't until I was completely finished that I got the whole advertising slogan angle. I was too focused on random anagrams to notice much of anything else. I kept trying to find some kind of pattern, some rationale, and kept coming up empty. The advertising angle ties things together somewhat, but only very, very loosely. There's just not much (if any) logic to the anagramming. Sometimes it's the product name, sometimes it's not, sometimes the anagram's at the end of the phrase, sometimes it's not ... And there are only six theme answers? With that few answers, I'd expect a much zippier and more colorful and cleaner grid than this one. With the exception of UNFRIENDED (79D: Cut ties with, in a way) and (76D: iRobot vacuum), this puzzle felt quite staid and dated.

There were several patches of short fill that were very, very rough (ERES EVRY SEI RIEN—three languages in four adjacent answers?!; ISS SHH DEI OSHEA; It all felt somewhat old, somewhat uninspired, and the theme just didn't hang together neatly, or feel very special. There must be a million advertising slogans, but it's actually probably very hard to find one where you can anagram a single word and make a wacky phrase out of it, so perhaps the theme is tighter, or at least harder to pull off, than I imagined at first. That said, the slogan seems to be "PLEASE Don't squeeze the Charmin," so some fudging has been allowed. Was SMELT IN YOUR MOUTH, NOT IN YOUR HAND too long? Oh, yeah, way too long. GOOD TO THE LAST PROD? A LITTLE BAD'LL DO YA? LET YOUR FRINGES DO THE WALKING? It's kind of fun to come up with these, but the concept still seems slightly weak. There's some hardcore old school proper noun crosswordese here, like TRURO and LEMA (both of which I learned from crosswords, both of which I've seen only in crosswords, only one of which I remembered today).

ENDO ORDO AERO ... and then JEOPARDOUS, which is a word no one has ever used ever. I just kept waiting for this one to perk up, but it never did. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorldeureka vacuum cleaner customer service [Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]upright vacuum cleaners choice © Free Blogger Templatesvacuum cleaner commercial in india Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (pushing Wednesdayish) (62A: Gather wealth by exploitation ... as hinted at by this puzzle's circled squares) — circled squares have a bird name sitting directly on top of its feather ... type? (35D: "___ bodkins!") — A bodkin is a small tool for piecing holes in leather etc.

This term borrows the early bodikin version of that word, not for its meaning but just because of the alliteration with body, to make a euphemistic version of the oath God's body. This would otherwise have been unacceptable to a pious audience. That is, odds bodkins is a minced oath. This one's a little clunky. Do the feathers go with their respective birds, or are the groupings just arbitrary (or, rather, just based on shared word length)? Does a loon have down? I don't associate those words very strongly with the words they are sitting on. Also, I had no idea meant what the clue says it means. I think I had it confused with "a feather in one's cap," which I don't think has anything to do with "exploitation." Mostly I've never really heard anyone use , with this clue's meaning or any meaning. Don't like that  (20A: Smoke column) and  (45A: Depressed) get different, non-bird meanings in their clues, but ... well, not really (67A: Declaration of Independence signer?). You can call it a writing implement, but I still see a feather.

There were parts of the grid I liked—most notably , which I briefly thought was going to be ZOOMBA (sp?) which is some kind of workout / dance fad thing. But I like better. Those two almost make up for (?) and the insane non-drug cluing on . That is the general feeling I got from solving this one. ) — that clue just doesn't say to me. It's accurate enough, but there's something much harsher, tone-wise, about . Also, had trouble seeing it because I went with MACH over at 2D: Measure of speed in "Star Trek" ) — No idea, but I figured Gold is a talent agent, so ... why not? ) — never saw the clue. Saw OSL- and just dropped the "O" and kept going. ) — learned from crosswords. Alternative to Disco . ) — again, accurate enough, but just not a Tuesday clue. See also 39D: Word usually abbreviated on timelines (). Yes, it's a "word." Just not an English word. ) — in one expression, that I know of: "... but will it play in ?" I have no idea if really represents anything about "average" America.