Actress Berger / SUN 6-12-11 / Superman II villainess / Old Church of England foe / Seaport on Adriatic / Diamond substitute / Line of cliffs

Constructor: C.W. Stewart

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Pullet" — theme answers (signaled by starred clues) are things that can be pulled. A pullet is a young chicken.


Word of the Day: SENTA Berger (103D: Actress Berger) —

Senta Berger (born May 13, 1941) is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author. // Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include three Bambi Awards, two Romys, an Adolf Grimme Award, both a Deutscher and a Bayerischer Fernsehpreis, and a Goldene Kamera. // Berger married director and producer Michael Verhoeven in 1966. They are the parents of actors Simon and Luca Verhoeven. (wikipedia)

• • •

The title just doesn't work. I get that it's a pun (sounds like "pull it"), but the puzzle has nothing to do with chickens and there's no real play on words when you just have one word that has zero to do with the puzzle. Then there's the fact that "things that can be pulled" just doesn't make for a very satisfying theme. Clues are just ... literal. They're things. Nothing to discover. No aha moments. Just ... "Hmm. OK." Then there's ONE'S LEG, which is fine in theme context but Horrible as an answer to its clue, 51D: *Something to stand on. ONE LEG is the answer to the clue. ONE'S LEG is an absurdity. What else are you going to stand on? And which leg? Just makes no sense. (I also had a major issue with 66D: Ain't fixed? (IS NOT) as well—[Ain't fixed] is AREN'T. What's "wrong" with "ain't" is not the apostrophe. Parallel construction matters). I WANNA is too long for a partial (20D: Start of a childish plaint). The less said about HER'N, the better (8D: Not his'n). SENTA? Not on my radar. RELIC of the past??? What kind of redundancy is that? Ugh, I see that it has a lot of users, so it's valid, but I really hate it. ESNE!? I thought we'd buried you forever (76D: Feudal serf). GUN TRIGGER???? "Pull the gun trigger!" he said, redundantly. "Or else we'll just be a relic of the past!" I liked ALL-NIGHTER and LITURGY (89D: Service arrangement) and SHORTIE (13D: Shrimp) and not much else. No, wait—Ironically (or fittingly), I liked SOURPUSS (104A: Killjoy).


Middle of the puzzle was by far the hardest. IS NOT was part of the problem, as was NAIR v. NEET (67D: Classic brand of hair remover). Could not remember LINTEL (52D: Piece over a door or window) to save my life. Adriatic seaport also a mystery for a while (56A: Seaport of the Adriatic=>RIMINI). ONE'S LEG ... you know how I feel about that. Bah. Rest of the puzzle was pretty easy.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Boardwalk offering (SALT WATER TAFFY) — my favorite of the theme answers by far
  
• 38A: *Diamond substitute (RELIEF PITCHER) — I usually think of the RELIEF PITCHER as the guy who comes in for the guy who's been pulled, but you can certainly pull a RELIEF PITCHER, so it works.
  
• 64A: *Handy things for toys? (PUPPET STRINGS)
  
• 93A: *Staple of "Candid Camera" (PRACTICAL JOKE)
  
• 114A: *Radio Flyer, e.g. (LITTLE RED WAGON)
  
• 3D: *Certain study session (ALL-NIGHTER)
  
• 51D: *Something to stand on (ONE'S LEG)
  
• 75D: *It may be found near a barrel (GUN TRIGGER)
  

Bullets:

• 87A: "Up in the Air" actress Kendrick (ANNA) — actress #2 that I don't know today.
  
• 123A: "Superman II" villainess (URSA) — I've been bitten by this one before.
  
• 9D: Ad-packed Sunday newspaper section (TRAVEL) — now the puzzle is trying to get you to read other parts of the paper. Interesting.
  
• 14D: Old Church of England foe (PAPIST) — Weird. I never knew anyone to call himself a PAPIST. I've only ever seen the word in anti-Catholic rhetoric. Rare to see someone self-identify as a PAPIST. Webster's 3rd Int'l says "usu. used disparagingly." Clue should've marked the word's prejudicial nature.
  
• 16D: Chinese dynasty of 1,200 years ago (TANG) — pfft. I dunno. Wait for crosses. (and come on: TANG is an orange drink, or [Zestiness] ... it is also a fish ... as well as uncluable slang; well, uncluable in the NYT, that is)

• 68D: Line of cliffs (SCARP) — I went with ARETE. They're both produced by erosion. Sadly, that didn't make my answer right.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]