Skool's In

Hello, happy Monday, everybody. Make yourself comfortable, here, have a SPOILER WARNING: Don't read any further until you've done today's New York Sun Crossword Puzzle. New York Sun puzzles are every bit as good as the more well-known New York Times, and they're indisputably better in one way -- they're free. You can download this puzzle and join in on the fun here.

Madison Avenue Skool of Spelling features misspellings from commercials and advertisements. God knows there are plenty to choose from in a country that spells relief R-O-L-A-I-D-S and cheese K-R-A-F-T. Robert E. Lee Morris wisely chooses to limit his entries to misspellings of words that rhyme with fright, i.e.

17A: Toothpaste brand (ULTRABRITE)
30A: Golf ball brand (TOPFLITE)
42A: Soda brand (DIETRITE)
55A: Beer brand (MILLERLITE)

Which means he left out:



And my favorite:


and probably a bunch more

Other entries of note:

10A: "Anatomy of a Murder" director Preminger (OTTO) And in addition to "Anatomy" he also directed "The Man With the Golden Arm" "Laura" and "Advise and Consent" but to those of us of a certain age and a certain mindset he will always be remembered as one of the three actors who played Mr. Freeze on the 1960's Batman television show.

14A: Last word of "Humpty Dumpty" (AGAIN) I really need to come up with a word for this type of clue, where the answer is something you know you know, but you have to mentally sing most of a song or recite most of a poem before you can get it. I think I'll call it a Humpty-Dumpty from now on.

You know a lot depends on where 2-word answers break or are hyphenated. 22A: He played Mingo on "Daniel Boone" (EDAMES) must have been one I got from the down entries because i don't remember the clue, and when I looked over the puzzle after finishing it, I thought for a second this must be a new E-word (like E-tail and E-commerce, etc.) -- E-Dames would be women you meet on the internet, I guess. (Ed Ames makes more sense.)

A couple of old friends pop in to say hello on this Monday. Our favorite accused-of-spying-but-innocent 3D: ____ Hari (MATA) (an e-dame if there ever was one) and everybody's favorite comic strip MD REX Morgan makes an appearance at 22A. Here's something you may not know about the good doctor:

Morgan has enjoyed reasonable success as a comic strip, but hasn't ventured far from the newspaper page. It was never adapted into a movie or TV show, and in its only comic book reprint (published by Harvey Comics in 1952) the title was subordinated to the far more compelling Teen-age Dope Slaves. (from the invaluable Don Markstein's Toonopedia.)

25D: Tref sandwich, for short (BLT) Not hard to figure out a three-letter sandwich, but I don't know what tref means and after five minutes of Googling I still don't. Any help would be appreciated.

38D: Pilots make them go up (GASBILLS) This one made me laugh. I especially appreciated the absence of a question mark in the clue.