Sun., 6/14 Melanie Miller

[magus]

THEME:   W added to ordinary phrases
   
GOOD ONES:     
Chronicle one's travels?   WRITE OF PASSAGE   
Smith kicking back?   WILL AT EASE [Will Smith; I thought a smithy]   
Gingerbread house feature?   WALL YOU CAN EAT   
Plymouth pit stop?   LOO [of course I thought the car, not toilet]   
Chick's hangout   NEST ["real" chicks]   
Waist management   CORSET [not Tony Soprano's stated business]   
Side problem?   THORN ["thorn in one's side" not ancillary problem]   
Really moved   SPED [not a feeling]   
Bangs on the head?   HAIR   
Third of eight   EARTH [3rd planet from the sun]   
Indian territory   DELHI [not American Indian]   
Once, long ago   ERST [note comma --- ERST meant "once"]   
Toy with long hair, briefly   PEKE [long-haired toy breed]   
   
BTW:   
Unhealthy gas   RADON   [I would think that the "erstwhile" difference between unhealthy and unhealthful would be maintained at least by editors of word publications, but I'd be wrong.]   
   
Class   STYLE [always thought it low brow to conflate STYLE with "class"]   
   
   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

Merl Reagle's "Advanced Placement Test" crossword from last November got so much positive response that he created another such puzzle for today. In each theme answer, the positions of the words form part of the phrase:

Among the horizontal answers:

Repeatedly: TIMETIME (Time after time)
Oft-chronicled conflict: THETHEWARSTATES (The War Between the States)
Temporary peace: THECALMTHESTORM (The calm before the storm)

Among the vertical answers:

Bette Midler hit: MYWINGSWIND (Wind Beneath My Wings)
Way more than just smitten: LOHEADHEELSVE (Head over heels in love)
"Rules apply to all citizens": NOONETHELAW (No one is above the law)

Cleverest clue: "Early bird" for EGG.

And "Greeley's advice" was GOWEST, but Horace Greeley was not the first to give that advice. The complete sentence was "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country" and it first  appeared in an 1851 Terre Haute Express editorial by John Soule. Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, used the line in an 1865 editorial in his own newspaper.