Beginning of a Rom-Com

Just got around to doing this today. Very nice for a Monday! I like Monday to be easy enough not to tax my post-weekend brain, but with a twist to start the workweek with a smile. This one meets all criteria!

I liked the theme (even if I forgot to look for it until I got to the revealer). I've always gotten rather a kick out of people with two first names, and this is a specialized variant of that.

I know a woman named CRYSTAL, but the only CANDY I can think of is the long-ago stripper CANDY Barr.

I didn't know AMATOL, but kept thinking of sodium amytal, which I hope doesn't explode.

A type in OBSTACLE made me enter ACLU before SPCA, but quickly fixed.

I've had good luck this year. My A/C worked fine through the earlier heat wave that we had this spring, then became terminally. I got a new one, all bright and shiny and quiet, and it has been humming away happily through this latest horror. I can even sleep comfortably with Jessica snuggled next to me. Every now and then the timing is right!

Thanks to all.

Maybe this is an unfair criticism, but because this is a column about words, I will offer it anyway: in the Constructor Notes paragraph, a copy editor should have caught the solecism "with my wife and I." It should be "with my wife and me" of course.

I fell in love with this puzzle at BOYMEETSGIRL. Utterly charming.

BILLYCRYSTAL being a theme answer is especially poignant as he starred in "When Harry Met Sally."

What a fresh, original start to the week ... thank you, Dan Margolis!

Perfect Monday. Fun, great theme, no complaints (except that like leapfinger, I too, had Bay Meets Girl!) Excellent way to start the week!

PENNE for your thoughts? Well, here are mine.

Monday easy, but clever theme. All good Yankee fans know about JOLTIN' Joe. Never heard of AMATOL before, either. Just knew Deb would call up the classic SNL sketch about Babs' UVULA. Still makes me laugh.

With there 1987 single, synthpop group the Communards, fronted by singer Jimmy Somerville, provide a still-timely reminder that, often, "There's More To Love (Than BOY MEETS GIRL)":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRm3TpxBFik

Hi, long-time solver and blog reader here but first time poster. [Although I don't think I am in the same solving class as many of you...]
This puzzle made me think of the show 'Seinfeld", in which there are several Name-Name actors--Jason Alexander, Michael Robert(s), Larry David, Barney Martin, Estelle Harris (girl-boy).

AMATOL? If anyone cares to know, the booming metropolis lies equidistant between Rio Grande and New Egypt in South Jersey...A crunchy Monday that was just a bit more demanding than usual for my Monday dime. Answers like the previously mentioned NJ town, the tonsil's (UVULA) next door neighbor, and MESOzoic were all ALIEN to me arriving late with crosses...This is a nice rendition of a 40's hit from Dr. JOHN, "CANDY." The song is cut 2 from his 1989 compilation of covers, "In A Sentimental Mood." Three composers, Alex Kramer, Mack David and Joan Whitney collaborated on "CANDY," a 1944 release. The ARTY ballad spent four months on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 2...There is a JAM JAR sitting UPON the piano FOR tips; helps with the RENT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pn4KZCZKag

Another precinct here that had to change BAY_MEETS_GIRL, but my UVULA image is of Howland Owl jumping up&down yelling in fury, and Churchy LaFemme peering delightedly down his throat and saying "Ah sees yore UVULA".

I wouldn't call this a Monday when you have to weigh MESO vs CENO, and strain at GNAT with such TICK talk as FLEA, MITE and other noseeums. Still, you gotta love the subtlety of connecting NEO CON with that *other* BILLY KRYSToL.

Nice work, Mr. Margolin, and I'm loving everybody's other BOY_MEETS_GIRL names, none of which I thought of.

Wasn't Sandy actually a superstorm, not officially a hurricane?

DAUB? As a lad I worked construction with plaster men. I was taught how to trowel on the glass coat (final layer of lime putty aka plaster). Additionally, I was welcomed into a community of Italian craftsmen who encouraged patience and practice. Practice meant applying the brown or gray coat a cement like substance, the easel of plasters as well as learning enough Italian to endure the JIBES of co-workers who have yet to forgive the Dodgers. BOYMEETSGIRL moment was a Saints day FEAST when I met Alessia daughter of the foreman. After that I was instructed to apply the glass coat firmly and gently as though kissing Alessia after which her father would tell me that if I did kiss his daughter I would become the brown coat.

As I rise from the sunny slope of memory.... slower than usual Monday.

Thanks Dan and DAUB is how you play Bingo

Went through this too fast and filled in John Aston for "Gomez," which was 25 years too early.

Smooth Monday puzzle and a nice theme. Like others didn't know AMATOL, but it wasn't much of an OBSTACLE.

Didn't pause over CANDY because of CANDY Crowley, one of my favorite (former) correspondents. I had looked her up on Wikipedia once and she has an odd bio. It says she was born Candy Alt Crowley, although her father's surname is Alt and her mother's is Leonard. It also says she was once married (and has two kids), though no one anywhere seems to know to whom she was married. Candy Alt is kind of an interesting name.

Mostly this puzzle made me think of Leapy's old game of stringing names together - like Anne Frank James Joyce Kilmer (not a very good example). Except I can't remember the original name of that game and it's bugging me no end! Somebody help me.

Oh, and today's challenge is to see who can come up with the longest Leapy string. Hmm.. maybe another theme waiting to happen?

I like the cross of ARTY and PARTY, the answer BESERK, and I learned AMATOL.

What a simple smile-producing theme, one I've never seen before, and with a perfect revealer. Even after doing puzzles for so many years, I'm still amazed when a brand new theme pops up, considering the sheer number of published puzzles. Now, if up the road, someone comes up with a Girl Meets Boy puzzle (MEG RYAN, JAMIE LEE CURTIS, JENNIFER LAWRENCE), it may be a very good puzzle, but won't get the originality points that this one has. Props on that, Dan, and thank you for an enjoyable start to the week!

The caro clue might seem to be a toss-up between the masculine form caro and the feminine form cara, but the "Rigoletto" mention calls for the former, being based in the aria "Caro nome" (Beloved name) --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Fx4xTgoVQ
which is incredibly appropriate to the theme of this puzzle. Girls meets boy, boy gives her a fake name to hide his true identity, girl sings a song about how wonderful his name is.
What will happen next? See the show to find out...

and Elke
I suspect that Charlie Rose would not mind seeing his name in a puzzle.......

While Joe DiMaggio is in my wheelhouse, JOLTIN was not and certainly AMATOL was not.
Hints for newbies: With the four-letter musical keys, at least you know the second letter will always be an M. The AJ or IN will come in the crosses. As for the key letter, you've only got A to G.

Nice Monday.

OT for Deadline when she checks in (as it were) --

TSA 3-1-1 rule

3(.4) oz containers in
1 (and only 1)
1 quart clear plastic bag

I held off on the CARA/CARO final square until I had filled in 50A, and then it was obvious. It has taken me a while to learn to wait on words like that--sometimes I feel lucky and go ahead and fill them in, and usually I'm wrong.

I don't know that I would have figured out the theme without 50A--CRYSTAL and CANDY aren't obviously girls' names, so it was hard to see what the similarity was. Still, it was fun for a Monday puzzle.

Good theme for Monday. Only realized what the theme was when I solved the revealer. By then I'd already solved all of the theme answers.

Didn't like AMATOL - mainly because I've never heard of it. Agreed with Lisa - UVEA and UVULA in one puzzle is nice - sort of like a few weeks ago where KVETCH and VLASIC were in one puzzle too. Something about those V's and in today's case, U's too. Also didn't like JAMJAR too much, but was ok with it.

57D - HAJ - I've seen variations of HADJ, HAJJ, but never HAJ. DIdn't keep me from getting it, and I could see that searching for it you can find it under HAJJ.

46D - BOT the geeks have inherited the earth!

UVEA and UVULA in the same puzzle. Nice!