Streamlined solving (Puzzle No. 3,318)

During the school year, I get the weekday New York Times, and since I already read another newspaper, I read just a few items from it: the weekly science section, some of the sports coverage, a few metro articles, and arts and culture.  I treat the daily NYT puzzle the same way.  While it’s a daily habit for thousands, and probably the most solved and blogged crossword in the world, I’m more of a cryptic and variety fan now.  So my approach to the Times puzzle is to look for a theme first, and if there is one, get enough of puzzle done that I can get all the theme answers.  I don’t knock myself out trying to get every last entry.

On the other hand, sometimes a themed puzzle is right up my alley, like this one by Erik Agard at Glutton for Pun!  

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/178901/puzzle-no-3318

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): hard

Hozom’s comment:  “Name Dropping,” in which Hot and Trazom discuss some of the many cluing possibilities that the names of celebrities, artists, and political figures bring, and introduce a weekly cluing challenge.  Think you have a knack for creating great cryptic clues, but don't have the time or inclination to work on a full puzzle?  Here's your chance to shine.

Solution and annotation posted Monday.  Join us this weekend for Sunday brunch, including a good new Pathfinder crossword.