NYT Crossword, 0824

This was a pretty doable puzzle, although in the end I did miss one square (the M):

24A Teensy bit = ATOM
19D Subgenre of punk rock = EMO

I think the across is a little iffy, and although I have listend to some punk rock in my day, I have never heard of emo, so I apparently never experienced the 'emotive hardcore' scene of punk rock (a 90s thing, whereas my punk exposure is more 80s).

Most of the puzzle was pretty straightforward, but there were a few other questionable clues, along with the regular stuff I have never heard of.

• Agent Gold of "Entourage" = ARI (HBO show. The guy playing this part was Cupid from the old, and odd, TV show of the same name. I saw a few episodes of that, but I've never even heard of this show - just as well from what I can tell from the YouTube clips.)
• _____ in cat" = CAS (You know, the old 'C as in Cat'. This is just plain dumb. The blank is too misleading in my opinion. Maybe if the blank encompassed the 'in', or better: 'C ____ cat' = ASIN. That I could agree with.)
• Sequoyah, for one = CHEROKEE (I kept trying to make this into a Redwood tree, but I guess that would be sequoia.)
• "____ et manus" (M.I.T.'s motto) = MENS (I knew this one, I just wanted to highlight it because it is so appropriate for that engineering school (you don't always see that in school mottos): 'mind and hand'. There were a couple of Latin clues in this puzzle, which I appreciated.)
• Some corner stores = BODEGAS (Ah, that's what you call those little Mexican shops you see. I think this is a bad clue, though. Unless you live in some area where these are prominent, how are you going to know this? Maybe if they added something to indicate the Hispanic origins of the word.)
• Author mentioned in the Beatles' "I am the Walrus" = POE (Common crossword answer, but I've never seen this clued this way. I am only vaguely familiar with this song, so I had no idea that it referenced Poe. After reading the lyrics and a little about the background to the song, I can surely say that I won't be becoming any more familiar with this tripe - once you're famous musicians you sure can get away with a lot of crap in your lyrics.)
• Trillionth: prefix = PICO (I can just never keep these small SI prefixes straight. This one lies between nano- and femto-)
• "Death in Venice" and "Of Mice and Men" = NOVELLAS (My wife got this one. I didn't realize that "Of Mice and Men" was a novella and not just a plain novel. Of course, I'm not a big fan of Steinbeck anyway.)
• Experimented too much? = ODED (You mean the clue for this wasn't 'Just wrote a poem'? The problem with crosswords sometimes is their lack of punctuation or capitalization. I didn't even realize this was the shortened form of 'overdosed' until I looked up ODed in the dictionary. It was there, so I guess this clue was legit.)
• Court figure = TRIER (Say what? I guess I would be more miffed if the clue was "one who attempts", but better would have been 'German name for Treves'. Still, his definition was in the dictionary.)
• "Broom-___" = HILDA (This is a comic strip with an obvious play on the name Brunhilde.)
• Commerce treaty starting in 1947 = GATT (I had heard of this before, and got it in the puzzle, but I wanted to read a little more about it. It stands for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.)
• "Oh, pooh!" = TISH (This puzzle had a bunch of these lame expression words (AHH, PUHLEASE, ERS, etc.). I think a better cue would have been something about the Hasidic celebration. Not that I would have gotten that either.)
• "Stupidest thing I ever heard!" = PUHLEASE (see previous note).
• Ottoman bigshot = AGA (This one is a regular crossword word, but I can never seem to remember it. What I never see is this used as the acronym for American Gas Association, American Gastroenterological Association, Association of Government Accountants, American Go Association, Arizona Golf Association, etc. (those two A's can make any American ___ Association, or even any Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas or Arizona Assocation). But instead we always get the Turkish title clue.)
• Bygone TV control: Abbr. = HOR (As opposed to VERT. Don't new fangled TVs have this adjustment?)
• "A Little Princess" heroine and others = SARAS (Never read this one.)
• "____ Wedding," Alan Alda film = BETSYS (You know, that guy never did anything good outside of MASH - one hit wonder kind of actor. Maybe Hawkeye was just like him, so it was easy. Or maybe he just had better writers on that show. Ever seen Sweet Liberty? Horrible! But he's still going...)
• "___ cried" (1962 hit) = SHE (Who the heck are Jay and the Americans? This was a 'hit'???)
• Black-eyed legume = COWPEA (No comment.)
• Comic Charles Nelson ____ = REILLY (It probably says it all that the clue had to provide 2 of his 3 names for us to get it. This guy must not have been that funny, since I've never heard of him :) )
• Bide-____ = AWEE (OK, after some Internet searching, I still don't really know what this is referring to. Is it the pet adoption people? Is it the Curtis Strange designed municipal golf course? Is it the California motel? Who knows (who cares?)?)
• Many-armed Hindu goddess = KALI (There are so many, how to keep track of them? My favorite is the elephant-head one. Isn't this the same cult as in the Beatles HELP!?) )
• Old actresses Claire and Balin = INAS (Now there's a name no one uses any more. Maybe it will make a comeback, once we're done with all these McKenzies, Madisons, and Brittanies.)