Wincing moments in NYT crosswords

classicaljunkie and I were working through that big book of NYT crosswords tonight. At point we found ourselves looking at:

Man in the 'hood - N _ _ _ A

I was like, Oh... please tell me that isn't so.. It ended up being MISTA (we had a letter wrong at first), which seems kind of weak, but OK.

True fact: I wasn't completely aware that "ordinary" crosswords tend to have themes until I saw Word Play last February. The pleasure of watching each puzzle's theme emerge from the grid is a new one for me, and rather addicting!