CROSS REFERENCES = OED crossing OED (Oxford English Dictionary). I liked Jules' long themers — OEDIPUS REX is such a great entry! And ...
read moreCROSS REFERENCES = OED crossing OED (Oxford English Dictionary). I liked Jules' long themers — OEDIPUS REX is such a great entry! And RADIO EDITS crossing PIGEON TOED was really nice too. Normally I don't care much about themers interlocking when the letter patterns make for high flexibility, but OEDIPUS REX crossing CROSS REFERENCES is fun.

It would have been great to have variety in the "references" (ROGETS, maybe?) — once I uncovered the first set of shaded squares, it was too easy to fill in the others. That did help me as JOE DON gave me a tough time (do his friends call him Joe Don? If not, it feels like a long partial, a la HAYLEY JOEL or JENNIFER LOVE), but filling in all those OEDs made the puzzle too easy for my taste.
Well, except for TEAC and BROCA. I thought I had all the Japanese electronics manufacturers down — SANYO, SONY, even NCR — but TEAC I hadn't heard of. (It originally stood for the Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company, and they make high-end audio equipment.) I like major brands in my crossword, as they make them feel more real-life, but I'm not sure TEAC qualifies (I'm not even sure how to judge this). That ???C pattern is usually tough to fill, as there are relatively few four-letter words ending in C.
BROCA seems more crossworthy to me, as there's part of the brain called "Broca's Area," after the French Dr. BROCA. But the OTOE/BROCA crossing is going to be rough for some. Whether or not you consider it to be fair (I lean toward yes, since midweek solvers likely have seen OTOE many times), I think crosswords should strive to set the solver up for a win (or at least feel like he/she should have won). I don't think this crossing does that.
It's tough to fill smoothly around crossing themers. Note how there's at least one little gluey bit near each crossing — ENERO in the NW, CHRON in the NE, etc. This arrangement can be done totally cleanly especially if there's flexibility in themers, but it's very difficult to accomplish.
Great clue for the BRONX, Ogden Nash rhyming it with "no thonx." More clever poetry, please!