Man, it's only Tuesday

Today's crossword conspiracy is the inclusion of PARLORGAME(S) in both the NYT by Lee Glickstein and Nancy Salomon and the LAT by Sonja Turner, with both clues referencing charades. The NYT grid was notable for GETSMART, NACHOS, TAPINS, CARPOOLING, STMARY, TADPOLE, and RAGPAPER, along with a relatively sophisticated theme and plenty of good clues.

I enjoyed the rhyming theme entries in Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy. CAPNCRUNCH, BRADYBUNCH, and NAKEDLUNCH would all be fun entries on their own, even without membership in a theme club. I hope those of you who keep word lists have included of these delicious 10's.

Very nice NYS puzzle, "In a Stew," from Adam Cohen. I always appreciate a shout-out to Soap (thanks to Adam and Peter Gordon for not alluding to Richard Mulligan's other series, Empty Nest, instead). Plenty of good entries, such as OBGYN, NSYNC, WEBTV, YESNO, the triple-vowel INDIAARIE, and WKRP. Not to mention 1D, "hallucinogenic letters"—LSD is a gimme, but the answer's PCP. Other clues allude to Outkast, NPR, and the astronaut's drink TANG. (That one's especially timely with this morning's shuttle launch—but are the astronauts still drinking that crap? Don't get me wrong—I loved it as a kid—but I imagine there are better ways of addressing the shuttle crew's need for hydration and vitamin C.)

An easy bunch of puzzles today—

LAT 3:27
CS 2:47
NYS 3:07
total 9:21, way ahead of the 10:30 I predicted