Sunday

Okay, tipsy crossword blogging is a new thing for me. Bear with me and the white sangria, and if there are typos, pretend you don't see them.

I pretty much finished the Sunday NYT, Matt Skoczen's "All In," in the neighborhood of 1 Across. "Station number" for OCTANE was slow to dawn on me, and even though I never amble, I started out thinking 1 Down was AMBLE rather than MOSEY. And I always forget '60s chess champ Mikhail TAL; if it were clued "valley, in German" or "last name of your best friend in eighth grade," I would have gotten it immediately. As a lifelong procrastinator (seriously—a few years ago, I saw a report card from second grade where the teacher had noted, "doesn't always complete her homework"—they should have intervened then and fixed the procrastination thing), I appreciated the theme entry, I'M DALLYING TO SEE YOU ("Procrastinator's pick-up line?"). As a Cubs fan, I liked the inclusion of DAY GAME (though in Wrigleyville, day games aren't typically part of double-headers; they account for most home games and muck up traffic in the neighborhood). Also, ART FILM ≠ RED DAWN. It's surprising to see CARTMAN clued as "teamster" rather than, say, "foul-mouthed "South Park' kid"; I'll bet you a dollar the constructor originally had a "South Park" clue. Other entries I liked included ONE INCH, TICTACS, NO PROB, and ALLOW ME; I can't say I've ever heard the term GYM CLUB, though.

Updated:

Harvey Estes cooked up a great-looking spiral grid for the CS Sunday Challenge. The best clue was "One's follower" for AREA CODE; second place goes to "Saint in a cast" for EVA MARIE; in third place is "They croak when they get older" for TADPOLES. Did you know that EEYORE + S + S = EYESORES? Those two words cross at the Y in this puzzle. "Like a squid" clues TEN-ARMED, which reminds me—on "SpongeBob SquarePants," SpongeBob's neighbor Squidward is not a squid. He's an octopus, with four lower and four upper limbs. You may need to know this someday, so make a note of it.

NYT 9:02 (compare this to Tyler's 6:04—ouch!)
LAT 9:02
CS 4:03