Monday

First, don't miss this CNN clip that shows a few short clips of Wordplay, a glance at some of the crossword folks who went to Sundance, and what happens when a CNN reporter hits up random people for answers to last Sunday's NYT puzzle. (If the link doesn't work for you, try searching at CNN.com for "What's the word on the street?")

Adam Perl's NYT was about as easy as ABC, which is its theme. Kind of a funky grid design, isn't it? Nice to see six 8-letter entries in the fill, livening up the Monday challenge. I'm still waiting for the day when STDS is clued as "Herpes and the clap" instead of "regulations" or "norms"...

Also, I need to really get cracking on training for Stamford. That requires carbo-loading, of course (I do love my carbs), as well as doing far more puzzles on paper and getting in the EraserMate groove. Could y'all remind to keep doing those hard-copy crosswords?

Updated:

Well, I reminded myself to do more puzzles on paper, and just did today's LAT and CS along with two weeks' worth of Sun puzzles. Yes, crosswords are coursing through my bloodstream and have crossed the blood-brain barrier.

Today's CrosSynergy is "Salliteration" by Harvey Estes. The grid's got four interlocked 15's featuring S alliteration, plus a big S made of black squares in the middle. Holy crap! I just noticed this very second that every single clue starts with an S as well. Check it out yourself.

Wordplay celebrity Trip Payne constructed today's NYS puzzle, "Double to Double," with theme entries that start and end with doubled letters. I can think of only one other possible candidate for this theme, but it would duplicate the -NESS ending already used in Trip's theme. Did anyone bother doing the math for "11 cubed then doubled, in Roman numerals," or did you rely on the crossings like I did?

NYS 3:49 on paper
CS 3:36 on paper
NYT 3:11
LAT 2:52 on paper