Sunday puzzling

Rich Norris's NYT, "Sounds of New England" wasn't quite a walk in the pock, but it's not as if it drove me stock raving mad or anything.

In Robert H. Wolfe's Washington Post, "In In and Out," "in" is in and "and" is out—in other words, "Stars and Stripes" becomes STARS IN STRIPES in the first of the theme entries. Henry Hook's LA Weekly puzzle, "BP Test," swaps out a B for a P in the theme entries.

Maybe I'm just distracted (I've been watching Super Size Me on TiVo—I feel obligated after meeting Morgan Spurlock at Sundance), but none of these puzzles have left me awestruck. I'm always a little let down after the Saturday themeless puzzles are all done...

Updated:

Being a sucker for a good pun, I liked the musical pun theme in Kathleen Fay O'Brien's LA Times puzzle, "The Sound of Music." The OK CHORALE? The EURO PAEAN? VEAL TOCCATA? This puzzle helped me get through a weekend without a Merl Reagle crossword.

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" includes seven 15-letter entries, starting off with the toony BORIS AND NATASHA. There was an unfamiliar term in the fill: SAD IRON, clued as "Old-fashioned clothes presser." Picture the sort of iron that's used as a token in Monopoly, and you know what a sad iron is. The term may hearken from an archaic meaning of sad meaning heavy. Who knew? (I've learned that when I toss out a hypothetical question like that on this blog, generally at least one person will announce that he or she did know whatever arcane fact I've mentioned.)

WaPo 9:25
LAT 8:44
Hook 8:35
NYT 8:23
CS 3:44