Oy

Isn't working a crossword puzzle the most relaxing thing in the world? How about when you're racing the clock (and assorted rivals) on the NYT's timed applet? How about when you have to answer the phone while in the midst of solving on the applet? Yeah, that really ups one's concentration. I don't think the theme would have eluded me so long if I hadn't lost my focus (see, this is why I don't keep my phone on at Stamford). Anyway, Steve Salmon's Tuesday NYT is chockablock with interesting entries, such as TOO OLD, LAKELAND, PAGEBOY, and SARDINES. Did anyone else try answering "___ shopper" with SMART instead of KMART?

Curtis Yee's got another well-done Sun puzzle, "Books and Letters." (That reminds me—I need to buy CDB! for my kid.) Curtis has SID CAESAR and RED DRAGON in the fill, not to mention CUSS WORD (if you Google "cussword" as one word, Google inquires, "Did you mean: crossword." Sometimes, yes!) and KAPOW.

Updated:

I wonder if today's LA Times puzzle by Nancy Salomon was specially commissioned...

NYS 4:41
NYT 4:17
CS 2:47
Tues LAT 2:44
Mon LAT 2:38