Sunday

WaPo 8:54
NYT 8:49
LAT 8:40
BG 7:14
CS 5:02

Great theme in Mark Feldman's NYT, "Switching Sides"—the PROs go CON and the CONs turn PRO so that you end up with things like ABSENT-MINDED CONFESSOR and CONTESTANT WORK ETHIC. Sure, a 3-Down (NITPICKER) could carp that the PROs and CONs aren't evenly balanced, but whatever. Nice blend of fill, with ICE POP, SORE SPOT, MUSIC CITY, ON MEDS, and CARDIO. (Mark Feldman published a [FACE] rebus puzzle in the NYT about a year ago, on Sunday, July 31.) (Parenthetical remark #2: The NYT applet zapped out on me partway through solving when I activated the secret mystery Bad Mouse Button while the cursor was over the Bad Juju Square of the puzzle, apparently. Anyway, I finished up in Across Lite and my posted solving time is accurate. Yup, Trip's puzzle took me longer than the Sunday puzzle!)

The puzzles formerly available from LA Weekly—the ones that alternated between Henry Hook and Emily Cox/Henry Rathvon—are now linked up with their marquee paper, the Boston Globe. This week's Across Lite offering (which isn't necessarily this weekend's Globe puzzle) is Cox/Rathvon's "Puzzle Movies." I don't know how they cooked up this batch of movie titles that could be misconstrued as being about puzzles—but cluing SORRY WRONG NUMBER with a sudoku reference is precious.