Wednesday, 11/1

NYS 4:55
NYT 3:11
CS 2:51
LAT tba

Wow, trick-or-treating is hard work. Bundling up (temps in the low 40s), walking two miles, reminding the Green Power Ranger to say "Trick or treat!" and "Thank you," and schlepping sacks o' candy home. I was walking like a zombie on the way back home. Then came the ceremonial Discarding of the Crap (the stick-to-the-molars stuff like Starburst, Laffy Taffy—whoever came up with that name should be drawn and quartered—and Tootsie Rolls), per the dentist's advice. And now the Power Ranger has retired for the evening, so I can sneak some of the better stuff for myself. Kit Kat and Reese's, here I come!

Check out the intricacy of Paula Gamache's theme in the NYT: nine entries that each contain the tenth, TSE (the initials of T.S. Eliot, which anagrams to "Toilets"—which is the title of Francis Heaney's parody of an Eliot poem, which you can read by clicking here and scrolling down to the first poem). Eight of those first nine theme entries appear in four crossing pairs, the longest of which cross the ninth entry in the middle. Thus, relatively few fill entries don't cross one of these. Plenty of good clues, too.

In the Sun, Gary Steinmehl goes OUT the in door in "Revolving Door"—IN in a base phrase is changed to OUT. My favorite clue here: [Pilgrim's progress?] for HAJJ. It's rather JAUNTY to have GUZZLE in a crossword, no?