Sunday, 11/26

BG 11:20
NYT 9:32
LAT 9:27
WaPo 8:06
CS 5:48

It's a good thing the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament doesn't involve tackling crosswords at 2 a.m. That's when I was doing Henry Hook's Boston Globe puzzle, "Eponyms." Or was it actually an especially tough puzzle?

Manny Nosowsky's NYT crossword is called "Energy Crunch." Where the 11/17 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword included assorted electrical units in the theme entries, Manny's puzzle features an [ERG] rebus in eight places, meaning he found 16 phrases that contained that letter grouping. Bestest clue: [Brought up the rear?] for MOONED; don't miss the discourse on mooning at Wikipedia. MOONED crosses THE MOORS; does anyone else instantly think of "the Moops" from the Seinfeld episode, "Bubble Boy"?

I've made this particular point before—in the Washington Post puzzle by Con Pederson (which I enjoyed), EVAN is clued as [Fashion's Picone]. There was not a person named Evan Picone! The clothing company Evan-Picone was named after Messrs. Evans and Picone. It's a bit like cluing PAINE as [Financier Webber].

Bonnie Gentry's syndicated LA Times crossword, "Vowel Language," includes phrases meaning EHS, EASE, EYES, OWES, USE, and WHYS, in order (A's, E's, I's, O's, U's, and Y's). One deadly crossing toward the bottom of the grid—DSOS (one of those British military award acronyms) meeting up with EADIE (never heard of Betty Eadie before).

Today's themeless CrosSynergy crossword is by Rich Norris, a bit on the difficult side.