Monday, 12/25

LAT 3:20
NYT 3:18
CS 3:10

Merry Christmas and—for non-Christmas-celebrants—happy day off work! The Fiendlet relished all his gifts from Santa this morning, but was whining about being bored before noon. So it goes. His mother, however, is enjoying the solitaire version of the Blokus board game. More challenging than a crossword! Especially on Monday.

Adam G. Perl's NYT crossword includes three ALPHABET QUARTETs in the theme—entries containing ABCD, LMNO, and RSTU runs of letters. You know, my husband bought himself a plasma HD set. There was a Ghostbusters sequel on today, but I don't think it was in HD—otherwise, we could have an alphabet quintet with high-DEF GHosts. Any other semi-legit quintets out there?

Harvey Estes' CrosSynergy crossword, "A Word from Scrooge," includes BAH in five lively theme entries, beribboned with 8- and 9-letter fill entries.

In Arthur W. Farris's LA Times puzzle, guess what 14-letter word is defined as FEAR OF VISITING / SANTA. Oddly enough, I don't recall seeing that particular joke before. It's got to be an old chestnut, though, doesn't it?