Wednesday, 12/13

NYS 4:42
NYT 4:12
LAT 3:29
CS 3:11

(post updated at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday)

Both Dave Sullivan's NYT crossword and the Sun puzzle by Donna Levin are highlighted by some nifty fill, particularly in the 8- to 10-letter length. The themes are divergent—in Dave's puzzle, he españolizes the theme entries by adding an O, as in POLLO QUESTION, clued as ["Why did the chicken cross the road?," e.g., in Tijuana?] (but oy, who put the comma between the question mark and quotation mark?). I especially liked ACE VENTURA, YEAH YOU (which happens to be a memorable line from Sixteen Candles), CRITIQUE, and PEDICURE. I didn't know what BEE BALM was, but learned via Wikipedia that it's related to fragrant bergamot (but not the self-same bergamot that's in Earl Grey tea). I learned a new celeb name—ESSIE Davis, an Aussie actress who played Maggie in the Matrix sequels that I didn't see.

The other day, I was pondering why AT THE COPACABANA hadn't been used as a 15. Probably because the song doesn't much use those exact words in that sequence, eh? But the next best thing (or really, a better thing) is to pay homage to that with Donna Levin's COBRA CABANA, [Changing room for a snake?], in her "In Cold Blood" crossword. No Capote, but a COBRA, NEWT, IGUANA, and BOA. My favorite fill entry was LOU RAWLS, mainly because I don't know chess notation and figured it was LAURA somebody until that second L finally filled itself in and made me reparse the word break. CASHMERE is soft, but a DUNCE CAPmakes you want to skulk off and be CURLED UP somewhere. A Gordon-friendly clue for PALAU is the trivially educational [Pacific Ocean nation whose largest island is Babelthuap]—I do like those little learning opportunities that pop up in crosswords.

Updated:

If you like old comic books (or new stories continuing old comic books, don't miss Paula Gamache's LA Times puzzle today. And if you enjoy anagram-based themes, try Thomas Schier's CrosSynergy crossword, "Teams' Mates."