Wednesday, 7/18

NYS 3:58
NYT 3:47
LAT 3:32
CS 3:00

Alan Arbesfeld's Sun crossword, "Split Personalities," has one of those themes I'm kind of disappointed not to have thought of myself. Celebrities' first names are broken up into multiple words and their last names reinterpreted as words: Young actor Topher Grace becomes TOP HER GRACE, and Martin Landau becomes MAR TIN LANDAU. (Too bad Jolie isn't a noun or place, or we could have had ANGEL IN A JOLIE.) Great long entries hanging around in the fill, too—NUMERO UNO, DIRT CHEAP, NAVY SEALS, IMPROV, I SWEAR.

Tibor Derencsenyi's crossword might be another NYT debut (debuts every day this week?), though he was published in the LA Times last year. The theme has an unusual layout (though not as out-there as yesterday's): FAMOUS LAST WORDS in the middle and six shorter (6 or 8 letters) ways of saying "toodle-oo." The very American SO LONG, GOTTA RUN, TIME TO GO, and BYE BYE share space with AU REVOIR and SAYONARA. Not enough colloquialisms for you? Not to worry: OKAY BY ME and I SURE CAN also pop up here in the fill, lending still more zip to the crossword. I didn't know people danced at a BISTRO—I thought it was primarily a place for eating. Though technically, one can dance at Burger King, even if it's not typically described as a [Dancing locale]. I don't know about [Four-footed TV star] for MR ED, because a recent crossword reminded us that the equine star was Bamboo Harvester, the horse who portrayed Mr. Ed (insofar as a horse can portray a character).