Jonesin' 3:10
NYS 2:50
CS 2:46
LAT 2:39
NYT 2:30So, I petted some stingrays today at Brookfield Zoo. Do you know what their backs feel like? The answer may surprise you. ...I'll give you three guesses.
The striking Inca tern (that's it in the photo) dwells in the Humboldt penguin exhibit. So now I'm contemplating a lame crossword theme consisting of phrases made of words that are common crossword fill—but I don't know if the Inca tern has much company in that category. If only there were a famous aria about oleo, or an erne native to the Aral Sea.
Another theme idea came to mind today. Add -er to the classic line from All That Jazz and you get "IT'S SHOWER TIME, FOLKS!" Let's see...what else could that theme have? With an added -r, you get "E.T. phone Homer."After returning from the zoo, I fired up the ol' New York Times crossword applet—and discovered that three people (deadbydawn Doug, Dan Feyer, and the mysterious zachugly) had cracked the 2:00 barrier. Dang! That's fast. So the pressure was on, and I transposed pairs of letters over and over again in my attempt to be super-fast. I believe this easy Monday puzzle marks Sharon Delorme's constructing debut. What makes this puzzle so easy? Each theme entry consists of the same word twice, so once it's half filled in, you can fill in the rest. Actually, each theme entry contains a pair of heteronyms—spelled the same but pronounced differently (thanks to PhillySolver for the reminder that these are called heteronyms):
- [One who embroiders a waste conduit?] is a SEWER SEWER.
- [Sketcher of a bureau compartment?] is a DRAWER DRAWER.
- [Presenter of a bathroom stall?] is a SHOWER SHOWER.
- [One pulling a tall structure?] is a TOWER TOWER.
I like how this evokes those hard crossword clues in which we're tricked into reading one of these words (or flower) with the wrong pronunciation and meaning—for example, [Prominent tower] for AAA. Speaking of towing, I wonder if TOWIN shouldn't have been clued as TO WIN rather TOW IN, given the TOWER in the theme. It'd probably be a harder clue, though, and it is Monday, after all. I missed seeing the clue [Drug that's smoked in a pipe] as I filled that corner in with the down clues. I wonder how many solvers put in CRACK (marveling that the Gray Lady would put the crack pipe in the crossword puzzle) and mucked things up for themselves, since the answer is the old-school OPIUM.

- A [Keen observer] has/is an EAGLE EYE.
- [Horripilation] is a wonderfully goofy word meaning goosebumps or GOOSEFLESH. The pilation part of the word relates to hair, as does the Sunday NYT answer PILAR.
- I've never heard of the [Dark red sometimes called Spanish wine] that is PIGEON BLOOD. Not a beverage, fortunately, but a color of rubies. (I hope the jeweler in that link is kidding about killing pigeons while assessing gem color.) This is a term I've never heard before.
- A [Jimmy Buffett fan] is known as a PARROT HEAD. A couple summers ago, Buffett played a concert at Wrigley Field. The neighborhood was overrun by 50-something people in garish clothing all weekend. It was frightening to behold.
- A DOVETAIL is a [Certain carpentry joint].
This crossword is notable for its unusual wide-open white spaces in what's still a fairly easy crossword. Two corners have heaps of 6-letter answers, and the other two have 7- and 8-letter answers running alongside one another. Thank goodness the [11th-century French saint] THEOBALD has gettable crossings, eh? That answer was assuredly not on the tip of my mental tongue.
Updated:


Updated again:
