NYS 5:43
NYT 4:24
CHE 4:07
LAT 4:04
CS 3:21
WSJ 7:58
(post updated at 12:30 Friday afternoon)
It's always a treat to have a crossword by Patrick B., isn't it? Yeah, you know who I'm talking about: Patrick Berry. Or Patrick Blindauer. Heck, why not both? That's what we've got on hand tonight, a Sun puzzle by Mr. Blindauer and an NYT from Mr. Berry.
Patrick Berry's New York Times puzzle is a 66-word themeless creation. He has set the bar high for himself with his past work, and as usual he rises to the occasion with a silky smooth crossword. It's almost three crosswords in one, with the northwest and southeast corners almost walled off from the diagonal center zone. In no particular order, my favorite clues and answers:
Other clues of note:
Patrick Blindauer's New York Sun crossword is entitled "Twenty Question Marks." There are three question marks in the grid itself, where pairs of questions cross, and I counted 16 question-marked clues. That makes 19. I don't know if it's correct or not, but mentally I've added a question mark to one of my favorite clues, [Place to get sheets for a song], to get a 20th question mark. (The answer has nothing to do with sheet music—rather, it's a WHITE SALE where you can buy bedsheets for a good price.) Oh! Wait! There it is! It's the big question mark made out of black squares in the center of this asymmetrical 15x16 grid. Wow, there's a lot to talk about with this puzzle. Let's take it paragraphically:
The asymmetry— This crossword is asymmetrical for a good reason: The black question mark isn't a symmetrical beast, and it's a key element of the theme. It doesn't, I find, affect the solving experience one whit to have the grid deviate from symmetry rules.
The theme— The theme includes six questions in the grid, 16 question-marked tricky clues, and that big graphical element. The theme entries are "WHO'S ON FIRST?" crossing "SO?" (Hey, a 2-letter word! Those aren't permitted in standard crossword rules), "WHERE AM I?" crossing "WHEN?", and "WHAT?" crossing "IT IS?". Why and how don't get their moment in the sun.
The fill— Lots of long answers, good 'n' zippy. My favorites are X-RAY VISION, MCGRUFF the Crime Dog, WRITING, KEN STARR beside DULCINEA, ASKS OUT, crossword habitué ANI DIFRANCO's full name, ADAM ANT (the [Musician with the real name Stuart Goddard], not the adjective adamant), a FRAME HOUSE, GENII with that oddball ending double-I, and a SEVEN-IRON (which I didn't know could be called a [Pitcher]). Seeing SODOR, the [Island home of Thomas the Tank Engine], amused me. I wonder if Patrick included that or if Peter Gordon, dad to young kids, rejiggered the fill and added that.
The clues— With all those twisty question-marked clues, you know I enjoyed this puzzle. (I also enjoyed Bonnie Gentry's puzzle, in one of the Simon & Schuster books a year or two ago, in which every clue had a question mark. Anyone know which volume that's in?) My favorites include [Novel activity?] for WRITING; [Short vehicle of the 1980s, for short] for SNL (a vehicle for Martin Short, not a short car); [Small character in Oz?] for the letter ZEE in the word "Oz"; [Bottled spirits?] for GENII in a puzzle that also has bathtub GIN; and [Grind] for WONK, both being roughly synonymous with "studious nerd."
Updated:
All right, I've got about an hour to solve four puzzles and blog 'em, so I'm going bare-bones here.
The CrosSynergy puzzle, "Final Score," is by Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke. The theme entries end with thingamajigs that may be found on a printed musical score (forgive me if my musical terminology is amiss):
Plenty of terrific fill: BEAM ME UP, ARIZONAN, MOS DEF, AL FRESCO, QUALMS.
Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times puzzle has an insert-OB theme:
Clues of note:
Todd McClary's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Campus Quads," works really well even without its gimmick, as just a good crossword with that trademark Chronicle erudition in the fill and clues. Plus: a TWIX bar. Nummy! I haven't had lunch yet, and now I want candy. The two long theme entries say that hidden within the finished grid are SIX UNIVERSITIES in TWO-BY-TWO SQUARES. I know of YALE and DUKE and RICE, of course, and PACE. ELON is a crosswordese school. I have never heard of LYNN University, though. It's got four letters, so it makes the grade here. That sly bastard McClary managed to place these clockwise-reading school names in exactly symmetrical spots in the grid, which definitely elevates the elegance of the gimmick. I'm wondering if he's got a Yale connection, because ELIS crosses the YALE box.
Favorite fill and clues:
Tracey Snyder's Wall Street Journal puzzle, "Long Time No See," docks an initial letter C from one word in each theme entry. [Commands to a dog?], for example, are POINT AND LICK (click), and [Classes for would-be dermatologists?] are RASH COURSES (crash courses). I like a lot of the other theme entries, too—COME IN OUT OF THE OLD is the [Fountain of Youth slogan?], the ODE OF SILENCE (code), FIRST ON TACT (contact), PREGNANCY RAVINGS (cravings).
I'm out of time for blogging now. Enjoy your afternoon!
July 31, 2008
Friday, 8/1
Documentary about crossword inkers
If you've got 7 minutes to spare, watch animator Michael Charles' "Garson Hampfield, Crossword Inker. That's the high-res version that fills your browser window, but you can't pause or rewind.
To pause or rewind, watch the little YouTube version.
My favorite part is when Hampfield points out his original Bumfry drawing: "Believe me, it's well insured. This one drawing is worth almost $200." There are a zillion sly little lines like that packed into this cartoon.
(Hat tip to Jim H.)
July 30, 2008
Thursday, 7/31
NYS 4:17
LAT 4:14
NYT 4:10
CS 2:37
(post updated at noonish Thursday)
Allan Parrish's New York Times crossword meets one of the criteria for a themeless puzzle—the word count is just 72, which is pretty low for a themed puzzle. There are just 35 theme squares, so there's plenty of room for all those answers that are 7+ letters long. The theme journeys with Dante from heaven down to hell, passing through earth on the way: TOO MUCH HEAVEN was a [1979 Bee Gees chart-topper], from their post-Saturday Night Fever album; here's the video. RARE EARTH was the [Band with the 1970 hit "Get Ready"]; I don't remember them, or that song, at all. The third Dantean musical title is HIGHWAY TO HELL, the [1979 AC/DC seven-time platinum album]. Not just an album, but also a song.
Favorite clues and fill:
Karen Tracey's New York Sun "Themeless Thursday" got me to laugh. [Game show host with the catchphrase "Let's do crosswords"]? TY TREADWAY! As I have mentioned before in this space, he has dreamy eyes in person. This puzzle's packed with fresh and flavorful answers and clues. To wit:
And of course, Karen dispenses a few geography lessons:
Updated:
The theme entries in Donna Levin's Los Angeles Times crossword all have the same clue: [Clutch]. In addition to its verb meaning, it has at least four noun senses: a GEARSHIFT PEDAL, BROOD OF CHICKS, HANDHELD PURSE, and CRITICAL MOMENT. Somehow I found myself wandering through this crossword distracted, not instantly getting too many clues (other than the Bee Gees' "STAYIN' Alive," a [1978 #1 hit]). ["National Velvet" horse, with "The"] is PIE? That is not a pie I would like to eat. PELHAM was a [Confederate officer under Stuart]? I know only The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. A [Manmade inlet subject to ebbs and flows] started with TID, that much I knew, but TIDAL BASIN was not on the tip of my tongue. [Small ones?] are FRY, but the Y crosses [Kind of devil?], and I went with SHE rather than SLY, which mucked up the FRY zone. The [Fictional braggart] is the HARE in Aesop's fable.
I figured I was in for a repeat of yesterday and that Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle, "See 38-Across," would take the same amount of time as the day's other three puzzles. But no! This one seemed Monday-easy. 38-Across is [First rock from the sun], or MERCURY, the planet closest to the sun. The other four 11- and 12-letter theme entries are all [A (or another) definition for 38-Across]:
Favorite clues and answers:
July 29, 2008
Wednesday, 7/30
NYT 3:53
NYS 3:50
CS 3:47
LAT 3:43
(post updated at 11:30 Wednesday morning)
The byline above the New York Times crossword got nudged out of the window in the applet—it's Elizabeth Long. The puzzle's got a quote theme, and the subject of the [quote attributed to Sam Goldwyn] is spelled out (from top to bottom, left to right) in circled letters strewn throughout the grid: SHAKESPEARE. The quote is "FANTASTIC! AND / IT WAS ALL WRITTEN / WITH A FEATHER." Quote? Meh. The fill's got some mighty nice stuff in it, along with some tough nuts.
Nice:
Tough:
The New York Sun puzzle by Alan Arbesfeld is called "Oops!" [Making a blunder (and this puzzle's theme)] is DROPPING THE BALL, and the other four theme entries drop a BALL from established phrases. You know what a ballpark figure is—a PARK FIGURE is a [Ranger?]. To [Do masonry work on brick enclosures?] is to POINT PENS, as in tuckpointing (ballpoint pens). [Wading places?] are FOOT POOLS (playing on football pools for wagering). And a pinball machine turns into a PIN MACHINE, or [ATM?]. I found the [Missile pact of 1972] to be tricky—it's SALT I, the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. And [MVP of Super Bowl XXI] is somebody named SIMMS, whose first name I can't begin to guess. An investment that [Appreciates] RISES in value. The [Hebrew toast] L'CHAIM has a nice batch of initial consonants, and it's followed by UIES with a bundle of initial vowels. The [Sighed line] "AH, ME" crosses "OH, MAN!" (["Holy cow!"]). If it's [Curtains] for you, it's THE END. This summer, I bought a copy of a PIPPI book ([Longstocking of kiddie lit]) for Ben—I loved the movie when I was his age.
Updated:
Wow, four Wednesday puzzles, and I solved each in the same amount of time—the toughest took me 10 seconds longer than the easiest. If you time yourself, did you find all the puzzles to be perfectly keyed to a Wednesday level of difficulty?
Pancho Harrison's LA Times crossword has a Hollywood theme and a bit of a show-biz vibe to the fill. The theme entries are clued as blanks with years in parentheses, the years being when the answer movies were released. The 1984 movie at 17-Across with the missing clue is MISSING IN ACTION. The LOST IN YONKERS (1993) clue is lost from 36-Across. And 56-Across's clue is pretty much GONE WITH THE WIND, from 1939. Other cinematically linked answers include OATER ([Shoot-'em-up]), TEEN IDOL [Miley Cyrus, e.g.], Leonard NIMOY (["Three Men and a Baby" director]), ANN [Sothern or Jillian], the musical RENT, LILI [Taylor of "The Haunting"], actor John RHYS-Davies, and AMANDA [Blake of "Gunsmoke"].
The fill includes plenty of 6- to 8-letter answers, many of which intersect with theme entries. Highlights include GAMBOL, a FAT LIP that's a [Shiner accompanier, maybe], BATBOYS, HAS-BEENS, ESCHEWED, and a NAKED LIE ([Bald-faced fib])—the latter is the top slice of bread in the LOST IN YONKERS sandwich, with ENTITIES below that theme answer. The only answer that seems to stretch the limits of Wednesday is ["Mon Frere Yves" author Pierre] LOTI, whose name was unknown to me.
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Out Cold," has a quip theme. You know what? I think a little context helps quip/quote themes go down better. Having a title for the puzzle helped point me towards some of the words. It looked like LOG was at the end of the first part of the quip, and the "Out Cold" title strongly suggested it would be I SLEPT LIKE A LOG rather than, who knows, something about sawing logs or making log cabins. The quip continues, ...LAST NIGHT / AND WOKE UP / IN THE FIREPLACE. I think another factor that keeps me from saying "meh" about this one is that the quip splits at natural points, between clauses.
I do wish to carp a wee bit about the clue for ADOPT: [Rear as one's own]. This suggests that an adopted child doesn't become "one's own" child, but merely serves as a facsimile. Parents who have adopted children tend to resent such distinctions. And boo to all the celeb news articles that describe Nicole Kidman as having recently "given birth to her first child." No, this baby is her third child. It's just the first time she's given birth. Her older kids were adopted, yes, but dammit, they count!
July 28, 2008
Tuesday, 7/29
Onion 4:30
Tausig 4:12
CS 3:51
NYS 3:50
LAT 3:02
NYT 2:43
(post last updated at 7:20 Tuesday night) 
I really liked the Tuesday New York Times puzzle by David Kwong and newcomer Emily Halpern. It was clued easy enough to be a Monday puzzle, but the theme entries are altered phrases and those aren't so Mondayish, so here it is on Tuesday. The constructors took four "Great" things and dampened the enthusiasm for them:
The theme is better than so-so, isn't it? I liked the fill too, though some may frown at all the names of people and places. "INDEED!" is clued as ["For sure!"], and I am fond of indeed's exclamatory usage. "EITHER/OR" is another way of saying ["Take your pick"]. We've got SYNONYMS, [Roget's listings]. Dracula's CLOAKS, CRAFTY, and PSEUDO lend a seamy undercurrent. And OPRAH sort of rhymes with OKRA, which she's sitting atop.
Tom Heilman's New York Sun crossword, "Bakin' Bits," mixes up a quartet of baking-related puns. [Gluten?] represents FLOUR POWER, playing on flower power. DOUGH-EYED (doe-eyed) is [Like someone whose cornea is caked up?]; eww. NOT KNEADED (not needed) is [Without having been pressed or folded?]. And [All there is from crust to crust?] is PURE BREAD (purebred). I appreciate some of the 8-letter fill—the former COMISKEY Park, SOFT SOAP, potatoes AU GRATIN, ERASURES clued as [Disappearing acts?]—but DEW-LADEN ([Moist, in a way]) sounded off. I Googled it and found photos of dew-laden grass and cobwebs and flowers, so I guess I'm off base here. ERIE is clued as [Gannon University's home], and that's a clue I cited in How to Conquer the New York Times Crossword Puzzle as an example of a tough late-week clue for an common answer like ERIE. What's Gannon University doing here on a Tuesday? Flavor FLAV, the [Rapper with a trademark clock necklace, informally], is my favorite short answer today.
Timothy Meaker's LA Times crossword provides ample PROOF (37-Across) in the theme—the other four theme phrases begin with words that can precede proof.
Favorite entries in the fill: FLEX TIMES, or [Customized work schedules]; LET IT BE, or [Beatles title lyrics after "Whisper words of wisdom"]; and VESPA, the ["Roman Holiday" transport] that's growing more popular these days owing to its gas-sipping ways.
Updated:
The theme in Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Salon Work," feels like it's referring to an old-lady salon. Each theme entry begins with a salon verb, all clued in the past tense but CUT and SET being non-ED past tenses. TRIMMED THE SAILS ([Adapted to prevailing winds]) and CUT ONE'S LOSSES ([Accepted a bad situation]) include pretty much the same salon function. TEASED THE BOYS, or [Was coquettish], grates a bit as a phrase. Then there's SET A GOOD EXAMPLE ([Modeled good behavior])—I don't know anyone my age or in my mom's generation who gets her hair "set," but my late grandma used to like a "set." I bet she was also more familiar with ICEBOXES, or [Cold compartments].
Updated again:
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Downgrading," changes letter grades and not in the student's favor:
Favorite clues and answers:
Francis Heaney was on deck for this week's Onion A.V. Club crossword. I don't know how much Francis got paid for this one, but it's lousy with product placements so he should've gotten fees from the advertisers. He imagines four movies (spread across five long entries) whose titles could have been changed to accommodate product placements. A [Michael Jordan movie featuring product placement] might be SPACE SMUCKERS (Space Jam). Aardman's Chicken Run turns into PERDUE RUN. The Pelican Brief sells underwear as THE PELICAN BVD. And Like Water for Chocolate morphs into LIKE EVIAN / FOR NESTLE. Now, that would be a cinematic abomination. Did you know that there's an [Upcoming Sylvester Stallone-directed biopic] called POE? Hmm, my Googling suggests that the lead role hasn't even been cast yet. Never heard of ART BRUT, the ["It's a Bit Complicated" band]. MR. PEEPERS, the [Classic sitcom starring Wally Cox], aired in the early '50s. It also appears to be the name of a porn website. I love little hits of highly specific pop culture, like [She dated Keith Hernandez and David Puddy, among others] for ELAINE from Seinfeld. Although I should clarify: Specific pop culture trivia from before my time is not fun at all.
July 27, 2008
Monday, 7/28
Jonesin' 4:25
LAT 3:53
CS 3:20
NYT 3:19
NYS 3:02
(post updated at 12:30 Monday afternoon)
The Monday New York Times puzzle by new constructor Roger Baiocchi deviates from the usual early-week theme layout with the unusual inclusion of 5-letter words at the beginning and end of the Acrosses in addition to three long entries. Those 5's are part of the first and third long entries, and together they make a pair of 16-letter phrases. To [begin from scratch] is to START / AT SQUARE ONE—and that phrase does indeed start at square one of this grid. The middle entry is TAKE CENTER STAGE, or [Move into the limelight]. The third section is [be beaten by the rest of the field], or END UP IN LAST / PLACE, aptly ending in the grid's last place. If those 5-letter chunks of theme entries were just randomly lopped off because they didn't fit into the grid, I wouldn't like the theme—but the picture-perfect aptness of answers' locations is a winner. I got slowed down in a couple spots here. For [It's "catchy"], I entered TUNE. But guess what? The answer immediately below that is [Something to whistle]—a TUNE! The "catchy" thing is a SNAG. I also blanked on [Such a jokester] once I had the CU***—all I could think of was comic and wag, but I needed CUTUP. (Patrick Blindauer nudged me to note that 72-Across, SITE, is part of the theme too—it's clued as [___-specific (like the answers at 1-, 41- and 73-Across)]. Thanks, PB2!)
The New York Sun crossword, Justin Smith's "Double Creatures," requires a 15x16 grid to accommodate its 16 and two 15's. One of those 15's is a plural so for maximum theme consistency, it should have been a 14—but the three phrases make for a solid Monday theme and I'm not as hardcore about consistency in theme entry structure as some people are. [Elaborate presentations] are DOG AND PONY SHOWS. An [Implausible tale] is a COCK AND BULL STORY. And [You might toy with your opponent during it] refers to a CAT AND MOUSE GAME. Favorite clues and answers:
Updated:
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle for this week has a brilliant theme. In "Rainbow Connection," the mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow—ROY G. BIV, for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—holds the key. The six other theme entries take one of those letters in a phrase and advance it to the next one in the mnemonic, and the resulting altered phrase is clued.
Favorite clues and answers:
Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy crossword, "End Points," has five theme entries linked by the hidden words at their ends—words that connote "points." As spotlighted in the solution grid, the theme entries end with a PIN, LANCE, TINE, SWORD, and ARROW. The first theme entry is PERI GILPIN, clued [She played Roz Doyle on "Frasier"]—nice to see the actress's full name in the grid, rather than just her crossword-friendly first name. CROSSWORD is in the crossword, but it parses as a CROSS WORD, [Utterance from a curmudgeon].
Gail Grabowski's LA Times puzzle links a MOUSE (68-Across) to five things you do with your computer mouse. CLICK BEETLE, or [Noisemaking hard-shelled bug], starts with CLICK. The old [Series with Sergeant Friday] was DRAGNET, with DRAG. [Oddsmaker's equalizer] is the POINT SPREAD, and that arrow cursor POINTs at things. I love having a SCROLL wheel on my mouse, and a SCROLL SAW is a [Tool that cuts intricate curves]. I seldom DRAW with my mouse, but that's an option embedded in DRAW POKER, clued with ["Jacks or better" is a form of it].Favorite entry outside of the theme: LOVESICK, or [Filled with amorous longing].
July 26, 2008
Sunday, 7/27
NYT 14:30
LAT 10:39
PI 8:52
BG 8:40
CS 3:24
(post updated at 1:20 Sunday afternoon)
Yay! It's a plus-sized Sunday New York Times puzzle by Mike Nothnagel and Dave Quarfoot. I was surprised to see the clock ticking on (and on...) as long as it did, because I never felt stuck. But it's a 23x23, which takes a while to fill in—after solving in the applet, I downloaded the Across Lite version to have a screen-capture (clicking on the image will enlarge it) that didn't have single letters in the rebus squares, and it took 7½ minutes to retype the answers I'd already figured out a few minutes earlier. The rebus squares could contain arrows or words, but I'm partial to words—UP or DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT, or "Going Every Which Way," as the title says.
Without further ado, the long theme entries with two directions apiece and their rebused shorter crossings:
So that's, what, eight long theme entries with 16 rebused crossings? Criminy! That's a lot of thematic action, and it's not forced. I very much enjoyed my sojourn inside the grid, piecing together all the crazy directions and tackling an entertaining set of clues and fill. Outside the terrific theme, here's what I liked best (and I won't list everything I liked, because this crossword is just too damned big for that):
- "SHALL I?" or ["Do you want me to?"].
- LET RIP means to [Deliver, as harsh criticism].
- UMAMI, the [Proposed "fifth taste," which means "savory" in Japanese. It's the taste of meat, cheese, and MSG. Yes, that MSG. I have much more interest in sweet than savory.
- A MOSAIC is an [Arrangement of 40-Downs], 40-Down being a TESSERA or mosaic tile.
- [Hollow center?] is the DOUBLE L at the center of the word "hollow," and [Building component?] is the SILENT U in that word. Some call such entries "quarfeet," so I kinda want to know if it was Mike Nothnagel who put those entries into the grid.
- The VW BEETLE is clued simply as [Bug].
- Botany gets play with MOSSY, or [Sphagnous], and AMANITA, the [Genus of poisonous mushrooms]. That's the death cap mushroom, mentioned in this paper I edited on mushroom poisoning.
- One [Result of pulling the plug?] in the bathtub is an EDDY down the drain.
- An [Opening screen option on many an A.T.M.] is ESPANOL. I'm partial to ATMs that offer French, German, or other languages. I have a very good track record at navigating those correctly, but I've seen one or two ATMs that offer Chinese or Japanese, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get money out.
There was a mystery man in the grid, Ralph BLANE [who co-wrote "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"]. I'm not up on any [Part of a shark's respiratory system], so GILL SLIT was another "rely on the crossings" answer for me—and I found all the crossings to be fair. Thanks for making a giant rebus puzzle and inviting us all in to play with it, Mike and David (and Will)!
Updated:
LA Times crossword editor Rich Norris ran one of his own puzzles for today's syndicated LA Times puzzle, "Extra Credit" (under the pseudonym Nora Pearlstone, an anagram of "not a real person"). Even after I sussed out the theme—phrases with CR, an "extra credit," inserted—I still found the overall cluing fairly tough. The last letter I entered was the U joining UFOS and SOUP. UFOS are clued as [WWII foo fighters, e.g.], and I knew the phrase only as the capital-F band name. SOUP is clued as [Trouble, informally, with "the"], which is not terribly obvious. The theme entries are:- CRASH WEDNESDAY, or [Good time to catch up on your sleep?]. Hey, I slept 'til 9:40 this morning. It was delightful.
- ROLLED CROATS, or [Transported some Balkans?].
- CROUTON BAIL, or {What you have to pay to get the bread bits released from your salad?].
- MIGHTY CROAK, or [Sound from a huge frog?].
- SIX-PACK CRABS, or [Conveniently boxed crustaceans?].
- CROUCH THAT HURT, or [One bend too many?].
- MORAY CREEL, or [Basket for snigglers?].
- PHOTO CROPS, or [Farm produce caught on film?].
Toughest clues:
- Edwin [Land development?] is the Polaroid CAMERA.
- [Joseon Dynasty country: Abbr.] is KOR (Korea).
- [Med. research org.] is NIMH. Remember the kids' book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH?
- [Basra natives] are not just Iraqis here but ARABS.
- For [Musician heard in "Memoirs of a Geisha"], I thought I needed to remember the name of the classical Japanese musical instruments. Nope—just cellist YO-YO MA.
- [Colorful flowers] are PHLOX, no plural S on the end. The X crosses the nice X FACTOR, or [Unpredictable determinant].
- [Rock-boring tool] is TREPAN. Trepans: They're not just for boring through skulls anymore.
- [Tyrannical boss, facetiously] is HIS NIBS. The phrase's derivation is here.
- [Soprano Mitchell] is LEONA.
- [Added help] is the noun HIREE, not the verb "hired."
- [Ecuadoran province named for its gold production] is basic Spanish: EL ORO.
- [Daughter of David] is TAMAR.
- [Ochlocracy] is MOB RULE. This is the third time in a year, I think, that this pair has been included in a newspaper crossword I've seen.
- [Like some earth pigments] is OCHERY. Is that a word? Yes, it is.
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer crossword, "Old Paint," is packed with painterly puns:- [Reaction to French art prices?] is DEGAS TO BE KIDDING ("They got to be kidding"). In writing, it makes no sense, but read aloud, it sounds like colloquial English.
- [When the art museum is closed?] is MONDRIAN TUESDAY (Monday and Tuesday, I think). Yes, Mondrian sounds like "Monday and Tuesday," sort of, but are art museums closed on Tuesdays or on Mondays and Tuesdays?
- [Chicken's reaction to great art?] is BRAQUE-BUCK-BUCK. Sounds sort of like clucking.
- [Classic novel about a painter?] is VERMEER TO ETERNITY, playing on From Here to Eternity.
- [What you need to get into Paul's exhibit?] are CEZANNE TICKETS, which sounds like "season tickets."
- [Reaction to American art prices?] is O'KEEFFE ME A BREAK ("Oh, give me a break"). This one's more of a sound stretch than the Degas entry.
- [Sources of famous oils?] clues CASTOR AND POLLOCK, playing on Castor and Pollux with castor oil and artist Jackson Pollock. I like this one's multiple levels, though Pollock's drip paintings weren't oils.
Merl supplements the theme with scattered art-related clues for the fill entries—TAR is an anagram of art, DIEGO is painter Rivera, ROSE was one of Picasso's periods, etc.
Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's syndicated Boston Globe crossword, "Magazine Mergers," reminds me of a theme in a Patrick Merrell crossword at the ACPT a few years ago. I usually enjoy this sort of theme, in which theme entries are crafted by piling up two or three magazine titles. OUTSIDE NEW YORK is clued as a [Mag for Big Apple escapees?] and combines Outside and New York magazines. My favorites are DOWNBEAT GOLF, combining a jazz magazine with a sports one and cluing it as [Mag for dismal duffers?], and SELF-WIRED TV GUIDE, which bundles three publications (women's magazine Self, tech-geek magazine Wired, and TV Guide) as [DIY home theater mag?]. In the fill, there were several oddities and obscurities. At 107-Down, SESS was clued as [Ganja], and while I'm familiar with ganja as slang for marijuana, I haven't seen "sess" before. 74-Down is [Greece, to Romans], or ACHAEA, with the C crossing [Cookbook author Joyce] CHEN. At 103-Across, LILA is clued as a [Robert Pirsig book], but I tie his name to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and nothing else.
This week's themeless CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" is by Martin Ashwood-Smith. The grid's quite odd-looking, with Rorschach blots of black squares drawing the eye away from the vertical triple-stacks of 15-letter entries along the left and right sides. While most of the triple-stacks' crossings are short entries, as usual, each stack does intersect another stack of 8-, 9-, and 10-letter answers—an impressive bit of construction. Overall, the cluing was pretty easy, maybe Wednesday NYT level. Did you know that "The Toy Parade" was the opening theme for LEAVE IT TO BEAVER? I didn't, but having the LEAV part in the grid early on pointed the way towards the show's title. Favorite clue: [Ebony item] for MAGAZINE ARTICLE.July 25, 2008
Saturday, 7/26
NYT 8:26
Newsday 7:50
LAT 4:15
CS 3:04
(post updated at 10:30 Saturday morning)
All righty, I (barely) finished the NYT crossword before it was time to put my kid to bed. I took a diagramless puzzle with me—I'm test-solving for an upcoming book of diagramlesses. If you dig 17x17 grids that don't tell you where the black squares go, you're gonna like that book, which I'm guessing will come out next year sometime. Anyway, my head is in that frame of mind...going to finish it...okay, now I'm back and will don my standard crossword blogging hat.
Ach! Barry Silk's New York Times puzzle really was quite reasonable, but I had a typo that eluded my vision for the longest time. The [Hunter of fish] is a SEA EAGLE, but I had SEE EAGLE for a ridiculous amount of time. No, WEENERS didn't look right, but what know I of [Stockbreeding devices]? Yeah, those were supposed to be WEANERS. THERE NOW sure seemed to be [Words of solace], but that errant WEENERS and the less-familiar variant RHEBOKS ([Cousins of oribis and dik-diks]) threw me. I'm wondering if Will Shortz is a big Mick Jagger fan, because Sir Mick just celebrated his 65th (!) birthday, yesterday's puzzle included a Stones song title, and ROLLING STONE is in this one, clued generically as a [Drifter]. This STONE is partnered with ELEANOR RIGBY, [Title woman of a song who "lived in a dream"]. These long entries are crossed by ["Let ___"], which surely must be the Beatles' "Let IT BE," except it isn't—it's "Let IT GO."
Favorite entries and clues here:
Random factoids:
Clues I dispute:
Updated:
Patrick Jordan's themed CrosSynergy puzzle, "Bar Stars," isn't about lawyers or drinking. No, it's much tastier than that—the theme entries are famous(ish) people whose last names are also the names of candy bars. SIR EDWARD HEATH was a [1970s British prime minister]. PETULA CLARK is the ["Don't Sleep in the Subway" singer]. KENNETH MARS [was Inspector Kemp in "Young Frankenstein"]; who? I may have seen the movie when I was a kid, but the name Kenneth Mars doesn't ring a bell. BARBARA HERSHEY was ["The Portrait of a Lady" Oscar nominee]. Yum, chocolate! Outside of the theme, fill I like includes the real SLIM SHADY, [Nickname for Eminem]; TOURMALINE, [One of October's birthstones] (usually a crossword cites October and birthstones for the opal); CHAIN GANGS, or [Groups of linked convicts]; and ITZHAK, [violin virtuoso Perlman]. I used to always forget which of the ARNO and EBRO is in Italy and which is in Spain; they're both here, only ARNO is clued as [Cartoonish Peter]. (The EBRO is in Spain, and Iberia's name derives from the river's name; the ARNO is in Italy.)
Doug Peterson's themeless Newsday "Saturday Stumper" was pretty tough. SHARKSKIN JACKET ([Hepcat's attire]) anchors the grid along the middle, and the other entries I liked most include JETTISON ([Toss]), HOME BREW ([Do-it-yourself draft]), ZEPPO Marx ([Brother-act nickname]), and SCREE ([Crater debris]), just because I'm fond of those SK-sounding words of Scandinavian origin (cf. skulk, skid). Favorite clues:
Trouble spots:
My favorite entry in Mark Milhet's themeless LA Times crossword is JACK SQUAT, or [Zilch]—three uncommon letters plus colloquial? Win-win. The fill was surprisingly dense with prepositions (some used as adverbs here, but they're also prepositions):
There are other entries that contain the same letter sequences as those prepositions—INGRATE, OTRANTO, ATE A LOT, AKRON OHIO, PLATEAU, SALONGA, HEATHER—so there's an overall feel of sameness in the grid. But! This grid's got only 64 answers, so it's got a fairly low word count. MY personal preference is for a higher word count and more answers in the delightful JACK SQUAT vein.
July 24, 2008
Friday, 7/25
NYS 6:46
LAT 5:00
NYT 4:53
CHE 4:39
CS 3:19
WSJ 6:06
(post updated at 2:35 p.m. Friday)
Wow, it is tough to concentrate on crosswords when a member of the household insists on watching a TiVoed episode of Wipeout at the same time. I had to pause the Across Lite timer multiple times during the Sun puzzle when my husband was pointing out particularly hilarious tumbles on the part of the contestants. (They end up in mud or water if they don't safely complete each step of the obstacle course, and there's a lot of bouncing off giant balls.) I'm just lucky he didn't turn the show on until after I'd finished the NYT puzzle, as the applet offers no pause option.
John Farmer's New York Times crossword has some really impressive quadrants. Look at those corners with triple-stacked 9-letter entries crossed by a six-pack of 6's! That's some good-lookin' white space in this 66-worder. The marquee entry is JUMPIN' JACK FLASH, the [Rolling Stones hit just before "Honky Tonk Women"]. Did the Stones do HASHEESH ([Weed])? My favorite entries and clues are:
I also want to mention these:
Unfavorite answers (but I can forgive 'em all, because I like the stuff that surrounds them):
Moving along to the New York Sun "Weekend Warrior," we have a joint production from Doug Peterson and Barry Silk. The grid's anchored by a pair of intersecting 15s, the CHICAGO WHITE SOX and a NUMBER TWO PENCIL. The SOX clue was [Team with the 1980s mascots Ribbie and Roobarb], and neither my husband nor I remembered this one. Which is fine—we live in Cubs territory. Speaking of baseball, 1-Across is [Turns up], and "turns" is a noun there—they're AT-BATS. Lots of short 'n' slangy clues right off the bat—[Bunk], [Heaps], and [Nuts] sounds like a breakfast cereal, but they're CLAPTRAP (a fun word), CRATES, and MADMEN (non-S plural—hello, Friday!). My favorite clue is at 2-Down: [What this clue have] are BAD GRAMMAR.
Other favorite clues:
Assorted minutiae:
Robert Doll's LA Times puzzle changes a J into an H, sort of as if the J's needed to be pronounced the Spanish way. ["You Can Heal Your Life" author Louise on a constitutional?] is HAY WALKING (jaywalking), but I don't know that Louise Hay is well-known enough to anchor a theme entry. Wikipedia informs me that her publishing company published Deepak Chopra. [Assembly of radio operators?] is a HAM SESSION (jam session). [Camel rider's attire?] is a HUMP SUIT (jumpsuit). HOLLY ROGER, HACK CHEESE ([Cabbie's snack?]), and HUNK BOND round out the sizeable theme. Several clues really made me work for the answers:
Updated:
Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Sounds Simple to Me," features five phrases in which the first word contains a series of letters pronounced like the word "easy," spelled five different way. There's a CHEESY JOKE, or [Bad attempt at humor] (what is it about cheese and corn that allowed them to be redefined as good-natured badness?). BREEZY WEATHER makes for [Good conditions for kiting]. An [Unscrupulous person] is a SLEAZY CHARACTER. [Seasickness] is a QUEASY FEELING (Sing it with me: "I've got a peaceful, queasy feeling..."). And the EZ-PASS LANE is the [Fast way through a toll plaza in some states; Illinois uses the I-Pass instead. Favorite entries: ZOHAN, Adam Sandler's title character this summer (Nobody Messes With the Zohan); the CYRILLIC alphabet; and ["Right Place, Wrong Time" singer] DR. JOHN.
Sharon Peterson's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Home Finance," has a quote theme that isn't new to me, but I had a rough time piecing it together thanks to the Down clues crossing the quote. For example, [Macgillicuddy's ___ (Irish mountain range)]—with *E*K* in place, it sure looked like PEAKS. Nope, it's Macgillicuddy's REEKS. For [One of three virtues mentioned in Corinthians], I entered LOVE instead of HOPE, which mucked up the top middle for a bit. I was at a loss for [You might get one to spare?] for far too long—bowling, yes, but TENPIN wasn't coming to mind. Favorite clue: [It's on the school board?] for CHALK. More erudite entries include words from classics—HESIOD, ["Theogony" poet]; geography—KARST, [Area likely to have sinkholes]; and lit—["Lord Jim" ship], PATNA. The quote spelled out in the theme is "THE TIME TO / REPAIR / THE ROOF IS WHEN / THE SUN / IS SHINING," spoken by JFK (33-Down, right in the center of the grid).
Last update:
Sorry for the delay in posting about Pancho Harrison's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Union Perks." I went to the gym and then out to lunch, where the waitress opted to give us a leisurely paced European experience. But hey, at least we were sitting on the restaurant's patio on a beautiful day. Anyway—in the comments, Dan mentioned a lightning-speed solving time for this puzzle, which indicated that it was going to be unusually easy for a WSJ puzzle. It was (though I haven't yet cracked the 5:00 mark on an easy Sunday-sized crossword). The theme provided little help in solving—I mean, I noticed the precious materials included in the theme entries, but had no idea why there were parenthetical numbers after the theme clues or why the title was "Union Perks." Oh! ANNIVERSARY GIFT, of course, the years associated with the gift given in parentheses. I'm just now realizing that each theme phrase is actually a famous person's name, which explains why the paper anniversary is omitted—and the name aspect makes the theme nice and tight. I'm partial to RUBE GOLDBERG and SHEL SILVERSTEIN, with their gifts embedded in their last names rather than standing alone (as in BILLY CRYSTAL, MINNIE PEARL, ELIJAH WOOD, JAMES IVORY, and NEIL DIAMOND). Favorite entries: SCOT-FREE ([Totally unscathed]); the villainous ["Les Miserables" inspector] JAVERT; Uncle Scrooge MCDUCK; and BLUEBEARD.
July 23, 2008
Thursday, 7/24
NYS 5:15
LAT 4:45
NYT 4:01
CS 3:01
(post updated at 1:25 p.m. Thursday)
Matt Ginsberg is back with another New York Times crossword, this time taking the Jacqueline Susann novel ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH as the starting point. [...The problem with some of the answers in this puzzle] is that once is not enough—that the first word needs to be used a second time in order to be correct. DUM BULLETS are [Hollow-point projectiles]? No, dumdum bullets are. A [Mutually beneficial interaction] should be a win-WIN SITUATION. The [Puerto Rican-born P.G.A. star] is Chi CHI RODRIGUEZ. And the [Child's fair-weather wish] is the sing-songy "Rain, RAIN, GO AWAY, come again another day." With some 8- and 9-letter answers in the fill and a total word count of 72, there's a Thursdayish touch of themelessness—but then, the theme square count is a hearty 69. Clues and answers of note:
Mark Sherwood's New York Sun puzzle is called "Location! Location! Location!" because location is key. Each theme entry removes a preposition and conveys its meaning by way of words' location. The [1953 Ira Levin novel] A Kiss Before Dying is presented as A KISS DYING—A KISS before DYING. The opposite of before is after, and Dog Day Afternoon ([1975 film set at the First Brooklyn Savings Bank]) is NOON DOG DAY—DOG DAY after NOON. The Down theme entries are MIND MATTER, or MIND over MATTER, a [Phenomenon exhibited by psychokinesis], and GROUND WENT, or WENT underGROUND, clued as [Disappeared, maybe]. In the grid's center is HACUTLF, or CUT in HALF—[Divided fifty-fifty]. I do like this theme a lot—a batch of wacky wordies, sort of, amid our crossword.
Favorite clues and answers and other items of note:
Updated:
Wow, Don Gagliardo's LA Times crossword has a lot of out-there answers and clues. The five theme entries are linked by the clues, which are all "___ line" phrases; the answers are spoken lines that might be associated with the ___ setting.
[Box behind a painting, maybe] is a wall SAFE. This could be targeted by a THIEF, who might be described as [One taking things badly?]. I like this pair of clues. People in the grid include Phoebe CATES, ["Fast Times at Ridgemont High" actress]; LUISE [Rainer who won back-to-back Oscars]; [German fantasy novelist Michael] ENDE of The Neverending Story; actor ERNEST Borgnine (why wasn't he on Star Trek? The Borg, Seven-of-Nine, Borgnine...seems like a natural fit); Buddy EBSEN, a [Clampett player] on The Beverly Hillbillies; [Noted shoe collector] IMELDA Marcos; [Conductor friend of pianist Vladimir] is ARTURO Toscanini (Vladimir Horowitz married Toscanini's daughter); ["Dracula" director Browning] is named TOD, and he's the go-to one-D TOD in crosswords; and LOU Gehrig was a [Teammate of the Babe].
The oddball or obscurely clued stuff is as follows:
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Tiny Baubles," gathers three phrases that start with synonyms for "tiny." There's the [2000 Woody Allen movie], SMALL TIME CROOKS, a MINIATURE POODLE, and the LITTLE RIVER BAND. The latter is clued as ["Cool Change" rockers], and I don't remember that song at all. I still like "Reminiscing," though that video is an odd one. My favorite clue: [Speed reader?] for a traffic cop's RADAR. I wish I understood why PRINT is the answer to [Not stick to the script?]—anyone?
July 22, 2008
Wednesday, 7/23
CS 4:38
NYS 4:20
LAT 4:12
NYT 3:55
(post updated at 10:20 a.m. Wednesday)
The theme in the New York Times crossword is an unusual one. Newcomer Henry Quillen stair-steps 11 words that start with A/end with Z or start with Z/end with A along both diagonals in the grid, with A TO Z TO A filling a space in the middle: ZIMA, a [Coors product], meets ARROZ, [Ingrediente en paella], which hooks up with the [Keebler cracker brand] ZESTA, which intersects ARIZONA, [Flagstaff's place], and that state meets up with the AD BIZ, the traditional [Madison Ave. trade], linked to [Ethan Frome's wife] ZEENA, who has nothing to do with ANTZ, the [Animated film hit of 1998]. Running across the other diagonal are Lucille [Ball's comic partner] Desi ARNAZ, [The Rock] called ALCATRAZ, the aforementioned A TO Z TO A, a cubic ZIRCONIA gem, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Frank ZAPPA. The theme includes seven Z's, which could mean lots of compromises in the rest of the fill but doesn't at all. Clues and answers of note:
Pancho Harrison's New York Sun puzzle, "Well, Um...", is a treat too. A quartet of theme entries are modified by the addition of ER (a speech disfluency filler like "um"), which changes the preceding short vowel to a long one. [Burglary under cover of darkness?] is a NIGHT CAPER (nightcap). [Captain of the Yankees after gaining a lot of weight?] is JUMBO JETER (jumbo jet). [Drunk flamingo?] is a TIGHT WADER (tightwad). And to [Cheat a sot?] is to SCREW TOPER (screw-top). The last one is a mite jarring, as the other three are all nouns rather than verb phrases. The Across theme entries are stacked with 9-letter answers and those short stacks cross 8's: Curly the TRAIL BOSS from City Slickers (this is Jack Palance's character) crosses a NO-HITTER, and SYMBOLISM meets ODORLESS (which in turn crosses MEL TORME's full name). Consonant pileups are found in the MCRIB sandwich, NSYNC, MRS C. from Happy Days, the HGTV cable channel, and the Village People song "YMCA." INGA is clued with [Congo River's ___ Falls] rather than a woman of Scandinavian descent—I'm making a mental note for future crossword reference.
Updated:
Dan Naddor's LA Times crossword contains four 16-letter theme entries (the puzzle's one column wider than usual—thanks for the correction, Bob!), each beginning with a verb that doubles as something that grows from an animal's skin. Reptile scales, turtle shells, bird feathers, and rhinoceros horns are all made of keratin, as fingernails and hair are. The theme entries are:
I'm not familiar with [Lat strengtheners] being called CHINS—chin-ups, yes. Chins, no. The [Willows used in basketry], OSIERS, are solid crosswordese—if you didn't know this word, make a mental note of it. You're likely to see it again in other crosswords.
I don't know why I had such trouble making sense out of the clues in Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy crossword, "Clueless Crooner." Was this puzzle harder than today's other offerings for you too, or is it just me? The theme is a riddle, meaning that the theme entries didn't offer much help with maneuvering through the rest of the puzzle. WHY DID THE BAD / SINGER BREAK / INTO / SONG? HE WAS UNABLE / TO FIND THE KEY. A bunch of the the fill answers were two-word phrases, which I think made those 7's a bit tougher. The FAR WEST is the [Great Plains-to-Pacific Ocean area]. ALOHA OE is clued with ["Farewell to Thee" is its translated title]. A TIDY SUM is [Hardly chicken feed]. To [Set lofty goals] is to AIM HIGH. The COAL BIN is a [Fuel storage area]. [0-0] is NO SCORE. And AWAKE TO is [Become conscious of].
July 21, 2008
Tuesday, 7/22
Tausig 6:00
Onion 3:57
CS 3:53
NYS 3:45
NYT 3:19
LAT 3:00
(post updated at 2 p.m. Tuesday)
Lynn Lempel classes up her Tuesday New York Times crossword by including plenty of 6- and 7-letter answers in the fill. Each theme entry adopts an N that changes the phrase's meaning:
I don't know that I've seen RUSHEE before. It's clued as a [Fraternity recruit], but it sounds like a drunkard is trying to pronounce Salman Rushdie's name. I would have preferred the SCALPED clue to reference only tickets, and not tickets plus "Western pioneers." (According to this article, American frontiersmen, the ancient Scythians, and the Visigoths also engaged in scalping.)
Chuck Deodene's New York Sun puzzle, "Woof!", crafts a trio of three-word phrases in which each word can modify dog. [Beset by a feathered swarm?] is UNDER BIRD ATTACK, and underdog, bird dog, and attack dog are all familiar. The [#1 grasslands tour leader?] might be a TOP PRAIRIE GUIDE (top dog, prairie dog, guide dog). And [On a quest for a certain spicy food?] is HUNTING HOT CHILI (hunting dog, hot dog, chili dog). That made me confront my unfamiliarity with the etymology of "hot dog"; it may be that no one knows where the term came from. Joining these three concocted theme phrases is the phrase DOG RUNS—each is a run of three "dogs." Favorite entries in the fill: FLAMBE, DUBYA, KATMANDU, and ECSTATIC.
Updated:
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Regular Exercise," puts regular GAS (65-Down) into three theme entries. Actually, the GAS is already inside those phrases—SARATOGA SPRINGS is an [Upstate New York spa], for example, and ALL KIDDING ASIDE and AS STRONG AS STEEL also break GAS between two words. Favorite clues: [Basic ones are over seven] for PHS (pH's); [Clunky dory] for TUB, a shoddy boat; [Sound of one hand clapping?] for SILENCE (so that answers that question...); [Joke or choke] for the noun and verb GAG; [It's breath-taking and inspiring] for a LUNG; [A color purple] for PUCE; [Song sung singly] for SOLO, singly being one less than doubly; [Capital in the middle of Czechoslovakia?] for OSLO; and assorted paired clues (genres, dawn, sesame, float, cold). As so often happens with a Klahn themed puzzle, the fun is in the many askew clues much more than in the theme.
Klahn rhymes with Kahn, as in David Kahn, constructor of today's LA Times crossword. The theme's tied together by [Hip-hop mogul] JAY-Z, and the five (!) theme entries are people's full names that start with J and end with Z. JON LOVITZ was a [1985-'90 49-Across regular] on SNL. JENNIFER LOPEZ is clued as ["Angel Eyes" star], though her best acting work may have been in Out of Sight. Yugoslavia's [Marshal Tito, at birth] was named JOSIP BROZ. JOAN BAEZ was a [Woodstock folk singer, 1969]. And JIM NANTZ is still a [Longtime CBS Sports announcer]. The theme's mostly pop culture, making it a good match for the LA Times (and a good match for my personal preferences). Excellent fill throughout, too, despite the limited options available owing to the six J's and six Z's mandated by the theme. There are even two more Z's and another J (beginning the word puzzles called JUMBLES), for good measure. 
Matt Jones's Onion A.V. Club puzzle follows up the British Open with a doubly golf-inflected theme. Four golf terms are divided (or preceded) by the insertion of FORE, another golf term, and the resulting phrase—which involves a compound word starting with fore—is clued with reference to both the original golf phrase and the theme answer. Jack Nicklaus was called the Golden Bear, so GOLDEN FOREBEAR is a [Shining ancestor, or a golf legend's nickname interrupted?]. FORESKINS GAME is [Circumcision diversion, or a type of golf competition interrupted?]. MATCH FOREPLAY stems from match play and is clued as [How amorous firestarters might start the fire, or a golf scoring system interrupted?]. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, has plenty of golf resorts. HILTON FOREHEAD is [What Paris's bangs cover, or a noted golf course interrupted?]. Favorite fill entries/clues: [Fred Flintstone's boss] MR. SLATE; LORENA Bobbitt, who [cut John Wayne from an important part]; [Subject of Falco's biggest hit] for AMADEUS; and the Japanese WASABI and ARIGATO.
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle is the week's toughest so far. The theme provided me with no solving help, as I couldn't make sense out of the theme until after I'd finished the crossword. The title, "Produce Results," really includes the noun produce, not the verb—each theme entry is two kinds of produce, fruits or vegetables, changed to their homophones and clued with reference to the resulting words. Chard and maize give us CHARRED MAZE, or a [Labyrinth, after a blaze?]. A pea and a leek become PEE LEAK, or [Revelation of a public urination charge?]. WRY PAIR, or [Ironic couple?], plays on a pear and...the grain rye? Currants and beets yield CURRENT BEAT, or [Trendy drumming?]. Favorite and/or freshest fill and clues: BEER PONG, or [Popular collegiate "sport" played with balls and cups]; MANHOLE, or [Common gay bar name]; ["WALL-E" love interest] for EVE; DESTRO, the [G.I. Joe villain] I've never heard of; both LL COOL J and RUN DMC; EVEREADY brand batteries; "NO CAN DO"; LON NOL's full palindromic name; the Anti-Defamation League or ADL ([B'nai B'rith rights org.]) opposing NAZISM; and two unfamiliar answers, JALAPA, or [Capital of Veracruz: Var.], and ESG, or ["A South Bronx Story" band].
Boston Globe backlog, part 1
6/22 BG 9:30
6/29 BG 8:34
Henry Hook's "Identity Theft," dated June 22, jettisons an ID from various phrases to generate the eight theme entries. Joan of Arc's epithet, Maid of Orleans, becomes MA OF ORLEANS, or [Mere?]. My eyeballs wanted MAO FOR something. An [Exciting dance?] is a MERRY WOW (Widow) WALTZ. The final theme entry, [1979 Super Bowl?], contains numerals: FRAY (Friday) THE 13TH. That 1 is an I in the crossing, while the 3 is part of BOWL A 3OO, where the zeroes are portrayed by the letter O. I like surprises in a crossword, but that's a bit much in the way of 1/I, 0/O confusion. I enjoyed seeing TOONCES, [SNL's "Driving Cat"], in the fill. Less fun were these three entries: NIZER, or [Attorney Louis]; LT COM, or [Coast Guard rank (abbr.)] (the Coast Guard seems to prefer the abbreviation LCDR, and I'm not clear on where LT COM came from); and MOLNAR, or ["Liliom" playwright]—I leaned heavily on the crossings for all three.
Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's "Logic Problem," dated June 29, adapts a proof by Raymond SMULLYAN (51-Across), from the book WHAT IS THE NAME OF / THIS BOOK. Two parts are repeated in the quip: (1) NOTHING AT ALL IS BETTER (2) THAN ETERNAL HAPPINESS. (3) A HAM SANDWICH IS BETTER (4) THAN NOTHING. THEREFORE (5) A HAM SANDWICH IS BETTER (6) THAN ETERNAL HAPPINESS. I disagree. Make it a peanut butter sandwich and I could go for that. I'm not wild about quip and quote themes in general, but the name-heavy fill helped redeem this one. SOLEDAD O'Brien, SHAQ O'Neal, SOREN Kierkegaard, LONI Anderson, LBJ, TITIAN, ELIJAH Wood, SALADIN, Henry MOORE, Devon AOKI, OMAR Vizquel, Floyd LANDIS, Lindsay LOHAN, the OSMONDS, Sammy SOSA, OSCAR Madison, NOAH Webster, MOBY, Meriwether LEWIS, and Jim THOME—that is kind of a lot of names, isn't it? It's not many more than in Hook's 6/22 Globe puzzle, but quite a bit more than yesterday's NYT.
July 20, 2008
Monday, 7/21
Jonesin' 4:07
NYS 2:58
NYT 2:51
LAT 2:50
CS 2:38
(post updated at 10:30 a.m. Monday)
Gilbert Ludwig's New York Times crossword bundles together three movie titles that follow the format of "The [synonym for "happy"] [term for a woman defined in relation to a man]." In 1934, Ginger Rogers starred in THE GAY DIVORCEE and Jeanette MacDonald played THE MERRY WIDOW. More recently (in 1975), Lynn Redgrave portrayed THE HAPPY HOOKER. Let's see—what seems out of kilter for a Monday puzzle? I wonder what degree of fame journalist ADELA Rogers St. Johns possesses outside of crosswords. I know her only from crosswords. Writer Zora NEALE Hurston is, I hope, widely renowned. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a terrific read. YMA Sumac is a crossword regular—doesn't she make so much more sense perched atop the YMCA? Overall, pretty darned Mondayish fill, I'd say. Did anyone else read the [Stinky stream] clue, see that the space had five squares, and think of URINE? The [Placid vacation vista] clue for LAKE VIEW is one way to go; [The neighborhood beside Orange's] would be another (94,000 people! City neighborhoods are big, yo.). Lots of non-Mondayish cross-referencing in this puzzle—TURKS live in ANKARA, and actress Saint's first and middle names are EVA and MARIE (or hyphenated first name, if that's how it is). 
The New York Sun puzzle by Sarah Keller, "Street Closings," has a Gothamite theme. The five long answers end with words that are also street names in NYC: BRICK WALL and ROOT CANAL, sure. I presume that the bold words in ECHO CHAMBERS, THE RITE OF SPRING, and CONCERT GRAND are also New York streets, but they sound only faintly familiar. The [Tour de France competitor] is CYCLER, but that sounds off to me; cyclist or biker, sure, but I don't think the bike-racing crowd uses "cycler" much. The two 8-letter answers in the fill, ICE CREAM and ONION DIP, clash horribly. Yes, they're both dairy products, but now I'm thinking of onion ice cream and it's making me sad. Almost as sad as that ice cream they used to stock in the college cafeteria—licorice chip. It was charcoal gray with black bits.
Updated:
The LA Times crossword appears to be Scott Atkinson's debut. (Congrats, Scott!) He partnered with Nancy Salomon. The puzzle's got a heckuva lot of theme squares for a debut, and they're all over the grid. BOX at 65-Down ties them all together, as the theme phrases start with words that can follow BOX. [Auto-care brand with a reptilian name] is TURTLE WAX, and box turtles are a kind of turtle. SEAT OF THE PANTS means [Instinctive], and box seats offer premium seating. 
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle, "First Names in the Funnies," kicks it old-school with Jughead and Midge's pals from the Archie comics. The first names in the theme entries are all Archie characters—ARCHIE MANNING is a [Noted Saints quarterback of the '70s], BETTY CROCKER is a [Big name in baking], VERONICA LAKE was the ["This Gun for Hire" actress], and REGGIE JACKSON is [Baseball's "Mr. October"]. I wasn't sure about Archie Manning's last name, but the rest of the theme practically filled itself in. Yep, I read some Betty & Veronica comics when I was a kid. Cute theme, and perfect for a Monday.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword is called "Bizarro World," and all the theme entries become opposites by getting an ANTI added to the beginning. For example, [Street where tires never slip?] is ANTISKID ROW, playing on Skid Row, and a thesis paper is turned into ANTITHESIS PAPER, [What opposites are written down on?]. I do not have a pad of antithesis paper, but I could use one. My favorite theme entry rebutted Gen X-ers, with ANTIGEN XERS being [People who cross out a substance that causes an immune response?]. Overlong clue, but the answer looks good in the grid.
July 19, 2008
Sunday, 7/20
NYT 9:58
PI 7:58
BG 7:31
CS 4:04
LAT untimed
I may or may not be able to get to the other Sunday puzzles. I'm at my in-laws' using Dad's PC, and it seems like it would be rude to download Across Lite onto someone else's machine. I've got AL on my laptop, but there's no wireless in the house and I'd have to go around the corner to the lounge at the gas station. (Curses! Should've pre-loaded Across Lite files on the laptop before I left home.) If Ben and his cousins resume shrieking like particularly energetic banshees like they were while I was solving the NYT crossword, though, I just might run away from home and go to the BP.
If anyone else feels like stepping in and writing at length about the other crosswords in the comments, please don't hesitate! Kick off that conversation if you'd like to.
Barry Silk's Sunday New York Times crossword is called "Across the Board" and the board in question is a chessboard. There are circled squares in the theme entries, and those circled squares spell out the KING, QUEEN, PAWN, KNIGHT, ROOK, and BISHOP as well as CHESS, the game that features these pieces. Listen, I'm used to having two visible windows open, one with the blogging screen and one with the puzzle. I don't know the ins and outs of Windows machines so I have no idea how to get a screen capture of my solution grid. And I printed out the applet page, but that lacks a full list of clues, and the screen's not big enough to show me two windows at once. (Grumble, mumble.) Moving on: The full theme entries are unrelated--they're just here to contain the chess words. Was there a clue somewhere that wrapped them all up in a bow? If so, I missed it during the banshee recital.
Interesting entries and those that might be a tad obscure:
My favorite clue is [Flies over the Equator] for TSETSES. Lame ol' answer, salvaged by a tricky clue--I always appreciate that approach. It's too much of a hassle to toggle back and forth between windows to find other good clues, so that's all I've got tonight. (Windows and Explorer, grr.) Feel free to give a shout-out to your favorites in the comments, though.
Updated late Sunday night:
Many thanks to Tony Orbach for stepping up to comment-blog about Rich Norris's CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge." Lots of good fill and fun clues, as Tony said. No point repeating what Tony said, is there? Yep, it's all there in the comments.
Thanks to Joon, too, for comment-blogging the syndicated LA Times Sunday crossword by Ray Hamel. I solved this one in the Milwaukee newspaper, so I don't have a screen-grab for you. I guess the constructor needed another 10, so the MORSE entry wasn't Samuel, telegraph inventor, or Robert, star of "Tru" on stage, but BARRY MORSE, whose name was completely unknown to me. I dunno—this sort of theme, the "last word can precede the word ___ in established phrases" thing, is a little arid on a Monday. I don't know that it's got enough zip to carry a Sunday puzzle. SNICKERS BAR is terrific, but most of the other "___ code"-based theme entries left me uninspired.
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle this week is called "Q and A, Sort Of." The theme entries all complete various sarcastic questions, such as "What are you waiting for, AN INVITATION?" and "What are you, AN EXPERT ALL OF A SUDDEN?" Rows 3 and 4 and rows 18 and 19 of this puzzle are filled with stacked theme entries, which is cool. Overall, the fill didn't do much for me, but I enjoyed some of the clues a lot—[Waits onstage?] is singer TOM Waits, ["Happy colon" dishes] are SALADS (blowing the breakfast test out of the water), and [Run out of clothes?] for STREAK. The last square I filled in was the intersection between the [Flagstaff sch.] and [Point]. NAU, I'm guessing, is short for Northern Arizona University, and point and USE are equivalent in the "What's the point/use?" sense. Sure, guessing a U for the end of an abbreviated school is often a safe bet, but the I was blanking on the [Point]. [Actress Lee] is RUTA? She has a website, but I still don't recognize her. Apparently she used to be a regular on some game shows. 
Henry Hook's Boston Globe rerun crossword in Across Lite, "A Case of the DTs," changes a word's final D sound to a T sound. "Wide-open spaces" become a crossword's WHITE OPEN SPACES, for example. Plenty of interesting fill in this grid—the verb ATTRIT, clued as [Reduce the enemy's numbers]; JIM BOB Walton; SLOVAK; Robert BROWNING, a reporter's FIVE W'S, the KLIBAN cats. There was one word that jumped out as an oddity—GRUE, or [Shudder, to Scots]. That word may be obsolete, but it lives on in gruesome.
July 18, 2008
Saturday, 7/19
NYT 7:41
LAT 5:53
Newsday 5:25
CS 3:29
Argh! You know when you have a tentative answer in place, and then you change one letter because you get one of the crossing words, and you leave the rest of the letters there, even though MNEA is clearly not a word? (I tagged the [Selective service registrant] as a ONE-A for some reason, but it's a MALE.) I made a few other wrong turns on Todd McClary's New York Times crossword, but managed to erase all the wrong letters when the time came. Like making the [Trattoria offering] into a meatball instead of OSSO BUCO, and [Menacing], that was sadistic instead of SINISTER, and [Exposed] was overt instead of OUTED. I liked the loser mini-theme, YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL and MET ONE'S WATERLOO. But there was an overall vibe of "boy's club" that I found off-putting or, at the very least, not in my wheelhouse:
The crossings let me solve everything correctly, but it's not a good feeling to have two nouns and a name that are 100% unfamiliar to me. Are T-STOPS, GOBOS, and RANDA quite gettable for you, or were you also wondering what these random letter sequences were doing in place of actual words?
Favorite clues:
Slow spots:
Updated:
Yikes! I need to get moving here—am going to Wisconsin for the weekend, leaving later this morning, and I haven't packed at all. Must use blogular brevity!
In Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Getting Quiet," the theme entries' original phrases take on a "SH." Thus, a roller rink becomes a ROLLER SHRINK, or [Skating psychiatrist?]. That was my favorite theme entry, with the SHRED ALERT (["Quick! Rip up the documents!"]) a close second. [Pre-flood ancestor of Jaws?] is NOAH'S SHARK, and [Bailiff's cry?] is SHOUT OF ORDER.
Barry Silk's themeless LA Times crossword was pretty smooth, but put up a fight in spots. Things I didn't exactly know:
Favorite clues: [Took in a poor boy?] for ATE a sandwich; [Sierra Nevada unit] for a BEER BOTTLE; [There's a lot of junk in it] is SNAIL MAIL; [They're paid for services] for SALARIES; and [Penn and others] are IVIES, as in Ivy League schools.
Merle Baker's Newsday "Saturday Stumper" is the easiest Stumper in weeks, thanks to a more workable batch of crossings for the answers I wasn't going to get based on their clues. The tougher bits included:
July 17, 2008
Friday, 7/18
NYS 7:33
NYT 5:31
CHE 4:16
CS 3:39
LAT tba—I can't get Cruciverb.com to load today, so no LAT in Across Lite yet
WSJ 9:42
I have a headache, which does not put me in a blogging frame of mind. Also, if you happen to have solved the Sun and Times crosswords without a headache and you were faster than me, please remember that my brain is aching. (Preemptive excuse-making! I excel at that.)
Up first, Mike Nothnagel's New York Times crossword. 
I liked it a lot. A crossword that works GAY-FRIENDLY into the mix (clued as [Inclusive, as some resorts]) gives me the warm fuzzies. I've edited plenty of sleep medicine papers, so I liked the combination of CIRCADIAN RHYTHM ([It helps you sleep at night] rather than in the daytime) at 17-Across and JETLAG, which is a potent [17-Across disrupter] (so is shift work).
The nastiest bits, the ones that demanded attention to their crossings, included:
Interesting or unusual answers:
Assorted other things I feel like mentioning, but no longer have the will to organize:
Joe DiPietro's New York Sun puzzle is called "Shuffle the Deck," so I figured the theme would have something to do with playing cards. Indeed, we are treated to SPOONERISMs of four cards. After swapping the initial consonant sounds (or lack thereof), the eight of hearts becomes HATE OF ARTS, a [Philistine's characteristic?]. The ace of spades is SPACE OF AIDES. The [Movie river's senior member gets better?] was hard to parse. Rivers have members? The queen of diamonds turns into a brief tale in which the DEAN OF KWAI MENDS. That one's tortured so far, it's almost genius. Six of clubs is CLICKS OF SUBS.
The clues and answers I admired the most:
Updated:
Harvey Estes constructed this week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Boarding Requests." The boarding in question has a Star Trek bent to it—together, 65- and 67-Across spell out BEAM / ME UP. Those ME's are beamed up from the four theme entries in the grid's bottom half, where they've been removed from phrases that are reclued accordingly, and teleported smack-dab into the four theme entries up top, also clued accordingly. [Brand-name desserts in a food fight?], for example, are SARA MELEE CAKES. The [Plain grazer?] is a HOMELY COW. The [Guilt-ridden doo-wop group?] is SHAME NA NA. After the ME's were beamed up, what was left at the bottom included 'TIS SQUARE (Times Square), or [Comment about something that's ne'er been hip], and LEAD A CHARD LIFE (charmed), or [Be a vegetarian]. Good theme, tons of good fill and clues. One of my pet peeves is crosswords that pretend that "coeds" isn't a sexist term for "female college students." So props to Harvey and/or editor Mike Shenk for [Connecticut coeds] as a clue for ELIS—maybe the Yale students in question are thought to be female, but ELIS is a gender-neutral term for Yale students. I have never once used MELON to mean [Financial windfall]. Which kind of melon is it? I prefer watermelon. Favorite clues: [Appealing, maybe] for IN COURT; [Place for some drawers] for ART CLASS; [Evidence from a hairsplitter?] for DNA; and [Area between the shoulders] for the ROAD.
I quickly caught onto the theme in Larry Shearer's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Copy Writers." [Difficulties in writing "Common Sense"?] are Thomas PAINE'S PAINS, and all the theme entries follow that structure, author's name in the possessive + a homophone of that possessive. Dario FO'S FOES are [Those who opposed the writing of "Accidental Death of an Anarchist"?]. That writer a great many of us know strictly from his appearances in crosswords, Charles Reade, figures into READE'S READS, or [Texts that influenced the writing of "The Cloister and the Hearth"?]. Edgar Allan POE'S POSE is the [Stance assumed while writing "The Purloined Letter"?]. [Libations enjoyed while writing "War Trash"?] are JIN'S GINS, and I had to look that one up. It's a recent novel by Ha Jin and it won the National Book Award. The most insane entry in the puzzle was [Local assembly of czarist Russia], or ZEMSTVO. The Wikipedia article tells me this mode of local government allowed the peasants a wee smidgen of involvement, though the nobles hogged most of the slots for themselves.
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword is called "Plus-Fours," and it's got nothing to do with those crazy-looking short pants that may well be in evidence at the British Open golf tournament this weekend. Instead, the theme entries add four to the number in various phrases. You know the story of the Three Little Pigs—add four and you get SEVEN LITTLE PIGS, [A full litter?]. [A very lucky find?] might be an EIGHT-LEAF CLOVER (though I'd worry about mutagens in the local environment if I saw one...). The [Extended Beatles song?] is TWELVE DAYS A WEEK, which would be a lot of days in the week to be loving someone.
July 16, 2008
Thursday, 7/17
NYS 5:14
NYT 4:07
LAT 3:53
CS 3:15
Patrick Berry's New York Sun "Themeless Thursday," by the numbers:
Favorite clues:
Elizabeth Long's New York Times crossword was easier for me than yesterday's. How about you? The theme is described by 42-Down, SHAPES UP, clued as [Quits misbehaving...or a literal hint to 4-, 9-, 13-, 49- and 57-Down]. Those six answers are all shapes, written up rather than down in the grid. The [Percussion instrument in an orchestra] is the triangle, or ELGNIART. [Coterie] is circle, or ELCRIC. [Headliner] is star, or RATS. An [Unhip person] is a square, or ERAUQS. And a [Racetrack] is typically an oval, or LAVO. Cute gimmick, and one with a justification—the phrase SHAPES UP. Just a bunch of shapes spelled backwards would seem a bit arbitrary, but that phrase elevates the theme.
The longest fill is just that—fill, not thematic. WHIRLIGIG is clued as a [Colorful lawn or garden fixture], and an ARTICHOKE is [Something you might want to get to the heart of?]. Trickier clues: [Hebrews, for example] for EPISTLE; [They cross here] for the WORDS in this crossword; ["___ This Last" (series of John Ruskin essays] for UNTO; [One of TV's Rugrats] is LIL (if you're like me, you've been burned by that other Rugrat, DIL, in crosswords before and were proud of yourself for quickly entering that at 7-Down here...but it's wrong); [Small hill] for both KNOLL and RISE; [Mobile home?: Abbr.] for ALA (as in Mobile, Alabama); [Bird with speckled eggs] is a WREN; and [Avant-garde filmmaker Brakhage] for STAN.
Updated:
Doug Peterson's LA Times crossword can be summed up by the last theme entry, TIRE ROTATION ([Mechanic's job, literally illustrated in this puzzle]). In the other theme entries, the letters in the word TIRE are rotated in stepwise fashion. Move the E to the beginning and get ETIR, embedded in GET IRRITATED ([Start to steam]). Cycle the R to the beginning of that to get RETI, which is in ONE MORE TIME. Now slide the I over for IRET, within WIRETAPPING ([Surveillance technique]). That leaves T to complete the rotation back to the front for TIRE in TIRE ROTATION. As with the NYT gimmick, it's the common phrase that provides the justification for the gimmick—a random 4-letter word going through the rotation could feel kinda arbitrary. The long Down entries are unrelated to the theme, but isn't it nice to see CHICHEN ITZA, the [Mayan tourist site], in the grid?
Favorite clues:
The CrosSynergy puzzle called "Null and Void" is by Paula Gamache. The five theme entries are phrases that end with words that have a "null and void" sense: HOBBIT HOLE is ["The Fellowship of the Ring" residence]. GIMME A BREAK means ["Do you think I'm that stupid?"]. To DRAW A BLANK is to [Get lucky at Scrabble, maybe]. GENERATION GAP and DOUBLE-SPACE round out the theme. [Nit-picker's nit] in literal terms is the egg of a COOTIE, or louse. Coincidentally, there's a Language Log post today about "cooties" and other schoolyard lingo.
July 15, 2008
Wednesday, 7/16
NYT 5:39
NYS 4:44
CS 4:36
LAT 3:45
(post updated at 10:20 a.m. Wednesday)
The last four Boston Globe Sunday puzzles—the always-on-syndication-delay Across Lite versions, which were further delayed by litzer Nancy Shack's travels, are now posted. The ones you're looking for are June 22 through July 13. I haven't done these puzzles yet and probably will not retro-blog them.
In other puzzle news, bloggers Ryan and Brian are puttin' on a hootenanny! They call it Lollapuzzoola '08, it's a mini crossword tournament, and it'll be in Queens on August 23. Registration is $10, and there'll be puzzles by Mike Nothnagel and Doug Peterson. (Details here.)
Patrick Blindauer's New York Sun puzzle, "Movin' On Up," has 15 H's in it, and they're all stacked up to make a rickety ladder. (It wouldn't be as rickety if I'd solved the puzzle on paper and drawn really wide, tall H's.) 7-Down's clue is [Visual representation of an item associated with the answers to the asterisked clues in this puzzle]. This is sort of a rule-breaker, as that "visual representation" can't really pass as a word—but then, rebus puzzles sometimes break that same rule. That 15-H ladder goes with a TREEHOUSE ([Backyard club locale]), CROW'S / NEST ([With 59-Down, lookout's place]), and FIRE / TRUCK ([With 57-Down, red vehicle]). By now, you probably all know that Patrick enjoys finding inventive ways of playing with crosswords and adding a visual or spatial or diagonal layer to the grid—so here, he's done it again. I'm partial to the wide-open corners of the grid, packed with 6- and 7-letter fill. My favorite clues:
Joe Krozel's New York Times crossword also breaks a rule: It's got eight answers that are only 2 letters long, whereas the standard crossword convention is that all answers must be at least 3 letters long. The note in the title field on the NYT's applet is incomplete: It reads only "The two-letter answers are state postal abbreviations." In the Across Lite version, a longer note is provided (oddly, in the title bar in teeny print rather than in the Notepad) that provides the state nicknames for the eight abbreviated states included. These are as follows:
So, is this a 16-letter theme, or a themeless puzzle with a state gimmick? The word count (72 entries) is low enough for themeless status, and I can't detect any sort of theme in the longer answers. Those longer answers are groovy, though—four pairs of stacked 15's framing the grid. That layout of long answers wouldn't work unless 2-letter answers were allowed; otherwise, they'd be triple-stacked 15s framing the grid, and that may well be impossible to pull off—though I'd love to see such a crossword! The long answers are:
Other clues and answers of note: [Bear, in old Rome] is URSUS; [Put into office: Var.] is ENSTATE; ["You mean me?"] is a faux-innocent "MOI?"; [Something with this is not neat] refers to ICE in a drink; [Beautiful woman of paradise] is an old word, HOURI; RRS or railroads are the [Purview of the I.C.C.]; [Swing alternative] is BEBOP music; [Superior canal locale] is in the INNER EAR; [Forward] is the awkward REMAIL; STILETTO is a [Heel style] I've never worn; a plant [Shoot in a swamp] is a REED.
Updated:
Wow, I really like the clues in Mike Peluso's LA Times crossword. The theme is SAWS at 69-Across—the six long theme entries begin with kinds of saws. There's no great phrase I can think of that starts with JIG (other than jigsaw puzzle, but that's got the saw right in it) or HACK (hack to bits is a tad violent), but Mike grouped these six saws together for his theme:
- BANDSTAND, or [Outdoor concert venue]
- BUZZ ALDRIN, or [Apollo 11 astronaut]
- COPING WITH, or [Handling]
- BACKSIDES, or [Posteriors]
- SABERTOOTH, or [Cenozoic big cat]
- HAND TOWELS, or [Kitchen driers]
My favorite clues were many: [Thicker on the page, maybe] for a BOLD font; [Animal, vegetable, and mineral] for NOUNS; [Cup's 48: Abbr.] for TSPS (teaspoons); [Incredulous dying words] for Caesar's ET TU; ["Aaay!" sayer of '70s-'80s TV] for the FONZ; and [It's neither here nor there] for LIMBO. A lotta theme, a lotta good clues, a solid puzzle.
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Cut and Paste," has a relatively blah quip: WALLPAPERING IS / EASY ONCE YOU / GET THE HANG OF IT. There were a couple things in the fill I simply didn't know. [Cat's-paw] is a SAP, with the term coming from a fable about a monkey who duped a cat and used the cat's paw to reach into the fire. I momentarily blanked on *ECKEL pears, the crossing for the first letter; they're Seckel pears. POTEEN is [Irish moonshine] and it's also spelled poitín. The crossings were fair, though.Links of interest
Via Nancy Friedman, I learned of the Survey of American Jewish Language. It'll take you about 10 minutes if you're not Jewish, 20 if you are (and get more detailed questions). The researchers are particularly keen on surveying more non-Jewish folks, so whether you are or aren't Jewish, go take the survey. What, you have something better to do? You're so busy? It won't kill you to take the survey.
I received an e-mail today from Blogged.com, whatever that is. Their tagline is "Find better blogs," and the site's editors assess blogs' "Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style" in order to assign a score. Diary of a Crossword Fiend clocks in at 8.2, or "Great." Hey, I'll take it! Most of the blogs listed under the "crossword" tag aren't crossword commentary blogs at all. These are the other still-active daily crossword commentary blogs I'm aware of (most of them not yet rated, some not listed on that page at all):
- Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle—rated "Very Good," 7.8; discusses the New York Times crossword
- The Jim H Crossword Blog—discusses the New York Times crossword and integrates his NYT crossword database
- Ryan and Brian Do Xwords Blog—two guys discuss the New York Times crossword; they used to mention other puzzles too, but haven't lately; they also do a podcast, which I haven't heard (not much of a podcast person)
- Square Times—discusses the New York Times crossword
- The New York Times Crossword in Gothic— discusses the New York Times crossword
- Sun Blocks—discusses the New York Sun crossword
- Star Tribune Crossword Corner—discusses the Tribune Media Services crossword
July 14, 2008
Tuesday, 7/15
Tausig 4:29
Onion 3:53
CS 3:28
NYS 3:19
LAT 2:58
NYT 2:44
(Post updated at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday)
The New York Times crossword by Leonard Williams features a Tuesdayish collection of phrases that all hark back nostalgically to the olden days. ONCE UPON A TIME is, of course, many a [Fairy tale's start]. [Grandpa's start] to an anecdote about walking to and from school uphill both ways might be WHEN I WAS A BOY. BACK IN THE DAY is clued as [Mom's start], though I associate the phrase most clearly with my editorial assistant, well, back in the day. Rona used to say that a lot—and yes, part of why I hired her was because her first name was so crossword-familiar. (That other assistant named Khristine? Doomed.) IN YEARS GONE BY could be a [Legend's start]. Oddball entries elsewhere in the grid: GARCIA is [Ice cream flavor Cherry ___], and my son says it's delicious. ESA is [That, to Tomas], not your typical crossword Español. The [Thor Heyerdahl craft] is RAI, or RA I, but there are 38 times more Google hits for his name and "Ra II" than for his name and "Ra I," which Heyerdahl probably just called "Ra." A [Bacterium that doesn't need oxygen] is an ANAEROBE. Male SIKHS are turbaned [Followers of Guru Nanak].
Barry Silk's New York Sun crossword, "In the Middle," puts an IN in the middle of a two-word phrase and welds it to the beginning of the second word. A [Bill from an orator?] might be a SPEAKING INVOICE. [Saudi oil revenue?] is KINGDOM INCOME. A RUNAWAY INJURY could be the [Cause of a fugitive's pain?]. And, aptly, a [Praying mantis] is a RELIGIOUS INSECT. Sixteen of the fill entries are 6 letters or longer, which I always like. We get a side of BASMATI rice ([Long-grain rice]), MANHOLES ([Sewer entries]), TASTEBUD ([Tongue sensor]), and PLAY DEAD ([Lie motionless]) along with two names utterly unfamiliar to me—[Hall of Fame hockey coach Roger] NEILSON and [Two-time N.L. batting champ Richie] ASHBURN. The crossings for both were uniformly gettable, fortunately.
Updated:
Rich Norris, working under his "Lila Cherry" pseudonym, crafted today's LA Times crossword. The theme is COMICS (43-Down), and each of the four theme entries ends with the name of a comic strip. WORK FOR PEANUTS ([Earn starvation wages]) refers to the Charles Schulz classic strip, "Peanuts." "Opus" is Berkeley Breathed's follow-up to "Bloom County," which was my favorite strip in the '80s; it's in MAGNUM OPUS ([Writer's greatest work]). "Shoe" appears in TENNIS SHOE, or [Court footwear]; that clue's followed by [Court coup] for ACE, another tennis clue that I thought might refer to the jurisprudence system. [Rutherford B. Hayes's successor] was JAMES A. GARFIELD, and we will not speak of the comic strip included there. Hooray for majoring in English! I halfway knew that PELEG was the ["Moby Dick" ship co-owner].
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy crossword, "Field Theory," has a quip theme that's not half bad—it reinterprets the phrase "ballpark figure." TOO MANY SNACKS AT / THE STADIUM / CAN GIVE YOU / A BALLPARK FIGURE. Bring on the nachos! It's a nice touch to have SHEA ([Its last World Series was in 2000]) crossing THE STADIUM. I know Patrick likes to make pangrams (puzzles that include all 26 letters), but this one's short a Q. It may well be that Patrick has the highest percentage of pangram crosswords—does anyone know?
Both the Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword and the Onion A.V. Club puzzle are by Ben Tausig this week. The Onion theme is AND/OR, [Alternative words used as alternatives for each other in this puzzle's theme answers], with AND and OR swapped in selected phrases. Morel mushrooms become Howie MANDEL MUSHROOMS, [Gourmet "Deal or No Deal" prizes?]. A [Tool for nailing mail?] is an ARMOR HAMMER (Arm and Hammer baking soda). Error-prone turns into ERRAND-PRONE, or [Apt to stop at the grocery store?]; I like this one a lot. I am not errand-prone, in case you wondered. [Sign above a closet?] is STORING ROOM ONLY (standing room only). Two entries in the fill have come out of that closet—[Pejorative term co-opted and redefined by some] is used to clue both HOMO and DYKE. For example, there's the "Dykes To Watch Out For" comic strip. Favorite clues: [Give 110%, say] for OVERTIP, and [Demoted, neologistically] for PLUTOED.
Ben's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle, "Initial Action," really startled me. There I was, meandering through the grid...working on the theme entry at 60-Across...let's see, what's that first crossing, 55-Down? [Diary of a Crossword Fiend, e.g.]. Oh! Hello! This here is a BLOG. 
It absolutely made my day to see that clue, and come Thursday or Friday, I'll definitely be grabbing a few extra copies of the Reader. Thanks for the cruciverbal shout-out, Ben! The theme entries reverse a 3-letter abbreviation to change the meaning of a phrase. (Thanks to Jan for noticing the abbrevs were reversed, not merely scrambled.) PTA bake sales become professional tennis's ATP BAKE SALES—[Fundraisers where Federer and Nadal sell Rice Krispie Treats and upside-down cake?]. ABM (antiballistic missile) Treaty becomes MBA TREATY, or an [Accord among future CEOS?]. Your AIM Buddy List for instant messaging turns into an MIA BUDDY LIST, or [Catalog of disappeared comrades?]. (Aww, sad.) High-speed DSL modems are transformed into LSD MODEMS, or [Drug connections?]. I didn't know that a stand-up [Certain promotional item for a film] was called a STANDEE. '80s pop culture fans get ABACAB, the [Double-platinum Genesis album of 1981]. If you're not familiar with the clothing store called French Connection UK, you still might've seen people wearing FCUK t-shirts like this. The clue, [Clothier that exploits its initials to controversial effect], is pretty straightforward. I have no idea who ESTELLE is, other than having just read the clue, ["American Boy" (ft. Kanye West) singer]; all I know is that "ft." or "feat." is short for "featuring." ISLAM is clued as [Religion to which 10% of American voters believe Barack Obama belongs], and it's almost a shame that there's no requirement for voters to pass a critical thinking test before receiving a ballot.
July 13, 2008
Monday, 7/14
Jonesin' 4:05
NYS 3:54
CS 3:04
NYT 2:34
LAT 2:32
Last updated at 1:20 p.m. Monday
It felt like I was moving easily through Ed Early's New York Times crossword, and yet I found myself mired in the theme. Mired! Yes, I am easily amused. If you lop off the ends of the four theme entries, you're left with assorted words meaning "morass." The two Across theme entries are Bostonian—FENWAY PARK, the [Red Sox stadium], and SWAMPSCOTT, a [Seaside community NE of Boston] that would have been woefully obscure to me if I hadn't become friends with someone who lives there. Did SWAMPSCOTT give anyone fits? In the fill, there's also the [Massachusetts vacation spot, with "the"], CAPE. The Down theme entries are from '70s Hollywood—MARSHA MASON, the ["Goodbye Girl" actress], and BOGDANOVICH, [Peter who directed "The Last Picture Show"]. Actress GENA Rowlands is in the fill—and she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in the '70s. Not long ago, the word carillon was in another crossword, and I recall that a number of solvers weren't familiar with the word. Now it's in the clue [Carillon site], leading to BELL TOWER. I do like it when two puzzles in close proximity include the same word when it's a little troublesome the first time—it's good not to have a chance to forget the new word before you need to retrieve it.
The New York Sun puzzle by Mark Feldman is plus-sized—a 15x16 grid. The "Anatomy of Poker" theme isn't up my alley because the vocabulary of poker isn't something that's second nature to me. The theme entries end with poker terms and begin with body parts, but the complete phrases have non-poker meanings. A [Basketball no-no] is HAND-CHECK, and apparently my knowledge of basketball's lingo is as thorough as my poker ken, because I needed all the crossings for this one. [Keep one's ___ (be on the alert)] clues EYES OPEN, and I believe this one counts as an 8-letter partial phrase. A LEG RAISE is a [Yoga exercise], a SKIN FOLD might be a [Cosmetic surgery target, often] (ick), and that [1997 Jamie Foxx film], BOOTY CALL, predates his Oscar by several years. I'm reading a book about the origins of New Orleans, so CASTILE, the [Kingdom that comprised most of Spain], was fresh in my mind. ADOBOS, the [Marinated Philippine dishes], are flavored with garlic and vinegar. In a crossword, BAR NONE looks just like BARN ONE—what would that be? The president's barn? A rural credit card issuer? CHICKEN gets a lively clue—[Game for daredevils]. So does TUBE TOP—[Sleeveless garment]. You know, the tube top is back in style these days, and I don't understand it. We did that in 1982. We're done now.
Updated:
Derek Bowman's LA Times crossword has a vowel progression theme, and I correctly pegged it as such when I filled in BOLL WEEVIL, the [Cotton field pest] and checked the clue for the theme entry above it—BILL CLINTON, the [Sax-playing president]. The theme rounds out with a BALL BEARING ([Rolling anti-friction machine part]), BELL PEPPER ([Veggie that's commonly red, yellow or green], and BULL SESSION ([Informal discussion]). Overall, the fill and clues are quite easy, but there are a few things I've learned from doing umpty-thousand crosswords over the years that beginners might not know. For example, a [Spartan serf] is HELOT, [Einstein's birthplace] is ULM, and [Flying African threat] is TSETSE (it breeds most efficiently in the bottom row of crosswords). Favorite clue: [Words with a nice ring?] for a marriage PROPOSAL.
The theme in Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Easy as ABC," is phrases that contain a hidden ABC. [Topless Swedish import] sounds racy, but it's a SAAB CONVERTIBLE. CAB CALLOWAY was a [Cotton Club headliner]. [Maryland seafood specialty] is CRAB CAKE. [Cover-ups for chemists] are LAB COATS. And [Many an oil exporter] is an ARAB COUNTRY—I checked, and about half of OPEC's members are also part of the Arab League, though most Arab countries aren't in OPEC. In the fill, PIA MATER, or [Brain membrane], seemed a little tough for a Monday.
Updated again:
The theme in this week's Jonesin' crossword by Matt Jones is "Bye, George: items from the late George Carlin's 'Things to Watch Out For.'" I'm not at all familiar with the routine from which these items are drawn—here's a written list. The theme entries culled from that list are BROKEN GLASS, AIRLINE FOOD, CATTLE STAMPEDES, ACID RAIN, ENTROPY, LOCUSTS, and GRIDLOCK. So, 67 theme squares is quite a lot, but it's not so impressive when the list of candidates has about 130 items and when the comedy bit doesn't happen to resonate at all with the solver. Me, I preferred last week's themeless Jonesin'.
July 12, 2008
Sunday, 7/13
PI 9:02
LAT 8:42
NYT 8:27
CS 3:35
BG—provider of Across Lite file still on vacation
Post updated at 10:20 a.m. Sunday
Aw, thanks, folks! Some of you chipped in and covered the first three months of web-hosting fees. You know who you are, and you all deserve fresh-baked cookies for your kindness.
Based on the eight gazillion showtimes for Hancock at the multiplex today, I'd say that's the current Hot Summer Movie. We saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army instead. Who would have guessed that a Barry Manilow ballad would figure into it? Plus kittens and assorted trolls. What's not to love? Go see it.
There are first-name dynasties in crosswords, you know. There is a sisterhood of Nancys, a posse of Patricks, and also a budding duchy of Matts. Matt Gaffney and Matt Jones are supplemented by new kid on the block Matt Ginsberg. Matt Ginsberg's New York Times crossword is called "Parting Thoughts," and it's that rarity, a quip puzzle in the NYT. The [Last request] is TO DIE QUIETLY IN MY SLEEP / LIKE MY GRANDFATHER, / NOT / SCREAMING IN TERROR / LIKE THE PEOPLE IN HIS CAR. Macabre...yet funny. About 40% of the fill is 6+ letters long, and the grid's pretty low on the ARIA/OLEO/ERN scale. The answers and clues that sparkle the most are:
Familiarity with assorted European languages helps out in this puzzle:
French: [Crowd in Calais?] is TROIS; the [1970s Renault] was LE CAR; [Very dry], as wine, is BRUT; ENNUI is [Lassitude]; the [Deep bleu sea] is la MER; [Word of thanks] is MERCI.
Spanish: [Rains in Spain], which of course fall mainly in the plain, are waters, or AGUAS; [God, in Granada] is DIOS; [Salma Hayek, for one] is a LATINA; that [European carrier] is IBERIA; [Matador's move] is PASE.
Italian: PRIMA [___ ballerina]; [Uno + due] = TRE; some [Tasty tubes] of pasta are PENNE.
Latin: MEA [___ culpa]; QUASI is [Not exactly]; RES is a [Matter of law].
German: [Ein Berliner, often] is HERR.
Updated:
I solved Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle late Saturday night, when my head really wished that I'd just go to bed. Merl packs nine hat puns (one spans two entries) into "Hat Tricks":
Nobody does puns in bizarre categories like Merl.
The title of Dan Naddor's syndicated LA Times Sunday crossword, "Chuck Schwa," looks like Charles Schwab minus his last letter, but the theme's got nothing to do with investing. Rather, a schwa sound is chucked from 11 phrases to alter their meaning, often to comic effect:
That's a helluva lot of theme entries, with one spanning the entire width of the grid and the two Down ones crossing two Across theme entries each. Some of the fill is toughish, which I like. an [Old German coin] is a THALER (this eventually morphed into the word dollar). ORRIS ROOT is a [Perfumery fixative]. [Nearly 29% of TEL AVIV?] is VEES, as in the letters. An AGOUTI is a [Rabbitlike rodent]. [Brno's region] is MORAVIA in the Czech Republic (the other main Czech chunk is Bohemia).
This week's themeless CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" comes from Bruce Venzke and Stella Daily. [Division symbols] (÷) are called OBELI, but that symbol has older manuscript marking purposes, and the name obelus is also applied to the typographical dagger. Favorite entries: HA'PENNY, or [Currency unit in the song "Christmas Is Coming"]; TIME WARNER, or [Big name in media]; and the two -DO entries, THE MIKADO and TAE KWON DO. Favorite clue: [Coach often lacks it] for LEGROOM.
July 11, 2008
Saturday, 7/12
Newsday 6:46
NYT 6:14
LAT 5:21
CS 3:25
First things first: The new standings tool in the sidebar? Don't be a bozo and put in multiple times, or fake times, or asinine names. For example, there are a couple names in the Friday Sun standings that look to be one person posting two different times. We can't have that. And I decree that nobody should be going by "me" here except, well, me. I'm delighted, however, that the sort of people who try to game the NYT applet and post ridiculously unrealistic times have not yet wandered over here to pretend that they can do a Saturday puzzle in two minutes flat. And aren't we all grateful that Crossword Fiend now offers a way for Dan Feyer to let us see how much faster he usually does the Sun compared to the rest of us? Dang, if Peter Gordon started up his own crossword tournament, I'd have to train like hell for it.
Another thing: Adding this feature to the blog meant I had to get a web hosting account. Those things cost money, and donations via the Amazon "honor box" (a.k.a. the tip jar) are always much appreciated. Merci, grazie, Danke, gracias, etc., my dears. xoxoxo
Myles Callum's New York Times crossword was moving along quite well until I hit the southwest quadrant and mucked things up. Focusing first on the happy parts, I liked getting off to a good start in the northwest. [911 pest, e.g.] could have been PRANK CALLER as well as CRANK CALLER, but 1-Down was [100-lb. units], which crosswords have taught me are CWTS (hundredweights). The [D.H. Lawrence novel made into a 1969 film] is WOMEN IN LOVE, which I may or may not have read. (Might've been Sons and Lovers...) Today's lunch was a salad, not exactly a TOSSED SALAD, and I treated it as a main course and not [Many a first course]. I like that the [Cud chewers] are LLAMAS, because a friend of mine has a theory that Will Shortz has a secret llama ranch. [Flight destinations] are birds' NESTS and have nothing to do with flights of stairs or airplanes—this is one of my favorite clues in this puzzle. [True, at times: Abbr.] is an ANS. on a true/false test.
Moving clockwise to the next corner, I love the clue [Track edges] for HEAD STARTS—a metaphorical edge and not a physical one. [Comforters on kids' beds] are TEDDY BEARS, not bedspreads; Ben's got a Komodo dragon, frog, and moose atop his bed. I didn't know that SANTA FE was the [Home of the Museum of International Folk Art]. That Spanish place name sits atop a Spanish word, TIERRA, or [Land at a Spanish airport?]. I have never called anyone a FUNSTER ([Clown]), but that just so happens to be a nickname used by the brother of the llama theorist. I like those little hits of literary trivia that I've picked up over the years without actually reading the works in question—for instance, I know DANTES is ["The Count of Monte Cristo" hero].
NINTENDOS ([They're hooked up to some TV's]) transport us to the next quadrant of the grid. NOAH'S [Dove (the constellation Columba)] is one of those answers I got strictly via the crossings. I didn't know that the English called it an AVOCADO PEAR ([Fruit with a pit, to a Brit])—avocado, sure, and alligator pear, yes, but not avocado pear. Live and learn, eh? Some of the NOTE PASSERS ([Clandestine classroom communicators]) might eventually become one another's DINNER DATES ([Restaurant parties, often]). [Catch, in a way] is a great Saturday clue for HEAR, and [Shade] for NUANCE; either one could be so many other things. TIVO [can stop the show]; so can your cable company's proprietary DVR, as I well know.
The ring around the black-square plus sign in the middle has its knots, too. That [30-day winter month] is one of the Hebrew months that doesn't show up too often (unlike ELUL and ADAR) in crosswords—it's SHEBAT (and I think sometimes it's transliterated as SHEVAT, isn't it?). ELENAS are the ["Uncle Vanya" wife and others]. The '60s dance called the WATUSI is a [Mashed potato alternative]—come on, who wanted fries or another side dish here? I know I did.
I bungled the final quadrant by entering FEEL SAD instead of LOOK SAD for [Be down, apparently]—the "apparently" part signals the appearance aspect of LOOK, darn it, and I should've known that. That confused things like [Sri Lanka exports], which are PEKOES and other teas; with an L in place of the K, I contemplated erroneous melons. I can scarcely imagine a less toothsome beverage than the [Aromatic herbal quaff] called ANISE TEA. *shudder* Cluing highlights in the southwest zone: [Got into the swing, say] for SAT (as in "sat down in a swing"); [Ones with shovellike forefeet] as a particularly non-obvious clue for MOLES; [Play halters] for STALEMATES, not TiVos; [Makes a big hit] for TRIPLES in baseball; and [Longtime flame?] for PILOT LIGHT. AILEEN [Quinn who played Annie in film] helped bail me out in this corner. Did you know that STP was a [1999 Clorox acquisition]? I sure didn't. And [Any one of Handel's Op. 2 pieces] is a TRIO SONATA? I'll take your word for it, Myles and Will.
Updated:
The theme in Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle was mystifying me. What do these people have in common: DREW CAREY, [Host of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"]; LIONEL RICHIE, ["Say You, Say Me" singer]; JOHN WILKES BOOTH, [Abraham Lincoln's assassin]; and ETHEL KENNEDY, [Matriarch Rose's daughter-in-law]? Right around the time I was approaching the fifth theme entry, it hit me—those first names are all shared by members of the famed BARRYMORE acting dynasty. I love that theme!
Brad Wilber's themeless LA Times crossword duped me with 1-Across. [Formula replacer]? Often that's WHOLE MILK at age 1. But no, SOLID FOOD is what belongs in that spot. (I am now envisioning foods whose phase of matter is gas. That'd give new meaning to "He really inhaled that burger.") RUN TO SEED ([Deteriorate]) and GO TO WASTE ([Be squandered]) belong together, don't they? Other suitable combos here are literary names GARP ([Author of the fictional novella "The Pension Grillparzer"]), GREER (["The Female Eunuch" author]), and ICE PALACE ([Edna Ferber novel set in Alaska]); and the [Upright] and HONORABLE [Unselfish types], or ALTRUISTS. Favorite clues and answers:
Things I didn't know: I've heard of the Pentateuch, but [Prefix with -teuch] is OCTA here. The Octateuch is the Pentateuch plus the books of Ruth, Judges, and Joshua. ALETA is [Hal Foster's Queen of the Misty Isles]. Prince Valiant, right? The "Misty Isles" bit made me think I was looking for the name of a boat at Niagara Falls. Silly, I know.
Gail Grabowski mostly specializes in themed puzzles and makes a lot of easier ones for Newsday. Her Newsday "Saturday Stumper" might be her first published themeless—at least, I haven't seen any in the last year and a half since I started using Blogger labels. The OKEFENOKEE SWAMP, a specific [Peat-filled place], crosses HASTE MAKES WASTE, or [Thought for the rash], in the middle. My favorite parts:
July 10, 2008
Friday, 7/11
NYS 10:54
LAT 5:03
NYT 4:34
CHE 4:25
CS 4:10
WSJ 6:31
Ooh, Peter Gordon has deprived me of a themeless New York Sun crossword this week, and I don't even care. You'd think I'd be outraged, but Jeffrey Harris's Friday puzzle is an excellent and twisty follow-up to Patrick Blindauer's colorful theme yesterday. The "Missing Links" gimmick involves 24 answers that are one letter too short for the space allotted, requiring one square to be left blank. 
For example, [Tartan] is PLAID, with a blank square between the A and I, and in the crossing the blank square precedes LAW ([Corn or lemon follower]—tough clue for those of us unfamiliar with corn law). Wherever there's a blank square, there's one obvious letter that could be inserted to make the two incomplete words into two slightly longer words—in that particular pairing, it's a C, forming PLACID and CLAW. Those added letters (circled in my solution grid) spell out a certain phrase when read from top to bottom: CHAIN LETTERS. I'm tossing this one in my "year's best gimmick puzzles" folder. (P.S. I solved the puzzle without benefit of the Across Lite Notepad message.)
The clues are Friday Sun level, to be sure. DELLA is [Part of some Italian names]. [Director of "Wings," the first Best Picture winner] is WELLMAN (Who? This guy). [Lanolin of "U.S. Acres," e.g.] is a EWE; that was a comic strip from the "Garfield" creator, and the great Bill Watterson called it "an abomination." The first DH in baseball was RO_N Blomberg. [Figure on a certain island] is OCTANE on a gas pump in the little island at the gas station. [Pol Nol] is L_ON Nol of Cambodia. [Fall back?] is ELS_, as in more than one of the letter el. LATTE can be a [Tall order?] at a coffee shop with the ridiculous sizing system. [Chemisette makup] is LACE; I presume a chemisette is related to a chemise. [New York City's Carnegie ___] always gets me—it's DELI and not HALL. ENGEL is clued with [___ v. Vitale (landmark Supreme Court case of 1962]; this was the ruling against school prayer and not anything to do with Georgia Engel and Dick Vitale. [Contents of some chests] is _ICE. [By] is P_ER, which rather wanted to be take up all four squares as NEAR. [Italian filmmaker Petri] is ELIO, not to be confused with his fellow Italians with 4-letter E names, Ezio Pinza and Enzo Ferrari. ["Runny Babbit" author's first name] was a gimme for me—it's SHEL Silverstein, and the book features kid-friendly spoonerism-based poetry.
Meanwhile, over in the New York Times, Barry Silk's themeless crossword is in the same vein as most of his NYTs—kinda Scrabbly, with some surprising letter combos. The uncommon letter action features:
In the surprising letter combos category, the aforementioned LBJ RANCH features prominently, along with the following initials/abbreviation+word pile-ups:
Other items of note in this puzzle: ANNIE and EVITA are both clued as the Broadway musicals—[Tony winner between "A Chorus Line" and "Ain't Misbehavin'"] for the former, [Whence the song "The Lady's Got Potential"] for the latter. My wrongest turn: guessing BLOGS for the plural noun [Reads online] instead of the correct EMAGS (meh). Favorite clues: [Ones left holding the bag?] for TEAPOTS; [Stay-at-home worker?] for UMP; [It has a sticking point] for DAGGER; [Shadow] for VESTIGE; and [When German pigs fly?] for NIE (German for "never"). There are plenty of proper names in the grid: [Early Japanese P.M. Hirobumi] ITO; [Gifford's replacement as Philbin's co-host], Kelly RIPA; ARCADIA, or [Peaceful place]; a [Microwave option], the AMANA brand; MARAT [Safin who won the 2005 Australian Open]; EARLE [Wheeler, 1964-70 chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]; ["Mecanique Celeste" astronomer], or LAPLACE; Patsy CLINE, the [Singer profiled in "Sweet Dreams," 1985]; and BOER, or [Great Trek figure]. How much do I like having a lot of names in a crossword? I would have to rate the [Heat meas.] of this puzzle pretty high, with a large KCAL or BTU amount.
Updated:
It's short shrift time again, since there are so many Friday puzzles and so little time.
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Who's Who?", plays around with homophones of names, converting four famous names into two-word phrases. The [Weasel's jolly cousin?] is a MERRY MARTEN (actress Mary Martin, who played Peter Pan way back in the day—isn't she Larry Hagman's mom?). My worst misstep was here, where I went with comedian/mammal STEVE MARTEN before I figured out how the theme operated. [Lockers?] are GYM NEIGHBORS (actor Jim Nabors, of "Golly!" fame). [Shanghai strokes?] are CHINA FILLIPS, and I love the word fillip so much (singer Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips, offspring of two members of The Mamas & the Papas. [A day off for the stevedores?] is a DOCK HOLIDAY (the Earps' friend Doc Holliday); I'm not sure how to clue HOLIDAY without using the word day, but I wish the constructor had found a way to do so. The fill's highlights include Hamlet's SOLILOQUY and ROCK-SOLID.
Larry Shearer's LA Times crossword uses the phrase ACT / OUT as its core. The theme entries are four phrases from which ACT has been removed. CHOIR PRICE, or [What the musical group is asking?], is modified from choir practice. [E's place?] is BEFORE THE F (fact). [Portrait of a former spouse?] is an EX LIKENESS (exact). And EVASIVE ION (action) is a [Hard-to-pin-down particle?]. I mistyped that last one as EVASISE ION, and boy, did that muck up the crossing. [Chin Ho's group] meant nothing to me, so *ISEO was mystifying (and I couldn't guess the first letter because I had no idea that [E equivalent] is F FLAT, just that it had to be A, B, C, D, F, or G FLAT. Eventually I pulled FIVE-O together, and then I grumbled because what the heck kind of pop culture clue is that? I'm astonished to learn that Hawaii Five-O ran until 1980, because I thought it was older than that. Never watched it!
Pancho Harrison constructed this week's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "The Wild Bunches." The theme entries toy with collective nouns, terms for "bunches" of animals. A [Bunch of angry geese?] is a CROSS BRACE. A murder of crows figures into BLUE MURDER, a [Bunch of depressed crows]. I had to Google that phrase—Blue Murder is the name of two bands, two plays, and three non-U.S. television programs. Those all seem too obscure to be the basis for a theme entry—anyone have a better lead? Pseudopod means the "false foot" extended by an amoeba, for example; PSEUDO POD is clued as [Bunch of phony dolphins?]. FOOLISH PRIDE is a [Bunch of dumb lions?]; this one's my favorite. And a [Bunch of ancient fish?] are an OLD SCHOOL. Outside of the theme, there's plenty of interesting and erudite fill and clues.
I kinda whizzed through this week's Wall Street Journal crossword by Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach, "One Mo. Time."—it seemed a good bit easier than the typical WSJ puzzle. The theme entries include 3-letter abbreviations for the months of the year, and are presented in chronological order:
I enjoyed the puzzle—it's fun to feel particularly adept when zipping through a crossword faster than expected—but part of me wishes the clues had been tougher so I could have spent more time with it.
July 09, 2008
Thursday, 7/10
NYS 5:58
NYT 4:34
LAT 4:08
CS 2:52
I'm a bit brain-dead this evening, so I may be giving the NYT and Sun puzzles short shrift.
The New York Times puzzle is by Ari Halpern. The theme is explained in 71-Across, STORY—which can also be parsed as "S to RY." In each theme entry, an S is changed to an RY. Thus, we get the following:
In the fill, ONE POUND seems at first glance like it's an arbitrary answer, but with a clue like [Candy box size], I am thinking happy thoughts of fine chocolate. The clue for OPERATOR references the 0 you dial to reach the operator: [Zero personality?]. [Duke's home] is DURHAM, North Carolina, and not some duchy or castle—though that one had me going for a bit.
In the New York Sun, Patrick Blindauer teaches an elementary art class. The rebus squares in "Secondary Education" need to contain secondary colors. If you mix the red from WAS MY FACE [RED] with the yellow from a [YELLOW] CAB, you get [ORANGE] (filling in ORANGE or presumably O works in Across Lite). I haven't seen the [1988 Errol Morris documentary about the murder of a police officer, with "The"], but I always like his movies so I should see The THIN [BLUE] LINE. The color crosses THE [RED] SOX, the ["Fever Pitch" squad]; that was the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy about a baseball nut and love. Blue and red combine to make [PURPLE] in the center square. You mix up some [GREEN] with the airline JET[BLUE] crossing the Beatles' "[YELLOW] SUBMARINE." Cool theme! The non-theme fill is good, too—"I HEAR YA," THE HAJ, GRANOLA and a BURRITO, etc.
Updated:
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Figuratively Speaking," replaces the word GRAND with the figure 1,000. Although, this being a crossword puzzle and not a crossnumber puzzle, that number's represented by the letters IOOO:
The question marks shouldn't really be there, I don't think, because the clues are completely straightforward—it's the answers that take a twist. I know some of you are outraged at the interchangeability of I and 1, O and 0, but I think it's fine as long as it's consistent. This puzzle's fill shines—eight 9-letter entries, just because? I don't mind a small theme (this one includes just 37 squares) if it gets me some themeless-grade fill, like ROLE MODEL, JOE NAMATH, SOUND BITE, and TYRA BANKS.
Don Gagliardo's LA Times crossword has a lot more theme squares—63, to be exact. THREE'S COMPANY is a [1970s='80s sitcom, and what the answers to starred clues all can be]. There are 10 starred entries filling four Across rows in the grid, and each is a word that can keep the word three company. The 2000 Will Smith role was BAGGER Vance, and three-bagger is a baseball term. Three-HANDED describes card games played by three people. Three-PHASE is an electricity term. Three-PLY tissues have three layers of paper. Three-PIECE suits are familiar haberdashery. You might ride a three-SPEED bike. The phrase three-WAY has numerous connotations. Three-COLOR is a printing term. A triple-decker or three-DECKER is a three-level ship, sandwich, or building. And a three-LEGGED race is popular at some picnics.
I'd never heard of [1950s-'70s quarterback Bratkowski], nicknamed ZEKE. My nickname in college, among friends who were a year behind me, was Zeke. Wow, it's been a long time since anyone called me that. When I read the clue [Like bottom fins on a fish], I spent some time pondering what the answer could be; dorsal is the other side. Turns out to be a particularly delicate clue for PELVIC, which I would be tempted to clue as [___ thrust, as in The Rocky Horror Picture Show] or [___ exam]. I thought EBATE, or [Online discount], looked trumped up, but Googling turned up Ebates.com.
July 08, 2008
Wednesday, 7/9
NYS 4:55
NYT 4:03
LAT 3:22
CS 3:02
Both the New York Times and New York Sun crosswords have themes that take some work to explain. Feel free to offer clarifications in the comments if you feel I've missed or mangled something.
Tim Wescott's New York Times puzzle obliquely signals the theme in the clue for HINT at 65-Across: ["The first word of the answer to each of the six starred clues describes the number of that clue," e.g.]. The first word in each of these starred clues is a mathematical term describing certain kinds of numbers, and the clue numbers themselves are examples of those kinds of numbers. Like so:
Favorite non-theme stuff: ["Rhoda" and "Frasier"] for television SPINOFFS; SYSTOLE, or [Part of a heartbeat], diastole being the other part (yay, medical terminology!); [Jawbone of ___ (biblical weapon)] for AN ASS (the "jawbone of an ass" concept is a winner); and [Side by side?] for the geometrical formula for AREA (more math!). POMACE, or [Crushed pulp], is a rather fancy word for a mid-week crossword. The [Old German duchy name] SAXE used to be carried by the English royal family, who were the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha before wartime anti-Teutonic sentiment made them switch to the House of Windsor.
The New York Sun puzzle was constructed by Lee Glickstein. Before I solved this one, I had gotten an e-mail from Sun xword blogger Pete Mitchell. Pete was temporarily at a loss, not seeing the theme, but figured it out before I ever saw the puzzle. Then I solved the puzzle and found myself e-mailing Pete! I did figure out the theme after a bit, but it's hard to explain it. The five theme entries include paired long E, I, O, U, and A sounds, and if you advance each vowel one notch higher in the alphabetically ordered list of vowels, you find a more sensible batch of phrases lurking behind the theme entries, provided that you sound them out and pay no mind to retaining the spelling. To wit:
Favorite non-theme stuff: [Small contraction?] for LI'L; [Crime perpetrators, in police slang] for DOERS; [Munch kin city?] for OSLO (Edvard Munch was Norwegian, and this has nothing to do with Oz and munchkins outside of my head); SMITHERS from The Simpsons, or a [Cartoon character whose first name is Waylon]; YOGI BEAR, another toon and [Ranger Smith's nemesis]; [One walking down the aisle?] for a SHOPPER; and [High caste member in "Brave New World"] for ALPHA. I didn't know [Shortstop Dark who was the 1948 Rookie of the Year], ALVIN.
Dan Naddor's Wednesday LA Times crossword was somehow available a day early via Cruciverb.com, so I solved it and blogged about it on Tuesday. Here's what I had to say about it earlier: This puzzle has the same kind of theme as the Tuesday NYT: phrases that begin with homophones. It's a lovely puzzle, with five multicultural theme entries and a bunch of 7- and 9-letter answers in the fill. THAI CUISINE [usually includes a fish sauce called nam pla]. TY PENNINGTON is the oft-sleeveless ["Extreme Makeover" Home Edition" host]. TAE KWON DO is the [National sport of South Korea], though a less specific clue would have been good since KOREA is in the fill. TAI BABILONIA was a [Five-time U.S. Figure Skating Championships gold medalist]. And as the men's Wimbledon final demonstrated, [Some sets end in them] means TIE-BREAKERS. Four of the theme entries are laid out in stacked pairs, which is impressive. For my age cohort, the [Veep between Harry and Dick] is not too familiar: ALBEN Barkley was Truman's V.P. FMy favorite fill: the anachronistic SPEED-DIAL (there's no rotary dialing happening there); ESPIONAGE with a tricky clue (James [Bond activity?]); RATIONS clued as [Restricted fare?]; and the song "GET A JOB." I appreciated other clues, too: [White-collar worker?] for CLERIC; [Instant success?] for SANKA instant coffee; and [One in need of a lift] for SKIER.
Updated:
In Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Swap Meet," he swaps the words that appear on either side of "of the" in various phrases. Coin of the realm becomes REALM OF THE COIN, or [Mint?]. King of the jungle is JUNGLE OF THE KING, or [Monarch's private safari setting?]. The lady of the house turns into HOUSE OF THE LADY, or [Countess's castle?]. What ties these three things together is a royal slant—the king, the lady, the realm—though those three words don't all appear on the same side of the "of the." (How many other people have had a legitimate reason to write of the "of the" without that representing mangled grammar or lost clauses?)
July 07, 2008
Tuesday, 7/8
Tausig 5:32
Onion 4:59
NYS 3:37
Wed. LAT 3:22
Tues. LAT 3:00
CS 2:51
NYT 2:35
Andrea Michaels' New York Times crossword has the [End of a Napoleonic palindrome] smack-dab in the middle of the theme entries. Is this palindrome something that's at all familiar to the non-crossword crowd? Two words of it, the partial phrase ERE I, pop up fairly often in puzzles, clued as ["___ saw Elba"]. Here, Andrea delivers ERE I SAW ELBA, leaving the "Able was I" beginning on the cutting room floor. The other four theme entries begin with homophones of ERE—we get AIR JORDAN basketball shoes ([Big name in athletic shoes]), the HEIR TO THE THRONE ([Prince], but not the "Purple Rain" one), an AIREDALE TERRIER ([Black-and-tan purebred]), and AER LINGUS, the air [Carrier with a shamrock logo]. I'm afraid I must dock the puzzle 5 points for AIRE being inextricable from DALE when the other homophones are stand-alone words. I'll add 10 points for loading the fill with ZINGER ([Clever comeback]), EURAIL ([Provider of a pass abroad]), SUBPOENA (a word I can seldom type correctly on the first try, clued as [Court summons]), and [Puff the Magic Dragon's frolicking place] HONALEE (no, the song's not about pot).
David Kahn's New York Sun puzzle is a non-timely tribute to two people. (Non-timely in that today's not a key date on which this theme needed to run, and none of the awards in question were just bestowed.) The theme includes RICHARD / RODGERS and MARVIN / HAMLISCH, who are the two people who have won all five of the awards in this puzzle: the PULITZER / PRIZE, GRAMMY, TONY, OSCAR, and EMMY. With 60 squares in 10 entries strewn around the grid (in symmetrical chunks), it's a meaty theme. Mel TORME (44-Down) is surely envious of RODGERS and HAMLISCH's accomplishments; RINGO Starr (["Help!" name]) was once bigger than Jesus, so his envy is at bay. Favorite clues: the hidden plural of [Bhutanese, e.g.] for ASIANS; [Hole in a sweater?] for a PORE. The least familiar answer for me is LEONIA, a [New Jersey town bordering Teaneck]; this borough has less than 9,000 people, but look at all the famous people who've passed through.
Updated:
Usually the LA Times crossword is posted by now, but I got a 404 Not Found page when I clicked its link at Cruciverb.com. Maybe later...
Nancy Salomon's CrosSynergy crossword, "Thrill Seeking," redefines various phrases to emphasize their first words, all idiomatic synonyms for "thrill." Get a kick out of KICK BOXING, a rush out of RUSH HOUR, a high out of a HIGH BAR, a buzz from a BUZZWORD, and a charge out of a CHARGE CARD. It's been a while since I've seen OSIER, or [Willow branch], in a crossword, but it used to show up much more often. That and ORIEL, a bay window sort of thing—and it was hard to remember which was which.
Updated again, Tuesday afternoon:
Hah! Dan Naddor's Wednesday LA Times crossword has the same kind of theme as the NYT: phrases that begin with homophones. It's a lovely puzzle, with five multicultural theme entries and a bunch of 7- and 9-letter answers in the fill. THAI CUISINE [usually includes a fish sauce called nam pla]. TY PENNINGTON is the oft-sleeveless ["Extreme Makeover" Home Edition" host]. TAE KWON DO is the [National sport of South Korea], though a less specific clue would have been good since KOREA is in the fill. TAI BABILONIA was a [Five-time U.S. Figure Skating Championships gold medalist]. And as the men's Wimbledon final demonstrated, [Some sets end in them] means TIE-BREAKERS. Four of the theme entries are laid out in stacked pairs, which is impressive. For my age cohort, the [Veep between Harry and Dick] is not too familiar: ALBEN Barkley was Truman's V.P. FMy favorite fill: the anachronistic SPEED-DIAL (there's no rotary dialing happening there); ESPIONAGE with a tricky clue (James [Bond activity?]); RATIONS clued as [Restricted fare?]; and the song "GET A JOB." I appreciated other clues, too: [White-collar worker?] for CLERIC; [Instant success?] for SANKA instant coffee; and [One in need of a lift] for SKIER.
The theme in Tyler Hinman's Onion A.V. Club crossword took some time (and plenty of crossings) to emerge. Four theme entries are two-word phrases in which the first word ends with the same letter the second one begins with—FROM MEMORY and DRUM MAJOR wed M's, while RELIEF FUND and SNUFF FILM (eww) wed F's. These paired M's and F's are, of course, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE—[What the connections between words in 18-, 24-, 50-, and 59-Across celebrate]. Nice! The constructor recently moved to California, where same-sex marriage was recently legalized. Tyler probably knows all about 5-Down, the sunscreen SPF clued with [A redhead might look for a high one: Abbr.], given his ginger hair. EMANUEL AX, [Yo-Yo Ma's frequent musical partner], should really play electric guitar (a.k.a. an ax). The last spots I figured out in this puzzle were the [Word often abbreviated as a letter and a number], CANINE (as in police K-9 units), and the vague [Mass unit], or CARAT. The only [The Police tribute band] that came to mind was Scrantonicity, from The Office, but it turns out to be STUNG. Fun clue for a Roman numeral: XXI is the [Legal drinking age at Caesar's palace?]. Favorite fill: LYMON, or [Sprite flavor], because my husband still wears his early-'80s t-shirt featuring the Sprite lymon graphic. (Alas, the shirt has some small holes.) I didn't know ROBIN was a [Canadian "How I Met Your Mother" character], that DREW could be [Major Leaguer Stephen or J.D.], or that TYRA Banks had [yelled "Kiss my FAT ASS!"]. The clue [On the prowl, perhaps] appears several spaces past the [Puma's rival] clue, leading me to think of prowling cats. Nope, Tyler meant SINGLE and looking for love.
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle, "You Can't Say That on Television," pays tribute to the late GEORGE CARLIN and his famed routine about the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. There are four theme entries in which four 4-letter words embedded within phrases are bleeped out with four X's. Say hello is expurgated to SAY XXXXO ([Greets with a "hello"]).* Badminton [Birdies] are shuttlecocks, or SHUTTLEXXXXS. [Impressionist Camille] Pissarro becomes XXXXARRO. And the [Caveat after a financial warning] is BUXXXX YOUR MONEY. Let's see...DGET isn't a 4-letter word. Bufart, buf*ck...no. I had to consult Wikipedia to figure this one out. But it's your money is the original phrase. Ben definitely has some major-league constructing chops, as he managed to get reasonable fill despite the 16 X's in the theme entries—and he even added two non-theme X's in XBOX for good measure.
Updated yet again, Tuesday evening:
All righty, the LA Times crossword that was delivered to my desktop when I clicked the link at Cruciverb was tomorrow's puzzle, and that's never happened before. (Thanks to those who alerted me. Alas, I was away/busy and couldn't do anything about it until now. D'oh!) The actual Tuesday LA Times crossword is by Donna Levin, and the theme is rather mushy—nay, pulverized: each theme entry ends with a synonym for, basically, "pulverize." A [Yellow-skinned autumn vegetable] is BUTTERNUT SQUASH, a [Top-grossing film] is a BOX-OFFICE SMASH, an [English pub dish] is BANGERS AND MASH, and a [Teen infatuation] is a HIGH-SCHOOL CRUSH.
* Commenter Beth has spurred another "D'oh!" today. I parsed the first theme entry in the Tausig puzzle all wrong. The verb tense demands an S after SAY, and it's all right to say "hell" on TV. The Xed-out phrase is SAYS HI TO, with the S HI T bleeped out. (Thanks, Beth!)
July 06, 2008
Monday, 7/7
Jonesin' 4:00
CS 3:47
NYS 3:19
NYT 3:06
LAT 2:58
Today's achievements in the world of sports: My kid passed the swim test to gain access to the deep end of the swimming pool, and Rafael Nadal won his first Wimbledon title against five-time champ Roger Federer. I am proud of both young men's accomplishments.
Grr! I don't like being edged out by more than a minute on a Monday NYT puzzle, and two people (so far!) trounced me that convincingly on Bob Klahn's New York Times crossword. And I can't even drum up a lame excuse—{sigh}. The five theme entries split some motes across two or more words. There's an ATOM in MARISA TOMEI, for example, and a HINT in STITCH IN TIME. Would you believe that a friend of mine once taught [1986 world champion figure skater] DEBI THOMAS how to perform a pelvic exam? (Thomas went to med school in Chicago.) Favorite fill and clues: NOOGIE, or [Playful knuckle-rub]; [On the ball or on the dot] for two meanings of SHARP; SOU, or a [Trivial amount] not included in the theme; and [It'll bring a tear to your eye] for a tear DUCT. OSTINATO, or [Recurring melodic phrase], seems a little fancy for a Monday puzzle, but the crossings are easy enough provided you know Marisa Tomei and frequent crossword town ST. LO. Anyone else fill in the wrong ending for the [Pavarotti performance]? It's TENOR SOLO, but I started with TENOR ARIA.
The New York Sun is back after the holiday weekend with a crossword by Edward Alch. "Tongue-Tied" laps at the taste buds, with the 14-letter TASTE SENSATION centered in a 15x16 grid and accompanied by four phrases beginning with the four primary tastes. There's my personal favorite, SWEET SPOT, along with SOUR GRAPES, BITTER PILL, and SALTY DOGS. ARIEL had a sort of clue I've never seen before for that word—[Mexico's Oscar]. Here are this year's Ariel winners from the Mexican Motion Picture Academy.
Updated:
Here's why I'm pleased that the Jonesin' puzzle is now available at the beginning of the week (and in Across Lite!): Because every so often, Matt Jones is in the mood to make a themeless puzzle, and it's such a treat to get such a crossword before Thursday. This one, called "A Little Bit of Everything," was on the easy side for me, but maybe it's easy only if you're into pop culture. If you've never seen the abbreviation NKOTB (for New Kids on the Block), or if you don't know any song titles from the utterly discredited Milli Vanilli, or if you don't know the Oasis brothers are Liam and NOEL Gallagher, okay, perhaps it's a tough puzzle. I like Matt's inclusion of the lowbrow, best exemplified by mall eatery SBARRO, and the colloquial, as in "HELL, YEAH" ([Overly enthusiastic response]). The geography slowed me down—the 9-letter answer clued as a [Resident of 43-down] sent me to a 7-letter [City on the Arabian Sea]. I needed plenty of crossings for both to end up with KARACHI and PAKISTANI. Speaking of Pakistan, if you've heard journalist Ahmed Rashid on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air" program, don't miss the Saturday profile of Rashid in the NYT.
The LA Times crossword by Timothy Meaker has four dramatic ways to end sporting events, but tennis doesn't figure into it. There's a [Dramatic basketball game ender], the BUZZER BEATER; a [Dramatic hockey game ender], OVERTIME GOAL; a [Dramatic football game ender], the HAIL MARY PASS; and a [Dramatic baseball game ender], WALK-OFF HOMER. What's a walk-off homer? I didn't know. Wikipedia tells me it's called that because the team can walk off the field, victorious, right after that run. Lively theme, no? The word in the center of the grid, VALSE, is sandwiched between two theme entries, dramatically limiting the constructor's flexibility for filling that spot. VALSE, or a [France dance], seems rather out-there for a Monday puzzle, and the S is tough to get from the crossing—the [Federal agency support org.] is the GSA, or General Services Administration. The crossings were easier for the SUN BEAR or honey bear of Southeast Asia, clued as an [Ursine critter with an orange-yellow marking on its chest].
Edited to add: Heh. Jim Hyres had the same idea five years ago—his 9/22/03 Sun puzzle had the exact same sports theme entries. Great minds, etc.
Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Keep Cool," adds an AC somewhere within each theme entry. 'Tis the season—we recently had another added-AC puzzle. The [Christmas card design] SANTA FACE is Santa Fe with an AC inserted. [Airline's kudos for not losing suitcases] is BAGGAGE ACCLAIM. TEN-ACCENT STORE is a [Multicultural place to shop]. And the [Brew for the king and queen?] is PALACE ALE. Arguably the most obscure word in the fill is PITSAW, or [Two-person log cutter]; one lumberjack type stands in a pit below the log, working with another sawyer up top to cut the log. Nice touch to have HOSNI Mubarak, Egypt's president, crossing Egypt's LAKE NASSER, named after one of his predecessors.
July 05, 2008
Sunday, 7/6
NYT 10:18
PI 8:58
LAT 8:15
WSJ 8:05
CS 4:45
If you like both crosswords and sudoku, you'll enjoy Patrick Blindauer and Frank Longo's new book, Crosswordoku. Each pair of puzzles includes a crossword and a sudoku—the 13x13 crossword has some shaded squares, and you transfer the letters in those squares into the shaded squares of the sudoku grid. Then you've got a "wordoku" puzzle to contend with—a sudoku logic challenge using nine different letters rather than numbers. The finished wordoku grid will include a nine-letter word in one row, column, or diagonal (and if it's the diagonal, it won't be an anagram of the nine letters used in the grid). I'm still in the "beginner" section at the beginning of the book (hey, I just started the book last night), but both the crosswords and -oku puzzles will get harder as the book progresses.
Brendan Emmett Quigley's latest Sunday New York Times crossword is called "What the H?" Each of the eight theme entries changes a W word into a sound-alike WH word:
Let's turn our attention to the knottiest fill: NATICK is the [Town at the eighth mile of the Boston Marathon], and it sits atop CARROL, [Charlie Chan player J. ___ Naish]. Ouch! 2-Down could have been OOHED AT just as easily as the correct AAHED AT ([Showed delight over]), and ["Treasure Island" illustrator, 1911] N.C. WYETH's initials cross NATICK and CARROL. ARNE is the first name of [Swedish Chemistry Nobelist Tiselius]. The [1887 Chekhov play] IVANOV was eluding me when I'd thoughtlessly entered WHIRLED REPORT instead of RECORD, making THE CAN (the [Stir]) turn into THE PEN and obscuring the sense of [Fully or partially: Abbr.]—that's ADV, or the abbreviation for adverb, which is what "fully" and "partially" are. At least, these were the knottiest spots for me—I'm seeing some longer-than-usual applet solving times, so I suspect people found other hitches too.
Favorite clues and favorite answers, in no particular order:
Updated:
The Saturday Wall Street Journal included Mike Shenk's crossword (published under his Alice Long nom de plume), as the usual publication day, Friday, was the Fourth of July. In the "American Plan" theme, eight phrases adopted the letters USA and radically changed their meanings. Bond traders became BONUS AD TRADERS, or [Ones swapping free TV spots?]. That one feels a little tortured, but presumably the bond traders who like the WSJ crossword appreciated the shout-out. Cal Tech gives us a CAUSAL TECH. There's a SAUSAGE BRUSH, a [Tool for scrubbing a salami?] (sagebrush). [Fizz added to "Every Breath You Take"?] is STING OPUS AERATION (sting operation). Grand Prix yields a GRAND PRIUS AX. There's CHRISTMAS CAROUSAL. Those are all fine, sure, but my favorite theme entries are CLUB MEDUSA, [Advice to Perseus if he had a bat instead of a sword?], and SAY IT AIN'T SOUSA, ["Please don't play another march by that guy!"?].
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle, "The Jack Black Society," assembles 13 people (a few of them fictional) who, like Jack Black, have rhyming names. The least obvious is LEO CARRILLO, [Actor who played Pancho on TV's The Cisco Kid]. Fast food spokesclown RONALD MCDONALD, [Salad inventor] BOB COBB, CHERI OTERI of SNL (111-Down), and several others join the rhyme party. [Operetta pioneer] JACQUES OFFENBACH and an [L.A. center, once] named SHAQUILLE O'NEAL are stacked together with their Q's in close proximity—that's some fancy constructin' there. I love seeing Happy Days' redhead, RALPH MALPH, in the grid. Fun fill overall—MR. BEAN, "OH, CRUD," LINUS from "Peanuts"—lots of pop culture inside and outside the theme.
Updated midday Sunday:
Newcomer Zack Kushner makes a nice debut with his syndicated Los Angeles Times crossword, "Sail Away." The six theme entries have boating puns:
Favorite clues: [Uses a powerful engine] for GOOGLES; ["Just kidding!"] for "PSYCH!"; [Lettuce] for GELT; [Strawberry Shortcake, e.g.] for DOLL; and [Airport in "Home Alone"] for O'HARE.
Bob Klahn's themeless CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" has tons of lively fill and tricky clues:
July 04, 2008
Saturday, 7/5
Newsday 10:14
LAT 6:03
NYT 5:31
CS 4:05
Here's a wordplay question for you: What 8-letter word for a big wine bottle turns into a 6-letter [Leaping desert rodent]? That rodent has leapt into Karen Tracey's New York Times crossword—it's a JERBOA (the bottle's a jeroboam). I think the ratio of "Karen Tracey themelesses I like" to "Karen Tracey themelesses I'm not wild about" has risen to something like 30-to-1, since I liked this one quite a bit. I did grumble to myself to see [Staunch] as the clue for STEM; I'm a purist when it comes to the stanch vs. staunch issue. Aside from that, there was much to admire. My favorite answers:
There are a lot of names populating the grid. I tend to enjoy having a plethora of people in a crossword, but I know it drives some solvers bonkers.
Other clues I liked:
Updated:
I just saw the TRAVELERS Insurance logo onscreen during the Wimbledon women's final—that's the [Big name in insurance] at 3-Down in Karen's crossword.
Stanley Newman, or "S.N.," constructed this week's Newsday "Saturday Stumper." The Snellen eye chart is just one of several eye-exam charts that you may encounter, but Stan wants you to parrot back the first four rows for 5-Across, [Chart start]: EFPTOZLPED. I give that answer zero points for cleverness and 10 points for annoyingness and unwelcomeness. It could have been rendered more fair with a couple more accessible clues in the crossings; PYLONS, or [Power towers], and PRADA, or [LG partner in cell phones], were the last to fall for me. I can't imagine including ANISETTES as [Parts of nightcaps]—my goodness, the taste of anise is the last thing I want when I'm trying to fall asleep. [King, from 1968-83] is TENNIS PRO Billie Jean—this was my favorite clue. KNEES are [Under-the-table things]—I liked that one, too. I'm not crazy about [Have dessert after dinner, perhaps] for ALLITERATE—saying "dinner and dessert" is indeed using alliteration, but the phrasing of the clue is awkward. Who was Clemenceau? The [Friend of Clemenceau] is MONET. Google isn't telling me why ATTIC is clued as [Simple, elegant and witty]. I resent, of course, the negative connotations of FIENDISH, here clued as [Blasted]. I'm not blasted, dang it!
Robert Wolfe's themeless Los Angeles Times crossword is anchored by three 15's: MUST I SPELL IT OUT, or ["Are you dense?"], PUT IN A WORD OR TWO, or [Comment], and THIS IS NOT A DRILL, or [Scary announcement]. I needed all the crossings for some answers: CLEM, [Civil War's Johnny ___, youngest-ever Army noncom (age 12)]; MAUER, [Joe ___, first A.L. catcher to win a batting title (2006)]; ACID SALT, or [Sodium bisulfate, for one]. Favorite clue: [One might make a novel] for BOOK CRITIC.
Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "It Takes Two," embeds TWO inside four theme answers. STUNTWOMAN is an [Action movie employee]; GRANT WOOD was a [Painter from Anamosa, Iowa] (he did "American Gothic," with the pitchfork farm couple); FORT WORTH is a [Texas city whose motto is "Where the West Begins"]; and one sort of [Shrewd employee] is a FAST WORKER. That [Pillsbury specialty] in the fill is activating my sweet tooth—yum, CAKE MIX!
July 03, 2008
Friday, 7/4
CHE 4:23
LAT 4:21
NYT 3:42
CS 3:32
WSJ and NYS: not published on July 4
Happy Independence Day! Suddenly I'm in the mood for a summer blockbuster featuring angry invading aliens and a rousing speech from Bill Pullman.
The Friday New York Times crossword isn't themeless like most Friday puzzles. Instead, it's got a holiday theme, and it's too bad that the 4th of July didn't fall on a Wednesday this year because we've got yet another Wednesdayish crossword! John Underwood waves the STARS AND STRIPES ([Title subject of a 28-Across work]) in a tribute to JOHN PHILIP SOUSA ([Subject of this puzzle]), who was called THE MARCH KING ([Sobriquet for 28-Across]) and also composed AMERICA FIRST ([1916 work by 28-Across]). The middle Across answer is the same as two Down answers in the northeast and southwest corners, the "start, middle, and end of a patriotic cheer": USA! USA! USA! Assorted other answers include the word America in their clues, but there's also "NOT U.S." Okay, so really, that one's NOT US, as in ["We didn't do it!"].
As a reminder, the NY Sun doesn't publish on holidays, so there's no Friday Sun crossword this week.
Updated:
I've got an 11:30 birthday party to attend, so I must be quick with the puzzle business this morning.
The Wall Street Journal puzzle wasn't posted when I checked. Maybe it'll be there this afternoon. Thanks to Lloyd Mazer for litzing the WSJ puzzle—converting it into Across Lite for consumption by non-WSJ subscribers—each and every week. Mike Shenk's a top-notch crossword editor and he publishes the work of top-flight constructors, but I'd never see these puzzles if Lloyd weren't making it so easy to access them.
Jack McInturff's Los Angeles Times crossword has a bit of a gimmick to it, and it's my sense that we've seen very few gimmick puzzles in the LA Times. More, please! 
The theme is tied together by the ELBOW in the center of the bottom row, and the four theme entries (circled in my grid for illustrative purposes—click the image to enlarge it) make an elbow bend. These turning entries are placed in symmetrical locations, which is more elegant than the alternative. The first word of each can follow elbow, too:
Highlights in the fill include the [1991 Madonna hit] "RESCUE ME," Scrabbly ZAGREB ([Capital south of Vienna], in Croatia) and MARXIAN ([Like a classless society]), and WONDERFUL.
Patrick Berry's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Five Fourths," is a trivia cavalcade of five notable events that took place on July 4 in various years. With just 72 answers in the grid, this puzzle meets the standards for a themeless crossword—it's got expanses of white space in every corner, featuring fill like THE COOLER, ALAN HALE (the Skipper on Gilligan's Island), and other 7- to 9-letter answers.
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy crossword, "Mirthful Memories," is a tribute to the late HARVEY KORMAN, who lit up my childhood one evening a week on The CAROL BURNETT Show. I saw BLAZING SADDLES when I was a kid, too. Who doesn't love bean-related low humor? THE FLINTSTONES is in the grid too—[Show for which 48-Across voiced the Great Gazoo]. I have zero recollection of a Great Gazoo on The Flintstones.
July 02, 2008
Thursday, 7/3
NYS 6:30
CS 4:30ish?
LAT 4:06
NYT 3:45
Call me a rebel if you must, but I do like crosswords that mess around with how things are supposed to be. The famous Patrick Merrell NYT puzzle that intentionally violated a bunch of crossword rules; the recent Joe Krozel NYT puzzle in which 10 clues were lies (or at the very least, dead wrong); the Thursday New York Times crossword by newcomer Keith Talon with a theme that cries out for attentive editing. His first theme entry is PROOFREADINNG with an extra N, clued as [What this answer could use?]. In the middle, TYPOGRPAHICAL is [Like this answer's error], a transposition of two letters. And at the bottom, [This answer contains one] MISPELLING, that missing S.
The fill's got a quartet of 8-letter answers, such as STERLING, which is both [First-rate] and the name of the cognoscenti's favorite puzzle book publisher. (We love the binding and the paper stock, yes, but also the crosswords and other types of puzzles.) (St. Martin's Griffin also rocks, of course.) Another 8 is YOSEMITE, [Home of the 1,612-foot Ribbon Falls]. I'd never heard of Ribbon Falls, so I figured I'd include a photo. Sure looks mossy! They say it dries out every summer. Tuesday's puzzle seemed like at least a Wednesday, and Thursday's puzzle also feels like a Wednesday.
Joe DiPietro's "Themeless Thursday" in the New York Sun felt more like a Friday, or maybe it's just me—I'm plumb tuckered out. Great vibe from a lot of the fill—Camus's THE PLAGUE, SUKIYAKI (plus HIBACHI, rounding out the Japanese section), CO-CHAIR, MADE A LIST (my problem isn't making the lists, it's getting anything accomplished that's on the list). 
Anna Nicole Smith's former employer TRIMSPA, PLAIN-JANE, and a PIZZA OVEN (like RAZZ, one of two answers with a double Z). SAXONS are [British invasion participants] who predate the Beatles; their X crosses XHOSA (!), a [Bantu language related to Swazi]. The last letter I filled in was the N in RED BANK, the [New Jersey birthplace of Count Basie], crossing Gary [Cooper's "High Noon" role], KANE. My favorite entry here is the [Early TV role for Moore], Laura PETRIE. Can I get an "Oh, Rob!"?
Updated:
The LA Times crossword brings together new (I think) constructor Sharon Peterson with noted mentor Nancy Salomon. The theme entries all pertain to the BEACH (38-Across) in that the beginning of the first word in each is something beachy. [No longer moist to the touch] is SURFACE-DRY, which begins with SURF. SEASON TICKETS make a nice [Gift for a symphony lover], and the SEA is there. A [Worn sign] is a SANDWICH BOARD, starting with SAND. [Church duds], or SUNDAY BEST, starts with SUN. Highlights in the fill include WEAK-KNEED with its double K ([Likely to cave]—one of two cave clues, the other being [Caves, to early man] for ABODES), ANECDOTES, and A GOOD DEAL. Favorite clue: [Bugs came to life with his help], M*L...MAL? MEL? MIL? MOL? MUL? MYL? Eventually the crossing told me it was MEL and I realized it was Mel Blanc and Bugs Bunny, not some other kind of bugs.
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Fried French," tortures some French phrases by changing parts into English words that sound similar. [Parkas, sweaters, and such?] are HOT COUTURE (haute), [Heavy knickknacks?] are BRICK-A-BRAC (bric), [Last mowing of the season?] is COUP DE GRASS (grace), and [Extended pursuit?] is CHASE LONGUE (chaise). Favorite clue: the insidery [Opera seen frequently in crosswords], AIDA.
July 01, 2008
Wednesday, 7/2
NYS 5:22
LAT 4:00
NYT 3:20
CS 2:53
How nifty is Daniel Kantor's theme in the New York Times crossword? I give the theme four stars for its cleverness. 
The [1986 Newman/Cruise film] is THE COLOR OF MONEY. What color is money? Green (in the U.S.). One [Ritzy delicacy] is BELUGA CAVIAR. What's caviar? Fish eggs. A [Showboating type] is a GRANDSTANDER. What's another word for such a person? A ham. What's the fourth theme entry? GREEN EGGS AND HAM, a [Dr. Seuss book ... or a description of the answers to the three starred clues]. From the non-thematic clues, I learned that the BOSC pear is ["The aristocrat of pears"]. Kendo is a Japanese form of fencing, so a [Kendo motion] is a LUNGE. BRAT (bratwurst) is the preferred [Grill option, for short] for many Wisconsinites. [Symbols of industry] can be both industrious ANTS and corporate LOGOS.
James Sajdak's New York Sun crossword is called "Last Gasps," and the final word in each theme entry is re-spelled to represent some sort of gasp. The Wizard of Oz turns into THE WIZARD OF AHS, a [Throat doctor's nickname?]. Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" becomes PURPLE HEYS. A short fuse is transformed into SHORT PHEWS, or [Quick breaths of relief]. The primordial ooze is recycled into PRIMORDIAL OOHS. Highlights in the fill include DC COMICS, a bunch of Scrabbly words (ALTO SAX, QUIT, ZIGS, ZAP, WHISKS), AU JUS, and PANACHE—not to mention FIENDS clued as [Buffs]. Indeed! ["The Quest for ___" (John le Carre trilogy)] was a new one on me—the answer's KARLA.
Updated:
Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Re Assessments," has four kinds of educational assessment tools for specific occupational categories, and while the theme description may be clunky, the theme itself is fun:
Joy Frank's LA Times crossword hinges on slangy words for thievery. Thieves might be said to lift, steal, take, or pinch their quarry, and the theme entries are standard phrases clued as if they were terms for thieves. A [Piggy bank thief?] might be a PENNY PINCHER, for example, and a [Theater thief?] a SCENE STEALER. I like those two and [Gym thief?], or WEIGHT LIFTER, but MESSAGE TAKER ([Office thief?]) seems less natural a phrase. Is it substantively different from a phrase such as "phone answerer"?
