Monday, 3/2

BEQ 4:25
NYT 3:42
LAT 2:49

Hello, all. Just got back from the tournament a few hours ago, exhausted from getting 8 hours of sleep for Friday and Saturday nights combined but invigorated from spending the weekend with all those kickass crossword people.

Not invigorated enough to avoid being incredibly bleary-eyed while doing Lynn Lempel's Monday New York Times crossword. I set a goal of solving and blogging it in 12 minutes, so I have a couple more minutes to go before I log off Blogger and log into bed. The theme entries are colored animals from the artis (movie, novels, short story, poetry)—PINK PANTHER, PURPLE COW, GOLD BUG, RED PONY (which is ringing no bells for me tonight), and WHITE RABBIT. Lotsa fresh and lively entries, a few oddball ones for a Monday (ASHBIN...). And I'm falling asleep mid-paragraph here, so that's my cue to retire for the night.

Will try to post more about ACPT weekend tomorrow, kid permitting (he's off school for Pulaski Day).

Updated:

Today's LA Times crossword by Elizabeth Babikan is preparing for a wedding with something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue:

• OLD FAITHFUL is the [Yellowstone geyser].
  
• NEW TESTAMENT is clued [It begins with the Gospels].
  
• BORROWED TIME is clued [Daredevils may live on it].
  
• BLUE-BLOODED means [Aristocratic].
  

I remain bleary-eyed after the exhausting weekend, what with the dearth of sleep and the recurrent migraine action. Highlights in the fill include the [Brunch cocktail], a MIMOSA; WET BAR, or [Bachelor pad amenity]; [Undersea explorer Jacques] COUSTEAU; Smokey Robinson and the MIRACLES ([Turning water into wine, and others]); and the intersecting pair of P_B words, PLAN B and PROB. (Aw, no PLUMB today.)

Today's Brendan Emmett Quigley crossword is a new-to-me retread from Time Out New York, featuring 12 symmetrical theme answers (some short) that are slangy synonyms for "drunk." Kinda like Tom Swifties for drunkenness slang. Mr. Magoo is BLIND, a mason is PLASTERED, a quarterback is BLITZED. Cute, and adroitly constructed given the 84 theme squares. Anyone know why UTAH's official state game is chess?