Sunday, 4/5

NYT 9:27

In the next 12 hours, I'll have dinner and breakfast, sleep, and pack my bags for New Orleans. I think one puzzle is all I can blog tonight, and as we're leaving the house at 7:30 Sunday morning, it's safe to say there'll be no time for crosswords and writing in the morning. Sorry about that.

Sunday morning, check out L.A. Crossword Confidential for my post on the syndicated L.A. Times crossword by Will Nediger. It's a good one—really smooth and zesty fill, like a good salsa/cream cheese dip.

While I'm away, PuzzleGirl and Joon have promised to take excellent care of you. I shall return next weekend, surely rejuvenated by Louisiana's lack of cold air.

Charles Deber's New York Times crossword, "Taking Care of Business"

This puzzle has 11 theme entries, which is on the high side. Each one is an utterly ordinary business- or banking-related term with a jokey clue that reimagines the term as...something else. For example, a PARTNER SHIP might be a [Yacht in a time-share?], and a LOW-INTEREST LOAN could be a [Mortgage no one cares about?]. This puzzle simply didn't captivate me. It may just be that I'm stressed out (must start packing now!) and short on time, or it may be that the theme lacks that certain something, some wit and amusement. It's apt that the place I had a typo (it took me 30 seconds to find the dratted thing) was in the word DRY (I had DTY), or [Like some wit].

All right, sorry for the brevity—enjoy your week, and I'll see you after spring break!