Saturday, 11/28/09

NYT (PG)
LAT (PG)
CS (Janie)
Newsday 5:20 (joon—paper)

PuzzleGirl here with you again. Whenever I sit in for Orange on late-week puzzles, I have a little panic attack about the fact that I might not be able to solve the puzzle. I mean, that's just a fact. I've improved a lot over the past couple years, but it's not a given that I can finish a Friday or Saturday New York Times puzzle. And let's just say there's a really good reason that I don't volunteer for the Saturday Stumper. How did I do this week? Find out after the jump.

Oh, but before we get started, I understand there was some discussion over here a while back about the various PGs in CrossWorld and how they (we) should be ranked. I believe I ended up as PG2 behind Paula Gamache. Which is fine. There's no way I'm dumb enough to think I belong in front of Paula on the list. But it occurred to me that I wouldn't even be in the second spot if you guys had remembered Peter Gordon. So. I decided that as long as I'm going to end up a ways down the list anyway, I would prefer to be PG-13. I think that should work for everybody.

But enough about me. Let's see what I think about the puzzles.

Karen M. Tracey's New York Times crossword puzzle

So, what do you think? Did I finish this one? With no mistakes? Why, yes. Yes, I did. Yay me! I struggled a bit, especially in the NW, but I stopped the clock just barely past 30 minutes, which is a few minutes faster than my average Saturday time. It's actually making me feel a little cocky about this year's Puzzle Five, but I'm sure I'll regret that.

Where did I stumble? I had the SSION in place for [What a student might not go without?] and wanted the answer to be some sort of EXAM instead of PERMISSION SLIP. (Actually, my first thought was LAPTOP or IPHONE or something, but ... that's totally inappropriate.) EXAM led me to believe "Pooh-Bah" came from THE MASONS, which seems reasonable. I mean, since FLINTSTONES and HAPPY DAYS wouldn't fit. (Correct answer: THE MIKADO.) Entering TOLL BOOTH for TOLL PLAZA didn't help things down there. But it all eventually worked itself out.

RIKKI TIKKI TAVI showed itself pretty early. What with all those Ks in place, it could hardly be anything else. But I could hear ANNIE LENNOX singing "Talk to me / Like lovers do ...." Turns out that's a whole different song than STEVIE NICKS's "Talk to Me." I also had ELUDE for EVADE and ALLER for AVOIR down in the SW for a while. And since [Pathology pioneer Sir James] PAGET and [18-season Mariner EDGAR Martinez] were total guesses, I'm actually kind of surprised that corner pulled itself together.

There's obviously a lot more we can talk about with this puzzle, but there is a slice of pumpkin pie in the kitchen calling my name so let me get the L.A. Times puzzle out of the way and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Alan Olschwang's L.A. Times crossword puzzle

I thought we might have a theme going with the two double-Z answers: MEZZO-SOPRANO and JACUZZI (22A: Carmen, for one / 38A: Maker of many jets). But no. Then when I saw more Scrabbly letters, and thought we might have a pangram on our hands. But no again. All it needs is an effin' F. Bummer.

Stuff I did not know:

• 19A: Zen enlightenment (SATORI). Sometimes considered the first step toward Nirvana.
• 10D: Belgium winter hrs. (CET). Whoa, what? That would be Central European Time.
• 13D: Former Tennessee Titans tight end Kinney (ERRON). Insert your own err-on-the-side-of-caution joke here.
• 24D: Sprites of Persian mythology (PERIS). Apparently they rank between angels and evil spirits. Kinda like humans, I guess.
• 50D: "The Hustler" author Walter (TEVIS). I didn't know "The Hustler" was originally a novel.
• 62D: Knotted pile carpet (RYA). It's a traditional Scandinavian rug. If you do a Google image search, you see a wide variety of colors and designs, so I'm not sure what it is that makes these rugs their own category. Something about the wool or the knots I think.

Other stuff I noticed:

• 33A: Inexpensive kids' toy (PAPER DOLL). I'm pretty sure toy makers have discovered a way to make paper dolls expensive.
  
• 47A: Classic Jag (XKE). I always want there to be a J in this answer. And there never is.
• 4D: Derby town (EPSOM). Epsom, Essex, Sussex ... they're all the same to me unfortunately.
• 34D: Dallas Mavericks owner before Cuban (PEROT). Kept reading this as "Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban" and couldn't figure out why Mark wouldn't fit.
• 39D: Golfer Babe who was a six-time AP Female Athlete of the Year (ZAHARIAS). So, yes, I know her name was Babe, but "Golfer Babe"? That doesn't seem right somehow.

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Backup Plan"—Janie's review

As the Congreve saying goes, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and this puzzle—which takes lively, everyday phrases and re-purposes them with a musical twist—hath its charms as well. Lotta smile factor in this one as Patrick gives a shout-out to both classic rock 'n' roll and classic Motown with:

• 20A. MIRACLE WORKER [Member of Smokey Robinson's group, while performing?]. Pick a tune, any tune.
• 27A. CRICKET MATCH [Sports contest for a member of Buddy Holly's group?]. Oh, I loved Buddy Holly and the Crickets as a kid. Still do. Here's why.
• 43A. SUPREME COURT [Legal venue for a member of Diana Ross's group?] Let's hear it for the girls!
• 51A. COMET CLEANSER [Soap for a member of Bill Haley's group?]. Bill Haley and the Comets were just about the first folks to get the ball rollin'. And popular music was never quite the same.

The four groups that Patrick singled out provide more than a trip down memory lane. Each one made a real difference to the genre; each is still listened to today—and not only by the boomer generation. I'm so grateful for radio shows like Felix Hernandez's "Rhythm Review" on WBGO that spin soul's and rhythm 'n' blues' best. It's worth checking out on line if you don't live in the New York area.

I wish the cluing in this puzzle were as much fun as the rangy fill. Here are some of the words and phrases I liked best:

• PALM PILOT [Hand-held organizer brand];
• FAT CAT [Major campaign contributer]. Oh—and on the subject of campaigns, I liked seeing TED ["Liberal Lion" Kennedy] and KERRY [2004 ballot surname] in the grid;
• TAP WATER [Fluid from a faucet]. New York's is mighty good;
• HEARTH [Fireplace floor];
• TYPECAST [Given similar roles repeatedly]. It beat not being cast at all, but also speaks to some lack of imagination. And not only among the casting directors...
• ICE SHOW [Skating exhibition] (where you might enjoy some SNO [___-Caps...]);and finally—how often do we see this:
• "ET TU, BRUTE?" [Famed Shakespearean last words]. It's the phrase in its entirety. Be still, my heart!

Barry C. Silk's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"—joon's review

this is, by a fair amount, the easiest stumper i've ever done. i started by knowing 1a (EMMA watson, who plays [Hermione in the "Harry Potter" films]) and proceeded through the puzzle, never really getting hung up anywhere. most unusual for a stumper. i liked several of the answers a lot, especially AIR GUITAR, WHIFFLE BALL, and DOMO ARIGATO. i think there were fewer tricky clues than usual. a few that i enjoyed:

• [It takes weeks to complete] is not any particular task, but merely a MONTH.
  
• [One held for questioning] is not a person, but a TEST. we held a test last week to "question" our students on physics, i guess.
  
• [Tag line] is the AS IS that might appear on a tag at a yard sale or flea market.
  
• a few outright traps: [___ reader], four letters? nope, not UTNE this time (note the lowercase r): it's MIND reader. [Unrefined], CR___? i put in CRUDE, but it's CRASS, meaning unrefined socially rather than chemically.
  
• [Augustan-era poet] is not a poet from the augustan era of english literature like pope or swift, but VIRGIL, who wrote during the reign of augustus caesar. but i almost feel like you had to be overeducated to fall into this trap.
  
• a couple of unnecessarily stuffy clues: why [Elusive one] for DODGER? nobody uses DODGER to mean one who dodges, unless they're talking specifically about a draft dodger. there's no real alternative for a word like RESHUT, but DODGER is perfectly cluable via the baseball team. and [High-frequency sound] for TWEET seems hopelessly out of touch, given that 99% of the time TWEET now means twitter posting.
  

clue i still don't get: [Safe to crack] for PETE. huh? is this an adjective or a noun? a person (pete safe)? no idea.

Read More...

Summary only...

Friday, 11/20/09

BEQ 4:54
LAT 4:36
NYT 4:35
CHE 4:05
CS untimed
WSJ 7:02

You're probably here because you like the harder crosswords that are published later in the week. If so, Peter Gordon's Fireball Crosswords will be right up your alley. For just $10, you can get one puzzle a week, mostly hard themeless crosswords by Peter himself, for pretty much all of 2010. For more money, Peter will work the answer of your choice into a puzzle. See the Fireball subscription page for details. Tell your friends! (The smart ones.)

Alan Olschwang's New York Times crossword

This is a weird puzzle for me. Part of it feels super-fresh and part of it feels like a retread or homage with old answers. What do I mean by the latter? It goes beyond ZOLAESQUE, which was the dramatic linchpin answer in the 2005 ACPT and the documentary Wordplay. There, in Byron Walden's tournament finals puzzle, it was clued as [Stark and richly detailed, as writing]. Here, it's [A la the founder of literary naturalism]. Then there was Bob Klahn's Saturday NYT monster, 12/27/07, in which [Mob rule] clued OCHLOCRACY. Here, [Ochlocracy] clues MOB RULE. Yesterday's Hinmorwitz puzzle had three answers including UP, and so does this one: To REUP is to [Extend one's service life] in the military, [Indicates that one is in] clues ANTES UP, and to [Squirrel] away your nuts is to STORE UP. Last, there's JAZZERCISE at 1A, clued as a [Tae Bo alternative], and the clue weirdly echoes 61D, TAE, or [Inits. of a noted "Wizard"] of Menlo Park, Thomas A. Edison.

What I liked:

• The high-octane Scrabbliness of the fill. Three Zs, three Qs, a pair of Ks, and an X? Me like. Speaking of Scrabble, in a Lexulous game (that's the loose facsimile of Scrabble on Facebook) tonight, I bingoed by playing DOODIES, and twigged the S off CRAP so that CRAPS and DOODIES cross. Isn't that lovely? I thought so, too. Speaking of potty words, PEE is clued as 44D: [Top finisher?] because P is the last letter of "top." Heh.
• 15A. ONE OVER PAR is clued with [It's not bad for a duffer].
• 22A. Trivia! Lech WALESA is the [Only private non-American to address a joint session of Congress (1989)].
• 26A. [Season opener, say] is an EPISODE of a TV show. Were you thinking of sports? Bzzz!
• 28A. [Lions might score one]—are you thinking of sports, the Detroit Lions? Bzzz! The Lions are terrible at scoring. But out on the savanna, a lion might bring down a GNU. Nice to see a fresh (if gruesome) GNU clue.
• 29A. [Foul territory?] is a STY. Were you thinking of baseball? Bzzz! Gotta love having three consecutive clues that aren't about sports but might fool sports nuts.
• 45A. An OTO may be a [Chiwere speaker]. As with the GNU clue, I like the new twist on an old 3-letter answer.
• 58A. [Ones who might get service calls?] are military RESERVISTS. It would be lovely if the RESERVISTS had no war to attend.
• 64A. EAT ONE'S HAT is a great phrase, balancing out ONE OVER PAR in the grid. [Be forced to backpedal] is the clue.
• 66A. Three Ss in a row! DRESS SHOES are a [Pair for a suit]. Not playing cards, but haberdashery.
• 3D. I needed crossings for ZEB, ["The Waltons" grandpa]. ZEB! I never knew Grandpa Walton had a name.
• 6D. [Proofs] clues REREADS. Hey, that's my line of work there.
• 10D. [1990s White House chief of staff Bowles] has an even cooler first name than Grandpa Walton: ERSKINE. There's also author Erskine Caldwell.
• 11D. Ornithology! The [Umbrella bird's "umbrella"] is a CREST atop its head.
• 24D. Never heard of [Irish statesman Cosgrove], but LIAM is a guessable Irish name (and the lovely name of my cousin's baby boy).
• 32D. Like 58A, this sounds like it's about appliance repair, but it's not: ORS, or operating rooms, are [Where some parts are repaired, briefly].
• 33D. PETRI DISH is clue by way of [Germs grow in it]. See also 29A.
• 42D. In some places, NO TURNS is a [Rush hour restriction]. In my neighborhood, that restriction is reserved for the arteries within a half mile of Wrigley Field around game time.
• 45D. Didn't we have a clue like this not so long ago? The OZARKS are your [Buffalo National River locale], but Buffalo smacks of the Great Plains and the state of New York.

Overall, there's much to appreciate in the puzzle, even with that handful of blast-from-the-past answers. Lots of good clues today.

Updated Friday morning

Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Opposite Beginnings"—Janie's review

Well, here's a nice thematic change of pace. The first two words of each of today's theme phrases (their "beginnings") are also pairs of opposites. The first example uses words that are adjectives; the other two, prepositions. These two not only make for lively fill, but they stretch the conceit as they aren't opposites contextually. They certainly add a measure of fun, however. We've got:

20A. LITTLE BIG MAN [1970 Dustin Hoffman film]. You don't need me to point out the opposites...
36A. OFF ON A TANGENT [Straying from the subject].
56A. OUT IN THE OPEN [Transparent].

If this idea isn't a serious ENIGMA [Something hard to grasp], it is fresh—and fresh is greatly to be desired. The last thing anyone wants from their solving experience is a SNOOZER [Real bore], one that would cause the puzzler to SNORE [Saw logs]. Oh—and nice cluing there, too, with [Saw logs], where saw is the present tense verb related to the activity (of sawing...) and not the past tense of "see."

Other clues that made me pay attention: the punny [Slop talk] for OINK, the folksy [Give what for] for SCOLD, the 19th century-sounding [Dastard] for FIEND (which we love, of course!), and [Labor party] for MOM. All I have to say about that last one is "ZOUNDS!" [Gadzooks!"]. I also liked the nod given to the humble writing irons: [Pencil end] for ERASER and [Pen end] for NIB.

And in a mini-thematic way, Randy goes in for a bit of globe-trotting today. From Turkey there's the [Ottoman muck-a-muck] or SULTAN (and another colorful clue, no?); [Turkmenistan neighbor] IRAN; a SIBERIAN [Novosibirsk native] (Russia's third-largest city after Moscow and St. Petersburg. I'd no idea.); the NORTH SEA, that [Body of water between England and Norway]; ASTI, an [Italian wine region]; and BALI [Island near Java]. There's even (bear with me...) AMERIKA [Kafka novel], IOWAN [Waterloo resident] and a tip o' the Stetson to the American West, with ALL IN [Texas Hold 'Em bet], SSW [Dallas-to-Austin dir.] and RODEO [Cheyenne Frontier Days, notably], an annual event since 1897.

Michael Blake's Los Angeles Times crossword

Wow, is it just me, or is this the first Friday LAT in ages that's been ever bit as hard as the Friday NYT? The first theme entry I figured out was the fourth one, which led me astray because LEGO CRAZY, or [Nuts about Danish toys?], looked like the Prince song, "Let's Go Crazy," minus the TS. Then I moved back to the top of the grid and got LENO LIMIT, or [Maximum tolerance for a stand-up comic's jokes?]. Wait, where's the missing TS? Oh, I see: It's +LE, not –TS. (Edited to add: Oh, yes. There's also the explanatory entry ADDLE, to be parsed as ADD "LE.")

The other theme entries are LEON TELEVISION, or ["All Trotsky, all the time" channel?]—that's so goofy, I love it—and LEASH WEDNESDAY, or [When dogs can't run loose?].

Favorite clues/answers:

• SNARF is a slangy word meaning [Wolf (down)].
• LOLA is a [1970 hit by the Kinks]. I like this LOLA much better than a Damn Yankees or Falana reference. I don't suppose we'll ever get [Filipino grandma]?
• [You can count on a lot of bucks from] one...hmm, 6 letters? THE ATM? No, a buckin' BRONCO.
• BERN, Switzerland, is the [Capital northwest of Rome]. Why couldn't I remember this city? I had Berlin on the mind.
• ["___ behold!"] clues the partial LO AND. I don't usually enjoy a partial, but my mom's always been a big "lo and behold" sayer.

Jayne and Alex Boisvert's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Mark My Words"

Cute theme. The central entry, ACCENTS, explains what's going on: [They're missing from the clues for 17, 23, 50, and 58 Across]. Those four answers have one-word clues, which need acute accents in order to correspond to their answers. Without the ACCENTS, the clue words are entirely different words:

• Pliés are BALLET MOVEMENTS, but [Plies] is a verb or the plural of ply.
• The clue is the verb [Resume], but it's a résumé that is a JOB-HUNTER'S NEED.
• Gold lamé is a METALLIC FABRIC, while [Lame] is an adjective and verb.
• [Attaches] is a verb, but attachés are people who are DIPLOMATIC AIDES.

Favorite clues:

• [Cylindrical opening?] is the word's first letter, a SOFT C.
• J. CREW is often clued as an L.L. Bean competitor, just because of the initials thing. But it's more accurate to call it a [Gap competitor].
• I learned a new word in the clue [Like many dactylology experts]. Dactyl- means "finger," so it's DEAF people who use sign language.

Randolph Ross's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Faculty Meeting"

Randy Ross's puzzle is a nice counterpart to the Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, thanks to the light faux-faculty theme. Most of the theme entries are non-academic jobs clued as if they're very specific types of faculty. For example, a military DRILL INSTRUCTOR might also be what you call a [Faculty member at a dental school?]. A couple are academic positions, but clued with a different sort of angle—ENGLISH TEACHER is a generic [Faculty member at Eton?] in England rather than a teacher of the English language, and RHODES SCHOLAR becomes a [Faculty member with expertise on a Greek island?]. I like that last one best. Second favorite is STAGECOACH clued as [Member of the drama faculty?]. Least familiar: PAST MASTER is clued as [Faculty member in the history department?].

I like the way the 11 theme answers are distributed throughout the grid, with Across trios and Down pairs running in alternate rows. Favorite fill: [Giant star] sounds like it's astronomy, but it's crosswordese baseball legend MEL OTT making a rare full-name appearance. Also "THAT'S WHY," or ["Here's the reason"]. I think I probably say those words to my son a lot.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "To Your Corners"

Remember playing FOUR SQUARE on the playground with a classic red rubber ball? In each corner of the grid, Brendan adds a FOUR-square layout spelling out FOUR clockwise from the corner. That gives a third level of checked letters to the answers in the corner, which came in handy with KRONUR, the [Icelandic coins] plural. The gimmick is implemented well here.

Favorite clue: [Meadow in New Jersey] is Meadow SOPRANO, Tony's daughter, and has nothing to do with the Meadowlands. Great mislead.

Last square filled in: The X in SIX/[Volleyball side] and XED/[Ticked off]. I was running through the alphabet and made it to P before the X possibility occurred to me.

Most potty-mouthed answer: PEE is [Whiz]. I was thinking of ACE or PRO and wasn't sure what the last letter of RATLIN* ([Ship's ladder step]) was until PEE finally trickled out.

Worst and best neighbors: Strained APISHLY beside juicy, tart KUMQUAT.

Read More...

Summary only...

Saturday, 5/2

Newsday 12:19
LAT 4:36
NYT 4:10
CS 10:14 (J -- paper)

Peter Collins' New York Times crossword

Aw, man! What a rip-off. I count on my two themeless NYT crosswords on Friday and Saturday. This weekend, the Saturday puzzle got bumped up to Friday, and what's on tap for calendrical Saturday is...a Thursday puzzle? Just a themed puzzle, appearing now because it's Kentucky Derby day. And you know how I know it's a Thursday puzzle running on Saturday? Because the solving time is right on target for Thursday, and because there's a little extra oomph to it—you see the KENTUCKY DERBY running diagonally between those corner black squares? There's your Thursday gimmick.

Now, on the plus side, I liked the "aha" moment after I finished the puzzle and said "hey, wait a minute, where's the Kentucky Derby?" and reread the TRIPLE CROWN clue: [It comprises the 10-Down, 34-Across, and a third part found elsewhere in the grid]. The BELMONT Stakes and PREAKNESS are the other two legs (prongs?) of the Triple Crown. [One that bets are on] is 48A: THE FAVORITE. And [One with a stake in 48-Across, say] is a horse BREEDER.

On the other hand, horseracing themes never delight me. Horseracing is of no interest to me.

So what else is in this puzzle?

• OKRA is a [Vegetable sometimes grown as a flower]. Who knew?
  
• [Walrus-skin boats] are UMIAKS. A gimme! Yes, I have been doing crosswords too long.
  
• [Spain's Victoria Eugenia, familiarly] clues ENA. Hey, is this the Spanish queen ENA of crosswordese fame? Did I finally learn her full name?
  
• [Bad bill collector?] is a Treasury agent, or T-MAN, catching counterfeiters.
  
• MOO SHU is not a [Kind of pork]. It's a dish that contains pork. Every now and then, I like to speak out on behalf of those who absolutely loathe the "kind of" clues that would more correctly be fill-in-the-blank clues.
  
• [Best Actress winner for "The Great Ziegfeld," 1936] is Luise RAINER. I believe her first name shows up much more often in crosswords.
  
• SKIMP ON is clued as [Not provide fully]. That K begins the diagonal answer.
  
• SUBARU is [One of two cars besides a Cadillac named in Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac"].
  
• [Ruling] is a noun and a gerund, and it can be used to describe the party that is IN POWER.
  
• CANONRY is clued as a [Church office]. Don't recall seeing this word before. More religion: [The Little Flower of Jesus] is THERESA.
  
• If it's CUT-RATE, the price is [Marked down].
  
• OPHELIA's always welcome in the crossword. Her quote clue: ["O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!" speaker, in Shakespeare].
  
• The [Nintendo product] called the GAMEBOY is a good crossword entry.
  
• [Family in Upton Sinclair's "Oil!"] are the ROSSES. Didn't read it; didn't see No Blood for Oil. No, wait, that's not the movie title. Like Oil for Chocolate? No Country for Oilmen? Ah, There Will Be Blood, right?
  
• I sure didn't know that the D TRAIN is [Public transportation to New York's Yankee Stadium], but luckily the D's crossing was solid.

Updated Saturday morning:

Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Bond Issues"—Janie's review

So yesterday, in "Up for Debate," Doug Peterson gave us STOCK ISSUE. And today, Bob Klahn gives us "Bond Issues." No -- I don't take this to be the start of Wall Street trend in CS puzzles, as the "Bond" at issue here is Ian Fleming's Bond. James Bond. Or in this case, the singers of five Bond-movie theme-songs. To wit:

• 17A: SHERYL CROW ["Tomorrow Never Dies" theme singer]
  
• 28A: SHEENA EASTON ["For Your Eyes Only" theme singer] -- I really like the way this one looks in the grid, especially the vowelly EENAEA part.
  
• 39A: MADONNA ["Die Another Day" theme singer]
  
• 47A: NANCY SINATRA ["You Only Live Twice" theme singer]
  
• 63A: CARLY SIMON ["The Spy Who Loved Me" theme singer] -- name that tune! (Spoiler below)
  

Now this is a pretty straightforward kind of theme with pretty straightforward cluing and fill. And one evocative jukebox. Click here for some terrific trivia about these and the other Bond-movie theme songs.

Is that all there is? Folks. We've got Klahn here. Bob Klahn. It's the tip o' the iceberg. There's more than the theme to unify this one. And it comes primarily from the finely wrought cluing.

There are the alliterative, repeating and/or rhyme-y clues: [Jolts with volts], [Pertaining to a pigmented peeper part], [Porter order], [Boozing or babbling binge], [Surname separator], [Steinbeck surname], [Pickings or Pickens], [Minute or mile], [Minute bit], [Ship slip], [Central point], [Central line], [Needing kneading?], [Dot-com datum], [Cornell founder Cornell], [Light, in a way], [Light yellow], [Roast rotator], [Intense suspense, e.g.], ["There is no try" Jedi], [Highland headland], [Globular goblet], [Pivotal point] -- holy moly!

There's a quadruple, too: [What a kid'll eat, in song], [Kanga's kid], [Kid], [Kidder]. Btw -- if you didn't understand the first of these, you may never have heard/heard of Mairzy Doats -- a novelty song from the '40s.

Animal clues? Gottem: [What a kid'll eat...], [Kanga's kid], [Bee flat?] (loved that!), [Fox or turkey chaser?], [Hog wild?].
And then, in the fill -- to complement all the KIDding in the clues -- he gives us: JOSH, TEASE and CARD.

Not to mention the slew of scrabbly letters: 4 Z's, 3 J's, 2 X's. And the elegant [Central point] crossing of NEXUS and CRUX.

The only crossing that gave me pause was BAIZE and ZORI. Just wasn't certain of that common Z. Kept thinking BAIZE was a color. But no -- it's a fabric. Was I maybe thinking of MAIZE?......

To wrap it all up, will only add that where this kind of solid cluing/puzzle-making is concerned, um, "Nobody does it better"!

Alan Olschwang's L.A. Times crossword

I'm looking forward to a return to Saturday toughness for the themeless L.A. Times puzzle. Not this week—maybe next week. I like themelesses that make me work for 6 to 7 minutes, as 4½ is just too short. I want it 50% more difficult.

Lots of good fill here—there are three widely spaced 15's going Across, held together by another vertical 15. An eight-pack of 9's provide the rest of the long fill, and my favorites among them are A LOT TO ASK, GONE TO POT, and the cool MAELSTROM. Today at Casa Fiend, there's a science fair project to oversee, so here I'll simply refer you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential postif you're looking for more detail.

Stan Newman's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"

(Solution here.)

I was thisclose to conceding a few squares in the southwest corner when I realized that 37D: [Seat] was INSTATE and not INSTALL. Once again, I find the "original meaning of a first name" clue to be an irritant. 56A: [Name meaning "old city"] is ELTON, presumably an elision of eld + town. I have never, ever heard of ITALO-disco, an '80s European music genre.

I fell into the OKRA trap for 38A: [Gumbo ingredient]. The answer is ROUX, and that crosses a few other toughies. 27D: [Square meal] is CHEX, but it's not the meal that's square, it's a cereal piece. 33D: [Type of rail] is a COOT; both are aquatic bird names. 38D: [Ball playing?] is Lucy RICARDO; since when is a role or character a "playing"?

The most misleading clue is 10D: [Film set in colonial New York]—ANTZ. I knew that took place in an animated ant colony, but who remembers that it was in New York? Second most misleading: 31A: [What element 108 was named for]. If you happen to know that element 108 is called hassium, it might not be obvious that it was named after the German state of HESSE, which is "hassia" in Latin.

I'm not sure why 12D: HOODIES is clued as ['90s fashion statements]—I see no shortage of hoodies in my 'hood in 2009.

I had a couple wrong turns in the grid. 2D: [Spa offerings], ending with UBS? Surely HOT TUBS, right? Nope—OIL RUBS. Do spas call that service an "oil rub"? Because that sounds more like something a mechanic does, not a relaxing spa offering. 45A: [Adidas alternative] is FILA, but I started with AVIA and also considered PUMA.

A couple spots had interesting letter collisions. 42A: [Save or Print] clues MENU OPTION, and that UO looked so impossibly wrong. In the southeast quadrant, the long Acrosses have consonant pile-ups. DR. DEMENTO is a [Comedy Music Hall of Fame charter member]. 57A: [Long-time telethon cohost] is ED MCMAHON. And 59A: [Teen idols] are ROCK STARS.

Random trivia: 30D: ["Rigoletto" inspiration] is Victor HUGO, and 52D: [About 8.8 liters] is a PECK, 8 quarts.

Read More...

Summary only...

Wednesday, 9/10

Tausig 4:15
Onion 4:04
LAT 3:41
NYS 3:40
NYT 3:16
CS 3:13

(updated at 10:15 Wednesday morning)

Tuesday, blog commenter Melmoth suggested that if the Sun newspaper does go under, Peter Gordon should publish the crosswords online on a subscription basis. To be able to pay the constructors, of course, Peter would need to secure enough subscribers. I, for one, would love to see the Sun crossword continue. (And not least because I haven't gotten around to constructing a puzzle for/with Peter yet!) Please chime in on the poll in the sidebar—would you be willing to subscribe for online access to Sun-grade crosswords?

Wednesday's entry in Teen Week is a newcomer to the New York Times, Lucas Gaviotis Whitestone. Hey! A fresh theme! I like it. The last Across answer, INNER, is clued [Private...or a hint to the words spelled by the circled letters]. The theme entries are:

• PAPERBACK WRITER, a [1966 Beatles #1 hit]. The circled letters spell out PEACE, as in "inner peace."
  
• The [Louisville landmark] is CHURCHILL DOWNS, with an inner CHILD.
  
• The [Command Kirk never really gave] (good clue) is "BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY," with an inner BEAUTY.
  
• [Standard degrees for scientists] refers to the CENTIGRADE SCALE, with an inner CIRCLE. (Minus one point for the word "circled" appearing in the INNER clue when CIRCLE is hidden in one theme entry.)
  

The fill is notable for having relatively few proper names. I trust one of you will explain to me why POPE is the answer to [Successor to St. Peter]. I know why COWBELL is in there, and it's not because [It may be heard in a herd]—the cowbell became a showbiz legend in this SNL skit in which Christopher Walken as a record producer says he's gotta have more cowbell. I gotta have more geography—SENEGAL is a [Nation where Wolof and French are spoken].

I relished the "E Before I" theme in Richard and Judith Martin's New York Sun crossword. In five phrases, a word with an I preceding an E swaps those letters, radically altering the meaning:

• Mucho dinero turns into MUCHO DE NIRO, or [What you'll see if you watch "Raging Bull" followed by "Taxi Driver" followed by "The King of Comedy"?].
• A dime store becomes DEMI STORE, or [Where to buy "G.I. Jane" and "Striptease"?].
• My favorite theme entry is NO SPRING CHECK-IN, a [Sign at the Three Seasons Hotel?] and an alteration of "no spring chicken." Perfect clue, perfect answer, perfect phrase behind the theme entry.
• [Not quite half a score of jeans?] would be less than 10 pairs, or NINE LEVIS made from nine lives. (Minus one point for NINE being another I/E word left unchanged.)
• [Where a Russian revolutionary leader kept his coats?] is in the LENIN CLOSET (linen closet). I rather like this one, too.

The cool theme gets an assist from the fill. KEN KESEY between Donny OSMOND and Wall-E's love interest EVE (hooray for a new EVE clue!)? An ALL-PRO ZEALOT corner? Good stuff. Favorite clues: [Samara dropper] is an ELM tree (samaras being the little seedy things that elms drop...and a botany word I learned from crosswords); [Seoul brothers?] for KOREANS; gift [Opening days?] for XMASES; and [Yellow solid] for the number ONE ball on a pool table.

Updated:

Alan Olschwang's LA Times puzzle makes a theme out of Q words that are not QU words. Let's call it the Trip Payne special, since Trip was immortalized in Wordplay as being particularly fond of the letter Q. There are five pairs of Q words and phrases here, so the three long answers are shored up by seven short ones:

• QWEST WIRELESS is a [Big name in cell phone service] (Psst: Verizon is better.) [Mosul's land], IRAQ, shares the Q.
  
• The QWERTY KEYBOARDS are [standard for PCs]. HDQRS, or [Decision-making sites: Abbr.] is the Q crosser.
  
• QANTAS AIRWAYS is a [Sydney carrier]. An ocean [Liner of note], the QEII, crosses this one. All travel!
  
• A [Medicine cabinet item] is a Q-TIP, and it crosses QMAIL, a [Unix transfer agent for online correspondence] that I know nothing about.
  
• QBS, or quarterbacks, are [TD pass throwers], and QATAR is a [Persian Gulf land]. IRAQ and QATAR are joined in the Middle East by ISRAEL, a [Negev desert country] that has no Q in its name.
  

Favorite clue: [They may be kicked off or kicked up] for HEELS. Most obscure answer: a MENE is a [Word on a wall]. You know what keeps this puzzle from being a pangram? There's no U in it.

Tom Schier's CrosSynergy puzzle, "You're in the Army Now," features three fictional characters with military names. Goldie Hawn's PRIVATE BENJAMIN did enlist in the Army. Bob Keeshan's CAPTAIN KANGAROO was not a military figure; Wikipedia says his name "came from the big pockets in his coat"—that explains the Kangaroo, but not the Captain part. The [Fictional Yukon lawman], SERGEANT PRESTON, was a Mountie. In the fill, it took me a while to remember that a word for [Abject submissiveness] is SERVILITY. [Demands] clues STANDS ON, which looks weird without a noun after it, as in "stands on formality."

Even before I start reading the clues, I could probably identify a Matt Jones crossword. His grids have a distinctive look to them—they're themed but they tend to make space for a lot of long answers, so the black squares form a weird pattern. Compare Matt's Onion A.V. Club crossword here with these more common grid designs. Subjectively, I'd say Matt's puzzles are a little ugly at the outset, but they soon win me over with their content. The theme here is the ersatz:

• [Fake song by the Rolling Stones?] is BROWN NUTRASWEET, as Nutrasweet is an artificial sweetener and the real song title is "Brown Sugar."
  
• Grass roots politicking is swapped out for ASTROTURF ROOTS, a [Fake type of campaign?].
  
• Fruit leather downgrades to FRUIT NAUGAHYDE, a [Fake snack for kids]. Any time you can throw in the word Naugahyde, it's gonna be funny.
  
• Tomato catsup can be used as low-budget fake blood, so if blood brothers are close relatives, [Fake close relatives?] might be KETCHUP BROTHERS.
  

My favorites among the fill and clues: [Mepos' best-known emigrant, in an 1980s sitcom] (should be "a 1980s" or "an '80s") is BALKI, played by Bronson Pinchot on...what was it called? Perfect Strangers. I didn't watch it, but the Balki concept is as innately funny/bad as Naugahyde. APROPOS OF looks cool in the grid; it's clued [With regard to]. [Brady in the upper right] is GREG Brady in The Brady Bunch's opening sequence. The [Indian car company trying to break into the U.S. market with the Nano] is called TATA. Is that name a plus or a minus to the American public?

Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Triple Scramble," concocts phrases out of three anagrams. A [Director's edit of a war film with a more adorable treaty-signing scene?], for example, could be a CUTER TRUCE RECUT. A PENAL PLANE PANEL and SMITE TIMES MITES round out the theme. Not my favorite theme, but there's some good stuff in the fill. ATALANTA, the [Mythical runner]? Love her! Particularly the feminist "Free to Be...You and Me" version. A DIRTBALL crosses a LOGJAM in colorful compound word territory. PACK IT IN is good idiomatic English, and "I KNEW IT!" is aptly clued as [Words from one whose fears are confirmed]. I didn't know that OTONO was [Fall, in Spain]; I suspect it's a cognate of autumn and automne. CBGB is the [Bowery club now occupied by a clothing boutique]; boutiques are not as punk as CBGB was. Who will tell me why CHER is a [Noted user of Auto-Tune]? What is Auto-Tune?

Read More...

Summary only...

Wednesday, 6/18

LAT 12:42
NYS 8:54
NYT 7:17
CS 6:25

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Oh my God -- someone call 911! Orange has obviously fallen on her head and lost the ability to solve crossword puzzles!" Don't fret. Orange is off enjoying some quiet time for a few days. And I mean quiet like very little Internet access and no television in her room. Makes me hyperventilate just thinking about it. In the meantime, you're stuck with me, PuzzleGirl. Let's just try to make the most of it, okay? Obviously it takes me quite a bit longer than Orange to solve the puzzles so I just hope my kids don't expect me to, ya know, pay attention to them, make them food, take them places -- stuff like that, for the next few days. Onto the puzzles....

Alan Olschwang's New York Sun puzzle, "Atom," has some fun long answers:

• [The Golden Globe lifetime achievement award is named after him] is CECIL B. DEMILLE. I was poking around on imdb.com yesterday looking at some awards stuff and came across this fact, so it was a gimme for me today. Speaking of gimme....
  
• ["Mamma Mia!" song] is GIMME GIMME GIMME. How do I not know this song? I clicked over to YouTube to find it, expecting that once I heard it I'd go "Oh THAT Gimme Gimme Gimme." But no. Never heard it. Maybe because it's … not a great song.
  
• [Peggy Parish protagonist] is AMELIA BEDELIA. My 7-year-old daughter read the part of Amelia Bedelia in a school read-aloud play and tells me she is very funny. When Mrs. Rogers tells her to dress the chicken, Amelia puts clothes on it. And that's where my daughter says she had the opportunity to use expression: "You told me to dress the chicken! So I dressed the chicken!"

Okay, this is embarrassing but it's definitely not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last, so I'm just going to own up to it: I have no idea how the title relates to the puzzle. I'd be grateful if someone would please explain it in the comments for those of us who are clearly not smart enough to keep up with Peter Gordon. (It's not just me, right?) Thanks.

Other interesting stuff: [It has two lameds in its name] is the Israeli airline EL AL. The lamed, Wikipedia informs me, is the 12th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thank goodness for crosses with two ungettable (for me anyway) names right next to each other. [2005 NBA Rookie of the Year _____ Okafor] is EMEKA and [2003 Peace Nobelist Shirin _____] is EBADI. Note to self: memorize Peace Nobelists. Seems like I DIG [Beatnik's expression of understanding] has been popping up quite a bit recently. I can't see a reference to beatniks without picturing Mike Myers in "So I Married an Axe Murderer." Nice echo in a couple clues: [Guy's female friend], meaning Guy like a French guy named Guy, leads to AMIE. Later in the puzzle, [Guy's female friend], referring to just any old ordinary guy, leads us to GAL. Nice.

In the New York Times puzzle, Adam Fromm added the letter L to some familiar phrases to come up with some amusing entries. [Appetizer, entrée or dessert?] is DINNER PARTLY, [Bonbon and how it should be divvied up?] is SUGAR PLUM FAIRLY, and [Doubting apostle? Not by a long shot!] is THOMAS HARDLY. So I hate to make this blog all about me right on the first day and all, but wow! Lots of gimmes for me today. I grew up in North Dakota so Lawrence WELK, [Lawrence of the North Dakota Hall of Fame], was a no-brainer. And does anybody remember that 80's band the Jets? The band, which had a couple of hits in "You Got It All" and "Crush on You," was made up of brothers and sisters in a large Mormon family (at least they all claimed to be brothers and sisters -- I had my doubts, but that's not really important). Before they hit the big time, such as it was, they performed poolside at a Holiday Inn in Moorhead, Minnesota, every weekend, where they were called the Polynesian Pearls. After the Polynesian show, which featured their mother singing and I'm pretty sure one of the boys ate fire at some point, the kids would come back out and sing covers for the rest of the night. I lived in the next town over at the time and I'm not really sure how it started, but a friend and I were there to see them pretty much every weekend. We got to know them and I even sang with them a few times if you can believe that (I can't). So that's a pretty long story just to tell you that they were originally from TONGA, an [Archipelago known as the Friendly Islands], which comes up in crosswords from time and time and makes me think of them fondly. And now that I've babbled on so long about, basically, nothing, I'll leave it to all of you to discuss the puzzle in the comments.

Updated:

Doug Peterson's LA Times puzzle offers some fun wordplay:

[Good place for a split] = STOCK MARKET PAGE
[Bad place for a split] = BOWLING ALLEY
[Good place for a split] = SODA FOUNTAIN
[Bad place for a split] = SEAT OF ONE'S PANTS

I love starting off with a gimme at 1 Across. I've been doing some work for a RABBI [Temple leader] the last couple days so the word was right there for me. Unfortunately, as you can tell from my time, everything pretty much fell apart after that. I spent the last two minutes or so on the Northeast corner where I couldn't get "Here Comes the Judge" out of my head, though the puzzle wanted ["Here Come the COEDS": 1945 college comedy]. SO AM I ["Likewise"] was overshadowed by ditto, me too, and same here. [Little, in Livorno] was looking for POCO. Livorno is, of course, not in France so peu and petite were getting me nowhere.

Other stuff: For [Lovey-dovey letter] I was searching my brain for a word that I still haven't been able to come up with. It's a strange word, it means "love letter" but doesn't seem like it should mean "love letter." Anyone? I'm glad it wasn't that word though, because MASH NOTE is pretty fun. I had a friend once who referred to "making out" as "mashing." Me: "Did you have fun last night on your date?" Her: "Yeah. We mashed." I know that [Calgary's prov.] is ALTA but, seriously. What's up with that abbreviation? Shouldn't there be a B or an R in there somewhere? I also liked seeing the reference to the ARK [Place of refuge] today. I thought we were going to need one here in Iowa these last few days.

The theme of Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle today is HEAD START [School readiness program and a hint to this puzzle's theme]. All the theme answers start with words that can precede the word HEAD to make another familiar word.

[Touchy topic, so to speak] = HOT POTATO =>HOTHEAD
[Smack-dab in the middle] = DEAD CENTER =>DEADHEAD
[Inflatable sleeping surface] = AIR MATTRESS => AIRHEAD
[High-speed transporter] = BULLET TRAIN =>BULLETHEAD
[Seamstress's accessory] = PIN CUSHION => PINHEAD

There's another kind of HEAD that would have been funny to include, but I guess this is a family show. I hadn't heard of "7 Faces of DR. LAO" [1964 title role for Tony Randall]. Wikipedia tells me that in that film, Tony Randall "also appears as Pan, Apollonius of Tyana, a borderline-senile Merlin and even Medusa and the Abominable Snowman." Talk about range. BRAGS, [Toots one's own horn], reminded me of Dizzy Dean's line: "It ain't bragging if you can do it." I said that to my sister one time and I recall she responded with, "Except that, well, yeah, it is." Interesting that BETTE is pronounced two different ways to fit the clue, [Midler or Davis]. Happy to see the [1992 presidential also-ran] Ross PEROT in the puzzle. He's from Texas, you know.

Read More...

Summary only...

Friday, 5/9

NYT 7:38
NYS 5:36
LAT 5:10
CHE 4:39
Jonesin' 3:49
CS 3:05

WSJ 8:19

On this day in 2007, I was vacationing in Liverpool. O, to be in England! Except never again in May—the only time I've ever had seasonal allergies was last May in England.

The Friday New York Sun crossword, "Ends in the Middle" by Alan Olschwang, threatened to stymie me in the lower left corner, but somehow I extracted the right letters from the darkest recesses of my brain. (As opposed to the well-lighted parts.) Two theme entries contain the ABC end of the alphabet in their middles (TAB COLLARS and REHAB CENTER), and the other two contain XYZ. The problematic corner was where the insane Roman numeral multiplication problem and unfamiliar ["Strangers on a Train" costar] crossed the [DC Comics villain] whose vowel-free name I've seen in a crossword, MR. MXYZPTLK. The first M starts MCM, or [LXXVI x XXV], and the second M is in RUTH ROMAN. Favorite clues:

• [Wire cutter?] is a BARB, as in the sharp part of barbed wire.
  
• The [Subj. of the book "Treasure-House of the Language"] is the OED. Crossing that entry, aptly, is a [Word with English or language]: BODY. 
  
• [They're exhausted] means what? GASES, of course.
  
• [Venus, e.g.] for a brand of women's RAZOR. It's nice to get some shaving action in a crossword that doesn't involve ATRA or TRAC.
  
• [Nuncupative] means ORAL. As in "Delivered orally to witnesses rather than written: a nuncupative will."
  
• The [2004 Lindsay Lohan movie] is MEAN GIRLS, written by Tina Fey.
  
• GOD is clued with ["Universe Ends as ___ Wakes Up Next to Suzanne Pleshette" (headline in the Onion)].
  

Least known to me:

• ["___ of Lambeth" (W. Somerset Maugham's first novel)] for LIZA
  
• Theme entry HYDROXYZINE, [Antihistaminic drug]. This may be used more as an anti-anxiety drug than for hives/allergy, and it's been around for more than 50 years. (XANAX, the [Pfizer antianxiety pill], rounds out the anxiety medicine category in this crossword.) 
  
• [Chicago cop Lieberman in Stuart M. Kaminsky novels] is ABE.
  
• Stanford University's motto is German: "Die Luft DER Freiheit weht," meaning "The wind of freedom blows." (It's "die Freiheit," a feminine noun, but when the article replaces "of the" it turns into "der" with some dative case action. I'm a little fuzzy on the mechanics at this point.)
  
• ["The American ___" (Carelton Mabee biography of Samuel F.B. Morse that won a Pulitzer] for LEONARDO (also the name of one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
  
• [Larry who broke the color line in the American League] is DOBY. Why isn't he better known?
  

The New York Times crossword by Jim Page just wasn't on my wavelength. Favorite clues:

• [Egyptian ___ (cat breed)] for MAU—it's only faintly familiar, but look at its spots! Bonus points for cuteness.
  
• [Organization originally called the Jolly Corks] is the ELKS; aww, why did they change?
  
• [Where many lives are expended] is a video game ARCADE.
  
• ["Doonesbury" journalist Hedley] for ROLAND. 
  
• [Flying piscivores] for ERNS. Rex has great ERN notecards designed by Emily Cureton.
  
• An ELECTRICIAN is [One who may do a wire transfer], sans question mark.
  

Least favorite entries:

• PALSY, [Buddy-buddy]. You gotta tack a "-walsy" onto that.
  
• Three suffixes: ANE, [Suffix of some cyclic compounds]; ITES, [Plural suffix with urban]; and ATIC, [Axiom ender].
  
• MDX, [A multiple of CLI]. Why not specify that it's 10 times CLI?
  
• The abbreviation ANC for "ancient" rather than the African National Congress, clued as [Not at all recent: Abbr.].
  
• RINA, [Actress Morelli of "The Leopard," 1963]. Despite the favorable combo of letters in her first name Rina Morelli gets precious little play in crosswords.
  
• SMALL HOURS, or [Predawn period]. I much prefer "wee hours."
  
• SUBSYSTEMS, or [Secondary arrangements]. Lacks flavor.
  
• NETTY, [Like lace].
  

Other clues that I suspect will stump many people:

• [Bit of ballistic evidence] for SHELL CASING
  
• [Bat shapers] for LATHES, which turn wood 
  
• [Builder of a hanging nest] for ORIOLE
  
• [Projecting bit of architecture] for ORIEL (I mucked up that corner by mistakenly entering fellow crosswordese OSIER)
  
• [Jib used to give a boat more speed] for GENOA
  
• [Yellowish-orange spread] for APRICOT JAM (...or maybe it was just me who had trouble seeing that one)
  
• [It tells you where to look] for a CROSS-INDEX, with SEE cross-referenced to it
  
• [1960s TV Western] for LAREDO
  
• [Cousin of a guinea pig] for PACA
  

Updated:

Matt Jones goes themeless, as he does a few times a year, in this week's Jonesin' crossword. Two of the three long entries in the midsection—in the puzzle's womb, as it were—are FRATERNAL TWINS and RAISE CHILDREN. Those aren't coincidental—Matt's a new dad! Favorite parts of the puzzle: [Meg's mom, on "Family Guy"] is LOIS, who is the star of this video clip that perfectly encapsulates parenting; EDITH PIAF, with her last three letters crossing the stack in the middle of the grid; the [Meat Puppets song coverd by Nirvana on "MTV Unplugged"] is "OH ME" (and would you believe none of Nirvana's Unplugged songs seem to be available as phone ringtones?); and [Phrase said after smacking one's forehead], or "NOW I GET IT," making its second crossword appearance this week. Not wild about the heavy use of word endings in CRUMBLIEST, SYRUPIEST, and LONESOMELY, but will forgive it since Matt will soon enough be getting the Stewie-on-Family Guy treatment from two kids at once.

Doug Peterson's LA Times puzzle used plenty of Friday clues to make it harder to figure out what the theme entries were, since the theme entries were pretty much ungettable without knowing the gimmick. I suppose if I'd started at the bottom of the grid, where, I BEFORE E, [Start of an English rule, and this puzzle's theme], was lurking, it would have come together sooner. [Athena's appearance?] is a WISE MIEN (with an I before the E in the second word). [Doctor's office status, often?] is PATIENT PENDING (patent). [Components in relatively slow computers?] are POKIER CHIPS (poker). And [Tales from the market?] isn't about the stock market—it's GROCERY STORIES (stores). I love the word SKITTERED ([Skipped along]) and should use it more often than I do.

Jim Leeds' Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Cross Examinations," gets TESTY (39-Across) by sneaking four standardized tests (and, in keeping with the publication that published this puzzle, they're all ones a college student or grad might take, not a mere SAT) into rebus squares in the four longest entries. KI[M CAT]TRALL contains the MCAT; PUL[LS A T]RICK ON has the LSAT; READIN[G MAT]TER has the GMAT, and OLIVE [GRE]EN holds the GRE. There were two unknown-to-me answers that crossed—"Little MATTIE," the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, and "TU[LSA T]IME," the Don Williams hit single, but what else could go there but an I? The rebus crossings were all smooth as silk—ENI[GMAT]IC, A[GRE]ES, and TO[MCAT]S. I don't know that I would have thought it possible to make an MCAT/LSAT/GMAT rebus crossword! But the rebused entries all work, and the entire puzzle is solid.

Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy crossword, "Have Courage!", tosses synonyms for brave into the theme entries: a VALIANT EFFORT, FEARLESS FOSDICK, and Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD. Fantastic clue: [Bridges of Los Angeles County] for BEAU Bridges. With five or six other names from show business, this crossword felt more like an LA Times puzzle—and they weren't showbiz names from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, so I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Getting a Business Degree," is credited to Maryanne Lemot, which anagrams to "not my real name"—it's editor Mike Shenk's work. Not only does this puzzle have plenty of sparkling fill—like PUFF PIECE; two [Item in a certain kit] entries, SNARE DRUM and HI-HAT (from a drum kit); CAR WASH; SCOREBOARD; and SORE THUMBS—it's also got an entertaining theme. The insert-a-group-of-letters theme can fall flat or it can gleam, and this one gleams by adding a dry MBA to assorted base phrases:

• [Support for a funeral parlor hoist?] is EMBALMER GANTRY; I wonder if seeing the Elmer/embalmer pairing was the seed of this puzzle. I don't know that I knew a gantry was a type of crane.
  
• [Candy from a marine machine?] is THE SEA GUMBALL (The Seagull).
  
• [Ones seeking locations for Bollywood movies?] are BOMBAY SCOUTS (Boy Scouts).
  
• [Boss's holiday dinner dilemma in a tight economy?] is TRIM BACK OR TREAT (trick or treat).
  
• [Time in office marked by reckless excitement?] is a SLAM-BANG TERM (slang term).
  
• [War between origami artists?] is FOLDING COMBAT (folding cot, the most WAN [Anemic] of the base phrases).
  
• [Term of endearment from Gable?] is MY SWEET LOMBARD ("My Sweet Lord"). Carole Lombard and Clark Gable were husband and wife, not merely costars.
  

Read More...

Summary only...

Wednesday, 4/16

LAT 3:37
NYT 3:34
NYS 3:15
CS 2:42

Edward Sessa's got a kicky theme in his New York Times crossword. The theme clues for four 15-letter entries are [INK], [IN], [I], and [ ]. The first is CEPHALOPOD SPRAY; next, a SOCIAL ADVANTAGE; then a PERSONAL PRONOUN; and finally, DISAPPEARING INK. It's cute—sort of like those word pyramids (have they got a name?) in which one letter is removed at each step, only this one goes one step further and thereby circles back to the beginning. I got mildly mucked up early on—3-Down, [Bonehead], starting with DO...hmm, is it DODO or DOLT? Neither—it's DOPE. (With that sort of clue, it's more likely to be DODO or DOLT, statistically.) Toughest words lurking within: ANOXIA [(It) may cause a coma], not to mention death; MARL is a [Clayey sediment]; [Ptolemy's lighthouse locale] is PHAROS; the [Dispatch boat] beloved in crosswords is the AVISO; and [Coral producer] is a POLYP (polyps: they're not just for intestines and noses any more!). [No-brainer?] seems slightly cruel as a clue for MORON, though.

Lee Glickstein's New York Sun puzzle, "Name Changes," takes three phrases in which a word is duplicated and flips one of the dupes into a surname. Shaw's Man and Superman becomes Horace MANN AND SUPERMAN; Gabriel Byrne with that Irish accent takes part in BURN BABY BYRNE (just a mild sunburn); and a heart-to-heart talk is a (Gary) HART-TO-HEART (the band) TALK. (Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers' Hart to Hart doesn't enter into the equation.) Plenty of good clues and fill, but it's almost midnight (condo meeting and a phone call dislodged puzzle time) and I'm too tired to make judgments about which ones I liked now.

Updated:


Alan Olschwang's LA Times crossword places MUSIC and GENRE in symmetrical spots to explain that the theme entries begin with just that—ROCKET FUEL, PUNKY BREWSTER (['80s title sitcom role for Soleil Moon Frye], and a show I never saw), RAPID RESPONSE, and POPPY SEEDS all are longer words with contemporary music genres at their starts. A SPONGE may be used as a [Counter cleaner], but if that sponge has already picked up bacteria from one spot in the kitchen, it'll be spreading it all over the counter. (Wash those sponges in the washer or dishwasher and let them dry thoroughly to kill germs. This has been your public service announcement for 2008.) The POLYP returns, again clued as a [Coral component]; sea anemones, like that pictured at right, are also polyps and are more fun to look at since their tentacles move.

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy crossword, "La-La Land," has five two-word phrases in which both words start with LA. In the central entry, in fact, the first word is LA: L.A. LAKER. I like a LABOR LAWYER (one lives two doors down from me) and deep blue LAPIS LAZULI, but LAST LAUGHS in the plural seems off, and the [Cape Canaveral concern] LATE LAUNCH feels like it's not a stand-alone concept. Nice touch: placing the full names of LENA OLIN and TERI GARR across from each other. Both actors' first and last names appear separately in cameo roles as 4-letter fill in a zillion crosswords, and it's lovely to have them both take larger supporting roles here.

Read More...

Summary only...

Thursday, 2/7

NYT 4:43
NYS 4:02
CS 3:20
LAT 3:18

I'm feeling a little blogged out, having done the show writeup and another post elsewhere. And I haven't had supper yet, even though it's after 10 p.m., and I have a cold. So I fear I will give short shrift to tonight's crosswords.

Kenneth J. Berniker's New York Times crossword has a Thursday-friendly gimmick: It's a NO-FLY ZONE, so FLY has been eliminated from the other six theme entries. Pairs of theme entries intersect in two corners of the grid, and in one of these corners, both theme entries contain a Z (but not where they cross). So it's ambitious from a structural/theme standpoint. The [Hairy-leaved plant] is the VENUS TRAP (flytrap), for example, and one might say, "Waiter, THERE'S A (fly) IN MY SOUP." Didn't know [Bluesman Willie] LOMAX, or that the A-team and B-team are backed up by the C-TEAM or [Third-stringers]. And what is ZAX? Sometimes in the applet, the last letter or two of a clue is cut off. [Hole-punching tool for a slater], I'm guessing, but that last letter looks more like a miniature capital N. (Does anyone else have that problem in the applet sometimes?) Favorite clue: [Bush people, for short] for GOP. Been a while since we've seen YARE, [Easily maneuvered, as a boat]; one of those words I learned from crosswords and haven't quite managed to work into conversation yet. 1-Down had a shout-out to regular reader/commenter Penny; [Penny ___] turned out to be SAVER but I first thought she might be a PINCH or ANTES.

Alan Olschwang's "Themeless Thursday" in the New York Sun had four 15-letter entries traveling in the Across direction interwoven with three 15s going Down. My favorite of the 15s is FOR OLD TIMES' SAKE. Two unfamiliar 3-letter Chinese names—Wai LIN and the boat Mon LEI (bought in 1946 by the Ripley's Believe It Or Not guy)—as well as an unfamiliar insult comic (LISA Lampanelli) and an unfamiliar arena football team (KATS). Let us not forget the unfamiliar movie title, ["Chesty Anderson, ___" (1976 Shari Eubank film)] cluing USN. (The IMDb plot keywords for the movie include Female Nudity, Catfight, Gangster, Buxom, Nudity. Excuse me, how is "buxom" a plot point? Overall, the clues seemed fairly easy for a themeless Sun crossword. What a relief to have no TV game show–style crossword clues!

Updated:

Mike Peluso's LA Times crossword has four theme entries clued [Temple]. Shirley Temple was HEIDI'S PORTRAYER, there's a HOUSE OF GOD, Temple University is the OWLS' CAMPUS, and it's also the FOREHEAD FEATURE on either side. I liked the [One that may be pregnant] PAUSE, and HOBO crossing a HOT ROD, surf HODADS, and a PIANO BAR.

Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Chain of Power," strings together three power ___s in each theme row. Finding the word breaks is up to the solver. I love the word DOGGED ([Totally tenacious]); don't you? My last square was the O in TOKES. [Tips for a Vegas dealer]? Really? Huh. The marijuana sense of the word's more familiar to me. The crossing (AWOKEN) was easy if you pay attention to verb tense, but I neglected to do so. (And it couldn't have been TAKES with TAKERS elsewhere in the grid. Now, I would've used AWAKEN/TAKES and changed TAKERS to LAKERS crossing LATEN or LATER.)

Read More...

Summary only...

Thursday, 12/6

NYS 6:00
NYT 5:43
LAT 4:27
CS 3:26

I know I'm sleepy, but the theme in Joe Krozel's New York Times crossword doesn't quite make sense to me. ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN in the middle means that ON and OFF are repeated in the other theme entries, but with different structures? ON COMET, ON CUPID is balanced out by OFF-OFF-BROADWAY, but the ON_ON_ vs. OFFOFF_ format is throwing me off. Is there another layer I'm missing? The clues for two of the bottom sections of the grid just weren't making sense to my addled brain. [Ballpark figures] are FANS, [Modern writing] is (hello!) BLOG, [Chisels] is ROOKS, [Corner] is NOOK, [Company leaders: Abbr.] are SGTS (not CEOS or MGMT or MGRS). Yes, DNAS can be plural as [Genetic strands]. [MCI and others] means Roman-numeral years, or ANNI, and not phone companies. Quite a few long fill entries here, too, and their clues also didn't yield answers too quickly. Am feeling mentally very leaden tonight!

Case in point: After writing that paragraph, I tackled Tony Orbach's New York Sun puzzle, "Scoreboard Game," and it too is not quite making sense to me. Oh, wait. Okay. I see it now: Three-letter scoreboard abbreviations for baseball (?) teams. PHI for Philadelphia is added to lip-reads, making Prince PHILIP READS for a part. NYM, or the Mets, is added to pH balance, making NYMPH BALANCE. ATL for Atlanta finds its way into the bee's knees for THE BEATLES' KNEES. FLA for Florida joins a king cobra for FLAKING COBRA. And WSH for Washington interrupts a coed dorm to make COWSHED DORM. Relatively Scrabbly fill is a plus. Favorite clue: [Dr. in the hizzle?] for DRE.

I hear there's a good Karen Tracey "Weekend Warrior" on tap for tomorrow's Sun, but I dasn't try that one in this logy state!

Updated:

Alan Olschwang's LA Times puzzle's theme is outlined in the first and last Across answers, MUSIC and SCALE. The theme entries are, in order, DOT RECORDS, MIA FARROW, SOLAR LAMP, and TILTED DOWN. These phrases are mostly lifeless (in my opinion), but I like their initial musical bits and the consistent structure the octet imposes on the crossword.

Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Company Mergers," spotlights five phrases in which INC is hidden, with the IN ending the first word and C starting the second. Pretty straightforward business here.

Read More...

Summary only...

Friday, 11/16

NYS untimed
NYT 5:09
Jonesin' 4:36
LAT 3:50
CHE 3:23
CS 2:32

WSJ 7:49

Have I got any QUIBBLES ([Nitpicking]) with Chuck Deodene's New York Times puzzle? Not really. Here's what I liked: CADBURY, the [Creme Egg maker], even though those taste icky. A football conference clue for AFC that starts with a misleadingly mandatory capital letter, [Bills are in it: Abbr.]. SYLLABI, [First-class handouts?], because who doesn't like non-S plurals in a themeless puzzle? [Poses in a studio?] are YOGA. The [Town on the Long Island Rail Road] for SYOSSET, because Long Island's got so many fun town names that pop up in NYC-based crosswords. I like [Colloquial] and IDIOMATIC content in crosswords, so that's an apt pairing. [Logic's counterpart] is SENTIMENT, and that one kept me guessing. For [Trunk accumulation], I was picturing the heaps of stuff that pile up in a car trunk rather than TREE RINGS. There's a fresh clue for TAI, [Mount ___, sacred Chinese site] (read about Mount Tai if you like China, geography, or ancient temples). [Green stinger] sounds like it has to do with, I dunno, the Green Hornet—but it's simply the stinging NETTLE that's intended. There's a ROAD TEST that's a [Cavalier evaluation?]—referring to the Chevy Cavalier. (Another hidden-capital-letter mislead—I like those clues!) The fact that [Seeing the sites] had sites rather than sights didn't shout ONLINE at me—I like that clue. There's an occupational vibe here, too, with ENGINEER (clued as the verb, though: [Bring about with some effort]), STEERSMAN, a corporate RAIDER, an IRONER (bleh), a REP ([Mouthpiece]), Mafia DONS ([Underbosses' bosses]), a cattle RUSTLER ([Herd-thinning menace?]), a STEERSMAN ([One at the helm]), and some ASSTS to help them all.

Aw, drat. Across Lite used to open almost everything with the timer automatically starting, and when I opened the Friday New York Sun "Weekend Warrior" by Mark Diehl, I didn't notice that the timer was off. No idea how long it took me—sevenish minutes, maybe? There were plenty of things that didn't come easily. With a few crossings, tasty AGLIO E OLIO (garlic and olive oil) popped in. That and the hard-to-get USB PORT were my favorite entries. My son's favorite would have to be the [Mustang rival], CAMARO—he's a fan of muscle cars. (He also likes Mack trucks, but MACK is clued with the contemporary slang, [Hit (on)].) (Punctuation party!) Strangest-looking answer: DOAJOBON, or DO A JOB ON. FONTANA is the [City that's home to the California Speedway]? Let us study up on this town: The Wikipedia entry says the Hells Angels hail from there originally, toon Speed Racer was from Fontana, and Whitman Mayo, Grady on Sanford and Son, lived there as an adult.

Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle is called "The Second Half," and the second half of each theme entry's repeated. Thus, a DARWIN WIN, a KIDMAN MAN, and so on. Fresh fill—REDIP (clued as [DO a party no-no at the snack table], which puts me in mind of the Seinfeld "double-dipper" episode even if it looks like a roll-your-own word) crossing Michael Jackson's I'M BAD; Ian MCKELLEN; MUDFLAPS; SUBARU and IRABU; "WORD UP"; and a tasty SKOR bar. And I always welcome a reference to early Saturday Night Live, here represented by Father GUIDO Sarducci. And who doesn't like a little ARSE? That's [___ over teakettle (upside-down, to Brits)].

Updated:

Harvey Estes' Wall Street Journal crossword is called "Queue & A," and each queue of letters in a theme entry is followed by an A. The first one is BEVERLY HILLS COPA, and that is all the justification I need to once again link to this "Copacabana" video that plays with words and graphics to entertaining effect. Among the other six theme entries, I like the [Concluding words from a Samos temple attendee?] best: AND I LOVE HERA. This whole puzzle was fun—good fill, clues that are light and fun but not too easy.

Martin Ashwood-Smith's Monday-easy CrosSynergy puzzle, "Familiar Threesome," has a TOM, DICK, and HARRY. Despite the title, there is no implication that Messrs. Stoppard, Van Patten, and Truman are engaged in a ménage à trois.

Alan Olschwang's 11/2 Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Wondrous Sites," quizzes the solver on the sites of the Seven Wonders of the World—a smart little trivia test. But just knowing this classical knowledge won't get you through the puzzle—there's also [Pop singer Basil] for TONI (Toni Basil had that '80s one-hit wonder, "Mickey," with the insane cheerleading music video) and ["Invincible" singer Pat] for BENATAR (I preferred her song, "Heartbreaker"—go ahead, go rock out for a minute with that one).

Paul Guttormsson's LA Times puzzle features a quip: YOU CAN PUSH / THE ENVELOPE / BUT IT / WILL STILL BE / STATIONERY. Hmm. Not quite funny, nor educational, nor inspirational. My appetite for quote/quip themes is sated by about three zippy ones a year—the rest I could do without.

Read More...

Summary only...

Wednesday, 11/7

NYS 5:24
NYT 3:28
CS 3:28
LAT 2:58

First, some service journalism: If you'd rather not receive a zillion mail-order catalogs, take advantage of Catalog Choice. It's a free service that is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the goal is to cut down on paper waste by reducing the number of unwanted catalogs. Each day brings a couple more unsolicited catalogs in my mailbox, since it's the holiday shopping season. So I sit down, type in the catalog name, type in my customer number, and zip—Catalog Choice will pass along my request to be dropped from the mailing list. I've opted out of more than 20 mailing lists already. Love it!

And now, the crosswords.

Richard Chisholm's New York Times crossword has an explanatory line across the middle of the grid: TWO KINDS OF BOATS. That's what each of the other four theme entries are—phrases that contain two kinds of boats. No, not YACHTCATAMARAN. Rather, HOUSE PARTY—houseboat, party boat. And AIR SPEED—airboat (that's the kind of boat you might see in a swamp) and speedboat. LOVE LIFE—The Love Boat (here's the opening theme song), lifeboat. And ICE FISHING—ice boat, fishing boat. (I needed Google to show me what exactly a party boat and airboat were. I knew ice boats existed—they've made it into the crossword before.)

Alan Olschwang's New York Sun puzzle, "Funny Farm," has a menagerie of seven (!) farm animals that aren't animals, including a PAPAL BULL and a CASH COW. A [Pitcher's throwing arm, in slang] is a SOUPBONE, eh? I had no idea. I am not so well-versed in baseball slang. Favorite clue and answer: [Divine-ly dressed?] for IN DRAG.

Updated:

Don and Barbara Gagliardo teamed up for an LA Times with a swingin', easy theme—three movie titles, in chronological order, that elide the G in -ing. There's SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, of course, along with BUSTIN' LOOSE and JUMPIN' JACK FLASH. I like the nouns that end with -or, like torpor, sopor, turgor, sapor, stupor, horror, rancor (which is related to rancid), and the -id adjectives most of them make. This puzzle crosses RIGOR with ICHOR (though there's no affiliated ichid). (And it appears that vapid has little to do with vapor, etymologically speaking.) Sorry, where was I? Crossword! Lots of names—I find name-filled crosswords to be easier and more fun, generally. And this puzzle's a pangram, so it's a bit Scrabbly, too.

What? When did this happen? Apparently Lynn Lempel has joined the CrosSynergy family of constructors. (For those who don't know, CrosSynergy puzzles don't have a single editor, à la the other newspaper puzzles. There are, I dunno, maybe 10 to 20 constructors in the syndicate. They have a rotating schedule, and their puzzles go through peer review rather than editing per se. So you can't submit your creations to a CrosSynergy editor—the puzzles are all inside jobs.) Today's puzzle, "Crazy 8s," gathers five different ways of spelling the long A + T sound: DEAD WEIGHT, GO STRAIGHT, HOT DATE, SHARKBAIT, FEEL GREAT. (Ooh, could arête work, too?) Good fill and clues overall—NOAH'S ARK ([Biblical means of escape]); ARABICA coffee beans; CUTIE PIE; [Burger in the making] for PATTY; [Smoker's residue] pulling double duty for both TAR and ASHES. I learned from Ken Jennings that people in other countries tend to eschew the LEGOS plural, instead using LEGO as an S-less plural. (We play with Legos in this house.)

Read More...

Summary only...

Wednesday, 10/17

Onion 4:53
Tausig 4:26
NYS 3:56
LAT 3:48
NYT 3:19
CS 2:52

Wordplay was showing at 10:00 in Chicago, but I was out. Yes! On a school night! Pub trivia night with Tyler Hinman and a couple of his friends—and I don't know where the hell they came up with those horrible questions, because too many of them landed outside our foursome's sweet spots. Next week! Next week will surely be better. And now we will not speak of this.

Peter A. Collins' New York Sun puzzle, "Class Divisions," had a great theme together with some excellent fill and clues. The theme entries are all two-word phrases or names that split the name of a high-school class between them. For example, ANGER MANAGEMENT has a language class, and ZIGGY MARLEY has P.E.

Paula Gamache's New York Times puzzle appends an -ILE to the first word of each theme entry, altering the phrase's sense. I like Miss Universe turning into MISSILE UNIVERSE, but some of the other theme entries felt a tad dry. Who doesn't like a spare MUSK OX roaming the grid, though? Am proud of myself for summoning up NOVUM as the answer to ["___ Organum" (1620 Francis Bacon work)].

Updated:

Deb Amlen's Onion A.V. Club puzzle takes six phrases that end with words that are also magazine titles and reinterprets them. [Cheat a pop culture weekly?], for example, is SHORT PEOPLE. (Here's a clip of Randy Newman singing his '78 hit, "Short People," the irony of which was lost on my fellow sixth-graders, who sang the chorus at me as an insult. And no, it didn't scar me for life and make me want to wear high heels.) Good theme! Time, Slate, Mix, Vibe, and Money also get their due from Deb. Crunchiest new fill: WIIMOTES at 36-Across. (The [Avatar created using 36-Across] is called MII.) [Old photo color] is SEPIA; read about the word's Farsi/Greek/Latin etymology and cephalopod connection here and admire the high-octane punning in the comments. Toughest word for me: the [Flowering shrub] SPIRAEA; I think spirea is the more familiar non-genus spelling, but then, I don't hang out in plant nurseries much, so what do I know?

Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle, "Pieces of Axe," includes GUITAR PARTS at the end of the other theme entries. Here's a diagram that shows the HEAD, BODY, FRET, and PICKUP—I didn't know those thingies were called pickups. Favorite fill entries: DAYDREAM, WET MOP, BEAM ME UP, LAND LINE, FATIGUES, and AKIMBO. Did not know that ELO was a [Chess skill rating system]—but I just downloaded a ringtone to my cell phone (first time!) and chose an ELO song. Crossword cred plus a suitable instruction to all callers: "Don't bring me down." Not that they'll hear the song unless they're calling me when we're in the same room, but still.

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle's got a quote from Robin Williams, while Alan Olschwang's LA Times puzzle embeds STORY synonyms in the theme entries (e.g., GUESS AGAIN). Both crosswords seemed to have an awful lot of the words I've been seeing in crosswords for decades—here an ESSE and AMAT, there a SMEE and RAJAS.

Read More...

Summary only...

Tuesday, 10/2

Tausig 5:08 (print this one out for best results)
Onion 4:42
NYS 4:19
CS 2:52
LAT 2:47
NYT 2:38

Oliver Hill's New York Times crossword (a glittering debut?) is mighty easy, but (or and) an impressive construction. The MIND YOUR P'S AND Q'S theme groups three P.Q. phrases: PERSONALITY QUIZ (Scrabbly bonus: a Z), PRO QUARTERBACK, and PATCHWORK QUILT. For a theme with four Q's to dwell in a crossword that also finds room for an X and some lively phrases (WENT SOLO, AT ODDS, SAM I AM, EVEN UP), and words like SQUEAL, KAISER, and CAPRI pants—well, it's fresh and fun. Favorite clues: [It can be silly] for Silly PUTTY; [Overall feel] for AURA; [Relative of a mole] for SHREW (we had some shrews in our backyard when I was a teen); [Queen of the hill?] for ANT; [Malfeasant, often] for SUED; and [Red-bordered magazine] for TIME.

Edited to add Will Shortz's comment from the NYT forum: "Tuesday's crossword is a debut by Oliver Hill, 17, who's a high school senior from my hometown of Pleasantville, N.Y. He lives around the corner from me and drops off his puzzles in person! Oliver is the 10th constructor under 20 to be published in the Times since I became editor in 1993." Congratulations, Oliver!

In the New York Sun, Alan Olschwang gives us a "Horse of a Different Color." Alas, the charming movie, The Secret of Roan Inish, has too long a title to join the horse party here. The theme entries are phrases that end with horse colors. I like WOOD SORREL, with its delicate, tart leaves and its willingness to prosper where the landscaper raked up our ground cover. And my aunt just got a 12-year old copper-colored sorrel horse. Nice Scrabbly fill throughout, with words like JAVA, ZOLA, COAXES, Q-TIPS, and DJED.

Updated:

Ben Tausig double-dips this week, constructing both the Onion A.V. Club puzzle and the Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle. Up first, the Onion. Ben takes phrases that start with a stand-alone letter and triples that letter, radically changing the meaning. For example, [People in the market for white sheets?] are KKK-MART SHOPPERS. Favorite clues: the slangy [Mack] for PLAYBOY; ["The Shining" weapon] for AXE ("Red rum! Red rum!"); [Rock star who offered his help to Nixon in combating "the hippie elements"] for PRESLEY (there are two more Nixon-related clues for good measure); [Garden creeper] for SNAIL; [Nissan sedan] for ALTIMA because the Altima's now available in a coupe that is hot:



It looks even sexier in person—there was one parked on my block this morning, but I swear I didn't touch it. Ahem, where was I? Clues I liked from the Onion puzzle: [Dominates, as in World of Warcraft] for PWNS; [Groove on a power ballad] for SWAY (might want to hold your lighter aloft while you sway); [Beach danger] for UV RAYS (though in Chicago, we also accept E. coli as an answer); and ["I don't appreciate your ___, young missy!"] for TONE. Musical names I didn't know: MOE, a [Jam band from Buffalo], and KRS[-One, a Bronx MC].

Moving along to Ben's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Second Life": I should just print out Across Lite puzzles that have gigantically long theme clues, because those clues are so hard to view in the Across Lite window. Even with the window stretched out to fill my 19-inch screen, I couldn't see the end of one clue. That distracted me from seeing that the capitalized words in each theme clue were to be anagrammed for the nonsensical answers...like recycling your OLD MAGAZINES into a SAND-ALE GIZMO. The clues I enjoyed most: [Illegal hit] for TOKE (not sports!); [Talk show host who received on-air liposuction] for GERALDO (I forgot about that!); [Blushing prose] for ODE (using the word informally, as in "Matt Gaffney's book is an ode to crosswords and the people who make them."); and [Arouses one's partner in bed?] for SNORES. VELVEETA is so cheesy, and not in an aged-dairy-product way. You know how people from certain countries tend to pronounce V's as B's? I like to think of them talking about Belbeeta and belbet Elbis ("Biba Las Begas!") paintings. (Let us leave aside the bulba here.) Other most favored entries: OUTCLASS, A ZILLION, I WANT IT, XANAX, and EXCELLED.

Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Beer Bust Belles," includes three (semi-)famous real women's names and one fictional girl's name that start and end with BE and ER. Ignoring the title, at first I thought the theme was "women whose last names are quaint professions," with BECKY THATCHER and BEATRIX POTTER. Never heard of BETSY PALMER of I've Got a Secret, but she also played evil Jason's mother in Friday the 13th. Best crossing of names in the fill: EUBIE BLAKE meets DUBYA.

Joy Frank's LA Times crossword surfs the crest of phrases ending with SWELL, ROLLER, and WAVE to exult, COWABUNGA, DUDE! I thought that was more Bart Simpsonesque than surfer lingo, but what do I know? (Wait, does Bart even say that? Or just "Don't have a cow, man" and "Ay, caramba"?) My favorite BAY CITY ROLLER was Derek, the blond one, but...meh. Never passed up a chance to read about the lads in Tiger Beat or Teen Beat. Favorite nonthematic fill here: GLOP ([Unsavory serving]) and PEEWEE Herman.

Read More...

Summary only...