Jonesin' 3:45
NYT 2:58
LAT 2:48
CS untimed
Chuck Deodene's New York Times crossword
This constructor has a weird pattern of NYT bylines. Several puzzles a year through the '90s, one in 2001, two in fall '07, and now two in the second half of this month. If he's cranking out more puzzles like today's, then dang it, the flow should keep going now. The theme is the old-fashioned cheer, the components of which I know more from crossword fill than from any real-life cheerleading: "Rah, rah, sis-boom-bah!" Has this phrase been exclaimed unironically in the last 30 years? Doubtful. But that goofy little phrase pops up in consecutive circled squares in various lively answers.
• 17A. The first RAH is in TETRAHEDRON, a [Solid with four triangular faces]. It's a pyramid but with a triangular base rather than the square one seen in Egypt.
• 25A. The [Chief of staff in the Obama White House] is RAHM EMANUEL, with RAH #2. Rahm's kids go to school near me. I'll bet my internist knows him because her kids go to the same school.
• 35A. GENESIS is the [Start of the Bible]. SIS!
• 37A. The BOOMERS are the [Post-WW II demographic, informally]. BOOM!
• 49A. A [High muck-a-muck] is a GRAND POO-BAH. I prefer other spellings: muckety-muck and pooh-bah. The cheer ends with a non-Scroogean BAH. (See also 46D: [Jacob whose ghost appears to Scrooge], MARLEY.)
• 57A. CHEERLEADER ties it all together as the [Shouter of this puzzle's circled sounds].
I'm fond of any number of answers in the fill. My top 10:
• 47D. BOTERO! [Fernando ___, painter of plump figures], is also a sculptor. That's his work at the Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans. We love us some Botero. We use "Boteri" as the plural of "Botero artwork."
• 34D. LOWBALL is [Like an offer that's under actual value.
• 29D. The DEEP END is the [Part of a pool for diving].
• 50D. "PSHAW!" means ["Nonsense!"].
• 31A. TIPSY is clued as [Midway between sober and drunk]. The word is as fun as the feeling.
• 22D. [Riddles] are ENIGMAS.
• 37D/47A. How can I resist the BLOB/BOOB combo? One is a [1958 sci-fi classic, with "The"] and the other is an [Idiot].
• 12D. We've seen ITUNES in the puzzle plenty in recent years, but I like the [Online music mart] clue because it somehow made me think of K-Tel.
• 8D. Mmm, MORSEL. Tasty [Tiny bit to eat]. I refer, of course, to Trader Joe's miniature peanut butter cups, about twice the size of a regular chocolate chip.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "2 Funny: i'z in ur crosswurd, makin u solv"
The title evokes LOLcats because the theme entries have an LOL inserted into them. Some people think LOLcats are dumb. Some people don't understand the appeal at all. And some of us like them and may even speak in LOLcats from time to time. "Ur doin it rong!" we say here at home. "O hai," we say. Mind you, there is no actual LOLcats-like content in this puzzle, just the intrusive LOLs:
• 18A. "Grade A" becomes GRADE LOLA, or [Rate Jennifer Lopez's newest alter ego?]. I'm sorry, did she come up with something post-"Jenny from the block"? I wasn't aware. Did you know that "lola" is a Filipino word for "grandma"? My son loves his lola and lolo.
• 24A. Today is "CALL LOLITA' DAY, or [Time to phone your nearest Nabokov character]. "Call it a day" means to stop doing something for the day.
• 38A. [Got lazy for the sake of worship?] clues LOLLED TO BELIEVE ("led to believe"). Nice crossing this with BLESSED BE, or [Wiccan salutation].
• 49A, 59A. [Kojak's bootleg British porn title?] might be SEX, LOLLIES, AND VIDEOTAPE. We call 'em suckers or lollipops on this side of the ocean.
Holy cats! There's a new ELON clue! 69A is clued [Actor Gold of the Fox series "Stacked"]. Oh, wait—that's the Pamela Anderson bookstore show that lasted less than one season. ELON Gold is also a comedian and writer, but he needs to get cracking if he's going to be a viable alternative to the North Carolina university in our crosswords.
Gotta love the IG NOBEL Prizes, the 26D: [Yearly parody prize awarded at Harvard]. This year's winners are a good batch, particularly the Physics team who explained why pregnant women do not tip over.
Fred Jackson III's Los Angeles Times crossword
Alas, the grid is not wide enough to accommodate BEI MIR BIST DO SCHÖN, just four other beginning with words (or a syllable, in one instance) that sound like BEI:
• 20A. BY THE SAME TOKEN means [Furthermore]. Who has these tokens? Anyone? Curious phrase. Completely familiar, but odd now that I'm thinking about it.
• 33A. BYE BYE BIRDIE is the [1961 Tony-winning musical inspired by Elvis being drafted]. The hair from his in-the-army-now haircut just sold at auction for 15 grand.
• 43A. The BICENTENNIAL was the [7/4/1976 celebration]. I turned 10 that summer, and I loved my red, white, and blue shorts and halter top outfit. I do not currently own any outfits that evoke the U.S. flag.
• 59A. "BUY NOW, PAY LATER" is a [Retail store financing come-on].
This is an easy enough puzzle, but I got off to a need-the-crossings start with 1-Across. The [One-person boat] isn't a KAYAK? No, it's a SKIFF. I don't think I knew skiffs were one-person boats. Maybe because they aren't strictly that—c.f. Three Men in a Boat. Hmm.
Gotta love punctuation. The COMMA is 8D: [Cause for a pause].
34D: [Netanyahu of Israel, familiarly] clues BIBI, Benjamin Netanyahu's nickname. Remember the Letterman Top Ten list of ways to mispronounce "Bibi Netanyahu" back on June 4, 1996? My favorites were Yahu Netanbibi, Betty Needs a Yoo-Hoo, and Boutros Boutros Yahu.
Updated Tuesday morning:
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Who Needs Friends?"—Janie's review
Today we have a four-part Klahn quip-puzzle—by way of none other than Paul Newman. Bob's title is a twist on the old (rhetorical-type) query, "With friends like you, who needs enemies?" The Newman rejoinder?
• 17A. IF YOU DON'T
• 30A. HAVE ENEMIES,
• 48A. YOU DON'T HAVE
• 63A. CHARACTER.
Newman sure had character, but it's hard for me to imagine that he had enemies. (Still, I do know what he's talking about; I suspect he'd have said the same thing about wrinkles...)
And this puzzle (like all the good ones) has character, too, in the sense of personality—which it gets from its vivid cluing and fill. I particularly like the phrasal (and phrase) combos: WEIGH IN [Add one's two cents], SWEAR AT [Shower curses on], "I MEAN IT!" ["All kidding aside!"], "IT'S EASY!" ["Piece of cake!"], and TAKE A NAP [Recharge one's batteries].
Bob's also provided some sweet sequential clue pairs: the paradoxically worded [It'll fly if it's ironclad] for ALIBI and [It flies on Saturdays only in emergencies] for Israeli airline EL AL; and the delightful double-bill [Where Bill met Hillary] for YALE and [Bill with Hamilton] for TEN.
Basketball fans probably got NBA [Where the Suns might beat the Heat (abbr.)] without too much difficulty, but how about [Hoop skirts?]? This is one terrific clue for NETS and gave me a fine "AHA!" For SNL fans, there's both TINA FEY and Will FERRELL; and for those more inclined to classic writers there's CONGREVE ["Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast" poet William] and Anton CHEKHOV [Russian master of the modern short story]. Both of these gents, btw, are also renowned for their contributions to dramatic literature as well. (A PLAY is a [Thing onstage], of course, but today the correct fill is PROP.) Oh—and on the subject of music, there's SHANIA ["I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" singer Twain] and "ADIA" [Top-five Sarah McLachlan hit...].
The grid, if you didn't notice is distinguished by those triple columns of sevens in each of the four corners, where we encounter such fill as ELF-LIKE, BEST BET, SYMPTOM and HORRIFY.
Finally, my fave clue/fill combos today include:
• ["South Park" kid with a two-part head]/IKE;
• [Spots for shots]/ARM;
• [Boobs, boors, and bozos]/OAFS; and
• [Past prince, perhaps]/FROG.
October 26, 2009
Tuesday, 10/27/09
October 16, 2009
Saturday, 10/17/09
Newsday 6:41
NYT 6:32
LAT 2:51
CS untimed
Chuck Deodene's New York Times crossword
Is it just me, or does this crossword have more than the usual allotment of multi-word answers? Among the more noteworthy (i.e., not often seen in the grid) phrases are these:
• 1A. THANKS TO is equivalent to [Through the efforts of]. 15A: AS THOUGH ([Like]) has a similar vibe.
• 14A. The SOVIET ERA was the [Sputnik launch time].
• 17A. If you TOOK NOTES, you [Didn't just rely on memory].
• 58A. I'm not sure how savory or un- RENT A ROOM ([Get some quick lodging]) is as a crossword entry. The exclamation "GET A ROOM!" feels more familiar to me.
• 63A. I wonder if there's anyone named Tatt, Leon. TATTLE ON means [Rat out].
• 11D. And what about GAVE HOPE? Is it a solid phrase or merely verb + noun? It's clued with [Offered a way out].
• 13D. A key word in the clue was in the L.A. Times puzzle the other day. RED ALERT is a [Klaxon-sounding occasion]. "What's the occasion?" "Oh, you know. We're on RED ALERT."
• 32D. DEAR SIRS is clued as a [Fusty greeting]. Clue = awesomeness.
• 36D. I like TAX DODGE, or [Bit of trickery on the schedule].
Favorite clues and answers:
• 40A. [It may have clawed feet] clues an old (or new and expensive) BATHTUB. My first post-college apartment had an old claw-foot tub. Man, was that tub deep.
• The snowdrift mislead misled me for a bit: 29A is ROVE, or [Drift], but 61A is a SNOW FENCE, or [Guard against drifting].
• 1D. T-STORM is a [Brief weather phenomenon?] in that it's a brief name for a weather occurrence.
• 2D. I like HOODIE, but I'm not sure it's most accurately described as a [Hip-hop top]. Fashion mavens and hip-hop aficionados, what say you?
• 31D. Edward ALBEE is clued by way of a quote: [He said "If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic"]. Isn't that a tad dramatic?
• 34D. I don't know the first thing about PINOCHLE, but the [Double-decker?] clue had me thinking of buses, sandwiches, and punches but not card games.
• 41D. TRIDENT is a [Fishing weapon], and also the pencil attachment of choice for Crossword Fiends everywhere.
• 47D. YEOMEN are clued as [Tower of London figures]. The Tower of London was one of the highlights of my family vacation in 2007.
And now, how about a tough clue roundup?
• 9A. SUGAR is [Crystals used for dishes]. I ate a small spoonful of sugar today to get rid of my hiccups. It was yummy. And yet I still needed a lot of crossings to tease out this answer.
• 21A. Amtrak's ACELA train is a [Track speedster beginning in 2000]. Yes, I thought it referred to sprinters at first.
• 23A, 25A. With the ENT in place, I confidently filled in VENTRAL for [Of the seafloor]. I don't know why. The answer is BENTHIC, which ought to be an adjective for things relating to philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Speaking of things down yonder, HEL is a Norse [Underworld goddess]. And speaking of the sea, 34A: [Unlike seawater] clues POTABLE.
• 44A. [Minute] can mean "small," but BITSY without an "itsy" is not a word I'd ever use.
• 56A, 56D. If you don't know the Czech city BRNO ([Moravian capital]) or the [Belgian balladeer] Jacques BREL, you could be excused for thinking that B should be a vowel. "Moravian" doesn't shout "place with a dearth of vowels," does it? AREL, ARNO? EREL, ERNO? IREL, IRNO? OREL, ORNO? UREL, URNO? Er, no.
• 12D. [What pupils are separated by] is their AGE LEVEL, to a degree.
• 29D. I don't recall seeing this etymology before. RABBI means [Literally, "my master"]. I wasn't thinking Hebrew at all, and for a while my GUN BELT was a GUN ROOM, so I was wondering about, say, BARBI. Then I pondered Barbie dolls and RAMBO.
• 38D. [Lumps] are NUBS. "Nub" is not a word I use much.
I hear some people felt yesterday's Karen Tracey puzzle was Saturday-hard. Is this one harder? I thought both crosswords landed squarely in the desired difficulty zones for their respective days.
Updated Saturday morning:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Good Old What's-His-Name"—Janie's review
•17A. GUY LOMBARDO [Bandleader associated with New Year's Eve]. Any of you younger solvers ever heard of him? He was a legend (and a veritable institution) in his day, but died in 1977. What a guy!
•27A. BUDDY HACKETT [Comedian who got his start in the borscht belt]. The name Leonard Hacker just wasn't gonna, um, hack it—now was it, ol' buddy, ol'pal?
•43A. BUSTER KEATON [Actor nicknamed the "Great Stone Face"]. If a deeply troubled man, a brilliant comic as well—but decidedly of the deadpan variety. Wanna make somethin' of it, buster?
•57A. JOE DIMAGGIO ["The Yankee Clipper"]. Did you know that Joltin' Joe was from San Francisco? I didn't. I'd always assumed he was New York born and bred. But no. In so many ways this extraordinary athlete was, at heart, always a "regular Joe."
Taking off from that sports-related place (and going back to my "masculine bias" statement), look how much more sports fill Randy gives us:
•END [Tom Brady target]. Brady is a quarterback and it seems that in that position he gets to know the opposing team's tight end all too well. Ditto the wide receiver—who used to be called the split end.
•[Causes of overtimes] TIES.
•[Cowboys or Indians] TEAMS.
•["Kill the ump!"] "BOO!"
•LEFT JAB [Right hook set up].
•And yes, they're both co-ed these days, but I'm going to include (the side-by-side in the grid) PRINCETON [Ivy League School] and OHIO STATE [Big Ten School] in this grouping because they both have serious athletic programs and tend to be very "rah-rah."
Other fill in the "Mars" column would include HERO/[Medal of Honor recipient], Zubin MEHTA, Franz Joseph HAYDN, EDD Byrnes, DAN Brown, Daniel BOONE, Captain AHAB, Fibber MCGEE—and even SHAFT/[Blaxploitation film of 1971].
With the exception of ALTOS [Choir voices], there's even a male bent to the many musical references:
• MEHTA [Conductor Zubin].
• HAYDN [Composer call the "Father of the Symphony"].
• BACH ["Brandenburg Concertos" composer].
• [Bruce Hornsby's instrument] PIANO.
"Venus" entries include TERI [Hatcher of "Desperate Housewives"], ["Gidget" actress Sandra] DEE, Yoko ONO ["Double Fantasy" performer] (how's that for a trio?!) and, what's this? [Something burned in the '60s]: BRA!
In fact, I like that last combo quite a bit. The clue is strong. So is [Makeup artist?] for LIAR. Hmmm. That one could go in either column. These days, so could RABBI [Yeshiva graduate, often].
I wouldn't say I literally [Revere] this puzzle, but I sure do ADMIRE it highly. With (even more) solid fill the likes of TRASH CANS (wonderfully clued as [They're full of garbage]), LET US PRAY, AMOROUS, GOES APE (though we saw this on Tuesday in Paula's puzzle...), and even STOMACH (clued as [Gut]—and now I'm thinkin' of all those out of shape athletes...)—I ask you, what's not to like?!
Barry Silk's Los Angeles Times crossword
Good news! In a few more weeks, the late-week LAT puzzles will stop being so ridiculously easy. The powers that be have finally acknowledged that maybe it's OK for a Friday or Saturday puzzle to reach beyond Tuesday difficulty. I'm not sure how far up the scale it'll go, but we'll see in November. In the meantime, this puppy clocked in as a Tuesday for me.
Here's an edited portion of my L.A. Crossword Confidential post:
First up is a term I don't know at all, but that is probably familiar to geologists: QUAKE LAKE, or 15A: [Basin that can result from a seismic landslide]. It's related to the broader category of landslide dams, apparently, and there's a Quake Lake in Montana and a quake lake in Sichuan, China, that formed after the 2008 earthquake. Did you folks know this term?
Favorite answers? Right here:
• 1A: Spears on the table (ASPARAGUS). My first thought was BRITNEY. I don't care for asparagus, so I certainly do not have any recipes for it. I do, however, enjoy the science of asparagus.
• It's a Woodstock criss-cross party! JANIS and JIMI are 10A: [Joplin at Woodstock] and 10D: [Hendrix at Woodstock].
• Nobody gets excited by PETER I or OTTO I in the fill. But LOUIS XIV looks awesome there, doesn't he? (20A: European ruler for 72 years). Speaking of Louis, have you seen this clip of comedian Louis CK on Conan O'Brien's show? It's hilarious. Writer Dean Olsher posted that clip to his Facebook page—from a plane with wireless internet access.
• 39A: It creates an adjustable loop (SLIP KNOT). Yeah, you don't often see a PKN smack dab in the middle of an answer.
• When I was a teenage existentialist, I was 11D: Blown away (AWESTRUCK) by 12D: 1944 Sartre play (NO EXIT).
• 21D: Ship in 1898 news (U.S.S. MAINE), I like multi-word entries and those with unexpected letter combos. SSM looks wrong but it's right.
• 23D: Lunchbox alternative (PAPER BAG). I don't like this answer so much as the way it evokes the idiom "can't punch his way out of a paper bag." Though I never use "punch"—how about "She can't solve her way out of a paper bag"?
I'm never a fan of the "smush together two items in a series and call it a crossword entry" thing. 48A: [Notes after fa] clues SO LA. Boo! It's not even holding together a particularly cool section of the grid. I'd feel warmer to it if it facilitated amazing entries in its neighborhood, but TOILSOME and ENDORSED don't do much for me.
Merle Baker's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
Let's start with the big "Huh?" clues:
• 24A. [A and B, in C] clues LATI. Is this LA, TI, as in "do re mi fa sol la ti do"? If you must have one of these icky two-notes-smushed-together entries (see a few paragraphs above), you really want to use a straightforward clue. Save the more mysterious clues for more solid entries so solvers don't feel ripped off or just plain mystified.
• 46A. DIMITY is a [Cotton fabric]. More specifically, "a hard-wearing, sheer cotton fabric woven with raised stripes or checks." I have never encountered this word. They don't tend to sprinkle "dimity" in clothing catalogs, do they?
• 12D. Did you know there's such a thing as a TREE TOAD? I'd have thought the [Foam-nest builder] would be some sort of wasp or beetle.
• 37D. VERONA is the [Home of Valentine and Proteus]. These are the Two Gentlemen of Verona. I never knew the characters' names.
Good stuff:
• 13D. HEX SIGNS are [Pennsylvania folk art].
• 22A. BEANIE BABIES are a [Yard-sale staple], all right.
• 5A. SACKCLOTH is a [Symbol of remorse]. Cool CKCL pile-up in the middle.
Iffy stuff:
• 33A. MISADDS is [Gets the wrong number, maybe]. Raise your hand if you've ever used this word. Anyone? Anyone?
• Weird plurals—38D: [Balm ingredients] are ALOES. Just how many ALOES are included in the typical balm? 35D: [Peculiar talk] clues LINGOES.
• 38A. EPT is clued as [Able, nonstandardly].
Answers I'd like to swap:
• 26A and 28A, [Multi-Grammy rap star] and [Patron saint of girls], are NELLY and AGNES.
September 29, 2009
Wednesday, 9/30/09
BEQ 4:17
Onion 4:05
NYT 3:52
LAT 2:43
CS untimed
Kevin Der's New York Times crossword
My in-house technical maven is busy troubleshooting a new backup drive on my desktop Mac, and my excuse for a slower-than-usual Wednesday time is that I'm not as accustomed to the smaller laptop keyboard.
Kevin's theme shot me straight back to that American lit class in my freshman year of college. We plowed through portions of the Norton Anthology of American Literature, including those Transcendentalists and the other authors writing from CONCORD, MA. That's the place spelled out by the circled letters in this puzzle, and the authors' names are split up hither and yon (but symmetrically):
So, the theme occupies 67 squares with the author names, plus a few more CONCORD, MA squares that don't coincide with the author answers. The other fill, sandwiched as it must be around nine theme entries, is a bit more prosaic. Nothing beyond the pale, but not much sparkle, either. I'm content with the blast-from-the-American-lit-past and the elegance of the Concord unifying element. I have never been to Concord, but I have eaten of the grapes and the grape jelly.
What's your favorite part of this crossword?
Updated Wednesday morning:
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Cake Toppers"—Janie's review
If you're thinkin' the theme-fill will be along the lines of CHOCOLATE ICING, COCONUT or CANDLES, you have another think comin'. While they're all of the decidedly non-edible variety, the theme-fill today is instead made up of two-word phrases whose first word also names a kind of cake. This give us some very tasty results, and here's the sampling of what Patrick has given us to [Snack on] EAT:
A DEB, as we all know, is a [Coming-out party honoree], and a coming-out party is a BIG DO [Significant event]. Lots of dancing at these dos, where, I suspect, the young men are still the ones who LEAD [Guide one's dance partner]. But I've never been to one, so I couldn't say for sure. I'm also thinking that a lot of [Titled ladies] DAMES may have had their "introduction to society" as debutantes. And that a lot of untitled ladies are pretty swell dames themselves!
The real icing on the cake, of course, is that Patrick has created yet another pangram. The ingredients of a pangram? All 26 letters of the alphabet. You can check. By virtue of such fill as JUNE BUG [Large brown beetle], the elegantly clued FLICKERS [Shimmers like a lit candle], EQUAL [Identical in value], OXIDE [Nitrous ___ (laughing gas)] (shades of Little Shop of Horrors), SLYNESS [Foxy quality] and LIZA [Judy's eldest daughter], they're all in there.
EGAD. I nearly forgot to mention that I enjoyed seeing GAME SHOW in the grid, and in the "who knew?" department, liked learning that U-HAUL has been a [Rental business since 1945]. Who knew?!
Chuck Deodene's Los Angeles Times crossword
Facial hair is the name of the game, and five types of mustaches appear in the grid, clued as the nouns the styles are named after. For photos, see my L.A. Crossword Confidential post.
Today's Crosswordese 101 lesson (a daily feature at L.A. Crossword Confidential) focused on TRA, which also popped up in the NYT puzzle. It's part of the longer "tra-la" or "tra-la-la." TRA clues are generally along the lines of "musical syllable," "song syllable," "refrain syllable," "___ la la," or "la preceder." That's one of the things that makes TRA such lame crossword fill: Not only is it not something we say, not only is it a dangling fragment, but it's also something that does not lend itself to interesting clueing options. And yet we see it again and again.
Ben Tausig's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Even when I read the clue for the unifying answer, INK—59D: [Body art, colloquially, and this puzzle's theme]—I was still confused for a bit before the "aha" moment arrived. The five theme answers begin with tattoo types:
Is MOOTER a word? It's clued as 44D: [More debatable], but I feel its legitimacy is debatable.
Favorite clue: 53D: [Ben and Jen do it with each other] for RHYME.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Fireplaces"
Sometimes a fireplace is a HOT CORNER in the room, and a HOT CORNER is also the [Third baseman's domain, and a hint to this puzzle's theme]. The corners of the grid hold a {HOT} rebus, which appears as the word HOT in one direction and just the three letters HOT in the other. No, wait, {HOT}HOUSE and {HOT} POTATO both relate to heat. Then there's a cinnamon RED {HOT} candy crossing a {HOT}EL ROOM, "MAKE IT {HOT}" crossing a LONG S{HOT}, and MR. BIG S{HOT} crossing {HOT} POT. Highlights in the fill: BRUCE LEE, "IT'S A GIRL," HEXAGON, BRNO (what can I say? I'm a sucker for Czech place names that are vowel-deprived), EX-LAX (the [Dump assistant?]!), and many of the theme entries. No so fond of ENURING, the dangling NOT ONLY, and much of the 3- and 4-letter fill.
All righty, I've got to get some work done before my lunch date today. Later!
July 13, 2009
Tuesday, 7/14
Jonesin' 3:15
LAT 3:04
NYT 2:51
CS 7:15 (J—paper)
Donna Levin's New York Times crossword
"Allons enfants de la patrie-ee-ee..." Yes, it's a special Bastille Day mot croisé. Donna's theme entries celebrate the day like so:
- 18A. The [Dickens novel with the 56-Across as its backdrop] is A TALE OF TWO CITIES.
- 27A. Before the Revolution, there was that famous [Declaration attributed to Marie Antoinette just before the 56-Across]: LET THEM EAT CAKE.
- 43A. The French national anthem is LA MARSEILLAISE, the [Song of the 56-Across].
- 56A. And it's the FRENCH REVOLUTION that these other three entries refer to, an [Event that began in 1789].
This mot-croisé's difficulty level is keyed perfectly to a Tuesday, but if it took you a smidgen longer than you thought it would, that could be because the grid's 16 columns wide, not 15. Outside of the theme, the only French content I notice is Jacques CHIRAC, [Sarkozy's presidential predecessor].
I'm watching a TV show, so quickly, five other clues:
- 49D. The TROP, or Tropicana, is a [Classic Vegas hotel, with "the"].
- 15A. HAREM is a [Dwelling section whose name comes from the Arabic for "forbidden place"].
- 10A. [Leftovers from threshing] are CHAFF.
- 4D. [___ B or ___ C of the Spice Girls] clues MEL.
- 33A. The WALRUS is an [Oyster eater in a Lewis Carroll verse].
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Why? Why?"—Janie's review
Another solid puzzle is ours to enjoy today. The theme entries are strong and the fill throughout benefits from this one's being a pangram. "Why? Why?" refers to the double-Ys that appear in each of the four theme answers. That makes for eight Ys there—and there are two more in the grid as well, for an impressive total of 10. "Why? Why?" "Why not?!" Additionally, three of the four theme phrases (all but 42A) appear to be making their major-puzzle debuts—which (in combination with the full range of high-scorin' Scrabble letters) adds to the overall fresh feeling here.
- 20A. CHERRY YOGURT [Fruity dairy treat]. Yum. One of my fave flavors anyway. Crankin' it up a notch: Cherry Garcia Frozen Yogurt.
- 31A. PAPPY YOKUM [Al Capp character]. Had MAMMY in there at first. Needless to say, the crosses told me otherwise. Here's a link to a site that will tell you all you want to know about who's who in the Yokum family and in Dogpatch, U.S.A.
- 42A. BY YOURSELF [Without assistance]. Or [Preferred way to solve the crossword puzzle, perhaps]
- 53A. CANARY YELLOW [Bright color]. This is a color immortalized by Oscar Hammerstein in South Pacific's "Cockeyed Optimist" which begins: "When the sky is a bright canary yellow..."
The bottom half of the puzzle seems to be crawling with insects: we've SLUGS [Garden creepers], a SCARAB [Egyptian beetle] and LARVA [Caterpillar...]. This array must be very pleasing to entomologist solvers (me, I'm lookin' for the Off!)!
Sunday's NYT clued TEXTS as [Tweets, e.g.] and today, Patrick clues TWEETS as [Twitter messages]. It's a new world...but I wonder long it'll take for these techno-speak entries to hit Matt Groening's "Forbidden Words" list.
It took me a while to dredge up (CS first-timer) BABY GAP, having first tried OSHKOSH and KIDS R US... And what a funny complement it is to TINY TIM. I'm so glad Victorian England didn't have this store as I don't believe Bob Cratchit's salary would have gone very far there and I'd have hated for the kids to feel they were missing something. And apropos of just about nothing—well, Cratchit domestic life, perhaps—just want to add that I liked seeing WASH DAYS in the puzzle. This seems to be a major-puzzle debut, too.
Finally, for the classicists, there's LEDA [Zeus seduced her as a swan] and AJAX [Trojan War hero]. Through the magic of the Internet, I found pictures (and an explanation) of the "Achilles and Ajax Amphora." On one side, as noted, Achilles and Ajax; on the other, Leda with Castor and Pollux. For your consideration.
Chuck Deodene's Los Angeles Times crossword
It feels like it's been a while since we last saw a vowel-progression theme. Deodene's theme contains five phrases that end with M*SS words and travel from A through E, I, O, and U:- 20A. MIDNIGHT MASS is a [Christmas service]. I went to a midnight mass back in the '80s. The priest intoned "...piece of Prince." Prince is only, like, 5'3", so a piece of him would be small indeed. (What's the term for a phrase in which two words are transposed? Like a spoonerism, only for whole words, not sounds.)
- 23A. Stacked below the beginning of 20A is our next theme entry, FINE MESS. [With "A," 1986 Ted Danson film]? I think I'd like this better as an 8-letter partial completing the Laurel and Hardy line, "Here's another ___ you've gotten us into!" Does anybody remember this '86 movie? Too bad the MOSS entry isn't 9 or 15 letters long to balance AFINEMESS or ANOTHERFINEMESS. The I'M A partial crossing this is clued ["___ bad boy!": Lou Costello catchphrase], so it would resonate to toss Laurel and Hardy in here.
- 38A. [The Rebels of the Southeastern Conference, familiarly] are OLE MISS. Hey, John Grisham went there. A crossword clue told me that recently.
- 52A. KATE MOSS is a [Waifish supermodel from Britain]. Helped popularize the "heroin chic" look.
- 54A. [Easy to use, in adspeak] clues NO FUSS, NO MUSS. I filled this in, before I saw how the theme worked, as NO MUSS, NO FUSS, which is how I say it. In adspeak.
At L.A. Crossword Confidential, PuzzleGirl has more on this crossword.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Yes We Can: An international movement"
Matt takes familiar names, prefaces them with "yes" in other languages, and clues the resulting mashup phrases:• 17A. Eve Plumb of The Brady Bunch and the Spanish si create SIEVE PLUMB, a [Level draining device, to a Spanish yes-man?].
• 30A. [Selassie's NYC restaurant, to a Japanese yes-man?] is HAILE CIRQUE, building on Japanese hai and Le Cirque. I don't like that there's no good way to repurpose the CIRQUE part of Le Cirque—it's still a restaurant instead of becoming something entirely different.
• 44A. DATED KNIGHT comes from Russian da and Ted Knight of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It's clued with [Went out with the chivalrous type, too a Russian yes-man?].
• 62A. [U.S. uncle's "Friday the 13th" character, to a German yes-man?] is JASON OF SAM. Double gruesomeness for fictional slasher Jason merged with serial killer Son of Sam. We...don't see a lot of gruesomeness and serial killers in the crosswords.
Old-school crosswordese INGLE is here, clued as [Fireplace spot]. I haven't seen DERIVATE before; it's a [Word that comes from another word]. I don't have time to check, but this puzzle's probably a pangram because the main rare letters, ZQXJK, are all represented.
Until tomorrow—
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].
June 23, 2008
Tuesday, 6/24
CS 4:52
Tausig 4:33
Onion 3:51
NYS 3:50
LAT 3:37
NYT 3:19
In showbiz news today, Broadcasting & Cable reported that Merv Griffin's Crosswords is going into production hiatus until at least early 2009 "because the costs were outweighing the returns." Mind you, 80% of the country was supposed to be airing the show's second season starting this fall, but that's not in the cards now. Does anyone mind? (Thanks to Clarence for sending the link.)
Barry Silk's New York Times crossword has five theme entries that begin with things you might DRAW (67-Across) in some fashion. They're not always a thing in the theme phrase—for example, a BLANK EXPRESSION starts with an adjective, but you can also draw a blank. And a BATH (TOWEL), CURTAIN (CALL), PICTURE (SHOW), and GUN(POWDER). In the fill, A ONE is paired with A TWO to make North Dakota legend Lawrence Welk's signature intro. KENTUCKY and neighboring TENN. are another related pair of answers. Old-time actress ANOUK Aimee gets her oddball first name in the grid rather than her last name (which sounds like a first name), which I think has appeared far more often. Also a smattering of foreign words—TRE and AMORE are Italian, ETAT is French, BESO is Spanish, DII is Roman (that counts, right?), QED is a Latin abbreviation and AD HOC is also Latin, and EMEER is Arabic. ROOTY is in there clued as [Like ground around a tree] rather than as part of the IHOP meal called the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity—it could have shared the grid with EGGO, a breakfast option for those who don't want to EAT OUT.
Derek Bowman's New York Sun crossword, "A and Q from A to Z," spells out a sentence that is a pangram (it's got 37 letters; longer and shorter ones are included with it here): WATCH JEOPARDY! / ALEX TREBEK'S / FUN TV QUIZ GAME. The theme didn't do anything for me, really, but I loved some of the fill: MR. BIG, JFK JR., and MCJOB all have unexpected consonant pile-ups. JURY-RIGS is a great word. SKIP ROPE's good, and I like the [Do double Dutch, e.g.] clue. (Here's a high-octane double Dutch video.) ABSINTHE! And LUKA, the Suzanne Vega song from 1987 (here's the video). And LES MIZ, which is what the Les Miserables musical was popularly called. And then there's KIKI / DEE, who duetted with Elton John on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"; here's a video of that, in case you're in a YouTube mood. We had the 45 of that song when I was a kid, and I'm still fond of the tune. Watch the video and marvel at Elton and Kiki's wardrobes—bib overalls with an actual bib? Go figure!
Updated:
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Vanishing Act," is, as usual, clued harder than the typical themed crossword from the CrosSynergy team. ACT has vanished from the theme entries—long-term impact, for example, becomes [Dennis the Menace, seemingly forever?], a LONG-TERM IMP. A [Saturn commercial directive?] is LIGHTS, CAMERA, ION because Saturn's SUV is called the Ion. [Jerk on the stump?] is CAMPAIGN TIC (tactic). Fanciest fill: RUSTY NAILS, or [Scotch and Drambuie drinks]; REGULAR JOE, or [Fine fellow]; [1973 Jim Croce hit] I GOT A NAME; and WARTHOG, or [Pumbaa of "The Lion King"]. My favorite clues: James [Caan job] for acting ROLE; [Skosh] for TAD; the three "power"-related clues for 46-, 48-, and 49-Down pertaining to math, the SEA, and geopolitics; the two "serenade" clues for BOO and WOO; [Initial education?] for the ABC'S; and [Cow's first sound?] for a HARD C.
Chuck Deodene's LA Times crossword features three 15-letter things that are FILED (which crosses the middle theme entry). There were a bunch of words that resonated with another one nearby in the grid. ALLY is separated from ENEMY by a wall of black squares. Marilyn HORNE and [Kenny G's horn], the SAX, are close together. DEPARTURE crosses AFAR. [Optimistic] ROSY crosses [Pessimist] NAYSAYER. A question, for those of you who still have vinyl record albums in the house: Is an [Album's first half] called SIDE A? I know 45's had the A side hit and a B side, but I'm thinking albums had sides 1 and 2.
Updated again:
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Summer Blast," decides to TURN ON THE A.C., or insert AC into four other phrases to change them. Bombshell turns into BOMB SHELLAC, a [Ten-megaton finish?]. The [Floral-scented rapper?] is LILAC WAYNE (Lil Wayne). The [Cosmic campaign appearance?] is BARACK AT THE MOON (as in Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon"). And an ID number turns into a drug [Dealer's inventory tag?], or ACID NUMBER. In the fill, CHACHA is clued as [Search engine that employs human searchers]. Here's chacha.com, if you're curious. My favorite fill: MANX CAT, ARM CANDY, [Queens-based clothier] FUBU, and [Kafka hero Gregor] SAMSA. BECK'S Dark is all right, but Negra Modelo is my go-to dark beer these days.
Deb Amlen goes literary in her Onion A.V. Club puzzle, but not so literary that the average high-school graduate who did the assigned reading will be lost. The theme is GEORGE ORWELL's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four—the THOUGHT CRIME concept, TELESCREEN technology, and all-seeing BIG BROTHER were scary and futuristic a few decades ago, but now? Orwell was looking mighty prescient. The Big Brother aspects of security cameras in public spaces, the PATRIOT Act, the TSA's airport screening, cameras that send you tickets for running a red light, and cell phones and search engines that track your whereabouts and queries weren't around in 1984, but they sure as hell are now. Scary, isn't it? I must chide Deb for the soap opera clue, [Anthony of "General Hospital"]. I immediately flashed back to 1980...and locked my sights on Genie Francis, who was Laura in the Luke and Laura pair. Anthony GEARY (Luke) eventually battled his way into the grid.
November 15, 2007
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.
September 17, 2007
Tuesday, 9/18
Tausig 5:12
NYS 4:18
Onion 3:33
NYT 3:20
CS 3:03
LAT 2:39
Chuck Deodene's New York Times puzzle livens up the "three phrases that mean the same thing" theme by choosing three phrases that sound natural and casual when spoken: NO NEED TO THANK ME, GLAD TO BE OF / ASSISTANCE, and IT WAS MY PLEASURE. Better still is the quality of the fill. Every time a clue refers to something like [Small jobs for a body shop], I write D*N*S, hoping it'll be DINGS and typically disappointed that it's DENTS, when DINGS is a much more fun word. And this time, it was DINGS—hooray! Plenty of big-ticket letters, too: ZONED crossing NIKE and ZSA ZSA, who crosses COZIEST, GALAXY crossing the lovely EXPATS, the great SQUAB/CLIQUE meeting, JABS and JOHNS. The clues and answers I liked best: [Inane] for DUMB (nice to get inane out of the grid for a change); the vague [Beam] for SMILE; [Jazz dance] for STOMP; [Vice squad arrestees, perhaps] for JOHNS; the lovely [Perturbation] for ALARM; [Philosophy of bare existence?] for NUDISM; [Spode ensembles] for TEA SETS; [St. Andrew's Day observer] for SCOT; B-TEAM (in lieu of the more common—and more skilled—A-TEAM); SATCHMO; [It's repellent] for insect repellent DEET; the EXPATS in PARIS cross-reference; STELLA Artois beer; SAYS YES; [¢] for CENT (the poor cents symbol, exiled from the computer keyboard in favor of ^ above the 6); and [Fierce type, astrologically] for LEO (yeah, that's right: the Fiend is fierce). I hear from Harris Ruben that [Clipper's sheet] is a technically inaccurate clue for SAIL (a "sheet" is a rope to aficionados), but I can't imagine anyone who's not into sailing or clipper ships would object. Why the hell would anyone call a rope a "sheet"? Why, that makes no sense at all!
The New York Sun puzzle by Trip Payne (whose Wordplay line about the letter Q appears in Pat Merrell's cartoon) is called "How's That Again?" and it toys with typography. [OTTAWA] is an UPPERCASE CAPITAL, or a capital city in capital letters. [G r o g g y] is SPACED-OUT DAZED, again bundling two synonyms. [Intrepid] is BOLD COURAGEOUS. It's an inventive theme, but it didn't quite click for me. 1-Across made me laugh because mere seconds before reading the clue [Hairball sufferer], I had coughed—and it was not unlike the hairball sound, frankly. Favorite clues that do not pertain to my health: [Apply concealer, for example] for DAB (a spot-on makeup clue for a change); [Architect born in Canton] for I.M. PEI (Canton, China, is now called Guangzhou—though at first I was surprised to find Pei was a native Ohioan); [Liberal foil of Archie] for MAUDE; ["Conjunction Junction" conjunction] for NOR (watch the Schoolhouse Rock video here); [Contest at the bar?] for LIMBO; [They ring rings] for the ROPES of a boxing ring; and [Category in the game Careers] for FAME. Careers! I loved that board game (1979 edition). Other fill centerpieces I admired included HE'S A REBEL, EYE COLOR, and BABY TOOTH.
Updated Monday night:
It's Matt Jones's turn in the Onion A.V. Club, and his crossword theme requires me to call on the Urban Dictionary for support. [Redundant term for money, to 50 Cent?] is CHEDDAR CHEESE? Wha? Let's see: cheddar means money and cheese also means money. The other slang-dependent theme entries were more accessible to me: [Chick magnet vehicle, to Richard Pryor?] is MACK TRUCK. Boyz N the Hood director John Singleton's referenced for HOOD ORNAMENTS. [Soreness from a smoker's cough, to Dr. Dre?] is CHRONIC PAIN—chronic = marijuana, and Dre's first album was called The Chronic. Crib = home (as in the MTV series featuring celebrity abodes), so CRIB NOTES are Ludacris's musical notes written at home. Hey! There's another UMA, ["Fox News Live" host Pemmaraju]
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle, "Sayin' Policy," muddles up spellings by changing words in the theme entries to words that sound about the same, all including a long A sound. I dunno, I don't pronounce BAYER and BEAR the same way. Best entries: IRS AUDIT, DON'T STOP, DR. EVIL, HEARSAY evidence. Favorite clue: [Like some legal systems] for ISLAMIC. Single most mystifying, need-every-crossing answer: the shoot-'em-up arcade game ZAXXON. Never heard of it! Though the screen shot included in the Wikipedia article looks awfully familiar, so maybe I did play that on my friend's ColecoVision.
Tuesday update:
Patrick Jordan groups three "High Points" in his CrosSynergy puzzle: CREST TOOTHPASTE, SUMMIT MEETING, and PEAK PERFORMANCE. With 21 6- to 8-letter entries in the fill, this puzzle's a crisp cruciverbal snack.
Last but not least, a Tuesday puzzle that's actually keyed to Tuesday-level difficulty. (The NYT felt like a Wednesday today.) Timothy Meaker's LA Times crossword is easy, but the overall easiness didn't impede my enjoyment of the puzzle. (That sounds backwards, doesn't it? What can I say? I like 'em gnarly.) The theme entries are noun phrases that start with a famous last name, so [Where Billy debuted?] is a CRYSTAL BALL, and [Sean's radiofrequency?] is PENN STATION. Tim ALLEN WRENCH and Tori SPELLING BEE co-star. Nice fill, a light touch with the clues—fun crossword. I learned one new name, thanks to easy crossings: TAMMI [Terrell who sang with Marvin Gaye]. Oh, how sad! She died at age 24 of a brain tumor when I was 3, which may explain my unfamiliarity with her name.
