NYT 4:03
NYS 3:30
LAT 2:58
CS 2:33
Another late night for me, as it's Tuesday and the second-to-last trivia night. We won! We didn't do very well, but apparently everyone else scored even more poorly, so we won and are well positioned to vie for the $600 prize that caps off a six-week run next week.
The only crossword I've done tonight is Dave Mackey's New York Times puzzle. I paid zero attention to theme until some time after I finished it, when it became obvious: makeup.
Colorful fill includes NITWIT, or [Birdbrain]; FURIOSO, or [Forcefully, in music]; SOFT G, or [Gentle opening]; MR. MOM, or [1983 Keaton comedy]; SHOWER GIFT, or [Item from a registry, perhaps]; and XTC, or [Band with the 1987 single "Dear God"] (good band, don't know that song). Favorite clues: [Liked leader?] for IKE; [Go nuts, with "out"] for WIG; and [Something to kick up] for a FUSS.
Updated:
The byline above the New York Sun crossword reads Yaakov Bendavid, and I think this is his newspaper crossword debut. The "Empowered" theme promotes some Ns to Ms:
[Ship used to transport letters?] = MAIL CLIPPER
[Frequent steakhouse patron?] = MEAT FREAK
[Over two million works of art?] = MET ASSETS (as in the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
[Ingredient you shouldn't use to make quiche?] = MACHO CHEESE
Two theme entries are merely solid, while two hit the funny bone dead on—given that I can go days without finding a single theme entry in multiple crosswords to be flat-out funny, getting two funny theme entries in one puzzle is great. The fill gleams, too: The Beatles' "LOVE ME DO," OAXACA paralleling TREBEK, names from high and low culture (Yehudi MENUHIN and VANESSA Hudgens), two other Xs, and many more 6- to 8-letter answers. Favorite clues: ["___, Babe" (1992 Mark Leyner book)] for ET TU; and [Cut the mustard?] for REAP (mustard's a crop plant, after all).
Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy puzzle, " has four kinds of deals at the beginning of the theme entries. A COMPACT (CAR) and a CONCORD (GRAPES) are roughly on a par with each other. A BARGAIN (HUNTER) is a different kind of "deal" altogether. And a BOND (RATING)...I'm not sure exactly how that's a deal of some sort. Explanations welcome. There's some first-class fill here: SCROOGE, Jimi Hendrix's PURPLE HAZE, a BIG MOUTH, JETSKI, and ANGLO-SAXON.
Dan Naddor has a happy theme in his LA Times crossword, with [Euphoric] cluing five phrases: ON TOP OF THE WORLD, TICKLED PINK, ON CLOUD NINE, HIGH AS A KITE, and IN SEVENTH HEAVEN. Two corners contain stacks of 7- and 8-letter words (ALTER EGO, CANSECO, GO AHEAD, and more), but the ambitious theme and grid result in a couple compromises in the fill. Or maybe they don't—I don't know [Tony Hillerman detective Jim] CHEE, but maybe the rest of you do. I could see some solvers hitting a snag where SHRIKE ([Predatory bird]) crosses [Campground chain KOA], or name-haters having trouble with [Danny of the Boston Celtics] AINGE crossing NIA [Peeples of TV's "Fame"] at the I. Is it just me, or does reading the theme answers improve one's mood?
May 21, 2008
Wednesday, 5/21
April 07, 2008
Tuesday, 4/8
Onion 4:52
NYS 3:52
Tausig 3:36
CS 3:12
LAT 2:46
NYT 2:45
Hah! There's another sleepy-time theme in the New York Times crossword, just one day after one ran in the New York Sun. So often when two versions of a theme appear in close proximity, one of the two suffers by comparison. I don't think that's the case this time—Dave Mackey's NYT puzzle was a delight (and the Sun was cool, too). Now, if you don't share my fondness for pop culture, maybe you didn't enjoy this puzzle, but I sure did. The theme entries in this one follow a progression—first it's BEDTIME (FOR BONZO), then you get into your PAJAMA (GAME) (and yes, the singular is kosher), put your head on your PILLOW (TALK), and next thing you know, it's (I) DREAM (OF JEANNIE) time. Three of the four theme entries are movie titles and the last was a TV series. Yesterday's 1-Across in the NYT asked for dictator AMIN; today's 1-Across asks for Mr. Kotter himself, GABE Kaplan. Other pop-culture answers from the worlds of TV, film, and pop music are JABBA the Hutt; actors Greg EVIGAN, Annabella SCIORRA, and LIZA Minnelli; director Sam RAIMI; the French film AMELIE ([2001 title role for Audrey Tautou]); old film studio RKO; the song "Ode to BILLY JOE" and the lyric "TIE A yellow ribbon..."; and EWE clued as [Stand-in for "you" in "Concentration"], the old rebus game show. Of course, pop-culture haters get the more highbrow ZOLA ([Emile who wrote "Truth is on the march"]); ["Rule, Britannia" composer] Thomas ARNE; a SAGA and a NOVEL; New Yorker cartoonist REA Irvin (he did a ton of New Yorker covers, including the iconic Eustace Tilley cover, and designed the classic New Yorker typeface); the ["Venerable" monk] Adam BEDE; and MME. Bovary.
Other favorite clues and fill: [Bonkers] for both DAFT and LOCO; UTOPIA clued as [A world without 71-Across], have-NOTS; ZOOLOGIC; ["It's on me!"] for "I'LL TREAT" (a happier option that cluing it as ill-treat); [Informal greeting at a breakfast shop] for MORNIN (what exactly is a "breakfast shop"? does IHOP qualify?); and even [Coastal raptors] for ERNS, because Emily Cureton draws a mean ERN. (I see that Dave solved his puzzle in the NYT applet—behind several other fast solvers. Hee! It gives me the giggles when I can beat a constructor on his or her own puzzle.
Peter Collins' New York Sun puzzle, "Split Seconds," takes five phrases that follow the "second ___" format, puts the second word into the midst of a theme entry, and has each theme phrase split the second ___ word across word breaks. For example, the bolded letters in GEORGE A. ROMERO and HIPPOCRATIC OATH can follow "second" in common phrases. Another theme entry is TUBE STEAK, which I just saw earlier in the day while consulting an online list of slang terms for "penis" (a Crasswords puzzle had a slang term I'd never seen before). Here, it's clued as [Frank]. I...had no idea anyone called hot dogs that. The fill juxtaposes USAGE and (a few inches away) PEDANTRY; who doesn't appreciate that connection? (My mom caught Hillary Rodham Clinton with an errant "Bill and I" that should have been "Bill and me." *sigh*) How is it that I've never seen ARBORETA as the plural of arboretum?
Updated:
The LA Times crossword might mark a debut—I don't recall seeing the name Thomas Takaro before. There are six theme entries (filling rows 3, 6, 10, and 13) in which the two parts of each answer are identical save for an I-to-A switch. FIDDLE-FADDLE, KIT-KAT, FLIM-FLAM—these and the others are all lively-sounding terms with mostly happy connotations. PELL-MELL almost joins the party, but with a consonant change instead (and no thematic partner across the grid). There are 17 longish (6 to 8 letters) answers in the fill, too, with PELL-MELL sandwiched between Dr. FAUSTUS and AFFABLE. I like the juxtaposition for whatever reason.
Nancy Salomon's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Inner Tube," places an IV (as in "IV tube") in each theme entry's base phrase. Pry open yields a "PRIVY OPEN" sign, dingbat hides a DIVING BAT swooping out of the dark (eek!), a trial date (when the trial is scheduled) turns into a TRIVIAL DATE (clued as [Unremarkable get-together?] rather than [Good social option for nerds]), and led the way goes actively Zen with LIVED THE WAY. Nice fill, though it's been a while since TOTIE Fields showed up in the crossword—she's one of those people I learned about strictly from crosswords, like Toots Shor.
Updated Tuesday evening:
Well, I've had dinner and am only now getting around to the puzzles e-mailed out earlier today by Ben Tausig. Tyler Hinman's Onion A.V. Club crossword has a "Confucius say" theme. For example, [Confucius say "Man who fart in church ___"] is completed by the double-meaning SIT IN OWN PEW. [Confucius say "Passionate kiss like spider's web; leads to ___"] UNDOING OF FLY (the entomological fly and the trouser fly can both be "undone" in different ways). I'm not wild about the inherent cartoony stereotyping vibe of the theme, and two of the five theme answers don't have the same stilted-English vibe that the other three share (though the clues are stilted in that way). Good fill—where else could you combine a MARMOSET and ABS OF STEEL?
Ben Tausig's Chicago Reader/Ink Well puzzle, "Missing the Signs," has five signs that are missing one letter and thus convey a different message. A tow-away zone sign gets hospital use without its T: OW-AWAY ZONE. A loose gravel sign goes morbid with LOOSE GRAVE. Nice pop-culture combo with the long vertical fill: Altman's GOSFORD PARK (which I haven't seen) and Carly Simon's classic, "YOU'RE SO VAIN" (who was that song about, anyway?).
February 03, 2008
Monday, 2/4
CS 3:32
NYS 3:17
LAT 3:03
NYT 2:32
The crosswordese haiku/senryu/short doggerel contest is here; I'll choose the winner on Saturday. (The prize is Russell Brown's wooden crossword earrings.)
The New York Times crossword interface was having some technical glitches tonight—the Java applet still doesn't have the Monday puzzle, three hours after it was supposed to be there. No worries—the puzzle's available in Across Lite, too, which is where I solved it.
The byline reads Dave and Tracy Mackey—Dave has had his work published in the NYT before, but I believe this is Tracy's debut. (Congrats!) The theme of their New York Times puzzle is "See you again!"—three folksy phrases that mean that include "DON'T BE A STRANGER," "DROP IN ANY TIME," and "Y'ALL COME BACK NOW." Au revoir means the same thing, but it's hardly folksy so it would be out of place here. My favorite clues took me back to my '70s youth: [Where "you can do whatever you feel," in a hit 1978 song] for YMCA, and ["Happy Days" cool cat, with "the"] for FONZ. I think the with "the" is extraneous—didn't his friends call him Fonz, sans article, when addressing him face to face? Or do I remember this wrong?
Updated:
Mike Torch's LA Times crossword has six theme entries that begin with an xAxA word (and one, BABA WAWA, that also ends with such a word). There's also PAPA BEAR, LA-LA LAND, GAGA OVER, DADA ARTIST, and MAMA TOLD ME. Now, caca fails the breakfast test and "ha ha" doesn't really begin a stand-alone phrase. But the crossword-friendly rara avis! Where is it? Kicked to the curb because the vowel sound's different? And Nana Mouskouri! Yes, I know, you'd need a bigger grid to comfortably fit everyone in. And I liked this crossword—six theme entries that are fun to say, along with good fill (e.g., DRIBBLE, ORLANDO, PREQUEL, QUARRY).
Laura Sternberg's New York Sun crossword, "J Crew," features three J.J.J. people. I'd never heard of JAMES J. JEFFRIES, a boxer of note a century ago. (Wikipedia says he was a "Great White Hope" touted as the white man who could beat Jack Johnson, a black boxer. He couldn't.) J. JONAH JAMESON, Peter Parker's editor/boss in Spider-Man, was recently in another crossword with J. Alfred Prufrock. And then there's JESSE JACKSON, JR.—my mother's representative in Congress. (He's endorsed Obama in tomorrow's primary.) Love the extra J names—JOAN JETT and JANE EYRE, JUDE Law, Jason sounds-like-a-J GIAMBI, and Elvis silent-J STOJKO.
Rich Norris's CrosSynergy crossword, "A Bunch of Baloney," has five theme entries beginning with "baloney"—WIND, HOT AIR, BUNK, FUDGE, and GAS. I don't think I've heard FUDGE used that way—perhaps the people who say that are the same ones who eat PEA SALAD. Plenty of longish fill here (ERIC IDLE!), and three Zs and an X.
May 02, 2007
Thursday, 5/3
NYS 5:59
LAT 4:23
CS 3:42
NYT 3:38
Jonesin' 3:25
(updated Thursday at 9:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. for Jonesin')
Karen Tracey's Themeless Thursday felt a little harder than most Themeless Thursdays in the Sun. It's got some of Karen's trademark Scrabbliciousness (including the central entry, DJANGO REINHARDT, and numerous Xs, Js, Ks, and Vs). Did you know that ARTE Johnson not only is still alive (at 78), but gets audiobook work (and not just for the Dave Barry books mentioned in the clue) these days? Another crossword stalwart, OLIO, gets freshened up with the clue, [Aceto's partner in Italian salad dressings]. (Did you know the etymology of oil traces back to "olive"? Olive oil is the queen of the edible oils, to be sure.) Other highlights: [Round house?] for TAVERN; [High jumper?] for SKYDIVER; NEOPHYTE; [Base in which 48,879 is BEEF] for HEX (truly, I don't have a clue how that works); [Krusty the Clown's father, for example] for RABBI; [Birdbrained] for ADDLEPATED (love that word!); Wimbledon winner Goran IVANISEVIC (gosh, does this picture ever look Photoshopped); and [Eightball starter] for BREAK.
I'm not sure why Richard Chisholm's NYT crossword is running on a Thursday rather than a Wednesday—it doesn't have a gimmick (other than putting the shared clue for the theme entries within the grid) and it didn't seem Thursday-tough. My favorite of the three PARTY / LINEs is OLD PHONE SERVICE—my grandparents had a party line when I was a kid, when their phone prefix that began with a 43 was called HEMLOCK (based on the H being with the 4 and E with 3). I doubt anyone younger than me has experienced this outside of bizarre crossings of the wires. HAVE WE MET BEFORE might be a pickup line, but are pickup lines ever called "party lines"? Not so much. I had a hard time figuring out the end of 19-Across, POLITICAL SCRIPT—the phrase didn't resonate, so I Googled it (within quotes) and got fewer than 600 hits. Is the phrase bandied about on the cable news channels or something? I seldom watch those channels, so I wouldn't know. [The second of January?] had me addlepated for far too long before the crossings nudged me towards the SHORT A sound. I don't think of a CROCUS as a [Long-tubed flower], but the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia says, "The spring-flowering sorts have a floral tube so long that the ovary is belowground, sheltered from climatic changes." Best entries: DIXIE CUP crossing AJAX (which I wish would be clued as the cleanser more often) crossing HOJO in Registered Trademark Corner. And another thing—is a word missing from the clue for 59-Across, perhaps just in the online version? [False] is an adjective, IDOL a noun.
Updated:
Hardcore pun lovers, head to Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Shady Ladies."
Dave Mackey's LA Times crossword lists series of ___ guys and ___ dolls in the theme entries. In this freighted language, you'll note that "guys" can be all sorts of positive types of people, while "dolls" are...toys. I'm glad that women aren't referred to as "dolls" much these days (and when they are, if the speaker isn't being hipster-ironic and isn't over 75 years of age, then he may be a troglodyte)."She's a real STAND-UP doll"? "Karen's my GO-TO doll"? "Aw, he's a BABY guy"? This is no slam on Dave's puzzle—just on the bias built into the English language. And hooray for AJAX being stripped of its classical connotations and being clued as ["Stronger than dirt!" cleanser]; I just want the cleanser clue every so often.
Easy Jonesin':
This week's Jonesin' puzzle by Matt Jones, "The Final Kurtin," is child's play for anyone who's read Kurt Vonnegut's best-known novels and retained a few key names: GOD BLESS YOU / MR ROSEWATER, ICE-NINE, BILLY PILGRIM, and KILGORE TROUT. The theme entries are elegantly pulled together with the latter three entries abutting one another in the center of the grid. TPIR isn't a familiar abbreviation, but eminently gettable if you know Bob Barker as the longtime host of The Price Is Right; IIIIOO, clued as [60, in binary] doesn't do anything for me, but if you know the Vonnegut names that cross it, it doesn't matter. Liked ADOBOS clued as [Philippine meat dishes]; STAUNCH, CONNIVE, and EYETOOTH; ["___ arigato, Mr. Roboto"] for DOMO; and [Revolver's hiding place in "Foxy Brown"/ for AFRO. Oh, here's LEET (a.k.a. L33T), which I didn't notice while solving, clued as [Internet writing system that popularized "pwn3d"].
