Thursday, 3/12

NYT 5:11
LAT 3:12
CS 2:56

I just remembered Wednesday evening that I hadn't started blogging about the ACPT crosswords. If you did the ACPT puzzles already or if you're not opposed to spoilers, scroll down for the puzzle #1 post.

Today's New York Times crossword has an unfamiliar byline: David Chapus. This may well be a debut, and it's a doozy. The folks who complained that Caleb Madison's Wednesday puzzle felt Thursdayish should have suspected that Thursday's puzzle would go beyond Thursday-level difficulty. The theme involves a rebus gimmick. The PED XING sign at 39-Across is a hint to the theme, which is PED squeezed into a single square—a crossing (XING) between Across and Down, naturally—in each of the four quadrants:

• 17A [Classic Cadillacs] are COU[PE D]E VILLES. That had been my first thought, but since there weren't enough squares for the full spelling, I moved on to other sections. This PED square also appears in 4D [Hastens], or EX[PED]ITES. Isn't the Coupe de Ville a cool thing to see in a crossword grid?
  
• 11D is SHAR[P-ED]GED, [Like a saber]. It crosses 25A [Passed quickly], or S[PED] BY.
  
• 38D [Features of many Olympic broadcasts] are TA[PE D]ELAYS. 44A [Like humans and ostriches] clues BI]PED]AL.
  
• 60D [Batman, with "The"] clues another stellar answer, CA[PED] CRUSADER. 53D [Prepared, as a report] is TY[PED] UP.
  

The rebus squares didn't land in exactly symmetrical spots, but the longer answers in the rebus pairs are placed symmetrically. This being a Thursday with a Fridayish vibe, there are plenty of interesting and/or challenging clues, and I liked 'em:

• [Results of some oil deposits] means—ick alert!—ACNE.
  
• Plain old [X] clues CANCEL.
  
• The verb COAX is passed over in lieu of a shortened form of "coaxial," clued as [Certain cable, informally]. That O was one of the last letters I filled in—COOP UP, or [Confine], isn't a common crossword answer.
  
• [Provincial capital in NW Spain] is the ever-popular OVIEDO (popular on account of being two-thirds vowels).
  
• I've never seen EPEE clued as an [Item of sports equipment approximately 43" long]. Anyone else contemplating wood and iron golf clubs here?
  
• MAGOO gets a cartoon trivia clue: ["Mr." whose first name is Quincy].
  
• SALTINES are a [Chili accompaniment, often]. They use oyster crackers at Chili Mac's 5-Way Chili, my favorite chili joint.
  
• The Spanish article UNA is clued ["Por ___ Cabeza" (tango song)]. Does that mean "For a Head"?
  
• ODIN is a [One-eyed god of myth].
  
• The French abbreviation STE. (Sainte) completes [Paris's Rue ___ Croix de la Bretonnerie: Abbr.]. "Saint Cross of the Bretons Street"? There's more French with NAUSEE, a [Sartre novel, with "La"].
  
• THIN AIR is indeed a [Mountain climbing hazard], as attested in the book Into Thin Air.
  
• [Earthen pots for liquids] are—say what? CRUSES? I don't think I've ever encountered this word, not in three decades of puzzling. Dictionary tells me the singular is cruse, and it's an archaic word meaning "an earthenware pot or jar." Live and learn.
  
• Corporate trivia! Rental car company AVIS is a [Company started in 1946 at the Detroit and Miami airports].
  
• ASHEBORO is a [North Carolina county seat]. Randolph County, in case you were curious.
  
• [Companion of Panza] isn't quite so obvious without the first name Sancho—it's Don QUIXOTE.
  
• Who knew there was a [British fighter plane] called the TORNADO?
  
• [Frank who wrote "The Pit," 1903] is NORRIS.
  
• [Turn-of-the-century year in King John's reign] is MCCI, or 1201. I was tempted by 1102, or MCII, which would have made the mystery CRUSES into IRUSES. But somehow, King John and the 1200s sounded faintly familiar.
  
• SKI is [What people who head for the hills do?]. RUN and LAM may have enticed some folks.
  

Wasn't this a good take on the rebus concept, what with the unifying entry PED XING serving as the impetus for the whole enterprise?

Updated:

I had no idea where Donna Hoke Kahwaty's LA Times crossword was heading with its theme until I made my way down to 57-Across, [Noodles, and a word that can precede the beginning of 17-, 28-, or 43-Across]—SPAGHETTI. Well! SPAGHETTI is a far more interesting word to partner up with other words than what we usually see in such themes. A typical "word that can precede/follow ___" theme centers on a common noun, like WATER or EYE. SPAGHETTI is a cool choice because there aren't a zillion "spaghetti ___" phrases in the language (excluding the many options that might be found on trattoria menus). The New Oxford American Dictionary lists only Kahwaty's three phrases, along with spaghetti bolognese, so the theme is tight. (The constructor's job is easier in a "water ___" puzzle, as there's a much longer list of theme entry candidates to choose from.) Here are the three:

• To [Commute, stereotypically] is to STRAP-HANG. Spaghetti straps are found on assorted women's apparel items.
  
• SQUASH COURTS are [Four-walled play areas]. Spaghetti squash is a vegetable with stringy innards.
  
• WESTERN UNION was a [19th century communications pioneer] in telegraphy. A spaghetti Western is a movie Western produced and directed by Italians.
  

This puzzle's also noteworthy for having four 9-letter answers in the fill. A [Gourmet] is an EPICUREAN. [Like a couch potato] means SEDENTARY. GREEN PEAS are [Stew ingredients]. And RORSCHACH is a [Personality test creator] as well as a Watchmen character. The toughest clue for me was [One of the Papas]—I first thought of Irene Papas, which was a wrong turn, and then struggled to remember who was in The Mamas and the Papas besides the Mamas. DENNY Doherty, along with John Williams (and Mama Cass Elliot and Michelle Williams). I also paused at [Search and rescue org.]—that's the USCG, or U.S. Coast Guard.

Between the surprise of learning that SPAGHETTI phrases were the main dish and the interlocked long answers in the fill, I'm putting this puzzle in contention for the year's best mid-week puzzle.

Speaking of that, Michael Sharp (a.k.a. Rex Parker) suggested this morning that we add a "best debut" category to the year-end Oryx awards, and David Chapus's NYT rebus puzzle is in the running there.

Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Vision Quest," has three theme entries that end with "vision" words:

• THE PARALLAX VIEW was a [1974 movie about a political conspiracy].
  
• [Definitely out of the question] is synonymous with the idiomatic NOT BY A LONG SIGHT.
  
• [Quick peek] is a FLEETING GLIMPSE.
  

In the fill, TAPIR is clued as a [Belize beast with a prominent snout]. I must take this opportunity to warn you: if a tapir has its back end to you, stay back because its pee can travel a good 10 feet or more. We found this out the hard way at the Chester Zoo in England. MALARKEY is a great word, and it's clued as [Bunkum]. In the '70s, the [TV cop with a Tootsie Pop] was Theo KOJAK, played by bald Telly Savalas. Great clue for THOU: [Intro to art?].

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Friday, 10/31

WSJ 8:35
Sun 6:24
NYT 5:37
CHE 5:17
LAT 3:41
CS 3:12

(updated at 11:45 a.m. Friday)

Hey, word nerds! Do you like spelling? Check out the online Spelling Bee at the Virtual Thesaurus site. It uses all sorts of fancy-pants algorithms to figure out what sort of words to give you—if you're not a terrific speller, it won't give you words like caracole. If you do have mad spelling skillz, it'll challenge you a lot but not punish you for getting some difficult words wrong. The top score is 800, and I can attest that you can score 800 despite missing a sizeable percentage of your words. (I flubbed 8 of my last 50 words.) If you play long enough, it'll give you another crack at words you gave up on—and it shows you the correct spelling when you "surrender," so pay attention to those freebie answers.

I learned about the Spelling Bee from Ben Zimmer's OUPblog post.

I must tear myself away from the Spelling Bee to tend to the crosswords.

Jim Page's New York Times crossword starts with a mini-theme—["Easy does it!"] clues the two intersecting 15-letter answers, TAKE A DEEP BREATH and WHAT'S THE BIG RUSH—and builds the rest of the puzzle around it with fill that groups itself into assorted topic areas.

We've got some pop culture:

• Chuck NORRIS is the ["Good Guys Wear Black" star, 1978].
  
• ADAM WEST is the [Actor voicing the mayor on "Family Guy"].
  
• DAME EDNA is [Aussie with purple hair and ornate glasses].
  
• The [Sammy nicknamed "The Red Rocker"] is Sammy HAGAR.
  

And some geography:

• ISR., or Israel, is a [Big exporter of diamonds: Abbr.]. A [Nazareth native, e.g.] is a SABRA, or one born in Israel.
  
• BADEN is a [Black Forest resort] known for its mineral springs. BADEN means "baths."
  
• The [Capital of the Apulia region] in Italy is BARI.
  
• SAO fills in the blank in [__ Jorge (Azores island)].
  
• [Chicago's Little Village, e.g.] is a BARRIO. I've never heard it called that here, but Wikipedia is pretty convincing.
  
• RENNES is the [Capital of the Brittany region].
  

And some high culture:

• [Maestro ___ de Waart] is named EDO, and the [Longtime La Scala music director] is Riccardo MUTI.
  
• ARTES are [Cultural doings in Cadiz].
  

And some nibbles:

• PASTA / SALADS are [picnic dishes].
  
• SNO Balls are what's meant by [Hostess ___ Balls].
  
• A [Little something] to snack on is a NOSH. Have you read Giles Coren's excoriation of his newspaper editors for changing "where to go for a nosh" into "where to go for nosh."
  
• A [Drink with a straw] is a MALT.
  
• [Some porters] are STOUTS.
  
• SODAS are [Ballpark concessionaire's offerings]. So are BEERS, of course.
  
• NACHOS are [Some chips]. Wow, this puzzle is loaded with junk food.
  
• FETA cheese is a [Topping on a Mediterranean pizza] that I would not eat.
  

I had a couple favorite clues here. [Be too reserved?] clues OVERBOOKS, as in a restaurant or flight. [Artemis or Atalanta] is a HUNTRESS. Forget the hunting part—have you seen Free To Be You and Me, in particular the Atalanta story? It's a feminist retelling of the Atalanta myth.

I was ready for Donna Hoke Kahwaty's Sun crossword, "For Startlers," since I'd already done two Halloween-themed puzzles with BOO words this week. This time, the BOOs are bunched into eight rebus squares, with RAY "[BOO]M [BOO]M" MANCINI holding down the fort in the middle. Lots of hard clues in this puzzle:

• [Game played with unmentionables?] is TA[BOO].
  
• [What the king of diamonds holds] is an AXE. Really? Yes.
  
• [Chacmas, for example] are BA[BOO]NS. Chacmas? Yes, grayish black baboons of southern and eastern Africa.
  
• [Sprinter Pistorius] is named OSCAR. This one was vaguely familiar.
  
• ICE-NINEI This clue wasn't hard for any Vonnegut fan—[Ocean freezer in "Cat's Cradle"]—but I love the entry and wanted to mention it. Read more here.
  
• I took [Site to read the writing on the wall?] too literally, picturing an actual wall. The answer's FACE[BOO]K. Facebook is where I encountered the link to Ben Zimmer's post about Spelling Bee.
  
• [Used kettlebells, say] clues EXERCISED.
  
• [Last rewards?] are [BOO]BY PRIZES. This one's not so tough, but again, a great entry.
  

If this puzzle took you longer than you thought it would, you can take solace in the fact that it has 15 more squares than usual—the grid is 16 rows tall, not the standard 15. Before I hit the sack, let me single out one other marvelous answer—[BOO][BOO] BEAR, the [Ursine sidekick] of Yogi Bear.

Updated:

Donna Levin's LA Times crossword contains some voting-related puns that took me a while to unravel:

• [Voter from Twain's hometown?] is a HANNIBAL ELECTOR, playing on fictional creepazoid Hannibal Lecter.
  
• [Meetings of the Hypnotist Party?] are TRANCE CAUCUSES. This plays on the Transcaucasus region, which includes parts or all of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. That's some high-end geography-based punning there, isn't it?
  
• [Communist goon candidate whose name isn't on the ballot?] is a RED WRITE-IN HOOD, playing on Red Riding Hood.
  
• [Convention deadlock?] is a DELEGATE BALANCE, building on a "delicate balance."
  

Favorite clues: [Like a unicorn tamer, in myth] for CHASTE; [Malay word for "man"] for ORANG; and [Rose born William Bruce] for AXL. Tricky bits: [Ready, willing and able: Abbr.] for ADJS (short for "adjectives"); [Glacier National Park's Garden Wall, e.g.] for ARETE.

The trio of Todd McClary, Craig Kasper, and Andrew M. Greene teamed up to make this week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Election Headlines." The meat of each plausible news headlines is clued as if it pertains to a particular person. Three examples:

• [Candidate Benny Goodman] GETS SWING VOTE, as he was a swing/Big Band musician.
  
• [Candidate Orville Redenbacher] MAKES CONCESSION SPEECH, because Redenbacher's a popcorn brand and popcorn's sold at movie theater concession stands.
  
• [Candidate Gingerbread Man] LOSES IN RUNOFF, because the Gingerbread Man was always running away to avoid being eaten, but was eventually scarfed down by a wily fox who outwitted him.
  

Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "In a Stew," says that [What you're working on (and a literal hint to 17-, 28-, and 47-Across)] is a CROSSWORD PUZZLE or rather, a puzzle containing cross words:

• YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS is one [Grumpy remark], though it sounds more disbelieving than cross to me.
  
• I CAN'T BELIEVE IT is clued as another [Grumpy remark], though it too sounds more disbelieving than testy.
  
• The final [Grumpy remark] is indeed grumpy: THAT TICKS ME OFF.
  

The two longest Down answers sort of tie in with the theme. To [Have a cow] is to GET UPSET, but after all the crossness, the wise one FORGIVES, or [Shows compassion, perhaps]. [Comedian Murray] clues JAN, and that name didn't ring a bell for me. Turns out Jan Murray was a Borscht Belt comedian, né Murray Janofsky. [Those who stop Lightning strikes?] was no gimme for me—it's GOALIES, so the Lightning must be a hockey team. Or maybe soccer? No, hockey—the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.

Todd McClary also has a solo outing today, with this week's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Literary Bent." There's one standard theme entry, POETS' CORNER at 16-Down ([Westminster Abbey burial ground, four residents of which are hidden in this grid (in appropriate places)]. Apparently there are 28 writers buried there, as well as many others commemorated with plaques. Four of those buried there are also interred in the poets' corners of this crossword grid. Edmund SPENSER runs around the NW corner, upwards in EPSOM and to the right in the unusual ENSERFS ([Binds to the land]). Abraham COWLEY rest in the NE corner, in SCOWL and LEYTE. John DRYDEN goes down in REDRY and backwards at the end of KENNEDY in the SE quadrant. And Thomas HARDY occupies the last corner, backwards in AHEAD and upwards in HYDRA.

Plenty of tough clues, like [Post-recession measure?] for a TOUPEE, STU [Holcomb who coached for Miami and Purdue] (who?), and WELCH [__ Hall (Yale freshman dormitory)].

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Wednesday, 8/27

NYS 4:07
LAT 3:48
NYT 3:17
CS 3:03

I am officially out of sorts. Discombobulated by (1) a medical procedure and (2) two margaritas (administered for medicinal purposes, I assure you), I find myself feeling pesci (this household's word for nonspecific stomach upset, borrowed from a "Wayne's World" segment on SNL) and unable to hit the correct keys on the keyboard. Tomorrow will be better, but right now? Not so hot.

The New York Times puzzle by Donna Hoke Kahwaty teased me with the first long Across answer, FOOTLOOSE. "1980s movies that are also phrases!" I thought. Nope, that one's not a theme entry. The theme entries double the first 3-letter word in a phrase to transform it into something new:

• PAWPAW PRINTS are [Some fruit still lifes?]. My eyeballs picked up a mention of fruit flies.
  
• CANCAN OPENER is a [Showy dance intro?].
  
• [Gobbler in a powwow musical group?] is a TOM-TOM TURKEY.
  
• [Chocolate's journey?] is BONBON VOYAGE. I'd like to buy two tickets, please.
  

I would've broken the 3-minute mark, which always delights me on a Wednesday puzzle, save for the errant L replacing the K in TSK and KNACK. Three favorite entries here: the SLURPEE is a [7-Eleven cooler]; TYBALT was the [Capulet murdered by Romeo], Juliet's cousin; and [Sweating the small stuff] means NITPICKY. I also like that the longest nonthematic fill, FOOTLOOSE and IN AMERICA,, double as movie titles.

Joon Pahk's second published puzzle is "Divine Intervention" in the New York Sun. The theme is quite similar to one a friend had cooked up a few months ago, with at least two identical theme entries, each containing a hidden NORSE (53-Down) GOD (58-Across) within:

• Odin is in MOOD INDIGO, [Classic jazz composition by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard].
  
• [Boundary of a black hole] is an EVENT HORIZON, which is a term I learned from a bad sci-fi movie.
  
• MAJORITY RULE is a [Common political principle].
  
• My favorite Norse deity is Loki the trickster, who hides here in HELLO KITTY ([Friend of the penguin Badtz-Maru] is a frightfully obscure clue, though).
  

Plenty of Scrabbly fill—GIZA atop AJAX, Al ROKER beside an E-ZINE. Citrus fruit not called orange—POMELOS, or [Large citrus fruits]. [Nickname for a fast woman] is specific to Florence Griffith Joyner, or FLO-JO. [Result of a hook-and-eye connection?] isn't Velcro but a SHINER, or black eye. The [City hard by Vance AFB] is ENID, OK; I'm always partial to those city/state entries.

Updated:

I'm feeling much better this morning. Barry Silk's LA Times crossword has some abbreviations that might slow you down ([U.S. Army E-6's] are SSGTS, the IGN. is [Place for a key: Abbr.], [640 acres: Abbr.] is a SQ. MI., and that [Volkswagen hatchback] is the GTI, which might not be an abbreviation), a theme that didn't dawn on me until after the grid was completely filled in, and plenty of Scrabbly answers. The latter group includes XENA the Warrior Princess, a Lucy [Lawless TV role]; BUXOM crossing OXEN; YUCKY and a WALTZ; Mt. FUJI and a...QUAG? [Bog, for short] isn't just a shortening of quagmire; my Mac's dictionary includes the archaic quag, meaning "a marsh or boggy place," and says it dates back to the late 16th century (as does quagmire).

What about the theme? JOE MONTANA, the [Quarterback on the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team], shares his name with the state of Montana, whose nickname is Big Sky Country. Thus:

• [Succeeds in spades] is MAKES IT BIG.
  
• ["Ole" phenomenon in a Carmichael classic] is BUTTERMILK SKY.
  
• And [Homeland] is MOTHER COUNTRY.
  

The CrosSynergy puzzle by Martin Ashwood-Smith, "Dark Humor," should've taken a good bit longer than most CrosSynergies since it's got a quote theme, but the clues for the fill were mostly straightforward and easy. The quote is a "Will Rogers observation": EVERYTHING IS / FUNNY AS LONG / AS IT'S / HAPPENING TO / SOMEBODY ELSE. The only answer that was completely unfamiliar to me was STALL-FEED, or [Fatten for market, as cattle]. That's happening to somebody else, not me, but...still not funny. (Sympathetic "moo" here.) There are just two question-marked clues: [Pull some strings?] is to SEW, and [Leaves the office early?] is RESIGNS, not just leaving work at 4:00 instead of 5:00.

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Thursday, 6/14

NYS 10:59
NYT 3:37
LAT 3:28
CS 2:29

(updated at 10 a.m. Thursday)

June 14! Yes, it's Flag Day again, also known as the day after my sister's birthday. (Ben and I spent the day visiting my sister today. Boy, does that kid love to play in the swimming pool! He'll be in heaven in a week and a half when day camp starts and he can hit the pool every morning.) June 14 is also the birthday of some famous people. Poor Alois Alzheimer—people were always forgetting his birthday.

The Thursday NYT crossword by Donna Hoke Kahwaty is not at all ARTLESS, [Ingenuous...or like 17-, 24-, 50- and 60-Across]. The theme entries are, however—each has lost ART. Starting salary becomes STING SALARY; heart of darkness, HE OF DARKNESS; surprise parties, SURPRISE PIES; and martini glasses, MINI GLASSES. (I Googled "surprise pies" and found a page of trivia about pies. Some of the poll results sound awfully spurious. And supposedly, the wealthy English were known for making surprise pies with live critters inside them.) I was stumped for a while when I had ** OF DARKNESS, wondering how on earth a rebus could break PRINCE into two pieces. But then ARTLESS practically filled itself in at 38-Across, giving a huge hint. Not so sure about [Supply at a changing station] for TALC; baby powder in general has fallen out of favor at diaper time, and many parents opt for cornstarch baby powder over talcum powder. Love those four vertical 10-letter fill entries, but boy, do I wish they had tricky Friday or Saturday clues.

Okay, so, maybe 10:30 at night and drifting off to sleep is not the optimal setting for solving a Themeless Thursday puzzle in the Sun, eh? Francis Heaney's crossword slaughtered me. Partly on its own merits, and partly because I spaced on reading and interpreting clues that weren't so hard. Like the [Hit song from "Outlandos d'Amour"], ROXANNE—a gimme once I finally roused myself enough to notice the clue. (Guess who's going to the Police concert at Wrigley Field next month? That's right! A bloggy friend and I are going, just the two of us, since we were both Police fans back in the '80s. There are no tickets for our husbands, who never had the same admiration for Sting anyway.) And [OS interface]—I figured it might be the letters that come between O and S, and yet my sleepy head determined that there were too many letters for that to be the case. (Actually, PQR fits perfectly and there aren't four letters between O and S.) Never heard of the BURQINI before, but it's a cool word. Haven't seen MadTV lately, so I didn't know JORDAN PEELE either. Favorite clues: [When it started, the world population was around 50 million] for IRON AGE; [Cons' foes] for LIBS; [It's often followed by 99801] for JUNEAU, AK; [Like something that's going around] for IN ORBIT; [English war god with a day named after him] for TIU of Tuesday fame; and [Mission of Hope?] for USO TOUR. Favorite fill: SIT PAT; pre-temptation Gollum, a.k.a. SMEAGOL; WRECKED, REX REED, WRESTLER, and ROXANNE; VAMOOSED; JUDE LAW; and NUTCASE.

Updated:

Today's CrosSynergy puzzle by Sarah Keller ("Once Upon a Time") is notable for its easiness. If you're in the mood for an easy Monday-level crossword after the mauling by Francis's puzzle, this one will fit the bill.

Alex Boisvert's LA Times puzzle makes sport of crosswordese by taking one of those regular denizens of the grid and hiding it within four theme entries. A fun little "aha" moment!

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