NYT 7:20
BEQ 6:22
LAT 3:20ish
CHE (?) tba—nothing posted since Aug. 7
CS untimed (Downs. Mostly...)
WSJ 8:10
Are you out west? Do you like crossword tournaments? Then go to the Bay Area Crossword Tournament on Saturday, September 12, at Alameda High School. All the info is right here. The basics: $25 to register in advance, or $30 at the door. Proceeds benefit the California Dictionary Project, "whose mission is to put a paperback dictionary into the hands of every California third grader." The contest puzzles include three NYT puzzles from the following week and a Sunday-sized crossword by local yokel Tyler Hinman. Prizes for winners!
David Quarfoot's New York Times crossword
Why, just the other day there was a puzzle with a D.Q. theme, and now, after a long wait, we're treated to a D.Q. themeless. Good to see your byline again, David! Is it just me, though, or does Will Shortz have his days mixed up a bit? I could swear this is a Saturday puzzle, and yet it purports to be a Friday one.
But look at this beautiful beast. It's insane, this guy's crossword! I'm not going to check a database, but I'm guessing that the following entries are all (or mostly) shiny, new crossword answers. There are so many of them, I will barely have time to mention anything else in the puzzle.
Least familiar (to me) things in this puzzle:
I love [Swiftly done?] as the clue for 41D: SATIRIC—as in "done by satirist Jonathan Swift." And I always like to be reminded that the VATICAN is the 46D: [Swiss Guards' setting]—you just know a lot of people will scour their brains for 7-letter Swiss locales. Another clue I like: 56A: [All of them may be off] for BETS, as in "all bets are off."
Welcome back to the puzzle page, Mr. Quarfoot! I hope you've got more in the pipeline because I do appreciate your constructing style.
Updated Friday morning:
Gail Grabowski's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Not Quite White"—Janie's review
The title of today's puzzle is not an assessment by Elmer Fudd on, say, the conditions in Hamlet's Denmark, but a hint to the various shades that appear as the first words in the four theme-phrases—each a variation of "off-white." While there's something a tad "beige" in this theme idea, there's some nice fill—themed and un-—to be enjoyed. Namely:
There are some of the TAMEST, most EARNEST clues in this puzzle, but really there's a lot of good fill:
Would love to have seen more clues like [Overcharge] for SOAK, [Flat substitute] for SPARE (tire...) or [Futures analyst?] for SEER. In an "off-white" puzzle like this one, I think they'd give it some much needed color. Mind you, I'm not at all CROSS [Annoyed]. I'm just sayin'...
Elizabeth Long's L.A. Times crossword
This one's pretty easy for a Friday LAT. If newspaper solvers complain that it's too hard, I just don't know what to tell them.
The theme involves lopping off the first S in phrases starting with ST- words:
I noticed that the two S's that begin words in the top row of this puzzle could also be dropped—SASS and SAUDI would become ASS and AUDI, and SMELT and STILT would be MELT and TILT, all legitimate fill.
44D: [Former NBA star Mourning] is named ALONZO. He got quite ill with kidney disease, had a transplant, and returned to the NBA. That's impressive.
A commenter on Rex's L.A. Crossword Confidential post noted that TRESS FRACTURE duplicates a clue word: CAST is clued as a [Fracture treatment]. Is it just me, or is this sort of duplication popping up more frequently this year?
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Friday"
Not my favorite themeless BEQ, thanks to some out-there names, but there's some terrific fill for sure:
On the blah side are things like TIN PLATE, REWELD, a WAXER crossing a COAXER over yonder from the SASSERS, variant AMEER, and the [Naples resort] called ISCHIA. The ischia are also your butt bones. The unfamiliar people hanging out in the grid include NIELS Mueller (I know Bohr), ['70s All-Star Ralph] GARR (I know Teri), and [Rangers reliever Darren] O'DAY (I know Anita).
Harvey Estes' Wall Street Journal crossword, "My 8 Favorite Texting Words"
You know how kids these days use "gr8" as a texting shortcut for "great" and "h8" for "hate"? They may or may not be using the other 8-for-"ate"-sound substitutions in Harvey's puzzle. Me, I can't bring myself to use numbers instead of sounds, or "u" for "you"—but I do get lazy about capitalization when texting. I admit it.
The theme entries are eight phrases that intersect at an 8 rebus square, where it may stand in for ate, eat, at, or ait. There are a bunch of sections in this grid with 7-, 8-, and 9-letter fill hanging around the theme entries. Can you tell that Harvey is good at making wide-open themeless 25x25 puzzles for Games magazine? I do love me an Ornery Crossword, and Harvey's one of the more regular Ornery contributors.
I'd go into the specifics of this puzzle but you know what? You should just solve it yourself. It's smooth, it's got some entertaining clues, and the rebus theme has its little surprises.
August 27, 2009
Friday, 8/28/09
April 05, 2009
Monday, 4/6
BEQ 8:00+
CS 4:06
LAT 3:48
NYT 3:45
[Updated: Monday morning 10:30am]
Hi, everybody. PuzzleGirl here chatting up the Monday puzzles with you while Orange is off enjoying a lovely spring break in New Orleans with her family. I'm planning to enjoy a slightly less lovely spring break here in Virginia with my family. Plans? I was supposed to make plans for the kids' week off of school? Damn! I had a nagging feeling I was forgetting something!
Dustin Foley's New York Times crossword has us reaching for the sky. Four theme answers are phrases that start with words indicating the cycles of the MOON.
In addition to the theme answers, we learn that [Celestial bodies exhibiting syzygy] are ALIGNED, and are graced with two other clue/answer pairs relating to the heavens. First, we get the Caribbean capital of Santo DOMINGO, named for Saint Dominic, the patron saint of astronomers. And then, we get the odd looking singular MAGUS, which we typically see as MAGI and know as the "Wise Men from the East." What I didn't know before I looked it up just now is that Magis are known for their ability to read the stars. Which I guess makes sense since that's what they were supposedly doing on that whole Star of Bethlehem journey thing. Have I mentioned that I'm not really that religious? Well, speaking of how not religious I am, there was a lot for me not to really know in this puzzle. Heavy on the Bible stuff! We've got [Jacob's wife], LEAH (who I know from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale), [Sainted fifth-century pope] LEO I, the [Ancient Assyrian capital] of NINEVEH, the "Golden Rule" ("Do UNTO others..."), and Sal MINEO, who played Dov Landau in Leon Uris's "Exodus." I know it's a war movie, and I know I've never seen it, but you can't tell me there's nothing biblical about it with a title like "Exodus." Luckily for me, the puzzle included Lex Luthor, Mr. Magoo, and Iago to balance out the Bible stuff I didn't know. I also noticed and was delighted by the inclusion of SPEWS, EWES, GREW, and SLEW in the grid.
Elizabeth A. Long's LA Times puzzle has a librarian thing going with the [Hint to the feature shared by the answers to starred clues]: "Shh!" Did anyone else have trouble figuring out this theme? I got [Shari Lewis puppet] LAMB CHOP right away. Then I actually made my way to the center of the puzzle, where the hint is located, before I got any more theme answers. So I'm thinking, "Okay, Lamb Chop is a puppet and doesn't talk, so I guess 'be quiet' fits ... ?" Then I figured out that a [Duster's find at a crime scene] is a THUMBPRINT and I'm all "How is a thumbprint quiet? I mean, obviously it's quiet ... because it's not a thing that makes noise, but ... ???" The other two theme answers ([Act all innocent] PLAY DUMB and [Precariously situated] OUT ON A LIMB) didn't help me for several minutes. I noticed that each of the phrases had an MB in it and wondered if that was an abbreviation for some Latin phrase meaning quiet. Really! That's where I went! I know! I can't believe I'm telling you either! But, it finally hit me. The "B" in each phrase is silent (quiet). D'oh! So that's the theme. Such as it is.
Nothing else really jumped out at me except the couple of Bible things, since I was thinking about that from the last puzzle. I don't know anything about CALEB the Biblical Spy. (I just know CALEB the Teenaged Crossword Constructor.) And [Pilate's "Behold!"] really threw me off. First I thought it said pirate so I entered ahoy and thought, "But shouldn't that really be avast?" Arrr! Then I noticed it didn't say pirate but it looked like Pilates, the exercise thing, and I finally made my way around to Pontius Pilate. That's who that's supposed to be, right? I suppose it's still possible that I have no idea what I'm talking about. I mean, I think I don't know what it is because it's the Bible and ... maybe it's not even the Bible. Oh man. I'm going to bed now. I'll be back in the morning with more puzzles!
[Updated: Monday morning 10:00am]
Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Hangers-on," is a silky smooth ride. I can't really figure out why this puzzle felt smoother to me and yet took me a little bit longer than the others I've done so far today. On early-week puzzles that I solve in AcrossLite, I usually just go through all the acrosses, filling in what I can, and then the downs. On this one, there were only three or four squares left blank after that process.
I didn't actually see the theme while solving, but looking back on it, it's solid. Theme answers all begin with a word for something you can hang clothes on:
I wanted -ion as the [Ending for a champ?] and not the correct EST. And with the HOO in place, I wanted the basketball answer to be hoop something, instead of HOOK. But it all worked itself out. Fun, breezy puzzle. Off to see what BEQ has in store for us today....
[Updated: Monday morning 10:30am]
Brendan Emmett Quigley gives us a peek into his brain with his "How I Beat Writer's Block — in three easy steps" puzzle today. The steps are:
As usual, BEQ's puzzle contains a lot of clue/answers relating to music, from the refined CANTATAS to the slangy SQUAWK BOX. Today's "Band You've Never Heard Of" is INTERPOL. (Hard to believe I missed the 2007 hit "The Heinrich Maneuver"!) Your computer terms for the day are LAN [Novell PC connection] and ICAL [Mac program that tracks appointments]. And, of course, the inevitable "Answer You'll Never See in the New York Times": KOTEX. Nicely done, BEQ.
July 29, 2008
Wednesday, 7/30
NYT 3:53
NYS 3:50
CS 3:47
LAT 3:43
(post updated at 11:30 Wednesday morning)
The byline above the New York Times crossword got nudged out of the window in the applet—it's Elizabeth Long. The puzzle's got a quote theme, and the subject of the [quote attributed to Sam Goldwyn] is spelled out (from top to bottom, left to right) in circled letters strewn throughout the grid: SHAKESPEARE. The quote is "FANTASTIC! AND / IT WAS ALL WRITTEN / WITH A FEATHER." Quote? Meh. The fill's got some mighty nice stuff in it, along with some tough nuts.
Nice:
Tough:
The New York Sun puzzle by Alan Arbesfeld is called "Oops!" [Making a blunder (and this puzzle's theme)] is DROPPING THE BALL, and the other four theme entries drop a BALL from established phrases. You know what a ballpark figure is—a PARK FIGURE is a [Ranger?]. To [Do masonry work on brick enclosures?] is to POINT PENS, as in tuckpointing (ballpoint pens). [Wading places?] are FOOT POOLS (playing on football pools for wagering). And a pinball machine turns into a PIN MACHINE, or [ATM?]. I found the [Missile pact of 1972] to be tricky—it's SALT I, the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. And [MVP of Super Bowl XXI] is somebody named SIMMS, whose first name I can't begin to guess. An investment that [Appreciates] RISES in value. The [Hebrew toast] L'CHAIM has a nice batch of initial consonants, and it's followed by UIES with a bundle of initial vowels. The [Sighed line] "AH, ME" crosses "OH, MAN!" (["Holy cow!"]). If it's [Curtains] for you, it's THE END. This summer, I bought a copy of a PIPPI book ([Longstocking of kiddie lit]) for Ben—I loved the movie when I was his age.
Updated:
Wow, four Wednesday puzzles, and I solved each in the same amount of time—the toughest took me 10 seconds longer than the easiest. If you time yourself, did you find all the puzzles to be perfectly keyed to a Wednesday level of difficulty?
Pancho Harrison's LA Times crossword has a Hollywood theme and a bit of a show-biz vibe to the fill. The theme entries are clued as blanks with years in parentheses, the years being when the answer movies were released. The 1984 movie at 17-Across with the missing clue is MISSING IN ACTION. The LOST IN YONKERS (1993) clue is lost from 36-Across. And 56-Across's clue is pretty much GONE WITH THE WIND, from 1939. Other cinematically linked answers include OATER ([Shoot-'em-up]), TEEN IDOL [Miley Cyrus, e.g.], Leonard NIMOY (["Three Men and a Baby" director]), ANN [Sothern or Jillian], the musical RENT, LILI [Taylor of "The Haunting"], actor John RHYS-Davies, and AMANDA [Blake of "Gunsmoke"].
The fill includes plenty of 6- to 8-letter answers, many of which intersect with theme entries. Highlights include GAMBOL, a FAT LIP that's a [Shiner accompanier, maybe], BATBOYS, HAS-BEENS, ESCHEWED, and a NAKED LIE ([Bald-faced fib])—the latter is the top slice of bread in the LOST IN YONKERS sandwich, with ENTITIES below that theme answer. The only answer that seems to stretch the limits of Wednesday is ["Mon Frere Yves" author Pierre] LOTI, whose name was unknown to me.
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Out Cold," has a quip theme. You know what? I think a little context helps quip/quote themes go down better. Having a title for the puzzle helped point me towards some of the words. It looked like LOG was at the end of the first part of the quip, and the "Out Cold" title strongly suggested it would be I SLEPT LIKE A LOG rather than, who knows, something about sawing logs or making log cabins. The quip continues, ...LAST NIGHT / AND WOKE UP / IN THE FIREPLACE. I think another factor that keeps me from saying "meh" about this one is that the quip splits at natural points, between clauses.
I do wish to carp a wee bit about the clue for ADOPT: [Rear as one's own]. This suggests that an adopted child doesn't become "one's own" child, but merely serves as a facsimile. Parents who have adopted children tend to resent such distinctions. And boo to all the celeb news articles that describe Nicole Kidman as having recently "given birth to her first child." No, this baby is her third child. It's just the first time she's given birth. Her older kids were adopted, yes, but dammit, they count!
July 16, 2008
Thursday, 7/17
NYS 5:14
NYT 4:07
LAT 3:53
CS 3:15
Patrick Berry's New York Sun "Themeless Thursday," by the numbers:
Favorite clues:
Elizabeth Long's New York Times crossword was easier for me than yesterday's. How about you? The theme is described by 42-Down, SHAPES UP, clued as [Quits misbehaving...or a literal hint to 4-, 9-, 13-, 49- and 57-Down]. Those six answers are all shapes, written up rather than down in the grid. The [Percussion instrument in an orchestra] is the triangle, or ELGNIART. [Coterie] is circle, or ELCRIC. [Headliner] is star, or RATS. An [Unhip person] is a square, or ERAUQS. And a [Racetrack] is typically an oval, or LAVO. Cute gimmick, and one with a justification—the phrase SHAPES UP. Just a bunch of shapes spelled backwards would seem a bit arbitrary, but that phrase elevates the theme.
The longest fill is just that—fill, not thematic. WHIRLIGIG is clued as a [Colorful lawn or garden fixture], and an ARTICHOKE is [Something you might want to get to the heart of?]. Trickier clues: [Hebrews, for example] for EPISTLE; [They cross here] for the WORDS in this crossword; ["___ This Last" (series of John Ruskin essays] for UNTO; [One of TV's Rugrats] is LIL (if you're like me, you've been burned by that other Rugrat, DIL, in crosswords before and were proud of yourself for quickly entering that at 7-Down here...but it's wrong); [Small hill] for both KNOLL and RISE; [Mobile home?: Abbr.] for ALA (as in Mobile, Alabama); [Bird with speckled eggs] is a WREN; and [Avant-garde filmmaker Brakhage] for STAN.
Updated:
Doug Peterson's LA Times crossword can be summed up by the last theme entry, TIRE ROTATION ([Mechanic's job, literally illustrated in this puzzle]). In the other theme entries, the letters in the word TIRE are rotated in stepwise fashion. Move the E to the beginning and get ETIR, embedded in GET IRRITATED ([Start to steam]). Cycle the R to the beginning of that to get RETI, which is in ONE MORE TIME. Now slide the I over for IRET, within WIRETAPPING ([Surveillance technique]). That leaves T to complete the rotation back to the front for TIRE in TIRE ROTATION. As with the NYT gimmick, it's the common phrase that provides the justification for the gimmick—a random 4-letter word going through the rotation could feel kinda arbitrary. The long Down entries are unrelated to the theme, but isn't it nice to see CHICHEN ITZA, the [Mayan tourist site], in the grid?
Favorite clues:
The CrosSynergy puzzle called "Null and Void" is by Paula Gamache. The five theme entries are phrases that end with words that have a "null and void" sense: HOBBIT HOLE is ["The Fellowship of the Ring" residence]. GIMME A BREAK means ["Do you think I'm that stupid?"]. To DRAW A BLANK is to [Get lucky at Scrabble, maybe]. GENERATION GAP and DOUBLE-SPACE round out the theme. [Nit-picker's nit] in literal terms is the egg of a COOTIE, or louse. Coincidentally, there's a Language Log post today about "cooties" and other schoolyard lingo.
February 05, 2008
Wednesday, 2/6
NYS 4:20
LAT 3:44
NYT 3:20
CS 2:56
Forget Super Tuesday—we're moving on to Wacky Wednesday! Yes, Wednesday, February 6, the day my Merv Griffin's Crosswords appearance is scheduled. My mother's coming over to watch the show, so I won't be blogging about it right after it's on. Maybe a day or two later, I will share the sordid tales. If you haven't seen the show yet, be forewarned: The ending is given away in the comments.
Tuesday afternoon, I watched a show featuring five other people from my taping day. Doug, who works with my cousin, acquitted himself quite well, racking up an impressive amount of money in the first round. Alas, spoiler musical chairs cost him the podium. Jackie, whom I hadn't chatted with, lost the lousy podium and worked her way back up to the loaded podium and won! She was so polished in the green room, I figured she was a busy professional of some sort. I learned on TV that she's got three kids under the age of 5! The lack of sleep for five years hasn't dimmed her intellect. I had also chatted with Barbara, and was disappointed that she didn't get many chances to shine. I don't remember the other two contestants—in a green room with 25 people, alas, you can't get to know everyone.
Larry Shearer's New York Times crossword puzzle includes FISH, the last Across answer, as a hint to the theme. As the clue spells it out, it's a [three-word hint], as in "F is H": Each theme entry begins with an F-word changed to an H-word. Follow suit, firing squads, feed the kitty, and fairy tales become a HOLLOW SUIT ([Exec with no ideas?]), HIRING SQUADS, HEED THE KITTY ([First rule of lion taming?]), and HAIRY TALES. Lively fill includes the hopscotch SIDEWALK, "TOP THIS," ECSTASY and BLISS (both clued as a [Cloud-nine state]), and the [Starbucks size] GRANDE. ALIA looks like lousy fill, but clued as [Suffix with Saturn], it evokes Saturnalia—who doesn't like the occasional reversal of the social order?
In Gary Steinmehl's New York Sun puzzle, the "3/4 Turn" title indicates that the third and fourth letters of the five theme entries are swapped. Polo pony and hide-a-bed become a swimming POOL PONY and HIED ABED—the clue for the latter is [Went quickly while lying on a mattress?], and my eyebrow is arched. To [Perform "Aquarius"?] is to SING OF THE ZODIAC (sign). Busy signals and beta-blocker also get the theme treatment. Favorite clues: [Woman famous for channeling her energy?] for Gertrude EDERLE, the woman who swam the English Channel in 1926; [Master, e.g.: Abbr.] for ORIG (as in master recordings); [e, e.g.] for CONSTANT; [Chuffed, this side of the Atlantic] for GLAD; and [Hamburger helper word?] for the German BITTE. Top fill: LE DUC THO, NURSE'S AIDE, BINOCULARS.
Updated:
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "What's the Catch?', puts the spotlight on things that can be caught: a FISH (STORY), a PLANE (GEOMETRY), a BALL (LIGHTNING), and a COLD (CREAM). The only one of those four I've caught lately is a cold, unfortunately.
Elizabeth Long's LA Times crossword has an unusual theme. All three theme entries are things a speaker might say if they're getting cut off because they've rattled on for too long. The clues are truncated, as are the answers—I'M ALMOST FINISHE-, JUST ONE MORE THIN-, and STOP CUTTING ME OF-. I liked this theme.
July 29, 2007
Monday, 7/30
CS 3:06
NYS 3:01
NYT 2:55
LAT 2:55
Monday, Monday. What is there to say about Monday crosswords? Not a whole heckuva lot.
The New York Sun puzzle by Jack McInturff is called "Business Founding Fathers." The names in the theme are three of America's founding fathers as well as corporate names: SAMUEL ADAMS beer, JOHN HANCOCK insurance, and ETHAN ALLEN furniture. They're all, in a sense, COMPANY MEN. I like that VAGRANCY is clued as [What a hobo might be charged with]; yesterday I learned that a friend's husband wrote his career-making dissertation on hoboes. The opal is the most common birthstone found in crosswords (it's for October); McInturff includes February's AMETHYST instead. Here's a site with photomicrographs of the standard birthstones; cool pictures.
Elizabeth Long's New York Times crossword takes three celebs whose last names double as sporting terms and tacks a possessive 'S onto their first name: LUCILLE'S BALL, SALLY'S FIELD, and NEIL'S DIAMOND. Two other candidates for this theme, both athletes, are the especially apt MARGARET'S COURT (Margaret Smith Court is a retired tennis player) and GILBERT'S ARENAS (Gilbert Arenas plays basketball in the NBA). There are a number of people named Park to choose from, too. Hey, pick an athlete named Park with an odd number of letters in his or her name and you've got yourself a doubly sporty variant on Long's celeb theme, if you don't mind having a pair of 14s in there.
July 15, 2007
Monday, 7/16
CS 3:51
NYS 3:43
NYT 3:06
LAT 2:45
What happens when someone talks about crosswords in a venue that's usually about something completely different? At Kevin Drum's blog, Political Animal, he mentioned struggling with the Saturday puzzle, coming over here to see if it had also vexed me, and discovering that there is a new book that can give him the keys to the kingdom of crossword triumph (I paraphrase). Some of his commenters chatted about crosswords, and some of them were just haters. "Mellors," for example, wrote, "hard to think of anything more boringly inane than the deracinated associational fragments involved in Jeopardy or doing crosswords but comments here give slight insight into obsessional grey world fluctuating between alpha and beta brain waves in service of escapist mindful mindlessness. One more thing to do while waiting to die." (By George, I think he's got it!) '"desmoinesdem" says, "I hate crossword puzzles. I like cryptic crosswords better, because more of the information you need to solve the puzzle is right there in the clues. I like logic problems the best, because all of the info you need to solve them is right there." (Well, that's hardly sporting, expecting to be given all the information ahead of time.) A "Steve Paradis" writes this blasphemy: "Forget the help books, get a crossword dictionary." (Where's the fun in that?!? Once you learn to ride a bike without training wheels, you chuck the training wheels—you don't scrupulously avoid learning to balance.)
I think this is Elizabeth A. Long's NYT constructing debut (though Cruciverb shows a December 2005 LA Times puzzle with her byline), and it's pretty nifty for a Monday puzzle. (Congratulations!) The theme is HOW TO FIX / YOUR HAIR: SAGEBRUSH and HONEYCOMB it, STRIPTEASE it up just so, and OCEANSPRAY it into place. Six theme entries mean that every section of the puzzle shares space with a theme answer. In addition to all the standard Monday-type fill, this crossword's got some zippy longer fill, like Kevin COSTNER and GUILTY OF, as well as a couple X's and a Z.
The Monday Sun crossword's by Byron Walden, and that's not a name one associates with Monday puzzles. (Though a Monday Sun is more like a Wednesday Times, really.) Super-tight theme, this "Flight Manual"—the first word of each of the four theme entries rhymes with flight and the second word relates to the hands (manual = "of or relating to the hands"). We've got a LIGHT-FINGERED pickpocket, TIGHT-FISTED miser, RIGHT-HANDED non-lefty, and a WHITE-KNUCKLED scaredy-cat. Favorite entries: DOLLAR SIGN, SHOUT-OUT ([Public thanks]), and the square-dancing DO-SI-DO. Favorite clues: [Cold pad?] for IGLOO and [Synonymous rhyme for cache] for STASH. MADE EASY leads off the section that contains the Scrabbly crossing of AJAX and MAZE—perhaps Byron could write up a Crossword Construction Made Easy book. (Shout-out here to Patrick Berry, who's already written such a book, Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies.)
