BEQ 5:30
NYT 10:15 (PG)/4:11 (A)
Onion 4:09
LAT 2:43
CS untimed
Hi, everyone. PuzzleGirl here covering for Orange who is not feeling well At All. Poor thing! I'll check in with her in the morning and see how she's doing, but you might be stuck with me all day. Hey, it could be worse. I'm just going to do a quick write-up to get things started and then you all can have at it in the comments.
Ricky Ini Liu's New York Times crossword
I haven't had to work this hard to figure out a theme in a loooong time. I had No Idea what was going on. I solved in AcrossLite and when I was done, I opened up a text document and typed each theme answer out so I could look at all of them together. I noticed the Os, but thought maybe they needed to be dropped? TRI-CEREAL? Is that a thing? MEN COMICS? Maybe you need to add a W to the beginning to make WOMEN COMICS? ??? I also noticed what felt like a ton of Zs in the grid and wondered if that had something to do with the theme. I was really confused is what I'm saying. Turns out the manipulating that needs to be done is for one of the Os in each theme answer to be changed to an X. So TRIO CEREAL in the grid is a nod to that silly rabbit with his Trix Cereal. OENOPHOBIC was changed from xenophobic. (That seems kind of random.) Other theme answers include:
It all seems so simple now. Sigh.
Updated Wednesday morning:
Will Johnston's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Yard Work—Janie's review
It's autumn. If you live in a northern climate zone, it's time to get your yard ready for winter. If you live in a southern zone, you probably do this all year long. In today's puzzle, Will comes up with four activities to put on your "to do" list (no matter where you live), each of which appears as the first word in the four theme-phrases. Ready to do some work? You're going to:
•17A. Cut the grass, by way of CUT AND DRIED [Formulaic]. Hmm. We just saw this phrase as theme-fill last Wednesday in Paula Gamache's "He's No Gentleman"...
•11D. Trim the hedges, courtesy of TRIM THE TREE [Prepare for Santa, in a way]. This one's confusing. It's the only verbal theme-phrase and the base meaning needs the Christmas context so that we read "trim" as decorate and not tidy/cut. The word tree in the fill is also problematic as there may be trees in the yard. Why not TRIM AND TONE [Popular health-club workout?] or something nautical rather than botanical like "TRIM THE SAIL" [Request of Michael?]? Something that isn't UNCLEAR [Hazy], please.
•25D. Edge the lawn, via EDGE OF NIGHT [Soap opera with 7,420 episodes, with "The"]. Last seen on 12/28/84, it aired for 29 years...
•53A. Prune the bushes, compliments of PRUNE DANISH.
"EGAD!" [Quaint outburst], after all that work, you might want to MUNCH [Chew (on)] something. You might even want a prune danish. Or, depending on the weather, I s'pose, GELATI [Italian desserts] or FLANS [Caramel-topped desserts], and maybe some MINT JULEPS [Derby Day quaffs] to wash 'em all down. Or not...
As was the case with yesterday's puzzle, I found that I enjoyed the non-theme fill considerably more than the theme-fill. To borrow from the puzzle (but not to be SASSY [Impertinent]), it's simply less cut and dried.
Using the fill, I like that I can tie together the idiomatic BAD RAPS [Unjust judgments, slangily] with reasons some folks earn 'em. "She's the SPOTTIEST [Most erratic] employee when it comes to clocking in. Sure, she's always around at TEN A.M. [Coffee break time, for some], but when she goes back to the selling floor, face it: she's [Unambitious to the max] SHIFTLESS! Except for the paycheck, she probably RUES [Regrets] the day she ever walked in here..." I also like the way [...to the max] does not deliver an adjective ending in "-est." Sneaky. Good.
I like the crossing of EGG [It can be scrambled] and EGGAR [Actress Samantha of "Walk, don't Run"]. The "alphabet soup" fill is also nice with T-BARS [Ski tows], MR. T ["I Pity the Fool" star] and B-GIRL [Female hip-hopper]. I almost added A-BEAM to the list, but that word's ABEAM [At right angles to the keel]. Oops... Among today's SIDE ISSUES [Incidental topics] is the B-Girl Scholarship available at St. Paul, MN's McNally Smith College of Music. For some aspiring performer or musicologist, this is very cool and probably GODSENT news [Very timely, as an unexpected blessing].
I'm willing to bet that [Skater Sonja] HENIE wore a LEOTARD [Acrobat's attire] on more than one occasion; and even that a RUSTLER [Range thief] might dare to show up at a RODEO [Cowpoke competition]. Do you suppose there are many yoga-practitioners among the cowboy population? And if so, what are their MANTRAS [Meditation intonations]? Can't say for sure, but I do imagine their favorite song of these yoga-practicing cowpokes would be "Om, Om on the Range"...
Did somebody say "yoga"? I just read this on Twitter: "i've been doing some reading. turns out, the bhagavad gita never mentions yoga pants."
Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword
I refer you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential post for my thoughts on this puzzle.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Wednesday"
The last square to fall was the D in MONARDA, [Perennial family that includes bee balm and horsemint]. Say what?
Top fill, top clues:
• BABY FAT is [Children's coat?]. Lively entry.
• USED CAR is a Ford [Focus that might be a little off]. My mom bought a Focus about 8 or 9 years ago when there was a new model and regretted it—now she drives a tried-and-true Toyota Corolla with fewer repair needs.
• "RIUNITE on ice, that's nice." Is ["America's All-Time Favorite Italian Wine"] still available, or did it vanish by the '80s?
• ROSIE the Robot? [She works for Mr. J], J for Jetson.
• WOWED 'EM is nice.
• [Cabbage from the Far East] is YEN, "cabbage" being slang for "money."
• "THE TWIST," good song, good fill.
• [Run off] clues XEROX. Wasn't expecting that. Erased ESSEX, in fact, because I figured the beginning X was impossibly wrong for [Run off].
• If you type *headdesk* in an online setting, your readers gather that you're beating your head against your desk, expressing stupidity or, more often, futility. HEADDESK is clued as an [Expression of frustration, in modern day slang]. Just last week, Brendan had FACEPALM in another themeless, and I asked why it wasn't mini-themed with HEADDESK. So here the answer is, a few days later.
Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Ooh, I love this theme. 63D: ONE is the [Distance forward in the alphabet that each changed letter in the theme entries has moved]. Francis has four pairs of 6-letter words/phrases and two pairs of 5s:
• 18A. [Revealing photos of an old movie actress?] are Fay WRAY'S X-RAYS. One possessive, one hyphenated plural. The X is ONE letter past W.
• 23A. If you ANGLED ANG LEE, you [Set an Oscar-winning director at a slant]. One verb, one full name.
• 32A. [Roasting a blues legend?] clues BAKING B.B. KING, following the structure of the ANG LEE answer. Before I saw that the changed letter was only ONE off, I had BBQING B.B. KING here. (No, I hadn't looked at the crossings.)
• 41A. [Cotton fabric for chadors?] is MUSLIM MUSLIN. Adjective, noun. Muslin takes its name from the French mousseline in turn derived from Mosul, Iraq, where the fabric was made. This pairing may be more apt than I first thought.
• 51A. [Problem for superpowered pickup artists?] is HEROES' HERPES. The square daily newspaper puzzles never seem to have HERPES, do they?
• 60A. BOSOX BOTOX is clued as a [Treatment to keep a ball club looking youthful?]. I wonder if this was the seed entry.
Favorite clues:
• [Gay prostitute customer Haggard] is named TED.
• The [Family name in ___ history] is CURIE for science, FOYT for racing.
• [Trenchcoated antiheroes] are P.I.'S. Wait, antiheroes shouldn't be in a clue when HEROES' HERPES is in the grid.
• [It might require Java] clues an APPLET. Yup.
• [Fought-over leftovers] are an ESTATE.
Miscellaneous points:
• OXO isn't just an [Ergonomic kitchenware brand] anymore—they make office supplies. I have their clipboard.
• ["The world's local bank"] clues HSBC. I have never heard of this.
• [Hip-hop's Das ___] EFX? Never heard of him/her/them. I don't suppose Das EFX is/are German?
• [Matador, e.g.] is a LABEL? Never heard of it.
• XKE is clued as a [Jaguar make]. I think someone recently was saying that nobody ever really referred to it as the XKE, but I just heard Click or Clack, one of the Tappet brothers, invoking the XKE last weekend.
• KAREN O is the vocalist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wikipedia tells me. She's also a ["Where the Wild Things Are" soundtrack artist]. Kosher to have Things in this clue and THINGY as the very next answer?
November 03, 2009
Wednesday, 11/4
September 09, 2009
Thursday, 9/10/09
NYT 6:37
Onion 4:45
CS untimed (J)/3:09 (A)
LAT 3:01
Tausig untimed
Kevan Choset's New York Times crossword
All righty, I have company over, so let me provide a cursory overview of the Thursday puzzle. Choset's theme is the EIGHT NOTES (4-Down) of the MAJOR SCALE (30-Down). Now, as a musical illiterate, I had no idea what exactly MAJOR SCALE meant, but my musically literate husband explained, "It's that song—'Do, Re, Mi.'" Precisely! DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, TI, and DO occupy rebus squares ascending diagonally from the bottom left corner. They make a nice visual representation that reflects the scale's musical upward mobility.
And look at me! I finally remembered in the midst of a rebus puzzle how to enter multiple letters in a single square on the NYT applet. I typed an invisible + sign and then two letters (or, for SOL, two invisible + signs followed by three letters). It slowed me down a little, but given that the rebus's musicality didn't dawn on me right away, it was helpful to have all the letters in those squares rather than only the first letters.
The four toughest spots I encountered:
And now, a few favorite answers:
I'll be back with more crosswords in the morning.
Updated Thursday morning:
Tony Orbach's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Final Answer"—Janie's review
One thing I can say unequivocally about this puzzle: it sure has MOXIE [Spunk]. Now, Ed Asner as Lou Grant may have said, "I hate spunk!" to Mary Richards (played by Mary Tyler Moore) when she interviewed for her position at WJM-TV, but me—I'm all for it. Especially when it gives so much life to the fill. First of all, we get a grid with lots and lots of edgy, high-scorin' Scrabble letters: four Ks, four Xs, a J and a Z. There's some K action in the cluing as well, with [Keystone character] for KOP and [Keystone State founder] PENN (of course that's William of Pennsylvania...).
Then we get a bunch of explosive/slangy expressions and words: "WHAM!" ["Kapow!"], WIPEOUT (vividly clued as) [Go down when the surf's up?], GONZO [Really out there] and YUCKY [Gross]. Even DORKS [Uncool customers]. These words cut across the solving population to include latter-day surfers and hippies as well as GEN X-ERs [...born in the late '60s or early '70s] and beyond. That's the kind of inclusiveness I like to see.
I also like the mellifluence generated by all those entries ending in -O: MONACO [Riviera principality], GERALDO [Rivera on TV], ["]I'M SO [Tired" (Beatles song)], NINO, OTRO, GONZO, ZERO, OSLO, ST. LÔ, XENO- [Prefix with phobia]. What with Monaco, Oslo, St. Lô and ASIA [Home of the highest and lowest points on earth] (can ya name 'em?) in the mix, clearly this is no place for a xenophobe! Ooh—a place I'd never heard of? (Surprise, surprise...) Scotland's [Royal] TROON [, site of several British Opens].
And then there's that oh-so positive theme, where the "final answer" is the -yes that appears at the end of the theme names and phrases, as in:
18A. POINT REYES [National seashore park North of San Francisco].
28A. TEARFUL GOODBYES [Weepy send-offs].
50A. STARS IN ONE'S EYES [Enchantment, figuratively]. Is that a beautiful phrase or what?
63A. ISAAC HAYES ["Shaft" Oscar winner]. "John Shaft." This one looks so great—almost unpronounceable—in the grid. It all comes down to the parsing...
Finally, there's that EXTRA [Bonus] YES [Fitting final answer for this puzzle?]. All those yeses do put me in mind not only of one Molly Bloom, but also of one Liza Minnelli singing Fred Ebb and John Kander's "Yes," written for the show 70, Girls, 70.
Bruce Venzke's Los Angeles Times crossword
There've been one or two commenters over at L.A. Crossword Confidential who've been clamoring for more quote/quip themes—I think they'd been longtime TMS solvers before their papers changed over to the L.A. Times puzzle. I hope today's puzzle will hush them up for a while, because I don't often enjoy quote/quip themes. Today's "investor's quip" is I BOUGHT STOCK IN A / BLANKET / FACTORY / BUT IT SOON FOLDED. Har, har.
UTES gets an updated clue: [Western team that beat the Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl]. Sure, the clue's specifics are of little help to anyone who doesn't follow college football, but it's a nic change-up from the usual stale UTES clues (Western tribe, Salt Lake City college team).
At 31D, LOOIE is clued as a [Certain NCO, slangily]. It was brought to my attention last night that this clue is flat-out incorrect. LOOIE is short for lieutenant, the lowest rank among commissioned officers, and NCOs are noncommissioned officers. Is this just a slip-up, or is there some roundabout explanation that makes the clue accurate in some circumstances?
Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword
The theme entries turn __ED words into __EED words, but that escaped me even after filling in HIPSTER CREED for 20A: ["I will always wear black; even when I enjoy a concert I will never do more than sway disaffectedly," etc.]. Hipster cred just doesn't have enough cred in my circles to jump out as an obvious base phrase. Plus, there was no question mark flagging the clue as not-a-real-phrase. Luckily, LICENSE TO WEED (37A: [Document held by a gardener with a double-0 rating?]) was a good bit more obviously license to wed with a double E. It took longer to piece together the third and funniest of the bunch, 53A: [Nickname for critic Rex who doesn't sexually excite anyone?]. A common road sign turns into NO TURN-ON REED. Awkward phrasing in terms of how people actually talk, but I like TURN's movement from "no turn" to TURN-ON; quite a different meaning there.
Highlights in the fill:
I love PASHA when clued as a historical Turkish officer (the word is so handy around the house), but had no idea that it was also the first name of 40A: ["So You Think You Can Dance" competitor Kovalev]. I also didn't know that a 15A: [Poem-ending stanza] is called an ENVOI. You know who knows poetry? This week's constructor, Francis Heaney. His parodic anthology Holy Tango of Literature is a hoot for literature fans.
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Puzzle Princess"
What does this crossword's title suggest to you? If it made you think of the queens of crosswordese, then you were on the right track. Yma SUMAC (67A: [Vocally versatile, cruciverbally useful singer Yma who would have turned eighty-seven this week]) gets her first name inserted into three phrases to alter their meaning (circles not in original puzzle):
It bears noting that YMA is AMY backwards, so my name is practically the theme's hinge here. I consider myself more of a Crossword Queen than Puzzle Princess. Or can I be a Puzzle Pasha? Can pashas be gender-neutral?
July 14, 2009
Wednesday, 7/15
BEQ 4:58
Onion 4:48
NYT 3:15
LAT 3:10
CS 6:38 (J—paper)
Joon Pahk's New York Times crossword
Joon interprets the concept IT MAY BE TAKEN OUT by listing four things that fit that categorization:
- 17A. A [Feeling of nonfulfillment] is FRUSTRATION. You don't take frustration out without taking it out on someone/-thing.
- 24A. [Frequent home acquisition] is a MORTGAGE. Hey, Joon, did you just take out a mortgage for your new abode?
- 49A. [Burgers and fries, often] constitute FAST FOOD. They're "take-out," yes, but I don't think of it as "taking out fast food."
- 59A. Take out a LIBRARY BOOK, an [Item that may have a date stamp].
Favorite clues: [It may be hand-picked- refers to a BANJO. MUM's ["The word"]. MRS. is clued with the Virginia Woolf book, ["___ Dalloway"]. The most important MELINDA in the world is Melinda Gates of the [Bill & ___ Gates Foundation], which does tremendously useful work in battling disease in Africa. [Whites or darks] make up a laundry LOAD. And OCT. is the [Mo. of Indigenous Peoples Day], offsetting Columbus Day.
I gotta dock Joon a few points for a couple dupes. IT MAY BE TAKEN OUT echoes MAY I, or [Polite request for permission]. And two cognates pop up: REX is a [Kingly title in Latin], and EL REY is a [Kingly title in Spanish].
edited to add: joon here with a couple of "behind the music" notes (but no actual musical notes). i wrote this one with thursday in mind, and as such there was a fairly mild theme gimmick: all four theme answers were clued merely as [See 38-across]. i liked the idea of putting the clue in the grid, the way mike nothnagel did in his IT GOES UP AND DOWN puzzle from last year, but in a somewhat easier way. the editorial change to clue the answers straightforwardly is a good decision given the wednesday context, although that MORTGAGE clue is rather non-specific, isn't it? it could as easily describe a DESK LAMP or NINTENDO WII. anyway, i must take responsibility for the mild awkwardness of FRUSTRATION not having its "on" attached, and the two unnoticed-by-me dupes. i could easily have changed the X at REX/HEX (to D, F, M, N, P, S, T, W). or just clued REX via harrison or stout. instead i went for the matching pair, and for some reason it didn't even occur to me that they were cognates. MAY I would have been harder to grid out, but it looks doable. most of my tricky clues were kept, but my favorite that didn't make the cut was [Not just] for UNFAIR. it's subtle, but just misleading enough... i thought. the similar [Another time] clue for AGAIN and [Not express] for LOCAL did make it, though, so that made me happy.
Updated Wednesday morning
Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "U and Me"— Janie's review
The only thing that gently surprised me today was the title of the puzzle itself. Yes, the first word in each of the two-word theme phrases begins with U and the second with ME, but each of the first words also begins UN. Now nobody asked me, but I think there's more mileage to be had here with the title "U 'n' Me"... That said, nice goin', Randy, on giving us four 15-letter phrases, each of which appears to be making its major-puzzle debut. That's 60 squares of fresh theme-fill. Bravo! And those phrases are:
- 17A. UNIVERSITY MEDAL [College graduation award]. While the clue and the fill don't entirely match (is this a college honor, a university honor or is the "mixed metaphor" a cluing necessity?...), I never heard of this award. Did my small college confer this medal on a classmate? I don't remember. Still, I always like picking up new information through the puzzles.
- 28A. UNION MEMBERSHIP [Closed shop requirement]. Aha. As a card-carrying member of three performers unions, this one I know.
- 44A. UNITED METHODIST [Protestant church]. As a Jewess... Well, I'd be a pretty provincial kinda gal if I said I'd never heard of this Protestant sect. But I have, so I won't!
- 58A. UNCHAINED MELODY [Hit for the Righteous Brothers]. A hit for just about anyone who recorded it, starting in 1955. Today's version, though, was the "theme song" for my high school class's Senior Prom (well before Demi, Patrick and Ghost re-popularized it, yet again...).
- [Celtic rival] PACER and [Magic's teammate] KAREEM for basketball fans;
- [Three-time Masters winner Nick] FALDO (new to me...) and [Repair a fairway] RE-SOD for golf enthusiasts;
- IDEALLY [Just the way it should be] and EDEN [Idyllic place] for utopians...;
- ERIC (sometimes ERIK...) [___ the Red] and SWEDES [ABBA, e.g.] for lovers of all things Scandinavian; then
- [ABBA, e.g.] SWEDES and [Barry, Maurice, or Robin] GIBB for pop fans (sorry, no match for the TECHNO crowd); and saving the best for last, the pair that's also a crossing,
- [Guessing game question] WHO AM I? and "I'M AN [___ Old Cowhand"]. Sweet.
Finally, because they take some thought and/or bring a visual to mind, here are some fave clues: [Penn name] for SEAN (a pun on "pen name"); [Wise guy?] for SAGE (like Solomon the wise...); [Revolutionary time] for YEAR (since it takes the earth a year to revolve around the sun); [Do a double take?] for RE-FILM; and [Hustle to first base] for SPRINT.
George Fitzgerald's Los Angeles Times crossword
I've already written about this puzzle over at L.A. Crossword Confidential. In the interest of having plenty of time for medical editing or crossword cluing today, let me simply refer you there rather than writing about it here. In 25 words: Theme is "___ level" phrases, fill includes wildly unfamiliar BITT ([Ship's post that secures cables]). New constructor? Congrats! Like to see smoother fill in subsequent puzzles.Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Francis includes two spelled-out letter names for the purpose of explaining the theme. ESS is the [First of a pair of letters swapped six times in this puzzle's theme entries], and TEE is the other. The six swaps appear in five answers:- 20A. THIS FOR BRAINS plays on "shit for brains" and is clued ["Here's what I'll give you if you'll feed my pet zombie"?]. The clue doesn't quite add up for me, but I like the play on the original phrase.
- 28A. [Description of a balloon race lost due to lack of wind?] is NO GUST, NO GLORY. Solid. ("No guts, no glory.)
- 36A. LAST TSAR-FIGHTER is a [Holdout against the Romanovs?]. One point off for the unswapped S and T in LAST. If only the L.A. Times were commonly called the L.A.T. and had a proud history of fighting Russian despotism. (The Last Starfighter was a cheesy '80s movie that my son would probably love.)
- 45A. Hah! DON'T SATE ME, BRO is clued ["Dude, I hate feeling full"]. Funny answer, funny clue, funny (but painful) original "Don't tase me, bro" line.
- 56A. [What high-priced strippers who cater to dweebs see a lot of?] clues TWITS AND THOUS, playing on "Twist and Shout."
Five favorite clues: (1) OLAF is clued as [Norwegian king who...oh, as if you know anything about Norwegian kings]. Gotta love a clue where the constructor breaks the fourth wall (in a TV show or movie, an ASIDE is a [Remark that breaks the fourth wall]) and talks to the solver. Crosscan tweeted about this clue last night, calling it "the clue of the year." (2) [Scandal-ridden preacher Haggard] is named TED. One of my Facebook friends thought of that TED when I posted this photo. (3) Mighty long clue for a 4-letter answer: [Country that recently certified its election results, thus forever ending any doubt about the legitimacy thereof, totally] is IRAN. (4) [Crabs, e.g.], hmm, crustaceans? Grumpy people? Complains? No, an STD. (5) UHS are [Sounds from someone not good with, you know, word things].Good fill, entertaining but mildly uneven theme, and terrific clues? Chalk this one up as a win for Francis.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Keeping It Short"
What he's "keeping short" is an I sound: the original phrases for the theme entries have a LONG I sound, and Brendan changes it to a short I, adjusting the spelling as needed.
A biker gang becomes the BICKER GANG, or [Quarrel crew]. (I'm skipping bullets because that dratted Safari 4 makes me add all sorts of other code to make the posts display properly for Safari 4 users, and then everything gets mucked up until I add still more extraneous bits of code, and it's driving me nuts.) That [Guy who exaggerates how much he can bench press?] is a MUSCLE FIBBER (muscle fiber). The [Grim Reaper's prop?] is a VICIOUS SICKLE indeed (vicious cycle). Brighton Beach turns into BRITAIN BEACH, or [Place where blokes and birds sun?]. And [Disease one gets from a watering hole?] is a DIPPER RASH (diaper rash). Cute theme, particularly the VICIOUS SICKLE.
Favorite clues/fill: (1) SNL is the [Show from which Adrien Brody and Martin Lawrence are banned for life]. (2) IGGY POP is the ["Lust for Life" singer]. (3) ZAGREB is the [Croatian capital] city.
Most-likely-to-vex-solvers clues: (1) [Cheap cigar, slangily] is EL ROPO. You know what? STOGIE is also 6 letters long. (2) [Bandleader Skinnay] ENNIS is someone I know about only from crosswords. (3) AIN is the [Department of Bourg, France]. (4) [Medallion makeup] is VEAL, not GOLD.
July 09, 2009
Friday, 7/10
BEQ 8:08
NYT 5:10
LAT 4:04
CHE 3:04
CS 6:05 (J—paper)
WSJ 7:40
Joe Krozel's New York Times crossword
Well, lookee here. The town where my best friend lived before she moved back to Chicagoland is featured in the Friday puzzle: CREVE / COEUR, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. 7/9A are clued as [Missouri city whose name means "broken heart"], and the grid's pattern is that of a broken heart. For those who are curious, I believe the locals pronounce it more like "creeve core" than the French would.
Outside of that answer combo and the diagramless-puzzle-style picture, it's largely a themeless crossword, isn't it? With 64 words (rather low word count), but a standard 38 black squares. My general rule of thumb is this: If it's a 64-worder or less and it's not by Patrick Berry, it probably has a lot of fill that underwhelms me. The rule stands. (See below.)
I was smoking this puzzle (well, not DanFeyeresquely or TylerHinmannishly) and clicked the "Done!" button with 3:57 on the clock...and then spent the remainder of my time trying to root out one errant square. Eventually I found it: I had HAIL in place of HEIL for 19A [Greeting with a salute]. Crikey, we're evoking the famous Hitler salute now, are we? And with no hint that the answer is German? That's weird. If I'd scanned the Down answers first, I'd have spotted SURGA PROTECTORS, but no, I started with the Acrosses. (Should be SURGE PROTECTORS, 6D [They may avert computer damage]). To go along with the unpleasantness of HEIL, we have CRUEL AND UNUSUAL clued as 1D [Torturous, perhaps], connected to TRUE CONFESSIONS, 44A [Story-filled magazine since 1922]. 44A would be utterly fantastic in a puzzle that wasn't seemingly linking torture and confessions. Waterboarding, anyone?
The 64-Word Rule is borne out by an awkward chunk in the upper right and a profusion of prefix action. The chunk is the abbreviation MOLS clued as 4D [Compound fractions: Abbr.]—trying to trick us into thinking about numbers like 4 1/2 when the answer is a chemistry abbreviation is mean. The M crossing, MRS, is clued as a 4A [Form check box option], which is a rather vague clue for a 3-letter abbreviation crossing two other abbreviations. 5D [Old bus maker] is REO, of Speed Wagon, Ransom Eli Olds fame.
I actually used the 64-Word Rule as a solving aid. 10D [Fix, as a shower stall]...hmm, RETILE, crossing another RE-word, REHIRE, or 24A [Bring back on board]. Towards the middle, PREVENTS and PREMARITAL party with RELATE and RELIEF. (Psst: RELATE is beneath PREMARITAL, which is clued with a form of that word, [Like some relations].) EMANANT is one of those words you might never hear uttered; it means 47A [Flowing forth]. Then there's the two-part answer ONE/-A-CAT, 45/41D, a [quaint sandlot game]. If you've done a ton of crosswords, you probably see this rendered as one-o-cat more than one-a-cat. Crosswordese crashes into same where ESSE, a 43D [Forum infinitive], meets ESTOP, or 43D [Bar].
48A would have been a gimme with a pop-culture clue like [Actress Dawson of "Rent"], but with [Argentine port on the Parana]. ROSARIO is Argentina's third largest city. When looking for my wrong square, I gave the stink eye to every answer crossing this unfamiliar city name.
Now, I do have to give props to Joe K. for the four swaths of open space in the grid, the interconnection of the three 15s, and these clues and answers:
• 11A. LAURELS are the [Composition of some crowns]. Thought of royalty and/or dentistry, didn't you?
• 17A. [The Monkeemobile, e.g.] was a GTO. Had no idea, but late-'60s 3-letter car clue usually means GTO.
• 50A. [Housekeeper player on "Benson"] is Inga SWENSON. With that crosswordesey first name, her last name is usually banished to the clues. I like the switcheroo.
• 2D. FERRET OUT is a great phrase. It means [Dig up].
• 3D. When I was a kid, a [Rubber] was an OVERSHOE. "When it rains, Daddy always wears rubbers." The Totes-brand rubbers seemed to fall out of fashion by the time I learned that rubber = condom, too.
• 19D. Geo-trivia: [It has departments named Nord, Sud and Ouest] clues HAITI. I didn't know that, and there are probably some 5-letter African countries with French colonial history, but the crossings led me to the right answer.
Updated Friday morning:
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Mail Order"—Janie's review
"Wait, oh yeah, wait a minute, Mr. Postman! Wa-ai-ai-ait, Mr. Postman!. I'd think you'd really enjoy this easy, breezy made-to-order puzzle that celebrates those cancelled items you carry in your delivery bag!"
We don't get lots of theme fill today—only three phrases— but what we do get is "cherce," as is the non-theme fill with its many seven-, eight- and nine-letter words.
But first a look at the theme entries, the last word of which is mail-related:
Now, about those "many seven-, eight- and nine-letter words"—let's take a look at 'em. To [Fill with confidence] is to INSPIRE, and when one ATTAINS more self-confidence, one's STATURE [Eminence] may be bolstered as well. (This, of course, is the lesson of Jim, the Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie.) The final seven, REPOSED [Slept], seems to be a CS first. Ditto both of the eights: HIGH-TECH [Advanced, in a way] (so we're lookin' for an adjective here and not a verb) and LAMPPOST [Part of a street light]. The four nines are HIROSHIMA [Enola Gay target of 1945] (it's not always that we get all of that information at once in the puzzles), the homier PIE CRUSTS [They should be flaky], and two more CS debuts: KNOW-IT-ALL with its sassy [Wisenheimer] clue, and LIP-READER with its original-to-Nancy Salomon-and-so-encore-worthy clue [One who can see what you're saying]. This is all really good fill. Imoo...
Other fill and/or clues that caught my fancy:
Ken Bessette's Los Angeles Times crossword
In discussing this week's CrosSynergy added-units-of-measure themes, constructor Patrick Blindauer said it's easier for solvers to pick up on add-letter themes than subtraction themes. Today's L.A. Times crossword made its subtraction fairly obvious, I thought, as RANGE BEDFELLOWS is clearly "strange bedfellows" minus the ST. "Bedfellows" gets little use in English without being paired with "strange."
Now, I was thinking the theme's purpose was booting the saints out of the grid, but 64A is STOUT, a [Heavy brew, and a clue to this puzzle's theme]. Take the ST OUT, and there's your theme description. Now, there's an interesting question from "imsdave" over at Rex's L.A. Crossword Confidential writeup today—"As a (very) novice constructor, and only for my own edification, is it OK to have STET/STENO/STOWS/STEWARDS/ATLAST in a puzzle with this theme?" Ideally, yes, there wouldn't be other STs left in the grid. I don't think it's a fatal error to include them, as the theme entries are considerably longer than everything else and their clues are all question-marked. But it's perhaps not as elegant as if the fill had meticulously avoided any STs aside from the STOUT entry.
Interesting incidental pairings popped out at me. First, there's Hitchcock's THE BIRDS, a 9D [1963 thriller set in Bodega Bay], and a CROAK isn't just for frogs and raspy voices, it's also 14A [Raven's sound]. Crows, ravens, and blackbirds creep me out. LANAI, clued as 19D [It's part of Maui County], evokes both the Hawaiian LUAU (59A [Outdoor feast]) and the 60% matchy SINAI (61A [Peninsula bordering Israel]). 31A is WAWA, or [Baba ___: Gilda Radner persona], and BAA BAA is a 22A [Sheepish response?]. And then there's the double hit of old-school crosswordese: the ETUI is a 50D [Sewing case] and an ADIT is 55D [Ore seeker's entrance] to a mine.
Michael Ashley's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Old-Time Religion"
I had one of my fastest-ever CHE solves on this one, which is odd because really, a puzzle commemorating the quincentennial birthday of John Calvin isn't remotely in my wheelhouse. There must be a lot of easier clues and straightforward crossings here. CALVINISM anchors the grid and it's clued as the [Religious doctrine whose founder was born July 10, 1509. The HUGUENOTS practiced Calvinism. The BAPTISTS practice a modified version. PRESBYTERIANS (anagram of Britney Spears!) ply an elder-led version. And the PURITANS had their ascetic version. You can learn more about the Puritans in a lighter vein from Sarah Vowell's book, The Wordy Shipmates.
Brendan Quigley and Francis Heaney's Wall Street Journal crossword, "On the Waterfront>"
I spaced out on noticing the tightness of the theme while I was solving. I was moseying along, enjoying the homophone theme just fine without realizing that every homophone in the nine theme entries is "On the Waterfront" (PIER, QUAY, DAM) or a body of water itself (BAYOU, SEA, LOCH, STRAIT, river DELTA, BROOK). For example. COMBINATION LOCH (lock) is a [Scottish body of water that connects to another?]. SEA SECTION, playing on C-section, is clued as [The Bermuda Triangle, e.g.?]. And HOW'S BAYOU goes with the clue ["Where should we catch crawfish"? reply, perhaps?], playing on the intensely colloquial "How's by you?"
My favorites bits of fill include PECCADILLO, GOLDARN, BIG BANDS clued as [Groups of swingers?], the SIERRA CLUB, IRISH PUB ([Place to get stout]), ROMULANS, and the NEWARK/LATIFAH combo—100A NEWARK is [Aaron Burr's birthplace], while 80D is LATIFAH, [Queen born in 100-Across]. [Blue blood vessels?] is a cool clue for YACHTS, too.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Friday"
I can't assess this puzzle on its merits because the solving environment was making me cranky. The workers next door were dismantling some scaffolding and dropping big metal pipe structures into a truck bed. And the streetsweeper rolled by with its nonstop truck-in-reverse beeping. And my foot is throbbing. And I knew how fast other solvers on the leaderboard were, so I wanted to fly through it—but the distractions were totally getting in the way of that. As were the clues. Oy! I slowed myself down with Lucy's brother LINUS (whoops, needed RERUN) and Namath the NFLER (whoops, N.Y. JET). Someone on the internet was just talking about parsing PASYSTEM as "passy stem," and boy, I just couldn't grasp the P.A. SYSTEM clued as a [Rally rental]. I was looking for some sort of truck, and the PASY start killed me.
I liked LIVE ON clued as [Eat exclusively]. I could dispute that [Like someone who had a near-death experience] properly describes LUCKY. If you were lucky, wouldn't you avoid having the near-death experience in the first place? Speaking of death, I know that Jay-Z has a newish "Death of AUTO-TUNE" cut because I read The Assimilated Negro's blog, but I haven't actually clicked any of the links to have a listen. Is that bad? That I can answer [Oft-used computer plug-in used in modern music] without the slightest understanding of what Auto-Tune does?
May 30, 2009
Sunday, 5/31
PI 9:03
LAT 7:41
NYT 7:32
BG 6:29
CS 3:27
NYT diagramless 16 minutes
Kelsey Blakley's New York Times crossword, "Odd One Out"
Well, you can fill in the whole puzzle without reading the Notepad note and without having the faintest idea of what the theme is. Then you can read the Notepad and get an anagramming puzzle...for which you don't need to do any work because 68- and 70-Across can be filled in via their clue (68A. [With 70-Across, some people are ___ crosswords]) and the easy crossings. Each of the eight long starred answers contains each of its letters twice, except for one solitary leftover letter. The eight leftovers can be anagrammed to spell NUTS OVER, but you don't need to pull out those letters and anagram them, do you? And knowing the letters-appear-twice gimmick probably wouldn't speed solving because those answers have straightforward clues and mostly easy crossings. I am left wondering what the point is, as the theme didn't give me any "wow" effect. Oh, well.
I was churning through it at breakneck speed until I hit the midsection of the right side. Ye gods, that zone worked me over:
It wasn't all a grumblefest, I promise. I liked these things:
In the underwhelming category, we have some -ER people and an -EST superlative. A [Telecaster] is an AIRER. A [Jester, e.g.] is an AMUSER. An ENTICER is a [Siren] luring the DESIRERS, or [Those with yens]. The superlative is MINUTEST, or [Least]. It's got plenty of Google presence, but some of those hits are typos for "minutes."
There's some crosswordese sprinkled throughout the grid, too—OLEO and STERE, STRIAE and NEE, that sort of stuff. And DIESEL OIL is clued as [Semi fill-up]. Is there such a substance? If there is, I don't think it's what truckers buy at the gas pump—that'd be diesel fuel or diesel. Diesel oil may be motor oil designed for diesel engines.
Francis Heaney's NYT second Sunday puzzle, a diagramless crossword
Diagramless fans are especially fond of puzzles that draw a picture, aren't we? Here, the diagram ends up depicting a spiral, which adds visual oomph to the theme. My spiral spills over by two columns on the right side of the grid because I settled on a starting square after figuring out the first four and a half rows, and I assumed the answers would spill to the left more. (The correct starting square is the fifth one.) Not a tragedy, as there's plenty of room in the right margin for a couple more answers.
The theme entries are:
The nonthematic fill is colorful. NICK FALDO ([Three-time Masters winner who's now a TV golf analyst]) and DANIEL BOONE ([Eponym of a Kentucky national forest]) sit up top. There's a DOPE FIEND who's a [Candidate for rehab]. [Vacation spot for people who like to pack light?] is a NUDIST CAMP. A plain old MUSIC BOX is a [Portable player that has only one song]—great clue, as it evokes questions about which iPod or MP3 player has such a limit. KUDZU ([Comic strip that shares a name with an invasive plant]) shares a Z with Tony DANZA (["Taxi" co-star] back in the day). The craziest answer is RAGNAROK—[Cataclysmic even in Norse myth that inspired "Götterdämmerung"]. There are also a lot of 3-letter answers to facilitate the spiraling diagram, which helped me a lot in solving because many of them had fairly easy clues. I was led astray by the clue for 24A, though—the [Traditional July birthstone] I know of the RUBY, but the answer here is ONYX, also 4 letters. Apparently the onyx is linked to the zodiac sign Leo, which begins in late July, but the clue borders on unfair because most sources will say July's birthstone is the ruby.
Edited to add: Holy cow! Reader Matt points out that two short answers also look to be part of the theme. The APEX is the innermost empty chamber, clued here as [Tiptop] rather than duplicating the words shell, chamber, or nautilus. I don't know if the outermost part of a nautilus creature or its shell is called END, but END is at the end of the spiral clued as [Wind up].
Edward Sessa's syndicated Los Angeles Times Sunday crossword, "Double Plays"
There's a critical mass of L.A. Times crossword bloggers (well, three of us—me, PuzzleGirl, and Rex) who blithely pay little attention to Broadway shows and fail to work up much enthusiasm for themes centered on them, especially when it comes to musicals. Today's theme entries combine the titles of two plays (some musicals, some not) and concoct a clue for the resulting phrase. [Munchkin femmes fatales?], for example, are WICKED LITTLE WOMEN, combining Wicked and Little Women. The latter was made into a play? I didn't know. My favorite theme entry wins for its "ick" quotient: HAIR GREASE is clued as [Inferior pomade?], and Hair and Grease are both quite familiar. I didn't know there was a show or play called Fanny, so FANNY-PROOF, [Like sturdy chairs], didn't readily come to me. And [Jazz lovers on the Mississippi?]—BIG RIVER CATS? Yes, I know about Cats, but I can't say Big River rings a bell at all.
Interesting word of the day: ALLONYMS, clued as [Ghostwriters' noms de plume, say]. As A.Word.A.Day explains, it's "the name of a person, usually historical, taken by an author as a pen name (as opposed to using a fictional pseudonym)." Orange is a fictional pseudonym, but I read another blog where a writer uses an allonym. You know what would be a great pseudonym? Mac Homan. That's what 3D, the [1978 Village People hit], looks like when spaced differently. I envision Mac Homan as not at all a MACHO MAN.
There's more on the puzzle from PuzzleGirl at the other blog.
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer crossword, "Going into Overtime"
Merl is the master of the entertaining Sunday theme. Sometimes his puns are groaners, yes, but he shines when it comes to cracking wise via a crossword theme. The title's a little backwards, as the OT goes into each theme answer rather than the reverse:
In the shorter answers, I duped myself into thinking the 3-letter [On-the-rack item?] (17A) was a BRA...but the answer turned out to be HAT. Whoops. Looking at 62D, I assumed there was an adjacent-key typo in the clue for GATES. Robert GATES is the [DOD boss], after all. But what Merl was going for was Bill GATES, the Microsoft [DOS boss].
Favorite non-theme clue: [Rocky greeting] for YO, ADRIAN. When I see "rocky" in a clue, I think of IBEXes gamboling on the TORs. WHO'S NEXT is a seminal album by The Who, but it's clued as [Waiting room query]. Thanks to songs like "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," I like WHO'S NEXT even with a waiting room clue.
Toughest clues: [Samoa's monetary unit] is the TALA. GEMSBOK is a [Large antelope]. ALTHORNS are certain [Brass instruments]. There are two old-school crosswordese actresses: THEDA Bara is clued as the [First name of "The Vamp"], and [Actress Negri] is POLA.
Henry Hook's Boston Globe puzzle in Across Lite, "Big Bucks"
The theme is a little flat, as it looks like most of the theme entries are about wealth, but then MISS MONEYPENNY doesn't connote wealth. And ROLLING IN DOUGH means "wealthy," but most of the other answers just include words that mean "wealth." So it feels uneven. And then there are a handful of woeful entries that make me say, "Oh, Henry, you're better than this." ELEMI and ANENT at least are old-school crosswordese that long-time solvers don't blink at. But VENITE? That's the [95th Psalm] and not a familiar word or crossword entry. UPOLU? It's a [Volcanic Samoan island], apparently. Better are ZAFTIG, MCGRUFF, TYLENOL, and even the Sea of OKHOTSK (Russian inlet).
You know, I'd write more about the puzzle if there were more of an audience for it. But when it's been a month and a half since it was in the newspaper and there are just those of us who use Cruciverb.com or Will Johnston's Puzzle Pointers page who are still thinking about the puzzle...the motivation dwindles.
Updated again Sunday evening:
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy themeless "Sunday Challenge"
Aww, another easy themeless? I crave crazy-tough clues, I do.
The QWERTY KEYBOARD is a [Standard typing setup], all right. Joining it among the more lively answers here are these:
May 19, 2009
Wednesday, 5/20
Onion 4:16
BEQ 3:56
NYT 3:45
LAT 3:02
CS 10:41 (J—paper)
I'll be later than usual with the morning updates for the other crosswords. The director of the indie kids' movie Labou will be making puppets with my son's class, and I have been conscripted to help out. I shall return after my Hollywood adventure.
Ashish Vengsarkar's New York Times crossword
Ashish's theme entries and fill sprawl all over the place—it takes a 16x15 grid to accommodate a 15/13/14/13/15 theme (that's a whopping 70 squares there), and while you're at it, why not let fly with a couple 12's in the fill? The theme entries are phrases that begin with academic years, joined together by COLLEGE STATION, a [Texas city...and a hint to the starts of] the other four theme answers:
Favorite clues and fill:
It's only Wednesday, but there's some tough stuff:
Updated Wednesday morning:
Rich Norris's CrosSynergy puzzle, "P & L Statement"—Janie's review
You may have known right off the bat that the statement in the title is a document of "Profit & Loss," but that was one of the first things I had to look up after I'd solved this one. It should come as no surprise that Rich does not mean to be literal in his title, merely to hint at today's gimmick. And it's another good one. Four familiar phrases whose second word begins with "L" are amusingly adjusted, as those "L" words profit from the up-front addition of the letter "P." In the process, we get a healthy 56 blocks of theme-fill, in two 15s and two 13s:
- 17A: Instead of "seasoned lumber," we get SEASONED PLUMBER [Pipe fixer who's seen it all]. Cute. Especially nice that the pronunciation of the new word doesn't rhyme with the base word. This puts a whole new spin on the phrase.
- 25A: Not "runnng late," but RUNNING PLATE [Spoon's nursery rhyme cohort, essentially?]. Why "essentially"? Because as we all know, "the dish ran away with the spoon." But any way ya look at it, "plate" is another word for "dish," so even if it's a stretch, it does work.
- 48A: Here we eschew "passing lane" for PASSING PLANE [Jet that's gone out of style?] Not the strongest entry, but it'll fly...
- 64A: This is where "down on one's luck" cedes to DOWN ON ONE'S PLUCK [Feeling less resolute lately?] A fine way to tie things up—and ties into [Moxie] (for GUTS), too.
There are two excellent 10-letter words in the grid: EGOCENTRIC and (making its CS debut) the piquant ORANGE ZEST. BLUE LAW adds to the puzzle's overall vividness as well.
Elsewhere in the fill, we get a trio of actors: TAYE Diggs (who not only appeared in both the stage and screen versions of Rent and helped Stella "get her groove back," but has also appeared in three episodes of GREY'S); UMA Thurman; and JOANN Pflug, who played Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider in MASH (1970). Oh—there's the "dish"!
Fill that takes us globe-trotting: RIGA, LIDO; IRANI; RIEL [Cambodian cash]; ÉTAT, MERCI. A word about the indirect way RIGA was clued, [Capital where Lettish is spoken]. I had to break this one down in order to solve it: Who speaks Lettish? Latvians. What's the capital of Latvia? RIGA. And I also had to think about [South Dakota, to Pierre]. Pierre's the capital of South Dakota, right? But Pierre is also a man's name in French, and in French, South Dakota (a state) is an ÉTAT. Oh, he's tricky, that Rich!
We also get an automotive trio in the fill: the NISSAN Z, a [Japanese sports car], which cleverly crosses [Rodeo producer] ISUZU (Japanese as well, but a mid-size SUV); and ENZO [Automaker Ferrari]. Italian! I think I'm more automotively challenged than any other area of everyday knowledge. Thank goodness for the crosses!
Some clues that caught my attention:
- [Tears for fears, maybe?] Not these guys, but a dandy clue for TYPO. We've seen this before and we'll see it again. Trust me on this.
- [League or degree] for UNIT. Yet again I was grateful for the crosses. I think this is a tough clue.
- [Big brass] for TUBA, the misdirection of which just makes me smile. No GENERAL or ADMIRAL (too long by three letters anyway...), but the orchestra's oft-neglected TUBA, most certainly a big brass instrument.
Though every part of this puzzle is a GEM, my favorite area of the grid is at south-center, where ENZO, ZOOM, ENNE and SEEN (going down) are crossed by ...NONE..., ZONE and OMEN.
Rumor has it that Mr. Norris may be curtailing his CS activities. If that's so, it looks like the L.A Times will profit even more by CS's loss... Still better a curtailed Norris than no Norris at all!
Bonnie Gentry's L.A. Times crossword
I liked this puzzle a lot. The theme consists of three phrases that contain the hidden word UP, broken in half across words, unified by a fourth BREAKING UP theme entry. As I said over at L.A. Crossword Confidential—and it's not plagiarism if you wrote the words you copied and identified their source—There've been plenty of crossword themes involving hidden words split among the words in a phrase, but how many of them mandate phrases that include words ending in U? Not so many. And how often is the first square in the puzzle filled with a V? Not much of the time, so crossing VALID (1A: Still in force) with VAMP (1D: Seductress) felt fresh. The theme contains just two 10's and two 13's, leaving wiggle room for Bonnie to include a cool dozen 7- and 8-letter answers in the fill.Updated Wednesday afternoon:
Brendan Quigley's blog puzzle, "Eff This"
You know that TV commercial where the guy says "Dude" to his roommate with many different intonations, thereby communicating awe, disappointment, anger, etc.? (Is it a successful advertisement if I love it but don't know what product is being marketed? I suspect it's one of the mass-produced domestic beers I tend not to drink.) The clues for all five of Brendan's theme entries include the F-bomb, and the exact wording and punctuation suggest the meaning. For instance, ["The fuck?"] can convey ARE YOU KIDDING ME, and ["Fuuuuuuck"] is the hopeless WE'RE ALL SCREWED. There are those who think use of the F-word reflects laziness and inelegance in communication but really, it can be an eloquent word.Crikey, 30 3-letter words in this grid? They're not terrible as 3's go, but there sure are a lot of 'em. The three X's and a Q offset that a bit. Also in the fill: The PINE TAR GAME is the [Infamous 1983 Royals/Yankees contest where a George Brett home run was nullified]. Never heard of it. Sam RAIMI apparently was also ["Drag Me to Hell" director]—never heard of the movie.
Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club Crossword
Each theme entry's got an added SCH at the start, radically changing the meaning of the phrase. My favorites were the ones that you'd never see in the NYT crossword. Long Beach is a place in California, but SCHLONG BEACH is an [All-male nude seaside resort?]. Muckraking is one thing, but SCHMUCK RAKING is an [Asshat doing an autumn chore?]. The theme's rounded out with two other answers, including a SCHLOCK OF HAIR, or [Cheesiness experienced at a revived James Rado musical?]—boy, it would have been helpful if I recognized that name. Is this the "Age of Aquarius" musical? That would have pointed me towards Hair. The fourth theme entry is SCHTICK BITES, or [Headline about a comedian's awful routine?]. Very few newspapers are likely to use that form of "bites" in a headline.Never heard of KLF, or ["What Time Is Love?" band, with "the"], or the FIERY [___ Furnaces, "I'm Going Away" band]. Alas, DON HO was a gimme.
March 31, 2009
Wednesday, 4/1
Onion 4:12
BEQ/Rex 4:11
NYT 3:46
CS 3:14
LAT 3:08
Over in the comments on Monday's L.A. Crossword Confidential post, Joon crunched the numbers on the odds that two crosswords will share an answer. The upshot, which pretty well debunks the whole crossword fill conspiracy theory, is that "the two puzzles will have a word in common about half the time, and 2+ words in common about once a week." So now we know. When we see the same word in more than one of a day's puzzles, it's not eerie—it's just something that's statistically likely to happen a lot of the time.
The discussion there turned to the likelihood of two people in a group sharing a birthday. Facebook tells me that two of my crossword friends have April 1 birthdays—regular commenter PhillySolver and constructor Francis Heaney. Happy Birthday to the fellas, and Happy April Fools Day to all.
Reminder: Wednesday's Jeopardy! will have a category drawn from Brendan Quigley's Thursday NYT puzzle. Don't miss either one—and choose the order wisely. Would you rather spoil the crossword or the Jeopardy! category?
Ed Stein and Paula Gamache's New York Times crossword
It's an April 1 crossword, so what does that mean? Mischief! The clues for the theme entries appear to give the answers away, but it turns out they're all trick questions:
Let us examine the numbers here. A whopping 12 theme entries and 72 theme squares? Yowzah! Between the ambitiousness of the theme and the sheer fun of it, I'm nominating this puzzle for the year-end Oryx awards.
Elsewhere in the puzzle, we learn that the Washoe Indians can also be spelled WASHO. The [California Indian tribe: Var.] clue and my memory suggest that Washoe is the usual spelling, but Wikipedia mostly goes with Washo. I love [Drop ___ (moon)] as the clue for TROU; hey, how else are you gonna clue TROU? EDIT is clued [Get copy right]; yes, indeed, that is what editors strive to do. Clever clue for TILDE: [Part of São Paulo] means part of that spelling, not part of the city. Speaking of diacritical marks, [Not différent] clues EGAL, the French word for "same." The clue for MSEC, or millisecond, is a little tricky: [Fraction of a tick: Abbr.]. I got snared by the HI-DE-HI clue, instead entering HI-DE-HO. Both can be called a [Cab Calloway phrase]. "Hi-de-hi" is in the lyrics to "The Hi De Ho Miracle Man." The [Site for a site] clue doubles up, giving both the WEB and the NET.
The lowly ARIL, or [Seed cover], is perhaps the oldest bit of crosswordese in the grid. Or maybe that distinction belongs to HODS, which are [Brick carriers]. Also in the debit column for today's puzzle is ALL SIZES, clued as [Nobody too big or too small, on a sign]. The clue seems to point more towards something like "one size fits most." Of course, the three things in the debit column are more than offset by the 12 theme answers, 72 theme squares, and assorted other clever clues and interesting fill. Excellent work, Ed and Paula. (And Will Shortz, of course.)
Updated Wednesday morning:
Pancho Harrison's Los Angeles Times crossword
Pancho's puzzle celebrates April Fools Day without any trickery, just theme entries that are movie titles ending with those words:
Overall, this crossword was a straightforward affair, without much twist to the clues. (This puzzle may be an example of eased-up cluing on behalf of former TMS solvers just getting accustomed to the L.A. Times style.) An ANALYSIS ([In-depth examination]) of the fill reveals some ARID ([Bone-dry]) TEDIUM ([Monotony]) leading to INANE ([Vacuous]) ENNUI ([Listless feeling]). But still, Pancho manages to SEX ([Census datum]) it up with an UPBEAT ([Cheery]) pair of Biblical names, ESAU ([Genesis twin]) and ENOS ([Grandson of Adam]), and the PGA TOUR ([Links org. sponsoring the FedEx Cup]). Regardless of one's feelings about golf, PGA TOUR does make for a terrific crossword answer. The Biblical names, eh, not so much.
A commenter at L.A. Crossword Confidential the other day mentioned that the L.A. Times puzzle seems to have less Biblical fill than the NYT. Does anyone know if that is indeed the case? (P.S. Rex Parker has the L.A.C.C. write-up of today's puzzle.)
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Loaded Guns"
We take a break from the prank-filled holiday for a standard, no-tricks crossword. The theme entries are "loaded guns" in that they start with G and end with UN or start with GU and end with N:
I did get duped by the clue for DESKTOP—[Location for many an icon] somehow put me in mind of religious icons and pop icons. The [Tree on Connecticut's state quarter] doesn't look that much like an OAK in its tiny numismatic form, but it's the Charter Oak. The Connecticut colony hid its charter in the tree so the English couldn't revoke it back in 1687. The tree was felled by a storm in the mid 1800s.
Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Why so many colors in the heading here? I did that to stall for time while I figure out what the theme is. Give me a couple minutes here...okay, I think I'm onto something. 69A PREYS is clued [Hear 51-Across], which is VIRGINS, clued as [They're chaste]. "Hear" that clue another way, as "they're chased," and you get PREYS. (Is that plural noun kosher? I think perhaps not.)
So let's look at the other theme clues. 1A is [Type A people], who are DOERS. Pronounce it as "Taipei people" to get 17A TAIWANESE.
9A is [One who gets a lot of booze], a DRUNK. The 28A clue [See 9-Across] is simply a standard cross-reference clue, and the answer is the synonym LUSH. 26A [Hear 9-Across] commands you to hear it as "one who gets a lot of boos," or a VILLAIN.
39A [Horse sound] is NEIGH. To 41A [Hear 39-Across's answer] is to pick up its homophone, NEE. Then there's 42A [Hear 39-Across], "hoarse sound"—a COUGH.
23A [Artificial] clues PLASTIC. 55A [Hear 23-Across] expects you parse 23A's clue as "art official," a CURATOR.
62A is [Not allowed], or FORBIDDEN. For 71A [Hear 62-Across], the clue becomes "not aloud," or TACIT.
So there are 12 answers involved in the April Fools Day sound-alike theme (plus two cross-referenced answers involving theme answers). That density of thematic material accounts for some fill that Francis probably wasn't thrilled to include (two-word partials AS PIE, NEED I, SEE TV, and OR TEA; letter run CDE; plural IAGOS; prefixed REWASH; dangling KAI, OLA, CHA, and SHA). But there's also some kickass fill. THE I CHING is an [Ancient divination tool]. DOOR LATCH seems flat, but the clue, [Fortunate public bathroom feature], salvages it. WHININESS is a [Bitching condition]. The DELACORTE is the [Shakespeare in the Park theater, in Central Park]. And I liked the gimme clue for GREG Brady, [One of Cindy, Jan, and Marsha's stepbrothers]—only that last character's name is spelled Marcia.
If you enjoyed the pronunciation play in this puzzle but you haven't tried your hand at cryptic crosswords, check out the new cryptics section in sidebar to the right. Biddlecombe's Guide will give you a good primer on how cryptic clues work. 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker is a great book for cryptic newbies—the puzzles are small and easy and, most importantly, not British. I love British cryptics, but can rarely finish one without peeking at the answers and have to Google things at google.co.uk in order to understand some stuff. But the American cryptics are much more pliable for an American solver.
Oh, crap. I forgot the BEQ puzzle today. Will this blogging never end? Crikey, I need to get out of the house already. Updating yet again!
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "It's All About Me," is by Michael ("Rex Parker") Sharp today
Michael's puzzle tucks a hidden REX inside each theme answer.
The Scrabbliness of the four thematic X's is beefed up by a Z and Michael's beloved K (only one!) and Y (three of 'em). Favorite clues/answers:
