Friday, 10/9/09

NYT 4:52
CHE 3:38
LAT 3:24
BEQ 5:12 when I gave up on 2 squares, which eventually came to me
CS untimed
WSJ 8:24

David Quarfoot's New York Times crossword

Yay! A new David Quarfoot puzzle! If you know his work, you got what you were expecting: A crossword filled with lively phrases and names, with plenty of Scrabbly letters in the mix. There's so much juicy stuff here. To wit:

• 1A. [Composer of a famous ring cycle] is J.R.R. TOLKIEN of The Lord of the Rings. Not Wagner's musical Ring Cycle. Is it fair to use "composer" to mean writer?
  
• 15A. COUNT BASIE—full name counter stands at 2. He was the [Musician with the 1939 hit "Jumpin' at the Woodside"].
  
• 17A. [Drugs, say] are CONTRABAND. Glad this isn't the verb.
  
• 28A. Fresh clue for SARIS. I didn't know [They're usually worn over petticoats].
  
• 30A. MR. OCTOBER is Reggie Jackson, the [All-time strikeout leader's nickname].
  
• 44A. SPEEDO isn't just a skimpy little brief—it's also the [Maker of the LZR Racer suit] seen in the Olympics.
  
• 46A. I think we've seen DEAR SANTA in the puzzle before, but aww, what a sad clue: [Letter greeting never read by its intended recipient].
  
• 55A. PASEOS are [Scenic walks]. If you've been a San Antonio tourist, you've probably strolled the Paseo del Rio, or River Walk.
  
• 61A. PETE SEEGER, the [Musician called America's Tuning Fork], was a childhood favorite of mine. My sister and I loved this kiddie folk album. (Actually, it was an old record with about half of those songs on it.) If you've got preschoolers in the house, pick up this album. (Full name counter moves to 3.)
  
• 67A. MASS EXODUS is a great phrase, but I wouldn't want to be in one. It's the [Result of a hurricane warning, maybe].
  
• 1D. JC CHASEZ used to be an ['N Sync member], but the group disbanded in 2002. Is he still somebody, or a has-been? (Full name #4.)
  
• 2D. Terrific clue for ROOMMATE: a [Joint letter?]. A different kind of letter's in the SPAM clue, 56D: [Unwelcome letters].
  
• 7D. KABOOM! That's a [Big blast].
  
• 8D. ISADORA Duncan is the [1968 Vanessa Redgrave title role]. No last name in the grid, alas. Same with 33D, ELLA Fitzgerald, [Self-titled album of 1969].
  
• 11D. "IT'S A BOY!" are [Words on some blue balloons].
  
• 12D. [Hit makers?] clues THE MOB. I wasn't expecting the definite article and had the mystifying TH*M*S for a bit.
  
• 22D. Who doesn't love WETNAPS? They're [Messy meal handouts].
  
• 31D. [Cooler fill] clues CONS because convicts fill the "cooler," or prison. I wonder how many people had CANS here.
  
• 42D. DR. SEUSS counts as a full name (#5!) because that was his byline. ["Oh Say Can You Say?" author] is the clue. I'll tell you this, squeezing five full names into a freestyle crossword is not common.
  
• 43D. Hah! ST. KITTS is the [Island with the capital city Basseterre]. Wish I'd known that yesterday when I did the Sporcle quiz for North American capitals (including Central America and the Caribbean islands).
  
• 46D. The [Blue Demons' home], of course, is Chicago's DEPAUL University. My parents met there, and I grew up watching DePaul basketball.
  

I had a big "huh?" moment with 27A. Were you hoping for a fresh clue for EBOLI, like ["Don Carlos" princess]? Or were you hoping not to see that answer at all?

This one settled in at the usual Friday level of toughness for me. How about you?

Cathy Allis's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Roman Numerals"

Oh! Another Cathy Allis crossword. Seeing her name in the byline spurred me to go print out the last couple GeoPuzzles from National Geographic. (October's puzzle is about the Sahara and September's is orchids.)

The theme's got nothing to do with I, V, X, L, C, D, M Roman numerals—instead, it's the numbers used in modern Rome, in the service of puns:

• 17A. SERVING TRE (3) is [Waiting on a group at a Roman trattoria, perhaps?]. Pun on "serving tray."
  
• 28A. [What a double chorus could sing in a Roman church?] is OTTO (8) PARTS. Four members in each chorus, times 2. Pun on "auto parts." If you know a man named Otto, please do not think about his PARTS.
  
• 46A. [They might be found in a Roman hotel suite?] clues DUE (2) BIBLES. "Douay Bibles" is something. It's a "translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English."
  
• 60A. "Has one's say" turns into HAS ONE'S SEI (6), or [Equally shares a dozen Roman doughnuts?]. If I'm going to have my six doughnuts, it's going to take a concerted effort to eat them all.
  

Rome came into play elsewhere, too. LATIN is 52A: [Source of much legalese], ET TU is 23D: [Ides rebuke], ERAT is 23A: [Part of QED], and the TOGA is 50A: [Forum wrap]. Scooch over to France for ADIEU, or 26D: [Farewell], and to partially Francophone Canada for 45D: [Former Canadian Prime Minister Lester] PEARSON. Head back to Europe for ODESSA, a 33A: [Ukraine port], and the TSAR, or 55D: [Ruler's title derived from "Caesar"]. Then head down to the Middle East—EL AL is 13D: [Matmid Frequent Flyer Club airline], the RIYAL is 30D: [Saudi coin], and everybody's near Turkey. I wasn't sure which IRA* country I needed for 14A: [Neighbor of Turkey]—IRAQ or IRAN? It's IRAN here, but down at 59A, the other [Neighbor of Turkey] calls for IRAQ.

Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword

I love this "GO crazy" theme. There are five familiar phrases to which you can append a GO and completely change the gist of the phrase:

• 16A. [Tropical fruit that grows underground?] clues CAVE MANGO (caveman).
  
• 21A. [Church game played with cans and bottles?] is not a churchy variant of "Spin the Bottle" but rather, RECYCLE BINGO.
  
• 37A. SOUTHEAST ASIAGO is clued as an [Italian cheese from the Florida Keys?]. Who knew Southeast Asia and GO could combine so pungently?
  
• 44A. [Fled what was once Zaire?] is ESCAPED CONGO. This answer's not kidding around. If you'd like to help some of the many victims of the conflicts in the Democratic (!) Republic of Congo, considerWomen for Women International.
  
• 57A. MAYA LINGO is clued as [Jargon of ancient Yucatan?]. I hope architect Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, gets tipped off that she's famous enough not only to be in a crossword, but to have a theme entry riff on her name.
  

I went to onelook.com to find other ___go words that could lend themselves to this sort of theme. Sheepish grin(go). Clown car(go). "Hola, chica"(go). Deafening din(go). Duran(go) Duran(go), with lead singer Simon Le(go) Bon(go). A Bridge Too Far(go). "Ain't we got fun"(go). "Bain de Soleil for the St. Tropez tan"(go). So Dan didn't exhaust all the possibilities, no, but he did come up with a fun way to build a theme and created some surprising combos. The mental whiplash from Asia turning into ASIAGO and Maya Lin becoming MAYAN LINGO was terrific, just what I like in a late-week themed puzzle. Ideally, the non-theme clues would be tougher, but it was still a satisfying solve.

Highlights in the fill: DENNY'S restaurant, the TOP BRASS, ANN ARBOR, WHISPERS (clued well as [Library volumes?]), and T.S. GARP ([Fictional author of "The World According to Bensenhaver"] in the John Irving novel The World According to Garp).

Updated Friday morning:

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Just Visiting"—Janie's review

That is one beautiful, open grid. Don't let it frighten you! Yes, the word count is a low-end 72 (low-end for a themed puzzle), but don't let this frighten you either! In fact, any words of advice I can give you as you approach this puzzle can be paraphrased by incorporating today's theme-fill (if not the theme) itself. The theme sketches out the three phases of a visit with three little words in long and lively phrases. And they are:

• 16A. COME TO THE RESCUE [Engage in heroism]. When you see a puzzle with lots of long "across" fill, the "down" clues come to the rescue. They're your friends as you try to crack the longer fill.
• 34A. STAY THE COURSE [Remain focused]. Don't give up the ship. Just keep at it and you're likely to make your way to solving this one in its entirety.
• 53A. GO OFF THE DEEP END [Lose it]. Of course, for the purposes of constructive words of support, I'd amend this one to say: no need to go off the deep end! Solving is meant to be fun. Do your best to 34A it and you should be fine!

While perhaps not imbued with the immortality of "veni, vidi, vici," the tri-part "come, stay, go" will resonate with anyone who's been a house guest or been host to one—and the one-two (-three) punch made me laugh out loud. It also made me think of (what sounds to me like) the verse to "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" from the Marx brothers' Animal Crackers, which begins with Groucho's singing "Hello, I must be going." (This lyric is also the title of a Groucho biography). If you're unfamiliar with the song or would like a reminder of what zany is all about, this link's for you.

When a composer's or [Musical arranger's work]—a SCORE—has been performed particularly well or is particularly crowd-pleasing, the audience may register their enthusiasm by shouting "ENCORE!" in their quest for ["More!"]. Stage actors sometimes hear this after a performance. I imagine (Sir) LAURENCE [Actor Olivier] heard it more than once in his long and illustrious career.

While most of the cluing is pretty straightforward today, I'll just list some of the other fill that helped give this puzzle its oomph—namely, COCONUTS ([with "The"], the title of another Marx brothers movie in fact), TAPESTRIES, ANIMOSITY, JUICE and JOTTING, and TIME BOMB, of course. Some serious "oomph" there!

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Progressive Thinking—Flute solos optional"

The subtitle reminded me that Brendan was crowd-sourcing prog rock bands via Twitter and Facebook this week. So he wasn't looking for iTunes recommendations, he was looking for theme fodder. I ponied up with "ELO?" and was pleased to see it made the cut—repurposed as the chess term ELO RATING (36A: [Gary Kasparov's was 2853]). The other theme entries:

• 19A. ["Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Golden Axe"] are/were Sega GENESIS GAMES. I'm more familiar with Phil Collins–era Genesis; I know Peter Gabriel mostly as a solo artist. I had his 1992 album, but had no recollection of the cut "Steam" when the video played at a fairly gay bar Wednesday night. Is this somehow a classic gay bar video?
  
• 27A. TRAFFIC COP is a [Ticket issuer]. I confess I don't really know Traffic's oeuvre.
  
• 47A. Omigod, this clue and the crossings for the first two letters brought me to a dead halt. [Yankees broadcaster], (something) NETWORK? How the hell should I know what the Yankees broadcaster is called? 47D: [Montana has 40,551: Abbr.] killed me. I was thinking of the state (RDS.?) but that was wrong. 48D: [It's the same as an F], (something) SHARP, gotta be in A through G, but I don't know which letter is right because musical notation is so far out of my wheelhouse, I don't even know the way to that wheelhouse. RGS NETWORK? Er, no. I stopped the clock and went to Brendan's Facebook post to see what bands people suggested, looking for 3-letter names other than ELO. Still didn't see the answer. Eventually it dawned on me that Montana = quarterback Joe, that 40,551 would be too high a number for TDS, and the answer was YDS. Y*S, duh, YES NETWORK. Which I still don't know anything about. Why would I know that? Hmph.
  
• 53A. With RU in place, I figured RUSH (something) before I even read the clue. [Radio personality who s...]—LIMBAUGH. No need to read the rest of the clue.
  

My favorite word in the fill: 44D: OROGENY, or [Mountain-making process, in geology]. Orogeny recapitulates...no, that's not right. Someday I'll make a science nerd puzzle with OROGENOUS ZONES in it.

Harvey Estes' Wall Street Journal crossword, "Come Together"

The grid's got left/right symmetry instead of the standard rotational crossword symmetry, and the theme entries don't occupy much real estate. That means there's more room for lively fill, and Harvey's also loaded up on great clues. The drop-a-letter theme has a grander purpose—the letters dropped from each song title, in order, spell out something apt. Here's how the theme unfurls:

• 26A. [Song centered on a rooster?] drops an L from "Rock Around the Clock" to become ROCK AROUND THE COCK. When I got that answer and looked back at the puzzle's title, my eyebrow shot up.
  
• 42A. PIECE OF MY HART (Heart – E) is a [Song about a venison serving?].
  
• 61A. BAD ON THE RUN (Band – N) is a [Song about evil in retreat?].
  
• 80A. [Song about a jabberin' parent?] is RAMBLIN' MA (Man – N).
  
• 95A. [Song about a divine earthquake?] is GOD VIBRATIONS (Good – O). I hadn't figured this one out until after filling in the unifying LENNON at 125A, Had been thinking the song was "Gold (something)," so understanding the theme helped a bit.
  
• 113A. DOW-TOWN (Downtown – N) is a [Song about New York City and its investors?].
  
• 125A. John LENNON is clued [Letters dropped from six answers "come together" here], aptly using the Beatles song "Come Together" as part of the overall theme concept. Nice!
  

Among the zippier fill were words and phrases like GET BENT, DINGBAT, SHEBANG, and SOAPBOX, along with these ones with clues I enjoyed:

• 12D. [What happened?] HISTORY is what happened.
  
• 7D. POTATOES are [Shoestring material]. Oh, how I loved crunchy shoestring potatoes when I was a kid. If you were at the ACPT luncheon this year, TV chef Robert Irvine's "on a shoestring" potatoes were yummy. (And poor Andrea Carla Michaels had to peel potatoes on KP duty.)
  
• 68D. [Someone on the board] is SURFER. No board of directors here.
  
• 99D. [Medium alternative] in the psychic energy department is a OUIJA board.
  
• 105D. [Indian, e.g.] clues OCEAN. How many people went with ASIAN first?
  
• 90D. [One who has a guest for dinner?] is a CANNIBAL. This one definitely violates the dinner table test.
  
• 16D. Among constellations, PISCES is a [Star fish].
  
• 20A. [Its coat of arms features a bear, a deer and a moose] clues ONTARIO. Who knew? Do Canadians know this?
  

Overall, I'll give this puzzle a solid A for excellence.

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Friday, 8/28/09

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.

• 1A. "FREE TIBET" is a [Rallying cry supported by some monks], monks of the lama type rather than the Friar Tuck type.
  
• 17A. THE GRUDGE is a [2004 horror film about a passed-on curse]. Not the timeliest mention, but awesome nonetheless in a "this is not your father's Oldsmobile nor your grandma's crossword" way.
  
• 24A. [Chilled], idiomatically, means TOOK IT EASY.
  
• 53A. In a computer, [A bug may cause it] refers to a FATAL ERROR.
  
• 62A. I love the word SIMPATICO, which means [Congenial].
  
• 67A. The Beatles' PENNY LANE is [Where "all the people that come and go stop and say hello"]. You're kinda singing the song to yourself, aren't you? Me, too.
  
• 1D. FATHEAD is...not necessarily a word I'd ever use in lieu of [Dolt].
  
• 2D. Pop singer RIHANNA is a [One-named Grammy winner of 2007]. The clue may allude to two years ago, but she's every bit as current now. I still haven't heard that "Umbrella" song, though.
  
• 21D. JINXED combines J and X goodness, and it can mean [Under a whammy].
  
• 40D. Donna SHALALA called. She wants to know why she lost out to [Title syllables in a hit 1964 song]. "Sha la la, the Reflex, is a..."—sorry, wrong song. Also not to be confused with Sha Na Na, which I was reminded of by the BAD DOG clue, 7D: [Rebuke to Bowser].
  
• 47D. The U.S.S. COLE is the [Destroyer in 2000 headlines]. It's the one that was bombed in the port of crosswordese Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors. Aw, so sad. Also not the timeliest inclusion in the crossword, but any sooner and it would definitely have been too much.

Least familiar (to me) things in this puzzle:

• 63D. ["Que ___?" (Jose's "How's it going?"] needs TAL to be complete.
  
• 45D. ADELINA is the first name of [Legendary soprano ___ Patti]. See? That's totally a Saturdayesque entry.
  
• 13D. [Two-time president of Romania] is ILIESCU. Why, yes, I did first opt for the playwright Ionesco. Whoops.
  
• 30A. [He sighted and named Natal on Christmas Day of 1497] clues Vasco DA GAMA. Coming at that answer from the back end, I was working the crossings a lot.
  
• 22A. How much do I bristle at the random [Book of Mormon book] clues? So much. This one's Sheriff ENOS, ENOS the space chimp, ENOS from the Bible, and baseball's ENOS Slaughter. (Other 4-letter books in the Book of Mormon include Omni and Alma, but those, too, have other cluing options.)

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:

• 17A. [Aquaculture site for pearl producers] OYSTER FARM. A variation of this oyster farm is the controlled area for raising the mabe pearl producer, our friend the ABALONE [Edible mollusk].
• 10D. [Versatile pasta topping] CREAM SAUCE. Not pesto sauce...
• 30D. [Early-model bicycle, quaintly] BONESHAKER. This one's a beaut. This does refer to a specific bike style, but just think of a ride over cobblestones (on that uncomfortable, wrought-iron framed high-wheeler...) and the nuances of the phrase should be pretty apparent.
• 61A. [West African republic] IVORY COAST. Also two bars of soap...

There are some of the TAMEST, most EARNEST clues in this puzzle, but really there's a lot of good fill:

• If you're going for a SLED RIDE [Snowy day downhill diversion], you and your friends may want to have your LIP BALMS [Chapstick Classics, e.g.] handy. And it would be best to dress for the weather, lest you develop certain SYMPTOMS [Sore throat and sneezing, for a cold].
• An OPEN CASE is an [Unsolved burglary, e.g.].
• SAY "UNCLE" is a way to [Surrender, in a way]
• TIP-TOE is a way to [Walk quietly]
• DATA make up [Spreadsheet fill], which may be converted to GRAPHS [Sales meeting diagrams]
• INGOTS [Gold bars] provide a little sparkle, and CURRY [Indian seasoning] a little "zing."
  

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:

• 17A. [Insect's working hours?] is a TICK SHIFT. Yo, constructors, editors, and clue fact-checkers: Ticks are arachnids, not insects.
  
• 24A. [Seaman who saw it all?] is a TAR WITNESS. Crossword tropes (do you know anyone who uses "tar" to mean a sailor?) promoted to star billing always amuse me.
  
• 34A. [Split end?] clues TRESS FRACTURE. My son hasn't had a haircut since April '08—I'll bet he has a lot of split ends.
  
• 46A. [London museum's hidden camera locations?] is a TATE SECRET. I would have been delighted if this clue were about ad-man Larry of Bewitched. Or the Tate family of Soap, for that matter.
  
• 53A. [Where two-wheelers aren't allowed?] is the TRIKE ZONE. I have no explanation for why I first went with TRUCK. What familiar noun phrases begin with "struck"? In another version of this theme, you might have a TAR TRUCK.

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:

• 25D. POOHBAH! I love that word. POOHBAH and PASHA are both delightful. Clued here as [One running things].
  
• 17A. [Face plants?] is a tricky clue for BOTOX INJECTIONS, which may be planted in the face.
  
• 12D. [You can dig them] is a rather vague clue for the au courant phrase SHOVEL-READY JOBS. I've been surprised at the number of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act repaving jobs I've seen around town. Chicago has many potholed roads that haven't been redone, sure, but it's good to see a few arteries getting much-needed updating.
  
• 3D. GET INTO ONE'S HEAD is a solid, colloquial phrase, clued as [Gain a psychological advantage over an opponent, say].

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.

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Friday, 4/24

NYT 7:21
BEQ 4:30
LAT 3:52
CS 2:53
CHE (untimed)
WSJ 9:19

Happy birthday to three of my favorite puzzle people! Evad, Byron, and PuzzleGirl were all April 24 babies, as was my son. Luckily, only one of the four expects me to present him with Legos tomorrow.

Barry Silk's New York Times crossword

Apparently I shouldn't fritter away an hour on Lexulous and phone calls before making it to the puzzle, because I got trounced by Howard Barkin to the tune of 3 minutes plus, and 4 minutes plus by Dan Feyer ("fredwbear" clocked in between Howard and Dan but I don't know that I buy that 3:20 time.) I took any number of detours in this crossword—RENTA instead of ECONO [___-Car], CREW instead of NAVY for the [Sub group], LAST WEEK instead of LAST YEAR, BIOLOGY instead of ZOOLOGY for [Alfred Kinsey's field], and my favorite wrong turn, BIKINI instead of INNING for [It has top and bottom parts]. Either answer is good for that last one and they share a couple letters.

I was also looking for 18A [Running] to end with a long A sound (the answer turns out to be ON THE LAM) because it sits opposite FIND A WAY, and SUSAN DEY and ENOLA GAY ([Carrier of very destructive cargo]) are another pair of long-A rhymes.

My favorite clues and answers follow:

• 1A: [Now out...or "it"] is TAGGED, as in baseball...or tag.
  
• 7A: [Its flag features an image of a stone-carved bird] clues ZIMBABWE. Here's the flag. Wish I'd known this bit of trivia because it really would have paved the way in the northeast corner. Quibble about the clue: Shouldn't it be "carved-stone bird"?
  
• The northwest corner has not one but two Q's. T-SQUARES and AQUILINE ([Hooked, as a nose]) go down; SQUATS and QUAINT go across.
  
• 20A: [Jambalayas] clues OLIOS, and I'm not sure why. Is jambalaya slang for a miscellany or is olio an edible stew? Olio seems to be related to olla podrida, which is a stew.
  
• [Way up state?] isn't talking about a place in northern New York or a place like Tibet that's at a high elevation. It's MANIA, a state in which one is feeling up, way up.
  
• U.C. IRVINE is where some of my cousins went to school (the cousins who are friends with ACPTer Eric Maddy). I had no idea they were [The Anteaters of the Big West Conf.]. Their school T-shirts must be hilarious. Yep, they are.
  
• GUANACOS! These mammalian [Residents of dry, open country in South America] can be found at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans sharing living quarters with the crossword's second-favorite large bird, the rhea. Did you know male rheas sit on nests filled with a bunch of different females' eggs, and the females can cavort with other males while he's keeping watch over their eggs? Avian awesomeness.
  
• DST, or daylight saving time, is a [Reason to do a 2 a.m. shift] of your clocks' settings.
  

Answers I didn't know:

• Katarina Witt wants some respect. What's her last name doing assigned to [1984 perfect game pitcher Mike]?
  
• RIC completes [Rapper ___-A-Che]. The Cars' frontman Ric Ocasek and wrestler Ric Flair are feeling put out.
  
• GREGG is the [Texas county named for a Civil War general, with its seat in Longview]. Gregg shorthand and Gregg Allman want some props here.
  
• [What wisdom outweighs, according to Sophocles] is WEALTH. But if you're wealthy, you can have a YACHT ([Millionaire's plaything]). Wisdom doesn't buy a lot of yachts.
  
• I am part Lithuanian, sure, but I didn't know that [Like Old Prussian] would be BALTIC.
  
• EMMETT fills in the blank in [Daniel Decatur ___, minstrel who wrote "Dixie"].
  
• I got the M in [Physics Nobelist Simon Van der ___] MEER strictly by figuring out MANIA. That M gets my pick for toughest square.
  

Iffiness:

• [Pair of elephants?] is the BIG EARS possessed by elephants. I don't know that BIG EARS qualifies as a crossword-worthy phrase.
  

Updated Friday morning:

That rapper in the NYT puzzle, Ric-A-Che? I guess the name's supposed to be pronounced like "ricochet," but I see Che and hear the "Che Guevara" pronunciation. This puts me in mind of the little Pokemon critter called Pikachu, and I'm thinking that's not what any male over the age of 10 would wish his name to evoke.

Robert Wolfe's L.A. Times crossword

The theme doesn't seem to signaled in any way at all. Each theme entry contains an abbreviation for a road of some sort (abbreviations you'd see in a street address), but taking the place of words that aren't normally abbreviated in phrases. There's no hint that there will be abbreviations, no unifying entry whose clue explains it all. And that is why this puzzle's running on a Friday and no earlier in the week. Did you like the theme? It did not move me (or my car). Here's the theme:

• 18A: To [Speed?] is to BURN UP THE RD. (road).
  
• 24A: [Average Joe?] is a MAN ON THE ST. (street).
  
• 35A: [Badly fluster?] is DR. TO DISTRACTION (drive).
  
• 50A: [Excessive charge?] is HWY. ROBBERY (highway).
  
• 57A: [Way out?] is AVE. OF ESCAPE (avenue).
  

Does SOEVER work for 47A: [In any way] without a preceding what? My dictionary says yes: adverb, archaic or poetic/literary, "of any kind, to any extent." Hey, how did you like 51D: [Lincoln-to-Cheyenne direction]? Four letters...hmm, that won't work for something like NNE, so what could it be? Just plain ol' WEST. I don't recall seeing a cardinal direction clued in relation to the space between two geographic points before. 7D: [Edwards who played Ben Casey] is VINCE, and I sure didn't know that one.

Mike Torch's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Rock Festival"

All right! A puzzle for the geologically inclined out there! You don't see that too often. The theme answers are puns with the names of minerals (or a rock) substituted for words that sound similar:

• 17A: [Put a gem on display?] clues ROLL OUT THE BERYL. This is a play on the "Beer Barrel Polka," also called "Roll Out the Barrel" ("We'll have a barrel of fun"). When I was a kid, Chicago TV channels would have commercials for record compilations of polka hits. This one's the most memorable; the misogynistic, fat-phobic "Too Fat Polka (I Don't Want Her, You Can Have Her, She's Too Fat For Me)" is in second place. Did the rest of you learn polka from commercials, or is that a regional thing?
  
• I'm sorry—where were we? Oh, yes. 24A: [Man famous for his rock collection?] is MR. GNEISS GUY (Mr. Nice Guy). Gneiss is a metamorphic rock with a silent G.
  
• 43A: [Mineral used to build residences?] is HOUSE BLENDE. Blende is a mineral also called sphalerite. Pitchblende apparently is a different mineral. House-blend coffee is the base phrase here.
  
• 58A: [Sharpen a stone?] clues WHET ONE'S APATITE (appetite).
  

I did this one on paper last night while putting a birthday boy to bed, so I have no solving time to report.

Brendan Quigley's blog puzzle, "Going Through Hoops"

I finished the little bitty northwest corner, the PBJ/BOZO/JOSS stick corner, and moved along to 20A: [Sugar-covered peanuts]. Well, it doesn't take a Bostonian to know those are called BOSTON BAKED BEANS, but that wouldn't fit. It started with BOS, though, so that confirmed the answer and shouted "rebus" at me. "Hoops" in the puzzle's title? OK, so it's an NBA rebus. The other long rebus theme answers are AMERICAN BANDSTAND, which Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon appeared on a record 110 times. Is it OK that I've never heard of him? I know only Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington from Welcome Back, Kotter. Then there's BENJAMIN BANNEKER, the [African American mathematician who purportedly surveyed the District of Columbia. There's an extra rebus in the southeast corner, with no long answer anchoring it into place; Brendan wants to know if you felt that was fair. I wasn't on the hunt for symmetry, so I didn't mind it.

Among the flashiest answers were these:

• T AND A is [Some erotica, briefly]. T&A was also observed on Charlie's' Angels in the '70s, years before Baywatch added shirtless men to the T&A mix. Do those shows count as erotica? With Hasselhoff?
  
• EVAN BAYH is an [Indiana senator] with an NBA in his name.
  
• The Elton John song "ROCKET MAN" is a classic.
  
• RIGHT JABS [might set up crosses] in boxing.
  
• [Versatile musicians] are ONE-MAN BANDS.
  

Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Roomful of Roses"

Ray Hamel is one of those legends in the trivia world, and this puzzle's theme answers could be a tough trivia question: "What do BETTY WHITE, the KEWPIE DOLL, the country GEORGIA, BING CROSBY, and UMBERTO ECO have in common?" The word "rose" or the name "Rose" ties them all together:

• 17A: KEWPIE DOLL is a [Toy created by Rose O'Neill in 1909].
  
• 39A: GEORGIA was the [Site of the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003]. The Ukrainians had an Orange Revolution, and I don't know if Georgia's revolution is named after the flower or the color. Flowers, it turns out.
  
• 60A: UMBERTO ECO is the [Author of "The Name of the Rose"].
  
• 11D: BETTY WHITE [played Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls"]. Three colors in one clue/answer combo is a lot, isn't it?
  
• 28D: [Singer with the 1941 hit "San Antonio Rose"] didn't ring a bell for me, but it's the legendary crooner BING CROSBY.
  

A couple of the fill answers relate to rose, too. A [Rose supporter] is a STEM. WILTS is clued [Droops, like an old rose]. And SMELL completes the phrase ["Stop and ___ the roses"]. Unusual theme but not a difficult puzzle; good fill. Two thumbs up.

Harvey Estes' Wall Street Journal crossword, "The Bases Are Loaded"

Boy, I could've save myself a lot of time and mystification if only I'd paid attention to the puzzle's title. It didn't take me forever to find the rebus square with THIRD in it, and eventually I found FIRST, but it didn't occur to me that they were in symmetrical spots and would be accompanied by SECOND base and HOME plate, the four rebus squares forming a baseball diamond. I was just thinking of ordinal numbers. 'Tis the season for baseball themes, and even without the New York Sun delivering a barrage of them, there are still so many. (Sigh.)

The long theme entries weren't straightforward answers at all, so there was a gimmick underlying the gimmick:

• 24A: [Serious grilling by the cops?] clues MAJOR THIRD DEGREE. I know what the third degree is, but "major third" is a mystery. Hmm, it's one of those musical things I have no grasp of.
  
• 113A: [Historic way to increase women in the army?] is a "LADIES FIRST" DRAFT, joining "ladies first" and the first draft of a paper.
  
• 3D: [Western facility for seniors?] is a whopping 21 squares long: RETIREMENT HOME ON THE RANGE.
  
• 16D: [De Gaulle, early in his career?] is CHARLES THE SECOND LIEUTENANT, combining Charles the Second and a second lieutenant. Raise your hand if the collision of De Gaulle and something-LIEUTENANT made you try to get the guy from The French Lieutenant's Woman in there somewhere. This answer was tough to piece together because the rebus crossing was a cooked-up phrase while the other rebus crossings weren't: [Motion to secede endorsed for a vote?] clues SPLIT SECONDED. Ouch!
  

I'm past being out of time to blog this morning, so I'll sign off here. Hope your Friday will be unseasonably warm but not too hot!

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Friday, 3/20

BEQ 5:05
NYT 4:29
CHE 4:15
LAT 4:00
CS 2:55
WSJ 7:20

I tell ya, I kept trying to write the word BONE at the end of a phrase in David Levinson Wilk's New York Times crossword, and the first two times it was wrong. Third time's the charm! In this magnificent puzzle, there are 10 15-letter answers criss-crossing all over the place. Most of them cluster in the two triple-stacks in the middle of the grid—and that, my friends, is a difficult feat to pull off. Mr. Levinson Wilk doesn't stop there, though—oh, no. He further frames the puzzle with another 15 near each edge, which intersect the triple-stacks. These 10 long phrases are all marvels, too—not a dry noun with a boring clue in the lot:

• 17A. [Their parts are usually unusual] clues CHARACTER ACTORS.
  
• 32A. [Not merely having wet clothes] means SOAKED TO THE SKIN. At first I had SOAKED TO THE BONE here. No...
  
• 39A. [Later] clues AT SOME OTHER TIME. This is probably the worst of the long answers, and it's really not bad.
  
• 40A. To FILL IN THE BLANKS is to [Provide what's missing]—or complete a crossword puzzle. Perfect answer to find in a crossword.
  
• 56A. To [Just know] something is to FEEL IN ONE'S BONES. The BONE I wanted in 32A and 6D finally found its rightful home.
  
• 3D. [They include amaretto and sloe gin] clues the mixed drinks called ALABAMA SLAMMERS. My god, those sound painfully syrupy.
  
• 6D. ROTTEN TO THE CORE (not ___ TO THE BONE, as I first thought) means [As bad as can be].
  
• 7D. To [Get all dapper] is to DRESS TO THE NINES.
  
• 8D. [Very close, in a way] clues ACROSS THE STREET. This is maybe a tad arbitrary as phrases that are kosher for crosswords go—it's not quite an established phrase the way "across the board" or "on the streets" are.
  
• 11D. This one was a gimme that helped fill in the Across triple-stack: STOP MAKING SENSE is the seminal [1984 Talking Heads concert film and hit album].
  

The rest of the puzzle consists of the 3-, 4-, and 5-letter words that cement the 15's into place. Here are the more unusual ones and the ones with the tough clues.

• 5A. ["___ Warning" ("Das Rheingold" aria)] clues ERDA'S.
  
• 16A. We've seen the UTNE Reader in plenty of puzzles, but not the [___ Independent Press Awards].
  
• 20A. [Hero, to some] is a PO'BOY sandwich. Yum. I'm going to have po'boys at least twice in New Orleans over spring break in April.
  
• 24-25A. [Surreal beginning?] and [Surreal ending?] are the letter ESS and the suffix ISM, respectively. The constructor credits Will Shortz for those clues.
  
• 44A. [Series standout, briefly] is an MVP, as during the World Series.
  
• 60A. FREER is clued as [Less formal]. Boy, the -ER part of that answer was easy, but I was stuck on the rest.
  
• 62A. SASS is a [Reason for parental scolding]. Oh, yes indeed, it sure is.
  
• 4D. [The Emperor, The Empress or The High Priest] meant nothing to me, but with the final T in place, I wagered it was TAROT.
  
• 5D. [Condensation indication] must be DEW, right? Nope. It's ETC., which indicates that a listing is being condensed.
  
• 27D. TOTIN' is clued in just about the only way it could be: [Gun-___ (like Yosemite Sam)].
  
• 30D. You up on your 25-year-old pop culture trivia? [Carol Kane's role on "Taxi"] was SIMKA. She was Andy Kaufman's character Latka's wife or girlfriend.
  
• 34D. I really hope some solvers misinterpreted [Virgin's parent] and didn't think first of the record label. EMI is the answer.
  

And how about the look of the empty grid? You know how a comic strip character looks alarmed? With short lines radiating outward from their head? The two-square dashes at the outer edges make the grid look surprised—as well they should, because it is a surprising grid to behold. It also looks a little like that wooden labyrinth game, only without a hole in the middle for the marble to drop into. Well done, Mr. Levinson Wilk. More soon, please.

This week's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword by Joon Pahk plays a game with famous paintings. In "Talking Pictures," the theme answers are made-up phrases that sound like the names of paintings, but are spelled differently:

• Botticelli's Birth of Venus becomes THE BERTH OF VENUS, or a [Painting that depicts a divine sleeper car].
  
• Monet's Water Lilies is transformed into "WHAT ARE LILIES?" I'm one of those who says water with an "aw" sound and what with a schwa, though apparently the "ah" sound works for both words too. The clue is [Painting that depicts the answer to a horticultural "Jeopardy!" question?]—though the game show lingo would have that say it depicts the question for an answer. (And the game show lingo is goofy.)
  
• [Painting of Don Quixote?] is THE STARRY KNIGHT, playing on Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. Now, Quixote is indeed starry-eyed, but I'm not sure that starry without the -eyed means the same thing.
  

Joon's filled out the grid with an assortment of 7-, 8-, and 9-letter answers. [Horrifically unpleasant] clues BEASTLY, but GHASTLY fits most of the crossings too. CARACALLA was a [Nefarious 3rd-century Roman emperor]. I need to work on honing my nefariousness. My favorite spot is where a WORMHOLE, or [Hypothetical space-time shortcut], butts up against the HOOSEGOW, or [Slammer]. Favorite clue: [Proceed on foot?] with a question mark means to HOP on one foot; without the question mark, you're merely walking on two feet.

Updated:

I'm reading the galley proof of Dean Olsher's upcoming book, From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords. (Available for preorder.) In one digression, Dean delves into the differences between Will Shortz and Peter Gordon's editing choices, as demonstrated in two versions of a puzzle by Anthony Salvia that were inadvertently accepted for publication by more than one paper. The NYT version came second and appeared online briefly before it was replaced by a different puzzle—but the mix-up allows for an interesting dissection of the two editors' styles. (Which you'll have to buy the book to read—my blog only touched on it briefly.)

I mention this because Anthony Salvia's name popped up in the byline of today's colorful LA Times crossword. The two Across theme entries at the top and bottom are clued in parallel with each other, one red and one blue, as are the two loner Down theme entries at the sides. The middle theme entry combines [Red and blue states?] into PURPLES. The unmingled color clues are as follows:

• 18A. BANKRUPTCY could be called a [Red state?].
  
• 60A. Melancholy is a [Blue state?].
  
• 4D. [In a red state?] clues EMBARRASSED.
  
• 27D. [In a blue state?] is FROZEN SOLID. I started out with FROZEN STIFF.
  

Red states and blue states, of course, more commonly refer to states that vote Republican and Democratic, respectively. I often find myself seeing red a little bit when it comes to the Friday LAT puzzle—I have trouble parsing the clues but not in an enjoyable way (vs. usually liking the toughest clues in a Saturday NYT). But not today—the puzzle took about as long as most Friday LATs, but the clues were more my style. For example:

• [Catch lots of rays?] clues BAKE. Perhaps BASKing involves a smaller number of UV rays than getting BAKEd?
  
• AHEM is clued with ["May I say something?"].
  
• The ALTAR is a [Site for a union meeting?].
  
• [They're tightened during hard times] clues BELTS. Apparently I neglected to read the entire clue because I had BOLTS at first.
  
• [It might be heard from one going to court] clues SERENADE. Here, "court" is the wooing verb, not the noun. Great mislead.
  
• [Language suffix?] is SPEAK. As in doublespeak, valspeak.
  
• [South American carrier] isn't the airline VARIG, it's a LLAMA.
  
• The ORYX is a [Desert antelope]. It's also an award given to memorable crosswords.
  
• An OLIVE is a [Pimiento container, possibly].
  
• If you're NOSY, you are [Inappropriately involved].
  
• NUDNIK is a great word. It's clued as an [Annoying type].
  

There's also a bit of crosswordese here, too. OSIER is a [Basket maker's supply]. It took me many years to remember that the basketry willow is OSIER while the ORIEL is a projecting bay window. I used to plug in the three vowels and wait for the crossings to point me towards the correct word.

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy crossword, "Mail Call," is really easy. I solved this one in Across Lite by filling in Down entries in sequence. I skipped over theme entry 10D, [Sitting Bull was on his show], and wasn't sure what to do with 48D, ["Speak up!"], but everything else was filled in quickly, with glances at some of the Across clues along the way. BUFFALO BILL required two Across clues for the B and U before I figured out what the answer would be. And SAY IT demanded a look at all five crossings. The theme is things that come in the mail, which are found at the end of the four longest answers. There's the bill to pay in BUFFALO BILL, along with these three:

• [It can get swiped by its owner] refers to a CREDIT CARD, and you get greeting cards in the mail.
  
• The RADIO FLYER is a [Classic wagon] for kids. Various advertising flyers clutter our mailboxes.
  
• A [Sans-serif character] may be a BLOCK LETTER, and alas, most of the letters I get in the mail are form letters and not personal correspondence.
  

Brendan Quigley's puzzle is called "Look Again: Nope, keep looking" because looking—or seeing—is at the heart of the theme. The three longest answers are clued with nothing but cross-references to other shorter answers, but in order to make sense out of this, you need to mentally insert see before the shorter answer. The resulting "see ___" phrase serves as a proper clue for the long answer. To wit:

• The 17A clue is [See 69-Across]. That clue is [Deeply blushing], or RED. To "see red" is to BECOME TICKED OFF.
  
• The 38A clue is [See 26-Down], whose clue is [Completed], or THROUGH. To "see through" someone is to NOT BE FOOLED BY them.
  
• 62A instructs you to [See 49-Across], which is STARS, or [Hollywood Walk of Fame sights]. To "see stars" is to HAVE A CONCUSSION. 
  

The theme answers don't meet the usual criteria for crossword fill, as they're not smoothly worded stand-alone phrases. But they're examples of a clue/answer reversal theme, where the theme answers could pass for clues for the shorter phrases lurking in the clues—only in this case, the shorter phrase has been split in two and plunked into the grid without the SEE part. Does that make sense as I've explained it? I hope so.

Highlights: The JOB JAR is a [Democratic way of assigning chores]. To BELLYACHE means to [Whine]. One sort of [Development area] is a PHOTO LAB. Brendan makes use of a new clue alternative for JAI: ["___ Ho" (2009 Best Original Song)] refers to the Oscar-winning song from Slumdog Millionaire. There's still no zippy clue for ALAI, but at least JAI has a workable option besides [___ alai] now. Interesting quote: ART ["___ is never finished, only abandoned": Leonardo da Vinci]. DOTS is clued as the [Classic pencil-and-paper game]—I gotta remember to teach this one to my son.

Lowlights: The junky little words that glue the better stuff into place include AGAR, RELET, the E.T.O., SOO clued as ["And your point being...?"] (rather than Jack Soo or the Soo Canals, which are mighty boring). Also CRUSHER clued as the [Final blow]—nobody says that in my circle, but there are junkyard crushers and crusher hats.

Harvey Estes constructed this week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "English Muffing." In this entertaining theme, various English phrases are muffed by the addition of a G to the end:

• 26A. [Orange-flavored stout drink?] is a BLACK AND TANG. A Black and Tan combines a stout like Guinness and an ale or lager like Bass or Harp. Tang was my favorite reconstituted powdered beverage when I was a kid. Way more astronaut cachet than Kool-aid.
  
• 46A. [Mild yet firm oath?] clues STEELY DANG. Steely Dan is most often seen in crosswords when their album AJA is in the fill.
  
• 60A. [Monarch with intimates?] is KITH AND KING.
  
• 80A. A [Cookie jar?] might be a WAFER THING.
  
• 102A. [What a remorseful torturer thinks about?] is the RACK AND RUING.
  
• 16D. [Promotion that isn't deserved?] is an UNEARNED RUNG on the career ladder.
  
• 56D. [Arizona Diamondback's weapon?] is a BASEBALL FANG. The Diamondbacks are an MLB team and diamondbacks are rattlesnakes with fangs.
  

This puzzle has four cool sections of stacked 7-letter answers. In one such segment, the Filipino [Language that gave us "boondocks"], TAGALOG, crosses TAG ALONG, or [Come too]. Back before I knew anyone who spoke Tagalog, I was fond of the language simply because I thought of it whenever I snacked on those Girl Scout cookies called Tagalongs. (Crunchy cookie, peanut butter creme, and chocolate coating? I want some now!)

Favorite clues:
[High-level conflict] is a DOGFIGHT fought high in the air among planes.
[They have high crowns] clues TOP HATS.
An ANECDOTE is a [Short story].
[Breathless?] is DEAD, and the very next clue is [Leave breathless], or AWE.
SNOW is a [Wet blanket].
[Relief pitcher's goal] is to get the SAVE. Right below it in the grid is SALE, clued as a [Pitcher's goal].
[They show what they've got] clues FLASHERS. Flashers are icky and should be procecuted to the fullest.
HERCULES is a [Labor leader?].
[It's a wrap] clues a DIAPER.
The decennial CENSUS is indeed a [Big count].

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Friday, 2/27

Sun (untimed, drat) — It's not too late to subscribe to the Sun and do this cool crossword
NYT 6:25
CHE 3:38
BEQ untimed
WSJ 12:02
LAT 6:59

This is my last post 'til post-ACPT, most likely. I will see some of you at the tournament, and the rest of you will be entertained here by the bloggy stylings of Joon. Be nice to him, will ya? Thanks!

Mark Diehl's Sun crossword, "Think Twice," is Peter Gordon's way of going out with a bang and reminding us of how many truly exceptional crosswords he has edited and published. This is the final Sun puzzle until a possible vague future date, and it's a doozy. (It's in the running for the year's coolest gimmick crosswords.) It was kids' TV programming that tipped me off to the rebus gimmick—[Miranda Cosgrove TV character surnamed Shay] could only be CARLY, but there were four squares. With 12-Down being an adverb, the LY had to be the rebus square—and [With prudence] sounded like SAGELY, which would fit with two letters per square. Would you look at that? The entire grid is framed with rebus squares, 44 of them in all. The edges of the puzzle are DOUBLE-EDG[ED] in a sense—and [RA]ZOR BLADES and BROADSWORDS can also be double-edged. So there's a full-fledged theme to elegantly explain the point of having the rebus squares around the edge.

You know what? I believe Diehl's puzzle has more than 225 letters in its answers, though there are only 225 white and black squares. No wonder it took a while to finish! My favorite answers were the double-packed ones, like CORN CHEX, THE SCORE, and MONA LISA in four squares apiece and ED KOCH in three. Would you believe the music world has a non-Brian ENO? Yep, it's [Spoon drummer Jim]. Overall, a cool crossword packed with Friday-worthy clues, and a fitting valedictory for the crossword snob's breed of crossword.

If you'd like Peter to bring the Sun puzzle back some day, and you'd be willing to pay an annual subscription fee (just 20¢ per puzzle!) for these fine crosswords, click here to sign up. I was #7, and I expect that number to skyrocket now that I'm exhorting you to signal your interest, too.

The New York Times crossword by Joe DiPietro has a fearsome-looking grid, doesn't it? Triple-stacked 15's at the top and bottom, and not with dead-giveaway clues? Yow. (Another "yow" is likely in store for the Saturday puzzle. Will likes to make a splash during tournament weekend.) Here are the six big girls:

• [Bygone flag] is THE STARS AND BARS.
  
• [Think a certain way about] clues HAVE AN OPINION ON.
  
• [Make a call] is USE THE TELEPHONE. It's in the language as a verb phrase, yes, but it looks weird in the puzzle.
  
• [Much of Central America, once] was BANANA REPUBLICS.
  
• ["This would be a first for me"] clues I'VE NEVER TRIED IT. This is one of those spoken phrases that isn't remotely a dictionary entry, but that I like to see in the puzzle.
  
• [Trading posts?] are GENERAL MANAGERS. Stock trading? Baseball trading? I don't know.
  

Now, here are my favorite clues. Sometimes favorite because of cleverness, and sometimes favorite owing to the sheer cussedness of a hard clue. And also, let's have some answers I liked.

• [Cover girl, e.g.?] is a SPY with a cover.
  
• [Laid-back] is TYPE B, with the unexpected B at the end. It crosses PLUMB, or [Downright]. Love the word plumb.
  
• The [Time being] is the NONCE. Great word.
  
• [Mammonism] clues GREED. Hey, a clue I could answer without a zillion crossings! Much appreciated.
  
• [1960s-'70s touchdown maker] is a LEM, or lunar excursion module that touched down on the moon. No football here.
  
• [Beat but good] clues THUMP. Also a cool word.
  
• [Can't continue] was kinda tough because HAS TO STOP is an unusual answer. Same with [Withdrew quietly] for WENT ASIDE.
  
• [Relating to wheels] is inferrable thanks to "rotary," but who ever uses the word ROTAL? Not I.
  
• [Emulates Eve] clues RAPS. Great clue—not Bible Eve, but the rapper named Eve.
  
• BORED is clued as [Yet to be engaged?]. I like that clue.
  
• You don't see a lot of abbreviated long answers. [It's a little over 65 degrees: Abbr.] refers to the ARCTIC CIR., or circle. Degrees of latitude, I presume.
  
• [Things that open and close yearly?] are WYES, as in the plural of the spelled-out name of the letter Y.
  
• NAMIBIA is the [Home of Walvis Bay]. What else was it gonna be with the NA at the beginning? It sounds Australian to me, though.
  
• G.I. JANE was a [1997 Demi Moore flick]. Great entry.
  
• Very few of us know that REBURN is a [Co-firing technique used to reduce pollution from electrical power plants].
  
• Are you up on your old Greek currency? [Pennies : dollar :: ___ : drachma] clues LEPTA. I needed every single crossing.
  
• Who doesn't like a rainbow or sunbow? [Producers of sunbows] are MISTS. Don't ask why I started with MOONS here.
  

Tom Heilman's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Drama Queens," has a theme of Hollywood trivia. What [Royal role] has been played by four different actresses, two of them portraying her twice? ELIZABETH I, that's who. BETTE DAVIS chalked up her queen roles in 1939 and 1955 and CATE BLANCHETT played Elizabeth in 1998 and 2007. The same year that Blanchett was nominated for an Oscar for playing Elizabeth, so was JUDI DENCH—she played an older Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love and won the Best Supporting Actress trophy. And GLENDA JACKSON played her in 1971.

A few non-theme clues:

• [Brno was once its capital] clues MORAVIA, a region in what's now the Czech Republic.
  
• To [Take a shot?] in a shot glass is to IMBIBE.
  
• [Terminus a ___] QUO looks to be Latin, and I don't know what it means. Speaking of Latin, CICERO is the ["In Verrem" speaker].
  
• [Disrespectful replies] clues the mass noun SASS.
  
• [Got too old for] is OUTGREW.
  
• ELIJAH was the [Biblical prophet fed by ravens].
  
• [Jörgen's wife, in an Ibsen play] is HEDDA Gabler.
  

updated 10:30 pm EDT by joon:

dan naddor's LA times crossword has a fun wordplay theme in which AR gets added to the beginning of an existing R word:

• [Spiff up the family dog?] is ARRANGE ROVER.
  
• [Milestone in St. Louis history?] is ARCH ARRIVAL. (i'm quite sure it was built there, rather than just arriving from somewhere else.) this answer tripped me up because i was thinking the first AR was the wordplay, but in fact it was the second one. nice answer, though. the ARCH is absolutely spectacular. on a related note, not two hours ago i flew into dulles airport, the main terminal of which was also designed by crossword hero EERO saarinen. it's also one of my favorite buildings in america.
  
• [Weapon for a medieval assassin?] is MURDERER'S ARROW, playing on the term "murderer's row," which i associate with the 1927 yankees. this was my favorite theme answer.
  
• [Places for bookings?] are ARREST ROOMS. larry craig has no comment.
  
• [Lineup of battery terminals?] is CATHODE ARRAY. one the plus side (no pun intended—you have to believe me!), we aren't often treated to CATHODE in the grid; usually ANODEs dominate. on the minus side, this answer doesn't do much for me, even though i'm about to teach circuits next week.
  

the even-length MURDERER'S ARROW necessitated an oversize 15x16 grid, but i didn't mind. lots of good stuff in the fill, including retired hitters DARRYL strawberry and hall-of-famer ROD CAREW, plus petco park's PADRES to round out the baseball mini-theme. more circuits (AMMETER), and some biology (PABA, or [Vitamin B-10], and AMOEBA). chemistry wanted to have its place, too, but DIMERS was clued as [Nickel-and-___: nitpickers].

old-school crosswordese: PROAS are [Indonesian outriggers]. unfamiliar names: ["The Shoes of the Fisherman" author] MORRIS west, [Innovative bebop drummer] MAX ROACH, and ['90s FDA commissioner] KESSLER. also, could somebody explain why EOS are [Prez's decrees]? i would have liked to see a mythology clue there.

today's brendan emmett quigley crossword, "Hello Brooklyn! -- Natives only," has a fun "welcome to ACPT" theme. words with ER sounds get changed to OI sounds, as if spoken with a thick brooklyn accent:

• [Brooklynites approach to the Atkins diet?] is LIVE AND LOIN.
  
• [Brooklyners ventriloquism technique?] is BLANK VOICE.
  
• [Cheers bartender Woody's slimy menu addition, in his new Brooklyn bar?] is OILY BOYD SPECIAL. sure, the clue is tortured as all hell, but this was a fun one, with two sound transformations. also, anything reminiscent of former red sox pitcher oil can boyd (no relation to OIL CAN HARRY of mighty mouse fame) is a good thing.
  
• [Brooklyn burger caper?] is PATTY HOIST, playing on patty hearst, who was abducted by the semiconscious liberation army.
  
• [Push carcinogens in Brooklyn?] is FOIST POISON, playing on "first person." i don't think this one works as well, because POISON has a Z sound in the middle, whereas "person" has an S sound. still, props for trying for another double-transformation answer.
  

my favorite fill was the cluster of F-words (no, not that kind) in the top part of the grid, with FANJETS and FLAG DAY and the vowel-dropping website FLICKR. although actually, the F there did cross DFL, or [Like the contestant who came in 699 out of 699 entrants, initially]. hint: D = dead, L = last. so maybe yeah, that kind of F-word.

impenetrable to me: [Band leader of the "Centerfold" band] JGEILS (i don't even know how to parse this—or maybe it's just one name anyway?) next to ["Beauty and the Beat" rapper] EDAN.

harvey estes's wall street journal crossword, "male bonding," has a cool theme that's a little tricky to explain. it's kind of like the "before & after" jeopardy! category in that an expression which ends with a certain word is joined to an expression which starts with the same word, but in this case, the middle (shared) word is always a word which could generically mean a male person:

• [Vacation spot that was built more recently?] is LATER DUDE RANCH ("later, dude" + dude ranch).
  
• [Muppet game show host with all the answers?] is WISE GUY SMILEY. two thumbs up for this answer.
  
• [Cowboy star cheating at hide-and-seek?] is PEEPING TERRELL OWENS. no, just kidding—it's PEEPING TOM MIX. but terrell is jealous of the attention that tom is getting instead of him.
  
• [Like streakers?] is FAST BUCK NAKED. you know, in the original olympics, they competed in all of the events, including footraces, wearing nothing but olive oil.
  
• [What Jeb might call Dubya?] is MAMA'S BOY GEORGE. i emit a tehee at this one, too, mostly at the incongruous juxtaposition of W with boy george.
  
• [Strange pinko?] is ODD FELLOW TRAVELER. i confess that i don't understand what "pinko" has to do with "fellow traveler."
  
• the best theme answer is [Praise for a scholar?], or YOU DA MAN OF LETTERS.
  

this one definitely gave me a stiffer workout than recent WSJ puzzles. the toughest area was the NE, where YOU DA MAN was quite difficult to parse, and was also surrounded by vague and/or tricky clues. my favorite was [Thatcher follower]. john MAJOR refused to fit, because the answer is tom SAWYER, who tailed after his crush becky thatcher puppy-dog style. also, OILCAN makes another appearance in this puzzle; chalk up another point for crosssynchronicity.

goodness, it's already 11:20 and i'm just finishing the friday blogging. the saturday puzzle has already been out for 80 minutes! will hop right to it.

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Wednesday, 11/26

Tausig 6:15
Sun 3:57
Onion 3:53
LAT 3:20
NYT 3:07
CS 2:32

(updated at 5:25 p.m. Wednesday)

Harvey Estes' New York Times crossword hits the Wednesday sweet spot with an elegant theme, a low word count (72 answers = themeless grade), and colorful fill and clues. 57-Across is OLE, defined as [49-Across, in this puzzle]. 49-Across is THE LAST HURRAH, a [1958 Spencer Tracy film...and a hint to 20-, 30- and 39-Across]. Those three answers all end with a last hurrah, a final olé, and in each one the pronunciation is different:

• HOLY GUACAMOLE is clued ["Zounds!"], and its OLE portion rhymes with HOLY.
  
• PETER O'TOOLE is the perennial Oscar loser who's an [Eight-time Best Actor nominee]. His OLE is part of O'TOOLE, rhymes with fool.
  
• The [Boneless entree] FILET OF SOLE rhymes with hole.
  

Here's what I liked best outside of this finely wrought theme;

• TAP WATER is clued as the [Meaning of "one on the city," in diner lingo]. Here's more diner lingo if you're interested.
  
• GO AFTER ([Chase]) is one of those two-word phrases that looks weird mashed up in the grid. 
  
• PR MEN are some [Image crafters], and that pile-up of consonants threw me off.
  
• A love letter or [Billet-doux] is a MASH NOTE.
  
• BLOOD RED gets clued as a [Vivid valentine color], making this the corner for all your written forms of pitched woo. 
  
• BAGMAN! That's the [Mob's money collector]. What's he doing in the same puzzle as Nelson MANDELA (["Long Walk to Freedom" writer]) and Lech WALESA ([Non-head of state who addressed a 1989 joint session of Congress])? Those guys won the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• AS A FAVOR is clued [Expecting no payment]. I kinda feel like the clue needs a "for" tacked onto it or something.
  
• [Missing] is just plant NOT THERE.
  
• [Sacagawea, for one] was a GUIDE.
  

If you haven't been doing crosswords too long, you might not know that FALA was the name of the [F.D.R. dog], or that a SETA is a [Bristlelike part], such as on a caterpillar.

Alan Arbesfeld's Sun puzzle is called "Catching Some Rays" because each theme entry has some sort of ray or Ray hidden within it:

• Johnny [Rotten, e.g.] is a PUNK ROCKER, and Ray Kroc's last name is hiding in that phrase.
  
• FOCAL LENGTH is a [Telescope measure], and my husband assures me that Ray Allen is a famous basketball player.
  
• Comedian Ray Romano lurks within MICROMANOMETERS, or [Instruments for measuring minute differences in pressure].
  
• One [WWII vehicle] is the SHERMAN TANK, and a manta ray is swimming in there.
  
• The [Homestretch] is the FINAL PHASE, and if gamma rays exist, I suppose there must be something called alpha rays.
  

Did you ever think that NEO CON could possibly be the answer to ["Sweet ___" (2005 Rolling Stones song)]? This came as a complete surprise to me. The song's got a Wikipedia page devoted to it. (Lyrics here.)

Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword combines an AEIOU vowel progression theme with an add-some-letters theme with interesting results:

• A rock band adds ANA to become ROCK BANDANA, [Item worn by Bruce Springsteen to keep his hair out of his eyes].
  
• [DNA marker that indicates a tendency to be killed, as on "South Park"] is the KENNY GENE. Kenny is the South Park character who is killed all the time. Add ENE to saxophonist Kenny G and you get the theme entry. (Another South Park reference: ["Mr. Hankey, the Christmas ___"] POO.)
  
• Minimart + INI = MINI MARTINI, a [Drink in which the olive takes up most of the space in the glass. Hey, I know a place that sells Minnie martinis. Their sandwiches are all mini-sized and you can get 7 oz. of beer for $2, but I don't know if the martinis are mini too.
  
• [Revealing garment for a geisha?] is a LIL KIMONO. Coincidentally, Lil' Kim sometimes wears what appear to be incredibly revealing li'l kimonos of a sort, as seen here.
  
• Capri Sun juice drinks + UNU = CAPRI SUNUNU, [Outgoing GOP Senator on an Italian island vacation?].
  

Updated:

Robert Doll's LA Times crossword contains five theme phrases that mean [Vamoosed]: FLEW THE COOP, MADE TRACKS, GOT OUT OF DODGE, HIT THE ROAD, and TOOK A POWDER. All are idiomatically equivalent as well as making for colorful language. Clues that took some work to get:
[Lou "The ___" Groza, memorable NFL placekicker] is nicknamed The TOE. That's apt, but I'd never heard of him.
[Art from Pompeii?] wants you to return to ancient Pompeii, where Latin, not Italian, was spoken. The noun art in Latin is ARS, as in "ars longa, vita brevis."
[Horse variety?] is GIFT, as in "don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
[Providence athletes] are FRIARS? Really? Both the men's and women's teams are the Friars.

Tom Schier's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Interior Living Quarters," hides four different ABODEs (58-Across) inside the theme entries:

• SPINACH OMELET, or [Breakfast dish with vegetables and eggs], hides HOME,
  
• [Craps shooter's action] is ROLL OF THE DICE, with an embedded LOFT.
  
• They've built a CONDO inside SECOND OPINION, or [Advice from another doctor or lawyer].
  
• A lowly HUT is inside SEARCH UTILITY, clued as [It helps you find things online]. I would've thought it was for helping you find things offline on your computer.
  

We see HOI in the grid with a "___ polloi" clue plenty, but having POLLOI clued as [Hoi ___ (the masses)] is unusual. Old crosswordese ANIL pops up from time to time; here it's clued as an [Indigo-producing shrub].

The Tausig puzzle will have to wait until after this morning's third grade spectacular at my son's school.

Updated again:

I confess it took me a long time to understand the theme in Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle at all. The title is "The Short List," and here are the theme entries:

• [Britney, e.g.?] is a K-FED EX. This combines Kevin Federline's nickname with Fed Ex.
  
• [Trying to find a Yankee third baseman with a stick?] is DIVINING A-ROD. You've got a divining rod crossed with Alex Rodriguez's nickname, A-Rod.
  
• [Decision between buying some caviar or a Miami Heat star's basketball card?] is ROE V. D-WADE. D-Wade, the Google tells me, is Dwyane Wade's nickname. I've heard of Wade, but not the nickname. Roe v. Wade—that I know.
  
• [Meat-cutting device for an indie singer-songwriter?] is M. WARD CLEAVER. M. Ward is a singer-songwriter not of my acquaintance. Ward Cleaver from Leave It to Beaver is familiar, though.
  
• [What the tabloids desperately searched for after a noted 2008 pregnancy?] was J-LO FAT. Jennifer Lopez + low-fat bastardized by having its W ripped out. Somehow "lo-cal" doesn't bug me, but "lo-fat" looks wrong.
  

So I guess the crossword's called "The Short List" because these phrases build off of five shortened names. I feel old and out of touch having zero familiarity with 40% of 'em.

In the fill, there's a slew of juicy answers. THE VIEW, a DOVE BAR, and STIR-FRY occupy one corner. TV STAR and ACT TWO each have a four-consonant pile-up. GODCAST, a [Neologism for a holy download], is new to me. My dictionary informs me that COMFIT is a dated word—it means [European fruit candy] or, according to that dictionary, a "candy consisting of a nut, seed, or other center coated in sugar." Seeds? Damn near killed me having that M crossing the unknown-to-me M. WARD. BAKR fills in the blank in [Abu ___ (Muslim leader after Muhammed)].

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