BG 8:27
NYT 8:22
PI 7:18
LAT 6:47
CS 4:43
Happy half-birthday (the 42½th) to baseball player Scott Brosius! He and I are the same age. Watch out for the crossword about us in the year 2166.
Jim Leeds' New York Times crossword is called "Double-O Seven" because there are seven theme entries in which an O has been doubled to change the meaning of a phrase. Double-O is inherently a fun letter combo, if you ask me—that's why I'm so tempted to change "dude" into "dood." And look at the double double-O words— boo-boo, choo-choo, doo-doo, The Goo Goo Dolls, "koo koo ka choo," the Teletubbies' Noonoo, pooh-pooh, Scooby-Doo, "The Shoop-Shoop Song," too-too, Cubs fan Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers. OO is gOOd stuff, I'm telling yoo.
Here are the theme entries:
Let's take a look-see. What else is in this puzzle?
Updated:
Pamela Awick Klawitter's syndicated Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword (which is not the one in the LA Times itself, but a crossword syndicated to other papers) is called "Snake in the Grass" because there's an ASP (107-Down) hiding in seven long theme answers. For example, SARATOGA SPRINGS is a [New York city with a famous racetrack] and SEA SPRAY is a [Windy day phenomenon near the shore].
Among the less familiar answers and trickier clues in this puzzle's non-theme fill are:
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer crossword, "Literally Speaking," interprets common idiomatic phrases as if the speaker tacked on the word "literally," without regard for the inaptness of using "literally" in that setting. Misuse of "literally" is one of my pet peeves, so this theme was right up my alley. Here are my favorite theme answers:
If you want to read more about "literally" and its long history of being used as an intensifier in non-literal ways, check out Jesse Sheidlower's Slate article, "The Word We Love To Hate."
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" isn't as challenging as the typical Klahn themeless. Favorite clues/fill:
Unfavorite clues/fill:
The previously published Boston Globe crossword now available in Across Lite is Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's "Search Party." The theme is HIDDEN GEMS, with various gems and semiprecious stones hidden within longer, made-up phrases (see the squares I've highlighted for the gems and stones). The theme feels like a retread because I'd enjoyed Dan Naddor's LAT puzzle with the same sort of theme just two weeks ago. Actually the Globe version of that theme combines real phrases—e.g., DROP A LINE, BAGATELLES—with goofy ones—e.g., MAMET HYSTERIA, NONSTOP AZALEAS—so it feels uneven. Naddor went the full-goofball approach, which I think was more fun.
February 14, 2009
Sunday, 2/15
December 29, 2008
Tuesday, 12/30
Sun 3:52
NYT 3:38
CS 3:27
Jonesin' 3:25
LAT 3:08
(updated at 8:51 a.m. Tuesday)
Doug Peterson's New York Times crossword has a simple yet elegant theme. It runs the line of filial descent from Sr. to Jr. to III:
I fell into the anti-Ellen Ripstein trap when I entered AYES as the ["Thumbs-up" responses] without checking the crossings. Hmm, that wanted to be A-OKS to evade the BLYW and LOEI crossings. I'm sad to have missed seeing LOKI, my favorite [Norse trickster]. Highlights in the fill, which struck me as more Wednesdayish than Tuesdayish though I could be having an off night:
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Just Do It," has an unusual grid—16 squares wide by 15 high, with left/right symmetry. The theme is people who do or did "it":
Crossing those last two answers, there's a SYBARITE, clued as a [Hedonist of sorts]. The theme entries are all specifically tied to "did it" or "are doing it," but sybarites probably do all sorts of "it," too. My favorite clue: [It'll grow on you] for HAIR. [Shot to the forehead?] for BOTOX is good, too. Other clues of note and/or unfamiliarity:
THE DOG ate the cookie or dealt the stink, in [He did it! (in blameworthy situations)].
[She does...them? (on film)] clues DEBBIE, as in old porn film Debbie Does Dallas.
Jim Leeds' Sun crossword, "Adverbially Yours," interposes an -LY between two parts of a word or phrase to turn the first part into an adverb:
The theme is good, but it's the overall fill that really shines here. Three Z's, an X, and five K's lend a Scrabbly je ne sais quoi. My favorite answers all run Down: UNMANNING, ANNE HECHE with first and last name, SCHLEP, Gene RAYBURN of '70s game show Match Game, Monopoly's PARK PLACE, and a B-BALLER, or [One who plays hoops].
Updated:
Dan Naddor's LA Times crossword journeys from [Always] to [Never] with two stops in between:
Running along the right side of the grid is NOLAN / RYAN, [baseball's career strikeout king], whose stats suggest plenty of "always" or "often." Favorite answer: the cross-referenced combo with the EVIL TWIN, a [Villain who might pull a 10-Down], or SWITCHEROO, clued as [Unexpected reversal, in slang].
Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Body Scan," scans the phrases from head to toe:
I don't watch Gossip Girl, so I had no idea that NATE Archibald is a ["Gossip Girl" role for Chace Crawford]. There's the NBA Hall of Famer Nate Archibald as well as the Crawford character. As far as I know, the abbreviation for the state of Virginia is Va., not VIRG ([Where Thos. Jefferson was born]). I'd have changed MERGE ([Get onto the highway]) to MANGE crossing WAD and VING Rhames to skirt that issue.
September 04, 2008
Friday, 9/5
NYS 9:00
NYT 6:17
LAT 4:28
CHE 4:10
CS 2:41
WSJ 8:32
(updated at 10:15 a.m. Friday)
Am I coming down with a cold? I hope not. Maybe it's allergies, even though I suffer from seasonal allergies only when in England? I said to myself, "Self, just in case it's allergies, you should try an antihistamine." Well! I was sleepy already (went to the store to buy bread...forgot bread), but with a Benadryl in me? Considerably more so. "Self, you may be too tired to blog about both the NYT and Sun crosswords tonight. You should get ahead by doing that Sun puzzle early and get half of the post drafted."
And so it came to pass that I solved Byron Walden's New York Sun "Weekend Warrior" and had it take considerably longer than the last "W.W." Is it just me, or is it really among the hardest handful of crosswords this year? These ones were my favorite parts:
Odd stuff includes PENSTOCK, a [Pipe to a waterwheel], and ROSIN with a mystifying clue, [Soldering flux material]. Now, I took a metalsmithing class in college, and we soldered with little strips of solder and a drop of flux, but I don't recall getting any details about what the flux was made of. Apparently ROSIN is used with tin; I worked with copper.
I'm rambling now. I'm tired. I'll set this to post automatically, and we'll see if I'm still awake at NYT crossword time.
Updated:
Dammit! I had written four paragraphs this morning, and Blogger just ate them all. Summary: Went to bed at 8 last night. Feel lousier this morning. Am mad at Blogger. Will provide abbreviated discussion of puzzles, even shorter than what Blogger ate. Grr! Cannot resist the siren song of the couch much longer.
Am feeling better intellectually to see that many others were also stymied by the Byron's Sun puzzle. It's not me, it's not the virus—It's the Byron/Peter Gordon combo.
Kevin Der's New York Times crossword gives Google not one, but two product placements: I'M FEELING LUCKY and GMAIL. MT. DANA, the [Peak on the eastern edge of Yosemite Natl. Park], and LARAS, or [Singer Fabian and others], were the only two answers I needed all the crossings for. Never heard of either, and European Lara Fabian's Wikipedia article sure seems like bloated overkill. Favorite entries: SEE A GHOST, or [Get spooked, maybe] (would be better in the past tense, though); STRIKE OUT, or [Whiff]; CRAZY TALK, or [Hogwash] (only the certainty of Laurence TISCH deterred me from entering POPPYCOCK with the Y and K in place); CURACAO, an [Ingredient in a Long Island iced tea], is near the clue [Cacao plant feature], or POD (how many words end in -cao?); and erstwhile Charmin spokesperson MR. WHIPPLE is the [Noted shopper scolder].
I like the theme in James Sajdak's LA Times crossword. The [Parking sign, and a hint to 20-, 26- and 48-Across] is TOWAWAY ZONE. It's a CAR that gets towed, and each of the other three theme entries has had a run-in with the tow truck:
- Pink carnations become PINK NATIONS, or [Quasi-communist countries?].
- On a magic carpet ride turns into ON A MAGIC PET RIDE, or [Like Jackie Paper sailing with Puff?] the Magic Dragon.
- Upsets the apple cart becomes UPSETS THE APPLET, or [Causes a small program to crash?].
In the Chronicle of Higher Education crossword by Jim Leeds, "Bird Spotting" is what you do in the theme entries. Each one is a city name in which a bird is hidden (see the letters I've circled in my solution grid). The FIELD GUIDE is a [Useful aid for bird spotters popularized by Roger Tory Peterson (b. 8/28/1908)], so the puzzle's a centenary tribute to Peterson. In the fill 24 of the answers are 6 to 8 letters long, which makes for a more interesting solve than when the grid's packed with the sorts of 3- to 5-letter answers we see all the time.
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle is called "Epicenters" because the center of each theme answer is EPI, split across words: IN APPLE PIE ORDER means [Shipshape]. [Comprehended] clues GOT THE PICTURE. [Terminate, with "to"] is GIVE THE PINK SLIP. That last one sounds a bit off with the "to" shunted to the clue. And down the center, TIE PINS are [Neckwear accessories].
Randolph Ross's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Big-League Bargaining," gathers eight phrases from baseball that have found use in the business setting. Note that 22- and 26-Across and 101- and 110-Across are 17- and 20-letter answers that are stacked on one another—and with no questionable fill in their crossings. (Merl Reagle seems to pull that feat off more often than anyone else.) The 20s intersect the Down theme entries, which in turn cross the shorter Across theme answers. Impressive structure.
May 08, 2008
Friday, 5/9
NYT 7:38
NYS 5:36
LAT 5:10
CHE 4:39
Jonesin' 3:49
CS 3:05
WSJ 8:19
On this day in 2007, I was vacationing in Liverpool. O, to be in England! Except never again in May—the only time I've ever had seasonal allergies was last May in England.
The Friday New York Sun crossword, "Ends in the Middle" by Alan Olschwang, threatened to stymie me in the lower left corner, but somehow I extracted the right letters from the darkest recesses of my brain. (As opposed to the well-lighted parts.) Two theme entries contain the ABC end of the alphabet in their middles (TAB COLLARS and REHAB CENTER), and the other two contain XYZ. The problematic corner was where the insane Roman numeral multiplication problem and unfamiliar ["Strangers on a Train" costar] crossed the [DC Comics villain] whose vowel-free name I've seen in a crossword, MR. MXYZPTLK. The first M starts MCM, or [LXXVI x XXV], and the second M is in RUTH ROMAN. Favorite clues:
Least known to me:
The New York Times crossword by Jim Page just wasn't on my wavelength. Favorite clues:
Least favorite entries:
Other clues that I suspect will stump many people:
Updated:
Matt Jones goes themeless, as he does a few times a year, in this week's Jonesin' crossword. Two of the three long entries in the midsection—in the puzzle's womb, as it were—are FRATERNAL TWINS and RAISE CHILDREN. Those aren't coincidental—Matt's a new dad! Favorite parts of the puzzle: [Meg's mom, on "Family Guy"] is LOIS, who is the star of this video clip that perfectly encapsulates parenting; EDITH PIAF, with her last three letters crossing the stack in the middle of the grid; the [Meat Puppets song coverd by Nirvana on "MTV Unplugged"] is "OH ME" (and would you believe none of Nirvana's Unplugged songs seem to be available as phone ringtones?); and [Phrase said after smacking one's forehead], or "NOW I GET IT," making its second crossword appearance this week. Not wild about the heavy use of word endings in CRUMBLIEST, SYRUPIEST, and LONESOMELY, but will forgive it since Matt will soon enough be getting the Stewie-on-Family Guy treatment from two kids at once.
Doug Peterson's LA Times puzzle used plenty of Friday clues to make it harder to figure out what the theme entries were, since the theme entries were pretty much ungettable without knowing the gimmick. I suppose if I'd started at the bottom of the grid, where, I BEFORE E, [Start of an English rule, and this puzzle's theme], was lurking, it would have come together sooner. [Athena's appearance?] is a WISE MIEN (with an I before the E in the second word). [Doctor's office status, often?] is PATIENT PENDING (patent). [Components in relatively slow computers?] are POKIER CHIPS (poker). And [Tales from the market?] isn't about the stock market—it's GROCERY STORIES (stores). I love the word SKITTERED ([Skipped along]) and should use it more often than I do.
Jim Leeds' Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Cross Examinations," gets TESTY (39-Across) by sneaking four standardized tests (and, in keeping with the publication that published this puzzle, they're all ones a college student or grad might take, not a mere SAT) into rebus squares in the four longest entries. KI[M CAT]TRALL contains the MCAT; PUL[LS A T]RICK ON has the LSAT; READIN[G MAT]TER has the GMAT, and OLIVE [GRE]EN holds the GRE. There were two unknown-to-me answers that crossed—"Little MATTIE," the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, and "TU[LSA T]IME," the Don Williams hit single, but what else could go there but an I? The rebus crossings were all smooth as silk—ENI[GMAT]IC, A[GRE]ES, and TO[MCAT]S. I don't know that I would have thought it possible to make an MCAT/LSAT/GMAT rebus crossword! But the rebused entries all work, and the entire puzzle is solid.
Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy crossword, "Have Courage!", tosses synonyms for brave into the theme entries: a VALIANT EFFORT, FEARLESS FOSDICK, and Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD. Fantastic clue: [Bridges of Los Angeles County] for BEAU Bridges. With five or six other names from show business, this crossword felt more like an LA Times puzzle—and they weren't showbiz names from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, so I enjoyed it thoroughly.
This week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Getting a Business Degree," is credited to Maryanne Lemot, which anagrams to "not my real name"—it's editor Mike Shenk's work. Not only does this puzzle have plenty of sparkling fill—like PUFF PIECE; two [Item in a certain kit] entries, SNARE DRUM and HI-HAT (from a drum kit); CAR WASH; SCOREBOARD; and SORE THUMBS—it's also got an entertaining theme. The insert-a-group-of-letters theme can fall flat or it can gleam, and this one gleams by adding a dry MBA to assorted base phrases:
April 30, 2008
Thursday, 5/1
NYT 5:47
NYS 5:30
LAT 4:21
CS 2:57
Happy May Day! Workers of the world, foundering ships, and maypole fans unite.
It's Thursday, and the New York Times crossword by Jim Leeds serves up a rebus challenge that I will call Tribute to Ellen Ripstein. (Ellen is wont to say things like "Smoking, ick." She has not, to my knowledge, said "Rebus puzzles, ick.") GROSS parks itself in the middle of the grid to spotlight all the [ICK] rebus squares. Let's gather them all up here, since it's hard to see them in the applet grid where a plain old letter I stands in for each [ICK]:
I usually don't second-guess answers with small duplications, but the "good to the LAST DROP"/DROP-KICKER combo did give me pause. Other trouble spots and/or clues of note:
Alan Arbesfeld's New York Sun puzzle bears the title "6 x 8." Within the crossword are six 8-letter ANAGRAMs, all clued in reference to another of the group. The family of anagrams includes two mathy words—TRIANGLE, INTEGRAL; three verbs—RELATING, ALTERING, ALERTING; and the oddball TANGLIER. In the fill sits some SOY MILK, clued as [Drink for the lactose intolerant]; I am delighted to tolerate lactose, personally. A goodly quantity of longish fill fleshes out the grid here.
Updated:
In Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Inner Ability," he hides his ESP (63-Down) abilities in the midst of each theme entry. The four ESP answers (e.g., TRADES PLACES, FREE SPEECH) are supplemented by some lively long fill—ALEX HALEY and an ALMA MATER, Hamlet's ELSINORE Castle and "JUST A SEC." I'm glad to see A TEST clued as ["This is only ___"] rather than the played-out atomic test; if only N-TEST and H-TEST could also be spiffed up with an alternate clue. The BUICK [Century, e.g.] goes out for a spin again (see the NYT), only without rebus action. My enjoyment of this crossword was diluted a bit by the inclusion of some blah crossword regulars—OGEE, OTOS and a UTE, ULNA, ICER. A QUONSET hut and a GNOME do help allay that, though.
The LA Times crossword is credited to "Sir Barton Giacomo (1919-2005)." That's not a deceased constructor—it's the names of the 1919 and 2005 winners of the Kentucky Derby (link is updated only through 2006). The theme entries are eight other horses that have won the Derby (which takes place this weekend) and have names that can be plausibly clued as regular words or phrases. The theme's explained by the clue for DERBY WINNER: [Each one in this puzzle has its year in parentheses]. So [Unison cheer (1894)] is CHANT, and [Tax law provision affecting prior years (1961)] is CARRY-BACK. I recognize that the inclusion of so many theme entries and the innovation of the non-horse cluing are cool but...but...I just don't care about horseracing. Or "motor sports," boxing, poker, or bridge. Many of the horses' names were unfamiliar to me: STREET SENSE (2007! How quickly I forget, or how thoroughly I paid no attention a year ago), SWALE (1984), SWAPS (1955), CHANT, REAL QUIET (1998), and CARRY BACK. Looking at the list of past winners, I've heard of the most famous ones from the '70s, a handful of older ones, and a couple of the recent ones. The rest? Whatever. (As for who constructed the puzzle, my guess is LA Times crossword editor Rich Norris, but it could be someone else tickled by the idea of a two-horse pseudonym.)
January 17, 2008
Friday, 1/18
NYS 4:53
NYT 4:45
1/11 CHE 4:32
LAT 4:28
1/18 CHE 3:48
Jonesin' 3:32
CS 2:45
WSJ 8:58
Whoo! It is brisk out there! And by "brisk," I mean 14 degrees not counting the wind chill factor, and the wind is howling and whining. An upstairs neighbor's for-sale sign was being buffeted about by the wind banging on the wrought iron fence, so I after I did the Times puzzle, I grabbed some wire cutters and a wire hanger and secured the flapping metal sign. See? I'm handy with more than just crossword puzzles.
Now that I'm back from my Triumph of Handiness, let us (the royal us) blog. It was Trip Payne's 70-word New York Times crossword that instructed me to 53-Down (LASH, or [Secure, in a way]) that sign. The puzzle also says to DO IT AGAIN ([Steely Dan hit of 1972]), but I refuse. Favorite entries: MAGNETISM, or [Drawing power]; SNEAKINESS, or [Cunning]; the [Moliere comedy] THE MISER; a tasty PIEROGI, or [Filled treat] (I'll take mine with potatoes and cheese, please); Richard DREYFUSS (though the only ["Moon Over Parador" star] I remembered was Raul Julia); ACT and NOW clued jointly; and THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran, the subject of a recent long New Yorker article. That last clue misspells the author's name: [Classic mystical book by Khalil Gibran]. Tsk!
Favorite clues: [Brood : chicken :: parliament : ___] for OWL; [Where the wild things are?] for MENAGERIE; [Hard-to-break plates] for ARMOR followed soon after by ["Ode to Broken Things" poet] for NERUDA; [Prometheus Society alternative] for MENSA. Obscurities or little-knowns: HAMAN the [Villain in the Book of Esther]; [Ancient fragrance] for NARD; [Canadian equivalent of the Oscar] for GENIE (sorry, Canadians—we Americans don't follow your cinema so much); [Asian title] for RANEE, not the spelling we usually see and lacking any female or Indian cues; [Gulf of Taranto's locale] for the IONIAN SEA (the Gulf of Taranto, it turns out, is the water between the heel and sole of Italy's boot); [Echo, e.g., in Greek myth] for OREAD (Echo was a mountain nymph? I didn't know that); [___ Atomic Dustbin (English rock band] for NEDS; [___ Carinae (hypergiant star)] for ETA; ["The Amazing Race" host Keoghan] for PHIL (Who? Now Trip will know I've never watched that show, which he's blogged about numerous times); and [Rotary motions] for SIDE SPINS.
Karen Tracey's New York Sun "Weekend Warrior" is a 70-worder. Pairs of stacked 15s near the top and bottom are bound together by ANGELINA JOLIE stretching vertically. Although I don't know the song, I was delighted to guess that ["Be My Yoko Ono" band] meant BARENAKED LADIES just from the EDL in the middle. Other favorite entries besides those two: SWOOSIE Kurtz across from OLD MAID; Froot Loops cereal spokestoon TOUCAN SAM; and the ZEBRA with the equally Scrabbly clue, [Quagga relative].
Favorite clues: [Match game] for OLD MAID; [___ Marchand (rapper Foxy Brown's real name)] for INGA; [It might end with a bang] for SENTENCE; [Shellac] for DRUB; [Gloamings] for the equally poetic EVENTIDES; [Crunch time action?] for SITUP; [WHO concerns] for STDS; [Fancy alternative] for FACT; and [Work sheets?] for MEMORANDA.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "Cornering Ability," is an easy (for pop-culture fans) themeless crossword with 66 words. Because I am, after all, a 14-year-old boy, I laughed at the two violations of the Sunday-morning breakfast test: [Leak source?] for URETHRA and [Testicle, slangily] for NAD. A few spoken phrases, lots of TV/movies/music clues, HARIBO Gummi Bears, some KEPT MEN ([Lovers supported by older women]), a little sports, and an impressive 36 7- or 8-letter answers. The grid's top and bottom halves meet at just one square in the center, but I thought the clues were easy enough to give any Friday-level solver plenty of footholds to offset that structural limitation. Tons of fun if you enjoy pop-culture clues. (I do!)
Updated:
Norman Wizer's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Making Ends Meet," contains eight exactly symmetrical [END] rebus squares linking 16 entries. Favorite entries: RATED X, CROP TOP, DEAD CALM, THE EGG that may or may not precede the chicken, and TRADE WAR. Favorite clues: [Bear of a story] for PAPA; [Champagne flow] for the SEINE River; [State] for SNIT (as in "in a ___"); and [Yard goods?] for SOD. Mystery answer: [Advances-to-declines indicator] is TRIN (the link explains this).
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Hind Limbs," is easy but filled with some great stuff. The theme entries end with BRANCH, STICK, and BOUGH (plus there's a bonus SCION [Grafting shoot]). The fill includes five Ks and Vs, a Z, an X, and a J, and answers like TOM HANKS, "TSK, TSK," KLUTZ, and BOBCAT. Thank you, Ray, for using the [Egg holder] clue for OVARY and not UTERUS! Scientific accuracy rules.
Dan Naddor's LA Times puzzle takes __SS ___ phrases and makes them __SS S___ phrases, so business trip becomes "Dilbert," a BUSINESS STRIP, and "SNL's" Weekend Update is a PRESS SKIT. Six theme entries, solid (if not particularly exciting) fill, Fridayish clues. My favorite clues/answers: the PC LAB; [Lead-in for a crook] for the Nixonian I AM NOT (technically, this is a 6-letter partial, but Nixon's always fun and certainly better than yet another [Playground retort] clue); FISHNET stockings; a NOSE GUARD in football; and [Part of a trip around the world] for ARC.
Well, Cruciverb.com's Friday link for the Chronicle of Higher Education used to run on a two-week delay, and I followed that schedule. Now it's got the current link, so suddenly I'm two weeks behind. The January 11 Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle by Larry Shearer is called "Academic Transfers," and the theme entries here are 7- or 8-letter colleges with their anagrams (it's a 15x16 grid). TO MY MIND (55-Across), the best are AMHERST HAMSTER and HAMPTON PHANTOM. I think there's a typo in the clue for REAR: Shouldn't it be [Raise] and not the mysterious [Raisex]?
Jim Leeds' January 18 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Band Master," features the MARCH KING, John Philip Sousa, and four titles of his works that I've never heard of. Fortunately, they're also clued straightforwardly, so they're gettable for non-march fans. Why is there a Sousa work called WASHINGTON POST? Or MANHATTAN BEACH?
December 26, 2007
Thursday, 12/27
NYS 5:02
LAT 4:48
NYT 4:07
CS 3:26
This afternoon, my husband and son were getting haircuts at a neighborhood salon (no such thing as a barbershop around these parts, unless you mean the fancy men-only salon on Halsted). Ben was in the chair getting a fauxhawk while his parents waited, and what did we overhear? The guy at the counter hashing out the Wednesday NYT crossword with a friend. I sprang into action as I must (my secret supersuit is emblazoned with a bold XW) and lent a helping hand. I also jotted down this blog's URL so the guy (a stranger to the blogosphere) could check it out.
And as I finished the Thursday New York Times puzzle by Jim Leeds, I thought, "Ohhh, Salon Man will be vexed by this." The southwest corner, in particular, and the northeast to a lesser degree, and also a little in the upper midsection (the thorax, if you will), and a bit in the northwest corner—combinations of answers that aren't so familiar and also aren't zippy and fresh. To wit: in the SW, Latin legalese CAUSA, astronomical O-STAR, the ship ISERE, and the acronym LORAN are piled up alongside one another. Gah! In the opposite corner, [Hebdomadally] clues A WEEK. Now, hebdomadal means "weekly," so "weeklily" means A WEEK? I'm not seeing it. Can anyone offer a sentence to demonstrate the interchangeability? And KELSO clued as a racehorse the day after FUNNY CIDE—¡no mas! (I prefer KELSO clued with reference to Ashton Kutcher's pretty-boy character on That '70s Show). Moving to the upper left, ABIE gets a non–"Abie's Irish Rose" clue with ["___ the Agent (old comic strip)]—feh, I say! And going to the right side of the thorax, LOESS and COPRA (both words I learned strictly from crosswords) cross the [F.D.R. agency] OPA. That's the Office of Price Administration, in case you weren't following the news in the 1940s. OPA is usually clued as the Florida town, Opa-Locka; for once, I'd like to see it clued as [Granddad, in Germany]—at least the PA part is inferrable, whereas [F.D.R. agency] is practically a clue that says [Random three-letter abbreviation].
Good gravy, I'm channeling Rex.
That out of the way, let's poke the theme and see if it moves. Five theme entries add a C before the O at the beginning of a phrase or compound word, and the resulting creation is clued accordingly. A marine biologist performs a CORAL EXAM, one might CON THE LOOKOUT, Slinky art could be COIL PAINTINGS, witches cook with COVENWARE, and (Canadian slur alert!) [Eskimos in an igloo?] are COLD FOLKS AT HOME. That last one seemed completely random to me, but Professor Google says it's a song title.
Doug Peterson's "Themeless Thursday" puzzle in the New York Sun has plenty of vibrant fill. Jimi Hendrix's PURPLE HAZE, a MENTAL NOTE, PINOT NOIRS (I'll wager that pinot noir sales skyrocketed after the movie Sideways came out, with its famously profane anti-Merlot line, "I'm not drinking any fucking merlot."), a REPORT CARD, and a dose of ENRICHED URANIUM. Not to mention KATAKANA (the [Japanese syllabary]), artist and film director Julian SCHNABEL, and James [Bond foe] SMERSH. Favorite clues: [Baby, maybe] for the verb SPOIL; [Press release?] for OLIVE OIL; [Shade] for a ghostly WRAITH; and [Lander at TLV] for EL AL (presumably TLV is Tel Aviv's airport code).
Updated:
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Let Go!", begins each theme entry with a word that's synonymous with "let go." In the fill, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Counselor TROI shows up, and she's also in Manny Nosowsky's LA Times crossword. Manny's puzzle has A LOT TO ANSWER FOR running vertically down the middle of the grid, surrounded by five questions: WHY BOTHER? WHICH IS IT? WHAT'S IT FOR? WHERE CAN I WASH UP? And WHO'S THE MAN? Favorite clues: [Leader of the pack?] for HARE (because the hare's a fast runner...although in "The Tortoise and the Hare," the hare loses his lead); [Stout fellow?] for BREWER, and the associated NEAR BEER.
October 18, 2007
Friday, 10/19
Jonesin' 5:54
NYS 5:47
LAT 4:30
NYT 4:21
CHE 3:52
CS 3:05
WSJ 7:35
The kids in my son's second-grade class have been assigned the task of reading a newspaper article and summarizing it in a paragraph. So we were at the grocery store this afternoon and checked out the offerings on the newspaper rack.
"Well, Ben, which one do you want to get? The Tribune, the Sun-Times, or the New York Times?" I asked, not nudging him in any particular direction.
He pondered briefly and decided, "I'll take the Times." How sweet is that? I've bred a seven-year-old newspaper snob.
The most fearsome part of Patrick Berry's New York Sun Weekend Warrior was the crossing between the [Capital of the Mexican state Coahuila] and the 3-letter abbreviation clued [It's headquartered in Fort Meade, Md.]. The N-what-A? I played the "mentally scroll through the alphabet and start typing in fairly random letters until Mr. Happy Pencil appears" game. Turns out to be the NSA (not the NRA, NBA, NEA, or NWA) crossing SALTILLO. What's in Saltillo, you ask? Why, they've got clay tile and serapes, every crossworder's favorite poncho.
Outside of that Crossing of Near Death, notable entries included the cinematic E.T. PHONE HOME, the crickety TEST MATCHES, the terrific ANGELS IN AMERICA, and the idiomatic PIECE OF CAKE. Favorite clues: [Be there in spirit?] for HAUNT; [It has peaks and valleys: Abbr.] for EEG (wow, did I think I had something wrong when I'd filled in just the two E's—only eels came to mind at first); ["Fearless" star] for the super-short first/last name combo, JET LI; [Not hard to swallow] for COATED, as in tablets of medication; [Some '60s hits?] for LSD; [Luddite's antithesis] for TECHIE; [Like some nurses] for NEONATAL (which I should have guessed with a lot fewer letters!); [Nobody in the Middle Ages] for SERF; and [New Jersey delivery sound, maybe] for MOO (as in the sound when a new Jersey calf is born). I don't think I knew there was an ANT-Man (Stan Lee creation)—I'm holding out for a superhero modeled after the ladybug or walking stick.
Frederick Healy's New York Times crossword puts out some BIG TALK ([Bluster]), doesn't it? "OH, WOW!" "I'VE HAD IT!" "WAIT A SEC!" "GET A LIFE!" I like it when crosswords get mouthy like that. Crunchiest pop culture Cheetos: ["Eight Is Enough" wife] for ABBY (Betty Buckley's stepmom to Dick Van Patten's eight offspring), for one. Then there's [1984 hit parody of a 1983 hit song] for EAT IT—I went off to find a YouTube video of that song and was waylaid instead by Weird Al's Like a Surgeon, which gave me the giggles. ("Eat It" isn't as funny.) If only SPICE were clued with one of the Spice Girls and the A-TEAM were TV, not sports. Favorite clues/entries: [Windshield wipers] for SQUEEGEES; [Clam] for SIMOLEON; [Fat cat, in England] for NOB; and [Something to get a kick out of] for RIFLE. I'm not sure that KNEE PANTS have been a [Garb symbolizing youth] since Little Lord Fauntleroy's days. (A century ago, apparently they were de rigueur for diplomats in Europe.) And—I think this came up in another puzzle some weeks back—nobody really calls it SALSA DIP. Salsa is a dip, but it's just salsa.
Updated:
Must be quick this morning—Ben's got the day off school and we're venturing to Chinatown this morning.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle: The theme in "Together at Last: 25, meet 26" is joining the letters Y and Z, in six disparate words, names, phrases, and places (. Fortunately, a blogger I read had linked to the ["Chocolate Rain" singer]'s YouTube video, which is quite an odd thing. I like how the Jonesin' puzzle isn't afraid to include a name with almost no offline visibility at all—but hey, in these third-wave crosswords, YouTube phenomena are fair game. Besides the lively batch of theme entries, there are some tough and interesting answers and some tough and interesting clues. Orange recommends!
Jim Leeds' LA Times puzzle: Fun! Anagramming words in the clue generates a theme answer, and all four of the ANAGRAMS are tasty sauces. Foodie bonuses: Steak AU POIVRE, GARLIC, TOMATO, EATER, and SEASON. Musical trivia I didn't know: LEONORA is a [Name of three Beethoven overtures]. And a geographic tidbit I learned: MALAYA was a [United Kingdom territory until 1957].
Annemarie Brethauer's 10/5 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword: "Off the Shelf" includes five once-banned books as the theme entries.
Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle: "Get on the Stick" includes four phrases starting with kinds of sticks (JOYstick, YARDstick, etc.). Fairly easy puzzle, right about a Wednesday NYT level.
The Wall Street Journal puzzle by Mike Shenk (a.k.a. "Marie Kelly"): "Rate Increases" adds RATE inside various phrases to make new meanings. Bedrock + RATE = BERATED ROCK, or [What an angry Doris did in many movies?]. Nonthematic fill/clues I liked: [B.B. King's guitar], LUCILLE; MAN'S MAN; [Navel bases?] for ORANGES; ["Always on Time" musician] for JA RULE.
October 04, 2007
Friday, 10/5
NYS 7:25
NYT 7:17
LAT 5:05
Jonesin' 4:15
CHE 3:41
CS 2:24
WSJ 7:16
One of my favorite early-in-the-week constructors, Lynn Lempel, has crafted a Friday New York Times puzzle that reminds me of Karen Tracey's themeless crosswords. And it's hard! Like, Saturday hard! Either that or I was tired, but I think this puzzle's a toughie. I took a couple wrong turns—the EXIT LANE tried to be an exit ramp, the MINUTE MARK tried to be a minute hand (though a hand is certainly not a [Watch notch]), and [Many a monthly check writer] tried to be renter rather than TENANT. [Navigation hazard] usually seems to be a reef or a berg, but here it's DENSE FOG at 1-Across, and SHOAL at 32-Down. With all the famous Benedicts out there, BENEDICT was clued as the lowercase noun meaning [Married man who had long been a bachelor; the word comes from Shakespeare's Benedick, which is spelled differently. I'd never heard of PHI [phenomenon (optical illusion)].
Today's question-marked clues posed challenges. [Special delivery?] is a PREMIE (I prefer the preemie spelling). A team [Missing the point?] is SCORELESS. [Drawer units?] are an animator's CELS. [Acts on a gut feeling?] is EATS. [Bunny backer?] is HEFNER. [Put under?] is SEDATED. [Past prime time?] is LATE IN LIFE, not late at night.
My favorite clues and answers: [Coolness] for APLOMB (because I like that word); [Island republic] for EIRE (c'mon, who else thought it'd be some Pacific island nation?); [Top of some scales] for TEN; [Where workers gather] for APIARIES; '60s quarterback Y.A. TITTLE, because that's an awesome name; [Some athletes shoot them] for STEROIDS (hello, Marion Jones); GETS CARRIED AWAY sprawling down the middle of the grid; the Chi-LITES, [1970s R&B group]; ["Pleasant dreams"] for SLEEP TIGHT (tricky in that night ends with the same four letters); the [Seed-separating gizmo] is a PEA SHELLER (available for home use!); [Ordained] for DECREED; and Scrabbly Hamid KARZAI, the Afghan president. I like a SPARROW flitting about, but did not know it was the name of a [U.S. air-to-air missile]; what, they couldn't give pigeons a bad name instead?
The third of the asymmetrical themeless New York Sun puzzles is by Henry Hook. This one's got 71 answers, two of them (PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM and THREE TIMES A LADY, sung by Lionel Richie when he was still in the Commodores—and did you know he's ridiculously popular in the Arab world?) spanning the 15-letter width of the grid. The remainder of the grid is irregular—long stacked answers here, a chunk of 6's there, assorted 8- to 10-letter answers crisscrossing one another throughout.
Tough clues for long and short answers alike, and precious few gimmes to lend a hand. Clues I liked and/or struggled with the most: [Figure in Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon"] for TORO, a bull; [Entrée that may cost you a few bucks?] for VENISON; [It has staying power] for CORSET; [Down-easters' soda fountains] for SPAS; present-tense [Set in opposition] for PIT; [Blend named for William IV's prime minister] for EARL GREY tea; [Bone cavity] for ANTRUM (yay, medical terminology! The plural is antra), right on top of [Pertaining to makeup] for ANATOMICAL; the noun [Pique] for RESENTMENT; [Cartoon Network trio] for ED, EDD N EDDY, a show my son has watched (they call the second one "Double-D"); [One who may make a fortune in oil?] for a particularly successful ARTIST; [Sue Grafton's "N Is for ___"] NOOSE (upending the more common clue, [Sue Grafton's "___ for Noose"]); [Culture vultures' hangout] for THE OPERA (man, that A wanted to be a Latinate plural ending); [Benched players use them] for PIANOS; [Christina Ricci's "Black Snake Moan" role] for 3-letter RAE (thank you, Entertainment Weekly review, for teaching me this); old-timey [79 Wistful Vista surname of old radio] for MCGEE (Molly and Fibber, I presume?); [Dashing fellow?] for Samuel MORSE and his dash/dot code; and [Yclept] for NAMED (I love yclept and wish we had another extant word with that beginning).
There were a couple wicked crossings in this Sun puzzle. There's 13-Across with 4- and 5- Down—there is not another R in [Certain cryptogam], so that's about a FERN and not cryptogram puzzles. The Chris Messina film IRA & Abby didn't get much traction at the box office, did it? Basically, I guessed the laundry soap ERA and hoped for the best, and it worked out. Where 7-Down crosses 14-Across also stymied me—[Minion of Fearless Leader] means BORIS (from Rocky and Bullwinkle, no?), and that long quote must be from Abba EBAN.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Mildly Unhealthy," is chock-full of what's bad for you: A trio of theme entries contain LDL embedded within them, and LDL is 51-Across (BAD CHOLESTEROL). Tons of saturated fat in this puzzle, too—consider the buttery richness of [Pinto, not garbanzo] for CAR; [Split component] for bowling PIN; Tony HALE of Arrested Development; PLAY A CD to hear some music; UBU, the dog seen after the closing credits of Family Ties ("Sit, Ubu, sit."); and [It sounds like "uh"] for SCHWA. (That reminds me—anyone know how to make a schwa appear via keyboard?) A couple answers and clues are larded with naughtiness: the dominatrix's CAGE crosses SEXY, and ASS is [What horrible food might taste like].
Updated:
I dug the theme in Jim Leeds' LA Times crossword: a letter tacked onto the start of five Latin phrases. If you've paid attention to the Latin words included in state mottoes, PESTO PERPETUA (Idaho's motto is "Esto perpetua") flowed smoothly. SQUID PRO QUO serves up a pair of Qs, and SEX OFFICIO a Scrabbly X. Least favorite clue: [Exec's accessory] for TIE. Excuse me, are all executives men? They are not. Favorite clues: [They aren't long shots] for PUTTS; [Like Sarah Lawrence, since 1966] for COED (in the late '60s, the college began accepting male students for the first time—and this is a fantastic clue for COED); [Stretch] for LOOSEN UP; [Links specialist?] for IHOP (breakfast sausage, not golf); and [727 in Florida, e.g.] for AREA CODE (not the jet). Least well-known fact: SHAN is a [Language related to Thai].
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle seemed Monday-easy. The title, "Caveat Emptor," signals that the theme entries begin with BETTER, BUSINESS, and BUREAU.
Michael Ashley's September 21 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword is easy, but not as easy as the CrosSynergy puzzle. The theme in "You Dirty Rats!" is famous traitors, and with the help of VIDKUN QUISLING, the puzzle's a pangram. I do enjoy the CHE puzzles that include a trivia quiz as the theme.
The Wall Street Journal crossword, "If the Shoe Fits," is credited to Natalia Shore, an anagram of another alias for WSJ puzzle editor Mike Shenk. Seven theme phrases have sneaker brands embedded within them (in the highlighted squares). The funniest clue was [Donald Duck's lack]: PANTS. (Poor guy.) 1-Across was given to me by the movie, Wordplay—when Merl Reagle was filling his grid for the WORD/PLAY crossword, he contemplated using REDTOP, in the dictionary as a grass. Here it's [Lawn grass with colorful flowers]. Overall this crossword was light (but not too light), peppered with glints like DON'T GO, PSYCH UP, and SCOOT IN, no real knotty spots.
July 12, 2007
Friday, 7/13
NYS 6:32
NYT 5:06
6/29 CHE 4:32
Jonesin' 4:20
LAT 3:59
CS 3:01
WSJ 7:33
(updated at 1 p.m. Friday)
Oooh! Friday the 13th! It's not looking too unlucky, what with Friday crosswords—a themeless from Manny Nosowsky in the New York Times and a themed New York Sun crossword by Gary Steinmehl.
Steinmehl's Sun crossword, "Coast to Coast," has an intricate theme: Three 17-letter phrases that begin and end with letter pairs that double as state postal abbreviations, in geographic order. [WA]STE PRECIOUS TI[ME] has Washington and Maine in the northernmost corners of the West and East Coasts. The [OR]ANGE RIVER COLO[NY] (which I'd never heard of before) takes us down the coasts a bit to Oregon and New York. Farther south, we have California and Delaware in [CA]LLS A SPADE A SPA[DE]. I don't know how Steinmehl managed to come up with the idea and to find a trio of 17-letter phrases that would fit. And the fill surrounding these phrases is good, Scrabbly stuff, too—TUXEDO, CAJUN, KABUKI. Favorite clues: the gender-neutral [Wedding dress] for TUXEDO; [Scrabble], the verb, for CLAW; [It shouldn't be tried by people who aren't good at English] for the billiards shot called MASSE; [Turn over] for RESELL; [Roman goddess of the dead] for MANIA (really!); [No alternative] for KABUKI (No is another spelling for Noh); and [Coleus's cousin], an out-there clue for THYME. Fun to see Super Dave OSBORNE's name—his real name is Bob Einstein, and his brother, born Albert Einstein, is better known as comedian and actor Albert Brooks.
Now, wasn't I just saying last week that themeless puzzles packed with 7-letter answers tend to be so boring? Well, when half of them are phrases and the clues have some zip to them, the puzzle's quite likeable, and this explains why the phrase "a Manny Friday" brings happiness to many NYT solvers. The first five Across answers are fairly lively phrases: "BUT THEN," "the JIG IS UP," EN ROUTE, ON A ROLL, and SWING AT. The town of ENOLA, Pennsylvania, is awfully small, but if we have to have ENOLA, it's nice to have a switch from the Enola Gay. Le Bon Bock means "The Good Pint" and is a beer-themed painting by MANET. I don't think any local movie theater bills itself as a three-screen TRIPLEX. Clues I liked best: [Topless?] for BALD; [Spandex and Lurex] for TEXTILES; [Dog] for FLOP; [What you do if you can't beat the suckers] for JOIN 'EM; [What X + Y signifies] for MALE SEX; the doubled-up Mexico clues, [Mex. is in it] for NAFTA and [Neighbor of Mex.] for GUAT (-emala); [Very much] for BIG TIME as an adverb; and [7-up, e.g.] for a TIE score. Favorite entries: WALKMAN; ZOOT SUIT; XENIA (a friend of mine, our most frequent houseguest, says I am a most xenial hostess); and MELROSE Place. Least favorite bits: UNWEAVE (though the Minnesota highway folks have an Unweave the Weave initiative); ETHANES; LIE IDLE (though it Googles up OK); plural BEIGES; the ESSAYER who tries so hard to be a word that's actually used in English.
Updated:
Elizabeth Gorski constructed this week's Wall Street Journal puzzle, "Laboratory Chic." The theme entries are akin to Wheel of Fortune "Before and After" answers, but in each case, the "before" portion starts with a chemical element and the "after" answer is an item of apparel. Thus, the [Day-Glo accessories for Special Forces troops] are NEON GREEN BERETS. There are six of these entries, all bundled together under the rubric ELEMENTS OF STYLE, [Classic writer's manual, and an alternate title for this puzzle]. Liz is a musician, so the score directions allegro ASSAI and SUBITO show up here. Elsewhere in the grid, ICES UP crosses the partial IT UP and SPEED UP; if those little dupes irk you, I hope they didn't keep you from enjoying the wonderful clues, such as [Compact disc?] for MIRROR (as in a makeup compact); [Pocket protector?] for MISER; and [Ham's place, perhaps] for ON RYE (I was thinking STAGE and NOAH'S ARK). Fill highlights include ACTION HERO and CIGAR BUTT (ick, cigars). The flower BETONY was unfamiliar to me, so I read up on it in Wikipedia.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "What Happened?", rehashes the ending of The Sopranos, featuring lead character ANTHONY / SOPRANO: A JOURNEY song plays, followed by 11 seconds of SILENCE, and then, ROLL END / CREDITS. Great-looking grid with tons of longer fill. The risqué content comes in the form of [The feeling may be mutual], ORGASM; I like the words that cross that one, such as SCHOOLGIRL, TOSTADA, and MIASMAS.
Jim Leeds' Chronicle of Higher Ed crossword, "Snake Handling," features assorted herpetological puns. I wouldn't describe my reaction to these puns as FEH ([Yiddish expression of disgust]), but this puzzle seemed a little less rewardingly smart than many other CHE puzzles.
Thomas Schier melds state names in his CrosSynergy puzzle, "United States!" MAINEBRASKANSAS is a mash-up of Maine, Nebraska, and Kansas, for example. You know me and geography—I eat that stuff up.
Jack McInturff's LA Times puzzle excises an AL from each theme entry. [Danger for a shark under a boat?] is FIN JEOPARDY—funny, but when I think about sharks and jeopardy, I don't typically think of the dangers faced by the shark.
February 22, 2007
Friday, 2/23
NYS 7:37
LAT 4:45
2/9 CHE 4:41
NYT 3:37
CS 3:23
WSJ 8:05
Reagle 7:23
(post udpated at 10:25 a.m. Friday)
Whoo-hoo! I think that's the fastest I've ever done a Friday NYT. Yessiree, I liked this puzzle by Patrick Merrell. (Whom I owe five bucks to, and I actually wrote out a check last May but I haven't mailed it, even though it sits on my desk. Because, apparently, I am a deadbeat. There. I said it. May as well hand over cash—with interest—next month at Stamford, eh?)
I was getting a little Oscar-fatigued by all the Oscar-themed puzzles in the Sun this week, so I was prepared to grumble about Frank Longo's Friday offering, but then the clues kicked my butt and made me like it.
Going back to the NYT, Pat's puzzle almost had a theme: long entries that are wonderfully fresh nuggets of in-the-language goodness. I mean, WHAT THE HECK? (I opted for HELL first. Whoops.) SEE HERE, phrases like BEATS ME and IT'S A LONG STORY are hardly BROKEN ENGLISH (although a TEXT MESSAGE often is exactly that). This puzzle really shines for its fill (and I'm not just saying that to make sure that Pat's enforcers don't break my kneecaps at Stamford). Favorite clues: [Standard jacket feature] for BLURB, [26 on a table] for IRON, [Poet/cartoonist Silverstein] for SHEL (because I've got another of his books on reserve for my son's birthday gifts), [Smithereens] for ATOMS, and [Do 80, say] for TEAR. RENEE is clued as [Girl's name meaning "born again"]—so when will RENE be clued as a boy's name in that vein? (Guys named René are ill-served by René Russo clues.) I'm grateful for traffic in the Orlando area to be so hideous that I've had plenty of time to peruse the map in the passenger seat, making ALTAMONTE Springs a gimme.
In the Sun, the theme of "Oscar MC-Jobs" is Oscar telecast hosts, whose last names double as ordinary nouns (hence, no Whoopi Goldberg). Billy feeds into LIQUID CRYSTAL displays; Chris is ROLLING ROCK beer; Bob's a RAY OF HOPE; Steve's a HOUSE MARTIN; and Chevy has to CUT TO THE CHASE. Educational aspects: I hadn't known that boondocks comes from TAGALOG; very specifically my mother-in-law, then, could be said to be from the boondocks. An ALIQUOT isn't just from chemistry—it's mathematical, too. There's a UKRainian river named Bug. I also learned that Popeye (and OLIVE) creator E.C. Segar's full name is Elzie Crisler Segar (yeah, I'd go with the initials, too). Some of the clues I liked and/or was stumped by: [Spud, e.g.] for VEGGIE, [Play presentation] for OBIE, [Not one of the big dogs] for TOY, [What you might do while running away from home] for TAG UP, [One who never gets out] for LIFER, [Pilot, for example] for EPISODE, and [Square meal part?] for MATZOH. (Too bad YOU TOO wasn't clued with "Et tu," though.)
Updated:
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle for this Sunday is called "Lesser-Known One-Named People of History." In it, Merl wrenches sound-similar puns out of 14 names from history, philosophy, and art. I won't spoil them, but the funniest ones were 43-Across and 123-Across.
You know all those clever clues for ED or EDS or EDITOR that you see, especially in late-week crosswords? (Hypothetical example: [New York leader] for EDITOR.) Well, Randolph Ross has flipped them. In his Wall Street Journal crossword, "Editorial Board," the clues all specify what sort of magazine's editor(s) he means, and most of the theme entries are phrases I've seen used as clues elsewhere. I actually had looked up some of those EDITORial clues when I was working on my book a few months ago, so that was a giant (but not unwelcome) spoiler for this puzzle.
Jim Leeds' Chronicle of Higher Ed puzzle, "Class Openings," imagines geeky valentine lines (this was published before Valentine's Day) for various academic pursuits. Cute! My favorite was the classics student's YOU'RE ALL AENEID.
The theme entries in Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Body Building," are Picassoesque. The STOMACH's in the middle, but the MOUTH and HEAD are below it while the NECK and FINGER are up top.
In his LA Times puzzle, Richard Chisholm swaps -NCE for -NTS endings. Elsewhere in the puzzle, I like the evocation of [Carving figureheads] as a LOST ART. Too bad today's ships aren't bedecked with figureheads like these—though would it have killed the artisans of old to be a little more inclusive? The pirate, warrior, and Viking are the only male figurines, and they're not remotely beefcaky.
