Saturday, 10/10/09

Newsday 6:06
NYT 5:51
LAT 3:26
CS untimed

I just signed up for the Walk4Hearing event on October 18, raising money for the Hearing Loss Association of America's efforts in hearing loss prevention and education. Sponsors welcome, and much appreciated! My donation page is here. Thanks.

Natan Last's New York Times crossword

I wasn't loving this puzzle when the clues for 2- and 3-Down weren't getting me anywhere. But eventually I landed on the coolest entries, and warmed up to the crossword:

• 38A. "LAY IT ON ME" is clued ["I'm listening, bro"]. Love the answer, loathe the clue. What is that? What Frasier Crane says to Niles in a moment of whimsy? I'd go with ["All right, let's hear it"]. No, wait, that's got an "it" in it. Maybe ["All right, I'm listening"]. No "bro."
  
• 7D. The OOMPA-LOOMPAS! They're [Willy Wonka's work force]. Do you prefer the little people in the first movie adaptation, or the digital duplication of Deep Roy in the Johnny Depp movie?
  
• 6D. [Ones who are too big for their britches] are WHIPPERSNAPPERS. Great word.
  
• 23A. MEA CULPA is an [Admission of sorts].
  
• 6A. And who doesn't love a WORD GAME? The clue, [Ghost, e.g.], wasn't helping me much. I don't think I've played Ghost.
  
• 46A. SPAMALOT! That's the [Tony winner between "Avenue Q" and "Jersey Boys"].
  
• 16A. HOOLIGAN! That's a [Tough]. Great word. Is somebody's great-grandparent inside this puzzle casting aspersions on the HOOLIGANs and WHIPPERSNAPPERS who are leaving [Graffiti, say] (MARKS) on public property?
  

There were also some clues to savor:

• 31A. PIROUETTE is a [Revolutionary dance move?] in that you revolve on your toes.
  
• 35A. [Services aces?] leaves the realm of tennis and moseys into church services and PARSONS.
  
• 42A. The hair SALON is [Where locks are changed?].
  
• 2D. This one! *shaking fist* [Like Japan's national diet], straight-up, no question mark, has nothing to do with food intake. It's the legislature, the Diet of Japan, that is BICAMERAL (two-chambered, like the U.S. Congress).
  
• 3D. [Dark matter?] clues ESOTERICA. I'm not quite sure how the clue relates to the answer, but I think I like it anyway. Arcana and the occult are dark, but ESOTERICA is just highly specialized. What am I missing here?
  

There's an assortment of tough clues, too, as you'd expect for a Saturday puzzle. 49D: [Noel Coward title woman "from Argentina"] is NINA; musicals are not my thing. 17A: [Kind of statue or status] clues ICONIC; clue feels nonspecific to me. The [Bust of Pallas, to Poe's raven] is its 27A: PERCH; just wasn't putting the words together right here. 30A: ["___ the Viking," 1989 film starring Tim Robbins] is ERIK. Really? I have zero recollection of that. 9D: [Sixth-century year], bleh, DLI or 551. (Could also have been DII, DIV, DVI, DIX, DXI, DXV, DXX, DLV, DLX, DXC...) 12D: [Reeve's charge] is MANOR; Chaucer's Reeve was "manager of a large estate." Do you know your Spanish? 13D: [Between, to Batista] is ENTRE, same as in French. 26D: [Ending for a record] is the superlative suffix -EST; the puzzle's docked 10 points for having both this and SUREST in the grid.

Updated Saturday morning:

Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "That Is..."—Janie's review

Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but I confess it: I love puzzles that add (or delete) letters from a well-known phrase to create something new, possibly whimsical, maybe even groan-worthy, and almost always smile-worthy. That is... I love the puzzle Lynn has given us to day, which gets a lot of mileage out of the addition of IE to the base fill. (For them what needs remindin', those are the letters that abbreviate the Latin phrase id est [translation: that is], which is used after one statement and preceding a clarifying statement.) In this way:

• 17A. Bankbook + ie = BANK BOOKIE [Person taking bets on financial institutions?]. Do banks still issue bankbooks (a/k/a passbooks) these days? I think I last had a passbook sometime in the early 80s. Is the bankbook something else that has become a "quaint" reminder (or relic...) of the way we did things "in the old days"?
• 28A. Bean counter + ie = BEANIE COUNTER [Where some hats are sold?]. Wow. I was surprised to seen that bean counter has been an "in the language" phrase only since 1975. Or that's what Merriam-Webster says.
• 47A. Arch support + ie = ARCHIE SUPPORT [What Veronica supplies?]. While I always felt that Betty could be counted on to offer more reliable support, it was Veronica who had his heart. These forever-young teens have been around since 1941. Do see what they've been up to lately, with story-lines that include weddings and babies and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." No kidding.
• 64A. Short cut +ie = SHORT CUTIE [Munchkin?]. While the OED tells us that a munchkin is "a small and endearing person; esp. a child. Also used as a term of endearment," the term first appeared in 1900 in L. Frank Baum's classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Happy 70th Anniversary to the movie!

There's more good fill of the non-theme variety, too. I like :

• INKS IN, clued as [Writes, as a signature]. For some folks this could be clued [Solves, as a crossword puzzle]. Uh, that would not be me...
• GUITAR SOLO [Flamenco piece, perhaps]. Or classical, or blues, or rock or jazz or any number of genres. Here's a list of some of the great guitar soloists in several styles. In folk groups you'll often hear not only guitar solos, but also BANJO solos. The banjo, of course, is the [Instrument for Pete Seeger]. If you've never seen The Power of Song, a 2007 documentary about Seeger, it's really worth a look-see.
• BONOBO ["Pygmy chimpanzee found only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo"]. That's the only place in the world where you'll find these long-legged chimps (with their oh-so humanoid physical traits) living in the wild.

Two terrific clues for two tiny words are [Frequent joiner] for AND, and [Lousy in Eng. class] for ADJ. (i.e., in a discussion of "parts of speech," the word lousy is an adjective...).

Finally, in a puzzle whose theme is inspired by one everyday Latin abbreviation, thank you, Madame Constructor, for the bonus entry—another everyday Latin abbreviation: ETC. [Writer's list topper]. (That one's short for et cetera...)

Brad Wilber's Los Angeles Times crossword

I like Brad's puzzles, but of course I'd prefer a Saturday puzzle clued harder than the Wednesday level. As I said over at L.A. Crossword Confidential, SQUIB KICK (29A: [Football boot that takes unexpected bounces]) was my big "Wha??" answer: Never heard of it! My son's been playing the Madden NFL '08 video game on Wii, though, and he's learned a lot about football from it. More than I know, actually. Shouldn't "squib kick" be used more broadly, in situations where life takes unexpected bounces?

These are a few of my favorite answers:

• 15A: [Blackmailer in "David Copperfield"] (URIAH HEEP). You'd be crooked too if your parents named you that. This is also the name of an old British rock band.
  
• Great entry, but depressing. 20A: [Wall Street down time?] (BEAR MARKET).
  
• 37A: [Foliage-eating pest] (GYPSY MOTH). With the PS in place, I blithely filled in SAPSUCKER, but that's a bird and sap ≠ foliage. Whoops.
  
• I fear I am too old for this one: 45A: [Closest pal, in texting shorthand] (BFF). Short for "best friend forever." My kid? He's nine. He's the right age group to use "BFF." If you are over 18, please do not use this abbreviation. Ever.
  
• Botany! 58A: [Shrub with fluffy grayish flower clusters], the SMOKE BUSH, is also called the smoke tree, and the flowers aren't always gray. It's closely related to 1D: ["Poison" plant] (SUMAC).
  
• Oh, no! Look out! It's THE BLOB! (6D: [Amoebalike movie alien]). I kinda want to switch the clues for 6D and 9D, so that the [Title gladiator played by Kirk Douglas] is THE BLOB and the amoeba monster is SPARTACUS. My favorite Spartacus is Hank Azaria's Agador Spartacus in Birdcage, but my favorite character in that movie is Nathan Lane, particularly when he tries to butch up but wears bright pink socks with a suit because "one wants a hint of color." Words to live by.
  
• 38A: [Exuberant modern compliment] ("YOU ROCK!"). Love it! I actually use this phrase, and it's possible that I shouldn't.
  

Not all the fill was as entertaining as those answers. INTERMESH and pretax SUBTOTALS and an oddly COCKED HAT didn't do much for me (though the dictionary tells me a COCKED HAT is a thing, a "brimless triangular hat pointed at the front, back, and top," is it a hat any of us have heard of?). The short stuff also seemed heavy. Five entire Across rows and three Downs containing nothing but three- to five-letter words? ANOS, TAS, DMS, OAS, ECK, IPO, Spanish URANO (2D: [Seventh planeta]), the old crosswordese 7D: Dreaded mosquito, AEDES? Meh.

Barry Silk's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"

(PDF solution here.)

I wasn't quite sure my solution was correct until I checked the PDF. 37D: [End neighbor] clues PGDN. That's the "page down" key on a computer keyboard. On my Apple keyboard, do you know what that key says? It's labeled "page down." My husband's Windows laptop has "Page dn." Does anyone have PG DN?

Since when are 1A: [Burger and fries] COMFORT FOOD? The clue should read [Grilled cheese and tomato soup], obviously.

Favorite bits:

• 21A. [Cracker sandwiches] are S'MORES. Yum! I just bought all the fixings to make these—except I just realized that my Peapod grocery delivery did not inclulde the chocolate bars I thought I ordered. The system was haywire and a bunch of things I wanted vanished from my virtual cart. Chocolate! Must buy some today.
  
• 55A. [She's not talking] clues a MIME. Three cheers for a clue that doesn't use a male default.
  
• 62A. AHMAD RASHAD's name was not coming to me, and any TV name starting with AH was looking unlikely. He's the [Former "Celebrity Mole" host]. I halfway wanted to squeeze Anderson Cooper in there. What did he host in his pre-CNN days, non-celebrity The Mole?
  
• Ahmad's sitting on top of another 5/6-letter full name: LORNE GREENE was the [Prosecutor portrayer in "Peyton Place"], which (a) was before my time and (b) is a clue with too many Ps.
  

I didn't know AUTO-REVERSE a week or so ago when it was in another puzzle but now? It was my #1 guess for [Cassette-player feature].

Too bad [Holy ___] clues only SEE (65D) and not also MACKEREL (24D, [Salt-cured sushi]).

Did you know MR. T is now a [Tormenting voice on some GPS devices]? Poor guy, always typecast. Why wasn't he cast opposite Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List? Where is his romantic comedy career?

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Monday, 4/13

BEQ 4:00
CS 3:05
NYT 2:51
LAT 2:28

Natan Last's New York Times crossword

When it comes to a Monday puzzle, I tend to look at 1-Across and, without writing in that answer, start on the Down clues that it feeds into. Imagine my surprise when 1- and 2-Down were both the sorts of zippy answers you expect to see in a themeless puzzle on Friday or Saturday—MR. BURNS is the [Owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant on "The Simpsons"] and YOU'RE IT is a [Shout in tag]. The rest of the puzzle wasn't quite up to the same level, but really, one isn't expecting a Monday puzzle to have as much breathtaking fill of a sparkling themeless. The theme is a basic vowel-progression theme, with the added oomph of a surprisingly non-stodgy middle entry:

• RACKETEER is clued as [Al Capone, for one]. Anyone else try to wedge BOOTLEGGER in there?
  
• RECKLESS means [Not heeding danger].
  
• RICKROLLING is a [Widespread Internet prank involving a bait-and-switch link to a music video. If you're not familiar with Rickrolling, see this January Brendan Quigley post and click on the link for the crossword. The popularity of this particular prank mystifies me.
  
• ROCK STAR is clued as [Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen]. Who would have guessed 25 years ago that both of these guys would still be touring in their 50s and 60s?
  
• RUCKSACKS are [Packs for bikers and hikers].
  

I like how the corners of the grid have meaty, Friday-style white space in them. Favorite clues and answers:

• COBALT is a [Metal that gave its name to a shade of blue].
  
• SQUAB is a great-looking word. Too bad the meaning is [Young pigeon].
  
• The crossings I had in place for [Bulrush, e.g.] coaxed me into answering HEDGE instead of SEDGE. Whoops. "Bulrush" isn't such a Monday-friendly word.
  
• MORTON is the ["When it rains, it pours" salt brand]. Would you recognize the character on the Morton label and other product mascots? Try this Sporcle.com quiz.
  
• GERTRUDE gets a Shakespeare clue: [She says "The lady protest too much, methinks" in "Hamlet"].
  
• MUSCLE is [What a bodybuilder builds]. I frittered away a little time trying to come up with a suitable 6-letter muscle that would fit there.
  

Updated Monday morning:

Fred Jackson III's L.A. Times crossword

After I figured out the first two theme entries—FULL OF ONESELF, or [Conceited], and HALF-BAKED IDEA, or [Plan not completely thought out]—I decided the next one would begin with QUARTER. But it's less of a mathematical progression and more of a gas-tank progression, as the third and final theme entry is EMPTY PROMISES, or [Much campaign rhetoric]. Or maybe it's not a gas tank, but the optimist and pessimist's drinking glasses, half-full or half-empty.

I would have liked to see livelier fill in this puzzle, since there are only 39 theme squares here. QUAFFS ([Beers and ales]) crossing COIFFURE ([Hairdo]) is cool, though. The awkward RESNAP, or [Shoot again], is accompanied by a surfeit of short fill like ERN, SSE, ANAT, ULT, OPER, STES, UAR, and SSA.

ACA, or [Here, in Spain], is one of those Spanish words that maybe folks in L.A. are more familiar with than I am. What's the difference between ACA and AQUI? I know AQUI better.

For another take on this puzzle, here's PuzzleGirl's L.A.C.C. post.

Brendan Emmett Quigley's themeless blog crossword, "Superchunk"

Brendan's offering today is a themeless puzzle with a relatively low word count (66, I think) and lots of kickass fill. Would you look at this stuff:

• Iran's Mahmoud AHMADINEJAD was the controversial [Speaker at Columbia 9/24/2007].
  
• COME TO PAPA! That means ["Walk this way!"], but not in an Aerosmith/Run D.M.C. sort of way.
  
• The LONE RANGER is a [Silver figure?].
  
• [The next one takes place in Shanghai, 2010] clues the WORLD'S FAIR. What puzzle did I see last week with the They Might Be Giants song ANA NG in it? That song mentions the '64 World's Fair. Here's the "Ana Ng" video for your viewing pleasure.
  
• To GALUMPH is to [Walk clumsily]. The H is shared by SLOSH, which is a great mate for GALUMPH.
  

There's also a LAST-GASP effort, THE HAWKS who were [1958 NBA champions], I DARESAY, and EVITA PERON's full name. The lowly green PEA that's a [Samosa ingredient] has me hankering for Indian food with some cooling chutney on the side.

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Heavens Above"

The trio of 15-letter theme entries give us the sun, moon, and stars:

• [Frankie Carle's theme song] is SUNRISE SERENADE. Frankie who? Must be before my time. There's also a Glenn Miller connection that is before my time, too.
  
• MOON OVER PARADOR is a reasonably forgettable '80s movie—and yet I remember it still. It probably helps that the movie's fake country looks like a portmanteau of Paraguay and Ecuador. Why not Moon Over Ecuaguay? The clue, [Dreyfuss-Julia comedy of 1988], cites Richard Dreyfuss and Raul Julia, but looks an awful lot like a mangling of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. I like the confusion that offers.
  
• STARS AND STRIPES is the U.S. [Military newspaper founded in 1861].
  

I like ZEKE, who is clued as [Quarterback Bratkowski]. Zeke was my college nickname. Up above it in the grid, there's ORANGEADE, and Orange is my blogosphere nickname. If only the abbreviation AME or AMER or AMES, Iowa had made it into the grid—then all the bases would be covered. Moving past nicknames, we get a couple full names—BRIAN ENO and THOMAS MANN. Is it just me, or do constructors really include more full-name fill featuring crosswordese people than noncrosswordese people? TOMHANKS is an 8 like BRIANENO, but we get Mr. Eno's full name much more often. It's those crossword-friendly letter patterns.

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Friday, 12/19

NYT 28:04
Sun 24:03
WSJ 22:21
LAT 21:51
CHE 10:24
CS 5:30

(Updated at 9:45 pm Friday)

I'm going to put this here above the cut just to make sure she sees it. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Hi. I was going to try to fool you. But you knew it was me, didn't you? You could tell by the big numbers up there. At first you panicked, thought you had stumbled onto the wrong blog somehow and were losing your mind. Or that something terrible had happened to Orange and she amazingly, inexplicably, began sucking at crossword puzzles. Then it hit you. You thought: "It's just that speed solver wannabe PuzzleGirl again. Why, oh why, does she continue to humiliate herself by publicly advertising her dismal solving times every chance she gets?" You know, that's an excellent question. I'm gonna think about that one and get back to ya! For now, though, I'll just warn you that I'll be here all week while Orange is off on a big boat somewhere in the sun. Sounds great, right? Yeah well, she won't have the kind of internet access she's used to. And she's so much like me, I can tell you what she's doing right now. Her eye just started to twitch. She's pacing frantically. Pretty soon she'll be breathing into a paper bag. It's sad really. Where technology has taken us. And by us, I mean, Orange and me. None of you are that nutty, right? Okay, enough jibber-jabbering, onto the puzzles.

Did everybody else love Natan Last's New York Times crossword? It wasn't just me, right? I mean, how can you not love a puzzle that includes AZERBAIJANI and GUITAR HERO?? A lot of misdirection in this puzzle — had to be careful with verb tenses, not get locked into obvious pronunciation, and beware the dreaded First Word Proper Noun Trick. I need to catch my breath here because I just don't know where to start. Well, Pinocchio's exuberant cry "I'M A REAL BOY!" was the first thing I placed in the grid. I could hardly believe my luck that it fit. Oh, hell, let's run down the best of the misdirection:

• [Lead for one]: Here lead is pronounced with a long e making the answer ROLE. (I was going to be super impressed if the o in the cross, which happens to be a French word, ONDES [Waves on l'océan], required one of those little tenty things. Yes, that's the technical term for it. Shut up. You know what I'm talking about.)
• Later, however, in [They may hold the lead], it's pronounced the other way, bringing us to the answer ORES. Verry tricky!
• Raise your hand if the first thing you thought of for [Reacts to a big buffet] was overeats. But no. In this case, it's not the French-i-fied pronunciation we need, but rather the word that sounds like Jimmy or Warren's last name and means "a blow, especially with the hand." One who reacts to that kind of buffet, of course, SEES STARS.
• An X-RATED MOVIE is, indeed, a [Work with raw material?]. Anyone else stumbling around in the general vicinity of a butcher shop at first? Was JUDE Law ever in one of those? The movie, not the butcher shop. Oh never mind.
• I thought for a moment that [Unpopular singer] might be frequent crossword denizen Enya but that's not really fair. In this case we needed to think of singing in the criminal, sure-I'll-talk-as-soon-as-you-show-me-the-immunity-agreement sense, which brings us to the correct answer: RAT. Hey, and you know why people might decide to go ahead and sing? Maybe because they're not really all that super at duping, i.e., perhaps they're just BAD LIARS. See how I did that?
  

Other random good stuff:

• Basher TARR, the explosives expert in the "Ocean's" movies, is played by the one and only, the fabulous Don Cheadle.
• Greek alphabet? Check. Jewish months? Check. European rivers? In progress. Book of Mormon? Wait, what??
• Longtime Delaware senator William ROTH. Is he the Roth IRA guy? Yup.
• Who knew Wynton Marsalis got his first trumpet from AL HIRT? I was trying to think of his dad's name (Ellis) or his brother's (Branford).
• I thought Gordie Howe was the only four-letter hockey player I knew, but thankfully [Five-time N.H.L. scoring leader of the 1990s-'00s] Járomir JÁGR was skating around back there in the dark recesses somewhere.
• And, finally, I hope Natan drops in to confirm that ORANGE, [Like goldfish], was included as a shout-out to our lovely and talented hostess here at the Crossword Fiend. You know it's true.
• Oh, and I almost forgot. [Start of an exchange] refers to the phrase TIT for tat. Heh heh. You said tit.
  

Robert A. Doll's Sun crossword, "Position Papers," is a fun newspaper-themed rebus, with some lovely symmetry thrown in for your solving pleasure. We've got the Globe at the cross of GOLDEN GLOBE and GLOBETROT; the Star joining John McCain's SILVER STAR and Nancy Reagan's STAR CHART; the Sun at arguably the strangest theme crossing in the puzzle, juice brand CAPRI SUN and SUN YAT-SEN, the father of modern China; the Bee brings together Clara Edwards's friend AUNT BEE and Richard Gere's "BEE SEASON"; and smack-dab in the middle, we've got the Times at the cross of MANY TIMES OVER and 1978 #1 Commodores hit THREE TIMES A LADY. Just stop a minute and admire the symmetry. Seriously. Close your eyes and picture it. It's beautiful, isn't it? Take another minute or two if you need it. I'll wait ....

And we're back. I always enjoy the pop culture references in crossword puzzles, particularly when they involve music and sports, so I loved seeing three-fourths of the Fearsome Foursome today. L.A. Rams MERLIN Olsen, Deacon Jones, Rosey Grier, and Lamar Lundy, terrorized their opponents throughout the 1960s. I would venture to guess that there was never a quartet of famous tough-guys with weirder first names.

Speaking of weird names, I was tripped up quite a bit in the SE corner with EVIE [Val and Joan's mother in the comic strip "Stone Soup"], Olympic swimmer DARA Torres, and reliever Robb NEN. Throw in an ancient warship I've never heard of down there and, well, I'm sunk. TRIREME? Really?

I also had a hard time remembering that vie means life in French, to which EAU (water) is indispensable. ROSEBUD was [Charles Foster Kane's dying word] in "Citizen Kane," one of those movies I can't believe I haven't seen. (It's in pretty good company with "Casablanca" and "Gone With the Wind," though.)

That's it for now. Back later with more Friday puzzles....

In Dan Naddor's LA Times crossword, an s (representing the word it's) is added to the beginning of familiar phrases to create new phrases à la the Gershwin classic "'S Wonderful."

• [Take to task on the porch] turns "it's cold outside" to SCOLD OUTSIDE
• [Goulash fresh from the oven?] takes "it's too hot to handle" and makes it STEW HOT TO HANDLE
• [Blizzard?] = SNOW BIGGIE ("it's no biggie")
• [Dreamlike delight?] = SURREAL PLEASURE ("it's a real pleasure")
• [Attest to my membership?] = SWEAR I BELONG ("it's where I belong")

I can't believe I'm going to admit this to you, but I had a lot of trouble with 1 Down. I got right away that the clue — ["Come on down!" announcer] — referred to "The Price Is Right" game show. Without thinking, I entered PARDO, realizing an NSEC later that it wasn't right. I erased it and heard Bob Barker in my head: "Who's our next contestant, Johnny?" Johnny... Johnny! ... Johnny who? What the heck is Johnny's last name? Couldn't get it without the crosses. His last name? Yep, pretty much the same last name I had for the first 35 years of my life: OLSON. Ack!

Olio:

• Did you guys know AVA was [Burma's capital city for nearly five centuries]? And that Earl AVERILL was a Hall of Fame outfielder? I didn't. Totally guessed that cross.
• I've never seen — nor had any desire to see — "REN and Stimpy." But knowing they have an album titled "You Eediot!" almost — almost — makes me want to check them out.
• Idaho's state motto is ESTO Perpetuo ("Let it be forever").
• Originally thought the [Red hot chili pepper] would be poblano and not CAYENNE. Really wanted it to be Anthony Keidis, but no caps. Darn.
• The trading PIT is a specific area of the stock exchange's trading floor designated for trading individual futures or options contract.
• SUASIVE means [Convincing]. So, pretty much the same as persuasive. Someone 'splain that to me.
• The ARIZONA Cardinals moved away from St. Louis in 1998. Has it really been that long since I paid attention to pro football??
• Amy Winehouse's Grammy-winning song is, as you know, REHAB. You know you want to click here.

I always get a little nervous at the prospect of solving the Chronicle of Higher Education's crossword. It's often chock full of academic-type stuff and my brain hasn't worked that way in a long time. A few of the theme answers in today's John Lampkin offering, "Physical Romance," were a little too scienc-y for me to understand, but I looked them up for you. It's just one of the services I offer. You're welcome.

• [Go out with anyone or anything alive?] = CARBON DATE. You see, carbon is an element present in all known lifeforms. Thus, it's considered the chemical basis of all known life.
• [Pairs of romantically involved hotties?] = THERMOCOUPLES. A thermocouple is, basically, a temperature sensor.
• [Power that a beautiful person has?] = ATTRACTIVE FORCE. This has to do with magnetism. Or maybe gravity. Possibly both.
• [Response to a gift of jewelry?] = CHAIN REACTION. You don't want to know the first thing that came to my mind for this one. Hello, breakfast test!
• [Measure of the evening's success when saying farewell?] = WAVELENGTH.
  

I'm running out of time here. Have to get over to a thing at the kids' school. I'll leave you with "The ANVIL Chorus" from "Il Trovatore." If you're just dying to talk about the CS and WSJ puzzles, knock yourselves out in the comments. I'll be back to add my no doubt fascinating perspective later on today.

Hey, guys. Sorry to do this, but this day has been a lot crazier than I expected. I'm going to go ahead and post the completed grids for the WSJ and CS puzzles, but I haven't had time to pull my thoughts together and there are still a few more things I have to do before that makes it to the top of my list. Speaking of which, where the hell is my list?!? Oh, here it is. Anyway. Sorry about that.

Trip Payne's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Following the S&P," adds the letters SP to the beginning of familiar phrases to create new amusing phrases.

• [Deface an artwork?] = SPOIL PAINTING
• [Wrong way to get syrup from a maple tree?] = SPOUT ON A LIMB
• [Nutmeg crusher, for example?] = SPICE BREAKER
• [Be the least coherent?] = SPUTTER MOST
• [Big Brother's eyeballs, perhaps?] = SPHERES LOOKING AT YOU
• [Italian version of Cheez Whiz?] = SPRAY ROMANO (nice!)
• [What an astronaut puts on a boo-boo?] = SPACE BANDAGR
• [March king?] = SPRING LEADER
• [Request to a shopaholic spouse?] = SPEND LESS, LOVE
  

I really enjoyed this puzzle. When I see Trip's name, I know I'm in for a workout and this puzzle didn't disappoint. Tough stuff for me: [Fielding novel] refers to Henry, not Helen. So that means AMELIA, not Bridget Jones. HOMER is the [Brother-in-law of Patty and Selma] and I can only assume that's a "Simpsons" reference. As many times as I've entered it in crossword grids, I had no idea MENLO Park was in New Jersey. Thought it was a suburb of Chicago for some reason. Never heard of the ELI Young Band. Never knew that [Tastiness] can be called SAPOR. Good thing we learned that a PIT is a [Trading spot] in another puzzle today. [King's domain?] refers to CNN's Larry King. And [Some business partners] are SONS, which reminds me of the Undisputed Number One Best Television Theme Song of All Time. You can hear an awesome version of it here. (Thanks, Wade.)

Raymond Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Game Birds," features four professional sports teams each with a different bird mascot. One football team: the BALTIMORE RAVENS; one basketball: the ATLANTA HAWKS; one hockey: the ANAHEIM DUCKS; and one baseball: the TORONTO BLUEJAYS.

Not a lot to say about this easy, breezy puzzle. I like how the [Hawaiian veranda] LANAI crosses the [Floral neckwear] LEI in the northern California region. We've also got MORAL crossing ORAL there. Looks to me like only a couple things might have tripped people up. The crossing of [Icelandic currency] KRONA and [Big name in headphones] KOSS seemed unusually tricky in this particular puzzle. I can never get [River nymph] NAIAD without the crosses. PuzzleSon is a Cub Scout, so AKELA, the [Cub Scout pack leader], was familiar to me, but I sure would have had a hard time with it a few years ago. And, oh yeah, LPS. For you whippersnappers, that's what we used to listen to music on back in the old days before CDs.

Sorry it took me so long to get today's write-ups done. When Orange gets back, she'll probably fire me. Hey look! It's almost time to start tomorrow's puzzles! I guess this is what it's like living without Super-Human Solving Powers. See y'all in a little bit....

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Friday, 9/12

NYT 5:10
NYS 4:48
LAT 4:42
CHE 4:36
CS 3:22

WSJ 6:23

Natan Last may be a teenager, but his themeless New York Times crossword struck me as indistinguishable from those made by some of my favorite grown-up constructors. The fill was reminiscent of the Nothnagel/Quarfoot flavor of themeless:

• IS THIS LOVE is a [1978 Bob Marley hit whose title words are sung four times before "...that I'm feeling'"]. I didn't know this one at all, but the clue and crossings offered enough hints to get there.
  
• CHOCOHOLIC is clued as [One needing kisses, say]. I beg to differ. A true chocoholic would have no use for Hershey's kisses. Too waxy! Too low in cocoa content. Dark chocolate is where it's at. (Great crossword answer, though.)
  
• KOALA BEARS are [Furry folivores], or leaf-eaters. No, they're not bears at all, but that is what they're called in popular parlance.
  
• QUAKER OATS is nice and Scrabbly. They're the [Company that makes Aunt Jemima syrup]? Feh. I switched to real maple syrup. Quaker's got a new mixed-grain oatmeal called Simple Harvest. Maple and brown sugar flavor includes crunchy pecans, and it's got half the salt of the regular maple/brown sugar oatmeal. Yum!
  
• IN LA-LA LAND is clued as [Daydreaming].
  
• OKEY-DOKEY, artichokey! Clued as ["You got it!"].
  
• OH, COME ON is another way of saying ["You have got to be kidding!"].
  
• OSHKOSH, by gosh, is a [City at the mouth of the Fox River] in Wisconsin.
  
• BULLHORN is a [March instrument?], I think because whoever is leading certain marches (military? protest? not a parade or marching band?) might use a bullhorn. 
  
• To COTTON TO something is to [Start to like] it.
  
• I remember the '80s movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, but did not know that BOOGALOO was an [Energetic 1960s dance with swiveling and shuffling].
  

Favorite clues: [Nooks for books, maybe] for TYPO (the N and B keys are adjacent); [It holds the line] for a REEL; [Winston Churchill's Rufus, for one] for POODLE; [They know the drill] for DENTISTS; [One with fire power?] for BOSS; [Foot of the Appian Way?] for PES, Latin for "foot" the verb [Keen] for MOURN; and [Pattern sometimes called "Persian pickles"] for PAISLEY. These clues taught me two little bits of trivia.

Tougher clues:

• [Dance that simulates the drama of a bullfight] is the PASO DOBLE.
  
• [Sound at an auto race] is SWOOSH. Now, that's the Nike logo, and the car sounds would be whooshes or vrooms, if you ask me.
  
• The [Letter-shaped girder] and [Letter-shaped fastener] are the H-BEAM and T-NUT, respectively.
  
• [Lord John Boyd ___, winner of the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize] gets less crossword attention than hockey's Bobby, also named ORR.
  
• An APSE is an [Area next to an ambulatory]. Hmm, a cathedral part I hadn't learned about from crosswords already, the ambulatory.
  
• [Worked the docks] is STEVEDORED. The one dictionary I checked gives stevedore only as a noun.
  
• [Early Inverness resident] points to Scotland and a PICT.
  
• ["She was ___ in slacks" (part of an opening soliloquy by Humbert Humbert)] is LOLA. He takes to calling her Lolita, and I didn't know he started out with Lola.
  
• Does anyone play ECARTE, or is it just the [Trick-taking game] seen in crosswords?
  
• [God of life, death and fertility who underwent resurrection] is the Egyptian OSIRIS.
  
• [Teacher of Heifetz] is violinist Leopold AUER. (Not Mischa Auer.)
  

Mark Feldman's New York Sun puzzle wasn't as tough as many Friday Suns. The theme in "How Offensive!" is "phrases that start with offensive positions in football:

• TACKLE BOX is a [Container with hooks] used in fishing.
  
• GUARD DOGS are German [Shepherds, sometimes].
  
• The quarterback starts QB VII, the Leon Uris [Novel whose four parts are titled "The Plaintiff," "The Defendants," "Brief to Counsel," and "The Trial"].
  
• CENTER ICE, in hockey, is the [Game-starting face-off's spot].
  
• BACK FLIPS are a [Gymnast's maneuvers].
  
• Crossing two of those theme entries is RECEIVER GENERAL, a [Public officer in charge of the treasury].
  
• Crossing the other two medium-length theme entries is END CONSTRUCTION, a [Highway sign] we love to see.
  

This wasn't the sort of theme where I could anticipate upcoming theme entries, on accounta I do not keep a mental list of all the football positions. But the theme occupies an impressive amount of space, and it's executed well enough for me to forgive fill like UPOLU, or the [Samoan island where Robert Louis Stevenson died]. That entry may, in fact, have saved the puzzle, because how many other answers fit the pattern **O*U? Opposite that crazy entry is the COACH of the team. Favorite clue: [Ego maniac?] for FREUD.

Updated:

Three cheers for Patrick Berry's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle! His "Standardized Test" is going straight into my folder of the best gimmick puzzles of the year. The grid has five sets of standardized test answers, ABCDE, already in place. The Across Lite Notepad contains the multiple-choice questions that correspond to them, and the solver is to fill in the circle for the correct answer. Doing so blacks out that letter—which is appropriate because that letter doesn't belong in the Down answer that crosses it. (The other four multiple-choice answers serve as plain ol' letters in their crossings.) I'm not up on my standardized test trivia, but the letter to black out was clear from the crossings. And then! And then, when you reach the end of the quiz in the Notepad, it says BONUS QUESTION: What group has benefited most from standardized testing? (To find the answer, read the Down entries that intersect the correct answers to the five questions above.) Peter SE( )LLERS includes the noun SELLERS, and with the other words that include the blacked-out answer letters we see the following phrase: SELLERS OF NUMBER TWO PENCILS. As crossword "aha" moments go, that one was delightful. The way the various elements of the theme come together is both surprising and elegant. I like it enough to forgive TOILFUL, or [Like drudge work], which is a word almost never used in native English. From "Peanuts," Sally's pet name for Linus, "Sweet BABOO," is cute. "Peanuts" is so well-known, you'd think BABOO would get a little more play in crosswords. I'm fine with PAU, the [Winter resort in France], because Pau was one of the study-abroad programs available at my college.

Bilie Truitt's LA Times crossword is very forthright and refuses to hem and haw by saying "er": Each theme entry is a phrase that's had the -ER lopped off at the end.

• [Feeling the effects of too many calls?] is PHONE NUMB (number).
  
• [Give a lulu money?] is PAY THE PIP (piper).
  
• [Nonsense in an alternative paper?] is UNDERGROUND BUNK (bunker).
  
• [Stock in the "Chicken Soup" books?] is SOUL BROTH (brother). This one tickled me.
  
• [Like a bagpiper in briefs?] is OUT OF KILT (kilter)...although they say a true Scotsman goes commando beneath his kilt, so that bagpiper would be nekkid from the waist down, wouldn't he? 
  

I note a new clue for NGO, not referencing a Vietnamese leader of eld, Ngo Dinh Diem, or the abbreviation for nongovernmental organizations: [IHOP '___: takeout food program], "IHOP 'n Go." [City across the river from Buffalo, N.Y.] is abbreviated FT. ERIE. [Sound heard at the end of day?] stymied me for too long—it's the LONG A vowel sound. [Bay window] is old-school crosswordese: ORIEL. (Not to be confused with the crosswordese basketry willow, OSIER.) The [Long-distance initials] WATS were in use when I was in college in the '80s, but I haven't encountered a WATS line since then.

Maybe there was a file naming/dating slip-up over at CrosSynergy—today's CrosSynergy puzzle via the link at Cruciverb.com is a themeless "Sunday Challenge," but today is Friday. Far be it from me to cast aside an unexpected themeless when one presents itself! This one, by Mel Rosen, seemed strikingly easy for a themeless. When 1-Across (MA AND PA, [The Kettles]) and its crosses practically fill themselves in, it's not the experience I expect to have. Favorite entries:

• VISIGOTH is a [Gaul invader].
  
• BJORN BORG is the [Swede who won five straight Wimbledons].
  
• PROBITY is a funny-looking word meaning [Uprightness]. I never use the word, probably because I think it sounds funny.
  

Other Scrabbly entries include BEJEWELED, QUIZ KID, ZINC WHITE ([Pigment used in cosmetic dentistry]—I never learned this in my tenure at a cosmetic dentistry journal), and KLEPTO. The big mystery word for me was LAAGERS, or [Protected encampments]. Here's the definition, and this page says the Old West "circle the wagons" approach is much the same as a laager.

The Wall Street Journal crossword, "Reel Sex Changes," marks the first time (Whoops, make that the second time—but it's Andrea's first venture into Sunday-sized constructing and I love what she does with that much room for the theme!) Andrea Carla Michaels and Patrick Blindauer have shared a byline. I cottoned to the theme quickly, since [Movie about two good ol' gals foiling Boss Hogg?] evoked The Dukes of Hazzard, and the gals and titular "Sex Changes" pointed the way toward THE DUCHESSES OF HAZZARD COUNTY. In the altered movie titles in the other theme entries, Sir becomes MADAM, Mommie becomes DADDY, Daughter becomes SON, Boys become GIRLS, Brothers become SISTERS, and Men become WOMEN. Surely there are far more male movie title characters than female ones, but this theme gives us a peek at what could be. It's an easy Sunday-sized puzzle, to be sure, but with interesting fill, such as Edgar Allen Poe's ORANGUTAN, Robin Hood's LITTLE JOHN, Pope BENEDICT, MAFIOSI, YWCAS, and FASCISM of the order INSECTA.

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Saturday, 8/23

Newsday 6:52
NYT 5:52
LAT 4:45
CS 3:25

(post updated at noon Saturday; Thursday post also updated late with Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle)

A Saturday New York Times puzzle, constructed by Natan Last, with 70 words and 30 black squares—this puppy breaks no records at all. But a handful of the entries were straight-up fun to uncover, and MR. MIYAGI brought a smile to my face. (His clue: [Film character who says "I promise teach karate. That my part. You promise learn"].) A sweet little hit of '80s pop culture will generally give me the warm fuzzies towards a crossword. There were other terrific entries, and the clues amused me too. My favorite ingredients:

• Two successive [Thanksgiving dishes], YAMS and china gravy BOATS, put turkey on my mind. So [Turkey tender?] had to have something to do with Thanksgiving, right? Wrong. That's LIRAS, the legal tender in the country, Turkey.
  
• [Do or die] happens to clue VERB here. But you can attend a fancy do and you can roll or cast a die, so NOUN would also fit the space. I've seen enough of these Saturday "___ or ___" clues that want you to identify the part of speech rather than treating the clue as an actual phrase, so I didn't think about what "do or die" means.
  
• [Hiiumaa Island belongs to it] clues ESTONIA. Crazy geography! Estonia and Finland have stolen many of the vowels missing from Czech, Polish, and other Slavic words.
  
• Albus DUMBLEDORE is J.K. Rowling's [Headmaster of literature]. As far as made-up character names go, this one's lovely.
  
• A [Minor modification] is a TWEAK. Fun word to say; might be clued in a drug context in an Onion, Tausig, or Jonesin' puzzle.
  
• The ol' SWITCHEROO is an [Underhanded change, slangily]. Has anyone ever pulled the ol' switcheroo at a HOOTENANNY, or [Folkies' do]?
  
• In an odd change-up, the partial IN A is clued with a cross-reference to three different entries—it can be a [Preceder of 46-, 59- or 61-Across], which are a JAM, RAGE, and SNIT.
  
• [Play an ace?] means to AVIATE, playing at being an air ace. This one's not cross-referenced to [Her idea may be taking off], cluing an AIRWOMAN. It appears that the Brits use this term, but the U.S. Air Force uses Airman as a unisex term.
  
• IVY is [What often grows attached]. I rip it off the bricks when it climbs towards my windows.
  
• QB SNEAKS looks great in the puzzle. They're [Plays after some snaps, in brief]. I have no idea if people call 'em QB sneaks vs. quarterback sneaks.
  
• [Average guy?] is DOW, as in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
  
• AUTOMATA is a plural of automaton. [They work by themselves].
  
• THE WHO! My husband's all-time favorite band, coincidentally heard on a Nissan commercial at the very moment I was asking my husband who his favorite band was. Clued as [Preceder of Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock].
  
• MOSEYS? I love to mosey. Clued as [Moves with no urgency]. Indeed!
  
• Lindsey LOHAN was the [Star of "Herbie: Fully Loaded," 2005]. I saw it on TV with my kid. This may have been the last movie she shot before becoming a serial rehabber.
  
• One who sings a few [Bars without other people?] sings SOLOS.
  

I needed a lot of crossings to figure out the [Oil-based paste mentioned in the lyrics to "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"]. I knew it was something-INE, but not that it was PLASTICINE. The lyric is given as "Plasticine porters with looking glass ties." What? Ties? Not eyes? Sighs. Another answer that sort of rhymes with PLASTICINE is JOLENE, a [#1 country hit for Dolly Parton]—for this one, I needed all the crossings. The [Existential musing] "WHY AM I HERE?" asks the self-referential question. Why is that phrase there? Is this an "in-the-language" phrase that's perfect crossword fodder, or a contrived phrase? I rather think it's the former.

In sum: Fun puzzle with a lively pop-culture vibe. I think Will Shortz got his days mixed up, though, because yesterday's Kevin Der record-breaker felt a good bit tougher than this one.

Updated:

Brad Wilber's themeless LA Times crossword has many cool entries:

• A.A. Milne's NOW WE ARE SIX, with that double W, is clued as [Book including the poems "Binker" and "Pinkle Purr"].
  
• TIPTOED looks weird when it's partially filled in—how many words include all or part of the PTOE letter sequence? Clued as [Went quietly].
  
• With no space between the words in the grid, TV ANTENNA, looks like some sort of Russian name. It's a [Reception aid].
  
• [One might wait in front of a church] clues STRETCH LIMO.
  
• SOBA NOODLES are [Traditional Japanese New Year's Eve fare].
  
• ANIMAL HOUSE was [Kevin Bacon's film debut].
  
• The phrase "I'M OVER IT" is [Words of acceptance, ostensibly].
  

Is it just me, or was this one a good bit easier than most of Wilber's themeless puzzles?

Dan Stark's Newsday "Saturday Stumper" is again a bit tougher than the day's other themelesses. Is it just me, or has Stan Newman stepped up the difficulty level in the Stumper? It's been a while since I had cause to blog about the disconnect between the "Stumper" name and an easy puzzle. In this one, the last quadrant I filled in was the upper left. It all looks so reasonable now, sure, but mid-solve, these answers were hiding from me:

• [Adding-machine inventor] was PASCAL. I half-considered EDISON before his TAE initials showed up as [Inventive initials].
  
• [Inhospitable place] is SIBERIA. I was thinking much smaller, like a sauna (I don't much enjoy the heat), rather than a place that's 5.1 million square miles. I like that SIBERIA works less literally, too.
  
• For [Bill padding], I was stuck on a restaurant or service bill rather than a legislative one, so I was thinking along the lines of FEES instead of PORK.
  
• [Metallic joint], ending in W? SCREW, of course! Er, no. ELBOW joint. A screw joins things together, but not as a joint.
  
• [Flask flaw] is a PINHOLE. I had nowhere I was trying to go with this one. I had glass flasks in mind, not metal ones that might get pinholes in them.
  
• [Takes in] is ABSORBS. I started with FOSTERS, as in taking in a foster child. So wrong.
  

Did you know the [World's most common place name] is SAN JOSE? I recall a bar trivia question along these lines, and my team figured it had to be something reflecting the old British Empire, like Victoria. I don't remember if San José was given as the correct answer—they had some crazy wrongnesses sometimes.

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle is called "Where's the Fire?" because the four theme entries end with words that can follow the word fire:

• [Structure for spawning salmon] is a FISH LADDER, and there's such a thing as a fire ladder.
  
• [Sacks] means GIVES THE AX; fire ax.
  
• [Stockings that compress the legs] are SUPPORT HOSE; fire hose.
  
• [Kills time on-line] is SURFS THE NET; fire net.
  

In the fill, [Goes from tavern to tavern] is BARHOPS. Did you ever notice that barhop and carhop are just one letter off?

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Friday, 5/30

NYS 5:22
LAT 5:12
NYT 5:04
CHE 4:49
Jonesin' 3:25
CS 3:12

WSJ 8:22

Brendan Emmett Quigley's New York Sun "Weekend Warrior" includes the full names of five people (one fictional) in the grid—the Scrabblerific NIKKI SIXX ([Bassist on the two "Girls, Girls, Girls"] by Mötley Crüe; birth name Frank Ferrana), the crosswordese-first-named ANA ALICIA (["Falcon Crest" actress]; birth name Ana Alicia Ortiz), JANGO FETT ([Bounty hunter in "Attack of the Clones," one of the Star Wars flicks), the crossword-friendly ANNE MEARA (["Archie Bunker's Place costar], wife of Jerry Stiller and mother of Ben Stiller), and two-part crosswordese ETTA KETT ([Old comics girl whose boyfriend was Wingey]). Favorite clues:

• [World Series game] for TEXAS HOLD 'EM, referring to the World Series of Poker—isn't that a magnificent mislead?
  
• [___ mort (dispirited)] for A LA—a cool French phrase I've never used
  
• [Squidward Tentacles, for one] for TOON—he's SpongeBob's next-door neighbor, coworker, and nemesis
  
• [Block letters?] for SPF, referring to sunblock
  
• [Like some sciences] for INEXACT
  
• ["Friday Night Lights" player] for ODESSAN—that's a TV series about high-school football based in Odessa, Texas
  
• [Tunable drums] for TIMPANI—paying no mind to the logic and having the T and M, I blithely filled in TOMTOMS, which were the wrong drums
  
• [Anonymous guy] is MISTER X
  
• The [11th-century king of Norway] is OLAV III...but he could also be OLA VIII, the eighth in a distinguished line of kings named Ola
  
• [Part of ORU] is ORAL; I hope at least one solver out there wonders what sort of oral sex term is abbreviated ORU 
  

Speaking of Mister X, Natan Last's New York Times crossword has two full names that end with an X: JIMI HENDRIX, [Follower of Sha Na Na at Woodstock], and CHICO MARX, [Old comedian known for his unique piano-playing style]. The least dictionarified entries in the grid are "CAN I TRY SOME?", [Question while eying someone else's plate], and D-TEN, [Call in the game Battleship]. My favorite entries:

• RIGMAROLE, or [Elaborate procedure]
  
• BEE'S KNEES, or [Living end]
  
• ERROL is ["The Fog of War" director Morris]—if you haven't seen this documentary featuring Robert McNamara, rent the DVD. If you think it sounds boring, you'll be amazed at how interesting, human, and relevant it is.
  
• C'EST LA VIE, or ["Oh well"]
  
• "I AM SO DEAD," or ["My parents are gonna kill me!"]—also not the sort of phrase that's listed in the dictionary, but isn't it terrific? I love it.
  
• FLY SOLO, or [Eschew aid]
  LOKI, the [Shape-shifting giant of myth], is sometimes called a trickster—but the [Playful trickster] in this crossword is a PIXIE
  

Clues that may vex:

• The [Soapmaking compound] is OLEIC ACID.
  
• ["The Wandering Heir" novelist] is the APTLY ([Well]) named READE.
  
• [Orsk is on it] means the URAL River.
  
• [Rabbit punch landing site] is the NAPE. Is this used in boxing, or is it fighting dirty?
  
• [Something to put on before trying] a case is a judge's ROBE.
  
• [Peter who wrote "The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde"] is ACKROYD.
  
• [Process of molecular synthesis] is ANABOLISM; I presume this has some relation to anabolic steroids.
  

Updated:

James Sajdak's LA Times crossword shifts a vowel sound in each theme entry, from a long E to a short I, along the lines of really getting pronounced as rilly. [Sass from a preacher?] is LIP OF FAITH. [Classroom clamor] is DIN OF EDUCATION. [Pickle to die for?] is DILL OF A LIFETIME. [Klutzy pageant entrant?] is SLIPPING BEAUTY. And [Treatment using spirits?] is GIN THERAPY; this is especially popular among fans of the traditional, non-fruit-flavored martini. Did you know [Minnie Mouse's dog] was named FIFI? Or that OPEL is an [Automaker with a lightning bolt logo]? WAX POETIC, clued as [Speak in a rhythmic and flowery way], is an especially nice entry.

Tom Heilman's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Philosophertherance," provides furtherance of philosophers' names. Two of the theme entries are 16 letters long, forcing a 15x16 grid. [Belief that I think, therefore I can do whatever I want?] is a mashup of René Descartes and carte blanche: DESCARTES BLANCHE. [Place to relax while reading "The Social Contract"?] is a ROUSSEAUFABED (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, sofabed). If you don't watch Lost, you may not know that there are characters named Rousseau and Locke. Voltaire and a tearsheet combine into VOLTAIRE SHEET, [Pamphlet that claims this is the best of all possible worlds?]. It was just last week that I learned that Voltaire snagged that optimistic idea from Leibniz and gave it to his character, Dr. Pangloss. Søren Kierkegaard and gardening become KIERKEGAARDENING, [Growing plants by means of a leap of faith?].

Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "Out With the Old," has a theme. Yes, it does. And I began this paragraph without knowing what it was, but now I see it. Each theme entry includes the letter string NEW, split across word breaks: there's GENE WILDER, for example, and NINE WEST shoes, along with four other phrases. Ambitious grid, with a dozen 7-letter entries in the fill.

Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy crossword, "Let On," puts a LET on the end of each theme entry's base phrase. "Put it on my tab" becomes a [Comment from Moses to God?], PUT IT ON MY TABLET. Favorite fill: HANG TEN, LAB RAT, HOT TUBS.

In the Wall Street Journal, Tracey Snyder's crossword has the memo-ese title "In Re." Each theme entry has an RE put into it. My favorites are [Wave to Billy?] for GREET ONE'S GOAT (get one's goat), [Special Forces order when greeting a lady?] for ALL BERETS ARE OFF (bets), and [Enjoy "The Devil Wears Prada"?] for WATCH ONE'S STREEP (step). I don't remember seeing this Brian ENO clue before: ["My Squelchy Life" musician]; you can scroll down here to read the lyrics. The [Mexican confection] PANOCHA is, Wikipedia says, a New Mexico and southern Colorado pudding as well as a slang term for vulva.

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Saturday, 2/2

Newsday 11:18
NYT 6:10
LAT 5:48
CS 3:17

Young constructor Natan Last plays it a bit Scrabbly with his themeless Saturday New York Times crossword. The structure isn't the same old, same old—two 14-letter Across entries are linked by three long Down entries (a 15 bracketed by two 12s), with plenty of flow from one section to another. I didn't encounter any real trouble spots, other than having a typo in 3-Down and blanking on what the [1979 film with sequels II to VI] could be. I had the STAR part and couldn't get Star Wars out of my head. STAR TREK! ("Khan!!") The long answers included the double-Scrabble JE NE SAIS QUOI and the idiomatic LOST ONE'S COOL bracketing ON TOP OF THE WORLD, crossed by BRING TO JUSTICE and those [Seemingly silent types], VENTRILOQUISTS. AREOLA is clued as an [Interstice]; would you believe I saw one on the way to dinner tonight? Yeah. Surprising to say the least, though at least it was about 30 degrees outside and no longer subzero. [Having the most pizzazz] clued ZIPPIEST, and while I first entered ZESTIEST, I much prefer ZIPPIEST. (And who doesn't like the word pizazz? It's got as many Z's as [Zyzzyva], or BEETLE.) Heck, I use the word zippy here, and I like the zippy stuff in my crosswords. [Meter readers?] are POETS. Did anyone else think [Al-___] was going to be something Arabic? Al-Aqaba, Al-Jazeera? No, it was Al-ANON this time. The [Big bang creator] was merely an N-TEST and not something cosmic. The verb REFEREE was clued as [Enforce the rules]. I never knew that PASCHAL was an adjective (derived from Pasch, which somehow doubles as Easter and Passover). I didn't know the phrase coup d'OEIL or "survey made with a glance"; it's French from stroke + eye. I like RUN FOR IT and ["She's gonna blow!"]. Did you know that the EAR is [Where the utricle is]? I did. Ears! I like me some geography, so DJIBOUTI, the [Neighbor of Somalia], is good stuff. ESPRESSO is a brewed drink, not brewed the same way as beer. I don't think I've heard of [Two-time figure skating Olympic gold medalist Protopopov], first name OLEG—but I love that last name. Sounds like the prototype of a pop-off. I don't eat chicken wings—too much trouble, not enough payoff—so I needed crossings to inform me that an [Option for wings] is CAJUN. I knew TIRESIAS was blind, but I didn't recall how it came to pass that he lost his sight—serves him right for...accidentally seeing Athena naked? By accident? Aw, that's not fair. PAD THAI is a good entry, but I'm not an Asian noodle fan. If there are no typos in this rambling paragraph, I will be astonished. And if there are some, then I cast all blame on the wine over dinner.

Updated:

Well, I had typos and fixed them after Sherry and Nancy e-mailed me to tip me off. They and Patrick B2 are my most reliable typo-pointer-outers, and I'm grateful for their eagle eyes! (Do ernes have keen eagle eyes, too? Maybe these three have erne eyes.)

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and went back to sleep until 9:00. Now I've been up for two hours and I'm...growing tired. That's my excuse, anyway, for a deadly solving time on the Newsday "Saturday Stumper" by Stanley Newman, because a friend finished the same puzzle in just over half my time. Favorite entries: "OUI, MADAME," the [Sommelier's phrase]; MAGIC 8-BALL, [Mattel toy] (unadvertised numeral in the grid!); STAGE-MANAGE, or [Run sub rosa]; AQUA VELVA, [Brut alternative]; TWEEZER, or [Stamp collector's need]; DEMO TAPE, or [Musical intro]; and PTOLEMY I, the ["Savior" king], because of the PT start. Other favorite clues: [Washington group] for PRESS CORPS; ROMA TOMATO [Sauce source] crossing PREGO tomato sauce; [Parlor product, for short] for TAT; [Columbia offering] for PHD; and [Pressing needs] for DELTS (as in deltoid muscles).

Michael Wiesenberg's LA Times crossword seemed a little dry—in my head, I think I'm comparing it to Karen Tracey's Sun puzzle yesterday, with a bunch of names I found fun. Phrases like SEEN AT and IN ANSWER are a tad less vivacious, and one of the names here was unknown to me—LINA, [Soprano Cavalieri, a contemporary of Caruso]. Favorite clues: [Bavarian beef?] for ACH (there's also "GUTE Nacht," or "good night"); [Unholy rollers?] for DICE; and [Hill partner] for MCGRAW (as in the publisher, McGraw-Hill).

Leaving themeless country, we visit Lynn Lempel's Wednesday-level CrosSynergy puzzle, "You Gotta Have Heart." The theme entries start with words that can follow heart—BURN RUBBER yields heartburn, STRINGBEAN gives heartstring, and so on. This puzzle had a very fresh vibe to it, light fill, fun clues. And when I figured out the answer to [Drive back] was BEAT OFF, I laughed heartily because, well, you can see where Answers.com redirects you if you search for that term's definition. Racy! Changing subjects (honest!), there are the cute boys HUGH Grant and GREG Louganis, and a TRYST of a [Hot date]. Favorite clue: [Masters of spin?] for ice SKATERS.

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Sunday, 1/20

NYT 11:28
WaPo 10:44
PI 8:39
LAT 8:32
BG 6:44
CS 3:44

I'm a little disappointed in myself, because I should've gotten through Natan Last's New York Times puzzle in less time. I'm tired! But I really shouldn't be so sleepy before 7 p.m., really. The puzzle's called "Triangulation," and the theme combines two gimmicks: First, there are six longish answers—two Down answers on each side, and two Across answers in the middle, near the top and bottom of the grid. Each of these long answers contains a trigonometric ratio rebus square, with SIN (sine) in DANTE'[S IN]FERNO crossing [SIN]NER and TWO PEA[S IN] A POD / CA[SIN]OS, COS (cosine) in BELLI[COS]ITY / AC[COS]TS and [COS]MO KRAMER / DIS[CO S]TU (!), and TAN (tangent) in CA[T AN]D MOUSE / SA[TAN] and EQUIDIS[TAN]T / S[TAN]ZA. For added elegance, the ratio pairs appear opposite one another. The second gimmick is the triangle of highlighted squares in the center of the grid that spells out TRIGONOMETRY. Notice how well the answers mesh together in the center despite the inclusion of that triangular answer—RESTROOMS and MY DARLING and OLIVE OYL? Those are smooth.

In other parts of the grid, the most savory answers are BEATNIK, SUDOKU and HANGMAN, a CD DRIVE, all the first-person phrases (I DON'T CARE, I GET IT, I'M FINE, IS IT I), and New York's Governor SPITZER. Hey, did you know an [Early pulpit] is an AMBO? My favorite clues: [Numbers game] for SUDOKU; [Saw things] for TEETH; [It might be silver] for LINING (good gravy, did that one take a long time to figure out, even with the INI in place); [Single, for one: Abbr.] for SYN (synonym!); [Star in old Westerns] for BADGE (oh, how long I pondered Lash Larue and the prospect of other actors in old oaters); [Facilities] for RESTROOMS; [Words of honor?] for ODE; [Strip joints?] for CA[SIN]OS; [1950s stereotype] for BEATNIK; [Highlighted, as text] for IN BOLD (raise your hand if you went with ITALIC first); [Place for a swing] for a golf TEE; and [Bottom of the ___] for NINTH (Why did I opt for EARTH first?). Overall, a fun puzzle with some good gimmick action.

P.S. The online versions of this puzzle had to have a clue for the vertical leg of the triangle, so the clue numbering differs between them and what's in the Sunday magazine.

P.P.S. A note from Will Shortz at the NYT forum: "Tomorrow's crossword is a Sunday debut by Natan Last, a high school senior in Brooklyn. At 17 years 2 months he is the youngest known Sunday crossword constructor in the Times' history. It's a very impressive debut, too." Indeed!

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Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s Boston Globe crossword, “Look Both Ways,” is jam-packed with palindrome action, which made it easy to fill in the reverse of any partially completed theme entries. The palindromes I liked best were the ones I haven’t seen before—particularly BORROW OR ROB and BOSTON DID NOT SOB. I think I may have seen DO GEESE SEE GOD before, and it’s beautifully ludicrous. Favorite fill: the diva’s HIGH NOTE, a HOMINID, and Patrick SWAYZE. Cleverest clues: [Good-time bird?] for LARK and [Patty’s escort?] for BUN. (Patty and Frank should be a couple.) The [Borage family plant] called BUGLOSS was unfamiliar.

Merl Reagle’s Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle is titled “What’s My Wine?” because it’s filled with winy puns. Sometimes, pun themes with a variety of different sound/letter changes irk me, but this time, it went down smoothly and with aromas of nectarine and green apple. Merl has long been the master of stacked theme entries, and here, each corner of the grid has a long pair of theme entries (14/13 and 16/15) running alongside each other, along with four more Down entries (12 or 10 letters apiece) in the midsection. (160 theme squares? Holy theme density, Batman!) My favorites are SUMO RIESLING, the Brooklynese-sounding VENUS DE MERLOT, APPRECHABLIS, and—even though I’d never heard of Beloved Infidel—BELOVED ZINFANDEL.

Patrick Berry’s Washington Post crossword, “Box Office Numbers,” features seven song titles that are reinterpreted as belonging to the soundtracks of assorted fictitious “___: The Musical” movies. “ROCK THE BOAT” (don’t tip it over) goes with The Poseidon Adventure, and “GREAT BALLS OF FIRE” pairs up nicely with Deep Impact. I think this puzzle was actually easier than the comparative times suggest—I’m beat, and I kept realizing my eyes had closed whilst solving. The answers I liked best in the fill: PEEKABOO, GARY HART, ANN ARBOR, and a word I didn’t exactly know, CATENARY ([Curvature of a suspended cable]). Least favorite, on account of sheer creepiness: SAND EELS and SEA WASPS. Favorite clues: [They hold a bit] for REINS; [You can stop it before you go] for MAIL (anyone else think of Kegels and peeing? No?); [Pack unit?] for LIE (as in “a pack of lies”); [“Living” person] for STEWART (as in Martha Stewart Living magazine); [“Truman” star] for SINISE (He was in that? So were 6-lettered CARREY, LINNEY, and HARRIS, dangit!); and [It’s got you covered] for SKIN.

Updated Sunday morning:

Ooh, I really liked James Sajdak's theme in the syndicated LA Times crossword, "Prefixation." Eight words with prefixes are reimagined with the prefix broken off to be a standalone word. For example, a [Masterwork?] is a PRO CREATION, and not at all about sex and procreation. SUB HEADING is the direction a submarine's heading and not a subheading. And CONTRA DICTION is an [Accent once heard in Managua?]. My favorite clues: [Al or Mo] for ELEM. (chemical element); [Partners in crime] for MAFIOSI; [Sleeper, say] for RAIL CAR (I was thinking of movies); [Most people sleep on it] for REDEYE; [Popular cups] for REESE'S; and [Rock mixing tools?] for REVERBS.

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle is pretty easy for a themeless crossword. I had no idea what a [Limassol resident] was, but the crossings pointed me towards CYPRIOT, which is my all-time favorite word for a person from a particular place; Monégasque and Muscovite are close behind. The middle of this puzzle grid features a triple-stack of 15-letter phrases.

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Tuesday, 7/17

Tausig 5:14—my favorite puzzle in weeks, I think
Onion 4:46
NYS 3:55
NYT 3:09
CS 2:55
LAT 2:37

(updated at 8:04 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. Tuesday)

Idea for my next book: The Crossword Whisperer. There are whisperers for dogs, horses, and birds, so why not crosswords? The crosswords want to be solved, but sometimes their human companions have a hard time understanding what the crosswords need. Let me teach you the secret language of crossword puzzles so you can learn how to get even the wildest one to coexist with you peacefully and happily.

I think the New York Times has another debut constructor, Natan Last. [Edited to add: Will Shortz reports that this is Natan's debut, and he's a 16-year-old high school student!] His theme is AT BOTH ENDS, which is how pairs of letters repeat in the theme entries, which include CASABLANCA, ART OF WAR, and seven other phrases or words. Nifty! I questioned whether the clue for TAE BO, [Popular aerobic program], was still accurate—the Wikipedia article says yes, and provides a recap of a Celebrity Deathmatch claymation battle in which Billy Blanks, tae bo's developer, tae'd Richard Simmons into a bo.

A fun pop-culture hit from Ken Stern in the Sun, with "Space-Age Greetings" from The Jetsons. The '60s cartoon's theme song introduced the main characters: MEET / GEORGE JETSON/ HIS BOY ELROY / JANE, HIS WIFE / DAUGHTER JUDY, and, of course, their dog Astro and the robot maid, Rosie. Good fill, spotlighted by the late, great FLO-JO, TEDIUM, and the MAESTRO, plus plenty of Js (three of which are included in the theme entries).

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Jim Holland's LA Times puzzle makes a meal out of famous food-named people. Yum!

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Walk This Way," has phrases that start with words that are also ways of walking. I like the combination of the band LIMP BIZKIT with MARCH MADNESS. NIA LONG gets promoted from quasi-crosswordese grid-friendly first name to her full name. Plenty of crisp clues and Scrabbly bits of fill (this could be a pangram [Edited to add: It is], but I haven't got time to check right now).

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Ooh, Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "It's All in the Past," amused and entertained and edified and intrigued me. What more could I ask for? (Only for the clues to be harder.) Why did I like this one so much? First off, the theme entries made me do some thinking in order to parse each one. By turning one word in a phrase into its past tense, the word's meaning changed completely. For example, must-see TV becomes MUST SAW TV, as in the tool that cuts wood. Paid leave becomes PAID LEFT, meaning the political left. On the rise gives us the flowering ROSE bush, speak of the devil yields a bike-wheel SPOKE, and an idiot light becomes IDIOT LITerature. The non-theme clues are snappy, too. YESMAN is clued with the Simpsons character [Smithers, e.g.]. I never knew that the late Phil Hartman was a rock 'n' roll graphic artist who designed the album cover for Steely Dan's AJA. Other favorite clues: [Biology classes?] for TAXA, ["Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice" org.] for the ABA; [Colon alternative] for EM DASH; and [Afikomen cracker] (new word for me) for MATZO. A diverse batch of names, too (not a one of them having been famous in the 1950s or earlier): ["The Namesake" author] Jhumpa LAHIRI, Paul GIAMATTI, Rocky BALBOA, YO-YO MA, and erstwhile teen idol JTT (Jonathan Taylor Thomas). Not to mention fill like DIME BAGS, ZAFTIG, and TOYS R US. Well done, Ben! This one goes into my "great puzzles" folder.

Matt Jones's Onion A.V. Club crossword draws its inspiration from the summer blockbuster, TRANSFORMERS, and anagrams four phrases into lunacy. For example, ["I wanted a SUBMARINE, but that lab experiment left me with ___! (Now I think like a flightless bird)"] yields EMU BRAINS. Twenty fill answers of 6 to 8 letters apiece spice things up a bit. I'd never heard of the DOG ROSE, but I always enjoy learning about the plants that sprout up in crosswords.

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