Gary Steinmehl's Sun puzzle, "Role Model," features a STAR and supporting cast members, EXTRA, CAMEO, and WALK-ON, along with the poor FAVA BEANS ("A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.").
Mike Torch's NYT is breezy and easy, with the STEAL/STEELE/STEEL triad.
Hey, they're Monday puzzles. Not much to discuss here...
NYS 3:36
LAT 2:56
CS 2:43
NYT 2:31
Newsday 2:19
April 30, 2006
Montag
Sunday
Solving Elizabeth Gorski's Sunday NYT crossword was an on-again, off-again experience, with 14 squares containing ON/OFF. In the unchecked center square, ON/OFF reads across as is; in the other spots, the across answer uses OFF (as in [OFF]ENDER) and the down answer uses on (as in BEAC[ON]). This one's like a Thursday puzzle wrought large, and that's always a good thing. Extra bonus points to the constructor for the elegant consistency of across = OFF, down = ON (as Byron noted), even if up = ON for all my light switches. Slightly surprising to find an obscurity in the top row (Italian film director ELIO Petri—wonder if he was a dish?), but with PILLSBURY BAKE[OFF] and OXYMOR[ON] in that section, you take whatever works. The '60s TV series LAREDO was, apparently, a "light-hearted action" show. I can't say I'd seen URANIC before, but "pertaining to element 92" seems straightforward enough. Plenty of good fill worked in amid the many theme/rebus entries—EL NORTE and EGOMANIA, to name a couple.
NYT 10:20
LA Weekly 10:16
WaPo 8:54
LAT 7:47
CS 5:30
April 29, 2006
Saturday
Wonderful NYT puzzle by Robert Wolfe! Seeing the spread in applet solving times—an impressive 7:00 for Byron Walden, a handful of other folks at roughly double that time, and Tyler Hinman at nearly 10 minutes behind Byron. I approached the puzzle this afternoon with some trepidation; between the applet standings and a fearsome migraine, what hope did I have of a Googleless finish? A decent hope, as it turns out; perhaps there's an advantage to be gained in already having the headache, rather than obtaining it in the course of doing this puzzle? Going from corner to corner, let's take a look at what's worthy of mention in this beasty (and there's a lot). "Caterpillar engager" for ALICE is clever. "Need for a third degree?" = a Ph.D. THESIS. "Taking a grand tour, say" = IN EUROPE, which I recently decided ought to be called the "In Continent." Which brings us to the entry just below it, CASCARAS—the dried bark of the "buckthorn trees with medically useful bark" is used in laxatives. "They bring tears to one's eyes" = DUCTS, of course. "Take illegally" = PIRATE (yo ho ho!). "Beat poets?" = RAP ARTISTS. Moving downward on the left, "NHL'ers, e.g." = ICE SKATERS (not HOCKEY TEAM). "Spam producer" = HORMEL. (I've not been to the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota, but have a family friend who retired from the Spam-producing plant nearby. The museum was founded because so many tourists from Japan were making pilgrimages to Austin anyway; the Filipinos and Hawaiians are also huge Spam fans, of course.) "Leaf sides" - RECTOS. "Winning full house, for short" = ACES OVER; cute to have that crossing BETTERS (which isn't "bettors," though). Two tricky 3-letter words in the center: "puffer's place" for SEA and "Media center?" for DEE. In the lower right corner, a total gimme ("Actor Wass" = TED—he first gained fame on Soap and later played the dad on Blossom) helped crack open that area. "Beauty spot" = SALON is obvious, and yet sneaky—like many of the clues in this puzzle. Up above, "couple in a date" = SLASHES (as in "today is 4/29/06"). "Not the common way" = SIDE STREET. "Place for debauchery" = STY, as in the second definition here.
Updated:
While solving Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Films of Ire-Land," I made a mental note to mention here how it always cracks me up when people misspell khan as the surname Kahn...and then it turned out that the puzzle actually included WRATH OF KAHN instead of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. (Ouch.) I think David Kahn should have another book of his crosswords and call it Wrath of Kahn.
Alan Olschwang's themeless LA Times puzzle includes a central triple stack crossed by a fourth 15-letter entry.
NYT 8:36
Newsday maybe 6ish minutes?
LAT 4:47
CS 3:24
April 27, 2006
Freitag
Well, less than two days ago, I made sure you knew that Boots was DORA THE EXPLORER's monkey sidekick. (She also does her adventuring with Backpack, who is...a backpack. And there's a fox named Swiper who's always...swiping things.) If any of you regulars hesitated in the slightest in filling in that first 15 near the top of Eric Berlin's Friday NYT, you might want to check with a doctor about those memory problems. I liked TOURIST INFO connecting the two 15s, SPITFIRE, CUSTOMER SERVICE, Aunt JEMIMA, BOXCAR, IMHOTEP, and I DONT KNOW.
Karen Tracey returns to her rightful place as a preferred provider (she's in the crossword PPO directory, of course) of themeless puzzles, with a juicy Sun Weekend Warrior. YELLOWJACKETS and REYKJAVIK in the middle, the JOB JAR and SKYNYRD, ARRIVEDERCI and ANYONE ELSE, WINESAPS and TEAL BLUE. Karen, that looks like a trademark Peter Gordon clue for TEAL BLUE ("color similar to drake")—was it his, or did you just unearth a Gordonesque clue? In case you were wondering what the Opel ASTRA looks like, here's the Opel site; they also sell the Signum, Zafira, and a sexy little roadster called the GT—but not in the U.S. I'd never heard of swimmer DONNA DE VARONA; seems she competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and then became the first female sportscaster, and her sister is Joanna Kerns, the actress who played the mom on Growing Pains.
Updated:
Merl Reagle's puzzle for this weekend is called "Baseball Trades." It's clever. You'll like it!
Manny Nosowsky dishes out groaner after groaner in his Wall Street Journal puzzle, "Oh Pun for Business." If puns are your weakness, you might also enjoy Timothy Powell's LA Times puzzle. And if puns leave you in need of a stiff drink, try Raymond Hamel's CrosSynergy puzzle.
NYS 6:09
LAT 4:35
NYT 4:11
CS 3:40
WSJ 9:48
Reagle [Whoops, didn't start the timer]
The Wordplay trailer!
The trailer for Wordplay is out (you can see it here), and it's terrible. Why, I didn't see myself in it at all!
Seriously, it's still cool to see people I know on screen, even though I've already seen the movie three times. Shall we have a contest to find out who ends up seeing the movie on the big screen the greatest number of times? I think I've got at least three more viewings in my future. Who's going for 10?
April 26, 2006
Thursday
George Balany and Michael Shteyman's NYT spotlights phrases that have become NO WIN SITUATIONS by losing their WINs—e.g., SEVERE GRO[win]G PAINS, GONE WITH THE [win]D. What's cool is that two pairs of theme entries are stacked together, making the task of constructing this puzzle that much more difficult. Speaking of difficult, those don't look much like Thursday solving times on the applet! I didn't fight that long to crack the theme (SEVERE GROG PAINS had many helpful crossings), but this was one of those puzzles where it helps to solve online. You'd think I'd remember the characters' names from the one opera I've seen, Turandot, and yet I cycled through a couple other Roman numerals before the applet accepted the L in LIU. Specific bit of cultural knowledge crossing a Roman year? D'oh!
Judging from Jesse Goldberg's Sun puzzle ("Swish!"), JORDAN's GAME WINNING SHOT went up in the air and passed through Dick ENBERG on its way into the BASKET. I don't recall that particular aspect of the CHICAGO HOOPSTER's shot on June 16, 1998, but then, maybe I didn't watch that game. Or maybe I did. I'm not one to remember great sports plays. Fun puzzle, topped off with entries like VETTE, FINAGLE, and SEAFOAM (which, if this were a themeless puzzle, I expect Peter would've found an obscure color clue for).
Updated:
Harvey Estes' "Give Mom a Hug" CrosSynergy puzzle is cute. I like the inclusion of EGGING ON and TOMATOES up above the HAM OMELET. Is it time for breakfast again?
I do get a wee bit disappointed when a themeless stalwart ventures into themed territory, as Karen Tracey does in today's LA Times puzzle. However, Karen works in great non-theme fill like JETSTREAM, NIETZSCHE, MR PIBB, and OH JOY, and all is forgiven.
NYT 5:36
NYS 4:47
LAT 4:25
CS 3:17
Wednesday
The PROLIFIC Jack McInturff's 15x16 Sun puzzle does a "Flip-Flop" of and I and and O in each theme entry. My favorite one was CHIPPED LOVER ("Slightly damaged statue of a paramour?") Plenty of tough clues and answers in this one—"Temple building" for DORM, "Tennessee woman" for STELLA, YMCAS, and the southwest corner with BLITZ and OY VEY crossing BOOK I and ZYGOTE. The clue for BOOTS ("Dora the Explorer's monkey sidekick") shouts "Peter Gordon has small children," just like the kid lit and Teletubbies clues that find their way into the Sun puzzles fairly regularly. Those tend to be gimmes for me, but how do those of you who don't have small children like those?
Wednesday's NYT comes from the team of Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke, and features ELIZABETH TAYLOR and her series of married names, in chronological order from top to bottom (but without theme symmetry, because Her Violet-Eyedness was careless enough not to choose her husbands based on the length of their surnames). The longer vertical entries, of course, tie into the theme. Larry FORTENSKY was known to DENIGRATE SCALLIONS, wedding rings are like MANACLES, and Liz has had plenty of OFF YEARS between husbands. (P.S. I wouldn't say the puzzle was as challenging as my solving time would indicate. I did the crossword after sleeping off a headache, but I should've waited until morning when I would've been more awake.)
Lloyd Mazer posted this link at the NYT forum. It's a video of a guy working on Michael Shteyman's wonderful POOL TABLE puzzle—while driving. And doing the filming himself.
And by the way:
Patrick Jordan followed up with his fellow CrosSynergy constructors about those two recent themed Sunday puzzles that appeared in lieu of "Sunday Challenge" crosswords. The upshot is that both occasions were honest mistakes, and the CrosSynergy team will redouble their efforts to keep us supplied with a themeless puzzle on Sundays. Themeless fans, rejoice!
NYS 5:31
NYT 5:08
LAT 3:35
CS 3:01
April 24, 2006
Frankly, my dear, I could care less
Great theme in Kevan Choset's NYT! There are three famous quotes from books, TV, and movies that were never actually uttered, as explained by two more entries, NONE OF THEM IS/A REAL QUOTE. With 72 theme squares in a 15x15 puzzle, you're liable to end up with some compromises on the fill. But in this case, the obscurities (to me) were educational—ODESA appears to be a transliteration of the Ukrainian spelling, vs. Odessa deriving from Russian (is that correct?), and Art Deco architect William Van ALEN designed the Chrysler building. Also, some of the 3-letter entries had clever clues—"Jordan was once part of it: Abbr." yields NBA (not something like UAR), and INE is clued "Hero's end?"
In the Sun, Gary Steinmehl's "Hesitant Conclusions" taught me that the LILAC (which is getting ready to bloom 'round these parts) is a "flower in the olive family," that GUAM's capital city has two diacritical marks (Hagåtña), and (in yet another new OBOE clue for the Sun) that the OBOE da caccia is a forerunner of the cor anglais. And then there's the eyebrow-raising but utterly innocuous "Dick-Dyke go-between" (VAN)...
Updated:
Randall Hartman goes geographic in his CrosSynergy puzzle, "Capital Fellows," and Joy Frank greets us with the LA Times puzzle. Check 'em out...
Ben Tausig's Chicago Reader puzzle expands things in the theme entries, yielding QUEUE TIPS, for example. Minor quibble with TEA MOBILE, though—a crib mobile's not pronounced the same as in T-Mobile, is it? This puzzle seems to be the first (and perhaps last) Cruciverb-eligible use of TAMPAX in a crossword. It also seems to be the first instance of LGBT, but I bet we'll see GLBT or LGBT in plenty of crosswords in the years ahead (even with that inconvenient lack of vowels).
Tausig 4:35
NYT 4:02
NYS 3:55
LAT 3:24
CS 2:54
April 23, 2006
Monday
My son, Ben, turns 6 tomorrow, so the weekend's been filled with birthday-related activities that have come between me and my crosswords. The Fiend should be back to normal in another day...
The Monday NYT's by Lynn Lempel, who mangles and masticates the theme entries, which not only end in smashing verbs, but are all yellow to orange in hue (well, once you get inside the ACORN SQUASH's skin). Add the longish fill, like SPIKE LEE, NOSEDIVE, and HECKLER, sparkles as well. POGO crosses AGOG and makes me wish there were one more O: POGO A GO-GO, anyone? (Wait a minute...is FOGHORN slang for anything? How about CUKE? GOON? Is Lynn going to have to run all her puzzles by 60-year-old male test-solvers to make sure that nothing appalls them? No? We're good here? Good.)
I don't remember the last time the Monday Sun went faster than the NYT. Timothy Powell's "Men of Great Intelligence" caused me to ask my husband what spy character was named SOLO. (Guess I wasn't paying attention during Star Wars.) Fortunately, familiarity with famous fictional spies was needed only to make sense of the theme—not to finish the puzzle.
CS 3:08
NYT 2:54
NYS 2:51
LAT 2:41
Lazy Sunday
Joe DiPietro's byline has been popping up a lot lately, and now Joe brings us another Sunday NYT, "What's the Story?" I loved LITTLE-READ WRITING HOOD. BOOTY ON THE BEAST would have been more fun to clue than BOOTEE IN THE BEAST, but the latter did allow AS IF I CARE ("like that matters") to cross three theme entries. There's even a short theme entry in the middle (KNOW WHITE), crossing three other theme entries—and there are five more 9-letter entries that each join three theme entries. Theme-rich (135 squares, if I counted right) and intricately constructed...you could do worse.
Henry Hook's LA Weekly puzzle, "The In Crowd," threw two unfamiliar words at me. I can't say I've ever seen YOK before (clued as "hearty laugh," which makes me think of YUKs, not a YOK). And then there's DEASIL, meaning "clockwise" (pronounced like "diesel"). It's one of the rare English words that comes from Scottish Gaelic, and apparently it has Wicca connotations.
Paula Gamache and Vic Fleming's Washington Post puzzle, "Wisecracks," cracks Y's into the theme entries.
Hey! Who stole the Sunday Challenge again? CrosSynergy team, we crave your themeless creations! (And make 'em hard, please.) You've got six days a week for themed puzzles, and you've gotten us hooked on having one small themeless on Sundays. Two themed Sundays in a month? You're making the natives restless.
NYT 10:45
LAW 10:05
LAT 9:35
WaPo 8:02
CS 3:41
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