NYT 4:22 (on paper)
LAT 3:44
CS 3:08
Tausig (untimed)
Steve Dobis's New York Times crossword
You know what's insane? In order to get an image of a solution grid for this puzzle (which I solved on paper last week because it was the finals puzzle for the Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament), I used the "check my solution" option in the NYT applet and just copied my answers over from the hard copy. Typing in 15 lines of answers took me 1:22...and the speediest Monday applet times for the likes of Tyler Hinman and Dan Feyer are around 1:30 but they're reading the clues. Ladies and gentlemen, they are fast. If you're looking to hire a speedy and accurate typist, you've found your man.
The theme answers are four 15-letter entries all clued [See 71-Across]. The 71A clue is [Shade that defines 17-, 27-, 49- and 65-Across], and that hue is BROWN. What's BROWN? There's James BROWN, known as the GODFATHER OF SOUL. There's the nickname for UPS, a FEDEX COMPETITOR. In the NFL, a CLEVELAND PLAYER is a member of the Cleveland Browns. And it's also an IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL. Often when the theme is embodied in a common clue, the answers are phrases that wouldn't usually pass muster as crossword fill—so it's a plus that GODFATHER OF SOUL and IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL are solid and lively 15's.
And now, an olio of non-theme clues:
Updated Thursday morning:
Dan Naddor's L.A. Times crossword
Dan Naddor riffs on 33D: BEAN SALAD, a [Picnic veggie dish, and a hint to words hidden in the answers to starred clues]. I had seen the COCOA in 3D: ROCOCO ART, an [18th century French painting style], but thought of hot chocolate rather than cocoa beans so it still took me a while to contemplate hidden beans. The other three are:
Good things come in pairs here. I like the double-GH crossing of GHANA, a [Togo neighbor], and GHIA, [Karmann ___: sports car]. And also the rhyming pair GOTCHA, or [Prankster's cry], and DACHA, or [Russian villa]. Not to mention the two uses of the definite article in THE U.S., [NATO founding member], and THE BENDS, a [Diver's sickness]. And two 7-letter college towns, OBERLIN, home of the [Ohio conservatory] with the same name, and LARAMIE, a [University of Wyoming site].
Did you notice that this crossword was plus-size? Yep: 16 squares wide instead of 15. And at no extra charge!
More at L.A. Crossword Confidential, from PuzzleGirl today.
Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Sh!"
Patrick's theme takes a rude turn, shushing you even though you're just sitting there quietly working a crossword. The theme entries all share the ["Sh!"] clue, and the answers are NOT ANOTHER WORD, SHUT YOUR TRAP, PUT A SOCK IN IT, and I'VE HEARD ENOUGH. I must say, I'm disappointed that Patrick didn't find a way to use the 15-letter SHUT YOUR PIE-HOLE, with its British-inflected aggressive dismissal.
The highlight of this puzzle is the 14 answers that are 6 to 8 letters long and thus less often seen in crosswords. Did you know STAR WARS was a [1977 Best Picture nominee]? The CUE CARD was a [Precursor to the teleprompter]. HEINOUS means [Abominable]. A [Quatrain or sestet] is a STANZA. [One, two, or three] is a CARDINAL number.
Note to the CrosSynergy team: The euro symbol in the 60D clue didn't display in Across Lite (v2.0 for Mac OS X). Did it work in Windows?
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Together at Last"
Ben pays subtle tribute to SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, the [Contract now recognized by the four states whose initials "unite" the words in 18-, 26-, 46-, and 63-Across]. Those states' postal abbreviations form the end of the first and beginning of the second word in these phrases:
For a good take on Miss California's comments on same-sex marriage during the Miss USA pageant, we turn to Jay Smooth of hip-hip video blog Ill Doctrine:
And now, back to our puzzle. What else is in here? This:
[People who may help you get rid of your possessions?] are EXORCISTS.
NSA isn't just the National Security Agency. It also means "no strings attached" as [Initials in casual hookup ads].
[It may be mopped or arched] refers to a BROW.
[Wonder who's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame] is STEVIE Wonder. I like the "Is wonder a verb?" momentary confusion.
NIKE is a [Company with a notoriously checkered labor record]. Is it just my impression, or is Ben's Ink Well the crossword with the most obvious moral compass?
[Year in Pope Boniface IV's papacy] is DCIX, or 609. Nobody outside the Vatican enjoys a YOTP ("year of the pope") clue, do they? That "YOTP" abbreviation comes from the REX Parker blog, and REX is clued as [Crossword blogger Parker or film critic Reed]. And speaking of crossword bloggers who aren't me, AMAH is clued as a [Word meaning "Indian nurse" that Jim Horne of the New York Times crossword blog says "you just have to learn"].
RENO, NV is the [Atlantis Casino locale, on an envelope].
OSMIC means [Related to element #76]. I'm guessing that's osmium, and no, I don't know what it's used for.
ESE is clued as [Caló homeboy]. I learned this word from TV cop dramas, and the clue's a nice change-up from east-southeast or a language suffix.
[Maker of inedible chips] is INTEL. I kinda wanted PRINGLES here.
EMES doesn't appear in puzzles too often. The clue is [Kosher products company that falsely advertised vegetarian gelatin]. Never heard of it, but it's good to be on the lookout for false vegetarian claims. (Remember when McDonalds finally revealed, years late, that its no-longer-fried-in-beef-tallow french fries still had real beef flavor and thus were not vegetarian after all?)
April 22, 2009
Thursday, 4/23
April 21, 2009
Wednesday, 4/22
NYT 4:22 (paper) — NYT applet/Across Lite back online, but this puzzle wants to be solved on paper
Onion 4:11
BEQ 3:59
CS 2:57
LAT 2:45
Daniel Finan's New York Times crossword
So, the NYT is having technical difficulties in the puzzle department, possibly because of this crossword's long Notepad message and circles in the grid. Luckily, I solved it last week before the Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament and had the PDF version. I'm all about honoring copyright, yes, but I'm also about enabling people's crossword addictions, especially ones that they pay good money for. So for now the puzzle's posted, and once the NYT server is ponying up the puzzle properly, I'll take it down. (Well, not before I wake up in the morning.)
Anyway, the puzzle! I loved it. I suspect many of you will agree with me that it feels like a Thursday puzzle. Not just the spilling-to-Wednesday gimmickry (which I appreciate—with the demise of the Sun, I've been hankering for more gimmick puzzles than just the occasional Thursday NYT), but also the difficulty level. Anne Erdmann solved this one only a few seconds faster than I did, which I think places it after Wednesday difficulty.
The difficulty lies in the six theme entries that are clued with letters. As the Note says: "When this puzzle is done, the nine circles will contain the letters A through I. Connect them with a line, in alphabetical order, and you will form an illustration of the puzzle's theme." The connect-the-dot picture is a sailboat, but six entries are clued only with reference to the portion of the sailboat picture—and until you've filled in most of the puzzle, you won't see that boat take shape.
The theme includes two large sailing ships:
The boat parts are as follows:
I'll tell you what the main trouble spot was for the Marbles contestants. There was a prize for everyone who finished the puzzle correctly, and usually we didn't need to look further than 1-Across for a mistake. [A Morse "I" consists of two] is DITS, that age-old crosswordese word. 2D is [Chekhov play or its antihero], which apparently is not much of a gimme—nearly half of the contestants had DOTS/OVANOV instead of DITS/IVANOV.
What else did I like about this puzzle, aside from the Blindaueresque gimmick action?
Oh, wait! In the category of boring fill nobody's excited about, ALEE finally finds a higher purpose. 64A is [Away from the wind], and I bet this has some relevance to sailing. And a clunky abbreviation, ATL., is [One of the oceans: Abbr.] on which the SANTA MARIA sailed. And a [Ship's christening, e.g.] is an EVENT. And TAKING is clued as [Pirating], which also ties into the theme.
How do you feel about the Thursdayification of Wednesday? I'm strongly in favor.
(Thanks to Karen T. for facilitating the solution image.)
P.S. You know who made the first connect-the-dots crossword? Elizabeth Gorski, 12/14/03, with all 26 letters forming a Christmas tree with a star on top. So maybe Patrick Blindauer is Gorskiesque...
Updated Wednesday morning:
Mike Peluso's L.A. Times crossword
I had no idea what the theme was until I found myself at 66A: [Action hero's garb, and what each first word in this puzzle's four longest answers is] clues a CAPE, and the theme entries are well-known geographical capes:
Lots of admirable fill—XANADU, PEPPIEST, BEEFALO, Julio IGLESIAS, BLURB—but I've got a phone interview with a reporter in less than an hour and a few more puzzles to blog first, so I'll send you to Rex's L.A. Crossword Confidential post if you're looking for more on this puzzle.
Later Wednesday morning: Oh, the interview was at 10 Eastern, not 10 Central. Back to the puzzles.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Shut Up and Play"
The theme's a quote from John Coltrane, split into 5/14/14/14/5 chunks. "IF THE / MUSIC DOESN'T SAY / IT, HOW MANY WORDS / CAN SAY IT FOR THE / MUSIC?" Quote themes? Meh.
Among the tougher non-theme clues were these ones:
Some of the fill is superb and some is not—in the latter category, I'd place CAN-MISS, or [Far from surefire, informally], and WE MET, or ["No need to introduce us"]. The good stuff includes TWEET ([Communicate in 140 characters or less]), BRAND-NEW ([Fresh out of the box]), MR. WHITE ([Harvey Keitel's "Reservoir Dogs" role]), and LOVE SCENE ([Hot shot?]). Does Harvey Keitel have a Twitter feed yet? I do.
Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy puzzle, "What's the Story?"
The theme entries all begin with "___ story" words. For example, a WAR OF WORDS is a [Protracted argument], and BEDTIME FOR BONZO wa a [1951 Ronald Reagan film]. War stories, bedtime stories...you see where this is going. My only quibble with the theme is the clue for FISH STICKS: [Children's menu staples]. Chicken fingers have displaced fish sticks from nearly all kids' menus I've seen. All five theme answers are lively crossword fill, though—we also have a GHOST WRITER and LOVE HANDLES.
In the fill, I DO NOT feels a bit iffy with the clue [Runaway bride's words?]. I'm skeptical that any altar jilting involves this spoken negation of the "I do" wedding vow. Hard to clue the answer without using the word "do," but I'm guessing Paula was backed into that answer by its neighbor, WAHS—there aren't a lot of workable options for W*H* crossing two theme entries.
Deb Amlen's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Dang, my browser crashed and I lost what I wrote about Deb's puzzle. In short: I liked the smooth and interesting fill. The theme can be described as "remove an A from song titles Amy has never heard of":
MGWCC #46
crossword 7:30
puzzle 3:40
g'day, mates, and welcome to the 46th installment of matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, "I Can't Deal With This."
what about the metapuzzle? the instructions tell us that this week's contest answer phrase consists of two interlocking words in this puzzle's fill, and explains the source of the theme entries. These two words total eleven letters. these instructions, and the hint from the puzzle's title, point us towards the common endings that the theme answers have: GOOD AND EVIL, THE CLOVERS, I'M A CHANGED MAN, BLACK AS TAR, and LAUNCH A RIOT. what are those boldface things? why, they're tarot cards (hence the "deal" in the title) that are named (as opposed to, say, the eight of cups or the deuce of swords). is there a name for the named tarot cards? indeed: they are MAJOR ARCANA, and that's the answer to the contest. MAJOR is in the grid clued as [Huge], in the colloquial sense. and ARCANA is [Obscure stuff].
i may have had an inadvertent advantage in sussing out the meta, because i spent a good long while staring at THE_LOVERS before finally filling in that last square (which required changing the incorrect RATA to RATO). once i convinced myself that the theme wasn't rodin's les portes d'enfer, tarot was the next thing on my mind.
i thought this was a highly pleasing metapuzzle, but as usual, there was lots else to like in the grid:
unfamiliar names (other than THE CLOVERS):
that's all, folks. see you next week for april's evil finale.
April 20, 2009
Tuesday, 4/21
Jonesin' 3:52
NYT 3:35 (paper)
CS 3:18
LAT 2:40
Wired magazine's modern-day etiquette columnist, Brendan Koerner, asked me what the rule is concerning finishing someone else's crossword puzzle. Is it OK? Not OK? Read my answer here.
What's not included are the details of my research into this thorny crossword etiquette question. When I ran it by them, both Tyler Hinman and Brendan Quigley went straight to intimations of violence. Ladies and gentlemen, if you should happen upon a puzzle that one of these fellows has not yet finished, I beseech you to keep your hands and pencil at bay. It's for your own protection. The other people I asked all had the same reply to the question, "Is it OK to finish someone else's puzzle?" They said "Without asking? No." Simple as that.
This issue (May 2009) also has a bunch of puzzles (not crosswords) by such luminaries as Will Shortz and Martin Gardner, and there's a "Mystery" theme to the magazine. Puzzles, cryptography, magic, and more, in an issue guest-edited by J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost. Check it out.
Ronald and Nancy Byron's New York Times crossword
You remember the old Tinker to Evers to Chance baseball play, when those Cubs pulled off a double play on the New York Giants? That's the theme here:
I've got a lot of reservations about this puzzle. First of all, baseball? Meh. Second, the name/position theme entries strike me as contrived. One of you baseball nuts will correct me if that's actually a standard way to refer to a player, but for now, it feels like there's a missing preposition in the middle of each. And then the unifying answer also sounds contrived to me. Why not DOUBLE PLAY GROUP? Is "double play combo" the lingo inside baseball?
What I liked best in this puzzle is BRAINIAC, clued as [2006 Ken Jennings book...or the author himself]. I enjoyed that book. This puzzle's a little brassy, too—there's SMART and PUSHY ([Rudely assertive]) and NERVE ([Chutzpah]) and DARE (clued another way, as [Virginia ___ (noted 1587 birth]). [Black-clad and white-clad Mad adversaries] are the SPIES in "Spy Vs. Spy." The plant VETCH, a [Climbing plant with pealike flowers], sounds like it should mean a combination of vex and itch, doesn't it? It sounds nettlesome. I do like crossword botany.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Look Under the Cushions"
Matt puts some sofas and related furniture in the circled squares in the theme answers and supplements them with a few oddball answers that are things one might find when digging under the sofa cushions for lost treasures.
Joining the thematic party is some long-lost detritus. ["I found a ___, which blended into the beige. No way am I going to eat it."] clues a TAN M AND M. ["So that's where the ___ to this old pen went!"] is a pen CAP. ["I'm rich! No, just kidding. It's only a ___."] DIME. ["Ew...all I found were the stale remnants of a ___."] PRINGLE (chip).
There's some weird fill in here. There's a LEAD NAIL, or [Item used to fasten planks, in old shipbuilding]. And APHEX [___ Twin (alias of electronic musician Richard D. James)]. GAMIC is a [Suffix for anatomical reproductive organs]. [Lance Bass headline, on a 2006 cover of People] is "I'M GAY"; this one was a gimme. ACAI, the [Palm whose berries are now used in fruit juices]—acai stuff is all over the grocery store now. Does it taste good? Favorite clues: [It'll never get off the ground] for an EMU, and [Tends to priority number one?] for PEES.
Updated Tuesday morning:
Gail Grabowski's Los Angeles Times crossword
Three theme answers end with nouns that double as a trio of synonymous verbs:
A concrete stoop is drab, but AROUND THE BEND and DOESN'T KNOW SQUAT are beautifully colloquial phrases. Gail Grabowski is one of those constructors who specialize in easy puzzles that don't bore solvers. If it's Monday or Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday in Newsday) and you see her byline, you've probably got a decent puzzle in store.
Here's a smattering of two-word answers, which are straightforward enough for longtime NYT or LAT solvers but take some rejiggering of mental expectations for longtime TMS solvers who have switched to the LAT:
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Flavor to Taste"
Spicy theme today—
April 19, 2009
Monday, 4/20
BEQ 4:11
NYT 3:24 (paper)
CS 2:51
LAT 2:50
Jonesin' tba
Wow, when you don't blog a bunch of puzzles until Sunday afternoon, when 5:00 rolls around the last thing you want to do is blog another crossword. Sorry to be so tardy. Long weekend!
Randall Hartman's New York Times crossword
I did this puzzle last week when Will Shortz sent the puzzles along for the Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament, and it felt like such slow going. Paper! I don't like doing crosswords on paper as much as online.
The theme is the J CREW, a [Retail clothing giant...or a description of 17- and 53-Across and 10- and 24-Down?]. The J CREW are four people with J.J. initials, supplemented by a JELLY JAR that's not part of the theme. The people include JANIS JOPLIN, the ["Me and Bobby McGee" singer, 1971]—and I just now noticed that this clue repeats a word in the grid, MCGEE or [Fibber of old radio]. I missed seeing that a few days ago, just as I often miss seeing such duplications. JACOB JAVITS is the NYC-centric answer here; [Longtime New York senator for whom a center is named] refers to a convention center in New York. JOE JACKSON is not only the "Stepping Out" singer but also [White Sox outfielder nicknamed Shoeless]. JESSE JAMES was a [Brother outlaw in the Wild West]. Jesse Jackson's first and last name were used elsewhere, so he's an honorary member of the theme.
It's fun to have so many J words in a Monday puzzle, isn't it? A knights' JOUST meets JOJO, clued by way of ["___ left his home in Tucson, Arizona" (Beatles lyric)]. There's a HUNG JURY, which is [Cause for a mistrial]. And [Mexican beans] of the mushy refried variety are FRIJOLES (yum). It's been a long time since I've run across a mention of JAYE, ["The Gong Show" panelist ___ P. Morgan]. Remember her? Without a J, we have other good stuff, like THE MASK, the [1994 Jim Carrey film]; PANACHE, or [Flair]; and YES, I KNOW, or ["So you've said"]. The most topically current clue is [Bo : Obama :: ___ : Roosevelt]. Bo is the First Family's new Portuguese water dog, and FALA was FDR's dog. FALA's a lousy entry, if you ask me, but the topicality of White House dogs this month revives it.
Updated Monday morning:
David Cromer's L.A. Times crossword
Back in the '70s, there was a pop-culture moment in which CB radios were all the rage. The song "Convoy" ensured that my generation learned the basic CB lingo. So when the beginning of [Start of a trucker's communication] was BREAKER, I filled in the rest immediately: BREAKER ONE-NINE. The following theme clue, [Start of a sound man's mike check], began with TESTING, and though there wasn't enough room for ONE, TWO, THREE to follow it, clearly this was a word + numbers theme, right? Wrong:
Among the tougher clues in this Monday puzzle were these:
Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke's CrosSynergy crossword, "On the Ball"
"On the ball" means smart, quick-witted, and the four theme entries in this puzzle begin with SMART and its synonyms:
Assorted clues:
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Comparatively Speaking"
This puzzle discriminates against Mac users, I tell you. It took me a long time to figure out the theme and fill in the upper left corner, because [Where most downloaded files go] is to my Downloads folder or to the desktop. TEMP DIRECTORY? Uh, no. I've been using Macs since the early '90s and this is not a phrase that means anything to me.
The theme goes on to make things TEMPER and TEMPEST: [Hissy fit] is a TEMPER TANTRUM and [Buffeted during a strong blow at sea] clues TEMPEST-TOSSED. Wouldn't it be fun if there were varying degrees of temporariness that could be used in superlative forms? If there were a temp directory, a temper directory for files stored for less time, and a tempest directory for the most fleeting file storage?
Favorite clues and answers:
April 18, 2009
Sunday, 4/19
NYT 9:18
LAT 7:17
PI (untimed)
CS (untimed)
NYT diagramless (untimed)
BG (skipping this one—I'm not doing a Christmas theme in April)
The first Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament was a ton of fun! It wasn't a big event—just 20 competitors, plus some spectators (!)—but everyone had a good time and I loved having a puzzle event right here in Chicago for a change. Bob Petitto and I were the judges. The results: On puzzle #1, the Monday NYT puzzle, the first finisher, '08 and '09 ACPT speed demon Anne Erdmann, had a careless error (oh! how well I know the "careless error on an easy puzzle" grief), so Ben Bass, the first correct finisher, earned a spot in the finals. Anne then zipped through puzzle #2 to make the finals. On puzzle #3, Anne was again the first finisher (no surprise there), but the first not-already-a-finalist finisher was Jonathon Brown, who became the third finalist (and is a regular commenter here).
The three finalists raced the clock and one another on next Thursday's NYT crossword. Anne took first place, finishing in 4:15. Ben, whom I met at his first ACPT this year, swooped into second with a clean puzzle despite finishing third on the clock. Third place went to Jonathon, who finished second timewise but had three incorrect squares, proving the value of the Ellen Ripstein Axiom: Check all the crossing clues. The other eight contestants who completed puzzle #3 (next Wednesday's NYT puzzle) correctly within the time limit also got to choose a smaller prize from the prize table, as did Best Handwriting winner Wailin Wang. The latter had already been advised by friends in the know to shoot for the Best Handwriting prize at the ACPT, and I tell you, her puzzle looked like she had printed it out after solving online.
Special thanks to Bob Petitto for judging—with almost 20 years of ACPT experience, he knew what to do and kept everything running efficiently. And an honorable mention to Kent Brody, who would have been in the finals if not for Anne's puzzle #1 error—and sitting in the finals audience, he finished the puzzle fast enough for 2nd place.
I did my best Will Shortz imitation at the start of the finals, intoning "Begin." You can hear it, can't you?
Nothing specific about the crosswords themselves here, as you'll see them this Monday through Thursday.
I am so crossworded out after this afternoon that I am having trouble summoning the will to blog about the Sunday puzzles. But blog I must:
Will Nediger's New York Times crossword, "Extra! Extra!"
In sports, "Extra!" time is called overtime, or OT for short. Each theme entry has an extra OT changing the meaning of a phrase:
Highlights among the fill and clues:
Tough nuggets:
What I didn't like: SPREE is clued as a [Word with shooting or shopping]. There have been too many tragic shooting sprees in the U.S. lately for this clue to pass the breakfast test.
Updated Sunday afternoon:
Sorry to leave you hanging on the other crosswords—m. henry had the hotcakes with whipped chocolate cream and warm sour cherries topped with chocolate ganache only for weekend brunch, and then there was long division homework to oversee. I did some crosswords on paper, untimed, during Divisionpalooza, and that erasable pen died on me after the diagramless so I did Merl's puzzle and the themeless CrosSynergy in regular pen. Hmm, Merl's puzzle must be pretty easy because I didn't scribble over any squares. And Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle has six over-written squares, so maybe it was less easy. It certainly had enough clues I drew a blank on.
Patrick Blindauer's second Sunday NYT puzzle, a diagramless crossword
I'm guessing this one was easier than most diagramlesses because I filled it all in without writing any numbers in the squares, and I'd never done that before. I was operating under a minor spoiler, since someone mentioned that the likeness was clearer in Across Lite's show-diagram function than on a printout in which the blank squares hadn't been blacked in. So I knew it wasn't going to have standard crossword symmetry. Getting 8D: [Birthplace of 71-Across] as LOG CABIN made me suspect ABE Lincoln was the subject, and THE CIVIL WAR, ILLINOIS, and the GETTYSBURG ADDRESS confirmed that. I killed the Pilot Frixion erasable gel pen, which a pen addict's blog commenters confirm doesn't contain enough ink to last long, but it is a more pleasing pen than the gunky Erasermate. Anyway—I grabbed a fresh pen and blackened in the black squares in the middle of the grid, and my son correctly identified it as a picture of Abraham Lincoln. Cool work, Patrick! And it's not hitting around February 12, when we all had Lincoln crossword fatigue, so the not-timely publication works for me. Highlights in the fill: REMBRANDT, the game MOTHER MAY I, and a PINA COLADA.
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge"
Martin's the king of the triple stack, and this one's got a triple stack of 15-letter answers across the middle. [They're not strictly accurate] clues INEXACT SCIENCES, but I'm feeling iffy about the plural here. ENEMY AT THE GATES is a [WWII action film of 2001]; has anyone seen it? VANESSA REDGRAVE is the ["Isadora" star], but I haven't seen that one either. And then elsewhere in the puzzle, there's ["Dark Passage" star], which turns out to be BACALL but I know nothing about that movie. Hmm, I'm sensing a theme here in this themeless puzzle: Movies Amy hasn't seen.
Did you notice the midsection of this puzzle? The triple stack intersects two 9's and three 7's, which is not an easy feat to pull off. What else did I want to mention? This:
Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer crossword, "TV Shows I'd Like to See"
This is another of Merl's classic pun themes, with puns on the titles of various TV shows. One of them is [TV comedy about a guy who keeps losing his patients?], DENTIST THE MENACE. Whoa, retro flashback! The live-action version of the "Dennis the Menace" comic strip ran from 1959 to '63. The next oldest show in the theme is Mork and Mindy, turned into MORTGAGE AND MINDY, or [TV comedy about being in foreclosure?]. The Law & Order expands into SLAW AND ORDERS, a [TV drama set in a deli?]. SpongeBob SquarePants is now a 10-year-old show, and I do love it so. That inspires Merl's SLUMDOG SQUAREPANTS, or [TV cartoon about a guy who's poor and not much of a dresser?]. Then there's Desperate Hosuewives spinning off DESPERATE, HOUSE-WISE, a [TV reality show about owners willing to do anything to sell their domiciles]. My favorite theme entry wins for its sheer silliness, converting Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? into ARE YOU SMARTER THAN / A CHEESE GRATER?—this is a [TV game show that requires no knowledge whatsoever?].
Merl syndicates his crosswords himself, so he doesn't submit his puzzles to an editor who enforces the standard rules of crossword construction. 80D: [In ___ (spiraling downward)] clues the 9-letter partial entry, A TAILSPIN. But you know what? TAILSPIN is a welcome inclusion in the puzzle, even with the indefinite article that makes it violate a standard rule.
Dan Naddor's syndicated Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword, "Put a Lid on It!"
See my L.A. Crossword Confidential post for solution and discussion.
April 17, 2009
Saturday, 4/18
Newsday 15:52
NYT 6:28
LAT 4:06
CS 2:49
Byron Walden's New York Times crossword
The Saturday Times puzzle is noteworthy for three reasons: (1) 15-letter wildlife, (2) heavy preposition action, and (3) fun clues. For the first category, [Marmots and prairie dogs] are GROUND SQUIRRELS and SCARLET TANAGERS are now thought to be close [Cardinal relatives]. These animals with big names are joined by a CAMEL, the surprising [Source of Caravane cheese]—a cheese I've never heard of (shades of PIAVE, Byron's ACPT puzzle #5 cheese from a couple years ago), but then, the name looks like "caravan," which camels travel in, so the clue offered more of a hint than it seemed to at first.
The preposition explosion appears in a bunch of the multi-word answers:
Here are my favorite clues:
There are other difficult clues lurking about here, too. Here are eight of 'em: (1) [Spot announcement?] is a dog's GRR growl. Spot is not among the top 50 dog names, according to a Sporcle.com quiz. (2) Have you heard of EDA LeShan? Sure, if you do a lot of crosswords. How about [Coloratura Christiane ___-Pierre] for EDA? Is that ringing any bells? My bells were unrung. (3) SARIS are in the puzzle a lot, but not as [They may be thrown over the shoulder]. (4) [Jesus cursed one in Matthew 21] clues a FIG TREE. I don't know the background, so I'm guessing he stubbed his toe on the tree. Whether he took his own name in vain, I can't say. Maybe he said "HELLS bells?" HELLS is [Oregon and Idaho's ___ Canyon]. (5) [Where M.S.T. and P.S.T. can be found] is the unusual entry WESTERN U.S. They're the Mountain and Pacific time zones. (6) [Home of la Sorbonne] isn't simply PARIS or FRANCE, it's LE QUARTIER LATIN. I needed a lot of crossings to see where that was heading. (7) [Country singer Collin ___] RAYE is less well-known to me than Martha Raye. He had some success as a country singer in the '90s. (8) [Little ___, island in the Bering Strait] clues DIOMEDE. Again, lots of crossings needed to find this answer.
Updated Saturday morning:
Scott Atkinson's Los Angeles Times crossword
I'm short on time this morning because I'm heading downtown soon(ish) for the Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament, so I'll reroute you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential write-up. Today's "Crosswordese 101" lesson isn't about a repeater answer in this crossword—though SSGT, or [U.S. Marine Corps E-6] is practically begging to be dissected with the other military abbreviations that we see in crosswords. Nope, this time it's the solving tips I prepared for the Marbles crowd. So check that out.
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
This puzzle (solution here) was wickedly hard, but not in a fun way. There were a few spots that entertained me, but mostly it was a not-pleasant solving experience. Here are some of the things that irked me:
And now, some clues that were tough but fair:
Doug Peterson's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Say What?"
Hey, speak of the devil! I was just saying in the comments that I have taken to dreading the Stumpers unless they have Doug's byline (not dreading because I fear I'm not equal to the task—dreading because I'm not going to enjoy myself), and here he is again, with an easy themed crossword. The theme entries begin with words that can also mean "say," and they're clued as if they do mean "say" in those phrases:
Some of the fill is the standard stuff that excites no one (NNE, AS OF, ATILT, COTES), but so much more of it lends a fun vibe to the crossword. MIFF crosses MOP UP. The QUEEN MUM ([King George VI's widow, familiarly]), is aptly mirrored by TASTEFUL across the grid. There's a NECTARINE, hopefully not an UNRIPE FRUIT. OLD SALT is an answer rather than a clue for a stale TAR. Take an AISLE SEAT when you fly to the RIVIERA. OSCAR the Grouch ACTS OUT. See? Lively stuff.
April 16, 2009
Friday, 4/17
BEQ 4:41
NYT 4:29
LAT 4:04
CS 3:41
CHE 3:10
WSJ 6:30
Chicago-area crossworders, I hope you'll come to this Saturday's Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament at Marbles: The Brain Store. I'll be there as a tournament judge and signer of How to Conquer the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. The contest puzzles are the NYT crosswords from next Monday through Thursday. Marbles is on Grand Avenue just behind/below the 500 N. Michigan building—enter the North Bridge shopping center lobby, take the stairs or elevator down, and walk a few doors west on Grand and you'll find it. The store sells cool games, puzzles, toys, and books—I need to get a set of the ginormous pipe cleaners for my kid.
Corey Rubin's New York Times crossword
Rubin's themeless 68-word puzzle crackles with newness, with a slew of answers that rarely, if ever, find their way into crosswords. Among my favorite material:
DAY-PEEP is an insane little term, isn't it? I wasn't familiar with this word meaning [Crack of dawn, old-style]. I've got some reservations or hesitations about a few things, too. I'm not sure how I feel about I'VE GOT YOU clued as ["No, no, this one's on me"]—do you say "I've got you"? I don't, not unless I an physically holding the "you."[Considering, with "of"] clues IN LIGHT, which is technically a 7-letter partial entry; works for me anyway. TV IDOLS is clued as [Stars of "90210," e.g.]—the old Beverly Hills 90210 cast were TV IDOLS, but I don't know if the current incarnation's stars have achieved IDOL status yet. (I may be too post-adolescent to know.)
Corey Rubin hasn't published very many crosswords yet, but based on this beaut, I'd like to encourage him to keep cranking out themeless puzzles.
Updated Friday morning:
Daniel Finan's L.A. Times crossword
My full write-up of this puzzle is over at L.A. Crossword Confidential. Cute theme—U is swapped out and ME swapped in, inspired by the breakup line IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME. I'll simply relate the other four theme entries here, and refer you to the other blog for more (including a rundown of the coolest fill and clues). It's Friday and I still have four puzzles to do and blog!
Patrick Berry's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Iggy Noramus Prepares His Taxes"
Chronicle puzzle editor Patrick Berry published his own work this week, a crossword taking a punny look at tax day, April 15. The theme answers are bits of IRS terminology, while the clues reveal an ignoramus's misinterpretation of said terms. For example, ["I found $10 in a Dumpster last year—that must be my ___"] GROSS INCOME. With six such jokes for the theme, it's a fun crossword.
The fill's for a good vibe to it, too—an entertaining balm for the taxpayer. RAMBO is a [Sly character?], as in Sylvester ("Sly") Stallone. (I always want to turn Sly Stallone into "Sly and the Family Stallone.") We get to DREAM (a [Night vision]) and FANTASIZE ([Build castles in the air]). I love ["A Modest Proposal" author] Jonathan SWIFT because that particular breed of satire is so much fun to engage in. The puzzle plays cards (HOLD 'EM is the [Poker variant played in 2006's "Casino Royale"] and pool (MASSE is a [Curving billiards shot]). [Like some consultants] clues PAID—I am working on lining up a PAID "puzzle consultant" gig. SWOOP DOWN, with all of its O's and W's, looks cool in the grid; it means [Descend to attack].
Brendan Quigley's blog puzzle, "Block Party"
Brendan's test solvers thought this puzzle was insanely hard, so he threw in a few "gimme" clues. The end result is a themeless of medium difficulty, I think, if not on the easy side of medium. Mind you, there were a few answers that were complete mysteries to me. [Tactical position that literally means "bridgehead"] is TETE DE PONT, French for "head of the bridge," but the answer is nothing I've heard of. And the [Mexican cathartic]! It's JALAP, but that's new to me too. I did a number on myself by reading the 28D clue, [___ Bridge in St. Louis], when I was filling in 29D. Then I made it over to 28D and wondered why Brendan was breaking the rules by having EADS in there twice, pondering a possible connection with TETE DE PONT and a secret bridge-related message in the grid-spanning AM I LOSING MY MIND. (Answer: Perhaps I am.)
My favorite clues are often the ones that misled or befuddled me the most. Here, that'd be [Road mender?] for AMBULANCE—in a pothole-riddled city, it's hard to think of road menders merely traveling on the roads rather than halfassedly patching said roads. Right next to that is LIBRARIES, clued as [Studies], which I was interpreting as "areas of study" or the verb rather than rooms.
Brendan wants to know how hard you found this puzzle, so leave him a comment or post your solving time at his blog.
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Running Mates"
Aw, what's the matter, Bob? Not feeling well? This puzzle's scarcely any harder than the other CrosSynergy folks' puzzles. I plowed through it without any regard for the theme, since the theme entries' clues were pretty straightforward. I see now that the five longest answers are all made of words that are "running" mates—i.e., the word "running" can precede each part.
I like the four corners with three-stacked 7-letter answers—just wish the clues had been tougher.
Randy Ross's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Moonlighting"
Super-smooth Sunday-sized puzzle here. Nothing too obscure, nothing clued too obliquely, theme entertaining but not too challenging. The eight "moonlighters" are jobs with one straight description and one jokey description. The CASE WORKER is a [Family counselor/beer distributor], for example. A PROOFREADER is an [Editor/geometry teacher]. My favorite is RELIEF PITCHER, double-clued as a baseball game's [Closer/aspirin salesman]. (Can I take a moment to holler at the people who first coined all the gendered words like "salesman"? If only they'd gone with "seller" as the strongest word, we wouldn't have this problem. The clue ought to have used "seller," if you ask me.)
Highlights in the fill include Albee's TINY ALICE, a [1964 title role for Irene Worth]; the TAPIOCA balls that are a [Bubble tea ingredient]; WILD ABOUT, or [So into]; Dr. Seuss's SAM I AM; a PAWN SHOP; and PAUL KLEE, ["The Golden Fish" painter]. I suppose words like REPASTE and APISHLY fall out of the "super-smooth category," but at least they're not truly obscure (in crosswords) words or uncommon names.
April 15, 2009
Thursday, 4/16
Tausig 6:34
NYT 4:37
LAT 3:36
CS 2:27
Oliver Hill's New York Times crossword
I'm feeling torn about this puzzle. On the one hand, the theme idea is clever—EXTRACT parsed as "extra CT" added to certain phrases—and there's some terrific fill. On the other hand, one of the theme answers feels off to me, and some of the fill and clues strike the wrong note. First, let's sum up the theme:
Here are the non-theme answers and clues I admired:
The clue for FURY, [Hurricane's force], felt too specific for its answer. Fill that sort of sticks in my craw:
I imagine I had more to say about the puzzle, but I spent so much time watching neo-Journey clips with my husband, and poking around Facebook...I forgot. I'll be more bloggy again in the morning.
Updated Tuesday morning:
Don Gagliardo's L.A. Times crossword
Wow, what an unusual theme! One of the holy grails of crossword construction is to come up with a cool theme nobody's done before, and I don't recall seeing a puzzle like this before. There's no obvious theme until you get down to 67A: [Letter appearing only in down answers; its opposite appears only in across answers]. That's the HARD G, with two or three soft G's in each of the five Across entries placed where you'd expect to see theme entries. GINGER ROGERS has three soft G sounds, but the Down crossings are OLGA (Korbut, ['70s Olympics name]), GOOD AT, and MI AMIGO (which is an [Address to a pal, in Pamplona]), all with hard G's. I suspect it would take too much effort to tailor a program to construct a puzzle like this, so Mr. Gagliardo presumably handcrafted the crossword. One could argue that there's not much point to this theme, but I liked the impact of the one "aha" moment when it hit me.
Let's take a look at some of the content:
This puzzle contains 21 G's. I don't know of anyone who keeps track of this for non-NYT puzzles, but the record for the most G's in a daily NYT is 19.
PuzzleGirl loved this theme too and has more to say at L.A. Crossword Confidential.
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Dead-End Endings"
The theme here is phrases that end with dead ends, like the title says, with the words used in other contexts:
You can be treed, cornered, or trapped when those final words are converted into verbs.
Assorted clues:
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "You're It!"
Hey, I didn't test-solve this one during vacation, and it darn near killed me today. It was the junction of 3D and 19A that did me in the worst.
The theme's a good one. "Tag, you're it!" means that each theme entry's base phrase has been TAGged (a TAG has been inserted somewhere):
Among the clues I found tough were these ones:
