Wednesday

Tausig 4:36
LAT 4:05
NYS 3:52
CS 3:34
NYT 3:15

Kind of an unusual layout for the theme in Kevan Choset's NYT—the first across entry's down in the sixth row, and the three acrosses are joined physically and thematically by a central vertical entry. Good puzzle, but I'm sleepy and heading to bed without doing any other crosswords (the Sun and Tausig puzzles) tonight—I'm not farklempt, but talk amongst yourselves.

Updated:

Ben Tausig's puzzle, "Ladies First," performs a sex-change operation on his theme entries, turning an initial HE into SHE—never to better effect than in SHEATH LEDGER, the "Accounting book for a sword case?" This puzzle roused me out of the semiconscious state I was in when I did the Sun, LA Times, and CrosSynergy puzzles (I liked 'em all, but can't be more specific than that—tendinitis is stealing sleep from me and making me dopey) with a few entries that seemed addressed to me personally. "Sore point, for some" = AGE? Yup. "Vanilla, botanically" is an ORCHID—hey! A friend sent me a slew of white orchids for my birthday. "What you are if today is your birthday" is also true for yesterday: LEO. And besides great clues, there's URKEL! Wait, that last one doesn't speak to me at all. I swear.

Confidential to Madonna: Happy 48th birthday!