NYT 5:02 (paper)—The Thursday puzzle doesn't quite display properly in the applet or Across Lite; here's a PDF showing how it's meant to appear
LAT 3:17
CS untimed (J)/3:33 (A)—another Blindauer!
Tausig untimed
Patrick Blindauer and Rebecca Young's New York Times crossword
For Rebecca Young's debut crossword, she brought her boyfriend Patrick along for the ride. In the PDF/print version of the puzzle, the center square is blank so you can draw the world's teeniest compass rose; in the other versions of the puzzle, there's a black plus sign in the middle and you'll need Wite-Out to draw your compass. The theme entries travel in the cardinal directions indicated by their first word:
I have a soft spot for crossword answers that travel in unexpected ways, and the interlocking of the this-way-and-that theme entries is cool. Other good stuff: DIAPER is clued as [Something needed for a change]. [Women who get high?] are STONERS. No, wait. That's too short. They're SOPRANOS. [Been abed] clues LAIN, but the clue just looks goofy. "Have you ever been abed? Is abing what you like to do?" Oh, ["The ___ Report"] stars Stephen COLBERT. Love him.
If you hate crossword puzzles in which answers appear backwards or upwards, I don't think we can be friends anymore.
Updated Thursday morning:
Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Look Both Ways"—Janie's review
Let's face it. In this puzzle, Patrick's got us comin' and goin'. And why? Because the theme-fill, as 63A (the final theme-entry) explains, is made up of PALINDROMES [Phrases that read the same forward and backward...]. Through various dictionary pages, I find that this word combines not the Alaskan surname for "wannabe," but the ancient Greek word pálin meaning "again"/"back again once more," with (the Greek-derived) combining form -drome, meaning "running"—just in case you wanted to know! Giving us one classic and two modern classics of the genre, those phrases that "run back again once more" (with feeling...) are:
If you're ever in BAJA [ ___ California], the sun is very strong there, so don't forget the SPF 30 and/or try to fine some SHADED areas to enjoy your respite. Perhaps the veranda of your INN would offer some relief.
A [Major leaguer or golf instructor] is a PRO. So, too, is actress Dame JUDI DENCH. Ditto queen-of-the-noir Claire TREVOR and that consummate COUPLE of the American stage, Jessica and Hume [Tandy and Cronyn, e.g.]. Yes, the term also applies to star of the small screen and Broadway stage, SOPRANO Kristin Chenoweth (and [Country singer Tim] MCGRAW). I confess, however, that when I saw the clue [Kristin Chenoweth's voice type] and the seven spaces waiting to be filled, I was tempted to enter GRATING. Kidding!! (Mostly...)
Oh, and couple is also a way to describe [The Dynamic ___] DUO. But tell us, Patrick, is that Batman and Robin you're referring to or Oprah's (also kinda scary [see above...]) Acai berry and colon cleanse regimen?
[League of legal eagles (abbr.)] is a superb clue for fill we see all the time: ABA. But look—it's alliterative, assonant and it has a rhyme in it. That's just lovely. And what a great "set up" it is for the next clue, [Commit a court infraction?]. PERJURE? Nupe. Too many letters for one, and wrong "court" for the other. This time it's the basketball court, where your team'll be penalized if you TRAVEL.
If one [Fed one's face], one ATE. If one ate only an OAT, a [Granola grain] or had but a small bowl of ROTINI [Twisty pasta], one might want A BIT [Slightly] more to satisfy oneself.
A few more clue/fill faves and then I'm history. In no particular order of preference:
Jonathan Seff's Los Angeles Times crossword
This is a solid puzzle, but the theme variety is one I'm not a fan of: Each of the four 15-letter theme entries is clued with a word that sounds like "doe."
Now, what I don't like about this sort of clue/answer flip-flop theme is that it spotlights phrases that would not otherwise pass muster as crossword fill. Has anyone ever used the phrase "bread-baking need" or "key note in a scale"? I rest my case.
I like the CON MAN (4D: [Hustler]), and YMCA, or [Pantomimed disco song title]. Hey! Did you know the original Village People "YMCA" video did not feature the pantomime? They sort of did a "Y" that led into clapping their hands over their heads, but that's it. Also—tie-in with yesterday's LAT puzzle—the leather man has a prodigious horseshoe mustache.
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword
My feet did not like this theme because it did not include Merrell or Naot, my feet's preferred footwear brands. Here's the theme:
Assorted other clues and answers: HOVA is [Jay-Z, self-appointedly]. As in Jehovah? See also JAH, or [Reggae god]. SPERMS are [Origins of all people, partially]; both SPERM and SPERMS are valid plurals. [Thing flashed at Woodstock] is a V-SIGN, among other things. MARC ECKO is the [Clothing impresario who bought Barry Bonds' record-breaking home run ball].
September 30, 2009
Thursday, 10/1/09
September 29, 2009
Wednesday, 9/30/09
BEQ 4:17
Onion 4:05
NYT 3:52
LAT 2:43
CS untimed
Kevin Der's New York Times crossword
My in-house technical maven is busy troubleshooting a new backup drive on my desktop Mac, and my excuse for a slower-than-usual Wednesday time is that I'm not as accustomed to the smaller laptop keyboard.
Kevin's theme shot me straight back to that American lit class in my freshman year of college. We plowed through portions of the Norton Anthology of American Literature, including those Transcendentalists and the other authors writing from CONCORD, MA. That's the place spelled out by the circled letters in this puzzle, and the authors' names are split up hither and yon (but symmetrically):
So, the theme occupies 67 squares with the author names, plus a few more CONCORD, MA squares that don't coincide with the author answers. The other fill, sandwiched as it must be around nine theme entries, is a bit more prosaic. Nothing beyond the pale, but not much sparkle, either. I'm content with the blast-from-the-American-lit-past and the elegance of the Concord unifying element. I have never been to Concord, but I have eaten of the grapes and the grape jelly.
What's your favorite part of this crossword?
Updated Wednesday morning:
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Cake Toppers"—Janie's review
If you're thinkin' the theme-fill will be along the lines of CHOCOLATE ICING, COCONUT or CANDLES, you have another think comin'. While they're all of the decidedly non-edible variety, the theme-fill today is instead made up of two-word phrases whose first word also names a kind of cake. This give us some very tasty results, and here's the sampling of what Patrick has given us to [Snack on] EAT:
A DEB, as we all know, is a [Coming-out party honoree], and a coming-out party is a BIG DO [Significant event]. Lots of dancing at these dos, where, I suspect, the young men are still the ones who LEAD [Guide one's dance partner]. But I've never been to one, so I couldn't say for sure. I'm also thinking that a lot of [Titled ladies] DAMES may have had their "introduction to society" as debutantes. And that a lot of untitled ladies are pretty swell dames themselves!
The real icing on the cake, of course, is that Patrick has created yet another pangram. The ingredients of a pangram? All 26 letters of the alphabet. You can check. By virtue of such fill as JUNE BUG [Large brown beetle], the elegantly clued FLICKERS [Shimmers like a lit candle], EQUAL [Identical in value], OXIDE [Nitrous ___ (laughing gas)] (shades of Little Shop of Horrors), SLYNESS [Foxy quality] and LIZA [Judy's eldest daughter], they're all in there.
EGAD. I nearly forgot to mention that I enjoyed seeing GAME SHOW in the grid, and in the "who knew?" department, liked learning that U-HAUL has been a [Rental business since 1945]. Who knew?!
Chuck Deodene's Los Angeles Times crossword
Facial hair is the name of the game, and five types of mustaches appear in the grid, clued as the nouns the styles are named after. For photos, see my L.A. Crossword Confidential post.
Today's Crosswordese 101 lesson (a daily feature at L.A. Crossword Confidential) focused on TRA, which also popped up in the NYT puzzle. It's part of the longer "tra-la" or "tra-la-la." TRA clues are generally along the lines of "musical syllable," "song syllable," "refrain syllable," "___ la la," or "la preceder." That's one of the things that makes TRA such lame crossword fill: Not only is it not something we say, not only is it a dangling fragment, but it's also something that does not lend itself to interesting clueing options. And yet we see it again and again.
Ben Tausig's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Even when I read the clue for the unifying answer, INK—59D: [Body art, colloquially, and this puzzle's theme]—I was still confused for a bit before the "aha" moment arrived. The five theme answers begin with tattoo types:
Is MOOTER a word? It's clued as 44D: [More debatable], but I feel its legitimacy is debatable.
Favorite clue: 53D: [Ben and Jen do it with each other] for RHYME.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Fireplaces"
Sometimes a fireplace is a HOT CORNER in the room, and a HOT CORNER is also the [Third baseman's domain, and a hint to this puzzle's theme]. The corners of the grid hold a {HOT} rebus, which appears as the word HOT in one direction and just the three letters HOT in the other. No, wait, {HOT}HOUSE and {HOT} POTATO both relate to heat. Then there's a cinnamon RED {HOT} candy crossing a {HOT}EL ROOM, "MAKE IT {HOT}" crossing a LONG S{HOT}, and MR. BIG S{HOT} crossing {HOT} POT. Highlights in the fill: BRUCE LEE, "IT'S A GIRL," HEXAGON, BRNO (what can I say? I'm a sucker for Czech place names that are vowel-deprived), EX-LAX (the [Dump assistant?]!), and many of the theme entries. No so fond of ENURING, the dangling NOT ONLY, and much of the 3- and 4-letter fill.
All righty, I've got to get some work done before my lunch date today. Later!
MGWCC #69
crossword 8:50 (paper, with one ??)
puzzle n/a
matt's got something a little different for us this week: a themeless with no meta. did you guys come up with any good suggestions for a more positive name for a crossword with no theme? i didn't. my best attempt was "fillfull." i figure: zippy fill is what's great about a themeless, so the name should specify what the puzzle has rather than what it doesn't. plus, it's fun to connect two forms of the same word in the name.
anyway, about matt's crossword: i liked it, but ultimately couldn't finish it. my downfall: [Italian pop artist Enrico] BA_ crossing ["As Good As It Gets" director ___ Brooks] _AMESL. now, _AMESL makes no sense to me, and the last letter of the italian artist could be anything except J, right? (no way matt would do that to us again...) what i didn't realize, but should have based on the weird ending, is that i was looking for a six-letter partial, JAMES L. brooks. as soon as brendan pointed it out to me, i slapped myself on the forehead. i know james l. brooks! he's a producer of the simpsons. and i even knew, buried somewhere in the long-unused recesses of my brain, that he directed that movie (which i've seen, and even almost liked). sigh. and yes, the pop artist is enrico BAJ. is that a made-up name or what? it certainly doesn't look like a plausible italian name, although ... we've been over this ground before, haven't we? apparently i'm not qualified to guess these things.
other entries of note:
overall, the grid had perhaps a few too many entries of the sorts that i try to eschew for my liking: obscurity BAJ crossing six-letter partial JAMES L.; roman numeral MMII; alphabetic run MNOP; unusual foreign word AAL (german for eel?); weird partial AN M (clued as ["Gimme ___!" (cheer start in Ann Arbor, maybe)]); many abbreviations (SDI, UTEP, IDS, HRS, APO, RTES, INC, MR. D, TUE); inexplicable [Word in some ship names] that i still don't understand MARU ... oh god, is this a reference to star trek? because "kobayashi maru" is ringing a bell, though i've never seen the original series. on the whole, the negatives outweighed the positives of the nice long fill, making this not one of my favorite recent themelesses, though it certainly had its moments. how did it sit with you?
September 28, 2009
Tuesday, 9/29/09
NYT 3:02
LAT 2:52
Jonesin' 4:15
CS untimed
Paula Gamache's New York Times crossword
Would you look at that? I learned something from a Tuesday crossword's theme. All five starred theme entries are phrases that have traveled far beyond their nautical roots.
The British site Phrase Finder lists other nautical phrases. Among the most charming or useful: batten down the hatches, broad in the beam, give a wide berth, high and dry, know the ropes, shake a leg, three sheets to the wind, and the cut of your jib. Now, that's the sort of nautical language I like to see in a crossword. The nouns for random sailing gear? Not so much.
10D: "NO, NO, NO" is a rather goofy answer, but I kinda like it. Its clue is ["That is completely the wrong way!"].
Also good: 4D: AD-SPEAK, or [Marketers' "language"]. Ooh! Don't miss the documentary, Consuming Kids, about the insidious ways marketers have targeted children since the 1980s. You can watch it here, in a series of YouTube segments; it's about an hour long.
Most-likely-to-be-Googled clue: 8D: [War aid program passed by Congress in 1941] for LEND-LEASE. Under the program, the U.S. gave war material to its allies, who repaid the U.S. in various ways. The U.K. made its last installment payment in 2006.
Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword
Dan Naddor brings the food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a night at the game in four 15-letter "___ and ___" phrases:
Lots of people in the puzzle today. NEIL Armstrong and ALAN Greenspan, RAUL Julia and Dan MARINO, Ho Chi MINH and Wernher von BRAUN, two IANS and that horrible Bob SAGET, CYD Charisse and DEION Sanders, and the fictional Mr. MOTO and ETHAN Frome. Lucky for me, names in a crossword don't make me SKITTISH ([Apt to shy, as a horse]).
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Chance Collisions" (themeless)
A few times a year, Matt's Jonesin' puzzle is themeless, but the difficulty level is usually not far off from what it is for his themed puzzles. Coolest answers:
Less familiar terms: TAIL SKIDS are [Supports at the end of planes]. [Like a lot of European cathedral architecture in the 16th century] clues LATE GOTHIC. PETTICOATED is indeed an adjective (who knew?) meaning [Wearing an underskirt]. CLINOMETER is a [Tool in forestry to measure slope, vertical angles and tree heights]; it's not related to words like incline and recline, which have Latin roots as opposed to CLINOMETER's Greek root.
Updated Tuesday morning:
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Odd Fellows"—Janie's review
No, not the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the fraternal organization that's been around since the 18th century in the U.S. (and the 17th in England), but four well-known phrases ending in a word that can also be a man's name. With the first word now describing a person rather than a thing, Sarah introduces us to another side of a wide variety of celebrity-types, namely:
Other fill (and clues) that caught my fancy today includes:
September 27, 2009
Monday, 9/28/09
BEQ 6:53
LAT 2:43
NYT 2:24
CS untimed
Lynn Lempel's New York Times crossword
What a lovely Monday puzzle. It's filled with fantastic answers that are there just because, and the theme entries are the sort of lively terms I like to see in a themeless crossword. Now, the puzzle hits the easy/Monday bullseye, so it's eminently possible to complete the puzzle (as I did) without taking note of the theme. The theme is a big stinkin' failure, which is to say it successfully includes five phrases that end with synonyms for "failure":
The Scrabbliest highlight in the non-theme fill is ZAMBEZI, [Africa's fourth-longest river and site of Victoria Falls]. There are two more Zs in the grid. One's in GEEZER, or [Old, crotchety guy], and the other's in AZALEA, or [Relative of a rhododendron]. Other bright spots: JOSHES means [Teases playfully]. BATS IN is [Brings home for a score] (and no, that's not about dating). RAMADAN is a [Month-long Islamic observance], which ended with the Eid holiday last week (belated "Eid Mubarak" greetings to those of you who celebrated). A [Close-fitting sleeveless shirt] is a TANK TOP. FLIES is an ordinary word, but the clue's fun: [Gets around like Superman]. And look, we've got [One of the Redgrave sisters], LYNN. That's probably as close as Ms. Lempel will get to including her name in the grid. Hah! I just noticed a word I had filled in via the crossings and never looked at—CRAP is a [Losing roll in a casino].
Thanks, LYNN, for a fresh and entertaining Monday puzzle.
Updated Monday morning:
Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "C & W"—Janie's review
A shout-out to a musical genre (Country & Western)? A shout-out to a puzzle genre (crossword)? I think Vic Fleming took care of both at the 2005 ACPT with "If You Don't Come Across (I'm Gonna be Down")—but leave it to Paula to find a third way to apply those letters. Today she presents four two-word phrases (two 15s, two 11s) whose first word begins with C and whose second begins with W. And the guilty parties are:
There's a lot of strong non-theme fill here, too. I'll start by pointing out the symmetrically placed phrases "WHO'S NEXT?" with its vivid, story-telling clue [Reigning champion's question to challengers] and SWINGS IT, clued not in conjunction with Benny Goodman's musical style, but as [Manages to succeed]. I also liked the GAS PEDAL/[You can step on it] combo, and the adjacent proximity of [Rampaging]/ARIOT to MANOLETE [Noted matador]. One of the greatest bullfighters of the mid 20th century, Manolete met his death at age 30, gouged by a bull running ariot.
[Joe with no jolt] is DECAF, "joe" being slang for "coffee" (and which you might have as a TALL [Starbuck's size]). Remember, though when Joltin' Joe DiMaggio was the spokesman for Mr. Coffee?
DAME [British title] is poised atop EDAM [Red-rinded cheese]. Dame is also an anagram of Edam. Or wait—is it the other way around?
And hello, HUGH [Jackman of film]. Let's not forget he won a [Tony...] AWARD for his portrayal of Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz and is currently starring on Broadway with Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain. The gents fairly embody the word "boffo": they are the essence of box office certainty!
Fred Jackson's Los Angeles Times crossword
Wow, this puzzle was scarcely any easier than the last Saturday LAT crossword! Which is to say that the whole week of L.A. Times crosswords are hitting the Monday/Tuesday difficulty level, thereby removing intriguing clues to talk about. If your local paper runs this puzzle (syndicated by Tribune Media Services), please send a letter/e-mail decrying the loss of the graduated difficulty curve and the more challenging Friday and Saturday puzzles.
The theme entries begin with related words:
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Monday"
Hooray! Themeless Monday! A puzzle that takes longer than the usual Monday puzzle! This one was labeled as "medium" difficulty but I dunno, I thought it was on the hard side.
There are a few highlights, but this 70-worder had more fill that underwhelmed me. The good stuff: CULT STATUS, the CN TOWER, AFRO PICK, SHEBANG. My son's 4th-grade teacher is a man, which occasioned my sister to tell him that her 4th-grade teacher had been not only a man, but a man who sported a pick in his Afro in the classroom. Ah, 1970s! How we loved you. Favorite clues: [Holy figure?] for a holy TERROR, and the noun phrase [Play uncle] for Chekhov's Uncle VANYA.
There's a surprising amount of lackluster fill given that this is a 70-worder. MISTAKABLE without an un-? The [Short cloak] called a MANTELET? AREOLE, ENLISTEE, and SETS OUT? Then there are the little words: STS, ASTA, INRE, ENOS, LER, OLEO, CLE.
ESURIENT isn't too familiar; it means [Very hungry]. The dictionary tells me it's an archaic word (boo) that means "hungry or greedy."
September 26, 2009
Sunday, 9/27/09
NYT 41:31 (paper)
Seattle Times 23:35 (paper)
LAT 16:12 (paper)
CS 11:10 (paper)
BG 25:29 (paper)
Happy Sunday, everyone. Sam Donaldson here, spelling Orange and spilling on the Sunday crosswords. I am honored that Orange gave me another shot at guest blogging--I feel like a young stand-up who gets called over to the guest chair by Johnny Carson after a set! "Just don't screw this up...."
It's just now "back to school" time at my place of employment (the University of Washington in Seattle). We use a trimester system with three ten-week terms, meaning fall classes finally start this week. Even though everyone else has been in school for a month or so already, I need to get back into the groove. Accordingly, I'm going to assign grades to today's puzzles. As in real life, final grades will be completely arbitrary and capricious.
Patrick Berry's New York Times crossword, "That is Two Say" (Final Grade = A)
Apologies off the top for the crappy picture of the completed grid. My version of Across Lite (downloaded circa 1620) does not support multiple letters in one box. Not a problem for me since my custom is to print the puzzle and solve by pencil anyway. But since you don't want to decipher my handwriting, I planned to type my solution into the empty grid and snap that picture. Works just fine if there's no rebus. Oops. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just download the updated version of Across Lite and I'll be off to the races." Naturally, for some reason, my computer won't let me download the newer version. So I went MacGyver on y'all and snapped a pdf version of the completed grid. You'll see my chicken-scratch in the rebus squares, but I keyed in all the other letters.
Last month I finally got around to purchasing "Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies," Patrick's guide to crossword construction. Oh, how I wish I would have followed the advice of others and purchased this sooner. Patrick explains the ins and outs of construction so lucidly, I admire his prose almost as much as his puzzles (high praise indeed). If I remember correctly, Patrick endured the frustration of many solvers on the crossword blogs for his last NYT Sunday-sized puzzle, the fraternity rebus. In my view, today's rebus should garner more compliments than scorn. It was a toughie (for me), but a goodie.
The gimmick here was to squeeze two letters into 13 assorted boxes. Read in one direction, the two letters were simply two letters--no big deal. In the other direction, however, they were to be read aloud. It's now been fifteen minutes since I first typed that lame explanation and I still can't do better. Let's look at the entries using the rebus squares so it all makes sense:
The grid offered plenty of toeholds, with easy fill-ins like Jai ALAI, Sierra LEONE, RUBIK'S Cube, SINO-Japanese War, and From A TO Z. Of the 12(!) clues formatted as fill-ins, only one gave me pause, the Abbott and Costello film, "Here Come the CO-EDS." But the extra hint in the clue (that it was set at a girl's school) and the crossings made it easily gettable. Despite the many fair starting points, however, the rebus had me a little on edge and I found it hard to get traction. This being Patrick Berry, I suspected the two letter combinations in the rebus squares would form a secret message when read in some order. So, ever on the lookout for the meta-theme, I lost some time. Please tell me there isn't a secret message in the grid. How embarrassing would that be!
In discussing how to fill grids with familiar terms in his book, Patrick says he knows a lot about movies but little about television, politics, and opera. Save for television, I'm right there with him. But even I can get AIDA, the [Opera set in Egypt]. I like seeing LIAM NEESON, the [Ethan Frome portrayer, 1993], in the grid, and for some reason I like that TART abuts TROLLOPE, even though the latter has an "E" on the end so it refers to the [Author of the Barsetshire novels].
Here are some confessions from solving this puzzle (abridged since this has to be posted before Tuesday): (1) still don't know how [Leopard's home?] clues IMAC; (2) needed lots of crossings to tease out COSTA BRAVA, the [Resort region near Barcelona]; (3) never knew GRAHAM as a [Car make of the 1930s]; (4) am blushing a little that I could throw TATIANA Romanova, the ["From Russia With Love" Bond girl], into the grid with only one letter crossing; (5) never heard of a TULIP TREE, the [Yellow poplar]; (6) thought I was better in science than I really am, for both MARKER GENE (a [Key sequence in a chromosome]) and MIDRIB (the [Leaf vein]) were new to me; and (7) while I normally have an allergic reaction to variant spellings in crosswords, somehow I was fine with two of them in this grid (PATINES for [Surface films] and IKON for a [Venerated image]). Oddly, I'm significantly more freaked out about Jacob RIIS, the ["How the Other Half Lives"] writer.
So this proved to be a workout for me, but I enjoyed it. I feel smarter for having solved this puzzle (and dumber for confessing all of my ignorance here). So it gets an "A." As does "Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies." And, for that matter, so does "Puzzle Masterpieces."
Merl Reagle’s Seattle Times crossword, "O Punnish Me” (Final Grade = B+)
Once again I'm re-branding Merl's syndicated crossword--you know it on this blog as the "Philadelphia Inquirer" crossword. And to celebrate the re-branding, it looks like Merl's trying something entirely new for him: puns. I thought about listing the theme entries in order of "groaniness," but check it out: the puns actually get groanier from top to bottom!
Do you agree that the puns get better (or worse, if you're a pun-hater) as you progress down the grid? I know Merl likes to save his best "punch line" for the bottom, and in my view he chose wisely here. The order of the theme entries here is just perfect, even if serendipitous.
Sure, there are only seven puns in the grid, but two of them are long enough to span two lines, so I feel there is plenty of theme here to enjoy. We're treated to a couple of Qs and Xs in the grid, and some clever clues to boot: [It's witnessed by seconds] for DUEL and [Sushi candidates] for EELS.
I liked that the clues for two consecutive down entries were related: John Henry EATON was the [Secretary of War, 1829] and William Howard TAFT was the [Secretary of War, 1904]. At last, the payoff for memorizing the list of former War Secretaries back in fifth grade!
I breezed through the solve until I came to a screeching halt in the far east. I was befuddled by Hosni MUBARAK, the [Cairo VIP], since I kept thinking I was supposed to come up with a term like "pharaoh." I had ROW A for the [Good seat site], but alas it was ROW I (I take it the I is for "one" and not the letter "I"). Kept wanting ADAM'S as the [Rib adjective] when it was PRIME, and that precluded me from getting EPH, the [Galatians follower: abbr.] (short for Ephesians), for a long time. Didn't help that SASHA being a [Nickname for "Alexandra"] was new to me. Getting stuck on this many entries in such close proximity created the perfect storm, so my relatively slow time comes as no surprise.
So why just a B+ and not a higher mark? Well, there were a few sour notes. Case in point: NARR, short for "narration," or [Voice-over]. Odd to see WSW and SSE (both clued as a [Compass pt.]) in the same grid. Also odd to see QE-II, the [Noted liner, briefly] together with the aforementioned ROW I. But I guess two odds make it even, so all is well. I'm sure more than a handful of solvers got stumped with the [Gary Cooper film, "They Came to ___"] CORDURA. Cordura's a nylon fabric originally made by DuPont so sayeth the Holder of All Truth). So they came to Cordura ... after trying burlap? Because cotton was bad and wool was even "worsted?" OK, we need to move on....
Alan Arbesfeld’s Los Angeles Times crossword, "Put the Finger On” (Final Grade = CREDIT)
We interrupt this blog for some late-breaking news:
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Publishers of the Los Angeles Times announced today that the newspaper will be renamed the Los Angeles Plus. "Multiplication proved too difficult for our readers," said one editor who wished to remain anonymous. "We felt that having the 'Times' in our name dissuaded potential readers. The 'Plus' tells readers they won't have to do anything harder than addition."
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.
Well, in light of this news, the increasing ease of the LA Times puzzles makes sense! If you haven't noticed, this and other crossword blogs (there are other crossword blogs?) have bemoaned the easy puzzles of late. Word on the street is that papers still relatively new in carrying the syndicated puzzle have put pressure on the editors to ease up on the puzzles. So instead of a Monday-to-Friday progression of difficulty, we get a Monday-to-soft-Tuesday progression. I can join the chorus in disliking the effect this has on the puzzles, but I can't take it out on the editors or the constructors. When a student in class submits a late paper because of extenuating circumstances, I usually grade the paper on a pass-fail basis instead of assigning a letter grade. I think it's right to do the same thing here, too. If the clues had been a little more challenging, this would have been a really enjoyable solve. As it was, it was a pleasant (albeit brief), breezy stroll. We have established that I'm not a competitive speed solver, but when I finish a 21x grid in under 17 minutes, it's easy.
Oh, the theme? Pretty conventional, but it had a fun feel to it. Alan takes eight phrases and adds an "ID" to end of one of the words, then gives the resulting wacky phrase a suitable clue:
Six of the eight theme entries were in the top six and bottom six rows, so those sections are relatively dense with theme. The middle nine rows have only two theme entries, and neither is impressively long for a 21x grid. Consequently, the midsection feels a little thin to me. Still, I liked a lot of the long downs, including BAR AND GRILL, QUIT COLD, ACT NOW, and SUPERPOWER. The rest of the fill may not have blinded me with sparkle, but I felt it was solid. Yes, I muttered a little when I saw STR, the [Orch. section], and SER, the [Rev.'s talk]. In fact, I'll go on record that SER may be my least favorite abbreviation in crosswords. If I ever have to use that entry, I'm cluing it as the Spanish verb (and then watching the editor change it to the abbreviation, probably). Of course, if I have to use that entry in the first place, editors will likely pass on the puzzle anyway. But the point is that the puzzle was quite solid overall. Just think how much better it could have been if the constructor and editors were free to make it a normal Sunday puzzle. Sigh.
William I. Johnston's CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" (Final Grade = B)
Accountants will like this 70-word themeless puzzle because its assets evenly match its liabilities. Consider first the assets: the best entry in the grid, NUDIST CAMP, gets matched with the puzzle's best clue, [Place where nothing is going on?]. The grid features four 15-letter entries, and two of them are lively: LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG, clued as ["Fido is part of the package"], and SNAKE IN THE GRASS, a [Backstabber]. The clue [Like Vera Wang and Anna Sui] rescues the third 15-letter entry, CHINESE-AMERICAN, from mediocrity. Sure enough, I took the bait, trying to see where "DESIGNER" would fit in the answer. ARMENIAN may be a ho-hum entry, but it's jazzed up through a celebrity reference in the clue, [Cher's heritage, in part]. In the northwest, MINT TEAS looks nice atop I'VE HAD IT.
But there are also some liabilities. The ugliest is TCHR, the [N.E.A. member]. I might have to rethink the hatred for SER. Then the [Glamorous Gardner], AVA, crosses the [Old greeting], AVE, right in the center of the grid. AIR PASSAGE feels clunky, and the clue, [Ventilation duct], does little to make it dance. I know RAPID TRANSIT MAP isn't forced, and yet it still looks and feels that way to me. It cried for some zip, but the clue, [Guide for commuters], offered no help. The proper number of European rivers to appear in any one grid is 0.6; this one has two, the NEVA and the ARNO. There were some missed cluing opportunities, as ABSTRACT ART seemed to deserve better than [Nonfigurative creation], and BRAIN TEASER appeared underserved by [Poser]. I get that "poser" can serve as misdirection, but what about something like ["How many times can you take away 2 from 21?," e.g.]? Finally, consider the following four consecutive down entries in the southeast: ARNO, MAIS, ESAI, SSNS. Show that corner to your non-solver partner or friends and watch them shake their heads. They'd have a point--it's probably too much concentrated crosswordese.
Every asset in the puzzle is offset by a liability. Perfect balance for the accountant, but hard to grade for me. In the end, I chose a "B" on the strength of the NUDIST CAMP.
I broke into the grid with STOLI, the [Vodka brand], not because I really know the brand but because I noticed that 1-Across was a plural. That meant the answer to 8-Down likely started with an "S," and Stoli's the only vodka brand I know starting with "S." Then came Mauna LOA, good ol' Max VON Sydow, and from there LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG came immediately. TAMABLE, something [Subject to breaking?], took me way too long because I kept seeing "tam," as in the hat. Sometimes Scottish ancestry works against you (it also works against you when you try to get a tan). The northeast came next, then down to the southeast and then the southwest. I kept wanting BINDI for BONDI, the [Popular beach near Sydney]. I know Bindi is the name of the late Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin's daughter (she wasn't the one who, as an infant, was held perilously close to a gator by her dad in a ballyhooed incident--that was her brother). I figured maybe she was named for the beach, but PIS was not working as a [Terminal abbr.].
Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's Boston Globe Crossword, "Doubleheaders" (Final Grade = B-)
THE THEME entries here consist of wacky two-word phrases where the first word is repeated at the start of the second word (just like the first two words in this sentence):
Look, I was absolutely 100% sure-fire confident that MISS MISSOURI had to be MISS MISSOULA. For one thing, I love Missoula, Montana. It's home to the University of Montana (Go Griz!), breathtaking scenery (especially now as it stretches into fall), and some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. But more importantly, all of the other theme entries are contrived phrases (unless "stag stage" is in the language and I'm just too sheltered). There may be "cat catalogs" peddling trinkets or pet-care supplies to felinophiles, but I don't think the phrase could be considered common or real. Miss Missouri, on the other hand, is real--a real title held by a real person (currently Tara Osseck, an absolute sweetheart, based on her blog). We're not supposed to see a real phrase mixed in with nine other wacky ones. (Peter Gordon taught me that lesson when I submitted a theme query to the New York Sun in my very early days of constructing.) Even if we can let the inconsistency slip, the clue should not have signaled wackiness with the "?" at the end. The puzzle was fun overall, but this bugged me enough to affect the final grade. Of course, it's entirely possible that I'm missing something here, but that often happens in grading exams too.
My refusal to let go of MISSOULA really slowed me down. But there were other little bits of knotty fill. I had no idea that CHORINE, clued as [Rockette, for one], was an informal name for a woman in a chorus line. And I was lucky to get ARDEN, [The Bard's wood], through crossings. Apparently, it's prominent in "As You Like It," but I haven't read (the Cliff's Notes for) that one yet.
I was surprised to see TEA at 108-Down when ALICE is clued at 110-Across as "Girl at a tea party." Ditto with MENS, a [Clothing store line], given that "men" appears in the clue to STAG STAGE. I feel that I should have finished this puzzle about 4 or 5 minutes faster than I did, as most of the fill and the clues were sufficiently straight-forward.
Oh, and the [Canadian skating great], Brian ORSER, makes yet another appearance in our crosswords this week. Orser's been a trendy entry of late. I'm pretty sure Crosscan is to blame for this, but I'm not sure how.
September 25, 2009
Saturday, 9/26/09
NYT 9:16
LAT 2:53 (!)
Newsday untimed
CS untimed
Heads-up! Constructor (not newsperson) Sam Donaldson will be subbing for me on the Sunday crossword blogging.
Matt Gaffney (of Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest fame) reports that Trip Payne's beautiful 21x21 themeless puzzle was constructed by hand, without the aid of a database to fill in the grid more quickly. If you haven't done Trip's marvel (which has ridiculously smooth and interesting fill), go get puzzle 44 here. And then tend to this week's Gaffney crossword contest. I think you don't even need to solve Matt's themeless, as the challenge this week is to come up with a more affirmative descriptor than "themeless" for such puzzles.
Saturday or Sunday, my family's heading to the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts to scope out David Mayhew's photography. My son's an extreme weather buff and Mayhew captures dramatic cloud formations, lightning, and tornadoes. I'm hoping we'll find a nice framed print that is more attractive than the sportscar posters currently adorning my kid's bedroom walls.
Joon Pahk's New York Times crossword
Boy, I know Joon well enough that I could recognize a lot of the fill (sports! New England! Catholicism! science!) as the sorts of things he knows all about but that are not even within earshot of my wheelhouse. (So to speak.) It's rather erudite as Saturday puzzles go, with a little pop culture outnumbered by more scholarly fill.
I had one wrong answer for a while, wrong in two places, and I can't help but think that I won't be the only one who took the same wrong turn. 37D: [Worker's ideal] could be a GREAT JOB, right? Fits most of the crossings. But it's DREAM JOB (an infinitely cooler entry) crossing RAND, the unit of currency that is the [Capital of East London] (RANG made no sense but East London wasn't shouting "South Africa" to me), and 55A: EGOTISM, the [Nathaniel Hawthorne story subtitled "The Bosom-Serpent"], which, it is true, makes more sense than an EGOTIST that's not preceded by "The."
Hawthorne was based in Salem, MA, while Joon's in the Boston area, home to the RED SOX (25A: [Team known as the Americans until 1907]). Baseball takes us to Gil HODGES, 22D: [His #14 was retired by the Mets]. Boston takes us to 24D: [Location of the Boston Mountains and Buffalo River], which, surprisingly, is the OZARKS. KENNEDY also shouts Massachusetts, though the clue is 46D: [Successor to Powell on the Supreme Court].
Scientific content includes the KAON, 54A: [Particle named for a letter of the alphabet]. This...is one of the lesser-known particles to non-physicists. It is "a meson having a mass several times that of a pion," the dictionary tells me. Well, that clears everything up now, doesn't it? The BASAL BODY is a 67A: [Cell organelle with microtubules]. My kid's been learning about the parts of cells, but this particular organelle is not part of the fourth-grade curriculum. And 10D: [Base of a number system] is a RADIX.
Moving along to the sacred, we have VATICAN II, the 39A: [Domain of Paul Bunyan]. No, wait, that answer is FOLKLORE. VATICAN II was a 1A: [Momentous 1960s convention]. Anyone able to get the '68 Democratic Convention out of their head? I wasn't. The language LATIN was a 60A: [1-Across topic]. And back in the day, LEO X was the 48A: [Pope who excommunicated Martin Luther]. (Random aside: Add an I to each of those names and you get two new words, martini and luthier.)
Ten, no, sixteen other clue/answer pairs of note:
This crossword kinda whupped me, but I liked the challenge and declare the puzzle to be tough but fair. Trouble spots for you?
Updated Saturday morning:
Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Six Shooters"—Janie's review
In the world of firearms a six shooter (or a six gun shooter) is a revolver—one capable of holding... six bullets. Think of every Western you've ever seen. If those guys weren't firing rifles at each other they were equipped with their handy six guns. Taking its lead from there, this puzzle happily draws on Randy's gift for cruciverbal marksmanship. He's given us an arsenal of in-the-language phrases—six, in fact—whose first word can be paired with shooter, to give us, well, six shooters. Btw, two pairs of those theme entries over lap each other in the grid (the first two and the last two), which makes this a pretty cool construction. Got it? Good! The combination of:'How do you get to Neverland?" Wendy asked.
Elsewhere in the puzzle, there are several nice sevens: the refreshing PERRIER, POPULAR, INFANTS and EARLAPS (or earflaps) because, while they're genuinely practical, are also kinda goofy lookin'. Isn't it the kid in the hat with earlaps who's the target for the kid with the pea shooter?...
'Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.'
There are also three entries that I enjoy because of the way they look in the grid and because they require careful parsing. The first, LEEJ, is in fact LEE J. [Cobb who played Willy Loman]. That would have been for the Pulitzer- and multiple-Tony-award winning (including one for Lee J.) original production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
The second is what may look like LEADORE as in Leadore, ID, and which (in my mind) would pretty much rhyme with the three-syllabled "Theodore," but is actually the two-syllabled LEAD ORE, as in [Galena].
Finally, TOOOLD is not a drawn out spelling (for effect) of told, as in the playground retort-y, "She to-o-old!" Rather, these are the two words that tell you you are [Ineligible for children's prices]: TOO OLD!
Barry Silk, Part 1: His Los Angeles Times crossword
Lemme double-dip and draw on my L.A. Crossword Confidential post.
Yet another easy-peasy Saturday puzzle, the second-easiest L.A. Times crossword I've done this week. It's all topsy-turvy—the Friday and Saturday puzzles were easier than the Monday through Thursday puzzles. Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and sigh.
Barry's previous puzzles have paid homage to his beloved Philadelphia in various ways. This time, it's the 18A: Phillies pitcher who received the 2008 World Series MVP Award, some guy I never heard of named COLE HAMELS. The only other answer that felt completely unfamiliar to me was 22A: Easier version, in music scores (OSSIA). Do the musically inclined among you know this term, or is it pretty far down the list of Musical Vocabulary I Ought to Know?
Favorite answers:
Barry Silk, Part 2: Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
I cruised through this puzzle (on paper, off the clock) with scarcely a hiccup. I'll label it harder than the LAT and easier than the NYT (which, today, is a pretty broad range). Ten clues:
![the AMOROUS [Lovey-dovey] pair](http://www.qualityartcentral.com/Gallery%20Pictures/POPEYE%20AND%20OLIVE%20Oil.jpg){kind=link}
