NYT 7:10
LAT 2:58
Tausig untimed
CS untimed
Matt Ginsberg and Pete Muller's New York Times crossword
Whoa, somebody forgot to issue a "Saturday comes two days early this week" warning about this puzzle's difficulty. If you struggled mightily with this one, you are not alone.
I test-solved an earlier version of this puzzle—I think that one had more of the "all roads lead to Rome action" than this one, and they might've been (semi-)famous roads rather than words that can preced "road." See the four diagonal roads leading to the ROME rebus square in the middle? LOGGING road, PRIVATE road, UNPAVED road, and WINDING road. Those make a solid foursome. The ROME is wedged into a DENVE{R OME}LETTE, or 37A: [Dish with ham], crossing 36D: [Cry from Juliet], O {ROME}O. I like the way the gimmick plays out here.
The single rebus square and the roads don't account for the brutality of this Thursday puzzle, though. No, that distinction belongs to the bottom middle. Good lord, EARBOB? What sort of 49D: [Bit of jewelry] is that? (Dictionary says it's chiefly a Southern U.S. term for "earring.") 70A: [Lot] is GOB but could be other words, like TON. 67A: [Base figure, for short] is an NCO, but there are other 3-letter military abbreviations out there. 54D: [Scammed] is STUNG. I looked up the definition of pizzicato to figure out 60D: [Not pizzicato], or ARCO (played violin with a bow vs. by picking the strings with the fingers). I was also stuck for a long time on 64A: [Michael Jackson genre]. URBAN POP? That's a music genre? When a gazillion MJ fans live in suburbs and small towns, and Jackson's lyrics weren't so heavy on "urban" themes? Hmph. I just Googled "urban pop" and among the first few hits are one for an Aussie mix master and one in which it's reported that Lindsay Lohan billed her upcoming (in '07) album as "urban pop." (For what it's worth, I'd love to see URBAN CONTEMPORARY in a Sunday-sized grid any time.) This zone killed me.
There are plenty of other unusual entries in the grid, but I managed to work through the other sections without so many hitches. Oddball answers:
• 17A. [Restricted zone] is NO-GO AREA.
• 22A. VOIT is a [Big brand in basketballs] and also the name of my grandma's dentist.
• 23A. MARY II is the [English monarch who shared the throne].
• 45A. For [Hare follower], I thought of fabulous tortoises instead of Hare KRISHNA.
• 53A. [Connection means, for short] sounds like it's looking for something more technical, more about wires and modems and whatnot, than ISPS.
• 61A. KONICA is a [Classic camera].
• 71A. ["Mi casa __ casa"] clues ES SU. "My house is your house." I messed myself up a bit with IS SU, which made A AND E, the 56D: [Cable choice], harder to tease out.
• 4D. [Howard the Duck prop] is a STOGY. I prefer the "stogie" spelling.
• 11D. ["Absolument!"] clues "OUI, OUI!" "This little agreeable piggy cried 'oui, oui, oui' all the way home."
• 13D. Roll-your-own word PETTER is clued as an [Attentive dog owner]. No "heavy petting" ramifications here.
• 18D. AGIO! My long-lost crosswordese friend! It's an [Exchange premium].
• 32D. [The "H" in Hanukkah] is called HETH.
• 40D. EOHIPPUS! I love that little old pre-horse. This prehistoric [Ancestor of the modern horse] was much smaller than today's equines and lived in the Eocene epoch.
• 45D. KRAKOW looks great in the grid, doesn't it? It was the [Polish capital, 1038-1596].
I fret that the EARBOB zone may overshadow the whole "all roads lead to {ROME}" gimmick, which is just sort of there for appreciation rather than something that had to be grappled with while solving. Agree or disagree?
Updted Thursday morning:
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "In the End"—Janie's review
In the end, what holds this puzzle together is that today's theme phrases end with words that rhyme with in. While there's nothing more that unifies the theme, the four phrases are definitely on the fresh side and there's some ear-appeal in saying them aloud as they're all (essentially) dactyls (three syllables with the stress on the first one). Today's guilty parties are:
• 20A. RECYCLE BIN [Curbside container]. And of course, this one (with four syllables...) is the exception. But I think of that first syllable as a pickup to the more metrical remainder of the word.
• 33A. SAFETY PIN [It may secure a cloth diaper]. Apparently Pampers and Huggies haven't completely put diaper service companies out of business. I'm glad to know that.
• 41A. MUFFIN TIN [Baking pan for cupcakes]. And a COFFEE TIN can be a baking container for date-nut bread. I saw the double Fs and TIN emerging and that's what I (smugly) entered. That's what I get for thumbin' my nose at the clues!
• 52A. BATHTUB GIN [Prohibition spirits]. Love this fill. For any DIYers out there, this one's for you. At your own risk. Don't want anyone out there becoming a [Sidewalk stumbler]/WINO...
The subject of alcoholic beverages is a nice segue to pointing out my favorite cross today. Note the repeated word in the clues (both nouns) and you'll see why I enjoyed seeing the juncture of BREWS [They may be found in coolers] and BRIG [Cooler at sea]. In another example of a repeated word in the clues, one is a verb [Board] for GET ON, and one is a noun following TOTE [ ___ board (track fixture)]. That first one took me a while to understand.
There isn't a lot of long fill in today's grid—though I did like seeing SNOWBALL [Winter missile]. And while the preponderance of the grid is made up of four- and five-letter words, note that there are only four three-letter words in the mix. Nice!
Barry Silk's Los Angeles Times crossword
The puzzle's got a straightforward theme type, but there's some juice in the theme entries:
• 17A. ["Imagination at work" company] is GENERAL ELECTRIC. GE is selling NBC to Comcast. What's going to happen to 30 Rock's "East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming" division when GE ceases to be a factor at NBC? (Alec Baldwin's JACK, a [Stranded motorist's aid], is the vice president of that division.)
• 26A. An ELEPHANT EAR is a [Fried-dough carnival treat].
• 43A. Ah, the Doors! "LIGHT MY FIRE" is [The Doors #1 hit covered by Jose Feliciano]. Say what? When did that happen? Totally missed it. I'm guessing it is best to keep the Doors rendition foremost in my head.
• 55A. It's a fairly easy puzzle, but this answer nudges the fill away from the early part of the wek: DAME MURIEL SPARK is ["The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" author].
• 63A. PLUG—[Ad, or the word that can follow the end of] the theme entries—generates an electric plug, ear plug, fire plug, and spark plug.
Did you know AUNT JEMIMA is a [Quaker Oats trademark]? I stay away from Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth and their ilk. Fake maple-flavored corn syrup smells like headaches to me, but real maple syrup? Yum. Speaking of sweet and sticky viscous substances, HONEY is a [Drambuie ingredient]. I believe the other ingredients are peat moss and haggis.
VIRTU ([Artistic merit]) is a good word to play in Scrabble because you can add an E or AL or OUS to it. I think one of my Lexulous (the Scrabble variant on Facebook) opponents played SKEG, a [Surfboard fin].
CLETE ([1950s-'60s Yankee Boyer]) reminds me of Cletus on The Simpsons—my son was just asking my husband what "yokel" meant, and the kid correctly tied the description to Cletus.
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "...Or Not To Be"
Each theme answer loses two Bs:
• 17A. [Headline about the failing health of a former Velvet Underground member?] clues CALE ILL. (CAbLE bILL.)
• 18A. [Contest to see who can read "Cathy" fastest?] is an "ACK!" RACE. (bACK bRACE.)
• 27A. ["OK, tennis students, I want everyone to practice near the net with everyone else"?] clues EACH VOLLEY ALL. (bEACH VOLLEYbALL.)
• 47A. [Expose about the tawdry relations of a 16th-century theologian?] is CALVIN AND HOES. ("CALVIN AND HObbES.")
• 61A. [Ribald yoga mantra?] is DIRTY OM. (DIRTY bOMb.)
• 63A. [Have a flat bottom?] clues the verb phrase LACK ASS. (bLACK bASS.)
Highlights:
• The four corners with triple-stacked 7s.
• [Entomology class?] clues the class INSECTA.
• An ISOGRAM is a [Word with no repeating letters]. Did you know there was a name for that? There are a great many isograms out there. In English, anyway. English probably had a higher percentage of these than Hawaiian does, given our larger number of letters to build words from.
• A HEN is a [Mother clucker].
December 02, 2009
Thursday, 12/3/09
November 27, 2009
Saturday, 11/28/09
NYT (PG)
LAT (PG)
CS (Janie)
Newsday 5:20 (joon—paper)
PuzzleGirl here with you again. Whenever I sit in for Orange on late-week puzzles, I have a little panic attack about the fact that I might not be able to solve the puzzle. I mean, that's just a fact. I've improved a lot over the past couple years, but it's not a given that I can finish a Friday or Saturday New York Times puzzle. And let's just say there's a really good reason that I don't volunteer for the Saturday Stumper. How did I do this week? Find out after the jump.
Oh, but before we get started, I understand there was some discussion over here a while back about the various PGs in CrossWorld and how they (we) should be ranked. I believe I ended up as PG2 behind Paula Gamache. Which is fine. There's no way I'm dumb enough to think I belong in front of Paula on the list. But it occurred to me that I wouldn't even be in the second spot if you guys had remembered Peter Gordon. So. I decided that as long as I'm going to end up a ways down the list anyway, I would prefer to be PG-13. I think that should work for everybody.
But enough about me. Let's see what I think about the puzzles.
Karen M. Tracey's New York Times crossword puzzle
So, what do you think? Did I finish this one? With no mistakes? Why, yes. Yes, I did. Yay me! I struggled a bit, especially in the NW, but I stopped the clock just barely past 30 minutes, which is a few minutes faster than my average Saturday time. It's actually making me feel a little cocky about this year's Puzzle Five, but I'm sure I'll regret that.
Where did I stumble? I had the SSION in place for [What a student might not go without?] and wanted the answer to be some sort of EXAM instead of PERMISSION SLIP. (Actually, my first thought was LAPTOP or IPHONE or something, but ... that's totally inappropriate.) EXAM led me to believe "Pooh-Bah" came from THE MASONS, which seems reasonable. I mean, since FLINTSTONES and HAPPY DAYS wouldn't fit. (Correct answer: THE MIKADO.) Entering TOLL BOOTH for TOLL PLAZA didn't help things down there. But it all eventually worked itself out.
RIKKI TIKKI TAVI showed itself pretty early. What with all those Ks in place, it could hardly be anything else. But I could hear ANNIE LENNOX singing "Talk to me / Like lovers do ...." Turns out that's a whole different song than STEVIE NICKS's "Talk to Me." I also had ELUDE for EVADE and ALLER for AVOIR down in the SW for a while. And since [Pathology pioneer Sir James] PAGET and [18-season Mariner EDGAR Martinez] were total guesses, I'm actually kind of surprised that corner pulled itself together.
There's obviously a lot more we can talk about with this puzzle, but there is a slice of pumpkin pie in the kitchen calling my name so let me get the L.A. Times puzzle out of the way and I'll see you back here tomorrow.
Alan Olschwang's L.A. Times crossword puzzle
I thought we might have a theme going with the two double-Z answers: MEZZO-SOPRANO and JACUZZI (22A: Carmen, for one / 38A: Maker of many jets). But no. Then when I saw more Scrabbly letters, and thought we might have a pangram on our hands. But no again. All it needs is an effin' F. Bummer.
Stuff I did not know:
- 19A: Zen enlightenment (SATORI). Sometimes considered the first step toward Nirvana.
- 10D: Belgium winter hrs. (CET). Whoa, what? That would be Central European Time.
- 13D: Former Tennessee Titans tight end Kinney (ERRON). Insert your own err-on-the-side-of-caution joke here.
- 24D: Sprites of Persian mythology (PERIS). Apparently they rank between angels and evil spirits. Kinda like humans, I guess.
- 50D: "The Hustler" author Walter (TEVIS). I didn't know "The Hustler" was originally a novel.
- 62D: Knotted pile carpet (RYA). It's a traditional Scandinavian rug. If you do a Google image search, you see a wide variety of colors and designs, so I'm not sure what it is that makes these rugs their own category. Something about the wool or the knots I think.
- 33A: Inexpensive kids' toy (PAPER DOLL). I'm pretty sure toy makers have discovered a way to make paper dolls expensive.
- 47A: Classic Jag (XKE). I always want there to be a J in this answer. And there never is.
- 4D: Derby town (EPSOM). Epsom, Essex, Sussex ... they're all the same to me unfortunately.
- 34D: Dallas Mavericks owner before Cuban (PEROT). Kept reading this as "Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban" and couldn't figure out why Mark wouldn't fit.
- 39D: Golfer Babe who was a six-time AP Female Athlete of the Year (ZAHARIAS). So, yes, I know her name was Babe, but "Golfer Babe"? That doesn't seem right somehow.
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Backup Plan"—Janie's review
As the Congreve saying goes, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and this puzzle—which takes lively, everyday phrases and re-purposes them with a musical twist—hath its charms as well. Lotta smile factor in this one as Patrick gives a shout-out to both classic rock 'n' roll and classic Motown with:• 20A. MIRACLE WORKER [Member of Smokey Robinson's group, while performing?]. Pick a tune, any tune.
• 27A. CRICKET MATCH [Sports contest for a member of Buddy Holly's group?]. Oh, I loved Buddy Holly and the Crickets as a kid. Still do. Here's why.
• 43A. SUPREME COURT [Legal venue for a member of Diana Ross's group?] Let's hear it for the girls!
• 51A. COMET CLEANSER [Soap for a member of Bill Haley's group?]. Bill Haley and the Comets were just about the first folks to get the ball rollin'. And popular music was never quite the same.
The four groups that Patrick singled out provide more than a trip down memory lane. Each one made a real difference to the genre; each is still listened to today—and not only by the boomer generation. I'm so grateful for radio shows like Felix Hernandez's "Rhythm Review" on WBGO that spin soul's and rhythm 'n' blues' best. It's worth checking out on line if you don't live in the New York area.
I wish the cluing in this puzzle were as much fun as the rangy fill. Here are some of the words and phrases I liked best:
• PALM PILOT [Hand-held organizer brand];
• FAT CAT [Major campaign contributer]. Oh—and on the subject of campaigns, I liked seeing TED ["Liberal Lion" Kennedy] and KERRY [2004 ballot surname] in the grid;
• TAP WATER [Fluid from a faucet]. New York's is mighty good;
• HEARTH [Fireplace floor];
• TYPECAST [Given similar roles repeatedly]. It beat not being cast at all, but also speaks to some lack of imagination. And not only among the casting directors...
• ICE SHOW [Skating exhibition] (where you might enjoy some SNO [___-Caps...]);and finally—how often do we see this:
• "ET TU, BRUTE?" [Famed Shakespearean last words]. It's the phrase in its entirety. Be still, my heart!
Barry C. Silk's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"—joon's review
this is, by a fair amount, the easiest stumper i've ever done. i started by knowing 1a (EMMA watson, who plays [Hermione in the "Harry Potter" films]) and proceeded through the puzzle, never really getting hung up anywhere. most unusual for a stumper. i liked several of the answers a lot, especially AIR GUITAR, WHIFFLE BALL, and DOMO ARIGATO. i think there were fewer tricky clues than usual. a few that i enjoyed:
- [It takes weeks to complete] is not any particular task, but merely a MONTH.
- [One held for questioning] is not a person, but a TEST. we held a test last week to "question" our students on physics, i guess.
- [Tag line] is the AS IS that might appear on a tag at a yard sale or flea market.
- a few outright traps: [___ reader], four letters? nope, not UTNE this time (note the lowercase r): it's MIND reader. [Unrefined], CR___? i put in CRUDE, but it's CRASS, meaning unrefined socially rather than chemically.
- [Augustan-era poet] is not a poet from the augustan era of english literature like pope or swift, but VIRGIL, who wrote during the reign of augustus caesar. but i almost feel like you had to be overeducated to fall into this trap.
- a couple of unnecessarily stuffy clues: why [Elusive one] for DODGER? nobody uses DODGER to mean one who dodges, unless they're talking specifically about a draft dodger. there's no real alternative for a word like RESHUT, but DODGER is perfectly cluable via the baseball team. and [High-frequency sound] for TWEET seems hopelessly out of touch, given that 99% of the time TWEET now means twitter posting.
November 20, 2009
Saturday, 11/21/09
NYT 9:07
Newsday 7:45
LAT 4:22
CS untimed
Gary Whitehead's New York Times crossword
I didn't get quite enough sleep the last couple nights, and then there was some beer, and then my eyelids kept closing while I was doing this puzzle. My solving time says "ZOMG! Harder than Klahn!" but that's not a reliable measure tonight.
By the numbers: This is a 64-worder, and fortunately low on the roll-your-own-words scale. (UNITER would feel less roll-your-own if clued with reference to "I'm a uniter, not a divider," but that'd be too easy for Saturday.) It's got 32 black squares, well within the limits. The stair-step stacks at the top and bottom bleed into wide-open spaces, which is something you're less likely to see when the stack contains all 15s rather than the 11/13/15 stacks here.
Worst misstep: Crosswords have taught me that sheep say BAA and goats say MAA, So why on earth is BAAS the answer to 25A: [Kids' greetings]? Sure, MEER makes no sense for 25D: [It has a head], but by the time I had letters 2, 3, and 4, I was no longer looking at the clue. BEER! I blame beer. That was the one square I needed to change after clicking "done" the first time.
Least familiar answer: 11D: [Horticultural practice] is SEEDAGE.
A selection of clues/answers:
• 12D. Lovely "SAVE THE PLANET" is a [Green line].
• 14A. The pretty JAPANESE LANTERN is a [Party lighting option].
• 22A. [Company dinner] clues MESS. "Company" as in "the troops of C Company."
• 24A. Sports trivia clue that went on and on and was no help to me: [World Match Play Championship champ a record seven times] is golfer Ernie ELS. I thought TAL of chess or ALI of boxing first, but let the crossings lead the way.
• 29A. [Lineup at some entrances] consists of {turn)STILES. Aw, my fellow Carleton grad T.J. STILES won the National Book Award for his biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt this week. I don't know if T.J. does crosswords, but it'd be cool to see the noun turned into a surname in the puzzle sometime.
• 41A. Who knew SELMA was an [Alabama University] and not just an Alabama town? Not I.
• 45A. Favorite entry: MAKE A MENTAL NOTE, or [Store something for later thought].
• 48A. [One of many American houses] isn't architectural, it's a STATE SENATE.
• 3D. Very Olaf-ish clue. "Olaf" is Crosscan's coinage for clues that provide lots of specific information that really don't help you get the answer if the first couple words don't get you there. Case in point: [Egyptian king credited with founding the First Dynasty]. MENES! Who? 24A was rather Olaf-ish, too.
• 8D. Shakespeare fill-in-the-blank: ["...in thy possession lies ___ unparall'd": Shak.] clues A LASS.
• 10D. Ooh, long French word. [Hear, to Henri] is ENTENDRE. Not sure why I had ATTENDRE at first.
• 13D. [Alabama and others] is a wonderfully misleading clue for TRIBES. It's also a state, a country-rock band, and a university.
• 14D. JUICE is a [Press release?] if the press is a juice-press.
• 29D. Love the word SMARM, which is clued as [Oiliness].
• 33D. WALPOLE is fun to say. [Britain's first prime minister] is markedly less well-known to Americans than the P.M.'s of the 20th and 21st centuries.
• 43D. ["Abyssinia"] sounds like "I'll be seein' ya," or TA TA. Whoa.
• 44D. Yay, old familiar crosswordese! TARN is a [Mountain lake], and it's one of the crosswordese words I'm fond of.
Good night, folks!
Updated Saturday morning:
Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "A Ride at Last"—Janie's review
In yesterday's "Opposite Beginnings" we were asked to look at the start of the theme fill to understand the gimmick; today we're asked to look at the end the theme fill (the "last" part) to appreciate it. That's where we meet up with various sets of wheels that'll provide "a ride." What's really fresh about the way Lynn has executed the theme, is that none of the rides appears as a discrete word—even when the fill is a compound; each is a part of the larger word or phrase, almost cryptic-style (though not as tricky to discern...). Take a look. You can travel by:
• 17A. MADAGASCAR [Island known for its unique species]. This one delivers a double helping and that's fine by me.
• 11D. EYESTRAIN [Result of poring over print, perhaps].
• 34D. AWESTRUCK [Stunned]. (This combo has a non-thematic mate, btw, with AMAZE and [Stun]).
• 59A. ED SULLIVAN [Big Beatles booster in America]. Because of the variety and basically high quality of the acts he presented every Sunday night (including excerpts from Broadway shows), Sullivan was one of the great (if almost personality-free) [TV HOSTS] of his day. The jury is still out where [Sajak, Smiley and Springer] are concerned. Here's a clip from 1960 of the original Broadway cast of Bye Bye Birdie performing "Hymn for a Sunday Evening" (an absurd and delicious tribute to Sullivan) while on The Ed Sullivan Show.
There's a lot of nice fill in here today of the non-theme variety as well: TOP HAT [Crowning touch for Uncle Sam], FAT CAT [Campaign contributer with deep pockets], BUY-OUT [Corporate takeover], BEDOUIN [Member of a nomadic desert culture], ANARCHY [Absence of government], and (with reference to the tennis-playing Williams gals) SERENA, by way of the well-clued [She has many court dates with her sister] for starters. (And yes, I am partial to compounds. I feel like they give puzzles a certain ZEST [Gusto]).
I was also amused by the "bad manners" pair of GORGES [Eats like a pig], and what may happen if you do—BURP [No-no at the table], although I always heard that "it's better to belch and bear the shame than squelch the belch and bear the pain"... The other natural pairing is the J.M. Barrie shout-out with ["Peter Pan pooch] NANA and ["]I'VE [Gotta Crow" ("Peter Pan" song)].
Good morning, y'all! I went straight to bed after blogging last night and slept for 10 hours. Now that's more like it.
Barry Silk and Doug Peterson's Los Angeles Times crossword
Fun Saturday LAT, for a change—polished fill, fun clues, and the difficulty level of a Friday NYT rather than a Tuesday. Excerpts from my L.A. Crossword Confidential write-up follow.
When I want to earn some money, I either work on crossword assignments or do some medical editing. So I was pleased with the biomedical slant of a bunch of the fill in this puzzle:
• 1A: We all know what MUSCLE is from an anatomical standpoint. It's also a slangy term for [Hired goons].
• 17A: Use your ears to [Heed], or LISTEN TO someone or something.
• 21A: ["Fantastic Voyage" setting in sci-fi] is the BLOODSTREAM. Great pop-culture clue for a word that could be kinda boring.
• 35A: [Its contents are under pressure] clues AEROSOL. Doesn't look biomedical, except that a sneeze aerosolizes horrid germs.
• 48A: [Geneticist's pursuit] clues DNA RESEARCH. Just read today that there's pressure on the University of Nebraska to limit stem-cell research. Now, "stem-cell research" is a rock-solid phrase. DNA RESEARCH feels kinda iffy to me. Genetics research, sure. What does Google say? Google says "DNA research" is good for 411K hits and that there's a scientific journal by that name. (Objection hereby withdrawn.)
• 63A: [Biological catalyst] is an ENZYME.
• 25D: [Solution for a fertility problem, perhaps] could be a SPERM DONOR, or in vitro fertilization, or a handful of other options. My best friend's son is the genetic offspring of lucky Donor #9. (If you feel this answer pushes the bounds of what's tasteful, be glad that it wasn't clued as, say, "male grad student's side job.")
Other highlights:
• 7A: To [Snub] someone is to HIGH-HAT them. HIGH-HAT is also a noun and adjective. With the G and T in place, NEGLECT seemed like an obvious answer, but all the other letters were wrong.
• 28A: To [Refuse to make changes] is to SIT PAT. No, wait. I don't like this one. I would like STAND PAT, but SIT PAT is a bit weaker.
• 9D: [Rakes it in] clues GETS RICH. How awesome an entry would GET-RICH-QUICK be?
• 11D: The [SUV that replaced the Passport] is the HONDA PILOT. We see relatively few make/model combos in crosswords, and I, for one, would welcome more. VW BUG sometimes shows up, but answers like TOYOTA CAMRY, CHEVY CAVALIER, and FORD MUSTANG would be cool too.
• 15D: The GLIDER is a [Quiet aircraft]. My dad took lessons in the '70s.
• 22D: Hands down, my favorite clue. [Three less than once] looks surreal—wait, is that negative twice?—but once in Spanish is "eleven" in English, so 11 – 3 = OCHO. OCHO is the funniest of the Spanish numbers, isn't it? That Ocho Cinco guy in the NFL has brought the number a great deal of pizzazz.
• 36D: I like familiar brand names as crossword fill. The ["Sorry, Charlie" brand] is STARKIST canned tuna.
• 46D: [2002 Campaign Reform Act co-sponsor] is John MCCAIN. For those who suspect that President "60% Vowels" Obama gets his name in so many crosswords because of a liberal plot, here's your McCain for balance.
• 54D: [Normal in Illinois, say] is a small CITY. Home of Illinois State University, neighbor of Bloomington. I hope some people thought "normal" was an adjective here.
• 56D: One [Instrument played with a plectrum] is a LYRE. You know what a plectrum is? Nothing more than a guitar pick.
Doug Peterson's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
Am I the only one whose PDF printout lops off the bottom two clues on the page? 10D and 49D were cut off. Not that it really mattered—10D came via the crossings and 49D, [Harry Senate on "Boston Public"] is a clue that meant nothing to me. KATT? Was William Katt on that show? He is always and forever The Greatest American Hero, and that's that.
8A: PINATA is clued as a [Stuffed party treat]. Check out Patrick Merrell's cartoon in honor of Will Shortz's 16th anniversary as the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. Pat, we want more cartoons! Ashen and Noir want to come out and play.
17A is HALF-SLIP—[It hangs from the waist]. Hardly anyone wears these anymore. If you or someone you love is Filipino-American, you might enjoy the Happy Slip videos (name derived from the way the video blogger's Filipino mom pronounced "half-slip").
Favorite clues/answers:
• 19A. OLAF is not just a Norwegian king—it's also [One of Snoopy's brothers].
• 20A. LOADED DICE is a great entry. [Pair of cheaters?], not cheater squares.
• 31A. VANITY PLATE is a great answer, too. [Barbara Bush's "I READ," e.g.] is the clue.
• 34A. [Jefferson successor] was looking wrong with two As at the beginning, until AARON BURR bubbled up.
• 41A. [Many months in Mato Grosso] are AÑOS, or "years." The answer and clue are unexceptional, but on Crossword Fiend forum, Zulema mentioned receiving a poorly translated bilingual brochure from New York's State Majority Leader Pedro Espada, boasting that he'd been honored as "el Senador del Ano." That's Spanish for "the senator of the anus" without the tilde.
• 48A. HAD KITTENS is an idiom I never use. It means [Came unglued].
• 13D. ["20/20" creator], 7 letters, starts with A...I went straight for ABC NEWS, but it's Roone ARLEDGE.
• 15D. SPACE INVADERS is an old [Shooting game] in video arcades.
• 28D. [Revolutionary?] clues IN ORBIT. Got this one right away.
• 32D. Egg foo YUNG includes the [Chinese menu word]. You wanted TSO'S, didn't you?
• 34D. [Remote energy sources] are AAS, the double-A batteries used in TV remote controls.
• 39D. Movie trivia: Rod STEIGER was the [Only American star of "Doctor Zhivago"].
• 40D. Boxing [Ring areas] are CORNERS. Were you thinking of AREOLAS? There's no shame in that.
Never heard of 35D: MATHIAS, [Decathlon champ at Helsinki].
November 08, 2009
Monday, 11/9/09
BEQ 4:44
LAT 2:53
NYT 2:41
CS untimed
Lynn Lempel's New York Times crossword
Gotta put my kid to bed now, having been out bowling and tippling a few hours ago when the puzzle came out. So, extra-quick:
Another classic Lempel Monday NYT, perfectly light and smooth, with lively fill and a theme that I didn't even identify right away—phrases or words that end with synonyms. COUGH DROP, NIGHTFALL, KITCHEN SINK, SKINNY DIP, and THINK TANK. If your performance drops, falls, sinks, dips, or straight-up tanks, you need to work on your skills.
Highlights: KING-SIZE and GIRL TALK, WEASELS and icky MENTHOL that's tied to the COUGH DROP. Oh, and SPARES clued as [Bowling scores inferior to strikes]. I had a couple spares and a strike tonight in 1.5 games. In the first game, I stank—all the verbs in this theme? Completely relevant. I bowled a 61. The second game, it was men vs. women and we women wiped the floor with the fellas, sharing a 141 game vs. the husbands' joint 89.
Updated Monday morning:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Beam Me Up, Scotty!"—Janie's review
It seems that like Rick in Casablanca, who never said, "Play it again, Sam," Captain Kirk never really said, "Beam me up, Scotty!" He said things like that, so that's what we remember. And repeat. It may not be completely accurate, but really, who cares?! It takes away from our enjoyment of the reference not one bit. And how does this title play into today's theme? Focus on that first word. Now attach it to the first word of the theme-fill et voila! Full disclosure: I didn't figure this out until a minute or so after I'd finished solving... Here's how it plays out:
• 17A. [Star of "Yes Man"] JIM CARREY → Jim Beam. You know, this stuff. Bottoms up!
• 28A. [Desktop publishing aid] LASER PRINTER → laser beam. Those focused beams are used in measuring the distance to the moon. Never knew that. Did know that laser is an acronym, but never remember that its letters stand for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (and fear I'm not likely to either...).
• 49A. [Statement of financial position] BALANCE SHEET → balance beam. Love how this rather dry fill triggers thoughts of this vividly rigorous gymnastic challenge. Here's Nastia Liukin at the World Championships. Don't try this at home!
• 66A. [Idaho skiing mecca] SUN VALLEY → sun beam. Lovely. And if skiing isn't your thing but the sun is, how about the SEA SHORE [Summer vacation destination]? The thing to remember about the sun's RAYS is that [They're soaked up at the beach], too, and a great way to get yer vitamin D. Wherever you choose to go, remember to use the spf 15...
And there's more strong cluing and fill all around the grid by way of:
• [Something stuffed in November?] isn't TOM TURKEY or YOUR BELLY, but BALLOT BOX. Did you vote last Tuesday?
• [Poem that begins "Once upon a midnight dreary..."] for Poe's "THE RAVEN";
• "negatives" from two very different worlds—[Old fashioned denial] 'TISN'T and ["Fuhgeddaboutit!"] "NAH!"; whose contemporary tone is a nice complement to the phrases
• "ARE [ ___ you out of your mind?"] and ["Take a chill pill!"] for "LOOSEN UP!";
• [Cover story] for ALIBI; which is a fitting complement to
• [Pen pal's place?] for CELL (as in prison cell);
• and, probably my fave, [Monkey that resembles a squirrel], which is MARMOSET. Why do I love this one so much? Because it gives me the chance to trot out the link to "The Marmoset Song." If you click on no other link here, please make it be this one... Silly, but satisfaction guaranteed.
In addition to Sun Valley, sports fans will take note of BART STARR [MVP of the first two Super Bowls], the terrific clue [Arrive home safely?] for SCORE, and [Throwing this in basketball might earn you a foul] for your [ELBOW]. And in addition to Jim Carrey, cinéastes are rewarded with a witty reminder of Madeline KAHN [...who made Boyle boil in "Young Frankenstein], and OTTO Preminger ["Laura" director...], who won an OSCAR [Academy Award] nomination for that picture. The film had five Oscar noms, in fact, but won only one—for Joseph LaShelle in the category of Best Cinematography (Black-and-White).
Barry Silk's Los Angeles Times crossword
The theme entries begin with a trio of related words—MAGIC, TRICK, and ILLUSION—in phrases of varying familiarity:
• 20A. The MAGIC EIGHT BALL is the [Toy that might answer "It is decidedly so"]. 100% familiar! And fun.
• 35A. [Sly inquiry] seems a little off as a clue for TRICK QUESTION. I like the CKQ mash-up in the middle, and the overall Scrabbliness of this puzzle's fill. It's one V short of a pangram, but Barry did use Zs with CRAZY WOOZY ZING (and ZEN ABLAZE TOPAZ).
• 51A. [Cesar Milian dog-training apparatus] is an ILLUSION COLLAR. I have no idea what that is. Am I the only one who's in the dark about this? All I know about Milian is that he's called the Dog Whisperer and that many deplore his training techniques.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Light It Up"
Brendan stretches the grid to 16x15 to accommodate the two longer theme entries. Each theme entry starts with a cigarette brand, which became obvious when KOOL and SALEM joined WINSTON in the grid. MERIT and MORE came later. At long last, a theme that combines the natural team of WINSTON CHURCHILL and KOOL AND THE GANG!
The fill had some Quigleyesque crazy woozy zing to it, like SHIT-TALK, NFL TEAMS, and the colloquial LET'S (["Aw, what the hell"]) and IS IT ME (["Nobody else feels this way?"]).
Least favorite crossing: [Actress Peggy ___] REA meets the [Ship with a single mast], the CATRIG. CATRIG? The hell? I wanted something more like CUTTER or CUTRIG, but a non-LIU actress's last name ending with U wasn't looking probable.
October 27, 2009
Wednesday, 10/28/09
Onion 4:12
BEQ 3:52
NYT 3:50
LAT 3:05
CS 2:50 (A), untimed (J)
Mike Torch's New York Times crossword
I don't know about you, but it felt like it took me forever to find the theme while solving this puppy. I had the KNIGHT at the end of 38A (LADY OF THE KNIGHT, or [Guinevere, to Lancelot]), and Lancelot being a knight, I suspected no wordplay at that end. And in the upper left corner, I wasn't thinking that [What a king may win] is a TRICK (in what card game? war? bridge?), so I was missing the essential K in KNEW TESTAMENT, or 21A: [Was well-versed in a will?]. Oy! The rest of the theme plays out like this:
• 15A. [Retired Big Apple basketball player?] is an OLD KNICK. NYC-centric answer, NYC newspaper. Playing on Old Nick, which is the Devil's nickname but sounds like Santa's. I wasn't expecting any 8-letter theme entries.
• 48A. KNOT FOR PROFIT is a [Macrame company's goal?]. If you're over the age of 40, the odds are pretty good that you tried your hand at macramé in the '70s. Gotta love wall hangings.
• 64A. To [Select a sweater?] is to KNIT-PICK. Make mine cashmere, please.
There are some suboptimal answers in the fill, like ILLER, GOR on a Wednesday ([Brit's oath]), plural ROTCS, and assorted TLAs (three-letter abbreviations). But I'll give props to CTA, the [Windy City transportation org.], as infinitely superior to NYC's MTA. Not because of service—just because I'm a Chicagoan with a CTA card in my wallet. Other answers/clues I liked:
• PITCHY is [Slightly sharp or flat, as a voice]. Most Americans associate this word with Randy Jackson of American Idol. "I wasn't feelin' it, dawg. It was pitchy."
• 7A is CICADAS clued as [Insects in swarms]. Oh god! No swarms! Please. A single cicada is plenty loud. A swarm sounds deadly in its volume.
• [Theme song from "American Gigolo"] is Blondie's "CALL ME." I know you want to hear that song now: here's the video.
• 1D is PISA, and dang, yet another clue that keeps me wondering. I need to start suspecting PISA for any Italian 4-letter place name. [Torre Pendente city]...torre = tower, and pendente = ...leaning? Pendants don't lean. Is the Leaning Tower's Italian name "Hanging Tower"?
• [List preceder] is a COLON in that you can use a colon like this: for explanations, for lists, for whatever.
• I do like "NO, WAIT!"—"Uh, hold on! That's wrong!"
• SEPT, French for "seven," is the [Number of dwarfs with Blanche Neige], or Snow White.
Constructors, please do not make a puzzle in which a theme entry is OSMIC JOKE, cosmic joke with a C lopped off. That would be no good. OSMIC means [Of element #76], or relating to osmium.
Updated Wednesday morning:
Barry Silk's Los Angeles Times crossword
From my L.A. Crossword Confidential post—I didn't grasp the theme after I had the first two theme entries, but once GRANNY reared her head, I knew the puzzle had a knack for knots.
Theme answers:
• 17A: [Life insurance clause] (DOUBLE INDEMNITY). Is a double knot an official sailing/scouting/knot-tying sort of knot? Wait, it's the shoelace double bow I'm thinking of. Yes! There is probably a double knot. As for Double Indemnity, I've never seen the movie.
• 25A: [Hoedown activity] (SQUARE DANCE). The square knot is, the dictionary tells me, a particular kind of double knot. But "double knot" is not an entry in that dictionary. You know what you might find at a hoedown or SQUARE DANCE? Bales of hay for decoration. PuzzleGirl knows a woman from her school committee who knows where to go to find hay bales, but she's not gonna do it. There was a memo to that effect. As Joan Crawford is to wire hangers, that committee member is to hay bales.
• 43A: [Apple variety] (GRANNY SMITH). I used to love those apples but then I remembered that sweet is better than sour. A granny knot is a square knot that's gone awry so the rope may slip.
• 54A: [Inadvertent remark] (SLIP OF THE TONGUE). The slip knot can be undone by pulling on it. Don't use this to tie up your horse or your boat or your child, or you may lose them.
• 62D: [17-, 25-, 43- and 54-Across begin with a kind of one] (KNOT). Exactly where we like to find the Grand Unifying Answer, in the slot for the very last Across answer.
Making this puzzle a pangram are assorted Scrabbly words: XENO brings the X, and then there's QUARK, RITZY, and ST. JOE rounding up the Q, X, J, and K.
Byron Walden's Onion A.V. Club crossword
Byron pays tribute to the late WILLIAM SAFIRE, the [Former "On Language" New York Times columnist who died on 9/27/09], with a quote theme. The [summary by 42-Across of the thrust of an anti-nudity law in a Supreme Court case] is "IT AIN'T THE TEAT, / IT'S THE TUMIDITY."Excellent T-for-H swap pun, no? With only three theme entries in a svelte 14x15 grid, there's room for tons of interesting fill, and Byron's always been one of my favorite cluers. So let's peek at my top 10:
• 30A. [Wax location] isn't a waxing salon, car wash, or record store, but your EAR CANAL.
• 37A. If you MOON OVER someone, you [Regard (them) with goofy affection]
• 1D. AYDS was the [Weight-loss candy of the '70s and '80s that couldn't overcome its unfortunate homophone].
• 5D. I think Byron might've used this clue before, or borrowed it from someone. [They'll bring out the kid in you] clues OB-GYNS.
• Really? 8D: "DO NO HARM" is an [Exhortation that, in fact, is not in the Hippocratic Oath].
• 23D. It took a while to parse the clue right. THE TEAM is [Whom one is taken for?]. As in "take one for the team."
• 32D. [Contra position?] is NICARAGUA. Remember the '80s, Contras vs. Sandinistas, Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal?
• 33D. [As prompted, on voicemail] is AT THE BEEP. I think this phrase is fully "in the language" now, no?
• 45D. Apparently this show's run has ended, and I never watched it. But I like the unusual "Wait, what starts with an LW? That can't be right" L-WORD. [With "The," TV series whose relationships were mapped by "The Chart"].
• The last item on my list is TEA URNS. No, it isn't. Always like to see a full name in the grid. EVE ARDEN is the 36D: [Principal McGee portrayer in "Grease"]. That doesn't ring a bell for me.
So, just how many longish answers does this 65-word, 30-block puzzle have? Four 6s, two 7s, four 8s, and a half dozen 9s. My, that is a lot. Nice job capitalizing on the possibilities presented by a small theme, Byron.
Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy/Washington Post crossword, "He's No Gentleman"
Paula's theme is tied together by the heartless CAD at 57D. C.A.D. are the initials of each theme answer:
• 18A. CUT AND DRIED means [According to formula].
• 29A. CLOAK AND DAGGER is clued as [Like undercover operations].
• 46A. "CEASE AND DESIST" is a [Judge's order to halt]. The judges and lawyers doing this puzzle probably considered 4D: [Confiscate, legally] to be a gimme, but ESCHEAT is not in my daily parlance.
• 57A. CHIPS AND DIP are [Informal party fare]. No-salt Jays potato chips, French onion dip—they're in my kitchen right now.
I wanted the 44D: [Pitiful person] to be a CRYBABY, thanks to the B in the fourth slot, but it's a NEBBISH. That's one of 24 6- and 7-letter answers in the fill today. Another is REINS IN, or 41D: [Restrains]. This one activated the cryptic crossword corner of my brain—see the backwards ARTS inside REINS in [Restrains]?
Thank you, Orange, and please excuse Jane's lateness, one and all, as (later, still, Wednesday morning) she finally posts:
Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "He's No Gentleman"—Janie's review
57A. tells the tale. It asks for the three-letter word that describes the [Non-gentleman formed by the initial letters of each word within 18-, 29-, 46-, and 57-Across]. That word is CAD and all I can say is I wanna know what's goin' on over there in CS-land. Ten days ago in Nancy Salomon's "Missing the Point," we encountered cad laughter and unrepentant sirs. Today, Paula seems to build on the concept, using four peppy phrases that spell out (initially):
• 18A. CUT AND DRIED [According to formula].
• 29A. CLOAK AND DAGGER [Like undercover operations].
• 46A. CEASE AND DESIST [Judge's order to halt].
• 57A. CHIPS AND DIP [Informal party fare].
And not only that, but she's given us some bonus fill as well, with BAGMEN [Mob collectors] (probably not the nicest guys in the world...) and SLAP [Stinging response to an insult] (that may have been delivered by a cad...). Paula (and Nancy): Helen Reddy sang it and this one's for you!
There's colorful fill indeed today as represented by BLUE SKY [Impractical, as ideas] (this phrase was entirely new to me and I like it a lot), RED MEAT [Carnivore's fodder], and even TARTANS [Highland plaids]. See what I mean? Oh, yes—and [Fourth rock from the sun] MARS, too, since it's also known as "the red planet"...
As exemplified by NEBBISH, even the opposite of colorful is colorful. By definition a nebbish is a [Pitiful person] (also an insignificant one; a nonentity). In the '50s, "The Nebbishes" was a cartoon craze/fad created by artist-turned-playwright (A Thousand Clowns) Herb Gardner. This article/obit is also a superb backgrounder on the man who made the words "next week we'll just have to get organized" a household phrase for a while.
In the "things-aren't-always-what-they-seem" department: the [Opposite of WSW], of course, is ENE. NSW, however, does not stand for North-South-West, but for New South Wales [Sydney's state (abbr.)]. In Australia. ASHY is defined nicely with [Like a fireplace grate]; but a [Burning sensation?] refers to IRE, not fire... That [Grumpy colleague?] isn't CRANKY, but the only one of Snow White's dwarfs with a one-syllable, three-letter name: DOC. The crossing at 1D and 1A of JONAH and JOB is not a biblical pairing. The former (with a long "O") does refer to [One with a whale tale?], but the latter (with a short "O") is the [Object of a graduate's quest].
50¢ word of the day: ESCHEAT [Confiscate legally]. I'm willing to bet I'll never remember this...
And with Halloween right around the corner, let's hear it for the DEMONS [Little devils] and the cluing of CROSSES as [Vampire repellents]!
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Cheat Sheet"
I like the theme but much of the fill left me cold. The theme takes words that start with CH and changes 'em to SH-sound words:
• Chief of staff becomes SHEAF OF STAFF, or [Employee's wheat bundle?]. That's just a weird phrase. Do you ever have "meeting of staff"?
• Beach chair turns into BEACH SHARE, a [Co-owned house on sand?].
• [Bit of magic from Dolly?] the cloned sheep (not Dolly the Parton) is a SHEEP TRICK (cheap trick).
• The best of the bunch is RIGHT TO SHOES, playing on the right to choose. It's a [Privilege wanted by all fashionistas?].
While I do like YOUTUBE, Larry CSONKA's crazy spelling, JOSTLE, and "...THE HELL?", I was distracted by RANEE, SAME AS (6-letter partial?), ETNAS and an OAST, and EEE. Favorite clue: [Brendan Emmitt Quigley, e.g.] is the football-inflected TYPO Peter King had in his Sports Illustrated column.
October 22, 2009
Friday, 10/23/09
NYT 8:00 (ouch)
BEQ 5:21
LAT 3:50
CHE 3:36
CS untimed
WSj 8:28
Barry Silk's New York Times crossword
It's as if Barry Silk and Will Shortz are following the Chicago Public Schools schedule. Sure, the calendar says the 23rd is Friday, but there's no school so let's pretend it's a Saturday and whomp people with a supra-Friday puzzle.
I will be back after putting my son to sleep to review the sorts of wrong answers I had, or the correct letters I erased in desperation. And the vast swaths of emptiness that blanketed the grid like snow. Thank goodness for HAM RADIO (37D: [Hobby with call signs])—the first correct answer I came up with, and not for lack of reading clues further up in the grid. And then I mixed up George Washington and Dolly Parton, entering PIGEON FORGE instead of VALLEY FORGE for 43A: [Washington locale]. It's fitting that it was the Three Stooges that snapped me out of Dollywood, isn't it?
—Okay, I'm back.—
I tell ya, that Dan Feyer has got a heckuva lotta nerve putting up a 3:59 on this puzzle. Dan! You're making the rest of us look dim and poky.
All right, let's meander through this puzzle. TOP HATS [may be seen with tails]. I rather thought METEORS would. [Piece project?] is a JIGSAW puzzle; I just assembled this Ravensburger Simpsons globe jigsaw last weekend. EUROPOP and ALTOONA simply don't belong in the same sentence. Or do they? BRYCE CANYON's the [National park with the Pink Cliffs]; I erased the BRYCE part when I was having fits with the [2001-05 Pontiac made in Mexico]—not ALERO (hello, that was an Oldsmobile) but the ugly AZTEK, named one of the 10 worst cars of the decade (crossworder Ben Bass owned the Catera, also lousy). [One skilled at mimicry] is a PARAKEET; they talk? Dang, [Dragging sound] means drag-racing sound: VROOM. Took me way too long to figure out that first letter. [They don't move quickly] clues the musical term LARGOS, but you know about SNAILS, right? Slow?
Moving to the Downs, the [Opposite of dull], the verb, is HONE. The opposite of dull, the adjective, is KEEN, which did me no favors. I blanked on the name Robert ITO, [Klugman's "Quincy, M.E." co-star], even though I had an adolescent crush on him. [___-Egyptian Sudan] clues ANGLO? Wow, I did not see that coming. Clearly I have not studied colonialist African history enough. Don't like WAY IN clued as [Door]; lame entry. [One of an au pair?] is a VOWEL, one of the "au" pair of vowels; that's...weird. Two actor Fords, neither of them Harrison: [Actor Ford of "Gilda"] is GLENN and [Actor Ford of "Snatch"] is ALAN.
Annemarie Brethauer's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Solomon's Treasure"
Solomon R. GUGGENHEIM's treasure is the museum that bears his name. Marking the institution's 50th anniversary, this puzzle includes the names (first and last) of four artists whose work is displayed there—PAUL KLEE, ANDY WARHOL (["Orange Disaster #5" artist]), MARC CHAGALL, and JOAN MIRO. Solid puzzle, but it has the misfortune of appearing on the heels of Liz Gorski's Sunday NYT tour de force.
Spotlit answers:
• [In one's ___ (drunk)] clues CUPS. Man, do I love the phrase "in his cups," with the last word always pronounced as if I lived on the other side of the Atlantic.
• KEISTER! It's your [Backside].
• DION was a [Ruler of ancient Syracuse] and LOGAN was a [Mingo chief during Dunmore's War]? That O was a reasoned guess but absolutely just a guess. The Belmonts are pouting to have been left out.
• Ha! I thought [Hero of New Orleans] was going to be a person rather than a sandwich, the POORBOY.
• We get two sketch-comedy shows for the price of one: SCTV and SNL.
Updated Friday morning:
Gail Grabowski's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Head for the Mills"—Janie's review
The first word, or head, of each of today's four theme-phrases also names a kind of mill. Two of these are "places of manufacture" and two are the grinder-sort. In the former category we have the snappy:
•3D. PAPER TIGER [One pretending to be powerful], but is ultimately toothless; and
•29D. STEEL DRUMS [Percussion instruments]. Here's the Old Mill High School Steel Drum Band playing "Free Bird." Really—Old Mill.
And in the latter category, there's:
•21A. PEPPER PLANT [Garden staple]. This one has a two-for-one thing going for it, since a plant (of the brick and mortar variety) is also a "place of manufacture." A pepper plant is where pepper corns are processed and packaged for purchase—to be put in your pepper mill...; and
•49A. COFFEE TABLE [Parlor piece]. That's pretty straightforward, but does make me think about "coffee table books" and their contemporary equivalent: the E-BOOK [Modern reading material]. I dunno. Picking up a Kindle just ain't the same thing as thumbing through an oversized book of photos, is it? (Here's what some pundits and posters at the NYT have to say on the matter.)
The grid has lots of appealing non-theme fill as well. A [Trip to the summit] is an ASCENT. It's great to reach the heights, but if your venture [Lays an egg], it FLOPS. A [Golfer's challenge] is a BAD LIE. Sometimes a WEDGE is a useful club for extricating yourself from one. But not today, when wedge is clued as [Chunk of cheese].
Because they represent the natural world, I like the crossing of EARTH DAY [Environmentalist's celebration] and TREE [Elder, e.g.], and Earth Day and RED CEDAR [Aromatic wood]. This one in British Columbia lived to be 1,000 years old before toppling in 2007. And because of the tree-planting done on Arbor Day, I'd always assumed that the only meaning of the word arbor was tree. But no. An ARBOR is also a [Shady nook], "a kind of latticework formed of, or covered with, vines, branches of trees, or other plants, for shade; a bower," saith Mr. Webster. Which makes it sound almost EDEN-like [Steinbeck title site]. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan...
Merle Baker's Los Angeles Times crossword
My son is off school today and there is homework to do and errands to run, so let me save time by referring you to Rex's L.A. Crossword Confidential post. The IXNAY nixing-of-IX theme is solid enough but I didn't like the puzzle as much as Rex did.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Charades"
Today's offering is a contest puzzle—solve the riddle in the crossword and you might win a copy of Brendan's Diagramless Crosswords book. Luckily, Brendan's not looking to stump people as much as Matt Gaffney is with his Weekly Crossword Contest, so he's provided a handy link to a page where one can divine the answer. I absolutely used that link, and the answer (no contest spoilers here) was no one I'd ever heard of. Plus-sized puzzle—16x17, to accommodate the lengthy riddle and still have room for some lively fill.
Dan Fisher's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Capital Gains"
The "capital" that's "gained" in each theme entry is DC, as in the District of Columbia. One word in a familiar phrase gets a DC wedged into it, splitting it into two new words. For example, Sweet Charity becomes SWEET CHARD CITY, or [Municipality famed for its sugary leafy vegetables], and when the [Poet of the platoon can't take the pressure?], the ARMY BARD CRACKS (army barracks). Solid and smooth from start to finish, with a theme that took me a while to unravel, which is more entertaining than a theme that practically fills itself in.
October 16, 2009
Saturday, 10/17/09
Newsday 6:41
NYT 6:32
LAT 2:51
CS untimed
Chuck Deodene's New York Times crossword
Is it just me, or does this crossword have more than the usual allotment of multi-word answers? Among the more noteworthy (i.e., not often seen in the grid) phrases are these:
• 1A. THANKS TO is equivalent to [Through the efforts of]. 15A: AS THOUGH ([Like]) has a similar vibe.
• 14A. The SOVIET ERA was the [Sputnik launch time].
• 17A. If you TOOK NOTES, you [Didn't just rely on memory].
• 58A. I'm not sure how savory or un- RENT A ROOM ([Get some quick lodging]) is as a crossword entry. The exclamation "GET A ROOM!" feels more familiar to me.
• 63A. I wonder if there's anyone named Tatt, Leon. TATTLE ON means [Rat out].
• 11D. And what about GAVE HOPE? Is it a solid phrase or merely verb + noun? It's clued with [Offered a way out].
• 13D. A key word in the clue was in the L.A. Times puzzle the other day. RED ALERT is a [Klaxon-sounding occasion]. "What's the occasion?" "Oh, you know. We're on RED ALERT."
• 32D. DEAR SIRS is clued as a [Fusty greeting]. Clue = awesomeness.
• 36D. I like TAX DODGE, or [Bit of trickery on the schedule].
Favorite clues and answers:
• 40A. [It may have clawed feet] clues an old (or new and expensive) BATHTUB. My first post-college apartment had an old claw-foot tub. Man, was that tub deep.
• The snowdrift mislead misled me for a bit: 29A is ROVE, or [Drift], but 61A is a SNOW FENCE, or [Guard against drifting].
• 1D. T-STORM is a [Brief weather phenomenon?] in that it's a brief name for a weather occurrence.
• 2D. I like HOODIE, but I'm not sure it's most accurately described as a [Hip-hop top]. Fashion mavens and hip-hop aficionados, what say you?
• 31D. Edward ALBEE is clued by way of a quote: [He said "If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic"]. Isn't that a tad dramatic?
• 34D. I don't know the first thing about PINOCHLE, but the [Double-decker?] clue had me thinking of buses, sandwiches, and punches but not card games.
• 41D. TRIDENT is a [Fishing weapon], and also the pencil attachment of choice for Crossword Fiends everywhere.
• 47D. YEOMEN are clued as [Tower of London figures]. The Tower of London was one of the highlights of my family vacation in 2007.
And now, how about a tough clue roundup?
• 9A. SUGAR is [Crystals used for dishes]. I ate a small spoonful of sugar today to get rid of my hiccups. It was yummy. And yet I still needed a lot of crossings to tease out this answer.
• 21A. Amtrak's ACELA train is a [Track speedster beginning in 2000]. Yes, I thought it referred to sprinters at first.
• 23A, 25A. With the ENT in place, I confidently filled in VENTRAL for [Of the seafloor]. I don't know why. The answer is BENTHIC, which ought to be an adjective for things relating to philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Speaking of things down yonder, HEL is a Norse [Underworld goddess]. And speaking of the sea, 34A: [Unlike seawater] clues POTABLE.
• 44A. [Minute] can mean "small," but BITSY without an "itsy" is not a word I'd ever use.
• 56A, 56D. If you don't know the Czech city BRNO ([Moravian capital]) or the [Belgian balladeer] Jacques BREL, you could be excused for thinking that B should be a vowel. "Moravian" doesn't shout "place with a dearth of vowels," does it? AREL, ARNO? EREL, ERNO? IREL, IRNO? OREL, ORNO? UREL, URNO? Er, no.
• 12D. [What pupils are separated by] is their AGE LEVEL, to a degree.
• 29D. I don't recall seeing this etymology before. RABBI means [Literally, "my master"]. I wasn't thinking Hebrew at all, and for a while my GUN BELT was a GUN ROOM, so I was wondering about, say, BARBI. Then I pondered Barbie dolls and RAMBO.
• 38D. [Lumps] are NUBS. "Nub" is not a word I use much.
I hear some people felt yesterday's Karen Tracey puzzle was Saturday-hard. Is this one harder? I thought both crosswords landed squarely in the desired difficulty zones for their respective days.
Updated Saturday morning:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Good Old What's-His-Name"—Janie's review
•17A. GUY LOMBARDO [Bandleader associated with New Year's Eve]. Any of you younger solvers ever heard of him? He was a legend (and a veritable institution) in his day, but died in 1977. What a guy!
•27A. BUDDY HACKETT [Comedian who got his start in the borscht belt]. The name Leonard Hacker just wasn't gonna, um, hack it—now was it, ol' buddy, ol'pal?
•43A. BUSTER KEATON [Actor nicknamed the "Great Stone Face"]. If a deeply troubled man, a brilliant comic as well—but decidedly of the deadpan variety. Wanna make somethin' of it, buster?
•57A. JOE DIMAGGIO ["The Yankee Clipper"]. Did you know that Joltin' Joe was from San Francisco? I didn't. I'd always assumed he was New York born and bred. But no. In so many ways this extraordinary athlete was, at heart, always a "regular Joe."
Taking off from that sports-related place (and going back to my "masculine bias" statement), look how much more sports fill Randy gives us:
•END [Tom Brady target]. Brady is a quarterback and it seems that in that position he gets to know the opposing team's tight end all too well. Ditto the wide receiver—who used to be called the split end.
•[Causes of overtimes] TIES.
•[Cowboys or Indians] TEAMS.
•["Kill the ump!"] "BOO!"
•LEFT JAB [Right hook set up].
•And yes, they're both co-ed these days, but I'm going to include (the side-by-side in the grid) PRINCETON [Ivy League School] and OHIO STATE [Big Ten School] in this grouping because they both have serious athletic programs and tend to be very "rah-rah."
Other fill in the "Mars" column would include HERO/[Medal of Honor recipient], Zubin MEHTA, Franz Joseph HAYDN, EDD Byrnes, DAN Brown, Daniel BOONE, Captain AHAB, Fibber MCGEE—and even SHAFT/[Blaxploitation film of 1971].
With the exception of ALTOS [Choir voices], there's even a male bent to the many musical references:
• MEHTA [Conductor Zubin].
• HAYDN [Composer call the "Father of the Symphony"].
• BACH ["Brandenburg Concertos" composer].
• [Bruce Hornsby's instrument] PIANO.
"Venus" entries include TERI [Hatcher of "Desperate Housewives"], ["Gidget" actress Sandra] DEE, Yoko ONO ["Double Fantasy" performer] (how's that for a trio?!) and, what's this? [Something burned in the '60s]: BRA!
In fact, I like that last combo quite a bit. The clue is strong. So is [Makeup artist?] for LIAR. Hmmm. That one could go in either column. These days, so could RABBI [Yeshiva graduate, often].
I wouldn't say I literally [Revere] this puzzle, but I sure do ADMIRE it highly. With (even more) solid fill the likes of TRASH CANS (wonderfully clued as [They're full of garbage]), LET US PRAY, AMOROUS, GOES APE (though we saw this on Tuesday in Paula's puzzle...), and even STOMACH (clued as [Gut]—and now I'm thinkin' of all those out of shape athletes...)—I ask you, what's not to like?!
Barry Silk's Los Angeles Times crossword
Good news! In a few more weeks, the late-week LAT puzzles will stop being so ridiculously easy. The powers that be have finally acknowledged that maybe it's OK for a Friday or Saturday puzzle to reach beyond Tuesday difficulty. I'm not sure how far up the scale it'll go, but we'll see in November. In the meantime, this puppy clocked in as a Tuesday for me.
Here's an edited portion of my L.A. Crossword Confidential post:
First up is a term I don't know at all, but that is probably familiar to geologists: QUAKE LAKE, or 15A: [Basin that can result from a seismic landslide]. It's related to the broader category of landslide dams, apparently, and there's a Quake Lake in Montana and a quake lake in Sichuan, China, that formed after the 2008 earthquake. Did you folks know this term?
Favorite answers? Right here:
• 1A: Spears on the table (ASPARAGUS). My first thought was BRITNEY. I don't care for asparagus, so I certainly do not have any recipes for it. I do, however, enjoy the science of asparagus.
• It's a Woodstock criss-cross party! JANIS and JIMI are 10A: [Joplin at Woodstock] and 10D: [Hendrix at Woodstock].
• Nobody gets excited by PETER I or OTTO I in the fill. But LOUIS XIV looks awesome there, doesn't he? (20A: European ruler for 72 years). Speaking of Louis, have you seen this clip of comedian Louis CK on Conan O'Brien's show? It's hilarious. Writer Dean Olsher posted that clip to his Facebook page—from a plane with wireless internet access.
• 39A: It creates an adjustable loop (SLIP KNOT). Yeah, you don't often see a PKN smack dab in the middle of an answer.
• When I was a teenage existentialist, I was 11D: Blown away (AWESTRUCK) by 12D: 1944 Sartre play (NO EXIT).
• 21D: Ship in 1898 news (U.S.S. MAINE), I like multi-word entries and those with unexpected letter combos. SSM looks wrong but it's right.
• 23D: Lunchbox alternative (PAPER BAG). I don't like this answer so much as the way it evokes the idiom "can't punch his way out of a paper bag." Though I never use "punch"—how about "She can't solve her way out of a paper bag"?
I'm never a fan of the "smush together two items in a series and call it a crossword entry" thing. 48A: [Notes after fa] clues SO LA. Boo! It's not even holding together a particularly cool section of the grid. I'd feel warmer to it if it facilitated amazing entries in its neighborhood, but TOILSOME and ENDORSED don't do much for me.
Merle Baker's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
Let's start with the big "Huh?" clues:
• 24A. [A and B, in C] clues LATI. Is this LA, TI, as in "do re mi fa sol la ti do"? If you must have one of these icky two-notes-smushed-together entries (see a few paragraphs above), you really want to use a straightforward clue. Save the more mysterious clues for more solid entries so solvers don't feel ripped off or just plain mystified.
• 46A. DIMITY is a [Cotton fabric]. More specifically, "a hard-wearing, sheer cotton fabric woven with raised stripes or checks." I have never encountered this word. They don't tend to sprinkle "dimity" in clothing catalogs, do they?
• 12D. Did you know there's such a thing as a TREE TOAD? I'd have thought the [Foam-nest builder] would be some sort of wasp or beetle.
• 37D. VERONA is the [Home of Valentine and Proteus]. These are the Two Gentlemen of Verona. I never knew the characters' names.
Good stuff:
• 13D. HEX SIGNS are [Pennsylvania folk art].
• 22A. BEANIE BABIES are a [Yard-sale staple], all right.
• 5A. SACKCLOTH is a [Symbol of remorse]. Cool CKCL pile-up in the middle.
Iffy stuff:
• 33A. MISADDS is [Gets the wrong number, maybe]. Raise your hand if you've ever used this word. Anyone? Anyone?
• Weird plurals—38D: [Balm ingredients] are ALOES. Just how many ALOES are included in the typical balm? 35D: [Peculiar talk] clues LINGOES.
• 38A. EPT is clued as [Able, nonstandardly].
Answers I'd like to swap:
• 26A and 28A, [Multi-Grammy rap star] and [Patron saint of girls], are NELLY and AGNES.
October 09, 2009
Saturday, 10/10/09
Newsday 6:06
NYT 5:51
LAT 3:26
CS untimed
I just signed up for the Walk4Hearing event on October 18, raising money for the Hearing Loss Association of America's efforts in hearing loss prevention and education. Sponsors welcome, and much appreciated! My donation page is here. Thanks.
Natan Last's New York Times crossword
I wasn't loving this puzzle when the clues for 2- and 3-Down weren't getting me anywhere. But eventually I landed on the coolest entries, and warmed up to the crossword:
There were also some clues to savor:
There's an assortment of tough clues, too, as you'd expect for a Saturday puzzle. 49D: [Noel Coward title woman "from Argentina"] is NINA; musicals are not my thing. 17A: [Kind of statue or status] clues ICONIC; clue feels nonspecific to me. The [Bust of Pallas, to Poe's raven] is its 27A: PERCH; just wasn't putting the words together right here. 30A: ["___ the Viking," 1989 film starring Tim Robbins] is ERIK. Really? I have zero recollection of that. 9D: [Sixth-century year], bleh, DLI or 551. (Could also have been DII, DIV, DVI, DIX, DXI, DXV, DXX, DLV, DLX, DXC...) 12D: [Reeve's charge] is MANOR; Chaucer's Reeve was "manager of a large estate." Do you know your Spanish? 13D: [Between, to Batista] is ENTRE, same as in French. 26D: [Ending for a record] is the superlative suffix -EST; the puzzle's docked 10 points for having both this and SUREST in the grid.
Updated Saturday morning:
Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "That Is..."—Janie's review
Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but I confess it: I love puzzles that add (or delete) letters from a well-known phrase to create something new, possibly whimsical, maybe even groan-worthy, and almost always smile-worthy. That is... I love the puzzle Lynn has given us to day, which gets a lot of mileage out of the addition of IE to the base fill. (For them what needs remindin', those are the letters that abbreviate the Latin phrase id est [translation: that is], which is used after one statement and preceding a clarifying statement.) In this way:
There's more good fill of the non-theme variety, too. I like :
Two terrific clues for two tiny words are [Frequent joiner] for AND, and [Lousy in Eng. class] for ADJ. (i.e., in a discussion of "parts of speech," the word lousy is an adjective...).
Finally, in a puzzle whose theme is inspired by one everyday Latin abbreviation, thank you, Madame Constructor, for the bonus entry—another everyday Latin abbreviation: ETC. [Writer's list topper]. (That one's short for et cetera...)
Brad Wilber's Los Angeles Times crossword
I like Brad's puzzles, but of course I'd prefer a Saturday puzzle clued harder than the Wednesday level. As I said over at L.A. Crossword Confidential, SQUIB KICK (29A: [Football boot that takes unexpected bounces]) was my big "Wha??" answer: Never heard of it! My son's been playing the Madden NFL '08 video game on Wii, though, and he's learned a lot about football from it. More than I know, actually. Shouldn't "squib kick" be used more broadly, in situations where life takes unexpected bounces?
These are a few of my favorite answers:
Not all the fill was as entertaining as those answers. INTERMESH and pretax SUBTOTALS and an oddly COCKED HAT didn't do much for me (though the dictionary tells me a COCKED HAT is a thing, a "brimless triangular hat pointed at the front, back, and top," is it a hat any of us have heard of?). The short stuff also seemed heavy. Five entire Across rows and three Downs containing nothing but three- to five-letter words? ANOS, TAS, DMS, OAS, ECK, IPO, Spanish URANO (2D: [Seventh planeta]), the old crosswordese 7D: Dreaded mosquito, AEDES? Meh.
Barry Silk's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
I wasn't quite sure my solution was correct until I checked the PDF. 37D: [End neighbor] clues PGDN. That's the "page down" key on a computer keyboard. On my Apple keyboard, do you know what that key says? It's labeled "page down." My husband's Windows laptop has "Page dn." Does anyone have PG DN?
Since when are 1A: [Burger and fries] COMFORT FOOD? The clue should read [Grilled cheese and tomato soup], obviously.
Favorite bits:
I didn't know AUTO-REVERSE a week or so ago when it was in another puzzle but now? It was my #1 guess for [Cassette-player feature].
Too bad [Holy ___] clues only SEE (65D) and not also MACKEREL (24D, [Salt-cured sushi]).
Did you know MR. T is now a [Tormenting voice on some GPS devices]? Poor guy, always typecast. Why wasn't he cast opposite Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List? Where is his romantic comedy career?
