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 27, 2009
Wednesday, 10/28/09
September 01, 2009
Wednesday, 9/2/09
NYT 3:39
LAT 2:55
CS J—untimed
BEQ untimed (joon)
Onion 5:04 (joon--paper)
Jim Hyres's New York Times crossword
I had to confirm with Google Maps but yes, the theme entries here roughly sketch out a map of Midtown Manhattan. Broadway cuts through on a diagonal, represented by B-R-O-A-D-W-A-Y in circled squares in the puzzle. And EIGHTH NOTE ([Quaver]), SEVENTH-DAY ([Like some Adventists]), SIXTH SENSE ([Intuition]), and FIFTH WHEEL ([Superfluous person]) roughly sit where 8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th Avenues run (except that the streets are more evenly spaced apart than the theme entries are). The BROADWAY line isn't a straight diagonal because Broadway, the street, has some jogs in it. Certainly this is an unusual theme, and I like its geographic bent.
The theme was more fun than the rest of the puzzle. ALER beside XERS is a few too many -ER people for one corner of a puzzle. I don't knowo whether XERS who do this puzzle will know that SCHAEFER beer is ["The one to have when you're having more than one" sloganeer]. Luckily, Inti is in the clue and not the answer: [Like the sun god Inti] clues INCA. [Partner of grease] seems like an odd clue for DIRT. There are a zillion other short answers of the icky variety (ENNA the [Sicilian resort city], ample abbreviations).
Pop culture haters won't like the current TV clue for HECHE: [Anne of HBO's "Hung"]. I know everyone talks about Mad Men, but Hung is the cable show we watch at Casa Reynaldo. I wonder if the person who wrote the clue is aware that the show's title refers to the male protagonist's genital endowment.
[Lady Lindy] clues Amelia EARHART. She was portrayed by Amy Adams in that Night at the Museum Smithsonian sequel this spring, and this fall there's an EARHART movie starring Hilary Swank.
Anyone else flub the [Bar closing time, often]? With T**AM, I went with TEN A.M. D'oh! That's eight hours too late.
Updated Wednesday morning:
Bruce Venzke & Stella Daily's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Row Homes"—Janie's review
This is a puzzle whose theme has been executed in a very well-made way. The central entry at 40A is the key to kingdom: HOUSE [A type of one appears in each part of this puzzle's longest entries]. Note those words "each part." Each of the theme phrases—each of which can stand on its own—is made up of two words, each of which describes a kind of house. They're beside each other in the row, hence the title... Now where I'm from, this makes them semi-detached homes (technically), but believe me—I'm not about to quibble! Here's what we get:
There's other good cluing/fill in here as well. Notably:
A couple of weeks ago, Randy Ross clued OVA as [Breakfast for Brutus] and I commented that it surprised me. "Certainly the ancient Romans ate eggs," I wrote, "but I just can't feature Brutus sitting down to breakfast and asking his wife (or more likely his servant) to prepare 'two eggs, over easy' (or 'two ova, ova easy'...). Just something incongruous about this clue/fill combo." Today, we have a variation on the same theme with the clue [Caesar's breakfast?]. Now, believe me, I know this is meant jocularly, but STRICTly in the for-what-it's-worth column, while egg dishes were being prepared back then (I stand enlightened), it's far more likely that these guys were eating bread and cheese and fruit for breakfast. On the other hand (or maybe in it...), it seems the ancient Romans really did have a thing for deviled eggs. I kid you not!
And one final shout out to my home town (the Chamber of Commerce owes me!) with this site that has some wonderful photos of and backstory on the city's famous row houses.
Jerome Gunderson's Los Angeles Times crossword
I really liked the fun pop-culture flip-flop theme, but I'm going to refer you to the L.A. Crossword Confidential post I wrote last night because a migraine has befallen me this morning.
Brendan Emmett Quigley's blog crossword
joon here to pinch-blog for our migraine-stricken hostess. brendan's got a themeless wednesday for us today, and it's tough as nails. the version i test-solved yesterday was even tougher, but this one's still got a whole lot of tough in it. in addition to some stumperesque cluing, there were several answers i hadn't heard of at all:
as usual, though, brendan's stuffed the grid with some goodies, like AIR QUOTE and MIX IT UP and P.F. CHANG'S. i also really like the word HIRSUTE, and the ambivalent combination of "YES, LET'S" and "I MEAN NO."
Byron Walden's Onion AV club crossword
i loved this puzzle. my favorite onion puzzle in recent memory. and yes, he had me at 31d (["Benny and ___"]). but there was so much goodness here, starting with a tight theme into which byron nonetheless managed to jam five long entries, all of which intersected! the theme is works of art consisting of two people, (at least) one of whom starts with JUL:
the 70-word fill had some ridiculously fresh entries, too. JOCK ITCH is a [Rash that's embarrassing to scratch]. the SOUP NAZI! he's in here, clued as the [Strict, restaurant-owning Seinfeld character]. [Not one's best effort] is one's B GAME. byron definitely brought his A game today. how else to explain the intricate theme, low word count, great fill, and typically waldenesque (though toned down a notch from his usual saturday level) cluing?
July 07, 2009
Wednesday, 7/8
Onion 4:28
BEQ 4:08
LAT 3:40
NYT 3:30
CS 8:40 (J―paper)
Tim Wescott's New York Times crossword
So, Rex Parker, PuzzleGirl, and I were corresponding tonight, trying to piece together the "unusual feature that appears nine times" in this crossword. Eventually I gave up and consulted Wordplay, where I learned there are nine word squares and that the constructor probably won't be surprised to see my grumbles: "I also realize that the puzzles that are a challenge to construct are not necessarily the same as the puzzles that a lot of people like to solve, as I’ve seen some complaints about these kinds of puzzles elsewhere on the Web." Yeah, I saw a lot of word segments that intersected with their clones, but in 3 1/2 minutes, I did not notice the word squares. So that wasn't an aid in solving. And so many repeated chunks of letters didn't enhance the solving experience for me.
Those word squares are as follows:
ROB CUD WES ROE
OPE USE EVA ONE
BEE DEN SAL EEN
BING CRAM CHAS RUMP
IDEA RUDE HASH UBER
NEWT ADIT ASHE MEGA
GATE METS SHED PRAY
HEART
EMBER
ABOVE
REVUE
TREES
The 5x5 is pretty fancy, but if you don't appreciate it in the midst of doing the puzzle...well...this is a gimmick for the leisurely solver to be blown away by. And I'm sure there are speed solvers in awe of the construction, too. I'm predicting about a 60/40 split between the "Wow!" and "meh" contingents, in favor of the "Wow!" side.
A few clues and answers:
• 3D. BEER GARDEN is as [Place for a pilsner].
• 38A. CAB-OVER is a [Style of truck with a vertical front].
• 31D. WEST MONROE is a [Louisiana city named for the fifth U.S. president].
• 32D. EVAN-PICONE is a [Big name in women's apparel since 1949]. Hooray for the clue not suggesting that there's ever been a person in fashion named Evan Picone.
• 55A. RUM PUNCH is a [Bacardi concoction, perhaps]. Crossword constructors use the term unch as shorthand for "unchecked letter." No idea what a RUMP UNCH might be.
• 22A. EMMETS are [Ants, archaically]. If you know a guy named Emmet, please call him Ant.
• 20A. To IRRIGATE is to [Make arable, perhaps].
Updated Wednesday morning:
Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "They'll Take a Mile"―Janie's review
Today we have the titular companion piece (and thematic cousin) to yesterday's Doug Peterson, "Give 'Em an Inch..." And what a lively companion piece it is. The abbreviation for mile is mi.; the four theme phrases take that abbreviation and affix it to the beginning to create a new phrase. Each is also the beneficiary of some mighty crafty cluing.
There's a lot of strong cluing today. I like the alliteration of [Lamp-lugging lad of literature] for ALADDIN, and the ambiguity of [Bars] for SALOONS and [Drops from the sky] for RAIN. In neither case is the clue to be understood as a verb―yet that's what I thought of first. Neither are [Clogs and pumps] to be understood in relation to plumbing issues. They're SHOES.
And how about the [pedal] pair: [Put the pedal to the medal] for FLOORED IT (in what looks to be a CS debut) and [Instrument for pedal pushers?] for ORGAN. Or the matched set of terms of endearment: ["Cutie pie" or "sweetie"] for PET NAME and [Darlin'] for HON.
Among the non-theme fill, gotta give a shout-out to CS-debut OXYMORONS, those figures of speech that pair opposites to ironic effect, as the clue [Deafening silence and bittersweet] demonstrates. You probably have your favorites, but here's a snippet of George Carlin going through a few of his.
A fave cross: ASEA and SEE; and a seriously smile-worthy pair: [iPod...] NANO and NANU (-nanu) [Either half of a classic sitcom sign-off]. Finally, given the tie-in this puzzle had with yesterday's, had a moment of GLEE seeing SKEW once again. (I know, yesterday it was SKEWS, but it's close enuf for jazz in my book!)
Don Gagliardo's Los Angeles Times crossword
I did this puzzle shortly before doing the NYT puzzle last night, and it made me cranky in similar ways. Tour de force construction? Check. (81 theme squares is huge.) Uninteresting fill and clues? Check. There are many who greatly admire a tour de force and focus on the constructor's achievement in building such a puzzle, but I tend to be solidly in the "I want it to be fun and interesting" camp.
It's past 10 a.m. and I have two more puzzles to blog before getting to work on a puzzle consulting gig, so allow me to copy and paste from the theme writeup from my L.A. Crossword Confidential post:
• 41A: Secret get-together, or what occurs literally in each of this puzzle's circled squares (HUSH-HUSH MEETING). The circled letters are hush-hush meetings of two words.
• 5A, 8D: Clever move (COUP)/Prefix with science (PSEUDO-). Silent P from French and Greek.
• 9A, 9D: Bad-mouth (KNOCK)/Hillock (KNOLL). Two words from Old English with now-silent Ks.
• 4D, 28A: Newspaper feature (COLUMN)/Organ numbers (HYMNS). Classical roots for both of these M+silent N words.
• 48A, 48D: Like Letterman lines (WRY)/Eerie apparition (WRAITH). Silent W before an R; one Old English root, one Scots/unknown.
• 40D, 54A: Oppose (REPUGN)/Omen (SIGN). Silent G in a GN combo. Both words are from Middle English by way of Old French taken from Latin. Begging your pardon: REPUGN? I know an awful lot of words, but I haven't run across this one before. Repugnant, sure. Impugn, of course. But not this word.
• 57D, 64A: Prefix with stat (RHEO-)/Like a question that isn't a question (RHETORICAL). Silent H after an R, presumably a Greek rho being transliterated as RH rather than R. It's a bit of a cheat to throw in a prefix here, but RHYME is too long for this spot and havign 81 theme squares gives little flexibility.
• 63D, 73A: Blockbuster, e.g. (BOMB)/Oversimplify, with "down" (DUMB). BOMB has a promiscuous etymology—English from French via Italian, probably from Latin, before that from Greek, "of imitative origin." In other words, everyone agrees it bomb/bombe/bomba/bombus/bombos sounds like "boom." DUMB's a good Old English word of Germanic origin.
I had more fun looking these words up in the dictionary than doing the crossword, honestly. The fill squeezed in around the massive dose of theme was mostly uninspired, hitting a nadir with ILLER (technically legit but nothing I'd say) and a not-a-real-word singular KUDO (which would be OK if the clue acknowledged the joke by playing with "praise" sounding like a plural or something). Does ILLER have hip hop usage? Is it in Nas's Illmatic lyrics anywhere?
Byron Walden's Onion A.V. Club crossword
We are overdue for some more Byron themelesses, aren't we? That was one of the biggest losses when the New York Sun folded—one top-notch themeless puzzle every week, from talents like Byron, Karen Tracey, and Patrick Berry. Seriously, what is wrong with the masses of people who have not signed up to subscribe if the Sun Crossword relaunches? The incredibly innovative tough Friday themes are just as missed as the sparkling themelesses. So if you fancy yourself a lover of the finest crosswords and you rather wish there were more tough puzzles available, sign up!
Now, where were we? Oh, yes. The Onion puzzle. Blogger is in a mood and won't let me upload the grid image, so I'll just tell you about the theme and lay out some clues. The first theme entry began TURNOFFPH- and I couldn't get a "turn off phones" instruction out of my mind, which got in the way of understanding the theme. It's "___ of ___" phrases in which the "of" becomes "off":
★ 20A. TURN-OFF PHRASE is a [Pickup line that backfires badly?].
★ 26A. The jack of clubs becomes JACK-OFF CLUBS, or [Bars for total assholes?]. Don't go there. You won't like the crowd.
★ 40A. I love the "walk of shame" as the basis for a theme entry. WALK-OFF SHAME is a baseball-pitchin' [Reliever's feeling after giving up a game-ending homerun?].
★ 48A. PLAYOFF COLORS are [Jersey options for the postseason?].
Fill highlights include EMILY POST, NBA OWNERS ([The Mavs' Mark Cuban and the Nets' Jay-Z, e.g.]), FANFIC ([Writing genre for creative devotees, briefly]), and aren't-you-glad-you-read-the-NYT [New York Times science reporter Gina] KOLATA.
Favorite clues: Crossword-friendly country OMAN gets the fun-to-say [Country whose sultan is Qaboos bin Said al Said]. The DELETE KEY [can make mean men, but can't make men mean]. NOLTE is clued as [Nick who was People's Sexiest Man Alive in 1992]; his subsequent drunken mug shot made a mockery of that. (What? The Sexiest Man Alive designation is not mockable except in extenuating circumstances like Nolte's.) James T. KIRK is a [Captain based in part on Horatio Hornblower]. KEEP LEFT is a [Progressive's favorite road sign?].
Brendan Quigley's blog puzzle, "Support System"
The theme is STAND BY ME, and the four long answers that include the letter sequence STAND are abutted by something with a ME above or below the STAND. For example, TWIST AND SHOUT has a ME in MENLO PARK above it. Now, it's a little muddled here because the ME of STAND BY ME is underneath TWIST AND SHOUT's STAND, so it appears that the puzzle's ME has a split personality. STAND BY ME's STAND has a ME below it, too.
Juvenile highlights: [Stooge's laugh syllable] is NYUK and [Gas] is FART.
I need to get to work here. Am all crossworded out for the day! Too bad the work that's waiting is...crosswords.
May 15, 2009
Saturday, 5/16
Newsday 8:21
NYT 5:31
LAT 3:18
CS 7:30 (J—paper)
Tyler Hinman and Byron Walden's New York Times crossword
This is Tyler and Byron's first joint production, constructed after Tyler moved out to California last year. If you ask me, the puzzle's easier than most of Byron's solo Saturdays. Yes? No?
I learned from the constructors' notes at Jim Horne's Wordplay blog that they started with JAZZ HANDS at 1A, divvied up the fill, and split the clues (Acrosses, Byron; Downs, Tyler). My favorite clues and answers follow, mingled as they so often are with the more Google-prone clues:
I liked this puzzle. No deadly crossings, nothing too obscure (except SABAN, who had easy crossings), and hardly any short answers. Did you notice that? Just six 3-letter answers and a dozen 4's. This helps a puzzle avoid that not-so-fresh feeling. So Byron and Tyler, keep working together on more themelesses for us.
Updated Saturday morning:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "In a Nut Shell"—Janie's review
"Sometimes you feel like a nut—sometimes you don't," or so say the makers of Peter Paul Almond Joy and Mounds. Thank you, Randall Hartman, for indulging my personal preference. The three themed entries in today's puzzle come to us, as described, in a NUT shell, in which the first two letters of the theme-phrase are NU and the last is T.
A NICE tight theme with two debut entries (37A and 52A) and a CS debut for 20A.
Some of the usual suspects make an appearance: YMA, IRMA, CHE, Mao TSE-tung; but they're in the company of some very smart fill. And I do mean that in the literal sense: there's CANNY [Street-smart] and GUILE [Cunning] and ACUMEN [Sagacity].
We travel to the Middle East with MECCA [Muslim holy city], ARAB [Dubai denizen] and KABUL [Capital of Afghanistan]. And there's a nod to Middle and Western America, too, as KANSAS and UTE emerge from KABUL. (I'd forgotten just what a bargain the Louisiana Purchase was—and how much of the country's midsection it comprises. Yikes.)
Fill that fouled me up: [Fleur-de-] LYS? No, LIS. [Auction actions] BIDS? No, NODS. [Back problem] SPRAIN? No, STRAIN. I still struggle to keep straight those European rivers. I know the Rhine is German, but I never seem to remember that the RHONE isn't... And veteran character actor M. EMMET Walsh has a lengthy resume, but darned if any performance comes to mind.
Clues that made me think: [Someone in it is out of it] for COMA, and [Beginning of December?] for DEE. This kinda clue gets me almost every time. You'd think by now I'd be less easily duped, but noooooooooo! ;-)
Fave little grid bits: ICED over ACED, the cross of ICON and OCCUR.
And while I knew that GIS were [PX patrons], I'd forgotten what PX stood for. How about you?
Michael Wiesenberg's L.A. Times crossword
My longer write-up is at L.A. Crossword Confidential.
My goodness, it's been a while since I encountered a themeless puzzle that was this easy. Sure, there were a few things that weren't gimmes, but the give-and-take with the crossings made quick work of it all. My favorite fill:
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
I'm feeling much smarter this weekend, having that fast L.A. Times time and finally getting back under the 10-minute mark for a Stumper. (Do yourself a favor and don't check Dan Feyer's times on these puzzles unless you want to feel inferior.)
(PDF solution here.)
My least favorite clue here is [One settling down] for ROOSTER. What the...? Nobody describes "one who roosts" as a "rooster." When ROOSTER is a perfectly good stand-alone word, why on earth would you want to clue it as a lousy "roll-your-own" word?This is not the first time we've seen that in the Stumper. When you already have a roll-your-own CRADLER here, why create another when you don't need to?
MAZATLAN is clued as [Literally, "place of the deer"]. Hmm, is that obscure trivia? Or is it reasonable to expect solvers to have a certain degree of fluency in the Nahuatl language? (Answers: Yes. And hell, no.) The Wikipedia article provides that etymology, but mentions deer nowhere else—so I'm guessing even people who've visited the city wouldn't think to associate it with deer. This clue is akin to the ones that hinge on the meaning of a first name. At least we're spared that sort of clue for DINAH, which instead gets a biblical clue, [Daughter of Jacob]. LOUIES isn't clued as a plural first name; rather, they're [Some officers], short for "lieutenants." The LOOIE and LOOEY spellings are the only ones listed in the Mac widget of the New Oxford American Dictionary.
[Psiloritis is its highest peak] clues CRETE. I wonder if the sun's rays atop Psiloritis are particularly good for psoriasis. Also from Europe: MINSK is the [CIS headquarters]. Speaking of the agglomeration of states that used to be Soviet republics, [Any SSR?] clues RED STATE, but that doesn't strike me as quite kosher. "Red state" doesn't mean communist state, so it's as if the clue concocts a jokey definition of a word. That would work if it were a theme entry, but it's not.
[Dairy designation] is GRADE A. We've probably all bought GRADE A eggs, but grade A milk looks to have zero relevance to the average person who's not a dairy farmer. Is the clue hinging on eggs being sold in the dairy section of some groceries? Because eggs are not dairy products.
I didn't dislike this puzzle while I was solving it, but going through it clue by clue while blogging, I found myself grumbling at several cluing choices. They mark a departure from the Stumper's previous style, and they don't hew to the other themeless styles I'm familiar with (Will Shortz, Peter Gordon, Rich Norris, the CrosSynergy team). A lot of folks are pleased to have an extra-tough puzzle to sink their teeth into on Saturdays, but I find myself wishing the Stumpers had more of a killer Klahn/Walden/Blackard NYT vibe.
May 12, 2009
Wednesday, 5/13
Onion 4:51
BEQ 3:56
NYT 3:15
LAT 2:57
CS 6:43 (J—paper)
Nancy Kavanaugh's New York Times crossword
Nancy Kavanaugh presents an instant puzzle: JUST ADD WATER (58A) and the theme will appear.
The Middle East accounts for three answers. An IRANI is a [Certain Oriental rug maker]. An OMANI is a [Muscat native]. And YEMEN is a [Red Sea land]. Europe rings in with NEIN (German for "no"), or [Frau's "forget it"]; NAE, a Scottish [Kiltie's turndown]; the French phrase Les ETATS-Unis; EUR., [Where It.'s at]; [Zuider ___] ZEE; and DADA, [Jean Arp's movement] in the European art tradition. Hawaii is on the board with two: UKES are [Luau strings] and a LEI [may have plumerias or orchids].
Most likely trouble spot: Where TRURO, the [Cape Cod town], meets several intersecting answers. DR. LAO was a [1964 Tony Randall title role]. [Having a rough knotted surface] clues NUBBY, as in a nubby, bumpy knit. An ARIL is a crosswordese word meaning [Seed covering]. And then there's the two-word answer ONE CUBIT—[18 inches, give or take].
Byron Walden's Onion A.V. Club puzzle
By the way, I hear this Saturday's NYT puzzle will be a collaboration between Tyler Hinman and Byron. Should be a fun one—with a touch of evil.
The Onion theme is TEABAGGING, the [Actual protest activity for tax-and-spend opponents that sets the tone for this puzzle's theme]. Teabagging is not just a tax protest, it's also a sex term relating to the balls. So the rest of the theme entries also have sexual connotations (don't ask me what they all are), but are clued as non-lewd protests with embarrassing double-entendre names:
There are two full names from the music business appearing opposite each other in the grid. CLEO LAINE and Motley Crue's VINCE NEIL. Nice contrast. [Today's 20-somethings, as a group] are GEN Y; my husband has an Aunt Geny, but she's 70-something. Never heard of METALLO, the [Kryptonite-powered cyborg supervillain]—I mean, I probably saw a movie with this villain but sure don't recognize the name. I never knew ZONIAN was the word for a [U.S. citizen living near the Panama Canal, once]. An unusual partial, ALAS I, completes ["___ Cannot Swim" (2008 Laura Marling album]. Laura Marling is 19 and thus part of GEN Y. Did you need all the crossings to get LEHUA, the [Hawaiian hardwood tree]? I did.
Updated Wednesday morning:
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle, "If the Shoe Fits"—Janie's review
The theme of this enjoyable puzzle—shoe styles—is spelled out in the second half of each of the two-word theme fill. You won't find the Sirius Stiletto among the options, but you will find:
So that's it for the theme. But that's not it for fill that's making its first appearance. BELLMAN, a variation of "bellhop" is taking a bow, as are TIP JAR and LIE AWAKE (well, for these two, a CS bow anyway). All of these feel very fresh to me and not merely because they're first-timers. They have a real specificity to them in the kinds of images they conjure up. This is a good thing.
I seemed to like this puzzle from the get-go. While its connotation is not that of a happy place, TORA Bora is still a place that grabs our attention; CALEB Carr's The Alienist was one of the grizzliest books I've ever read. I was glad to be reminded, too, of author ALISON Lurie, whose literate The War Between the Tates I read years ago. And it was refreshing to see Arthur ASHE clued not as a world-class tennis player, but in conjunction with his three-volume series [A] Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete. "Arthur! Arthur!"
Back to the map of the world, we get good ol' domestic TERRE Haute, IN, but we also get the more exotic KASBAH [Old section of Algiers]. This one led me to investigate the differences between KASBAH and Casbah. (Haloscan can be a bit frustrating, sending you back to the home page as it does after visiting a link, but sometimes it's worth the trip. Give it a go.) And then, from this site of "greatest film misquotes", there's this on the subject:"Come with me to the Casbah," followed by "we'll make beautiful music together" - was not said by Charles Boyer to co-star Hedy Lamarr in Algiers (1938); it was said by cartoon characters Yosemite Sam and Pepe LePew in subsequent Looney Tunes cartoons, among others; in fact, animator Chuck Jones based the Warner Brothers cartoon character Pepe LePew on Charles Boyer's Pepe Le Moko.
While we're in movie-land, there's not only producer Marcus LOEW, but also SOME Like It Hot, Citizen KANE (and not Citizen Ruth...), Keystone KOP, HAN Solo, ILSA Lund.
ALEC Baldwin is clued wonderfully: [A Baldwin, but not a piano]. Sweet! And there are lots of other lively clues: [Grace period?] for AMEN; [Ducktail applications for GELS; and loads of alliteration with [Seaside souvenir], [Genesis gent], [Stable sound], [Black, to Blake],[High-spirited horse], [Valley of the Vineyards]. (Nice, too, how NEIGH, that [Stable sound] is in grid-proximity to STEED, the [High-spirited horse].)
Does this puzzle have perhaps too many names and pop culture references? Perhaps. I haven't even mentioned all of them. But each name seemed to trigger some other connected thought. That kept things interesting for me. Oh—and I almost forgot—the crossword-friendly ORIOLE [Baltimore player] found its way here, too. So, really, what's not to like (said the girl from Baw'mer...)?!
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "P.B.R. Me A.S.A.P."
Between IHOP and the Jewel, I'm out of free time this morning. Medical editing! Puzzle editing! Work awaits. So, quickly:
The theme is phrases that, like Brendan's beloved Pabst Blue Ribbon, have P.B.R. initials. POINT BLANK RANGE, a PUSH BUTTON RADIO, and Colin Powell's famous POTTERY BARN RULE, the ["You break it, you buy it" foreign policy]. It's not the timeliest appearance of that phrase, but is it not still a fantastic 15? Highlights in the fill: BREAK A SWEAT, YO LA TENGO, FIRST DIBS. Trouble spot for me: The crossing of [Dwight Howard's team, on scoreboards] and [Naughty by Nature hit of 1991]. ORL, or Orlando, and OPP? SESTETS and TSETSES populate the bottom row in the constructor's fallback copout fill, but at least they're clued as anagrams of one another. The ERNE clue is very inside-baseball: [Bird indigenous to crosswords]. So those answers are excused, but we still have ENOTE, APIA, and SOLING reminding us that the puzzle can't all be SASHAYS and SKI PLANES.
Laura Sternberg's L.A. Times crossword
In my L.A. Crossword Confidential post, I already lauded this theme. Five colorful phrases that begin with words that can precede PEPPER (69A), in turn creating other colorful phrases? Win-win. Here are the theme answers:
Throw in a LAMAZE class for a ZOMBIE mom, the twin [Rogue]s KNAVE and SCAMP, DEEP-DISH pizza, and the handful of blah bits (ICC, AEC, OAS, RESODS) can be forgiven. Plus: 69 squares of particularly rich and flavorful theme content buys a lot of good will.
April 17, 2009
Saturday, 4/18
Newsday 15:52
NYT 6:28
LAT 4:06
CS 2:49
Byron Walden's New York Times crossword
The Saturday Times puzzle is noteworthy for three reasons: (1) 15-letter wildlife, (2) heavy preposition action, and (3) fun clues. For the first category, [Marmots and prairie dogs] are GROUND SQUIRRELS and SCARLET TANAGERS are now thought to be close [Cardinal relatives]. These animals with big names are joined by a CAMEL, the surprising [Source of Caravane cheese]—a cheese I've never heard of (shades of PIAVE, Byron's ACPT puzzle #5 cheese from a couple years ago), but then, the name looks like "caravan," which camels travel in, so the clue offered more of a hint than it seemed to at first.
The preposition explosion appears in a bunch of the multi-word answers:
Here are my favorite clues:
There are other difficult clues lurking about here, too. Here are eight of 'em: (1) [Spot announcement?] is a dog's GRR growl. Spot is not among the top 50 dog names, according to a Sporcle.com quiz. (2) Have you heard of EDA LeShan? Sure, if you do a lot of crosswords. How about [Coloratura Christiane ___-Pierre] for EDA? Is that ringing any bells? My bells were unrung. (3) SARIS are in the puzzle a lot, but not as [They may be thrown over the shoulder]. (4) [Jesus cursed one in Matthew 21] clues a FIG TREE. I don't know the background, so I'm guessing he stubbed his toe on the tree. Whether he took his own name in vain, I can't say. Maybe he said "HELLS bells?" HELLS is [Oregon and Idaho's ___ Canyon]. (5) [Where M.S.T. and P.S.T. can be found] is the unusual entry WESTERN U.S. They're the Mountain and Pacific time zones. (6) [Home of la Sorbonne] isn't simply PARIS or FRANCE, it's LE QUARTIER LATIN. I needed a lot of crossings to see where that was heading. (7) [Country singer Collin ___] RAYE is less well-known to me than Martha Raye. He had some success as a country singer in the '90s. (8) [Little ___, island in the Bering Strait] clues DIOMEDE. Again, lots of crossings needed to find this answer.
Updated Saturday morning:
Scott Atkinson's Los Angeles Times crossword
I'm short on time this morning because I'm heading downtown soon(ish) for the Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament, so I'll reroute you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential write-up. Today's "Crosswordese 101" lesson isn't about a repeater answer in this crossword—though SSGT, or [U.S. Marine Corps E-6] is practically begging to be dissected with the other military abbreviations that we see in crosswords. Nope, this time it's the solving tips I prepared for the Marbles crowd. So check that out.
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
This puzzle (solution here) was wickedly hard, but not in a fun way. There were a few spots that entertained me, but mostly it was a not-pleasant solving experience. Here are some of the things that irked me:
And now, some clues that were tough but fair:
Doug Peterson's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Say What?"
Hey, speak of the devil! I was just saying in the comments that I have taken to dreading the Stumpers unless they have Doug's byline (not dreading because I fear I'm not equal to the task—dreading because I'm not going to enjoy myself), and here he is again, with an easy themed crossword. The theme entries begin with words that can also mean "say," and they're clued as if they do mean "say" in those phrases:
Some of the fill is the standard stuff that excites no one (NNE, AS OF, ATILT, COTES), but so much more of it lends a fun vibe to the crossword. MIFF crosses MOP UP. The QUEEN MUM ([King George VI's widow, familiarly]), is aptly mirrored by TASTEFUL across the grid. There's a NECTARINE, hopefully not an UNRIPE FRUIT. OLD SALT is an answer rather than a clue for a stale TAR. Take an AISLE SEAT when you fly to the RIVIERA. OSCAR the Grouch ACTS OUT. See? Lively stuff.
March 23, 2009
Tuesday, 3/24
Onion 4:35
Jonesin' 4:33
LAT 2:58
NYT 2:55
CS 2:35
Pancho! Pancho Harrison popped up with the LAT byline yesterday, and here he is again with the New York Times crossword. The theme is slang terms for the POLICE (62D)—and no, there are no pigs in the theme. Too derogatory. The theme entries are as follows:
My personal favorite term for the POLICE is po-po, which is documented in Grant Barrett's Double-Tongued Dictionary. There's no POPO in this grid, alas, but we do get PUPAE ([Cocoon occupants]), which is close enough.
The two words in the "least likely to appear in a Tuesday NYT puzzle" category are NARD and ALGID. Wouldn't they make a great superhero duo? Nard Woman and Algid Boy, to the rescue! NARD is an aromatic ointment from antiquity and also a plant that's a [Source of a fragrant oil]. ALGID means [Chilly] or cold, and it's from the Latin. I say we all start using "algid" to mean "cool"—who's with me?
Among the more algid answers are these: EL NINO is a [Cause of weird weather]. [Dukakis in 1988 and Dole in 1996] were ALSO-RANS. It's not Tuesday-easy to parse the answer to [It's observed on Oct. 24], as UNDAY looks meaningless but U.N. DAY makes sense. U.S. STEEL takes a similar form; it's a [J.P. Morgan co.]. A [Wink in tiddlywinks, e.g.] is a plastic DISC. A [Goofball] is a DOOFUS; that OOF part makes the words work, doesn't it? I like crossword answers from German 101; GUTE ["___ Nacht" (German words of parting)] qualifies, as "good night" is the sort of phrase you pick up in the first month. The KANGAROO is [Emblem on the Australian coat of arms].
Updated:
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Green Space," uses the term TRAILER PARKS to describe the other three theme answers, each of which has a park name as its "trailer," or last word:
I like the theme in Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, but oy! That fill. The coolness of GEDDY LEE ([Rush's lead singer]), JORDACHE jeans ([Label on many asses in 1980s fashion]), and ICE CREAM ([It can give some people a headache]) is offset by the spelling variations and 3-letter trivia tests. One theme answer, [Pets that are low to the ground], has a variant spelling: WEINER DOG. (I prefer "wiener dog," paying tribute to the word's Germanic roots.) ["The Prophet" author Gibran: var.] clues KHALIL—Gibran became famous with a "Kahlil" spelling but apparently he had changed it from the original KHALIL. The mystery 3's included these:
The latter two cross MEKONS, which is clued as [Early punk rock band with the song "Never Been in a Riot," with "the"]. If you didn't know the MEKONS, guessing that E could be tough.
The theme's solid (WEINER aside), though. It's "Revenge!" of the NERDs, with 67A's NERD clued as a [Square hidden in each of the five long across answers]. "Hidden square" evokes something other than "hidden word," doesn't it? Delicious mislead. The hidden NERDs are in a DINNER DATE, the irritating-to-watch-unless-you-like-the-sort-of-animation-in-Schwab-ads A SCANNER DARKLY, DESIGNER DRUGS, ABNER DOUBLEDAY, and the aforementioned WEINER DOGS. It's a great assortment of answers (WEINER spelling aside), and I give Matt bonus points for splitting all the NERDs across two words (no BraiNERD, Minn. here).
I had to save Dan Naddor's LA Times puzzle until later because I kept wanting to check in on PuzzleGirl's post at L.A. Crossword Confidential—so twice I clicked over and saw the byline and the word "state" in her write-up before averting my eyes. Maybe I finished a few seconds faster than I would if I didn't have a vague "state" sense percolating up to the surface. Anyway, the theme: Geography! Four city/state combos are flip-flopped so that the state is the location of the noun that the city's name doubles as. Here's the quintet:
The NEBRASKA LINCOLN seems a little bit off, as nobody would describe a car by the state it was in. But the other theme answers could plausibly be state rocks (Michigan prefers the Petoskey stone), places on the map, scenic attractions. The grid has a definite ugliness to it, with those big chunks of black squares setting off the middle theme entries, but once you get started you stop noticing the black squares and zoom in on the white squares. The toughest clue is the verb phrase [Copy cats?], cluing MEWS. Favorite fill:
This week's Onion A.V. Club crossword is from Byron Walden. The theme in this 15x16 puzzle is given in 22D: BROS BEFORE HOS. Each of the other theme entries has a BRO__ word before a HO__ word. That's fine and dandy, but I am so over the "bros before hos" phrase. Yay, men banding together and demeaning women in the process. Deplorable! The phrases that start with those fragments are these:
Tough stuff: STEARNES, or [Negro League great Turkey ___, 2000 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee], was new to me. I haven't seen the movie, so I didn't know COORS was the [Product boycotted in "Milk"]. ([Detroit beer baron Bernhard] STROH's beer was not boycotted, apparently.) An [Ankaran of color] might be an AFRO-TURK. Cool word, but not one I'd ever encountered. [Some college lecturers] clues NON-PH.D.'S, which I needed nearly all the crossings to see. [Identify, as a botanical sample] is KEY OUT—not a phrase I knew. 58D, the ['80s band named for a Star Trek character] is cross-referenced with an answer that crosses it, ["Heart and ___" (1987 hit for 58-Down)]. It is not TPAI who recorded "Heart and SOIL," no—it's T'PAU and SOUL.
