Sun 5:52
LAT 4:51
NYT 4:47
CHE 3:37
CS 3:20
WSJ 8:01
I thought of Merl Reagle when I read this list of "worse than Quantum of Solace" titles, from Chicago Tribune writer Steve Johnson. My favorite was "Cardamom of Venice."
We're having patrickberry pie with patrickberry ice cream—both the NYT and Sun crosswords are by the same constructor.
Patrick Berry's New York Times crossword shows again that he is the primary exception to the rule that I don't much care for 62-word themelesses because they're racked with compromises in the fill. This 62-worder has an oddball grid, with most of its open space in the middle rather than the corners. The fill is Berryesque, which is to say that it's smooth and unforced and rather light on tacked-on word endings and prefixes. To wit:
The cluing is also top-notch, presumably a mash-up of good ideas from the Berry and Shortz ateliers. Some of the items in this listing are not exemplars of great cluing, but rather, facts people may be Googling. I'll bet you can tell the difference.
In its very own category in this crossword, we have a PANTY GIRDLE, or [Unmentionable]. I guess there are still things called panty girdles on the market, but back in 1965, doctors recognized their danger.
Berry's Sun "Weekend Warrior" was a little harder than the NYT. This one's a 66-worder with about 15 people's names in the grid. My favorite clues:
And my favorite answers:
Those four longest ones frame the black square in the middle of the grid, and they make a beautiful quartet of crossword answers.
Weirdest answer: SEABAG is a [Duffel with a drawstring]. I never knew sailors had a special name for their duffels.
Updated:
I won't have time for all four of the other Friday puzzles this morning because I came across a link to the Visual Thesaurus spelling bee, and I am powerless to resist its siren song. (I'm the Amy R. on the leaderboard. You add the aura of competition to something nerdy, and I get sucked right in.)
Don Gagliardo's LA Times crossword has a slew of tricky spots, and the theme didn't come readily to mind, either. 63-Across, the [Sound created by the four identical letters missing from] the other four theme entries, is AIR LEAKAGE, so each missing letter is an S (as in a hissing SSSS). It took forever to figure out where COMIC BEING, or [Batman or Robin?], originally had an S. I daresay "cosmic being" is not so familiar a phrase. [Used up the subs?] is RAN OUT OF TEAM (steam). [Biennial rash?] is THE EVEN-YEAR ITCH (seven)—hey, I like this one. [Supplier of deep-fried fare?] is a FAT FOOD CHAIN (fast).
Clues that made me work for the answers:
Updated midday Friday:
Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Class Act," has a quote theme. The quote itself is fine (Aristotle: TEACHING IS THE / HIGHEST FORM OF/ UNDERSTANDING), but didn't at all enhance my solving experience. But I enjoyed the puzzle in spite of the quote theme. Those meaty corners with 7's crossing 6's helped, as did sparkling longer fill—the IROQUOIS include [Mohawks, e.g.], GOOD TIMES was the classic '70s [Esther Rolle sitcom], and WATERLOO goes beyond Abba and metaphor to be [Battle of ___ (1815 conflict)]. I liked the overall vibe of the puzzle, what with clues like these for wee little 3-letter answers: WHY is [Philosopher's question]. [Backseat driver] is one type of NAG. SUE is a [Boy in a Johnny Cash song]. ME A is clued ["Peel ___ grape"]. You'd think a quote puzzle with 34 3-letter words would just be horribly arid, and it didn't feel that way at all.
John Lampkin's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Failure to Launch," plays around with terms from astronomy that can be misunderstood by those not in the know. The would-be ASTRONOMER thought a RED DWARF might be Snow White's compadre, Bashful, and that MICHAEL JORDAN must be a shooting star. Given all the wrong answers on the short-answer test, the prof labeled the student a SPACE CADET. All right, that's cute. This puzzle seemed lighter on the erudition scale than most CHE puzzles (this is not a complaint, just an observation). The only clue that held me up was [It holds a yard] for MAST—the nautical terms just aren't at the forefront of my brain.
"Colin Gale," a.k.a. Mike Shenk, has crafted an impressive Wall Street Journal crossword. In "Make Me an Offer," there's a TAKEOVER BID in seven places in the grid—that is, the letters TAKE appear over the letters BID seven times (see circles in solution grid). I had no idea what was going on in this puzzle until I reached the explanatory clue, but I had noticed a lot of TAKEs floating around. I'm guessing it was quite difficult to find a workable way to place the lists of "words and phrases containing TAKE or BID" into the grid, with solid crossings. Try it yourself! Mind you, Mike made it a little easier on himself by not insisting on symmetrical locations for the theme pairs. But still—an impressive construction.
November 20, 2008
Friday, 11/21
April 17, 2008
Friday, 4/18
NYS 5:31
NYT 4:59
LAT 4:13
CHE 3:53
Jonesin' 3:48
CS 3:11
WSJ 6:49
In Joe DiPietro's New York Times crossword, most of the longer answers and all of the 9s are phrases rather than words. I'm definitely a fan of phrasal crossword entries, though it felt like there were a lot of prepositions floating around. BUTTED OUT ([Quit meddling]) crossed EVEN OUT ([Become balanced]), PUT A BID ON ([Tried to buy]) sat atop ON THE MEND ([Improving]) across from ON LOW ([Simmering]), and other entries included AT (STOP AT, [Pay a visit to]) or UP (SLIP-UP, [Blunder]) or TO (WENT TO BED, [Retired]).
Favorite entries and clues:
Gnarly bits:
Karen Tracey's New York Sun "Weekend Warrior" does indeed have plenty of Scrabbly letters in it—notably in TOPAZ QUARTZ, DIZZY GILLESPIE, and TEXT MESSAGE—but it also had some crossings I didn't like, two involving technical mumbo-jumbo. First, there's the [Intel chip brand] crossing ["___ petit placidam sub libertate quietem" (motto of the Bay State)]. I guessed XEOS and ESSE, but it's XEON and ENSE. (Ouch.) Then there's the crossing between ["Fiddler" figure] and [Baseball Hall of Famer Combs]; I guessed YENTA and EARL A., but it's YENTE and EARLE. Never saw Fiddler on the Roof, and await a lesson on the differences between yenta and yente. New York baseball players who died before my parents were born and who aren't Babe Ruth? Also not a strong point for me. (These two crossings were where Across Lite told me my letters were wrong.) Last, we have [___.net (Microsoft's web application framework)]. Really? Ouch. It's ASP. That got mucked up because I was reading [Spark] as a verb, not a noun, and trying CATALYZE for CATALYST, and that E just wasn't leading anywhere. Favorite clues: [Fictional author of the short story "The Pension Grillparzer"] for GARP; [Source of paper profits?] for newspaper ADS; [Five-time Tour de France winner Indurain] for MIGUEL (a gimme); [Dvorak alternative] for a QWERTY keyboard; [Org. that campaigned unsuccessfull to change the name of Fishkill, New York] for PETA (the name means "fish creek" in Dutch—"creek," not "kill 'em all"); [On the ground, in ballet] for A TERRE (not a term I knew, but it makes sense with minimal knowledge of French); and last but not least, ["Yo, Hadrian!"] for AVE.
Updated:
Nope, the Illinois earthquake this morning didn't awaken me. Drat! Why'd it have to happen in the wee hours when I was sound asleep?
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "GQ," twists a common misspelling/typo—the intermingling of plaque and plague—into a theme. We get a PLAQUE OF LOCUSTS, QUILT COMPLEX, and QUEST OF HONOR, with Gs being replaced by Qs. The puzzle's a pangram, too—all 26 letters are used at least once in the grid.
I did Doug Peterson's LA Times puzzle right after the CrosSynergy—whaddaya know, another theme with Qs! In this one, each of four phrases gets a QUE (which means WHAT, 61-Down, in Spanish) inserted somewhere. My favorite was the conversion of St. Elsewhere into QUEST ELSEWHERE, or ["Do not seek the Grail in this place"?]. The other theme entries ended up with ANTIQUE, PARQUET, and BASQUE in them. There's another QUE word in the fill crossing the theme—PLAQUES! It's officially the award of the day in crosswordland. Also, if you were looking for "bust A GUT" in the NYT crossword and frustrated not to find it, it's right here at 6-Across. Favorite clue: [Tried to get hits] for GOOGLED.
Sheesh! Now I've done Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "A Greet Addition," and there's a LOCUST clued as [Insect in a plague], so I've circled back to the morning's first puzzle. I would now like a plaque depicting a locust. Three theme entries take a foreign-language greeting and add a letter to change the sense. BUENOS DIALS and GLUTEN TAG (my favorite one) pick up an L, and KONNICHI WAG adds a G—Spanish, German, and Italian. "Holla!" would have been a good alternate title for this crossword, no? Really fun puzzle—I enjoyed the fill and clues throughout.
Michael Ashley's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Big Names," features a theme of presidential nicknames. Did you know Rutherford B. Hayes' nickname was OLD EIGHT TO SEVEN? I sure didn't. The other four theme entries were familiar, though. Cancer makes an appearance in ANTICANCER, [Powerful drug-treatment class]. Fresh but old clue for AGRA—[United Provinces of ___ and Oudh (former name of Uttar Pradesh)].
The Wall Street Journal puzzle credited to Colin Gale is really WSJ crossword editor Mike Shenk's work. In "Company Acquisitions," various company names adopt an extra letter and shift their focus. Starbucks, for example, becomes SITARBUCKS, [Company that pays Indian musicians?], and MetLife is MEATLIFE, [Company that promotes the nonvegetarian lifestyle?]. Overall the crossword was pretty easy, but the theme entry clued [Company that sets costs for masons?], T. ROWEL PRICE? I have a vague sense of rowel as something mechanical or tool-oriented. One dictionary says it's "A sharp-toothed wheel inserted into the end of the shank of a spur." What does that have to do with masons, who work with brick and stone? I have no idea, and Google didn't make it any clearer. Here are pictures—again, no sign of masonry.
December 13, 2007
Friday, 12/14
NYS 7:55
CHE 4:35
NYT 4:21
Jonesin' tba
LAT 4:02
CS 3:32—here's a link that works
WSJ 7:03
New addictive online pastime! Today, my husband sent me a link to the Traveler IQ Challenge, where you race to peg the location of, say, the capital city of the Solomon Islands, or Edinburgh Castle, or Gaborone, Botswana. There are 12 levels, and I haven't successfully completed level 12 (yet). I have made it through level 11, though. If you're a geography geek, give it a try, and rejoice if you manage to come within 200 km of the right spot. (It's heartbreaking to be 6,000 km off, really.) If you play enough rounds, you'll start seeing some of the same places, so you can learn from your mistakes and do better next time. So far, I've only done the world-map game, but there are also smaller maps to choose from. I like my odds with Africa, I gotta say.
Manny Nosowsky's previous publication was a Tuesday puzzle with a theme that put me off kilter. A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE was combined with three food dishes that wouldn't be eaten together, one of which probably wants to be served in a bowl. In his themeless Friday New York Times crossword, that same 15-letter entry redeems itself by anchoring a triple-stack in the middle of an eminently solid grid. I don't know about you, but I found yesterday's knotty John Farmer puzzle to be a little harder than this one.
Things I hadn't known: ADOLPHE was the [Luxembourg grand duke in whose name an annual art prize is awarded]—that'd be the Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe, of course. [Ba preceder] is ALIF—I knew ALIF was the first letter of the Arabic alphabet from crosswords, but hadn't seen the ba and ta that follow it. A [Neighbor of Hoboken, N.J.] is UNION CITY; how sad was I when the town starting with U wasn't one of those silly-sounding names like Parsippany? I had hopes. I filled this one in from the crossings, but sure as heck didn't know that LAVA was a [Flow from a coulee]. What does the American Heritage Dictionary say? It says that geologists are nuts because coulee is used to mean four entirely different things, including a stream of lava.
The clues I liked best: [It may be kept in a boot] means a TYRE, "boot" being Britspeak for the trunk of a car and "tyre" being Britspeak for tire. (The most charming thing about my 2000 VW is that when the trunk's open, the dashboard reads "BOOTLID IS OPEN." (And when the windshield wiper fluid is low, it says "TOP UP WASH FLUID." Righty-o, then!) [Went through] means PIERCED, as with an AWL (just one example of a [Hand tool]). [Zealots have them]: AGENDAS. So do the people chairing a meeting. [Something to bid] is ADIEU and not, thankfully, something from bridge or canasta. (And no, I've got no idea if canasta involves bidding.) What does ["Fuhgeddaboudit!"] mean? "HELL, NO!" I think my mom had a copy of Wayne W. DYER's "Your Erroneous Zones" in the '70s, and I thought it was something risqué. Coolest entries: RORSCHACH / TEST split across two spots; ST JOHN'S; SANTA ANNA; and BIOMASS.
For a tougher challenge, I turned to the New York Sun puzzle by Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke. Sure, the title, "Test Cramming," suggested a rebus theme wedging multiple letters into a single box, but did I let that point me in the direction of a rebus puzzle? Not for too long, alas. I think the rebus action has a touch of asymmetry—the two longest Across and Down answers have standardized test abbreviations in them, and so does the crossing of 24-Across and 26-Down (UN[SAT]ED and [SAT]YRS). If there's another rebus entry opposite one of those two answers, I don't see it; perhaps there is one, and Across Lite accepted just the first letter? I don't know. Those long ones are FIL[M CAT]ALOGUE, SHOOTIN[G MAT]CH, WINTER[GRE]ENS, and CONTR[ACT]S OUT. That last one duped me, because OUTSOURCES also fits the space. Groovy theme!
Updated:
Wow, there are some tough clues in Annemarie Brethauer's 11/30 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword. The five theme entries in "WIld Guesses" are clued with the binomial name (i.e., genus and species) of animals, and the task is to come up with the common, non-Latinate name of the animal. The theme's a fun quiz if you're into this sort of quiz (I enjoyed it). Answers that were decidedly not gimmes for me: [Long face?] for CLIFF; [Cape Verde island] for SAL; [City on the Salt River] for MESA; the clever [Bear with one's child] for TEDDY (noun, not verb!); [Small fox with big ears] for FENNEC; and [Fustanella wearers] for MEN (Great outfits! Who doesn't love a man in a pleated miniskirt?). There's one ort of old-school crosswordese: PTAH, the [Memphis deity]. More cleverness with [Bankable notes?] for DO-RE-MI and [Female Romney] for EWE. And the MUPPET guys, [Statler or Waldorf, e.g.], are always welcome. The puzzle could've used a different title, though—wild also shows up in one animal name. Loved this crossword!
Alison Donald's LA Times crossword has a good set of theme entries that change an ING (and not a gerund ending -ing) into INK. A [Come-on on the range?] is a BUFFALO WINK, and that's a funny image. I could think of a much racier clue for BURGER KINK than [Former Chief Justice's muscle stiffness?]—I wonder if the constructor's original clue hinted at something kinkier. Kind of a party vibe here, with DORMS, GIN, RYES used in Manhattans, COSMO's online "Guy Gallery"—and CUFF could certainly go with the KINK.
The theme in Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "Two by Two: Dissecting a fearsome foursome," was a little tricky to tease out. I think it's the pluralized 2-letter words made from A, B, C, and D: WASHBOARD ABS, RECORDABLE CDS, CLASSIFIED ADS, and LONG-RANGE CBS. Most out-there, seldom-seen clues and entries: the kids' song "I'M A NUT" (I don't know this one), BFD (meaning "big effing deal"), and Canadian singer-songwriter FEIST (who has jettisoned her first name). Also quite good: LIONS' DEN, PLASTER CAST, BACKSPACING, and [It may have Braille markings, even on a drive-thru version] for ATM.
I couldn't download Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle from Cruciverb.com or the usual link at Puzzle Pointers—deeper into Puzzle Pointers, there was a working link (see top of this post). I think the Chronicle's site is a tad kerflooey today. Anyway: The theme in "Nothing to Squawk About" is a riddle: WHAT DO YOU / CALL A PARROT'S / LOSS OF MEMORY? Answer: POLYNESIA. (Groan.)
Today's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Company Mergers," is credited to Colin Gale, one of editor Mike Shenk's alter egos. The theme involves anagrams, and it was plenty o' fun. Fairly easy, but not lacking cleverness. In fact, it would take me far too long to list all the clues that I liked, clues with pleasing "aha" moments. Just do this puzzle yourself, will you? It'll be a good time—smooth fill, zingy clues.
September 20, 2007
Friday, 9/21
NYS 8:50
LAT 6:24
NYT 5:48
CHE I dunno, 4:00-ish?
Jonesin' 3:22
CS 3:19
WSJ 7:43
Okay, commencing blogging with sentence fragments owing to freelance work time crunch.
Loved Byron Walden's tasty and asymmetrical Weekend Warrior from the New York Sun. Terrific Scrabbly fill: RAN INTO A BUZZSAW and AL JAZEERA crossing BJ AND THE BEAR, SQUARE ROOT, and the apt PUZZLE OUT. Plenty of lively entries, both words we don't often see in crosswords and fresh phrases: DEWCLAWS, mind like a STEEL TRAP, PHOTO OPS (not merely [Photo ___]), actress LINDA EVANS with a project I didn't know she did, and a touch of geography with YEREVAN (the [Capital on the Hrazdan River]—and that's in Armenia). My favorite clues: [Mustard, for example] = COLONEL; [Taster's choice?] = WINE BAR; the noun [Conduct] = PS AND QS; [Julian I] = EGO (as in Latin first person singular); [Upright] = PIOUS (raise your hand if you started with PIANO); [Social services?] = TEA SETS; [Stop order?] = WHOA; [Display pattern] = RASTER (I know this word from shopping for a desktop publishing monitor in the '90s; still have no idea what it really means); [Scotch flavorer] = PEAT; horribly pop-cult [Show that begat "Lobo"] = BJ AND THE BEAR (back then, I had a crush on the star, Greg Evigan, but not the monkey); the mathy [Radical solution?] = SQUARE ROOT; [Sport with body wires] = EPEE (no idea what "body wires" are); [Get, with some effort] = PUZZLE OUT; good ol' St. ANSELM = [Saint who originated the ontological argument]; [Paddling for pleasure?] = BOAT RIDE (and no, I didn't think of naughty spanking while solving); the deliberately misleading [Held consistent views] = STARED; [Cooperstown position] = UPSTATE; [Its flag has the Union Jack in the upper left] = HAWAII (why??); [Attacked jointly?] = KNEED in the groin; [Positions of power] = ONS of on/off switches; two cigarette clues, [Lights come-on] = LESS TAR and [Salem outcast] = ASH; [Quick draw] of breath = GASP; [Political shootings?] = PHOTO OPS; and the noun [Stir] = SPLASH. The single most enjoyable clue/answer combo for me was [Question that comes before and after "or"] = AM I RIGHT—husband and I often say that with the intonation of insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day. Never heard of Super Bowl XXV MVP OTTIS Anderson. I wouldn't have known [Photons] = QUANTA (plural of quantum) were it not for a recent NYT puzzle with that answer. [She, in Italian] is LEI? Huh. Live and learn.
So, in sum: Fabulous puzzle, didn't miss the symmetry at all, felt I got my money's worth (so to speak). Can't single out that many clues and not toss this puppy into my "great puzzles" folder, can I?
Verrrrry nice New York Times puzzle from Paula Gamache, too! 'Tis a good day for themeless action. Paula's puzzle has symmetry and three triple-stacks of 15-letter answers—and all nine of those 15s are great. Some politics in each third—Reagan's [Classic line of debate?], THERE YOU GO AGAIN, up top; AIR AMERICA RADIO, the liberal outpost on the airwaves; and a LIBERAL DEMOCRAT in charge at the bottom. There's one football team (SEATTLE SEAHAWKS), much more lively than most entries packed with that many Ss, Es, and Ts. And a batch of in-the-language phrases: AS BAD AS BAD CAN BE, LITTLE OR NOTHING, OVER AND DONE WITH, and ANY PORT IN A STORM. MAKE A RESOLUTION is the dullest of the bunch, and it's completely fine—it just can't keep up with the other eight who've raised the bar. Other highlights" FAJITA crossing TAMALE; [Second of 24] Greek letters, BETA; [Arm raiser, informally] for the DELT (oid) muscle; [Toot] for BINGE; [Yo-yo] for JERK. You know, usually I'm not too excited by triple-stacks, and the more 15s there are, the less I like the fill. In this puzzle, though, I felt the 15s were the best part of the crossword—that's gotta be hard to pull off.
Kudos to Byron and Paula and their respective editors, Peter Gordon and Will Shortz. Am happy solver tonight.
Quick Update:
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle: Lots of fun. Theme: "Why the Face?" Featuring four thespians with distinctive faces, one who [always looks creepy as hell], one who [always looks like he's about to kick someone's ass], one who [always looks pissed off], and one who [always looks like she just sucked on a lemon]. Matt's got these actors dead to rights. No real spoilers here—but if you like those post-millennium, hipster-skewing, pop-culture-heavy crosswords, download this PDF and have fun with it.
If you like puzzles that hew closer to the classic vein, try Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Lincoln Center." The overall gestalt of the clues and fill felt old-school to me.
Russell Brown, who's been commenting here of late, created the September 7 Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle. This is one savory treat! Download this Across Lite puzzle and dig in! No, the theme in "Middle Marches" isn't food, despite my remarks. And I won't spoil it for you, because the theme's so cool, I want you to discover it for yourself. The theme's so deftly executed and such a neat idea, I'm putting this one in my "great puzzles" folder, too.
Jack McInturff's LA Times puzzle kicks a RE out of each theme entry's base phrase. "Our little secret" thus becomes [Motto of a small splinter group?], OUR LITTLE SECT. Not too easy to make out the theme answers as I worked my way through the puzzle, though, even after figuring out the trick in TAKE A DEEP BATH.
Updated again:
Whoops, forgot to do the Wall Street Journal puzzle this morning. (So that explains why I finished puzzling and blogging earlier than I'd expected.) The byline reads Colin Gale, which means the puzzle's by WSJ crossword editor Mike Shenk. Each theme entry ads a CO at the beginning.
March 15, 2007
Friday, 3/16
LAT 4:57
NYT 4:51
3/2 CHE 4:34
NYS 4:12
CS 2:56
WSJ 7:32
Reagle 7:23
(updated at 9:15 a.m. Friday)
Ah, Friday! The day when I seek out crosswords from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Wall Street Journal, and Merl Reagle's one-man crossword factory. The day when—if I'm lucky—the New York Sun'll have a tough themeless puzzle (though I have no objection to the alternate-week tough themed puzzles) to balance out a New York Times themeless. And the LA Times and CrosSynergy puzzles don't take the day off, either, so there are a couple easier crosswords, too.
This is a Sun Friday Weekend Warrior week, and this week's puzzle is by Karen Tracey. Like many of her crosswords, this one has high-Scrabble-value letters (Z,Q, X, J, K) sprinkled throughout the grid, geography (ancient PHOENICIA, Italy's TARANTO [huh?], and America's own APPOMATTOX, OKEMO Mountain, and SITKA), colloquial terms (yummy FLAPJACKS, a CHICK FLICK, "I HEAR YOU, "UH-HUH," and "THINK AGAIN"), and pop culture (BOGIE, KUNTA KINTE from Roots, GRIZABELLA from Cats, and Mary's friend RHODA, to name a few). Special citation for coolness with the "cosmic jazz" of SUN RA and the Arkestra and a dystopian novel I never heard of, THE / IRON HEEL. My favorite clues: [Giving life to, as cel bodies?] for ANIMATING, ["Dziekuje," across the Oder] for DANKE, [Gross root?] for DOZEN, and [Paper work] for ORIGAMI. I kinda wish the clues had been harder, though. I love to be vexed by hard crossword puzzles. (P.S. Am I the only one who likes to pronounce it a-POM-a-tox and use it in a sentence like "Appomattox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!"?)
It's possible Will Shortz is gaslighting Eric Berlin. Two weeks ago, Eric had another Friday NYT puzzle and blogged that he'd thought the previous one was his last in the pipeline, and yet he's also got this week's Friday puzzle as well as last Sunday's. I could've snuck in under the 4-minute mark for this one if not for the baseball aphasia I suffer from. [Make a sacrifice, perhaps] shouted sports to me, but I put in PUNT instead of BUNT, leaving DAP (which is a verb) in place of DAB for [Bit]. (And yet I got LASORDA with just the L. It's a selective aphasia.) Eric has OSMIUM, while Karen had ACTINIUM in the Sun puzzle—it must be Element Day. Eric also has a few Scrabbly letters, lots of wide-open white space in the middle of the grid (well, above and below the middle, to be exact). I like [A.A.A. offering] being JUMP rather than the stale RTE; STATIC clued as [Complaints, informally]; and [Holy smoke?] for INCENSE. What did ERNEST Thayer (as in [Poet Thayer and others] write? "Casey at the Bat"; again with the baseball!
Updated:
Colin Gale's Wall Street Journal puzzle (really Mike Shenk's) is called "Product Placement," and the theme entries contain an embedded company or product name in the circled squares. After getting the first one, I worked on getting the other theme entries with minimal crossings. A puzzle within the puzzle—always fun. Took me a while to figure out why [You might have a shot at it] was BAR, even though there was another shot/bar clue/answer combo a day or two ago. And it was a week or two ago that I learned PROJET was a [Treaty draft] and I did remember that one today, so I'm definitely educable.
Merl Reagle's Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle, "A Re-Sounding Success," also has a puzzle within the crossword. Each of 12 theme entries is a famous person's name (hooray, I like names in crosswords!), and the surname has a heteronym—an unrelated word (or phrase, here) that's spelled the same but pronounced differently. E.g., "ESAI says that MORALE'S just as important as talent on a movie set." The me loved the theme!
