Jonesin' 4:00
CS 3:47
NYS 3:19
NYT 3:06
LAT 2:58
Today's achievements in the world of sports: My kid passed the swim test to gain access to the deep end of the swimming pool, and Rafael Nadal won his first Wimbledon title against five-time champ Roger Federer. I am proud of both young men's accomplishments.
Grr! I don't like being edged out by more than a minute on a Monday NYT puzzle, and two people (so far!) trounced me that convincingly on Bob Klahn's New York Times crossword. And I can't even drum up a lame excuse—{sigh}. The five theme entries split some motes across two or more words. There's an ATOM in MARISA TOMEI, for example, and a HINT in STITCH IN TIME. Would you believe that a friend of mine once taught [1986 world champion figure skater] DEBI THOMAS how to perform a pelvic exam? (Thomas went to med school in Chicago.) Favorite fill and clues: NOOGIE, or [Playful knuckle-rub]; [On the ball or on the dot] for two meanings of SHARP; SOU, or a [Trivial amount] not included in the theme; and [It'll bring a tear to your eye] for a tear DUCT. OSTINATO, or [Recurring melodic phrase], seems a little fancy for a Monday puzzle, but the crossings are easy enough provided you know Marisa Tomei and frequent crossword town ST. LO. Anyone else fill in the wrong ending for the [Pavarotti performance]? It's TENOR SOLO, but I started with TENOR ARIA.
The New York Sun is back after the holiday weekend with a crossword by Edward Alch. "Tongue-Tied" laps at the taste buds, with the 14-letter TASTE SENSATION centered in a 15x16 grid and accompanied by four phrases beginning with the four primary tastes. There's my personal favorite, SWEET SPOT, along with SOUR GRAPES, BITTER PILL, and SALTY DOGS. ARIEL had a sort of clue I've never seen before for that word—[Mexico's Oscar]. Here are this year's Ariel winners from the Mexican Motion Picture Academy.
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Here's why I'm pleased that the Jonesin' puzzle is now available at the beginning of the week (and in Across Lite!): Because every so often, Matt Jones is in the mood to make a themeless puzzle, and it's such a treat to get such a crossword before Thursday. This one, called "A Little Bit of Everything," was on the easy side for me, but maybe it's easy only if you're into pop culture. If you've never seen the abbreviation NKOTB (for New Kids on the Block), or if you don't know any song titles from the utterly discredited Milli Vanilli, or if you don't know the Oasis brothers are Liam and NOEL Gallagher, okay, perhaps it's a tough puzzle. I like Matt's inclusion of the lowbrow, best exemplified by mall eatery SBARRO, and the colloquial, as in "HELL, YEAH" ([Overly enthusiastic response]). The geography slowed me down—the 9-letter answer clued as a [Resident of 43-down] sent me to a 7-letter [City on the Arabian Sea]. I needed plenty of crossings for both to end up with KARACHI and PAKISTANI. Speaking of Pakistan, if you've heard journalist Ahmed Rashid on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air" program, don't miss the Saturday profile of Rashid in the NYT.
The LA Times crossword by Timothy Meaker has four dramatic ways to end sporting events, but tennis doesn't figure into it. There's a [Dramatic basketball game ender], the BUZZER BEATER; a [Dramatic hockey game ender], OVERTIME GOAL; a [Dramatic football game ender], the HAIL MARY PASS; and a [Dramatic baseball game ender], WALK-OFF HOMER. What's a walk-off homer? I didn't know. Wikipedia tells me it's called that because the team can walk off the field, victorious, right after that run. Lively theme, no? The word in the center of the grid, VALSE, is sandwiched between two theme entries, dramatically limiting the constructor's flexibility for filling that spot. VALSE, or a [France dance], seems rather out-there for a Monday puzzle, and the S is tough to get from the crossing—the [Federal agency support org.] is the GSA, or General Services Administration. The crossings were easier for the SUN BEAR or honey bear of Southeast Asia, clued as an [Ursine critter with an orange-yellow marking on its chest].
Edited to add: Heh. Jim Hyres had the same idea five years ago—his 9/22/03 Sun puzzle had the exact same sports theme entries. Great minds, etc.
Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy crossword, "Keep Cool," adds an AC somewhere within each theme entry. 'Tis the season—we recently had another added-AC puzzle. The [Christmas card design] SANTA FACE is Santa Fe with an AC inserted. [Airline's kudos for not losing suitcases] is BAGGAGE ACCLAIM. TEN-ACCENT STORE is a [Multicultural place to shop]. And the [Brew for the king and queen?] is PALACE ALE. Arguably the most obscure word in the fill is PITSAW, or [Two-person log cutter]; one lumberjack type stands in a pit below the log, working with another sawyer up top to cut the log. Nice touch to have HOSNI Mubarak, Egypt's president, crossing Egypt's LAKE NASSER, named after one of his predecessors.
July 06, 2008
Monday, 7/7
October 08, 2007
Tuesday, 10/9
Onion 4:57
NYS 3:53
Tausig 3:35
NYT 3:20
CS 3:08
LAT 2:42
Anyone else laugh out loud while solving Timothy Powell's New York Times puzzle? First I had a typo in 2-Down, so the second I in ELIIU was throwing me off at 20-Across, [Have ___ in one's head]. A-HOLE! Hah. Actually, it's a 2-word partial, A HOLE, and not a hyphenated curtailment of a swear word, but still. The Beavis & Butthead in me were both amused. So. The rest of the puzzle. The theme was things that can be a BORE, BOAR, BOER, or BOHR. How often does a TIRESOME WINDBAG share space with a TUSKED WARTHOG, a CAPE AFRIKANER, and a DANISH PHYSICIST? This is definitely an oddball quartet of answers, and they've got a certain zing to them even though this type of theme usually leaves me yawning. Other fill I liked: RAN SHORT, NO BIG DEAL, SNOOZE and ZEROS with their Zs, and PROMPTS with all those consonants. Favorite clue: [Person performing an exorcism] for PRIEST. (I'm not sure if Bill Donohue would like that clue or deplore it.) Least Tuesday-friendly clue: [Meyerbeer's "___ Huguenots"]. I correctly guessed LES, but huh? Wikipedia to the rescue: The implausibly named Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer (changed his name from Jacob Beer), and Les Huguenots was one of the operas he composed.
Edward Alch's New York Sun crossword combines hardcore punning and the concept of women as "Gold Diggers." The theme entries have ginormous clues (I paused the Across Lite timer, reoriented the puzzle window so I could see the 17-Across and 48-Across clues in their entirety, jotted those clues down on paper, and then continued—overlong clues and Across Lite don't mix well) signaling the solver to combine a famous woman's first name with a series of men's last names, all in service of portraying the women as gold diggers. IVANA MANN SORKIN BAYH MOHR HOLMES = I want a man so I can buy more homes. ANITA SAFIRE ORR GARNETT NICKLAUS = I need a sapphire or garnet necklace. Feh. In the non-theme fill, ULNA is clued with [Holes are drilled in it during Tommy John surgery]. I'd never heard of Tommy John surgery until a few days ago, when I read about it in Nancy Friedman's Away With Words post about sports eponyms.
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Ray Hamel's LA Times crossword packs in a lot of theme squares in the NO INTERRUPTIONS theme: Four other theme entries begin with words that mean "without interruption," and there are three 15s and a pair of 13s. k.d. lang's song, CONSTANT CRAVING, and a SUSTAINED NOTE skew musical, while PERPETUAL MOTION and a NONSTOP FLIGHT are more kinetic.
Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Journalism Class," asks a lot of questions. First, there's Kojak's "WHO LOVES YA, baby?" Bugs Bunny says "WHAT'S UP, DOC?" And regular folks ask "WHERE WERE WE?" and "WHY ME?" and "WHEN DO WE EAT?"
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Tyler Hinman's Onion A.V. Club crossword presents a trio of HOSTILE TAKEOVERs in which one name in a phrase is replaced by its bitterest enemy. The real McCoy tussles with the Hatfield-McCoy feud, which gives us singer Juliana Hatfield as THE REAL HATFIELD. The Jets vs. the Sharks in West Side Story + "jumps the shark" = JUMPS THE JET. And Latin Grammy Award winner Daddy Yankee goes baseball and becomes DADDY RED SOX, a [Fenway Park patriarch?]. My favorite clues aside from the theme action: [If you're fair, it's hard to get one] for TAN; [Jesus, or Kyle from "South Park"] for JEW; [Agonizing thing to pass] for a kidney STONE; and [Ominous place to trick-or-treat] for ELM ST. Rockin' entries: CRACK UP, MCGWIRE, the inescapable WAMU bank, BAGPIPER, and YEAH SURE.
Ben Tausig's Chicago Reader/Ink Well puzzle, "Double Green," offers an 11-part theme. There are five two-word theme entries in which each word can combine with MONEY to make a new phrase. Thus, NEW BLOOD gets monetized into new money and blood money. Cluing highlights: [TV portmanteau] for SITCOM; [Certain cleansing] for ENEMA (!); [Temporary solutions] for BANDAIDS; [Alex Rodriguez, pejoratively] for MR APRIL; [Starr report subject] for ORAL SEX; and ["The Simpsons" character Hans ___] MOLEMAN.
March 11, 2007
Monday, 3/12
NYT 3:39
CS 3:19
NYS 2:57
LAT 2:52
(post updated at 10:50 a.m. Monday)
Another constructorial debut in the NYT, if I'm not mistaken—the byline reads Kevin Der, and his crossword is pretty smooth. There's plenty of lively content in the grid aside from the theme, which takes five warnings you might see on packing boxes and puts them in human contexts. Thus, KEEP DRY becomes an exhortation to a recovering alcoholic, and THIS SIDE UP is [Sign for a sunbather?]. Elsewhere in the puzzle, there are two dull words, ATTENDEE and HOST, livened up by being placed alongside one another (though the crossings kind of ruin their party: AHAB and the YETI brought plain TOFU cubes; at least the DESSERTS are waiting down below). TATTOO and OP ART evoke visuals, while LET ME SEE and ANYHOO evoke conversation. SCHTICK evokes Yiddish, which ties to HIGH DAY (which I Googled because I wasn't sure it was "in the language" without a HOLY in the middle; Googling high day Jewish gave plenty of examples of the usage).
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Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Send in the Clones," has a so-so theme (sound-alike pairs like MINER MINOR for a [Coal-digging 16-year-old?]), but it had other high points. The past-tense SPAMMED, which is a word we see often enough these days, but it hasn't shown up in the Cruciverb.com-indexed crosswords since 1999 (when Brendan Emmett Quigley used it in a Sunday NYT). [Promise to a chef?] as a non-stale clue for OLEO. Although what chef is using Promise in her cuisine, really? That reminds me, though—recently read that bakers are having a hard time complying with strict limits on trans fats because butter—tasty, perfect butter—contains a small amount of natural trans fats. So baked goods made with butter instead of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are off-limits at Starbucks, whereas saturated palm oil and certain hydrogenated margarines are A-OK, except that really, wouldn't we all prefer butter to palm oil when it comes to pastries? This crossword—see? I remembered I'm writing about crosswords—also includes SPACEMAN, which is the name of the quack doctor on 30 Rock, only he pronounces it "spuh-CHAY-man." I just got hooked on 30 Rock and downloaded all the episodes I've missed from iTunes. It's smart-funny and silly-funny, with plenty of throwaway lines that are gems. Less whimsical than Arrested Development, but with a similar appeal.
Edward Alch and Eric Platt's Sun puzzle, "Here's the Story..." (the comma is not happy with the ellipsis in quotes, so it asked me to insert a parenthetical remark to give it some breathing room), features the BRADY bunch in three vertical entries. You may ask yourself, why are the adults CAROL, ALICE, MIKE listed in that order? Well, that's where they are in the Brady tic-tac-toe grid, and the kids are also listed in Brady grid order (oldest to youngest from top to bottom). That is nifty. I think there were other parts of this crossword I wanted to mention, but I'm too out of it this morning to remember what they were.
Ray Fontenot's LA Times puzzle has five TV WESTERNS clued out of that context, so [Sudden windfall] is BONANZA, and [Lone dissenter] is MAVERICK. DR RUTH and MAZEL TOV are there to liven up the fill, too.
