Sunday, 11/15/09

LAT 8:28
BG 7:40
Reagle 7:25
NYT 7:15
CS 3:42
NYT diagramless untimed

I'll be out at the movies and dinner at puzzle time tonight. Go ahead and chat amongst yourselves in the interim, and I'll see you late Saturday night. xoxoxo

—Back home by 10 p.m.!

Liz Gorski's New York Times crossword, "Man of Many Words"

All right, there's nothing at all wrong with this puzzle, but the theme couldn't be more perfectly designed to leave me unmoved. JOHNNY MERCER songs? Ten of them? Luckily, they were clued with other contexts, because most of the songs are not ones I've heard of. Those circled letters from A to N make a connect-the-dots picture of a, whaddayacallit, Wikipedia tells me it's a G-clef. It's a pretty symbol, but I have no idea if it's inextricably linked to these Mercer songs or what.

BEFOOL (39D: Hoodwink] looks kinda crazy. Haven't seen the word before—dictionary labels it "archaic."

Company calls—will return to the blog Sunday morning.

Updated Sunday morning, after sleeping in and having quality family time:

Henry Hook's Boston Globe crossword, "Decimation"

Well, I guess I don't really need to blog this puzzle since its constructor explained the theme in the comments before I'd done the puzzle. Spoiler! Spoiler! So, filling in the puzzle was just a rote process, no brain work to decipher the theme. The clues are words in all caps, and if you insert TEN, you get another word, and that word clues the theme answer in sort of a clue/answer reverse: [BAR(TEN)D?] = SERVE DRINKS, [CHAS(TEN)ER?] = ONE WHO PUNISHES, [HEAR(TEN)S?] = ENCOURAGES, [LA(TEN)CY?] = DORMANT STATE, [S(TEN)O?] = SHORTHAND WRITER, [SHOR(TEN)ING?] = LARD OR BUTTER, [AN(TEN)NA?] = RABBIT EARS, and [PAN(TEN)E] = BRAND OF SHAMPOO. You DIVIDE each clue word by TEN by inserting TEN into it.

I think I would've liked the theme a lot if I'd had to puzzle through it myself.

Merl Reagle's syndicated crossword, "Homophone Sylables"

I enjoyed this theme a ton. A sound-alike word replaces some syllables in a longer word, and the resulting portmanteau is clued accordingly:

• 21A. MISSILEANEOUS (miscellaneous) might be a [Category the Pentagon uses instead of "other"?].
• 32A. [Process of growing grass for cows?] could be called PASTUREIZATION (pasteurization).
• 41A. PROMISECUITY (promiscuity) is clued as [Habit of giving your word to everybody but never keeping it?]. Brilliant. We should adopt this as a useful term. The English language could use a single word to describe this concept.
• 50A. FUTILEISM (feudalism) is the [Social system under which nothing ever gets better?].
• 63A. CHORUSPONDENCE (correspondence) is [The fan mail that backup singers get?].
• 72A. [Organically grown herbal medicines?] are FARMACEUTICALS (pharmaceuticals).
• 83A. [Of an age when pork and mutton were pretty much all you ate?] is MEATYEVAL (medieval).
• 91A. [Having a sweet taste that kind of sneaks up on you?] is SYRUPTITIOUS (surreptitious). This one doesn't work as well for me as the others because I pronounce it "seer-ip," not "sir-ip." (Both pronunciations are listed in my dictionary.)
• 104A. MASSAGEYNISTIC (misogynistic) is clued [Contemptuous of rubdowns done by women?].
• 118A. FILL-IN-THROPIC (philanthropic) is [Pertaining to puzzle events that benefit charities?].

And now, a handful of non-theme clues:

• 27A. [Self-serving aims, often] are AGENDAS.
• 58A. [Knife for Nanook] is an ULU.
• 111A. PASSADO is a [Thrusting move, in fencing]. I don't recognize the word, even though we did some fencing in high school gym class.
• 112A. [Ludacris song, "___ Fool"] clues the two-word partial phrase ACT A. Nobody loves partials, but this is fresher than clueing the word ACTA.
• 1D. [Auctioneer's query] is "DO I HEAR [some random dollar amount]?"
• 10D. ["Well, you go ___ and I'll go mine" (Groucho)] clues URUGUAY, Groucho's pun on "your way."
• 20D. [Rubber hub] is rubber manufacturing city AKRON, Ohio.
• 28D. [P.M. whose jacket caught on] is NEHRU. The NEHRU jacket is, well, not a fashion I've ever worn, but it's had its day.
• 50D. Holy cats, really? FUSEL is today's out-there, uncommon answer. [Fermentation product, ___ oil] is not a clue that helped me get the answer. No clue would.

Mike Torch's syndicated Los Angeles Times crossword, "Ling-uistics"

For me, this is today's most challenging 21x21 crossword. The theme involves adding -LING to the end of a word to alter its meaning, and the results are pretty good. I like it when theme entries aren't completely obvious and you have a bunch of "aha" moments when you piece them together. The Gorski NYT's theme didn't offer me any of these "ahas," with the "aha" reserved for the connect-the-dots visual aspect. Hook's Globe puzzle would've given me a big "aha" with some oomph to it if I hadn't known the theme up front. And Reagle's puzzle, like Torch's, had a solid "aha"/amusement payoff for each theme answer.

Here's the "Ling-uistics" theme:

• 24A. STARLING TREK could be a [Migration of gregarious birds?].
• 50A. The Ox-Bow Incident is a novel and movie. OX BOWLING INCIDENT is a [Bovine argument at the lanes?]. This one made me laugh. There were no oxen present when I went bowling last week, luckily.
• 71A. [Game for lazy kids?] is IDLING TAG.
• 95A. Can I pick your brain? PICKLING YOUR BRAIN is [Drinking too much?].
• 122A. LEGAL FEELING is a [Courtroom intuition?].
• 3D. [Result of way too much praise?] is EGO TRIPLING.
• 31D. RED INKLING plays on red ink, and is clued as a Joseph [McCarthy suspicion?]. I like this one a lot too.
• 58D. This clue could've gone down the vomiting lane, but it didn't. BEN HURLING is [Affleck on the mound?"], hurling a baseball. It would've been really impressive if Torch had built the entire theme around movie titles + LING—24A and 50A join with this one in the movie category.
• 74D. The Fab Four become FABLING FOUR, a [Quartet of storytellers?].

Least familiar answer in the grid: 110D: TROON is a [Town on the Firth of Clyde]. Overall, the fill is pretty smooth. I'll dock it one point for having both UNO and UNI, but at least they're small and on opposite sides of the grid.

Doug Peterson's Washington Post/CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge"

Do HAIRY CHEST ([Symbol of manliness]) and its opposite grid partner OPERA HOUSE ([Sydney Harbor landmark]) constitute a mini-theme? I like to think they do. (Of course, they do not.)

Highlights in this definitely-on-the-easy-side themeless:

• 15A. A BROMANCE is an [Intimate friendship between two guys, slangily]. Near the end of Superbad, which I watched again last night, there's a sweet moment between Michael Cera and Jonah Hill's characters, in the fine tradition of the bromance.
• 8D. "HERE GOES NOTHING" is clued with ["This probably won't work..."].
• 12D. ALGORITHMS is just a cool word, so different from the rest of the English language. They're [Step-by-step procedures].
• 27D. At the Crate & Barrel Outlet on Friday, I passed up the chance to buy a FLY SWATTER, or [Inexpensive extermination device].
• 46A. HATCHET MEN are [Enforcers for the mob], among other things.

Toughest clues:

• 16A. UVULAR means [Sounded from the back of the throat].
• 41A. TOMSK is a [Siberian city]. We see OMSK much more often in the puzzle than TOMSK.
• 2D. URDU is related to the Hindi language, so it's a [Hindi relative] but not a Hindi word for a family member.
• 21D. GALOPS are [Lively dances]. The word's related to "gallop."

Fred Piscop's second Sunday NYT puzzle, a diagramless crossword

It took a little longer than usual to figure out how the first rows were laid out. 1A SCHISM, 11A CRULLER, and 14A DEADLY SINS were stacked together, but was the 7A CLAM, 13A HAHA, 17A AVON stack to the right of the bigger stack (with 1A and 7A on the top line), or was it to the right (with a bunch of black squares to the left of 1A and above 7A)? Turns out to be the latter. I didn't piece it together until the end of 21A DAYS IN A WEEK, in the fifth row, hooked up with some Down answers and showed me the way.

The theme answers are all clued the same: [There are seven ...]. Four of the five were quite familiar, but that unfamiliar one was a killer. The famous septets are as follows:

• 14A. DEADLY SINS
• 21A. DAYS IN A WEEK
• 37A. WONDERS OF THE WORLD
• 58A. HILLS OF ROME
• 68A. LITTLE FOYS

It was LITTLE FOYS that killed me. The Seven Little Foys is a 1955 Bob Hope movie that was nominated for a screenplay Oscar, but I've not only never seen the movie, I've scarcely even heard of it. The O crossed a partial that I had trouble piecing together: 59A ["___ of You" (Hank Williams Jr. album)] clues I'M ONE of you. I pondered "I Mane of You," "Imene of You," "I, Mine, of You," and "Imune of You" for the vowels, and IMLNE and IMRNE for FRYS and FLYS. Gah.

I was slightly thrown by the dated word SLOVEN, 20A [Neatnik's opposite]. It's a dated word, much less familiar than "slovenly." I'm not telling my husband that this word, meaning "a person who is habitually messy or careless," exists.

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Friday, 11/13/09

NYT 5:57
BEQ 5:37
LAT 4:14
CHE 3:50
CS untimed
WSJ 8:07

Dana Motley's New York Times crossword

It's been a couple years since the last Dana Motley puzzle. You know what her themelesses are notable for? Rather than going with grids with longish stacked answers, triple-stacked 15s, or corner blocks filled with 7s, she spreads her long fill all around. Rumor has it such a grid is easier to fill than the stack-heavy ones are. One good thing about them from a solving standpoint is that the longer answers serve as bridges between the puzzle's various zones, so you can extend some footholds if you get a few long entries early on.

That said, there are some insanely tough clues here. For example, 1D: [Port near Ogre]. Ogre, it turns out, is a Latvian town of 26,000 that is ridiculously new for a European city, dating back only to 1928. And "Ogre" doesn't shout "must be Latvian" to most of us. The answer is RIGA, but that's a roundabout way to approach it. Speaking of place names that start with O, OSHKOSH is the 39A: [Seat of Winnebago County], Wisconsin—but there are counties by that name in Illinois and Iowa, too. OHIO is clued by way of being 59A: [Title locale in a Leonard Bernstein song where "life was so cozy"]. I relied on the crossings for all three of these. The other geo answer, ANGOLA (48D: [Cabinda is an exclave of it]), is the only place name the clue helped me to get.

Highlights in the fill:

• 17A. [Big wheels, often] clues GAS GUZZLER. Crossword clues more often use "big wheel" to mean a boss, so I like the change.
• 26A. Okay, this clue didn't help me much at all. [Funshine, Grumpy or Love-a-lot] is a CARE BEAR. Good answer, goofball clue that I am the wrong age to know.
• 60A. ACROPHOBIA is the [Source of high anxiety?]. Fear of heights, of course.
• 3D. [She's identified with a cause] clues POSTER GIRL.
• 18D. ZYDECO is a [Grammy category starting in 2007]. I saw Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band in college.
• 22D. WELCHERS, another spelling of welshers, are [Debt disregarders, slangily]. My dictionary says the word's origin is unknown, so don't get your knickers in a twist defending the morality of the Welsh people.
• 24D. ABSINTHE is the [Potent stuff called "the green fairy"]. I knew ABSINTHE was green, but not that it had this nickname.
• 30D. BOOSTER BOX is an [Item-concealing shoplifting aid]. Never heard of this one.

Other favorite clues:

• 10A. [Top or bottom, in baseball] clues a HALF of an inning. Here's why the clue makes me laugh.
• 38D. [1/768 gallon] is a TEASPOON. Remind me to tell this one to my kid.
• 50D. [One may give facts about acts] clues EMCEE. I was thinking of acts that are passed by Congress rather than entertainment acts introduced by an EMCEE.

Quibbles:

• 16A. [Stick out in a restaurant?] clues OLEO. Out where? On the table? I have never seen a stick of margarine on a restaurant table. Out in the restaurant kitchen? Boo to the clue.
• 21A. [American goldfinch] clues YELLOWBIRD or YELLOW BIRD. It is a small yellow bird. Wikipedia redirects yellowbird to the yellow warbler. Is this answer meant to be a specific bird name or just the description of a bird of a certain color? Because as a generic phrase, it's not good fill. It needs to be a specific term for something.
• 44A. [Opposite of me, in Munich] is SIE, which means "she," "they," or (when capitalized) the formal "you." I'd argue that "me" does not have an opposite, per se, and surely not an opposite with three distinct meanings. Ulrich or Zulema, back me up here.
• 53D. [Worrier's words] are "OH, ME"? Who says that? Anyone you know? "Oh, me, oh, my," sure. "Oh, my," of course. But not OH ME or AH ME, which keep showing up in crosswords. I have just consulted my husband about the utility of OH ME and AH ME and he said "no [bleep]ing way." It's fill like this that turns off newbies, isn't it? More so than OLEO? Maybe it's a tie.

Clues that may stymie:

• 6A. [Watch things, briefly] are LCDS. Meh.
• 29A. A spherical GLOBE of the earth is a [Meridian shower] in that it shows the location of the meridian and the equator.
• 47A. [Was an accountant?] clues NARRATED, as in "gave an accounting of a tale." Not wild about this clue.
• 56A. [NFL'er Olsen or Toler] clues GREG. Who? Husband tells me G. Olsen plays for the Bears.
• 67A. [They're applied to some backs] clues WAXES. As in the wax that's used to strip out body hair?
• 5D. [Sch. whose sports teams are the Violets] is NYU. Really? Did not know that. I like it. Violets are closely related to pansies. Pretty flowers.
• 7D. [Kale kin] is COLLARD, as in collard greens. Looks weird without "greens" appended to it.
• 27D. ["Dawson's Creek" role] is PACEY. Except that here, we need ANDIE. Who? Not one of the core four characters, ANDIE was played by Meredith Monroe, who played a 16-year-old when she was 30. Now, that's just silly. Andie MacDowell wants her clue back.
• 28D. [Chloe in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," e.g.] is an AUNT.
• 43D. [Dog for logs] is an ANDIRON. Not familiar with this use of "dog."
• 57D. EINE is a basic German word, one of the ways of saying "a." ["Nosferatu, ___ Symphonie des Grauens"] is missing its EINE.

Overall, I think this was harder than the usual Friday puzzle. And you?

Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword

The theme is "add an R to words that end with GE":

• RADAR RANGER is a [Park official who tickets speeding bears?]. Radar range is not familiar to me, but the Amana Radarange is.
• [Smallest allowable bet?] might be the MINIMUM WAGER. Minimum wage is certainly familiar.
• [Steals a plumbing supply?] clues TAKES THE PLUNGER. I'd clue that as [Steals a plumber's helper?] or [Steals a bathroom tool?] or something—I think of "plumbing supply" as being pipes and valves.
• [San Fernando creator of fake van Goghs?] could be a VALLEY FORGER. Speaking Valleyspeak, no doubt. "Grody to the max!"
• [Burrowing creature cited for excellence?] is MERIT BADGER. Brendan Quigley just had MERIT BADGE in a recent cigarette-themed puzzle.

Weirdest long fill: [Stereotypical pratfall cause] clues BANANA SKIN. SKIN?!? Not BANANA PEEL? Who calls it a BANANA SKIN? Not me.

James Sajdak's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Produce Literature"

This week's CHE theme is works of literature with fruit in their titles. To accommodate two 15s and and two 16s, the grid's stretched a little taller. The books are THE CHERRY ORCHARD, A RAISIN IN THE SUN, THE GOLDEN APPLES, and THE GRAPES OF WRATH.

Favorite clues/answers:

• LARRUP means [Thrash].
• RICE CHEX is an [Ingredient in a certain party mix]. Would someone remind me to buy Rice Chex?
• ALLAH is a [Word spoken when reciting the shahada]. What's that? It's this, the ritual declaration of belief in Islam. (See also SALAAMS, [Respectful greetings].
• [Audacity] and MOXIE are more or less synonymous.
• [One with a heart of stone?] is a DRUPE. Apt for a puzzle with this theme—DRUPEs are stone fruit, like peaches, plums, and cherries. (See also: PEAR, [Popular compote fruit].
• DOORMAT is an [Overly unassertive person]. Not to be confused with a doorman (which differs by one letter).
• [Trooper on the highway, e.g.] is an ISUZU, as in the Isuzu Trooper SUV.
• Indy [500 letters?] are STP.

Who is this? [Field of White?] clues STYLE, but I can't think of a relevant person in fashion/style named White.

Updated Friday morning:

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle,"Inland Seas"—Janie's review

In the world of cryptic puzzles, they're known as "hidden answers." These are the words that can be found by looking at the last letters of one word and joining them with the first letters of the next one. Today Martin's theme fill gives us two such examples and one in which the word in question (see title...) falls within another in its entirety. The beauty of this particular construction is that in each case, the "inland sea" occupies the seventh, eighth and ninth squares of the row it appears in. And there's a little bonus fill as well. The three places you'll find those hidden bodies of water are within:

• 17A. IS THIS SEAT TAKEN? [Moviegoer's question].
• 35A. PROPOSE A TOAST [Raise one's glass].
• 54A. JAPANESE ANEMONE [Showy garden plant of the buttercup family]. Attractive to members of the APHID [Garden pest] family, too, I fear. Today's IRISES are not clued botanically, but anatomically as [Pigmented eye parts]. Durn!

And bonus fill:

• 33D. SEA [Word in the center of all three long entries]. This one's intentional. Just in case the key element ELUDED [Gave the slip to] you... This one (I suspect), sitting right next to it, is not:
• 31D. SEAMS [Clothes lines?] Hmmm. Sure wish there'd been a way to avoid using this word...

Elsewhere, there's a healthy amount of longer fill, clued in a very straightforward way, so it's not too difficult to complete the grid—even with the likes of ROAST PIG [Luau food], MOUTHWASH [Listerine, for one] and ANACONDAS [Jungle crushers]. If they're on the loose, you might want to set out some SNARES [Game keepers?]. Ouch.

There's a little computer mini-theme going on in the Texas portion of the grid with EXE [Computer file suffix] adjacent to USER [Computer operator], which shares its "U" with
URL [Web browser entry].

But my fave combo today? No, not NESTLÉ [Crunch maker] or ORIOLE [Baltimore player], but TWO for [Tango requirement]. Sing out, Dean. Nowhere in this clip, however will you see a tango... Here you definitely will!

Elizabeth Gorski's Wall Street Journal crossword, "For Your Inner Child"

Wow, really? New York City has a PULASKI DAY PARADE? I had no idea. It's a government and school holiday here in Chicago, but I didn't know NYC celebrated Casimir Pulaski at all.

That and the other theme entries contain an "inner child," or KID. I'm not crazy about the theme answers, which don't feel all that natural to me. KHAKI DRESS? KABUKI DANCE, not drama? CHICKEN TERIYAKI DINNER, not steak and not lunch? What I like better is the long non-theme fill:

• 46A. SEX ORGANS are [Features of anatomically correct dolls]. People have 'em, too.
• 80A. WHACK JOBS are [Nutters].
• 92A. SAY PLEASE is a [Reminder from Mom]. I'm more circumspect than that. I say "Psst, did you tell her..." and then my KID says "please" or "thank you."
• 126A. [They may be dusted] clues CRIMES SCENES. Not, you'll note, my bookshelves and furniture.
• 4D. I like the SCULPTURE clue: [It might be a bust]. Indeed.
• 82D. Full name! JOHN DEREK [was married to Ursula Andress and Linda Evans]. Also, notably, to Bo Derek, but that would kinda give the answer away.

Most unusual fill: 30D: TUK, [Barbados musical style]. That one's new to me. I have seen FELLAH (54A: [Egyptian peasant]) before, but quite seldom.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "The Final Four"

The theme is the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, right? SUDDEN DEATH, FEAST OR FAMINE, ENOS SLAUGHTER, and THE ART OF WAR? Apparently not: They're Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, no Slaughter. So it's just four things that can be "final" in terms of your life?

I didn't care for I'M BAD, the [Little devil's observation], right at 1-Across. Had no idea an IN-RUN was a [Ski-jump feature]. Thought the commonest phrase was PUB CRAWLS, not BAR CRAWLS—haven't seen the latter. Grumbled at the clue [Last year that was a palindrome, in Roman numerals] for MMII, Roman for the Arabic number 2002. Does the word palindrome really apply to numbers? And oh, crap, now we're expected to know the names of Mad Men characters even though a vast majority of Americans do not watch the show?

I had some crazy typing today, so GRITH (GIRTH!) put an R in a Roman numeral, and MICS (MISC!) put the S in OFF-SCREEN (OFF-CAMERA!). D'oh. It's one of those mornings.

Highlights:

• AL LEWIS, Grandpa Munster, is the gubernatorial candidate at 25D.
• [Shock preventer: Abbr.] clues EMT. Took a while to make sense out of this: paramedics try to prevent you from going into shock.
• [Epic ___] FAIL.
• [Puzzler Trip] PAYNE! Howdy, Trip of Triple Play Puzzles fame.

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Sunday, 10/18/09

NYT 8:33
Reagle 8:08
BG 7:57
LAT 6:40
CS 4:37
NYT second Sunday cryptic crossword tba (PDF available via this "Print this week’s variety puzzle" link on Jim Horne's blog's sidebar—I'm guessing the link is updated weekly to provide the latest puzzle. Also available in Across Lite, but only if you're in the post about this puzzle, where you might see spoilers if you're not careful. This is nuts: the Premium Puzzles webpage doesn't include this puzzle. I guess the NYT is too rinky-dink an operation to put the puzzle where people expect to find it?)

Just last weekend, I wrote "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?" I can't tell you how delighted I was to discover in the (incredibly showy) closing credits of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs that it was Mr. T who played the heroic cop/dad in hot pants. Cute movie. Anna Faris was good as the female lead.

Liz Gorski's New York Times crossword, "Ahead of the Curve"

What a tour de force crossword. It marks the this week's 50th anniversary of THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM / MUSEUM, which was the FINAL MAJOR WORK OF / FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. The building has a NONTRADITIONAL / SPIRAL SHAPE, mimicked by the spiral pattern in the crossword grid. But that's not all: There are also nine artists' names in the grid, each clued with the title of his work of art in the Guggenheim. They go from 1-Across—MANET, ["Before the Mirror"]—down to ARP at 112-Down, ["Head and Shell"]. I have no idea if the painters' names reflect the pictures' locations in the museum.

The spiral grid may well make this puzzle have more 3-letter words than any other puzzle this decade (...I have no idea if that's true), but there are also lovely stacks with 9-, 10-, and 11-letter answers. Highlights in the nonthematic fill:

• 94A. An EDDY is a [Water swirl]. Appropriate for the swirling grid, no?
• 36D. HOT TAMALES are [Good lookers].
• 47A. [One who works on a grand scale?] is a PIANO TUNER. Also musical: the SOPRANOS right above this answer ([2000s TV family]).
• 27A. The SANTA ANA is a [California wind]. Nice to see this go beyond [Santa ___]/ANA.
• 110A. NATALIE WOOD was a ["Rebel Without a Cause" actress]. 39D: SISSY SPACEK is the [Player of one of the women in Robert Altman's "3 Women"].
• 89D. BAUHAUS, another art/architecture term, is clued as a [School popular in the 1920s].
• 42D. FABERGE is a [Jewelry firm since 1842]. Gotta love a Fabergé egg.
• 108A. Mystifying until all the crossings pulled it together, "'DEED I DO" is a [Jazz standard whose title is repeatedly sung after "Honey..."].
• 99A. I like the fancy clue for SPOUSE: [Clytemnestra, to Agamemnon].

It's getting late and I need to throw this post up, so I'll leave off here.

Merl Reagle's syndicated crossword, "Vowel Play"

I'll give this theme points for originality. The theme entries are phrases with three-letter abbreviations in them, those TLAs being formed by excising the vowels from the words that were originally in the full phrase:

• 21A. [Additive advice?] is WATCH YOUR STP. STP is a motor oil additive, something like that, and STP is step minus its vowel.
• 27A. [Where to hear songs with subliminal messages?] is ULTERIOR MTV (motive).
• 41A. [Two things not to mess with in the Old West?] are THE LONE RANGER AND TNT (Tonto).
• 57A. THE VCR OF WAKEFIELD (Vicar) is a [Way-ahead-of-its-time novel of 1766?].
• 70A. The Continental Divide turns into THE CONTINENTAL DVD, or [Certain airline's in-flight movie?].
• 87A. [Old ABC series about a paramedic?] is HANGIN' WITH MISTER CPR (Hangin' With Mr. Cooper]. Omigod, I used to watch that show! I forgot all about it. Gotta dock Merl a couple style points for the substitution of MISTER for Mr., though.
• 104A. [Top two sellers at the Trail Mix Deli?] are NUTS AND BLTS (bolts).
• 111A. [Banned Britney Spears song?] clues "OOPS, DDT AGAIN" ("Oops, I Did It Again").

The VCR and DDT answers made me laugh. Merl probably has a higher yield of laughs per puzzle than any other constructor (though the pun haters will replace the laughs with groans—and probably get more groans per puzzle with Merl than with anyone else).

How about five other clues? REEFER isn't just a joint or a jacket; it's also 53A: [Chilly rail car] whose name derives from "refrigerator." 6A: [Leeward Island] takes us to BORA BORA. ANTIDOTE is clued as 82D: [Toxic avenger]; cute! SPECIAL K breakfast cereal is a 86D: [Rival of Total]; this answer recently had a druggy clue in one of Brendan Quigley's puzzles. We've got a French three-fer; 42D: [Sceaux student] is ELEVE, 43D: [___ de triomphe] is L'ARC, and 68D: [1980s tennis star Jose-Louis] CLERC is really...not very well known. Make it a four-fer: GALOPS are 36A: [France's old dances], too. No, five: UNE is 107A: [Antoine's "a"]. Shall we dock Merl another point for having ELEV. and ELEVE in the same grid?

Henry Hook's Boston Globe crossword, "Color Scheme" (in Across Lite)

Hang on, this puzzle has the wrong title! It should be "UPS" because the theme is brown: Eight long phrases include shades of brown. We have CHOCOLATE LABRADOR, SIENNA MILLER, DUN AND BRADSTREET, ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S TOPAZ, I'D LIKE TO PROPOSE A TOAST, COFFEE TABLE BOOKS, THE GREAT SEAL, and the unlikely pair of DAN BROWN AND AMY TAN. Odd little big theme, isn't it? CHOCOLATE means brown here, whereas the other theme entries aren't using their brown hues as colors. Isn't TOPAZ more golden yellow than brown? Is there an overriding scheme here beyond "they're all shades of brown"? I dunno, this one leaves me wishing for more.

Alan Arbesfeld's syndicated Los Angeles Times crossword, "The Ultimate Sandwich"

When my husband makes the Ultimate Sandwich for our son, here's how it goes: He stacks two pieces of bread in the toaster oven, toasting one side and keeping the other soft and crumb-retardant. Then comes the dual slathering on the crunchy sides: peanut butter and jelly. Next, a smattering of chocolate chips, which get melty on the toast. Then it's smooshed together and served with a cold glass of milk.

In this puzzle, "The Ultimate Sandwich" refers to the ultimate degree, the NTH degree, that's sandwiched inside each theme entry. For example, ANCIENT HISTORY, or [Course covering the Roman Empire, perhaps], and MOUNT HOLYOKE, [One of the Seven Sisters colleges]. The eight theme answers are straight phrases clued straightforwardly. The whole venture seemed rather dry—no grand swaths of stacked fill, no super-colorful answers, no humor in the theme, and easy clues overall having little bite. 1-Across set the tone: [Place to surf] clues THE NET, which feels about 10 years out of date as common parlance. Go ahead and Google it—the first hits are for the 1995 movie by that name.

Updated Sunday morning:

Bruce Venzke and Stella Daily's CrosSynergy/Washington Post "Sunday Challenge"

I like to see constructors stretch and try their hand at low-word-count puzzles, but sometimes they run afoul of my Patrick Berry Rule: If you're not Patrick Berry and you dip down to 64 words (or less), the odds are high that the fill will contain too many "roll your own" words with prefixes and suffixes that feel clunky.

Let's start with what I liked. Cool grid design, with 6s, 7s, and 8s stacked up the wazoo. The full name DORIS DAY ([Calamity Jane portrayer, in 1953]) is nice, and MT. ARARAT ([Resting place in Gen.]) kept me guessing until the crossings finally made it clear it began with MT. "Resting place" x 6 letters = ARARAT as a gimme, but with 8 I was thinking unknown burial site in the Bible. FUNK is clued as ["The ___ of forty thousand years" ("Thriller" lyric)]—just saw the trailer last night for Michael Jackson's rehearsal concert movie and it actually looks entertaining.

In the "roll your own" category, alas, there is more. Two odd jobbers: some DICERS ([Cooks, at times]) and a ROAMER ([Footloose one]). MADDISH is clued as [A little crazy], and no, I've neither used nor encountered this word before. Also in the fill: ROILING, ALERTLY, RESTOCK (though this word is rock-solid), EERINESS, PEERED (ordinary but undistinguished), and UNSTOP (this one's also rock-solid). There are a few verb + preposition phrases, and some oddball phrases like DEAR ONE ([Close friend, e.g.]) and ON A LEAD ([Way to walk one's dog]).

Unless it's a dance term, I say no to SALSA DIP—this one keeps showing up in crosswords but sounds awkward every time. Constructors, is this phrase in your database?

I had no idea what the [Swelling on a bird's beak] was—it's CERE. I'll bet Trip and Al and Ellen knew that one, but I didn't remember it from the heyday of crosswordese (Eugene Maleska, R.I.P.).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: A themeless puzzle with a much higher word count is usually so much more entertaining than a low-word-count creation (unless you're Patrick Berry or a handful of others). I can marvel at a technical achievement, sure, but first and foremost I want to be entertained and challenged.

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Friday, 9/11/09

BEQ 5:30
NYT 4:22
LAT 3:49
CS untimed (J)
WSJ 7:41

Caleb Madison's New York Times crossword

I am about to fall asleep here, so let me just share my five favorite parts and the 10 toughest clues.
Favorites:

• Full names! Crossword-friendly Mr. Lahr is displayed as BERT LAHR, 2D: [Noted coward player]. I thought the clue was telling me he'd played Noel Coward until right now. And MARIO PUZO was a 49A: [Two-time Oscar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay].
  
• Seasonal action! 31A: [Blizzard hazard] is a snowy WHITEOUT, while [Ripe] fruits and veggies are 38D: IN SEASON.
  
• 3D: If you're on a [High], you're feeling EUPHORIA.
  
• 41A: SCHINDLER'S LIST is the [Highest-grossing black-and-white film of all time]. I still haven't seen it. It's really long, isn't it?
  
• Dentistry! 11D: [It's found on the cusp] clues ENAMEL, which covers the cusps of your teeth.
  

Toughies:

• 23A: LOAM is a [Brickmaking mixture], apparently.
  
• 55A: [They're often directed at shepherds] clues AMENS. Because...a pastor is the shepherd of her flock? I'm not sure about this one.
  
• 57A: [Either of two opposing war emblems] is a ROSE. Wars of the Roses involved the House of Lancaster (red ROSE) and the House of York (white ROSE). The War of the Roses is a very dark comedy starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.
  
• 5D: [It might tell you where you stand] refers to one of the "you are here" MAPs.
  
• 7D: JUNO is a [Pantheonic queen] in Roman mythology.
  
• 8D: [One who's not refractory] is an OBEYER. Not the finest -ER word out there.
  
• 13D: SWANS are the [Group of "nine-and-fifty" in a Yeats poem].
  
• 27D: [43.359 kg.] is 100 pounds, or a hundredweight (CWT).
  
• 41D: The [Domain of King Tyndareus] was SPARTA.
  
• 53D: BENZ was the [Maker of the 1923 "Teardrop" racecar].

Updated Friday morning:

Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Final Say"—Janie's review

Where puzzle titles are concerned, Lynn's is the perfect complement to yesterday's "Final Answer" by Tony Orbach. But where Tony's theme-names and -phrases ended with -yes, Lynn's end with words that are synonymous with the verb say, but are not used in that context. And these fine phrases are:

• 17A. PONY EXPRESS [Delivery service of old]. Can you imagine how speedy that pre-FedEx service would have been had ["Horse of the Century" that won 20 of his 21 races] MAN O' WAR been alive and part o' that team? These days of course, E-MAILS, those [In-box fillers], probably provide the swiftest delivery service of all. And that's progress.
  
• 27A. BAGGAGE CLAIM [Airport area]. Though sometimes you really have to speak up to get what's yours...
• 44A. WELFARE STATE [Nation that provides cradle-to-grave services]. I sure don't make that a crime. While definitions do support the clue Lynn's given us, I rather like the tone of the first definition here.
• 59A. WILLIAM TELL [Swiss folk figure renowned as an archer]. And the subject of an opera with one famously-recognizable overture. (Okay, the finale of the overture to be more precise...). Can you name the 3-letter canton Tell called home? It's a crossword puzzle staple.

Elsewhere in the puzzle there are some wonderful clue/fill combos and tie-ins:

• [Down in the mouth] for SAD, and then [Org. for looking down in the mouth?] for ADA (that'd be the American Dental Association). Cute, huh?
• A [Late-night flight] is a RED-EYE; [Eye annoyances] (that can leave your eyes reddened...) are STYES. (This fill also took me back to Tony's puzzle as all I could see was styes...)
• [Terrible spelling?]. Well, that'd be HEXING.
• [Sandwich for Superman?] HERO. D'oh!
• A [Military vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan] is a HUMVEE. I just hope the occupants of our [American H.Q. abroad], our U.S. EMBASSY in those places, is out of harm's way.
• [Many four-footed friends] are PETS and ODIE (which sits directly above in the grid) is not only a [Pooch in the paper] (in the comic-strip "Garfield"), but is one of central character Jim Arbuckle's pets (along with orange tabby cat Garfield).
• [Central quality] gives us the beautiful word ESSENCE, which may also be said to be the spirit of something. [Spirit] as in ÉLAN, however, refers to "enthusiasm, ardor, vigor."
• And speaking possibly for no one else but me... thank you, Lynn. The clue is [Bikini part] and the fill is not BRA. Woo-hoo! Let's hear it for TOP!

Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword

Cool theme—Dan takes the phrase TWO FOR ONE (61A: [Restaurant special, and a hint to this puzzle's theme]) as justification for swapping out four one-related words for their doubled versions:

• 8A: [Not quite Barcelona's best?] clues NUMERO DOS (uno).
  
• 24A: [Four-handed piano piece by a French emperor?] is a NAPOLEON DUET. I know Napoleon Solo of The Man From UNCLE solely from crosswords.
  
• 37A: [Movie gigolo Bigalow struggling with debt?] is a DEUCE IN THE HOLE. Just the other day, Andrea Carla Michaels was telling me she used to hang out with Rob Schneider (of Deuce Bigalow fame/infamy) in his pre-SNL days.
  
• 52A: [Multitasking, but just barely?] is DOUBLE-MINDED. Although a single-minded person could well multitask, focusing on the goal of clearing a to-do list.
  

I like the 9-letter stacks in the corners even though a third of those answers are theme entries and the others are of the same length. The SLEPT LATE/EARLY BIRD cross-reference is lovely ([Proverbial worm catcher]/[Hardly emulated the 16-Across]). My sister's given name is LAUREL and we were fond of Laurel and Hardy shorts, so I'm partial to the [Hardy partner] aspect of LAUREL.

I didn't know that C MAJOR was the [Key in which "Chopsticks" is usually played]. When I filled that in, it wasn't yet obvious to me that NUMERO DOS was a theme entry, so with C MAJOR crossing the NAPOLEON DUET for piano, I was prepared to loathe a music theme. (Yes, I know, it's not likely that a 6-letter Down answer would be part of a theme.) Hooray for a solid wordplay theme instead.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "I'll Have the Number Two"

Brendan's juvenile theme is "words that mean 'poop' used in food puns." Are you working up an appetite for REESE'S FECES, a DING-DUNG, the POO-POO PLATTER, a CRAP CAKE, or the SURF AND TURD? I'm now in the mood for some Reese's Pieces, actually.

The theme echoes the NUMERO DOS and DEUCE... answers in the L.A. Times puzzle, doesn't it?

I couldn't rate this better than 3 stars out of 5 at Brendan's blog. Why? Because of REDOSE ([Up the medication]) and the upper right corner. I didn't know that [Nirvana's record label] was called DGC. I didn't know that Stephen REA was a ["Fever Pitch" actor, 1997], having not seen the movie. The crossing [Rotten egg] is CAD, but I think DUD could've worked too. And then there's 11-Down, [Newborn attendant], with nothing in the clue saying "this is an archaic term." DRY NURSE? Really? Dictionary says archaic: "a woman who looks after a baby but does not breastfeed it". I've heard of wet nurse, nurse, baby nurse—never DRY NURSE.

I did like the crossing of an EST(imate), clued as [Rough amt.] rather than [Ballpark fig.?], with the ORGANIST who is a [Ballpark figure]. I did not care for the [Jack-of-all-trades at times, perhaps] clue for SOLDERER...or for that answer. [Like a jack-of-all-trades] is fine for DEFT, though.

This is a 72-worder. I wonder if I'd have liked the fill better if Brendan had gone with an easier grid, say, a 76-worder.

Liz Gorski's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Hear, Hear!"

The SURROUND SOUND theme includes six other phrases whose beginnings and ends make an surrounding SOUND. For example, [Compared prices] clues SHOPPED AROUND.

Highlights:

• IN LA-LA LAND means [Out of touch with reality].
  
• DO SHOTS is clued as [Throw back tequila].
  
• ["I love you" is "Mi amas vin" in it] refers to ESPERANTO. Do you know Susan Chang, who talks about food on public radio and attends the ACPT? She has written Esperanto haiku on Facebook. Esperanto haiku! It's captivating.
  
• [They include lemons] is a clear-yet-not-easy clue for USED CARS.
  
• I like the word [Bloviates], which clues SPOUTS OFF.
  
• BUSY is clued as [Working class?], while [Help for one in a class struggle] is a TUTOR. Crossword clues cloaked in Marxist misleads!
  
• "WHAT IS IT?" is a [Terse response when interrupted. I started out with WAIT A SEC, but a snappish WHAT IS IT is much more colorful fill.
  

There were some unfamiliar things lurking in this puzzle. Like RAHU, the [Sun-swallowing demon of Hindu myth]—completely new to me. And my dictionary tells me that theme entry SLEUTH-HOUND, or [Detective with a nose for crime fighting], is a dated term for bloodhound or an informal word for an eager investigator. I thought the [Creole entree] was going to be a two-word phrase for some reason, but it's CATFISH; I needed that C for the unfamiliar CESS, or [Luck, in Ireland].

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Thursday, 8/20

NYT 4:23
LAT 3:33
CS untimed (downs only)
Tausig untimed

Elizabeth Gorski's New York Times crossword

If only the word PARALLELOGRAM—[What's revealed by connecting the special squares in this puzzle in order]—weren't so long, it would fit inside the connect-the-dots parallelogram formed by joining the numbered rebus squares. Yes, that's right: Liz has once again crafted a smooth puzzle with a visual kick. (Edited to add: Those numbers in my grid? I put 'em in after the fact. The NYT applet doesn't accept numerals. I used the first letters of the numbers, O, T, T, F, and F to get the applet to accept my solution.) The entries containing those number rebuses are as follows:

• 1. To DR{ONE} is to [Be an utter bore?]—as in "bore people with your every utterance by droning." This crosses a {ONE}SIE, or [Toddler's attire]. The number goes where 15D meets 20A.
  
• 2. Move right to the end of that row for 2 in Clint EAS{TWO}OD, the [Best Director of 1992 and 2004], and AGE {TWO}, a [Time for potty training, maybe]. The {ONE}SIE needs to go once the kid needs to drop trou quickly.
  
• 3. Head down on a diagonal to the BIG {THREE}, [G.M., Ford and Chrysler], and those [School basics], the {THREE} R'S.
  
• 4. Straight over to the left you'll find IN {FOUR}THS, [How mini-pizzas are usually cut], and a [Nice kind of workweek], the {FOUR}-DAY week.
  
• 5. Moving diagonally back towards the 1, TAKES {FIVE} means [Rests] and {FIVE}FOLD is [Like the symmetry of a starfish]. Marine biology nerds will tell you it's a sea star, but I still call it a starfish. So sue me.

The number rebus bits usually refer to the number; only in EAS{TWO}OD and DR{ONE} are they used as non-numeric chunks of letters. Remember the Eastwood flick, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Here, I'll present The Good, The Weird, and The Unfamiliar.

The Good: [The fool in "A fool and his money are soon parted"] is the ANTECEDENT, grammatically speaking. [Tube top] clues CAP, as in a toothpaste tube. You don't need the number in the clue [Eight producers?]—those are ICE SKATERS making figure eights. [Hawaiian strings?] with a question mark aren't UKES, they're LEIS. INVITE plays the part of a noun today: [You might get one before a party]. Frank LANGELLA is the [Tony-winning "Frost/Nixon" actor]. [P.D.Q. Bach's "Sanka Cantata" and such] are PARODIES; leave it to violist Gorski to go with classical PARODIES rather than Weird Al Yankovic. Lots of showy longer answers in this puzzle—I like that.

The Weird: "I DON'T DRIVE" is an odd phrase to see in a crossword; it's clued as an [Excuse given for asking for a ride]. Also odd: "BE ORIGINAL," [Advice for essay writers]. These are weird entries, but I like having stacked pairs of 10-letter answers. [Free of charge] clues AS A GIFT, which is much less in-the-language than a phrase like "as a rule" or "as an example."

The Unfamiliar: IRENA [___ Szewinska, Olympic sprinting gold medalist of 1964, 1968 and 1976]. Who? Never heard of her. But look what a rock star she is: She medaled seven times in four consecutive Olympiads (and also competed in a fifth Games) and in five different events, and during her career she broke six world records. Good gravy, crosswords should be including this notable IRENA all the time!

I also didn't know NED [Washington in the Songwriters Hall of Fame]. He wrote the lyrics for "Rawhide", the theme to the EAS{TWO}OD TV series. [Constellation] clues ASTERISM, which I've seen before but very seldom. SARANAC is a [Beer from upstate New York]; I recognize Saranac as a geographic name but still had to wait for crossings to finish the word. The [Final words of Numbers 5:22] are AMEN, AMEN, they say. I know ABBIE Hoffman and newish actress ABBIE Cornish, but not the [Old comic strip "___ an' Slats"] sort of ABBIE.

Updated Thursday morning:

Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Paper Trails"—Janie's review

I'm gonna say this at the start and get it over with: I didn't ADORE this puzzle. I didn't hate it or find it anything short of professional—the theme fill has some fine rewards for the solver—but on the whole, I felt it lacked some needed TANG.

What dragged it down? Now this may be the biggest challenge of constructing "easy" puzzles, but most of the cluing was of the most straight-forward variety: [Pecan or cashew] for NUT, [Unit of land area] for ACRE, [Foal's mother] for MARE, e.g.; and clinical/technical fill like UTERI, MACRO and NACRE, and old-school crosswordese like ATTAR, ERRS, NEBS and AGUE.

What did ELATE me? The more lively BOUNCES and KARAT, the colloquial "NO WAY!," and a clue like [Digs in Derby] for FLAT; the almost word-ladder result of finding A NET, NEBS, NUBS and NUTS in the grid. Ditto NARC, NACRE and MACRO (yes, even with that less-than felicitous fill...).

I also liked the theme fill, which is comprised of four phrases (two grid-spanning 15s and two 11s) whose last word can follow ("trail"...) the word "paper." And the guilty parties are:

• 17A. THROW IN THE TOWEL [Give up], which gives us paper towel. This is a great phrase, with its prize-fighting origins. Although it's not clued that way, I smile, too, to see how A ROLL (what paper towels come on...) crosses ...TOWEL.
• 26A. BENGAL TIGER [Big cat of India], for paper tiger. This is a person or an idea that looks formidable "on paper" but is, in fact, highly limited in power to be effectual.
• 42A. AMERICA'S CUP [Yachting prize] yields paper cup. Remember this "groovy" Jimmy Webb/Fifth Dimension song? Psychedelic!
• 55A. THE COLOR OF MONEY [1986 Newman/Cruise film] produces paper money. That movie was released 23 years ago?! Where, oh, where does the time go?!

I really was able to solve this one on the basis of the "downs" only—but not without a dopey mistake. For reasons simply not worth investigating deeply, I'd entered CUSP where BUSY lives. This gave me CARB for BARB and GORP of GORY. I couldn't find BUSY in my brain, and all of the letters interlocked to make actual words. But ya know, sometimes that's just not enough!

Todd McClary's Los Angeles Times crossword

In this MIDDLE EARTH themed puzzle, four other theme entries contain EARTH in their midsections, broken among two words in the three longer ones but not in the 7-letter 26-Down. BEATRICE ARTHUR! Who doesn't love the late great ["Maude" actress]? CLEAR THE AIR and I DIDN'T HEAR THAT also have a middle EARTH, as does the central down entry, 26D: DEARTHS, or [Scarcities]. I think I'd like the theme better without DEARTHS' interruption of the theme's consistency; let's leave DEARTHS (or HEARTHS) as the answer to a word puzzle about which word contains just two other letters wrapping the name of a planet. You know some people's lips would start moving as they pondered whether SMERCURYX and MURANUSE were words.

Favorite clue: [Sound quality?] for SANITY. Love it!

For more on this crossword, see PuzzleGirl's L.A. Crossword Confidential post.

Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Really Too Bad"

Fun theme! What's "Really Too Bad" includes the worst movie, TROLL 2, crossing 2 AM, which is [When bars close, in most U.S. cities]. There's a bar in Chicago, Carol's Pub, that's open 'til 5 a.m. on weekends. I bet some people opted for TROLL 3/3 AM here. The worst TV show of all time, some say, is THE JERRY / SPRINGER SHOW. Taped in Chicago! [The worst song of all time, according to Blender], is Starship's "WE BUILT THIS CITY"; I cannot disagree. MOOSE MURDERS is such a woeful Broadway play, I'd never heard of it before this crossword; what's the worst long-running Broadway play? And is CARRIE indeed the worst musical ever? Teen vampire novel TWILIGHT is [The worst book of all time, according to GoodReads.com readers]. "Worst of" lists are always fun, so I liked this theme.

I like the trio of German filmmakers' first names: UWE [Bolll whose films are so badly reviewed that he challenged his most severe critics to a boxing match]; WIM, or ["Buena Vista Social Club" director Wenders] (he also made the memorable Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire); and LENI, ["Triumph of the Will" filmmaker Riefenstahl]. There aren't many good ways to clue UWE, WIM, or LENI aside from these three people, are there?

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Friday, 8/14

NYT 6:29
BEQ 5:35
LAT 5:22
CS untimed—J (worked the Downs)
WSJ 9ish minutes

Barry Silk's New York Times crossword

I'm beat after an 8-hour Brookfield Zoo outing, so I'm going to keep this short. The closest thing to a crosswordese animal I saw was the INCA TERN. Two for the price of one!

I love themeless puzzles with stacks of 9- to 11-letter answers in all four corners, and Barry's stacked 10s fit the bill perfectly because so many of those entries are ridiculously fresh and lively. The marquee answer is CRAIGSLIST right there at 1-Across, clued as [Alternative to newspaper classifieds]. Other entries I liked nearly as much as 1-Across:

• PRIZE FIGHT is [A bout to remember?].
  
• AUNTIE MAME is the [Play for which Peggy Cass won a Tony in 1957]. The clue was of no help to me, and I've got no fondness for the play (which I've never seen), but that is one great crossword answer.
  
• ADAM'S APPLE gets a rather gross clue: [It goes up and down at dinner]. Only in men.
  
• [It has things you want] clues WISH LIST. Man, my birthday's coming right up. I should've updated my Amazon wish list. Though that really doesn't work for puzzle books—if I want it, I get it for myself as soon as it's available. If I don't snarf it up right away, then...I don't really need it at all.
  
• WOODSY is a great word. Clued as [Like the smell of fresh pine]. Who was Woodsy Owl in the '70s? Was that the ecology mascot or the Tootsie Pop spokesowl?
  
• [Bun alternative] had me thinking of hairstyles. Nope, it's bread products: PITA. I gotta check out the new pita-centric restaurant in my neighborhood: Falafill.

I would be remiss not to remark on ORANGE PEEL, or [Curacao ingredient]. On that note, Orange signing off for the night—

Updated Friday morning:

Good thing Janie covers the CrosSynergy puzzle—there's one puzzle that'll be spared my foul mood. The other puzzles will have to be phenomenal for me to overlook the fact that my foot hurts again. After my foot was messed up for four weeks in July, I only made it to mid-August before it flared up again. No fair! It's my birthday tomorrow! So I plan to scowl my way through the crosswords this morning.


Tony Orbach's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Trade Names"—Janie's review

In case there was any question in your mind, that trade in the title is an adjective and not a verb -- so there's no swapping out or switching around of names. Instead Tony clues the names of five well-known folks, each of whom has a last name that also specifies an occupation. All but the first sound like something that might go back to the days of medieval guilds (and all but the last look to be making a first-time appearance in the puzzles). "What guild are you with, James?" "Why, I'm a mason..." Who's in Tony's union hall? Clued by their real occupations, there's:

• 17A. TIKI BARBER [Former Giant running back].
• 24A. GLENN MILLER ["Moonlight Serenade" bandleader].
• 36A. JOHN CARPENTER ["Halloween" director]. On himself: "In France, I'm an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain; a genre film director; and, in the USA, a bum." You be the judge.
• 51A. CHRIS COOPER [2003 Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for "Adaptation"]. (He is such a good, quietly-nuanced actor!!)
• 60A. ANITA BAKER ["Sweet Love" singer]. In no small way, I suspect ETTA [Blues singer James] paved the way for her.

I like the triple sixes in the NW and SE HUGELY -- the misdirection in [Drives home] for BATS IN, the dulcet ARIOSO, the K-studded GO-KART and THE KID. Anyone who YEARNS for more fine fill -- NO PROB. In rotational symmetry to one another, we get LOVE LIFE, with its kinda tricky clue [Dating status], and CS first-timer OVERKILL.

If you find that doing the puzzles keeps you too sedentary, go for a SWIM, go to the ice rink and try to emulate [Hockey legend] Bobby ORR, play some B-BALL, grab your ICE AXE and go cliff climbing. What? That makes you ACHE just thinking about it? Relax. Grab the EDY'S from the freezer and have a nice dish of ice cream!

FWIW, I find [An old flame's pasttime?] not so easily understood for ARSON. It's "cute," but feels like a bit of a stretch. More to my liking is [Last of the Greeks] for OMEGA (i.e., last letter of the Greek alphabet) and [Keys place (abbr.)] for FLA. I also like the way NOT A BIT [None whatsoever] sits atop [Two bits is 25 of these] for CENTS.

Once again, I'm untimed as I solved this (mostly) using one set of clues -- this time, the "downs," and really with much better success than yesterday's attempt. Most serious mistakes came from entering JAN for DEC [Winter mo.] and JIBE for JOSH. (I know, I know... "There's no one named Neris Cooper," she MOANED... but JIVE and ABE [sans clues] looked viable...) A little EMPATHY here is much appreciated!

Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword

At 51-Down, NO WAY is clued ["Forget it!" (and a clue to this puzzle's theme)]. The other seven (!) theme answers (19-, 21-, 29-, 38-, 44-, 57-, and 59-Across) are phrases with NO WAY because the WAY has been cut out. For example, RUN MODEL is made from runway model and is clued [Embodiment of a footrace?]. I dunno—the theme entries in this wide 16x15 grid didn't do it for me. They feel stilted.

Rex Parker will have more shortly at L.A. Crossword Confidential. (Edited to add: Here's the link to the post. Don't miss Rex's disquisition on the balance between thematic ambitiousness and marginal fill.)

Liz Gorski's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Scaling Down"

Beautiful theme from Ms. Gorski today—each of the eight theme entries is altered by the addition of DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, TI, and DO. Sometimes they're added to the beginning of the base phrase and sometimes to the end—but the notes appear in symmetrical spots in the grid. You can always count on Liz for spatial/visual elegance like that. The non-theme fill is smooth, too. Here's the set of theme entries, which have clues that tie together the base phrase and the theme answer:

• 23A. [Trusted Webmaster?] is a DOMAIN MAN, joining DO to the lively "main man." Dave Sullivan is my DOMAIN MAN.
  
• 34A. [Official laptop computer of a San Diego pro?] is a THINKPADRE, as in the IBM ThinkPad + RE and the San Diego Padres of baseball.
  
• 53A. Sal Mineo and neoliberals join forces for MINEO-LIBERALS, or [Progressive acolytes of a "Giant" actor?].
  
• 60A. [With "And," a Perry Como hit favored by couch potatoes?] clues I LOVE YOU, SOFA. Ha!
  
• 73A. SOLO PIONEERS is the [Willa Cather story about single trailblazers?].
  
• 80A. [Elvis's plea in "101 Dalmatians"?] is DON'T BE CRUELLA. Who doesn't love to hate Cruella DeVille?
  
• 98A. TI + tan lines = TITAN LINES, or [What Tennessee gridders get after a day at the beach?].
  
• 115A. [High-fiber bowlful endorsed by "The Godfather" actor?] is ALL-BRANDO. Yum!

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Swinging Party"

The theme is differents "Swingers": TIGER WOODS swings a golf club. TARZAN THE / APE / MAN swings from vines. A LINDY HOPPER just plain swings, as in swing dancing. A TRAPEZIST swings on...a trapeze. And a LUMBERJACK swings an axe. Solid theme; good use of different senses of "swing."

Highlights: [Destroys, as a hotel room] for TRASHES (and Brendan has no famous first-hand knowledge of anything like that, no, sir). [Something a "man" has that a "woman" doesn't] uses quotes to make the clue easier—it's the SHORT A sound that turns into a schwa with the WO-. Will SHORT A cut it as a euphemism for "penis"? I say...no. Trivia clue: ATTILA is the [Emperor who died on his wedding night].

Lowlight: Officially, the [Makeup of 21-Across], or an EM DASH, is not HYPHENS! Zut alors! It is not so hard to learn how to key in an em dash. On the Mac, it's shift-option-hyphen to make this: —. Back in the typewriter days, people rendered em dashes by typing two hyphens, but this is the 21st century. (Yes, I care about punctuation. That's my job.)

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Thursday, 7/16

NYT 4:47
LAT 3:28
CS 5:53 (J—paper)
Tausig untimed

Liz Gorski's New York Times crossword

I love the theme but I can't say I'm wild about the rest of the puzzle. The theme presents an ANAGRAM (35A [See 17- and 57-Across] of two arithmetic problems that total THIRTEEN (12D [Either 17- or 57-Across]. 17A is ELEVEN + TWO ([35-Across of 57-Across that equals 12-Down]) and 57A is TWELVE + ONE ([35-Across of 17-Across that equals 12-Down]). Huh! I don't recall learning that those two number pairs were anagrams of each other. Partnering with THIRTEEN in the opposite corner is IT ADDS UP, a 33A [Possible title for this puzzle]. Those two plus signs (rendered as P for "plus" in my answer grid) work in their crossings, too. 15D is a B+ AVERAGE, or [3.3. in a transcript, maybe?], and 46D is NON{PLUS}ED, or [Puzzled]. I guess really the plus signs are {PLUS} rebus squares, as the word PLUS works in all of them, and + does not work for NON+ED.

There's plenty of tough stuff here:

• 14A. [Ships whose rudders don't touch water] are the airships called DIRIGIBLES. Not being nautically inclined, I started out here with CATAMARANS.
• 19A. [Bobsled challenges] are ESSES, meaning S-curves in the bobsled chute. Bet you thought about bobsleds when you saw 23A's clue, [They travel through tubes]. Those are the OVA that traverse the Fallopian tubes. Bet you also pondered bobsleds at 44D, [Bob at the Olympics]. That's perky Mr. COSTAS.
• 29A. The big "Who??" clue is [French novelist Robert ___, upon whose work the 1973 thriller "The Day of the Dolphin" is based]. The usual crossword MERLEs are actress Merle Oberon and country singer Merle Haggard.
• 39A. [Container for folding scissors] is either a newish or very old clue for the good ol' ETUI. I have taken to calling the little zippered case inside my purse an ETUI. I don't have any sewing gear in it, but you can find a nail file and narcotics.
• 53A. DAMASCUS is the capital of Syria as well as the [Destination of Saul when he had his conversion, in the Bible].
• 60A. AT EYE LEVEL is clued as [Neither high nor low].
• 61A. What? The APSE isn't clued as a recess in a cathedral? Why, I hardly recognized it in [Half-dome construction].
• 2D. I don't care for anything labeled [Swiss cheese]. Does TILSIT taste like holey Swiss cheese?
• 11D. CASE FILE doesn't feel so familiar to me. It's a [Detective's work record].
• 36D. AERO gets a new clue, [Britain's Royal ___ Club, for plane enthusiasts]. Never heard of it, though the AERO part is rather inferrable.
• 54D. [100-lb. units] are hundredweights, abbreviated as CWTS. I know this strictly from crosswords. Not sure if the plural is kosher.

In the Department of Cute Clues, we've got these:

• 16A. The clue [Sounds heard in a bowl] has nothing to do with toilet bowls. They're the RAHS heard in a stadium/arena type of bowl.
• 13D, 55D. Well, if a [Snake's warning] is the hissing SSS, then a [Bear's warning] must be GRRR, right? Naw. It's SELL, as in a Wall Street bear.
• 41A. GAVEL is [Something a chair may hold]. I realize there are traditionalists who cannot abide "chair" being used to refer to a gender-neutral chairperson, but those traditionalists are probably best advised to get a grip.
• 3D. The magician's [Cry just before a rabbit appears?] is PRESTO.
• 4D. [Dwells in the past?] clues LIVETH.
• 8D. Honestly, I don't know anything about the [Red-spotted ___] NEWT, but it felt so right that it pushed CATAMARANS out of my grid. Look how cute!
• 52D. SPELT is a grain of some sort, isn't it? It's also the British past tense of "spell," so the clue is [Like L-O-N-D-O-N].

Updated Thursday morning:

Jack McInturff's Los Angeles Times crossword

The theme, which contains two 14s, two 10s, and a 15 (63 squares in all, a fairly substantial theme), is explained by 58A: WHAT'S THE SPREAD, or a [Bettor's question, and a hint to this puzzle's theme]. The other four themers begin with various edible spreads:

• 16A. MUSTARD PLASTER is an [Old-fashioned remedy for chest colds].
• 26A. [Rochester medical center] is the famous MAYO CLINIC. Did you read that recent(ish) New Yorker article about health care overspending in McAllen, Texas? Atul Gawande wrote about the fabulously efficient methods used for patient care at Mayo. The doctors have much less chance of making a fortune, but the quality of care is phenomenal and the costs are kept in line. More Mayo, please.
• 36A. JELLY ROLL MORTON was the '20s New Orleans Jazz musician clued as ["Black Bottom Stomp" jazz pianist].
• 43A. BUTTERBEAN is a [Lima variety]. I'm not one for lima beans, but I was eating buttered toast before sunrise this morning. Yum, butter.

Shiniest entry in the fill: PAGLIACCI, the [1892 Leoncavallo opera]. Funniest clue: [He "used to be the next president"], for Al GORE.

Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Liquidity"

Ben's puzzle this week partners up well with today's LAT, as both puzzles have some messy stuff. In Ben's theme, phrases that contain solid substances are edited to include a liquid phase of that those substances:

• 17A, 21A. What's liquid rock? It's lava. So Rock, Paper, Scissors turns into LAVA, PAPER, / SCISSORS is a [totally unfair twist on a random selection game]. It mystifies me that there are Rock, Paper, Scissors tournaments. Why not have coin-toss tournaments? Or really, juice things up a bit with molten lava, which both combusts the paper and melts the scissors.
• 37A. Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, melts into GREASE TUESDAY, a [Midweek occasion for catching a Broadway revival?].
• 56A, 61A. ["Verily shall Evian be here soon"?] clues THE WATER / MAN COMETH, with ice turning to water.

And now, the highlight reel. I loved the surprise of 28A. Seven letters, starting with M, [Late singer Jackson with multiple Grammys]...what else could it be but MICHAEL? Well, there's also MAHALIA Jackson. 47A CARL'S JR. is the odd name of a [West Coast burger chain] and a cool crossword answer. The clue for 3D, NEVAEH, is written with the words in the correct order, but with each word spelled backwards: [ybaB eman taht yltnecer emaceb yrev ralupop, yllaicepse htiw lacilegnave snaitsirhC], or Baby name that recently became very popular, especially with evangelical Christians. And no, Lleh has not caught on yet. Isn't it mean to give a kid a name that's the opposite of Heaven? [Like Beethoven and Rush Limbaugh] clues DEAF at 4D. The lively PUH-LEASE at 18D is clued ["You think I'm gonna swallow that?"]. 31D is a CASTRATO, or [Male singer for whom the Italians used to go nuts]. Actually, "for whom the nuts used to go missing" works too. 37D GOT THE AX is a solid phrase; [Was victim to some rightsizing] feels a little retro as a clue because these days, nobody's daring to call it "rightsizing," are they?

Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Confidentially Speaking"—Janie's review

Come close because I have to say this very quietly: Paula has given us a perfectly wonderful puzzle, but it's filled with—sshh!—unmentionables. The first word of each of the four (lively) theme phrases relates to the idea of confidentiality, and all but the first phrase seem to be making their first appearances in a CS puzzle. Because I gotta, I'll now break the confidence and reveal the phrases in question:

• 17A. INTIMATE APPAREL [Thongs and things]. Saucy clue, too.
  
• 26A. SECRET ADMIRER [Sender of an anonymous valentine, perhaps].
  
• 44A. PRIVATE SCHOOL [Many an academy]. This is the only fill that feels a tad out of sync. The others may or may not be visible to the eye (or known) and in that sense, actually relate to the idea of secrecy. But there's nothing hidden about a private school. The public may not be allowed in, but the building is there for all to see. The others, too, are related by involving human beings. Even those inanimate [Thongs and things] are worn by someone. I love the word private in the context of the puzzle, just not school so much. "Private Dancer" perhaps? Of course this involves a major re-write, but (as I see it) is more "of a kind" with the other entries.
  
• 58A. PERSONAL HYGIENE [Practices performed for one's health and well-being]. And practice makes perfect!

I found this to be a smooth 'n' easy solve and also found much to admire along the way with connected clues/fill. A [Meter master], for example is a POET, and one of the great ones in the English language is Shakespeare. The [Middle of a Shakespearian play] (so many of which are written in iambic pentameter)? ACT III, of course. And to complete Acts IV and V, I imagine even the Bard of Avon occasionally had to call on ERATO [Muse of bards]. Like most writers, Bill no doubt preferred it when his players would READ his words [Follow a script] and may have said, "I cringe at the AD LIBS of the player who [Skips the script]." Actually, he had Hamlet say something about delivery in ACT III, ii, when he instructs the travelling actors to:

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you—trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I has as lief the town-crier had spoke my lines.

I'm not sure if there was a CAMEO [Bit part for a big player] in that theatrical entertainment staged at Elsinore...

There's the European connection, from the [Twelve months in Toulouse] for ANNÉE, to [River through Florence] for ARNO, to [Neighbor of Montenegro] for SERBIA. And a (probably inadvertent) baseball connection in the crossing of HURL [What pitchers do] and ["Three strikes and you're out," e.g.] for RULE. (And what a polite clue for HURL, no? Also, it took me a while to realize that the pitchers in the clue were not ewers...) I also have to express my delight in seeing ["There's] NO 'I' [in team"] right next to [Bit of wisdom] ADAGE.

A few more mentions, and then I'm gone:

• ["Atonement" author McEwan] for IAN reminded me that, while I've not read this book (did see the film), I did read (and recommend) Saturday a slender volume about a harrowing day in the life of a London surgeon and his family. It sneaks up and packs a wallop.
  
• [Cut in a column] for EDIT. I had trouble with this one because I wouldn't let go of the idea of architectural columns.
  
• [Quiet moment for a nanny] for NAP-TIME. Love the clue, love the fill.
  
• [Michigan city mentioned in Paul Simon's "America"] for SAGINAW. For reasons I'll never know, that's the song that was going through my head for much of the last two days. Maybe because Paul Simon was on Jimmy Fallon's show recently? Anyway, I was glad to encounter it directly in the puzzle!

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Thursday, 7/2

NYT 6:13
Jonesin' 3:38
LAT 3:09
Tausig untimed
CS 6:08 (J―paper)

D'oh! Matt Jones tweeted me (@jonesinpuzzles) to ask where my writeup of his puzzle was. Yeah. I meant to do that yesterday, but completely forgot. Let's add it to Thursday's list of things to try not to forget!

Elizabeth Gorski's New York Times crossword

It's Thursday, and you know what that means—sometimes, not every week but some Thursdays, there's a rebus. Throw Ms. Gorski in the byline and it's practically a certainty. This time, there are four rebus squares in the central answer:

• 34A. [Famous quote by 20-Across] is "{ROSE} IS A {ROSE} IS A {ROSE} IS A {ROSE}." Who is 20-Across?
  
• 20A. [Pittsburgh-born poet who was the subject of a Picasso portrait] is GERTRUDE STEIN. Here's that painting and the interesting story behind it.
  
• 50A. What's up with the rebus squares? They're a FLORAL DISPLAY, or [Colorful decoration hinted at by 34-Across].

I worked too many Longo vowelless crosswords before doing this puzzle tonight, and my brain wanted long answers with only the consonants showing. Between that, the rebus, and some wicked-hahd clues, you'd think it was Saturday or something. Sheesh! Here were my trouble spots:

• 1A. LIST means [Not stay fully upright]. So do LEAN and TILT.
  
• 10A. [Year the Chinese poet Li Po was born]? Come on! I'll take Roman numeral arithmetic over that kind of clue. It's DCCI, or 701.
  
• 16A. [10 to 1, e.g.] is a ROUT if those numbers are points scored by two opposing players.
  
• 30A. ELMS are [Raw materials for shipbuilding]. Is that really the lingo? Are the trees used for shipbuilding, or is it the wood?
  
• 57A. HILO is a city in Hawaii, but it's also HI-LO, a [Kind of poker] I've never heard of. Bring me the stud. I have heard of the stud.
  
• 59A, 53D. I like Lisa Kudrow but...["___ X" (2003 Lisa Kudrow film)] crossing [Mil. awards] damn near killed me. MARCI and DSCS. I took a stab at DSTS, even though DST as in daylight saving time is at 41A.
  
• 60A. No! Really? ASIR? A [Province of Saudi Arabia]? Don't recall seeing that one ever.
  
• 1D. LIEGES are [Subjects studied by medieval scholars?] in that lieges are the subjects of a lord. Strangely, liege can also mean the lord.
  
• 11D. Never did read Julius Caesar, so I needed plenty of crossings to see that CORNELIA is the [Wife of Julius Caesar].

And now for the things I liked that didn't give me fits:

• 39A. Albert CAMUS is the one [Who wrote "Can one be a saint if God does not exist?].
  
• 55A. SHOE FETISH is clued by way of [Carrie Bradshaw had one in "Sex and the City"]. High heels, feh. Foot-mangling waste of money. Terrific entry, though. Can one have a SHOE FETISH for sensible shoes, like Merrell and Naot? Because one can never have too many pairs of those.
  
• 61A. KOLN (Köln, really) is the German spelling of Cologne. It's a German cathedral city. Relieved to know this one, right on the heels of the MARCI and ASIR debacles.
  
• 7D. TIME? [It may be on your side]. Are you singing that Rolling Stones song now?
  
• 9D. [Twisted this clue's is] suggests mangled SYNTAX. Yoda! Is that you? Are you working for Will Shortz now?
  
• 24D. AMB{ROSE} is clued as [Writer Bierce]. He wrote The Devil's Dictionary in 1911. The Barnes & Noble review of my book had given Bierce credit for a mock definition of "crossword," but the crossword was invented in 1913.
  
• 27D, 46D. MO{ROSE} means [Gloomy], and EEYORE, a [Character in "Piglet's Big Movie," 2003] is a classic example of moroseness. (The other two rebuses are in {ROSE} RED, [Snow White's sister}, and {ROSE} UP, or [Was revolting].)
  
• 44D. [Like Chopin] clues POLISH. Don't let the "Frederic" fool you.

Updated Thursday morning:

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "A Wrinklin' Time"―Janie's review

Playing off the title Madeleine L'Engle's science fiction/fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time, Patrick's three theme-fill phrases each begin with a something that is associated with being, well, wrinkled.

• 17A. [With "The," 1980 Anthony Hopkins film] gets us started with ELEPHANT MAN (which is also a play). Metaphorically speaking, wrinkles are sometimes known as "ripples of time." This guy is very well-rippled...
• 37A. [1959 Broadway show with Sidney Poitier] yields A RAISIN IN THE SUN (which is also a movie). Yep. Raisins are mighty wrinkly, too.
• 56A. [Fruity breakfast pastry] serves up PRUNE DANISH. No argument here.

The strength of this theme-fill is in the images it summons up―and the images for all three entries are perfection. Additionally, all three feel very fresh and (in the Cruciverb database-era [CDbE]) are appearing for the first time in a CS puzzle. Where I feel a bit let down is in the lack of consistency from phrase to phrase. Two are the titles of stage/film works; one is an edible. One of the former appears in the grid minus the article that's part of its title; the other appears in its entirety. Raisin and prune are both examples of dried fruits; the elephant...isn't.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed solving this one, and the quality of the non-theme fill/clues is first rate. For starters, there's the whole Asian/Pacific feel we get with: GEISHAS, GURUS, KRISHNA, SRI [...Lanka], ["Kama ___"] SUTRA, and even ["Pearly Shells" singer] DON HO. SEN-SEN [Classic breath freshener] sounds like it should be Asian, but there's nothing in its history to support that idea. What a nice aural complement it is, though, to YENS [Longings] and ESSENTIAL.

The top half of the puzzle is nicely scattered with high-scorin' Scrabble letters in such words as: JERSEY, OZONE, OLIVE, EXHIBITS and XEROX.

We're also treated to a series of lively phrases: HOME BASE clued not in conjunction with America's favorite pastime, but as [Headquarters]; CDbE CS-first SIDE BET [Secondary wager]; TRADE UP, ON SPEC and SANK IN. Something that has been cut IN TWO has been [Bisected, say]. Once cut, will the parts ever again be able to UNITE [Form an alliance]?

While I have no strong interest in GUNS, I do like that UZI is clued as an [Israel Weapons Industries product]. The specificity in the clue gives us a fresh take on now-standard fill. Ditto [Finnish steam bath] for SAUNA. Other geographic references can be found in [Costa] DEL [Sol], ELLIS [New York Harbor island] and [Eugene resident] OREGONIAN. Not only is this word absent from the C'verb database (and Jim Horne's), but in looking for images of prunes, I found a wonderful one of a fruit crate label for (really) Beaver Brand Fancy Evaporated Oregon Prunes. Gee I love it when everything comes together like this!

Pete Muller's Los Angeles Times crossword

The plumber's coming this morning so I figured I'd better clean the bathroom. No wonder I hate doing that—it wore me out and made me develop that crossword dyslexia in which I read entirely wrong clues and proceed to fill in errant answers. The first "INNER EAR" theme entry is the [1979 Sister Sledge hit] WE ARE FAMILY, but somehow I turned that space into 14-Across and tried to get [With 26-Across, city in southern Brazil]. RIODEJANEIRO doesn't fit at all and yet I tried typing that in.

So, anyway! The INNER EAR is the [Balance organ that's literally found in the answers to starred clues]—besides the Sister Sledge song (which I love), there's NOSE AROUND, ANNE ARCHER, THE ART OF WAR, and AREA RUGS. That two-part Brazilian city is PORTO / ALEGRE, and no, it wouldn't be fair to put that in a Monday puzzle. This one's Thursday, so it'll fly.

For more on this puzzle, check out PuzzleGirl's L.A. Crossword Confidential post. The Crosswordese 101 tutorial today is that [Inland Asian sea], the ARAL Sea, its assorted clues, and how it is not the URAL. I went to school with a kid named Ural.

Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "Additive Properties: You're giving me a headache"

The theme's not about math, it's about a common food additive that gives some people headaches. 67A is NO MSG, a [Dietary restriction that the long answers manage to disregard], and the five longest entries have an embedded MS G. (The 10-letter answerts COMICS PAGE and MELLO YELLO aren't part of the theme; they're merely fantastic entries.) Here's the theme:

• 20A. Reversing a common clue for ENOS, we have [The Bible's Enos, relatively speaking?] as a clue for ADAM'S GRANDSON.
  
• 24A. H.M.S. GREENWICH is a [British ship that shares its name with a New York "village"].
  
• 36A. [Former name of the airport in Phoenix, Arizona] is WILLIAMS GATEWAY. Or WILLIAM'S? I like to think the new name is the more casual "Bill's Vacation Portal."
  
• 44A. ALL SYSTEMS GO is the classic [NASA OK]. Look at that crazy all-caps clue.
  
• 52A. ["I'm fine with it"] means SEEMS GOOD TO ME.
  

The most unusual answer is HARD CH, clued as [Feature of "Christmas" or "chimera"]. I'm pretty sure linguists would just call that something like a K sound. I see websites that call the CH in "chimichanga" a "hard CH," vs. a soft one "chemise."

Plumber's here—gotta go!

Updated Thursday afternoon—no, make that Thursday evening

Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Special K"

What's going on in this puzzle is a K sound is inserted into four familiar phrases to make 'em into entirely different things spelled with a QUE:

• 18A. BLACK BASQUE is clued as [African immigrant in the Pyrenees?]. I suspect there's a fish called the black bass.
  
• 27A. [Dialing up an expensive shop?] is a BOUTIQUE CALL, riffing on "booty call." Nice!
  
• 46A. I have a weakness for Auntie Anne's Pretzels, the cinnamon/sugar ones in particular. I once chose a flight that connected through Pittsburgh specifically because the Pittsburgh airport had Auntie Anne's. This was back in the '90s, before the chain invaded the Midwest. If you were on a flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago around 1996 and the smell of cinnamon was tormenting you, I apologize. Auntie Anne's with a K sound inserted becomes ANTIQUE ANNE'S, a [Mall kiosk with really stale pretzels].
  
• 59A. I'd much rather eat sugared pretzels than wasabi peas, but that's just me. WASABI PIQUE might be an [Intense feeling from eating sushi?].
  

Now, who will swing by Water Tower Place to fetch me a cinnamon/sugar pretzel? I'm really hankering for one right now.

Favorite clues:

• 24A. ARETHA is [Preacher and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin's daughter.
  
• 41A. You say ["Ch-ch-ch-___"] and David Bowie sings "Changes." The TV commercials sell you CHIA Pets.
  
• 55A. With those alternating consonants and vowels, ISABEL should find good use in crosswords. A currently famous one is [___ Toledo (designer of Michelle Obama's inauguration dress)].
  
• 3D. [Dash alternative] sounds like...laundry detergent? No, a COLON—in punctuation. You know: <— one of those. 34D. To KNIT is to [Be a needle user?]. 54D. [Item manufactured in Blaine in "Waiting for Guffman"] is a STOOL. Gotta love the little touches of the ludicrous that Christopher Guest puts in his movies.

I didn't know BATU, the [Mongol ruler Khan descended from Genghis]. Do you think Genghis Khan was a cuddly grandpa? I'll bet he was.

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