Jonesin' 4:07
NYS 2:58
NYT 2:51
LAT 2:50
CS 2:38
(post updated at 10:30 a.m. Monday)
Gilbert Ludwig's New York Times crossword bundles together three movie titles that follow the format of "The [synonym for "happy"] [term for a woman defined in relation to a man]." In 1934, Ginger Rogers starred in THE GAY DIVORCEE and Jeanette MacDonald played THE MERRY WIDOW. More recently (in 1975), Lynn Redgrave portrayed THE HAPPY HOOKER. Let's see—what seems out of kilter for a Monday puzzle? I wonder what degree of fame journalist ADELA Rogers St. Johns possesses outside of crosswords. I know her only from crosswords. Writer Zora NEALE Hurston is, I hope, widely renowned. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a terrific read. YMA Sumac is a crossword regular—doesn't she make so much more sense perched atop the YMCA? Overall, pretty darned Mondayish fill, I'd say. Did anyone else read the [Stinky stream] clue, see that the space had five squares, and think of URINE? The [Placid vacation vista] clue for LAKE VIEW is one way to go; [The neighborhood beside Orange's] would be another (94,000 people! City neighborhoods are big, yo.). Lots of non-Mondayish cross-referencing in this puzzle—TURKS live in ANKARA, and actress Saint's first and middle names are EVA and MARIE (or hyphenated first name, if that's how it is). 
The New York Sun puzzle by Sarah Keller, "Street Closings," has a Gothamite theme. The five long answers end with words that are also street names in NYC: BRICK WALL and ROOT CANAL, sure. I presume that the bold words in ECHO CHAMBERS, THE RITE OF SPRING, and CONCERT GRAND are also New York streets, but they sound only faintly familiar. The [Tour de France competitor] is CYCLER, but that sounds off to me; cyclist or biker, sure, but I don't think the bike-racing crowd uses "cycler" much. The two 8-letter answers in the fill, ICE CREAM and ONION DIP, clash horribly. Yes, they're both dairy products, but now I'm thinking of onion ice cream and it's making me sad. Almost as sad as that ice cream they used to stock in the college cafeteria—licorice chip. It was charcoal gray with black bits.
Updated:
The LA Times crossword appears to be Scott Atkinson's debut. (Congrats, Scott!) He partnered with Nancy Salomon. The puzzle's got a heckuva lot of theme squares for a debut, and they're all over the grid. BOX at 65-Down ties them all together, as the theme phrases start with words that can follow BOX. [Auto-care brand with a reptilian name] is TURTLE WAX, and box turtles are a kind of turtle. SEAT OF THE PANTS means [Instinctive], and box seats offer premium seating. 
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy puzzle, "First Names in the Funnies," kicks it old-school with Jughead and Midge's pals from the Archie comics. The first names in the theme entries are all Archie characters—ARCHIE MANNING is a [Noted Saints quarterback of the '70s], BETTY CROCKER is a [Big name in baking], VERONICA LAKE was the ["This Gun for Hire" actress], and REGGIE JACKSON is [Baseball's "Mr. October"]. I wasn't sure about Archie Manning's last name, but the rest of the theme practically filled itself in. Yep, I read some Betty & Veronica comics when I was a kid. Cute theme, and perfect for a Monday.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword is called "Bizarro World," and all the theme entries become opposites by getting an ANTI added to the beginning. For example, [Street where tires never slip?] is ANTISKID ROW, playing on Skid Row, and a thesis paper is turned into ANTITHESIS PAPER, [What opposites are written down on?]. I do not have a pad of antithesis paper, but I could use one. My favorite theme entry rebutted Gen X-ers, with ANTIGEN XERS being [People who cross out a substance that causes an immune response?]. Overlong clue, but the answer looks good in the grid.
July 20, 2008
Monday, 7/21
March 07, 2007
Thursday, 3/8
NYT 5:35
LAT 4:49
NYS 4:46
CS 3:00
(post updated at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and in the first paragraph at 10:40 a.m.)
Gilbert H. Ludwig's NYT crossword may be a quip puzzle—a type of puzzle I typically deplore—but I loved it anyway. I even liked the quip. It's a good play on the old saw, "A stitch in time saves nine," and it works as (bad) poetry—the two halves of the quip are each eight syllables, they end in rhymes, and they have similar meter (don't ask me to elaborate—I am no expert on scansion). The non-thematic fill is even groovier. There are 16 7-letter answers and two 9's, and a great set of clues. Favorite nuggets of fill and cluing: [Frenchman with a famous line] for MAGINOT, PRITHEE, [Country of Saroyan's heritage] for ARMENIA, [It keeps things going] for INERTIA, [Nasty stinger] for FIRE ANT, YAHTZEE crossing Steve WOZNIAK, the quaint trio of CHIGNON/AMPHORA/NOSTRUM, [Cádiz kinswoman] for TIA, [Beef producers] for GRIPERS (not great fill, but much improved by the clue), and [Katzenjammers] for HANGOVERS. (Edited to add this link to World Wide Words' write-up on the word katzenjammer, which comes from the German for "the wailing of cats" and meant "hangover" or "the willies" in America before the "Katzenjammer Kids" comic strip began.) Never heard of actress FAY Spain, but I'm making a note of her name for those late-week clues that need to be tougher than Fay Wray (read more about Ms. Spain here).
I also thoroughly enjoyed Seth Abel's Sun Themeless Thursday. It had pop culture I didn't know (ADAM WEST is on Family Guy, LL COOL J had a song called "Hey Lover") and some movie names I did know (Angelina JOLIE's Oscar for Girl, Interrupted, Peter LORRE in Casablanca, director George ROMERO, and, of course, [Cruciverbalist Reagle of Wordplay], MERL). Clues I liked: the hidden brand names in [Edge, for example] for GEL, and [Tribute creator] for MAZDA; [Important 5-year-old in 1715] for LOUIS XV; the collegiate pair of [Its motto is "Lux et veritas"] for YALE UNIVERSITY and [Penn neighbor] for DREXEL; [Telephone phrase] for PASS IT ON; [Boxer, e.g.: Abbr.] for DEM; [Product with the slogan, "Smart choice, great taste"] for OLEAN; [Shot following a break] for X-RAY; and [Tissue alternative for the uncouth] for SLEEVE. Extra bonus points for the cheesiest sportscar of my youth, the TRANS AM, complete with the firebird painted on the hood.
Updated:
Fred Jackson III's LA Times puzzle showcases Apollo, with four 15-letter theme entries that can all be clued as [Apollo]. The first of these is MYTHOLOGICAL GOD, which brings to mind Richard Dawkins' oft-quoted line from The God Delusion: "I have found it an amusing strategy, when asked whether I am an atheist, to point out that the questioner is also an atheist when considering Zeus, Apollo, Amon Ra, Mithras, Baal, Thor, Wotan, the Golden Calf and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I just go one god further." I would like to go on record stating that Thor is okay by me, because if he didn't exist, would we have Thursday crosswords?
Harvey Estes has made a ZIPpy CrosSynergy crossword, in which the first word of four theme entries (two 14's and two 8's) can be preceded by ZIP: the phrase "zip through," the USPS's ZIP code, the ZIP file format, and the ill-fated Iomega Zip Drive (named one of the 25 worst tech products ever by PC World magazine).
