LAT 3:12
Sun 3:02
NYT 2:53
CS 2:52
(updated at 9:15 Tuesday morning)
Nancy Salomon and Larry Shearer teamed up to make a New York Times crossword that goes off in a decidedly non-Tuesdayish direction—two directions, actually. In addition to the 15-letter theme entry at 7-Down, HEADING DUE SOUTH or [Going straight to Antarctica, say], there are two diagonal 15's spanning the grid. Heading southeast from the 1 square, we have SLIP-SLIDING AWAY to remind me of this Paul Simon song. Traveling southwest from the 12 square is RUNNING DOWNHILL. The fill consists of ordinary Tuesday-grade answers, which was probably hard to achieve given the extra "checking" of some answers. Both YOU I (completing [Fats Domino's "It's ___ Love"]) and IGGY ([Pop's ___ Pop]) cross four Down answers, one of which is a theme answer, as well as intersecting both of the diagonal theme answers. That middle section probably didn't have too many alternative fills, eh? The constructing duo even managed to work two 9-letter answers, the WINDY CITY and a HONEYMOON, into the grid.
Jack McInturff's Sun crossword, "Alter Natives," is in the running for an Oryx award for Best Repurposing of Crosswordese. (Remember the year-end American Crossword Critics Association awards Rex and I compiled last year? Professional namer (and constructor) Andrea Michaels suggested calling them the Oryx awards, combining the Orange and Rex alter egos.) The "alter native" in question is OTOE, an [Oklahoma Indian (and a three-word description of this puzzle's theme)]—in other words, change an O TO E in each theme entry:
Updated:
For today's LA Times crossword, editor Rich Norris, writing as "Lila Cherry," dug up four 14- or 15-letter phrases that contain the letters in VETERAN in order, spaced out by the other letters in the phrase. I've circled the those squares in my answer grid. Now, how on earth did Rich devise this list of theme entries? With the aid of a computer program, or just in his head?
It's Veterans Day today, so this VETERANS ([This puzzle's honorees, one of which is spread out in each of the four longest answers]) puzzle is a timely tribute—and that unifying theme word crosses two of the theme entries. Highlights in the fill: HOME BREW is [Personal suds]; VEEJAY and DWEEBS reside near each other in the grid; MR. ROARKE was [Tattoo's boss on "Fantasy Island"]; OLEG Cassini and Calvin KLEIN are both fashion designers. I was confused as to why U2 lead singer BONO was clued [His epitaph reads "And the beat goes on"], so I Googled that. Ah! The late Sonny BONO, not the U2 guy. Overall, the fill's quite Scrabbly, with V's that aren't in the theme entries, J's, K's, and X's.
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle is also a "Veterans Day Tribute." The theme answers are four famous men who served in the four branches of the service:
The PENTAGON, or [United States Department of Defense headquarters], is a bonus entry related to the theme.
November 10, 2008
Tuesday, 11/11
October 23, 2008
Friday, 10/24
NYT 7:02
Sun 6:02 (by the way, downloading the Sun should work now at Cruciverb)
LAT 5:51
CHE 4:02
CS 3:22
WSJ 7:34
(updated at noon Friday)
Friday blogging will be light/late—my son is off school, and we need to get started on making a model of the earth. Mantle, anyone?
Frederick Healy's New York Times crossword is riddled with spots to trip or to draw a blank on, but somehow it all came together. What's in this 70-worder? There are some people, specific and general. Two people get the full-name treatment:
Last names only for these folks:
On a first-name basis:
Fictionally, we have the '70s [Sitcom guy with a frequently upturned thumb, with "the"], FONZ, and SATAN. The latter is a [Bad lover?] if he loves bad.
Then there are all the generic sorts:
Geography figures into this puzzle, too:
Assorted other not-so-well-known bits:
Justin Smith's Sun crossword, "Swiss Cheese," has sprouted three HOLEs in rebus squares:
I like that my first name, AMY (or ["This Is the Life" singer Macdonald]—who?]) intersects with MR. HAT, the ["South Park" puppet] wielded by whacked-out teacher Mr. Garrison. I like other stuff, too, but duty calls.
Updated:
The theme in Larry Shearer's LA Times crossword is spelled out in the final theme entry: DISAPPEARING INK is a [Prankster's item, and this puzzle's theme] because INK is removed from various phrases to create the other four theme entries:
The surrounding clues and fill slaughtered me, alas. TEL [___ Hai: Israeli monument site] was a bit much, as the TEL crosses two theme entries, and the puzzle's already got B'NAI Brith, HORAS, an ESSENE ([Supposed inhabitant of ancient Qumran]), and ERIC Bana (who played an Israeli assassin in Munich) for the Jewish/Israeli sub-theme. I've heard of MORONI as Mormonism's Angel Moroni, but not as the [Capital of the Comoros]. All sorts of clues felt like Stan Newman "Saturday Stumper" clues—the noun [Adept] is an ACE; [Evening] a game is TYING the score; [Beats] are TEMPOS and not a verb; the verb [Rush] means to BOLT. Slightly more specific were these clues that still eluded me for a while: The [Gist] of something is its KERNEL of truth; and [Pleasure seekers?] are IDS.
Was this one tougher than you expected, or am I just not on Larry Shearer's wavelength?
The theme in Raymond Hamel's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Spaghetti Western," kept me guessing, and when it finally added up, it made for a nice "aha" moment." Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the quintessential spaghetti western, and the three theme entries are 15-letter movie titles that begin with THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY. The [2006 Matt Damon movie] is THE GOOD SHEPHERD, THE BAD NEWS BEARS is a [1976 Walter Matthau movie], and THE UGLY AMERICAN is a [1963 Marlon Brando movie]. Perfect theme, isn't it?
Karen Adams' crossword in the Chronicle of Higher Education just might be her debut. The theme is "Is There a Wort for That?"—Wort is German for "word," and the theme entries are all German words that have no one-word English equivalents:
Cool theme. I also like the anatomical collision between GLUTE, or [Certain muscle, slangily], and GLOTTIS, or [Laryngeal opening]. Things I didn't know: ROWE is [18th-century Poet Laureate Nicholas]. CAPUA is or was an [Appian Way city]. BODHI is [Enlightenment, in Eastern religion].
I had fun with Pancho Harrison's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Male Bonding." There are nine theme entries, famous men whose names include MAN at least once, and those MANs appear in rebus squares. Since [MAN]FRED MAN[N] has two MANs, that means there are 10 rebus squares that need to work out with intersecting Down entries. It all comes together smoothly, and some of the non-theme clues are fun: [Shell games?] are REGATTAS. [It has little foliage] clues BONSAI. [Tool used when the stakes are high?] is a SLEDGE, used to pound stakes into the earth. Archie [Bunker, for one] is a BIGOT. The fill contains a lively batch of words, such as Miami Vice's TUBBS, a GUSHER, ONE-NOTE, GARBLE, ROOMIES, Huey Lewis and THE NEWS, and SPLATTED like a water balloon. I still want to grumble that the WSJ crosswords have been easier than usual of late, but this one was a little closer to the mean, and the rebuses were fun to root out rather than burdensome. Anyone else notice DANTE and PEAK appearing in sequence together near the bottom? Dante's Peak was a volcano movie.
July 17, 2008
Friday, 7/18
NYS 7:33
NYT 5:31
CHE 4:16
CS 3:39
LAT tba—I can't get Cruciverb.com to load today, so no LAT in Across Lite yet
WSJ 9:42
I have a headache, which does not put me in a blogging frame of mind. Also, if you happen to have solved the Sun and Times crosswords without a headache and you were faster than me, please remember that my brain is aching. (Preemptive excuse-making! I excel at that.)
Up first, Mike Nothnagel's New York Times crossword. 
I liked it a lot. A crossword that works GAY-FRIENDLY into the mix (clued as [Inclusive, as some resorts]) gives me the warm fuzzies. I've edited plenty of sleep medicine papers, so I liked the combination of CIRCADIAN RHYTHM ([It helps you sleep at night] rather than in the daytime) at 17-Across and JETLAG, which is a potent [17-Across disrupter] (so is shift work).
The nastiest bits, the ones that demanded attention to their crossings, included:
Interesting or unusual answers:
Assorted other things I feel like mentioning, but no longer have the will to organize:
Joe DiPietro's New York Sun puzzle is called "Shuffle the Deck," so I figured the theme would have something to do with playing cards. Indeed, we are treated to SPOONERISMs of four cards. After swapping the initial consonant sounds (or lack thereof), the eight of hearts becomes HATE OF ARTS, a [Philistine's characteristic?]. The ace of spades is SPACE OF AIDES. The [Movie river's senior member gets better?] was hard to parse. Rivers have members? The queen of diamonds turns into a brief tale in which the DEAN OF KWAI MENDS. That one's tortured so far, it's almost genius. Six of clubs is CLICKS OF SUBS.
The clues and answers I admired the most:
Updated:
Harvey Estes constructed this week's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Boarding Requests." The boarding in question has a Star Trek bent to it—together, 65- and 67-Across spell out BEAM / ME UP. Those ME's are beamed up from the four theme entries in the grid's bottom half, where they've been removed from phrases that are reclued accordingly, and teleported smack-dab into the four theme entries up top, also clued accordingly. [Brand-name desserts in a food fight?], for example, are SARA MELEE CAKES. The [Plain grazer?] is a HOMELY COW. The [Guilt-ridden doo-wop group?] is SHAME NA NA. After the ME's were beamed up, what was left at the bottom included 'TIS SQUARE (Times Square), or [Comment about something that's ne'er been hip], and LEAD A CHARD LIFE (charmed), or [Be a vegetarian]. Good theme, tons of good fill and clues. One of my pet peeves is crosswords that pretend that "coeds" isn't a sexist term for "female college students." So props to Harvey and/or editor Mike Shenk for [Connecticut coeds] as a clue for ELIS—maybe the Yale students in question are thought to be female, but ELIS is a gender-neutral term for Yale students. I have never once used MELON to mean [Financial windfall]. Which kind of melon is it? I prefer watermelon. Favorite clues: [Appealing, maybe] for IN COURT; [Place for some drawers] for ART CLASS; [Evidence from a hairsplitter?] for DNA; and [Area between the shoulders] for the ROAD.
I quickly caught onto the theme in Larry Shearer's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Copy Writers." [Difficulties in writing "Common Sense"?] are Thomas PAINE'S PAINS, and all the theme entries follow that structure, author's name in the possessive + a homophone of that possessive. Dario FO'S FOES are [Those who opposed the writing of "Accidental Death of an Anarchist"?]. That writer a great many of us know strictly from his appearances in crosswords, Charles Reade, figures into READE'S READS, or [Texts that influenced the writing of "The Cloister and the Hearth"?]. Edgar Allan POE'S POSE is the [Stance assumed while writing "The Purloined Letter"?]. [Libations enjoyed while writing "War Trash"?] are JIN'S GINS, and I had to look that one up. It's a recent novel by Ha Jin and it won the National Book Award. The most insane entry in the puzzle was [Local assembly of czarist Russia], or ZEMSTVO. The Wikipedia article tells me this mode of local government allowed the peasants a wee smidgen of involvement, though the nobles hogged most of the slots for themselves.
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword is called "Plus-Fours," and it's got nothing to do with those crazy-looking short pants that may well be in evidence at the British Open golf tournament this weekend. Instead, the theme entries add four to the number in various phrases. You know the story of the Three Little Pigs—add four and you get SEVEN LITTLE PIGS, [A full litter?]. [A very lucky find?] might be an EIGHT-LEAF CLOVER (though I'd worry about mutagens in the local environment if I saw one...). The [Extended Beatles song?] is TWELVE DAYS A WEEK, which would be a lot of days in the week to be loving someone.
July 10, 2008
Friday, 7/11
NYS 10:54
LAT 5:03
NYT 4:34
CHE 4:25
CS 4:10
WSJ 6:31
Ooh, Peter Gordon has deprived me of a themeless New York Sun crossword this week, and I don't even care. You'd think I'd be outraged, but Jeffrey Harris's Friday puzzle is an excellent and twisty follow-up to Patrick Blindauer's colorful theme yesterday. The "Missing Links" gimmick involves 24 answers that are one letter too short for the space allotted, requiring one square to be left blank. 
For example, [Tartan] is PLAID, with a blank square between the A and I, and in the crossing the blank square precedes LAW ([Corn or lemon follower]—tough clue for those of us unfamiliar with corn law). Wherever there's a blank square, there's one obvious letter that could be inserted to make the two incomplete words into two slightly longer words—in that particular pairing, it's a C, forming PLACID and CLAW. Those added letters (circled in my solution grid) spell out a certain phrase when read from top to bottom: CHAIN LETTERS. I'm tossing this one in my "year's best gimmick puzzles" folder. (P.S. I solved the puzzle without benefit of the Across Lite Notepad message.)
The clues are Friday Sun level, to be sure. DELLA is [Part of some Italian names]. [Director of "Wings," the first Best Picture winner] is WELLMAN (Who? This guy). [Lanolin of "U.S. Acres," e.g.] is a EWE; that was a comic strip from the "Garfield" creator, and the great Bill Watterson called it "an abomination." The first DH in baseball was RO_N Blomberg. [Figure on a certain island] is OCTANE on a gas pump in the little island at the gas station. [Pol Nol] is L_ON Nol of Cambodia. [Fall back?] is ELS_, as in more than one of the letter el. LATTE can be a [Tall order?] at a coffee shop with the ridiculous sizing system. [Chemisette makup] is LACE; I presume a chemisette is related to a chemise. [New York City's Carnegie ___] always gets me—it's DELI and not HALL. ENGEL is clued with [___ v. Vitale (landmark Supreme Court case of 1962]; this was the ruling against school prayer and not anything to do with Georgia Engel and Dick Vitale. [Contents of some chests] is _ICE. [By] is P_ER, which rather wanted to be take up all four squares as NEAR. [Italian filmmaker Petri] is ELIO, not to be confused with his fellow Italians with 4-letter E names, Ezio Pinza and Enzo Ferrari. ["Runny Babbit" author's first name] was a gimme for me—it's SHEL Silverstein, and the book features kid-friendly spoonerism-based poetry.
Meanwhile, over in the New York Times, Barry Silk's themeless crossword is in the same vein as most of his NYTs—kinda Scrabbly, with some surprising letter combos. The uncommon letter action features:
In the surprising letter combos category, the aforementioned LBJ RANCH features prominently, along with the following initials/abbreviation+word pile-ups:
Other items of note in this puzzle: ANNIE and EVITA are both clued as the Broadway musicals—[Tony winner between "A Chorus Line" and "Ain't Misbehavin'"] for the former, [Whence the song "The Lady's Got Potential"] for the latter. My wrongest turn: guessing BLOGS for the plural noun [Reads online] instead of the correct EMAGS (meh). Favorite clues: [Ones left holding the bag?] for TEAPOTS; [Stay-at-home worker?] for UMP; [It has a sticking point] for DAGGER; [Shadow] for VESTIGE; and [When German pigs fly?] for NIE (German for "never"). There are plenty of proper names in the grid: [Early Japanese P.M. Hirobumi] ITO; [Gifford's replacement as Philbin's co-host], Kelly RIPA; ARCADIA, or [Peaceful place]; a [Microwave option], the AMANA brand; MARAT [Safin who won the 2005 Australian Open]; EARLE [Wheeler, 1964-70 chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]; ["Mecanique Celeste" astronomer], or LAPLACE; Patsy CLINE, the [Singer profiled in "Sweet Dreams," 1985]; and BOER, or [Great Trek figure]. How much do I like having a lot of names in a crossword? I would have to rate the [Heat meas.] of this puzzle pretty high, with a large KCAL or BTU amount.
Updated:
It's short shrift time again, since there are so many Friday puzzles and so little time.
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Who's Who?", plays around with homophones of names, converting four famous names into two-word phrases. The [Weasel's jolly cousin?] is a MERRY MARTEN (actress Mary Martin, who played Peter Pan way back in the day—isn't she Larry Hagman's mom?). My worst misstep was here, where I went with comedian/mammal STEVE MARTEN before I figured out how the theme operated. [Lockers?] are GYM NEIGHBORS (actor Jim Nabors, of "Golly!" fame). [Shanghai strokes?] are CHINA FILLIPS, and I love the word fillip so much (singer Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips, offspring of two members of The Mamas & the Papas. [A day off for the stevedores?] is a DOCK HOLIDAY (the Earps' friend Doc Holliday); I'm not sure how to clue HOLIDAY without using the word day, but I wish the constructor had found a way to do so. The fill's highlights include Hamlet's SOLILOQUY and ROCK-SOLID.
Larry Shearer's LA Times crossword uses the phrase ACT / OUT as its core. The theme entries are four phrases from which ACT has been removed. CHOIR PRICE, or [What the musical group is asking?], is modified from choir practice. [E's place?] is BEFORE THE F (fact). [Portrait of a former spouse?] is an EX LIKENESS (exact). And EVASIVE ION (action) is a [Hard-to-pin-down particle?]. I mistyped that last one as EVASISE ION, and boy, did that muck up the crossing. [Chin Ho's group] meant nothing to me, so *ISEO was mystifying (and I couldn't guess the first letter because I had no idea that [E equivalent] is F FLAT, just that it had to be A, B, C, D, F, or G FLAT. Eventually I pulled FIVE-O together, and then I grumbled because what the heck kind of pop culture clue is that? I'm astonished to learn that Hawaii Five-O ran until 1980, because I thought it was older than that. Never watched it!
Pancho Harrison constructed this week's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "The Wild Bunches." The theme entries toy with collective nouns, terms for "bunches" of animals. A [Bunch of angry geese?] is a CROSS BRACE. A murder of crows figures into BLUE MURDER, a [Bunch of depressed crows]. I had to Google that phrase—Blue Murder is the name of two bands, two plays, and three non-U.S. television programs. Those all seem too obscure to be the basis for a theme entry—anyone have a better lead? Pseudopod means the "false foot" extended by an amoeba, for example; PSEUDO POD is clued as [Bunch of phony dolphins?]. FOOLISH PRIDE is a [Bunch of dumb lions?]; this one's my favorite. And a [Bunch of ancient fish?] are an OLD SCHOOL. Outside of the theme, there's plenty of interesting and erudite fill and clues.
I kinda whizzed through this week's Wall Street Journal crossword by Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach, "One Mo. Time."—it seemed a good bit easier than the typical WSJ puzzle. The theme entries include 3-letter abbreviations for the months of the year, and are presented in chronological order:
I enjoyed the puzzle—it's fun to feel particularly adept when zipping through a crossword faster than expected—but part of me wishes the clues had been tougher so I could have spent more time with it.
June 02, 2008
Tuesday, 6/3
CS 3:23
NYS 3:07
NYT 3:06
LAT 2:52
Onion —> see Wednesday
Tausig —> see Wednesday
I went to the Chicago Improv Festival tonight and saw Scheer-McBrayer—that's Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth the NBC page on 30 Rock, and Paul Scheer, who plays Kenneth's archrival page. They were both hilarious, but the theater's air conditioning was out so it was sweltering in there. And thanks to a second-row seat, I saw an actual sweat droplet fling itself off McBrayer's head. That's famous perspiration, from a cast member on my very favorite TV comedy.
Pete Muller is perhaps famous only among crossword insiders, but that particular fame is well-deserved. Pete is one of those constructors who specialize in twisty innovations on the crossword format (others include Patrick Blindauer, John Farmer, and Patrick Berry). This time, the theme in his New York Times crossword includes just two Across entries...but there are also four diagonal answers, each crossing five Acrosses and five Downs, so you could argue that there are 46 entries contributing to the theme. "WHERE'S WALDO?" is a [Question posed by a 1987 children's best seller], and the question is answered by 43-Across, IN THE CORNER. In each corner of the grid, there's a W that begins a diagonally placed WALDO. Lending their support are six long entries. A [Purchase of one who's looking for love] might be a PERSONAL AD, MONTICELLO is the [Building seen on a nickel], NILES CRANE is a [1990s-2000s sitcom shrink] (Frasier Crane's brother), ELLIPTICAL pairs up with [Like many planetary orbits], MOLTEN METAL is a [Material used in casting], and TOILET WATER is [Light perfume]. Thank goodness WALDO isn't hiding in the toilet! I can't believe I left the [Moselle tributary] SAAR off the sidebar poll on favorite crossword rivers. Wasn't OSMAN the [Ottoman Turk leader] just in a crossword last week or the week before? His A crosses ARIANE, the [French satellite launcher] and a rocket whose name I know strictly from crosswords.
Edited to say: Whoops, actually Pete is even more famous in the worlds of Wall Street, poker, and music. (Hat tip to Jim H.)
Jim Hyres' New York Sun puzzle, "Extra Points," incorporates all four cardinal points (N, S, E, and W) in appropriate spots in the grid, and those letters are inserted into four phrases to change their meaning. For example, Panama hat is in the eastern part of the grid, with an E added to make it PANAMA HEAT, or [Canal cops?]. (I kinda wanted the canal cops to be the people who tell you never to stick Q-tips in your ear canal.) This grid has a low word count for a themed puzzle (72, when the maximum allowed is 78), and there are plenty of interesting longer words in the fill. My favorites: MOWGLI from The Jungle Book; TRAIL MIX; TERRARIA (I have fond childhood memories of having a terrarium); GOINGS-ON; SMITHIES that are [Forgers' workplaces]; and SKIRMISH.
Updated:
Larry Shearer's LA Times crossword has one of those "word that can follow the first or last word each theme entry" themes, only HOUSE can follow both the first and second words of the four theme entries:
Often such themes include resulting combos that are a mix of compound words and two-word phrases. It's cool that all of these houses are in my dictionary as single words.
Bruce Venzke and Stella Daily's CrosSynergy crossword, "A Long Walk," features a Steven Wright quip: WHAT HAPPENS IF / YOU PUT A SLINKY / ON AN ESCALATOR? My son got his first real Slinky for his birthday this spring, so he likes this Steven Wright concept.
March 27, 2008
Friday, 3/28
Whopping Weekend Warrior (Sun) 16:46
LAT 6:02
NYS 5:59
NYT 5:46
CHE 5:02
Jonesin' 4:14
CS 2:37
WSJ 10:02
Last week, the New York Sun published a section with a "Whopping Weekend Warrior," a jumbo 25x25 themeless grid filled by Patrick Berry. The middle of the puzzle is a ribbon of about two dozen interlaced 7-letter entries. The average word length is between 6 and 7 letters, and there are far more long entries than there are 3- and 4-letter ones. So it's really a masterful construction with boatloads of wide-open white space. I counted five people in the grid with their first and last names together. Favorite clues: ["Peace" time?] for the SIXTIES; the adjective [Expert in government policy] for WONKY; [Game featuring a Pop-O-Matic] for TROUBLE; [Player's choice?] for musical INSTRUMENT; [Set right] for INDENT; [You have to lay out a lot to get them] for SUNTANS; [On a plane] for EQUAL; [Good beating] for PULSE; [Gets stock from] for BOILS; [Prospector's laborer] for PACK MULE; [Like chew toys, often] for SLOBBERY; [They're often put on the bench] for BOTTOMS; and [One for all, say] for a ROUND of drinks. If you have an abiding affection for themeless crosswords, don't be daunted by the size of this one. It's almost triple the size of a 15x15 crossword, so I think it maps out to about a Friday NYT level, not a wicked Saturday level. (And isn't it a shame that there aren't more outlets for jumbo themelesses? I think the Sun has one each spring, and Games World of Puzzles a Frank Longo's 21x27 in each issue, and Games has the Ornery 25x25 in each issue. Want more!)
Barry Silk constructed the New York Times crossword, a smooth 68-worder. I skimmed through all of the Across clues for the top of the puzzle and found no gimmes, so I looked at the Downs and started with [How much of genius is inspiration, according to Edison], or ONE PERCENT (perspiration's the other 99%). The whole upper and left zones were the most resistant for me. Favorite morsels: [What seeds may be found in] for a TOURNEY, like the NCAA basketball going on right now); the [Stadium snack] that is a SOFT PRETZEL; [Time to burn?] for SUMMER; [Part of some complexes] for NEUROSIS (hmm, not an apartment complex, and not something from chemistry); [Symbol of limpness] for WET RAG (how long before the Cialis folks start using the wet rag image?) right before [Symbols of authority] (royal ORBS); [Where to order a cheesesteak "wit" or "witout"] for SOUTH PHILLY; [Reprimand lead-in] for "SEE HERE"; [Make a point of] for SHARPEN; the [W.W. II shelter] called a QUONSET HUT; SWAP MEET ([Cousin of a flea market]); [Like typhoid bacteria, often] for WATERBORNE (infectious disease epidemiology!); and basketball's SIXTH MAN, the [Best substitute on the court].
If you're wondering why the hell [Six bells, nautically] means THREE P.M., cast your jaundiced eye on this explanation of nautical time. Apparently six bells could also signal 3, 7, or 11 a.m. or 11 p.m. Who is ROSALIA, [Patron saint of Palermo]? She lived in a cave. Probably not much of a people person, eh? Can anyone explain how I ended up with EYECUP for [Spectacle] for a while? It's an EYEFUL.
According to this article about Philly cheesesteaks, Philly is also known for the SOFT PRETZEL; I'll bet you a dollar that Barry Silk's original clue tied the pretzel to Philadelphia rather than stadiums.
The Friday New York Sun puzzle is a rebus puzzle by Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette. This "Good-Looking Crossword" has nine [EYE] rebus squares distributed among seven symmetrically placed Across entries; one symmetrical pair of entries has an extra pair of eyes (SEE EYE TO EYE and EYE FOR AN EYE). Favorite clues/answers: [Baseball Hall of Famer Traynor] for PIE (this one is now a gimme because Rex was so effusive about Pie Traynor last year); ["Our Character, Our Future" author Keyes] for ALAN (because Alan Keyes is a nut); [Said three times, Fat Albert's greeting] for HEY; and [Lobster peduncle] for EYESTALK.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "Box Set," recasts phrases that end with a -CKS so that they end with -X breakfast cereals (which are sold in boxes). [Swishes one's spoon around the cereal bowl?] is TURNS A FEW TRIX, for example. Favorite entries: DADS-TO-BE, THIN CRUST pizza, and the somewhat Scrabbly FAUXHAWK and LOCKJAW. Favorite clues: [Large guy who can fit in narrow spaces] for SANTA; [Diet ad caption] foro AFTER; and [Bath butt] (as in Bath, England) for ARSE.
I thought about continuing on to solve the Wall Street Journal puzzle tonight, but I began to nod off whilst doing the Chronicle of Higher Education crossword by Larry Shearer. "They're Animals!" is the theme and the theme entries are people whose first names (or nicknames) are beasties: There's TIGER WOODS and BEAR BRYANT, representing sports; BAT MASTERSON, about whom I couldn't have told you a thing (Wikipedia says he was Wyatt Earp's deputy at one point); and the amphibian NEWT GINGRICH. Did you know that the Pacific nation of Tuvalu used to be called the ELLICE Islands? I didn't.
Updated:
I figured out the trick in Lee Glickstein's LA Times crossword quickly, but that didn't mean I charged through the puzzle. The first few Across clues meant nothing to me, and one sounded themey, so I looked at 1-Across's opposite number, 62-Across. [Reverend honored in this puzzle]? Well, the most famous reverend linked to wordplay is SPOONER, and the other five theme entries were all spoonerisms (the initial sounds of two words are swapped). [Reverend turns wage issuer into Mother's Day minister?] is MAY PASTOR, a spoonerism of paymaster, which is a word I've never heard anywhere but from my grandmother. A calm sea changes spelling more dramatically to become PSALM KEY. The elegance of this theme is that each of the spoonerized answers is churchy—there are a PEW, MASS, and church SPIRE in addition to the PASTOR and PSALM. I'm guessing that COOL PEW (pool cue) was Lee's seed entry. Overall, fairly tough cluing and fill, I thought. [Laughed mockingly] is the seldom-used FLEERED; [Gets into shape] is MOLDS; [Storage sites] are DISKS; [National Soccer Hall of Fame city] is ONEONTA. My favorite clues: [The last thing a fish might eat?] for BAIT; [One of 109 in Vatican City] for ACRE; [Like some retreats] for HASTY (as in "beat a hasty retreat"); and [Back supports?] for PATS on the back.
Thomas Schier's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Social Group," is mighty easy for a Friday puzzle. (The CrosSynergy puzzles seem to run at roughly a Tuesday or Wednesday NYT difficulty level Monday through Saturday—but the other Friday puzzles are tougher so this one's like a warmup.) The four theme entries begin with words that can follow CLUB (65-Across, the last Across answer). CLUB STEAK and CLUB SANDWICH, yes. CLUB CARD and CLUB ROOM seem less natural to me. I don't know what those are, exactly. One semi-nit: SERB is clued as [Kosovo native]. According to this page, 92% of Kosovars are ethnically Albanian while 5.3% are Serbs. The U.S. now recognizes Kosovo as an independent state and not a province of Serbia.
I always enjoy a good Harvey Estes 21x21 puzzle. The title of his Wall Street Journal crossword, "That's It, End of Story," echoes Harvey's fondness for cryptic crosswords: Each of the seven theme entries has ITY added within it, or IT and the Y that's at the end of storY. Favorite theme entries: "No prob, man" becomes the superhero lacking in moral rectitude, NO PROBITY MAN; the song "C.C. Rider" becomes CITY-CITY RIDER, an [Interurban commuter?]; in an uproar becomes an INANITY UPROAR—and doesn't the world have too many inanity uproars? Especially in a political season. And on the internet. And in the world of reality TV.
March 11, 2008
Wednesday, 3/12
NYS 4:25
NYT 4:11
CS 3:28
LAT 2:54
Well, the Sun crossword has inched back up to harder-than-a-Wednesday-NYT level—but the NYT crossword has scooted in that direction right with a Thursdayish difficulty. Maybe tomorrow, the usual Sun/Times differential will reappear. (Not that it matters in the least.)
The New York Times crossword by Larry Shearer looks like it's got a cheap knock-off of the Chanel or Gucci logo, with the forwards and backwards C's made out of black squares in the grid. The four longest entries are all clued simply [C], and each could double as a crossword clue for CEE. Two are tricky: CAR STARTER (the letter with which the word CAR starts) and EPCOT CENTER (the letter in the center of EPCOT). The other two are straightforward: AVERAGE MARK, or grade, and CLAMP SHAPE. If the clues seemed a little clunky to you, it's because every single one of 'em begins with C. Are we supposed to know that [Celebrity biographer Hawes] is named ESME? Probably not. Her books look cheesy and low-brow, but there probably aren't many ways to clue ESME beginning with a C. (Odd: Hawes' books on Pamela Anderson and Johnny Depp are joined by Mao and Picasso titles.) The 8- and 9-letter non-theme entries distract me a little, but they shouldn't—and they're there to shape the big black C's in the grid.
Peter Collins' New York Sun puzzle, "Long Vowels," builds on a past theme of the same letter repeated three or four times in a row by quadrupling the five vowels. "Surely there are no phrases that contain four I's or U's in a row?" you exclaim. Sure there are. They're trumped up, but clueable. The A, E, I, O, and U entries appear in that order. The A, E, and O ones were two-word phrases with doubled letters in each word, such as SHAMPOO OOZE (presaged by Ken Jennings mere days ago). The I and U entries required three words: RADII I INDICATED and MUUMUU U UNITARDS. Fun fill: SHMOO crossing SHAMPOO; FRANCE clued as [Where the Coneheads said they were from]; recent retiree Brett FAVRE; crazy STINKAROO; and RINKO Kikuchi (Oscar-nominated in Babel). Favorite clues: [Tried to contact home, in a way] for SLID towards home plate; [They can slip in the back] for DISKS in your spine; and [You name it] for a PET.
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Allan Parrish's LA Times crossword celebrates JAMES TAYLOR's 60th birthday with a theme dedicated to the singer/songwriter. I had a long phase of James Taylor fandom and saw him in concert when I was about 18, but I think he's had at least two recent albums that have complete escaped my notice. His ex, CARLY SIMON, is in the puzzle, as are the titles of three of Taylor's songs. I like the Superman names that cross in the grid, LANA and KAL-EL. There are also three Z's (BONZO!) and an X (RED SOX!).
Bruce Venzke and Stella Daily's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Dream On," features a quip: SOMEONE STOPPED / PAYMENT ON / MY REALITY CHECK. That doesn't quite make sense to me. I like the inclusion of so many 7-letter answers (and a pair of 8's) in the grid, and entries like KLUTZY crossing the MCCOYS crossing OOMPAH, and BILOXI crossing ZODIAC. O'NEAL is clued [He works with Wade for the Heat]—newsflash! Shaquille O'Neal was recently traded to the Phoenix Suns.
February 05, 2008
Wednesday, 2/6
NYS 4:20
LAT 3:44
NYT 3:20
CS 2:56
Forget Super Tuesday—we're moving on to Wacky Wednesday! Yes, Wednesday, February 6, the day my Merv Griffin's Crosswords appearance is scheduled. My mother's coming over to watch the show, so I won't be blogging about it right after it's on. Maybe a day or two later, I will share the sordid tales. If you haven't seen the show yet, be forewarned: The ending is given away in the comments.
Tuesday afternoon, I watched a show featuring five other people from my taping day. Doug, who works with my cousin, acquitted himself quite well, racking up an impressive amount of money in the first round. Alas, spoiler musical chairs cost him the podium. Jackie, whom I hadn't chatted with, lost the lousy podium and worked her way back up to the loaded podium and won! She was so polished in the green room, I figured she was a busy professional of some sort. I learned on TV that she's got three kids under the age of 5! The lack of sleep for five years hasn't dimmed her intellect. I had also chatted with Barbara, and was disappointed that she didn't get many chances to shine. I don't remember the other two contestants—in a green room with 25 people, alas, you can't get to know everyone.
Larry Shearer's New York Times crossword puzzle includes FISH, the last Across answer, as a hint to the theme. As the clue spells it out, it's a [three-word hint], as in "F is H": Each theme entry begins with an F-word changed to an H-word. Follow suit, firing squads, feed the kitty, and fairy tales become a HOLLOW SUIT ([Exec with no ideas?]), HIRING SQUADS, HEED THE KITTY ([First rule of lion taming?]), and HAIRY TALES. Lively fill includes the hopscotch SIDEWALK, "TOP THIS," ECSTASY and BLISS (both clued as a [Cloud-nine state]), and the [Starbucks size] GRANDE. ALIA looks like lousy fill, but clued as [Suffix with Saturn], it evokes Saturnalia—who doesn't like the occasional reversal of the social order?
In Gary Steinmehl's New York Sun puzzle, the "3/4 Turn" title indicates that the third and fourth letters of the five theme entries are swapped. Polo pony and hide-a-bed become a swimming POOL PONY and HIED ABED—the clue for the latter is [Went quickly while lying on a mattress?], and my eyebrow is arched. To [Perform "Aquarius"?] is to SING OF THE ZODIAC (sign). Busy signals and beta-blocker also get the theme treatment. Favorite clues: [Woman famous for channeling her energy?] for Gertrude EDERLE, the woman who swam the English Channel in 1926; [Master, e.g.: Abbr.] for ORIG (as in master recordings); [e, e.g.] for CONSTANT; [Chuffed, this side of the Atlantic] for GLAD; and [Hamburger helper word?] for the German BITTE. Top fill: LE DUC THO, NURSE'S AIDE, BINOCULARS.
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Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "What's the Catch?', puts the spotlight on things that can be caught: a FISH (STORY), a PLANE (GEOMETRY), a BALL (LIGHTNING), and a COLD (CREAM). The only one of those four I've caught lately is a cold, unfortunately.
Elizabeth Long's LA Times crossword has an unusual theme. All three theme entries are things a speaker might say if they're getting cut off because they've rattled on for too long. The clues are truncated, as are the answers—I'M ALMOST FINISHE-, JUST ONE MORE THIN-, and STOP CUTTING ME OF-. I liked this theme.
January 17, 2008
Friday, 1/18
NYS 4:53
NYT 4:45
1/11 CHE 4:32
LAT 4:28
1/18 CHE 3:48
Jonesin' 3:32
CS 2:45
WSJ 8:58
Whoo! It is brisk out there! And by "brisk," I mean 14 degrees not counting the wind chill factor, and the wind is howling and whining. An upstairs neighbor's for-sale sign was being buffeted about by the wind banging on the wrought iron fence, so I after I did the Times puzzle, I grabbed some wire cutters and a wire hanger and secured the flapping metal sign. See? I'm handy with more than just crossword puzzles.
Now that I'm back from my Triumph of Handiness, let us (the royal us) blog. It was Trip Payne's 70-word New York Times crossword that instructed me to 53-Down (LASH, or [Secure, in a way]) that sign. The puzzle also says to DO IT AGAIN ([Steely Dan hit of 1972]), but I refuse. Favorite entries: MAGNETISM, or [Drawing power]; SNEAKINESS, or [Cunning]; the [Moliere comedy] THE MISER; a tasty PIEROGI, or [Filled treat] (I'll take mine with potatoes and cheese, please); Richard DREYFUSS (though the only ["Moon Over Parador" star] I remembered was Raul Julia); ACT and NOW clued jointly; and THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran, the subject of a recent long New Yorker article. That last clue misspells the author's name: [Classic mystical book by Khalil Gibran]. Tsk!
Favorite clues: [Brood : chicken :: parliament : ___] for OWL; [Where the wild things are?] for MENAGERIE; [Hard-to-break plates] for ARMOR followed soon after by ["Ode to Broken Things" poet] for NERUDA; [Prometheus Society alternative] for MENSA. Obscurities or little-knowns: HAMAN the [Villain in the Book of Esther]; [Ancient fragrance] for NARD; [Canadian equivalent of the Oscar] for GENIE (sorry, Canadians—we Americans don't follow your cinema so much); [Asian title] for RANEE, not the spelling we usually see and lacking any female or Indian cues; [Gulf of Taranto's locale] for the IONIAN SEA (the Gulf of Taranto, it turns out, is the water between the heel and sole of Italy's boot); [Echo, e.g., in Greek myth] for OREAD (Echo was a mountain nymph? I didn't know that); [___ Atomic Dustbin (English rock band] for NEDS; [___ Carinae (hypergiant star)] for ETA; ["The Amazing Race" host Keoghan] for PHIL (Who? Now Trip will know I've never watched that show, which he's blogged about numerous times); and [Rotary motions] for SIDE SPINS.
Karen Tracey's New York Sun "Weekend Warrior" is a 70-worder. Pairs of stacked 15s near the top and bottom are bound together by ANGELINA JOLIE stretching vertically. Although I don't know the song, I was delighted to guess that ["Be My Yoko Ono" band] meant BARENAKED LADIES just from the EDL in the middle. Other favorite entries besides those two: SWOOSIE Kurtz across from OLD MAID; Froot Loops cereal spokestoon TOUCAN SAM; and the ZEBRA with the equally Scrabbly clue, [Quagga relative].
Favorite clues: [Match game] for OLD MAID; [___ Marchand (rapper Foxy Brown's real name)] for INGA; [It might end with a bang] for SENTENCE; [Shellac] for DRUB; [Gloamings] for the equally poetic EVENTIDES; [Crunch time action?] for SITUP; [WHO concerns] for STDS; [Fancy alternative] for FACT; and [Work sheets?] for MEMORANDA.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle, "Cornering Ability," is an easy (for pop-culture fans) themeless crossword with 66 words. Because I am, after all, a 14-year-old boy, I laughed at the two violations of the Sunday-morning breakfast test: [Leak source?] for URETHRA and [Testicle, slangily] for NAD. A few spoken phrases, lots of TV/movies/music clues, HARIBO Gummi Bears, some KEPT MEN ([Lovers supported by older women]), a little sports, and an impressive 36 7- or 8-letter answers. The grid's top and bottom halves meet at just one square in the center, but I thought the clues were easy enough to give any Friday-level solver plenty of footholds to offset that structural limitation. Tons of fun if you enjoy pop-culture clues. (I do!)
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Norman Wizer's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Making Ends Meet," contains eight exactly symmetrical [END] rebus squares linking 16 entries. Favorite entries: RATED X, CROP TOP, DEAD CALM, THE EGG that may or may not precede the chicken, and TRADE WAR. Favorite clues: [Bear of a story] for PAPA; [Champagne flow] for the SEINE River; [State] for SNIT (as in "in a ___"); and [Yard goods?] for SOD. Mystery answer: [Advances-to-declines indicator] is TRIN (the link explains this).
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Hind Limbs," is easy but filled with some great stuff. The theme entries end with BRANCH, STICK, and BOUGH (plus there's a bonus SCION [Grafting shoot]). The fill includes five Ks and Vs, a Z, an X, and a J, and answers like TOM HANKS, "TSK, TSK," KLUTZ, and BOBCAT. Thank you, Ray, for using the [Egg holder] clue for OVARY and not UTERUS! Scientific accuracy rules.
Dan Naddor's LA Times puzzle takes __SS ___ phrases and makes them __SS S___ phrases, so business trip becomes "Dilbert," a BUSINESS STRIP, and "SNL's" Weekend Update is a PRESS SKIT. Six theme entries, solid (if not particularly exciting) fill, Fridayish clues. My favorite clues/answers: the PC LAB; [Lead-in for a crook] for the Nixonian I AM NOT (technically, this is a 6-letter partial, but Nixon's always fun and certainly better than yet another [Playground retort] clue); FISHNET stockings; a NOSE GUARD in football; and [Part of a trip around the world] for ARC.
Well, Cruciverb.com's Friday link for the Chronicle of Higher Education used to run on a two-week delay, and I followed that schedule. Now it's got the current link, so suddenly I'm two weeks behind. The January 11 Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle by Larry Shearer is called "Academic Transfers," and the theme entries here are 7- or 8-letter colleges with their anagrams (it's a 15x16 grid). TO MY MIND (55-Across), the best are AMHERST HAMSTER and HAMPTON PHANTOM. I think there's a typo in the clue for REAR: Shouldn't it be [Raise] and not the mysterious [Raisex]?
Jim Leeds' January 18 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Band Master," features the MARCH KING, John Philip Sousa, and four titles of his works that I've never heard of. Fortunately, they're also clued straightforwardly, so they're gettable for non-march fans. Why is there a Sousa work called WASHINGTON POST? Or MANHATTAN BEACH?
November 29, 2007
Friday, 11/30
NYS 10:12
NYT 5:09
LAT 4:29
CHE 3:35
CS 3:29
Jonesin' 3:12
WSJ 8:47
The Friday New York Times crossword by Henry Hook was a good bit easier than his other recent NYT and Sun themeless offerings, and that's just fine with me. It also relates a fun tale in several of the longer Across answers, this exhortation: CLERGYMEN, CROSS-DRESS MINDFULLY—LOOK BETTER! Add "GEE, YA THINK?!" and cartoonist R CRUMB, and you've got all my favorite fill here.
Favorite clues: [Indication of stress] for UNDERSCORE—I was thinking more along the lines of SWEAT BEADS rather than typographical stress. (Speaking of which: There's a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood that emphasizes a word in a hand-lettered sign with an overscore. Don't try this at home, kids!) VONDA is clued as [Sci-fi author McIntyre] (never heard of her) rather than that other Vonda of Ally McBeal song fame, Ms. Shepard. [Minimal change] is CENT; I first went with DENT, but hey, my second-grader's math homework today was calculating change in pennies so it should've come to me sooner. CLERGYMEN are [Cloth workers?]. [Sculptor Oldenburg] was the gimme CLAES; my favorite of his sculptures are Batcolumn and Spoonbridge with Cherry. [Direct] could mean a number of things, but here it means NONSTOP, as a flight. PROM is a [Senior moment?]. [One who's happy when things look black] isn't that perverse—it's a BOOKKEEPER. CROSS-DRESS is clued [Undergo a change of habit?]. [Pompadour, for one] is MADAME (bet you also tried HAIRDO there). [Prerecorded] has an extraneous "pre," so it's an apt clue for the oxymoronic LIVE ON TAPE. The lettuce CRISPER is [Where cooler heads prevail?]. I even liked the ODER-NEISSE [Line (German/Polish border)]; at last, payoff for all those [__-Neisse Line] clues.
The New York Sun puzzle, Matt Ginsberg and Pete Muller's "Squeeze Play," sure did start out slowly. After a minute and a half of perusing clues, I had a whopping three letters in the grid.
Given the crossword's title, I suspected there was some squeezing going on, but which entries? How many letters squeezed into a box? Having been the sort of kid who dug those informational cards about animals and whose mom bought her a subscription to the cards, I knew the [Largest rodent in existence] was likely the CAPYBARA, but the space was seven letters. So I conjectured that the squeeze happened in the middle entry and tried out CAP[YB]ARA, and that got things rolling. There were not many gimmes—David LYNCH directed Eraserhead, and USERS are who go to methadone clinics. The three longest entries, two 10s and an 11, are actually two 20s and a 22 since each square's got two letters. They're double-themed, too: [YO][U T][WO][MA][KE][QU][IT][E A] [PA][IR], DOUBLE-ENTRY BOOKKEEPING, and YOU'D BETTER THINK TWICE. All but eight of the Down answers cross squeeze-play squares, too. "With construction constraints like these, Orange," you say, "surely the fill is blah." Au contraire! We get ZOOMING crossing the longish ADMITTI[NG], CLINTON and HEDGING; LL COOL J; COO[KT]OP beside RED [WI]NE ([Cab, e.g.]), "Rikki-TI[KK]I-Tavi" with the double-K.
Favorite clues: [Word with dead and zone] for DROP (no Dead Zone tie-in); [Like a flâneur] for IDLE; [Prep for dragging] for REV the engine before a drag race, along with [Dragged things] for computer ICONS; 38-Across, [With 38-Across, where you might end up if you don't 38-Across], for SING (Sing-Sing prison); [Overnight letter?] for INN (a place that lets rooms overnight); ODS-[bobs (mild oath)] (here's a fun read about minced oaths, ranging from zounds and crikey to drat and ods-bobs); [Heat source?] for MIAMI, home of the NBA team the Heat; [Crowded womb member] for [QU]AD; [Quinsy symptom] for ABSCESS; and [City once known as Lugdunum] for L[YO]NS. Definitely a well-crafted crossword, fellas!
One advantage the weekly indie puzzles have is the ease of timeliness—the lead times appear to be much shorter than most of the daily crosswords, so fresher fill and more current references can pop up. To wit: In Matt Jones's Jonesin' puzzle ("Town Wot?") has PRICE clued as [Drew Carey figure]—Drew having recently taken over as the host of The Price Is Right; SAM is [Brownback who withdrew from the 2008 election]. Other recent indie crosswords have included YouTube sensations DON'T TASE ME BRO and TAY ZONDAY—now, if you included one of those entries in a puzzle for Will Shortz, the phrase may well have fallen into the pit of obscurity by the time the puzzle is published—but for now, they're golden. I do enjoy the super-contemporary bits that this post-Maleska, post-Shortz breed of puzzles offers. This week's Jonesin' combines geography (American city names) with palindrome action. There's a RENO LONER, FARGO GRAF, MESA KASEM, and TULSA SLUT. The fill talks, with "I RULE" and "NO DUH" and "UH-UH." Pop culture gets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' SEWER home, "Bop GUN" (a Parliament song I don't know), and Idol punchline, "SHE Bangs." I also like the SEA SLUG, NUEVO Latino cuisine, and learning that an INCH is [1/63,360th of a mile].
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The 11/16 Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, Rich Silvestri's "Grade Inflation," is a fun one, and made easier by the inclusion of previous letter-grade themes in this publication. Here, each theme entry moves up one grade: a full professor becomes a DULL PROFESSOR, drag racing becomes CRAG RACING, car pooling is BAR POOLING, and bone porcelain (more commonly called bone china) is A-ONE PORCELAIN.
Merle Baker's LA Times puzzle drops an R from each of six theme phrases, yielding things like PEP SCHOOL and DIVE-IN MOVIES. Took seemingly forever to notice what was happening in the theme entries!
The theme in Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Western Wordplay," involves four flagrant puns that work Western words into existing phrases. Seattle Slew become SADDLE SLEW, and a lhasa apso becomes a LASSO APSO. Ouch. Puns too painful. Cannot bear it.
Moving to the 21x21 size, Larry Shearer's Wall Street Journal puzzle, "Symbols of Success," translates six corporate or brand names into special characters. Across Lite can't handle all of them, but I'm grateful to Lloyd Mazer for finding a solution to that problem (and for tirelessly converting each week's WSJ crossword for our free amusement). A star (* or ★ in the newspaper?) is a TABLOID MAGAZINE. Cross (†?) is a brand of FOUNTAIN PENS. Omega (Ω) makes WRISTWATCHES. Equal (=) is a SUGAR SUBSTITUTE. Diamond (♦) sells CHOPPED WALNUTS. And # is a brand of TELEVISION SETS. But what on earth does # stand for? Pound TVs? Octothorpe TVs? Ah! Sharp TVs. Got it. Great theme! (Those manufacturers should be sure to send Larry Shearer and editor Mike Shenk some free pens and televisions in exchange for the plugs.)
November 19, 2007
Tuesday, 11/20
Tausig 5:23
Onion 4:30
NYS 4:24
CS 3:46
NYT 3:11
LAT 3:02
Cool football theme from Larry Shearer in the New York Times. Dagnabbit, I should have broken the three-minute mark on this one, but I had a typo (the Z is right next to the X, and yes, I know there's no such thing as The Z-FILES, honest. Anyway: There are four theme entries comprising two NFL team names. The [Big spender's woe?] is a GIANT BILL, as in the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills. There's a COLT PACKER packing heat, a CARDINAL CHARGER ([MasterCard-carrying ecclesiastic?]), and [Peter?], the CHIEF SAINT. These pairings are tied together with the capper: the SUPER BOWL is [Where this puzzle's theme pairs would like to meet]. I checked Wikipedia and yes indeed, each pair includes one NFC and one AFC team. I also liked the density of names in the grid. Where else do [Missing Jimmy] HOFFA and Paula ABDUL share space? The [Reggie Jackson nickname] MR OCTOBER parties with the [1975 Barbra Streisand sequel] FUNNY LADY. The X-FILES, KAL-EL and VULCAN are sci-fi-ish. BUICK and ALERO are automotive. And those 5x5 corners are wide-open for a Tuesday puzzle.
David Kahn marks the recent passing of MARCEL MARCEAU with a meaty tribute puzzle in the New York Sun, :"The Quiet Man." Marceau was a PANTOMIME ARTIST. (Speaking of pantomime, are any of you familiar with the English pantomime shows? When I went to England last spring for my friend's wedding, she was marrying a guy who's an enthusiastic panto participant, putting on shows for kids each winter. His panto friends were a rowdy bunch—they sang a lot at their table at the wedding reception.) Marcel's classic character was BIP, who wore a RED FLOWER in his hat. One of his mime routines was called IN THE PARK. He had the only SPEAKING ROLE in SILENT MOVIE, and that word was NON. Favorite clues and fill: The Scrabbly double-Mexico hit of AZTEC and OAXACA; [Bart Simpson's middle name] is JOJO (how did I not know that?); "I'M UP," the [Comment after a shake in the morning?]; and the automotive action with the Toyota SOLARA and the ACURA TL, in which a driver may make a [Louie, so to speak], or LEFT turn. The most out-of-louie-field clue is [56 __ 5 = 1]; the answer, MOD, is ridiculously complex mathematically for a mere Tuesday crossword, even in the Sun. As Byron explains it, "It's the notation for modular arithmetic. The most direct way to read it is when you divide 56 by 5 you get remainder 1. (A more precise reading is that 56-1 is a multiple of 5.) Basic clock arithmetic is mod 12." That makes so much more sense than anything on the Wikipedia modulo page.
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Ben Tausig goes geographic with this week's Chicago Reader/Ink Well crossword, "Land Locked." Five theme answers have countries embedded within them. My favorite examples: PYROMANIAC with Romania and MANGO LASSI with Angola. Good fill: WILD ABOUT (my grandma used to sing "I'm just wild about Harry"), SIMON SAYS, OFF-HANDED, AL GORE, and BACOS bacon bits. HONDA gets a new clue—["Punch Out!!" fighter Piston ___]. I have no idea what that means.
A delightful but sometimes offputting Onion A.V. Club crossword from Matt Jones this week. Delightful because of how the theme comes together—the O'Reillyesque NO-SPIN ZONE is what the other theme entries avoid because they've all got added SPIN. Al Gore gives way to SPINAL GORE, the gruesome spine-ripping violence from the video game, Mortal Kombat. The German exclamation, "Ach du lieber!" becomes SPINACH DU LIEBER. A Y chromosome carries a prickly trait if it's a SPINY CHROMOSOME. There's also an awful lot of ass in this crossword. The [Adult film store aisle] at 36-Across is ANAL, a Saturday Night Live pair of characters are A-HOLES, a Japanese candy is called ASSE, and I saw Pier PAOLO Pasolini's Canterbury Tales in college, and I believe 36-Across was depicted. Bonus points to Matt for the EASY BAKE Oven, Napoleon Dynamite's TATER TOT fixation, and the double cinematic clue for MYSTIC, with "River" and "Pizza."
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy creation, "Keeping 41-Across," defines a central 5-letter entry with the other four longer theme entries, so it takes a while and a ton of crossings to uncover the theme.
David Cromer's LA Times puzzle has GAMES PEOPLE PLAY in the middle, but clued as a 1969 country song I never heard of rather than the 1980 Alan Parsons Project song I know. The other four theme entries end with words that can precede "games," such as (CALL) WAITING and (BRING TO) MIND. Aw, this would've been more fun with names of games rather than "___ games" phrases. Say, entries like CALCULATED RISK, I'M REALLY SORRY, or LOCKED UP FOR LIFE.
October 31, 2007
Thursday, 11/1
NYS 8:20
NYT 4:37
LAT 3:49
CS 2:37
It's hard to pay attention to a crossword when a cherry Tootsie Pop is kicking your salivary glands into overdrive. Yes, Darth Vader and I went trick-or-treating tonight and came home with 5½ pounds of candy. I would be a terrible mother if I let him eat all those sweets, so I have to make my way through the candy bowl.
Larry Shearer's New York Times puzzle offers both a trick and ample treats. The trick is that it's another of those occasional puzzles in which the squares that begin both an Across and a Down answer—the northwest corner of each respective section—have just one clue for the two answers. (We've had one or two of these before, haven't we? Who remembers the newspaper, date, and constructor?) That's the trick. The treat is that some of the word pairs have the same number of letters, so we get to use both AVER and AVOW for [Maintain] instead of dithering over which one is called for. (Linda G. was just talking about that particular interchangeable pair, and how you seldom pick the one you need.) How about [Dodge]? Is it EVADE or ELUDE? Here, it's both! [Rubberneck] is both GAWK and GAPE, and [Fiddle with] means ALTER and AMEND...but not EMEND. (The other answers in those sections tell us which one goes where.) The other theme pairs have varying word lengths, but still retain a little trickiness. [It's all downhill from here] means APOGEE and...APEX or ACME? I chose wrong and then changed it to ACME. [Gusto] is VIM and VIGOR, right? Nope—VERVE. I didn't have any wrong turns for RUPTURED and RENT, at least ([Tore]). The other one or two puzzles using this theme idea have listed the Across and Down clues in a single numerical-order list—Across Lite and the applet require a clue for every numbered entry, fortunately, because having the Across and Down clues intermingled would drive me nuts. (Edited to add: Profphil's comment reminds me that I completely forgot another theme pair: DUO and DYAD, which sometimes floats in the ether with DUET and DUAL when a 4-letter twosome starting with D is needed.)
Is it just me, or is Alex Boisvert's New York Sun puzzle hard enough to be a Friday Sun crossword rather than a Thursday? "Magic Square" contains the digits from 0 to 8 evenly spaced in the grid. Each row, column, and diagonal with numbers adds up to the same total, 12. The numerals sometimes serve as a crossword rebus for the number's name (8IES stands for the eighties (rather than '80S) and V6ES stands for spelled-out V-sixes—neither of these felt natural to me) and sometimes they're just numerals (as in rap group D4L). I found it briefly confusing to have BASE TEN in the fill, but it appears to have nothing to do with the theme here. Oddball entry of the day: MISS RONA, [Barrett autobiography]. (Check out the book's opening line—it's a gem.) No, wait: the oddball entry of the day has got to be ANT EGG [___soup (Laotian delicacy)]. Or maybe it's VAV, [Hebrew letter before zayin]; that one's new to me. My favorite entry: FEH, or [Yiddish "Yuck!"]. Feh, eh, and meh all do such lovely jobs expressing varying degrees of distaste.
Updated:
Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy puzzle is a hoot. In "Letter-Perfect," Patrick corrects the spelling of Krispy Kreme, Led Zeppelin, the Keystone Kops, and Pet Sematary. Aah, that's satisfying, to see them spelled "right" in the grid for a change. Though this constructor likes to make pangrams, this puzzle lacks a Q—but it more than makes up for it with words like JACUZZI and ST CROIX (where I honeymooned).
John Collin's LA Times crossword includes four 15-letter entries that could all be clues for the word [Bond]. Two great words appear opposite each other in the grid: CYBORG and ORNERY. If I ever pen a sci-fi novel, I will call it The Ornery Cyborg.
August 30, 2007
Friday, 8/31
NYT 9:51
NYS 6:32
Jonesin' 4:25
LAT 4:02
CHE 4:01
CS 3:41
WSJ untimed
When I finished Paula Gamache's New York Times themeless, I swear the timer said 9:51—and then nothing happened when I clicked "done," so eventually I clicked it again, and that time it worked. But still: Holy hell! That's about twice as long as a typical Friday puzzle, so either Will has flip-flopped the Friday and Saturday puzzles, or we're just getting an extra dose of challenge today. But Wednesday was an easy Thursdayish puzzle, Thursday was quite Fridayish, so why shouldn't Friday be Saturdayish?
So what took so long? Plenty of wicked-hard clues, clever and twisty clues, clues that mislead you astray. For example: [Shock source, sometimes] is PRICE TAG, as in sticker shock. [Exchange for something you really want?] is a noun, not verb: your RIGHT ARM. An OPENER is a [Handle, e.g.], presumably because a door handle opens things? [Catholic] is the non-religious sense, ECLECTIC interests. [They might just squeak by in a basketball game] are GYM SHOES, rubber treads squeaking on the wood floor. Good ol' ATRA gets a fresh clue, [Grooming brand introduced in 1977]. AUTOS are [Runners with hoods] because cars run and have hoods. I like Poe, but ["Berenice" author, briefly] for E.A. POE is awfully eely; haven't read that one! I had five of the six letters in [Club's cover] and still it took forever to get CHARGE, as in a cover charge at a nightclub. MADAME SPEAKER is the [Parliamentary address?], and I can't believe how long it took me to get beyond the MADAM part. [This, in Thüringen] is from German 101: DIESE. The [Striking figures] are PICKETERS on strike. ["Deal with it!"] for TOUGH isn't so tough, but it is entertainingly colloquial. [Catchers of some ring leaders] looked like it was supposed to be tricky, but it's T-MEN enforcing the Treasury laws. [Hard up] = DIRT POOR. [Void] means the verb, not the noun or adjective: ABROGATE. [Second chance] isn't RE-anything but rather, the colloquial DO-OVER. The [Cardinals' gathering place] refers to neither birds nor baseball: ST. PETER'S Cathedral.
Whew, those were just the tricky or interesting Across clues. Moving along to the dastardly Downs: [Pantheon heads?] for the Latin CAPITA, "heads." THE CRUSADES are [Fights with knights]; no tilting or jousting here. [Cool, in a way] is the verb FAN; how many people had FA and said, "Hmm, must be FAB"? [Hockey player Tverdovsky] is OLEG; I was relieved it wasn't some crazy unfamiliar name or variant spelling. RICHTER is the [Scale developer]. [Skin pics?] and [Skin pic?] are CHEESECAKE and TAT (tattoo). [It has pickup lines] means automaker GMC, which sells pickup trucks. The next clue, [It has many functions], is MATH; you'll note that pickup lines and math have no known association. SPOT REMOVER is the [Cleaning product that might be useful after a party]. A HOSE is a [Spray source] and HESS is an [Amoco alternative]; is Hess defunct like the Amoco name is? I have never ever heard of a HUG-ME-TIGHT jacket, a [Short, close-fitting jacket]. I also slowed myself down by renaming the [Desert Storm reporter] Peter ARNETT (hrm, ARNESS just doesn't help here). [Eyebrow makeup] is a great clue for HAIR, because hair is what eyebrows are made of. Every hair has a ROOT, which is also a [Lexicographic concern]. The noun [Dumps] means PIGPENS, a nice change from crossword regular STY. Did you know there's a RED ELM tree? It's a [Tree with double-toothed leaves and durable wood]. [See, say] is a tough clue for BET—as in "I'll see your blahblah and raise you blehbleh." RIP gets the tough-clue treatment too: [Turbulent water stretch].
Pop culture madness: Wrestler RIC Flair, the Pierce Brosnan volcano movie "DANTE'S Peak" (I saw the Tommy Lee Jones volcano movie, Volcano, instead), young RORY Culkin (older brothers in show biz: Macauley and Kieran), agent ARI Gold from HBO's Entourage (haven't watched it, but I do read my Entertainment Weekly). Speaking of madness, this puzzle groups together SPUTTER, SNARLY, and STORMY; I wonder how many stymied solvers have found themselves sputtering and snarling their way through this delightful (to me) set of hard clues.
I sure do like tough themeless crosswords! They're so crunchy and nutty and chewy and sweet...wow, I want a candy bar right now. A puzzle like this, why, it's almost chocolate-coated. (Mind you, if other applet solvers come along and zip through the puzzle and leave me choking on their dust, then it retrospectively becomes a little less fun. What's that? Why, yes, I am a bit competitive.)
The New York Sun crossword's another joint production of Francis Heaney and Patrick Blindauer. The "Two Against One" title reflects the two different letters that fit into two otherwise identical words in selected phrases. That famous [Boston public works project] at 1-Across, the BIG DIG, is condensed into [B/D]IG, with the crossing answer being actor B.D. WONG. 9-Across, [J/S]ET (jet set) crossing J.S. BACH, also came quickly to mind. The other theme pairs were tougher, though. H.P. LOVECRAFT with [H/P]OCUS (hocus pocus), [P/O]UT (with put out clued as [retire] rather than, say, [douse]) with P.O. BOXES, BREA[K/D] (break bread) with K.D. LANG, [H[I/O]P (hip hop) with I/O ERROR, and [P/M]OWER (power mower) with TEN P.M. Cool twist on the rebus puzzle format! Favorite clues: [Etc., etc.] for ABBRS; [Ruthless] for DOG-EAT-DOG; [Stole], the noun, for SCARF; [Exercise done on a bench] for the piano exercise, ETUDE; [President of the Brooklyn Dodgers a century ago] for EBBETS, presumably the eponym of the Dodgers' old field; [Clicking sounds?] for AHAS; [Knight costar on '70s TV] for Georgia ENGEL; [Five of a kind] for AEIOU; and [2200] for TEN P.M.
Updated:
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy crossword features a quote from Zsa Zsa Gabor: I NEVER HATED A MAN / ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM / HIS DIAMONDS BACK. Highlight: HARRUMPH!
Larry Shearer's 8/17 Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle features historical college trivia—[First American college to win 100 NCAA titles], for example (that one's UCLA). Sheer unknown: [Aztec-___ (American Indian language family)] is TANOAN. Fave clues: [Go from first to second] is SHIFT, as in car gears; it was hard to dislodge thoughts of baseball here.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Bowling for Dollars," has a financial/bowling theme. While one must give props for the double-sided theme, oy, I've had quite enough of bowling themes to last a lifetime. There were some clues I wanted to single out, but I left the laptop to slather the kid in sunscreen, and I've lost my train of thought. There were some good clues, though, including the week's second instance of [Close up on the movie screen] for GLENN. Great minds think alike, apparently.
The Wall Street Journal crossword, "What a Piece of Work," is credited to Marie Kelly, an anagram of "really Mike," a.k.a. Mike Shenk. Each of the theme entries contains a STINT. This puzzle I solved poolside, untimed because I'm interacting with my kid and also, the humidity. And the heat. Good crossword, but the distractions render me unable to discuss the puzzle with any semblance of sentience. So I'll sunscreen up and hop in the pool myself...
Reupdating:
Ah, the pool was refreshing. Last night's storms cooled down the water to a perfect temperature. But then a new round of storms rolled in, so pool time came to an end. And then the storms took a break, but came back again. I'm guessing the water's now a smidgen cooler than I want it, but that will be survivable. It won't actually be cold, in any case.
The LA Times crossword by Jack McInturff pops a PER into the base phrases to create each theme entry. I'll bet the ZIPPER CODE would make for better reading than The Da Vinci Code, and I like the idea of an educational PEPPER TALK. I can't imagine the cops would be able to pull off a BEEPER STING these days—how many people are still carrying pagers in this era of the ubiquitous mobile phone and PDA? A PLUMPER TOMATO sounds tempting, doesn't it? Mmm, tomatoes... An illegal chop shop gets converted into a CHOPPER SHOP—where else would you take your helicopter when it needs a tune-up? I like these theme entries. The P sound is inherently fun anyway, isn't it? Favorite fill entry: ZOMBIE. Fave clue: [Clippers home] for TOOLSHED rather than wherever the Los Angeles Clippers play—this one may have duped many of the local LA Times readers. Not quite sure why MAST is clued as [Spar] when SPAR sits just a few columns to the right.
