Thursday, 11/26/09

NYT - 6:01 (JK - paper)
LAT - oops, clock wasn't on
CS - untimed
Tausig - 11:27 (JK -paper)

Hi everyone. Jeffrey here. Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers. Happy New Year’s Eve to our syndicated readers. Happy Thursday to everyone else.
Happy Birthday to Rex Parker who is now older than me. Check out the previous post for more on this milestone, including two related puzzles and a great cause that needs your support.

Despite holidays, birthdays and Thursdays, like the mail in Seinfeld, the crosswords never stop, so the blogging must go on! Amy is nowhere to be found so Team Orange is on duty to replace Her Fiendness. I must be Turkey Prime, as I get to go first. However, as a Canadian, I'm afraid there'll be no more mention of Thanksgiving.


Paula Gamache's New York Times Crossword

The theme is 51A: [What 20-, 31- and 40-Across were each introduced as by 47-Down] PARADE BALLOONS in the 47D- MACY’S Thanksgiving Day parade. Hey! Darn.
20A: [Introduction of 1977] – KERMIT THE FROG
31A: [Introduction of 1927] – FELIX THE CAT
40A: [Introduction of 1963] – ELSIE THE COW

14A: [First step in a series] – A TO B. There is no Atob.
17A: [Rabanne who was the costume designer for “Barbarella”] – PACO. What a lucky break! Today at work, someone asked me who the costume designer for “Barbarella” was. What are the odds (that any part of that is true)?
25A: [Thoreau’s “On Fields OER Which the Reaper’s Hand Has Pass’d”]. Land of the free, we miss you.
36A: [Head of the Egyptian god Thoth] – IBIS. Every part of that sounds weird.
38A: [A slowpoke may be asked to pick it up] – PACE. Pick up PACE, PACO. Jane Fonda is waiting. Somewhere, a lonely “the” sits alone.
56A: [RAREE] show. Can you say RAREE without show? I’ll have my steakee raree, please.
1D: [Sound on “Batman”] – ZAP! Hard one. Could have been BAM!, POW! Or if this was a rebus, SPLAT!
2D: [Letter after Z] – ETA. Z is pronounced “zed” today.
11D: [Marie Osmond’s ADORA Belle dolls]. Awwww. Isn’t that cuutttte.
12D: [“CAROL of the Bells” (holiday favourite)]. Wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it.
30D: [Frozen drink brand] – ICEE. Perfect with that steakee.
35D:[Loser of 1948] – DEWEY. Lost to Truman, right? More American stuff.





"Prime Time Practice" by Ben Tausig.
The theme is revealed at 56A/71A [People whose names begin the starred entries] - SCREEN MDS, or "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV". We have 4 TV doctors:

28A: [*Find the source of some corporate malfeasance, say] -PIERCE THE VEIL. Dr. Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) from M*A*S*H.
48A: [*Holy place] - HOUSE OF PRAYER . Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) from House.
62A: [*Mental material] - GREY MATTER - Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) from Grey's Anatomy.
17A/21A: [Long-running PBS concert series] - AUSTIN CITY LIMITS . Colonel Steve Austin (Lee Majors) from The Six Million Dollar Man. Never knew he was a doctor. Well, it could be Dr. Kate Austin (Christine Lahti) on Chicago Hope. A quick check with other members of Team Orange shows similar confusion.

Other stuff you might not know:

24A: [Text type] : SMS - Short Message Service, what you use for cellphone text messages.
27A: [Lee Myung-bak's country, for short] - ROK. Republic of Korea (South)
34A: [Plitvice Lakes National Park country] - CROATIA. Banff - Canada. Yosemite - USA. Plitvice Lakes - Croatia.
39A: [Time off, in mil. slang] - RNR - Rest "N" Relaxation. R&R is better.
51A: [MST 3K (cult show)] - Mystery Science Theater 3000
59A: [Lamas of "The Bachelor"] - SHAYNE. No idea. Related to Lorenzo Lamas? Yup, daughter.
66A: [Quadratic function subj.] - CALC. Calculus. joon, please explain the difference between integral and differential calculus.
68A: [Publisher whose second and third children were born 35 years apart] - HEF. Hugh Hefner.
7D: [Common occasion for leaving work early: Abbr.] - FRI. Memo to my staff: I'll need a bit more than "It's Friday. I'm leaving early."
10D: [Starting a tic-tac-toe game at one of the edges, say] - BAD MOVE. Edge being a non-corner and non-center square. It could work in Hollywood Squares. You fool! (Steve Austin reference in this link).
24D: [Tattoo, in a way] - SCARIFY. New word to me.
30D: [Celtics guard Rajon] - RONDO. Of the Boston Celtics.
31D: [Jamiroquai's "(Don't) Give HATE A Chance"] - Lots of unknown-to-me in this puzzle.
46D: [Pen name for "The Conning Tower" columnist] - F.P.A. Franklin Pierce Adams. PIERCE again. I should know this?
57D: [Grammy-winning blues musician Robert] - CRAY. Here with Eric Clapton.

Lila Cherry’s Los Angeles Times Crossword
The theme answers are all clued [Turkey] (the last with a “?”). Sigh.
17A: BIRD THAT GOBBLES.
27A: FRANK WAY TO TALK.
48A: THEATRICAL FLOP.
63A: FRIDAY’S SANDWICH. I think this is implying leftovers from Thursday feast.
3D: [Turkish currency] – LIRA
52A: [Lake surrounding Canada’s southernmost point] – ERIE. Trivia question – How many US states are at least partly north of Middle Island, Ontario? Answer – 27!
And in the downs, the World’s Most Eclectic Musical Set:
1D: [“Mamma Mia!” band] – ABBA.
26D: [‘60s song car with “three deuce and a four-speed and a 389”] - GTO
30D: [Greek New Age Keyboardist] – YANNI........oh, sorry, fell asleep for a minute.
32D: [Musical buzzer] – KAZOO.
54D: [Hendrix hairdo] – AFRO.
I leave you with 51D: [Slovenly] – FROWZY. Frowzy? Frowzy?


Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Gobble, Gobble!"—Janie's review

Thanksgiving already—when Tom Turkey says "Gobble, gobble!" (translation: "Please have roast beef instead or maybe send out for some General TSO's chicken or, hey—maybe a nice BLT!!"), and so many of us will be with family or friends indulging ourselves as we enjoy (translation: "gobble down") our feasts (traditional or un-) and maybe even take a moment or three to think about what it is we're genuinely thankful for. For some, there'll be hours of watching football; for others, hours of prepping for the main event, since—as we're prompted at 71A.—the [Popular thing to do on Thanksgiving (and word that's hidden in 17-, 29-, 47- and 60-Across)] is EAT. And eat and eat and eat and eat as in:

• 17A. SURPRISE ATTACKS [Unexpected acts of hositility]. May our lives be from any more of these...
• 29A. DAVE ATTELL [Comic with the 2007 HBO special "Captain Miserable"]. Never heard of the guy—but then again, I don't subscribe to HBO, and to judge from these quotes, I may not want to. Then again, there's not a lot of stand-up that's funnier in print...
• 47A. SEA TURTLES [Crush and pals, in "Finding Nemo"]. Hmm. Never seen this either, but I have this sneaking suspicion it's more my speed...
• 60A. DEFENSE ATTORNEY [Johnnie Cochran, at the Simpson trial]. And may our lives be free from any need for one of these... I liked seeing this fill directly below ABA [Legal org.] and was thankful to see that the correct fill was not POET LAUREATE-related.

Some other highlights include:

• MAN/[Answer to the riddle of the Sphinx] (nice fresh clue here)
• MANIC [Frenzied] and MAD, clued as [Humor magazine since 1952]
• the side-by-side implement pair of PICK [Icebreaker] and RAKE [Tool for deciduous foliage]
• AMENITY/[Chocolate on a hotel pillow, e.g.] (I love the specificity of the clue)
• DRAPE/[Hang], and then farther down the row, EAVE/[Place for an icicle] (i.e., where an icicle might hang...)
• VENAL/[Easily bribed] (I've heard of venal sins [as in the seven deadly ones], and had seen the word in other contexts, but never knew its literal meaning, so I learned something new yet again. And the next word in my dictionary? Yesterday's vena cava...]
• STRAW/[Float accessory], so that would be this kind of float and not this kind of float... The latter, btw, was from the Rose Bowl Parade—not to be confused with ROSÉ [Wine choice]. You might enjoy that with your Thanksgiving dinner!

Hope it's a happy holiday for all!

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Monday, 9/14/09

BEQ 3:59
NYT 3:29
LAT 2:35
CS untimed

Psst: Constructors who like making Monday puzzles, send some of 'em to Rich Norris for the L.A. Times. He's been short on solid Monday contributions lately.

Bernice Gordon's New York Times crossword

The Notepad above the crossword says that this week is "Half-Century Puzzlemakers' Week":

All the daily crosswords this week, Monday through Saturday, are by puzzlemakers who have been contributing to The Times for more than 50 years. Bernice Gordon, 95, of Philadelphia, had her first Sunday crossword published on January 23, 1955. Her first weekday puzzle appeared three years earlier. She is the oldest known puzzlemaker in the newspaper's history.

Can you imagine any 95-year-olds you've known constructing crosswords at that age? That's phenomenal.

The theme shifts the S at the beginning of four people's surnames to an apostrophe-S at the end of their first names:

• 17A. Oliver Stone becomes OLIVER'S TONE, or [Film director's sound?].
  
• 26A. Margaret Sanger has her controversial aspects, but you gotta love anyone who brings the Pill to the people. [Birth control advocate's fury?] is MARGARET'S ANGER.
  
• 43A. [Jazz pianist's court appearance?] clues GEORGE'S HEARING, and I have not heard of George Shearing. Wikipedia tells me he is five years younger than Bernice Gordon, he's been active in jazz as long as she's been active in crosswords, he's mentioned in Kerouac's On the Road, his albums have charted as recently as the 1990s, he's blind, and he was knighted recently. Okay, then!
  
• 57A. In the Heather Has Two Mommies category, we have TOM'S MOTHERS, clued as [Comedian's parents]. I like to call him Tommy Smothers.
  

I'm going to blame that glass of wine for the typographical impairment that (together with George Shearing) nudged me into a Wednesday-level solving time. I know a couple other people who landed in Wednesday World on this one. How about you? Was this a Monday puzzle?

Trickier bits for Monday solvers:

• 20A. A stealth two-word answer with an abbreviation: ST. TERESA was the [Nun from Avila].
  
• 33A. ELIEL is one [Architect Saarinen]; his son Eero shows up even more often in crosswords. Let us all give thanks that Eero's parents did not give him a 5-letter name or we'd be stuck checking all the crossings whenever a Saarinen clue popped up.
  
• 35A. C.O.D. is clued as [How some mail-order packages arrive, for short]. Does anyone still ship things out C.O.D. (cash on delivery)? I'm pretty sure Amazon insists on being paid up fron.
  
• 60A. Actress LIV [Ullmann from Norway] might be tough for younger solvers. I like to call her "54."
  
• 62A. ROANS are [Horses with speckled coats].
  
• 1D. I love the word [Foofaraws] and a number of its colorful synonyms (e.g., hullabaloo, brouhaha, hubbub). ADOS is more the un-colorful crosswordese black sheep of that family of words.
  
• 10D. CREMONA is the [Onetime center of Italian violin manufacture]. Other Italian violin words you may see in puzzles include AMATI and STRAD(ivarius).
  
• 24D. [Venomous, as a snake] clues ASPISH. Cleopatra was killed by the bite of an asp, or venomous snake.
  
• 26D. [Ancient Persian] is a MEDE.
  
• 30D. [Dabbling ducks] are TEALS. In the rest of the world, teal is a color. In crosswords (and, uh, ponds), it's a type of duck.
  
• 39D. SURE SHOT is clued [It's guaranteed to hit the mark]. "Sure Shot" is also a Beastie Boys song, and then there's the Canon SureShot line of cameras. Not sure I'm familiar with the phrase in a shooting context.
  
• 44D. [Antiquated] clues OLD—which will describe many of this week's constructors! (The youngest began working with Margaret Farrar at age 13 and may still qualify as middle-aged.)
  
• 45A. EZIO is [Basso Pinza]. He left opera in 1949 and moved on to Broadway, where he starred in South Pacific. (That may come up in a clue someday.) Wikipedia tells me he died in Stamford, Connecticut, erstwhile home of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
  
• 54D. ORNE is a [French department], French departments being something like states or counties. Old-school crosswordese, that.
  

Updated Monday morning:

Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "No Standing"—Janie's review

is a traffic sign directed at motorists that used to baffle me. "No Idling" might be closer to the truth; or "No Standing Still"... No problem where today's puzzle is concerned, as Martin has given us three places to park it. Not your car, however—your butt. The last word in each of the three, colloquial 15-letter theme-phrases (all in gerund form) names a place where you can "put 'er down":

• 17A. TAKING A BACK SEAT [Letting others have the responsibility].
• 41A. PULLING UP A CHAIR [Joining the group].
• 66A. WARMING THE BENCH [Not playing].

I love seeing 15-letter phrases in a grid, although I'm A TAD iffy on the "success" of the theme overall. That back seat is far more figurative in its meaning than the chair or the bench... Someone late to a gathering is asked to "pull up a chair"; the kid on the sidelines (or even the pro) does sit on the bench and therefore is known for "warming the bench." Still, the phrases themselves are lively—and look at the great, phrase-y 9- and 10-letter fill we get as well: MAKE A PILE [Get rich], TALK SENSE [Be reasonable], NIGHTLIGHT [Small bulb in the bedroom] and NEAT AS A PIN [Free of clutter]. A tidy collection indeed.

Also nice are those pairs of sevens stacked in the corners. In combination with the 15s at 17A and 66A, they do their part in giving this grid a lovely open feel at top and bottom. I especially like the four at the top: A.A. MILNE, STARE AT, NET LOSS and the poetic ESSENCE.

I'd love to see this puzzle with some twistier cluing. It's quite straightforward today, perhaps as a trade off for the healthy amount of longer fill—but it couldn't hurt. Something like [Result of a crash, perhaps?] would work for NET LOSS. I know it's a question of balance. Still, the pleasure of solving a puzzle with lots of stronger, longer fill (like this one) is only improved with a complement of edgier clues. Imoo...

Had never before heard of the spicy Spanish stew known as OLLA [___ podrida]. ¡Caramba!
Los Angeles Times crossword by Lila Cherry, or "really Rich" Norris

The theme here is a vowel progression theme with phrases that start with T*T. The vowel sounds that replace the asterisk are all long:

• 17A. TATE GALLERY is the [London art museum, as it was formerly known]. It's now a group of four museums collectively called the Tate: Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, Tate Liverpool (I visited in '07—all modern art), and Tate St. Ives in Cornwall.
  
• 25A. [Its seat is Jackson, Wyoming] clues TETON COUNTY. I figured it had to end in COUNTY and then gambled on TETON and a vowel progression theme..
  
• 35A. The TITLE PAGE? [It shows a book's name, author, publisher, etc.].
  
• 52A. TOTAL RECALL is a Schwarzenegger movie as well as [Photographic memory].
  
• 59A. One [Multi-flavored ice cream] variety is TUTTI FRUTTI.
  

Highlights among the triple-stacked 7s in the corners:

• 46D. An AIR KISS is a [Smooch that even misses the cheek].
  
• 13D. I'D SAY SO is another way of saying ["Sounds about right to me"].
  
• 41D. NITROUS [___ oxide (laughing gas)] is a boon to those of you with dental anxiety. If you avoid the dentist, make an appointment and let them know that you're terrified and ask what they can do for you. They've got a whole bag of tricks to alleviate pain and anxiety. /public service announcement
  
• 40D, 45D. The North American folks in uniform are out in full force. A [State cop] is a TROOPER and a [Canadian cop] is a MOUNTIE.
  

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Monday"

Ahh, I love a themeless puzzle spicing up my Monday morning.

Top six entries:

• 17A. The IKEA CATALOG is a [Periodical where you can find a Jerker desk or Fartfull workbench]. We're partial to the Poäng chair and ottoman. Fun to say, fun to sit in.
  
• 33A. SHEENA ["___ Is a Punk Rocker" (1977 The Ramones single)] is much better than going with Sheena Easton. My dad had a thing for her in the early '80s. It was creepy.
  
• 39A. DR. ROMANO was [Paul McCrane's "ER" role]. Remember how we all hated him and then his arm got chopped off by a helicopter blade and we still didn't like him?
  
• 67A. The MADDEN CURSE is the [So-called explanation for an athlete's off-year after appearing on a video game cover].
  
• 22D. PEARL JAM is the [Band with the 2009 album "Backspacer"]. My son has Eddie Vedder hair, only with a little more curl and a little less length now.
  
• 39D. I've never heard of DJ QBERT, but that was easy enough to put together with the crossing Q from QATAR and the clue, [Turntablist Richard Quitevis who took his stage name from a video game].
  

Favorite clue: The reality TV–inflected [Survivors?] for TRIBE.

I didn't know the CATALPA tree was also called the 12D: [Indian bean tree]. Those long pods are something else.

2D is "LIKE, HUH?" clued as ["Howzzat again?"]. Can't say I've ever heard anyone say that.

The entries that scored highest on the Meh-o-meter are AMERCER ([One who fines in a court]), OSIERED ([Made of certain twigs]), and the plural ANAS ([Literary miscellanea]).

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Monday, 5/11

BEQ 4:35
LAT 2:35
NYT 2:19
CS 5:53 (J—paper)

Fred Piscop's New York Times crossword

Whoa. Is this pretty much the easiest NYT crossword you've ever seen? I'll bet a lot of people are enjoying setting a new personal land-speed record.

The theme is simple but lively: "somebody's something" songs covering a number of "somebody" pronouns. SHE'S A LADY is a [1971 Tom Jones hit]. The [1972 Carly Simon hit] is YOU'RE SO VAIN. I'M A BELIEVER is the [1966 Monkees hit]. And HE'S A REBEL is a [1962 Crystals hit]. All are familiar song titles—and the two I haven't necessarily ever heard are familiar from crosswords (SHESA and HESA clues).

Not every word in this puzzle is a straight-up gimme, but the ones that are less well-known have manageable Monday-grade crossings. Here are the closest things to difficult clues:

• [Finishing 11th out of 11, e.g.] is LAST. I could see the "11" specificity throwing someone off the trail.
  
• [Parish leader] is a RECTOR. PRIEST is also 6 letters.
  
• [Martian or Venusian] clues an ALIEN. Hey, wait a minute. There are no aliens on Mars or Venus. Where's the hedging "perhaps" or "in science fiction" for this clue?
  
• KEENE is a [New Hampshire college town]. I tend to go with KEANE first, but wouldn't go with any particular spelling if I hadn't seen this in crosswords before. Same with ESSEN, the [Krupp Works city] in Germany.
  
• The [Mescaline-yielding cactus] is PEYOTE.
  
• If you're new to crosswords, an answer like [C.S.A. general] R.E. LEE (Robert E. Lee) just looks like the meaningless RELEE.
  

Updated Monday morning:

Doug Peterson's CrosSynergy puzzle, "It's Not Unusual"—Janie's review

This reasonably straightforward theme gives us three phrases whose final word is synonymous with "not unusual." And the beauty part? Two of the three phrases are making their puzzle debuts. So we're in "fresh fill" territory and that's a very nice place to be! This non-shout out to Tom Jones gives us:

• 20A: [Baseball card statistic] BATTING AVERAGE (debut phrase number one)
• 38A: [What polar opposites have] NOTHING IN COMMON
• 56A: [Inconsistently applied criterion] DOUBLE STANDARD (debut phrase number two)

I think one of my least favorite words (and one I don't especially love meeting in crosswords) is CRUD, but there it was at 1A. Happily, it was all up from there. Though it's clued here as a [Volley of gunfire], a SALVO is also a burst of cheers or applause. A LILT is a [Jaunty rhythm]; an ADAGIO passage is one that's played [Slowly, in music]. When something [Runs smoothly], it PURRS. I always love seeing ENIAC and am amazed by how smoothly it ran. Hadn't realized that while it was initially developed in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, it was then moved to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland (my home state), where it was in residence (and use) between 1947 and 1955.

Looking for an enchanted getaway? How about a visit to DELPHI [Greek oracle site]? Prefer something a little more local? Get thee to a DAY SPA—with an emphasis on the "aaah."

The rangy cultural references in Doug's opus cover the way above-AVERAGE to the COMMON to the decidedly sub-STANDARD. I leave it to you to decide where on your personal scale you'd place: MOBY DICK, BELA Bartok, Marlene DIETRICH, ENID Bagnold, TONI Tennille or Braxton, YOKO Ono, ISHTAR...

Fave cross: SQUID/SQUASH. "SQUID SQUASH I was takin' a wash/Long about a Saturday night..." ;-)

Fave clues: 33D [Propel a gondola] for POLE; the segue of 28A into 32 A, [1987 Warren Beatty flop] [Of monumental proportions], and the connection of the last word of 44A [Page with columns] to 45A [Greek oracle site].

All of these examples and more work to vitalize and UNITE this smoothly solved puzzle.

Lila Cherry's L.A. Times crossword

Hey, Rich Norris picked the wrong pen name for today's puzzle—that Cherry in the byline is practically a spoiler for 51A: CHERRY GARCIA in the grid. That's theme entry #3, the [Ice cream flavor honoring a Grateful Dead icon]. (Two of my friends just saw the Dead in concert last week. Yes, they're still touring.) 59D: RED ties the theme together: [The starts of this puzzle's three longest answers are shades of it]. The first RED is 20A: CARDINAL SINS, or [Lust, gluttony, greed, etc.]. Now, this is the second puzzle in about a week in which "cardinal" is used to mean the color red. Isn't that weird? It's in the dictionary definition, sure, but I don't know the last time I've heard anyone using "cardinal" (or "cardinal red") to describe a color. Maybe in terms of sports fans, but "Cubbie blue" isn't a broader color name. Our final red is 34A: CRIMSON TIDE, or [Alabama team nickname]. That C is also the last letter in WISC., and the University of Wisconsin's color is red too.

I liked the shoulder-to-shoulder appearance of the [Trident-shaped Greek letter] PSI and a PITCHFORK, or [Tool in a haystack]. We get two full names in the grid. E.B. WHITE is the ["Charlotte's Web" author] and ED MCMAHON used to be [Johnny Carson's sidekick]. With 20 non-theme answers in the 6- to 8-letter range, this puzzle has standard Rich Norris freshosity and smoothitude.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "David Bowie Playlist"

Brendan's a huge Bowie fan, so he made a 15x16 puzzle with eight David Bowie songs combined into four phrases. From left to right, they are:

• 3D: [Cheongsam dress with lotus flowers on it?] clues CHINA GIRL FASHION. This is one of the 16's that mandated the taller-than-usual grid.
  
• 5D: ["Once everybody knows you, life will never be the same"?] is FAME CHANGES.
  
• 29D: D.J. LET'S DANCE is clued [Wax spinner opens up the floor?]. Shouldn't that be a request to the wax spinner to open up the floor? I missed hearing "D.J." back in 1979. When I went to Wikipedia to find out when the song was released, I learned how Bowie's eye changed and that his birth name was David Hayward-Jones. How did I never know either of these things?
  
• 11D: MODERN LOVE HEROES gets a good clue: [Dan Savage and Carrie Bradshaw, e.g.?]. Dan Savage is the Modern Love sex advice columnist in the alt-weekly press, and the Sex and the City character also wrote about modern love.
  

I can't tell you how pleased I am to have 27A, [Actor David of "Rhoda"]. David GROH! He played Rhoda's man Joe, who went from boyfriend to roommate to husband to ex within five seasons. I have a particular fondness for pop culture from my salad days (if age 8 to 12 can be considered one's salad days). So that one was a gimme for me, but may be obscure to many others. Least familiar to me: CANEA, the [Port of Crete that was once its capital]. [Folk singer Phil] clues OCHS; in the online version of yesterday's L.A. Times Calendar crossword (if not the print version), [Folk singer Ochs] clued OCHS. O(u)chs.

I have been campaigning tirelessly against HEHE as a [Sardonic laugh]. That's one of my leading online-writing pet peeves. Are people hearing this in their heads as "hee hee" (which, duh, should be spelled "hee hee") or as "heh, heh"? Mind you, printed dictionaries haven't bothered to document any of this, but to me "he he" is akin to "you you."

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Tuesday, 11/11

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:

• "Pork barrel" becomes PERK BARREL, [Where execs' benefits are stored?].
  
• "Missed the boat" becomes MISSED THE BEAT, or [Felt nostalgic about one's former patrol?].
  
• The Boer War is remade into BEER WAR, a [Battle between Coors and Budweiser?].
  
• A crowbar is changed into a CREW BAR, [Where a rowing team goes drinking?].
  
• [Pail filled with boxing prizes?] is a BUCKET OF BELTS (bolts).
  
• And an [Ingenious bit of foliage?] is a CLEVER LEAF (cloverleaf).
  

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?

• [CIA specialty] is a COVERT OPERATION.
  
• [Classic number from "The Wizard of Oz"] is OVER THE RAINBOW.
  
• [TV host with a Top Ten list] is DAVID LETTERMAN.
  
• Less familiar to me is the [1987 Luther Vandross #2 R&B album], GIVE ME THE REASON.
  

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:

• [Classic vocalist who served in the U.S. Army] is TONY BENNETT. Elvis's name is too long for this space, and he was more a rocker than a singer of the standards.
  
• [Red Sox legend who served in the U.S. Marines] is TED WILLIAMS. Today, my son Ben and I are going to visit a neighbor who's a Marines vet. He's got a t-shirt that looks like and Old Navy t-shirt, only it says "Old Marines."
  
• [Former president who served in the U.S. Navy] is JIMMY CARTER. JOHN KENNEDY, sans middle initial, also fits that clue.
  
• [Action star who served in the U.S. Air Force] is CHUCK NORRIS. It was his service in South Korea that spurred his interest in martial arts.
  

The PENTAGON, or [United States Department of Defense headquarters], is a bonus entry related to the theme.

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Monday, 10/20

CS 3:06
NYT 2:56
Jonesin' 2:54
LAT 2:49
Sun 2:36


Daniel Raymon debuts as a New York Times crossword creator with his CHANGE DIRECTION puzzle. Did you realize that the four cardinal directions can all be anagrammed into other words? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some other version of this theme has been done before. Each of four theme entries is a two-word made-up phrase with one direction word and its anagram, with north, south, east, and west states in the clues:

• NORTH THORN might be a [Prickle in Alaska?].
  
• WEST STEW could be a [Simmered dish in California?].
  
• EAST SEAT is a [Chair in Maine?].
  
• SOUTH SHOUT is clued as a [Scream in Alabama?].
  

Aw, too bad WEST STEW is on the eastern side of the grid and EAST SEAT on the west. Perhaps the constructor tried the grid that way and the fill didn't wish to cooperate. Those two theme entries are sandwiched around the central answer, CHANGE DIRECTION, which restricted the flexibility of the surrounding fill. That fill is notable for the inclusion of a half dozen 8- and 9-letter answers. There's a CASE STUDY, or [Examined example]; PRAGMATIC, or [Hardheaded]; STOCKHOLM, or a [Capital on the Baltic Sea]; and a lovely DAFFODIL, clued poetically as the [Flower in Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"].

Updated:

I hit the sack early last night and slept for 10 hours, so I didn't see the Sun puzzle until this morning. I feel refreshed, but apparently my sinuses don't care how much sleep I got.

Caleb Madison's Sun crossword, "Water World," is among the easiest Sun puzzles ever. It's rare that an early-week Sun puzzle feels easier than the NYT. The theme entries are five movie titles that begin or end with bodies of water, and they alternate between beginning and ending. LAKE PLACID was a goofball horror/comedy movie about a man-eating crocodile in the lake. MYSTIC RIVER and SEABISCUIT were Oscar bait, but the latter wasn't about a body of water. RESERVOIR DOGS...did a reservoir figure into the movie at all? PEARL HARBOR, of course, relates to said harbor. I like the two corners with four 6-letter entries stacked together—that's not a Mondayish look.

Rich Norris's alter ego Lila Cherry (whom I picture as General Hospital's Lila Quartermaine—old, genteel, no-nonsense—though Rich himself does not look like a Lila) constructed today's LA Times crossword. The puzzle's easy, but the theme entries didn't leap out at me as being connected until I made sense of the unifying entry at 71-Across, HOOPS, or [This puzzle's theme, familiarly]. The other four theme entries begin with four things basketball players do:

• DRIBBLE GLASS is a [Practical joke item that gets you wet].
  
• PASS-FAIL is a [Two-grade system].
  
• To JUMP BAIL is to [Leave the bondsman in the lurch].
  
• To SHOOT ONE'S WAD is to [Spend it all].
  

Anyone else try TIED for [Playing a fifth qtr., say]? The abbreviation of "qtr." signaled an abbreviation in the answer, of course, but I don't recall seeing INOT (in OT, or overtime) in a crossword before.

The CrosSynergy crossword called "Cinderella Story" is by Randall Hartman. Each of the theme entries begins with a word that figures into the Cinderella tale:

• In football the [Running back] is a BALL CARRIER. Cinderella went to the ball.
  
• Also present at the ball was a prince, and PRINCE CASPIAN is a [C.S. Lewis hero] in the Narnia books.
  
• Cinderella wore those glass slippers, and a SLIPPER CLUTCH is a [Racing motorcycle mechanism] that I suspect most of us have never heard of.
  
• Cinderella's carriage was made from a magically transformed pumpkin, and a PUMPKINHEAD is a [Doofus]. It's also a series of horror movies.
  

A couple clues for long fill required me to wait for a lot of crossings to guess the answer. [The nuts, in Texas hold 'em] is a ROYAL FLUSH. Poker slang is not my forte. [Like a Jedi] clues TELEPATHIC. Star Wars arcana are also not my forte.

Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "So Cute," has four phrases that begin with baby animal names:

• BUNNY SLOPE is the [Beginning skier's site]. I don't know the etymology of the phrase, but I know rabbits don't ski.
  
• PUPPY POWER is [Scrappy Doo's catchphrase]. I never paid any mind to the puppy stand-in for Scooby Doo. This theme entry sticks out a little because PUPPY actually means a young dog here, whereas the other three theme entries use the young terms in non-animal contexts.
  
• CHICK MAGNET is a [Guy who's easily able to attract]. Is there a term for a chick magnet's gay male counterpart? Chick here refers to a woman and not a baby chicken.
  
• The [Nancy Reagan biographer] is KITTY KELLEY, a grown woman and not a baby cat.
  

I know I said last week that I was shifting Jonesin' blogging to Tuesdays, but hey, the puzzle arrived in the morning and I'm busy procrastinating on a work project, so here it is. Overall, a lively puzzle with non-stodgy fill and clues. There's a typo in one of the clues in ym copy of the puzzle: [It's for children, in a Pat Benetar song]. The answer is HELL, and the singer is Pat Benatar. The song's about child abuse.

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Thursday, 8/7

LAT 5:57
NYS 5:48
NYT 5:17
CS 3:11

(post updated at 8 a.m. Thursday)

Man, am I beat. I was up for a few of the wee hours last night after the smoke from an Uptown fire (in the Vietnamese district, not the entertainment district) wafted a mile and a half and into my window. Then my son and I spent the day at my sister's and got home at 9:30, and I never did have a nap. So please pardon the abbreviated blogging.

Peter Collins and Joe Krozel joined forces again for the New York Times crossword. Let's get right to the theme: Vivien LEIGH (hat tip to Donald for the correction) and Clark GABLE were in Gone With the Wind, and those words are hidden within the four longest entries:

• RUNNING ON EMPTY is [Ready to collapse, say]. Hey! My mood exactly.
  
• THROW IT HOME is a [Plea from the plate] in a baseball game.
  
• TOOTH ENAMEL is a molar, incisor, and [Canine coat]. 
  
• CHOCTAW INDIANS were [Some World War codetalkers]. I like to parse that as "codetalkers from Some World War, I, II, whatever." (Ed.: The Across Lite version has [Some World War I. code talkers]. Is it just me or have we seen a surprising number of NYT slip-ups this summer?)
  

The fill's got a quartet of non-thematic 10-letter entries spicing things up. Yesterday's TAEL falls in my "old-school crosswordese" category; so does AINU, or [Japanese aborigine], a word I used to see much more often in crosswords. That A crosses [Quatrain form], ABAA; I wonder how many solvers across the country opted for the incorrect ABBA/BINU or left that square frustratingly blank.

Regular constructing partners Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach teamed up once more for the New York Sun puzzle, "Gevalt!" They insert an OY into four phrases to radically alter their meanings:

• Cling wrap + OY = CLOYING WRAP, or [Sappy boa?].
  
• Ann Landers + OY = ANNOY LANDERS, or [Bother some space vehicles?].
  
• Tomb Raider + OY = TOMBOY RAIDER, or [Peppermint Patty's panty thief?]. This clue is incorrect. Peppermint Patty either wears boxers or goes commando.
  
• Bus driver + OY = BUOYS DRIVER, or [Lifts actress Minnie's spirits?].
  

I hadn't seen the ATELIER/[Painting place] combo when I used the word atelier in the previous post about Patrick's special puzzle. (It's possible I'm clairvoyant. Or clairvOYant.) Tough spots: [Apple variety] ending in I is FUJI (crunchy, juicy), not the Mini computer from a couple years back. [Men's fragrance brand] is IZOD. KIX isn't just a cereal (who knew?)—it's also [Band with the 1988 album "Blow My Fuse"]. Good gravy, why are RAISINS an [Ice cream mix-in]? Chocolate chips, sure. Berries, cake, candy bars, sure. Raisins in ice cream? Bleh. [It's used in the months of Kislev and Tevet] takes my crosswordy knowledge of Hebrew months (Elul and Adar) two months further—the answer's MENORAH.

Over and out for tonight.

Updated:

The LA Times crossword by "Lila Cherry" (really Rich Norris) took me longer than today's other puzzles, partly because it's got a 16x15 grid and partly because of a key misstep. The theme marks the return of the Summer Olympics this week with five events:

• GYMNASTICS is clued as [Skills on mats].
  
• ARCHERY is [Toxophilite's sport]. Big vocabulary word!
  
• MODERN PENTATHLON gets a cross-referenced clue, [See 61-Across]. 
  
• SAILING leaves the Olympics and gets clued as [Christopher Cross #1 hit].
  
• EQUESTRIAN is the aforementioned 61-Across, [With fencing, running, shooting and swimming, a component of 41-Across].
  
• Acrostic-style, the first letters of these answers spell out GAMSE. The [Word that can be spelled by rearranging the first letters of answers to starred clues] at 72-Across is GAMES.
  
• That answer is modified by OLYMPIC, clued as [WIth 72-Across, where to see the answers to starred clues]. Usually a theme's unifying answer is a short word. Here, it's two words, one of which is an anagram of the five primary theme answers' initials.
  

I might've liked this theme more if all the theme entries had been clued as sporting endeavors—that Christopher Cross song takes me away to a bad place. I mucked things up in the middle of the puzzle by thinking MODERN DECATHLONS before I made it down to 61-Across. Outside of the thematic stuff, this puzzle seemed rather tough to me. Cases in point: The Spanish word CAPA, [Matador's cloak]. GMS clued as [Trading execs], presumably in baseball (?). LINO, or [Kent kitchen floor]. [More likely to bend] sounding like an -ER comparative, but it's LENIENT. IMMESH, or [Entangle]. The [Spanish sherry city] JEREZ, which can be spelled other ways too. TENT clued trickily as a [Clearing house?], or small house in a forest clearing. [Mountain, in Quechua] for PICCHU, as in Machu Picchu. [Kid of jazz] ORY. [Since] for IN THAT. [Java site] for an URN of coffee.

Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Post Exchanges," takes four phrases that end with post and anagrams that word to change the meaning of the phrase:

• HITCHING SPOT is a [Place in front of a saloon in the old West]. Very little difference, in this case, between a hitching post and a spot for the same kind of hitching. I might've worked something about wedding altars into the clue.
  
• The Washington Post newspaper turns into WASHINGTON POTS, [George and Martha's cookware].
  
• The heavily trafficked political blog called the Huffington Post (after founder Arianna Huffington) becomes HUFFINGTON TOPS, [Arianna's blouses]. 
  
• MILITARY "STOP" is [Soldier's order to halt].
  

PLATYPI is a tricky non-S plural, [Swimmers with flat feet]. The lunch meat called BOLOGNA [may be coming through the rye] bread. NAPHTHA is a [Highly volatile hydrocarbon], as in fels naphtha soap. I like this one: [Diamonds on the soles of one's feet?] clues ARGYLES, or Argyle socks. I don't know that the argyle pattern is knit into the sole of the sock, but I like the evocation of Paul Simon's song, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes."

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Tuesday, 7/15

Tausig 4:29
Onion 3:53
CS 3:28
NYS 3:19
LAT 2:58
NYT 2:44

(Post updated at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday)

The New York Times crossword by Leonard Williams features a Tuesdayish collection of phrases that all hark back nostalgically to the olden days. ONCE UPON A TIME is, of course, many a [Fairy tale's start]. [Grandpa's start] to an anecdote about walking to and from school uphill both ways might be WHEN I WAS A BOY. BACK IN THE DAY is clued as [Mom's start], though I associate the phrase most clearly with my editorial assistant, well, back in the day. Rona used to say that a lot—and yes, part of why I hired her was because her first name was so crossword-familiar. (That other assistant named Khristine? Doomed.) IN YEARS GONE BY could be a [Legend's start]. Oddball entries elsewhere in the grid: GARCIA is [Ice cream flavor Cherry ___], and my son says it's delicious. ESA is [That, to Tomas], not your typical crossword Español. The [Thor Heyerdahl craft] is RAI, or RA I, but there are 38 times more Google hits for his name and "Ra II" than for his name and "Ra I," which Heyerdahl probably just called "Ra." A [Bacterium that doesn't need oxygen] is an ANAEROBE. Male SIKHS are turbaned [Followers of Guru Nanak].

Barry Silk's New York Sun crossword, "In the Middle," puts an IN in the middle of a two-word phrase and welds it to the beginning of the second word. A [Bill from an orator?] might be a SPEAKING INVOICE. [Saudi oil revenue?] is KINGDOM INCOME. A RUNAWAY INJURY could be the [Cause of a fugitive's pain?]. And, aptly, a [Praying mantis] is a RELIGIOUS INSECT. Sixteen of the fill entries are 6 letters or longer, which I always like. We get a side of BASMATI rice ([Long-grain rice]), MANHOLES ([Sewer entries]), TASTEBUD ([Tongue sensor]), and PLAY DEAD ([Lie motionless]) along with two names utterly unfamiliar to me—[Hall of Fame hockey coach Roger] NEILSON and [Two-time N.L. batting champ Richie] ASHBURN. The crossings for both were uniformly gettable, fortunately.

Updated:

Rich Norris, working under his "Lila Cherry" pseudonym, crafted today's LA Times crossword. The theme is COMICS (43-Down), and each of the four theme entries ends with the name of a comic strip. WORK FOR PEANUTS ([Earn starvation wages]) refers to the Charles Schulz classic strip, "Peanuts." "Opus" is Berkeley Breathed's follow-up to "Bloom County," which was my favorite strip in the '80s; it's in MAGNUM OPUS ([Writer's greatest work]). "Shoe" appears in TENNIS SHOE, or [Court footwear]; that clue's followed by [Court coup] for ACE, another tennis clue that I thought might refer to the jurisprudence system. [Rutherford B. Hayes's successor] was JAMES A. GARFIELD, and we will not speak of the comic strip included there. Hooray for majoring in English! I halfway knew that PELEG was the ["Moby Dick" ship co-owner].


Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy crossword, "Field Theory," has a quip theme that's not half bad—it reinterprets the phrase "ballpark figure." TOO MANY SNACKS AT / THE STADIUM / CAN GIVE YOU / A BALLPARK FIGURE. Bring on the nachos! It's a nice touch to have SHEA ([Its last World Series was in 2000]) crossing THE STADIUM. I know Patrick likes to make pangrams (puzzles that include all 26 letters), but this one's short a Q. It may well be that Patrick has the highest percentage of pangram crosswords—does anyone know?

Both the Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword and the Onion A.V. Club puzzle are by Ben Tausig this week. The Onion theme is AND/OR, [Alternative words used as alternatives for each other in this puzzle's theme answers], with AND and OR swapped in selected phrases. Morel mushrooms become Howie MANDEL MUSHROOMS, [Gourmet "Deal or No Deal" prizes?]. A [Tool for nailing mail?] is an ARMOR HAMMER (Arm and Hammer baking soda). Error-prone turns into ERRAND-PRONE, or [Apt to stop at the grocery store?]; I like this one a lot. I am not errand-prone, in case you wondered. [Sign above a closet?] is STORING ROOM ONLY (standing room only). Two entries in the fill have come out of that closet—[Pejorative term co-opted and redefined by some] is used to clue both HOMO and DYKE. For example, there's the "Dykes To Watch Out For" comic strip. Favorite clues: [Give 110%, say] for OVERTIP, and [Demoted, neologistically] for PLUTOED.

Ben's Ink Well/Chicago Reader puzzle, "Initial Action," really startled me. There I was, meandering through the grid...working on the theme entry at 60-Across...let's see, what's that first crossing, 55-Down? [Diary of a Crossword Fiend, e.g.]. Oh! Hello! This here is a BLOG. It absolutely made my day to see that clue, and come Thursday or Friday, I'll definitely be grabbing a few extra copies of the Reader. Thanks for the cruciverbal shout-out, Ben! The theme entries reverse a 3-letter abbreviation to change the meaning of a phrase. (Thanks to Jan for noticing the abbrevs were reversed, not merely scrambled.) PTA bake sales become professional tennis's ATP BAKE SALES—[Fundraisers where Federer and Nadal sell Rice Krispie Treats and upside-down cake?]. ABM (antiballistic missile) Treaty becomes MBA TREATY, or an [Accord among future CEOS?]. Your AIM Buddy List for instant messaging turns into an MIA BUDDY LIST, or [Catalog of disappeared comrades?]. (Aww, sad.) High-speed DSL modems are transformed into LSD MODEMS, or [Drug connections?]. I didn't know that a stand-up [Certain promotional item for a film] was called a STANDEE. '80s pop culture fans get ABACAB, the [Double-platinum Genesis album of 1981]. If you're not familiar with the clothing store called French Connection UK, you still might've seen people wearing FCUK t-shirts like this. The clue, [Clothier that exploits its initials to controversial effect], is pretty straightforward. I have no idea who ESTELLE is, other than having just read the clue, ["American Boy" (ft. Kanye West) singer]; all I know is that "ft." or "feat." is short for "featuring." ISLAM is clued as [Religion to which 10% of American voters believe Barack Obama belongs], and it's almost a shame that there's no requirement for voters to pass a critical thinking test before receiving a ballot.

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Monday, 5/12

NYS 3:29
LAT 2:56
CS 2:54
NYT 2:34

It's still Mother's Day while I write this, so let me share with you the YouTube Mother's Day video that's been cracking me up (and my husband and kid) all weekend.

Well, the last time the New York Times crossword had a 4-H theme, it was Adam Perl's 1/1/08 puzzle. That one spelled out the four H's the organization is named after. This time, Randall Hartman uses FOUR-H CLUBS to describe three theme entries that each contain four instances of the letter H. (Note: The 4-H organization uses the numeral, not the word Four.) Those three phrases are HIGH CHURCH, a dull-sounding [Anglican body]; ROSH HASHANAH, a straight-up [Jewish high holy day] (which could've used an alternate clue to avoid duplicating the high that's in the first theme entry, as a sop to the anti-duplication sticklers—who also surely noted that HOLY is in the fill too); and my favorite, "WHICH IS WHICH?"—[Question when you can't tell two things apart]. The non-theme fill is quite nice. The longest answers there are ROAST BEEF (a "this little piggy" clue would've been cute, though hard to phrase) and SAPPHIRES, and there are also almost a dozen 6- and 7-letter answers. HOOPLA! Several others cohere in a vacation/party theme: Swing at the PINATA or rest on the CHAISE. Go to TAHITI or another ISLAND—the former has plenty of CACHET. Here's a funny clue: [Top secret?] for TOUPEE. Psst: It's often not so secret after all.

Updated:

Okay, why can't I download today's New York Sun crossword? Pete Mitchell has blogged it, but it seems to have vanished from the Sun's site.

Rich Norris (writing as "Lila Cherry") has crafted quite a nice baseball crossword in the LA Times. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but the category of names here—members of the [...exclusive "600 club"...] who've hit more than 600 HOME RUNS—gets plenty of ink. Even if you don't follow baseball, you're likely to be familiar with these athletes' names, which array themselves symmetrically with the aid of HOME RUNS. Sure, we might not know which player goes with which HR count (current through April 27), but the names are famous enough. It's a deft touch to include KEN [Griffey Jr. who is virtually certain to join the "600 club" this year] in the puzzle—and his name's got 12 letters, so once he joins the 600 club, this theme would be impossible to pull off in a symmetrical 15x15 grid. The fill's on a par with the theme; highlights include RUBY DEE, NOODLES, TUCK IN ([Help get comfy at bedtime]), POWDER snow, "HOW NICE!" (my reaction to this crossword), DEALT and DECKS both relating to playing cards, JIBE, and a fresh CUKE.

Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy puzzle, "B Minus," has five theme entries where the original phrase loses a B from the beginning. So [Where to find a highly placed anonymous source?] is LEAK HOUSE (vs. Dickens' Bleak House), and the [Only remaining heater?] is the LAST FURNACE (blast).

Updated Tuesday morning with Monday's Sun:

Mark Feldman's New York Sun crossword, "She's a Gem," limns a gem of a woman with PEARLY WHITE TEETH, JET BLACK HAIR, and EMERALD GREEN EYES—pearls, jet, and emerald all being gems. (The two longest theme entries have 16 letters, so the grid's 15x16.) The end of the theme at 59-Down said ["...and her name is ___!"]. Five letters ending in L? Must be BERYL, right? Er, no. Just the more generic JEWEL. The longest Across answers are TELEMARK, DOWNHILL, KNEE BEND, and OUT TO SEA—ever so slightly addling to have two of them be skiing terms. Best fill answrs: P.B. AND J., MOOCHES, and SAN JOSE. BEFOOL looks weird but it's a word. Not sure if there's any reason to ever use befool in lieu of the shorter fool...

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Monday, 11/26

NYS 3:25
NYT 2:52
CS 2:43
LAT 2:32

Andrea Michaels' New York Times crossword has got a straight-up "what the h*ck" change-the-vowel theme, with HACKYSACK, a comedian's HECKLER, HICKORY-SMOKED ham, painter David HOCKNEY, and that movie nobody saw, I ♥ HUCKABEES. I like the theme, but find myself with little to say about the rest of the puzzle. (Such is Monday, eh?) I do like the double hit of Asian cuisine with BOK choy and a WOK...that's A-OK! And you've got to like BRAIN and LAPSE sitting directly opposite one another in the grid.

Dave Sullivan's responsible (well, along with editor Peter Gordon) for the New York Sun crossword, "iPod Shuffle." The theme entries are five phrases in which a scrambled IPOD appears in the midsection. There's PYRAMID POWER hooey, a POP IDOL, SECOND OPINIONS, ADIPOSE, and the [Butterfly, e.g.], LEPIDOPTERAN. Favorite clue: [Fine dodgers] for SCOFFLAWS, which is completely straightforward and yet sounded like it wanted to mislead me.

Updated:

Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle, "On the Starting Line," groups phrases starting with READY (AND WILLING), SET (A GOOD EXAMPLE), and GO (DOWN IN HISTORY). The three also share an air of positive achievement. Favorite entries: OPEN STOCK china, YEA BIG, BOWLS OVER, JOCKEYING, and B-GIRL clued as [Female hip-hop dancer] rather than the antiquated meaning.

The LA Times crossword by Rich Norris is credited to his alter ego, Lila Cherry. The theme entries end with (ISLAND) HOPPER, (STONE) SKIPPER, and (PUDDLE) JUMPER. Good fill: TAX-EXEMPT with its kooky XEXE middle, BOOB TUBES, a TAILPIPE and an AIR RIFLE, BALD EAGLE and RAN UP A TAB (an improvement on fill-in-the-blank answer ATAB), and the vigor of a PUSHUP and an END RUN. Is the clue for IPOD correct, though? It says [MP3 player], and I thought iPods played a different file format. Wikipedia says iPods can play many different kinds of files, including MP3s, so the clue is spot on.

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