BEQ 5:27
NYT 2:44
LAT 2:24
CS untimed
Plus, new crossword links!
This afternoon I had a chance to try out puzzles from a few new online sources. You can find links in the sidebar ("Crossword Links") henceforth.
First up, Matt Gaffney's weekly 21x21 puzzle at the Daily Beast. I did this weekend's "Octoberfest" in 8:00, so it's right there in Sunday NYT difficulty land and meets the Gaffney standard of excellence. (No spoilers—don't want to get in the way of your fun, folks!) I appreciate that Matt was able to add an Across Lite download, too.
T Campbell is publishing a crossword every weekday at Ubercross, with PDF and Java applet options. The fill tends towards the Onion/BEQesque or beyond. In the "Heroic Origins" puzzle, for instance, the late DJ AM is an answer, and the answer to ["Tough ___"] is TITTY. If that doesn't scare you off, check it out. For me, "Heroic Origins" took 5:20, so it's at a Thursday/Friday NYT level of difficulty. The constructor reports "Next week's puzzles will celebrate seven-letter words, a certain punctuation mark, an astronomical discovery, a set of upcoming TV nuptials, and a city with a lot to celebrate."
Teen constructor Caleb Madison is making a monthly online crossword for his school newspaper, the Bard Bulletin. The first two are posted already, and they're not school-specific so anyone can solve them.
Mark Feldman's New York Times crossword
The theme is a tad outdated. RIGHT ON THE MONEY is [Exactly...or where to find 17-, 25-, 43- and 57-Across?]. The other theme entries are the names of the men shown on large denominations of U.S. currency. These bills haven't been printed in years but, lending currency (!) to the theme, Wikipedia tells us "as of May 30, 2009, there were only 336 of the $10,000 bills in circulation; 342 remaining $5,000 bills; and 165,372 $1,000 bills still being used." Where's mine??
WILLIAM MCKINLEY is on the 17A: [$500], JAMES MADISON on the 25A: [$5,000], my beloved SALMON P. CHASE on the 43A: [$10,000], and GROVER CLEVELAND on the 57A: [$1,000].
I've got one quibble about a clue/fill duplication: SNORE is clued as 49D: [Cause unrest?], while NO REST is 45D [What the weary get, it's said]. In the crosswordese category, we're shooting 1D: [Fancy marbles] with our TAWS. Do those of you who sail use UNRIG, or is that more of a ship word? The clue is 48D: [Strip, as a ship]. Then there's the variant spelling of 4D: [Ice house: Var.], or UGLI. I mean, IGLU. Igloo comes from the Inuit word iglu, so if English had any sense at all, IGLU would be the standard spelling and igloo would be the goofy-looking variant.
Things I like: 5D: [Stocky] clues THICK-SET, which amuses me because one of my Facebook acquaintances was described thus in writing (and he's not thick-set). 14A: [Cry of exasperation] is AARGH, which is in fact the dictionary-approved spelling of the exclamation. And who doesn't love the MACARENA, that 38D: [Dance craze of the '90s]? Here's the video you may remember. You know what's wrong with that video? Zero hot men. A bunch of women in spandex and two men in baggy dark suits? Feh.
If you find the usual batch of easy Monday puzzles aren't keeping you occupied, try out the puzzle sites linked above, and remember that Brendan Quigley's blog usually has "Themeless Monday."
Updated Monday morning:
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Vowel Play"—Janie's review
No foul play in this "Vowel Play," but a healthy amount wordplay, in both the theme fill (and clues) and in the non-theme fill (and clues). Bob gives us five theme-entries, each of which begins "B*G"—with that asterisk standing in for A, E, I, O or U. Not only does he cycle through these vowels in sequence, but he's gone beyond the initial three-letters to make certain they appear in words of five letters and longer. "WHEE!" ["This ride is a joy!"] and gives us:
There are several wittily crafted, sequential clue pairs that are worthy of attention. I point them out because they demonstrate what can be done to enliven the solving experience. The fill itself isn't the most sparkling. But the presentation sure is and that (as I've no doubt said before...) goes a long way in my book. See for yourself:
Then there are the clues and fill that give us neat nuggets of information, like the fact that GRAHAM was the first name of [Whole-wheat cracker creator Sylvester]. Did you know that? News to me. Ditto the E-BOAT, a [WWII German torpedo craft]. Nor did I know anything about the BEE and its being the [Waggle dance performer]. (I wonder if Fred and Ginger ever tried to emulate nature on the dance floor like that...) And it's been some time indeed since I gave any thought to GUMMO, [The fifth Marx brother]—but at least I'd heard of him! Real name, Milton.
Two nice misdirects come to us via [Like lots of unplanned-for plants] for WEEDY, where "lots" may be substituted with "acres" (for example) but not with "tons" (because then the correct fill, referring to "plants," would have to be WEEDS); and [Refrain from singing about farm animals?] for "E-I-E-I-O!" where "refrain" is a noun and not a verb.
"ONE TO GO!"/["Nearly done!"] ties in nicely with "HANG ON..."/["Wait a minute..."]; and simply adding to the beauty of the [Eclectic mix] OLIO that is today's non-theme fill, here's a shout-out, too, to EGGHEAD [Walking encyclopedia] and LION CUB [Diminutive den denizen]. Awww.
Billie Truitt's Los Angeles Times crossword
A simple theme, easy clues, accessible fill—exactly what you expect on a Monday. The theme entries are all "S__ AND S__" phrases: SUGAR AND SPICE, [What little girls are made of, so it's said]; SAFE AND SOUND, [Out of harm's way]; SOUP AND SALAD, a [Light lunch]; and SHORT AND SWEET, [Pleasantly concise].
37-Down is annoying: [Phone caller's "Bet you don't recognize my voice!"] is GUESS WHO. It's not that the clue or answer is annoying—it's that anyone who calls you and makes you guess who they are is a real PAIN (["Royal" nuisance].
Is this write-up "pleasantly concise"? I hope so.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Monday"
I can't believe I still couldn't pin down 44A: [2001 John Goodman/Billy Crystal film] even when I had MONSTER in place. MONSTERS, INC.! Of course. Used to watch that a lot with my kid, and yet I could only think of Monsters Ball, Coen brothers movies, and Throw Momma From the Train.
What else?
October 04, 2009
Monday, 10/5/09
September 20, 2009
Monday, 9/21/09
BEQ 5:16
LA 3:16
NYT 2:42
CS untimed
Mark Feldman's New York Times crossword
Today's NYT theme is MAGAZINE READERS, and three familiar phrases (clued straightforwardly) could be reinterpreted to mean "a fan of a particular magazine." Oh, and there's a fourth phrase, markedly less familiar, that plays the same game:
Glancing over the grid to see what else is in the puzzle, I laughed when I noticed the nexus between CARESS and ASS ([Nincompoop]). It's a nice touch that GOES EASY slips right in there too.
Absolute best answer in the fill: AL CAPONE, clued as [Gangster a k a Scarface]. And the worst: TIN ORE, or [Cassiterite]:
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost TIN ORE!'
Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'
Updated Monday morning:
Gail Grabowski's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Full of Flaws"—Janie's review
HUH? Those four theme-phrases may contain an "imperfection" at the end, but truly—this is one polished puzzle. Let me not POSTPONE pointing out its strengths:
If you're traveling around in your MOTOR HOME [Recreational vehicle], it might be a good idea to carry a MAP or two. As a [Tourist's aid] it sure makes a reliable alternative to a gps system... And if you don't have a full-blown (gas-guzzling...) motor home, consider what this enterprising couple did, traveling across country in their Toyota minivan.
I enjoyed seeing HATTER clued as [Mad acquaintance of Alice], especially as it sent me back to the source material. I was hoping there were cakes with ICING at the table. But no... only tea. And bread and butter. If you haven't looked at the Carroll in a while, here's a link to "A Mad Tea-Party" from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "Mad" only begins to describe its brilliance.
Some word-playful clue/fill combos I especially liked: [Splits to form a bond]/ELOPES, [Duel-purpose equipment]/EPÉES, and [Gp. with brass]/ORCH.
Finally, ORAL is a [Kind of testimony]. Would that include "MEW" [Cry from a litter] or "ARF-ARF!" [Sounds from a Shih Tzu] (or even a SKYE [Kind of terrier], or "MAA" [Cry from a calf]? I suppose that a ROI [Lyon king] could roar as well as a "lion king'; and what does the AMEBA have to say for itself? ("HA-HA-HA!"... ["Ver-r-ry funny!"].) (IMO...)
Mel Rosen's Los Angeles Times crossword
The theme entries begin with UP, UP, and AND AWAY:
I really don't know what the clue for 13D is doing there. With all the ways to clue DISK, [Floppy with data] should have been retired several years ago.
The highlights in the fill are ODE TO JOY and ENCUMBER. Then there's PESTY ([Annoying, like a kid brother]), which is a much clunkier word than PESKY. UNSKILLFUL ([Not practiced]) also felt, well, unskillful. Its opposite in the grid is PAIRED WITH ([Assigned as the partner of, as in dance class]), which is on the dry side—when there are 10-letter answers in the fill, I like them to spice up the puzzle, but these ones left me cold. The shorter fill has such E words as ELY, ELKO, ELBA, and ESSO, as well as APER, OLEO, DII, AAA, EQUI-, and partial IT MAY.
At least there's Brendan's "Themeless Monday" to pull me out of the Monday crossword doldrums.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Monday"
I love the three showiest answers—SIR MIX-A-LOT, the POPEMOBILE, and GOOGLE MAPS. I love Google Maps, too, except that it's convinced that the driveway by my kid's school is actually a road called U.S. Public Health Hospital—apparently decades ago, before there was a school there, it was the site of a hospital. Sometimes Google wants me to drive on it to take a crazily indirect route to Lake Shore Drive. Why is there no button to click that says "hello, Google, this is crazy"?
Aside from those three fantastic entries, I also liked IRISH ALE and RANGEROVER, but lots of the shorter fill [Rankled] (FESTERED). OROS and OPAH, ISER and OLAV, TARE and E. LEE, and the abbrevs/prefixes ATMO, ANS, SCH, and SYST. Also, I poked around Wikipedia and I don't think IRANIS are [Azeri speakers]; some Iranians are Azeri speakers, but the Iranis appear to be Zoroastrians in India and Pakistan who speak Dari. IRANI ≠ Iranian.
March 14, 2009
Sunday, 3/15
PI 8:10
NYT 7:46
LAT 6:32
BG 6:28
CS 3:14
It's not surprising, really, that Patrick Berry has crafted yet another perfect crossword theme in his Sunday New York Times puzzle, "Prioresses." Not surprising, no, but still astonishing, the level of craft of he brings to it. He's assembled a whopping 12 theme answers that follow the "prior esses" model—two-word phrases in which both words have a "prior" letter S added to the beginning. The resulting nonsense phrases are clued perfectly. I don't know about you, but working through this puzzle, I kept wondering how I'd never hit on this sort of wordplay before—but I'm sure it's nowhere near as easy as it looks to come up with a solid list of a dozen phrases that work well. Here are the lucky 12:
Among the more challenging clues in the puzzle were these ones:
And those were just the Acrosses! Now, some clues from the Downs: BEAKER is clued with [It might hold the solution], as in a chemistry lab. [Group with an Exalted Ruler] is the ELKS. [Maker of Caplio cameras] is RICOH. Never heard of Caplios; how about you? Ditto for [Writer William Dean] HOWELLS—chime in if you've ever read him.
Highlights in the fill include answers like MUST-SEE, a Philadelphia PHILLIE, VING Rhames (we just watched part of Mission: Impossible 3 last night), WILL / SMITH of Ali, and...well, with that many theme entries packed in here, Patrick didn't leave himself a ton of room to include intriguing fill. Berry being Berry, of course, the fill's full of familiar words and names and not oddball obscurities.
In this weekend's Philadelphia Inquirer crossword Merl Reagle cooks up some vegetables. The theme entries in "Eat Your Vegetables" center on veggie puns:
Man, that's a lot of oniony stuff. Shallots and leeks and scallions? This puzzle needs an after-solving mint. And then there's no CARROT pun on karats of gold or carats of diamonds? No LETTUCE ENTERTAIN YOU? No BEETS AROUND THE BUSH?
I found the clue for 7-Across to be misleading. [Flatten, as flats] hints at the British spelling RASE, as flats are British and apartments are American. Sure, SINGS didn't make much sense for [Throws hard and fast], but those flats were persuasive. So it's RAZE crossing ZINGS...and the clue for ZINGS doesn't really sing to me. Another tough square was the W in LAW, [Scheck's calling]. That's Innocence Project lawyer Barry Scheck, but his identity wasn't coming to mind with just the last name. At first I had LAT because TEENSY means [Very small, in part] and it's more common than the correct answer, WEENSY.
I liked seeing the last name of [Casimir of the American Revolution], PULASKI. The Chicago Public Schools take a day off to mark Pulaski Day in early March, and there's an artery, Pulaski Road, that spans the entire length of the city.
I enjoyed the theme in Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's Boston Globe crossword rerun in Across Lite, "Team Play." The 10 theme answers reframe assorted phrases as if they pertained to NBA teams. Here are my favorite examples:
There were two wildly unfamiliar words in this grid. [Early sonar, to Brits] is ASDIC, and [Informal banking system] is HAWALA. Neither word shows up in the Cruciverb database, so I'm not surprised I've never heard of them. Luckily, the crossings cooperated and the puzzle still came off as a good bit easier than usual.
Updated:
This weekend's syndicated Los Angeles Times Sunday crossword is Mark Feldman's "Lying Around." Each theme entry has an -LY added to a word to change the phrase's meaning:
Overall, this was a pretty easy crossword. Among the answers that might not be so obvious are these:
Geography: [Biblical name of ancient Syria] is ARAM. [Nevada Northern Railway Museum city] is ELY, Nevada. Other crossword Ely clues involve old Tarzan actor Ron Ely and bridge expert Ely Culbertson. Lake TAHOE is also a Nevada name—[Lake near Carson City]. The ARAL SEA is a [Shrinking lake] and not technically a sea.
Twisty clues: [Double take?] is a STUNT, as in a "take" when shooting a movie with a stunt double standing in for the star. [Brain cells?] are CRANIA, the metaphorical jail cells that hold our brains.
Movies and TV: [Actor Everett et al.] is SLOANES. [Roy Rogers's birth name] was Leonard SLYE. [TiVo feature] is PLAYBACK.
Miscellaneous:
Martin Ashwood-Smith's themeless CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" was not much of a challenge, thanks to easy short answers crossing the six 15-letter answers. Just for sport, take a look at the completed grid and see how many alternatives come to mind for 3-, 7-, and 11-Down, 15-letter entries with ELA, NGT, and TIG in the middle. Martin's RELIVING THE PAST, or [Getting nostalgic, perhaps], is a great answer.
I had never heard of THE LAST POST, the [Robert Graves poem that starts" The bugler sent a call..."]. There are plenty of other works of art in this puzzle:
January 21, 2009
Thursday, 1/22
NYT 5:01
Sun 5:00
LAT 3:23
Onion tba
Tausig tba
Wed. BEQ tba
Yeah, I know. I've fallen behind on crosswords. I've had a busy day signing all sorts of executive orders and unpacking boxes. No, actually, it's been a full day of crossword work. Really. And tomorrow will be much the same, so we'll see if/when I get around to the puzzle backlog here.
Gary Whitehead's byline looks wrong above the New York Times crossword. What is his full name doing written out up there? Shouldn't the last four letters of his name be smooshed together into one character? Yes, that's right. It's a Thursday rebus puzzle, and the word that gets the squeezebox treatment is HEAD, as suggested by the SHRUNKEN HEADS in the middle of the grid. The rebus squares are placed in perfect symmetry (which always makes the cruciverbal esthetes happy) in these intersecting answers:
Miscellaneous stuff, good and less good:
Updated:
Man, what a day. Sick kid, sick husband, up all night, working all day. Let me take a couple minutes for crosswords, eh?
Mark Feldman's Sun crossword, a "Themeless Thursday," wasn't too hard. My finishing time includes mental drifting and text-messaging my hairstylist, so... Great long answers—NEW LEASE ON LIFE and a COME-HITHER LOOK are good IDIOMS, aren't they? QUETZAL scratches the rare-letter itch. Solution omitted because (a) I'm beat and (b) if you've done this puzzle, you have access to the answers the same day.
Donna Levin's LA Times crossword is terrific. The theme entries are TV show titles with numbers in 'em, but the number's been docked by 1: FIVE FEET UNDER is cost-saving, SEVEN IS ENOUGH makes use of contraception, ONE AND A HALF MEN lacks Charlie Sheen, and TWENTY-NINE ROCK is less prestigious than 30 Rock. Ideally, all the shows would spell out the numbers, but I think only three of the four do.
December 21, 2008
Sunday, 12/21
PI 29:20
LAT 26:52
NYT 25:02
CS 10:32
(Updated at 11:45am Sunday)
Hey, everyone. PuzzleGirl here with you again, filling in for the vacationing Orange. It's been a rough couple of days for me, but Monday is just around the corner and I dare say you will be impressed with my early-week times. So I've got that goin' for me.
When you saw Elizabeth C. Gorski's byline on the New York Times crossword you knew you were going to be impressed, didn't you? I sure did, and I sure was. The centerpiece of this puzzle, titled "Laughing All the Way," is a line of HOs stretching from top to bottom on the center vertical. That didn't sound exactly the way I wanted it to, but you all know what I mean. We've got JOLLY ST. NICK a/k/a KRIS KRINGLE a/k/a Father CHRISTMAS in the puzzle, landing on your HOUSE and causing all kinds of mayhem. There's also room for three French HENS, and a reference to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which is closed on Christmas Day. Any other Christmas-y stuff I missed? Let me know in the comments!
Stuff I thought about while solving this puzzle:
On the 95th anniversary of the crossword, Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle pays tribute to "those old crossword words that just never seem to go away." He's taken familiar phrases and changed one completely normal word into one of those ucky crossword words that we all know and love.
More ramblings:
Updated:
Mark Feldman's L.A. Times crossword, "You're Out!," takes the letters URE out of familiar phrases to create new amusing phrases.
A couple of those seem a little off to me. The al on GEOMETRICAL feels redundant. I've always thought a FEATURE FILM was one thing and a DOCUMENTARY another. But the phrase used in the puzzle gets 55,000 Google hits, so I guess someone uses it somewhere.
Olio:
Martin Ashwood-Smith's CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" has a cool-looking grid with some nice fill. The 15s aren't particularly sparkly, but there sure are a lot of them. DELICATE BALANCE is nice.
November 23, 2008
Monday, 11/24
Sun 3:31
LAT 2:51
CS 2:33
NYT 2:30
Billie Truitt's New York Times crossword treads some familiar ground—I've seen at least two previous digital-themed puzzles before. This one proceeds through all five fingers on a hand, from thumb to pinky:
Now, in my heart, no fingers theme can top David Pringle's 4/23/07 NYT with PINKY TUSCADERO, but I do like the completeness of including the thumb. I liked seeing [Mr. ___ (Lucy's TV boss)], Mr. MOONEY, here; I don't know why. The [First of 12 popes with a religious-sounding name] is PIUS I. Hmm, we don't see a lot of Roman-numeraled pope names in Monday puzzles, do we?
Mark Feldman's Sun crossword, "Dressing Up in England," compiles a group of clothing items that have taken the name of places in England. All five are clued the same, [Part of an English outfit]. They include ETON JACKET, RUGBY SHIRT, NORFOLK COAT, OXFORD SHOE, and WINDSOR TIE. Wait, what's that one in the middle? The Norfolk coat or jacket is "a loose, belted, single-breasted jacket with box pleats on the back (and sometimes front), now with a belt or half-belt." Outside of the theme, the fill's a bit Scrabbly and two of the corners contain a 6x4 chunk of white space.
Updated:
Today's LA Times crossword comes from Andrea Carla Michaels and Myles Callum. Three theme entries are tied together by GIMME A KISS, a [Hopeful demand of 17-, 35- or 41-Across]:
Highlights in the fill include an EGG-TIMER, or [Board game gadget]; [Snoopy's foe], the RED BARON; SPLEEN clued as [Anatomical source of ill humor?]; and ST. PETER, [Heaven's gatekeeper]. I didn't know that MIRA meant ["Look!" to Luis]—it's one of those Spanish words I've heard on TV shows without being clear on the meaning. And yes, usually a [Bride's partner] is a GROOM, but sometimes it's another bride.
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "It's Hot Outside!", has four theme entries with HOT outside—that is, the phrases start with HO and end with T.
The most frightening thing in this puzzle was the clue for CATHY: [Comic strip about modern women]. All the women I know are modern, and I don't think any of us can relate to Cathy. The character is not emblematic of our lives, our concerns. This essay explains why. Who doesn't appreciate an articulate evisceration of something lame?
Bonus points for including TOMMYROT and the FOUR TOPS in the fill—hey, that sounds like a group, doesn't it? Tommy Rot is the frontman. I love the oddball synonyms for [Nonsense]; besides TOMMYROT, we have balderdash, claptrap, poppycock, twaddle, hooey, and malarkey.
October 08, 2008
Thursday, 10/9
LAT 4:20
NYT 4:11
Sun 3:57
CS 2:53
(updated at 10 a.m. Thursday)
It's Thursday (or is about to be), so it's only fitting that Doug Peterson's New York Times crossword features a rebus theme. As the clue for 52-Across's LITTLE DEVILS—[Mischief-makers (you'll find seven of them in the answer grid)]—promises, there are troublesome IMPs hiding all over this puzzle. Symmetry? Not for these IMPs. There's one in the middle, and the other six are split half on top, half on the bottom; half on the left and half on the right—but not in predictable spots. The IMPs are lurking here:
Too bad the classic TV imp, Bart Simpson, didn't make it into this puzzle; nor did the show he's in. I liked how IMPROV and LONG-TERM IMPACT both had deceptively plural clues; by Thursday, it's time for such trickery to be ushered into the cluing.
In the fill, I wasn't hip to [Russian Literature Nobelist Ivan] BUNIN. Have you ever had MUNG BEAN–filled cookies? They're tasty, and the MUNG BEAN isn't just a [Legume used to produce sprouts]. LYRA is the [Constellation with a music-related name]. My favorite snake name is the KRAIT; this [Banded snake] is quite venomous, so it's not the personality I like, just the look of the word. The pretty CEYLONESE is the old-school way of saying Sri Lankan; it's clued as [Like some black tea].
Mark Feldman's Sun crossword is a "Themeless Thursday" that I kept imputing a theme to. First there was 1-Down, [Moves slowly], which I answered with CREEPS. Nope, that one's CRAWLS—CREEPS appears down below as a [Feeling of disgust, with "the"]. So I got it in my head that the other corners of the grid were going to have creepy-crawly answers too, but this puzzle's themeless so of course they don't. There is, however, a mini-theme: WHITE LIGHTNING was a [1973 Burt Reynolds movie] I don't recall, and ROLLING THUNDER is a [1977 Tommy Lee Jones movie]. '70s movies with thunder and lightning in their titles? Cool beans (mung!).
Favorite entries and clues:
Was this themeless puzzle among the easier ones you've seen recently, or was I just in the groove tonight?
Updated:
Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy crossword, "It's Your Time," features "___ of the [unit of time]" phrases.
The now-annual Storm of the Century is feeling left out.
Gendered language alert: SHREWS is clued as [Nags]. Here's one dictionary's entry for shrew: (1) Any of various small, chiefly insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, resembling a mouse but having a long pointed snout and small eyes and ears. Also called shrewmouse. (2) A woman with a violent, scolding, or nagging temperament; a scold. Nag, on the other hand, is a gender-neutral One who nags. I'd much rather have SHREWS clued as the world's tiniest mammals.
Bruce Venzke and Stella Daily's LA Times crossword features a quip: "KIDS HAVE A MIDDLE / NAME SO THEY CAN / TELL IF THEY ARE / REALLY IN TROUBLE." In the fill, WILEY is clued as the ["Non Sequitur" cartoonist]—so I just spent a few minutes reading all the "Non Sequitur" strips from the past month. I like them all, including this one. BAD BOYS is clued as this [1983 film set in a juvenile prison], but the 1995 action comedy by the same name is better known. YEARLY is clued as [Resolution frequency], and what was in my head for that clue was technical stuff like image resolution and megahertz frequency measures. Oh! New Year's resolutions, once a year! That's different. [Spam producer] refers to the capital-S Spam, and it's meatpacker HORMEL. The existence of the Comic Sans typeface led me astray in parsing the clue, [Pic Sans Nom, par exemple]—I decided it was a TYPE rather than an ALPE, French for "Alp." "Peak without name"? 1-Down in this puzzle is LOKI, the [Mischievous god] in Norse mythology. I kinda wanted LOKI to put in an appearance in the impish NYT crossword.
September 28, 2008
Monday, 9/29
Jonesin' 3:10
NYS 2:50
CS 2:46
LAT 2:39
NYT 2:30
The striking Inca tern (that's it in the photo) dwells in the Humboldt penguin exhibit. So now I'm contemplating a lame crossword theme consisting of phrases made of words that are common crossword fill—but I don't know if the Inca tern has much company in that category. If only there were a famous aria about oleo, or an erne native to the Aral Sea.
Another theme idea came to mind today. Add -er to the classic line from All That Jazz and you get "IT'S SHOWER TIME, FOLKS!" Let's see...what else could that theme have? With an added -r, you get "E.T. phone Homer."
After returning from the zoo, I fired up the ol' New York Times crossword applet—and discovered that three people (deadbydawn Doug, Dan Feyer, and the mysterious zachugly) had cracked the 2:00 barrier. Dang! That's fast. So the pressure was on, and I transposed pairs of letters over and over again in my attempt to be super-fast. I believe this easy Monday puzzle marks Sharon Delorme's constructing debut. What makes this puzzle so easy? Each theme entry consists of the same word twice, so once it's half filled in, you can fill in the rest. Actually, each theme entry contains a pair of heteronyms—spelled the same but pronounced differently (thanks to PhillySolver for the reminder that these are called heteronyms):
I like how this evokes those hard crossword clues in which we're tricked into reading one of these words (or flower) with the wrong pronunciation and meaning—for example, [Prominent tower] for AAA. Speaking of towing, I wonder if TOWIN shouldn't have been clued as TO WIN rather TOW IN, given the TOWER in the theme. It'd probably be a harder clue, though, and it is Monday, after all. I missed seeing the clue [Drug that's smoked in a pipe] as I filled that corner in with the down clues. I wonder how many solvers put in CRACK (marveling that the Gray Lady would put the crack pipe in the crossword puzzle) and mucked things up for themselves, since the answer is the old-school OPIUM.
Mark Feldman's New York Sun crossword may or may not be the final crossword published in that newspaper, which may or may not be facing imminent demise. The "Avian Anatomy" theme groups five phrases that consist of a kind of bird + a part of the body:
This crossword is notable for its unusual wide-open white spaces in what's still a fairly easy crossword. Two corners have heaps of 6-letter answers, and the other two have 7- and 8-letter answers running alongside one another. Thank goodness the [11th-century French saint] THEOBALD has gettable crossings, eh? That answer was assuredly not on the tip of my mental tongue.
Updated:
Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Middle Distance," hides a small distance (INCH, or 54-Down) inside three theme entries. An [Important media staffer] is the EDITOR IN CHIEF. A [Language spoken around Beijing] is MANDARIN CHINESE. And [The Andes, for instance] are a MOUNTAIN CHAIN. It's Monday, so it's time for a short tutorial on those words that are far better known to regular crossword solvers than to most others. An ITER is a [Road that led to Rome]; I haven't seen this one lately, but it's not just a Latin word for a road, it's also an anatomical passageway. SERE means [Drought-ridden]; ARID is more accessible and I think it appears in more crosswords, but SERE will always return so you need to know it. A [Small river island] is an AIT. The termly is chiefly British, sure, but it does show up in plenty of American crosswords. (The other little-known 3-letter river geography term is ria, a long, narrow coastal inlet.) An IMARET is the [Istanbul inn]; it's more often clued as a Turkish inn or hostel. And a EWER is a [Washstand jug]. Other common clues for EWER include [Water pitcher], [Decorative pitcher], and [Still-life subject]. Commit these oddball words to memory and you'll have a new batch of instant gimmes to help you out with future crosswords.
Samantha Wine's LA Times crossword invites famous people to a "house" party—the five theme entries are people (one fictional) whose last names are roughly synonymous with "house." There's GREGORY HOUSE, of course, the [TV doctor played by Hugh Laurie]. [Nixon's 1960 running mate] was HENRY CABOT LODGE, which sounds like a relatively stodgy place to vacation. MARY KAY PLACE is ["The Big Chill" actress] who played Meg, the single woman who wanted to get pregnant; before that, she had a key role on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. IRENE CASTLE was [Vernon's dancing partner], Vernon being Vernon Castle. Read about Irene here—not only did she and Vernon popularize ballroom dancing (Dancing With the Stars, anyone?) almost a century ago, but they traveled with a black orchestra, promoted animal rights, and had an openly lesbian manager. The last theme entry is PANCHO VILLA, the [20th century Mexican revolutionary]. In the puzzle's fill, my favorite clue was [Work up a sweater] for KNIT.
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Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "You Can Look It Up," spotlights eight words and phrases (6 to 9 letters in length) added to the Oxford English Dictionary in the past eight decades—one for each decade. I was surprised to learn that BEER PONG, the [Drinking game involving cups and a table tennis ball] dates back to 1972. The MOTORBIKE, or [Lightweight two-wheeled vehicle], was added to the OED back in 1944. The newest word in the theme is SUDOKU, just added in 2004. (SUDOKU sits atop ITUNES, which I thought was quite new, but Apple introduced iTunes back in 2001.) The oddest-looking entry is ZTOA, or Z TO A, clued with [From ___ (how some descending lists are sorted)].
September 22, 2008
Tuesday, 9/23
CS 3:48
NYS 3:35
LAT 3:18
NYT 2:59
Onion, Tausig—see 9/24 post
The Crossword Fiend forums/message boards are open for business. (Wait, is it a business if no money changes hands?) Come join the fun.
But first, read my blog post! I don't want to write in a vacuum of solitude.
Great Tuesday theme in Richard Chisholm's New York Times puzzle. 61-Across is IN HOT WATER, or [Where 17-, 29-, 36- and 44-Across often end up]. A LAWBREAKER, or [One risking arrest], ends up only in the idiomatic, metaphorical hot water. The other three things need actual hot water: SPAGHETTI, a [Trattoria offering], TEA LEAVES, clued with [Some seers read them], and those pesky [Sink items], DIRTY DISHES. My favorite answer in the fill is DIAL TONE, the [Sound after a hang-up]. Answers that might throw a newer solver who hasn't seen them time and time again already:
It took me a while to identify the theme in Mark Feldman's New York Sun crossword. It's the kind of puzzle where the theme entries are all clued straightforwardly and aren't so obviously related, so you can finish the thing without grasping the theme. The title, "Ultimate Band of Fiction," had me looking for hidden musicians, but it's actually a theme of hidden musical instruments at the end (hence "Ultimate") of each theme entry. All five theme entries are fictional characters from literature, TV, and movies: DAMIEN THORN, JOHN KLUTE, BECKY SHARP, DAISY DUKE, and ELLEN MORGAN. What further tightens the theme is that each character's last name contains one letter before the instrument name. The fill contains 16 7- and 8-letter entries, which is impressive.
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Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy puzzle reinterprets "On the Home Front" as "phrases whose front words can appear in front of the word home." This is another theme I didn't piece together until after I finished solving it.
Anyone else get confused by the deer of crosswordland and enter ROE DEER instead of RED DEER for the [Antlered grazer of Eurasia]? Anyone else feel sad for the OTTER, clued as a [Playful swimmer hunted for its fur]? I, for one, find evocations of skinned animal fur rather offputting at the breakfast table. (Can you imagine if PETA launched a crossword boycott?) SEAN Penn is in the puzzle as ["I Am Sam" star Penn]. The last time this was referenced in a crossword, just a few days ago, I entered SAM I AM straightaway. Whoops, different Sam!
Now, the theme in Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke's LA Times crossword hid from me because musical lingo is not my thing. A [Fossil fuel, e.g.] is a NATURAL RESOURCE. A [High-tech sports bar purchase] is a FLAT-SCREEN TV (though plenty of households have flat-screen TVs too—sports bars have those giant projection TVs more than homes do, I think). The average sports bar will have TVs in the plural—way in the plural. SHARP CHEDDAR is a mildly [Pungent cheese]. I might've clued it as flavorful, as I reserve pungent to describe the stinky cheeses I cannot abide. NATURAL, FLAT, and SHARP all describe...what, notes? Keys? Jim's music theory post doesn't explain NATURAL but reviews various flats and sharps found in crosswords. The three theme entries are tied together by a fourth: MUSIC TO ONE'S EARS, or [Delightful, and a hint to this puzzle's theme].
September 11, 2008
Friday, 9/12
NYT 5:10
NYS 4:48
LAT 4:42
CHE 4:36
CS 3:22
WSJ 6:23
Natan Last may be a teenager, but his themeless New York Times crossword struck me as indistinguishable from those made by some of my favorite grown-up constructors. The fill was reminiscent of the Nothnagel/Quarfoot flavor of themeless:
Favorite clues: [Nooks for books, maybe] for TYPO (the N and B keys are adjacent); [It holds the line] for a REEL; [Winston Churchill's Rufus, for one] for POODLE; [They know the drill] for DENTISTS; [One with fire power?] for BOSS; [Foot of the Appian Way?] for PES, Latin for "foot" the verb [Keen] for MOURN; and [Pattern sometimes called "Persian pickles"] for PAISLEY. These clues taught me two little bits of trivia.
Tougher clues:
Mark Feldman's New York Sun puzzle wasn't as tough as many Friday Suns. The theme in "How Offensive!" is "phrases that start with offensive positions in football:
This wasn't the sort of theme where I could anticipate upcoming theme entries, on accounta I do not keep a mental list of all the football positions. But the theme occupies an impressive amount of space, and it's executed well enough for me to forgive fill like UPOLU, or the [Samoan island where Robert Louis Stevenson died]. That entry may, in fact, have saved the puzzle, because how many other answers fit the pattern **O*U? Opposite that crazy entry is the COACH of the team. Favorite clue: [Ego maniac?] for FREUD.
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Three cheers for Patrick Berry's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle! His "Standardized Test" is going straight into my folder of the best gimmick puzzles of the year. The grid has five sets of standardized test answers, ABCDE, already in place. The Across Lite Notepad contains the multiple-choice questions that correspond to them, and the solver is to fill in the circle for the correct answer. Doing so blacks out that letter—which is appropriate because that letter doesn't belong in the Down answer that crosses it. (The other four multiple-choice answers serve as plain ol' letters in their crossings.) I'm not up on my standardized test trivia, but the letter to black out was clear from the crossings. And then! And then, when you reach the end of the quiz in the Notepad, it says BONUS QUESTION: What group has benefited most from standardized testing? (To find the answer, read the Down entries that intersect the correct answers to the five questions above.) Peter SE( )LLERS includes the noun SELLERS, and with the other words that include the blacked-out answer letters we see the following phrase: SELLERS OF NUMBER TWO PENCILS. As crossword "aha" moments go, that one was delightful. The way the various elements of the theme come together is both surprising and elegant. I like it enough to forgive TOILFUL, or [Like drudge work], which is a word almost never used in native English. From "Peanuts," Sally's pet name for Linus, "Sweet BABOO," is cute. "Peanuts" is so well-known, you'd think BABOO would get a little more play in crosswords. I'm fine with PAU, the [Winter resort in France], because Pau was one of the study-abroad programs available at my college.
Bilie Truitt's LA Times crossword is very forthright and refuses to hem and haw by saying "er": Each theme entry is a phrase that's had the -ER lopped off at the end.
I note a new clue for NGO, not referencing a Vietnamese leader of eld, Ngo Dinh Diem, or the abbreviation for nongovernmental organizations: [IHOP '___: takeout food program], "IHOP 'n Go." [City across the river from Buffalo, N.Y.] is abbreviated FT. ERIE. [Sound heard at the end of day?] stymied me for too long—it's the LONG A vowel sound. [Bay window] is old-school crosswordese: ORIEL. (Not to be confused with the crosswordese basketry willow, OSIER.) The [Long-distance initials] WATS were in use when I was in college in the '80s, but I haven't encountered a WATS line since then.
Maybe there was a file naming/dating slip-up over at CrosSynergy—today's CrosSynergy puzzle via the link at Cruciverb.com is a themeless "Sunday Challenge," but today is Friday. Far be it from me to cast aside an unexpected themeless when one presents itself! This one, by Mel Rosen, seemed strikingly easy for a themeless. When 1-Across (MA AND PA, [The Kettles]) and its crosses practically fill themselves in, it's not the experience I expect to have. Favorite entries:
Other Scrabbly entries include BEJEWELED, QUIZ KID, ZINC WHITE ([Pigment used in cosmetic dentistry]—I never learned this in my tenure at a cosmetic dentistry journal), and KLEPTO. The big mystery word for me was LAAGERS, or [Protected encampments]. Here's the definition, and this page says the Old West "circle the wagons" approach is much the same as a laager.
The Wall Street Journal crossword, "Reel Sex Changes," marks the first time (Whoops, make that the second time—but it's Andrea's first venture into Sunday-sized constructing and I love what she does with that much room for the theme!) Andrea Carla Michaels and Patrick Blindauer have shared a byline. I cottoned to the theme quickly, since [Movie about two good ol' gals foiling Boss Hogg?] evoked The Dukes of Hazzard, and the gals and titular "Sex Changes" pointed the way toward THE DUCHESSES OF HAZZARD COUNTY. In the altered movie titles in the other theme entries, Sir becomes MADAM, Mommie becomes DADDY, Daughter becomes SON, Boys become GIRLS, Brothers become SISTERS, and Men become WOMEN. Surely there are far more male movie title characters than female ones, but this theme gives us a peek at what could be. It's an easy Sunday-sized puzzle, to be sure, but with interesting fill, such as Edgar Allen Poe's ORANGUTAN, Robin Hood's LITTLE JOHN, Pope BENEDICT, MAFIOSI, YWCAS, and FASCISM of the order INSECTA.
