Tuesday, 3/10

LAT 2:45
CS 2:38
NYT 2:34
Tausig tba — see Wednesday post
Onion tba — see Wednesday post

The NYT online solving applet runs on a server based in Europe, which doesn't always get the memo about when the U.S. decides to begin or end daylight saving time. DST kicked in this past weekend, ridiculously early in the year. (Big plus: it's dark at my son's bedtime, even though the sunlight lasts an hour later, so he's none the wiser.) I sent a note to the applet's keeper, who said he'd reset the clock, so I don't know why the puzzle wasn't up in the applet at the appointed time and is still not up an hour later. I gave up and switched to Across Lite, though it selfishly refuses to tell me if my solution is correct. (It's Tuesday. Odds are I'm in the clear.)

Thomas Takaro's New York Times crossword is an example of a [Word that can follow each half of 20- and 60-Across and 11- and 36-Down] type of theme. An EYE (37-Down) can pair up with both components of each theme entry:

• A U.S. military [Attack helicopter] is called the BLACKHAWK. Bruised black eye, Hawkeye. (I hear the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling team just conquered the rest of the Big Ten.)
  
• [In the altogether] is an awfully weird phrase to mean BUCK NAKED, isn't it? Apparently it was introduced by George du Maurier in his novel, Trilby. Ohio is the Buckeye State, and the naked eye uses no telescope or microscope lenses.
  
• SEEING RED means [Really steamed]. "Seeing Eye" sounds incomplete without the word "dog" appended to it. There are red-eye flights, red eye in photos, and other red eyes.
  
• A [See-through partition] is a GLASS WALL. Wait, is that really "in the language"? A glass eye is what Sammy Davis Jr. had (why? car accident in 1954), and walleye is a kind of fish.
  

The most [Super-duper] answer in the fill is WHIZ-BANG. (No, there's no whiz eye or bang eye.) My favorite clue is [Unloaded?] for SOBER. Miscellaneous other clues and answers:

• [Iranian money] is the RIAL.
  
• [Snack machine inserts] are ONES, as in $1 bills.
  
• [Do a cashier's job] pulls double duty, cluing both SCAN and BAG.
  
• LAWYERS are [Often-joked-about professionals].
  
• Two successive fill-in-the-blank clues have answers with definite or indefinite articles: TOA and OTHE look rather unsightly mashed together there. One is [Ellington's "Prelude ___ Kiss"]; the other, [Will-___-wisp].
  
• Three 4-letter G words mesh well together. GLIB means [Smooth-talking], GOSH is clued with ["Holy cow!"], and GRIT is [Determination].
  
• GUTEN is the German [Word before "Morgen" or "Tag"]. Those phrases mean "good morning" and "good day/hello" Guten Abend means "good evening" and Gute Nacht is "good night."
  

Updated:

Neville Fogarty's LA Times crossword has three jars of stuff you really don't want on your toast:

• PETROLEUM JELLY is a [Multipurpose ointment].
  
• "LADY MARMALADE" is the song that was a [1975 #3 hit for Labelle]. Bonus points for dropping ORANGE ([Syracuse University team]) into the grid above MARMALADE.
  
• PLANT PRESERVES is a less familiar phrase. It's clued as [Sanctuaries for flora].
  

Neville's included eight 8- or 9-letter answers in the fill, lowering the overall word count to 72. Among the long and less-long answers and clues I liked best, we have these:

• [Like Pollyanna's optimism] is the clue for INCURABLE. Definitely a better cluing approach than evoking incurable diseases.
  
• [Like a "fauxlex" watch] means ERSATZ. I haven't seen "fauxlex" before but surely it means faux Rolex.
  
• I love the word ORNERY, meaning [Not at all good-humored].
  
• PAC-TEN (really Pac-10, no?) is the [Wash. Huskies' conf.].
  
• HULU has been popping up in more puzzles. It's a [Website offering streaming TV video] in a screen space that's much bigger than what you get with YouTube.
  
• LILY PADS are lovely [Pond floaters].
  
• It's a nice change to have [Get used (to)] not clue is-it-ENURE-or-INURE-this-time. Here, it's ACCUSTOM.
  

I dispute the [Pretty woman] clue for LOOKER. George Clooney is a LOOKER too, y'know. Yes, the dictionary says the word applies especially to a woman, but I am sick and tired of this sexist gendering of language, I tell ya. And I have never once referred to a woman as "a looker."

Paula Gamache's CrosSynergy crossword, "On Call," has five theme entries whose first words may precede "call":

• [Scarce consolation] is COLD COMFORT. Salespeople may make cold calls. Hey, have you seen (or read) Cold Comfort Farm? The two most memorable lines are ones that get repeated. "I saw something nasty in the woodshed" is a personal favorite, and my kid regrets that his parents both find it hilarious to wield this line. The poet-manqué Flora musing over "the golden orb" has made that phrase a winner around this household, too.
  
• [Safety device on some convertibles] is the ROLLBAR that keeps skulls from meeting the road in the event of a rollover. Take roll call to see who's present.
  
• [Cowboy's milieu] is a CATTLE RANCH, and a cattle call is an open audition.
  
• CRANKCASE is clued as [Engine housing]. Crank calls are a delight to pesky adolescents. The clue for NECK, [Hug and kiss], evokes the Bart Simpson crank call asking Moe to find "Amanda Huggenkiss."
  
• HOUSE SEAT is [won by a representative]. Doctors used to make house calls.
  

I know the word DYSTOPIA, but the clue, [Undesirable society type depicted in Orwell's "Nineteen EIghty-Four"], had me thinking I needed to name a "type" of person who was part of undesirable society, rather than an undesirable type of society. (D'oh.) [Doesn't quite run] doesn't refer to something that doesn't work—it refers to loping at a sub-running pace, or TROTS. [One who'll croak in the future] is a TADPOLE, not yet a grown frog. RED ROCK is a [Prominent feature of the Arizona high desert].

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Tuesday, 10/21

Sun 4:18
CS 3:35
NYT 3:17
LAT 2:54

(updated at 9 a.m. Tuesday)

Randall Hartman's New York Times crossword feels a little more Wednesdayish than Tuesdayish, doesn't it? The five 15-letter theme answers (that's 75 theme squares, which is quite a lot) are the sort of phrases that seem better suited to clues than to crossword answers, as the theme gimmick resides in the clues and solvers need to piece together the answers bit by bit.

• The first theme clue is [P]. Which P is this? A Greek rho? The abbreviation for "pressure"? The chemical symbol for phosphorus? No, it's the SIXTEENTH LETTER of the alphabet.
  
• [PO] could be the red Teletubby or the abbreviation for "post office" or "per os" (meaning "by mouth" in a prescription order). It's also a RIVER OF LOMBARDY, but I don't think most Americans who've heard of the Po could peg it to the Lombardy region of Italy.
  
• [POL] seems more straightforward, but what's the phrase that it's cluing? It's CAPITOL HILL TYPE. I'm glad I had the ending filled in from crossings first, because the TYPE part doesn't seem Tuesday-obvious.
  
• [POLK] is a FORMER PRESIDENT. With SIXTEENTH LETTER above, I half expected to need to know which president he was. (The eleventh.)
  
• [POLKA] could also be described in a few ways. It's OKTOBERFEST TUNE here.
  

The least exciting bits of fill—answers like ELOI, suffix ERO, AM SO, and [Jack of "The Great Dictator"] OAKIE—tend to intersect with two of the long theme answers or sit astride a theme answer, so they're there in the service of a higher good.

Lee Glickstein's Sun crossword, "A New Beginning," has a theme that sounds simple enough on its surface—four words get new prefixes to change their meaning—but made me think from start to finish. In each instance, the result of the prefix change is a two-word phrase rather than a single word. A [Music nut?] is a STEREO MANIAC; an obsessive person is a monomaniac, and back in the days of vinyl, records could be recorded in stereo or mono. [Inmate dream?] is a CON VISION. The opposite of con- is pro-, and provision is a single word. [Where to buy underwater vessels?] is the SUB MARKET. Sub- means below, while super- means above, and we've all been to the supermarket. Reversing the pre- in precautions gives us POST CAUTIONS, or [Put up warning signs?]. Cool theme—just bendy enough to give the noggin a workout, but straightforward enough for a Tuesday...or maybe a Wednesday.

My favorite clues:

• [Paper money source] is AD SPACE, as in a money source for a newspaper, not a source of paper currency.
  
• [Bill of Rights?] clues Bill O'REILLY of right-leaning Fox News.
  
• If you [Followed your gut instinct?] when your stomach growled, you ATE something.
  
• The verb [Squirrel] clues STASH. Would you believe a squirrel tried to bean me with a slab of garlic bread this morning? True story.
  
• [Inner tube?] is your AORTA, among other anatomical tubing.
  

Updated:

Neville Fogarty's LA Times crossword invites all the famous WHITE SUIT men to a party:

• MARK TWAIN was, among other things, the ["Pudd'nhead Wilson" author], and he liked to wear a white suit.
  
• COLONEL SANDERS occupies 29- and 50-Across. [With 50-Across, he started a fast-food franchise at age 65].
  
• White-suited MR. ROARKE was the fictional ["Fantasy Island" host] played by Ricardo Montalban. The actor was born in Mexico and had an accent to match, and I never understood why they saddled him with an Irish name.
  
• TOM WOLFE is the ["Bonfire of the Vanities" author].
  

I enjoyed this sartorial theme. Hovering around the theme entries are some unusual answers that don't appear much in Tuesday crosswords. ["The Sorcerer's Apprentice" composer] is Frenchman Paul DUKAS, not a household name. Then there's AZOIC [__ Era: old name for Earth's pre-life period]. Nautical terminology includes HAWSE, or [Anchor line's hole]. My favorite clue: [Athletic supporter?] for a TEE, as in the little doohickey that holds up a golf ball or a football.

I didn't recognize the constructor's name. Neville Fogarty is likely this young man who was on Jeopardy! in 2000 at age 11, and I think this puzzle is his constructing debut. Welcome!

Lynn Lempel's "Popinjays" puzzle for CrosSynergy pops in a J to alter four phrases:

• [Twain taking notes for "Life on the Mississippi"?] is a RIVER JOTTER, which is river otter + J.
  
• [Bourbon Street get-togethers?] are PRO JAMS, or pro-am tournaments + J.
  
• [Feature of a bloodhound with measles?] is a SPOTTED JOWL, building on a spotted owl.
  
• Baseball's "Kill the ump!" becomes KILL THE JUMP, or [Ruin a good checkers move?].
  
• [Nerve-racking sound?] is an ACUTE JANGLE.
  

In the past, SAUNA has been clued similarly, and some have argued that a sauna is not a [Steamy bath]. Mostly it's hot and dry, yes, but when water's thrown on hot rocks, there's temporary steam. Either way, I don't like the heat. There were two squares that led me astray temporarily. [Blackball] could be BAN or BAR, and I opted for the former until NIVERJOTTER made no sense. [Hold tightly] could be CLAMP or CLASP, and again I chose wrong. The crossing [Roman sun god] is SOL, not MOL.

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