Saturday, 11/28/09

NYT (PG)
LAT (PG)
CS (Janie)
Newsday 5:20 (joon—paper)

PuzzleGirl here with you again. Whenever I sit in for Orange on late-week puzzles, I have a little panic attack about the fact that I might not be able to solve the puzzle. I mean, that's just a fact. I've improved a lot over the past couple years, but it's not a given that I can finish a Friday or Saturday New York Times puzzle. And let's just say there's a really good reason that I don't volunteer for the Saturday Stumper. How did I do this week? Find out after the jump.

Oh, but before we get started, I understand there was some discussion over here a while back about the various PGs in CrossWorld and how they (we) should be ranked. I believe I ended up as PG2 behind Paula Gamache. Which is fine. There's no way I'm dumb enough to think I belong in front of Paula on the list. But it occurred to me that I wouldn't even be in the second spot if you guys had remembered Peter Gordon. So. I decided that as long as I'm going to end up a ways down the list anyway, I would prefer to be PG-13. I think that should work for everybody.

But enough about me. Let's see what I think about the puzzles.

Karen M. Tracey's New York Times crossword puzzle

So, what do you think? Did I finish this one? With no mistakes? Why, yes. Yes, I did. Yay me! I struggled a bit, especially in the NW, but I stopped the clock just barely past 30 minutes, which is a few minutes faster than my average Saturday time. It's actually making me feel a little cocky about this year's Puzzle Five, but I'm sure I'll regret that.

Where did I stumble? I had the SSION in place for [What a student might not go without?] and wanted the answer to be some sort of EXAM instead of PERMISSION SLIP. (Actually, my first thought was LAPTOP or IPHONE or something, but ... that's totally inappropriate.) EXAM led me to believe "Pooh-Bah" came from THE MASONS, which seems reasonable. I mean, since FLINTSTONES and HAPPY DAYS wouldn't fit. (Correct answer: THE MIKADO.) Entering TOLL BOOTH for TOLL PLAZA didn't help things down there. But it all eventually worked itself out.

RIKKI TIKKI TAVI showed itself pretty early. What with all those Ks in place, it could hardly be anything else. But I could hear ANNIE LENNOX singing "Talk to me / Like lovers do ...." Turns out that's a whole different song than STEVIE NICKS's "Talk to Me." I also had ELUDE for EVADE and ALLER for AVOIR down in the SW for a while. And since [Pathology pioneer Sir James] PAGET and [18-season Mariner EDGAR Martinez] were total guesses, I'm actually kind of surprised that corner pulled itself together.

There's obviously a lot more we can talk about with this puzzle, but there is a slice of pumpkin pie in the kitchen calling my name so let me get the L.A. Times puzzle out of the way and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Alan Olschwang's L.A. Times crossword puzzle

I thought we might have a theme going with the two double-Z answers: MEZZO-SOPRANO and JACUZZI (22A: Carmen, for one / 38A: Maker of many jets). But no. Then when I saw more Scrabbly letters, and thought we might have a pangram on our hands. But no again. All it needs is an effin' F. Bummer.

Stuff I did not know:

• 19A: Zen enlightenment (SATORI). Sometimes considered the first step toward Nirvana.
• 10D: Belgium winter hrs. (CET). Whoa, what? That would be Central European Time.
• 13D: Former Tennessee Titans tight end Kinney (ERRON). Insert your own err-on-the-side-of-caution joke here.
• 24D: Sprites of Persian mythology (PERIS). Apparently they rank between angels and evil spirits. Kinda like humans, I guess.
• 50D: "The Hustler" author Walter (TEVIS). I didn't know "The Hustler" was originally a novel.
• 62D: Knotted pile carpet (RYA). It's a traditional Scandinavian rug. If you do a Google image search, you see a wide variety of colors and designs, so I'm not sure what it is that makes these rugs their own category. Something about the wool or the knots I think.

Other stuff I noticed:

• 33A: Inexpensive kids' toy (PAPER DOLL). I'm pretty sure toy makers have discovered a way to make paper dolls expensive.
  
• 47A: Classic Jag (XKE). I always want there to be a J in this answer. And there never is.
• 4D: Derby town (EPSOM). Epsom, Essex, Sussex ... they're all the same to me unfortunately.
• 34D: Dallas Mavericks owner before Cuban (PEROT). Kept reading this as "Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban" and couldn't figure out why Mark wouldn't fit.
• 39D: Golfer Babe who was a six-time AP Female Athlete of the Year (ZAHARIAS). So, yes, I know her name was Babe, but "Golfer Babe"? That doesn't seem right somehow.

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Backup Plan"—Janie's review

As the Congreve saying goes, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and this puzzle—which takes lively, everyday phrases and re-purposes them with a musical twist—hath its charms as well. Lotta smile factor in this one as Patrick gives a shout-out to both classic rock 'n' roll and classic Motown with:

• 20A. MIRACLE WORKER [Member of Smokey Robinson's group, while performing?]. Pick a tune, any tune.
• 27A. CRICKET MATCH [Sports contest for a member of Buddy Holly's group?]. Oh, I loved Buddy Holly and the Crickets as a kid. Still do. Here's why.
• 43A. SUPREME COURT [Legal venue for a member of Diana Ross's group?] Let's hear it for the girls!
• 51A. COMET CLEANSER [Soap for a member of Bill Haley's group?]. Bill Haley and the Comets were just about the first folks to get the ball rollin'. And popular music was never quite the same.

The four groups that Patrick singled out provide more than a trip down memory lane. Each one made a real difference to the genre; each is still listened to today—and not only by the boomer generation. I'm so grateful for radio shows like Felix Hernandez's "Rhythm Review" on WBGO that spin soul's and rhythm 'n' blues' best. It's worth checking out on line if you don't live in the New York area.

I wish the cluing in this puzzle were as much fun as the rangy fill. Here are some of the words and phrases I liked best:

• PALM PILOT [Hand-held organizer brand];
• FAT CAT [Major campaign contributer]. Oh—and on the subject of campaigns, I liked seeing TED ["Liberal Lion" Kennedy] and KERRY [2004 ballot surname] in the grid;
• TAP WATER [Fluid from a faucet]. New York's is mighty good;
• HEARTH [Fireplace floor];
• TYPECAST [Given similar roles repeatedly]. It beat not being cast at all, but also speaks to some lack of imagination. And not only among the casting directors...
• ICE SHOW [Skating exhibition] (where you might enjoy some SNO [___-Caps...]);and finally—how often do we see this:
• "ET TU, BRUTE?" [Famed Shakespearean last words]. It's the phrase in its entirety. Be still, my heart!

Barry C. Silk's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"—joon's review

this is, by a fair amount, the easiest stumper i've ever done. i started by knowing 1a (EMMA watson, who plays [Hermione in the "Harry Potter" films]) and proceeded through the puzzle, never really getting hung up anywhere. most unusual for a stumper. i liked several of the answers a lot, especially AIR GUITAR, WHIFFLE BALL, and DOMO ARIGATO. i think there were fewer tricky clues than usual. a few that i enjoyed:

• [It takes weeks to complete] is not any particular task, but merely a MONTH.
  
• [One held for questioning] is not a person, but a TEST. we held a test last week to "question" our students on physics, i guess.
  
• [Tag line] is the AS IS that might appear on a tag at a yard sale or flea market.
  
• a few outright traps: [___ reader], four letters? nope, not UTNE this time (note the lowercase r): it's MIND reader. [Unrefined], CR___? i put in CRUDE, but it's CRASS, meaning unrefined socially rather than chemically.
  
• [Augustan-era poet] is not a poet from the augustan era of english literature like pope or swift, but VIRGIL, who wrote during the reign of augustus caesar. but i almost feel like you had to be overeducated to fall into this trap.
  
• a couple of unnecessarily stuffy clues: why [Elusive one] for DODGER? nobody uses DODGER to mean one who dodges, unless they're talking specifically about a draft dodger. there's no real alternative for a word like RESHUT, but DODGER is perfectly cluable via the baseball team. and [High-frequency sound] for TWEET seems hopelessly out of touch, given that 99% of the time TWEET now means twitter posting.
  

clue i still don't get: [Safe to crack] for PETE. huh? is this an adjective or a noun? a person (pete safe)? no idea.

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Friday, 11/27/09

NYT (PG)
LAT (PG)
CS (Janie)
WSJ (Sam, separate post)
CHE 4:14 (joon, paper)
BEQ 5:33 (joon, across lite)

Hi, everybody! PuzzleGirl here continuing the Thanksgiving Weekend Potluck here at the Crossword Fiend. Amy is off somewhere without internet access which, seriously. I don't even like to talk about it. It must be what hell is like. Our electricity was out yesterday for about three hours and all I can say is Thank God For My iPhone. Not sure I would have survived without it.

Ed Sessa's New York Times crossword puzzle

So what do we have going on today? Well, this week's Friday themeless NYT is pretty fun. I finished it in a little over half an hour, but just knew there was something wrong up there in the NE corner. The doctor's name [DENTON] was somewhere waaaay back in my brain, but when it made it all the way up to the front of my brain it was spelled Dennon. Which made 11D look like it was going to be SNAP-something for [Fasten with a click], right? Perfectly reasonable! But then ... it didn't work. So I tried enable, because an E in that spot seemed okay even though it gave me an artist named Libpi, who is, unfortunately, equally as known to me as Fra Filippo LIPPI. So 11D went from SNAP ON to ENABLE to the finally correct STAPLE. What else did I have trouble with up there? IDA seemed like a good name for a county in Idaho and since there was nothing resembling ARISTOS at 8A [British V.I.P.'s, to Brits], the I seemed perfectly fine to me.

More trouble spots for me include the NW where I had DOGS instead of BOGS for [Things near Baskerville Hall]. Obviously, thinking "The Hound of the Baskervilles," right? And I can never remember how to spell [1950s-'60s NBC host] Jack PAAR's name. I've convinced myself that it's the more "normal" Parr, so I get it wrong every time. I have the same problem with Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal. I know how Shaquille O'Neal spells his name so every time I'm faced with Ryan or Tatum, I can never remember whether it's the same as Shaq or different. (The only reason I got it right this time is that I looked it up.)

I like all three of the long answers: A WING AND A PRAYER for [Hope born of desperation] is awesome. A LEG TO STAND ON for [Justifiable basis for one's position] is typically only referred to in the negative, right? As in "He doesn't have a leg to stand on." And TURKEY LEFTOVERS for [Post-Thanksgiving fare]? Let's just say I'm totally looking forward to those tomorrow!

Also enjoyed seeing LOW MAN as a figurative figure on a totem pole, and colloquial phrases like LET 'ER RIP ["O.K. ... go!"] are always welcome.

Dan Naddor's syndicated Los Angeles Times crossword

Ya know, there have been times when I've thought to myself "This puzzle has an old-timey feel to it." Well, today is definitely one of those times. This one is chock full of puns on things from, well, centuries ago! Looks like Dan finally decided to go medieval on us!

• 17A: Medieval commuter between Dover and Calais? (CHANNEL SERF [surf]).
• 22A: Medieval castle owner's view? (BARON [barren] LANDSCAPE).
• 34A: Manages medieval real estate holdings? (MINDS ONE'S MANORS [manners]).
• 46A: Medieval lord's efforts? (FEUDAL [futile] ATTEMPTS).
• 53A: Weapons for medieval warriors? (KNIGHT [night] CLUBS).

Seems to me the LAT is continuing the trend of raising the difficulty level. There weren't a whole lot of across answers I could get with none of the crosses in place, and that's usually a good indication of difficulty level for me. Of course it might just be because of the five long theme answers and the funky, chopped-up grid, but whatever. It felt a little more difficult than we've seen the last couple months and that's a good thing.

Not a lot really jumped out at me on this one, but that's probably because I'm in a turkey coma and it's late. So I'll just mention a few things and then get my butt to bed.

• I've never heard of Jack OAKIE [Jack of "The Great Dictator"] and am going to guess that's age-related.
• KENYA is a [Country known for its distance runners]. Have any of you read the new book about the Indian tribe in Mexico that runs barefoot? I think it's called Born to Run. Ah yes, here it is. I haven't read it yet, but it looks pretty interesting. One of the main points the book makes is that the worst thing a runner can do is buy expensive, overly engineered running shoes. If you're interested in running, check it out.
• I know how much people love to see rappers in the grid, and today we get two! NAS ["Thugz Mansion" rapper] and DIDDY [Bad Boy Records founder, as he's now known]. I will never — ne-Ever — understand why he wants to be known as DIDDY. Just doesn't make sense to me.
• And, finally, I'll leave you with this musical interlude. Hope you enjoy it. [Cereal bit] = FLAKE.

Tyler Hinman's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Internal Dialogue"—Janie's review

Taking the cruciverbal baton from Patrick, Tyler continues with another puzzle that has the puzzle's key concept word embedded in the theme phrases. Yesterday we had multiple opportunities to eat; today, as we learn at 37A., we have several ways to SPEAK [A synonym for it can be found inside this puzzle's four longest entries]. By way of an "internal" word for "dialogue," we can chat, talk, jaw or yak. And here's how it's done:

• 17A. PITCH A TENT [Set up camp]. I like the way chat spans the three words of the phrase.
• 23A. "MORTAL KOMBAT" [Violent video game franchise that debuted in 1992]. Wanna guess what I've never played?... This game is available, btw, through SEGA [Company that released the unsuccessful Saturn and Dreamcast consoles]. Gamers probably knew this, but it was news to me that not only is there a "Superman" video game, but there's also "'Mortal Kombat' vs. DC Universe" in which Superman is a featured player—which I mention because of the [Comics character with a secret identity]/CLARK KENT combo that's also in the puzzle. I do like the skillful way Tyler uses fill skewed to younger solvers within well-tried theme ideas. Same goes for:
• 46A. NINJA WARRIOR [Japanese TV import involving obstacle courses]. If you say so. It is for real (you can even watch full episodes on line), the base phrase is solid, of course, and at least I have heard of "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
• 57A. "GO FLY A KITE!" ["Buzz off!"]. See 17A. for why this one also appeals.

Though it's not in infinitive form, as I read it, we also get a bonus with SEZ [Utters, informally], first person singular of say...

I was surprised to see SOWN clued as [Placed, as seeds]. When I think of something being "placed," I see it being done in an orderly way—and often seeds are "placed" very carefully in the ground or in containers. But when they're sown, they're scattered or strewn, no?

And I have to wonder if there's an "anger management" issue being hinted at as a sub-theme. After all, the grid presents us with TIRADE [Angry outburst] which crosses RIOT ACT [It's read to a misbehaving child] (please, oh please read the kid a fairy tale instead!). Additionally, there's [Gets in a lather] for RILES and [Battling] for AT IT. (I was actually relieved to see EAT AT clued not in connection with annoyance but quite directly as [Go to, as a restaurant].) What's the source of the anger? Sometimes we direct it at ourselves when we [Mess up], or ERR; sometimes it's directed at others, like the pitcher who [Messes up on the mound], or BALKS.

My suggestion? "Breathe in green; breathe out blue." Listen to music that soothes you, like maybe an OPERA [Diva's setting] or a single ARIA [Diva's highlight]; make like a tourist and visit a museum. MoMA, perhaps? Yes, it's an [N.Y.C. attraction...] but it's not only [...for aesthetes] (thinking here of the negative connotation of the word).

Oh—and thanks for (the) MEMORY/[Something's that's banked?]. Some days mine seems to be double-locked in a seriously subterranean vault.

Did you know CINC? It's clued as [Prez] and I needed to look this one up. It's an acronym not unlike POTUS (President of the United States). Except this time the letters stand for Commander in Chief. Oh—and on the topic of acronyms, I smiled to see FIAT [Italian carmaker that recently partnered with Chrysler]. Seems those letters have come to stand for Fix It Again, Tony...

Ed Sessa's Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, "Natural Progression

happy day after thanksgiving, everyone. joon here with the lowdown on two more puzzles today. we get a double dose of ed sessa today, as he pairs his clever subtly-themed NYT with a nice CHE puzzle whose theme is a "natural progression" given by the puzzle's seven circled three-letter answers. it's a word latter from APE (14a, [Beginning of a natural progression]) to MAN (70a, [End of the natural progression]). the word ladder goes APE -> APT -> AFT -> OFT -> OAT -> MAT -> MAN, but the five words in the middle are all embedded in longer entries:

• to [Change with the times] is ADAPT.
  
• [Glider's booster] is an UPDRAFT.
  
• a [Marshmallow], metaphorically, is a SOFTY. i like this word, but i think i'd normally spell it SOFTIE.
  
• [Thick breakfast] is OATMEAL. this is the only one where the embedded word is etymologically related to the longer entry. i didn't really mind, though.
  
• my favorite of the theme clues was [Stick in a book] for MATCH. great misdirection there! not only does it sound like a verb, but you don't normally think "matchbook" when you see "book."
  

to top it off, the two longest answers in the puzzle form a two-part companion to the theme: the [1859 publication concerning this puzzle's natural progression] is darwin's THE ORIGIN / OF SPECIES. that's 150 years ago; wikipedia tells me it was published on november 24, so this is an anniversary puzzle of sorts (or at least, the closest that the CHE could get given its once-a-week basis). very cool. what else was notable about this puzzle? the crazy plural MENISCI [Cartilaginous crescents] is not often seen; MENISCUS, of course, is common enough, although i associate that word with graduated cylinders and/or capillary rise rather than connective tissue. (i know it means both, but i've just finished teaching the unit on surface tension, so the latter meaning is on my mind.) speaking of irregular plurals, i wanted [Forearm bones] to be ULNAE, but it's ULNAS this time. the crossing letter is "Ambition should be made of STERNER" stuff from julius caesar; that's a good shakespeare quote. there were a few unfamiliar clues and answers. ["Gift from the Sea" author Lindbergh] is ANNE. [19th-century African-American congressman Joseph] is RAINEY; that's the sort of academic trivia i love about the CHE puzzles, but i had no clue on this one. it was all crosses. and the word that gave me the most trouble was CAUSERIE, an [Informal chat]. never heard of it, and i was waffling on C vs L for the first letter, where it crossed NFC, clued as [The Minn. Vikings belong there]. once i had the rest of the letters, though, C looked much more likely. Brendan Emmett Quigley's themeless blog crossword brendan goes asymmetric with this 64-word themeless, resulting in very smooth fill for such a low word count. i liked CALLED IT, ["As I predicted"], best, but overall the fill was more notable for lack of crap than for brendan's usual pizzazz. there were some pained inflections, of which my least favorite was REMELT, and a couple of abbreviations i didn't like (NAV for navy being the worst), but it's really quite clean for a grid this demanding. clue of the year nominee: [Pass the bar, perhaps] for TEETOTAL. loved it! i also liked how the miami HEAT, clued as [2006 NBA champs], are opposite in the grid from WADES, or [Gets cold feet?]. anybody who watched the 2006 NBA finals knows that dwyane WADE (we really need to get his crazy first name into more puzzles) carried the HEAT to the title that year with an insanely dominant postseason.

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Wednesday, 11/4

BEQ 5:30
NYT 10:15 (PG)/4:11 (A)
Onion 4:09
LAT 2:43
CS untimed

Hi, everyone. PuzzleGirl here covering for Orange who is not feeling well At All. Poor thing! I'll check in with her in the morning and see how she's doing, but you might be stuck with me all day. Hey, it could be worse. I'm just going to do a quick write-up to get things started and then you all can have at it in the comments.

Ricky Ini Liu's New York Times crossword

I haven't had to work this hard to figure out a theme in a loooong time. I had No Idea what was going on. I solved in AcrossLite and when I was done, I opened up a text document and typed each theme answer out so I could look at all of them together. I noticed the Os, but thought maybe they needed to be dropped? TRI-CEREAL? Is that a thing? MEN COMICS? Maybe you need to add a W to the beginning to make WOMEN COMICS? ??? I also noticed what felt like a ton of Zs in the grid and wondered if that had something to do with the theme. I was really confused is what I'm saying. Turns out the manipulating that needs to be done is for one of the Os in each theme answer to be changed to an X. So TRIO CEREAL in the grid is a nod to that silly rabbit with his Trix Cereal. OENOPHOBIC was changed from xenophobic. (That seems kind of random.) Other theme answers include:

• [Foreboding cartoons?] = OMEN (x-men) COMICS
  
• [The way of the government?] = FEDERAL TAO (tax)
  
• [Film that's been speechified?] = ORATED (x-rated) MOVIE
  
• [Shout of disapproval exactly like another?] = BOOING (boxing) MATCH

It all seems so simple now. Sigh.

Updated Wednesday morning:

Will Johnston's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Yard Work—Janie's review

It's autumn. If you live in a northern climate zone, it's time to get your yard ready for winter. If you live in a southern zone, you probably do this all year long. In today's puzzle, Will comes up with four activities to put on your "to do" list (no matter where you live), each of which appears as the first word in the four theme-phrases. Ready to do some work? You're going to:

•17A. Cut the grass, by way of CUT AND DRIED [Formulaic]. Hmm. We just saw this phrase as theme-fill last Wednesday in Paula Gamache's "He's No Gentleman"...
•11D. Trim the hedges, courtesy of TRIM THE TREE [Prepare for Santa, in a way]. This one's confusing. It's the only verbal theme-phrase and the base meaning needs the Christmas context so that we read "trim" as decorate and not tidy/cut. The word tree in the fill is also problematic as there may be trees in the yard. Why not TRIM AND TONE [Popular health-club workout?] or something nautical rather than botanical like "TRIM THE SAIL" [Request of Michael?]? Something that isn't UNCLEAR [Hazy], please.
•25D. Edge the lawn, via EDGE OF NIGHT [Soap opera with 7,420 episodes, with "The"]. Last seen on 12/28/84, it aired for 29 years...
•53A. Prune the bushes, compliments of PRUNE DANISH.

"EGAD!" [Quaint outburst], after all that work, you might want to MUNCH [Chew (on)] something. You might even want a prune danish. Or, depending on the weather, I s'pose, GELATI [Italian desserts] or FLANS [Caramel-topped desserts], and maybe some MINT JULEPS [Derby Day quaffs] to wash 'em all down. Or not...

As was the case with yesterday's puzzle, I found that I enjoyed the non-theme fill considerably more than the theme-fill. To borrow from the puzzle (but not to be SASSY [Impertinent]), it's simply less cut and dried.

Using the fill, I like that I can tie together the idiomatic BAD RAPS [Unjust judgments, slangily] with reasons some folks earn 'em. "She's the SPOTTIEST [Most erratic] employee when it comes to clocking in. Sure, she's always around at TEN A.M. [Coffee break time, for some], but when she goes back to the selling floor, face it: she's [Unambitious to the max] SHIFTLESS! Except for the paycheck, she probably RUES [Regrets] the day she ever walked in here..." I also like the way [...to the max] does not deliver an adjective ending in "-est." Sneaky. Good.

I like the crossing of EGG [It can be scrambled] and EGGAR [Actress Samantha of "Walk, don't Run"]. The "alphabet soup" fill is also nice with T-BARS [Ski tows], MR. T ["I Pity the Fool" star] and B-GIRL [Female hip-hopper]. I almost added A-BEAM to the list, but that word's ABEAM [At right angles to the keel]. Oops... Among today's SIDE ISSUES [Incidental topics] is the B-Girl Scholarship available at St. Paul, MN's McNally Smith College of Music. For some aspiring performer or musicologist, this is very cool and probably GODSENT news [Very timely, as an unexpected blessing].

I'm willing to bet that [Skater Sonja] HENIE wore a LEOTARD [Acrobat's attire] on more than one occasion; and even that a RUSTLER [Range thief] might dare to show up at a RODEO [Cowpoke competition]. Do you suppose there are many yoga-practitioners among the cowboy population? And if so, what are their MANTRAS [Meditation intonations]? Can't say for sure, but I do imagine their favorite song of these yoga-practicing cowpokes would be "Om, Om on the Range"...

Did somebody say "yoga"? I just read this on Twitter: "i've been doing some reading. turns out, the bhagavad gita never mentions yoga pants."

Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword

I refer you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential post for my thoughts on this puzzle.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Wednesday"

The last square to fall was the D in MONARDA, [Perennial family that includes bee balm and horsemint]. Say what?

Top fill, top clues:

• BABY FAT is [Children's coat?]. Lively entry.
• USED CAR is a Ford [Focus that might be a little off]. My mom bought a Focus about 8 or 9 years ago when there was a new model and regretted it—now she drives a tried-and-true Toyota Corolla with fewer repair needs.
• "RIUNITE on ice, that's nice." Is ["America's All-Time Favorite Italian Wine"] still available, or did it vanish by the '80s?
• ROSIE the Robot? [She works for Mr. J], J for Jetson.
• WOWED 'EM is nice.
• [Cabbage from the Far East] is YEN, "cabbage" being slang for "money."
• "THE TWIST," good song, good fill.
• [Run off] clues XEROX. Wasn't expecting that. Erased ESSEX, in fact, because I figured the beginning X was impossibly wrong for [Run off].
• If you type *headdesk* in an online setting, your readers gather that you're beating your head against your desk, expressing stupidity or, more often, futility. HEADDESK is clued as an [Expression of frustration, in modern day slang]. Just last week, Brendan had FACEPALM in another themeless, and I asked why it wasn't mini-themed with HEADDESK. So here the answer is, a few days later.

Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword

Ooh, I love this theme. 63D: ONE is the [Distance forward in the alphabet that each changed letter in the theme entries has moved]. Francis has four pairs of 6-letter words/phrases and two pairs of 5s:

• 18A. [Revealing photos of an old movie actress?] are Fay WRAY'S X-RAYS. One possessive, one hyphenated plural. The X is ONE letter past W.
• 23A. If you ANGLED ANG LEE, you [Set an Oscar-winning director at a slant]. One verb, one full name.
• 32A. [Roasting a blues legend?] clues BAKING B.B. KING, following the structure of the ANG LEE answer. Before I saw that the changed letter was only ONE off, I had BBQING B.B. KING here. (No, I hadn't looked at the crossings.)
• 41A. [Cotton fabric for chadors?] is MUSLIM MUSLIN. Adjective, noun. Muslin takes its name from the French mousseline in turn derived from Mosul, Iraq, where the fabric was made. This pairing may be more apt than I first thought.
• 51A. [Problem for superpowered pickup artists?] is HEROES' HERPES. The square daily newspaper puzzles never seem to have HERPES, do they?
• 60A. BOSOX BOTOX is clued as a [Treatment to keep a ball club looking youthful?]. I wonder if this was the seed entry.

Favorite clues:

• [Gay prostitute customer Haggard] is named TED.
• The [Family name in ___ history] is CURIE for science, FOYT for racing.
• [Trenchcoated antiheroes] are P.I.'S. Wait, antiheroes shouldn't be in a clue when HEROES' HERPES is in the grid.
• [It might require Java] clues an APPLET. Yup.
• [Fought-over leftovers] are an ESTATE.

Miscellaneous points:

• OXO isn't just an [Ergonomic kitchenware brand] anymore—they make office supplies. I have their clipboard.
• ["The world's local bank"] clues HSBC. I have never heard of this.
• [Hip-hop's Das ___] EFX? Never heard of him/her/them. I don't suppose Das EFX is/are German?
• [Matador, e.g.] is a LABEL? Never heard of it.
• XKE is clued as a [Jaguar make]. I think someone recently was saying that nobody ever really referred to it as the XKE, but I just heard Click or Clack, one of the Tappet brothers, invoking the XKE last weekend.
• KAREN O is the vocalist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wikipedia tells me. She's also a ["Where the Wild Things Are" soundtrack artist]. Kosher to have Things in this clue and THINGY as the very next answer?

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Friday, 8/7

NYT 33:32 (PG)
LAT untimed (PG)
CS 7:20 (J—paper)
WSJ 10:54 (JK)
BEQ 4:52 (JP)
CHE 3:36 (JP) download the puzzle here

Okay, one more day and you won't have old PuzzleGirl to kick around any more! Until, ya know, the next time I fill in for Orange. But anyway. I was debating whether to write this up tonight or to try to get some sleep first and blog in the morning. I'm still dragging from my road-trip/concert/autograph-seeking experience last night. Like I said yesterday, I'm definitely too old for that stuff. But ya know what? At least this time I only lost my sunglasses. Back in the old days I used to lose my car.

Manny Nosowsky graces us with a beautiful grid in today's New York Times puzzle. We've got 3x15 stacks top and bottom with not a clunker crossing in sight. Super smooth, is what I'm saying. The 15s:

• I kept thinking [The loneliest guy in town] was a song lyric (and it probably is; if it's not, it should be) but it's the old MAYTAG REPAIRMAN's description.
  
• Ever thought of how many different meanings [Hold on] might have? There's the I'm-coming-just-give-me-a-minute meaning, the don't-give-up-sweetie meaning, and then the I'm-gonna-let-you-listen-to-some-cheesy-music-now meaning that you might hear from one of today's oh-so-efficient-and-professional customer service representatives who staff the world's call centers: ONE MOMENT, PLEASE. (That was a lot of hyphens. I'll try to hold back for the rest of the post.)
  
• One who [Handles things evenhandedly] can be said to STRIKE A BALANCE.
  
• Viking stories, e.g. are [NORSE LITERATURE].
  
• [Took flak for something one said, say] means one GOT INTO HOT WATER. (And by "one" I think it's pretty clear we're talking about SethG.)
  
• And [Bedazzlement] can be described as having STARS IN ONE'S EYES.

But look at the crosses! I'm sure YEREVAN isn't universally known, but it's totally fair. I thought A-OKAY looked funny spelled out but it gets an awful lot of Google hits and I'm thinking maybe I've seen it shortened to AOK so many times in puzzles that the actual standard way of spelling it seems foreign to me. And, come on ... P. T. BARNUM? That's an awesome entry! And the PAVILION / LESOTHO / SIMEON pile-up is a thing of beauty.

I liked the cute clues for DEANS, [Ones in control of their faculties?], and HONOREE, [Center of a roast]. Really the only trouble I had was spelling [Mother of the believers] AYESHA. I have a friend with that name who spells it Aeesha, so I had to think about whether able works for [Well]. Answer: It doesn't, but ABLY does.

Updated Friday morning:

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Obstacle Course"—Janie's review

Interesting title for this humorous quip-puzzle. The goal of the "course" is related to a trim physical appearance; the "obstacle" along the way: temptation! Behold how it all adds up:

• 20A. I WANT TO HAVE A [Quip by humorist Jason Love: Part 1]
• 35A. GOOD BODY BUT [Quip: Part 2]
• 42A. NOT AS MUCH AS [Quip: Part 3]
• 59A. I WANT DESSERT [End of the quip]

Yes, for most of us, there's always a price to be paid for enjoying anything but the "Thanks, I'll just have fruit cup" dessert option. Whether you're dining at The Grocery, Brooklyn's trendy and terrific bistro, or someplace even more "down home"—like [1970s sitcom diner] MEL'S or your favorite real diner—finishing one's meal with a healthy dessert is part of the fun of eating out. And by "healthy dessert" I do not mean two scoops of [Vegan protein source] TOFU "ice-cream"....

I was about to say that if you [Yielded to a deadly sin] and LUSTED for dessert, that might be problematic—but nah, no such thing as lusting for dessert being a sin. Now if the indulgence verges on gluttony... Well—that's between you and your comfort zone! While it may not be the best source for theological discourse, this Wiki backgrounder on the seven deadly sins is quite good and to the point—especially for the information it provides on their 4th century origins as "eight evil thoughts" (delineated by monk Evagrius Ponticus) and their 6th century revision by Pope Gregory I into the sins we know and love.

On the theme subject of personal appearance, vanity is not a sin, but please be careful if you opt for BOTOX as your [Anti-wrinkle treatment]. The side effects are legend—and I leave it to you to find your own pictures of cosmetic injections gone wrong...

What I do like about BOTOX is that "X" at the end. If you take a careful look around the grid, you'll also see that Patrick's given us a pangram today. Every letter of the alphabet makes at least one appearance. With a nod to the way children learn to chant the alphabet, we even get XYZ clued as [Grade school recital's finale]. The sense of the word "recital" made the clue hard to parse—and I think that was intended. We're looking for something that's recited, and not a musical presentation. Btw, this puzzle contains two Xs, four Ys and three Zs. Let's hear it for the end of the alphabet!

And to wrap things up, let me mention just a few favorite pairings in the grid (unrelated to the previous discussion or to each other): the identity-rhymed crossing of TOFU with [Egg] FOO [yung]; the sparkly crossing of SHOW BIZ and TOPAZ; and the pairing for lovers of ancient history—PRIAM [King in "The Iliad"] and TROY, his kingdom, here clued as [Brad Pitt historical drama]. My suggestion? Yes, Pitt shows off his good body, but really—read the book...


Brendan Emmett Quigley's blog puzzle, "Superhero Rejects"

joon here with a couple of quick hits, pinch-pinch-hitting for the very busy puzzlegirl. brendan's got a hilarious theme today: six common expressions reinterpreted as improbable superhero names. it's slightly reminiscent of a horrible ben stiller movie from about 10 years back, "mystery men." did anybody see that one? no? just me, then. and no, i can't tell you why i would have gone to see it. back to the puzzle...

• the [Antihero who keeps firing sidekicks?] is HATCHET MAN.
  
• the [Crimefighting quintet of potheads?] is the HIGH FIVE.
  
• [Totally unpredictable heroes?] are the WILD CARD TEAM.
  
• [The League of Extraordinary Nitpickers?] are the CONTROL GROUP. great base phrase here, from experimental science. science!
  
• [Masked avenger who's a total wuss?] is MAMA'S BOY. yeah, that would be a pretty lame superhero.
  
• [Superhero who can't keep her mouth shut?] is GOSSIP GIRL. never seen the show (it's a show, right?) but ... yeah, i could imagine such a superhero.
  

according to brendan's blog, one of these is also going to be a theme answer in matt gaffney's contest puzzle today (which hasn't come out yet), as the result of a crossword constructor smackdown between BEQ and MG. i happen to know which one, but i'm not telling...

stuff i loved from the fill: science! the [First Law of motion subject] is INERTIA. my summer physics students are taking their final exam as we speak. [Jupiter feature] is the great RED SPOT. not sure how wonderful this is without "great," but ... i'm an easy guy to please. i love the colloquialism "SPOT-ON!" (["Exactly!"]). [Action flick that takes place in the Nakatomi Plaza] was an utter gimme for me: DIE HARD. my wife and i were just talking about how amazingly well that movie has held up. alan rickman is just brilliant as hans grüber, and i think this was when hollywood realized that great acting from the bad guy could actually carry an action flick. and brendan's got a funny self-referential clue at 1a, [Like me in a couple years]: BALD. say it ain't so, bro.

Annemarie Brethauer's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Lines Man"

the chronicle recently changed their site layout, and although the crossword is finally back on their website, it's in a different place. most places where people get their puzzles (like cruciverb and ephraim's puzzle pointers and wij's puzzle pointers) haven't changed their links. well, here's the crossword page, and you can download today's puzzle there. it's a tribute puzzle to the "lines man" of the title, alfred lord TENNYSON, the [Man who penned this puzzle's lines, born August 6, 1809]. that's 200 years ago. same year as darwin and lincoln (remember that?), though not on the same day. so what are those lines?

• "Now when the dead man come to life beheld / His wife his wife no more" is from ENOCH ARDEN. i know the title, but i haven't read this poem. and frankly, i can't understand what the hell those lines mean. parsing error.
  
• "Sunset and evening star / And one clear call for me!" is from CROSSING THE BAR. this one was a gimme, as it's the opening lines of a (justly) famous poem. in an elegant touch, this entry and the next both intersect TENNYSON in the grid's center. as a result, the grid had to be expanded to 16x15 (since TENNYSON is even-length).
  
• "O, rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more" is from THE LOTOS EATERS. i wonder if the seattle mariners say this to each other at the end of a long road trip.
  
• "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all" is from IN MEMORIAM, tennyson's brilliant tribute to his friend arthur henry hallam. famous lines indeed, but i actually had forgotten that they were from this particular poem.
  

so, a nice tribute. the only thing that could have made it better would have been the inclusion of Ulysses, my favorite tennyson poem. but i understand that it didn't fit into the grid as an unpaired 7.

the fill was pretty smooth. i did like the mythological bent (i can hear you all gasp in surprise): in addition to THE LOTOS EATERS (which is tennyson's riff on a section from the odyssey), ATLAS is clued very cleverly as [Strong supporter?], and ODIN puts in an appearance as well. unfamiliar greek word: EPHEBE, clued as [Youth of ancient Greece]. is this a singular or plural noun? common or proper? i can't really tell.

Wall Street Journal by Patrick Berry

Surprise! I’m baaaack. It’s Jeffrey Krasnick filling in for PuzzleGirl filling in for Orange. Yes, finally an accountant blogging the Wall Street journal puzzle. But we’re in the marketing department, not accounting today. This one by Patrick Berry is called “Product claims (Disproved)” or perhaps, Famous Last Words.

Theme entries:

• 23A: [Disproved! It hung on me like a sack!] – ONE SIZE FITS ALL. I am nearly 6’4”. Nothing one-size ever fits me.
  
• 28A: [Disproved! I spotted it at Wal-Mart!] – NOT SOLD IN STORES. That’s like the “As Seen on TV” you have in U.S. malls that sells all the stuff they claim you have to order.
  
• 42A: [Disproved! They have a whole warehouse of ‘em!] – SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED. Why ‘em? YM? YMCA?
  
• 69A: [Disproved! I wasn’t!] – YOU’LL BE AMAZED.
  
• 91A: [Disproved! There was more than one part!] – NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED. Got an email from the cable company yesterday, saying I had to trade in my old modem for a free new model. Went to the office, stood in line with half the city, got the new one. They said just hook it up, five minutes to set up. Two hours of frustration later, I’m on the phone with them. While I’m on hold (of course), the recording goes, “Try unplugging and replugging the modem”. Tried it. Worked.
  
• 111A: [Disproved! Aunt Rose returned it for store credit!] – MAKES A GREAT GIFT. Anyone want an old modem?
  
• 119A: [Disproved! It’s the same old piece of junk it always was!] – NEW AND IMPROVED. Anyone want a new modem?
  

Cool puzzle. Nice eight-letter stacking of two sets of theme answers.

Other cool stuff:

• 50A: [Saskatchewan native] – CREE. Canadian content! I’m heading CrossCan next week to see my newborn niece or nephew. Or to see my overdue sister-in-law. One or the other.
  
• 53A: [Kitt who played Catwoman] - EARTHA – Batman reference! I’m wearing a Batman watch right now.
  
• 76A: [The Fonz, for one] – GREASER – Ayyyyyyyyy! Grease video for PuzzleGirl.
  
• 126A: [Canadian alphabet ender ]– ZED. Canadian content!
  
• 71D: ["Mule Train" singer] – Frankie LAINE.
  
• 78D: [Susan’s portrayer on “Desperate Housewives” – TERI. As in Hatcher. She also played Lois Lane in “Lois and Clark”. Dana Delany is in “Desperate Housewives”. She did the voice of Lois Lane in many animated versions of Superman.
  

Gareth Bain's Los Angeles Times crossword

puzzlegirl had to run off to her doctor/airport/what-have-you, so she asked me to post the grid and link to her writeup at LA crossword confidential. i refused, of course. what am i, some kind of lackey?

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Thursday, 8/6

CS 8:12 (J—paper)
NYT untimed
LAT untimed
Tausig untimed

Hey, everyone. PuzzleGirl with you again for your Thursday puzzles. Unfortunately it's very very late and I just got home from a concert and I, honestly, I don't know what the hell I was doing when I told Amy I'd do this for her. So, the write-up is going to be super-quick tonight and you all can feel free to yak it up in the comments.

Dan Naddor's New York Times puzzle riffs on common spelling/pronunciation errors. Theme answers are:

• [*Privilege] = PEROGATIVE
  
• [*No matter] = IRREGARDLESS
  
• [*And so forth] = EXCETERA
  
• [*Ways things are said] = PRONOUNCIATIONS
  
• [*Sign to look elsewhere] = ASTERICK
  
• [*Stumbled upon] = CAME ACROSSED
  
• [*As it's widely believed] = SUPPOSABLY

The reveal is at 29A where ERR is clued as [Use the answer to any of this puzzle's starred clues in ordinary conversation?]

I didn't know CASCA [Conspirator against Caesar] or RUSK [Kennedy's secretary of state], but I'm pretty sure that says more about me than it does about the puzzle. And, ya know what? I'm sorry, that's all I can do for you today. Please go nuts in the comments.

Dan Naddor's L.A. Times puzzle— hey, wait a minute! Didn't I just ...? Yep, it's WDNR today — All Dan Naddor, All The Time. This puzzle plays on all the different ways you might say pal.

Theme answers:

• City slicker's getaway = DUDE RANCH.
  
• Like some sharks = MAN-EATING.
  
• Honoree in Don McLean's song "American Pie" = BUDDY HOLLY.
  
• Kraft Dinner contents, familiarly = MAC 'N' CHEESE.
  
• Maker of Flava-Craze lip balm = CHAPSTICK.
  
• Casual wear item = SPORTCOAT.
  
• Out with the guys, and an apt title for this puzzle = PALLING AROUND.

And because, seriously, it's 3:00 in the morning at this point, I'm going to link you to my write-up over at our other blog. And then I'm going to get some sleep. Promise I'll be back tomorrow with your Tausig puzzle.

Updated Thursday morning:

Lynn Lempel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Difficult Choice"—Janie's review

Casting no aspersions on her age, lemme say it's easy to love this "difficult" puzzle by OLD PRO constructor Lynn Lempel [One with plenty of experience]. The five "in the language" theme-phrases all begin with a synonym for the word difficult, and each appears to be either a CS- or major publication-first. Say it with me: "fresh fill." Take a look. There's:

• 16A. TOUGH LOVE [Refusing to bail out one's kid, say].
• 10D. KNOTTY PINE [Common wood paneling]. A CS-first, and let's see. That paneling would look something like this perhaps...
• 39A. HARD HAT [Construction worker]. Another CS-first.
• 29D. ROUGH DRAFT [Early stage of a manuscript]. And a final CS first-timer.
• 65A. STICKY BUN [Pastry with nuts and a sugary topping]. In our house, these were called schnecken -- and oh man, are they good!

There's the feel of a friendly battle-of-the-sexes in much of the non-theme fill today. Representing the gents, we have three media-men: esteemed and long-time [NPR news commentator Daniel] SCHORR; [TV host with all the answers] Alex TREBEK (CBS is the AIRER [Broadcaster] of the long-running Jeopardy!); and star of screen and stage, ["Chicago" actor Richard] GERE. And I don't want to forget ADAMS [Presidential family name] of John and John Quincy or that other founding-father type (or founding-father wannbe say some...), AARON Burr [Duelist with Alexander] Hamilton. Because of the middle "A" in ADAMS, my first fill there had been OBAMA. Love the guy, but kinda glad that it wasn't. Oh, and Prince Charles gets a shout-out by way of the clue for POLO...

On the distaff side (so to speak), an equally distinguished lot. And more of 'em, too— fictional and non-. Looking at the latter, there're sportswomen VENUS Williams [Serena's frequent doubles partner] and [Skating medalist] ITO [Midori]; political [Woman of the House] Nancy [PELOSI] (from Baw'mer—my home town. Her father, Tommy D'Alessandro, was mayor of the city when I graduated high school [a hundred and seven years ago...], and his signature is on my diploma...); and REBA [McEntire of country music]. In the former category, there's stage and film's "IRMA [La Douce"], Margaret [Mitchell's fictional belle] Scarlett O'HARA and Thomas [Hardy heroine who gives birth to Sorrow], TESS...of the D'Urbervilles. Let us not forget HER [___ Excellency], a form of address most often used (in the U.S. anyway) for ambassadors, and the more homely MADRE [Miguel's mom]—whom I can almost see tending her HEARTH [Where to keep the home fires burning]. Oh, yes—and there's also that female [Choral voice], the ALTO. So it looks like there's a bit more yin than yang today.

We get a pair of theatre awards with the ultra-commercial TONY [...presented at Radio City Music Hall] and its downtown cousin, the OBIE [...presented by "The Village Voice"]; and a slew of sports references: a golf TEE, a RIFLE [...for target shooting], the aforementioned POLO and basketball's SUNS [Phoenix hoopsters]. And representing the sciences? MATH, slyly clued as [Course with some big dividends?].

As I hope you can tell, I definitely enjoyed this one. So I'M SORRY ["Please forgive me"], but I have to say I was let down to see both REBA and MAST today, as both had been in Patrick's puzzle just yesterday. Wassup, CS? I understand about reinforcing newbie solvers with repeated crossword vocabulary, but your terrific puzzles could only benefit from freshening up the 4-letter fill and not repeating quite so much so soon, no? I know, I know. Easier said than done. But something to consider.


Updated Thursday afternoon:

Here's the thing. (I know. There's always a thing with me, right?) I am Too Old for road-tripping to concerts and hanging out afterwards for autographs. Entirely Too Old. I'm totally out of it today. It feels like I'm walking through glue. So I just solved Ben Tausig's "All-Four Words" puzzle, which I liked very much, but about which I'm not going to say much. Despite the fact that I regularly admit to all the stuff I don't know and the majority of you likely think I'm a total idiot, today it's just too risky. I might say something really stupid that I will only comprehend many hours later and then I won't be able to show my face around here any more.

Theme answers today are hiding animal sounds:

• Kobe Bryant, e.g., eleven times = NBA ALLSTAR
  
• Surrounding region = METRO AREA
  
• "Losers," according to CNBC's Rick Santelli = HOMEOWNERS
  
• Artificial tissue generation materials = BIOINKS
  
• Potato skins, onion rings, etc. = BAR FOOD
  
• What can be found amid the phrases in 18-, 36-, and 58-Across, and 2- and 45-Down = CALLS OF THE WILD

I love the little quirky things I always learn from Ben Tausig. For example, that EBAY has a "human remains and body parts" policy. That IHOP doesn't serve real maple syrup. Good stuff.

Tomorrow is a big blogging day, so I'm going to rest up. I may have to call in the reinforcements to help me out. So come on back tomorrow to see what happens!

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Wednesday, 8/5

NYT 6:02
LAT untimed
Onion untimed
BEQ untimed
CS 7:15 (J—paper)

Hey, everyone. PuzzleGirl here off the bench for a couple days. I've unpacked, gotten most of the laundry done, and made a successful excursion to the grocery store (doing what I like to call a Full Shop (tm)), so I guess I'm not on vacation any more. Might as well do some puzzles.

Ya know who Donna S. Levin's New York Times puzzle was easy for? Rex Parker and the rest of you who enjoy comics. Me? Not so much. I enjoyed the puzzle, but the theme did Absolutely Nothing for me. Never heard of Perry White or his well-known exclamation. When it comes to comics, the only thing I know that I didn't learn from crosswords is Jimmy Olsen. From crosswords? Well, mostly the dogs: Snert, Otto, Dawg, Odie, etc. Also Kato is some kind of sidekick for some superhero or other. I know. I've lost quite a bit of my dork cred right here in this paragraph.

So, Perry White is a comic book guy. He is known to exclaim "Great Caesar's ghost!" Which I learned from figuring out the theme answers:

• GREAT LAKES [America's so-called Third Coast]
  
• CAESAR'S WIFE [One who must be above suspicion, in a saying]
  
• GHOST WRITER [Many an autobiographer's need]
• PERRY WHITE [Character known for exclaiming the first words of 20-, 28- and 46-Across]
  

And just in case you were worried that this would be the first post ever where I don't publicly announce many, many things that I don't know, I'll just say right off the bat that I didn't know that the Great Lakes are called America's Third Coast, and I've never heard any saying about Caesar's Wife. Let me be clear: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the puzzle. I'm just saying ... "Huh?"

Did I know any of this stuff? Well, sure. I knew BENNIFER [Affleck/Lopez as a tabloid twosome], Y.A. TITTLE, who's [known for well-thrown pigskins], and [Early Beatle] STU Sutcliffe. So, yeah, basically the people. The fluff. That's what I know. And I know it well!

Not to give away too much about my politics, but I found it interesting that Bill O'Reilly's "no-spin zone" clue didn't get a "so-called." [Ex-governor] SARAH Palin's appearance gave this puzzle even more of a rightward tilt, but I think it was balanced out with the two [Wack job] answers: NUT and KOOK. Before I get myself in too much trouble, let's move on to the next puzzle.

Gary Steinmehl's L.A. Times puzzle has a cute theme. I mean, what's cuter than monkeys? Theme answers all end with words that come after the word monkey in familiar phrases. Did you guys know Vena CAVA? I sure didn't and the obscure cross didn't help either. Oh, I know. There will be some 100-year-old shutterbug who can't wait to tell me how well-known the ANSCO brand is in camera circles. (Not saying there's anything wrong with 100-year-old people, just making the point that the company is not exactly modern.) Anyway. You are encouraged to talk about this puzzle here, but you'll have to go to our other blog if you want to read my sparkling commentary.

Awesome Guitar Hero–themed AV puzzle today by Tyler Hinman. Theme answers are a little ... off-color. Heh. See what I did there? The original phrase includes a color but the new, Guitar Hero'ed phrase has the color wrong. It's like when you play the stupid game and can't get the stupid button at the right stupid time. Or so I've heard. From people.

What phrases do bad Guitar Hero players screw up? The Classic English ballad Greensleeves becomes REDSLEEVES. A red-eye (i.e., overnight) flight becomes a YELLOW-EYE. YELLOWKNIFE, capital of the Northwest Territories, becomes BLUEKNIFE. And, keeping with the Northern theme, a player on Toronto's baseball team, known as a blue jay, becomes an ORANGE JAY.

Loved the pop culture references in this one. And if you don't like pop culture references, well, you probably shouldn't be wasting your time on the AV puzzle in the first place, right?

• IVANA Trump preceded Marla and Melanie.
  
• KAREEM Abdul-Jabar was a Magic (Johnson) partner.
  
• I have to admit I'm a fan of the [Popular reality show] American IDOL. This is the first year I've watched because the PuzzleKids are now old enough to enjoy it. Taking them to see the Idols tomorrow night in Baltimore. Woo-hoo!
  
• Gabrielle REECE made her way into my consciousness once when I read that she's married to a surfer and now I always connect her with Kelly Slater, who she is not, in fact, married to.
  
• When I saw the clue [Whence "Heart-Shaped Box" and "Pennyroyal Tea"] I thought, "Well, Pennyroyal Tea is a Nirvana song, but I'm sure it's not referring to that."
  
• I was just looking up information about NIA LONG for today's Crosswordese 101 lesson over at our other blog. Otherwise I would not have known she was [Will Smith's love, for a while, on "The Fresh Prince"]. Interesting (?) tidbit: Jada Pinkett was supposed to play that role but she was "too short." I like to think that when she and Will were pronounced husband and wife, she turned to the crowd and said "Guess I'm not TOO SHORT for THIS, bitches!"
• I did not, however, know [Superman's foe] ZOD. If you were paying attention to my post a little earlier, you already knew that.

I also like the two horse-racing clues right next to each other. ALSO-RAN [Loser] and BY A NOSE [How some win]. And, of course, we all loved the clue for JOULE, didn't we? Yes, we did.

Updated Wednesday morning:

Patrick Blindauer's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Positive Thinking"—Janie's review

Hmmm. So it looks like we've got another recycled CS theme here. Maybe I'm too much of a PURIST [Strict adherent]—and not to ACCOST one of my fave constructors—but CS published colleague Martin Ashwood-Smith's "Movie Ratings"—with the identical thematic progression and gimmick (with a slightly different collection of films [but one repeat title...])—less than two years ago. Seems like only yesterday, don' it? It's hard for me to believe it's in CS's best interests to "repurpose" so basic a theme idea (and fill) so soon. Whaddaya say, team? Isn't there a way to monitor what-gets-published-when a bit more carefully? Okay, so that's the less-than-good news and now I'll move on to the puzzle itself.

To take a tip from the title, let's look at this puzzle's strengths and work from there. Spanning the range of comparatives, Patrick takes us from good to better to best by way of some well-known movies and their promotional taglines.

• 17A. GOODFELLAS [1990 Ray Liotta film with the tagline "Three Decades of Life in the Mafia"]. Saw this one—on the BOOB TUBE [Idiot box] with most of the language deeply sanitized and still liked it a lot.
• 38A. BETTER OFF DEAD [1985 John Cusack film with the tagline "Insanity doesn't run in the family, it gallops]. Never saw it but do consider myself a John Cusack fan. Say Anything (in which he starred with [Actress] IONE [Skye]) was a movie that I loved seeing when it came out. Ditto Bullets Over Broadway and High Fidelity. What's he been up to lately anyway? IMDB tells me he's working on a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine. I think I'm very afraid...
• 61A. BEST IN SHOW [2000 Eugene Levy film with the tagline "Some pets deserve a little more respect than others"]. Saw it and wanted to like it a lot more than I did. I'd maybe rate it a good. Give me Waiting for Guffman (better)—or best of the (Eugene Levy) bunch (imoo...), A Mighty Wind.

Taking off from those musically-oriented movie titles, here's some musically-oriented fill: ["Champagne music" maestro Lawrence] WELK, his near-polar opposite ELTON [John who sang "Levon" and "Daniel"], and the Danny and the Juniors song from 1957, AT THE HOP which, we are reminded, was the [#1 hit between "April Love" and "Get a Job"].

I like it when the clues give us a juicy bit of tid like that. For example, did you know that GOBI is [Mongolian for "place without water"]? Does that make Gobi Desert a redundancy? (My Mongolian is just a little weak, or I'm sure I'd know...) It also came as news to me that [Fictional explorer] DORA [...also plays the flute]. What a plucky gal! Of course, I was kind of hoping that she'd visited the Gobi—or carried a HELLO [___ Kitty...] lunchbox or backpack or mobile even. But I couldn't match her up with either.

The SW and NE corners are especially nice with those triple sixes; and the placement of STATUE besides TITAN conjures up the colossal Boteros at the Time-Warner Center in NYC.

["Like" things?] are SIMILES and in another thought-provoking clue, [Springs from a cooler?] is not a noun for something you might want to find at a desert oasis, but a verb for PAROLES.

Finally, we get a pair of rhyming fill, playfully clued: GNU [Modern-sounding creature?] (gnu/new—get it?) and STU (Name that's an alphabet trio). Sweet.


Updated Wednesday afternoon:

Brendan Emmett Quigley (thankfully) offers us an Easy-rated puzzle for today called "With a Name Like That." Very clever theme in which famous people are matched up with the famous books they should have written. (Funny, I was just today thinking about whether boys named Hunter all grow up to be hunters. No idea where that came from, but there you have a little glimpse into my brain.)

• NOËL COWARD should have written "Fear of Flying."
  
• STEPHEN HAWKING might have written "Death of a Salesman." With STEPHEN and KING in place, I thought, "Does he have a middle name?"
  
• ROBERT GRAVES would have been a good author for "Pet Sematary."
  
• NORMAN MAILER has a perfect name for "Postcards From the Edge."
  
• CHRISTOPHER FRY might have written "Fahrenheit 451."

And, of course, no BEQ puzzle would be complete without a little something to make those of us on the prudish side blush:

• E. E. CUMMINGS goes right along with "The Joy of Sex."

Typical solve for an Easy BEQ puzzle for me today. Fits and starts all over the place, frustration at not knowing all the musicians, but everything eventually falling into place. I don't care how you clue it, I'm never going to like the word COWPEA. But any puzzle that includes Jimmy CHOO is okay in my book.

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Sunday, 6/21

NYT*
LAT*
PI*
BG*
CS*

*You don't really care; it's just PuzzleGirl.

[Updated at 9:45am with the LAT]
[Updated at 10:10am with the PI]
[Updated at 10:30 with the BG]
[Updated 12:00 noon with the CS — Whew!]

Hey, everyone, PuzzleGirl here with your Sunday puzzles. Someone remind me again why I told Orange I'd blog for her today? Oh yeah, I'm completely nuts. Sunday puzzles! They're just too big! Well, we might as well get started. I know it's a big drag when Orange is gone but let's just make the best of it!

Today's New York Times crossword by Matt Ginsberg and Pete Muller chewed me up and spit me out. I had to Google a couple times ("The horror!") and then when I thought I was all done, I had a mistake at [92A: Some pitcherfuls]. I had ALES instead of ADES and, I tell you what, for some reason mistakes on the downs are a lot harder for me to see than mistakes on the acrosses. BO DIDLLEY looked just fine to me the first ten times I scanned by it. Ugh!

The theme of this puzzle is "Famous Last Words," and theme answers are—you guessed it—last words of famous people. I'll be honest, I don't believe I've heard any of these quotations before. Have you? With a couple crosses in place, I could figure out most of them and they're pretty interesting!

Theme answers:

• 1A/13A: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go" (OSCAR WILDE)
  
• 27A: "Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do!" (GROUCHO MARX)
  
• 32A: "That was the best ice cream soda I ever tasted" (LOU COSTELLO)
  
• 53A: "Where is my clock?" (SALVADOR DALI)
  
• 71A: "Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub" (CONRAD HILTON)
  
• 87A: "I've had 18 straight whiskeys. I think that's a record" (DYLAN THOMAS)
  
• 94A: "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something" (PANCHO VILLA)
  
• 110A/113A: "I've had a hell of a lot of fun and I've enjoyed every minute of it" (ERROL FLYNN)
  
• 20D: "I have not told half of what I saw" (MARCO POLO)
  
• 46D: "I live!" (CALIGULA)
  
• 48D: "Eva is leaving" (EVA PERON)
  
• 68D: "I'm going to heaven!" (BO DIDDLEY)

I liked seeing AKC [42A: Huskies' org.] so close to DOGGONE IT [50A: Words of disappointment] and DESPOT [60A: Kim Jong-il, e.g.] crossing DEPOT [60D: Points on some lines]. I wasn't crazy about seeing ILLEGALS in the grid [104A: Raid targets]. That seems like a fairly derogatory term to me. And HANOI clued as [10D: McCain residence for 5-1/2 years]?? Ouch.

Fred Piscop's L.A. Times crossword, with its wordplay theme, was closer to my comfort zone. Theme answers are familiar phrases with an X tacked onto the end, resulting in new wacky phrases clued "?"-style.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Rodriguez upset with negative publicity? (BITTER ALEX).
  
• 25A: Film timepiece seen briefly? (CAMEO ROLEX).
  
• 43A: Instability of stereotypical BMW drivers? (YUPPIE FLUX).
  
• 64A: World's most perplexing problem? (GRAND CRUX).
  
• 87A: Buckingham Palace add-on? (QUEEN ANNEX).
  
• 107A: Rubber bedsheets? (SLEEP LATEX).
  
• 109A: Cat on steroids? (MUSCLE MANX).
  
• 36D: Encrypted Scriptures? (SECRET CODEX).
  
• 39D: Highest point in North Africa? (BARBARY APEX).

You can see my full write-up of this puzzle at our other blog, L.A. Crossword Confidential.

Hey! A Father's Day theme! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle lets us in on "What Dad Stands For" — theme answers are three-word phrases with the first letters D.A.D.

Wanna know DAD's favorite comedy? It's "Dumb and Dumber," of course. Favorite game? "Dungeons and Dragons," natch. I've never heard of "Duel at Diablo," but it came pretty easy through crosses, unlike "Dick and Dee Dee," which took a while to figure out because I also wasn't sure of the Carmen Miranda tune "Tico Tico." I am sure that I love her hat though. Other than that, it was a pretty smooth and steady solve, which is typical for me with Merl's puzzles.

The rest of the theme answers:

• 39A: What DAD might do to irrigate the backyard? (DIG A DITCH).
  
• 51A: DAD's favorite code? (DOTS AND DASHES).
  
• 71A: How DAD may like his sports and politics? (DOWN AND DIRTY).
  
• 96A: Like DAD's lectures? (DRY AS DUST).
  
• 102A: What DAD never was in his army days (so he says)? (DRUNK AND DISORDERLY).
  
• 117A: Words from Mom when DAD says no? (DON'T ARGUE DEAR).

I did have to laugh at myself at 1A. I saw [Moscow headgear] and though, "What do they call those FUR HATs?" ["My pretty," in a 1939 film] for DOROTHY is a truly inspired clue. And what would my guest-blogging stint be without me telling you something really dumb I tried to fit into the grid. For [68A: When metal-casting started] instead of the correct IRON AGE, I literally — literally — started writing in Stone Age until it was obvious it wouldn't fit. The clue for NELSONS [81A: Mandela and others] made me wonder if it would be kosher to clue this answer with, say, Mandela and Ozzie. One with the NELSON as a first name and the other with NELSON as a last name. I'm thinking that's probably not cool.

I thought I was going to strike out in the SW — I didn't know any of the downs on my first pass! Luckily, my parents are big horse-racing fans and HIALEAH [115A: Racetrack near Miami] was a gimme. Also [109A: Mary's TV friend] RHODA who I love, love, love. Isn't it hilarious that NO ONE said "Play it again, Sam" in "Casablanca"? How in the world do those kind of errors take hold and become part of our popular culture? 119D reminded me that I'm going in for my first ACUpuncture treatment on Friday. Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday morning than having someone stick needles in my body. Wish me luck!

Oh, I really struggled through Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's Boston Globe crossword, "Trainspotting." For some reason the BG puzzles are always hard for me. I think it's because I'm only exposed to these constructors (Emily and Henry, and Henry Hook) once a week. I did eventually finish this one, but it was rough. It's so chock full of theme and then there's all the "Look here! Look there!" — made me dizzy! Kinda like motion sickness. Heh. None of the train names came easy — although once they were in, they all looked familiar enough. Here are the trains found in this puzzle:

• 23A: Train of folk song (CITY OF NEW ORLEANS).
  
• 34A: Chunnel train (EUROSTAR).
  
• 40A/65A: Mystery train (ORIENT EXPRESS).
  
• 56A/52D: Blues train (MIDNIGHT SPECIAL).
  
• 81A/50D: NY-Chicago train (BROADWAY LIMITED).
  
• 103A: Chattanooga train (CHOO-CHOO).
  
• 3D: 16 Down predecessor (METROLINER).
  
• 5D/50D: Train to LA (SUNSET LIMITED).
  
• 9D/65A: Kids' train (POLAR EXPRESS).
  
• 14D: 2008 film set on a train (TRANS-SIBERIAN).
  
• 16D/65A: Speedy train (ACELA EXPRESS).
  
• 55D/52D: Fiddler's train (ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL).
  
• 77D: "Train of the Stars," once (SUPER CHIEF).

Wow! Question: Could there be any more theme stuffed into this puzzle? Answer: No. No, there could not. This is like an industrial sized tub full of theme here. Amazing. And even though I had a lot of trouble with the puzzle, it was totally my fault and not because of bad fill. In fact, they even managed to sneak some theme-ish fill in with TRAY clued as [Passenger's prop], and TOWNS clued as [Whistle stops, maybe]. Also:

• 20A: State seen from the California Zephyr (UTAH).
  
• 71A: Rapid __ (urban trains) (TRANSIT).
  
• 95A: Put the brakes on (EASE UP).
  
• 109A: [SUNSET LIMITED] stop (HOUSTON).
  
• 11D: Train depot (abbr.) (STA).

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure "Broken Arrow" (which shows up at 3D: Michael of "Broken Arrow" (ANSARA)) is the movie where the nukes are on the train. John Travolta and Christian Slater? Right? Anyone?

As I expected, Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy crossword was rough going but ultimately beautiful. The only gimmes I had the first time through were LEGS [11A: Trio for grand pianos], ALP [19A: High point of "The Sound of Music"?], PIÑON [36A: State tree of Nevada and New Mexico], and Robin WILLIAMS [33D: Star of "One Hour Photo"] (never saw it, but it looks really, really creepy). That's not much to build on! With some perseverance, though, things came into focus. I've never heard the word ORISON before [21A: Prayer]. ELASTOMERS [12D: Synthetic rubber compounds] was new to me too, but gettable through crosses. Well, eventually anyway. I had the most trouble in the SW where I had ensure for ASSURE [25A: Warrant] and had no idea about [41A: "The Fantasticks" narrator] (it's EL GALLO). Just looked it up and, guess what. I bet Tony Orbach didn't have any trouble with that one. But my downfall was my stunning lack of military knowledge. For [32A: USMC E-4s] I first had guns, then subs, then cols (making my way to the ballpark!), and finally, the correct CPLS. Yikes!

I also suffer from that particular brand of dyslexia where I fill in wrong letters even when I know the right answer if I've already got most of the crosses entered. In this case, I had smokeatter instead of SMOKE-EATER at 55A [Firefighter, slangily]. That means I was looking at -ILDARA for the [Horse-breeding county west of Dublin] and both C and K looked reasonable to me, so I went with the C. If I'd had the proper last letter in there, I'm sure I would have seen KILDARE. Of course, by that time I was feeling a little pressure to be done already so I could write this up and get on with my day! As always, I choose to believe that had I taken a little more time, I would have ended up with a perfect solution.

With any luck, Orange will be back tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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