Newsday a leisurely 10 minutes
NYT 4:32
LAT 3:00
CS untimed (J)/3:38 (A)
I'm on tuck-in duty tonight and my kid's back on his school-year schedule, so I've gotta run. I'll be back tonight if I don't wind up falling asleep myself.
Barry Silk's New York Times crossword
Short-form review:
Updated Saturday Morning:
Don Gagliardo's Los Angeles Times crossword
(Post excerpted from my L.A. Crossword Confidential writeup.)
I worked an advance copy of the puzzle in Across Lite, and there's an error in the solution. The corrected file has not yet made it onto Cruciverb, but the puzzle should be correct on the L.A. Times website and the newspaper itself presumably doesn't reveal the solution until the following day. The error is a D where 5A: [Snake with a puff variety] meets 9D: [ACLU concerns], and those are a puff ADDER and rights, abbreviated as RTS. There is no "puff added" (though that phrase should appear on packages of cotton candy), and the ACLU does not customarily concern itself with delirium tremens.
Highlights:
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Opener Openers"—Janie's review
26A: [Show featuring agents 86 and 99] is GET SMART. I never, ever saw the TV show, and I've only seen a portion of the Steve Carell movie. Did I miss much? I know about the shoe phone. (My son peeked over my shoulder at this puzzle and knew this clue thanks to the movie. The title was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't summon it up. Kids! They're just like adults sometimes.)
32A: ["See?!"] points towards the wordier "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!" Now, that's awesome. I love it when the puzzle speaks to me in exclamations.
54A: The [2002 film for which Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar] is THE PIANIST. And then he inappropriately smooched Oscar presenter Halle Berry, who did not give up her bodily autonomy just because he thinks she's swell. (Hmph!) I always hear that movie title as "The Penis." Anyone else have that problem? No? Just me?
7D: ["Sound familiar?"] and "DOES IT RING A BELL?" are synonymous. I kinda feel like "Does that ring a bell?" is a bit more natural-sounding.
13D: [H.G. Wells's island researcher] is DR. MOREAU. Didn't South Park have a Marlon Brando/Dr. Moreau character with a bunch of mutant animal combos?
27D: [Sargent portrait of a mysterious Frenchwoman] is called MADAME X. Even if you don't know the painting in question, you really can't complain about fine arts content in a Saturday crossword. The Saturday puzzle should challenge, entertain, and expand our knowledge base. And you know what? Right now I'm sort of wishing I'd chosen Madame X instead of Orange as my fake name. I'm a bit of a RUER.
Three theme phrases; each begins with a word that can precede the word opener. Two of these words are tiny; all of the phrases are power-packed. There aren't tons of longer entries, but the four eights are especially good; and the cluing of the many shorter words adds to the overall success of today's Klahn. Looking first at the theme fill, there's:
Each of the four eights deserves a mention, too: THE ENEMY [He is us, to Pogo], VOLATILE (because it's such a good word), and the rhyming (and symmetrically placed) INTERPOL and BANKROLL, the latter with its alliterative [Back with bucks] clue.
And then, let's look at the way Bob writes his clues, using repeated words to make sequential connections from one clue to the next and strengthening their impact in the process:
Some other clue/fill combos that made me think twice (and smile):
In other words, this whole puzzle is basically ['60s "Wow!"]/"FAR OUT!"
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
I generally prefer themeless crosswords with stacks of long (9- to 15-letter) answers to the ones with a slew of 7s, which feel drier to me. Comments on a handful of clues and answers:
September 11, 2009
Saturday, 9/12/09
July 10, 2009
Saturday, 7/11
Newsday 7:34
NYT 5:31
LAT 4:01
CS 2:55
Karen Tracey's New York Times crossword
Unusual grid, isn't it? I mean, within the confines of standard crossword symmetry, it's not the usual layout we see for a themeless puzzle. Kind of like a sine wave of white space spanning the middle of the grid, and 9-, 10-, and 11-letter Down answers linking the midsection to the other six boxy areas.
Unsurprisingly, I find myself admiring Karen's fill for its balance of pop culture, geography, and Scrabbly action overlapping both of those areas. See what I mean?
- 17A. Handbag designer KATE SPADE is a [Big name in bags]. Those bags are cute, but if I'm dropping $200 on a purse, it had better have handy pockets and compartments inside. Kate, give us compartments!
- 19A. The dreaded TROLL is an [Internet forum menace]. I feel fortunate that the commentariat here is so congenial.
- 21A. [Major Cote d'Ivoire export] is CACAO. Yum, chocolate. I wonder how many people cleverly guessed IVORY.
- 29A. BUY is a small word with a great clue: [Act like a bull?]. Bad timing in that someone was killed by a bull at the running of the bulls in Spain today...but still a good clue.
- 33A. [They may call the shots] clues ANNOUNCERS, who do not "call the shots" the way that figure of speech usually means.
- 36A. JOHN LARROQUETTE is the [Winner of four consecutive Emmys for his sitcom role as a prosecutor]. Three things: (1) Scrabbly name, J + Q. (2) Why is there a double R in that name? It looks wrong from a French standpoint to me. (3) Wow, did I spend too much time looking to see it SAMWATERSTON or FREDTHOMPSON or STEVENHILL would fit there. Yes, I realize that Law & Order is not a sitcom.
- 39A. HANAUMA BAY is a [Snorkeling spot near Honolulu]. I canceled my trip to Maui in 1999 when I got pregnant. Maybe a Christmas trip this year? Why not?
- 54A. XHOSA is an African language with clicks. It's a [Zulu relative]. I got it off the A, which was one of the few letters I had
right in 41D. [Sounds like an old floorboard] clues GROANS, but I had CREAKS. You know what I just noticed this summer? The humidity quiets down my creaky floors. - 57A. New vocabulary word in a clue! [Pteridologist's specimen] is a FERN.
- 59A. I like the misinterpretable [Cashiers] as a clue for OUSTS.
- 61A. AMPS are clued as [Gear to help you hear]. That may be true for the people in the back of the top balcony at a concert, but in general, AMPS are gear to help kill your hearing. No joke.
- 1D. Always a sucker for geography, I even like BAKU, the [Transcaucasian capital] of Azerbaijan. Right next door (not on the map) is ULAN Bator or (also spelled Ulaanbataar), [Half an Asian capital?]. Technically, that's 4/9ths.
- 5D. CAPTAIN AHAB! "Hast seen the white whale?" That's [To whom Stubb and Flask answered, in literature].
- 11D. [Response to a ding-dong?] is "WHO CAN IT BE?" I like this because I'm hearing Men at Work's "Who Can It Be Now?" in my head. '80s earworm!
- 13D. Whoa, unfamiliar clue for a crosswordese place name. ST. LO is clued by way of [The Vire River flows through it]. Wow, V must be hostile to crossword constructors, or else we'd see the dang VIRE in our puzzles a lot.
- 18D. More geography with cute cluing: ST. PAUL is a [Minnesota twin?].
- 24D. [Three Mile Island is in it] clues the SUSQUEHANNA River. I was largely guessing here—Is there a Pennsylvania river with a Scrabbly name? Because that's what Karen would go for.
- 27D. Pop culture—IN HER SHOES is a [Jennifer Weiner best seller made into a 2005 film].
- 35D. "DEAR SANTA" is clued as [Words followed by a wish list].
Updated Saturday morning:
John Farmer's Los Angeles Times crossword
John's puzzle is a couple notches easier than Karen's NYT, but that doesn't mean it was boring. I did a lot of lauding over at L.A. Crossword Confidential, in fact, so I'll plagiarize myself here.This puzzle's got three real people's full names—all people whose first or last names pop up singly fairly often in crosswords, but John's classed up the joint by given these folks the full name treatment. There's 17A ["Night" writer], ELIE WIESEL, whose last name is usually consigned to the clues because that delicious 75%-vowels first name is so popular in crosswords. Then we have 14D [1922 physics Nobelist] NIELS BOHR, who also has a grid-friendly first name. And rounding out the trio is 10D ["Naughty Marietta" costar (1935)] NELSON EDDY. I feel like I know him mainly from crosswords, which seems weird because EDDY is a valid small-e noun in its own right.
Other highlights:
• 15A: Comic strip guy with an eye patch (BAZOOKA JOE). One Z, one K, one J? Super-Scrabbly phrase. Evocations of childhood bubblegum? Oh, yes. The sort of thing that we see in lots of crosswords? I wish.
• 32A: Marked by obscenities, say (RATED R). The multi-part answers in which one part is a single letter are tricky. Saturday + tricky = recipe for happiness (or extreme frustration, depending on your mood).
• 37A: "Don't change a thing!" ("I LOVE IT!"). Zippy spoken phrase, makes me think of those TV commercials they had promoting, if memory serves, L.A. tourism. All the people shouting "I love it!" or "We love it!"—remember those?
• 39A: "Composer" of "Fanfare for the Common Cold" (P.D.Q. BACH). Can't say I've ever had any interest in P.D.Q. Bach, but that is an awesome name to drop in a crossword, and the composition's title is funny.
• 60A: Battle fatigue? (RUN ON EMPTY). I kept reading the clue as a noun phrase, but it's the verb phrase. If you're battling fatigue, you're running on empty.
• 65A: Sign of possession (APOSTROPHE). Aaah! Love that clue. I was thinking of demonic possession, not grammatical.
• 12D: Fast-food combo order (VALUE MEAL). In these recessionary times, everyone loves the VALUE MEAL.
• 27D: Have a problem ordering sirloin steak? (LISP). That's a thirloin thteak, then. I'll path.
• 51D: Longstocking of kids' books (PIPPI). I loved the Pippi books and movie(s) when I was a kid. Bought a book for my son but he hasn't been reading much this summer. Not sure how I ended up with a kid who's a great (and fast) reader but who only reads when told to do so.
Off to the Newsday puzzle now—I hope it'll be as smooth and as fun as Karen and John's.
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
Aw, I like themelesses to have cool long answers, and this one maxes out with four 8s and a slew of 7s. We've got four foreign lands: (1) LIBERIA is a [Land on the Atlantic] (that should be a Sporcle quiz—name all the countries that border a particular ocean). (2) NIGERIA is an [OPEC member] (that one is a Sporcle quiz). (3) SIBERIA is a [Faraway place, so to speak]. (4) AMNESIA is a great place to vacation sometimes. It's a [Soap-opera plot element].
Then we have the Old South—OLE MISS is the John [Grisham alma mater], and I let the *LEM*** point me errantly to CLEMSON. It crosses SELMA, Alabama, a [Cotton State city].
Two hits from The Simpsons—MONA is the name of [Homer Simpson's mom], and Kwik-E-Mart proprietor APU shares the name of a [Title character of a literary trilogy]. The Apu Trilogy is also available in film form.
Clue roundup:
• [Waterbury Clock, today] is called TIMEX.
• SIENA is a [City for whom a color was named]—sienna. Shouldn't that be [City for which a color was named]? A city is not a "who."
• AQUAVIT is [What Brits call French brandy]. "Water of life"? No, sillies, everyone knows that's Diet Coke.
• [Columbus discovery of 1498] is the ORINOCO River.
• [Coral-reef topper] clues CAY, which is funny because I'd tried to make CAY be the answer to the nearby [Low land] clue. That one turned out to be FEN.
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy crossword, "Say 'Cheese'"
The theme's not about cheese, it's about saying "cheese" to smile for the camera:• 17A. BOOSTER SHOT is a [Follow-up vaccination].
• 31A. [Molasses cookie] is a GINGERSNAP. At Christmas time, my aunt and cousin make these addictive little gingersnaps the size of oyster crackers. Num, num.
• 47A. [Overall perspective] is the BIG PICTURE.
• 63A. [Close race (and a hint to 17-, 31-, and 47-Across] is PHOTO FINISH, as those other three words/phrases end with words meaning "photo.'
Doesn't IBEFOREE look like the name of a Florida swamp? That's the [Start of a spelling mnemonic], "I before E except after C..."
Nikola TESLA, the [Inventor dubbed "the patron saint of modern electricity"], just had a birthday, I hear. His fellow scientist Enrico FERMI, a [Manhattan Project scientist], joins the festivities because TESLA brought the STOLI ([Grey Goose rival, for short]).
June 19, 2009
Saturday, 6/20
Newsday 7:37
NYT 6:19
LAT 4:00
CS 6:55 (J—paper)
Before getting around to the Saturday NYT crossword, I did a few Vowelless Crosswords by Frank Longo. Man, I just flew through one of those puzzles! It only took me 8 minutes, or a third longer than the NYT. Then the next crsswrd took me 26 minutes. Ouch. I'm enjoying the format tremendously but you know what? The fun won't last. Before you know it, I'll have finished the entire book and then what? Then I have to wait until fall for Brendan Quigley's diagramless book, but I test-solved a bunch of the puzzles so those ones will be reruns for me.
Brilliant constructors, please make more tough puzzle books. Publishers, please publish said books. Thank you.
Brad Wilber's New York Times crossword
Tons of cool fill in this puppy, eh? This may be one of the most enjoyable Wilber creations to date. Let's run through some clues:
Michael Wiesenberg's Los Angeles Times crossword
I'm leaving town early in the morning (PuzzleGirl will be here to cover the Sunday puzzles in my absence), so let me excerpt what I've written up for L.A. Crossword Confidential.
Just like last Saturday's L.A. Times crossword, this puzzle felt like an easy Friday NYT puzzle—and I had a bottle of Stella Artois before I began the puzzle.
The grid is unusual—if it weren't for the black squares in each corner, this puzzle would have triple stacks of 15-letter answers at the top and bottom. Instead, it's got pairs of 15's with single 13's. I love that last Across answer, TEETER-TOTTERS (61A: They have their ups and downs). It's got the most boring letters in the English language, the sort of letters that often populate the bottom row of a crossword, but we don't see too many 13's in themeless puzzles, and TEETER-TOTTERS have that playground nostalgia cachet.
Clues? Answers? We got 'em:
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
(PDF solution here.)
7:37? All right, not too much harder than the NYT puzzle today. I'll take it as a victory.
I like the mislead of [Early riser] as a clue for an UPSTART, and I like the word SWAGGER ([Bluster]). PIUS VII, the [Adversary of Napoleon], is a Roman-numeraled person I don't recall seeing in a crossword before. Bowling [Lane marks] are STRIKES, if you're lucky. Interesting clue for AVARICE: It's [One of Spinoza's "species of madness"]. In hockey, you might get a PENALTY and [It may be served in a box]; so can some lunches. The NEWBERY Medal is bestowed on authors of American literature for kids; the clue is [Medal won by Lofting], referring to (I had to look this up) Hugh Lofting, author of The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle.
Lotsa weird fill here. The GRAYLAG goose is a [European goose]. Seven-letter partial HENRI DE [___ Toulouse-Lautrec] pushes beyond the usual 5-letter limit but with no great payoff in amusement value or in facilitating great fill in its neighborhood. There are some odd-jobbers in the grid: a TWEEZER, a DWELLER, and some TILTERS ([Quixote wannabes]).
I suspected that [Name to make up with] had to do with making up stories, but ALIAS didn't work with the crossings. The answr turned out to be cosmetics brand ESTEE Lauder. But...you don't make up with the name. You make up with the makeup. Unfamiliar place name of the day: HALLE is [Handel's birthplace].
Updated Saturday morning:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Fly Apart"—Janie's review
I'm beginning to thing that Randy is out to give lie to the notion that "breaking up is hard to do," for in today's puzzle we have yet another example of what happens when you choose a word—FLY, say—and break it up, or take it "apart," so that its letters bookend (and belong to) the theme fill. Last week we were happily "covered in MUD"; about a month ago the theme answers were found "in a NUT shell." Today the tried-and-true theme (a pun itself) plays out even more playfully than in puzzles past—and is especially well-met with its non-theme complement. Behold:
There look to be a few sub-themes here today, too. Baseball for one. We get Mel OTT, ERNIE Banks, the METS, EARNED RUN average, and I'm even going to go out on a limb and include LEGGINGS. Was really thrown by [Giant nicknamed "Master Melvin"]. In vain I tried to think of some long-forgotten fairytale character... In other words, terrific clue.
"Things people say" would have to include YES'M ["Okay" for Tom Sawyer] and PAY UP [Shylock's threat]. Didn't help myself any by trying to make this PAY ME...
Then there's the television sub-theme, with hosts OPRAH Winfrey, Tom SNYDER, Jay LENO—and of course, the aforementioned FRED FRIENDLY. And a trio of working types: the ECOLOGIST, and the symmetrically placed odd-couple of PAINTERS and SOLDIERS. That last one can also be associated with NAM, then USAF, then A-TEST. (I'm afraid the more I see this one clued along the lines of [Big blast, briefly], the less amused by it I become.)
Our music today? DOOWOP. But the clue [Style of Randy and the Rainbows] was zero help. Turns out their claim to fame was "Denise," a song I do remember, and that this quintet included two sibling pairs—the Safutos and the Zeros (truly)—and a lone Arcipowski. (This clip is not of the original group, but does feature one Safuto and one Zero for some "doowop reunion" special...)
Finally—how SASSY is that HOT PANTS clue, ["Cheeky" style of clothing]? A fashion trend best suited for the long of limb and firm of flesh, I imagine that hot pants have long been a staple of the Glamour "Don't" list.
May 15, 2009
Saturday, 5/16
Newsday 8:21
NYT 5:31
LAT 3:18
CS 7:30 (J—paper)
Tyler Hinman and Byron Walden's New York Times crossword
This is Tyler and Byron's first joint production, constructed after Tyler moved out to California last year. If you ask me, the puzzle's easier than most of Byron's solo Saturdays. Yes? No?
I learned from the constructors' notes at Jim Horne's Wordplay blog that they started with JAZZ HANDS at 1A, divvied up the fill, and split the clues (Acrosses, Byron; Downs, Tyler). My favorite clues and answers follow, mingled as they so often are with the more Google-prone clues:
I liked this puzzle. No deadly crossings, nothing too obscure (except SABAN, who had easy crossings), and hardly any short answers. Did you notice that? Just six 3-letter answers and a dozen 4's. This helps a puzzle avoid that not-so-fresh feeling. So Byron and Tyler, keep working together on more themelesses for us.
Updated Saturday morning:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "In a Nut Shell"—Janie's review
"Sometimes you feel like a nut—sometimes you don't," or so say the makers of Peter Paul Almond Joy and Mounds. Thank you, Randall Hartman, for indulging my personal preference. The three themed entries in today's puzzle come to us, as described, in a NUT shell, in which the first two letters of the theme-phrase are NU and the last is T.
A NICE tight theme with two debut entries (37A and 52A) and a CS debut for 20A.
Some of the usual suspects make an appearance: YMA, IRMA, CHE, Mao TSE-tung; but they're in the company of some very smart fill. And I do mean that in the literal sense: there's CANNY [Street-smart] and GUILE [Cunning] and ACUMEN [Sagacity].
We travel to the Middle East with MECCA [Muslim holy city], ARAB [Dubai denizen] and KABUL [Capital of Afghanistan]. And there's a nod to Middle and Western America, too, as KANSAS and UTE emerge from KABUL. (I'd forgotten just what a bargain the Louisiana Purchase was—and how much of the country's midsection it comprises. Yikes.)
Fill that fouled me up: [Fleur-de-] LYS? No, LIS. [Auction actions] BIDS? No, NODS. [Back problem] SPRAIN? No, STRAIN. I still struggle to keep straight those European rivers. I know the Rhine is German, but I never seem to remember that the RHONE isn't... And veteran character actor M. EMMET Walsh has a lengthy resume, but darned if any performance comes to mind.
Clues that made me think: [Someone in it is out of it] for COMA, and [Beginning of December?] for DEE. This kinda clue gets me almost every time. You'd think by now I'd be less easily duped, but noooooooooo! ;-)
Fave little grid bits: ICED over ACED, the cross of ICON and OCCUR.
And while I knew that GIS were [PX patrons], I'd forgotten what PX stood for. How about you?
Michael Wiesenberg's L.A. Times crossword
My longer write-up is at L.A. Crossword Confidential.
My goodness, it's been a while since I encountered a themeless puzzle that was this easy. Sure, there were a few things that weren't gimmes, but the give-and-take with the crossings made quick work of it all. My favorite fill:
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
I'm feeling much smarter this weekend, having that fast L.A. Times time and finally getting back under the 10-minute mark for a Stumper. (Do yourself a favor and don't check Dan Feyer's times on these puzzles unless you want to feel inferior.)
(PDF solution here.)
My least favorite clue here is [One settling down] for ROOSTER. What the...? Nobody describes "one who roosts" as a "rooster." When ROOSTER is a perfectly good stand-alone word, why on earth would you want to clue it as a lousy "roll-your-own" word?This is not the first time we've seen that in the Stumper. When you already have a roll-your-own CRADLER here, why create another when you don't need to?
MAZATLAN is clued as [Literally, "place of the deer"]. Hmm, is that obscure trivia? Or is it reasonable to expect solvers to have a certain degree of fluency in the Nahuatl language? (Answers: Yes. And hell, no.) The Wikipedia article provides that etymology, but mentions deer nowhere else—so I'm guessing even people who've visited the city wouldn't think to associate it with deer. This clue is akin to the ones that hinge on the meaning of a first name. At least we're spared that sort of clue for DINAH, which instead gets a biblical clue, [Daughter of Jacob]. LOUIES isn't clued as a plural first name; rather, they're [Some officers], short for "lieutenants." The LOOIE and LOOEY spellings are the only ones listed in the Mac widget of the New Oxford American Dictionary.
[Psiloritis is its highest peak] clues CRETE. I wonder if the sun's rays atop Psiloritis are particularly good for psoriasis. Also from Europe: MINSK is the [CIS headquarters]. Speaking of the agglomeration of states that used to be Soviet republics, [Any SSR?] clues RED STATE, but that doesn't strike me as quite kosher. "Red state" doesn't mean communist state, so it's as if the clue concocts a jokey definition of a word. That would work if it were a theme entry, but it's not.
[Dairy designation] is GRADE A. We've probably all bought GRADE A eggs, but grade A milk looks to have zero relevance to the average person who's not a dairy farmer. Is the clue hinging on eggs being sold in the dairy section of some groceries? Because eggs are not dairy products.
I didn't dislike this puzzle while I was solving it, but going through it clue by clue while blogging, I found myself grumbling at several cluing choices. They mark a departure from the Stumper's previous style, and they don't hew to the other themeless styles I'm familiar with (Will Shortz, Peter Gordon, Rich Norris, the CrosSynergy team). A lot of folks are pleased to have an extra-tough puzzle to sink their teeth into on Saturdays, but I find myself wishing the Stumpers had more of a killer Klahn/Walden/Blackard NYT vibe.
April 17, 2009
Saturday, 4/18
Newsday 15:52
NYT 6:28
LAT 4:06
CS 2:49
Byron Walden's New York Times crossword
The Saturday Times puzzle is noteworthy for three reasons: (1) 15-letter wildlife, (2) heavy preposition action, and (3) fun clues. For the first category, [Marmots and prairie dogs] are GROUND SQUIRRELS and SCARLET TANAGERS are now thought to be close [Cardinal relatives]. These animals with big names are joined by a CAMEL, the surprising [Source of Caravane cheese]—a cheese I've never heard of (shades of PIAVE, Byron's ACPT puzzle #5 cheese from a couple years ago), but then, the name looks like "caravan," which camels travel in, so the clue offered more of a hint than it seemed to at first.
The preposition explosion appears in a bunch of the multi-word answers:
Here are my favorite clues:
There are other difficult clues lurking about here, too. Here are eight of 'em: (1) [Spot announcement?] is a dog's GRR growl. Spot is not among the top 50 dog names, according to a Sporcle.com quiz. (2) Have you heard of EDA LeShan? Sure, if you do a lot of crosswords. How about [Coloratura Christiane ___-Pierre] for EDA? Is that ringing any bells? My bells were unrung. (3) SARIS are in the puzzle a lot, but not as [They may be thrown over the shoulder]. (4) [Jesus cursed one in Matthew 21] clues a FIG TREE. I don't know the background, so I'm guessing he stubbed his toe on the tree. Whether he took his own name in vain, I can't say. Maybe he said "HELLS bells?" HELLS is [Oregon and Idaho's ___ Canyon]. (5) [Where M.S.T. and P.S.T. can be found] is the unusual entry WESTERN U.S. They're the Mountain and Pacific time zones. (6) [Home of la Sorbonne] isn't simply PARIS or FRANCE, it's LE QUARTIER LATIN. I needed a lot of crossings to see where that was heading. (7) [Country singer Collin ___] RAYE is less well-known to me than Martha Raye. He had some success as a country singer in the '90s. (8) [Little ___, island in the Bering Strait] clues DIOMEDE. Again, lots of crossings needed to find this answer.
Updated Saturday morning:
Scott Atkinson's Los Angeles Times crossword
I'm short on time this morning because I'm heading downtown soon(ish) for the Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament, so I'll reroute you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential write-up. Today's "Crosswordese 101" lesson isn't about a repeater answer in this crossword—though SSGT, or [U.S. Marine Corps E-6] is practically begging to be dissected with the other military abbreviations that we see in crosswords. Nope, this time it's the solving tips I prepared for the Marbles crowd. So check that out.
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"
This puzzle (solution here) was wickedly hard, but not in a fun way. There were a few spots that entertained me, but mostly it was a not-pleasant solving experience. Here are some of the things that irked me:
And now, some clues that were tough but fair:
Doug Peterson's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Say What?"
Hey, speak of the devil! I was just saying in the comments that I have taken to dreading the Stumpers unless they have Doug's byline (not dreading because I fear I'm not equal to the task—dreading because I'm not going to enjoy myself), and here he is again, with an easy themed crossword. The theme entries begin with words that can also mean "say," and they're clued as if they do mean "say" in those phrases:
Some of the fill is the standard stuff that excites no one (NNE, AS OF, ATILT, COTES), but so much more of it lends a fun vibe to the crossword. MIFF crosses MOP UP. The QUEEN MUM ([King George VI's widow, familiarly]), is aptly mirrored by TASTEFUL across the grid. There's a NECTARINE, hopefully not an UNRIPE FRUIT. OLD SALT is an answer rather than a clue for a stale TAR. Take an AISLE SEAT when you fly to the RIVIERA. OSCAR the Grouch ACTS OUT. See? Lively stuff.
March 13, 2009
Saturday, 3/14
NYT 9:08
Newsday 8:28
LAT 4:12
CS 2:33
Hoo-boy! The family went out for dinner tonight at Chili Mac's 5-Way Chili and your faithful correspondent ordered the blue margarita. (What flavor is that? The consensus seems to be "blue.") The default size was 16 ounces. It's three hours later now, but I'm still feeling blue. It's astonishing that I made it through Barry Silk's New York Times crossword without any typos, I tell you. And my goodness, did this puzzle have a lot of things I just plain didn't know. Here are my "Huh?" answers:
Even without a margarita, I daresay these would have challenged me. Without further ado, here are the answers and clues I liked the best:
Updated:
Sarah Keller's CrosSynergy crossword, "Shapely Figures," has a well-rounded theme:
Good assortment of ovoid entities, no? Overall this puzzle's pretty easy. In the southwest corner, [Roger ___, founder of The Who] DALTREY crosses both GET FRESH ([Make an unwanted pass]) and DAY JOB (["The old grind" for many]). Nice!
When I see Sandy Fein's byline on the Newsday "Saturday Stumper" (solution here), I can't help but think of SpongeBob's squirrel friend, Sandy. The northwest quadrant of this puzzle took me the longest. Selected answers and clues from that corner:
Off to the right, ARAPAHO and APACHE cross each other. Their clues are [Cheyenne allies] and the rather-unhelpful [Arizona county], respectively. NAT is a ["Mona Lisa" name], I don't know why. Was there a Nat "King" Cole song by that name? Good to see Don CHEADLE, ["Hotel Rwanda" name], in the grid; his most recent movie is the kid-friendly Hotel for Dogs, which I like to pretend is a sequel to Hotel Rwanda.
Moving down to the southeast quadrant, SEA KALE, a [European coastal plant], seems lifeless, but SEEDERSS, or [Furrow fillers] is more so, and so is BATTLER ([He won't quit]). SHELLACKED is nice; [Routed] can mean trounced, walloped. In the southwest corner, TENTAGE, or [Camp gear], battles STANDEE, [One up], for the Dull Noun championship. QUINTET gets a classical music clue that did me no favors: [Schubert's Trout ___]; Wikipedia explains the name.
Today's LA Times crossword is by Michael Wiesenberg. My favorite crossing here is where BOLSHEVIKS ([Lenin et al.]) crash into a KNICK-KNACK, or [Trinket]. Other clues and answers:
February 13, 2009
Saturday, 2/14
Newsday 6:04
NYT 5:15
LAT 4:59
Happy Valentine's Day, all! May the love of a good crossword keep you warm on this midwinter night.
Joe Krozel's New York Times crossword has a bizarre-looking grid—the black squares mostly snake inward from the edges, and those snakes cut off two corners that connect to the rest of the puzzle via a single answer. Avert your eyes from the black squares, though, and focus on the white squares: triple-stacked 15-letter entries criss-crossing in the middle of the grid, with additional 9- and 10-letter answers extending from the triple stacks into the four corners. Here are the 15s:
Among the more difficult clues are the following:
Stuff I liked: [Added power, in slang] is SOUP. I haven't seen this noun sense before, but a car or computer can be "souped up." [It's often filtered] refers to E-MAIL. The people who developed spam filters should get some sort of Nobel Prize, shouldn't they? How about a Hallmark holiday where we all send them thank-you cards? [Lionel to Drew Barrymore] is her GREAT UNCLE. They're both in the Barrymore CLAN ([It's all relatives]). [Away, in a way] clues ON FURLOUGH. Last but not least, there's ROAR. "I am woman, hear me roar" is the classic line from the '70s Helen Reddy song, so [Emulate a woman, in "I Am Woman"] clues the word ROAR. This is especially apt if you are a lioness.
Updated:
Aargh! Blogger or my browser froze up on me just as I was doing the last formatting on my write-up of Robert Wolfe's LA Times crossword. The only way to save those next-day puzzle write-ups in progress would be to do "save as draft," which would remove the existing post from the internet. Can't have that, and I'm not about to routinely copy/paste these things just because 1 in 300 times there may be a problem. Anyway, what was I saying about the LAT puzzle? It's got three colloquial 15-letter phrases:
Entries I liked:
Things that were not so fun:
SCRATCH is clued [Square one]. Which of you astute readers can explain how this clue and answer go together?
Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper" is a mid-range Stumper—not too evilly oblique, not too straightforward. (Solution here.) As with today's NYT puzzle, there are two corner sections connected to the rest of the grid by only a single answer. I've got a question about 24-Across. The clue is [It's over your head], which suggests a singular answer, but the answer is HEAVENS. Doesn't "the heavens" take a plural verb? There's also a typo in the clue for 8-Down; it should be sandpiper and not [Sandipiper relatives]. And now, some assorted clues and answers:
January 30, 2009
Saturday, 1/31
LAT 5:29
NYT 4:50
Newsday (untimed, but longer than either of the other puzzles)
Ken Bessette's New York Times crossword has three answers I adore.
First, there's the KOOL-AID MAN, an [Ad pitcher who's really a pitcher]. I wonder how many people tried desperately to stretch former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer into 10 letters. The Kool-Aid Man was a giant glass pitcher that burst through walls, causing significant structural damage but bringing fruity refreshment. Crosswords like to clue the word HAM with its overacting connotation, and to use ham in clues for EMOTE. Bessette opts to change it up with HAM IT UP, or [Hot-dog]. (Fittingly, this answer crosses ON THE STAGE, or [Between wings].) [Stand-up routine?] sounds like it's looking for comedy, but it's THE WAVE that an arena full of people might stand up to create.
ADAPTATION is clued as an [Evolutionary process], but it's also a MOVIE TITLE ([Marquee name]). [Seek change?] couldn't be PANHANDLE because that's only got 9 letters; it's PASS THE HAT. I would've clued RAINMAKER with its business/law firm connotation rather than as an [Indian tribe V.I.P.]. The S AND P (S&P, or Standard and Poors 500 index) is one [Market yardstick, for short], while the DOW is clued [It has its ups and downs, with "the"]. I recently read that the Dow had 17 days with ±5% changes last year—and it took about 50 years to amass the previous 17 such days. Volatility! (Speaking of ups and downs, STEPS also [have their ups and downs].)
Crosswordy bits of language you ought to know if you're doing battle with Saturday puzzles:
Let's see, what else is in this puzzle? I don't recall running into IVA with this clue before: [___ Archer, with whom Sam Spade had an affair]. IVA Majoli the tennis player, yes. EARS are clued [They're near temples], and eyes are just as close. [Dawdling sorts] clues POKES, though I wouldn't call someone a "poke" without appending a "slow" to its front. Have you seen "poke" as a noun meaning a slowpoke? I wouldn't have guessed that TEAKS were [Trees of the verbena family]. The most mystifying clue for me was [Pita source] for AGAVE. That's not pita bread and it's not the abbreviation for "pain in the ass"; it's a Mexican fiber from the agave plant. You know what['s often planted] besides agave? A KISS, that's what. [Last name of father-and-son N.F.L. coaches] is MORA—they were both named Jim. There is also a Melvin Mora who plays for the Baltimore Orioles. SAABS is somewhat awkwardly clued as [Automotive debuts of 1949].
In closing, "Hey, Kool-Aid!" Here's the video of a '70s commercialfor you.
Updated:
Doug Peterson's LA Times crossword doesn't have a KOOL-AID MAN to woo my cruciverbal heart. Assorted clues and answers:
My favorite clue in Sandy Fein's Newsday "Saturday Stumper" (.pdf solution here) was [Where Easter precedes Lent]. I thought of a dictionary but...the answer is only 8 letters long. Eventually I had the first three squares filled in with WEB, which served only to confuse me. Is there some generic term for a Web-based dictionary? Finally the crossings filtered in and I saw that it was WEBSTER'S dictionary. Aha! I didn't know TAFFETA was an [Early hot-air balloon material]. I have never eaten [Hamburger ___ soup (German dish)]/EEL (ick!). Speaking of German things, OSKAR is ["The Tin Drum" protagonist], and speaking of foodstuffs, BASMATI rice is indeed a [Fragrant food].
December 27, 2008
Saturday, 12/27
NYT 44:22
LAT 27:51
CS 7:50
Newsday tba (maybe)
(Updated at 12:45pm Saturday)
Hi everyone. PuzzleGirl here, trying to make it through the tough Saturday puzzles and then I'm outta here! Gonna be a little lazy tonight — hope you don't mind. I'm also filling in for the vacationing Rex Parker, so I'm going to send you over to his blog if you care what I think about today's New York Times crossword. I'll have the post up over there by 9am and I'll see you back here a little later with the rest of the day's puzzles.
Updated:
I couldn't finish Brad Wilber's L.A. Times crossword without mistakes. Having gurgle for BURBLE at 1A — and being completely convinced that it was correct — made the northwest impossible. I also didn't know the word SARACEN so Siracen looked fine for [Crusader's foe] and [Neighbor of Scorpius] ARA might as well have been Ari. But this puzzle had a lot of fun fill. Only real clunker for me was the wildly out-of-place AWNINGED. But here's the sparkly stuff I liked:
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Go Ahead," adds the letters GO to the beginning of familiar phrases and then clues the resulting phrases with question-mark clues.
Just a couple quick observations:
So I'm still working on Sandy Fein's Newsday Saturday Stumper and ... it's not looking good. This is what I have so far:
But hey! I'm only 20 minutes in! If I finish this one, I'll log back on and tell you about it. If I don't, well, maybe Orange will take three minutes or so to complete the ridiculously hard puzzle and enlighten us all. It's been a blast as usual, guys. All together now: "Welcome back, Orange!"
