Set your DVR for Wednesday's Jeopardy!

Don't miss tomorrow's episode of Jeopardy!—there'll be a "New York Times Crossword Puzzle" category with video clues (Shortz on TV!) that are also the theme clues for Thursday's NYT crossword by Brendan Quigley. So if you watch Wednesday's show before doing Thursday's puzzle, you'll see massive spoilers for the theme. But if you record the show and watch it after you've done the puzzle, then you've spoiled an entire Jeopardy! category. Pick your poison.

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Tuesday, 1/20

Jonesin' 4:55
Sun 4:40
NYT 3:42
LAT 2:55

There are also some timely bonus puzzles awaiting you at the Crossword Fiend forum:

• Ashish Vengsarkar's "Almost a Pangram"
  
• Vic Fleming's "A Man, His Plan, and..."
  

Many thanks to Puzzle Girl for filling in on short notice. I got trounced by a nasty bug and spent 36 hours ailing on the couch, too beat to do crosswords. Here's how sick I've been: I didn't even do the Monday puzzles. I just went ahead and read PG's post, spoilers and all. Moving along to Tuesday!

Tim Wescott's New York Times crossword commemorates (wait...can you commemorate something that hasn't happened yet?) the inauguration of PRESIDENT OBAMA. Man, will I be a wreck tomorrow. Will need to have a box of Puffs at the ready because hell, I teared up seeing the Obamas walk down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the TV news, and that was nothing. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. The crossword. PRESIDENT OBAMA is balanced by another 14, The AUDACITY OF HOPE. Starting tomorrow, that book's author will become the LEADER OF AMERICA, which isn't a naturally crossword-friendly phrase, but it'll do. CAMPAIGN RIVALRY gives a nod to McCain. Assorted shorter answers tie in, too—my favorite being ILL., the [Home state of 52-Across: Abbr.]. And then there are the circled letters that appear in a larger circle in the grid to spell out the Obama campaign's slogan, YES WE CAN. EBOLA sits in the grid, clued as a [Nasty virus], to remind me that the bug I had was really not so nasty in comparison. There's some great fill—BEEHIVES, OVERPAID, JOE crossing BIDEN—but also some quasi-iffy 8's. [Cry just before leaving] is TIME TO GO, which maybe isn't so crossword-kosher, or maybe it is—I guess I have said that routinely to my kid. HALF-SEEN is clued as [Not fully noticed], and I can't say I've used that phrase.

Updated:

All righty, the inauguration is over, and I have left the couch to get lunch (a small cup of Jell-O—no seafood stew here, please).

Todd McClary's LA Times crossword has a vowel-progression theme, with the consistency of the first words all being 3 letters long:

• FAR AFIELD means [Quite a distance from home].
  
• FER DE LANCE is a scary [Tropical viper].
  
• FIR TREE is a [Holiday evergreen].
  
• FOR DUMMIES is a [Black-and-yellow instructional book series]. Patrick Berry's Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies is not for dummies, it's for budding crossword constructors, and it's got great puzzles in it.
  
• FUR TRADER is clued as [Astor, notably].
  

I like the pop-culture fizz of MINI-ME, the [Diminutive "Austin Powers" character] played by Verne Troyer. Question: is a SAFARI a [Jungle adventure] or more of a savanna adventure?

The TV is still distracting me and all this sitting up is tiring, I tell you. I don't think Patrick Blindauer's Sun puzzle was really all that hard, but it took me a while anyway. The "Attention to Details" theme involves adding a "D tail" to the end of various phrases. My favorite theme entry is TEST BAND, a [Group that plays during finals week?]. My favorite clue—because it took me so long to understand it—is [What some people do to enter united states?], for ELOPE. I first went with SHIFT, as in the key you use to type capital letters. Ah! United = just an adjective; states = manners of being.

Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Signal Ahead," takes the meaning of traffic signals and shuffles them:

• ["Try to chew your food a little more--don't scarf it" phrase?] is "SLOW DOWN, HUNGRY." "Go hungry" is a familiar phrase.
  
• [Beat a NYC college athletic team?] is STOP THE PACE. Pace University, "slow down the pace." That yellow light turned red.
  
• [Whiz only on footprint indentations?] is GO IN YOUR TRACKS. "Stop in your tracks" is an established phrase. After the red light comes green for GO, which cycles us back to the base phrase in the first theme entry.
  

In the fill, we have THROWS UP clued as [Loses what was originally put down?]. Mm-hmm, I know about that. Favorite pieces: QUAGGAS is a great word, and they're [Extinct African mammals related to zebras]. I didn't know they were extinct. STANDING O is [given after a great performance]. The [Plains Native American tribe that becomes a state if you drop the first letter] is KIOWA, and if you enjoy that sort of word game, don't miss Will Shortz's Inauguration Puzzle from this past weekend. Will's puzzle plays similar games with a group of U.S. presidents' last names, and it's a smooth challenge.

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Sunday, 9/7

NYT 7:53
BG 7:15
LAT 7:10
PI 6:55
CS 3:05

Will Shortz's Spiral 4:54
"Fashion Sense" suite of puzzles in the NYT untimed...and not finished*

*Hallelujah! Eric Berlin made a multi-page PDF of the "Fashion Sense" puzzles and it's confirmed at Eric's blog that "The New Season" puzzle has errors both online and in the newspaper. The shark and glove shirts should each have one black circle
and no white circle.

Randolph Ross's New York Times crossword is called "Pun-ditry" because the theme entries are puns on the titles of TV shows political pundits may appear on. The first theme entry involves a show I hadn't heard of, but the rest are familiar:

• RELIABLE SAUCES might be a [Program on which pundits talk about marinara and such?]. CNN's Reliable Sources delves into how journalists do their jobs.
  
• FAZE THE NATION plays in CBS's Face the Nation and is clued, [Program on which pundits say dumbfounding things?].
  
• The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is on PBS. THE NOOSE HOUR is a [Program on which pundits talk about hangings?]. Yeesh.
  
• [Program on which pundits express indignant surprise?] is THE "OH, REALLY?" FACTOR, playing on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. (Here's Jon Stewart's look at some O'Reilly inconsistency.)
  
• BEAT THE PRESS, riffing on NBC's Meet the Press, is a [Program on which pundits slug it out with reporters?].
  
• CBS's Sunday Morning becomes SUNDAY MOANING, a [Program on which pundits kvetch?].
  
• [Program on which pundits deride the power of the federal government?] is WASHINGTON WEAK, punning on PBS's Washington Week.
  
• KNIGHT LINE (playing on ABC's Nightline) is a [Program on which pundits talk about Camelot?].
  
• The Today Show isn't heavily pundited. TWO-DAY SHOW is a [Program on which pundits talk for 48 straight hours?].
  

Clues and answers that I deem blogworthy, based on liveliness, cleverness, difficulty, or relative obscurity:

• A [Control surface on a plane's wing] is an ELEVON. Quick: lively or obscure? I vote obscure. (One lone obscurity is not so bad.)
  
• [Kublai Khan and others] are MONGOLS. Gotta love an old-school horde, right?
  
• TAPS IN means [Easily makes the hole with, in golf].
  
• [Walloped, quickly] is KOD, as in KO'd, as in kayoed, as in knocked out. One of KOD's crossers, ODSON, can also be tricky to parse. [Has way too much of, slangily] means OD'S ON, as in overdoses on.
  
• Iowa gets big play here: An IOWAN is a [Certain caucuser], ISU or Iowa State is the [Cyclones' sch.], and Iowa State is located in AMES.
  
• Casinos also get in the game: [You might not be able to stand this] is PAT, as in "stand pat." [Passed out in a bad way] is MISDEALT. And the [Big winner at the casino] is the HOUSE.
  
• Look behind you—ASSES are clued as [Buffoons] and a RUMPSTEAK is a [Cut of beef].
  
• [All: Prefix] is OMN, which looks inadequate without its trailing I. Seven rows beneath that is OMNIS, clued as [Old Dodges]. Perhaps Dodge overreached with that car name?
  
• I feel I should know IRMA [Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans], but I don't.
  
• NAVY SEALS are [Specialists in special ops].
  
• POLO is a [Sport with a 4 1/2-ounce ball].
  
• [Cut a cord, say] is SAWED because you'd use a saw to cut a cord of wood. I do not advise using a saw to cut an umbilical cord.
  

Updated:

All right, time for more abbreviated crossword blogging than ever before! My cough and allied symptoms are making me whiny.

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's Boston Globe crossword in Across Lite is called "Obedience School" and the theme entries are all phrases that begin with commands one might give a dog. For example, the [Chuck Berry classic] "ROLL OVER, BEETHOVEN" begins with "roll over," and FETCH A GOOD PRICE starts with "fetch." Favorite non-theme fill" VIRGIN BIRTH, or [Parthenogenesis]. Last year, I visited the Chester Zoo in England, home to a Komodo dragon who laid a clutch of fertilized eggs without the hassle of having a boyfriend in the picture. Her offspring were severall months old when I saw them, in a separate enclosure from Mum since adult Komodos are wont to snack on the young.

Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle, "Are You Ready for Some Foodball?", takes 11 phrases that mean something in football and clues them as if they have something to do with food and eating. So [Add a little salt early before adding a lot of salt later?] is PRESEASON, and [Whip up some homemade Cheez Whiz?] is BEAT THE SPREAD. In the fill, one wrong turn caught my eye. At 1-Down, for [Arrest] I had CO**A* and I entered CORRAL—but the correct answer is COLLAR. Are there other word pairs where certain letters can be swapped like this, and the words could be passably clued the same way? The L/R, left/right swap is a bonus.

Updated:

Cruciverb.com isn't loading right now, so I can't download the syndicated LA Times crossword.

Paula Gamache's themeless CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" hit a lot of my sweet spots and gave me perhaps my quickest themeless solve yet. Sure, a lot of people might read a clue like [Portrayer of Lila Quartermaine on "General Hospital"] and grumble, but ANNA LEE was a gimme for me. (She played the role for over 25 years. Lila was an unusual soap opera character in that she was always on the side of good.) Four interlocking 15-letter answers brace the grid and offer a leg up in each corner of the puzzle. Not much of a challenge, but it's always fun to get through a themeless puzzle faster than usual.

Will Shortz's second Sunday puzzle, Spiral, was pretty easy. The main reason I subscribe to Games World of Puzzles is because it's a regular purveyor of Frank Longo puzzles—including a spiral in the newest issue, the Jumbo Crossword (the current one features stair-stepped 7-letter answers occupying grand swaths of grid space), and puzzles with variety crossword grids.

I printed out the various pieces of today's NYT op-ed puzzle extravaganza, "Fashion Sense," by Mike Shenk, Robert Leighton, and Amy Goldstein of Puzzability. (It appears that the puzzles are all included in a single PDF, which would be teeny if printed on an 8 1/2 x 11 page. I used the Mac's Grab app to capture individual puzzles for printing.) Most of the puzzles weren't too tough, but "The New Season" stumped me (I blame the virus that has me feeling fluish), so I can't complete the final puzzle. Sigh.

Updated on Monday with one more puzzle:

Pamela Amick Klawitter constructed the syndicated Los Angeles Times Sunday crossword, "We're in Business." Although actually, the theme is better described as "Business Is in Them"—each theme entry hides an INC. A smooth puzzle...

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Will Shortz's IU commencement address

Will Shortz recently gave the commencement address at his alma mater, Indiana University. Captured off a C-Span broadcast, it's available in two parts on YouTube:

Part 1: about 9 minutes
Part 2: about 4 minutes

(Thanks for the upload, Nancy!)

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3-D Word Hunt

I've enjoyed the previous 3-D word hunts (this is the third one in the NYT, isn't it?), and the challenge is the same here: meander from letter to letter via the connectors and spell out 5-letter words. Forget about the 4-letter words, forget about the 6+ ones. The 5-letter word is king (or queen) here.

The rules say that there are "50 relatively familiar words and 15 unusual or not-so-common ones — all from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition." I think I've found 51 common(ish) words and a couple that might not make the cut. And I've got zero interest in plowing through the letter matrix to identify the oddball uncommon words that are lurking within, but if you're in the mood for that, have at it.

My word list appears below, after the jump, invisible unless you highlight text with your mouse. Feel free to add to the list in the comments, and we'll see if we can't come up with the same list Will Shortz publishes next weekend—or a longer list. If you think any of my words are surely not on the "relatively familiar" list, let me know,

Top level:

E
event
enact

V
venal
vital
vivid

N
noose
novel

O
(none)

T
toots

Middle:

L
liven
laird
lilac
level
livid
lento
litre (Br. spelling OK?)
lacto (can it stand alone, or is it strictly a prefix?)

I
(none)

A
atone
atria
airer
alack
atrip
anent

T
tonal
trike
trial
total

C
canto
canal

S
scant
stack
strip
stria
stile
stale
scale
scalp
stove
stone
scats
soots

Bottom level:

P
pikes
piker
piano
plena
plant
plane
plats
plata (Spanish only?)

D
divot

I
(none)

R
riant
rests
riata

K
(none)

E
(none)

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First and Last puzzle

This weekend's second Sunday puzzle below the New York Times crossword puzzle is called "First and Last," and Will Shortz concocted it. It was much easier than I expected. Am I a super-genius, or is this just easier than many of the other sorts of second Sunday puzzles? In this puzzle, the task is to guess the famous people given the first and last letters of their first and last names, which make a four-letter word.

My answers, if you're looking for help or confirmation, below the fold. They're in white, so highlight the line and the answer will appear. If you think I'm wrong on any, let me know, will you? Thanks.

1. ENDS Ellen Degeneres
2. DIME Demi Moore
3. BUBS Beau Bridges
4. ALAS Abigail Adams
5. DARE Della Reese
6. REDS René Descartes
7. MACS Maria Callas
8. JETE Joe Torre
9. MAST Martha Stewart
10. BASK Barbara Stanwyck
11. RAPS Rosa Parks
12. ELLE Emeril Lagasse
13. MAGI Mahatma Gandhi (not technically his name, but what he's best known as in the U.S.)
14. JEAN Jane Austen
15. CEDE Catherine Deneuve
16. GALA Gina Lollobrigida
17. PIPE Patti Page
18. BALI Bela Lugosi
19. MASS Monica Seles
20. SAWS Serena Williams
21. CYAN Clay Aiken
22. HOAR Horatio Alger
23. POST Picabo Street
24. PACK Petula Clark
25. CARE Condoleezza Rice
26. MEAT Madeleine Albright
27. EDGY Edward Gorey
28. BEAR Brooke Astor
29. LEIA Lee Iacocca
30. ESPY Elvis Presley

I like that 19 of the 30 are women, many of whom are clued in a gender-neutral fashion. So if your mindset is to assume a generic term = male, that could slow you down here. Also, one of the men has a first name ending with A, and one of the women has a first name ending with O.

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