Count me among the esteeming masses who thoroughly enjoyed Richard Silvestri's NYT puzzle, even if there was no place for the fabulous duo of Sonny and Escher, or Escher's Farewell Tour. I liked the theme, yes (particularly ESCHEW THE FAT), but also the clues, which mixed it up a little more than the Monday/Tuesday clues.
In the Sun, Oscar week continues with "The African Academy Awards," by AJ Mass (new?). As you may recall, I have a weakness for geography-related wordplay, so I liked this one, too. CAMEROON DIAZ has been waiting in the wings for years for this theme to arise. There's one entry that was utterly new to me: the Hyundai AZERA is, apparently, a new car model. And I've always liked the word ORNERY, but why must so many people pronounce it "onnery"? Why? Just one of my mispronunciation pet peeves. Sherbert, nucular, onnery. Aagh!
Barbara Olson's LAT has a funky theme that I liked. And today's Ben Tausig puzzle, "Tee Time," has a fun theme, fun clues, and sparkling fill. My favorite clue was "The Chicago ___" (5). Plenty of obvious answers come to mind (but are wrong). "The point of a male?" and "whale Dick" go nicely together, too.
NYS 4:26
NYT 3:40
LAT 3:35
Tausig 3:34
CS 3:32
Newsday tba
February 28, 2006
Woansdei (Frisian Wednesday)
February 27, 2006
Tiisdei (Frisian Tuesday)
That's a nICEr puzzle, Jim Hyres' NYT with the CENTER ICE theme. The longer theme entries were supplemented with crossing central ICEs in the shorter entries in the puzzle's middle. Although...the wrong member of the Bush administration, ALBERTO Gonzales, is parked beneath AIMS AT ("Targets, as with a gun").
Graham Meyer (What has he done before?) presents the second Sun Oscar of the week, with "Worst Pictures." Cute theme—or should I say ugly theme? My Fair Lady becomes MY FOUL LADY, and A Beautiful Mind is A HIDEOUS MIND. Maybe it's a good thing I'm not a studio executive, because I'm oddly intrigued by the movies that would merit those bizarro-world titles. Plenty of interesting clues and 7- to 8-letter fill, though I can't help but wonder why Peter retained (or added) an abbreviation, RTES (22 Down), where it wasn't needed for the crossings. Change the T to a U and the I of I AM to an S, and you've got the perfectly respectable RUES and SAM crossing USED.
Updated: I liked the theme in Raymond Hamel's CrosSynergy puzzle—the clues for the theme entries were "L?" "V?" and "Y?" Intrigued?
NYS 4:54
CS 3:40
NYT 3:06
LAT 2:56
Newsday 2:35 (on paper)
February 26, 2006
Moandei (it's Frisian week)
Somebody help me out, will you? In Ed Early's Monday NYT, those vertical 15's don't pertain to the theme, do they? They're just there to make for an impressive Monday grid? (And to balance out the HEAVEN mention with a little HELL? The mainstream media aim to present both sides of an issue, after all.) I wonder if OVER THE MOON was considered for the theme but jettisoned in favor of using the vertical 15's. Now, usually a Monday NYT will take me less than 3 minutes; this one took me a relatively long time because the SE corner chewed me up. I opted for TO TASTE rather than TO ORDER, and the A then led me to ETA instead of ARR, and it took a while to untangle that mess.
Updated:
Newbie Jeremy Horwitz launches Oscar week in the Sun with "Reel Disappointment." The theme entries are past Oscar-nominated movies that were shut out on awards night. Looking forward to more from you, Jeremy! (And it was nice to meet you at Sundance.)
NYT 3:39
CS 3:24
NYS 3:22
LAT 2:47
Newsday 2:23 (on paper)
Starbucks contest puzzle #2
I just finished the second puzzle for the Starbucks crossword contest, constructed by Patrick Berry and edited by Will Shortz. This one has the trivia question in an acrostic you fill in (no thinking required in that step) after you solve the crossword.
My neighborhood Starbucks store is performing pretty well—they had the puzzle last weekend (albeit not bundled with the Sunday paper), and this morning they were happy to give my husband a copy of puzzle #2 without a newspaper purchase. (Hey, I give the NYT plenty of money as it is. I pay for the Premium Puzzles service, and a friend gave me a gift subscription to TimesSelect.) I hope the rest of you were able to pick up the puzzle yourselves. If you're desperate, e-mail me at orangecru-blog [at] yahoo [•] com and I'll send you a low-res scanned .pdf of the puzzle. It doesn't print out crystal clear, but it's decent.
February 25, 2006
Søndag (Danish and Norwegian for Sunday)
Aah, Randolph Ross's "Writing Lesson"...a perfect Sunday NYT crossword for the writer/editor type. I know all those grammatical rules, even if half of them are hooey and should be flouted by all right-thinking people who actually know how to write. (I'm not making this up—the linguists at Language Log eviscerate Strunk and White every so often, as in this post. The S&W rules they've protested include those pertaining to split infinitives, sentences ending with prepositions, and saying things like "Everyone should bring their lunch" instead of "Everyone should bring his or her lunch.") This doesn't detract from the theme at all, as most people educated in the U.S. will have had these rules foisted upon them, rightly or wrongly. Anyway, here are some clues/entries I enjoyed: "C-worthy" for SOSO, "Malodourous room?" for LOO, BEER CANS and GUINNESS, "Round end?" for BELL (boxing, ick), "Lowest state?" for MISERY, and PRESS KITS.
I like to list some of the trickier clues for the Saturday and Sunday puzzles, the clues that will give people fits and send them to the search engines in pursuit of answers. What do you know? Most of the trivia in this puzzle is clued so straightforwardly that Google should give these people what they need...
Updated:
Today's LA Times puzzle by Rich Norris (the pseudonym Nora Pearlstone is an anagram of "not a real person") is great—it made me laugh a few times, and that's certainly the mark of a fun puzzle. The clue for AJAR is "Annoying to a draft evader?" The theme entry AMORAL SURGEON is clued as "Unscrupulous operator?" This puzzle's the first one I've seen that includes SUDOKU. And who doesn't appreciate a shout-out to Jean-Claude Van Damme, the muscles from Brussels? (Though I prefer Universal Soldier to TIMECOP.)
Speaking of Rich Norris, there's also a good CrosSynergy Sunday Challenge by him. If you're wondering about "ecological stages" and SERES, this may explain it a bit.
The theme in the Newsday puzzle by Gail Grabowski is the color brown. Many of the theme entries are food-related, so don't do this puzzle when you're hungry...
LAT 11:36 (with conversations)
NYT 8:14
Newsday 7:34 (on paper)
CS 4:45
February 24, 2006
Disadorn (that's Breton for Saturday)
It's a delightful surprise to open up the Saturday NYT and find that it's by Henry Hook. Do you think it's merely a coincidence that POSTERIORS and UP IN THE SKY are in the same puzzle with a phrase containing "moon" (MOONWALK—sadly, not the more apt MOONSHINE)? Anyway, this puzzle's crammed full of unusual entries and challenging clues. With just the ND portion, "High, in a way" led me straight to ON DOPE as one of the first few entries I filled in (what does this say about me?), although having AZUL instead of AZUR ("shade of bleu") below it ended up slowing me down. I learned a new bit of medical terminology with "renal : kidney :: amygdaline : ___"—TONSIL. Turns out amygdaline can refer to the tonsils, the amygdala in the brain, or almonds. Try not to think about eating tonsils the next time you've having a chocolate bar with almonds, okay? I never saw Gypsy, so I didn't know Mama Rose's declaration was I HAD A DREAM. I await an explanation from one of you about MONADS: in what sense is that "One and the same"? "208 people" seems like a tricky clue for IDAHOANS. "Bluejackets" are SAILORS in the U.S. or British Navy, apparently. Last, "Flex, for example" is a patently nonobvious clue for SHAMPOO. Congrats to Henry and Will on putting out a puzzle that pleased me so.
Updated:
Henry Hook shows you the money in this weekend's LA Weekly puzzle, which is a good puzzle but has one pain-inducing obscurity: the "city on the Volga," TVER. If you haven't heard of it, you might know it as Kalinin (its name from 1931 to 1990), but the current name dates at least as far back as 1164 and the city's got a long and interesting history—so I suppose one can't complain too much about its use in a crossword.
Frequent Crossword Fiend commenter Bob Mackey makes his construction debut with today's themeless LA Times puzzle. Congrats, Robair! My favorite entries were AVENUE Q and TMOBILE.
The February 10 Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle by Michael Ashley is timely—if you do it this weekend. It's got a Winter Olympics theme.
NYT 8:01
LAT 4:12
Newsday Saturday Stumper 3:52 (on paper)
CS 3:22
2/10 CHE 3:22
2/26 LA Weekly 9:52
2/26 WaPo 8:22
February 23, 2006
Föstudagur (that's Icelandic for Friday)
I loved Manny Nosowsky's NYT puzzle. Of the 20 longest answers (7 to 10 letters apiece), I'd say I really liked at least 16 of them. Did SEIJI OZAWA give a KARATE CHOP to his ESCRITOIRE because it was UGLY AS SIN? If so, did he cut himself, experience SHEER AGONY, and end up with SCAR TISSUE? The clues are great, too—there were about a dozen that stood out for me (too many to list, really), whereas many puzzles have a standout clue count of zero to one.
In the Sun, Randolph Ross boxes us in with the rebus puzzle, "Squaring the Square." Ten rebus squares in symmetrical locations seems like a lot—anyone know of any puzzles that can match that feat?
Updated:
Friday at last! There's another Manny puzzle in the Wall Street Journal featuring a checkers theme; a field of COWs in Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer weekend puzzle; a catty quip in Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle; and a shindig theme in Doug Peterson's LA Times puzzle. They're all good puzzles.
NYS 5:31
LAT 4:51
NYT 4:50
CS 4:37
Newsday 4:08 (on paper)
Reagle ?:?? (oops—forgot to start the Across Lite timer)
WSJ 7:52
February 22, 2006
Cxetvrtak (that's Bosnian for Thursday)
I can't vouch for its accuracy, but this is the site I've been using to find foreign names for the days of the week.
I enjoyed Todd McClary's NYT, which was foreshadowed by my husband's living-room performance of "My Name is Yon Yonson" earlier this week. I checked the Cruciverb database for all the J-into-Y theme entries, and it appears that this theme is a new one. (Even if it weren't, I'd still like it. The entries are fun to say aloud.) Outside of the theme, the puzzle's oozing with good stuff, like JINX, KOOKY, KENYAN, EELSKIN, MOWGLI, and ANTONYM (which had a great clue: "Head to toe").
Jay Leatherman's Themeless Thursday puzzle in the Sun seemed easier than most TT's, but had some lovely fill. FOGGY BOTTOM on top and SUNNY SIDE UP down below, and GO ASK YOUR MOTHER. I wonder if the Missouri mini-theme (two states clued "The Missouri R. forms part of its border, plus SHOW ME) was the constructor's doing or a Peter Gordon suggestion. And how sad is the clue for BUD: "the world's best-selling beer, for short"? Oh, there are so many better brews out there...
NYS 3:56
LAT 3:51
NYT 3:49
CS 3:45
Newsday 3:00 (on paper)
February 21, 2006
Quarta-feira (that's Portuguese for Wednesday)
John R. Conrad's Sun puzzle, "As Easy as ABC," looks crazy, with the top row and left column filled with BAABAABAA, AAAA, BABA, AABBA, and BBC—but then you realize that every single entry starts with A, B, or C. I was nearly done with the puzzle before I even noticed the gimmick, which I'd say is an indicator that it's a solid puzzle aside from the constructor's trick.
Ben Tausig's Ink Well puzzle, "Buzzwords," was a rollicking good time (insofar as a crossword can rollick). A bees theme, some interesting clues ("Old republican?" for PLATO), PARTY ON from "Wayne's World," and OH YOKO (which was the subject of a Cruciverb-L discussion lately—fill that fits the O**O*O pattern).
I liked half of the theme in Nancy Salomon's NYT: DIARY QUEEN and FIAT ACCOMPLI, yes, but RIAL SPLITTER and TRIAL BIKES, not so much. But that's just my opinion. I also liked DRY WIT, QUAHOG, OLD BOY, and the clues "What ___?" (FOR) and "What ___...?" (THE). And putting SCOTCH and OPIUM in the same section is intoxicating. But a few of those crosswordesey words are popping up, like OONA, SERE, and the ever-popular EKES. "My hands are so sere, I should see if I can eke out some lotion."
Updated: By the way, if you couldn't get the Starbucks contest puzzle last Sunday, you can call 1-800-STARBUC (782-7282) and they'll mail you a copy. (Or I can e-mail you a bloated .pdf file.)
And also: Of course, if you call the Starbucks phone number, they may well tell you to check your local store and see if they have any puzzles left (if they ever had them in the first place), or to mail in your SASEs to receive the puzzles by mail. So helpful! (Not.)
The Starbucks site had a new link, a "click here for this week's helpful hint." I went to the link for the "weekly clue" and got to watch a video of Will Shortz pondering, looking upward, eating grapes, and eating popcorn while looking upward, with his voice-over telling you that fill-in-the-blank clues are an easy place to start working a crossword. So you're not missing any vital clues for the contest—but if you'd like to see Will look thoughtful while snacking, that's the place.
Tausig 4:05
NYT 3:50
NYS 3:45
LAT 3:32
CS 3:11
Newsday 2:55 (on paper)
February 20, 2006
Antradienis (that's Lithuanian for Tuesday)
In Lisa Wiseman's NYT puzzle (a debut?), I knew EIGHT DAYS A WEEK and ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, but TWELFTH OF NEVER scarcely rang a bell at all. According to Professor Google, it's a song—a song that's been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley and Johnny Mathis, to Nina Simone and Keith Urban. Live and learn...
In the Sun, Ogden Porter/Peter Gordon dishes up "As Easy as AAA, BBB, CCC." I didn't watch "Honeymooners" reruns when I was a kid, and I never had any idea that "To the moon, Alice!" was customarily preceded by BANG ZOOM. Live and learn...
CS 4:19
NYS 3:54
LAT 3:25
NYT 2:55
Newsday 2:37 (on paper)
