Friday, August 29, 2009

Title: Four Corners
Author: Peter A. Collins
Theme: The four corner letters are used in four distinct clockwise sequences, one starting with each letter, to "clue" the four theme entries, as follows:

• 20a: The corner squares, clockwise from the upper left => ONAN => LEAH'S GRANDSON.


• 28a: The corner squares, clockwise from the upper right => NANO => METRIC PREFIX.


• 45a: The corner squares, clockwise from the lower right => ANON => IN A SHORT TIME.


• 56a: The corner squares, clockwise from the lower left => NONA => SINGER HENDRYX.

This is a very clever theme, conceptually, and is quite well-executed. Even if you don't know Nona Hendryx (and I don't, though I feel like I've seen the name in a puzzle before) or the biblical Onan (which was slightly more-vaguely familiar), the middle two theme clues were enough to suss out the appropriate letters. I'm not sure what kind of a biblical scholar you need to be to know that Onan was Leah's grandson (I guessed Levi's from the L), but it's eventually untangle-able via the crossings. That's not to say it wasn't hard, because it was. But we expect that from a Friday, so it was right where it belonged. I'm not sure why the corner squares needed to be circled (at least in the AcrossLite version), as there didn't seem to be any ambiguity about the clues, but I guess they felt better safe than sorry.

Sunny Spots:

• 1a: Secret target (ODOR). This one fooled me, and provided a true "Aha" moment when the dime finally dropped. The reference, of course, being to Secret deodorant -- "strong enough for a man, but made for a woman".



• 37a: Bald pitcher? (MR CLEAN). Phenomenal clue.


• 43a: Intergalactic bridge worker (SULU). Great clue and reference to the original "Star Trek".


• 34d: Supersize house? (MCMANSION). Very nice.

Sundries:

• 5a: Follower of "seven potato" (MORE). One potato, two potato, three potato, four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more.


• 9a: Great depression (BASIN). Good clue.



• 14a: City mentioned in "Folsom Prison Blues" (RENO). From the man in black.


• 15a: Overleap (OMIT). Wasn't familiar with overleap as a word, but it makes sense.


• 17a: Left speechless (AWED). This was the root of my troubles in the NW, as I confidently put in AGOG.


• 18a: Deuce, for instance (OATH). What the deuce? I'm not familiar with using this as an oath, but apparently it's like "devil" or "dickens".


• 19a: Champ (GNASH). As in champ at the bit.


• 23a: Club rule (BYLAW).



• 35a: "Giant" star (James DEAN).


• 36a: Mary Quant creation (MINI).


• 39a: Capitol output (RECORDS). I own enough vinyl that this one didn't fool me.


• 42a: Tank (BOMB). Interesting that two such military nouns mean to fail when turned into a verb. Perhaps there's a lesson in here somewhere.


• 50a: Power base? (TEN). Easy for a math geek.


• 60a: Linesman's call (ICING). A hockey linesman, that is.



• 65a: Comic strip boy surnamed Tuttle (ELMO). From "Blondie"./


• 67a: Montana, in the '80s ('NINER). Joe Montana, of the 49ers.


• 69a: Fictional Newfoundland (NANA). I'm assuming this is the dog from "Peter Pan". I never realized it was a Newfy.


• 1d: Brand of gum stimulator (ORAL B).



• 3d: "Barry Lyndon" star (Ryan O'NEAL). I own the entire Stanley Kubrick collection on DVD. This one is very long and not one of my favorites, but still a decent flick. I prefer "Lolita" and "A Clockwork Orange".


• 4d: Clinton, once (RODHAM). This should have been a gimme, but AGOG instead of AWED threw me for a big loop.


• 5d: It can be heard in Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Lucky Man" (MOOG). Hear it here if you've forgotten the song.


• 6d: "A Jug of Wine ..." poet (OMAR). Okay, two issues here. First, what tells us we're looking for Omar Khayyam's first name? Secondly, Khayyam wrote "The Rubaiyat" in Persian, so the translation referenced in this clue
  

  A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
  A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
  Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
  Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

  
  is actually by Edward Fitzgerald.


• 7d: ADHD drug (RITALIN). Gimme.


• 9d: California setting of the Esalen Institute (BIG SUR). It was enough to be aware that the town existed in California. I have no idea what the Esalen Institute is.


• 11d: Don't give in (STAND FIRM).


• 13d: Kabuki kin (NOH). Crossword staple.


• 21d: Malmö resident (SWEDE).


• 31d: "I loaned a friend of mine $8,000 for plastic surgery and now I don't know what he looks like" comic Philips (EMO). I just included an Emo clip this week, so I'll spare you another.


• 32d: Boundary (AMBIT). Cool word.



• 40d: Poker player Elezra (ELI). I'm sure many people were scratching their heads on this one, but I watch enough poker on TV that it was a rare first-name gimme for me.


• 41d: Chili powder ingredient (CUMIN).


• 48d: Maker of the Whipps bar (REESES).


• 49d: Minstrel performer (END MAN). Bonus points for a good clip showing an example of a minstrel end man.


• 58d: Pentagon on a diamond (HOME). Baseball clue.



• 59d: C-3PO worshiper (EWOK). Easy enough for a "Star Wars" fan.


• 61d: 802% of L (CDI). 802% of 50 equals 50% of 802 = 401.

Suns of Bitches:

• 25a: Pro Bowl cornerback Bly (DRE). Yeah, whatever.


• 2d: Battle of Manila Bay leader (DEWEY). I'm not a big war buff, but I suppose I should probably have known this.


• 60d: Professor Cameron's first name in "Mary Worth" (IAN). This one, on the other hand, was completely done by crossings. At least it's a normal name, as opposed to, say, DRE.

All in all, I found this to be a very challenging puzzle that I had to break open slowly and deliberately. My biggest problem was the northwest corner, where AGOG/LEVI instead of AWED/LEAH really set me back. Still, I was able to finish in under 25 minutes, which isn't bad for me for a difficult puzzle since I'm no speed demon. A unique theme in a tough, but not unfair puzzle, with a plethora of interesting fill and clever clues -- what more can you ask for on a Friday? For my money, not much.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Title: Themeless Thursday
Author: Tony Orbach
Theme: None. Well, sort of. See mini-theme discussion below.

Sunny Spots:

• 1a: All that (DA BOMB). Nice in-the-language phrase to start things off at 1a.



• 19a: 1961 Jackie Gleason role (MINNESOTA FATS). From "The Hustler", starring Paul Newman. A great billiards movie, though I actually prefer the later "Color of Money", with Newman and Tom Cruise.


• 40a: Figure in the Beastie Boys song "Rhymin & Stealin" (ALI BABA). Here it is, if you're interested.



• 58a: "You've come a long way, baby" sloganeer (VIRGINIA SLIMS). I'm not big on cigarettes or commericals, but this one is just so over-the-top you can't help but like it as a piece of Americana. It also perfectly complements Minnesota Fats, for a nice "mini-theme".


• 64a: Beat walkers' walkout (BLUE FLU). Wonderful.


• 8d: Stir (KERFUFFLE). I've always loved the word kerfuffle.


• 33d: "Cat Scratch Fever" singer (TED NUGENT). For some reason, the first name that came to mind was Bob Seger. Luckily it didn't fit. I know this, too. It sucks getting older.


• 39d: It might need to come before you can go (EXIT VISA). Love the clue. And yes, my mind went there.

Sundries:

• 7a: Incomplete (SKETCHY). A great string of solid 7-letter words.


• 16a: Daydream (REVERIE).


• 17a: Lousy team that wrecks a contender's chances (SPOILER). And this is the time of year (in baseball anyway) when they come into play.


• 18a: Make two cuts in, perhaps (TRISECT). As a math geek, I kind of like this one.


• 23a: Intl. group that issued the controversial MacBride report in 1980 (UNESCO).


• 26a: Supermini of the '70s and '80s (LE CAR).



• 29a: TV series set in the Tanner household (ALF). "Alf" is a little after my time, so I didn't know this off the top, but it was easy enough to deduce.


• 31a: "Boogie Nights" character Diggler (DIRK). Love the clue. Hated the film. I thought it was a real borefest.


• 32a: "You're pitiful!" (GET A LIFE).


• 36a: Gp. that publishes American Spirit magazine (DAR). Daughters of the American Revolution.


• 37a: Dirtbags (SLEAZES).


• 42a: Concert score? (TIX). This is part of the section that messed me up when I chose the wrong Gardner (see below). Good clue, though.


• 45a: "Fer sher ... not!" (AS IF). Yeah, okay. Whatever.



• 48a: Fluke roll-ups? (SUSHI). Great clue. One of my favorites of the puzzle.


• 62a: Worked at a bar? (CHINNED). Uhh... I suppose. Kind of a stretch as a verb.


• 65a: Pertaining to any of five popes (SISTINE). I suppose LEONINE would have fit, but I'm not sure I've heard that one used in regards to popes.


• 66a: Klepto, e.g. (STEALER). This is one of those -ER words I really don't care for. If you steal, you're a thief. Stealer is not a word people use.


• 67a: Afternoon services (TEA SETS). Fooled me for a few, as I was trying to think of religious services (e.g., MATINS or VESPERS). I think there is an afternoon one, but I can't recall what it is.


• 68a: Grapefruit League city (ST PETE). Okay, so what part of this clue indicates that we should be expecting a short form of St Petersburg, Florida? I got it okay, but it grates a little.


• 2d: Really long (ASPIRE). Clever, but you long FOR and you aspire TO, don't you?



• 3d: Like Jaime Sommers (BIONIC). Very good.


• 4d: Balder parent (ODIN). Cute. Maybe a little too easy in such close proximity to the Norse Gods puzzle.


• 5d: Spicy sauce with chocolate (MOLE). Mmmm... mole poblano sauce is one my favorite Mexican flavors.


• 9d: ___-les-Bains, France (EVIAN).


• 11d: Shakespeare title character (CRESSIDA).


• 12d: "Pardon me" elicitor (HIC). I'm just glad this was a three-letter fill and not a four. That's all I'm saying.


• 27d: Ottoman Empire officer (AGA). Standard puzzle fare.



• 30d: Super duper? (LIAR). Very good clue.


• 34d: Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year between Jordan and Shula (ASHE). I can't imagine we're supposed to know things like this off the top, but it certainly makes sense once you get a few crossings.


• 35d: Fünf fifth (EINS). One-fifth of five is one.


• 38d: Suspense novelist Gardner (LISA). I went with ERLE, as I'm sure they expected me to. Slowed down this section quite a bit.


• 44d: McGregor of "Scenes of a Sexual Nature" (EWAN). Everything after McGregor is superfluous, but I'm intrigued. Anyone seen this one?


• 49d: Squelch (STIFLE). Would have loved an "All in the Family" clue here. Even if you don't follow any of the other links, watch this one. It's one of the best Edith scenes ever.




• 50d: Shakespeare title character (HAMLET).


• 53d: Roxanne's boss on "L.A. Law" (ARNIE). I was surprisingly able to recall this, and it's been years since I've seen that show. The mind is a strange thing.



• 55d: BBQ waitress's rack (RIBS). Fantastic clue.


• 56d: Shakes' peers? (MALTS). Nothing like a good chocolate malted on a hot summer's eve.


• 59d: 10/15, e.g. (IDES). As in, October 15.


• 60d: Spotted dog ingredient (SUET). I'm sure I've seen this one before, because I knew it was right after I figured it out from the crossings.

Suns of Bitches:

• 14a: St. ___ of Seville (Spanish encyclopedist) (ISIDORE).


• 21a: Christina's dad (ARI). Christina who? I'm too lazy to look this up. Actually, I just don't care. Christina is too common a name to use as this type of clue.


• 22a: Cyrillic alphabet letter (TSE). Sorry, not up on my Cyrillic.


• 28d: Tony-winning playwright Yasmina (REZA). No clue.

I mostly really liked this puzzle, despite the handful of clues that seemed a bit stretchy and the few names that seemed a bit obscure. None of the tough clues crossed, so the puzzle was eminently fair, and the great fill and nice clues were enough to compensate. It's also one of the best examples of a New York Sun mini-theme (two long, related or complementary clues in a Themeless Thursday) that I've ever seen. Good job.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Title: Divine Intervention
Author: Joon Pahk
Theme: Phrases that contain Norse Gods (Odin, Thor, Tyr, and Loki).

• 18a: *Classic jazz composition by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard (MOOD INDIGO). Great tune. Here's a little different version by Nina Simone.



• 28a: *Boundary of a black hole (EVENT HORIZON).


• 47a: *Common political principle (MAJORITY RULE).



• 59a: *Friend of the penguin Badtz-Maru (HELLO KITTY). I had absolutely no clue when I read this clue, figuring it was some reference to "Happy Feet" or something. But I've certainly heard of Hello Kitty, so it wasn't hard once I hit a few crossings.


• 53d: With 58-Across, what can be found in each of the answers to the asterisked clues (NORSE / GOD).

It definitely would have taken me longer to figure this theme out without the helper clues, especially since TYR is not as familiar to me as the others. But it's definitely a nice and well-executed theme, with each deity spanning the two-word phrases that contain them.

Sunny Spots:

• 2d: Doll in the National Toy Hall of Fame (GI JOE). I still my old ones, minus a couple of hands and feet. The oldest has the smooth molded head; the other has the fuzzy buzz cut.


• 3d: Maestro Seiji (OZAWA). Formerly the head of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A gimme for me.


• 25d: Result of a hook-and-eye connection? (SHINER). Excellent boxing reference here.


• 29d: Possible cause for an R (NUDITY). See? I don't always rise to the bait. Some things just scream for pictures; others I leave well-enough alone. Great fill though.

Sundries:

• 1a: They can be inflated (EGOS). I knew this even before I saw it was a 4-letter fill.



• 5a: "ER" costar of Julianna (ERIQ). I know I've mentioned this before, but it's been a long time since Eriq La Salle has been on "ER". Please, Eriq... do something else of note so we can update these stale references.


• 14a: Sphinx site (GIZA).


• 17a: "The blue dot cleanser" (AJAX). A couple of nice, Scrabbly short fills. I don't know if they still use that phrase in their advertising, but I certainly remember it from TV commercials growing up.



• 22a: Victim of Bart's prank calls (MOE).


• 23a: Two-___ (kind of fastball) (SEAMER). Easy for a baseball fan. There's also a four-seam fastball, which has different action on it due to the way airstream passes over the seams.


• 25a: Web user (SPIDER). I know you wanted us to put SURFER in there, didn't you. Luckily, I already had the I in there.


• 32a: Emmy winner Woodard (ALFRE). You're right, Karen M. Tracey, I remembered it this time. I even remember that her middle name is ETTE.


• 38a: Little biters (RED ANTS).


• 42a: Turn and river preceder in hold'em (FLOP). Some day, I'd like to play in the Main Event. That'll be after the kids are out of college, as there's no way I can front the entry fee right now.


• 44a: North Pole list header (NICE). As opposed to NAUGHTY. Which one are you on?


• 50a: Rock genre? (COMEDY). Chris Rock, that is.


• 55a: Rock genre (EMO). And, of course, EMO is also a comedian, so it's kind of a tight loop.




• 63a: Swift, e.g. (BIRD). Aww, Joon. We can't get a Larry clue here? How about "Johnson rival"?


• 4d: Zoot's instrument in Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (SAX). Love the clue. The reference, if you don't know it, is to "The Muppet Show" band.




• 5d: "Freaky Deaky" author ___ Leonard (ELMORE).


• 6d: Quadratic formula solution (ROOT). The first of two mathy clues which, as a former math major, were gimmes for me.


• 8d: Abbr. that a proof reader might come across? (QED). This second one was well-disguised, which made it even nicer.


• 13d: Roadway writing (SLO). I've never seen SLO written in a roadway.


• 19d: Customs duty (IMPOST).



• 27d: Colleague of Lauer and Vieira (ROKER).


• 30d: Rockets star McGrady (TRACY).


• 31d: Cousin of a congo snake (NEWT). I didn't know this off-hand, but I'm glad it avoided yet another first-name reference.


• 34d: Nickname for a fast woman (FLO-JO).


• 39d: City hard by Vance AFB (ENID, OK.). I didn't parse this correctly until just now. I saw it as Enidok, which I was not at all comfortable with.


• 40d: Leaves in a bowl (SALAD). I've seen this clue before, so I wasn't fooled.


• 43d: Large citrus fruits (POMELOS).


• 59d: Haw's partner (HEM). You know it's either HEM or HEE.



• 61d: Lucy who voiced Viper in "Kung Fu Panda" (LIU).

Suns of Bitches:

• 35a: Former name of Broadway's George Gershwin Theatre (URIS).


• 56a: McFarlane who spawned the comic book "Spawn" (TODD).


• 64a: "Eight Men Out" author Asinof (ELIOT).

Nice theme and nice puzzle by Joon. Plenty of Scrabbly letters (in fact, it's a pangram, containing every letter at least once) with interesting fill and some clever cluing. Maybe a touch name-heavy, though it could have been moreso if EMO, BIRD, and NEWT had been clued differently. Everything was gettable from crossings, so all-in-all, it was an entertaining Wednesday.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Title: Pick-Me-Ups
Author: Alan Arbesfeld
Theme: Adding ME to phrases.

• Flu season => FLUME SEASON (17a: When water parks make their money?).


• Conga lines => CON GAME LINES (23a: "It's easy, pal-just keep track of the shell with the pea" and others?).


• Sha Na Na => SHAME NANA (31a: Embarrass grandma?).


• Do or die => DOME OR DIE (40a: Motto of indoor stadium advocates?). "Do me or die" would have a whole different connotation. See how good cluing is important?


• Princess Di => PRINCESS DIME (45a: Coin featuring Sleeping Beauty?).



• Lee Majors => MELEE MAJORS (57a: Ones getting a degree in riot control?).

I love this theme. It's a great example of what you get when both the base phrases and the new phrases are full of sparkle. I mean, check out the base phrases: conga lines, flu season, Sha Na Na, Lee Majors... wonderful stuff! I was hooked at FLUME SEASON and wasn't let down throughout the puzzle. I was a little fuzzy regarding the title "Pick-Me-Ups", but I guess it just means phrases "picking up" the MEs. I was looking for more "up-ness" somewhere, but it was not to be found.

Sunny Spots:

When you include six sparkling theme entries, you don't need the rest of the fill to be spectacular; you just need to keep it reasonable and entertaining. Which it is.

Sundries:

• 1a: Maker of Centipede (ATARI). If it's a classic video game being referenced in a crossword, it's probably ATARI.


• 15a: Partially lit (TIPSY). My guess of ESSEX for 8d: ___ Downs (English racecourse) (EPSOM) led me to try PISSY here, figuring it was a Britishism along the lines of getting pissed. Note that if this had been the NYT puzzle, I wouldn't even have considered it. I consider that a compliment to Peter Gordon and the Sun.


• 29a: Russian fighter jet (MIG). If you didn't know this right off, you need to go rent "Top Gun" again. And not just because I'm in it (well, in a manner of speaking).


• 30a: Alter (AMEND). If someone can explain the difference between AMEND and EMEND, I'd like to hear it. I'm always guessing, and I almost always guess wrong.



• 38a: Blue-footed bird (BOOBY). Heh heh... Hey Beavis, he said "booby".


• 39a: Imposture (HOAX). Lots of Xs in this puzzle.


• 42a: Perfume during a church service (CENSE). Isn't it INCENSE? Is this slang, like 'CENSE?


• 44a: Maybelline's parent company (L'OREAL).



• 52a: First-stringers (A-TEAM). I would have preferred a colorful Mr. T reference here.


• 56a: It might have a certain ring to it (TUB). Clever clue. What was the Dr. Seuss book with the bathtub ring? I think it was "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back". Let me check... yup, that's the one.


• 61a: Library implement (DATER). Is this that inkpad date stamp that libraries used to use before everything was bar coded and scanned? I never heard it called a dater.


• 65a: It gets put in a sinkhole (DRANO).


• 1d: ___ Romeo (ALFA).


• 2d: Joust (TILT). As in tilting at windmills, a la Don Quixote.


• 5d: Freezing (ICE COLD).



• 6d: "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" author William (STEIG).


• 10d: Illustration, for example: Abbr. (SYN). Another of those very clever cryptic definitions. "Illustration" and "example" are synonyms.


• 11d: Relay race handoff (BATON). Very appropos with the Olympics just finished.


• 13d: Its state flower is the bluebonnet (TEXAS). Name a five-letter state that ends in S.


• 22d: Words on a sticky note attached to a contract (SIGN HERE). If you've ever closed on a house, this should have been a gimme for you.


• 24d: Shirley Dinsdale was the first person to win one (EMMY). Name a four-letter award that begins with E.


• 27d: Magazine contents (AMMO). I've seen this ruse too often to be fooled.


• 34d: Jim-dandy (A-ONE).


• 38d: Oscar-winning role for Jane in "Klute" (BREE). Great film also starring Donald Sutherland. I tried to spell it BRIE, like the cheese, at first.




• 41d: Like some meds (OTC). Over-the-counter.


• 42d: Charge (COMMAND). As in "I'm in charge here".


• 45d: Boy in "The Snowy Day" (PETER).


• 50d: John on a farm (DEERE). Easy, but cute clue. OUTHOUSE didn't fit.

Suns of Bitches:

I'm bad enough trying to remember first names of people I know, never mind those I don't. Luckily, they were relatively normal names, unlike yesterday's collection of INAs and PIAs.

• 63a: Baseball announcer Hudler (REX).


• 33d: First name in "The Lonesome Train" (ABE).


• 53d: Marathoner Mota (ROSA).

I thought this was a great puzzle for a Tuesday. The theme entries were plentiful and enjoyable, the fill and clues were decent, and the hard stuff wasn't all that hard. Two thumbs up.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Before I start, I just wanted to publicly thank Joon, Norrin2, and CrossMan for their adept guest-hosting last week. It was great to have no worries as we got the kids off to college. We had a great trip through Pittsburgh and D.C., culminating in a Red Sox game in Baltimore on Tuesday night where, as I was riding the throng of people into the streets, I heard "Hey, aren't you Pete Mitchell?" It was none other than New York Times puzzle blogger Michael Sharp, aka Rex Parker. Man, it's a small world. So, let's get back to work, shall we?

Title: Military Medicine
Author: Mark Feldman
Theme: Medical phrases that contain a military rank.

• 17a: Long-running ABC soap (GENERAL HOSPITAL).


• 37a: Open-heart surgeries, e.g. (MAJOR OPERATIONS).


• 59a: "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff (PRIVATE PRACTICE).

This is a pretty straightforward Monday theme, with three common 15-letter phrases. Of course, all operations are major when they involve you or someone you love.

Sunny Spots:

• 1a: Browsing annoyance (POP-UP AD). More insidious than ads that pop up in new windows are those annoying ones that hover over the text you're trying to read. Maybe if people started boycotting sites that used these techniques, they wouldn't be so prevalent. Then again, maybe not.


• 16a: Program that might have naptime on its schedule (DAYCARE). I am a firm supporter of naptime. I wish companies would adopt this practice.

Sundries:

• 8a: Of the surrounding environment (AMBIENT). Especially noise and light.


• 20a: Medieval tenant (VASSAL).



• 22a: One who plays chez Shea (MET). I'll be honest, I didn't even notice the cutesy homophone when I did the puzzle. So, how's Pedro working out for you guys?


• 23a: Ecclesiastical council (SYNOD). This shows up enough that it should be a gimme to regular puzzlers.


• 27a: Diagonally (ASLOPE). First thought: ASLANT.



• 30a: Navigation aid for drivers: Abbr. (GPS). I work for a company that provides digital maps for GPS units, on-line maps, etc., so this was pretty easy.


• 42a: Clouds of interstellar dust (NEBULAS). Sometimes this is NEBULAE, so watch out.


• 49a: Take home? (STEAL). I missed the baseball aspect of this the first time through. Shame on me.


• 51a: Jolson and Jefferson (ALS). Al Jefferson is the young, talented centerpiece of the deal that brought Kevin Garnett from Minnesota to the Boston Celtics. I have no doubt he'll be a great player some day soon, but we got a championship out of the deal, with good prospects for another, so I'm not complaining.



• 54a: "___ Rides Again" (1939 James Stewart film) (DESTRY). Jimmy Stewart is such a classic and great actor.


• 64a: Digs up, as a corpse (EXHUMES). Ewwwww.


• 65a: Ornaments sometimes hidden by socks (ANKLETS).


• 3d: Letter-writing friend (PEN PAL).


• 4d: Runnin' ___ (Mountain West Conference basketball team) (UTES). REBELS didn't fit (and I don't know what conference they're in anyway).


• 7d: Investigate (DELVE). I feel like the equivalent of investigate is "delve into". Seems a little off.


• 10d: Skip over (BYPASS). This could easily have been linked to the MAJOR OPERATIONS theme entry.



• 22d: Christopher of "Law and Order: SVU" (MELONI). He was also in the great Wachowski brothers' film "Bound", with Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and Joe Pantoliano. Highly recommended.


• 30d: Ashram instructor (GURU).


• 35d: Southern soldier (REB). Also, SECESS. And if you knew that, then you were probably at ACPT 2007 in Stamford, CT.


• 36d: It loses to an open hand in rock, paper, scissors (FIST). Colorful clue.


• 37d: Gaping mouths (MAWS).


• 39d: Ridiculously inadequate thing (JOKE). Insert own political commentary here.


• 44d: Quality of a corrupt politician (SLEAZE).


• 47d: One who expresses an opinion (VOICER). Voicer? Yuck.


• 55d: Don't dele (STET). A crossword staple.



• 56d: "Dick Tracy" character Trueheart (TESS). This is vaguely familiar, but I was never much of a Dick Tracy follower.


• 62d: Prop in "The Wizard of Oz" (AXE). There are lots of props in said film/book, but the Tin Man's axe is certainly one of the more obvious.

Suns of Bitches:

• 21a: "Barefoot Contessa" host Garten (INA). Not crazy about this crossing 1d: "Sexual Personae" author Camille (PAGLIA) in a Monday puzzle. It's a guessable vowel, but you shouldn't have to.


• 6d: 2008 French Open winner Ivanovic (ANA).


• 59d: TV journalist Lindström who's the daughter of Ingrid Bergman (PIA).


• 60d: 1999 Heisman Trophy winner Dayne (RON).

I was a little disappointed in this puzzle, as with only three theme entries I expected more sizzling fill and less INA, ANA, PIA stuff. Nothing terribly wrong, though I don't care for guess-the-vowel name crossings in early-week puzzles. It just didn't thrill me.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Title: Weekend Warrior
Author: Karen M. Tracey
Theme: None
Guest Blogger: Cross-Man

Pretty much a nice clean Tracey, though the fill is a tad weaker than her usual high standard. Not bad by any means, just not quite as shiny. While I got through the upper two thirds pretty quickly -- for a Weekend Warrior, anyway -- I had a little trouble in the bottom third, particularly in the SE.

Sunny Spots:

Mostly the longer entries.

• 15a: Singer of "Like a Surgeon" (with the lyric "I can hear your heart beat for the very last time") (WEIRD AL YANKOVIC). A very clever guy. I still crack up every time I watch the video of White & Nerdy, featuring Donny Osmond. Check it out on YouTube.


• 59a: From a reliable source (ON GOOD AUTHORITY). An excellent 15-letter phrase.


• 62a: Ruthless group since 1935? (THE BRONX BOMBERS). As in Babe Ruth and the Yankees. This one took me longer than it should have.


• 8d: Like a refrigerator, sometimes (RAIDED). Points for giving me an aha! moment.

• 16d: Portrayer of Weena in "The Time Machine" (YVETTE MIMIEUX). Though I've never seen the movie, I got this almost as soon as I filled in the Y from the crossing WEIRD AL YANKOVIC. A very nice change from the usual Time Machine entry of ELOI, and extra good because Weena was actually one of them.


• 43d: Worthless loafer? (ODD SHOE). Did you know that there's a National Odd Shoe Exchange (www.oddshoe.org)?

Sundries:

• 1a: Classic retro style (ART DECO). Of course, it wasn't retro at the time it originally appeared.


• 8a: Varlets (RASCALS). This quotation from the OED illustrates the correct usage: "1829 LYTTON Devereux II. iv, ‘Now for thee, varlet,’ cried Tarleton, brandishing his rapier."


• 17a: #1 hit of 1999 (LIVIN' LA VIDA LOCA). By Ricky Martin. Wikipedia tells me that Rolling Stone names this one of the 20 Most Annoying Songs. I can see -- um, hear -- what they mean.


• 20a: Cordero or Nieves of baseball (WIL). Gambling: Pete Rose:: Domestic abuse: Wil Cordero.

• 21a: British-style crossword constructor (SETTER). A dog of a clue. I hope no one minds the pupcake.
  


• 24a: Supt.'s responsibility (BLDG). And he or she probably spends a lot of time in the 24d: Rm. without a view (BSMT). Nice crossing.
  




• 30a: Words that might accompany a shrug (SEARCH ME). I can picture this perfectly.


• 32a: Ewan's "Moulin Rouge" costar (NICOLE). Kidman.


• 36a: Obsession (MANIA). A bit of a stretch for a synonym clue, but it's legit.


• 37a: Little, in Lockerbie (SMA). I'm not fond of these regional accent spellings, never mind a crossing pair of them (see 38d). And shouldn't this be "wee," anyway?

• 40a: Bean Town skyscraper (THE PRU). An ugly box (pox?) on the Boston skyline since 1964. Beantown, by the way, is usually spelled as one word.


• 42a: 1977 Paul Davis hit (I GO CRAZY). I'd say Paul Davis was more than a one-hit wonder, but less than a household name. Crossings took care of the whole thing.


• 44a: Popular game show of the '70s and '80s, familiarly (PYRAMID). This went from a $10,000 version in 1973 to a $100,000 version by 1985. Don't you miss those inflation years?


• 46a: "___ Final Broadcast" (Broadway song sung by Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin) (EVA'S). From the musical "Evita".


• 47a: Present time, for short (B'DAY). My first thought was XMAS, but the crossings eliminated that in a second.


• 50a: "Wicked" character (GLINDA). The Good.

• 53a: Young enfant (BÉBÉ). A little French to start the day. Boy, was I tempted to use a Bebe store ad for a pic. But I compromised between that and one of Bebe Rebozo.
  




• 54a: Burns and Allen (STEVES). I very much appreciate the cleverness of the cluing, but do you know who Steve Burns is without checking?


• 63a: 2004 All-Star Game MVP (SORIANO). Alfonso Soriano, now of the Chicago Cubs, then (2004) of the Texas Rangers, and earlier of the aforementioned Bronx Bombers.

• 64a: Proposed state of 1849 that was not granted admission to the Union (DESERET). While you might guess that this included most of today's Utah, it also took in great chunks of Nevada, Arizona, and California.


• 2d: Mutual fund alternative: Abbr. (REIT). Real estate investment trust. But can you trust real estate investment?


• 4d: Coffeemaker style (DRIP). As opposed to the percolator kind whose sweet burbling was often a presence at dinner parties in the 1960s and 1970s, maybe even earlier.
  


• 5d: Best and others (EDNAS). Oddly, the first person I thought of here was pre-Ringo drummer Pete Best, who I think once released an album entitled "Best of the Beatles".
  


• 6d: Where the Beavers play (CALTECH). MIT's mascot is also a beaver, but the school's teams are named Engineers.
  

• 7d: Oporto greeting (OLÁ). A rare appearance of a Portuguese word besides São or Rio. Also a widely-distributed brand of ice cream novelties over in the old country.



• 9d: Firedog (ANDIRON). Though the object is usually made of iron, it seems to be coincidence that the word contains the name of the metal. Alternative answer that wouldn't fit: DALMATIAN.
  


• 10d: Game similar to sheepshead (SKAT). I've heard of the answer (a card game), and the game in the clue was mentally filed somewhere nearby.


• 11d: Mustard, e.g.: Abbr. (COL). As in Colonel Mustard, one of the murder suspects in the game Clue.


• 13d: Not crooked (LICIT). Not one of my favorite words. It may as well be EPT.
  


• 14d: Blanch (SCALD). In the cooking sense, not the whitening one.


• 22d: Stomach-soothing roll (TUMS). Probably not if you swallow the entire roll.


• 25d: 1962 Roy Orbison hit (LEAH). I'd prefer to spell this as BLEAH. Really, listen to the song and see if you disagree.
  


• 27d: Afflicted with the flu (GRIPPY). I really have to question this one. First, does anyone really use the term "grippe" anymore? Second, has anyone ever used this adjectival form?


• 29d: Its motto is "Forward": Abbr. (WISC). Weren't we just talking about state mottoes last week? Here's a less usual non-Latin one. Anyone know the only Greek one? Here's a hint: If I had to guess, I'd say that 10% of you do.
  

• 31d: He lost out to Bing for Best Actor of 1944 (CARY). Der Bingle won for his role in "Going My Way"; Cary Grant was nominated for his role in "None but the Lonely Heart".


• 33d: Nordic saint (OLAV). Olaf with a V, not to be confused with…
  


• 34d: Beth alternative (LIZA). …Liza with a Z. But to be honest, I don't think too many women named Elizabeth use Liza as a short form, and the only Beth I know has a complete first name of... Beth.
  


• 38d: Once more in the country? (AGIN). See my comment on 37a, which this crosses.


• 45d: Pro wrestler Lou (ALBANO). He had a very recognizable beard in his day, and his day went on for far longer than you might have guessed.

• 47d: Vulnerable backgammon pieces (BLOTS). I never took to this game.


• 48d: "Pearly Shells" singer (DON HO). Great, now I've got "Tiny Bubbles" floating through my head…





• 49d: Author of "The Young Bank Messenger" (ALGER). As in Horatio. Though he wrote dozens of stories, I don't think I can name a single one besides "Ragged Dick." Didn't stop me from getting this entry, though.


• 53d: When repeated, one of the Society Islands (BORA). Besides Bora Bora, Pago Pago, and Walla Walla, are there any other repeated geographical names? Sing Sing doesn't count.
  


• 57d: Soyez is a form of it (ÊTRE). More French, and a subjunctive to boot. Mon Dieu, gardez-moi!

• 58d: Part of AWACS (SYST). Airborne Warning and Control System.


• 61d: Up in the air, on a sched. (TBD). Having been on a plane a few days ago, I was thinking airline schedules rather than television or conferences.
  

Suns of Bitches:

• 55d: Kathryn of "Oz" (ERBE). She is far better known for her role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and that's not a show I watch. Having this right next to VIER made for an uncomfortable SE corner.


• 56d: One-fifth of zwanzig (VIER). I figured it was a German number, but I lose count after three. Too bad VIER is four.

Thanks for listening.

- Ruy (Cross-Man)

Thursday, August 21st 2008

Salutations, Sun solvers! It's your old pal Norrin2, the Green Genius, putting down the shuffleboard cue and my gin-and-Geritol to briefly unretire from crossword blogging.

Man, I can't believe I used to do this five days a week. It's a heck of a lot of work, and Pete M deserves a big pat on the back for putting in the effort every day. (Whether or not he might also deserve a swift kick where the Sun don't shine for letting me guest blog remains to be seen.)

Let's get on with it, shall we?

Title: Dressed to the Nines

Author: Tony Orbach
Theme: Common phrases modified by the inclusion of the Roman numeral 9 (IX)

18A: Orchard Sprites? (APPLE PIXIES)

24A: Sound editor's '80s TV gig? (MIXING DYNASTY)

40A: Animation company's quality control goal? (PIXAR EXCELLENCE) I would say that this goal has been met. I've seen all of the Pixar films and they are all great.

53A: Skipped a trip to Belgium? (NIXED FLANDERS) Flanders is the land of the Flemish (You didn't think they were from Phlegmland, did you?) as such is not only in Belgium, but also in France and the Netherlands. It was the site of some horrific war battles (what other kind of war battles are there?) and was the setting of the most famous poem to come out of that conflict:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

63A: Frank fellow who tilts at windmills? (OPEN QUIXOTE)

I have to admit since I retired from daily crossword blogging I don't do the puzzle every day, and I've kind of gotten off Peter Gordon and company's wave length. So it took me a while to get into the swing of things. Music was what allowed me to get a foot in the door. I may not know my Sudanese supermodels or my Saudi Arabian billionaires, but I know about Johnny's golden fiddle: 69A: "The _____ Went Down to Georgia" (1979 Charlie Daniels hit) (DEVIL) and I know that rust never sleeps: 11D: "Hey, Hey, My My" singer (NEIL YOUNG) who also had a song called "My My, Hey Hey," and no, I'm not kidding. After a few dead ends on EVERLY and WINTER, I also knew 7D: Surname of brothers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (ISLEY) and I speak the language of love so I knew 43D: "___ Means I Love You (1968 Delfonics hit) (LA LA). BTW, this song is featured prominently in one of those movies I love that everyone else hates.

Maybe it's just because I know Tony Orbach is not just a cruciverbalist but also a musician (a modern day Renaissance man -- is that an oxymoron?) but it does seem as though his puzzles always feature a lot of musical clues. Also in this puzzle: 1D: Shabbat song (PSALM) 2D: Dizzy Gillespie's faith (BAHAI) and 61A: Big ___ (Andre 3000's Outkast partner) (BOI) and 50D: Musical with the song "All the Dearly Beloved" (I DO I DO)

Sunny Spots:
71A: Piece of Lamb or Bacon (ESSAY) Francis Bacon is probably best known these days as one of the possible playwrights that elitist snobs who can't believe that a poor boy like Bill Shakespeare wrote some magnificent plays put forth as the real author of said works. Too bad, he was quite an essayist. Here he is on the subject of children: "The joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears. They cannot utter the one; nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labors; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death. " He also coined the phrase "Knowledge is power" but it wasn't always true in his case. He had an idea that you could use snow to preserve meat and he died of a case of pnuemonia he contracted while trying to freeze a chicken.

62A: Character in "The Return of Jafar" (GENIE) Hey, say what you want about kids, Sir Francis, but mine's video watching habits ensured that I had no problem with this clue.

29A: Lucky tip (ASH) Wow, do they still make Lucky Strike cigarettes? Hang on a sec, while I Google that. Yep, according to Wikipedia: "Lucky Strikes currently have a small but very loyal base of smokers." (Small, and getting smaller, no doubt. That's what happens when you kill your customers.) The only reason I know anything about LSMFT is because I am a big fan of old-time radio and Lucky Strike was the sponsor of Jack Benny's radio show.

27D: "A Giraffe and a Half" author Silverstein. (SHEL) It's always good to see Shel Silverstein in the puzzle. Another Renaissance man, Silverstein gave us "The Giving Tree" "A Boy Named Sue" and plenty of great cartoons like this:

Sundries:

55D: Pulitzer-winning Bernard Malamud novel, with "the" (FIXER) I've never read this one, but I've read Malamud's "The Natural" and I can tell you that is one of the few instances where the movie is not only better than the book, it's a heck of a lot better. Terrible book, great movie IMOH.

(And speaking of baseball) 12D: First of three Mets to hit a lead-off home run in a World Series Game 3 (AGEE) Even if you know nothing about baseball you know the answer starts with an A. Four letter baseball name? Got to be either AGEE or ALOU.

60D: "House co-star (EPPS) No, that I'm no longer a full-time crossword blogger I've been catching up on my TV viewing -- I love House. (Can you believe they killed Amber off on the season finale?)

45A: Loss leader? (AT A) I was thinking ELL

3D: Women's undergarment brand (SPANX) I was not familiar with this line of slimming unmentionables, but they evidently carry a full line, including "power panties."

33D: Church recess (APSE) One of these days I'm going to learn the difference between anave and an apse.

Suns of Bitches:

Actually the only thing I considered to be a real son of a B-word was where 9A: Billionaire Khashoggi whose luxury yacht was bought by Donald Trump (ADNAN) crossed 10D: Utterance (DIXIT). There were -- as we shall see -- other words I didn't know but this was the only place where words I didn't know crossed each other. DIXIT? What the heck is a dixit? Or is this another themed entry and it's actually DIT? I don't know. And if I was a billionaire the first thing I'd do is change my name to something less monstrous than KASHOGGI.

51A: Merry, to a Euskara speaker (ALAI) Wow, I guess he didn't want to go the JAI ___ route, but Euskara?

33A: Sudanese supermodel Wek (ALEK) Never heard of her. (him?)

23A: Marquises, e.g. (ILES) I thought they were like French dukes or earls or dukes of earl.

19D: What some whistles lack (PEAS). I remember from crossword blogging back in the day that there were times when I just had to say "I don't get it." It was always embarrassing because as soon as it was explained to me I was smacking myself in the head like the most rueful V-8 drinker. But I have to admit -- I don't get it.

That's about all I have time for. By the way, I still blog, just not all crosswords all the time. One of the things I discuss is my autograph collection. Here's one of my favorites:

Thanks for listening. Thanks Pete M. for this forum. It's been fun but if I can just find my sandals and black socks I'm heading back to crossword blog retirement land -- well, right after a quick stop at Denny's for the early bird special.
Robert Loy AKA Norrin2

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Title: mixed emotions
Author: lee glickstein
Theme: phrases ending with an emotion instead have the emotion "mixed" (anagrammed) to give wacky new phrases, which are then clued

• 17a: Immortal rodent? (EVERLASTING VOLE). the song "everlasting love."
• 24a: Motorcycle helmet and gloves? (ROAD GEAR). road rage.
• 47a: Seafood? (CAPE FARE). the movie cape fear. or also, i guess, the north carolina geographical feature cape fear.
  
• 60a: Peek over one's shoulder before going too far? (LOOK BACK IN RANGE). look back in anger. this one is definitely the most forced of the four theme entries. it's one thing (and probably good) if the "surface sense" of a wordplay theme entry is a little silly. EVERLASTING VOLE falls into this category. it's another thing (and not good) if the surface sense isn't sense at all, but rather nonsense.
  

lee seems to specialize in wordplay themes. this is a pretty good one--all four of the base phrases are very well known, and the theme is really very tight. only one of the four falls a little flat. and (not an insignificant consideration) the title is great: apropos and itself "in the language."

Sunny Spots:

• 45a: Like "10," "54," and "300" (RATED R). good fill, great clue.
• 12d: Brazil's "Rei do Futebol" (PELE). brazil lost to argentina in the olympic semifinals yesterday, but as consolation, i give you this (it's 10 minutes long, but the whole thing is highly recommended):
  

• 38d: Uncomfortable feelings (BAD VIBES). boring clue, but a great, great answer.
  

Sundries:

• 1a: Cracked a bit (AJAR). it's wednesday, all right--the clues are starting to get trickier. this one seems like it might be a past tense verb, but it's an adjective.
  
• 5a: Fall faller (LEAF). easy, but i like it.
• 15a: Tiger Woods's father (EARL). only vaguely familiar to me. he certainly hasn't made himself into the public spectacle that, say, richard williams has.


• 22a: One or more (ANY). as in, "are you guys hiding ANY weapons of mass destruction? no? we'll just be on our way, then."
• 23a: FBI guys (G-MEN). not T-MEN, this time.
  
• 29a: Tense (ON EDGE). seems like this has been coming up a lot, but that probably just means i've been doing too many puzzles.
• 33a: "Where the bold saguaros raise their arms on high," according to its alma mater: Abbr. (ASU). another holdover from monday's puzzle, this time with a classic peter gordon clue: one that makes it guessable (saguaros -> desert -> arizona), but unlikely to have been used before. it's a long way to go for those three simple letters, though.

• 34a: Bass and the like (ALES). "bass" has a lot of meanings, but clues like this point to ALES or ALE more often than not. it's probably just a matter of bayes's theorem at work: ALE is just so common that if you think it might be ALE, it is. kind of like how [Fencing sword] in four letters could be FOIL, but in practice it's always EPEE.
  


• 38a: Unsupported, in a way (BRALESS). nice clue. and of course, i know exactly what kind of picture to post with this one. hot hot hot!
• 41a: "Ran" director Kurosawa (AKIRA). i have a confession to make: i fell asleep about 15 minutes into this movie, which i was supposed to watch for a shakespeare class in college (it's an adaptation of king lear). i was also supposed to see "throne of blood" (macbeth), but never made it to the showing. and in fact, i've never seen another kurosawa movie. and yet for some reason i still feel he's one of my favorite directors.

• 44a: Generic top-level domain (NET). this is the kind of clue that almost doesn't even make sense until you have the answer.
• 50a: Program interrupter (TV AD). i knew right away what this clue was going for, but it still took almost all the crosses to figure out how this answer was going to parse.
• 52a: Genetic stuff (RNA). i wonder if the intent here was for the solver to misread this as "generic stuff."

• 53a: "Steps in Time" autobiographer (ASTAIRE). and for once, it's fred rather than adele.
• 56a: Professional wrestling duo (TAG-TEAM). good fill word here. am i the only one who uses this expression as a transitive verb? for example, i'll often refer to my wife and i "tag-teaming" sam to mean taking turns watching the baby.
• 62a: Put through the mill? (PUREE). the food mill, naturally.
• 63a: French fashion nickname (COCO). you can't hide from me, COCO! even if "chanel" isn't in the clue.
• 67a: Old Testament twin (ESAU). ESAU sold his birthright to younger brother jacob for a bowl of food, but has avenged himself by appearing in crosswords infinitely many more times than jacob.

• 1d: Assert with confidence (AVER). for once, this clue actually seemed to be specific to AVER rather than AVOW. maybe i'm dreaming, though, and tomorrow we'll see the same clue for AVOW.
  
• 2d: Louis Prima's "Jump, ___ an' Wail" (JIVE).
• 3d: Ex-husband of Kim (ALEC). bassinger and baldwin.
• 4d: Proof, maybe (REREAD). another tricky clue--"proof" is a verb.
• 5d: 2000, e.g. (LEAP YEAR). unlike most years ending with 00. this is because the length of a sidereal year is 365.24 days, which isn't quite 365.25.
  
• 6d: Lyme or Orange preceder (EAST). EAST lyme is in connecticut; EAST orange is in new jersey.

• 7d: Busts and such (ART). good wednesday clue. oh, right, this is my cue to post a picture of a beautiful busty woman.
• 10d: Good emcee, for example (LIVENER). eww.
• 13d: One-quarter of doce (TRES). i wonder why peter doesn't make us do outrageous foreign language arithmetic. like, why isn't this [Cube root of veintisiete]? i guess everybody knows roman numerals, but not everybody knows spanish numbers larger than, say, ten.
• 19d: "Captain ___ and the Underwater City" (1969 Chuck Connors film) (NEMO). another gordonesque clue, much in the same vein of the ASU clue: unlikely to have been used before, but totally guessable.
• 24d: Storm shower? (RADAR). it shows storms.
• 25d: Home of Nagai stadium (OSAKA). bayes at work again: five-letter japanese city, guess OSAKA.

• 30d: Bride of 7/29/81 (DIANA).
• 31d: D&D fan, e.g. (GAMER). wait, did i already use my quota of simpsons pics? yes? oops.
• 32d: Happify (ELATE). is that a word? really? that sounds like the kind of inflected form i routinely use while knowing full well that it's not a word. i didn't think you could do that in crossword puzzles, though.
• 39d: They can get high (SOPRANOS). let's see, does this count as the daily NYS drug reference? judges? ... we have a yes.
• 42d: Shot again (RETAKEN). ouch.
• 48d: Dilbert, for one: Abbr. (ENGR). i guess he's an engineer. i used to be an "engineer," too.
• 53d: One of its products features chicken, vegetables, and rotini pasta (ALPO). rotini? that seems excessive.
• 54d: Joke locale for a fly doing the backstroke (SOUP). it seems like "joke" is misplaced, but that's a very lively clue.
• 57d: Grandson of Eve (ENOS). that would make him, let's see, much older than ESAU.

• 58d: Pearl Mosque city (AGRA). hmm. i thought AGRA was in hindu country. then again, my indian geography is not very good. i'm reading salman rushdie right now and i'm always confused about which places are muslim and which are hindu.
• 59d: It might have a list of starters (MENU). this is definitely the first thing i thought of, but i guess i was "supposed" to think about a lineup for a sporting event.
  

Suns of Bitches:

• 16a: "The ___ Sanction" (1975 Clint Eastwood film) (EIGER). no clue.
• 49d: Lancôme mascara brand (FATALE). okay.
• 51d: "Rock Around the Clock" record label (DECCA). i'm just glad these three all had easy crossings.
  

overall, this was a very good wednesday puzzle: good theme, some really nice fill, and only one real clunker (LIVENER). it wasn't super-tough, but there were enough misleading clues to keep me on my toes.

anyway, that's all from me this week. i enjoyed filling in, but boy, it's a lot of work. (frankly i don't understand why pete does it, but don't tell him i said that or he might stop doing it.)

i'll see you all in the comment box.

joon

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Title: final pairings
Author: patrick berry
Theme: phrases that end with two pairs of double letters

• 17a: #2 hit of 1966 (BARBARA ANN). the beach boys.
  
• 25a: Easter basket treat (CHOCOLATE EGG)
• 36a: "I'm sure we can think of something ..." ("LET'S SEE...")
• 44a: Famous legal-system denunciation by Mr. Bumble in "Oliver Twist" ("THE LAW IS A ASS"). i've vaguely heard of this (never read the book), but it still hurt to put it into the grid. (brief explanation here.)
  
• 59a: Dodge Charger in "The Dukes of Hazzard," with "the" (GENERAL LEE). i watched this as a kid, but now it seems even more dated than it actually is. moral of the story: the south is weird.
  

what a strange theme. who thinks this stuff up? (answer: patrick berry, obviously.) making it tighter is the fact that all five of the theme answers end with a three-letter word, making the first of the two final doubles break across a word boundary. that rules out easy one-word solutions like COFFEE and TATTOO (and, my dictionary tells me, MARKKAA. how the hell can that be a word?!?).

Sunny Spots:

• 40a: Mass times acceleration, in physics (FORCE). i always like a good physics clue, and this one is 100% dead-on. in a patrick berry NYT from earlier this year, MASS was clued as [Force divided by acceleration], which is not right; both force and acceleration are vectors, and you can't divide by a vector.
  
• 54a: Pitcher Roger named in the Mitchell Report (CLEMENS). not that i'm particularly happy about anything related to juicing in baseball, but i never did like this guy.
• 11d: Good time to buy some peanuts and Cracker Jack (RAIN DELAY). great fill, good clue.
  

Sundries:

• 4a: Presses on (IMPELS). this is a sneaky clue--it makes you want something that means "goes ahead." but the emphasis is on the "presses," not the "on."
• 15a: Rapid counterattack (SORTIE). french for "gone out."
  

• 16a: Schemer who engineers Cassio's demise (IAGO). i always like it when there's some shakespeare in a puzzle. did the combination of "engineers" and "cassio" make anybody else think of casio pocket calculators? no? just me, then.
• 20a: Electric Company or Water Works, in Monopoly (UTILITY). or outside of monopoly, for that matter. the utilities and the railroads are underrated assets in monopoly--they can be big winners in a cash-strapped game where property development is too expensive.
• 23a: Kind of salami (GENOA). Might make a nice continental snack with 24a: Anise-flavored liqueur (PERNOD).
• 33a: "And She ___" (Talking Heads song) (WAS). i'm of the opinion that most 80s music kind of sucked, but not this.

• 35a: Sleuth's shout (AHA!). hey, speaking of 80s music, this is also name of the (norwegian?) band that recorded "take on me."
  
• 43a: "Owner of a Lonely Heart" band (YES). and they just keep on coming! mini-theme, anyone?
• 49a: Backless sofas (DIVANS).

• 50a: Raccoonlike animal (COATI). yep, that looks pretty raccoonlike to me. by the way, blogger doesn't think "raccoonlike" is a word.
• 58a: Rock found in rivers? (LAVA). i'm not sure i get the clue. is it just because sometimes people say "rivers of lava"? is that really enough of an in-the-language expression to make this clue work? i don't know.
• 62a: Unwell (LAID UP). nice expression there.

• 66a: Word accompanying a wave (BYE). but not the kind of bye you get in a TOURNEY (21a: Event with a leaderboard).
• 1d: Recode, maybe (DEBUG). you know it's a bad bug when you have to recode the whole damn thing. i'm not sure most bug fixes really qualify as "recoding."
• 4d: First of the Latter Prophets (ISAIAH). i'm not familiar with the term "latter prophets." i know the major and minor prophets (ISAIAH is major... at least to christians).
• 7d: Vowel with a vowel two before it and two after it in its alphabet (ETA). whew, that's a mouthful.
• 10d: Car company whose name adorned the Eiffel Tower from 1925 to 1934 (CITROËN). wow, i did not know that, although i guessed it with no crosses. (it was either CITROËN or PEUGEOT.) anyway, this ridiculous eyesore ("adorned"??) makes me feel better about ballpark naming rights.
• 13d: Cal ___ (San Luis Obispo university) (POLY). alma mater of a good friend of mine. also, i read somewhere that joss whedon based the fictional sunnydale of the buffyverse on san luis obispo.
• 18d: Voting coalition (BLOC). BLOC crossing CHOC is nice. however, the JAYHAWKS are nowhere to be found.
  
• 26d: Have markers out (OWE).
• 28d: Movable fence part (GATE). the GATE is movable. not so much the fence, usually.
• 29d: Bodybuilding buildings (GYMS). cute.
• 30d: Half-witted (DAFT). i like this word. reminds me of harry potter.
• 31d: "That doesn't sound good" (UH-OH).

• 32d: Marvel Comics superhero who's blind (DAREDEVIL). this was also a 2005 movie with ben affleck and jennifer garner. somehow, i missed it.
• 41d: Prevailing weather conditions (CLIMATE). i think this entry is emblematic of why i didn't love this puzzle. it just kind of ... sits there. yeah, it's not hard, but it's also not interesting.
  
• 45d: Underhandedly obtain (WANGLE). whoa, that's a crazy word. i wanted FINAGLE, which wouldn't fit, or WRANGLE, which also wouldn't fit, but was incredibly similar to the correct answer. (indeed, one of the definitions of wrangle is WANGLE.) raise your hand if you've ever used the word WANGLE.
• 47d: Orts (SCRAPS). it's a good thing we all know ORT from the grid, because now it's a clue. before you know it, it will be a theme.
• 51d: Ignore the script (AD LIB). the holdover from yesterday's puzzle.
• 53d: "Me, Myself, & ___" (2000 comedy) (IRENE). starring jim carrey, jim carrey, & renee zellweger.
  
• 57d: Disgusting buildup (CRUD). all righty then.
  

Suns of Bitches:

• 1a: Heavy metal singer Ronnie James ___ (DIO). one of the funny things about crosswords is that no matter how obscure you are, if your name could be clued some other way (in this case, italian for "god"), you could someday find yourself in a puzzle, because editors get tired of using the same clues. whereas an equally obscure heavy metal singer named, say, KIO, would never end up in a puzzle, because editors reject obscure fill.
  
• 56a: Blues standard covered by Elvis Presley (CC RIDER). i really wanted to have heard of this, but ... i haven't.
• 5d: "Bazooka Joe" character who wears turtlenecks (MORT). there are bazooka joe characters? i thought it was a bubble gum. apparently it's a comic strip, inside of bubble gum wrappers.
  

overall, this puzzle wasn't bad, but when i see patrick berry's name in the byline, i expect it to be great, so i was disappointed. this is probably the only berry puzzle i've done all year that didn't make me sit up and take notice. part of it is that he seems to have mostly eschewed long fill (8+) for more 6s and 7s, but the bulk of those were pretty dull. oh well. the next puzzle he writes will presumably be insanely great anyway.

Tthanks for listening reading.

- Pete M. joon

Monday, August 18, 2008

Title: embodiment of nature
Author: alan arbesfeld
Theme: phrases that combine a body part and a terrain type.

• 3d: Delta locale (RIVER MOUTH)
• 8d: Landing spot for naval forces (BEACHHEAD)
• 15d: Neighborhood (NECK OF THE WOODS). great expression. does anybody know where it comes from?
  
• 35d: Cayuga or Seneca, e.g. (FINGER LAKE). aptly named, as you can see from the picture.
  
• 39d: Region at the base of a mountain range (FOOTHILLS)

really nice, tight theme--the kind we've come to expect from a monday new york sun puzzle. if i wanted to quibble, i could gripe about the OF THE in the middle of the central theme entry, and the fact that the ordering of the body part and terrain isn't quite consistent, but i think it's impressive enough to find five totally in-the-language answers that all fit the theme. by the way, the fact that the central entry NECKOFTHEWOODS is fourteen letters necessitates the 15x16 grid of this puzzle. sure, alan and peter could have left out NECKOFTHEWOODS and had a normal 15x15 grid with four symmetric theme answers (and no extraneous OF THE), but if you ask me, NECKOFTHEWOODS was the highlight of this puzzle, so i'm glad they chose to do it the way they did.

i read somewhere that body parts are the basis of the most overused (and hence stalest) theme attempts by beginning constructors. i think this is why you see clever doubled-up themes like this (and the recent "anatomy of poker") theme in the sun. there are just so many expressions or compound words which include body parts that you can always do more than just the body parts themselves.

by the way, in case you haven't guessed it already, this is joon filling in for pete. as such, you'll get a slightly more discursive blog post than usual.

Sunny Spots:

• 4a: In a blue state (SAD). i've seen clues like this before, but it's still great.
• 55a: Hush-hush (TOP SECRET). this wasn't how it was clued, but i just wanted to point out that top secret! is my favorite movie of all time. seriously.
• 65a: Fit together well (DOVETAIL). i just love this word.
• 69a: Actor Penn of the "Harold & Kumar" films (KAL). i haven't seen the second one, but the first one was pretty funny. i admit i only went to see it because i thought it was cool that two asian-americans were starring in a mainstream motion picture, and i was actually a little disappointed that the korean guy (john cho) was the "straight man," but KAL penn was really funny. he can also be seen as one of lex luthor's henchmen in superman returns, and a random terrorist type in season six of 24.
  

Sundries:

• 1a: Passover's mo., usually (APR). ever wonder why passover and easter are usually at around the same time, but sometimes (including this year), they're off by a month? after all, the events of the easter triduum commemorate jesus eating the passover meal for the last time with his disciples. as it turns out, the (roman-rite) christians wanted to have them match up, but they didn't actually bother to ask the jews how they calculate their months. so they made their best guess: easter falls on the sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. (hey, it's vaguely lunar, and so is the hebrew calendar. close enough, right?) most of the time, it works, but when there's a "second adar," as there was this year, then passover ends up a month after easter. i'm not sure how orthodox christians calculate the date of their easter; maybe they're smarter than us.
  
• 13a: 40% of MCCLV (DII). our weekly dose of crazy roman numeral math, courtesy of peter gordon. this one works out to 40% of 1255 = 2/5 of 1255 = 2 x 251 = 502 = DII. for goodness's sake, peter, it's monday! can't we get a [Half of MIV] or something? is there a method to the madness? actually, i have a new theory, based on this clue only, that he tries to write the clues so that they contain no common "numerals" with the answer. anybody want to look up a counterexample?
• 14a: "Let's get going!" (C'MON). i sort of wish the clue were a little more colloquial, to match the answer. maybe ["Let's roll!"]? or ["Pleeeeease?"]?
  
• 17a: Influence (LEVERAGE). i'm just glad this wasn't clued as a transitive verb. those of you who have worked for tech companies can commiserate.
• 19a: Really annoys (EATS AT).
• 20a: Traps at a ski lodge, maybe (ICES IN). two short phrases that are very common crossword fodder, but can be tricky for beginners to parse.
• 21a: Prereq for differential equations (CALC). i guess "prereq" is the tipoff that the answer is in its short form, but when i was in high school i called it "diff e q." i guess nobody cares what i called it in high school.

• 23a: ___-armed bandit (ONE). slang for a slot machine.
• 29a: Minors (YOUTHS).
• 31a: Obits, basically (BIOS). yeah, pretty much.
• 33a: "The Few" of the U.K. (RAF). royal air force. not sure what this "the few" is about. maybe they're like our marines, except not proud.
• 34a: Cow that hasn't had a cow (HEIFER). i guess that's exactly what HEIFER means.
• 39a: Helvetica, for one (FONT). not one of my faves, though do sometimes get tired of times new roman.
• 41a: Body work? (TATTOO). i'd like this clue more if i hadn't just seen it earlier today (sunday) in another puzzle. not the fault of peter or alan--it's a good clue.

• 45a: Never, to Nietzsche (NIE). this isn't the first time i've seen this in a crossword, but i'm wondering why a typical educated american should know this particular foreign word. i've certainly never seen the french word JAMAIS in a puzzle, and more people here know french than german.
• 46a: Blessed sounds? (ACHOOS). this seems like a really tired ? clue. also, the answer is a pretty yucky plural.
• 47a: Suffix with Brooklyn (ESE). i guess you have to clue it as a suffix if the grid also contains SSE (51a: About-face from NNW).
  
• 49a: Canada's capital (OTTAWA). this seems like a pretty important city to know, right? and yet, i'm only about 50% to spell it correctly on any given attempt. sometimes i want that middle vowel to be an O, and sometimes i get the doubled letters wrong--only one T, or even (when i'm particularly insane) two Ws. or should that be one quadruple-U?
• 60a: Dope (INFO). no, this does not qualify as the daily drug reference in the NYS crossword.
• 63a: Basic food item (STAPLE). but eating actual staples probably isn't healthy.
• 70a: Most underhanded (SLYEST). yep, that's how i want to spell it--not SLIEST. and yet, blogger has the pernicious red underline under SLYEST, but not SLIEST. damn you, blogger! it's right the way it is!

• 1d: Wing it (AD LIB).
• 5d: Whirlpool subsidiary (AMANA), and 7d: German make owned by GM (OPEL). a few months ago, i knew neither of these brands. now it seems like i see them in crosswords at least once a week. i'm not sure what this says about anything, other than the obvious: i do too many crosswords every week.
  
• 6d: Labradoodle, e.g. (DOG). that's a very silly name for a dog. my parents-in-law have a cockapoo, which is, if anything, an even sillier name for a dog.
• 10d: Brand of printer (EPSON). now this one i knew. we have a crappy EPSON inkjet. i believe we "won" a class-action suit against EPSON because their printers are insidiously designed to tell you they are out of ink long before they actually are.

• 12d: French beans? (TÊTES). "beans" = "heads" here. didn't fool me for a picosecond.
• 18d: Senator Kefauver who was Adlai Stevenson's running mate in 1956 (ESTES). both of these guys (ESTES and adlai) get a lot of first-name crossword play. who won that election, anyway? not these guys... oh yeah, it was DDE, aka IKE. yeah, he gets a lot of play, too.
• 22d: Sch. whose football team plays at Sun Devil Stadium (ASU). arizona state.

• 25d: "American Idol" host Seacrest (RYAN). i've never watched this show, but i knew this.
• 30d: "Halt! Who goes ___?" (THERE). i'm tempted to actually use this expression sometime today. who's with me?
• 31d: Early software version (BETA). goes nicely with IMAC (32d: Apple product) and INTEL (53d: Chip maker based in Santa Clara) to round out the silicon valley portion of the grid.
  
• 36d: Novelist Wiesel (ELIE). when will 1990s houston rockets guard mario ELIE get any love?
• 37d: Bakery purchases (RYES). another semi-ugly plural.
• 42d: Drunken spree (TOOT). i don't think i've ever encountered this usage.
• 48d: Dandy's tie (ASCOT).

• 50d: Justice Dept. raiders (ATF). bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. i love that these three are lumped together by the federal government. alcohol and tobacco weren't fun enough by themselves, so they had to add guns into the mix.
• 51d: Winning come-out rolls in craps (SEVENS). if i knew how to play craps, i might have an idea what "come-out" means in this clue. another awkward plural.
• 52d: Velvet ants, e.g. (WASPS). no idea what this is about. are we talking about insects here, or white guys?
• 57d: Spa in France's Haute-Savoie department (ÉVIAN). easily guessable with a few crosses, but ... whoa. that's not a monday clue, is it?
• 61d: Catbird seat? (NEST). i don't think i saw this clue while solving. not bad, though. not bad at all.
• 66d: Multivolume lex. (OED). oxford english dictionary. i have to say, i've only once ever seen a print edition of this, and it was a single volume. (admittedly, a freaking huge single volume with super-micro print and a magnifying glass.) i only ever use the online version.
  

Suns of Bitches:

• 24a: Longtime host of the Miss America Pageant (BERT PARKS). if you say so. of course, the crossings were all super-easy, it being monday and all.
  

overall, a nice monday puzzle. as i said, the theme was great, and it ended up being a very smooth solve for me. the fill wasn't as spectacular, but it was pretty inoffensive other than some forced-sounding plurals, and there were definitely a bunch of sparkly clues/answers in there.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

hey, wait, that's not me. thanks for reading.

joon

Welcome Guest Hosts

I'm off next week, taking kids off to college in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., with limited access to the internet. In my place, please welcome as guest hosts regular posters Joon Pahk and Ruy Cardoso (CrossMan), and on Thursday, stay tuned for none other than Robert Loy (Norrin2), the original Green Genius whose Sun postings inspired me to attempt to fill the void when he moved on to other topics. Please make them feel at home.

- Pete M.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Title: Which Way Am I Going?
Author: Matt Ginsberg and Pete Muller
Theme: Dual rebus, where the rebus square reads ACROSS in the across direction and DOWN in the down direction.

• 1a: Like the U.N. headquarters, from Times Square ([ACROSS]TOWN).



• 6a: How bangs are cut in a Dutch bob (STRAIGHT [ACROSS]).


• 40a: Game with attackmen (L[ACROSS]E).


• 67a: General ([ACROSS] THE BOARD).


• 68a: Conveys (GETS [ACROSS]).


• 1d: Depressed ([DOWN]CAST).


• 14d: Ludes, e.g. ([DOWN]ERS). Yet more drug references.


• 24d: They have titles (LAN[DOWN]ERS).


• 55d: Places (SETS [DOWN]).


• 56d: Fell (CUT [DOWN]).

I keyed in on the rebus aspect of this puzzle fairly early on, and it wasn't hard to figure that all four corners would contain the rebus square. Rebuses (rebi?) do not always fall symmetrically in a puzzle, perhaps for the very reason that it makes them too easy if you already know where they're going to be. And yet, for all of that, it took me forever to realize that the damned center square was one too. I could blame it on the fact that in all of the corner cases, the rebus is used as a whole word in its defined meaning, whereas in the center it is diguised inside fill words. But that's a pretty lame excuse; I should have seen it when I couldn't come up with a game that fit L_E. Doh!

Sunny Spots:

• 18a: Where to order bluepoints (OYSTER BAR). Bluepoints are a Long Island variety of oyster that was not immediately familiar, but it had to be in there somewhere because I knew instantly that it was correct once I figure out the answer.


• 4d: Podunk (WHISTLE STOP). Wonderful.



• 10d: Unemotional woman, in slang (ICE QUEEN). I'm not sure unemotional quite captures it, but a great entry nonetheless. Here's Portia De Rossi, who played Nelle - nicknamed the Ice Queen - on "Ally McBeal".


• 49d: Metrosexual accessory (MAN BAG). Love it.

Sundries:

• 16a: Origin (ROOT CAUSE). I work in an environment where "root cause analysis" is a common occurrence when something goes wrong, so this was easy for me.


• 17a: Con men? (ANTIS). Cute clue.


• 19a: Mediodía naps (SIESTAS). I could use one right about now.



• 24a: Rerun's big brother in the comics (LINUS). Rerun was the little brother to Lucy and Linus Van Pelt, in "Peanuts". Wikipedia documents Rerun's entry thusly: "Rerun was 'born' into the strip in 1972, during a storyline in which Lucy threw Linus out of the house only to learn that yet another little brother had just been born (causing her to exclaim in exasperation 'A new baby brother? But I just got rid of the old one!')." Priceless.


• 26a: Sputnik 2's passenger (LAIKA). Much is made of this dog's being the first one into space, but not so much about the fact that it died shortly into the trip. I find the story to be rather sad.


• 28a: Too much (DE TROP). As Stephen Colbert says, "It's French, bitch!"


• 35a: Cubby holes? (DENS). Eh.


• 41a: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" villains (NAZIS).


• 42a: Expedition (HASTE). As in the act of expediting. Very nice.


• 43a: I'm using my editorial prerogative to remove mention of this clue, as I find the referred-to person to be an embarrassment to a great institution. (PETE).


• 46a: Panegyrizes (EXTOLS).


• 48a: Pure, for sure (RHYME). These kinds of clues always trip me up the first time through.


• 50a: Desirable positions (PLUMS).



• 56a: Radar, e.g.: Abbr. (CPL). From "M*A*S*H".


• 59a: Doña ___ (New Mexico county that borders Texas and Chihuahua) (ANA). I'll chalk this up to a good guess, though I've probably seen it before.


• 60a: Flipped (WENT APE).


• 61a: Sends in troops, say (USES FORCE).


• 64a: French psychologist Alfred (BINET). Of the Binet IQ test.


• 65a: "The Tall ___" (nickname of Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack) (TACTICIAN). Didn't know it, but it was easy to figure.


• 2d: Patty Hearst's alias (TANIA). Wow, that was a long time ago. How do I still remember this?


• 6d: Low-budget hotels, for short (SROS). This is a new one on me. I know SRO means "standing room only", usually referring to a sold out event. Is this just a goof on that, implying that the room isn't even big enough to lie down in, or is there something else going on here?


• 7d: Flirt (TOY).


• 25d: Winter honoree (ST VALENTINE). Long, but easy.


• 27d: Source of iodine (KELP).



• 30d: He gave up an eye in exchange for wisdom (ODIN). I didn't know this right off. I should study my Norse mythology a bit. Am I the only one that never noticed Odin wore an eye patch?


• 32d: "Seven Year ___" (1981 Rosanne Cash hit) (ACHE). Raise your hand if you tried ITCH first. I did.


• 33d: TV cable, briefly (COAX).


• 34d: It passes through a lubber's hole (MAST). This strikes me as a Peter Gordon clue. I'm just saying.



• 36d: Rogen of "Knocked Up" (SETH). I recognize the face, but didn't know the name right off.


• 44d: Title surname in a novel originally published under the name Currer Bell (EYRE). Charlotte Bronte.


• 47d: Its logo has an arrow pointing down and to the right (SUNOCO).


• 51d: "All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word," according to song (MARIA). From "West Side Story".


• 53d: Cosmo alternative (G AND T). Gin and Tonic. My first thought was MAXIM.


• 58d: First name of Time's 1981 Man of the Year (LECH).


• 60d: Direct (WEND).


• 62d: Abbr. on a letter to an office building (STE). Suite.

Suns of Bitches:

For a Friday, there really weren't any ultra-tough clues. Surprising. Still, it was a decent puzzle and challenging enough overall to keep me occupied. Works for me. Good one.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Title: Themeless Thursday
Author: Mike Nothnagel
Theme: None

Sunny Spots:

• 6a: They can be denoted by a number and a letter (BRA SIZES). Say what you want about where my mind is at, but this did not come readily to it. I needed a few crossings to see it, at which point it made me smile (again).


• 17a: Utmost (DAMNEDEST). I had DARNEDEST at first, which unintuitively is only one-letter off from the correct answer.


• 34a: Practice of some Ashkenazim (ORTHODOX JUDAISM). This is the centerpiece of the puzzle. Long and Scrabbley, along with 6d: Unadorned performance space (BLACKBOX THEATER).


• 2d: Longtime backup band for Neil Young (CRAZY HORSE). Gimme for me. I still have some on vinyl.


• 22d: Common dorm room fixture (HALOGEN LAMP).


• 27d: Haunted house figure (GRIM REAPER). Which might cause a 42a: Cry of dismay (HORRORS). Or perhaps a laugh, in the case of "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life"...




• 28d: Fat City thoroughfare? (EASY STREET). Beautiful.



• 32d: 1980s title role for William Shatner (TJ HOOKER). Shatner has absolutely no shame when it comes to roles he'll take. Kind of like Tim Curry. But I love them both. "Boston Legal", one of many shows by 40a: "Ally McBeal" creator David E. KELLEY, verges on brilliant at times.

Sundries:

• 1a: Response to getting one's dander up? (ACHOO). Clever use of dander, the allergen. There's nothing quite like a smile at 1a to prime you for the rest of the puzzle.


• 14a: Overdress (DROWN). I suppose this means like to drown (food) in spices. It felt a little like jamming a square peg into a round hole.


• 15a: Noted member of the Bureau of Prohibition (ELIOT NESS).


• 16a: Grammy winner Steve (EARLE). I probably should have gotten this one sooner, but I needed the starting EA before it clicked.


• 18a: Gaza guns (UZIS). Gimme, especially with the Z of CRAZY HORSE already in place.


• 19a: Color similar to cranberry (PUCE). Guessed PLUM first.


• 21a: ___ Affair (XYZ). This was an 18th century incident with France. I'm not that up on my early U.S. history, but you can read about it here, if you're interested.



• 22a: Provincial (HICK). This one brought to mind "The Red Green Show".


• 23a: Rain-___ (bubble gum brand) (BLO). This is not one I'm familiar with, but it's an easy guess.


• 24a: Don't leg it, maybe (HOP A CAB). Good one. Perhaps something to do when you 52a: See someone (GO ON A DATE).


• 38a: Jennie of "Beverly Hills 90210" (GARTH). I never watched the show, but the name is vaguely familiar.


• 48a: Fox juggernaut since 2002, familiarly (IDOL). I'm not embarrassed to admit that I caught the Idol Tour show this past weekend. My God, can pre-teen girls scream. It was actually louder when the music wasn't playing than when it was. But it was a good show. David Cook rocks.




• 54a: Flag pin's spot (LAPEL). Mental block. I had golf on the brain and just couldn't shake the cobwebs out. Doh!


• 55a: Parachutist's device (ALTIMETER).


• 57a: Fundamental unit of DNA (BASE PAIR).


• 58a: Cricket player's game (DARTS). Wonderful clue. Cricket is... no, forget it, it's too hard to explain. Check it out here.


• 1d: For just two people (A DEUX).


• 3d: Level (HORIZONTAL).


• 4d: Temple attendees cheer for them (OWLS). I don't know that many college mascots, but I remember this one. I think it must show up regularly in puzzles.



• 5d: It's at the top of Pascal's triangle (ONE). Gimme for me. Pascal's triangle is great for estimating probable suit distributions in bridge. For example, when you are missing four cards of a suit, the probability distribution is 1 4 6 4 1, which means 1 time in 16 all four will be on your left, 4 times they will break 3-1 with 3 on your left, 6 times they will break 2-2, 4 times they will break 1-3 with 3 on your right, and 1 time they will all be on your right. It's not exactly thus, but it's close enough.


• 9d: What people who need to get high might use? (STEPLADDERS). More drug innuendo. Funny clue.


• 11d: Jazzy duo? (ZEES). Cryptic letter clue.


• 12d: "___ quam videri" (North Carolina's motto) (ESSE). My new strategy is that if it's part of a motto, it's ESSE.


• 15d: Maria Montessori, e.g. (EDUCATOR).


• 30d: Pass (out) (ZONK).


• 35d: First track on the 1956 album "Calypso" (DAY-O). Come, Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana...




• 41d: 11-sided Canadian coin (LOONIE). The one-dollar coin that features a picture of a loon on the back.


• 49d: Finishing touches on some letters (DOTS). I assume this refers to "dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's".


• 50d: H.S. senior's exam, formerly (SAT I).


• 52d: Gift that keeps on giving? (GAB). Cute.


• 53d: Agcy. that publishes the monthly Microgram Bulletin (DEA). Amusingly sitting beside 54d: Psychedelic derived from ergot (LSD).

Suns of Bitches:

• 50a: "The Odd Couple" director Gene (SAKS). This was a crossings-only fill for me, even though I'm sure I've seen it before.


• 8d: ___ Center (Chicago skyscraper) (AON). I know this is a gimme for some of you, but I needed the crossings.


• 48d: Seat of Allen County, Kansas (IOLA). Huh?

This was a great puzzle. Not terribly difficult, but chock full of fresh words and phrases. Just as you expect when you see Mike Nothnagel's name at the top. Very nice.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Title: Go Team!
Author: David J. Kahn
Theme: Add USA to a common phrase.

• G.E. Building => USAGE BUILDING (20a: New grammar student's goal?).



• Med school => MEDUSA SCHOOL (26a: Group of young jellyfish?). Did you know that a medusa was a jellyfish? I didn't, but it makes sense when you think of the Medusa's tentacled hair.


• So to speak => SOUSA TO SPEAK (45a: Headline about an upcoming lecture by "The March King"?). Here's an awesome version of Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" for solo guitar.




• Sage advice => SAUSAGE ADVICE (53a: Tips on cooking chopped meat in a casing?).

Very cool theme, coinciding nicely with the Beijing Olympics. All four theme entries are excellent both in their base phrases and reconstructed meanings.

Sunny Spots:

• 40a: Kegling spot (ALLEY). Kegling is another name for bowling. I prefer to think of it as a noun, picturing a bunch of baby beer kegs running around.


• 59a: Frozen rope (LINER). As a baseball term, liner is not that exciting. But "frozen rope" is just a beautiful metophor for it.



• 3d: No-goodnik (SCOUNDREL). I like scoundrel as a word. It implies, to me, a certain je ne sais quoi that is not totally evil or unlikeable.


• 27d: Hoe houses (SHEDS). Love the innuendo in the clue.

Sundries:

• 6a: Play tricks (JAPE).



• 14a: Goal of a "For your consideration" ad, maybe (OSCAR). I guess I don't read the right magazines, because I'd never seen one of these before that I can recall. But it's logical, and so not particularly difficult.


• 15a: Dodger teammate of Fernando in the 1980s (OREL). Always looking for new ways to squeeze Orel Hershiser into the puzzle, eh?



• 18a: Richard of "Home Improvement" (KARN). I knew exactly which character this was, Al Borland. But I didn't know the actor's last name without some crossing help.


• 25a: Peer group (NOBLES). I didn't get this at first. A peer is a nobleperson in Great Britain.


• 31a: Wife of Cronus (RHEA).


• 38a: Goosen rival (ELS). Quick, name a golfer besides Els in three letters. Yeah, I couldn't either. Well, that's not entirely true, there's Wie and Pak, but they're not MALE (39a: Like Viagra takers), and play in a different league than Retief Goosen.


• 42a: Sigourney's role in "Gorillas in the Mist" (DIAN Fossey).


• 44a: Media center? (DEE). Cryptic clue. Didn't fool me for a second. Well, maybe just that long.


• 57a: Mathematician Gödel (KURT). "Gödel, Escher, Bach" was one of my favorite reads back in college. If you like math at all, you should check it out.


• 63a: Taunting remark (GIBE).


• 2d: Hot flick? (ASH). Cute.


• 4d: Long Island county that borders Queens (NASSAU).


• 7d: Shatt-al-___ (river to the Persian Gulf) (ARAB).


• 8d: Big zinc exporter (PERU). I'm embarrassed at how long I stared at _E_U without seeing a country name in there. What's wrong with me?


• 9d: Weather phenomenon (EL NINO). Gimme.



• 10d: "Jurassic Park" actor (GOLDBLUM).


• 12d: Piglet's creator (MILNE). Gotta love all the "Winnie-the-Pooh" characters. Great stories.


• 23d: Headquarters of ConAgra (OMAHA). Easy guess from the O.


• 33d: Added up (MADE SENSE).


• 37d: Stopped, in legalese (DESISTED).


• 41d: Subject of many Hindu texts (YOGA).


• 43d: Home rule? (NO TV). Is this a rule in many homes? Not many that I've been in.


• 46d: Releases from censorship (UNGAGS).



• 48d: Actor whose character said "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" (PACINO). From "Godfather II".


• 55d: "Fantastic Four" actress (ALBA).

Suns of Bitches:

• 28d: Duke Frederick's daughter in "As You Like It" (CELIA). Not one I knew. Got it from the crossings.

Despite my having a slow time in the North Dakota section, I enjoyed this puzzle. I don't think it was harder than yesterday's, but that one was tough for a Tuesday. This puzzle felt about right. Good one.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Title: Doughboys
Author: Mark Feldman
Theme: Phrases describe men and end in things made from dough.

• 18a: Clever doughboy? (SMART COOKIE).



• 27a: Macho doughboy? (STUD MUFFIN).


• 48a: Doughboy, to his main squeeze? (SWEETIE PIE).


• 60a: Wimpy doughboy? (MILQUETOAST).

I like this theme, even though it feels flawed. Which of these things does not belong: cookie, pie, muffin, toast? Toast just seems a little off, in that it's not sweet like the other three and in that you don't make it directly from dough -- you make bread first, and then slice it and toast it. But I'm willing to overlook this. Why? Because MILQUETOAST is just such a great entry, that's why. It would be a shame not to use it.

Sunny Spots:

• 8a: Hot Wheels toy company (MATTEL). I still have my old Hot Wheels in a box somewhere, stored in those plastic carriers shaped like big tires.


• 11d: Become established (TAKE ROOT). Great phrase.

Sundries:

• 1a: Bridge designer's deg. (DDS). Dental bridge, that is.


• 4a: Thailand currency (BAHT). I knew this one right off. Probably from puzzles.



• 16a: Simple house (A-FRAME).


• 17a: Not irr. (STD). I started with ORD (for Ordinary). Don't know why.


• 20a: Golden brew? (COORS). Got this one right away, too. Coors, as you probably know if you've seen their hundreds of commercials, is brewed in Golden, Colorado.


• 22a: Oscar-nominated actor in "The Crying Game" (REA). A crossword staple.


• 23a: Makes the first bet (OPENS). Love the poker terms.


• 24a: Oenophile's adjective (OAKY). Wine lovers. You will see OENO- in later-week puzzles, so keep it in mind if you don't know it.


• 32a: Hardtop convertible from Volkswagen (EOS).


• 36a: Gung-ho (RAH-RAH).


• 53a: Platte River tribe (OTOE).


• 56a: Radius neighbor (ULNA). I broke them both as a teenager, so I'll always remember this one.


• 59a: One in the majority? (ADULT). Good clue.


• 64a: Wannabe intellectuals (PSEUDS). I've never heard of this as a noun, but it makes sense.



• 1d: Dance halls (DISCOS).


• 2d: Perform perfectly (DO TO A T). Four "words" in six letters can really throw you for a loop. It took me a while to figure out what was going on here.


• 3d: Crossword alternative (SUDOKU). You know when you clue this that it's going to raise the ire of crossword fans all over, don't you? Sure, there are similarities, but "alternative" implies a sort of "one is as good as the other"-ness that just doesn't sit well. I don't know many people who sit down and say, "Gee, I really feel like doing a crossword, but hey, here's a sudoku. I guess I'll do that instead." To me it's like cluing fish as a chocolate alternative. Sure, they're both food, but when you're in the mood for one, the other one is just not going to cut it.


• 4d: Big enchilada (BOSS). Also the climactic opponent of many a video game.


• 7d: Detached, as a sheet from a notepad (TORE OFF). I had TORE OUT to start, which slowed me down.


• 12d: Fame (EMINENCE).


• 19d: Language related to Malayalam (TAMIL).



• 21d: Gere's "Autumn in New York" costar (Winona RYDER).


• 25d: Hedgerow makeup (BUSHES). Can you guess the song I'm going to link to here?


• 34d: Surfing option (WIFI). Web surfing, of course.


• 36d: Co. in "The Farnsworth Invention" (RCA). I never even saw this clue. Good thing.


• 37d: Firebug (ARSONIST).


• 38d: Certain innkeeper (HOSTELER).


• 40d: Wizard of id (FREUD). Yeah, okay.



• 44d: Certain red algae (SEA MOSS).


• 47d: Twisting force (TORQUE).


• 50d: Stuff completely (PLUG UP).


• 54d: Piano player's practice piece (ETUDE). Here's Sviatoslav Richter playing a Chopin étude. It's more than just a practice piece.

Suns of Bitches:

• 8d: Little ___ (protagonist of the video game Punch-Out!!) (MAC). Never heard of it. Got it from the crossings.


• 62d: Fu Manchu creator Rohmer (SAX).

I've got to admit, this puzzle did not fall like a typical Tuesday for me. I was not on the same wavelength for many of the clues and sections, so it solved in time and manner much more like a later-week puzzle. Which is not a complaint, since I prefer a bit of a challenge -- just an observation.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Title: Words on Play
Author: Justin Smith
Theme: Phrases with items found on a playground.

• 17a: Ignore a problem (LET IT SLIDE).


• 35a: Airport conveyor (LUGGAGE CAROUSEL). I started with BAGGAGE CAROUSEL, which slowed me down slightly in the SW corner.


• 56a: Symptom of bipolar disorder (MOOD SWINGS).

Simple Monday theme. Unusual for the Sun of late to only have three theme entries, but that didn't affect the enjoyment of the puzzle any.

Sunny Spots:

• 30d: Hitchhike (THUMB A RIDE). Easy, but good phrase.


• 35d: Like some bad situations (LOSE LOSE). Another nice one.

Sundries:

• 10a: Big containers of beer (KEGS). Beer clues are always welcome here.


• 15a: Scale whose third note is C (A-FLAT). I have to quibble a little about this one. A-flat is a note, not a scale. There are many A-flat scales: A-flat major, A-flat minor, A-flat diminished, etc. I suppose you can argue that in the absence of a specified scale one assumes the major, but I'm still not crazy about it.



• 16a: Model Macpherson (ELLE). I didn't write the puzzle; I just blog what's there.


• 26a: Letters on tires (PSI). Pounds per square inch, the standard measure of tire pressure.


• 27a: Fiancée's first word (YES). Cute, if easy.


• 31a: Some document transmissions (EFAXES).


• 44a: Yankee Stadium public address announcer Sheppard (BOB). We have to keep reminding ourselves that this puzzle is targeted for a New York City audience. There are a lot more famous Bobs out there that I would have preferred to see in a Monday puzzle: Hope, Crane, Denver, Newhart, ...


• 52a: Airplane restraint (LAP BELT).



• 55a: Orchestra tuner (OBOE). Everyone tunes to the lead oboe. We're not sure why, though I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that the oboe is harder to tune. I could be wrong.


• 4d: "Love Story" author (ERICH SEGAL). I don't know why I know this. I never read the book and I never saw the movie, and yet this name is taking up space in my brain that could be used for much more important things.


• 7d: BBC's Sports Personality of the Century (ALI).


• 8d: Military chaplain (PADRE).


• 10d: Nautical spine (KEEL).


• 11d: It indicates an omission from a quote (ELLIPSIS).


• 12d: Water-resistant paper (GLASSINE). My only problem here was I wasn't sure of the spelling. Specifically, whether it was SS or SC, and whether it ended INE or ENE.


• 22d: Last Oldsmobiles ever made (ALEROS). I wonder if someone at Oldsmobile was a crossword nut and named this model knowing that it would then live on forever in puzzles. That would be a cool story.


• 25d: Like a concrete slab that's made off-site (PRECAST).


• 32d: Feast alternative (FAMINE). Not much of an alterative. I'll opt for feast.


• 37d: Natural selection affects it (GENE POOL). I thought at first this might be another theme entry, but there doesn't seem to be a matching entry, and it's not one of the two longest down fills. Besides, most playgrounds don't have a pool.


• 38d: Los del ___ ("Macarena" duo) (RIO). I didn't even read the whole clue. The del was enough to guess.




• 42d: Collection of Jewish laws (TALMUD).



• 45d: Subtitle to the 1978 film "Damien" (OMEN II).


• 46d: Frank alternative (BURGER). A lesbian says to her partner, "Can I be frank with you?", to which the other replies, "No, I wanna be Frank this time!"


• 51d: Rapper's entourage (POSSE). Is this never clued to reference old westerns anymore?


• 53d: Puts one's two cents in? (BETS). Low stakes game, I'd say.

Suns of Bitches:

None.

Pretty straightforward Monday. Nothing much else to add.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Title: Weekend Warrior
Author: Barry C. Silk
Theme: None

Sunny Spots:

• 17a: Familiar name of a Virginia sculpture based on a Pulitzer-winning picture taken by Joe Rosenthal (IWO JIMA MEMORIAL).


• 23a: Repeated action in a mathematician's random walk (COIN TOSS).


• 33a: Aloof person (COLD FISH). Great phrase.


• 56a: Batter-fried snack (MOZZARELLA STICK). Mmmmmm.

Sundries:

• 8a: Chihuahua timeouts (SIESTAS). See, we need siestas in the United States. A nice nap in the afternoon would make the workday so much more pleasant.


• 15a: Developer noted for its drive-through kiosks (FOTOMAT). Nowadays, every corner pharmacy does 1-hour photos, but I remember when this was a pretty novel concept.


• 19a: Car that is often black and rarely green (LIMO).


• 20a: Bolshoi bends (PLIÉS).


• 21a: She's buried in Kenya's Meru National Park (ELSA). The lion from "Born Free".


• 22a: Inning threesome (ENS). Cryptic letter clue. But since OUTS didn't fit, what else could it be?


• 26a: "Hamlet" courtier (OSRIC).


• 30a: ___ game (first matchup of March Madness) (PLAY IN). The final two teams selected play each other for the 64th spot in the tourney.


• 36a: Emulate running mates? (ELOPE). It has long been my belief that ELOPE is the word with the most really clever clues. This is certainly one of them.



• 38a: Cruise part? (ROLE). Tom Cruise, that is. Who, by the way, played Lt. Pete Mitchell in "Top Gun".


• 39a: Gave up the ghost (CASHED IN).


• 41a: One holding up a sign at the airport, e.g. (MEETER). This is one of those -ER words that just feels forced to me.


• 43a: They're cobbled together (SHOES). Nice clue.


• 44a: Sternmost member of a crew team (STROKE). I'd seen this before, fairly recently, and I still couldn't remember it without a couple of crossings.


• 55a: The Jalón flows into it (EBRO). You gotta know your four-letter rivers. As soon as I got the B, I knew which one it was.


• 62a: March honoree, informally (ST PADDY).


• 4d: Austin Powers's power (MOJO).




• 6d: Sent up (LAMPOONED). I started with LAMBASTED.


• 7d: Political leader from Georgia (STALIN). Anytime you see Georgia in a clue, you should be on alert. It's a common ruse.



• 8d: Another name for the sugar apple (SWEETSOP). I've never tasted this, but I've heard of it before. Not sure where.


• 11d: Laid-back (STRESS FREE).


• 14d: "Sisters" costar of Swoosie (SELA). That's Swoosie Kurtz and SELA Ward. And no, I didn't know it from the clue.


• 18d: Social psychology topic (MIND CONTROL).


• 24d: Roll-your-own grass? (SOD). The daily drug inference.


• 25d: In large quantities (BY THE DOZEN). Is a dozen a large quantity? I guess it depends on what you're measuring. My first thought was BY THE TRUCKLOAD, which of course didn't fit.


• 29d: Her first solo recording ("Ringo, I Love You") was released under the pseudonym Bonnie Jo Mason (CHER). The list of one-named singers was pretty easily narrowed to an era down by the Ringo reference.


• 34d: Tangy treat (LEMON TART). Mmmmm.


• 37d: Dragging (LISTLESS). This is a great word, and now I'm curious about its derivation. Can you be listful? It's definitely hard to grocery shop when you're listless, that's for sure.


• 47d: Secretary of the Pointy-Haired Boss, in "Dilbert" (CAROL). Love the Dilbert clues. Wally, Alice, Asok, Carol,... bring 'em on!


• 49d: Flew like a fly (ARCED). Like a fly ball in baseball, not like a housefly.


• 51d: Siberian city (OMSK). I love the name OMSK. It just sounds good.


• 55d: Place in a Robert Redford movie (ETTA). Etta Place was in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Nice misdirection on the clue.

Suns of Bitches:

• 48a: Drawn back thing, for short (TAT). I don't get it. I had TA_, crossing the first letter of 50d: Hungarian wine (TOKAY), which I've never heard of. I just started guessing letters until I hit T. Someone out there will have to explain this one.


• 28d: "The Door to ___ Gorée" (second number in "Bring In 'da Noise, Bring In 'da Funk") (ISLE). Never heard of it. Got it from crossings.


• 53d: '90s Israeli president Weizman (EZER).

Except for the guess-the-letter crossing, this puzzle wasn't too hard for a WW. I came in under 15 minutes, which is a good time for me for a late-week puzzle. Some snazzy fill, too. Nice job.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Title: "Gevalt!"
Author: Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach
Theme: Adding "OY" to phrases.

• Cling wrap => CLOYING WRAP (17a: Sappy boa?).


• Ann Landers => ANNOY LANDERS (28a: Bother some space vehicles?).



• Tomb raider => TOMBOY RAIDER (45a: Peppermint Patty's panty thief?). As much as I've never thought of Peppermint Patty and panties at the same time, this clue really cracked me up. And I love that tomb raider is the base phrase.


• Bus driver => BUOYS DRIVER (61a: Lifts actress Minnie's spirits?).

Despite the fact that I had no idea what "Gevalt" meant, I really liked this theme. In fact, I think TOMBOY RAIDER is one of my favorite clue entries in a long while. Very nice. Let's see if the rest of the puzzle can keep up.

Sunny Spots:

• 50a: Fanta rival (SUNKIST). I'm more of an Orangina guy myself, but I like the fill.


• 57a: "Romeo and Juliet" : Paris :: "West Side Story" : ___ (CHINO). Paris here is a character in the play, not a location. "West Side Story", of course, is a modern adaptation of the story. Great clue.

Sundries:

• 1a: Eddying (ASWIRL). My first instinct was actually SWIRLY, which wasn't so far off for having no letters in the right place.


• 11a: Brightness measures (IQS). I know I've seen this clue before. I don't know why I didn't know the answer right away. Guess I'm not that bright.


• 14a: Cocoon spinners (LARVAE).


• 15a: Miami University setting (OHIO). Easy for anyone familiar with NCAA basketball.



• 19a: Band with the 1988 album "Blow My Fuse" (KIX). I've never heard of this band. Are they named after the cereal?


• 20a: Sister publication of The Advocate (OUT). Both of these LGBT magazines were new to me, but it certainly makes sense.


• 22a: Like Harvey Fierstein's voice (RASPY).


• 24a: Painting place (ATELIER). An art studio.


• 26a: Parsons of music (ALAN). I haven't listened to much Alan Parsons since college. Here's a flashback for you.


• 33a: Sharp offerings (HDTVS). I've seen this type of clue enough to not be fooled this time.



• 37a: Cry heard after a doughnut is dropped, perhaps (DOH). Homer Simpson reference, naturally.


• 41a: Jump for joie? (JETÉ). This is a jump in ballet, which actually means "throw" in French.


• 44a: Well over 100 million people could, in theory, join it (MENSA). Don't feel so special now, do ya?


• 54a: Binding (FINAL). Tough clue for an easy word, clued as an adjective. I assume this is like a final/binding contract, even though they don't exactly feel like synonyms to me. Part of the nasty SW corner.


• 64a: Word with snow or day (JOB). This contributed to a nasty little SW corner. The last section to fall for me.


• 65a: "The power to make it better" sloganeer (AARP).


• 67a: Fingers, briefly (IDS). Finger is a much more interesting verb than it is a noun, don't you think?


• 2d: Port-___ (mild cheese) (SALUT). You know what clip I'm going to include here, don't you?




• 4d: Penn, e.g. (IVY).


• 5d: Ice cream mix-in (RAISINS). I wanted this to be JIMMIES or COOKIES.


• 6d: Spare (LENTEN). Relating to the season of Lent.


• 7d: Cheek by ___ (JOWL). A great phrase meaning in close proximity.


• 8d: "Yeah?" (OH REALLY).


• 9d: 1998 Angelina Jolie TV movie (GIA). This is one of those crosswordy clues it would behoove you to remember.



• 10d: Kind of sax played by Kenny G (SOPRANO). There aren't that many kinds of sax. Tenor, alto, soprano, baritone.


• 11d: Gets to (IRKS). I had IRES here to start.


• 13d: "(She's) ___ + 17" (1983 Stray Cats hit) (SEXY). Don't recall the song, but it wasn't hard to figure. Here's the video.


• 18d: Sandwich that might be served with a Greek salad (GYRO). I shouldn't blog hungry.


• 25d: It pours over the rocks (LAVA). Were you thinking this was going to be an alcoholic beverage? I was, except I couldn't think of any that were four-letters long.


• 27d: Takes a powder (LAMS). Flees.


• 30d: First place (EDEN). Excellent clue.


• 34d: 1962 film directed by Terence Young (DR NO). Classic James Bond.




• 41d: Weightlifting maneuver (JERK).


• 43d: Jeep safety feature (ROLLBAR). Easy.


• 44d: It's used in the months of Kislev and Tevet (MENORAH). It was a logical guess. I suppose it could have been MATZOHS.


• 47d: Mother of Horus (ISIS). Another crossword staple.


• 51d: Dallas wide receiver Michael who won three Super Bowls with Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith (IRVIN). I'm not a fan of Dallas, but I know these guys.


• 52d: Mount with vigor (STEED). I like the clue misdirection, which makes mount sound like a verb.


• 53d: Earth, in Italian (TERRA).


• 54d: Apple variety (FUJI). I've heard of this, but I needed the J to figure it out.


• 55d: Men's fragrance brand (IZOD). I guess you can't be a serious clothes company without having a fragrance line as well. Is there an LL BEAN cologne, too?


• 56d: Bills (NIBS). Part of that tough SW corner. Reference is to the mouth of a bird (like a duck), not to anything monetary.


• 62d: Fed. whose 18-letter full name alternates vowels and consonants (UAE). United Arab Emirates. Interesting trivia.

Suns of Bitches:

• 36a: "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" singer Shropshire (ELMO). That's a pretty obscure clue. Luckily the crossings weren't hard.


• 69a: "The Secret" author Byrne (RHONDA). The only Rhonda I know is the one from the Beach Boys tune.


• 48d: ___ Mifflin (company in "The Office") (DUNDER). I'm one of the few who hasn't watched this show. My son even has it on DVD, but I've somehow managed to avoid seeing even a single episode.



• 39d: Actor Diggs (TAYE). Here you go, ladies. See, I try to play fair.

I found this to be a pleasantly challenging Thursday, with an entertaining theme. A few tough fills with fair crossings, and one section that was a little tougher than the rest to break open. But overall, it was quite fair. Nice job.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Title: They're in the Money
Author: Mark Feldman
Theme: Last names that are also world currency.

• 17a: "The Face of the Ruling Class" artist (GEORGE GROSZ). I'm going to complain about this one on two fronts. First, who? Second, even if you happen to know that the Polish zloty is broken down into groszy, you're going to use a variant spelling to boot? Whatever.


• 22a: Dancer with lots of fans at her performances? (SALLY RAND). The rand is from South Africa. Sally Rand was an actress/burlesque dancer from the 20s and 30s.



• 36a: 2001 World series co-MVP (CURT SCHILLING). The schilling was once a unit of currency from Austria, as opposed to SHILLING, which was British. Curt has almost undoubtedly pitched his last for Boston, but the "bloody sock" game against the Yankees was a classic and he was instrumental in breaking the "curse" of the Red Sox.


• 56a: "The Cantos" poet (EZRA POUND). You know what a pound is.


• 61a: "The Italian Stallion" (ROCKY BALBOA). The balboa is from Panama, but what's a fictional character doing here with all the other real people? I guess I'll pretend George Grosz doesn't really exist... there, that's much better.

Cute idea, with some decent theme fill. But I think GEORGE GROSZ is a bit too obscure for a theme entry. SALLY RAND is borderline.

Sunny Spots:

This is the section where I write about the really cool non-theme fill and the standout clues that just make you smile.

Sundries:

• 14a: Ring master (ALI). Sauron didn't fit.


• 15a: "Starpeace" composer (ONO). I don't know why, but I was on totally the wrong wavelength here. I think I was trying to come up with ORFF, which of course wouldn't have fit, but since I couldn't come up with it I didn't realize I was off base.


• 28a: Ancient follower of Mosaic law (ESSENE). I have no idea why I know this.



• 29a: Babka morsel (RAISIN).


• 31a: Cartoon character who says "Swiper, no swiping!" (DORA). The explorer, I assume. Never watched it.


• 35a: Pickup game team (SKINS). Yeah, but only when it's all guys.


• 43a: Spinoza book (ETHICS).


• 45a: More meshuga (DAFTER).


• 52a: (CCVI x V) + (VII x III) (MLI). Ok, Gordon, these are getting out of hand... :)


• 55a: Caterer's heater (STERNO).


• 60a: Band with the 2008 album "Accelerate" (REM).


• 67a: Alternative to shrooms (LSD). More drug references by the New York Sun. Though shrooms seems a touch slangier to me than LSD.


• 2d: Some tannery output (SUEDES).


• 3d: Unemotional sorts (STOICS).


• 4d: Eden costar (HAGMAN). They've both been in dozens of things besides "I Dream of Jeannie". Some roles follow you forever, right Neil Patrick Harris?



• 5d: Sierra Nevada product (ALE). This one is a staple in my refrigerator.


• 23d: Healing technique that's Japanese for "universal life energy" (REIKI).


• 25d: Some M&M's (REDS). I guess one drug reference per puzzle is the limit.


• 30d: Nonverbal way to communicate: Abbr. (ASL). American Sign Language.


• 32d: Mo. of the Head of the Charles (OCT). I'm not even interested enough in what the Head of the Charles is to go look it up. If I had to guess, I'd say it had something to do with the Charles River in Boston. But I could be way off.


• 36d: Nationals (CITIZENS).


• 38d: Mrs. Gorbachev (RAISA).


• 39d: "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg" trio (TLC). I was going to link in the video to this, but it's so bad that I just can't bring myself to do it.


• 40d: Tupperware pieces (LIDS). I guess one drug reference per puzzle is still the limit. You know, we must have at least fifty Tupperware (and variant) containers and at least that many lids, yet I swear only about a dozen actually match up. How does that happen?


• 44d: Satiny (SMOOTH). The first two times I looked at this clue, I thought it said Sanity. My dyslexia is worse than I thought. Anyway, "Smooth" is also a great Santana song (with Rob Thomas, of Matchbox Twenty).




• 48d: "High Rollers" host of the 1970s (TREBEK). Sure, he comes across as all smart and sophisticated on Jeopardy, but he's still a game show host, and they're not all highbrow.


• 53d: Susan who filled in for vacationing Bernadette Peters in "Annie Get Your Gun" (LUCCI). Easy enough to guess with a couple of crossings..


• 62d: "To Kill a Mockingbird" character Radley (BOO). Great book. Great movie. Kind of dull clue.

Suns of Bitches:

• 16a: Penna. neighbor (WVA). Penna.? WTF?


• 42a: "___ & Dean" (Oxygen reality show) (TORI). Never heard of it. Torvill and Dean? Sure. Tori Amos? Absolutely. Plural of TORUS? No problem.


• 8d: V-Day creator Eve (ENSLER). Huh?


• 9d: Exuding moisture (OOZY). Oozy? Yuck.

This section just killed me. Ok, granted, I should have figured out ONO sooner, and that would have helped, but this little area at the end of GROSZ was, well, gross.

What can I say? The theme was just okay, I'm not crazy about puzzles that start and end with multiple rows of three-letter words, and the non-theme fill had no real sparkle. Throw in that SOB section in and around 8d and you end up with kind of a clunker. Didn't care for it.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Title: Horse Around
Author: Randall J. Hartman
Theme: Phrases whose beginnings and ends can be put together to form types of horses.

• 17a: *Region of the South (COTTON BELT).


• 23a: *Going rate of sorts (MARKET PRICE).



• 55a: *Filmmaker nicknamed "King of the B's" (ROGER CORMAN). This name is only vaguely familiar to me. He did direct "Little Shop of Horrors", along with such obvious masterpieces as "Attack of the Crab Monsters" and "Bloody Mama".


• 64a: *Where "SNL" is shot (GE BUILDING).



• 11d: *1993 film about an orca (FREE WILLY).


• 33d: *Caribbean combo (STEEL BAND).

This is one of those themes that's kind of cool, except that it didn't even enter into the solving of the puzzle. I had to go back and look at the title to realize what the theme was when I was finished. That's okay, except it solves like a really easy themeless. I prefer themes that I notice as I go, or figure out on my own when I'm done.

Sunny Spots:

• 21a: Dolt (AIRHEAD).


• 72a: Retouches third, say (TAGS UP). Good baseball reference here.


• 49d: Cheap booze (ROTGUT). So descriptive.



• 51d: Small portion (DOLLOP). Another great fill word. Is there anything you use a dollop of besides whipped cream?

Sundries:

• 10a: Fizzled-out firecracker sound (PFFT). I actually got this right away. I mean, what else could it be?


• 14a: "The Boys From Brazil" novelist Levin (IRA).


• 15a: Home of Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang (TAIWAN).


• 19a: ___ tetra (bright aquarium fish) (NEON). I have several in my tank.


• 20a: BlackBerry message (EMAIL).



• 29a: Morales of "La Bamba" (ESAI). Gimme. Besides knowing him from "NYPD Blue", he shows up so often that you just can't miss this one.


• 39a: Like a Nehru jacket, now (RETRO).


• 42a: Got the point? (LED). This one doesn't click so much for me. Are we talking about being on point, like in the military? Or being a point guard in basketball? I guess both sort of work, but I'm not sure either was what was intended.



• 43a: Sarandon's costar in "Lorenzo's Oil" (Nick NOLTE). We also have Susan Sarandon's "Thelma and Louise" co-star, 56d: Davis of "Commander in Chief" (GEENA).


• 47a: The BoSox retired his #8 (YAZ). Too easy for any Boston fan of my age.


• 50a: Dominatrix's activity, briefly (S AND M). No, it has nothing to do with SAND. Well, I suppose it could...


• 60a: Requirement for e-commerce (WEBSITE).


• 62a: Hotelier Helmsley (LEONA).


• 69a: World Heritage List gp. (UNESCO).



• 1d: Command to an attack dog (SIC 'EM).


• 3d: Genghis Khan follower (TATAR).


• 4d: Hot, so to speak (STOLEN).


• 5d: "Saving Fish From Drowning" novelist Amy (TAN). Best known for "The Joy Luck Club".


• 18d: Former Giants running back Barber (TIKI). I don't know many Giants, and I couldn't have told you what team this guy played for, but a name like Tiki Barber sticks in the brain, so this was pretty easy for me.


• 24d: Rubber ducky's home (TUB). One of my all-time favorite Sesame Street songs.




• 25d: "Te Deum," for one (PSALM). I'm familiar with the Hector Berlioz version, which is quite impressive. Here's a taste.



• 35d: Ventriloquist Bergen (EDGAR).


• 41d: Cheri of "Scary Movie" (OTERI). Also from "Saturday Night Live", for which she is probably better known.


• 52d: "He'll give you the answer that you endorse," according to song (MR ED). A horse is a horse, of course, of course.


• 61d: Corset insert (STAY). Didn't know this off the top, but it makes sense.


• 65d: Seek change? (BEG). Cute.

Suns of Bitches:
None. Lots of names today, but all familiar to me.

Another average puzzle today. Nothing earth-shattering and nothing terrible. Just an easy Tuesday with a theme that would have gone unnoticed without the title, and not too much to talk about.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Title: Doubly Approved
Author: Bill Weber
Theme: Phrases with "OK" in them, twice.

• 20a: In any way possible (BYHOOKORBYCROOK).


• 38a: Falsifying financial records (COOKINGTHEBOOKS).



• 54a: Southeastern wetland (OKEFENOKEESWAMP). Home of the Pogo comic.

A nice triple set of 15s. I especially like by hook or by crook, which is such a great phrase. Easy enough, especially if you can spell OKEFENOKEE right the first time.

Sunny Spots:

• 4d: Cheap trinket (TCHOTCHKE). This is not a word you expect to see on a Monday, let me tell you. But wow, what a great word. There were a couple of times I refused to put in the right answer because of the seemingly absurd consonant sequence it would have created. When I finally figured out what was going on, I just smiled. Very nice.



• 27d: British breakfast foods (SCOTCH EGGS). According to Wikipedia: "A Scotch egg consists of a cold hard-boiled egg removed from its eggshell, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried." Hmmm... not so sure about that one. Sounds like a heart attack just waiting to happen. Looks kind of good, though.

Frankly, there's not much to say about the rest of the puzzle, so I'll keep it simple and tack in a few pictures.

Sundries:

• 1a: Surpluses (GLUTS).


• 17a/3d: Wyoming neighbor (IDAHO / UTAH).



• 18a: Cougar (PUMA). My high school mascot was the cougar, which I think is pretty common throughout the United States.


• 24a: One who hears "You've got mail" (AOLER).


• 31a: NBA great Erving's nickname (DR J). Dr J was the Michael Jordan before there was a Michael Jordan.




• 36a: Jazz singer Carmen (MCRAE).


• 44a: Iowa city on the Skunk River (AMES).


• 45a: Dry, as wine (SEC).


• 46a: Former #1 tennis player Stefan (EDBERG).


• 50a: Vietnam's capital (HANOI).


• 61a: Canceled, to NASA (NO GO).


• 66a: Poetic Muse (ERATO). The muse that shows up 99% of the time in puzzles.


• 1d: Smooth-talking (GLIB).


• 2d: 1975 hit by Styx (LADY). Remember it here.


• 6d: Food for Fido (ALPO). Alpo is not a food, it's a brand of food. I don't mind alliteration in clues, but this one seems a bit forced.


• 8d: Bombay, today (MUMBAI).


• 9d: Don't resign (STAY ON).



• 11d: Track for a car race (MOTORDROME).


• 13d: 32,808 152/381-ft. footrace (TEN K).


• 33d: Relief pitcher Orosco who closed out Game 7 of the 1986 World Series (JESSE). My first instinct was JASON, which was on the right track.


• 37d: Creation of automobile bodies (COACHWORK). I'm not familiar with this term, but it wasn't hard to figure out.


• 39d: Peace goddess (IRENE). I never even saw this clue.


• 48d: "Ray" or "Shine" (BIOPIC). Cute.

Suns of Bitches:

• 55d: Fashion designer Michael who's a judge on "Project Runway" (KORS). There's always one, isn't there. Good thing the crossings were easy, because this is not a name that even rings familiar.

Nice theme. Great word in TCHOTCHKE and a couple of other interesting fills. Most of the rest was pretty common fare.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Title: Twenty Question Marks
Author: Patrick Blindauer
Theme: ? (figuratively and literally)

• 24a: "No way!" alternative (IT IS?).


• 40a: A question of time (WHEN?).


• 67a: Unimpressed person's comment (SO?).


• 4d: "I didn't catch that" (WHAT?).


• 13d: Coming-to query (WHERE AM I?).


• 25d: Bit from "The Naughty Nineties" (WHO'S ON FIRST?).

So, the theme here is definitely the question mark. The first thing I noticed was the large one embedded in the grid via the black squares. The second thing I noticed was that this was a 15x16 puzzle. One thing I didn't notice until afterwards was the lack of grid symmetry, which doesn't bother me at all since it's necessary for the embedded '?'. The thing I'm not so clear on is the title, "Twenty Question Marks". The only thing I can up with is that the large question mark is made of 16 black squares, so those 16 "marks" plus the three '?'s in the puzzle, plus the large one in its entirety adds up to 20 (16 + 3 + 1). This seems like a stretch, but the theme doesn't seem to play directly to the game of 20 Questions, as that would involve more "Is it?" or "Does it?" questions. So, I'm a little fuzzy on that. The two longer theme entries are nice; the others are kind of drab, though it's probably the first time you've ever seen "SO?" in a puzzle, as two-letter words are not generally acceptable.

Update: Reader Ruy points out what I clearly missed, the 16 question marks in the clues themselves. Doh! In retrospect, I recall thinking in the back of my mind while solving that there were an awful lot of punny clues. Sometimes you don't see the forest for the trees.

Let's check out the rest of the fill.

Sunny Spots:

• 15a: Land with an autumn mist, in song (HONALEE). From "Puff, the Magic Dragon".



• 36a: Kal-El's gift (X-RAY VISION). Kal-El, of course, being the birth name of Superman.


• 47a: "The Crime Dog" (MCGRUFF). Take a bite out of crime.


• 3d: "Man of La Mancha" song (DULCINEA). Great song, great play.


• 11d: Place to get sheets for a song (WHITE SALE). I admit, I fell into the sheet music trap here. Excellent clue.


• 30d: Singer with the 1999 album "To the Teeth" (ANI DIFRANCO). Kudos for including the whole name here.



• 45d: Musician with the real name Stuart Goddard (ADAM ANT). His best known song is probably "Goody Two Shoes". Trivia: His original Adam and the Ants band members left him to form Bow Wow Wow (of "I Want Candy" fame.

Sundries:

• 1a: Signed off on (OKD). Sometimes this is OKED, too. I don't know if one is more correct than the other, but they're both easy enough.


• 4a: Novel activity? (WRITING). This brings to mind a classic Monty Python sketch.




• 11a: Dir. from Minorca to Majorca (WSW). Do you know how rare it is for this answer to involve "west"? It's almost always ENE, ESE, or NNE.


• 14a: ___ de mots (pun) (JEU). Game of words, in French.


• 17a: Short vehicle of the 1980s, for short (SNL). Martin Short, that is.


• 18a: One from Luanda (ANGOLAN).


• 19a: "Now That ___ Seen Her" ("Miss Saigon" song) (I'VE). Never saw it; never heard the song. And still it's a gimme. I mean, what else could it be?



• 22a: Clean and jerk performer (LIFTER). Timely clue, with the Olympics pending, which is about the only time I ever see weightlifting.


• 28a: Castle with many steps? (IRENE). Not fooled for a second here.


• 29a: Dead-___ float (MAN'S).


• 30a: 1877 flop by Bret Harte and Mark Twain (AH SIN). I've seen this in puzzles before.


• 32a: Polo grounds? (ASIA). Marco Polo.


• 35a: One-room schoolhouse figure (MARM). We just saw MARM recently.


• 38a: Wells made them more than a century ago (ELOI). H.G. Wells, in "The Time Machine". Standard crossword fare.


• 41a: Melted glace (EAU). Glace is French for ice.


• 44a: Bathtub liquid? (GIN). I tried GEL to start.


• 45a: Buck's tail? (AROO). Cryptic suffix.


• 49a: Lays bare (DENUDES).



• 53a: Oscar-winning role for Abraham (SALIERI). F. Murray Abraham, in "Amadeus".


• 54a: Starts to court (ASKS OUT). Easy.


• 59a: Small character in Oz? (ZEE). Cryptic letter reference.


• 60a: Subjugate (ENSLAVE).



• 68a: Child's meas. (TSP). Julia Child, the chef.


• 69a: 1989 Jack Lemmon film (DAD).


• 2d: Bush 41's Solicitor General (KEN STARR).


• 5d: Brown and Silver (RONS).


• 6d: Dutch financial services giant (ING). My wife used to work for them, so this was a gimme for me.


• 7d: Way out East? (TAO). Cute.


• 8d: Buggy? (ILL). As in, having a bug, I guess.



• 9d: Bald Globetrotters member Curly (NEAL). He and Meadowlark Lemmon were the heart and soul of that team. If you never got to see them back then, you missed something special.


• 10d: Bottled spirits? (GENII). This seems like it should be the plural of genius, doesn't it?


• 12d: Pitcher (SEVEN IRON). I have to take mild exception to this one. Chipper, sure. A chip is a low running shot near the green, and the seven iron's loft is low enough to often be a good choice. A pitch, on the other hand, is a high, lob shot that drops in and usually either stops dead or backs up. For most golfers, the club of choice for this would be a wedge or perhaps a nine iron. Maybe a choked-down eight iron. And while, yes, it's probably possible to make a shot with a seven iron that is characterized as a pitch, that doesn't make it a pitcher. I can chip with a 3-wood, that doesn't make it a chipper.


• 23d: It has a wood skeleton (FRAME HOUSE).


• 24d: Format that debuted with "Tiger Child" (IMAX).


• 27d: Wheels of fortune? (LIMO).


• 31d: Relief pitcher Robb (NEN). I knew the name instinctively, even though I can't even remember who he played for, which probably means he spent most of his career in the National League.


• 41d: Items found off-center in symmetry? (EMS). Another cryptic letter reference.


• 42d: University environment (ACADEME). I wanted ACADEMIA, but it didn't fit.


• 48d: Dead letters? (RIP). Gimme.


• 51d: Ronald Reagan's alma mater (EUREKA). I did not know that.


• 52d: Like carry-on luggage during takeoff and landing (STOWED). Maybe I've travelled too much, but this seemed way too easy for a Friday clue.


• 60d: Mother of Zephyrus (EOS). EOS is the goddess; IOS is the island. Repeat it like a mantra.



• 61d: Zener cards test it (ESP).

Suns of Bitches:

• 39a: Island home of Thomas the Tank Engine (SODOR). Is this a Sodom and Gomorrah cross?


• 40d: Grind (WONK). Is this a noun or a verb? Isn't a wonk a nerd? I really wanted WORK here, but I knew DENUDED had to be right.

Despite my mild confusion regarding the theme title, I really liked this puzzle. It had plenty of good fill and clever clues, though I must say it was considerably easier for me than yesterday's themeless. Felt more like a Wednesday/Thursday.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.