Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Title: Game Points
Author: Peter J. Wentz
Theme: See below

• 17a: With 28-, 45-, and 62-Across, 62-Down (THE AVERAGE).


• 28a: See 17-Across (SCRABBLE SCORE OF).


• 45a: See 17-Across (ALL THE LETTERS IN).


• 62a: See 17-Across (THIS PUZZLE).


• 62d: See 17-Across (TWO).

This is one of those puzzles that is cool and/or a pain in the ass for a constructor to put together, but which doesn't translate to an increased enjoyment for the solver. From a solver's perspective, this is essentially a quote puzzle with a really boring quote. It's neither amusing nor profound. And let me ask you this: How many of you double-checked the math to see if the statement was actually true? I tend to be pretty anal about such things, and I know I didn't bother. Why? Because who cares, that's why. The average scrabble score of all the letters in the puzzle? Why is that interesting? I'm sure it was tough as hell to do, but the bang wasn't worth the buck if you ask me (and since you're reading this blog, that's exactly what you're asking).

So, let's take a look at the rest and see if this puzzle was salvageable, shall we?

The Rest:

• 4a: Luxury Hyundai sedans (AZERAS). This one might give the Olds ALERO a run for its money in the future.


• 15a: Gross parts (DOZENS). A gross is 144, or a dozen dozens. Good clue.


• 16a: Sarah Palin hairstyle (UPDO) goes well with 23a: Jheri curl alternative (AFRO). Add in 53a: Short cut (SNIP) and 54a: Stropped thing (RAZOR) and you've got a real salon mini-theme going.


• 19a: Homer gait (TROT). Baseball, not Simpsons. If Homer hit a homer, he would probably WADDLE. TROT Nixon, on the other hand, would SPRINT. And while we're on baseball, congratulations to Jim Rice for finally making it into the Hall of Fame! I'm guessing he doesn't read this blog, but you never know.


• 25a: Like e (REAL). It's math -- natural logarithm stuff. I'm not going into it here.



• 27a: Disorderly place (ZOO). Guessed STY at first, but I like this better.


• 32a: Short lines at the supermarket? (UPC). Clever clue.


• 35a: Artistic, unconventional community (BOHEMIA).


• 38a: "Sleuth" costar (JUDE LAW).


• 42a: O, e.g. (MAG). The Oprah magazine, I think. Or is that called Oprah and this is something different?


• 51a: Wether report? (BAA). A wether is a (usually castrated) male sheep. Very clever clue, but ouch!




• 52a: "ER" costar of Noah and Julianna (ERIQ). Please, Mr. LaSalle... star in something else soon!


• 64a: Designed with a projecting part for fitting into a corresponding recessed part (MALE). Like a plug.



• 67a: "Survey ___ ..." (SAYS). From "Family Feud".


• 3d: Person in a position of authority (HIERARCH). Unusual to see this form of the word, but easy enough to figure.


• 6d: Better Than ___ (band with the 1995 hit album "Deluxe") (EZRA).


• 8d: Catches some rays, perhaps (ANGLES). Do people fish for rays?


• 10d: London, e.g.: Abbr. (AUTH). I assume we're talking Jack London, the AUTHOR, here.


• 11d: Spaceflight award won in 2004 (X PRIZE).


• 24d: Accommodating person (OBLIGER). Yucky -ER word.


• 31d: Mentaiko's main ingredient (ROE).



• 37d: "Be More Cynical" comic (MAHER).


• 43d: Give in return (REQUITE).


• 45d: "Star Trek" director J.J. (ABRAMS).


• 50d: Simply Socials maker (RITZ).


• 55d: Lugs (OXES). Noun, not verb.

Suns of Bitches:

• 61a: Val's younger daughter in the comic strip "Stone Soup" (ALIX). Never heard of her, and don't ever recall seeing this spelling. But I like it's similarity to AXIL (10a: Space between a leaf and its supporting stem).



• 5d: Barrette-sporting Muppet (ZOE). I can name an awful lot of muppets, but I didn't know this one.


• 39d: Province in Italy's Liguria region (LA SPEZIA). Didn't know it.


• 46d: Playmate of Po (LAA-LAA). I had no idea. My kids were too old for the Teletubbies when they came out. Thank God.

Overall, this puzzle actually felt about right for a Wednesday. As noted, I wasn't overwhelmed by the theme, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment much. Even the hard ones weren't that hard to figure.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Title: The Oys of Yiddish
Author: Ogden Porter (Peter Gordon)
Theme: Wordplay theme in which a word gets an initial S changed to SCH phonetically, sometimes with a spelling change

• 17a: Slovenly hitters? (BATTING SCHLUMPS). i don't think i'm familiar with the word SCHLUMP, although at least it looks like what it sounds like. no "toches" here.


• 35a: Set of ads for cream cheese? (SCHMEAR CAMPAIGN).


• 58a: Carried? (SCHLEPPED AROUND). that does it—i'm adding the sexual innuendo tag. its time has come.

okay, the theme was fine. with a wordplay puzzle with only three theme answers, you can often nitpick about consistency; why does the modified word come first in only two of the three answers? why is there a spelling change in only one answer? etc. but i won't. still, it did seem odd that SCHLEPPED AROUND seems like an actual phrase that somebody might say. in fact, it seems like something i've said.

Sunny Spots:

• 16a: Frisbee maker (WHAM-O). i miss college.


• 42a: "None for me, thanks" ("I'M GOOD"). oh, he's pretty good all right.


• 38d: It's big in a May-December relationship (AGE GAP). my first thought: SUMMER?

Sundries:

• 1a: Make sound (MEND). tough clue right off the bat. this puzzle wasn't as much of a killer as last tuesday's, but it still took me a good long while, slightly longer than most wednesdays. i like this clue, though. even after i had MEN_ i couldn't figure it out.


• 14a: ___ Fun Barbie (1997 doll) (OREO). okay, that's a new OREO clue for me. really? OREO fun barbie?


• 20a: Subsidiary of Hallmark (CRAYOLA). so that you can send greeting cards in crayon.


• 22a: Body of water enclosed by an atoll (LAGOON). this word always reminds me of the scene in a buffy episode from season 2 where willow compares a fish-like monster to the "creature from the blue lagoon." xander corrects her, pointing out, "black lagoon. the creature from the blue lagoon was brooke shields."


• 31a: Wide receiver Welker (WES). did somebody say scrappy?


• 68a: ___ Star (brand of beer) (LONE). i'm sure it is. luckily, LONE star is also lots of other things, including a big old state in the south.


• 3d: Make after expenses (NET). i find it clever that this is next to 4d: Online biz (DOT COM), even though peter gordon doesn't like to cross-reference clues if he can help it.


• 11d: Lincoln's first vice president (hannibal HAMLIN). this guy was just in a theme clue for last thursday's NYT puzzle. i think he hails from paris, maine.


• 34d: "My Two ___" (Paul Reiser sitcom) (DADS). would you believe i also know this from the NYT crossword puzzle? months ago, greg EVIGAN (the other DAD of the title) was the answer to a clue, i think in a tuesday puzzle.


• 40d: With 36-Down, source of great wealth (GOLD/MINE). i wanted this to be CASH/COW, but GOLD MINE is a nice expression too.


• 46d: Two-time Wimbledon winner Gibson (ALTHEA). first black woman to win wimbledon, i think. but she wasn't the addressee of richard lovelace's poem "to ALTHEA from prison," which contains the lines "Stone walls do not a prison make / Nor iron bars a cage."


• 57d: Score after six faults and four aces to start a match (AD IN). and also, the player returning serve is probably really bored by now. i bet ALTHEA gibson didn't serve like that.


• 59d: Two-fifteenths of CCCXC (LII). i did this one by estimation since i already had _II from crosses when i read the clue. one fifteenth of 300 is 20, so this one is somewhat more than 40. in this case, 2/15 of 390 is 52.

Suns of Bitches:

• 23d: Secret agent Leamas in "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" (ALEC). ha. not happening.


• 60d: One million chiliads (EON). chiliads, you say? apparently this is an old (and fancy!) word for 1000 years. that's the thing about peter gordon—he's so obsessed with new clues for common words that you end up with obscurity like this in the same puzzle as clues such as 10d: Day after Wed. and 12d: ___ State Building (Manhattan skyscraper). i gotta say, it's a bit jarring.

other than the clue difficulty going all over the map, this was a pretty enjoyable puzzle. see you next time.

joon

Monday, January 12, 2009

Title: Skip It
Author: Patrick Blindauer and Tony Orbach
Theme: ROPE can be find "skipping" through the theme entries (i.e. alternating letters).

• 20a: It may power a nail gun (AIR COMPRESSOR). Have you seen "No Country for Old Men"? If you have, you'll know why I'm asking.


• 32a: Costume dramas, e.g. (PERIOD PIECES).


• 41a: Ornament symbolizing abundance (HORN OF PLENTY). Also know as the cornucopia, which is one of my favorite words.



• 57a: "Hi Infidelity" band (REO SPEEDWAGON). I am embarrassed to have contributed to this album's being one of the top sellers of its time. If I could "un-buy" it, believe me I would.


• 63a: Skipped thing (and a hint to 20-, 32-, 41-, and 57-Across) (ROPE).

Due to the facts that:
a) This puzzle has two authors; and
b) One of them is Patrick Blindauer
I'm going to start my commentary with a caveat. Assuming there's not more to the theme than I am currently seeing, I find this theme both a bit underwhelming and a bit strange for a Monday. Monday themes are usually pretty straight-ahead and obvious. In this case, I finished the puzzle with no idea what linked the theme entries. It took a while to notice the alternating letters -- you have to admit it's pretty subtle. I'm willing to bet there's a lot of people heading to the blogs to find out what they missed. As noted, I'm not 100% comfortable that there's not more to it. But even if there is (or maybe especially if), it doesn't feel like a Monday theme to me.

On the bright side, I loved all the theme entries.

Sunny Spots:

• 5d: Eatery that sells steamers (CLAM BAR). Mmmmm.


• 38d: Benefit obtained without cost (FREE RIDE).




• 44d: Pesky folks (NOODGES).

Sundries:

• 1a: Redondilla rhyme scheme (ABBA). I would have expected a "Mama Mia" reference. Redondilla? On a Monday? Of course, you know it's going to start with A -- all rhyme schemes do.


• 16a: Pitcher Ryan with a record 5,714 strikeouts (NOLAN). Pitcher Ryan would have been enough.


• 24a: Wind often made from granadilla wood (OBOE). What is this, the "All -dilla" puzzle?



• 36a: Michelle, to Barack Obama (WIFE). I was expecting some sort of pet name. Somehow I doubt he calls, "Hey, wife!". He'd have some visible bruises.


• 39a: Cheer leader? (SIS). "Sis boom bah!"


• 51a: Deem appropriate (SEE FIT).


• 55a: Stripe (ILK). Nice clue. Tricky for early week.


• 66a: Apple thrower in "The Wizard of Oz" (TREE). Very nice way to clue a common word. You'll have to skip ahead to about 8:15 in the following clip to get the scene in question.




• 67a: Noodle concoctions? (IDEAS).


• 6d: Safari sighting, for short (HIPPO). Guessed RHINO at first, but it didn't last long.


• 7d: "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie" emotion (AMORE). This song was in my head already, from a recent FAZOOL reference (Friday NYT, I believe).


• 10d: Cardinal or canary, e.g. (COLOR). Cardinal red and canary yellow.


• 12d: Loch Lomond locks topper (TAM). Alliteration and consonance.


• 26d: Paas products (DYES).


• 30d: Dept. store inventory (MDSE). Merchandise.


• 34d: Skillet seasoner (OIL). Oik seasons the skillet itself, not the food being cooked in it.


• 35d: "The Celts" singer (ENYA). ERIE rule.




• 45d: Increase in friendliness (THAW).


• 49d: Hardships (RIGORS). Good word.


• 50d: Running mate? (ELOPER). ELOPE and its derivatives produce some of the most clever clues in crosswords. This is a good example.


• 52d: "The Most Happy ___" (Frank Loesser musical) (FELLA).


• 53d: Consider carefully (WEIGH).


• 58d: Christening spot (PROW). Christening a boat.


• 61d: Was down with (HAD). I'm not sure I get this. I thought being "down with" something was being okay with it. Oh wait! We're talking illness here, aren't we. Like I was down with the flu. Okay, I'm down with that.

Suns of Bitches:

• 28a: Japanese dumpling (GYOZA). I eat a lot of different foods in a lot of different styles, but I've never heard of a GYOZA. They look awesome, though. It is Monday, right?


• 9d: Pueblo Indian ancestors (ANASAZI). Ditto. Except for the eating and delicious parts.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.