Title: Cross Sections Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: Phrases that end in newspaper sections
20a: 1988 comedy with Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin (BIG BUSINESS).
37a: Monthly fashion magazine (IN STYLE).
52a: College knowledge (LIBERAL ARTS).
11d: They can take a joke (GOOD SPORTS).
27d: "Back to the Future" theme (TIME TRAVEL).
Straightforward Monday theme, covering five sections of the local newspaper.
Sunny Spots:
31a: Convertible (SLEEP SOFA).
44a: Like some partners (SAME SEX).
33d: Result of reading the fine print, maybe (EYE STRAIN).
Sundries:
17a: Established principle (AXIOM).
18a: Knowledgeable person (MAVEN).
25a: Sweet bread spread (NUTELLA). I've never had this.
30a: "National Velvet" novelist Bagnold (ENID).
40a: WWI song by George M. Cohan (OVER THERE).
60a: Season starter? (PRE). Less than two weeks before pitchers and catchers report!
3d: Sasha Baron Cohen title character on an HBO show (ALI G).
4d: Splotched (BLOBBED). Is this really a word? Really?
5d: English diarist Pepys (SAMUEL).
6d: Small cup for coffee (DEMI-TASSE).
7d: Roll player (PIANO). A player piano plays rolls. Your average everyday piano does not. Or is roll here meant as some style of music (as in rock and roll)?
24d: Dumb cluck (ASS).
34d: Warren's "Bonnie and Clyde" costar (FAYE).
48d: The E of EGBDF (EVERY). Every good boy deserves fudge (or does fine). There was a puzzle recently with this very theme.
52d: Rickey flavor (LIME). Booze tag.
54d: "Forbidden Games" director Clément (RENE). Didn't see the clue. But it's a common French name.
Title: A New Beginning Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: Four words get their prefix changed to an antonymous prefix which is also a standalone word, thus forming a wacky two-word phrase
20a: Music nut? (STEREO MANIAC). mono -> stereo.
37a: Inmate dream? (CON VISION). pro -> con.
43a: Where to buy underwater vessels? (SUB MARKET). super -> sub. except that there actually is such a thing as a SUB MARKET. it's a sandwich shop.
58a: Put up warning signs? (POST CAUTIONS). pre -> post.
honestly, this theme didn't do much for me. part of it, i'm sure, is the fact that i didn't understand the theme while solving the puzzle. i tried and failed to figure it out a few times, even though i knew from the title that it had to be something involving a change at the start of each entry. it obviously wasn't added letters, so prefixes... anyway, i worked it out but not until i was done. the other thing i didn't like about it is that none of the original words, and none of the modified theme entries, really struck my fancy. they're just kind of ... there. monomaniac is interesting, i guess. but that's it. 1 out of 8 isn't such a hot ratio.
Sunny Spots:
30d: ___-flicker (tricky football play) (FLEA). common word, but great clue. a flea-flicker (why is it called that?) is when the QB hands off to the RB, who goes forward into the line like it's a running play, but then turns around and pitches back to the QB, who then throws downfield.
39d: Carter-era missile pact (SALT II). strategic arms limitation treaty II: sodium's revenge. this seems like fresh fill.
48d: Turn informer (SQUEAL). for once, this wasn't RAT, SING, or even FINGER. SQUEAL is a great fill word, and the clue has some nice deception; i thought initially it was something (a beep, maybe?) that tells you when it's your turn in a video game.
51d: Extremely, in slang (MONDO). also the name of the big dumb guy in blazing saddles, no? anyway, i feel like this word is a time capsule buried by california surfer dudes in 1986 and unearthed by lee glickstein for this puzzle.
Politics:
what's that, you say? not a category? i beg to differ. and for balance, we have one blue clue, two red clues, and one ... er ... purple, maybe, or yellow. not green; that would be nader.
19a: Bill of Rights? (O'REILLY). "of Rights" here is a little sketchy, but he is bill of fox news, which leans pretty far to the right. a tricky clue for a tuesday, but i liked it.
6d: McCain's opponent (OBAMA). i can't help but feel that this clue was insultingly easy. even easier than yesterday's OBAMA clue.
21d: Ross Perot's political party (REFORM). this one at least took me a couple of seconds to remember.
63d: Bush 43, to Bush 41 (SON). i have only ever seen them referred to by their president number in another crossword puzzle. still, that one time was enough for me to fill this in instantly.
Sundries:
4a: Author of "The Island of the Day Before" (umberto ECO). i have this strong impression that i like this guy's writing, but i definitely haven't read any of his books. i read the first 15 pages of baudolino in a bookstore once and thought it was interesting, then bought it as a gift for somebody else.
7a: Paper money source (AD SPACE). tough clue here: money source for a (news)paper, not a source of paper money.
14a: Extremely (TOO). this isn't a straightforward, tuesday-style clue, but it passes the substitution test: "he's not extremely bright." see also the similar, and similarly obliquely clued, FAR (24a: Much). could these have been clued together as TOO/FAR? that might have been fun.
16a: Court do-over (RETRIAL). why isn't it LET? it's always LET.
18a: Up-in-the-air guess: Abbr. (ETA). my fingers twitched to EST before i thought twice about what "up-in-the-air" might refer to.
29a: Ultra-loud, in music (FFF). fortississimo!
34a: "A Lesson From Aloes" playwright Fugard (ATHOL). definitely a famous playwright, but what is the deal with crosswords and their a lesson from aloes obsession? that was used to clue ALOES on a monday (!) NYT earlier this year. the only fugard play that i knew prior to crosswords was master harold and the boys. oh, and ... blood something. ah, blood knot, wikipedia tells me.
40a: "That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest" penner (THOREAU). this clue doubly irked me: 1. penner. 2. i disdain THOREAU (and, to a lesser extent, all the transcendentalists). smug bastard.
42a: Gassed up? (AERATED). this was the last thing i filled in. not that hard a clue, i guess, but i wasn't on the right wavelength.
61a: Eddie's "Coming to America" costar (ARSENIO hall). good name. i even liked his late-night show. it feels like forever since he was famous, though.
66a: When shadows are shortest (NOONDAY). i think of this as an adjective, but my dictionary says it's primarily a noun.
67a: Lisa Simpson's instrument (SAX). feels much easier to me than the SAX clue in my own sun puzzle a couple months ago, but then, i used to watch a lot of the simpsons.
68a: Followed your gut instinct? (ATE). EAT/ATE is another word that seems to get the ? clue treatment disproportionately often. i liked this one.
1d: Squirrel (STASH). the verb. it seems like there were a bunch of tough clues for a tuesday, doesn't it? it would have helped immensely to have (away) at the end of the clue.
2d: Inner tube? (AORTA). got this one off the first A, but only because AORTA is one of those words comes up enough that if you think it might be AORTA, it always is. (don't confuse it with ATRIA, though.) in that regard, it's just like ERIE, ALE, and ...
4d: Olympic event won by Matteo Tagliariol in 2008 (ÉPÉE). yep. never heard of this guy, but a four-letter olympic event in a crossword? it's gotta be. i did catch the gold-medal match in women's saber, not that i remember the names of either fencer.
5d: Disinherit (CUT OFF). that's harsh. not only will i refuse to pour you another drink, but you're not getting your inheritance either.
7d: Graceland middle name (ARON). if you didn't know this name (elvis's middle name), or CAL (12d: Baseball Hall of Famer Ripken), or ELY (13d: Ron who played Tarzan), the NE was probably awfully tough for you, due to the tricky clues for ADSPACE and OREILLY. luckily these are pretty familiar names... except for ELY, which i only know through crosswords (but i've seen it many times in crosswords).
11d: Be off, in a way (AIL). another non-tuesday clue, if you ask me. i tried ERR first and was getting no love.
22d: Jason's ship (ARGO). this isn't a particularly exciting fill word or clue, but i do love me some mythology, so i had to mention it.
32d: Histology is a branch of it: Abbr. (ANATomy). histology is the examination of bodily tissues under a microscope. or something like that. i'm not a doctor; i'm just married to one.
34d: In "duh" mood? (AT SEA). this one didn't work for me.
41d: Like some wells (ARTESIAN). i got this instantly, but i can never remember what the hell an ARTESIAN well actually is. twelfth-grade geology is like that for me: i remember lots of terms, but no understanding. i wonder when we'll see HORST and GRABEN in a puzzle.
59d: Jacks and blocks, e.g. (TOYS). i can't figure out if this clue is trying to be deceptive.
61d: "High Hopes" creature (ANT). wha? the only thing "high hopes" means to me is a pink floyd song from "the division bell." at least it's not hope floats.
Suns of Bitches:
47a: 1982 Disney film based on an S.E. Hinton novel (TEX). she wrote something besides the outsiders? and it was also made into a movie? news to me.
3d: New York Rangers center Scott (GOMEZ). i have heard of hockey. actually, i may even have heard of this player! wasn't he on the devils at one point? do i really remember such things? i've never followed hockey. wow, it turns out i'm right. maybe he doesn't belong in this section. eh, whatever--he's already here.
28d: 1953 John Wayne movie (HONDO). this, on the other hand, i have surely never heard of. i only know this as the nickname of 1960s washington senators slugger frank howard.
this was a strange puzzle experience. the theme couldn't have been less helpful to me in solving. i felt that the clues were definitely at a super-tuesday level. (and i'm not talking about presidential primaries, despite the plethora of political clues today.) and yet, my enjoyment of the puzzle was not significantly diminished by either of these facts.
Title: "Not You!" Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: "You" sound is replaced by "oo" sound in various phrases
17a: Pious Milne character? (CHURCH POOH). pew.
66a: Reunion spread? (FAMILY FOOD). feud. this one was my favorite.
10d: Baby boutique? (BOOTEE SHOP). beauty. to be honest, BOOTEE SHOP seems just as plausible. as the father of an 11 month old, i can tell you: babies have a lot of stuff.
30d: Lousy pastries? (COOTIE PIES). cutie.
i did one of lee's wordplay themes last time i guest-blogged. although i guess now i'm no longer a guest, but a regular. ("waiter, i'll have the usual.") anyway, this one was fine, i suppose. easy enough for a tuesday, but i wasn't too excited about any of the theme answers.
Sunny Spots:
50a: 2006 documentary directed by Patrick Creadon (WORDPLAY). a winner, both as a movie and as a crossword entry. it's not a stretch to say that wordplay was the catalyst for my current crossword obsession.
31d: All-Pro cornerback with three Super Bowl rings (TY LAW). boy, this guy was good. he, and not tom brady, should have been the MVP of super bowl XXXVI.
Sundries:
1a: Dutch painter Hieronymous (BOSCH). a nice gimme for me to start things off. that's his the garden of earthly delights (central panel of a triptych). there's a lot going on in that picture, so here's a bigger view.
10a: ___ Men ("Who Let the Dogs Out?" band) (BAHA). god, this song was annoying. why do i associate it with shea stadium?
16a: Clumsy fellows (OXES). speaking of clumsy, i'm not wild about this word. i never understood why it should take a different plural form just because OX is being used metaphorically instead of literally.
23a: Emeril's shout (BAM). not to be confused with john madden's shout, BOOM.
25a: Southernmost New Jersey county (CAPE MAY).
27a: Solitaire weight, perhaps (ONE CARAT). a diamond solitaire, naturally. i only recently became familiar with this term.
32a: "Norma ___" (RAE). i don't even remember who/what this is, but i've filled it into a crossword so many times it no longer matters. this time it's not charlotte. (actor stephen is REA--that much i remember.)
34a: Chalcedony variety (ONYX). i like the word "chalcedony," hitherto unknown to me. i assume it means some kind of rock. it reminds me of the 5th-century council of chalcedon.
36a: It covers the Hill (C-SPAN). later in the week, we might have gotten [Hill coverer] or something sneakier like that. here, with the capital H, there was no deception.
43a: Good lighting? (HALO). HALO seems to be one of those words that inspires ? clues (ATM, ELOPE, ADAM/EVE/EDEN, EAT/ATE ... any others come to mind?). this one was okay.
52a: Fortune seller (TIME, INC.). now this one was tricky. i liked it, but i always get tripped up by the fact that magazine titles don't have to be in quotes. well, unless the answer is RENEW--somehow i always sniff that one out.
60a: Letter before mu (LAMBDA). gotta love this one. for once, it's not ETA, RHO, PSI, PHI, CHI, or TAU (or even worse, one of the awkward plurals like XIS or NUS). plus, LAMBDA is just cool--it has that mysterious B in the middle, and it's used for all kinds of fun things in physics and math.
69a: Center for the Nets? (IZOD). this refers to the IZOD center, where the new jersey nets play their home games. not to the actual center for the nets, whoever that may be. i think they drafted one of the lopez twins from stanford--brook, maybe? (by the way, which is a girlier name for a 7-foot NBA center, brook or robin?)
70a: Watts of "Funny Games" (NAOMI). never heard of this movie, but she was very good in king kong and 21 grams.
72a: Lawless part (XENA). "lawless" is almost-but-not-quite a common enough english word to have misdirection value in a crossword clue. (but yes, it's always XENA.)
2d: Where Barack Obama was born (OAHU). more liberal bias! (i kid, of course.)
5d: Priam's wife (HECUBA). the queen of troy, in the iliad. a memorable name, because of the player's monologue and hamlet's soliloquizing thereon in act II. "what's hecuba to him, or he to hecuba?"
9d: 1987 Dustin Hoffman film (ISHTAR). directed by the apparently-very-famous ELAINE MAY. now i know. but still, i'd prefer a babylonian mythology clue any day of the week.
12d: Hägar nagger (HELGA). umlaut alert!
24d: "___ Monday" (#2 Bangles hit of 1986) (MANIC). only #2? wikipedia tells me it was behind prince's "kiss." not only that, but it was also originally written by prince! i did not know that. anyway, as candy pop goes, i actually rather like this song.
29d: Anarchist Goldman (EMMA). cool, i like seeing her. on my first pass through this section i misread this as "architect Goldman."
37d: Gloomy shadow (PALL). i like this word.
38d: Burstyn's "Same Time, Next Year" costar (ALDA). alan, presumably.
51d: Johnson of "Get Smart" (DWAYNE). aka "the rock." i had no idea he was in this movie.
52d: Setting of Steinbrenner field (TAMPA). nice clue, since that's where king george lives and where the yankees play their spring training home games. also, kudos to peter for not perpetuating the common erroneous clue here. hey, speaking of the rays, they advanced to the ALCS today along with the red sox. that should be fun. now explain to me again why both teams have three days off?
53d: Neighbor of Slovenia (ITALY). ack, it's mysterious eastern european geography... oh wait, no. i know where ITALY is.
54d: Pep (MOXIE).
62d: Garden sounds, sometimes (BOOS). i suppose that's madison square garden, although i wonder if the puzzle's ostensible NYC bias will fade with the memory of the NYS.
64d: Score after a deuce ace (AD IN). now that is a terrific clue: both precise (as opposed to the usual [Deuce follower, sometimes]) and lively, evoking a card game instead of tennis.
Suns of Bitches:
nope, not today.
was it just me, or was there a lot of sports in this one? maybe that's why i solved it so fast. hey, i'm not complaining!
Title:"Oh, Yes!" Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: Adding an "Oh" sound at the end of phrases.
You are here => YOU ARE HERO (17a: What Leander said to his lover?).
Rent to own => RENT TO ONO (21a: Provide Yoko with quarters?). This one amused me quite a bit. I wonder what kind of a tenant she'd be?
Cowbell => COW BELLOW (35a: Intimidate author Saul?). This is the only one of the group that didn't actually change the spelling of the original phrase. But I'll forgive that since it gives me an excuse to post this clip.
Hip boot => HIP BHUTTO (44a: Cool former prime minister of Pakistan?).
Bookmark => BOOK MARCO (54a: Schedule Polo for a performance?).
The Wounded Knee massacre was not a high point in American history. In fact, it's a little morbid to use it as theme fodder.
Six theme entries isn't always easy to do, especially when they overlap like the first two and last two do. There does seem to be a lot of tragedy and loss interwoven into this theme; Hero and Leander, Yoko Ono, Benazir Bhutto, and Wounded Knee all evoke a sense of sadness for me. I don't think that was the intent of the constructor.
Sunny Spots:
3d: Cover subject of the first issue of Us magazine (PAUL NEWMAN).
32d: Gives a high gloss to, in a way (SPIT SHINES).
A nice set of off-beat food choices includes:
15a: Gourmet mushroom (MOREL).
16a: Fuzzy fruit (KIWI).
22d: Vegetarian cuisine choice (TEMPEH).
39d: Source of low-fat meat (EMU).
Sundries:
14a: Chemical featured on a 1989 "60 Minutes" segment (ALAR).
20a: "Save Me the Waltz" novelist Fitzgerald (ZELDA). F. Scott's wife. Clues for Zelda generally go here or to the Nintendo series.
23a: Unaristocratic, to a Brit (NON-U). I learned this from puzzles.
28a: 1956 Glenn Ford film remade in 1996 (RANSOM).
32a: With 36-Down, 1984 Cyndi Lauper hit (SHE / BOP). I had forgotten about this one. I didn't need the reminder.
40a: Emmy-winning "Miami Vice" actor (OLMOS). Another 80s clue, though I really enjoyed "Miami Vice", especially in the first couple of seasons. It was really revolutionary for its time, featuring great new music and often going several minutes with little or no dialogue as the music and visuals said it all. It was also one of the first shows that didn't always feel like it needed to tie everything up in a cute little bow by the end of the show.
41a: Sweet ending (OSE). Glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc.
47a: Trick-taking game played with a 32-card deck (ECARTE).
50a: French seasoning (SEL). Salt.
66a: Limerick popularizer (LEAR). Lear's limericks are actually pretty bad, if you ask me. "But Pete", you say. "Most limericks are pretty bad." Well, you may have a point. There certainly are some funny ones, but most of those are too obscene to be included here. But Lear's? Judge for yourself.
There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!'
I mean, please. Actually, I once defended the artistic merits of limericks in a Haiku forum (posts were all supposed to be in the form of Haiku) with the following:
Lim'ricks for you; not "art" like haiku; but I; de- cry; your point of view.
69a: "Say It ___ So" (1983 Hall and Oates hit) (ISN'T). I really wanted AIN'T here, but that's Weezer.
71a: "Jim Rome Is Burning" airer (ESPN). Never watched the show, but I've heard of it.
1d: Former CEO of Def Jam (JAY-Z). Seen this one before.
4d: Former home of Picasso's "Guernica" (PRADO). Easy guess.
6d: Former host of "Last Comic Standing" (Jay MOHR).
7d: Algonquian speaker (CREE).
8d: The world's largest particle physics lab (CERN). According to Wikipedia, this originally stood for "Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire".
9d: Fate who spins the thread of life (CLOTHO).
10d: Home of the Beacon Journal newspaper (AKRON). This clue could have just said "U.S. city" for all the help it was.
18d: Tried to get a seat (RAN). In an election year, this one should be a gimme.
26d: GI tract bacterium (ECOLI). Ick.
27d: 1997 N.L. Rookie of the Year Scott (ROLEN). For some reason, I knew this right off the top. And that's unusual, as I don't follow the National League at all.
34d: Scanner brand (EPSON).
45d: With 67-Across, colorful bird that feeds on insects (BEE EATER). This would have been cooler as a single entry with EEE in it.
50d: Golf garment (SKORT). Went for SHIRT first, then SKIRT. SKORT is a weird word, and not easy when crossings ARNO (63a: Illustrator of more than 100 New Yorker covers).
52d: "George of the Jungle" character (APE).
53d: Inner circle (CADRE).
55d: Filthy lucre sources? (ORES). Meh.
Suns of Bitches:
1a: Inspector in Agatha Christie stories (JAPP). I should probably know this, but it doesn't look familiar at all.
54d: Maidenform rival (BALI).
56d: Judah's second son (ONAN). I've seen it, but I still needed the crossings. It's a name I'm going to remember.
This had a good mid-week mix of tough and easy fill, the long fill was decent, and the theme was fine, if depressing in spots. All in all, not one of my favorites, but a decent puzzle for sure.
Bah Humbug => BAHRAIN HUMBUG (53a: Nonsense from Manama?).
Con game => CANTON GAME (63a: Mah-jongg, e.g.?). Canton, China. Not a subdivision of Switzerland.
Sorry I'm late on this one, but was just exhausted last night and didn't even have the energy to look at the puzzle, never mind blog it. But I'm here now, so here we go.
The theme is strange in that ANT and RAIN are each used twice. I would have expected either the same insert four times or else four different reasons for spoiling a picnic. But let's face it -- cow pies to cow panties makes up for it in one gorgeous entry.
Sunny Spots:
3d: Erma Bombeck column (AT WIT'S END).
7d: Affirmative response (QUITE SO). Jolly good.
34d: Unwanted lawn growth (CRAB GRASS).
Sundries:
16a: Paul in the Songwriters Hall of Fame (ANKA). I'm guessing there are others: McCartney and Simon both come to mind. If I remember my trivia, Paul Anka wrote the "Tonight Show" theme song.
19a: Slangy snag (PROB). No prob here.
22a: Present announcement? (IT IS I). Cute clue for a common entry.
29a: Space explorers' wear (G-SUITS).
33a: 564% of CCL (MCDX). Complain if you want, but I much prefer Roman numeral math to obscure year-of-the-pope clues. And this is another that's not hard to do in your head. 564% of 250 = 250% of 564 = 25% of 5640 = 1410.
37a: Dog star's first name? (RIN). Rin Tin Tin. Easy.
47a: Where the Rapidz play baseball (OTTAWA).
49a: Sacred beetle (SCARAB).
52a: Roy Rogers rival (ARBY'S).
58a: First woman to land a triple axel in competition (Midori ITO).
67a: "Milo's Hat Trick" author Jon (AGEE).
68a: Frankincense, e.g. (RESIN).
2d: Space ape of 1961 (ENOS).
5d: No. for Maine (ERA). I'm guessing Maine is a baseball pitcher.
12d: Teensy bit (SKOSH).
18d: Abbr. for someone with only two names (NMI). No middle initial.
28d: It has a five-sided flag (OHIO).
46d: Lei women (WAHINES).
54d: Blessing precursor (ACHOO).
55d: Fence (HEM IN).
56d: Lea low (MOO). Very good.
65d: Piece-keeping gp. (NRA). Excellent clue.
Suns of Bitches:
69a: Singer Childs (TONI). I've probably seen this name before in puzzles, but it never rings a bell. here's a sample.
All in all, this felt a touch easier than yesterday. As for enjoyment, you had me at cow panties.
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.)
Title: Double Up Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: Five two-word phrases with a repeated long-vowel sound have those sounds shifted up to the previous phrase. Yes, it's as crazy as it sounds.
Pay grade => PEA GREED (17a: Vegetarian's sin?).
Clean sweep => CLINE SWIPE (24a: Criticism of the singer of "Crazy"?).
High tide => HOE TOED (38a: Like Edward Scissorfeet?).
Who knew? => HAY NEIGH (63a: Barn sound that means "I'm hungry"?).
I'm going to be brutally honest here. I hate this theme. First, it wasn't until well after I had slogged through the puzzle that I figured out what the theme was. Sure, I noticed the double vowel sounds, but it was not at all clear what the pattern was. I finally was able to discern the pattern, with a little help from the title, but it was too little too late. Second, every single theme entry feels incredibly forced and, with the possible exception of Edward Scissorfeet, there is no humor to be found. And since when are scissors and hoes equivalent? Nope, for me, this one gets a resounding "Yuck!"
Sunny Spots:
29a: Munch kin city? (OSLO). Okay, that's a really nice clue.
32a: Cartoon character whose first name is Waylon (SMITHERS). From "The Simpsons".
45a: Ranger Smith's nemesis (YOGI BEAR).
8d: Nursery rhyme shepherdess (BO PEEP).
Sundries:
1a: Org. in the Justice Department (ATF). This was my third choice, after FBI and DEA.
4a: TV host with the catchphrase "I kid you not" (PAAR).
14a: Small contraction? (LI'L).
16a: Work of art (OEUVRE). Good fill word.
19a: "Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me" author Boyd (PATTIE).
21a: Crime perpetrators, in police slang (DOERS). Doers? Really? I've read and watched my fair share of crime drama, and I don't ever recall hearing that one.
31a: Like some illusions (OPTICAL). This is one of my favorite illusions. As much as your brain wants it to be otherwise, the "dark" square, A, and the "light" square, B, are exactly the same shade of gray.
36a: Female teacher of history? (MARM).
37a: Put out, in a way (TAG). Baseball reference.
42a: M.'s counterpart (MME). Monsieur and Madame.
47a: One walking down the aisle? (SHOPPER). Cute.
54a: Robusto! maker (RAGU).
58a: Hit locale (SIDE A).
71a: Snort (NIP). I went for SIP at first.
1d: High caste member in "Brave New World" (ALPHA).
3d: Short pass to a running back near the sideline (FLARE).
4d: Madison Square ___ (PARK).
5d: Fiver (ABE).
6d: Pale brew (ALE). Nope, even the beer reference isn't going to save this one.
7d: ___-wip (dessert topping) (REDDI).
9d: San Francisco Chronicle parent company (HEARST).
10d: Beat in the first leg of a triathlon (OUTSWIM).
18d: Title character who never shows up (GODOT).
22d: "Yes, I'm a Witch" artist (Yoko ONO). She has shown up way more than Brian ENO lately.
26d: Start of Caesar's boast (I CAME).
27d: Italian city famed for its cheese (PARMA).
28d: Elsie's bull (ELMER).
33d: Studly (MACHO).
34d: Northern hemisphere? (IGLOO).
40d: Sources of hubris (EGOS).
46d: "Mr. Tuesday Night" (BERLE).
48d: Maker of Zoloft (PFIZER). The PF combination is always kind of cool.
50d: Calle, across the Pyrenees (RUE). French for "road".
53d: Lake that Fredo Corleone is killed on (TAHOE).
55d: Like a cardinal (AVIAN).
56d: 2003 role for Affleck (GIGLI). The fill is more interesting than the film, I'll give it that.
59d: "Years of Minutes" author Rooney (ANDY).
60d: Timber-dressing tool (ADZ).
Suns of Bitches:
8a: Indian city that was the site of a deadly gas leak in 1984 (BHOPAL). I had everything but the last letter, which crossed 13d: Jackie's younger sister (LEE). I don't like this crossing at all. An Indian city name crossing a girl's name that ends in _EE? It could be anything: B, D, L, R, Z,...
20a: Impresario Sol (HUROK). Whatever.
59a: Shortstop Dark who was the 1948 Rookie of the Year (ALVIN). It's Wednesday. How about a "Chipmunks" clue?
69a: Gourmet store on the Upper West Side (ZABARS). Unfair to anyone outside of NYC. Especially crossing another name that could be anything. 61d: Benaderet of "Petticoat Junction" (BEA) could just as easily have been BEE or BEV or BEL. I could easily envision a store called "Z.L. Bar's".
24d: Rosabella's friend in "The Most Happy Fella" (CLEO).
44d: Swedish city near Stockholm (UPPSALA). This was only vaguely familiar once I had it from the crossings.
It's hard to compensate for a poor theme. Here, a dull and unhelpful theme combined with too many nasty clues and crossings that made this puzzle solve much more like a Weekend Warrior than a Wednesday, only not as enjoyable. I haven't disliked a puzzle this much in quite some time. It just didn't work for me at all.
Title: What's My Line? Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: Ok, so you know how when you see the word "flower", you think of colorful things that grow, but it can also be read as flow-er, i.e., something that flows (like a river)? That's what this puzzle is about. All the theme entries are two-word phrases whose last word is reinterpreted, as above, to make the phrase sound like a job. Confused? Don't be. Let's look at the examples:
TORCH SINGER (17a: Welder?). So, instead of one that sings, we read it as one who singes things with a torch.
IVORY TOWER (24a: Piano mover?). One who tows pianos.
TOP TIER (38a: Macramé artist?). One who ties really well.
BABY SHOWER (50a: Delivery room nurse?). One who shows babies.
PRIME NUMBER (62a: Head anesthesiologist?). One who numbs.
See? That's a pretty cool theme. The explanation is harder than the concept. Some of my all-time favorite clues are this type of "wordplay", so I really enjoyed these.
Sunny Spots:
14a: Nickname of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (EROICA). I'm a fan of classical music in general and Beethoven in particular, so this was a gimme for me.
23a: Musical vibrator (REED). This clue evokes some pretty amusing thoughts. Let's just leave it at that.
35a: Band whose only hit was "Whip It" (DEVO). Gimme for me. Here, refresh your memory. And if you liked that, check out this cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction".
54a: Goes the other way (ZAGS). "ISN'T STRAIGHT" doesn't fit. Nice clue.
1d: P.D.Q. Bach creator Schickele (PETER). Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach skits are humor for people who love classical music. A little more offbeat, perhaps, than Victor Borge, but usually quite funny. Here's a small taste.
4d: Bullfighter on horseback (PICADOR). I can't say I'm a fan of bullfighting; I think it's a little brutal on the bull. What I know of picadors I think I learned from "The Story of Ferdinand".
11d: Really cold (BELOW ZERO).
12d: Caddy contents (TEA LEAVES).
13d: Felix's last name on "The Odd Couple" (UNGER). "The Odd Couple" is one of those few really good movies that became really good TV shows. And no, I don't count "M*A*S*H" in that category. That movie was so... cool, I guess; the TV show just never measured up for me. Clearly, millions of people didn't agree with me.
30d: Navy coat (PEA JACKET). I used to wear my dad's old pea coat in my college years in Montreal. Those things are all wool, very warm, and unbelievably heavy. And no, that's not me in the picture.
31d: Conductor's cry (ALL ABOARD). I like this fill a lot. It evokes strong but indistinct childhood memories.
33d: What's dad in "Addams Family Values" (ITT). The fact that I never saw this movie didn't make this any harder. I've seen the show, albeit years ago. What else could it be?
48d: Himalayan mountaineer (SHERPA). I saw the movie "Everest" in IMAX a few years back. Wow. A later-week puzzle might mention Tenzing Norgay, who was the sherpa accompanying Edmund Hillary when they first reached the peak.
We interrupt this blog to congratulate Jon Lester, a Red Sox pitcher who battled back from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, who has just completed his first no-hitter! In so doing, Jason Varitek has now caught an ML-record four no-hitters (Hideo Nomo, Derek Lowe, Clay Buchholtz, and Jon Lester). What a great story!
Sundries:
1a: Plains of Argentina (PAMPAS). I don't know why I know this. Probably from grade school or something.
7a: Queequeg's captain on the Pequod (AHAB). From "Moby Dick", of course.
11a: Heat meas. (BTU). We just saw BTU in a clue yesterday, so it should be fresh in your mind.
15a: Spice derived from nutmeg (MACE). Nutmeg is from the seed, mace is from the outer seed covering, or "aril" (another great crossword word).
21a: Cattle catcher (RIATA). If it's 6 letters, it's probably LARIAT. If it's 5-letters, try RIATA or LASSO.
26a: ___ pah (OOM). As in the tuba sound: oom-pah.
29a: Former policy of racial segregation in South Africa (APARTHEID). Yesterday, slaves; today, apartheid. Where will we go tomorrow?
37a: The First State: Abbr. (DELaware).
42a: Subject of an art museum in St. Petersburg, Florida (DALI).
44a: No matter what (AT ANY COST). Nice phrase.
46a: Joe servings (JAVAS). I'm not sure about this one. I've heard "cup o' joe" or "cup of java", but the plural feels forced to me. "Gimme a couple of javas"? Hmmm... maybe.
49a: Metric prefix? (GEO). It's a cryptic clue; the prefix is not from the metric system (e.g., KILO), it's a prefix to the word "metric" (i.e., geometric). My first thought, though, was ISO.
58a: "Foucault's Pendulum" author (ECO). Umberto Eco is probably better known for "The Name of the Rose". He's got a three-letter name with two vowels, though, so you gotta know it.
59a: Four-time French Open champ Justine (HENIN). I don't follow tennis religiously, but I know the bigger names and this is one of them.
60a: Recapitulate (SUM UP)
61a: Booking letters (AKA). Booking as "Book 'em Danno". AKA as in "also known as".
64a: Barcelona chair designer Ludwig Mies van ___ Rohe (DER). I've never heard of this guy. Barcelona chair designer? Whatever. Luckily, it could have said "Blah blah blah some-German-sounding-first-name van ___ some-German-sounding-last-name", and "der" is pretty much the logical guess.
65a: Each (A POP). This one is showing up a lot of late.
66a: End of a threat (OR ELSE). Dum da dum dum...
68a: Indian restaurant breads (NANS). Well, they're Indian breads; not just in restaurants.
5d: Needing kneading, perhaps (ACHY).
6d: Swedish carrier (SAS). Short for Scandinavian Airlines System. This one also shows up a lot.
7d: Test done by an OB (AMNIO). I confidently entered APGAR, at first. OB here is obstetrician.
8d: Hamlet's father (HÄGAR). Anyone guess GHOST? Nope, it's not Shakespeare this time, it's Hägar the Horrible.
9d: Radical in aspirin (ACETYL). If you happen to remember that aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid, this one's a piece of cake.
10d: Tongue-lash (BERATE).
25d: Etymologist's ref. (O.E.D.). If you do crosswords, you should know the Oxford English Dictionary. (Not inside and out, but at least of its existence.)
27d: He's third behind Bonds and Morgan for most walks among NLers (Mel OTT).
29d: Dipstick word (ADD).
32d: MPG determiner (E.P.A.).
34d: Sàbado, por ejemplo (DÍA). I don't know much Spanish, but día (day) and año (year) you gotta know. Sàbado is Saturday.
40d: White alternative (RYE). A repeat fill from yesterday, but it's food so we'll let it slide.
45d: Resort island south of Cancún (COZUMEL)
50d: Like snake eyes (BEADY). I was angling toward a dice reference, but it was not to be.
51d: Bagel flavor (ONION). Food.
52d: Pushovers (WIMPS).
56d: Scoreboard word (GUEST). Of course, high-tech arenas have digital scoreboards where they can enter the actual visiting team's name, but old-time scoreboards (like in schools) are still this way.
57d: Lively frolic (SPREE).
60d: "Go ahead!" (SURE), which is paired with:
63d: "Go ahead" signal (NOD)
Suns of Bitches: Only a handle of answers I didn't know at all, and all were gettable from the crosses. As always, my weak spot is names.
28d: Onetime Oprah rival (LEEZA Gibbons). Not only am I bad at names, I never watch daytime talk shows. So I was in the dark on this one.
3d: Robert who won Tonys in 1962 and 1990 (MORSE). Samuel Morse I know; Robert, not so much.
18d: Rap producer Gotti (IRV). No clue.
All in all, a pretty enjoyable Tuesday with a cool theme and reasonable full.
Title: Six Degrees of Separation Author: Lee Glickstein Theme: Six different college degree abbreviations have been added to six different phrases, with each degree split between multiple words, as follows:
Mod Squad => MOB AD SQUAD(17a: Jingle writers for the Mafia?). Bachelor of Arts.
Harmful => HAM ARMFUL(25a: Grocery bag of breakfast meat?). Master of Arts. Why breakfast meat? People don't eat ham sandwiches for lunch or have baked ham for dinner anymore?
Co-host => COMB A HOST(31a: Groom Oprah?). Master of Business Administration. This clue leaves amusing images in my head. And yes, it would be just as funny if it were Jay Leno or Larry King or any other host.
Monday => MOM FAN DAY(41a: Celebratory time for people who appreciate delivery women?). Master of Fine Arts. "Delivery women" is a bit of a stretch (no additional pun intended) here, I think.
Mutates => MUM STATES(47a: Silences?). Master of Science.
Curtains => CURB STAINS(56a: Street cleaner's targets?). Bachelor of Science.
This is a very well-executed theme, with a perfect title. It has nice, balanced theme entries, with nothing standing out as too forced or too gimmicky. As we've seen earlier in the week, trying to cram five or more theme entries into a small puzzle has a tendency to leave the remaining fill pretty dry. Not so here. Even with six theme entries, the rest of the puzzle contains a remarkable amount of sparkle. Let's take a look:
20a: "___ Sings Dylan" (1965 folk album) (ODETTA). I'll admit I couldn't dredge up the name until I got some crossings, but this is a nice slice of 60s pop culture.
29a: Author of "Syntactic Structures" (CHOMSKY). I should have figured this one out right away without crossings. I attended a Noam Chomsky speech back in college in the 80s. He is a world-reknowned linguist, with strong political views as well. If you parsed the clue to realize it was talking about language syntax, it's a good bet that Noam Chomsky is the answer. It's a great looking fill, too.
38a: Don's "Nash Bridges" costar (CHEECH Marin). Of "Cheech and Chong" fame.
39a: Pooh pal (EEYORE). You gotta love Eeyore.
51a: Coolness factor on the street (CRED). Does including "cred" in a puzzle give it street cred? Inquiring minds want to know.
52a: Jenny (SHE-ASS). This was one of the last pieces to fall for me, and might well belong in the "Suns of Bitches" section, but it's such a cool answer that it goes here. That's the mark of a good puzzle, when even the killer clues leave you smiling.
15d: Virgin offerings? (CDS). I was thinking of the airline, not the record label. Great clue!
27d: ID designation (MST). Very clever clue here! I didn't figure out until I had the answer that it's ID as in Idaho.
54d: Thing that may be contracted by unions?: Abbr. (STD). Wow! Another edgy clue by the Sun. We're so programmed to not think in these terms when doing puzzles; references to sexually transmitted disease are rarely seen. Excellent misdirection.
Sundries:
1a: Infiltrator (MOLE). This was easy for me, as I've read my share of spy thrillers.
16a: ___ vez (again, in Spanish) (OTRA). I don't know much Spanish, but I've seen "otra" before in puzzles, so it wasn't too hard to piece together.
18a: Bothersome person (TWIT). I know we've seen twit recently, because I posted a link to the Monty Python "Twit of the Year" sketch. I'll leave it to you to go digging for it if you want to see it again.
19a: Show whose theme song was written by Pete Townshend (CSI). The song in question being the Who's "Who Are You?". Great way to spice up a common entry.
28a: TV lawyer Stone (ELI). Saw the ads for it; never watched the show.
40a: "I'm exasperated!" (AARGH). Love it.
44a: Braggart (EGOTIST). I like the fill here, but the definition feels off to me. You can be an egotist without bragging, can't you? If anything, I would think the set of braggarts is a subset of egotists, and you don't typically clue in that direction without a "for example". Opinions? Of course, the reason it's clued like this is that it crosses 45d: Braggart, which is the less common, but more apt, GASCON (not to be confused with Gaston, from "Beauty and the Beast".
46a: Seattle-to-D.C. direction. (ESE). You know, this may be the first of this type of clue for me that was blatantly obvious what the answer direction was without looking at a map or just guessing from the crosses. Thank you for picking two cities whose relative geographic positions are pretty obvious.
64a: Apartment that's bigger than a studio (ONE BEDROOM).
66a: Time being (NONCE). I'm going to assume, for the nonce, that no one has used this word in conversation since Shakespeare's time.
67a: Toe dancer's attire (TUTU).
1d: 380% of D (MCM). The Sun is big on roman numeral math. I like ones like this that I can do in my head. (380% of 500 = .5 x 3800 = 1900).
3d: Test center (LAB).
5d: He played Ricky (DESI Arnaz).
7d: Symbol for torque (TAU). Knew it was a Greek letter (eta, rho, tau); the 'Q' in ESQ made this one pretty obvious.
8d: Christy Mathewson's was exactly 2 in 1907. (ERA). I should have guessed that this was a baseball clue, but somehow my brain wasn't going there.
10d: Clan emblem (TOTEM).
11d: Workweek letters (MTWTF). This was my foothold in that section.
12d: Verdi aria sung by Renato (ERI TU). I only know this from crosswords, usually clued as "___ tu (Verdi aria)".
13d: Present at birth (NATAL). Excellent clue.
21d: Sauna feature (DRY HEAT). I would love to have seen this clued as "Yeah, but it's a ___".
22d: Center of activitiy (MECCA)
23d: "Yo, ho!" (ALOHA). "Yo, ho" just reminds me of the Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disney. Classic!
25d: Sob part (HOO). The other part being "Boo-".
29d: Marks of distinction (CACHETS). Great word.
30d: Veep of the 60s. (HHH). That would be Hubert Horatio Humphrey.
34d: Alyssa Rosenbaum's assumed first name (AYN). Referring to Ayn Rand.
35d: Programming pro (CODER). As a software engineer, "coder" does not imply "pro" to me. A lot of people can code; not everyone is a pro. To me, coder is the high-tech equivalent of "plugger"; it may not be elegant, but it'll probably get the job done.
39d: Puff pieces? (EFS). Ah yes, it's an "it's-the-letter-itself" clue. Did you fall for it? I didn't.
41d: ___ juste (exactly the right word) (MOT). French for "word".
42d: Suffix with Capri (OTE). Capriote doesn't show in many of my dictionaries, but I've seen it before.
47d: "Morning Joe" cable channel (MSNBC). Name a cable channel in 5 letters. Anything else come to mind? Perhaps A AND E, but MSNBC was my first guess.
48d: Ryder rival (U-HAUL)
50d: Word (SAY SO). This was part of that nasty SW section for me, but once I finally got it, I loved it.
51d: Become a hit (CHART). Nice use of chart as a verb.
57d: Game with cards numbered 0 to 9 (UNO). If you've never played it, it's basically Crazy Eights.
58d: Nicktoons pooch (REN). Ren gets way more crossword attention than Stimpy, doesn't he?
59d: Programme provider (BBC). I was reading "Programme" as French, not British, which didn't help me any.
Suns of Bitches: This puzzle had its fair share of tough clues, most of which have already been mentioned above. Here are a few more:
22a: Hockey center Cullen or Stajan (MATT). See, once you go to hockey, all bets are off. It could be MATS or SVEN or YVES or almost any combination of 4 letters. Was not expecting a "Matt".
33a: Mark whose name means "little hook" in Czech (HACEK). When I finished this puzzle, I figured this was another hockey player, Mark Hacek. But no, it's a diacritical mark that's like an upside-down caret, as in: háček.
65a: "Pinocchio" goldfish" (CLEO). I know I've seen "Pinocchio" before, but this doesn't ring a bell at all.
62d: Cotton Bowl winner of 1983 (SMU). Really? We're supposed to remember results of individual bowl games that happened 25 years ago? Hmm.
All in all, I found this a thoroughly challenging and entertaining puzzle. Harder than I would expect on a typical Thursday (perhaps partially because I was watching TV and drinking beer while I was doing it, but not totally), but enough toeholds to work out the tough clues. Very nice.
I'm a software engineer from New Hampshire who used to blog the NY Sun puzzle. Now it's gone, but the blog's still here. I'm not interested in doing a daily blog of other puzzles... there's enough of those already. But maybe if I post a few original puzzles now and again, enough people will come by that remember (or want to know) how good the Sun puzzles were and will SIGN UP HERE to get them going again.
