Star of Bunuel's "Belle de Jour"; 19th-century abbot and scientist; Cygnet's parents

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: EASY

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: URI (Altdorf's canton) —

Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. Wikipedia 

Area: 416 sq miles (1,077 km²)

 University: The Educatis University

• • •

Hello, Rexworld. This is treedweller, filling in. Rex is in Washington lobbying for an EYEPIT exception to the filibuster limits. I was wary of agreeing to guest-host, since Friday/Saturday puzzles are still a little hit-or-miss for me and I didn't want to be up half the night. Happily, I found this nice, breezy romp that would be a solid Wednesday if you worked in a theme somehow. Except you don't need to, because it's fun without a theme. So I guess that's why it showed up today. Either that, or this is that one-in-a-million puzzle that I just clicked with while others won't.

Either way, as always, that's "for a Friday" Easy. I left the NW mostly empty until I worked my way back up, and still wondered if I'd finish when I got there. I was stymied by the fact that most of what I had there was wrong, but once I buckled down and searched out my mistakes, it fell quickly. If anything, I think I'd be a little disappointed that Friday was so easy if I wasn't blogging it.

Bullets:

• 11D Milk Additive OVALTINE — (cf. 1A BOSCO) I tried to get Vitamin D in there awhile, then moved on until I had few crosses.
• 6A TV actor who lived, appropriately, in Hawaii JACKLORD — Being from Texas, I am pretty familiar with (6D One of the Bushes JEB), for good or ill, so I quickly sussed the actor.
• 53A Dicey issue (HOTPOTATO) / 56A Deep-fried treat (ONIONRING) — I like both of these individually, and I like that they are stacked together. cf. 28A Relative of a leek CHIVE.
• 57A Third-place finisher in 2004 and 2008 / 42D "Northanger Abbey" novelist (NADER / AUSTEN) —Being in the Best City in Texas, I would have preferred a "Low point-" / "Live Music Capitol of the World-" type cluing, but I do enjoy Ms. Austen now and then, and I voted for NADER when he was Green (i.e., not in '08).
• 36A First name in pop (CELINE) — when Michael didn't fit, I just waited. I know it's perfectly acceptable as a clue/answer, but it pained me to see it.

Signed, tree dweller

P.S. Rex here—if you have time, check out my 11/22/63 anniversary puzzle, created for the current Off-Broadway drama "Witnessed by the World" http://www.witnessedbytheworld.com/news.html

Read more...

Gird, Certain kitchen knife, Eisner's successor at Disney, Spanish waves

Constructor: Jim Page

Relative difficulty: easily medium challenging. Or, How Much Do you Like Baseball?

THEME: HOT CORNER (35A Third base, in baseball lingo ... or a hint for answering eight other clues in this puzzle)—all eight answers around the outside of the grid require adding "HOT" in front to fit the clues.

Word of the Day: SLIVOVITZ (Plum brandy) — a distilled beverage made from Damson plums.^[1] It is frequently called plum brandy. There's a lot more on wiki about all the places that make this stuff and what they call it, but this will suffice for our purposes.

• • •

Hello, Rexworld. This is treedweller filling in. As you are probably aware, this weekend is the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn. So, no doubt, Rex is sharpening his pencils, laying out his lucky outfit, studying atlases (MT. APO!), practicing with a mockup of the giant-sized puzzle he will see in the finals, and meditating over peppermint tea in preparation for the competition.


Though it's likely a large number of regular readers here are similarly occupied at the Super Bowl of Cruciverbalists, Mr Shortz was kind enough to leave a puzzle for us schlubs who couldn't make the trip. Some of us should find it to be a fairly easy Thursday offering. The rest of us have lives outside of baseball.

Theme answers:

• 1A Difficult political situation: (Hot) POTATO
• 1D Snacks in the frozen food aisle: (Hot) POCKETS
• 7A Chili: (Hot) PEPPER
• 12D Lover of souped-up engines: (Hot) RODDER
• 42D Spicy pretzel dip: (Hot) MUSTARD
• 43D It's hard to score: (Hot) TICKET
• 63A Real good-looker: (Hot) TAMALE
• 64A Showed off: (Hot) DOGGED 
• 35A Third base, in baseball lingo ... or a hint for answering eight other clues in this puzzle: HOT CORNER

I am not a sports guy, but I grew up in a sports family, so I usually know the lingo pretty well. HOT CORNER is a new one on me. For a while, I thought 32D might be a nine o'clock scholar (...__'clock scholar: ATENO) and wondered if Hen Corner could be a thing. Maybe in quilting bees.

Each theme entry I filled in, I had a niggling thought that it didn't really make sense, though it would if preceded by HOT, but I still failed to put it together until I was three-quarters done. So this came out challenging for me. I think most people will find it easier than that. In the end, I guess it was kinda fun to see all the HOT phrases, but I was hit in too many blind spots and just plowed my way through it.

Bullets:

• 61A Gird: ENSTEEL — I envision enlivened enwranglement ensuing around this entry, though personally I find it perfectly cromulent.
• 18A Plop preceder: KER — pretty easy, once "cup of coffee" didn't fit.
• TAL ELAM REE IGER ORECK ENID OLAS SISTA CITI — IRAE EZINE NUS
• 51D Latin lover's words: TEAMO — If I have to pick a team, I will happily choose Team O. 

Of course, in ACPT there are no teams. It's you against the grid. You have to dig deep. You have to fight through the hard times. In this, Rex's last appearance, we send encouragement and inspiration to him and all his fellow contestants.

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...