SUNDAY, Sep. 28, 2008 - Cathy Allis Millhauser (French Polynesia constituents / Radio host/pianist John / Song sung by Gwen in Broadway's "Chicago")

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "'Twas Puzzling" - familiar phrases have their "W"-words changed to "TW"-words, creating silly phrases, which are clued, "?"-style


Add-a-letter! Done badly, the add-a-letter puzzles feel painful and lazy. Done well, they are minimalist wonders, where the resulting phrases are snappy enough to make you forget (or not care) that the only "theme" involved is the simple addition of a single letter. This version's TWist on the add-a-letter theme is that the added letter comes in all instances at the beginning of a word and directly before a "W." The results: mixed! But mostly good. Cathy Millhauser is a pro (I won't call her "old pro"), and she executes this theme in a way that makes the puzzle whimsical and breezy, not forced and groan-inducing. The non-theme fill is, almost without exception, utterly solid, with some really bright spots. Interestingly, the fact that the theme was simple, on a technical level (in the sense that you just add a "T"), that simplicity did not carry over completely to the solving experience. I got the theme early on, but still had to wait out a good number of the theme answers because I couldn't see where their "W" words were or what the original phrase was supposed to be.

Theme answers (with arbitrary 1-10 rating based on how much I liked each answer):

• 23A: When jerks come out? (the twitching hour): 8
• 38A: String around a cake box? (dessert twine): 6
• 53A: Men or women who pinch? (the tweaker sex): 2
• 78A: Nerd's essence? (the soul of twit): 5 - love the answer, but the clue is gross ("Nerd's essence?" just sounds ... icky) and I've never liked the TWIT-for-nerd substitution.
• 95A: Roast the other side of the marshmallow? (flip one's twig): 9
• 113A: Discouraging comment to a cloner? ("You can't twin 'em all"): 10
• 36D: Moth, perhaps? (tweed killer): 4
• 41D: Fabric that really breathes? (living twill): 8 - nice that the two TW- fabrics are both part of the two vertical theme pillars of the puzzle.
  

Two serious rough spots for me -

First: Pennsylvania (ironically named because it's the stupid Texas clue that gave me all the trouble):

The ANGELINA (47A: Texas county, river or forest that's a girl's first name) river ran right through the NE of this puzzle and forced me to hammer out nearly all the crosses before I got it / guessed it. I guess Ms. Jolie was deemed too "mainstream" for the Sunday puzzle. Elitists! I probably had PISA for my four-letter City near Milan (48D) for a while. I took 42D: Low tie (one one) to be something one might find at a haberdashery ... which then forced me to wonder what "low" could possibly mean in that context. Hey, are LOD (41A: City near Tel Aviv) and LODI related? Because they sure look alike.

Second: Tijuana

Despite the massive gimme that PHIL provided (104D: Dr. with advice in O magazine), I had a hell of a lot of trouble squeezing into this stupid little alcove of the puzzle. I think I just took a while to link the "celebrant" in 104A: Certain celebrant (priest) to a religious context. Also, never in a million years (well, maybe a million...) would I have guessed IZOD for 117A: _____ Center, home of the New Jersey Nets. It's also possible-to-probable that I didn't know what a leveret was at all - 112A: A leveret is a young one (hare). As I look at this roughly 4x4 section now, it seems inconsequential, but when I was tearing through the puzzle, it did not feel that way.

Other things:

• 19A: Song sung by Gwen in Broadway's "Chicago" ("Roxie") - everything I know about "Chicago" (and it's now a surprising lot) I learned from xwords.
• 20A: Radio host/pianist John (Tesh) - "Enjoy"

• 34A: Nonkosher sandwiches (BLTs) - The word "nonkosher" was so hard for my brain to process. Sounded ... exotic. Until I separated the NON from the KOSHER.
• 58A: "New Look" designer of 1947 (Dior) - ooh la la.
• 59A: Charity's urging ("donate!") - Me: "Who the hell is Charity?"
• 60A: Orbital point (apsis) - neeeeeever heard of it.
• 66A: Penseur's thought (idée) - "Penseur" meaning "thinker"; I'm never that thrilled with this way of cluing foreign words (changing one word in the clue to the equivalent lang.).
• 77A: One of Woody's stock at Woodstock (Arlo) - clue grosses me out in the same way [Nerd's essence?] did.
• 71A: Mushroom stalks (stipes) - if I knew this, I forgot it.
• 89A: Capital of South Australia (Adelaide) - not "The Australian Dollar." Australia is where you might find yourself an Outback buddy (mate) (50D). I suggest you stick with "MATE," as "Outback buddy" sounds like a phrase that might be misunderstood or taken the wrong way.
• 90A: French Polynesia constituents (iles) - where's the French word in the clue? "French" does not count!
• 119A: "Almighty" title role for Steve Carell ("Evan") - gimme. I did not / would not / could not bring myself to see this. Love "The Office," though.
• 123A: Kind of difference, oxymoronically (same) - nice clue.
• 1D: Monitor type, for short (CRT) - least favorite monitor type Ever; can never remember it.
• 6D: Invitation information specification (attire) - "All across the nation ... there's a new invitation information specification ... people in motion" (can you tell how tired I am?).
• 9D: Like some eggs or cloth (shirred) - Onto the DECOCT list with you, SHIRRED. Yuck.
• 24D: Apple pocketfuls (iPods) - Odd-sounding clue. Note: iPods tend not to fill your pocket completely. Unless you are packing several at once, though I believe that's known as a QUIVERFUL.
• 45D: Off-campus local (townie) - first heard this term in "Breaking Away."
• 55D: Nagpur noble (rajah) - all crosswordese answers should have to have playfully alliterative clues
• 61D: Rusty on the diamond (Staub) - "Le Grand Orange!" Haven't thought of him in 25 years. Baseball cards!
• 63D: Pitcher of a perfect game, 9/9/65 (Koufax) - my hero, and only partially because his name begins in "K" and ends in "X" (not enough to get John KNOX over the hero threshold, for instance).
• 64D: "Vigilant _____ to steal cream": Falstaff ("as a cat") - that's one hell of a partial. Yipes.
• 69D: Wahine's dance (hula) - a dance that now will forever make me think of author/artist Lynda Barry, who took it very seriously as a child, and whose book "What It Is" (among others) you should definitely read. Indispensable, inspirational greatness.
• 85D: Score just before victory, maybe (ad in) - another sports score ... interesting.
  

In closing, I would like to praise the Pile-Up of PILAR (118A: Pertaining to hair), PLENA (107A: Legislative assemblies), and PULE (107D: Whine), which was, by far, the most interesting part of the puzzle, word-wise.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Apr. 13, 2008 - Cathy Millhauser (SWISS DISH OF GRATED AND FRIED POTATOES)

Relative difficulty: Super easy

THEME: "How Insulting!" - DIS is added to familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued

Happy Sunday, readers - and a special hello to the thousands of you reading this in syndication (i.e. one week behind ... that's right, I'm looking at you, Vancouver, Calgary, and [insert your town's name here]!). I'm using this lovely (actually kinda rainy) spring day to make my first ever "Please Support This Site" pitch. I spend untold hours writing and maintaining this site, and have done so for over 18 months now, happily, without any remuneration. [Cue swelling violin music ... roll pictures of cute pets] This site has grown over the past year and a half into a shockingly large online crossword community, with thousands of readers coming here every day for answers, solving tips, useful crossword links, and (I hope) entertainment. In the coming year, I will be investing in the site, professionalizing its design, adding links and content, and generally making it more useful to you all.

All I ask is that you consider what the blog is worth to you, and donate accordingly. It'll be like PBS ... only without the tax deduction. Or "Clifford the Big Red Dog." Or "Celtic Woman." Use the PayPal donation button in the sidebar to make a secure donation online [very easy to use, like any other kind of on-line shopping interface], or, if you are a Luddite (and if you're reading this, you're a pretty sorry one), or just don't like using PayPal for whatever reason, and would prefer to send in your donation via snail mail, simply send a check, payable to "Rex Parker," to:

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If you have no intention of donating anything to this site, or are financially unable to, I completely understand. I hope you continue to enjoy the blog. In all sincerity (and I am not accustomed to "all sincerity," so bear with me), I am extremely grateful to you all for your readership, your (mostly kind) mail, and your contributions to the blog's Comments section. I'm thrilled to be part of such a smart, congenial, generous community, and the fact that anyone besides my mom reads what I write is a source of continual joy to me. So thanks.

Oh, and you may have noticed the "Survey" in the sidebar. The current survey is closed, but sidebar surveys will probably be a semi-regular feature of the blog, so keep your eye out. I'm also starting two new features as of the Sunday, April 20 puzzle: READER MAIL and READER PICTURES (look for those in future Sunday write-ups, and please, send me any xword-related pictures you might have and I'll happily post them).

Now, your puzzle:

This puzzle was so easy ("How easy was it!?") ... it was so easy that the only joke I can think of here is a sexual one so I'll just say Very easy (easy "for me," I should say - no offense meant to those who got bogged down or otherwise struggled in places). The easiest Sunday NYT I've ever done. Without really trying, I ended up with my fastest Sunday time ever, and I could have been a minute or two faster, I think, if I hadn't had some typing fumbles and a slight bit of trouble getting the same traction in the bottom of the puzzle that I had in the top (which I solved in, I believe, negative four minutes). I expect to hear a lot of people say they had personal best times today. This is why difficulty Friday and Saturday puzzles are good for you - after you've been through those ordeals, you are good and ready to Punish a Sunday puzzle. Take that, Lord's Day!

Theme answers:

• 22A: Foul weather condition? (DISgusting winds)
• 30A: Some moralizing about getting off a balance beam? (Sermon on the DISmount) - this was the first theme answer I got; should've / could've been made a Little bit harder by changing "getting off a balance beam" to "a gymnastics feat" or something equally generic.
• 38A: "Do your thing, Jack the Ripper"? ("Go DISfigure") - This one half creeps me out and half makes me laugh. I didn't know enthusiasm for carving up women passed the breakfast test. At least when you look at the grid, you can choose to read this as GOD IS FIGURE, whatever that means.
• 59A: Sophistication of clubs like Sam's and BJ's? (DIScounter culture)
• 68A: Concerns of someone who's choking? (food and DISlodging) - first disfigurement, now asphyxiation? Nice.
• 88A: Her Royal Daunter? (DISMay Queen) - possibly the toughest of the bunch. I would not have put "Daunt" and DISMAY as synonyms, though I'm sure they're in a thesaurus listing together somewhere.
• 96A: Coleslaw-loving children? (Cabbage DISPatch Kids) - my favorite by far, both for the great 80s pop culture reference, and for the image of children devouring cabbage with glee.
• 111A: Find chewing gum under a desk, perhaps? (duck and DIScover)

Doesn't the following sound like a tagline for some insane television show about, I don't know, a rogue European spy?: "Head of Britain, Tongue of Jung!" - 19A: Head of Great Britain (loo), and 10A: Tongue of Jung: Abbr. (Ger.). Strangely, I balked at both of these the first time I saw them. Took "head" literally and thought 10A might be the actual GERman word for "tongue." As you all know, my GERman vocabulary runs to about five words. The word for "tongue" is not one of them.

Lots of interesting names in the puzzle today. ERIC Bana (45A: Actor Bana of "Munich") gets used for his first name, which is a switch. "Coming Home" star is not VOIGHT or FONDA but Bruce DERN (52D: "Coming Home" co-star). I had Judy Garland's real name as GUMP for a while, as GUMM looks absurd (73D: Judy Garland's real last name). Do other names, or any words, end "-UMM?" And then there's a bevy of ENIDs, which is a sight you rarely see (31D: Bagnold, Blyton, Markey, etc.). Plural first names are about as cheap an entry as you can get, but the absurdity of multiple ENIDs somehow mitigates the problem for me here.

Looking the puzzle over just now, I realize that at least part of the reason the puzzle was so easy was that the grid is made up overwhelmingly of letters from the RLSTN group and vowels. The non-theme answers in particular are astonishingly free of Scrabbly letters - a lonely "J" and "K" are hiding up there a gaggle of E's, N's, and T's in the NE. And CAPRI (96D: Banana liqueur drink shaken over ice) looks positively sizzling next to the other answers in that PALLID (91D: Sans a healthy glow) SW corner. Sometimes, fun theme entries are enough to carry a puzzle, and as easy puzzles go, this is certainly more than competent. Not surprising, as Cathy Millhauser is an old pro whose puzzles have frequently been featured at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Remainder:

• 1A: Polish Peace Nobelist (Walesa) - a gimme, and the key to the NW. I polished off all 6 Downs up there one after the other without stopping or even hesitating, which almost Never happens on a Sunday.
• 20D: Where "I shot a man" in Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (Reno) - should've read "Where 'I shot a man ... just to watch him die.'" More in keeping with the whole GO DISFIGURE theme. Johnny Cash rules. Here's an early performance. So Great.
• 25A: 1980s U.N. ambassador Kirkpatrick (Jeane) - Now "Kirkpatrick" is a name that would look good in the grid. Three K's!
• 37A: Saloon door sign (Gents) - a spot-on clue.
• 77A: March master (Sousa) - first thought: ST. PAT.
• 78A: Fraction of a min. (msec) - very uncertain about this at first. I think I've had NSEC before, and PARSEC, but MSEC? Never seen it.
• 87A: Bruce who played Watson (Nigel) - I had two major "How Did I Know That?" moments. One was here, and the other was at 91A: Eucharist plate (paten). Got the latter off the "N" and was stunned when what felt like a made-up word ended up being exactly right.
• 105A: Player of filmdom's Mr. Chips (Donat) - he's back in your Sunday puzzle, so you may as well remember his name.
• 107A: Welsh rabbit ingredient (ale) - here's a lesson: read the clues. I had STEPS-VER at 79D: Efficiency device (step-saver) and without looking at the clue assumed it had to be STEPS OVER. That gave me OLE at 107A. Perfectly good word, so I didn't look at that clue either. I am clearly not good enough to be flying blind like that.
• 114A: Passage practices (rites) - horribly awkward phrasing.
• 115A: Chihuahua drink (agua)
• 116A: Prominent Chihuahua feature (ear) - cute ... ish.
• 3D: Crosses the international date line from east to west (loses a day) - great clue / answer. I will LOSE A DAY this July when we go to NZ. Last time we went to NZ, I "lost" Christmas. Completely.
• 7D: 1979 film parodied in "Spaceballs" ("Alien") - wow, I thought only "Star Wars" was parodied in this. If I've seen "Spaceballs," it's been 20+ years.
• 12D: Swiss dish of grated and fried potatoes (rosti) - one of the only head-turners in this whole puzzle. Never ever heard of it. Sounds good.
• 32D: Postal creed word (nor) - went through the weather hazards (ice?) until realizing the answer was a simple conjunction.
• 34D: Rock's _____ Pop (Iggy)
• 35D: Popular pop (cola) - a pair of pops. The former beats the latter pretty badly. Here is Iggy Pop. I like how he has to be carried to the mike at the beginning.
• 39D: '50s teen star (Fabian) - I know of him from "Laverne & Shirley"
• 43D: Tommie _____, 1966 A.L. Rookie of the Year (Agee) - wanted AMES, don't know why.
• 53D: Stacking contest cookie (Oreo) - the only OREO-stacking videos I could find were of poor quality, or had drunk guys shouting profanity, so here is cup-stacking, which my nephew is Way into now. Apparently it's a competitive thing, and young kids are particularly good at it. Watch.
• 59D: Sideless wagon (dray) - had DORY, which I think is a ship. At least I was in the vehicle ballpark.
• 70D: Venetian V.I.P. of yore (doge) - ah, yore. Everyone's favorite time period.
• 71D: Wannabe's model (idol) - that's an oddly disparaging clue. Can't you IDOLize someone without actually wanting to be him/her?
• 87D: Like a relative notified in an emergency, maybe (nearest) - don't like this. Wanted NEAR KIN, which also would not have been good.
• 90D: Preserves fruits (quinces) - I like that this clue looks like a verb phrase.
• 92D: Remove by cutting (ablate) - a very ugly word.
• 94D: Honshu metropolis (Osaka) - On a purely aesthetic level, I Love (the word) OSAKA. Dramatic off-center "K" among other, lesser, supporting letters. Feels good to say, too.
• 97D: Old Norse works (eddas) - had SAGAS at first, like a chump.
• 100D: Oral flourishes (tadas) - "Oral" threw me. Badly. I was grossed out imagining what the answer here could possibly be.
• 103D: "Once You _____ Stranger" (1969 thriller) ("Kiss a") - saw "Kiss of Death" (1947) last night for the first time. It's Amazing. Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo is a performance everyone should see at least once. That guy is the greatest film noir actor of them all.
• 108D: TV host known for his mandibular prognathism (Leno) - i.e. his chin is big.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Aug. 12, 2007 - Cathy Millhauser

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Lightheaded" - first word in all long theme answers describes a type of moon, clued by 52D: Ralph Kramden catchphrase on old TV ... and a hint to this puzzle's theme ("To the moon!")

Once again, I have had to delete comments from weirdly overzealous commenters who, for some reason, can't wait until my write-up to comment on the Sunday puzzle. I don't care that you get the puzzle on Saturday a.m. and are so bloody excited about it that you just have to tell someone. Don't Tell Me. Even saying anything about the puzzle, Anything, is a massive distraction. Comments section is for commenting on That Day's Puzzle. Why am I having to explain this???

Took me a while to catch the theme, and would have taken much longer if I hadn't gotten 52D fairly early on (third theme entry I got). "Lightheaded" is a Terrible Title for this puzzle. Otherwise, it was a reasonably enjoyable puzzle.

Theme answers:

• 22A: Tarot reading, crystals, spiritualism, etc. (New Age movements) - MOVEMENTS is completely inapt here. No one would describe Tarot or crystals as MOVEMENTS.
• 33A: Traditional English festival (Harvest Home) - never heard of it. Got these first two theme answers and had no idea what the hell was going on.
• 44A: Little John's weapon in Robin Hood legend (quarter staff) - is there another Little John who is not from "Robin Hood legend?"
• 38D: Proverbial portion (half a loaf) - don't know this expression. Had HALF A LOAD for a bit.
• 64A: Brooke Shields movie, with "The" ("Blue Lagoon") - gimme gimme gimme. Cheesy gimme.
• 75A: Its roar is worse than its bite (paper tiger)
• 94A: Dinner bun (crescent roll)
• 103A: Hair removal site (waxing salon) - they have salons just for waxing now!?
• 119A: 1987 Kubrick film ("Full Metal Jacket") - another movie gimme; really helped me out.

There was some tricky stuff up top - I had NEB. for 6D: Sen. John Kerry served there ('Nam), which is a very nice trap [if you don't know the difference between John Kerry and Bob Kerrey - see Comments], but I gotta object to the slangy NAM, which is not quite the same as the abbreviation implied by the clue's use of "Sen." Had KEEN for WEEP (26A: Mourn audibly) which screwed some things up. Thought GO SEE (13D: Start of a referral) was pretty stretchy, if strangely interesting. Real snag happened in the NW, where I had ETHOS instead of ETHIC (14A: Body of precepts), giving me SENSE for CENSE (18D: Perfume, in a way). Having the wrong CPLS for CPOS (29A: U.S.N. noncoms) gave me the hideous ODIL-S for 17D: See red, talk a blue streak, etc. (idioms). Not sure how I extricated myself from that one.

Next tricky part was the whole "California" portion of the puzzle, starting with ENFIELD (87A: Northernmost borough of London), which I'd never heard of - it's an awfully British puzzle in some ways, now that I look at it. 80D: Hiram Walker, for one (distiller) was the last thing I filled in. The intersections with ENFIELD and LATIN (97A: Exempli gratia, e.g.) were what was holding me up. While we're down here, let me just say that I love love love the NILLA / AXILLA nexus (117A: Nabisco's _____ wafers and 98D: Underarm).

Final sticking point was in the far SE, where TOODLEOO (125A: "Ta-ta") took far too long to come to me, largely because I'd forgotten about JOY (122D: Procter & Gamble detergent) and LEON (115D: Province NW of Madrid) was completely unknown to me. I'd also forgotten 112A: "South Pacific" role (Emile). I like the fancy ELYSIAN for 128A: Like a paradise.

More unknowns:

• 106A: Composer Franz (Lehar) - ??
• 30A: Wheel on a spur (rowel) - looks like a typo of any number of words
• 25A: Jack who played a sawmil worker in "Twin Peaks" (Nance)
• 91A: Elongated marine fish (eelpout) - who named that!? Horrible.
• 11D: Spiritual path in Hinduism (Tantra) - mistakenly thought TANTRA was Buddhist (!)
• 35D: Boring tool (trepan) - actually, I knew this (with help of some crosses), but only because it has been in the puzzle before

Unwelcome crosswordese:

• 92D: Singer with the double-platinum album "The Memory of Trees" (Enya) - god, the title alone makes me want to punch her
• 108A: Seed cover (aril) - I always want to call it ANIL
• 86D: French town on the Vire (St. Lo) - more French includes 124A: Capital of France's Aube department (Troyes), and sort of, 116D: W.W. II arena (ETO)

Liked the double-Greekness of AGORA (60D: Old Greek market) and ODEA (53D: Ancient theaters). Also like that I got totally faked out by 99A: Abbr. on Rockies skeds (MST), thinking the clue had to do with baseball. Happy not to get thrown by the shifty 104D: Centaur's head (soft C). I think that's all. Nope - gotta give out a shout out to Nelson ALGREN (58D: Nelson _____, author of "The Man With the Golden Arm"), if only because I have a copy of this book in my paperback collection. Oh, and I almost forgot. Didn't know 46D: Alice of "Hollywood Cavalcade" (Faye), though she is apparently famous enough to have an entire DVD collection devoted to her.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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