THURSDAY, Oct. 30, 2008 - Chuck Hamilton (Point Lighthouse, Massachusetts landmark since 1838 / Longtime NBC Olympics host)

Relative difficulty: Easy (again)

THEME: DIRECTOR'S SHOUT (56A: What the ends of 20-, 35- and 42-Across are, collectively) - last words in the theme answers are, in order, LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Once again, the difficulty level feels a bit off. I have "feels like Wednesday" scrawled at the top of my puzzle, and I also have "Easy-Medium" written there, but then the medium is scratched out because ... well, I think I was just getting tired of hearing myself say "Easy," so I added the "Medium" for variety, but then checked myself and went back to my honest reaction. I tried to go back and see where some difficulty might lie, and noticed that there aren't a lot of out-and-out gimmes, but neither are there many "!?!?!" answers. It's all very common fill. I mean, EOSIN (which we saw on Tuesday) is rougher than just about anything here. True, there are three "WTF" -type answers (at least there were for me), but all of those were just common enough names clued via people/places outside my purview (or purlieu, which is a word I feel I should start using). In some ways, the theme itself, while clever enough, is very Monday/Tuesday - straightforward, four-part, no gimmicks or tricks or unexpected zigs or zags. A fine few minutes, but I wasn't wowed and I didn't learn much. Oh, no, wait. ODOR is apparently a word that can mean 6D: Repute. I did learn that.

Theme answers:

• 20A: So-called "fox fires" (Northern LIGHTS) - I have never heard them called this, and this clue is actually much harder than the original, [Night sky feature]
• 35A: Recording device (video CAMERA) - way better than those audio cameras you hear everyone talking about
• 42A: Certain lawsuit (class ACTION)

This puzzle has me wondering if Bob COSTAS (4D: Longtime NBC Olympics host) makes PESTO (28D: Penne topper) and eats it with GUSTO (40A: Elan) (and if so, does he use an OSTER - 47A: Kitchen gadget brand). That is a cutesy way of saying this puzzle has a lot of words where the second syllable starts with "ST."

Here are the three WTF answers for the day:

• 60A: _____ Sailer, three-time 1956 skiing gold medalist (Toni) - I *know* she (she? Nope, it's a he) was just in a puzzle, and yet that didn't help much. My favorite Sailer:

• 44D: _____ Point Lighthouse, Massachusetts landmark since 1838 (Ned's) - ugh. Overly geographically specific. Made me yearn for the clue [_____ Atomic Dustbin], which I would not have thought possible.
• 36D: Johnny with the 1958 hit "Willie and the Hand Jive" (Otis) - well, I pretty much *have* to hear/see what that sounds/looks like (uh, speaking of sailors, what are those dancers wearing?):

The rest:

• 1A: Fruit variety with a sweet-spiced flavor (bosc) - to my knowledge, I have never had a BOSC pear, nor do I know any of its defining features; why, then, was BOSC the first thing to come to my mind when I saw this clue? (likely answer: "variety" + four letters ... brain retrieves word from store of likely crosswordy words, and there you go)
• 16A: Geological range (aeon) - tricky clue, I guess. Had me thinking "mountains" for a bit.
• 25A: Penicillin target (strep) - had STAPH
• 49A: Who's creator (Seuss) - a gimme ... right? That, or you thought there was a typo and the clue was incomplete
• 52A: List in an insurance report, maybe (dents) - Was not aware that one made an actual "dent list."
• 61A: "See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!" speaker (Romeo) - just finished teaching this and it Still wasn't a gimme. We were oddly focused on the Friar for most of our discussion.
• 64A: "Mi Chiamano Mimi" and others (arias) - Italilan song = ARIA unless I'm forced to think otherwise.
• 21D: Modern show shower (HDTV) - this clue smells like yesterday's puzzle
• 26D: European capital (Riga) - For reasons I don't understand, RIGA is my favorite European capital (as a name, not as a place - I haven't been there)
• 39D: Record follower, at times (asterisk) - first Maris, now Bonds
• 54D: Socratic student (tutee) - reclued from [Special student], which sounded all kinds of wrong to me. Not sure this one is entirely accurate (usually the "method" is Socratic), but it's at least an improvement.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Feb. 20, 2008 - Chuck Hamilton (RACE SITE SINCE 1711)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "DOUBLE" - 65A: It can precede the first words of 17-, 28-, 35-, 47- and 61-Across

This was the easiest Wednesday puzzle I've done in a while. I'm pretty sure I did it faster than I did Monday's - can't be sure; did this one on paper without a clock in sight (kind of refreshing, actually). I had one snag, early on, in the Far North (for today, let's call it ... Winnipeg, in honor of the surprising number of Canadians who read this blog). So up there in "Winnipeg" I tripped when I tried to high FIVE someone who was merely WAVE-ing at me (7D: Hi sign?). I should have seen that the "Hi" was spelled like "Hi" in "Hi and Lois" and not like the "high" in "High Noon." The erroneous FIVE resulted in ICE crossing ICES (8D: Sews up), which seemed very sub-Shortz, even on his worst day. I tried to think if I'd ever hear anyone use "ICE" to mean 15A: Very close friend, in slang. Seems like it could be street slang - and it is, when it refers to diamonds. I tried to imagine my prisoner-students referring to each other as "ICE," but that didn't work. Finally I figured out that 7A: Rug, so to speak must be WIG, which made the [Hi sign?] answer WAVE and the slangy friend answer ACE. All that drama on such a tiny patch of land. The rest of the puzzle was a cakewalk.

Theme answers:

17A: "Back to the Future" subject (time travel)
28A: Fans often have it (team spirit)
35A: Earthquake site (fault line)
61A: C-E-G triad, e.g. (major chord)
47A: Flaky sort (space cadet) - got this without ever looking at the clue, with just three or four crosses in place. Not sure if that is appropriate or ironic, i.e. if it confirms that I am a SPACE CADET or if it or proves the opposite. I'll let you be the judge. One bit of evidence you might want to consider - I have this matchbook cover hanging off the top of my computer screen (along with a Batwoman action figure and a bendy Homer Simpson toy):



Today's puzzle surely breaks some kind of record for "Most Uses of 'helter-skelter' in the Clues." That record now stands at: 2.

12D: Enters helter-skelter (piles in)
45D: Not helter-skelter (orderly) - nice contrast, and not a single reference to Manson or the Beatles. Well done.

Unlike yesterday, when I derided the puzzle for its crosswordese cacophony, today I would like to sing a hymn of praise to a few of my favorite olde tyme crossword words. Now, as I look over this puzzle, there are a number of stale entries. You've got your SNO and your REPO and your APB and your HUR and your LOA and your ASTI and your EKE (which, by the way, I used in conversation yesterday, completely unironically; as my wife said, "you've really got to have ELAN to be able to use EKE and get away with it" - indeed). So, you've got all those. But they don't matter today, because ADIT (16A: Miner's entry) is in the house! I miss this answer so much. Back in the old old old days (i.e. the Maleska era), ADIT became, for me, the paradigmatic example of "Krazy Krap You Must Know to Solve Crosswords Effectively." I remember exchanging emails with my friend Shauna where we would sign off not using "Yours" or "Sincerely," but "ADIT" or "ETUI" or the like. You don't see ADIT much anymore (or so it seems to me), but I love it just the same. After all, you can't get into or out of a mine without it. We also have my favorite marine raptor in the puzzle today: ERNE (26A: Marine raptor). Someday I will retool this site with a new logo and everything, and the ERNE will definitely be my official mascot. I like the TERN, but I think ERNEs might eat TERNs, so there's really no choice, mascot-wise, as far as I can see.

Miscellanea:

• 1A: Cause of a skin rash (eczema) - flashy 1A for a Wednesday. I think I have ECZEMA on my left shin, but my wife says it's just an abrasion.
• 31A: Moonshiner's setup (still) - learned this word from "M*A*S*H"
• 42A: Fraternal org. (BPOE) - the Elks! I remember the first time I saw this initialism in a puzzle - completely threw me.
• 57A: Simon Wiesenthal's quarry (Nazis) - "quarry" is disturbing to me. It's like he's come home from a long day of NAZI hunting with a bunch of dead NAZIs in his knapsack. Wiesenthal's last appearance in the puzzle was when he suffered the indignity of having his name used to refer to one of The Chipmunks (who can forget the Chipmunks' surly Uncle Wiesenthal?)
• 60A: Defaulter's loss (repo) - seems oddly, even awkwardly clued.
• 2D: Some newsletter pictures (clip art) - never seen this answer in a puzzle before. Love it. If you love the current president and the war and all that, you should definitely not read this comic, comprised almost entirely of CLIP ART.
• 27D: 2003 Will Ferrell title role ("Elf") - I am slightly embarrassed to say that I saw this in the theater. And I do not have the excuse that my daughter really wanted to see it, as she was too young. And ... I kinda like it. I saw it with two other adults who may or may not have been high at the time. They really seemed to like it.
• 32D: Prada and Fendi (labels) - metonymy! The LABEL stands for the whole product line. That is what metonymy is, right? (asked the English professor)
• 36D: Food pkg. markings (UPCs) - no redundant UPC CODES today.
• 39D: Offerers of arms (escorts) - love this clue and answer, though "offerers" is a fairly painful word.
• 44D: Spanish capital under the Moors (Cordoba) - Don't think I knew this. All I can think of when I see this name is "Rich Corinthian Leather," which, as you can see, makes no sense.
• 48D: Parts of analogies (colons) - on SAT tests, yes, OK. When I make analogies, they tend to lack COLONs. I'm trying to imagine making an "air COLON" the way people make air quotation marks. Kind of awkward - people might think you're making some new-fangled profane gesture.
• 49D: Automaker Ferrari (Enzo) - someday I will sit down and get my "Italian Men's Names in Four Letters That Start with 'E'" straight. My main confusion here is between ENZO and EZIO.
• 54D: Race site since 1711 (Ascot) - also a stylish neck garment.
• 6D: Far from klutzy (adroit) - ironically, this word looks and feels klutzy.
• 58D: It's "stronger than dirt" (Ajax) - high value letters for such a small word. Love the clue, though wish it had used the word "sloganeer."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[drawing by Emily Cureton]

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