SATURDAY, Mar. 3, 2007 - Karen M. Tracey

Solving time: untimed, but quick - something around 15 minutes

THEME: Celebrity names aplenty (or, none)

I always feel good when I am able to have my way with a Saturday puzzle, so maybe that is skewing my feelings about this puzzle - but, that said, I loved it. Loved it! Heavy on the fun pop culture, light on learned obscurities. Even the long clue involving flora, which I was certain I would end up strangling me, came out smelling sweet - 22A: Woodbine or twinberry (honeysuckle). Once I got that "Y," I think I literally said "aha!" and the NNW, which had remained a bit sticky to that point, finally tumbled. Let's take this puzzle in five parts, each part represented by the celebrity who helped me (or in the case of the NW, didn't help me) unravel it.

Part the First: The Land of Manuel de Falla (Center)

33A: Manuel de Falla opera "La _____ Breve" ("Vida")

OK, so Manuel de Falla is not exactly a "celebrity," and his name's not actually in the grid, but ... he'll have to do. This was the very first answer I entered on the grid. And then it just sat there, as I tried, with no success, to get crosses. But it's important that it was sitting there, because eventually (three corners later) I built back toward it, and it not only opened up the middle, but gave me entree to the NW. So, an important little answer for having so little initial impact. I knew the phrase implied "Life is Short" - from the ancient aphorism ars longa, vita brevis (Hippocrates, apparently) - but wanted VITA there at first. Then, knowing that de Falla was Spanish I thought "what's the Spanish word for 'life?'" Then I remembered the Ricky Martin song "Living La Vida Loca," and I was set. Thanks, Ricky. I probably would have clued VIDA as [Pitcher Blue] or something slightly more clever, but having recently heard a performance of de Falla's excellent "El Amor Brujo," I'm very happy to see him name-dropped in this way. VIDA intersects DELISH (20D: Finger-lickin' good), which pairs nicely with the other creatively spelled entry in the grid, PAREE (40A: "Since Marie Has Left _____" (Sinatra song)). Not sure how I feel about [Finger-lickin' good] as a clue - technically, it's pretty good, but since it is (or was) KFC's (or Kentucky Fried Chicken's) catchphrase for the longest time, it's giving me bad vibes of creepy old plantation owners and chickens being absolutely tortured under modern poultry-processing conditions.

Part the Second: The Land of Norah Jones (The Southwest)

26D: Her "Don't Know Why" was 2002's Record of the Year (Norah Jones)

An outright gimme - seriously, if you got any answer in this puzzle, you probably got this one, as this chick was @#$#-ing ubiquitous several years back. I'm guessing you not only like NORAH JONES a little, you probably even own one of her albums. Admit it, Times readers. Somebody's propping up her career, and you all are my prime suspects. One of the first controversial stances I ever took on This Here Blog was that NORAH JONES was inferior in every way to Merle Haggard (yes, the comparison may seem arbitrary, but it was related to their both being in the puzzle around the same time). I stand by that comment to this day. However - while normally I'm not happy to encounter NORAH JONES, she really, really helped me get this puzzle started, so maybe I should give her a break. I had the entire SW section done inside of a few minutes thanks to her. Other great features of NORAH JONES-land:

36A: Items in many a still life (oranges)
25D: They offer hot links (IHOPs)

As I was writing in ORANGES, I exclaimed "Dammit, how come she keeps getting her name in the puzzle while I continue to be snubbed!?" ("She" being my fellow crossword blogger whose handle is ORANGE). Then, the very next entry I filled in was IHOPS (Plural! Just like in heaven!) and it was as if the puzzling gods were saying "We have not forgotten thee, Rex." Since IHOP is my oft-declared official religion, I take all IHOP references as a tip of the hat to me, whether so intended or not. Apparently the idea that the ORANGES / IHOPS intersection is a dual crossword blog reference has already been put forth at the NYT Forum - the fact that anyone besides me noticed makes me happier than you'll ever know.

49A: Singer who wrote the poetry collection "The Lords and the New Creatures" (Jim Morrison)

As he is a bigger musical legend than NORAH JONES, perhaps it seems unfair that he should be relegated to secondary status in this SW quadrant. But, first of all, to be fair, NORAH JONES handed me a ton of answers with no effort on my part, where JIM MORRISON came to the party late. And second, as he is clued in relation to his poetry-writing (!?) I can't in good conscience give him priority status. When I first read the clue, I swear to you that my first guess (before looking at the number of spaces involved) was JEWEL. Singers who write (crappy) poetry ... first thought = Jewel. And since the answer did indeed start with "J," I thought maybe JEWEL had a last name ... but no, the answer is not JEWEL. It's the Lizard King.

58A: Baja California port (Ensenada)

My family went here on an infamous road trip in, let's say, 1985. I have a picture, which I could scan and post ... maybe some other time. I bought many a comical stuffed frog, and a leather wallet which I used well into the late 90's. Speaking of family trips to Mexico, we'll be doing it all again in April, only this time, Destination: Club Med Cancun. I'm totally serious. Can you blog from there? We'll find out.

45D: Liszt wrote only one (sonata)

Just a neat little factoid, to go with the other musical factoid I learned yesterday, which is that Debussy wrote only one opera: Pelléas et Mélisande. Reader Ultra Vi is surely happy with today's multiple music clues: De Falla, Liszt ... and ... let's see ... ooh, also DALE EVANS (28A: With 8-Down, "Happy Trails" songwriter), Gene KRUPA (24D: He had a 1941 hit with "Drum Boogie"), and one other which I'm holding off on 'til ... well, 'til right now, as he is the celebrity who rules our next puzzle section.

Part the Third: The Land of Xzibit (The Northwest)

1A: Rapper with an MTV show ... whose name sounds like a word meaning "show" (Xzibit)

Best Crossword Fill Ever. Look at his name! This was a gimme for me, though I couldn't figure out at first how "Pimp My Ride" "sounds like a word meaning show.'" Then I realized that the clue is just badly written, and that "whose" refers back to "Rapper" (not the more proximate "show"). . . [cough] . . . ["Nerd!"] .... yes, anyway. Xzibit is a very charismatic man, and I have watched his show several times - in fact, it might be the only MTV show I have watched more than once since Daria went off the air. The "X" in XZIBIT helped me get 1D: Marvel Comics comic (X-Men), which you'd think would be easy for me - I teach comics, for god's sake - and yet I swear to you that my first thought was not the wildly popular X-MEN, but the wildly silly THOR.


Love the intersecting colloquial fill 15A: Defiant dare ("Make me!") and 5D: "Nothing for me, thanks" ("I'm good"). And it's always good to see the handsome, campy Billy ZANE (2D: "The Phantom" star Billy) in the puzzle. "The Phantom," like X-MEN (in a way) is a comic - see the ridiculous, modern, ongoing version in my sidebar (if you dare).

Part the Fourth: The Land of Margaret Atwood (The Southeast)

60A: "Oryx and Crake" novelist, 2003 (Atwood)

Thanks to my sister, who has a massive assortment of ATWOOD novels, including this one, which I feel as if my mother bought for her a couple years back, maybe for Xmas. Or maybe I'm making that up. Anyway, the title "Oryx and Crake" is super-memorable, as both proper nouns look like horrible typos - "'Oryx and Crake' ... that can't be right. She must mean 'Onyx and Cake,' right?" "Yes, because that makes Much more sense."

54A: Pioneer in the development of nuclear power (Fermi)

Crossword solving rule #182: When in doubt, vote FERMI!

Please note the rarely seen phenomenon of the "four-square" here in the SE section of the puzzle. This is the name I am giving to when four squares, all holding the same letter, form a larger square. This one is an "O" four-square, with ATWOOD and RETOOL (62A: Modernize, as a factory) (one of my favorite words, especially when used in relation to sitcoms) intersecting ROOT (55D: Etymologist's concern) and MOOT (56D: Kind of point). Two things about ROOT. My first thought: "What part of an insect is the ROOT?" Second: "A perfectly good opportunity to reference Elihu ROOT, squandered."

Part the Fifth: The Land of Ian Fleming (The Northeast)

12D: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" author (Ian Fleming)

Like the HONEYSUCKLE clue (with which I opened today's ridiculously long blog entry), I psyched myself out here, figuring it would be some strange British woman I'd never or barely heard of. Little did I suspect that the author of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was also the creator of James Bond.

10D: Something that has long needed settling (old score)

Such a great great clue / answer pairing. The "needed" part was throwing me - seemed a rather subjective, qualitative judgment for the puzzle to be making. I was halfway hoping the answer would be WEST BANK if only to see the giant controversy that would stir up. But no, OLD SCORE. Perfect. I do love vengeance. If you wanted to settle an OLD SCORE, why not MARAUD (9D: Freeboot) ... you know, DEMOLISH (7A: Total) a few buildings ... it's fun!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Feb. 25, 2007 - David J. Kahn

Solving time: mid-high 20's

THEME: "Comic Relief" - All the long theme answers begin with the last name of an OSCAR (67A: With 56-Down, start of eight answers in this puzzle) EMCEE, e.g. 15D: Birding capital of New Zealand (2006) (Stewart Island) - the parenthetical year(s) after the clue = year(s) that the OSCAR EMCEE in question, in this case STEWART, hosted the OSCARs.

I own a book of David J. Kahn baseball crosswords, which I keep by my bedside and enjoy quite a bit. They are of medium difficulty and every one has a baseball theme and lots of baseball fill. Fun. Today's puzzle: not as fun. Or rather, very fun in parts, dismal in others - the bad parts are only partly blamable on the puzzle, to be fair. I have never been so stuck, with so much of the puzzle left open, on a Sunday before - not in recent memory, anyway; for a host of reasons, the earth was scorched from an epicenter somewhere around the area now occupied by DESSERTS (87A: Display on a tray) and extending out about an inch to two inches in all directions. So the problem had its center somewhere around the "Missouri" region of the puzzle, but ripple effects were felt all over. If I could blame one clue for the entire problem, what would it be? Hmmm, let's see. No, it's really a team effort, so here's the team:

24D: Company that merged with Lockheed in 1995 (2001, 2003) (Martin-Marietta)
88D: Transitional land zone (ecotone)
101A: Court grp. (NBA)

I have never heard of MARTIN-MARIETTA. Lockheed-MARTIN is a major employer in the area of the country where I live, and I know Steve MARTIN hosted the OSCARs, so the MARTIN part, no problem. The MARIETTA part ... ???? Nope, not in my ken at All. So why not just get the crosses? OK, the big problem there was that MARIETTA runs parallel for five letters with 73D: Western capital (1979-82, 1984) (Carson City) - which I swear I only just now realized was a theme answers! - and I couldn't see it at all. First, I didn't know if "Western" meant Western U.S. or "Western" the way most first-world countries are deemed "Western," or what. Second, and more importantly, is the tiny 101A: Court grp., which at three letters I thought was a cinch to be ABA. But no, it's a stupid trick clue (the kind that makes me say "@#$# you" out loud to no one in particular), and the actual answer involves basketball players, not lawyers. That one-letter mistake (A for N) took the N out of CARSON CITY, keeping me in the dark for minutes longer than I should have been. As for ECOTONE ... whatever! It's a word. I looked it up. But it sounds like a synthetic compound, or else a ringtone for your phone that plays sounds of the rainforest or something. Not thrilled about ECO (48A: "Baudolino" novelist) and ECOTONE being in the same puzzle, either. MARIETTA, ECOTONE, and CARSON CITY = a lot of empty neighboring squares = work for me. The little crosses and neighboring parallels were not self-evident, either. Did not know that CRIBs were defined by their mobility (83D: Mobile home?) - Oh, I just got it. You hang a "mobile" over a crib. Nevermind. Ugh. We have a mobile - why? - hanging from our hallway ceiling upstairs. There is no CRIB there. If you have ever watched MTV, then you know that CRIB is just slang for an ordinary, stationary home. So I was confused on many fronts. Then there was 83A: Abbr. after Lincoln or Kennedy (Ctr.), which seems fine when you look at it, but when you've got three blank squares, it's not so easy. Scratch that: when you have ONE blank square, it's not so easy - I had -TR and thought for many moments that the answer might be STR., as in "I live on Lincoln STR." Yeah, it was that bad for me. The worst answer of the night, though ... well, it was close. In second place, we have

9D: Florida's _____ Trail (Tamiami)

So much Florida geography this week! We aren't all retirees!! I've never heard of this so-called "Trail" and the answer reads like a cruel joke, in that it has recognizable Florida fill (MIAMI) inside it. I thought LA MIAMI .... but no. No No No. And the winner for worst answer of the grid:

94A: Code word (dah)

The very last square I filled in was the "D" in this answer, and I did so with absolute uncertainty. Ironically, my first thought was Morse Code, but wouldn't that be DASH? What is DAH?!?!?! The only good part about this answer is that it's one letter off from D'OH, which I know to be an actual word, and was what I found myself saying a lot while trying to solve this puzzle. DAH is how the DASH in Morse Code is written out in English. Because DASH is already taken??? It's a real word. It just Sux. The very worst part - and this wound is entirely self-inflicted, nobody's fault but mine - is that when I went to check my grid at the applet, I kept getting rejected, and I was certain the D in DAH was to blame, and I went over and over ways that I could make it different - then plugged in literally every letter in the alphabet into that slot. When that didn't work, it began to dawn on me that I might have other errors. But a scan of all the Acrosses turned up only valid fill. So I could Not get a grid accepted by the applet forEver. Eventually, instead of just checking all the Acrosses, I checked all the Downs, and found DEAR SSNTA instead of DEAR SANTA (11D: Opening in the North Pole?). Sadly, that wrong "S" gave me an Across of TSE, which is so Pantheonic that I hadn't blinked at it when I'd scanned the Acrosses earlier. The actual, weirder-looking answer is TAE (39A: Inventor's inits.). So I actually had the puzzle filled in correctly on paper, but wasted 20+ minutes trying to get my grid accepted by the applet because of a simple typo.

I'm running on too long this a.m., so just a few more quick observations before I close things out. Here's some stuff I liked:

• 4D: Popular Bach work for keyboard (1994, 1996, 1999, 2002) (Goldberg Variations) - This work sits near the top of my iTunes "Playlists," and it's beautiful - always nice to have a gigantic gimme in the puzzle. How many times does Whoopi have to host the OSCARs before people finally realize it's not a good idea. Four non-consecutive terms, come on! Nobody should get that many chances. To her credit, she made fun of herself very effectively on "30 Rock" lately.
• 29D: Words from Pope's "An Essay on Man" (1940, 1942-43, 1960-62, 1965-68, 1978) ("Hope springs eternal") - "... in the human breast." Another huge gimme, even before I knew the theme of the puzzle. Damn, HOPE hosted a lot!
• 43A: Ecdysiast Blaze and others (Starrs) - I just love the word "ecdysiast!" So much classier than "stripper."
• 23A: First mate's greeting? (Madam, I'm Adam) - easily my favorite answer of the night. Palindrome! I got it right away - one of the few harmonious wavelength moments I had all night.
• 52A: Year Constantine the Great became emperor (CCCVI) - I thought it was CCCIII, but whatever, I knew the century, at least, which really really helped take care of the "Oregon" section of the grid.

More crap I didn't know, or barely knew, or generally said "ugh" to for some reason

• 1A: Stick used to swat flies (fungo) - here I've been calling it a "fly swatter" all these years; what a chump - think of all the syllables I could have saved if I'd only known.
• 32A: Actors Max and Max Jr. (Baers) - pulled this from somewhere, but this last name is like LAHR (of Cowardly Lion fame) in that the only part that's solid in my head is the "R."
• 62A: 1970's HUD secretary Hills and namesakes (Carlas) - man that is a Long way to go for a CARLA.
• 65A: C8H8 (styrene) - ugh, chemistry. Not my strong suit.
• 97A: Old computer (Tandy) - A beloved actress ... and she can do your taxes!? I hate to tell you, though, that she's not just OLD, she's dead.
• 45D: Sirtaki dancer in a 1964 movie (Zorba) - way to hide the fat Greek guy inside a sultry Japanese woman (that's what a "Sirtaki dancer" looked like in my head before reality came crashing in)

And for your and my edification, here is a map showing where the ARAL SEA is (91D: Waters fed by the Amu Darya):


According to this article, the ARAL SEA will kill us all (in fact, should have done so already). Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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MONDAY, Feb. 19, 2007 - Andrea C. Michaels

Solving time: 3:51

THEME: X-Y-X - three-word phrases, wherein the third word is a repetition of the first word, e.g. 20A: 007's introduction (Bond, James Bond)

An easy and rather listless theme, though I do like BOND, JAMES BOND as an answer. Did I mention how great the new Bond is? A very bad HOMBRE (1D: Man of La Mancha). The other two theme answers are:

36A: Embroidered sampler phrase (Home Sweet Home)
54A: Repeatedly (time after time)

For the record, these two answers could have been clued in a way far more entertaining to yours truly, which is to say, via 1980's pop music. Let's see, for 36A, how 'bout [Motley Crüe anthem] and for 54A, [Cyndi Lauper ballad]. If only some some novelty act had recorded a song in the 80's about James Bond, I could have hit the recluing Jackpot.

1A: "Survivor" shelter (hut)

Two things. First of all, I wouldn't call what most of them live in HUTs - HUT implies a far more completed and somewhat less porous structure than anything I've seen on "Survivor." Second, my wife can tell you if I'm correct about HUTS because she is a ... devotee ... of the show. Every season I vow not to get dragged back in to "Survivor" drama, but then inevitably, about mid-season, I'm getting roped in. So far, in this new season, I'm staying strong. But it's probably just a matter of time before it sucks me in and TAINTS (3D: Contaminates) my very soul, once more.

12A: October birthstone (Opal)

Here's something weird. I know this answer because my stepsister's birthday is in October, and for some reason the fact that OPAL was her birthstone has somehow stuck in my head. I could not tell you the birthstone of anyone else in my family. In fact, I'm hard pressed to name any other birthstones. Oooh, I think TOPAZ is one. BERYL? SARD? Seriously, I know birthstones like I know European rivers.

23A: Dustin's role in "Midnight Cowboy"

Really wish I'd actually seen this clue, as I love this movie. I like to say variations on "Hey, I'm walkin' here!" when crossing the street in front of impatient cars, or just generally walking around, anywhere, to whoever will listen. There's a nice little movie pile-up going in the NW, with RATSO just underneath BOND, JAMES BOND and intersecting JODIE (21D: "Panic Room" actress Foster). Speaking of Panic Room, I am very excited to see the new movie by "Panic Room" director [insert name here]: Zodiac. I normally hate serial killer movies, but this one has three great actors in it (Robert Downey, Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, and Mark Ruffalo), and the movie seems to have a sense of humor, so I'm in. Other "actors" in the puzzle include Britney Spears (10D: Britney Spears's "_____ Slave 4 U" (I'm a) - one of the least savory clues of all time), Gwyneth Paltrow (56D: Gwyneth Paltrow title role (Emma)) and HOMER Simpson (39D: "The Simpsons" dad), star of the upcoming The Simpsons Movie, opening this July. WILLARD was a movie about a creepy rat guy - who is actually much more pleasant to think about than the guy this clue actually references: 38D: Weatherman Scott.

A few more notes before I leave this one alone: 17A: The year 1052 (MLII) is one of the laziest, weakest clues ever. Couldn't you have found some pope or emperor or something to clue it to. It's like you just gave up. I've actually never seen a Roman numeral clued so literally and directly. The Northeast, or "Bangor," section of the grid gave me much grief for a Monday. First of all, AMBIT!?! (7A: Circumference) - that's some fancy fill for a Monday. Had to get several letter from crosses before it ever occurred to me. Second, TOM!?!?! (11D: Mr. Turkey). TOM intersects AMBIT at the "T," so you can see my dilemma. When I saw [Mr. Turkey], my mind went to two places - first, advertising: I thought maybe there was a "Mr. Turkey" the same way there was a "Mr. Coffee" or "Mr. Clean." Second - Bodybuilding! Is there a "Mr. Turkey" the way there's a "Mr. Universe" or whatever? Who is from Turkey who is famous enough to be in a Monday puzzle? Answer: nobody. You call a male turkey a TOM. I am pretty sure that unless you are high or writing a children's book, you do not call him "mister." Hey, speaking of bodybuilding, wasn't Charles ATLAS (50A: Map book) a bodybuilder? Score, nice segue, Rex. The word AURAL (61A: Hearing-related) appears in the advertising literature for an on-campus talk today. Despite the fact that the talk somehow involves the awesome Stevie Wonder song "Livin' for the City," I am not going. That's just the kind of colleague I am: lazy. Actually, when people start subjecting Stevie to the deadening, dehumanizing, and smugly posturing language of contemporary theory ... well that is the kind of BAD DREAM (9D: Nightmare) I could do without. I'm gonna put Stevie on right now, and pay him proper reverence: awed silence, with occasional bouncing to the rhythm. After that, some Dr. DRE (29A: Hip-hop doc?), then maybe a Beethoven OVERTURE (37D: Orchestral intro) just to cool things down, and then full day's work (write read write read write etc.).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Feb. 11, 2007 - Mark Feldman

Solving time: 27:10

THEME: "Love is All Around" - a [HEART] rebus puzzle, e.g. 6D: Oscar-winning "Titanic" song by Celine Dion ("My [HEART] Will Go On")

How do I get my keyboard to produce a little "heart" symbol? I'm sure it has the ability, but I can't be bothered to figure it out. And what the hell happened to everyone over at the applet? The times for this puzzle are way WAY higher than normal. 27:10 is a crappy Sunday time for me, but it was lightning fast compared to most people so far - many people as good as or better than I seem to have forgotten how to fill in a rebus puzzle when solving on the applet (first letter of the rebus word goes in the rebus square - I think there are other options, but that's the fastest).

I didn't enjoy this puzzle much, for a number of reasons. First, the theme is pretty uninspired. I mean, there are a TON of theme answers, which is admirable, but a lot of the answers are of a piece, e.g. SAD [heart]ED, HARD [heart]ED, GOOD [heart]ED, etc. It's only in the movie / book / song titles that things get a little interesting and animated, and even then the titles get pretty obscure, not to mention boring, e.g. THE [heart] OF A LION (17D: 1917 Frank Lloyd film) and [heart] AND SOUL (101A: 1938 #1 hit composed by Hoagy Carmichael). So, solving-wise, kind of a blah experience. But...

Then I got sent a link to another blogger who had demonstrated that the arrangement of the rebus squares produces the outline of a very appropriate image: a heart! (well, more exactly, a valentine). Here is a link to a picture of the completed grid with the rebus squares filled in with valentines, so you can appreciate the artfulness of the construction.

My three favorite theme answers:

• 4D: Where "sage in bloom is like perfume," in song ("The [Heart] of Texas")
• 77A: 1972 #1 Neil Young hit ("[Heart] of Gold")
• 85D: Joseph Conrad classic ([Heart] of Darkness)

Shouldn't that first answer be "Deep In THE [h] OF TEXAS?" I know that song only from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. [H] OF DARKNESS was one of the few books I read the summer before entering graduate school, when I was worried that I was very poorly read (you know, for an English major from a decent liberal arts college) and that I needed to know more of these "classics" I'd heard so much about. I can't say that reading Conrad did anything for me. I did learn that Conrad's first language is Polish. Like Nabokov, Conrad wrote his most Klassic work in a language that was not his "mother tongue." That's all I know.

Potential theme answers that went unused:

• Wild at Heart
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
• Miss Lonelyhearts

And the very hardest (actual) theme answer to get!

56A: Washington's profile is on it (Purple [H]eart)

I am wondering if anyone else out there had the U (from ESTUARY - 39D: Rio de la Plata, e.g.) and the second E (from MORESO - 41D: To a greater extent) and blithely entered QUARTER for this answer. Anyone? This clue, in the, let's say, "Valley Forge" region of the puzzle, threw me way, way off and all of the surrounding territory remained quite wide open for what felt like forever. There are several really hard crosses that kept PURPLE [H] hidden.

• 32D: Coll. fraternity with a skull-and-crossbones symbol (Sig Ep) - OK, so that's SIGma EPsilon, but I've never heard it referred to as anything but "Skull-and-Bones." Had the SIG and then everything thereafter felt arbitrary.
• 57D: Cell stuff that fabricates protein, for short (R-RNA) - is there even a hyphen in that? I don't know. Had the RNA, and could not remember what letter went before it.

Then there was the first of many ridiculous, seemingly non-words that populated this puzzle. This one ran right on top of what would become PURPLE [H]:

• 51A: Reddish-brown gems (sards) - now, I am told by professional solvers (well, one of them, anyway) that SARDS is a common answer; I was even sent proof from the cruciverb.com database (I'm pretty sure that's where it was from) showing me that it had been in several grids in the past ten years. Still, I'd never heard of it. Further, it looks ridiculous. It's a name a kid would make up to describe some new weapon he'd invented for his Power Rangers. Also, it sounds like a disease.

Other crazy words:

• 49A: French white wine (muscadet) - muscatel, muskrat, Muskie, musketeer, Mouseketeer - those are all familiar to me. MUSCADET? No. Is it like Space Cadet?
• 95A: Pregnant woman, in obstetrics (gravida) - doesn't this mean "fat chick" in Latin?
• 31D: Of the morning (matutinal) - I swear that I always thought the word was MATITUDINAL. Why is that? Is that a word? It does not appear to be, alas.
• 30D: Eastern European pork fat dish (salo) - I didn't even see this crazy answer until just this second. You eat pork fat? Like, just the fat? As a "dish?" How many famines do you have to endure before that starts to sound like a good idea?
• 75D: Fishhook line (snell) - the most made-up-sounding of them all. Now please you all the following words in one sentence: SARDS, MUSCADET, SNELL.

I like the stacking of FERNWOOD (65A: Mary Hartman's TV hometown), MARYANN (69A: "Gilligan's Island" castaway), and GARR (73A: "Mr. Mom" co-star), because they are all pleasantly pop-culture-y. When I was a young man, and other guys my age were hot for, oh, let's say, Cindy Crawford, I had an Enormous Crush on Teri GARR. I remember when she did print ads for Jockey underwear. Boy do I remember. I don't think they were supposed to be particularly sexy, but supposed to, schmosed to. Love her. "FERNWOOD 2Nite" is one of my favorite 70s TV shows - one I didn't discover until I saw it on Nick at Nite in the 90's. It's a fake local talk show with Martin Mull as the host and Fred Willard as his sidekick. If it's not available on DVD, it should be. And as for the old Ginger / Mary Ann debate, if you don't know which side I come down on, then you are a very, very bad judge of character.

Call out the composers! Specifically ALBAN Berg (1D: Composer Berg) - who has a very convenient first name, from a crossword perspective - and GIAN Carlo Menotti (12D; Composer _____ Carlo Menotti). I'm pretty sure GIAN here wrote "Something something and the Night Visitors." I remember [Menotti boy] was a clue a few months back, and I didn't know it then, and I clearly don't know it now ("Something something"). It's AMAHL. No wonder I can't remember it. Here, it didn't matter. I think of GIANCarlo as one word, but I guess not.

One more answer I didn't know:

• 99A: Pulitzer-winning biographer Leon (Edel) - not much to say; just don't know him.

Last thoughts, at random: 67A: Screened, as a patient (pre-seen) is a little bit of absurdity. Who would say it? It's got more syllables than the far more comprehensible "screened." I don't normally like seeing NAZI in a puzzle (too ... depressing?) but here it's positioned neatly (under 113A: White-collar work (desk job)) to form a phrase, DESKJOB NAZI, that aptly describes Dwight Schrute, the best character on TV's best (current) sitcom, "The Office." I kicked ass on the ancient clues today, like 60A: Old Aegean region (Ionia) and 96D: Golden calf crafter (Aaron). I can tell you that NIKOLAI Gogol (34A: Writer Gogol) is the eponymous "namesake" in the upcoming movie The Namesake, for which I saw a confusing but compelling trailer recently. I have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I am über-familar with both little EVA and Simon LEGREE (86D: Stowe villain), thanks to the crossword! Another crossword staple that you should never forget: 1A: Shooting marble (agate). Let's end on an 80's note by teaming up Mork from ORK (127D: Sitcom planet) with, oh, let's say, JASON (114D: 1980's screen slasher) from the Friday the 13th franchise. Yes, that works. I'd pay to see that crossover.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SATURDAY, Feb. 10, 2007 - Bob Peoples

Solving time: untimed

THEME: 6D: With 22-Down, disgruntled remark about a failed partnership? ("He got the mine / I got the shaft")

That's not really a theme, just extensive, symmetrical fill that anchors the puzzle, but it's far closer to a theme than most Saturday puzzles ever get. There are many detectable subthemes in this grid as well (see below). But first:

OK, this is me, in the present, talking to me 20 minutes ago:

Paying attention, past-me? OK. This is a SOREL:

This is a MOREL (18A: It has a cap in the kitchen):


Any questions?

There were two squares I was unsure of when I'd finished this puzzle, and it turns out the one square I had wrong ... was a third, totally different square. What's worse, I have purchased, cooked, and eaten MOREL mushrooms in the not-too-distant past. Why in the world my brain went "CORER ... BORER ... no wait, it's the mushroom, SOREL!" I'll never know. Apropos of nothing: SORREL with two "R"s is a kind of horse, I think. Yes. Also an herb.

1A: Top in a certain contest (wet T-shirt)
39D: Ones doing push-ups? (bra pads)
39A: Brest friends (bons amis)

OK that last one doesn't technically have anything to do with breasts, but the others sure do. I'm almost surprised that this level of boob-action passes muster with the Times. While WET T-SHIRT contests aren't really my scene, I love everything about that clue. Is "Top" a verb? A noun referring to the contestant? No, it's something you wear. Well, probably not you, exactly, but you see what I mean. The "push-ups" clue made me think BRA immediately. I entertained CUPS for a while, but PADS is more apt. Apt! Boobs are one of many subthemes in this puzzle. What's next?

9D: Ancient vessels (triremes)
15A: Reply on a ship ("Aye aye, sir")
21A: Coastal feature (ria)
61A: One of the five major circles of latitude (Antarctic)

No one aboard a TRIREME would ever have said AYE AYE, SIR, not least because TRIREMES were manned by ancient Greeks, not the crew of the Pequod. Still, the sailing theme is pretty strong here (I originally thought 66A: Coasts, say was SAILS, which would have been great, theme-wise; sadly, the answer was SLEDS, which I guess you could do in ANTARCTICa after you sailed there on your TRIREME). RIA is a handy word to know, and I'm surprised I don't see it a lot more often in puzzles. It means a submerged or "drowned" valley, where sea levels have risen or coastal levels have fallen. The South coast of England has a number of RIAs, and apparently the San Francisco Bay is a RIA. If global climate changes continue, expect the word RIA to enter more and more people's vocabularies. I could use a little Global Warming right now, as we (here, where I live) have been in a total Ice Age for three weeks, with only one hour (!) spent above freezing in that time. Last subtheme:

10D: Glen Gray's "Casa _____ Stomp" (Loma)
11D: Rock genre (emo)
57D: "Trionfo di Afrodite" composer (Orff)
49A: Key of Brahms's Fourth (E Minor)
8D: Score abbr. (rit.) - the return of RIT.! I was so proud of getting this
51A: "Peter _____ Greatest Hits" (1974 release) (Nero's)
40D: 1959 Neil Sedaka hit ("Oh, Carol")
36A: "_____ Her Go" (Frankie Laine hit) ("I Let")
27D: With 5-Down, match, in a way (lip / sync)

I just realized that I get Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka confused. Looking at their names, you can see why. If they got married, their kids could have the awesome hyphenated name ANKA-SEDAKA. It's like Abracadabra, only with more "K"s. Anyway ... these answers (just above) are all, disparately, musical. Is it my imagination, or did we not just have a reference to Peter NERO in a puzzle. Something like [Peter and the Wolfe?], where the answer was NEROS? I still have No Idea who Peter NERO is! Oh, he plays piano. I can't quite tell what kind of music he makes. He currently directs the Philly Pops. I also have no idea who Glen Gray is! Hmmm, a jazz saxophonist and the leader of the Casa LOMA Orchestra - well, that would have been nice to know.

(More) Things I Didn't Know

• 24A: _____ Bank (U.S. loan guarantor) (EXIM) - stands for Export-Import Bank of the U.S. Thank god I remembered the name of the "M" cross, 25D: French Impressionist Berthe (Morisot), or who knows what I would have put in that square.
• 34A: Artist on the cover of a 1969 Life magazine (Peter Max) - I thought I would nail this: ROCKWELL came to mind. But I must say that I've barely heard of PETER MAX. I sure know his "style," though. Garish and unfortunate. Fake happy. Drug-addled. Everything that nauseated me about the 70s-80s. The "X" from 14D: Oppressive measure that helped spark the French Revolution (Salt Tax) made PETER MAX much easier to piece together than he would have been otherwise.
• 43A: TV producer Don (Hewitt) - I don't even care enough to look him up
• 63D: Height in feet of the Statue of Liberty, expressed in Roman numerals (CLI) - that's way shorter than I would have guessed.
• 7D: Alpine feeder (Isere) - yet another stupid European river I don't know.
• 52D: 10-century emperor known as "the Great" (Otto I) - inferrable, but ... don't a lot of emperors or tsars or other rulers fit this description?
• 45D: Annuity scheme (tontine) - I know what a TONTINE is (Abraham Simpson was in one once), but I did not know it was an "annuity scheme"
  

I was a little surprised by (and thankful for) a handful of gimmes in this puzzle, including 32A: Georgetown athlete (Hoya), 47A: Prefix with -stat (rheo-), 4D: Inventor's inits. (T.A.E.), and 11D: Rock genre (emo) - EMO should be in the Junior Pantheon, for words that are very hot but relatively new: see also, TERI POLO, Eric BANA, etc. EMO has an equally hip cousin in the grid: IMO (31A: "I think," succinctly) - I tried "I AM" here, but it didn't work. In case you are not up on chatroom abbreviations, IMO = "In my opinion." It's often written (obnoxiously, IMO) as IMHO (the "H" standing for "humble" - which the user of said abbreviation normally is not). Speaking of computer lingo, I have to GO OFFLINE now (65A: Become disconnected) and get my personal and professional life in some kind of order today.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Feb. 6, 2007 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke

Solving time: 4:45

THEME: Breakfast - four theme entries (two horizontal and two vertical, nice) contain breakfast foods in non-breakfast contexts, e.g. 63A: Czar's treasure (Fabergé Egg)

Loved the theme, though I never saw it during the solving experience itself because I torched this puzzle. Super-solvers can scoff at that statement, but this is my first sub-five-minute Tuesday ever. I'm pretty sure I exclaimed "woo hoo!" upon hitting "Done!" and getting the "Thank you for playing" message, despite the fact that it was after 10pm and my wife was just starting to fall asleep in the next room. Did about 10 puzzles yesterday, 5 of them while "watching" my wife's karate practice last night, so I was well warmed up when I tackled this puzzle at just after 10pm.

All the theme answers are great. In addition to FABERGÉ EGG, you've got:

• 17A: Booze (happy juice) - never heard this expression, but I do like it. Is ZIMA (6A: Fruity alcoholic brand) a form of HAPPY JUICE?
  
• 11D: "Apollo 13" co-star (Kevin Bacon) - first theme answer I got, and I thought the puzzle was going to have some "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" theme. Alas, no
• 27D: Comment to a goner ("You're toast") - that's the hottest one of all: colloquialicious

I have to say, as I look at this grid, I'm surprised I got through as fast as I did - there are many wriggly little two-word phrases and at least three answers I don't recognize at all:

15A: Land of Esau's descendants (Edom) - oh am I terrible at things Biblical / Hebraic; even when I know them, I cannot spell them
25A: Hopalong Cassidy player William (Boyd) - One for the old folks; I would have gotten [Ellroy anti-hero Kemper]. HA ha, it turns out that the first "William Boyd" that Google recognizes is not this Hopalong guy, but a British author ... born in ACCRA, Ghana. There's a capital I won't soon forget (see last Tuesday's puzzle, Pllllleaaze; a memorable one, that)
24A: Chemistry Nobelist Otto (Hahn) - I know one Hahn, and her name is Hilary.

Then there's the dueling Winnebago clues (when's the last time you saw that in a grid?)

29D: Offshoot of the Winnebagos (Iowas)
35A: Offshoot of the Winnebago tribe (Otoe)

I really wish one of these Winnebago clues had had an answer related to RV-ing.

So much computer-related fill here, what with ASCII (1A: Computer character set, for short) and SPAMS (14A: Bombards with bogus offers) and IMAC (12D: Colorful computer) and of course NERDS (70A: Uncool sorts). There also appears to be a sublimated religious theme here, with ACOLYTE (55A: Church candle lighter) and TEXT (69A: Preacher's reading) and MONKS (13D: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" figure - speaking of NERDS!), and O GOD (60D: Prayer start) and the Pope's TIARA (37A: Princess' accessory) and, last but not least, ZEUS (6D: Chief Olympian) and his HEIR (59D: Crown prince, e.g.), ARES (44A: Mars' Greek counterpart).

I only had one false entry in this grid: JEANS for JEEPS (18D: Wranglers, e.g.), and that is a total set-up if I ever saw one, because those are both great "J"-answers that fit perfectly. But the awesome "Q"-containing word PIQUED (28A: Sparked, as curiosity) took care of the problem, giving me the "P" I needed to turn JEANS to JEEPS. Other colorful fill includes GAUCHOS (58A: Some cowboys), SCHTICK (21A: Comic's gimmick - so many consonants in SCHTICK!) and AMECHE (9D: Mustachioed Don of classic films). Mustachioed! Why isn't that in the grid?! If I ever construct a puzzle, it will contain MUSTACHIOED, which will be clued [Don Ameche, e.g.]. Hey, WAS (41A: Isn't anymore, cute) not only sits right atop the ARE in ARES, but it's also echoed by the full answer ARE in the western ("S.F.") portion of the grid, 47A: "_____ you kidding?" Innnnnnteresting. You've also got a CAPT (3D: Skipper: Abbr.) and SGTS (61D: Some NCO's) connection. I should stop now, as I'm getting dizzy. I would like to give a final shout-out to AGUE (55D: Malarial symptom) a crossword staple who (I feel) has been unfairly overshadowed lately by his smarmy Italian cousin A DUE. Not to mention TIARA - didn't we call a TIARA moratorium a month or so ago? I don't think I'm ready to lift that particular injunction.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SATURDAY, Feb. 3, 2007 - Rich Norris

Solving time: untimed, but quite fast for a Saturday - circa 15 min.?

THEME: none

I am starting to feel like the puzzle-solving practice is beginning to pay off - Saturdays do not usually come together in one rolling, uninterrupted flow the way this puzzle did today. At no point did I have my very common Saturday experience of being Stopped - absolutely hung up, biting my pencil, trying and retrying answers in my head (and on the page) to get a section to fall. My success results partly from the fact that the puzzle is, in fact, easy (-ish) in parts - see especially the SE, with the Nabokov gimme PNIN (54A: Nabokov novel) - this was in a very recent Fri or Sat puzzle - which led easily to LENTIL 44D: Protein source - another common clue/answer pairing - followed by ERN (49A: Seaside flier) - "They're back!" - then TRISTE (45D: Sad) - also in a recent puzzle - then, if you didn't have it already, ALTA (43A: Banff Natl. Park locale), and from there the whole SE just topples, with those longer crosses at the bottom being very easy to pick up (though I at first thought tigers had TENACITY and not the proper FEROCITY (59A: Tiger's quality)). But besides easiness, another reason this puzzle went down in short order was my weird, seemingly uncanny ability to pick answers out of thin air. The two most notable examples are KEENED (60A: Wailed), which isn't a hard word, per se, but with an empty grid, it's a killer first guess: gave me the "K" that allowed me to see that FOOTNOTE was not FOOTNOTE but in fact ASTERISK (33D: Indication to look down), which gave me the first letters for all the SW Acrosses. The other word that came to me out of the blue was OSAKAN (3D: One of 2.7 million Japanese), again, with no letters (except possibly the final "N" from 26A: Whips (tans), which at that point I was Not sure about). I know squat about Japan, but I knew that the answer, given the odd clue, must be the name of a particular city dweller, and OSAKAN was the first thing that popped into my head; and like KEENED, it gave me a helpful "K" and I was off and running in the NW - the last part of the puzzle to fall. For some reason I was also able to get the two 11-letter answers, 7D: Bow-making time (curtain call) and 24D: Knot (brain teaser) - with only a small handful of crosses in each case. CURTAIN CALL was made slightly easier by the fact that we watched the conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales make several of them at the end of last night's concert (which was recorded and will be featured on NPR's "Performance Today" ... someday ... probably not "today"). During one of the CURTAIN CALLs, a grown woman dressed as what we imagined to be a girl in "traditional" Welsh costume presented the conductor with flowers, and I turned around to notice that in the center of a far back row, spectators had unfurled a Welsh flag and were waving it proudly, getting waves in return from some of the orchestra members. It was like a soccer match in there. Very cute, actually. The pianist for Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 looked like ... who was George Jefferson's neighbor? The British guy? Huge jaw, kind of slow-looking? Winston? No BENTLEY! Yes. Well, this guy looked a bit like him, and he listed like I've never seen a pianist list - to his right, constantly, as if he couldn't stand to be too close to the orchestra. He was just fine, but the Bartók was probably the least exciting of the four pieces. Night ended on Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from the opera Peter Grimes. The program notes told the story of the opera, which is Horrendously depressing, and ends with a fisherman taking his boat out to sea and sinking his boat, with himself in it, after having not one but two young boys die while in apprenticeship to him, thus incurring the wrath of the townsfolk. The music was genuinely sad and moving, which is good because, with an angry mob and a very tragic figure named Grimes, it seemed dangerously close to becoming an episode of "The Simpsons."

Stuff I Didn't Know

• 1A: Faucet with a rotating plug (stopcock) - I'm just gonna let that one sit there
• 2D: Ballerina Karsavina (Tamara) - if you say so...
• 14D: Conjoined area (tristate) - pieced this together letter by letter - Holy @#$#, I just this second realized that there is a hyphen in this word: TRI-STATE. HA ha. I thought perhaps this was a medical term. Wow. OK, good thing it didn't matter. Side note: not that thrilled about having TRISTATE and TRISTE in the puzzle together. I have this weird thing about repeated letter combinations of five or more letters.
• 29A: Rig-_____, Hindu sacred book (Veda) - VEDA just sounded right, but I could very easily have botched this, as the "A" here intersects with the formerly mysterious TRISTATE, which I briefly considered making TRISTITE.
• 29D: Actress Bloom of "High Plains Drifter" (Verna) - I was close: I had VELMA at first; I did, however, get Richard CRENNA (30A: "The Sand Pebbles" actor, 1966) almost immediately, with very few crosses.
• 39A: Embryonic sac (amnion) - thankfully, this was highly inferrable since I am familiar with the phrase "amniotic fluid."
• 41A: Air _____, discount carrier (Tran) - again, inferrable, but Never heard of it.
• 33A: Lacking light (aphotic) - thank god I knew PHOT = light or I don't know what I'd have done. Never heard or seen this word before, that I can recall.
• 58A: Form of boxing using both the hands and feet (savate) - the one answer I was most unsure about, given that it crossed a Hebrew name at a vowel, ugh: I was very unsure about the "A" in 51D: "Voice of Israel" author (Eban), thinking it might be EBEN, but SAVATE just looked / sounded better than SAVETE, and so I went with my gut, and my gut was right. No errors on this puzzle! Woo hoo!
• 9D: Angle symbols, in geometry (thetas) - didn't know, but it's easy enough to piece together. I feel as if Andrew has used this term in conversation with me. How is that possible?
• 8D: Gas in fluorescent lamps (krypton) - always surprises me that this is a real substance. Sahra is a regular reader of the comic book KRYPTO, about Superman's dog. She is currently in the middle of producing a special KRYPTO comic just for me. I will surely share it with you as it becomes available, assuming I can clear copyrights.

Best Fill

A raft of fabulous colloquial answers, all of them starting with the letter "I":

36A: "Speaking personally ..." ("I for one...")
56A: "Really?!" ("Is that so?!")
12D: Enthusiastic response ("I'd love to!")
55A: Soon (in a bit)

And next, a veritable triumvirate of fresh fill clogging up the NW. In addition to the aforementioned STOPCOCK ("tehee!"), we have:


15A: Convenient, in a way (easy pour) - may be my favorite answer of the day
17A: Kids (small fry) - way to hide the plural in a singular!

I like TALONS (21A: Curved nails) because it's what the ERN (49A: Seaside flier) will use to SET AT you (10D: Go after), especially if you are a paraglider in New Zealand ("Where's your SAVATE now, human!?").

Lastly, MIDRIFF (40D: Area under a halter) just looks very cool in the grid. I'm not really a fan of the exposed MIDRIFF, but here: very nice. Not cheap-looking at all.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS - after reading and commenting on Crossword Fiend's blog entry for today (see sidebar for link, as always), I was reminded (or reminded myself, more accurately) of three more answers that warrant comment. The first is EST (47A: It's in the neighborhood), which, like TRISTATE, I got but did not understand - I was thinking it stood for ESTABLISHMENT, but of course it's short for ESTIMATE. Duh. Next we have T-SHIRT (9A: Top with a quip, maybe), which came to me instantly and was my entrée to the grid. TSHIRT is commonish fill that you can dress up or down in so many ways, and this clue is great. Next, FISTED (42D: Two-_____ (strong)). That's right, FISTED. See also STOPCOCK. Throw in the very great OOFS (6D: Punch lines?) and you are a heartbeat away from a gay porn script. The presence of Oscar WILDE (48A: He wrote "A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies") isn't helping. Notice that I haven't even mentioned GOO (32D: "Ick!" evoker) ... or TRAN ... I have to stop now.

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SUNDAY, Jan. 21, 2007 - Patrick Berry

Solving time: a lazy half hour (on paper, in bed)

THEME: "Kareem of the Crop" - familiar phrases that contain words beginning with R-blends (e.g. Pr-, Dr-, Br-, etc.) have those words changed to non-R-blend homynyms, creating odd phrases, which are then clued, e.g. 24A: James Stockdale as running mate? (Perot choice) - so Pro-Choice becomes PEROT CHOICE

[updated 5:15pm]

So nice to have an easy puzzle to meander my way through after suffering through Hard and Hardest on Friday and Saturday. I did not grasp the real complexity of today's theme until well after I had completed the puzzle - as I was doing it, I just thought the theme answers were clever little puns. I was hoping, from the puzzle title, that the theme was going to have something to do with puns on basketball players' names or sports stars who take Muslim names or something, but alas, no. Just the R-blend silliness.

Speaking of basketball players' names (how's that for a segue?), we went to another performance of our local Philharmonic last night and had the genuine privilege of seeing Wu Man play Tan Dun's Pipa Concerto. Tan Dun is best known for writing the score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (for which he won an Oscar) and for writing and conducting (!) the recent Metropolitan Opera premiere of The First Emperor, starring Placido Domingo. How do basketball stars fit into any of this, you ask? Well, here is an excerpt from the program notes on the Pipa Concerto. After explaining that the Pipa Concerto constitutes a reworking of material from Tan's 1994 Ghost Opera, the program continues:

The Concerto is a thorough reconsideration of the earlier work. It had called upon the string players to perform also on gongs and water bowls and the pipa player to play also on the bowed gong, tam-tam, Tibetan bells, and paper. At various times they also vocalized lines from Shakespeare or a Chinese folk song. It is an overtly theatrical piece of chamber music in five movements.

The Concerto, on the other hand, is cast in four movements (in a slow-fast-slow-fast pattern), playing only their own instruments, though occasionally stamping a foot or shouting "Yao.”

The pipa itself looks like a cross between a banjo and an oar. Then cross that with a cross between a fraternity paddle and a dragonfly. The concerto began with a collective foot stomp from the orchestra. So hot. There was so much string plucking and sliding and note-bending goodness, and the piece managed to achieve this awesome fusion of traditional Chinese (pentatonic ... sound? I think ... Andrew?) and Classical European sound. The string plucking (from all the strings in the orchestra) is so intense that the piece has a collective orhcestral retuning Built In To It, i.e. in the middle of the piece, the principal violinist stands up and briefly retunes the orchestra to the pipa's A (I believe). You can read about this wild concerto here. I have been to three concerts this season, and the two pieces that have most blown me away are not available on any recordings (that I can find): this one, and Golijav's "Night of the Flying Horses." Maybe I should write about puzzle now. GOLIJAV would make good x-word fill, by the way. And if you live in Spokane, you can see the Spokane Symphony play "Night of the Flying Horses" this Friday (along with Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" - how could you not go?).

26A (THEME): Terse account of what happened at the Raptor Petting Zoo? (Falcon caressed)

Ah, 80's TV. Not what immediately came to mind. First thought: "uh ... school field-trip turned bloodbath?" I was thinking Jurassic Park raptors, not your less lethal (to human beings) avian raptors. This NW corner fell pretty quickly despite a couple of missteps: I had WALKMAN for DISCMAN (4D: Sony introduction of 1984) - a stupid mistake, though 1984 seems Awfully early for a DISCMAN - and I had nothing for REDISTILL (19A: Raise the proof?) until it was practically on top of me: RED IS what now?

14D: City on the Seine (Le Havre)

Very proud of myself, getting this off of the "V" alone. Helped that HAVRE was on my mind, having been an answer in a recent puzzle which then became one of the two or three most Googled clues in the history of this website: I won't write it out verbatim here (for fear of drawing Googlers here and not the proper puzzle) but it involved a college town in Montana of that name. Wicked obscure. This answer runs through SEVE (31A: Golfer Ballesteros), which is one of the few sports clues that I know my mom would have gotten. She had something of a crush on Senor Ballesteros back in the day (the day being the 80's). Yes, she was quite a fan of SEVE, and Tom Selleck, but thankfully not, as far as I know, Claude AKINS (39D: Claude who starred in TV's "Lobo").


OK, I have to run to go shopping with my wife. I'll finish this up in the early afternoon.

[I'm back - updating blog]

Wow, four hours at the mall is like 348 hours anywhere else. Drudgery. Luckily, Sandy found what she needed, so it was worth it. We also went grocery shopping. You can see that I am sapped of energy as I am telling your information and yet have nothing snappy to say about it. Back to puzzle.

41A (THEME): Girl who wears hair clips in nonstandard ways? (barrette maverick) - Of all the theme answers, this took me the longest, by far, to get. Got BARRETTE quickly, but not fully understanding the theme, I couldn't figure out how BARRETTE could be a pun on anything. The MAV- made me think the word MAVEN was involved, but no. Right now I am just guessing that BRET MAVERICK was the name of the title character in a Western TV series from the 60's - hang on while I check ... and I'm right. James Garner. I wonder if my mom had a crush on him, too. He's a handsome guy. Never saw him in "Maverick" (little before my time), but I Love him in "The Rockford Files." Just bought the first season on DVD. It's true.

48A: Like a crow or lark (oscine)

The only word in the puzzle that I had never heard of. That's pretty good for a Sunday, when normally there are a handful of words / phrases that throw me. Sandy didn't know this one either, and she's something of a bird person, so I deem this bit of knowledge pretty obscure. Not as good a word as PORCINE, but it's nice in its own way.

50A: Half of a longtime country duo (Naomi Judd)

I had NAO-, and instead of thinking "well, there's only one word in my entire vocabulary that could be" (NAOMI), I thought "Something's wrong." So I left it and came back to it, eventually solving it from the other end. The Judds kind of freak me out - something in the way they look, especially together. I can't say that I have ever heard them sing - my hand is quick to the dial / remote. NAOMI JUDD intersects my most embarrassing flub-up. I thought I'd be cool and try to fill in an answer without looking at the clue. At 41D I had --J-V- and blithely wrote in DEJA VU (Actually I had what I thought was a "B" in the first position, but it was a badly written capital "B" that looked like a "D"). Eventually I looked at the clue: 41D: "Here's a pleasant surprise!" and thought "I ... guess that's equivalent to DEJA VU ... seems like a stretch ..." It was a stretch. Such a stretch, in fact, that it wasn't right at all. The answer was BY JOVE, which is itself kind of weak. BY JOVE is equivalent to "Here's a pleasant surprise!" only if said while wearing a monocle in the conservatory in 1893. BY JOVE, it turns out that OSCINE isn't the only word I didn't know. BY JOVE intersects two more: 47A: Poet/novelist Elinor (Wylie) - an anagram of my cat's name - and 63A: Historic Irish city (Tralee). Why is it any more "historic" than any other Irish city? Is this the place where Puff the Magic Dragon lived (before he moved on up to a land called Honah-Lee)?

77A: Alternative to Rover (Rex)

Never get tired of seeing this baby in the grid. Don't care that the only time my name makes it into the grid is by way of reference to a dog. Still feels good. Might have to nominate REX for the Pantheon next year. Other potential candidates for next year that make an appearance in today's grid include ESAI (49A: Morales of "NYPD Blue") (he demands a recount for this year), ECLAT (43D: Ceremonial splendor) (which here intersects Pantheon member 52A: Impetuous quality (Elan)), TSE TSE (42D: Fly from Africa), ERIN (40A: "_____ go braugh"), and ESTOPS (5D: Impedes legally), inter ALIA (7D: Inter _____).

My best mistake (as opposed to my biggest) came at the bottom of the puzzle. I spent many seconds pondering how DANKE could be an appropriate response to 102A: Jive, e.g. If you think someone's full of it, you ... say Thank You ... in German ... to that person? Something had to be wrong, but all of the crosses checked, except - it turns out you don't spell ERIC Heiden's name with a "K" (88D: Olympians Liddell and Heiden). Problem solved. The fact that I once edited an encyclopedia finally came in handy, as I had 85D: Clavell novel set in Hong Kong (Tai Pan) dead to rights, though I'd never read the book. Had never even heard of the book until I had to proofread the encyclopedia entry. Bring on your Clavell Clues, Puzzle Gods - or clues about 95 other popular contemporary writers. Actually, if I remember correctly, I paid way closer attention to the early-alphabet entries; by the time I got up to John Updike, I was pretty much just phoning it in.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Jan. 16, 2007 - Dave Mackey

Solving time: 5:13

THEME: Family REUNION - three long theme answers (one of which is impossibly good) describe sets of relatives, such as one might find at a REUNION (40A: Celebration that may involve the people in 20-, 42- and 56-Across)

These are your theme answers, listed here, in order, from good to mind-blowing.

• 56A: 2005 Mark Wahlberg movie ("Four Brothers")
• 20A: Chekhov play, with "The" ("Three Sisters")
• 35A: With 42-Across, Lesléa Newman book ("Heather Has / Two Mommies")

I solved this puzzle so quickly (for me), that I didn't not notice HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES as the answer until it was 80% filled in. This book was legendary when I was in college (originally self-published in 1989) for being one of, if not the, first children's books to depict a lesbian household. I have said that everything about pop music, from the years I was in college, sucks. Well, one of the better - or at least more interesting - developments of my time in college was that it was a time of increased visibility of gay people in literature and movies. Or maybe it's just that I finally met some gay people when I was in college and then noticed they were everywhere and, it turns out, as messed up as everybody else I knew. Hurray for equality. Anyway, this book, as well as Annie on My Mind, got talked about (usually jokingly, even among the most politically sympathetic, i.e. gayest, of us) a lot in my latter college years. I won't even tell you the alternative (i.e. totally made-up) titles we had for some of these. Let's just say that "My Mind" was not what Annie was "on."

Yesterday I announced a moratorium on guys named Dave/David authoring puzzles. I then grandfathered a bunch of Davids, but forgot to grandfather Dave Mackey (I did it in Comments). And then voila, here he is. So, he's legal, but seriously, don't push me. Oh, I also forgot to grandfather Dave Tuller. I wonder what the record is for using "grandfather" as a verb in a single day. Single paragraph?

14A: Followers of so (la ti)
2D: Nobel-winning Nelly (Sachs)

How many times will I be suckered in by the damned "notes on a scale" trick, where SO or DO are used in a clue as if they are words, but then it turns out they are part of that damned Sound of Music song!? Do you know any effeminate homosexual men who have won the Nobel prize in anything? I don't. Wait, did Auden win? The only Sachs I know is Oliver, and I don't really know him except by name. LATI looks incredibly stupid and wrong when written into the grid. These two answers, up in the always slippery "Seattle" section of the puzzle, gave me my only real solving challenge of this puzzle. Everything else more or less fell together without much pause (for once).

25D: Actor Milo (O'Shea)

So I posted the new 2007 Pantheon line-up yesterday, and immediately second-guessed myself like crazy. I'm already considering new words for next year, and this puzzle makes a good case for O'SHEA, who comes up a lot for a dead Irishman. O, my bad, he's not dead. He was the friar in Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet (pictured). He was also somehow involved in the Janeane Garofalo movie The MatchMaker. Guy's gotta eat. Actually ... I saw that movie in the theater. What's more, I didn't ... hate it. Might have ... liked it. Enough movie confession. O'SHEA is a worthy Pantheon candidate ... for another year. See also 53D: Home on high (aerie) and 55D: Perfume compound (ester) - which reminds me, I really really want to see Perfume; the novel was amazing, especially at the end when ... well, you'll see.

24A: "Hamlet" setting (Elsinore)
48A: Five Nations tribe (Onondaga)

So much colorful symmetrical goodness here. ONONDAGA live nearby, so I'm familiar with their name. ELSINORE took a little cajoling to come out into the light (DENMARK being the only "setting" that came to mind at first glance), but a couple of crosses made the answer obvious. This is one of the best Tuesday puzzles in a long time - between the beautifully structured and highly original theme, and the super-fresh fill in the non-themed answers. I am putting this one into the "Puzzle Awards 2007" folder I have on my desktop - it'll probably get nominated for best theme answer and best Tuesday. But who knows - there are still 11.5 months to go, and anything can happen.

4D: Musical liabilities (tin ears)
44D: Pizza slices, usually (eighths)

More hot symmetry. These answers are both musical, if you hold them in the right light. I love that EIGHTHS has five consonants in a row (one of the few words in English that can claim that). I also love that apparently I can't spell "consonant" (keeps coming out "consanant").

10D: Pale lager (pilsner)
43D: _____ Mann of 1960's pop (Manfred)

OK, I swear, this is the last pair of symmetrical answers I will shower with adulation. I just love it when these long connectors are something other than workmanlike. PILSNER isn't astounding, but it's sort of jaunty, and MANFRED Mann is a crazy blast from the past. "Blinded by the Light!" - Springsteen did a version of this song, but I prefer MANFRED's. Has the greatest misunderstood (by me) lyric in the history of song. But I am too modest to write it down; the line starts "Wrapped up..." That's all I'll say. Did you know that a PILSNER glass is FOOTED - It's true. How do I know. A little puzzle told me so - about 2-3 months ago.

62A: 1986 Indy winner Bobby (Rahal)

I have yelled at ESPN more times than I can count for its decision to count NASCAR and other auto-racing events as "sports." The machine does the work: NOT A SPORT. And yet, I must have absorbed something while ignoring the screen during the NASCAR coverage, because RAHAL was a gimme. I didn't know my gimmes went beyond Jeff Gordon, but apparently they do. So bring on the NASCAR, if you must. I am no longer afraid.

19A: Sue of "Lolita" (Lyon)

If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now: Kubrick's is the only "Lolita" you want to see. Doesn't matter that Sue LYON is way too old. Peter Sellers is some kind of genius in that movie (as is Shelley Winters), and the Jeremy Irons version is Pitifully lame and unfunny. No Sense of Humor. Nabokov would have retched. If I have performed this tirade before, my apologies.


33D: Steve the late Crocodile Hunter (Irwin)

This clue sounds more like a children's book title than a clue about a recently dead guy. "Steve hunted crocodiles, but he could never seem to get to work on time..." His death is sad, of course, in the way that all unnecessary deaths are sad. Did no one learn anything from Grizzly Man?!?! Let's leave the lethal animals alone, as God intended.

40D: Sonata ending, often (rondo)

I am running out of steam this morning. Andrew, what does this mean? And does anyone else remember a refreshing soft drink from the late-70s that went by the name of "Rondo?" HA ha, the (musical) RONDO entry at Wikipedia begins with an advisory: "For the former U.S. soft drink, please see Rondo (soft drink)." Only when you go there, you just get redirected to a generic "Citrus Drink" page, where RONDO is described very briefly. Answers.com tells me that two of its slogans were:

* "Rondo - The Thirst Crusher!"
* "Lightly carbonated, so you can slam it down fast!"

I want a picture of the can!!!! There don't appear to be any in existence (on the whole internet!? how is that possible?). Free "Rex Parker" T-shirt to the first person who can provide me with a pic. That is, when I actually get around to having the T-Shirts made. Or even designed.

Speaking of which, I received a "scholarship" to Stamford from my Aunt Nancy, which was very thoughtful. I am clearly going to have to set up something in the sidebar that acknowledges my benefactors; something like "Brought to you by ... IHOP ... the Letter 'K' ... and the Nancy McNichols Foundation for Better Blogging."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS I love that OLEO gets elected Pantheon President on a Monday, and then turns around and makes a puzzle appearance on a Tuesday. She's a man of the people.

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MONDAY, Dec. 11, 2006 - David J. Kahn

Solving time: 4:46

THEME: Rita Moreno answer to 59A: Star born on 12/11/1931

Happy 75th Birthday, Rita Moreno! What a great idea for a puzzle - if I were she, I would be blown away with honor (if that's an expression).

Today's puzzle = The Wrath of Kahn, Part II (see Part I, yesterday). But this time, less wrath, more pure puzzle pleasure. An amazing SEVEN symmetrically arranged theme answers, including a 15-letter answer across the middle. This is my favorite Monday puzzle of all time. Or of all time since I started writing this blog. I have very strong feelings about the long theme answer - ELECTRIC COMPANY (36A: Album for which 59-Across won a Grammy, 1972, with "The"). It's the children's show to which I am, by far, the most deeply attached. That show represents a time when TV didn't hate kids (so much) and the people at the CTW believed that learning could and should be fun and that the best way to reach kids is Not To Insult Their Intelligence. Rita Moreno! Bill Cosby! (see 38D: Comedian Bill, informally (Cos) - nice touch! He even intersects ELECTRIC COMPANY!), Morgan @#$#-in' Freeman as Easy Reader! Crazy skits and kids in ridiculous outfits dancing and singing about the "CH-" sound. Occasional appearances by Spiderman. And then their own homegrown superhero, Letterman! THE Letterman! So much fun for a kid's brain. This kid's brain, anyway. I learned to read and count and love TV from watching the ELECTRIC COMPANY. My mom loves to tell the story of how every time I heard those kids shout "Hey You Guys...!" (at the beginning of most episodes), I would come Running from wherever I was in the house and stand, close and unblinking, right in front of the TV set, and would remain standing for the whole half hour unless my mom physically backed me up and sat me down. This is when I was 2, 3, 4 years old. Everything I Need To Know I Learned From The ELECTRIC COMPANY. In fact, this blog, now that I think of it, is deeply indebted to the ELECTRIC COMPANY. Why? Because the very idea that being intellectual and being fun and irreverent might go together - I got that from ELECTRIC COMPANY (Not "Sesame Street," which, no offense, I thought was a show for slow kids). You can take your fun seriously without compromising the fun - all with a spirit of inclusion and freedom and liberty and justice for all. If anything about the 70's was worthwhile, it was the ELECTRIC COMPANY (see also "Schoolhouse Rock"). Sincerely, Ms. Moreno, wherever you are, Happy Birthday, and thanks for the inspiration.

22A: Having a ghost (haunted)
24D: Phantom (specter)

Is there a theme here? A subtheme? These two 7-letter answers, which kiss each other in the upper center of the puzzle, are just two examples of the fabulous long(er) fill (6+ letters) in this puzzle (nice to see on a Monday). I especially like CARHOP (7D: Server at a drive-in) and DEARIE (47D: Little loved one) because they feel like visitors from another era. I'M LOST (46D: "This is not making sense to me") is great, though not apt for this reasonably easy puzzle. The symmetrical long Downs STATE TREES (3D: Ohio's buckeye, California's redwood, etc.) and HEAVY LINES (29D: Map borders, usually) play nicely off one another, both because they are twin 5+5 / adj + pl. noun answers, and because they sound like they could be the names of some indie rock band and its debut album (whether the band would be the TREES or the LINES, I don't know).

Speaking of musical acts, it's good to see rap stars L-RON (53D: Scientologist _____ Hubbard) and T-NUT (57D: Carpenter's metal piece) out promoting their new album, RARIN' (48D: _____ to go (eager)). Look for it in stores tomorrow.

STUFF I DIDN'T KNOW

Always bad not to know stuff on a Monday. Never heard of TEMA (35A: Melodic subject, in music), which I'm guessing is just some foreign word for "theme." You know, I think that's it for today. Not bad. Actually, I probably inferred and / or never looked at T-NUT. Don't know that I could pick one out of a line-up.

Along with TEMA, we get some other nice Classical Music answers here, including 53A: Milan opera house (La Scala), 54D: Opera set in the age of pharaohs (Aida) [presumably not these pharaohs], and 32A: Debussy's "La _____" (Mer) (which I think I'll put on ... now). Wow ... AIDA and LA SCALA intersect in this puzzle, and AIDA opened the 2006-07 season at LA SCALA just four days ago! Niiice.

[late addendum: this breaking AIDA news is awesome! Thanks to Andrew for pointing it out. See also these pictures from opening night.]

57A (THEME): Play for which 59-Across won a Tony, 1975 (The Ritz)

The only one of the theme answers I'd never heard of (well, I've heard of The Ritz, but usually in relation to hotels, I think). Oh, but I do know the song "Puttin' on the Ritz," of course. The Taco version. Whatever happened to Taco? While I'm sure Ms. Moreno was Fabulous in "The Ritz," It's hard to believe she could ever top her work on THE MUPPET SHOW (25A: TV program for which 59-Across won an Emmy, 1977). That's a pretty high bar.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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