Fishhook attachment / THU 4-4-13 / Like opera Wozzeck / Great taste since 1905 drink / Old sports org with Virginia Squires / Hookah component / Gather on surface in chemistry

Constructor: Corey Rubin

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: LARGE PRINT — in the paper, there are 10 super-sized squares that, taken together, spell LARGE PRINT. In the online version of the puzzle, however—whole other story ... [Note: "The newspaper version has one oversize square for each block of four circles. We strongly recommend using the PDF version and solving on paper"] [Unnoted: where the hell the PDF version is]

Word of the Day: SNELL (44D: Fishhook attachment) —

n.
A length of fine threadlike material, such as monofilament or gut, that connects a fishhook to a heavier line; a length of leader.

[Origin unknown.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/snell#ixzz2PSRkwgep

• • •

More techno-fails from the NYX site. It's pretty simple—if you're going to make puzzles that your apps / current software can't handle, then put a warning up front on the puzzle page and provide a well-marked link to the PDF. Today, mission 50% accomplished. By the time this posts, the tech folks will have realized their screw-up and fixed things. Still, failures of this kind continue to be a semi-routine occurrence. Me, I go straight into the applet, so all I knew was that there was a "note"—I didn't know what the note was, and I tend not to look at them, since they take time to read (the timer is running!) and they usu. give me unnecessary aid. Today's puzzle would *definitely* have been easier if I'd known what was up w/ all those damned circled squares (or been faced with just the over-sized squares, like in the paper), but I was still able to figure out the gimmick and finish in a pretty normal time. The online times today will thus be useless for determining exactly how hard this puzzle was. They're gonna show it Challenging, and it's just not. None of this tech stuff is the puzzle's fault, so ... on its own merits, the puzzle seems fine. Fill is pretty dull except for STRAIGHTENS UP, HOE-DOWN and TRUMP CARD, but the theme itself is at least interesting. My solving experience isn't going to be that relevant to you because I had the four circled squares (see grid) instead of the one large square. So I wrote in SNAP PEAS for 3D: Common stir-fry ingredient, because it fit, and then I knew UPC was probably right (23A: Bars from the supermarket, for short?) but ... too many squares. Wasn't until DR. ZHIVAGO that I *knew* something like doubling was happening with those squares (9D: Film character who says "I hate everything you say, but not enough to kill you for it"). Quickly realized that all four squares were the same letter (and were to be treated as a single letter). The puzzle then got Very easy.

Strangely, I got traction in this thing via ADSORB (?) (8A: Gather on a surface, in chemistry) and BOSNS (13D: Petty officers, for short). That's sheer xword experience, right there. I've never seen ADSORB in the wild, and I know BOSN only from Shakespeare's "The Tempest." But they got me going. I'm usually pretty good with RAPS, but I'll admit I've never ever heard of "Ms. New Booty." Clue wasn't hard to get, in the end, but it did not come instantly. I've never used (smoked?) a hookah, so I had no idea URNs were involved (14A: Hookah component). I misread [Like the opera "Wozzeck"] [Like the Mozart opera [something...]] and though I could see it had to be ATONAL, I thought "Mozart? ATONAL? Seems ... wrong." Indeed. What else didn't I know. Some guy named PYE (24D: Poet laureate Henry James ___) and the non-legal ABA (8D: Old sports org. with the Virginia Squires). I think Dr. J used to play in the American Basketball Association. Yep, only person ever to be MVP of both ABA and NBA. Now he does Crown Royal commercials.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Wine whose name means fragrant / SAT 12-10-11 / 11th-century invaders / Fisher with eponymous concert hall / Tarzan Ape Man star 1981 / Company in 2002 headlines

Constructor: Corey Rubin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: AVERY Fisher (43A: Fisher with an eponymous concert hall) —

Avery Robert Fisher (March 4, 1906 – February 26, 1994) was an audio specialist who made numerous contributions to the field of sound reproduction. [...] In the 1950s, Fisher invented the transistorized amplifier and the first stereo radio-phonograph. These breakthroughs brought Fisher both fame and fortune. From 1959 to 1961, his company also made important improvements in AM-FM stereo tuner design. In 1969, Fisher sold his company to the Emerson Electric Company for US $31 million, which in turn sold the company to Sanyo of Japan. Fisher was a consultant for both Emerson and Sanyo. (wikipedia)

• • •

This one played pretty average for me, time-wise, but I can see by the times at the NYT site that it's playing slightly more difficult than that for most folks. It definitely felt like a struggle, but I still somehow managed to come in under 10 minutes, which is in the Medium range (maybe even on the low end of that range). I loved this puzzle. A lesson for all you aspiring themeless constructors out there ... actually for most themeless constructors not named Patrick Berry: keep your word count on the high end. This one has 72 words, the max for a NYT themeless puzzle. While it's true that there are no daunting white expanses, and no answers at all longer than seven letters (?!), this grid is incredibly clean *and* has some crackling mid-range fill. I love the freshness of "YA THINK!?" and NEW COKE (58A: Famous pop flop) as well as the pairing of "MY TREAT" and "I INSIST," and with the exception of the high-end wine crosswordese of OLOROSO (15A: Wine whose name means "fragrant") and the slightly Odd Jobby ENCODER, there was virtually nothing that made me wince. Cluing tough and playful, answers solid and entertaining. A real winner.





[30D: Frank account]

I like the "V" crossing of the two title "relatives" of drama: VINNY and VANYA (I would've said "title 'relatives' of THEATRE," but that's a bit of a stretch for "My Cousin VINNY") (27D: Cousin of film + 27A: Title relative in a classic Russian play). I also like that the maddeningly ambiguous [Syllable-saving poetic word]s (ERE and O'ER) were symmetrical. Nice touch. ERE gave me untold amounts of trouble in the NW (the hardest section of the grid for me). I don't really consider ERE "syllable-saving"; I guess the idea is that it has one less syllable than "before" (?), but that's pretty weak. I considered only O'ER and E'ER because those apostrophes actually elide a syllable. Anyhoo, the long Downs up there were hard to get without the right little word in there. Had ENRON (19A: Company in 2002 headlines) and RTES and MOWN and OREOS (4D: They come in a Triple Double variety) pretty early, but still couldn't get those long Acrosses quickly. Had to abandon that section for a while and come back when I got DANDIES and NORMANS (7D: 11th-century invaders). Ended up finishing in the SE—threw down DAWS (52D: Crows' kin) and then, from N-W----, I got NEW COKE. "K" gave me EEL-LIKE and from there it was a short battle until I finally wrapped it up with the hard-to-parse I NAS NIT (55A: Noticeably peeved).

Bullets:

• 8A: Features of some crooked enterprises (MOB TIES) — another great answer. That NE corner really is lovely.
• 39A: "Tarzan, the Ape Man" star, 1981 (BO DEREK) — never heard of this movie, but BO DEREK became superfamous a couple years earlier with "10." I was lucky to know both her name and ELI ROTH's name, because the film names alone weren't doing it for me. 
• 2D: Civic or Corolla competitor (ELANTRA) — a very highly rated sedan. I was shopping for a new car until I realized I don't really need one. We're a one-car family now, and so far, so good.
• 11D: Article in man a hip-hop title (THA) — such as "THA Carter," "THA Carter II," "THA Carter III," and "THA Carter IV" ... and probably some others. 

• 25D: Actress Kruger of "Unknown" (DIANE) — Never heard of actress, never heard of film. Recognizable woman's name? Check. OK, moving on... Not sure I could pick KRISTEN Bell out of a line-up either, but I've heard her name before, and I've definitely heard of "Veronica Mars" (one of those critical favs that don't get enough viewers and then get axed and then everyone goes on and on about the injustice of it all) (42D: "Veronica Mars" star Bell).
• 49D: "Welcome to the human network" sloganeer (CISCO) — I read this as "Welcome to the human sloganeer network" — ominous. 
• 51D: Certain badger or raccoon (BOAR) — had nooooo idea what this meant, until I realized BOAR was probably just the word for the male of the species. Rough.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1824 Vienna premiere / THU 6-17-10 / Tony-nominated choreographer White / Eponymous doctor with maneuver / Hit 2006 film banned every Arab country

Constructor: Corey Rubin

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: ODE TO [JOY] (13D: Work incorporated in 33-Across ... or a description of this puzzle?) — a rebus puzzle with six "JOY" squares; BEETHOVEN'S NINTH runs across the middle of the grid (33A: 1824 Vienna premiere)


Word of the Day: ONNA White (35D: Tony-nominated choreographer White) —

Onna White (March 24, 1922 – April 8, 2005) was a Canadian choreographer and dancer nominated for eight Tony Awards. White was especially adept at choreographing dance numbers for actors with little or no dance training. [...] // She choreographed both the stage version and screen versions of The Music Man (1962), 1776 (1972) and Mame (1974) // The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Miss White an Academy Honorary Award for Oliver! (1968), one of the rare occasions that the Academy recognized choreography on film. Other recipients include Gene Kelly for "career achievements", Jerome Robbins for choreographic achievement on film", Michael Kidd (Ms. White's mentor) for "services to the art of dance in the art of the screen" and Stanley Donen for "body of work". Fred Astaire's was much earlier, and was for his body of work. Onna White's Oscar is the only one that states the name of a film, i.e. "To Onna White for her outstanding choreography achievement for "Oliver". (Ref. The Academy of Motion picture Arts and Sciences.) (wikipedia)

• • •

If you'd told me in January that by mid-year, my fastest Thursday time of the year would come on a *rebus* puzzle, I'd have told you you were nuts. But here we are. This is the easiest rebus puzzle you're ever likely to see, probably because you can't really hide "JOY." Every instance of "JOY" involves a meaning related to the word "JOY" (compare, say, "DOG," which can be hidden inside, say, "DO-GOODER" or "DOGMA"). Once I got through the (pretty obvious) trap at 1A: Poe poem, with "The" ("BELLS") ("RAVEN! Wait, that's too easy for Thursday!"), and completed the NW corner, BUNDLE OF [JOY] was quite obvious. Wrote out BUNDLE OF, saw there was just the one square left, and immediately wrote and circled "J" (to symbolize "JOY"). And I was off. Quickly. If it weren't for some fumbling in the areas surrounding ONNA (!?!?!) and POO (11A: Cutesy-___) (that clue/answer is my very least favorite thing about this puzzle), I'd have been under 5 minutes today. Instead, just a handful of seconds over.

As for POO—first, inherently, yuck. Second, I don't know the phrase "Cutesy-POO." Never heard anyone say it ever. Figured it had to be PIE, even though "Cutie PIE" is probably the phrase I was thinking of. 12D: Present was at least a little ambiguous. PIE led to IN HAND, which felt plausible, if not great. But ODE TO [JOY] was undeniable, so I was left with Cutesy-PIO (actually, at first, I think I had AT HAND and "Cutesy PAO!"). Eventually, ON HAND revealed itself to me, as did POO. But come on: In a very easy, otherwise ENJOYABLE puzzle, do you really want your solver bogged down in POO? I hope not. I also really hope I wasn't the only (fast) solver to have a POO problem. Look how much you're making me write POO!?! It's like a cruel joke.


[Encore presentation!]
Theme answers:

• 20A: Newborn (BUNDLE OF [JOY])
  
• 8D: One way to jump (FOR [JOY])
• 30A: Hershey's brand (ALMOND [JOY])
  
• 13D: Work incorporated in 33-Across ... or a description of this puzzle? (ODE TO [JOY])
  
• 26A: Gratifying (EN[JOY]ABLE)
  
• 28D: "Dubliners" author ([JOY]CE)
  
• 47A: Euphoric (OVER[JOY]ED)

• 38D: What there was in Mudville (NO [JOY])
  
• 43A: Pastime for a car thief, perhaps ([JOY]RIDING)
  
• 53A: Best-selling novel of 1989, with "The" ("[JOY] LUCK CLUB")
  
• 53D: Al ___, 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump ([JOY]NER)
  

Can you guess the one moment in this puzzle where I exclaimed "Dang [yes, I say 'dang'], that's good!"? Hint: nothing to do with JOY. Second hint: nothing to do with RIBOSE (6D: Nucleic acid sugar). Answer: SET-UP MEN (10D: Relief pitchers prior to closers). It's a pitch-perfect baseball term that I can't remember ever seeing in a puzzle. These are the guys that get no love—the ones that hold down the fort until it's time to bring in the Big Gun: a Rivera or a Papelbon or a Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) (all of whom rarely pitch more than an inning — in 2009 Rodriguez appeared in 70 games and had just 68 innings pitched). I also love BAWDY (17A: Blue) and the grid's heartfelt declaration at the top of the grid: "I LOVE / BORAT"! (18A: Hit 2006 film banned in every Arab country except Lebanon).

Bullets:

• 50A: Region known as the Valley of the Moon (SONOMA) — Noooo idea. Thought the answer might actually be a place on the moon itself. According to Jack London, by way of the Miwok and/or Pomo tribes, SONOMA translates to "Valley of the Moon" (wikipedia).

• 59A: Top of a Roman candle? (IGNIS) — that is, the Latin ("Roman") word for "fire."
  
• 65A: Elizabethan dramatist Thomas (KYD) — author the hugely popular and fantastically violent "The Spanish Tragedy."
  
• 34D: Eponymous doctor with a maneuver (HEIMLICH) — "maneuver" part made this a gimme.
  
• 40D: Container on a pole (HOD) — which sends brain immediately reeling: "Pole? Which "pole"? The Poland pole or the North Pole or the stick kind of pole or ...?" A HOD is what bricklayers use to carry bricks and mortar.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Widower of Maude on The Simpsons - WEDNESDAY, Jun. 24 2009 — Chantilly's department / Uniformed comics dog / Flying Cloud of 1927-36

Constructor: Corey Rubin

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "TAKE AN AD OUT" (60A: Promote one's business, maybe ... or a hint to 16-, 23-, 30-, 41- and 47-Across) — "AD" is removed from familiar words/phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: ROISTER (41D: Whoop it up) — intr.v., -tered, -ter·ing, -ters.

1. To engage in boisterous merrymaking; revel noisily.
2. To behave in a blustering manner; swagger.

[From obsolete roister, roisterer, probably from Old French rustre, ruffian, alteration of ruste, from Latin rūsticus, rustic. See rustic.]

Tougher-than-usual Wednesday, due largely to the nature of the theme. That is, it's often harder to move through grids where so many answers involve trying to see unfamiliar phrases, unintuitive phrases created by letter removal. So the puzzle was doable, but just slower-going than your average Wednesday (for me). I'm pretty sure I've seen AD OUT before (maybe with tennis cluing). Or maybe that was AD IN. Or maybe both. At any rate, despite the impressively high theme density, I wasn't much of a fan of this one. Theme phrases were a bit blah (except RIO ACTIVITY and ROLLER BLING, which are kind of nice). TONS of black squares to make this grid work (42 is up near the high end of legal) and yet there was still a lot of unlikeable fill. Two variants (2D: Newbie: Var. TIRO + 13D: Fencing thrust: Var. RIPOST)? Two partials beginning with "A" ("A RUT" + "A CASE")? SHTETL (65A: "Fiddler on the Roof" setting) and RAO (67A: Indian novelist Raja _____) and "LOVE IS" (26A: Vanessa Williams/Brian McKnight duet) all strike me as less than optimal (and ONER always strikes me that way - 56D: Lollapalooza). All in all, not terrible, just slightly disappointing. Maybe I would have liked "LOVE IS" better if it had been clued as the creepy comic strip "about two naked eight-year-olds who are married" (Homer Simpson).

["ROLLER BLING"]

Theme answers:

• 16A: Talking like a junkie? (drug diction) — from "drug addiction"
• 23A: Agnostic's display? (show of a doubt) — from "shadow of a doubt"
• 30A: Sunbathing at Ipanema? (Rio activity) — from "radioactivity"
• 41A: Rink jewelry? (roller bling) — from "roller-blading"
• 47A: Letter carrier's uniform? (mailing dress) — from "mailing address"

I had my biggest struggles trying to get the tail ends of ROLLER BLING and MAIL DRESS. My wife wiped out in the GEKKO (50D: Gordon _____ ("Wall Street" role)) / RAO, having somehow missed a lot of America's 1980s in part by not being an American or living in America at the time. She also said "I don't know who Moe Howard is," and then I said "I think the 'Howard' is throwing you," and then she said immediately "Oh, like Larry, Moe and Curly? ... I still don't know what he pokes." This is why pop culture has its perils. Speaking of EYES (54A: Targets of a Moe Howard poke), I don't get why shoemakers use DYES any more than any other maker of dyed things uses DYES (51D: Shoemakers' supplies). DYES do not seem very shoe-specific to me. At all. But I'm no cobbler (i.e. I actually *have* a PIE CRUST — sorry, that's a weak (and week-old) callback). MABEL (47D: Normand of old movies) and ROISTER (41D: Whoop it up) are a couple of old-fashioned bits of fill that are likely to slow or stop some people today. Hardly anyone knows who MABEL Normand is any more (I kept thinking NORMA DESMOND here) and no one outside a Renaissance Faire (perhaps a MERRY ANDREW) uses ROISTER.

Bullets:

• 1A: "60 Minutes" correspondent starting in 1991 (Stahl) — a gimme/lucky guess. Got me off to a nice start.
• 20A: Canape topper (paté) — "topper" is a very xwordy clue word, up there with "denizen" and "slangily."
• 21A: "The Hot Zone" virus (ebola) — were RHESUS monkeys involved (43D: What "Rh" may stand for)? I think some kind of monkey was. More than you want to know about EBOLA here.
• 40A: Widower of Maude on "The Simpsons" (Ned) — Maude died when she plummeted out of the stands at the Springfield Speedway after being shot by a T-shirt cannon.
• 66A: Wahine's offering (lei) — "offering" is kind of like "topper" in that it has a lot of clue cred.
• 6D: Fence supplier (thief) — took me a while to understand the gist of the clue.
• 9D: Pear variety (anjou) — hey, it's not BOSC, for once.
• 14D: Uniformed comics dog (Otto) — first thought: SNERT. Also, kept reading "uninformed."
• 24D: Blazin' Blueberry drink brand (Hi-C) — The apostrophe makes it Xtreme!
• 27D: Chantilly's department (Oise) — "Chantilly" makes me think of only one thing:

• 32D: Batman after Michael (Val) — VAL Kilmer was Batman for exactly one film: "Batman Forever" (1995). The "Michael" of the clue is Michael Keaton.
• 52D: Flying Cloud of 1927-36 (REO) — learned this just a few days ago, and here it is, back again, for an encore.
• 61D: Tuskegee U. locale (Ala.) — "locale" "topper" and "offering": a fine clue-word triumvirate.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Computer language in Y2K news - WEDNESDAY, May 27 2009 - C Rubin (Monarch crowned in 1558 Abbr / Left Bank toppers)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: " ... like a Brit" - familiar (American) expressions have words inside them changed to their British counterparts, creating nonsense phrases, which are then clued, "?"-style

Word of the Day: ELUTE (42A: Extract with a solvent) - tr.v., e·lut·ed, e·lut·ing, e·lutes.

To extract (one material) from another, usually by means of a solvent.

[From Latin ēluere, ēlūt-, to wash out : ē-, ex-, ex- + -luere, to wash.]

A cute little Wednesday, though I have one question: Can LORRY be a verb? Or do parts of speech not matter in this little switcheroofest? Not surprisingly, both because it was first and because it was nuts, KEEP ON LORRYIN' took me the longest to get of all the theme answers. In fact, once I got out of the N/NW, it was all pretty smooth, but the start was bumpy enough to keep this at what felt like an average Wednesday level of difficulty. I could make nothing out of 1A: One-two part (jab) at first. Kept thinking of Lawrence Welk's "a-one, and a-two" and boxing never entered the equation. I also don't know my computer languages from my left elbow, and so COBOL took me a few crosses (4D: Computer language in Y2K news). To my (very minor) credit, I had at least heard of COBOL before ... probably from puzzles. I had no idea it had anything to do with Y2K. I remember the Y2K hype very well. No memories of COBOL. Isn't COBOL a planet in the "Battlestar Galactica" universe? Anyway, moving on - the Downs in the N/NW are quite lovely. Really like JACK UP (1D: Hike, as a price), and GO-ROUND (7D: Bout), MIX IT UP (10D: Have a tussle), and IN DRAG (8D: Clad like some Halloween paraders) aren't half-bad either. MUSIC BOX also has its merits - reminds me of the song "MUSIC BOX Dancer," which somehow, for reasons that are way beyond my comprehension, charted as a single in the late 70s despite being entirely instrumental and, well ... here, you listen:



Embarrassing fact for the day: I remember, at 9 years old, calling Y94 (local radio station) and requesting "Music Box Dancer" ... and then sitting around listening to the radio, waiting for them to play it. My tastes in music would ... develop.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Words of encouragement to a Brit? ("Keep on LORRYin'!") - from "Keep on truckin'"
• 29A: Group of dancing Brits? (conga QUEUE) - from "conga line"
• 46A: British smart-alecks? (wise BLOKES) - from "wise guys"
• 56A: Sleep like a Brit? (catch some ZEDS) - from "catch some z's"

Bullets:

• 2D: Vulcans and Romulans (aliens) - I don't think Vulcans and Romulans are ALIENS if you are on Vulcan or Romulus. I'm just sayin'.
• 19A: Daisy type (oxeye) - I just had to look up how to spell this word. Thought it might be OX [space] EYE, or OX [dash] EYE.
• 53A: Dresden denial (nein) - part of a one-two foreign-word clue alliteration punch, with 58D: Other, in Oaxaca (otro).
• 55A: Wedding memento (video) - now that is a hard clue, in that VIDEO does not leap, or even LIMP (49A: Favor one side, perhaps), to mind. And yet it makes sense.
• 60A: When doubled, a wolf's call (hubba) - I wonder how many people puzzled over the possible sounds that actual wolves make ... OWOOOO (that's my version of a howl)
• 63A: Sacha Baron Cohen character _____ G (Ali) - beware his full name, which looks nuts in the grid: "ALIG? Who the hell calls himself ALIG?"
• 67A: iPhone display unit (pixel) - I guess so. "iPhone" part is quite arbitrary.
• 9D: Bernstein/Sondheim's "_____ Like That" ("A Boy") - no idea. None. Dang, it's from "West Side Story" - I really should see that movie.
  

• 33D: Leopold's partner in a sensational 1924 trial (Loeb) - do you really need anything after "partner?" What other famous partner did any guy in history named "Leopold" have?
• 45D: Monarch crowned in 1558: Abbr. (Eliz.) - easy, but weird to see her referred to without the familiar "I" after her name.

A few other items of business. One, for those of you who missed my late addition to yesterday's write-up, be sure to check out occasional Rex stand-in and commenter Wade's new song-writing venture ("Nutcraker Buck"). His recent song about Captain Sully Sullenberger is getting press.

Next, crossword-constructing whipper-snapper Natan Last gets a nice write-up in the latest issue of Brown University's Alumni Magazine. Best quote from the interview: "I really like shoving a bunch of cool words into a puzzle." No pretension. Straight to the point. Natan thinks he looks like a "[-----]face" in the accompanying photo, but I think he looks scrappy and impish, like a combination of Jo from "Facts of Life" and Alex P. Keaton from "Family Ties." Anyway, check out the article here.

And lastly, a little literary anecdote. Last night, I was reading "Fat" by Raymond Carver in a used paperback edition of "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" that I got at a book sale a while back. Carver was my idol as a (very) young man, and I hadn't read him in ages, so I was excited to revisit his stories, especially "Fat," which stuck in my mind like few others. As I read, the pages came loose and fell neatly out of the book, but I didn't think anything of it - after all, it was a used book that I got for virtually nothing. When I finished the story, I flipped the small stack of loose pages over and noticed, for the very first time, the following inscription: "For Pat Wilcox, with my thanks for being here tonight, Ray. Carver 11/10/81" I discover that I own a signed Carver only because the book literally falls apart in my hands. It was tragic and magical all at the same time. Next to his signature, Carver has underlined the date, and just below that, he's written my favorite part of the whole inscription: "Binghamton!" What's weird - Carver would have been here (Binghamton, where I live) visiting, among others, the novelist John Gardner, who taught here for many years. Gardner would die in a motorcycle accident less than a year after Carver's visit.

Since it's already fallen out of the book, I think I'm going to frame that inscribed title page and put it right underneath the framed Ali signature from 1971 that's addressed to me and my mom.

Enjoy your day,
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Hey syndicated readers (i.e. those reading this on Wed., July 1, 2009) — just wanted to alert you to a contest going on at my other blog today through Friday morning, July 3, 2009. Grand prize = three pretty choice books from my vintage paperback collection. Contest should be amusing. I got a panel of guest judges and everything.

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Apologies in Apulia - FRIDAY, April 17, 2009 — Corey Rubin (John Wayne title marshal of 1973 /Slow-smoked Southern grub / Crack of dawn, old-style)

Theme: None

Word of the Day: IMARET(S) (15D: Near Eastern hospices) — A type of hostelry for the accommodation of Muslim pilgrims and other travelers in the Turkish empire. (answers.com)

PuzzleGirl back with you again with your late-week puzzles. Wow. I really liked this puzzle! This was exactly the kind of solve I'd like to have every single Friday. Bit by bit, I keep plugging away ... a few hiccups here and there ... one wrong answer I finally let go of and then BAM! It's done. The first thing I popped into the grid was MIRANDIZE (17A: Read rights to, as a perp). I could hardly believe my luck. I almost never get a long answer like that right away to get me started on a late-week puzzle. The Z made BOZEMAN (12D: Montana State University setting) appear effortlessly. Then BSMT. (25A: Rec rm. locale, often) and LEAS (28A: Picnic places) brought QUESTS (13D: Story lines of Indiana Jones films) into focus, but that would made 6 Across end with "BQ." That couldn't possibly be right! What did I do wrong? Ohhh ... [Slow-smoked Southern grub]. It doesn't just end with BQ, it ends with BBQ! Awesome! (It took a little longer, but I finally got the whole answer: TEXAS BBQ. And speaking of Texas. I heard today that there are a few people in Texas who don't really want to be part of this great nation of ours any more. Wade: What the heck is goin' on down there??)

The only missteps I had were at 18A: Work in a gallery (OIL), where I initially entered art, smirking to myself "Well, that's pretty easy for a Friday!" And 36A: Like lumber in a mill (SAWN), where I had hewn. Does that even make sense? I don't feel like looking it up. Saw and hew are related somehow though. I'm pretty sure. I also had Gatorade where POWERADE was supposed to be at 31D: Coca-Cola product. And I thought SET out was a pretty good answer for 1D: Depart, but the right answer is SET OFF.

This was a quick solve for me. I started keeping track of my time at the beginning of this year, so I decided to look back and see if this was my fastest Friday so far. Turns out it's my second fastest. My first fastest was back on March 6 on a little puzzle constructed by ... Corey Rubin (his debut!). Rex rated that puzzle Medium-Challenging, but a quick scan of the first few comments reveals that not everyone had as much trouble with it. So either (a) Corey Rubin creates objectively easy puzzles, (2) I'm always on Corey's wavelength, or (c) something else. In any event, I thought this puzzle was awesome. Here are the answers I particularly liked:

• 32A: Appt. book headings (MTWTF). Don't recall ever seeing this in a grid before and it rocks. (I have no idea where I picked it up, but I always abbreviate Thursday with an R instead of a T, to distinguish it from Tuesday. Does anyone else do that?)
  

• 37A: Information, slangily (FOUR ONE ONE). This strikes me as hip, which probably means it was hip about ten years ago. Plus ... slangily!
  
• 53A: Our neighbor's nickname, with "the" (RED PLANET). I'm all "The ... Canada? The ... Mexico??"
  
• 25D: Overwhelmed and destroyed (BLITZED). Sure, why not?
  
  
  
• 34D: Crack of dawn, old-style (DAY-PEEP). Never heard of it. But I like it.
  

Misc.:

• 1A: Apologies, in Apulia (SCUSE). Italian!
  
• 15A: "No, no, this one's on me" (I'VE GOT YOU). I'm going to let this one slide because I love the rest of the puzzle.
  
• 26A: French kings' emblem (FLEUR DE LYS). Not to be confused with Beethoven's "Fur Elise."
  
  
  
• 29A: Dark times abroad (NUITS). French!
  
• 34A: It can be cracked (DOOR). Anyone like code for this one?
  
• 35A: Frijoles go-with (ARROZ). Spanish!
  
• 48A: Letters in some church names (AME). We talked about this recently. Hope you remembered that discussion.
  
• 55A: On the lookout (OPEN-EYED). I'm gonna let this one slide too.
  
• 56A: Fast results? (PANGS). That's fasting as in not eating. Clever.
  

• 2D: John Wayne title marshal of 1973 (CAHILL). Tagline: "Break the law and he's the last man you want to see. And the last you ever will."
  
• 11D: Per se (BY ITSELF). Latin!
  
• 10D: Not an upgrade: Abbr. (STD). I should say not.
  
• 20D: Depths of despair (NADIR). This word always makes me think of frequent commenter Badir, which I also don't know how to pronounce.
  
• 23D: Podiatrists' concerns (BUNIONS). I am simultaneously tickled and grossed out by this answer.
  

• 30D: "Lost" character Jin-Soo _____ (KWON).
  
• 37D: Park since 1912 (FENWAY). I miss Rex.
  
• 38D: How some people shop (ONLINE). There's another way?
  
• 40D: Kind of ceremony (NAMING). I think of this as a Jewish tradition, but I'm guessing there are other types of naming ceremonies. Anyone?
  
• 47D: Certain sub (TEMP). Raise your hand if you were going through the list: "Grinder, hoagie, hero...."
  

See y'all back here tomorrow. If you've done the L.A. Times puzzle today, you should check out Orange's thoughts on it here.

Love, PuzzleGirl

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1966 Tony winner for "Marat/Sade" - FRIDAY, Mar. 6, 2009 - C Rubin (Sender of the Calydonian boar / 1980s-90s action/adventure series)

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: MONISM - n. Philosophy.

1. The view in metaphysics that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system.
2. The doctrine that mind and matter are formed from, or reducible to, the same ultimate substance or principle of being.

This one was unusual and surprising, mostly in a good way. The most impressive parts - abutting related answers in the NE and SW - were actually very easy to uncover, but the overall puzzle had so many nooks and crannies and tricksy cluing that putting it to bed took some doing. The NW took the longest and was the last to fall. For some reason, I had a gaping hole where ACRO (26A: Prefix with -polis) was supposed to go, and getting things to coalesce around it was surprisingly hard (surprising, mainly, because looking this puzzle over now, there isn't a single answer that isn't a familiar word or phrase, even "ENEMY MINE" (33D: Barry B. Longyear novella that won Hugo and Nebula awards) which I remember, vaguely, from its 1985 film incarnation, starring Louis Gossett Jr. and Dennis Quaid).

I gotta believe that this puzzle started, in the constructors mind with the inspired CLEANLINESS (9D: It's next to 10-Down, both in an adage and literally in this puzzle) next to GODLINESS (10D: See 9-Down) bit, with "MACGYVER" (7A: 1980s-90s action/adventure series) anchoring the two words in place at the tricky "CG" letter string. I like how he repeats the dueling answers tactic in the SW with the equally easy DO AS I SAY / NOT AS I DO (57A: With 60-Across, hypocrite's mantra). It's clear that the clues were amped up considerably to offset the ease with which those two sets of answers could be solved.

I was a little taken aback by how much pop culture is in this puzzle - I don't mind, but it's the kind of thing that bugs some people. The real coup here was somehow getting a 2008 Morrissey song into the clues (47A: "All You Need _____" (2008 Morrissey song) ("Is Me")). Critics seem to like his most recent album (the one with the cover where he looks like he's in the early stages of a "How To Carry A Baby" class), and I've flirted with getting it, as I loved the Smiths a whole bunch in high school / college. No songwriter anywhere ever made morbid despair seem so incredibly beautiful. You can have all your modern EMO bands. I will take the Smiths (here's the great Neil Finn singing the Smiths, accompanied by Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr):



Other pop culture answers include ... well, we've seen "MACGYVER" and "ENEMY MINE" and "IS ME" ... then there's Patrick MAGEE (5D: 1966 Tony winner for "Marat/Sade"), and EDNA (51D: Mom in "Hairspray"), an Dr. DOLITTLE (40A: Doctor who's friends with Matthew Mugg), and some guy named David BIRNEY (63A: "St. Elsewhere" actor David), and the oddly-clued PARAMUS (45A: New Jersey setting of "Coneheads"), and the wickedly-clued HEATH (48D: Ledger with lines). More highbrow culture clues include A.A. MILNE (27A: "The Great Broxopp" playwright, 1921), ARTEMIS (22A: Sender of the Calydonian boar) and SAL (58D: Paradise in literature), all of which are clued with appropriate late-week malice.



Little heavy on the foreign words today, with ICI / ET LA (28D: With 13-Down, here and there, to Henri), ETE (51A: Annual stretch of trois mois), and EN AMI (50D: As a friend, to Frederic) on the French side, and ESO (36A: "Como es _____?" ("How come?" in Cadiz)), OLA (37D: Brazilian greeting), and ANO (!) (39A: It includes mayo) on the Iberian side. By the way, if your ANO "includes mayo," you may want to see a doctor. Like, now. I like the French words only if I imagine that they tell the story of a summer romance between Henri and Frédéric, who traveled ICI ET LA until a wicked fight over the relative quality of a performance of Bellini's "NORMA" (55A: Noted role for Maria Callas) drove them apart. Yes, that narrative makes those words almost bearable.

The NW has four different "STA" letter strings. Weird. I wasn't too thrilled with all the phrases ending in prepositions, e.g. ON LOAN TO, TILT AT, START ON, but that's just a matter of aesthetics. The answers are all valid and adequately clued.

Bullets:

• 17A: The world, per the Bard (a stage) - It's "ALL the world," right? Holding back the "ALL" is an attempt to Friday up the clue, I guess.
• 35A: Name tag? (III) - yikes. Toughie. Also tough were the hidden plurals at 1A: Tetanus symptom (spasms) and 38A: Follower of drop or shut (ins).
• 62A: Forward and back, e.g. (athletes) - more wicked cluing. Looked like the SW was going to be a breeze until I hit this.
• 7D: Philosophies that regard reality as one organic whole (monisms) - got this easily, though I don't know that I could name one. Seems decidedly unwestern.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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