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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THURSDAY, Jan. 18, 2007 - Randolph Ross

Solving time: untimed

THEME: 59A: SWORD (or a title for this puzzle) => ANAGRAMMED WORDS

I don't know if I knew that ANAGRAM could legally be used as a verb. It's a noun that I would happily verbize in everyday speech, but it's nice to have confirmation here that, yes, one can ANAGRAM something. This puzzle was pretty easy for a Thursday - once you figured out the theme, it was not hard to get very long answers very quickly, providing crosses for every Down clue. I figured out the theme once I got the -NGEOFH- in 26A: EARTH (change of HEART), and the rest came quickly from there. I didn't time myself today because I fell asleep before the puzzle became available last night, and in the mornings ... well, I refuse to time myself when there's a chance I might be interrupted, and in the mornings, that chance is quite high. So I solved it as I walked around the house this morning. Some new words (to me). Some great words. Some weird-ass words I'd never seen before. Let's get to it. Just short entries today, as I have a dentist appointment in ... let's see ... 67 minutes. I GO!

Entertaining / Amusing / Noteworthy Fill

• 1A: Lost it (had a cow) - ahh, 1990! No one has uttered this phrase in earnest since Season 1 of The Simpsons (when it briefly became a kind of catchphrase for Bart Simpson, as in "Don't have a cow, man!") but the expression somehow has legs. I was able to get this off of just the terminal -OW (from 6D: Anthem contraction (o'er) and 7D: Suffix with spy (ware)).
• 34A: "The Big Trail" or "The Big Sombrero," e.g. (oater) - as I check the Pantheon, I notice that OATER is mysteriously not in there. I have to believe that this will be remedied in 2008. What was the committee thinking? This word is a common five-letter answer, and it's totally antiquated, and it gets used in clues as well as answers. I would not know the word were it not for the NYT crossword. Plus, who doesn't love a good OATER? Unlike many of his crossword-common peers, I'm always happy to see OATER.
• 25D: Chain with many links (IHOP) - If only IHOP would agree to sponsor this site / my trip to Stamford, I would be happy to give it a place in the Pantheon. But until I see some payback for all this free advertising / mindless adulation, IHOP will remain a Pantheon outsider.
• 8A: "The Card Players" artist (Cézanne) - my favorite artist. Ever. I think he did a number of "Card Players," actually. There is one ... well, at the Getty, I think. I've seen it recently. I take it back - might be in the Guggenheim. I'm not bothering to look it up right now, as I have to get to the dentist soon.
• 11D: Matter for government approval (arms deal) - is this supposed to be funny? I thought that the whole point of ARMS DEALs was that they were typically covert, deniable, quasi- if not completely il-legal, and more often than not done without the formal "approval" of any government. But then again, I just finished watching four hours of "24," so my view of how the world works may be a bit skewed. I guess the appropriateness of this clue depends on how you define "government." Speaking of ARMS DEALs...
• 31D: Crude group (OPEC)
• 48A: Big man in Oman (emeer)
• 9D: Swallow (engulf) - I detect a subtheme. We used to make ARMS DEALs with certain nations on the Persian [en]GULF, but that led to the concentration of power in the hands of capricious and violent dictators. We have since tried to solicit the help of certain EMEERS in stabilizing the region and making it free for .... well, I'd say democracy, but ha ha, EMEERS are having none of that, so I'll say ... free for OPEC to continue its business unabated, with liberty and justice for all.
• 36D: Exacts satisfaction (revenges) - I am a big, big fan of All Things Revenge, as you may know by now, but I am not a fan of REvenge in anything other than its nominative (noun) state. You AVENGE your father's murder, you don't (or shouldn't, I guess) REVENGE it. Plus, shouldn't this clue be "Exacts satisfaction for"? The way it's clued makes it sound like an intransitive verb. "He hurt me, but I REVENGEd." No. Andrew (rightly) questioned REVENGEful the other day when G.W. Bush proclaimed, in some statement, that REVENGEful was something that he was not (vis-à-vis I'm not sure what - Hussein?). Anyway, to sum up: REVENGE = noun, AVENGE = (transitive) verb. VENGEANCE is also a good noun. Milton, for the record, distinguishes between VENGEANCE and REVENGE by reserving the former for use only in relation the righteous activity of God / Angels (e.g. Divine Vengeance), while everything Satan et al. try to do = REVENGE. I think the RE- prefix somehow debases the word, making it (like Satan's power) a bad imitation of the Real Thing. This theory = copyright me, right now (you know, just in case there are any lurking Milton scholars who have run out of good ideas. Back off).
  

Words I Did Not Know

• 16A: Not using liquid (aneroid) - ugh, science. I feel about science answers the way my wife feels about sports answers, i.e. ugh. See 31A: The Cowboys of the N.C.A.A. (OSU) and 39D: N.F.L. coach Jim (Mora), both of which (esp. the former) were gimmes for me, sorry honey. On the other hand, see also 19A: Author of "Broca's Brain" (Sagan), which I did not get forEver (had SEGAL, as in Erich), and 56D: _____ point (embroidery stitch) (gros), which my wife might have known, but I didn't - GROS means "fat" in French, but that's all I know about GROS.
• 40A: Name meaning "my God is God" (Eliel) - wanted ELIHU (as I always do). Again, if you really want to stump me, you will pack the puzzle with things Hebraic (or, of course, scientific) - a puzzle about ancient Jewish scientists would absolutely destroy me.
• 52D: Hindu hero (rama) - this had my one uncertain square in it: the M, which a good portion of my gut wanted to be a J, but then the cross would have been FT JEADE (62A: Home of the Natl. Cryptologic Museum), and something stronger than my gut told me that was just wrong. MEADE sounded right, and RAMA sounded like something, even if I couldn't define it. It appears that the RAMA of which the clue speaks is the legendary king believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu. I lifted that definition straight out of Wikipedia, for the record.
• 37D: One of the Scraggs in "Li'l Abner" (Clem) - I love that got CLEM with just the C because it was the first and most hillbilliest name that came to mind. I know a lot about comics post-1986, but not as much as I should, clearly, about early newspaper comics (see also my struggles with one Mrs. Cora Dithers). But seriously, do you know how far down the "Li'l Abner" totem pole you have to go to find CLEM Scragg?? So far that I canNOT find him on the official website. Fifteen pictured characters under "Other Li'l Abner characters," and only one of them named Scragg, and it ain't CLEM (it's Romeo ... of course). Looking at this list of characters is making me really, Really wanna read this comic. There's a character called "Moonbeam McSwine," and she is a hot woman wearing some kind of tattered, Hefty (TM) bag dress and chewing on a corncob pipe. What's not to love? Please see the cast of "Central High School Presents: L'il Abner!" - the very, very last person listed, in a very, very large cast, is the kid who plays CLEM Scragg. His name is Cordney and he likes playing XBOX (which, somehow, links this entry back to the world of crosswords)
  
• 15A: Nation born from war in 1993 (Eritrea) - did this country (or country name) really not exist at all before 1993? Weirdly, or maybe not so weirdly, I had it in my head until Just before writing this entry that ERITREA was in the region of Bosnia-Hercegovina, but then just now it dawned on me that there might have been something in Africa in the early 90s that created a new nation. One Google search later: ERITREA, occupying much of the beachfront property on the Red Sea (not sure how Ethiopia feels about this - a long skinny portion of ERITREA is the only thing standing between Ethiopia and sweet, sweet water. Someone else can go into the nuances of the war that led to this country's creation. I'm just glad I'd heard about it enough to be able to fill it into the grid today.

Had one very wrong entry which held me up a tiny bit: 35A: Like some noses (pierced) - an eminently acceptable answer, but ... well, I had the PI and the ED, and in between I wrote NCH, giving me PINCHED. It's a good answer, in some ways. Google says:

Enlarged adenoids can give the voice a "pinched nose" quality

And a PINCHED-nose coupe might look something like this:


But alas, the answer was PIERCED. Shaun used to have a PIERCED nose (he said, unnecessarily).

Oh, one last quick thing. ANAGRAMS were in full force in the SW, where the MEADE (in FTMEADE) intersects not one but two anagrams of itself, both of which (nicely!) intersect the word ANAGRAMMED. MEADE runs through (R)EMADE (44D: Like beds, again and again) and (T)EAMED (45D: Joined (up)), and OK, the initial R and T screw things up, but still, that's a lot of REMADE MEADE.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS, this is the third puzzle author named RANDY I've encountered since starting this blog. There's today's author, Randolph Ross, and then Randall J. Hartman and Randy Sowell. I know those are technically three completely different names, but they're close enough to raise questions. It's like there are only a half dozen names in CrossWorld and people have to share them, like Heather 1, Heather 2, and Heather 3. Surely there is an answer to this mystery of limited names. Someone please figure it out.

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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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