Title princess of comic opera / SAT 8-27-16 / Monogram for Christ / Yasmina two-time Tony winning playwright / Political pundit Perino / Postcard printing process for short / Biblical name meaning exalted father / Set of seven countries informally / Way down in Wayne Manor /

Constructor: Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: IHS (58A: Monogram for Christ) —

In the Latin-speaking Christianity of medieval Western Europe (and so among Catholics and many Protestants today), the most common Christogram became "IHS" or "IHC", denoting the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, IHΣΟΥΣ, iota-eta-sigma, or ΙΗΣ. (wikipedia)

• • •

Piece O. Cake, that is. My 1-Across Theory of Solving Difficulty continues to pan out, as today's 1A: Where to belt one down and belt one out (KARAOKE BAR) was completely transparent, and I ended up with a time in the low 6s. Saturday average is more in the 8-10 range. Today's puzzle made me miss yesterday's puzzle. I think this one has the slight edge as far as interesting quadrants (I liked the stacks in one quadrant yesterday, I like them in two today (NE, SE)), but the fill is kind of yucky. Like, the yuck is real yuck. Not just the sad, common yuck, but the "ew, no" kind of yuck. KETT yuck. REUNE yuck. SHEB yuck. Triple &%$^ing suffix yuck (-OIS *and* -EAN **and** -ATOR!? That is completely terrible. Massive deduction). Long Acrosses toward the center give this one some added sparkle. But, come on, ESCS are not "keys"; there is an ESC key on my keyboard. One. Singular. It is not pluralizable. See also ALTS and CTRLS and FNS. All the fun answers in the world won't matter if you're using some off-brand pseudo-Elmer's to hold it all together. Way too much junk short fill. Poor craftsmanship. Back to drawing board.


I had a couple moments of struggle, first in trying to get into the NE. No idea on IDA (22D: Title princess of a comic opera), so couldn't swing Acrosses into that quadrant. Had the bottom Acrosses, but it's really really hard to solve long answers from the back end (or can be ... statistically harder than solving them with same amount of information on the front end), so I stalled a bit. But NOV gave me OZONE HOLE, and then I slowly clawed my way into and out of that section. ATOR! [Most of the way through the alphabet?] Ugh. Also had issues with IHS / SQMI. And then I found the long Down clues in the SW all pretty hard. But the Acrosses weren't (I've actually listened to Brian ENO's "The Ship," so that was a surprise ENO-gimme). Done, ho-hum, moving on.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Gird, Certain kitchen knife, Eisner's successor at Disney, Spanish waves

Constructor: Jim Page

Relative difficulty: easily medium challenging. Or, How Much Do you Like Baseball?

THEME: HOT CORNER (35A Third base, in baseball lingo ... or a hint for answering eight other clues in this puzzle)—all eight answers around the outside of the grid require adding "HOT" in front to fit the clues.

Word of the Day: SLIVOVITZ (Plum brandy) — a distilled beverage made from Damson plums.^[1] It is frequently called plum brandy. There's a lot more on wiki about all the places that make this stuff and what they call it, but this will suffice for our purposes.

• • •

Hello, Rexworld. This is treedweller filling in. As you are probably aware, this weekend is the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn. So, no doubt, Rex is sharpening his pencils, laying out his lucky outfit, studying atlases (MT. APO!), practicing with a mockup of the giant-sized puzzle he will see in the finals, and meditating over peppermint tea in preparation for the competition.


Though it's likely a large number of regular readers here are similarly occupied at the Super Bowl of Cruciverbalists, Mr Shortz was kind enough to leave a puzzle for us schlubs who couldn't make the trip. Some of us should find it to be a fairly easy Thursday offering. The rest of us have lives outside of baseball.

Theme answers:

• 1A Difficult political situation: (Hot) POTATO
• 1D Snacks in the frozen food aisle: (Hot) POCKETS
• 7A Chili: (Hot) PEPPER
• 12D Lover of souped-up engines: (Hot) RODDER
• 42D Spicy pretzel dip: (Hot) MUSTARD
• 43D It's hard to score: (Hot) TICKET
• 63A Real good-looker: (Hot) TAMALE
• 64A Showed off: (Hot) DOGGED 
• 35A Third base, in baseball lingo ... or a hint for answering eight other clues in this puzzle: HOT CORNER

I am not a sports guy, but I grew up in a sports family, so I usually know the lingo pretty well. HOT CORNER is a new one on me. For a while, I thought 32D might be a nine o'clock scholar (...__'clock scholar: ATENO) and wondered if Hen Corner could be a thing. Maybe in quilting bees.

Each theme entry I filled in, I had a niggling thought that it didn't really make sense, though it would if preceded by HOT, but I still failed to put it together until I was three-quarters done. So this came out challenging for me. I think most people will find it easier than that. In the end, I guess it was kinda fun to see all the HOT phrases, but I was hit in too many blind spots and just plowed my way through it.

Bullets:

• 61A Gird: ENSTEEL — I envision enlivened enwranglement ensuing around this entry, though personally I find it perfectly cromulent.
• 18A Plop preceder: KER — pretty easy, once "cup of coffee" didn't fit.
• TAL ELAM REE IGER ORECK ENID OLAS SISTA CITI — IRAE EZINE NUS
• 51D Latin lover's words: TEAMO — If I have to pick a team, I will happily choose Team O. 

Of course, in ACPT there are no teams. It's you against the grid. You have to dig deep. You have to fight through the hard times. In this, Rex's last appearance, we send encouragement and inspiration to him and all his fellow contestants.

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Player of TV's Caine / THU 2-16-12 / Lined as furnace hearth / Market town that's suburb of London / Film planner / 1960s title sitcom character

Constructor: Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: MARGIN / FOR / ERROR (21A: With 29-/30-Across, wiggle room ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme) — answers around the edged (i.e. MARGINs) of the grid are types of ERRORs

Word of the Day: REIGATE (55A: Market town that's a suburb of London) —

Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. Reigate and the adjacent town of Redhill form a single urban subdivision of the Crawley Urban Area. // Colley Hill, one mile (1.6 km) north of Reigate, is the sixth highest point in Surrey at 756 feet (230 m). Reigate Hill, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the east of Colley Hill, is the seventh highest point in Surrey at 723 feet (220 m). (The 7th highest! You don't say ... My lands ...) (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle is 7-Down. Let's start with the ungainly placement of the revealer. Just make a 16-wide grid and put it in the middle. Something. Anything symmetrical. Part of me thinks that the nature of the theme somehow accounts for the awfulness. Like it's a seriously meta-bad-crossword. BONER-themed with BONERs aplenty. If that's the case, standing ovation. But just in case—FETTLED? (16A: Lined, as a furnace hearth) AGENTRY? RESPECTER? SCENARIST? PLICATE? REIGATE? It's hard to be a respecter of that kind of fill. I'm surprised at how much long(er) junk there is. In the age of construction software, this kind of infelicity avalanche shouldn't be possible. I'd give you one or two of those words, but the lot? Jeez louise. Also, what's a LIGHT PEN? ("A farm enclosure for light!" "The opposite of a heavy pen!") (8D: Implements for "writing" on computer screens) And what is "writing?" If you are making letters, you are writing. Not "writing." The use of ILLEGAL as a noun made me cringe (54A: One caught by border patrol).



Theme answers:

• 1A: Goof (SLIP-UP) — I had MESS UP, thinking [Goof] was a verb. It appears that all the theme answers are nouns.
• 7A: Boo-boo (FLUFF) — ????? I have never heard FLUFF used this way. Ever. Also, isn't a "boo-boo" an OWIE or little bruise or bump. I guess you can make a "boo-boo," but do you make a FLUFF? It sounds ... like it has an etymology I don't really want to know about.
• 15D: Misprint (TYPO)
• 37D: Muff (MISCUE)
• 16D: Flub (FUMBLE) — I had BUMBLE. [Lined, as a furnace hearth] is about as nonsensical (to me) a clue as I have ever seen. Needless to say, FETTLED was not in my vocabulary. Neither was BETTLED.
  
• 45D: Pratfall (TRIP)
• 59A: Gaffe (BONER)
• 60A: Screwup (HOWLER)   

This puzzle is about as out-of-my-wheelhouse as they come. I can't even look at David CARUSO (12A: Player of TV's Caine), and I thought FENSTER was from somebody's Uncle on one of those spooky '60s sitcoms. But I was thinking of Uncle Fester from "The Munster." FENSTER comes from the long-running megahit "I'm Dickens ... He's FENSTER" (1961-62) ... [cough] ... [tumbleweeds] ... I think this was the prequel to "She's the Sheriff" (10D: 1960s title sitcom character). Anyhoo, the pop culture was way out of my league today. Didn't even know the EGAN woman (51D: Susan of Broadway's "Beauty and the Beast"). I knew ENSLER from "The Vagina Monologues" (43D: Tony-winning playwright) and WHASSUP!? from those horrible Bud ads about a decade ago (20A: Bro's greeting). And I knew OHIO STATE because I went to Michigan for eight years (31D: School whose football stadium is nicknamed the Horseshoe). Your UVEA is part of your face the way your fingernail is part of your arm (9D: Part of the face whose name is derived from the latin for "grape"). Come on.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Dec. 7, 2008 - Jim Page (Queens neighborhood near La Guardia / Dutch artist Theo / Silvery salmon / Loser of a footrace with Hippomenes)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Hey!" - letter string "PSST" in six theme answers, with the theme hinted at by 64A: Start of an announcement ... or a hint to what's hidden in the answers to the six starred clues ("Your attention, please!")



Just lost about half an hour's worth of writing when Firefox froze up on a Barbara Bain image search. I hate that %@#$! right now. Never want to see her face again.

Let's see - what did I say? The puzzle is fine. Solid. The theme is very straightforward, resulting in uniform answers (all third-person verb phrases), none of which are that memorable. Hard to find other kinds of phrases where "PSST" extends across two words. Is CRAPS STAKE a phrase? If so, it's not a good one. This puzzle's charm lies not in its theme, but in its professional fill, and particularly in the wide open NE and SW corners, which gave a feeling of expansiveness, room to breathe after the crowded, fussy feeling of the middle, with all its nooks, crannies, and small words. Best word in the NE: FRICASSEE (15D: Chicken dish). It's a word I learned from Looney Tunes, probably Bugs or Daffy or Yosemite Sam. I managed to track down an example of it in "Rabbit's Kin," featuring the hilariously-voiced Pete Puma. Enjoy.



Theme answers:

• 23A: *Distinguishes (kee PSST raight)
• 33A: *Does a hostler's work (swee PSST alls)
• 48A: *Participates in a bear market (dum PSST ocks)
• 84A: *Plays at a pond, in a way (ski PSST ones)
• 99A: *Engages in some mutual gossip (swa PSST ories)
• 112A: *Commits knitting boo-boos (dro PSST itches)

There were a boatload of people in the puzzle, some gimmes, some Not.

• 40A: "Taking Heat" memoirist Fleischer (Ari) - gimme; former White House spokesperson
• 47A: "The Story-Teller" storyteller (Saki) - know the name, but did not know the story in question
• 52A: English actor Sir _____ Jacobi (Derek) - knew his name, didn't know how or why. Turns out he is a major Shakespearean actor. But if I'm being honest, I know him from "Gladiator" and "Gosford Park"
• 74A: Dutch artist Theo (Jansen) - no idea. He builds gigantic walking ("kinetic") sculptures that look like something out of "Dune" or "The Empire Strikes Back" - ART (92A: Emerson's "jealous mistress"), shmart; these things Must have practical military applications.
  
• 91A: "Dune" director David (Lynch) - no idea he directed that. He didn't enter my consciousness until "Blue Velvet," which blew my 18-year-old mind.
• 89A: Ellen of "Grey's Anatomy" (Pompeo) - if you say so. Never watched a single episode, and have absolutely no desire to. And I watch a lot of TV.
• 114A: Actress Annabella of "The Sopranos" (Sciorra) - her character had an affair with Tony
• 59D: Barbara of "Mission: Impossible" (Bain) - I want never to hear of her again. Only Conrad, from now on.
• 50D: Pulitzer winner for "Russia Leaves the War" (Kennan) - who what who? KENNAN JANSEN POMPEO were the Holy Trinity of WTF names today. From now on, I will refer to people unknown to me as being from DITMARS, as I've never heard of that either (107A: Queens neighborhood near La Guardia). It has the advantage of containing the word MARS, and thus suggesting that the answers are from outer space.
• 104D: "Lady T" singer _____ Marie (Teena) - I know exactly one song by her. It is called "Lover Girl." It came out right around the time of Billy Ocean's "Loverboy" ... mmm, high school. "A little birdie told me that you feel the sa-ee-ame!"

• 102A: Loser of a footrace with Hippomenes (Atalanta) - OK, not a real person, but a cool name nonetheless. I am always vaguely disturbed by that second "A"

The only way you know San YSIDRO (45A: San _____, locale just north of Tijuana, Mexico) is if a. you live near there, or b. you remember a horrible shooting that took place at a McDonald's there in the 80s. I have no idea if it is more or less famous than DITMARS.

Here's a brief tour of some of the more interesting sections of this puzzle. I nearly crashed the car trying to hang a UEY (63A: It may be illegal to hang one), because, I mean, really. Look at it. How often do you see ... that? It's a fine expression, and I've seen it several times in puzzles, but the odd clue had me stuck for a bit, esp. since the clue on UPN (63D: Bygone TV inits.) seemed vague to me, and I initially spelled DRYER (52D: Load bearer?) with an "I." Before I picked up the theme (or maybe it was after!) I had SELLS STOCKS instead of DUMPS STOCKS, which made the West a mess. Wanted LIMA where PERU is now (49D: Equatorial land), because I was 99.9% sure that LAOS wouldn't work. The finished West is kind of ugly, now that I look at it in the cold light of day. The dreaded, archaic, xword-only ADES (40D: Summer drinks) alongside the unappealing adjective RUTTY (41D: Like some dirt paths), along side a partial, I'M TOO (42D: "_____ old for this!") that Should have been clued differently ...



The Rest:

• 19A: Contact sport with a purification ritual (sumo) - good example of how valuable educated guessing is. Didn't know about this ritual thing, but SUMO was the only sport I considered. Four letters ... could have been JUDO or EPEE or POLO, I guess, but come on.
• 20A: Jobs offering of 1998 (iMac) - Jobs is Steve. I am typing on an iMac. It only *feels* like it's from 1998. Barbara Bain!! [shakes fist at sky]
• 28A: Brightest star in Auriga, from the Latin for "little she-goat" (Capella) - why the Latin help here? I remember having to get AURIGA from Capella in some brutal clue a couple of years ago. You'd think going in the other direction would be a little easier. Barbara Bain is a little she-goat.
• 30A: Plant with two seed leaves (dicot) - had DIPOD for a bit and was quite unhappy with DIPOD and APODAL (29D: Lacking limbs) being so close to each other.
• 55A: Card's insignia (STL) - baseball: the ST Louis CARDinals have these letters as one of their insignias.
• 93A: When said three times, a 1970 film (Tora) - never seen it, but a gimme nonetheless
• 115A: Brit's oath (gor!) - made me want to exclaim GOR, as I completely forgot about this "oath."
• 118A: Most grinchlike (meanest) - is "grinch" a non-Seussian word? Why isn't it capitalized?
• 119A: Merino mother (ewe) - I have several products made from NZ Merino wool. In fact, wife and I spent the most money we've Ever spent in an airport at a Merino store getting supernice high-end winter wear. I wore my world's-most-expensive non-DRESSY (56A: Formal) long-sleeve shirt Friday night, and my torso was the only part of me that wasn't uncomfortably cold. So Maybe spending our retirement in that store was a good idea after all (esp. considering the recent state of the market). Put everything in Merino!
• 9D: How to put a coin in a coin slot (edgeways) - I had EDGEWISE, which seemed unimpeachable to me.
• 90D: Plane seating specification (exit row) - I prefer these rows, as I am 6'3" and don't fit anywhere else. I'm sure there are upsides to being tall, but the fact that the Entire World is built for people 6-to-12 inches shorter than you is Not one of them. I am having to invest a lot of time, thought, and energy into NOT becoming a hunchback by age 60.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Aussie with purple hair and ornate glasses - FRIDAY, Oct. 31, 2008 - Jim Page (1977 memoir set at Harvard / Nazareth native, e.g.)

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Easy does it!" - OK, it's not really a "theme," but two 15-letter answers that share this clue intersect in the middle of the puzzle

I got battered around in the Seattle region. Just pummeled. And that's *with* ADAM WEST as a gimme (1D: Actor voicing the mayor on "Family Guy"), and ADOPT solidly in place (1A: Take in). Those answers gave me first letters of Every Clue In The NW, and still - face plant. Two of my problems were (shocking) names, and another was MERE MORTAL (19A: Ordinary human being), which I *wanted* to be a name, like JOE SIXPACK or something (I did this shortly after the VP debate, I think). Never ever ever heard of this DAVIES person (14A: Companion of Hearst at San Simeon castle), and I have been to Hearst Castle on a tour, though I was probably 10 when that happened, and I doubt the tour lingered long on Mr. Hearst's "companions" with a bunch of 5th-graders. Marion DAVIES is her name. I know very well who DAME EDNA is, but could not see him/her for the life of me. I don't remember the hair as purple. I thought the answer was going to be some kind of symbol or icon (like the Pillsbury Doughboy only ... Aussie). Or else Yahoo Serious.



Ugh. UGH. ADAM WEST next to DAME EDNA will likely make the name-haters scream. Today, I will be sympathetic. DAVIES! The other serious knot in this puzzle was a single square, so I guess it wasn't really a "knot" - just a potential NATICK violation that surprised me a bit. I speak of the crossing of BARI (40A: Capital of the Apulia region) and SABRA (29D: Nazareth native, e.g.) at the "R". I had heard of BARI before (crosswords!) and the "R" was the only letter that sounded right there, so, technically, no problem. And yet - this crossing seems harsh. These are Not places / names that are even reasonably well known to most Americans. Calling BARI a "capital" of anything, however accurate on a technical level, is just harsh. It's the Achilles Heel of Italy. That is how I will remember it from now on. Undoubtedly one or the other of these answers was a gimme for many of you, but even though I got the answer right, I have to step back and wonder if Joe the Solver had a real shot at this one. You'll let me know, I'm sure.

Another malapop today, as I wanted EARN at 1A: Take in, but it wouldn't fit ... and then I ran into 34D: Win (earn). This phenomenon is more common than I would have imagined had someone (!) not bothered to name it.

Naughty / Nice:

• 16A: Like friendship bracelets (hand-made) - O ... K. Seems a very odd way to clue this.
• 17A: Dualistic deity (Amen Ra) - Wanted AMON RA. Not sure why. This clue has been used for this answer before.
• 21A: Z preceder (A to) - well, that's rough. Wonder if anyone put WXY in the grid.
• 23A: Big exporter of diamonds: Abbr. (Isr.) - those SABRAs love their diamonds.
• 24A: Black Forest resort (Baden) - wrote in ARDEN. Shakespeare!
• 26A: Maestro _____ de Waart (Edo) - see also the only slightly less weirdly named MUTI (51D: Longtime La Scala music director)
• 42A: "Good Guys Wear Black" star, 1978 (Norris) - gimme! Many things about the year my parents got divorced are Exceedingly Vivid. I think I repressed home life and IMPRESSED pop culture onto my brain.
• 45A: Golfer Aoki (Isao) - needs to be a Gimme for you if it isn't already. Ditto "ONE L" (8D: 1977 memoir set at Harvard). In fact, I've recently noticed that many permutations of "ONE L" are common crossword fill. All these are worth knowing:

ONEL
ENOL
LONE
LENO
NOEL
ELON
LEON

Strangely, LEON is far less common than the rest, perhaps because with that L and N placement, you can make a lot of other words if you're a constructor, but -N-L really narrows your choices.

• 54A: Literally, "sheltered harbor" (Honolulu) - cinch. Had the terminal "U" ... what else was it gonna be?
• 60A: Far from macho (sissyish) - your made-up word of the day. I prefer "sissified."
• 61A: Cultural doings in Cadiz (artes) - Cultural doings in the BARRIO (24D: Chicago's Little Village, e.g.) might also have worked, right? Why does a Chicago BARRIO have an Anglo name? And more importantly ... do they have Little Village People? (I know you're expecting "Macho Man" here, but ... I can't pass up THIS...)

• 5D: Stretch in a seat (term) - proud of myself for nailing this off the "T"; wanted LIMO, but then I read the clue more carefully.
• 7D: Sammy nicknamed "The Red Rocker" (Hagar) - this calls for a video. Oh, ouch, this is painfully pure 80s. Remember when MTV had VJs? I do:

• 9D: Year Marcian became emperor (CDL) - who knows? Marcian, Marcian, Marcian!
• 11D: Open-sided porch (Ramada) - I have never seen a RAMADA Inn that was "open-sided." False advertising!
• 13D: Sisters of Charity founder and family (Setons) - total guess.
• 28D: Ballpark concessionaire's offerings (sodas) - yes, try calling him a "concessionaire" next time you are at the ballpark. Someone will likely douse you with SODAS. Talk about SISSYISH. "Oh, concessionaire! Might I have one of your carbonated beverages? And perhaps some Grey Poupon for my frankfurter?"
• 38D: Artemis or Atalanta (huntress) - Huntress is also a (non-super) hero from the DC universe. Daughter of Batman and Catwoman on Earth-2. Way WAY too long a story.
• 44D: Capital of the Brittany region (Rennes) - two non-national capitals in one puzzle. That's rough.
• 53D: Topping on Mediterranean pizza (feta) - tasty gimme
• 55D: Connecting words in logic (ors) - I have news for you. ORS are "connecting words" whether you are "in logic" or out of it. OR is a conjunction, and with AND and BUT, it gets you pretty far. How do I know? Please...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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FRIDAY, May 9, 2008 - Jim Page ("DOONESBURY" JOURNALIST HEDLEY)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Very late start this morning - I fell into a black hole of puzzle constructing last night and didn't get to sleep til late. I sat there in bed very inefficiently working and reworking and reworking a corner of a grid. Useless, pointless work that couldn't really go anywhere definitive without my being able to use my computer ... and yet I couldn't tear myself away. It's like some horrid sickness. I'm not sure I want to start constructing. Time just disappears in ways that I have experieenced since a. I used to play video games, and b. I used to troll used bookstores in Ann Arbor. It's a disturbing obsession. Do you know what it's like to have a corner of your puzzle worked out perfectly ... only to realize that you've got DVO as a three-letter "word"? And the D and V and O all run through 7-letter words, so changing any one of them destroys your grid? I'm sure I'll get better at it, but right now I just feel defeated. I was ready to make the entire corner out of words ending in -ERS, just to have Something even remotely passable. As of this morning, I'm not even sure what I have.

Today's puzzle - just right. Tough enough that I had to work for it, but not so tough that I fell into the black pit of Despair. The top remained blank for disturbingly long time. I had ITES (3D: Plural suffix with urban) and TESLA (19A: Weber per square meter) right off, but not much else. I correctly guessed SO SAD (8D: "Such a tragedy") then GALA (20A: Certain fund-raiser) then IMAGE (7D: Something to project) and was still in the dark about those long crosses. I figured the -MO- in 15A: One might have a stunt double (action movie) had to involve MOVIE, but I'd only ever heard of actors having stunt doubles, not entire MOVIES. I don't like the phrasing on that clue at all. I do, however, love the answers on top of and beneath ACTION MOVIE - in fact, the three of them are a nicely themed triad. ACTION MOVIEs can, in some instances, I suppose, be HAIR-RAISERS (1A: Terrifying tales), and they most certainly can involve SHELL CASINGs (17A: Bit of ballistic evidence), my favorite answer of the day.

NE went down quickly - solved all the long Downs from the bottom up, guessing SMALL HOURS after WEE WEE HOURS wouldn't fit at 12D: Predawn period, and then hacking at crosses. I don't even remember seeing the clue for DARK SECRET (13D: Potential reputation ruiner), and I'm not familiar with the term SUBSYSTEMS (14D: Secondary arrangements), though it seems fairly self-explanatory. The only iffy things about this quadrant are the gag-inducing PALSY (24A: Buddy-buddy), which I have only heard in a phrase followed by WALSY, and MAU (16A: Egyptian _____ (cat breed)), which I don't think I've ever seen. Had no clue about PASA (24D: Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor _____"), but it all came together from crosses.

The central 15-letter answer was remarkably easy to get - or, I should say, the TEMPERATURE part was easy to get. My understanding of ROOM TEMPERATURE was that it was in the high 60s. Here's this strange and completely unverified bit of information from Wikipedia:

"For human comfort, desirable room temperature greatly depends on individual needs and various other factors. According to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory,^[1] 21 °C (69.8 °F) is the recommended living room temperature, whereas 18 °C (64.4 °F) is the recommended bedroom temperature."

So when I saw 36A: The lower 70s, say, I didn't know what that first word could be. My guess: COOL. Now, this is silly, of course, as ... how could it be higher than ROOM TEMPERATURE and yet be defined as cool. I grew up in hot, hot country, and the lower 70s would have been considered quite COOL for much of the year. I'm just sayin' that ROOM wasn't on the table for me. And, of course, conveniently, ROOM and COOL share some letters, so it took me a bit to figure out my error. I would have had a Very terrible time in the SW if something AROUND hadn't been the only phrase my brain wanted for 26D: Rummage. Got the Ricky Nelson song easily (39A: "IT'S Late"), then figured out that the phrase in question was ROOT AROUND, and everything came together from there. I think I finished the puzzle in this quadrant.

Stem to stern:

• 12A: Org. that called '60s strikes (SDS) - a very common crossword answer. Other xword stalwarts included ARB (18A: Market figure, briefly), TESLA, EELERS (23D: Trappers with pots), and OREM (41A: Home of Utah Valley State College). My Crossword Catch of the Day was PACA (53D: Cousin of a guinea pig), which longtime readers will recognize as an answer that took my head off more than a year ago. I haven't seen it since, but I caged that pseudo-guinea pig quickly anyway.
• 21A: Organization originally called the Jolly Corks (Elks) - ELKS often appears in the grid as BPOE ... but you knew that. I think that in the history of name changes, this has to rank as one of the wisest and most dignified.
• 25A: Where many lives are expended (arcade) - a flat-out genius clue that drove me crazy for a while. I was trying to think what kind of morbid answer this could be - COAL MINES? WAR ZONE? But no, it's an arena I've entered many times in my life - and where the lives expended are, thankfully, electronic, not human. In most games I can think of (back in the day) you would start out with three lives, and then you could earn more lives by scoring points. Pac Man and Donkey Kong, and possibly Frogger, worked that way (if memory serves, which, as always, it may not).
• 29A: Bat shapers (lathes) - such a weird clue, but instantly gettable.
• 35A: The 10 in 10/20: Abbr. (Oct.) - this is one of those clues that often throws me, but I had the "O" in place, so no problem.
• 40A: Builder of a hanging nest (oriole) - my wife swears she saw one of these yesterday. She had me looking out the window trying to see into my across-the-street neighbors' trees. No luck. Just a bunch of uppity robins strutting around my lawn (as they have been for days - what are they up to?). I like that ORIOLE and ORIEL (46A: Projecting bit of architecture) are in the same puzzle, and so close together.
• 47A: Jib used to give a boat more speed (genoa) - the "????????????" answer of the day. Seriously, you want me to know multiple kinds of jibs? I barely know what JIB is.
• 57A: "Oklahoma!" bad guy (Jud) - all crosses. This guy needs his other "D" back. I love that "Oklahoma!" has an exclamation point built into its name. "You Must Shout Me!"
• 42A: Kir ingredient (cassis) - crème de? Or just CASSIS. What is CASSIS? "A Eurasian current bearing blackberries." The word "Eurasian" makes me laugh. "Eurasian!" "No, you're Asian!" I haven't seen the word in forever, and then yesterday, I had the weird experience of seeing it twice.
• 5D: "Doonesbury" journalist Hedley (Roland) - I blanked on this, but then when I had a few crosses, this guy's goofy face came instantly to mind.
• 10D: Actress Morelli of "The Leopard," 1963 (Rina) - How many RINAs can you name? I could name none. Until today.
• 25D: Yellowish-orange spread (apricot jam) - this sounded gross, like some kind of new-fangled fruity oleo, but no, it's pretty ordinary.
• 28D: One passing notes? (ATM) - ATM has to be one of the most frequently tarted up answers in recent crossword puzzle history. It's such a boring box of thing, that constructors / editors (not just at the NYT) go out of their ways to hide it, clothe it, cross-dress it, whatever. The whole scene is vaguely amusing. [One passing notes?] is better than [Long green box?], IMOO.
• 29D: 1960s TV western ("Laredo") - if you're going to give me second-rate TV from nearly half a century ago, at least make the clue sparkly.
• 56D: Flying piscivores (erns) - My people! CAW! "Piscivores" is an awesome word. I am a piscivore, though not a carnivore. Or a chickenivore.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Dec. 26, 2007 - Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "NYC" - song from "ANNIE" (65A) that is embedded in all the theme answers

This was a fairly easy puzzle that challenged me only once - in the tiny SW corner, where I couldn't manage to trust any of my answers enough to piece it together quickly. A little patience - fill in the Most Likely right answer and work from there - and I got it done. The embedded "NYC" theme is not terribly original, but the "NYC"-containing answers are uniformly good. Plus there's an "NYC" in the dead center of the grid for good measure. A nice, solid Wednesday effort. I do not remember the song "NYC" from "Annie." I do remember, Very Well, watching the movie on a hotel TV during some trip (possibly to the east coast - NY/Boston, 1983) with my mom and sister. If I'm right, that was also the trip wherein I had a man threaten my life on a city bus. But that's a story for another time.


Theme answers:

• 20A: "The Defiant Ones" co-star, 1958 (ToNY Curtis)
• 10D: 2003 Kentucky Derby winner (FunNYCide) - fantastic answer, which goes well in its equestrianness with ...
• 35D: Vehicles at a petting zoo (poNY Carts) - this was the answer that started the trouble I had in the SW. I wanted CARTS, but it sounded made-up, so I left it blank and went in to the SW and ... well, in retrospect, I have no idea why I stalled. Details below.
• 54A: Cornmeal dish often served with maple syrup (johnNY Cake) - mmmm, syrup. Sadly, my Holiday Eating Phase is over. Actually, I'm not sad. My body wants normal healthy eating back. It's creaking under the fat / sugar stress.
• 38A: Song from 65-Across that's hidden in 20- and 54-Across and 10- and 35-Down ("NYC")
• 65A: Hit Broadway musical based on a comic strip ("Annie") - really, what else was it going to be?

Highlights: Loved the stacking of I, TOO (58A: Langston Hughes poem) and NOT I (61A: Terse denial) in the far south. CANNABIS (40A: Hashish source) looks very cool over ARGYLES (43A: Some socks) and under IDIOT (37A: Yo-yo). The juxtaposition allows you to decide - is smoking pot a. for preppies, or b. for IDIOTs, or c. for preppy IDIOTs? I learned yesterday from an old Onion A/V Club puzzle that ENDO is slang for pot. I wondered why the guys on my rap CDs kept talking about ENDO. I figured it was slang for a place name like, say, North Dakota, or North Dover ... because, of course, rappers love prairie states and Delaware.

More goodness (and some badness):

• 25A: The second Mrs. Michael Corleone (Kay) - is that the one played by Diane Keaton? Did the first Michael Corleone get killed in Italy? Man, I gotta watch those damned movies again.
• 57A: Gore Vidal historical novel ("Burr") - as in Aaron. I wanted QBVII, which both didn't fit and was not written by Vidal (it's crossword stalwart Leon URIS's novel about a libel suit involving allegations of experimental surgery on concentration camp prisoners). I haven't read either book in question.
• 1D: Glacial ridge (arete) - some commenter recently said that if the clue has "ridge" in it, it's ARETE. That advice worked well here.
• 2D: Deep pink (melon) - ??? waterMELON, maybe, but ... many MELONs are not pink. I didn't know this was an official color. I had MAUVE at first.
• 5D: Something risky to work on (spec) - Grrreat clue.
• 9D: Field utensils (mess kit) - a great phrase. I love "K" more than any other letter.
• 33D: Month after Shevat (Adar) - must remember to brush up on my Hebrew calendar. And alphabet.
• 36D: Part of S.S.S.: Abbr. (sys.) - Selective Service SYStem.
• 44D: 1984 gold-medalist marathoner Joan (Benoit) - her name barely, Barely, rings a bell.
• 48D: Kite's clutcher (talon) - fabulous alliterative clue.
• 51D: Fit for duty (able) - my real thorn in the the SW. I was thinking the answer was a draft classification, and couldn't remember if the answer was ONE-A or A-ONE. Figuring they wouldn't name the draft classification after a steak sauce, I went with ONE-A, which cause me to write in ARRS instead of ETAS for 63A: Itinerary data: Abbr. Eventually the "Q" in my guess of AQUA (51A: Pale hue) gave me QUIT (52D: Conk out), and the rest fell quickly.
• 53D: "Superman II" villainess (Ursa) - a bear!? Really? It's been 20 years since I've seen that movie. And I really really want to put another "n" in "villainess."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14, 2007 - Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "JUST SAY NO" (36A: Slogan popularized in the 1980s ... and a hint to 17-0, 25-, 28-, 48-, 51- and 60-Across)

My write-ups are going to be somewhat abbreviated affairs for the rest of the month, as I am buried in schoolwork, my mother will be in town for a week, and I have a Major Project I have to finish by the end of the month. I'm sure you'll cover what I don't cover on your own, in Comments.

I guess if you JUST SAY NO and then SAY the theme answers, then they make sense. I actually liked this theme, even if it was easy to uncover and then solve. I blew through the puzzle in incredible time, but then completely crashed and had an only ordinary time. Here was the problem:

39D: Derisive word (yah)

What? What??? What is YAH??? And what is it doing in a puzzle where we already have YEAH (49D: Repeated word in "She Loves You"). I had BAH, which was the only "derisive word" I knew of in three letters that ended -AH. This gave me BETIS for 39A: Fabled "snowmen" (yetis), and it never ever occurred to me (well, until the very end, of course), that YETIS could be the answer. It's such crosswordese that I can't believe it wasn't a gimme, but something about the clue completely threw me. I thought I was looking for metaphorical "snowmen," like some people or agency or something. NSA (33D: Code-cracking org.) or CIA or something. Something à la "Falcon and the Snowman." Anyone? YAH YAH, I say, though I don't know what it means. Ditto USIA (37D: Old Voice of America org.), which as of right now not only looks wrong but means Zero to me. Stands for United States Information Agency. I wonder if this is one of those generational things, where older people got it easy. I sort of hope so.

Theme answers:

• 17A: A la a free-for-all (holds barred)
• 25A: Really easy decision (brainer)
• 28A: Bum (goodnik) - my favorite theme entry, if only for the suffix "NIK"; see also MONIKER (43D: Handle)
  
• 48A: Restricted airspace (fly zone)
• 51A: Pitcher's coup (hit game)
• 60A: Mediocre (great shakes)

Points of interest:

• 20A: Western lily (sego) - I will always and forever spell this wrong, confusing it with the palm: SAGO
• 31A: "Newhart" setting (inn) - a fine 80's show, featuring Larry, his brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl
• 58A: "Whoso diggeth _____ shall fall therein": Proverbs ("a pit") - yes, that sounds likely
• 64A: Suffragist Bloomer (Amelia) - nope, never heard of her; luckily for me, her name is an ordinary enough woman's name
• 29D: Little foxes (kits) - cute
• 9D: "The bill and coo of sex" per Elbert Hubbard (poetry) - the only part of any of this that makes any sense to me is POETRY
• 47D: Excessively flattering (smarmy) - it's just a great word
• 36D: Self-professed patriot (jingo) - always sounds to me like a cross between JENGA! and a racial epithet
• 50D: 1952 Brando role (Zapata) - not a movie I've seen, but with the "Z" in place first, the answer was easy to get
• 8D: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" catchphrase ("Oh, Rob!") - man, are people under, say, 45 going to know this? I have watched far too much TV in my time, and think MTM is hot, so it's not weird that I know it, but ... I don't know, maybe it's fair. I love it.
• 67A: Hal David output (lyrics) - great ones. Absolutely adore all his work with Bacharach.
  

THE (19A: It's definite) END

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SATURDAY, Aug. 18, 2007 - Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Choppy waters here, but I managed to sail through, eventually. I think yesterday's puzzle was actually harder, though I have no empirical evidence. Just my gut. I learned a new word today: REVET (20A: Face with stone). That was one of two places in the puzzle where I just had to cross my fingers and hope I had a word. The other place was in the SE, where the cluing on 41D: As yet uncollected for (owed on) was so awkward that I couldn't figure out what type of phrase could go there for a long while, and thus two crosses, 40A: Relatives of pollocks (cods) and 46A: High-tech surveillance acronym (AWACS) had holes in them for a while. Never heard of a "pollock" or AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System).

Had LANDED for CAMPED (6A: Settled down securely), but because of the correct "A" and "E" I got my first toehold with ACS (7D: Filter holders, briefly) and EVERYONE (10D: Who's a critic?). I am not thrilled with the annoyingly prefixed 14A: Do further work on a bird? (recarve) and 9D: Give shades to in advance (precolor), but most of the other fill in the puzzle was good to very good. Took me Way too long to get ASPCA (1A: Adoption option: Abbr.), but once I did, the NW fell pretty quickly. The really tricky answer for me up there was 4D: Water fleas, barnacles, etc. (crustacea), which I could not see without that initial "C" from ASPCA. After I got the "U" from CORRUGATED STEEL (15A: Construction material), I confidently wrote in AQUAFAUNA, thinking, "Wow, what a fantastic word." Another fantastic word that is actually a word, and actually in the puzzle: HEPTADS (35D: Water polo teams, e.g.).

SAMISEN (13D: Banjolike Japanese instrument) is one of those words I've seen before but couldn't recall, and probably won't be able to recall in the future. I saw a woman play a Chinese banjolike instrument earlier this year. It was called a PIPA. There's lots of crosswordese in the puzzle, but it's all so trickily clued that it doesn't feel so tired:

• ACRE (19A: Parcel part)
• SERA (23A: Hospital supplies - that one's not so tricky)
• STOA (24A: Feature of some classical architecture - that one isn't either)
• ALOE (clued viciously as 26A: Fragrant heartwood ... ??)
• ELSA (not the lion, but 37A: Actress Pataky)
• STET (47D: Galley countermand)
• SI SI (49A: "You betcha, Bartolomé")

Today's weird name of the day goes to ABRA (25D: Julie Harris's "East of Eden" role), narrowly edging out DUZ (52D: Old washday choice). LEIFS (39D: Conductor Segerstam and novelist Enger) and HOYT (22A: Waite _____, Hall-of-Fame Yankees pitcher) finished a distant third and fourth, respectively. Cute pair of twin clues today in 34D: Thighs may be displayed in it (erotica) and 33D: Thighs may be displayed in it (meat case). I'll take the former thigh display any day.

My wife does not like it when people mimic her accent, but occasionally I like to parody all pseudo-British accents, and that parody will usually involve some version of 38A: Cockney greeting ('ello), possibly followed by "guv'nuh." 35A: Writ introduction? (habeas) was a cute gimme. Less cute, but no less a gimme, was 50A: "_____ Work" (George F. Will best seller) ("Men at") - I own that book, though (as with many of my books) haven't read it.

My old DATSUN was decidedly not a "roadster," so I have no idea what 54A: Some bygone roadsters is thinking of. Unless "roadster" is being used Very Generically. My DATSUN also did not have TINTED GLASS (16D: Auto option).

There were at least five film clues today, including 5D: Lee of Hollywood (Ang), 8D: 1932 Garbo title role (Mata Hari), that ELSA woman (see above), 31D: Eastwood played him in five films (Callahan, aka Dirty Harry), and, possibly, EROTICA (also above). Oh, and the nicely clued OFF CAMERA (30D: So as to avoid getting shot).

The DANUBE (42D: It rises in the Black Forest) was easy to get with a couple crosses, but SANER (57A: Less like a yo-yo), for some reason, was not. Did not know 27A: James Bay native (Cree), but pieced it together - that's pretty rough cluing, as the clue suggests Nothing about Native Americans. Doesn't get more Anglo-sounding than "James Bay" (located in Canada). Not much else to say except that I was strangely proud of myself for getting SCALAR (43D: Graduated) off of just the "R" and BORONS (29A: Five atoms in a ulexite molecule) off of just the "N." What an anticlimactic way to end the entry. O well.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Pop Sensation has been updated, with many new scans from my vintage paperback collection

PPS It's Saturday morning now, 8:46am, and Google Trends tells me that tons of folks are searching for Steffi GRAF (36A: 1988 tennis Grand Slam winner) today. My god, there is no predicting you people. She's only one of the winningest woman in women's tennis history. At least two different authorities ranked her as the greatest female player of the 20th century (I'd dispute that - Martina was greater, but still, GRAF was undeniably Great). In fact, GRAF's 22 Grand Slam singles titles is second place all time, man or woman, behind only Margaret Court. She's married to Andre Agassi. 1988 isn't that long ago. Why don't people know her!?

You know I hate when people ask, usually smugly, "how could anyone not know that?" - and yet... never even to have heard of GRAF's name!? To resort to Googling?! Actually, I've been amazed at how many of my most popular searches are for 3-and 4-letter words. It's like ... people just want a little boost. One of yesterday's big winners was RICO, for instance. Being able to see how people search is a really interesting window into the nation's puzzle-solving habits.

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SUNDAY, May 13, 2007 - Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Challenging

Theme: "Two Times Three" - theme answers feature a repeated three-letter sequence

This was not a pleasant experience - much insane, fussy, or obscure fill, including an absolutely intolerable SE corner. The theme is really uninspired: clever, in its way, but hardly anything to build a Sunday puzzle around. I'm not even going to bother giving this puzzle that much attention [this turns out to be a lie], except to help you all (and myself) with the more obscure crap, and to offer some specific evidence for my negative assessment of this grid. Then I'll look for bright spots. I'm sure there are some here, somewhere.

Here are your theme answers:

• 23A: *What someone who looks at Medusa does (turnS TO STOne)
• 15D: *Toothless South American animal (giANT ANTeater)

• 32A: *1850 American literature classic ("The ScarLET LETter")
• 42A: *Demonstrate the method (sHOW HOW it's done)
• 70A: *Push aside (shOVE OVEr)
• 94A: *Walk in the park, say (simPLE PLEasure)
• 103A: *Put at bay (paINT INTo a corner)
• 119A: *Miami baseball list (MarLIN LINe-up)
• 55D: *Not so important (lESS ESSential - or leSS ESSEntial)

See what I mean? ... both clues and answers are very Ho + Hum.

Groan after groan:

Here's a square I had wrong, for highly uninteresting reasons. I had an "E" where the "O" should be:

76D: Start of Idaho's motto (esto)
93A: John who hosted TV's "Talk Soup" (Henson)

First off, with all apologies to my grandmother and my entire mother's side of the family (happy Mother's Day to all of you, by the way), Idaho's motto is absurd: "Esto Perpetua" ("May it endure forever!"). Actually, it's no better or worse than any other state motto, probably. I had ESTE, which means "east" in Spanish; even if I could justify the Spanishness (works for Montana!), I'd have to explain what the hell EAST is doing in a motto for the decidedly Western state of Idaho. PS John Henson is a total nobody [some disagree - see Comments]. He is in this puzzle only because JIM would, I suppose, be too obvious. But seriously, you pick "Talk Soup" over "The Muppet Show?" Bad call. If you're going to go obscure, why not go with this rugby player (whatdya say, ladies?) or this African-American Arctic explorer, BOTH of whom rate higher with Google than John HENSON.

Here is the disastrous, illegal, stupefyingly bad SE corner:

• 108A: Appointees confirmed by Cong. (Ambs.) - a made-up abbrev. if I've ever seen one. Horrible. See also ATH. (102A: High-school dept. - I literally had to run through all possible departments I'd ever heard of in search of what ATH. could be an abbrev. of. Oh, ATHletics. OK. In America we call it PHYS ED.)
• 110D: Synthetic gem (boule) - What + Ever. I love how JOULE is a homonym of JEWEL and so seems like it should be right ... and believe me, I considered it. Neither wife nor I had a @#$# clue what BOULE was, although I will say that "B" was the only letter I considered there besides "J" ... and possibly "R" (!?).
• 111D: Film extras, for short (supes) - OK this is where I lose it. SUPES is a standard abbreviation for SUPERMAN. Extras are called #$#!-ing EXTRAS! SUPES, my ass. Short for "Supernumerary actor," are you @#$#-ing kidding me?!

Each of these answers is bad enough, but crowded together down there ... it's like some kind of dungeon for failures, where bad words don't get rehabilitated, but just conspire to make the world a worse place. Nevermind that the Downs all cross one of about a thousand random unheard-of people in this puzzle, EDERLE (124A: Gertrude who swam the English Channel).

21A: Strong draft horses (Belgians)

all the Belgians in the world and you give me some kind of horse? Oh, "strong" draft horses? I'm sorry, are there "weak" draft horses? They're @#$-ing DRAFT horses, they pull shit, of Course they are "strong." Why not clue this, I don't know, [Poirot and others]? Anything would be better than this clue-trying-desperately-to-be-tough.

25A: Act of putting into circulation (issuance) - ack, choke, no. Nobody uses this. See also HEEDER (43D: Attentive one).

12A: Copper head? (Abe) - as of right now, I have NO idea what the hell this means? I had CEE for the longest time. [addendum ... in the middle of asking Linda G what this clue was all about - as I was typing the question - I got it. Pennies are "copper" - "copper"-plated, actually - and ABE's "head" is on the penny ... I no longer hate this clue / answer; it's clever ... although ABE is the kind of name abbreviation that is normally signaled in the clue - no signal here. But I'll let it slide.]

67D: "_____ the Magician" (old radio series) (Chandu) - I'm guessing the process of including this gem went something like this: (imaginary constructor to his imaginary friend) "I can't get this far East part of the grid to work. I keep changing things around, but there's always something wrong. I mean, look at this - everything's cool, except I've got this totally made-up word here, CHANDU. Man, I wish that was a word." "Dude, you should Google it. Maybe it is a word." "Pfff, you're high. CHANDU is so not a word." Etc. Eventually one of them dares the other to Google, possibly as part of a bet involving drinking, and voila, my dreams come true.

Nobodies on Parade:

74D: Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of _____ Bloch-Bauer I" (Adele) - I almost have to admire how deep into hell our puzzle authors had to go to retrieve these clues and answers.

66D: "Misty" composer Garner (Erroll) - because Mssrs. MORRIS and FLYNN know how to spell their names properly.

122A: British composer Robert (Steadman) - is this Oprah's man-friend I keep hearing so much about?

84A: Boxer Trinidad (Tito) - The only TITOs I know are Yugoslavian presidents or Jacksons. I thought the boxer's name was FELIX? And now my sources are telling me that TITO is FELIX's nickname. [cough] Moving on...

61A: Mary of "Where Eagles Dare" (Ure) - OK, am I being Punk'd? Where's Ashton Kutcher? Is the ghost of Maleska guest-editing today? WTF?

So much to dislike. I gotta speed this up. OK, ANSE (40A: Faulkner hero)? For the rationale for this answer's inclusion in the grid, I refer you to my discussion of CHANDU, above. I've read "As I Lay Dying" and I didn't remember this guy's "name."

100D: Memory trace (engram) is unknown to me and sounds like something that might be required of an aspiring Scientologist (no offense to the great religion of Scientology, which I'm sure has many non-insane, non-celebrity members).

Do we need LEV. (121D: Pentateuch book: Abbr.) and ELEV. (51A: Your highness?: Abbr.) both in the grid? And both abbreviations? Ugh. (To be fair, the ELEV. clue is almost cute)

45D: Defeatees' comment ("we lost") - first of all, every answer I wanted here was profane. Second, "defeatees'"?????? Are you trying to piss me off with these tortured word concoctions?

24D: Kyrgyzstan city (Osh) - if you can name any city in this untypable country, you are way ahead of me.

And finally, the last thing I'll complain about: the unwelcome return of alt-spelled BRIER (78A: Kind of patch). [Brier patch] = 212,000 Google hits. [Briar patch] = over a million. Losers walk, BRIER.

Some Good Stuff:

118D: East End abode ('ome) - OME! If you're going to try to pass off an invented letter combination as a word, this is the way to do it. I should hate this, but I LOVE it. It's desperate, but in a clever, funny, and spot-on kind of way, not in a CHANDU-ANSE kind of way.

97D: "Boston Legal" Emmy winner (Shatner) - SHATNER is always welcome in any grid, any time. I'm only sorry he has to suffer down there in the infernal SE corner.



60D: Place for a star (tree top) - TREE TOP is light and airy and musical to my EARS (35D: Head set).

88A: Run down (dis) - one of the few words making this feel like an almost 21st-century puzzle

116D: Conductor _____-Pekka Salonen (Esa) - conducts the L.A. Philharmonic, I believe. You've seen him, right, Andrew? Does he do that thing you hate where his hands go down on the downbeat? Or do I have that backwards?

116A: "Hamlet" setting (Elsinore) - seen it before, don't care. "Hamlet"!

10D: Victorian roofs (mansards) - you should know that I hate almost everything Victorian (except Thomas Hardy, and only because he was a great writer whose work is mostly super-depressing and not at all quaint). And MANSARDS is a really ugly word, but it's curiously, intriguingly ugly, like a manatee or Sarah Jessica Parker.

77D: Woody's partner (Soon-Yi) - The mellifluousness of her name is beginning to outweigh the incestuous connotations of her name in my mind.

28A: "A Lonely Rage" autobiographer (Seale) - Oooh, I love "Kiss from a Rose!" Just kidding. I mean, I do love that song, strangely, but I know that this SEALE is a Black Panther, not a black pop star married to Heidi Klum.

96D: Deerstalker fold-down (ear flap) - this charming answer is almost ruined by its gangly clue. EAR FLAP reminds me more of "A Christmas Story" than it does deer ... stalking? Or is a "deerstalker" a variety of hat? Oh crap, it's the horribly ugly and pretentious Sherlock Holmes hat that no self-respecting person who is not acting in a play should Ever be seen in.

And lastly, I give you the fabulous variation on a crossword standard: 73A: TV's "_____-Team" ("The A-"). A TEAM is reasonably common fill, but going to a partial just to pick up the definite article!? Inspired.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Pop Sensation has been updated. Today = "American Idol" + the comic "Love and Rockets"

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WEDNESDAY, Apr. 18, 2007 - Jim Page

Relative difficulty: Medium + added Jewish Holiday Spelling factor

THEME: "SHH" - five theme answers have "SHH" letter sequence in them, and the theme is clued by 12D: "_____ disturb!" (and a hint for 17-, 40- and 65-Across, and 10- and 30-Down) - ("Do Not")

Very interesting puzzle, especially the weird off-centeredness of the theme-identifying clue (way up in the NE). I had the "DO NOT disturb" answer before I had any of the theme answers filled in, then PARISH HOUSE (17A: Rectory) became clear, and it didn't take me more than a couple of seconds to figure out what was up. Then I did something I almost never do - I hunted down every theme answer, feeling very confident that knowing "SHH" was in there somewhere would allow me to nail them with little-to-no-help. I was half right. Able to get most of them with no crosses, except ROSH HASHANA (65A: Feast of Trumpets), which required a bunch, though it shouldn't have. ROSH HASHANA contained two squares I was uncertain of, mainly because HASHANA looked like it wanted to have at least one "O" in it, and two of the "A" crosses were utterly unknown to me:

52D: Hendryx of the group Labelle (Nona)
61D: Bird in "The Lion King" (Zazu)

I figured the woman's name couldn't be "No-No" (could it?) and ZAZU's is the name of a local restaurant and caterer here in Confluence (though I may have the spelling wrong), so I stuck with the "A"s. So when the Times applet rejected my grid, I set out to change the vowels in HASHANA to see which one(s) I had wrong. Turns out: none. I'd just made a transcription typo, and a good one: ASS HEAP for ASH HEAP (40A: Worthless pile).

The two other "SHH" answers in the puzzle were:

10D: Sprigs from the garden (fresh herbs) and
30D: Deli selections (polish hams)

A couple of pretty lame plurals, but o well. I still enjoyed the theme, overall.

Primary reason I'm inclined to LOVE this puzzle? Because it took an answer I normally hate to see...

7D: Dominican-American major-league slugger, to fans (A-Rod)

and made it delicious to me simply by crossing it with the aptest of words...

14A: Made an overthrow, say (erred)

Few things delight my friend Matt and me more than watching A-ROD ERR. That, and watching him hit home-runs when it is absolutely meaningless for him to do so (his recent walk-off grand slam excepted)

6A: Pre-bedtime ritual (bath) - I'm not anointing her for induction into the priesthood, just cleaning her up. "Ritual?" Try [Pre-bedtime necessity].

19A: Coastal bird (ern) - CAW! Forgot to mention that I saw at least a couple of ERNS, as well as a host of TERNS, while on my trip to Mexico. Also, Pelicans, who hunted all day long just off-shore. My step-brother has a photo of a GIGANTIC ERN sitting on his balcony ledge at the hotel - I have got to get him to send me a copy.

34A: Kinski title role (Tess) - Whatever happened to Nastassja Kinski!? She was in "Tess" ("of the D'Urbervilles" - mmm, Hardy) and "Cat People," and she posed naked with a snake for some poster, I think, and then ... nothing. Well, nothing of note.

1D: L-_____ (treatment for parkinsonism) (DOPA) - Missed it the first time I ever saw it, nailed it this time: "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again!"

6D: Whales, elephants, etc. (behemoths) - great answer. Totally baffled me. I was thinking big mammals ... then sports mascots ... by the time I came back to it I had every letter but one filled in, thank god.

25D: 1953 Loren title role (Aida) - really? Opera? How odd...
27D: Mrs. Einstein (Elsa) - really? Like the lion? How odd...

48D: "The Night of the Hunter" star, 1955 (Mitchum) - he's So Hot. One of my favorite noir actors, even when he was doing bad, cheap screen versions of Chandler novels in the 70's.

62D: Literary olios (anas) - winner of today's "Old School Pantheon" Award. A Maleska-era classic. I love that OLIOS, another classic, is in the clue. Nice throwback moment all around.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS My latest "American Idol" write-up is here.

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