Legendary 1920s-'30s Harlem nightspot / MON 7-18-11 / Comic actor shares name Washington suburb / Cutlass Super 88 bygone autodom / Promgoers car

Constructor: Kevin Donovan

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: FIVE CCS (25D: Small amount of blood serum ... or a title for this puzzle) — theme answers are two-word phrases or names where each word starts with "C"


Word of the Day: BEL Paese (7D: ___ Paese cheese) —

Bel Paese (Italian pronunciation: [bɛl paˈeːze]) is a semi-soft Italian cheese. It was invented in 1906 by Egidio Galbani who wanted to produce a mild and delicate cheese to sell mainly in Italy. The name Bel Paese comes from the title of a book written by Antonio Stoppani. It is Italian for "Beautiful Country".

Originally produced in Melzo, a small village near Milan in the Lombardy region, it is now made in both Italy and the United States. Bel Paese is a cow's milk cheese. It matures for six to eight weeks, and has a creamy and light milky aroma. The color is a pale, creamy yellow. It is made in small discs, and is very similar to the French Saint-Paulin cheese and to German Butterkäse.

It has a mild, buttery flavor for which it has been popularly eaten with fruity wines, such as dry red or white. It is favored by many as a snack or dessert cheese and melts easily for use on pizzas or in casseroles. It is often used as a substitute for mozzarella cheese.

Genuine bel paese cheese can be determined by the wrapping. It has an image of the Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani, whose geological treatise Il bel paese gave its name to the Galbani cheese; but while on the wrapping of the cheese made in Italy Stoppani's image comes with a map of Italy, cheese made in the United States has a map of the Americas. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hardly stopped at all as I moved through this one, and probably only looked at a clue without failing to answer it immediately a small handful of times. Grid was lively enough to keep from being a total bore, with interesting words like PUCE (27A: Dark purple) and STRAFE (23A: Attack from above) and SUCTION (53A: Modus operandi of a toilet plunger) and OBTUSE popping up here and there. Little corners were pretty dull, though, as little corners can be, and the theme feels phenomenally unambitious—you could make puzzle after puzzle after puzzle with this theme, but why? FIVE CCS isn't even a thing. Now 10CC ... that is very much a thing.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Legendary 1920s-'30s Harlem nightspot (COTTON CLUB)
  
• 11D: Comic actor who shares a name with a Washington suburb (CHEVY CHASE)
  
• 29D: Capital of Nevada (CARSON CITY)
  
• 39A: Popular Massachusetts vacation area (CAPE COD)
  
• 61A: Pioneering French designer with her own fragrance (COCO CHANEL)
  

I like how the OLDS (59D: Cutlass or Super 88 of bygone autodom) and the SAAB and the prom-going LIMO (1A: Promgoers' car) have all parked neatly in the corners of this puzzle. I don't like how I can never remember how to spell SID Caesar's first name (30A: Caesar of 1950s TV). SYD seems plausible. I mean, I've seen "Y" in weirder places (see, for instance, BAYH) (67A: Evan or Birch of Indiana politics). I have heard of ASTRAL plane and (less often) ASTRAL projection (50A: Kind of plane or projection). Turns out they are both as imaginary and New Agey as I thought they were (though they are also ancient ... like druids and ankhs and other New Agey things). I wrote in ELBA for [German river to the North Sea] (ELBE). I want to say it's because I didn't read the clue properly, but in reality, I think I get the river and the island confused. I do, however, know my PASHAS from my DACHAS from my K$SHAS, which is something, albeit not much.


Congratulations to the Japanese Women's Soccer team. Great match, marred only by having to end in the most disappointing possible way: penalty kicks. They should have judges, like in boxing, and if no one has won after regulation and extra time, then it should go to the judges. Points for style and dominance and not flopping like an obnoxious loser. But I (really) digress.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

-----
[The following announcement will be up all week]

I'm coming to NYC for the Lollapuzzoola Tournament on Saturday, Aug. 6 (you should go—info here). But you know that. What you don't know (yet) is that I'm coming several days early to do some interviews for a crossword project I'm working on, and I'm hoping to interview some of You (New Yorkers) about your xword habit. I'm especially interested in talking to people who think they are unlikely solvers, or who solve in weird / interesting / iconic places, or who have good solving anecdotes, or who are famous / prominent in their fields, or any combo of the above. I'm also interested in ordinary everyday solvers. I'm not looking for fast or accomplished solvers. Just interesting solvers. If you live in NYC, this (probably) means you! If you are going to be in town on Aug. 4-5 and are willing to talk to me for a few minutes, drop me a line at rexparker at mac dot com. I'll be exceedingly grateful. I'll see what kind of response I get and set up a schedule from there. If I don't hear from you, I'll just have to wander the streets harassing anyone I see solving a crossword, even though this may result in my getting punched, or worse. So help me out. Thank you!

Read more...

MONDAY, Dec. 29 - Kevin Donovan (Commercial prefix with -max or -cam / Military aircraft engine maker _____ & Whitney)

Hi! Andrea Carla Michaels here, while PuzzleGirl and Rex cavort in VA. I'm not saying anything is going on and all ... alls I know is I volunteered to sub-blog to take some of the load off PuzzleGirl while she did double duty with Amy and Rex both on vacation. Rex was coming to Carmel so I was gonna get to have dinner with him and his lovely bride Sandy and darling daughter and had been pleading for days for them to consider staying over at least one night (empty bedroom on account of the MIA Israeli and all…).

PuzzleGirl and I exchanged numbers to work out the logistics of doing Monday's puzzle together (as I remain astonishingly clueless about embedding videos and the like). We speak on the phone for the very first time, compare Midwest accents, and she "casually" mentions she is jealous that I am going to see Rex on his vacation. Next thing I know, he is "stranded" at the DC airport and is calling for her number! (n.b. NOT at 45D: Chicago air hub, O'HARE, which I would have believed!)

Now, they are all living together on some sort of puzzle commune! While they make snow angels, practice tag-team wrestling moves with their respective spouses, pose for paintings wearing nothing but a necklace, compare beet recipes, and godknowswhatelse, I sit here in SF, strapped to my desk wondering what the hell just happened!

Oh! Was there a puzzle? OK. Puzzle.

This puzzle will literally give you the runs. Before everyone screams, "Breakfast test!" (which I'm telling you, Will has assured me in the past that that does not exist), let me explain that is the theme: RUN (54D: Something 18-,26-, 42-, or 51-Across might have).

• 18A: It might include a 10, jack, queen and king of hearts (rummy hand)
  
• 26A: Yankees/Red Sox matchup, e.g. (baseball game)
  
• 42A: Candidate for a Tony (Broadway play)
  
• 51A: L'eggs product (pantyhose)

Kevin Donovan has offered something for everyone … card players, baseball fans, theatergoers and the ladies! (In that order, I might add, which seems to be a microcosm about the crosswords themselves, nowadays.)

Although this kind of definitional theme can border on boring, I think it's great to think of one word with all its multiple meanings. That's what it's all about!

I was tempted to rate this "Super-challenging" since Rex is gone and that way everybody could feel good about him/herself, but it was pretty super straightforward.

My only trip up was 38A: Want badly, with "for." I put in pine instead of ACHE. I guess you could ache for something, but I'll bet pine for is 387 times more common. Plus there must be loads of ways to define ache without an unnecessary mislead.

And I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know that 3D: U.N. agcy. awarded the 1969 Nobel Peace Prize, ILO stands for International Labour Organization. I see ILO and I think ILM (Industrial Light and Magic).

I needed all the crosses to get 11D: Military aircraft engine maker _____ & Whitney (Pratt). Definitely not a Monday word, but it beats the PRAT-with-one-T of last week.

Speaking of two-t's: Something fun — 44D: Pupil (tutee) and 22A: _____-frutti (tutti).


I needed to get most of the crossings for 5D: "Absolutely" ("no doubt") as well.


If you were only doing the acrosses, which apparently is the way to go for a Monday, you would have missed the explanation to the theme, as well as my only it's-all-about-me shout-out from the puzzlemaker: fellow Andrea, who goes by ANDIE (13D: Actress MacDowell).

(I'd put in that clip in the rain of her and Hugh Grant from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" but I thought she was embarrassingly bad in it, especially having to hold her own against such wonderful British actors. She does do well, however, when she is simply called upon to play pretty but slightly confused, as in "Sex, Lies and Videotape," "Groundhog Day," etc. But apparently she was so bad in that French Tarzan film, rumor has it they had to redub her lines and she was speaking in English!)

In lieu of a clip of her acting, I will ask PuzzleGirl to include a picture of her acting "pretty but slightly confused." I guess that was the only shout-out to me, unless you count the anagram of Carla: 6D: Barton who founded the Red Cross (Clara). Always good to see a woman identified by substance and not just for wearing pantyhose.

Speaking of women of substance, props to the actress Nichelle Nichols who played 48A: "Star trek" lieutenant" UHURA, a role model on the small screen as a strong black woman waaaay before Oprah. And she pulled it off with ironed hair and what appears to be a push-up bra! (Mini trivia: Uhura comes from the Swahili "Uhuru" which means "freedom.")

One last thing, and then I'll let you all have at it ... I also would not have known 16A: Harry Potter's best friend (Ron) had it not been for reading Rex just yesterday and having the answer come from 9-year-old PuzzleSon himself! I don't know if RON in the films is the boy who is now the lead in that virgin Vampire "Twilight" film ... but I have been supplying my 14-year-old cousin Rachel with pictures of Robert Pattison for her to plaster her walls with. She calls me every time literally in tears from excitement over him. I am not totally for fueling unrealistic expectations and crushes on unobtainable actors who look moments from being arrested and shattering all childhood dreams (you just knew I'd insert a reference to Woody, didn't you?), but I am for making my adorable cousin happy. (Oh, I just looked it up. RP, who shares his initials with the man I have plastered all over MY walls, actually plays Cedric. I'm not gonna delete the last paragraph tho, as it's the only way I could get in a Woody Allen reference.)

Rex back tomorrow (or not)! ☺

Read more...

TUESDAY, Mar. 4, 2008 - Kevin Donovan (TACO ALTERNATIVE)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "THAT'S A WRAP" (62A: Director's cry ... or a statement about 17-Across and 11- and 29-Down)

Ah, a supremely easy puzzle with mercifully few elements to discuss. Just what I need after a day or so of double-time blogging. Today's puzzle felt slightly easier than yesterday's - a couple of weird clues, but those were more bark than bite ... only one answer I truly didn't know, and that one was easy to get from crosses. So, all in all, a good palate cleanser for people returning from a weekend of spicy, spicy puzzles.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Glam rocker's accessory (feather boa) - got this very quickly, perhaps too quickly for someone who has never been a huge fan of glam rock and never cross-dressed with any regularity.
• 11D: Transparent packaging material (cellophane) - I did this whole puzzle without realizing there was a theme. Didn't stop to think about how CELLOPHANE might be like a FEATHER BOA. It's one thing to wrap yourself in a FEATHER BOA, quite another to wrap yourself in CELLOPHANE, and still another to wrap yourself in a ...
• 29D: Taco alternative (beef fajita) - here's the one problem with this theme. You WRAP the BOA and the CELLOPHANE around stuff, but in a BEEF FAJITA (or any FAJITA) it's the tortilla that does the WRAPping. You can't WRAP a BEEF FAJITA around anything. It is a complete, free-standing WRAP job, whereas BOAs and CELLOPHANE are dependent. They need an object to wrap. My wife raised another question - why BEEF FAJITA? If the clue is [Taco alternative], wouldn't the more appropriate answer be FAJITA. I'm sure there's a "Where's the BEEF?" joke to be made here, somewhere. The point is - BEEF is tacked on here. Superfluous, clue-wise. It's a nice phrase, though: BEEFFAJITA. Double-E, Double-F. Very nice.

Pop culture haters will be pleased to know that the only answer in today's puzzle that did not come to me readily comes from the world of pop culture (albeit my parents' pop culture, not mine): 54A: "Mr. _____ risin'" (classic Doors lyric) ("Mojo"). I know a few Doors songs and yet for some reason I cannot place this lyric. Any meaning MOJO might have had in my mind has been replaced by its one and only meaning for me now: it's the name of the helper monkey Homer gets in order to help him be even lazier than he already is, only MOJO learns his master's habits far too well and nearly kills himself with beer, bad diet, and inactivity. It's funny, I swear. It ends with a bloated, ailing MOJO lying on his back, typing onto a keyboard that's been held up for him. A simulated computer voice then says: "Pray for MOJO." Doors Schmoors. [Coincidentally, I just got a nice write-up over at a site called "The Math Mojo Chronicles" - thanks, Brian]

• 16A: Staff note (memo) - threw me. Was thinking musical notes.
• 20A: The "F" in the equation "F = ma" (Force) - shorthand for Newton's second law of motion. If F = ma, then what = pa?
• 50A: Like trees on a prairie (sparse) - much better than the original clue, [Like hairs on some balding guy's head]
• 55A: One always on the lookout for a deal (narc) - Clever clue. This answer also makes me think of "The Simpsons," but this time, I'll spare you the details.
• 65A: Flood preventer (levee) - despite the New Orleans disaster, this word will always make me think first and foremost of Led Zeppelin.
• 68A: Play to the back of the audience (emote) - shouldn't you always play to them? I mean, they paid for tickets too. Are they supposed to Not hear you, and just guess at what you're saying?
• 1D: Sailor's hook (gaff) - familiar, but not familiar enough. Needed crosses.
• 4D: Moneybags types (fat cats) - My comic book store is called "Fat Cat Books." You will never see anything like a "moneybags type" in there (except maybe Scrooge McDuck). You will, however, see at least one very fat cat.
• 12D: Color meaning "caution" on 13-Down (amber)
• 13D: See 12-Down (roads) - as wife said, AMBER is more on signs and signals than on ROADS per se, but if the ROAD is a metonym for the whole traffic system, then, yeah, OK.
• 18D: Guitar _____ (hit video game series) (Hero) - got it easy, but I have to say, I do Not understand the appeal. If I don't kill someone or beat someone in a sporting event, how is it a video game?
• 26D: They're uplifting (bras) - They sure are.
• 34D: Stereotypical tattoo (Mom) - the answer that made me change A-ONE to ACME (32A: Tiptop)
• 40D: Long-gone bird (dodo) - one of many great bird names. See also MOA, KEA, EMU, SORA ...
• 53D: Wedding band, maybe (octet) - had the "O" and thought ".... O-RING?" Wife got it easily off the same "O."
• 56D: Polite way to interrupt someone (ahem) - we decided that the word "polite" should be in quotation marks here, in that it's not really polite. It's faux-polite. It's a bit pushy, actually, and implies negligence in the part of the person being interrupted. A truly polite person would simply say "Excuse me..."
• 60D: Watering holes (spas) - wanted SALOON or OASIS. Neither fit.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...

THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2006 - Kevin Donovan

Solving time: 8:18 (on the applet)

THEME: 26D: Cry spelled out by the first syllables of 16-, 18-, 32-, 50- and 53-Across (B-I-N-G-O!) (not sure "spelled" is right here, but the meaning's transparent enough)

I torched this puzzle, especially considering that I did it on the applet, which usually @#$#s up my time because my fingers are fast but not sufficiently precise. I was within shouting distance of a 2-x-Orange time (Orange = champion solver, posts here sometimes), when normally I'm happy just to break 3-x-Orange. So, like Ice Cube, I have to say it was a good day. I'm going to have to speed through today's entry because it's not just a good day - it's a full day. Sahra's school is hosting a Feast @ noon, then I have to grade a mountain of papers and meet with students to talk about their miserable li... - I mean, bright futures - all afternoon. Sahra has karate practice this afternoon - she's testing for her Yellow Belt tomorrow! If she fails, it's cool - she's got a brand new Krypto comic at home to console her (plus parents who don't really care if she fails).

4A: Dominican-born baseball star (Sosa)
8A: Newspaper section, with "The" (Arts)

After blowing 1A: Collided, say (met) (I had HIT), it was nice to get two gimmes right away at the top of the puzzle; or rather, one gimme (Sosa making a strong bid for Pantheon status with at least his third NYT appearance in the last month) and one guess-me, which turned out to be right. I got a little bolder with my entries this time around, and it paid off. All around the puzzle I was entering my initial, gut-level response, and that seemed to work (this time): here, and in the SE with 38A: U.S. swimming star Janet (Evans) and 41D: Vegas attraction (slots), and finally in the SW with 46D: Napoleonic force (armée) and 53A (THEME): Gold seekers (Olympians). In each case I had one or zero letters and I entered what came to mind first, only to have it be right. Go with your gut! Until you're wrong, then go fish!

13A: Class of birds (aves)

This is odd to me. Aves means birds in Latin, so ... how could there be a "class" of bird that wasn't within aves? The most famous of aves - in an American context - is almost certainly the rara avis, the Maltese Falcon. There is a list-serv dedicated to the discussion of hard-boiled writing and film that calls itself "Rara-Avis," after Hammett's infamous bird. I've been a member of said list-serv for ... yikes, nine years? Has the internet even been around that long? Yes. Yes it has. By the way (sort of), Latin for "bees" is apes, a word that makes me think very fondly of trying to do my Latin homework (back in the 20th century) with my friend Shaun. Those damned apes were everywhere - a common topic of epic similes and a mainstay of Virgilian and Ovidian poetry. [addendum: I just realized that AVES is sitting right atop BEEKEEPER in this puzzle, which may have something to do with why I wanted to talk about (L.) APES. That's my excuse, anyway.]

26A: Flock sounds (baas)

Sheep and their sounds are quite common puzzle fare, probably for the luscious double-A their bleating gives a constructor. EWE is another very common answer. I like this otherwise forgettable answer today because it seems theme-appropriate: "And on that farm there was a sheep ..." wait ... that's Old MacDonald. What the hell is the difference? "There was a farmer had a dog and BINGO was his name-O."
Was the farmer Old MacDonald? Seriously, I can't tell these songs apart right now. OK, I found the BINGO song on a boyscouts webpage, and it appears to be a much less challenging version of "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" - BINGO does not change at all from verse to verse except for the substitution of a clap for one of the letters in BINGO's name in each successive verse, until by the sixth verse all you're doing is clapping five times instead of saying any letters. [OK maybe that's slightly challenging] Hmmm, to confuse matters, dog-wise, here is the very first recorded version "Old MacDonald Had a Farm":

Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some dogs in Ohio-i-o,
With a bow-wow here, and a bow-wow there,
Here a bow, there a wow, everywhere a bow-wow.

Somehow "Ohio-i-o" becomes "E-I-E-I-O," proving that OHIO is this country's second silliest state name (winner = IOWA; buy a consonant!). Speaking of E-I-E-I-O (and sheep! and maybe sheepdogs!), if you are looking for a home in the beautiful Taranaki region of NZ, you can go to eieio.co.nz to start your search. Oh, I almost forgot - back when I thought sheep had something to do with BINGO, I liked that BAAS and BINGO shared a "B." Mmm, anti-climactic.

49A: Pageant prize (tiara)

Now that's what I'm talking about. That's a good clue for TIARA. None of this papal nonsense (see yesterday's puzzle). Give me good old-fashioned American shallowness and superficiality as a frame of reference any day of the week. Is your allegiance to Rome, or to your country? By jingo, I am not above papist-baiting when it comes to advocating for a better puzzle way of life for me and my kin here on the banks of the Susquehanna River in the good ol' U.S. of A.

56A: What a Frenchman thinks? (idée)

This just makes me laugh because Sahra, who is sort of learning French in school, occasionally wanders the house while repeating the rhyme "Monsieur X [pronounced 'eeks'] a une idée fixe!" - for no clear reason except that it sounds good.

17D: Poetic storytelling (epos)

I got this right away, and yet I'm not sure that I have ever, or would ever, use it in a sentence, or have ever seen or heard it used. According to the OED, what distinguishes EPOS from EPIC seems to be the storytelling - which is to say, its presumed original orality. EPOS appears to be the stuff out of which (written) epics are made, though over time EPOS had come to be understood as virtually synonymous with EPIC. Here are the definitions:

1. a. A collective term for early unwritten narrative poems celebrating incidents of heroic tradition; the rudimentary form of epic poetry. b. An epic poem: = EPIC B., EPOPEE. c. Epic poetry.
2. transf. A series of striking events worthy of epic treatment.

EPOS seems like it would make a good name for a make of car or a new gaming system.

7D: Search engine _____.com (Ask)


This is odd - I just saw my first ever TV ad for a search engine (unless you count Yahoo! ads). OK, my first ever TV ad for a non-Yahoo! search engine, and it was an ad for Ask.com, which was being touted as an "interesting" or "viable" (or other tepid adjective) alternative to Google. I had never used it, still haven't used it, and am not likely to use it. Nearly everyone who hits this blog through a web search does so using Google. Google is a verb. It is like Xerox. People are going to stop distinguishing between the company and the act with which it is associated. You can Google something. You cannot Ask something. Or rather, you can ask something, namely, a question, which is why ASK sucks as a brand name. "I Googled 'Rex Parker'" makes sense. "I Asked 'Rex Parker" leaves one wondering "... asked him what?" So Ask.com is doomed, doomed, doomed, as are all other search engines whose names cannot be used effectively as (previously non-existent) verbs. That's my bit of business wisdom for the day (er, year).

35D: Title girl in a Roald Dahl novel (Matilda)

First, Roald Dahl is a great children's author the likes of which hardly exist any more, primarily because he took kids' intelligence and imagination seriously. Oh, and he could tell a good story. Love those Charlie stories (the ones with chocolate and glass elevators and such). Second, Sahra is reading a Roald Dahl story right now, for school. Something about Mr. Fox. Hang on ... ah, here it is: Fantastic Mr. Fox. Sahra's homework for today was to come up with "how" and "why" questions for class discussion. We have been reading The Phantom Tollbooth at bedtime recently, which is one of the greatest kids' books ever, one that I have very powerful memories of from childhood, but one which, given its dizzying, twisted wordplay and tendency toward fairly sophisticated allegory, is probably not ideal bedtime reading. Which may be why we have stalled out in the past week and reverted to reliable stand-bys like If I Ran the Zoo, Eloise, and that mind-numbing book about loser Franklin and his stupid giant pumpkin.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Read more...