Doughnut shapes / MON 6-25-12 / Cowboys of Big 12 Conf / Aid for night photos once / 1978 Rolling Stones hit / French city where Van Gogh painted

Constructor: Nancy Kavanaugh

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Quickly — first words of theme answers mean "a short amount of time"

• TWINKLING EYES (20A: Santa Claus facial feature)
• FLASH BULB (35A: Aid for night photos, once)
• JIFFY LUBE (41A: Oil change chain)
• INSTANT COFFEE (58A: Drink made with crystals)

Word of the Day: MITER saw (15A: Kind of saw in a workshop) —

A miter saw (also spelled mitre) is a saw used to make accurate crosscuts and miters in a workpiece. [...] A power miter saw, also known as a chop saw or drop saw, is a power tool used to make a quick, accuratecrosscut in a workpiece. Common uses include framingoperations and the cutting of molding. Most miter saws are relatively small and portable, with common blade sizes ranging from eight to 12 inches.

The miter saw makes cuts by pulling a spinning circular saw blade down onto a workpiece in a short, controlled motion. The workpiece is typically held against a fence, which provides a precise cutting angle between the blade and the longest workpiece edge. In standard position, this angle is fixed at 90°.

A primary distinguishing feature of the miter saw is the miter index that allows the angle of the blade to be changed relative to the fence. While most miter saws enable precise one-degree incremental changes to the miter index, many also provide "stops" that allow the miter index to be quickly set to common angles (such as 15°, 22.5°, 30°, and 45°). (wikipedia)

• • •

Fine work. Only mildly shaky theme answer is TWINKLING EYES. I assume this idea comes from the Clement Clark Moore poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (i.e. "Twas the Night Before Christmas..."). If so, then clue should say so. It's a very specific word to use for his eyes (considering He Is Fictional), so attribution is only fair. What's interesting is that the Moore poem contains *both* senses of the word "twinkling." First this:

29	And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
30	The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

And then this:

37	His eyes - how they twinkled! his dimples how merry,
38	His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
39	His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
40	And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
41	The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
42	And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
43	He had a broad face, and a little round belly
44	That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:

This was one of the first poems I ever heard as a child—I had whole passages memorized simply from having my mother read it to me over and over again. It's weird to look at it now and have it be so terribly familiar.


Seems like there might've been more sparkly things one could do with both FLASH and INSTANT, but the puzzle is what it is, i.e. totally adequate.

I feel like it's only recently that TORI (50A: Doughnut shapes) has become acceptable Monday fare (as clued). Much better than [Actress Spelling], imho, though I like [Singer Amos] well enough. I had some hiccups during the solve, like when I started to write in REEF (!?) for 8D: Titanic's undoing (BERG), and when I had EAR- at 46D: One of two on a winter cap (EARFLAP) but refused to write more for fear I'd get something like EARHOLE. In retrospect, unlikely. But mostly I cruised through this one. Just finished watching Ken Burns' "National Parks," where John MUIR is one of the main stars. Just went to see "Rock of Ages" featuring Catherine ZETA-Jones (40A: Actress Catherine ___-Jones), though I can't recommend you do same. Love the Stones song "MISS YOU" (11D: 1978 Rolling Stones hit) and am finding FATIGUE (43D: Tiredness) a rather attractive word this evening, lord knows why. I need to wrap up now, 'cause wife will soon be home. With pie.

See you tomorrow

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Former congresswoman Bella / MON 4-9-12 / Synthesizer designer Robert / Quantum mechanics pioneer Robert / Mattress invaders / Deadly 1966 hurricane with Spanish derived name

Constructor: Nancy Kavanaugh

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Tasty — theme answers begin with categories of taste:

• SOUR GRAPES (17A: Negative reaction to failure)
• SALTY LANGUAGE (23A: Sort of words that sailors are famous for) —whoa, is that the etymology? A sailor can be a "salt," so ... swearing = SALTY LANGUAGE??? If that is true, I did not know that.
• BITTER ENEMIES (47A: Feuding families, e.g.)
• SWEET TOOTH (57A: Sugar craving)

Word of the Day: GELID (18D: Icy cold) —

adj.
Very cold; icy: gelid ocean waters. See synonyms at cold.

[Latin gelidus, from gelū, frost.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/gelid#ixzz1rUpj9J1w

• • •

What, no UMAMI phrase?

Not much to this one. First words related. I like SALTY LANGUAGE quite a bit. Everything else is just fine. Wife had never heard of GELID. I said it's one of those words I only ever see in crosswords, so I assume that's where I learned it. Nothing else in the grid seems out of the mainstream. I really don't like POLISH OUT (32D: Remove, as scratches on an auto), though it's clearly a real phrase. I'd've tried to make that POLISH OFF, though those Fs are hard to handle in a tiny corner like that. WINGSPAN (31A: It's about six feet for a turkey vulture) provides an interesting coincidence, as I am watching "Wings of Desire" tonight as part of my year-long Screening 1987 Project, wherein I watch nearly every movie that came out in 1987. Another movie that was part of this Project: "Superstar" by Todd Haynes, which tells the story of Karen Carpenter entirely with Ken and Barbie DOLLS (42A: Ken and Barbie). Also, I'm just finishing Patrick Rothfuss's "The Name of the Wind," which has featured at least one SMITHY that I can remember (46D: Horseshoe forger) (it's a big book).


No one should ever put "30 Rock" and "2 Broke Girls" that close together (including me) as they have nothing in common, funny-wise (40D: "2 Broke Girls" and "30 Rock"). Which is to say one is funny, and the other ... isn't. I know Bella ABZUG mostly because she makes a cameo in a Woody Allen movie, I think (22A: Former congresswoman Bella). I know NIELS Bohr (50D: Quantum mechanics pioneer Bohr) and INEZ (44A: Deadly 1966 hurricane with a Spanish-derived name) and MOOG (29A: Synthesizer designer Robert) and AMOS (2D: "Famous" cookie man) from years of doing crosswords. Actually, I know INEZ from my grandma (it's her name). BEDBUGS is creepily timely (10D: Mattress invaders). Wait ... are they still a problem? Haven't heard much about them since 2010. OK, I think that's all folks.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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1964 Tony Randall title role - WEDNESDAY, May 13 2009 - N Kavanaugh (Kiltie's turndown / Having a rought knitted surface)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "JUST ADD WATER" (58A: Easy preparation instruction ... or a hint to the starts of 20-, 28- and 48-Across) - "WATER" can precede (in familiar phrases) the first word in each of the first three theme answers

Word of the Day: TRURO - Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Located two hours outside Boston, it is a summer vacation community just shy of the tip of Cape Cod. It is named after Truro in Cornwall, United Kingdom. Its name among the natives of Cape Cod was Pamet or Payomet, a name that still refers to an area around the town center known as the Pamet Roads. The population was 2,087 at the 2000 census. Truro comprises two villages: Truro and North Truro. (wikipedia)

My favorite bit of information about TRURO - "The Pilgrims stopped in Truro and Provincetown in 1620 as their original choice for a landing before later declaring the area unsuitable." Unsuitable. Unsuitable. Unsuitable. I have a vague sense of having seen TRURO in a puzzle somewhere before, and I see that there are better than a dozen attestations in the Cruciverb database (though none in the NYT since 2003), but this answer strikes me as horribly provincial and class-biased. Most of the @#$#ing world does not vacation on the cape, and many of us who have (hand raised) have not been to or heard of this place. Which brings me to an important point ... I am happy to (re-)learn of this (very) small resort town, and yet ...

TRURO seems like the kind of thing you throw down when you are desperate - when there is nothing else you can do *and* when the payoff is very high, i.e. it helps you keep something amazing in the grid. There is nothing amazing in this grid. Further, that TRURO section is about the ugliest puzzle section I have seen in the NYT since I started blogging 2.5 years ago. Almost Every Answer In It is something you would not put in your puzzle voluntarily. Compromise answers one and all. Well, everything but ALBINO (43A: Lacking melanin). The whole section is, as the kids are fond of saying, a hot mess. Every Down is less than optimal - a French plural; a Tony Randall role that might be acceptable in a fantastic late-week puzzle, but here seems like laziness masquerading as whimsy (33D: 1964 Tony Randall title role); NUBBY, which ... I don't even know where to begin, esp. crossing TRURO - if you have no clue about TRURO, many vowels seem OK in that "U" spot ... I considered NIBBY and NOBBY at some points (34D: Having a rough knitted surface); and then ARIL, crosswordese of the highest order, and a word that no one puts in a grid unless he/she has to (it happens). I routinely confuse ARIL (seed covering) with ANIL (blue dye), as they are one letter apart and are both words I had never seen until I started doing crosswords. At any rate. How much do you have to love TABLE TENNIS to accept this Dr. Moreauvian mass of unholy nonsense? The western section of this puzzle is like a crowded waiting room at a puzzle answer hospital. "DR. LAO will see you now."

Then there's the rest of the puzzle, which is dull as a post. All for what? Three arbitrary theme answers (the number of potential theme answers must be enormous), only one of which is at all interesting. Oh, and the RIDDLER. I liked that. (46D: "Batman" villain, with "the")

Theme answers:

• 20A: Spicy bar fare (buffalo wings)
• 28A: Yellow (lily-livered)
• 48A: Game to 11 points (table tennis)

How about BOARDING SCHOOL? ... too soon?

The seed answer here - JUST ADD WATER - is cute, and has promise. But the execution ... I've already chatted with a couple constructors about this one, and I'd love to hear from others. Between that western section and the generally lazy fill, I just don't understand how this puzzle got through.

Bullets:

• 25A: Ceremonial utterance ("I do") - nice fresh clue on that familiar answer
• 9A: Like a teddy bear (fuzzy) - snuck two Zs up there - also nice
• 24A: It may have orchids or plumerias (lei) - more snazzing up of tired answers
• 36A: Kiltie's turndown ("nae") - "Kiltie" sounds like an ethnic slur
• 40A: Baseball bigwigs, for short (GMs) - General Managers. THEO Epstein and Brian CASHMAN are the GMs of the Red Sox and Yankees, respectively. I tell you this because they seem like reasonably fair game for the puzzle.
• 25D: Certain Oriental rug maker (Irani) - and OMANI ... in the same puzzle ... there's phoning it in, and then there's ... whatever this is.
• 29D: Internet annoyance (lag) - so many possibilities ... this one (though it happens to me a lot) was not at the top of my list. I didn't even know it had a formal name.
• 54D: America's Cup entrant (yacht) - I take mine to TRURO, where I am fond of summering (... sorry, that was Bizarro Me ... she's gone now)
• 44D: Siouan speakers (Otos) - stupid mind-of-their-own fingers typed UTES.
• 58D: Mitchell who wrote and sang "Chelsea Morning" (Joni) - ah, something to like:

• 60D: Jean Arp's movement (Dada) - ARP is a bit of crosswordese that I Never tire of.

To end on a positive note - two things:

1. Today is my grandmother's birthday. As some of you know, she was the first person I ever saw work a crossword - my earliest crosswording model - and is surely in some genetic way responsible for whatever it is I'm doing here with this blog. She's an amazing, independent woman who makes people 20-30 years younger than she is seem doddering. So Happy Birthday, Grandma.

2. I got a wonderful email from a reader the other day, one that contained an anecdote that I thought was so adorable, I asked her if I could post it here. She kindly agreed. ... the only thing you need to know, for the purposes of context, is that Will Weng was the editor of the NYT crossword from 1968-78:

Hey, I so much enjoy your opinions and comments on the puzzle [...] I do not cheat and use your answers at all as I have done the puzzle for many, many years BUT after I finish, I love to see your pictures and read your comments about the people featured in the puzzle. I will tell you a story. I had a male friend I met at a bar when I was 23 after graduating from Smith College in Northampton, Mass. We both discovered that we always did the NYTimes puzzle so we decided to compete. He lived in Boston. I taught school in Larchmont, NY and we said that the first one that finished the Sunday puzzle would call the other collect and say "This is Will Weng speaking" and, of course, the call was not accepted but it meant that he or she [me!] was the winner! Well, I kept losing until I figured out I could buy the secondary section of the paper Saturday night, living close to NYC, and be able to work on the puzzle all night long !! I was able to call him collect in Boston at 7AM and say "I am Will Weng"!! Sunday after Sunday!

That man is my husband and we both still compete every Sunday! Thank you

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS for a puzzle with a similar theme type, but twice as much meat, see today's LAT puzzle. Orange's write-up here.

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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 17, 2007 - Nancy Kavanaugh

Solving time: 19:05

THEME: "Get Cracking" (54A: Order appropriate for [long theme answers])

I must keep this short - I am trying to give myself a strict time limit on writing this thing, in preparation for my return to ... whatdyacall it? ... oh, yeah, work. Plus, if I let myself, I could go on forever about the ways this puzzle dissatisfied me, and that will just bring me down. Much as I resent this puzzle, I consider all puzzle failures my own. I mean, I did eventually solve it, so it's not like it was impossible. I just wasn't fast enough on the uptake. End of story. I hear that the puzzle's problems / challenges have been taken up already on another website (which I never read before I've written my commentary, btw), but I'll add my two cents anyway. She had her turn; now, I GO (27D: "My turn!").

27D: "My turn!" (I GO)

Yeah, I guess, if you are a really impatient and annoying kid on the playground, and are also Korean with little-to-no English-speaking experience. "I GO!" (the voice I imagine in my head is actually a combination of Margaret Cho's mother - if you've seen her act, you know what I'm talking about - and the voice of my friend Steve [if I'm remembering this right] imitating the proprietor of a Thai restaurant where he and Shaun stayed well past closing, causing the staff to start doing things like running the vacuum and turning the lights on and off: "We close at nine!") ANYWAY, I GO is officially not a real phrase, no matter what evidence you provide. I would have been so, so much happier to see MEEGO, which is saying a lot, considering this was the plot of "MEEGO" (1997)

Meego is a 9000 year old alien whose spaceship crashes on Earth and is discovered by Alex, Maggie and Trip Parker. The three children take a liking to Meego and convince their single father to take him in as a nanny. Meego agrees to stay until his ship is fixed, but eventually grows attached to the children and stays.

It ran for ... two episodes. In addition to MEEGO, I would also have accepted MEASO.

That IGO answer is in the "Oregon" part of the puzzle (irony: OREgon is actually in the puzzle, but, comically, in the NE, at 19A: Ida. neighbor, which, dammit, could have been anything). That was the very last part I finished. WHY? Well ... ugh, I have to back up.

The theme is GET CRACKING, and as you see above, that answer was clued as "Order appropriate for ..." all the long theme answers, which are:

• SECRET CODES (20A: Some spy materials) (bad clue, as there is nothing "material" about a code)
• TEXT BOOKS (28A: New school purchases) (is the school new, or are the books new?)
• EGG SHELLS (44A: Breakfast refuse) (this one was the most reasonably clued, and, shocking, easiest to get)

Now what does "Order appropriate for..." mean? Who is ordering what? Do you order the SECRET CODES to do something? Do you "order" someone ELSE to CRACK the SECRET CODES, in which case the ORDER is "for" the CRACKER, not the CRACKEE? I can see how "for" here can mean "for getting someone to deal with something," I suppose, but god that is a horribly inelegant way to tie this all together.

Now, back to the "OREgon" section of the puzzle. There are (I learned this only this morning, from an unsolicited email, which I suppose I appreciate, though normally I like to blog free from outside influence) two "hidden" theme answers, or little words that are unremarkable on their own, but that are designed to fit with the theme; there are two of them, and they are symmetrically arranged, which on any other day I would say was Nice. Anyway, one of them is 25A: Defeats handily (whips), which seems harmless, but I had ROUTS, then ROMPS, and none of the crosses were helping me fix things (see IGO!). There was also 25D: Pugs' org. (WBA), which you are lying if you tell me you didn't write some version of AKC in there first. "Pugs" is a dated word for "pugilists," and as boxing is no longer even a legitimate sport anymore, this answer blows. The other cross of WHIPS was 26D: It may be cured (ham) - an easy one for you fat, sedentary types, but this non-meat-eater was Lost, even though in retrospect HAM probably should have been a gimme. I had LOX, I think. I also had OIL, as in "OIL-cured olives," which I love to eat. But then, the OIL isn't what is cured, is it? I GO!

48D: Former Ecuadoran money (sucres)
49D: Saturated hydrocarbon (alkane)

All I can say is "what the f@#$#?" Lemme get this straight. SUCRE is the capital of Bolivia ... but it's the former currency of Ecuador!? And ALKANE? When you've already got the chemically 42D: Amino acid found in sugar cane (GLYCINE) in the puzzle!? Come on! These two answers - SUCRES and ALKANE - parallel one another, and provide the first two letters in 48A: Hotel amenities (safes), which I had as ROBES, thinking that 38D: Global finance org. (IMF) was IMB, wherein B would somehow stand for "Bank." Trust me, it made sense at the time, even though I knew that IMF actually stood for something (International Monetary Fund), where IMB ... don't know what that is. Typo of IBM. Oh, SAFES is your other "hidden" theme answer (as in you CRACK SAFES, just as you CRACK WHIPS, UGH). I really really wish the word PIPE or WHORE had been somewhere in this grid. Then it all would have made sense, I'm sure.

How I Was Wrong

• 1A: Amorphous creature (ameba) - don't know what I had, but it wasn't this; god I hate this spelling
• 13A: Turns red, perhaps (ripens) - I had ANGERS (for a reason!)
• 14D: Small paving stone (sett) - you're joking, right? Makes me miss SET I (from a few puzzles back)
• 23A: In the previous month (ultimo) - how much of my dwindling hair did I pull out trying to remember this one!? I blogged this damned word not more than a month ago and still couldn't pull it ... out.
• 34A: In the mood (amorous) - "In the mood..." FOR WHAT!? I'm in the mood for some coffee right now, but I am not AMOROUS (though I do have pretty strong feelings for Dunkin' Donuts, it's true)
• 37D: Tough one (poser) - had the P and S but NOTHING would come to me. Words canNot describe how I hate this word. I hated it before today, just for the record. "Hmmm, that's a POSER." No, a model is a POSER.
• 59A: Familiar (old) - seriously, is this puzzle like a dumping ground for terrible clues. "See that OLD man sitting over there?" "Yes." "Is he 'familiar' to you?" "No." The End.
• 32D: 6, written out (June) - killed me. "6" written out is SIX. I have to give this clue props for cleverness though. I'm sure I'll get fooled by this month-related bull@#$# again someday. See also ULTIMO.
• 54D: Highlander (Gael) - more arcanity than I've ever seen in a Wednesday puzzle. I had SCOT. What an idiot I am.

Many, many more clues were perfectly apt, just way way way vague, such that they could have been cluing anything, e.g. 22A: Bombed (lit) or 21D: Names as a source (cites). Yes, they make sense, but they were not easy (for me) to see. You know you're in trouble when MADDOX (7D: Tommy _____, 2001 M.V.P. of the XFL) - an obscure clue about a defunct sports league - is one of your very few sure things. That, and ASP (10A: Egyptian cobra - they're Back!) and (off of ASP) PIETAS (12D: Some religious artworks).

11D: Horror film sound (shriek)

This answer EMBODYs (44D: Personify) my problems with this puzzle. Had the "S," I've seen some movies, I entered SCREAM. There is even a (parody) horror film named SCREAM. Many SCREAMs, actually. Good answer, reasonable answer, wrong answer. Didn't help that they had not one but two letters in common. Didn't know whether to SHRIEK or SCREAM at that point (and many, many other slow parts of the puzzle) so in the end I opted for head-hanging groans of despair.

A final note: if Davids are over-represented among puzzle constructors, so are Nancys. I've got three in my database just since September. I'll allow one more, and then I'm going to enact the Dave Law (quotas - only one new Dave a year).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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