Hockey great Cam / WED 11-7-12 / Arctic explorer John / Glacial ridges / Archangel of Apocrypha / Superboy's sweetie /

Constructor: George Fitzgerald and Nancy Salomon

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: THE BLUES (58A: Something to sing ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 31-, 40- and 45-Across's starts) — theme answers all start with words that are also varieties of blue:

• BABY TALK (17A: Nonsensical syllables, maybe)
• ROYAL FLUSH (23A: Unbeatable hand)
• NAVY SEALS (31A: Elite military group)
• SKY DIVING (40A: Sport for high jumpers?)
• STEEL DRUMS (45A: Some Caribbean percussion)

Word of the Day: SHIELD LAW (35D: Statute that protects journalists' sources) —

n.
A law that protects journalists from being compelled to reveal confidential sources of information.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/shield-laws#ixzz2BVGDHVhq

• • •

I've somehow managed to avoid all election coverage tonight, and so as of now (10:15 pm EST), I have no idea what's going on election-wise. I figure the results can wait til morning. I have a SMA cold and really need my sleep, and I have a feeling that election hysteria will screw up my plans to conk out before midnight. I doubt I'll remember this puzzle by morning my time, but it wasn't bad. Very straightforward, reasonably solid, inoffensive. Competent. I don't quite understand the grid construction, which really forces ESKERS (and thus the horrible Scottish twins SMA and GIE) on you (33D: Glacial ridges). Seems like the theme answers could have been rearranged in a way that prevented running any Downs through three theme answers—they're short enough that two of them could've been made to run Down. But whatever—the current arrangement isn't a disaster, and the fill is only ugh-ish in patches.

This was possibly my fastest Wednesday ever. I nearly broke 3. I rarely break 3 on Tuesdays, let alone Wednesdays. This tells me that it was easy and/or filled with words that live right at the top of the constant solver's bag of tricks. Clue for SAAB, for instance, is one I've seen a million times (1A: Automaker with the slogan "Born from Jets"). "Recess" always signals APSE first. Etc. I think SHIELD LAW is the most interesting answer in the grid by far. A term that surprised me not because I didn't know it, but because it had been so long since I'd seen or thought about it. I also liked SIDEARM (40D: Pistol, for one) probably because I'm currently reading George V. Higgins's The Friends of Eddie Coyle, a truly great '70s crime novel that is all about gun traffic. Some of the best dialogue writing I've ever read. Highly recommended.


Bullets:

• 14A: Israel's first representative to the United Nations (ABBA EBAN) — one of Crossworld's most enduring public figures. A first/last name double threat. A good example of how this puzzle played to constant solvers.
• 20A: Reynolds who sang "Tammy" (DEBBIE) — I don't know her as a recording artist. Just as the girl from Singing in the Rain, Albert Brooks's mother in Mother, and Carrie Fisher's mom.

• 10D: Archangel of the Apocrypha (URIEL) — he's right next to ARIEL in my crossword arsenal. Not a terribly common answer, but common enough.
• 51D: Hockey great Cam (NEELY) — I know this guy as "one of those names I used to hear on ESPN a lot between baseball and football coverage." The sports world's current most famous Cam is Newton, QB for the Carolina Panthers.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Old time actress Talbot Nita / MON 4-5-10 / Boast of some shampoos / Muscat's land / Grueling grilling

Constructor: Nancy Salomon

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Wake and Bake — familiar "blank AND blank" phrases, where the blanks rhyme


Word of the Day: ALTA (1D: Resort near Snowbird) —

Alta is a ski area located in the Wasatch Mountains, just east of Salt Lake City, Utah. With a skiable area of 2200 acres (8.9 km²), beginning at a base elevation of 8530 ft (2600 m) and rising to 10,550 ft (3216 m) for a vertical gain of 2020 ft (616 m). Alta is one of the oldest ski resorts in the country, opening its first lift in 1939. It has an average annual snowfall of 514 inches (1,306 cm). Alta is one of three remaining ski resorts in America that prohibits snowboarders, along with nearby competitor Deer Valley and Vermont's Mad River Glen. // Alta is one of the oldest ski areas in the U.S. and is one of just a few ski areas in America that limit access to skiers (snowboarders are not allowed). It is best known for the ash-light quality of its snow, commonly referred to as "powder" snow. Located at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon barely 30 miles from the Great Salt Lake, Alta resides in a unique micro climate characterized by high volume, low moisture snowfalls. Typical annual snowfall totals exceed 500 inches (1270 cm).

• • •

After LOWPH (3D: Boast of some shampoos), I pretty much tuned out. This one is a dud from stem to stern, with a tired theme that feels like it's been done a million times, even if it hasn't. Not imaginative at all. Except for DOOM AND GLOOM, the theme answers are mostly lifeless. I wonder how long the list of viable theme answers is — SHAKE AND BAKE ... MEET AND GREET ... SLICE AND DICE ... I don't know that the most interesting possibilities are even in the grid. Not much that is substantial or compelling today. A real "I don't care" attitude in the non-theme fill. I mean, OMAN *and* ORAN? Come on. It's like you're not even trying. Even the longish answers in the NE and SW are just OK. The whole thing simply did not feel up to the standards of an NYT puzzle, honestly. Also, it played more like a Tuesday than a Monday, but that's more observation than complaint. I think I INSIST (4D: "No use arguing with me") is probably the most noteworthy (and likable) thing here. Never seen it before (that I can remember). Weird double-I to start. Weirder — the puzzle has two double-I answers; see also SHIITE (24A: Marjority Muslim in Iran). Odd. Curious. But not enough to rescue the puzzle from Dullsville.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Campus/off-campus community, collectively (TOWN AND GOWN)
  
• 27A: Confederate flag (STARS AND BARS) — yay, Confederacy. Gotta love the treasonous flag of slave owners. Happy Monday!
  
• 46A: Extreme pessimism (GLOOM AND DOOM)
  
• 61A: Damage from ordinary use (WEAR AND TEAR)
  

I'm going to choose to believe that the answer to 51A: Job for a roadside assistance worker is TOWIN', because TOW IN is crap. It's a TOW. That's the job. If you work for a garage, then maybe you TOW the car IN to the garage, but "roadside assistance worker?" Not sure what "IN" means there. One thing about TOWIN' — it is a hell of a lot better than -ATOR (8D: Suffix with origin).

Bullets:

• 1A: Going for broke, as a poker player (ALL IN) — my first answer. When I tried to confirm the Downs, I got wanted VAIL for ALTA, AXELS for LOOPS (2D: Figure skating figures), nothing for LOWPH, nothing for I INSIST, and NEA for NEA (5D: PBS funder).
• 57D: Grueling grilling (ORAL) — none of the ones I've seen (and taken) were "grueling." "Challenging," maybe, but the committee is generally on your side. They're not trying to break you. You're not tied to a chair. It's not (exactly) a hazing ritual.
  
• 14A: Sarge's superior (LOOIE) — when you need four consecutive vowels, I guess this is the answer you go to.
  
• 37A: John Lennon's lady (YOKO ONO) — his "lady?" You know, he wrote a song about her. It was not called "Lady." "Lady" is Kenny Rogers. "Woman" is John Lennon. Maybe you meant "old lady?" but I hope not.

• 44A: Hat for a military specialist (BERET) — strangely, also [Hat for a beatnik].
  
• 62D: "The Book of ___" (2010 film) (ELI) — Never saw the clue, which is good, as I don't remember this film at all. Now that I look it up, I did see ads. Clearly I didn't see it, but clearly someone did, as it has somehow grossed $94M.
  
• 18D: Old-time actress Talbot or Naldi (NITA) — "Talbot?" She brings nothing to the party. If you don't know Naldi, you sure aren't going to know the far less famous Talbot. Also, ridiculous to call them both "old-time" when one (Naldi, b. 1895) was a star of silents and the other (Talbot, b. 1930) is still living and had the peak of her career in the '60s-'80s.
  
• 60A: Lincoln, the Rail-Splitter (ABE) — Good thing you had "the Rail-Splitter" in there. I might have confused him with ABE, the Body-Builder, ABE, the Bank Teller, or ABE, the Vigoda.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Tony winner Neuwirth — THURSDAY, Dec. 24, 2009 — Suffolk female / One in the charge of un instituteur / Like vicunas

Constructor: Nancy Salomon

Relative Difficulty: Easy-Medium

Theme: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas — The letter string EVE is crammed into nine boxes of this Christmas Eve puzzle. It's like nine little Christmas presents!

Word of the Day: PAREVE (47D: Made without milk or meat)

Kosher foods are divided into three categories: meat, dairy and pareve. One of the basic principles of kashrut is the total separation of meat and dairy products. Meat and dairy may not be cooked or eaten together. To ensure this, the kosher kitchen contains separate sets of dishes, utensils, cookware, and separate preparation areas for meat and dairy. A third category, pareve, is comprised of foods which are neither meat nor dairy and may therefore be eaten with either. ...

Pareve food can generally be served with either meat or dairy meals. Some kitchens have serving and mixing bowls, pots, and knives used exclusively for pareve food. If a pareve food ... is cooked or mixed together with any meat or dairy products it becomes respectively either meat or dairy and all laws pertaining to meat and dairy apply, including the required waiting times.

(Chabad.org)

-----

Hi, everybody. It's PuzzleGirl! I'm so happy to be spending part of the holidays here with you all. Did you have a nice Festivus? Air any interesting grievances? Observe any feats of strength worth mentioning? I'm not going to take up a lot of your time today because you probably have plans for the rest of the day that don't allow you to sit in front of your computer for hours on end. Here at the PuzzleHouse we will probably be baking a lot of cookies. I will also need to make at least one trip to the grocery store, which I'm sure is going to be calm and relaxing. Then after dinner we'll open some presents and by tomorrow we'll be bored. Of course I'm kidding. The PuzzleParents will actually be joining us Friday night for the rest of the week and PuzzleHusband and I will be traveling to Chicago for a few days. Yes, I know traveling to Chicago in December isn't a great idea. What can I say? We're not very smart.

What? There's a puzzle? Okay, let's talk about the puzzle. I love a rebus! I really do! Thursdays are pretty much the only day we see them and every Thursday that we don't get one, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed. But not today. The reason I rated this puzzle Easy-Medium is that I solved it quite a bit quicker than my typical Thursday time. But I also wanted to account for the fact that the rebus might have slowed people down. It usually slows me down, but for some reason I caught onto this one right away. I'm all "Cavaliers? Well, they're in Cleveland. Oh it must be some college Cavaliers...." But then when I had a few of the crosses in place, and thought about what day it is, the rebus became obvious. Like I said, totally atypical for me to grok a rebus that quickly, so that's why I added the "medium."

There was also quite a bit of what I think of as Bob Klahn cluing. That is, a clue showing up in more than one place or a couple of clues that are similar. For example:

• 25A: Monopoly token (HAT).
• 54A: Monopoly token (SHOE)
  

• 2D: Plains Indian (OTOE)
• 36A: Dakota Indian (REE)
  

• 49A: Ho-hum (BLASÉ)
• 49D: Feeling ho-hum (BORED)

I didn't like the monopoly token clues because, even though I grant that it's perfectly legit, I've never called the "hat" anything but the TOPHAT. And I didn't like the Dakota Indian clue because I grew up in North Dakota and I didn't know the answer and that's just embarrassing.

Theme answers:

• 17A: In perpetuity (FOREVER AND EVER).
• 29A: Fight night highlight (MAIN EVENT).
• 38A: Fate-tempting motorcyclist (EVEL KNIEVEL).
• 41A: One in the charge of un instituteur (ÉLÈVE). French!
• 59A: Pan's place (NEVER NEVER LAND).
• 61A: Has a blast (REVELS).
• 4D: Cavaliers' home (CLEVELAND).
• 8D: Sharp (CLEVER).
• 11D: It was conquered in 1953 (MOUNT EVEREST). I wanted to include a "Sports Night" clip here, but it's not embeddable, plus I really only wanted the first minute and a half, so if you're interested you can go watch over on YouTube. It's pretty funny.
• 24D: Like tank tops (SLEEVELESS).
• 28D: Impossible to change (IRREVERSIBLE).
• 30D: Tylenol competitor (ALEVE). I think of Tylenol and Aleve as two completely different products, but that might just be because I know way more about pain relievers than a normal person should.
• 47D: Made without milk or meat (PAREVE).
• 53D: Midnight alarm giver (REVERE).
• 52D: Put out (PEEVED). I was thinking of a totally different meaning of "put out."

What else?

• 6A: Emmy-winning character actor James (COCO). I couldn't picture him in my mind and when I Googled I realized he's super familiar but I would have bet a lot of money he was someone else.
• 22A: Edible tubes (PENNE). I misread this "edible tubers." (Are there other kinds of tubers?)
• 34A: Go "pfffft" (STALL). Don't like this clue. Going "pfffft" is dying. Stalling is more like "Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump, waaah-waaah-waaah, cough cough, bonk."
• 53A: Belly laugh (ROAR). Raise your hand if you wanted HO HO for this one.
• 1D: Bit of a dustup (TIFF). Perfect clue for an awesome word.

• 7D: Any song on a 78 (OLDIE). You whippersnappers don't even know what we're talking about, do you?
• 9D: It may be part of a bank (OAR). The O was the last letter I put into the grid. I knew that it had to be an O from COCO, but "bank of oars" was not making any sense to me at the time.
• 10D: Like vicuñas (ANDEAN). I must have learned this from crosswords because I just plunked it right in.
• 13D: Cartoon chipmunk (DALE). I always want this to be Alvin, Theodore, or whatever the other one's name is. Simon. PuzzleKids are very excited about "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel."
• 46D: Judge's announcement (RECESS). Does it ever happen to you that you're desperately wracking your brain for a word and then when you finally get it, it's the wrong word. Yeah. Verdict.
• 56D: "___ 'Clock Jump" (Basie hit) (ONE O). Oh sure, why not?

Thanks for hanging with me. Rex will be back tomorrow.

Love, PuzzleGirl

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MONDAY, Jan. 26, 2009 - T Powell / N Salomon ("My sweetie" in a 1957 hit for the Bobbettes / Aura, informally / Instrument with 30+ strings)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Bad idea!" - same clue used for three long theme answers

Word of the Day: KIBITZER - (n.) an outsider or nonparticipant who looks on and may offer unwanted advice or comment esp. at a card game; verb "KIBITZ" means "to act as a KIBITZER" (W3I)

This is a fine Monday puzzle with a good dose of Scrabbly letters and some surprising and lively fill. The KIBITZ (44A: Offer advice from around a card table) / ZITHER (45D: Instrument with 30+ strings) crossing is particularly nice. I had no idea "MR. LEE" was Monday fare, esp. as a full title and not just a partial "MR. _____" (37A: "My sweetie" in a 1957 hit for the Bobbettes). I know the song well from my high school "I Give Up On Contemporary Music" years of 1985-87, which also happened to coincide with the release of the movie "Stand By Me," which featured "MR. LEE" on its soundtrack. It's a great, catchy, snappy, growly little number.



Theme answers:

• 20A: "Bad idea!" ("Let's not go there!")
• 38A: "Bad idea!" ("You must be joking!")
• 52A: "Bad idea!" ("I didn't hear that!")

This grid makes me realize how much easier a 14/15/14 theme grid is to construct than a 14/13/14. Imagine black squares where the "Y" and "G" are in 38A. You can't segment the grid as neatly in that scenario and have to run at least two adjacent 8s from top to middle and middle to bottom in two of the corners. In this puzzle, you've got a single 10-ltr Down in the NW and another in the SE, and then a single 8 in the NE and another in the SW. Grids get far harder to fill (smoothly) when you are forced to run 8+-ltr Downs side-by-side through two theme answers. The only reason I say all this is because on its surface, it would seem that a 14/15/14 grid is more challenging to construct than a 14/13/14 because of the additional squares involved, but I don't think that's true. This observation has nothing to do with the quality of the current puzzle and everything with my trying to understand the harsh mistress that is the 15x15 puzzle grid.

Bullets:

• 30A: Sunken ship's locale (seabed) - a nice answer. "Locale" refuses to take a break.
• 41A: "_____ River" (song from "Show Boat") ("Ol' Man") - Speaking of "River," River Phoenix was in "Stand By Me" (see nostalgic music memories, above)

• 58A: Couturier Christian (Dior) - alliteration! DIOR and YSL are the big fashion icons in puzzleworld.
• 10D: Two-by-two vessel (Noah's Ark) - love the answer; not sure about the clue.
• 26D: Undercooked meat danger (E. coli) - I refuse to put this answer in any puzzle I might construct. Not too crazy about EBOLI either [I know that EBOLA is the disease and EBOLI is the Italian place name in the Carlo Levi title "Christ Stopped at EBOLI" - 6 of one, as far as I'm concerned, fill-wise]. If I got really, really desperate, I would use E COLI, but deliberately putting E COLI in something I make ... doesn't seem right.
• 29D: Aura, informally (vibes) - I get a weird VIBE (singular) from this clue because of the singular / plural disparity ... although I can imagine switching "aura" and VIBES out in a sentence, so it's technically legit.
• 35D: Beachgoer's acquisition (sun tan) - unless you are me, in which case you either burn or stay white because you were lathered in sun block and / or stayed in the shade. Stupid family history of skin cancer!
• 49D: Cello feature (F hole) - this sounds dirty. Also, I didn't know it. Also, my wife had an error here because she sort of misread the clue at 48A: Babe in the woods (naif) ans something having to do with wood nymphs, and even though wood nymphs are DRYADS, and even though NAIAD is spelled thusly, she wrote in NAID.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Nov. 11, 2008 - Nancy Salomon and Larry Shearer (OP's forerunners / 1930s quints' name / Sadat's predecessor)

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Direction-related answers ... I think

Well, Tuesday is back to being the freaky black sheep of the family. I haven't disliked a puzzle this much in a long time. The theme does not cohere. It just doesn't. One of the answers does in fact head DUE SOUTH (HEADING DUE SOUTH - 7D: Going straight to Antarctica, say), but the others (the diagonals) have nothing to do with compass directions. SLIP SLIDING AWAY (1Diag: Disappearing) has no clear relation to its placement in the grid. Further, it's a song more than it is a general expression. And RUNNING DOWNHILL (12Diag: Proceeding with little effort) is running backwards ... why? At least "DOWNHILL" has some relation to the answer's grid placement, but still, this is mostly just a mishmosh of direction-related answers that are 15 letters long and that the constructors got to intersect in a common letter at the middle ("D"). Not A Theme. The bar has been set too high when it comes to gimmick puzzles. I've seen diagonal answers before, in puzzles where that conceit was put to compelling (and comprehensible) use. [Pause for pretty music]



As architectural feats go, this one is middling. Further, there are torturous answers along the way, at least one of which is close to unforgivable. I've seen letter strings before - you get in a corner, you get desperate, and only MNO will get you out. Not pleasant, but in an excellent puzzle, completely overlookable. But KLMN (29A: OP's forerunners) has to be the ugliest letter string I have ever seen in a grid. Four letters is Too Long for a letter string (only ABCD and LMNOP can get away with that !@#$ and not look ridiculous). And the poor, poor, beautiful "K" - strung up in this pitiful, degrading manner. Ugh. This is one of those times when I think: "Breakfast Test" be damned. Change it to KLAN and change IGGY to EGGY and bam, you're in business [late addendum: Pete M rightly points out that my suggest emendations would screw up the Diagonals!]. If you can put NAZI in a puzzle (and you can), then you can put KLAN in. KLMN is an abomination, though even it would have been forgotten had this puzzle delivered the goods thematically. I see that "KLMN" has been in a handful of puzzles before. The last time it was in the NYT was in a Manny Nosowsky Thursday puzzle from 8 years ago. That puzzle was fantastic (as most of his are). I'm almost equally annoyed by SCHS (5A: Athletic conference members: Abbr.), but I don't have the energy left to slag on it this morning. I just remember groaning and feeling very depressed when I first entered it into the grid. Abbreviations no one uses and gangly letter strings must serve a higher cause. And I don't see it.

Notes:

• 17A: Almost-sacrificed son in the Bible (Isaac) - rereading Genesis right now, coincidentally. Thank God for that ram (seriously, thank God)
• 22A: 1930s quints' name (Dionne) - I prefer this DION:

And not this DION (although this is, by far, my favorite Christmas Carol):



Another version of this carol (we'll return to the puzzle in a sec)

• 33A: Part of a ship's bow (hawse) - heard of a HAWSER, not a HAWSE
• 60A: Company that introduced NutraSweet (Searle) - this is fast becoming a puzzle staple, sadly
• 2D: Highland pattern (plaid) - Tartan!
• 10D: Bliss before the hard part begins (honeymoon) - this is good ... and timely.
• 11D: Tagged on a diamond (out) - yes, true enough. Well, you can tag a guy who is touching a base, either because your tag is late, or because you're trying to convince the ump that your glove was on him before the guy got there, but that's overthinking it.
• 36D: "Miss Universe" holder (sash) - mmm, "holder," one of the most oft-abused clue words in the lexicon.
• 44D: Certain rec centers (YWCAs) - went with YMCAs at first, not surprisingly
• 49D: Sadat's predecessor (Nasser) - Always want to spell it NASSAR, which looks like NASCAR, which should help me remember that I'm way off base.
• 54D: _____ Gravas, role in "Taxi" (Latka) - Andy Kaufman! Here's a clip to end this otherwise unsatisfying puzzling day

Let the spirited defense of this puzzle begin!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Best Repurposing of a Crossword Grid goes to ...

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TUESDAY, Aug. 26, 2008 - Nancy Salomon (Angler's accessory / Most trusted knight of King Arthur / Natural alarms)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Rose" - "Rose" is the clue for each of the three theme answers

A solid Tuesday offering from an old pro. I've had my issues with Tuesday puzzles in the past, and I've had my quibbles ("PFUI") with earlier Salomon puzzles, but this one seems just fine. The only trouble I had was in the middle of the puzzle, where CHARLIE became clear early on, but since CHARLIE "Rose" is such a prominent interviewer, I figured the clue was referencing him and the rest of the answer would be, I don't know, "... OF PBS" or something (that won't fit, but you get the idea).

Theme answers:

• 20A: Rose (American Beauty)
• 36A: Rose (Charlie Hustle) - this is Pete Rose, for all of the baseball-impaired out there; if he hadn't gambled on baseball, he'd be in the Hall of Fame. Has more hits than anyone in the history of baseball (4,256).
• 57A: Rose (took to one's feet) - the "TOOK" part of this did not want to come at all...

This may be the first puzzle I've ever done where I actually remembered the right letters involved in 30D: D-Day carriers: Abbr. (LSTs). I have been to Hamilton, BERMUDA, but because I have more recently been to Hamilton, Ontario, I could not get "Ontario" out of my head as the answer for 22D: Its capital is Hamilton. Doesn't help that it fits. One clue I initially balked at, but for no good reason, was 38D: What 1938's "The War of the Worlds" set off (hysteria). I suppose that is the word for it. But I realize now what my objection was: subconsciously, I wanted the clue to be [Smash hit 1987 album by 50-Down].



I would like you all to offer up your respect and admiration for my contribution to this puzzle: I got Will to change "locale" to "site" in 58D: Common arthritis site (knee). Yes, I am truly making my mark. Developing a signature style if you will. Oh it's subtle, but it's there.

More and more:

• 1A: Smidgens (dabs) - even now, I want to write TADS, just as I did the first, and second time I solved this
• 15A: The New Yorker cartoonist Peter (Arno) - had ARNE. That's somebody, right? A composer?
• 24A: Angler's accessory (creel) - I love this word, for no good reason.
• 25A: Lionel Richie's "You _____" ("Are") - I LOVE this clue for ARE. Of all the possible clues ... rich. RICHIE RICH. Soak it up.

• 27A: Nebraska native (Oto) - reflexively wrote in "UTE"
• 41A: Co. in a 2001 merger with Time Warner (AOL) - as clues for AOL go, I sort of like this one. There is no clue that can rescue AOLER, though, I'm afraid.
• 6D: Some spears (broccoli) - I enjoy this vegetable regularly, and yet ... nothing. I had most of the crosses before I had any idea what I was dealing with.
• 8D: One begins "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (sonnet) - just finished my syllabus for Brit Lit I, and this is on it.
• 9D: Symptom of hypothermia (blue lips) - OK, reason 456 why I do not yet have the eye needed to be a good xword editor: I didn't blink at this clue when it was in its far more gruesome incarnation, [Symptom of asphyxiation]. Somehow, "hypothermia" passes the breakfast test and "asphyxiation" ... really doesn't. Perhaps because in this jaded, "I've - heard - about - too - much - bad - @#!$#" world, my brain can't help but insert "auto-erotic" before "asphyxiation." And yet two weeks ago, I clearly didn't think this was a problem.
• 45D: They're relayed in relays (batons) - or, you know, not. Twice.
• 37D: Natural alarms (roosters) - another clue that made me go "???" And I was born in the year of the Rooster.
  
• 56D: "I want in" or "I want out" indicators, maybe (meows) - OK, the original clue for this makes me laugh (and yet, again, I didn't object) - [Signals meaning "I want in" or "I want out," e.g.]; even though the answer is MEOWS, I'm still imagining cats motioning with their paws or using semaphore or something.

Back to School (sadly, not the kind starring Rodney Dangerfield)



Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Happy Birthday, Will Shortz (who will be on "The Colbert Report" tonight, if I read his most recent message correctly)

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TUESDAY, Apr. 22, 2008 - Nancy Salomon (WHAT A GAL HAS THAT A GENT DOESN'T?)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Business phrases with cutesy clues

Not a lot to say about this one. Tried to solve on the NYT applet last night and - as happens not infrequently when I solve that way - it was having freezing problems, the likes of which are cured, strangely, only by my switching to another tab and then switching back to the NYT site. Not sure what magical unfreezing powers that has, but it seems to work. I think printing out the puzzle in Across Lite and solving on paper is slowly but surely becoming my favorite method of solving. It is more relaxing (even when I'm speeding, because at least I know I'm not going to have a technical difficulty greater than broken pencil lead), and I can annotate the puzzle (for blogging purposes) on the fly - slightly less work for me later.

I solved this puzzle in a rather awkward, backward fashion, filling in the back ends of multiple theme answers, which gave me next to no help in solving them. So I started in the (awkward) NW and essentially went around the grid in clockwise fashion, but without getting a handle on the theme until ... I don't really know when. It's not like any of the theme answers is really memorable. I do remember, however, what my biggest problem in the puzzle was - a clever ruse that is severely flawed (IMOO) by the employment of a variant spelling. I speak, of course, of HARD G (1A: What a gal has that a gent doesn't?). Normally love these kinds of self-referential clues, where the word in the clue is what's at issue. I do not like the cutesy phrasing of the clue (cutesiness abounds in this puzzle, actually, and in a cloying way), but that's not the real problem here. The real problem is the A crossing, AMEER (2D: Mideast poo-bah). It is an acceptable variant of EMIR, it's true. But so is EMEER. And therein lies the problem. I wrote in HENCE (1D: Therefore), EMEER, and RAT ON (3D: Betray, in a way) in the 1, 2, and 3D positions, respectively, so that the answer to [What a gal has that a gent doesn't?] looked like it began HER ..., a possessive feminine pronoun that fits perfectly with the phrasing of the clue. So I figured the next two letter were something I'd just have to come back to. Only I forgot to come back, filled the whole grid in, and then had it rejected by the NYT site. Only then did I notice HER DG and think "... that's not right." Two seconds later I changed the "E" to and "A" and all was right with the world. I normally love the letter trap (i.e. answers like SILENT E and SOFT C), but the combined cutesy cluing and nonstandard AMEER diminished my joy just a bit. Otherwise, an adequate Tuesday puzzle.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Fishing trawler's haul? (net earnings)
• 28A: Seat of government's acquisitions? (capital gains)
• 44A: Publisher's windfall? (paper profits)
• 59A: Salary for selling insects as food? (gross income)

I take back the cutesy accusation. These clues are just dull, except that last one, which is lively but chauvinistic. Lots of cultures around the world eat insects and would find most of what you put in your body "gross." Is this the NYT or "Fear Factor?" Come on.

Here's what I liked: the long Downs. Great phrases all:

• 5D: Campaigner's greeting (glad hand) - Pennsylvanians will not have to endure this much longer ...
• 11D: Works out with weights (pumps iron)
• 34D: Throws in the trash (deep sixes) - love the phrase, though the clue seems overly mundane for the answer
• 39D: Add some meat to the bones (fatten up) - my wife does not think FATTEN UP and ICE UP should be allowed in the same puzzle. I agree. One UP phrase is OK, and three would show self-awareness and boldness, but two just looks sloppy.

Today provides a good opportunity for review of some common crossword fill that may not be commonly known to novice solvers:

• 15A: Muscat resident (Omani) - haven't seen it in a while, but at times it has been quite prevalent. It's a useful word - abundance of vowels, ends in "I"
• 36A: 1910s-'20s car inits. (REO) - Before puzzles, the only way I knew REO was via the massively popular band of my youth, REO Speedwagon.
• 50A: Celestial altar (Ara) - a constellation. A palindrome. Somewhat easy to remember in that all of its letters are contained in the word ALTAR.
• 66A: Fakes out with fancy footwork (dekes) - I hear this most often in hockey commentary, but it works for most any sport. I feel as if this word's stock is on the rise.
• 12D: Lake next to Avon Lake (Erie) - What the heck is "Avon Lake?" Ah, it's not a lake. It's a city in Ohio.
• 52D: Fred's dancing sister (Adele) - If you lived entirely inside the crosswords, you'd think she was more famous than Fred.

And the rest:

• 14D: Correspondence sans stamp (email) - I've studied French, so I know "sans," but there are few French words I like less in English than "sans." It's exceedingly pretentious. Just say "without." The extra syllable won't take any years off your life.
• 20A: Board of directors hiree (CEO) - goes nicely with REO, but "hiree," yuck.
• 25A: Lukas of "Witness" (Haas) - behold my magical powers! I mention Lukas HAAS in my write-up of Tommy HAAS a few days ago, and bam, here he is. I actually went into this actor's imdb file trying to remember why he became famous and way down at the bottom of the film list was "Witness." He was the cute kid of the very hot (and Amish) Kelly McGillis (whatever happened to her??).
• 27A: QB boo-boos: Abbr. (ints) - "boo-boos" is unforgivable in a football clue. This is what I mean by excessive cutesiness.
• 16A: Mystifying Mr. Geller (Uri) - more cutesy cluing. His fame is more mystifying than he is. I think Mean Mr. Mustard could kick Mystifying Mr. Geller's @$$. In fact, I would pay to see that.
  
• 37A: Upturned, as a crate (on end) - couldn't parse this to save my life "ONE something ..." Even after I got it: "ONE ND? What's th- ... oh."
• 41A: Yeoman's agreement (aye) - see also YES (65A: "That's a go").
• 43A: Big Easy team (Saints) - found myself thinking "They aren't in N.O. anymore," then realized I was thinking of the Jazz, the basketball team that moved from New Orleans to Utah in 1979.
• 62A: Big galoot (ape) - wish I could see GALOOT in the puzzle more often. My first instinct here (as always): OAF.
• 9D: How curses are exchanged (angrily) - couldn't figure out the gist of this for a while. BY WITCHES? I guess "curses" here refers to epithets of some kind.
• 13D: Kiting necessity (wind) - true enough. I first (mis-)read the clue as [Knitting necessity], then thought of "kiting" as the act of writing bad checks.
• 31D: Elbow-benders (sots) - ah, two great members of the vocabulary of drunkenness.
• 47D: Many Guinness listings (firsts) - another clue I had trouble parsing, mainly because I wanted it to end in the superlative -ESTS.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of Crossworld

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TUESDAY, Dec. 25, 2007 - Nancy Salomon

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Merry Christmas" in different languages

First of all, Merry Christmas to you all (those of you who are still bothering to keep up with crosswords and my blog over the Holidays). It's a gray day and the furnace is doing this new thing where pipes bang violently like the house is haunted by angry and / or four-year-old ghosts. But still, it's a lovely day because I get to drink coffee and eat orange rolls and open presents with my family, woo hoo.

Today's puzzle was a bit ho-hum rather than ho-ho-ho, but it did give me one great new language-related adventure: GLAEDELIG JUL! Mother of pearl! That just looked like nonsense to me. With every new cross, I kept expecting the phrase to become familiar, or at least semi-clear, but it never did. When I was done, I wondered what "GLAEDE LIGJUL" meant. Google told me that it meant virtually nothing. Then I noticed JUL and thought "JUL ... YULE ... yeah, that's probably where the word breaks, dumbass." And sure enough. Hamlet wishes you a Merry Christmas. My time: 6:01 (on paper, as all my times will be from now til tournament time). Sad. But whatever. I'm a patient man.

Theme answers:

• 17A: "Merry Christmas" to the French (Joyeux Noel)
• 29A: "Merry Christmas" to the Danes (pound your keyboard with your face! GLAEDELIG JUL!)
• 47A: "Merry Christmas" to Spaniards (Feliz Navidad) - song will be in my head all day.
• 64A: "Merry Christmas" to Italians (Buon Natale)

Blogger / my computer is Really slow this morning, so I'm gonna make this quick.

Bad start: HILTS for HAFTS (1A: Sword handles) followed by SHUN for SNUB (5D: Cold-shoulder), which is less explicable, but still understandable. So that slowed me down. I also tried to anticipate the answer to 10D: Car safety device by writing an "R" at the end: -BAR. Surely some kind of BAR would be used to protect your car. Like The Club. But no. AIRBAG.

Kwik Piks:

• 14A: "One for My Baby" composer Harold (Arlen) - o great, now there's more than one ARLEN to keep track of!?
• 10A: Wood-shaping tool (adze) - I gotta get me one of these. They appear so frequently in puzzles that their powers must be awesome.
• 8D: Greek earth goddess (Gaea) - misspelled it GAIA.
• 6D: Hit the jackpot (won) - got verb tense wrong and wondered what an IVAL was (15A: Horse course - OVAL).
• 33D: Sailor's behind (abaft) - had -B-FT and filled in the remaining letters without even bothering to look at the clue. That's how accustomed I've become to this word.
• 71A: Makeup maker Lauder (Estee) - she's Pantheonic, of course, but I will say that it feels as if her appearance frequency has fallen off of late. Which is Just fine with me.
• 2D: Kitchen drawer? (aroma) - first of all, I wanted some kind of pen, pencil, or marker. Why is AROMA always clued as this cartoonish wafting that lures people into the kitchen. There are billions of AROMAS that are yet to be explored. Get out of the kitchen.
• 25D: It had a notable part in Exodus (Red Sea) - great clue. Me: "Aaron's Rod ... Golden Calf ... er ... locusts." Etc.
• 45D: Make balanced (even off) - ick. I had EVEN OUT, of course.
• 50D: "Rats!" ("Darn!") - Problem here is that you've got at least three plausible "D" answers: DRAT, DANG, and DARN. That is the order I went in.
• 55D: Knock-down-drag-out (melee) - when people fight in CrossWorld, they do so in the form of either a MELEE or a SET-TO. MELEE is the less-stupid-sounding answer.
• 49D: Benzoyl peroxide target (zit) - gross.
• 21A: Winter melon (casaba) - this answer has appeared multiple times this year. I think it's "wrinkly." I know that people came a-Googlin' for it earlier in the year.

"Eleven Geeks a-Googlin'" should be added to the "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Enjoy your day, do puzzles, stay warm, put on John Denver's Christmas Album (as I do, every year of my life without fail since I was a very small boy). Thanks to everyone who had kind words for me and this blog yesterday. I sincerely appreciate it.

More tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[drawing by Emily Cureton]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Oct. 7, 2007 - Nancy Salomon and Harvey Estes

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Political Positions" - rebus puzzle with DEM. squares on the puzzle's left, IND. in the dead center, and REP. squares on the puzzle's right

I feel as if I've seen variations on this theme before, but no matter; this was an enjoyable little puzzle nonetheless. I find that rebus puzzles are Far easier to do on paper - on the computer, I do not take the time mid-solve to use the function that allows me to put multiple letters in one square. Instead, I just type in the first letter of the multiple letter set (software accepts this as a "correct" answer). Problem: when you're speeding around the grid, it's easy to forget which squares are the rebus ones, and hard to see where one might expect another rebus square to show up. So I hiccuped a lot. Rebuses also tend to up the probability not only that I'll make a typo, but that I won't find it easily. That happened today too. My one hangup was the result of such a typo. Proximity of European river AARE (38D: Rhine tributary) "caused" me to write AARACKAGES at 42A. I knew that was a rebus answer, so I didn't look at it too hard. But this mistake caused a mini-chain reaction, where I couldn't get 42D: Summons: Abbr. (cit. - I had AIT?) or 55A: Character size (agate) or 56D: Baguette, for one (gem) - had the -EM on that last one and still, for the life of me, couldn't figure it out for a while. Seriously consdiered HEM. All this has zero to do with quality of the puzzle, which was fine.

Theme answers:

• 24A: Event where there might be burping (tupperwa[RE P]arty)
• 15D: Sunken cooking site (fi[RE P]it)
• 26A: Set boundaries ([DEM]arcated)
• 1D: King topper (dia[DEM])
• 33A: Poker player's gloat ("Rea[D 'EM] and weep!")
• 36D: Some records or cards ([DEM]os)
• 42A: Students' gifts from home (ca[RE P]ackages)
• 39D: Brunch serving (c[REP]e)
• 65A: Response to "Want some?" ("Don't m[IND] if I do")
• 51D: Duke Ellington classic ("Sat[IN D]oll")
• 87A: Prize since 1928 (Aca[DEM]y Award)
• 58D: Working together (in tan[DEM])
• 92A: Help in checking calls (instant [REP]lay)
• 86D: Worker in the TV biz (ad [REP])
• 103A: Junkyard supplies (spa[RE P]arts)
• 104D: Loud noise ([REP]ort) - kept wanting ROAR here ...
• 109A: Candidate's "This isn't over" ("I [DEM]and a recount!")
• 95D: Supporting instrumentalist (si[DEM]an)

There are a handful of answers here that are not terribly common or well known in real life, but that recur in crosswords. I'm pretty sure I learned AGRA (35D: Indian tourist mecca) and L-DOPA (61D: Parkinsonism treatment) and LEN (63A: Cariou of Broadway) all from doing the crossword. Even rap-hating solvers know ICE-T (102D: "Rhyme Pays" rapper) by now - you might also like to know that his heyday was 20 years ago and he is no longer nearly as popular as his crossword frequency would imply. Oh, and he's an actor now, on one of those crappy "Law & Order" spin-offs. SUV? LOL? Who knows? This puzzle was full of names, many of which I didn't know or had forgotten, including:

• 69A: Jazzman Jackson (Milt) - didn't know
• 73A: Energy secretary under Clinton (O'Leary) - didn't know
• 90A: Journalist _____ Rogers St. John (Adela) - forgot
• 43D: Bandleader Kyser (Kay) - forgot
• 64D: "Uncle Vanya" woman (Elena) - didn't know; ELENA was in the puzzle yesterday in her ice-skating incarnation
• 88D: Ekberg of "La Dolce Vita" (Anita) - forgot, then remembered with a cross or two
• 98D: Physicist Ampere (Andre) - didn't know

I balked at BALKY (75A: Obstinate) - should have been clued as [Cousin Larry's cousin on "Perfect Strangers"] and had a little trouble with a bunch of stuff I should have known cold, like INCA (2D: Foe of Pizarro) and FLAT PANEL (84A: Feature of many modern computers) and LOURDES (9D: Pilgrimage site) and PINTO (101A: Mottled mount). LOURDES is the name of my local hospital ... PINTO has become irrevocably a car or a bean to me. I had LEADERS for LOOPERS (21A: Sewing machine parts) after being So Proud of myself for "knowing" LEADERS. There are only a few remaining things I didn't know:

• 23A: Sunflower seeds, botanically (achenes) - ouch!
• 40A: Vacuum tube filler (argon)
• 1A: Surgeon's instrument (dilator) - I know you went with SCALPEL here at first ...

Lastly, the kid in me liked BAT DAY (49D: Ball club come-on) and Rain-BLO (60A: Rain-_____ (classic bubble gum balls)). Off to work like crazy so I can "enjoy" Games 3 of the ALDS.

My other blog is always looking for new readers. New paperback covers await your perusal / mockery.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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SUNDAY, Sep. 2, 2007 - Lee Glickstein and Nancy Salomon

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Put It In Writing" - "IT" is inserted into familiar titles to create a new, silly title, which is clued

[updated / completed 11:00 a.m.]

I liked the puzzle a lot, despite the fact that the theme was Way too easy to get. Once I figured it out (early), I played a little game with myself to see how many crosses I would need to get a theme answer. So I just worked my way down the puzzle, and as soon as I had a few letters in a theme answer, I'd read the clue to see if I could get it. I never needed more than four letters to get a theme answer. Hadn't even heard of one of the authors, but the title was predictable / familiar enough that I got it quickly. Luckily, the theme answers are (mostly) funny enough that I can excuse the super-easiness.

Theme answers:

• 23A: Quentin Tarantino paperback about a minister's stories? ("Pulpit Fiction")
• 29A: Randy Shilts expose of an outlaw musician? ("And the Bandit Played On")
• 57A: Susan Howatch novel about protesting clergy? ("Sit-ins of the Fathers") - this is the author I did not know
• 82A: Marlo Thomas storybook about liberated vampires? ("Free to Bite You and Me") - by far the best fake title
• 107A: Grimm Brothers story about a sorry leader, with "The"? ("Pitied Piper of Hamelin")
• 121A: Shakespearean play about a monarch who writes bad checks? ("Kiting Henry IV")

We have breakfast guests coming over in exactly ten minutes. So I'm posting this now, and will complete it in late morning. I love you guys, but chocolate chip pancakes (and houseguests, I suppose) win out.

RP

And I'm back.

It's a very right-wing puzzle, or Republican at any rate, with Bush (27A: State where Geo. W. Bush was born) and Nixon (80A: Old presidential inits.) and former press secretary ARI Fleischer (40D: Former White House press secretary Fleischer) all making appearances in one way or another. Then there's ABU Ghraib (2D: _____ Ghraib, Iraqi prison), which puts recent Republican policy in a not-so-nice context. I don't think I've seen ABU Ghraib referenced in the puzzle before. It's not very breakfast-tabley, but it's certainly in-the-news enough to be a valid entry.

Had my greatest challenge in the "Utah" region of the puzzle, where lots of unknown names and terms went colliding into each other. I had SSGT for MSGT (52D: Certain NCO) - as of right now, I don't know what MSGT stands for - aha, Master Sergeant. Anyway, changed "S" to "M" when ALARUS made no sense at 51A: Warning signal, once (alarum). MSGT intersected the very unknown (to me) OTOMIS (67A: Mexican Indians), which I was certain was wrong when I first clicked "Done" on the applet. Thankfully, the answer clearly ended in "S," because that "S" was the first letter in a name I did not know: 70D: "Elephant Boy" boy (Sabu), which parallels yet another answer I didn't know / don't understand - 79D: Canon alternative (Mita). Oh, it's a copier brand? OK.

There are very cool vocabulary words in this puzzle, including one of my favorite words in the English language: EPIGONE (119A: Copycat). I use this word when talking about any group of slavish or unimaginative imitators (started using it to describe Chaucer's immediate poetic successors, but it works in lots of contexts). Another fabulous fancy word is PICAYUNE (89A: Piddling) - had that -YUN- run and thought "???" then saw the clue and thought "Damn ... that's hot." It sits above a less pretty word, ERGOT (95A: Rye malady), which longtime readers will recognize as a word I first learned from doing a puzzle about 6 months ago. Lastly, as far as cool vocabulary words go, there's OBLATE, which (because I'm a medievalist by training) I always associate with religious orders, but here's another meaning for my edification (20A: Squeezed at the ends, as leaves).

Clues that gave me pause, confused me, or annoyed me:

• 22A: Some unwritten rules (oral law) - I have never heard this phrase. I pieced it together from just a few letters, but it's not a term I'm familiar with.
• 53A: Triangular kerchief (fichu) - Nutso word which I've seen before. Had that final "U" and thought "uh oh," but when I got the initial "F" the word came to me instantly.
• 128A: Second _____ (banana) - yes, I suppose, though [Top _____] would have been a little more in-the-language (according to Google, almost precisely 3x more in the language).
• 4D: Red-______ sapsucker (naped) - yikes. Did not know this. NOSED? NAKED? Nope.
• 6D: Peevish (tetchy) - are you sure this isn't just a hick pronunciation of "touchy," which can also mean "peevish?"
• 8D: Believer's goal (Mecca) - I was thinking in Way more abstract terms, like NIRVANA or the equivalent.
• 24D: Bloom of Paris (fleur) - tricky cluing; it's just French for "flower"
• 86D: Leandro's love (Ero) - Italian version of "Hero and Leander," a poem I know pretty well and teach often. Lacking the initial "H," this one fooled me a bit.

Impressive clues and answers:

• 1A: Heart of a bus. district (Main St.) - I love the two-wordness, where one word is an abbr. I don't know why. I just do.
• 76A: Disney movie with a hacker hero ("Tron") - You gotta go back 25 years for this one. Raise your hand if, in desperation, you entered NEMO or LILO.
• 29D: Little League issue (age limit) - some of those kids look very very post-pubescent. It always seems like cheating when this 5'10" kid with the first traces of a mustache comes out and starts throwing heat at these 4'10" skinny kids who are swimming in their batting helmets. This is a long way of saying, yes, the AGE LIMIT is an issue.
• 65D: Hunter of literature (Thompson) - a very talented, funny writer. Slightly insane. His name really needs its middle initial to feel complete.
• 45D: Joyce Carol Oates novel ("Them") - another literary clue; also, a movie about killer ants!

That's it.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld


P.S. Congratulations to Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz for no-hitting the Orioles last night - in only his second major league start (!). After having their asses handed to them by the Yankees, and then losing another ugly one to the Orioles on Friday, the Red Sox really really needed this. He's only 23! Hopefully the Red Sox won't trade this great young pitcher to the Rangers for a redundant closer who screws up team chemistry and nearly single-handedly drives the season into the ground.

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SUNDAY, Jul. 8, 2007 - Elayne Cantor and Nancy Salomon

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "R-Rated Film Remakes" - Puns (oh boy, huzzah) on famous movie titles, aka Porn Remakes

At least one of these allegedly fake titles is real, i.e. a name of an actual porn flick. Not only that, the same title has been used in sitcoms at least twice as a parody title. That title: "BROADCAST NUDES" (88A: Remake about a TV station/F.C.C. controversy?). It was a 1988 porn film. It was a passing reference on "The Simpsons," and it was the title of an episode of "The Larry Sanders Show." Just FYI.

I say the difficulty level here is "Medium" only because it took me longer than it should have to get the theme, primarily because I tripped all over what should have been an easy answer, 32A: Remake about impiety during a storm? ("Sinnin' in the Rain"). I had the -NIN- part of SINNIN' but put in RAINING ... then figured out the answer but couldn't get it to fit (didn't realize I had to drop the "G" I had hangin' on the end there). The first answer I got after that, very easily (too easily?), was "THE NAUGHTY PROFESSOR" (68A: Remake about a lecherous instructor?).

Other theme answers:

• 23A: Remake about a red, white, and blue libido? ("Lust in America") - what's most striking about this clue, strangely, is its use of the serial comma, which the puzzle normally eschews between penultimate and ultimate item in a list...
• 51A: Remake about a strip club? ("Risque Business")
• 106A: Remake about a holy person's slip? ("Saint Misbehavin'")
• 119A: Remake about a ribald watchman? ("The Bawdy Guard") - Had GUARD and filled the whole thing in without ever looking at the clue.

Assorted observations:

13A: Cape Cod course (chowder) - thought the answer was a golf course. CHOWDER always makes me laugh because of a "Simpsons" episode in which the mayor's nephew threatens a French chef for not pronouncing "Chow-DAIR" correctly (the mayor and his whole family speak with heavy, Kennedy-esque accents).

21A: Daddy Warbucks's henchman (The Asp) - wow that's cool. I had No Idea.

22A: Lowly digs (rat hole) - is this literal? As in, rat's holes are low (to the ground)? Or metaphorical, like a slightly nicer way of saying "sh#thole?"

40A: No dessert for dieters (torte) - ??? This clue is awful. What dessert is for dieters? Most are not. And what if the "torte" were somehow defatted or tofued up, such that a dieter might eat it? I can imagine dieting and eating a TORTE - maybe just a sliver. Seriously, make your clues Specific! TORTE-specific!

41A: Game co. that originated Dungeons & Dragons (TSR) - now you all know that I played this game for a few years as a kid, so of course I'm going to blog about it, but ... as of this moment, I have no idea what TSR is or stands for. I had to rely on crosses for this one. Stands for "Tactical Studies Rules," apparently.

74A: Rodrigo _____ de Vivar (El Cid) (Diaz) - I'm sure I've had this before, but still didn't know it. It was inferrable with just a couple crosses, thankfully.

103A: Following closely? (aping) - liked it, not sure why.

125A: Difficult (ornery) - such a great word, though [Difficult] seems far too tepid a clue.

8D: Actor Brian of "Juarez," 1939 (Aherne) - Now that I see this name, I know that I have blogged about not knowing him before. Just not in this movie incarnation.

16D: Fans' sounds (whirrs) - clever. Wanted HURRAS or RAH RAH.

17D: Japanese "thank you very much" (Mr. Roboto ... I mean Domo Arigato)

18D: 1983 Nicholas Gage book ("Eleni") - again, smacks of something that I've blogged before. Still, didn't know it.

60D: Olympic track great Johnson, familiarly (Rafe) - wanted MIKE, at first, then this guy's name came to me out of the blue.

30D: Essen's basin (Ruhr) - edumacated guess

35D: Lucky ones? (Irish) - took me pathetically long time because I wanted it to end in "S."

83D: Wrist bones (carpi) - great word. Never seen it in the grid. Looks like a typo of CAPRI.

86D: Where Hercules slew a lion (Nemea) - I went through a Hercules phase a while back (doesn't everyone?) and so his labors are well known to me.

121D: Slingshot's shape (wye) - oh I don't like that at all. If that's how you spell the letter "Y," then no one should ever do it. Isn't WYE a river? Try that next time.

122D: Children's author/illustrator Asquith (Ros) - Long, long way to go for this answer. Why not [Frasier's colleague] or [Icelandic rock band Sigur _____]?

I'm done.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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