SUNDAY, Jul. 27, 2008 - Mike Nothnagel and David Quarfoot (UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE IN JORDAN / "THINK BIG" SLOGANEER)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Going Every Which Way" - rebus puzzle with squares representing RIGHT, LEFT, UP and DOWN

Copped the theme straight off, but still found the puzzle quite challenging. Turning UP all those direction squares was a bit exhausting, especially since some of them were really, really cleverly disguised, e.g. S[UP], DOG! (92A: Slangy street greeting). There was only one part of the puzzle that I found really irksome, to the point that I wish the entire area had been torn out and remodeled: the hyper-Germanic far south, where two different Wagner opera heroines duked it out with some African range I didn't know (ATLAS - 152A: Africa's _____ Mountains), somewhere in Jordan I didn't know (PETRA - 156A: Unesco World Heritage Site in Jordan), and Tolkien's crazy-ass middle name (REUEL - 148A: The second "R" in J. R. R. Tolkien). When I wrote in ELSA for (139D: "Bridal Chorus" bride), I honestly didn't know if any letter after the initial "E" was correct. At that point, I didn't even know I was dealing with Wagner. I just knew that ELSA ... was a name. In some crosswords. Yuck. Otherwise, a pitch-perfect Sunday - very doable, but not too doable.

Theme answers:

Man, I'm not sure I can list them all...

• 29A: Popular 1970s British TV series ([UP]stairs [DOWN]stairs)
• 1D: Block (dam [UP])
• 30D: Went from second to first, say ([DOWN]-shifted)
• 16D: Barely fair, maybe ([DOWN] the [RIGHT] field line)
• 16A: Command to an overly friendly canine ([DOWN], boy)
• 37A: "Now you're talking!" ("All [RIGHT]")
• 36D: Erect (standing [UP][RIGHT])
• 101A: Football defensive line position ([RIGHT] end)
• 72D: Secured, in a way, with "on" ([LEFT] a [DOWN]payment)
• 71A: Liberals (The [LEFT])
• 84A: Cause of unemployment ([DOWN]-sizing)
• 38A: Took the risk ([LEFT] it [UP] to chance)
• 38D: Not brought home ([LEFT] on base)
• 41D: Awake by ([UP] at)

• 70D: Sentiment suggesting "Try this!" ("It's [RIGHT] [UP] your alley!")
• 90A: "Amen!" ("[RIGHT] on!")
• 95A: Arrangements (set-[UP]s)
• 125A: Exasperated teacher's cry ("Sit [DOWN] and shut [UP]!")
• 113D: Happen, slangily (go [DOWN])
• 89D: Took it easy (rested [UP])
• 137A: Missing glasses' location, usually ([RIGHT] where you [LEFT] them)
• 105D: Common entry point (stage [RIGHT])
• 140D: Bazooka Joe's working peeper ([LEFT] eye)

I'm sure I skipped one or two in there, but really, at this point, I don't care. I'm just trying to beat my laptop's remaining battery time.

We are in Dunedin, NZ, on the very large property of some extended family. There are horses and dogs, and a sheep, who this morning was just hanging out in the front yard, grazing. Got to feed a cow and heifer this morning after a long, beautiful, muddy walk, so that was good. It's all too beautiful, really. Not sure what else I can say about it. Maybe I'll show another picture or two in a bit.

Points of interest:

• 20A: Genus of poisonous mushroom (amanita) - YIPE (19D: Exclamation of surprise)! That's the most outer-spaceish answer of the lot, today.
• 25A: Nickname for a bodybuilder (Muscles) - something about this answer seems so dated / campy to me.
• 27A: Junior in the N.F.L. (Seau) - sometimes it pays to watch ESPN. A great defensive player (safety?) who languished on the perennial also-ran Chargers for nearly his entire career.

• 53A: Opening screen option on many an A.T.M. (Español) - ooh, I like this clue.
• 56A: "Think big" sloganeer (IMAX) - I like to blog every "sloganeer" clue, on principle
• 66A: Tic-tac-toe plays (X's and O's) - very very nice. Sahra liked this one (She was watching me solve over my shoulder for a while)
• 68A: Warner Brothers shotgun toter (Elmer) - easy and great. For other animated fare, see also TOM (147D: Cartoon feline)
• 79A: Ralph who co-wrote "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Blane) - YIPE x 2. This is as bad as the poisonous mushroom genus, as far as I'm concerned.
• 81A: Cartoonist Keane (Bil) - of "Family Circus" "fame"
• 86A: It might follow a slash mark (divisor) - lovely. Took me a while - I was aided by a Roman numeral guess at 62D: Benedict III's predecessor (Leo IV)

• 94A: Ball with a yellow stripe (nine) - frightfully clever.
• 102A: Old musical high notes (elas) - no idea what this means, but I know this term ... from crosswords.
• 103A: Deuce beaters (treys) - never heard anyone use this term in real life, except occasionally when a sportscaster refers to a three-pointer in basketball.
• 119A: A hyperbola has two (foci) - a guess. Math constructors must have their math clues.
• 133A: Part of a shark's respiratory system (gill slit) - this phrase feels entirely made up. What's the difference between a gill and a GILL SLIT?

• 153A: A super's may be supersized (key ring) - man, I needed this answer. Was having real trouble, briefly, with the Downs down there.
• 2D: Birds that can sprint at 30 m.p.h. (emus) - also, apparently, good swimmers (we got tricked on an EMU question on quiz night because they included this bit of trivia, throwing us completely off the EMU scent)
• 5D: French orphan of film (Lili) - ???
• 6D: Camper's aid (sterno) - weirdly, I get STENO and STERNO confused
• 12D: Cyclades island (Ios) - pretty sure we had this very recently. Well ... here it is again. Don't confuse it with EOS (Greek goddess of the dawn)
• 15D: Hollow center? (double "L") - goes nicely, in its self-referentiality, with SILENT U (87D: Building component?)
• 42D: Bootleggers' bane (T-men) - why were Treasury Men after bootleggers? Tax avoision?
• 43D: Son-in-law of Muhammad (Ali) - ALI was an educated guess. Not sure what else, in three letters, it was going to be
• 48D: Proposed "fifth taste," which means "savory" in Japanese (umami) - I don't even understand the clue, let alone the answer. There are four other tastes? Salt, sweet ... dancer and blitzen?
• 55D: Tasmania's highest peak (Ossa) - Kiwi folk here did Not know this one. And Tasmania's just over ... there (I'm pointing NW)
• 58D: Z-car brand (Datsun) - had forgotten about these. DATSUN is now Nissan.
• 60D: International oil and gas giant, informally (Oxy) - the only OXY I know gets rid of pimples.

• 81D: Construction project that gave rise to the Ted Williams Tunnel (Big Dig) - nice. Timely. Also, one of the few positive references I've heard made about the Big Dig.
• 98D: Pal of Kenny and Kyle (Stan) - love the "South Park" references.
• 129D: Singer Mann (Aimee) - just got her new album, which has the awesome, hard-to-alphabetize title "@#%&*! Smilers"

I gotta stop. Tired. Family awaits. Children beginning to overrun my work area.

I am on indefinite leave after this. No idea when I'll have reliable computer access again before I return to the States. So I leave you (until further notice) in the capable hands of Puzzlegirl OR Wade OR SethG (who should feel free to add pics and video to this write-up as they see fit).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Cousins of oribis and dik-diks: SATURDAY, Jul. 26, 2008 - Barry C. Silk (CONDUCTOR OF MANY TV EXPERIMENTS)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

A very easy breezy Saturday *except* for the NW, where nearly half my fifteen minutes were spent. Never watched whatever MR. WIZARD is (1A: Conductor of many TV experiments), I've seen REEBOKS but not RHEBOKS (2D: Cousins of oribis and dik-diks), though to my credit I got the -BOKS part easily enough. The All Blacks recently played the SPRINGBOKS of S. Africa, I think (and lost, here in Dunedin). Tonight, the All Blacks take on the Wallabees of Australia. Dear Australia, your rugby team name is Ridiculous. Perhaps if you change it, you will win more often. Just a suggestion. So the NZ/AUS match tonight is Huge Business here in NZ, and I am at a massive family gathering where, after "tea" (that's "dinner" to you and me), the men (...) will gather around the TV and watch / talk rugby. I am in for some kind of schooling, I expect. "Let's teach the American about rugby!" All I know about rugby is that there are no helmets involved and the All Blacks uniforms are totally flash. I want one.

Oh, SNAP, we just got wireless to work, so I'm getting off this clunky desktop and work on the Mac, huzzah. Now I can do a screen grab and get the finished grid for you all.

Well, I'm back on the clunky desktop, which is actually less clunky than my laptop when it come to mouse-work. I should have brought my wireless mouse on the trip - touchpads just aren't as fast, for me. Anyway, the puzzle:

Started easily enough with 9A: Many people get 100 on it (IQ test) - once I tested the "Q" crossing - 10D: Big telecom company (Qwest) - I knew I was right. NE corner was done in under a minute. No foolin'. Only real STUMBLEs (13D: Err) occurred at 54A: Second biggest city in Russia's Orenburg region (Orsk), where I entertained only OMSK and then OREL ... maybe OPEL. Not sure I knew ORSK was a real place. Had ERGO for IS TO (26D: What a colon may mean) and GAS LIT for OIL LIT (25A: Like some old lamps) and EST for OST (61D: Right turn from Nord) - the capital "N" should have told me the language wasn't French. Had real ISSUEs with the ISSUE-region of the puzzle (32A: Children). Made a complete and utter (and, it turns out, correct) guess at 24D: New York Congresswoman Slaughter (Louise), and finally worked that narrow passage to the NW down to a single blank square - the NEB. / IBMS crossing. Creighton sounds like it's in NYS (29D: Home of Creighton U.), and computers never occurred to me where "servers" was concerned (35A: Many servers). Once I put the "B" in, I figured I was home free with a sub-10 min. time. But no.

The Mix:

• 19A: Scottish : Mac :: Arabic : _____ (Ibn) - love it. Nice counterpoint to IBMS. Also, being in NZ makes me think often, and fondly, of Scotland - Mac names everywhere. DUNEDIN = EDINBURGH ... just upside-down and backwards. And with palm trees.
  
• 20A: Where Charles de Gaulle was born (Lille) - there are other, more LILLE-ish clues out there. Alain de _____, for instance. Also, isn't LILLE known for its textile production?
  
• 23A: Advent number ("Noel") - Proud of my brain for sticking with this one the 10-12 seconds it took to piece it together. Thought "12" as in "12 Days of Christmas," then thought 25 - number of days on an "Advent" calendar (?), then thought "NOEL," but didn't know why. Then figured out what was meant by "number."
  
• 27A: "Frank TV" airer (TBS) - only just saw this clue. Hmmm. No idea what "Frank TV" is.
  
• 30A: They don't respond favorably (noes) - wanted NAES then realized I wasn't in Scotland.
  
• 33A: Snack for a dragonfly (gnat) - no idea why, but this is the first thing that came to me.
  
• 52A: Ventura County's most populous city (Oxnard) - woo hoo, I got this with only a cross or two. Helps to have lived part of one's life in S. California. OXNARD always sounds vaguely obscene to me - like we're talking about a part of the OX that ought not be discussed.
  
• 55A: The Guinness book once dubbed her "television's most frequent clapper" (Vanna) - as in White. Seems like the firstness of her name should be indicated somehow.
  
• 57A: Mount Saint _____ (Alaskan/Canadian peak) (Elias) - no idea. I worked it out, somehow.
  
• 65A: 1966 Pulitzer-winner poet Richard (Eberhart) - noooo idea. Thankfully all those Downs were Pieces of Cake.
  
• 67A: Heartbeat halves (systoles) - we had this in a recent late-week puzzle, making it relatively easy to turn up here.
  
• 1D: High point of the O.T. (Mt. Sinai) - "That part where Moses totally kicks ass!" - it's a literal and figurative "high point" - neat.
  
• 3D: Stockbreeding devices (weaners) - I shudder to think what one of these looks like. Fake teats?
  
• 6D: Hospital procedure, for short (angio) - did not come easily to me, but since my dad was a doctor and I spent some time in and around hospitals, I figured the term would eventually come to mind. And it did. One of the earliest articles of Rexiana is a "Slip to Go Home" written out for one of my stuffed animal dogs when I was very very young. Five? Six? Anyway, it had made-up medical stats on it and was titled "Doggy's Angiogram"; only a radiologist's son could pull that one off before grammar school.
  
• 11D: Pond denizen (teal) - went for TOAD, obviously. Daughter was mauled by ducks today at the Dunedin Botanical garden - they know when people are bringing them little packets of seeds, and they care naught for the sensitivities or phobias of small children. Sahra was tall enough to fend them off with good humor. Other, smaller children were not so lucky. At least one had to be physically rescued by an adult.
  
• 21D: Title woman of song who "lives in a dream" (Eleanor Rigby) - didn't come immediately, but with a few crosses, it fell right in place, which helped my time on this puzzle considerably.
• 31D: Oahu "thank you" ("Mahalo") - easy if you've ever been to Hawaii; probably hard if you haven't.
  
• 38D: Melodramatic outburst (sob) - SOB is weird as a noun.
  
• 39D: They may have just one or two stars (B movies) - great clue, though I got instantly.
  
• 40D: Ore galore (bonanza) - Clue is great; "Ore Galore" was rejected for the Bond film in favor of her sister, Pussy.
• 43D: Players with saving accounts? (goalies) - another great clue that I got instantly. Watching UEFA this summer helped.
  
• 47D: Columbus discovery of 1493 (St. Kitts) - I've stumbled on other Columbus discoveries in the past, but today, bam, I nailed this one. No hesitation. Thanks to the "K" from OMSK (now ORSK).
• 52D: She won the 1970 National Book Award for Fiction (Oates) - Joyce Carol. Another one that just came to me, despite my never having read much by her. "Where Are you Going, Where Have you Been?" - that's her, right? That story is creepy.
  
• 53D: About 5.5 Europeans (Danes) - making Denmark more populous than NZ by somewhere between 500K and a million people.
  

And I'm done. Must socialize. I'm getting a reputation for reclusivity.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, Jul. 23, 2008 - Henry Quillen (CHILD IN A 1980s CUSTODY CASE / ONETIME "CONCENTRATION" HOST JACK)

[IMPORTANT NOTICE: THE PUZZLE FEATURED IN THIS BLOG ENTRY MAY NOT BE THE ONE FEATURED IN YOUR PAPER - read the opening paragraph of the write-up (the part in italics) for an explanation]

Relative difficulty: Easy / Challenging (The West!?!?)

THEME: A to Z to A (39A: Theme of this puzzle) - zigzagging pattern of circled squares form words that begin with "Z" and end with "A," then begin with "A" and end with "Z" - and so on. Two such interlocking patterns stretch from corner to corner, intersecting at a "Z" in the puzzle's dead center


The following correction appeared in today's paper:

Crossword Puzzle

Because of a production error, some copies of Wednesday’s paper contain an outdated crossword puzzle and its solution. If you look here first, proceed with caution. If the answer in the solution to one across also appears in the puzzle above it, you have a paper with the wrong crossword. If the solution to one across matches Tuesday’s puzzle, you’re in the clear, and on your own.

The outdated puzzle appears to be this one from last June. I assume they'll print both puzzles tomorrow or something, or subscribers can complete the puzzle online or download it in Across Lite format on the Times' puzzle page.


Great great concept. Really marvelous. But WTF is up with the far west. BABY who??? Man, if only I'd known MUNICH (46A: Birthplace of composer Richard Strauss). Had the -ICH and wrote in ZURICH, which OH, YOU only confirmed (27D: "What a kidder!"). The whole Western patch felt like a fragile cake, about to fall apart at any second; it still looks that way to me, with many awfully tenuous answers. YOU in OH, YOU intersecting YOU in YOU'LL (42A: "_____ regret it!"_)?? AHH (34A: "That feels great") and BYE (38A: Free pass, of sorts) one atop the other?? AHH and OH, YOU and YOU'LL all have quotation mark clues - all clued as expressions. And then there's the too-cute THE U.N. (28D: N.Y.C. country club?). After ZURICH, I had THE U.R., which is meaningless, but the only thing I could think to put there was "S" - i.e. THE U.S. - that's the country where NYC is... right? I should have turned up U.N. but didn't. So I utterly failed at this puzzle, after totally torching the rest of it. Oh, well, OH YOU, AH, ME, etc. Lastly, let me iterate: BABY who? (26D: Child in a 1980s custody case)

Theme answers:

• 1A: Coors product (Zima) - started with BEER (something someone might actually drink). Fixed it fairly quickly thereafter. I think that corner may be the second hardest section in the puzzle.
• 4D: Ingrediente en paella (arroz) - had ARROS, remembering ARROZ Con Pollo but not how to spell it. This made me want something like SERTA for the next theme answer...
• 23A: Keebler cracker brand (Zesta) - eat ZESTA with Perle MESTA then sleep on SERTA.
• 24D: Flagstaff's place (Arizona)
• 52A: Madison Ave. trade (ad biz) - again, must plug "Mad Men"

• 53D: Ethan Frome's wife (Zeena) - really? OK.
• 70A: Animated film hit of 1998 (Antz)
• 58A: Ball's comic partner (Arnaz)
• 39D: The Rock (Alcatraz) - The Rock is also a movie. And a wrestler.
• 9D: Cubic _____ (gem) (zirconia)
• 9A: Frank in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Zappa)

Great long answers transect this puzzle's midsection. Especially like WENT TO POT (6D: Deteriorated) and OIL BARON (40D: Getty or Rockefeller). Would have liked STRIDENCE (36D: Harsh quality) better if it had been STRIDENCY, which sounds more like a word, but it'll do. Scariest moment (besides my total derailment in the west) was in the SE, where HENRIETTA (63A: Queen _____ Maria, mother of England's Charles II and James II) ran smack into the impossible-seeming NARZ (61D: Onetime "Concentration" host Jack). Almost had to rename "The NATICK Principle" "The NARZ Principle," but "A" was the only really reasonable guess there. "E" is a close second. Had never heard of (or barely heard of) LINEAR A (43D: Ancient Cretan writing system), but I pieced it together. Crosses were reasonably fair.

I would like to use my favorite part of the West - BOT (26A: Sci-fi sidekick, maybe) - to talk about the local Quiz Night we went to last night with my in-laws. It was the most ... local ... thing I've been to in a long time. Possibly ever. Took place in the Lake Hawea community center, in the main room, where there was a roaring fire and we were looked down on by giant placards displaying the names of Lake Hawea Men's and Ladies' Lawn Bowling Champions, past and present. The Quiz Night featured a raffle (every team of 4 paid $20 and brought a wrapped gift for the raffle - when one of our tickets was drawn and my wife went up to get a gift, Nick (husband of wife's stepmom, not wife's dad ... long story) shouted "grab something shaped like a bottle" (hoping to score some wine, which we did). Anyway, there were about a dozen teams in the room and there were seven rounds of questions and sometimes it paid to be an American ("What was Dirty Harry's last name?") and sometimes it did Not ("What are the names of Hairy Maclary's dog friends in 'Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Diary?'"; "What is the current height (depth?) of Lake Hawea"?). There was an entire set of questions straight out of the 1954 Edmonds Cookbook (a NZ classic) ... there was a parsley sauce controversy ... Anzac biscuits ... it's all a blur. Who was the only athlete at the 1976 Olympic games not to be given a sex test? Hint: it's not Nadia Comaneci. Answer: Princess Anne. It was only after we returned home that I was informed that the answer was the Actual Princess Anne and not a horse of the same name. Seven rounds, this quiz was. Oh, the connection to BOT. Well, it's a "Star Wars" connection, at any rate - one of the questions was "What sort of creature is Chewbacca in the 'Star Wars' movies?" - only the questioner pronounced "Chewbacca" with the accent on the first syllable, making it sound a bit like "Chupacabra." After I translated, I got it instantly. I couldn't begin to recreate for you how she pronounced "Wookie." The whole event was fun. Very fun. There was an auction at the end of the night. We came in third and would have won if a. anyone had listened to me that MEDICINE was one of the categories of prizes awarded by Nobel, b. we hadn't changed our Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion answer to accommodate my overly certain mother-in-law, c. I hadn't overridden myself on the location of the ruins of Carthage - I blurted out (to my teammates) "Tunisia" (right answer), but then changed it to "Libya" (wrong). They screwed up and robbed me of my fantastic correct answer to "What was the name of Tarzan's chimp?"; I got CHEETA, but they said it was something like Nikima. So ... third place. There were huge beers all around and tea and various cakes. Most of the money raised - all, in fact - went to some charity or other. By the end, I just wanted one more round so we could pass those smug bastards sitting next to us who were clearly stealing our answers.

Rest:

• 5A: N.Y.C. theater area (B'way) - semi-tricky
• 15A: Surrealist Magritte (René) - ceci n'est pas un crossword blog
• 16A: Apple instant-messaging program (iChat) - I love that there is almost no part of that clue that would have made any sense to anyone 30 years ago.
• 17A: Lovers of fine fare (gourmands) - GOURMANDS should come here, where the native cuisine is startling fresh and tasty.
• 21A: Madden, and how (incense) - wanted JOHN
• 25A: Aurora's Greek counterpart (Eos) - you should know this instinctively by now, really.
• 29A: Restaurateur Toots (Shor) - one of the greatest names in xwordpuzzledom.
• 35A: Honeybee genus (apis) - thank you, Virgil
• 51A: Highlands refusal ("Nae!") - I do love the Scotticisms, Och!
• 65A: Stiller's comic partner (Meara) - love her; I'd put her in every puzzle if I could
• 1D: Goes this way before that (zigs) - love that this sets off the zig-zag pattern without actually being a part of it
• 5D: Military bigwig (brass hat) - kind of a dumb phrase. I guess if your wig is big, then it needs a brass hat to protect it.
• 10D: Truman's last secretary of state (Acheson) - NO idea, even though I'm nearly certainly he's been in my puzzle before
• 11D: Unit of loudness (phon) - whoa ... really? First I've heard of it.
• 22D: Three R's org. (NEA) - Do they really use the phrase or concept "Three R's" anymore. If so, they should be disbanded.
• 31D: Cubs, but not Bears, for short (NL'ers) - icky answer, but nice clue
• 32D: When said three times, "et cetera" ("yadda") - to appease the "Seinfeld" fans out there. "Remember that episode when Elaine..." No. No I don't.
• 33D: Ol' Blue Eyes classic ("My Way") - Here you go:

• 47D: Part of a bray (hee) - the other part: HAW
• 49D: "Of course, senor!" ("Si si!") - I'm growing fond of this sycophantic Spanish-type answer
• 55D: German river to the Fulda (Eder) - perhaps for the first time ever, I nailed this answer. Had the -ER, went to type YSER (instinctively), then checked myself and went with EDER. Take that, Germany. (but then MUNICH came back and bit me ... so much for defeating Germania).
• 59D: 9-mm. gun of W. W. II (Sten) - like EOS, something you should Just Know (if you want to ace the crossword, that is)
• 64D: Schubert's "The _____-King" (Erl) - Take it away, Ulrich.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS somebody else will be doing tomorrow's write-up. I should be good for the weekend.

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TUESDAY, Jul. 22, 2008 - Lynn Lempel (LIKE SOME TICKETS AND WESTERN PIONEERS / HEADGEAR FIT FOR A QUEEN)

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Add an "N" after an "S" - in familiar phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, which are clued





Do not try this at home. Only the best constructors should risk such a tired, worn-out type of theme (in this case, addaletter). Ms. Lempel fills her grids with smooth peanut-buttery goodness. No owies, no cracked teeth to deal with. Gorgeous. Smooth. Perhaps not memorable, but about as good a Tuesday as I've seen for a while (see Wade's comments last Wednesday about Tuesday - the black sheep of the crossword family ... speaking of which, I saw a black sheep today ... but back to puzzle). Five theme answers, some of them amusing. A couple of cool features (including fraternal twins THEDA (6A: Film vixen Bara) and THETA (31A: Letter between eta and iota). Can't ask for much more from my Tuesday.

[I call this one "Man With Weird Hat Points At Mountains While Adorable Girl Ignores Him"]

Theme answers:

• 18A: Competitive noshers' event? (sNack race)
• 23A: One cured of a sleep disorder? (sNore loser)
• 35A: Sarcastic comment? (sNide line)
• 48A: Brushoff from the Ottomans? (Turkey sNub) - best of the lot
• 53A: Terrible-twos tantrums? (baby sNits)

Speaking of terrible-twos - have I mentioned that we've spent the past three days in the presence of a not-quite-two-year-old? It's true. Check it out:



The tall one is our daughter, while the short one is my wife's ... sister. It's true. In a way. Wife's stepmom adopted Brittany because Brittany's mom (in the extended family) couldn't take care of her. So my wife has a sister over forty years younger than she is. A stocky, curious, beaming, adorable sister, I might add.

Today was much more WINTRY (4D: Cold and raw) down here in NZ than it has been of late, which basically means that it rained aggressively for a few hours. Now it's semi-lovely again, and still far warmer than our winters back home. Did you know there's a kind of OWL (59A: Round-faced flier) called the "morepork"? I pointed to its picture in a NZ bird book and asked my wife "You know what this owl wants?" My wife grinned at me like I was an 8-year-old in need of being humored.

I love the art of ROY Lichtenstein (58D: Pop artist Lichtenstein), but today ROY is kinda freaking me out. Like ... he's only in the puzzle once, but because of the weird R-O-Y traffic jam up in the NW, it feels like he's all over the place.

The Rest:

• 17A: "2, 4, 6, 8 - Who do we appreciate?," e.g. (chant) - wanted CHEER. Last time I heard this CHANT chanted to its conclusion, I was 11 years old and on a soccer field.
• 22A: Iraq's second-largest city (Mosul) - amazing what a war will do to the puzzle viability of a city.
• 33A: Pupil surrounder (iris) - OK, we need a word for the horrible "-er" words that appear only in xword clues (i.e. "surrounder"). I am going to make a push soon for the use of SPOOR as substitute for "crosswordese." SPOOR is perfect for a number of reasons - it's crosswordese itself (or at least borderline). And, like crosswordese, it helps you reach your goal but it's basically shit.
• 37A: Glad rival in the kitchen (Ziploc) - second time we've seen this answer this month, I think. It's a great little 6-letter word. Later in the week, this clue would not have included "in the kitchen."
• 57A: Hole-making tool (auger) - not a word I ever use. Where "hole-making" is concerned, I tend to rely on the AWL. I confuse AUGER and AUGUR (unsurprisingly).
• 60A: Daisylike bloom (aster) - Beautiful spoor. Suffixing "-like" to words is also a very crossword cluey thing to do.
• 61A: Low-tech office recorder (steno) - I started watching "Mad Men" (TV show) on the plane over from S.F. I think there are STENOs on that show (it's set in the advertising world of the early 60s).
• 64A: On edge (testy) / 48D: On edge (tense) - traveling while sick can make you either one of these. Somehow, we have all survived with a minimum of testiness.
• 2D: Biofuel option (ethanol) - Still seems like a mythical fuel to me. If we use all the arable land to feed cattle and cars ... what are we going to, you know, eat? Besides cattle. And maybe cars.
• 5D: French composer Erik (Satie) - gorgeous music. I like to plug him every chance I get.

• 9D: Remodeler's planning (decor) - I had COLOR :(
• 44A: Newspaper columnist Goodman (Ellen) - I know her name. I don't know why.
  
• 11D: Like some tickets and Western pioneers (scalped) - one of the more outlandish clues in recent memory. Gruesome. Funny.
• 19D: Fraternity recruit (rushee) - one of those idiotic words that ends -ee when it should end -er. My college roommate rushed a frat. Didn't that make him a rusher?
• 21D: Church official (cleric) - I had something else here at first, and now I have no idea what that could have been.
• 23D: Parts of P.O. labels (sts.) - possibly the worst thing in the grid.
• 24D: Roman poet banished by Augustus (Ovid) - banished to Tomi on the Black Sea for "crimen et carmen" (crime and song). He somehow degraded the emperor's daughter ... it's all very hazy. I love Ovid this much (my hands are spread Wide apart).
• 25D: Acapulco agreement ("Si, señor") - more outlandishness. Good stuff.
• 31D: Sherpa shelter (tent) - such a simple answer; yet I had YURT.
• 34D: Headgear fit for a queen (diadem) - TIARAS would have fit
• 36D: Tap mishap (leak) - I was imagining Fred Astaire taking a terrible spill

• 37D: Last of 26 (zee) - down here: ZED
• 49D: Moonshine ingredient (yeast) - Not what I would have guessed. Had no idea this was true. You know what also contains yeast: VEGEMITE (delicious). I'm a total convert. We'll be bringing big jars back with us to the states. Vegemite and manuka honey and apples are all I've been eating for breakfast here. Dreamy.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS following up on the video SethG posted yesterday, re: crazy NZ potato chip flavors, here is a photo of my daughter enjoying one of the featured brands, which she stumbled onto completely by chance in her kids' meal box at a local cafe:



PPS A New Zealand music triptych. I had some silverbeet tonight (it's like swiss chard, I think). Anyhoo, it reminded me of an album of the same name by The Bats, a Dunedin-based group I listened to a Lot in grad school (thanks, Kathy):



Split Enz featured Tim and Neil Finn. Neil went on to found Crowded House (a hugely underrated band - "Temple of Low Men" is one of my favorite albums, ever). Their songwriting is wry and thoughtful and sometimes funny, and their sense of melody is unparalleled in pop music. Here's an early Split Enz video - "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" (it's got a LONG nautical intro - be patient):



And here's Neil doing "Don't Dream It's Over" live:



And here's Anna Coddington, who seems to be the Next Big Thing in NZ pop music. Here's a radio interview and in-studio performance. I find her incredibly charming (in the interview there are references to Bic Runga and Anika Moa, both very big singer-songwriters down here).

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