Style guru Gunn / SAT 10-2-10 / German equivalent of Time / Millennio divisions / Alberto VO5 rival / Chimera in part

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none


Word of the Day: DER SPIEGEL (37A: With 4-Down, German equivalent of Time) —

Der Spiegel (German pronunciation: [deːɐ ˈʃpiːɡəl], "The Mirror") is a German weekly magazine, published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind with a weekly circulation of more than one million. // The first edition of the Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on 4 January 1947, a Saturday. Its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled, Diese Woche (This Week), which had first been published in November 1946. After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, and was renamed Der Spiegel. From the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002. [...] Der Spiegel is similar in style and layout to American news magazines such as Time or Newsweek. In terms of the breadth and amount of detail in its articles it is comparable to the Atlantic Monthly. It is known in Germany for its distinctive, academic writing style and its large volume—a standard issue may run 200 pages or more. Typically, it has a content to advertising ratio of 2:1. // As of 2010, Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers, which the Columbia Journalism Review called "most likely the world’s largest fact checking operation" (wikipedia)

• • •

A smooth, interesting puzzle—a decent way to end a very rough week of puzzles. Pretty easy overall, though compared to yesterday's puzzle, it was a bear. I had never heard of NO SUCH AGENCY (9D: Organization nickname that plays off the group's secrecy) as a nickname of the NSA, but other than that, there was nothing strange or new to me in this grid—which is just fine. Better to end with a completely familiar grid filled with solid, recognizable words and names than a grid with a lot of nutso names, weird short words, odd abbrevs., etc. AN ARM (43A: "Hast thou ___ like God?": Job 40:9) was the only thing in the whole grid that felt a bit ugly. The rest was was creamy peanut butter. Not my favorite kind of peanut butter, but it'll still make a satisfying sandwich.

Got off the ground easily with SSTS at 1A: Onetime J.F.K. visitors and PEEK (14A: Furtive look) (later changed to PEEP) and RANI (16A: Eastern dignitary). Those gave me SPRIG (1D: Garnish amount) and TEN DOLLARS (3D: Value of a U.S. coronet head coin, minted from 1838 to 1907), and then the DER gave me SPIEGEL instantly, which gave me plenty of crosses to pick up GOOGLE SEARCH (21A: Producer of hits). BLAST FURNACE (19D: Coke product maker) also went in easily, meaning that I had cut deep into the heart of the puzzle inside of a couple minutes. PRIMAL SCREAM (44A: Supposed aid in curing neurosis) took just a few letters to pick up too, but, as I said, NO SUCH AGENCY didn't fall nearly as easy as those other three 11s—got the entire NO SUCH part from crosses. This made the NE generally the toughest part of the grid. Made a rookie mistake by plunking down EVADE and not considering ELUDE at 6D: Get around. This held up the otherwise obvious CALIFORNIA (15A: Orange's place), clued via a city where I actually lived for a year or so of my very young life. Once ELUDE fell, everything up there became as easy as the rest of the puzzle. Only other (brief) struggle involved wondering what a GOOT was. Turns out I'd misspelled MAID MARIAN (as MARION) (27D: Legendary outlaw's companion), and the beast I was really looking for was a GOAT (56A: Chimera, in part).

Bullets:

• 30A: She's a problem that needs to be solved, in song (MARIA) — a gimme. For me. I thought this was from "West Side Story," but whatever—I got it right.
  

• 32A: Need for des poissons (EAU) — if they want to live, yes, fish NEED water.
  
• 34A: Activity for folks in the pits? (TRADING) — wanted a racing term here.
  
• 36A: Style guru Gunn (TIM) — made recently famous by his recurrent role on "Project Runway," as well as his role in a recent Marvel comic.
  
• 2D: Irish playwright who wrote "Cock-a-Doodle Dandy" (SEAN O'CASEY) — I think I know his name only from xwords. Had the SEAN, and the O'CASEY just came floating out of my brain somehow.
  
• 11D: Millennio divisions (ANNI) — tried to end this with an "S" at first. Quickly fixed.

• 28D: Product of some relief pitches? (TUMS) — got it instantly. Or, rather, guessed it instantly, and it ended up being correct.
  
• 30D: Words to live by (MAXIM) — Besides EVADE, my one persistent wrong answer: off the "M," I confidently wrote in MOTTO.
  
• 31D: Commercial ending with Power (ADE) — I like this better than [Summer quaff] or whatever the going clue for ADE is now. ADE is far more familiar (in the non-xword world) as a suffix than as a stand-alone word.
  
• 44D: Alberto VO5 rival (PRELL) — I don't know enough about shampoos to know why one should be any more a "rival" of VO5 than another, but I had the "P" so I didn't have to think too hard.
  
• 46D: Newswoman Logan and others (LARAS) — learned her from crossowords, and committing her name to memory has paid off big.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Middleton who sang with Louis Armstrong / SUN 8-29-10 / Title dog in Inge play / Egyptian god of universe / Newswoman Logan / Gee in Glasgow

Constructor: Derek Bowman

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "GOING FOR A RUN" — thirteen two-word phrases, creating 26 words that start with the consecutive letters of the alphabet, i.e. AB (ARMY BRAT), CD (CARBON DATING), EF (EXHAUST FANS), etc.


Word of the Day: VELMA Middleton (6A: Middleton who sang with Louis Armstrong) —

Velma Middleton spent most of her career as Louis Armstrong's singer. She was originally a dancer and, although overweight, she often did splits on stage including during the Armstrong years. Middleton had an average but reasonably pleasing and good-humored voice. After freelancing -- including visiting South America in 1938 with Connie McLean's Orchestra and working as a solo act -- she joined Louis Armstrong's big band in 1942, appearing on some Soundies with Satch). After Armstrong broke up the orchestra in 1947, Middleton joined his All-Stars. She was often used for comedy relief (such as for duets with Satch on "That's My Desire" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside") and occasional features. Jazz critics rarely thought highly of Middleton's singing, but Armstrong considered her part of his family, and she was a constant part of his show. Middleton, who recorded eight selections as a leader for the Dootone label in 1948 and 1951, died in Africa while touring with Satch in 1961. (answers.com)

• • •

This was two struggles in one. First, the struggle to finish in a reasonable time—the puzzle felt decidedly crunchier than most Sunday offerings, with the west coast in particular proving a real bear for me today (crunchy bear!); and second, the struggle to figure out what the theme was—it was a good minute or so after I'd finished the puzzle that I figured out what was going on. Normally, when you "*" the theme clues, there's a clue somewhere giving you a hint as to what the starred clues have in common. Not so today. The title is the only clue. INSIDE and OUTER seemed related ... but no, dead end. Same with SPEED and QUICK (esp. with "RUN" in the title), but again, no. Finally just went to the beginning and took them one by one, and saw the ABCD string instantly. Very clever. I'm impressed by the construction. Thankfully, I didn't have to know the theme to solve the puzzle, though it sure would have helped there in the west, yeesh. Couldn't see either INSIDE or OUTER, and only INA and SHEBA (89A: Title dog in an Inge play) and OCH (or ACH, I couldn't remember which was Scottish and which German—39A: "Gee," in Glasgow) were providing any help in the crosses. All the Downs were a mystery. Finally decided 85A: Isthmus had to be NECK :( and that got me CONTINUES (40D: Carries on) and things began to fall from there. But I really had to work, and briefly despaired of getting any real toehold. Rest of the grid was toughish but ultimately pretty tractable. NEALE (53A: "Conversations With God" author ___ Donald Walsch) and VELMA were the only real bafflers for me. The rest were just clued in vague, indirect, or otherwise tough ways. So all in all, I call this a 'win.' Good workout, clever theme, solid grid.

Theme answers:

• 22A: *Kid constantly switching schools, maybe (ARMY BRAT)
  
• 23A: *Age-revealing method (CARBON DATING)
  
• 29A: *Stale air removers (EXHAUST FANS)
  
• 33A: *Supposed results of stress (GRAY HAIRS)
  
• 58A: *Embezzlement, e.g. (INSIDE JOB)
  
• 60A: *Pet shop purchase (KITTY LITTER)
  
• 68A: *Party bowlful (MIXED NUTS)
  
• 78A: *Pluto, e.g., before it was plutoed (OUTER PLANET)
  
• 81A: *Harlequin romance, e.g. (QUICK READ)
  
• 101A: *Leadfoot's downfall (SPEED TRAP)
  
• 106A: *It's got some miles on it (USED VEHICLE)
  
• 117A: *Annual sports event since 1997 (WINTER X-GAMES)
  
• 120A: *Beginning of time? (YEAR ZERO)
  

Learned more than I ever need to know about AKRON today — both that it is the 71A: Highest point on the Ohio & Erie Canal and that Sojourner Truth delivered her speech "AIN'T I a Woman" there in 1851. Never heard of the Danielle Steel novel "H.R.H.," but the clue made it easy enough (35A: Danielle Steel novel about a European princess). Wanted some spelling of "Dianne" for the 111D: Von Furstenberg of fashion clue, but then some vague memory of EGON clicked into place. Don't know any version of DARTS besides DARTS, so 126A: Around the Clock is a version of this mean zip to me. Only a couple of answers seemed really clunky today: PADDY FIELD (11D: Rice source) and DARK SHADE (5D: Navy, e.g.). The latter feels as arbitrary as TALL BUILDING or RED FRUIT, and the former just seems redundant. How is a RICE PADDY (very familiar term) different from a PADDY FIELD (a term I've never seen or heard of in my life)?

Bullets:

• 56A: British American tobacco brand (KENT) — "British American" completely threw me. I don't know what it means. Why isn't it hyphenated? Anyway, that clue told me nothing. Got the answer from crosses, then recognized it, vaguely, as a cigarette brand.
  
• 67A: Words a house burglar doesn't want to hear ("SIC 'EM") — this one was brutal. A house burglar doesn't want to get shot. Or bitten. Or generally discovered at all. A house burglar also Doesn't Want To Hear Any Words. If he hears words, there are people about, and for a burglar, that is always Bad. My guesses here: "I AM IN" "IT IS I" "I AM UP" and other stuff I can't remember now.
  
• 115A: Flair of pro wrestling (RIC) — Only other RIC I know is OCASEK.
  
• 8D: Newswoman Logan (LARA) — learned her from xwords a while back, and have now seen her twice in the past week. Useful.
  
• 9D: "Sex and the City" character also known as John (MR. BIG) — words can't express my non-interest in this show, or its movie spin-offs. Saw a couple episodes and found them repugnant, and Particularly insulting to women. "Kill yourselves, all of you!" I'd shout at the screen, to no avail. If I ever have to put MR. BIG in a puzzle, you can Bet that it'll be clued via these guys—I mean, they're not, uh, great, but I would willingly listen to them for hours if my only other option were watching a single episode of "Sex and the City":

• 14D: 900 years before Queen Elizabeth was crowned (MLIII) — wow, the "900 years before" part just makes the bad worse here.
  
• 82D: Locale of an 1805 Napoleon victory (ULM) — wrote in URI. If you did yesterday's puzzle, you know why.
• 10D: Egyptian god of the universe (AMON-RA) — spelled it AMEN-RA, which I believe is what you say if you agree with RA. Nope, my spelling was valid, just not correct for today's puzzle.
  
• 84D: Low-cost, lightweight autos of the 1910s-'20s (CYCLECARS) — definitely learned this from xwords too, but remembered it as CYCLOCARS, which I think a far superior name.
  
• 90D: Gymgoer's pride (BOD) — the longer you stare at the word "Gymgoer's" the crazier it looks.
  
• 104D: "Dónde ___ los Ladrones?" (1998 platinum album by Shakira) ("ESTAN") — total guess. I can picture her, and I probably could recognize a couple of her songs, but that album title is brand new to me.

And now your Tweets of the Week, puzzle chatter from the Twitterverse:

• @DrOssie90 I was doing a crossword earlier when I came across "Twilight (4)" Apparently "shit" wasn't what I was looking for...
• @amyskababy My aunty is using the 'just keep saying words until they fit' method of crossword solving.
• @chelseashell My heart melts a bit when I see an attractive guy doing a crossword. Nerdy? Absolutely.
• @outofsequences Stupid things: trying to surreptitiously watch a girl do crossword puzzles.
• @SkyBlueThru Woman in front of me on train is reading crossword clues to her bloke. I am typing answers on phone and holding them above her head for him.
• @jonvox Lack of a free daily New York Times sure took its toll on my crossword abilities.
• @Renee70 @JargArmani there's something u should know about me. I don't do crosswords. I was going to tell you sooner but everything was going so well

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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