Henry II player Becket / SUN 4-3-11 / Polo locale / Sleigh Ride composer Anderson / 1966 best seller set Hong Kong / Biracial Latin American

Constructors: Oliver Hill and Eliza Bagg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: "Triple Bonds" — Three words strung together, (1)(2)(3), where (1)(2) form a familiar phrase, (2)(3) form a familiar phrase, and (1)(3) form a familiar phrase.

Word of the Day: LANGLAUF (5D: Cross-country skiing) —

n.

1. The sport of cross-country skiing.
2. A cross-country ski run or race.

[German : lang, long (from Middle High German , from Old High German) + Lauf, race (from Middle High German louf , from Old High German hlouf).]

• • •

A not-very-interesting theme with some (occasionally) very interesting fill. Theme answers were remarkably easy to pick up—the "triple bond" quality mean that you could extrapolate the whole string from just a few letters in one word sometimes. Three words together don't form funny phrases; they form nonsense phrases, which is not that entertaining, really. I liked that the puzzle took what seemed like a lot of risks with non-theme fill. Sometimes that risk resulted in something freakish and alien like LAUNGLAUF (I actually stopped the timer when I finished filling in that word so I could look it up, so preposterous did it look); other times that risk had spicy results, like JAZZY (71D: Stimulating) crossing SZECHWAN (90A: Style of chicken) or MESTIZO AVIATOR (122A: Biracial Latin American + 118A: ___ sunglasses) or ENDEMIC BON JOVI (25A: Indigenous + 21A: "Livin' on a Prayer" band). There must have been some sense among test-solvers that the puzzle was quite easy, because there are more "huh?" clues than usual today. Was clueless about UTICA (though that was ultimately inferrable, 32A: Ancient city NW of Carthage), CATHAY ("ohhhhh, *Marco* Polo...") (25D: Polo locale), whoever this RYAN is (53D: Cornelius who wrote "A Bridge Too Far"), and COPYREAD, a word that does not feel familiar to me at all (91D: Check, as text). Other familiar answers, like CONDOR (54D: Creature worshiped by the Incas) and O'TOOLE (1A: Henry II player in "Becket"), got pretty tough clues. Toughening act worked—puzzle ended up falling in a fairly normal Sunday time.



Theme answers:

• 23A: Chinese restaurant offering / Wonderland affair / Group on the left? (GREEN TEA PARTY)
  
• 27A: Baltimore specialty / Effortless task / Move on all fours with the belly up (CRAB CAKE WALK)
  
• 43A: Plunging / Play hooky / Vulgar (LOW CUT CLASS)
  
• 52A: Northern flier / Mixer maker / Put on the line (AIR CANADA DRY)
  
• 67A: Yellowish brown / Bit of "dumb" humor / Many a forwarded e-mail (DIRTY BLONDE JOKE)
  
• 87A: Cause of congestion / Detective's challenge / Loony (HEAD COLD CASE)
  
• 94A: Winnie-the-Pooh possession / Baked entree / Sweetie (HONEY POT PIE)
  
• 106A: Fancy Feast product / Cafeteria outburst / "Mean Girls" event (CAT FOOD FIGHT)
  
• 119A: Democratic territory / Cardinal, e.g. / "Over the Rainbow" flier (BLUE STATE BIRD) — probably shouldn't have "territory" in your clue and TERR. in your grid (113D: Colonial land: Abbr.), but I doubt anyone but me noticed.
  

Bullets:

• 59A: "Up to ___," 1952 game show (PAAR) — ah, puns. I had no idea about any aspect of PAAR's career beyond "The Tonight Show"

["Were you impressed with Marilyn?" "Architecturally, yes ..."]

• 124A: 1966 best seller set in Hong Kong ("TAI-PAN") — this clue made me think of my upcoming 20-year college reunion. Why? Well, let's see ... "TAI-PAN" was part of James Clavell's Japan Trilogy, as was "Shogun," which was made into a TV miniseries in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain, who is an alumnus of my college (c/o 1956). These connections may seem tenuous, but in my head, they are rock solid.
  
• 128A: "The Battleship Potemkin" setting (ODESSA) — this is how I discovered COPYEDIT was wrong.
  
• 6D: ___ deux âges (middle-aged: Fr.) (ENTRE) — well, thank god for high school French. Not your typical ENTRE clues (which is probably [___ nous]).
  
• 9D: Nickname for a seven-time N.B.A. All-Star (T-MAC) — SHAQ? No. It's Tracy McGrady. When I finally figured this out, I was like "Oh, right, he *did* play in the N.B.A. once." He's actually still playing (on the Pistons). For a recent superstar player, he somehow feels not very famous. Weird. This is possibly because he's been plagued by injuries over the past five years and been unable to play for giant chunks of time.
  
• 38D: Reciprocal Fibonacci constant (PSI) — Me: "OK, so ... Greek letter. Come on, crosses!"
  
• 46D: "Sleigh Ride" composer Anderson (LEROY) — again, no clue.
  
• 99D: Speech blocker (GAG LAW) — I don't know what this is (GAG ORDER, I know), but I like it anyway. It's just fun to say. GAGLAW!
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Designer McCartney / THU 12-23-10 / Reggae/dancehall artist Paul / Notorious 1999 computer virus / Jedi big forehead

Constructor: Oliver Hill and Eliza Bagg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: GHOTI (30D: "Fish") — George Bernard Shaw's alleged fanciful explanation of how to spell "Fish": 17A: What to use to spell 30-Down, according to George Bernard Shaw, reputedly, Part 1: THE 'GH' FROM 'ENOUGH' (36A: Part 2) THE 'O' FROM 'WOMEN' (Part 3) THE 'TI' FROM 'NATION'


Word of the Day: STELLA McCartney (3D: Designer McCartney) —

Stella Nina McCartney (born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer. She is the daughter of former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney and the late photographer and animal rights activist, Linda McCartney. (wikipedia)

• • •

First off, thanks to Caleb Madison and Natan Last for doing the write-up yesterday, and thanks to many of you for the interesting and mostly kind comments (and emails) regarding my ALL IN puzzle.

Today's puzzle falls generally into that category of "Theme Answers as Instructions," though it's somewhat funny and thus somewhat more interesting than "Do this" or "Fold here" or whatever. I know of this "GHOTI" thing only from GHOTI's appearance in a crossword a while back. Appears to be a well known wordplay gag to many. As I was solving this, I couldn't remember the joke very well, and after getting GHO- wrote in GHOST at 30D (confusing this "Fish" thing with the game of "GHOST," which I also know only from crosswords). If you are familiar with the whole "GHOTI" trick, then there's no great reveal here, and if you're not, then ... maybe there is.

As for non-theme stuff, there are some weak spots, but they're mostly small and out-of-the-way (e.g. the little TERR/SEENO/ARR section in the west and the unlovable TEHEED in the NW—which I blew because I didn't check my crosses after filling in SAT at 14A: Lay (SET), thus ending up with TAHEED ... finding out it was really TEHEED didn't improve things much). Otherwise, much to enjoy, including "HELLO, MELISSA!" (20A: Shout into a canyon + 22A: Notorious 1999 computer virus) and "HERE WE GO!" (37D: Shout at the top of a rollercoaster) and "DETROIT!" (52A: Lion's home) (my losing but much improving football team—really hoping that after he inevitably wins Rookie of the Year, Ndamukong Suh starts to appear in puzzles). One thing I still don't get, even after asking another constructor—what is 39D: Good radio station for a bride? (WIFE) supposed to mean? Is that a famous radio station? In NYC? Constructor I asked is from NYC, so that would be weird.

[26D: Reggae/dancehall artist ___ Paul]

Bullets:

• 4A: Originator of the phrase "rosy-fingered dawn" (HOMER) — translator originated the phrase, but still, Gimme.
  
• 32A: Books often read on Saturday (TORAH) — did not know the singular was the plural.
  
• 41A: Object of Andy's affection in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (TRISH) — saw the movie, liked the movie, forgot the name—although figuring out her name probably doesn't start SR- helped me change GHOST to GHOTI.
  
• 61A: Zero, in slang (BAGEL) — I had AUGHT at first. Not really "slang," I guess.
  
• 1D: Panama and Suez (ISTHMI) — deliberate trickery. Of course I wrote in CANALS right away.
  
• 9D: One fighting urban sprawl, say (ZONER) — I was trying to explain to someone earlier tonight how low word-count puzzles tend to have lots of strange -ER words in them ...
  
• 38D: Who'll "talk 'til his voice is hoarse," in a 1960s sitcom (MR. ED) — First thought: MR. HANEY ... kidding.
  
• 55D: Jedi with a big forehead (YODA) — not a feature I'd single out, but OK.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Lower class in 1984 / WED 7-21-10 / Rope for pulling sail / Woman's name meaning weary in Hebrew / When doubled popular 1980s-90s British sitcom

Constructor: Oliver Hill

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: BROKEN HEART (57A: Lover's woe ... or something found, literally, in the 4th, 5th, 8th and 11th rows of this puzzle) — word HEART is split by black squares four times


Word of the Day: 'ALLO 'ALLO (64A: When doubled, popular 1980s-'90s British sitcom) —

'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of Secret Army and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6 series. Series 7 onward was written by Lloyd and Paul Adam. Lloyd and Croft were also responsible for the popular sitcom Are You Being Served?. In 2004, Allo 'Allo came 13th in Britain's Best Sitcom. A reunion special, comprising new material, archive clips and specially-recorded interviews, was broadcast on 28 April 2007 on BBC Two. (wikipedia) [HA ha: not having read this wikipedia paragraph, from the next room, my wife said "yeah, I've heard of it. We had it in New Zealand. It's bad. It's "Are You Being Served?" bad]

• • •

Unpleasant experience for me, so I'll keep it brief. Started out great, but saw quickly that there were no clear "theme answers," which made the grid feel Thursdayish and made me think "there's some trick here ... maybe it's a rebus." Then I hit 43A: Flirtatious one. I had the COQ- part and at that point I was *sure* there was a rebus afoot. I mean, COQUETTE is spelled thusly, so ... it doesn't fit ... sooooooo ... I don't get it. Add to this miscomprehension an understandable but serious FAILure on my part at 33D: Information superhighway (THE WEB). I wrote down THE NET (which, unlike "THE WEB," has the virtue of having been a '90s movie *about* the "Information superhighway"). Didn't know PROLES (49D: Lower class in "1984"), couldn't pick up the odd past tense formation at 48A: Made tidy, in a way (SWEPT UP), and so was well and truly screwed in the W and S. 44D: Rip into is TEAR AT? Pretty sure I wanted TEAR UP. Anyway, it was all ugly down there. Mistakes were all my fault, but COQUET makes me hate this grid. Subjective, I realize, but that spelling (despite dict. cred), is asinine. Add an "R" in there and you have a real word. Otherwise, barf. Twice as many hits for the correct spelling, COQUETTE, plus most of the first hits for ["coquet"] are this song by of Montreal, which, you'll notice, also contains the real spelling of COQUETTE:



Lastly, INHAUL = ? (15D: Rope for pulling a sail)

The theme: shrug. Not impressed. Don't really care. Nothing here worth seeing. Theme is something that you can only really appreciate once you're done, as there are no real theme answers. Not a fan.

Bullets:

• 24A: Woman's name meaning "weary" in Hebrew (LEAH) — guessing this helped me get 21D: Lacking spice (TAME), which I couldn't see to save my life.
  
• 51A: Experience a mondegreen, e.g. (MISHEAR) — this I like. Original-seeming. Accurate.
  
• 65A: Alexander the Great conquered it ca. 335 B.C. (IONIA) — one of those common crossword place names that have lots of different clues, none of which mean anything to me. "Hey, it's that Greek place that's 80% vowels. Awesome!")
• 2D: Filmdom's Willy, for one (ORCA) — laugh-out-loud clue. I'm imagining Willy living somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, part of the movie scene. "Filmdom." Rich.

• 7D: Metric prefix (KILO-) — annoying. First, because KILOmetric is a ridiculous word, and second because the clue doesn't signify KILOmetric after all—only that the prefix KILO- is associated with the "metric" system. Just give me a drug clue.
  
• 8D: Pretty vistas, for short (SCAPES) — "Look at that lovely SCAPE, honey! Don't you just love SCAPES? I know I do." More ugh. SCAPES are flowering stems. Garlic SCAPES are some of the first edible things to come out of the ground here in the spring.
  
• 28D: Uh-Oh! ___ (Nabisco product) (OREO) — The only thing that follows "Uh Oh" is "Spaghettios." Also, this alleged "product" is actually bygone–the name is, at any rate, if wikipedia is to be believed: "Golden Chocolate Creme Oreo are 'reverse' (inverse) Oreo cookies in that they comprise vanilla wafers and a chocolate cream filling. Originally, the title was named Uh-Oh Oreo until 2007." (wiki)
  
• 37D: Poet/illustrator Silverstein (SHEL) — uneven cluing. This and the adjacent ETTA (36D: "At Last" singer James) are transparent—Monday easy, with recycled cluing.
  
• 52D: Poem with approximately 16,000 lines ("ILIAD") — the number of lines is perhaps the Least interesting thing about this poem.
  
• 53D: With 45-Across, largest city in California's wine country (SANTA / ROSA) — Having grown up in CA helped here. Got the SANTA first and then went hunting for the back end, with my mind spinning with possibilities (I know squat about wine country, but I got a rolodex of SANTA names in my head from having lived in CA for 17 years).
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Confused situations / MON 5-31-10 / It protects tympanic cavity / Perennial presidential candidate Ralph / Ordinary fellow

Constructor: Oliver Hill

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium [amended ... 3:08 appears to be somewhat on the fast side after all. Hard to tell when the margins are so small]

THEME: DEEJAYS (25D: Record spinners ... or a hint to 17-, 25-, 38-, 48- and 61-Across) — five theme answers are two-word phrases where first word starts with "D" and second word starts with "J"


Word of the Day: IMBROGLIOS (11D: Confused situations) —

n., pl., -glios.

1. 1. A difficult or intricate situation; an entanglement.
   2. A confused or complicated disagreement.
2. A confused heap; a tangle.

[Italian, from Old Italian, from imbrogliare, to tangle, confuse : in-, in (from Latin; see in-²) + brogliare, to mix, stir (probably from Old French brooiller, brouiller; see broil²).]

• • •

Pretty basic theme, but one that is executed in a visually interesting way. Theme square coverage is pretty sparse, despite the presence of SIX theme answers (five + the revealer). Actually, the issue isn't sparseness, it's shortness — specifically, the shortness of the central three theme answers (8, 7, 8). The shortness of these answers leaves TONS of room left over in the middle of the grid, which is filled by the Massive extension of the NE and SW corners, both of which contain two 10-letter Downs. These Downs are as long as the two longest theme answers and longer than the other three, and take up almost as much real estate in total as the theme answers combined (not including the revealer). Normally, you don't see non-theme answers longer than theme answers and you certainly don't see an Army of said giants. Makes for an unusual grid shape, and much more interesting fill, solving-wise than you tend to see in a more typical Monday grid (where shorter fill predominates). So, long story short, it's unconventional and a bit ungainly, but I liked it anyway.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Blue things that make some people turn red? (DIRTY JOKES) — this clue threw me, bec. normally you don't have "?" clues in theme answers unless they are ALL "?" clues (i.e. signifying wacky answers). So I went looking for wackines and got none. Other theme clues are straight. Which does not make this clue GAY. Necessarily.
  
• 25A: Nine-to-five gigs, often (DESK JOBS) — see also 18D: Ordinary fellow (JOE BLOW) and then titter when you realize that "BLOW" and "JOBS" are both in the grid.
  
• 38A: Womanizer (DON JUAN)
  
• 48A: Company with an industrial average (DOW JONES)
  
• 61A: Wrangler product (DENIM JEANS)

My wife thought the whole puzzle felt old-fashioned — "the whole thing seems like it was written in 1920." By an AGING person, perhaps (1A: Growing older). I think it was the phrase DENIM JEANS, which feels a bit like the phrase WORLD WIDE WEB, i.e. legit, but kind of dated. We call DENIM JEANS "jeans" now. I see the phrase is still in use in various commercial contexts, but ... I can't really imagine "jeans" that are *not* denim. There appears to be some support for "corduroy jeans," though I'd call those "pants." Or "cords." OFT, O'ER, CADS, ERST, IN RE, and GAYER (5D: More festive) also aged up the feel of the fill a bit. GAYER appears to be (chiefly British, chiefly derogatory) slang for a gay person. Non-sexual GAY is, like DENIM JEANS, correct, but quaint. Did I tell you the story about my little sister happily traipsing around our apartment complex telling everyone she met that "my mom and Agatha (her doll) and I are gay!" She meant "happy." Adorable. There's a better story about my sister's hilarious big mouth, but it involves the word "vagina," so I'll just hold onto that one.

Bullets:

• 35A: As one (EN BLOC) — interesting phrase. Wife hadn't heard it before. We mostly use EN MASSE, I think, but this phrase looks much cooler. GAYER, even.
  
• 35D: It protects the tympanic cavity (EAR DRUM) — Nice clue. I was writing in EAR DRUM before I ever looked at the clue (the magic of crosses), and it's a good thing, because, despite the tympani's being a familiar variety of "DRUM," I'm not sure I could have identified the location of the "tympanic cavity" before today.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. Happy birthday, Clint Eastwood, you 80-year-old badass.

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Johnny who used to cry Come On Down / TUE 4-27-10 / Penny-pincher slangily / Seoul-based automaker / Means of staying toasty at night

Constructor: Oliver Hill

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: SWITCHBLADE (62A: Street weapon ... or a hint to the circled letters in this puzzle) — consecutive circled letters in each theme answers are made up of the rearranged ("switched"?) letters of BLADE


Word of the Day: SAE (55A: Major coll. fraternity) —

Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ, also SAE) is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the Antebellum South. Its national headquarters, the Levere Memorial Temple, was established on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1929. // Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the largest college fraternity by total initiates, with more than 300,000 initiated members and more than 11,000 undergraduates at 300 chapters in 49 states and provinces at present. The creed of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, The True Gentleman, must be memorized and recited by all prospective members. New members receive a copy of The Phoenix, the manual of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, for educational development.

• • •

Amazingly easy for a puzzle with a whopping seven (7!) theme answers. Easiness is probably largely attributable to the fact that the grid is something close to 40% three-letter words. Not sure I counted properly, but I've got 30/78 words at 3 letters. And with none of the clues particularly tough today (exc. SAE, what the hell? I never saw the clue and figured it was simply the "self-addressed envelope" abbreviation I've come to know and ... tolerate), I methodically chomped through this one from NW to SW with hardly a hesitation. The puzzle is all theme ... and it's a good theme. Nice use of circles (contiguous, useful in solving). BED LAMP and HEATED BLANKET both seem like basic phrases, but I don't think I'd say either. I'd probably throw "SIDE" into the "BED LAMP" answer, and all the HEATED BLANKETs I've known have been heated by electricity, making them ELECTRIC BLANKETS. Maybe folks are heating blankets other ways these days (or on the prairie in olden tymes).

Theme answers:

• 17A: Genesis duo (CAIN AND ABEL)
  
• 21A: It's found on a nightstand (BED LAMP)
  
• 29A: Certain mustache shape (HANDLEBAR)
  
• 38A: Means of staying toasty at night (HEATED BLANKET)
  
• 50A: American symbol (BALD EAGLE)
  
• 57A: Made possible (ENABLED)
  

All of the very short fill makes the two Long Downs stand out, and I like them. Oddly homey, familiar implements. Fittingly, I got CAN OPENER (6D: One use of a Swiss Army knife) off the CAN and it opened the puzzle right up. Are there HOES that are not GARDEN HOEs (36D: Tool you can lean on)? Oh, wait, BACK HOE. That's a HOE. A HOE you can lean on, too. I would like to make the point now that a pimp can lean on his hoes, too, just so we can get that pun out of our systems. There. I feel better.


Bullets:

• 11A: MP3 holders (CDS) — this is pretty cheap cluing. People listen to MP3s on iPods and iPod-like devices, not CDS. You can record MP3s to CDS, it's true, but ... :(
  
• 73A: Darcy's Pemberley, e.g., in "Pride and Prejudice" (ESTATE) — Hesitated here trying to untangle the grammar of the clue. Had a brief moment where I imagined Pemberley was a person. Then thought, "wait, I've actually read this novel. Several times." And brain said "Oh yeah. That's right. Here you go: it's ESTATE."
  
• 69A: Bond girl Kurylenko (OLGA) — Apparently being a Bond girl is like winning a gold medal — automatic puzzle eligibility. The only Bond girl I know is Ursula Andress. And I like it that way.
  
• 11D: Penny-pincher, slangily (CHEAPO) — that would be a good name for a disposable lighter. Zippo is for the elites — try CHEAPO, the working man's lighter!
  
• 37D: Snick's partner (SNEE) — These guys need an animated show, like Tom and Jerry or Chip and Dale.
  
• 53D: Johnny who used to cry "Come on down!" (OLSON) — me: "Uh ... CARSON didn't say that, it was Ed McMahon! Oh wait, wrong show."
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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Seabird native to the Galapagos — MONDAY, Nov. 30 2009 — French novelist who had affair with Frederic Chopin

Constructor: Oliver Hill

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: TRAP (66A: Word that can follow the ends of 18-, 25-, 43- and 59-Across)

Word of the Day: E BONDS (46D: Old U.S. gov't investments) — Series E U.S. Savings Bonds were marketed by the United States government as war bonds from 1941 to 1980. When Americans refer to war bonds, they are usually referring to Series E bonds. Those issued from 1941 to November 1965 accrued interest for 40 years; those issued from December 1965 to June 1980, for 30 years. They were generally issued at 75 cents per dollar face value, maturing at par in a specified number of years that fluctuated with the rate of interest. Denominations available were $25, $50, $75, $100, $200, $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. Series E bonds were issued only in registered, physical form and are not transferable. The guaranteed minimum investment yield for the bonds was 4 percent, compounded semiannually

-----

Pretty dull "word that can follow" puzzle redeemed somewhat by the unusual and funny-sounding BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY. And by ROD CAREW — a great full-name answer. I can see his 1978 baseball card (the one with the '77 stats) very clearly in my mind. That's the year I started collecting. There was a profile shot of him (he played for the Minnesota Twins then) and there was a little insignia indicating his 1977 MVP status (... hmm, internet research just now shows that that insignia marked his All-Star status, not his MVP status; MVP is so much more important, I figured that must have been what was being commemorated, but no). Anyway, that dude could hit. He and George Brett were probably the greatest hitters of my childhood. Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn came a little later.

Theme answers:

• 18A: 186,000 miles per second (light SPEED)
• 25A: Not making any sounds (as quiet as a MOUSE)
• 43A: Seabird native to the Galápagos Islands (blue-footed BOOBY)
• 58A: French novelist who had an affair with Fréderic Chopin (George SAND)

My guess is that everyone is familiar with those first two theme answers, but those last two might have provided some trouble. BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY alone kept this puzzle in the "Medium" difficulty range. I had to fight for both the front and back end of it, as I didn't see the "TRAP" answer til near the very end. SW corner in particular was tough for me to zoom through, as I tried and failed to drop 43-45-Down into the grid the first time around. UPMOST was not a word that came quickly to mind (45D: Like Brahmins in the cast system) — grid already had an "UP" at UPDATE (12D: Supply with more recent info). So BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY and its environs made a mildly interesting puzzle out of what would otherwise have been a bore. Good enough.

Technical point of interest: lots of black squares today (42, near the upper limit), with a large chunk of them going toward ensuring that the two 15s, which are separated by just three rows, don't have ANY crosses in common except the central AGENT (28D: 15-percenter). Generally, the fewer of your theme answers that have to share crosses, the easier the grid is going to be to fill (well). The top two and bottom two theme answers already share a lot of crosses with one another, so the black barriers through the middle help create some looseness in the grid, allowing for a nice set of three Acrosses through the middle (GALAS / AL DENTE / CROON). Downside: lots o' 3-letter words, which never did wonders for anyone's grid.



Bullets:

• 10D: Hasty glance (aperçu) — this is one of those words that is extremely uncommon in your / my everyday life, but that has somehow broken free of the (non-E) BONDS of obscurity and come to be reasonably commonplace in early-week puzzles. I have no idea how these things happen.
• 52D: _____ Pepper (Sgt.) — actually gave me trouble. I wanted DR....
• 4D: Amount of food at a cafeteria (trayful) — I love this word, esp. intersecting PLAYMATE (20A: Child's friend). Takes me back to 3rd grade (the year I would have acquired that ROD CAREW baseball card...)

See you tomorrow. Important announcements and more free puzzles on the way this week, so stay tuned. And for those who were away all weekend, check out the links to two special puzzles (in the upper part of my sidebar).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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TUESDAY, Aug 11, 2009 — Brother of Nintendo's Mario / Game to 31 / Source of an oil used in aromatherapy

Constructor: Oliver Hill

THEME: FRENCH (52D: Word that can precede the starts of 20-, 28-, 46- and 57-Across) — First word of each theme answer is something that can be described as French.

Word of the Day: SETI (58D: Alien-seeking program: Abbr.)

Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for extraterrestrial life. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for electromagnetic transmissions from civilizations on distant planets. The United States government contributed to earlier SETI projects, but recent work has been primarily funded by private sources.

There are great challenges in searching across the sky for a first transmission that could be characterized as intelligent, since its direction, spectrum and method of communication are all unknown beforehand. SETI projects necessarily make assumptions to narrow the search, and thus no exhaustive search has so far been conducted. (Wikipedia)

-----

Hey, everyone! PuzzleGirl here filling in while Rex does ... I don't know, something else today. I guess I didn't really get the details. But, who cares really? It's me and you! You and me! Hanging out talking about puzzles! What could be better? I mean, besides Rex being here....

I'm pretty sure this is a smooth puzzle, but I was irritated while solving because the AcrossLite version wasn't available on the New York Times website, so I had to use the applet, which ... seriously. We can put a man on the moon but we can't invent a crossword puzzle applet that doesn't completely suck? What's up with that?? So the puzzle was ... did I mention how much the applet sucks? I did? Okay. Um, the puzzle was very nice. Some good cluing, smooth fill, a couple things tripped me up but that's because I was doing acrosses only since It's Basically Impossible To Navigate The Stupid Applet Effectively. So I entered aglow for AGRIN (15A: Beaming) (and, frankly, aglow is a much better word). Then I entered ovoid for OVATE (24: Ellipsoidal). I considered eerie but went with SCARY, which turned out to be right at 32A: Like Stephen King novels. Ooh, speaking of scary. I have a story that's kinda scary, but ends up being quite funny because everything works out okay. PuzzleKids are visiting their grandmother this week in New Mexico. They flew out there all by themselves! (That's not the scary part.)
So Friday night, PuzzleSon wakes up in the middle of the night ... standing in the building's parking lot. Wearing only his underwear and holding onto a Webkinz (a penguin named Happy, Jr.). He sleep-walked (slept-walked?) out of the building and into the parking lot. He woke up because he was cold! Can you imagine?! So, he's trying to get back into the building and finally finds a door propped open with a rock. He goes back up to the third floor but while he's banging on the door trying to wake Grandma up, he's also trying to hide from people going in and out of another apartment on the hall because he's embarrassed that he's only in his underwear. Poor Little Guy! Well, it all turned out okay and, according to PuzzleSon, "Grandma put something really big in front of the door," so it shouldn't happen again. Whew! (By the way, he would kill me if he knew I was telling this story, so let's just keep it between us, hmm?)

What? I didn't give you the theme answers yet? Well, here ya go:

• DRESSING UP (20A: Pre-costume ball activity)
  
• HORN-RIMMED (28A: Like Buddy Holly's glasses)
  
• FRIES AN EGG (46A: Prepares part of breakfast, say)
  
• "KISS ME, KATE" (57A: Cole Porter musical that's a play within a play)
  

Put 'em all together and whaddya get? A bunch of French stuff. Awesome.


What else?

• 4A: Brother of Nintendos' Mario (LUIGI). Sadly, a gimme for me. In my own defense, though, I think the reason I remember this guy's name is because it's the same as a pizza place I really like in New York.
  

• 23A: Salt Lake City team (UTES). Oh, this was another problem for me because I entered Jazz without even thinking about it.
  
• 25A: Uses rubber on (ERASES). I ... could not figure out what was going on here.
  
• 38A: Patient care grp. (DEATH PANEL). Just kidding. That would be a proposed patient care group. The one that exists now is the HMO.
  
• 39A: Angry cry to a vampire (DIE). I think this one is stretching it a little bit. But maybe that's just because my first guess was fie. Like, I don't know, a Shakespearean vampire?
  
• 55A: Figure in red (DEBT). Started out with loss here. Wow, I had a lot more missteps than I thought!
  
• 64A: $2 on the gray mare, e.g. (WAGER). She ain't what she used to be.
  
• 2D: "... ___ a fever" (STARVE). I thought it was feed a fever.
  

• 28D: Western omelet need (HAM). Also needed for the Western sandwich, which I'm pretty sure exists.
  
• 59D: Common street name (MAIN). With only ??IN in place, this looked all kindsa wrong. I was trying to think of a tree but couldn't come up with anything that fit.
  

So there you have it. With any luck Rex will be back tomorrow.

Love, PuzzleGirl

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter.]
[Did you know you can also follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter?]

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Nigerian-born singing star - SUNDAY, May 17 2009 - O Hill (Woodworker's double boiler / Italian town where Napoleon won a historic 1800 battle)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "PERFECT JOBS" - puns on names that sound like kinds of work ending in "-ing" (e.g. "Dustin" -> "dusting")


Word of the Day: TORII (57A: Japanese gateway) - n., pl. torii.

The gateway of a Shinto temple, consisting of two uprights supporting a concave crosspiece with projecting ends and a straight crosspiece beneath it.

[Japanese : tori, bird + i- (from iru, to dwell).]

A mostly unpleasant 15 minutes, this one was. Top 5 reasons I would not willingly relive the part of my life wherein I solved this puzzle:

5. Again with the puns (and tedious ones at that)

4. Forced theme answers - OLYMPIC CANOER is not a "job" ... and why "OLYMPIC?" Why "MASTER" THIEF - is that on your business card? Did you have to go to school for that? Arbitrary.

3. The Pennsylvania section of the grid = horror show. Partial "IF I" (41A: Dr. Seuss' "_____ Ran the Zoo") crossing worse partial "IT'S OF" (43D: "_____ no importance") crossing crosswordese king ST LO (60A: Manche department capital) crossing equally crosswordesey IS IT I? (41D: Judas's question) For the crossing partials alone, this section should have been gutted.

2. Cutesy, grating use of "98" in two successive Across clues, where, in both cases, it means The Same Thing, i.e. a car. Using [98, e.g.] to clue OLDS is almost tolerable, but to clue SEDAN? They stopped making 98s thirteen years ago. Plus, not all 98s were "SEDANS." No one who hears "98" thinks "SEDAN!" In short, the road from "98" to SEDAN is long, bumpy, and violates the time-space continuum. Sloppy, and for no good reason.

1. DETERGE (97A: Clean)

Here's what I think of when I think of "98" (there's probably profanity in here somewhere, so be warned):



Theme answers:

• 23A: Perfect job for Dustin? (house keeper) - At first, I thought the names were supposed to signify famous people, so I was looking for a HOFFMAN pun
• 25A: Perfect job for Warren? (mercenary)
• 44A: Perfect job for Rowan? (Olympic canoer)
• 65A: Perfect job for Robin? (master thief)
• 71A: Perfect job for Darren? (stunt double)
• 93A: Perfect job for Landon? (airplane pilot) - whose first name is LANDON??? American soccer player LANDON Donovan is the best I can do here
• 118A: Perfect job for Brandon? (cow herder)
• 121A: Perfect job for Holden? (poker player) - if you're "HOLDEN" all the time, you aren't going to be very good.

Bullets:

• 1A: Bob Jones Award org. (USGA) - Is Bob Jones Bobby Jones? Because the only Bob Jones I know is the eponym of some college where interracial dating isn't allowed. Further, I know PGA, but USGA is far less familiar.
• 123A: Half of a longtime comedy duo (Anne Meara) - wow, the full-name treatment. Blessed with incredible talent *and* a vowel-laden name. That's some good luck.
  
• 20A: Girl's name meaning "night" in Arabic (Leila) - had no idea. Misspelled it LAILA because that's how LAILA Ali spells it.
• 30A: Carter and Grant (Amys) - that's a tough clue for AMYS.
• 33A: Kick-around pants (denims) - right next to the KHAKI (24D: Dull yellowish brown) pants you wear to work. Nice.
• 39A: Woodworker's double boiler (glue pot) - that "G" was about the last letter I put in, as I've never heard of GLUE POT and I've Really never heard of MARENGO (9D: Italian town where Napoleon won a historic 1800 battle)
• 85A: Pre-Civil War abolitionist (free-soiler) - went looking for an actual person here at first
• 104A: Nickname of N.B.A.'s David Robinson, with "the" (Admiral) - he graduated from the USNA
• 115A: Emperor son of Vespasian (Titus) - good movie adaptation of Shakespeare's play
• 125A: Beast with twisted horns (eland) - helped me work out that SE corner where having RIALS instead of RIYAL was really screwing me up badly (107D: Saudi Arabian currency)
• 127A: Early English playwright Thomas (Kyd) - great crossword names. High Scrabble value in little package. KYD wrote the smash hit "The Spanish Tragedy."
• 3D: Common dried decoration (gourd) - in autumn, maybe.
• 42D: "La _____ du Regiment" (Donizetti opera) (fille) - I'm scared to ask what the plot of this opera is. OK, it turns out the FILLE was adopted by the regiment as an orphaned child. I feel better now. I think.

• 63D: Writer of aphorisms (gnomist) - yikes ... I had GNOSTIC, briefly.
• 96A: Letter after teth (yod) - wanted TOD, but then remembered that that's German for "Death," not a Hebrew letter.
  
• 86D: Nigerian-born singing star (Sade) - it's always SADE. Except when it's ENYA. They're ... pretty easy to tell apart.
• 82D: One could go up to 11 in "This Is Spinal Tap" (amp) - the most famous moment in this classic movie.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Conductor noted for wearing white turtlenecks - THURSDAY, Apr. 16, 2009 — Oliver Hill (Singer Julius who was famously fired on air by Arthur Godfrey)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Extra CT — Theme answers are phrases (well, a phrase, a band, an athlete, and a hybrid intergovernmental and supranational organization) to which "CT" has been added, creating wacky phrases which are then clued, "?"-style. The theme is tied together by 26D: Derive (from) ... or a two-part hint for understanding 17-, 33-, 42- and 58-Across (EXTRACT).

I really like themes like this, especially when the base phrases are common and the changes are wacky enough. This was really well done—each of the base phrases would stand on its own as an entry, and I like that it's a disparate collection. And each was completely changed by the Connecticutian addition. (And methinks Oliver Hill lives in Connecticut now.)

Word(s) of the Day:
ROC — a large, ferocious bird of fable, 1579, from Arabic rukhkh, from Pers. rukh. Mentioned in Marco Polo's account of Madagascar, modern use is mostly from "Arabian Nights."
ORC — "ogre, devouring monster," O.E. orcþyrs, orcneas (pl.), perhaps from a Romanic source akin to ogre, and ult. from L. Orcus "Hell," a word of unknown origin. Revived by J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) as the name of a brutal race in Middle Earth.

vs

Now, if someone could help me keep ENT and EFT straight, that'd be great, thanks.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Revealed when seeking medical help? (SHOWED THE DO(CT)OR). Okay, this just barely stands on it's own, but I'll give it a pass.
• 33A: Water passages that don't turn? (DIRE(CT) STRAITS). From the band. I don't know if Rex likes them, but this is from right in his mid-80s cultural sweet spot.
  
  
  (PuzzleGirl, you'll love this version, but I thought the one I included would have broader appeal...)
• 42A: One-named R&B singer makes her choice? (MONICA SELE(CT)S). I don't know the one-named singer, but I had the SELECTS and just filled in MONICA—she just barely missed my tennis sweet spot. Hee, I made a funny—"sweet spot" is actually a tennis term!
• 58A: Continental salve? (EUROPEAN UN(CT)ION). Salve, not slave. Salve. Reading is fundamental, and reading correctly makes crossword solving much, much easier.
  

The not so great part:

In a 1982 Sunday Magazine, then crossword editor Will Weng wrote an On Language column (Crossword Pitfalls, if you're an online subscriber) in place of the vacationing William Safire. He wrote:

Arnel: An easy one, it would seem. Just define it as ''synthetic fabric'' and go on to the next word. Later, you get your knuckles rapped by the Celanese Corporation, which happens to make Arnel with a capital ''A'' and points out that it is a triacetate fiber and not a fabric. I won't go into what a representative of a knitwear trade organization had to say about how the word ''tricot'' was defined in another puzzle.

There's no getting around it. ARNEL (9A: Synthetic fabric) is ugly. And I'm sure the end, where it crossed ELOHIM (12D: God, in the Old Testament) and LAROSA (13D: Singer Julius who was famously fired on the air by Arthur Godfrey), tripped up lots of people. I got it right, but that L was a guess—that all went down back in '53, about 20 years before I was born. And Oliver Hill, well, he was born in the '90s, just a few years after Celanese stopped making Arnel because of toxicity concerns. (During the production—if you still have an Arnel jumpsuit, feel free to keep wearing it.)

There was a decent amount of not-so-great fill. I never know what they're going for with the random sayings. Like OHOH (1A: Cry of anticipation), or VOILA (16A: Cry of accomplishment), or HEH (2D: Schemer's utterance).

And fill-in-the-blanks? There were thirteen. That seems high.

• I've never been a fan of overly generic ones. Sometimes, like with MEDAL (64A: ___ Ceremony), generic FITBs can be a useful tool for creative cluing. Those I don't mind, it's the ones like (30D: "Just ___") that I do. Here it's A SEC, but it could easily be a tad, a bit, do it, stop... Or (24D: "Come ___"), which is ON IN instead of here, or home.
  
• Others are easy and specific, but tend to indicate compromises in the fill. I'm looking at you, IS A (48A: "Patience ___ virtue"). These are sometimes impossible to avoid, and the more I like the theme the more I'm willing to overlook a few.
• Other cluing options abound for entries like ONO (3D: Sean ___ Lennon). It's nice that that's inferable, but there were just so many today. Same for OAT (59D: ___ flakes).
  
• And someone will want me to point out that (55A: Old Vietnamese strongman ___ Dinh Diem) NGO is near NAM (60D: '60s service site).
  

Some other stuff:

• (7D: K.S.U., L.S.U. or M.S.U.) is a SCH. IIRC, O.H. goes to Y.
• (37A: Exhibitor of dorsiflexion) is an ANKLE. Is most ankles, actually. When they no longer exhibit that, one needs surgery. Trust me, you do not want this.
• NITROUS ACID (11D: HNO2) is 11 letters long. So is LAUGHING GAS (no clue: N2O).
• ERA (38A: It's low for aces: Abbr.) is an Earned Run Average for an ace pitcher. As in baseball, not advertising. Sorry, I couldn't find a good Spies Like Us image.
• (66A: Prefix with -plasm) is ENDO, not ecto. I jotted a note to find a nice Ghostbusters image before I ever checked the crosses.

• (8D: Costa Rica memento, perhaps) is a SHELL.
  
• (69A: Flat, for short) doesn't refer to a mistaken coffee order in New Zealand. (See also: (27D: Drink that may be vanilla-flavored), LATTE) Instead, it's ONE D(imensional). Which is of course sorta wrong, unless they mean flat as in not-curved. A flat plane has two dimensions.
• Fury is maybe a technical term for a (57D: Hurricane's force). It's also the best women's Ultimate team in the world.
  

Okay, I've gone on long enough. Fun puzzle.
Signed, SethG, Royal Vizier of CrossWorld

[Quick Note from SethG:]

Got an email from constructor Eric Berlin the other day and thought I would pass along the info to you.

"I wonder if you might let your readers know of an event happening this week that they might enjoy very much. You perhaps know that in addition to constructing crosswords, I write puzzle-filled mysteries for kids. My second novel, 'The Potato Chip Puzzles,' comes out this week, and to celebrate, I'm throwing an online 'puzzle party.' Starting on Thursday, there'll be a puzzle on each of seven different kidlit blogs. Solve the puzzle, submit your answer, and you can win a copy of the new book... or even the grand prize, two dozen different children's books and novels from G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Full details here: http://www.winstonbreen.com/puzzleparty.html

I hope to see you and your readers there!"

PuzzleGirl gave Eric's first book to PuzzleSon for Christmas last year and he loved it. They will definitely be checking out the puzzles this week. Thanks, Eric!

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