Kate's kisser in classic tongue twister / WED 4-1-15 / 1925 Pulitzer Prize Edna Ferber / Smarter Planet company / Kurtis Mayfield's Move / Region off the Cote d'Azur / Irvin first art director of The New Yorker

Constructor: Sharon Delorme

Relative difficulty: Wednesdayish

THEME: Hijinks! — A selection of jolly pranks for April Fools' Day.

Word of the Day: INDC [Visiting the Library of Cong., say] —

Hmmm, turns out this isn't a word. My bad. But I'd love to visit the Library of Kong.

• • •

Howdy, puzzlers. Rex is on vacation somewhere, so this is Doug filling in for PuzzleGirl, who is probably asleep right now. And I don't blame her. We had an amazing and utterly exhausting weekend at the ACPT.

I considered doing some elaborate April Fools' Day post, but I'm sure Rex would get cranky emails if I posted a fake grid or made up extra theme entries. So let's just dive into today's puzzle.

Theme answers:

• 18A: JOY BUZZER ["Put 'er there, pal!"]
• 24A: DRIBBLE GLASS ["Here, have a drink"] 
• 38A: SQUIRTING FLOWER ["Smell my corsage"] — This one sounds weird. I can't imagine someone coming up to me and saying "Smell my corsage." And sticking your nose into a woman's corsage is a good way to get your face slapped.
• 51A: TRICK CANDLES ["Happy birthday! Make a wish and blow"] 
• 62A: PRANKSTER [Speaker of the clue for 18-, 24-, 38-, and 51-Across] 

So we've got a collection of pranks someone found in an old comic book ad. I once bought a joy buzzer (and a pair of x-ray glasses) from a comic book ad. The joy buzzer was a huge disappointment. Instead of delivering the shocking agony shown in the ad, all it did was vibrate weakly in my victim's palm. Where's the joy in that? The x-ray glasses, however, worked like a charm. I use them to watch HBO through my neighbor's wall.

I like the old-timey vibe of the pranks, but I bet this puzzle disappointed some solvers, who were hoping for a wacky April Fools' Day-esque gimmick in the grid and/or the clues. Maybe the trick is that there is no trick. Did you ever think of that? So meta.

Bullets:

• 1A: SO BIG! [1925 Pulitzer Prize winner for Edna Ferber] — The actual title doesn't have an exclamation point, but I think it needs one. I'm trying really hard not to type "That's what she said," so let's just move on. 
• 32A: ESAU [Kate's kisser in a classic tongue twister] — I have no idea. Let me Google that: "I saw Esau kissing Kate. I saw Esau, he saw me. And she saw I saw Esau." I want to add "... by the seashore" in there somewhere.

• 17A: STIEG [Larsson who wrote "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"] — Good timing on this clue. I read today that a sequel to the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy will be published in September. Cool.
• 42D: LOVE/HATE [Kind of relationship] — Nice entry. I also like 9D: COBWEB [Sign of disuse].
• 31A: OEN / 63D: NEO and 57A: OTRO / 2D: ORTO — Two sets of reversed entries. That's kind of weird. And they're all kinda ugly.
• 59D: ABBA [Group with the hit 1978 album "The Album"] — Let's go out on a high note with an ABBA/Van Halen mash-up.

Signed, Doug Peterson, Laughing Boy of CrossWorld

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Sporty 1990s Toyota / THU 11-29-12 / Brasserie list / Catchphrase of Jean-Luc Picard / Old-time bowling alley worker / Dragon in 2008 best seller / Buster Keaton missile / Suffix with bombard

Constructor: Sharon Delorme

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: DON'T SWEAT IT (60A: Reassuring words .k.. or a hint to 17-, 25-, 35- and 48-Across) — theme answers start with words that are also names of anti-perspirants

Word of the Day: BEA Benaderet (30D: Actress Benaderet) —

Beatrice "Bea" Benaderet (April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968)^[1] was an American actress born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. She appeared in a wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley, supporting roles as Blanche Morton in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and as the voice of Betty Rubbleduring the first four seasons of The Flintstones, and in The Beverly Hillbillies as Pearl Bodine. She did a great deal of voice work in Warner Bros. animated cartoons of the 1940s/1950s. (wikipedia)

• • •

This was a nice little Wednesday puzzle. I know, it's not Wednesday; I'm just as confused as you are. Actually, I thought this was a Tuesday puzzle, theme-wise, but it was made Wednesdayish in difficulty through somewhat tougher cluing and big banks of long Downs in the NW and SE corners. Started with the incorrect BOLOS (those are ties, dummy), but easily got SHEL and EPOCH and quickly changed 1A: Whirled weapons to BOLAS, and all of a sudden the NW corner was done. LARIAT gave me a little trouble, as did the PANEL part of SECRET PANEL, but AGUES and AGAIN gave me traction. Some trouble in the middle, as neither BLOUSE (30A: Top of a wardrobe) nor TATTOO (41A: Dragon in a 2008 best seller) jumped out at me, but the Downs gave me enough info to get by, and after that—wow. I don't remember a thing about the bottom of this grid. It went down in about a minute or two. To give you an idea of the kind of roll I was on—I got every one of the long Downs in the SE corner, in quick succession, from just their first letters. D to DINETTES, O to OVERRIPE, M to MAKE IT SO (40D: Catchphrase of Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: T.N.G."). That is a crazy rare hot streak right there. ASPIC got me into the SW corner; then I took SURE-HANDED across and finished things up in the far south. Easy as PIE (11A: Buster Keaton missile).


I didn't have the slightest idea about the theme until the revealer, which I thought was very clever. The middle theme answer, DEGREE OF FREEDOM, didn't feel very tight to me, as theme answers go, but it's a phrase that one might say, and it's not totally contrived, so it'll do. This puzzle has some clunky crosswordese here and there, but no more than its fair share. I think I liked the NW corner the best, with BE SEATED (1D: "Take your chairs") and especially LOCAL RAG (3D: Small-town paper, informally) standing out as favorites. Is AUD. short for "auditor?" Not an abbrev. I've seen, but intuitable, I suppose.

Theme answers:

• 17A: The library in an old mansion may have one (SECRET PANEL)
• 25A: '60s protest sign ("BAN THE BOMB!")
• 35A: Extent to which you may do as you please (DEGREE OF FREEDOM)
• 48A: Having firm control (SURE-HANDED)

Bullets:

• 67A: Sporty 1990s Toyota (PASEO) — not hard for me, as I lived through the PASEO era, and it's a reasonably common answer, but I wonder what kind of shelf life this answer has. I suspect we'll be seeing ALERO for much longer, and even the ALERO is no EDSEL. 
• 6D: "State of the Union" director, 1948 (CAPRA) — no idea, until I got the "P" in panel. Didn't get the "C" from CARTE (6A: Brasserie list) for a while 'cause I had written WINES in there.
• 11D: Old-time bowling alley worker (PIN BOY) — I could see this person before I could come up with his job title. I didn't remember the infantilizing "BOY" part. Reminds me of the '80s movie "Racing With the Moon," starring Elizabeth McGovern and Crispin Glover and ... Nicolas Cage??? Oooh, I'm right. Yay, memory. Also, Sean Penn. Anyway, I think Sean Penn was a PIN BOY in this movie and Crispin Glover tries to hit him with bowling balls and, well, things don't end well for Glover. And looky here—god bless youtube!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Wrestling's Flair / TUE 6-5-12 / Brooklynese pronoun / Memory trace / Liqueur similar to Sambuca / Opposite of old in Germany / Blistex target

Constructor: Sharon Delorme

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: I to U — vowel change creates wackiness

Word of the Day: ENGRAM (45D: Memory trace) —

Engrams are a hypothetical means by which memory traces are stored as biophysical or biochemical changes in the brain (and other neural tissue) in response to external stimuli.

They are also sometimes thought of as a neural network or fragment of memory, sometimes using a hologram analogy to describe its action in light of results showing that memory appears not to be localized in the brain. The existence of engrams is posited by some scientific theories to explain the persistence of memory and how memories are stored in the brain. The existence of neurologically defined engrams is not significantly disputed, though their exact mechanism and location has been a focus of persistent research for many decades. (wikipedia)

• • •

Unless I'm missing some clever aspect of this theme, the only thing going on is a vowel change: I to U. Not only does this seem like it could render infinite* possible answers, it seems like one could get infinite possible answers with any two vowels. A to E. O to U. Etc. There needs to be some other kind of delimitation. Or the resulting "wacky" answers need to be Superfantastic. Neither is true today. But, it is what it is, and what it is isn't totally broken, so things are looking ... up? Sure.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Boring predicaments? (DULL PICKLES) — makes no sense, on any level
• 28A: Tulip planters, perhaps? (DUTCH DIGGERS) — the persistence of short "I"s in the second word is somehow distracting
• 35A: Strong advocates of margarine? (BUTTER ENEMIES)
• 43A: Bring Ebert and Moore together? (MUSTER ROGERS) — there's 'wacky' and then there's absurd
• 59A: Expert ladder climbers? (RUNG MASTERS) — believe it or not, I had No idea what the theme was until I was all the way down here. Nah, just believe it, 'cause it's true.

Long Downs in the NE and SW give this puzzle some much-needed zing. Very nice. I also like THREW ON, in the middle. Beyond that, the fill is pretty average. Not great, not BAD (11A: Deserving detention, say). Got held up at several points, mostly because of vague or misdirectional cluing. Needed every cross to get DISBAR and only then understood what "practicing" meant in 21A: Keep from practicing. Only island off Australia I could think of was TASMAN (didn't fit). TIMOR took a while (6A: Island north of Australia). Still not that clear on what ENGRAM means even after reading definition, so ... yeah, no (45D: Memory trace). GASMAN seems a fine enough word (so close to TASMAN ...), but it somehow wasn't hovering in an accessible place of my vocabulary (46D: Certain meter reader). I also had DEM for DAT at first (28D: Brooklynese pronoun). Oh, and despite having been to Greece and knowing full well the liqueur in question, I needed the "Z" before I remembered OUZO (54D: Liqueur similar to Sambuca). If I could recommend one bit of crosswordese to you today, it's STU Ungar. He's the go-to non-Disco STU (50A: Poker champ Ungar).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*plus or minus

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Heavenly home of Norse gods / THU 11-24-11 / Ancient Egyptian talisman / Mrs Forsyte in Forsyte Saga / Gerard of Buck Rogers in 25th Century

Constructor: Sharon Delorme

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: NO GO (65A: Canceled ... or a hint to answering 17-, 27-, 34-, 45- and 57-Across) — phrases that begin with "GO" have the "GO" dropped, creating ... prepositional phrases! And who doesn't love those!?

Word of the Day: GIL Gerard (41A: Gerard of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century") —

Gilbert C. "Gil" Gerard (born January 23, 1943) is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Captain William "Buck" Rogers in the 1979-1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. (wikipedia)

• • •

Lots of things to be thankful for today, but this puzzle is not among them. Seemed both substandard (for a NYT Thursday) and misplaced (Wednesday-easy). Taking "GO" out of phrases is not interesting. At all. There is no cleverness here, no trickery, no unexpected delight. Nothing. Just ... NOGO. It's a remedial idea for a puzzle, and I'm surprised it was accepted at all. The grid is certainly adequate, but conceptually, this theme is weak. Aside from the fact that missing "GO" does nothing interesting to the phrases, there's the problem of "GO" being Not Missed At All from several of the phrases. BYTHEBOOK and OVERTHETOP are completely legitimate, self-standing phrases; if it weren't for the cluing, no one would blink at these entries—whereas FORTHEGOLD is nonsense. So many THEs ... a plural ARLENES ... EFGH ... I'm at a loss.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Try to win (FOR THE GOLD)
• 27A: Not vary from proper procedure (BY THE BOOK)
• 34A: Follow everyone else (WITH THE FLOW)
• 45A: Deteriorate (TO THE DOGS)
• 57A: Take things way too far (OVER THE TOP)
  

I think I was slightly slower than I might have been mainly because I spent the first half of the solve overthinking things. Once I finally accepted that the theme was as straightforward and obvious as it appeared to be, and that the grid was, at best, ordinary, words started to come a lot faster. Had only one real hang-up, with DEBT for CASH (13A: Bills, e.g.), and one real head-scratcher—IRENE (26A: Mrs. Forsyte in "The Forsyte Saga"). No idea what "The Forsyte Saga" is, but IRENE is the crosswordiest woman's name there is (esp. in five letters), so once I had the "I," I just guessed. Took me a while to get SCARAB (brain just kept saying "ANKH!?") (1D: Ancient Egyptian talisman) and ASGARD (9D: Heavenly home of the Norse gods) (learned it from crosswords, and often get it confused with AESIR, which I also learned from crosswords). "WHO'S NEXT?" is an album title (34D: Waiting room query). In what "waiting room" would you hear it as a query? Doctors know who's next. Most service providers with waiting clients do. Who is supposed to be making this query? The waiter or the waitee? Argh.

Anyone wishing to get a solid introduction to heavily overused crossword words could do worse than looking here first: OMERTA, GSUIT, OLLA, ARLENE(S), ASGARD, BABA, SRIS, ANO, ROO, EWES etcetcetc.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Like Nash's lama — TUESDAY, Oct. 13 2009 — Cramped spot slangily / Woad and anil for two / Prince Charles beginning in 1952

Constructor: Sharon Delorme

Relative difficulty: Medium THEME: words for "toilet" show up on the tail end of four theme answers; theme-revealing answer is ROYAL FLUSH (58A: Poker player's dream ... and a hint to the tends of 17-, 25-, 35- and 50-Across)

Word of the Day: DIDOS (51D: Pranks) — n., pl., -dos, or -does.

A mischievous prank or antic; a caper.

[Origin unknown.]
-----

Not a fan of cutesy toilet humor, or toilet humor generally, so this was more "ick" than "ha ha" for me. Further, it was my understanding that "what do the last/first words of the theme answers have in common?" puzzles were too ordinary / common / passé for the NYT these days. I guess not. Not if they are about toilets. The theme is tight and it's executed just fine. Still didn't care for it much. Some days are like that.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Member of Sherwood Forest's "merry band" (Little JOHN)
• 25A: Company stationery (letterHEAD) — "LETTERHEAD" is one word, so this answer kind of sucks, in that HEAD is not freestanding, as the other "toilet" synonyms are.
• 35A: Prince Charles, beginning in 1952 (heir to the THRONE)
• 50A: Cramped spot, slangily (sardine CAN)

The opposite of everything is NOTHING. Further, NOT A BIT (28D: Opposite of everything) feels more adverbial ("Are you angry?" "NOT A BIT") in colloquial speech than it does nominal. EVERYTHING has the THING in it. NOT A BIT has me wondering NOT A BIT of what? Don't like ASHY (23A: Pale as a ghost) crossing ASCH (23D: "The Apostle" author Sholem). 36D: Just for _____ is a weird, not very Tuesday clue for OPENERS.

DIDOS (51D: Pranks) is a Saturday word. It is not a Tuesday word. Not even close. In fact, last time it appeared, it was in a Saturday puzzle, as a clue. Here's what I said then:

• 31D: Dido (escapade) - whoa. What? I think she meant more to Aeneas than that.

I was being facetious, as I knew (the real, capital-D) Dido was not intended. But raise your hand if you use, or know someone who uses, DIDO to mean "antic." "You kids and your crazy DIDOS." You are one letter away from serious sexual hilarity (which is way better than toilet hilarity, by the way). In fact, if you Google [dido prank], the second hit is titled "Dildo prank." I'm afraid to click on that particular link.

Bullets:

• 20A: First pro team to play on artificial turf (Astros) — didn't see this clue at all. The Astrodome was an iconic stadium of my baseball-loving youth.
• 21A: Calif. barrio area (East L.A.) — I wonder if this answer would be thought to have any crossword currency at all if it weren't for the Cheech & Chong "hit" "Born in EAST L.A."?

• 42A: Heavenly hunter (Orion) — I know an ORION. He lives down the street a ways. He's 6.
• 43A: One signatory to NAFTA (USA) — "American" and "America" ... NAFTA and USA basically share an "A"
• 65A: Woad and anil, for two (dyes) — knew it because of anil, which is crosswordese. Did not know "woad" was a DYE. Actually, not really sure what "woad" is at all.
  
• 9D: Cattail's locale (marsh) — I was thinking "whip" or "lash," then realized I was thinking "Cat o' nine tails."
• 38D: Auto dashboard indicator (oil gauge) — had OIL LIGHT.
• 47D: One who sings to the cops (canary) — really like this clue/answer combo.
• 48D: Like Nash's lama (one L) — when you tire of the Scott Turow title, there's always Nash to help you out.
• 67A: Snacks often eaten inside out (Oreos) — good clue on common answer.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

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MONDAY, Sep. 29, 2008 - Sharon Delorme (Main bank vis-a-vis currency / Drunk's sound / Geisha's waistband)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Double "-WER" words - four theme answers are each made up of two words (both ending in "-WER") that are spelled the same but pronounced differently

The easiness factor provided by the theme - once you get one answer, the others are a cinch to pick up - was offset at least a little by some odd or tortuous cluing that made at least one part of the puzzle slightly thorny. Otherwise, a fine, average Monday puzzle. Not a lot to say. I do like that that theme, simple though it is, has certain consistencies throughout, like the "-WER" ending, and a vowel sound change in each instance. Normally I can't stand seeing so many "-ER" words (Odd Jobs, verbs made into nouns by the addition of the "-ER" suffix), but none of the "-ER" words here is forced or strained - just very common words. The same cannot be said, sadly, for ISSUER, which is the blottiest blot on this puzzle's face, both because the word itself is terrible, and because the clue is from outer space: 5D: Main bank vis-à-vis currency. I couldn't make sense of it at first. Or at second. Just wouldn't process it. Add to that my uncertainty about what was meant by "Main bank" (which is probably just a reference to any country's central bank). Then, as the word came into view ... well, it's hardly a word, so ... I never really "got" the clue. I just got all the crosses, then noticed what I had filled in.

Theme answers:

• 18A: One who embroiders a waste conduit? (sewer sewer)
• 26A: Sketcher of a bureau compartment? (drawer drawer)
• 47A: Presenter of a bathroom stall? (shower shower)
• 60A: One pulling a tall structure? (tower tower)
  

Assorted:

• 1A: It may get a licking after lunch (Oreo) - wife and I both balked at this, but for different reasons. I didn't like the "licking" part, even though I see people do that in OREO commercials. It's a very unsatisfying and impractical way to come at an OREO. That creme filling just doesn't come up with a lick. Who has that kid of patience. You use your teeth to scrape, or just bite in. Wife, on the other hand, did not like arbitrariness of "after lunch."
  

Her: "Why 'after lunch'?"
Me: "I think they're mostly thought of as an afternoon snack for kids, so ... 'after lunch.'"
Her: "But it doesn't say 'afternoon,' it says 'after lunch.'"
Me: "'Afternoon' is 'after lunch.'"
Her: "So is nighttime..." - Etc.

Actual answer: Will likes to alliterate - licking ... lunch ... the end.

• 5A: Charged, as particles (ionic) - wanted IONIZED. I like IONIC SPELT up there in the north, though I would have liked IRONIC SPELT even more (here I'm thinking of SPELT the grain, which I wish this SPELT was - 15A: Said letter by letter, British-style)
• 22A: Drug that's smoked in a pipe (opium) - Do people still smoke opium, like they are 19c. travelers to the Far East or something? These days, I think most opium is processed into heroin. Just say 'no,' kids.
• 31A: Drunk's sound ("hic") - that's right, stick to the booze.
• 67A: Meeting: Abbr. (sess.) - wife would like to add that this is a terrible abbr. And in the same quadrant as the ugly "Var." AMEER and plural MATTS?
  
• 4D: Pacific island in major W.W. II fighting (Okinawa) - OKINAWA crossing STUN GUNS (20A: Police weapons that immobilize suspects) really livens up the place.
• 46D: Bothers (molests) - wife and I would both like to say that if these words are synonymous, they are barely so. You don't arrest people for "bothering" children. Believe me. I bother my child all the time. Just ask her. Me, to daughter, while daughter is reading: "Hey, what are Betty and Veronica doing now? What's Veronica's dad's name? What's their principal's name? What's happening in your Harry Potter book? Did he die yet?" Etc.
  
• 61A: Scottish cap (tam)
• 62A: Geisha's waistband (obi) - the TAM and the OBI: essentials of the crossword wardrobe. I dare you to wear both of these at once. Why not today? Be sure to send me a picture (or any crossword-related pictures) and I will post them for the world to see / admire / mock.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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