MONDAY, May 5, 2008 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke (EXXON COMPETITOR)

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Rhymes with "Buddy Hackett"

Pretty ordinary Monday. Only thing that slowed me down was typos, the best of which was BLOG for BLOB (61D: Unidentifiable mass). Blanked for a moment on STOWE (1D: Vermont ski town), had to hack at CITGO (19A: Exxon competitor) a little, hesitated over BRIAR/BRIER (the "A" is correct - 43A: Kind of patch for a rabbit), went for TAKE HOLD instead of TAKE ROOT (41D: Become established), mysteriously entered TARP instead of the obvious DOME (18A: Many a stadium cover) ... yep, that's about it. All the theme answers rhyme. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Had most trouble, theme-wise, with INCOME BRACKET, as my mind wanted only TAX BRACKET. A couple of the long Downs are pretty good. JUILLIARD (34D: Noted performing arts school) looks rather elegant in the grid, and MAD MONEY is suitably wacky. There's not much else to say here, except...

SKOSH (55D: Smidgen) - now, I know I've blogged about this word before, so seeing it there in the SE didn't faze me much. I know the spelling (TORI? - see 65A) threw me the first time I saw it in the grid, and this time I went with the "C" instead of the "K" at first, but didn't find it jarring at all. My wife, on the other hand, calls out from the other room: "Is 55D really S-K-O-S-H?" I said "Yeah, SKOSH ... means a little bit ... 'just a SKOSH.'" She says: "Neeeeever heard it." We occasionally come across these colloquial blind-spots, as she was born and raised in NZ, but she's lived here for nearly 20 years, so not knowing a reasonably common expression like this irks her, understandably. I looked up "SKOSH" in my Webster's and couldn't find it ... then I looked in the "addenda" (stuff added since 1961, I think), and there it was, "a small amount," from the Japanese sukoshi. World Wide Words has a fascinating entry about it, which I quote from here:

It first appeared in print in American English about 1951. Word researchers think American servicemen based in Japan brought it back at the time of the Korean War, though several subscribers have mentioned it was common among American servicemen in Japan in the years immediately following World War Two. It is a member of a group of words imported from Japanese in that period, others being origami, teriyaki, shiatsu, and karate. Skosh is a close imitation of the way that Japanese speakers themselves would say sukoshi in rapid conversation, suggesting that it was primarily communicated orally.

It usually turns up as an noun meaning a little bit, a jot, a small amount (“he solved the problem in a skosh more than 13 days”). One of its earlier appearances in print was in advertisements for Levi’s jeans that offered a fuller fitting for the middle-aged under the slogan “Just a skosh more room”.

My favorite part of looking up SKOSH in my dictionary was finding, directly underneath it, "skunk works":

[fr. Big Barnsmell's Skonk Works, illicit distillery in the comic strip Li'l Abner, by Al Capp †1979 Am cartoonist]: a usu. small and often isolated department or facility (as for engineering research and development) that functions with minimal supervision within a company or corporation.

I will be searching desperately for ways to use this term in the coming weeks.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Tourism bureau's offering (welcome packet)
• 28A: It's swung at Wimbledon (tennis racket)
• 48A: Pesky wasp (yellow jacket)
• 58A: It helps determine how much tax you owe the I.R.S. (income bracket)

Leftovers:

• 1A: Meat featured in a Monty Python musical title (Spam) - as in "Spam-a-Lot," the Broadway version of the great movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
• 9A: Popeye's creator E.C. _____ (Segar) - a gimme, and a frequent grid denizen. I'm so behind on my reading ... I've had a gorgeous volume of SEGAR's sitting on my shelves for over a year and still haven't done much more than peek at it. Soon ... yes, soon all the unread books on my shelves will magically get read.
• 23A: The matador's opponent (el toro) - nice the / EL correspondence.
• 36A: 1983 Barbra Streisand title role ("Yentl") - "Uncle," I cry. "Uncle!" Enough with this movie already.
• 66A: Airs, in Latin (aurae) - mildly painful.
• 71A: Guitarist Atkins (Chet) - try this out.
• 3D: Like blue movies (adult) - "blue" = my favorite word for "risqué" or "indecent."
• 30D: Classic toothpaste brand (Ipana) - I've said this before, but the only way I know this toothpaste is from a single scene in the movie "Grease."
• 32D: Muammar el-Qaddafi's land (Libya) - big in the news when I was in high school. We bombed them.

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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(Court plea, informally) TUESDAY, Jan. 15, 2008 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: SOAPS (71A: This puzzle's theme) - first words of four long theme answers are all brands of soap

Not much to say about this puzzle. Those are all soaps, alright - though I'm going to have to take your word on TONE, which is completely unknown to me. Is it a regional soap? Is there such thing as a "regional soap?" You know, like EDY'S is a regional ice cream and HELLMAN'S is a regional mayo? Just wondering. This puzzle had a good deal of answers I simply didn't know, but in good Tuesday fashion, everything was very gettable from crosses; even the intersecting unknowns (ALEC - 2D: British P.M. _____ Douglas-Home) - and ALANA - 14A: Singer Davis with the 1998 hit "32 Flavors") intersected at an easily guessable letter. So ... there it is.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Joie de vivre (ZEST for life)
• 11D: Lofty place for an academic (IVORY tower)
• 29D: Its academy is in New London, Conn. (COAST Guard)
• 63A: Speaking manner (TONE of voice)

In addition to ALANA and ALEC, I did not know VARESE (6D: Lombardy province or its capital) and, frankly, I'd only vaguely heard of the Old VIC (16A: Old _____, London theater). Never spent a lot of time in London. I'm an Edinburgh man, myself. What is with the cluing on IRS (11A: Org. with a code)? I had BSA in there at first (Boy Scouts of America). Lots of "org."s have "codes." Didn't know OLGA (51A: Daughter of Czar Nicholas I or II), but guessed it easily. Never remember the exact letter combo in EZIO (44A: Singer Pinza) because I know it only from crosswords, but (notice a theme?) got it easily from crosses. Why don't I have anything more interesting to say about this puzzle!? Reboot!

• 14A: Singer Davis with the 1998 hit "32 Flavors" (Alana) - Hey, I was alive and vaguely attentive to pop culture in 1998, what the hell? Is this a song about ice cream?
• 23A: Prank player (rascal) - LOVE that this intersects ALFALFA (9D: "Our Gang" kid) - one of the "Little Rascals" - who were also somehow "Our Gang," though I'm not sure what the relationship is between the two. Maybe this will tell me.
• 26A: "South Park" kid (Kyle) - easy ... for me. Maybe ASOK-esque for you.
• 27A: Preceder of Bell or shell (Taco) - no quiero
• 31A: Speed-happy driver (lead foot) - nice lively phrase
• 43A: "_____ a Tramp" ("Lady and the Tramp" tune) ("He's") - all that, including a repeat of "Tramp," for HE'S??
• 47A: Fantastically wonderful (to die for) - sadly, intersects GRIEF (46D: Feeling of loss), reinflecting the phrase in a decidedly depressing direction.
• 7D: De-squeak (oil) - I thought this clue was a French phrase when I first looked at it. Honest.
• 42D: First drug approved to treat AIDS (AZT) - You don't see this answer very often, which surprises me. Such an interestingly placed "Z." A bit depressing to have this so near TO DIE FOR and GRIEF, though.
• 56D: _____-Tass news agency (Itar) - Always forget this answer. IBAR is the only thing that come to mind. At least it's close.
• 53A: Arctic bird (puffin) - that's just not a very "arctic"-sounding name. Sounds too sunny, happy, optimistic. Maybe that's because "Puffins" is the name of one of my occasional breakfast cereals.
• 59D: Tributary of the Colorado (Gila) - learned it from Crosswords. Know Your Four-Letter Rivers (he said, hypocritically).
• 58D: Court plea, informally (nolo) - as in nolo contendere. Wife botched this small part of the puzzle because she'd never heard of this. She grew up in another country, though, so I feel her pain. If you are a non-Kiwi who has ever tried to do a NZ crossword, you know what it's like to be baffled by culturally-specific non-English phrases - which is to say, you know what it's like to be baffled by Maori words and phrases that your average New Zealander knows instinctively.

See you tomorrow,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Today's other puzzles:

• LAT 4:44 (C) - Verna Suit - got stupidly hung up thinking a long answer was a theme answer when it wasn't
• CS 5:17 (C) - Mel Rosen - 58D x/w 61A = ????
• NYS 4:38 (C) - Alan Arbesfeld, "Opening Moves" - something is very wrong when I do the Sun faster than any other puzzle of the day
  

[drawing by Emily Cureton]

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SUNDAY, Jan. 13, 2008 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Baby Talk" - theme answers are familiar phrases that have their "L"s turned into "W"s, creating wacky phrases, which are then clued

I was groaning audibly (and not in a good way) from the second I got WEST WE FORGET. My only hope - maybe the the rest of the theme answers will feature different forms of "Baby Talk," like a lisp or something ... but no. "W"s for "L"s, all puzzle long. Let me suggest that the kid who says "W" for "L" is also likely to do something similar with "R" - and thus WED ASTRAY, said by an actual baby-talking kid, would pwobabwy sound more like WED ASTWAY. Or maybe that's Tweety Bird I'm thinking of. Whatever. This theme was not especially to my liking.

I had an error - though I assure you this is Not the reason I was unhappy with this puzzle. I was unhappy from the get go, well before I ever made my error. Actually, there were two squares at the end of the puzzle where I had to guess. One was the ARIANA (116A: National airline of Afghanistan) / CERIUM (100D: Metal that may ignite if scratched) intersection - though, to be honest, I was 95% sure about that guess. CERIUM certainly sounded more like a metal than any other form of that word I might put in there, and ARIANA ... I'm pretty sure I've had it in my puzzle in the past year. So I guessed "I" there and was correct. I was not so lucky at the crossing of FREEH (82A: F.B.I. director appointed by Clinton) and PHIZ (79D: Illustrator for Charles Dickens). I had heard FREEH's name a million times, and was sure that it was FREED. Louis FREED. Of course this turned the illustrator's name into more of a rapper's name (P-DIZ), but let's be honest: it was rapper's name to begin with. This intersection of two very oddly spelled proper nouns at an impossible-to-intuit "H" is a sign of weak / desperate construction, and yet - I have no one to blame but myself here, not so much for missing FREEH (god that looks wrong) but for missing PHIZ, which I am 99% sure I've seen in my puzzle before.

Theme answers:

• 28A: The old frontier you and I don't remember? (west we forget)
• 45A: Climate that's copy-protected by law? (patent weather) - patentED weather?
• 65A: Merlin on an Imax screen? (giant wizard)
• 89A: Eyelid moistener at a museum? (Art Winkwetter) - this one hurt most of all
• 107A: Rouse a beloved English queen? (wake Victoria)
• 3D: Better half takes the stage? (wife goes on)
• 6D: Married in error? (wed astray)
• 16D: Tush made of shuttle thread? (weft behind)
• 69D: Stick one's foot in Chardonnay? (toe the wine) - that's almost good
• 75D: Development of amnesia? (memory wane)
• 81D: Fabric that needs serious mending? (sick weave)

I got up late this morning, so I'm going to have to blow through the rest of the puzzle if I don't want blogging to eat significantly into the fat, lazy part of my day. There were many highs and lows - let's check them out.

• 23A: Like some titmice (tufted) - I really really like this clue; my first reaction was "???" Then I got it, and it's perfect.
• 27A: Mark who won the Masters and British Open in 1998 (O'Meara) - a gimme for me, but my wife knows squat about golf, so she's currently downstairs trying to slay the NW corner. I have to say, that "O" was crucial for my getting NATO (1D: Group with a secy. gen.), which I blanked on many times.
• 35A: _____ d'amore (oboe) - my wife's comment, mid-solve: "[laughter] ... well, clearly I have something wrong here." She explained her "error" to me, and I told her it wasn't an error at all. Nice that this intersects with NATALE (4D: Christmas on Capri).
• 60A: Like some grasses (awned) - this one made me wince more than any other. It just ... hurts. Made me long for the days when we'll see PWNED in the puzzle - when gamers take over the universe. PWNED already seems like more a word than AWNED.
• 72A: Like Java man (erect) - I stared at this clue for So long wondering how to say it. Was it hep cat speech?: "Like Java, man. Cool. Crazy." Was "Java man" some animated spokesman for the coffee industry? No, apparently it's an anthropological term for early man. OK.
• 87D: Bond poster (bailsman) - this hurt too, though not as bad as AWNED. Seriously, AWNED is gnawing at me this morning way worse than the whole FREEH/PHIZ phiasco. (I'm now going to put Lupe Fiasco on my iTunes just to set a mood)
• 98A: Cuddly sci-fi critter (Ewok) - I hear he's a character in "Dilbert"...
• 100A: Algonquian tongue (Cree) - wanted OTOE, as I always do. I have an itchy OTOE trigger finger.
• 105A: Mover left or right (arrow key) - good, clever. Had the ARR- and was still blinking at this one for a while.
• 110A: Nocturnal insect (earwig) - gross
• 113A: Buggy drivers (Amish) - we have buggy road signs around this area (nearer to Ithaca), but I've never seen one.
• 118A: Singer Des'_____ (Ree) - Ha ha. Insane. But I knew it, and it's bold, so I like it.
• 35D: Florida county seat (Ocala) - your all-purpose Florida city. Learn it, know it, love it.
• 48D: _____ Epstein, Red Sox G.M. starting in 2002 (Theo) - sweet. See also 67A: Fall mos. (Octs.).
• 56D: Word before and after "a" (mano) - clever. Not sure why I thought that "A" had an accent grave over it. It's a Spanish term, not a French one.
• 58D: Prell competitor (Pert) - I'm sorry, the answer I was looking for was "Head & Shoulders." Better luck next time.
• 63D: Former Israeli president Weizman (Ezer) - did not know, but the crosses worked, so I let it stand.
• 67D: Viscera (offal) - got it Right Off The Bat. Love the clue and the answer. Both horribly beautiful words.
• 88D: Suffix with buck (a-roo) - wanted -EROO. Not sure what the rule is with the A/E in this particular suffix. BUCK-A-ROO, SMACKEROO...
• 90D: Bird whose name sounds like its soft call (nene) - love it. Way to dress up crosswordese in something pretty.
• 104D: Dr. J was one (Sixer) - he sure was. The face (and 'fro) of 70s basketball.
• 106D: Part of DKNY (Karan) - notice that DONNA and KARAN are both five letters.
• 109D: "The Simpsons" bus driver (Otto) - he loves to get blotto.

Breakfast time.

Take care.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Today's other puzzles:

• You must do Henry Hook's "Cross Words" puzzle (Boston Globe) and Merl Reagle's "Spaced Out People" puzzle (Philadelphia Inquirer). Go to Ephraim's "Puzzle Pointers" page (always in my sidebar) and get them. Super clever, super fun. I laughed out loud while solving HH's puzzle at least three times, and smiled the most of the rest of the way. I recommend highly bouncy music as an accompaniment to both puzzles. Worked for me. I was using Lupe Fiasco and K-OS, but you can substitute according to your own taste.

[drawings by Emily Cureton]

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WEDNESDAY, Sep. 19, 2007 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Barnyard babies in Australia - first word of each theme answer is a barnyard baby, if your barnyard is in Australia and you raise kangaroos for some reason

In a rush this morning, so sorry to the puzzle authors if I give this short shrift. They closed my daughter's school (literally ... just poof, gone, no school ... crazy hippies!) and so we are in something of a scramble mode to figure out what to do next. Grrr. ANYWAY...

This theme is cute, but there's one problem, and that problem is...



JOEY LAWRENCE (28A: Actor who got his start on TV's "Gimme a Break")

So many things about this answer are irksome / hilarious. First of all, JOEY is totally out of sync with all the other baby animals in the puzzle (CHICK, COLT, CALF) in that you would not find him on a farm in North America. Second, JOEY LAWRENCE is well known enough to be a theme answer in a puzzle??? He "got his start" on TV's "Gimme a Break"? OK, my question is - then what happened to him? Because I couldn't name one damned thing he's been in since. Was he on "Blossom" for a while? My first answer here was GEORGE CLOONEY, but first of all, that didn't fit, and second of all, GEORGE got his start on "The Facts of Life" (with crossword stalwart Charlotte RAE), not "Gimme a Break" (you understand my confusion).

Other theme answers:

• 18A: "Pretty Woman" and "Waiting to Exhale" (chick flicks) - this should have had some qualifier attached to it; the moniker CHICK FLICK is colloquial, not a standard film category. Also, I was surprised to learn that CHICKs dig movies about whores. Interesting.
• 48A: Shooter of westerns (colt revolver)
• 62A: They're exercised when cycling (calf muscles)

OK, moving quickly through the puzzle. Originally had STAG for BOAR (1D: Animal hunted in one of Hercules' 12 labors) and then TCU for ORU (14A: Evangelical sch. with a 4,000+ enrollment). Do they even make AIM (17A: Alternative to Gleem) anymore? I remember it from childhood, so it came easily enough. We briefly considered sending Sahra to the local Jewish school, but you, er, have to be Jewish, so that's a problem. Why am I mentioning this ... oh right, 20A: Shul's shepherd (rabbi). The poor harp seal continues to be the only exemplar of EARLESSness (26A: Like harp seals). I'm disconcerted by how quickly SAHIB came to me (33A: "Master") - I think I know the word only from vaguely racist caricatures of servile Indians. I though that if you "winged" someone, you just sort of grazed him, but apparently, no, you MAIM him (38A: Wing, e.g.). Helen Mirren is hot, so feel free to put her in the puzzle all you want, even if the answer is a total retread like QEII (56A: Oscar-winning role for Helen Mirren, in brief). I was surprised to find out how wide my range of knowledge of salsa names is, as ORTEGA came to me almost instantly for 66A: Rival of Old El Paso, though our salsa of choice is ... Amy's, I think. Or something else organic. Grossest answer in the puzzle (also most unknown to me) = LAC (68A: Useful insect secretion). The very word "secretion" should be banned from the puzzle, not least because it's an anagram of "erections" (plural!).

As for the Downs, CAFTAN (8D: Beach cover-up) is not a word I've seen or thought of in a long time. I think I did not associate it with the beach. I'm not sure what I associated it with. It's clear I haven't given CAFTAN much thought at all. It sounds foreign / religious. I wanted SARONG here. Speaking of foreign (if not religious), why did I know BEY (21D: Old Turkish title) right away? I feel like that word has been sitting in a dusty corner of my brain since the Maleska era. Loved the pairing of ICKES (12D: Clinton adviser Harold) and ICKY (57D: Totally gross), as well as LIARS (52D: Specialists in storytelling?) and YARN (70A: It's hard to believe). Not too happy to see crosswordese like OMOO and YMA (71A: Singer Sumac) and ARNE (36D: "Rule, Britannia" composer). Also, while I love "The Simpsons," I was a bit dubious about D'OH (44D: "What an idiot I am!"). No, not dubious, as the definition fits OK. It's just that DUH fits too, in a way, though perhaps not as well. Anyway, I had DUH for a bit. Lastly, how many beams are there, exactly, that are shaped like letters??? "Z" is a new one on me (37D: Letter-shaped beam).

Favorite answers in the puzzle: the insane LOQUAT (49D: Plumlike Chinese fruit) and the DiMaggio-endorsed MR. COFFEE (39D: Automatic-drip machine maker).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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WEDNESDAY, May 23, 2007 - Bruce Venzke and Stella Daly

Relative difficulty: Easy to Medium

THEME: Quip from a hunter = :(

The only thing that put this puzzle at a Wednesday level of difficulty was its quip-ness - hard to get those long Acrosses until you've filled in a lot of Downs. I actually got the first half of the quip, parts 1 and 2, quickly. Then part 4. The last half of part 3 was the last part to give. But as I said, the non-theme fill was a cinch, more Tuesday than Wednesday. I had a little trouble getting into the NW and finally polishing off the mid-SE, but overall, no sweat. Just over 6 minutes solving time today.

The "quip":

I TRIED TO BUY (21A)
A CAMOUFLAGE SUIT (27A)
BUT I COULDN'T FIND (46A)
ONE ANYWHERE (54A)

Take my wife, please!

The problem with your average quip puzzle (and this one is no better than average) is that non-theme fill tends to suck - all originality is sacrificed on the altar of the quip. Check out the crosswordese: SWAB, HALO, ADEN, ALEE, ESAU, ABED, SASE, TET, ION, OAF, HIED. In the miserable SW corner alone, we have OSLO, NEAR, ERIE, SERA, LAIC, and ORES - a veritable slag heap of craptacular fill. This is not to mention all the highly unimaginative fill, e.g. SHOE, FEAR, CENT, TOE, etc.


Despite its horrible quip nature, this puzzle has some fabulous fill, most notably 24A: Composer Rimsky-Korsakov (Nikolai), whose "Capriccio Espagnol" I listen to often (thanks, Andrew); 49D: Kind of statement, to a programmer (If / Then); and 50D: Vegetarian's stipulation ("No meat"), which is very original. I had -MEAT, and without looking at the clue, I filled in COME AT - NO MEAT is so much better. I'm a fake vegetarian, in that I don't eat meat or poultry, but I eat fish (which technically makes me a "pescavegetarian," but that name is soooo pretentious that I can't bring myself to use it).

BONDAGE (9D: Slave's state) is nice too, though the clue could have been ... spicier. D CELLS was a little tough to uncover (48D: Some batteries). Have D CUPS ever been in the puzzle - would ... they ... pass the breakfast table test? If I saw D CUPS in the puzzle, I would most certainly exclaim HOLY COW (43D: "Geez Louise!"), if not something a little stronger. WADI (7D: Dry riverbed) is a very cool word that I know only from crosswords. There is only one answer in today's grid that I flat out didn't know - 47D: "Almost Paradise" author Susan (Isaacs). The only "Almost Paradise" I know is a generic power ballad from the mid-80's by Ann Wilson (half of Heart, and one of the greatest female rock vocalists of all time) and Mike Reno (uh, who? - oh my God he was the lead singer for Loverboy!).

"Almost paradise
We're knocking on heaven's door
Almost paradise
How could we ask for more?
I swear that I can see forever
In your eyes...
Paradise"

Speaking of cheesy pop songs, I ATE UP everything about the NW corner, especially Mr. SEDAKA (3D: Neil who wrote "Stupid Cupid"), who looks rather awesome standing next to ATOMIC (2D: Like some energy) and BANANA (1D: Yogurt flavor - random clue, btw). I would pay good money to go see "Neil SEDAKA and the ATOMIC BANANA," even if they insisted on closing the show with a cover of "Almost Paradise."

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Feb. 6, 2007 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke

Solving time: 4:45

THEME: Breakfast - four theme entries (two horizontal and two vertical, nice) contain breakfast foods in non-breakfast contexts, e.g. 63A: Czar's treasure (Fabergé Egg)

Loved the theme, though I never saw it during the solving experience itself because I torched this puzzle. Super-solvers can scoff at that statement, but this is my first sub-five-minute Tuesday ever. I'm pretty sure I exclaimed "woo hoo!" upon hitting "Done!" and getting the "Thank you for playing" message, despite the fact that it was after 10pm and my wife was just starting to fall asleep in the next room. Did about 10 puzzles yesterday, 5 of them while "watching" my wife's karate practice last night, so I was well warmed up when I tackled this puzzle at just after 10pm.

All the theme answers are great. In addition to FABERGÉ EGG, you've got:

• 17A: Booze (happy juice) - never heard this expression, but I do like it. Is ZIMA (6A: Fruity alcoholic brand) a form of HAPPY JUICE?
  
• 11D: "Apollo 13" co-star (Kevin Bacon) - first theme answer I got, and I thought the puzzle was going to have some "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" theme. Alas, no
• 27D: Comment to a goner ("You're toast") - that's the hottest one of all: colloquialicious

I have to say, as I look at this grid, I'm surprised I got through as fast as I did - there are many wriggly little two-word phrases and at least three answers I don't recognize at all:

15A: Land of Esau's descendants (Edom) - oh am I terrible at things Biblical / Hebraic; even when I know them, I cannot spell them
25A: Hopalong Cassidy player William (Boyd) - One for the old folks; I would have gotten [Ellroy anti-hero Kemper]. HA ha, it turns out that the first "William Boyd" that Google recognizes is not this Hopalong guy, but a British author ... born in ACCRA, Ghana. There's a capital I won't soon forget (see last Tuesday's puzzle, Pllllleaaze; a memorable one, that)
24A: Chemistry Nobelist Otto (Hahn) - I know one Hahn, and her name is Hilary.

Then there's the dueling Winnebago clues (when's the last time you saw that in a grid?)

29D: Offshoot of the Winnebagos (Iowas)
35A: Offshoot of the Winnebago tribe (Otoe)

I really wish one of these Winnebago clues had had an answer related to RV-ing.

So much computer-related fill here, what with ASCII (1A: Computer character set, for short) and SPAMS (14A: Bombards with bogus offers) and IMAC (12D: Colorful computer) and of course NERDS (70A: Uncool sorts). There also appears to be a sublimated religious theme here, with ACOLYTE (55A: Church candle lighter) and TEXT (69A: Preacher's reading) and MONKS (13D: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" figure - speaking of NERDS!), and O GOD (60D: Prayer start) and the Pope's TIARA (37A: Princess' accessory) and, last but not least, ZEUS (6D: Chief Olympian) and his HEIR (59D: Crown prince, e.g.), ARES (44A: Mars' Greek counterpart).

I only had one false entry in this grid: JEANS for JEEPS (18D: Wranglers, e.g.), and that is a total set-up if I ever saw one, because those are both great "J"-answers that fit perfectly. But the awesome "Q"-containing word PIQUED (28A: Sparked, as curiosity) took care of the problem, giving me the "P" I needed to turn JEANS to JEEPS. Other colorful fill includes GAUCHOS (58A: Some cowboys), SCHTICK (21A: Comic's gimmick - so many consonants in SCHTICK!) and AMECHE (9D: Mustachioed Don of classic films). Mustachioed! Why isn't that in the grid?! If I ever construct a puzzle, it will contain MUSTACHIOED, which will be clued [Don Ameche, e.g.]. Hey, WAS (41A: Isn't anymore, cute) not only sits right atop the ARE in ARES, but it's also echoed by the full answer ARE in the western ("S.F.") portion of the grid, 47A: "_____ you kidding?" Innnnnnteresting. You've also got a CAPT (3D: Skipper: Abbr.) and SGTS (61D: Some NCO's) connection. I should stop now, as I'm getting dizzy. I would like to give a final shout-out to AGUE (55D: Malarial symptom) a crossword staple who (I feel) has been unfairly overshadowed lately by his smarmy Italian cousin A DUE. Not to mention TIARA - didn't we call a TIARA moratorium a month or so ago? I don't think I'm ready to lift that particular injunction.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2006 - Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke

Solving time: 8-ish (on Across Lite)

THEME: "Orchestra" - final words of three long theme entries are BRASS, STRINGS, and WINDS, with the theme ORCHESTRA (58A) also in the grid

First, a correction: at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, competitors solve on paper, not the computer. I misunderstood someone's comment at another site. So sorry for yesterday's misinformation.

Second, I have said before, many times, maybe here, certainly elsewhere, that the non-Jerry "Seinfeld" actors are Not funny. I used to have to point to the string of horrid and / or failed vanity sitcom projects to make my point. Now I can just point to this.

Third, I have a question about the phrase "the fourth of never," which I used last night for some reason, to the surprise of my wife who had just heard the phrase used earlier in the day by one of her students. I don't think it's something I've ever said before, and in fact I'm not sure that the proper phrase isn't "fifth of never" or "twelfth of never." Oh, there's a song called "The Twelfth of Never" by, it looks like, Johnny Mathis, and possibly Keith Urban. Maybe Nina Simone sang it too. Oh ick, here's an online Casio keyboard version of some kind. It's actually written by Paul Francis Weber and Jerry Livingstone. It's pretty sappy. OK, back to puzzle. [late addendum: how's this for irony?: I've barely heard of the song "The Twelfth of Never," and yet Two of my favorite musical artists and biggest celebrity crushes have recorded it - why was I not informed? I prefer Dolly Parton's version to Olivia Newton-John's, but it's a pretty close call. The very best version (from what I could gather from the 30-second snippets @ iTunes) is by Nina Simone, yet Another one of my idols. The song just isn't that strong, but if these women are singing, I'm listening. Seriously, I'm downloading the songs right now.]

Today's theme was very clever, neat, tidy, musical. Nice. Couldn't ask for more from a Tuesday puzzle. I especially like that 20A (THEME): Generals and such (military brass) is crossed at the "Y" by 9D: Certain well-traveled child (army brat). Must move even more quickly today, as I'm on Sahra-patrol (she's out of school for the T-giving week, and she and I are due at Denny's to eat breakfast with mommy's students in about a 1/2 hour!).

4D: Morales of "NYPD Blue" (Esai)
41A: Architect Saarinen (Eero)
63A: Pitcher (ewer)

Gimme an "E"! Who opened the "E" pen at Krosswordese Korner? Pantheon stalwarts are running amok. In addition to these "E" words, we have EDER (15A), ERE (2D), EGO (34D), and EX-MET (43A) (that last one -> ouch). I don't know if I'm annoyed by all the conventional fill or amused by the "E" party. It's a close call. There's an abundance of tired fill that doesn't start with "E" - NTWT (55D), AREA (56D), ARIA (53D) [seriously, AREA and ARIA... and in the same neck of the puzzle woods? OK], ODEA (7D) and the old-school, Maleska-era throwback ABIE (19D). This fairly unimaginative short fill is, I'm happy to say, more than made up for by generous interesting longer fill, including ORGIES (22D) and PENMANSHIP (30D), which are two great tastes that taste great together.

6D: Sonnet part (sestet)

Mmmm, sonnet parts. I like the dark meat! Seriously, I do like that SESTET not only means a SIX-line chunk of poetry, but it has SIX letters in it, AND is positioned here at SIX-Down. 6-6-6. Symmetry! And evil...

The Petrarchan sonnet is typically described as having two parts: the octet and the sestet (first eight and last six lines, respectively). Rhyme scheme would usually change at the octet/sestet break. Here is a sonnet by Sir Philip Sidney, the first sonnet from his sonnet sequence Astrophil & Stella. Spelling is modernized, for your pleasure.

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain:
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain;
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burned brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay,
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,
And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite--
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."

I love this poem (as Renaissance poems go), mainly for the line "I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe," but also for the weird, urgent pace of the end, which has a crazy masochistic birthing metaphor going on before it settles into the very simple last line. ANYway...

31D: German chancellor Merkel (Angela)

Again. Damn, she gets a lot of puzzle action for a six-letter answer.

49A: One working on the margin, briefly? (Arb)

I am not sure I know what this is short for. Isn't this what Arby's employees proudly call themselves? No, "anonymous" says it's "arbitrager." If it involves money or business in any way, then I am useless. I do not even like managing my own money (much). I have a guy who handles that. Seriously.

51A: Not, to a Scot (Nae!)
45D: Scottish hillside (Brae!)

As in, "NAE! I wilnae go o'er yon BRAE, ye daft wee bairn!" Cue the requisite shot of Willie!:
49D: Playwright Fugard (Athol)

Best name, because it sounds like a lisping guy is shouting profanity. In this picture, we see that ATHOL has a certain unfortunate Manson-ish quality. I know one thing about Athol Fugard. OK, two. One, he is (was?... no, is) South African. Two, he wrote a play called Master Harold and the Boys, which I think was on Broadway starring Matthew Broderick at some point, and which I know I saw at the Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare festival when my entire H.S. English class went on a week-long field-trip there in 1986 (or maybe 1987 - we went both years). It was ... good? I don't remember. I think it's about white guilt over Apartheid. I remember Shakespeare better.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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