MONDAY, Jan. 26, 2009 - T Powell / N Salomon ("My sweetie" in a 1957 hit for the Bobbettes / Aura, informally / Instrument with 30+ strings)

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Bad idea!" - same clue used for three long theme answers

Word of the Day: KIBITZER - (n.) an outsider or nonparticipant who looks on and may offer unwanted advice or comment esp. at a card game; verb "KIBITZ" means "to act as a KIBITZER" (W3I)

This is a fine Monday puzzle with a good dose of Scrabbly letters and some surprising and lively fill. The KIBITZ (44A: Offer advice from around a card table) / ZITHER (45D: Instrument with 30+ strings) crossing is particularly nice. I had no idea "MR. LEE" was Monday fare, esp. as a full title and not just a partial "MR. _____" (37A: "My sweetie" in a 1957 hit for the Bobbettes). I know the song well from my high school "I Give Up On Contemporary Music" years of 1985-87, which also happened to coincide with the release of the movie "Stand By Me," which featured "MR. LEE" on its soundtrack. It's a great, catchy, snappy, growly little number.



Theme answers:

• 20A: "Bad idea!" ("Let's not go there!")
• 38A: "Bad idea!" ("You must be joking!")
• 52A: "Bad idea!" ("I didn't hear that!")

This grid makes me realize how much easier a 14/15/14 theme grid is to construct than a 14/13/14. Imagine black squares where the "Y" and "G" are in 38A. You can't segment the grid as neatly in that scenario and have to run at least two adjacent 8s from top to middle and middle to bottom in two of the corners. In this puzzle, you've got a single 10-ltr Down in the NW and another in the SE, and then a single 8 in the NE and another in the SW. Grids get far harder to fill (smoothly) when you are forced to run 8+-ltr Downs side-by-side through two theme answers. The only reason I say all this is because on its surface, it would seem that a 14/15/14 grid is more challenging to construct than a 14/13/14 because of the additional squares involved, but I don't think that's true. This observation has nothing to do with the quality of the current puzzle and everything with my trying to understand the harsh mistress that is the 15x15 puzzle grid.

Bullets:

• 30A: Sunken ship's locale (seabed) - a nice answer. "Locale" refuses to take a break.
• 41A: "_____ River" (song from "Show Boat") ("Ol' Man") - Speaking of "River," River Phoenix was in "Stand By Me" (see nostalgic music memories, above)

• 58A: Couturier Christian (Dior) - alliteration! DIOR and YSL are the big fashion icons in puzzleworld.
• 10D: Two-by-two vessel (Noah's Ark) - love the answer; not sure about the clue.
• 26D: Undercooked meat danger (E. coli) - I refuse to put this answer in any puzzle I might construct. Not too crazy about EBOLI either [I know that EBOLA is the disease and EBOLI is the Italian place name in the Carlo Levi title "Christ Stopped at EBOLI" - 6 of one, as far as I'm concerned, fill-wise]. If I got really, really desperate, I would use E COLI, but deliberately putting E COLI in something I make ... doesn't seem right.
• 29D: Aura, informally (vibes) - I get a weird VIBE (singular) from this clue because of the singular / plural disparity ... although I can imagine switching "aura" and VIBES out in a sentence, so it's technically legit.
• 35D: Beachgoer's acquisition (sun tan) - unless you are me, in which case you either burn or stay white because you were lathered in sun block and / or stayed in the shade. Stupid family history of skin cancer!
• 49D: Cello feature (F hole) - this sounds dirty. Also, I didn't know it. Also, my wife had an error here because she sort of misread the clue at 48A: Babe in the woods (naif) ans something having to do with wood nymphs, and even though wood nymphs are DRYADS, and even though NAIAD is spelled thusly, she wrote in NAID.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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TUESDAY, Oct. 9, 2007 - Timothy Powell

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "BORE" homonyms

This felt about right for a Tuesday. Had a little trouble with a couple of phrases (seemed to be a lot of 2+-word answers), and there there were a couple of answers I hadn't heard of - including one of the theme answers! - but otherwise, fairly smooth sailing. Don't have much to say this morning beyond a few scattered observations. First, the theme answers:

• 17A: BORE (tiresome windbag) - I wrote in TIRESOME HANDBAG before ever looking at the clue. "What else is --NDBAG gonna be?," he wondered.
• 23A: BOAR (tusked warthog) - man, that's a good answer. That would make a good PET NAME (40A: Honeybunch or cutie pie)
• 48A: BOER (Cape Afrikaner) - not a phrase I know. Is "Cape" adjectival? Referring to Dutch settlers who lived specifically in or around the various "Capes" in South Africa?
• 57A: BOHR (Danish Physicist) - strangely, the easiest one of the lot to get

And now, a few observations:

Observation 1: ELENA (56A: "Maria _____," Jimmy Dorsey #1 hit) is wearing out her welcome.

I think this is her third trip to the grid (in some form) in the past week. Her name is very convenient, letter-wise, but enough is enough. Take a vacation, ELENA. And look out SEZ (1A: Speaks, informally) - you're on thin ice too.

Observation 2: As I said, lots of multi-word phrases today, many of them quite lively:

• 63A: "Er ... um ..." ("I mean...")
• 9A: Smokey Robinson's music genre, for short (R and B)
• 1D: Have a chair by, as a table (sit at) - the syntax on this one confused the hell out of me
• 9D: Didn't have enough supplies (ran short) - I had RAN OUT OF
• 11D: "Don't worry about it" ("No big deal") - I had NO PROBLEM
• 30D: "This _____ ... Then" (Jennifer Lopez album) ("is me") - gotta go way downmarket to get the bad grammar required for this one
• 34D: Sights at after-Christmas sales (mob scenes)
• 45D: Sticker through a lady's headgear (hat pin) - really hate that clue; potential misdirection of "sticker" negated by "through" - why not just [Lady's headgear sticker]?
• 20A: Have _____ in one's head (a hole) - by far my favorite answer in the puzzle. I have to keep looking at the clue to remind myself how in the world this profane expression managed to get into the puzzle.

Observation 3: There is Good French, and there is Bad French

If there is going to be French in my puzzle, it should be a. from a title of a poem, book, work of art, major historical event, etc., or b. a word that has currency in English (e.g. "nom de plume"). 43A: Meyerbeer's "_____ Huguenots" ("Les") would seem to fulfill the first criterion, but there's something so massively anticlimactic about LES that the clue makes me a bit angry. And as for ARME (33D: French weapon) - that fails on all counts.

Observation 4: Certain words give me pleasure for no good reason

Maybe it's the way they sound - like ELIHU, for example (2D: _____ Yale, for whom Yale University is named) - or the way they look - like SKEINS (46D: Coils of yarn). One of the pleasures of doing the puzzle is just running into words that rub me the right way. I get to appreciate words on a purely superficial, aesthetic level, as well as on the level of meaning.

Observation 5: I am far less elated than I thought I would be at the news that the Yankees' season is over

I decided sometime yesterday afternoon that I would embrace the idea of a Yankee comeback against the Indians, so that Boston and NY could have their ALCS showdown, just as God intended. You have to risk losing to them if you want to beat them, I told myself. And then they went out and just folded last night in a game everyone thought they'd win. Paul Byrd? Really? You couldn't hit him? Anyway, I am in the oddly disconcerting position of feeling semi-bad for the Yankees. And I'm having trouble getting up for facing the Indians (good as they are). And then, if we make it to the World Series, what? The Rockies? The D-Backs? Damn you, Mets! Stupid New York teams and their stupid collapses are making the post-season far less interesting than it could have been.

Observation 6: Yesterday was a very weird day for this site, traffic-wise

First of all, there were several searches that made it onto the top page of search terms at sitemeter yesterday, which almost Never happens on a Monday. CABER, SILVERBACK, and (oddly) Glenn CLOSE were the top three searched-for answers. Second, a single link from (of all places) powerlineblog.com yesterday brought this site about 1000 extra visitors yesterday (and close to 3000 extra to my heretofore poorly trafficked Pop Sensation blog) (powerlineblog.com is a conservative political blog, so if you don't like that sort of stuff, don't click on the link, and dear god, whatever your political persuasion, please don't bring any kind of political rancor onto this blog). So first I want to thank the folks over there for the link. And secondly, I want to ask - why doesn't @#$# like that happen more often!? I want free press and I want it now. Go out now and do your part. It's the least you could do for me. Thank you, and good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS I nearly forgot. AZO dye? (26D: _____ dye) - one of those answers that I had no clue about, though I also feel that I've had no clue about it before...

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TUESDAY, Jan. 23, 2007 - Timothy Powell

Solving time: 7:10

THEME: THE - compound words have "THE" inserted between their word-parts, and the new phrase is then clued, e.g. 17A: Supply weapons to a committee head? (arm the chair)

Ah yes, the always dynamic "THE." Really, all themes should involve shoving definite articles into weird places. I was not feeling this theme. In fact, honestly, I didn't get the theme, exactly, until I began typing this entry. The first theme entry I got was 11D (THEME): Criticize a bakery dessert? (pan the cake), which I thought was a play on CAKE PAN, not PANCAKE, and so I thought there was some compound word reversal going on, instead of the far less dynamic "THE" insertion. This may (partially) explain my first major problem solving the puzzle.

63A (THEME): Donate to Eve? (spare the rib)

If you are Adam, yes. Otherwise, no. The phrasing just was not intuitive at all. In fact, it's WEAK (30A: Wimpy). I was busy getting the crosses, hoping a phrase would come into view, but for some reason "THE" was not part of my thinking until very late. Didn't know a crucial Down cross, 50D: Tweed twitter Thomas (Nast). As of this second, I have No Idea what that clue means. I know NAST from Condé-NAST Travel; NAST is also something my sister and I would say about anything disgusting. My NAST knowledge ends there. NAST ran through my second major problem solving the puzzle.

54A: The "magic word" (please)

Yeah, it looks obvious, but I had just the "P" and immediately wrote in PRESTO, a word I finally ditched only after I saw that 55D: Start of the año nuevo was obviously ENERO, not ONERO. I AIN'T (49A: Isn't misused) too proud of this mistake, which resulted in my solving time's being NOT SO HOT (42D: Just O.K.). PLEASE intersected a host of answers I didn't know, not just NAST, but SAL (45D: Erie Canal mule) - still don't know what this means - and ARTIE (35D: Howard Stern sidekick Lange) - the only LANGE I know is LANA, and I don't think her last name has an "E" on the end. While we're in the middle of this puzzle, I would like to say how much I dislike the awkward clue 44A: Magi's origin, with "the" for EAST. If you're going to go the "with 'the'" route, the payoff better be good. Here, it is not. And the third and final stumbling block in today's solve...

31D: Grand _____ (wine designation) (cru)

Not only haven't heard of it (or maybe heard of it, then forgot it somewhere in time), but took far too long to get the "C" - the cross is 31A: Purchase for a beer blast and the only word I could come up with was KEG, and even after I was staring at _ASE, I hesitated many seconds before coming up with the rather banal "C" for CASE. Oh, and I had CRA instead of CRU because I misread the tense of the across clue, 41A: Be delayed, and so had RAN LATE instead of RUN LATE. (Side note: I am already running late this morning)

There were a few other tricky parts of the grid. 59D: Algerian city (Oran) is always tough for me, as I routinely get ORAN and OMAN and ADEN and AMMAN and other Middle Eastern (or Middle-Eastern-sounding) places confused. Speaking of the Middle East, If I hadn't had AQABA (52D: Jordanian port) in a puzzle just last night, I would have taken considerably longer in the SW, since, when you see "Jordan" in the clue, and you have an answer that's five letters, starting with "A," you want AMMAN (if you want anything). Clue from last night said that AQABA was in fact Jordan's only port. Good to know (it's on the Gulf of AQABA, by the way, which is also good to know, and easy to remember). Also had OSKAR (46A: Heroic Schindler) in a puzzle last night (or was it in a recent NYT? I forget), which was lucky, as I don't think I'd known or even thought about the "K" spelling before then. SWAMI (1A: Hindu master) makes me think that there should be an entire subsection of the Pantheon reserved just for Eastern Spiritual Leaders: SWAMI, IMAM, LAMA, GURU. I think that the only reason anyone outside of North Carolina knows about ELON (28D: North Carolina University) is because it appears in crosswords, making it very promising Pantheon material. Speaking of Universities, I start teaching again at one today - and despite the fact that there has been considerable grade inflation nationwide since the time that I graduated from my ALMA (3D: _____ mater) mater, I can assure you that no one in any of my courses gets an EASY A (24D: Expected grade in a gut course). Had never heard of the phrase "gut course" until just now. Thought it might have something to do with biology or anatomy. Something about the ERRATA (10D: Printing after a printing) / TRACTOR (21A: Deere product) crossing is making me happy. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the venerable Pablo CASALS (22D: Cellist Pablo). Jackie Kennedy once invited him to play at the White House. Whereas I think the last people invited to play this century's White House were probably ... oh, let's say, Brooks & Dunn.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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