NYT Wednesday 4/8/09 - A Four Iron Puzzle

Now we've got to a Wednesday New York Times puzzle and the number of cultural references I don't know is beginning to slow me up. This time I got severely stalled in the top middle and top right sections, costing me a few minutes.

Wednesday is usually the peak for cultural knowledge, which is evident in the number of clues I find to comment on (even when I try to be a little selective). Later in the week, the difficulties tend to come more from the obscurity of the vocabulary and sneakiness of the cluing.

Today it definitely helped to crack 69-across early and then use that to guess the beginnings of the four long thematic answers. Whether it's worth scanning through all the clues at the start in the hope of finding such a key to the theme, I don't know - it's not something I bother with right now.

Solving time: 13 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 28a skim [Less than 1%]

Theme

69a iron [Element that can precede the starts of 20-, 31-, 47- and 54-Across]:

20a lung capacity [An Olympic swimmer needs a big one] - iron lung
31a curtain rod [It may be over a window] - iron curtain
47a horse sense [Sound practical judgment] - iron horse
54a maiden voyage [Fateful event for the Titanic] - iron maiden

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Joey Weissbrot / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 38 (16.9%) black squares
Answers	76 (average length 4.92)
Theme squares	48 (25.7%)
Scrabble points	283 (average 1.51)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

40a empress [Akihito's wife, e.g.]. I guessed what the answer was without remembering precisely who Akihito referred to. He's the current emperor of Japan, the only reigning monarch in the world with the title "emperor". He married Empress Michiko in 1959.

42a Nat [Rebelling Turner]. I've happily solved such clues before without checking out who Nat Turner was. He is famous for leading a slave rebellion in 1831, in which approximately 60 white people were killed. Many more blacks were killed in the retaliation and Nat Turner was tried, convicted and hanged later in the year. He's now regarded as one of the 100 Greatest African Americans.

43a too [___ pooped to pop]. I'd not heard the expression before: there's a Chuck Berry song with that title from 1960, but whether it pre- or post-dates the expression, I don't know.



44a Talia [Shire of "Rocky"]. Talia Shire is the sister of director Francis Ford Coppola and played Adrian Pennino, Rocky Balboa's girlfriend, in the movie series. Since I'd seen the movie recently, I should have known this one, but had forgotten the name.



6d Deep Purple [Group with the 1968 hit "Hush"]. Deep Purple's cover of Joe South's "Hush", from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple was their first hit. It's quite the noisiest Hush I've ever heard.



7d Alda [2006 Emmy winner for "The West Wing"]. Alan Alda played Republican presidential candidate Arnold Vinick. Given the number of references to this show in crosswords, I guess I'm supposed to have watched it. Here is part of the debate between Vinick and the Democratic presidential candidate Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.



12d sax ["Harlem Nocturne" instrument]. Harlem Nocturne is a jazz standard written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers in 1939. Here's John Firmin and the Johnny Nocturne Band's version.



28d smiths [Paul Revere and others]. Paul Revere was a silversmith, which wouldn't have helped him prepare his horse for the "midnight ride" - everything I know about this comes from Duck Soup.



Noteworthy

1a Cabot [Venetian who explored for England in the 15th century]. John Cabot was funded by Henry VII and is said to be the first European to discover North America, possibly landing at Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland. Actually Norsemen had explored those parts centuries before.

17a loris [Tailless Old World mammal]. This hardly needs a comment, but lorises are so weirdly beautiful I have to include a picture.

24a house [Royal family]. As in the House of Windsor, my royal family. They started out as the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, but adopted the name Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in World War I.

28a skim [Less than 1%]. I like this clue, because it fooled me into thinking there was some term for a very small fraction. Actually, it's in reference to milk: in the US, skim milk has between 0% and 0.5% butterfat content.

64a toro [Runner in Pamplona]. A round-about way of asking for the Spanish for bull: Pamplona has the most famous running of the bulls (encierro in Spanish).

2d Alou [Baseball's Felipe or Jesus]. This is a good example of a clue that used to really hold me up, but is now a gimme. The Alou family was the second thing I learned about baseball, after Babe Ruth.

10d canyon [Echo location]. A neat clue, suggesting the bats' navigation technique. It looks like there are Echo Canyons in several states, though the clue wasn't necessarily referring to any of them.

13d HST [1940s-'50s White House inits.] and 34d AES [He ran to succeed 13-Down: Abbr.]. These two sets of initials go nicely together: Harry S. Truman and Adlai E. Stevenson.

60d else [End of a warning]. The warning being "or else!" presumably.

The Rest

6a dabs [Paints gently]; 10a cash [Mattress filler during a recession, maybe]; 14a Alero [Last Oldsmobile car]; 15a Elle [Palindromic magazine name]; 16a alas ["A pity"]; 18a Edom [Land of the descendants of 67-Across]; 19a next ["Step right up!"]; 23a AARP [50+ org.]; 35a magic [Tricks]; 37a rarer [Not so common]; 38a Ali [The Greatest]; 39a Ibn [Son of, in Arab names]; 45a truce [Treaty signing]; 50a used [After 2004, the only way to buy a 14-Across]; 51a smear [Slander]; 52a on CD [Modern way to put out an album]; 61a umps [Diamond group]; 65a nasal [Like spoken n's]; 66a zero [It turns a hundred into a thousand]; 67a Esau [Jacob's twin]; 68a grins [Makes like the Cheshire Cat]; 70a mess [Where the crew chows down]; 71a adage ["Poor Richard's Almanack" bit].

1d call [Give a ring]; 3d Bern [Capital of Switzerland]; 4d origami [Art form that commonly depicts a swan]; 5d Tosca [Puccini opera]; 8d bloc [Congressional Black Caucus, e.g.]; 9d semi [Rest stop sight]; 11d ale [Stout, e.g.]; 21d arc [Part of a circle]; 22d thirst [Common companion of a dry throat]; 25d Uranus [Astronomical discovery of 1781]; 26d solace [Grief relief]; 27d edited [Ready to be typeset]; 29d kaboom [Big bang]; 30d ignore [Turn a deaf ear to]; 32d rarin' [___ to go]; 33d treasonous [Spying against one's own country, say]; 36d cetera [Et ___]; 41d más [More, on Mallorca]; 46d Rudyard [Author Kipling]; 48d Samson [Biblical strongman]; 49d env. [Part of S.A.S.E.: Abbr.]; 53d conga [Line dance]; 55d item [Hot pair]; 56d dose [A teaspoonful, maybe]; 57d eras [Reconstruction and the Roaring Twenties]; 58d Asia [Indian's home]; 59d gang [Club familiars]; 61d Uzi [Gun produced by Israel Military Industries]; 62d mer [La Méditerranée, e.g.]; 63d pro [Whiz].

NYT Tuesday 4/7/09 - Trick of the Trade

My new strategy for solving the easier puzzles - focusing on clues were I don't have any crossing letters - really seems to be paying off: another puzzle solved in under 6 minutes. This won't last, because with the more difficult cluing later in the week, I really need letters from crossings to solve clues at all.

This was a nice straightforward puzzle from a compiler whose last Friday puzzle defeated me with Toots Shor. You might say this sort of theme is a tried and trusted trick of the trade, but no harm in that!

Solving time: 6 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 53d read [Go over Time?]

Theme

Phrases where both parts start tr:

20a treasure troves [Valuable discoveries]
25a trick or treat [Cry while holding a bag]
42a tried and true [Proven to work]
48a tractor-trailer [Semi]

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Joon Pahk / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 38 (16.9%) black squares
Answers	74 (average length 5.05)
Theme squares	52 (27.8%)
Scrabble points	299 (average 1.60)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

6a Zack [Lead character on "Saved by the Bell"]. I was "saved by the bell" many times in school and this teen sitcom is indeed set in a high school. Zack Morris was the charming schemer played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar.



17a Doerr [Red Sox Hall-of-Famer Bobby]. Second baseman Bobby Doerr played for the Boston Red Sox for his entire career from 1937 to 1951. A name like Doerr is a gift to cryptic clue writers because of the helpful way it splits into two common verbs (do and err).

38a Joel [Billy who sang "We Didn't Start the Fire"]. I'd heard of the singer, not the song. In fact, I probably couldn't have named any of his songs - Magdalen is more of a fan than I am. We Didn't Start the Fire, speaking for the boomer generation, disclaims complete responsibility for the state of the world in 1989. This remarkably hypnotic video clip shows every news item featured in the song:



27d Ives [Currier and ___]. I'd heard the names together, but couldn't quite remember what they'd done. Currier and Ives was a printmaking firm which made over a million hand-colored lithographs (German immigrant girls providing most of the labor). Their prints depicted a variety of images of American life: winter scenes; horse-racing images; portraits of people; pictures of ships, sporting events, and ferocious battles of the American Civil War.

Noteworthy

14a Wicca [Neopagan belief]. Wicca was founded in England in the mid 20th century, but claims its origins in pre-Christian pagan religions. Retired civil servant Gerald Gardner was instrumental in bringing Wicca to popular attention through his1954 book, Witchcraft Today.

18a Levi [___ Strauss jeans]. I've always wondered if Claude Lévi-Strauss the anthropologist, and Levi Strauss the first manufacturer of blue jeans were related. I've now had a chance to find out the answer and it's ... drumroll ... no.


6d Zulu [Last letter of a pilot's alphabet]. The Nato Phonetic Alphabet was developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization and first implemented in 1951; refinements were made and the final implementation in 1956 has stuck and been adopted by many organizations. The devisers seem to have had fun picking out pairs: Romeo and Juliet, Foxtrot and Tango, Quebec and Lima. Zulu was the movie that brought Michael Caine to public attention.




53d read [Go over Time?]. Good use of a magazine title to misdirect. It works better if the title is the first word (as in "O, say" for mag, which we had the other day), but that's probably too devious for a Tuesday puzzle.

57d RTs [Football blockers: Abbr.]. RT is short for Right Tackle. On running plays, the RT usually pushes defenders away to clear a path for the RB (running back); on passing plays, they prevent onrushing defenders from reaching the QB (quarterback).

The Rest

1a frisk [Pat down]; 10a a-sea [On a cruise]; 15a upon [Second word of many fairy tales]; 16a cult [Extremist sect]; 19a cave [Spelunker's hangout]; 23a won [Prevailed]; 24a wisest [Most enlightened]; 31a novae [Exploding stars]; 32a ha-has [Loud chuckles]; 33a Mme. [Married mlle.]; 36a UTEP [Sch. on the bank of the Rio Grande]; 37a Timor [East ___ (nation since 2002)]; 39a tos [Lean-___]; 40a waned [Ebbed]; 41a aeons [The time it takes mountains to rise]; 44a Soleil [Cirque du ___]; 47a emb. [Diplomat's bldg.]; 54a rash [Impulsive]; 55a Roma [Home of Città del Vaticano]; 56a rarer [Less common]; 58a attn. [Letter-routing abbr.]; 59a Ewan [Actor McGregor]; 60a éclat [Brilliant display]; 61a peso [South-of-the-border currency]; 62a dang ["Well, gosh darn!"]; 63a skeds [Timetables, informally].

1d Fwd [Subject line starter on many an e-mail joke]; 2d riot [Hilarious act]; 3d icer [Cake decorator]; 4d screw cap [Twist-off bottle top]; 5d karaoke [Word derived from Japanese for "empty orchestra"]; 7d aper [Imitator]; 8d cove [Sheltered inlet]; 9d knitwear [Sweaters and such]; 10d accost [Approach aggressively]; 11d suave [Debonair]; 12d elves [Dwellers in Middle-earth]; 13d a test ["This is only ___"]; 21d Sno [___-cone]; 22d rias [Narrow inlets]; 25d T nut [Letter-shaped fastener]; 26d Roto [___-Rooter]; 28d Rhine [Riesling wines are produced in its valley]; 29d tamed [Having dams at various locations, as a river]; 30d Rhoda [Spinoff of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"]; 33d moor [What boats may do in an inlet]; 34d menu [File, Edit or Help]; 35d else ["That's something ___"]; 37d tailored [Made to order, as a suit]; 38d jet-black [Not just dark]; 40d writ [Habeas corpus, for one]; 41d admires [Looks up to]; 42d techno [Electronic dance genre]; 43d NEA [Teacher's union: Abbr.]; 44d strap [Amusement park ride feature]; 45d orate [Hold forth]; 46d lasts [Endures]; 49d Row A [Prime seating spot]; 50d T-man [Untouchable, e.g.]; 51d rang ["You ___?"]; 52d Erle [Writer ___ Stanley Gardner].

NPR Sunday Puzzle 4/5/09 - Shall We Darnce?

This week's NPR Sunday Puzzle is:

Think of a four-letter word with a short A sound, and specifically the A is the second letter. Switch the third and fourth letters and you'll get a new word, also with a short A sound. The two words go together to make a phrase that names something that existed from 1982 to 2000. What is it?

This conundrum caused me a lot of trouble and I reckon it's one of the hardest this year. Magdalen got it quickly, but only with the help of TEA.

One problem I had is that I use a long A for many words where Americans use a short A. For example, I say "dance" with a long A (ie like darnce): this is typical of speech in Southern England; in Northern England, they say "dance" with a short A, just like in North America.

With a lot of prompting, I finally got to the answer, also using TEA (but I went past the answer word I was looking for a few times before realizing why it was right). As usual, I won't give the game away until after the deadline for entries.

This talk of regional pronunciation reminds of one of my favorite songs Let's Call the Whole Thing Off from Shall We Dance.

NYT Monday 4/6/09 - It's Just a Phase

With this Monday puzzle, I tried a different technique to reduce my solving time. My normal approach is to try to solve clues where I already know one or more of the letters from crossings; this is true both for cryptics and the harder American puzzles.

Today I looked for clues to longer answers with no known letters - essentially trying to get the maximum number of new letters in the grid for a single clue solved. This seemed to speed solving up quite a bit, though it means a considerable number of clues don't get looked at - you have to trust that if an answer filled en passant is a word, it is probably correct.

The lunar theme was nicely implemented, with a bonus reference in 5-down, as well as the stated one in 68-across.

Solving time: 6 mins (no cheating)

Theme

Phases of the 68a moon [Its cycle is indicated by the starts of 20-, 32-, 40- and 55-Across]. Good to see them in the correct sequence down the grid, though I wouldn't expect less of the New York Times:

20a waxing poetic [Speaking with lofty language]
32a full disclosure [Withholding nothing]
40a waning interest [What a fresh ad campaign helps combat]
55a New Hampshire [Holder of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary]

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Dustin Foley / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 40 (17.8%) black squares
Answers	78 (average length 4.74)
Theme squares	56 (30.3%)
Scrabble points	297 (average 1.61)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

5d aligned [Like celestial bodies exhibiting syzygy]. I love "syzygy" for the odd shape of the word (it also feel great to type). But I can never remember that it means. Now I look it up, I realize the answer could be regarded as thematic in the context of the puzzle.

syzygy n conjunction or opposition; the period of new or full moon (astron); a dipody (classical prosody).
From The Chambers Dictionary

9d Domingo [Santo ___, Caribbean capital]. To be precise, Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic - it's also the largest city in the Caribbean. Both were named after Saint Dominic, who's the patron saint of astronomers!

44d raps [Notorious B.I.G. releases]. I parsed the clue as Notorious "B.I.G." releases. No The Notorious B.I.G. (1972-1997) was a highly successful rapper who got killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. A biopic was released earlier this year.



50d Sabre [Buffalo hockey player]. The team started out as the Buffalo Bisons and were renamed the Sabres in 1970 after a name-the-team contest.

52d Mineo [Actor Sal of "Exodus"]. Sal Mineo played a Jewish emigrant bound for Israel in this 1960 Otto Preminger movie.



Noteworthy

14a Pepe [Skunk ___ Le Pew]. I came across Pepe Le Pew a day or so go, solving another crossword. I'd better see a clip to reinforce the memory.



The Rest

1a sled [Iditarod vehicle]; 5a alms [Money for the poor]; 9a dazed [In a stupor]; 15a Leah [Jacob's wife]; 16a Obama [President sworn in on Lincoln's Bible]; 17a egos [They can be stroked or bruised]; 18a Iago ["Othello" character who says "Who steals my purse steals trash"]; 19a magus [Bearer of gold, frankincense or 66-Across]; 23a sly [Cunning]; 24a unto ["Do ___ others ..."]; 25a enigma [Riddle]; 29a Ale [Ginger ___ (Canada Dry product)]; 30a sag [Droop]; 31a Lex [___ Luthor of "Superman"]; 37a Ella [Jazz's Fitzgerald]; 38a boo [October 31 shout]; 39a leis [Luau garlands]; 45a era [History segment]; 46a IRS [Auditor's org.]; 47a raw [Like carrots that crunch]; 48a serene [Calm]; 50a soup [Campbell's product]; 52a mar [Damage]; 58a ABC-TV ["Dancing With the Stars" airer]; 61a abet [Help in crime]; 62a ents [Tolkien creatures]; 63a tutee [One getting one-on-one instruction]; 64a urge [Egg on]; 65a Leo I [Sainted fifth-century pope]; 66a myrrh [Gift brought to Bethlehem]; 67a lead [Pb, in chemistry].

1d spews [Shoots, as lava]; 2d legal [Permissible]; 3d epoxy [Strong bond]; 4d Desi [Arnaz of "I Love Lucy"]; 6d leapt [Pounced (on)]; 7d Magoo [Nearsighted Mr. of cartoons]; 8d shoe [What a cobbler works on]; 10d abaci [Beaded counters]; 11d zag [Zig's partner]; 12d emu [Cousin of an ostrich]; 13d DAs [Prosecutors, briefly]; 21d null [___ and void]; 22d teal [Blue-winged duck]; 26d glues [3-Down and others]; 27d merit [Earn]; 28d axes [x and y, on a graph]; 29d alai [Jai ___]; 30d Scot [Sean Connery, nationally speaking]; 32d flare [Airborne signal]; 33d ulnar [Like a bone from the elbow to the wrist]; 34d ibis [Bird seen in hieroglyphics]; 35d son [Bush 43, to Bush 41]; 36d slew [Large amount]; 37d ewes [Rams' mates]; 41d Nineveh [Ancient Assyrian capital]; 42d grew [Sprouted]; 43d erupted [Blew, as a volcano]; 49d enter [Key in]; 51d omega ["Phi, chi, psi" follower]; 53d Artoo ["Star Wars" droid]; 54d resin [Plant exudation]; 56d haul [Lug]; 57d helm [Captain's place]; 58d ATM [Dispenser of 20s]; 59d buy [Totally accept, as an idea]; 60d ctr. [Midpoint: Abbr.].

NYT Sunday 4/5/09 - Punny Business

It seems a long time since the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, but we were very pleased to read Dan Margolies' account this weekend. We really enjoyed meeting Dan on the Sunday afternoon of the tourney. His experiences of the puzzles were remarkably similar to mine - no surprise given that we were very close in the rankings (479th and 488th).

Magdalen and I got back to some collaborative solving today and enjoyed the punny theme. Only one thematic clue caused a bit of headscratching: 77-across seemed such a straight definition that we wonder if we missed the point; or if there is room for improvement - in which case we offer the alternative clue "Paper or plastic?".

Solving time: 40 mins (no cheating, collaborative effort)
Clue of the puzz: 110d needle [Eye site]

Theme

Punning definitions of 11 business terms:

25a portfolios [Cruise brochures?]
27a joint venture [Founding of a hip replacement clinic?]
43a early retirement [New radials at 6 a.m.?]
60a safe investment [Purchase of a vault?]
77a marketing decision [To sell organic or not?]
94a long-range plans [Blueprints for a 50-mile grazing stretch?]
109a low-interest loan [Mortgage no one cares about?]
130a board meeting [Surfers' reunion?]
133a downsizing [Activity of duvet makers?]
3d partnership [Yacht in a time-share?]
85d bond trading [Exchange for 007?]

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Charles Deber / Will Shortz
Grid	23x23 with 90 (17.0%) black squares
Answers	170 (average length 5.16)
Theme squares	139 (31.7%)
Scrabble points	645 (average 1.47)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

105a Eva ["Deliver Us From ___" (2003 film)]. Tough unless you happen to know the crossing answer Eggar. Deliver Us From Eva is a modern urban reworking of The Taming of the Shrew.



89d Eggar [Samantha of "The Collector," 1965]. Samantha Eggar played opposite Terence Stamp in this movie based on a John Fowles novel.



97d Eaton's [___ Corrasable Bond (old typing paper)]. Magdalen was very helpful with this one: Eaton's Corrasable Bond paper has a special coating that can be typed on, but removed to allow a mistake to be corrected. Another casualty of advancing technology, the brand has been discontinued.

Noteworthy

58a Tati [Jacques who starred in "Mon Oncle"]. Mon Oncle is an old favorite of mine - Tati was a master of visual comedy. Here's Monsieur Hulot negotiating his way around an unfamiliar kitchen:



85a bag [Strong suit, slangily]. It took a while to work out the context here: not cards, but specialism. As in, "that's not my bag".

92a dodo [Bye-bye birdie?]. A neat whimsical definition. Dodos were flightless birds native to Mauritius and were extinct within a century of their "discovery". It's now thought that the arrival of animal predators such as dogs, cats and rats had more impact on their numbers than hunting (although that clearly didn't help). My great-grandfather managed a bank on the island and my grandfather was born there, but the dodo would have been long gone even in their time.

5d ref [Zebra]. This wasn't difficult, as I had met this slang term for (American) football referee somewhere before. It alludes to the striped uniforms. Which reminds me of a funny line in a Pink Panther movie, where Clouseau berates two police sergeants disguised as a zebra thus: "One more outburst like that, and I'll have your stripes".

37d recreant [Cowardly]. This word doesn't cross my lips often, but I dragged it up from somewhere.

recreant adj surrendering; cowardly; false; apostate.
n a person who yields in combat; a coward; a mean-spirited wretch; an apostate; a renegade.
From The Chambers Dictionary

110d needle [Eye site]. Given the theme is based on puns, it's neat to work in a few more in the normal clues - like this one.

The Rest

1a caper [Certain fraternity activity]; 6a more [Gourmand's request]; 10a laming [Injuring]; 16a gable [Kind of window]; 21a orate [Speak for the Congressional Record, say]; 22a axel [Skater's feat]; 23a adagio [Faster than larghetto]; 24a Elton [John who was knighted]; 29a Este [Noble Lombard family name]; 30a mad [Crackbrained]; 31a eco- [Green: Prefix]; 33a Loa [Mauna ___]; 34a nooses [Slipknot loops]; 35a den [Place for trophies]; 36a Nader [Green candidate for president, 1996]; 38a Alger [Writer Horatio]; 40a ATM [Card taker, for short]; 41a Every ["___ Day's a Holiday" (Mae West film)]; 50a sprees [Jags]; 52a scream [Sound on a roller coaster]; 53a esa [That: Sp.]; 54a alar [Winglike]; 55a cased [Surveyed surreptitiously]; 56a Arte [Comic Johnson]; 57a Mali [Timbuktu's home]; 59a Ruhr [Mülheim an der ___, Germany]; 66a tub [Butter holder]; 67a as is [Warts and all]; 68a Elias [Inventor Howe]; 69a Evans [Zager & ___, 1960s pop duo]; 70a where [Journalist's query]; 72a pep [Zip]; 73a cairn [Stone heap]; 74a Ural [Russian river]; 75a arouse [Incite]; 81a coarse [Ill-bred]; 83a Opie [Mayberry boy]; 84a onion [St. Basil's dome shape]; 88a Paulo [São ___]; 89a Edwin [Booth or Drood]; 91a all at [___ once]; 93a est. [Round fig.]; 98a Indo- [___-European]; 99a tile [Square in a public square, maybe]; 101a Nagy [Hungarian patriot Imre ___]; 102a anew [From scratch]; 103a jaded [No longer excited]; 104a anal [___-retentive]; 106a Estees [Lauder and namesakes]; 108a pantry [Kitchen adjunct]; 113a faker [Fraud]; 114a eel [Moray, e.g.]; 115a Macon [City NNW of Robins Air Force Base]; 116a shave [Hair-razing experience?]; 118a aha! ["Now I see!"]; 121a airier [Having a higher ceiling and more light]; 125a rob [Stick up]; 126a GSA [Fed. construction overseer]; 128a owe [Be short]; 129a Eden [Place of bliss]; 136a Until [Fats Waller's "___ the Real Thing Comes Along"]; 137a avenue [Fifth, e.g.]; 138a Erie [County in New York, Ohio or Pennsylvania]; 139a Arnie [Golf's "army" leader]; 140a tease [Razz]; 141a resend [E-mailing option]; 142a seed [Bye holder]; 143a lager [Hearty draft].

1d coped [Got by somehow]; 2d arose [Turned up]; 4d -ette [Suffix with major]; 6d malady ["But love's a ___ without a cure": Dryden]; 7d oxide [Rust, for one]; 8d REO [Automotive inits.]; 9d else ["Anything ___?"]; 10d La Jolla [California community in sight of Mount Soledad]; 11d ado [Buzz]; 12d mailer [Post office item]; 13d ignore [Overlook]; 14d Nita [Naldi of the Ziegfeld Follies]; 15d gov. [Capitol fig.]; 16d genome [Modern map subject]; 17d alto [Quartet member]; 18d BTUs [A.C. measures]; 19d lore [Stories passed from generation to generation]; 20d -enes [Chemical suffixes]; 26d Omars [Jazz drummer Hakim and others]; 28d entrain [Get on board]; 32d careen [Lurch]; 36d need ["___ a lift?"]; 39d gym [Ball room?]; 40d aisle [Grocery feature]; 42d veers [Zigs and zags]; 44d artis ["Ars gratia ___"]; 45d teams [Rangers of New York and Texas]; 46d mat [Art surrounder]; 47d elates [Tickles]; 48d nature [Word with human or Mother]; 49d tribe [Cree or Crow]; 50d scrap [Jettison]; 51d pause [Time-out]; 52d Safire [Word maven William]; 57d mtn. [High point: Abbr.]; 60d Sears [Retail giant]; 61d alike [Correspondingly]; 62d verging [On the brink]; 63d evade [Give the slip]; 64d sale [Store sign]; 65d two on [Pressure situation for a pitcher]; 71d Hun [Barbarian]; 73d carol ["Good King Wenceslas," e.g.]; 74d unpin [Remove, as from a lapel]; 75d Asian [Like the 71-Downs]; 76d riots [Goes wild]; 77d mal- [Prefix with practice]; 78d Iowa [The Big Sioux River forms part of its border]; 79d colleens [Irish girls]; 80d in-laws [Some holiday visitors]; 81d casino [Monte Carlo mainstay]; 82d outlaw [Bonnie or Clyde]; 86d adder [Abacus, e.g.]; 87d goody ["Oh, joy!"]; 88d petal [Corolla part]; 90d dry [Like some wit]; 91d apnea [Sleeper's problem]; 92d Diane [Sawyer of ABC]; 95d one-term [Like the presidencies of Taft and Hoover]; 96d navel [Focus of some gazing]; 100d Eli [Priest of Shiloh]; 103d Jake [Prizefighter La Motta]; 106d etc [End-of-sentence abbr.]; 107d slogged [Moved through mud]; 108d paves [Covers up mud, in a way]; 111d emotes [Overacts]; 112d Sabine [Ancient Italian]; 113d fawned [Was obsequious]; 117d Howie [TV host Mandel]; 119d Henie [Olympic skating champ of 1928, 1932 and 1936]; 120d anger [Tee off]; 121d abut [Neighbor]; 122d Ione [Actress Skye]; 123d rata [Pro ___]; 124d iris [Flag, horticulturally]; 125d rêve [Dream, in Dijon]; 127d ades [Juice drinks]; 129d Ezra [Author of the Books of Chronicles, by tradition]; 131d ear [Place for a ring]; 132d nun [Sister]; 134d ore [It's major for miners]; 135d -ial [Suffix with baron].

NYT Saturday 4/4/09 - Opposites Attract

This Saturday New York Times crossword had the feel of an April Fool's Day puzzle that couldn't be scheduled on a Wednesday and so was given the nearest feasible slot. I wasn't expecting a theme, and it took 9 minutes or so to get to 33-across and discover the message spelled by the first letters. Progress got a little faster after that!

This weightier-than-usual theme approaches what you might see in a thematic cryptic like the Listener Crossword. In fact, acrostics are so hackneyed in that series that I often scan down the first letters to see if there's anything there. So it was nice to be reminded of that in an American puzzle: the icing on the cake was that 33-across, having an 11-letter answer, had to be treated consistently with the theme and be the opposite of what was expected.

I have to applaud the compiler for surmounting the various challenges he was faced with: first filling a grid where all the long answers have antonyms; then sculpting a message to fit the total number of clues; and finally writing clues with pre-determined initial letters. Awesome!

Solving time: 23 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 12d rioter [Tears may be brought to one's eyes]

Theme

The clues make an acrostic - ie their first letters read:

Any clue for a word of eight or more letters is the opposite of the word to be entered

The 11 answers and clues affected by this are:

18a opposition [Friendly side in a debate]
23a evenness [Asymmetry, as in a relationship]
33a last letters [Explanatory information about this puzzle is revealed by reading these in the clues]
49a relegate [Make more important]
54a inactivate [Energize]
3d graceful [Tripping over one's feet]
4d essential [Hardly necessary]
9d in secret [Overtly]
32d irregular [Well-proportioned]
35d trusting [Remaining leery of]
36d separate [Draw together]

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Matt Ginsberg / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 34 (15.1%) black squares
Answers	68 (average length 5.62)
Theme squares	85 (44.5%)
Scrabble points	262 (average 1.37)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

60a Trey [ESPN anchor Wingo]. Trey Wingo is the co-host of ESPN's SportsCenter - he also seems to have a nice sideline in commercials:



28d Otto ["How to Make an American Quilt" author Whitney ___]. Because of the "quilt" in the title, I thought Magdalen might know this - she has more quilt books than I knew existed, but not this one. Although the book involves quilting, it's also a metaphor for the piecing together of different story lines. It was made into a movie in 1995:



50d Estes [Rob of "Melrose Place"]. Rob Estes played Sam Towler in a guest role, and Kyle McBride later in this soap opera. Anyone named Estes is guaranteed a starring role in crosswords too.



Noteworthy

15a Loman [Lead role in a classic Arthur Miller play]. Luckily for me, I have seen the 1985 film of Death of a Salesman and remembered enough to know the name of the title character.



22a Sennett [Rival of Roach in early film comedy]. I'd also heard of Mack Sennett, "The King of Comedy," and was entertained by the likes of the Keystone Cops from a very early age. I remember asking Magdalen if they were based on the Pennsylvania State Police - apparently not!



37a Laredo [Its streets are immortalized in a classic cowboy ballad]. My introduction to this song came courtesy of Garrison Keillor's Songs of the Cat, which improves the lyrics as follows:

As I walked out in the streets with my radio
As I walked out with my radio one day -
I saw a poor kitty cat wrapped in white linen
(It had been white linen but now it was gray)
Lyrics from Songs of the Cat

There's no hope of finding that on YouTube, so we'll have to make do with the original:



43a nude ["The Thinker," for one]. Don't really think of this Rodin statue as a nude - the original is in Paris and there are over twenty casts around the world including one in the Rodin Museum in Philly.

12d rioter [Tears may be brought to one's eyes]. A lovely misleading definition.

The Rest

1a page [Attendant]; 5a chili [No mild pepper]; 10a APRs [Yearly loan figs.]; 14a errs [Chooses badly]; 16a Erie [Upstate New York county]; 17a eras [Eventful stretches]; 20a license [Officer's request, at times]; 25a chaser [Wile E. Coyote, often]; 26a rafter [Overhead supporter]; 27a pore [Ruminate (over)]; 29a try [Determine the innocence or guilt of]; 30a lui [Orléans pronoun]; 31a Peter I [Feodor III's successor as czar]; 38a reg. [Govt. agency creation]; 40a top [Head]; 44a beeper [On-call accessory]; 47a spades [Rakes' shedmates]; 51a here's to [Opening of a toast]; 53a secured [Reinforced]; 56a lava [Leucite source]; 57a re-do [Edit menu command]; 58a named [Titled]; 59a a ten [Two fives for ___]; 61a gloss [Result of polishing]; 62a rent [Split].

1d peeler [Implement in a kitchen]; 2d arrival [Station information]; 5d closer [Expert dealmaker]; 6d hopes [Optimists keep them alive]; 7d imp [Parent's challenge]; 8d Laos [Part of French Indochina]; 10d Aetna [State Farm competitor]; 11d priest [Incense burner, at times]; 13d sentry [Ever-vigilant sort]; 19d in here [One possible answer to "Where are you?"]; 21d NNE [Frankfurt-to-Copenhagen dir.]; 24d speeder [Ticket taker?]; 31d pled [Entreated]; 34d sanest [Of soundest mind]; 39d get even [Take vengeance]; 40d T-shirt [Option for dressing down]; 41d opener [Barkeep's gizmo]; 42d parade [Event for a marshal]; 44d bleeds [Extorts]; 45d EEC [Nafta's overseas counterpart]; 46d red ant [Tiny biter]; 48d decoy [Entrap]; 52d oval [Eyecup's shape]; 55d amo [Domitian's "I love"].

NPR Sunday Puzzle 3/29/09 - Mazda Gas Car

Magdalen and I were traveling in England last Sunday, so we didn't follow our usual ritual of listening to the NPR Sunday Puzzle while making breakfast. Thank goodness for the podcast, which allowed us to hear the segment at our leisure later in the week. The challenge was:

Name a country somewhere in the world. Insert a Z. The result can be broken up into 3 consecutive words. The first word is a popular brand name. The second word is something this product uses, and the third word is the kind of product it is.

Maybe because we had spent much of the preceding week driving in the UK, I guessed immediately that the product was a CAR. Then the only question was what country ends in CAR - Mazda, gas, car followed easily enough.

This shows once again how great countries are for such word games: the list of countries isn't so short the answer's obvious, nor so long you can't get it at all - the sweet spot of word lists.

Thanks to a certain movie series, Madagascar now has a whole new set of associations.

NYT Friday 4/3/09 - A Tad Mad

Drat! Foiled again. Another case where ignorance of crossing answers left me guessing at a letter: you'd think I was mad to have spit make, but that seemed more likely during solving. Now I know better.

Otherwise, this was a very nice puzzle, with a lovely selection of longer answers such as fauxhawk, I'll get it and soup du jour. I just wish I was having better luck with my guesses this week!

Solving time: 55 mins (no cheating, two wrong answers)
Clue of the puzz: 17a artier [Affected to a greater degree]

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	John Farmer / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 32 (14.2%) black squares
Answers	70 (average length 5.51)
Theme squares	0 (0.0%)
Scrabble points	304 (average 1.58)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

16a fauxhawk [Hairstyle popularized by David Beckham]. I recalled what Becks' hair looked like, but didn't realize it had a special name. A fauxhawk is an imitation of a true mohawk without having to commit to removing most of one's hair. What an awesome answer to get into a puzzle!

20a cha [Syllable repeated after "hot"]. Justifying this is taking a while and I'm not sure I've got to the bottom of it. Presumably the reference is to the Latin American dance, but you get a lot more hits for a Gary Baseman-designed toy called Hot Cha Cha Cha.

48a Tad ["Win a Date With ___ Hamilton!" (2004 film)]. I contemplated Bad and Dad before eventually guessing Mad here. If I'd considered Tad at all, I don't think I'd have thought it likely. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! is a romcom directed by Robert Luketic.



60a sleepers [Some yo-yo tricks]. This gave problems, as I wasn't sure about 55-down and 56-down. But sleeper seemed a plausible term for a yo-yo trick and I was glad I went with that - keeping a yo-yo spinning at the end of its string is aptly called sleeping.



28d Dru ["She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" co-star, 1949]. Three-letter actresses are a bit thin on the ground. Joanne Dru often appeared in westerns and played Olivia Dandridge in the referenced movie.



34d spit-take [Surprise shower?]. Not knowing Tad Hamilton, I wrongly guessed spit-make here. It seems to be the technique in movies where a drink is spat out in surprise. Here's much more than you could possibly want to know about the subj:



42d Lhasa [Setting for Martin Scorsese's "Kundun"]. This would be obvious if you only knew the movie was based on the life and writings of the Dalai Lama.



50d Pete [Jim's partner on "Adam 12"]. Adam-12 (Adam designating a two-man patrol, 12 their patrol area) was a realistic cop show in the late 60s centered on LAPD officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord).



55d CIS [Post-cold war inits.]. CIS is short for the Commonwealth of Independent States, the grouping of 12 former Soviet Republics.

56d rep [Stock company, for short]. This gave trouble as "stock" in this sense is a specifically American term.

Noteworthy

17a artier [Affected to a greater degree]. There were so many great misleading clues in this crossword that it was hard to choose between them - I think this one just wins out.

2d B'nai [Sons of, in Hebrew]. I'm supposed to know Hebrew now? No, I knew this would be part of a term I was familiar with, in this case the Jewish Service Organization B'nai B'rith, which means "Sons of the covenant". The organization commissioned the Religious Liberty sculpture in Philly.

13d Torre [1971 N.L. M.V.P. who was later twice A.L. Manager of the Year]. I was so glad I learned Joe Torre earlier in the week - it was a great help in the NE corner of the puzzle.

The Rest

1a obstacle [Something to be negotiated]; 9a Blest ["___ Be the Tie That Binds" (Christian hymn)]; 14a on patrol [Looking for trouble?]; 15a sail to [Visit on an ocean cruise, say]; 18a sin [With 4-Down, smoker's fee]; 19a eve [Walpurgis Night vis-à-vis May Day]; 21a War [___ Emblem (2002 Kentucky Derby winner)]; 22a bear the blame [Own responsibility]; 25a smelt [Refine]; 27a oil belt [It has energy in reserve]; 28a door [It may be cracked open]; 29a Sela [Emmy award-winning Ward]; 31a atlas [World view?]; 33a runts [Little ones]; 35a yen [Aching]; 36a stabs [Lances]; 37a up top [Having a good vantage point]; 38a edge [Vantage]; 40a UCLA [Peace Nobelist Ralph Bunche's alma mater]; 41a DeLillo ["Falling Man" novelist Don]; 43a niche [Métier]; 45a just this once ["I won't ask again"]; 47a OJs [Harvey Wallbanger mixers, briefly]; 49a foe [Moriarty, to Holmes]; 50a psi [Scuba tank meas.]; 53a soon as [When, colloquially]; 55a cabarets [Subjects of some Toulouse-Lautrec paintings]; 57a Eureka [Electrolux brand]; 58a I'll get it [Ringing response?]; 59a Frite [Pomme ___].

1d oofs [Comic book exclamations]; 3d spun [Like yarn]; 4d tax [See 18-Across]; 5d at heel [Close behind]; 6d cravats [Attire worn with frock coats]; 7d lower [Dim]; 8d Elk [Black ___ (Lakota visionary)]; 9d Barabbas [1961 Anthony Quinn title role]; 10d lit [Stewed]; 11d Eli Wallach [Hollywood star whose memoir was titled "The Good, the Bad, and Me"]; 12d steam table [Caterer's setup for a hot buffet]; 15d Sahel [Savanna region stretching from Senegal to Chad]; 20d Chiang [Leader with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference, 1943]; 22d Bertolt [Dramatist Brecht]; 23d Toledos [Old Spanish swords]; 24d lettuce [Head on a plate?]; 25d soup du jour [Restaurant special]; 26d Montessori [Education pioneer Maria]; 30d eyelid [Something most fish lack]; 32d SSA [Org. that's got your number?]; 39d ennoble [Honor]; 44d ice age [Wintry stretch]; 45d Josef [___ K., Kafka's protagonist in "The Trial"]; 46d of all [Without exception]; 51d stir [Ferment]; 52d -ists [Cult followers?]; 54d net [Have left when all is said and done]; .

NYT Thursday 4/2/09 - In Jeopardy!

This was the crossword whose clues were questions on the previous night's Jeopardy!. We decided to record the program and watch it after solving, so we wouldn't have any advantage. A clip is already up on YouTube if you didn't catch the show:



Knowing some of the answers in advance wouldn't have helped me much, because the one that gave trouble - Gary Gygax - wasn't featured on the show. That was probably considered too difficult for the competitors, but not for us poor solvers. It was fun to see Will Shortz among his famous book collection - he really needs another tome or two to fill the shelves before those slanting ones get permanently skewed.

Solving time: 30 mins (no cheating, two wrong answers)
Clue of the puzz: 58d tome [It may need a big jacket]

Theme

Seven answers beginning G and ending X.

17a Gary Gygax [Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons]
*30a Grand Prix [French auto race]
*39a Gore-Tex [Trademarked brand of waterproof fabric]
*47a gag reflex [Palate-raising response]
*61a Gummo Marx [Vaudeville brother born Milton]
*11d gasoline tax [Levy at a BP or 69-Across station]
24d Generation X [Thirtysomethings]

I didn't know Gary Gygax and, ignorant of CGBG, guessed Gary Aygax. For once, I don't feel like an idiot for getting this wrong: I realize Gary Gygax is a lovely answer to get into the puzzle, but reckon it called for very straightforward crossing answers and clues, which wasn't the case here.

The five starred thematic clues were questions on the previous night's Jeopardy!. This connection was referenced in two further clues:

59a I lost [Weird Al Yankovic's "___ on Jeopardy"]
56d Alex ["I'll take 'The New York Times Crossword Puzzle' for $200, ___"]

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Brendan Emmett Quigley / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 44 (19.6%) black squares
Answers	78 (average length 4.64)
Theme squares	63 (34.8%)
Scrabble points	361 (average 1.99)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

19a Jason [N.B.A. star point guard Kidd]. Jason Kidd currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks. Based on my limited experience, baseball and (American) football seem the most popular sports in crosswords; followed by basketball; (ice) hockey trails way back, rescued from oblivion by the likes of Bobby Orr.

45a Yates ["Revolutionary Road" novelist Richard]. Revolutionary Road was Richard Yates's first novel. Time critics chose it as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. A movie adaptation was released last December.



67a Akeem [Eddie Murphy's role in "Coming to America"]. Eddie Murphy plays Prince Akeem Joffer, who comes to America in search of a marriageable woman.



4d CBGB [Old N.Y.C. club said to be the birthplace of punk]. Not knowing the CBGB (short for Country, Blue Grass and Blues) club was my undoing in this puzzle. It was open from 1973 to 2006 and diverged from the musical styles of its name to become a forum for punk bands. OMFUG on the awning is part of the club's full name and stands or "Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers".

34d Agarn ["F Troop" corporal]. F Troop looks to be something akin to the BBC's Dad's Army. Corporal Agarn acts as the dimwitted sidekick in his Sergeant's illicit businesses.



49d end-men [Minstrel show figures]. Minstrel shows seem to have had a language all of their own, which lingers as historical entries in dictionaries, helpful to explain passages like this one from Wodehouse:

For the past few minutes this young man had been sitting bolt upright on a chair with his hands on his knees, so exactly in the manner of an end-man at a minstrel show that one would hardly have been surprised had he burst into song or asked a conundrum.
From Piccadilly Jim by P.G.Wodehouse

65d XXX [Turkey, to a bowler]. It seems a "turkey" is the nickname for three consecutive strikes in ten-pin bowling, rendered as XXX on the scoresheet. A perfect game of 12 consecutive strikes is a "Thanksgiving Turkey".



Noteworthy

15a B and O [Railroad between Illinois and Atlantic avenues]. I saw this in a previous puzzle, so got it OK. But it made me realize I need to learn the standard American Monopoly board, as crossword editors must assume that's common knowledge. The standard British board is based on London and has railway stations (King's Cross, Marylebone, Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street), rather than railroads.

43a ter [Rx specification]. Presumably part of ter in die - usually abbreviated to t.i.d. - meaning "three times a day".

52a ten [Sawbuck]. The nickname may have derived from older versions of the bill that included the Roman numeral X (which resembles a sawbuck).

55d give [Say "Uncle!"]. It seems this call for truce is a tradition only among American schoolchildren. In my school in Southern England, we used pax, though fains (and the variants fainites and fains I) is also in dictionaries.

58d tome [It may need a big jacket]. A great clue - difficult to solve, but once worked out, making perfect sense.

62d uke [HI-strung instrument?]. A peculiar-looking clue until you notice that the first two letters are Hawaii's abbreviation, suggesting a short form as well as an instrument from that locale. Ukulele literally means "jumping flea" in Hawaiian.

The Rest

1a Jew [Yeshiva student]; 4a chirp [Happy sound]; 9a wiggy [Crazy excited]; 14a UVA [The Cavaliers of the N.C.A.A.]; 16a snare [Bag]; 20a Obie [Award since 1956]; 21a nogs [Holiday servings]; 22a cagy [Sly]; 25a naps [Is off guard]; 28a eel [Fish whose skin is sometimes used for leather]; 29a oleo [Spread selection]; 33a Mensa [Its gatherings are smart things to attend]; 35a tiro [Beginner: Var.]; 36a NYM [N.L. team, on scoreboards]; 38a eke [Squeeze (out)]; 42a ELO [Grp. with the 1979 hit "Don't Bring Me Down"]; 44a anil [Indigo dye source]; 51a bane [Scourge]; 53a fang [Snake's bioweapon]; 54a exes [Splitsville parties]; 55a gait [Walk, e.g.]; 57a data [Raw material?]; 66a Venti [Starbucks size]; 68a pix [Fotos]; 69a Exxon [BP competitor]; 70a tense [Ex-lax?]; 71a box [Cuff].

1d jug [Water holder]; 2d Eva [Actress Mendes]; 3d War [Drug ___]; 5d haying [Harvesting for fodder]; 6d in gear [Ready to roll]; 7d RDA [Vitamin abbr.]; 8d pox [Chicken ___]; 9d WSJ [Financial daily, in brief]; 10d inaner [More ridiculous]; 12d grog [Part of an old Royal Navy ration]; 13d yens [Urges]; 18d yo-yos [Dingbats]; 22d comet [Streaker seen at night]; 23d ale keg [Pub container]; 26d patella [Femur neighbor]; 27d snit [Lather]; 28d epoxy [Sticker?]; 31d Dre ["Forgot About ___" (2000 Grammy-winning rap song)]; 32d xylene [Compound used in aviation fuel]; 37d Moses [Michelangelo sculpture on a biblical subject]; 40d one [Billy Martin, for the Yankees]; 41d riff [Musical phrase]; 46d abeam [Crosswise to a ship's keel]; 48d gets to [Irritates]; 50d X Games [Annual event that includes motocross]; 60d tin [Word before ear or horn]; 61d gat [Bit of "hardware"]; 63d APB [Police radio message: Abbr.]; 64d Rio ["Road to ___" (1947 flick)].