NYT Wednesday 6/10/09 - 44 Recurring

Studying Chemistry to degree level is sometimes an advantage. In this Wednesday New York Times crossword, I got ruthenium from just the R. Realizing this is way down the periodic table, I knew the president at 35-Across had to be very recent, in fact the current one. Hence the thematic answers fell out easily enough and allowed access to all areas of the grid.

So after a bit of a gap, we get another puzzle that looks to have been inspired by the election and inauguration of Barack Obama, and I assume was held over to give us a bit of a break after the frenzy of ideas earlier in the year based on the 44th prez.

Solving time: 11 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 9d nth {Nonacademic degree}

Theme

Things numbered 55a forty-four:

18a ruthenium {Element number 44}
23a Hank Aaron {Atlanta Brave who wore the number 44}
35a Barack Obama {President number 44}
49a Super Bowl {Feb. 7, 2010, the date of this event's number 44}

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Richard Silvestri / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 40 (17.8%) black squares
Answers	74 (average length 5.00)
Theme squares	47 (25.4%)
Scrabble points	281 (average 1.52)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

59a Erie {Lake ___, discovery of Louis Jolliet}. Know the lake, of course, but wasn't aware of Louis Jolliet's role in its "discovery". Louis sighted Lake Erie in 1669, it being the last to be explored, since the Iroquois were protective of the area. Plans to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto in July are now afoot and I hope we'll get to see something of Lake Erie en route.

24d Kara {"American Idol" judge DioGuardi}. American Idol is compulsory viewing for Magdalen, so I've seen Kara DioGuardi many times, without registering the name. As a fourth judge, she's apparently brought a bit more sanity to the show.



43d Daly {Tony winner Tyne}. I kinda hoped Tyne Daly had won for On The Town as I have a great recording of the musical with her as Hildy the taxi driver. Actually she got the Tony in 1990 for her portrayal of Rose in Gypsy.

45d Borman {Apollo astronaut Frank}. The Apollo missions were headline news when I was a kid of 8 to 10, and I remember keeping a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings. So I'd have known Frank Borman then, but he's since faded from view. Frank was commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the moon and the one that captured the iconic Earthrise for the first time. He's now retired and in his 80s, but still enjoys flying airplanes from World War II and the Korean era.

58d Uno {Game with Skip cards}. I can't remember ever having played Uno, which is a game in the Crazy Eights family that debuted in 1971.

Noteworthy

6a Eton {Locale of famous playing fields}. Famous because the Duke of Wellington supposedly said "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton", but Etonian George Orwell put this into perspective:

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.
From The Lion and the Unicorn by George Orwell

16a Ahab {Obsessed mariner}. Could only be the monomaniacal pursuer of Moby Dick.



20a Geo {Bygone compact}. Alas (melodramatic cry), I suspect we'll get "bygone" more and more with GM brands. Geos were a make of small cars and SUVs, marketed by Chevrolet dealerships between 1988 and 1997.

30a roseate {Promising}. roseate is one of my fav words, whether used figuratively (as in the clue) or literally, eg describing the delicate pink of dawn and dusk that's so hard to capture on film.

41a encode {Turn "this" into "_ .... .. ...," e.g.}. Inventive use of Morse code in the clue, which literally equates to T H I S. The Inspector Morse detective series was fun to read and watch for several reasons: not only was it set in my home city of Oxford, the author Colin Dexter is also an expert crossword compiler and cryptic clue writer. I was delighted to work as the proofreader for a collection of Colin's work, Morse Crosswords.

7d tauro- {Bullish beginning?}. I know now that "beginning" in a clue usually means the answer is a prefix. So the answer was clear to me, but I had trouble recalling words that start with the prefix: Chambers dictionary came to the rescue.

tauro- combining form denoting a bull.
taurobolium n the sacrifice of a bull, eg as in the ancient Phrygian cult of Cybele; an artistic representation of this.
tauromachy n bullfighting; a bullfight.
tauromorphous adj bull-shaped.
From The Chambers Dictionary

9d nth {Nonacademic degree}. The compiler really had me here, as I said to Magdalen "what kind of a degree is an NTH?". But this was just a reference to to the nth degree, hence "nonacademic" in the clue.

55d Fed {Ness, for one}. For me, Ness had to be the loch or the monster. Fooled again - it can also be Eliot Ness, leader of The Untouchables.



The Rest

1a stuff {This and that}; 10a MCCI {Start of the 13th century}; 14a line A {Top of some forms}; 15a raft {Whole lot}; 17a index {Encyclopedia volume}; 21a pore {Go carefully (over)}; 22a lint {Dryer remains}; 26a slain {Done in}; 28a treats {Halloween candy}; 29a reason {Justification}; 34a -ene {Chemical suffix}; 38a boa {It's a wrap}; 40a guanaco {Cousin of a camel}; 44a tea-bag {Earl Grey holder}; 48a tetra- {Prefix with -hedron}; 52a meal {Group of courses}; 53a eves {Times in want ads}; 54a RNA {Cell material}; 57a humid {Steamy}; 60a rule {Lord over}; 61a inane {Senseless}; 62a dead {Absolutely}; 63a alas {Melodramatic cry}; 64a tongs {Fireplace tool}.

1d slight {Snub}; 2d tin ear {Musical liability}; 3d undone {Brought to ruin}; 4d fee {Charge}; 5d fax {Transmit electronically}; 6d error {Calculator message}; 8d often {A lot}; 10d Manila {Capital founded by Spanish invaders, 1571}; 11d China Sea {Sight from Taiwan}; 12d caution {Admonishment}; 13d IBM {ThinkPad developer}; 19d else {If not}; 21d passage {Music section}; 25d -ator {Suffix with liquid}; 27d NNE {Santa Fe-to-Colo. Spr. direction}; 29d rebates {Sale sweeteners}; 31d ecu {Euro predecessor}; 32d aka {Abbr. on a blotter}; 33d ton {Truck scale unit}; 35d bacteria {Study of Louis Pasteur}; 36d acer {Stellar server}; 37d Moab {Old Dead Sea kingdom}; 38d bet {Red or black, at a gaming table}; 39d one more {Bar request}; 42d orated {Held the floor}; 46d awning {Deck cover}; 47d glades {Forest clearings}; 49d Seoul {1988 Olympics host}; 50d uvula {Palate part}; 51d Peres {Shimon of Israel}; 56d fra {Term of address in a monastery}; 57d hit {Any of the Billboard Top 40}.

NYT Tuesday 6/9/09 - Shortlist

Thinking that it could be critical to solving the puzzle, I made an effort to locate the clue that explained what the asterisks meant, ie 39-Across. The crossing clues for this were real easy, so I got short right away.

I tried to keep this in mind when solving the rest of the puzzle, but in truth, I don't think it was that critical to fast solving of the puzzle: the theme clues were straightforward except for 64-Across (I'm no line dancer!) and I just did a mental check of the "short" association as I solved each theme clue.

Solving time: 8 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 12d dese {Dis and dis}

Theme

Short things: the first part of eight answers can be preceded by "short", as indicated in the clue to 39a short {Word that can precede the starts of the answers to the eight starred clues}.

17a Hairspray {Movie starring a cross-dressing John Travolta} - shorthair
21a term paper {Big writing assignment} - short-term
58a cakewalks {Very easy tasks} - shortcake
64a line dance {Electric Slide, for one} - short line
4d straw poll {Nonbinding vote} - short straw
9d stop-gap {Like a band-aid solution} - short-stop
37d handstand {Heels-over-head feat} - shorthand
44d outwits {Defeats mentally} - short out

The Electric Slide is a "four wall" line dance that was created in 1976 and became a craze when the associated song Electric Boogie was re-released in 1989. Cowboy hats optional, but recommended ...



Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Steve Dobis / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 36 (16.0%) black squares
Answers	78 (average length 4.85)
Theme squares	69 (36.5%)
Scrabble points	302 (average 1.60)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

42a Amys {Lowell and Tan}. I like this type of clue better when the people work in the same field, in this case writing. I knew American novelist Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club) but not American poet Amy Lowell (1874—1925):

All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words.
My firm is a very ancient house,
The entries on my books would rouse
Your wonder, perhaps incredulity.
I inherited from an ancestry
Stretching remotely back and far,
This business, and my clients are
As were those of my grandfather's days,
Writers of books, and poems, and plays.
From Sword Blades and Poppy Seed by Amy Lowell

45a goes next {Is on deck}. I can often intuit a baseball clue, even if I've not come across the terminology before. The player "on deck" is next in the batting order and usually stands conveniently close to the home plate - in contrast to cricket, where it can take five minutes or so for a new batsman to find his way out of the pavilion and into the center of the playing field.

55d Abner {One of the Yokums}. Li'l Abner and friends have featured a lot recently, but this is the first reference I've seen to his surname, which is an apt combination of yokel with hokum.

58d Cape {New Jersey's ___ May}. Magdalen, a sucker for Victorian architecture, says Cape May, a city, as well as a peninsula, is replete with well-maintained houses built in the 19th century when the area was considered one of the finest resorts in America.

Noteworthy

5a AFBs {Andrews and Edwards, for two: Abbr.}. Generous of the compiler to choose two internationally known Air Force Bases: Andrews AFB because it's the home of "Air Force One" and Edwards AFB because the Space Shuttles are redirected there when they can't fly straight home to Florida.

23a chewed {Enjoyed Bazooka, e.g.}. I'd pretty much worked this out from crossings before remembering that Bazooka is a brand of chewing gum - something I discovered fairly early on when solving American crosswords. Putting Bazooka at the start of the clue has more potential to mislead, but that's too mean a thing to do early in the week.

25a dongs {Carillon sounds}. The popularity of carillons in churches in this part of the world was a surprise to me: I remember waiting in some small town and hearing an eerie mechanical tune start up on the hour and wondering what it could be before realizing where it was coming from. Of course, carillons originally were hand-played and I may be wrong to think the automated chimes I hear are called the same thing.



8d Styron {"Sophie's Choice" author}. The Movie adaptation of Sophie's Choice had a disproportionate effect on me because of the age I saw it: it would have been in the summer of 1982, my last year as an undergraduate at University College in Oxford. I still remembered some of the scenes, like Kevin Kline as Nathan swinging on the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, when I finally got to Brooklyn for the 2009 ACPT.



12d dese {Dis and dis}. A fun clue where the form of the clue sets the pattern for the answer.

24d Do Is {The Everly Brothers' "All I Have to ___ Dream"}. The epitome of a gimme - fill-in-the-blank with one of the most famous songs of all time.



53d skink {Long-bodied lizard}. Skinks are unusual in having small or nonexistent legs, and often like to burrow in sand. In Scotland, no known for its lizards, skink means a shin of beef, or soup made from it (Cullen Skink).

The Rest

1a aces {Breezes through}; 9a studs {Wall supports}; 14a dolt {Blockhead}; 15a moat {Zoo barrier}; 16a tutee {One getting one-on-one help}; 19a obese {Having a lot to lose?}; 20a octal {In base 8}; 26a peon {Lowly worker}; 28a no a {"... ___ thousand times ..."}; 29a DSL {Step up from dial-up}; 32a in motion {Not at rest}; 36a photo {Driver's license feature}; 38a vial {Lab container}; 43a Anglo {The "A" in WASP}; 47a nos. {Most apts. have them}; 48a ump {Strike caller}; 51a wand {Wizard's stick}; 52a sties {Places to serve slop}; 54a resale {Flea market deal, perhaps}; 62a at bay {Unable to retreat, as an animal}; 63a Amati {Fine fiddle}; 66a pilot {Introductory TV episode}; 67a Enid {Author Bagnold}; 68a ne'er {Not e'en once}; 69a Edens {Idyllic places}; 70a tkts. {B'way booth in Times Square}; 71a drys {Temperance supporters}.

1d ad hoc {Like some committees}; 2d coach {Alternative to first-class}; 3d elite {Cream of the crop}; 5d amp {Sound booster at a concert}; 6d fort {Siege site}; 7d baaed {Called to a lamb, say}; 10d tubas {Instruments in military bands}; 11d UTEP {Lone Star State sch.}; 13d seer {Palm reader, e.g.}; 18d sleet {Winter driving hazard}; 22d MNO {6 on a telephone}; 27d noh {Japanese drama}; 29d dome {Capitol feature}; 30d Styx {River of Hades}; 31d lost {Not grasping the material, say}; 32d Ivan {Lendl of tennis}; 33d nino {Padre's boy}; 34d mags {Rack purchases, briefly}; 35d nog {Yuletide quaff}; 40d row {Column crosser}; 41d tear {Sign of sorrow}; 46d Snead {Golf's Slammin' Sammy}; 49d Mia {Actress Farrow}; 50d pellet {Bit of shotgun shot}; 52d set on {Determined to achieve}; 56d Lacey {Cagney's TV partner}; 57d eyers {Close watchers}; 59d amid {In the thick of}; 60d kale {Curly cabbage}; 61d snit {Fit of pique}; 65d eds. {Publishers' hirees: Abbr.}.

NYT Monday 6/8/09 - A Choice of Stations

This Monday New York Times crossword was quick enough to do, but had a few more obscure cultural references than I'm used to this early in the week: I got the puzzle right, but this was more by luck than judgment, since I happened to write in stas. (rather than the equally valid stns.) for 40-Down and one glance at the clue to 45-Across suggested I'd get no help there.

So although the straightforward theme is ideal for a Monday, I think some of the fill means the puzzle would have fit better into a mid-week slot, with the overall difficulty level being bumped up accordingly.

Solving time: 7 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 50d boxy {Hardly streamlined, as a car}

Theme

Four phrases starting with synonyms of "stupid":

21a dense forest {Thick growth of trees}
49a obtuse angle {It's more than 90 degrees}
3d slow cooker {Crockpot}
29d dumb waiter {Tray transporter}

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Randy Sowell / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 36 (16.0%) black squares
Answers	78 (average length 4.85)
Theme squares	42 (22.2%)
Scrabble points	304 (average 1.61)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

18a Della {Perry Mason's secretary ___ Street}; 8d Erle {Writer ___ Stanley Gardner}. Odd to have Perry Mason and his creator, and not make the connection in the cluing. I'm going to have to make the association myself then. Della Street was a well-to-do lady forced to get a job as a secretary after her family's fortune was wiped out in the crash of 1929. In the TV series, she was played by Barbara Hale.



36a Jake {Actor Gyllenhaal of "Brokeback Mountain"}. Jake Gyllenhaal plays opposite Heath Ledger as the character Jack Twist.



45a N.A.S. {1980s TV's "Emerald Point ___"}. I thought this very tough for a Monday, since 40-Down had two viable alternatives. You either needed to remember the exact title of a TV series from 25 years ago or intuit that N.A.S. stands for Naval Air Station - I'm not sure that's reasonable this early in the week.

55a Lori {Actress Loughlin of "Full House"}. We had this exact clue (pretty much) earlier this year, but being in a Sunday puzzle I solved jointly, it rather passed me by. Lori Loughlin played Becky Donaldson in the sitcom, which I now remember is the one where the Olsen twins played Box and Cox.



61a gyms {Gold's and others}. I deduce from this that Gold's is a chain of gyms - I've only come across Curves, which the aficionados pronounce Curvés.

6d Owens {Country singer Buck}. Buck Owens (1929–2006) pioneered the Bakersfield sound with his band, the Buckaroos.



11d Arie {1997 Indy 500 winner ___ Luyendyk}; 13d Yost {Dennis ___ and the Classics IV (1960s-'70s group)}. This pair seem a little obscure to me and might have made the NE corner really tough, except that the acrosses are gimmes. Arie Luyendyk is the Dutch driver who twice won the Indianapolis 500. Dennis Yost was the lead singer of Classics IV, best known for the 1968 hits Spooky and Stormy.



33d Bara {Theda of early films}; 44d silent {Like 33-Down's films}. Theda Bara was one of cinema's earliest sex symbols and acquired the nickname "The Vamp".



49d Oleg {Designer Cassini}. Oleg Cassini (1913–2006) was the French-born American couturier who was chosen as Jacqueline Kennedy's designer in the 1960s.

53d Nate {___ Dogg of R&B/hip-hop}. Nate Dogg has a specific reason for the stage surname - he's cousin to Snoop (Doggy) Dogg. Here's I Got Love (2002), which features on the soundtrack of the movie The Transporter.



Noteworthy

17a spot {"Out, damned ___!"}. A reference to The Scottish Play, although this might be used in other contexts, Spot being a popular name for pooches.

LADY MACBETH. Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One- two -why then 'tis
time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and
afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have
had so much blood in him?
From Macbeth Act V Scene 1

19a bios {"Thumbnail" writings}. I wasn't sure about this clue, which seems to want "thumbnail" to do double-duty: as a means of indicating the shortening of biographies (which it does fine); and of biographies itself (which I'm not sure about ... are thumbnail sketches necessarily biographical?).

60a Leon {Explorer Ponce de ___}. Ponce de León - rather an unfortunate name ... I bet he got teased at school. In a quest for the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, Ponce discovered Florida (the consolation prize) in March 1513 and became its first governor.

JUAN PONCE DE LEON
He arrived on Easter Sunday in 1513 looking for the Fountain of Youth. He found something better, a beautiful land that he claimed for Spain, and he called it Florida.

40d stas. {Depots: Abbr.}. The clue could lead to stas. and stns. equally well. Let's hope for a straightforward across clue ... oops!

50d boxy {Hardly streamlined, as a car}. This formula for a definition is often amusing, as here.

The Rest

1a test {See 1-Down}; 5a copes {Manages}; 10a lazy {Indolent}; 14a axle {Wheel turner}; 15a aware {Cognizant}; 16a -aroo {Suffix with buck}; 20a tow {What a broken-down car may get}; 23a Escorts {Former Ford compacts}; 25a ape {Simian}; 26a onus {Burden}; 27a toreador {Bullfighter}; 32a A-bomb {W.W. II-ending weapon, for short}; 34a jewel {Diamond or sapphire}; 35a up a {Work ___ sweat}; 37a homer {Four-bagger}; 38a Amin {Despot Idi ___}; 39a ore {Bauxite or galena}; 40a soaps {Much of afternoon TV}; 41a ebbed {Subsided}; 42a baritone {Voice between tenor and bass}; 44a slew {Dispatched, as a dragon}; 46a oil lamp {Old indoor light source}; 54a III {Three on a sundial}; 56a glare {Harsh light}; 57a Etna {Sicilian peak}; 58a exit {Door to the outside}; 59a oaten {Like certain cereals}; 62a wrest {Seize (from)}; 63a or so {Words of approximation}.

1d taste {With 1-Across, Coke vs. Pepsi competition, e.g.}; 2d Expos {Montreal baseballers, 1969-2004}; 4d Tet {Asian holiday}; 5d cadets {West Point students}; 7d pals {Buddies}; 9d seafarer {Mariner}; 10d La Brea {___ tar pits}; 12d zoos {Menageries}; 21d drub {Beat badly}; 22d Opel {German-made car since 1899}; 24d on me {"This round's ___"}; 27d Tempe {Home of Arizona State University}; 28d owes {Has debts}; 30d Opie {"The Andy Griffith Show" boy}; 31d Rand {Author Ayn}; 32d a job {Do ___ on (work over)}; 34d Joan {___ of Arc}; 37d hoosegow {Lockup}; 38d Abel {Cain's victim}; 41d Elle {Women's magazine founded in France}; 43d Inuits {Eskimos}; 46d ogres {Really mean people}; 47d Minos {Mythical king of Crete}; 48d piano {Instrument for Rachmaninoff}; 51d trim {Fit}; 52d alar {Banned orchard spray}; 57d ELO {"Do Ya" group, for short}.

NPR Puzzle 06/07/09 -- Eight Is Enough

This week's puzzle seemed really easy to crack. Let's look at it:

Think of a famous TV personality with five letters in the first name and four letters in the last name. Change the first letter of this celebrity's first name to M. Drop the first letter of the last name. Read the result in order, and it will spell something this person is famously known for doing many times. Who is this person?

There's an easy grammatical approach to the solution. I know it's easy because both Ross and I saw it immediately. Ross also successfully guessed what the celebrity's activity is. From there, it's a breeze.

Since that was so easy, let's look at some value-added puzzles. The on-air challenge was to identify the 7-letter plural that each of three disparate things have in common. Here are some more to chew on (warning -- some of these are uh, challenging):

Sleighs/hallways/track & field teams

Banks/bureaus/old-fashioned ladies

Cameras/lightning/geniuses

Smoke detectors/physicians/electronic timers

Baseball stadiums/courtrooms/fitness gyms

Long haul trucking/golfers/computers

Skis/mayonnaise/notebooks

Fancy stationery/North Korea/floral gardens

Wimbledon/campers/online dating

Wineries/newspapers/fitness gyms

Old cars/babies/snakes

TV/songs/wallpaper

Windows/computers/Japanese houses

High school reunions/Food & Drug Administration/website advertising

Bird watchers/rivers/cafeterias

NYT Sunday 6/7/09 - Use the Manual

The title of this Sunday New York Times crossword was perhaps too much of a giveaway: Magdalen and I took one look at it (and the pattern of circles) and suspected that the gears of a shift stick transmission would be involved in some way. Solving some of the answers crossing the circles confirmed what was going on. After that, the puzzle turned out to be straightforward.

I'm not sure why, but automatic gearboxes are the norm in America and "manual" gearboxes are typical in the UK (except perhaps for hire cars). Switching to automatics when I arrived in the USA didn't cause me any trouble - it's one less thing to worry about. Doing things the other way round is much harder, and Magdalen finds it tough trying to negotiate the myriad roundabouts (aka traffic circles) in the UK, at the same time as manually changing gear.

Solving time: 40 mins (no cheating, collaborative effort)
Clue of the puzz: 126a hymnal {It's bound to be used in a service}

Theme

A rebus puzzle in which the names of the gears of a stick shift car are squeezed into a single square. These squares appear in an approximately correct arrangement.

33a who's first {Teacher's question at the start of show-and-tell}
5d seen first hand {Witnessed}

98a this second {At once}
67d thirty second spot {TV advertising staple}

35a go to third base {Anticipate heading home}
10d come third {Finish last on "Jeopardy!"}

67a takes a neutral stance {Doesn't care either way}
48d odor neutralizer {It freshens the air}

101a July fourth BBQs {Some summer feasts in the U.S.}
102d fourth rate {Hardly commendable}

38a fifth acts {Endings for Shakespeare}
15d Saks Fifth Avenue {It opened in Manhattan in 1924}

103a reverse side {Where to sign a credit card, e.g.}
84d run a reverse play {Trick the defensive line, maybe}

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Jeremy Newton / Will Shortz
Grid	21x21 with 66 (15.0%) black squares
Answers	140 (average length 5.36)
Theme squares	102 (27.2%)
Scrabble points	603 (average 1.61)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Feature	Pangrammatic

New To Me

54a Badd {Color Me ___, 1990s R&B group}. Color Me Badd are from Oklahoma City and had five hits from their debut album C.M.B. including this one, I Wanna Sex You Up:



64a Crisco {Oil bigwig?}. Crisco started out as a type of shortening, a brand of Procter & Gamble. They introduced a vegetable oil in 1960. I wasn't sure about this clue, as I've always thought of a "bigwig" as a person, not an abstract entity - maybe that's why there's a question mark at the end?

12d Mae {Oda ___ Brown (Oscar-winning role)}. Oda Mae Brown is Whoopi Goldberg's role in Ghost (1990). She is the psychic who helps the murder victim Sam (Patrick Swayze) communicate from beyond the grave with his wife Molly (Demi Moore).



18d Trent {Rock singer Reznor}. The influential musician Trent Reznor operates under the studio name of Nine Inch Nails and has done so many things, he's hard to classify. Here's Only from the album With Teeth.



41d Ortega {Old El Paso competitor}. I parsed this as Old "El Paso" competitor to start with ... wrong! Ortega is a current Mexican food brand, therefore a rival to Old El Paso.

50d Carr {Baker v. ___, landmark 1962 Supreme Court case}. A "landmark" case so obscure even Magdalen the Lawyer didn't know about it. The results of the Supreme Court case enabled federal courts to intervene in and decide reapportionment cases (reapportionment being the redrawing of boundaries to provide for electoral districts of approximately equal population) - such cases not being deemed "political" questions.

72d Tami {Suspense novelist ___ Hoag}. Tami Hoag is the best-selling author of romance and suspense novels. Along with Eileen Dreyer, Elizabeth Grayson and Kimberly Cates, she's one of the self-appointed "Divas". Her latest thriller is The Alibi Man.

105d Donna {Title girl in a Ritchie Valens hit}. Ritchie Valens (1941–1959) made Donna a hit in 1958, but its "B" side was much more famous ... ... La Bamba!



109d Lena {Actress Olin}. Lena Olin is the Swedish actress whose played Irina Derevko in the TV series Alias.



115d OSS {Org. in the 1946 film "Cloak and Dagger"}. The Office of Strategic Services was America's intelligence agency in World War II, being the forerunner of the CIA.

Noteworthy

42a Oneidas {New York tribe}. We had local advantage here, as many of the tribes in this area survive as place names and we keep hearing those in the news and weather forecasts. The Oneida Indian Nation does more than survive, having a population in excess of 100,000 and significant business interests in upstate New York.

126a hymnal {It's bound to be used in a service}; 97d IQ test {Brightness detector}. Two beautifully misleading clues, which wouldn't be out of place as tongue-in-cheek definitions in a cryptic crossword.

The Rest

1a oddest {As weird as they come}; 7a POW camp {Where an M.I.A. might be}; 14a islets {Parts of Fiji}; 20a no idea {"Beats me"}; 21a areolae {Biological rings}; 22a Castro {1950 University of Havana grad}; 23a nested {Tightly stacked, as ice trays}; 24a scammer {Con artist}; 25a OK then {"Alrighty"}; 26a OTC {Like Tylenol PM: Abbr.}; 27a name {It might be dropped}; 29a pes {Foot, to a zoologist}; 30a urns {Crypt alternatives}; 32a -ing {Suffix with floor or roof}; 40a Thomson {___ Reuters, media giant}; 44a cave art {Some early paintings}; 47a deoxy- {Prefix with ribonucleic}; 49a novices {They're learning the ropes}; 53a anoint {Bless}; 55a face mask {"Friday the 13th" prop}; 56a rain delay {Inning stretcher, maybe}; 58a Omoo {Sequel to "Typee"}; 61a snorty {Audibly upset, as a bull}; 62a stds. {Norms: Abbr.}; 63a gar {Long-snouted swimmer}; 66a UV ray {Thing absorbed by the ozone layer, for short}; 70a Dutch {Way to go on dates}; 74a exotic {Pet store category}; 75a li'l {Not big, in a small way}; 76a bate {Diminish}; 80a italic {Leaning, in a way}; 82a A to Z {All-inclusive}; 83a alter egos {Bruce Wayne and Batman, e.g.}; 85a game room {Place for matches at home}; 87a easy {"Calm down"}; 89a augers {Drilling devices}; 90a shiatsu {Massage technique}; 91a sprit {Pole in sailing}; 93a Ernesto {Che Guevara's real first name}; 94a NY Times {Big Apple daily, in brief}; 96a rails at {Verbally assaults}; 107a tan {A bather may want one}; 108a slat {Blind part}; 110a cru {Grand ___ (wine designation)}; 111a temp {Per diem worker}; 113a COD {UPS option, briefly}; 114a on dope {Hopped up, in a way}; 116a in haste {Rashly}; 119a aliens {"Men in Black" figures}; 121a poison {Negative influence}; 122a neuters {Gets fixed}; 123a Sabine {Texas/Louisiana border river}; 124a siesta {You take it lying down}; 125a gapes at {Views wide-eyed}.

1d on now {Available for viewing}; 2d doeth {"A merry heart ___ good like a medicine": Proverbs}; 3d disco {Boogie, Bee Gees-style}; 4d EDT {D.C. summer clock setting}; 6d tada! {"Brilliant, ain't I?!"}; 7d Paseos {Bygone Toyotas}; 8d orc {Frodo foe}; 9d weaponed {Gave missiles to}; 11d alms box {Donation receptacle}; 13d peruse {Look over}; 14d icon {Clicked pic}; 16d LST {W.W. II craft for getting troops ashore}; 17d ethic {Set of moral rules}; 19d songs {Billboard listings}; 28d mgmt. {Corp. leadership}; 31d reina {Isabella II, por ejemplo}; 34d steins {Oktoberfest souvenirs}; 36d today {Currently}; 37d any {___ minute}; 39d Asimov {"Foundation" trilogy writer}; 43d docs {E.R. folk}; 44d cars {They get tired}; 45d anat. {Biol. subject}; 46d void {Empty}; 51d esta {Spanish for "are"}; 52d SKYY {Big name in vodka}; 54d bar exam {Practice requirement?}; 55d focally {As the center of attention}; 57d lake {Summer camp locale}; 59d misc. {Other: Abbr.}; 60d ost {Direction from Hannover to Berlin}; 64d Cato {Roman who declared "Carthage must be destroyed"}; 65d on it {Taking care of business}; 68d sot {Lush}; 69d clears {Unclogs}; 70d digs {Quarters, informally}; 71d Utah {Home of Rainbow Bridge National Monument}; 73d cleans {Empties, with "out"}; 76d begets {Fathers}; 77d ages {A long time}; 78d tort {Suit basis}; 79d Esso {Canadian station name}; 81d cost {Sell for}; 83d a stab {Take ___ at (attempt)}; 86d ouija {Kind of board}; 88d airbuses {Double-deckers in the sky, maybe}; 91d sel {Overseas seasoning}; 92d psych up {Energize}; 93d else {"Anything ___?"}; 95d muting {Silencing}; 98d T-tops {Features of some 'Vettes}; 99d Hanoi {Former enemy capital}; 100d indie {Sundance entry, often}; 104d ice in {Trap during winter, maybe}; 106d Edsel {Flop in a lot}; 112d mash {Reduce to a pulp}; 117d NEA {Class-based society?: Abbr.}; 118d tra- {La-la lead-in}; 120d IBM {Creator of the chess champion Deep Blue}.

NPR Puzzle 5/31/09 -- Solutions

This week's puzzle was

Take "Indian wrestle," rearrange the 13 letters to get three words that are all related. What are they? Hint: The word lengths are five, four and four letters, respectively.

The answer is Rain, Sleet, Wind.

These letters (ADEEIILNNRSTW) are very useful for making anagrams. I clearly had fun working as many continuous anagrams of our Bengali Dozen (well, there are thirteen of them...) into my post on Sunday as I could. But as a puzzle, this isn't my favorite sort. Either the answer just comes to you, or it doesn't and you have to work it out, which isn't very hard. I'll predict a lot of people sent in correct answers.

I didn't submit my answer, by the way. Dan's wife's experience the other day (check the comments here) suggests that that unheralded production assistant or unpaid intern whose job it is to phone the winner picks a specific correct solution selected at random, calls that telephone number and if no one picks up, picks another correct solution at random and calls the number for that solver until someone picks up.

Well, I'm in a meeting on Thursday afternoons at 3 p.m., and it's the sort of meeting you don't take your cell phone to. So I don't bother to submit my solution to these things. And I bet there are a lot of people who don't. And none of us is ever going to win the lapel pin, hunh?

Here are the answers this week's value-added puzzle:

Think of two-word phrases that share a word starting with Z, such that the Z-word comes after the first word, and comes before the second word below:

Petting zoo & zookeeper
Ground zero & zero hour
Time zone & zone out
Plains zebra* & zebra print (*valid, but not common -- which is actually a hint, as a common zebra is different from the plains zebra. Okay, okay, so this was obscure -- I was hoping people would get it from zebra print. Ross didn't, but then he's had a horrible cold all week. Feel better soon, sweetie!)
Celestial zodiac & Zodiac Killer

NYT Saturday 6/6/09 - Becoming Unstuck

I can't remember enjoying another puzzle more than this Saturday New York Times crossword: it's hard to put a finger on why, although the fill is replete with great answers (just look at the four 15-letter ones for a start!) and there's hardly a clue that isn't either amusingly deceptive or amusingly imaginative.

Maybe it's just that I'm less frustrated with getting stuck for minutes on end: my increased experience over the last five months really helped out and I'm not sure I'd have been able to finish this one back in January. Then, I didn't know Al Capp, Tso's, pop quiz, or Caen at all; and answers like repo, relo, Ute and abs hadn't become second nature.

It looks like I'm getting close to breaking 30 minutes on these end-of-week puzzles - if I can do that regularly, it'll give me a great sense of achievement. Perhaps I'll be there at the end of the year, in good time for the 2010 ACPT?

Solving time: 35 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 45d zlotys {Poles work for them}

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Doug Peterson / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 31 (13.8%) black squares
Answers	72 (average length 5.39)
Theme squares	0 (0.0%)
Scrabble points	325 (average 1.68)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

1a Al Capp {Creator of Stupefyin' Jones}. Pop culture answers abounded at the start of the acrosses, making the NW corner a bit of a dead area for me. But as Magdalen also had trouble, it may have been the same for everybody. Stupefyin' Jones was a character in the Li'l Abner strip, who stupefied men with her drop-dead gorgeousness. Julie Newmar, later to play Catwoman, became famous overnight when playing Stupefyin' Jones in the 1956 musical Li'l Abner.

15a Leave it to Beaver {This and Sputnik 1 were launched on the same day}. I knew the title Leave It to Beaver without being quite sure if it was a TV show, film, comic strip etc. The version that launched on October 4, 1957 was the TV show - there was a movie adaptation in 1997. Plaudits to the compiler for cluing the answer in this interesting way. Here is a fascinating clip of cast members reunited for a 50th anniversary feature:



17a seeing-eye single {Soft ground ball that finds its way between infielders}. Wikipedia has 124 baseball jargon terms starting with S alone. A seeing-eye single, aka a seeing-eye ball, has an uncanny ability to find a path just out of reach of the fielders.

32a Croc {Killer ___ (green-skinned "Batman" villain)}. 32d wasn't any help deciding between Killer Frog and Killer Croc, so it was only 4d avionics that clinched it for the crocs. Waylon Jones/Killer Croc is born with a skin disease that makes him progressively more crocodilian, poor chap.

46a Elise {Kimberly of "John Q"}. Just had to guess Kimberly Elise and hope for the best. John Q (2002) is a movie about a hard-up father who takes hostages in hospital when his son is denied further treatment for a heart problem. Kimberly plays the mother, Denise.



55a nocks {Prepares to shoot, as an arrow}. Strangely, I've never come across this before - archery hasn't been a compulsory part of the curriculum in England since medieval times. nock is both the notch at the back end of an arrow into which the bowstring fits, and the act of fitting an arrow in the bowstring ready for firing.

1d also {Therewithal}. Easy to misread the clue as "Wherewithal", which gets used a whole lot more than "Therewithal" these days. The latter is an archaic equivalent of "besides".

7d stylets {Nematodes' piercing mouthparts}. An uncommon meaning (unless you're a zoologist) of an uncommon word (unless you're a medico). Stylets are the pointy bits of invertebrates that can do nasty things like latch onto your intestine.

8d toes {Drives obliquely}. Before researching this, I wasn't sure if this was to do with golf or woodworking. Ok, it's golf, because a toed ball is hit off the far end of the club head and will veer obliquely to the right (for a right-handed player). The golf tournament du jour is the Memorial Tournament which is going to be required watching for Magdalen and me (some of the time) this weekend.

29d chugs {Downs without a break}. This is US-specific slang, so I just had to guess and luckily was fairly certain of every letter except the final S. Chugging is consuming a drink in large gulps without pausing. For some reason, "chuggy" in Magdalen's family is a nickname for the size of plate intermediate between a dinner plate and a saucer - anyone else use that?

Noteworthy

20a Tso's {Chinese menu word}. A good example of an obscure answer becoming a gimme with familiarity: General Tso's Chicken is likely an American invention, rather than an authentic Chinese dish, being named for a Qing dynasty general.

21a nurse {Sticker by a hospital bed?}. Seeing Edie Falco all over the net the last few days as mean-looking Nurse Jackie made it a lot easier to get this deceptive clue.

44a Penzance {Cornwall resort port}. I guessed an -ance ending, as that is common in Cornwall, but was hoping for home advantage. Instead we get a place everyone knows through G&S - boo! Wouldn't "Home for the Pirates?" make a mean clue for Penzance?



48a lit {Stiff}. Two of the myriad slang terms for drunk.

63a Itsy Bitsy Spider {Determined one in a kid's song}. A great 15-letter answer - very difficult to work out where the word breaks would be.

3d Caen {Columnist who wrote "Baghdad by the Bay"}. Herb Caen has been getting a lot of cruciverbal ink lately, but I was very glad to know him given the layer upon layer of tough acrosses in the NW corner.

45d zlotys {Poles work for them}. Neat clue, with the zloty-earning Poles at the beginning to add ambiguity.

47d Lenape {The Delaware Prophet's tribe}. I'd come across the Lenape before, as the area they once inhabited overlaps much of Pennsylvania. Neolin (nicknamed the Delaware Prophet) led a movement rejecting "white ways" in the middle of the 18th century.

52d SETI {Space-scanning proj.}. Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: SETI activities have being going nearly 50 years, and yet there's still no evidence for extraterrestrial civilization - the Fermi Paradox.

60d ABO {Typing letters?}. QWE? RTY? Not that kind of typing, but ABO blood typing.

The Rest

7a stalwart {Firm}; 18a or not {"... but things could change"}; 19a els {High ways?}; 23a CCI {Year the emperor Decius was born}; 25a gripe {Many a letter to the editor}; 27a trounced {Mopped the floor with}; 33a lasers {Engraving tools}; 35a HMO {Coverage provider, for short}; 36a caustic {Acid}; 38a pop quiz {Classroom groan elicitor}; 40a Ute {Rice-Eccles Stadium athlete}; 41a hadron {Subatomic particle in a collider}; 43a ugly {Hard to watch}; 49a latex {Swim cap material}; 51a as to {On}; 54a hah! {"In your face!"}; 59a meat and potatoes {Nitty-gritty}; 64a dissolve {Film editing technique}; 65a pecans {Ice cream shop supply}.

2d leer {Satyric expression}; 4d avionics {High-tech navigation systems}; 5d pent up {Kept inside}; 6d pig {Source of blood for blood pudding}; 9d abs {Some are sculpted}; 10d lei {Strung souvenir}; 11d want in {Wish to join}; 12d avgs. {N.Y.S.E. nos.}; 13d relo {It may accompany a promotion, briefly}; 14d tres {Lithium's número atómico}; 16d tees {Some plumbing joints}; 22d reliant {Hanging (on)}; 23d coronet {Peer's topper}; 24d cusp {Astrological gray area}; 25d grate {Rankle}; 26d Rouen {Edward IV's birthplace}; 28d repo {Certain seizure}; 30d Emile {Rousseau novel subtitled "On Education"}; 31d dozy {On the way out?}; 32d C cup {Bikini spec}; 34d AC-DC {Kind of converter}; 37d Thai {Resident near the Isthmus of Kra}; 39d quixotic {Not at all practical}; 42d relapse {Turn for the worse}; 50d ahoy {Main call}; 51d amid {Within}; 53d TASS {Info source for 58-Down}; 54d HDTV {Cutting-edge set}; 56d coda {End notes?}; 57d keen {Itching (to)}; 58d SSRs {Red grp.}; 61d nil {Next to ___}; 62d tsp. {Shortening in recipes}.

NYT Friday 6/5/09 - Cheering Up

I've previously expressed doubts about non-thematic grids with 15-letter entries, but this one with just four of them incorporates a nicely varied range of answer lengths and resulted in a puzzle that was really fun to solve.

The perfect symmetry looks beautiful and the size of the open area in the center is well-balanced with those at the corners. Of course it's great that the average answer length is comfortably over 6.

I'm still reckoning with a nasty cold, which is now into day 8. Magdalen's mother always said colds were "three days coming, three days there, three days going". By rights I should only have one more day to go before I'm in the pink again. We're going to see Up in 3-D today in the hope that it'll (1) elevate my mood; (2) save me losing time on a day when I'm feeling 100%.

Solving time: 36 mins (no cheating)
Clue of the puzz: 42a salt {It's often pinched}

Solution


Grid art by Sympathy [about the grid colors]

Crucimetrics

Compilers	Martin Ashwood-Smith / Will Shortz
Grid	15x15 with 24 (10.7%) black squares
Answers	66 (average length 6.09)
Theme squares	0 (0.0%)
Scrabble points	280 (average 1.39)
Letters used	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

New To Me

19a he'd {"___ sow't with nettle-seed": Shak.}. From Act II Scene 1 of The Tempest, in which Antonio and Sebastian pooh-pooh Gonzalo's well-meaning suggestions for the development of the enchanted island.

GONZALO. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord-
ANTONIO. He'd sow 't with nettle-seed.
SEBASTIAN. Or docks, or mallows.
GONZALO. And were the king on't, what would I do?
SEBASTIAN. Scape being drunk for want of wine.
GONZALO. I' th' commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things
From The Tempest Act II Scene 1

23a Erich {Psychoanalyst Fromm}. Erich Fromm (1900–1980) was a German-born American psychoanalyst and social philosopher. He postulated that man has five basic needs:

Relatedness (relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge)
Transcendence (creativity, develop a loving and interesting life)
Rootedness (feeling of belonging)
Sense of Identity (see ourselves as a unique person and part of a social group)
A frame of orientation (the need to understand the world and our place in it)

45a Criss {Street magician ___ Angel}. Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, better known as Criss Angel, stars in his own TV show Criss Angel Mindfreak. Walking on broken glass and getting run over by a steamroller is all in a day's work for this man.



58a in exile {Like Victor Hugo when he finished "Les Misérables"}. The perfect way to clue the answer. Victor Hugo was forced into exile during the reign of Napoleon III, winding up on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, where Les Misérables was completed. This was one of the most difficult answers for me, because I wasn't sure if I was dealing with: (1) a single word or a phrase; (2) a French word or an English word.

27d rassler {Part of a backwoods mix-up}. This caused me about as much trouble as "Backwoods pro?" for fer in a recent puzzle. It seems any time "backwoods" appears in a clue, we should be looking for a dialect or nonstandard spelling, in this case, of wrestler. Country folk don't wrestle, they rassle.

34d Eda {___ Reiss Merin, babysitter player in "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead"}. The compiler has to scrape the barrel a bit to find a thespian Eda. Eda Reiss Merin plays the disciplinarian (but all-too-mortal) Mrs. Sturak who comes to babysit a teenage family in the 1991 comedy.



39d aviator {Post, for one}. I couldn't figure out who the famous flying Post was and had to look him up: Wiley Post (1898–1935) was the first pilot to fly solo around the world, which he did in the Winnie Mae in July 1933.

46d Sonia {"Peter and the Wolf" duck}. Last time the Peter and the Wolf duck made an appearance it was an oboe. I didn't think the animals had names and it seems I was right up to the point they were Disneyfied: in the animated short, the bird, duck and cat are named "Sasha", "Sonia" and "Ivan".



55d Axe {Bad ___, Mich. (seat of Huron County)}. This was one of the last answers I got, and I found myself running through the letters of the alphabet in A?E to see what might make a reasonable place name. Of course, when I reached Axe, 58-Across immediately made sense as in exile, so I was happy I'd found the place I was looking for. Bad Axe is named after the much-used and badly damaged electric guitar chopper that was found when the area was settled.

Noteworthy

15a One Love {Bob Marley classic}. A song is indeed a classic if I can remember it: One Love was first recorded in 1965 on the album The Wailing Wailers.



42a salt {It's often pinched}. Not someone's behind, but salt - beautifully worded clue!

47a RST {Character lineup}. I'm not a fan of these letter-sequence answers, unless there's some situation where they occur in everyday life (for example, TUV appears over 8 on a telephone keypad). RST gets the thumbs-down because it's just an arbitrary sequence from the alphabet (or at least, the clue doesn't attempt to associate it with anything more familiar).

5d torch {What an unrequited lover carries}. Another delightful clue: an unrequited lover "carries a torch" for somebody.

8d definite article {Billy the Kid used one for his nickname}. Could've been anyone with "the" in the middle. Q: what do Billy the Kid and Winnie the Pooh have in common? A: same middle name.

10d Beast {Half of a Disney duo, with "the"}. I unfortunately guessed Tramp, as in Lady and The Tramp. That held me up a bit, but I was willing to be flexible and go with Beauty and the Beast (1991).



21d north-east {One between two cardinals?}. I know from long experience of cryptic crosswords that "cardinal" has several unfamiliar meanings, including each of the four chief points of the compass.

48d anent {Regarding}. An ent is a walking tree, but anent is an archaic, primarily Scottish, equivalent of "regarding", "concerning", "in re" etc. While not classic crosswordese, it seems a bit out of place in an NYT grid these days.

57d pee {Peruvian capital?}. If it's Monday, it must be Lima. On a Wednesday, it might just be sol. But as it's Friday, the answer is the capital letter of "Peruvian", ie P spelled pee.

The Rest

1a minster {Important church}; 8a debated {Like controversial issues}; 16a eye-hole {It lets you see who's calling}; 17a theorem {Something to prove}; 18a Frasier {Fictional psychiatrist}; 20a cronies {Gang members}; 22a LVI {Year in Nero's reign}; 25a von {From, in some European names}; 26a tread {It may be worn on a sneaker}; 28a riel {Phnom Penh cash}; 29a eerie {Like many an omen}; 31a arte {Works in the Uffizi}; 32a straw mattresses {Poorhouse bedding}; 35a railheads {Termini}; 36a as gentle as a lamb {Totally benign}; 43a stare {Act rudely, in a way}; 44a evil {Foul}; 48a arise {Proceed (from)}; 49a EDT {Regional setting for almost eight months per yr.}; 50a oration {It may begin with an exordium}; 53a ate {Got into a pickle?}; 54a Titanic {1912 headline name}; 56a crept up {Got high gradually}; 59a lane one {Pole position or pool position}; 60a cereals {Some like them hot}; 61a entered {Registered for}.

1d mothers {They deliver}; 2d inherit {Be a willing participant?}; 3d needier {Requiring more support}; 4d slo {Brief warning}; 6d ever {Loving leader?}; 7d remove all traces {30-Down thoroughly}; 9d Eyre {Jane Rochester's maiden name}; 11d ahs {They often mean "I see"}; 12d toilers {Slaves}; 13d elevate {Up}; 14d derides {Pooh-poohs}; 24d clarets {Red choices}; 29d emits {Lets off}; 30d erase {See 7-Down}; 33d wan {Not sanguine}; 36d ascetic {Like some monks}; 37d sardine {Subway rider during rush hour, metaphorically}; 38d glitter {Striking brilliance}; 40d mistune {Make a B instead of an A?}; 41d bleeped {Like some profanity}; 51d rill {Moon marking}; 52d Oran {North African harbor site}.