Sunday, 9/12/10

NYT 12:33
Reagle 9:05
LAT 7:38
BG 21:05 (Sam, paper)/6:53 (Amy, AL)
CS – 16:01 (Evad)
WaPo Post Puzzler 6:58

Congratulations to Eric Maddy, winner of today’s Bay Area Crossword Tournament in Alameda, California! (And thanks to Tyler Hinman for tweeting that news.)

Paula Gamache’s New York Times crossword, “It’s Going to Cost You”

It’s going to cost you an arm and a leg, so why not put ARM and LEG in 10 rebus squares throughout the puzzle? Oh, and have the ARMs and LEGs all split across word breaks in the long Across theme entries, too. And while you’re at it, why not put all five ARMs on the left side and all five LEGs on the right side, in Across answers that appear in symmetrical spots in the grid? Because that’d be more elegant than throwing limbs all over the place willy-nilly.

Here are the theme answers and the entries that cross at the rebus boxes:

• 23a. A BE{AR M}ARKET is [Bad news on Wall Street]. David Bowie’s ST{ARM}AN is the crossing.
• 25a. This one nearly killed me. [What Fels-Naptha banished, in old ads] is TATTLETA{LE G}RAY, I think in laundry rather than hair. I had GRO* at the end for a long time, as the Spanish crossing could be ESOS or ESAS. The LEG is also in AL{LEG}E.
• 36a. [Three squares] means REGUL{AR M}EALS. The crossing is CH{ARM}ED.
• 59a. They have DOUB{LE-G}LAZED doughnuts?? [Like some doughnuts and windows] is the clue, and PH{LEG}M crosses it. Phlegm! I know all about this [Throat stuff], thanks to the persistent summer cold.
• 61a. SOL{AR M}ASS is a [Unit of star measurement]. (AL{ARM}S.)
• 75a. [Blow it] clues BUBB{LE G}UM. (E{LEG}IES.)
• 77a. [Arc de Triomphe and Nelson’s Column] are both W{AR M}EMORIALS. ({ARM}ANI.)
• 94a. [Neutral space] is the MIDD{LE G}ROUND. (AL{LEG}RA.)
• 114a. This is the weakest theme entry, but it still works. [April, May and June] are CALEND{AR M}ONTHS.

All in all, an ambitious and well-executed Sunday-sized rebus theme.

Thorny bits:

• 18d. Yeah, this is why I had trouble completing the TATTLE-TALE GRAY. RHYE?? [“Seven Seas of ___” (early Queen hit)]? Not ringing a bell here.
• 28a. I don’t know where I pulled OSCINE from off of just the O, but I did. It means [Relating to songbirds].
• 48a. GAS PLANET is clued [Heavenly body that humans will never set foot on]. Did you know all the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are gas, not solid rock?
• 62a. [Beckett’s “Krapp’s Lasts Tape,” e.g.] is a MONODRAMA. That’s a play for a sole performer. I first tried MELODRAMA but knew that was so, so wrong for Beckett.
• 41d. Partial IN OZ is clued [“Rinkitink ___” (L. Frank Baum book)]. That Z was slow to come, but I should’ve thought of Oz sooner.
• 81a. PASSLINE is a [Bet in craps].
• 122a. I had a typo in SENNAS ([Some flowering shrubs]), with the first vowel being an A even though I meant to type RARE, not RARA, for the crossing. So that slowed me down in figuring out the fourth letter, where the Down clue was no help whatsoever. 109d: [George Manville ___, English adventure writer]? The only FENN I know is actress Sherilynn Fenn. Oof.
• 7d. GETS ALL A’S looks obvious once it’s filled in, but it’s such a fresh-looking answer, it didn’t come readily to mind. [Contends for valedictorian, say] makes perfect sense.
• 42d. CERE can mean [Smear with wax, old-style]. It’s also a noun: “a waxy, fleshy covering at the base of the upper beak in some birds.” If you know that cerumen is ear wax, the CERE = wax part is easier.
• 62d. MALLARME is the answer to [“L’Apres-midi d’un faune” poet Stephane], and I got it off just the first letter. It’s not as if I’m into French poetry, though. Far from it.

Did this crossword take you for a walk and wind up dragging you into a ditch before you finally managed to crawl back out? I was a tad surprised to see that no, it’s not a 23×23, just the regular 21×21 Sunday size. I appreciated the challenge today.

Merl Reagle’s syndicated/Philadelphia Inquirer crossword, “Let’s See What This Baby Can Do”

This one was a toughie. The theme, baby-related puns with sound changes affecting non-baby-related phrases, was slow to yield, and there were other gnarly spots in the fill. First up, the theme entries:

• 23a. [Result of getting too close to a happy baby?] is a BURBLE BATH, playing on “bubble bath.” Burbles are auditory, not wet. Hmm.
• 33a. [Stopping temporarily, baby-style?] is CRAWL WAITING, playing on “call waiting.”
• 53a. Stick another G in “Valley girl” and you get VALLEY GURGLE, or [Brand of teething ring sold only in Los Angeles?]. The Valley/L.A. connection makes sense, but gurgling and teething? Not so much.
• 67a. [Famous actor as a baby?] turns Burt Lancaster into BURP LANCASTER.
• 86a. [Hurry, baby-style?] clues GO FULL TODDLE, playing on “go full throttle.”
• 102a. [Result of some digit-sucking?] is DROOL OF THUMB (“rule of thumb”). Speaking of thumbs, did you hear that Roger Ebert’s launching a new movie review show on PBS? The main reviewers will be Elvis Mitchell (ex-NYT) and Christy Lemire (AP), and Roger will use his text-to-speech computer voice for his segments on older movies. Roger co-owns the rights to the trademarked “thumbs up/down” with Gene Siskel’s estate.
• 117a. [Maternity ward?] clues THE WET WING (“The West Wing”). I dunno. Because of wet diapers?
• 3d. [“This baby needs a rest,” for example?] is a NAP DECISION (“snap decision”).
• 71d. [What a baby does if it doesn’t succeed?] clues CRY, CRY AGAIN (“try, try again”).

Among the trouble spots I encountered were these:

• 25a. [“No Time for Sergeants” playwright] meant nothing to me. The crossings gave me LEVIN but didn’t explain which LEVIN, so I was still in a bind for the cross-referenced 63a, which turned out to be IRA. He’s more famous for the novels Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, and for the play Deathtrap. Seems like a weird cluing choice to me, especially with two answers riding on it.
• 51a. [Elaborate verse forms] are SESTINAS. Have heard of them, can’t really define them.
• 78a. [Where Goliath fell] is ELAH, which now is better known from the Tommy Lee Jones movie In the Valley of Elah.
• 16d. [Purview of a President’s council] is a rather tough clue for AGING.
• 44d. [City just east of Lisbon] is just ug-ly. EVORA? It’s a UNESCO Heritage Site thanks to an ancient Roman temple, but…population 41,000. With the R coming from the IRA whose clue was completely unhelpful unless you knew who wrote No Time for Sergeants, this was a nasty little spot in the grid.
• 55d. [Managers, formerly] were GERENTS. Really. Dictionary says the first known use was in 1576. And when was the last known use?
• 73d. [“Cloud hoppers”] are ACES. I’m guessing this means flying aces, figuratively hopping the clouds in their zippy airplanes.
• 82d. [Head of Paramount] means Oscar-winning film costumer EDITH Head, but that is a tough clue for Edith, isn’t it?

Spotlight on cool clues:

• 41a. [Automatic door opener?] is a GENT who automatically holds the door for people. I hold the door for people too, but I’m no gent. And my kid insists that I let him do all the pushing for both of us in a revolving door.
• 88d. [Rear end problem?] is a DENT in your car’s rear end, not in your own rear end. Great clue!

Mike Shenk’s Washington Post crossword, “Post Puzzler No. 23”

Sometimes I struggle with a themeless and grumble about it. Not this time. This puzzle, I struggled with it and loved every second of the effort. This may be my favorite themeless puzzle in the last month or two. It’s not especially showy, with 70 words and not a ton of “wow”-inducing entries, but it was exactly the right kind of mental exertion.

Favorite clues and answers:

• 1a. This is great! [Solo flight companion] is CHEWBACCA, Han Solo’s space-flight companion.
• 17a. [“Spill!”] clues the exhortation “OUT WITH IT!” Wonderful answer.
• 25a. [Remove from peanuts, say] mystified me until finally UNBOX shook itself out. Just removed my new boxed iMac from its brown shipping box, which is custom-sized by Apple because there was no space for styrofoam packing peanuts.
• 38a. [Points of order?] isn’t what it sounds like. It’s where you order fast food, the DRIVE-UPS.
• 52a. Junky little ORES gets a clever clue: [They might have lead parts]. That’s the metal lead, Pb, not the adjective lead, meaning “starring.”
• 1d. I half thought [Wedgy stoppers] was about preventing someone from giving you a wedgie, but CHOCKS are chunky wedges you wedge under a tire to stop a truck or plane from rolling away. (And also the triangular red chewable vitamins of my youth.)
• 5d. [Piltdown man] is a BRIT. The Piltdown man is a famous hoax (also four letters, yes, indeed), but a Piltdown man is just an Englishman from the town of Piltdown.
• 12d. A [Jonathan’s birthplace?] is an apple ORCHARD.
• 14d. [Half man] is John F. KENNEDY because he’s the guy on the half dollar coin.
• 24d. [Spielberg’s “Duel,” for one] is a TV MOVIE. Yep, the legend got started on TV, not celluloid.
• 26d. The clue [He returned to his former job on March 1, 2010] had me stumped until the crossings led me to JAY LENO. Ah, yes. From the unpleasantness.
• 51d. [Devil costume?] is PRADA couture, as in The Devil Wears Prada. They say the current pope wears Prada shoes, too.
• 55d. [“Baby ___ Bad Bad Thing” (Chris Isaak song)] is completed by DID A. It’s not a good answer, this two-word partial, no. But it’s one of the all-time best song titles.
• 58d. It wasn’t too hard to guess that [Its first issue included “Crow Vadis?”] meant MAD magazine. Have you seen the new 15-minute Mad show on the Cartoon Network? My kid and I both laughed at it.

That’s a wealth of juicy stuff. I don’t know how much of the cluing is Mike’s own work and how much is editor Peter Gordon, but they both have impressive skills so I can’t say whose work is where.

Other stuff:

• 20a. [Tarot card often depicting a dog and a wolf] is THE MOON. This one was all crossings for me.
• 22a. [Great Migration participant], 3 letters? Well, AFRICAN-AMERICAN won’t fit, but I keep encountering raves about a new nonfiction book (by Isabel Wilkerson) about that Great Migration. The crossword’s looking for a HUN from a much earlier migration in Europe.
• 23a. [Last name of a longtime comic strip “teen age darling”] is KETT. Etta Kett, I presume?
• 27a. [The ladies’ singles trophy at Wimbledon, for one] is a tray called a SALVER.
• 34a. [Camel smokeless tobacco brand] is a fresh new clue for ORBS, I guess. Never heard of it. Is that a snuff or more of a chewbacco? Judging from its name, perhaps it is applied to the eyeballs.
• 42a. I dredged [“California style” architect Wallace ___] NEFF out of my memory banks with the NE in place.
• 2d. [It runs free] clues a HOUSE AD, an ad for an in-house product. Can’t sell all your ad space? Got stuff you need to promote? Boom, there you go.
• 9d. [Florida governor Charlie Crist, by birth] is an ALTOONAN. What percent of Floridians were born out of state?
• 36d. [Outback population feature] isn’t about the marsupials who might live in the Outback, it’s about the SPARSITY of people living there.

Scott Atkinson’s syndicated Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword, “The Long and Short of It”

So, I liked the theme, which had me murmuring the theme answers aloud and feeling amused. And I kept hitting clues or answers that resonated with me and made me happy. How often does that happen in a crossword? Nowhere near often enough, I tell you.

The theme entries all began with a long E sound in a phrase that rhymes with “eel” or “eels,” but it’s changed to a short I sound. The spelling is rejiggered so that the final word makes sense, and the new word is reflected in the clue:

• 25a. [Wiring woes?] could be ELECTRIC ILLS. I think why I enjoyed the theme so much is that I had a friend in junior high who pronounced things this way, as an affectation more than from an accent.
• 30a. [Pickle processor’s invitation?] is LET’S MAKE A DILL. That junior high friend? I think she said “dillio” for “deal.”
• 49a. BANANA PILL is your [Fruity medication?].
• 61a. Imagine if they really had [Black, gooey knolls near Charlotte?], NORTH CAROLINA TAR HILLS.
• 78a. [Factories with good morale?] might be HAPPY MILLS.
• 94a. [Moonshine equipment that’s frozen solid?] is a COLD HARD STILL.
• 103a. HAMSTER WILLS are [Documents bequeathing tiny exercise devices?].

Highlights (including autobiographical points of interest):

• 68a. [Nonverbal syst.] clues ASL, or American Sign Language. My family and I are taking an intro to ASL class. We have not yet learned to swear in ASL.
• 83a. [1975 Pure Prairie League hit] is “AMIE.” When I was a teenager, I volunteered as an usher at a local auditorium. The guys who worked there were older, and they used to sing that song to me. *swoon*
• 106a. “YO, ADRIAN” was a [Rocky address] that Rocky Balboa would say to his girlfriend Adrian. I’ve seen the entry once or twice before in crosswords but it still rocks.
• 9d. I’m not crazy about this clue, [“I puritani” composer]. Everyone knows that the best BELLINI is the kind made with prosecco and peach puree.
• 11d. NICOL [Williamson of “Excalibur”] was a kinda little guy. I saw that movie with my best friend in about 8th grade.
• 45d. WANDA has so many great cluing options. There’s the [Movie fish] from A Fish Called Wanda, comedian Wanda Sykes, and…well, maybe there’s just those two. But those two are hilarious.
• 46d. [New Age music player, often] is a rich clue for SPA. This one does not have autobiographical import for me.
• 58d. [Euphoria] clues BLISS. You know what I’m planning to have for breakfast tomorrow? Blackberry bliss cakes, that’s what. Pancakes, blackberries, mascarpone cream, crunchy brown sugar/oats granola. (The mascarpone filling is hiding in this picture.)
• 71d. I like this clue because I misinterpreted it so badly. [Celt since 8/4/2010]? I’m racking my brain trying to think of who became somehow Irish a month ago. Durrrr. It’s Celt as in “member of the Boston Celtics,” and it’s SHAQ O’Neal. See? He already had the Irish name. It was only a matter of time.
• 89d. Back around 1990, I worked on a podiatry book and learned that the BIG TOE‘s scientific name is [Hallux].
• 90d. Any mention of the WORLD’S [__ Fair] puts a song in my head—They Might Be Giants’ “Ana Ng.” “All alone at the ’64 World Fair / Eighty dolls yelling “Small girl after all” / Who was at the DuPont Pavilion? / Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?”
• 91d. [“Constant Craving” vocalist] is the stunning k.d. lang. If you like smoky torch songs, you need her album, All You Can Eat. Scroll down to the “You’re OK” video for one of the cuts from that CD.
• 99d. [1985-’87 U.S. Open champ] is Ivan LENDL. My husband was just saying today that Novak Djokovic is as polarizing a figure as Lendl was in his day. Nobody loves to hate Rafael Nadal, right? He’s charming and humble and talented and a hard worker. Everybody likes Rafa. Not so many seem to like Djokovic.

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s Boston Globe Crossword, “Tour de France”—Sam Donaldson’s review

I suppose we all have our crossword “sweet spots” and crossword “blind spots.” When the clues and fill relate to sports, television, the Oscars, and history, for instance, I can get into a groove. But I slow down every time I hit opera, religion, literature, and the French language. For whatever reason, I have problems with anything French. Seriously. I can make a mean stack of pancakes, but my French toast always comes out soggy or overdone. I can give you the nicest peck on the cheek but my French kiss will have you running for a drool tray. The one home repair project I’ve never been able to get right even after many attempts? Yep, fixing the French doors leading to my den. Am I a latent francophobe? C’est la vie.

So imagine my delight with this puzzle. Cox and Rathvon get punny with ten different French locales. Sacre bleu!

• The [Town to race through?] is NO TIME TOULOUSE, a play on “no time to lose.” Toulouse is the sixth-largest metro area in France, with a population of just over one million. I was able to parse this one only because of my familiarity with the French painter, Toulouse-Lautrec. I had no idea Toulouse was actually a city.
• The [Site of a big upset?] is the MIRACLE METZ, from the 1969 “Miracle Mets.” The Wikipedia page on Metz, France, has a separate section on local gastronomy, featuring the Mirabelle plum. The odds of your home town being known for its contributions to world cuisine? Gastronomical.
• A [Pursuit in Normandy?] is a CAEN QUEST, from “conquest.” Perhaps not coincidentally, Caen is the burial place of William the Conqueror. I wonder if William the Shatner wants to be buried there. Caen! Caaaaen!
• The [Start on the Riviera?] is a CANNES OPENER, from “can opener.” Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood was the most recent Cannes opener—the first film screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Clearly, the organizers know a box office smash when they see one.
• Looking to say [Cheers in Brittany?]? Well, it’s BREST REGARDS, a play on “best regards.” If you feel like a boob for not knowing Brest, don’t worry: the entire metro area has just over 300,000 inhabitants. That’s not exactly a large tract of land. But I don’t mean that as a knocker on the puzzle.
• [Provencal repairs?] clues CURE-ARLES, from “cure-alls.” Its 2007 population was just over 52,000, so our geographical references here are getting even smaller. But at least Arles comes up in crossword clues all the time.
• The [Carbs served on ceramic?] is PIE A-LIMOGES, from “pie a-la-mode.” I think the clue was supposed to be a hint, as apparently Limoges is famous for its ceramics. I can now add “ceramics” to my list of crossword blind spots.
• The [“Sheepdog” leg of the Tour?] is a BORDEAUX CALAIS, from “border collie.” A double French pun! Oh là là! C’est magnifique!
• The [Ejection for not cutting the mustard?] is a DIJON LETTER, which I’m guessing stems from a “dunning letter” or “dun letter” sent by collection agents. But is that an ejection? Maybe it’s a play on the “ding letter” sent to job applicants? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
• Finally, the [Site of false starts?] is PSEUDO-NIMES, from “pseudonym.” Hey, Sue de Nimes would make a great pen-name, oui?

Somehow I survived this onslaught of French excess. In fact, by the time I was done, I rather liked it, and I was mildly proud of myself for getting through it.

The fill wasn’t especially exciting—I liked AM I LATE, clued as [“Did it start already?”], but nothing else really jumped out at me. The clues, on the other hand, were really enjoyable. [Six-legged socialist?], for example, is a fun clue for ANT. [Home to Euclid] is a wonderful misleading clue. It’s not asking for some Greek town where a mathematician grew up; it just wants OHIO. The [Piece-loving lobby?] is an easy but pleasing clue for the NRA. Other clues of note included [Actor Chris and dad Bob] for ELLIOTTS (am I the only one who didn’t know they are related?), [Cycling songs?] for ROUNDS (remember “Row, row, row your boat” or “Soft Kitty”?), [Fly, to a spider] for PREY, and my favorite, [Shown a seat?] for MOONED.

Now we come to the weekly Brushes with Lame segment, where I reveal my ignorance by reciting all of the entries and clues that are foreign to me. I sorta feel like I have confessed enough ignorance with all things French, but I’m not one to break a streak. Here’s what else stumped me:

• [Maria Tallchief’s tribe] is the OSAGE. The Osage I have seen before, but Tallchief, pictured to the right, was new to me. Wikipedia says she is America’s first prima ballerina. That’s a pretty cool distinction.
• [Pivots] clues SLUES, as apparently the words are synonymous. A slue gin fizz will make you pivot, that’s for sure.
• To [Move fast, as a cloud] is to SCUD. I only knew scud as a missile. My dictionary says a “scud” also means “slap” to a Scot and “a sudden shower” to a meteorologist.
• [Cramp] clues STITCH? Really? Why, yes it does. This stitch refers to a sudden, sharp pain. So a cramp really is a stitch.

Updated Sunday morning:

Tyler Hinman’s CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, “Sunday Challenge”—Evad’s review

Tyler’s been making some pretty gnarly grids of late–notably for Ryan & Brian’s Lollapuzzoola (see puzzle #4 “Lucky Sevens” here) and the featured 21×21 for yesterday’s Bay Area crossword tournament–so it wasn’t with a small amount of trepidation that I approached this week’s “Sunday Challenge.”

Though I found this one a bit harder than my normal running times for these puzzles, it did help to discover the “mini-theme” of two 15-letter entries that ended with SOX:

• “2010 American Idol runner-up” was CRYSTAL BOWERSOX. I didn’t follow the most recent season of AI, and was thinking of 2009 runner-up ADAM LAMBERT at first. Also, I think Crystal was eliminated before the final two…hold please, while I check. Nope, Tyler’s right, she lost in the finals to one-time paint salesman Lee DeWyze.
• I had never heard of the 1979 infamous Disco Demolition Night, but knowing Tyler to be a sports fan (just check out the new WordPress site I recently helped him launch for updates on his favorite sports teams) and that he used to reside in the Windy City, helped me piece together the CHICAGO WHITE SOX. Boy, it sure sounds people were ready to get out of those leisure suits and platform shoes and move on from the Disco Era!

Other areas of note:

• My last entry was the crosser between the author of “The Alchemy of Finance” (George SOROS, hardly on my beach reading list!) and the S of THE ASHES (I had THE ACHES before I realized there aren’t many aches from playing cricket, unless you bruise your lips sipping scalding hot tea! *ducking from our English readers*). I read here that this classic match between England and Australia dates back to 1882 and the name refers to the “satirical obituary” of the heavily favored, but defeated, British cricket team, whose ashes were brought to Australia, awaiting a reformed British team (or perhaps the zombies of the beaten team?) to reclaim them by beating Australia in the next match.
• Aussies again: SHEILAS (not KOALAS, which is what I first tried) are “Cuties in Canberra”
• Have a query (we’re all British today here) about the clue “Ticket window?” for SPEED TRAP. Is the “window” the length of road where the radar gun is being used? Or is it a window of time?
• I wonder if Southerners consider HOWDY to be synonymous with “‘Sup?” My guess is as many Southerners say “‘Sup” as Northerners (not many, in my circles anyway).
• BOW AND ARROW running down the center was a nice touch for “Valentine’s Day symbols”…the plural clue threw me off at first.
• I can only think of the SANS SERIF font, are there others with “sans” in their names? What am I (or I should say, they) missing?
• Tried LANAI for PATIO first; not sure why I went for the less obvious entry–interestingly, they both have 3 vowels.