Saturday, 4/23/11

Mike Nothnagel’s New York Times crossword

4/23/11 NYT crossword answers 0423

Wait, what? Another Friday puzzle, but on Saturday? Huh. Unusual-looking grid, with the stacked pairs of 15s framed by top and bottom rows with two black squares in the middle, and various 8- and 9-letter answers branching through the grid.

The 15s include PROXIMA CENTAURI, “DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE,” “IT’S NEVER TOO LATE” (I’m a procrastinator, and nobody ever tells me that), and STOCKING STUFFER—all great entries.
Other highlights:

• 7a. A DUST MOP is indeed a [Dry cleaner], but not in the usual sense of “dry cleaner.”
• 20a. May 2011 movie blockbuster-to-be THOR brings the pop-culture relevance. It’s the [2011 title role for Chris Hemsworth].
• 34a. Scrabbly KIBBITZ, often spelt kibitz. Not to be confused with kibbutz, which is likely the reason people end up putting the second B in KIBBITZ.
• 42a. OUT BOXES—I don’t have any. Maybe if I had an out box, I’d get things finished, just to move them into that out box.
• 2d. Yes, many an insect has a PROBOSCIS, or feeding mouthpart. The proboscis monkey just has a giant, goofy nose.
• 3d. HONEST ABE, I know. [President after Ten-Cent Jimmy] just made me wonder who called Jimmy Carter that. Er, James Buchanan, not Jimmy Carter. Dang, Rutherford Hayes had some insulting nicknames.
• 31d. H.P. LOVECRAFT, cool answer. I never have read anything by him.
• 35d. ZOOM LENS, great entry.
• 40d. Olympic event, ends with G, gotta be ***ING, right? Wrong! This tied me up for a bit. It’s the SUPER G ski event.

Four stars from me. Not wild about much of the short fill.

Michael Wiesenberg’s Los Angeles Times crossword

4/23/11 LA Times crossword solution

It was only after I finished the puzzle that I noticed the Notepad icon winking at me. “Can you spot the unusual feature in this puzzle’s clues and answers?” I hadn’t been cognizant of it while solving, but whaddaya know, there’s not a single E in the grid or in the clues. That goes a long way toward explaining the presence of the NOT SO HOT (32a: [Just okay]) fill like OSTIA, OPA, INNIS, IRANIS, and ISCHIA.

There’s still room in the grid for some highlights despite the rigors of filling a grid without the most common vowel:

• 1a. A PUSSYCAT is [Hardly an intimidating soul].
• 17a. A PIANO BAR is one [Spot to savor old standards].
• 41a. A [Tough task] is NO PICNIC.
• 61a. A [Short approach, in golf] in a CHIP SHOT.
• 13d. GLADIOLI are [Plants with spiky blooms].

My favorite clue:

• 67a. ASHTRAYS are [Butt loci]. Ha!

The no-E policy makes for some tortured, Byzantine clues:

• 54a. [Soothing hot drink also known as Lucky Dragon] is HYSON tea.
• 48d. ISCHIA is a [Volcanic Italian island known for its spas]. Say what? Uncapitalized ischia are your butt bones, the pelvic bones you sit on.
• 56d. SSTS were [Quondam JFK arrivals]. Quondam means “former, erstwhile, one-time,” but is spelled without an E.

Five more clues:

• 19a. [Sch. north of Gulfport] clues USM, the University of Southern Mississippi. Famous alumni include Brett Favre and Jimmy Buffett.
• 28a. [Civil rights activist Roy] INNIS doesn’t have the  political profile you’d expect.
• 40a. [Auckland yam] clues OCA.
• 11d. [Sports no-nos, informally] are ‘ROIDS.
• 24d. Can’t use the word wine or sherry with their E’s, so FINO is clued as a [Dry Spanish libation].

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s Wall Street Journal Saturday Puzzle, cryptic crossword “Piggy Bank”

Cute conceit, rather well executed. The unmarked theme answers have a coin—CENT, NICKEL, DIME, or QUARTER—subtracted before they’re entered in the grid, often but not always leaving an actual word. Add up all the coins you’ve collected, and they total ONE DOLLAR, the answer that fits in the shaded squares in the middle fo the grid.

Entries with money:

• 13a. {CENT}RIPETAL: anag. of NICE PLATTER
• 14a. {NICKEL}ODEON: NICK + EL + ODE + ON
• 17a. {QUARTER}MASTER: anag. of EQUATE MR. STARR
• 30a. RU{DIME}NTARY: anag. of RED ARMY UNIT
• 2d. EPI{CENT}ER: EPIC + ENTER
• 8d. {QUARTER}LIES: anag. of SQUIRREL ATE
• 9d. ADOLES{CENT}: A + DOLE + SCENT
• 10d. SE{DIME}NT: anag. of MEN’S DIET
• 18d. {DIME}TRODONS: DI (METRO) DONS
• 19d. REMINIS{CENT}: RE(MINIS)CENT
• 28d. PLA{CENT}A: anag. of CAN PLEAT
• 29d. GOR{DIME}R: GOR(DIM)ER

That’s 5 pennies, one nickel, four dimes, and two quarters, totalling ONE DOLLAR.

I had to check a dictionary for the dinosaurs called DIMETRODONS. This is no T. rex, triceratops, brontosaurus, stegosaurus, pterodactyl, or brachiosaur. Did you learn about the dimetrodon in childhood?

Four stars.

Updated Saturday morning:

Patrick Blindauer’s CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, “Special Guess”—Sam Donaldson’s review

You know what happens when I assume? I make an ass out of, well, just me. And that’s precisely what I did here on this Patrick Blindauer crossword–I read the puzzle’s title, “Special Guess,” as “Special Guests” (that’s with a “t” in the second word, in case you missed it too). That inattentive reading on my part sucked up more time than I’d like to admit, as I kept thinking throughout, “where’s the special guest?” and “I see parts of ‘guest’ here but never the whole word–what am I missing?”

What I missed, this time at least, was a little attention to detail. In fact, the puzzle’s theme is revealed at 63-Down, clued [Guess, in brief (and what’s been added to this puzzle’s longest answers)]. That would be EST, short for “estimate,” and indeed the E-S-T sequence has been inserted into four common phrases, with hijinks appropriately ensuing:

• 17-Across: The [Place with no decorations?] is the BAREST ROOM (from “bar room,” a favorite spot for brawls).  See?  Nothing too fancy at all.  And yet it eluded me like Waldo on the lam.
• 32-Across: The [Show about some demure cheerleaders?] is THE MODEST SQUAD, from the TV series, “The Mod Squad.” Around this point in the puzzle I started to see the link (or is that Linc?) to the theme.
• 39-Across: The [Question during a “Survivor” eating challenge?] is CAN YOU DIGEST IT? This is a fun theme entry, playing on “can you dig it?”  On a related note, hasn’t it been some time since there was an eating challenge on “Survivor?”  It seems like it’s all about solving puzzles and balancing on thin precipices these days (and hey, I’m all for the puzzle part!).
• 61-Across: The [Most adorable girl in Glasgow?] would be my girlfriend, were she in Glasgow.  She’s not, though, so instead the answer is the CUTEST LASS, from “cutlass.” Until writing this post, I only knew a Cutlass as an Oldsmobile model. Turns out the lower-case version is a short, heavy sword.

The two central theme entries steal the show and make this puzzle a winner in my book. To top it off, we’ve got 12 seven-letter entries in the grid and the assortment of goodies we come to expect in a Blindauer puzzle.  Sure, there’s a WARPATH, the [Road to conflict], but close by there’s TOOTLES, clued [Plays the flute]. There’s ANARCHY next to the CO-STARS, with ENYA‘s MOOLAH not far away. Then there’s the small parade of multiple-word entries (for which I am eternal fan) highlighted by DOES SO, SAW IN, TELLS ON, and AS AM I.

It did occur to me during the solve that there were a lot of abbreviations. I don’t mind them so much, so I usually don’t notice when there are more than a couple in any one 15×15 grid. But here we had STDS (clued, alas, as [Benchmarks (abbr.)] and not [Playa’s concerns (abbr.)]), SQFT, APR, ORU, SRO, ADA, and SYST.  If you want to get technical, I suppose we must also include IMF and TBS, even though I think these last ones are a little different in that most generally refer to them by their abbreviations and not by their full names.  We say “square feet” “system,” “standing room only,” and even “the American Dental Association” not infrequently, but no one ever says “The Braves game is on Turner Broadcasting System.” But technically these are abbreviations too. Did it bother you to any extent?

Doug Peterson’s Newsday crossword, “Saturday Stumper”

Newsday crossword solution 4/23/11

Smooth puzzle, tougher than the NYT crossword but not too gnarly. Four stars.

Let’s stroll through the grid:

• 1a. I went with IMPART for [Bear upon] because of my distaste for IMPACT as a verb outside of the realm of physiology (impacted wisdom teeth, e.g.).
• 14a. [They may be carried or passed] clues TORCHES. Nice one.
• 17a. [Raves] are CRITICAL ACCLAIM. How many 15-letter entries do we see that have no E or S?
• 21a. [Viking strikes] have nothing to do with the Mars lander or medieval Norse explorers. NFL quarterbacks strike the receiver with TDS.
• 35a. MUDSTONE is a [Rock that’s easily eroded]. If you’re like me and you know nothing about mudstone, read up.
• 41a. TRINIDAD is a [Columbus landfall of 1498]. And now I’m thinking of the Fannie May chocolates called Trinidads. Chocolate cream inside a coconutty candy shell. Maybe the Easter Bunny needs to pick up a box of Fannie Mays today.
• 43d. KP DUTY doesn’t exist as military punishment anymore, right? The mess halls are mostly staffed by civilians? Clue is [Assignment for 52 Down], which is PFCS, or [Specialists’ underlings: Abbr.].
• 55a. [Miller’s leftovers] are BRANS. Does bran get pluralized much?
• 60a. FROZEN DAIQUIRIS are [Slushy stuff]. I’m a margarita person, and on the rocks, not frozen.
• 64a. Is this football? [Referee’s ruling], NO CATCH?
• 65a. [Bravado] is SWAGGER. Just read yesterday that constructor Eric Berlin’s preferred Old Spice deodorant is now labeled “Swagger.” Is that a brand name any of you would want to buy?
• 66a. The MERSEY is a [River to Liverpool Bay]. I have taken a ferry ‘cross the Mersey, and it was cold and windy.
• 5d. [Boxers, by birth] clues CHINESE. As in the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers were a fiercely nationalistic secret society, and “Boxer” is a translation of their Chinese name, meaning “righteous harmony fists.” How many of you would use Righteous Harmony Fists Deodorant?
• 7d. FLAKE OUT is a great colloquialism, meaning [Fail to follow through].
• 18d. “LADY MADONNA” was the [Last pre-Apple Beatles tune].
• 25d. CACTI are the [Source of dragon fruit].
• 39d. LABRADOR, part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, is [Home for some Inuit]. Did you know: Labrador is much bigger than Newfoundland but has a sparse population of about 26,000 (1 person per 4 square miles).
• 51d. Favorite clue: [Man on a mission] is a FRIAR.
• 59d. ASHY is clued by way of [Wheyfaced]. Wow. No matter how pale from shock, fear, or illness I might get, I would not want to be called whey-faced.