Thursday, 7/8/10

BEQ 7:55
Fireball 6:43
LAT 3:30
NYT 3:28
Tausig untimed
CS untimed

John Farmer’s New York Times crossword

This is one of those puzzles that is both themeless and 100% themed: Each and every answer has an EVEN number of letters, as does each and every word in the clues. So there are no 3s, no 5s, no 7s—just 4s, 6s, 8s, and 10s. The clues don’t use the words a, the, for, or and, and those are generally useful little words.

This crossword is also a good bit easier than yesterday’s NYT. Do you think the two should have been switched?

The fill contains some splendid answers and some woeful ones. First up, the best:

• 14a. JUAREZ is the [Sister city of El Paso]. I know this mainly because crossworder Monica Krausse is in El Paso.
• 19a. GELATI are [Desserts in Rome]—or desserts at the Paciugo chain of gelato joints. I like the fondente extra dark chocolate, personally.
• 24a. REDGRAVE is [“Georgy Girl” star Lynn]. Vanessa has an odd number of letters.
• 44a. I actually do like DAN’L here. Dan’l Boone, Dan’l Webster. [Relative of Thos. or Wm.] puts me in mind of Jas., the traditional abbreviation for “James.” My family was listed in the phone book under my dad’s name when I was a kid, and a family friend assumed my dad’s real name was Jasper.
• 12d. LA TRAVIATA is your [Venice premiere of 1853].
• 30d. [Rudy Giuliani turf] is the BIG APPLE. Bloomberg has 9 letters. Why not [Giuliani or Koch turf]?

And now, the worst (look, all those words have an odd number of letters):

• 17a. UNBENT is [Straight].
• 39a. TESTINGS are [Laboratory sessions]. Why do only one testing when you can do a few testings? (Ouch. Generally the noun form is “test.”)
• 48a. FEEL WARM feels weird, at least with the clue [Suffer from high humidity, e.g.]. Can you think of a clue with even words that connotes the feverish version of feeling warm?
• 1d. [Tropical avians] are ANIS. Crosswordese.
• 6d. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of [Bygone pitching star Johnny] SAIN.
• 35d. LESS OF is basically a 6-letter partial, no? [Thinks ___ (disesteems)]. I disesteem the answers in this section of the post.

Peter Gordon’s Fireball crossword, “What’s the Sense?”

Peter toys with the quote theme concept by featuring a meaningless quote, which is actually more fun than your standard quote/quip theme. It helps, of course, that I love tough puzzles and Peter keyed the clues to a Saturday NYT level. The theme entries play along with that, as having one word of the intentionally meaningless quote doesn’t lead you to the other words. Well, unless you remember the Chomsky quote, which I’ve seen before but forgot.

The line is “COLORLESS / GREEN IDEAS SLEEP / FURIOUSLY,” and it’s 100% grammatical. But something can’t be both colorless and green. Ideas don’t have colors. Ideas can’t sleep. And it’s quite difficult to sleep furiously. This sentence is discussed in LINGUISTICS classes.

Hardest clues for me:

• 14a. [London writer of fiction] is EDEN. I had to poke around Google for a few minutes post-solve to understand this. Jack London wrote a book, Martin Eden, whose protagonist is a struggling writer.
• 15a. [Free-range animals’ places] clues LEAS. I am pretty sure you will never see the word “lea” on the packaging of any free-range meat. These free-range animals are ranging more freely than that.
• 57a. [Hockey player who’s often in the penalty box] is an ENFORCER. Sports, meh.
• 68a. [Opposite of set] is ROSE, in terms of the sun’s apparent movements. I was thinking of Jell-o setting.
• 70a, 29d. Two French administrative departments’ capitals, CAEN and LYON? Pfft.
• 22d. [Antepenultimate Greek consonant] is PHI. One of these days, I should learn the order of the letters in the Greek alphabet. How many of you have that memorized?

Favorite five:

• 21a. [High sign?] is the EUPHORIA you may have if you’re stoned.
• 43a. HENNA is a [Temporary tattoo dye]. I was just talking about henna tattoos last week with my son’s dentist, who was sporting one.
• 66a. Kristy [McNichol’s “Little Darlings” costar] is Tatum O’NEAL. Ah, movies from my early adolescence.
• 9d. Surprising trivia: [Setting of the oldest continuously operational synagogue now under the U.S. flag] is ST. THOMAS, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• 23d. [Quad locale] is the THIGH where your quadriceps muscle is, not a college campus.

Dan Naddor’s Los Angeles Times crossword

The late Dan Naddor crafted a theme in which words that can fill in the blank in “shoot the ___” appear at the end of unrelated phrases:

• 18a. [*Second most populous city in Michigan] is GRAND RAPIDS. Shoot the rapids in your canoe if you dare.
• 24a. [*1980 biopic about boxer Jake La Motta] is RAGING BULL. Shooting the bull is the same as…
• 35a. …shooting the breeze: it’s chatting. [*Beachgoer’s relief, perhaps] is an OCEAN BREEZE.
• 48a. DREAMWORKS is the movie [*Studio co-founded by Spielberg]. I had to look up “shoot the works.” I use “wad” in the phrase to express the same concept.
• 54a. [*Phenomenon near the autumnal equinox] is the HARVEST MOON. Shoot the Moon is an Albert Finney movie I liked and the card game it’s named for.

Five clues:

• 4a. [“My Life on the D-List” comic Griffin] is named KATHY. I just read her memoir, Official Book Club Selection, and enjoyed it. (Don’t judge me. Yes, you. I see you there, arching your eyebrow at me.)
• 1d. [Whitewater figure] is STARR because prosecutor Kenneth Starr was so fond of whitewater rafting. You should see that guy shoot the rapids!
• 2d. I was afraid [Prepare for more pictures] would be something woeful like REPOSE, but it’s RELOAD, as in reloading film in your non-digital camera. It’s been years since I’ve seen anyone loading film.
• 9d. A SEAM is a [Line of pants?]. That clue is just plain weird. Why the question mark? Is it playing on some other familiar phrase that is completely escpaing me at the mo?
• 12d. My favorite clue: [Notre Dame’s locale] is the state of INDIANA, where the University of Notre Dame is located. No Hunchback, no Esmeralda, no City of Lights.

Updated Thursday morning:

Martin Ashwood-Smith’s CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, “PintoS”—Janie’s review

Ah, “PintoS.” Not these or even these, but the wordplay type. That’s where a word’s initial “P” is changed into “S.” And with that fine bit of WIT [Drollery], Martin presents a new twist on four old phrases—three of which sound as natural the phrases they’re based on. All in all, this makes for a pretty durned successful set of theme phrases. See for yourself:

• 17A. [Fed up with other people’s trash?] SICK OF THE LITTER. Oh, this is wonderful. The entire meaning of the base phrase (pick of the litter) is absent. None of the other theme fill is as successful in that regard, though each has something to recommend it.
• 29A. [Activity involving U-boat hopping?] SUB CRAWLING. While I find the new phrase a tad iffy, that clue does a great job of setting it up. And the whole concept is funny. Just hope everyone’s wearing scuba gear… (which may even be how some folks go pub crawling…).
  
• 47A. [Service that lets you buy a PlayStation quickly?] SONY EXPRESS. Cute. Seems Sony has some extended service program called “Sony Express Ship Extended Service.” (I wonder if it gets delivered by Pony Express…)
• 61A. [Reviews for psychics?] SEER ASSESSMENTS. And when those are “reviews for psychics by psychics,” then they’re seer peer-assessments, right?

ASTONISHES [Knocks for a loop], TAKING BETS [Bookie’s activity] and SVENGALI [Evil hypnotist of fiction] all add to the quality of the longer fill, IMHO [Bit of chat room shorthand]. Ditto ATELIER [Artist’s studio] and IN FOCUS [Clearly viewable].

There’s a bit of serendipity in the SW corner where ASIA [Everest’s continent] crosses ASSAI [Very, to Verdi] at the former’s final “A.” First, there’s that playful clue for assai, but then notice the anagram and the way assai = asia + s.

Seems a bit odd to have “ET TU” [Rebuke to Brutus] in the same puzzle with CAESAR and then to clue Caesar as [Salad variety], but I s’pose that’s what keeps things interesting!

Ben Tausig’s Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, “We Interrupt This Program…”

This fun, fresh theme interprets the familiar phrase in the puzzle’s title as TV show titles that are interrupted before you get to the end. The clues allude to both the original show’s plot and the theme entry’s twist on it:

• 17a. Gossip Girl is curtailed to GOSSIP GI, a [Drama about an anonymous soldier who blogs about juicy military scandals?].
• 25a. The Odd Couple is shortened to THE ODD COUP, a [Comedy about a government takeover that’s alternately well-organized and absurdly sloppy?].
• 34a. How I Met Your Mother drops down to HOW I MET YOUR MOTH, a [Sitcom that gives the backstory on getting to know a bug?].
• 48a. American Idol becomes AMERICAN ID, a [Reality show in which psychoanalysts compete?].
• 57a. China Beach turns into CHINA BEA, a [Drama about actress Arthur’s trip to Asia?].

I’m not crazy about that last example, but the first four are perfect and entertaining.

Other highlights:

• 14a. [Virtual adoption] gets you a CYBERPET. My son does not have a cyberpet, but he did lose his first real pet yesterday. Bugsy, the bug-eyed goldfish, rest in peace. (Luckily Frenzy and Brian still look healthy. Bugsy had dropsy, the poor thing. Did his name doom him?)
• 2d. A BYO is a [Restaurant that may charge a corking fee, for short]. If you bring beer, do you avoid the charge?
• 5d. UPPITY means [Putting on airs].
• 10d. [Options for those dealing with personal demons?] are EXORCISMS. Don’t try this at home, kids.
• 32d. WINTRY MIX, that blend of snow, sleet, and rain, is a [Forecasting term coined in January 1996]. Wow, would that feel good right about now. Chicago has a South Carolina humidity today, though luckily not the heat.

Toughest clue:

• 36d. [Abraham’s father] is TERAH, and this is one of those Old Testament names I’ve never seen before.

Brendan Quigley’s blog crossword, “Technological Breakthrough”

Clever gimmick/theme, though the ambitiousness of the theme is accompanied by a few compromises (nobody’s excited to include ASTRUT, SLEEKEN, LEASER, and NBAERS, are they?). The Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Who Is Again Known as Prince recently proclaimed that “THE INTERNET is completely over” and thus he will not make his new album available for download. The Internet: It’s like MTV, no longer relevant or hip. So saith Prince. Anyway, Brendan interprets that by putting Internet letters over other letters in selected squares. 1D is AMERIND, but to work with the first three Across intersections, .GOV is included in the AME squares for {GA}MS, {OM}IT, and {VE}NA. The other corners have an added .COM over the HAI of THAI, .NET beside the IDO of PERDIDO, and .EDU below the TRO of TROD.

I like the two spoken phrases, “OH, HI” and “I MUST SAY” and “YEAH, YOU.” I like FO’C’SLE (also spelled FO’C’S’LE, but I feel two apostrophes is plenty for one word) because it’s crazy. I like the Smart (hidden capital S in the clue) MINICAR, EL NOR{TE}, DIE HA{RD}, and a WATER BED. I’m not crazy about SUSAN B. as an entry because it’s basically a 6-letter partial, but on the other hand, it’s SUSAN B. Anthony, and I like her history and her dollar coin. I like [Giant head?] as a clue for SOFT G, and I like PHOOEY even though the cartoon clue didn’t quite resonate.