Queue & A
by Daniel Rowe
edited by Mike Shenk
September 18, 2009


Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page (currently mistitled with a repeat of September 11's title but the answers are for September 18) or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Lifestyle page.


Theme: words and phrases converted into terms of venery
Linedance -> LINE OF DANCES
(22A [River, barn, belly])
Thread Count -> THREAD OF COUNTS
(26A [Chocula, Basie, Dooku])
Stringbean -> STRING OF BEANS
(56A [Kidney, jelly, coffee])
Group Policies -> GROUP OF POLICIES
(69A [Energy, economic, foreign])
Listserver -> LIST OF SERVERS
(82A [Acolyte, tennis player, waiter])
Blockbuster -> BLOCK OF BUSTERS
(109A [Brown, Crabbe, Keaton])
Chain Gang -> CHAIN OF GANGS
(119A [Bloods, Hells Angels, Crips])
Apologizes to Mssrs. Rowe & Shenk. Initially, I had THREes OF COUNTS for 26A. I figured it was close enough to three-count and that we must accept occasional imperfections to make the grid work. I should never have doubted.


Cool Crosses: 5
La TETE de mon AMIE. (25A Chapeau supporter) crossing (2D Gallic girlfriend). What is it with all the French? Is the language of Voltaire perceived to be more suitably high-brow for pursuits such as crosswords? Would we feel that way if the latest wave of immigrants spoke French instead of the language of Cervantes? Or if we lived in Quebec? Or is it just all the vowels?

NASTY slamdances NSYNC. (90A 1986 Janet Jackson hit) crossing (79D 'I Want You Back” band). Maleska is titubating in his tomb. For those not in the know, read any book on crossword puzzle history.

ART TEACHER reflected by REACHER. (99A Life class leader) crossing (92D Rude fellow at the dinner table). I hear a new a nursery school song, “The ART TEACHER says 'Don't be a REACHER.' ”? Or is my Sesame Street youth showing?

ASSORTS abutting ASKANT. (125A Puts into piles) crossing (100D With suspicion). I have to admit to a pet peeve against crossword words that tack on an A: AROAR, ATREMBLE, Aso on. Correct but do we really use them? These two are not exactly but close enough to get on my peeve nerve. Before a package of assorted buttons leaves the factory, someone in charge ASSORTS them? I look ASKANT at the need for a variation on askance.

NEMESES encountering a FOE. (127A Archrivals) crossing (120D Challenger). Does this put them on the same side? According to Yahoo! Answers, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” has origins in Arabic, Chinese and the Book of Exodus.


Nomination for Word of the Week & News To Me: 0
Too caught up in my near victory to notice any. As I type, Count Dooku rears his ugly head. I do not know Dooku. I take great pride in not knowing Dooku. I have no desire to ever know Dooku. I must stop. We are close to descending into a fan rant about the original Star Wars trilogy vs. the first Star Wars trilogy. In A New Hope, I find nothing but despair. I ...... need to go lie down. Link from Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki. Don't ya love the Internet?


Opportunities To Learn New Things & Admissions of Defeat: 1, with multiple arms.
So close. So annoyingly close. Most of grid fell into place in a few hours Friday evening. Was I actually going to solve this on my own? Two more days to figure out or make reasonable guesses for 7 of the 8 remaining boxes. The last box? Two further days & I finally give up. R_D LAV_R was never going to become ROD LAVER (51A & 73D two-time winner of tennis's Grand Slam). The last name crossed with CESAR (91A French film award). Given C_SAR, it was pretty much pick-a-vowel. The real problem came with DO_ (45A Average name). What could be more average than a John/Jane DOe? Which left e_E (47D Heartache) crossing the first name. You ain't kidding WOE. Particularly in a financial paper dealing with the DOW Jones Average.

Final total, two green boxes, one red. On my puzzle paper, theme answer boxes are underlined in orange. “Researched” answers appear in green. Errors discovered by consulting the solution are marked in the traditional red. (These are my pre-blog and non-WSJ puzzle rules. Yes, anal-retentive has a hyphen. I've checked.) So, which scores lower on the self-congratulation scale, one look up & one error or wild guessing & three errors? I have yet to decide.


Commentary:
If you love obscure but valid words – look to whom I'm talking - check out An Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game by James Lipton [Grossman 1968].

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan