Cooking 101
by Tony Orbach & Patrick Blindauer
edited by Mike Shenk
October 16, 2009

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Lifestyle page.


Theme: Phrase + C = Cooking Class
CHOP SKIP AND JUMP
{23A Course on keeping fit during vegetable preparation?}
CHOW IN THE WORLD {41A Course on international cuisine?}
CHIP HUGGERS {49A Course for British fried food enthusiasts?}
LETS GET READY TO CRUMBLE
{68A Course on preparing coffeecake topping?}
CROCK OF AGES
{88A Course in time-honored earthenware cooking?}
FORBIDDEN CLOVE {97A Course on a taboo ham seasoning?}
TAKE IT ON THE CLAM
{118A Course about using raw bar condiments?}


Nomination for Clue/Word of the Week: HETERO {59D Straight} First I put HonEst. I was so proud of myself for having come up with an alternative to 'straight as in line' only to be mystified when the across themes made that impossible. More on this below.



News To Me [I got 'em but I didn't get 'em]: 3+
INGRATE {1A Oblivious beneficiaries} – Really? I could picture Leopold being aware of his share in Godmother Petunia's will but not grateful.
AKELA {15A Cub Scout leader}
CAMISE {105A Loosefitting shirt} – Not to be confused with cami/camisole, which qualify as tops but not what my grandmother would call shirts. As a mild claustrophobe, I may never use the word camisole again without wincing, “In some inpatient psychiatric circles camisole has been the affectionate term for a straight-jacket.” Eeek.

And the usual slew of whodat? proper nouns:
Places
BASRA {39A Sinbad's home port} - Sometimes 26 letters just aren't enough. The letters also stand for Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association & Bay Area Soccer Referee Association.
ASSAM {102A State south of Bhutan} - India
People
REBA {57A Nellie's portrayer in the version of “South Pacific” aired by PBS [McEntire]}, REA {60A Stephen of “The Crying Game”}, ALAIN {74A Director Resnais}, ELYSEE {75A ____ Palace (Sarkozy's residence)} EERO {95A Eliel Saarinen's son}, ELIAS {7D Author Canetti}, TAJ {11D Atlantic City casino, with “The”} ASCH {24D “The Nazarene” author [Sholem]}, NASH {32D He rhymed “Bronx” with “thonx” [Ogden]}, MAYS {64D The Giants retired his number [Willie]}, FABIAN {97D “Turn Me Loose” singer}, ETTA {110D “At Last” singer James}
Most were a mystery until Googled. A few I knew, such as REBA, but didn't know they had done that.


Admissions of Defeat: 1
A lesson in humility. Not the error. RoBELAIS for RABELAIS {87D Creator of Gargantua and Pantagruel} is not going to keep me awake at night. The shadow of Odin made oTLI seem more reasonable that Atli {92A Brynhildr's brother, in myth}, although the name is more recognizable once the nice webpage tells you it is a variant of Attila. No, the edification occurred in the time it took solve the other 99%. My recent streak of victories and near victories made me complacent. Even leading to the stray thought that if my learning curve continued, would I still want to pontificate on puzzles in six months? HA! Usually by Tuesday, it's all over but the guessing and I'm flogging myself to get on with the writing. (BTW tip of the hat to those who do this every day.) This Tuesday, I was flogging myself to get on with the finishing. It began when I got the theme before the fill. Usually even if I get the general idea I need some crossings to get the exact letters. Not so. For example, I got the grid-wide LETS GET off of __MB__. Admirable yes, but the rest of the white boxes where lying there laughing at me.

Not only was it a matter of time but a slew of perfectly reasonable wrong words: Dale for DELL {54D Wooded valley} or Braver for BOLDER {79D More intrepid}. There were even wrong crossings: blouSE for CAMISE led to the reasonable but wrong hbo for TCM {94D Cable channel whose first broadcast was “Gone with the Wind”}. I recall watching endless loops of GWTW back in the dark ages when HBO was the coming thing.

I even had help for which I cannot be blamed. S_Y_ became STYE {58D Lid problem} when the Tuesday NYT [10/20/09] had {70A Eyelid woe}. To the background music “It's a Small World After All”, the same puzzle also used CARLAS {12D France's Bruni-Sarkozy and others}. Not that it helped with ELYSEE. For more SWAA, the Thursday NYT [10/22/09] had the HETERO/Straight combo {48D}.

I had to solve it by nibbling at a few, putting it down, coming back, nibbling at a few more. Why does that work?


Commentary: ASS {5D Imbecile} & APE {56A Galoot}
What is with the animal insults in our language? Asses are smart and apes are graceful. The saying in the equine world is:
A horse knows one thing – what you want him to do.
A pony knows two things – what you want him to do & what he wants to do.
A mule knows three things – what you want him to do, what he wants to do & the fact that he ain't gonna do what you want him to do.
The mule didn't get his smarts from his horse parent.

When I worked at a zoo, my favorite exhibit was the rat habitat built into a wall of the Children's Zoo barn. [You can't have a barn without rats!] Not only did I enjoy startling people who where unknowningly standing next to it, but the rats were fun to watch. If language is any measure, people like to think of themselves as tigers and eagles. However, we as a species have a lot more in common with the rat: active, intelligent, passionately omnivorous, urban-dwelling, disease-carrying, and so on.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan