I Have A Dream
by Gabriel Stone
edited by Mike Shenk
January 15, 2010

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page [note: this is a new link, see below].

Theme: A word from Monday split various ways across words & phrases.
SPANISH OPENING {22A Set of chess moves also called the Ruy Lopez}
ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS {37A Catholic retiree}
ORTHOPEDIST {50A Joint expert}
PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS {65A Consumer product from Adobe}
ANCHO PEPPER {84A Sweet chili ingredient}
ARTHUR SCHOPENHUAER {91A Proponent of the philosophy of pessimism}
SMOOTH OPERATOR {113A Sade song}
HOPE {104D Dream found in this puzzle's seven longest answers} – You may agree or disagree with the message, but MKL was an amazing speaker.
(Presenting both sides is lovely in theory but allow me to plant my flag as part of the 'liberal media conspiracy' when I say there are a lot of wackos, um, strident individuals with anger issues, out there.)


Family of the Week: The Brady Bunch
CAROL {62A Mike Brady's second wife}
STEPPARENT {46D Mike Brady, for one} - What is with the '70s nostalgia? It wasn't that much fun the first time around. Furthermore, the parts that were worthy of being remembered, such as Billie Jean King's defeat of Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes in 1973, aren't. Of course, sometimes kitsch is the point, as with Monk's Cooper Clan.


Opportunities To Learn New Things: 2
ELYRIA {96D City of northeast Ohio} – So, are all cities over 50K fair game in crosswords? The Census Bureau lists 718 of which Elyria is #612 with a population 55,953. Or perhaps all county seats [Lorain]? Wiki lists 3140 counties. BTW, “At the 2000 U.S. Census, only 16.7% of U.S. counties had more than 100,000 inhabitants.”

HIRT {102D “Sugar Lips” trumpeter} – All musicians are obscure to me.


Admissions of Defeat: 1
MACK {32A Womanizer in hip-hop slang}/PLINKO {10D “The Price is Right” game} - PLINKO was a goner, as was any slang but I should have known MACK from Buffy. So, I'm uncool. I'm comfortable with that. Since I'm also a word geek: “But mack is actually much older than hip-hop. It is found in jazz slang as well and is recorded as far back as 1887.”


Commentary: Their New Toy
The WSJ now has a dedicated puzzle page, including a commentary section. So far the consensus is Don't F*** with the crossword puzzle.

They have added a variety puzzle every Saturday to go with the standard Friday crossword. Once a month will be a British-style cryptic crossword by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon or an acrostic by Mike Shenk. These will alternate with a biweekly novelty word puzzle by Patrick Berry & Mike Shenk, in which the across-and-down grid will be replaced with snakes, snowflakes, honeycombs, and other shapes. So they say.

I have to confess, I did not attempt the inaugural cryptic. As it is, crosswords are threatening to take over my life. Which is my way of avoiding the fact that I have no clue how to approach a cryptic. It's on my list.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan