Pontification
by Joon Pahk
edited by Mike Shenk
March 19, 2010

Full answers not yet available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page. So take all answers with the appropriate amount of salt. (I still haven't figured out how to amend a blog without reposting and changing the date – and if I'm going to have my act together sufficiently to post this early, I want it recorded!)

Theme: Papal names inserted into common phrases.
URBANE COMMERCE {23A Suave business dealings?}
ALL INCLEMENT {33A Totally stormy?}
KOSHER SALTPETER {52A Ingredient for making gunpowder during passover?}
SATURN BENEDICTION {71A Blessing from a Roman deity?}
PRODIGAL PAULSON {88A Former Treasury secretary who couldn't keep to a budget?}
SIMONLEON SAYS {104A Game in which money talks?}
MIRACLE GROPIUS {121A Wondrous Bauhaus School founder?}
A list of popes.

Full disclosure: Got the pontifical connection. Was less than impressed with the resulting theme answers. I expect better. Totally missed that it was an insertion theme until reading Mr. Pahk's discussion below. I'll take stupid for $200, Alex. In his blog about the 2010 ACPT, Tyler Hinman says, “Here's a little tip: If you have "I guess that sort of makes sense" crossing "I guess that's just a word I've never heard before," YOU'RE WRONG, DUMBASS.” My corollary, if two professional and way-smart cruciverbalists create what seems to be a flaccid puzzle, YWDA.

Nomination for Word of the Week: SANTA
There has to be a very special level of punsters' hell for someone who can clue this with {104D Pole star}. It's the sort of answer where you get the word and have a minute to think, Huh? before the sandbag of sense thumps you upside the pun bone. Also MOO {99D Lea low} - a low in the lea, not a clever term for low-lying meadow & DRESSER {130A Unmentionable place} - a place for unmentionables. Mr. Pahk would easily hold his own at a pun tournament in Callahan's Crosstime Saloon [Spider Robinson /Ace 1977, Tor 1999].

News to Me: 4
PI DAY {117A March 14, to math teachers} - It's got it's own web page. It must exist.

ACETAL {126A Volatile solvent}

ORNETTE {127A Jazz great Coleman}

NO MAS {108A Roberto Duran's uncle?} - Spanish for no more, i.e. crying uncle. Apparently Duran is known for saying that in a rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard. Or maybe not.

Admissions of Defeat: ??
Results skewed this week. I got so excited about the new section that I read it before finishing the puzzle. Had been hung up on a 5x13 box in the bottom, left corner. Still, I never would have gotten HOMESLICE {82D Bro}. HOMEboy & HOMies wouldn't stretch and even I drew the line at HOMEdudes. With that & SIMOLEON SAYS (& the massive theme hint), I completed the rest with no ?s, although that doesn't guarantee no errors. Filed between the Aggg of last week and Almost of the week before.

ACPT Countdown Clock: 363 days
Friday, March 19, 2010, to Friday, March 18, 2011.

Likelihood of my attendance at the ACPT: 30% and falling.
Took a stab at the 2009 puzzles, available by mail. Flew through #1 – ARMS RACE by Byron Walden. Came to a screeching halt on #2 – ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF by Brendan Emmett Quigley. Am girding loins to look at #3.

Enough from me. Below I have started a new section, to which Mr. Pahk was generous enough to contribute.

Constructor's Corner: Joon Pahk
“Random thoughts about the puzzle's construction:

“i don't remember the origin of this puzzle. you might think that PIUS -> GROPIUS would have to be the seed entry, but i don't think that was actually the case. it might actually be one of those puzzles where the title asserted itself first, and then the theme fleshed itself out around it. the idea of doing an insertion theme where you don't insert the same letter or letters every time is, if not exactly new, at least rarely seen. so i wanted to try that, but of course you need to have the inserted bits fall into a narrowly-defined group; otherwise it's just unfair on the solver. anyway, i have a bit of a thing for catholic trivia, but it turns out there are only so many pope names that are famous as being pope names as well as usable in this kind of wordplay. JOHN PAUL is probably the most famous pope name among the current generation, but of course it's not really a part of any longer word or phrase. the same was very nearly true of PIUS; i'm certainly familiar with walter gropius, but i was a bit concerned that he wasn't quite famous enough for a theme answer. the only pope that had a lot of lively pun possibilities was LEO, perhaps in part because it's the shortest, and perhaps because it's the only one that could be slipped into the middle of a word instead of having to be tacked onto the beginning or end. some ideas that i left on the cutting room floor were LEONINE TAILS, HOWDY LEOPARD, OLEO PIONEERS, and the sneaky PILE ON CUSHIONS. i'm pretty happy with SIMOLEON SAYS as the best of the bunch, though, especially with the apt clue about "money talks." (while we're here, happy 60th birthday to my father-in-law, also named LEO.)

“i think the original version of this puzzle had 8 theme answers: the 7 popes in the final version plus JOHN. but JOHN wasn't doing very much other than just sitting there. i think the answer was CHICKEN LITTLE JOHN. and the fill wasn't very good. on the advice of brendan emmett quigley, i redid the puzzle with just the seven strongest theme answers, and to compensate for the relatively light theme, i tried to go for a low word count (136, not easy to do in a 21x puzzle), resulting in some wide-open spaces. there are a few more partial phrases (EYE ON, IS MY, SAID A, ARE UP, IN HER) and a few more "cheater" squares in the grid than i usually prefer, but overall i'm pleased with the fill. HOMESLICE is a new answer that i was very excited about, and the US HISTORY/THE NATION stack is pretty fun. i also kind of liked {They lean to the right}, ITALS, sitting on top of {Left-leaning weekly}, THE NATION, in the grid.”

Thank you Mr. Pahk

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan