Brainstorming
by Myles Callum
edited by Mike Shenk
January 29, 2010

Full answers not yet available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page.

Theme: IDEA
Word embedded in phrases, mostly in front: RIDE A-, BRIDE A-, PRIDE A-, HIDE A-, DECIDE A-, WIDE A-, SIDE A-. One in the back half of the phrase: -I DEALER.


Just Because: 2
HONALEE {21A Puff the Magic Dragon's land} - I've always hated that song because I feel for Puff. He's going to live forever without someone to visit him? No, thank you. Abandonment issues anyone? It is not however, about drugs, so says Snopes.

LEGO {85D Company whose name comes from the Danish for "play well"} - Who says childhood has to end? Ogden Nash: “You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.” The Bible: “...and become as little children...” Matthew 18:3 KJV.


Admissions of Defeat: 0?
When the teacher doesn't show up to grade our work, doesn't that mean we give ourselves and A and go home?


Commentary: A decent puzzle that did not grab me nor inspire discussion. The second hide-a-word in a row, a theme more about letter order than any radical cleverness in content, and half a dozen deju vu words. Granted I'm casting aspersions without doing the research to back them up but I'd swear I'd seen ONE LOVE elsewhere in the past week. However, I defer to the puzzlers's authority & admit I may not be feeling grabesque just now. When everyone in the party is getting up your nose, it's time to consider the common denominator.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

Making a Few Bucks
by Colin Gale*
edited by Mike Shenk
January 22, 2010

*Pseudonym of Mike Shenk as an ANAGRAM {2D Ancients, for instance} of collegian, so I'm told. Not to be confused with Colin Gale the Head of the School of Textiles, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England. I recently met a woman who has contacted all of 3 her Internet name-mates. I've looked up mine but haven't contacted her.

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page.

Theme: STAG rebus
Instead of typing out 14 clues which you already know, I've broken down the word usage. (It's my party and I'll make laziness a virtue if I want to.)

stag-
STAGNATE
STAGGER

-stag-, as a form of -stage
HOSTAGES
POSTAGE
UPSTAGE

-st ag-
BELFAST AGREEMENT
PROTEST AGAINST
CONTRAST AGENTS
FIRST AGE

-s tag
MATTRESS TAG
PLAYS TAG

-st a g-
CAST A GIANT SHADOW
BUST A GUT
JUST A GIGOLO

A question for anyone out there who solves online. I can easily write 4 letters in one square. How do you convince the crossword program to do so? Okay, I read the instructions but how does having only the first letter influence your solving, particularly if the rebus is mid-word?


Sub-theme: UP
SETS UP {83A Frames}
WAS UP {38D Batted}
UPSTAGE {58D Eclipse}
FINISH UP {81D Prepare to leave for the day}
Also ON in 11 clues, including 2 three-way nests but only 1 as stand-alone, ON TOPIC {19A Relevant}


Crosswordpuzzlese: 1
A new category. Haven't the foggiest but get because they are standard crossword puzzle answers. Don't know a car clue or {66A Royale Sedans, for example}? Try REOS.


News To Me: 4
EGIS {26A Protection} – Part of defensive armor. I couldn't parse this even after I got the letters. Duh. A variant was the name of my college yearbook. Or, the phrase “under the aegis of...”.

ARA {31A Parseghian in the College Football Hall of Fame} – also a disease foundation.

MIRIMEE {41A Carmen's creator} – written not sung.

ARETES {50A Knifelike ridges} – I should have known this from cwpuzzlese.


Opportunities To Learn New Things: 0
Admissions of Defeat: 0
My first for 2010! Odd, considering the trouble I had wrestling this sucker to the ground.


Variety Puzzle: Snowflake
I have snowflaked my way into a corner. I know (or looked up) that Potomac [River] belongs but there is no place for it to flow. Which means I need to erase words and start again with different words &/or arrangements. I dislike backing up. Words should stay were they are put.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

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

Potluck Dinner
by Randolph Ross
edited by Mike Shenk
January 8, 2010

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page [note: this is a new link for 2010] or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Leisure Weekend or Lifestyle Arts pages.

Theme: A dozen menu items of professional interest.
NAVAL ORANGES {25A What the admiral brought to the p.l.d.?}
BUNION SOUP {39A What the podiatrist brought to the p.l.d.?}
KARAT CAKE {49A What the goldsmith brought to the p.l.d.?}
FRENCH FLIES {60A What the entomologist brought to the p.l.d.?}
SEIZER SALAD {74A What the repo man brought to the p.l.d.?}
PI A LA MODE {84A What the mathematician brought ...?}
ENGLISH TEE {95A What the British Open winner brought ...?}
RITZ QUACKERS {115A What the duck hunter brought ...?}
TUNER CASSEROLE {3D What the piano repairman brought ...?}
WRY BREAD {5D What the satirist brought to the p.l.d.?}
BAGELS AND LOCKS {54D What the hair stylist brought ...?}
COALSLAW {87DA What the miner brought to the p.l.d.?}
An impressive number of theme answers, but some dishes only Andrew Zimmern would eat. That's the trouble with potlucks. You can't control what people bring.


It's a Small, Small Crossworld: 7, at least
IMUS {19A Morning man on the radio} & NYT Fri [1/8/10] {51D 1989 Radio Hall of Fame inductee} Another clue that's easier, make that inescapable, if you live in NYC.

RAE {51D Explorer of Canada's coast} & LAT Sat [1/9/10] {22A Northwest Passage explorer}

ETO {75D WWII sphere} & NYT Sun [1/10/10] {49A D.D.E's 1942 Command}

EON {98D Very long time} & LAT Wed [1/13/10] {59A Years and years}

Same letters, different usage
OAR {66D Galley item} & NYT Fri [1/8/10] {45A Put in one's ____ (interfere)}

Different letters, same usage
SACRA {45A Pelvis connectors} & SACRUM NYT Wed [1/13/10] {9D Pelvis part}

And while we're at it
APED {100A Made like} & APE NYT Tue [1/12/10] {5D Monkey's uncle?}

For commentary, see blogs listed on left. (That's too many links even for my Google addiction!)


Admissions of Defeat: 3
Got AVANTI {9D 1972 Billy Wilder film} because of the car rather than the movie.

Completely missed on MELANIE {58A “Brand New Key” singer}. I had bELAmIE with bFA and emS. Technically, I would argue that curating is competitive enough one would need a PHD. So while MFAs was the answer for {58D Curators' degs.}, neither would be correct. Once I had the initial b, I tried to fill the singer's name out with m, creating the bastard child of Belafonte and the Bellamy Brothers. Totally barked up the wrong tree with ANS {52D T or F, often}. Well, T and F are small, about the size of an em-dash, perhaps? Amazing the contortions the mind can generate. Got the second a in KARAT wrong but after all of the above, a minor matter.


Commentary: I'm going out on a limb and assuming that crossword puzzle people are word people. If you laugh, or at least smile, at the sight of the word impluvious (adj.) “Wet with rain”, check out Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea (Perigee 2008/2009 pb [p87]). For the rest of you, move along, nothing to see here, move along.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

Welcoming '10
by Alice Long
edited by Mike Shenk
January 1, 2010

Alice Long is sister to last week's Natalia Shore, i.e. an alias of the editor, an anagram of collegian. So I'm told.

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page [note: this is a new link for 2010] or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Leisure Weekend or Lifestyle Arts pages.


Theme: 10 added to phrases in celebration of the new decade.*
POR-TEN-T AUTHORITY {23A Oracle?}
PO-TEN-T BELLY {33A Sumo wrestler's asset?}
WOULDN(')T HURT TEN-A()FLY {47A Campaign slogan for a New Jersey mayoral candidate?}
HEAR-TEN-ING AID {66A Cheering section, say?}
AMBULANCE CHAS-TEN-ER {82A One taking emergency vehicles to task}
ARMY TEN-ANTS {99A Base residents?}
TEN-SING LIKE A BIRD {11A Imitating Tom Turkey before Thanksgiving?}
[* I hopped up and down about 2001 being the real start of the century, but loosen up after I read a convincing argument for it all being arbitrary.]


News To Me:
ESTOPPED {38A Prevented legally} – 'Oh no you don't. My lawyer won't let you.'

ELD {65A Former times, poetically} - According to my OED connection, ELD can be noun, adjective or verb, mostly to do with old age. Byron and Longfellow both used it in the sense it is used here.

CUGAT {44D Bandleader Xavier} – Known for Latin music.

AARONIC {88D Like lower-order Mormon priests} – Named after Moses's brother.

Speaking of Aaron, Webster's Third lists eight words starting with AA: aardvark, aardwolf, Aarhus (Denmark), Aaron~ic, ~ite,~'s-beard, &~'s-rod, and aasvogel (vulture).

News words are saved from blank-squarehood by their crosses. Even then, all I know about them is the information contained in the clue and answer. Just above these on the solving scale are recall words. {14D Arthur's foster brother} had the solving impenetrability of a news word but once I saw KAY, White's The Sword in the Stone came rolling back.


Admissions of Defeat: 1
So close. I guessed on 3 letters/5 words and missed one. Why does it always come down to an evil cross of proper nouns? This one had a 50/50 cross in the middle right and a nest of p.n.s at the bottom.

WOULDN(')T HURT TEN-A()FLY/ELAYNE {37D Comic Boosler}. Tenafli, NJ, seemed more likely but the expression calls for fly. Boosler's name could have gone either way. I took a flyer on Y and stuck the landing.

EAKINS {105A “The Gross Clinic” painter}
EGAN {105D Richard of “A Summer Place”}
SARA {107D Singer Bareilles}
Couldn't get the beginning or end of the painter here. Had a vague memory of the name Richard Egan without context. Bareilles was right out of the ballpark. Given EAKIN_, it could have been EAKINg but gARA made no sense. I settled on EAKINd with dARA. But no.

For Your Amusement, a totally unrelated Summer Place.


Commentary: With apologies, in the winter a compulsive puzzler's fancies lightly turns to thoughts of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, February 19-21, Brooklyn, NY. I've never attended but hope to, so I stick with the Monday & Tuesday NYT & LAT puzzles. Partly, I figure I may see words that will repeat later with harder cluing. Also, in Crossworld [Broadway, 2005], Marc Romano advises potential attendees to keep up with all levels of puzzles, “Since there's an art to doing the easier puzzles as much as there's an art to doing a Friday or a Saturday, and knowing it is important to scoring high in the first few rounds during a tournament.”[p66]

OTOH, Monday has become a bit of a fill-in exercise. I have a misty recollection of reading that left-handed writing stretches one's brain cells. [I believe it is in Dean Olsher's From Square One [S&S 2009] but couldn't locate the passage.] So I did. I filled in this Monday's NYT left-handed. While it is too soon to tell the effect on brain function, it did make the puzzle amusingly difficult. Did I have this much trouble learning to write the first time around? Another thing I did years ago in the interest of body balance was to switch my mouse to my left hand. Unclear what this has done to my chi, but now I can click & take notes without having to switch hands.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

Gift Returns
by Natalia Shore
edited by Mike Shenk
December 25, 2009 (or so)


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


Those more knowledgeable than I inform us that this week's constructor is the editor under the anagram of Another Alias. Or for me, yet more proof that I have no business playing Scrabble. I couldn't anagram my way out of a baper pag, no matter how much I enjoyed Stephan Fatsis' Word Freak (Houghton Mifflin 2001, Penguin 2002) or the documentary Word Wars. (On a completely off topic aside, Word Freak lives on my desk. Specifically, under my printer's paper tray, so when the Blog Supervisor sleeps on the printer, she doesn't break off the tray.)


Theme: Two-word nouns with the first word amusingly reversed.
FLOG CLUBS {23A “I'm returning these woods – I beat myself up every time I use them”} - A coincidence I'm sure, but ya gotta wonder.
NIT SOLDIERS {25A “I'm returning these toy fighters – they're really lousy”} - Bugs do not pass my breakfast test.
MINED JEANS {39A “I'm returning these pants – I don't dig them like I used to”}
EVIL RECORDING {48A “I'm returning this concert CD – it's profoundly bad”}
SAG HEATER {63A “I'm returning this room warmer – it makes my floor bend downward”}
DEB LINENS {69A “I'm returning these sheets – I tuck them in, but they're always coming out”}
MOOR FRESHENER {78A “I'm returning this scented spray – it smells like a bog”}
GOD COLLARS {86A “I'm returning these pet accessories – they're quite holey”}
TOPS REMOVER {106A “I'm returning this laundry product – it only works on blouses”} - Throughout her life, my grandmother feared for my wardrobe. Whenever I visited, she wanted to buy me tops. Not shirts, not blouses, but tops. Memory can attack from the weirdest angle.
RAW BONNET {110A “I'm returning this feathered headdress – it's just not refined”}
Some weeks, the theme answers need crosses to get got. This week's were detailed enough that they could be determined on their own & then used to help with the downs.


Cool Crossings:
It cannot be an accident that BOA {111D Fluffy wrap} crossed feathers with WAR BONNET.
Or that
RNS {108D ER personnel} were around the corner from the ICU {100A Hosp. section}.
Or that
DIRTY {117A On the take} was in the laundry aisle near TOPS REMOVER.


Repeats of the week: ENYA {118A Irish New Age star}
NYT Friday [12/25/09] {16D “And Winter Came ...” artist} Co*mm*en*ta*ry.
&
LA Times Thursday [12/31/09] {52D One-named New Age singer}. Commen*tary.
also
INCA {19A People who honored the creator Viracocha}
appeared as INCANS in NYT Thursday [12/31/09] {70A Pachacuti's people}. Co*mm*en*ta*ry.

I confess to being new enough to regular puzzling that crosswordese & crosswordese people still constitute happy gimmes.


Puzzle on the web: HIS NIBS
{43D Mock title for a pompous boss} or a source for fountain pens.


Fusspot Peeve of the Week:
J DATE{40D Online singles service available in English, French and Hebrew} – What, no Oxford comma?!? Compulsive menu proofreaders will enjoy Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris (Farrar 2000). I have only read a review of The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English from Shakespeare to "South Park" by Jack Lynch (Walker 2009) but it is now firmly on my wish list. I too “get afflicted with that crankiness when a TV anchor describes a Chihuahua rescued from drowning as 'very unique' or...” Of course, the must-read for grammar geeks remains Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (Gotham 2006 pb). Even if she is soft on the Oxford comma [p85].


News To Me [I got 'em but I didn't get 'em]: 0
Opportunities To Learn New Things: 0
Admissions of Defeat: 2
TEED {74A Prepared for a drive}/ORMOND {50D Julia of “Legends of the Fall”}
Drive = golf is almost what the Englishman calls crossword Pavlovian. Witness the LA Times Wednesday [12/30/09] {32A Driver's aid} TEE. Commen*tary. However, one still needs to read the clues. PrepareD past tense, not prepareS -> TEEs.

RAITT {55A “Something to Talk About” singer}/MINT {39D Source of change}
Knew of Bonnie, couldn't spell her. MINe {Source of change} as in silver mine, kinda, sorta, please?

STTA was also the title of a movie in which a gentleman of my acquaintance was the stunt rider for Robert Duval.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

Stocking Stuffing
by Dan Fisher
edited by Mike Shenk
December 18, 2009


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


Theme: People, things, and words with a TOY surprise inside. Two spliced, one Japanese, one French, one American, and two Russian. Harks back to the international origins for KI-D in Elizabeth C. Gorski's November 13 puzzle.
BLUEPOINT OYSTERS {23A They were originally harvested off Long Island} – Kurlansky's book on the subject is embedded in my To Read pile. He is also working on New York on the Halfshell, “A fully illustrated version of the Big Oyster with its unusual history, recipes, science and humor for 7 to ten year olds. The history of New York City told through its famous oyster beds and how they were destroyed.”
TOYOTA PRIUS {34A Popular hybrid}
CHATOYANCY {47A Iridescent quality of some gems} – The nonjewelery world knows this as cat's eye: “The term "chatoyancy" comes from the French "chat", which means cat and "oeil", which means eye. So, the term "chatoyancy" literally translates as "the eye of a cat". For this reason, this phenomenon is also known as cat's eye effect."
LA TOYA JACKSON {67A “Just Wanna Dance” singer}
LEO TOLSTOY {83A Count Vronsky's creator}
DOSTOYEVSKY {94A “Notes from the Underground” author} – An attempt at the definitive fan page has Dostoevsky. Wiki has the TOY spelling as main with 6 other varietiations.
GOOD TIDINGS TO YOU {109A Carol wish}
TOY {108D Stocking stuffer found in seven of this puzzle's longest answers}


News To Me [I got 'em but I didn't get 'em]:
TRON {74A Light cycle rider of film} - The film, the game.
KPMG {29D One of accounting's Big Four} - A Texas A&M professor supplies everything you'd want to know, including accounting humor.


It's a Small World After All: 2
Dual appearances by this week's puzzle personalities:
MEADE {42A Victor at Gettysburg} also appearing in the NYT Sunday [12/20/09] as {117A Army of the Potomac commander during the Civil War}. Having lived in Pennsylvania & in Dixie, I must say I do not get the continued fascination with this divisive & bloody era.
U THANT {71D Kurt Waldheim's predecessor} was also in the LA Times Tuesday [12/22/09] as {54A '60s United Nations secretary general}. I really should know this, from crossword puzzles if not from an awareness of the outside world.


Admissions of Defeat: 2
ITTY {58A Microscopic}/CANTAB {44D Darwin College student} – I was so sure of ITsY that I figured CANsAB was an Aussie reference that went past me. I will put questionable answers in light pencil, but once a letter is written in, I have trouble reevaluating, even in the presence of impenetrable crossings. The Googleverse supports cantab as an abbreviation for Cantabrigian, i.e. www.cantab.org.
VIDA {16A Life, in Lima}/DON BUDGE {18D First player to win tennis's Grand Slam} - MEADE got me BUDGE but I missed DON. vON BUDGE could have been a last name for all I know about tennis. VIvA, VIDA, whatever. OTOH, if ITsY/ITTY had been the the only thing between me & a win, I would have been apoploptic.


Commentary: Wishing you & yours a happy Feast of St. Stephens here and in ENGLAND {119A Where Boxing Day is celebrated}.


Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan