Jazz trumpeter Sandoval / THU 5-17-12 / Mr Ellington in 1977 song / 1960s teaching focus / First satellite to transmit phone call through space 1962 / Peter Annette of film / Nog flavorer

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: spelled songs — three 7-letters songs are spelled out in the grid as a succession of unchecked letters:

• DIVORCE (It's spelled out in a Tammy Wynette hit)
• RESPECT (It's spelled out in an Aretha Franklin hit)
• TROUBLE (It's spelled out in a Travis Tritt hit)

Word of the Day: IASI (50D: Former capital of Romania) —

Iași (Romanian pronunciation: [jaʃʲ]; also historically referred to as Jassy or Iassy) is one of the largest cities and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859, then of the United Principalities from 1859 to 1862, and the capital of Romania from 1916 to 1918.

Known as The Cultural Capital of Romania, Iași is a symbol in Romanian history. The historianNicolae Iorga said "There should be no Romanian who does not know of it". Still referred to as The Moldavian Capital, Iași is the seat of Iași County and the main economic centre of the Romanian region of Moldavia. (wikipedia)

• • •

I actually liked this theme a lot, but that doesn't mean I didn't feel the sting of dreck like ITOS (11D: Midor and Lance), ARTUROS (17A: Jazz trumpeter Sandoval and others), O'TOOLES (18A: Peter and Annette of film) (three plural names?!), ATONERS, SETTS, ENTWIST, ASSISTON (!?), ST. ELMO'S (too long for a partial) and especially IASI, which looks like something someone pulled out of the crosswordese machine when they were cleaning it. But there were several nice answer to compensate a little (i.e. NEW MATH (19A: 1960s teaching focus), SIR DUKE (34D: Mr. Ellington, in a 1977 song), EGO SURFS), and, as I say, the theme is nifty. Lots of write-overs today because of ambiguity (or bad clue reading on my part)—WENT APE for GONE APE; BEAR CUB for LION CUB; ONE IRON for TWO IRON (8D: Club not seen much nowadays); SETES for SETTS (forgot how to spell this word, which I know only from crosswords) (28D: Small paving stones); and RESHOD for RESHOE (there's the bad clue reading) (7D Do some farrier's work on). All of these mistakes were pretty easily fixed. No major hold-ups today. The SE threatened to be tough at one point, but folded after "ESO BESO" showed its hoary mane (54A: Paul Anka hit with a rhyming title). Never heard of MERIDEN (!?) (43A: Connecticut city on the Quinnipiac River) but didn't need it, as I knew all the crosses. Even the NE, with two significant write-overs, didn't put up too much fight—ONE didn't work, I switched to TWO; BEAR didn't work, I switched to LION. Easy enough. Probably the toughest part was getting started. Somehow got Lake Victoria confused with Victoria island and wanted CANADIAN at 1D: Like part of Lake Victoria (UGANDAN). Ended up having to back into that corner via RESHOE (luckily the wrong RESHOD was right in all the right places, NW corner-wise).



Bullets:

• 8A: Afghan power (TALIBAN) — the reason I changed BEAR to LION. Thanks, TALIBAN!
• 9D: Class for budding painters (ART I) — Thought answer might have something to do with flowers. It didn't. 
• 37D: Asian land where French is widely spoken (LEBANON) — always a deliberate mind%&^$ when Middle Eastern countries are clued (correctly, but no-one-would-say-that-ly) as "Asian."
• 32A: First satellite to transmit a phone call through space, 1962 (TELSTAR) — learned it from crosswords. Still sounds like a cheesy corporate name, possibly for a telecommunications giant in some dystopic future.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. For anyone with an interest in solving the puzzles from this year's Crosswords LA tournament, they're now available online at http://alexboisvert.com/xwla/. They are certified Fantastic—I test-solved all of them.

For $5, you get six tournament crosswords (by Donna Levin, Aimee Lucido & Zoe Wheeler, Todd McClary, Trip Payne, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Byron Walden), two bonus crosswords (by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson), and a clever team game (by John Schiff). As always, proceeds from puzzle pack sales are donated to charity.

Daddy Warbucks's henchman / THU 5-10-12 / City near Entebbe airport / 1942 Tommy Dorsey hit / Marine snail / Eastern dance-drama / Breakfast cereal propeller-headed alien / Galerie art museum on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue

Constructor: Jules P. Markey

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: JUMP (69A: Word that can precede each set of circled letters, forming a literal hint for entering certain answers in this puzzle) — circled letters spell out words that can follow JUMP, and the Down answers literally JUMP the letters, i.e. when entering Down answers with circles in them, treat circles as if they do not exist. Just JUMP them.

Word of the Day: ESTELLE Parsons (40A: Actress Parsons) —

Estelle Margaret Parsons (born November 20, 1927) is an American theatre, film and televisionactress and occasional theatrical director.

After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961. During the 1960s, Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and was also nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel (1968). (wikipedia)

• • •

A great idea that seemed kind of unfair at the end. The whole point of *cross*words is that every letter is crossed, i.e. part of an Across and a Down answer. Providing JUMP just isn't sufficient to make up for the fact the circled letters aren't crossed. I could've run JUMP phrases all day and might not have hit "jumpsuit." I just lucked out that I lived in a suite my freshman year and had SUITEMATEs—but that took a lot of just staring thinking of words for "apartment." The BAIL in BAILEY'S also took some doing, and did the SHIP in COURTSHIP (though I was only stalled a few seconds with that one). So finishing the puzzle was a little annoying—it wasn't "hard" at all, actually. There was just a lot of dead air toward the end while I tried to come up with SUIT. Once I got the theme, and it didn't take that long, the non-circled part of the puzzle was certainly much easier than average. But throw in the rule-breaking circles, and you've got yourself a fairly time-consuming Thursday. Times at the NYT site are hilariously high (took me 10:21 on paper—at the time I finished, that would've put me in second place ... and online solving is generally at least a little faster than on-paper solving)


Circled JUMP answers:

• SUIT inside SUITEMATE (17A: One sharing an apartment)
• SEAT inside LET'S EAT (21A: "Chow down!")
• ROPE inside EUROPEANS (33A: Poles, e.g.)
• BALL inside "CAT BALLOU" (43A: Film for which Lee Marvin won Best Actor)
• BAIL inside BAILEY'S (53A: Big Irish cream brand)
• SHIP inside COURTSHIP (61A: Engagement precursor)

As I said, nothing particularly challenging, fill-wise, about this grid. Let's see ... somehow remembered QUISP (9A: Breakfast cereal with a propeller-headed alien on the front of the box)—or sort of remembered with a little help. Remembered the "Q" anyway, which helped change EMIT to QUIT (9D: Give out). KABUKI (23A: Eastern dance-drama) was actually one of the first answers I got after KAMPALA (5D: City near Entebbe airport), BLANC (24D: Mont ____), and WHELK (8D: Marine snail) gave me crosses—this was how I knew the circles were screwy: no headway around circles, easy headway everywhere else. THE ASP was actually my very first entry (20A: Daddy Warbucks's henchman), and I was lucky, because that gave me something very solid and secure in that rough NW corner. Somehow solidified my sense that the circles were screwing things up—if the crosses weren't working, it sure wasn't THE ASP's fault. Tommy Dorsey returns (?!) with an even earlier song than last week's "OPUS ONE." Today it's "TAKE ME" (51A: 1942 Tommy Dorsey hit with Frank Sinatra vocals). Nope, don't know that one either. guessed the BAR part of I-BAR (48A: Flanged structural element), which was good enough (confirmed by 'BAMA; 49D: Rival of Ole Miss). I think I had dessert once at a cafe near or adjoined to the NEUE Galerie (38D: ___ Galerie, art museum on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue). Got confused at 41D: Five-time U.S. Open winner (SAMPRAS) because I couldn't think of a tennis (or golf) player whose name was SAM besides Snead ...


And I'm done. Didn't exactly *enjoy* it, but it provided an interesting challenge.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Dana of MacGyver / THU 5-3-12 / Extra life in video game / Article with ushiromigoro / Henry who founded Cadillac / Persistent Seuss character / Org associated with US Cyber Command / Single-mom sitcom of 2000s / Explorer born around AD 970

Constructor: Neville Fogarty

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: MISPELLED (60A: Like the six longest answers in this puzzle) — commonly misspelled words are, in fact, misspelled in this grid.

Word of the Day: Dana ELCAR (19A: Dana of "MacGyver") —

Dana Elcar (October 10, 1927 – June 6, 2005) was an American television and movie character actor. Although he appeared in about 40 films, his most memorable role was on the 1980s and 1990s television series MacGyver as Peter Thornton, an administrator working for the Phoenix Foundation. Elcar had appeared in the pilot episode of MacGyver as Andy Colson (a completely different character), but was later cast as Peter Thornton, making his first regular appearance in the 11th episode of the first season. (wikipedia)

• • •

Why ERICSON is not part of the theme, I don't know (23D: Explorer born around A.D. 970)—it's the only word in this grid I routinely misspell (or misremember how to spell; I don't have occasion (one "s") to use it in my everyday writing very often). I want there to be two Ss, or maybe an E as the last vowel. ERICSEN ... no, I can't see myself making that error. ERICSSON? Is that something?

Neville tells me he wrote this puzzle three years ago. Such is the fate of many an NYT submission: an acceptance (ideally), followed by an indeterminate time in puzzle purgatory (I've got one at something like two years and counting). Neville is a much savvier constructor now. He seems a bit anxious about how the puzzle will be received. I think it's a cute idea. I don't misspell these words (except perhaps GENEOLOGY), but with the exception of OCCASSION (really?! rhymes with "passion"?), I can imagine that these words are, in fact, frequently misspelled. I remember forcing myself to remember how MILLENNIUM is spelled (sometime around Y2K). The spellings of the others either seem intuitive or have somehow just stuck. The grid seems reasonably well filled, though ELCAR (19A: Dana of "MacGyver") over LELAND (21A: Henry who founded Cadillac) (? and ?, respectively) was a bit harrowing, and I came to a complete halt at the very end, in the tiny western section. Two wrong answers (DDE and STE instead of IKE and MME) (25D: Five-star W.W. II hero, informally + 27D: Fr. title) really screwed me, as did absurd cluing on SIX and KIMONO. SIX is a [Big roll] only if you are a rolling a single, six-sided die, and why would you do that? SIX is just not "big." TWELVE, I'd buy as "big." Not SIX. And leaving off "of clothing" in 30A: Article with an ushiromigoro is just perverse. "Article takes me to a written work or to grammar. Or to the Articles of Confederation, I guess. Anyway, with IKE, SIX, and MME misbehaving, and the "Article" shenanigans, I lost a good 30 seconds. Puzzle still came in a solid Easy.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Study of trees? (GENEOLOGY)
• 22A: Tenacity (PERSEVERENCE)
• 50A: Survey staple (QUESTIONAIRE)
• 10D: Long time (MILLENIUM)
• 31D: Event (OCCASSION)

Got started quickly with 1A: 2007 Ellen Page film ("JUNO"). Somehow first-guessed UTEP (2D: Sch. with the mascot Paydirt Pete). Got a bit hung up in the PALERMO / PCBS region (5D: City gained by Rome during the First Punic War + 5A: Some coolant fluids, for short). Had SALERNO at one point. Nice modern clue on ONE UP (4D: Extra life, in a video game). I like the clue on SAM I AM (43A: Persistent Seuss character), though at fist I could think only of the book's title ("Green Eggs and Ham") and the damned fox ... you know, the one in a box. I have never seen a single episode of "REBA" (I don't think it's really for ... me), but I knew it instantly, thanks to much crossword training (57D: Single-mom sitcom of the 2000s).

Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Capital city on Daugava River / THU 4-26-12 / Oto neighbors / Hebdomodally / Doggie old cartoon pooch / 1970 Hugo Award-winning novel by Larry Niven / Indian sauce with coriander cumin / Group making billion-dollar loans /

Constructor: Julian Lim

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: "IT'S / A SMALL [WORLD] AFTER ALL" (1A: With 40-Across, a chorus line ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme) — a [WORLD] rebus, with 5 [WORLD] squares

Word of the Day: "RING[WORLD]" (50D: 1970 Hugo Award-winning novel by Larry Niven) —

Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and preceded by four prequels, and ties into numerous other books set in Known Space. Ringworld won the Hugo Award in 1970,^[1] as well as both the Nebula Award and Locus Award in 1971. (wikipedia)

• • •

Over the past six weeks, my Tuesdays are a minute slower than Mondays, Wednesdays a minute slower than Tuesdays, Thursdays *three minutes* slower than Wednesdays, and Fridays just 13 seconds slower than Thursdays, and Saturdays just six seconds slower than Fridays. This means that there is hardly any difference between my average Thursday and Saturday solving times of late: 19 seconds. Zero difficulty gradation. I don't think I like this. And yet, I do like challenging puzzles. It just seems like Saturdays should be appreciably harder than Thursdays, and they just haven't been, of late. Today, I had a rebus in a grid that didn't look like a rebus grid (i.e. it has a bunch of longish Acrosses that looked like typical theme answers). There was the initial difficulty of turning up the theme, and then the added difficulty of Fri/Sat-style cluing, all over the place. By far the toughest parts were the NE and SW. I say this having taken my first stab at the NE w/o knowing the theme. After I figured that out, that corner got easier. But I knew the theme when solving the SW, and it didn't help as much as it should have. Or, that is, it did, eventually. Who knows where the damned [WORLD]s are gonna be? I had to remind myself of the theme in order to pick up (finally) OLD [WORLD]. Never heard of "RING[WORLD]". Did not know THIRD had anything to do with yellow ribbons (49D: Place for a yellow ribbon), which I associate with oak trees.

I think the revealer is a winner. Otherwise, it's just a rebus, like any other. Well, better/tougher, in that the [WORLD]s are not symmetrical, but there was an utter haphazardness about the [WORLD] placement here that was actually a little annoying. Three of the five long Acrosses have them, but their symmetrical counterparts don't. The fill is pretty strained in many places. I would've gutted the whole grid from NROTC (29A: Campus org. for ensigns-in-training) all the way east (theme matter excepted). That Down sequence of CRT / RAITA (37D: Indian sauce with coriander and cumin) / OL' MAN / PLEUT is particularly unlovely. One or two of those answers, fine; jammed together like that, suffocating. ROOT CROP made me wince (35A: Turnips, e.g.), as ROOT VEGETABLE is the far more common phrase—but it's validish, so no big problem. But having TOSS DOWN instead of TOSS BACK was a huge letdown. It always sucks when an answer is defensible, OK, but not really the mot (or phrase) juste. It's like soy cheese. Maybe passable, but just ... not right.



UNHINGE is a fantastic word (55A: Drive mad). HAB ... isn't (60D: Old Testament book before Zephaniah: Abbr.).

Theme answers:

• SEA [WORLD] / [WORLD] BANK
• "REAL [WORLD]" / FIRST [WORLD] WAR
• "IT'S A SMALL [WORLD] AFTER ALL" / [WORLD] WIDE WEB
• "A WHOLE NEW [WORLD]" /  [WORLD]LY
• OLD [WORLD] / "RING[WORLD]"

Also, "a chorus line" for the revealer? Vague to the point of absurdity. Yes, the line is from the chorus ... of a song. Something a little more specific/vivid would've been nice.

Bullets:

• 19A: Capital city on the Daugava River (RIGA) — total lucky guess. Four-letter capitals FTW!
• 27A: Hebdomadally (A WEEK) — kind of an ostentatious clue for not-so-great fill. Still, that is a good (insane) word.
• 7D: Result of rampant inflation? (POP) — cute
• 12D: ___ Doggie (old cartoon pooch) (AUGIE) — just not happening today. No idea where this name disappeared to, but I had a lot of trouble getting it back. Deputy Dawg, sure, but AUGIE Doggie was nowhere to be found.

• 22D: Arizona and Arizona State joined it in '78 (PAC-TEN) — a most welcome gimme.
• 34D: Plum look-alike (SLOE) — this helped me change TOSS BACK to TOSS DOWN (an answer I had to choke down ... while I choked back tears ... not really, but it's interesting that "back" and "down" can (it seems) follow both "toss" and "choke")

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Thank you in Swahili / THU 4-18-12 / Trevelyan villain in Goldeneye / Actress Steppat On Her Majesty's / Dwarf planet beyond Pluto / Old Shaker leader / Montgomery of Jazz

Constructor: Sean Dobbin

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: OUTSIDERS (35A: Nonmembers ... or what 4-, 7- and 10-Down lack?) — three theme answers have "R"s that are outside the grid (i.e. you have to imagine the initial and terminal Rs in those answers)

Word of the Day: ILSE Steppat (19A: Actress Steppat of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service") —

Ilse Paula Steppat (November 11, 1917 in Wuppertal – December 21, 1969 in West Berlin) was a German actress. Her husband was noted actor and director Max Nosseck. // She began her cinematic career at the age of 15 playing Joan of Arc. Steppat appeared regularly on the German stage, and starred in more than forty movies. In the 1960s, she appeared frequently in crime movies based on the work of author Edgar Wallace, such as Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloss, Der unheimliche Mönch and Die blaue Hand, which brought her great fame in Germany. // In her only English language role, Steppat played Blofeld's assistant and henchwoman Irma Bunt in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In the first English language conversation between Steppat and the movie's producer, Albert R. Broccoli, she confused the word verlobt (engaged) with engagiert. Despite this, however, she was awarded the role of Irma Bunt. Steppat was unable to capitalise on her new fame outside of Germany, as she died of a heart attack only four days after the movie's international release. She is buried in the Waldfriedhof Dahlem in Berlin. (wikipedia)

• • •

Talk about your crossword coincidences. An ILSE who played an IRMA!? Wow.

Not sure why, but this puzzle took me Forever to get into, and even after I got the theme figured out, I still struggled. Nothing up top was a gimme except EST'D and IS IT I ... maybe GETS. It's possible that if I'd abandoned the N much earlier and headed south (where I might've seen the gimme GWENS, for instance; 65A: Music's Stefani and others), I could've got rolling sooner. ERIS would've helped. I don't know. Between ridiculous stuff like ILSE (who?), ALEC (who?), ASANTE (we're supposed to know Swahili now? why is this valid?), and EGON (22A: Certain Ghostbuster) (I recently rewatched "Ghostbusters" and still needed virtually every cross), and then forced-tough cluing — SELECTS as a noun (!?!?! ouch.) (11D: Superior things); EDITION as a [Dictionary specification]!? — I just floundered. But mostly I just failed to come up with stuff I should've come up with. %&^*ing CASSAVA (1D: Tapioca source). I wanted IPOD at 1A: It can change one's tune and so both CASSAVA and CAPO (and, indeed, the whole NW corner) stayed hidden for a long time. Not LA PAZ or SUCRE or LHASA but SANA'A! Brutal (20A: World capital at 7,200+ feet).


Concept seems fine. Cute. None of the long phrases feels like a bullseye, though. All accurate enough, but just a bit ... off-center. Apt-ish. Defensible, but odd. RESIGNATION LETTER is probably closest to spot-on. Anyway, not thrilling, but just fine. Wish the bizarre proper noun onslaught had been less onslaughty, but there's nothing really beyond the pale. Not much else to say.

Theme answers:

• 4D: Checker or Domino (OCK AND ROLL SINGE)
• 7D: It may include two weeks' notice (ESIGNATION LETTE)
• 10D: John Calvin, e.g. (ELIGIOUS REFORME)

So not all Rs are "outside." Just some.

Bullets:

• 16A: Wolf whistle accompanier, maybe (LEER) — I was looking for something more vocal. Hubba hubba or yowza or the like.
• 46A: Old Shaker leader (ANN LEE) — super-important name to know for crosswords. Her full name shows up a lot (as do ANN and LEE, obviously)
• 66A: Recording artist made famous by the BBC series "The Celts" (ENYA) — never heard of that series. She was made famous by "Orinoco Flow," as far as I remember.

• 52A: He once wrote "Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague" (SAFIRE) — that's a twofer. Nice.
• 8D: 10th-century Holy Roman emperor (OTTO I) — among the dreckiest, crosswordiest answers. And it helped me a Lot today. I also managed to remember the much less crosswordesey WES (59D: Montgomery of jazz), though like OTTO I, he's known to me only through crosswords.
• 2D: Ellery Queen and others (ALIASES) — wanted PEN NAMES or PSEUDONYMS from the second I saw the clue. Criminals have ALIASES.
• 25D: Floride, par exemple (ÉTAT) — fooled by this one at first. Not sure my brain even registered the Frenchness of "par exemple."
• 49D: ___ Neuchâtel (LAC) — no idea what this is. At all. I mean, I assume it's a lake, but ... yeah, for me this is up there with ASANTE and ALEC and ILSE as far as familiarity goes. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Alternative to Putinka briefly / THU 4-12-12 / Go farther sloganeer once / Actress Veronica who was model in last cigarette ad show on US TV / Judiciary checker / 1929 #1 hit Now he's gone we're through / He is more antique Roman than Dane / When doubled vitamin deficiency

Constructor: Michael Shteyman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: AMERICAN / RED CROSS (26D: With 21-Down, humanitarian organization) — other answers include CLARA BARTON (20A: Founder of 26-/21-Down, who died on April 12, 1912) and BLOOD DONORS (55A: Some 26-/21 Down volunteers), and there's a (non-) RED CROSS formed by the black squares in the middle of the grid

Word of the Day: XEROSIS (44D: Abnormal dryness, to a dermatologist) —

n., pl., -ses (-sēz).

1. Abnormal dryness, especially of the skin, eyes, or mucous membranes.
2. The normal hardening of aging tissue.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/xerosis#ixzz1rn12REbL

• • •

Happy death day, CLARA BARTON!

One of my readers is a bigwig at the RED CROSS, so I know at least one person who will like this.

A pretty thin theme mildly enhanced by 1. intersecting theme answers and 2. a shape in the middle. Honestly, I couldn't even see a theme until I was nearly done. It's not like I haven't (many times) seen grids with crosses in the middle of them. When I got the adjacent Xs, I thought maybe there was gonna be some weird "cross" / X / something theme. But it's just RED CROSS. Actually, theme is probably CLARA BARTON, since it's her death day and all, but CLARA BARTON isn't in the middle of the grid, so too bad for her. I thought maybe LAB COAT (32A: White jacket, often) was supposed to be part of the theme, but it's symmetrical with LEXICAL (42A: Vocabulary-related), which surely isn't.

Surprised at how good my time was considering how much floundering there was, starting with CIA at 1A: Govt. org. (really, do they both need to be abbr.?) whose logo depicts an eagle standing on a key (NSA). Was annoyed at having to know some random model until I realized she is a common crossword answer—just normally clued as a "Hill Street Blues" actress (4A: Actress Veronica who was the model in the last cigarette ad shown on U.S. TV). Annoyed by clue on PINE TAR, since it helps you get a handle on only one, singular, thing (that I know of) (24A: It helps you get a handle on things). Also annoyed by clue on BADNESS (9D: Cool quality, in modern slang), since it's most commonly used —slangily— as a synonym for "Cool!" i.e. adjectivally. See also "money" (looks like a noun, used —slangily— like an adjective). I'm guessing [Initial feeling?] gets you ESP because E and S and P are ... initials? Terrible. Never heard of Putinka (2D: Alternative to Putinka, briefly)—meaningful to the constructor, no doubt, but do most U.S. folk know it? Not that STOLI was hard to get. I mean, what else happens in Russia besides drinking and political assassinations, right? (please send offended mail to: "I'm kidding")



You can have all these back: BERI, ORNE, PASA, OREAD (ugh, I booted that one—went with DRYAD), ONE C (really!?), ABU.

Bullets:

• 46A: Judiciary checker: Abbr. (EXEC.) — I like this clue. It's interestingly awkward.
• 39D: 1929 #1 hit whose title follows the line "Now he's gone and we're through" ("AM I BLUE?") — rough for me. First, when I hear that song, a man is singing it. Second, I thought the song was a man's name, so I was like "AMI ... AMI who? Who the hell is named 'AMI'?"
• 4D: He is "more an antique Roman than a Dane," in literature (HORATIO) — Alas, the "Dane" part made this easy(ish).
• 52A: Capital of the country that's alphabetically first in the United Nations (KABUL) — I went through a brief "capital memorization" phase. I didn't get far. I *did* get to KABUL, since I was proceeding through the atlas alphabetically.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS SYNDICATED SOLVERS (i.e. May 17, 2012 solvers)! These puzzles are Fantastic. All $$ to charity. Get 'em.

P.S. For anyone with an interest in solving the puzzles from this year's Crosswords LA tournament [which just happened this past weekend], they're now available online at http://alexboisvert.com/xwla/.

For $5, you get six tournament crosswords (by Donna Levin, Aimee Lucido & Zoe Wheeler, Todd McClary, Trip Payne, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Byron Walden), two bonus crosswords (by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson), and a clever team game (by John Schiff). As always, proceeds from puzzle pack sales are donated to charity.

Group of mountains / THU 4-5-12 / Sicilian province its capital / Title role in 1975 Truffaut film / Stanley who wrote George Mills / Comics character who almost never speaks / Square at end of fourth row in Battleship / Woody part of Ohio /

Constructor: Elizabeth C. Gorski

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "CHECKERBOARD" — this is the word that the un"check"ed letters spell out. You figure this out by looking at the "theme":

• GAME OF CHESS (17A: Pastime for Napoleon and Fidel Castro) [Me: "Who's Napoleon Castro?"]
• JOCKEY SILKS (11D: Colorful riding gear)
• QUILT DESIGN (24D: Bee production)
• RACING FLAGS (51A: Things waved at the Indy 500)

[NOTE: "unchecked" letters are letters that aren't part of both an Across and a Down—normally an American crossword no-no]


Word of the Day: MASSIF (1A: Group of mountains) —

n.

1. A large mountain mass or compact group of connected mountains forming an independent portion of a range.
2. A large section or block of the earth's crust that is more rigid than the surrounding rock and has been moved or displaced as a unit.

[French, massive, massif, from Old French. See massive.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/massif#ixzz1r841CWyS

• • •

Winced a lot during this one. An *awful* lot for a Gorski puzzle. How I got through it almost 2 minutes faster than either of my last two Thursday puzzles, I have no idea. I think I winced because I was actually solving the strange / awkward answers rather than getting stumped by them. Let's start at 1A: MASSIF, a word I've literally never seen. So ... why not learn a new word? Great. But then there's ADELE [&$%ing] H, what on god's green earth!? (8D: Title role in a 1975 Truffaut film) I literally watched a Truffaut film ("The 400 Blows") less than 48 hrs. ago, and then read a short (Ebert) article on it—an article that mentioned many other Truffaut films—and I don't recall seeing this title character. Love (hate) that the "H" is one of the unchecked letters. Ended up not mattering, but that's still some perverse stuff right there. So after I SHEAVED that answer (again, I say: "!?!") (26D: Collected, as wheat), there was ELKIN (42A: Stanley who wrote "George Mills") (who? and he wrote What? How is that helping?), and then D-TEN (41D: Square at the end of the fourth row in Battleship); *again* with the unchecked letter being the one "Could Be Anything" letter in the answer [Later: "oh ... 'fourth row' ... 'D' ... yeah, that makes sense ... now"]. Jeez louise. LEUMI is something out of some crossword nightmare I had years ago (i.e. I'm sure I've seen it, but it's terrible as a crossword answer and I'll never remember it) (27A: Bank of Israel). It was like this all over. Not. Smooth. At all. Plus, SHOWER SCENE (25A: It prompted a flood of "Psycho" analysis) and PRESELECTED (43A: Chosen beforehand) are both as long as the other theme answers (Across and Down), but ... they are not theme answers. That's really bad form. It just is. The shower curtain in "Psycho" was *not* checkerboard-patterned, I assure you. Nevermind that two of the theme answers are preposterously worded. Pretty sure Castro and Napoleon played CHESS, not GAME OF CHESS, and bees produce QUILTS; quilters don't just "design" them and then say, "that's it, let's play a GAME OF CHESS." Criminy. So many issues.



That said the core idea is pretty dang smart—especially considering the way CHECKERBOARD plays on the types of letters that make up the word, i.e. "unCHECKed" letters. That's a stroke of genius. And those unchecked letters ended up being very gettable, just from considering what CHESS might have to do with the theme. So I love the theme idea and really don't care for the execution at all. And there we are.

Bullets:

• 15A: Comics character who almost never speaks (ODIE) — resisted this for a long time. I'm guessing this is "speak" in the dog sense. I don't remember his ever uttering words.
• 37A: Where King Arthur was conveyed for his wounds to be healed (AVALON) — Right up my alley. This is how I knew my (flying leap of a) guess at SHEAVED was right. 

• 35D: Sicilian province or its capital (ENNA) — always gets a lot of googlers. Crosswordese of the highest order. See also ARIOSE (30A: Songlike). Thank god I do a lot of these things.
• 29A: Woody part of Ohio? (HAYES) — Woody HAYES was the longtime coach of OSU's football team. The clue is a bit forced. I got it and recognized the name but couldn't place it while solving. Only when I was done did it come to me. Eight years at Michigan may have caused me to develop a tendency to repress OSU knowledge.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Source of Erebus Gaia in Greek myth / THU 3-29-12 / Rhône feeder / Carrier whose main hub is Kastrup airport / Cousin of a bittern / Big name in kitchenware / Electrician's alloy

Constructor: Milo Beckman

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: The opening notes of "TWINKLE TWINKLE, Little Star" and the "NOW I KNOW MY ABCS" song — rebus puzzle with those notes across the ... middle ... sort of. (It's a 16x14 grid, so it's a little wonky):

DO DO SOL SOL LA LA SOL / FA FA MI MI RE RE DO

Word of the Day: CARSON, CA (19A: Community near Los Angeles) —

Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, Carson had a total population of 91,714. Located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately 14 miles away from the Los Angeles International Airport, it is known as a suburb of the city.^[8] Incorporated on February 20, 1968, Carson is the youngest municipality in the South Bay region of Greater Los Angeles. (wikipedia)

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An ambitious train wreck. Great idea to run the notes across the ... middle ... sort of, and NOW I KNOW MY ABCS works perfectly (in that you sing it to the tune of the notes on the left side of the grid), but then there's those notes on the right ... and nothing to sing them to ... and TWINKLE TWINKLE, which really only gets you through DO DO SOL SOL ... so the theme doesn't work. [Words sung to the beginning ...]—but what about the end notes? Again, great idea, but just Not There in the execution. Scrap. Drawing board. Next. Hey, HOW I WONDER WHAT is 14. Maybe you could shove YOU ARE in there somewhere. Symmetry would be blown, but at least those damned eastern notes would have something to do. Now, neglecting the fatal thematic flaw, the grid is not bad, and I always enjoy a rebus. Plus, the notes actually *did* (by the end), help me to get one of the answers (the SOL in SOLAR, to be exact) (44D: Kind of power), so fun was had. And I'll take ambitious over yawny (which many puzzles have been of late). But thematically this one just feels like a miss. Maybe a near miss, but still...

I thought the puzzle was actually pretty dang easy except for the whole center area. Even after I'd gotten the note / rebus thing, I had no idea what was going on song-wise, since I had only the eastern notes (broke through at ISERE; 24D: Rhône feeder) and couldn't / didn't sing them so had no idea what they represented. I thought maybe the western notes would be a mirror image. No. Once I finally broke NOW I KNOW MY ABCS open, I put it all together. Which reminds me—that damned SW corner (and, to a lesser extent, the NE corner) killed me a little. ROO instead of OWL (67D: Pooh pal) and DDE instead of IKE (69D: Two-time opponent of 32-Across). Ouch. Up top, I don't know / didn't remember CHAOS as a place (8A: Source of Erebus and Gaia, in Greek myth), and ["Shoot!"] always throws me, as my first idea for a synonym is always "DANG!" So even with -K in place, ASK didn't come right away. Everything else was pretty straightforward. The "L" part of SOL always surprises me, no matter how many times I see it written out. Went in expecting "SO," so MAUSOLEUM took slightly longer to come into view than it should have (28D: Commence hostilities). Time was a few seconds faster than last week's, though I'm pretty sure this one's going to play harder for most folks (if the NYT times being posted right now are any indication).



Bullets:

• 29A: Carrier whose main hub is Kastrup airport (SAS) — got it off the "S," but didn't really *know* it, and then doubted it after I couldn't make SPA work for 3D: Resting place (SOFA). Things worked out eventually.
• 49A: Cousin of a bittern (EGRET) — off the "E"; pretty common crossbird.
• 60A: Place for a butcher and two others (TUB) — Nice one. I like the "...and the rest" quality of "two others." 
• 43D: Electrician's alloy (SOLDER) — the fact that this word is a noun always surprises me. Solidly verby in my mind. 
• 14D: Big name in kitchenware (EKCO) — The fashion designer is Marc ECKO. I remember this because "CK" = Calvin Klein = fashion designer. Hell yeah it's a good mnemonic.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld