Friday 7-6-07

Well, tomorrow is supposed to be a lucky day to get married 7-7-07. So if you're not already wed, grab yourself somebody that looks interesting and cut a cake with them. You can't miss.
Or you could just do crossword puzzles.
SPOILER WARNING: Don't read any further until you've done today's New York Sun Crossword Puzzle. New York Sun puzzles are every bit as fun and challenging as the more well-known New York Times and they're indisputably better in one way -- they're free. If you'd like to read about an unbiased head-to-head competition between the Sun and the Times puzzles check this out. Or if you're ready to decide for yourself you can download this puzzle and join in on the fun here
I had a lot of fun with this Weekend Warrior from Patrick Berry even though it contained people I'd never heard of: 16A: Ballerina Riabouchinska (TATIANA) and phrases I was unfamiliar with 17A: In the afternoon, in British military slang (PIP EMMA) which, according to the Word Detective, derives from a British Army manual published in 1913, where it stated "the letters T, A, B, M, S, P and V will be called toc, ack, beer, emma, esses, pip, and vic respectively, so as to distinguish them phonetically from letters of similar sound." So, in this scheme, "pip emma" would translate as "p.m.", and "four pip emma" would mean simply "four o'clock in the afternoon." If we were doing it in America it would be Papa Mike -- except that our military has a 24 hour clock and doesn't need a.m. or p.m. If I was in the British military every time somebody said "Emma" I would think of the letter E (or maybe Jane Austen) but not an M.
My favorite answer was 20A: Factory worker who's paid in cacao beans (OOMPA LOOMPA). Love those guys from "Willy Wonka." If you are wise you'll listen to them. I also liked 23D: They work with numbers (BOOKKEEPERS) This was the answer to a recent Car Talk puzzler, where they asked for the only common English word with 3 consecutive sets of double letters. I also liked 36D: Become fire-proof (QUIT) and the combination of 41D: Song that Tommy sings in "Tommy" (I'M FREE) and 8D: Finally (AT LAST)
REMOULADE and TRAMMELS were a tough side-by-side combo to crack -- the only Trammell I know used to be the shortstop for the Detroit Tigers. It didn't help that I didn't want to give up on the incorrect AERO at 5D: Air: prefix.
That's all for today.

Weekend Warrior 6-8-07

Now that its been brought to my attention that the "themeless" Thursday and Friday Sun puzzles actually do sometimes have a mini-theme, I'm looking for one in today's puzzle by Patrick Berry. I'll share what I found right after this SPOILER WARNING: Don't read any further until you've done today's New York Sun Crossword Puzzle. New York Sun puzzles are every bit as fun and challenging as the more well-known New York Times and they're indisputably better in one way -- they're free. If you'd like to read about an unbiased head-to-head competition between the Sun and the Times check this out. Or if you'd rather decide for yourself you can download this puzzle and join in on the fun here.

I found a bunch of mini-themes -- well, I guess some were more like micro-themes -- starting with homophones -- 9D: "Go!" (SCAT) and 35D: Game in which the lowest card is a seven (SKAT); and moving on to rhymes -- 54D: Modern address ending )NET) 51D: adjoined (MET) and 23D: Be a wheelman for (ABET); and then names (of writers) that look like they should rhyme but don't -- 13D: Author of "A Life on the Road" (KURALT) and17A: French author Charles who wrote fairy tales (PERRAULT).

What about grandmothers? -- 37D: Adviser on child-rearing, maybe (NANA) and 12D: Grandma Ida's portrayer on "Malcolm in the Middle" (CLORIS) (a role for which Miss Leachman won two Emmys.) -- or exotic actresses with three letter names -- 43A: "Wayne's World" co-star of Mike and Dana (TIA) and 6A: "Ally McBeal" actress (LIU) and I can just hear Rex Parker howling now. He is a crusader for the "stop-referencing-Ally McBeal" movement, a movement I can't say I support since I watched "Ally" and can usually remember enough about it to get these clues. Lucy Liu is better known for "Charlie's Angels" and "Kill Bill."

Card games is a pretty obvious one: 32A: Trick-taking game (HEARTS) and 14D: (SPADES) (same clue) along with the aforementioned SKAT, but what if Hearts and Spades were suits instead of games, would that work? Well, Lady LOU (10D; iconic Mae West role) was originally named Diamond Lil in a play by the same name, but both were changed when they filmed it, Lil to Lou, and "Diamond Lil" to "She Done Him Wrong". Among Mae's memorable lines in that movie were:

"Diamonds is my career."

and "It was a toss up between whether I go in for diamonds or sing in the choir. The choir lost."

So that only leaves clubs. And that's where it came to a halt. If the DARLA of 4D referred to the "Little Rascals" instead of "Finding Nemo" I might be able to convince myself that Spanky and the gang was a club, but as it is, I'll have to settle for incomplete micro-theme.

My favorite mini-theme is this one: OLYMPUS (38D: Fuji alternative) was the TOPMOST (39D: Culminating) mountain in GREECE (25D: Truman Doctrine beneficiary) and mythological home of the TEMPLE (31A: The rite place?)of the gods, such as POSEIDON (52A: 2006 remake of a 1972 film.) I think that definitely qualifies. Poseidon might also work with 46D: He played Austin Powers's father in "Goldmember" (CAINE) if we do ill-fated ships as in "The Caine Mutiny".

It occurred to me I might be stretching things past the breaking point when I thought maybe there was a connection between 15A: Field for upwardly-mobile types? (AVIATION) and 11D: It's not seen in musical performances (AIR GUITAR), but after exhausting all the connected entries there's not that much to talk about.

My old friend Mata HARI shows up at 24A. She's clued as "1917 Paris arrest report name" and I can't argue with that, so no "she was framed" rant this time.

23A: Mach3 predecessor (ATRA) You know crossword constructors hate to see some things -- like Atra razors and SSTs and lira --

go the way of the dodo. Maybe they should look for new ways to clue such entries.

Have a great weekend!