Friday 6-22-07

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're ready to decide for yourself you can download this puzzle and join in on the fun here

There are some good things about getting older -- wisdom, serenity and a chance at obscure 70's TV show clues that young whippersnappers don't have a chance at. I couldn't get started on this Weekend Warrior by Karen M. Tracy at 1A or 1D like I like to. I couldn't get started at all -- not until I got to the last down 60D: "____ Ramsey" I knew that one, by HEC. And I'll tell you why. When I was growing up there was only one television in the house, one television with only three channels. And Dad was in absolute control of it. So even though I was a romantic comedy-variety show guy, I had to watch westerns and cop shows, cuz that's what my Dad liked. (Well, I didn't have to, I could go read a book, and I usually chose to do that rather than watch "The High Chapparal" or "Cannon") "Hec Ramsey" starred Richard Boone, who is probably best known for "Have Gun, Will Travel" as a former gunfighter now the sheriff in a turn of the twentieth century Oklahoma town, coming to grips with new technology. It only lasted two years and it wasn't even a weekly show. It was part of an experiment where they had four different shows that rotated in and out of that time slot. "Columbo" was one of them, and so was Dennis Weaver's "McCloud." the only one I liked was "McMillan and Wife" with Rock Hudson and Suzanne Pleshette, kind of a romantic comedy with lighthearted-mystery plots. Dad hated it, so I rarely got to see it.

With the C in Hec I was able to get the ultimate across clue 64A: Walkman insert (CASSETTE) and I think it's only because of my boomer status that I knew that. You kids don't remember when Walkmans (Walkmen?) played cassettes, do you? Hell, you probably don't remember walkmans. 56D: Not much (A BIT) 57D: Penitent period (LENT) and 58D: Rim (EDGE) were easy to build off of CASSETTE and then I got 62A: Like some markets (EMERGING) and 60A: Space-saver in a studio (HIDE-A-BED) and I was off and running -- or so I thought. Things would slow up considerably before I finished the puzzle -- and one word, I'll just confess right here, I had to cheat to get. My fault, I fell in love with the wrong answer and refused to let go even though things were obviously not going to work out between us.

After polishing off the Southeast portion of the puzzle, I skipped around a bit, filling in stuff here and there. I knew 61A: "A person's a person, no matter how small" speaker (HORTON) because "Horton Hears a Who" is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite writers -- Dr. Seuss. For my money, "Horton Hatches the Egg" is Seuss's greatest masterpiece -- pretty much all you need to know to live a good life is in those pages -- but ". . Hears a Who" is magnificent too. And I got 26D: Place in the title of Bruce Springsteen's debut album (ASBURY PARK) because his album "Born to Run" changed my life and I had to track down his earlier records -- "Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey" and "The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle". They were good, but not as good as "Born to Run." I got 17A: National Institutes of Health headquarters (BETHESDA) because I went to the Small Press Expo there a couple years ago, and evidently Bethesda doesn't have much going on, because every traffic sign directed you to NIH facilities.

The rest of the puzzle proved more difficult, but I was able to piece it together. 52D: Real (ECHT) was not a word I was familiar with. And 12D: Squidlike mollusk (CUTTLEFISH) was tough because the only cuttle I've ever heard of was not a fish but a bone for parakeets to peck on.
Hey, you don't suppose that's where cuttle bone comes from, do you? (I just learned that's exactly where cuttle bone comes from and they're also used (or were used at one time in toothpastes, antacids and in jewelry-making as well as seeing that Tweety gets her calcium.) Grown cuttlefish are ugly by the way, but aren't they cute when they're little babies?

I appreciated 27A: Takes stock (RUSTLES) and 50A: "Good enough" (IT'LL DO). I've never seen the show in question, so I had to piece together ADDISON at 41D: Derek's ex-wife on "Grey's Anatomy". I knew 8D: Inits in 1974 news (SLA) (which stood for Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped and brainwashed heiress Patty Hearst) because in 1974 I had not yet given up on the news. I'm not even sure how I knew 21A: Powerful pieces in ajedrez (REINAS) but I pulled it out from somewhere. Ajedrez is chess, by the way, and the reina is the queen.

And still the Northwest portion kept kicking my ass. What word did I have to cheat to get? 15A: Forecasting tool (EXIT POLL) It's a great clue and I'm embarrassed that I had to resort to such measures but I just did not know the intersecting 6D: Bridge that connects Brooklyn and Queen (KOSCIUSZKO) or 5D: Present-day tennis (OPEN ERA) (I completely misunderstood the clue and was trying to think of a game that tennis might have evolved from. But my biggest problem was that I could not mentally let go of Tarzan. I was sure that 2D: Forest swingers was APES and not AXES.

That's all I have for today. Let's do it again on Monday, when maybe I won't have to resort to cheating.

Much Ado About Nothing

Everywhere else love makes the world go around; love is all you need; love is a many-splendored thing; love is patient, love is kind; love is higher than a mountain, love is thicker than water; love is like oxygen, you get too much you get too high, not enough and you're gonna die; love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

But in crosswords, as in tennis, love is nothing -- bupkus, diddly-squat.

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

"Lots of Love" is by Anthony J. Salvia, and he has crammed three and four letter synonyms for nothing in this grid. Some people call this type of puzzle a rebus, but to me a rebus is a picture puzzle -- perhaps the most famous example being the old TV show Concentration -- and it only works in crosswords when the word or series of letters is something that can be drawn instead of written out -- like k-e-y or h-a-n-d. It won't work here; if you put a big 0 in each of those spots you won't get any real words, so it's not a rebus puzzle, it's a "cram-a-bunch-of-letters-into-one-box" puzzle.

3D: Capital on Luzon (MANILA) and 17A: Group with the hit album "The Beat Goes On" (VANILLA FUDGE) I have to call a foul on that second clue. Vanilla Fudge was a psychedelic band from the late 60s. Their only hit was a trippy cover of Diana Ross and the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On." That song was not on their second album "The Beat Goes On," which really didn't have any songs on it -- there were recordings of Thomas Edison speaking and Winston Churchill and FDR, there were pieces of songs from Cole Porter, the Beatles and Mozart and Beethoven and there was a lot of noise that wouldn't have sounded pleasant even if you were tripping on the best LSD ever. The album was a mess and probably sunk the band's chances of making it big after their first album showed some promise. Unlike their other albums of the same period this one was never released on CD. To call it a "hit" album is grossly inaccurate.

10A: Hefty competitor (ZIPLOC) (Before I grasped the theme I had the L in place and I penciled in GLAD) and 10D: It won the 1947 Oscar for Best Song (ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH) "Song of the South" may be the only Oscar winner that's never been released on video or DVD in the US. This film, Disney's first with live actors, is all about Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, and the reason Disney won't release it is because they fear it would be perceived as racially insensitive. It's been probably 40 years since I saw it, and I would love to see it again. Not much chance of that, I don't think, since it recently wound up as number five on a list of most controversial movies of all time. Meanwhile, "Sanford and Son" endlessly reruns.

24D: Location of the 1967 World's Fair (MONTREAL CANADA) and 67A: Its capital is St. George (GRENADA) Salvia loses a few style points here for having both of the "nada" entries be geographical and have the crammed letters in the last box.

61A: 1960 World Series hero (BILL MAZEROSKI) and 63D: Converge (on) (ZERO IN). And in thrilling come-from-behind fashion Salvia regains the points he lost. He does this by reminding me of a time when the New York Yankees got their asses handed to them. Bill Mazeroski will always be venerated by Yankee haters for his walk-off homer to win the '60 series.

Other entries of interest:

46A: Bolt with no threads (STREAK) I just love this way of describing a fad that was very popular when i was in high school.

23D: They might get swung at if they go through the strike zone (SCABS) A double pun seemingly about baseball but actually about labor relations. A great clue.

56D: Sommer of "The Oscar" (ELKE) It should be noted that Ms. Sommer doesn't have any Academy Awards, but she starred in a 1966 film about the award ceremony.

47D: Soldier's knapsack (KIT BAG) I mentioned the other day how corny my sense of humor is, to prove it I submit this joke from a 1920's college humor magazine that I've cherished for years

We want to know if a sleeping bag is the same thing as a knapsack.

22A: Like Scrooge McDuck (MISERLY) Donald Duck's uncle (created by Carl Barks) may be a miser, but he's one of the great misers of all time. His fortune stands at five multiplujillion, nine impossibidillion, seven fantasticatrillion dollars and sixteen cents. And unlike most misers, Scrooge knows how to have fun. He likes to burrow through his money like a gopher, and dive in it like a porpoise, and toss some of it up in the air and let it fall back on his head.

For the 9 brave firefighters who lost their lives on Monday

Wednesday, 6-20--07

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.

In "Setting Things Straight" by Peter A. Collins, all the themed words -- which happen to be the four compass directions, West, North, South and East -- (which also happen to have to figured heavily into Tuesday's New York Times puzzle; nobody can say that crossword puzzles have lost their sense of direction) -- are diagonal. It's not hard to figure out how to set them straight once you know they're there, but help is at 39A: With 30-Down, counterclockwise manuever required to rectify the diagonal words in this puzzle's corners (FORTY-FIVE DEGREE PIVOT) if you need it..

Interesting puzzle. I'd like to see crosswords do more with the diagonal aspect.

Other entries of interest:

26A: Tenzing Norgay, for one (SHERPA) Serendipity is a wonderful thing. Ordinarily this would leave me scratching my head and it probably will the next time I see it. But I knew it today because I happen to be reading a magnificent book called "The History of Love" by Allison Krauss, and I had just been reading the part where this young girl mentions that she has an anorak tested by Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who climbed Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary. If only more constructors would challenge me with entries concerning stuff I read in the last hour I might be almost as fast as Orange.

And I think if my last name was Norgay, I'd have to name my child Neitherstraight.

Speaking of cold mountains, I had a tough time with 34A: St. Bernard's mount (ALP) because I wasn't mentally flexible enough to see "mount" as anything other than a horse or something you ride on. I even seriously wondered for a second if Saint Bernards ever used skis.

19A: River near the Leaning Tower (ARNO) If you've got a choice between one of the greatest American gag cartoonists and some river in Italy, why go with the river?

I reallly enjoyed for no particular reason two entries in the Texas portion of the puzzle: 67A: They ususally hit in the middle of the batting order (RBI MEN) and 70A: Certain scrubber (SOS PAD)

1A: Left fielder in the "Who's on First" routine (WHY). It's no secret that my sense of humor is pretty old-fashioned -- all right, corny. But I love Abbott and Costello and I love this routine. I've seen it a hundred times and I laughed again when I went and watched it again a couple minutes ago. Let me set the defense for you -- Who is on first, What is playing second and I Don't Know is at the hot corner and at short it's I Don't Care. Your battery is Today pitching to Tomorrow and out in the outfield we have Why in

left, Because in Center. And I don't know about right field. (And no, I don't mean I Don't Know is playing third base and right field, I mean Abbott and Costello never told us who was in right -- of course, they didn't, because Who's on first.)

Tuesday, 6-19-07

Great puzzle. But I don't know, maybe it's just a tad too tricky for the second day of the puzzle week and should have run a day later -- or maybe I just wanted it to run on Wednesday because there was a Wednesday in the Addams Family and that would have amused me. (No, it doesn't take much, does it?) The theme eluded me until I was almost finished with the puzzle even though it's right there in the title. But truth be told, those are my favorite kinds of themes. I enjoy being baffled.

(Well, you know, mildly baffled.)

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.

"The Addams Family" by Bob Klahn has nothing to do with Gomez, Itt and Morticia. What you need to do to solve this one is add the letters a-m-s to four common words or phrases to get new, slightly-wonky phrases like:

17A: Every package of copy paper? (ALL THE REAMS) (nee ALL THERE, I'll do the first one for you, but you're going to have to add (well, no, I guess, subtract now) your own AMS from here on)

28A: Ancient king has a gas (RAMSES HOOTS) There were several pharoahs named Ramses (or sometimes Ramesses, something to keep in mind if anybody ever wants to do an "Add a mess" puzzle) but the term usually refers to Ramses II, the greatest of the great Pharoahs, husband of Nefertiti (and 7 others) father of Amun-her-khepeshef (and approximatelt 109 others). Kudos to Klahn for getting EGYPT (32A: Site of a pyramid scheme) right at the foot of the pharoah.

44A: Like heroes of melodramas? (DAMSEL AWARE) One thing I like about puzzles like this is although sometimes the new phrases can be clunky, sometimes they're so good I want to add them to the dictionary. Don't you like "damsel aware" better than "scoping for chicks" or "checking out the babes"?

58A: Not afraid of falling while erecting skyscrapers? (USED TO BEAMS)

The toughest clue for me was 30D: Glass sipper (STRAW) because I kept seeing it as "glass slipper."

Maybe it's just me, but OOLALA (2D: "Hubba hubba") this seems like a very ROMANTIC (12D: Like candlelit dinners) puzzle. Inspired by ERATO (43D: Muse for Millay), we're ONE TO ONE (11D: Even, as odds) under the night ORB (11A: Heavenly body). We've got a YEN (46A: Kashiwazaki cash) to STRIP (21A: Caesar's locale, with "the") down to our TOGAS (61A: Forum finery).

GRR (37A: Pound sound) you bring out the BEAST (65A: Barbarian) in me.

Why no, I don't think you're a TART (6D: Vinegary)

And I'm sure I'm the only person in the world who thinks there's anything remotely racy about Burger King's signature sandwich -- 26D: Prodigious prevarication (WHOPPER). But the first dirty riddle I ever heard was:

Q: How did the Dairy Queen get pregnant?

A: Burger King pulled out his whopper.

And you never forget your first, do you?

Case Clothed

Did this puzzle leave me panting for more? Of corset did. Nothing I love more than a good clothes spin.

Actually this puzzle reminds me a little of the BAM! KAPOW! puzzle on Friday -- because that one was all about the sounds bad guys made when Batman socked them.

All right, all right, no more puns -- from me anyway. I'll do what I do best -- SPOILER WARNINGS: 1.) 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.
2.) I've lifted my self-imposed moratorium on political commentary.

"Apparel of the Past" is by Mark Feldman, and it's not about spats and coonskin caps. "Past" refers here to tense, as in:

17A: Consumed quickly (SCARFED DOWN)

25A Finished with a flourish: (CAPPED OFF)

38A Avoided: (SKIRTED AROUND)

51A Sang with gusto (BELTED OUT)

61A: Departed quietly (SLIPPED AWAY)

Nothing particularly hilarious or baffling, but a good Monday puzzle. The only other entry I can see that could be twisted to mean something sartorial is 50D: Didn't leave (STAYED) because, time for a history lesson, kids -- the pieces of bone or other material in corsets that made them stiff were called "stays."

Although come to think of it, it might be a good idea if you IRONED (32A: Attended to pressing needs) the CREASE (44A: Clothes line) out of all these scarves and skirts.

Other entries of interest:

1A: "Misunderestimate" e.g. (BUSHISM) One ofW's least egregious phonetic flubs. I expect so little of our leaders today that I almost miss Ronald Reagan. He was a horrible president but at least he had a double digit IQ and could string three words together.

The Wicked Witch of the West gives Mrs. Dithers the day off at 59A: Maxwell House commercial played by Margaret Hamilton (CORA)

I don't think I've ever seen OLE clued as "Way to avoid those horns!" (24A) and I appreciate that.

63D: Thing inside a Pop-o-matic in the game Trouble (DIE) Trouble wasn't the only game with this innovation. There was one called Headache that had the same thing. The Pop-o-matic was a godsend if you were always losing your dice or if your brother had a way to throw the dice so that they didn't roll but skidded along with the number that he wanted on top.

26A: 14th US President (PIERCE) Probably the most historic thing that happened during Mr. Pierce's single term was the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854, but evidently he could actually pronounce "Kansas-Nebraska act" so I kinda miss him too.



A little shorter than usual today. I'm still recovering from Heroes Con and from Father's Day, now I've got to start gearing up to host my oldest daughter's graduation party next Saturday. As soon as I get the time, I'll tell you about how I found 520 dollars last Friday.

My favorite was "BIFF!"

Well, I can't complain, as I did with June 6th "Puzzle Tov" that this puzzle was out of the realm of my experience. This one was tailor-made for a boy who spent his childhood reading comic books and watching the "Batman" TV show. I love this puzzle, and even my one complaint -- which I'll warn you right now is a nerdy one -- is okay; it actually leveled the playing field a bit since this one part was probably easier for someone not familiar with the TV show.

Actually now that I think about it, I have another complaint but it has nothing to do with the puzzle but the fact that it's still not showing up as Across Lite file on the NY Sun website and probably won't. You'll have to go here to get the PDF, but believe me, it is worth the extra effort. This one is just too clever for Across Lite to handle, but it would be nice if the Sun website gave people a way to find the puzzle. (Thanks to Eric Berlin for this link.)

And you have been warned -- Spoilers ahead. (Which reminds me, be careful when you download the puzzle because it's going to print out the answers too, so be careful not to accidentally peek.)

"Holy Crossword, Batman!" is by Craig Kasper, and you can tell just by looking at the grid that this one is different. Four entries have inner sections that stand out much the way that sound effects in comic book or on the Batman TV show stood out.

The four sound effects are:

ZAP! nestled inside 17A: Place to pick up a pie (PIZZA PARLOR)

BAM! in the middle of 11D: Crenshaw's cousin (CASABA MELON)

BONK! splitting 28D: Bad gas problem, perhaps (CARBON KNOCK)

and (most impressively in my book) KAPOW! in the center of
63A: Cleared out (TOOK A POWDER)

But that's not all. Each of these visual explosions actually intersects with a Batman villain whose jaw might have made one these sounds whenever Batman's (or Robin's) fist socked it.

All of the following are clued as "Batman" Villain:

51D: JOKER (crossing KAPOW)

34A: CATWOMAN (BAM) And -- this is probably puerile -- but I wonder if it's entirely accidental that the full-bosomed feline happens to cross CASABA MELON, which in my experience refers more often to things found in a push-up bra more often than those in the produce section. Julie Newmar made a huge impression on me as a kid. You really don't want to know how exciting I thought -- and still think -- she was in that skintight catsuit and those freaky eyebrows. Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt also played the part but my heart belongs to Julie. She was purr-fect.

48A: PENGUIN (BONK)

and 4D: PUZZLER crossing PIZZA PARLOR, and this leads me to my one quasi-quibble. The big four on the TV show were the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin and the Riddler. The Puzzler (played by Maurice Evans) was just a poor-man's Riddler, who was only in one two-part story. And there was a Puzzler in the comic books, but he was a very minor Superman villain. (I told you it was nerdy.) This was the only portion of the puzzle that caused me any problems, and it was because I knew it had to be RIDDLER and I couldn't figure out what three-letter sound effect started with D. You can see why someone who has a only a vague knowledge of the Gotham City Guardian would do better here. PIZZA PARLOR is pretty easy to get, ZAP is something everybody's heard, you're already doing a crossword puzzle, what was the name of that bad guy with question marks all over his costume -- oh yeah, the Puzzler. Wrong! Well, right, but -- never mind.

Speaking of Superman, his TV girlfriend shows up 38A: Dean's TV flame (TERI) BTW, that's Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher from the late, great "Lois and Clark" TV show, which is where Clark and Lois originally tied the knot after a 60-year courtship. Remind to tell you sometime how this event was celebrated at my house.

One other comic book reference shows up at 6A: 1997 fantasy thriller (SPAWN) from the Todd McFarlane comic book.

Other entries of interest:

22A: Lick makeup (SALT) No, it hasn't nothing to do with people who enjoy munching on mascara, it's a salt lick, a big thing of salt that is set out for horses or cows to lick. Why they'd want to lick it I have no idea.

23A: It calls itself "The magazine about shopping" (LUCKY) I actually have a subscription. I didn't order it, but it seems like when you subscribe to several magazines you'll occasionally get something in the mail telling you that you are going to receive a free subscription to something. That's the same reason I have a subscription to Blender.

56A: Digs (GROKS) This one might be tough for those of you who did not come of age during the era of flower power -- and even an old hippie like me originally pencilled in ABODE. It refers to a cult-favorite book from Robert A Heinlein called Stranger in a Strange Land, about a boy raised on Mars who comes to earth and becomes a free-love messiah of sorts, eventually meeting the fate that most messiahs meet. It made a big impression on me at that time. When I reread it a few years ago, although parts of it were thought-provoking a lot of it just seemed silly. In the book "Grok" meant to understand something completely, the meaning shifted slightly as it was (sort of) adopted into spoken English.

12D: Like a private getaway, maybe (AWOL) made me laugh. Thanks, Craig.

34A: O No. (CIRC) refers to Oprah's O Magazine and its circulation. I do not have a free subscription to this magazine.

61D: He finished third behind Ty and Shoeless Joe in the A.L. batting races of 1912 and 1913 (TRIS) Love those old-time baseball clues. Yesterday we learned than Sam Crawford has the most career triples. Tris Speaker, the man with the most career doubles, makes an appearance today.

What a great way to kick off Heroes Con weekend. See ya Monday, same Bat-time, same bat-channel!

Genius

Sometimes I think all the inventions -- at least the ones that might reasonably claim ancestry to Necessity -- have all been invented.
Then I see something like this and wonder why I didn't think of it?

More books I've read in 2007

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Themeless Thursday 6-14

I'm sure he will lose a lot of sleep over this, maybe even hang himself with one of those hideous ties of his, but Francis Heaney is back on my bad side. He initially got on my S list at the ACPT when he turned my wife against crossword puzzles, perhaps forever, with that damned "Joy of Lex" puzzle. But he got back in my good graces with the very impressive "Letterbox Version" puzzle of May 3, 2007. But hoo boy, I'm really not happy with Francis and this Themeless Thursday puzzle right now.

And it's weird because I actually knew 1D: Sam Crawford hit the most of them (TRIPLES) which should have gotten me off to a good start, but then nothing else happened in the NW quadrant for so long, even after I had the rest of the puzzle solved, so I started doubting myself. I changed TRIPLES to DOUBLES, and of course having the wrong answer there didn't help me any. (And maybe it's just sour grapes, and at the risk of sounding pedantic, but I think this clue is poorly worded. Out of all the triples that have been hit since MLB started keeping records Sam Crawford has hit more of them than anybody else, but he didn't hit over 50 per cent of them like this clue makes it sound. I know, I know, the word "the" kinda clouds the issue here. Okay, I said it was sour grapes.)

I'll have more to say about Mr. Heaney right after the 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.

So, because I knew that 1D was TRIPLES (or maybe DOUBLES) I didn't fall for the trap at 1A: Georgia's Capital. Whatever it was, I knew it wasn't ATLANTA. But knowing what it's not and having no idea what it actually is doesn't help you much. I didn't know 2D: Muslim woman's swimwear (BURQINI) and no wonder; when you do a Google Image search for something and only get 551 images -- and over 540 of them have nothing to do with swimwear or are pix of swimwear that would get you the death penalty in most Muslim countries, you're not dealing with a real bathing suit.

I didn't get 19A: OS interface (PQR) and I still don't. I didn't get 5D: It was added to a news agency's name in 1992 (ITAR) and I still don't. I've never heard of a SAPPER (24D: Plant-puncturing insect) before. And the fact that I had MCKAY at 28D: Iconic sportscaster instead of CARAY hurt me too. In fairness to the despicable Mr. Heaney, 15A: Defer payment, perhaps (RUN A TAB), 3D: Like something's that's going around (IN ORBIT) and 23A: Cons' foes (LIBS) are diabolical, but fair, clues that I should have gotten, but with all the wrong answers and insecurity and holes in my knowledge, I just didn't.

So I cheated. I looked up the country of Georgia and their form of currency (which is what I was sure was meant by "capital"), and confidently, albeit shamefacedly, wrote in THE LARI at One Across. That was wrong too -- how many traps can you set at One Across? Let's just say it took a lot more cheating before I got the NW section right.

And it's a shame because I enjoyed and did pretty well on the rest of the puzzle. In early-week puzzles when I have to play the alphabet game to get an answer I tend to mentally skip over the Scrabble letters, but later in the week I start with those letters, and that helped me to get 8A: "What About Bob?" director (FRANK OZ); 16A: Hit song from "Outlandos d'Amour" (ROXANNE); 36D: Split (VAMOOSED) and 12D: "I can say the Lord's Prayer in 10 seconds" speaker (KNIEVEL) (not Evel's main claim to fame) and (my favorite entry today) 37A: It's often followed by 99801 (JUNEAU AK) (because 99801 is the zip code for downtown Juneau, Alaska.)

I also liked:

14D: More seasoned (ZESTIER) 45A: Good name for a tech support worker (MEG)

38D: Mission of Hope? (USO tour)

33A: One using a pile driver (WRESTLER) I originally had HAMMERER.

48A: Brand of gumdrops (DOTS)

and the vaguely pornographic combo 21D: Gets aroused again (REAWAKENS) with 61A: X-rated (OBSCENE)

So until tomorrow (or later if the New York Sun doesn't fix the Friday puzzle, which right now is showing up as "not a puzzle file") I leave you with these words -- Francis Heaney can sit on it!

Wednesday, June 13th 2007

I like this puzzle a lot. It's a simple theme but a fun one. "One, Two, Three, and Four of a Kind" by Kelsey Blakely is just that -- answers with four instances of one letter, three of another, and two and one, respectively, of two more letters.

We'll get more specific after the 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.

4D: *1971 Diana Ross hit (REMEMBER ME) -- 4 E's, 3 M's, 2 R's and 1 B. I do not remember this song. I remember everything else on the Definitive Diana Ross Collection, so I don't know how I missed this one.

33D: 1965 hit by the 4 Seasons (BYE BYE BABY) Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons are my favorite band to sing along with in the car. And I'm proud to say that I can still hit those high notes as good as ever -- not that ever was ever any good. It embarrasses the heck out of my 13-year old son, which just makes it funner.

21D* Ornamental evergreen (PEPPER TREE) If only whoever it was that wrote the hit song for Peter, Paul and Mary had written that the pepper tree was very pretty, then all three of the down themed entries would be musical clues.

Going across we have 24A: *Like some dresses (SLEEVELESS)

48A: A cardiologist's patient might take one (STRESS TEST)



Other entries of note:

49D: Schiavo in a noted 2005 feeding-tube case (TERRI) crossing 57A: Sad, perhaps (TEARY). There are lots of baby dolls that cry -- Baby Born, and (from back in my sister's day) Baby Cheerful Tearful, evidently even Cabbage Patch Kids cry nowadays -- I'm surprised no one's thought of calling one Tearful Terri.

8D: Home to many Catalans (BARCELONA)

15A: She beat Steffi in the 1994 U.S. Open finals (ARANTXA) That's Arantxa Sanchez- Vicario who is from Barcelona and is nicknamed "The Barcelona Butterfly". I met her a few years ago when she was competing at the Family Circle Cup here in Charleston. And yes, I do have her autograph.

51D: Dwarf planet orbited by Dysnomia (ERIS)

46D: Jungian topic (PSYCHE) These two are side by side and almost mythological -- close enough for me to post this painting of Eros and Psyche by one of my favorite painters William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Actually I guess it's mythical just as it is, since Eris was the Greek goddess of strife (better known to us by her Latin name Discordia). But I don't think she ever hung out with Psyche.

37A: Tormented (HAGRIDDEN) What a great word. I need to find a way to use it the next couple of days to make it my own.

20A: Laser target (UPC) This three-letter answer was difficult for me. I wanted it to be EYE or something optic because I want Lasik so bad. Amazing how unplayful our wishlists become as we age.

That's all for today.

Sit on it, nerd

Today at Rex Parker Does the New York Times website, comments were on topics wide and varied, as they tend to be. There was mention (by me) of a series of books based on the TV show "Happy Days." Someone expressed surprise that there such books would ever have existed. But that's the way it was back in my day, kids. If a television show was popular it led to a series of books, an awful lot of them by the group-pseudonym William Johnston. I had "Man From Uncle" paperbacks, and "Room 222", and "Get Smart" and "Gomer Pyle" and "The Brady Bunch." Oh, and about 25 "Dark Shadows" novels although I remember being upset that Lara Parker, who played Angelique the witch who turned Barnabus into a vampire (and stole my prepuscent heart away from Julie Newmar's Catwoman) was never on the cover.
Anyway, I still happen to have a copy of a "Happy Days" novel, the classic "Ready to Go Steady"And my copy is autographed, not by the author, but by the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler
who also included this bookmark --
Cool, huh?