Saturday August 8, 2009 Gail Grabowski

Theme: None

Total blocks: 28

Total words: 70

Tough puzzle. Tough (but clever) cluing. Hardest Gail Grabowski I've ever solved. The grid is anchored by two 15-letter fills crossing each other right in the middle:

36A: Washington address: MISTER PRESIDENT

8D: Timber, for one: NATURAL RESOURCE

I was thinking of the place "address". Got the last intersecting letter T from ENTRE (31D): immediately, so I confidently filled in *STREET at the end of 36A. Very nice "Between, in Brest" clue. Delicate sexual innuendo. Alliteration too of course. Brest is the west extremity of France. ENTRE nous = "between us".

ELS (44A: 1994 U.S. Open champ) and EAGLE (21D: Some U.S. Open scores) were gimmes. Double bogey, bogey, par, birdie, EALGE are common US Open scores. Rare to see double EAGLE (albatross).

Across:

1A: Village People classic: MACHO MAN. Not a good clue, as CLASSICS is the answer for (60A: Some required reading). Y.M.C.A. is their biggest hit.

9A: Locale of a Stephen King residence: BANGOR. Look at his Victorian mansion.

15A: Latin-American pastry: EMPANADA. No idea. Looks like it's savory.

16A: Simple life?: AMOEBA. "Simple" indeed. But what a stumper for me. Kept thinking of the idyllic life little Heidi lives.

17A: Visited overnight: STAYED AT

18A: One might excite a gambler: HOT TIP

19A: Hinny's mother: ASS. Hinny is an offspring of a male horse and a female donkey. Female donkey is JENNY.

20A: Site of Europe's Parkpop festival, with "The": HAGUE. No idea. Wikipedia says Parkpop is the largest free pop festival in Europe, and it's held at Zuiderpark in the HAGUE on the last Sunday of June.

22A: Up in the air: UNSET

23A: Focus group?: CAMERA CREW. Despite the ? mark, I still thought of A.C. Nielson style "Focus group".

25A: Apollo's nymph: DAPHNE. Literally "laurel" in Greek. DAPHNE did not want Apollo's love and was changed into a laurel tree when pursued. The tree then became sacred to Apollo, who crowned the victors with laurel wreath at the Pythian Game (forerunner of the Olympics). Origin of "resting on one's laurel".

28A: Reminiscing word: AGO

29A: Not localized: WIDE

32A: Beginning of a response to "Eh?": I SAID. And ERS (56D: Sounds from the stumped).

33A: Stand for: ALLOW. OK, I won't stand for/ALLOW this behavior. I was in the "represent" direction, as in CRS stands for "Can't remember sh*t".

35A: It's often blocked on beaches: SUN

39A: Seasonal hrs.: EDT (Eastern Daylight time)

40A: Takes in: DUPES

41A: One with a pad, perhaps: NOTER. Thought of STENO first.

42A: They may be rough: SEAS. Of course, I thought of the golf fairway rough. U.S. Open always has the toughest rough.

45A: Kick out: DEPOSE

46A: Movie nerd, e.g.: STEREOTYPE. Stymied.

49A: View from the Acropolis: AGORA. The old Greek market. Parthenon stands atop Acropolis.

51A: Less ambiguous: SURER

52A: "We don't know yet, "on skeds: TBA

55A: Carnival ride?: CRUISE. Carnival CRUISE Lines.

57A: Starving: RAVENOUS. And EATS A LOT (62A: Reacts to being 57-Across).

59A: "Freestyle" performer, perhaps: RAPPER. Have never heard of "Freestyle rap". It's an improvised rap style.

61A: Pacers and Rangers: EDSELS. Nope. Both EDSEL Pacers and EDSEL Rangers were strangers to me. Thought of the NBA's Indiana Pacers and baseball's Texas Rangers.

Down:

1D: Formation with walls: MESA. Steep walls and flat top.

2D: Balance, e.g.: Abbr.: AMTS

3D: Bk. reviewers?: CPAS. Financial books. Very tricky clue.

4D: It's cut and dried: HAY. Perfect clue for our charming farmer/philosopher Windhover.

5D: Like a diving catch: ONE-HANDED

6D: Title for Dickens's Defarge: MADAME. No idea. MADAME Defarge is a character in "A Tales of Two Cities".

7D: Byword: ADAGE. Did not know the meaning of "Byword".

9D: Cross word: BAH. Cross is an adjective here, angry/annoyed.

10D: Illicit affair: AMOUR. It's just French for "love", fair l'AMOUR = make love.

11D: Unsurprising: NOT NEW. Wanted COMMON.

12D: Figures out: GETS WISE TO. This multiple word fill just drives me nuts.

13D: Award for "Hot l Baltimore": OBIE. No idea. The neon light of letter e of Hotel was burned out, hence Hot l.

14D: Engaged, in a way: RAPT

23D: Receipt: CHIT. Used to the IOU clue.

24D: __Bay, largest Oregon Coast City: COOS. No idea. The city is located in COOS County, where the COOS River enters COOS Bay on the Pacific Ocean, according to Wikipedia.

25D: Symbols of thinness: DIMES. I wanted RAILS. Have never heard of the expression "thin as a dime".

26D: Where all kidding occurs?: ASIDE. Idiom: "all kidding ASIDE".

27D: Some Campbell's creations: PASTA SOUPS. I make my own soup.

30D: Kara Kum features: DUNES. Kara Kum is a desert in Central Asia. Turkish for "Black Sand". New to me.

33D: Half an incomparable mixture: APPLES. Comparing APPLES and oranges.

34D: Gallo gadget: WINE PRESS. Not familiar with the Gallo Winery, the largest exporter of California wines.

37D: Hand wringer: RUER

38D: Knucklehead: DOPE

43D: ATM card feature: STRIPE

45D: Textile factor fixture: DYE VAT

47D: Means of support: EASEL. Oh, support for painters.

48D: Lilting refrain: TRA LA

49D: Parcel unit: ACRE. Was thinking of the post office parcel package rather than the plot of land parcel.

50D: Scholarship drive donor: GRAD

52D: One of Churchill's four offerings: TOIL. Churchill's famous line: "I have nothing to offer but blood, TOIL, tears and sweat".

53D: Osso __: BUCO. Osso=bone. BUCO=hole. Have some.

54D: Short staffer?: ASST. Nailed it immediately.

58D: Bug-loving org.: NSA. D'oh, the listening device bug.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Friday August 7, 2009 Gareth Bain

Theme: TERminus (TER is added to familiar phrases.)

17A: Megaphone for a ghost?: BOO BOOS(TER)

27A: Fault-finding artist?: NAGGING PAIN(TER)

44A: Reason to bring a relief pitcher? FALLING STAR(TER)

58A: Drunk-as-a-skunk skunk?: LIT CRIT(TER)

FALLING STARTER tipped me off the theme. Only learned a few months ago that LIT can mean "intoxicated". LIT CRIT is a shortening of Literary Criticism.

I was surprised that both CTRL (19A: Key not used by itself) and MCS (21A: Mike holders) have no abbreviation hints in the clue. I guess CTRL is OK, as it's shown as such on the keyboard. It's indeed a "Key not used by itself", you often press CTRL with Alt & Del. Very clever clue.

A much easier puzzle than last Friday's, though I still had troubles here and there. This is an eased-up week I think.

Across:

1A: Longtime Boston Symphony conductor: OZAWA (Seijin). He was born in China. Lived in Beijing until he was 6.

6A: Pack: CRAM

10A: "Goodbye, Columbus" author: ROTH (Philip). Has anyone read this book?

14A: Rental sign: TO LET. Be careful of "letter" clue, as it might refer to one who lets.

15A: Senate garb: TOGA. Roman senate.

16A: Grammy winner for the New Age album "Amarantine": ENYA. Yanni, Enigma are New Age artists too.

22A: "Over here!": YOO-HOO

24A: Special something: AURA. And HALO (13D: Saintly symbol).

26A: Fill (with): IMBUE

32A: San __, Calif.: MATEO. Spanish for "St. Matthew".

33D: Negative link: NOR. Neither/NOR.

34A: Far from exciting: TAME

35A: Mount in Crete: IDA. Zeus was born in MT. IDA.

38A: Programme shower: BBC. Shower=show-er, one who shows. Programme is the British spelling. Hence BBC rather than ABC, my initial answer.

39A: Stereotypical escapee's tool: FILE. Not familiar with hand FILE tool. Wanted ROPE.

48A: Refreshing spot: OASIS. In a desert.

49A: City on the Irtysh River: OMSK. See this map again. The city on the Ural is called ORSK.

50A: Talk incessantly about: HARP ON

53A: Foot in a line: IAMB. Poetic foot.

57D: GM line until 2004: OLDS

62A: Oratorio highlight: ARIA

64A: Pal in a Stetson: PARD. Short for "partner", cowboys' way of saying "pal". Stetson hats are part of Cowboys's outfit.

66A: White poplar, e.g.: ASPEN. I can almost hear the ASPEN leaves fluttering at the slightest breeze.

Down:

1D: Gambling outlets, for short: OTBS. OTB = Off-Track Betting.

2D: __ suiter: '40s dude: ZOOT. Here are two modern ZOOT suiters. Very high-waisted pants.

3D: Flowering succulent: ALOE. Did not know "succulent" can be a noun.

4D: Wikipedia article, e.g.: WEB PAGE. Have you ever paid attention to Wikipedia logo? It's a globe of jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.

5D: Words on an initial reference volume: A TO. Volume 1, A TO ..., I was stumped. From A TO Z is more at my comprehension level.

6D: Diagnostic pic: CT SCAN. No idea. Also called CAT SCAN. CAT = Computerized Axial Tomography. I can only think of MRI/X-RAY.

8D: Just a number, it's said: AGE. AGE is just a number, so true.

9D: Gospel duo with the single "Shackles": MARY MARY. Unknown to me. See this clip. Sounds like hip hop rather than gospel.

10D: Election extender: RECOUNT. I did not expect the Minnesota Senator seat RECOUNT to last that long.

11D: Offered: ON THE TABLE. And its symmetrical partner A TALL ORDER (28D: One difficult task). Both are three-word fills. Nice pair.

12D: First-time: TYRO. Or TIRO. Latin for "novice".

18D: Katz of "Dallas": OMRI. Headache. I can never remember this guy. OMRI is of Hebrew origin, meaning "sheaf of grain".

23D: Sash traditionally tied with a bow: OBI. Yes, indeed.

25D: Actor Tognazzi: UGO. No idea. He was an Italian actor. UGO means "intelligence", variant of Hugo.

26D: Apple in your pocket: IPOD. So much free publicity for Apple.

27D: First name in Olympics perfection: NADIA (Comaneci). The first gymnast to be awarded a perfect 10 in Olympic history.

29D: Pesky swarm: GNATS

30D: Fireplace bit: EMBER

31D: Geometric fig.: RECT. Rectangle.

32D: Rub the wrong way: MIFF

36D: Acquired kin: SON-IN-LAW

37D: Follows tightly, as a curve: HUGS

40D: Slipped by: ELAPSED

42D: Stimulus check org.: IRS. Nice clue.

43D: Nevis's sister island: ST KITTS. See this map. Stumper for me. Wikipedia says The Federation of ST KITTS and Nevis is the smallest sovereign nation in the Americas. Nice crossing with ISLET (42A: Speck in the ocean).

45D: Prefix with therm: ISO. Prefix meaning "equal".

46D: Froot Loops mascot: TOUCAN. Not familiar with TOUCAN Sam. Chinese don't eat cereal for breakfast.

47D: Made in the U.S.: AMER. Called to mind this amazing Star Tribune article. What's your best flea market/garage sale find?

50D: Lion tamer's prop: HOOP

51D: Rootless plant: ALGA

52D: Move a muscle: STIR. Alliteration.

5D: Like mortals?: MERE. Us MERE mortals. I got the answer from Across fills.

56D: Falklands War gun: BREN. An acronym of Brno, the Czech city of design, and Enfield, site of the British rifle factory. I first wrote down STEN, which is derived from the weapon's chief designer Major Reginald Shepherd and Harold Turpin, and the same Enfield factory.

59D: "Mad About You" cousin: IRA. Easy guess. I don't remember this character at all. Did watch several episode of "Mad About You".

60D: "Hope __ good breakfast": Bacon: IS A. Francis Bacon's full quote is "Hope IS A good breakfast but a bad supper". I like the breakfast & Bacon connection.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Thursday August 6, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: PALLING AROUND (34A: Out with the guys, and an apt title for this puzzle)

17A: City Slicker's getaway: DUDE RANCH

19A: Like some sharks: MAN-EATING

27A: Honoree in Don McLean's song "American Pie": BUDDY HOLLY

43A: Kraft Dinner contents, familiarly: MAC 'N CHEESE

55A: Maker of Flava-Craze lip balm: CHAPSTICK

58A: Casual wear item: SPORTCOAT

All synonyms for PAl, hence PALLING AROUND. I've never heard of SPORT used in such a way before.

Pal is originated in the Gypsy word for "brother". FELLOW is missing, so are LAD, MATE, BLOKE, or are they too British/Australian?

I only learned DUDE RANCH a few months ago. Madonna's "American Pie" was very popular in China around 2000. I liked its rhythm, but did not really understand the lyrics and its coded references until after I came to the US. I've never had MAC 'N CHEESE. Love strawberry CHAPSTICK.

Great puzzle, seven theme answers, heavy themage in Dan Naddor's own term, nice overlapping of the first two theme answers and the last two. I really liked PALLING AROUND. Always nice to have a unifying answer spelled out clearly in the grid.

Across:

1A: Products sold with earbuds: IPODS. Now I don't miss any "Fresh Air" interview any more, thanks to IPOD & podcast.

6A: Rudiments: ABCS

10A: Four-time ABA/NBA MVP familiarly: DR. J. Nickname for Julius Erving. I had no idea that he once played for ABA, which was merged with NBA in 1976.

13A: As yet: TO NOW

14A: City where "The Night Café" was painted: ARLES. Van Gogh did over 300 paintings and drawings while staying in ARLES. "Bedroom" is my favorite. Here is "The Night Café".

15A: Fair-hiring letters: EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity). Sometimes the answer is EOE (Equal-Opportunity Employer).

16A: Emulate Sarah Palin, nuptially: ELOPE. Wow, I did not know this fact. What a strange conservative she has been!

21A: Griffin's rear: LION. Someone mentioned Griffin the fabled monster on the blog before. But I forgot. It has head and wings of an eagle and the body of a LION. Griffins are used to guard treasure.

22A: LAX: Los Angeles:: __: Chicago: ORD. I forgot also. It's the code for the O’Hare Airport, which was known as Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (hence ORD) during WWII.

24A: Annoying spot: STAIN

31A: Highest-ranking Boy Scout: EAGLE

33A: Basie's "__'Clock Jump": ONE O. No idea. See this clip. Count Basie.

41A: Prepare for a dubbing: KNEEL. Dub here means to "confer knighthood".

49A:: He sang of Alice: ARLO. "Alice's Restaurant".

50A: Drawn-out substance: EDUCT. New word to me. Looks like a verb, doesn't it? So close to EDUCE.

51A: Tall runner: EMU. Yep, they are tall and they can run (but can't fly).

53A: Divine one, to da Vinci: DIO. Italian for "God". DIOS in Spanish.

54A: California county or its seat: NAPA. Wine, wine, wine.

62A: N.L. East city: ATL. Atlanta Braves.

63A: Part of a TV feed: AUDIO. Literally "I hear" in Latin.

64A: Édouard's exploit: GESTE. No idea. Dictionary defines GESTE as "a notable adventure or exploit". Why Édouard then?

65A: Govt. deciphers: NSA. And CODE (55D: Cracker's target). Had problem interpreting cracker, one who cracks.

66A: Cold one, so to speak: BEER

67A: First name in cosmetics: ESTEE

Down:

1D: Agenda opener: ITEM ONE

2D: High-latitude formation: POLAR CAP. Misread the clue as "High altitude".

3D: Six Nations tribe: ONONDAGA. Literally "on the hill". I can never remember this tribe name.

4D: Info: DOPE. Wrote DATA first.

5D: Incense the censor: SWEAR

6D: Score __: A RUN. And YER 30: "__ out!". Baseball.

7D: Skyline part: Abbr.: BLDG

8D: Clamp shape: CEE

9D: Ukr., once: SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic)

10D: Common defense mechanism: DENIAL. I was in the military defense direction.

11D: Display horror, perhaps: RECOIL

12D: Host before Jay: JOHNNY (Carson)

14D: Continental farewell: ADIEU. The other French fill is TRES (57D: "__ chic!").

18D: Prefix with cumulus: ALTO. Gimme for Lois, I hope. She played with this word "cumulus" before. I was stumped. Cumulus is Latin for "mass"/ "pile". ALTO/Alti is "high".

20D: Scow: TUB. Clumsy boat.

24D: Offered a paw: SHOOK. So simple, yet I struggled. Did not think of paw as human "hand".

26D: SNAFU part: ALL. SNAFU = Situation) Normal) All F***ed Up. Another military acronym is FUBAR - F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition. Have not seen our fellow solver Miss Fubar for a long time.

28D: Roper's target: DOGIE

29D: Chain letters?: DNA. Lovely clue. I got D easily, then I filled in EF immediately, the DEF alphabet string.

32D: Fall bumper sticker word: ELECT

35D: Suffix with bull or bear: ISH. Great clue too.

36D: "Go jump in the loch!": NAE. Scottish for "No". Loch is "lake".

37D: Acapulco article: UNA

38D: Least cool: NERDIEST. The nerds might disagree.

39D: Easily broken: DELICATE. Glasses.

42D: Gander: LOOK SEE

43D: Certain brainic: MENSAN. Oh, Dennis is one. I only know the word MENSA, which means "stupid" in Spanish. Tonto means "stupid" too.

44D: Changes, in a Darwinian sense: ADAPTS. Thought of EVOLVES.

45D: Feature of many a capitol: CUPOLA. We've seen OLA clued as "Cup suffix" before, haven't we? But this CUPOLA feature completely escaped me earlier.

46D: Tenn. neighbor: N CAR. The Tar Heel State. Thanks for the origin, Katy/Hahtool.

47D: Cold War acronym: SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization). 1954-1977.

48D: Old Mex. ruler: EMP (Emperor)

52D: Copy editor's concern: USAGE

56D: "Aquarius" musical: HAIR. I guessed. Not familiar with "Aquarius".

59D: PC key with two arrows: TAB. Nice new clue.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Wednesday August 5, 2009 Gary Steinmehl

Theme: MONKEY AROUND (53A: Spend time idly (and a hint to what can precede the last word of 20-, 25-, 38- or 47-Across))

20A: Stage, screen, etc.: SHOW BUSINESS

25A: They have latte charges: COFFEE BARS

38A: Action in court: LAWSUIT

47A: Oxford brighteners: SHOESHINES

I always associate MONKEY BUSINESS with Gary Hart/Donna Rice scandal. MONKEY BARS are not part of my childhood memory. Only learned a few months ago that MONKEY SUIT is slang for tuxedo. MONKEYSHINE is a new word to me. Dictionary says it's usually in plural form, referring to "a frivolous or mischievous prank", similar to MONKEY BUSINESS.

Quite unusual to see the two non-theme Across fills SQUATTERS (17A: Occupants of abandoned buildings, e.g.:) and REPLAYING (61A: Using a DVR, say) have more letters than the center theme entry LAWSUIT.

MONKEY is one of the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac animals. People born in the year of MONKEY are highly energetic and inventive. Here are more traits. I am a pig. Generally I don't get along with those who were born in the year of snake.

Across:

1A: Wire wearer: SPY. Alliterative clue.

4A: Low men: BASSI. "Low men in an opera/choir" to be precise. Plural of BASSO. I was in the SERFS/ESNES direction.

14A: Witness stand oath: I DO. I really liked Merl Reagle's "Two words Oprah hasn't said" clue for I DO (forward to 6:03).

16A: Shire of "Rocky": TALIA. She played Connie in the "Godfather".

30A: It follows that: ERGO. Latin for "Therefore" or "It follows that...".

35A: Scientology's __ Hubbard: L. RON. Just learned that L stands for Lafayette.

36A: Big name in Arizona political history: UDALL. Learned from doing Xword. They are Democrats in a historically red state.

44A: Vena __: CAVA. Latin for "hollow".

45A: Nest egg initials: IRA (Individual Retirement Account)

46A: War honoree: HERO. Thought of VETS first.

52A: Homer Simpson's neighbor: NED

60A: Prestigious university octet: IVIES. The Ivy League.

66A: New parent's lack?: SLEEP. Great clue. Nice pair with NAPS (59D: Is off guard).

67A: "The Company": CIA. Does FBI have a nickname also? I only know G-MAN.

70A: Big fat mouth: YAP

Down:

1D: Skipper, to Barbie: SIS. Skipper's friend is Skooter. Tough to find a vintage barbie in mint condition.

2D: Brief "At once!": PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick)

3D: Uncle Sam poster word: YOU. I want YOU.

4D: LPGA Hall of Famer Daniel: BETH. Ah, the next Solheim Cup captain. She just picked Michele Wie as a wild card. She also tapped Julie Inkster.

8D: Bank named on a credit card: ISSUER

9D: Skylit areas: ATRIA. One letter away from ALTRIA (parent company of Philip Morris/Kraft), Latin for "high".

10D: Discouraged: DAUNTED

22D: Bring relief to: SOOTHE

23D: Catered event: AFFAIR. Waiting for it to be clued as "Extramarital relationship". Two people can have AFFAIRS without sexual relationship, correct?

25D: Potato's place?: COUCH. COUCH potato.

27D: Proctor & Gamble detergent: ERA. Nice new clue.

29D: Inexpensive former camera brand: ANSCO. Not familiar with this brand. It stands for Anthony & Scoville Co.

31D: Formation from steam erosion: RAVINE

32D: Stared angrily: GLARED. Not fond of the clue. Too many letter repetitions.

33D: Southwestern crocks: OLLAS

36D: Six-sided state: UTAH. Jazz-y too.

39D: Dubai's federation: Abbr.: UAE (United Arab Emirates). Dubai is one of the 7 Emirate. Also the city name.

43D: Cargo pants features: POCKETS

47D: Limit, in a saying: SKY. The SKY is the limit.

48D: Publisher who was the inspiration for "Citizen Kane": HEARST

49D: Race since 1911, informally: INDY. INDY 500. The Memorial Day weekend race.

51D: "The Lion and the Mouse" fabulist: AESOP. The man of morals.

53D: Junk drawer label: MISC

54D: Lionel layout, maybe: OVAL

55D: 15th century caravel: NINA. Pinta & Santa Maria. Columbus's ships.

57D: Receptive: OPEN

58D: Beekeepr in a 1997 movie: ULEE. "ULEE's Gold". Starring Peter Fonda.

63D: Peeples of "Fame": NIA. She is also in "Walker, Texas Ranger".

Answer grid.

C.C.

Interview with Merl Reagle

Merl Reagle is simply one of the best constructors in the US. He is just a natural. His puzzles often remind me of Sam Snead's sweet swing: beautiful, effortless and distinctive. Laugh-out-funny too.

It's interesting for me to watch Merl create a puzzle in the documentary "Wordplay". Even more fascinating to see Bill Clinton & Jon Stewart actually solve Merl's puzzle in the movie. I was also mesmerized by Merl's crossword discussions on Oprah. And of course, the puzzles he made for "The Simpsons"/NY Times and his own Philadelphia Inquirer syndication are just breathtaking.

Dennis has been raving about Merl's humor, playfulness & wit, and several constructors I've interviewed have also mentioned Merl as one of their favorite constructors. I asked Merl a few questions, and I was very honored and pleased that he provided me with such great answers.

Can you tell us a bit about your childhood? What inspired you to create your first crossword when you were only 6 years old?

When I was very young I was into Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. I was an early talker and an early reader and when I was 5 or 6 I could spell the names of all the kids in my first-grade class, so I started doing the same thing with their names that I'd done with the toys -- making little connected structures out of them (on graph paper). I found out many years later that no one in my entire extended family was a "puzzle person," but I did learn that my mother's father had been a weaver by trade, so I've always wondered if I got the "word weaving" gene from him.

Crossword constructing seems to be very time-consuming and constructors are not well-compensated, when and how did you decide that you were going to make a career out of it?

I was living in Santa Monica CA in the early 1980s and was making crosswords for a number of puzzle magazines, but mainly for Dell crosswords, Games magazine, and Margaret Farrar's Simon & Schuster books. I would fly into New York each year because of the crossword tournament but I would hang out at the Dell office and at Games and even had several two-hour lunches with Margaret in her 96th Street apartment just off Central Park. I got a great education from these experiences because of their different priorities -- Dell and Margaret had a more conservative approach, and Games was trying to be more modern. At first I was not thinking of making a living at crosswords -- I was writing for TV game shows by day and working on film scripts by night and doing crosswords on the side. But a friend of mine in L.A. (who is now a TV producer) said, "you know, millions of people are trying to work in TV and movies but very few people are trying to make a career out of crosswords, and making crosswords is something you seem to have been born to do." And to be honest, there were two definite down sides to freelancing -- you had to sell all rights, and you had to make lots and lots of puzzles in order to make decent money, and making lots of puzzles was more work than fun. Plus I felt that I'd finally learned enough about the solving public to make a go of it in newspapers, which was where the vast majority of solvers were anyway. I had a lot of theme ideas that I thought were pretty funny that I'd been saving in case I ever got a regular gig -- and the chance finally came in 1985 when the San Francisco Examiner needed a puzzlemaker for a new Sunday magazine called Image. I'd lived in San Francisco for three years, knew the area well, and got the job. They paid more money per puzzle than crossword magazines could pay, I retained all rights, and I started using all of the humor-oriented puzzles I'd been saving up. Plus, I had to make only one a week, so I threw all my efforts into making that one puzzle as good as it could be. With San Francisco as a base, I was now ready to try syndication. My girlfriend at the time, Marie Haley, who is now my better half, said we should fly to different cities and newspaper conventions to try to talk editors into switching from their Sunday puzzles to mine. I never would've done this on my own -- Marie has always been the driving force behind the business -- but once we had these editors cornered I would quote some of the gags from the puzzles and they would actually crack up, so a lot of them did try us out. And all the ones who gave us a chance, kept us -- we still have all of those jobs to this day. The Hartford Courant was the first paper we syndicated to, followed by the Seattle Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Los Angeles Times in 1997 (in the Sunday magazine), the Arizona Daily Star, and many others. We added the Washington Post last year. I think we're up to 60 papers now.

What is the most unforgettable puzzle you've ever made? Why is it so special?

Actually, since I've been putting out a Sunday puzzle every week for 24 years I've made at least a couple dozen or so puzzles that turned out especially well, two of which I still get mail about -- one was called "Gridlock" and involved a pretty thick traffic jam of car names crossing in the center (it was featured on "Nightline with Ted Koppel"), and the other was called "Shades of John D. MacDonald," which involved a trail of colors winding symmetrically through the diagram, all taken from the titles of author John D. MacDonald's 21 Travis McGee detective novels (the odds of this puzzle actually working were, like, a billion to one, but it worked). However, two recent puzzles that come to mind are the two "Simpsons" puzzles I did this past November as tie-ins to the episode that featured Will Shortz and me in cameo roles. The one I did for the Times, which was actually featured in the episode, was a real challenge to make for three reasons -- 1) there was a secret 21-letter message from Homer to Lisa hidden diagonally in the grid, 2) there was another secret message from Homer, this one 144 letters long, that was spelled out by the initial letters of every clue, and 3) the overt theme of the puzzle was secretly related to the episode's plot -- when Lisa finds out that Homer bet against her in the crossword tournament, she changes her last name in protest, so the puzzle's surface theme involves punny changes to famous people's last names, like "Arnold Polymer" (clued as "Golfer who invented the all-plastic club"). There was nothing overt in the puzzle to indicate any connection to "The Simpsons" -- you had to watch the episode to realize that it contained two hidden messages. However, in the other "Simpsons" puzzle -- the one I made for my own markets and which came out on the same day -- I got to relax a little more and make an overtly "Simpsons" puzzle, hiding the names of characters in all the theme answers. But even this led to some amazing things -- 1) in order to hide Maggie's name it was truly fortuitous that the school whose students are known as "Aggies" happens to end with the letter M -- thus allowing "Maggie" to hide perfectly in "The Texas A&M Aggies." 2) It's kind of amazing that "Bart" can be clued as "Homer's imp son," which is the name "Homer Simpson" simply divided up differently. And 3) since most Sunday crosswords have 21 squares on a side, I thought -- totally on a whim -- to count the number of notes in the famous closing section of Danny Elfman's "Simpsons" theme music -- and I just about had a cow when they totaled exactly 21! So, as a counterpoint to Homer's hidden 21-letter diagonal message in the Times puzzle, which ran from the upper left to the lower right, this puzzle had 21 music notes running the other way, from the lower left to the upper right. Funny how "21" seems to crop up in the strangest places.

What is a perfect puzzle to you? How did you decide that your puzzles were going to be funny and punny?

To me a perfect puzzle is one that is extremely entertaining and extremely well-crafted, and has a seemingly perfect title, all of which I realize sounds extremely vague, so I'll try to explain. In the first letter I ever got from Margaret Farrar -- when I sent her my first puzzles in 1966 -- she said that crosswords should be "entertaining first," and since I was always kind of a funny kid, "entertaining" to me basically meant "funny." I think I found my sense of humor early on by watching Warner Bros. cartoons and "The Honeymooners." But an entertaining puzzle can take many forms -- as long as the solver has a great time solving every square inch of it, that's entertainment. By well-crafted I mean that the fill (that is, the non-theme words) contains no crosswordese and is a balance of colorful words and vocabulary, crisply and cleverly clued, and that the theme is very consistent but at the same time full of surprises. (In my case I often try to leave my best theme answer for the bottom right corner, as if it were the punchline to the whole puzzle). And this may not be a goal for others, but for me personally, the perfect puzzle should have one more thing -- a life off the page, and by that I mean that the theme, whatever it is, should be inherently interesting to any literate person with a playful turn of mind, not just a crossword fan. This allows crosswords to be talked about in a more mainstream way, not just among puzzle fans. If the puzzle is about language quirks, then it should spark great recognition on the part the solver ("Why are amateurs always rank? Why is daylight always broad?") If there are gags in the puzzle they should be real-world funny, not "crossword funny." I'll admit to having done my share of awful puns, like, "I'm not a bad duck; I'm just mallardjusted." But what I really want to do is direct, starting with "Last Orangutango in Paris." Yes, loud groaning counts as

Do you still only use pencil and paper for construction? What kind of tools do you use for reference checks?

No, I use Crossword Compiler now, simply because it's a lot faster -- no erasing! But otherwise I construct the old-fashioned way, without using a database. For cluing I use Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database a lot, but I double-check everything with Google searches. Plus, I have notebooks full of clues I've thought of and collected over the past 30 years.

Where do you get your construction inspiration? What kind of books/magazines do you read regularly?

Puzzle ideas pretty much come from everywhere, but I always prefer that they have some connection to reality. A couple years ago, when the Geico cavemen started getting popular, I thought: if there really were cavemen working among us today and they were, as the commercials said, very sensitive about the caveman stereotype, what things should you never say to them around the office? So i made a long list of things -- like, never say "I had to drag my wife to a game last night," or "Hey, no need to reinvent the wheel," or "So I gather," etc., and you could pretty much tell the whole idea to a non-puzzle fan and they'd be able to appreciate it as much as a solver would.

When we were buying our house in Florida, our real estate agent actually said, "I lost your number, so I had look up your address," and that sounded so close to "I had to look up your dress" that I immediately made a note of it -- not just that it had humor possibilities but that it hinged on "ad" being missing from "address," and perhaps each theme answer could be a common expression with the "ad" removed, and thus the puzzle could be called "The First Commercial-Free Crossword." I'm sure most constructors get their ideas in very similar ways; I just like them best when they lead to a very mainstream type of humor.

The main things I read are just newspapers and nonfiction books that sound interesting from their authors' appearances on talk shows, or on Book TV. I kind of read all over the place.

Besides the Philadelphia Inquirer/San Francisco/Washington Post Sunday puzzle and LA Times Magazine puzzle, what are your other regular crossword engagements?

I make a puzzle for the tournament every year, I make the puzzle every other month for AARP The Magazine, and I do a lot of special projects, but the weekly crossword is my main thing.

How has the crossword landscape changed since you first started? What's your view on the future of crossword?

When I sold my first puzzles to the Times in the 1960s and '70s crosswords were still very much in the old-school style. Even though Margaret Farrar and Will Weng strongly discouraged obscurities and crosswordese, such answers showed up in puzzles anyway as if there were no rules against them. Games magazine changed all of this, and I learned three valuable lessons -- 1) From Will Shortz: don't be afraid to add a black square or two if it allows the fill to be 100 per cent better. Wide-open grids are fine but not if they contain a lot of dreck. 2) From Mike Shenk: no matter how impressive the interlock is, always make sure that the three-letter words are real words, not weird abbreviations or "pluralized prefixes." And 3) From Henry Hook: try to think of common answers that contain unusual letter combinations -- like FTDIXNJ, which is simply how "Fort Dix, New Jersey" is written on envelopes -- because this adds a level of difficulty that has nothing to do with obscurity. Overall, the Games approach was really a major change in what a crossword should be, a philosophical shift, in a way, and I try to make every puzzle with these ideas in mind. I don't always succeed, but I try.

As to the future of crosswords, I think it's clear that online is the direction they're going. But I think crosswords could play a big role in helping newspapers survive, if editors would only let them. Puzzles are one of the main reasons people even buy the paper, so I think newspapers should be expanding their puzzle sections, not reducing them, with ads on the sides to help pay for them. Plus, crosswords should be laid out better -- and editors need look no further than their local supermarket, where the crossword magazines are, to see how a crossword should look on a page. I can't tell you how many times I've dealt with designers who don't seem to understand that a crossword is not like a newspaper article -- your eyes do not make nice fluid movements from line to line; rather, they jump constantly, from the clues, to the tiny numbers in the grid, back to the clues, scanning and jumping thousands of times on a Sunday-size puzzle -- which isn't easy for eyeballs that are over 50 years old. In fact, virtually every designer I've dealt with on newspapers actually resents hearing about this. I realize the economy is down but I think that if newspapers ran more puzzles -- and to be honest, more puzzle contests -- they'd attract more readers. They did this a lot in the early 1900s and I think they'd have a lot to gain by doing it now.

What puzzles do you solve every day? Who are your favorite constructors?

I usually solve whatever puzzle I can get my hands when I'm out of the house, like when I'm at Starbucks in the morning. It's usually the New York Times on Friday and Saturday, and the L.A. Times Syndicate puzzle all week long because it's in my local paper. And even though I I'm sort of known for making humorous puzzles, I prefer to solve the hard, tricky ones and the wide-open themeless ones. So my favorite constructors are Patrick Berry, Mike Shenk, Frank Longo, Manny Nosowsky, Paula Gamache, Trip Payne, Brendan Quigley, Byron Walden, Sherry Blackard, and the many other constructors (whose names I can't immediately think of) who make great themeless puzzles on Friday and Saturday (and who made them for Peter Gordon when the Sun puzzle existed). Among the "old guard," my favorites were Jack Luzzatto and A.J. Santora.

10) Besides constructing crossword, what else do you do for fun?

I play keyboards -- not well, but it sounds like I know what I'm doing -- and I've written a lot of melodic pieces, probably about 50 hours' worth if I recorded them all back to back. I played keyboards in a rock band in the early 1970s and then was part of a theater group in Tucson AZ that did all-original plays and musicals, and I wrote the music for the musicals (we did about a dozen altogether, with about ten songs per show). I also collect movie soundtracks and have a nearly complete collection of film composer Bernard Herrmann's work -- he scored "Citizen Kane," "The Day the Earth Stood Still, "Psycho," Taxi Driver," and a ton of other films. My current favorite film composer is Thomas Newman, who scored "The Shawshank Redemption" among many others. I'm also a big animation fan (I have a big collection of classic cartoons), so it really was like a dream come true to be in an episode of "The Simpsons."

Additional links:

1) Merl's crossword discussions on Oprah.

2) Merl's Sunday puzzle.

Tuesday August 4, 2009 Kristian House

Theme: A Whole New Ball Game (idioms derived from baseball)

20A: Completely unexpected: OUT OF LEFT FIELD

28A: Fail to get a job done: DROP THE BALL

45A: Be super-successful: HIT A HOME RUN

53A: From day one: RIGHT OFF THE BAT

And FANS (56D: Bleacherites, e.g.). Sweet puzzle. Quite scrabbly too. Three X'es, one Z and one J.

A very pronounced car sub-theme too:

37A: Wheel shaft: AXLE

66A: Old Pontiac muscle cars: GTOS

33D: Car for which a law in named: LEMON

52D: Roomy auto: SEDAN

53D: Patronize Hertz, say: RENT

1D: Powerful shark: MAKO. Does this refer to the real shark or Corvette's MAKO Shark car?

I guess the constructor could clue ALAMO (44A: Crockett's last stand) as "Car rental name" too. Our own Crockett just visited ALAMO last year.

Does ANTH (44D: Lit. collection) stand for anthropology? (Note: It's short for anthology.) I am not familiar with this abbreviation at all. Only know ANA.

Across:

1A: CEO's degrees: MBAS. Bush is a YALIE, but got his MBA from Harvard.

10A: Pull up stakes: MOVE. "Pull up stakes" is a new idiom to me.

15A:___ vivace: quite lovely, on scores: MOLTO. Literally "very"/"much".

17A: Casino numbers game: KENO

18A: Oater saloon fight: BRAWL

19A: Leafy green that's high in vitamin K: KALE. You've got to eat some fat with KALE, otherwise the nutrient is wasted. Vitamin K is only fat-soluble.

25A: Speedster at JFK, once: SST

34A: Halloween witches' blemishes: WARTS. Crossing TREAT (27D: Halloween goody).

36A: Brazilian hot spot: RIO

38A: Yesterday, to Juan: AYER. I only know Mañana.

41A: Muslim leader: IMAM. Leader in a mosque.

42A: Spicy Asian cuisine: THAI. Yes, indeed. THAI food quite spicy.

49A: Tandoori bread: NAN. NAN/naan is baked in tandoori oven.

51A: Tolkien tree creatures: ENTS

61A: "... bombs bursting __": IN AIR. American National anthem, Martin.

62A: Martial arts school: DOJO. Japanese DO is just like Chinese TAO, meaning "way", JO is "place". So, DOJO is literally "place of the way".

64A: __ Park: Edison lab site: MENLO. Edison is called "The Wizard of MENLO Park".

65A: Sixth Jewish month: ADAR. Purim's month

68A: First in the waiting line: NEXT

Down:

2D: __ cheese dressing: BLEU. What's your favorite salad dressing?

3D: "__ Misbehavin'": AIN'T. Got the answer from the crosses. Have never heard of the song.

5D: "Epitaph for a Spy" author Eric: AMBLER. See the book cover. I learned his name from doing Xword.

6D: "West Wisde Story" Oscar winner Rita: MORENO. The only Hispanic female to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

8D: Foot package amt.: NT WT

9D: Pitch or chip: GOLF SHOT. Pitch shot has a high trajectory and the ball rolls a little bit upon landing on the green. Chip shot has less of a air time & more roll.

10D: Puts up get-out-of- jail money: MAKES BAIL

12D: South African grassland: VELD. Pronounced like VELT. Afrikaans for "field". New word to me.

13D: Program file suffix: EXE

21D: T-men and G-men: FEDS

25D: Strip of mowed grass: SWATH

29D: Babble on and on: PRATE. I really miss my grandma lately. I wish I could talk to her about my life. She's a woman of very few words. She just listened.

30D: Metal in solder: TIN. I actually got the answer by misreading the clue as "Metal in soldier". TIN soldier.

31D: Forest feller: AXMAN. Alliterative clue.

32D: Camel cousin: LLAMA. Also alliterative.

35D: Sources of romantic conflict: TRIANGLE

39D: When the curtain rises: SHOW TIME

40D: Web video gear, for short: CAM

46D: Half an evil laugh: HEH. Got the answer from Across fills.

47D: Submit an amended 1040: REFILE

48D: Having no paths or trails: UNTROD. Or untroden.

54D: "Othello" conniver: IAGO. He is so evil.

55D: Top draft status: ONE A

57D: Be an omen of: BODE. I don't believe I've seen AUGUR in a puzzle before.

58D: "Foaming cleanser" of old ads: AJAX. Here is a commercial clip. Again, I obtained the answer from Across fills.

59D: Legal wrong: TORT. Civil wrong.

Answer grid.

C.C.

PS: Here is our fellow LAT solver Kathleen Wolf's (WM) beautiful American Landscape for an online competition. Do vote and rate her painting. Five-star would be lovely. Thanks.

Monday August 3, 2009 David W. Cromer

Theme: E Pluribus Unum

17A: Data set available to many: SHARED FILE

57A: Professionally managed investment type: MUTUAL FUND

9D: Property co-owner: JOINT TENANT

25D: Unifying objective: COMMON CAUSE

Argyle here.

Wish OUR (44D: Wilder's __ Town) were clued as "Sharing word". Would be a good tie-in answer.

Very little today that should cause trouble but then CRS (Can't Remember SH?T) can strike at any time. Our constructor today has puzzles for every day of the week. Very good.

Across:

1A: Pear variety: BOSC. From Wikipedia: The Beurré Bosc or Bosc is a cultivar of the European Pear (Pyrus communis) grown in California, Washington, and Oregon, Australia as well as in British Columbia and Europe, where it is sometimes called Kaiser.

Characteristic features are a long tapering neck and russeted skin. Its flesh is denser, crisper and smoother than that of the Williams or D'Anjou pear. It is called the "aristocrat of pears".

5A: Philbin's co-host: RIPA. Kelly RIPA. Regis Philbin is of Albanian root too, so is Alan Shepard, in addition Mother Teresa & John Belushi, whom PBJ-Chicago pointed out yesterday.

9A: Sharp punches: JABS.

13A: Rights org.: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union.

14A: Broadcast booth sign: ON AIR.

16A: ESPN sportscaster Hershiser: OREL. At his peak in the 1980s, Orel Hershiser was at the top of the National League, the ace of a stacked Los Angeles Dodger rotation.

19A: Division word: INTO. And 42A: Math comparison: RATIO.

22A: Obama was in it until November 2008: SENATE.

24A: __set: construction toy: ERECTOR. from an earlier age.

26A: Dances in 3/4 time: WALTZES.

27A: Surgery ctrs.: ORS. Surgery centers-operating rooms. And 32A: Barn bundle: BALE. And 45A: Barnyard brooder: HEN. And 63A: Part to play: ROLE And 4D: Mangy mutt: CUR And 5A: Cowpokes' competitions: RODEOS. (Do you notice a sub-theme here? All alliterative clues!)

28A: Lindbergh, notably: PILOT. Also, from an earlier age.

29A: Mel, "The Velvet Fog": TORME. Vintage Torme.

33A: Vigorous spirit: ELAN.

37A: Japanese cartoon art genre: ANIME. "A Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sexuality." Based on the Random House Dictionary.

39A: Pointy-hatted garden statue: GNOME. Gotta have a picture!

40A: Taken-back auto: REPO. Origin: by shortening of repossess. Is forming a word by shortening the same as abbreviation? I think not.

41A: Thumbs-down reviews: PANS.

43A: Like the Vikings: NORSE. The ugly "troll" is of NORSE origin. And don't forget LEIF ("Sage of the Greenlanders" hero), son of Eric the Red.

46A: Treat for Fido: BISCUIT.

49A: Wetlands growth: CATTAIL. cattails

53A: Many vows are taken at them: ALTARS.

60A: Gets grayer, usually: AGES.

61A: Periods, in telegrams: STOPS.

62A: Big Apple theater award: OBIE. One of a group of awards given annually, by New York City's The Village Voice newspaper for achievement in the off-Broadway theater. Based on the Random House Dictionary

65A: D.C. lobbying orgs.: PACS. Political Action Committee.

Down:

2D: Autumn leaf color: OCHER. Not heard very often: "My, what lovely ocher leaves." Also spelled as OCHRE.

6D: Reason out: INFER.

10D: Desi who married Lucille Ball: ARNAZ.

11D: Midler of 'The Rose": BETTE. The Rose - Bette Midler & Wynonna Judd.

18D: Serving after the salad: ENTREE.

23D: "Don't Bring Me Down" rock gp.: ELO. Electric Light Orchestra

26D: Loses crispness, as celery: WILTS.

28D: "The Age of Reason" author Thomas: PAINE. Quotation by Thomas Paine: "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be."

29D: Sea dog: TAR. Old sailor.

30D: White Monopoly bill: ONE. Before you ask what the other colors are...Monopoly money.

31D: __ cord: parachute activator: RIP.

35D: "__ seeing things?": AM I.

39D: Sister of Hansel: GRETEL. Hansel and GRETEL. Grimm tale.

41D: Light-refracting devices: PRISM. Probably the most famous prism

44D: Wilder's "__ Town": OUR. The play with the stage manager out front.

45D: Bother continually: HARASS.

46D: Kid-lit elephant: BABAR. Intro, extracted from the episode "The City Of Elephants".

47D: Volunteer's offer: I'LL GO.

48D: Pittsburgh product, historically: STEEL. East Coast gimme?

49D: Two-door car: COUPE.

50D: Caribbean island resort: ARUBA. Map Somebody said it wasn't that nice, but I'd like to find out for myself.

51D: Greek column style: IONIC. Hmm, the classic DIC (INOIC, Doric & Corinthian, thanks again, Kazie).

52D: Mine bonanzas: LODES.

58D: Beehive State native: UTE. Not capitalized, a utility vehicle; with a capital, a member of the American Indian people of Utah.

59D: Fancy dresser: FOP. Synonyms: dandy, coxcomb, swell, dude, Beau Brummel, beau, clotheshorse, fashion plate, macaroni, peacock, popinjay. Oscar Wilde was one vain FOP, wasn't he? He once said: "One should either be a work of Art, or wear a work of Art."

Answer grid.

Argyle