Thursday April 16, 2009 Don Gagliardo

Theme: GEES (66A: Yegg's thousands)

17A: Toxic defoliant in Vietnam: AGENT ORANGE

27A: 1930s Fred Astaire partner: GINGER ROGERS

38A: Study of rock groups?: GEOLOGY

45A: Show runner: STAGE MANAGER

58A: "Adam Bede" novelist: GEORGE ELLIOT

Plus 23 more theme answers I will list later.

The above 5 long theme answers all have 2 or 3 G's each and are symmetrically placed. GINGER ROGERS is my favorite, the only one with 3 G's. Have never seen her full name in a puzzle before. Looks cool in the grid. GEOLOGY clue is made interesting with a question mark.

Just amazing puzzle! Total 21 G's. NY Times' record is 19. All soft G theme answers are positioned in Across, and hard G' in Down. Out of the 78 words in this puzzle, 28 are theme answers (14 Across and 14 Down). And if I counted correctly, there are only 60 non-theme black squares. That would be 125 theme squares, about 68% of theme fills. Definitely a first for me.

It reminds me of the Sept 19, 2008 Newsday "52 of a Kind" puzzle. Every word in the grid has a letter L, some are long, some are short. I asked Stan Newman if all of them are theme answers. He said yes, but "of course this is a special case".

Very creative puzzle. I enjoyed a lot. I wonder why SOFT G is not clued in the grid. Is it structurally impossible?

OK, here we go, more soft G (Across) theme entries:

4A: Sharp-witted: AGILE. Wrote down ACUTE recklessly.

9A: O. Henry's "The Gift of the __": MAGI. Read this story in Chinese. It's in our high school western literature class.

14A: Taunts: GIBES

16A: Windy City superstation: WGN. Owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and of course Tribune Media Services (TMS) which syndicates LA Times and the old TMS Daily puzzle.

32A: Rowlands of "Another Woman": GENA

50A: Golden __: AGERS. Didn't we just see this clue the other day? Time for teen AGERS.

62A: Red-and-white supermarket logo: IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance). Sigh! I can't remember this chain name. It's clued as "Supermarket grp." in early April.

66A: Yegg's thousands: GEES. Feels weird to see G spelled out as GEE.

67A: Letter appearing only in down answers; its opposite appears in across answers: HARD G

68A: Glue is one: GEL

And hard G Down theme entries:

2D: Billiards player's consideration: ANGLE

4D: Tennis great who retired in 2006: AGASSI (Andre). Two-US Open champ, as clued in yesterday's puzzle.

5D: Prefix with hertz: GIGA. Only know gigabyte.

9D: Address to a pal, in Pamplona: MI AMIGO. "My friend" in Spanish. This refers to male friend only, correct?

11D: Satanic nation in Revelation: GOG. No idea. Got it from across fills. Is that how we got AGOG?

20D: '70 Olympics name: OLGA (Korbut). OLGA means "Holy".

29D: Skilled in: GOOD AT

32D: Tenet's CIA successor: GOSS (Porter). Gimme gimme. Leon Panetta is the current boss. Someone just mentioned on the blog yesterday that CIA's nickname is "The Company". NSA's nickname is "The Puzzle Palace".

38D: Donate, in Dundee: GIE. Scottish for "give".

39D: Club appearance: GIG

42D: Overlooks: IGNORES. Overlook is a Janus word. It means IGNORES, but it also means "to watch over".

44D: Logician's connector: ERGO

52D: Antisocial elephant: ROGUE. Is "Antisocial elephant" a slang? I am not familiar with this phrase.

55D: __ Khan: AGA. Sometimes it's clued as "Turkish title". Literally "Lord". Here is Anne Bancroft's "Yma Dream" again. AGA Khan is one of them. AVA Gardner, AVA Gabor, OONA O'Neill, IDA Lupino, Abba EBAN, UTA Hagen, Ida Lupino and most of the crossword stalwarts are in the clip too.

58D: Comical bit: GAG

Non theme fills (Across):

1A: Late-night name: JAY. JAY Leno. Another kind of soft G, right?

13A: Prop extension?: ANE. Propane. I like this clue. Much better than our old "Chemical ending".

15A: Key that often sounds gloomy: MINOR. Oh, I was unaware of this. So MAJOR keys are cheerful?

19A: Charlie Parker's instrument: ALTO SAX. Would not have got the answer without the down fills. I could only think of saxphone.

21A: Novel type: DIME

22A: Sings, so to speak: TELLS. "Where do I begin? To tell the story of how great a love can be?..."

23A: Philosopher __ tzu: LAO. LAO literally means "old" in Chinese. LAO-Tzu is "Old Master". My husband calls me LAO Po, literally "Old wife".

35A: Place for a stud: LOBE. Stud earrings.

36A: Tribute with a wink: ROAST. Like the annual Gridiron Club Dinner. Obama skipped his this year.

37A: Siouan speaker: OTO. Or OTOE.

40A: Old touring car: REO. The old Olds.

41A: 2005 horror sequel: SAW II. Easy guess. I don't watch horror movies.

43A: Artist who worked on Hitchcock's "Spellbound": DALI. Another guess. I only know the 2002 documentary "Spellbound". I bet those kids are great at solving crosswords. Have never heard of Hitchcock's "Spellbound". DALI was a close friend of Mia Farrow.

44A: O.K. Corral name: EARP. Learned from doing Xword.

48A: Certain, for sure: Abbr.: SYN (Synonym). I don't get this one? What does SYN stand for? (Note: Certain is the synonym of "sure". I am going to bang my head at the wall now.)

49A: LAX tower gp.: ATC. Air Traffic Control. I got the answer from down fills also.

54A: Actress Cusack: JOAN. John Cusack's sister. She is Cynthia in "Working Girl".

64A: "Lovergirl" vocalist __ Marie: TEENA. Here is the clip. I am not familiar with this singer. Wikipedia says she is nicknamed Lady T and her real name is Mary Christine Brockert. Why TEENA intead of Tina then?

65A: Rapa __: Easter Island: NUI. Here is a map. I had no idea that Easter Island is also called Rapa NUI, the Polynesian name meaning "Big Rapa". Wikipedia says it's coined by labor immigrants from Rapa in the Bass Islands, who likened it to their home island in the aftermath of the Peruvian slave deportations in the 1870s. Maybe you can tell me where Bass Islands is.

Non-theme Down:

1D: Scold: JAW AT. Is JAW AT a phrase? I only know JAW.

3D: Streisand title role: YENTL. I still don't know the exact meaning of YENTL. But it's the root word of YENTA.

6D: Alpine goat: IBEX. The wild mountain goat with terrifying horns. Does IBEX shed their horns as buck does with their antlers?

7D: Sportscaster Berman: LEN. Ah me, I forgot his name. I recognized those bobbleheads, so I must have linked this picture before.

8D: More than -er?: EST. Cute clue.

10D: "Archie Bunker's Place" costar: ANNE MEARA. Ben Stiller's mother.

15D: Hospital scanner: MRI

23D: Matt of "Joey": LeBLANC. A rare gimme. Liked him in "Friends". Have never seen "Joey" though.

24D: Anatomical ring: AREOLA. The nipple rings. Are(a) + Ola. The plural is AREOLAE.

26D: "Mr. Triple Axel" Brian: ORSER. Got his name from across fills. A Canadian figure skater. How tall do you think he is?

28D: Marlins' div: NLE (National League East). Braves, Phillies, Mets and the Nationals are the other members. Our Twins belong to ALC (American League Central).

30D: Access ending: ORY. Accessory.

34D: "When pigs fly!": NO WAY JOSE

46D: Nape growth: MANE. The nape of lion/horse.

47D: Livestock identifier: EAR TAG. See this picture. I can almost feel the pain when his ear is pierced.

51D: "Dallas" name: EWING. This has become a gimme. Williams clued EWING as "Adlai Stevenson's middle name" a couple of times.

53D: Slow mollusk: SNAIL

57D: Tegucigalpa's country: Abbr.: HOND (Honduras). Tegucigalpa is the capital city. We just had ESTO clued as "This, in Tegucigalpa" a week ago. But I forgot it completely. New abbreviation to me also.

59D: Summer in the cité: ETE. Rather tepid clue. I like last time's "When the French fry?".

60D: Ordinal suffix: ETH. Sometimes it's clued as "Biblical verb ending".

61D: Meadow: LEA. I've never seen this meadow word in any book, but EWE might have.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Interview with Dan Naddor

Dan Feyer mentioned in his interview that Dan Naddor is one of his favorite constructors. Barrel of A Pencil and a few other fellow solvers also told me that they are huge fans of Dan Naddor.

Dan is one of the regular contributors to LA Times Crossword. I thought it would be a good idea for us to get to know him better.

I asked Dan a few questions, and I found his answers to be very informative and fascinating.

What's your background? Who inspired you to construct your first crossword?

I grew up in Baltimore as a precocious kid who loved baseball and used to read Time Magazine cover to cover. That triggered a lifelong appreciation for the incredible depth and quirkiness of the English language. I became a dreaded know-it-all and developed a love of wordplay and puns at an early age (to the chagrin of my teachers and classmates). I remember vividly sitting in math class in high school with a problem on the board involving multiple colored dice, four of which were clear. The clear ones were 2, 3, 5 and 6, something like that. So I announced “So, on a clear die you can never see four”, punning on “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”. Dead silence. No one got it. You get the picture – I was quite the geek. When I first heard of “A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA” I was thrilled and astounded. In college, though, I soured a bit on academics but blossomed socially and became better-rounded as a person. Eventually I became an investment real estate dealmaker in Southern California. I’m ashamed to say the only reading I do these days is the newspaper.

In the mid-90’s I began solving crosswords at lunch as something to do. The Los Angeles Times puzzle, in fact, pre-Rich Norris. I’d finish them easily, underwhelmed with their caliber, and then think about how I could improve on them. I didn’t understand why so many had only three or four theme entries. I tried a few NYT puzzles but found my solving skills not nearly up to the challenge. But my interest in construction was piqued.

I've only solved 2 of your puzzles, but I found the state & city (I titled it as "Texas Lolita's Favorite Things) to be very creative. How would you describe your style? What kind of themes/fills are you gravitating to or trying to avoid? And what's your view on low word/low black square counts?

I guess I’d describe my puzzle style as original and theme-laden. My goal is to excite my solvers with clever themes and colorful non-crosswordese fill. And there’s no reason my solver shouldn’t get at least four or five “aha moments”, as Will Shortz describes them. If I’m working on a puzzle idea and can’t come up at least four themers, I punt. But if I can squish seven or eight quality themers in, that’s panacea for me as a constructor. It makes crafting a good fill tougher, to be sure. But it’s like laying out your stuff on the bed for a trip, seeing it’s more than your suitcase can possibly hold, and still managing to squeeze everything in without leaving any items behind. I like that challenge.

First of all, I want my grids to be attractive to the eye. Ideally, I strive for a block arrangement with lots of well-defined, open areas. And I shoot for at least 20 entries of 6 letters or more in my puzzles, the non-themers as colorful as possible. Themewise, I’ll tackle anything that lends itself to humor or wordplay – irony, puns, deleted/added/switched letters, hidden words. I steer clear of tributes and themeless puzzles because I find them lacking in “aha moments”. And I love coming up with punny clues that gently pull my solver’s leg, like “Altar ego” for BRIDE, “Grasshopper’s soda” for NEHI, and “Blow-out merchandise” for CANDLES.

Because of my love of heavy “themage”, most of my puzzles tend to be low word count and high black square count. If I can find ways to lower either without compromising my fill, I do it in a heartbeat. I spend a lot of time up front positioning the theme entries in the grid so that I can create not only an appealing look, but opportunities for enhancing fill by stacking themers wherever possible and finding longish words that can run vertically through the horizontal traffic jam. If I don’t do that, I end up needing more than the allowable 42 black squares. As it is, I spend hours and hours on fill.

Dan Feyer mentioned that you only contribute to LA Times. Is there a special reason for that? How long have been contributing to LA Times and what is it like working with Rich Norris?

I sent Rich Norris ten puzzles in the summer of 2006 before he finally accepted one (probably out of pity because it had 80 words, two over the limit). I’ve had 91 published since then and another 50 or so waiting in queue.

Rich is a remarkably talented, patient editor whose collaborative but disciplined style fits well with my creative, gung-ho approach. I have learned an enormous amount from him about theme tightness, consistency, “quality of fill trumps quantity of theme” and making sure the difficulty of the fill is commensurate with the day of the week for which the theme is suited (e.g. no obscure words for a Monday puzzle). He has rescued many of my more abstract themes with his terrific cluing ability. And when he rejects a submission (it happens over 50% of the time), he gives me a thoughtful explanation of his rationale. So rather than train/endure another editor while learning the craft, I’ve stuck with Rich exclusively. As time goes on I may branch out.

What kind of puzzles do you solve every day? Who are your favorite constructors and why?

To be honest I don’t do much solving at all. I solve the LAT every morning to keep abreast of what others are doing and what Rich is allowing. And I read Amy Reynaldo’s terrific blog daily. But that’s about it. I’d rather be creative with my time. In a way, I think my disdain for obscure words would be dulled if I were a serial solver and looked at them every day.

Patrick Berry is my favorite constructor – great themes and marvelous, uncluttered fill. It’s a real treat for me when he shows up in Amy’s blog.

Besides solving/constructing crosswords, what else do you do for fun? What would people find one thing that's most surprising about you?

I am blessed with a wonderful wife, Tracie, sons Mike and Alex and daughter Courtney. When I’m not with my family, and not constructing, I love playing competitive golf with my buddies, usually for money. I’m getting a bit older and don’t sink the pressure putts like I used to. Watching the Masters this year was awesome – I’m a big Tiger Woods fan (who inspired a cute puzzle I’m currently working on).

Actually, the thing most people find surprising about me is my prolific puzzle-making. For some reason most people I interact with, including the well-educated ones, aren’t into crosswords. I guess I must keep my intellectual side, born from childhood, under wraps pretty well.

Thanks for inviting me into your domain, CC. It was fun to be asked such insightful questions about my hobby/obsession!

Added later by C.C.:

1) Dan passed away on Dec 28, 2009. He was 53 years old. I felt comforted that his last birthday (Oct 16) was celebrated on our blog and he knew how much he was loved and admired in our community. For those who can't access Dan's Facebook, here are a few of his favorite things:

Favorite music: Yo Yo Ma; Classical; Musical Theatre (West Side Story)

Favorite TV shows: Wild Wild West

Favorite movies: Wizard of Oz; Shawshank Redemption.

Favorite Quotations: Never, Never, Never Give up (Winston Churchill); Always Do the Right Thing (Dan Naddor).

2) Dan Naddor obit in LA Times.

3) His friends called him "Mr. Duck", and he nicknamed himself "Dr. Squish" for "his propensity to crowd theme-related clues into his puzzles".

4) Dan Naddor Wordplay Tribute (March 25, 2010)

5) Here is a summary of all of Dan's LAT puzzles (April 17, 2011)