Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Kenneth Berniker

Theme: What's in a Name? - A humorous take on the first "earthy" name of some famous people.

17A. Jazz bandleader and lover of forests?: WOODY HERMAN. Woodrow Herman (1913–1987), neat twist, The Woodchopper's Ball. Woody played the clarinet and the saxophone.

36A. Former heavyweight champ and lover of mountains?: ROCKY MARCIANO. Born Rocco Marchegiano (1923 – 1969), Rocky was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1952 to 1956, when he retired as the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career.

60A. Ex-Dodger pitcher and lover of beaches?: SANDY KOUFAX. Sanford Koufax was a lefty who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1955 to 1966. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Arthritis ended his career at age 30.

Argyle again. I believe this is our first offering from this constructor. He has several NYT submissions and is very scrabbly (just short a 'B' from a pangram today). (Update: There is a 'B' in the SE corner. Thanks, Hahtool.)

A nicely interconnected grid today, also. I did spot a sub theme...or I imagined it.

Across:

1A. Jack's partner: JILL (from the nursery rhyme.)

5A. Not exactly lined up: OFFSET

11A. Stanford-Binet nos.: IQ'S. The Stanford Binet Intelligence Test is a standardized test that measures IQ and cognitive abilities in children and adults aged two to 23.

14A. On the less breezy side, at sea: ALEE

15A. Jacket part: SLEEVE

16A. Actor's signal: CUE

19A. Common Market inits.: EEC. European Economic Community.

20A. Dazzling celestial events: NOVAE

21A. Source of a hot tip: INSIDER

23A. 737, for example: PLANE. A twin-jet engine airliner, 737 has been continuously manufactured by Boeing since 1967.

25A. Singer Domino: FATS. His thrill, Blueberry Hill.

27A. Trig function: SINE

28A. Corn unit: EAR

29A. "No __!": emphatic denial: SIREE

31A. Is able to, biblically: CANST

32A. It may wash away castles: TIDE . Sand castles

34A. Postal motto word: NOR

35A. Yellowfin tuna: AHI

41A. Madhouse: ZOO

42A. Golfer's accessory: TEE

43A. Base runner's goal: HOME

45A. Divided Asian land: KOREA

48A. Give up amateur status: GO PRO

50A. Up to, briefly: 'TIL

51A. Express line unit: ITEM

52A. Lass: GIRL

53A. Spiteful: NASTY

55A. "Strangers in the Night" singer: SINATRA. His thrill.

57A.Prefix with physics: ASTRO

59A. Sault __ Marie: STE.

64A. Russian fighter: MIG

65A. Postwar British prime minister: ATTLEE. Clement Attlee, (1883 – 1967) was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951.

66A. Farm field unit: BALE. Bales come in so many different sizes now, I'm not sure there is a standard 'field unit'.

67A. Ending for Vietnam: ESE

68A. Dwell: RESIDE

69A. Like the Mojave: ARID

Down:

1D. Mandible site: JAW

2D. UN workers rights agcy.: ILO. International Labour Organization

3D. Kate's "Titanic" co-star: LEONARDO Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio

4D. Gave false hopes: LED ON

5D. Workplace watchdog org.: OSHA

6D. Try to escape, as pursuers: FLEE FROM

7D. __-de-lance: pit viper: FER. Fer-de-Lance is French for spearhead (literally "iron of the lance"), and may refer to several tropical snakes.

8D. Arab or Jew: SEMITE

9D. Cowgirl Dale: EVANS. Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans found their thrill on Happy Trails

10D. Change for a 20: TENS

11D. Stranded at the chalet, maybe: ICED IN

12D. Brooklyn neighbor: QUEENS. New York City boroughs

13D. Whispered thing: SECRET

18D. Actor Montand: YVES

22D. Old Testament prophet: ISAIAH

23D. Teacher's favorite: PET

24D. Home in the wild: LAIR

26D. Faucet attachment: AERATOR

30D. California county in which Mount Whitney is partly located: INYO Map. Inyo County is the home of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states and Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in the United States.

31D. Greek X: CHI

33D. Itchy rash cause: ECZEMA

35D. Expert server: ACER

37D. "Kampgrounds" company: KOA. Kampgrounds of America.

38D. Showed over: REPLAYED

39D. "Up to this point, no": "NOT SO FAR"

40D. Fail to include: OMIT

44D. Bridge expert Culbertson: ELY

45D. Pecking order?: "KISS ME!". Great clue, though we've seen it in LA Times before.

46D. Ear inflammation: OTITIS

47D. Go back on a promise: RENEGE

48D. Meadowlands Stadium team: GIANTS

49D. Not tricked by: ON TO

52D. Fireplace feature: GRATE

54D. Resort island off Venezuela: ARUBA

56D. Ivan IV, for one: TSAR

58D. __-Ball: SKEE. The best way to explain it, is to show it. Video

61D. Mid sixth-century year: DLI

62D. Baba of fiction: ALI

63D. Deleted, with "out": X'ED

Answer grid.

Argyle

Interview with Rich Norris

It's been a very entertaining and educating year since we switched to LA Times on March 21, 2010. A quick catch-up with editor Rich Norris for the latest status regarding our current puzzle.

Are you now comfortable with the difficulty graduation level of our puzzles? Several regulars on our blog have given up on Saturdays due to its continued inaccessibility.

This sounds almost like two questions, which I'll answer separately.

Overall difficulty: yes, I am comfortable with the current levels.

Saturday: Saturday puzzles are admittedly harder than they were during the summer/fall "easing" period, but they aren't as hard as they used to be before then. There's really no way to make them both challenging enough for more-skilled solvers and yet accessible to those used to Wayne Williams' level of difficulty. To me, it doesn't seem fair to clue the entire week at such a basic level. The higher-level solvers are entitled to one or two puzzles a week that challenge them.

How is your editing style in the past year different from your LAT/TMS Daily consolidation days?

Except for that "easing" period I mentioned above, not at all.

How many more Dan Naddor puzzles are left in your pipeline? And what was it like to work with Dan?

I don't have a current count, but there are enough to last the year and then some. I think I've already said all there is for me to say about working with Dan. To sum up: his penchant for constantly stretching limits tried my patience once in a while, but on the whole, he was an editor's dream. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. And miss him.

Many of us missed Scott Atkinson's rotational turn in his recent TURNSTILE puzzle, and I certainly would not have noticed the counterclockwise one letter at a time rotation in Don Gagliardo's SHOE BOX puzzles if not for his Interview. How do you feel as an editor when solvers simply miss such woven intricacy?

I knew that the SHOE BOX puzzle would cause some confusion--because Tribune wouldn't allow me to use circles in puzzles at that time. Explaining such themes in prose is a challenge. I took a chance, and I feel it was a success because most solvers spotted it. "Turnstile" had circles, though. I thought that was enough theme help. It's not clear to me why so many of your readers didn't grasp the gimmick. It might simply be a lack of experience with this kind of puzzle. You can expect more circled themes in the future. Maybe that will help. ;-)

We've learned from the constructors that some of the entertaining clues are actually your creation. Where do you normally get your inspiration for cluing? What kind of newspapers/magazines/books/websites do you read every day?

My inspiration for cluing comes from years of experience, a pretty broad grasp of the English language, and my wife Kim, who's about as clever a wordsmith as I've ever met. I read the LA Times every day. Monthly, I subscribe to Consumer Reports and AARP the Magazine. I do loads of reading online: other newspapers, sports Web sites (I'm a sports nut), and whatever other sites my work happens to take me to.