Tuesday, February 12, 2013 Melanie Miller

 Theme: We need to talk - Types of talk lead off the four theme entries.

17A. Club used as a weapon, say : BLUNT INSTRUMENT

29A. Kid-friendly comfort food : FRANK AND BEANS

48A. Tests during which checking notes is allowed : OPEN BOOK EXAMS

64A. Candid sort : STRAIGHT SHOOTER

Argyle here. No beating around the bush, I'll go directly to the write-up. Two grid spanners anchor this text-book puzzle. Two other long entries complete the theme. A strong mix of fill. You might remember, Ms. Miller gave us the 4-H puzzle last summer. Link

Across:

1. Employment agency listings : JOBS

5. Fried Cajun veggie : OKRA. Hmm, is it Cajun before it's fried?

9. WWII conference site : YALTA. The Yalta Conference in February 1945 with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin was held on on the north coast of the Black Sea.

14. Billion extension : AIRE. (billionaire)

15. Steady guy : BEAU

16. He hunted with a club in the "Odyssey" : ORION. And got his own constellation.

20. Nonagenarian actress White : BETTY. Betty turned 91 last month, Jan. 17 (nonagenarian is between 90 and 100 years old). She is incredible.

21. Yeats or Keats : POET

22. Color, as Easter eggs : DYE

23. Summer quencher : ADE

24. Dorm VIPs : RA's. (Resident Assistant)

27. Where Lux. is : EUR. (Luxembourg/Europe)

36. Soothing additive : ALOE

38. River through Sudan : NILE. And in part, in Kenya, Eritrea, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, and Ethiopia.

39. Country rocker Steve : EARLE. Here is a song you might not know: The Galway Girl(3:14)

40. Sable maker, briefly : MERC. (Mercury)

41. Turn __ ear : A DEAF

43. Pub projectile : DART. They have flights so they fly true.

44. Former Portuguese territory in China : MACAO. Also spelled Macau, was transferred to China at the end of 1999.

46. Prefix with -pus : OCTO

47. Abates : EBBS

51. Gymnast's goal : TEN. The perfect score.

52. Deli bread : RYE

53. Art on skin, slangily : TAT. Tats have their own TV shows now.

56. Draw upon : USE

59. Not as much : LESS

62. Calf-roping gear : RIATA

68. Street toughs : PUNKS

69. Diamond Head's island : OAHU

70. Aromatic drinks : TEAs

71. Go on tiptoe : SNEAK

72. Small songbird : WREN

73. Wine area near Turin : ASTI

Down:

1. "Star Wars" gangster : JABBA. No links before breakfast, please.

2. No longer squeaky : OILED

3. Xbox battle game : BRUTE FORCE. Squad team player game that may be played single player or multiplayer.

4. Told to go : SENT

5. Asian tie : OBI

6. Barbie's guy : KEN. Except when she took up with Blaine that time.

7. Grating voice : RASP

8. One might get stuck in a jam : AUTO

9. Video-sharing website : YOUTUBE. Where would we be without it. Right, CED?

10. Radius's limb : ARM

11. Committed perjury : LIED

12. Randall who played Felix Unger : TONY. The TV version of "The Odd Couple", with Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison. 32D. More like Felix Unger : NEATER

13. Chip in a chip : ANTE. And if you didn't have a 'bad hand', then 28D. "__ and weep!": poker winner's cry : READ 'EM

18. Supermodel Banks : TYRA

19. Marsh stalk : REED

25. Tolstoy's Karenina : ANNA

26. Snowmobile brand : SKI-DOO. Ride 'em if you got 'em.

30. Take back : RECANT

31. Smart guy? : ALECK

33. African countries on the Mediterranean, e.g. : ARAB STATES

34. Mediation agcy. : NLRB. (National Labor Relations Board)

35. Congeals : SETS

36. Target practice supply : AMMO

37. "... one giant __ for mankind" : LEAP

42. Cunning : FOXY

45. Washington Monument, for one : OBELISK

49. Universal blood type, for short : O NEG.

50. Related to flying : AERO

54. Had lunch in : ATE AT

55. Foot bones : TARSI

56. Letter carrier's org. : USPS. (United States Postal Service)

57. Leave speechless : STUN

58. Marine eagle : ERNE

60. Vegas event : SHOW

61. Kindergartner's reward : STAR

63. Tiny bit : IOTA

65. Wanted-poster letters : AKA. (also known as)

66. Sailor's pronoun : SHE. (because ships are referred to as "she")

67. Attila, notably : HUN

Argyle

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to dear LaLaLinda, whose caring and loving personality shines through in each of her posts.

Cheater Squares

So, what are cheater squares?

They're symmetrically placed black squares which can be removed without affecting the total word count of a grid.

Let's look at this ?U?U puzzle Argyle and I made last November:

The two black squares the red arrows point to: the one to the right of AHA (6A) & the one to the the left of EDY (7D),  are cheaters. The word count here is 76. Total black squares: 36. Average word length: 4.97 (letters)

Now look at our original cheater-less submission:

No black squares to the right of 6A or to the left of 70A. Total word count here is still 76. Total black squares 34. Average word length: 5.03 (letters).

The reason we had to add two cheaters is that Rich thought ELUL (7D) is not a Monday entry. Adding cheaters smooths out the fill considerably.

Cheaters are normally added to the grid in the filling process. The ones beside theme entries, like these two to the left and right of OH PRETTY WOMAN (35A, the very middle 13-letter entry), should not be counted as cheaters. I put them in the grid designing process. I had other alternatives, but I didn't like the abundance of 3's they resulted and preferred these stacked 8's & 6's in the corner.

As I said yesterday, cheaters are not bad. They give constructors cleaner fill. To me, cheater-less grids look pretty. Plus, you get slightly longer, thus interesting words.

John Lampkin, Don G and today's co-constructor Bruce Venzke do not like cheaters in their grids. It takes discipline and hard work eliminating cheaters. Sometimes it's just not possible avoiding them, like John's grid yesterday.