Thursday, April 4, 2013 Jeff Chen

Theme: "PLAY BALL!"

7 Down. Diamond deception found in this grid nine times: eight in square four-letter clusters, the ninth formed by the clusters' outline : HIDDEN BALL TRICK. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a couple examples of the play...done to the same player!

BA sits atop

LL  in each cluster, and I have highlighted them in fuchsia below. My grid did not have circles, did yours?  If you connect all of the clusters, they resemble a ball sitting in the grid. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the diagonal blocks sort of resemble the stitching on the baseball, don't they?

Other gratuitous baseball references at 37-Down. Two-bagger: Abbr. : DBL. Double. and 40-Down. Giant slugger : OTT. Mel Ott, who played his entire career for the NY Giants, and now is retired to his home in crosswords.

Marti here, getting more baseball savvy with each puzzle I blog.

Across

1. Vicious with a bass : SID. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols.

4. "That's gotta hurt" : OUCH. (...said the bass.)

8. It's close to 90 : B PLUS. Fun clue!

13. XL piece: Abbr. : LGE. Xtra Large.

14. Visitor-friendly Indonesian island : BALI. Travel + Leisure voted it "Best Island" in 2010.

15. ___ Mama: rum drink : BAHAMA. An adult Icee!

16. Voided : ANNULLED.

18. Woolly beasts : LLAMAS.

19. Kelly who voiced Nala in "The Lion King" : MOIRA. And 35 Down. Prideful place? : LIONS DEN.

20. "Ooky" family name : ADDAMS. They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're all together ooky...

22. Financial degs. : MBAs. Master of Business Administration (s)

23. Prayer supports? : KNEES.

24. Its four-color logo no longer has overlapping letters : EBAY.

Before:                                                                        

                  After:

28. First name in jazz : ELLA.

29. Spotty coverage? : ACNE.

30. Canvasses : POLLS.

31. In medias ___ : RES. "In the middle of things." A device found in movies and literature where the story starts in the middle or even end of the action, and then goes back to fill in from the beginning using flashbacks.

32. Re-entry request : STUB.

33. Spot for many a curio : MANTEL.

34. Solo : GO IT ALONE.

36. Hold fast : ADHERE.

39. Twist in a gimlet : LIME.

43. Ebb : ABATE.

44. Latch (onto) : GLOM. Love that word!

45. Letter-shaped brace : L-BAR.

46. "___ vostra salute!": Italian toast : ALLA. "To your health!"

47. Cigna rival : AETNA. Insurance rivals.

48. Fashion monthly : ELLE.

49. Takes the spread, e.g. : WAGERS.

51. Ethiopia's Selassie : HAILE. His family traditionally traces its origins back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Today, he is revered as the messiah by Rastafarians.

52. Winter melon : CASABA.

55. Items that can open doors : ID BADGES. Cute clue!

57. "___ never know what hit 'em!" : THEY'LL.

58. 1-Down unit : CELL. And 1-Down. Clink : SLAMMER.

59. That, in Tijuana : ESA.

60. Fresh : SASSY.

61. Boy Scout's handiwork : KNOT.

62. Additive sold at Autozone : STP. "Scientifically Treated Petroleum." The racer's edge.™

Down:

2. Not virtuous : IGNOBLE.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,

Their sober wishes never learned to stray;

Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Thomas Gray

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

3. Some kneejerk responses : DENIALS.

4. Beatles song syllables : OB-LA.-Di, Ob-La-Da.

5. Delta rival: Abbr. : UAL. United Airlines. and 12-Across. Stockholm flier : SAS. Now Scandinavian Airlines, it was previously Scandinavian Airlines System.

6. Freshly groomed : CLEAN-CUT. I think of "clean-cut" as someone who is neat in appearance all the time, not just fresh from the barber's.

8. Burt's Bees product : BALM.

9. Startup segment : PHASE ONE.

10. Skedaddle : LAM.

11. Actress Thurman : UMA. "Kill Bill:Volume 2" is a good example of In Medias Res.

15. Hugo's "Ruy ___" : BLAS. The title character is an indentured commoner who is in love with the queen, and becomes the pawn in a cruel hoax by a suitor she had scorned.

17. Nocturnal bear : URSA. One of the dippers in the sky at night. Major or Minor.

21. Wallace of "E.T." : DEE. She played the mother. Did not remember her.

23. In an arranged swap, she guest-hosted "The Tonight Show" in 2003 on the same day Jay guest hosted "The Today Show" : KATIE. Couric and Leno. This clue was so long that when I first glanced at it, I thought it was the reveal for the theme!

25. Tripart sandwich : BLT. I stared at the clue and wondered what kind of drugs would be in a TRIP ART sandwich?

26. Newcastle specialty : ALE.

27. French designer's inits. : YSL. Yves St. Laurent.

30. French door part : PANE. I was looking for a french word, like "jambage" ou "seuil." But nope, just the pane of glass in a French door.  I'm sitting here looking at two of them. Duh!

32. Nursing a grudge : SORE.

33. Family nickname : MOMMA. I remember...

34. Vacation spots : GETAWAYS.

36. Org. with towers : AAA. Tow-trucks, that is. American Automobile Association.

38. Laurel & Hardy producer Roach : HAL. He also produced "Of Mice and Men."

40. Accommodates : OBLIGES.

41. Guinness superlative : TALLEST. Book of records, not the tallest beer!

42. Syrup source : TREE SAP. We just had this entry in Patti Varol's Monday April Fool puzzle, Strange to see it again so soon!

44. "Golly!" : GEE.

45. Pb is its symbol : LEAD.

47. "(I've Got ___ in) Kalamazoo" : A GAL. The inimitable Glen Miller. 3:20

50. With proficiency : ABLY.

51. "Red light!" : HALT.

52. Nos. not on some restaurant menus : CTS. Cents. Some restaurants don't even put the dollars on their menus.

53. "Got it!" : AHA.

54. His, in Honfleur : SES. "Son" also fits. Just sayin'...

56. Rain-___: bubble gum brand : BLO. And so we come full circle, ending with a bunch of balls.

Hugs,

Marti

Interview with Erik Agard

If you have not seen this video crossword Erik Agard put together, please make sure you do. Click on the numbers, the clues will show up. 

Erik is a student at the University of Maryland. He finished 14th in this year's ACPT. Erik has been published by the LA Times & NY Times. He also publishes a new puzzle in his blog (Glutton for Pun) every Wednesday.

Left to Right: John Beck, John Wilson, Erik Agard, 2012 ACPT

How did the POWER COUPLE idea come to you and what were the other theme entries you considered but discarded?  It's always challenging to come up with natural "in the language" entries for this type of both words precede/follow theme type.

I have absolutely no idea. I rarely know where these things come from. I know I really wanted to put BLACK in one of the theme entries but I couldn't find a match for it. 

I just love this grid. 6 theme entries (60 squares!) & PHOTOSHOP & PAPARAZZI. What's your philosophy in grid designing & filling? What kind of entries do you love and what kind do try to avoid in your grids?

Thank you! Me too! My approach is: design the hardest possible grid to fill. Fill it. If you can't fill it, cry a little, maybe have a bath, and then try the next hardest grid, and so on. Being a narcissist, I think the puzzle is a canvas for self-expression, so I love entries that relate to my life (for example, I like 22-down music, and the 20-across is one of my favorite snacks). I try to avoid stuff I never would have heard of if I didn't do crosswords, though it doesn't always work out (53-down, 56-down).

What's your background and how did you get into crossword construction?

For high school I got sent to a math, science, and computer science program, which was suboptimal, being that I suck at all of those. But I got something out of it. Mr. Stein - calculus teacher, ACPT-goer, Puzzlepalooza co-founder - shared his love of crosswords with the class, and it stuck. My constructing career, then, evolved as a series of attempts to stump him (or at least take him at least ten minutes to solve).

Can you tell us a bit behind-the-scenes story about the making of that video crossword puzzle you helped produced? It's so fun to watch.

In a nutshell: I constructed a 42 word grid, found 42 brilliant volunteers, and nagged them for a few months until they each sent me a video clue. Crossword people are seriously the best.

You've been publishing a fresh puzzle every week in your blog since last September. Where do you usually find theme inspirations? 

Again, your guess is as good as mine. Sometimes there's a phrase I want to use (like BRACKET BUSTER or MILA KUNIS), so I build a theme around it. 

You're a fast solver. How long does it take you to solve a typical LAT Wednesday puzzle? Do you always grok the theme while solving or speed is your only concern? 

Usually two to two and a half minutes. The fastest puzzles are the ones where I don't pay any attention to the theme, but I do try to take a look when I've finished.

How many puzzles do you solve every day and who are your favorite constructors?

At least seven. Double digits on a good day. I have far too many of those to not leave some out, but here's a few (they all have something important in common): Matt Gaffney. Brendan Emmett Quigley. Ben Tausig. Neville Fogarty. Andy Kravis. Peter Broda. Matt Jones. Pete Muller. Patrick Blindauer. 

Besides crossword, what are your other hobbies?

People keep asking me this and it's making me think I need to find another hobby. Yikes.

Added later:

Please click here to see a wonderful Washington Post interview with Erik.