Monday, August 8, 2016 Kevin C. Christian

Theme: Beyond Medium - Well, well, well done.

20A. Position of football lineman J.J. Watt : DEFENSIVE END. End well.

28A. Average, in math : ARITHMETIC MEAN. Mean well.

42A. Fountain treat with Bosco, maybe : CHOCOLATE SHAKE. Shake well.

47A. Echoic remark before "What do we have here?" whose words can follow the ends of 20-, 28- and 42-Across : "WELL WELL WELL"

Argyle here. Argyle here (with a sense of déjà vu).

Author:

1. 24 minutes, in the NBA : HALF

5. Giant among wholesale clubs : SAM'S

9. Heat unit : THERM

14. Rideshare app : UBER

15. __-deucey : ACEY

16. Great Lakes mnemonic : HOMES. Test yourself.

17. Author Wiesel : ELIE

18. Improbable tale : YARN

19. Candy heart message : I LUV U

23. Sound heard by a shepherd : [BAA!]

24. Intense, as a competitor : FIERCE

33. Unsteady on one's feet : AREEL

34. Country rocker Steve : EARLE

35. "__ & the Women": 2000 Gere film : DR. T

36. Divisions of tennis matches : SETs

37. Actress Holmes : KATIE

38. Ticked off : SORE

39. "How was __ know?" : I TO

40. Diamond weight : CARAT

41. Word before Master or case : STAIR

45. Biblical dancer : SALOME

46. For each : PER

54. Many Mideast residents : ARABS

57. Verdi opera set in Egypt : "AIDA"

58. Color similar to turquoise : AQUA

59. '90s candidate Ross : PEROT

60. Hosp. scans : MRIs. (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

61. Road grooves : RUTS

62. Japanese capital : TOKYO

63. Literary sister of Amy, Meg and Jo : BETH. (Little Women)

64. Magnitude : SIZE

Down:

1. Tinged : HUED

2. Having the skills : ABLE

3. Actor/singer Garrett : LEIF. He became famous in the 1970's as a child actor, pop star and teen idol.

4. They're on the house : FREEBIES

5. Prepares to have one's tongue depressed : SAYS "AH"

6. Healthy berry : ACAI

7. Griffin of game show fame : MERV

8. "Auld Lang __" : SYNE

9. Skating danger : THIN ICE

10. Texas __: poker game : HOLD 'EM

11. Big Australian bird : EMU

12. Gun, as an engine : REV

13. The Spartans of the NCAA : MSU. (Michigan State University)

21. Part of NFL: Abbr. : NATL. (National)

22. TurboTax option : E-FILE

25. Hardwood tree that drops acorns : RED OAK

26. Fisher who plays Princess Leia : CARRIE. Daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

27. Come in : ENTER

28. "Queen of Soul" Franklin : ARETHA

29. Equip anew, as a machine shop : RETOOL

30. Ben Stiller's mom : MEARA. Anne.

31. Really bother : EAT AT

32. Clichéd : TRITE

33. Nike competitor : ASICS

37. Superman's birth name : KAL-EL

38. Sci-fi classic that introduced Princess Leia : "STAR WARS"

40. Regains consciousness : COMES TO

41. Poet Silverstein : SHEL

43. Frequent John Wayne persona : COWBOY

44. A cannonball makes a big one : SPLASH

48. Shepherd's charge : LAMB

49. Lamp-to-plug line : WIRE

50. Improve text : EDIT

51. Same: Pref. : EQUI

52. Skating jump : LUTZ

53. Cut with light : LASE

54. Fitting : APT

55. Rock's __ Speedwagon : REO

56. Genesis boat : ARK

Argyle

Sunday, August 7, 2016 Donna S. Levin & Bruce Venzke

Theme: "A Fee for Victory" - V is changed into F, all key words go through spelling changes. 

23A. Municipal tennis court? : COMMUNITY SURFACE. Community service.

38A. Crowded dorm symptom? : A ROOM WITH A FEW. A Room with a View.

66A. Embellishment on Arabic calligraphy? : ALIF GARNISH. Olive garnish. Holy smoke, I pronounced ALIF wrong all these years. I thought A has the schwa sound.

75A. Last log entry? : FINAL RECORD. Vinyl record.

118A Request at the poultry farm? : I'D LIKE TO BUY A FOWL. I'd like to buy a vowel.

99A. Animal always without a home? : PERMANENT WAIF. Permanent wave.

16D. Cause of playtime sadness? : LOSING ONE'S NERF. Lose one's nerve.

51D. Brother-and-sister biathlon training regimen? : SIBLING RIFLERY. Sibling rivalry.

I bet many of you figured out the gimmick by looking at the title alone. I did also. The more I solve/make this type of sound change puzzle, the more I realize how hard it is to find a non-self-evident title that captures the gimmick.

Judging by the byline order, Donna came up with the theme idea, then she and Bruce brainstormed the theme entries together. Then Bruce designed the grid (Intersecting long theme entries is his hallmark). Then maybe Bruce filled the grid and Donna clued the whole grid. Or they each filled half and clued half. 

Loved the theme. Donna and Bruce are total pros. Unless you brainstorm this type of sound change theme yourself, you won't realize how much imagination and skills are involved in coming up with a consistant set.

Across:  

1. "Ring Around the Rosie" word : ASHES. Sigh. Never heard of this nursery rhyme.

6. Belts : SWIGS. Both verb/noun works.

11. Drop : OMIT.

15. Firefly emanation : GLOW

19. Regatta racer : SCULL. Not ROWER.

20. Bacon in a parlor game : KEVIN. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. I was picturing real bacon.

21. Rare state bird : NENE

22. Apple's apple, e.g. : LOGO

 

26. Nobel Peace Center home : OSLO

27. Jackson ejector : ATM

28. Goes bad : ROTS

29. Father __ Sarducci: "SNL" character : GUIDO

30. "Good __!" : GRIEF. Not GRAVY.

31. Artist Mondrian : PIET

33. Rudely awaken : ROUST

36. Throat trouble? : FROG. Nice clue.

37. __ Tin Tin : RIN

  

 41. Bayer that might cause a headache? : BEAGLE. I don't get this clue. Why "headache"? Also 86. 41-Across, e.g. : BREED

44. Après-ski option : SPA. Not RUM.

45. "Jurassic Park" threat : TREX

46. Cause of a municipal alert : SMOG. Quite serious in my hometown Xi'an last winter.

48. Online ref. since 2000 : OED

49. Radiographer's tests : CT SCANS. We also have 40. The "A" often seen in 49-Across : AXIAL. The latter is unknown to me.

 

53. Guadalajara gal pal : AMIGA

56. WWI French battle site : ARGONNE. Stumped me last time.

58. "La donna è mobile," for one : ARIA. Hey, we have Donna!

59. In a proper manner : DULY

61. Francis of "What's My Line?" : ARLENE

63. Conk : BEAN

64. Massage : RUB

65. Feature of ths clue : TYPO

 

68. Contradict : BELIE

70. Israeli statesman Abba : EBAN

72. Buster? : NARC. Another great clue.

73. Like __: probably : AS NOT

 

78. Otherwise : ELSE

80. Show one's humanity : ERR

81. "Aw, fudge!" : DANG. I had DARN. By the way, Rich does not allow DAMN any more.

82. Potential benefit : UPSIDE

83. Editor's "Let it be" : STET.  And 113. Opposite of 83-Across : DELE

 84. Spy-fi villain in a Nehru jacket : DR NO

85. Quadratic formula course : ALGEBRA. Googled afterward. Knew that formula in Chinese, which gave me headache in high school.

87. "I'm not afraid of __; I just don't want to be there when it happens": Woody Allen : 

DEATH

89. Mucinex relative : SUDAFED. Where did the drug company pick up this name?

91. Neighbor of Leb. : ISR

92. Biryani base : RICE. Never heard of Biryani. You?

94. Senator Bail Organa's adopted daughter : LEIA.  I thought he's a real US Senator.  "Star Wars".

96. Written guffaw : LOL

97. Taken over : SEIZED

 

105. Adversary : FOE

106. Eldest Bennet daughter in "Pride and Prejudice" : JANE

107. __ Soleil: 17th-/18th-century royal : LE ROI. The Sun King.

108. On Vine St., say : IN LA

110. Spaniard's "L'chaim!" : SALUD

112. Chased from the closet : OUTED

114. Ices : OFFs

116. Business card abbr. : TEL

117. Not odd at all : EVEN

 

122. Geeky sort : NERD

123. Wedding cake layer : TIER

124. Detroit's Joe __ Arena : LOUIS

125. Holmes of "The Kennedys" : KATIE. She does look like Jackie Kennedy.

126. Temperance advocates : DRYs

127. Head of France? : TETE

128. DeMille specialties : EPICs

129. Wood that sinks in water : EBONY. Got via crosses.

Down:

 

1. Music rights gp. : ASCAP

2. Old Roman name for Ireland : SCOTIA. Oh, I did not know this. 

3. Large '90s-'00s SUV : HUMMER

4. Boston's Liberty Tree was one : ELM

5. Disparage : SLUR

6. Bunny slope conveyance : SKI TOW

7. Scuba gear : WET SUIT

8. Brown, for one : IVY. Gimme for our regulars.

9. Vets-to-be : GIs

10. Cozy : SNUG

11. Having a heck of a winning streak : ON FIRE

12. Pastures : MEADOWS

13. Disguised, briefly : INCOG. A common topic in old Chinese novels. High officials, including emperors, often go incognito to villages.

14. Driver's aid : TEE. Golf. Does Champions Tour stop in your area, TTP? It's free here. 3M also gives each spectator a bag of goodies: Scotch tape, Post-It notes, etc.  Here is Boomer on Friday.

15. Meathead's wife in '70s TV : GLORIA. No idea. All in the Family,

17. Act like a wolf : OGLE

18. Pound sound : WOOF

24. Rouen's region : NORMANDY

25. Elizabethan neckwear : RUFF. Also a learning moment.

30. One of the Allman Brothers : GREGG. Cher's ex.

32. Scarpia's killer, in a Puccini opera : TOSCA

34. Errant : STRAY

35. Him and her : THEM

39. WWII cost-stabilizing agcy. : OPA. No idea. Office of Price Administration

41. Wood-damaging insect : BORER. Gluey word.

42. "Stormy Weather" singer : LENA HORNE. We don't see her full name often.

43. Place with a serpent problem : EDEN

47. Handcuffs : MANACLES

49. Atkins no-no : CARB

50. Kind of test : TRUE-FALSE. Sparkly.

52. Powerful campaign force : SUPER PAC. Sparkly.

54. Humdrum routine : GRIND

55. Bravo preceder : ALFA

57. Geishas' sashes : OBIs

60. Sections of the brain : LOBES

62. "Snowy" wader : EGRET

65. It may be taken in the afternoon : TEA. Suddenly none of the local grocery stores carries Bigelow Jasmine tea right now. Strange.

66. Battery terminal : ANODE

67. "Sorry, lad" : NAE

69. Kansas-born playwright : INGE

71. H2SO4, e.g. : ACID

74. Stepped : TROD

76. Gruesome : LURID

77. Kingdom : REALM

79. Make a fool of : STULTIFY. New word to me.

81. Place of honor : DAIS

83. Really impress the critics : SHINE

84. __ Lama : DALAI. So much wisdom in Tibetan Buddhism. 

 

88. Color like aqua : TEAL

90. Information company co-founder Charles : DOW. Did not know his given name.

93. Shoulder decoration : EPAULET

95. Good for the heart and lungs : AEROBIC

98. "Gadzooks!" : ZOUNDS

100. Complete : ENTIRE And 103. Completely : IN TOTO

101. Stink : REEK

102. Easy to use, in adspeak : NO FUSS

104. Arrived from above : FLEW IN

106. Best Actress between Cher and Jessica : JODIE (Foster). Got via crosses. Googled and found out that she won Oscar in 1989 for "The Accused". I thought it's for "The Silence of the Lambs".

109. Strike zone? : ALLEY. Nailed it.

110. Transmit : SEND

111. Maintain : AVER

115. Benefit : SAKE. For the sake of.

118. Hairy Addams cousin : ITT

119. Outdo : TOP

120. Avignon agreement : OUI

121. '60s quartet adjective : FAB. Four.

C.C.

Interview with David Liben-Nowell

David Liben-Nowell has appeared in our blog a few times. He kindly invited me and our local constructors to Carleton College when Matt Ginsberg, creator of Dr. Fill, visited Minnesota in 2013. 

Left to Right: George Barany, David Liben-Nowell, Matt Ginsberg, C.C. & Tom Pepper

Today is David's LA Times debut, but his puzzles have appeared in The New York Times, New York Sun & Games magazine. He was also a contributing constructor to the past four Minnesota Crossword Tournament and created this fantastic puzzle in 2015.

I mentioned the seed entries when I blogged Kevin Christian's puzzle last Saturday, you can read from David's interviews that the seed entries are not always the longest & removing one or two black squares can cause a wholesale change in the grid fill.

I often find myself ditching the second or third seed entries in themeless grids as I just can not find clean fill. Did you have to discard any of your original seeds in today's grid?

Yes ... though actually the grid pattern changed at the same time that I ditched one seed entry.  The original version of this puzzle had four vertical 10s as seeds (5-, 10-, 25-, and 26-Down), but what's now the 20-Down square was black (so what's now the horizontal 15 was a 9+5).  I ended up feeling like the grid was a little too closed in, so I tried removing that black square and refilling from scratch, and, luckily, it worked out when I ditched the fourth 10.  (Aside from three of the four seeds [5-, 25-, and 26-Down], literally only three other entries in the entire grid survived when I refilled -- OLD, LOUTS, and S AND P.)

What were the trouble spots in the filling process? Top middle seems to be thorny enough that you had to add a cheater square there. 

The top middle *was* rough, with multiple entries that I'd rather have avoided.  Actually both the NW and SE corners weren't so easy to fill either:  I worked pretty hard to try to get rid of partials and abbreviations, but what you see was the best fill that I found after a lot of searching.

Even with two cheaters, you still only had five 3-letter entries. Is limiting 3-letter answers an important part of your themeless filling philosophy?

Not explicitly.  If I have 3s, I have 3s.  It's probably a bad habit of mine, but I tend to be willing to accept some cruddier shorter entries if it lets me get livelier longer entries -- I'd almost always take a trade of a couple less-than-ideal 3s and 4s in exchange for an interesting multiword phrase as a 7 or 8.  You can probably see that in the N/NW section:  4-D, 5-D, 16-A, and 19-A were enough for me to accept several lesser short entries.

You've made both themed and themeless grids. What are the major differences in your approach to fill?
 
Honestly, not that much.  Themed or themeless, I still start with the longest fill entries, and try to plug in the most interesting entries (preferably multiword phrases) I can find for those entries -- and then hope I can make everything around it work.

What kind of reference tools do you use for crossword construction & cluing?
 
Lots and lots of websites.  I'll typically look at an online dictionary and thesaurus to try to brainstorm punny clues -- I try to avoid looking at databases of existing clues until after I've come up with something myself -- but otherwise I end up doing a lot of nonauthoritative reading (e.g., Wikipedia) to try to get a grasp on the entry.  I think I clue pretty slowly, but for me it's one of the most interesting parts of construction.  I might spend 30+ minutes of online research into something totally unusable as a clue, but at least I learned something.  Just as an example, the clue that I submitted for 13-Across ["King Harald Bluetooth (namesake of the communications protocol), for one"] was related to a fact that I'd heard at pub trivia once ... Rich was totally right to change it, but that was a fun 20 minutes I spent digging into that fact.  [If you're interested:  http://factually.gizmodo.com/bluetooth-is-named-after-a-medieval-king-who-may-have-h-1671450657]

Can you tell us a bit about background? How did you get into crossword solving and later on construction?

Grad school!  Crossword puzzles turned out to be just the distraction that I needed from research when it wasn't exactly going gangbusters.  I started constructing with a grad school apartmentmate, Ryan O'Donnell, while we were sitting around our apartment's living room; it seemed like a natural extension of solving, and we eventually started to get the hang of it and got a couple of co-constructed puzzles published in the NYT.

Besides crosswords, what else do you do for fun?

A little of this and a little of that.  Reading, relaxing and bantering with friends, playing in random sports leagues.  After I moved to Minnesota for a job a few years back, I started curling -- it's a hoot as long as you don't take yourself too seriously while you're playing.

Saturday, Aug 6th, 2016, David Liben-Nowell

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 34

Hi there~!  Splynter back with less work and more blog this week.  Today's puzzle from David (see C.C.'s interview) had clues that were either gimmes or complete misses for me.  I either knew it, or didn't, and nothing was going to help me "45A."  Just a few too many 'half-word' clues for me, too.  The SW was utterly wrong on my first pass, and combined with the proper names/places, just wouldn't open up.  Add in one more red-letter cheat, and that's my story, an' I'm sticking to it.  A non-intimidating grid with only the two spanners and four 10-letter fills;

5. Intuition : GUT FEELING 

10. Line diagram : FAMILY TREE

25. Computer screen? : SPAM FILTER

26. Act too hastily : JUMP THE GUN - a line from Van Halen's "Secrets", too

Cathedral / Secrets (lyric at 3:14)

INKY~!

ACROSS:

1. Jet : INKY - I figured we were looking for 'black', and ONYX worked, but 4d. would have started with "X"

5. Govt. property overseer : GSA - the crossing of 7d. stymied me, so the "A" was red-lettered

8. Artists' pads : LOFTS - a gimme

13. Great __ : DANE - I wanted "SCOTT~!"

14. Gets onstage : CUES

15. Detached : APART - oops, not ALOOF

16. Slid across the pond, maybe : ICE SKATED

18. Start of a noncommittal RSVP : WE MAY

19. Last-minute number? : ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE - 11:59.  Here's another way to say Eleven Fifty-Eight

The video

21. Awards for "Rent" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" : OBIES - I put it in, but then I thought 4d. might be "EULOGIES", and took it out

22. Cads : HEELS

23. San Francisco, to most Californians : UPSTATE - We have "upstate" in NY, too - hello Argyle~!  When I talked to the admissions woman at Delaware Tech last year, she suggested taking classes at the campus "upstate" - Delaware is too short to have an "upstate"

26. Rice on a field : JERRY - WR, mostly for the SF 49ers of the NFL

27. Laid-back : TYPE B - I'm Type C - clueless....

28. Big lugs : LOUTS

30. PC-checking org., at times : TSA

33. Word of regret : ALAS

34. Pebbles bearer : WILMA - the Flintstones "10d."

35. Drop : DRAM - I was looking for the verb, not the noun

36. Bringing it up can lead to a fit : HEM - ah, my kind of clue~!  Thanks for covering lat week, CED~!

I found this one, too - my that's short~!

37. It first passed 2014 in 2014, briefly : S AND P - S&P 500 - the Wiki

38. Choice word : MEENY - eeny is my first choice....

39. "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" author : FLAGG - WAG

41. Raiding group, familiarly : THE FEDS

43. Fool : LIE TO

44. Sand bar : SHOAL

45. Figure it out : FILL IN THE BLANKS - there were a few "Wheel of Fortune" images I would like to have posted, but....

50. Hitching post? : ALTAR - a gimme

51. Group of football players, perhaps : RUGBY TEAM

52. "Mr. Belvedere" actress Graff : ILENE - a WAG

53. Weight : ONUS

54. French bread : EURO - almost got me

55. Square figures : NERDS - I had AREA, then ACRES, and never thought it was something else

56. Gp. using sub titles? : USN - submarines in the U.S. Navy

57. Unattached : STAG - dah~! Not LONE

DOWN:

1. "Thus with a kiss __": Romeo : "I DIE"

2. Table salt, in chem class : NaCL

3. Pants part : KNEE

4. Words said in passing? : YES VOTES

6. Part of WYSIWYG : SEE IS - I am usually pretty good with acronym-type challenges - I nailed this as "what you see is what you get"

7. Home position, for some : ASDF - and then I hit a brick wall with this reference - A S D F on a Q W E R T Y keyboard is called the home row, which I did not know

8. Bar staff : LAWYERS - Dah~! I was in the wrong bar here....

9. Bar tool : OPENER - but the right one here

11. Former leader? : TRANS - transformer

12. Sebaceous gland issue : STYE - nice Saturday cluing

14. "Enough already!" : "CAN IT~!" - I had CUT IT to start

17. Fare on a stick : KEBAB

20. Round Greek letter : THETA - DAH~!! - I had OMEGA, since the E - A was in place....

23. Monument Valley locale : UTAH - half perps, half WAG

24. Sitcom marine : PYLE

29. Overdone : OLD - oh, I get it now

31. Measure of passing time : SAND - like through the hourglass....

32. Organic frozen-food brand : AMY'S - I guessed the "M"

34. One traveling in Old West circles? : WAGON - circle the wagons~!

35. Lowers the volume of, in a way : DEFLATES - no NE Patriots joke~?

37. "SNL" sketches, e.g. : SATIRES

38. Like a bad apple : MEALY - argh~! not WORMY

40. University founder Stanford : LELAND - no clue

42. Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called "Wonderboy" : HOBBS - from "The Natural" - IMDb

43. De Gaulle's birthplace : LILLE - OK, sure - that's too Frawnche for me

44. Keeps away from : SHUNS

45. Willing : FAIN - never heard of this before

46. Briefs covering, in brief : TROUsers

47. Unaligned: Abbr. : NEUTral - two half-words in a row

48. Supergirl's Krypton name : KARA - another "no clue" on my part

49. Irritating blanket : SMOG - I pondered SNOW at first, but snow doesn't irritate me, personally

Splynter