Sunday, June 26, 2016 Mike Peluso

Theme: "Vice Versa" - Long I sound is changed into ER sound.
 
27A. Optimal payment arrangements? : THE BEST OF TERMS. The best of times. Two more tiny THE's in 111A. It has finals in June : THE NBA. 4D. "Terror has no shape" sci-fi creature : THE BLOB

42A. Mideast cry of despair? : ARABIAN NERTS. Arabian Nights. Ali Baba.

67A. Gems kept in inventory? : STOCK PEARLS. Stockpiles.
 
96A. Like one brandishing a Super Soaker? : NERF WIELDING. Knife-wielding. I googled and found out that Super Soaker is a Nerf water gun brand.

114A. White stallion at school? : SILVER LEARNING. Silver lining.

15D. Reason for cowboy unemployment? : NOTHING TO HERD. Nothing to hide.

55D. Coquette education? : FLIRT TRAINING. Made me smile. Thought of dear Splynter, who's actually very shy. Flight training.

Two sound changes occur in the front. Five at the back. Two multi-word answers. Five two-word entries. No odd man out. Consistency!

Mike also started his first theme entry in Row 4 rather than the conventional Row 3.  I'm going to experience this design myself. 

I'm completely in awe of puzzle title, so aptly describing the theme gimmick. Genius! 
   
Across:  

1. Offed, biblically : SMOTE. Funny how SMITTEN is the only form we still use today.

6. Matter : COUNT

11. Big D school : SMU

14. Exchanges from centers : SNAPS. Football. I had to ask Boomer.
  
19. Dash dials : TACHs

20. Canadian skater Brian : ORSER. Quite a few names in this grid.

21. Mother __ : HEN

22. Forum garments : TOGAE. More often TOGAS.

23. Butt ends : ASHES

24. New car option : LEASE

25. Like some exercises : ISOMETRIC. See here for definition. New to me. I do know plank & Russian Twist though.

30. "Sugar Lips" trumpeter : AL HIRT

31. Lord Grantham of Downton Abbey, e.g. : EARL.Gimme for a few blog regulars.

32. Some hosp. areas : ORs

33. Fifth-century pope : LEO I

34. "Spare me the specifics" : TMI

35. Black-and-white predator : ORCA

37. Eight-time Coty Award winner : BEENE (Geoffrey). Fashion award. Got via crosses as well.

38. Bigwig : HONCHO

 

47. Response to a sinking feeling? : SOS. I thought this might be sinking a putt. Nope.

49. Radiate : GLOW. And 115. Radiate : EMIT

50. Finalize, with "up" : SEW

51. Lining fabric : FLEECE

52. Yorktown __, N.Y. : HTs

53. Scrabble 8-pointer : J-TILE. Easy J crossing with JOT (53D. Write (down).

54. In the sky : ALOFT

56. Lorre's "Casablanca" role : UGARTE.  No memory of this guy. I did like the movie though.

59. Yelled excitedly : WHOOPED. Never used the word as a verb.

61. Election figure : POLLSTER

64. Tic-tac-toe loser : OOX

65. Writer: Abbr. : AUTH

66. Govt. benefit : SSI

 

71. Attention : EAR

74. Bring up, or something to bring up : REAR. Bring up the rear. Great clue.

76. Want ad letters : EOE

77. "Apollo 13" co-star : ED HARRIS

80. Trustbusting period : TAFT ERA

83. Berra famously jumped into his arms during the 1956 World Series : LARSEN (Don). The only perfect game in World Series.

86. Defiant retort : I DO SO

87. Egglike : OVATE

88. Morse code bit : DIT. Not DAH.

90. Senses, as trouble : SMELLS

93. Diarist Anaïs : NIN

94. Former prime minister who grew up in Milwaukee : MEIR

95. __ culpa : MEA

99. Area for growth? : BOTANY. Nice clue also.

101. Heavy hammers : MAULS. New to me.

103. Santa Monica landmark : PIER

104. It's charged : ION

105. Inactive : IDLE

106. Jump shot shape : ARC

107. Former VOA overseer : USIA (United States Information Agency). Tiny US dupe with 8. "Wild Blue Yonder" mil. branch : USAF

118. "In Rainbows" Grammy-winning rockers : RADIOHEAD. Via crosses as well.

120. One-celled critter : AMEBA. Amoeba is more common.

121. City west of Youngstown : AKRON

122. __ in itself : AN END. Easier when the partial is clued at the back: [Put ___ to (finish)].

123. Madre's hermana : TIA

124. Like forks : TINED

125. New Hampshire college town : KEENE. We had this a couple months ago.

126. Unkempt : MANGY. And 12. Most unkempt : MESSIEST

127. Spots : ADs

128. Stiff collars : ETONs

129. Maritime birds : ERNEs

Down:

1. Assert : STATE

2. One of Chekhov's "Three Sisters" : MASHA. IRINA also has 5 letters.

3. Brownish shade : OCHER

5. Latin 101 verb : ESSE

6. Monk associate : COLTRANE (John). Thelonious Monk. I was picturing a real monk.

7. Double Stuf treats : OREOs

9. Tweeting site : NEST. Always a fun clue.

10. Sapling : TREELET. Thanks for identifying my two Agnes plants, TTP. Now I'm eager to see how that English Ivy spreads. Maybe I should put the polka dot plant back to a pot. They look prettier this way.

11. Peres of Israel : SHIMON

13. Digit in diez : UNO. diez = ten.

14. Mariner's patron : ST. ELMO

16. Farming prefix : AGRI

17. Au __ : PAIR

18. Shakers, but not movers : SECT. Great clue.

26. Compulsory British subject : MATHS. I still can't believe what happened.

28. L.A.'s environs : SoCal

29. Roger of "Cheers" : REES

36. Breakups : RIFTS

37. City near Anaheim : BREA

39. Pace : CLIP

40. With 109-Down, uncommon eagle : HOLE. 109. See 40-Down : IN ONE. On a par 3 hole. Mike often posts stunning golf course pictures on his Facebook. He must play lots of golf.

41. Due : OWED

42. "Stat!" relative : ASAP

43. HR dept. concerns : RELOs

44. Base runners : AWOLs

45. Introduction to science? : NEURO, Neuroscience.

46. Heart test: Abbr. : ECG

48. Warren Commission subject : OSWALD. Oh, Lee Harvey Oswald.

52. Numerical prefix : HEXA. Six.

57. Rodeo competitor : ROPER

58. Ring site : TOE

60. Sudden silence : HUSH

62. Peter or Paul : TSAR. Not SAINT. Fantastic clue.

63. It retired its spokesbaby in 2014 : E*TRADE

68. Breton or Gael : CELT

69. Ukulele wood : KOA. Learning moment for me.

70. Take more People : RENEW. Magazine.

72. Quaker Oats product suffix : A-RONI

73. "Mr. Mojo __": repeated words in The Doors' "L.A. Woman" : RISIN'

75. Rare shoe width : EEE

78. United choice : AISLE. Another great clue.

79. Lennon work : SONG

80. Pyramid, to Tut : TOMB. Big "D'oh!"

81. Economical Chevy : AVEO

82. __ accompli : FAIT

84. Latvia and Estonia, once: Abbr. : SSRs

85. "Unbelievable" band : EMF

89. Diamond hit : I AM I SAID. Unfamiliar with the song.

91. Watches one's mouth? : LIPREADS. To me, "one's" always refers to oneself. But you read other's mouth to lipread, right?

92. Canon competitor : LEICA

95. Chatty bird : MYNAH

96. Empty : NULL

97. Improve, as one's game : ELEVATE. This "one's" works perfectly.

98. More smashed : DRUNKER. Sounds weird in ER/EST form.

100. Opposite of a star : NOBODY

102. Avia competitor : ADIDAS

106. Truman veep Barkley : ALBEN. I googled, then found out I had googled him before.

108. Sound during a chase : SIREN

110. Actress Moorehead : AGNES. Hello, Irish Miss!

111. Rail vehicle : TRAM

112. Maui's scenic __ Highway : HANA. So pretty.

113. Paradise : EDEN

116. Ashcroft's predecessor : RENO

117. One leaning against a garden fence : RAKE. Not a person.

119. Greek vowel : ETA

Happy 51st Anniversary to dear Spitzboov (Al) and his wife Betty!

 

Saturday, Jun 25th, 2016, Martin Ashwood-Smith & George Barany

Theme: 16x15

Words: 69 (missing J,Q,W,Z)

Blocks: 34

 Today's offering is another expanded standard grid from the duo of Messrs Martin and George to allow for the triple quad stack in the middle, and that's not all; an additional pair of spanners, one at the top and bottom of the construction with nifty 11-letter climbers that cross the quad stack and one of the other 15-letter fills.  This is our second puzzle from the pair, the other being 23 Jan of this year - I looked back and reported that I did OK with the spanners, but not so well everywhere else.  This time, I did better, but still got stuck with one - just one - red letter cheat to get me thru due East.  Oh well.  The spanners;

16a. It's airtight : THE PERFECT ALIBI

29a. Light carrier : FIBER OPTIC CABLE - I knew the first part, but the 'CABLE' part didn't occur to me right away - which is odd, because in my local area, there's a 'cable war' going on between Verizon FiOS, which is Fiber optic, and Cablevision, which is standard; my brother tried FiOS, and switched back.

35a. Text ending in Panama? : A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL - a palindrome; the same forwards and backwards, when you add PANAMA to the end

36a. Eviction consequence : VACANT APARTMENT - I once worked for a cleaning company that specialized in apartment complexes - we had mixed feelings about evictions because the ex-tenant usually ended up leaving valuables behind ( leather jackets, guitars, liquor, porn ) but also some really vicious mess to clean up - used appliances never once wiped down, and in one case, out of spite, sugar in the carpet and ketchup on the walls

37a. Investment in a relationship : EMOTIONAL ENERGY - well, it fits, but I have never really heard this as a "term" before

54. Retire : PUT OUT TO PASTURE - I had the "-TO PASTURE" part, but my first fills in the SW Down were wrong, so it took a while

I'm on vacatiON WARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Line at the supermarket : SOUP CANS - nothing about BAR CODE(s)

9. Tapering part : SPIRE - my first thought was candles, and table legs - and then other kinds of legs....

14. Freezer bar with Sir Isaac Lime and Alexander the Grape flavors : OTTER*POP

15. Aleichem who created Tevye : SHOLEM - filled via perps

18. Short and sweet : TERSE

19. Sea lion, e.g. : EARED SEAL

20. Galeón cargo : ORO

21. Etym. : DERIVation - the etymology of a word is where it comes from; I especially like "neighbor" - see here

22. Base address : SIR - dah~!  Not APO

24. Confession starter : MEA

26. "Just __" : ASK

38. Medicare card fig. : SSN

39. Go down : SET - think sun

40. __ Banos, California : LOS - one of those has to be LOS or LAS, but with an obscure (for this east-coaster) town

41. Spring time : APRIL - two words, but it wasn't MAY, JUNE, or MARCH

44. Courses for coll. credit : APs - I took two in high school

47. Teachers' lounge : STAFFROOM

52. Berkshire attraction for race fans : ASCOT

56. Charge : ONRUSH - oops, not AMBush

57. Mae West's final film : SEXTETTE - semi-WAG; not in my wheelhouse.  The IMDb

58. Lacerations : TEARS - ah, I tried SCARS - and then again one other place

59. Get smashed : TIE ONE ON - haven't done so in over 11 years - now I tie two on - each of my shoes....

DOWN:

1. __ voce : SOTTO - as we have discussed here before, the bigger the stacks, the shorter the crossing fill is, and thus usually easier to fill

2. Remaining : OTHER

3. Unborn, after "in" : UTERO

4. Fires (up) : PEPS

5. Algonquian language : CREE

6. Credit fig. : APR - I am looking into this Lending Tree Credit Card offer of $0 balance transfer; semi-clecho with -  7a. Credit card come-on : NO FEE

8. Fishing tool : SPEAR

9. Sardine cousin : SHAD

10. D.C. in-crowd : POLiticianS

11. "__ awake at night": "Pretty Boy" lyric : I LIE - made sense, so I put it in....

12. Name on the 1984 album "My Kind of Country" : REBA - really my only four-letter go-to fill for country

13. __ Sinclair, protagonist of Hesse's "Demian" : EMIL - again, perps

15. "The Office" star : STEVE CARELL

17. Record holder? : CRIMINAL

21. Be affected by gravity : DROP TO EARTH - I had "drop toWARDS", which made sense, but baffled me in the SW corner

22. French governing group : SÉNAT

23. Qom inhabitants : IRANIs

25. Bankbook ID : ACCT. No.

26. Marryin' Sam presided over his wedding : ABNER - OK, I tried ELVIS....

27. Word on the street : SLANG

28. Big name in backpacks : KELTY - my one red-letter was the "K"

29. Pets : FAVES

30. Muslim clerics : IMAMS

31. Strips for brunch : BACON

32. Nursery item : PLANT POT

33. Bite with un aperitivo : TAPA

34. Willie of "Eight Is Enough" : AAMES - didn't watch the show - "Buck Rogers" was more to my liking

first guy on the top

42. All-night bar? : ROOST

43. JFK Library architect : I.M. PEI - I knew this one

44. Less than right? : ACUTE - angles - har-har



45. __ Alegre, Brazil : PORTO

46. Rembrandt contemporary : STEEN

47. Blemish : SPOT - I went with SCAR here, first, and it was altogether wrong

48. Harmony : TUNE

49. Sharp brand introduced in 1977 : ATRA

50. Lou Gehrig's number : FOUR - I thought it was NINE, and so I was never going to succeed until I came to the conclusion that I was wrong

51. Stir : FUSS

52. On the subject of : AS TO

53. Acronymous WWII gun : STEN - I knew this one, too

55. Pink-slip : AXE

Splynter

Interview with Howard Barkin

For those who are not familiar with the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Howard Barkin, our constructor today, is the reigning champion. 

You can watch the finals here. Forward to the 1:53 mark if you're too impatient. Howard is on the left. The great Dan Feyer, six-time (consecutive) ACPT champion, is in the middle. On the right is David Plotkin, another super solver.

Howard is also wonderful constructor. Besides L.A. Times, he has been published by the New York Times and BuzzFeed. 

 

Source: ACPT 2016

How long did it take you to solve this puzzle and what's your average time for a LAT Friday?

I don't solve my own puzzles, so no time on this. On average, and depending on whether there are tricks involved, Friday LAT is solved (online) between 2 1/2 and 4 minutes. On paper, between 3 and 5.

What were the other RING candidates you considered but discarded?

Originally I wanted all theme answers to be fully standalone phrases, with GELATIN MOLD as a ring, but that was not quite specific enough. BOXING ARENA was also a proposed option but again, that is not specifically a ring. So this became BOXING VENUE.

Where were the trouble spots in your filling process? It's not often that a 15-letter theme entry starts on Row 4 rather than the traditional Row 3.

I did want to make a customized, original design and challenge myself a bit. The top-right corner really didn't lead me to the kind of fun fill I wanted, so it's a little bit plain. The KOI / GALEN area was also tricker than expected.

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

I got into solving as something to pass 30 minutes on a lunch break of a rather unpleasant job I had at the time. I tried different kinds of puzzles, but crossword solving was the most fun for that time limit. The hobby went from there to a more focused interest.

As far as constructing, I dabbled a little bit in it at first, trying to write (terrible) puzzles on paper and in a spreadsheet. I returned to it in 2013, where I slowly learned the finer points of construction and style; my first LA Times was published that year. I try to construct a little nowadays after the kids are in bed and all the dishes and laundry are done ;).
  
What kind of theme and entries interest you the most and what kind do you try to avoid in your grids?

I tend to construct from my comfort zones. My first puzzle centered around baby items in a CRIB, after my first daughter was born. I like fun little wordplay themes, where letters are in a pattern or changed; something light that you can enjoy with tea or coffee, basically.
 
Which part do you enjoy the most in the construction process: theme development, filling or cluing?

For me, the filling is the most fun; trying to find the best combination of familiarity to meet the intended difficulty of the puzzle. I tend to try to make more accessible puzzles, so as many people as possible can feel good about solving it.
 
Do you use Crossword Compiler to make puzzles also? What kind of reference tools do you use for cluing?

Yes, I use a combination of Crossword Compiler and CrossFire, each of which has its benefits to make construction easier. I also use Xwordinfo's clue finder and Onelook.com for matching specific patterns. But these tools only help to find what has already been done, and how often, or whether or not a particular fill or pattern is viable.

There is no substitute for your own brain.

How many puzzles do you solve every day? Do you prefer solving online or do you print out the puzzles and solve leisurely?

These days, between work and family, there are days in which I solve no puzzles, and some days in which I may binge solve 5-10 puzzles to catch up. For that I solve online for the convenience. But for LA Times puzzles, these are syndicated in a local paper, so I prefer to solve on paper, leisurely with a cup of coffee. Speed-solving is an entirely different thing.

Does constructing puzzles improve your solving time? Also, how does solving puzzles influence the way you construct?

I would say that in general no, it does not improve solving time. What constructing does for solving is give a better idea of what the constructor would do, given certain letters. This helps very much when stuck in an area, to figure out possibilities for letters and break open the tough part.

Besides crosswords, what else do you do for fun?
 

Being daddy to my two daughters (4 and 1 at time of writing)  is the biggest thing. I still occasionally play street hockey at night in our local league - it's pretty popular here in New Jersey. We play by ice hockey rules, but without skates on an indoor court. Just played as a goalie last night and I'm pretty sore today - I'm not getting younger, but it seems the other players are ;).