Interview with Fred Piscop

I'm always happy to see Fred Piscop's byline. My first cheat-free Sunday puzzle was made by Fred.  

It's hard to make clean Monday/Tuesday puzzles as Rich and other editors want fill to be very solver-friendly. No obscure entries. It's also hard to make Sunday puzzles. The sheer size alone is daunting. Little dupes (not allowed) happen so often. But it's hardest to make Sunday puzzles with Monday/Tuesday smoothness and cleaness. I tried and failed often.  I have yet to make a Sunday without a partial. But Fred accomplishes this on a regular basis.  

Now I've read Fred's answer regarding his filling philosophy and realized the extremely high standards he set for himself. He forgot Roman numerals. You would not find MCII in his grid either. His #1 priority is always his solvers.

Fred has over 100 puzzles published by the New York Times, not counting the Variety diagramless. He has also been published by the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Crossword Club, Newsday & many other  newspapers and magazines. Fred was the crossword editor for the Washington Post from 2002 to 2008. He is a legend!
 

What are the other theme entries you also considered but discarded for today's "Fare Play"?

To tell you the truth, I don't even remember!  I tossed my notes as soon as Rich Norris approved the theme.

I noticed that you seldom go low on word count and your puzzles are always smooth and clean. No weird three-letter abbreviations, not even one partial in this grid. What's your philosophy when it comes to fill a Sunday grid?

As for word count, I almost always use the maximum count allowable by the editor. The higher the word count, the easier it is to avoid lousy entries.  Solvers as a rule are not concerned with word count, but they are very concerned with junk in the diagram. And besides the partials and weird abbreviations you mentioned, I avoid stuff like: foreign words that have no English usage; uncommon variant spellings; brand names that are not national (such as EDY'S ice cream which is not known in California); sports figures that are either not Hall of Famers or who have been beaten to death in crosswords (like ALOU); "crosswordese" (words that appear practically nowhere else in the word but in crossword puzzles (such as ANOA and ESNE) and so on.  If I'm not happy with an entry in a particular region of the diagram, I try to rework that region.

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

I graduated from Cornell University in 1970 with a degree in Industrial Engineering, which I didn't do a great deal with.  My early working years were spent at a variety of jobs which I referred to not as a career but as a "history of gainful employment."  Around 1980 I purchased a used Apple ][, began teaching myself computers, and eventually became a PC tech support specialist.

I was always a puzzle person; even as a kid, loved anagrams, word games of all sorts; math brainteasers, and so on. Around 1990 I began trying my hand at constructing crosswords, and found that I had a flair for it. It wasn't long before I was selling crosswords to several major outlets, including the New York Times.  In fact, my first NY Times puzzle, published November 22, 1993, was the first NYT daily puzzle under the editorship of Will Shortz, and the first NYT daily puzzle ever to carry a constructor byline.

In 1995 I got laid off from my tech support job at a defense electronics firm on Long Island. I decided that I would never return to the 9-to-5, and just try constructing crosswords for a living.  I have never looked back.

Which part do you enjoy the most in the construction process: theme development, filling or cluing?

All three have their enjoyable aspects: there's great satisfaction to be had in coming up with a cute theme or a clever clue.  But I'd have to say that filling the diagram is most enjoyable for me.  Filling a diagram is, in effect, solving a puzzle.  I've got to make everything fit, and still maintain the diagram standards I listed above. 

What kind of reference tools do you use for crossword construction & cluing?

The de facto standard computer program in the crossword construction business is Crossword Compiler for Windows (CCW).  Practically every constructor uses it.  Ginsberg's Clue Database is a big help, too.  Online I rely on standard references such as Google and Wikipedia as well as onelook.com, which links to about 1,000 online dictionaries.

You used to be the Crossword Editor for the Washington Post Magazine. How did that job influence the way you make crosswords?

I'd say it's the other way around; the way I made crosswords influenced the way I did my job.  Besides adhering to the aforementioned diagram standards, I worked with constructors to make their theme submissions as sharp and clever as possible, and tried to come up with clues that evoked colorful mental images. 

Submissions went through a three-step process:  coming up with the theme, creating the fill, and writing the clues. There was often a fair amount of back-and-forth between me and the constructor regarding the theme and fill.  Incidentally this is exactly the way I work with Rich Norris now.

During my tenure as editor, I tried never to forget that I was once a beginner myself. So, I tried to be as helpful as possible to new constructors, explaining why certain themes didn't work, certain areas of the grid had to be redone, and so forth. 

 

Besides crosswords, what else do you do for fun?

I'm a solver too!  My puzzle of choice these days is the Guardian (a British paper) cryptic.  In fact my first order of business for the day is to stop at Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee, bagel and the Guardian.

Other than that: I'm a keyboard player and attend several jam sessions every week. And if I'm not playing somewhere, I'm listening to live music and sampling the selection of microbrews that are for sale.  I also do all I can to stay in shape, including running, biking, going to the gym and playing senior (age 60+) softball. And you can often see me around the neighborhood walking my niece's dog Dina.

Sunday Jan 24, 2016 Fred Piscop

Theme:  "Fare Play" - Theme entries are all two-word food items. The first words, all in the pattern of *ED, are humorously re-interpreted in a non-food context.

23A. Fare after successful medical treatment? : CURED PORK. Pork was rationed in my childhood. We only had it during Spring Festival. My grandma always salt-cured the precious pork. 

25A. Angry fare? : STEAMED MILK

45A. Illegally taken fare? : POACHED SALMON. I prefer honey & soy sauce glazed salmon.

 

86A. Fare constantly questioned? : GRILLED CHEESE

110A. Soundly defeated fare? : CREAMED CORN. Let's call it a veggie, since we have carb below.

112A. Inebriated fare? : FRIED RICE.  Leftover rice is a must. And green onions.

 

37D. Excessively pampered fare? : CODDLED EGGS

41D. Fare at the Friars Club? : ROASTED NUTS. Super excited to have found fresh shelled walnuts at our local Cub Foods two weeks ago.

This puzzle is tailor-made for our blog. So many foodies here.

I thought of Jayce and his objections to "crossword clues and answers that are not English or commonly known to speakers of English (eg, corrido)" after I read Fred's interview. I bet Jayce and many of you had a much faster time than you spent on last Sunday's grid.

It takes skills, hard work and enormous discipline to produce a smooth puzzle like we have today.

    

Across:

1. Skier's mecca : ALPS. Not VAIL.

5. South-of-the-border currency : PESO

9. Hillside home attraction : VISTA

14. Lucky break : FLUKE

19. "Dizzy Red Riding Hood" (1931) cartoon star : BOOP (Betty)

20. Domingo delivery : ARIA. Still waiting to see the casino reference. It's just spectacular day or night.

21. Prefix with face or faith : INTER

22. Of the ear : AURAL

27. Took charge of : STEERED

28. Skyline standouts : SPIRES

30. Crispy Crunchy candy bar maker : REESE'S

31. Tool used on pineapples : CORER. I just use my knife. Wish there's an easy way to open a green coconut.

33. School attended by 007 : ETON

34. Take a load off : REST

35. Far from wimpy : MACHO

38. Pasture portion : ACRE

40. Colombian city of two million : CALI. Chickie and her husband lived there for a few years.

41. Piston connector : ROD

44. "__ y Plata" : ORO

50. Word on a Susan B. Anthony coin : ONE

51. Newsman Koppel : TED

52. Works at steadily : PLIES

53. Fuss over oneself : PREEN. The big mirror in our computer room is very flattering. Everybody looks slimmer.

54. Step into character : ACT

55. Unaffiliated: Abbr. : IND (Independent)

56. Certain track contestant : MILER

57. Write parts for : ARRANGE.  This refers to music arrangement, right? Fred is a musician.

59. Drag to court : SUE

60. Raptor trainer : FALCONER

62. Wilson of the Beach Boys : BRIAN

63. Gunga Din's burden : WATER

65. Wolfed down : EATEN. We also have 17D. Vitamin K-rich green : KALE. And 34D. Budget noodle dish : RAMEN. Looks delicious. I want.

 

66. Like bogs : PEATY

67. Pointer's cry : THERE

69. Core group : CADRE

71. Entrance supports : JAMBS

72. Tried hard to recognize : PEERED AT

75. Soccer stadium cry : OLE

76. Wild outings : SAFARIS. I figure it wouldn't be our Minnesota Wild.

79. Makes fun of : JAPES

80. Codebreaking org. : NSA

81. Show __ : DOG

82. Classical name of Troy : ILION. And 66. Given orally, in law : PAROL. I put in A in the O spot.

83. Did a cobbler's job : SOLED

84. __ Ronald Reagan : USS

85. ESL part: Abbr. : ENG

89. Vietnamese holiday : TET. Same day as Chinese Spring Festival. Feb 8 this year.

90. __ Plaines, Illinois : DES

91. Pitchers with heads : ALES

92. Cyclotron bits : IONS

 

93. Stroke made vertically : MASSE. Billiard.

95. Recipe direction : STIR

96. Turned rapidly : SPUN

98. Points for Poseidon : TINES. The answer filled in itself.

101. Like some treasure : SUNKEN. Thought of BURIED first.

104. Word on an LP : STEREO

106. Chief : CENTRAL

114. Banded marble : AGATE

115. City at the foot of the Ozarks : TULSA. Got via crosses.

116. Pet store supply : FEED

117. Fossey subjects : APES

 

118. Put back in the sty : RE-PEN

119. Girder material : STEEL

120. Light on one's feet : SPRY. Got four pairs of these Kirkland socks for Boomer, who's a diabetic. Alas, the Amazon quality is different from the one we got at Costco's a while ago. Same large size (8-12), but much tighter and harder for him to put on. Boomer is adamant about not becoming a Costco member again due to the high annual fee. We only visited there a few times while a member.

Amazon Socks

Costco's socks

121. Little shavers : LADS

Down

1. Kid stuff : ABCS

2. Oaf : LOUT

3. Sponge opening : PORE

4. Shout to an awardee : SPEECH. I had to ask Boomer why.

5. Commuter's reading : PAPER

6. Diminish over time : ERODE

7. McCartney title : SIR

8. Homes for squirrels : OAKS

9. Called on : VISITED

10. 101 title word : INTRO

11. "Card Players Quarreling" artist : STEEN (Jan)

12. Black or green drinks : TEAS. I stray from time to time, but Jasmine tea is always my true love.

13. Usher's offering : ARM

14. Appears gradually : FADES IN

15. "Serpico" director : LUMET (Sidney)

16. "QB VII" author : URIS

18. Benevolent order : ELKS

24. Give in to gravity : DROOP

26. In the near future, poetically : ERELONG

29. 1994 co-Nobelist with Rabin and Arafat : PERES (Shimon)

32. More risqué : RACIER

35. Recurring melody : MOTIF

36. Sacramento's Sleep Train __ : ARENA. Home of the Kings.

39. "Moonstruck" Oscar winner : CHER. Water! Such a generous soul.

40. Like a frisked suspect, at times : CLEAN. Also got via crosses.

 

42. At the proper moment : ON CUE

43. Put a damper on : DETER

46. Pipe up : OPINE

47. 2000-'01 NBA MVP Iverson : ALLEN

48. Sail spars : SPRITS. New word to me. I wonder how Esprit got their name.

49. Deck out : ARRAY

56. Eye irritants : MOTES

57. Many OPEC ministers : ARABS. Not EMIRS.

58. Decorative jugs : EWERS

61. Common rental : CAR

62. Valentine candy message : BE MINE. I never heard of Valentine's Day until 1996.

64. "__ we there yet?" : ARE

67. Skins-and-poles home, traditionally : TEPEE

68. Takes note of : HEEDS

69. Needing decryption : CODED

 

70. Without peers : ALONE

71. Locks up : JAILS

72. Most ashen : PALEST

73. Long-eared equines : ASSES

74. Philistine's lack : TASTE

77. Delta, for one : AIRLINE. And 78. Store handout : FLIER

79. Tommy __, ex-pitcher for whom a surgical procedure is named : JOHN. I smiled when I read TTP's "But do they know who Al Rosen is?" comment and was confused by a few subsequent responses.

 

83. Starbucks snack : SCONE

86. Entry-level jobs? : GATEMEN. Fantastic clue.

87. Active during the daytime : DIURNAL

88. Touch up : EMEND

94. Starlike : ASTRAL

95. Stingray relative : SKATE

96. Made off with : STOLE

97. In itself : PER SE. Also a hot restaurant in New York. Steve might have visited this one. He's in Paris right now.

99. Not so genial : ICIER

100. Poor : NEEDY

101. Emotional mark : SCAR

102. The munchies, e.g. : URGE

103. Tide type : NEAP

104. Bunny's tail : SCUT. Learned from doing crosswords.

105. Rubs out : OFFS

107. Kelly of talk TV : RIPA

108. Sailed through : ACED

109. Reduced : LESS

111. Rehab shakes : DTS

113. Public image, for short : REP. Representative? I was picturing those avatars bloggers use. (Added later: Reputation. Thanks Anonymous at 6:47am and D-Otto.)

C.C.

Interview with George Barany

Many of our blog regulars are familiar with George Barany, who often entertains us with puzzles from his expansive Barany and Friends group. Some of you are friends with George off the blog.

I first met George when Andrea Carla Michaels visited Minnesota in the summer of 2013. His enthusiasm and passion for crosswords are infectious. George's "Breaking the Code" puzzle for the Chronicle of Higher Education is truly ingenious & innovative.

Today marks George's LA Times debut. He has been published by The New York Times & The Wall Street Journal. 

I imagine you guys completed the middle quad-stack first, then extended to the top and bottom?

It's an honor to be making my Los Angeles Times crossword construction debut in collaboration with one of my cruciverbal heroes, Martin Ashwood-Smith. As many crossword enthusiasts are aware, MAS has pioneered and championed very wide open grids featuring initially intimidating, but ultimately always fair, triple and quadruple-stacked arrangements.

Over the past two years, MAS and I have developed some novel strategies to facilitate the construction of quad-stack puzzles with interesting answers beyond A_LOT_ON_ONE'S_PLATE, RUSSIAN_ROULETTE, SCARLET_TANAGERS, and A_TEENAGER_IN_LOVE,  among others that may have once been cutting edge, but are now greeted with yawns and no small measure of derision. Far be it for me to give away all our tricks, but suffice it to say that the puzzle you are seeing today is the second one to appear in the mainstream media (the other appeared in the New York Times on September 27, 2014), while more are in the queue or have already appeared on my Barany and Friends website.  And yes, we need to discover the central quads first, and then build our grids around them. 

Where were the trouble spots in your construction? 

 

Based on a review of my notes, e-mail correspondence, and computer files, it seems that the heavy lifting on this puzzle occurred over an intense week-long flurry of activity in mid-July of 2014, involving at least a dozen distinct drafts.  An early concern was CERO and ESTO, both short foreign words, adjacent to each other in the grid, but this was settled (see next paragraph) by creative cluing.  A breakthrough was to discover that ALTMANESQUE (not in any database!) could be run through the grid, and finding ALMOST_THERE to balance it, and then recognizing that ALICE_B could hold together an area below the quad [an earlier version was anchored by SPARE_ROOMS balanced by GIVES_A_HOOT, crossing THE_GRATEFUL_DEAD above the quad and ULTIMATE_FRISBEE below it, held together by O_ROMEO].  Also, we looked at multiple versions that did not include grid-spanning entries above and below the quad.  

Once MAS and I agreed on the fill, there was the usual brainstorming and give-and-take on the clues, which took about a week.  Whenever I received a 3- or 4-paragraph e-mail from MAS, in the middle of the night, that started with the words "In the spirit of friendly debate ..." I knew that whatever plans I had for the next several hours would need to be deferred.  Then, once we heard back from Rich Norris, we still had to make some small fixes to the grid to meet his exacting standards.  Specifically, HAS_A_HOME and RENEW, crossing MEWL, as you see in the published puzzle, were originally HAS_A_HOPE and RENEE, crossing PEEL. 

Tell us a bit about yourself. What's your background? And how did you get into crossword construction?

I was born in Hungary into a family of scientists, grew up in New York City, and have been a member of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Department of Chemistry faculty since 1980.  More about me personally and professionally, as well as about my family, can be found here (directly, and following further links). 

I always had an affinity for creating puzzles and games, and started to dabble in crossword construction back in the late 1990's through my personal and professional friendship with Charles Deber, one of the all-time greats.   In the mid-2000's, I became a cyberfriend of, and crossword collaborator with, the brilliant Michael Shteyman.  After my children went off to college, there were large gaps in my discretionary time that had previously been taken up attending their concerts, science fairs, and sporting events, so I decided to try to raise my level of commitment to the art of crossword construction, at least in terms of quantity. 

What kind of theme & fill fascinate you and what kind do you try to avoid in your grids?

What you see today is atypical of my work.  I like themes that skew towards my particular interests in science, math, music, sports, and current events.  I also enjoy creating "tribute" puzzles, which rarely make it into the MSM [a notable exception being this Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle, edited by the amazing Patrick Berry, marking a significant centenary]. Very few things in life compare to the thrill of seeing one's name spelled out inside a crossword grid, so I think that I've been able to make any number of family members, friends, colleagues, and casual acquaintances quite happy.

Which part do you enjoy the most in the construction process: theme development, filling or cluing?

I tend to go for theme density at the expense of "squeaky-clean" fill, and often have to be reined in by more level-headed collaborators.  I do enjoy creating themes that are edgy (within reason), quirky, and/or scholarly, and I'm glad when it's possible to find theme entries that interlock.  The best parts of construction are the social aspects of interacting with my crossword friends, and learning from them.

Elaborating just a bit, theme development is fun and demands much in terms of creativity; filling is mostly mechanical but it can be challenging to do well; and cluing is, relatively speaking, the easiest ... I tend to be a fairly good editor/organizer, and by involving my group of friends, some rather high quality clues emerge. 

What kind of reference tools do you use for crossword construction & cluing? 

When I got serious about crossword construction about a decade or more ago, my A-list collaborators handled grid design and filling, and we jury-rigged spreadsheet software like Excel.  Words were introduced manually, based on searches of the invaluable xwordinfo.com and cruciverb.com databases.  For more broad-ranging searches, we used onelook.com.  

About five years ago, I invested in Crossword Compiler (ccw), which certainly helped our productivity, and also ended the sorts of mechanical errors that slowed down earlier work.  One more "must-have" resource for constructors is the free database established and maintained by Matt Ginsberg.  By now, I have a personalized word/clue list consisting only of entries that have already been vetted by my friends group.  Again, these improve productivity, but there is no substitute for human creativity and ingenuity, coupled with an unsparing  commitment to accuracy and high standards, like avoiding duplications and minimizing "crossword-ese." 

Besides crosswords, what else do you do for fun?

Our motto is, we put the fun into dysfunctional.  My work is fun, I love and am devoted to my family, I have wonderful students (including alumni), and great friends, and I partake in the local sports scene and cultural life.  Even non-glamorous events or aggravations like trips to the dentist or doctor, or getting stuck in an elevator, can be the inspiration for new puzzles.

Saturday, Jan 23rd, 2016, Martin Ashwood-Smith & George Barany

Theme: None (16 X 15)

Words: 69 (pangram)

Blocks: 38

I was glad when this one was over.  The quad stack was not the problem - everything else was.  Too bad, really.  Just some way-too-obscure fill - if you don't know it, it makes no difference how the clue reads.  A bit of a choppy grid, with 16 rows and the standard 15 columns.  Two 11-letter climbers, and the big 6; the quad stack and other two;

16. "A London Symphony" composer : VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - mostly perps and WAG

28. Minimal complications : LEAST RESISTANCE - the clue is a bet "eh"

36. Landscape brighteners : ORNAMENTAL TREES - my idea of ornamental;

Or how about this~?

37. "West Side Story" duet : ONE HAND, ONE HEART - I had one LOVE - can you tell I have no interest in musicals~?

38. Failed big-time : MET ONE'S WATERLOO - like this puzzle

54. Publication known for rankings : FORTUNE MAGAZINE - CONSUMER REPORTS fit, and that just did me in

ONWARD~

ACROSS:

1. Actor in four "Planet of the Apes" films : McDOWALL - did not help that I spelled his name with an "E", not an "A"

9. Antenna support : MAST

13. Traffic report source : CAR RADIO - I no longer listen to the "radio" of my car radio; I run Pandora on my phone thru the MP3 jack

14. Farm report? : BAA-BAA - I figured this was where we were headed....Moo-moo, etc.

18. Dutch banking giant : ING - their US portion was bought out by Capital One, and my retirement was there - and I despise Capital One.  The ING Wiki

19. It may be deviated : SEPTUM - There's a line in a Megadeth song that includes this phrase

20. London-born miler : COE - filled via perps, but I recall the name from crosswords

21. "That's a riot" : HA-HA-HA - I almost filled this in, but waited on perps

23. __ Werner, Best Actor nominee for "Ship of Fools" : OSKAR - a WAG on the "S", the rest was perps

25. Tokyo-based carrier : JAL - the "L" was not happening for me

26. Struggle with assessments? : LISP - cute

39. Whimper : MEWL - I was just not going to get this because of my LOVE over HAND; all the Down crossings were making no sense to me, and the domino effect....

40. __ de veau: sweetbread : RIS - eeeew~!  Not what I thought it was, and this marks the return of Frawnche after a very long absence....c'est la vie

41. Turning points : AXLES - meh.  period.  meh.  Axles are shafts, not points

44. Stein's "The Autobiography of __ Toklas" : ALICE B. - her Wiki

48. Word that sounds like its last letter : WHY - I C Y, D U?

49. Saudi neighbor : QATARI - the "Q" was a WAG, and that helped

51. Remove : LOP - think ornamental trees

58. Early online forum : USENET

59. Turkey, mostly : ANATOLIA - and I gotta link the "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" song

60. Wear well : LAST - this was like my first, and only, across fill on pass #1

61. Cuts from the back : SIRLOINS - ah.  I was thinking someone who "cuts" in line

DOWN:

1. Year in the reign of England's Henry I : MCVI - we had an English history lesson last week

2. Scott of "Hawaii Five-0" : CAAN - I like his acting style, so I liked this version of "Five-O" as much as the original; he plays Turk in the Ocean's movies, too

3. Tranquilize : DRUG

4. URL ending : .org

5. Distressed cry : WAH - pretty cool guitar effect, too

6. Recipe phrase : A DASH - "A" clue

7. Form opener : LINE A - clue "A"

8. Acidic : LOW pH - nice

9. Printemps period : MAI - more Frawnche

10. Taken __ : ABACK  - tsszzz - one too many "A" answers~?

11. Its capital is Apia : SAMOA - HA~! Nailed it

12. Law enforcement tool : TASER

14. __-ray Disc : BLU

15. "It won't be long now" : ALMOST THERE

17. Repubblica __: European country : ITALIANA - um, OK.  Perps.

21. Lives : HAS A HOME - gee, I think I liked the original version - see the interview

22. In the style of the 1975 film "Nashville," say : ALTMANESQUE - never heard the phrase, and in the 'down', was not going to fill for me - but a learning experience after the fact - his Wiki

24. Barbecue fare : SPARE RIB - PORK RIBS~? SHORT RIB~? I tried too many, and missed the obvious

25. One of the Jacksons : JANET

27. Minor key? : ISLET - since I got burned a few weeks ago, I did not fall for this again

28. Device with shuttles and treadles : LOOM

29. Shore raptor : ERNE

30. Freshen : RENEW

31. Runs over : ENDS LATE - my landlord is in Florida, and we're expecting to get hammered with a blizzard today.  High winds combined with the high tide/full moon, he's worried the property will flood - it's on Peconic Bay; that's the kind of "runs over" that was on my mind....

32. Put away : STOW

33. Actress Patricia and drummer Jeff : NEALS - I knew neither person - and I know a few drummers, as I play myself; she was before my time.  His Wiki / Her Wiki

34. Dos minus dos : CERO

35. __ perpetua: Idaho's motto : ESTO

41. Very bad : AWFUL - like the next clue/answer

42. Bantu language : XHOSA

43. Strummed instruments : LYRES

45. Dharma teachers : LAMAS

46. Mashhad native : IRANI

47. Symbol of victory for immortal Celtics coach Red Auerbach : CIGAR

50. Formic acid source : ANT

51. Actress Taylor : LILI

52. From here __: henceforth : ON IN - 'round here, it's "on OUT", so I tried "UP".  Bzzzt

53. Mendel research subject : PEAS - at first, I didn't understand, but then I realized I had this man confused with this man, so I had tried "ATOM"

55. It may be activated by a plunger : TNT

56. View from Kennebunkport, Me. : ATLantic - I tried PEI - Prince Edward Island, but Nova Scotia is in the way....

57. Confusing scene : ZOO

Splynter

Friday, January 22, 2016, Alan DerKazarian

Theme: My temporary forwarding address is....

A return visit from Alan whose first LAT I blogged back in July, 2013.  He had three other LATs in 2015 and has three NYTs. The end of the fill are types of basic living quarters. We do have an uncommon Friday reveal telling us exactly what to look for in our puzzle. I found it like most Fridays filled with challenging clues, but overall doable. My first theme impression was the SH in shed, shack and shut but that did not last. Some very sparkly fill like BEHESTS, IN HASTE, IN SO FAR, NO NAMES,  STREAKS,  TEN ACRE, CAST IN STONE, MINNEAPOLIS with many of the multiple word fill so popular with the late Dan Naddor and Jeffrey Wechsler. Well let us go solve the homeless problem...

19A. Cleaned meticulously : HAND POLISHED (12). Sheds come in all sizes and types.

28A. Disdainful literary review comment : TALENTLESS HACK (14). There are many shacks to be seen driving our roads.

34A. Ironclad : OPEN AND SHUT (11). A hut can be very simple.

44A. Malice, in law : CRIMINAL INTENT (14). Tents on the other hand can be rather impressive.

53A. Classic Stones song ... and a hint to what's hidden at the ends of 19-, 28-, 34- and 44-Across : GIMME SHELTER (12). They keep on going.

Across:

1. Cotton fabric : PIMA. Pima cotton is a generic name for extra-long staple (ELS) cotton grown primarily in the U.S., Australia, Peru and apparently the long staple makes it softer. Per wiki.

5. The Cavaliers of the ACC : UVA. University of Virginia.

8. Parkinson's drug : L-DOPA. Read and LEARN.

13. "What's Going __ Your World": George Strait hit : ON IN. Nor rock and roll.

14. "Delta of Venus" author : NIN. We see Anais often; here is her work.

15. "Lincoln," for one : BIOPIC. Daniel Day Lewis, not to be confused with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

16. "That's terrible!" : OH NO. This has to be the LINK.(0:36).

17. Internet __ : BOT. 79 million hits for THIS.

18. Internet lesson plan company : E-NOTES. More things I do not KNOW.

22. Weather forecast abbr. : SSE.

23. Heated feeling : IRE. This is a real word that appears all the time in crosswords.

24. Like a good-sized farm : TEN ACRE. Rather arbitrary

31. 2013 animated fantasy film : EPIC. Don't know the movie, but it looks fun.

32. Wear (away) : EAT.

33. Fan mail encl. : SAE. Self Addressed Envelope.

39. Voice of Barney on "The Flintstones" : MEL. He was AMAZING .

41. Like MacDonald : OLD. And a farmer.

42. Fertility goddess : ISIS. She pops up again.

49. To such an extent : IN SO FAR. Sounds like legalese.

50. __ Riddle, Lord Voldemort's birth name : TOM. A Harry Potter fact that was not in my memory banks.

51. Málaga title: Abbr. : SRA. Senora. Sorry just lazy brained.

56. Take for granted : ASSUME. An ASS of U and ME.

59. Debt-laden fin. deal : LBO. Leveraged Buy Out. The wall street game where you purchase a company borrowing money by pledging the assets of the company being bought. LESSON.

60. Skyrocket : SOAR.

61. Arboreal marsupials : KOALAS. They look almost fake. Nice word for puzzles.

62. Plan : MAP.

63. "Lonely Boy" singer : ANKA. PAUL.

64. Not relaxed at all : ANTSY.

65. Pindaric __ : ODE. Wow, it really is Friday.  LESSON 2.

66. Hardy soul? : TESS. Nicely clued.

Down:

1. Cries of contempt : POOHS.

2. Rashly : IN HASTE. A bonus for naming the author.
" Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure:
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure."

3. Home city of the WNBA's Lynx : MINNEAPOLIS. A CSO to our Minnesota connection.

4. "And giving __, up the chimney ... " : A NOD. Clement Clarke Moore's holiday classic.

5. Yet to arrive : UNBORN. Had me fooled even with the UN in place.

6. Spectrum color : VIOLET.

7. Standing against : ANTI. Would someone who always stands against be a PRO ANTI?

8. Department store section : LINENS.

9. "Camptown Races" refrain syllables : DOODAH. I love this VERSION (4:54).

10. Decide to be involved (in) : OPT.

11. Entrée follower, perhaps : PIE. I do like pie better than cake.

12. Coolers, briefly : ACS. I believe the perfecting of air conditioning in automobiles was the key to Florida becoming the third most populous state.

15. Commands : BEHESTS. A great old fashioned word.

20. Put (together) : PIECE. Really simple words with Friday cluing.

21. Lieu : STEAD. In the place of someone or something. More Old English.

25. Definite : CAST IN STONE. Cast is back.

26. Early 'N Sync label : RCA. Two weeks in a row and I still do not care.

27. Scratch (out) : EKE.

29. Rim : LIP.

30. Top-ranked tennis star for much of the '80s : LENDL.

35. Stars' opposites : NO NAMES. I guess they were not well cast.

36. Chili rating unit : ALARM. My wife refers to her spicy sauces as five star!

37. "Stand" opposite : HIT ME. Blackjack, twenty-one, vingt et un.

38. Exploit : USE.

39. Bygone telecom co. : MCI. MCI was founded as Microwave Communications, Inc., then World Com came along and destroyed the company; the pieces belong now to Verizon.

40. Coastal flier : ERN.

43. Barely runs? : STREAKS. I guess your laundry?

45. Ski bumps : MOGULS.

46. "Allow me" : IF I MAY. If I might, have the wish I wish tonight....

47. Discouraging words from an auto mechanic : IT'S BAD.

48. More than discouraging words : NO HOPE. I like the sequential cluing.

52. Rich tapestry : ARRAS.

54. Muppet who always turns 3½ on February 3 : ELMO.

55. Future atty.'s ordeal : LSAT. Law School Admission Test.

56. Blotter letters : AKA. Also Known As.

57. Prince George, to Prince William : SON.

58. Didn't start : SAT. On the bench.

Well it is time for me to sit and send this off through cyberspace. See you next week. Lemonade out.

Note from C.C.:

Happy 70th Birthday to dear John Lampkin, our gifted constructor and blog friend. John is truly a master in designing grids and cluing. He was so incredibly kind to me when I started blogging & later making LAT puzzles. He answered every little questions I had. He even called me. Such a generous soul!

Lemonade and John

Thursday, January 21st 2016 George Simpson & C.C. Burnikel

Theme: Legal Eagles. As the unifier tells us:

50A. The end of each answer to a starred clue is a former one : CHIEF JUSTICE

19A. *Whopper alternative (1969-1986) : VEGGIE BURGER. Warren E. Burger. Odd clue/answer in that a Whopper is a brand name and a veggie burger is a generic term.

36A. *Former MLB mascot BJ Birdy was one (1789-1795) : BLUE JAY. John Jay was the first of the Chief Justices.

10D. *Film for which John Houseman won an Oscar, with "The" (1864-1873) : PAPER CHASE. Salmon P. Chase. Meet his brother, Trout, and his sister, Chilean Sea Bass.

25D. *"Jaws" menace (1910-1921) : GREAT WHITE. Edward Douglass White. 

This is the second puzzle from George (a.k.a Big Easy on the blog) and C.C. The Chief Justices tend to stick around for a while - when I looked 'em up I was surprised to find there have only been 17. The longest-serving, John Marshall lasted 31 years. John Routledge managed only six months.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Chinese take-out order? : NO MSG. A naturally-occuring salt of glutamic acid. In studies, scientists have never been able to trigger allergic reactions to MSG, but that doesn't stop people refusing to eat chinese food (and happily eating tomatoes and parmesan cheese which are naturally loaded with it). If you want an umami bomb to amp up your flavors I use a mixture of anchovy paste, soy sauce and Marmite.

6. Co. making many arrangements : FTD. Florists' Transworld Delivery. Of course we all knew that.

9. Basilica recess : APSE

13. Impressed : IN AWE

14. Lab coat discovery? : FLEA. Nice. The dog, not the research facility.

15. Tool with teeth : RAKE

16. Loud cheering consequence : SORE THROAT

18. Informed about : UP ON

21. Help for a breakdown : TOW. See 34D below for an example of a car that looked very much at home on a flatbed. One of my friends commented that it almost looked like it had been designed to be seen from that viewpoint.

22. Affaire de coeur : AMOUR

23. Star followers : MAGI

26. Webby Award candidate : E-MAG. There were 344 Webbys awarded in 2015. That's one heck of long awards banquet.

29. Wrap maker : ALCOA

32. Lot size : ACRE

33. WWII lander : L.S.T. Landing Ship, Tank.

34. Author Greene : GRAHAM

35. Feel sorry about : RUE

38. From __ Z : A TO

39. Barely moves : CRAWLS

41. Roker and Rosen : ALS

42. Tiny time meas. : PSEC. One trillionth of a second.

43. Branch of yoga : HATHA. Thank you, crosses. Apparently hatha yoga was developed by the deity Shiva and the principles were overheard by a fish.

"Darn secret-stealing piscari"

44. "No real damage" : I'M OK

45. Car-collecting star : LENO. He keeps his collection in a hangar at my local airport. You often see him driving around the neighborhood. My favorite is his 1906 Stanley Steamer.

46. George Eliot or George Sand : WOMAN

48. UV index monitor : E.P.A. The Environmental Protection Agency.

54. Hi's wife, in comics : LOIS

55. Broiler with a motor : ROTISSERIE. I bought one of those Showtime rotisserie ovens once. When I found that it took at least half an hour to clean it each time I used it it went to the back of the cupboard and eventually to a yard sale.

58. Start to freeze? : ANTI-

59. Sanctioned : OK'ED

60. Scrub : ABORT

61. Russia is its largest producer : BEET. Food! They get through a lot of borscht, those Russians.

62. National Preparedness Mo. : SEP. National what? Weird concept.

63. Breathers? : NOSES

Down:

1. Grafton's "__ for Noose" : N IS. This is not so much a clue as a giveaway. You may as well just print "NIS" in the grid and have done with it.

2. "Art is my life and my life is art" artist : ONO

3. Sportscaster Albert : MARV

4. Honey : SWEETIE

5. Day one : GET GO

6. Ice __ : FLOE. I watched "Straight Outta Compton" last night, so wanted CUBE here.

7. Leaves holder : TEA BAG

8. Fact : DATUM

9. Peppery salad green : ARUGULA. They call it rocket in the UK. Odd folks, those Brits.

11. Candy bar with a Nordic name : SKOR. Thank you, crossses. A Hershey product apparently. I don't eat much candy.

12. Dusk, to Pope : E'EN

14. Calendar col. : FRI.

17. "The War of the Worlds" author : H.G.WELLS

20. Detroit Lions' lion mascot : ROARY. Nailed it!

23. Time that "went out like a lion," in song : MARCH. From the musical "Carousel". I found this odd as I'm more familiar with the proverb "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb".

24. Upscale Honda : ACURA

27. Spartans' sch. : M.S.U. Michigan State. Showing tremendous invention and creativity, their mascot is called ....... "Sparty".

28. Best crew : A TEAM

30. Like granola : OATEN. OATIER yesterday. Is it National Oat Week?

31. Oil giant that built what is now Chicago's Aon Center : AMOCO. If you want to pick a nit here, strictly speaking it was Standard Oil, not Amoco, that built the skyscraper in 1972. Standard Oil became Amoco in 1985.

34. Leak preventers : GASKETS. The end of my time owning a V12 Jaguar XJS came when I blew a head gasket. It was going to cost $4,000 to rebuild the engine. I passed.

Jag-you-are (as Gary noted yesterday)

36. Fault : BLAME

37. 2001 album that's also a nickname : J-LO. Jennifer Lopez.

40. Response to a ring : WHO IS IT?

42. Medically ineffectual treatment : PLACEBO. It's not really "ineffectual"; to me that implies that it's meant to be effective. It's not meant to work, that's the whole point.

44. Bit of clique humor : IN JOKE.

47. High styles : AFROS. I had UPDOS first and was proud of myself for remembering the term.

49. Galileo, by birth : PISAN. Some say the whole ball-dropping malarkey from the tower is a myth.

50. Frozen yogurt holder : CONE

51. Lone Star State sch. : U.T.E.P. Please welcome the University of Texas, El Paso

52. Caesar of comedy : SID

53. Psyche's beloved : EROS. We had this yesterday. There's a common misconception that this statue in London's Leicester Square is Eros - it's not, it's his brother Anteros, but 99.9% of the population won't believe you.

54. Class where partners may be required : LAB. Crossword purists on other blogs will tell you that it's a heinous crime to have the same word in a clue and in the grid. Rich obviously doesn't mind, and I don't either.

56. Ill temper : IRE

57. "Edge of Tomorrow" enemies, briefly : E.T.S. Never seen the movie, but the crosses filled it in for me.

And .. here's the grid.

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

1)  George (Big Easy) came up with this theme, and I went for a smooth ride. Thanks for the inspiration and fun, George! 

Big Easy and his wife Diane

2) Our blog turns 8-year-old today! Constructor Peg Slay (C6D6 Peg) made a puzzle to celebrate this special occasion. 

Please click here for the PDF file. You should be able to see a Download button on top, to the right of Print.

Click here for Across Lite.

Click here to solve on line. 

Click here for the Answer Grid.

Thank you so much for the puzzle, Peg. My team and I are deeply honored by this amazing tribute. 

Thank you for your loyal support these years, everyone. Thanks for your honest & respectful feedback on each LAT puzzle, your daily random thoughts, your recipes and funny links.