Friday August 28, 2009 Elizabeth A. Long

Theme: S-lopped Over (Familiar ST-beginning phrases with S lopped)

17A: Insect's working hours?: (S)TICK SHIFT. Manuel transmission.

24A: Seaman who saw it all? (S)TAR WITNESS. One who provides crucial information in a criminal case. TAR is slang for sailor, so is GOB.

34A: Split end?: (S)TRESS FRACTURE. Common sports injury. Split ends are often seen in long hair, hence TRESS.

46A: London museum's hidden camera locations?: (S)TATE SECRET. Often classified. TATE museums.

53A: Where two-wheelers aren't allowed? (S)TRIKE ZONE. Over home plate. Between batter's knees and shoulders.

Hmm, a beautifully woven tapestry, but with an eye-catching flaw. The clue for CAST (37D: Fracture treatment) should have been changed.

Lots of fill-in-the-blanks in this puzzle:

28A: __ Moines: DES

43A: Gal__: PAL

49A: __Alto: PALO

57A: __ Corning, maker of Fiberglas: OWENS

6D: Rapper Mos __: DEF. Mos DEF = Most Definitely.

13D: __ the line: TOE. Did not like the "line" due to ON LINE (21A: Where users meet).

32D: End in __: A TIE

48D: Horse __: SENSE

A clear sign that Rich Norris is continuing his eased-up cluing for Friday & Saturday. Perfect for me, as I've sadly realized that I am simply not able to handle his normal late week puzzles.

Across:

1A: NBA stats: PTS (Points)

4A: Meccan, e.g.: SAUDI. Mecca is a city in Saudi Arabia. The holiest city of Islam. I did not know people of Mecca are called Meccan though.

9A: Silver fish: SMELT. I've yet to try fried SMELT someday.

14A: The Rams of the NCAA's Atlantic 10 Conf.: URI (University of Rhode Island). The answer revealed itself. I forgot that their mascot is a ram.

15A: Popular place to go downhill: ASPEN. The Colorado ski resort.

16A: Something not done: TABOO. Sigh. I was picturing some rare/medium meat that's not well done.

19A: Peace goddess: IRENE. Gimme.

20A: Tools with teeth: RAKES

29A: Scout's concern: TALENT. Sometimes the answer is RECON.

30A: Site of bedlam: ZOO. Liked the clue.

31A: One-named model on many romance novel covers: FABIO. The Italian long-haired model. Not my type.

32A: Attention-getting sounds: AHEMS

38A: Young Aussie hoppers: JOEYS. Baby kangaroos are called JOEYS.

39A: Plumbing outlet: DRAIN

40A: 911 response outlet: EMS

41A: Tiny African threat: TSETSE. Good to see the fly's full name.

50A: Must: HAVE TO. Wrote down NEED TO first.

51A: Malice: VENOM

52A: Former #1 woman pool player Corr: KAREN. Nicknamed "the Irish Invader". Unknown to me, though her face looks familiar. Must have seen on on ESPN before.

58A: Gave in: CAVED. Mine was CEDED.

59A: Israeli weapon: UZI. The "British weapon" is STEN.

60A: Do figures, in a way: SKATE. Figure is defined as "a movement, pattern, or series of movements in skating" in dictionary. Is that how figure skating got its name? I was thinking of numeral figure.

61A: Doglike scavenger: HYENA. The "laughing" scavenger.

62A: Whole lot: TON

Down:

1D: Rotten: PUTRID

2D: "M*A*S*H" system: TRIAGE. The military medical prioritizing system.

3D: Perverted types: SICKOS

4D: Impudence: SASS

5D: Burning issue?: ASH. Got me. Very clever.

6D: News letter: UPI. And TASS (29D: Soviet news agency)

8D: Back from a trip, say: IN TOWN. Thought of RETURN first.

9D: Clown's accessory: STILT. I was picturing the big nose on a clown's face.

10D: Sausalito's county: MARIN. Not familiar with Sausalito, a Bay Area city. Wikipedia says both ISABEL Allende and Amy Tan live there.

11D: Charles's miser: EBENEZER (Scrooge). "Dickens' miser" would be SCROOGE. Given name in clue = given name in answer. Surname in clue = Surname in answer.

12D: Like the road in a classic ballad: LONESOME. Stumper. James Taylor's "That LONESOME Road".

18D: Flooey lead-in: KER. Also lead-in for plop/plunk.

25D: First Arab letter: ALIF. The first Hebrew letter is ALEPH.

28D: Ask for more: REORDER

27D: Scrubbing brand: SOS. So you wear glove when using SOS?

31D: Five-time Emmy winner Tina: FEY. What a great job with Sarah Palin. "I can see Russia from my house."

33:D Attila, notably: HUN. Attila the HUN.

34D: Western weapon: TOMAHAWK. Awesome answer.

35D: Interstate feature: REST AREA

36D: Museo display: ARTE. Spanish/Italian for art. Museo is Spanish/Italian for museum.

38D: Air Force One, e.g.: JET

41D: Asian holiday: TET. Well, it's only a Vietnamese holiday. Would you call Bastille Day an "European holiday"? I don't think so. It's only a French National holiday.

42D: It's often served with soda: SCOTCH

43D: End successfully: PAN OUT

44D: Former NBA star Mourning: ALONZO. No idea. He last played for the Miami Heat.

45D: Chinese menu offering: LO MEIN. LO = dredge up. MEIN = noodles. It's not stir-fried. CHOW MEIN is. CHOW simply means "to stir-fry". All Cantonese.

47D: Olympics contest, e.g.: EVENT

49D: Dispensable candy: PEZ. This puzzle has three Z's, one J, three V's and 5 K's. Quite scrabbly.

51D: Hindu sacred text: VEDA. Sanskrit for "sacred lore, knowledge".

52D: Decks in a ring: KOS (Knock outs). Wish there were an abbreviation hint.

54D: Light line: RAY. RAY Of hope? The "line" bothers me too.

55D: "__been meaning to tell you...": I'VE. That "Wo Ai Ni", Chinese for "I love you".

56D: "Jeopardy!" great Jennings: KEN. Alas, H&R Block.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of Dr. Dad and his family. It's taken 7 or 8 years ago. From left to right: Dr. Dad, his wife Kathy, daughter Jennifer who is now 26 years old and living in New Jersey, and daughter Danielle who is now 14 and starting high school this year.

C.C.

Interview with Don Gagliardo

Ever since we switched to LA Times Daily Crossword on March 23, 2009, there have been a very few Thursday puzzles that were enjoyed by almost every solver in terms of theme creativity, solvability, "wow" factor and lack of "huh?". Don Gagliardo's ALFRED HITCHCOCK is one of them.

Don placed 10 theme answers in the grid, and intersected ALFRED HITCHCOCK with five movies in which Hitchcock had a cameo role. Don's "Hard G" puzzle is my all-time "Shock and Awe". I also loved his HUSH HUSH MEETING tremendously.

Don "Hard G" Gagliardo started constructing puzzle in Sept 2006. Since then, he has had 38 puzzles published by LA Times. I am constantly amazed by his originality and bold thinking. Now every time I see his byline, I expect some thrilling theme. Hope you enjoy the interview.

What inspired this puzzle? What are the other theme answers you considered but failed to make the cut?

This puzzle which is to appear Thursday, August 27, was simply inspired by numbers. The goal was to come up with a unique approach, so I chose something we all love, money. My original intent was to have the denominations one, five, ten, twenty and fifty. I had phrases like FABULOUS FIFTIES, ROARING TWENTIES under consideration. All the phrases had to do with positive adjectives associated with denominational numbers. I then realized that I had left out the rare two-dollar bills. I also thought that the two-dollar bill adjective should be contrary to the nature of the other bills because they are such odd-balls. To further enhance their contrariness, I thought the theme answer should come down the page versus the across for the others. I went with three across theme entries (one, five and ten dollar bills) and took a chance that I could find a way to work in the two-dollar bill going down. By incredible luck, I was able to cross the three across entries with the one down entry that I had chosen. To even further enhance the difference, I purposely created asymmetry in the puzzle, attributing it to the down theme answer in the clue. It sounded simple, but it sure became complex!

Which fills do you think might get "huh?" from the solvers and which ones are you most proud of?

The RICOLA cough drop may not be known everywhere (I can still hear the TV jingle). There is a major Chinese city, XIAN, which people may not know. PINKO is a funny word that may have last come up in a MASH episode, but is long gone and possibly unknown to younger people. The phrase "WE'RE ON" is possibly new to puzzles and may throw off solvers. Because it may be a first in puzzles (I don't see it in any databases), it would be a point of honor to have come up with it. I like combining abbreviations and words, which I did a couple times, and there is a short name in there, all of which creates unusual and interesting letter combinations.

How would you describe your style? You seem to like letter play. I truly love your HARD G and HUSH HUSH MEETING.

Yes, I love playing with quirky letter and word situations. You mentioned the HARD-G and HUSH-HUSH MEETING puzzles, thank you Zhouqin. The G puzzle was not originally intended as it was. I was playing with long theme answers with lots of J-sounding Gs (inspired by Ginger Rogers!) and thought, what if I could make all the down words be hard-Gs. Then I expanded it to include as many Gs as I could get into the puzzle. The HUSH-HUSH MEETING was literally the inspiration for that puzzle. I liked the phrase, and my inclination was to apply some aspect of letters to the phrase.

What is the most memorable puzzle you've made? Why is it so special?

I had a puzzle with 30 Ks in it last year (2/21/08). It was memorable mostly because of the wonderful response that I got from solvers.

What is a perfect puzzle to you? Who are your favorite constructors?

The perfect puzzle is the one that really turns the wheels in my brain. I like it when I struggle with all the clues, and suddenly it seems like all the answers happen at once. Two of my favorite puzzles of all time, and this in the Will Weng days at the New York Times, were by Peter E. Price and Edward J. O'Brien. Price's puzzle was a themeless Sunday, but with a very elaborate interlock of intriguing words and phrases. O'Brien's puzzle also had incredible interlock, with three stacked 21's, and the theme was extremely fun, with rhyming made-up phrases. I got hooked then, and have enjoyed the endless imaginations of constructors over a long period of time. There are many wonderful ones out there now, too many to mention, and I love them all!

What is your background and what prompted you to make your first crossword?

Because my father introduced me to puzzles, my desire was to give back to him. Thus my first efforts were to make puzzles for my father. I constructed puzzles on and off since junior high school, but waited until I was about 50 to start getting serious about it. My background is a rounded education, with interests mainly in the arts and sciences. By trade I am a piano technician.

Besides constructing crossword, what else do you do for fun?

Barbara (my wife) and I like to play Scrabble and piano. Lots of nature walks, especially with our doggy Violet, are always welcome. There are many subjects that interest me, so my reading tends toward non-fiction. Comic books are a passion of mine, which is ironic because I read few as a child. I also get in some occasional golf.