Wednesday April 7, 2010 Donna S. Levin

Theme: GOLF (Across 60. This puzzle's theme - according to Twain, it's "a good walk spoiled") . Perhaps, more likely, this puzzle was inspired by this week’s Masters, from Augusta, Georgia, home of the GREEN JACKET, the first of the four Major Championships of Golf.

16A. Extremely defensive state of mind: BUNKER MENTALITY. BUNKER being the name for the sand traps we often find our balls buried in.

30A. Physical play: ROUGH HOUSE especially when we hit our drives in the ROUGH, the thicker grass next to the Fairway.

39A. Abstinent one: TEETOTALER like the members of the WCTU the TEE is both the place where a golf hole begins, and the peg which holds the ball before it is struck.

54A. Sam-I-Am's story: GREEN EGGS AND HAM one of our favorite Dr. Seuss stories, and the GREEN is the place where the hole is located in golf.

Lemonade blogging.

With only four theme words, Ms. Levin managed to pack in lots of spaces with two 15 letter fills, unusual for a Wednesday. Her last puzzle for us being the Keep It Simple Stupid puzzle from March.

Welcome back to Wacky Wednesday, today featuring the stylish offering of Ms. Donna Levin who has endeared herself with her witty puzzles, and her background as an ex-attorney. I hope you all appreciated how we have been preparing you for this puzzle with all the talk of the Masters, and a special shout out to GAH, who has picked PHIL MICKLESON to prevail.

Across:

1. Date with an MD: APPT because the clue has an abbreviation, you know the answer will as well.

5. Horse of a certain color: ROAN

9. One of the March girls : BETH played by Margaret O. Brien, with Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, in the 1949 movie version of LITTLE WOMEN .

13. Runny fromage: BRIE certainly does not make the cheese appealing, but keeps our French education going, FROMAGE = CHEESE.

14. "La __ Mobile": "Rigoletto" aria: DONNA, I really like how she worked her own name into the grid.

15. Declare openly: AVOW

19. Pablo Neruda work : ODE a very important 20th century poet, who has appeared both in puzzles, and CA’s daily rhyming remembrances.

20. Landlocked Asian sea: ARAL becoming a staple of our constructors.

21. Spats spots: : ANKLES , love the alliteration, the clue and the memories of SPATS from old gangster movies.

22. Trial in simulated conditions: TEST RUN

24. Short orders in a luncheonette? : BLTS short being another way to clue an abbreviation.

25. Giant Mel: OTT classic crosswordese.

26. Retired Cunard liner, briefly: QEII which is paired so cleverly with the down 26. Part of 26-Across: QUEEN.

27. '60s protest gp. : SDS Students for a Democratic Society; I fell in love on election day 1968, while the SDS was rallying with “Vote with your feet.”

34. Joint problem: GOUT

35. Pig Latin refusal: IXNAY

36. Precipitous start? : PEE. Letter P starts the word "Precipitous". You have to love a puzzle that has PEE right in the middle, and clued with such an ominous word to hide the simplicity of it being the first letter of the word.

37. Limoges product: CHINA some really beautiful Dishes.

38. Gardener's areas: BEDS are often places for planting things.

41. Caps or Cat preceder: SNO this was in my last blog, so go to March 17, 2010, if you want a picture.

42. Seedless bit of flora: FERN they reproduce by SPORES.

43. Channel where Susan Lucci hawks her jewelry line: HSN which with the death of the Soap Opera will be her only TV home.

44. Funny Fey: TINA or should we say SEXY FEY , notice the handcuffs….

45. Ghoulish: MACABRE

49. __ rod: powerful Old Testament tool: AARON’S a shout out to my oldest son, who is going to GABII as a staff member! .

52. Luminous glow: AURA

53. Objective: AIM

57. Margarine: OLEO

58. Condos, e.g. : UNITS

59. Like Cheerios: OATY okay, as opposed to my humor which is often CORNY?

61. Insignificant: PUNY

62. Prejudice: BIAS

Down:

1. Monk's superior: Hey ABBOT .

2. Bluenose : PRUDE Bluenose has so much feeling to it, wonderful clue.

3. Sappy trees: PINES though we like Maple sap better, anybody want some pine syrup?

4. Drug in Shatner novels: TEK if you missed the whole TekWar phenomenon, it is is very well done.

5. Like I, in some cases: ROMAN a new twist on our old friend the ROMAN NUMERAL, very visual.

6. Turow work about first-year law students: ONE L a term I disliked when I taught at law school, but it will make some happy.

7. Political commentator Coulter: ANN who received so many comments about her unappealing persona.

8. Hollywood's Wood: NATALIE a beautiful girl, who died under strange circumstances.

9. Goofs on the mound: BALKS ah, goodie, a baseball reference also.

10. Activity from below? : EVIL The Devil Made Me Do It .

11. Schlep: TOTE okay, a little French, a little Yiddish…

12. Major rtes. : HWYS

14. Diminutive celeb sexologist: welcome back DR. RUTH who always wanted to keep us busy. Also, 39. Stiffen: TENSE UP Dr. Ruth?

17. Like garden smells: EARTHY

18. Not behind: ANTI when you refuse to get behind a project, i.e. not support, nice fill.

23. Frat party garb: TOGAS

24. Assailed: BESET

27. Dirty: SOIL must be careful here.

28. Beach sight: DUNE who doesn’t like to play in the SAND .

29. Headline (in) STAR in my guest blog.

30. Teases: RIBS a nice old fashioned word

31. Beasts of burden: OXEN and 55. Wildebeest: GNU

32. Word processor command: UNDO sadly life has no such choice.

33. La Scala production: OPERA a recent topic of discussion with OPUS

34. Togo neighbor: GHANA we will teach Geography yet!!

37. Medical imaging proc. : CT SCAN how about some background music 5th Dimension.

40. They held Tara's title: O’HARAS Scarlett et al.

42. Helsinki native: FINN

44. "... newt and __ frog": "Macbeth": TOE OF Eye of Newt

45. Like some basements: MUSTY

46. Religion founded in 19th-century Persia: BAHÁ'I isn’t it fun to learn?

47. Cowboy's rope: RIATA

48. Small-screen awards: EMMYS with all the 60” and more TVs this may not be true anymore.

49. Wide-eyed: AGOG

50. Woody's offspring: ARLO The father and son Guthries, with Alice’s Restaurant the longest song ever to get airplay on the radio; Arlo refused to sing any of it when we asked at Woodstock.

51. Fishing gear: REEL it’s been “REEL” nice blogging “AGIN”

52. Not fer: AGIN against (if you’re not fer me you’re agin me)

56. Driver's lic. info: DOB date of birth

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here are a few Asana (Yoga posture) photos from our regular poster Lucina. Click on each one, it will enlarge. Simple amazing. Lucina is 72-year-old semi-retired teacher living in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Twins great Harmon Killebrew also resides.

This over and out from Lemonade in the sunny south, to Dennis, Robin and all who need, our best thought.

Lemonade

Interview with Paul Stynsberg

We often use crosswordese to describe words words found only in crosswords but seldom used in our daily conversation. Many solvers scorn upon the frequency of their appearances. But those words, with their vowel richness, is essential for constructors to cohere the whole grid. And new solvers simply can't complete a puzzle without mastering these words.

Paul Stynsberg, a fellow Minnesotan, makes the learning easier and entertaining. Every day he emailed subscribers a Word of the Day puzzle. Solve his little corner grid, and click on the answer, you'll find the definition, the common clues in crosswords, crossword puzzle frequency, frequency in English Language and a fascinating article on the word itself. He also provides a great picture to help solvers remember the word.

Paul has kept all the crosswordese he's covered in alphabetical order. You can also search the word archive by date and year. It's simple to sign up and it's free. Just email him at stynsberg@wiktel.com. I've benefited immensely from his daily email.

Also, don't miss his Clever Clue of the Month. Which is your favorite? I love "Camel dropping" for ASH. But truly they are all gems. Last month's "Made Unbearable?" for NEUTERED is simply spectacular.

When and how did you decide to dedicate a website specifically to crosswordese?

I love words, I love learning, and I enjoy solving crossword puzzles. Somewhere along the line I realized crossword puzzles had a language of their own: crosswordese. As I began thinking about doing some kind of site and creating a list of crosswordese, I realized there were many more crosswordese words than I had originally thought. At that point I realized a word-of-the-day site would be a good way to go - my thinking was that it could be one of the most useful word-of-the-day sites for the millions of people that work crossword puzzles each day because, inevitably, the word you see today will be in a puzzle within a few days or weeks. I created the site about 5 years ago.

Through creating the site I've learned hundreds of things I wouldn't have learned otherwise. For example:

ASTA: This is the dog in the Thin Man movies. Through learning about Asta I discovered a great movie series I otherwise might have never watched.

ULEE: The title character in the movie, Ulee's Gold. This is another fine movie I hadn't seen previously.

ENNUI: What a great word to use when 'boredom' just isn't enough!

And then there are the dozens of people I've learned about with crossword friendly names whose fame lives on through crosswords. A few examples: SAKI, AGEE, URIS, ODETS, INGE, NIN, ARP, KLEE, ERNST, ERTE, PEI, NAST.

I could go on and on...

What resources do you use to flesh out the crossword puzzle frequency/English language frequency stats & the appropriate summary on the Word of the Day?

Jimmy Wales is one of my heroes. His Wikipedia isn't perfect, but it's a treasure trove for projects like this. Most of my word-of-the-day summaries use information from Wikipedia articles.

Regarding crossword puzzle frequency - that's based on my own research. I solve puzzles with a number of friends at my work place (on breaks). Together, we solve a wide variety of puzzles (see my links page) - about 120 a month. From this I select a cross-section of puzzles to compile a list of crosswordese and calculate frequencies.

The English language frequency stats are retrieved using the elegant web-site, Wordcount.org This site presents 86,800 of the most frequently used English words and ranks them in order of commonness. The average native English speaker knows 12,000 - 20,000 words. Most crosswordese words are not part of the 40,000 most common words - in fact, many times I'm not able to provide stats because they're not even part of the site's 86,800 words.

I adore your Clever Clue of the Month. Can you explain to us your sifting process? Also, how do you ensure that those clues are original?

Coming up with the Clever Clue of the Month is a labor of love. I look at each of the puzzles our group solves each month searching for clever clues. I also receive a handful of clues each month from friends of the site. I then compare them with Matt Ginsburg's Clue Database. This program is updated every week or two with clues from most of the major crosswords. At least half of the clever clues are eliminated at this point because they've been used before. At the end of the month I send a preliminary list to a dozen veteran solvers and constructors to help me narrow the list down to six. I then put the list of six on the site and open it up to everyone to vote for their favorite.

Most of the time, my favorite clues don't win. For example, my favorite clue for March was: Load assistant? ....... EXLAX. It didn't even make it to the final six.

At this point, we're only looking at about half the puzzles out there each month, so this isn't as fair as it could be. I would welcome clever clue submissions from your readers.

Tell us a bit about your background. Do you construct crossword also?

I haven't begun constructing crossword puzzles yet. I'm quite sure I'll give it a shot in the future. I hope I don't put it off until retirement.

Regarding my background - I took a lot of math in college - I've discovered a lot of solvers and constructors have math backgrounds. I finally ended up with a degree in elementary education and taught 4th and 5th grade for three years. Since then I've worked at a window factory in northern Minnesota where I'm currently doing tech support.

What is a perfect puzzle to you? And what kind of themes/fill appeal to you & what are your groaners?

The first thing that comes to mind when you ask this question is the puzzle I highlighted as a Great Puzzle Alert in January. Xan Vongsathorn created an amazing rebus puzzle for the New York Times. It had an extermination theme where 'ant' was part of the answer. The same clue could be used for the answer if the 'ant' was 'exterminated'.

I'm a sucker for rebus puzzles. I love a theme that'll make me laugh out loud. And, of course, I like puzzles with a lot of clever and interesting clues. Also, I love puzzles that try new things, like the April Fool's NYT puzzle from a couple days ago where the wording of all the clues was out of order

My least favorite puzzles are those which are too easy. However, I've found a way to even enjoy them. There are a number of people I work with who are relatively new to crosswords. I let them start the easy ones. Then it's my job to finish them. They become much more challenging when there are a number of incorrect answers to sift through.

What puzzles do you solve every day? And who are your favorite constructors?

There is no single puzzle that I solve every day. I like to work on a wide variety of puzzles each month. I like to make sure I do at least one of every puzzle on my links list every month. Of course there are some puzzles I enjoy more than others. I lean heavily toward the NYT, WSJ, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Week, and Merl Reagle's Sunday Crosswords.

My favorite constructor/editor is Peter Gordon and my favorite puzzle is his weekly crossword in The Week. It's basically a news junkie's dream, and although I don't consider myself a news junkie, I love the fact that many of the clues are amazingly recent - many from news stories less than a week old! A couple other favorites are Merl Reagle and Brendan Emmitt Quigley.

Besides crossword, what else do you do for fun?

I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids. It looks like we'll be empty nesters in a couple months. I also enjoy walking/running my dog a few miles every day.

I teach a class on the Life of Christ. My work with crosswords pales in importance to this.

Like many other crossword solvers, I enjoy sudoku. I play backgammon almost every day. Other hobbies include badminton, scrabble, tennis, watching the Twins, and having my heart broken by the Vikings every year.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Kenneth Berniker

Theme: What's in a Name? - A humorous take on the first "earthy" name of some famous people.

17A. Jazz bandleader and lover of forests?: WOODY HERMAN. Woodrow Herman (1913–1987), neat twist, The Woodchopper's Ball. Woody played the clarinet and the saxophone.

36A. Former heavyweight champ and lover of mountains?: ROCKY MARCIANO. Born Rocco Marchegiano (1923 – 1969), Rocky was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1952 to 1956, when he retired as the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career.

60A. Ex-Dodger pitcher and lover of beaches?: SANDY KOUFAX. Sanford Koufax was a lefty who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1955 to 1966. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Arthritis ended his career at age 30.

Argyle again. I believe this is our first offering from this constructor. He has several NYT submissions and is very scrabbly (just short a 'B' from a pangram today). (Update: There is a 'B' in the SE corner. Thanks, Hahtool.)

A nicely interconnected grid today, also. I did spot a sub theme...or I imagined it.

Across:

1A. Jack's partner: JILL (from the nursery rhyme.)

5A. Not exactly lined up: OFFSET

11A. Stanford-Binet nos.: IQ'S. The Stanford Binet Intelligence Test is a standardized test that measures IQ and cognitive abilities in children and adults aged two to 23.

14A. On the less breezy side, at sea: ALEE

15A. Jacket part: SLEEVE

16A. Actor's signal: CUE

19A. Common Market inits.: EEC. European Economic Community.

20A. Dazzling celestial events: NOVAE

21A. Source of a hot tip: INSIDER

23A. 737, for example: PLANE. A twin-jet engine airliner, 737 has been continuously manufactured by Boeing since 1967.

25A. Singer Domino: FATS. His thrill, Blueberry Hill.

27A. Trig function: SINE

28A. Corn unit: EAR

29A. "No __!": emphatic denial: SIREE

31A. Is able to, biblically: CANST

32A. It may wash away castles: TIDE . Sand castles

34A. Postal motto word: NOR

35A. Yellowfin tuna: AHI

41A. Madhouse: ZOO

42A. Golfer's accessory: TEE

43A. Base runner's goal: HOME

45A. Divided Asian land: KOREA

48A. Give up amateur status: GO PRO

50A. Up to, briefly: 'TIL

51A. Express line unit: ITEM

52A. Lass: GIRL

53A. Spiteful: NASTY

55A. "Strangers in the Night" singer: SINATRA. His thrill.

57A.Prefix with physics: ASTRO

59A. Sault __ Marie: STE.

64A. Russian fighter: MIG

65A. Postwar British prime minister: ATTLEE. Clement Attlee, (1883 – 1967) was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951.

66A. Farm field unit: BALE. Bales come in so many different sizes now, I'm not sure there is a standard 'field unit'.

67A. Ending for Vietnam: ESE

68A. Dwell: RESIDE

69A. Like the Mojave: ARID

Down:

1D. Mandible site: JAW

2D. UN workers rights agcy.: ILO. International Labour Organization

3D. Kate's "Titanic" co-star: LEONARDO Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio

4D. Gave false hopes: LED ON

5D. Workplace watchdog org.: OSHA

6D. Try to escape, as pursuers: FLEE FROM

7D. __-de-lance: pit viper: FER. Fer-de-Lance is French for spearhead (literally "iron of the lance"), and may refer to several tropical snakes.

8D. Arab or Jew: SEMITE

9D. Cowgirl Dale: EVANS. Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans found their thrill on Happy Trails

10D. Change for a 20: TENS

11D. Stranded at the chalet, maybe: ICED IN

12D. Brooklyn neighbor: QUEENS. New York City boroughs

13D. Whispered thing: SECRET

18D. Actor Montand: YVES

22D. Old Testament prophet: ISAIAH

23D. Teacher's favorite: PET

24D. Home in the wild: LAIR

26D. Faucet attachment: AERATOR

30D. California county in which Mount Whitney is partly located: INYO Map. Inyo County is the home of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states and Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in the United States.

31D. Greek X: CHI

33D. Itchy rash cause: ECZEMA

35D. Expert server: ACER

37D. "Kampgrounds" company: KOA. Kampgrounds of America.

38D. Showed over: REPLAYED

39D. "Up to this point, no": "NOT SO FAR"

40D. Fail to include: OMIT

44D. Bridge expert Culbertson: ELY

45D. Pecking order?: "KISS ME!". Great clue, though we've seen it in LA Times before.

46D. Ear inflammation: OTITIS

47D. Go back on a promise: RENEGE

48D. Meadowlands Stadium team: GIANTS

49D. Not tricked by: ON TO

52D. Fireplace feature: GRATE

54D. Resort island off Venezuela: ARUBA

56D. Ivan IV, for one: TSAR

58D. __-Ball: SKEE. The best way to explain it, is to show it. Video

61D. Mid sixth-century year: DLI

62D. Baba of fiction: ALI

63D. Deleted, with "out": X'ED

Answer grid.

Argyle

Interview with Rich Norris

It's been a very entertaining and educating year since we switched to LA Times on March 21, 2010. A quick catch-up with editor Rich Norris for the latest status regarding our current puzzle.

Are you now comfortable with the difficulty graduation level of our puzzles? Several regulars on our blog have given up on Saturdays due to its continued inaccessibility.

This sounds almost like two questions, which I'll answer separately.

Overall difficulty: yes, I am comfortable with the current levels.

Saturday: Saturday puzzles are admittedly harder than they were during the summer/fall "easing" period, but they aren't as hard as they used to be before then. There's really no way to make them both challenging enough for more-skilled solvers and yet accessible to those used to Wayne Williams' level of difficulty. To me, it doesn't seem fair to clue the entire week at such a basic level. The higher-level solvers are entitled to one or two puzzles a week that challenge them.

How is your editing style in the past year different from your LAT/TMS Daily consolidation days?

Except for that "easing" period I mentioned above, not at all.

How many more Dan Naddor puzzles are left in your pipeline? And what was it like to work with Dan?

I don't have a current count, but there are enough to last the year and then some. I think I've already said all there is for me to say about working with Dan. To sum up: his penchant for constantly stretching limits tried my patience once in a while, but on the whole, he was an editor's dream. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. And miss him.

Many of us missed Scott Atkinson's rotational turn in his recent TURNSTILE puzzle, and I certainly would not have noticed the counterclockwise one letter at a time rotation in Don Gagliardo's SHOE BOX puzzles if not for his Interview. How do you feel as an editor when solvers simply miss such woven intricacy?

I knew that the SHOE BOX puzzle would cause some confusion--because Tribune wouldn't allow me to use circles in puzzles at that time. Explaining such themes in prose is a challenge. I took a chance, and I feel it was a success because most solvers spotted it. "Turnstile" had circles, though. I thought that was enough theme help. It's not clear to me why so many of your readers didn't grasp the gimmick. It might simply be a lack of experience with this kind of puzzle. You can expect more circled themes in the future. Maybe that will help. ;-)

We've learned from the constructors that some of the entertaining clues are actually your creation. Where do you normally get your inspiration for cluing? What kind of newspapers/magazines/books/websites do you read every day?

My inspiration for cluing comes from years of experience, a pretty broad grasp of the English language, and my wife Kim, who's about as clever a wordsmith as I've ever met. I read the LA Times every day. Monthly, I subscribe to Consumer Reports and AARP the Magazine. I do loads of reading online: other newspapers, sports Web sites (I'm a sports nut), and whatever other sites my work happens to take me to.

Monday, April 5, 2010 Todd McClary

Theme: Rotogravure Easter connection. Did you find you picture in the Rotogravure wearing your Easter bonnet in the Easter Parade?

17A Hockey attempt that only the goalie is allowed to try to stop: PENALTY SHOT

29A Overall perspective: BIG PICTURE

47A Crisp cookie: GINGER SNAP

59A Narrow victory, or a feature of 17-, 29- and 47-Across: PHOTO FINISH. The finish of the above three entries is a synonym of PHOTO.

Argyle here. My take on the theme is that it is a little weak. Dictionary.com does show SNAP as a noun, a shortened version of SNAPSHOT but the same could be said about SHOT. Oh well, it's only a Monday and I hope every one is OK after the shaking they got.

Across:

1A Noun followers, often: VERBS

6A Marinara sauce brand: PREGO

11A Was introduced to: MET

14A Tusk material: IVORY

15A "The Ant and the Grasshopper" author: AESOP. Fable.

16A Lennon's widow: ONO

19A Eerie: ODD. Not a good pairing.

20A Ancient Athens foe: SPARTA

21A On the ocean: ASEA

22A Windpipe: TRACHEA

25A Stormy day topper: RAIN HAT. Or bonnet.

28A __-Rooter: ROTO

31A Punk rock offshoot: EMO. Songs of teenage angst?

32A Firefighter's tool: HOSE

33A Hannah Montana's channel, in TV listings: DIS. The Disney Channel.

34A Buzzing instrument: KAZOO

36A Aliens, briefly: ETS

38A Stretchy synthetic: LYCRA. And 53A Waterproof fabric: GORETEX.

42A Rise and fall: BOB

44A __-bitsy: ITSY

46A Trendy: HIP

51A Five-time A.L. batting champ Boggs: WADE

52A 1955 Platters hit: "ONLY YOU". Clip.

55A Daybreak: DAWN

56A Become extinct: DIE OUT

58A Have a balance: OWE

64A "That __ close!": WAS

66A Like some barrels: OAKEN

66A Gymnast Comaneci: NADIA. She was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event(1976 Summer Olympics). She married Bart Conner, also a gymnast, and have a son named Dylan Paul Conner, and are living in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

67A Manhattan-based paper: Abbr.: NYT. New York Times.

68A Feather: PLUME

69A Involuntary contraction: SPASM

Down:

1D Celebrity, briefly: VIP

2D Adam's partner: EVE

3D Harry's pal Weasley: RON. Harry Potter of Hogwarts.

4D "Donnie __": Johnny Depp film: BRASCO. A 1997 film loosely based on the real-life events of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent who successfully infiltrated the Bonanno crime family. DVD cover.

5D Graceful woman: SYLPH. Originally referring to any race of spirits inhabiting the air, described as being mortal but lacking a soul. Paracelsus' word seems to be an arbitrary coinage, but perhaps it holds a suggestion of L. sylva and Gk. nymph. The meaning "slender, graceful girl" first recorded 1838, on the notion of "light, airy movements." Online Etymology Dictionary

6D Worker's reward: PAY RAISE

7D Take it easy: REST

8D F's musical equivalent: E SHARP Is this a good clue?

9D Sticky stuff: GOO

10D Choose (to): OPT

11D __ pork: Chinese dish served with thin pancakes: MOO SHU

12D Win the love of: ENDEAR

13D So far: TO DATE

18D Workout regimen: TAE BO. The name Tae Bo is a portmanteau of tae kwon do and boxing. Developed by Billy Blanks, Tae-Bo is a trademark of Billy Blanks Enterprises.

21D Nervous: ANTSY

22D Wearying journey: TREK

23D Italia's capital: ROMA. When in Italia, spell it as the Romans do.

24D From __: completely: A TO Z

26D Lend a hand: AID

27D How a persona non grata might be greeted: ICILY

30D Arrive: GET IN

32D Balderdash: HOOEY

35D Delivery doc: OB/GYN

37D Beginning phase: STAGE ONE

39D Online dialogue: CHAT

40D Perform in a rodeo, e.g.: RIDE

41D High point: APEX

43D 62-Down sib: BRO. And 62D 43-Down sib: SIS.

45D Mad magazine specialty: SPOOF

47D Drop: GO DOWN

48D Kind of: IN A WAY

49D L.A. Dodgers' division: NL WEST

50D Puzzle with number squares: SUDOKU

51D Moist towelette: WET-NAP. Another Trademark.

54D Dig sites: RUINS

57D Discussion point: ITEM

59D Rice Krispies sound: POP. Also Crackle and Snap.

60D Holbrook of "Into the Wild": HAL. Emmy and Tony Award winning actor who is one of the great craftsman of stage and screen. He is best known for his performance as Mark Twain.

61D Nev. neighbor: IDA. Idaho (northern neighbor)

63D Cast party braggart, perhaps: HAM

Answer grid.

Argyle

Sunday April 4, 2010 Dan Naddor

Theme: "Sidelined" - DL is inserted into each common phrase, changing the long vowel sound into short vowel sound.

24A. Spoiled meat?: CUR(DL)ED HAM. Cured Ham. Isn't all ham cured? (Note from John Lampkin: Not all ham is cured. Fresh ham is sometimes served at Easter.)

25A. Equestrian nobleman?: MARQUIS DE SAD(DL)E. Marquis De Sade. Sadism is derived from his name. Marquis is ranked below a duke & above an earl.

43A. Sweet scent source?: CAN(DL)E SUGAR. Cane Sugar. Triple alliteration in the clue.

48A. "Oink oink" jokes?: PIGGYBACK RID(DL)E. Piggyback Ride.

62A. Con man's strategy with a lonely widow?: PEARLS BEFORE SWIN(DL)E. Pearls Before Swine, the comic strip. My favorite theme answer. A sad, short story is told in three words.

84A. Sells shorts?: HAN(DL)ES UNDERWEAR. Hanes Underwear. Another alliteration.

88A. Horse's headgear left out in the sun?: BAKED BRI(DL)E. Baked Brie. Have never had baked brie.

103A. Lanky crustaceans?: SPIN(DL)Y LOBSTERS. Spiny Lobsters. This DL is inserted in front of letter Y, all the others in front of letter E.

111. Sidelined by injury, in baseball lingo, and a hint to how this puzzle's theme puns are formed: PUT ON THE DL. DL = Disabled List.

What an ironic & fun theme for the start of a baseball season! Dan also gave us a few more baseball references:

32D. Batters' nos.: AVGS (Averages)

63D. Angels shortstop Aybar: ERICK. This is his rookie card. Not a player with national recognition.

106D. Buc or Phil: NLER (National Leaguer). The Pittsburgh Pirates (Bucs) and Phillies both belong to the National League.

Quintessential Dan Naddor, abetted by Rich Norris no doubt, humorous, entertaining & tricky clues abound.

Across:

1. Fanatical: RABID. Wanted MANIC.

6. Beatnik?: COP. Nice clue.

9. Great service providers: ACERS. Tennis service.

14. Epps of "House": OMAR

18. Be wild about: ADORE

19. "Strange to see __ good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody": Pepys: HOW A. Have never heard of this Samuel Pepys quote. Makes sense.

20. "D'oh" moment, slangily: BRAIN CRAMP. Great answer.

22. Men's ideals: DREAM GIRLS. What is your dream girl like, guys?

27. Looks the wrong way?: LEERS. And ASS (56. Jerk) & TEAT (107D. Suckling spot).

28. Arranged to pay later: RAN A TAB

29. __ Haute: TERRE. Literally "high land". This refers to Terre Haute, Indiana, right?

30. Wane: ABATE

34. Trouble: STATIC. New meaning of "static" to me.

38. "Big Love" airer: HBO. Have never seen "Big Love".

39. Psychedelic desk item: LAVA LAMP. Didn't come to me readily.

51. The Bee Gees, e.g.: TRIO

52. WWII vessel: LST (Landing Ship Tank)

53. 1964 Tony Randall title role: DR. LAO. From "Seven Faces of Dr. Lao" (1964 film).

54. Old Russian council: SOVIET. Literally "Council " in Russian. We also have SSRS (117. Cold war gp.). SSR = Soviet Socialist Republic.

57. Academic figure: EDUCATOR

60. Without warmth: ICILY

69. Skin care prefix: DERMA. Coconut oil is great for skin.

70. Flamenco clicker: CASTANET. No idea. The stuff in her hands. Spanish for "chestnut". I misread the answer as CAST A NET.

71. Singer DiFranco: ANI

72. One interested in spreads: BOOKIE

78. Skating event: PAIRS

79. OAS part: Abbr.: ORG. OAS = Organization of American States.

82. Donald, to his nephews: UNCA'. Blank spot for me. How many nephews does Donald Duck have?

90. Prized: ESTEEMED

91. Antique auto: REO

92. Equipped with machinery: TOOLED

95. Seed coverings: ARILS. The red fleshy stuff that surround the seeds.

96. Eccentric: LOOPY

98. Fashionable Manhattan eatery: ELAINE'S. I suffered from lethologica. Can never remember this restaurant name.

102. W.C. Fields persona: SOUSE

113. Nobel-winning Holocaust chronicler: ELIE WIESEL. Nice to see his full name.

114. Graph that influences bond buyers: YIELD CURVE

115. 100 Iranian dinars: RIALS

116. Delta preceder: GAMMA

118. Complete: UTTER

119. From Jan. 1 to now: YTD (Year to Date)

120. Bikini event: N-TEST

Down:

1. USN brass: RADM (Rear Admiral). Not familiar with this abbr.

2. Historic Spanish port: ADRA. No idea. Wikipedia says Adra was the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain.

3. Afrikaner: BOER

4. 1990 Kuwait invader: IRAQ

5. In an affectedly shy way: DEMURELY. Oh, I don't associate "demure" with "affectedly". To me, our JD (in light green) always looks demure.

6. Una __: using the soft pedal: CORDA. Una corda is literally "one string" in Italian. Unknown musical term to me.

7. Barn babies: OWLET. Alliteration.

8. Volkswagen sedan: PASSAT. Derives from the German word for tradewind. Jetta derives from the jet stream. Kazie or someone else mentioned on the blog that Volkswagen used to name their vehicles after those winds.

9. Start of a tots' song: ABCD

10. Gunk: CRUD

11. 1970s-'80s bowling great __ Anthony: EARL. No idea. My husband said this guy won the most PBA tournaments until Walter Ray Williams passed him a couple of years ago.

12. Fair feature: RIDE. Alliteration.

13. TV show with recurring "Killer Bees" sketches: SNL. No idea.

14. Eschew cooking at home: ORDER OUT

15. "Politically Incorrect" host: MAHER. Outdated clue. I like the current "Real Time With Bill Maher".

16. 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year Stoudemire: AMAR'E. Nope. Not a NBA fan. Looks like A MARE to me.

17. Tach readings: RPMS

19. Boonies possessive: HIS'N

21. Glitterati: CELEBS

23. Supermodel Carangi: GIA. Played by Angelina Jolie in the movie.

26. Basic counters: ABACI. Yeah, I learned the basic counting by using abaci.

29. The ones right in front of us: THESE

30. Matterhorn, e.g.: ALP

33. Wrestling duo: TAG TEAM. Learned from doing Xword.

35. Smidgens: TADS

36. Prefix with Aryan: INDO. Indo-Aryan.

37. Caesar's 455: CDLV

40. DeGeneres's "Idol" predecessor: ABDUL (Paula)

41. Chagall and Anthony: MARCS

42. Graphic design school feature: PC LAB. Unfamiliar with this term.

44. Muumuu accessory: LEI. She looks beautiful (and demure) in her muumuu, sans lei though.

45. Last Supper cup: GRAIL. The Holy Grail, right?

46. Window alternative: AISLE. Airplane seat.

49. Petruchio's wife: KATE. From "The Taming of the Shrew".

50. Shakes setting: ROOF. Dictionary defines shake as "a shingle or clapboard formed by splitting a short log into a number of tapered radial sections with a hatchet". New word to me also.

55. Prong: TINE

58. Olive shade: DRAB

59. Bird of myth: ROC. The bird in the "Arabian Nights".

61. Site of many jewel cases: CD TOWER

62. Quaker St.: PENNA. Is this a common abbr.?

64. Criticizes: RAPS

65. Biblical birthright seller: ESAU

66. "Fear Street" series author: STINE (R. L.). No idea. Looks horrifying. Wikipedia says Stine is often called the Stephen King of Children's Literature.

67. Hospital sections: WARDS

68. Atlas blowup: INSET

69. Apply amateurishly: DAUB

73. "Now the fun starts!": OH BOY

74. Row: OAR

75. Heal, in a way: KNIT. The broken bone.

76. Meatloaf's "__ Anything for Love": I'D DO. Easy guess.

77. Spanish pronoun: ELLO. Spanish for "it". Any comment, Dennis?

80. Do followers: RE MI

81. Player of the field hockey-like sport shinty: GAEL. I've never heard of the Scottish hockey game shinty.

83. Sprays from cans: AEROSOLS

85. Caught congers: EELED

86. Transfer: REASSIGN

87. Fork sites: Abbr.: RDS. Road fork, not utensil.

89. Count (on): DEPEND

93. Queen of mystery: ELLERY. Ellery Queen.

94. Like a sunny room: DAY LIT

96. Justice Brandeis: LOUIS. Who knows? He died in 1941.

97. __ space: OUTER

99. 24-part epic: ILIAD. Oh, new trivia to me.

100. House-to-house number: NOEL. Tricky "number"!

101. "Charlotte's Web" monogram: E. B. W. (E.B. White).

102. 1974 Gould/Sutherland spoof: S*P*Y*S

103. Closed: SHUT

104. Smart-alecky: PERT

105. "... comin' __ baked a cake": old song lyric: I'D'VE. Here is a clip. Totally foreign to me.

108. Salinger title teenager: ESME. Salinger's "For Esme with Love and Squalor".

109. Radiation units: REMS. REM = Roentgen Equivalent Man. I only know the Rapid Eye Movement acronym.

110. Thin strip: SLAT

112. Ft. Worth campus: TCU (Texas Christian University)

Answer grid.

Happy Easter! And a belated Happy Anniversary to Haltool, who met her husband 28 years ago yesterday.

C.C.

Saturday April 3, 2010 Mike Nothnagel

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 30

Multiple word entries abound in this grid. Total 16. And 14 of them are two-word, including all of those stacks of triple 9s in the upper right and lower left corners.

I liked how WISHFUL THINKING (7D. Dreamer's activity) is centered and symmetrically flanked by AS IT IS (8D. In reality) and SO CAN I (45D. Assertion from one who won't be outdone), the only 3-word answers we have today.

How did you fare today? Were you able to mind meld with the constructor in terms of cultural references? I struggled. Mike Nothnagel (in the middle, Doug Peterson on the left & Brendan Emmett Quigley on the right) is a math teacher. He's made lots of late week puzzles for the NY Times. I think this is his LA Times debut.

Across:

1. Some pilgrims: HAJIS. Pilgrims to Mecca. I can only remember the pilgrimage hadj/hajj.

6. Contests on the road: AWAY GAMES. Road games.

15. Enjoy a victory, say: EXULT

16. Ignore, as an insult: RISE ABOVE. Nice clue/answer.

17. More or less uniform: ALIKE

18. Black Sea region: ASIAN MINOR. Turkey region.

19. Holiday pie ingredients: PECANS. I've never had pecan pie.

21. Growth chart data: Abbr.: HTS (Heights)

22. __ torch: TIKI

23. Chateau __ Michelle: world's largest Riesling producer: STE. A winery in Washington. The largest single producer of Riesling wine in the US, a la Wiki. New to me.

24. Deem appropriate: SEE FIT

26. Indifferent grade: CEE. And PLUS (29. 26-Across enhancement). Enhancement made me think of Marisa Miller's boobs, which are actually real.

27. Space balls?: ORBS. Poetically. Poets calls Sun/Moon orb.

30. "Holy Toledo!": EGADS

32. Like a ward for some new hospital patients: NEONATAL. Did not come to me readily.

34. It fits in a lock: OAR. The U-shaped oarlock. I inserted KEY immediately.

35. Chat with someone on the way out?: EXIT INTERVIEW. More familiar with the term EXIT POLL.

39. Pitcher Dwight Gooden's nickname: DOC. Gimme. He's been afflicted with drug problem.

40. Home to FDR's presidential library: HYDE PARK. FDR was born there.

42. Showbiz figure: CELEB

45. Seattle Slew, vis-à-vis Swale: SIRE. Ha ha, I actually know this trivia.

46. "The nursery of England's gentlemen": ETON. Unaware of this Eton moniker.

47. Park in NYC, e.g.: AVE. Park Avenue. Good clue, though clue/answer duplication with HYDE PARK. We also have a cross-referenced RTE (57D. 47-Across, e.g.).

48. "Oops" elicitors: BONERS. Tee-hee!

50. Like "Spring" from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons": IN E. No idea.

51. "Touch Me in the Morning" singer: ROSS (Diana). Not familiar with the song. Doesn't sound romantic as I expected.

53. "Oh no!": ACK

54. Parasite: SPONGE

56. Church rite site: ALTAR RAIL. And KNEELER (41D. Pew extension).

59. The "Demon Star": ALGOL. Arabic root. Al = The (Al Qaeda = The Base). Gol is rooted in Ghoul, the evil demon.

60. Passé reception aid: TV ANTENNA

61. Jack's partner in a 1982 #1 John Cougar song": DIANE. Here is the clip. Blank spot for me.

62. Tony award category: SET DESIGN. And SERIES (14D. Word on some Emmy awards). I liked the "award" weaving.

63. Join: ENTER. Can you give me an example of how they are interchangeable?

Down:

1. Adds in great quantities: HEAPS ON. Praise/scorn, etc.

2. Cart's wheel attachment: AXLETREE. New word to me.

3. Part of a kid's lunch from home: JUICE BOX. Scrabbly!

4. Chase on stage: ILKA. Nope. Total stranger. I was picturing a chase scene on stage.

5. WWII Mark II's: STENS. The British submachine guns used in World War II. I was ignorant of the Mark II model, or any model. Gimme, Argyle?

6. First name at Notre Dame: ARA (Parseghian). The famous football coach.

9. Baker's supply: YEAST

10. Piece of cheesecake?: GAM. Slang for leg.

11. Somewhat: A BIT

12. 1992 Wimbledon runner-up to Steffi: MONICA (Seles)

13. Called forth: EVOKED. What's the exact difference between evoke and invoke?

20. Like many a residential system: SEPTIC

25. Spark: ELAN

28. Nasty: SNIDE

30. Wasp's nest site: EAVE. I've yet to find a nest in ours.

31. Complaint: GRIPE

33. Distance covered by a first step: A TO B. No problem with parsing this time.

34. Sequences: ORDERS

36. Teacher of Adele Varens, in an 1847 novel: EYRE. Jane Eyre. I sure don't remember the little girl's name.

37. Bothering a lot: EATING AT

38. "Nope, the other thing": WRONG ONE. Another awesome clue/answer pair.

42. Stone figures: CARATS. Gem stone. Carat indicates weight, karat purity.

43. Increase in complexity, perhaps: EVOLVE

44. Vampire played by Cruise: LESTAT. Beat me. I've never seen "Interview With the Vampire".

48. Shows: BARES. Just enough. Gong Li my favorite Chinese actress.

49. Part of a deck: SPADE. Deck of card.

52. Golf hazard, often: SAND. TRAP & LAKE also have 4-letter. Ernie Els is a great bunker player. A green jacket this year definitely is not a WISHFUL THINKING to him.

55. "Enemies, A Love Story" Oscar nominee: OLIN (Lena). I peeked at the answer sheet.

58. PC-to-PC system: LAN (Local Area Network)

Answer grid.

C.C.

Friday April 2, 2010 Don Gagliardo

Theme: Pseudo-Opposite - Words that start with a non-functioning reversing/negative prefix are punnily re-interpreted and clued as if the prefixes were real.

20A. Caucus member changing his mind about a candidate?: DENOMINATOR. The caucus member nominates, then de-nominates, hence he/she is a de-nominator.

30A. For the real thing?: ANTIPHONY. Antiphony (an-TIF-uh-nee) is "alternate or responsive singing by a choir in two divisions". New word to me. Anti phony. Pronunciation stress shift.

49A. Took back one's story?: UNRELATED. Related a story, then un-related ("Took back").

58A. Downsizing result?: DISPOSITION. Being disposed? I don't get this one.

Perhaps Al/Bob can tell us which prefixes are of Latin origin and which ones are of the Greek root.

So many other prefixes have the same "opposite" meaning: a (atypical), il (illegal), im (impersonal), in (inexpensive), ir (irrelevant), all placed in front of an adjective and its derivative noun.

Don "Hard G" plays piano (so does our editor Rich Norris), so quite a few music references in the grid:

19A. Bach's "__ the G String": AIR ON. The clip sounds familiar. Al might have linked it before.

45A. Key of Chopin's "Military Polonaise": A MAJOR. Got the MAJOR part easily.

52A. Carry __: A TUNE

2D. Swiftly, to Solti: ALLEGRO. Alliteration.

3D. Name associated with three Beethoven overtures: LEONORA. No idea. Wikipedia says Leonore is the original title of Beethoven's opera Fidelio, in which Leonara is disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio" and rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.

8D. Axton of country: HOYT. Got his name via crosses.

29D. Sharp or flat: OFF KEY

33D. Budapest-born conductor Antal: DORATI. A gimme for our on-the-road Jazzbumpa. I've never never heard of this guy.

39D. Early violin maker Andrea: AMATI. No AMATI/STRAD wobbling today.

60D. Last melody?: TAPS. Last melody call in military bases.

The relatively sparse theme entries allows for plenty of six-letter (total 12) and seven-letter (total 14) fill. Dennis would love those stacks of triple 7s in each Down quadrant.

Today is the first Friday in a long long time that we don't have a add/delete/substitute a letter string theme.

Across:

1. Cotton unit: BALE. Al just mentioned that BALE can also refer to 10 reams of paper.

5. "__ is life!": SUCH

9. Earns a fink moniker: BLABS. I don't associate blab with informing.

14. Seine sights: ILES. French for islands. Alliteration and assonance.

15. Circular cookie: OREO. Alliteration.

16. "__ Breath You Take": Police hit: EVERY. Nice song.

17. Unappetizing food: GLOP

18. Like some summer days: LAZY

23. Latin 101 verb: AMO. Latin for "I love".

24. Freudian subject: EGO

25. Asgard ruler: ODIN. Asgard is the home of those Norse gods.

26. Timberlake with six Grammys: JUSTIN. He and Jessica Biel are a cute couple.

28. Pointer: ARROW

32. Took it slow: LOAFED

34. Flow partner: EBB. Ebb and flow.

35. City NW of Provo: OREM. Wanted ENID the Oklahoma city.

36. Dan'l Webster, in a Twain story: FROG. The jumping frog.

40. Take to the cleaners: SOAK. Let's have a SOAK clue contest today. Mine: Get wet. Rhyming.

43. Remote abbr.: REW (Rewind)

53. "Gimme a minute!": NOT YET

54. Babysitter's bane: BRAT

56. Bug like a dog?: BEG. Good clue.

57. Cos. with ampersands, often: RRS. Railroad companies often have ampersands in them?

61. Choosing from a lineup, briefly: ID'ING

63. Smurf elder: PAPA. Not familiar with the Smurf. Wikipedia says this fellow is 542 years old.

64. Thomas __ Edison: ALVA. Learned from doing Xword.

65. Scary words from the boss: SEE ME. Wanted FIRED.

66. Not fer: AGIN. For & Against.

67. Hammer part: PEEN

68. "To __ human ...": ERR IS. To forgive is divine.

69. Actress Sofer: RENA. Damn it, I can never remember her name. I like that shirt.

70. League of Nations muralist: SERT. Four letter muralist is always SERT the Spanish muralist. I was unaware of his League of Nations (Geneva) work though.

Down:

1. "So what?!": BIG DEAL

4. Hockey Hall of Fame nickname: ESPO (Phil). The clue means nothing to me. This ESPO guy tortures me all the time.

5. Reliable, as a citizen: SOLID.

6. Muse holding a globe: URANIA. Muse of astronomy. A globe in her left hand, a peg in the right.

7. Matisse reportedly called him "the father of us all": CEZANNE. Easy guess.

9. Endure: BEAR UP

10. VII x VIII: LVI. 7x8=56. I don't like the VI repetition. The simple "Roman 56" should be just fine.

11. Oxygenating tool: AERATOR. For the golf greens?

12. Fire retardant chemical: BROMINE. This word sounds like poison. I must be confusing it with some other chemical.

13. Case, for instance?: SYNONYM. Case is a synonym of "instance". In this case/instance. Excellent clue.

21. Yard machine: MOWER

22. Algonquin kin: OJIBWA. Just learned that Ojibwa = Chippewa.

27. Patronize: SHOP AT. And ARTSIER (42. Like a more pretentious museum patron). Patron echo.

31. "Superstation" letters: TBS

37. Hear clearly: GET

40. Common photo subject: SUNRISE. Beautiful!

41. Due in soon: ON ORDER

44. Online resource: WEB PAGE. Can't fit in Wikipedia.

46. Golden __: 50th anniversary: JUBILEE

47. Like a bogey, to a golfer: ONE OVER. I wrote down OVER PAR first.

48. Ruling: REGNANT. Same root with reign?

50. Cliff features: LEDGES. For the climbers to gain a toehold.

51. Visit unexpectedly: DROP IN

55. Yoga posture: ASANA. Maybe Lucina can show us some of her yoga pictures someday.

59. Trade punches: SPAR

62. Application form abbr.: NMI. No Middle Initial.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is a happy photo of today's constructor Don Gagliardo and his beautiful wife Barbara in their backyard in the summer of 2009. Barbara loves shoes and inspired Don's great SHOE BOX puzzle.

C.C.

Interview with Alex Boisvert

Today's edgy quote is our second Alex Boisvert puzzle since the TMS switch last year. His last OOK puzzle is also quite unique. It contains no three-letter word at all.

Besides LA Times, Alex's puzzles have also appeared in the NY Times, NY Sun, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the Games magazine.

Today's puzzle is a rather creative approach to a normally boring quote puzzle. How does the "edge" idea come to you?

Thanks! I actually got the idea from Brendan Quigley's Ten Bulls**t Themes post where he talked about the "stepquote." I had never heard of it (if you haven't either, here's an example, but it gave me the idea to run a quote around the outside of a puzzle. Once I found an appropriate quote, I was pretty much set, except that it turns out running a theme around the outside of the puzzle makes it really hard to fill! It took me forever to get something decent. Hope it was worth it. (Incidentally, I don't find quote puzzles boring, but I know a lot of people do)

We seldom see a non-symmetrical grid and quote entries broken into mostly non-recognizable letter strings. What kind of feedback did you expect from average solvers?

(Actually, the puzzle has left-right symmetry, but that's still unusual) I expect a lot of people to hate this puzzle! Still, I hold out hope that some people will love it too. It does strike me as a puzzle that might be polarizing - most puzzles that are out of the ordinary in some way are. Seems just about right for an April Fool's puzzle.

How would you describe your style? I was impressed that there's no 3-word entry in your last LAT.

I'm not sure I have a style, although I guess most of my puzzles fall into one of two categories: easy Monday-Tuesday puzzles, and puzzles that have some sort of unique twist. I've made a couple of pun puzzles but I don't like them - "Puns are the lowest form of communication," I always say - so most of the entries in my puzzles are real phrases. I especially like making crosswords where a defining theme entry crosses several others, but those aren't easy to make! As far as the LAT puzzle you're referring to - I wanted to see if I could write a Monday puzzle with no three-letter entries. So I did it, but most people didn't even notice, so I won't be doing it
again.

What's your background? And how did you develop an interest in crossword constructing?

Like many constructors, my background is in math. I got my undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in Maine and my Ph.D. at UCLA. Now I help design software for hyperspectral cameras. While I was in grad school a friend showed me a crossword he was making for his girlfriend. That's when I thought to myself "Hey, I can do that too!" So I tried making a few and eventually I got it right, with a lot of help and patience from editors.

Tell us a bit about your website and the tools you've developed for crossword constructors/solvers.

On alexboisvert.com I have a bunch of apps I wrote for myself, but that I thought might be useful for others. The website started off pretty small but I kept finding more ideas for software that I wanted to make and so it kept growing. Right now the most popular app I have is CrosswordButler, which allows people to download bunches of puzzles every day. I also have the Kaidoku blog where Matt Gaffney and I each contribute one puzzle a week. Kaidoku is a crossword variant that I'm starting to like better than typical crosswords, because it requires logical thinking as well.

What's the best puzzle you've made and why?

Boy, that's hard. The puzzle most people seem to remember is this one from September 19, 2008 PDF, Solution. This one from a year previous PDF, second page, Solution garnered a lot of positive feedback too. I'd also point to this puzzle which is unpublishable for obvious reasons but which I think came out rather well (warning: colorful language involved)

What kind of puzzles do you solve every day? And who are your favorite constructors?

I don't solve that many crosswords any more these days. I did when I used to ride the bus to work but these days I bike. I solve the A.V. club crossword whenever Byron Walden constructs it, and I try to do Matt Gaffney's contest puzzle and Peter Gordon's Fireball crossword every week, but mostly I've been solving Kaidoku. As far as my favorite constructors, there are probably too many to mention, but in addition to Byron, Matt and Peter I would say (off the top of my head) Lynn Lempel for early-week puzzles, Pete Muller and Patrick Blindauer for crazy rule-bending puzzles, and Doug Peterson and Karen Tracey for themelesses. Also anyone who's ever been mentioned when you've asked that question before.

Besides crossword, what else do you do for fun?

Well, I have two young children so I don't have that much free time these days. I love hiking and camping. I enjoy trivia and I go to a weekly pub quiz when I get a little free time. I like to cook and I love to eat good food. And sleep ... but I haven't done much of that recently.