05.08 Sun

S U N D A Y
May 8, 2011
Mel Rosen

[Note: This is the syndicated L.A. Times puzzle. It does not appear in the actual newspaper, but is available for free at cruciverb.com.]

Theme: "Market Woes" — Humorous negative stock market headlines.

Theme Entries:

• 23A: "How's your Ticonderoga stock?" answer? (PENCILS HAVE LOST POINTS).
• 42A: "How's your Johnson & Johnson stock?" answer? (TALCUM HIT BOTTOM).
• 65A: "How's your Ginsu stock?" answer? (KNIVES ARE SHARPLY LOWER).
• 88A: "How's your Moët & Chandon stock?" answer? (CHAMPAGNE IS FLAT).
• 109A: "How's your Aqua Lung stock?" answer? (SCUBA GEAR IS GOING UNDER).

Hey, puzzle fans. It's Sunday, so this is Doug again. Before we get started, I'd like to do one last plug for the puzzles from the Crosswords L.A. Tournament. If you're interested, you can buy eight fabulous puzzles for $5. Five of the puzzles were solved by competitors in last week's tournament, and the other three are bonus warm-up puzzles. Click here if you want to purchase them. Constructors include Andrea Carla Michaels, Alex Boisvert, Elizabeth Gorski, Tyler Hinman, and many more. And all proceeds go to the charity Reading to Kids.

Today's puzzle has a theme that would be right at home in the weekly Wall Street Journal crossword. It might have been fun to do some positive entries too, like BALLOONS REACH NEW HIGHS. Anyway, onward to bullets.

Bullets:

• 1A: Do what Michelle Wie did before age 16 (GO PRO). She's a golfer who was once dubbed "the female Tiger Woods." Yeah, back when that was a compliment.
• 34A: Deliverer of text messages? (APOSTLE). I think I like this clue. I assume it refers to the epistles of the Apostles.

• 47A: Old frosh topper (BEANIE). According the Wikipedia, "in the 1950s and possibly beyond, beanies were worn by college freshmen and various fraternities as a form of mild hazing." Doesn't get much milder than that.
• 72A: Janvier, across the Pyrenees (ENERO). January in French & Spanish.
• 15D: Kvbrick opvs? (MMI). The movie "2001" in Roman numerals. Awesome clue.

• 55D: Surrey town in which George Harrison lived in the '60s (ESHER). Weirdest answer of the day for me, but I'm not a big Beatles fan. Do Beatles experts know this?
• 61D: Actress Sarah Michelle ___ (GELLAR). Star of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It seems like a show I'd be into, but I never watched it. 
• 77D: Two seater, maybe? (USHER). Great clue.
• 101D: Hall of Fame slugger Ralph (KINER). He's also an announcer known for his malapropisms. "All of the Mets road wins against the Dodgers this year occurred at Dodger Stadium."

I wish I had a little more to say about this puzzle, but I'm done. I'm off to see "Thor" in IMAX 3-D. Mjolnir!