07.17 Sun

S U N D A Y
July 17, 2011
John R. Conrad

[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: "Wi-Fi Interference" — "W" is changed to "F" in familiar phrases. (Or I should say "WI" is changed to "FI" to go with the title.)

Theme Entries:

• 24A: Angler's daydream? (FISHFUL THINKING).
• 33A: Participate in a food fight? (FLIP ONE'S FIG).
• 51A: Ophthalmologist's diagnosis? (EYE FITNESS NEWS)
• 83A: Auto design now, vis-à-vis the 1950s? (NO-FIN SITUATION)
• 101A: Offshore WBA venue? (ISLE OF FIGHT)
• 111A: Round up a passel of stoolies? (CATCH FORTY FINKS).
• 4D: Bulldozer specification? (FILL POWER).
• 82D: Unrestrained Kentucky Derby entrant? (FREE FILLY).

Hey, crossword fans. Doug here on Sunday. Today we're changing Ws to Fs. Seems to work pretty well. I'm sure that Mr. Conrad thought of the title first and then came up with his set of theme entries. My favorite clue/entry pairing is "Auto design now, vis-à-vis the 1950s?" for NO-FIN SITUATION. That's clever.

Did you see the clue for 1-Down? Lollapalooza! Which reminds me that the 4th Annual Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament is only three weeks away. If you're anywhere near the NY area, or even if you're not, you should make plans to be there. The tournament's going to be in Manhattan this year and will feature original puzzles by Elizabeth Gorski, Andrea Carla Michaels, Mike Nothnagel, Tony Orbach, Byron Walden, and me (Doug Peterson). If you like crosswords, you'll love this tournament. Heck, I'm flying across the country to be there. Added bonus: PuzzleGirl will be there too, and she only charges $5 for an autograph. Just look for the person wearing the Iowa wrestling shirt.

Bullets:

• 6A: "Forget it, I'm just ranting" (IGNORE ME). Great entry!
• 26A: Adler of the stage (STELLA). I'm not familiar with Stella Adler. Was she ever in "A Streetcar Named Desire"?

• 50A: Jawbreaker rock genre (EMO). From Wikipedia: "Jawbreaker was an American punk rock band active from 1986 to 1996 and considered one of the most influential acts of the early-1990s emo movement."
• 75A: Kowalski portrayer (BRANDO). See "Seinfeld" clip above.
• 77A: Enforcers, with "the" (LAW). I tried MOB first.

• 100A: Jennifer of "Pride and Prejudice" (EHLE). Another in our series of "Beautiful Actresses That PuzzleGirl's Never Heard Of." OK, I've never heard of her either.
• 121A: "___ Nothin'": "Oklahoma!" song (ALL ER). That's kinda ugly. And trying ALL OR screwed me up for a while in that corner, what with the EHLE and the OBAD and the DYADS.
• 50D: Midwest university with 23 team wrestling championships. (IOWA). That's actually a clue from Thursday's puzzle, but I figured some Hawkeye fans might enjoy seeing it again.
• 54D: Fictional captain who is the son of a raja (NEMO). Always nice to see a new clue for a crossword regular like Nemo.

• 86D: Asian nursemaid (AMAH). Crossword veterans will recognize this one. If you need a refresher, check out the Crosswordese 101 entry on AMAH.
• 104D: "Alice" waitress (FLO). I remember watching "Alice" when I was a kid, but I never really liked it. It was just on, and I was a TV zombie
• 110D: O.T. book after Amos (OBAD.). Good old Obadiah.

 See you next week. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Blog.