04.15 Fri

F R I D A Y
April 15, 2011
Matt Matera

Theme: A Different Kind of Add-a-Letter Theme — Each theme answer is the name of a person who is commonly known by two initials and last name. A third letter is added to the first two initials to create a well-known initialism. And then the clue is, of course, wacky.

Theme answers:

• 1A: Fantasy author and forensic pathologist? (C.S.I. LEWIS).
• 22A: Behaviorist and teen confidant? (B.F.F. SKINNER).
• 33A: Huckster and school supporter? (P.T.A. BARNUM).
• 49A: British novelist and medic? (E.M.T. FORSTER).
• 63A: Children's author and roadside helper? (A.A.A. MILNE).

Again with the awesome theme! Really, really enjoyed this one. In fact, it was only after I had the whole puzzle solved and was going back through the entries in preparation for this write-up that I noticed all the little crappy fill. It honestly didn't bother me while I was solving because I was so intent on figuring out the theme answers, which I thought were really clever and amusing. The only answer that really made me scratch my head during the solve was PILAR, which apparently means [20A: Hairy]. Who knew? Well, I bet Gayle Dean knew. Dean used this clue/answer combo in a Sunday L.A. Times puzzle in August 2004. Since that time, according to the data base at cruciverb.com, it's been used three times in Sunday New York Times puzzles (2005, 2008, and 2010) and once in a Friday Wall Street Journal (2009). So. If the past is any predictor, chances are you won't see this word for another 6–7 years if you only solve the LAT. And I think that's a good thing. As for the rest of the three-letter fill in this grid, you'll be seeing all those entries a lot more often but, with any luck, not all in the same grid.

Did I mention how much I enjoyed this theme?

Highlights in the grid for me include:

• 57A: University of Cincinnati team (BEARCATS).
• 60A: Gangster's gun, in old-timey slang (ROSCOE).
• 42D: Hoops embarrassment (AIRBALL).

Bullets:

• 15A: Reason for a pass (LATENESS). I was thinking sports here, but this is about being late for school and needing a "late pass" from the office.
• 19A: It merged with Kmart in 2005 (SEARS). I had a thing at work yesterday that involved Kmart and SEARS and a lot of anxiety. Not Fun to see this in the grid today!
• 32A: Indeed (YEA). I think this clue needs a "slangily."
• 41A: Inspiration for the Frisbee (PIE PLATE). HAha! "Here's the last piece of pie, honey. Hmm… Look at this pie plate. Doesn't it look like it would be fun to fling it across the room? Let's see if Fido will catch it!"
• 62A: Most people (ASIANS). I've seen this clue before and I Love it.

• 12D: Maura of "ER" (TIERNEY). She also played Lisa on "Newsradio," which I was just talking about yesterday!
• 22D: Theda of silents (BARA). Theda BARA, Zasu Pitts … I think there's one more silent film star you need to know for puzzles. Anyone?
• 24D: Run-down theater (FLEA PIT). Is this, like, lingo in the biz?
• 40D: Fraternity founded at New York University in 1847 (ZETA PSI). Could have clued this as "Two random Greek letters" and I would have gotten it just as easily.

• 53D: Boater's edge (BRIM). The boater in this clue is a hat.
• 54D: When Tony sings "Maria" (ACT I). "West Side Story"? That's my guess.
• 55D: Time often named (ERA). As in: The Steroid Era, The Big Band Era, The Crossword Blog Era. (Hey, a girl can dream.)
• 58D: Spain's Queen Victoria Eugenia, familiarly (ENA). I was going to include this in the CW101 round-up, but it turns out when I originally talked about ENA, I only mentioned the "Bambi's aunt" clue, which is what you'll see 99% of the time. The other 1%, you'll see a Spanish queen clue like this one.

Crosswordese 101 Round-up:

• 5D: Tolkien's Skinbark and Leaflock, e.g. (ENTS).
• 14D: Paris possessive (SES).
• 25D: Before, in verse (ERE).
• 29D: Babbling Addams character (ITT).
• 48D: Brit. military award (DSO).

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Everything Else — 9A: Jah worshipers (RASTAS); 16A: Strike caller (UMPIRE); 17A: German shepherd (ALSATIAN); 18A: Some special forces headgear (BERETS); 21A: High sch. VIPs (SRS.); 27A: At first blush (INITIALLY); 30A: Teen follower? (-AGERS); 31A: Infer (CONSTRUE); 38A: Toon dynamo, familiarly (TAZ); 45A: Lieu (STEAD); 48A: Time, for one (DIMENSION); 51A: CD-__ (ROM); 52A: Droid in every "Star Wars" film (ARTOO); 53A: Sweet cake that's an Easter tradition in Eastern Europe (BABKA); 55A: Spots (ESPIES); 61A: Permits (ENTITLES); 1D: Thing that endures (CLASSIC); 2D: Port of SW Italy (SALERNO); 3D: "That's just wrong" ("IT'S A SIN"); 4D: "That way madness lies" speaker (LEAR); 6D: China's Northern __ Dynasty, 386-534 AD (WEI); 7D: First of the Maj. Prophets (ISA.); 8D: Three-part fig. (SSN); 9D: Creator of a popular six-color puzzle (RUBIK); 10D: First name in aviation (AMELIA); 11D: Paid (for) (SPRANG); 13D: Lost __ (ART); 14D: Paris possessive (SES); 20D: Adler's subj. (PSY.); 23D: Bungle (FLUB); 26D: Where Mandela was pres. (RSA); 28D: Dosage abbr. (TSP.); 34D: Coleridge work (RIME); 35D: __-do-well (NE'ER); 36D: Network that merged with The WB (UPN); 37D: David Beckham's org. (MLS); 38D: Half a fly (TSE); 39D: Withdrawal aid, briefly (ATM); 43D: Caught one's breath (TOOK TEN); 44D: As one (EN MASSE); 46D: Lesotho's home (AFRICA); 47D: Spoil rotten (DOTE ON); 50D: Lover's gift (ROSES); 56D: Under-the-sink brand (SOS); 57D: Arthur of "All in the Family" (BEA); 59D: __ snail's pace (AT A).

03.04 Fri

F R I D A Y
March 4, 2011
Matt Matera

Theme: Breakfast Puns — That's right, breakfast puns.

Theme answers:

• 20A: Halloween breakfast pastry? (CREEPY CRULLER).
• 33A: Lone breakfast pastry? (CRUMPET SOLO).
• 42A: Cherished breakfast pastry? (THE BUN I LOVE).
• 56A: Ones hooked on breakfast pastry? (THE SCONEHEADS).

Now this puzzle right here? This is what I'm talking about. I enjoyed this puzzle from start to finish. Part of that felt very personal to me — several entries brought to mind private jokes and nice or humorous memories — so I'll be interested to hear what you all think.

The puns are … puns. Nothing really notable there. They're not horrible and they're not fantastic (although, now that I think about it, "fantastic pun" might be an oxymoron). But the cluing is really, really good and the grid is full of sparkly entries like:

• 8A: Like some Disneyland passes (TWO-DAY).
• 11D: Gallantry (DERRING-DO).
• 35D: In one piece (UNSCATHED).
• 44D: Endangered great apes (BONOBOS).

Derring-do! How awesome is that?!

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I met Matt Matera at last year's awesome Lollapuzzoola tournament. The only problem is that I also met Matt Besse and I'm not sure which of them is which. So I asked our good friend Doug P. about it and it turns out he has the same problem. Our conversation went kinda like this.

Doug: He's a Ryan and Brian guy. I might have met him last year.
Me: Yeah, me too. I think I follow him on Twitter.
Doug: Red Sox cap, right?
Me: Yeah.
Doug: Wait, I think that's Matt Besse. Matt Matera is joon's friend, I'm almost positive.
Me: So Red Sox cap guy isn't Matera?
Doug: Well, he might be.

The problem was only compounded when I did a Google image search for Matt Matera and one of the images that popped up was … Matt Gaffney, a puzzle constructor extraordinaire who also works with Matt Jones. At that same moment, a message arrived in my inbox from the Cruciverb.com mailing list from … Matt Ginsberg. All these Matts around, of course, can only mean one thing: Big Ten Wrestling Championships this weekend! (HAha. Like you care.)

In conclusion, DERRING-DO!

Bullets:

• 1A: The word? (MUM). My first thought? GREASE.
• 15A: __ bene (NOTA). I had a little trouble here. It's the same trouble I always have, confusing "NOTA bene" with "nolo contendre." Two entirely different things, by the way.

• 16A: It may involve an exaggerated age (FAKE I.D.). This one was really hard for me because I've never really heard of FAKE I.D.s. Oh my gosh, I see they're used by underage kids to gain access to bars. Why, that's illegal and those kids must be awful. Glad I never did that. (Hi, Mom.)
• 39A: Igloos and yurts (ABODES). "Yurts" is fun to say.
• 60A: Type of sauce served with falafel (TAHINI). As if "falafel."
• 63A: Homework amount? (TON). Love this clue. Who hasn't said, "Oh my God, I have a TON of homework tonight"?
• 64A: Puck's king (OBERON). From Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• 65A: "Dulce et Decorum est" poet Wilfred __ (OWEN). That O was the last letter I entered into the grid. The poem's title? The author's name? No brain cells firing at all on this one.

• 5D: Michael's nemesis on "The Office" (TOBY). Ha! I haven't watched "The Office" in a while due to DVR issues. I'm still mad that we got rid of TiVo and the new DVR makes me so irritated that I can't get it to work right. Anyway. I had to think through a few characters — JIM? ANDY? — before I got to TOBY.
• 9D: Half a city (WALLA). WALLA WALLA was a theme entry in the first puzzle I ever created and submitted to Will Shortz. With that rejection, as PuzzleMom reminded me, I joined a very big club.
• 26D: Prelate's title: Abbr. (RT. REV.). See, if you're gonna have an abbreviation in the grid, it should be an awesome abbreviation like this one.

• 30D: Actors Rogen and Green (SETHS). Hi, Seth!
• 34D: Clinton Treasury secretary (RUBIN). I confidently entered REICH here. Was he a Treasury secretary too? Nope, he was Clinton's Secretary of Labor. But he is an economist, so I think I'm forgiven for the mistsake.
• 47D: Baseball star who reportedly said, "I think there's a sexiness in infield hits" (ICHIRO). Personally, I think the 6-4-3 double play is the sexiest play in baseball.
• 55D: Rachel Maddow's station (MSNBC). Speaking of sexy. Love her! Here's a great clip from a recent show of hers. It's not political at all, so it shouldn't be offensive to anyone.

Crosswordese 101 Round-up:

• 12D: River island (AIT).
• 36D: Award with a Sustained Achievement category (OBIE).

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Everything Else — 4A: You might need to watch yours (STEP); 14A: Downed (ATE); 17A: With 19-Across, serious warnings (RED); 18A: Not much (A BIT); 19A: See 17-Across (ALERTS); 23A: 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast, for one (HOAX); 24A: Keystone enforcer (KOP); 25A: Blazing (AFIRE); 28A: Go-aheads (ASSENTS); 32A: __'acte (ENTR); 37A: Garden product word (GRO); 38A: Attacks (RUNS AT); 41A: Sch. attendance notation (ABS.); 46A: End of a boast (VICI); 48A: Got for nothing (SPONGED); 49A: Make official (ENACT); 51A: Newspaper supply (INK); 52A: Islamic leader (IMAM); 62A: Gaucho's weapon (BOLA); 66A: Flow out (EBB); 67A: Henry VIII et al. (TUDORS); 68A: Hitch (SNAG); 69A: Wall St. monitor (SEC); 1D: Orderly movement (MARCH); 2D: Nirvana #1 album "In __" (UTERO); 3D: Scorned lover of Jason (MEDEA); 4D: Lose it (SNAP); 6D: Boarding pass generator (E-TICKET); 7D: Sponsors (PATRONS); 8D: Brand of nonstick cookware (T-FAL); 10D: Michael of "Caddyshack" (O'KEEFE); 13D: NFL stat (YDS.); 21D: Show-what-you-know chances (EXAMS); 22D: Machinating (UP TO); 27D: Unevenly worn (EROSE); 29D: Cross words (SPAT); 31D: Big gun or big cheese (SLANG); 33D: Desire and then some (CRAVE); 40D: "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," for one (OLDIE); 43D: Broad (EPIC); 45D: x, at times (UNKNOWN); 50D: Caruso, for one (TENOR); 53D: A couple (MATES); 54D: Acrobat developer (ADOBE); 57D: Serious lapses (SINS); 58D: Zeno's home (ELEA); 59D: Dangle (HANG); 60D: Tater __ (TOT); 61D: __ Simbel, site of Ramses II temples (ABU).

T H U R S D A Y October 14, 2010 Matt Matera

Theme: YES!— Each theme answer starts with the word yes in a different language.


Theme answers:

• 1A: *Hip-hopper who married Beyoncé (German) (JAY-Z).
• 20A: *Old stories (English) (YESTERDAY'S NEWS).
• 28A: *Inferred cosmic substance (Russian) (DARK MATTER).
• 44A: *Séance device (French) (OUIJA BOARD).
• 51A: *Fatal problem in Genesis (Spanish) (SIBLING RIVALRY).
• 66A: Parliamentary votes, or what appears at the starts of the answers to starred clues (YEAS).

Before we get started I just wanted to let you all know about a crossword app that's been around for a while but has a pretty cool deal going right now where you can get a bundle of 20 Onion puzzles for just $1.99. For those of you who haven't tried the Onion puzzles, I would say they're high-quality, they're generally not super tough, and they tend to be a little on the "edgy" side. I've never tried the app, but I've heard it's awesome on the iPad. I think I'll download the free version to check it out on my iPhone and I'll report back. With the paid version, I've been told you get "all the best puzzles in the known universe." And I got that from a very reliable source. In the meantime, though, please check out the deal and let us know if you try it.

Did any of you have the same reaction I did when you first started this puzzle? "What the heck is German about JAY-Z?!" That was enough to send me looking for the theme (I don't always do that) and it turned out to be a big help.

Bullets:

• 10A: Delhi wrap (SARI). I always get tricked by this clue. I always think they're talking about the sandwich-type wrap, which is weird because I've always thought the whole "wrap" thing sounded pretentious so I don't know why I think about it so much.
• 16A: Green Zone site (IRAQ). I misread this clue as "Green Zone SIGHT" and thought IRAQ was a really bad answer. (It is, however, a prefectly fine answer for the actual clue.)
• 19A: Things you saw while out? (LOGS). I got it right away that "out" was referring to sleep, but I thought the answer would be "dreams," which obviously didn't fit. It didn't occur to me that there might be two tricky words in the clue!
• 33A: Mythological ride (CARPET).



• 35A: Derisive cry (YAH). Not sure in what context this "cry" would be used derisively. Making fun of the accents in "Fargo"?
• 42A: Body art, in slang (TAT). I'm glad we're able to clue TAT as TATtoos now, instead of relying on the old "making lace" definition.

• 49A: "Dagnabit!" ("RATS!"). Excellent exclamations.
• 58A: Colombia neighbor (PERU). And you know what country is also a neighbor of PERU? That's right ... CHI-CHI-CHI! LE-LE-LE!
• 61A: Animal shelter (LAIR). When I see the word LAIR I always picture a cave in my mind. And I don't think there's any way I'll ever picture a cave again without thinking about those miners. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of those guys over the next several days and weeks. (As Andy Borowitz tweeted yesterday morning: "Post-traumatic experts say it could be days before the Chilean miners appear on Dancing with the Stars.")
• 7D: Org. with rovers (NASA). I wanted this to be about dogs.
• 9D: Handel bars? (MESSIAH). Cute clue.

• 10D: '20s White House nickname (SILENT CAL). Calvin Coolidge. Not real wordy as far as presidents go.
• 31D: Actress Durance who plays Lois on "Smallville" (ERICA). This seems obscure to me. Has she been in anything else?
• 37D: TV princess (XENA). Hi, Doug.

Crosswordese 101 Round-up:

• 14A: Movie apiarist (ULEE).
• 18A: Brewers' kilns (OASTS).
• 56D: Flightless bird (RHEA).

[Follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter.]

Everything Else — 5A: Sturdy fabric (DENIM); 15A: Like sandalwood leaves (OVATE); 17A: Gets into (DONS); 23A: "Paris, je t'__": 2006 film (AIME); 24A: Charged particle (ION); 25A: Nashville awards gp. (CMA); 36A: Pivotal part (CRUX); 38A: Bug, perhaps (ERROR); 39A: Hottie (FOX); 40A: Easternmost state (MAINE); 41A: "Don't touch that __!" (DIAL); 43A: High-speed raptor (FALCON); 47A: Former World No. 1 tennis player Ivanovic (ANA); 48A: With 6-Down, one in fear of an audit (TAX); 59A: Funnel-shaped (CONED); 60A: Architect Mies van der __ (ROHE); 62A: Gather (AMASS); 63A: Intuited (KNEW); 64A: About (OR SO); 65A: Greet respectfully (BOW TO); 1D: Kids' author Blume (JUDY); 2D: Succulent plant (ALOE); 3D: Dieters may fight them (YENS); 4D: Keebler cracker (ZESTA); 5D: Pushover (DOORMAT); 6D: See 48-Across (EVADER); 8D: __-bitty (ITTY); 11D: ... ducks in __ (A ROW); 12D: Poverty, in metaphor (RAGS); 13D: Brightness nos. (IQ'S); 21D: Down source (EIDER); 22D: "Kidding!" ("NOT!"); 25D: Included in the e-mail chain (CC'ED); 26D: Video game plumber (MARIO); 27D: Pianist Claudio (ARRAU); 29D: Honshu city (KYOTO); 30D: Top limit (MAX); 32D: Bad sentence (RUN-ON); 34D: Former Kremlin policymaker (POLITBURO); 39D: Terrif (FAB); 40D: Former sketch comedy that used Don Martin cartoons (MAD TV); 42D: Hailed ride (TAXICAB); 43D: "I wish 'twere otherwise" ("'FRAID SO"); 45D: Airline to 29-Down (JAL); 46D: Slap the cuffs on (ARREST); 50D: Like a biting remark, in British slang (SARKY); 51D: Burn slightly (SEAR); 52D: Novelist Murdoch (IRIS); 53D: Pitcher Hideo (NOMO); 54D: Chew (GNAW); 55D: Unaccompanied (LONE); 56D: Flightless bird (RHEA); 57D: Trees used to make longbows (YEWS); 58D: Abbas's gp. (PLO).