SATURDAY, December 19, 2009—Barry C. Silk

THEME: No theme today—Just a themeless/freestyle puzzle that hits at about a Thursday to Friday NYT difficulty level

Lots of fun stuff in this puzzle. A dozen 10-letter answers provide a wealth of cool phrases to make this crossword really sparkle. To wit:

Music!

1D: Soul immortal (JAMES BROWN) and 50A: Singer with four recent best-selling albums of pop standards (ROD STEWART) can be heard ON THE RADIO. The song "NO ONE Knows" and Paul ANKA have also been on the radio, but you don't want clips of those, do you? No, you want the Godfather of Soul and Rod Stewart acting his age:





Other highlights:

• 5A: Southwestern site of gypsum dunes (WHITE SANDS). Pretty! I've never really been in the Southwest much.
  
• 16A: Accountant's concern (AUDIT TRAIL). You know you wanted PAPER TRAIL. I know I did.
  
• 18A: Polite invite (PLEASE STAY). That's what I say to my dog. Don't want to come off too bossy. (That's a lie: I have no dog, love being bossy.)
  
• 37A: User-edited online compendium of notable snippets (WIKIQUOTE). It's the Wikipedia version of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.
  
• 44A: It heats up your food immediately (TABASCO). My favorite clue in this puzzle. I was thinking of microwaves and fire.
  
• 2D: It may be twisted apart (OREO COOKIE). Wait, nobody calls it that. They're just Oreos.
  
• 3D: Source of tears, slangily (WATERWORKS). This is my favorite answer after JAMES BROWN. "Turn on the waterworks!"
  
• 5D: Original "People's Court" judge (WAPNER). Judge Wapner! So many imitators came after him, but none have had his avuncular charm.
  
• 28D: Race infraction (FALSE START). That's when a runner takes off before the starting pistol is fired. We've seen False start? as a clue for the prefix PSEUDO-.
  
• 29D: Unauthorized explorer of city tunnels and sewers (URBAN CAVER). Ooh, what? People do that? Read all about it at Wikipedia.
  
  Crosswordese 101: There's a five-letter piece of crosswordese in this puzzle: TORII. Usually this word is clued as a Shinto temple gateway from Japan. Barry has gone all crazy on us, though, and clued it as 44D: Angels outfielder Hunter who has won nine straight Gold Gloves. I can't say I know anything about Mr. Hunter, but then, I know about Shinto gateways only from crosswords. The Angels play in Los Angelaheim, so I'll bet all sorts of Los Angeles Times readers thought Barry's clue was a gimme.
  
  Everything Else — 1A: Prominent bloodhound feature (JOWL); 5A: Southwestern site of gypsum dunes (WHITE SANDS); 15A: Burnoose wearer (ARAB); 16A: Accountant's concern (AUDIT TRAIL); 17A: Citi Field team (METS); 18A: Polite invite (PLEASE STAY); 19A: Want ad abbr. (EOE); 20A: "Diana" singer (ANKA); 21A: Places for dips (POOLS); 22A: Fights (SCRAPES); 24A: Benefit (BOON); 26A: One unhappy about a split (BOWLER); 27A: "Coppélia" costume (TUTU); 28A: Trapper's ware (FUR); 31A: 1976 best-seller that spanned three centuries (ROOTS); 32A: Frightening ordeal (NIGHTMARE); 34A: It's sometimes deep-fried in the South (OKRA); 35A: Chihuahua chicken (POLLO); 36A: Hamburg's river (ELBE); 37A: User-edited online compendium of notable snippets (WIKIQUOTE); 39A: Like ens (NASAL); 40A: Nintendo's Super __ (NES); 41A: Coffee houses? (URNS); 42A: Pop, e.g. (PARENT); 43A: 1-Down or 50-Across, e.g. (MALE); 44A: It heats up your food immediately (TABASCO); 45A: Can't stand (ABHOR); 48A: Pixels (DOTS); 49A: Work on the road (TAR); 50A: Singer with four recent best-selling albums of pop standards (ROD STEWART); 53A: Work on the road (PAVE); 54A: Where 1-Down or 50-Across may be heard (ON THE RADIO); 55A: Independent (FREE); 56A: Swearing-off words (NEVER AGAIN); 57A: Key in a corner (CTRL); 1D: Soul immortal (JAMES BROWN); 2D: It may be twisted apart (OREO COOKIE); 3D: Source of tears, slangily (WATERWORKS); 4D: Dumbbell abbr. (LBS.); 5D: Original "People's Court" judge (WAPNER); 6D: Clumsy vessels (HULKS); 7D: Think of it (IDEA); 8D: Familia member (TIA); 9D: Some say they live among us, briefly (ETS); 10D: Leave temporarily (STEP OUT); 11D: Hot pursuit? (ARSON); 12D: Brussels-based intl. alliance (NATO); 13D: Watch part (DIAL); 14D: Stone and Stallone (SLYS); 20D: Galoots (APES); 23D: __ Mountains: Central Asian range (ALTAI); 24D: Army brass? (BUGLE); 25D: Emperor Galba's successor (OTHO); 27D: Arcade violations (TILTS); 28D: Race infraction (FALSE START); 29D: Unauthorized explorer of city tunnels and sewers (URBAN CAVER); 30D: Cassette alternative (REEL-TO-REEL); 32D: "__ Knows": 1958 hit (NO ONE); 33D: "Awakenings" actress (MEARA); 35D: Knitting loop (PURL); 38D: Washington is on it (QUARTER); 39D: Busts (NABS); 42D: Battle of the Bulge commander (PATTON); 43D: Arens of Israel (MOSHE); 44D: Angels outfielder Hunter who has won nine straight Gold Gloves (TORII); 45D: Cal's brother in "East of Eden" (ARON); 46D: Something to pick? (BONE); 47D: Cutting-edge set, briefly (HDTV); 48D: Arp works (DADA); 51D: Hurler's stat (ERA); 52D: Chattering tongues do it (WAG); 53D: Rank below cpl. (PFC).

FRIDAY, Dec. 18, 2009 — Dan Naddor

THEME: "Give it a tRY" — "RY" is added to end of first word of a familiar phrase, creating the usual wackiness...

Hey, it's (yet) another array of phrases enwackified by added letters. Today: "RY." I see what the theme answers R? But Y? Why "RY?" Talk about your arbitrary letter combos. The best thing I can say about this puzzle is that the answers are truly impressively long. Five of 13+?? Wow. After that ... not much good to say. I feel like a puzzle that crosses EAT with EAT does not deserve a full write-up. That's a new kind of sloppy/lazy. Just astonishing. Makes crossing pronoun "I" with pronoun "I" (see middle of grid) seem like a negligible infraction by comparison. Honestly ... EAT x/w EAT. I await your defenses of that one.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Battlefield success strategy? (infant RY formula)
• 21A: Church pool table features? (vest RY pockets)
• 35A: Downside of grits and chicken-fried steak? (count RY calories)
• 43A: Armed guard? (sent RY packing)
• 50A: Customs of dessert chefs? (past RY practices)

Crosswordese 101: EES (54D: Some Caltech grads) — Electrical Engineers. Bottom-of-the-barrel but occasionally necessary bit of crosswordese. SST and EES like to hang out together, as they have much in common.

[Please god let this song title become crosswordese]

What else?

• 5D: Dada, to many of its critics (NON-ART) — still don't believe this is a valid word. I *know* it's not a good word.
• 44D: Suffix with law (YER) — it hurts.
• 21D: 1970s fugitive financier Robert (VESCO) — Who The !@#$? This scandal was (largely) before my time. Sounds really interesting. I like the part at the end of his Wikipedia entry where it says, "Vesco reportedly died of lung cancer in November 2007 and was buried at Colon Cemetery in Havana. However, these reports of his death have been disputed." I love a good faked death legend.
• 31D: Pre-A.D. (BCE) — just ... no. If you are using "BCE," then you are also using "CE," not "A.D."
• 36D: "How dare they!" ("THE NERVE!") — far far far and away the best answer in this puzzle. Fantastic.

See you Monday, and please, if you haven't read it yet, please read Orange's follow-up to yesterday's puzzle. It's ... just the best thing I've read in a while.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

The story behind Merl Reagle's Wednesday puzzle

A lot of people noticed that the fill in Merl's puzzle yesterday was, well, not as smooth as they might expect. A Roman numeral at 1-Down? E-TAIL and A NET? OST and ACADS? Some baseball player we don't all know?

A man in Philadelphia had gotten in touch with Merl, since Merl's Sunday puzzle runs in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The man's wife CLARA (1-Across) is a big fan of crosswords and she has been battling a tough cancer. The man hoped that a newspaper might run a puzzle with a theme devoted to Clara. That, Merl explained, was not possible—but he came up with the idea of seeding a themed puzzle with all sorts of stealth answers that would mean something to Clara but nothing to the rest of us.

The Philadelphia Inquirer also runs the L.A. Times daily crossword, so Merl and editor Rich Norris put the plan into motion.

Clara's dog CHOCO is there, as well as her husband's name, her favorite baseball player, her maiden name—about 15 answers in all. So the fill had to work with Merl's five theme answers and the other 15 entries planted around the grid, thus compromising the remaining fill.

Clara did the crossword in the hospital today, thinking all those answers with personal meaning were mere coincidences until she came upon CHOCO and said, "Wait a minute. What's going on here?" The family burst into laughter, and the joyous experience was the best Christmas present they'd ever had.

I'm a firm believer in crosswords having the best quality fill and offering the solver an entertaining time. This one time, the bulk of the entertainment was directed at a minuscule part of the solving audience, not at the rest of us. But hey, the other 364 puzzles this year are for all of us. This one puzzle gave Clara's husband a chance to do something really memorable and joyous for her, and I'm glad it worked out.

Thanks to Merl Reagle for sharing the story, and thanks to Rich and Merl for doing a good deed. The rest of us? We still had a decent crossword to solve, and we got to be witnesses to a touching tale.