The JimH Crossword Blog

Day when courts are not in session

The Saturday May 31 puzzle by Robert H. Wolfe (answers) is a killer. Yes, I know, Amy finished it in 3:48 but it was just over the line for me, too hard to be fun. I had to resort to looking up answers multiple times. Rather than try to be amusing or clever today, I'll just list some of the tough clues. I'll end with a math quiz. By the way, my answer pages now all have links to thumbnails of all other puzzles by the same constructor. I added that a while ago but didn't mention it so I'm not sure how many people noticed.

The Wreck of the Mary Deare was a film Hitchcock was going to make but didn't. William Pitt, the First Earl of Chatham, was Secretary of State during the Seven Years' War (aka French and Indian War.) Pittsburgh is named for him. I'd give my eye teeth to be able to play tennis like Nadia Petrova. If you forget the lyrics, you can sing na na na rather than be silent as a clam. Ceres was discovered in 1801. Last year NASA launched the Vesta probe which will visit Ceres in 2015. Toni Sailer was the first skier to win all three Winter Olympic alpine events in 1956. Toni is a he, short for Anton. I studied atomic spectroscopy in grad school but I still have no idea what n radiation is. I may have that wrong or maybe I was sick the day that was covered. Second hand is a devilish answer for tick source. Dies non juridicus or non-judicial day is when courts don't sit. Postmosaic (after Moses) describes the part of the Torah after the first five Moses-written books. Chichewa is an official language of Malawi. Good grief. That's a lot to expect someone with my tiny brain to know.

I liked PBS for Oscar show airer. Oh, that Oscar. And speaking of the playwright William Inge, I re-watched Picnic yesterday. It's a rare case of a good play also making a fine film. The plot is straightforward but the intensity of the sexual tension is amazing even 50 years later. Crossword solvers should eat oreos while viewing it.

Also, I kept changing my mind about which Marx Brothers video to add to my previous post. I ended up using the contract scene from Night at the Opera. Click here and scroll down to see it.

Update: PhillySolver sent me this link which has photos and bios of several constructors including today's. "Robert H. Wolfe, 57, a veterinarian from North Woodmere, New York, has been married for 32 years and has two grown daughters. He has been creating crossword puzzles since 1974. Bob is also a long-distance runner, and writes poetry, screenplays and novels."

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I promised a math quiz and here it is:

Today's puzzle has 68 words. (Mr. Wolfe's previous effort had 58, close to the record low of 52.) Those are all even numbers. Of the 4524 daily puzzles in my database, all but eight have an even word count. If you're curious, the eight oddities are 8/9/2007, 10/31/2006, 8/8/2006, 8/2/2006, 9/29/2005, 11/29/2001, 10/27/2001, and 3/16/2000.

Why are almost all word counts even in weekday NYT puzzles? What properties are necessary for an odd word count? Send me your proof or add it as a comment. The most elegant gets, uh, a valuable prize. Yeah, that's it.

The Wandering Heir

Teenage constructor Natan Last has cooked up a challenging Friday puzzle (answers) that had a mixture of impossible corners and delightful surprises. But first, let's talk about Chico.

Who's your favorite of the Brothers Marx? Most people choose Groucho (my choice) or Harpo, but Chico was an amazing talent who made the others better. Mr. Last is quite right, Chico indeed had a unique style at the keyboard. He made it seem absolutely effortless but try to duplicate it and you'll discover otherwise. One of my pet peeves is that his name is so often mispronounced so since we all care about words here, let's try to turn the tide. It's not "cheeko" as in "...and the Man", it's "chicko" as in "chicken chaser." (We still say "chicks" today to mean young women. Well, we don't say it too often because we get slapped, but you know what I mean.) Groucho made that pronunciation clear on numerous occasions. Get it right, dammit.

There was an impossible letter in today's puzzle. "Invented things" sounds like LIES to me, but of course you can read invented as an adjective instead of a verb and the answer becomes LIED. Which is correct? Only people who recall who wrote The Wandering Heir in 1872 know for sure. That seems like an unfortunate cross. The book, as I'm sure you remember, is subtitled A Matter-of-Fact Romance. It's by Charles READE.

I had several wrong turns. I was positive Sealab inhabitants would be aquanauts. I thought the question while eyeing someone else's plate would be the grammatically correct may I try some. I thought "leaves home" must end with an S. I must have fallen into every trap.

The clue of the puzzle for me was "My parents are gonna kill me!" Knowing Mr. last is still in high school helped me get I AM SO DEAD. Great answer.

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Speaking of chicks, I take notes while I solve but I forgot to write about something in yesterday's brilliant John Farmer crossword. 57 Down was "This is not ____" and the answer was A TOY. I wish that had been clued as "A Secretary is not ____ (song by Frank Loesser)" because that would have given me an excuse to quote some of the lyrics.

What the heck, I'll do it anyway. It's my blog, right? The song is from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Here are just a few random verses. And remember: you've come a long way, baby.

Gentlemen. Gentlemen.
A secretary is not a toy,
No, my boy, not a toy
To fondle and dandle and playfully handle
In search of some puerile joy.
No, a secretary is not,
Definitely not, a toy.

A secretary is not a pet
Nor an e-rector set.
It happened to Charlie McCoy, boy:
They fired him like a shot
The day the fellow forgot
A secretary is not a toy.

A secretary is not a thing
Wound by key, pulled by string.
Her pad is to write in
And not spend the night in.
If that's what you plan to enjoy.
No!

You get the idea...

Hall-of-Fame Nascar racer Bobby

John Farmer is one of my favorite constructors but he's screwing up my database with his Thursday, May 29 puzzle (answers.) The gimmick, and it's a good one, is that you read the answers differently depending on your perspective, depending on whether you're looking across or down. While clever and fun and all those other things that other solvers care about, it also means that my database answers are only correct for some of the clues. I chose to make the across answers correct so some of the the downs are wrong.

There is a precedent for this. In other words my database was already messed up, so I guess I shouldn't be too harsh on Mr. Farmer. Ken Stern's 2007 Hallowe'en puzzle had squares that had to be read TRICK one way and TREAT the other. Again, only the across clues are correct in my database.

The gimmick gives us a double kick. First, there's the "aha, it's a rebus" moment, and then there's the realization that even that isn't quite right. Fun times.

Guess what the most popular spectator sport in America is. It's not baseball or football or basketball or, for reasons that completely escape me, not even hockey. It's Nascar racing. If you find that hard to believe, you live in a blue state. I know only one fact about this sport, that there's a Bobby named UNSER. This information helped me not at all, as it appears that first name is not unique. Bobby ISAAC is pictured above. He doesn't look too happy, does he? Driving around in circles will do that to you.

IN SCALE was tougher than it ought to be because we just had TO SCALE. ERIE makes its 261st appearance but only the third as a language reference. Those who know me can guess my favorite clue. "A Baldwin" turned out to be PIANO, which is a terrific clue for my main instrument.

Gary Cooper western

The Wednesday, May 28 puzzle by C. W. Stewart has a lot of BALLS. So does Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON. This is a film which famously builds its suspense over the course of the action which happens, more or less, in real time. It's an effective gimmick.

"Fell off" is a terrific clue. Constructors or editors must love it when they find a phrase so utterly correct yet so completely misleading. The answer is EBBED.

I didn't know anything about Gerry SPENCE but according to his official site at gerryspence.com he's a heck of a guy. I'm sure his official site wouldn't lie. He's apparently "America's Finest Trial Lawyer" (the capitalization is his.) Who am I to argue? His home page starts with this quote: "My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy to others." With all due respect to the many fine attorneys who read this blog, oh never mind.

Suppose you wanted to clue the answer word LECHER. What mental process takes you to recalling a 1971 rock album? This is why I could never be a constructor.

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Yesterday there was some discussion about et alia vs. et alii. For the definitive word on this subject, let's turn to Liffey Thorpe who has taught Classics for 25 years at Earlham College. I find all this fascinating:

Both are adjectives, but "alia" is neuter plural and thus refers only to "things" or to nouns that are grammatically neuter: "other ones" or "other things."

"Alii" is masculine plural and refers to people or to nouns that are grammatically masculine: "others" or "other men" or "other people."

(A group that includes women would still be "alii," but an alumnae reunion would, I suppose, be "et aliae".)

As commonly abbreviated-- "et al."-- one cannot be sure whether the ending is neuter or masculine.

Similarly, "etc." is an abbreviation for "et cetera," which is strictly neuter plural and cannot refer to people ("and the rest" or "and the remaining things"). A masculine plural ending would be required for the phrase to refer to people ("et ceteres" — you don't see that in English, but you do in Latin).

Liffey Thorpe

Adam G. Perl is Mr. Natural

Four letters in his first name. Four in his last name. Apparently the temptation was too great and Mr. Perl sneaks his name into today's Tuesday May 27 puzzle (answers) in the first and last Across clues. This takes a certain amount of ego and even superego, it seems to me, but he makes up for it by dropping the ID. Still, that's chutzpah.

Oh, he's a tenor. That explains it. PhillySolver sent me this link where you can read something about Mr. Perl's performance history. He played the lead role in a stage production of Mr. Natural in Ithaca. Not content to just be a star, he also owns an Antique Shop. (There's just no privacy on the Internet, is there?) I wonder how any of this background affects his crossword work. Well, here's one way. Only an antique TV would have a TINT control. Not sure modern lockers have PINUPs either.

We know for sure he didn't sneak his middle name in. The puzzle is G-less. Try harder next time, Adam!

Mr. Perl's previous puzzle brought back childhood memories with its Superman theme. Today's gimmick wasn't as charming but it still made for some humorous answers. There was a fair amount of early-week crosswordy fill but some twists too. Can someone explain the difference between et ALIA and et ALII? They're both plural, right? I need to find a native Latin speaker to set me straight.

Finally, I was amused by TEN being described as "our base system." As oppose to whose? Computer's? Martian's? It would, of course, have been far more convenient if we had settled on base twelve instead of ten, thereby allowing exact decimal representations of not just 1/2 and 1/4 but 1/3 as well. Maybe it's not too late to change. I think I'll start a petition.

Update: There's a detailed explanation of the et alia vs. et alii question in the next day's post.

Dental carries the puzzle

My guest bloggers rock. It's good to be back but it's nice to know I'm not indispensable. Thanks PhillySolver for being the latest to fill in for me.

Before we get to the Monday puzzle I do want to add my own praise to Spy Glass, the Sunday masterpiece by Elizabeth C. Gorski. All those these answers, symmetrically placed, in chronological order, along with some appropriate glassware. Will Shortz called it "a breathtaking feat of construction." That would be a great quote to add to anyone's résumé, not that Ms. Gorski needs it. What a nice way to ring in the Ian Fleming centennial.

Here's my Favorite Fun Fleming Fact: besides creating Bond, James Bond, he wrote the children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Huh? Does this make any sense at all? Think about it. The spy on her majesty's secret service always had a cool car with lots of gadgets and special capabilities. Ditto Chitty. Bond had Pussy Galore and the rest of his suggestively-named Bond Girls. The sex kitten in Chitty Chitty went by the delicious moniker Truly Scrumptious. Yep, all from the same brain.

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The Monday, May 26 puzzle by Mark Sherwood (answers) left me squirming in my seat with its oral healthcare theme. Speaking of squirming, SEX gets clued as "reason for an R rating." Sex has undergone a remarkable transformation in just the past few years. Not long ago when you filled out forms you were often asked about your sex. The accepted answers were generally either male or female. Nowadays, people don't have sex, they have gender, a word which formerly had only a technical grammatical meaning mostly useful for studying foreign languages. The result of this queasiness has, as usual, had the opposite of the intended effect. We can't casually say sex because that would deeply offend our prim sensibilities, so now that formerly safe and useful word only has naughty connotations. Ok, I'll dismount my soapbox now.

Two thumbs up for seeing SISKEL and EBERT together again. Theirs is such a wonderful story — the two formerly bitter rivals who become best friends clashing over their shared love of film.

I wonder how many NYC restaurateurs I'm going to have to learn to keep doing these puzzles...

Update: I forgot to mention that the grid pattern on this puzzle, by which I mean the distribution of black squares, is a very popular one. It appears 10 times in my database, making it the fourth most common pattern. I'll have more to say about this in a future post. My Grid Art page shows two lovely Saturday-level grids that each appear 9 times.

Spy Glass NYT Sunday Puzzle

From guest blogger PhillySolver:

The upcoming Ian Fleming Centennial on May 28th will be fresh on our minds thanks to the deep background work done by Liz Gorski. This is her 41st Sunday and 162nd puzzle and it charmed me from clue double O one (001). I mentioned yesterday that our top constructors are multi-talented and that aptly describes Ms. Gorski. If you would like to see some beautiful design work, check out her website for Cross Stitch dealers. You can read her bio there and see what I mean by talented. I asked Liz about her work on this puzzle and want to share a few things she told me.

"I love to make Sunday puzzles because they're the most challenging form for me — the most difficult day of the week, constructing-wise. Developing themes that can sustain a Sunday solve is very tough, and I like trying to crack that nut. Last year, after seeing the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, I knew that I had to do a Bond puzzle. In sketching out the pattern, I discovered that the six actors sharing a common "Bond" (DANIEL CRAIG, SEAN CONNERY, TIMOTHY DALTON, GEORGE LAZENBY, ROGER MOORE, PIERCE BROSNAN)... along with IAN FLEMING — make up seven entries that fit perfectly into a symmetrical grid."

Did I say that she is impressive? Could you do that? To complete my case that she has extreme talent, she adds, The clues provide an "appropriate gimmick for a "spy" puzzle — the solver will have to crack some codes." Her proposed movie anagrams became year codes for the players, however.

Where to start? How about with the big events going on in Britain by posting the Centenary website. I know where I could end. Once you have proven your code cracking mettle, you can connect the points and get a cocktail glass with a MARTINI inside (39a). I enjoy this added element to puzzles. You get to take your solving work to another level. I would say I was stirred by the fill, but some of you may have been more appropriately shaken by it. I promised you last night you would rely on intelligence today.

As to the puzzle (answers), here are some of the clues you needed to solve in order to earn your martini.

Tricks of the Trade:
St. Joseph makes ASPRIN (97a)
Med Plans are HMOS (Health Maintenance Organizations) (78a)
A GOLF COURSE is full of holes (74d)
Alexander Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr in a DUEL (82a)
We have Ouzel thrushed upon us as OUSEL at (46d)
In NYC they have SOHO (South of Houston St.) and the newer NOHO (North of Houston St.) 35a
AORTAL refers to the main artery (ah, that blood line)  41a
Name drop? deserves the ? since the answer is ERASE (121a)
Ditto for MTG representing a Brief encounter? (10d)
Second start? is a NANO as in nanosecond (112d)
A gut course provides a student with AN EASY A (80a)

Here are the four anchoring long fills:
14d    GRECO ROMAN  (Like some wrestling) Olympic fans and Big Ten schools really care.
4d      CARGO PANTS (Attire with super sized pockets)  Here's a popular YouTube entry Pants
77d    BILL HUDSON (Former Mr. Goldie Hahn)
74d    GOLF COURSES (a tricky clue above)

And in summary, here is the stellar constellation of Broccoli entertainment:
3d       Sean Bond
23a     George Bond
48a     Roger Bond
68a     Timothy Bond  
71d     Daniel Bond
115a   Pierce Bond
90a     Ian Fleming (see photo above)

Thank you Liz for the great entertainment!

Horne, James Horne, returns tomorrow.

PhillySolver

Much Tzimmes About Nothing

From guest blogger PhillySolver:

Today marks Charlie Barasch’s sixth NYT puzzle and his first Saturday puzzle. I sometimes become too focused on evaluating crosswords and seeing what I can learn form them to pay much attention to the talented constructors who make them. Weekend puzzles require a great deal of special talent, so it should come as no surprise that these contributors are talented in other ways. For example, Charlie teaches linguistics at The University of Vermont and has published in several academic fields.  His first book will appear in September and it is not a book of crosswords. It is a book of poetry reflecting on the dreams of 42 past presidents (not sure about the current nightmare). Check out this link to see I am not making this up (Dreams of the Presidents).

I was able to ask Charlie a few questions and here is what he told me about his art.

I'm a very part-time puzzle constructor, although once I have an idea (either a theme or some interesting entries for a themeless) I throw myself into it with abandon. I've had more luck with themeless puzzles recently; they take a long time for me to create because I try to stay away from obscure entries. I love it when a theme or an interesting phrase pops up and my mind goes "Aha!" Then you might see me counting letters on my fingers for the next few days, trying to come up with entries that fit.

Well, his entries certainly 'fit' this time and made me wish I were a Professor of Linguistics. Jim will post the answer grid soon [here - JH] but to complete your degree in language arts, here are a few answers on the final exam:

1a/d  One taking a shot = GUNMAN and GUESSER
17a   Second in Court = ASST DA (think Sam Waterston)
18a   Like a family man = MARRIED WITH KIDS (inspired the picture)
23a   Pitch between columns = NEWSPAPER ADS
38a   Couples aspiration = QUALITY TIME (gotcha!)
46a   Be like Clark Kent = LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE (wear nerdy glasses almost fit)
8d     Split = DASHED AWAY
15d   Its stuffed with dough = FAT WALLET
25d   Area of interest for Archimedes = Pi R SQUARED (Area of a circle, right?)
32d   Beer brand since 1842 = SCHAEFER (wanted Schlitz for some reason)
39d   Tzimmes = ADO (hence the title of this post)
57a   Woman with a future = SEERESS (my least favorite word, but if I construct a puzzle, I want to use it. Just look at those end of word letters!)

Someone else will have to explain UNIATE and SATI as they just fit in and may not be real words.

This was certainly one of the hardest puzzles since late last December and yet it was a total pleasure. I guess I said 'aha" about twenty times. I need to go rest up now. Tomorrow will really test our intelligence, I promise.

PhillySolver

The Best of All Possible Worlds

What a great puzzle! The Friday, May 23 crossword (answers) is a debut by Patrick John Duggan, an 18-year-old who just finished his freshman year at Boston University. I'll gush more in a moment, but first some news about the next couple of days.

I know it's a long weekend but keep your pencil sharp and your dial tuned to this blog. Word on the street is very positive for both the Saturday and especially the Sunday puzzles and they will both get the guest blog treatment from frequent commenter PhillySolver.

PS is the first guest blogger I've actually met. He was a judge at the last American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and he wrote this charming remembrance of his time there. He's also been doing a bunch of research already so there will be some good stories along with his analysis. Should be fun.

But back to young Mr. Duggan and his creation. I do the late-week puzzles by printing them out from my computer. As I solve, I circle clue numbers that amuse me or that might make good blog material. Usually I end up with three or four circles. This time I counted fourteen. If you haven't tried the puzzle, stop reading and start solving.

The first answer I wrote in was LEIBNIZ. Here's the complete Candide chain for crossword solvers: Leibniz (who invented calculus — yes I know, so did Newton) was a rationalist who deduced by logic alone that our universe was the finest God could have constructed, the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire satirized Leibniz as Dr. Pangloss in Candide. Lenny Bernstein wrote the musical. NYT blogger Dick Cavett used one of the songs as the theme music for his talk show. Now you know.

Tell me the shipwreck didn't make you smile. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, 1 Down would be lost. Some other favorite clues were "like a wet blanket", "study aid", "destroyers of many castles" (oh, that kind of castle), "popular boxing venue", (right, boxing) and "furniture cover". Once again it was a short answer that most impressed me. "Kerry and McCain, e.g." had to be SENS, right? Nope. They both served. They're VETS.

All this from an 18-year old. How did he do it? Well, he had help, of course. The Internet is a wonderful thing. He didn't grow up humming that 1958 hit. He might not even remember a 1964 shipwreck. But he's got something going for him. I'm looking forward to more. Congratulations on a terrific debut.

I'm working on an artistic project for the next few days but I'll be back for the Monday puzzle. In the mean time, I look forward to catching up and reading my own blog to see what PS has to say. See you next week.

Say, can you see O?

The May 22 puzzle by Richard Silvestri (answers) asks us to come up with four omens, or rather O-MEN, and in fact there are 23 O's in the puzzle. That seems like a lot, but according to Barry Haldiman, it's 11 shy of the record. I realize I resort to random stats like that when I'm not inspired to gush about the theme but really it's fine and the puzzle is very solid, as you'd expect from such an experienced constructor. I didn't know TOM POSTON, or ROB MORROW either for that matter, so maybe that's why I'm not more enthusiastic.

I was happy to see HARPO, and with a great clue: "silent film star." He'd have appreciated that. Also right up my alley was "Catfish Row denizen." Porgy and Bess has an interesting history. When George Gershwin wrote it in 1935, he intended it to be a serious and important opera. Jazz musicians jumped on the melodies (Summertime, It Ain't Neccessarily So, etc.) and Broadway theatres mounted various stripped down versions over the years but it was ignored in the opera houses until 1976 when Houston mounted it to great success. It's been part of the world-wide standard operatic repertoire ever since.

"Fire proof" is a great clue for ASH. I don't think I ever want to be reminded of the STARR report again, but that does give me an excuse to link to my most popular blog post ever.

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I'm starting a new feature here at The JimH Crossword Blog. As I play with my stats site, I often get reminded of some of my favorite NYT puzzles of the past and from time to time I'll be linking to them. Not directly to my site, however, but to the NYT Across Lite file so you can enjoy solving the puzzle. Yes, that means you need to be a Times subscriber. Go ahead, it's worth it.

I'm starting with one of the "Five Unforgettable Puzzles" from the Word Play DVD. Cathy Millhauser is known for her sense of humor and almost exactly four years ago she wrote a most memorable crossword on the then newly popular phrase, wardrobe malfunction. Relive the past and try it yourself.