The JimH Crossword Blog

Makeup Test

After I finished the Wednesday, May 21 puzzle by Dave Mackey (answers) I stared at it trying to figure out the theme. Just then, Robin walked in. I read the first two theme answers out loud to her and before I could go on, she knew it. And me, a theatre guy, even. Sheesh.

That gives me an excuse to include a photo of Tammy Faye Bakker. Now before you scoff, rent the 1999 documentary film The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Whatever you think about this woman, it's a remarkable and even endearing movie.

Even though I was too dense to get the theme without help, there's lots to love about the puzzle. Damon RUNYON always makes me smile and I wouldn't be surprised if mobster wanna-bes still adopt his choppy speaking style down at the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York. Tell them Harry the Horse sent you.

I know my readers expect it so I have to mention the quarfy clue at 44 Across: "Gentle opening" is SOFT G. IKE gets liked once again. How old do you have to be to remember seeing a CAR HOP? I wonder what the origin of WIG out is? My favorite clue was another short one — "Saucer contents" for ETS.

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If you poke around in XWord Info you'll see I've added thumbnail links all over the place. It's fascinating to see various collections of puzzles displayed all at once. Here are all the Dave Mackey puzzles. You can see at a glance, for example, that he's the guy who managed to fit BEDTIME FOR BONZO and I DREAM OF JEANNIE into his previous grid. You can also see all the puzzles for a given month, all the Sundays for a specific year, all the puzzles with circles, and on and on.

Finally, I've updated my Grid Art page to include suggestions from readers. Check out the post-modern masterpiece from 2004.

Animal Crackers

The Tuesday, May 20th puzzle (answers) seems to be a NYT debut for Billie Truitt. Congratulations! A menagerie of madcap mammals crash through the four theme clues in a series of traditional crossword puns.

The shining bright spot for me was at 25 Across, "Curly poker". That initial capital gets me every time. What kind of poker is curly? Wrong question. The one who pokes Curly is MOE. He's the stooge on the right.

Did you read that as a complaint when I mentioned traditional crossword puns? It's hard to be too whiny. If you can't tell your puns to word lovers, and let's assume crossword solvers fall into that category, who else can you inflict them on? Like many themes, once you get the first answer on this puzzle the rest fall out quickly. Does that make you all smug and warm, or does that annoy you because it's too easy? It all seems nicely "Tuesday" to me but I'm curious what you think.

Thanks again to Wendy for taking my place behind the JimH Crossword Desk yesterday. It's delightful to see how well these word lovers who frequent my little blog can write. Speaking of which, this weekend will mark a first when when one person guest-blogs here on two consecutive days. I'm looking forward to it.

Into the Void

There's a lot of absence going on in this Monday Mike Nothnagel puzzle (how in the heck did that happen?) but it starts out full of artifacts and mummies, with TOMBS as our first answer of the day. (I'm Wendy, by the way, sitting in for the otherwise-engaged JimH.)

But before I do any more deconstruction of such a fortuitous puzzle for this guest blogger who is a Nothnagel GROUPIE (well, not really, but I do like him), I must rise to the occasion that Jim presented me and give a shoutout to Akron, Ohio, which he apparently thought was some sort of crossword Shangri-la! Let's look at his database, shall we?

Akron, a real city, has appeared 29 times in the puzzle since 1994 (and it appeared once as AKRONOHIO). I guess that letter combo solves a lot of constructor problems. Often it's referenced as some type of "rubber hub" which was true a long time ago but isn't any more. Goodyear is still here, and plans to stay here, but the rest of the tire companies moved south years ago. No smokestacks in sight; it's all clean and very green. Now we're known for being a "polymer hub," as well as the city that gave rise to Devo, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and the Black Keys.

Anyway, the esteemed Mr. Nothnagel themed today's puzzle from a very bleak part of his psyche, it seems, what with VACANT APARTMENT, EMPTY PROMISES, HOLLOW VICTORY and BLANK CARTRIDGES chewing up the available space. I hope he's OK; I know he was soaking up rays in Florida the other day when I tanked on his Saturday puzzle.

I didn't know Mike constructed the easy puzzles, and you'll see all of the usual suspects for a Monday in this one, but still there's a bit of his signature deviousness to be found. "Avis competitor" is an example at 46A - ALAMO is not usually the competitor du jour. The word has been clued 87 times in the past, I see, but in only 13 of those was the context car rental.

I also had a wrong answer (I hate when that happens on Mondays) with his "group watched by Little Bo Peep." Naturally, I placed Sheep confidently into the squares, totally ignoring the implication of the group, and of course the answer is FLOCK.

Speaking of groups, though, I would say GROUPIE is my favorite subversive answer today. I wanted to be one of those for a time in the 60s, but I thought better of it. Probably would have ended badly ...

I have no idea how to put the puzzle in here, but I know Jim will do it later.

[ Answers, and thanks Wendy! — JH ]

Pinball Wizard

The Sunday, May 18 puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley (answers) takes me back to my misspent youth when I spent a lot of time tilting at arcade windmills. Other than crossing a mideast prayer call with a marathoner I'd never heard of, it was as much fun as flipping the silver balls through the special rollovers and off the bumpers for a bonus jackpot.

Speaking of which, there was really a record-setting football player named Flipper? What, his parents wanted a bottlenose dolphin? Man, you'd have to be good with a name like that.

I was very pleased to see Siân Phillips, the deliciously evil Livia in the best television series I've ever seen. Get I, Claudius on DVD. That circumflexed first name indicates her exotic origins. She's Welsh. Don't eat the figs.

"Sure application spot" took me awhile to get, but it's a completely accurate and fair, not to mention funny, clue.

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It's been a blast for me playing around with the new thumbnail feature on XWord Info. I've added a bunch of links in various places so you can see, for example, all the puzzles by one author, all the rebus puzzles, and so on with more to come. I collected a few of the grids that I particularly like for one reason or another and stuck them all on a new page called Grid Art. (Thanks, John Farmer.) I'm sure I'm missing a lot of great ones so if you know of any that ought to be immortalized, please let me know.

I only blog about NYT puzzles here but if you're into the sport you know the NY Sun also has great crosswords and they're often challenging. There's a terrific new blog specifically on these puzzles with a great name; Sun Blocks. Pete Mitchell is the author. Of course Amy also blogs the Sun and many others besides.

Yep, that's it for me today. But don't despair, tomorrow is another day and another guest blogger! Wendy is an occasional commenter here and the Monday puzzle is hers to dissect in public. Since, once again, I know little about her, I have to resort to making stuff up. I know she's from Akron which is sort of unbelievable to me because I had assumed Akron was kind of like Oz; this magical kingdom that doesn't really exist. Perhaps she can clarify. I'll add that she, uh, once sang with a rock band but it broke up over artistic differences, she believes anything anyone ever tells her except that she's gullible, and she has not yet won an Oscar. Have fun, Wendy.

Update: Check out KarmaSartre's lyrical comment below :)

The shape of puzzles

Puzzles are in great shape these days, at least at the Times where there have been several excellent crosswords lately including today's Saturday, May 17 construction by Mike Nothnagel (answers.)

I got off to a great start with another Fiddler on the Roof clue at 1 Across. Then the first long clue was "dreaded victimizer of Charlie Brown" and LUCILLE VAN PELT fit perfectly so I was off and running. In the wrong direction as it turns out.

Will Shortz gets credit for making the tough puzzles less about obscure knowledge and more about, to coin a movie phrase, word play. This crossword is a great example. "Turning point" isn't AXLE, but rather DIME. Then at 50 Across, "Cardinal's wear" stumped me for a long time as I tried to remember what those RED HATS were called. "Four and four, say" isn't a math problem. It's a PAIR, and a poor one at that. I love "prompt delivery" being LINE. Even better was "Intimate" which, it turns out, is a verb, accented on the first syllable with a long A. I could go on and on.

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Speaking of shapes, I want to introduce a new feature on XWord Info — thumbnails. The shape of the puzzle, by which I mean the pattern of black squares, determines not just the word count but also which areas of the puzzle will be particularly challenging to fill. Some constructors shape their puzzles very consistently. Some create beauty out of the shapes alone. I wanted to create a visual representation of how different constructors are drawn to different patterns.

Mr. Nothnagel's puzzles are an olio of shapes. You can see them here. He builds something different every time depending on where his creativity takes him.

Compare those images with Randall J. Hartman. There's an order here and as the puzzles go further back in time you can see him experimenting and perfecting different forms and variations. They even fit together beautifully in places.

Here's a few more. The Peter Gordon list is fun because if you look carefully you can see his happy face puzzle. David Quarfoot employs several tough patterns. The shapes used by Brendan Emmett Quigley are particularly striking. Look at that graceful arcing line on 7/25/2004. If you scroll down the Elizabeth C. Gorski page you can easily spot her double helix DNA puzzle which is still one of my favorites.

 

Update: John Farmer posted a comment with this link to Frank Longo's puzzles and there are indeed some lulus there. Thanks, John. It kind of looks like John Conway's Game of Life if you're enough of a geek to remember that. Mr. Farmer is too shy to mention that he has some lovely grids too.

I've also made the thumbnails look a little better in FireFox. I haven't tried it on a Mac yet but I'm hoping someone will tell me if it's completely busted.

Nanook of the North

I loved this puzzle. The Thursday, May 16 crossword (answers) by Elizabeth C. Gorski hit the right degree of difficulty, had a nice gimmick, and brought back some fond memories. A random stat — Ms. Gorski is one of only six constructors in the Shortz era who has published 20 or more puzzles in one calendar year. She accomplished the feat in 2003. Rich Norris and, of course, Manny Nosowsky hold the record with 24 in a year. Mr. Nosowsky did it twice. In fact, in one seven year stretch he averaged over 20 a year.

Everyone who grew up in Canada at roughly the time I did has seen Nanook of the North. It's considered to be the first ever feature-length documentary film. Somewhat hokey now, but still powerful filmmaking.

Then there's Alison Lurie whom I adore. Her page turner Foreign Affairs is unusual, romantic, and good enough to win the 1985 Pulitzer prize. And finally the central theme song is from a musical I once directed, so that's fun too. All that plus a word ladder at the right degree of difficulty for me adds up to a great combination.

How nice to see DODI Al-Fayed clued as something other than a princess's paramour. I bet he's pleased.

Another short post, I realize. This is a particularly busy week for me. Time to call in support from the guest bloggers...

Polo name

Busy evening so only a short post today but I did like the Wed May 14 puzzle by Doug Peterson (answers) so I didn't want to completely ignore it. Right Tackles got caught in the theme answers. I sometimes find these kinds of themes goofy but this time it appealed to me.

"Dirndl" is a lovely handful of letters. The young lady in the photo is wearing one. My background is in physics and music so I happened to know both PAULI and GLINKA. It's always nice when answers like that are in my back pocket. I have to remember that feeling when I find myself in a puzzle completely outside of my ambit of experience.

PIN UP is a wonderfully archaic word. THANATOS makes his deathly NYT puzzle debut. Cluing WIFE as "the Judy of Punch and Judy" might strike some as insensitive given that she's the victim of constant battery. Not that she doesn't give as good as she gets.

My favorite clue was "Polo name." Again, it takes advantage of the convention that clues all start with a capital letter so there's no tip off that it's a name. The answer is MARCO.

Sorry about that, Chief

What had you accomplished by the time you were 15? My most significant accomplishment was watching Get Smart. I do hope the upcoming film doesn't wreck my childhood memories.

Caleb Madison is 15 and today he gets his first published NYT puzzle (answers). Amy has a fascinating list of youngest published Times constructors. Mr. Madison is #2 on the list. Mike Miller beat him out by 15 months with his 1976 puzzle which is too early to be in my database. Other notables on the list include Tyler Hinman, the current American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion who also first published at age 15, and Merl Reagle who burst onto the scene in 1967 as a 17 year old and hasn't stopped.

I presume Mr. Madison is a film buff. I wonder if he's seen Mary Pickford or Douglas Fairbanks Sr. or even Charlie Chaplin, the three stars who, with a couple of friends, began United Artists. He probably has.

I would not have guessed the puzzle came from a teenager. In fact, with references to an old TV show, a 60s musical, Jules Verne, and some graying (or even decomposing) singers, it seemed to indicate someone closer to my age. It didn't seem like a halting first attempt, either. I know constructors at the Times get outstanding editorial support from the Puzzlemaster but still, this seemed confidently constructed.

So I lift a (non-alcoholic for a few more years, Caleb!) glass and offer congratulations. Keep cranking, Mr. Madison. You only need another 241 to leap ahead of Manny Nosowsky on my list. You're off to a great start.

Head, Heart, Hands, and Health

The Monday, May 12 puzzle (answers) by early-week specialist Randall J. Hartman celebrates The 4H Club, a youth group organized over 100 years ago by the United States Department of Agriculture to benefit rural kids. In today's crossword, it's a framework for including 4 H's in each of the first three theme answers.

Like any self-respecting club, it has a motto:

I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
my heart to greater loyalty,
my hands to larger service
and my health to better living,
for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

I wonder what the crossword community motto would be.

Before I got to the fourth long answer which explained it all, I thought this might be a completely different and perhaps even daring theme. There's an "Anglican body" and a "Jewish high holy day" but WHICH IS WHICH? It turns out that the Great Monday Comparative Religion Puzzle is yet to be written. Work on it folks, ok?

SAPPHIRES is a great word with that double P. The fraud URI Geller gets more free puzzle publicity. MIR soars to new heights - this is its 67th appearance making it by far the most popular Russian word in NYT crosswords. What do you think of "top secret" as a clue for TOUPEE? Mr. Hartman likes it too, having used that exact clue in his previous puzzle less than three months ago. It's worth repeating.

Done with Ease

It took two constructors to stretch out the long E's in the May 11 Sunday puzzle by Tony Orbach and Patrick Blindauer (answers.) This is their third collaboration at the Times. Their previous joint effort was the clever Forward Thinking which didn't get a lot of blog coverage because it came out during the Crossword Tournament but was an excellent puzzle. Today's was more typical, sticking to a vowel substitution scheme of a sort not uncommon on Sundays, but it was still enjoyable.

AMEX was clued as "green card", a clue Mr. Blindauer has used before, but I love it. ARTURO got a non-Toscanini clue, referring this time to Arturo Sandoval. The smiling face belongs to Lauren TEWES. Can you look at that photo without hearing her TV theme song? Yeah, sorry about that. You can only get it out of your head by humming It's a Small World After All but then you can never stop that song from banging around in your head. "The less you see of this person, the better" is a splendid clue for DIETER. Otherwise it felt like standard Sunday crossword fare for me. Nothing wrong with that.