Locale of St. Catherine's Monastery / SUN 1-29-12 / River to Korea Bay / Sheiks garments / Simpsons character with platform shoes / George nicknamed Mr Basketball / Mythical figure blinded by Oenopion / Leucippus Deocritus philosophically / Gold rush town of 1899

Constructor: Ian Livengood

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "Networking Event" — familiar phrases wherein the first word is also a TV network; "?"-clues imagine that the phrases are network-related

Word of the Day: HONE (101A: You might rub a knife across it) —

n.

1. A fine-grained whetstone for giving a keen edge to a cutting tool.
2. A tool with a rotating abrasive tip for enlarging holes to precise dimensions.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/hone#ixzz1knqNc9m9

• • •

Found the cluing on this oddly hard. Clues were *just* out of my familiarity zone. I've never used [Savvies] or GROKS, for instance. I've been entranced, but never HEXED. I know HONE as a verb, but not a noun. I know ALBS, but not ABAS (64D: Sheiks' garments). I have no idea what trio a LAMPPOST could possibly be part of (79D: One of a secretive trio). I didn't not know ION was a TV network *or* that ION EXCHANGE was a thing. I did not know that beads of any kind came from CORALS. I spelled PAYTON thusly. Etc. I actually had an error up top because the clue for SINAI was utterly meaningless to me, devoid of anything SINAI-ish at all, and so when I ended up with SENAI (because of BEER instead of BIER at 5D: Drink served with Brezeln), I didn't even question it (18A: Locale of St. Catherine's Monastery, said to be the world's oldest working monastery). If the clue is fantastically esoteric, it must be because it's trying to justify the importance of some strange geographic location I've never heard of, I reasoned. Quality-wise, everything in this puzzle seems just fine. 

Theme answers:

• 22A: Fancy footwear at a TV station? (SPIKE HEELS)
• 24A: Advertising department at a TV station? (E-MARKETING)
• 36A: Slide show at a TV station? (ENCORE PRESENTATION)
• 56A: Q&A at a TV station? (ION EXCHANGE)
• 72A: Expert at a TV station? (HISTORY BUFF) — this one doesn't repurpose HISTORY very well (or at all)
  
• 86A: Enrollment at a TV station? (LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP)
• 104A: Recruiters at a TV station? (FOX HUNTERS) — nothing about this said "FOX" to me. These days, with shows like "House Hunters," seemed like any three-letter word could've come before "HUNTERS"
  
• 106A: Fish holder at a TV station? (OXYGEN TANK)   

Bullets:

• 5A: Cowboys' home, familiarly (BIG D) — I remember the first time I saw this in a puzzle, mainly because it Naticked me (thought I was dealing with one word, and the cross was ... something, clearly)
• 27A: ___ Levy, four-time Super Bowl coach for Buffalo (MARV) — I hear the fifth time's the charm...
• 35A: Classic toy company whose name is its founder's middle name (LIONEL) — Toy trains. Does anyone under 40 still "play" with those? Reverend Lovejoy of "The Simpsons" is a model train enthusiast. No idea if the same can be said for DISCO STU (8D: "The Simpsons" character with platform shoes)

• 50A: River to Korea Bay (YALU) — a river I know mainly from constructing. It's a lifeline I generally refuse to use (unless there's no alternative, obviously—so far that hasn't been an issue).
• 82A: George nicknamed Mr. Basketball (MIKAN) — I wanted MIKUS. I think that's the last name of some of my parents' friends. Somebody and Connie? Where is this info coming from?
• 103A: Country singer David Allan ___, writer of "Take This Job and Shove It" (COE) — parents were big POE fans, I'm guessing.
• 109A: It's picked in the Pacific (UKE) — I took "in the Pacific" literally. 
• 10D: Gold rush town of 1899 (NOME) — Gold, four letters, this is it.
• 14D: Mythical figure blinded by Oenopion (ORION) — their names are disturbingly similar. I did not know ORION was "blinded." My daughter would likely laugh at my ignorance (so don't tell her, for god's sake; she's stroppy enough as it is). 

• 49D: Leucippus and Democritus, philosophically (ATOMISTS) — "The atomists theorized that the natural world consists of two fundamental parts: indivisible atoms and empty void." (wikipedia). ADAMISTS, on the other hand, are nudists. There's an interesting Venn diagram waiting to happen.
• 88D: Half of a title role for John Barrymore or Spencer Tracy (MR. HYDE) — took a lot of doing. You never know what "half" is going to mean in a clue like this. MATA could be half a title role, for instance. I mean, not here, obviously, but, well, you get my point. Or you don't.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

PS Only a few weeks left to enter Patrick Blindauer's latest interconnected crossword contest, and this time it has a musical theme. Pay $9.95 via PayPal on Patrick's website and you'll get access to a PDF of crosswords; each puzzle has a final answer and those answers combine to form a meta-answer which can be sent in (before Feb. 16) for the chance to win a prize (swag includes gift cards and puzzle books). Sign up now so you have time to solve and enter!

Though broken my heart still beats, it will not stop.

My heart still beats - Maria Mena.

       Remember all things are possible      

       for those who believe       

      Du changement sur mon Tumblr ; un tout nouveau design qui me plaît beaucoup ! J'y poste régulièrement, beaucoup d'images qui m'inspirent, me font ressentir une émotion ou tout simplement que je trouve jolies. Allez y faire un tour :D. 

       Some changes on my Tumblr ; a very new design that I really like ! I post regularly, lots of pictures that inspire me, make me feel something or that I simply find beautiful. Check it out :D.

MY TUMBLR (clic)

La crème Argentine

Aujourd'hui, j'ai envie de vous exposer les coups de coeur / créateurs que j'ai eu lors de mon trip express à Buenos Aires, en Argentine.

J'ai pu voir leurs boutiques dans le quartier de Palermo Soho, pour moi, le plus beau coin de la ville.

Et si d'ailleurs il porte ce nom, c'est en référence aux Soho de New-York et Londres auxquels il ressemble fortement.

J'ai tenté tant bien que mal de trouver des images représentatives de ce que j'ai pu voir. Naturellement, entre m'introduire dans un shop, visualer et toucher les vêtements et faire cette même balade virtuellement, il y a un Monde...

Voici dont un pressentiment de ces quelques noms, que j'espère, vous aurez l'opportunité de constater "en vrai" !

Maria Cher

Ay Not Dead

Kostüme

King Hussein Airport locale / SAT 1-28-12 / Silverwing flier / Aretha's Grammy-nominated sister / Incredibles family name / Sheila's welcome

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SAND BARREL (56A: Many a crash cushion at a construction zone) —

[can't find a definition—[define "sand barrel"] yields very few hits. Looks like barrels filled with sand ??? never seen the term before]

• • •

Solve from NW to SE, and this is one puzzle (easy); solve it along the other diagonal, and it's something else (hard). Those NE and SW corners were light years harder than the other corners. Not sure why that should be, but that's how it worked out. This was a typical Barry Silk puzzle—solid but unflashy grid with clues designed to be as tough at every turn. Very few flat-out gimmes (mine were MEAL PLAN, BAG, RED, G'DAY (17A: Sheila's welcome), PEAR, and INDIE). Several places where I had all but one letter of an answer and still had no idea (first letter of -ICS for 27D: P.R. releases ... and my final letter, the "W" in BREW and BLEW, which I had to run the alphabet to get) (9D: Java, for one + 21A: Messed up). NE was hard mostly because all the shorter crosses for those 10-letter answers were fantastically vague. The one I was sure I had correct ended up being wrong (I had STOATS; answer was STOLES—14D: Some ermines). In the opposite corner, same problem. PARR and ERMA side by side? That's very rough play. (53D: "The Incredibles" family name + Aretha's Grammy-nominated sister)



Wrong answers: STOATS for STOLES, SHAD for HAKE (8D: Cod relative), ENL for LTR, ETON (?) for ELON (63A: School in the Piedmont region). I think that's it. Never heard of SAND BARREL or ROAD GRADER (62A: Civil engineering vehicle), which tells you how much time I've spent on construction sites. I don't think "'02" is enough of a signal that 5D: One of the subjects of the best-selling '02 books "The Conquerors" is an abbr. (HST). Also having trouble accepting the phrase NO TAIL as a "trait" (13D: Manx trait). It's not there, so it's not a trait—the "NO" part is what's bugging me. RED HAIR or GREEN EYES or adj. / noun of any kind, I'd buy as a "trait." I thought "coulee" was a racist term for a Chinese man ... but I was thinking "coolie" (see here). How is OMAN the toe of a boot? Italy is a boot. I have never, ever, ever heard the Arabian peninsula referred to as a "boot." Booooooooooo ... t.

Bullets:

• 1A: Concern for a dermatologist (LUMP) — this is what we call a "F&ck You" clue, in that it takes this form *only* to trick you into writing in a wrong answer, in this case ACNE. Maybe we should call it an asshole clue, but "F&ck You" clue just has too much poetry on its side.
• 22A: Roster curtailer: Abbr. (ET AL) — inventive, if weird, cluing
• 39A: Signs near a teller's window, maybe (ENDORSES) — there should be a term for this–where clue is written to suggest a word is one part of speech (here a noun) when it's really another (here, a verb)
• 47A: Silverwing flier (CESSNA) — I know nothing about planes, but I had the "C" and I also know that CESSNA is a reasonably grid-friendly plane.
• 24D: Her help was solicited in a hit (RHONDA) — I guess this was pretty close to a gimme too.  

• 38D: Universidad de las Américas site (SANTIAGO) — pfft, no idea. But I had the -GO, which was enough.
• 40D: "Children of the Albatross" novelist (NIN) — she's a crossword double threat. First and last names, very useful. 
• 51D: Daughter of Zeus and Themis (IRENE) — guessed off the "I"; seemed reasonable, though the possibility of IRENA crossed my mind. Then I decided that sounded more like a Russian tennis player than a mythological character.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Mosel tributary / FRI 1-27-12 / Scrooge star 1951 / Henry James biographer / Wailuku's county / French expert in body language

Constructor: Joe Krozel

Relative difficulty: EEEEEasy

THEME: BOX (36A: Enclosure ... and an alphabetical listing of letters not appearing elsewhere in this puzzle's answer) — BOX appears free-floating, in the middle of the grid, inside a BOX made of black squares

Word of the Day: TALIA Shire (37A: Sylvester's "Rocky" co-star) —

Talia Shire (born April 25, 1946) is an American actress most known for her roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Pennino in the Rocky series. // Shire was born Talia Rose Coppola in Lake Success, New York, the daughter of Italia (née Pennino) and arranger/composer Carmine Coppola. Talia is the sister of director and producer Francis Ford Coppola and academic August Coppola, the aunt of actor Nicolas Cage and director Sofia Coppola, and the niece of composer and conductor Anton Coppola. She was married to composer David Shire, with whom she had a son, Matthew Orlando Shire. She has two other sons, actors/musicians Robert Schwartzman and Jason Schwartzman, from her second marriage to the late producer Jack Schwartzman.(wikipedia)

• • •

Yesterday we had a Wed. trying to be a Thur., today a Thur. trying to be a Fri. (while being as easy as a Wed.—full circle!). Freakishly easy, and interesting only at the architectural level. I want to fail it as a crossword, given that nothing "crosses" BOX, but you need (or can use) info outside the BOX to solve BOX, so ... good enough, I guess. Maybe "think outside the box" was the impetus of the phrase, since you (sort of) have to (literally) do that to solve the puzzle. At any rate, aside from the arrangement of the black squares, it's a dull and easy puzzle that suffers from the problems every pangram suffers from—most notably, a general all-over junkiness of fill that seems patently unnecessary. I mean, look at that eastern section. Ghastly. Inexplicable ... until you realize: W's gotta go somewhere (I don't know *what* the SW's excuse is. You already got your Q up top... In fact Z, Q, J, and K are all dispatched in exactly two Acrosses up top). Anyway, the fact that TALIA is the Word of the Day tells you nothing interesting is happening inside the grid. You got a box. A little picture. There you go.





[Yes, that *is* Tilda Swinton] 
Started with EMMAS and never stopped (1A: Actress Stone and others). What was the logic behind making the cluing so easy? The only place I hesitated at all was the far SE, and then only because there were a pair of self-referential clues down there and I didn't know that ALDA was the host of PBS's "Scientific American Frontiers." AMPS also froze me out (even with -MPS in place) (55D: Concert pieces). But I finished this thing in under 5. Except for that one ridiculously fluky Friday where I finished under 4, this was almost certainly my fastest Friday ever. EDEL (63A: Henry James biographer) and SIM (5D: "Scrooge" star, 1951) are mildly obscure to ordinary folk, but to longtime solvers they're as ordinary as houseflies. MARCEAU is an interesting name and close to the most interesting thing in the grid (23A: French expert in body language?). Actually, I think JUST MY LUCK is my favorite answer (21A: "Figures I'd have this problem!"). Bouncy, colloquial, fresh—everything the rest of the grid is not.


Bullets:

• 56A: Baseball All-Star Kinsler and others (IANS) — an attempt to toughen up the puzzle a bit, I gather. I watch a lot of baseball, so this was a gimme. Also, two plural names in the same (easy) grid? (see also EMMAS) Not great form.
• 57A: "1984" shelfmate ("ANIMAL FARM") — interesting clue, but far, far too easy. Now if the answer had been "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" (my shelf holds allegories...), that would've been a surprise.
• 34D: Mosel tributary (SAAR) — one of your lesser-used 4-letter European xword rivers.
• 51D: The Charleses' pet (ASTA) — to the NYT's credit, this dog is not nearly as common as he once was. But when you stick him in a corner like that SW corner, well, it's like he's at a group meeting for his 12-step "recovering crosswordese" program. O man, I didn't even see AGRA until just now. Quaint euphemism! It's old-timers' day at the crossword.
• 2D: Wailuku's county (MAUI) — you don't say ... hey, has "YOU DON'T SAY" ever been an answer? 'Cause I think it'd be a good one. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Dernièrement...

Aujourd'hui, petit bilan de mes dernières emplettes effectuées !
Deux pulls, une paire de chaussures, deux bracelets et un sac...


On commence avec un Cardigan, Urban Outfitters , méga soldé.

Un pull court, avec un joli col, toujours chez Les Envahisseurs !

Ce pendentif / Bracelet "Jam" de Ani Attias, en vente chez L'Eclaireur.
Il s'agit du buste du buste d'une femme que la créatrice a appelé Jamila. Le prénom de ma mère.

Parce-que c'est devenu un rituel, à chaque saison, je m'empresse de porter un bracelet Coralie De Seynes.

Comme je vous l'avais dit, depuis quelques mois, je me déplace en Solex.
Très pratique, mis à part le port du sac à main.

Du coup, j'ai craqué sur ce sac, Alice de Kary.

Tellement pratique (et soldé, lui aussi !)

Ps : je me suis amusée à passer en revue quelques looks stalkés pendant cette Fashion Week.
On se moque -très gentiment- sur le blog de Vitaminwater, juste ici !

W.W. II Pacific battle site / THU 1-26-12 / Moore who wrote Gate at the Stairs / Horseshoe-shaped lab item / 1980s sitcom filmed with puppet

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ST- — common phrases have "ST-" added to beginning of one of the words in said phrases, creating wackiness

Word of the Day: TRUK (39D: W.W. II Pacific battle site) —

Operation Hailstone (known in Japan as Japanese: トラック島空襲 Torakku-tō Kūshū, lit. "the airstrike on Truk Island") was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 17–18, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory. (wikipedia)

• • •

What the TRUK?!

This was a Wednesday dressed up as a Thursday (i.e. with fairly difficulty cluing throughout). The theme concept is not really Thursday-worthy—just a pretty loose add-a-letter (OK, two letters). No rhyme or reason to the add-ons. It's a theme that could be replicated over and over and over again, ad infinitum. I'd be shocked if it hadn't been done several times before. At least the ST-s could've been added to, say, all R-words (you're 3/5 there! STRAP MUSIC ... STRIPE FRUIT ... STRING FINGER ... come on!). JACK THE STRIPPER is mildly cute; the rest, shrug. And the fill. Pretty lousy. I cannot believe that that TRUK / UTUBE fiasco was unavoidable (44A: Horseshoe-shaped lab item). The grid parameters just aren't that challenging. The whole thing smacks of laziness, esp. at the fill level. Then you've got the AGASP / AROAR crossing (abarf) and then junky stuff all over the place. Not the NYT puzzle's finest hour, by any stretch.


Theme answers:

• 17A: Private quarters in a stable? (STALL FOR ONE)
• 23A: Dallas tourists, perhaps? (TEXAS STRANGERS)
• 37A: Name for a bachelorette party performer? (JACK THE STRIPPER)
• 49A: Vacation spot for some who stop working? (STRIKERS ISLAND)
• 60A: Not saluting for quite some time? (STILL AT EASE)
  

Bullets:

• 15A: Moore who wrote "A Gate at the Stairs" (LORRIE) — ambivalence ... she is crossworthy, for sure, but she is only here (or in any puzzle) because of her friendly letters, and I don't like seeing her except where she's propping up something Very nice (in an otherwise very-difficult-to-fill section). LORRIE / ARRET is (yet) another inglorious crossing (7D: Stop over in Paris?). 
• 41A: Announcement that comes from an envelope (OSCAR) — timely, as the nominations just came out. I've seen practically nothing. "Bridesmaids." I saw that. I am familiar with every film and its cast because I make it my business to keep up with this stuff—important for solvers as well as constructors. I tear through my "Entertainment Weekly" as soon as I get it and write down all the interesting-looking names that I didn't previously know.VIOLA Davis, for instance, or Berenice BEJO.
• 5D: 1980s sitcom filmed with a puppet ("ALF") — he ate cats. My sister looked like sister on that show. My best friend in college liked (likes?) this show. I've never seen an episode all the way through. I associate ALF with MR. T. I don't know why.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld