Brit's bumbershoot / SUN 12-18-11 / Newsman Marvin Bernard / Lumber collector in park / March sisters' creator / Springtime calendar hunk

Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Again?" — "A" is added to familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: bumbershoot (17D: Brit's bumbershoot = BROLLY) —

n.
An umbrella.

[Alteration of UMBRELLA + alteration of (PARA)CHUTE.]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/bumbershoot-1#ixzz1gqR4gxWN

• • •

Again? Yes, apparently. Add a letter, wackiness ensues. Adding an "A" is the most minimalist form of this theme that I've ever seen. Alterations are so slight as to be barely perceptible. Most of these are more "mild smile" than "genuine laugh"—only TONY AROMAS is truly amusing, though RUNAWAY MODEL is also decent. This is the kind of puzzle that makes me wonder why constructors get paid $1000 for Sunday puzzles when weekday puzzles fetch just $200. Never, ever, ever has a Sunday puzzle been five times better than your average weekday puzzle (pick a weekday, any weekday). It's not five times as big and certainly doesn't take five times as long to construct (not even close). Also, audience for the puzzle is not much bigger—my traffic is usually highest on Sunday, but not by much, and it's not *five times larger*. Pay scale in the world of NYT puzzles is all screwed up. It's nuts. No idea what the rationale is. I'm not sure there is one. I usually find Sundays among the duller of the week's puzzles, and if the theme doesn't Really sizzle, or if the theme answers aren't exceptionally inventive, then the puzzle just feels long. I mean, relatively long. This one took me 11 minutes.



Theme answers:

• 22A: Dislike of the son of Mary, Queen of Scots? (KING JAMES AVERSION)
• 31A: Catwalk no-show? (RUNAWAY MODEL)
  
• 45A: Soft-spoken prayer ending? (GENTLE AMEN)
• 48A: Build a publishing empire? (AMASS MEDIA)
• 66A: Practical joke used on squirrels? (PEPPER ACORN)
• 87A: What sweaty dancers create at an annual awards show? (TONY AROMAS)
• 90A: Rush to get on the train? (DART ABOARD)
• 103A: Where worms don't last long? (AROUND ROBINS)
• 116A: What black holes swallow to bulk up? (ANABOLIC ASTEROIDS)    

There was some inventive fill and cluing in this puzzle. I enjoyed MR. APRIL (!) (28A: Springtime calendar hunk)—a bit arbitrary (I suppose MR. anymonth is acceptable fill now) but there's a creativity to this answer that, as a sometime constructor, I admire. I like the very contemporary clue on SYRIA (54A: First Arab country to have sanctions imposed on it by the Arab League) and the cryptic clue on BAT BOY (101A: "Lumber" collector in a park). The only real nutso thing in the puzzle was the bumbershoot / BROLLY thing. Rare that I don't know a word in the clue and don't recognize the answer either. DUNED seems a slightly awkward word (awkword?) (105D: Like much of Fire Island's shore). Tripped on 44D: FEMA part: Abbr. (EMER.) when I hastily wrote in AMER. (helps to think about what acronyms actually stand for before just throwing down an answer based on instinct). Geoffrey the Giraffe used to be in ads for TOYS 'R' US, but I haven't seen him in years (72D: Geoffrey the Giraffe's store). Our TOYS 'R' US was badly damaged in the September floods. Not sure if it's recovered or not. Never heard of either of the KALBs referred to in 84D: Newsman Marvin or Bernard. Other than that, not much more to tell.




Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Duplex mail / THU 11-17-11 / Mad manager / Savory turnover from south of border / 40th since 1789 / D-Day refuges for wounded

Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: "LETTER SORTING" (35A: "Stronger title" for this puzzle) — Clues are odd phrases that, when anagrammed, create familiar words/phrases meaning "anagrammed"

• 17A: Roof detour => OUT OF ORDER
• 26A: Duplex mail => ALL MIXED UP
• 49A: Rear garden => REARRANGED
• 57A: Mad manager => ANAGRAMMED

Word of the Day: Gamal ABDEL Nassar (7D: Egypt's Gamal ___ Nassar) —

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of modernization, and socialist reform in Egypt together with a profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism, including a short-lived union with Syria. // Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in both modern Arab history and politics in the 20th century. Under his leadership, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company and came to play a central role in anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab World and Africa. The imposed ending to the Suez Crisis made him a hero throughout the Arab world. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the international Non-Aligned Movement. He is well known for his nationalist policies and version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, which won a great following in the Arab World during the 1950s and 1960s. Although his status as "leader of the Arabs" was badly damaged by the Israeli victory over the Arab armies in the Six-Day War, as well as Egypt's failure to win the subsequent War of Attrition against Israel, many in the general Arab population still view Nasser as a symbol of Arab dignity and freedom. (wikipedia)

• • •

An interesting theme that had me baffled for quite a long time. When I don't pick up a theme til the bottom half of the grid, that means trouble. Wasn't until I got most of REARRANGED that I realized what was happening. I thought the cluing in general was a notch harder than usual, so crosses weren't abundant enough for me to pick the theme up earlier. Also, the theme revealer is a super-lame non-phrase. All the theme answers are perfect, and then there's this horrid, ungainly, "LETTER SORTING" right smack dab in the middle of things. Was that to ensure that the word "title" could be found in there? Ugh. Once I discovered the theme, I zipped through the puzzle *except* for one stupid, inexcusable, I'm-an-idiot mistake that cost me a huge amount of time. Not a mistake, really, but an eye skip / misread. I had USE IN at 33A: "___ in good health" and didn't question it for a second. Wrote it in early and thought nothing of it. But in the end I could not *$&%ing figure out what 34D: Certain cut-off point (TIME LIMIT) was. I thought my error was at "EMILY" (41A: "See ___ Play," classic Pink Floyd song) ("classic" song? Never heard of it). I was even second-guessing NIBS. NUBS? NEBS? It's NIBS, right? Aargh. Had NIME LIMIT and even checked all the crosses in NIME at least once (which means my brain blocked that "in" in the clue multiple times!!!?). Finally read clues more deliberately and noticed my stupid stupid reading mistake and changed USE IN to USE IT. Stupid, horrible partial, but stupider solving error on my part. All in all, this seems a solid enough puzzle, even though I didn't find it that enjoyable.



ABDEL???? With an "E"? Ugh. Parrots say "AWK" now???? (23D: Parrot's cry) What the hell? I wrote in BOELYN. It felt so right. It still looks righter to me than BOLEYN (53A: House of Tudor woman). I really hate the word "appurtenance," in that it's unnecessarily long and pretentiously Latinate. Equipment. Gear. This is what you mean here (4D: Painter's appurtenance => DROP CLOTH). EMPANADA was my first breakthrough word (36D: Savory turnover from south of the border)—first 6+-letter word I managed to get into the grid successfully. REAGAN was another important get (47D: The 40th since 1789). Those two answers helped me get into the theme (finally), and then build the rest of the grid from the bottom up.



Bullets:

• 25D: Magazine that serialized Simone de Beauvoir's 1967 "La femme rompue" (ELLE) — four letters, something French, ELLE. One of the easier clues in the puzzle. 
• 20A: Tea-grading term (PEKOE) — Thought PEKOE was a type of tea. Didn't know "grading" was involved. Apparently PEKOE is " A grade of black tea consisting of the leaves around the buds." (answers.com)
• 24D: Yachting need (SAIL) — There aren't motorized yachts? 
• 52A: D-Day refuges for the wounded, for short (LSTS) — learned this term from xwords, but had no idea these craft were "refuges for the wounded." 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Swedish liquor with memorable ads / MON 9-5-11 / First part of ski run / Chicago columnist Kupcinet / Trumpets saliva draining key / Fat chance laddie

Constructor: Patrick Merrell



Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Monday*)





THEME: TVS (63D: Appliances hidden in seven answers in this puzzle)— Six two-word phrases with "TV" embedded in them ... plus ATV (13D: Off-road transport, briefly), which ruins everything by not following this two-word pattern; thus, I refuse to acknowledge that ATV is part of the theme. Thus, I still really like the puzzle.



Word of the Day: IN-RUN (24A: First part of a ski jump) —

The ski jump is divided into four separate sections; 1) In-run, 2) Take-off (jump), 3) Flight and 4) Landing. In each part the athlete is required to pay attention to and practice a particular technique in order to maximise the outcome of ultimate length and style marks. (wikipedia)

• • •

I really like this grid. Lots of zing, not a lot of junk. This is a good example of how a simple, common theme concept (the embedded letter string) can yield wonderful results. The fact that "V" is one of the embedded letters does wonders for the grid's overall complexion—I love a theme that adds color to rather than sucks color from the grid. All theme phrases are lively and interesting — an ideal everyone should strive for. If you have a neat idea for a theme but can only come up with dull (or forced) phrases to execute it, maybe don't do it ... or put it away til you can think of better answers. Given that the embedded letter string is only two letters long, puzzle could sneak in a couple Down theme answers without straining the grid too much. Six good, long "V"-containing phrases = thumbs up.







Theme answers:

• 20A: Charleston is its capital (WEST VIRGINIA)
  
  
• 31A: Trumpet's saliva-draining key (SPIT VALVE)
  
  
• 48A: Not a unanimous ruling (SPLIT VOTE)
  
  
• 60A: Swedish liquor with memorable ads (ABSOLUT VODKA)
  
  
• 5D: Venomous snake (PIT VIPER)
  
  
• 42D: Permit for leaving a country (EXIT VISA)
  
  

Did this is 3:14 (on the NYT applet—not my favorite solving interface, but I like to mix it up now and then). That's a bit slower than my avg. Monday time, but only a bit. Several little stumbles held me back. IRA instead of IRV was the first (22D: Chicago columnist Kupcinet). RHINE for RHEIN was the next (and in the same section!) (25A: Longest river in Deutschland). Note that the German "Deutschland" is what is supposed to cue you to use the German spelling of RHINE, i.e. "RHEIN." Wrote in HADST for DIDST (56A: Biblical word with "thou"). IN-RUN was, to me, the most obscure thing in the grid by a country mile, though I'm sure I've heard it. Every four years or so.





I blanked on I SPY at first (38D: Look-for-it children's game), and hesitated at SKAT ("isn't the singing spelled differently from the card game?...") (4D: 32-card game). But other than that, no real problems. MERV (19A: Griffin who created "Wheel of Fortune") and MARV (34D: Sportscaster Albert) are interesting gridmates. Clue on YODA is very cute (10A: Talks like this in "Star Wars" films he does).



Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

City known as Salisbury until 1982 / FRI 3-18-11 / Carpaccio base / Pretty ballerina in Abba song / Jules Verne harpooner Land

Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none


Word of the Day: HEC Crighton (30D: ___ Crighton Trophy (Canada's Heisman-like award)) —

The Hec Crighton Trophy was presented to the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union in 1967 by the board of directors of the Canadian College Bowl, to be awarded annually to the athlete deemed to be the most outstanding university football player in Canada. The trophy is named after the late Hec Crighton, who was a coach, referee and teacher, and author of the CIAU Rule Book and the Official Football Rule Book. The first recipient of the Hec Crighton Trophy in Canada's Centennial Year of 1967 was Mike Eben of the University of Toronto. Like Eben, most winners have gone on to professional careers in the Canadian Football League. The 1987 winner was Jordan Gagner of the UBC Thunderbirds. St Mary's Huskies quarterback Chris Flynn became the first player to win the award 3 times (1988-90). Two-time recipients in the 1990s were the University of Western Ontario's Tim Tindale (1991, 1994) and Eric Lapointe of the Mount Allison Mounties (1996, 1998). (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

• • •

A bit out of my wheelhouse much of the time, but a fine puzzle overall, I think. I especially admire SLOW NEWS DAY (6D: When there's nothing doing) and HIGH AS A KITE (24D: Wasted) — always good to go for fresh, original material in your themelesses, I think. Screw low word counts—give me a lively, well-filled, interesting grid over a stunt grid any day of the week (well, especially Friday and Saturday). Weirdly uneven solving experience today, as I destroyed the NW corner in a matter of seconds only to peter out completely in the middle. Then GENII (48D: Guardian spirits) gave me the entire SE corner pretty quickly, and I sort of hacked my way slowly through the W and SW, ending up in the central NE (which was the toughest part of the grid for me by far). The "L" in LEERS AT / BALE was the last letter in. I couldn't see how a BALE was a [Farm delivery] (wanted FOAL or CALF) and the "Surveys" in the LEERS AT clue was a total curve ball (18A: Surveys, usually with negative responses). Thought it was a noun. Then thought it was a verb relating to the asking of questions. Bah. I think the lynchpin up in that areas was HEC (not great to have such a terrible piece of fill be such a crux, but oh well). *If* that had been remotely gettable, I would finished much sooner ("C" and "H" would have been valuable, answer-revealing letters). But no. Though BELIED was DENIED, though CHARIOT was ... uh, CHORIST? (38A: Part of an ancient procession) Is that a thing? Couldn't see how PIE was an [Organizational figure], and don't know TOE-IN as [Wheel alignment]. So, yeah, that whole big white area was rough. If only I could have come up with KEELHAULS sooner (29A: Severely rebukes), but the damned "H" was hidden, and the "K" took me forever—KOREAN is [Ethnic cuisine]? I mean, yes, it is. But clue may as well have been [Random ethnicity]. Boo to clue. But I'm basically at the stage where I'm getting annoyed at any clue that makes me work for more than a few seconds—I'm heading to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) tomorrow, and I'm in fighting mode. Any answer I can't knock to the floor instantly only *$&%es me off.



Apparently I don't know what "carpaccio" is, as RAW FISH came into view while I furrowed my brow and silently said "huh" to myself (1A: Carpaccio base, maybe). I think I thought it was something to do with mozzarella and basil and tomato. Or maybe some kind of deli meat. Turns out carpaccio is raw meat / fish pounded flat and served as appetizer. Didn't like FLANS as a plural and especially didn't like the CREME tie-in. CREME is an Oreo word. Never seen it anywhere near a FLAN (or a flock of FLANS, for that matter) (4D: 23-Down caramel desserts) [wait: I know "crème caramel'=FLAN in French, but if that's the way "CREME" is being used here, then "desserts" seems redundant. Like [Gateaux desserts] for "CAKES"]. Loved the clue on HARARE (7D: City known as Salisbury until 1982), but mainly just loved that I had heard of HARARE before—only city I could think of that started HAR- in six letters. Heard of NED Land (47A: Jules Verne harpooner ___ Land), but never heard of NINA the ballerina. Heard of Fernando ... and Chiquitita ... but NINA? Looks like "NINA, Pretty Ballerina"'s great claim to fame is that it "reached #8 on the singles chart in Austria" (wikipedia). That's some serious pop cred right there. I guess the puzzle needed an answer that would make GINO Vennelli look well and truly famous (48A: Singer Vannelli of 1970s-'80s pop).



Bullets:

• 16A: He succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1989 (AKIHITO) — the current Emperor. Dismal times for Japan right now.
  
• 25A: Ulysses S. Grant was its eighth pres. (NRA) — figured it probably wasn't CSA, and this seemed the most natural option.
  
• 28A: State sch. in Kingston (URI) — So ... not Jamaica?
  
• 52A: Standard with the lyric "Ain't these tears in my eyes tellin' you?" ("AM I BLUE?") — I learned this song from a TV ad in the 70s/80s, but which one I cannot remember. It's kind of killing me right now, actually.

• 59A: Beady-eyed and sneaky (RAT-LIKE) — seems right.
  
• 26D: Home to more than 5 1/2 million Arabs (BAGHDAD, IRAQ) — this is how I ended up changing DENIED to BELIED—solving this answer from the bottom up.
  
• 53D: La ___ (Hollywood nickname) (LIZ) — I've also seen this moniker applied to crossword constructing legend LIZ Gorski. Like the little pair of Old Hollywood answers down here (LIZ next to a Marilyn-strummed UKE) (54D: Marilyn Monroe played one in "Some Like It Hot").
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I have somehow not made any arrangements to have someone cover blogging for me the next couple of days (I'll be in Brooklyn, as I indicated above), so ... whatever you get will be a surprise, to me as well as you.

P.P.S. I have today's Wall Street Journal puzzle ... ooh, look, it's already up. Download a .pdf version here.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Two-handled vase / WED 12-29-10 / Card game Spanish origin / Cook Island carving / Evergreen with edible nuts / Syrian presidential family

Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: TILDE (58D: Mark used four times in this puzzle's solution) — three theme answers contain a total of four Ñs (which work in the crosses as well)


Word of the Day: OMBRE (36A: Card game of Spanish origin) —

Ombre, English corruption of the Spanish word Hombre, arising from the muting of the H in Spanish, is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game with an illustrious history which began in Spain around the end of the 16th Century as a four person game. It is one of the earliest card games known in Europe and by far the most classic game of its type, directly ancestral to Euchre, Boston and Solo Whist. Despite its difficult rules, complicated point score and strange foreign terms, it swept Europe in the last quarter of the 17th century, becoming Lomber in Germany, Lumbur in Austria and Ombre in England, occupying a position of prestige similar to Bridge today. (wikipedia)

• • •

Don't remember why this took me longer than usual, but it did. Oh wait, now I remember. I don't know who PABLO is (1D: "Tortilla Flat" character), I had Big TEN instead of Big BEN (17A: Big ___), and I still haven't gotten around to accepting ONE-EAR as a thing (23A: Like telemarketing headsets). That's probably the majority of the above-average difficulty right there. I like the basic idea behind this puzzle—it deals with a phenomenon that people gripe about from time to time: a "Ñ" crossing an "N" in the grid, as if they were the same letter. In fact, I'm pretty sure people have wondered out loud in my comments section if anyone had ever tried to construct a puzzle where "Ñ"s crossed other "Ñ"s. Well, now we can definitively answer that question. I'm not sure how much better off we are for it, but there it is. As I said, I like the idea, but there's nowhere much for it to go in a 15x15 execution. Just doesn't feel like much of a theme, and MAÑANA, SEÑOR is a forced answer if ever there was one. It's a phrase someone might say, but so is "MOM, I'M HUNGRY," and I doubt that's puzzle-worthy. Rest of the grid is just fine, I think. The value-added stuff—like ANGLO (43A: Barrio outsider) and OMBRE (36A: Card game of Spanish origin) and AMIGOS (59A: Baja buddies) and (apparently) DAHLIA (22A: Mexican bloom) add a bit of Latin flavor... Oh, so *that*'s what PABLO is doing up there. Providing some kind of tenuous rotationally symmetrical support for TILDE. Innnnteresting.



The TILDEs:

• 18A: Margarita alternatives (PIÑA COLADAS) / 6D: One of a 15th-century trio (NIÑA)
  
• 40A: Salsa verde ingredient (JALAPEÑO PEPPERS) / 28D: It requires one who's blind with a bat (PIÑATA)
  
• 63A: Procrastinating words south of the border (MAÑANA, SEÑOR)
  / 52D: Evergreen with edible nuts (PIÑON) + 62D: Yucatán years (AÑOS)

Had several missteps throughout the grid. OH, YES for AH, YES (57D: "But of course") hurt because I couldn't see THREAT for the life of me (55A: Reason for evacuation). Clue on THIRDS was devilish, in that I assumed the hungry person was needy, not just ravished (49D: Helping for the very hungry, maybe). I thought the Obamas were maybe having ceremonies on the EAST LAWN, but no—they're in the EAST ROOM (42D: White House ceremony site). So far, it seems the S/SE was as bad as the NW for me. Yes, there was also the matter of DONATE for DO GOOD (67A: Be altruistic). One stray puzzler—what the hell is "The Gift" (39D: Gift in "The Gift"=>ESP). I wanted "FOB" or "TRESS," but clearly I was thinking of the wrong story (story?). Uh, nope ... "The Gift" is some 10-yr-old Sam Raimi film I've never heard of.

Bullets:

• 10A: Noise in a comic book gun fight (BLAM!) — I read comics regularly, including ones with gun fights, and I had nothing here. Then I had BANG! Then I had BOOM! :(
  
• 29A: Screen role for Skippy the dog (ASTA) — is "the dog" his last name?
  
• 68A: Mustachioed "Simpsons" character (NED) — Hens love roosters, geese love ganders ...

• 21D: Virgins of ancient Rome (VESTALS) — I've heard them called "Vestal Virgins" (mostly in "Whiter Shade of Pale"), but not just VESTALS. Interesting fact—the school where I teach is technically located in VESTAL, NY.
  
• 30D: Two-handled vase (AMPHORA) — what's an AMPHERE? 'Cause I had AMPHERE. I think it's some kind of electrified AMPHORA. Or what a really drunk guy calls an "Amphitheater." Or a pan floutist...

• 47D: Syrian presidential family (ASSADS) — it's a very crossword-friendly name for some reason.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]