Henry II player Becket / SUN 4-3-11 / Polo locale / Sleigh Ride composer Anderson / 1966 best seller set Hong Kong / Biracial Latin American

Constructors: Oliver Hill and Eliza Bagg

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: "Triple Bonds" — Three words strung together, (1)(2)(3), where (1)(2) form a familiar phrase, (2)(3) form a familiar phrase, and (1)(3) form a familiar phrase.

Word of the Day: LANGLAUF (5D: Cross-country skiing) —

n.

1. The sport of cross-country skiing.
2. A cross-country ski run or race.

[German : lang, long (from Middle High German , from Old High German) + Lauf, race (from Middle High German louf , from Old High German hlouf).]

• • •

A not-very-interesting theme with some (occasionally) very interesting fill. Theme answers were remarkably easy to pick up—the "triple bond" quality mean that you could extrapolate the whole string from just a few letters in one word sometimes. Three words together don't form funny phrases; they form nonsense phrases, which is not that entertaining, really. I liked that the puzzle took what seemed like a lot of risks with non-theme fill. Sometimes that risk resulted in something freakish and alien like LAUNGLAUF (I actually stopped the timer when I finished filling in that word so I could look it up, so preposterous did it look); other times that risk had spicy results, like JAZZY (71D: Stimulating) crossing SZECHWAN (90A: Style of chicken) or MESTIZO AVIATOR (122A: Biracial Latin American + 118A: ___ sunglasses) or ENDEMIC BON JOVI (25A: Indigenous + 21A: "Livin' on a Prayer" band). There must have been some sense among test-solvers that the puzzle was quite easy, because there are more "huh?" clues than usual today. Was clueless about UTICA (though that was ultimately inferrable, 32A: Ancient city NW of Carthage), CATHAY ("ohhhhh, *Marco* Polo...") (25D: Polo locale), whoever this RYAN is (53D: Cornelius who wrote "A Bridge Too Far"), and COPYREAD, a word that does not feel familiar to me at all (91D: Check, as text). Other familiar answers, like CONDOR (54D: Creature worshiped by the Incas) and O'TOOLE (1A: Henry II player in "Becket"), got pretty tough clues. Toughening act worked—puzzle ended up falling in a fairly normal Sunday time.



Theme answers:

• 23A: Chinese restaurant offering / Wonderland affair / Group on the left? (GREEN TEA PARTY)
  
• 27A: Baltimore specialty / Effortless task / Move on all fours with the belly up (CRAB CAKE WALK)
  
• 43A: Plunging / Play hooky / Vulgar (LOW CUT CLASS)
  
• 52A: Northern flier / Mixer maker / Put on the line (AIR CANADA DRY)
  
• 67A: Yellowish brown / Bit of "dumb" humor / Many a forwarded e-mail (DIRTY BLONDE JOKE)
  
• 87A: Cause of congestion / Detective's challenge / Loony (HEAD COLD CASE)
  
• 94A: Winnie-the-Pooh possession / Baked entree / Sweetie (HONEY POT PIE)
  
• 106A: Fancy Feast product / Cafeteria outburst / "Mean Girls" event (CAT FOOD FIGHT)
  
• 119A: Democratic territory / Cardinal, e.g. / "Over the Rainbow" flier (BLUE STATE BIRD) — probably shouldn't have "territory" in your clue and TERR. in your grid (113D: Colonial land: Abbr.), but I doubt anyone but me noticed.
  

Bullets:

• 59A: "Up to ___," 1952 game show (PAAR) — ah, puns. I had no idea about any aspect of PAAR's career beyond "The Tonight Show"

["Were you impressed with Marilyn?" "Architecturally, yes ..."]

• 124A: 1966 best seller set in Hong Kong ("TAI-PAN") — this clue made me think of my upcoming 20-year college reunion. Why? Well, let's see ... "TAI-PAN" was part of James Clavell's Japan Trilogy, as was "Shogun," which was made into a TV miniseries in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain, who is an alumnus of my college (c/o 1956). These connections may seem tenuous, but in my head, they are rock solid.
  
• 128A: "The Battleship Potemkin" setting (ODESSA) — this is how I discovered COPYEDIT was wrong.
  
• 6D: ___ deux âges (middle-aged: Fr.) (ENTRE) — well, thank god for high school French. Not your typical ENTRE clues (which is probably [___ nous]).
  
• 9D: Nickname for a seven-time N.B.A. All-Star (T-MAC) — SHAQ? No. It's Tracy McGrady. When I finally figured this out, I was like "Oh, right, he *did* play in the N.B.A. once." He's actually still playing (on the Pistons). For a recent superstar player, he somehow feels not very famous. Weird. This is possibly because he's been plagued by injuries over the past five years and been unable to play for giant chunks of time.
  
• 38D: Reciprocal Fibonacci constant (PSI) — Me: "OK, so ... Greek letter. Come on, crosses!"
  
• 46D: "Sleigh Ride" composer Anderson (LEROY) — again, no clue.
  
• 99D: Speech blocker (GAG LAW) — I don't know what this is (GAG ORDER, I know), but I like it anyway. It's just fun to say. GAGLAW!
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Soul's 1970s TV co-star / SAT 4-2-11 / Start of dogwatch / New York find 10/16/1869 / 1980s TV private eye / Pee-wee's Playhouse mail lady

Constructor: Mark Diehl

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: RAKEHELL (16A: Libertine) —

A rake, short for rakehell, is a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, frequently a heartless womaniser. Often a rake was a man who wasted his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process. The rake was also frequently a man who seduced a young woman and impregnated her before leaving, often to her social or financial ruin. // The Restoration rake was a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat whose heyday was during the English Restoration period (1660–1688), at the court of Charles II. They were typified by the "Merry gang" of courtiers, who included as prominent members the Earl of Rochester, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Dorset, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. At this time the rake featured as a stock character in Restoration comedy. // After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the cultural perception of the rake took a dive into squalor. The rake became the butt of moralistic tales in which his typical fate was debtor's prison, venereal disease, or, in the case of William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, insanity in Bedlam.

• • •

Felt mostly quite easy, but not knowing THE CARDIFF GIANT (or, rather, forgetting it until I had the THE CARDIFF part) slowed me down enough that my time was just average (34A: New York "find" of 10/16/1869). Strangely, the most befuddling part was the COURSE part of COURSE FEES (28A: Tuition portion). Had FEES and just couldn't think what kind of FEES could be involved. Also, I had a ridiculous fit of second-guessing after I dropped down ARE YOU KIDDING ME (off just the A--Y!) (7D: "Really?!"). I read the clue at 33A: Animal whose tongue is long enough to clean its eyelids and ears and thought "sounds like a GECKO" (actually, OKAPI). Then was *sure* it was a GECKO after that "K" got me "AKA" for 30D: Cover letters? I mean ... that's a genius clue for AKA. It's a pretty good clue for SPF, I guess, but it's *really* good for AKA. Anyway, this made me doubt ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Ugh. So tripping in the middle took me from what would probably have been a Thu/Fri time right back to a Saturday time.

No trouble at all in any of the corners. Little bit of mucking around in the SW when I put in ENGIRD (!) for ENCASE (42D: Surround). Proudest / most embarrassing moment (I can't decide)—knowing instantly that 19A: Soul's 1970s TV co-star was going for the brown-haired guy from "Starsky & Hutch." I knew that if I just got a cross or two, his name would come to me. And it did (GLASER). Also, in the same TV-of-my-youth vein, I nailed STEELE with hardly any effort at all (44D: 1980s TV private eye). And though I never played it, "Legend of ZELDA" feels like a gimme handed to me from my youth (or maybe young adulthood) as well (40A: "The Legend of ___").


[How did I remember this? How? I must have had some pretty profound encounter with Mr. Soul earlier in my life. He clearly left an impression ... of some sort]

VHS forced me to change NOONIONS to NOCHEESE (38D: Whopper request). TEENER came far too easily for being such a dated / weird word (45D: "American Bandstand" viewer). My crossword instincts / memory must be getting pretty well developed, because NITER came eerily easily too, despite my not really knowing what it is (48: Atacama Desert export). I had to look up Atacama very recently (what, two days ago?), so at least I knew what part of the world we were dealing with—not that that helped with NITER. Had to run the alphabet at DI-O to remember DIDO (23A: "Thank You" singer, 2001). DI-D'OH! Should've been easier, as she was a major pop star when I was in grad school.



First answer in the grid: "ADAM'S RIB" (7A: 1949 comedy about husband-and-wife lawyers on opposing sides of a murder case). As with Mr. Soul, I don't really know how I know this. I just do. I must have watched, or tried to watch, the movie at one point. My aunt lives in San RAFAEL, which didn't help until I had the "AE" part (lots of SANs in CA). Despite knowing about the "CHE" biopic of 1969 (from crosswords, naturally), I didn't pick up SHARIF until the "F" (11D: Guevara portrayer). It's just so weird what your brain will and won't do for you when you're in the middle of solving. The brain giveth, the brain taketh away, the brain getteth distracted by thoughts like "a TWO-SPEED bike? Really?" (39D: Like some Schwinns)

Bullets:

• 31A: Voice of Fredricksen in "Up" (ASNER) — big fat gimme. ASNER is super common in crosswords, and he's also the most famous voice actor in that movie.
  
• 49A: Wallis and Futuna (ILES) — whoa. This one was hard. Gibberish hard. Turns out they are (combined) a French territory in French Polynesia
  
• 55A: "Doubt" co-star, 2008 (STREEP) — knew it ended in "P" before I ever saw the clue, so no problem (never saw the movie, but seem to remember that STREEP plays a nun, along with the Lovely Amy Adams)
  
• 9D: Sharing common alleles (AKIN) — "alleles" is yet another word I learned from crosswords. Pretty shmancy way of getting to AKIN.
  
• 56D: "Pee-wee's Playhouse" mail lady (REBA) — what a great REBA clue. Wish I'd seen it. Got REBA entirely from crosses before I ever had a chance to see the clue; figured it must be about the country / sitcom star.
  
• 54D: Destructive 1966 hurricane (INEZ) — "Destructive" is weird. Redundant, I'd think. I mean, if it's a hurricane we might be expected to remember, then I'm guessing it was probably pretty "destructive."
• 1A: Start of a dogwatch (FOUR PM) — is this related to "bells," i.e. metaphors for telling time in the Navy? Turns out, yes, sort of. "Dogwatch" = work shift, half the length of a regular watch (2 as opp. to 4 hours). Interesting info about etymology (related to Sirius? evolved from "dodging the watch?") here.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Liora, Asos et moi...!

Je rencontre de plus en plus de photographes en herbe avec lesquels j'organise des shootings à la cool.

J'aime bien l'idée d'avoir des signatures qui varient et des univers différents sur le blog.

Ca me donne également l'impression de prendre plus "soin" de cette petite bulle que j'essaye d'entretenir.

Ce qui n'est pas toujours évident après plus de deux ans de billets postés quasiment quotidiennement.

D'ailleurs, je songe à revoir un peu le design du blog, tout en restant dans ses codes.

J'ai besoin de lui donner un nouveau souffle, il en est temps !

Je me souviens encore, quand j'habitais chez ma Maman, un soir, ou plutôt une nuit, je me suis amusée pendant des heures à trafiquer les codes html pour arriver exactement au résultat que je voulais.

Je n'y connaissais (et connais toujours) absolument rien. On me traite de geek, en réalité bullshit !

Ce jour-là, je rencontrais Liora qui m'avait contacté quelques jours avant.

Elle m'a envoyé le lien de son site et j'étais folle de joie à l'idée de pouvoir faire quelques photos avec elle car ces images et vidéos m'ont parlé immédiatement.

Rendez-vous pris chez moi.

Liora est cool ! Elle m'a mise à l'aise tout de suite.

Très vive, elle avait plein d'idées et n'a pas hésité à me filer des directives.

On a discuté de tout, de rien, de nos tatouages, de Biarritz mais encore...

Nous avons l'intention de nous revoir pour reprendre des photos, en extérieur si le temps est avec nous, et je lui ai promis de lui présenter Flume, le petit chat !

Pour cette tenue, je ne savais pas trop quelle veste porter et puis la veste de Martin qui trônait sur le dossier d'une chaise a finalement été la solution !

Une veste d'homme, quoi de mieux ?!

Photos : Liora

Legging - H&M

Veste - The Kooples

Boots - André

Ps : Veuillez d'ores et déjà excuser la qualité moisie de cette vidéo et le superbe décalage son/image ! Je pense que vous comprendrez malgré cela, pourquoi je râle !

La fin de l'histoire, c'est qu'après m'être rendue quatre fois à la poste en une semaine, j'ai laissé mon numéro à un Monsieur qui y bossait, et par hasard, il est tombé sur notre huge commande... Coup de chance ! Il m'a donc téléphoné.

Donc les amis, bien que j'adore Asos et leurs articles, soyez vigilants avec la livraison et n'hésitez pas à vous rendre régulièrement à votre bureau de poste si vous ne voyez rien arriver...!

English novelist Bawden / FRI 4-1-11 / Serving in John Betjeman's poem / 2002 Katherine Frank political biography / Hammer accompanier

Constructor: Elizabeth A. Long

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Two-way street — Down answers on west side of grid head south (like normal Downs), while Down answers on east side of the grid head north (i.e. they're upside-down). Theme is indicated by three grid-spanning Downs: in the west, ONCOMING TRAFFIC (4D: Passing preventer); in the middle, MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (7D: Conventional); and in the east, NORTH-BOUND LANES (which is to say, SENAL DNUOB-HTRON) (10D: Half of almost any odd-numbered Interstate highway)


Word of the Day: M.I.A. (23A: Hip-hop singer with the 2008 hit "Paper Planes") —

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (Tamil: மாதங்கி 'மாயா' அருள்பிரகாசம், Mātaṅki 'Māyā' Aruḷpirakācam ^?; born 18 July 1975), better known by her stage name M.I.A., is a British singer-songwriter, rapper and record producer whose eclectic compositions combine elements of hip-hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. // M.I.A. began her career in 2000 as a visual artist and designer in West London. Since rising to prominence in early 2004 for her singles "Galang" and "Sunshowers," she has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards and the Mercury Prize. She released her debut album Arular in 2005 and second album Kala in 2007. Kala went gold in Canada and the United States and silver in the United Kingdom, and the singles "Boyz" and "Paper Planes" became North American top ten chart favourites in 2008. M.I.A.'s third album Maya was released in 2010 soon after the song-film short "Born Free," and reached the top ten in numerous countries worldwide. She has embarked on four global headlining tours and is the founder of her own multimedia label, N.E.E.T.. In 2008, M.I.A. was listed in Esquire magazine's list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century and in 2009, Time magazine included M.I.A. in its annual Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. (wikipedia)

• • •

Very cool puzzle. I was looking for something tricky today, so the NORTH-BOUND stuff didn't faze me. Much. Did take me a while to uncover the trick. Had great success early when I threw down MIDDLE OF THE ROAD with hardly any effort, after solving only the little northern part of the puzzle. First indication that something was amiss came when I couldn't solve the little southern part of the puzzle with the same rapidity. Acrosses made sense—seemed unimpeachable—but I was getting nonsense in the Downs. So I ended up doing the (very conventional, untricky) west first, and then hitting that MIDDLE OF THE ROAD barrier. Just looking at the two long Downs I had at that point let me know that there was some kind of TRAFFIC theme, and finally I realized that "-C-T Bell" was, in fact, TACO Bell. From that point on, it was just a matter of thinking upside-down. Not a problem. It's a smooth, elegant little puzzle, with hardly an ugly or obscure answer in sight. A one-trick pony, yes, but it's a good trick. Truly AHA.


The only "huh?" moment I had (after grokking ... is that the word? ... the theme) came with the biography "INDIRA," which I had never heard of (27D: 2002 Katherine Frank political biography). That clue is an outlier. It's mildly obscure trivia, where the rest of the grid ... isn't. Still, pretty easy to infer. Crosses were a cinch. Oh, no, wait—37A: English novelist Bawden (NINA) is pretty INDIRA-ish too. Never heard of her. Oh, and never heard of John Betjeman or his poem, "How to Get on in Society" (43A: Serving in John Betjeman's poem "How to get on in Society"=>SCONES). Wow, how did I not have trouble in that section? I guess the clues were written in such a way, and the crosses were reasonable enough, that I could fight through it all without too much pain. LEONAS (SANOEL) was a fat gimme in that section, a sharp contrast to the other names in that section (and a very sharp contrast to NUBILE—46A: Available, in a way).

Bullets:

• 14A: Elvis follower (ARON) — this seemed obvious, unlike some other stuff up there in the NW, which I flubbed: PORE for GAZE, RICE for ZINC, SHOO and SCAT for GO! GO! etc.
  
• 3D: Hammer accompanier (GONG) — probably a lot of people went with NAIL at first.
  
• 5D: They're subject to rapid inflation (AIRBAGS) — ooh, good clue.
  
• 42D: It starts "Tell me, muse, of the man of many resources" ("ODYSSEY") — see also "The wrath of Achilles..." or "Arma virumque cano..." or "Of Man's first Disobedience..." (we talk about epics a lot in my Brit Lit class). Interesting ODYSSEY news: Virgil thinks Odysseus is an asshole for coming up with that whole Trojan Horse thing; Dante concurs, putting Odysseus (Ulysses, actually) way, way down in the 8th ring of hell (Fraud). And then there's Milton's Satan. And then there's Maude!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Since it's a heavy-traffic day, I'll take this opportunity once again to plug the Crosswords L.A. Tournament, which takes place one month from today, 5/1/11, at Loyola-Marymount University. It's always a blast, the puzzles this year are fantastic (I've seen them), and all proceeds go to a wonderful charity ("Reading to Kids"). Go here for details.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. Patrick Blindauer has a new puzzle up at his site this month. It's pretty sweet. You should do it.

P.P.S. You could also do this puzzle. There's a decent likelihood it will annoy the hell out of you, but ... if there's any day to distribute such a puzzle, it's today. (Go here —to Amy Reynaldo's "Island of Lost Puzzles"— to print a .pdf or get a .puz version, or just print the puzzle out from here).

SOLUTION (and puzzle discussion) HERE.
Endless Fun

"ENDLESS FUN"

"Endless Fun" — a Rex Parker puzzle released 4/1/11

Download .pdf or .puz file HERE (or below, using the scribd interface)

Solution below, following Spoiler Kitty...

Endless Fun

Ah du soleil !

Tout d'abord, un grand Merci à tous pour vos mails concernant U Got A Wish !

Avec tout ce qu'on a reçu, on devrait même songer à créer plusieurs magazines !

La semaine dernière, j'ai vraiment cru au retour de l'été... Et bien non, il va falloir patienter encore un peu.

Salomée et son vélo...

Pause déjeuner en terrasse avec Salomée et Margaux...

Ouh la touriste !

Martin en studio...

La jolie station de métro Gare d'Austerlitz...

Joujou avec l'Iphone... Encore !

Orioles hurler 1966 champs / THU 3-31-11 / Solo crooner Oh My Pa-Pa #1 1954 / 140 pounds in Britain / 1970s sitcom ended with title character Congress

Constructors: Jeremy Horwitz and Tyler Hinman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: PERFECT PITCH (19D: Something the eight people at 3-, 9-, 28- and 30-Down have all strived for?) — theme answers are all names shared by World-Series-winning Major League baseball pitchers and #1-charting singers / musicians


Word of the Day: TAI CHI CHUAN (62A: Dojo discipline) —

Tai chi chuan (simplified Chinese: 太极拳; traditional Chinese: 太極拳; pinyin: tàijíquán; Wade–Giles: t'ai⁴ chi² ch'üan²) (literal translation "Supreme Ultimate Fist") is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits. It is also typically practiced for a variety of other personal reasons: its hard and soft martial art technique, demonstration competitions, and longevity. As a consequence, a multitude of training forms exist, both traditional and modern, which correspond to those aims. Some of tai chi chuan's training forms are especially known for being practiced at what most people categorize as slow movement. // Today, tai chi has spread worldwide. Most modern styles of tai chi trace their development to at least one of the five traditional schools: Chen, Yang, Wu/Hao, Wu, and Sun. (wikipedia)

• • •

As much as yesterday's puzzle was outside my wheelhouse, this one is in it. Right in it. I just clobbered this one. Minute and a half faster than yesterday, and a good minute faster than last Thursday. Seven of the eight men involved in the theme answers are well known to me—the only one I'd never heard of was the pitcher EDDIE FISHER, but I was able to get singer EDDIE FISHER off just the EDD-, so no sweat. Even TAI CHI CHUAN was in my back pocket—I'm guessing most folks know the TAI CHI part, but not the CHUAN. Annoyed to see that the same damn stupid clue for TAI CHI (CHUAN) is still being used — "Dojo" is from a different language and refers to different martial arts from a different country. Come on. Have some respect—China and Japan are different. Their martial arts are different. Terminology is different. Practiced TAI CHI for years and never saw or heard the word "Dojo" (for good reason). I see that there are a few places out there using the word "dojo" to describe their TAI CHI studios, but that's probably for commercial purposes, i.e. people are familiar with the term from pop culture. Please keep "dojo" away from TAI CHI clues. I'm sure "Dojo" is, in some rigmarolish way, defensible, but I don't care. It's not right. Thank you. End rant.



Only places I struggled were in a couple of corners—a little bit in the NE (where PEDICAB took its sweet time showing up (7A: Way around Shanghai), and where I had DORA for CORA (11D: Mrs. Dithers of the comics)), and a lot in the SE, where SIC for SUE (65A: Go after) and NAB for NET (71A: Capture) made a hash of things down there until MAUDE (55D: 1970s sitcom that ended with the title character in Congress)! And then there's MAUDE! She saved the day (god bless you, Bea Arthur). The only weird thing about the theme is that DAVE STEWART of the Eurythmics is *not* a singer, which makes PERFECT PITCH slightly odd, since that's a phrase I've only ever heard in relation to the voice. But instruments have pitches too, obviously, so ... it'll stretch. I especially like that all the pitchers won World Series and all the music folk hit #1. That's oddly serendipitous, theme coherence-wise. KENNY ROGERS actually once pitched a PERFECT game. DAVE STEWART didn't, but he did throw a no-hitter.



Theme answers:

• 3D: Yankees hurler (1996 champs) / Solo singer of "Lady" (#1 in 1980) (KENNY ROGERS)
  
• 28D: Orioles hurler (1966 champs) / Solo crooner of "Oh! My Pa-Pa" (#1 in 1954) (EDDIE FISHER) — father of Princess LEIA
  
• 9D: A's hurler (1989 champs) / Eurythmics musician on "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (#1 in 1983) (DAVE STEWART)
  
• 30D: Giants hurler (2010 champs) / Beach Boys vocalist on "Help Me, Rhonda" (#1 in 1965) (BRIAN WILSON)
  

Bullets:

• 20A: 140 pounds, in Britain (TEN STONE) — had ...-TON- part and really wanted something-TONS, despite the fact that 140 pounds isn't anywhere near a ton.
  
• 24A: Distant sign of affection? (AIR KISS) — nice clue, nice answer.
  
• 47A: 1994 Costner title role (EARP) — Wow, there was a movie called "EARP?" That one got by me.

• 57DA: "Less Than Zero" (ELLIS) — more wheelhouseness. "Less Than Zero" was a Big movie when I was younger. ELLIS's "American Psycho" was big (controversial) news when I was in college.
  
• 67A: Car co-created and named by John DeLorean (GTO) — well that's some odd trivia that I am sure to forget right ... now.
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]