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While not really difficult, this puzzle by Mike Torch was a lot of fun, as it emplys a lot of modern and colorful words.

Main Clues:
Never - "whenhellfreezes"
Sometimes - "onceinabluemoon"
Always - "twentyfourseven"

Just these big clues show how hip this puzzle is. But wait, there's more:
Like a multipurpose tool, perhaps - teninone
Big Apple daily, briefly - nytimes
Excused oneself, with "out" - bofed
Dance, slangily - hoof
Internet music-sharing service - kazaa

I'm really surprised they worked in Kazaa and even a self-conscious self-reference to the times itself. Super coolio.

Things to learn:
Lethe - a river in Hades; the souls of the dead had to drink from it, which made them forget all they had done and suffered when they were alive.
Erte - pronounced R-T, the initials of Romain de Tirtoff, french art deco designer.

How 2's

Robert Dillman shows us what a monday puzzle is all about. Nothing tricky, very straightforward.

Mole - "doubleagent"
Romantic dinner reservation - "tablefortwo"
Small plane - "twinengine"
Poker variation - "deuceswild"

So it gives us four ways to say it.

Things to know:
Reagan attorney general - Edwin Meese
Alba Longa - ancient city of Latium, birthplace of Romulus and Remus

I was also wondering whether in Iraq, they would have modified popular sayings of the US. Instead of TGIF, they might say PAIF - Praise Allah It's Friday.

Added ease

I'm just gald I got the theme of today's puzzle. One in particular was quite funny. I was about half done before I started looking up a few clues. Just a few.

Blastoff of Spirit or Opportunity? - emissiontomars
Once-beautiful castle? -estateofruin
Moon-pastry? eclairdelune
Three-hanky film? - emotionpicture

Anyways, a lot of fun clues for me to mull through today:
Lord of the ring, once - ali
It follows a line - bus
What Voltaire and Mark Twain were not - realnames
Choice for people who go Dutch - klm

Something I should know by now:
The Jewish Months - Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Teves, Shevat, Adar.
Henri Nestle - Chocolatier
Baba - Rum or syrup soaked cakes.
Stele - An upright stone or slab with an inscribed or sculptured surface, used as a monument or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a building.

And lastly, as a means to lift our spirits:

SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS

Nor happiness nor majesty nor fame
Nor peace nor strength nor skill in arms or arts
Shepherd those herds whom Tyranny makes tame,
Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts,
History is but the shadow of their shame,
Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts
As to Oblivion their blind millions fleet,
Staining that Heaven with obscene imagery
Of their own likeness. What are numbers knit
By force or custom? Man who man would be,
Must rule the empire of himself; in it
Must be supreme, establishing his throne
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

X-treme X-words

This is a very very special crossword for me for several reasons. I've always wanted to complete a NYT crossword puzzle on my birthday, but never has. And after years of practice, I was finally hoping to do it today. And when I found that it was one by Braendan Emmet Quigley, I was disheartened and swore quietly to myself. I knew of Quigley's caliber of crossword construction, since I've struggled painfully with the special collection of his SuperStar puzzles way back. I was totally unprepared to have to work against his wit.

That said, I am extremely pleased with today's edition because it was challenging, and well constructed. It had a bunch of modern and punny twists. As I was filling it in, I was surprisingly exhilerated. Man, this was a satisfying romp, with 6 themed entries with unusual words because of that.

"Big news!" - extraextra
Fred Sanford player, on TV - reddfoxx
Like some menus - prixfixe
Photocopier "ink" - xeroxtoner
Like some bonds - taxexempt
"The Complete Book of Running" author - jamesfixx

So with this theme, you know there's a lot of crazy words, and Quigley really does come through with some fun and modern clues:
Completely - atoz
Dance version of a song, maybe - remix
USN rank - adm
USN rank - cmdr
60's happening - bein
Overthrow, say - error
Scout master? - tonto
Stunt biker's bike - BMX
Oil, slangily - texas tea

Things to know:
Nehi - A brand of soda, as seen on MASH drank by Radar.
Teena Brandon/ Brandon Teena - Hilary Swanks' oscar winning role in Boys Don't Cry.
James Fixx - 80's fitness guru who popularized running with his book, The Complete Book of Running.
Brent Musburger - Sportscaster
Ira Glass - NPR host of This American Life.
Erno Rubik - Hungaria Inventor, notably for his eponymous cube.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) - Italian composer, notably for opera Orfeo, and the Vespers of the Sacred Virgin.
Be In - 60's happening, the Human Be-In took place in 1964, Jan 14, at the San Francisco Golden Gate Park, as a landmark of beat culture, counterculturalism and Hippie philosphy.
Prix Fixe - A complete meal of several courses, sometimes with choices permitted, offered by a restaurant at a fixed price.

Turning Tricks

That's odd, this feels like an April Fools crossword, except it's not April Fools. Weird. This puzzle by Sherry Blackard had several difficult clues.

First trick - disappearingink
Second trick - dribbleglass
Third trick - squirtflower
Trickster's comment after above - thejokewasonyou

Speaking of tricks, I came across this website last night, Prangstgrup, whose hijinks include staging some guerilla musical numbers in some run-of-the-mill places.

Wax on, Wax off

A fun puzzle with classic word play by Marc Gameroff today. What a great way to start off the week.

Inquiring about the leaving time? - checkoncheckout
Endure a comedy routine? - standforstandup
Substitie for a jittery pilot? - takeovertakeoff

Word I didn't know:
hasp - A metal fastener with a hinged slotted part that fits over a staple and is secured by a pin, bolt, or padlock.

Let's go on a google adventure!

The Four Corner States - Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado
Eileen Brennan - Actress, notably in the Sting

All I need is a phonebooth and a tight t-shirt

It's hard. It's funny. It's a Thursday puzzle by Manny Nosowsky. When I figured out the theme, I laughed. With three long horizontal clue, and a vertical one that intersects them all, this was truly a well-constructed puzzle.

Clearly doing evil- uptonogoodatall
At issue - upfordiscussion
Alee - awayfromthewind
Cry in Metropolis while pointing... and a hint to this puzzle's theme - lookitssuperman

Alas, there was so much I didn't know:
Avec - with, opposite of sans (without)
Obtund - To make less intense; dull or deaden.
Enos Slaughter - Baseball player, right fileder for the Cardinals
maul - a heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges

Can anyone explain how FILL is a answer for 'place for change'?

Lyrics to the Irish Lullaby:

Toora, loora, loora
Toora, loora, li
Toora, loora, loora
Hush, now, don't you cry
Ah,
Toora, loora, loora
Toora, loora, li
Toora, loora, loora
It's an Irish lullaby

State-ments

A bit of punny regional dialect today from Kumar Balani and Lou Sabin.

Georgian's question before a fight? - youmaconfunofme
Montanan's comeback? - yourearealbutte
New Yorker's dare? - okaytroytohitme
Alaskan's sorry cry? - juneauwhatyadid

I'm surprised they got one mild curse into this one, but none the less I'm impressed by this puzzle because it really was a lot of fun. Also, they worked in the home town of my ex-girlfriend. I also realized how poor my American geography is. There also were a lot of fun clues:
Places to find dates? - oases

Words I didn't know:
Parsec - 3.2616 light years, stands for "parallax of one arc second".
Cruet - small glass to hold a condiment, such as vinegar
Steffi Graf - Tennis pro of the 80' and 90's.
Alex Katz - Modern American Artist, leader of modern realism.

And for your information:
Major Cities of Yemen (by size) - Sana'a (capital), Aden, Taizz, Hudayah, Mukalla, Ibb and Dhamar

They had 'eddy' today with the clue of Countercurrent. I remember a really fiendish clue that described it as Current Event. Man, that was a tricky one.

4-way split

Today's crossword was fun and gives us four ways to split. Well done Nancy Solomon!

Split - getoutofdodge
Split - headforthehills
Split - hitthehighway
With 69 Across, Split - skip town

For the last clue, she even split a split - a meta-split.

The only one I wasn't familiar with was the first, and apparently, it alludes to Dodge City, Kansas. Anyways, a few new words to learn today, but let's start with the ones I know.
rivet, primo, et alii, and I can never spell myrrh

Firth - Scottish term for an arm of the sea, usually an estuary or strait
STP - gas additive

And for today's google adventure, let's look at the close knit family of Zeus!
Zeus - Supreme God of Greek mythology
Cronus and Rhea - Zeus's father and mother
Hades - Zeus' brother, god of the underworld
Poseidon - Zeus' Brother, god of the sea
Demeter - Zeus' Sister, goddess of fertility and agriculture
Hesita - Zeus' sister, goddess of the hearth
Metis, Themis and Mnemosyne - Zeus' first, second and third wife
Hera - Zeus' sister and final wife, goddess of marriage
Ares - Zeus' son (with Hera), god of war
Hebe - Zeus' daughter (with Hera), personification of youth
Athena - Zeus' offsrping (sprung from his head), goddess of wisdom, war and crafts
Plus he's had many affaris with gods and mortals, so those illigit kids number too many!

Unthemed Monday

I don't think today's puzzle is themed, but I think Jim Hyres put in some interesting and unusual words for the long ones.

Shrinking Arctic Mass - polaricecap
Vary large ham -showboater
Texas' official flower -bluebonnet
Competition on an indoor ring -rollerderby

Well, since there weren't any new words, let's go on a google adventure!
Ionia - Ancient Turkey
Gregg Shorthand - A phoentic writing system developed by John Gregg
And since I'm not one into astrology, I need to learn the signs:
Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
Maybe what we need is a handy mnemonic....

(The cru's tratclif helped me out here with the theme. There is indeed one as the last part of each clue is a kind of apparell. I am shamed that I totally missed this.)

and Reversed

Well, today's puzzle certainly whooped me. Not only the clues, but the theme. So I got three answers and also a the pun the three are connected, and I still couldn't get the theme. What's the connection?

Riding a bike, eg, for most - secondnature
Everyone knows it - householdname
Annual Oct 24 honoree - unitednations
What the three contain, in a manner of speaking - splicedgenes

So I'm thinking how three three clues can be an example of the theme. And my first thought was that these were famous Genes and their last names were split apart. So for example, there's a famous Gene Secure, and if you splice Secure, you can get SECondnatURE. So that got me staring and staring to no avail. I had to refer to the forum to see what others said. And learned that a more appropriate title would be spliced with genes. See, these are all clues with dna hidden in them. While I like clues like this (another one that comes to mind was a puzzle with words like hotellobby, builttoscale and the theme was hidden operas) this was had a misleading theme name. But a valiant effort nonetheless.

A lot I didn't know in this puzzle. There's some words I know the meaning of but didn't connect with the clues to put them in. Like Assay, Limber, Tempest.

Clues to learn:
Hans Christian Anderson's birth city - Odense
Green-skinned dancing girl in Star Wars - Oola (how am I supposed know this?)
Lincoln's first VP - Hannibal Hamlin
Eden Prairie - Minn. town
Frankie Laine sang Moonlight Gambler
Entre Nous - literally "between us" an adverb to specify information is a secret.
Awn - plant bristle (usually found on grass)
Soporific - inducing sleep, so a soporific deliver is monotone.

Cute Clues:
Horseplay? - polo
Put a new handle on - rename
Org. with a mission - nasa

Seriously, who else can they be talking about?

Today's crossword is themed around a recently elected leader. Seriously, how many ones can there be? 5 long clues and one shorter one at 1-across.

Office of 37-Across - theholysee
Home of 37-Across - vaticancity
Leader elected in 2005 -popebenedictxvi
Title of 37-Across - hisholiness
Predecessor of 37-Across -johnpaulii
Term of affection for 37-Across -papa

This makes me wonder though, do you think the Pope is an avid cruciverbalist? Maybe he solves crossword puzzles between papal edicts?

Straight Ace

Today's puzzle has four themed clue, and also a two word title in the center, elegantly designed by Gary Steinmehl. The main clues are:

Do embroidery - needlepoint
Old TV show that featured "bachelorettes" with "the" - datinggame
Classic toy for budding engineers - erectorset
It can't light just anywhere - safetymatch
With 41-across, question associated with above - tennis anyone

Things I didn't know:
Charlie Chaplin's brother - Syd(ney)
Apres-ski - Some kind of skiing, not really sure
Mel Ott - NY Giants out-fielder

So, I've recently bought several books of the NYT crosswords to tide me over at night. And I've been digging into the two omnibi of easy crosswords. I've been getting stuck on a lot of them, even though the book purports to be from Mondays exclusively. I feel awfully bad when I can't get some clues, which leads me to believe that NYT crosswords now are a lot more doable. Does anyone else have this feeling?

Something not to find in bed when you wake up

I'm not sure if this puzzle is themed. The clues seemed unrelated, especially that the first answer was in the format of a themed answer:

Assault - kindofrifle
Citation - courtsummons
Affirmed - corroborated
Rare event in horseracing - triplecrown

So I got all these, but the closest theme I can find was phrases with a hard K sound, which is a really stupid theme. So I checked out the NYT crosswords forum, and found that there was indeed a theme, but it wasn't in my area of expertise. Assault, Citation and Affirmed were all horses that have won the Triple Crown. How am I supposed to know this? Well, for future information, here are all 11 horses that have ever won the Triple Crown. Apparently, a coveted title in horseracing.

Affirmed - 1978
Seattle Slew - 1977
Secretariat - 1973
Citation - 1948
Assault - 1946
Count Fleet - 1943
Whirlaway - 1941
War Admiral - 1937
Omaha - 1935
Gallant Fox - 1930
Sir Barton - 1919