What's the use?

Joe DiPietro gives us a bit of wordplay for this Thursday puzzle. I still can't believe I completed most of them. The clues were consistent and some chuckle-worthy.

Unappropriated financial aid? - 'loosegrant;
Conventional breakfast drink? - 'orthodoxjuice'
Dr. in favor of compensation? - 'seussfordamages'
Low card in the upper elevations? - 'mountaindeuce'
Tale of a ceasefire? - 'trucestory'

At the same time, four long cross-clues were also excellent (kepthouse, placetogo,fullmouth,tablesalt)!!

Things to know:
St. Croix River - river between Maine and New Brunswick
oast - A kiln for drying hops or malt or drying and curing tobacco. (brewer's need)

Twisted clues:
Play boy? - actor
Natural - undyed
Tint part - cameo
Fall locale - eden
It runs down one's arm - ulna
X - ten
Mystery man - mrx
Game pieces - men
It's labels S, not P - table salt
Filing aid - emery
Pronouncement - dictum

What's your type?

This, my friend, was a fun puzzle, because the first long clue had me guessing right till the end. I got all the other long clues, and it was the first one that had the smartest fill. Good job Mr. David Liben-Nowell.

Person of letters - 'keyboardist'
Home of above - 'asdfhjkl'
Emulate a rookie above - 'huntandpeck'
Emulate a veteran above - 'touchtype'

The Home of the Person is really well done. I was wondering if I was getting the right clues because it was spelling gibberish. Anyways.

Words to know:
Treadle
Elul
Anisette

Who do we appreciate?

A very standard tuesday crossword, with 4 long clues. However, there were a couple clues that surprised me. Anyways, this one's by Jim Hyres.

Breakfast order - 'twoeggsovereasy'
Lucky charms - 'fourleafclovers'
U.S. senator's salary, eg - 'sixfigureincome'
Bygone music collection -'eighttracktapes'

Surprising clue -
High, in a way - onpot
Foo Fighters

People to know-
Gus Grisson - American Astronaut on Project Mercury
Stan Smith - American tennis player, Wimbledon champion
Marlin Perkins - host of Wild Kingdom, zoologist
Elena Verdugo - 40's actress, of many horror films
Robert Towne - Oscar winning screenwritier, for Chinatown, the Two Jakes, Shampoo, Mission Impossible. Trivia - for his oscar nominated screenplay, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, he credited his sheepdog, P.H. Varzak, making him the first dog nominated for an oscar.

Places to go-
Russia's Lake Onega - Second largest lake in Europe
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Not, in Nuremberg - nicht

Google trip - Let's go to Sault Ste Marie

Sault Ste. Marie is French for Rapids of St. Mary. There are several places that share this name, all centered around the rapids in the river that drains Lake Superior, like Michigan and Ontario.

Choices, choices

This Monday one wasn't bad at all. In fact, I was surprised how consistent the long clues were. Sometimes, you can tell one of the longer clues is a weak link for others, but this one was good. Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette sure has tricks up their sleeves:

Choice at a supermarket checkout - 'paperorplastic'
Choice offered at an electronic payment machine -'creditordebit'
Choice at an airplane ticket counter - 'windoworaisle'
Choice at a coffee bar - 'regularordecaf'

Things to know:
Loni Anderson - American Actress, once married to Burt Reynolds, notably WKRP Cincinnati
Georgia Engel - American Film/ TV actress, notably the Mary Tyler Moore show.
Tommy LaSorda - Dodgers manager.

Think outside the box, man!

Courtenay Crocker III's Thursday crossword puzzle was fiendishly well crafted. Moreover, the theme was out of this world.

City is England - 'chester'
Old musket carrier - 'militia'
Treat Roughly - 'handle'
Architect's aide - 'drafts'
Maid's counterpart - 'servant'
Armed gang member - 'trigger'
Project Mercury objective (and a hint to the above) - 'maninouterspace'

Anyways, even though I completed the puzzle very slowly and all confused because all the main clue were not really related, and some of them really didn't make sense. A stretch for some of them. As I was filling out the puzzle, I suspected it may be the case where more than 1 letter is put in each square, but quickly dismissed that idea because the clues don't fit. However, what Crocker did was even more ingenious! He uses the space outside of the grid! In order for the
clues to work, you have to put the word 'man' in the outer square, which is either before or after some of the clues. Super ingenious!

Anyways, not only did the theme whoop me, but also many of the clues. It's puzzles like these that don't make me think I'm getting any better at this game.

Things to know:
Former Rep. Abzug - Bella
Capital originally called the City of Kings - Lima, Peru

Things I should know by now:
Anatomical Mouths - ora
Yma Sumac - Peruvian singer
Minsk's home - Belarus

(Previously, I might have refered to Courtenay as a she. This is a trememndous error on my part. Official apologies.)

Win, Lose, Draw!

Verna Suit gives me a Wednesday puzzle that I couldn't figure out. Even though I consider myself somewhat well versed in films and movie trivia, I'm not one to know about much older films. I can tell you more about Police Academy than Casablanca. Sigh. Anyways, today's theme surrounds a 1952 movie.

1952 Best Actor for 37, 38 Across - 'garycooper'
With 49 Across, theme song of 37, 38 Across - 'donotforsakemeohmydarlin'
37, 38 - Subject of this puzzle - 'highnoon'
Costar of 37,38 - 'gracekelly'

Anywas, there were also a lot of things to know:
Big name in siding - alcoa
River of Florence - Arno
1916 battle site - Somme
Lorre's Casablanca role - ugarte
Egyptian God of wisdom - Thoth
Elmo Zumwalt - American Naval Leader during Vietnam

So... Whatcha doin'?

Nancy Kavanaugh gives us today's puzzle.

One liable to get hurt - 'sittingduck'
Provision for late-arriving spectators - 'standingroom'
Insect that's well camouflaged on a tree - 'walkingstick'
Co-nominee - 'runningmate'

It was a pretty neat puzzle, and I was at the end of my rope with a 12 square block, wondering whether 'skin flick' was a pun or a porno. The answer was 'nudie' and I started laughing.

Things to know:
Capitol of Rwanda - Kigali
Ariel Sharon - Israeli Prime Minister since 2001

We've only just begun

A neat little puzzle by Alison Donald to kick off the week. Nothing too challenging about it.

Classic Charles Darwin work -"originofspecies"
What the love of money is, they say - "rootofallevil"
The Big Bang, to a physicist - "beginningottime"

Things to know:

Sinn Féin - means "ourselves" or "we ourselves" has been applied to a series of political movements since 1905 in Ireland.
Santa Isabel - Soloman Island Island
Bromo - stomach seltzer
Knit and Purl - stitching method

Crossworld, by Marc Romano

I just finsihed Marc Romano's new book, Crossworld: one man's journey into America's crossword obsession. I had great expectations for this book, as I was hoping it would do for crosswords, what Mark Fatsis' Word Freaks did to Scrabble. I suspect the sphere for these two books overlap considerably. However, Crossworld is not as exhilarant and enlightening, and while some of this faults on the inherent nature of crossword puzzles, I found the onus on the author's emphasis in the book.

The crossword puzzle tournament takes place over a weekend, as opposed to Fatsis' yearlong pursuit. Romano doesn't interact with as many characters as one would hope. The most exciting parts of the book came from quirky oddballs like Brendan Emmet Quigley and Will Shortz, as well as other puzzle constructors and competitors. However, their appearances were scant mainly because of the authors focus on his own experience. Since crossword is a solitary pursuit, where you compete with a passive constructor, all the thought process dwells in your own mind, and no one else is involved. This I found was the problem with the book, and Romano details a lot of his own thought process and experience of the experiment, from the side effects of taking calming drugs, to checking out females at the tournament, to his falling ill after the tournament. This kind of details and detours make the book more autobiographical than journalistic, and I found this to be both annoying and detracting from crosswords.

I was hoping for more insight to what kind of quirky people would construct puzzles, would do them and would attend this tournament specifically just for puzzling, but the insights on this were minimal. Another source of thrill for me was when Romano describes crossword puzzles, such as their themes and such. But since fewer than 10 puzzles are featured over the tournament, this thrill was also in short supply.

I also found Romano's musing about cultural differences between crosswords and their british counterpart (cryptic crossword) a bit lofty and circumloquatious. He takes a few sub chapters describing possible causes to this divergence, and only a few paragraphs in describing the actual differences. I am also very impressed by the vocabulary of this book, as well as the multitude of cultural allusions, making this a delight to the avid crossword solver. However, the authors style is both intellectual and distracting from the subject at hand, as I felt that too many tangetial comments were made for humorous effect. In short, I felt the emphasis on this book was slightly misplaced, and by making the author the main focus, it gives him ample space to amble on about himself and gives the reader the distracting thought that he's really padding out a shorter book.

You're going down

Sarah Keller gives us anTuesday with three titles linked by one word.

After 29-Down, a movie starring Diane Lane - "thetuscansun"
After 29-Down, a James Grippando thriller - "coverofdarkness"
After 29-Down, A Drifter's hit - "theboardwalk"
29-Down - "under"

Things I should know by now:
Author of "The Clan of the Cave Bear" - Jean Auel, the story is about wild child Ayla.
Bibi Osterwald - TV actress
Samovar - metal urn


Our google adventure today finds the top 10 longest river of Switzerland. Aar always comes up anyways:

1. Rhine - 375 km
2. Aar - 295 km
3. Rhône River - 264 km
4. Reuss River - 158 km
5. Linth / Limmat - 140 km
6. Saane/Sarine - 128 km
7. Thur - 125 km
8. Inn River - 104 km

Ceci n'est pas une ____

Eael Reed delivers a pitch perfect Monday crossword, with four clues that can be related with one word, and I didn't get it till I got it.

United Nations' goal - "worldpeace"
Bubbly drink mixer - "seltzerwater"
Musician's asset - "perfectpitch"
Something caught near the end of a race - "secondwind"
Word that can follow the end of the above -"pipe"

Today's Google adventure takes us to the streets and avenues of Atlantic City. There are 22 streets in the game of Monopoly (starting from Go):

Mediterranean Avenue
Baltic Avenue
Oriental Avenue
Vermont Avenue
Connecticut Avenue
St. Charles Place
States Avenue
Virginia Avenue
St. James Place
Tennessee Avenue
New York Avenue
Kentucky Avenue
Indiana Avenue
Illinois Avenue
Atlantic Avenue
Ventnor Avenue
Marvin Gardens
Pacific Avenue
North Carolina Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Park Place
Boardwalk

The original tokens are: a top hat, an iron, a Scottie dog, a battleship, a car, a wheelbarrow, a thimble, a cannon, a horse and rider, and an old boot.

A bit of trivia I found: Marvin Gardens has been mispelt since the first edition, after Marven Gardens.

What this puzzle takes

Nancy Salomon delivers a very sweet puzzle today, where the theme is united by just one word. It really is dazzling wordsmanship.

Hamburger center - "beefpatty"
Sore throat soother - "lemontea"
Chinese bowlful - "friedrice"
Sweet appetizer - "fruitcup"
Steaming mugful - "hotcoffee"
Word that can follow either half of the above - "cake"

Things to know:
amerind - contraction of "american indian"
Mudville Whiffer - Casey, based on the Ernest Thayer poem, Casey at the Bat.
Daughter of Saturn - Ceres (also Ops)

I think I should know by now who the three sister's are from the Chekov play:
Olga, Masha, Irina