TUESDAY, February 2, 2010 — Bruce Venzke

Theme: "Get a Room!" — The second word of each theme answer is a type of room.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Laundry room device (STEAM PRESS).
• 27A: Nonmember's club amenity (GUEST LOCKER).
• 34A: Place for a dip on the road (HOTEL POOL).
• 47A: Patient strategy (WAITING GAME).
• 57A: Indisputable evidence (SMOKING GUN).
• 66A: Dorm unit, and word that can follow each word in 18-, 27-, 34-, 47- and 57-Across (ROOM).

Perfectly serviceable Tuesday puzzle today. Not super super easy, but nothing too flashy either. I know we've talked about this before, but I'm going to bring it up one more time. With these types of themes, it's much cooler and more elegant if the meaning of the overlapping word is different in the answer and in the resulting phrase. For example, in the phrase HOTEL POOL, pool refers to a swimming pool. In the resulting phrase — POOL ROOM — pool refers to billiards. See how that works? A steam PRESS is an appliance, but a PRESS room is where the media hangs out. You see where I'm going with this, don't you? A GUEST LOCKER is a small compartment at, say, a health club where you can lock up your things. It's found in a ... LOCKER ROOM. Locker means the same thing in both phrases. Not a hindrance to solving by any means, but just a little something to think about as you're getting more and more familiar with crossword puzzles.

I did notice several attempts at misdirection in the clues, which is always welcome:

• 23A: Havana residue (ASH). What kind of residue would you find in the city of Havana? I don't know ... sand? Ohhhhhh, you mean the cigar!

• 24A: Organ with a hammer (EAR). Not a musical instrument type of organ.
• 50A: Jones or Johnson (SURNAME). Were you trying to think of a first name to go with both of those last names? Did the number of possibilities make your head explode?
• 52A: West in old films (MAE). Not the direction, but the sexpot.
• 56D: Practice on canvas (SPAR). Painting, right? Wrong. Boxing.

Only a few other things jumped out at me:

• 17A: Links goals (PARS). I know this is perfectly legit and I've seen clues like this many times, but it makes me laugh every time. PuzzleHusband is a golfer and, while par is certainly cool, I think his goal a number a little lower than that. I can imagine it might also be a problem for golfers who have no chance of ever making par and are satisfied with a goal of, I don't know, 100? That seems to be a magic number for some golfers.
• 64A: Lead singer with The Police (STING). I met him once. Very briefly. Probably shouldn't even bring it up but, yeah. I met him.

• 8D: Triton's realm (SEA). PuzzleSon is into this book series right now that involves Greek Gods. Maybe you've seen the ads for the upcoming movie "The Lightning Thief"? that's the first book in the series. It's cool because now when I'm stuck on a mythology clue I just ask my ten-year-old. Gotta love that.
• 12D: Ilie of tennis (NASTASE). Pretty cool to see his last name instead of his first.
• 25D: Partner of hop and jump (SKIP). Funny story. I was looking for a clip of a song that has the line "you've got AMNESIA" (55A: Mental blackout). I can't remember anything else in the song except that one line and it sounds (in my head) like it might be Kix. So I went to Kix's website and look at their gateway page (it'll only take a sec). Pretty funny.
• 39D: Nose-dive (PLUMMET). Plummet is an excellent word.
• 40D: Trattoria dessert (TORTONI). Raise your hand if you got down to the S in tiramisu and realized it had too many letters.

• 49D: Family nickname (NANNIE). I'll be interested to know if any of you have ever heard NANNIE used as a family nickname. Maybe it's just because I live in a town where there are lots of NANNIEs, but I can't imagine anyone using that as a nickname when it already has its own family-relationship-type meaning. (As an aside, my eight-year-old daughter informed me the other day that she would like to have an au pair. I think I've got her running in the wrong crowd.)

Crosswordese 101: I'm just going to do a CW101 round-up today because there is some classic — classic — crosswordese in today's puzzle. The couple of other candidates in this puzzle that we haven't discussed already pale in comparison. If you had trouble with any of these words, do yourself a favor and take a minute to review them. These are words that appear again and again and again (and again and again) in puzzles. If they're gimmes for you, they might help you get a foothold in a spot where you desperately need one! So learn them!

• 15A: Film beekeeper (ULEE).
• 30A: "__ Beso": Anka song (ESO).
• 41A: Harem chamber (ODA).
• 65A: Graceful molding (OGEE).

Everything Else — 1A: Weary comment (AH ME); 5A: Rx's (MEDS); 9A: By oneself (ALONE); 14A: Square fare? (MEAL); 16A: Defunct flier with a blue-globe logo (PAN-AM); 20A: "Four Quartets" poet (T.S. ELIOT); 22A: Leavening agent (YEAST); 25A: Some daisies (SHASTAS); 31A: Printer brand (EPSON); 32A: Cone maker (FIR); 33A: Zoomed (SPED); 38A: __-date: current (UP-TO); 42A: Like Homo sapiens (HUMAN); 46A: Arafat's gp. until 2004 (PLO); 53A: Swaying direction (FRO); 54A: Crete peak: Abbr. (MT. IDA); 59A: Okra units (PODS); 61A: Mortise's mate (TENON); 62A: 1993 Nobelist Morrison (TONI); 63A: Land east of the Urals (ASIA); 1D: Roadie's load (AMP); 2D: Prepares, as leftovers (HEATS UP); 3D: Heron habitats (MARSHES); 4D: "Anything __?" (ELSE); 5D: Stan "The Man" of baseball (MUSIAL); 6D: Matador's opponent (EL TORO); 7D: Insect repellent ingredient (DEET); 9D: Perform on stage (APPEAR); 10D: "__ Theme": "Doctor Zhivago" melody (LARA'S); 11D: Basic dance (ONE STEP); 13D: Ambulance initials (EMS); 19D: Rescued damsel's cry (MY HERO); 21D: "... __ man put asunder" (LET NO); 23D: Some lie about theirs (AGE); 26D: Groundskeeper's buy (SOD); 28D: Artsy Manhattan area (SOHO); 29D: Key equivalent to B (C FLAT); 33D: Punch hard (SLUG); 35D: Without exception (TO A MAN); 36D: Falco of "The Sopranos" (EDIE); 37D: "Gosh" (OH GEE); 38D: Co. with brown uniforms (UPS); 43D: Crime family member (MAFIOSO); 44D: Medium with much talk (AM RADIO); 45D: Prefix with natal (NEO-); 47D: Walking in the shallows (WADING); 48D: Protected by shots, perhaps (IMMUNE); 51D: F-series camera maker (NIKON); 55D: Bug-eyed (AGOG); 57D: Bourbon et al.: Abbr. (STS.); 58D: Pontiac in a '60s hit song (GTO); 60D: "Casablanca" pianist (SAM).