M O N D A Y October 4, 2010—Lila Cherry

Today's puzzle was not available online by the time I had to leave for work this morning. I'll post it later this evening when I get home. Sorry!
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Okay, now that Angela has left for work, we can play. Amy here with a copy of my Diary of a Crossword Fiend post.



THEME: "Gooey Sammich"—Five theme entries begin with the words PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH
The theme is a gooey PB&J sammich:

• 17a. [Sources of rowdy criticism] are PEANUT GALLERIES. Does that really take a plural? Singular feels much more familiar.
• 25a. BUTTERBALL is a [Turkey brand].
• 38a. The ampersand, or [&], may be informally called the AND SIGN.
• 49a. [Colorful plastic footwear] is JELLYSHOES. Don’t eat ‘em, folks.
• 59a. [Hawaii once comprised most of them] clues the SANDWICH ISLANDS.

I love some of the longer fill—STAND PAT, BEN STEIN the game show EMCEE, CHAMELEON, and PERCHANCE are terrific entries. Some of the short answers gave me more trouble, which I wasn’t expecting on a Monday (but then, it was before 7 a.m. when I was doing the puzzle, pre-breakfast and pre-caffeine):

• 1a. COCKY means [Self-confident to a fault]. Clear enough, but I drew a blank on it and skipped the upper right corner until later.
• 16a. [ROTC school WSW of Washington, D.C.] is VMI, or Virginia Military Institute. Voo Much Information!
• 32a. [Recline, biblically] clues LIETH. These biblical verb answers are a category of fill that I don’t care for.
• 2d. [Aptly named California coastal city] is indeed aptly named: OCEANSIDE. Too bad Oceanside is pretty much unknown to me.
• 6d. [Severity, in Soho] clues RIGOUR with the British “U” spelling (there’s a Soho in London as well as in New York City).
• 8d. This one was a gimme, but it troubled me. KIL. as [About .62 mi.] is awkward because km is the more widely accepted abbreviation for kilometer.
• 19d. [Opener's next call, in bridge] is REBID. My kid was asking about bridge the other day. My husband told him it was a game for very old people. I said “Hey! Brendan Quigley plays bridge.” My husband said he was an exception. So you see that we are not a bridge-embracing household. Nautical, poker, bridge, and biblical verbs—among my least favorite categories of fill.
• 48d. [Omega preceders], P*IS…is it PHIS or PSIS? I usually have to check the crossing to figure it out. It’s PSIS.
• 60d. [All-Pro Patriots receiver Welker] is named WES…but I’ve never heard of him, I don’t think. Current player, or player of yore?
• 62d. The CCU [Hosp. heart ward] doesn’t get much play in crosswords. It may stand for coronary care unit or cardiac care unit. Other *CUs besides the ICU include the SICU (surgical), MICU (medical), NICU (neonatal or neurological), and PICU (pediatric), none of which you are likely to encounter in crosswords.

Your assignment today is threefold, pupils. It's Blog-It-Yourself Day!

1. Head to YouTube and watch a video that today's puzzle evokes.
2. Do a Google image search on a word like JELLY or BUTTERBALL and find a goofy picture. No, better yet, find a hilarious picture to accompany the word REBID.
3. Nominate your own Crosswordese 101 entry from today's puzzle and see if it's already been covered here. If it hasn't, make up lies about the word.

P.S. Constructor "Lila Cherry" is one of editor Rich Norris's noms de plume.

P.P.S. Sorry about the font madness!