03.14 Mon

M O N D A Y
March 14, 2011
Billie Truitt

Theme: Hard to describe but ... — Theme answers are familiar phrases that follow the pattern "[xx]ing [xx]g."

Theme answers:

• 17A: Lather-holding cup (SHAVING MUG).
• 25A: Sock mender's tool (DARNING EGG).
• 36A: Violin knob for pitch adjustments (TUNING PEG).
• 48A: Retriever or pointer (HUNTING DOG).
• 57A: Joke that gets funnier with repetition (RUNNING GAG).

Looks like we're starting the week off with a really solid Monday puzzle. As I was solving, I have to admit the theme did provoke a raised eyebrow, but the more I look at it the more I like it. And the reason I'm even looking at it again is to make sure I'm not missing something. Is there a vowel progression in the first words? Are the last words related in some way? No and no. But that's okay with me today. Say the phrases one right after the other. Even though it's difficult to describe their connection in words, they definitely go together.

Not much crosswordese in the grid today, which is a nice surprise for a Monday.

• 19A: Homely fruit (UGLI).
• 58D: Author Anaïs (NIN).

Crosswordese 101: This is more like Crosswordese 301, but you're ready for it, right? Dame NGAIO Marsh was an author who wrote mysteries. You will almost always see the words mystery, whodunit, and/or writer in clues for NGAIO (as in today's 34D: Whodunit writer Marsh). Other details to try to hold onto: she was a contemporary of Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner, and the protagonist in her books is a detective named Roderick Alleyn.

Entries that jumped out at me as particularly nice include WISE MEN, BIG NEWS, and ARUGULA (I don't like to eat it, but I do like to say it) (28A: Magi / 11D: Special report subject / 38D: Peppery salad green). It took me way too long to come up with DIET from its clue, 16A: Losing strategy? You'd think I'd be hip to that trick by now but apparently not. Love the clue for STINKS, 65A: Smells to high heaven; not so much the clue for AGE, 52A: 2011 minus year of birth, roughly.

38A: "AMEN to that!" is my colloquial phrase of the day. And, I tell you what. I must really like this puzzle because I'm not even going to rant about the horrible, horrible earworm of 41D: "Afternoon __": suggestive #1 hit of 1976 (DELIGHT). And that seems like something I would rant about, doesn't it?

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Everything Else — 1A: World Wide __ (WEB); 4A: Gunpowder element (SULFUR); 10A: Turns seaward (EBBS); 14A: Firefighter's tool (AXE); 15A: Dream up (CREATE); 20A: Eye part containing the pupil (IRIS); 21A: Timeline divisions (ERAS); 23A: Habit wearer (NUN); 24A: Kimono sashes (OBIS); 30A: Sweden neighbor (NORWAY); 31A: Utmost degree (NTH); 32A: Church instrument (ORGAN); 35A: Flag maker Betsy (ROSS); 40A: Ecstatic way to walk (ON AIR); 41A: Roman 700 (DCC); 44A: 1992 Olympic skating champ Yamaguchi (KRISTI); 46A: As an alternative (INSTEAD); 51A: Heidi's heights (ALPS); 53A: It replaced the franc (EURO); 54A: Handling the job (ON IT); 55A: Member of an Iraqi minority (KURD); 61A: "Now ___ me down ..." (I LAY); 62A: Complete (ENTIRE); 63A: Hurry, old-style (HIE); 64A: Clearance event (SALE); 66A: Blasting sply. (TNT); 1D: Used to be (WAS); 2D: Lettered piece of court evidence (EXHIBIT); 3D: Pessimistic about Wall Street (BEARISH); 4D: Biol. and chem. (SCIS.); 5D: Coffeepot for a crowd (URN); 6D: Jeans part (LEG); 7D: Hall of __: enshrined athlete (FAMER); 8D: One-eighty (U-TURN); 9D: Win back (REGAIN); 10D: Campus e-mail address letters (EDU); 12D: Sturgeon yielding expensive caviar (BELUGAS); 13D: Tight-fisted (STINGY); 18D: Workbench clamp (VISE); 22D: Noisy sleepers (SNORERS); 24D: Part of BYOB (OWN); 25D: Bruce of "Coming Home" (DERN); 26D: Prefix with -plasty (ANGIO); 27D: Pirate's quaff (GROG); 29D: Canadian lawman on horseback (MOUNTIE); 33D: Raggedy doll (ANN); 36D: Try out (TEST); 37D: Unwelcome engine sound (PING); 39D: Twenty Questions choice (MINERAL); 42D: Ship's leader (CAPTAIN); 43D: Jewel box contents, briefly (CD'S); 44D: Military pants (KHAKIS); 45D: Hardens (INURES); 47D: Zesty taste (TANG); 49D: McJob holder (GRUNT); 50D: "__ know you?" (DON'T I); 54D: Vending machine bills (ONES); 56D: Hair coloring agent (DYE); 59D: Rub the wrong way (IRK); 60D: Retrieve (GET).

T U E S D A Y December 14, 2010 Billie Truitt

Theme: Vowel Progression — Theme answers start with J+[vowel]+N.

Theme answers:

• 18A: Actress in a classic shower scene (JANET LEIGH).
• 23A: Weight management guru (JENNY CRAIG).
• 38A: 1996 Schwarzenegger Christmas comedy (JINGLE ALL THE WAY).
• 51A: Comedy Central satirist (JON STEWART).
• 56A: Kipling story collection, with "The" (JUNGLE BOOK).

I can only associate this type of theme with Andrea Carla Michaels, who has used it a number of times in that smooth early-week style of hers that I've come to know and love. (Andrea and I were going to collaborate on a puzzle with a vowel progression theme until I discovered that the specific words we were using (last, lest, list, lost, lust) had already been done — twice!)

Billie Truitt does a great job with this framework. All the theme answers are completely solid (well-known, not forced phrases), and it's hard to complain when the puzzle starts right off with the Scrabble-tastic NAVAJO and AD EXEC right in the northwest corner (1D: Hogan dweller / 2D: Madison Ave. VIP).

Bullets:

• 1A: Pathfinder org. (NASA). I have ridden in a Nissan Pathfinder exactly once in my life and I can only think of that vehicle when I see the word. I'm like "Pathfinder? That's a Nissan vehicle. … What the heck other kind of Pathfinder is there? …. Ohhhh yeah." Every. Single. Time.
• 15A: Tuckered out (BEAT).
  
• 17A: Siamese checkers? (VETS). Cute clue. A VETerinarian checks out Siamese cats. (Anyone else think Siamese twins first and wonder WTF the clue could possibly be getting at?)
• 31A: Lieut. producer (OCS). Officer's … something?
• 32A: Beaujolais's department (RHONE). I believe a department is the French equivalent of what we call a state.
• 44A: Sleepy colleague? (DOC). Got this one right away, didn't you? Repetition helps!
• 65A: Golfer Norman (GREG). I caught a glimpse of him on the TV just yesterday. Some young kid was referring to him as "Sharky." I get it that he's The Shark, but Sharky? I wonder if he's okay with that.
• 8D: Wonder of music (STEVIE).
  
• 21D: __ Beach: South Carolina resort (MYRTLE). If you're ever in Myrtle Beach and need a haircut, look for Joey. You won't be sorry.
• 26D: Adult doodlebug (ANTLION). I have No Idea what this means.
• 29D: Maggie Simpson's sister (LISA). For some reason, I read the clue as "Marge's sister" which, obviously, made this one a lot harder than it had to be.

Crosswordese 101: If you have a spot in your brain for movie directors, make sure to keep ANG Lee there. The Taiwanese director is often clued straightforwardly like today's 12D: Director Lee. If a movie is included in the clue, it's most likely to be: "Brokeback Mountain," "The Ice Story," "Taking Woodstock," "Hulk," "Sense and Sensibility," or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Other crosswordese in the puzzle that we've already covered:

• 5A: D-Day carriers (LST'S).
• 14A: Sixth Jewish month (ADAR).
• 49A: Most eligible for the draft (ONE-A).
• 68A: Standard Oil name (ESSO).
• 11D: Wahine's gift (LEI).
• 58D: Originally called (NÉE).

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Everything Else — 9A: Hi-tech classroom (PC LAB); 16A: Bowl, e.g. (ARENA); 20A: Geometry truth (AXIOM); 22A: Low-lying area (VALE); 27A: Low-lying area (DALE); 33A: Through (VIA); 34A: Blast from the past (A-TEST); 35A: Like this answer (ACROSS); 42A: Consensus builder (UNITER); 43A: Mountaineer's tool (ICE AX); 45A: Pops (SODAS); 46A: Inflation stat. (CPI); 53A: Leeway (ROOM); 55A: First name in morning talk (REGIS); 62A: Prefix with -gon (DECA); 63A: "The Interpretation of Dreams" author (FREUD); 64A: Italian bread? (EURO); 66A: Patched pants parts (KNEES); 67A: Barbecue specialty (RIBS); 3D: Some lustrous dresses (SATINS); 4D: Flaming offense (ARSON); 5D: Successor to 56-Down (LBJ); 6D: Bounding main (SEA); 7D: Salon acquisition (TAN); 9D: Cloud of gloom (PALL); 10D: Words to live by (CREED); 13D: Dickensian cry (BAH); 19D: Luggage label (TAG); 24D: Shout of approval (CHEER); 25D: Parks on a bus (ROSA); 28D: Declare (AVOW); 30D: Like pie? (EASY); 34D: Author's rep. (AGT.); 35D: Really got to (ATE AT); 36D: Milder drink than the one before it (CHASER); 37D: "Oedipus __" (REX); 38D: Karate kin (JUDO); 39D: Privy to (IN ON); 40D: "Good one!" ("NICE!"); 41D: Watch readouts, for short (LCD'S); 45D: Melancholy (SOMBER); 46D: Court shooters (CAGERS); 47D: Inflation drives them up (PRICES); 48D: "We're on!" ("IT'S A GO!"); 50D: Have a dispute (ARGUE); 51D: Average guy? (JOE); 52D: Club for most greenside shots (WEDGE); 54D: Auto pioneer (OLDS); 56D: He defeated RMN (JFK); 57D: Coffee source for a crowd (URN); 59D: Yes, to Yvette (OUI); 60D: Poetic planet (ORB); 61D: Levels, briefly (KO'S).