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Constructor: Fred Piscop Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging THEME: FOUR/FOR/FORE — first words of three theme answers are homophones of one another Word of the Day: BARI (32D: Italian port on the Adriatic) — Seaport city (pop., 2001 prelim.: 332,143), capital of, southeastern Italy. Evidence shows that the site may have been inhabited since 1500 BC. Under the Romans it became an important port. In the 9th century AD it was a Moorish stronghold, but it was taken by the Byzantines in 885. Preached the First Crusade there in 1096. Razed by the Sicilians in 1156, it acquired new greatness in the 13th century under. It became an independent duchy in the 14th century, passed to the Kingdom of in 1558, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Concise Encyc.) - This was pretty bad all around. The theme is not just tired (again with the homophones), but poorly expressed. FORE AND AFT SAILS is particularly wobbly as a theme answer, and FOUR MINUTE MILER. Well, when I Google it, Google wants to know if I meant FOUR MINUTE MILE. FOR OLD TIMES' SAKE is nice, but it hardly matters.

The rest of the fill in this puzzle is dull and lazy. There is no way you should have MOIRES ( 19D: Fabrics with wavy patterns), BARI ( 32D: Italian port on the Adriatic), and LAMINA ( 36D: Thin layer) in your Monday puzzle. Those are all dusty, high-end crosswordese words that you should pull out only if you have no other options. On a Monday, with such an easy grid to fill (your 'long' answers are six letters, for god's sake), maybe you get one of those words, but not three. ( 61A: Poetic nights). The very best part of this puzzle is WAMPUM ( 5D: Indian beads used as money). The rest, you can have back.

No idea why this passes muster in the NYT. Last time I saw LAMINA. Well, I didn't like that puzzle either, but at least. Theme answers:. 17A: Roger Bannister was the first ( FOUR-minute miler). 35A: How something may be done, nostalgically ( FOR old times' sake) — Nostalgically works fine just by itself. 54A: Features of yawls or ketches ( FORE and aft sails) Bullets:.

39A: Old competitor of PanAm (TWA) — do we need 'old?' 'PanAm' already conveys old (as in bygone, as in no more). 42A: Mensa-eligible (smart) — this is just inaccurate.

You have to get a certain score on a test to qualify for Mensa, don't you? So simply being SMART is irrelevant. This clue assumes the Mensa test is an accurate measure of SMARTness. I have never understood the desire to be in Mensa. 43A: Area west of the Mississippi (plains) — true enough, but weirdly hard for me to see coming at it backwards, -INS.

49A: Visitor in 'District 9' (alien) — nice, timely clue. 60A: Fabric introduced by DuPont (Orlon) — would make a good ALIEN name. 11D: Politico Sarah (Palin) — get used to it. She's never going away. 29D: Predecessor of bridge (whist) — don't play bridge, wasn't aware it had a lineage.

Know WHIST from 18c. Novels, I think. 55D: 40 winks (nap) — I had NOD at first. See you tomorrow, Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld on Twitter.

tell me more about Graham. Was not a fan of EURO AREA ( 76A: Currency union since 1999), which (still) sounds made-up. Was a fan of the fully named THOM MCAN ( 66A: Shoe brand reputedly named after a Scottish golfer), a guy whose first and last names have good grid cred, but aren't known for hanging out together. Bullets:.

1A: Singer Lambert, runner-up on the 2009 'American Idol' (Adam) — something about the 'the' in this clue makes it sound like it's being uttered by a very old person who doesn't watch the show: 'Is that that fella from the 'Idol?' He's gay, ya know.'

. 29A: Hymn whose second line is 'Solvet saeclum in favilla' ('Dies Irae') — like THOM MCAN (bet no one's ever said.that. about DIES IRAE before), this answer usually only contributes half of itself to the grid.

46A: Maker of Fosamax and Zocor (Merck) — I botched this at first because I typed in YOU AND I instead of YOU AND ME at 5D: Us, and it somehow fit because I typed it in fast without looking where the letters were going and everything was in the wrong place and long story short I thought this answer began with 'D'. 48A: Covered walkway (stoa) — knew it was one of those Greek words. Took a few beats to remember it.

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84A: 1991 Tony winner Daisy (Eagan) — hell no. No chance (except thru crosses). Never heard of her. Whatever you say. 55D: 'Excalibur' star Williamson (Nicol) — hell no.

And I've seen 'Excalibur.' NICOL Williamson is the Daisy EAGAN of 'Excalibur.'

. 120A: Modern home of the biblical Elam (Iran) — good guess. ELAM shows up in puzzles from time to time, often as an NFL place kicker. 128A: Bob in the Olympics (sled) — did not know 'Bob' could stand independently of 'sled' like this. 3D: 'It's Time to Cry' singer, 1959 (Anka) — his daughter is married to Jason Bateman (of 'Arrested Development' fame).

I just learned that this week from NPR's 'Fresh Air.' Nuns.?. 14D: French river craft (bateau) — 'river?' True, but 'bathtub' is just as true. 'Bateau' simply means 'boat.'

. 15D: National monument site since 1965 (Ellis Island) — would make a nice seed entry in an Egyptian Gods-themed puzzle. 81D: Music in Mysore (raga) — Mysore = #failedsocialnetworkingsitenames. 89D: Wii alternative (XBOX) — XBOX is god's gift to crossword constructors. A convenient way to squeeze 'X's into tiny corners of your grid.

WII is also a divine gift. Double-I that doesn't come from a ridiculous Latin ending or a pope or an act in a play.

99D: NBC inits. Since 1975 (SNL) — 'Saturday Night Live,' of course. '1975' is often the giveaway for SNL. 102D: Cry after the rap of a hammer ('sold!' ) — I like this clue. My first thought was 'order!' .

34D: Company name that becomes another company name if you move the first letter to the end (Avis) — goes to VISA. I misread the clue and kept wondering what SAVI was known for. Time for the Tweets of the Week (chatter about crosswords culled from 'Twitter'). Forgot about this feature last week, so some of these are saved up. Thanks to PuzzleGirl for helping me keep track of these. I am 5 squares away from finishing my first times crossword puzzle. All comments about it being monday can be kept to yourself.

Buy a crossword puzzle book, let your local Liberal Newspaper die!. In Touch magazine crossword clue: kings of Leon song: '(blank) Somebody'. Why do i try and do the crossword puzzle every sunday, when i know its just gonna piss me off?. sometimes I hate my job!

Just been sorting out the crosswords for bank holiday weekend, nightmare and woe-betide me if I get it wrong. we literally get thousand of complaints if there is ever anything amiss with the crosswords, not usually a design job apart from specials. most important lesson i learned in the newspaper biz?

If you eff-up the daily crossword layout, you better run for your life. You know you're a Star Wars nerd when the crossword answer to 'Like Darth Vader' is 'EVIL' and you think, 'well, it's not that simple'. I suck at crossword puzzles. I just assume all the answers are kitty, glitter, or bob saget. I'm wrong every time. Here's something I posted on Twitter yesterday, but you all should know about it: 'New weekly crossword puzzle @, written by Matt Gaffney. Make it a habit.

' — Matt Gaffney will now be writing a weekly puzzle (every Thursday) for the newsertainment website 'The Daily Beast.' Sunday-sized puzzles, about Wednesday-level of difficulty (so far). He's done two already. (from which you can get to the second).

Until 'The Daily Beast' can develop a good applet and/or make puzzles available for download in AcrossLite, I recommend simply printing the puzzle out and solving on paper. Finally, though it has nothing to do with the puzzle, I'm posting my new favorite photograph of all time: my best friend, August 11, 1977.

There is nothing about this photo that is not great. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld on Twitter. Constructor: David Quarfoot Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging THEME: none Word of the Day: Ion ILIESCU (13D: Two-time president of Romania) — Iliescu is widely recognized as the predominant figure in the first fifteen years of post- politics. During his terms Romanian politics stabilized, and Romania joined. However, he is often accused by political opponents and journalists of retaining convictions and allegiances, as well as tolerating corruption in the party he led (successively named FSN, FDSN, PDSR, and PSD) and his administrations. (wikipedia) — ILIESCU is the Grover Cleveland of Romanian politics: non-consecutive terms! ('90-'92, '92-'96.

2000-'04) - First, thrilled to see David Quarfoot back and publishing puzzles again after a long break. Second, thrilled to have torn this puzzle up from NW to SE. Absolutely shredded it. Headed for some kind of new Friday record. Which brings me to third: utter debasement in the NE and SW corners. Those corners may as well have been separate puzzles.

The NE alone took me as long as the entire rest of the puzzle (SW corner excluded), and SW, while somewhat more pliable, still didn't behave. Final analysis: a Wednesday/Thursday puzzle with crazy Saturday appendages, which puts the whole thing in the tough Friday range. A very, very enjoyable, if humbling, Friday experience. Key to my face plant was TO A HAIR ( 12D: Right in every detail), which I've never heard before and couldn't see until the very, very last letter up there. Very rough, esp. Next to ILIESCU ( 13D: Two-time president of Romania), half of whose name I inferred (I'll let you guess which half); the other half I just waited out.

If I hadn't been able to get ACT IV, I'm not sure when VAN DYKE would have fallen ( 14D: Facial feature with a point) — I was sure the clue was going for a non-human 'face' of some kind (watch?). 29A: Second indicator? Sent me looking for SILVER or PLACE, when I should have gone back to the 'watch' idea that was wrong at 14D. And apparently I have no idea what Chaffed means.

With that initial 'J' in place, it should have been easy. But I had JARRED. Later I had (or wanted) JOLTED.

To 'chaff' is to joke around? Yes, 'to tease in a good-natured way.' Throw in two (more) '?'

Clues in 10D: Superior title? (Abbot) and 11D: One with staying power? (corset), and the whole corner spells disaster. Doable disaster, but disaster nonetheless.

SW was tough because I had only the ERROR in 53A: A bug may cause it (fatal error), and so no real access to the quadrant. Hate it when answers break in two like that. ERROR, indeed. After that, it was tentative entry after tentative entry. Never can keep LARGO and LENTO straight, so tested both, off and on, until one ended up sticking ( 54D: Funeral march direction). Guessed SSS right off, though wasn't sure of it for a while ( 39A: Recruiting org.).

Tried SHA NA NA at 40D: Title syllables in a hit 1964 song, though I knew that those 'N's might be 'L's. Basically I'm floating in a mess of 'S's and 'A's until my BRAIN ( 18A: Major processing center) finally picked up the word play at 41D: Swiftly done? Never been so happy to see an 'R' and a 'C' in all my life. Biggest 'aha' moment of the puzzle was the 'X' to get the very clever SAFE SEX ( 39D: Transmission blocker?). Smallest 'aha' moment: AHAS ( 48A: Words teachers like to hear).

This clue is absurd. I have never heard a student say 'AHA' in 18 years of teaching ('well I guess that says something about your teaching skills, chuckle chortle'). Maybe a drawn out 'ohhhh,' but AHA, no. Plus AHA is barely a 'word,' and certainly doesn't want to be a plural. Thought answer might be I SEE or even YES'M. But this answer is the lone FAIL in an otherwise marvelous puzzle. Bullets:.

1A: Rallying cry supported by some monks ('Free Tibet!' ) — I always associate the slogan with white college kids and Whole Foods shoppers, but I'm sure monks actually do support the 'cry,' even if they don't really utter it. 15A: Company with a maple leaf logo (Air Canada) — gigantic gimme. Those are always nice.

17A: 2004 horror film about a passed-on curse ('The Grudge') — I think it has Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress in it. Yes, Sarah Michelle Gellar.

That is all I know about 'THE GRUDGE.' . 19A: Memorable 1968 movie villain (Hal) — see, I dropped FATHEAD in at 1D: Dolt first thing, with no crosses in place, which is some serious crossword idiot savant!@#@. I then went about plucking the NW Acrosses out of the air, one by one.

HAL was probably the answer that confirmed that FATHEAD was right. 28A: Jazz-loving TV sleuth of the 1950s-'60s (Gunn) — I do not know his show. I know only his (ultra-famous) theme: As a kid, I probably heard this version first. 30A: He sighted and named Natal on Christmas Day of 1497 (Da Gama) — only question here was with the 'DA'. Went with 'E' at first, until RIHANNA sorted me out ( 2D: One-named Grammy winner of 2007).

37A: Hawthorne novel stigma (Red A) — midway point on a very quick ride from BAD DOG ( 7D: Rebuke to Bowser) to SODAS ( 52A: Pops). Very 50s/60s vibe to this whole puzzle, now that I think about it. Something about 'Pops' (as slang for an older man) and SODA jerks gets me to 'Bowser,' who was in SHA NA NA (I know that's not the answer to 40D, but it's close. Just hear me out). I thought SHA NA NA were the ones who sang 'Get A JOB' ( 38D: Do on), but they didn't. That was The Silhouettes.

Anyway, 'Get A JOB' features the syllables SHA NA NA, which sound a lot like SHA LA LA. Listen: But the title song in question at 40D 'SHA LA LA' is this one, by The Shirelles: Here's a cover: And here's a completely different song:. 50A: Princess Fiona's voicer in 'Shrek' (Diaz) — 'voicer.'

There's a word only a crossword clue could love. 64A: High-tech subscription aid (e-list) — no idea what the clue was going for at first. 65A: Construction with many locks (Erie Canal) — the AIR CANADA of this quadrant: long and easy. 67A: Where 'all the people that come and go stop and say hello' ('Penny Lane') — couldn't find the tune by saying the words aloud, but somehow 'PENNY LANE' leapt forth anyway. 5D: Napoleon's cousin (tart) — oh, that Napoleon. 6D: Kayak propeller (Inuit) — can't argue with that logic. 25D: Wood blemish (knar) — went with GNAR, which is something Bowser does, I think.

27D: Kaffiyeh-clad commander (emir) — learned 'Kaffiyeh' from crosswords, possibly from another EMIR clue just like this one. 45D: Legendary soprano Patti (Adelina) — 'PEPPERMINT' wouldn't fit. 'Legendary soprano' will almost invariably mean 'meaningless name' to me. That was true here. Patti LUPONE is the only Patti I know. 46D: Swiss Guards' setting (Vatican) — wanted something like LES ALPES, though 'VAT-' certainly narrowed things down. 47D: Destroyer in 2000 headlines (USS Cole) — thought this might have something to do with ELIAN, for some reason (no good reason, that's for sure).

Happily, or sadly, I was wrong. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld on Twitter PS time is running out to get in on Eric Berlin's 'Game Night Crosswords' — go for more details. Constructor: Derek Bowman Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging THEME: A PATTERN — circled squares form inverted 'pyramid' with seven rows. First row contains word PATTERN, and subsequent rows lose one letter at a time, spelling new words each time, until the final row, which contains the single circled square 'A.' Further, the word in each row provides the clue for an answer in the grid; thus seven different clues read First row, Second row, etc. Word of the Day: EPHOR (2A: Ancient Spartan magistrate) — n., pl.ors or -ori ( -ə-rī ').

One of a body of five elected magistrates exercising a supervisory power over the kings of Sparta. Latin ephorus, from Greek ephoros, from ephorān, to oversee: ep-, epi-, epi- + horān, to see.- Fussy puzzles always leave me lukewarm. This is a fine piece of construction, but I didn't enjoy solving it.

A pretty good gauge of my enjoyment level is how succinctly the theme can be explained. Now, it's a faulty gauge, because 'Breeds of Dog,' for example, is succinct, but apt to suck as a theme. But in general, elegance means simplicity.

Brilliant simplicity = ideal. Today's puzzle combines two theme types (both of them on Brendan Emmett Quigley's list of ',' a must-read), and makes something ambitious and novel out of them. Thus, not bull@#$! You've got your 'assorted circled letters spell out a word' theme (Bull@#$!

Theme #4) combined with your 'theme clues are words made from a single original word, which sheds one letter at a time as we move from theme clue to theme clue' (Bull@#$! Puzzle manages to pull off both theme types while also maintaining geometrical precision with the circles.

Just not a joy to solve. There is nothing, thematically, holding the puzzle together. Clues, answers. Have nothing in common, meaning-wise.

The puzzle is all about shape, all about letter placement. Letters as objects, not components of words whose meanings are important. That kills things a bit for me.

Then there's the fact that the theme clues are First row, Second row, etc. This seems wrong.

First row OF CIRCLES is what you mean. There are 15 rows in the puzzle. So I admire the creativity and ambition here, but the puzzle wasn't my cup. The Rows:. PATTERN — 52A: First row (design). PATTER — 51D: Second row (spiel).

PATER — 43D: Third or sixth row (dad). PATE — 64A: Fourth row (head). PAT — 4D: Fifth row (dab). PA — 43D: Third or sixth row (dad). A — 61D: Seventh row (one) Once again, NW was a total bear for me.

Moccasins have BEADs ( 1A: Moccasin adornment)? I thought they were just simple slip-on shoes, relatively unadorned. There must be a native American type that is more pimped out. Thought I was dealing with a rebus for a moment at the Peck clue, trying to get ATTICUS to fit in 17A: Literary lead role for Gregory Peck in 1956 (Ahab). And EPHOR is a word I'm sure I've seen before, but I couldn't remember it ( 2D: Ancient Spartan magistrate). Still looks alien to me. (Btw, sort of, why have I never seen in the puzzle?

It's a valid answer, a baseball answer, and those two 'E's have to be good for something.). Early attempts at understanding the circled squares were not great. Noticed the 'P's descending down the left of the triangle, and then the 'A's on the next 'row,' etc. And tried predicting where letters would be that way — with much failure.

Once I'd convinced myself there was no rebus, and that the 'row' clues would just come to me eventually, I got far enough in to the grid to figure out what I was dealing with, and it all came together fairly nicely. This is a good example of the difficulty coming not from the clues/answers, per se, but from the gimmick. Get the gimmick, get the puzzle. Bullets:. 13A: With 14-Across, Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam have each won this several times (LPGA / TITLE) — clue confused me. LPGA TITLE is not a single thing.

It's any tournament on the tour. The 'this' in the clue made me think the answer would be an event, not an event type. I had LADY in the first part and TOURS in the second at different points in my attempts to solve this. 29A: New York's Institute (art school) (Pratt) — I know this place from watching too much 'Project Runway' over the years. PRATT and PRATTLE in same grid is mildly unfortunate.

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33A: C7H5N3O6 (TNT) — whatever you say. Got it all from crosses. 46A: Stereo component (preamp) —??? Preamplifier: n.

An electronic circuit or device that detects and strengthens weak signals, as from a radio receiver, for subsequent, more powerful amplification stages. 7D: Japanese butler in 'Auntie Mame' (Ito) — never seen this clue for ITO before. Judge ITO's heyday is long gone, I guess. 8D: Mickey Mouse's puppy pal (Pluto) — uh. Yeah, I guess he.is. a 'puppy.'

Puppies aren't usually as big as their owners. 9D: Shipping magnate Onassis (Ari) — shouldn't something cue the short form of his name? I mean, I can see that ARISTOTLE doesn't fit, but still, aren't there rules about this sort of thing?.

33D: Gene Roddenberry-inspired sci-fi series ('Andromeda') — couldn't tell you a single thing about it. 34D: Metallic shade, in Sheffield (steel grey) — 'Sheffield' because a. It alliterates with 'shade,' and b. Because 'GREY' with an 'E' is British, though I can never remember the US/UK distinction there. 53D: Classic Broadway musical with the song 'Alice Blue Gown' ('Irene') — so classic I forgot to hear about it. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld on Twitter PS PuzzleGirl's excellent, extended write-up of this past weekend's 'Lollapuzzoola 2' tournament in Queens can be found.

Eric Berlin is a veteran crossword constructor as well as the author of the outstanding (puzzle mysteries — my daughter loves them). He has constructed a special suite of crosswords. This is a project Eric started on kickstarter.com, so (as he says below), if you paid months ago via kickstarter, you have already bought these puzzles. They're going to be released any day now (August 31, to be exact). Here's a full description of the puzzles, including instructions on how to purchase them (cheap). Game Night Crosswords! Eric Berlin presents nine crosswords based on nine great games!

Solve puzzles based on Clue, Pictionary, Balderdash, Mouse Trap, and more! Put all the answers together, send in your final answer phrase, and win a prize! (Maybe - one random correct answer will be drawn.) What's the prize? That's for you to figure out! The nine puzzles are at about a Thursday level of difficulty on the New York Times scale - some a little easier, some a little harder. The average solver will get many hours of solving entertainment. Will be released on August 31.

To be eligible for the contest, pay now using Amazon Payments (preferred) or Paypal - just choose the appropriate button below. You will be e-mailed with the location of the puzzles on the day they become available. NOTE: These are the puzzles that were created with funding raised by Kickstarter.

If you have already donated money to Eric Berlin through Kickstarter, you have already purchased these puzzles and do not need to buy them again! One more note: This is not a speed-solving competition. I'm not going to make you race through all nine puzzles on that one day! (Though I bet some of you do that anyway.) You'll have a full two weeks to solve all the crosswords and send me your final answer - that should be doable for just about everyone reading this. Click now to purchase Game Night Crosswords for just $5.99! Via Amazon: via Paypal.

Constructor: Bob Johnson Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium THEME: HYBRID VEHICLES (56A: Cars suggested by 20-, 26- and 48-Across?) — theme answers are two-word phrases where the two words are both car models Word of the Day: ROHAN (34A: Realm of Tolkien's Middle Earth) — Rohan is a realm in 's era of. It is also referred to as Riddermark or The Mark. The realm is of significant importance in the author's most famous book,. (wikipedia) - Liked the concept and the answer, did not like the cluing. Made-up phrases like these should have '?' On their clues. Is there an urban MALIBU, such that SUBURBAN MALIBU would make any sense?

It does not appear so. Thus SUBURBAN MALIBU is not a viable phrase. Neither is ACCORD ELEMENT or MUSTANG ESCAPE. This doesn't mean they're not good theme answers — they are.

Just put a '?' On the end of each one, and then the car make name in brackets, and you're there (not sure I like the 'think' part of each theme clue, but that's a minor detail). Outside the theme, the puzzle was extremely easy — sub-Monday. This made ROHAN stand out like an extremely sore thumb. Saw all those 'Lord of the Rings' movies, but did not remember this. Never read the books, but I have to believe that even some people who read them couldn't dredge this one up easily. ROHAN has never been in a published daily crossword puzzle.

Not in the past 15 years or so, anyway. ZERO instances of the word in the cruciverb database.

I often look up what I think are odd or weird words when I see them in grids, and I have never, ever looked one up that had no grid cred at all, especially on Tuesday. Seems an OK answer for a Thurs-Sunday puzzle, but here? Compared to everything around it.

It's out-of-place. Jarringly so. Feels like this whole puzzle could have / should have been made into a decent Wednesday with some tougher cluing. Theme answers:.

20A: Residential area of California think Chevy (Suburban Malibu). 26A: Start of a stampede think Ford (Mustang Escape).

48A: Part of a peace treaty think Honda (Accord Element) I like that the pairs are all odd-ball pairings — car + SUV. Accentuates the whole idea of HYBRID. Tore through the puzzle with only a couple of hiccups along the way. I wrote in SULTAN where MULLAH was supposed to go ( 51D: Islamic leader).

I was cutting a diagonal through the puzzle, from NW to SE, and tried to get 51D off the 'U' from TAU ( 55A: Letter-shaped cross. Aren't all crosses, by definition, letter shaped?). I also floundered a bit in the southern section with 50D: Bring back, as a fashion.

No good reason. Just couldn't see REVIVE. In fact, I needed five letters (!) before I got it. I mean, even REVI- wasn't helping. I think of 'Wide Load' as being a sign on a home that is being moved, which is not exactly the same as a MOBILE HOME ( 11D: It might have a 'wide load' sign). I think I'm conflating MOBILE HOMEs and RVs/campers and trailers (i.e.

In trailer parks). Some homes are more mobile than others. I like the answer, just as I like its symmetrical counterpart, SUNDAY BEST ( 28D: Going-to-church clothes). Bullets:.

14A: Georgia Music Hall of Fame city (Macon) — read this as 'George of the Music Hall of Fame'. 16A: Fashion line named for a sport (polo) — weird that a sport hardly anyone in America plays or understands should be the focal point of an extremely popular apparel brand. Why is there no JAI ALAI brand competing for this 'mysterious exotic sports we don't understand' market?.

43A: Locale of many outsourced jobs (India) — POLO makes me think of INDIA, and now I know why: The modern game of polo, though formalized and popularized by the, is derived from (now a state in ) who played the game known as ','Kanjai-bazee', or 'Pulu'. It was the anglicised form of the latter, referring to the wooden ball which was used, that was adopted by the sport in its slow spread to the west.

The first polo club was established in the town of in, India, in 1834. (wikipedia). 64A: Colonel North, informally (Ollie) — I like the stacked 5s in the SE because together they sound like a ridiculous dance: The OLLIE WALLY SHAKE.

69A: Rose who surpassed Cobb (Pete) — surpassed him in base hits. Yesterday was the of Rose's lifetime ban from baseball. 30D: Conqueror of Valencia, 1094 (El Cid) — Wonder if anyone is sitting there wondering 'what's an Elcid?' . 46D: Dugongs or manatees (seacows) — thank god 'manatees' was in this clue. Can't remember ever hearing of a dugong before.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld on Twitter. Constructor: Anthony J. Salvia Relative difficulty: Medium THEME: DQ — theme answers are 3 people (1 real, 2 fictional) and a fast food chain, all of whose initials are D.Q. Word of the Day: DINK (55A: Softly hit ball in tennis) — n. A two-career couple with no children.

A member of such a couple. D(ual) I(ncome) N(o) K(ids).OR n. From dink, sound of a weakly hit or dropped ball. OR n. Offensive Slang. Used as a disparaging term for a North Vietnamese soldier or guerrilla in the Vietnam War.

Origin unknown.- A straightforward Monday puzzle. No bells and whistles, just a bunch of phrases with one feature in common. Actually, the four 'Q's are at least a bell, if not a whistle, and they lead to at least one nice word in the crosses: BAROQUE ( 40D: Like the works of Handel and Bach).

Other than that, not much to laugh (or cry) about. I rated it 'Medium' for difficulty, though honestly I have no idea how difficult it was. I filled some out, and then went downstairs or dinner, and then filled the rest of it out in front of the TV, so whether this would have taken me 3 minutes or 4 (and that's a chasm where difficulty level is concerned), I don't know.

I fell into at least one trap — SHAPE for SOLID ( 44D: Sphere or cube) — and I needed a lot of help to get FLARED UP ( 36D: Came back, as allergies; wanted it to start RE-) — and I simply couldn't think of an answer for either 23A: Little article accompanying a bigger article (sidebar) or 45A: Plaza displays (parades) at first glance. I have never seen a PARADE in a 'plaza.'

Just on streets. PARADES through plazas makes me think only of communist countries (U.S.S.R., N. Korea, with the precision military marching and tanks and what not). Theme answers:.

17A: Tilter at windmills (Don Quixote) — I feel like I'm tilting every time I try to read it. Furthest I've got is something like 500 pages. You'd think that if I got that far I could finish. 11D: Star of 'The Rookie,' 2002 (Dennis Quaid) — not his most famous film (I don't think), thus an odd clue for a Monday. 25D: Medicine woman of 1990s TV (Doctor Quinn) — the show is called 'DR. QUINN, Medicine Woman.'

This seems important. 49A: Place to order a Blizzard (Dairy Queen) — as soon as I got DOCTOR QUINN (which revealed the theme), I went looking for DAIRY QUEEN. Bullets:. 19A: City NNW of Oklahoma City (Enid) — In Crossworld, ENID is the OSLO of the U.S., with one exception — if I'd never done a crossword, I would still have heard of OSLO. 29A: Biblical objects of multiplication (loaves) — first thought: FISHES?. 9D: Detest (execrate) — that's a great verb, even if it is a little too close to EXCRETE for my comfort.

10D: Think creatively (ideate) — one of my most hated crossword words. 27D: Pagoda instruments (gongs) — handy that I only recently learned that a 'pagoda' was not a store in the barrio. 45D: Argentine dictator who was ousted in 1955 (Peron) — why am I reading words backwards today.

PERON has NO REP. ENID wants to DINE. ENOLA is ALONE at the top of the list of famous planes in Crossworld.

Final dispatch from the Lollapuzzoola tournament this past weekend. I don't know of any other recaps out there — when I learn of them, I'll link to them. Are the results from the tournament. I feel like I should mention some of my regular readers/commenters who were there, like mac and HudsonHawk and PhillySolver. I should also mention the amazingly delicious and enjoyable post-tournament dinner I had with Tony Orbach, Patrick Blindauer, and Patrick's girlfriend Rebecca Young. Patrick and Rebecca are now doing some co-constructing, and if the puzzles are anything like they are when they get together, then those puzzles will be.

I want to say 'garrulous' or 'sassy' or 'filled with clues that are hilarious and perfect but so offensive they will never see print.' Tony Orbach is the sweetest, friendliest guy you'll ever meet. I have no idea how I'm going to find the strength to go on undervaluing his puzzles, but I'll try. Anyway, that's all about that. For all those who have ever wanted to go to a tournament but thought they weren't good enough: Your Skill Level Is Virtually Irrelevant. If you really like xwords and you can hack your way through even a Wednesday puzzle, you should go.

I hope more small, affordable regional tournaments like this start turning up across the country. They're a great way to add to the social dimension of this hobby. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld on Twitter PS big thanks to treedweller for filling in for me on Saturday. I know lots of struggling solvers who appreciated the write-up immensely. An easy and somewhat lackluster Sunday. A single letter change seems an insufficient basis for a Sunday-sized puzzle theme.

And just six theme answers? I feel cheated. Plus I just hate the word 'DOINGS,' and the phrase 'E.U. DOINGS' has no currency and thus makes a strange title for a puzzle.

Maybe PuzzleGirl will feel differently about the puzzle. She was supposed to do this write-up with me, but when we returned from yesterday's crossword tournament in Queens, she had what she believed was a migraine and went straight to bed. She's still sleeping. The apartment we're staying in gets the NYT delivered, but. It was some small version with no magazine (!?!?!). What the hell? I'd say someone stole parts of the paper, but there's only one other apt on this floor, and I don't think anyone's home.

I was looking forward to some good old-fashioned dead-tree solving, but no. Back on-screen again. Had next to no problems with this puzzle (despite the usual small assortment of mystery answers).

The one part that baffled me was the 5A: Logical beginning? (patho-) / 9D: Native: Suffix (-ote) crossing.

I tried and failed to think of a resident of anywhere that ended in -OTE. I could think of tons of -ITES, but no -OTES. So despite the fact that I knew knew knew the prefix had to be PATHO-, not PATHI-, I wavered for a bit at the very end when deciding what vowel to put here as my final answer. What's a good example of an -OTE-suffixed word? All I can think of are COYOTES and PEYOTES. Had a fantastic time at Ryan and Brian's 'Lollapuzzoola II' crossword tournament yesterday.

There were close to 80 contestants, plus an assortment of prominent constructors and other folks helping run the event. I don't know how well I did, as for some reason I didn't bother to check final results (not sure if they were even posted).

Hang on, I'm going to check now. Hey, I came in 12th! That is also, without a doubt, as close as you will ever see my name to that of Ellen Ripstein (former ACPT champ who sat next to and embarrassed the hell out of me throughout the day). O man, Poor PuzzleGirl.

She was 5 points (out of over 7000) away from being on stage for the 'Local Division' Finals. I was in the 'Express Division,' which meant I was assured of winning nothing, but I had a blast nonetheless, and the puzzles were of very high quality. Nearly every puzzle had some added dimension (a Boggle dimension, an 'act out the theme answer' dimension, etc.) — on the final puzzle, Ryan and Brian actually performed the clues for the theme answers on stage. You had to pay attention, because on paper the clues simply said 'Movie 1,' 'Movie 2,' etc. There was a version of 'Family Feud' (which PG and I missed because we spent too long at lunch), and an interstitial game of Yahtzee that was won by a former student of mine, Aaron Riccio (whom I was happily surprised to see there). It was great to see some younger contestants there. Had a nice conversation with Aaron and Neville 'Don't Call Me Longbottom' Fogarty and Laura Radloff, all of whom were really smart and funny.

Lots and lots of familiar names and faces there too. Too many to mention. Will Shortz showed up at the very end for the Finals (I should mention that Dan Feyer was the tourney's big winner). R&B will certainly have their own recap.

All in all, a wonderful, well-run, affordable tournament with a pleasantly relaxed and informal vibe. I'll certainly do more to promote it next year. 21A: House Republican V.I.P. Cantor (Eric) — House Whip (not quite as good as Reddi-Whip). I was going to post a video here, but for various reasons (not all of them having to do with Cantor himself), they were all unbearable, as most of what passes for political discussion on television is these days. 27A: The Jaguars, on scoreboards (JAX) — they really do have the best scoreboard name abbrev. Of any team in any sport anywhere.

28A: 'White trash,' e.g. (slur) — this answer is weird to me. Most of what we call 'slurs' would Never have been printed in a NYT puzzle clue, and yet 'white trash' is OK.

Could any other 'slur' (particularly a racial slur) have gone here without offending the hell out of a chunk of the puzzle's audience?. 36A: 12-time Pro Bowl player Junior (Seau) — rhymes with 'SAY Ow,' not BUTTER BUSINESS BUREAU. 39A: Neural network (rete) — never saw this clue, which is nice, because RETE is one of my least favorite bits of desperate crossword fill. 50A: Largest city paper in the U.S.: Abbr. (NYT) — Vain much? And 'largest' how?

(I know the answer is 'circulation'). 63A: It was destroyed by Godzilla in 'Godzilla Raids Again' (Osaka) — I would pay good money to see a western called 'Godzilla Rides Again.' First step, and biggest challenge: casting Godzilla's horse. 73A: Cantilevered window (oriel) — just realized that two of my favorite high-end crossword words have the same vowel pattern: ORIEL and OSIER. This is interesting only to me so I'm not sure why I'm typing it. 76A: Extinct relative of the emu (moa) — gigantic NZ birds and occasional prey of the equally extinct HAAST'S EAGLE (still waiting for that one to appear in a grid). 83A: Chinmoy (late spiritual leader) (Sri) — total guess.

113A: Pitcher Reynolds of the 1940s-'50s Yankees (Allie) — they could've used him last night. That would have been a neat trick. 'Now entering the game. Zombie ALLIE Reynolds!'

. 14D: Sister in Chekhov's 'Three Sisters' (Olga) — one of those crossword-common fictional names I always forget, like ANSE and OLAN. 15D: Five-time Wimbledon champ (Borg) — went with GRAF.

She only won it seven times. 16D: 1960s sitcom title role (Jeannie) — obvious in retrospect, but without the 'J' from OBJET ( 14A: Curio) the answer was oddly hard to see. 18D: Transmitter of nagana (tse-tse) — whoa.

Thought 'nagana' was some kind of martial art and was looking for some version of SENSEI. Rebellion leader of 1842 (Dorr) — oh, embarrassment. I have no idea who this is. Although it's possible I've seen DORR in the puzzle before and made the very same comment. Electoral reform. DORR stood up for the. Between Netanyahu and Sharon (Barak) — you might know him better in his more crossword-common EHUD form.

95D: Curtis of cosmetics (Helene) — wanted ELAINE. 94D: Cane accompanier, maybe (top hat) — shouldn't this get-up automatically get some kind of 'bygone' or 'Fred Astaire' cluing? Does anyone dress this way anymore except at Halloween?. 100D: Gearshift mechanism, informally (tranny) — this is not the first definition that comes to mind when I hear the word 'tranny.'

The kind I'm thinking of often lacks a gearshift mechanism. 111A: Author/poet Bates (Arlo) — no idea. Seems he was a 19c. Newspaper editor and educator who rocked some fantastic facial hair. A long time ago, I was solving and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N.

WYETH crossing NATICK at the 'N'—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK. Is a small suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???).

Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. Where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ('I had a NATICK in the SW corner.' ) or verb ('I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!'

“ Little Boy” was the codename for the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces.

It was the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. The Hiroshima bombing was the second artificial nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity test, and the first uranium-based detonation. It exploded with an energy of approximately 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ). The bomb caused significant destruction to the city of Hiroshima and its occupants. Little Boy was developed by Lieutenant Commander Francis Birch’s group of Captain William S. Parsons’s Ordnance (O) Division at the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II.

Parsons flew on the Hiroshima mission as weaponeer. The Little Boy was a development of the unsuccessful Thin Man nuclear bomb. Like Thin Man, it was a gun-type fission weapon, but derived its explosive power from the nuclear fission of uranium-235. This was accomplished by shooting a hollow cylinder of enriched uranium (the “bullet”) onto a solid cylinder of the same material (the “target”) by means of a charge of nitrocellulose propellant powder. It contained 64 kg (141 lb) of enriched uranium, of which less than a kilogram underwent nuclear fission. Its components were fabricated at three different plants so that no one would have a copy of the complete design.

After the war ended, it was not expected that the inefficient Little Boy design would ever again be required, and many plans and diagrams were destroyed, but by mid-1946 the Hanford Site reactors were suffering badly from the Wigner effect, so six Little Boy assemblies were produced at Sandia Base. The Navy Bureau of Ordnance built another 25 Little Boy assemblies in 1947 for use by the Lockheed P2V Neptune nuclear strike aircraft (which could be launched from, but not land on, the Midway-class aircraft carriers).

All the Little Boy units were withdrawn from service by the end of January 1951. Hiroshima before and after. At the time of its bombing, Hiroshima was a city of both industrial and military significance.

A number of military units were located nearby, the most important of which was the headquarters of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata’s Second General Army, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan, and was located in Hiroshima Castle. Hata’s command consisted of some 400,000 men, most of whom were on Kyushu where an Allied invasion was correctly anticipated. Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military, but it also had large stockpiles of military supplies.

The city was also a communications center, a key port for shipping and an assembly area for troops. It was a beehive of war industry, manufacturing parts for planes and boats, for bombs, rifles, and handguns; children were shown how to construct and hurl gasoline bombs and the wheelchair-bound and bedridden were assembling booby traps to be planted in the beaches of Kyushu. A new slogan appeared on the walls of Hiroshima: “FORGET SELF! ALL OUT FOR YOUR COUNTRY!”. It was also the second largest city in Japan after Kyoto that was still undamaged by air raids.

The center of the city contained several reinforced concrete buildings and lighter structures. Outside the center, the area was congested by a dense collection of small timber-made workshops set among Japanese houses. A few larger industrial plants lay near the outskirts of the city. The houses were constructed of timber with tile roofs, and many of the industrial buildings were also built around timber frames. The city as a whole was highly susceptible to fire damage. The population of Hiroshima had reached a peak of over 381,000 earlier in the war but prior to the atomic bombing, the population had steadily decreased because of a systematic evacuation ordered by the Japanese government.

At the time of the attack, the population was approximately 340,000–350,000. On August 6, 1945, a mushroom cloud billows into the sky about one hour after an atomic bomb was dropped by American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, detonating above Hiroshima, Japan. Nearly 80,000 people are believed to have been killed immediately, with possibly another 60,000 survivors dying of injuries and radiation exposure by 1950. A Japanese woman and her child, casualties in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, lie on a blanket on the floor of a damaged bank building converted into a hospital and located near the center of the devastated town, on October 6, 1945. 8.15 AM 6 August 1945 is the date that changed the lives for everyone in Hiroshima. This is the time when the first ever atom bomb’Little Boy’, was dropped. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Hiroshima, a manufacturing center of some 350,000 people located about 500 miles from Tokyo, was selected as the first target. After arriving at the U.S. Base on the Pacific island of Tinian, the more than 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29 bomber christened Enola Gay (after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets). The plane dropped the bomb–known as “Little Boy”–by parachute at 8:15 in the morning, and it exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city.American President Harry S.

Truman called for Japan’s surrender 16 hours later, warning them to “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth”. By the time of the Trinity test(was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon) the Allied powers had already defeated Germany in Europe. Japan, however, vowed to fight to the bitter end in the Pacific, despite clear indications (as early as 1944) that they had little chance of winning. In fact, between mid-April 1945 -when President Harry Truman took office -and mid-July, Japanese forces inflicted Allied casualties totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, proving that Japan had become even more deadly when faced with defeat. In late July, Japan’s militarist government rejected the Allied demand for surrender put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with “prompt and utter destruction” if they refused. Hiroshima’s devastation failed to elicit immediate Japanese surrender, however, and on August 9 Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 bomber, Bockscar, from Tinian.

Thick clouds over the primary target, the city of Kokura, drove Sweeney to a secondary target, Nagasaki, where the plutonium bomb “Fat Man” was dropped at 11:02 that morning. More powerful than the one used at Hiroshima, the bomb weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast. The topography of Nagasaki, which was nestled in narrow valleys between mountains, reduced the bomb’s effect, limiting the destruction to 2.6 square miles. The survivors of the bombings are called hibakusha, a Japanese word that literally translates to “explosion-affected people”.

As of March 31, 2015, 183,519 hibakusha were recognized by the Japanese government, most living in Japan.The government of Japan recognizes about 1% of these as having illnesses caused by radiation. The memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki contain lists of the names of the hibakusha who are known to have died since the bombings. Updated annually on the anniversaries of the bombings, as of August 2015 the memorials record the names of more than 460,000 hibakusha; 297,684 in Hiroshima. Hibakusha and their children were (and still are) victims of severe discrimination in Japan due to public ignorance about the consequences of radiation sickness, with much of the public believing it to be hereditary or even contagious. This is despite the fact that no statistically demonstrable increase of birth defects or congenital malformations was found among the later conceived children born to survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A study of the long-term psychological effects of the bombings on the survivors found that even 17–20 years after the bombings had occurred survivors showed a higher prevalence of anxiety and somatization symptoms.