The New York Times Crossword in Gothic

07.01.07 -- Diamond

Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

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Sunday, July 1, 2007

"DIAMOND JUBILEE" -- Puzzle by Nancy Salomon and Bill Zais, edited by Will Shortz

Puzzle in a puzzle -- squares with a circle form a baseball diamond looking from behind home plate -- In addition to the regular down and across clues, there are four clues under the heading "DIAMOND" (starting at*) (noted in electronic version as "starting at third square of 109-Across"):

NE - "Now I've seen everything!" -- THATSA 1st

NW - Swipes a base -- STEALS 2nd

SW - Show -- FINISH 3rd

NE - Didn't go out -- STAYED Home

The NE, NW, SW and SE (always absurd puzzle location directions) are placed oddly as though one would be standing at "third base" facing north, instead of home plate where the asterisk is situated -- a more clear directive would be LR, UR, UL and LL, which allows one to use C, CR, CL, UC, DC, DCR, DCL, etc. In any event, one gets the idea, even though the "ballfield" is askew. Oh, and perhaps someone can enlighten me as to why "Jubilee" is part of the puzzle's title. I suppose there's a reason, right?

Other baseball-related entries are the puns FIELDTRIPS (22A Cause of some baseball errors?); PARKRANGER (23A Texas ballplayer?); GRASSSKIRT (116A Diamond border?); and GROUNDBEEF (121A Complaint about a baseball playing area?) -- one could also add ELIMINATED (20A Knocked out) off in left field (UR). Keeping an eye on the field near home plate is KUHN (114D Former baseball commissioner Bowie), maybe expecting a GRENADE (107A Pin holder) to be thrown from foul territory down left to get the last out. To the right of the pitcher's mound -- WHOSON1st (69A Classic Abbott and Costello bit) provides distraction, and over at third -- BAT3rd (49D Precede the cleanup spot) is waiting to GOHome (112A "Get out of here!"). Baseball terminology is everywhere in the language of the USAUSA (15D Scream for the Dream Team)!

Just the kind of puzzle one needs around the All-Star game and the 4th of July -- nothing esoteric or intellectual or with any aspirations of being so -- just a good old-fashioned "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" crossword -- well, maybe there were a few off-base entries, such as OPERASERIA (21A Many an Allessandro Scarlatti work), not exactly a tail-gate entry. PIEDATERRE (3A Temporary residence), SILHOUETTE (126A It can be a relief) and NGAIO (32D Mystery writer Marsh) are also from left field.

Sick clue for ANKARA (38D Turkey heads can be found here)!

SILHOUETTE (126A It can be a relief) -- from Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"

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The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.

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06.30.07 -- Monkey Business

TITI (8D Furry tree-dweller of the Amazon)

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Saturday, June 30, 2007

Click here for LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Byron Walden, edited by Will Shortz

A devious and devilish Saturday stumper!

Haven’t seen before or if I have, I don‘t remember:

SOWONESWILDOATS (32A Be profligate, in a way)

GUTTERBALL (Alley oops)

GIGGLETEST (5D Check for credibility, in modern lingo)

AMUDARYA (35D Aral Sea Feeder)

LEELEE (41D Sobieski of “Joan of Arc”)

DABO (52D Actress Maryam)

TITI (8D Furry tree-dweller of the Amazon)

Seen before or if I haven‘t, thought I did: ERAS, LACE, SITE, NEAT, PESO, CODERS, URBAN, ALTO, POSH, ARENAS, INURED, ASHY, etc.

Long-way-to-go-for-so-little clues:

1A. Where to find the Mercury line and the Girdle of Venus -- PALM

15A. Novel that ends “By noon, the island had gone down in the horizon; and all before us was the wide Pacific” -- OMOO

42A. He wrote “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of” -- PASCAL

43D. Most-nominated Best Actor (eight times) never to win an Oscar -- OTOOLE

(O'Toole received a 2002 honorary award.)

51A DARK and 54A ARTS

Deviousness:

27D. Result of too many rusty nails on the road? -- DUI

21A Antarctica’s Prine ____ Mountains -- OLAV

55A. Lots to offer -- REAL ESTATE

57A. Bank holdings? -- TELEPHONES

34D. Line struck through by a winner -- OOO

5A Small wonders -- GIFTEDKIDS

16A. Dirt -- INSIDEINFO

52A It can keep ball fields dry -- ALCOHOLBAN

Initial-ized and abbreviated stuff: ALER, OOO, DEA, BYOB, FSTAR, DFLATS, UPCS, SHO, HWY, USROUTE, MIL

Some other language stuff: 49A. “Tout le monde en ____” (“Everyone’s talking about it”: Fr.) -- PARLE; 10D. Austrian article -- DER; 40A. 1961 Film also known as “The Job” - ILPOSTO

Good stack but dull stuff: ALCOHOLBAN, REALESTATE, TELEPHONES

Splits: DARK (51A With 54-Across, black magic) ARTS (54A See 51-Across) and HWY (31D See 44-Across: Abbr.) or USROUTE (44A Numbered 31-Down)

Remind you of anyone? -- ILLBRED (25A Uncouth); UGLYSCENES (28D Melees); SNEAKSBY (37D Beats narrowly and unexpectedly) -- give 'em the old KIBOSH (11D Squelch) -- adios, that SOLVES (14A Does the math) everything when you find him/her INALIE (12D Unpleasant way to catch one's spouse)!

UPLATE (44D Burning the midnight oil) -- what's a U-plate?

Leftovers: AMARILLO (2D Title city in a 1983 George Strait hit); DUCHESS (27A Title for Camilla); YEOMAN (39A Kind of service); LOCALLAW (3D Ordinance); MOES (4D TV Tavern) -- Moe's goes well with CLARET, GRAIN, BYOB, DUI and ALCOHOLBAN, maybe even TATERTOT (36D Starchy bite) -- but I'll go now, especially since a control-freak asked me yesterday "what have you been smoking?" -- "nothing ma'am, doctor's orders -- but I do stay UPLATE!"

Goodnight!

SOWEONESWILDOATS (32A Be profligate, in a way)

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Read more about today's puzzle at Crossword Nerdity.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

Gordon Will Rule By Fear

Gordon Brown has surrounded himself by Zionists that make up most of the new 'New Labour''s government. The brand spanking new false flag 'London Bombs Crock of Crap!' is just a foretaste of the shape of things to come. The timing of the attempted attack coincides with new Prime Minister Gordon Brown taking over from Tony Blair just yesterday.

But as the facts emerge we would be foolish to overlook the fact that the British security services were intimately involved in numerous terror attacks in Britain over the past few decades, namely car bombings, that were blamed on the IRA or its offshoots. This is particularly relevant considering that officials have refused to rule out an Irish connection in this case.

Every major IRA bombing in England and Northern Ireland has had the fingerprints of the British government and the FRU all over it.

Starting from at least the 1980's, SAS and British military intelligence agents were routinely ordered to embed themselves within violent branches of the IRA and aid terrorists in carrying out attacks. How do we know this happened? Because one of the individuals who was ordered to do so, Kevin Fulton, blew the whistle on the fact that he was told he had the Prime Minister's blessing to aid terrorists in bomb making and political assassinations.

In addition, mirroring the backdrop of the infiltration of the alleged liquid bomb plot, the August 15th 1998 Omagh bombing was allowed to proceed despite the fact that MI5 had fully infiltrated the Real IRA terror cell, knew the date of the bombing, and had tracked the terrorists' vehicle as it was driven to the bomb site. Again, in this case MI5 had one of their own agents within the bomb squad itself. In this instance, the car bombing went forward and 29 people, including two babies and nine children, were ripped apart as they shopped in a quiet market street.

Documents, lodged as part of a court action being taken against the British government by a disgruntled military intelligence agent, also revealed that an FRU (Force Research Unit) major was the officer who was the handler of the British army's most infamous agent inside the IRA -- a man code named Stakeknife.

Stakeknife is one of Belfast's leading Provisionals. His military handlers allowed him to carry out large numbers of terrorist murders in order to protect his cover within the IRA.

The London Observer further revealed some of the methods employed by the FRU in Northern Ireland, including the “human bomb” technique, which involved “forcing civilians to drive vehicles laden with explosives into army checkpoints”.

Former MI5 counter-terrorism officer David Shayler also saw documents indicating that the Israeli's bombed their own embassy in London in 1994 after a car bomb exploded outside the building in Kensington.

Every major IRA bombing in England and Northern Ireland has had the fingerprints of the British government and the FRU all over it.

Expect more of the same: the fictious Al-Qaida did this, Muslim fanatics did that... This is the legacy of the 'New Labour' to cling to power and rule by fear. The trigger to the Iran War is yet to come, meanwhile to the public Gordon Brown professes himself as a man of liberty and social justice. In reality, he is a dictator, a "Stalinist" as he was once famously dubbed, and now that Blair has gone, his personal authority in Whitehall can only become greater and therefore more threatening to the health of our constitution and of our democracy. As Ken Clarke once put it:
"Under Tony Blair we've had a president. Under Gordon Brown we're going to have an emperor!"

Secret trials for terrorists, says US judge

A TOP-RANKING US judge has stunned a conference of Australian judges and barristers in Chicago by advocating secret trials for terrorists, more surveillance of Muslim populations across North America and an end to counter-terrorism efforts being "hog-tied" by the US constitution.

Judge Richard Posner, a supposedly liberal-leaning jurist regarded by many as a future US Supreme Court candidate, said traditional concepts of criminal justice were inadequate to deal with the terrorist threat and the US had "over-invested" in them.

His proposed "big brother" solutions flabbergasted delegates at the Australian Bar Association's biennial conference, where David Hicks's lawyer, Major Michael Mori, is to be awarded honorary life membership. More

06.29.07 -- Through A Glass Darkly

Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker

Friday, June 29, 2007

Puzzle by Mike Nothnagel, edited by Will Shortz

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Across:

1 Sitcom character with a leather jacket that’s now in the Smithsonian

8. The New Yorker cartoonist William -- STEIG, one of the greats.

13. Taxing preinitiation period -- been there, done that.

15. Childish retort -- ditto.

17. Have no dinner companions -- fine with me.

18. Make -- Webster’s devotes a whole page of fine print to this word -- take your pick.

19. They’re numbered in golf -- mmm, is there an actual printed number?

20. Fasten firmly -- never used INFIX, ever!

22. Prefix with lateral -- ISO, new to me.

23. One prepared for church: Abbr. -- not person, thing.

24. Quintillionth: Prefix -- oh boy, give me a break!

25. Thai currency -- old crossword standard.

26. 2004 Brad Pitt film -- starts out good, ends up in shambles.

28. Agitate -- CHURN is an interesting twist.

30. Scream -- how many ways can RIOT be clued?

31. Felicitous - APT, so overused -- sometimes an city unit.

33. 1974 Chicago hit -- another "never-knew".

35. 2002 sci-fi role for Hayden Christensen -- who doesn’t know?

39. Teacher’s request of a publisher -- or a FREECOPY.

40. Capitol Records owner -- strictly from happenstance.

41. Dancer Limon -- ole!

42. Moves laboriously -- very subjective.

44. New York Cosmos’ sports org. -- happenstance (or “fill” as some call it)

48. Linear, briefly -- ONED = one-dimensional (more happenstance).

49. Send a high-tech message -- very today clue, I guess.

50. Kind of season -- well, either that or ETE.

51. They, to Therese -- desperate happenstance (or fill), no other way to clue it.

52. Classic arcade game character who hopped around a pyramid -- never saw the game.

54. “David _____” (1934 Will Rogers film) -- biopic.

56. Seat of Hillsborough County, N.H. -- on the way to Manchester and then the Lakes.

58. Nintendo game with exercises for mental acuity -- at least I’d heard of QBERT.

60. Treats similar to Mallomars -- never had either.

61. Local election campaign staple -- all over Long Island!

62. Basketball defense -- PRESS, goes well with 19A IRONS.

63. Some shorts -- SPEEDOS, the ugliest most useless ridiculous item of clothing ever conceived!

Down:

1. Believer - just take away the “a” from athiest.

2. One catching some waves? -- should have put three questions marks!

3. California air station where Nixon landed after resigning in 1974 -- again, ole!

4. Glazed desert -- FLAN, SMORES, Mallomars, someone has a sweet tooth.

5. Mouse catchers -- they catch other things too, but this way we think its CATS.

6. Latin leader? -- who wants CHE?

7. Crown -- after THEFONZ, what else -- Z as in ZENITH!

8. Garment worn over a choli -- just in case you never heard of a SARI.

9. Bygone carnivore -- ho hum.

10. “I should ___ die with pity”: King Lear -- long way to go for EEN.

11. Drawing medium -- and for tattoos.

12. Ends one’s travels -- well, hopefully GOESHOME.

14. Omaha and Spokane were once in it -- you thought cities?

16. Competitor in a harness - you thought jackalope?

21. Initial venture - maybe Wall Street, no -- think moat.

24. Ad directive -- for the buyer, ACTNOW!

25. Player of Dr. Kiley on “Marcus Welby, M.D.” -- another tv thing I never saw.

27. Ran on and on -- like this commentary.

29. Giants are in it: Abbr. -- who doesn’t know it’s going to be sports?

32. Snap -- oh, yes, clever!

34. Flight - on the…

35. Makes contact with -- nice straightforward clue and entry.

36. Glower? -- not pout or stare -- but shine!

37. One with a taxing job -- not difficult, dutiful.

38. Avalanche -- this definition was a little in left field.

43. Hollywood crowd? -- very good!

45. Not stout -- I remember now, the song: “Give me some men, some stout-hearted men” etc.

46. Ernie Bushmiller comics character -- not ROLLO.

47. Light measures -- straightforward.

52. Survey part: Abbr. -- not land, door-to-door.

53. Follower of the bottom line? -- in music.

54. Screen - not scan, not cinema, not interview, not bug-proof, not, not, etc.

55. “As I Lay Dying” character -- just happenstance “fill”

57. It ended when Francis II abdicated: Abbr. -- ditto.

59. Ernst contemporary -- ditto.

INDIAINK (11D Drawing medium)

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

General Predicts Israel Will Attack Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, “al-Qaeda” this Summer

It is a provocative headline: “Israel braces for July war with up to five enemies.” If we are to believe Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, this attack will be launched by Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and, of course, “al-Qaeda,” the database. “Each of these adversaries is capable of sparking a war in the summer,” Yadlin told the World Tribune. In other words, Israel is capable of attacking one or all of these “adversaries,” as Israel has a notorious history of attacking its neighbors under contrived pretense.

Few remember the words of the Irgun terrorist Menachem Begin, later Israeli prime minister—as Israelis, much like Americans, prefer to be led by terrorists and war criminals—who admitted in 1982 “that Israel had fought three wars in which it had a ‘choice,’ meaning Israel started the wars,” according to Donald Neff, writing for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Read the full post

Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran

U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs.

Obama, a Democratic state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood, made the remarks during a meeting Friday with the Tribune editorial board. Obama's Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, was invited to attend the same session but declined.

"On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse. So I guess my instinct would be to err on not having those weapons in the possession of the ruling clerics of Iran. ... And I hope it doesn't get to that point. But realistically, as I watch how this thing has evolved, I'd be surprised if Iran blinked at this point."

State agrees to drop rape charges against Katsav

SHOCKING!
The state has agreed in principle to drop the rape charges in the indictment due to be filed in court against President Moshe Katsav as part of a plea bargain arrangement reached between his lawyers and the prosecution.

Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz is expected to announce the details of the arrangement next week.

He must first inform the women who complained to police about the president's alleged sexual behavior towards them about the details of the agreement.

According to reports, in return for dropping the rape charges, Katsav will agree to admit having had sexual relations with one of the four women whose complaints are included in the charges.

06.28.07 -- Garbo Laughs

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Click here for LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Joseph Crowley, edited by Will Shortz

Oh my word! I haven’t laughed so much over a crossword puzzle in my life! There’s enough food and frolic in this creation to cause one to Throw AFIT (58D) of gastronomical proportions!

Roller coaster RIDES (29A Carnival sights), water CHUTE (44A Way Down), COBRA (47D U.S. attack helicopter), heights of the ALPES (16D Suisse peaks), everything all ASTIR (24A Circulating) in an ADO (58A Foofaraw), that SLAPS (11D “Snap out of it!“ actions) ONES (60D Kind of place) TAIL (26D Detective, at times) down to the WIRE (2D Finish line maybe), with a visit to Coney Island and Nathan’s to OUTEAT (53A Beat at a hot dog contest) with a stomach full of MIXEDGREENSALAD (14A Colorful opening course), ORANGEMARMALADE (17A Colorful spread), RAINBOW (37A With 39-Across, colorful dessert) SHERBET (39A See 37-Across), a BLUEBERRYMUFFIN (61A Colorful breakfast food), and REDBEANSANDRICE (64A Colorful entrée) with SUDS (57D Beer, slangily) --- Hurry, hurry, hurry, step right up and get your tickets at the KIOSK (22D Mall station) -- DAMN (52A Curse), try to TEAR (55D Wrest) me from my comfortable DEN (4D Place to display trophies) maybe with a game of REVERSI (43D Game on an 8x8 board) this July 4th -- IWONT (33D Obstreperous child’s cry) move an inch -- call me a DWEEB (45D Nerd), food and motion don't mix, something will come up -- DUH (30D “Well, obviously!”).

I’ll just light a GEM (18A Sparkler) and sing a few bars of ISOUR (33A “A Mighty Fortress ____ God [hymn]) or turn on the RADIO (12D Part of a beach kit) and listen fondly to 9A The Beatles’ “INMY Life” or an ETUDE (49D Chopin piece)!

Or better yet, draw the shades of the bunker and roll a film with my favorite SWEDE (1A Greta Garbo, by birth)!

Greta Garbo as "Queen Christina" -- In what many call her greatest screen portrayal, the legendary Greta Garbo stars as the 17th century Queen of Sweden who shocked all of Europe when she relinquished her throne for love.

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For today's cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games