Monday, June 2, 2008

Tuesday, June 3 - Pete Muller

Unless one of Pete Muller's puzzles appeared during my sabbatical, it's been almost a year since we've seen one by him.

I just loved the theme of today's puzzle...revealed in two answers. 35A: Question posed by a 1987 children's best seller (Where's Waldo)...and 43A: This puzzle's answer to 35-Across (spelled out four times) (in the corner).

And there he is...diagonally in all four corners of the puzzle. You can earn bonus points by finding him in this picture.

Excellent fill throughout the puzzle added to the enjoyment factor. Favorites include 15A: "The Tempest" king (Alonso), 17A: Like many planetary orbits (elliptical), 29A: Airer of Congressional proceedings (C-SPAN), 48A: Composer Camille Saint-__ (Saens), 49A: Indian oven (tandoor)...one of those answers that came to me from who-knows-where, 61A: Building seen on a nickel (Monticello), 64A: Moselle tributary (Saar), 65A: French satellite launcher (Ariane), 6D: Light perfume (toilet water), 10D: Maine's __ National Park (Acadia)...one of the streets in our subdivision, all named after national parks, 11D: 1990s-2000s sitcom shrink (Niles Crane), 26D: Material used in casting (molten metal), 31D: Purchase of one who's looking for love (personal ad) and 57D: Wings: Lat. (alae).

My favorite clue...46D: Jersey parts? (udders). I was thinking of jersey...as in a knitted shirt.

I like the intersection of 1A: Sci-fi's "Doctor __" (Who) and 1D: "That was close!" (whew). Elaine was sitting with me as I Googled for pictures...she is so into sci-fi. I'm not and didn't know who (no pun intended) he was...I had heard of him but couldn't have picked him out of a lineup. Well, maybe I'd be able to now.

The new apartments are almost finished, and Elaine is here for the week to help assemble furniture and install closet shelving. It's a good chance for her to make some extra money, and it will be nice to have some one-on-one time with her.

Good news and bad news at work. The bad...my friend and co-worker on this project broke her tibia last night. The good news is really good news. The serial arsonist who has been terrorizing the city since the first of the year (and struck another co-worker's house five times since then) was arrested last night and is behind bars. The investigation took some time, but they had to wait until they had enough evidence. What a relief for everyone who lives in that area of town.

That's it for tonight. Here's the grid...



...and I'll see you tomorrow.

Linda G

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda:
re: 33D - did you mean KASHI instead of KASHA? Kasha is another name for buckwheat groats. KASHI is the cereal. Enjoy your time with Elaine.

Linda G said...

Oops! Good catch, JL. I was in a hurry and didn't even notice that the cross at 47A didn't make any sense. Thanks ; )

wendy said...

DUDE! I love Tuesday puzzles. They can be diabolical, and this one was. I stared for some time in major portions before it coalesced. Even then, I was wrong.

Because I had STA instead of STN, IN THE CORNER never fully appeared. I had _athecorner, worried it to death and still neither figured out my error, nor saw the 4 Ws in the corners.

Also had Kasha instead of KASHI even though I eat KASHI bars pretty much every day of my life.

NILES CRANE - favorite answer. According to Jim's database, it's only been an answer once before. Also PARD. Loved the inventiveness of the whole puzzle despite my brain lapses. Oh yeah, TOILET WATER!

One nit - don't know why the Canadian loonie was sporting the "unnecessary quotation marks." That's what it's called!

Best cross - UDDERS and TANDOOR, but also liked the WHO and WHEW. Those are always fun.

NYTAnonimo said...

Well I had to google on a Tuesday-didn't know what a TANDOOR was and thought Jersey clue might be referring to some slangy expression spoken by someone from NJ. Also did not have the last name for NILESCRANE or Camille Saint-SAENS. Very clever puzzle. Nice writeup Linda.