New York Times, May 10

I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed the incongruous timing of a golf-themed puzzle on Mother’s Day. What’s next … a flower-themed puzzle on Father’s Day? Oh, wait. Flowers were last week.

Of course, plenty of moms are golfers, so this puzzle’s for them. Start by thinking of all the golf terms you can muster and then try to fit them in with the clues to make some cute puns — NO HOLES BARRED (63 Across, “Like golf courses that let you play the full 18?”)

We’ll start with the WET TEE SHOT CONTESTS, the “Competitions to see who can drive a ball the farthest in the rain?” (83 Across) and then move on to the CADDIE CORNER (22 Across, “Where golf bag handlers congregate inside the clubhouse”).

The one that made me smile the most, though, was SUBMARINE SANDWEDGES (26 Across, “Golf clugs tossed into the drink at Pebble Beach?”). Ever see Homer Simpson talk about golf? Mr. Burns talks about using “an open-faced club, a sand wedge.” Homer: “Mmmmmmmm … open-faced club sand-wedge!” 

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

Merl Reagle, May 10

Still looking for a Mother’s Day gift? Don’t look to the answers in this puzzle. Even if your mom is Shirley Partridge or Morticia Addams, she’s probably not going to want what Merl is giving.

For Samantha of “Bewitched” (45 Across), Merl gives her A SPELL CHECKER. Pretty clever. But I’m less impressed with the other gifts, which play on the mom’s name, profession or environment. Carol Brady of “The Brady Bunch” gets ANY BOOK BY RALPH BUNCHE in 108 Across; Mrs. Cunningham of “Happy Days” gets A WAD OF FIFTIES in 56 Across, to go with the 1950s setting of the show.

But really, couldn’t he have made these moms more modern? “Happy Days” hasn’t been on for almost 30 years; Fonzie is making guest appearances as a gray-haired FBI agent on “Numb3rs.” Sure, as a Gen Xer (remember us?), I recognized all of these moms. Yet I think he’s turning off a large part of his potential audience by including cosmic cartoon mom Jane Jetson (she got A SPACE HEATER in 26 Across) and not mothers like Marge Simpson, Sarah Connor or even Roseanne.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, May 3

Peonies, roses and carnations are among the flowers you’ll find hidden in the “garden” Will Shortz & Co. have created in today’s puzzle. Just read the circles in each of the theme answers from left to right … can you smell the VIOLET in the VIOLIN CONCERTOS of 23 Across (“Five works of Mozart [Rhode Island]“)? Or the LILY in ALVIN AILEY for 48 Across (“‘Revelations’ choreographer [Utah]“)?

Of course it would make the puzzle immensely easier if you happened to know that Indiana’s state flower is the peony, thus giving you several letters of 58 Across, “Trial hearing? [Indiana]” — EXPERT TESTIMONY. But once you figure out that they’re planting buds throughout the answers, sometimes just a few scattered letters in the circles can help you fill in the rest, as it did for me with the carnation hidden in 68 Across, CASH TRANSACTION (“It’s never made with plastic [Ohio]“).

I have to admit I’m a little ambivalent about this kind of puzzle, though … I wonder if it would have been more “real” to simply have the flowers as part of the whole answer … like LILY TOMLIN, instead of picking out random letters in ALVIN AILEY, or VIOLET BEAUREGARD instead of forcing it into VIOLIN CONCERTOS. Somehow circling the letters to show you what’s hidden makes it less of a “discovery” to me.

Anyway … a couple other things caught my eye. 76 Across taught me that while a lion roars, an elk bugles. Bugles? Really? Go figure. And 80 Across taught me about something (almost) in my own backyard: GRAEME Park, a historic site outside Philadelphia that apparently was so excited to be in today’s puzzle that they posted a note on their website: http://www.ushistory.org/graeme/

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

Merl Reagle, May 2

Get ready to test your math skills in the oldie-but-goodie that Merl recycles this week: Each of the theme clues is a math problem in which the answer is 40.

But it’s not just simple arithmetic; Merl uses nouns commonly associated with certain figures in place of the actual numbers. So 19 Across — “____+____=40″ — ends up being FLAVORS PLUS CAT LIVES, or 31+9=40: Baskin-Robbins’ 31 ice cream flavors plus a cat’s nine lives. (I pray mine still has at least eight left after overshooting the balcony railing above our living room and landing on the hardwood floor 15 feet below — and not on her feet. She’s fine.)

Some other problems are 27 Across, CARDS MINUS THE ZODIAC (52 cards in a deck minus the 12 signs of the Zodiac equals 40); 48 Across, SENSES TIMES AN OCTOPUS (5 senses times 8 legs equals 40); and 106 Across, SEASONS TIMES BO DEREK (4 seasons times “10,” the movie that made Bo Derek — and blonde corn rows — famous equals 40).

He gives you a bunch of freebies by including the word for the function (plus, minus, times) in both the clue and the answer. But even with that small criticism, I think this is a pretty stellar puzzle — fun, clever and unique.

Questions or comments? Post them here or Twitter me @crosswordkathy