New York Times, July 26

So how many of King Arthur’s knights can you name? Luckily, you don’t need to know their names for this puzzle. But you do need to remember that their proper title is “Sir,” because this “Story Circle” is actually a “SIR”-cle — five squares in which you must squeeze in the word SIR. When loosely connected, they form a circle.

Here goes: 38 Across (“Fathers”)  is (SIR)ES, which crosses nicely with 18 Down’s PUMP(S IR)ON (“Does some heavy lifting”). 72 Across is (SIR)IUS (“Part of Canis Major”), while 72 Down is (SIR)LOINS (“Some steaks”). The other (SIR)s can be found in the last square of 40 Across; the first square of 74 Down; and the last square of 80 Down. It’s kind of pentagram-ish, but I guess it can pass for the Round Table.

The clue that something funny might be up is 14 Down (“With 76-Down, 1953 Ava Gardner film … as depicted elsewhere in this puzzle”): KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. The rest of the long clues are similarly themed, including EXCALIBUR (2 Down, “1981 film in which Helen Mirren plays a sorceress”); SWORD IN THE STONE (137 Across, “1963 animated film with the song ‘Higitus Figitus,’ with ‘The’”); QUEST FOR CAMELOT (143 Across, “1998 animated film featuring the voice of Pierce Brosnan”); MISTS OF AVALON (71 Down, “2001 Anjelica Huston miniseries, with ‘The’”); and the exquisite A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT (4 Down, “With 12-Down, 1889 Twain novel”).

(For the record, I can only name two knights off the top of my head: Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot. And that’s even after seeing “Spamalot” on Broadway.)

P.S. Philly-based Temple University got a shout-out in 101 Down, “Temple structure?” The answer: DORM.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, July 19

This week’s theme is one for the texters and IMers among us: “You Are There” translates to “UR There” — and boy, are there a lot of URs in this puzzle.

Each theme answer is a common phrase tweaked by the insertion of the letters UR: “Holy matrimony” becomes HOURLY MATRIMONY in 101 Across (“Scheduled activity at a Vegas chapel?”); “sine wave” (remember trigonometry?) becomes URSINE WAVE in 72 Across (“Greeting from Smokey the Bear?”); and “by all accounts” becomes BURY ALL ACCOUNTS in 24 Across (“Corrupt financier’s command?”).

My favorites, though, since I’m a big fan of children’s books were CURRIED WOLF for “cried wolf” in 40 Down (“Triumphant spicy meal for the Three Little Pigs?”) and FURRY COOK for “fry cook” in 30 Across (“Mama Bear at the stove?”).

One clue that made me wince was 15 Down: “Globe : Boston :: ___ : Baltimore.” It refers to the two cities’ daily newspapers (the answer is SUN). But if you’ve been reading about either of those institutions (or newspapers in general), you realize how time sensitive that clue sadly might be.

A side note: Before I wrote this post, I read some tweets indicating this week’s puzzle theme is essentially a repeat of one from Aug. 5. I can understand how that would disappoint some fans. But the concept of inserting a pair of letters into theme answers to create punny phrases is hardly novel; it’s a chestnut repeated often, albeit with different letter combinations. I’m sure this combination (and many others) have been used more than once in the history of the Times puzzle, but as long as the answers themselves are new and clever, I can’t really fault them for using it.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, July 12

The key to this puzzle-within-a-puzzle is literally right in front of your face. Literally.

That word in the note to solvers – “interpret the answers to the starred clues literally” – tells you how to find the letters that will spell out our links to the past.

So in looking at the answer to 23 Across (“*Boondocks), MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, you should look literally in the middle of the word “NOWHERE” to find the letter H.

Same goes for the next starred clue, 34 Across (“*Ambulance destination”): MEDICAL CENTER. What’s literally at the center of “MEDICAL”? The letter I.

And so in, until you’ve spelled out the links to the past: HISTORY. Maybe a hidden tribute to Michael Jackson, but I highly doubt it.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, July 5

This is like the “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” reference — where a panda walks into a bar, orders some food, fires at the patrons and walks out. The bear learned his behavior from a mispunctuated wildlife guide that says a panda “eats, shoots and leaves.”

Similarly, “MNOP” isn’t just a sequence of letters in the alphabet — it’s the mispunctuated key to this puzzle that should read M, no, P. So the theme answers substitute the “M” in common phrases with a “P” to created clever new ones.

Thus a “Strutting bird on an ice floe?” (91 Across) is a STUD PUFFIN; “Tripping over a threshold, perhaps?” (33 Across) is PORTAL DANGER; and “Residents at a Manhattan A.S.P.C.A.?” (94 Across) are NEW YORK PETS, a play on the hapless baseball team that just got swept by the Phillies this weekend. Oops, did I just say that out loud?

Also fun: FULL PETAL JACKET (69 Across, “Floral Technicolor dreamcoat?”), THE POD SQUAD (45 Across, “Pea farmers?”) and PASS CONFUSION (122 Across, “Explanation for an interception?”).

And a huge hallelujah for the restoration of the acrostic to the NYT Sunday Magazine!

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

Merl Reagle, July 5

This was an awesome puzzle. I’m not usually a huge fan of Merl’s, but this felt NYT-worthy.

The object of this puzzle-within-a-puzzle was to find the names of 11 famous U.S. forts hidden in the solved grid. Some were contained within a larger answer, like 22 Across, STATE OF BLISS (“Very happy ‘place’”). Fort Bliss is in Texas. Same with 24 Across, APPENDIX (“Back-of-the-book section”); Fort Dix is just up the turnpike from Philly in New Jersey.

But, according to Reagle’s puzzle note, five of the 11 forts were “breached” — a black square divided the name of the fort across two unrelated answers. The most creative, I thought, were 98- and 101 Across, EMOTICON and DEROGATORY, yielding Fort Ticonderoga; and 66-, 67- and 68 Across, USMC, HEN and RYAN to form Fort McHenry. (Fort Ticonderoga is where Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys won the first battle of teh Revolutionary War; Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, was the inspiration for “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the War of 1812.)

Reagle, though, said there were only 11 forts hidden in the puzzle, but I found the name of a 12th. (Maybe Reagle’s caveat that they were 11 “famous” forts explains the discrepancy.)

Forts I found:

1) BLISS (22 Across)

2) DIX (24 Across)

3) LAUDERDALE (breached: 27- and 29 Across)

4) SUMTER (breached; 34- and 38 Across)

5) LEE (56 Across)

6) MCHENRY (double breached; 66-, 67- and 68 Across)

7) KNOX (83 Across)

8) POLK (83 Across)

9) TICONDEROGA (breached; 98- and 101 Across)

10) APACHE (breached; 107- and 110 Across)

11) BRAGG (118 Across)

12) WORTH (120 Across). This was probably a red herring from Reagle; there used to be a Fort Worth in the area now named for the Texas city, but no trace of the original structure remains. There is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers division there, however.)

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy