New York Times, Sept. 27

My brain hurts. But in a good way.

This puzzle squeezes two letters into a single square. That’s not exactly unique, but the twist here is that these letters are meant to be said out loud (“That Is Two Say”).

I had an inkling of the squeeze tactic from the “two” in the title, and the fact that the longest answer in the grid (70 Across, “1873 adventure novel that begins and ends in London”) was one square short for the answer: Around the World in 80 Days. It meant that either “80″ was squeezed into one square, or there was some other squeezing going on.

Turns out the answer was AROUND THE WORLD IN (8E) DAYS, where the audible “8-E” is squeezed into one square. This theme was scattered throughout the puzzle, and not necessarily in the longest answers. Take 14 Down, “Casual farewell”: (CU) LATER, for “See you later.”

Among others, there was also POISON (IV) in 108 Across (“It’s not to be touched”); GREEN WITH (NV) in 116 Across (“Jealous”); TOOTH (DK) in 31 Across (“Dental problem”); (KC) JONES in 94 Down (“Driver of the Cannonball Special”); (QP) DOLL in 104 Down (“Carny booth prize”); and TO (XS) — “to excess” — in 67 Down (“How drunks drink”).

But you didn’t need to read the squeezed letters aloud for the crossing answers. Take 14 Across (“Club”), which was (CU)DGEL; 74 Across (“‘Fer-de-Lance’ mystery novelist), which was RE(XS)TOUT; and 93 Across (“Dipstick housing”), which was CRAN(KC)ASE.

I’m going to take issue with a couple of answers, though. In 60 Down (“‘Married … With Children’ actress”), the grid answer is (K8) SAGAL, for “Kate” Sagal. But her name is Katey Sagal, not Kate. The (K8) is also used in 60 Across (“Music compilation marketer”) for the answer (K8)EL, or K-Tel, if you remember those incessant commercials (“All these hit songs for just $19.95 plus shipping and handling!!!”).

I also wasn’t convinced by 55 Down (“Units of fineness”), which uses the (8E) to spell KAR(8E)S. That seems like it would read “karaties” or “karates,” when I think the answer is simply “karats.”

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, Sept. 20

What is the sound of a bell? Rrrrriiiiingggggggg? Ding-dong? That was the question after seeing the title of today’s puzzle. “Closing Bell” indicated to me that the theme answers would all end with the sound of a bell.

At first, I might thought it be “RING.” But then, using crossing words and my utterly useless knowledge that Sun-Maid makes raisins, I figured out the cute answer to 23 Across (“Goal of Sun-Maid’s marketing department?”): RAISIN BRANDING. That’s RAISIN BRAN plus a closing bell — DING!

So after solving one theme answer, I now knew the last four letters of every other one. But the answers themselves were still clever enough to make me smile. (For the record, I think “DING!” is also the Southwest Airlines indication that you are now free to move about the country.)

As a novice yoga enthusiast, I certainly appreciated the GENTLE BENDING of 98 Across (“Exercise for beginning yoga students?”); I also liked LONG TIME NO SEEDING (69 Across, “Reason that nothing’s growing on the farm?”) and GREENS FEEDING (39 Across, “Salad bar activity?”).

Others: AINT WE GOT FUNDING (88 Across, “Question from a campaign committee?”), DRAWING PENDING (120 Across, “Tardy illustrator’s assurance?”) and OF MICE AND MENDING (52 Across, “Book on how to repair rodent damage?”).

I suppose for some the closing bell would indicate the end of school, meaning the puzzle theme might be more appropriate for June instead of September. But for others — Wall Streeters for example — it’s pretty fitting any time of year. Just look at 43 Down (“Closing bell place: Abbr.”): NYSE.

Ring-Dings, anyone?

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, Sept. 13

From the minute I saw the Bingo card in the middle of the grid, I knew this one was going to be fun.

And it was, although the fun went too fast. It wasn’t hard to figure out that all 12 theme clues — “Mark your card!” — would be the spelled-out coordinates of various Bingo squares: B SEVEN (1 Across), B TWELVE (1 Down), G FORTYNINE (25 Across), to name a few.

As you solved the theme clues, with help from crossing answers as well as deduction from the numbers on the card, you crossed off the corresponding squares. I think the point was to get the final Bingo square when you filled out the last clue in the grid (N FORTY, 164 Across), but since I never do the clues in order, I still had 25 percent of the puzzle left when I got to yell, “Bingo!”

OK, I didn’t really yell “Bingo!” but I thought about it while smiling very broadly. The picture shows my finished Bingo card, with the bottom row X’ed out.

Two other clues I liked, just because they were fun: 83 Across, “Worry words” — OH ME OH MY — and 96 Down, “Star employee” — EDITOR (think Star as a newspaper).

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, Sept. 6

I was thinking WAY too hard about this one.

The Argonne forest was the site of some fierce fighting in World War I … or World War II, I forget. And I noticed that most of the theme answers in this puzzle were vertical. So I thought, “Wow, are they going be types of trees or something? Maybe even French trees?” (I think the Argonne is in France. It’s certainly spelled like a French forest.)

Sigh. It was after I’d solved the fourth tree-less and French-less theme answer that I finally repeated the puzzle title to myself: “Argonne … Oh, God … ‘R gone!’” And then the SCOTTISH EEL of 7 Down (“Fish in a firth?”) became the “Scottish Reel” by putting the missing “R” back.

The “R”s were also gone from the SHIP TO SHORE ADIOS (114 Across, “Departure call from a Spanish vessel?”), ROMULUS AND EMUS (51 Down, “Mythical twin’s bird tale?”), CROSS-COUNTRY ACES (24 Across, “Some skiing stars?”) and COMMANDO AID (40 Down, “Camouflage?”), among others.

Other clues that made me smile were 72 Across, “Something of great interest?” — USURY — and 100 Across, “Big name in escapism?” — HOUDINI.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy