New York Times, May 30

Today’s theme is built into circular pairs of clues scattered throughout the puzzle. Kind of clever, but I have to say one of the less challenging grids I’ve solved recently.

“Two things that are stuffed” (22- and 24 Across) are ROAST TURKEY and a SCARECROW; “Two things on a farm” (24- and 36 Across) are the aforementioned SCARECROW and a HAYSTACK; “Two things associated with needles” (36- and 38 Across) are the HAYSTACK and a RECORD PLAYER; “Two things that spin” (38- and 55 Across) are the RECORD PLAYER and a FERRIS WHEEL.

Continuing, “Two things at an amusement park” (55- and 82 Across) are the FERRIS WHEEL and COTTON CANDY; “Two things that are sticky” (82- and 95 Across) are the COTTON CANDY and RUBBER CEMENT; “Two things with brushes” (95- and 99 Across) are the RUBBER CEMENT and a MURALIST; “Two things with ladders” (99- and 115 Across) are the MURALIST and a FIRE TRUCK; “Two things that are red” (115- and 117 Across) are the FIRE TRUCK and CRANBERRIES; and, finally, “Two things associated with Thanksgiving” (117- and 22 Across) are the CRANBERRIES and ROAST TURKEY from way back at the beginning of the puzzle. A full circle, indeed.

Plug for Philadelphia Dept., Part 1: If you’re looking for a MURALIST (99 Across), Philly is the place to go. The Mural Arts Program has created more than 2,800 works of art on buildings across the city; they are beautiful, vibrant, quirky, inspiring and downright cool. You can come here and take a tour or just look at some of them online.

Fatal Irony Department: SKOAL is the name of a smokeless tobacco and, apparently, a toast “To your health!” (5 Across). I had no idea.

Shout-Out To My Husband In Missouri Dept.: Turns out Daniel BOONE (“Cumberland Gap explorer,” 10 Across) didn’t just roam around lovely Boone County, Mo., where the University of Missouri has its flagship campus in Columbia.

Hope This Isn’t The First Credit In His Obituary Dept.: “‘No Escape’ star, 1994″ (92 Across) is LIOTTA. I’m sure Ray would rather be clued as the star of “Goodfellas,” but I guess that’s too easy.

Plug for Philadelphia Dept., Part 2 (also known as Lord Stanley’s Cup Dept.): The city is crossing its fingers for another p-word, but we won’t say it out loud until the Flyers seal up the CREASE (“Hockey goalie’s area, 25 Down).

Questions or comments? Tweet me @crosswordkathy.

New York Times, May 23

Greetings once again from the City of Brotherly Love.

Apologies for missing last week’s puzzle; I was in Italy for a friend’s wedding. Luckily, the combination of my jet lag and The Philadelphia Inquirer running Sunday NYT puzzles in syndication (read: a week late) means that I was able to polish off the May 23 puzzle before breakfast. I hope to do today’s later this afternoon.

The “Flip-Flops” title made me think that the theme answers would be common phrases with their first letters switched. Not quite. In this theme, entire halves of compound words were flip-flopped to create cute turns-of-phrase.

So “Where ETs do knitting and art?” is ALIEN CRAFT SPACE (23 Across); the “Thug living next to humorist Will?” is MR ROGERS’ HOOD NEIGHBOR (34 Across); “‘Get that first down … and don’t fumble’?” is a HAND-OFF REMARK (46 Across); “Watching over Warsaw’s national emblem?” is POLE FLAG SITTING (67 Across); “Waiting in line for hooch?” is AT A STILL STAND (88 Across); “Competition among shrinks?” is a PSYCHOLOGICAL FARE WAR (97 Across); and “Visitors’ fair warning?” is WE SHALL COME OVER (119 Across).

Not much else caught my eye in this puzzle, though I will take issue with the supposed “Growling sound” in 36 Down: RRR. Every growl I’ve heard sounds like GRR. And ARUGULA (50 Down, “Salad green”) reminded me how I learned this past week that some chefs refer to it as “rocket.” Anyone know why?

Off to start today’s puzzle.

Questions or comments? Tweet me @crosswordkathy.

May 24

Apologies for the late and empty post; will have to catch up with two posts next week. #Italy

New York Times, May 16

It’s not uncommon for the NYT to squeeze two letters into a single square to carry out a theme, but this is truly impressive: FOUR letters in some squares.

I think the theme clues were unnecessarily asterisked; it was evident from the grid which ones were theme-related, since certain squares were divided into quadrants. The idea was to put four letters in these squares, yielding some alliterative phrases that share most of their letters.

So a “Winning dad in a race” (1Across) is a FASTER FATHER, rendered FA(ST/TH)ER, and crossing with 3 Down, “Edberg enjoying a sports match” — STEFAN THE FAN, rendered  (ST/TH)EFAN; “Like Enron” (6 Across) is IN THE RED IN THE END, rendered IN THE (RE/EN)D, crossing with 11 Down, “Knock again” — RETRY ENTRY, rendered (RE/EN)TRY; “Whispers heard during an in-class test” (20 Across) is CHEATER CHATTER, rendered CH(EA/AT)TER, crossing with 14 Down, “Nectarine grove” — PEACH PATCH, rendered P(EA/AT)CH.

Others: A “Serving tray left next to the frying pan” (43 Across) is a SPATTER PLATTER, rendered (SP/PL)ATTER, crossed with 43 Down, “Orthodontist, at times” — SPACER PLACER, rendered (SP/PL)ACER ; “Just one or two pups, say” (117 Across) is a LITTLE LITTER, rendered LITT(LE/ER), crossed with 97 Down, “Vlasic employee” — PICKLE PICKER, rendered PICK(LE/ER); a “Revival meeting” (58 Across) is a CONVERSION CONVENTION, rendered CONVE(RS/NT)ION, crossed with 26 Down, “Stupid show from a cable TV giant” — TIME WARNER TIME WASTER, rendered TIMEWA(RN/ST)ER; “‘You’re not that sorry!’” (73 Across) is a CONTRITION CONTENTION, rendered CONT(RI/EN)TION, crossed with 74 Down, “Small-claims court” — RESTITUTION INSTITUTION, rendered (RE/IN)STITUTION.

Also: “Bozo, for one” (90 Across) is a KIDD(IE/ER), crossed with 68 Down, “Oven, at times” — COOK(IE/ER); “One who apprentices woodworkers” (80 Across) is a (ST/TR)AINER, crossed with 80 Down, “Lorry in a ditch” — (ST/TR)UCK; and 105 Across, “Singer Britney succeeds at the high jump” is (SP/CL)EARS, crossed with 105 Down, “Where Robert Burns and kin are buried” — (SC/PL)OTS.

In the Best Show on Television Dept.: 27 Across, “South Park” boy — KENNY. That show just keeps getting better. Amazing.

In the I Didn’t Know That, But It Makes Sense Dept: Hugh M. ____ First Amendment Award — HEFNER (9 Down).

And in the Happy Anniversary Dept.: A shout-out to the “Only defenseman to have won the NHL scoring title” — (Bobby) ORR. We have an autographed copy of the famous photo of Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Boston Bruins 40 years ago. Boston just celebrated the anniversary of the moment with a statue — unveiled just in time for the Bruins to be ignominiously eliminated from the playoffs by the Flyers. Boston was up 3-0 in the series, only to see Philly come back and force a 7th game, which Boston also led 3-0 early. Need I finish this thought? Flyers won Game 7, 4-3. I’m sorry. Did I just gloat out loud?

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, May 9

Well, it’s nice to see that the NYT celebrates Hallmark holidays, too.

As you might have guessed — after returning from braving the brunch crowds with your mom — today’s puzzle theme has to do with mothers. But not just any moms: the theme clues in this grid are all MOTHERS OF INVENTION (104 Across, “Rock group whose name is an appropriate alternative title for this puzzle”).

And where would we be today without the WINDSHIELD WIPER (88 Across, “Driving convenience created by Mary Anderson (1866-1953)”)? Or COBOL COMPUTER LANGUAGE (23 Across, “Programming tool created by Grace Hopper (1906-92)”); CIRCULAR SAW (64 Across, “Woodworking tool created by Tabitha Babbitt (1784-1853)”); DRUG FOR LEUKEMIA (50 Across, “Medical discovery of Gertrude Elion (1918-99)”); THE MODERN BRASSIERE (29 Acrosos, “Item of apparel created by Mary Phelps Jacob (18-91-1970)”); LIQUID PAPER (71 Across, “Office item created by Bette Nesmith Graham (1924-80)”); or, perhaps most important of all, the TOLL HOUSE COOKIE RECIPE (117 Across, “Food formula created by Ruth Wakefield (1903-77)”)?

I have to say the only mother-inventor I recognized was Bette Nesmith Graham, of LIQUID PAPER fame, because somewhere deep in the accumulations of trivia in my head was the urban legend that she was also the mother of Monkee Michael Nesmith. Turns out it’s true, and that she left her fortune to him.

But who were these other women who invented the modern bra and even a leukemia drug? I had to look them up. Here’s the story of Mary Phelps Jacob and Gertrude Elion, who shared a Nobel Prize in medicine/physiology in 1988. And don’t forget that Toll House Cookie recipe.

Other clues:

From the Philadelphia Shout-Out Department: 57 Across, “Rocky’s love”: ADRIAN

From the Modern Rock Department: Along with the previously cited MOTHERS OF INVENTION, there are also references to “Rock’s Van ____” HALEN (107 Down) and alt/Goth favorites the Cure (“‘There is ___ …’ (song by the Cure)”): NO IF. Now, I am a huge Cure fan, but I have to say I looked up that one on iTunes to hear the melody. Let’s just say it was #162 on the list of Cure songs, which explains why I’ve never heard of it. It’s from the 2000 album Bloodflowers, which I don’t  remember and don’t recognize a single song from.

Anyway.

The final piece of this puzzle involves a bonus message spelled out in the circled letters and reading from left to right, top to bottom: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @crosswordkathy