New York Times, June 27

As the title indicates, this was certainly an egotistical puzzle. Either that or a subtle homage to everything Apple, including the new iPad and iPhone 4.

The theme here was camouflaged in several clues beginning with the word “I” – the trick was to separate the “I” from the rest of the word, instead of reading it intact. So “Irate” (23 Across” is really “I rate,” yielding the answer FILM CRITIC. And “Isled” (28 Across) is read as “I sled,” yielding OLYMPIC LUGER.

Others: “Islander” (52 Across) is TABLOID WRITER (although I’m sure a slew of New York Post and Daily News reporters would take issue with that); “Iran”  (88 Across) is ELECTION LOSER; the aforementioned “iPhone” (109 Across) is TELEMARKETER; “Ibid.” (117 Across) is EBAY PATRON; “Icon” (33 Down) is PONZI SCHEMER; and “Ideal” (42 Down) is CASINO WORKER.

We Have That in Philadelphia Too Dept.: “____ Lane, home of London’s Theatre Royal” (21 Across) is DRURY. Here in Philly, we have an equally historic Drury Lane that is home to McGillin’s Olde Ale House, the city’s oldest continuously operating tavern. It’s celebrating 150 years this year, and I wrote about the milestone last summer.

They Have That in North Carolina and Ohio Too Dept.: “Long Island town where the Wright Brothers experimented” (94 Down) is MINEOLA. Lots of cities like to claim the Wright Brothers, foremost among them Kitty Hawk, N.C., and Dayton, Ohio; I’d never heard of the Mineola connection. Reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe, who also has multiple cities claiming him (Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and Richmond, Va.). A Poe scholar in Philly has suggested Poe’s body should be stolen from Baltimore and repatriated here, since he wrote a slew of stories in the City of Brotherly Love. And in related exhumation news, my AP colleague broke the story last week that a lawsuit has been filed in Pennsylvania over the body of athlete Jim Thorpe.

Questions or comments? Tweet me @crosswordkathy.

New York Times, June 20

Well, I guess Will threw us a bone this week after last week’s doozy.

I did this puzzle in near-record time, despite having to reach for the Kleenex every two minutes because of a stubborn summer cold. Today’s theme switched (or “traded,” in the puzzle title’s parlance) a couple of letters in several well-known book names to create fun new ones. It would have been much harder without the authors’ names in the clues, especially since some of the writers only have one big book to their names.

The new book titles are JOHNNY GOT HIS GNU (“‘Carson’s Successful Safari’? [Dalton Trumbo],” 23 Across); CLOD MOUNTAIN (“‘Big Pile of Dirt’? [Charles Frazier],” 32 Across); THE RAT OF WAR (“‘Battle Backstabber’? [Sun Tzu],” 58 Across); A PREFECT SPY (“‘Secretive Student Monitor’? [John le Carre],” 70 Across); INFINITE JETS (“‘Endless Streams’? [David Foster Wallace],” 97 Across); A FAREWELL TO RAMS (“‘Football Team Leaves L.A.’? [Ernest Hemingway],” 108 Across; THE DA VINCI COED (“‘Renaissance College Girl’? [Dan Brown],” 16 Down); and LORD OF THE FILES (“‘Head Secretary’? [William Golding],” 48 Down).

Shout-Out to My Childhood Dept: “Writer who wrote ‘A bear, however hard he tries, / Grows tubby without exercise’” (36 Across) is A.A. MILNE, author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Pooh always made everything OK.

Shout-Out to Philadelphia Dept.: This wasn’t really a Philly shout-out, but I’m going to make it one. “You might step out to get some” (49 Down) is FRESH AIR — also the name of the terrific NPR show hosted by Terry Gross and broadcast from Philly’s own WHYY-FM.

Last Week’s Puzzle Keeps Getting Cooler Dept: The answer grid for the awesome “Flag Day” puzzle of June 13 included actual colored squares to denote the flags (see page 45 in the NYT Magazine). That’s great for people that get the Times, but somehow I think those who do the puzzle a week late (in papers that syndicate it) will not be so lucky as to see the solution in its many-hued glory. In the “Typecasting” puzzle from a couple of weeks ago, someone wrote in to this blog from Alaska to say that his/her syndicated version didn’t use any of the special fonts in the clues, negating the entire theme of the puzzle.

Questions or comments? Tweet me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, June 13

This puzzle was awesome. Hands-down the best Sunday grid in at least a couple of months.

I didn’t expect to be so impressed with the blah title of “Flag Day.” June 14 didn’t strike me as exciting enough to build a puzzle around — not even here in Philly, where we like to believe that resident Betsy Ross made the first U.S. flag.

Perhaps serendipitously, Flag Day happens to coincide with the World Cup, a true test of your standard knowledge. But only two of the six flags found in this puzzle are flying in South Africa: ITALY (“Country with a green, white and red flag,” 66 Across) and FRANCE (“Country with a blue, white and red flag,” 90 Across). The ones that didn’t make the big show: IRELAND (“Country with a green, white and orange flag,” 49 Across); MALI (“Country with a green, yellow and red flag,” 69 Down); GUINEA (“Country with a red, yellow and green flag,” 75 Down); and ROMANIA (“Country with a blue, yellow and red flag,” 19 Across).

The genius of the puzzle certainly isn’t in those bland clues. But they are the keys to the six theme answers, in which you create these “flags” going across, and incorporate their colors into the down clues. So the “Daughter of rocker Kurt and Courtney Love” (22 Across) is (FRANCE)S BEAN COBAIN, rendered as (BLUE)(WHITE)(RED)S BEAN COBAIN. Blue-white-red is the design of the flag of France, as we learned in 90 Across (see above). The colors are then used in the answers for 1 Down, “1959 #1 hit for the Fleetwoods” — MR (BLUE); 2 Down, “‘The Trumpet of the Swan’ author” — E.B. (WHITE); and 3 Down, “Bushed” — TI(RED).

_ “Buy real estate” (36 Across) is ACQU(IRE LAND), rendered ACQU(GREEN)(WHITE)(ORANGE), to cross with LIME (GREEN) (“Shade lighter than emerald, 15 Down); ALAN (WHITE) (“Longtime Yes drummer,” 16 Down); and WEST ORANGE (“New Jersey community next to Montclair,” 17 Down).

_ “Composer Philip Glass and others” (51 Across) are MINI(MALI)STS, entered as MINI(GREEN)(YELLOW)(RED)STS, to cross with (GREEN) TEA (“Drink with dim sum,” 53 Down); (YELLOW) ROSE (“Texas has one, in song,” 54 Down); and (RED)UCER (“One on a diet,” 55 Down).

_ “Not troubled by” (80 Across) is SAN(GUINE A)BOUT, written as SAN(RED)(YELLOW)(GREEN)BOUT, to cross with WHIR(RED) (“Sounded like a fan,” 57 Down); LESS (YELLOW) (“Braver,” 58 Down); and WAL(GREEN) (“Drugstore eponym,” 63 Down).

_ “Lighting enthusiasts?” (98 Across) are PY(ROMANIA)CS, entered as PY(BLUE)(YELLOW)(RED)CS, to cross with (BLUE)SMEN (“Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon and others,” 100 Down); BIG (YELLOW) TAXI (“1975 Joni Mitchell hit,” 83 Down); and SNO(RED) (“Had an unquiet sleep,” 84 Down).

_ “Modern school keepsakes” (110 Across) are DIG(ITAL Y)EARBOOKS, rendered DIG(GREEN)(WHITE)(RED)EARBOOKS, to cross with (GREEN)ER (“Not as experienced,” 112 Down); (WHITE)NS (“Bleaches,” 113 Down); and D(RED)GE (“Bring (up) from the past,” 107 Down).

Questions or comments? Tweet me @crosswordkathy

New York Times, June 6

At first I thought it was a printing snafu. For 59 Across, “Putting in a carton,” it looked like the clue was mistakenly duplicated just below – slightly fuzzy, paler and off-register. But nothing else on the page looked amiss. Then I noticed that 118 Across was crossed out — “Couple-swapping” — and 58 Down, “Untruths,” was printed in calligraphy (sorry, don’t have that font).

And then I looked at the title: “Typecasting.” Of course. It’s all about the fonts.

Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my comprehension, my blog platform does not let me change fonts to replicate some of these clues. But suffice to say that the font was key to each answer.

So “JAIL OR FINE” (23 Across, in all upper-case) is CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; “Perspectives” (37 Across, in italics) are SLANTED VIEWS; “Putting in a carton” (59 Across, with the clue repeated faintly below itself) is SHADOW BOXING; “Wordsmith” (79 Across, in a font that looked like handwriting) is a SCRIPT WRITER; “Birthday cake toppers” (101 Across, in an old-fashioned typewriter font) are ROMAN CANDLES; “Couple-swapping” (118 Across) is STRUCK OUT SWINGING; “Assertion” (16 Down, in heavy type) is a BOLD STATEMENT; and “Untruths” (58 Down, in calligraphy) is GOTHIC FICTION.

I’ll give big points for creativity with this theme, but I’m going to take issue with “Putting in a carton” as a clue for SHADOW BOXING. A shadow box is basically a 3-D frame for displaying memorabilia — it’s far from a “carton,” which to me connotes eggs or copy paper. This is a shadow box.

I’ll make a similar complaint about the ROMAN CANDLES answer. Most people I know put stick candles on birthday cake; if not, they use Arabic numeral candles (i.e. a “2″ and an “8″ for 28). I’ve never seen anyone use true Roman candles on a cake, though they are available as a gag gift (and I vaguely recall purchasing them for someone …). These are Roman candles. (I’ll also note that the clue’s font looked suspiciously like Courier or Courier New.)

Crazy Terminology of the Animal Kingdom Dept.: If rabbits live in a warren, apparently OTTERS live in a … couch. Who comes up with this stuff? (55 Down, “Warren : rabbits :: couch : _____”)

Triple Word Phrase Dept.: Usually it’s “Tora! Tora! Tora!” after the 1970 movie about Pearl Harbor. Kudos for tripling YADA (88 Down), the “Seinfeld”catchphrase for, well, you know.

Questions or comments? Tweet me @crosswordkathy.