New York Times crossword Feb. 26 / Constructed by Daniel A. Finan

Greetings from Philadelphia. I’m back home from California and trying to do enough laundry before taking off again next weekend — for Phillies spring training!

Today’s puzzle required some circular thinking to make sense of theme answers that otherwise appeared to stop short. In 119 Across, for example, the “Marlon Brando film” is “On the Waterfront.” But the grid only allows you to enter ON THE WATERFR. What gives? The last three letters can be found by going “back to the start,” as the puzzle title says — the ON T in ON THE.

The same goes for TONI BRAX, the entry for 25 Across: “Multiple Grammy winner who was a contestant on ‘Dancing With the Stars’.” Her name, of course, is Toni Braxton, which you get by going back to the start and re-adding the TON (which I underlined).

Others: PERSONAL SHOP (“Aide for a V.I.P. customer,” 23 Across); ANTI-DEPRESS (“Prozac, for one,” 35 Across); PLEASURE PRINCI (“Freudian concept,” 59 Across); PHYSICAL GEOGRA (“Mountains, rivers, plains, etc.” 78 Across); ARTICHOKE HE (“Fancy salad ingredient,” 99 Across); and UNDERGRO (“London transportation,” 117 Across).

Answers That Seemed Long Enough To Be Theme Entries But Weren’t Dept.: WOUNDED KNEE (“South Dakota memorial site,” 43 Down) and TROGLODYTES (“Cavemen,” 37 Down).

Oscar Night Dept.: “Actor Hill of ‘Moneyball’” is JONAH (89 Across); he and his co-star, Brad Pitt, are both up for Academy Awards tonight. (The movie is also nominated for Best Picture.) Other entertainment references include Steve MCQUEEN (“‘The Magnificent Seven’ co-star,” 86 Across) and MALONE (“‘Cheers’ bartender Sam,” 122 Across).

Fun Words Dept.: GABFESTS (“Confabs,” 12 Across), OCTOPOD (“Paper nautilus, e.g.” 26 Across) and TWIST TIE (“Fastener patented in 1939,” 124 Across).

Punny Dept.: “Stern taking a bow (in two senses)” is violinist ISAAC (20 Across); “It’s felt on the head” is a FEZ (52 Down); and “Send some pixxx?” is SEXT (19 Down).

Clearwater Here We Come Dept.: We have tickets to see the Phillies play the YANKEES (“‘Gone With the Wind’ bad guys,” 91 Down) in Florida in early March!

Questions or comments? Leave them here, visit my Facebook page or tweet me @crosswordkathy.

New York Times crossword Feb. 19 / Constructed by James F.C. Burns

Greetings from the Left Coast! Out here to surprise my dad for his 70th birthday and to meet my new, 6-week-old niece. So apologies for the three-hour-late post.

To get right down to it, today’s puzzle is essentially a geographic word search — each theme answer is hiding the name of a country. “Show of affection” is A HUG AND A KISS (21 Across), but it also contains Uganda:  A HUG AND A KISS.

Others: Denmark is hidden in GARDEN MARKET (“Place for produce stands,” 102 Across); Malta is concealed in INFORMAL TALKS (“Unofficial discussions,” 15 Down); Iran is in FAIR AND SQUARE (“On the level,” 50 Down); Spain is found in TAKES PAINS (“Makes an extra effort,” 30 Down); Kenya hides in SUNKEN YACHT (“Sea salvager’s quest, maybe,” 44 Down); China is buried in CATCH IN A LIE (“Trip up, perhaps,” 26 Down); and Peru is cached in AS PER USUAL (“Like always,” 46 Down).

The puzzle went pretty fast for me. My only quibble would be that the title “Core O’Nations” might imply these countries have monarchs (“coronations”). Though some of the nations do (Spain, Denmark) I’m pretty sure China does not.

Walk of Fame Dept.: Whenever I come home to L.A., I’m always overwhelmed by the amount of movie advertising. That’s especially true now as the Oscars approach. Only a week until 83 Down comes to pass:  “It’s much thanked once a year” — the ACADEMY.

Campus Life Dept.: “College town SW of Cleveland” is OBERLIN (10 Across). “Home of the N.C.A.A.’s Minutemen” is UMASS (72 Across). And a “Pac-12 team, for short” is ASU (94 Across). You could also throw in IRISH (“Like leprechauns,” 52 Across) as a reference to Notre Dame.

Musical Notes Dept.: Mick Jagger sings “‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash, it’s ___’” A GAS (4 Down). “Rap’s Dr. ___” is DRE (78 Across). “One-named rapper with the 2008 hit ‘Paper Planes’” is M.I.A. (45 Down), who might better be remembered for her appearance during the Super Bowl halftime show earlier this month. And “Record label for Cee Lo and Whitney Houston” is ARISTA (59 Across), although Houston, of course, will no longer be recording. I drove by the Beverly Hilton on Friday and saw the huge memorial of balloons, flowers and candles outside. A truly sad ending for someone who was on top of the world when I last lived here as a teen in the mid-’1980s.

Marks The Spot Dept.: “X” is TEN (5 Down) in Roman numerals. “X, in Roma” is DIECI (22 Down).

Missing (My Adopted) Home Dept.: The Philly area is filled with WAWA convenience stores, but Will Shortz tied that answer to an SNL clue for 88 Across:  “Baba ___ (Gilda Radner character).” (Here’s Radner doing her Barbara Walters impression, and here is Walters’ reaction to it.) And “N.J. and Pa. each have a famous one” is TPKE (108 Across). I never thought of the Pennsylvania Turnpike as famous, but if Will Shortz thinks it is, it must be true.

Questions or comments? Leave them here, visit my Facebook page or tweet me @crosswordkathy.

New York Times crossword Feb. 12 / Constructed by Kurt Mueller

Looking for a good book? Today’s puzzle contains a virtual library.

As the title implies, the theme takes common phrases and adds an entire “book” to each, creating amusing answers. But you have to squeeze the word BOOK into a single square. So “Send over some Bibles?” is DELIVER THE GOOD (BOOK)S (21 Across). That crosses with RE(BOOK) (“Engage again for a gig,” 10 Down). Likewise, an “Egotistical author’s request to a reader?” is (BOOK)MARK MY WORDS (80 Across), which crosses with LOG (BOOK) (“Ship’s record,” 61 Down).

Others: “Dolt’s football game plans?” is a PLAY(BOOK) FOR A FOOL (33 Across), which crosses with OVER(BOOK)ED (“Like some flights,” 17 Down). “The truth about a popular Internet community?” is FACE(BOOK) REALITY (54 Across), which crosses with (BOOK)-IN (“Sign the register,” 57 Down). “Aid for record keeping at Mrs. Smith’s?” is APPLE PIE ORDER (BOOK) (13 Down), which crosses with (BOOK)ER (“___ T. [big name in 1960s music],” 89 Across). “Get together with your bet taker?” is MEET ONE’S (BOOK)MAKER (47 Down), which crosses with (BOOK)WORM (“Avid reader,” 98 Across). “Dust cover made of 100% aluminum, perhaps?” is a FULL METAL (BOOK) JACKET (117 Across), which crosses with (BOOK) UP (“Fill completely, in a way,” 119 Down). And, finally, “Annual publications for burros?” are DONKEYS YEAR(BOOK)S (100 Across), which crosses with (BOOK)SHELF (“Volume holder,” 103 Down). I struggled with that last one, since I was not familiar with the term “donkey’s years.” Dog years, yes. Donkey years, no.

Parlez-Vous Francais? Dept.: A working knowledge of French (and/or France) proved helpful on several clues in this puzzle. “One, in Orleans” is UNE (118 Down); “Classic fragrance sold in France as Mon Peche” is MY SIN (75 Down); “C’est ___” is LA VIE (62 Across); and ”Supply at a French smoke shop” is TABAC (95 Down).

There’s more, if you can believe it: “Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Le ___ d’Or’” is COQ (45 Down), while “Handsome, as Henri” is BEL (1 Across). (The adjective “bel” replaces the more common word “beau” in front of nouns that start with a vowel.) Also, “Comet rival” is a cleaning clue, but the answer — BONAMI (49 Across) — means “good friend” in French. Which I’m sure is how it was sold to housewives of a certain era.

I Disagree Dept.: The answer for “Shampoo ingredient” is ALOE (7 Down), but I would argue that’s a more popular ingredient for skin lotion.

For Fun Dept.: “Half of an interrogation team” is BAD COP (1 Down). “They come from Mars” are M AND M’S (75 Down). “Magic, once” is L.A. LAKER (41 Down). And “Cain raiser” is EVE (56 Down).

Where in the World Dept.: A six-letter “Washington airport” is not Dulles but SEA-TAC (104 Down), for Seattle-Tacoma. “Mark Messier, for 12 years” was an Edmonton OILER (29 Across). And “Macedonian city with Greek and Roman ruins” is EDESSA (76 Down), which I’ve never heard of. Odessa, yes. Edessa, no.

Divas Dept.: “Christina of pop” is AGUILERA (46 Down), which happens to cross with J. LO (“Singer/actress with a simultaneous #1 album and #1 film, familiarly,” 72 Across). Both of which bring to mind last night’s news of Whitney Houston’s death. Houston had a singing/acting success similar to Jennifer Lopez with the movie “The Bodyguard,” which raked in big bucks at the box office and spawned the Grammy-winning megahit “I Will Always Love You.”

Questions or comments? Leave them here, visit my Facebook page or tweet me @crosswordkathy.

New York Times crossword Feb. 5 / Constructed by Charles M. Deber

How good are you at U.S. geographic trivia? Because this puzzle is predicated on state postal abbreviations, of all things. Luckily, I was the type of nerdy kid who memorized not only the state capitals, but also their two-letter short-hand. (Which doesn’t always conform with AP style, by the way.)

The knowledge served me well today. The eight abbreviations you need to know for this grid are LA (Louisiana), DE (Delaware), OR (Oregon), CT (Connecticut), ID (Idaho), IL (Illinois), AZ (Arizona) and MA (Massachusetts). You’ll have to add these letters — or “annex” them, in the title parlance — to certain answers in order to solve the theme clues.

Take 22 Across, “45-Down near Baton Rouge.” The answer to 45 Down (“Basketball rim”) is HOOP. So a HOOP near Baton Rouge (the capital of Louisiana) is HOOP + LA, yielding “hoopla.” Going back to 22 Across, another word for “hoopla” is EXCITEMENT.

Others: 38 Across (“117-Down near Salem?”) is OPERA SINGER, another word for “tenor” — TEN (“Perfect rating,” 117 Down) + OR for Oregon; 58 Across (“1-Across near Hartford?”) is CONCENTRATE, another word for “extract” — EXTRA (“Superfluous,” 1 Across) + CT for Connecticut; 78 Across (“114-Down near Boise?”) is SPLIT SECOND, a synonym for “rapid” — RAP (“Hip-hop,” 114 Down) + ID for Idaho; and 95 Across (“76-Down near Springfield?”) is PODDED PLANT, a description of “lentil” — LENT (“Spring time,” 76 Down) + IL for Illinois.

And the last three: 111 Across (“61-Across near Phoenix?”) is BIRTHSTONE, a label for “topaz” (my birthstone; yay November!) — TOP (“Blouse, e.g.” 61 Across) + AZ for Arizona; 113 Across (“9-Across near Boston?”) is MORAL TENET, a definition of “dogma” — DOG (“Follow persistently,” 9 Across) + MA for Massachusetts; and 25 Across (“124-Across near Dover?”) is GARDEN TOOL, which describes “spade” — SPA (“Whirlpool,” 124 Across) + DE for Delaware. Funny how DIGS IN (“Doesn’t budge,” 9 Down) crosses with the “D” in GARDEN TOOL.

Pretty creative, if you ask me. Kudos to constructor Charles M. Deber!

More Geography Dept.: “New Jersey town bordering Rahway” is ISELIN (30 Across), but don’t ask me how to pronounce it (even though I always drive past the exit for it when headed toward New York). And “Boston’s Mass ___” is AVE (7 Down), as in “avenue.”

Star-Crossed Lovers Dept.: “Romeo or Juliet” is an ELOPER (23 Down). The words OR UP complete the companion poetic clue for 80 Down: “‘Is she not down so late, ___ so early?’: ‘Romeo and Juliet’.” And in a Spanish translation, perhaps the young Mr. Montague might tell the fair Miss Capulet: “Tu ___ mi amor” — ERES (106 Down).

More Bard Dept.: “How Shakespeare’s Rosalind dresses” is AS A MAN (54 Across), a reference to “As You Like It.” A similarly worded answer is AS TO COST (“Regarding the price,” 5 Down).

Fab Four Dept.: Paul, John, George and Ringo were also mentioned twice in the clues. “The Beatles’ ‘All ___ Got to Do’” is I’VE (19 Across), while “When sung three times, part of a Beatles refrain” is YEAH (42 Across).

Philly Shout-Out Dept.: “Women’s suffrage Amendment” is XIX (2 Down), for 19. The Roman numerals also denote the name of a restaurant in Philly.

Speaking of Roman numerals, I’m off to prepare for a Super Bowl XLVI party!

Questions or comments? Leave them here, visit my Facebook page or tweet me @crosswordkathy. (Also, my buggy iPad format is gone, replaced by the normal blog — yay! Happy solving!)