New York Times crossword June 24 / Constructed by Elizabeth C. Gorski

What is the deal, Will? Again with the high school chemistry!? A couple of months ago, you needed to know the chemical symbol for iron in order to solve a Titanic-themed puzzle. Now, you’ll be lost without knowing the symbol for carbon — the title’s “element” of surprise.

You can actually fill in each square of today’s challenging, environmentally-themed crossword without knowing chemistry. But you’ll miss the bonus puzzle — a connect-the-dots — without realizing the significance of the letter C: It’s the ATOMIC SYMBOL (“Every chemical element has one,” 23 Across) for carbon.

Somebody left a big footprint in the middle of today's puzzle.

The green theme centers around global warming with several straightforward entries. “Worrisome Arctic and Antarctic developments” are OZONE HOLES (40 Across). “Conservationist’s catchphrase” is SAVE WATER (69 Across). “Arborist’s catchphrase” is PLANT A TREE (94 Across). “Envioronmentalist’s catchphrase” is CONSERVE FUEL (117 Across). “Atmospheric worries” are GREENHOUSE GASES (14 Down). “Kind of society that is careless of the environment” is THROWAWAY (44 Down).

And the piece-de-resistance is 42 Down, “Global warming calculation whose shape is suggested by connecting 14 squares in a closed loop based on the appropriate 23-Across”: CARBON FOOTPRINT.

Turns out, ingenious constructor Elizabeth C. Gorski used exactly fourteen Cs in her grid, leaving a literal “carbon footprint” when you connect them all. The five Cs arrayed at the top –in TINACTIN, ATOMIC SYMBOL, ECCE and CELERIES are toes, I suppose.

In The News Dept.: “Falls for married women?” is NIAGARA, the famous honeymoon spot. It was also in headlines last week as daredevil Nik Wallenda crossed the natural wonder on a tightrope.

Philly Shout-Out Dept.: “‘Girl With a Hoop’ and ‘The Umbrellas’” are RENOIRS (26 Down). And while those two paintings are not in Philly, the city boasts 181 other Renoirs at the Barnes Foundation. (Not to mention a few at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

Rated R Dept.: Just because it has a talking teddy bear doesn’t mean the “2012 Mark Wahlberg comedy” TED (32 Across) is appropriate for kids.

Cover Your Ass Dept.: “Pasta shapes” are SPIRALS (15 Down), which I guess would be considered rotini or rotelli. But it reminds me of the awesome “Seinfeld” bit involving fusilli, another pasta shape.

Music 4 The Masses Dept.: “1998 Alanis Morissette hit” is not “Thank You” but THANK U (48 Down).

UPDATE, July 1: The official answer to this puzzle shows the toes a bit more defined than my solution. Not sure how I was supposed to figure out those indentations:

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

New York Times crossword June 17 / Constructed by Kyle T. Dolan

Although this amusing crossword was not terribly challenging, I’m so glad to wash away the bad taste left by last week’s puzzle. Today’s title is literal, if you punctuate it correctly: Play a “ble.” In other words, take common phrases and add the letters BLE. So “Falter while imitating Jay-Z?” is BUMBLE RAP (22 Across).

Others: “Something thrown in ‘West Side Story’?” is a RUMBLE PUNCH (24 Across). “Sing high notes?” is WARBLE ON DRUGS (36 Across). “Cry upon arriving at an earthquake site?” is THERE’S THE RUBBLE (54 Across). “What the turnover-prone football player had?” is DROPPING TROUBLE (77 Across). “Shenanigans at the royal court?” is NOBLE NONSENSE (92 Across). “Nickname for a hard-to-understand monarch?” is QUEEN MUMBLE (110 Across). And a “Lens cover for a large telescope?” is a HUBBLE CAP (114 Across).

Moonrise Kingdom Dept.: Saw the new Wes Anderson movie last night and liked it very much. The “Troop grp.” featured in the film is not the BSA (57 Down, for “Boy Scouts of America”) but the fictional and extremely similar Khaki Scouts of North America.

In Other Words Dept.: “‘Ver-r-ry funny!’” is HAHA (43 Down). “‘Have a look!’” is GO SEE (33 Down). And “‘Are you kidding me?!’” is OH BROTHER (4 Down).

New To Me Dept.: Never heard of BELOT (“Trick-taking game,” 30 Across), which crosses with NABOB (“Bigwig,” 1 Down). I didn’t realize the latter was a real word; it sounds so made-up, and the only place I’ve ever heard it is in the famous Spiro Agnew quote about “nattering nabobs of negativism” (which was actually written by William Safire).

Doubled-Up Dept.: The twice-used clue “Genesis son” yields ABEL (73 Down) and his lesser-known sibling SETH (42 Down). “Suffix with ball” is the dubious OON (72 Across), while “Ball partner” is not “chain” but ARNAZ (103 Down), as in Desi and wife Lucille.

Bad News Dept.: Journalism suffered another huge blow last week. Hundreds of reporters were laid off at four papers down South, including at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans (which also won’t be publishing daily print copies anymore). I wonder how things are at the Daily Planet, employer of Superman, aka Clark KENT (“Alter ego who carries a notepad,” 75 Down).

Philly Shout-Out Dept.: Jay-Z (from the aforementioned 22 Across, “Falter while imitating Jay-Z”) is bringing a major two-day concert to the City of Brotherly Love over Labor Day weekend.

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

New York Times crossword June 10 / Constructed by Xan Vongsathorn

I am mortified to say this, but I didn’t get it. Will Shortz and constructor Xan Vongsathorn stumped me, even after I filled out every square in this grid.

The puzzle started out so promising, my first entry being the very fun MR ROBOTO (“Styx song with some Japanese lyrics,” 6 Down). I filled in all of the theme answers, which were clued with an * and contained circled letters (I’ve underlined them): GIFT WRAPPED (“*Ready for the present?” 23 Across); INNER TUBE (“*Makeshift swing,” 25 Across); INSIDE FASTBALL (“*Brushback pitch,” 47 Across); SELF-CONTAINED (“*All-in-one,” 51 Across); NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO (“*Animal that gives birth to identical quadruplets,” 66 Across); RINGED PLANETS (“*Saturn and others,” 86 Across); INTERNAL ORGANS (“*Contents of a chest?” 90 Across); and BUBBLED UP (“*Surfaced, in a way,” 113 Across).

And I solved the hint in 116 Across – “*Be repetitive … or what parts of the answers to the starred clues do” – GO IN CIRCLES. And I still didn’t get it. So I gave up and went to Wordplay, the Times puzzle blog. Turns out I was on the same wavelength as blogger Deb Amlen, who charitably said the grid “does not have the tightest theme I’ve ever seen.”

“The theme here today is things that are ‘around’ other things,” she wrote. That would include the bands around the armadillo, the rings around the planets, and wrapping around the gift … all of which I had already guessed. But inner around a tube? Internal around the organs? Contained around the self? This is the lamest and most incomprehensible theme I’ve ever seen. Major puzzle foul.

Philly Shout-Out Dept.: I’m going to make this about my beloved but struggling Phillies team. “Nationals, before they were Nationals” are EXPOS (8 Down), the Montreal baseball team that moved to Washington. The ensuing Philly-D.C. rivalry has been in the news since Phillies fans began taking over Nationals Stadium whenever we played on the road there (it’s only a couple hours away). This spring, Washington started a dubious “Take Back the Park” campaign to try to ban Phils fans from the stadium. Yeah, like that wouldn’t backfire. Anyway, here’s hoping the Phils, who are just up the road from D.C. in Baltimore today, will get a few RBI (“Diamond stat,” 11 Down).

Doubled Up Dept.: “Gain maturity” is RIPEN (68 Down), while “Gains maturity” is AGES (111 Down).

Yoo-Hoo! Dept.: “Cry of delight popularized by Homer Simpson” is WOO-HOO (84 Across), which happens to cross with the answer for “Boo-boo” – OWIE (75 Down).

First-Name Basis Dept.: “World capital that’s also a girl’s name” is SOFIA (3 Down). “Redgrave of ‘Atonement’” is VANESSA (13 DOWN). And “Parks with no intention of moving” is ROSA (86 Down), the civil rights activist.

Stanley Cup Dept.: With the Flyers out of contention for the NHL title, I am heartily rooting for my original hometown team, the L.A. Kings. I’m looking for them to DEKE (“Hockey feint,” 30 Across) the puck around the hated Devils a few times and send them back Cup-less to New Jersey with that “Hey, hey, goodbye!” song. Its famous chorus also includes NA NA NA (“Repeating part of ‘Hey Jude,’” 52 Down).

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

New York Times crossword June 3 / Constructed by Patrick Berry

Hope you remember your Greek mythology: Today’s puzzle is filled with ancient symbols that have become modern-day metaphors. The trick is that they’ve been clued as “WARNINGS,” giving us the crossword’s lisping title (“Myth-labeled”).

Perhaps the easiest “label” to recognize is 29 Across, “WARNING: May contain Greeks” — TROJAN HORSE. Other WARNINGS: “Suspension system prone to failure” is the SWORD OF DAMOCLES (23 Across); “Possible heart-related side effects” is CUPID’S ARROW (50 Across); “Cutting tool required” is GORDIAN KNOT (75 Across); “Do not open” is PANDORA’S BOX (96 Across);  and “Improper use could lead to jealousy, treachery and/or war” is the APPLE OF DISCORD (54 Down). A couple have non-Greek origins: FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (“Effects on children unknown,” 103 Across) and FORBIDDEN FRUIT (“May cause damnation if swallowed,”4 Down).

Business Dept.: Didn’t realize that the “Company that owns Lands’ End” is SEARS (26 Across). “Its first car was the Model AA” is TOYOTA (33 Across). The ”Maker of Reynolds Wrap” is ALCOA (19 Across). The “Company whose ads have ‘Peanuts’ characters” is MET LIFE (82 Across). And a ”Big-box store” is IKEA (56 Across), which I would also argue is simply a “big box store,” because nearly all of its furniture comes unassembled in boxes.

For Fun Dept.: “Cache for cash, say” is a HOMOPHONE (41 Down). “Oscar winner for ‘Little Miss Sunshine’” is ALAN ARKIN (42 Down).

Childhood Nostalgia Dept.: “‘Bewitched’ regular Paul” is LYNDE (68 Down), who also appeared frequently on “Hollywood Squares.” From that same era, it was sad to see that “Family Feud” host Richard (“Survey says!”) Dawson died this weekend. Dawson was also in “Hogan’s Heroes,” of course, but those reruns never held my interest as a kid.

More Childhood Memories Dept.: I grew up in L.A. and often heard radio surf reports for REDONDO (“___ Beach, [California surfing mecca],” 79 Down). And “Part of L.A.P.D.” is LOS (45 Across). Been thinking a lot about SoCal this week but am too afraid to mention why, for fear of jinxing it.

Hope you enjoyed this POST (“Blog entry,” 48 Down)! I am off to circus school for an introductory lesson. Will report back next week if I haven’t injured myself.

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