08.13.07

To go to original post with illustrations and puzzle grid or to leave a Comment, click on TITLE at the beginning of this post’s commentary.

Stop the Presses!


Monday, August 13, 2007

Puzzle by Andrew Ries, edited by Will Shortz

For the Monday commute, today's crossword puzzle is contained in one of the following four daily papers, one of which may be smudging your fingers with ink -- the SUN, STAR, POST and TIMES all being clued by DAILY (5A With 72-Across, the end of 20-, 37-, 44- or 59-Across) and PAPER (72A See 5-Across) with the following inter-related entries:

PLACEINTHESUN (20A 1951 MontgomeryClift/Elizabeth Taylor film, with “A”);

MORNINGSTAR (37A Venus);

TRADINGPOST (44A Place to do business in the Old West);

SIGNOTHETIMES (59A 1987 Prince song and album).

People in the news include ERNIE (15A Els of the links); EVEL (16A Stuntmaster Knievel); TUROW (66A Scott who wrote "Presumed Innocent"); "TESS of the D'Urbervilles" (73A); ARON (6D Elvis's middle name); IVOR (38D Actor/composer Novello); EDA (41A Author LeShan); TAFT (46A President before Wilson); SOUSA (53D Man of many marches); Prince, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor.

Places in the news include INST (7D Part of M.I.T.: Abbr.); TEX (12D It's between La. and N.M.); OSU (24A Buckeyes' sch.); BONN (29D East Berlin's counterpart during the cold war); ESSEX (23A English county on the North Sea): ESTES Park, Colo. (58D); a trading post in a place in the sun and HQS (64D Mil. command bases).

Turn to the sports page for a STATISTIC (36D Earned run average, e.g.); the business page for COSTS (18A Prices) and ISPS (60D AOL and Road Runner: Abbr.); the entertainment for ARIAS (3D Operatic solos) SUNG (22D Like lyrics) One ATA time (65D) or ASONE (69A In unison) to AMUSE (56D Make laugh), making one AGAPE (1D Wide open , as the mouth) at the reviews for the competing EOS (51A Goddess of the dawn) and SEXY (19A Like a Playmate of the Month) Venus, the morning star! Or check out a LITHO (8D Many an art print, for short) in the same section -- "Arts and Leisure" -- not the LOLLS (2D Lazes) kind!

Take ASTAB at (try)(48A) the ads, perhaps OVENMITTS (11D Hand protectors for bakers) to guard against FLAME (54A Lick of fire), or GORP (14A Hiker's snack) may be on sale -- or a QTIP (68A Cotton swab) or HATS (64A Milliners' output), an AGATE (26D Playing marble) or SNIPS (31D Sounds in a barbership), or play for the PURSE (35D Total prize money) if your guesses are YESES (9D Affirmatives), you'll win!

Hope I don't sound NAIVE (42A Gullible), but this crossword's ABCS (28A Kindergarten learning) are like an EXAM (21D What a student crams for) eliciting JOTS (10A Scribbles) as we HONE (62D Fine-tune) our word skills on the way to work!

A sign of the Times? -- "All the news that's fit to print" -- there's no LIMIT (55D Maximum or minimum)!

-----------------

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! -- Stop the presses!