Welcome back, solvers who want some hints, not direct answers.

For you NYT Times solvers, the entry before this is the NYT Monday.  BEQ, as he’s called, gives a very challenging Monday puzzle for those who zip through the NYT Monday.

This week’s had some nasty intersections.  If you didn’t know a couple specific items, there wasn’t much you could do but guess-and-check or google or reveal.  I like guess-and-check, perhaps ’cause I like fooling myself that I “solved” the puzzle when I really didn’t.  Anyway, I’ll start with the nasty points where possibly unknown answers meet.

17-Across / 4-Down:  The “other” 2012 Best Actress nominee is not a royal sounding name, as I thought for a while.  And Singer/songwriter Sufjan has a much more ordinary last name.   Need another hint for that square?   Why don’t you just declare victory!

21-Down / 30-Across:  Seaweed wrap?  / Journalist Suskind.  Not sure why there’s a question mark on seaweed wrap.   Think food, not seashore.  Of course, you may, like me have eaten this a zillion times and have no idea what it’s call.  So perhaps you didn’t know it, ______.   <– That, believe it or not, is the hint.

In that same area:  You do know the product (20-Across) that  “Makes beef sing” and it’s not an odd brand name at all.  It actually isn’t a single word, though it’s singular in a different way.  You rarely see the second part of this answer spelled out.

Just a couple quick hints today.  Theme hint:  This Monday “theme” finds parts of you starting off fine but then ending up way above you.

2-Down Tripoli’s country:  Where’s Tripoli?  Well let’s just say their leader seemed very strange to most Americans and few Americans or Tripoli-ans seemed sad to see him go.

3-Down Fossilized tree resin:  C’mon, you remember Jurassic Park, dontcha?

30-Across Brontë heroine:  First and last name.   Both 4 letters.  (What the heck are those two dots over the “e” for?  I wish I had an “e” in my name so I could put two dots over it.   Maybe I could put them some other vowel.)

19-Across Gem weight unit / Krazy _____ :  Only one answer gets the K.

64-Across Battle of Normandy City:  Or a biblical brother who messed up real bad and who couldn’t spell his own name right.

65-Across Sneaker brand:  Well I can tell what it isn’t:  Not NIKE, or AVIA, or Jimmy CHOO, or MARC (Jacobs).   KIX are for kids and so are these.

Another unusual theme…Unusual in that it’s not really wordplay, as much as answers that are common expressions literally equivalent to the clues that share something other than wordplay in common.  Think about alternative possibilities for Cologne.  Not the stuff you put on to smell nice.  Where would you put it?  Maybe not on your body.   As soon as you begin to get one of these, you’ll get the idea.  Not terribly exciting, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.  One more theme hint, you can keep these expressions, even though they are borrowed.

10 specific hints:

1-Down: Alternatives to comb-overs.  I bet Marv Alpert wishes he’d just gone for the comb-over.

93-Across: Homey.  Yo!  When spelled differently, this can be a dirty one!

96-Across: Potter’s pedal.  Change the fifth letter and it all turns to a gookey sugary substance.

36-Across: Who said “Familiarity breeds contempt — and children.”  I thought this was a person that’s never met?  Ok, I admit that’s too obscure.  His real name was the same as a famous strike-out king.

75-Across: Fraternity member.  Not a specific fraternity, like a Sigma or Delt, but any fraternity member

9-Down: Place for a Dumpster.  Don’t know why there’s a capital letter on Dumpster.  Is it a brand name?  I didn’t think so.  So the capital is irrelevant in this case.  Personally, I like to keep my dumpster in the living room, then I don’t have to take the trash out at all, but most people who have dumpsters around all the time (as opposed to just during some huge renovation) prefer to keep them where the answer says they are.

55-Across Worked the soil.  TILLED, no.  SEEDED, no.  Can a garden be worked with a deck of cards?  Apparently.

79-Across Like many a fraternity party.   I’ve never heard this word in my life, but the first four letters will be in very hear use this Super Bowl Sunday.

68-Across 1952  Brando title role.  This clue/answer combo has been used before this week.  Think Mexican revolution.   Who was fighting whom, by the way?

69-Down All’s partner.  I tried ALL first.  Thought that would be funny and possible even if it did violate xword construction rules.  Think the opposite of ALL.  No, not NONE, a little more than that!

Welcome back, NYT Crossword Saturday warriors.  This one wasn’t a deadly as Friday’s, though it also has a long answer that only a few people will know and nobody could easily guess.  Themeless, of course.

The clue I’m talk about is the Hip-hop producer.  I guess some solvers follow such things.  Not I.  The person’s first name is short and common.  If you don’t know it, you’ll have to get the last name from the crosses.  Not a person, as I thought for a little while, who’s famous for his animated features.

More hints:

Highway sections:  This is a more generic word than you might be considering.  The answer could even be, in a totally different context, clued as a verb:  Something one does before aerobic exercise or during yoga.

Figure in a beret:  Commonly found on tee shirts, particularly a few decades ago.

Word appearing 39 times in the King James Version of Matthew 1:  Someone actually counts the number of times a given word appears in a particular part of the Bible?   If the clue was 38 times, then I’d know it immediately!   Anyway, I would have thought you’d find this word a lot in Genesis.  Maybe even more than 39 times.

HanesBrands brand:  Seems like Michael Jordan’s all over crosswords this week.  Who knew his underwear was rubbery plastic?

They bite but don’t have teeth:  Not a riddle, just a variety of animal that can give you a nasty bite without using any teeth, which, apparently, it doesn’t have.

Bygone 20-Across fashion magazine…whose grown up mommy is still going strong.

Mythical predator of elephants:  It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a crossword puzzle favorite!  If you didn’t know this one, learn it, it’s very popular to crossword writers.  It’s an anagram of Bilbo’s least favorite species.

Composure:  More commonly found ending in ED as an adjective.  As a noun, it’s two words.

Musical intensifier:  No, it’s not a drug or a piece of stereo equipment.  Psst: It’s one of those musical terms derived from Latin.

Genre of the double-platinum box set “Songs of Freedom”:  Is “double-platinum” supposed to tell us were completely out of it not to know it?  Can’t see how else it helps.  Anyway, don’t be scared if the last two letters look like more Latin, you’ll discover this kind of music in a different sea than the Adriatic.

Another cruel Friday.   As you might tell by when I’m posting, here I am at nearly 2 in the morning trying to give you a few hints to make a Friday challenge a little more achievable.   Themeless (Fri/Sat are always themeless).

It is possible to solve the puzzle without knowing who the 2011 Emmy-winning MSNBC host was, ’cause I didn’t know it either and I made it through.  First and last name.  Woman.   First name Biblical.   Second name unguessable.  Could it be an angry variation of a grassy valley?

Two Absent without leave? clues.  The long one’s just what it says, so I’m not sure why there’s a question mark at the end.  I wanted to put an “E” in the second word of this two word answer which it made it not fit.

Works on a plot:  The plot isn’t an acre or a play.  Unless the play’s a thriller.

If you don’t know who the Emmy nominee for Newhart is and can’t spell the “kind of artery or vein” that crosses it, let me ease your pain:  It’s a vowel and it isn’t A E I or U.  Hope that doesn’t give it away!

Semi-opponent:  The is a portmanteau word:  two words crunched together to from a new word that has a meaning that combines the two words that make it.  Must come from having too many Facebook contacts who keep sending you updates on things you have no desire to know.

Sturdy as  _______:  no, not A ROCK, apparently,  not A anything, yet close.

Time-traveling 1980’s film character:  No, his name wasn’t Calvin Klein despite product placement.

Decrees:   Plural yes,  “S” at the end, no.

Common soap ingredient:  Think television, not wash basins.

Strange puzzle, though of course Thursday NYT crossword puzzles are all about being unique.  Today’s NYT crossword hint is tat this one’s “trick” or theme is that the theme doesn’t relate to any of the clues/answers.  So that makes solving 23-down (“This puzzle’s theme”) useless in solving the rest of the puzzle and a minor challenge of its own.    For a while, I thought it was about a super-big wave, but that was only true in the  beginning.

So it’s otherwise all about solving the grid.

Specific hints:

1-Across Toon/live action film of 1996:  2 words and it starred a man who was later famous for his underwear.

9-Across Typewriter’s spot:  Maybe this is one that’s hard for younger solvers who’ve never seen a writing device that won’t sit on you lap or in your palm.  Don’t over-think it, the obvious answer is correct.

9-Down Ten-spots and such:  Especialmente en Mexico!

31-Down Toned quality: I’m not sure I buy this clue/answer combo.  Anyway, people who are toned are usually this, but some toned people are anything but.

26-Down Turn a blind eye, say:  3 words…or monkeys.

52-Across Thing that’s highly explosive:  Another not quite right clue/answer.   This burns like heck, but won’t necessarily explode.

50-Down Took (out):  Think editing especially with a pen or pencil

Every day I give a few hints for those who want to see how far one can go without googling, checking Rex Parker’s blog, or hitting “Reveal” in Across Lite.  

Something a little different for today’s hints and tips:  Each hint or tip as I go through the puzzle.  I’m going through in my usual way:  Doing all the acrosses first and then the down clues rather than solving an area of the puzzle at a time.  But first, a quick look at all the clues to see if there’s a hint at the the “theme” (In case you’re new to NYT puzzles:  Monday through Thursday NYT puzzles have a particular wordplay that the long answers  have in common.  Occasionally, a different means is used to identify the theme answers.  Yesterday’s puzzle used asterisks, for example.)

The first long answer (17-Across,  Coming on to a patient, perhaps?) ends in a question mark.  This tells it’s some kind of joke, usually a pun.   So the answer is a phrase that’s commonly used with a completely different meaning from the clue that’s given.  36-Across “Dictator’s directive at a dance club?”  and  59-Across “Strive for medium quality on this one”?  fit this same pattern.  It’s rare that you can guess these right off.  I suggest a once-through of all the clues before zeroing in on the theme answers.  (21-Across and 55-Across are also theme answers.  Note that the long Down clues are not theme clues.)

Going through the puzzle filling in what we can guess quickly:

1-Across Muscles strengthened by squats: Here’s one where it’s safe to conclude this plural will end in “S”.  Probably true of 6-Across also, but if you know the word Shul,you should get the answer quickly, otherwise, put in the S and move on.  10-Across “Easy to spread cheese”:  French cheese that comes from a large wheel and sounds like a character in Desperate Housewives.

15-Across “Don’t worry about me”:  If you remember Eric Berne, then you know the answer to this one.  If you don’t, think of how much can be squeezed into four letters if you work at it.

29-Across Cyberspace ‘zine:  Remember NYT #1 rule:  The form of the clue matches the form of the answer.  ‘zine is internet slang;  so is the answer.

31-Across Less-than sign’s key mate:  Go ahead, peak at your keyboard, you know you want to!

34-Across “Make my ______!”:  He was so much more fun when he was blowing people’s heads off instead of talking to a chair!

42-Across Seek pocket change, say:  Dogs do this also;  Cats just make a nuisance of themselves until you give them what they want.

44-Across Close to closed:  When a door isn’t?

64-Across Cheese that doesn’t spoil:  Really?  Never?  Must be the red wrapper.

67-Across Idiot:  …or 48-Across, to some

Enough acrosses, on to the downs:

1-Down Proof letters:  No, not VSO, like Brandy, think geometry, not booze

2.-Down Area 51 letters, supposedly:  What’s he mean, “supposedly,”  why I read about ’em when I’m on line at the supermarket every day!

8-Down “Hit the jackpot”:  2 words

After you’ve gotten through 9-Down, check out 17-Across, the first theme clue.  Can you guess it?  If so, you can imagine the others are going to work pretty much the same way.  It’s a very familiar phrase (name of a film featuring a “shaken, not stirred” martini drinker) plus a couple predictable letters.

24-Nat or Natalie:  Or that “Merry old soul”

36-Across Theme clue:  Dictator’s directive at a dance club?:  Wait a minute, isn’t this what one says to a dictator, not what the dictator says???

48-Down Amnesiac’s question: Only 6 letters, but 3 words.

And in case the bottom right is giving you fits because you’ve forgotten of the Hades river of forgetfulness and don’t know what a muslim woman’s veil is called, so their point of intersection is killin’ ya:  The river sounds like someone with a lisp.   A Spanish eye’s middle letter isn’t H even though it sounds like one.  And the things Geisha’s wear sounds like the first name of a famous Jedi warrior.

And remember:  Learning to solve is a matter of successive approximations.  If you could zip through them every time with no problem, what point would there be to doing them?

And while you’re here.  Check out the photos of a frozen stream in Vermont on the site’s main blog.

Welcome back solvers who want hints and not direct answers!   Tuesday NYT are a step harder than Mondays, but just a small step.  No reason not to give it a shot without googling for answers!

The theme:  Ok, what do we see?  Asterisks.  So we know that the theme answers are identified specifically rather than just being all the long answers in the puzzle.  Next look to see if there’s a “key,” a specific answer that gives us a hint to rest.   Ah, yes, here it is.  Take a look at 40-Across. And they’re all films.  For me, at least, all relatively obscure ones.  So this means we’ll need to get some down clues (all the starred clues are across clues) before we’ll have a shot at the theme.   But, hint, don’t worry about it too much, getting the theme isn’t a huge help at knowing the movie names.  Actually, it works a little the other way around, once you get a couple movie names, you’ll be able to get 40-Across and that gives you a lot!  A lot!! A lot!!!

Let’s go to some specific hints, then take a look at the theme again.

Letter-shaped support:  These are always single letters followed by a common three letter word.  Here’s a hint to that:  Mars isn’t always a planet, sometimes it’s a ____.

Emulated a lamb:  Nothing tricky here, just a word you never see spelled out.  This word (the answer) is almost always used in the present tense, that’s why it looks so funny in the past tense.  (In case you didn’t know:  NYT puzzles are very careful about matching the tense, plural/singular, slang/normal speech, etc. between clue and answer.

Here’s a small hint to one of the theme answers — 17. *1952 Marlon Brando film:  Che Guevara would have been proud of him.

12-Across “Connector of stories”:  No, not the kind of stories you find in a book.  Look somewhere else in your house…if it’s a tall one.

51-Down “Loud, as a crowd”:  Another word no one ever says or writes.  What does a crowd when the home team scores?  It _____.  So suppose you wanted to use that as an adjective rather than a verb?

50-Down “A ring bearer”:  Well, not just any ring bearer, a very particular who’s the central character of recent film that might be called a prequel.

29-Down “Watt’s equivalent”:  This word is essentially a portmanteau word:  Two words put together to mean something that’s like a combination of the two.  Both parts are common electrical terms you’re likely to know.

For NYT Monday fans, go down to the blog entry below this one…

BEQ gives us a challenging puzzle each Monday.   This one isn’t authored by him, but by guest puzzle creators, the young marvels  Joel Fagliano and Caleb Madison.

Themeless, as always.

Discovery channel programming block that included ‘Ocean of Fear’:  Thinks orcas not global warning

Topic for Alan Turing:  I thought only English people pluralized this word.   Well, Alan Turing was English, so I guess it’s ok.

“Schnellboot” of WWII:  And you thought those nasty Nazis only used one kind of boat, when, in fact, they were, way ahead of the game, letter-wise.

National Federation of Independent Businesses vs. Sibelius matter:  And what was the big issue in the last election?

Mythical inventor of the kithara,  Kithara an early spelling of Guitar.  Here’s the inventor:  

Her name sounds like a mistake, but poets love her anyway.

Inner weirdness, metaphorically:  Thing 1960’s.  Think of flying.

Ok, back to Monday.  The theme isn’t very exciting here.  You can figure out all the long across clues without the “key” clue (35-Across “Common put-down that hints at the ends…”).  In fact you’re more likely to get at least one of the long clues before 35-Across will come into shape.  It’s 3 words by the way.  More an adult than a playground put-down.   But once you do get the idea, it’ll make some of the other long answers come into focus easier.

5 Monday hints:

1.  52-Across “‘Aha!'”  –  3 word phrase.  Alternative clue:  Answer to “Darn, where’s the apartment key?”

2.  58-Across “Safety exercise prompted by an alarm”:  Admit, you were disappointed when it turned out not to be real!

3.  60-Across “Laura and Bruce of the silver screen”:  Alternate clue:  Expressions used by  backwoods folks when they stub their toes.

4.  55-Down “Opera with a slave girl”:  Set in Egypt and somehow turned into a musical by Disney corp.

5.  11-Down “Produce, as page layouts for a printer”:  Alternative clue:  Refuse to answer any questions when interrogated by the police.

Interesting theme this week.  More challenging than most.  Clever, too.  I’d suggest filling in as much of the puzzle as you can before trying to work out the theme.  For that reason, I’ve reversed my usual order and put a few specific hints first:

It may be spotted in a pet store:  “spotted” isn’t exactly what these animals are.  Think common house pet, not exotic animal.

Hinders:  It’s a legal term for it, though it sounds like something that would definitely slow you down.

Wife of Woody:  Allen, not Guthrie

Fancy Flower holders:  they can also hold coffee or your great great grandfather

Biblical resting place:  Two words, the first is an abbreviation

Without any oomph:  I was thinking TEPID, but it’s even more exhausted than that.

Well-rounded:  This kind of well-roundedness isn’t the kind that makes you attractive to grad schools.

Old barnstorming needs:  How’d these folks get to one out-of-the-way place to another quickly?  2 words

Really hurts:  And causes some lasting damage.  Literally hurts, not figuratively.

Something media execs have their eye on?:  The key word in the clue is “eye.”  Note the question mark indicating that it’s a bit of a “wink, wink”

Source of talk often:  Two letters followed by a word.

Theme:

We have a bunch of dashes with no clues. Hmmm.  By doing the “crosses” (words that transect the “dashed” clues), eventually we get some words that don’t seem to have much to do with each other (and, don’t sweat it, they don’t have anything to do with each other, at least not [the answer to 108-Across].   But what else is strange about the puzzle.  Well, let’s take 6-Down (“The Pied Piper of Hamelin, e.g.”) Hmmm.    Can you think of any three-letter word to describe the Pied Piper?  No, I can’t either.  So let’s look at the crosses:  “Break in poetry.”  If you don’t know poetry that might be difficult, but it’s some kind of gap and probably Latin.  Maybe you can guess a few letters.  Then check out “The hare, notably.”  Well, compared to the tortoise, what was the hare.  Well, the LOSER doesn’t fit, but there’s a two-word phrase that means more or less the same thing.  “Allowed aboard” is another two word answer that’s pretty straightforward.

So now do you have 6-down?  If not, here’s a hint:  If the Pied Piper were one of these, he would be renowned as the greatest traitor of all times.  Now notice that you have one of those dash clues just below it.  And what does a dash do?  Maybe everything’s not hunky-dory or easy-to-answer, but you get the idea.  Ok.  Now go for a few of the letters of 42-Down.   So what was the Pied Piper?  And what’s the theme title?

Got it? If not, try work around the other “plus signs” found in the design of the puzzle itself.   As soon as you get one, the rest will fall nicely in place.

Ok, before the hints, an admission that this one killed me.  I don’t think it’s just cause I started late in the evening.  I just don’t know who the “Monkey launched in 1958”, what Mercutio cried repeatedly, who was in Unfaithful or the name of the announcer in, what was it, Let’s Make a Deal?  So I have to admit, I went into a pure guess & check mode with those four squares.   Maybe because folks can google answers so easily, it does feel to me that Friday and Saturday puzzles are getting more combo obscure answers.   So I, the hint giver, must cry, “Gimme a hint!”

Ok, finally done, though with far too many wrong guesses before the denouement. Painful after all these years.  Oh, well.

Hints:

Rainbow event:  On the street, not in the sky.

It includes the extradition clause:  Think very important document with roman numerals attached

It’s between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo:  Well, BORDER WITH MEXICO won’t fit, so what else is in between the two countries?

Receipt to redeem a credit:  Often considered close to worthless

Place of imprisonment…:  Think Prisoner of _______

One who snaps:  Especially on Sundays, Mondays, and occasional Saturdays

Medieval love poem:  Or a present to you in Hawaii by someone who spells phonetically

Ensure: 2 words

Sounds that make frogs disappear?:  pssst.  the ones you sometimes get in your throat

Military hut:  These are pretty big huts.  There’s no question mark and no joke, just a particular kind of hut used by military personnel

Signs of Spring:  Signs, yes, S at the end, no.  What other letter can indicate it’s a plural?

Non-profit concerns:  After this puzzle, I definitely had to count mine.  2 words.

Here we are at Friday.   So no more themes, probably no more tricks.  A possible strategy:  Go straight through the acrosses  relatively quickly in pencil inserting words or individual letters that seem probable but not definite.  Ink in only those words you’re pretty sure of.  Do all the acrosses with barely a peek at the downs and then all the downs.  In doing the downs,  put in a probable even if it conflicts with an across you’ve written in pencil.  Leave the crossing square with the letter of the word that seems more likely.   If something seems to confirm another guess,  mark both in ink.  If something seems to make a previously penciled answer very unlikely, erase the penciled answer.

Now that you’ve done the acrosses once through and the downs also, look for the area you have the most inked in and start from there to see if you can get anything more.  (In the early days of doing Friday puzzles, don’t be surprised if there’s very little you feel sure about, but start in areas of the puzzle where you have the most.)   Don’t belabor an area.  If nothing’s coming, try another.  Again, use pencil unless you’re confident about the specific answers you’re adding.

After you’ve done as much as you can in this manner.  Take a break.  Do something else for a few minutes or hours.  Come back and look at the puzzle again.  Try a few spots again.  Check your answers next.  Are there some that might be wrong and misleading you?  Take ’em down a grade (from ink to pencil in Across Lite;  erase penciled in answers that look likely to be wrong as you look at the puzzle again.

If there’s a space with only one or two letters missing, you may want to run the alphabet through your head to consider possibles.  Don’t do this too quickly or you may skip over a correct answer.

When you’ve filled in as much as you can and you’re getting more frustrated than it’s worth, start checking answers (this assumes you’re using Across Lite).   This is much better than googling.  Googling often tells you more than you wanted to know.   When you do check, try checking a single letter, rather than a whole word.  Then words if you’re still stuck and, finally, the whole puzzle.  Now you know where you’ve gone wrong.    The goal is not to try to solve the puzzle with as few checked letters being wrong as possible, but more importantly to have fun.

Specific Hints for this Friday:

Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson.   Not LEFTIES.  Baseball was their game and  the _______ were their team.

Sawbuck:  Slang for an amount of money.  Less than a CNOTE a more than a FIN.

Candle-lighting occasion:  There’s misdirection by the puzzle-maker here.  It’s not a rite, but a completely different reason to light a candle.

To come:  3 words

Game with forks and pins:  No, not bowling.  And not something really tricky like a roast wild duck, that would require a question mark in the clue.  You know this game.

Goes out, in a card game:  You know this game, too.  You may not know this word as a verb, but it’s how one wins the game of the same name.

Giant of legend:  Poor Mr. OTT, our xword favorite, is too short for this one.   It’s in a different category altogether from the most common denominator in the puzzle.

_____ – pop:  You can’t drink this kind.

Hit accidentally:   But…you’re only hurting yourself!