05.13.07 -- MOTHER'S DAY

Sunday, May 13, 2007

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TWO TIMES THREE*

Puzzle by Jim Page, edited by Will Shortz

Happy Mother's Day!

This Sunday Mother's Day crossword puzzle from The New York Times has nothing to do with Mother's Day -- but it is Mother's Day, have a great one!

What this puzzle does have is an odd "theme" three-letter repeats within phrases, twice. Yes, that's it -- check the completed grid: STOSTO, LETLET, HOWHOW, OVEOVE, PLEPLE, INTINT, LINLIN, ANTANT, ESSESS.

I yearn for the good old days when a “theme” crossword in The New York Times related to special days -- occasions like Christmas, New Years, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving…uh, Mother’s Day.

None of that for a long, long time! Instead, what passes for a “theme” in this fakakta crossword is an odd stutter of three letters repeated twice in each entry marked with an asterisk in its clue.

To add insult to injury (or v.v.), the “theme” entries are things on your mother you wouldn’t wish:

23A *What someone who looks at Medusa does -- TURNSTOSTONE

32A *1850 American literature classic -- THESCARLETLETTER

42A *Demonstrate the method -- SHOWHOWITSDONE

70A *Push aside -- SHOVEOVER

94A *Walk in the park, say -- SIMPLEPLEASURE

103A *Put at bay -- PAINTINTOACORNER

119A *Miami baseball list -- MARLINLINEUP

15D *Toothless South American animal -- GIANTANTEATER

55D *Not so important -- LESSESSENTIAL

41A ARAT (Shakespearean question after “How now!”) "How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" -- Hamlet (III, iv, 23) -- Hamlet’s line as he slays Polonius in the presence of his mother.

This is as close to Mother’s Day as this puzzle allows us to get.-- the dark deeds at 116A ELSINORE (“Hamlet” setting), other than ASSHE (7D “Steady _____ goes”) and SOONYI (77A Woody’s partner). Don't count 124A EDERLE (Gertrude who swam the English Channel) -- wrong Gertrude (e.g., Hamlet's mother), but the right stuff!

Poor mom, in this puzzle SIMPLE PLEASURE gets her THE SCARLET LETTER, and she becomes LESS ESSENTIAL is told to SHOVE OVER so someone else can SHOW HOW IT’S DONE, while the MARLIN LINE-UP PAINT INTO A CORNER a GIANT ANTEATER Doesn’t that just warm your heart!

EEK (81A Hair-raising cry)!

Note: REX is a must-read today! -- absolutely one of his best!

For today’s cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

Edwin Austin Abbey -- In 1897, he exhibited at the Royal Academy a painting based on the Play Scene in Hamlet that is now in the Yale University Art Gallery. Abbey was a devoted theater-goer and in England in the 1880s, he established friendships with Lawrence Barrett (Edwin Booth’s co-star), Ellen Terry, Mary Anderson, and Henry Irving. This latter gave Abbey a token that provided him with free admission to any Lyceum performance. During the last two decades of the century, not only did Abbey draw inspiration from his attendances at the theater, but a number of actors and theater directors were in turn influenced by his works.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

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