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Monday, August 6, 2007 Puzzle by Allan E. Parrish, edited by Will Shortz Bowling is the subject of the inter-related entries FREEZEFRAME (17A Result of hitting the pause button on a movie); TOSPARE (38A Extra); TINPANALLEY (61A Old-time songwriter's locale); BANANASPLIT (11D Dairy Queen offering); and FIRSTSTRIKE (25D Attack before being attacked); e.g., "frame", "spare", "alley", "split", and "strike". If you are headed back to work this Monday, consider for a moment the by-gone job of the pinsetter. In the 50’s, before the fully-automated bowling machine replaced the pinboy -- an irascible border-line delinquent usually too young to acquire employment in any other field except the delivery of newspapers or mowing of lawns -- pinsetting was like having a real job! At the end of the bowling alley (lane) was a pit -- above the pit, sitting on a wall-like structure was the all-important pinboy -- if you wanted to bowl, you had to have a pinboy to reset your pins. Unlike a machine, one could argue about strikes and spares, blaming human error on the part of the pinboy’s lack of expertise in resetting the pins. There was a relationship with the bowler and the pinboy that was quite volatile!
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Ladies night was particularly interesting to the pinsetter -- lots of splits and spares and gutter balls! The slow-moving rumbling ball allowed the pinsetter to leisurely ogle up the alley to determine the quality of undergarments, if any. The tips were spent for the most part on the pinball machines at the entrance, from which a bowler had to wrest an unwilling rascal to take his abuse! EXCEL (1A Do very well [at]); AROAR (15A Loud, as a stadium crowd); CARE (20A Have concern); STRIVE (50A Try hard); EEK (66A "Horrors!"); LEAVE (68A Go out); EXECUTE (4D Carry out, as an assignment); ERR (7D Goof up); REAR (44A Derriere); BARES (34A Uncovers); POPPED (47D Like some balloons, questions and corn); PRO (62D Con's opposite); and WENT (36D Departed) could all somehow fit into the pinboy's story. BOATEL (12D Overnight accommodations by the shore); BAINES (28A The "B" in L.B.J.); OCTAVO (51A Book size); and MAMABEAR (9D "Goldilocks" character) are seldom seen entries. Entries with initials include LEOXI (14A Pope before Paul V, whose papacy lasted less than four weeks); BBC (11A U.K. Channel); AOL (16A Yahoo! competitor); PJS (40A Nighwear, briefly); SSW (53 NNE's opposite); PSI (60A Tire pressure meas.); ECARD (67A Online birthday greeting, e.g.); CSPAN (71A Channel with cameras in the Capitol); and STAT (32D "Immediately," in the O.R.). Seen in puzzles this past week and repeating here are TINPANALLEY and PARROTS (56A Chatty birds); while Sunday's omission of ORIOLES (46D Baltimore nine) among its flock of birds is here rectified. Fun puzzle -- NOLIE (45A "Honest to goodness!")! -----------------
For today's cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
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The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification. Puzzle available on the internet at THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
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