Grrrr. It wasn't my day with the NYT anyway, but I confidently put in HELICES at 15A, not noticing that this created ECCISE at the cross. It took me a while to, um, excise that error.

I took grim joy in later googling: HELICES gets 3.7M hits, whereas HELIXES get 217K hits (and a "Did you mean helices" message).

I also had EVILEYES for EVILEYED, giving the cross "MES school".

Moral: check the crosses.

-Tom Mc
Tom McCormick | 10.30.06 - 10:51 pm | #

We got the biggest kick out of the Tuesday Times puzzle when we solved it at Westchester... great grid design and some very nice puns. We also finished the puzzle jointly in a time very similar to yours (although in that tournament format, time is not recorded). Who says two heads aren't better than one?
Dave | Homepage | 10.31.06 - 4:52 am | #

A straightforward one. I paused over HELIXES/HELICES-- but 10D 'Cut out' made the choice easy. On the other hand, I fell into a couple of shallow traps with AIROUT/AERATE, MODELT/MODELA.
Matt | 10.31.06 - 7:09 am | #

Great Times grid... to prematurely quote 'A Christmas Story', "It's...smiling at me!". I love when constructors break the usual symmetry or conventions to give us that extra smile or surprise.

Happy Halloween!
Howard B | 10.31.06 - 7:47 am | #

So what was up with the Sun? Was there something I missed that required the zip file or was it just a computer glitch?

Thanks for mentioning the fangs! It was plenty entertaining even with just the jack-o-lantern face.

I managed to compound the "helices/helixes" issue by misspelling EXCISE as ECXISE and didn't catch it until I went back to try to figure out the theme entry. Duh.

Jenni
Jenni | Homepage | 10.31.06 - 9:17 am | #

If an OCTOPUS on top of a SATYR isn't scary, I don't know what is. This puzzle's theme was quite cute. All my trouble was in the NW (for no good reason), and I too tripped on the HELICES / HELIXES (the former was a recent answer, so I assumed it was the Only acceptable spelling; wrong). Yes, store-bought costume, though I can assure you that my little Cinderella will not be wearing a choker (pictured)! She will, however, have a tiara and a wand. Grandparents ... what're ya gonna do?

Michael
Michael | Homepage | 10.31.06 - 9:45 am | #

Somehow, the 10/31 Sun puzzle was dressed up as a MP3 file for Halloween.
Dave | Homepage | 10.31.06 - 2:47 pm | #

What a coincidence! That's what I'm dressing up as, too!
Orange | Homepage | 10.31.06 - 4:35 pm | #

Today's LA Times?


BAYH!


Pen Girl :(
Anonymous | 10.31.06 - 4:47 pm | #

Somehow, the 10/31 Sun puzzle was dressed up as a MP3 file for Halloween. ... What a coincidence! That's what I'm dressing up as, too!

Well, this is a little out of place, but I wish I had known about it a few days before Halloween ... http://www.tompaine.com/ articles...horror_show.php
dan | 10.31.06 - 5:50 pm | #