Good thing Kevin Der's puzzle on Friday helped me learn MOIRE. It appeared today with a similar clue. yay for actually retaining some information!

Jonathon
jmbrow29 | 07.05.09 - 9:52 pm | #

OMG, I love "Wok around the Block"!!! What a shame Will changed it! thank you for the background information and a wonderful Sunday puzzle!

This is a remarkably easy Monday NYT puzzle! I had EMPLOYEE BENEFIT to start with but knew it needed to be plural, and of course did not work. Also AVOID instead of AVERT. These were my only missteps.
I like MOTTLE ( along with Dapple).
foodie | 07.05.09 - 10:48 pm | #

"Wok around the block" is delicious!

But, by-and-large, I have to agree with Will's tweaks. He made a fun puzzle even more funner.
Tuning Spork | Homepage | 07.05.09 - 11:01 pm | #

Only got (the out-loud part of) Sunday's title with the link to Wordplay, so sorry for calling it ho-hum (slaps head)

Sweet solid Monday, but I was fighting with the NYT and LAT applets this morning (the LAT is down on cruciverb, but you can get it at game.latimes.com). I was dead sure SETTEE was something posh you only got in America and that here we have COUCHES... Guess I was dead wrong.
Gareth | 07.06.09 - 5:13 am | #

Went to the Bronx Zoo yesterday and saw baby giraffes *and* baby monkeys. I thought the monkeys were waaaaay cuter!

Thank you for the background! That pan-the-neighborhood clue was my least favorite.

btw, Merrell CLOGs are not hard to run in!
Sara | 07.06.09 - 6:32 am | #

Gonna wok
Gonna wok
All around the block
Tonight
Bill Haley | 07.06.09 - 9:21 am | #

hey folks. if your monday could use a harder puzzle (other than the BEQ themeless), i posted one over at the crosswordfiend forum that was rejected by the various outlets. it's a reasonably well-made puzzle but some of the theme answers are a little obscure. you might like it anyway; you might not. but it's there.

easier-than-usual LAT and NYT made up for today by klahn in the CS and especially the BEQ, which was just plain tough. amy, i think you have yours truly to thank for that roman numeral clue, which was originally not quite so straightforward (and produced what i thought was an impossible guess at the crossing with SFAX).
joon | 07.06.09 - 1:18 pm | #

Cool puzzle, Joon. I hadn't heard of the one at 20A.
Will Nediger | 07.06.09 - 1:46 pm | #

Great CS which took me more then ten minutes easy. Once I saw Kahn, I knew it was going to be more of a Friday type of workout. Had never heard of SHIVAREE and the ? clues were truly that.

Halfway done with BEQ which is even harder, sigh. I thought it was Monday?
*David* | 07.06.09 - 3:33 pm | #