agreed on both counts--great puzzle, definitely harder than a typical tuesday. lovely. and given lynn's recent foray into friday, she's definitely showing off her diversity lately.
joon | Homepage | 07.06.09 - 10:51 pm | #

Yes, excellent puzzle, but on the wrong day!

For a while, before I figured out the theme, I had:
FRED-ICAPR_ and put: FRED DICAPRIO ! I was trying to figure out if Leonardo DiCaprio had done a biopic about some late actor called FRED... It made some kind of crazy sense for a bit, and messed me up good for a while!
foodie | 07.07.09 - 12:16 am | #

I don't know, it seemed a little all over the place. The change of the first two entries could have been themes in their own right. But a crossword with TAXRELIEF, BRYLCREEM, GRENDEL and PSANDQS still gets 3 thumbs up! My mother still has a tendency to start singing the Brylcreem jingle at unpredictable times so it was a real gimme despite being somewhat old-fashioned, only I couldn't spell it as I had and I an A in there. And QUIPS looked so wrong at 2nd from the bottom!
Gareth | 07.07.09 - 6:28 am | #

Huh, I loved it, too, but I didn't think it was hard. Maybe it was harder to do fast, though (some things, like ETRURIA and PSANDQS, didn't jump out quickly), and I don't solve for speed.
Sara | 07.07.09 - 7:32 am | #

Loved Lynn Lempel's late celebs, plus REX Harrison and the Manners = P'S AND Q'S... ("Why can't a woman be more like a man?")

As for Doug Peterson's puzzle, "Give 'Em an Inch...", I enjoyed that one too -- and think VITAMIN CINCH is just fine without reference to an obscure product happening to be called "Cinch"! Merely an odd coincidence, IMHO.
ArtLvr | 07.07.09 - 8:00 am | #

artlvr -- thank you!

i wasn't reading "cinch" as another word for "something easy to accomplish." and i'll concede that the phrase kinda works that way.

BUT -- compared to the polished way doug has devised its compatriots, here he SKEWS the syntax (for me anyway), so it's a real challenge to find the sense of the phrase. especially when he sets the bar so high with GETWINCHELLSOON.

and there's still my parallel construction beef...

;-)
janie | 07.07.09 - 8:25 am | #

Okay, did anyone else type A NAIL at 13-A, [It takes a hammering]?

I finished the puzzle and clicked "Done!" at 5:32 which, as I write this, would put me at 74/746 (top 10%! Yay!). But it took me until 8:22 (299/746, boo!) to actually finish because "AAERY Fisher Hall" didn't look wrong enough to put the crossings in doubt until I triple-checked everything else.

ANVIL. **sigh**
Tuning Spork | Homepage | 07.07.09 - 3:39 pm | #

Aaery Fisher Hall—where Hank Aaron, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, anyone who's been to the Aar or Saar river, and fans of eagles' and hawks' aeries go to hear eerie music. I hear the paparazzi have spotted Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal there.
Orange | Homepage | 07.07.09 - 4:26 pm | #

Point well taken. PTO was not my original clue (I was angling more for Paid Time Off, an acronym used in a bunch of office workplaces). As for the others, well, yeah. I see what you mean. I'm hoping the crossers didn't provide you with too much grief.
Matt J. | 07.07.09 - 6:09 pm | #