NYT gives us almost twenty names (first or last) and seems very up to date. I got a few of them only from the nearby fill. It certainly seems possible that Emily Halpern is a humorous television writer. We have seen Kwong collaborations before and I hope for some more. I am guessing that a Rio is a KIA model, but maybe they make them there. I liked the way 9D clued an abbr. and finally I am proud of guessing the right _TEST for the first time ever.
PhillySolver | 07.28.08 - 11:41 pm | #

I'm chiming in late, mostly because I'm confused and horrified to see only one comment! Well, Philly, not horrified that it's you, of course...you know what I mean.

I enjoyed NYT and NYS today - and loved the idea of the product placement in Francis' puzzle: in a way, same type of theme as NYT, which is one I don't remember seeing as often as others, especially in early week puzzles.

As it's practically Wednesday now, goodnight!
tony orbach | 07.29.08 - 8:59 pm | #

Stallone is making a Poe biopic? Um, shouldn't he be doing Rimbaud?

Byron
Byron | 07.29.08 - 9:31 pm | #

A perhaps little-known fact: IUDs can be used as emergency contraceptives: http://ec.princeton.edu/info/eciud.html
bentausig | 07.29.08 - 10:14 pm | #

Ben: Thanks for the reproductive health news! I did not know that.

Byron: (groan)

Tony: I know! Everyone was shy today.

Philly: Do you wish ATEST would always be clued as, say, ["This is only ___"] and not as an atomic test?
Orange | Homepage | 07.29.08 - 10:40 pm | #

Shy, yes, but also in a 12-hour rehearsal...

Just wanted to chime in that Heaney's product placement theme made me laugh out loud, several times. So did the NYT today with the altered "great"s. And because I didn't say it before: Sunday's NagelFoot offering would go in my "best of the year" folder, if I had such a folder.
Dan | 07.29.08 - 10:53 pm | #

hey everybody. sorry to contribute to the lack of commentage today, but i just got back from california and i'm way behind. liked all of today's puzzles (except i haven't done the tausig or onion yet), but was rather horrified at the NE_L/T_T crossing in the CS. even if you knew [Country singer McCoy], unless you were sure of the spelling, it's basically a coin flip. google gives NEAL 48 million hits and NEIL 134 million, actually, so if you went with the odds, as i did, you guessed wrong. since the answer was, in fact, A, why wasn't the clue for TAT something along the lines of tattoo or tatting instead of the cruelly ambiguous [Part of an exchange]? i realize that's the most acceptable way to clue TIT in a newspaper puzzle, but TAT has perfectly good alternatives. that's my gripe.

i didn't realize the NYT was a debut. loved the theme! and the fill had a lot going for it, as well. it was almost monday-easy, but you won't hear me complain about that.
joon | 07.29.08 - 11:11 pm | #

Joon, I second your T*T remark. I meant to say the same thing in my post, but remembered it only hours later when I was out and about.
Orange | Homepage | 07.30.08 - 7:52 am | #