I did worse than not parsing the theme answers: I parsed them wrong, but got there anyway. I somehow read HEATEROFWART as Art Of War with a T appended, and so was thinking "add a T at the end", which actually worked out pretty well. And then I sort of got the theme but tried to puzzle out THE ATER OF WAR before the light bulb went off.

The cross of E_DEDBART and _UT blinded me until the N finally swam into view.

I did way worse on the NYS: it took me forever to see GRUNTLED.

-Tom Mc
Tom Mc | 08.15.07 - 10:03 pm | #

I grinned when I saw ENYA too and also when I saw Amy take the lead with a 3:40 over Katie's 4:47. Meanwhile I was limping along getting incorrect messages. At least the puzzle did not turn out to have a Harry Potter theme. I'm not wild about Harry and feared HEATER OF WART had something to do with the lad.

Happy Birthday, Amy. You wouldn't happen to be 34, O?
Penny | 08.15.07 - 10:15 pm | #

I didn't make sense of the theme until after filling everything in... There was a fair amount of crosswordy stuff in this one (UVEA, TBONE, ESL, DLI, OPE, etc.), but also enough misdirection to keep me alert.
Matt | 08.16.07 - 5:51 am | #

For the record, I only beat Amy by 15 seconds on my own puzzle. I need to seriously work on my typing skills... :)
Pete M | 08.16.07 - 9:37 am | #

I loved both puzzles today, especially Pete's. It was nice to have letters being moved around or deleted instead of being inserted for a change. I thought the theme to Pete's was really clever. Did the inspiration come from the article Amy mentioned.

ERIN as "Cranberry's Land" needed help from Amy to understand. $2 on the way.
barrywep | 08.16.07 - 10:59 am | #

OK. I give up. How is PIE Cap's counterpart in the NYS puzzle? Here in Chicago, Felix Pie (PEE-ay) plays for the Cubs, but even he can't help me figure it out.
PD | 08.16.07 - 12:53 pm | #

PD, it's from the French, I think. Cap-a-pie, from head to foot. Anyone agree or disagree?
Orange | Homepage | 08.16.07 - 1:11 pm | #

PD, I had the same question and googled "cap+pie" and found links similar to the one Amy posted. Funny that in that context, "pie" is pronouced "pee".
Evad | 08.16.07 - 1:21 pm | #

Cap and Pie. There are two hall of fame baseball players CAP Anson and PIE Traynor, but they played in different eras and while both played some third base, Anson was primarily a first baseman and Traynor was essentially a full time third baseman. I like Amy's explanation much better than this baseball one, although my first thought related to the two baseball players.

Steve
Steve manion | 08.16.07 - 1:54 pm | #

Did not know MASSE and somehow had DIE, thinking "Tap & DIE," I think. Anyway, crashed and burned in the SW. Otherwise, enjoyable puzzle. I have NEVER heard of PRAT as a word meaning "the buttocks." Who uses that?

mds

Just looked at OED - so THAT's where the expression PRATFALL comes from ... aha. I'll leave you to imagine what PRAT BOY (U.S. slang) means...
Michael | Homepage | 08.16.07 - 5:47 pm | #

Michael, I hadn't known what MASSE was, really, other than a pool shot of some sort—until the word's previous appearance in the crossword, when someone offered up a YouTube link like this one that demonstrates crazy massé trick shots. (And I absolutely learned what "prat" means thanks to crosswords.)
Orange | Homepage | 08.16.07 - 6:41 pm | #

I just discovered your blog trying to look up the 8/16 NYT puzzle's theme. I finished it but still didn't understand what From Start to Finish meant. Now that I see what they did... I still think the theme clues were pretty weak. They're random phrases that have no relation to each other or anything else.
matt | 08.29.07 - 5:18 pm | #