This one fell relatively quick for a Friday puzzle for me. I started at the center of the puzzle first, getting SPEC, OTOS, RET, and REPOTS. After I had the start of colonel in KENTUCKY COLONEL, I rushed to enter in the whole thing. Being from Kentucky really helped out on this one, and I actually know someone who is a Kentucky Colonel, though not famous like the one's the puzzle mentions.

Despite the cross references, this was a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Doug and Barry!
jmbrow29 | 07.16.09 - 11:11 pm | #

I'm gonna guess [Highway caution] wasn't the original clue. And you call yourself an 80s music fan...
SethG | 07.16.09 - 11:49 pm | #

yeah... I'd call the NYTimes puzzle challenging for Friday, especially the Southwest. But parts of it unfolded quickly once I had a toehold.

I liked the play on OLD SCHOOL as both the opposite of Avant Garde and an Alma Mater.

I imagine this is a construction feat because of the interlocking stacks of long answers-- the cross of two 15mers, the 2 piles of 10mers in the NW and SE and the 2 sets of vertical 10mers perpendicular to them. All of these are somewhere between very solid and quite fun (e.g. OUIJA BOARD, I NEED A NAP). Most impressive!

Now I need a long nap...
foodie | 07.16.09 - 11:59 pm | #

@SethG - Right you are! The original clue was "Multi-platinum Bon Jovi album of 1986."
Doug P. | 07.17.09 - 12:05 am | #

Bon Jovi never came to my mind, but I do think of SLIPPERY WHEN WET as a highway sign, not a custodian's. "Wet Floor" is usually what's on those yellow signs and safety cones you see after a spill or a mopping, and those signs are generally out only when it is (or recently was) wet. These days, though, that highway sign may be all picture, no words.

COLD HARBOR I had not heard of (all I could think up was "Cold Mountain," a Civil War movie I somehow missed a few years ago). Cold Spring Harbor, btw, is a village on the north shore of Long Island. I worked at a marina there when I was 18. It's probably best known for the CSH Laboratory, which is across the water in Nassau County, actually, but CSH is also the title of a Richard Yates novel I read not long ago. Anyway, Cold Harbor ... no idea. I guess it's in the South.

Enjoyed the crossing 15s, and the corners were filled with lots of goodies. Excellent work, guys.
john farmer | 07.17.09 - 1:10 am | #

Nice puzzle except for the imaginary word in the
grid. There is no such thing as a tow car.
Tow truck is the correct term.
You're right on that one Amy!
Bronson | 07.17.09 - 1:19 am | #

Admittedly challenged by most sports clues, I got TITO Francona as he has a Boston connection as the father of Sox manager Terry.

Found this one pretty tough, never have heard of the Kentucky Colonels either. The SLIPPERY WHEN WET reference gave me a smile tho, as a friend of mine growing up stole a roadsign saying that near our home one night and put it up over her bed, perhaps as a caution to suitors...
Evad | 07.17.09 - 6:30 am | #

while a tow car might not be the first emergency vehicle to show up at a crash, there sure does appear to be a sound automotive basis for the term tow car. and not just in great britain... here are some pix of two cars, too.

smart puzzle, guys!

;-)
janie | 07.17.09 - 7:11 am | #

Janie, I don't see any indication that a TOW CAR would be used to tow a damaged vehicle from a crash site. There's no question mark on the clue to suggest that "crash site" means an RV that you sleep in, with a "sight" being the car that tows it—that would be a huge stretch. I think it's ungainly fill with a clue that's off.

I've never been a Bon Jovi fan, and by '86 I was a college student who considered herself too cool to listen to top 40. Bon Jovi wasn't so big on college radio, I don't think.
OrangeXW | Homepage | 07.17.09 - 8:22 am | #

the "problem" is in the clue. it's friday. is a question mark *really* necessary? if a tow car can tow a boat or a motor home, it's not really outside the realm of possibility that it could tow debris from a crash site, is it?

regardless, the term has not been created by the constructors to fit the needs of the grid. it's legit.

and of course i meant to type "pix of tow cars" in that link... "pix of two cars"? oy...

;-)
janie | 07.17.09 - 8:37 am | #

But, but...nobody *calls* a TOW CAR to come to the accident scene. If the clue is about towing vehicles from a crash site, then TOW CAR makes little sense.
OrangeXW | Homepage | 07.17.09 - 8:58 am | #

As an RVer, I can tell you that no car can tow a motor home. Cars that are towed behind motor homes are known as TOWED cars, sometimes referred to as toads.
Linda | 07.17.09 - 9:00 am | #

check out some of these definitions...
http://www.onelook.com/?w=tow+car

precedent exists, even if it's new to a lot of us.
janie | 07.17.09 - 9:01 am | #

i filled in ALMA MATER from crosses and could not for the life of me figure out how it related to DR. DRE. i also thought it was odd that two clues in the NW were cross-referenced to the same answer in the SW. it was only after i finished the puzzle and looked back that i reread the clue carefully enough to figure out that it was OLD SCHOOL, not DR. DRE! i normally dislike cross-references, but that one was pretty sweet.

the whole thing fell for me in typical (or maybe slightly under) friday time, even though i don't know what a KENTUCKY COLONEL is. it just kinda had to be that once i had RENTU_KYCO__NEL, so it wasn't hard for me to fix my FAIR SHARE mistake.

sweet puzzle, doug & barry!
joon | 07.17.09 - 9:13 am | #

I'm one who found this unusually easy for a Friday and also satisfying. The central long entries gave an interesting grid, and while I normally hate the kind of cross-reference clues where you need each one to get the other, here it was punny enough (with its implied very distinct senses of OLD SCHOOL) to have the aha! of a themed puzzle. I really liked that.

The only hard part for me was the SE, with the tedium of LORAL and DR DRE, the unfamiliar TOW CAR, the R. E. Lee fact I didn't know, and the fun but unexpected BROWNSTONE. However, I don't mind learning about real American history for a change along with bad pop culture, and RHUD sure makes TOW CAR sound legit. (It cross-references to "wrecker" def. 3, which is "a vehicle equipped with a mechanical apparatus for hoisting and pulling, used to tow wrecked, disabled, or stalled automobiles." And come to think of it, what if that were untrue and two cars only towed boats? No one's saying the wreck scene is an auto crash.
John Haber | Homepage | 07.17.09 - 10:04 am | #

I, for one, am glad the clue for Slippery When Wet was changed. Two "artists" were quite enough. I was stuck on PPP for the opposite of FF (though wondered about the third P) for a good while until I gave up on the P's. Never thought of Fast Forward.
Zulema | 07.17.09 - 12:04 pm | #

Janie,

The only time a "tow car" can be used is when a friend is towing your car with his car. There is absolutely no justification for the term tow car
in the sense of that clue.
A wrecker is a tow truck...not a tow car.
Call up your friendly neighborhood wreckers and
ask them how many tow cars they have. :-)
Bronson | 07.17.09 - 1:11 pm | #

Glad you liked the WSJ thing - the Beyonce one definitely got me started.

On a related note, I must mention that the biggest show my old band, Urban Blight, ever did was opening for DURANDURAN at the Nassau Coliseum: 20,000 screaming tweens, with stuffed animals all over the stage - unbelievable! If Tyler's reading he might be interested to hear that we also put a curse on the nets and equipment of the Islanders (we're all Ranger fans - which would probably negate the hex in Tyler's book!). It was all fun, as was driving into the arena with the entire band, friends, roadies & equipment in one Ford van and parking among the numerous semis in residence for the main act.
Tony Orbach | 07.17.09 - 1:47 pm | #

ditto the kudos on your lat puzzle, tony. fun to solve and challenging, too.

now, bronson, based on your most recent post, i have to assume that you opted not to go to or read the dictionary sites available on the onelook.com link i posted or to find john haber's post credible. so here's one rhud definition copied and pasted definition of our friend, the tow car:


wreck⋅er
  /ˈrɛkər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [rek-er] Show IPA
–noun
1. a person or thing that wrecks.
2. a person, car, or train employed in removing wreckage, debris, etc., as from railroad tracks.
3. Also called tow car, tow truck. a vehicle equipped with a mechanical apparatus for hoisting and pulling, used to tow wrecked, disabled, or stalled automobiles.
4. Also called housewrecker. a person whose business it is to demolish and remove houses or other buildings, as in clearing sites for other use.
5. a person or vessel employed in recovering salvage from wrecked or disabled vessels.
6. a person who plunders wrecks, esp. after exhibiting false signals in order to cause shipwrecks.
Origin:
1795–1805; wreck + -er 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.

i've added the bolding...

and i've also been amusing myself thinking how "tow car" is one letter off from "town car."

cheers --
janie | 07.17.09 - 2:05 pm | #

Janie,

Random House has it wrong. Simple as that.

Next time check with Nussbaum's.
http://www.nussbaumwreckers.com/...s.com/ index.php

--B
Bronson | 07.17.09 - 2:51 pm | #

whatever you say, bronson.

;-)
janie | 07.17.09 - 3:09 pm | #

Janie,

Thanks for going above and beyond the call of duty to defend TOW CAR. I think we can all agree that it wasn't the best entry in the puzzle, so let's leave it at that.

I loved the Naddor LAT & Orbach WSJ today. Great stuff!
Doug P. | 07.17.09 - 3:32 pm | #

Two things -

1. No CHE puzzle today? Is it a holiday?
2. No more ads on your site?
Alex | Homepage | 07.17.09 - 6:45 pm | #

Alex:

1. In the summertime, they're pretty much every other week.

2. They didn't pay much, and I finally knuckled under to the PayPal hegemony and put up a PayPal donation box.
OrangeXW | Homepage | 07.17.09 - 7:14 pm | #

The Eisenhower quote is interesting, particularly in its currency. But it is worth noting that its spirit and form were already present on the eve of the Revolution, when Benjamin Franklin wrote "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." This has been paraphrased many times, not just by Eisenhower. Among the pithier versions are "Those who sacrifice Liberty for Security deserve neither" and "He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither." But regardless of the version we cite or the individual we quote, the most important point is to consider this thought in contrast to the behavior of the citizens and leaders of our land since September 11, 2001 (and, I hope, not beyond January 20, 2009).
sds | 07.17.09 - 8:33 pm | #