Merl reagle biography of mahatma

NYT 9:33 (Amy) 
Reagle 7:28 (Amy) 
Hex/Hook untimed (pannonica) 
LAT 6:24 (Amy) 
WaPo 11:01 (Sam) 
CS 14:47 (Ade) 

The NYT write-up will be on the late side tonight—joint summer birthday festivities with two of my oldest (as in “of longest duration) friends! And I have a cold and cough, so I will be wiped out when I get home and poke listlessly at the NYT puzzle. Which is by Caleb Madison! Caleb has just returned from a stint as a tour guide in Forks, Washington, where the Twilight saga is set (but was not filmed). His #teamedward photos and interview text document a rather unsettling sort of Americana. (The jar of jellybeans …)

Merl Reagle’s syndicated Sunday crossword, “Celebrity Food Fight!”

This week, we get another of Merl’s fill-in-the-blank storytelling themes, with food/cooking-related phrases that take other meanings in different contexts:

• 23a. Host: “Welcome to ‘Celebrity Food Fight’! Tonight it’s reigning champ Bobby Flay vs. Alton Brown. Needless to say, they both have that HUNGRY LOOK …”
• 25a. Host: “… an

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  Sunday, 4/22/12

  NYT 7:46 
  LAT 8:41 (Jeffrey) 
  Reagle 8:45 
  Hex/Hook 9:55 
  WaPo Doug – untimed 
  CS 6:43 (Sam) 
  Celebrity tba 
  
  

  Paula Gamache and Ed Stein’s New York Times crossword, “Letting Go Of”

  NY Times crossword answers, 4 22 12 "Letting Go Of"

  Straightforward theme: Take a phrase with an “of” inside, drop it, and clue the altered phrase accordingly.

  • 23a. BATTLE THE BULGE leaves war behind for [Diet?].
  • 31a. LAND PLENTY is about a good day of fishing (maybe not so hot for the fish).
  • 37a. BOOK THE DEAD, [Do a clerk’s work at a morgue?], is gruesome. It’s also my favorite theme answer. Go figure.
  • 50a. CAST THOUSANDS of dollars? Eh.
  • 67a. MILK HUMAN KINDNESS almost makes more sense to me than “the milk of human kindness.”
  • 86a. DOCTOR LETTERS, [Forge some personal notes?]. Cute.
  • 94a. My least favorite theme answer because “best of friends” is a markedly less common phrase than BEST FRIENDS, which is a real noun phrase without the “of.” Weak link.
  • 103a. POUND FLESH, [Be a sadistic masseuse?], is also a little gross and thus my second-favorite theme answer.
  • 118a. ORDER THE GARTER rem
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